Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/308

 had he proceeded ten or twelve paces farther, when a man started up, as if he had risen out of the earth, attacked the Marquis, and knocked him down. Without reflection, and overcome by the impulse of the moment, which promised to give the murderer at once into my hands, I shouted aloud, and thought that with one vehement bound I could dart from my hiding-place, and seize upon him. But, as ill luck would have it, there I entangle myself in the skirts of my mantle, and fall down. I see the man hastening away swift as the wind. I scramble up, run after him, and, in running, blow my trumpet. In an instant I am answered by the whistles of the patrol;—all is in commotion;—from all quarters is heard the clang of arms, or trampling of horses. "Here—here!" cried I in my loudest tone, "Desgrais! Desgrais!" till the streets re-echoed to my voice. Still, by the clear moonlight, I could see the man moving before me, and keep a strict watch on all the turnings that he makes to elude me. We come at last into the Rue de la Nicaise, where his strength in running appeared completely to fail him. I, of course, exert myself with double energy. At that time he had got before me only, at the utmost, fifteen paces"

"You overtake him—you sieze him—the patrol comes up?" roared la Regnie, with glaring eyes, and catching Desgrais by the arm, as if he had been the flying murderer. "Fifteen steps," repeated Desgrais in a hollow voice, and so much agitated that he could scarely [sic] breathe; "fifteen steps or thereabouts, distant before me, the man starts away out of the moonlight into the dark shade, and vanishes through the wall!"

"Are you mad?" said la Regnie, indignant and disappointed. "From this hour onwards," said Desgrais, rubbing his brows, "your excellency may call me a madman,—an insane visionary, if you will; but the truth is neither more nor less than I have narrated. I stood staring at the wall, almost petrified with astonishment, when several of the patrol came up, and with them the Marquis de la Fare, who had recovered