echinet was so impatient, that he forgot the modest
character of his duty, and said hastily,--

"Go on; go on!"

"One of the windows was half open," continued the vagrant, "and thus
I could hear almost as well as I saw. I crouched down on all-fours and
kept my head on a level with the ground, so as not to lose a word. Oh,
it was fearful! At the first word I understood it all: M. Jacques and
the Countess Claudieuse had been lovers."

"This is madness!" cried M. Galpin.

"Well, I tell you I was amazed. The Countess Claudieuse--such a pious
lady! But I have ears; don't you think I have? M. Jacques reminded her
of the night of the crime, how they had been together a few minutes
before the fire broke out, as they had agreed some days before to meet
near Valpinson at that very time. At this meeting they had burnt their
love-letters, and M. Jacques had blackened his fingers badly in burning
them."

"Did you really hear that?" asked M. Daubigeon.

"As I hear you, sir."

"Write it down, Mechinet," said the commonwealth attorney with great
eagerness,--"write that down carefully."

The clerk was sure to do it.

"What surprised me most," continued Trumence, "was, that the countess
seemed to consider M. Jacques guilty, and he thought she was. Each
accused the other of the crime. She said, 'You attempted the life of my
husband, because you were afraid of him!' And he said, 'You wanted to
kill him, so as to be free, and to prevent my marriage!'"

M. Galpin had sunk into a chair: he stammered,--

"Did anybody ever hear such a thing?"

"However, they explained; and at last they found out that they were both
of them innocent. Then M. Jacques entreated the countess to save him;
and she replied that she would certainly not save him at the expense of
her reputation, and so enable him, as soon as he was free once more, to
marry Miss Chandore. Then he said to her, 'Well, then I must tell all;'
and she, 'You will not be believed. I shall deny it all, and you have
no proof!' In his despair, he reproached her bitterly, and said she had
never loved him at all. Then she swore she loved him more than ever; and
that, as he was free now, she was ready to abandon every thing, and to
escape with him to some foreign country. And she conjured him to flee,
in a voice which moved my heart, with loving words such as I have never
heard before in my life, and with looks which seemed to be burning fire.
What a woman! I did not think he could pos