is
hands; then, with sudden energy, he exclaimed, "Jean! Jean! recall that
word. Rob, plunder me if thou wilt, but do not say thou couldst murder
one who only lived for thee! There, there, take the gold; I hoarded it
but for thee. Go! go!" and the old man, who in his passion had quitted
his bed, fell at the feet of the foiled assassin, and writhed on the
ground,--the mental agony more intolerable than that of the body,
which he had so lately undergone. The robber looked at him with a
hard disdain. "What have I ever done to thee, wretch?" cried the old
man,--"what but loved and cherished thee? Thou wert an orphan,--an
outcast. I nurtured, nursed, adopted thee as my son. If men call me a
miser, it was but that none might despise thee, my heir, because Nature
has stunted and deformed thee, when I was no more. Thou wouldst have
had all when I was dead. Couldst thou not spare me a few months or
days,--nothing to thy youth, all that is left to my age? What have I
done to thee?"

"Thou hast continued to live, and thou wouldst make no will."

"Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!"

"TON DIEU! Thy God! Fool! Hast thou not told me, from my childhood, that
there is NO God? Hast thou not fed me on philosophy? Hast thou not said,
'Be virtuous, be good, be just, for the sake of mankind: but there is no
life after this life'? Mankind! why should I love mankind? Hideous and
misshapen, mankind jeer at me as I pass the streets. What hast thou done
to me? Thou hast taken away from me, who am the scoff of this world, the
hopes of another! Is there no other life? Well, then, I want thy gold,
that at least I may hasten to make the best of this!"

"Monster! Curses light on thy ingratitude, thy--"

"And who hears thy curses? Thou knowest there is no God! Mark me; I have
prepared all to fly. See,--I have my passport; my horses wait without;
relays are ordered. I have thy gold." (And the wretch, as he spoke,
continued coldly to load his person with the rouleaus). "And now, if I
spare thy life, how shall I be sure that thou wilt not inform against
mine?" He advanced with a gloomy scowl and a menacing gesture as he
spoke.

The old man's anger changed to fear. He cowered before the savage. "Let
me live! let me live!--that--that--"

"That--what?"

"I may pardon thee! Yes, thou hast nothing to fear from me. I swear it!"

"Swear! But by whom and what, old man? I cannot believe thee, if thou
believest not in any God! Ha, ha! behold the result of thy lessons.