The Mystery of Orcival, Émile Gaboriau [fiction novels to read TXT] 📗

nobody knew anything of this horrible struggle that was going on in the house?”

“No one ever suspected anything.”

“It’s marvellous!”

“Say, Monsieur Lecoq, that is scarcely credible. Never was dissimulation so crafty, and above all, so wonderfully sustained. If you should question the first person you met in Orcival, he would tell you, as our worthy Courtois this morning told Monsieur Domini, that the count and countess were a model pair and adored each other. Why I, who knew⁠—or suspected, I should say⁠—what had passed, was deceived myself.”

Promptly as M. Plantat had corrected himself, his slip of the tongue did not escape M. Lecoq.

“Was it really a slip, or not?” he asked himself.

“These wretches have been terribly punished,” pursued M. Plantat, “and it is impossible to pity them; all would have gone rightly if Sauvresy, intoxicated by his hatred, had not committed a blunder which was almost a crime.”

“A crime!” exclaimed the doctor.

M. Lecoq smiled and muttered in a low tone:

“Laurence.”

But low as he had spoken, M. Plantat heard him.

“Yes, Monsieur Lecoq,” said he severely. “Yes, Laurence. Sauvresy did a detestable thing when he thought of making this poor girl the accomplice, or I should say, the instrument of his wrath. He piteously threw her between these two wretches, without asking himself whether she would be broken. It was by using Laurence’s name that he persuaded Bertha not to kill herself. Yet he knew of Trémorel’s passion for her, he knew her love for him, and he knew that his friend was capable of anything. He, who had so well foreseen all that could serve his vengeance, did not deign to foresee that Laurence might be dishonored; and yet he left her disarmed before this most cowardly and infamous of men!”

The detective reflected.

“There is one thing,” said he, “that I can’t explain. Why was it that these two, who execrated each other, and whom the implacable will of their victim chained together despite themselves, did not separate of one accord the day after their marriage, when they had fulfilled the condition which had established their crime?”

The old justice of the peace shook his head.

“I see,” he answered, “that I have not yet made you understand Bertha’s resolute character. Hector would have been delighted with a separation; his wife could not consent to it. Ah, Sauvresy knew her well! She saw her life ruined, a horrible remorse lacerated her; she must have a victim upon whom to expiate her errors and crimes; this victim was Hector. Ravenous for her prey, she would not let him go for anything in the world.”

“I’ faith,” observed Dr. Gendron, “your Trémorel was a chickenhearted wretch. What had he to fear when Sauvresy’s manuscript was once destroyed?”

“Who told you it had been destroyed?” interrupted M. Plantat.

M. Lecoq at this stopped promenading up and down the room, and sat down opposite M. Plantat.

“The whole case lies there,” said he. “Whether these proofs have or have not been destroyed.”

M. Plantat did not choose to answer directly.

“Do you know,” asked he, “to whom Sauvresy confided them for keeping?”

“Ah,” cried the detective, as if a sudden idea had enlightened him, “it was you.”

He added to himself, “Now, my good man, I begin to see where all your information comes from.”

“Yes, it was I,” resumed M. Plantat. “On the day of the marriage of Madame Sauvresy and Count Hector, in conformity with the last wishes of my dying friend, I went to Valfeuillu and asked to see Monsieur and Madame de Trémorel. Although they were full of company, they received me at once in the little room on the ground-floor where Sauvresy was murdered. They were both very pale and terribly troubled. They evidently guessed the purpose of my visit, for they lost no time in admitting me to an interview. After saluting them I addressed myself to Bertha, being enjoined to do so by the written instructions I had received; this was another instance of Sauvresy’s foresight. ‘Madame,’ said I, ‘I was charged by your late husband to hand to you, on the day of your second marriage, this package, which he confided to my care.’ She took the package, in which the bottle and the manuscript were enclosed, with a smiling, even joyous air, thanked me warmly, and went out. The count’s expression instantly changed; he appeared very restless and agitated; he seemed to be on coals. I saw well enough that he burned to rush after his wife, but dared not; I was going to retire; but he stopped me. ‘Pardon me,’ said he, abruptly, ‘you will permit me, will you not? I will return immediately,’ with which he ran out. When I saw him and his wife a few minutes afterward, they were both very red; their eyes had a strange expression and their voices trembled, as they accompanied me to the door. They had certainly been having a violent altercation.”

“The rest may be conjectured,” interrupted M. Lecoq. “She had gone to secrete the manuscript in some safe place; and when her new husband asked her to give it up to him, she replied, ‘Look for it.’ ”

“Sauvresy had enjoined on me to give it only into her hands.”

“Oh, he knew how to work his revenge. He had it given to his wife so that she might hold a terrible arm against Trémorel, all ready to crush him. If he revolted, she always had this instrument of torture at hand. Ah, the man was a miserable wretch, and she must have made him suffer terribly.”

“Yes,” said Dr. Gendron, “up to the very day he killed her.”

The detective had resumed his promenade up and down the library.

“The question as to the poison,” said he, “remains. It is a simple one to resolve, because we’ve got the man who sold it to her in that closet.”

“Besides,” returned the doctor, “I can tell something about the poison. This rascal of a Robelot stole it from my laboratory, and I know only too well what it is, even if the symptoms, so well described by our friend Plantat, had not indicated its name to me. I was