"Oh," he cried, "I am going mad! If all this were only over . . . that would be better. I can begin again, differently. . . . I shall try something else . . . but I can't go on like this, I can't go on. . . ."
He held his head in his hands, pressing it with all his might, locking himself within himself and concentrating his whole mind upon one subject, as though he wished to provoke, as though he wished to create the formidable, stupefying, inadmissible event to which he had attached his independence and his fortune:
"It must happen," he muttered, "it must; and it must, not because I wish it, but because it is logical. And it shall happen . . . it shall happen. . . ."
He beat his skull with his fists; and delirious words rose to his lips. . . .
The key grated in the lock. In his frenzy, he had not heard the sound of footsteps in the corridor; and now, suddenly, a ray of light penetrated into his cell and the door opened.
Three men entered.
Lupin had not a moment of surprise.
The unheard-of miracle was being worked; and this at once seemed to him natural and normal, in perfect agreement with truth and justice.
But a rush of pride flooded his whole being. At this minute he really received a clear sensation of his own strength and intelligence. . . .