w so clear a night. It was
very fine and very cold and one could see everything."

Q. "Are you at all superstitious?"

R. "No, monsieur, I am a practising Catholic,"

Q. "In what condition of mind were you?"

R. "Very healthy and peaceful, I assure you. Mlle. Daae's curious
action in going out at that hour had worried me at first; but, as soon
as I saw her go to the churchyard, I thought that she meant to fulfil
some pious duty on her father's grave and I considered this so natural
that I recovered all my calmness. I was only surprised that she had
not heard me walking behind her, for my footsteps were quite audible on
the hard snow. But she must have been taken up with her intentions and
I resolved not to disturb her. She knelt down by her father's grave,
made the sign of the cross and began to pray. At that moment, it
struck midnight. At the last stroke, I saw Mlle. Daae life{sic} her
eyes to the sky and stretch out her arms as though in ecstasy. I was
wondering what the reason could be, when I myself raised my head and
everything within me seemed drawn toward the invisible, WHICH WAS
PLAYING THE MOST PERFECT MUSIC! Christine and I knew that music; we
had heard it as children. But it had never been executed with such
divine art, even by M. Daae. I remembered all that Christine had told
me of the Angel of Music. The air was The Resurrection of Lazarus,
which old M. Daae used to play to us in his hours of melancholy and of
faith. If Christine's Angel had existed, he could not have played
better, that night, on the late musician's violin. When the music
stopped, I seemed to hear a noise from the skulls in the heap of bones;
it was as though they were chuckling and I could not help shuddering."

Q. "Did it not occur to you that the musician might be hiding behind
that very heap of bones?"

R. "It was the one thought that did occur to me, monsieur, so much so
that I omitted to follow Mlle. Daae, when she stood up and walked
slowly to the gate. She was so much absorbed just then that I am not
surprised that she did not see me."

Q. "Then what happened that you were found in the morning lying
half-dead on the steps of the high altar?"

R. "First a skull rolled to my feet ... then another ... then another
... It was as if I were the mark of that ghastly game of bowls. And I
had an idea that false step must have destroyed the balance of the
structure behind which our musician was concealed. This surmi