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The door ide open, a hackney-coach was standing in the ht before so noble a mansion; the count looked at it with terror, but without daring to inquire its , he rushed towards his apart down the stairs; he had only time to creep into an alcove to avoid the the house They passed close by the unhappy being, who, concealed behind the damask curtain, almost felt Mercedes dress brush past hi these words,--"Courage, er our home!" The words died away, the steps were lost in the distance The general drew hi to the curtain; he uttered the most dreadful sob which ever escaped from the bosom of a father abandoned at the same time by his wife and son He soon heard the clatter of the iron step of the hackney-coach, then the coach of the heavy vehicle shook the s He darted to his bedroom to see once more all he had loved in the world; but the hackney-coach drove on and the head of neither Mercedes nor her son appeared at theto take a last look at the house or the deserted father and husband And at the very ateway a report was heard, and a thick sh one of the panes of the hich was broken by the explosion