Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 5).djvu/78

58 "Alas!"

"Did you recognize?" Valentine groaned.

"Oh, yes!" she said, "I saw, but I cannot believe!"

"Would you rather die, then, and cause Maximilian's death?"

"Oh!" repeated the young girl, almost bewildered, "can I not leave the house? can I not escape?"

"Valentine, the hand which now threatens you will pursue you everywhere; your servants will be seduced with gold, and death will be offered to you disguised in every shape. You will find it in the water you drink from the spring, in the fruit you pluck from the tree."

"But did you not say that my kind grandfather's precaution had neutralized the poison?"

"Yes, but not against a strong dose; the poison will be changed, and the quantity increased." He took the glass and raised it to his lips. "It is already done," he said; "brucine is no longer employed, but a simple narcotic! I can recognize the flavor of the alcohol in which it has been dissolved. If you had taken that which Madame de Villefort has poured into your glass, Valentine! Valentine! you would have been lost!"

"But," exclaimed the young girl, "why am I thus pursued?"

"How! are you so kind—so good—so unsuspicious of ill, that you cannot understand, Valentine?"

"No, I have never injured her."

"But you are rich, Valentine; you have two hundred thousand livres a year, and you prevent her son from enjoying these two hundred thousand livres."

"How so? The fortune is not her gift, but is inherited from my relations!"

"Certainly; and this is why M. and Mme. de Saint-Méran have died; this is why M. Noirtier was sentenced the day he made you his heir; this is why you, in your turn, are to die: it is because your father would inherit your property, and your brother, his only son, succeed to his."

"Edward? Poor child! are all these crimes committed on his account?"

"Ah! then you at length understand?"

"Heaven grant that this may not be visited upon him!"

"Valentine, you are an angel!"

"But why is my grandfather allowed to live?"

"It was considered, on reflection, that you, dead, the fortune would naturally revert to your brother, unless he were disinherited; and besides, the crime appearing useless, it would be doubly dangerous to commit it."