The abbe came in and greeted me in a cold and sombre manner. Then he
made a sign to me, and drawing me away from the bed, said:
“You must be mad! Return at once; and if you are wise, you will remain
away. It is the only thing left for you to do.”
“And since when,” I cried, flying into a passion, “have you had the
right to drive me out of the bosom of my family?”
“Alas! you have no longer a family,” he answered, with an accent of
sorrow that somewhat disarmed me. “What were once father and daughter
are now naught but two phantoms, whose souls are already dead and whose
bodies soon will be. Show some respect for the last days of those who
loved you.”
“And how can I show my respect and grief by quitting them?” I replied,
quite crushed.
“On this point,” said the abbe, “I neither wish nor ought to say
anything; for you know that your presence here is an act of rashness and
a profanation. Go away. When they are no more (and the day cannot be far
distant), if you have any claims to this house, you may return, and
you will certainly not find me here to contest them or affirm them.
Meanwhile, as I have no knowledge of these claims, I believe I may take
upon myself to see that some respect is paid to the last hours of these
two holy people.”
“Wretched man!” I said, “I do not know what prevents me from tearing you
to pieces! What abominable impulse urges you to be everlastingly turning
the dagger in my breast? Are you afraid that I may survive this blow?
Cannot you see that three coffins will be taken out together from this
house? do you imagine that I have come here for aught but a farewell
look and a farewell blessing?”
“You might say a farewell pardon,” replied the abbe, in a bitter tone,
and with a gesture of merciless condemnation.
“What I say is that you are mad!” I cried, “and that if you were not a
priest, this hand of mine should crush the life out of you for daring to
speak to me in this way.”
“I have but little fear of you, sir,” he rejoined. “To take my life
would be doing me a great service; but I am sorry that your threats and
anger should lend weight to the charges under which you lie. If I
saw that you were moved to penitence, I would weep with you; but your
assurance fills me with loathing. Hitherto, I had seen in you nothing
worse than a raging lunatic; to-day I seem to see a scoundrel. Begone,
sir!”
I fell into an arm-chair, choking with rage and anguish. For a moment I
hoped that I was about to die. Edmee was dying by my side, and before me
was a judge so firmly convinced of my guilt that his usual gentle, timid
nature had become harsh and pitiless. The imminent loss of her I loved
was hurrying me into a longing for death. Yet the horrible charge
hanging over me began to rouse my energies. I did not believe that such
an accusation could stand for a single instant against the voice of
truth. I imagined that one word from me, one look, would be sufficient
to make it fall to the ground; but I felt so dazed, so deeply wounded,
that this means of defence was denied me. The more grievously the
disgrace of such a suspicion weighed upon my mind, the more clearly
I realized that it is almost impossible for a man to defend himself
successfully when his only weapon is the pride of slandered innocence.
I sat there overwhelmed, unable to utter a word. It seemed as if a
dome of lead were weighing on my skull. Suddenly the door opened and
Mademoiselle Leblanc approached me stiffly; in a tone full of hatred
she informed me that some one outside wished to speak to me. I went out
mechanically, and found Patience waiting with his arms folded, in his
most dignified attitude, and with an expression on his face which would
have compelled both respect and fear if I had been guilty.
“Monsieur de Mauprat,” he said, “I must request you to grant me a
private interview. Will you kindly follow me to my cottage?”
“Yes, I will,” I replied. “I am ready to endure any humiliation, if only
I can learn what is wanted of me and why you are all pleased to insult
the most unfortunate of men. Lead the way, Patience, and go quickly; I
am eager to return here.”
Patience walked in front of me with an impassive air. When we arrived
at his little dwelling, we found my poor sergeant, who had just arrived
likewise. Not finding any horse on which he could follow me, and not
wishing to quit me, he had come on foot, and so quickly that he was
bathed in perspiration. Nevertheless, the moment he saw us he sprang
up full of life from the bench on which he had thrown himself under the
bower of vine-branches, and came to meet us.
“Patience!” he cried, in a dramatic style which would have made me smile
had it been possible for me to display a glimmer of mirth at such a
moment. “Old fool! . . . Slanderer at your age? . . . Fie, sir! . . .
Ruined by good fortune . . . you are . . . yes.”
Patience, impassive as ever, shrugged his shoulders and said to his
friend:
“Marcasse, you do not know what you are saying. Go and rest awhile at
the bottom of the orchard. This matter does not concern you. I want to
speak to your master alone. I wish you to go,” he added, taking him by
the arm; and there was a touch of authority in his manner to which the
sergeant, in spite of his ticklish prided, yielded from instinct and
habit.
As soon as we were alone Patience proceeded to the point; he began by a
series of questions to which I resolved to submit, so that I might the
more quickly obtain some light on the state of affairs around me.
“Will you kindly inform me, monsieur,” he said, “what you purpose doing
now?”
“I purpose remaining with my family,” I answered, “as long as I have
a family; and when this family is no more, what I shall do concerns no
one.”
“But, sir,” replied Patience, “if you were told that you could not
remain under the same roof with them without causing the death of one or
the other, would you persist in staying?”
“If I were convinced that this was so,” I rejoined, “I would not appear
in their presence. I would remain at their door and await the last
day of their life, or the first day of their renewed health, and again
implore a love I have not yet ceased to deserve.”
“Ah, we have come to this!” said Patience, with a smile of contempt. “I
should not have believed it. However, I am very glad; it makes matters
clearer.”
“What do you mean?” I cried. “Speak, you wretch! Explain yourself!”
“You are the only wretch here,” he answered coldly, at the same time
sitting down on the one stool in the cottage, while I remained standing
before him.
I wanted to draw an explanation from him, at all costs. I restrained my
feelings; I even humbled myself so far as to say that I should be ready
to accept advice, if he would consent to tell me the words that Edmee
had uttered immediately after the event, and those which she had
repeated in her hours of delirium.
“That I will not,” replied Patience sternly; “you are not worthy to hear
any words from that mouth, and I shall certainly never repeat them to
you. Why do you want to know them? Do you hope to hide anything from men
hereafter? God saw you; for Him there are no secrets. Leave this place;
stay at Roche-Mauprat; keep quiet there; and when your uncle is dead and
your affairs are settled, leave this part of the country. If you take my
advice, you will leave it this very day. I do not want to put the law on
your track, unless your actions force me. But others besides myself,
if they are not certain of the truth, have at least a suspicion of
it. Before two days have passed a chance word said in public, the
indiscretion of some servant, may awaken the attention of justice, and
from that point to the scaffold, when a man is guilty, is but a single
step. I used not to hate you; I even had a liking for you; take this
advice, then, which you say you are ready to follow. Go away at once, or
remain in hiding and ready for flight. I do not desire your ruin; Edmee
would not desire it either--so--do you understand?”
“You must be insane to think that I could listen to such advice. I, hide
myself! or flee like a murderer! You can’t dream of that! Come on!
come on! I defy the whole of you! I know not what fury and hatred are
fretting you and uniting you all against me; I know not why you want to
keep me from seeing my uncle and cousin; but I despise your follies.
My place is here; I shall not quit it except by order of my cousin or
uncle; and this order, too, I must take from their own lips; I cannot
allow sentence to be brought me by any outsider. So, thanks for your
wisdom, Monsieur Patience; in this case my own will suffice. I am your
humble servant, sir.”
I was preparing to leave the cottage when he rushed in front of me, and
for a moment I saw that he was ready to use force to detain me. In spite
of his advanced age, in spite of my height and strength, he might still
have been a match, perhaps more than a match, for me in a struggle of
this kind. Short, bent, broad-shouldered, he was a Hercules.
He stopped, however, just as he was about to lay hands on me, and,
seized with one of those fits of deep tenderness to which he was subject
in his moments of greatest passion, he gazed at me with eyes of pity,
and said, in a gentle tone:
“My poor boy! you whom I loved as a son (for I looked upon you as
Edmee’s brother), do not hasten to your ruin. I beseech you in the
name of her whom you have murdered, and whom you still love--I can see
it--but whom you may never behold again. Believe me, but yesterday your
family was a proud vessel, whose helm was in your hands; to-day it is
a drifting wreck, without either sail or pilot--left to be handled
by cabinboys, as friend Marcasse says. Well, my poor mariner, do not
persist in drowning yourself; I am throwing you a rope; take it--a day
more, and it may be too late. Remember that if the law gets hold of you,
the man who is trying to save you to-day, to-morrow will be obliged to
appear against you and condemn you. Do not compel me to do a thing the
very thought of which brings tears to my eyes. Bernard, you have been
loved, my lad; even to-day you may live on the past.”
I burst into tears, and the sergeant, who returned at this moment, began
to weep also; he implored me to go back to Roche-Mauprat; but I soon
recovered and, thrusting them both away, said:
“I know that both of you are excellent men, and both most generous; you
must have some love for me too, since, though you believe me blackened
with a hideous crime, you can still think of saving my life. But have no
fears on my account, good friends; I am innocent of this crime, and my
one wish is that the matter may be fully investigated, so that I may be
acquitted--yes, this is inevitable, I owe it to my family to live until
my honour has been freed from stain. Then, if I am condemned to see my
cousin die, as I have no one in the world to love but her, I will blow
my brains out. Why, then, should I be downcast? I set little store by
my life. May God make the last hours of her whom I shall certainly not
survive painless and peaceful--that is all I ask of Him.”
Patience shook his head with a gloomy, dissatisfied expression. He was
so convinced of my crime that all my denials only served to alienate his
pity. Marcasse still loved me, though he thought I was guilty. I had no
one in the world to answer for my innocence, except myself.
“If you persist on returning to the chateau,” exclaimed Patience, “you
must swear before you leave that you will not enter your cousin’s room,
or your uncle’s, without the abbe’s permission.”
“What I swear is that I am innocent,” I replied, “and that I will
allow no man to saddle me with a crime. Back, both of you! Let me pass!
Patience, if you consider it your duty to denounce me, go and do so. All
that I ask is that I may not be condemned without a hearing; I prefer
the bar of justice to that of mere opinion.”
I rushed out of the cottage and returned to the chateau. However, not
wishing to make a scandal before the servants, and knowing quite well
that they could not hide Edmee’s real condition from me, I went and shut
myself up in the room I usually occupied.
But in the evening, just as I was leaving it to get news of the two
patients, Mademoiselle Leblanc again told me that some one wished to
speak with me outside. I noticed that her face betrayed a sense of joy
as well as fear. I concluded that they had come to arrest me, and I
suspected (rightly, as it transpired) that Mademoiselle Leblanc had
denounced me. I went to the window, and saw some of the mounted police
in the courtyard.
“Good,” I said; “let my destiny take its course.”
But, before quitting, perhaps forever, this house in which I was
leaving my soul, I wished to see Edmee again for the last time. I walked
straight to her room. Mademoiselle Leblanc tried to throw herself in
front of the door; I pushed her aside so roughly that she fell, and, I
believe, hurt herself slightly. She immediately filled the house with
her cries; and later, in the trial, made a great pother about what she
was pleased to call an attempt to murder her. I at once entered Edmee’s
room; there I found the abbe and the doctor. I listened in silence to
what the latter was saying. I learnt that the wounds in themselves were
not mortal, that they would not even be very serious, had not a violent
disturbance in the brain complicated the evil and made him fear tetanus.
This frightful word fell upon me like a death sentence. In America I had
seen many men die of this terrible malady, the result of wounds received
in the war. I approached the bed. The abbe was so alarmed that he did
not think of preventing me. I took Edmee’s hand, cold and lifeless, as
ever. I kissed it a last time, and, without saying a single word to the
others, went and gave myself up to the police.