"Oh, this little cut," he said to Hautefeuille, after having lightly excused himself for insisting upon seeing him, "you want to know what caused it? Well, it's another proof of my luck. And, in spite of the homily of Monseigneur Lagumina, the Frenchman has cheated the Italian. It was caused by a little attempt that my brother-in-law made to bring about my death. That is all," he added, with his usual jesting laugh. "You are not speaking seriously," said Hautefeuille. "I never was more serious in my life," replied Corancez. "But it is written that I shall meet with a cheerful end. I do not lend myself to tragedy, it appears. In the first place, you know that my marriage was made public about five days ago. That is why you have not seen me before. I had to pay my wedding visits to all the highnesses and lords in Cannes. I met with a great deal of sympathy and provoked a vast amount of astonishment. Everybody was asking, 'But why did you have a secret marriage?' Acting under my advice, Andryana invented an old vow as the reason. Everybody thought it was very original and very charming. "I had even too much success, above all with Alvise. He only made one reproach--that we had hidden it from him, that we had ever supposed for a moment he would have stood in the way of his sister's happiness. It was 'my brother' here, 'my brother' there. It was the only thing one heard in the entire house. But we Southerners understand revenge, particularly when Corsicans, Sardinians, or Italians are in question. I asked myself at every moment, 'When is the sword going to fall?'" "It was very imprudent of him to get so quickly to work," interrupted Pierre. "You don't know the anecdote," said Corancez, "of some one who saw a poor devil going past on his way to the gallows. 'There is a man who has miscalculated,' he said. Every murderer does that, and, after all, he hadn't calculated so badly as you think. Who would ever have suspected Count Alvise Navagero of having made away with his sister's husband, the man who was his intimate friend? I told you before that he was a man of the time of Machiavelli, very modernized.