The Adventures of Gerard. Arthur Conan Doyle

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ the next instant he saw the pallor of my face and the blood which was still pouring from my head.

      “What is this?” he asked. “How come you to have lost your ear?”

      I shook off my weakness, and pressing my handkerchief to my wound I rose from my couch, the debonair colonel of Hussars.

      “My injury, sir, is nothing. With your permission we will not allude to a matter so trifling and so personal.”

      But Lucia had burst through from her cell and was pouring out the whole story while she clasped Lorenzo's arm.

      “This noble gentleman—he has taken my place, Lorenzo! He has borne it for me. He has suffered that I might be saved.”

      I could sympathise with the struggle which I could see in the Italian's face. At last he held out his hand to me.

      “Colonel Gerard,” he said, “you are worthy of a great love. I forgive you, for if you have wronged me you have made a noble atonement. But I wonder to see you alive. I left the tribunal before you were judged, but I understood that no mercy would be shown to any Frenchman since the destruction of the ornaments of Venice.”

      “He did not destroy them,” cried Lucia. “He has helped to preserve those in our palace.”

      “One of them, at any rate,” said I, as I stooped and kissed her hand.

      This was the way, my friends, in which I lost my ear. Lorenzo was found stabbed to the heart in the Piazza of St. Mark within two days of the night of my adventure. Of the tribunal and its ruffians, Matteo and three others were shot, the rest banished from the town.

      Lucia, my lovely Lucia, retired into a convent at Murano after the French had left the city, and there she still may be, some gentle lady abbess who has perhaps long forgotten the days when our hearts throbbed together, and when the whole great world seemed so small a thing beside the love which burned in our veins. Or perhaps it may not be so. Perhaps she has not forgotten.

      There may still be times when the peace of the cloister is broken by the memory of the old soldier who loved her in those distant days. Youth is past and passion is gone, but the soul of the gentleman can never change, and still Etienne Gerard would bow his grey head before her and would very gladly lose his other ear if he might do her a service.

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAMCAgMCAgMDAwMEAwMEBQgFBQQEBQoHBwYIDAoMDAsK CwsNDhIQDQ4RDgsLEBYQERMUFRUVDA8XGBYUGBIUFRT/2wBDAQMEBAUEBQkFBQkUDQsNFBQUFBQU FBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBQUFBT/wAARCAWgA4QDASIA AhEBAxEB/8QAHgAAAQQDAQEBAAAAAAAAAAAABQMEBgcCCAkBAAr/xABbEAABAwIEBAUCBAMFBgMD ABsBAgMEBREABhIhBxMxQQgUIlFhMnEVI4GRCUKhFlKxwdEXJDNi4fBygvElNENTkhhjk6ImN3N0 dbLTJzU2RFSDRlVWhJSzwsP/xAAbAQACAwEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAABAgADBAUGB//EAEARAAEDAwIE AwYGAQQCAgEEAwEAAhEDITESQQQTIlEyYfAUcYGRobEjM0LB0eFSBUNi8SRTNHIVBkSCkiVUsv/a AAwDAQACEQMRAD8AoXIVElluRBr9PafhxX7QFyLOPNpB2GvqQOx2xZCpiIx0hXbYHocIToyWNbg2 T1sMR9TrizrcWNY/u7DGvxZXOnl7KXKmhaG3NWnexAOFG5Dri9KblPviIR6g47G5aSL6rgkbDE1p SCI6VdbjCOGlXsfrTxhJCRc74dIXtjFpG2FOXffFK0LMG+PdGPECxxngIrAothMi2FyL4TUm5xFE njwnGenGK04iixJx8V486Y8xFFnrx9ruMIqOPgo4KiydVY4QdA0G

СКАЧАТЬ