Part 163

To Caderousse’s great astonishment, the knife, instead of piercing the count’s breast, flew back blunted. At the same moment the count seized with his left hand the assassin’s wrist, and wrung it with such strength that the knife fell from his stiffened fingers, and Caderousse uttered a cry of pain. But the count, disregarding his cry, continued to wring the bandit’s wrist, until, his arm being dislocated, he fell first on his knees, then flat on the floor. The count then placed his foot on his head, saying, “I know not what restrains me from crushing thy skull, rascal.” “Ah, mercy—mercy!” cried Caderousse. The count withdrew his foot. 40162m “Rise!” said he. Caderousse rose. “What a wrist you have, reverend sir!” said Caderousse, stroking his arm, all bruised by the fleshy pincers which had held it; “what a wrist!” “Silence! God gives me strength to overcome a wild beast like you; in the name of that God I act,—remember that, wretch,—and to spare thee at this moment is still serving him.” “Oh!” said Caderousse, groaning with pain. “Take this pen and paper, and write what I dictate.” “I don’t know how to write, reverend sir.” “You lie! Take this pen, and write!” Caderousse, awed by the superior power of the abbé, sat down and wrote: “Sir,—The man whom you are receiving at your house, and to whom you intend to marry your daughter, is a felon who escaped with me from confinement at Toulon. He was No. 59, and I No. 58. He was called Benedetto, but he is ignorant of his real name, having never known his parents.” “Sign it!” continued the count. “But would you ruin me?” “If I sought your ruin, fool, I should drag you to the first guard-house; besides, when that note is delivered, in all probability you will have no more to fear. Sign it, then!” Caderousse signed it. “The address, ‘To monsieur the Baron Danglars, banker, Rue de la Chaussée d’Antin.’” Caderousse wrote the address. The abbé took the note. “Now,” said he, “that suffices—begone!” “Which way?” “The way you came.” “You wish me to get out at that window?” “You got in very well.” “Oh, you have some design against me, reverend sir.” “Idiot! what design can I have?” “Why, then, not let me out by the door?” “What would be the advantage of waking the porter?” “Ah, reverend sir, tell me, do you wish me dead?” “I wish what God wills.” “But swear that you will not strike me as I go down.” “Cowardly fool!” “What do you intend doing with me?” “I ask you what can I do? I have tried to make you a happy man, and you have turned out a murderer.” “Oh, monsieur,” said Caderousse, “make one more attempt—try me once more!” “I will,” said the count. “Listen—you know if I may be relied on.” “Yes,” said Caderousse. “If you arrive safely at home——” “What have I to fear, except from you?” “If you reach your home safely, leave Paris, leave France, and wherever you may be, so long as you conduct yourself well, I will send you a small annuity; for, if you return home safely, then——” “Then?” asked Caderousse, shuddering. 40164m “Then I shall believe God has forgiven you, and I will forgive you too.” “As true as I am a Christian,” stammered Caderousse, “you will make me die of fright!” “Now begone,” said the count, pointing to the window. Caderousse, scarcely yet relying on this promise, put his legs out of the window and stood on the ladder. “Now go down,” said the abbé, folding his arms. Understanding he had nothing more to fear from him, Caderousse began to go down. Then the count brought the taper to the window, that it might be seen in the Champs-Élysées that a man was getting out of the window while another held a light. “What are you doing, reverend sir? Suppose a watchman should pass?” And he blew out the light. He then descended, but it was only when he felt his foot touch the ground that he was satisfied of his safety. Monte Cristo returned to his bedroom, and, glancing rapidly from the garden to the street, he saw first Caderousse, who after walking to the end of the garden, fixed his ladder against the wall at a different part from where he came in. The count then looking over into the street, saw the man who appeared to be waiting run in the same direction, and place himself against the angle of the wall where Caderousse would come over. Caderousse climbed the ladder slowly, and looked over the coping to see if the street was quiet. No one could be seen or heard. The clock of the Invalides struck one. Then Caderousse sat astride the coping, and drawing up his ladder passed it over the wall; then he began to descend, or rather to slide down by the two stanchions, which he did with an ease which proved how accustomed he was to the exercise. But, once started, he could not stop. In vain did he see a man start from the shadow when he was halfway down—in vain did he see an arm raised as he touched the ground. Before he could defend himself that arm struck him so violently in the back that he let go the ladder, crying, “Help!” A second blow struck him almost immediately in the side, and he fell, calling, “Help, murder!” Then, as he rolled on the ground, his adversary seized him by the hair, and struck him a third blow in the chest. This time Caderousse endeavored to call again, but he could only utter a groan, and he shuddered as the blood flowed from his three wounds. The assassin, finding that he no longer cried out, lifted his head up by the hair; his eyes were closed, and the mouth was distorted. The murderer, supposing him dead, let fall his head and disappeared. Then Caderousse, feeling that he was leaving him, raised himself on his elbow, and with a dying voice cried with great effort: “Murder! I am dying! Help, reverend sir,—help!” This mournful appeal pierced the darkness. The door of the back-staircase opened, then the side-gate of the garden, and Ali and his master were on the spot with lights. Chapter 83. The Hand of God Caderousse continued to call piteously, “Help, reverend sir, help!” “What is the matter?” asked Monte Cristo. “Help,” cried Caderousse; “I am murdered!” “We are here;—take courage.” “Ah, it’s all over! You are come too late—you are come to see me die. What blows, what blood!” He fainted. Ali and his master conveyed the wounded man into a room. Monte Cristo motioned to Ali to undress him, and he then examined his dreadful wounds. “My God!” he exclaimed, “thy vengeance is sometimes delayed, but only that it may fall the more effectually.” Ali looked at his master for further instructions. “Bring here immediately the king’s attorney, M. de Villefort, who lives in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. As you pass the lodge, wake the porter, and send him for a surgeon.” Ali obeyed, leaving the abbé alone with Caderousse, who had not yet revived. When the wretched man again opened his eyes, the count looked at him with a mournful expression of pity, and his lips moved as if in prayer. “A surgeon, reverend sir—a surgeon!” said Caderousse. “I have sent for one,” replied the abbé. “I know he cannot save my life, but he may strengthen me to give my evidence.” “Against whom?” “Against my murderer.” “Did you recognize him?” “Yes; it was Benedetto.” “The young Corsican?” “Himself.” “Your comrade?” “Yes. After giving me the plan of this house, doubtless hoping I should kill the count and he thus become his heir, or that the count would kill me and I should be out of his way, he waylaid me, and has murdered me.” “I have also sent for the procureur.” “He will not come in time; I feel my life fast ebbing.” “Wait a moment,” said Monte Cristo. He left the room, and returned in five minutes with a phial. The dying man’s eyes were all the time riveted on the door, through which he hoped succor would arrive. “Hasten, reverend sir, hasten! I shall faint again!” Monte Cristo approached, and dropped on his purple lips three or four drops of the contents of the phial. Caderousse drew a deep breath. “Oh,” said he, “that is life to me; more, more!” “Two drops more would kill you,” replied the abbé. “Oh, send for someone to whom I can denounce the wretch!” “Shall I write your deposition? You can sign it.” “Yes, yes,” said Caderousse; and his eyes glistened at the thought of this posthumous revenge. Monte Cristo wrote: “I die, murdered by the Corsican Benedetto, my comrade in the galleys at Toulon, No. 59.” “Quick, quick!” said Caderousse, “or I shall be unable to sign it.” Monte Cristo gave the pen to Caderousse, who collected all his strength, signed it, and fell back on his bed, saying: “You will relate all the rest, reverend sir; you will say he calls himself Andrea Cavalcanti. He lodges at the Hôtel des Princes. Oh, I am dying!” He again fainted. The abbé made him smell the contents of the phial, and he again opened his eyes. His desire for revenge had not forsaken him. “Ah, you will tell all I have said, will you not, reverend sir?” “Yes, and much more.” “What more will you say?” “I will say he had doubtless given you the plan of this house, in the hope the count would kill you. I will say, likewise, he had apprised the count, by a note, of your intention, and, the count being absent, I read the note and sat up to await you.” “And he will be guillotined, will he not?” said Caderousse. “Promise me that, and I will die with that hope.” “I will say,” continued the count, “that he followed and watched you the whole time, and when he saw you leave the house, ran to the angle of the wall to conceal himself.” “Did you see all that?” “Remember my words: ‘If you return home safely, I shall believe God has forgiven you, and I will forgive you also.’” “And you did not warn me!” cried Caderousse, raising himself on his elbows. “You knew I should be killed on leaving this house, and did not warn me!” 40168m “No; for I saw God’s justice placed in the hands of Benedetto, and should have thought it sacrilege to oppose the designs of Providence.” “God’s justice! Speak not of it, reverend sir. If God were just, you know how many would be punished who now escape.” “Patience,” said the abbé, in a tone which made the dying man shudder; “have patience!” Caderousse looked at him with amazement. “Besides,” said the abbé, “God is merciful to all, as he has been to you; he is first a father, then a judge.” “Do you then believe in God?” said Caderousse. “Had I been so unhappy as not to believe in him until now,” said Monte Cristo, “I must believe on seeing you.” Caderousse raised his clenched hands towards heaven. “Listen,” said the abbé, extending his hand over the wounded man, as if to command him to believe; “this is what the God in whom, on your death-bed, you refuse to believe, has done for you—he gave you health, strength, regular employment, even friends—a life, in fact, which a man might enjoy with a calm conscience. Instead of improving these gifts, rarely granted so abundantly, this has been your course—you have given yourself up to sloth and drunkenness, and in a fit of intoxication have ruined your best friend.” “Help!” cried Caderousse; “I require a surgeon, not a priest; perhaps I am not mortally wounded—I may not die; perhaps they can yet save my life.” “Your wounds are so far mortal that, without the three drops I gave you, you would now be dead. Listen, then.” “Ah,” murmured Caderousse, “what a strange priest you are; you drive the dying to despair, instead of consoling them.” “Listen,” continued the abbé. “When you had betrayed your friend, God began not to strike, but to warn you. Poverty overtook you. You had already passed half your life in coveting that which you might have honorably acquired; and already you contemplated crime under the excuse of want, when God worked a miracle in your behalf, sending you, by my hands, a fortune—brilliant, indeed, for you, who had never possessed any. But this unexpected, unhoped-for, unheard-of fortune sufficed you no longer when you once possessed it; you wished to double it, and how?—by a murder! You succeeded, and then God snatched it from you, and brought you to justice.”