World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 184 Law (2)
"Oh! You are so incomprehensible! I must say to M. de Villefort that his men are too free."

"Ma'am, this is not presumptuousness, it is prudence. No one can enter the building unless Mr. Avrini speaks, or asks Mr. Prosecutor for something."

"Hmph, I'm looking for Mr. Prosecutor."

"Is it urgent?"

"You should understand, I didn't go back to my carriage. Come on, here is my business card, send it to your master."

"Madam, can you wait for me to come back?"

"Okay, you can go."

The porter closed the door, leaving Mrs. Tanglars waiting alone in the street.The baroness didn't wait for a long time. After a while, the door opened again, revealing a gap for the baroness to pass.As soon as she walked in, the door closed again behind her.Accompanied by the porter to the courtyard, without taking his eyes off the gate for a moment, he took out a whistle from his pocket and blew it, at which M. de Villefort's valet stepped up to the front steps of the building. "Excuse the porter for his blunt temper," he said, going up to the baroness, "but he was given very strict instructions, and M. de Villefort wants me to explain to Madame that the porter has no other choice."

There was also a supplier merchant in the courtyard, who also came in after such a setback, and was inspecting the goods he had brought.As the baroness came up the steps, she felt herself so deeply affected by the melancholy atmosphere of the place that, so to speak, her own melancholy spread with it.M. de Villefort's valet accompanied her all the way, and led her into the judge's study, without taking his eyes off the baroness.No matter how much Mrs. Tanglar thought about her plan to come here, she felt a lump in her heart when she saw that the servants here were neglecting her so much.But Villefort raised his head, which was bowed under the weight of grief, and glanced at her with a sad smile, and Madame Donglas swallowed again the words of disapproval which had come to her lips.

"Forgive me, my subordinates are already in panic all day long, and I can't blame them. They themselves have been suspected, so they have become suspicious."

Mrs. Donglas had often heard about the state of constant anxiety mentioned by the judge in social occasions, but if she had not witnessed it with her own eyes just now, she would never have believed that the turmoil had reached such a degree. "So," said she, "are you unlucky, too?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied the judge.

"Then you sympathize with me?"

"My sympathy, ma'am."

"Do you know why I'm here?"

"Come and tell me what happened to you, won't you?"

"Yes, sir, a terrible disaster."

"It's an unfortunate encounter, let's say."

"An unfortunate encounter?" cried the baroness.

"Oh, ma'am," said the prosecutor, with his usual calm air, "I agree only to call misfortunes what is irreparable."

"Ah! Monsieur, you think everyone will forget..."

"Everything will be forgotten, Madame," said Villefort. "Your daughter's marriage cannot be done today, it can be done tomorrow, and it can be done in a week if it cannot be done tomorrow. As for regretting the fate of Mademoiselle Eugenie, I do not think it is necessary." It's what you meant."

Madame Donglas looked at Villefort, and was astonished at the ironic composure in his manner. "Am I not at a friend's house?" she asked, with pained dignity.

"At a friend's house, as you know yourself, madame," replied Villefort, with a faint blush following his words, for he was not speaking of the interests of the baroness and himself at the moment. The matter, but intended to mean something else.

"Well," said the baroness, "be kind, my dear Villefort. Talk to me as a friend, and don't put on the face of a judge. When I feel very unfortunate Don't ever tell me that I should be happy when I'm here."

Villefort bowed. "For the last three months I've had a very bad habit, ma'am," said he, "whenever I hear something about misfortune, I always think of my own misfortune, and I can't help doing this in my head. Selfish comparison. Therefore, compared with my misfortune, I think your misfortune can only be said to be unsatisfactory; therefore, compared with my despondent situation, I think your situation is enviable. But do you hear these words? I'm happy, so let's not talk about it. Madame, just now you said..."

"I have come to ask you, my friend," said the baroness, "how the impostor's case is going."

"A liar?" said Villefort. "It appears, Madame, that you have deliberately made some things less serious and others more serious. M. Andra Cavalecanti, or rather, Belle Is Mr. Benededo a liar? You are so wrong, Madame, that Mr. Benededo is a murderer."

"Sir, I admit that you are correct in correcting this, but the harsher you are to the unfortunate fellow, the harder you are to my family. Oh, forget about him for a moment, don't go after him, let He escaped."

"You are late, Madame, the order has been sent."

"Ah! If you catch him . . . do you think you can catch him?"

"I hope to be caught."

"If he's caught--listen to me, I keep hearing that the jails are full, well, you'll let him stay in the jail."

The prosecutor shook his head.

"At least until after my daughter is married," went on the baroness.

"Impossible, ma'am, the courts have court procedures."

"Is it the same for me?" said the baroness, half-jokingly, half-seriously.

"To all men," replied Villefort, "to myself and to all others."

"Ah!" The baroness just yelled softly and didn't say anything more, but this exclamation had already revealed the meaning in her heart.

Villefort looked at the baroness with a look that seemed to penetrate what she was thinking. "Yes, I know what you mean," he went on, "you mean the dreadful rumors that are running wild in society at the moment, that people have been dying in my house for three months, and that Valentine just relied on It is a miracle that he survived, and it is strange to say these things."

"I didn't think about it at all." Mrs. Tangla said hastily.

"No, you do, Madame. And that's justified, because it's impossible for you not to think that way, and you whisper to yourself, 'You're a criminal, tell me, the ones around you Why are these crimes not punished?'"

The baroness's face turned pale.

"That's what you think, don't you, ma'am?"

"Yes, I admit it."

"I'll answer your question," said Villefort, moving his chair towards Madame Tanglar's, and leaning his hands on his desk, continued in a voice more dull than usual. : "Some crimes are not punished, because we don't know who the criminal is, and we are afraid that innocent people will be punished as criminals by mistake. However, once the criminal is found out," Villefort stretched out his hand to the one with the statue of Jesus in front of the desk. Cross, and continued, "Once the criminal is found out, I swear by God, madam, whoever he is, must die! Now, I have sworn, and I will never break my promise, madam, Do you still want to plead for this scum in front of me?"

"Well, sir," said Mrs. Donglas, "are you sure that he is as evil as he is said to be?"

"Listen here. This is his file. Benedetto was sentenced to five years of hard labor at the age of sixteen for counterfeiting money. You see, this young man has a lot of promise, and then he escaped from prison and became a fugitive. After that, the perpetrator became a murderer."

"What's the matter with the poor man?"

"Well, who knows? A waif, a Corsican."

"Doesn't he have any relatives to recognize him?"

"Nobody, doesn't know who his parents are."

"But what about that Luka man?"

"A fraudster like him, and perhaps his accomplice."

The baroness clasped her hands together, and exclaimed in her sweetest and tenderest voice: "Villefort!"

"For God's sake, ma'am," replied the prosecutor, with such firmness that it was almost chilling to hear, "for God's sake, please do not plead with me for a guilty man. I What am I? Is the law. Does the law have eyes to see your sad face? Does the law have ears to listen to your soft voice? Does the law also have a memory, and does it bend the law because of your high sentiments? No, ma'am, the law only knows how to order, and when the law orders, it strikes mercilessly. You will say that I am a man of flesh and blood, not a code of laws, a living person, not a book Dead book. Please look at me, madam, look at everything around me, do you see me as a brother? Do you love me? Do you take care of me? Do you forgive me? Did M. de Villefort intercede? Has M. de Villefort been pardoned because of this man's intercession? No, no, no, there are only blows, always blows! You will persist because you are a woman, that is to say, because You are a mermaid. When you talk to me, you always look at me with your charming, expressive eyes, and looking at your eyes makes me think that I do blush. Oh! So to speak, yes, You know the cause of the blush, but perhaps, perhaps there are other reasons. In short, since my own negligence, and my negligence may be more serious than others, oh! Peeling off piece by piece, looking for the rotten sore, and I did find it, I should even say, how happy and glad I was when I found the sore, because this is the weakness or depravity of human beings. Every time I find a guilty person, every time I punish a guilty person, it seems to me a living proof, a new proof, that I am not a hideous exception. Misfortune! Misfortune! Misfortune Ah! This world is full of male thieves and female prostitutes, madam, let us prove this together and fight against the bad guys together!" At the end of the speech, Villefort was impassioned, his voice sonorous and fierce, and his words sharp and powerful.

"However," Mrs. Tangla wanted to make a final fight, so she continued, "didn't you say that this young man is a vagrant, an orphan who has not been claimed?"

"It deserves it, it's what he deserves, or let's put it this way, it's better this way, it's also God's will, no one will cry for him."

"This is a teacher who asks the weak to blame."

"The murderer is the weak one!"

"Although ruin and ruin is his business, it will also affect my family."

"Isn't the god of death also bringing disaster to my family?"

"Oh, sir!" cried the baroness, "you are so cruel to people, I might as well tell you that they will be cruel to you."

"That's all right!" said Villefort, throwing his arms upward menacingly.

"If the poor man is caught, please at least put his case off until the next big trial, and we'll have six months to dilute the memory."

"It can't be done," said Villefort. "I still have five days, and now that the pre-trial is ready, five days are more than I really need. Besides, madame, don't you understand that I also need to forget? Oh! when I work, I work day and night, and when I work, I forget about the past, and when I leave it all behind, I'm like a dead man Comfort, after all, it’s better than enduring pain.”

"Sir, he has already escaped, so let him escape. It is also a kind of forgiveness to wait and see, and it is very easy to do."

"But didn't I tell you that it was too late? The telegram was sent this morning, and at this time..."

"Sir," said the valet, entering, "here is a dispatch from the Minister of the Interior from the Dragoons."

Villefort immediately took the dispatch, and hastily opened it.Madame Donguells trembled with terror, and Villefort trembled with joy.

"Caught!" cried Villefort. "He was caught at Compiègne, and the matter is settled."

Mrs. Tangra's face was pale and her body was soaked in cold. She stood up and said, "Goodbye, sir."

"Goodbye, ma'am," said the prosecutor. He was almost beaming. He accompanied Mrs. Tanglar and escorted her to the door, and then returned to the writing desk. "Well," said he, patting the dispatch on the back of his right hand, "I've had one counterfeit, three thefts, three arsons, and I've got one murder, and now I have all of them." Yes, this grand trial will definitely do a very good job."

(End of this chapter)