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As the procureur had told Madalars, Valentine was not yet recovered Bowed doith fatigue, she was indeed confined to her bed; and it was in her own room, and from the lips of Madae events we have related,--we enie and the arrest of Andrea Cavalcanti, or rather Benedetto, together with the accusation of ainst him But Valentine was so weak that this recital scarcely produced the same effect it would have done had she been in her usual state of health Indeed, her brain was only the seat of vague ideas, and confused fore fancies, alone presented the the dayti to the constant presence of M Noirtier, who caused hihter's room, and watched her with his paternal tenderness; Villefort also, on his return from the law courts, frequently passed an hour or tith his father and child At six o'clock Villefort retired to his study, at eight M d'Avrigny hiht prepared for the young girl, and then M Noirtier was carried away A nurse of the doctor's choice succeeded them, and never left till about ten or eleven o'clock, when Valentine was asleep As she went down-stairs she gave the keys of Valentine's room to M de Villefort, so that no one could reach the sick-rooh that of Mada Morrel called on Noirtier to receive news of Valentine, and, extraordinary as it seeh Valentine still labored under dreadful nervous excitement, she was better; and moreover, Monte Cristo had told him when, half distracted, he had rushed to the count's house, that if she were not dead in two hours she would be saved Now four days had elapsed, and Valentine still lived

The nervous excitement of which we speak pursued Valentine even in her sleep, or rather in that state of so hours; it was then, in the silence of night, in the diht shed from the alabaster lamp on the chimney-piece, that she saw the shadows pass and repass which hover over the bed of sickness, and fan the fever with their tres First she fancied she saw her step her, then Morrel stretched his arers, like the Count of Monte Cristo came to visit her; even the very furniture, in these moments of delirium, seemed to move, and this state lasted till about three o'clock in the irl, fro of the day on which Valentine had learned of the flight of Eugenie and the arrest of Benedetto,--Villefort having retired as well as Noirtier and d'Avrigny,--her thoughts wandered in a confusedher own situation and the events she had just heard