“ ‘Your mode of life as a smuggler,’ said he to me one day, ‘will be the ruin of you; if you get out, don’t take it up again.’
“ ‘But how,’ inquired I, ‘am I to maintain myself and my poor sister?’
“ ‘A person, whose confessor I am,’ replied he, ‘and who entertains a high regard for me, applied to me a short time since to procure him a confidential servant. Would you like such a post? If so, I will give you a letter of introduction to him.’
“ ‘Oh, father,’ I exclaimed, ‘you are very good.’
“ ‘But you must swear solemnly that I shall never have reason to repent my recommendation.’
“I extended my hand, and was about to pledge myself by any promise he would dictate, but he stopped me.
“ ‘It is unnecessary for you to bind yourself by any vow,’ said he; ‘I know and admire the Corsican nature too well to fear you. Here, take this,’ continued he, after rapidly writing the few lines I brought to your excellency, and upon receipt of which you deigned to receive me into your service, and proudly I ask whether your excellency has ever had cause to repent having done so?”
“No,” replied the count; “I take pleasure in saying that you have served me faithfully, Bertuccio; but you might have shown more confidence in me.”
“I, your excellency?”
“Yes; you. How comes it, that having both a sister and an adopted son, you have never spoken to me of either?”
“Alas, I have still to recount the most distressing period of my life. Anxious as you may suppose I was to behold and comfort my dear sister,