Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/373

, to see the guiltless Brusson dragged to the scaffold?" "Guiltless?" said de Miossen; "could you then apply that epithet to the friend and accomplice of the diabolical Cardillac? To him, forsooth, who, no doubt, aided the assassin in all his crimes, and who has, therefore, deserved an hundred-fold the punishment that now awaits him?—No, indeed! He will justly suffer on the scaffold; nor was it from any wish to rescue him that I made these disclosures;—yet, at the same time, if you can turn what I have said to the advantage of your protege,—if, at least, means could be devised to save him from the torture, I should rejoice, as I know that this would be a satisfaction to your benevolent heart."

De Scuderi, overjoyed to find her own conviction of Olivier's innocence thus confirmed, did not hesitate to repeat to the Count the whole narrative, which the unfortunate youth had entrusted to her, and to suggest, that they ought immediately to go to the advocate D'Andilly. From him she proposed that a solemn promise of secresy [sic] should be required, and that they should afterwards be governed by his counsel as to what remained farther to be done.

The meeting took place accordingly, and the advocate was very particular in his enquiries of de Miossen, whether he was absolutely certain that it was Cardillac, by whom he had been attacked, and if he could swear to the personal identity of Brusson, as the individual who had come up during their encounter. "Not only," said the Count, "did I recognize the goldsmith's features by the moonlight, but I have also seen, in the hands of la Regnie, the dagger with which Cardillac was struck. I can swear to its being mine, and it is distinguished from all others, by the particular workmanship of the hilt. As to the young man's countenance, his hat had fallen off, and I was so near to him that I could recognize his appearance again, even among a thousand people."

The advocate was silent for some minutes, and fixed his eyes thoughtfully on the ground. At length he said, "In an ordinary and regular way, Brusson cannot possibly be