Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/336

 deline, in a voice of alarm, enquired the cause of that agitation;—he briefly informed her.

An express, he said, had just arrived from Paris to announce the death of young D'Alembert. Maddened at finding his schemes discovered, and his hopes defeated, in a paroxysm of fury he had stabbed himself; but scarcely had he committed the rash act ere he repented it, and implored immediate assistance; this assistance was procured but to confirm his apprehensions of the wound being mortal. After suffering excruciating pangs of body and mind, he endeavoured to ease the latter by a full avowal of all his enormities. He accordingly confessed his having occasioned the death of a young girl, called Adelaide St. Pierre; his having assassinated the Countess de Merville, and poisoned her house-keeper, Agatha, for fear of her betraying him; after which confession he shortly expired.