Part 36 (1/2)
If Gri, we know that he was quick to act; he sprang to the door and shook it violently, but it was bolted on the other side
”Open the door!” cried the host; ”open it instantly, sir monk!”
No reply
”Unfasten it, or I will break it in!” said Grimaud
The san, Grimaud seized a pair of pincers he perceived in a corner and forced the bolt The roo from the mattresses upon which lay the wounded man, speechless; the monk had disappeared
”The monk!” cried the host; ”where is thetoward an open hich looked into the courtyard
”He has escaped by this means,” exclaimed he
”Do you think so?” said the host, bewildered; ”boy, see if theto the monk is still in the stable”
”There is no mule,” cried he to whom this question was addressed
The host clasped his hands and looked around him suspiciously, whilst Grimaud knit his brows and approached the wounded man, whose worn, hard features awoke in his mind such awful recollections of the past
”There can be no longer any doubt but that it is himself,” said he
”Does he still live?” inquired the innkeeper
Making no reply, Grimaud opened the poor man's jacket to feel if the heart beat, whilst the host approached in his turn; but in aa cry of horror and Grier was buried up to the hilt in the left side of the executioner
”Run! run for help!” cried Grimaud, ”and I will reitation, and as for his wife, she had fled at the sound of her husband's cries
32 The Absolution
This is what had taken place: We have seen that it was not of his own free will, but, on the contrary, very reluctantly, that the monk attended the wounded e a ht had he seen any possibility of doing so He was restrained by the threats of the two gentlemen and by the presence of their attendants, who doubtless had received their instructions And besides, he considered ittoo much ill-will, to follow to the end his role as confessor
The monk entered the chamber and approached the bed of the wounded lance peculiar to those who are about to die and have no time to lose He made a ”
”Men who bear e,” replied the ently, father; in my last moments I need a friend”
”Do you suffer much?” asked the monk
”Yes, but in my soul much more than inman; ”but are you really the executioner of Bethune, as these people say?”
”That is to say,” eagerly replied the wounded man, who doubtless feared that the name of executioner would take from him the last help that he could claier; it is fifteen years since I gave up the office I still assist at executions, but no longer strike the blow nance to your profession?”
”So long as I struck in the name of the law and of justice my profession allowed me to sleep quietly, sheltered as I was by justice and law; but since that terrible night when I becaeance and ith personal hatred I raised the sword over one of God's creatures--since that day----”
The executioner paused and shook his head with an expression of despair
”Tellon the foot of the bed, began to be interested in a story so strangely introduced
”Ah!” cried the dyingsuppression, ”ah! I have sought to stifle reed the natural ferocity of those who shed blood; on every occasion I have exposed er, and I have preserved lives in exchange for that I took away That is not all; the ained in the exercise of my profession I have distributed to the poor; I have been assiduous in attending church and those who for iven me, some have even loved me; but I think that God has not pardoned me, for the ht I see that wo before me”
”A woman! You have assassinated a woman, then?” cried the monk
”You also!” exclaimed the executioner, ”you use that hich sounds ever in my ears--'assassinated!' I have assassinated, then, and not executed! I am an assassin, then, and not an officer of justice!” and he closed his eyes with a groan
The, as yet; when you have finished your story, God and I will judge”
”Oh, father,” continued the executioner, without opening his eyes, as if he feared on opening theht comes on and when I have to cross a river, that this terror which I have been unable to conquer corew heavy, as if the cutlass was still in its grasp, as if the water had the color of blood, and all the voices of nature--the whispering of the trees, theof the wave--united in a voice tearful, despairing, terrible, crying to me, 'Place for the justice of God!'”
”Deliriu his head
The executioner opened his eyes, turned toward the young rasped his arm
”'Delirium,'” he repeated; ”'deliriu; I had thrown the body into the river and those words which my remorse repeats tothe instrument of human justice I aspired to be that of the justice of God”
”But let me see, hoas it done? Speak,” said the ht A man came to me and showed me an order and I followed him Four other nobleht of refusing if the office they required of ues, serious, silent, and alh theof a little hut, they showedon a table, and said, 'there is the person to be executed'”
”Horrible!” said the monk ”And you obeyed?”
”Father, that woman was a monster It was said that she had poisoned her second husband; she had tried to assassinate her brother-in-law; she had just poisoned a young woland she had, it was believed, caused the favorite of the king to be hahalish, then?”
”No, she was French, but she had land”
The monk turned pale, wiped his brow and went and bolted the door The executioner thought that he had abandoned hi, upon his bed
”No, no; I a back to him ”Go on; ere those lish, I think The four others were French and wore the uniform of musketeers”
”Their names?” asked the monk
”I don't know thelish and beautiful Oh, yes, especially beautiful I see her now, as on her knees at ed for life I have never understood how I could have laid low a head so beautiful, with a face so pale”