第24章

He obeyed mechanically.At that instant I exercised absolute control over him;but I felt sure this would cease so soon as he recovered his presence of mind.But even though the rest of the interview were now to go against me,that could not alter the certainty which I had acquired.I had wanted to know whether Edmond Termonde was the man who had called himself Rochdale,and Ihad secured undeniable proof of the fact.Nevertheless,it was due to myself that I should extract from my enemy the proof of the truth of all my conjectures,that proof which would place my stepfather at my mercy.This was a fresh phase of the struggle.

I glanced round the room in which I was shut up with the assassin.

On the bed,placed on my left,lay a loaded cane,a hat and an overcoat;on a small table were a steel "knuckle-duster"and a revolver.Among the articles laid out on a chest of drawers on my right a bowie-knife was conspicuous,a valise was placed against an unused door,a wardrobe with a looking-glass stood before another unused door,then came the toilet-stand,and the man,crouching under the aim of my revolver,between the table and the window.He could neither escape,nor reach to any means of defense without a personal struggle with me;but he would have to stand my fire first,and besides,if he was tall and robust,I was neither short or feeble.I was twenty-five,he was fifty.All the moral forces were for me,I must win.

"Now,"said I,as I took a seat,but without releasing him from the covering barrel of my pistol,"let us talk.""What do you want of me?"he asked roughly.His voice was both hoarse and muffled;the blood had gone back into his cheeks,his eyes,those eyes so exactly like his brother's,sparkled.The brute-nature was reviving in him after having sustained a fearful shock,as though astonished that it still lived.

"Come,then,"he added,clenching his fists,"I am caught.Fire on me,and let this end."Then,as I made him no answer,but continued to threaten him with my pistol,he exclaimed:

"Ah!I understand;it is that blackguard Jacques who has sold me to you in order to get rid of me himself.There's the statute of limitations--he thinks he is safe!But has he told you that he was in it himself,good,honest man,and that I have the proof of this?

Ah!he thinks I am going to let you kill me,like that,without speaking?No,I shall call out,we shall be arrested,and all will be known."Fury had seized upon him;he was about to shout "Help!"and the worst of it was that rage was rising in me also.It was he,with that same hand which I saw creeping along the table,strong,hairy,seeking something to throw at me--yes--it was he who had killed my father.

One impulse more of anger and I was lost;a bullet was lodged in his body,and I saw his blood flow.Oh,what good it would have done me to see that sight!

But no,I soon made the sacrifice of this particular vengeance.In a second,I beheld myself arrested,obliged to explain everything,and my mother exposed to all the misery of it.

Happily for me,he also had an interval of reflection.The first idea that must have occurred to him was that his brother had betrayed him,by telling me one-half of the truth,so as to deliver him up to my vengeance.The second,no doubt,was that,for a son who came to avenge his dead father,I was making a good deal of delay about it.There was a momentary silence between us.This allowed me to regain my coolness,and to say:"You are mistaken,"so quietly that his amazement was visible in his face.He looked at me,then closed his eyes,and knitted his brow.I felt that he could not endure my resemblance to my father.

"Yes,you are mistaken,"I continued deliberately,giving the tone of a business conversation to this terrible interview."I have not come here either to have you arrested or to kill you.Unless,"Iadded,"you oblige me to do so yourself,as I feared just now you would oblige me.I have come to propose a bargain to you,but it is on the condition that you listen,as I shall speak,with coolness."Once more we were both silent.In the corridor,almost at the door of the room,there were sounds of feet,voices,and peals of laughter.This was enough to recall me to the necessity of controlling myself,and him to the consciousness that he was playing a dangerous game.A shot,a cry,and someone would enter the room,for it opened upon the corridor.Edmond Termonde had heard me with extreme attention;a gleam of hope,succeeded by a singular look of suspicion,had passed over his face.

"Make your conditions,"said he.

"If I had intended to kill you,"I resumed,so as to convince him of my sincerity by the evidence of his senses,"you would be dead already."I raised the revolver."If I had intended to have you arrested,I would not have taken the trouble to come here myself;two policemen would have been sufficient,for you don't forget that you are a deserter,and still amenable to the law.""True,"he replied simply,and then added,following out a mental argument which was of vital importance to the issue of our interview:

"If it is not Jacques,then who is it that has sold me?""I held you at my disposal,"I continued,without noticing what he had said,"and I have not availed myself of that.Therefore I had a strong reason for sparing you yesterday,ere yesterday,this morning,a little while ago,at the present moment;and it depends upon yourself whether I spare you altogether.""And you want me to believe you,"he answered,pointing to my revolver which I still continued to hold in my hand,but no longer covering him with it."No,no,"and he added,with an expression which smacked of the barrack-room,"I don't tumble to that sort of thing.""Listen to me,"said I,now assuming a tone of extreme contempt.

"The powerful motive which I have for not shooting you like a mad dog,you shall learn.I do not choose that my mother should ever know what a man she married in your brother.Do you now understand why I resolved to let you go?Provided you are of the same mind,however;for even the idea of my mother would not stop me,if you pushed me too far.I will add,for your guidance,that the limitation by which you supposed yourself to be safe from pursuit for the murder in 1864has been traversed;you are therefore staking your head at this moment.For ten years past you have been successfully levying blackmail on your brother.I do not suppose you have merely played upon the chord of fraternal love.When you came from America to assume the personality of Rochdale,it was clearly necessary that he should send you some instructions.You have kept those letters.I offer you one hundred thousand francs for them.""Sir,"he replied slowly,and his tone showed me that for the moment he had recovered his self-control,"how can you imagine that I should take such a proposal seriously?Admitting that any such letters were ever written,and that I had kept them,why should Igive up a document of this kind to you?What security should Ihave that you would not have me laid by the heels the moment after!

Ah!"he cried,looking me straight in the face,"you know nothing!

That name!That likeness!Idiot that I am,you have tricked me."His face turned crimson with rage,and he uttered an oath.

"You shall pay for this!"he cried;and at the same instant,when he was no longer covered by my pistol,he pushed the table upon me so violently,that if I had not sprung backwards I must have been thrown down;but he already had time to fling himself upon me and seize me round the body.Happily for me the violence of the attack had knocked the pistol out of my hands,so that I could not be tempted to use it,and a struggle began between us in which not one word was spoken by either.

With his first rush he had flung me to the ground;but I was strong,and the strange premonitions of danger,from which Isuffered in my youth,had led me to develop all my physical energy and adroitness.

I felt his breath on my face,his skin upon my skin,his muscles striving against mine,and at the same time the dread that our conflict might be overheard gave me the coolness which he had lost.

After a few minutes of this tussle,and just as his strength was failing,he fastened his teeth in my shoulder so savagely that the pain of the bite maddened me.I wrenched one of my arms from his grasp and seized him by the throat at the risk of choking him.Iheld him under me now,and I struck his bead against the floor as though I meant to smash it.He remained motionless for a minute,and I thought I had killed him.I first picked up my pistol,which had rolled away to the door,and then bathed his forehead with water in order to revive him.

When I caught sight of myself in the glass,with my coat-collar torn,my face bruised,my cravat in rags,I shuddered as if I had seen the specter of another Andre Cornelis.The ignoble nature of this adventure filled me with disgust;but it was not a question of fine-gentleman fastidiousness.My enemy was coming to himself,Imust end this.I knew in my conscience I had done all that was possible to fulfill my vow in regard to my mother.The blame must fall upon destiny.the wretch had half-raised himself,and was looking at me;I bent over him,and put the barrel of my revolver within a hair's breadth of his temple.

"There is still time,"I said."I give you five minutes to decide upon the bargain which I proposed to you just now;the letters,and one hundred thousand francs,with your liberty;if not,a bullet in your head.Choose.I wished to spare you on account of my mother;but I will not lose my vengeance both ways.I shall be arrested,your papers will be searched,the letters will be found,it will be known that I had a right to shoot you.My mother will go mad with grief;but I shall be avenged.I have spoken.You have five minutes,not one more."No doubt my face expressed invincible resolution.The assassin looked at that face,then at the clock.He tried to make a movement,but saw that my finger was about to press the trigger.

"I yield,"he said.

I ordered him to rise,and he obeyed me.

"Where are the letters?"

"When you have them,"he implored,with the terror of a trapped beast in his abject face,"you will let me go away?""I swear it,"I answered;and,as I saw doubt and dread in his quailing eyes,I added,"by the memory of my father.Where are the letters?""There."

He pointed to a valise in a corner of the room.

"Here is the money."

I flung him the note-case which contained it.Is there a sort of moral magnetism in the tone of certain words and in certain expressions of countenance?Was it the nature of the oath which Ihad just taken,so deeply impressive at that moment,or had this man sufficient strength of mind to say to himself that his single chance of safety resided in belief in my good faith?However that may be,he did not hesitate for a moment;he opened the iron-bound valise,took out a yellow-leather box with a patent lock,and,having opened it,flung its contents--a large sealed envelope-to me,exactly as I had flung the banknotes to him.I,too,for my part,had not a moment's fear that he would produce a weapon from the valise and attack me while I was verifying the contents of the envelope.These consisted of three letters only;the two first bore the double stamp of Paris and New York,the third those of New York and Liverpool,and all three bore the January or February post-marks of the year 1864.

"Is that all?"he asked.

"Not yet,"I answered;"you must undertake to leave Paris this evening by the first train,without having seen your brother or written to him.""I promise;and then?"

"When was he to come back here to see you?""On Saturday,"he answered,with a shrug of his shoulders."The bargain was concluded.He was determined to wait until the day came for me to set out for Havre before paying me the money,so that he might make quite sure I should not stay on in Paris.--The game is up,"he added,"and now I wash my hands of it.""Edmond Termonde,"said I,rising,but not loosing him from the hold of my eye,"remember that I have spared you;but you must not tempt me a second time by putting yourself in my way,or crossing the path of any whom I love."Then,with a threatening gesture,I quitted the room,leaving him seated at the table near the window.I had hardly reached the corridor when my nerves,which had been so strangely under my control during the struggle,failed me.My legs bent under me,and I feared I was about to fall.How was I to account for the disorder of my clothes?I made a great effort,concealed the torn ends of my cravat,turned up the collar of my coat to hide the condition of my shirt,and did my best to repair the damage that had been done to my hat.I then wiped my face with my handkerchief,and went downstairs with a slow and careless step.

The inspector of the first floor was,doubtless,occupied at the other end of the corridor;but two of the waiters saw me and were evidently surprised at my aspect.They were,however,too busy,luckily for me,to stop me and inquire into the cause of my discomposure.At last I reached the courtyard.If anybody who knew me had been there?I got into the first cab and gave my address.I had kept my word.I had conquered.

I am afraid to kill;but had I been born in Italy,in the fifteenth century,would I have hesitated to poison my father's murderer?

Would I have hesitated to shoot him,had I been born in Corsica fifty years ago?Am I then nothing but a civilized person,a wretched and impotent dreamer,who would fain act,but shrinks from soiling his hands in the action?I forced myself to contemplate the dilemma in which I stood,in its absolute,imperative,inevitable distinctness.I must either avenge my father by handing over his murderer to be dealt with by the law,since M.Massol had prudently fulfilled all the formalities necessary to bar the limitation,or I must be my own minister of justice.There was a third alternative;that I should spare the murderous wretch,allow him to live on in occupation of his victim's place in my mother's home,from which he had driven me;but at the thought of this my rage revived.The scruples of the civilized man did indeed give him pause;but that hesitation did not hinder the savage,who slumbers in us all,from feeling the appetite for retaliation which stirs the animal nature of man--all his flesh,and all his blood--as hunger and thirst stir it."Well,then,"said I to myself,"Iwill assassinate my stepfather,since that is the right word.Was he afraid to assassinate my father?He killed;he shall be killed.

An eye for an eye,a tooth for a tooth;that is the primitive law,and all the rest is a lie."Evening had come while this strife was raging in my soul.I was laboring under excitement which contrasted strangely with the calmness I had felt a few hours previously,when ascending the stairs in the Grand Hotel.The situation also had undergone a change;then I was preparing for a struggle,a kind of duel;I was about to confront a man whom I had to conquer,to attack him face to face without any treachery,and I had not flinched.It was the mean hypocrisy of clandestine murder that had made me shrink from the idea of killing my stepfather,by luring him into a snare.Ihad controlled this trembling the first time;but I was afraid of its coming again,and that I should have a sleepless night,and be unfit to act next day with the cool calmness I desired.

I felt that I could not bear suspense;on the morrow I must act.

The plan on which I should decide,be it what it might,must be executed within the twenty-four hours.

The best means of calming my nerves was by making a beginning now,at once;by doing something beforehand to guard against suspicion.

I determined upon letting myself be seen by persons who could bear witness,if necessary,that they had seen me,careless,easy,almost gay.I dressed and went out,intending to dine at a place where I was known,and to pass the most of the night at the club.

When I was in the Avenue des Champs-Elysees,crowded with carriages and people on foot--the May evening was delicious--I shared the physical sensation of the joy of living,which was abroad in the air.The sky quivered with the innumerable throbs of the stars,and the young leaves shook at the touch of a slow and gentle breeze.Garlands of light illumined the various pleasure-gardens.

I passed in front of a restaurant where the tables extended to the edge of the footpath,and young men and women were finishing their dinner gaily.

The contrast between the spring-festival aspect of Paris and the tragedy of my own destiny came home to me too strongly.What had Idone to Fate to deserve that I should be the one only person,amid all this crowd,condemned to such an experience?Why had my path been crossed by a man capable of pushing passion to the point of crime,in a society in which passion is ordinarily so mild,so harmless,and so lukewarm?Probably there did not exist in all the "good"society of Paris four persons with daring enough to conceive such a plan as that which Jacques Termonde had executed with such cool deliberation under the influence of his passion.And this villain,who could love so intensely,was my stepfather!

Once more the breath of fatality,which had already thrilled me with a kind of mysterious horror,passed over me,and I felt that Icould no longer bear the sight of the human face.Turning my back upon the lit-up,noisy quarter of the Champs Elysees,I walked on towards the Arc de Triomphe.Without thinking about it I took the road to the Bois,bore to the right to avoid the vehicles,and turned into one of the loneliest paths.Had I unconsciously obeyed one of those almost animal impulses of memory,which bring us back to ways that we have already trodden?By the soft,bluish light of the spring moon I recognized the place where I had walked with my stepfather in the winter,on the occasion of our first drive to the Bois.It was on that day I obliged him to look the portrait of his victim in the face,on that day he came to me on the pretext of asking for the Review which my mother had lent me.In my thoughts I beheld him,as he then was,and recalled the strange pity which had stirred my heart at the sight of him,so sad,broken-down,and,so to speak,conquered.He stood before me,in the light of that remembrance,as living and real as if he had been there,close beside me,and the acute sensation of his existence made me feel at the same time all the signification of those fearful and mysterious words:to kill.To kill?I was going to kill him,in a few hours it might be,at the latest in a few days.

I heard voices,and I withdrew into the shade.Two forms passed me,a young man and a girl,lovers,who did not see me.The moonlight fell upon them,as they went on their way,hand in hand.

I burst into tears,and wept long,unrestrainedly;for I too was young;in my heart there was a flood of pent-up tenderness,and here I was,on this perfumed,moonlit,starlit night,crouching in a dark corner,meditating murder!

No,not murder,an execution.Has my stepfather deserved death?

Yes.Is the executioner who lets down the knife on the neck of the condemned criminal to be called an assassin?No!Well,then Ishall be the executioner and nothing else.I rose from the bench where I had shed my last tears of resolution and cowardice--for thus I regarded those hot tears to which I now appeal,as a last proof that I was not born for what I have done.

While walking back to Paris,I multiplied and reiterated my arguments.Sometimes I succeeded in silencing a voice within me,stronger than my reasoning and my longing for vengeance,a voice which pronounced the words formerly uttered by my aunt:"Vengeance is mine,saith the Lord God."And if there be no God?And if there be,is not the fault His,for He has let this thing be?Yes,such were my wild words and thoughts;and then all these scruples of my conscience appeared to me mere vain,futile quibbles,fitting for philosophers and confessors.

There remained one indisputable,absolute fact;I could not endure that the murderer of my father should continue to be the husband of my mother.

There was a second no less evident fact;I could not place this man in the hands of justice without,probably,killing my mother on the spot,or,quite certainly,laying her whole life waste.Therefore I would have to be my own tribunal,judge,and executioner in my own cause.What mattered to me the arguments for or against?Iwas bound to give heed first to my final instinct,and it cried out to me "Kill!"I walked fast,keeping my mind fixed on this idea with a kind of tragic pleasure,for I felt that my irresolution was gone,and that I should act.All of a sudden,as I came close to the Arc de Triomphe,I remembered how,on that very spot,I had met one of my club companions for the last time.He shot himself the next day.

Why did this remembrance suddenly suggest to me a series of new thoughts?

I stopped short with a beating heart.I had caught a glimpse of the way of safety.Fool that I had been,led away as usual by an undisciplined imagination!My stepfather should die.I had sentenced him in the name of my inalienable right as an avenging son;but could I not condemn him to die by his own hand?Had I not that in my possession which would drive him to suicide?If I went to him without any more reserves or circumlocution,and if I said to him,"I hold the proof that you are the murderer of my father.

I give you the choice--either you will kill yourself,or I denounce you to my mother,"what would his answer be?He,who loved his wife with that reciprocated devotion by which I had suffered so much,would he consent that she should know the truth,that she should regard him as a base,cowardly assassin?No,never;he would rather die.

My heart,weary and worn with pain,rushed towards this door of hope,so suddenly opened."I shall have done my duty,"I thought,"and I shall have no blood on my hands.My conscience will not be stained."I experienced an immense relief from the weight of foreseen remorse that had caused me such agony,and I went on drawing a picture of the future,freed at last from one dark image which had veiled the sunshine of my youth."He will kill himself;my mother will weep for him;but I shall be able to dry her tears.

Her heart will bleed,but I will heal the wound with the balm of my tenderness.When the assassin is no longer there,she and I will live over again all the dear time that he stole from us,and then Ishall be able to show her how I love her.The caresses which I did not give her when I was a child,because the other froze me by his mere presence,I will give her then;the words which I did not speak,the tender words that were stopped upon my lips,she shall hear then.We will leave Paris,and get rid of these sad remembrances.We will retire to some quiet spot,far,far away,where she will have none but me,I none but her,and I will devote myself to her old age.What do I want with any other love,with any other tie?Suffering softens the heart;her grief will make her love me more.Ah!how happy we shall be."But once more the voice within resumed:"What if the wretch refuse to kill himself?

What if he were not to believe me when I threaten to denounce him?"Had I not been acting for months as his accomplice in maintaining the deceit practiced upon my mother?Did he not know how much Iloved her,he who had been jealous of me as her son,as I had been jealous of him as her husband?Would he not answer:"Denounce me!"being well assured that I would not deal such a blow at the poor woman?To these objections I replied,that,whereas I had suspected previously,now I knew.No,he will not be entirely convinced that the evidence I hold will make me dare everything.

Well then,if he refuse,I shall have attempted the impossible to avoid murder--let destiny be accomplished!

XIII

It was four o'clock in the afternoon on the following day,when Ipresented myself at the hotel on the Boulevard de Latour-Maubourg.

I knew that my mother would most probably be out.I also thought it likely my stepfather would he feeling none the better of his early excursion to the Grand Hotel on the previous day,and Itherefore hoped to find him at home,perhaps in his bed.I was right;my mother was out,and he had remained at home.He was in his study,the room in which our first explanation had taken place.