It was one of those tangles in which a fatal denouement is
inevitable; and, if this had not come through Mademoiselle Sidonie,
it would have come through somebody else. The lovers plotted to
remove madame by first drugging her, then breaking her skull with
the wood chopper, and then pitching her downstairs so as to produce
the impression that she had met her death in this fashion. But
either the arm of Mademoiselle Sidonie--who was told off to do the
hammering--was unskilled in such work, or the opiate was too weak,
for the victim began to shriek before she gave up the ghost.
Detection seemed imminent, so Narcisse, in whom the quality of
discretion was evidently predominant, bolted at once and got out of
the country. But the facts were absolutely clear. The victim
lived long enough to depose that Mademoiselle Sidonie attacked her
with the wood chopper, while Narcisse watched the door. The
advocate of Narcisse did his work like a man. He shed the
regulation measure of tears; he drew graphic pictures of the
innocent youth of Narcisse, of his rise to eminence, and of his
filial piety as evidenced by the frequent despatch of money and
comestibles to his venerable mother, who was still living near
Bourges.
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