She drew back, pale unto death, tottering so that she had to lean against the wall, and cast upon Jacques de Boiscoran glances in which the whole horror of her soul was clearly expressed.

“What do you say?” she stammered.  “O God!”

He laughed, the wretched man! with that laugh which is the last utterance of despair.  And then he replied,—­

“I say that there are circumstances which upset our reason; unheard-of circumstances, which could make one doubt of one’s self.  I say that every thing accuses me, that every thing overwhelms me, that every thing turns against me.  I say, that if I were in M. Galpin’s place, and if he were in mine, I should act just as he does.”

“That is insanity!” cried Dionysia.

But Jacques de Boiscoran did not hear her.  All the bitterness of the last days rose within him:  he turned red, and became excited.  At last, with gasping vice, he broke forth,—­

“Establish my innocence!  Ah! that is easily said.  But how?  No, I am not guilty:  but a crime has been committed; and for this crime justice will have a culprit.  If it is not I who fired at Count Claudieuse, and set Valpinson on fire, who is it?  ‘Where were you,’ they ask me, ’at the time of the murder?’ Where was I?  Can I tell it?  To clear myself is to accuse others.  And if I should be mistaken?  Or if, not being mistaken, I should be unable to prove the truthfulness of my accusation?  The murderer and the incendiary, of course, took all possible precautions to escape detection, and to let the punishment fall upon me.  I was warned beforehand.  Ah, if we could always foresee, could know beforehand!  How can I defend myself?  On the first day I said, ’Such a charge cannot reach me:  it is a cloud that a breath will scatter.’  Madman that I was!  The cloud has become an avalanche, and I may be crushed.  I am neither a child nor a coward; and I have always met phantoms face to face.  I have measured the danger, and I know it is fearful.”

Dionysia shuddered.  She cried,—­

“What will become of us?”

This time M. de Boiscoran heard her, and was ashamed of his weakness.  But, before he could master his feelings, the young girl went on, saying,—­

“But never mind.  These are idle thoughts.  Truth soars invincible, unchangeable, high above all the ablest calculations and the most skilful combinations.  Jacques, you must tell the truth, the whole truth, without subterfuge or concealment.”

“I can do so no longer,” murmured he.

“Is it such a terrible secret?”

“It is improbable.”

Dionysia looked at him almost with fear.  She did not recognize his old face, nor his eye, nor the tone of his voice.  She drew nearer to him, and taking his hand between her own small white hands, she said,—­

“But you can tell it to me, your friend, your”—­

He trembled, and, drawing back, he said,—­

“To you less than anybody else.”