was sitting up in his magnificent bed,
propped up with pillows.

I met his glance firmly whilst M. le Juge d'instruction placed the
question to him in a solemn and earnest tone:

"M. le Marquis de Firmin-Latour, will you look at the prisoner before
you and tell us whether you recognize in him the man who assaulted
you?"

And that perfidious Marquis, Sir, raised his eyes and looked me
squarely--yes! squarely--in the face and said with incredible
assurance:

"Yes, Monsieur le Juge, that is the man! I recognize him."

To me it seemed then as if a thunderbolt had crashed through the
ceiling and exploded at my feet. I was like one stunned and dazed; the
black ingratitude, the abominable treachery, completely deprived me of
speech. I felt choked, as if some poisonous effluvia--the poison, Sir,
of that man's infamy--had got into my throat. That state of inertia
lasted, I believe, less than a second; the next I had uttered a hoarse
cry of noble indignation.

"You vampire, you!" I exclaimed. "You viper! You . . ."

I would have thrown myself on him and strangled him with glee, but
that the minions of the law had me by the arms and dragged me away out
of the hateful presence of that traitor, despite my objurgations and
my protestations of innocence. Imagine my feelings when I found myself
once more in a prison-cell, my heart filled with unspeakable
bitterness against that perfidious Judas. Can you wonder that it took
me some time before I could collect my thoughts sufficiently to review
my situation, which no doubt to the villain himself who had just
played me this abominable trick must have seemed desperate indeed? Ah!
I could see it all, of course! He wanted to> see me sent to New
Caledonia, whilst he enjoyed the fruits of his unpardonable
backsliding. In order to retain the miserable hundred thousand francs
which he had promised me he did not hesitate to plunge up to the neck
in this heinous conspiracy.

Yes, conspiracy! for the very next day, when I was once more hailed
before the juge d'instruction, another confrontation awaited me: this
time with that scurvy rogue Theodore. He had been suborned by M. le
Marquis to turn against the hand that fed him. What price he was paid
for this Judas trick I shall never know, and all that I do know is
that he actually swore before the juge d'instruction that M. le
Marquis de Firmin-Latour called at my office in the late forenoon of
the tenth of October; that I then ordered hi