The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition: Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five VolumesPoe, Edgar Allan
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition: Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Indexes; Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849; Short stories
In this way the journal endeavored to create the impression of an
apathy on the part of the relatives of Marie, inconsistent with
the supposition that these relatives believed the corpse to be
hers. Its insinuations amount to this: that Marie, with the
connivance of her friends, had absented herself from the city for
reasons involving a charge against her chastity; and that these
friends, upon the discovery of a corpse in the Seine, somewhat
resembling that of the girl, had availed themselves of the
opportunity to impress the public with the belief of her death.
But L’Etoile was again over-hasty. It was distinctly proved that
no apathy, such as was imagined, existed; that the old lady was
exceedingly feeble, and so agitated as to be unable to attend to
any duty; that St. Eustache, so far from receiving the news
coolly, was distracted with grief, and bore himself so
frantically, that M. Beauvais prevailed upon a friend and
relative to take charge of him, and prevent his attending the
examination at the disinterment. Moreover, although it was stated
by L’Etoile, that the corpse was re-interred at the public
expense—that an advantageous offer of private sculpture was
absolutely declined by the family—and that no member of the
family attended the ceremonial;—although, I say, all this was
asserted by L’Etoile in furtherance of the impression it designed
to convey—yet all this was satisfactorily disproved. In a
subsequent number of the paper, an attempt was made to throw
suspicion upon Beauvais himself. The editor says:
“Now, then, a change comes over the matter. We are told that on
one occasion, while a Madame B—— was at Madame Rogêt’s house, M.
Beauvais, who was going out, told her that a gendarme was
expected there, and she, Madame B., must not say anything to the
gendarme until he returned, but let the matter be for him.... In
the present posture of affairs, M. Beauvais appears to have the
whole matter locked up in his head. A single step cannot be taken
without M. Beauvais, for, go which way you will, you run against
him.... For some reason, he determined that nobody shall have any
thing to do with the proceedings but himself, and he has elbowed
the male relatives out of the way, according to their
representations, in a very singular manner. He seems to have been
very much averse to permitting the relatives to see the body.”
By the following fact, some color was given to the suspicion thus
thrown upon Beauvais. A visitor at his office, a few days prior
to the girl’s disappearance, and during the absence of its
occupant, had observed a rose in the key-hole of the door, and
the name “Marie” inscribed upon a slate which hung near at hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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