“It is a crime that has been committed, I suppose.”
“Why, of course!”
“But who did it? What was the motive?”
“Ah! that is the question.”
“The count is very passionate, to be sure, quite violent, in fact; but
still he is the best and fairest of men, everybody knows that.”
“Everybody knows it.”
“He never did any harm to anybody.”
“That is what all say.”
“As for the countess”--
“Oh!” said the peasant eagerly, “she is the saint of saints.”
The mayor tried to come to some conclusion.
“The criminal, therefore, must be a stranger. We are overrun with
vagabonds and beggars on the tramp. There is not a day on which a lot of
ill-looking fellows do not appear at my office, asking for help to get
away.”