[Original]
“Cardinal Malipieri—your craft is no match—for my agony,” answered Rodin, in a failing voice. “The proof—that I have not told my secret—if I have a secret—is—that you want to make me tell it!” In spite of his pain and weakness, the Jesuit had courage to raise himself in the bed, and look the cardinal full in the face, with a smile of bitter irony. After which he fell back on the pillow, and pressed his hands to his chest, with a long sigh of anguish.
“Damnation! the infernal Jesuit has found me out!” said the cardinal to himself, as he stamped his foot with rage. “He sees that he was compromised by his first movement; he is now upon his guard; I shall get nothing more from him—unless indeed, profiting by the state of weakness in which he is, I can, by entreaties, by threats, by terror—”
The prelate was unable to finish. The door opened abruptly, and Father d’Aigrigny entered the room, exclaiming with an explosion of joy: “Excellent news!”
CHAPTER XXVIII. GOOD NEWS.
By the alteration in the countenance of Father d’Aigrigny, his pale cheek, and the feebleness of his walk, one might see that the terrible scene in the square of Notre-Dame, had violently reacted upon his health. Yet his face was radiant and triumphant, as he entered Rodin’s chamber, exclaiming: “Excellent news!”
On these words, Rodin started. In spite of his weakness, he raised his head, and his eyes shone with a curious, uneasy, piercing expression. With his lean hand, he beckoned Father d’Aigrigny to approach the bed, and said to him, in a broken voice, so weak that it was scarcely audible: “I am very ill—the cardinal has nearly finished me—but if this excellent news—relates to the Rennepont affair—of which I hear nothing—it might save me yet!”
“Be saved then!” cried Father d’Aigrigny, forgetting the recommendations of Dr. Baleinier; “read, rejoice! What you foretold is beginning to be realized!”
So saying, he drew a paper from his pocket, and delivered it to Rodin, who seized it with an eager and trembling hand. Some minutes before, Rodin would have been really incapable of continuing his conversation with the cardinal, even if prudence had allowed him to do so; nor could he have read a single line, so dim had his sight become. But, at the words of Father d’Aigrigny, he felt such a renewal of hope and vigor, that, by a mighty effort of energy and will, he rose to a sitting posture, and, with clear head, and look of intelligent animation, he read rapidly the paper that Father d’Aigrigny had just delivered to him.