The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 4, November 1, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 4, November 1, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
received anonymous letters of the most perplexing and embarrassing
character, charging him, in the grossest terms of the language, with being
a spy and a traitor to the association to which he had pledged his life and
his honor. He resolved at last to play a desperate game--to exhibit an
unheard of energy and power. He repudiated the disdainful impunity which
apparently was inflicted on him intentionally. He surrendered himself to
the police....
While Count Monte-Leone acted thus courageously, the following scene took
place in a hotel whither our readers have been previously taken.
A man apparently about thirty years old sat pale and downcast at a table,
writing with extreme rapidity. Occasionally he rested his weary head on his
hand, and his eyes wandered across the sky which he saw through a
trap-window, so usual in that room of houses known as the garret.[4] He
then glanced on the paper, and wrote down the inspirations he seemed to
have evoked from the abode of angels. He was the occupant of a garret,
which, though small, seemed so disguised by taste and luxury that the
narrow abode appeared even luxurious. The table at which the writer sat was
of Buhl, and was ornamented by vases of Sevres ware. The wooden bedstead
was hidden by a silken coverlet, and a large arm-chair occupied a great
portion of the room. On the small chimney-piece of varnished stone was a
china vase filled with magnificent flowers from hot-houses, above which
arose a superb camelia. A curtain of blue shut out the glare of the sun. It
was easy to see that female taste had presided over the arrangements of
this room. A beautiful woman really had done so. The inmate of the room was
Doctor von Apsberg. The girl of whom we have spoken was Marie d'Harcourt.
On the day of René's arrest, a fortnight before the one we write of, the
Doctor was alone when the secret panel was opened. Pignana suddenly
appeared before the Doctor and told him that his house as well as the
Doctor's was surrounded by suspicious looking people. Pignana therefore
advised him to go at once. Von Apsberg was about to go to his bureau and
take possession of his papers. The police did not allow him time to do so;
they knocked at that very moment at the door and entered the house before
Von Apsberg had time to leave. It will be remembered that the studio of
the Doctor in which the archives were kept, was in the third story of the
house. Matheus was, therefore, forced to fly through the opening, into
Pignana's house, and with his ear to the wall listened to the noise made by
the police, with thankfulness for the secret passage. He heard a deep voice
say, "If your Jacobin Doctor has escaped, you shall answer for it." This
was said to Mlle. Crepineau. The good maiden swore the Doctor was absent,
as she thought, or feigned to think. Another voice, with a deep southern
accent, said the following words, which the young Doctor heard with
surprise and fear:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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