ith his two colleagues waited in my study to receive
and question the prisoner. Cabert was a young and handsome man, whose
countenance bore evident marks of a dissolute and profligate life. He
confessed, without any difficulty, that his only means of gaining a
livelihood were derived from the generosity of a female friend, but when
he was pressed upon the subject of the conspiracy, he no longer replied
with the same candour, but merely answered in short and impatient
negatives the many questions put to him, accompanied with fervent
protestations of innocence; adding, that implacable enemies had
fabricated the whole story, only that they might have an opportunity of
wreaking their vengeance, by implicating him in it.

"Accuse not your enemies," cried I, for the first time mingling in the
conversation, "but rather blame your benefactress; it is madame Lorimer
who has denounced you, and far from intending to harm you by so doing,
she purposes dividing with you the 100,000 livres which are to reward
her disclosures."

I easily found, by the frowning looks directed towards me by the three
gentlemen present, that I had been guilty of great imprudence in
saying so much; but Cabert, wringing his hands, uttered, with the most
despairing accent,

"I am lost! and most horribly has the unfortunate woman avenged
herself."

"What would you insinuate?"

"That I am the victim of an enraged woman," replied he.

He afterwards explained, that he had been the lover of madame Lorimer,
but had become wearied of her, and left her in consequence; that she
had violently resented this conduct; and, after having in vain sought
to move him by prayers and supplications, had tried the most horrible
threats and menaces. "I ought not indeed," continued he, "to have
despised these threats, for well I knew the fiendlike malice of the
wretched creature, and dearly do I pay for my imprudence, by falling
into the pit she has dug for me."

In vain we endeavoured to induce him to hold a different language. He
persisted with determined obstinacy in his first statement; continually
protesting his own innocence, and loading the author of his woes with
bitter imprecations. It was deemed impossible to allow this man to go at
large; accordingly M. de la Vrilliere issued a _lettre de cachet_, which
sent him that night to seek a lodging in the Bastille. It was afterwards
deemed advisable to put him to the torture, but the agonies of the
rack wrung from him