“I meant to do so; but I was afraid. You ought to understand what I
mean. I was afraid I might be punished very severely for having run
off.”
“Your silence has led the court to commit a grievous mistake.”
“I had no idea M. Jacques would be found guilty. Big people like him,
who can pay great lawyers, always get out of trouble. Besides, I did
not think Count Claudieuse would carry out his threat. To be betrayed by
one’s wife is hard; but to send an innocent man to the galleys”--
“Still you see”--
“Ah, if I could have foreseen! My intentions were good; and I assure
you, although I did not come at once to denounce the whole thing, I was
firmly resolved to make a clean breast of it if M. Jacques should get
into trouble. And the proof of it is, that instead of running off, and
going far away, I very quietly lay concealed at the Red Lamb, waiting
for the sentence to be published. As soon as I heard what was done
last night, I did not lose an hour, and surrendered at once to the
gendarmes.”
In the meantime, M. Galpin had overcome his first amazement, and now
broke out furiously,--
“This man is an impostor. The money he showed us was paid him to bear
false witness. How can we credit his story?”
“We must investigate the matter,” replied M. Daubigeon. He rang the
bell; and, when the usher came in, he asked,--
“Have you done what I told you?”
“Yes, sir,” replied the man. “M. de Boiscoran and the servant of Count
Claudieuse are here.”
“Bring in the woman: when I ring, show M. de Boiscoran in.”
This woman was a big country-girl, plain of face, and square of figure.
She seemed to be very much excited, and looked crimson in her face.
“Do you remember,” asked M. Daubigeon, “that one night last week a man
came to your house, and asked to see your mistress?”
“Oh, yes!” replied the honest girl. “I did not want to let him in at
first; but he said he came from the court, and then I let him in.”
“Would you recognize him?”
“Certainly.”
The commonwealth attorney rang again; the door opened, and Jacques came
in, his face full of amazement and wonder.
“That is the man!” cried the servant.
“May I know?” asked the unfortunate man.
“Not yet!” replied M. Daubigeon. “Go back, and be of good hope!”
But Jacques remained standing where he was, like a man who has suddenly
been overcome, looking all around with amazed eyes, and evidently unable
to comprehend.
How could he have comprehended what was going on?
They had taken him out of his cell without warning; they had carried him
to the court-house; and here he was confronted with Trumence, whom he
thought he should never see again, and with the servant of the Countess
Claudieuse.
M. Galpin looked the picture of consternation; and M. Daubigeon, radiant
with delight, bade him be of good hope.
Hopeful of what? How? To what purpose?
And Mechinet made him all kinds of signs.
The usher who had brought him in had actually to take him out.
Immediately the commonwealth attorney turned again to the servant-girl
and said,--
“Now, my good girl, can you tell me if any thing special happened in
connection with this gentleman’s visit at your house?”
“There was a great quarrel between him and master and mistress.”
“Were you present?”
“No. But I am quite certain of what I say.”
“How so?”
“Well, I will tell you. When I went up stairs to tell the countess that
there was a gentleman below who came from the courts, she was in a great
hurry to go down, and told me to stay with the count, my master. Of
course, I did what she said. But no sooner was she down than I heard
a loud cry. Master, who had looked all in a stupor, heard it too: he
raised himself on his pillow, and asked me where my mistress was. I told
him, and he was just settling down to try and fall asleep again, when
the sound of loud voices came up to us. ‘That is very singular,’ said
master. I offered to go down and see what was the matter: but he told
me sharply not to stir an inch. And, when the voices became louder and
louder, he said, ‘I will go down myself. Give me my dressing-gown.’
“Sick as he was, exhausted, and almost on his deathbed, it was very
imprudent in him, and might easily have cost him his life. I ventured to
speak to him; but he swore at me, and told me to hush, and to do what he
ordered me to do.
“The count--God be merciful to his soul!--was a very good man,
certainly; but he was a terrible man also, and when he got angry, and
talked in a certain way, everybody in the house began to tremble, even
mistress.
“I obeyed, therefore, and did what he wanted. Poor man! He was so weak
he could hardly stand up, and had to hold on to a chair while I helped
him just to hang his dressing-gown over his shoulders.
“Then I asked him if he would not let me help him down. But looking at
me with awful eyes, he said, ‘You will do me the favor to stay here,
and, whatever may happen, if you dare so much as open the door while I
am away, you shall not stay another hour in my service.’
“Then he went out, holding on to the wall; and I remained alone in the
chamber, all trembling, and feeling as sick as if I had known that a
great misfortune was coming upon us.
“However, I heard nothing more for a time; and as the minutes passed
away, I was just beginning to reproach myself for having been so
foolishly alarmed, when I heard two cries; but, O sir! two such fearful,
sharp cries, that I felt cold shivers running all over me.
“As I did not dare leave the room, I put my ear to the door, and I
heard distinctly the count’s voice, as he was quarrelling with another
gentleman. But I could not catch a single word, and only made out that
they were angry about a very serious matter.
“All of a sudden, a great but dull noise, like that of the fall of a
heavy body, then another awful cry, I had not a drop of blood left in my
veins at that moment.
“Fortunately, the other servants, who had gone to bed, had heard
something. They had gotten up, and were now coming down the passage.
“I left the room at all hazards, and went down stairs with the others,
and there we found my mistress fainting in an armchair, and my master
stretched out at full-length, lying on the floor like a dead man.”
“What did I say?” cried Trumence.
But the commonwealth attorney made him a sign to keep quiet; and,
turning again to the girl, he asked,--
“And the visitor?”
“He was gone, sir. He had vanished.”
“What did you do then?”
“We raised up the count: we carried him up stairs and laid him on his
bed. Then we brought mistress round again; and the valet went in haste
to fetch Dr. Seignebos.”
“What said the countess when she recovered her consciousness?”
“Nothing. Mistress looked like a person who has been knocked in the
head.”
“Was there any thing else?”
“Oh, yes, sir!”
“What?”
“The oldest of the young ladies, Miss Martha, was seized with terrible
convulsions.”
“How was that?”
“Why, I only know what miss told us herself.”
“Let us hear what she said.”
“Ah! It is a very singular story. When this gentleman whom I have just
seen here rang the bell at our gate, Miss Martha, who had already gone
to bed, got up again, and went to the window to see who it was. She saw
me go and open, with a candle in my hand, and come back again with the
gentleman behind me. She was just going to bed again, when she thought
she saw one of the statues in the garden move, and walk right off. We
told her it could not be so; but she did not mind us. She told us over
and over again that she was quite sure that she saw that statue come
up the avenue, and take a place behind the tree which is nearest to the
parlor-window.”
Trumence looked triumphant.
“That was I!” he cried.