taken from her, the
medicine-chest was examined, and the poison, which was recognised by
the above-mentioned druggist, was found. It was, however, deficient in
weight, and the essence in the blue phial being likewise examined, the
poison was discovered in that. Thus, sir, do matters stand, and you
may think of it as you please."

I shuddered but did not say a word, seeing in the whole a horrible
connexion which neither Larette nor any one but myself could perceive.
Madame Bertollon loved me with frightful intensity, and our separation
had increased her passion instead of checking it; thus she conceived
this atrocious plan of freeing herself from her husband. I called to
mind the consuming fire in her character, of which Bertollon had told
me. I also remembered my last interview with her, during which I had
inconsiderately told her that I had candidly confessed our attachment
to her husband, and how she then was startled, and how she had inquired
anxiously concerning Bertollon's deportment.

My conjecture was changed into a frightful certainty. I could imagine
how the black thought was matured in her, I saw her mixing the accursed
draught, and, infatuated by her passion, presenting it to her unhappy
husband.

We arrived in Montpellier. I hastened to the room of my beloved
benefactor, exclaiming at the foot of the stairs: "Is he still living?"

They told me in whispers to be calm, and prevented me from entering his
apartment. He had sunk into a gentle slumber, from which he was
expected to derive benefit, and even to recover during its influence.

"And where is Madame Bertollon?" I asked.

In answer to this I was told that she had left the house early that
morning, and had gone to her relations, where she was under arrest upon
the security of her family; that her nearest relations, by their
influence and with much difficulty, had succeeded in saving her from
the disgrace of imprisonment. I was further told in confidence that M.
Bertollon had advised her, through a friend, to fly to Italy before it
was too late. As she hesitated, her brothers also had endeavoured to
persuade her to avail herself of her short period of liberty. Her
pride, however, triumphed, and her reply was: "I shall not fly, for by
doing so I should own a crime of which I am not yet, and cannot be,
convicted."

Beauty of form exerts its magic only so far as we conceive it to be the
sign of a noble soul, but loses all its power, nay, in