Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 4).djvu/118

 "'Seek whom the crime will profit,' says an axiom of jurisprudence.'"

"Doctor," cried Villefort, "alas, doctor! how often has man's justice been deceived by those fatal words. I know not why, but I feel that this crime"

"You acknowledge, then, the existence of the crime?"

"Yes, I see too plainly that it does exist. But it seems that it is intended to affect me personally. I fear an attack myself, after all these disasters."

"Oh, man!" murmured d'Avrigny, "the most selfish of all animals, the most personal of all creatures, who believes the earth turns, the sun shines, and death strikes for him alone,―an ant cursing God from the top of a blade of grass! And have those who have lost their lives lost nothing?―M. de Saint-Méran, Madame de Saint-Méran, M. Noirtier"

"How! M. Noirtier?"

"Yes; think you it was the poor servant's life was coveted? No, no! like Shakespeare's Polonius, he died for another. It was Noirtier the lemonade was intended for―it is Noirtier, in the logical order of events, who drank it; the other drank it only by accident; and although Barrois is dead, it was Noirtier whose death was wished for."

"But why did it not kill my father?"

"I told you one evening, in the garden, after Madame de Saint-Méran's death, because his system is accustomed to that very poison; and the dose was trifling for him, which would be fatal for another; because no one knows, not even the assassin, that, for the last twelve months, I have given M. Noirtier brucine for his paralytic affection; while the assassin is not ignorant, and has proved by experience that brucine is a violent poison."

"Pity, pity!" murmured Villefort, wringing his hands.

"Follow the culprit's steps; he first kills M. de Saint-Méran"

"Oh, doctor!"

"I would swear to it; what I heard of his symptoms agrees too well with what I have seen in the other cases." Villefort ceased to contend; he only groaned. "He first kills M. de Saint-Méran," repeated the doctor, "then Madame de Saint-Méran,―a double fortune to inherit." Villefort wiped the perspiration from his forehead. "Listen attentively."

"Alas!" stammered Villefort, "I do not lose a single word."

"M. Noirtier," resumed d'Avrigny, in the same pitiless tone,―"M. Noirtier had once made a will against you―against your family,―in favor of the poor, in fact; M. Noirtier is spared, because nothing is expected from him. But he has no sooner destroyed his first will and made a second, than, for fear he should make a third, he is struck down;