was kneeling beside him,
"to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I committed a dreadful crime!
With lying words I argued away the life of a fellow-creature, whom,
whilst I uttered them, I half believed to be innocent; and now, when I
have attained all I desired, and reached the summit of my hopes, the
Almighty has sent him back upon the earth to blast me with the sight.
Three times this day--three times this day! Again! again!"--and as he
spoke, his wild and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the
individuals that surrounded him.

"He is delirious," said they.

"No," said the stranger! "What he says is true enough,--at least in
part;" and bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven forgive
you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I was not executed; one who well knew my
innocence saved my life. I may name him, for he is beyond the reach of
the law now,--it was Claperon, the jailor, who loved Claudine, and had
himself killed Alphonse de Bellefonds from jealousy. An unfortunate
wretch had been several years in the jail for a murder committed during
the frenzy of a fit of insanity. Long confinement had reduced him to
idiocy. To save my life Claperon substituted the senseless being for me,
on the scaffold; he was executed in my stead. He has quitted the country,
and I have been a vagabond on the face of the earth ever since that time.
At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister, the situation
of concierge in the Hotel Marboeuf, in the Rue Grange-Bateliere. I
entered on my new place yesterday evening, and was desired to awaken the
gentleman on the third floor at seven o'clock. When I entered the room to
do so, you were asleep, but before I had time to speak you awoke, and I
recognized your features in the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate
my innocence if you chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus
starting for St. Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to
Calais, and crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or
two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to procure
the means of going forward; and whilst I was lounging about the place,
forming first one plan and then another, I saw you in the church, and
concluding you were in pursuit of me, I thought the best way of eluding
your vigilance was to make my way back to Paris as fast as I could; so I
set off instantly, and walked all the way; but having no money to pay my
night's lodging, I came here to b