on the good stones of Paris. With what delight and haste did I make my
way to the Rue du Mont-Blanc, where my wife should be living in a
house belonging to me! Bah! the Rue du Mont-Blanc was now the Rue de
la Chausee d'Antin; I could not find my house; it had been sold and
pulled down. Speculators had built several houses over my gardens. Not
knowing that my wife had married M. Ferraud, I could obtain no
information.

"At last I went to the house of an old lawyer who had been in charge
of my affairs. This worthy man was dead, after selling his connection
to a younger man. This gentleman informed me, to my great surprise, of
the administration of my estate, the settlement of the moneys, of my
wife's marriage, and the birth of her two children. When I told him
that I was Colonel Chabert, he laughed so heartily that I left him
without saying another word. My detention at Stuttgart had suggested
possibilities of Charenton, and I determined to act with caution.
Then, monsieur, knowing where my wife lived, I went to her house, my
heart high with hope.--Well," said the Colonel, with a gesture of
concentrated fury, "when I called under an assumed name I was not
admitted, and on the day when I used my own I was turned out of doors.

"To see the Countess come home from a ball or the play in the early
morning, I have sat whole nights through, crouching close to the wall
of her gateway. My eyes pierced the depths of the carriage, which
flashed past me with the swiftness of lightning, and I caught a
glimpse of the woman who is my wife and no longer mine. Oh, from that
day I have lived for vengeance!" cried the old man in a hollow voice,
and suddenly standing up in front of Derville. "She knows that I am
alive; since my return she has had two letters written with my own
hand. She loves me no more!--I--I know not whether I love or hate her.