him?' 'I do not know.' 'You were walking with him and
you could not drive off the murderer or detain him?' 'My master was
walking fifteen or perhaps sixteen paces in front of me; I was
following him.' 'Why, in all the world, so far behind?' 'My master
wished it so.' 'And what had Master Cardillac to do in the streets so
late?' 'That I cannot say.' 'But he was never in the habit of being out
after nine o'clock at other times, was he?' At this Olivier hesitates,
becomes confused, sighs, shed tears, vows by all that is sacred that
Cardillac _did_ go out that night, and met with his death. Now observe,
Mademoiselle, it is proved to the most absolute certainty that
Cardillac did _not_ leave the house that night, consequently Olivier's
assertion that he went with him is a barefaced falsehood. The street
door of the house fastens with a heavy lock, which makes a penetrating
noise in opening and closing, also the door itself creaks and groans on
its hinges, so that, as experiments have proved, the noise is heard
quite distinctly in the upper stories of the house. Now, there lives in
the lower story, that is to say, close to the street door, old Maitre
Claude Patru with his housekeeper, a person of nearly eighty years of
age, but still hale and active. Both of them heard Cardillac, according
to his usual custom, come down stairs at nine o'clock exactly, close
and bolt the door with a great deal of noise, go upstairs again, read
evening prayer, and then (as was to be presumed by the shutting of the
door) go into his bedroom. Maitre Claude suffers from sleeplessness
like many other old people; and on the night in question he could not
close an eye, therefore, about half past nine the housekeeper struck a
light in the kitchen, which she reached by crossing the passage, and
sat down at the table beside her master with an old chronicle-book,
from which she read aloud, whilst the old man, fixing his thoughts on
the reading, sometimes sat in his arm-chair, sometimes walked slowly up
and down the room to try and bring on sleepiness. All was silence in
the house till nearly midnight; but then they heard overhead rapid
footsteps, a heavy fall, as of something on to the floor, and
immediately after that a hollow groaning. They both were struck by a
peculiar alarm and anxiety, the horror of the terrible deed which had
just been committed seemed to sweep past them. When day came what had
been done in the darkness was brought clearly to light."