Beautiful Rienzi; or, The secret vendetta — page 230: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. 225 lynsso haughty, to endow medical colleges; named Pember- ton as sole executor and manager. Having thus deliberately cut myself adrift from my na- tive land, I wandered about, sometimes the guest of an Avab shiek, sometimes a dweller in the palace of the grand vizier. ‘“ My life was imperiled a hundred times, by the sand- storm of the desert; by hunger, thirst, sun-stroke, or the sword of the fierce native. ‘¢Sometimes my thoughts lingered sadly about my for- saken land—my desolate Wold; if I had had a little sister waiting for my return, what strange treasures would I have gathered from the land of thirst and sunshine. ‘¢ At length I went to Astrabad, hearing that the plague was raging through it, and asI had some knowledge of the treatment of the disease, I hoped to benefit some one of the devoted people who were dying by hundreds. For the next two months I was occupied happily in alleviating the suf- ferings of my fellow-creatures, and I succeeded in checking the progress of the plague, six weeks earlier than had hap- pened in twenty years. | «The plague was quelled at Astrabad, but it broke out with fury at Saree, to which I immediately repaired. ‘¢T had not been at Saree more than a fortnight, when a caravan came into the city from Astrabad with a Mahom- medan boy who carried an English letter for me. ‘¢ Here it is, covered with grease and postmarks, with not a little Zend scrawling—to send it to Saree by a sure hand. And these are the contents: | ‘sMy Duar Vicror:—Return immediately. I have reason to believe that a member of your family has been separated from you by fraud— you know who I mean. Iam about to return to America to find the truth of the suspicion. Shape your course directly to New York. You will find a letter waiting for you in box ——, P.O. Nomore expla- nations in this, as it may not reach you. God speed my boy. ‘Yours, ALPHONSE PEMBERTON.’ ‘This letter startled me out of my apathy. It broke, like the peal which rends the thunder-clond, my false resig- nation, and brought back to me the wild sweetness of the life which was forever gone. «That same night I left Saree with a company of silk merchants, and journeyed to the Caspian Sea. I have not rested night or day for the last four weeks; even on board COMICOOO S (©)