throat, leaving two gaping wounds from which, as well as the mouth, the
blood was pouring in floods. She was stone dead. I strode past her, and
ascended to the sleeping chamber, which presented an appearance of the
wildest disorder. The furniture had been knocked over in the deadly
struggle that had taken place there, and the sheets, to which the
unfortunate jeweller had doubtless clung, were dragged across the room.
The murdered man lay on the floor, his head leaning against the wall,
and about him was a pool of blood which poured forth from three large
wounds in his breast; there was a fourth gash, in which a long table
knife was plunged up to the handle.

"I stumbled over some object; I stooped to examine--it was the second
pistol, which had not gone off, probably from the powder being wet. I
approached the jeweller, who was not quite dead, and at the sound of my
footsteps and the creaking of the floor, he opened his eyes, fixed
them on me with an anxious and inquiring gaze, moved his lips as though
trying to speak, then, overcome by the effort, fell back and expired.
This appalling sight almost bereft me of my senses, and finding that I
could no longer be of service to any one in the house, my only desire
was to fly. I rushed towards the staircase, clutching my hair, and
uttering a groan of horror. Upon reaching the room below, I found five
or six custom-house officers, and two or three gendarmes--all heavily
armed. They threw themselves upon me. I made no resistance; I was no
longer master of my senses. When I strove to speak, a few inarticulate
sounds alone escaped my lips.

"As I noticed the significant manner in which the whole party pointed to
my blood-stained garments, I involuntarily surveyed myself, and then
I discovered that the thick warm drops that had so bedewed me as I lay
beneath the staircase must have been the blood of La Carconte. I pointed
to the spot where I had concealed myself. 'What does he mean?' asked a
gendarme. One of the officers went to the place I directed. 'He means,'
replied the man upon his return, 'that he got in that way;' and he
showed the hole I had made when I broke through.

"Then I saw that they took me for the assassin. I recovered force and
energy enough to free myself from the hands of those who held me, while
I managed to stammer forth--'I did not do it! Indeed, indeed I did not!'
A couple of gendarmes held the muzzles of their carbines against my
breast.--'Stir but a st