Chapter 31 Twenty-nine

If Antoine de Mauprat had been a strong man, he could have framed me, saying he had witnessed my attempt to kill Edmee.He had plenty of reasons to absolve himself of the most despicable of crimes.He was able to explain why he stood by and kept silent about what was happening near Gazo Tower.I have only Patience's testimony in my favour. Is that enough to exonerate me?The testimony of many others, even that of my friends and Edmee, was against me, and they could not deny my violent character and the possibility of committing such a crime. But Antoine, the most daring of all robbers, was the most cowardly in action.As soon as he found himself in the hands of the judiciary, he confessed everything, not even knowing that his brother had abandoned him.

There were some ugly scenes during his trial as the brothers exposed each other in disgusting fashion.The ascetic, obliged to restrain himself out of hypocrisy, ruthlessly left the murderer to his fate, denying that he had instigated him to commit the crime; May's mother.The two of them died of severe colic in a fairly close period of time.John de Maupra, he said, was a master at concocting poisons, and entered the house in disguise, and mixed them with food.He confessed that on the day Edmee was led to the Rock of Maupra, John called all his brothers together to discuss how to get rid of the only daughter who owned a huge property. The crystallization of the destruction knight's marriage to Bell.Hubert wanted to adopt his brother's offspring, and my mother gave her life for his sentiments.All Moprat wanted to get rid of Edmee and me at the same time.John was preparing the poison, but the mounted police came to attack the castle and disrupted this terrible plan.John rejected the above accusation with an air of bitterness, humbly saying that there was no need to add those charges, and that he had committed enough capital crimes in debauchery and blasphemy.As it would be difficult to confirm Antoine's confession without further examination, as such examination would be almost impossible, and as the clergy were too powerful to prevent the scandal from being revealed, John was exonerated. Prosecuted as an accomplice, he was simply sent back to the asylum; the archbishop forbade him to set foot in the diocese again, and demanded that the abbot never let him out of the monastery gates.Like a fanatical penitent--mad even--he lived in constant panic, and died within a few years.It is probable that, by continually feigning remorse in order to restore some measure of social renown, he, after the failure of his project, suffered the terrible austerities of his order, and at last, like a guilty and remorseful People feel panic like that.Fear of going to hell is the only creed of these scumbags.

No sooner had I been acquitted, my honor restored, and my freedom set, than I ran to Edmee.I got there just in time for my great-uncle to be dying.When he was dying, he not only recalled his past experience, but also did not forget his wish.He recognized me, took me in his arms, blessed me and Edmee, and put my hand in his daughter's.We mourn the loss of this kind and noble kinsman, as if we had not long foreseen and waited for his death.After his funeral, we left the place for a while, so as not to see Antoine put to death, and he was sentenced to the wheel.Two false witnesses who falsely accused me were whipped, branded, and removed from the jurisdiction of this court.Miss LeBlanc, using only inductive reasoning, could not definitively accuse her of perjury; she avoided public disapproval, lived elsewhere with a degree of luxury that one might suspect, and received a sum for contriving to ruin me. A decent amount of money.

Edmee and I did not want to part, even for a while, with our friends and my few protectors, Marcus, Patience, Arthur, and the Abbe Aubert.Together we boarded a coach, and Marcas and Patience, accustomed to live in the open air, volunteered to take the outside seats; we treated them perfectly equally.From that day on, they ate at the same table as us without exception.Some people make a fuss about it; we let them argue.There are circumstances in which any real or imagined distance between identity and education disappears entirely. We visited Switzerland.Arthur considered the trip necessary for Edmee's full recovery.The careful treatment and skilful nursing of this faithful friend, and our endeavor to make Edmee happy, helped, as well as the beauty of the mountain scene, to dispel her troubles, and make her forget the storm we had just been through.The Swiss landscape had a magical effect on Patience's poetic mind.He was often fascinated, and made us both happy and worried.He really wanted to build himself a log cabin in some valley bottom and spend the rest of his life watching nature; but out of love for us, he gave up the project.Marcus later declared that, for all the pleasures he had enjoyed in our company, he still regarded this trip as the unluckiest moment of his life.During our return, at the Hotel Martini, Blairo died of digestive difficulties due to advanced age, from the too good hospitality he had received in the kitchen.The sergeant stared long and sadly at it without saying a word, and went to bury it in the garden under one of the most beautiful roses, and it was not until more than a year later that he could tell his anguish.

Edmee was a kind and considerate angel to me during this tour; and since then she has been intoxicated with all the inspirations in her heart, and has never had any doubts about me, or thought that I should do what I want. Some kind of compensation for what she had suffered, she reaffirmed to me her pledge of divine love, as she had done publicly when she raised her voice and declared my innocence.It must be admitted that certain reservations in her statements which caught my attention, some of the words of condemnation which Patience blurted out when she discovered she had been shot, continued to pain me for quite some time.I may have reason to think that Edmee had made great efforts to be convinced of my innocence before Patience revealed the truth.In this regard, she is always evasive and somewhat reserved.But one day she healed my wounds and said to me in a lovely harsh tone:

"Since I love you so much that I can forgive you in my heart and defend you in front of everyone at the cost of lying, then what else can you say?" What I find equally crucial is the extent to which I can trust her so-called love at first sight for me.She was embarrassed by this, as if, in her irrepressible pride, she regretted revealing the secret she had always cherished.It was the priest who offered to confess his love for her.He confirmed to me that at that time he had often reprimanded Edmee for her affection for the Wild Child.In retort, I told him that I overheard a secret conversation between him and Edmee one night in the garden, and I recounted it to him with perfect memory.He replied:

"On that very night, if you had followed us a little further, under the bushes, you would have heard an argument and would have been relieved to understand why you, despite my resentment (almost disgusting), became At first it was tolerant, but gradually it became very kind.” "Tell me quickly," I cried, "where did this miracle come from?" "A word will explain it all," he answered: "Edmee loves you." When she confessed this to me, she covered her face with her hands and stood for a moment as if shy and distressed intolerable; then she raised her head abruptly. Come, say aloud:

"'Well, since you must know the truth, I tell you that I love him! I am in love with him, as you say. It is not my fault, why should I blush? There is nothing I can do; It was fate. I never loved M. de La Marche; I had only friendship for him. But for Bernard it was a different kind of feeling—a feeling so strong, so changeable, so full of passion, of resentment. , fear, pity, indignation, tender feelings, feelings that I don't understand at all, and don't try to understand any more.' "'Woman! Woman!' I exclaimed in astonishment, clasping my hands together. 'You are like an abyss, mysterious; and anyone who thinks he knows you is a complete madman.'

"'Go ahead, priest,' she replied firmly, with embarrassment in her reproachful tone. 'I don't care a bit about that. I say it to myself more than you say to all your followers in your life. I know, as Miss LeBlanc describes, Bernard is a bear, a badger, a savage, a country bumpkin, or something else? No one is more irascible, more irritable, more cunning, more vicious than Bernard Yes. He's a savage just learning to sign, a rough man who thinks he can tame me into a Varennes slugger. He's dead wrong; I'd rather die than belong to him, unless I become civilized He can marry me. I tried to reform him as if expecting a miracle, but there was no hope. However, no matter whether he forced me to commit suicide or become a nun, whether he remained the same or worsened, it did not affect my certainty. I love him indeed. My dear priest, you know how ashamed I am to express my love like this; You will not humiliate me with your screams and your exorcisms! Now think about it; study, consider, decide! The disease is—I love him! The disease is—I All I can think about and see is him, and I can't eat tonight until he comes back. I think he's more beautiful than any man in the world. When he professes his love to me, I can see, I feel, he means it It both offends and intoxicates me. M. de La Marche has been mediocre and prim since I have known Bernard. It seems to me that only Bernard is as vain and impulsive as I am. , as brave as I am, but also as fragile as I am; for whenever I pissed him off he always cried like a child, and now I think of him with the same tears.'”

"My dear priest!" I flung myself round his neck, "and let me hug you till you can't breathe, as a reward for remembering all this." "The priest is adding leaves," said Edmee slyly. "Why!" I squeezed her hands tightly, as if I wanted to crush them, "You have caused me pain for seven years; now you can't even part with a few words of comfort..." "Don't regret the past," she advised me. "Ah, the way you were, if I hadn't used my wits and my strength for both of us, we would have been finished. My God, what would we have gotten to today? You may suffer more for my cruelty and arrogance." because from the first day of our union, you must offend me, and in order to punish you, I will either leave you, or commit suicide, or kill you - people in our family are easy to kill, this is childhood Habits formed. One thing is certain, you must be a monstrous husband, and make me blush at your ignorance; you try to overpower me, and we shall bruise each other. This must, in turn, disappoint my father , and you know, my father is above everything! If I were alone in the world, perhaps I would risk my fate lightly, for my nature is a little rash; but my father should be happy, be peaceful, and be respected. He made me grow up in an atmosphere of unfettered happiness, and blessed me throughout my life; if I should instead deprive him of happiness in his old age, I will never forgive myself. Don't think that I am as noble and virtuous as the priest said ;I am loving, here, that's all; but I love powerfully, single-mindedly, persistently. I sacrificed you for my father, poor Bernard! If I had sacrificed my father, heaven would curse us, and now we have been rewarded, Both are tested and invincible. As you grow taller in my eyes, I feel that I can wait, because I will love you forever and ever; I don't have to worry about seeing my passion die before it is satisfied, only the weak We are two special characters; we need heroic love; unless we break the rules we will inevitably perish together."