"
I easily found, by the frowning looks directed towards me by the
three gentlemen present, that I had been guilty of great imprudence
in saying so much; but Cabert, wringing his hands, uttered, with
the most despairing accent,
"I am lost! and most horribly has the unfortunate woman
avenged herself."
"What would you insinuate?"
"That I am the victim of an enraged woman," replied he.
He afterwards explained, that he had been the lover of madame
Lorimer, but had become wearied of her, and left her in consequence;
that she had violently resented this conduct; and, after having
in vain sought to move him by prayers and supplications, had
tried the most horrible threats and menaces. "I ought not indeed,"
continued he, "to have despised these threats, for well I knew
the fiendlike malice of the wretched creature, and dearly do I
pay for my imprudence, by falling into the pit she has dug for me."
In vain we endeavoured to induce him to hold a different language.
He persisted with determined obstinacy in his first statement;
continually protesting his own innocence, and loading the author
of his woes with bitter imprecations. It was deemed impossible
to allow this man to go at large; accordingly M. de la Vrilliere
issued a
, which sent him that night to seek a
lodging in the Bastille. It was afterwards deemed advisable to
put him to the torture, but the agonies of the rack wrung from him
no deviation from, or contradiction of, what he had previously alleged.
Pages:
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507