World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 182 The Bell Bottle Hotel (2)
Just saying that, Andra had already put on her boots, tied her bow tie, and walked carefully to the window, raising the thin and soft curtain again.Not only did the gendarme just not go away, but Andra saw another yellow, blue and white tricolor uniform at the bottom of the only stairs he could go downstairs, and a third one, riding a horse, holding a short gun , guarding the gate facing the street like a sentry.He wants to go out, only this door can go.It became clearer at the sight of the third gendarme, for in front of him a half-circle of onlookers blocked the door of the hotel.

"They're looking for me!" Andra thought for a moment, "Oops!" His face turned pale, and he glanced around anxiously.His room, like all the rooms on this floor, was accessible only by an outer corridor, which was open and clearly visible to all. "I'm done!" he thought afterward.Indeed, for a man in Andra's situation, arrest meant a felony court, a trial, the death penalty, and, without leeway, immediate execution.For a moment he clasped his head convulsively in his hands.At this moment, he almost went crazy with fright.

His mind was full of thoughts, like a tangle of threads, but after a while he found a glimmer of hope, a faint smile on his pale lips and puckered cheeks.

He glanced round. What he was looking for, quills, ink, and paper, were lying on the marble top of a writing desk.He dipped his pen in the ink, and with his strongest strokes wrote on the first page of the blank paper the following lines:
I have no money to pay the bill, but I am by no means an indecent person.For the time being, leave a pin that is 10 times my overnight expenses as collateral.I left the store quietly at dawn, hoping to be tolerant, because I am deeply ashamed.

He took the pin off his tie and put it on the paper.After all this was settled, he went to the door, not only did not want the door to be locked like this, but also pulled the latch, and deliberately opened the door with a small gap, pretending that he had forgotten to close the door when he left.Then he climbed into the fireplace, as if doing such gymnastics was a thing of the past.He painted Achille in front of the fireplace, the hero in ancient Greek mythology, who was invulnerable except for his heels.He once sneaked into the palace to meet Princess Daidami.The paper baffle that met Daidami was closed again, and the footprints left on the ashes were trampled flat, and then he climbed up the arched flue, which now became his last hope. The only way to save life.At this time, the first gendarme that Andra saw just now had followed the sheriff up the stairs, the second gendarme was guarding at the bottom of the stairs to respond, and the gendarme who was still watching at the gate could be his guard. reinforce.

This time the search really gave Andra a lot of trouble, and now he feels that there is no need to panic anymore.So what's the point of coming here to search for him?
It turned out that just after dawn, telegrams had been sent in all directions, and the notifications were received almost immediately in all places, so they woke up the heads of the authorities, and immediately mobilized police forces to search for the murderer who killed Cuderos.Compiegne has a royal palace, Compiegne is a hunting resort, and Compiègne is an important military town. The governors, gendarmes, and police officers here are really numerous. As soon as the order was sent by telegram, the search began immediately.The Bell Bottle Hotel was the first big hotel in town, and of course the search began there first.In addition, according to the report of the sentinel who stood guard at the City Hall at night-the City Hall is adjacent to the Bell Bottle Hotel, and indeed saw several tourists staying in this hotel at night.The sentinel who came off the guard at 6 o'clock in the morning even remembered that when he first took up his post, that is, at 4 o'clock and a little bit, he saw a young man riding a white horse with a farmhouse on the horse. Boy, the young man dismounted in the square, sent the boy and the horse away, and knocked at the door of the Belljar Hotel, which opened it for him, and closed it behind him.This young man invested in the store so late, the situation is really abnormal, so all the doubts focused on him.And this young man is none other than Andra.Having grasped these circumstances, the sheriff and the military police captain walked towards the door of Andra's room together, only to see that the door was already ajar.

"Oh! Oh!" said the Captain, an old fox who knew all about such tricks. "It's not a good sign to keep the door open. I'd rather have the door triple-locked!"

Sure enough, the note and pin left by Andra confirmed, or rather proved, the horrific situation: Andra had escaped.We said: "proof", because the captain is not the kind of person who sees a piece of evidence and believes it.He looked around, glanced under the bed, drew back the curtains and looked in, opened the cupboard door to look in, and finally went and stood in front of the fireplace.Andra had been on guard for a long time. All the footprints he stepped on the ashes were wiped out, so there was no footprint left.

However, this is an export after all. Under the circumstances at that time, as long as it was an export, it must be strictly inspected.The captain ordered dry firewood and straw to be brought in. He stuffed the fireplace to the brim like filling the barrel of a mortar, and then lit the fire.The fire crackled the bricks on the inner wall of the fireplace, and a thick smoke shot up the flue, and rose into the sky like a dense volcanic fog, but the criminal did not fall from it, as expected.It turned out that Andra had been against the society since she was a child. Although the gendarme was honorably promoted to the captain, Andra's ability was by no means inferior to any gendarme. He estimated that he would attack with fire, so he had already climbed to the roof and crouched in a ball By the chimney.

For a moment he felt that his salvation was hopeful, because he heard the captain call the other two gendarmes, telling them loudly: "He is not here." But he stretched out his neck slowly, and saw that the two gendarmes were not like normal Under the circumstances, he withdrew as soon as he heard the situation just said. On the contrary, he only saw them redouble their vigilance.So he too looked around.The City Hall is a tall building in the 16th century, towering like a fortress. From the window on the right side of the building, you can clearly see every corner and every corner of the roof here, just like looking down on the valley from a mountain. no more.Andra knew that he would soon see the captain of the gendarmerie poking his head out of one of the windows of the building.As soon as he was seen, he was finished, and when chased across rooftops, he was useless.So he made a decisive decision and had to go down again, but not from the old way up, but slipped down another exactly the same way.He glanced and saw that there was no smoke coming out of a chimney, so he crawled over and slipped in through the mouth of the chimney without anyone noticing.

At this moment, a small window of the town hall suddenly opened, and the head of the gendarmerie captain stuck out.Like a stone relief installed on the building, this head was stuck to the window for a while, motionless, and finally only heard a long sigh of disappointment, and the head retracted into the building.The captain remained as calm and as serious as the law he represented, ignoring the thousands of questions yelled by the crowd gathered in the square, just walking across the square and back to the hotel.

"How is it?" the two gendarmes couldn't help asking.

"The thing is," said the captain, "that the culprit has probably escaped early this morning, and we will immediately send after him on the roads of Villers-Cauteret and Noiron, search the woods, and we will surely catch him. of."

The venerable officer, in the characteristic tone of a captain of the gendarmerie, spoke emphatically that it must be so and so, when he heard a long exclamation and a violent ringing of bells in the vestibule of the hotel.

"Oh! Oh! What's the matter?" cried the captain.

"It seems that there is a guest who is anxious about something," said the innkeeper. "Which room is the one pulling the bell?"

"Room 3."

"Go check it out, buddy!"

At this time, there was another shout and ringing of the bell.The hotel clerk started to run.

"Don't go there," the captain said, stopping the guy. "I don't think the person pulling the bell is called a waiter. Let's send him a gendarme. Who is in room 3?"

"It's a young man who brought his sister in the stagecoach last night and asked for a double room."

The bell rang for the third time, and there must have been panic over there.

"Follow me, Monsieur Inspector!" cried the Captain of the Gendarmerie, "I will go ahead, and you will follow."

"Wait a minute," said the boss, "Room 3 has two staircases, one inside and one outside."

"Okay!" said the captain of the gendarmerie, "I'll go inside, and I'll take care of this side. Are all your guns loaded?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Attention! You guys stay outside. If he tries to escape, shoot him. The telegram says this criminal is very dangerous."

The captain and the sheriff immediately climbed up the stairs inside, and they disappeared one after the other. At this time, the crowd was buzzing. As soon as they heard what the captain said about Andra, everyone talked about it. stand up.

What happened just now is this:
Andra slid down the flue very nimbly, but when she got to the chimney 2/3, she slid down quickly even though her hands were still pressing hard, especially when there was a crash, he I can't think of it as small.If the room was empty, it would be all right, but as bad luck it was, it was occupied.The two women were sharing a bed, and the crash woke them up.They stared intently at the place where the sound came from, and after a while they saw a man emerging from the fireplace.One of them, the blond one, uttered a terrible scream that was heard throughout the hotel; He rang the bell with all his might for help.As you can imagine, Andra immediately put on a pitiful face at this moment.

"Forgive me!" Andra shouted, his face turned pale, he was flustered, and he didn't care to see who he was talking to, "Forgive me! Don't shout, save my life! I Didn't want to hurt you."

"Andra the murderer!" cried one of the two young women.

"Eugénie! Miss Tangra!" Cavalle-Conti, who was so frightened out of his wits, couldn't help muttering in shock.

"Help! Help!" cried Mademoiselle Amely, snatching the bell-rope from Eugenie's helpless hands, and pulling with greater force than her companion.

"Save my life, they're chasing me!" said Andra, clasping her hands, "have pity on me, have mercy, and don't hand me over!"

"It's too late, someone is coming up," Eugenie replied.

"Oh! Find a place to hide me, and you say that it was just a false alarm, and you can divert their suspicions to other places, so that you can save my life."

The two young women, wrapped in blankets, huddled together, listened in silence to these pleadings, terrified and bored. "Well, well!" said Eugenie, "go away as you come, you wretch. Go away, and we will say nothing."

"Here he is! Here he is!" cried a voice from the landing. "Here he is, I see him!"

It turned out that the captain of the gendarmerie stuck his eyes on the keyhole and saw Andra who was standing and begging for mercy.The butt of the gun was slammed down, and the lock was knocked off.Then it was smashed twice, the latch was knocked out, the door was also smashed, and it fell down inside.Andra ran towards another door, the corridor of the courtyard was outside the door, he opened the door, ready to rush out.The two gendarmes coming up the outside stairs were pointing their guns at him.Andra stopped abruptly. He stood there blankly, his face pale, his body leaned back slightly, and he was still holding the small knife that was no longer needed.

"Run!" cried Miss Amely, who was beginning to compose herself with compassion. "Run!"

"Or you kill yourself!" said Eugenie, with the tone and air of an ancient lady watching a fight in the arena, who, pointing up her fingers, orders the victorious fighter to finally kill the fallen opponent.

Andra shuddered, and glanced at the girl with a contemptuous grin on her face.It was not difficult to see that this man was hopelessly ignorant of this high and heroic sense of honor. "I committed suicide?" he said, throwing the knife away. "What are you trying to do?"

"But you have said it yourself," Miss Tangla shouted, "They will sentence you to death, they will say that you have committed a heinous crime, and you will be executed immediately!"

"Hmph!" said Cavalle-Conti, crossing his arms, "I still have friends!"

The captain of the gendarmerie approached him step by step with a saber in his hand.

"Come, come," said Cavalle-Conti, "put away your knife, my hero, and I surrender myself, without such bravado."

He stretched out his hands to be handcuffed.The two girls turned pale with astonishment, watching helplessly as the man in front of him gradually revealed his hideous features.The regular on the social scene sheds his coat and reveals his convict truth.Andra smiled shamelessly, turned to them and said, "Do you have any message for your lord, Miss Eugenie? Because I will most likely return to Paris."

Eugenie covered her face with her hands.

"Oh! Oh! There's nothing to be ashamed of. I don't blame you for chasing me in a stagecoach. . . . Didn't I almost become your husband?"

While ridiculing, Andra walked out, leaving the two girls who ran away from home thinking they were unlucky, and had to let others point and point them with shame on their faces.At the end of an hour they all put on their ladies' clothes and mounted their carriage.The hotel had closed the door to prevent people from looking around, but when the door was reopened, they still had to stand between two walls of onlookers, under the eyes of twinkling eyes, Listening to the whispering voice squeezed past.Eugenie lowered the blinds on the window, but although she could not see, she could still hear, and the jeering bursts of laughter reached her ears clearly. "Oh! Why can't the world be an uninhabited wilderness?" she shouted, throwing her head into Miss Amelie's arms, her eyes bursting with anger, just like Nero back then, only hating why the Roman Empire was not shared by all. One head can kill everything with one blow.

They arrived in Brussels the next day and checked into the Hotel Flanders.At this time, Andra had been in the prison next to the Paris court for a day.

(End of this chapter)