and would not be saddled with the crime.

Then, one evening, I saw mounted police in the courtyard.

"Good!" I said, "let my destiny take its course." But before quitting
the house, perhaps forever, I wished to see Edmée again for the last
time. I walked straight to her room, and there I found the Abbé and the
doctor. I heard the latter declare that the wounds in themselves were
not mortal, and the only danger was from a violent disturbance in the
brain.

I approached the bed, and took Edmée's cold and lifeless hand. I kissed
it a last time, and, without saying a single word to the others, went
and gave myself up to the police.

I was immediately thrown into prison and in a few days my trial began at
the assizes. I was convicted, but through the efforts of certain friends
a revision of my sentence was granted, and I was allowed a new trial.

At this trial Patience appeared and declared that, while he had believed
from what Edmée had said that I was guilty, it had come into his head
that some other Mauprat might have fired the shot. It appeared that John
Mauprat was now living in the neighbourhood, as a penitent Trappist
monk, and he had been seen in company with another monk who was not to
be found since the attack on Edmée. "So I put myself on the track of
this wandering monk," Patience concluded, "and I have discovered who he
is. He is the would-be murderer of Edmée de Mauprat, and his name is
Antony Mauprat."

It then turned out that Antony's plot was to kill Edmée, get me hanged