Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 5).djvu/166

146 be a coward, you, who have had the courage to witness the death of two old men and a young girl murdered by you?"

"Sir! sir!"

"Can you be a coward?" continued Villefort, with increasing excitement, "you, who could count, one by one, the minutes of four death-agonies? You, who have arranged your infernal plans, and managed the draughts with a talent and precision almost miraculous? Have you, then, who have calculated everything with such nicety, have you forgotten to calculate one thing—I mean where the revelation of your crimes will lead you to? Oh! it is impossible—you must have saved some surer, more subtle and deadly poison than any other, that you might escape the punishment that you deserve. You have done this—I hope so, at least."

Madame de Villefort stretched out her hands, and fell on her knees.

"I understand," he said, "you confess; but a confession made to the judges, a confession made at the last moment, extorted when the crime cannot be denied, diminishes not the punishment inflicted on the guilty!"

"The punishment!" exclaimed Madame de Villefort, "the punishment, sir! Twice you have pronounced that word!"

"Certainly. Did you hope to escape it, because you were four times guilty? Did you think the punishment would be withdrawn because you are the wife of him who pronounces it?—No! madame, no! the scaffold awaits the poisoner, whoever she may be, unless, as I just said, the poisoner has taken the precaution of keeping for herself a few drops of her deadliest poison."

Madame de Villefort uttered a wild cry, and a hideous and uncontrollable terror spread over her distorted features.

"Oh! do not fear the scaffold, madame," said the magistrate; "I will not dishonor you, since that would be dishonor to myself; no! if you have heard me distinctly, you will understand that you are not to die on the scaffold."

"No! I do not understand; what do you mean?" stammered the unhappy woman, completely overwhelmed.

"I mean that the wife of the first magistrate in the capital shall not, by her infamy, soil an unblemished name; that she shall not, with one blow, dishonor her husband and her child."

"No, no!—oh, no!"

"Well! madame, it will be a laudable action on your part, and I will thank you for it!"

"You will thank me for what?"

"For what you have just said."

"What did I say? Oh, my brain whirls; I no longer understand anything. Oh, heavens! oh, heavens!"