"Hush! somebody is opening the door, I think."

"Somebody must open the door to let them in! In a furnished lodging house, especially one of this kind, don't people come in at all hours of the night? However, come what may, I snap my fingers at it, and I propose to keep on drinking."

"I don't hear anything more," said Dufresne; "it evidently wasn't for us."

Edouard put his ear to the door opening on the landing, and listened attentively. Lampin resumed his singing, and tried to put to his lips a gla.s.s which his hand was no longer strong enough to raise. Suddenly Edouard seemed to become more excited.

"What is it?" Dufresne asked in an undertone.

"I hear several voices whispering; the noise is coming nearer--yes, they are coming up these stairs. Ah! there is no more doubt; they are coming to arrest us,--we are discovered!"

"Silence! what imprudence!" said Dufresne, trying to overcome his own alarm; "if they are really coming here, let us not lose our heads, and be careful what you say; above all things, do not call me Dufresne."

"I don't know where I am," said Edouard, whose terror redoubled as the noise drew nearer.

"Well! I--I don't know what my name is, myself," said Lampin, dropping his gla.s.s; "but I tell you that they don't want us."

At that moment there was a ring at the door on the landing. Edouard fell, almost lifeless, on a chair; Dufresne remained standing in the middle of the room, motioning to the others not to stir. Soon there was another ring, accompanied by violent knocking.

"There's no one here," cried Lampin; "go to the devil!"

"d.a.m.n!" said Dufresne, "we must open the door now.--Who's there?"

"Open, messieurs, or we shall be obliged to break in the door."

"Break away, my friend!" said Lampin; "it's all one to me! The house ain't mine."

Dufresne, seeing that there was no way to avoid it, decided to open the door, after motioning to the others to be prudent; but Lampin could no longer see, and Murville had lost his head completely.

Several gendarmes and a sergeant entered the apartment. At sight of them Dufresne turned pale. Edouard uttered a cry of alarm, and Lampin rolled from his chair to the floor.

"You must come with us, monsieur," said the sergeant, addressing Dufresne. He tried to put a bold face upon the matter and asked insolently by what right they came to disturb his rest.

"Yes, by what right do you disturb respectable people in their pleasures?" stammered Lampin; "why, I will answer for my friend, body for body!"

"Your guarantee is of no value; we know you, Master Lampin."

"Well, then you have a pleasant acquaintance, I flatter myself."

"You must come with us, too."

"I? Ah! that will be rather hard; I wouldn't walk a step for a bowl of punch; judge whether I will go to prison."

"As for monsieur," said the sergeant, turning to Edouard, "I have no orders to arrest him, but I advise him to select his acquaintances more wisely."

Edouard stood in a corner of the room, trembling, and with downcast eyes. He did not hear what was said to him, he was so thoroughly convinced that they were going to take him away that he fancied himself already confined in a dungeon, and had decided to confess his crime, in the hope that his outspokenness would move his judges to pity.

Dufresne was furious to find that he was to be arrested and that Edouard would not accompany him to prison.

"You have made a mistake, messieurs," said he; "I have done nothing to be arrested for."

"You are Dufresne, who lived with Madame Dolban?"

"You are mistaken, my name is Vermontre."

"Oh! that's the truth," said Lampin, trying to stand up without the help of the gendarmes; "it's at least two months that he's been calling himself that."

"It's of no use for you to try to deny it. The police have been watching you for a long while, and when we heard of the murder of which you are accused, it was not difficult for us to find you, despite all the false names you have a.s.sumed."

"Murder! murder!" exclaimed Lampin; "one moment, messieurs, I haven't got anything to do with that. I thought that you came about the matter of the sc.r.a.p of paper, which is only a trifle. But a murder! d.a.m.nation!

let us understand each other. I am as white as snow, and Fluet, who's over there in the corner, will tell you as much. We only worked on the writings, we two."

"On the writings?"

"Yes; when I say we--why it was La Valeur, who stands shaking over there, that did most of it; but he writes mighty well! Ah! that was a good job! And the old Jew tumbled into it; so that we've eaten and drunk the stuff all up. If you would like to join us, I'm your man."

The sergeant listened attentively, and Edouard's terror, combined with Lampin's fragments of sentences, led him to guess that those gentry were the authors of some rascality of a different sort from the affair which had brought him thither. The crime committed upon Madame Dolban was the occasion of that midnight visit, undertaken because they wished to make sure of Dufresne; the forgery had only been discovered the day before, and the police had not yet found the tracks of the culprits.

"After what I have heard, you will have to come with us too, monsieur,"

said the sergeant to Edouard; "if you are innocent, it will be easy for you to clear your skirts."

"Oh! I will confess everything," said Edouard, allowing the gendarmes to lay hold of him.

"Well! you're nothing but a fool, on the faith of Lampin! For my part, I won't confess anything.--Come, my friends, carry me, if you want me to go with you."

They dragged away Dufresne, who tried to resist. Edouard, on the contrary, allowed himself to be led away without uttering a word. As for Lampin, they were obliged to carry him; for he could not stand on his legs. The three men pa.s.sed the rest of the night in prison.

Taken the next morning before an examining magistrate, in order to undergo a preliminary examination, Edouard trembled and stammered, but he had not the courage to deny his crime; in vain did Lampin, now thoroughly sober, impress upon him the importance of the replies he was to make, and teach him his lesson; Edouard promised him to be steadfast and to follow his advice; but in the magistrate's presence the miserable wretch lost courage, and did not know what he said.

Edouard was confined with Lampin at La Force, until judgment should be p.r.o.nounced upon him for the forgery. Dufresne was not with them; being accused of having poisoned Madame Dolban, he was to be tried before his two friends, and he had been taken to the Conciergerie.

Edouard, who had not taken the precaution to supply himself with money, was confined with Lampin in a pestilential room, in the midst of a mult.i.tude of wretches, all arrested for theft or offences of that nature. He slept upon a handful of straw, and his food was that supplied by the prison to those awaiting trial. Lampin gaily made the best of it; he sang and shouted and played the devil with the outcasts who surrounded him. But Edouard had not the courage of crime; he felt remorse and regret in the depths of his soul. He wept at night on the stone which served him as a bed, and his tears were a source of jest and witticisms to the miserable creatures confined with him.

During the day the prisoners were allowed to walk in a large courtyard; Edouard did not go with them, in order that he might be alone for a few moments, and at all events lament at liberty. He saw no one from outside; he had no friends; his companions in dissipation did not come to visit him in prison; and yet the other prisoners, who were no better than he, received visits every day and were not deserted by their worthy comrades. But Edouard bore the reputation among them of a weak and pusillanimous creature; men of that description are good for nothing; the slightest reverse discourages them, and cowards are as much despised by criminals as they are ignored by respectable people.

The memory of Adeline and her daughter recurred to Edouard's mind; it is when we are unhappy that we remember those who truly love us. He had spurned his wife and child, and had abandoned them without taking pains to ascertain whether the unfortunate creatures could find means of subsistence; but he felt sure that Adeline would hasten to his side, to comfort him, and to mingle her tears with his, if she knew that he was in prison. Despite all the injury that he had done her, he knew enough not to doubt the warmth of her heart.

One day, Lampin approached Murville, and his joyous air seemed to announce good news.

"Are we pardoned?" Edouard at once asked him.

"Pardoned! oh, no! we needn't expect that. Besides, you jacka.s.s, you made our affair so clear, that unless they are blind, they can't help convicting us. Ah! if you had been another kind of man; if you had simply recited your lesson, we would have mixed the whole thing up so that they wouldn't have seen anything but smoke; but you chatter like a magpie."

"Do you forget that it was your fault that I was arrested? It was you who put those officers on the track."

"Oh! my boy, that's different; I was drunk, like a good fellow; I drank for you too, and in wine, as the proverb says,--_in vino_--the truth.--But after all, that isn't what I wanted to talk about: our friend Dufresne is luckier than we are."

"Have they given him his liberty?"