"Disappear!" cried the prisoner—"but how did they disappear?"
"In the surest possible way," answered Aramis;—"they are dead."
The young man turned visibly pale, and passed his hand tremblingly over his face. "From poison?" he asked.
"From poison."
The prisoner reflected a moment. "My enemy must indeed have been very cruel, or hard beset by necessity, to assassinate those two innocent people, my sole support; for the worthy gentleman and the poor nurse had never harmed a living being."
"In your family, monseigneur, necessity is stern. And so it is necessity which compels me, to my great regret, to tell you that this gentleman and the unhappy lady have been assassinated."
"Oh, you tell me nothing I am not aware of," said the prisoner, knitting his brows.
"How?"
"I suspected it."
"Why?"