The Confessions of Arsène Lupin, Maurice Leblanc [top 10 novels of all time txt] 📗

the extreme south of Algeria, I made the acquaintance, in the course of a hunting-expedition arranged by a big Arab chief, of a man whose geniality, whose charm of manner, whose consummate prowess, whose indomitable pluck, whose combined humour and depth of mind fascinated me in the highest degree. The Comte d’Andrésy spent six weeks as my guest. After he left, we kept up a correspondence at regular intervals. I also often saw his name in the papers, in the society and sporting columns. He was to come back and I was preparing to receive him, three months ago, when, one evening as I was out riding, my two Arab attendants flung themselves upon me, bound me, blindfolded me and took me, travelling day and night, for a week, along deserted roads, to a bay on the coast, where five men awaited them. I was at once carried on board a small steam-yacht, which weighed anchor without delay. There was nothing to tell me who the men were nor what their object was in kidnapping me. They had locked me into a narrow cabin, secured by a massive door and lighted by a porthole protected arrival. I learnt that Angélique’s marriage was celebrated this morning.”

The old duke had not spoken a word. With his eyes riveted on the stranger’s, he was listening in ever-increasing dismay. At times, the thought of the warnings given him by the prefect of police returned to his mind:

“They’re nursing you, monsieur le duc, they are nursing you.”

He said, in a hollow voice:

“Speak on⁠ ⁠… finish your story.⁠ ⁠… All this is ghastly.⁠ ⁠… I don’t understand it yet⁠ ⁠… and I feel nervous.⁠ ⁠…”

The stranger resumed:

“I am sorry to say, the story is easily pieced together and is summed up in a few sentences. It is like this: the Comte d’Andrésy remembered several things from his stay with me and from the confidences which I was foolish enough to make to him. First of all, I was your nephew and yet you had seen comparatively little of me, because I left Sarzeau when I was quite a child, and since then our intercourse was limited to the few weeks which I spent here, fifteen years ago, when I proposed for the hand of my Cousin Angélique; secondly, having broken with the past, I received no letters; lastly, there was a certain physical resemblance between d’Andrésy and myself which could be accentuated to such an extent as to become striking. His scheme was built up on those three points. He bribed my Arab servants to give him warning in case I left Algeria. Then he went back to Paris, bearing my name and made up to look exactly like me, came to see you, was invited to your house once a fortnight and lived under my name, which thus became one of the many aliases beneath which he conceals his real identity. Three months ago, when ‘the apple was ripe,’ as he says in his letters, he began the attack by a series of communications to the press; and, at the same time, fearing no doubt that some newspaper would tell me in Algeria the part that was being played under my name in Paris, he had me assaulted by my servants and kidnapped by his confederates. I need not explain any more in so far as you are concerned, uncle.”

The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme was shaken with a fit of nervous trembling. The awful truth to which he refused to open his eyes appeared to him in its nakedness and assumed the hateful countenance of the enemy. He clutched his nephew’s hands and said to him, fiercely, despairingly:

“It’s Lupin, is it not?”

“Yes, uncle.”

“And it’s to him⁠ ⁠… it’s to him that I have given my daughter!”

“Yes, uncle, to him, who has stolen my name of Jacques d’Emboise from me and stolen your daughter from you. Angélique is the wedded wife of Arsène Lupin; and that in accordance with your orders. This letter in his handwriting bears witness to it. He has upset your whole life, thrown you off your balance, besieging your hours of waking and your nights of dreaming, rifling your town-house, until the moment when, seized with terror, you took refuge here, where, thinking that you would escape his artifices and his rapacity, you told your daughter to choose one of her three cousins, Mussy, d’Emboise or Caorches, as her husband.”

“But why did she select that one rather than the others?”

“It was you who selected him, uncle.”

“At random⁠ ⁠… because he had the biggest income.⁠ ⁠…”

“No, not at random, but on the insidious, persistent and very clever advice of your servant Hyacinthe.”

The duke gave a start:

“What! Is Hyacinthe an accomplice?”

“No, not of Arsène Lupin, but of the man whom he believes to be d’Emboise and who promised to give him a hundred thousand francs within a week after the marriage.”

“Oh, the villain!⁠ ⁠… He planned everything, foresaw everything.⁠ ⁠…”

“Foresaw everything, uncle, down to shamming an attempt upon his life so as to avert suspicion, down to shamming a wound received in your service.”

“But with what object? Why all these dastardly tricks?”

“Angélique has a fortune of eleven million francs. Your solicitor in Paris was to hand the securities next week to the counterfeit d’Emboise, who had only to realize them forthwith and disappear. But, this very morning, you yourself were to hand your son-in-law, as a personal wedding-present, five hundred thousand francs’ worth of bearer-stock, which he has arranged to deliver to one of his accomplices at nine o’clock this evening, outside the castle, near the Great Oak, so that they may be negotiated tomorrow morning in Brussels.”

The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme had risen from his seat and was stamping furiously up and down the room:

“At nine o’clock this evening?” he said. “We’ll see about that.⁠ ⁠… We’ll see about that.⁠ ⁠… I’ll have the gendarmes here before then.⁠ ⁠…”

“Arsène Lupin laughs at gendarmes.”

“Let’s telegraph to Paris.”

“Yes, but how about the five hundred thousand francs?⁠ ⁠… And, still worse, uncle, the scandal?⁠ ⁠… Think of this: your daughter, Angélique