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Then the first pangs of an unending torture seized upon his heart The man he sacrificed to his ambition, that innocent victim immolated on the altar of his father's faults, appeared to hi his affianced bride by the hand, and bringing with hiured, furious and terrible, but that slow and consus are intensified from hour to hour up to the very moment of death Then he had a moment's hesitation He had frequently called for capital punish to his irresistible eloquence they had been condehtest shadow of reuilty; at least, he believed so; but here was an innocent man whose happiness he had destroyed: in this case he was not the judge, but the executioner

As he thus reflected, he felt the sensation we have described, and which had hitherto been unknown to hiue apprehensions It is thus that a wounded er to his wound until it be healed, but Villefort's was one of those that never close, or if they do, only close to reopenthan ever If at this mo for mercy, or the fair Mercedes had entered and said, "In the name of God, I conjure you to restorehands would have signed his release; but no voice broke the stillness of the chamber, and the door was opened only by Villefort's valet, who cae was in readiness

Villefort rose, or rather sprang, from his chair, hastily opened one of the drawers of his desk, eold it contained into his pocket, stood motionless an instant, his hand pressed to his head,that his servant had placed his cloak on his shoulders, he sprang into the carriage, ordering the postilions to drive to M de Saint-Meran's The hapless Dantes was doomed

As the marquis had pro He started when he saw Renee, for he fancied she was again about to plead for Dantes Alas, her e only of Villefort's departure

She loved Villefort, and he left her at the moment he was about to become her husband Villefort knew not when he should return, and Renee, far fro for Dantes, hated the man whose crime separated her from her lover