ound on La Voisin's list, has it not, eh?"
"For God's sake," replied Baptiste, trembling in every limb, "how can
you speak of such a thing? But Desgrais, that terrible man Desgrais,
behaves so mysteriously, and is so urgent; he seems as if he couldn't
wait a moment before seeing you." "Well, then, Baptiste," said De
Scuderi, "then bring him up at once--the man who is so terrible to you;
in me, at least, he will excite no anxiety."

"The President La Regnie has sent me to you, Mademoiselle," said
Desgrais on stepping into the room, "with a request which he would
hardly dare hope you could grant, did he not know your virtue and your
courage. But the last means of bringing to light a vile deed of blood
lie in your hands; and you have already of your own accord taken an
active part in the notorious trial which the _Chambre Ardente_, and in
fact all of us, are watching with breathless interest. Olivier Brusson
has been half a madman since he saw you. He was beginning to show signs
of compliance and a readiness to make a confession, but he now swears
again, by all the powers of Heaven, that he is perfectly innocent of
the murder of Cardillac; and yet he says he is ready to die the death
which he has deserved. You will please observe, Mademoiselle, that the
last clause evidently has reference to other crimes which weigh upon
his conscience. But vain are all our efforts to get him to utter a
single word more; even the threat of torture has been of no avail. He
begs and prays, and beseeches us to procure him an interview with you;
for to _you_, to _you_ only, will he confess all. Pray deign,
Mademoiselle, to hear Brusson's confession." "What!" exclaimed De
Scuderi indignantly, "am I to be made an instrument of by a criminal
court, am I to abuse this unhappy man's confidence to bring him to the
scaffold? No, Desgrais. However vile a murderer Brusson may be, I would
never, never deceive him in that villainous way. I don't want to know
anything about his secrets; in any case they would be locked up within
my own bosom as if they were a holy confession made to a priest"
"Perhaps," rejoined Desgrais with a subtle smile, "perhaps,
Mademoiselle, you would alter your mind after you had heard Brusson.
Did you not yourself exhort the President to be human? And he is being
so, in that he gives way to Brusson's foolish request, and thus resorts
to the last means before putting him to the rack, for which he was well
ripe some time ago." De S