Colomba shook her head.  She had recovered all her usual composure, and her burning eyes were fixed on the prefect.

“M.  Barricini,” the prefect continued, “is exceedingly anxious to put an end to the sort of enmity . . . or rather, the condition of uncertainty, existing between yourself and him. . . .  On my part, I should be delighted to see you both in those relations of friendly intercourse appropriate to people who certainly ought to esteem each other.”

“Monsieur,” replied Orso in a shaking voice, “I have never charged Barricini with my father’s murder.  But he committed an act which must always prevent me from having anything to do with him.  He forged a threatening letter, in the name of a certain bandit, or at least he hinted in an underhand sort of way that it was forged by my father.  That letter, monsieur, was probably the indirect cause of my father’s death.”

The prefect sat thinking for a moment.

“That your father should have believed that, when his own hasty nature led him into a lawsuit with Signor Barricini, is excusable.  But such blindness on your part really can not be admitted.  Pray consider that Barricini could have served no interest of his own by forging the letter.  I will not talk to you about his character, for you are not acquainted with it, and are prejudiced against it; but you can not suppose that a man conversant with the law——­”

“But, monsieur,” said Orso, rising to his feet, “be good enough to recollect that when you tell me the letter was not Barricini’s work, you ascribe it to my father.  And my father’s honour, monsieur, is mine!”

“No man on earth, sir, is more convinced of Colonel della Rebbia’s honour than myself!  But the writer of the letter is now known.”

“Who wrote it?” exclaimed Colomba, making a step toward the prefect.

“A villain, guilty of several crimes—­such crimes as you Corsicans never pardon—­a thief, one Tomaso Bianchi, at present confined in the prison at Bastia, has acknowledged that he wrote the fatal letter.”

“I know nothing of the man,” said Orso.  “What can have been his object?”

“He belongs to this neighbourhood,” said Colomba.  “He is brother to a man who was our miller—­a scamp and a liar, unworthy of belief.”

“You will soon see what his interest in the matter was,” continued the prefect.  “The miller of whom your sister speaks—­I think his name was Teodoro—­was the tenant of a mill belonging to the colonel, standing on the very stream the ownership of which M. Barricini was disputing with your father.  The colonel, always a generous man, made very little profit out of the mill.  Now Tomaso thought that if Barricini got possession of the stream there would be a heavy rent to pay, for it is well known that Barricini is rather fond of money.  In short, to oblige his brother, Tomaso forged the letter from the bandit—­and there’s the whole story.  You know that in Corsica the strength of the family tie is so great that it does sometimes lead to crime.  Please read over this letter to me from the attorney-general.  It confirms what I have just told you.”