ll her
crimes to her memory; she was asking pardon for her sins; perhaps
she was even writing a letter imploring forgiveness from her virtuous
husband--a forgiveness she was purchasing with her death! Villefort
again groaned with anguish and despair. "Ah," he exclaimed, "that woman
became criminal only from associating with me! I carried the infection
of crime with me, and she has caught it as she would the typhus fever,
the cholera, the plague! And yet I have punished her--I have dared to
tell her--I have--'Repent and die!' But no, she must not die; she shall
live, and with me. We will flee from Paris and go as far as the earth
reaches. I told her of the scaffold; oh, heavens, I forgot that it
awaits me also! How could I pronounce that word? Yes, we will fly;
I will confess all to her,--I will tell her daily that I also have
committed a crime!--Oh, what an alliance--the tiger and the serpent;
worthy wife of such as I am! She must live that my infamy may diminish
hers." And Villefort dashed open the window in front of the carriage.

"Faster, faster!" he cried, in a tone which electrified the coachman.
The horses, impelled by fear, flew towards the house.

"Yes, yes," repeated Villefort, as he approached his home--"yes, that
woman must live; she must repent, and educate my son, the sole survivor,
with the exception of the indestructible old man, of the wreck of
my house. She loves him; it was for his sake she has committed these
crimes. We ought never to despair of softening the heart of a mother who
loves her child. She will repent, and no one will know that she has been
guilty. The events which have taken place in my house, though they now
occupy the public mind, will be forgotten in time, or if, indeed, a few
enemies should persist in remembering them, why then I will add them to
my list of crimes. What will it signify if one, two, or three more are
added? My wife and child shall escape from this gulf, carrying treasures
with them; she will live and may yet be happy, since her child, in whom
all her love is centred, will be with her. I shall have performed a good
action, and my heart will be lighter." And the procureur breathed more
freely than he had done for some time.

The carriage stopped at the door of the house. Villefort leaped out
of the carriage, and saw that his servants were surprised at his early
return; he could read no other expression on their features. Neither of
them spoke to him; they merely stood