Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/344

324 that not only did her death proceed from poison, but I could also specify the poison.'"

"Indeed, sir! indeed!"

"The symptoms are marked, do you see?―sleep disturbed by nervous fits, excitement of the brain, torpor of the nervous centers. Madame do Saint-Méran has sunk under a violent dose of brucine or of strychnine, which by some mistake, perhaps, has been given to her." Villefort seized the doctor's hand.

"Oh, it is impossible!" said he; "I must be dreaming! It is frightful to hear such things from such a man as you! Tell me, I entreat you, my dear doctor, that you may be deceived."

"Doubtless I may, but"

"But?"

"But I do not think so."

"Have pity on me, doctor! So many dreadful things have happened to me lately that I am on the verge of madness."

"Has any one besides me seen Madame de Saint-Méran?"

"No."

"Has anything been sent for from a chemist's that I have not examined?"

"Nothing."

"Had Madame de Saint-Méran any enemies?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"Would her death affect any one's interest?"

"It could not indeed; my daughter is her only heiress―Valentine, alone. Oh, if such a thought could present itself, I would stab myself to punish my heart for having for one instant harbored it."

"Indeed, my dear friend," said M. d'Avrigny, "I would not accuse any one; I speak only of an accident, you understand; of a mistake: but whether accident or mistake, the fact is there; it speaks to my conscience, and compels me to speak aloud to you. Make inquiry."

"Of whom?―how?―of what?"

"May not Barrois, the old servant, have made a mistake, and have given Madame de Saint-Meran a dose prepared for his master?"

"For my father?"

"Yes."

"But how could a dose prepared for M. Noirtier poison Madame de Saint-Méran?"

"Nothing is more simple. You know poisons become remedies in certain diseases, of which paralysis is one. For instance, having tried every other remedy to restore movement and speech to M. Noirtier, I resolved to try one last means, and for three months I have been giving