"They have found a physician--a vile,
cowardly scoundrel--who for a certain sum has consented to appear
in support of the accusation."
"Dr. Jodon, I presume!"
"Yes; and this is not all. The count's escritoire contains the
vial of medicine of which he drank a portion on the day of his
death. Well, to-morrow night, Madame Leon will open the garden
gate of the Hotel de Chalusse and admit a rascal who will abstract
the vial."
Marguerite shuddered. Now she understood the fiendish cunning of
the plot. "It might ruin me!" she murmured.
Pascal nodded affirmatively. "M. de Valorsay wishes you to
consider yourself as irretrievably lost, and then he intends to
offer to save you on condition that you consent to marry him. I
should say, however, that M. Wilkie is ignorant of the atrocious
projects he is abetting. They are known only to the marquis and
M. de Coralth; and it is I who, under the name of Maumejan, act as
their adviser. It was to me that the marquis sent M. Wilkie for
assistance in drawing up this accusation. I myself wrote out the
denunciation, which was as terrible and as formidable as our
bitterest enemy could possibly desire, combining, as it did, with
perfidious art, the reports of the valets and the suspicions of
the physician, and establishing the connection between the robbery
and the murder. It finished by demanding a thorough
investigation.
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