Page:The red and the black (1916).djvu/352

332 emerged to the top. He said to himself like his master Tartufe whose part he knew by heart:

"Tartufe, too, was ruined by a woman, and he was as good as most men … My answer may be shown … and the way out of that is this," he added pronouncing his words slowly with an intonation of deliberate and restrained ferocity. "We will begin by quoting the most vivid passages from the letter of the sublime Mathilde."

"Quite so, but M. de Croisenois' lackeys will hurl themselves upon me and snatch the original away."

"No, they won't, for I am well armed, and as we know I am accustomed to firing on lackeys."

"Well, suppose one of them has courage, and hurls himself upon me. He has been promised a hundred napoleons. I kill him, or wound him, good, that's what they want. I shall be thrown into prison legally. I shall be had up in the police court and the judges will send me with all justice and all equity to keep Messieurs Fontan and Magalon company in Poissy. There I shall be landed in the middle of four hundred scoundrels … And am I to have the slightest pity on these people," he exclaimed getting up impetuously! "Do they show any to persons of the third estate when they have them in their power!" With these words his gratitude to M. de La Mole, which had been in spite of himself torturing his conscience up to this time, breathed its last.

"Softly, gentlemen, I follow this little Macchiavellian trick, the abbé Maslon or M. Castanède of the seminary could not have done better. You will take the provocative letter away from me and I shall exemplify the second volume of Colonel Caron at Colmar."

"One moment, gentlemen, I will send the fatal letter in a well-sealed packet to M. the abbé Pirard to take care of. He's an honest man, a Jansenist, and consequently incorruptible. Yes, but he will open the letters … Fouqué is the man to whom I must send it."