



Produced by Paul Haxo from page images generously made
available by Google and the Bodleian Library.





THE
CORSICAN BROTHERS

A NOVEL

BY
ALEXANDRE DUMAS

TRANSLATED BY HENRY FRITH

LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS
BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL
NEW YORK: 416, BROOME STREET
1880


LONDON:
PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER,
MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.


TO
HENRY IRVING
THE LATEST REPRESENTATIVE OF THE TWIN BROTHERS
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY
THE TRANSLATOR



THE
CORSICAN BROTHERS.

CHAPTER I.

IN the beginning of March, 1841, I was travelling in Corsica.

Nothing is more picturesque and more easy to accomplish than a journey
in Corsica. You can embark at Toulon, in twenty hours you will be in
Ajaccio, and then in twenty-four hours more you are at Bastia.

Once there you can hire or purchase a horse. If you wish to hire a
horse you can do so for five francs a-day; if you purchase one you can
have a good animal for one hundred and fifty francs. And don't sneer
at the moderate price, for the horse hired or purchased will perform
as great feats as the famous Gascon horse which leaped over the Pont
Neuf, which neither Prospero nor Nautilus, the heroes of Chantilly and
the Champ de Mars could do. He will traverse roads which Balmat
himself could not cross without _crampons,_ and will go over bridges
upon which Auriol would need a balancing pole.

As for the traveller, all he has to do is to give the horse his head
and let him go as he pleases; he does not mind the danger. We may add
that with this horse, which can go anywhere, the traveller can
accomplish his fifteen leagues a day without stopping to bait.

From time to time, while the tourist may be halting to examine some
ancient castle, built by some old baron or legendary hero, or to
sketch a tower built ages ago by the Genoese, the horse will be
contented to graze by the road side, or to pluck the mosses from the
rocks in the vicinity.

As to lodging for the night, it is still more simple in Corsica. The
traveller having arrived at a village, passes down through the
principal street, and making his own choice of the house wherein he
will rest, he knocks at the door. An instant after, the master or
mistress will appear upon the threshold, invite the traveller to
dismount; offer him a share of the family supper and the whole of his
own bed, and next morning, when seeing him safely resume his journey,
will thank him for the preference he has accorded to his house.

As for remuneration, such a thing is never hinted at. The master would
regard it as an insult if the subject were broached. If, however, the
servant happen to be a young girl, one may fitly offer her a 
handkerchief, with which she can make up a picturesque coiffure for a
fete day. If the domestic be a male he will gladly accept a poignard,
with which he can kill his enemy, should he meet him.

There is one thing more to remark, and that is, as sometimes happens,
the servants of the house are relatives of the owner, and the former
being in reduced circumstances, offer their services to the latter in
consideration of board and lodging and a few piastres per month.

And it must not be supposed that the masters are not well served by
their cousins to the fifteenth and sixteenth degree, because the
contrary is the case, and the custom is not thought anything of.
Corsica is a French Department certainly, but Corsica is very far from
being France.

As for robbers, one never hears of them, yet there are bandits in
abundance; but these gentlemen must in no wise be confounded one with
another.

So go without fear to Ajaccio, to Bastia, with a purse full of money
hanging to your saddle-bow, and you may traverse the whole island
without a shadow of danger, but do not go from Oceana to Levaco, if
you happen to have an enemy who has declared the Vendetta against you,
for I would not answer for your safety during that short journey of
six miles.

Well, then, I was in Corsica, as I have said, at the beginning of the
month of March, and I was alone; Jadin having remained at Rome.

I had come across from Elba, had disembarked at Bastia, and there had
