e's pockets, took his
wallet, money, everything. But though he had taken the Italian unawares,
and had done the deed with lucid mind and the quickness of a pickpocket,
Montefiore had time to cry "Murder! Help!" in a shrill and piercing
voice which was fit to rouse every sleeper in the neighborhood. His last
sighs were given in those horrible shrieks.

Diard was not aware that at the moment when they entered the avenue a
crowd just issuing from a theatre was passing at the upper end of the
street. The cries of the dying man reached them, though Diard did his
best to stifle the noise by setting his foot firmly on Montefiore's
neck. The crowd began to run towards the avenue, the high walls of which
appeared to echo back the cries, directing them to the very spot where
the crime was committed. The sound of their coming steps seemed to beat
on Diard's brain. But not losing his head as yet, the murderer left
the avenue and came boldly into the street, walking very gently, like a
spectator who sees the inutility of trying to give help. He even turned
round once or twice to judge of the distance between himself and the
crowd, and he saw them rushing up the avenue, with the exception of one
man, who, with a natural sense of caution, began to watch Diard.

"There he is! there he is!" cried the people, who had entered the avenue
as soon as they saw Montefiore stretched out near the door of the empty
house.

As soon as that clamor rose, Diard, feeling himself well in the advance,
began to run or rather to fly, with the vigor of a lion and the bounds
of a deer. At the other end of the street he saw, or fancied he saw, a
mass of persons, and he dashed down a cross street to avoid them. But
already every window was open, and heads were thrust forth right and
left, while from every door came shouts and gleams of light. Diard kept
on, going straight before him, through the lights and the noise; and
his legs were so actively agile that he soon left the tumult behind him,
though without being able to escape some eyes which took in the
extent of his course more rapidly than he could cover it. Inhabitants,
soldiers, gendarmes, every one, seemed afoot in the twinkling of an eye.
Some men awoke the commissaries of police, others stayed by the body
to guard it. The pursuit kept on in the direction of the fugitive, who
dragged it after him like the flame of a conflagration.

Diard, as he ran, had all the sensations of a dream when he heard a