Part 44 (2/2)

”You are Dufresne, who lived with Madame Dolban?”

”You are mistaken, my name is Vermontre.”

”Oh! that's the truth,” said Lampin, trying to stand up without the help of the gendarmes; ”it's at least two months that he's been calling himself that.”

”It's of no use for you to try to deny it. The police have been watching you for a long while, and when we heard of the murder of which you are accused, it was not difficult for us to find you, despite all the false names you have a.s.sumed.”

”Murder! murder!” exclaimed Lampin; ”one moment, messieurs, I haven't got anything to do with that. I thought that you came about the matter of the sc.r.a.p of paper, which is only a trifle. But a murder! d.a.m.nation!

let us understand each other. I am as white as snow, and Fluet, who's over there in the corner, will tell you as much. We only worked on the writings, we two.”

”On the writings?”

”Yes; when I say we--why it was La Valeur, who stands shaking over there, that did most of it; but he writes mighty well! Ah! that was a good job! And the old Jew tumbled into it; so that we've eaten and drunk the stuff all up. If you would like to join us, I'm your man.”

The sergeant listened attentively, and Edouard's terror, combined with Lampin's fragments of sentences, led him to guess that those gentry were the authors of some rascality of a different sort from the affair which had brought him thither. The crime committed upon Madame Dolban was the occasion of that midnight visit, undertaken because they wished to make sure of Dufresne; the forgery had only been discovered the day before, and the police had not yet found the tracks of the culprits.

”After what I have heard, you will have to come with us too, monsieur,”

said the sergeant to Edouard; ”if you are innocent, it will be easy for you to clear your skirts.”

”Oh! I will confess everything,” said Edouard, allowing the gendarmes to lay hold of him.

”Well! you're nothing but a fool, on the faith of Lampin! For my part, I won't confess anything.--Come, my friends, carry me, if you want me to go with you.”

They dragged away Dufresne, who tried to resist. Edouard, on the contrary, allowed himself to be led away without uttering a word. As for Lampin, they were obliged to carry him; for he could not stand on his legs. The three men pa.s.sed the rest of the night in prison.

Taken the next morning before an examining magistrate, in order to undergo a preliminary examination, Edouard trembled and stammered, but he had not the courage to deny his crime; in vain did Lampin, now thoroughly sober, impress upon him the importance of the replies he was to make, and teach him his lesson; Edouard promised him to be steadfast and to follow his advice; but in the magistrate's presence the miserable wretch lost courage, and did not know what he said.

Edouard was confined with Lampin at La Force, until judgment should be p.r.o.nounced upon him for the forgery. Dufresne was not with them; being accused of having poisoned Madame Dolban, he was to be tried before his two friends, and he had been taken to the Conciergerie.

Edouard, who had not taken the precaution to supply himself with money, was confined with Lampin in a pestilential room, in the midst of a mult.i.tude of wretches, all arrested for theft or offences of that nature. He slept upon a handful of straw, and his food was that supplied by the prison to those awaiting trial. Lampin gaily made the best of it; he sang and shouted and played the devil with the outcasts who surrounded him. But Edouard had not the courage of crime; he felt remorse and regret in the depths of his soul. He wept at night on the stone which served him as a bed, and his tears were a source of jest and witticisms to the miserable creatures confined with him.

During the day the prisoners were allowed to walk in a large courtyard; Edouard did not go with them, in order that he might be alone for a few moments, and at all events lament at liberty. He saw no one from outside; he had no friends; his companions in dissipation did not come to visit him in prison; and yet the other prisoners, who were no better than he, received visits every day and were not deserted by their worthy comrades. But Edouard bore the reputation among them of a weak and pusillanimous creature; men of that description are good for nothing; the slightest reverse discourages them, and cowards are as much despised by criminals as they are ignored by respectable people.

The memory of Adeline and her daughter recurred to Edouard's mind; it is when we are unhappy that we remember those who truly love us. He had spurned his wife and child, and had abandoned them without taking pains to ascertain whether the unfortunate creatures could find means of subsistence; but he felt sure that Adeline would hasten to his side, to comfort him, and to mingle her tears with his, if she knew that he was in prison. Despite all the injury that he had done her, he knew enough not to doubt the warmth of her heart.

One day, Lampin approached Murville, and his joyous air seemed to announce good news.

”Are we pardoned?” Edouard at once asked him.

”Pardoned! oh, no! we needn't expect that. Besides, you jacka.s.s, you made our affair so clear, that unless they are blind, they can't help convicting us. Ah! if you had been another kind of man; if you had simply recited your lesson, we would have mixed the whole thing up so that they wouldn't have seen anything but smoke; but you chatter like a magpie.”

”Do you forget that it was your fault that I was arrested? It was you who put those officers on the track.”

”Oh! my boy, that's different; I was drunk, like a good fellow; I drank for you too, and in wine, as the proverb says,--_in vino_--the truth.--But after all, that isn't what I wanted to talk about: our friend Dufresne is luckier than we are.”

”Have they given him his liberty?”

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