and struck the Count.—"Slanderous villain," he cried, "I will choke those words in their birth." That instant the young Count, the Countess, and some others, burst into the room. My father was seized, foaming with rage, whilst some ran to the old Count, whose nose and mouth bled profusely. The son demanded the cause of this outrage, little suspecting who the person was before him. My father exclaimed, "I came here to demand justice, to oblige the son of that man to acknowledge his legal wife. Yes, my daughter is the wife of Count Wolfran."
A faint shriek from the Countess caught the attention of her husband. He attempted to lead her from the room. "Stop," she cried; "if this man asserts a falsity, let it be proved such. I will abide the decision; I will not leave the room, when an assertion of such consequence to my fame and happiness has been publicly declared." The old Count now advanced.—"You have dared to degrade me; you have calumniated my son.—-
