Within an Inch of His Life

E >> Emile Gaboriau >> Within an Inch of His Life


"But still"--

"And what did he say, after all? That the prosecution did not know the
real secret of the case. That is absurd!"

"The new judges may not think so, however."

"We shall see."

"This time M. de Boiscoran's defence will be very different. He will
spare nobody. He is down now, and cannot fall any lower."

"That may be. But he also risks having a less indulgent jury, and not
getting off with twenty years."

"What do his counsel say?"

"I do not know. But I have just sent my clerk to find out; and, if you
choose to wait"--

M. Daubigeon did wait, and he did well; for M. Mechinet came in very
soon after, with a long face for the world, but inwardly delighted.

"Well?" asked M. Galpin eagerly.

He shook his head, and said in a melancholy tone of voice,--

"I have never seen any thing like this. How fickle public opinion is,
after all! Day before yesterday M. de Boiscoran could not have passed
through the town without being mobbed. If he should show himself to-day,
they would carry him in triumph. He has been condemned, and now he is
a martyr. It is known already that the sentence is void, and they are
delighted. My sisters have just told me that the ladies in good society
propose to give to the Marchioness de Boiscoran and to Miss Chandore
some public evidence of their sympathy. The members of the bar will give
M. Folgat a public dinner."

"Why that is monstrous!" cried M. Galpin.

"Well," said M. Daubigeon, "'the opinions of men are more fickle and
changeable than the waves of the sea.'"

But, interrupting the quotation, M. Galpin asked his clerk,--

"Well, what else?"

"I went to hand M. Gransiere the letter which you gave me for him"--

"What did he say?"

"I found him in consultation with the president, M. Domini. He took the
letter, glanced at it rapidly, and told me in his most icy tone, 'Very
well!' To tell the truth, I thought, that, in spite of his stiff and
grand air, he was in reality furious."

The magistrate looked utterly in despair.

"I can't stand it," he said sighing. "These men whose veins have no
blood in them, but poison, never forgive."

"Day before yesterday you thought very highly of him."

"Day before yesterday he did not look upon me as the cause of a great
misfortune for him."

M. Mechinet went on quite eagerly,--

"After leaving M. Gransiere, I went to the court-house, and there I
head the great piece of news which has set all the town agog. Count
Claudieuse is dead."

M. Daubigeon and M. Galpin looked at each other, and exclaimed in the
same breath,--

"Great God! Is that so?"

"He breathed his last this morning, at two or three minutes before six
o'clock. I saw his body in the private room of the attorney-general.
The priest from Brechy was there, and two other priests from his parish.
They were waiting for a bier to have him carried to his house."

"Poor man!" murmured M. Daubigeon.

"But I heard a great deal more," Mechinet said, "from the watchman who
was on guard last night. He told me that when the trial was over, and
it became known that Count Claudieuse was likely to die, the priest
from Brechy came there, and asked to be allowed to offer him the last
consolations of his church. The countess refused to let him come to the
bedside of her husband. The watchman was amazed at this; and just then
Miss Chandore suddenly appeared, and sent word to the countess that she
wanted to speak to her."

"Is it possible?"

"Quite certain. They remained together for more than a quarter of
an hour. What did they say? The watchman told me he was dying with
curiosity to know; but he could hear nothing, because there was the
priest from Brechy, all the while, kneeling before the door, and
praying. When they parted, they looked terribly excited. Then the
countess immediately called in the priest, and he stayed with the count
till he died."

M. Daubigeon and M. Galpin had not yet recovered from their amazement at
this account, when somebody knocked timidly at the door.

"Come in!" cried Mechinet.

The door opened, and the sergeant of gendarmes appeared.

"I have been sent here by the attorney-general," he said; "and the
servant told me you were up here. We have just caught Trumence."

"That man who had escaped from jail?"

"Yes. We were about to carry him back there, when he told us that he
had a secret to reveal, a very important, urgent secret, concerning the
condemned prisoner, Boiscoran."

"Trumence?"

"Yes. Then we carried him to the court-house, and I came for orders."

"Run and say that I am coming to see him!" cried M. Daubigeon. "Make
haste! I am coming after you."

But the gendarme, a model of obedience, had not waited so long: he was
already down stairs.

"I must leave you, Galpin," said M. Daubigeon, very much excited. "You
heard what the man said. We must know what that means at once."

But the magistrate was not less excited.

"You permit me to accompany you, I hope?" he asked.

He had a right to do so.

"Certainly," replied the commonwealth attorney. "But make haste!"

The recommendation was not needed. M. Galpin had already put on his
boots. He now slipped his overcoat over his home dress, as he was; and
off they went.

Mechinet followed the two gentlemen as they hastened down the street;
and the good people of Sauveterre, always on the lookout, were not a
little scandalized at seeing their well-known magistrate, M. Galpin, in
his home costume,--he who generally was most scrupulously precise in his
dress.

Standing on their door-steps, they said to each other,--

"Something very important must have happened. Just look at these
gentlemen!"

The fact was, they were walking so fast, that people might well wonder;
and they did not say a word all the way.

But, ere they reached the court-house, they were forced to stop; for
some four or five hundred people were filling the court, crowding on the
steps, and actually pressing against the doors.

Immediately all became silent; hats were raised; the crowd parted; and a
passage was opened.

On the porch appeared the priest from Brechy, and two other priests.

Behind them came attendants from the hospital, who bore a bier covered
with black cloth; and beneath the cloth the outlines of a human body
could be seen.

The women began to cry; and those who had room enough knelt down.

"Poor countess!" murmured one of them. "Here is her husband dead, and
they say one of her daughters is dying at home."

But M. Daubigeon, the magistrate, and Mechinet were too preoccupied with
their own interests to think of stopping for more reliable news. The way
was open: they went in, and hastened to the clerk's office, where the
gendarmes had taken Trumence, and now were guarding him.

He rose as soon as he recognized the gentlemen, and respectfully took
off his cap. It was really Trumence; but the good-for-nothing vagrant
did not present his usual careless appearance. He looked pale, and was
evidently very much excited.

"Well," said M. Daubigeon, "so you have allowed yourself to be retaken?"

"Beg pardon, judge," replied the poor fellow, "I was not retaken. I came
of my own accord."

"Involuntarily, you mean?"

"Quite by my own free will! Just ask the sergeant."

The sergeant stepped forward, touched his cap, and reported,--

"That is the naked truth. Trumence came himself to our barrack, and
said, 'I surrender as a prisoner. I wish to speak to the commonwealth
attorney, and give importance evidence.'"

The vagabond drew himself up proudly,--

"You see, sir, that I did not lie. While these gentlemen were galloping
all over the country in search of me, I was snugly ensconced in a garret
at the Red Lamb, and did not think of coming out from there till I
should be entirely forgotten."

"Yes; but people who lodge at the Red Lamb have to pay, and you had no
money."

Trumence very quietly drew from his pocket a handful of Napoleons, and
of five-and-twenty-franc notes, and showed them.

"You see that I had the wherewithal to pay for my room," he said. "But I
surrendered, because, after all, I am an honest man, and I would rather
suffer some trouble myself than see an innocent gentleman go to the
galleys."

"M. de Boiscoran?"

"Yes. He is innocent! I know it; I am sure of it; and I can prove it.
And, if he will not tell, I will tell,--tell every thing!"

M. Daubigeon and M. Galpin were utterly astounded.

"Explain yourself," they both said in the same breath.

But the vagrant shook his head, pointing at the gendarmes; and, as a man
who is quite cognizant of all the formalities of the law, he replied,--

"But it is a great secret; and, when one confesses, one does not like
anybody else to hear it but the priest. Besides, I should like my
deposition to be taken down in writing."

Upon a sign made by M. Galpin, the gendarmes withdrew; and Mechinet took
his seat at a table, with a blank sheet of paper before him.

"Now we can talk," said Trumence: "that's the way I like it. I was not
thinking myself of running away. I was pretty well off in jail; winter
is coming, I had not a cent; and I knew, that, if I were retaken, I
should fare rather badly. But M. Jacques de Boiscoran had a notion to
spend a night outside."

"Mind what you are saying," M. Galpin broke in severely. "You cannot
play with the law, and go off unpunished."

"May I die if I do not tell the truth!" cried Trumence. "M. Jacques has
spent a whole night out of jail."

The magistrate trembled.

"What a story that is!" he said again.

"I have my proof," replied Trumence coldly, "and you shall hear. Well,
as he wanted to leave, M. Jacques came to me, and we agreed, that in
consideration of a certain sum of money which he has paid me, and of
which you have seen just now all that is left, I should make a hole in
the wall, and that I should run off altogether, while he was to come
back when he had done his business."

"And the jailer?" asked M. Daubigeon.

Like a true peasant of his promise, Trumence was far too cunning
to expose Blangin unnecessarily. Assuming, therefore, the whole
responsibility of the evasion, he replied,--

"The jailer saw nothing. We had no use for him. Was not I, so to say,
under-jailer? Had not I been charged by you yourself, M. Galpin, with
keeping watch over M. Jacques? Was it not I who opened and locked his
door, who took him to the parlor, and brought him back again?"

That was the exact truth.

"Go on!" said M. Galpin harshly.

"Well," said Trumence, "every thing was done as agreed upon. One
evening, about nine o'clock, I make my hole in the wall, and here we
are, M. Jacques and I, on the ramparts. There he slips a package of
banknotes into my hand, and tells me to run for it, while he goes about
his business. I thought he was innocent then; but you see I should not
exactly have gone through the fire for him as yet. I said to myself,
that perhaps he was making fun of me, and that, once on the wing, he
would not be such a fool as to go back into the cage. This made me
curious, as he was going off, to see which way he was going,--and there
I was, following him close upon his heels!"

The magistrate and the commonwealth attorney, accustomed as they both
were, by the nature of their profession, to conceal their feelings,
could hardly restrain now,--one, the hope trembling within him, and the
other, the vague apprehensions which began to fill his heart.

Mechinet, who knew already all that was coming, laughed in his sleeve
while his pen was flying rapidly over the paper.

"He was afraid he might be recognized," continued the vagrant, "and so
M. Jacques had been running ever so fast, keeping close to the wall, and
choosing the narrowest lanes. Fortunately, I have a pair of very good
legs. He goes through Sauveterre like a race-horse; and, when he reaches
Mautrec Street, he begins to ring the bell at a large gate."

"At Count Claudieuse's house!"

"I know now what house it was; but I did not know then. Well, he rings.
A servant comes and opens. He speaks to her, and immediately she invites
him in, and that so eagerly, that she forgets to close the gate again."

M. Daubigeon stopped him by a gesture.

"Wait!" he said.

And, taking up a blank form, he filled it up, rang the bell, and said
to an usher of the court who had hastened in, giving him the printed
paper,--

"I want this to be taken immediately. Make haste; and not a word!"

Then Trumence was directed to go on; and he said,--

"There I was, standing in the middle of the street, feeling like a fool.
I thought I had nothing left me but to go and use my legs: that was
safest for me. But that wretched, half-open gate attracted me. I said to
myself, 'If you go in, and they catch you, they will think you have
come to steal, and you'll have to pay for it.' That was true; but the
temptation was too strong for me. My curiosity broke my heart, so to
say, and, 'Come what may, I'll risk it,' I said. I push the huge gate
just wide enough to let me in, and here I am in a large garden. It was
pitch dark; but, quite at the bottom of the garden, three windows in the
lower story of the house were lighted up. I had ventured too far now
to go back. So I went on, creeping along stealthily, until I reached a
tree, against which I pressed closely, about the length of my arm from
one of the windows, which belonged to a beautiful parlor. I look--and I
see whom? M. de Boiscoran. As there were no curtains to the windows,
I could see as well as I can see you. His face looked terrible. I was
asking myself for whom he could be waiting there, when I saw him hiding
behind the open door of the room, like a man who is lying in wait for
somebody, with evil intentions. This troubled me very much; but the next
moment a lady came in. Instantly M. Jacques shuts the door behind her;
the lady turns round, sees him, and wants to run, uttering at the same
time a loud cry. That lady was the Countess Claudieuse!"

He looked as if he wished to pause to watch the effect of his
revelation. But Mechinet was so impatient, that he forgot the modest
character of his duty, and said hastily,--

"Go on; go on!"

"One of the windows was half open," continued the vagrant, "and thus
I could hear almost as well as I saw. I crouched down on all-fours and
kept my head on a level with the ground, so as not to lose a word. Oh,
it was fearful! At the first word I understood it all: M. Jacques and
the Countess Claudieuse had been lovers."

"This is madness!" cried M. Galpin.

"Well, I tell you I was amazed. The Countess Claudieuse--such a pious
lady! But I have ears; don't you think I have? M. Jacques reminded her
of the night of the crime, how they had been together a few minutes
before the fire broke out, as they had agreed some days before to meet
near Valpinson at that very time. At this meeting they had burnt their
love-letters, and M. Jacques had blackened his fingers badly in burning
them."

"Did you really hear that?" asked M. Daubigeon.

"As I hear you, sir."

"Write it down, Mechinet," said the commonwealth attorney with great
eagerness,--"write that down carefully."

The clerk was sure to do it.

"What surprised me most," continued Trumence, "was, that the countess
seemed to consider M. Jacques guilty, and he thought she was. Each
accused the other of the crime. She said, 'You attempted the life of my
husband, because you were afraid of him!' And he said, 'You wanted to
kill him, so as to be free, and to prevent my marriage!'"

M. Galpin had sunk into a chair: he stammered,--

"Did anybody ever hear such a thing?"

"However, they explained; and at last they found out that they were both
of them innocent. Then M. Jacques entreated the countess to save him;
and she replied that she would certainly not save him at the expense of
her reputation, and so enable him, as soon as he was free once more, to
marry Miss Chandore. Then he said to her, 'Well, then I must tell all;'
and she, 'You will not be believed. I shall deny it all, and you have
no proof!' In his despair, he reproached her bitterly, and said she had
never loved him at all. Then she swore she loved him more than ever; and
that, as he was free now, she was ready to abandon every thing, and to
escape with him to some foreign country. And she conjured him to flee,
in a voice which moved my heart, with loving words such as I have never
heard before in my life, and with looks which seemed to be burning fire.
What a woman! I did not think he could possibly resist. And yet he did
resist; and, perfectly beside himself with anger, he cried, 'Rather the
galleys!' Then she laughed, mocking him, and saying, 'Very well, you
shall go to the galleys!'"

Although Trumence entered into many details, it was quite evident that
he kept back many things.

Still M. Daubigeon did not dare question him, for fear of breaking the
thread of his account.

"But that was nothing at all," said the vagrant. "While M. Jacques and
the countess were quarrelling in this way, I saw the door of the parlor
suddenly open as if by itself, and a phantom appear in it, dressed in a
funeral pall. It was Count Claudieuse himself. His face looked terrible;
and he had a revolver in his hand. He was leaning against the side of
the door; and he listened while his wife and M. Jacques were talking of
their former love-affairs. At certain words, he would raise his pistol
as if to fire; then he would lower it again, and go on listening. It was
so awful, I had not a dry thread on my body. It was very hard not to cry
out to M. Jacques and the countess, 'You poor people, don't you see that
the count is there?' But they saw nothing; for they were both beside
themselves with rage and despair: and at last M. Jacques actually raised
his hand to strike the countess. 'Do not strike that woman!' suddenly
said the count. They turn round; they see him, and utter a fearful cry.
The countess fell on a chair as if she were dead. I was thunderstruck.
I never in my life saw a man behave so beautifully as M. Jacques did at
that moment. Instead of trying to escape, he opened his coat, and baring
his breast, he said to the husband, 'Fire! You are in your right!' The
count, however, laughed contemptuously, and said, 'The court will avenge
me!'--'You know very well that I am innocent.'--'All the better.'--'It
would be infamous to let me be condemned.'--'I shall do more than that.
To make your condemnation sure, I shall say that I recognized you.'
The count was going to step forward, as he said this; but he was dying.
Great God, what a man! He fell forward, lying at full-length on the
floor. Then I got frightened, and ran away."

By a very great effort only could the commonwealth attorney control
his intense excitement. His voice, however, betrayed him as he asked
Trumence, after a solemn pause,--

"Why did you not come and tell us all that at once?"

The vagabond shook his head, and said,--

"I meant to do so; but I was afraid. You ought to understand what I
mean. I was afraid I might be punished very severely for having run
off."

"Your silence has led the court to commit a grievous mistake."

"I had no idea M. Jacques would be found guilty. Big people like him,
who can pay great lawyers, always get out of trouble. Besides, I did
not think Count Claudieuse would carry out his threat. To be betrayed by
one's wife is hard; but to send an innocent man to the galleys"--

"Still you see"--

"Ah, if I could have foreseen! My intentions were good; and I assure
you, although I did not come at once to denounce the whole thing, I was
firmly resolved to make a clean breast of it if M. Jacques should get
into trouble. And the proof of it is, that instead of running off, and
going far away, I very quietly lay concealed at the Red Lamb, waiting
for the sentence to be published. As soon as I heard what was done
last night, I did not lose an hour, and surrendered at once to the
gendarmes."

In the meantime, M. Galpin had overcome his first amazement, and now
broke out furiously,--

"This man is an impostor. The money he showed us was paid him to bear
false witness. How can we credit his story?"

"We must investigate the matter," replied M. Daubigeon. He rang the
bell; and, when the usher came in, he asked,--

"Have you done what I told you?"

"Yes, sir," replied the man. "M. de Boiscoran and the servant of Count
Claudieuse are here."

"Bring in the woman: when I ring, show M. de Boiscoran in."

This woman was a big country-girl, plain of face, and square of figure.
She seemed to be very much excited, and looked crimson in her face.

"Do you remember," asked M. Daubigeon, "that one night last week a man
came to your house, and asked to see your mistress?"

"Oh, yes!" replied the honest girl. "I did not want to let him in at
first; but he said he came from the court, and then I let him in."

"Would you recognize him?"

"Certainly."

The commonwealth attorney rang again; the door opened, and Jacques came
in, his face full of amazement and wonder.

"That is the man!" cried the servant.

"May I know?" asked the unfortunate man.

"Not yet!" replied M. Daubigeon. "Go back, and be of good hope!"

But Jacques remained standing where he was, like a man who has suddenly
been overcome, looking all around with amazed eyes, and evidently unable
to comprehend.

How could he have comprehended what was going on?

They had taken him out of his cell without warning; they had carried him
to the court-house; and here he was confronted with Trumence, whom he
thought he should never see again, and with the servant of the Countess
Claudieuse.

M. Galpin looked the picture of consternation; and M. Daubigeon, radiant
with delight, bade him be of good hope.

Hopeful of what? How? To what purpose?

And Mechinet made him all kinds of signs.

The usher who had brought him in had actually to take him out.

Immediately the commonwealth attorney turned again to the servant-girl
and said,--

"Now, my good girl, can you tell me if any thing special happened in
connection with this gentleman's visit at your house?"

"There was a great quarrel between him and master and mistress."

"Were you present?"

"No. But I am quite certain of what I say."

"How so?"

"Well, I will tell you. When I went up stairs to tell the countess that
there was a gentleman below who came from the courts, she was in a great
hurry to go down, and told me to stay with the count, my master. Of
course, I did what she said. But no sooner was she down than I heard
a loud cry. Master, who had looked all in a stupor, heard it too: he
raised himself on his pillow, and asked me where my mistress was. I told
him, and he was just settling down to try and fall asleep again, when
the sound of loud voices came up to us. 'That is very singular,' said
master. I offered to go down and see what was the matter: but he told
me sharply not to stir an inch. And, when the voices became louder and
louder, he said, 'I will go down myself. Give me my dressing-gown.'

"Sick as he was, exhausted, and almost on his deathbed, it was very
imprudent in him, and might easily have cost him his life. I ventured to
speak to him; but he swore at me, and told me to hush, and to do what he
ordered me to do.

"The count--God be merciful to his soul!--was a very good man,
certainly; but he was a terrible man also, and when he got angry, and
talked in a certain way, everybody in the house began to tremble, even
mistress.

"I obeyed, therefore, and did what he wanted. Poor man! He was so weak
he could hardly stand up, and had to hold on to a chair while I helped
him just to hang his dressing-gown over his shoulders.

"Then I asked him if he would not let me help him down. But looking at
me with awful eyes, he said, 'You will do me the favor to stay here,
and, whatever may happen, if you dare so much as open the door while I
am away, you shall not stay another hour in my service.'

"Then he went out, holding on to the wall; and I remained alone in the
chamber, all trembling, and feeling as sick as if I had known that a
great misfortune was coming upon us.

"However, I heard nothing more for a time; and as the minutes passed
away, I was just beginning to reproach myself for having been so
foolishly alarmed, when I heard two cries; but, O sir! two such fearful,
sharp cries, that I felt cold shivers running all over me.

"As I did not dare leave the room, I put my ear to the door, and I
heard distinctly the count's voice, as he was quarrelling with another
gentleman. But I could not catch a single word, and only made out that
they were angry about a very serious matter.

"All of a sudden, a great but dull noise, like that of the fall of a
heavy body, then another awful cry, I had not a drop of blood left in my
veins at that moment.

"Fortunately, the other servants, who had gone to bed, had heard
something. They had gotten up, and were now coming down the passage.

"I left the room at all hazards, and went down stairs with the others,
and there we found my mistress fainting in an armchair, and my master
stretched out at full-length, lying on the floor like a dead man."

"What did I say?" cried Trumence.

But the commonwealth attorney made him a sign to keep quiet; and,
turning again to the girl, he asked,--