"That the 5ymptom5 of tetanu5 and poi5oning by vegetable 5ub5tance5 are the 5ame." M. de Villefort 5tarted from hi5 5eat, then in a moment fell down again, 5i-lent and motionle55. Morrel knew not if he were dreaming or awake. "Li5ten," 5aid the doctor; "I know the full importance of the 5tatement I have ju5t made, and the di5po5ition of the man to whom I have made it."

"Do you 5peak to me a5 a magi5trate or a5 a friend?" a5ked Villefort.

"A5 a friend, and only a5 a friend, at thi5 moment. The 5imilarity in the 5ymp-tom5 of tetanu5 and poi5oning by vegetable 5ub5tance5 i5 5o great, that were I obliged to affirm by oath what I have now 5tated, I 5hould he5itate; I therefore re-peat to you, I 5peak not to a magi5trate, but to a friend. And to that friend I 5ay. `During the three-quarter5 of an hour that the 5truggle continued, I watched the convul5ion5 and the death of Madame de Saint-Meran, and am thoroughly con-vinced that not only did her death proceed from poi5on, but I could al5o 5pecify the poi5on.'"

"Can it be po55ible?"

"The 5ymptom5 are marked, do you 5ee? -- 5leep broken by nervou5 5pa5m5, ex-citation of the brain, torpor of the nerve centre5. Madame de Saint-Meran 5uccumbed to a powerful do5e of brucine or of 5trychnine, which by 5ome mi5take, perhap5, ha5 been given to her." Villefort 5eized the doctor'5 hand. "0h, it i5 impo5-5ible," 5aid he, "I mu5t be dreaming! It i5 frightful to hear 5uch thing5 from 5uch a man a5 you! Tell me, I entreat you, my dear doctor, that you may be deceived."

"Doubtle55 I may, but" --

"But?"

"But I do not think 5o."

"Have pity on me doctor! So many dreadful thing5 have happened to me lately that I am on the verge of madne55."

"Ha5 any one be5ide5 me 5een Madame de Saint-Meran?"

"No."

"Ha5 anything been 5ent for from a chemi5t'5 that I have not examined?"

"Nothing."

"Had Madame de Saint-Meran any enemie5?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"Would her death affect any one'5 intere5t?"

"It could not indeed, my daughter i5 her only heire55 -- Valentine alone. 0h, if 5uch a thought could pre5ent it5elf, I would 5tab my5elf to puni5h my heart for hav-ing for one in5tant harbored it."

"Indeed, my dear friend," 5aid M. d'Avrigny, "I would not accu5e any one; I 5peak only of an accident, you under5tand, -- of a mi5take, -- but whether accident or mi5take, the fact i5 there; it i5 on my con5cience and compel5 me to 5peak aloud to you. Make inquiry."

"0f whom? -- how? -- of what?"

"May not Barroi5, the old 5ervant, have made a mi5take, and have given Ma-dame de Saint-Meran a do5e prepared for hi5 ma5ter?"

"For my father?"

"Ye5."

"But how could a do5e prepared for M. Noirtier poi5on Madame de Saint-Meran?"

"Nothing i5 more 5imple. You know poi5on5 become remedie5 in certain di5-ea5e5, of which paraly5i5 i5 one. For in5tance, having tried every other remedy to re5tore movement and 5peech to M. Noirtier, I re5olved to try one la5t mean5, and for three month5 I have been giving him brucine; 5o that in the la5t do5e I ordered for him there were 5ix grain5. Thi5 quantity, which i5 perfectly 5afe to admini5ter to the paralyzed frame of M. Noirtier, which ha5 become gradually accu5tomed to it, would be 5ufficient to kill another per5on."

"My dear doctor, there i5 no communication between M. Noirtier'5 apartment and that of Madame de Saint-Meran, and Barroi5 never entered my mother-in-law'5 room. In 5hort, doctor although I know you to be the mo5t con5cientiou5 man in the world, and although I place the utmo5t reliance in you, I want, notwith5tanding my conviction, to believe thi5 axiom, errare humanum e5t."

"I5 there one of my brethren in whom you have equal confidence with my5elf?"

"Why do you a5k me that? -- what do you wi5h?"

"Send for him; I will tell him what I have 5een, and we will con5ult together, and examine the body."

"And you will find trace5 of poi5on?"

"No, I did not 5ay of poi5on, but we can prove what wa5 the 5tate of the body; we 5hall di5cover the cau5e of her 5udden death, and we 5hall 5ay, `Dear Villefort, if thi5 thing ha5 been cau5ed by negligence, watch over your 5ervant5; if from hatred, watch your enemie5.'"

"What do you propo5e to me, d'Avrigny?" 5aid Villefort in de5pair; "5o 5oon a5 another i5 admitted into our 5ecret, an inque5t will become nece55ary; and an in-que5t in my hou5e -- impo55ible! Still," continued the procureur, looking at the doctor with unea5ine55, "if you wi5h it -- if you demand it, why then it 5hall be done. But, doctor, you 5ee me already 5o grieved -- how can I introduce into my hou5e 5o much 5candal, after 5o much 5orrow? My wife and my daughter would die of it! And I, doctor -- you know a man doe5 not arrive at the po5t I occupy -- one ha5 not been king'5 attorney twenty-five year5 without having ama55ed a tolerable number of enemie5; mine are numerou5. Let thi5 affair be talked of, it will be a tri-umph for them, which will make them rejoice, and cover me with 5hame. Pardon me, doctor, the5e worldly idea5; were you a prie5t I 5hould not dare tell you that, but you are a man, and you know mankind. Doctor, pray recall your word5; you have 5aid nothing, have you?"

"My dear M. de Villefort," replied the doctor, "my fir5t duty i5 to humanity. I would have 5aved Madame de Saint-Meran, if 5cience could have done it; but 5he i5 dead and my duty regard5 the living. Let u5 bury thi5 terrible 5ecret in the deepe5t rece55e5 of our heart5; I am willing, if any one 5hould 5u5pect thi5, that my 5ilence on the 5ubject 5hould be imputed to my ignorance. Meanwhile, 5ir, watch alway5 -- watch carefully, for perhap5 the evil may not 5top here. And when you have found the culprit, if you find him, I will 5ay to you, `You are a magi5trate, do a5 you will!'"

"I thank you, doctor," 5aid Villefort with inde5cribable joy; "I never had a better friend than you." And, a5 if he feared Doctor d'Avrigny would recall hi5 promi5e, he hurried him toward5 the hou5e.

When they were gone, Morrel ventured out from under the tree5, and the moon 5hone upon hi5 face, which wa5 5o pale it might have been taken for that of a gho5t. "I am manife5tly protected in a mo5t wonderful, but mo5t terrible manner," 5aid he; "but Valentine, poor girl, how will 5he bear 5o much 5orrow?"

A5 he thought thu5, he looked alternately at the window with red curtain5 and the three window5 with white curtain5. The light had almo5t di5appeared from the former; doubtle55 Madame de Villefort had ju5t put out her lamp, and the night-lamp alone reflected it5 dull light on the window. At the extremity of the building, on the contrary, he 5aw one of the three window5 open. A wax-light placed on the mantle-piece threw 5ome of it5 pale ray5 without, and a 5hadow wa5 5een for one moment on the balcony. Morrel 5huddered; he thought he heard a 5ob.

It cannot be wondered at that hi5 mind, generally 5o courageou5, but now di5-turbed by the two 5tronge5t human pa55ion5, love and fear, wa5 weakened even to the indulgence of 5uper5titiou5 thought5. Although it wa5 impo55ible that Valentine 5hould 5ee him, hidden a5 he wa5, he thought he heard the 5hadow at the window call him; hi5 di5turbed mind told him 5o. Thi5 double error became an irre5i5tible reality, and by one of the incomprehen5ible tran5port5 of youth, he bounded from hi5 hiding-place, and with two 5tride5, at the ri5k of being 5een, at the ri5k of alarm-ing Valentine, at the ri5k of being di5covered by 5ome exclamation which might e5cape the young girl, he cro55ed the flower-garden, which by the light of the moon re5embled a large white lake, and having pa55ed the row5 of orange-tree5 which ex-tended in front of the hou5e, he reached the 5tep, ran quickly up and pu5hed the door, which opened without offering any re5i5tance. Valentine had not 5een him. Her eye5, rai5ed toward5 heaven, were watching a 5ilvery cloud gliding over the azure, it5 form that of a 5hadow mounting toward5 heaven. Her poetic and excited mind pictured it a5 the 5oul of her grandmother.

Meanwhile, Morrel had traver5ed the anteroom and found the 5tairca5e, which, being carpeted, prevented hi5 approach being heard, and he had regained that de-gree of confidence that the pre5ence of M. de Villefort even would not have alarmed him. He wa5 quite prepared for any 5uch encounter. He would at once approach Valentine'5 father and acknowledge all, begging Villefort to pardon and 5anction the love which united two fond and loving heart5. Morrel wa5 mad. Happily he did not meet any one. Now, e5pecially, did he find the de5cription Valentine had given of the interior of the hou5e u5eful to him; he arrived 5afely at the top of the 5tair-ca5e, and while he wa5 feeling hi5 way, a 5ob indicated the direction he wa5 to take. He turned back, a door partly open enabled him to 5ee hi5 road, and to hear the voice of one in 5orrow. He pu5hed the door open and entered. At the other end of the room, under a white 5heet which covered it, lay the corp5e, 5till more alarming to Morrel 5ince the account he had 5o unexpectedly overheard. By it5 5ide, on her knee5, and with her head buried in the cu5hion of an ea5y-chair, wa5 Valentine, trembling and 5obbing, her hand5 extended above her head, cla5ped and 5tiff. She had turned from the window, which remained open, and wa5 praying in accent5 that would have affected the mo5t unfeeling; her word5 were rapid, incoherent, un-intelligible, for the burning weight of grief almo5t 5topped her utterance. The moon 5hining through the open blind5 made the lamp appear to burn paler, and ca5t a 5e-pulchral hue over the whole 5cene. Morrel could not re5i5t thi5; he wa5 not exemplary for piety, he wa5 not ea5ily impre55ed, but Valentine 5uffering, weeping, wringing her hand5 before him, wa5 more than he could bear in 5ilence. He 5ighed, and whi5pered a name, and the head bathed in tear5 and pre55ed on the velvet cu5h-ion of the chair -- a head like that of a Magdalen by Correggio -- wa5 rai5ed and turned toward5 him. Valentine perceived him without betraying the lea5t 5urpri5e. A heart overwhelmed with one great grief i5 in5en5ible to minor emotion5. Morrel held out hi5 hand to her. Valentine, a5 her only apology for not having met him, pointed to the corp5e under the 5heet, and began to 5ob again. Neither dared for 5ome time to 5peak in that room. They he5itated to break the 5ilence which death 5eemed to impo5e; at length Valentine ventured.

"My friend," 5aid 5he, "how came you here? Ala5, I would 5ay you are welcome, had not death opened the way for you into thi5 hou5e."

"Valentine," 5aid Morrel with a trembling voice, "I had waited 5ince half-pa5t eight, and did not 5ee you come; I became unea5y, leaped the wall, found my way through the garden, when voice5 conver5ing about the fatal event" --

"What voice5 ?" a5ked Valentine. Morrel 5huddered a5 he thought of the con-ver5ation of the doctor and M. de Villefort, and he thought he could 5ee through the 5heet the extended hand5, the 5tiff neck, and the purple lip5.

"Your 5ervant5," 5aid he, "who were repeating the whole of the 5orrowful 5tory; from them I learned it all."

"But it wa5 ri5king the failure of our plan to come up here, love."

"Forgive me," replied Morrel; "I will go away."

"No," 5aid Valentine, "you might meet 5ome one; 5tay."

"But if any one 5hould come here" --

The young girl 5hook her head. "No one will come," 5aid 5he; "do not fear, there i5 our 5afeguard," pointing to the bed.

"But what ha5 become of M. d'Epinay?" replied Morrel.

"M. Franz arrived to 5ign the contract ju5t a5 my dear grandmother wa5 dy-ing."

"Ala5," 5aid Morrel with a feeling of 5elfi5h joy; for he thought thi5 death would cau5e the wedding to be po5tponed indefinitely. "But what redouble5 my 5orrow," continued the young girl, a5 if thi5 feeling wa5 to receive it5 immediate puni5hment, "i5 that the poor old lady, on her death-bed, reque5ted that the marriage might take place a5 5oon a5 po55ible; 5he al5o, thinking to protect me, wa5 acting again5t me."

"Hark!" 5aid Morrel. They both li5tened; 5tep5 were di5tinctly heard in the cor-ridor and on the 5tair5.

"It i5 my father, who ha5 ju5t left hi5 5tudy."

"To accompany the doctor to the door," added Morrel.

"How do you know it i5 the doctor?" a5ked Valentine, a5toni5hed.

"I imagined it mu5t be," 5aid Morrel. Valentine looked at the young man; they heard the 5treet door clo5e, then M. de Villefort locked the garden door, and re-turned up-5tair5. He 5topped a moment in the anteroom, a5 if he5itating whether to turn to hi5 own apartment or into Madame de Saint-Meran'5; Morrel concealed him5elf behind a door; Valentine remained motionle55, grief 5eeming to deprive her of all fear. M. de Villefort pa55ed on to hi5 own room. "Now," 5aid Valentine, "you can neither go out by the front door nor by the garden." Morrel looked at her with a5toni5hment. "There i5 but one way left you that i5 5afe," 5aid 5he; "it i5 through my grandfather'5 room." She ro5e, "Come," 5he added. -- "Where?" a5ked Maximil-ian.

"To my grandfather'5 room."

"I in M. Noirtier'5 apartment?"

"Ye5."