“ ‘Be still,’ she cried, ‘for Jesus’ sake, be still! They will carry you to Bicêtre, and from there to le Boureau, and you will die au coupe tête![8] Oh, be still! or, if you must talk, say something else than that!’
“Every word uttered by the woman and the man was quietly written down, unobserved, by one of the officers, who used my pencil and paper, and the back of his comrade as a desk.
“What strange, mysterious power was it that caused me mechanically to purchase a pencil and paper on my way from Belleville down to Michel le Compte?
“God’s ways are mysterious, altogether past finding out; and I inwardly praised him as the mighty fact became apparent, that the people of the house were not in league, as I had conjectured might be the case, with Ravalette; and that the mysterious agent of Divine Retribution was not of an infernal nature, be it or he whatever else. A load was lifted off my heart—too soon, alas! to be let down heavier than before.
“ ‘You did not kill him, D’Emprat! So don’t say you did any more!’ exclaimed the woman in the accents of despair.
“ ‘ ’Tis a lie! I did!’ yelled the unfortunate man. ‘I killed him with the hatchet in the cellar, and buried him under the grey horse’s stall in the stable!’
“ ‘My God! we are ruined!’ screamed the now frantic woman. ‘I always suspected that you killed my brother, but never believed it until now. And, yet, I do not even now believe it; for’——
“ ‘I can prove it; for I well remember a bloody hatchet, and that master never would let me clean the stable of the grey horse; and that I have watched him dig gold from the ground there, and heard him accuse himself in his sleep!’ said the concierge, coming forward.
“ ‘Then, D’Emprat, and you, madame, I arrest in the name of the law; and you, porter, as a witness. Officers, do your duty—take the prisoners—clear the house!’ said their chief.
“Five minutes afterwards, the unfortunate people were being led to prison, and I was on the way to my hotel to dress—even under such circumstances—for the soirée at the Baron’s, but in a frame of mind that little fitted me to be a spectator of philosophical experiments. Yet my word was pledged, and go I must, and go I did—six o’clock finding me in the Baron’s parlor.