World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 202

The audience fell silent, the judges took their seats one after another, and the jurors also sat down in their seats.Impressive, we might even say admirable, Villefort, in his magistrate's gown, took his seat, and glanced unhurriedly about him.Everyone looked at this stern face in amazement, and it seemed that they couldn't find the slightest bit of father's grief in this frosty expression.Everyone in the hall was awed by the sight of such a character who was completely unmoved by ordinary human emotions.

"Attention the gendarmes!" said the president. "Take the accused."

As soon as the president's order was heard, all the people in the hall immediately became absorbed in their attention, and all eyes were fixed on the door through which Benedetto was about to enter.After a while, the door opened and the accused appeared.At this moment, no one could mistake the defendant's expression, and the people in the hall all got the same impression by coincidence.If it really reached the point where the six gods have no master, then the blood in the whole body will flow back to the heart and freeze, and the forehead and cheeks will become deathly pale, but the face you see does not have such traces at all.The posture of both hands is very elegant, holding the hat in one hand, and inserting the other hand into the white piqué vest through the neckline, there is no look of fear at all.His eyes were calm, even sparkling, and as soon as the young man entered the hall, he glanced quickly at the judge's bench and the public gallery, at the president of the judge, and especially at the prosecutor for a long time.

Next to Andra was his lawyer, who was appointed by the court, because Andra seemed to think that this was an insignificant detail, and he didn't bother to hire a defense lawyer at all.The lawyer was young, fair-haired, and flushed, and it seemed that he was a hundred times more excited than the defendant.

The president asked the prosecutor to read the indictment, which, as the reader knows, was drawn by the ruthless pen of Villefort.It took a long time to read the indictment. If it was another prisoner, he would have been ashamed.All the observers were staring at Andra intently, but he was as calm as a Spartan, letting others look around.Villefort's prose has perhaps never been more concise and cutting than this indictment.The introduction of the facts of the crime is vividly written. The criminal's experience, his depravity, and the relationship between the previous crimes since his youth are all analyzed logically and brilliantly. With experience and insight into people's hearts, there is such a free and easy writing style.Based on this indictment alone, everyone thinks that Benedetto has notorious misdeeds and is completely finished. As for how to bring him to justice in the end and give him a severe sentence, let alone.The indictment charged Andra with one crime after another, and all of them were unambiguous, but Andra always looked indifferent.M. de Villefort looked up at him several times. Villefort had always had occasion to conduct psychological studies on the defendant, and he was sure that this time would be no exception. He still wanted to carry out his research.Villefort's eyes were deep and fixed on Andra, but he could not force Andra to lower his eyes once.

The indictment was finally read out. "Defendant," asked the President, "your name."

Andra stood up. "Excuse me, Mr. President," he said in a drawling tone, "I think it is difficult for me to follow the interrogation procedure you are going to adopt, so I request that an exception should be made for me, and I cannot be treated as an ordinary defendant. It will prove that my request is justified. If Mr. Judge Meng allows me to answer according to another procedure, I will explain all the questions one by one."

The judge couldn't help being taken aback, and looked at the jurors, and the jurors looked at the prosecutor one after another.Everyone in the audience was dumbfounded and shocked, but Andra acted calmly.

"Your age?" said the President. "Is that a question that can be answered?"

"I can answer this and other questions, Mr. President, but in a certain order."

"Your age?" repeated the President.

"I am 21 years old, or rather, I will not be 21 years old in a few days, because my date of birth is the night of September 1817, 9."

M. de Villefort, who was taking notes, looked up at the date.

"Where were you born?" continued the President.

"Auteuil, a suburb of Paris," Benededo replied.

M. de Villefort raised his head a second time, looking straight at Benedetto, as if he saw the head of Medusa, who turned pale suddenly.As for Benedetto, he took out a linen handkerchief and daintily pressed the embroidered corner to his lips.

"What is your profession?" asked the President.

"At first it was counterfeit money," Andra said calmly, "then she stole things, and recently she killed someone."

There was an uproar in the hall, or rather a din of indignation and amazement in the hall.The judges were horrified and couldn't help looking at each other. The jurors frowned. They never imagined that a handsome man could be so brazen.M. de Villefort rested his hand on his forehead, which at first turned pale, then reddened, and burned.He stood up suddenly, looked around in a daze, only to feel out of breath.

"Are you looking for something, Monsieur Prosecutor?" asked Benedetto, pretending to be smiling.

M. de Villefort made no answer, but sat down again in his seat, or fell down with a thud.

"Can you now state your name, defendant?" asked the presiding judge. "You have put on airs and confessed your crimes with such presumptuousness that you call it a profession. You are proud of your shame and shame. In the name of morality and human dignity, the court will severely punish you. Perhaps this is the reason why you have been hesitant to reveal your name. You purposely waved your lips and said these titles first to show off your name .”

"It is incredible, Monsieur President," said Benedetto, in his most elegant voice, with an air of civility, "that you have read my thoughts with a sharp eye, and I beg you to reverse the order of the questions. It is for this reason.”

The people in the hall were shocked beyond measure.The defendant's words did not seem to be lying, nor did they seem to be brazen and unreasonable. There was a lot of discussion in the auditorium, and everyone had a premonition that there would be a thunder from the depths of this dark cloud.

"Well!" said the President, "your name?"

"I can't tell you my name because I don't know it, but I know my father's name and I can tell you."

Villefort's eyes were darkened, and he felt dizzy and ecstatic. His trembling hands pressed down on the paper on the table in a panic, and large drops of sad sweat rolled down his cheeks and fell to the bottom of the paper. on paper.

"Then say your father's name," said the president.

There was no sound in the spacious hall, not a whisper, not a gasp, everyone was waiting quietly.

"My father is a prosecutor." Andra said calmly.

"Prosecutor!" said the president in surprise, not noticing Villefort's frightened face, "Prosecutor!"

"Yes, since you want to know his name, I will tell you that his name is Villefort."

The audience had already been furious, but they restrained themselves for a long time only out of respect for the law. At this moment, the anger finally burst out like thunder from every chest, and the court did not care to stop the roaring uproar.Facing the expressionless Benedetto, some were angrily reprimanding, some were yelling, some were angrily waving their arms and fists, the military police were running back and forth, and some were laughing wildly—as long as it was Where there are many people, whenever there is any commotion, or whenever there is a turmoil, there will always be some frivolous and vulgar people jumping up and down to make a fuss.There was such a commotion in the whole hall for a full 5 minutes before the judge and the bailiff calmed everyone down again.Amidst the uproar, the president of the court could only be heard shouting loudly: "You are making fun of the court, defendant? How dare you make such unreasonable troubles in front of so many citizens? Today is the world of peace. How have you ever behaved so badly like you?" Had?"

Mr. Prosecutor had almost collapsed on the seat, and more than 10 people hurriedly surrounded him to comfort him, encourage him, and express support and sympathy to him.The hall finally regained its calm, but there was still a group of people whispering to each other in a mess, unable to calm down.Someone said that a lady passed out just now, but fortunately someone gave her smelling salts, and she has come to her senses.

When the hall was in chaos, Andra turned around and looked towards the auditorium with a smile.Then, with one hand on the oak railing of the dock, he put on a very elegant look. "Gentlemen," said he, "I hope I did not mean to taunt the court, or speak nonsense in the presence of honorable persons. The court asked me how old I was, which I did, and where I was born, which I answered. ;ask me what my name is, and I can't answer, because I've been abandoned by my parents. I don't have a name, so I can't tell, but I can say my father's name. So, I repeat, my father's name is Will Fu, I can present the evidence immediately."

From the young man's voice, he could be heard to be confident and energetic. The noisy hall was suddenly silent, and everyone looked at the prosecutor for a while, only to see that he stayed in his seat without any hesitation. It moved, really like a zombie killed by a thunderbolt.

"Gentlemen," Andra continued with a gesture, and the hall suddenly fell silent. "I said so, and I should present evidence to you and make further explanations."

"But," said the president angrily, "at the preliminary hearing you said that your name was Benedetto, that you were an orphan, and that you were originally from Corsica."

"The words of the pre-trial are for the pre-trial. I didn't want to say more at the time, so as not to weaken or offset the strong repercussions that the situation I said now can cause. I said it first, and things will definitely not be like this. Now I say it again, I I was born in Auteuil during the night of September 1817-9, 27. My real father was M. Prosecutor de Villefort. Now do you want to know the details? I can tell you the truth. I was born in the small building at 28, Rue Lafontaine It was a room with red brocade curtains on the second floor. My father picked me up and told my mother that I was dead. He wrapped me in a square scarf with the letters H and N rusted on it. Bury me alive in the back garden."

Everyone in the hall shuddered, and they all saw that the defendant's air was growing more confident, and M. Villefort's panic was growing.

"But how do you know all this?" asked the president.

"I can tell you, Monsieur President, that night someone sneaked into the back garden where my father buried me. This man hated my father to the core. He had set his sights on my father for revenge in the Corsican style. The man hid in the bushes and saw my father bury a box, so he jumped on him while he was digging and burying it, and then the man thought that there was something valuable in the box, so he threw it When the box was dug out, he found me alive. The man took me to the foundling home, where I was registered as number 57. Three months later, the man's sister-in-law came to Paris from Logriano to find me , said I was her son, and took me away. That is why I was born in Auteuil and grew up in Corsica."

For a while, the hall was silent, deathly silent, if it weren't for the countless chests that seemed to be panting nervously, it would make people think that the hall was empty and there was no sign of people.

"Go on," said the presiding judge.

"Of course," continued Benedetto, "the people who adopted me were indeed good people, and they liked me too. I could have been very happy, and my adoptive mother always urged me to imbue me with all kinds of virtues. In my heart, but my evil nature overwhelmed all virtues. I grew up, became bad, and finally committed a crime. Finally, one day, I complained why God made me so bad, why gave me Having arranged such an abominable fate, my adoptive father came to me and said: 'Speak no blasphemy, poor child! God was not angry when he gave you life! The source of the sin lies with your natural father, not with yourself , because your biological father has no heart for you, if you die, he will throw you into hell, if by some miracle you survive, he will throw you into the sea of ​​misery!' From then on, I no longer curse God , but to curse my father, and that is why I have said at this very moment what you reproach me with, Mr. President. And why I have caused the trembling of all the people here, Here is the reason. If this is a crime added to the crime, punish me, but if I have made it clear to you that from the day I was born, what has happened to me is misery, pain, sorrow and mourning, then have mercy on me Bar!"

"And what about your mother?" asked the presiding judge.

"My mother thought I was dead, she was innocent. I don't want to know her name, I don't know her."

There was a scream, followed by a whimper, and the group we have just mentioned were surrounding a lady.The lady, overwhelmed by the intense nervous stimulation, fainted, and was immediately carried out of the hall.When they were carrying her out, the thick veil fell off her face, and they recognized Mrs. Tanglar.Although Villefort was flustered and dejected, although he only felt his ears were ringing and his mind was going crazy, he recognized Madame Tangra and stood up involuntarily from his seat.

"Evidence! Evidence!" said the President. "Don't forget, defendant, that such a monstrous accusation requires convincing evidence."

"Evidence?" Benedetto said with a smile, "Evidence, do you want evidence?"

"Yes."

"Very well! Please see M. de Villefort first, and then ask me for evidence."

Everyone turned to look at the prosecutor, so he walked up to the railing of the judge's bench under the eyes of everyone, and saw him staggering, with disheveled hair, and his face was purple and red from his nails. .Suddenly there was a murmur in the hall, and everyone was extremely astonished and could not calm down for a long time.

"They want evidence from me, father," said Benedetto, "do you think I will give it?"

"No, no," stammered M. de Villefort, his voice choked, "no, there is no need."

"What? No more?" cried the President. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," cried the Prosecutor, "that the blow I have now received is one that kills me, and that all efforts are in vain, gentlemen, I confess that I have fallen into the hands of a vengeful god. Do not What evidence is there, and there is no need for it! Everything this young man said is true!"

There was a dead silence in the hall, like the silence before a natural disaster, both gloomy and dull, the dignified atmosphere seemed to be injected with lead, and everyone's hair stood on end in shock.

"What, Monsieur de Villefort," cried the President, "are you not hallucinating? What? Is your sanity still? We can understand that such an accusation is entirely unimaginable, not only absurd, but absurd. And it's so appalling that you must be out of your wits? Oh, you should calm down."

The prosecutor shook his head, biting his upper and lower teeth as if he was having a high fever, but his face was as pale as death.

"I am sane, sir," said he, "but I am not well, as you must have noticed. I admit all the charges against me by this young man, and from now on I shall remain at home under the supervision of the new prosecutor. "

M. de Villefort spoke in a very dull voice, almost in a choked voice, as he staggered towards the gate, which was opened mechanically for him by the nearby bailiff.The hall was still silent, and after such an accusation and confession, the people in the hall were speechless with shock, and this strange event, which had been stirring up in the upper class of Paris for two weeks, And so it ended, which was horrifying.

"Oh!" Beauchamp said, "who can say that such a play is unreasonable?"

"Really," said Chateau-Renoir, "in such a disaster, I would rather be like Monsieur Mecerf and shoot it off, and be more comfortable."

"And it's settled once and for all." Beauchamp said.

"For a time I was tempted to marry his daughter!" said Debray. "It would be well for the poor girl to die, my God!"

"Withdraw now, gentlemen," said the president. "The case will be transferred to the next court for trial. After the appointment of a new prosecutor, the case will be reopened for preliminary hearing."

As for Andra, he was always so calm and composed, and he was more and more conspicuous.He was taken away, and the gendarmes detaining him could not help showing him some respect.

"Oh! what do you think of the case, my dear friend?" asked Debray of the policeman on duty, thrusting a louis d'or into his hand.

"It may be given a lighter sentence at the discretion." The man replied.

(End of this chapter)