t is
too late; my throat is closing up. I am choking! Oh, my heart! Ah, my
head!--Oh, what agony!--Shall I suffer like this long?"

"No, no, friend," replied the doctor, "you will soon cease to suffer."

"Ah, I understand you," said the unhappy man. "My God, have mercy upon
me!" and, uttering a fearful cry, Barrois fell back as if he had been
struck by lightning. D'Avrigny put his hand to his heart, and placed a
glass before his lips.

"Well?" said Villefort. "Go to the kitchen and get me some syrup of
violets." Villefort went immediately. "Do not be alarmed, M. Noirtier,"
said d'Avrigny; "I am going to take my patient into the next room to
bleed him; this sort of attack is very frightful to witness."

And taking Barrois under the arms, he dragged him into an adjoining
room; but almost immediately he returned to fetch the lemonade. Noirtier
closed his right eye. "You want Valentine, do you not? I will tell them
to send her to you." Villefort returned, and d'Avrigny met him in
the passage. "Well, how is he now?" asked he. "Come in here," said
d'Avrigny, and he took him into the chamber where the sick man lay. "Is
he still in a fit?" said the procureur.

"He is dead."

Villefort drew back a few steps, and, clasping his hands, exclaimed,
with real amazement and sympathy, "Dead?--and so soon too!"

"Yes, it is very soon," said the doctor, looking at the corpse before
him; "but that ought not to astonish you; Monsieur and Madame de
Saint-Meran died as soon. People die very suddenly in your house, M. de
Villefort."

"What?" cried the magistrate, with an accent of horror and
consternation, "are you still harping on that terrible idea?"

"Still, sir; and I shall always do so," replied d'Avrigny, "for it has
never for one instant ceased to retain possession of my mind; and that
you may be quite sure I am not mistaken this time, listen well to what I
am going to say, M. de Villefort." The magistrate trembled convulsively.
"There is a poison which destroys life almost without leaving any
perceptible traces. I know it well; I have studied it in all its forms
and in the effects which it produces. I recognized the presence of
this poison in the case of poor Barrois as well as in that of Madame de
Saint-Meran. There is a way of detecting its presence. It restores the
blue color of litmus-paper reddened by an acid, and it turns syrup of
violets green. We have no litmus-paper, but, see, here they come with
the syrup of violet