on the contrary, rose, and going with a firm step towards the door,
opened it, saying, as she did so--'Come in, dear M. Joannes.'--'Ma foi,'
said the jeweller, drenched with rain, 'I am not destined to return to
Beaucaire to-night. The shortest follies are best, my dear Caderousse.
You offered me hospitality, and I accept it, and have returned to sleep
beneath your friendly roof.' Caderousse stammered out something,
while he wiped away the sweat that started to his brow. La Carconte
double-locked the door behind the jeweller."
Chapter 45. The Rain of Blood.
"As the jeweller returned to the apartment, he cast around him a
scrutinizing glance--but there was nothing to excite suspicion, if
it did not exist, or to confirm it, if it were already awakened.
Caderousse's hands still grasped the gold and bank-notes, and La
Carconte called up her sweetest smiles while welcoming the reappearance
of their guest. 'Well, well,' said the jeweller, 'you seem, my good
friends, to have had some fears respecting the accuracy of your money,
by counting it over so carefully directly I was gone.'--'Oh, no,'
answered Caderousse, 'that was not my reason, I can assure you; but the
circumstances by which we have become possessed of this wealth are so
unexpected, as to make us scarcely credit our good fortune, and it is
only by placing the actual proof of our riches before our eyes that
we can persuade ourselves that the whole affair is not a dream.' The
jeweller smiled.--'Have you any other guests in your house?' inquired
he.--'Nobody but ourselves,' replied Caderousse; 'the fact is, we do not
lodge travellers--indeed, our tavern is so near the town, that nobody
would think of stopping here.'--'Then I am afraid I shall very much
inconvenience you.'--'Inconvenience us? Not at all, my dear sir,'
said La Carconte in her most gracious manner. 'Not at all, I assure
you.'--'But where will you manage to stow me?'--'In the chamber
overhead.'--'Surely that is where you yourselves sleep?'--'Never mind
that; we have a second bed in the adjoining room.' Caderousse stared at
his wife with much astonishment.
"The jeweller, meanwhile, was humming a song as he stood warming his
back at the fire La Carconte had kindled to dry the wet garments of her
guest; and this done, she next occupied herself in arranging his supper,
by spreading a napkin at the end of the table, and placing on it the
slender remains of their dinner, to which she added three or four
fresh-laid eggs. Caderousse had once more parted with his treasure--the
banknotes were replaced in the pocket-book, the gold put back into
the bag, and the whole carefully locked in the cupboard. He then began
pacing the room with a pensive and gloomy air, glancing from time to
time at the jeweller, who stood reeking with the steam from his wet
clothes, and merely changing his place on the warm hearth, to enable the
whole of his garments to be dried.
"'There,' said La Carconte, as she placed a bottle of wine on the table,
'supper is ready whenever you are.'--'And you?' asked Joannes.--'I don't
want any supper,' said Caderousse.--'We dined so very late,' hastily
interposed La Carconte.--'Then it seems I am to eat alone,' remarked
the jeweller.--'Oh, we shall have the pleasure of waiting upon you,'
answered La Carconte, with an eager attention she was not accustomed to
manifest even to guests who paid for what they took.
"From time to time Caderousse darted on his wife keen, searching
glances, but rapid as the lightning flash. The storm still continued.
'There, there,' said La Carconte; 'do you hear that? upon my word, you
did well to come back.'--'Nevertheless,' replied the jeweller, 'if by
the time I have finished my supper the tempest has at all abated, I
shall make another start.'--'It's the mistral,' said Caderousse, 'and
it will be sure to last till to-morrow morning.' He sighed
heavily.--'Well,' said the jeweller, as he placed himself at table,
'all I can say is, so much the worse for those who are abroad.'--'Yes,'
chimed in La Carconte, 'they will have a wretched night of it.'
"The jeweller began eating his supper, and the woman, who was ordinarily
so querulous and indifferent to all who approached her, was suddenly
transformed into the most smiling and attentive hostess. Had the unhappy
man on whom she lavished her assiduities been previously acquainted with
her, so sudden an alteration might well have excited suspicion in his
mind, or at least have greatly astonished him. Caderousse, meanwhile,
continued to pace the room in gloomy silence, sedulously avoiding
the sight of his guest; but as soon as the stranger had completed his
repast, the agitated inn-keeper went eagerly to the door and opened
it. 'I believe the storm is over,' said he. But as if to contradict his
statement, at that instant a violent clap of thunder seemed to shake the
house to its very foundation, while a sudden gust of wind, mingled
with rain, extinguished the lamp he held in his hand. Trembling and
awe-struck, Caderousse hastily shut the door and returned to his
guest, while La Carconte lighted a candle by the smouldering ashes that
glimmered on the hearth. 'You must be tired,' said she to the jeweller;
'I have spread a pair of white sheets on your bed; go up when you are
ready, and sleep well.'
"Joannes stayed for a while to see whether the storm seemed to abate in
its fury, but a brief space of time sufficed to assure him that,
instead of diminishing, the violence of the rain and thunder momentarily
increased; resigning himself, therefore, to what seemed inevitable, he
bade his host good-night, and mounted the stairs. He passed over my head
and I heard the flooring creak beneath his footsteps. The quick, eager
glance of La Carconte followed him as he ascended, while Caderousse, on
the contrary, turned his back, and seemed most anxiously to avoid even
glancing at him.
"All these circumstances did not strike me as painfully at the time as
they have since done; in fact, all that had happened (with the exception
of the story of the diamond, which certainly did wear an air of
improbability), appeared natural enough, and called for neither
apprehension nor mistrust; but, worn out as I was with fatigue, and
fully purposing to proceed onwards directly the tempest abated, I
determined to obtain a few hours' sleep. Overhead I could accurately
distinguish every movement of the jeweller, who, after making the best
arrangements in his power for passing a comfortable night, threw himself
on his bed, and I could hear it creak and groan beneath his weight.
Insensibly my eyelids grew heavy, deep sleep stole over me, and having
no suspicion of anything wrong, I sought not to shake it off. I looked
into the kitchen once more and saw Caderousse sitting by the side of a
long table upon one of the low wooden stools which in country places are
frequently used instead of chairs; his back was turned towards me, so
that I could not see the expression of his countenance--neither should I
have been able to do so had he been placed differently, as his head was
buried between his two hands. La Carconte continued to gaze on him for
some time, then shrugging her shoulders, she took her seat immediately
opposite to him. At this moment the expiring embers threw up a fresh
flame from the kindling of a piece of wood that lay near, and a bright
light flashed over the room. La Carconte still kept her eyes fixed
on her husband, but as he made no sign of changing his position, she
extended her hard, bony hand, and touched him on the forehead.
"Caderousse shuddered. The woman's lips seemed to move, as though she
were talking; but because she merely spoke in an undertone, or my senses
were dulled by sleep, I did not catch a word she uttered. Confused
sights and sounds seemed to float before me, and gradually I fell into
a deep, heavy slumber. How long I had been in this unconscious state
I know not, when I was suddenly aroused by the report of a pistol,
followed by a fearful cry. Weak and tottering footsteps resounded across
the chamber above me, and the next instant a dull, heavy weight seemed
to fall powerless on the staircase. I had not yet fully recovered
consciousness, when again I heard groans, mingled with half-stifled
cries, as if from persons engaged in a deadly struggle. A cry more
prolonged than the others and ending in a series of groans effectually
roused me from my drowsy lethargy. Hastily raising myself on one arm, I
looked around, but all was dark; and it seemed to me as if the rain must
have penetrated through the flooring of the room above, for some kind
of moisture appeared to fall, drop by drop, upon my forehead, and when I
passed my hand across my brow, I felt that it was wet and clammy.
"To the fearful noises that had awakened me had succeeded the most
perfect silence--unbroken, save by the footsteps of a man walking about
in the chamber above. The staircase creaked, he descended into the room
below, approached the fire and lit a candle. The man was Caderousse--he
was pale and his shirt was all bloody. Having obtained the light, he
hurried up-stairs again, and once more I heard his rapid and uneasy
footsteps. A moment later he came down again, holding in his hand the
small shagreen case, which he opened, to assure himself it contained
the diamond,--seemed to hesitate as to which pocket he should put it
in, then, as if dissatisfied with the security of either pocket, he
deposited it in his red handkerchief, which he carefully rolled round
his head. After this he took from his cupboard the bank-notes and gold
he had put there, thrust the one into the pocket of his trousers, and
the other into that of his waistcoat, hastily tied up a small bundle of
linen, and rushing towards the door, disappeared in the darkness of the
night.
"Then all became clear and manifest to me, and I reproached myself
with what had happened, as though I myself had done the guilty deed.
I fancied that I still heard faint moans, and imagining that the
unfortunate jeweller might not be quite dead, I determined to go to his
relief, by way of atoning in some slight degree, not for the crime I had
committed, but for that which I had not endeavored to prevent. For this
purpose I applied all the strength I possessed to force an entrance
from the cramped spot in which I lay to the adjoining room. The poorly
fastened boards which alone divided me from it yielded to my efforts,
and I found myself in the house. Hastily snatching up the lighted
candle, I hurried to the staircase; about midway a body was lying quite
across the stairs. It was that of La Carconte. The pistol I had heard
had doubtless been fired at her. The shot had frightfully lacerated her
throat, leaving two gaping wounds from which, as well as the mouth, the
blood was pouring in floods. She was stone dead. I strode past her, and
ascended to the sleeping chamber, which presented an appearance of the
wildest disorder. The furniture had been knocked over in the deadly
struggle that had taken place there, and the sheets, to which the
unfortunate jeweller had doubtless clung, were dragged across the room.
The murdered man lay on the floor, his head leaning against the wall,
and about him was a pool of blood which poured forth from three large
wounds in his breast; there was a fourth gash, in which a long table
knife was plunged up to the handle.
"I stumbled over some object; I stooped to examine--it was the second
pistol, which had not gone off, probably from the powder being wet. I
approached the jeweller, who was not quite dead, and at the sound of my
footsteps and the creaking of the floor, he opened his eyes, fixed
them on me with an anxious and inquiring gaze, moved his lips as though
trying to speak, then, overcome by the effort, fell back and expired.
This appalling sight almost bereft me of my senses, and finding that I
could no longer be of service to any one in the house, my only desire
was to fly. I rushed towards the staircase, clutching my hair, and
uttering a groan of horror. Upon reaching the room below, I found five
or six custom-house officers, and two or three gendarmes--all heavily
armed. They threw themselves upon me. I made no resistance; I was no
longer master of my senses. When I strove to speak, a few inarticulate
sounds alone escaped my lips.
"As I noticed the significant manner in which the whole party pointed to
my blood-stained garments, I involuntarily surveyed myself, and then
I discovered that the thick warm drops that had so bedewed me as I lay
beneath the staircase must have been the blood of La Carconte. I pointed
to the spot where I had concealed myself. 'What does he mean?' asked a
gendarme. One of the officers went to the place I directed. 'He means,'
replied the man upon his return, 'that he got in that way;' and he
showed the hole I had made when I broke through.
"Then I saw that they took me for the assassin. I recovered force and
energy enough to free myself from the hands of those who held me, while
I managed to stammer forth--'I did not do it! Indeed, indeed I did not!'
A couple of gendarmes held the muzzles of their carbines against my
breast.--'Stir but a step,' said they, 'and you are a dead man.'--'Why
should you threaten me with death,' cried I, 'when I have already
declared my innocence?'--'Tush, tush,' cried the men; 'keep your
innocent stories to tell to the judge at Nimes. Meanwhile, come along
with us; and the best advice we can give you is to do so unresistingly.'
Alas, resistance was far from my thoughts. I was utterly overpowered
by surprise and terror; and without a word I suffered myself to be
