Chapter 9 Chapter Nine The Desperate Struggle

André Fercharto was stunned and furious, and for a moment did not know what to say to Count Sandov.He kept thinking about Carpena's threat to him just now, so that he forgot that the two escapees he was going to save were still standing in front of him. "Despicable! Shameless fellow!" he muttered. "Yes, he knows everything! We are in his hands! I should have seen him through!" Count Sandov and Bathory were anxiously waiting for the fisherman to make a decision.It is urgent to make up your mind, maybe that guy has already gone to inform. "Monsieur Count," Ferharto said at last, "the police may break into my house at any moment. Yes! The scoundrel probably already knows, at least he will imagine that you are hiding in my house! So he wants me to make this deal with him! My daughter was silent and refused him! In revenge, he will kill you! If the gendarmes come and you cannot escape, they will find you. You must flee immediately!"

"That's right, Ferharto," replied Count Sandov, "before we part, let me thank you for everything you have done and wanted to do to help us..." "What I want to do, I will do." Feihato said solemnly. "No!" Bathory replied. "Yes, we cannot agree," Sandov added. "Then you are too implicated! If the gendarme finds us in your house, you will be imprisoned! Come, Étienne, let us leave this house, and do not bring ruin and disaster here! Let us flee, hurry run away!" Fehto held the count. "Where are you going? The whole area is under the watchful eyes of the authorities. The police and the gendarmes are chasing you day and night through the countryside, there is not a single coast where you can board a boat, there is not a single path where you can travel freely to reach the border! Without me, you set off, It's a dead end!"

"Sir, let my father show you the way!" Maria said. "No matter what happens, as long as he saves you, he has done his duty!" "Yes, my daughter said it well, it is my duty! Your brother is waiting for us on the speedboat. It is getting dark, and we are going to go out to sea without anyone noticing. Hug me, Maria, hug Come on, let's go!" Count Sandov and his companions were unwilling to leave.The fisherman sacrificed himself, they could not accept it.Don't hurt the fisherman, leave his house immediately, yes!Let him lead him to take a boat and implicate him in jail, no! "Let's go, once we leave his house, we will take responsibility for any danger, so we won't implicate them!" Earl Sandov said to Bathory.

The two were about to jump out of the window and try to escape over the wall to the coast or the interior of the province when Luigi hurried into the house and said: "Policemen!" "Goodbye!" shouted Mathias Sandov. After all, the two of them escaped from the window one after the other.At this moment, Carpena led a team of policemen into the house. "Shameless!" Ferharto said. "Didn't you refuse my request? This is my answer!" Carpena said. The fisherman was caught and tied up.The police occupied and searched all the rooms.The windows opened wide towards the wall, showing the escape route taken by the escapees.The police gave chase.

At this time, the two had just run to the bottom of the wall.Outside the wall is a small stream, flowing along the wall to the distance.The count climbed over the wall, and then helped Bathory over.Suddenly, fifty paces away, there was a gunshot, and a bullet missed, wounding Bathory, who was paralyzed in one arm, unable to act together with his companions. "Run, run, Mathias!" he cried. "No, Étienne, I will not run away! Death, we die together!" The count made a last attempt to lift up his wounded companion. "Run away, Mathias!" he shouted. "No, Étienne, I will not run away! Death, we die together!" The count made a last attempt to pick up his wounded companion.

Bathory's last words seemed to be an order to the count.His companion's unfinished business will be completed by him alone.He, the nobleman of Transylvania, the leader of the rebellion in Trieste, and the best friend of Bathory and Zatmar, will fight to punish the traitor and bring justice! The police chased to the end of the fence and rushed to the wounded Bathory.If the count hesitated for even a second, he would fall into the hands of the police! "Farewell, Étienne, farewell!" The police followed.In the dark, they could not follow him directly.They spread out in order to cut off all retreats of Count Sandorf, so that he could not run either inland, or towards Rovigno, or towards the promontory which formed the harbor to the north of the city.

A detachment of gendarmes came to reinforce them and spread out, forcing Sandov to run towards the coast.But what will he do when he arrives at the seashore full of rocks?Get a boat and head for the Adriatic?That's too late.Even if a boat can be obtained, it may fall under the hail of bullets before sailing.He knew full well that the escape to the east had been cut off.At this moment, the police and military police chased after him, shooting and shouting, and outflanked him from the sand behind him.His only way out is to run to the sea, and escape from the sea, which is undoubtedly a dead end.However, he would rather be buried in the belly of a fish in the waves of the sea than wait to die before the firing squad on the training ground of the Castle of Pizzino.

Count Sandorf ran towards the sea.In a few strides, he touched the waves rolling on the beach.He already felt the police behind him, and the bullets fired at him roared, sometimes almost passing by. Like the entire coast of Istria, outside the beach are reefs formed by rocks in the east and west.The sand pits between the rocks formed countless puddles—the deep ones were several feet deep, and the shallow ones could only bury ankles. This is the only way before Sandov.It was a dead end, he had no doubts.But without hesitation, he moved forward resolutely.He jumped over puddles, from rock to rock, from rock to rock.As the sky became brighter, his figure became more distinct, and the policemen shouted again and swooped in his direction.

Count Sandov made up his mind not to let him be captured alive.If Dahai wants to hand him over, he can only hand over a corpse. The police pursued and arrested them under very difficult conditions.They had to wade through puddles, over slippery and wobbly stones, and over slimy seaweed, risking a fall with every step.Seven or eight minutes passed, and the fugitive was still ahead.But the reef group is about to disappear. Count Sandorf jumped onto the last rock.Two or three policemen were only ten paces away from him.The other policemen were behind him, some twenty paces away. Count Sandov rose to his feet and uttered a final cry—farewell to heaven.When the bullets fell like hail around him, he threw himself into the sea.

When the police rushed to the edge of the rock, they could only see the fugitive's head in the distance, like a black dot floating towards the distant sea. Another volley of bullets flew past, hitting the sea around Count Sandorf with crackling noises.A bullet or bullets must have hit him, for he sank into the waves and never came up again. Until daybreak, the gendarmes and police guarded the shoreline from the northern promontory of the harbor to the beach outside the Rovigno Fort, and the rocky shoreline.It was evidently in vain, and there was no sign that Count Sandov had come ashore again.It can be concluded that he was either shot or drowned.However, the nearly ten-mile-long reef belt was closely searched inside and out, but no body was found.As the land winds blow towards the sea and the water rushes southwestward, there can be no doubt that the body of the fugitive was carried out to sea by the waves.

The waves of the Adriatic became the tomb of the Magyar lord Count Sandov! After careful investigation, the Austrian government accepted this reasonable statement. As for Bathory, it goes without saying that he was arrested again and taken to Castle Pizzino that night, only to be reunited with Zatmar for a few hours. The next day, June 30, the execution was carried out. The authorities had allowed the prisoner's relatives to visit the Pizzino Castle. Perhaps before his execution, Bathory could say goodbye to his wife and son, and Zatmar could accept the old servant's last hug. However, Mrs. Bathory, her son, and Paulik, who was released from prison, have all left Trieste.They didn't know where the prisoner was being held. They searched around Hungary and Austria.Due to the secret arrest, they also failed to find out the whereabouts of their relatives in time after the sentencing.Therefore, Bathory could not see his wife and children, could not get this last comfort, and could not even tell his relatives the name of the traitor.It seems that only Count Sandov can punish those traitors. At five o'clock in the afternoon, Bathory and Zatmar died in the square of the castle. They gave their lives for the independence of their country.Doronta and Saccani probably thought that only they and the governor of Trieste knew the whole truth, and no one would seek revenge from them again.As a result of the informant, half of Earl Judolf's property belonged to them; the other half of the property was specially treated and reserved as the inheritance of the earl's daughter when she reached the age of eighteen. Duolongta and Sakani, the two shameless people, got a fortune of ill-gotten wealth through informants. The other whistleblower was the same, uncaring, still carefree.He was the Spaniard Carpena, who had received five thousand florins for his meritorious deeds. The bankers and their accomplices can remain in Trieste with pride, because their informants have not yet been defeated.Carpena was different. Under the criticism of everyone, he had to leave the city of Rovigno to make a living elsewhere.It doesn't matter to him where he goes!Besides, when he was out of town, he no longer had to worry about Fercharto's vengeance. Because of harboring fugitives, the fisherman was arrested, tried, and sentenced to hard labor for life. Now, only Maria and his young brother are left in the family.Her father was taken away and never came back.Poverty awaits them! Three greedy guys, one to restore a failing bank, the other two to make a fortune, not out of hatred for the victim, and Carpena out of revenge.They did not hesitate to use ghostly tricks and did things that were outrageous! Relying on this world, relying on God for justice, is not always reliable.Shouldn't this kind of ugliness be punished?Was there no one to avenge the three patriots, Count Sandorf, Count Zatmar, Étienne Bathory, and the humble and good man André Ferharteau? If you want to know what happened next, see you later.