u keep the poison you generally use?" said the
magistrate, without any introduction, placing himself between his wife
and the door.

Madame de Villefort must have experienced something of the sensation of
a bird which, looking up, sees the murderous trap closing over its head.
A hoarse, broken tone, which was neither a cry nor a sigh, escaped from
her, while she became deadly pale. "Monsieur," she said, "I--I do not
understand you." And, in her first paroxysm of terror, she had raised
herself from the sofa, in the next, stronger very likely than the other,
she fell down again on the cushions. "I asked you," continued Villefort,
in a perfectly calm tone, "where you conceal the poison by the aid
of which you have killed my father-in-law, M. de Saint-Meran, my
mother-in-law, Madame de Saint-Meran, Barrois, and my daughter
Valentine."

"Ah, sir," exclaimed Madame de Villefort, clasping her hands, "what do
you say?"

"It is not for you to interrogate, but to answer."

"Is it to the judge or to the husband?" stammered Madame de Villefort.
"To the judge--to the judge, madame!" It was terrible to behold the
frightful pallor of that woman, the anguish of her look, the trembling
of her whole frame. "Ah, sir," she muttered, "ah, sir," and this was
all.

"You do not answer, madame!" exclaimed the terrible interrogator. Then
he added, with a smile yet more terrible than his anger, "It is true,
then; you do not deny it!" She moved forward. "And you cannot deny it!"
added Villefort, extending his hand toward her, as though to seize her
in the name of justice. "You have accomplished these different crimes
with impudent address, but which could only deceive those whose
affections for you blinded them. Since the death of Madame de
Saint-Meran, I have known that a poisoner lived in my house. M.
d'Avrigny warned me of it. After the death of Barrois my suspicions were
directed towards an angel,--those suspicions which, even when there
is no crime, are always alive in my heart; but after the death of
Valentine, there has been no doubt in my mind, madame, and not only in
mine, but in those of others; thus your crime, known by two persons,
suspected by many, will soon become public, and, as I told you just now,
you no longer speak to the husband, but to the judge."

The young woman hid her face in her hands. "Oh, sir," she stammered, "I
beseech you, do not believe appearances."

"Are you, then, a coward?" cried Villefort, in a contemp