“Did I not tell you I wished for one?” replied the count, frowning.
“And your excellency has one, which was let to Prince Lobanieff; but I was obliged to pay a hundred—”
“That will do—that will do, Monsieur Bertuccio; spare these gentlemen all such domestic arrangements. You have the window, that is sufficient. Give orders to the coachman; and be in readiness on the stairs to conduct us to it.”
The steward bowed, and was about to quit the room.
“Ah!” continued the count, “be good enough to ask Pastrini if he has received the tavoletta , and if he can send us an account of the execution.”
“There is no need to do that,” said Franz, taking out his tablets; “for I saw the account, and copied it down.”
“Very well, you can retire, M. Bertuccio; I need you no longer. Let us know when breakfast is ready. These gentlemen,” added he, turning to the two friends, “will, I trust, do me the honor to breakfast with me?”
“But, my dear count,” said Albert, “we shall abuse your kindness.”
“Not at all; on the contrary, you will give me great pleasure. You will, one or other of you, perhaps both, return it to me at Paris. M. Bertuccio, lay covers for three.”
He then took Franz’s tablets out of his hand. > “ ‘We announce,’ he read, in the same tone with which he would have read a newspaper, ‘that today, the 23rd of February, will be executed Andrea Rondolo, guilty of murder on the person of the respected and venerated Don César Torlini, canon of the church of St. John