I beg you to do so,

　　Haidee turned her eyes towards Monte Cristo, who, making atthe same time some imperceptible sign, murmured, -- "Go on."

　　"Nothing is ever so firmly impressed on the mind as thememory of our early childhood, and with the exception of thetwo scenes I have just described to you, all my earliestreminiscences are fraught with deepest sadness."

　　"Speak, speak, signora," said Albert, "I am listening withthe most intense delight and interest to all you say."

　　Haidee answered his remark with a melancholy smile. "Youwish me, then, to relate the history of my past sorrows?"said she.

　　"I beg you to do so," replied Albert.

　　"Well, I was but four years old when one night I wassuddenly awakened by my mother. We were in the palace ofYanina; she snatched me from the cushions on which I wassleeping, and on opening my eyes I saw hers filled withtears. She took me away without speaking. When I saw herweeping I began to cry too. `Hush, child!' said she. Atother times in spite of maternal endearments or threats, Ihad with a child's caprice been accustomed to indulge myfeelings of sorrow or anger by crying as much as I feltinclined; but on this occasion there was an intonation ofsuch extreme terror in my mother's voice when she enjoinedme to silence, that I ceased crying as soon as her commandwas given. She bore me rapidly away.

　　"I saw then that we were descending a large staircase;around us were all my mother's servants carrying trunks,bags, ornaments, jewels, purses of gold, with which theywere hurrying away in the greatest distraction.

　　"Behind the women came a guard of twenty men armed with longguns and pistols, and dressed in the costume which theGreeks have assumed since they have again become a nation.You may imagine there was something startling and ominous,"said Haidee, shaking her head and turning pale at the mereremembrance of the scene, "in this long file of slaves andwomen only half-aroused from sleep, or at least so theyappeared to me, who was myself scarcely awake. Here andthere on the walls of the staircase, were reflected giganticshadows, which trembled in the flickering light of thepine-torches till they seemed to reach to the vaulted roofabove.

　　"`Quick!' said a voice at the end of the gallery. This voicemade every one bow before it, resembling in its effect thewind passing over a field of wheat, by its superior strengthforcing every ear to yield obeisance. As for me, it made metremble. This voice was that of my father. He came last,clothed in his splendid robes and holding in his hand thecarbine which your emperor presented him. He was leaning onthe shoulder of his favorite Selim, and he drove us allbefore him, as a shepherd would his straggling flock. Myfather," said Haidee, raising her head, "was thatillustrious man known in Europe under the name of AliTepelini, pasha of Yanina, and before whom Turkey trembled."

　　Albert, without knowing why, started on hearing these wordspronounced with such a haughty and dignified accent; itappeared to him as if there was something supernaturallygloomy and terrible in the expression which gleamed from thebrilliant eyes of Haidee at this moment; she appeared like aPythoness evoking a spectre, as she recalled to his mind theremembrance of the fearful death of this man, to the news ofwhich all Europe had listened with horror. "Soon," saidHaidee, "we halted on our march, and found ourselves on theborders of a lake. My mother pressed me to her throbbingheart, and at the distance of a few paces I saw my father,who was glancing anxiously around. Four marble steps leddown to the water's edge, and below them was a boat floatingon the tide.