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Updated: June 5, 2025
Denise hurried down the steps and away from the village. She knew that the postman, having passed through Olmeta, must now be on the high-road on his way to Perucca, and she felt sure that he must have in his bag the letter of which she had followed, in imagination, the progress during the last three days.
"Yes, and you should know it, you who are the chief of the de Vasselots, and have this woman to deal with; the women are always the worst. The chateau, they say, was burnt down, and the women disappeared from the Casa Perucca in the same week. The Casa Perucca is empty now, and the Chateau de Vasselot is gone at Olmeta they are bored enough, I can tell you."
There were three other men whom the abbe knew by sight and reputation. One by one they rose to their feet and slowly cocked their old-fashioned single-barrelled guns. "It is the carriage from Olmeta must be going to Perucca," reported the boy. And at the word Perucca, the count scrambled to his feet, only to be dragged back by Jean. The old man's eyes were alight with fear and hatred.
I knew Mattei Perucca, and the property you inherit is not unknown to one who has had official dealings with landowners in Corsica. I tell you frankly that it would be impossible, in the present disturbed state of the island, for you to live at Olmeta, and I ask you as frankly whether you are disposed to sell me your small estate.
His intention was to catch a glimpse of the Chateau de Vasselot, and walk on to the village of Olmeta, and there beg bed and board from his faithful correspondent, the Abbe Susini. He followed the causeway across the marsh to the mouth of the river, and here turned to the left, leaving the route nationale to Calvi on the right.
"And," he said at length, "they shot your cousin's agent in the back, almost in the streets of Olmeta, and Mattei Perucca himself died suddenly, presumably from apoplexy, brought on by a great anger at receiving a letter threatening his life that is how it has come about, mademoiselle." He broke off short, with a quick gesture and a flash of his eyes, usually so pleasant and smiling.
The afternoon sun was lowering towards a heavy bank of clouds hanging still and sullen over the Mediterranean. A mistral was blowing. The last yellow rays shone fiercely upon the towering coast of Corsica, and the windows of the village of Olmeta glittered like gold.
The colonel had apparently forgotten this necessity. He thanked her and departed. "And on Wednesday," he said, "I shall in reality have the money in my pocket." During the afternoon mademoiselle announced her intention of walking to Olmeta. It would be advisable to secure the Abbe Susini as a witness, she said. He was a busy man, and a journey to Bastia would of necessity take up his whole day.
"Do I not remember his father, and are not all the de Vasselots cut with the same knife? I tell you there was a moon, and I saw him get off his horse, just here at the very door of Rutali's stable, and unstrap his sack, which he carried himself, and set off towards Olmeta."
Colonel Gilbert glanced sideways at his companion. He had not thought that this was a silent man. Nature was singularly at fault in her mouldings if this slightly made, dark-eyed Frenchman was habitually taciturn. And the colonel was vaguely uneasy. "My horse," he said, "is up at Olmeta. I took a walk round by the river.
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