one accomplice by another still more dangerous.  That would be idiotic, and the count is a sensible man.  He, therefore, had nothing whatever to do with the matter.  To be quite sure though, I will make some inquiries about him.  Another thing, Widow Lerouge, who so readily exchanged the children while nursing them, would be very likely to undertake a number of other dangerous commissions.  Who can say that she has not obliged other persons who had an equal interest in getting rid of her?  There is a secret, I am getting at it, but I do not hold it yet.  One thing is certain though, she was not assassinated to prevent Noel recovering his rights.  She must have been suppressed for some analogous reason, by a bold and experienced scoundrel, prompted by similar motives to those of which I suspected Albert.  It is, then, in that direction that I must follow up the case now.  And, above all, I must obtain the past history of this obliging widow, and I will have it too, for in all probability the particulars which have been written for from her birthplace will arrive tomorrow.”

Returning to Albert, old Tabaret weighed the charges which were brought against the young man, and reckoned the chances which he still had in favour of his release.

“From the look of things,” he murmured, “I see only luck and myself, that is to say absolutely nothing, in his favor at present.  As to the charges, they are countless.  However, it is no use going over them.  It is I who amassed them; and I know what they are worth!  At once everything and nothing.  What do signs prove, however striking they may be, in cases where one ought to disbelieve even the evidence of one’s own senses?  Albert is a victim of the most remarkable coincidences; but one word might explain them.  There have been many such cases.  It was even worse in the matter of the little tailor.  At five o’clock, he bought a knife, which he showed to ten of his friends, saying, ’This is for my wife, who is an idle jade, and plays me false with my workmen.’  In the evening, the neighbours heard a terrible quarrel between the couple, cries, threats, stampings, blows; then suddenly all was quiet.  The next day, the tailor had disappeared from his home, and the wife was discovered dead, with the very same knife buried to the hilt between her shoulders.  Ah, well! it turned out it was not the husband who had stuck it there; it was a jealous lover.  After that, what is to be believed?  Albert, it is true, will not give an account of how he passed Tuesday evening.  That does not affect me.  The question for me is not to prove where he was, but that he was not at La Jonchere.  Perhaps, after all, Gevrol is on the right track.  I hope so, from the bottom of my heart.  Yes; God grant that he may be successful.  My vanity and my mad presumption will deserve the slight punishment of his triumph over me.  What would I not give to establish this man’s innocence?  Half of my fortune would be but a small sacrifice.  If I should not succeed!  If, after having caused the evil, I should find myself powerless to undo it!”