The two cabs pulled up almost simultaneously outside the Essarès' house, where a car was already standing. Coralie alighted and disappeared through the carriage-gate. The maid and Siméon also crossed the pavement. "Come along," said Patrice to the Senegalese. The front-door was ajar and Patrice entered. In the big hall were two policemen on duty. Patrice acknowledged their presence with a hurried movement of his hand and passed them with the air of a man who belonged to the house and whose importance was so great that nothing done without him could be of any use. The sound of his footsteps echoing on the flags reminded him of the flight of Bournef and his accomplices. He was on the right road. Moreover, there was a drawing-room on the left, the room, communicating with the library, to which the accomplices had carried the colonel's body. Voices came from the library. He walked across the drawing-room. At that moment he heard Coralie exclaim in accents of terror: "Oh, my God, it can't be! . . ." Two other policemen barred the doorway. "I am a relation of Mme. Essarès'," he said, "her only relation. . . ." "We have our orders, captain . . ." "I know, of course. Be sure and let no one in! Ya-Bon, stay here." And he went in. But, in the immense room, a group of six or seven gentlemen, no doubt commissaries of police and magistrates, stood in his way, bending over something which he was unable to distinguish. From amidst this group Coralie suddenly appeared and came towards him, tottering and wringing her hands. The housemaid took her round the waist and pressed her into a chair. "What's the matter?" asked Patrice. "Madame is feeling faint," replied the woman, still quite distraught. "Oh, I'm nearly off my head!" "But why? What's the reason?" "It's the master . . . just think! . . . Such a sight! . . . It gave me a turn, too . . ." "What sight?" One of the gentlemen left the group and approached: "Is Mme. Essarès ill?" "It's nothing," said the maid. "A fainting-fit. . . . She is liable to these attacks." "Take her away as soon as she can walk. We shall not need her any longer." And, addressing Patrice Belval with a questioning air: "Captain? . . ." Patrice pretended not to understand: "Yes, sir," he said, "we will take Mme. Essarès away. Her presence, as you say, is unnecessary. Only I must first . . ." He moved aside to avoid his interlocutor, and, perceiving that the group of magistrates had opened out a little, stepped forward. What he now saw explained Coralie's fainting-fit and the servant's agitation. He himself felt his flesh creep at a spectacle which was infinitely more horrible than that of the evening before.