He grew calmer, and began to consider his position, and his means of escape from it, with some composure.

He did not, as my readers already know, suspect the Barricini of the murder, but he did accuse them of having forged Agostini's letter, and this letter, he believed, at any rate, had brought about his father's death.

He felt it was impossible to prosecute them for the forgery.

Now and then, when the prejudices or the instincts of his race assailed him, and suggested an easy vengeance--a shot fired at the corner of some path--the thought of his brother-officers, of Parisian drawing-rooms, and above all, of Miss Nevil, made him shrink from them in horror.

Then his mind dwelt on his sister's reproaches, and all the Corsican within him justified her appeal, and even intensified its bitterness.