"Why?" said she, "am I not dying?" "Well," said he, "you shall carry to the tomb one crime in addition to the offences you have revealed to me. With honor you destroyed my life." Taking a pistol from his bosom he placed it to his brow, and was about to fire-- At the last words of the Count a door was thrown open, and an arm seized Monte-Leone's hand. He looked around and saw the Duke D'Harcourt. "Count," said he, "one person alone can restore you the honor of which you have been so rudely deprived. That person is the Duke D'Harcourt." "The voice of the man, of the father," said he, and his eyes became suffused with tears, "who charged you publicly with having denounced his son, and surrendered him to the executioners, with having killed him. "Ah! God himself sends you hither," said the Count, with an indescribable accent of hope. "Yes, yes; you have heard all, and will be believed. Monsieur," said he, with great animation, "have you not heard all? You know how I have been treated by those monsters. You will say so. Tell me that you will. I cast myself at your feet to implore you." "Count," said the Duke, lifting up Monte-Leone and embracing him, "I am the guilty man, for louder than any one I have uttered an anathema on the innocent. I have appealed to man and God for vengeance." "Yes," said the Count, "and touched by the immensity of my sufferings God has led you hither." "Yes, God," said the Duke, "and _she_;" pointing to La Felina, whose eyes brightened up with animation, strangely contrasted with the morbid palor of her face. "_She?_" said the Count. "Yes," said the Duke. "Stricken down by repentance, she besought me yesterday to come hither to hear her confession." Scarcely had the Duke pronounced these words, than a cry of hatred, savage as that of the jackal, was heard in the next room. "Save me, save me," said the Duchess, calling Monte-Leone to her, and sheltering herself behind his body, "_He_ will murder me." "_He?_" said the Duke and Count together. "Whom do you refer to?" said Monte-Leone. "To Stenio Salvatori, the accomplice in this tissue of crime." The two noblemen rushed towards the room where the cry had been heard. A door leading to the stairway was open, and there was no one visible. When they returned, the invalid giving way to so severe a shock and exertion was dying. She had only strength to repeat the request she had urged on Stenio the day before. "A priest, for heaven's sake, a priest, that I may repeat to God what I have said to man." The door opened and an ecclesiastic appeared. "Quick, father, quick," said the Duchess. "Tell me that God, like man, will forgive me."