for a moment I saw that he was ready to use force to detain me. In spite
of his advanced age, in spite of my height and strength, he might still
have been a match, perhaps more than a match, for me in a struggle of
this kind. Short, bent, broad-shouldered, he was a Hercules.

He stopped, however, just as he was about to lay hands on me, and,
seized with one of those fits of deep tenderness to which he was subject
in his moments of greatest passion, he gazed at me with eyes of pity,
and said, in a gentle tone:

"My poor boy! you whom I loved as a son (for I looked upon you as
Edmee's brother), do not hasten to your ruin. I beseech you in the
name of her whom you have murdered, and whom you still love--I can see
it--but whom you may never behold again. Believe me, but yesterday your
family was a proud vessel, whose helm was in your hands; to-day it is
a drifting wreck, without either sail or pilot--left to be handled
by cabinboys, as friend Marcasse says. Well, my poor mariner, do not
persist in drowning yourself; I am throwing you a rope; take it--a day
more, and it may be too late. Remember that if the law gets hold of you,
the man who is trying to save you to-day, to-morrow will be obliged to
appear against you and condemn you. Do not compel me to do a thing the
very thought of which brings tears to my eyes. Bernard, you have been
loved, my lad; even to-day you may live on the past."

I burst into tears, and the sergeant, who returned at this moment, began
to weep also; he implored me to go back to Roche-Mauprat; but I soon
recovered and, thrusting them both away, said:

"I know that both of you are excellent men, and both most generous; you
must have some love for me too, since, though you believe me blackened