"Sir," cried M. Baleinier, "permit me to observe, that the manner in which you open this question is an insult to me."
"Sir, it is to the lady that I have the honor of addressing myself,"
replied M. de Gernande, sternly; "and I am the sole judge of the propriety of my questions."
Adrienne was about to answer affirmatively to the magistrate, when an expressive took from Dr. Baleinier reminded her that she would perhaps expose Dagobert and his son to cruel dangers. It was no base and vulgar feeling of vengeance by which Adrienne was animated, but a legitimate indignation, inspired by odious hypocrisy. She would have thought it cowardly not to unmask the criminals; but wishing to avoid compromising others, she said to the magistrate, with an accent full of mildness and dignity: "Permit me, sir, in my turn, rather to ask you a question."
"Speak, madame."
"Will the answer I make be considered a formal accusation?"
"I have come hither, madame, to ascertain the truth, and no consideration should induce you to dissemble it."
"So be it, sir," resumed Adrienne; "but suppose, having just causes of complaint, I lay them before you, in order to be allowed to leave this house, shall I afterwards be at liberty not to press the accusations I have made?"
"You may abandon proceedings, madame, but the law will take up your case in the name of society, if its rights have been inured in your person."
"Shall I then not be allowed to pardon? Should I not be sufficiently avenged by a contemptuous forgetfulness of the wrongs I have suffered?"
"Personally, madame, you may forgive and forget; but I have the honor to repeat to you, that society cannot show the same indulgence, if it should turn out that you have been the victim of a criminal machination--and I have every reason to fear it is so. The manner in which you express yourself, the generosity of your sentiments, the calmness and dignity of your att.i.tude, convince me that I have been well informed."
"I hope, sir," said Dr. Baleinier, recovering his coolness, "that you will at least communicate the declaration that has been made to you."
"It has been declared to me, sir," said the magistrate, in a stern voice, "that Mdlle. de Cardoville was brought here by stratagem."
"By stratagem?"
"Yes, sir."
"It is true. The lady was brought here by stratagem," answered the Jesuit of the short robe, after a moment"s silence.
"You confess it, then?" said M. de Gernande.
"Certainly I do, sir. I admit that I had recourse to means which we are unfortunately too often obliged to employ, when persons who most need our a.s.sistance are unconscious of their own sad state."
"But, sir," replied the magistrate, "it has also been declared to me, that Mdlle. de Cardoville never required such aid."
"That, sir, is a question of medical jurisprudence, which has to be examined and discussed," said M. Baleinier, recovering his a.s.surance.
"It will, indeed, sir, be seriously discussed; for you are accused of confining Mdlle. De Cardoville, while in the full possession of all her faculties."
"And may I ask you for what purpose?" said M. de Baleinier, with a slight shrug of the shoulders, and in a tone of irony. "What interest had I to commit such a crime, even admitting that my reputation did not place me above so odious and absurd a charge?"
"You are said to have acted, sir, in furtherance of a family plot, devised against Mdlle. de Cardoville for a pecuniary motive."
"And who has dared, sir, to make so calumnious a charge?" cried Dr.
Baleinier, with indignant warmth. "Who has had the audacity to accuse a respectable, and I dare to say, respected man, of having been the accomplice in such infamy?"
"I," said Rodin, coldly.
"You!" cried Dr. Baleinier, falling back two steps, as if thunderstruck.
"Yes, I accuse you," repeated Rodin, in a clear sharp voice.
"Yes, it was this gentleman who came to me this morning, with ample proofs, to demand my interference in favor of Mdlle. de Cardoville,"
said the magistrate, drawing back a little, to give Adrienne the opportunity of seeing her defender.
Throughout this scene, Rodin"s name had not hitherto been mentioned.
Mdlle. de Cardoville had often heard speak of the Abbe d"Aigrigny"s secretary in no very favorable terms; but, never having seen him, she did not know that her liberator was this very Jesuit. She therefore looked towards him, with a glance in which were mingled curiosity, interest, surprise and grat.i.tude. Rodin"s cadaverous countenance, his repulsive ugliness, his sordid dress, would a few days before have occasioned Adrienne a perhaps invincible feeling of disgust. But the young lady, remembering how the sempstress, poor, feeble, deformed, and dressed almost in rags was endowed notwithstanding her wretched exterior, with one of the n.o.blest and most admirable hearts, recalled this recollection in favor of the Jesuit. She forgot that he was ugly and sordid, only to remember that he was old, that he seemed poor, and that he had come to her a.s.sistance. Dr. Baleinier, notwithstanding his craft, notwithstanding his audacious hypocrisy, in spite even of his presence of mind, could not conceal how much he was disturbed by Rodin"s denunciation. His head became troubled as he remembered how, on the first day of Adrienne"s confinement in this house, the implacable appeal of Rodin, through the hole in the door, had prevented him (Baleinier) from yielding to emotions of pity, inspired by the despair of this unfortunate young girl, driven almost to doubt of her own reason. And yet it was this very Rodin, so cruel, so inexorable, the devoted agent of Father d"Aigrigny, who denounced him (Baleinier), and brought a magistrate to set Adrienne at liberty--when, only the day before, Father d"Aigrigny had ordered an increase of severity towards her!
The lay Jesuit felt persuaded that Rodin was betraying Father d"Aigrigny in the most shameful manner, and that Mdlle. de Cardoville"s friends had bribed and bought over this scoundrelly secretary. Exasperated by what he considered a monstrous piece of treachery, the doctor exclaimed, in a voice broken with rage: "And it is you, sir, that have the impudence to accuse me--you, who only a few days ago--"
Then, reflecting that the retort upon Rodin would be self-accusation, he appeared to give way to an excess of emotion, and resumed with bitterness: "Ah, sir, you are the last person that I should have thought capable of this odious denunciation. It is shameful!"
"And who had a better right than I to denounce this infamy?" answered Rodin, in a rude, overbearing tone. "Was I not in a position to learn--unfortunately, too late--the nature of the conspiracy of which Mdlle. de Cardoville and others have been the victims? Then, what was my duty as an honest man? Why, to inform the magistrate, to prove what I set forth, and to accompany him hither. That is what I have done."
"So, sir," said the doctor, addressing the magistrate, "it is not only myself that this man accuses, but he dares also--"
"I accuse the Abbe d"Aigrigny," resumed Rodin, in a still louder and more imperative tone, interrupting the doctor, "I accuse the Princess de Saint-Dizier, I accuse you, sir--of having, from a vile motive of self interest, confined Mdlle. de Cardoville in this house, and the two daughters of Marshal Simon in the neighboring convent. Is that clear?"
"Alas! it is only too true," said Adrienne, hastily. "I have seen those poor children all in tears, making signs of distress to me."
The accusation of Rodin, with regard to the orphans, was a new and fearful blow for Dr. Baleinier. He felt perfectly convinced that the traitor had pa.s.sed clear over to the enemy"s camp. Wishing therefore to put an end to this embarra.s.sing scene, he tried to put a good face on the matter, in spite of his emotion, and said to the magistrate:
"I might confine myself, sir, to silence--disdaining to answer such accusations, till a judicial decision had given them some kind of authority. But, strong in a good conscience I address myself to Mdlle.
de Cardoville, and I beg her to say if this very morning I did not inform her, that her health would soon be sufficiently restored to allow her to leave this house. I conjure her, in the name of her well-known love of truth to state if such was not my language, when I was alone with her--"
"Come, sir!" said Rodin, interrupting Baleinier with an insolent air; "suppose that, from pure generosity, this dear young lady were to admit as much--what will it prove in your favor?--why, nothing at all."
"What, sir," cried the doctor, "do you presume--"
"I presume to unmask you, without asking your leave. What have you just told us? Why, that being alone with Mdlle. de Cardoville, you talked to her as if she were really mad. How very conclusive!"
"But, sir--" cried the doctor.
"But, sir," resumed Rodin, without allowing him to continue, "it is evident that, foreseeing the possibility of what has occurred to-day, and, to provide yourself with a hole to creep out at, you have pretended to believe your own execrable falsehood, in presence of this poor young lady, that you might afterwards call in aid the evidence of your own a.s.sumed conviction. Come, sir! such stories will not go down with people of common sense or common humanity."
"Come now, sir!" exclaimed Baleinier, angrily.
"Well, sir," resumed Rodin, in a still louder voice, which completely drowned that of the doctor; "is it true, or is it not, that you have recourse to the mean evasion of ascribing this odious imprisonment to a scientific error? I affirm that you do so, and that you think yourself safe, because you can now say: "Thanks to my care, the young lady has recovered her reason. What more would you have?""
"Yes, I do say that, sir, and I maintain it."
"You maintain a falsehood; for it is proven that the lady never lost her reason for a moment."
"But I, sir, maintain that she did lose it."
"And I, sir, will prove the contrary," said Rodin.