“No, I cannot. I felt as if there was a veil before my eyes; and he passed me like a shadow.”
The magistrate could hardly conceal his disappointment.
“Never mind,” he said, “we’ll find him out. But go on, sir.”
The count shook his head.
“I have nothing more to say,” he replied. “I had fainted; and when I recovered my consciousness, some hours later, I found myself here lying on this bed.”
M. Galpin noted down the count’s answers with scrupulous exactness: when he had done, he asked again,—
“We must return to the details of the attack, and examine them minutely. Now, however, it is important to know what happened after you fell. Who could tell us that?”
“My wife, sir.”
“I thought so. The countess, no doubt, got up when you rose.”
“My wife had not gone to bed.”