rstand anything.
Oh, my God, my God!" And she rose, with her hair dishevelled, and her
lips foaming.

"Have you answered the question I put to you on entering the
room?--where do you keep the poison you generally use, madame?" Madame
de Villefort raised her arms to heaven, and convulsively struck one
hand against the other. "No, no," she vociferated, "no, you cannot wish
that!"

"What I do not wish, madame, is that you should perish on the scaffold.
Do you understand?" asked Villefort.

"Oh, mercy, mercy, monsieur!"

"What I require is, that justice be done. I am on the earth to punish,
madame," he added, with a flaming glance; "any other woman, were it the
queen herself, I would send to the executioner; but to you I shall be
merciful. To you I will say, 'Have you not, madame, put aside some of
the surest, deadliest, most speedy poison?'"

"Oh, pardon me, sir; let me live!"

"She is cowardly," said Villefort.

"Reflect that I am your wife!"

"You are a poisoner."

"In the name of heaven!"

"No!"

"In the name of the love you once bore me!"

"No, no!"

"In the name of our child! Ah, for the sake of our child, let me live!"

"No, no, no, I tell you; one day, if I allow you to live, you will
perhaps kill him, as you have the others!"

"I?--I kill my boy?" cried the distracted mother, rushing toward
Villefort; "I kill my son? Ha, ha, ha!" and a frightful, demoniac laugh
finished the sentence, which was lost in a hoarse rattle. Madame de
Villefort fell at her husband's feet. He approached her. "Think of it,
madame," he said; "if, on my return, justice his not been satisfied, I
will denounce you with my own mouth, and arrest you with my own hands!"
She listened, panting, overwhelmed, crushed; her eye alone lived, and
glared horribly. "Do you understand me?" he said. "I am going down there
to pronounce the sentence of death against a murderer. If I find you
alive on my return, you shall sleep to-night in the conciergerie."
Madame de Villefort sighed; her nerves gave way, and she sunk on the
carpet. The king's attorney seemed to experience a sensation of pity;
he looked upon her less severely, and, bowing to her, said slowly,
"Farewell, madame, farewell!" That farewell struck Madame de Villefort
like the executioner's knife. She fainted. The procureur went out, after
having double-locked the door.

Chapter 109. The Assizes.

The Benedetto affair, as it was called at the Palais, and by people in
gene