LXXXVI. Le jugement.

LXXXVI

The Judgment.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Albert burst into Beauchamp's like a thunderbolt. The valet, having been warned, showed Morcerf into his master's room, who had just got into his bath.

"Well?" said Albert to him.

"Well, my poor friend," replied Beauchamp, "I was expecting you."

"Here I am. I will not tell you, Beauchamp, that I believe you too loyal and too good to have spoken of this to anyone; no, my friend. Besides, the message you sent me is a guarantee of your affection. So let us not waste time on preliminaries: have you any idea from which quarter the blow came?"

"I will tell you in a couple of words presently."

"Yes, but first, my friend, you owe me, in all its details, the story of this abominable betrayal."

And Beauchamp related to the young man, crushed with shame and grief, the facts which we are about to retell in all their simplicity.

The morning of the day before yesterday, the article had appeared in a newspaper other than _The Impartial_, and, what gave still more gravity to the affair, in a newspaper well known for belonging to the government. Beauchamp was at breakfast when the note caught his eye; he immediately sent for a cab, and without finishing his meal, hurried to the newspaper office.

Although holding political sentiments completely opposed to those of the manager of the accusing newspaper, Beauchamp, as sometimes happens, and we would even say often, was his intimate friend.

When he arrived at his house, the manager was holding his own newspaper and seemed to be delighting in a _leading article_ on beet sugar, which was probably his own composition.

"Ah! by Jove!" said Beauchamp, "since you hold your newspaper, my dear, I need not tell you what brings me."

"Would you by chance be a partisan of the sugar cane?" asked the manager of the ministerial newspaper.

"No," replied Beauchamp, "I am even perfectly indifferent to the question; so I come for something else."

"And what do you come for?"

"For the Morcerf article."

"Ah! yes, indeed: is it not curious?"

"So curious that you are risking a libel suit, it seems to me, and a very chancey trial."

"Not at all; we received with the note all the supporting documents, and we are perfectly convinced that M. de Morcerf will keep quiet; besides, it is a service to the country to denounce the wretches unworthy of the honor bestowed upon them."

Beauchamp stood dumbfounded.

"But who then informed you so well?" he asked; "for my newspaper, which had given the alarm, was forced to abstain for lack of proof, and yet we are more interested than you in exposing M. de Morcerf, since he is a peer of France, and we are in the opposition."

"Oh! my God, it is very simple; we did not run after the scandal, it came to us. A man arrived yesterday from Janina, bringing the formidable dossier, and as we hesitated to launch into the path of accusation, he announced that if we refused, the article would appear in another newspaper. Upon my word, Beauchamp, you know what an important piece of news is; we did not want to lose that one. Now the blow is struck; it is terrible and will resound to the ends of Europe."

Beauchamp understood that there was nothing left but to bow his head, and left in despair to send a courier to Morcerf.

But what he had not been able to write to Albert, for the things we are about to relate were subsequent to the departure of his courier, was that on the same day, in the Chamber of Peers, a great agitation had manifested itself and reigned in the usually so calm groups of the high assembly. Everyone had arrived almost before the hour, and was discussing the sinister event which was to occupy public attention and fix it upon one of the best-known members of the illustrious body.

There were readings in low voices of the article, commentaries and exchanges of memories which made the facts still clearer. Count de Morcerf was not liked among his colleagues. Like all upstarts, he had been forced, to maintain his rank, to observe an excess of haughtiness. The great aristocrats laughed at him; talents repudiated him; pure glories despised him instinctively. The count had reached that unfortunate extremity of the expiatory victim. Once designated by the finger of the Lord for sacrifice, everyone prepared to cry havoc.

Alone, Count de Morcerf knew nothing. He did not receive the newspaper containing the defamatory news, and had spent the morning writing letters and trying out a horse.

He therefore arrived at his customary hour, head high, proud eye, insolent gait, descended from his carriage, passed through the corridors and entered the hall, without noticing the hesitations of the ushers and the half-bows of his colleagues.

When Morcerf entered, the session had already been open for more than half an hour.

Although the count, ignorant, as we have said, of all that had passed, had changed nothing in his air or his gait, his air and his gait appeared to all more proud than usual, and his presence on this occasion appeared so aggressive to that assembly jealous of its honor, that all saw in it an impropriety, several a bravado, a few an insult.

It was evident that the whole Chamber burned to open the debate.

The accusing newspaper was seen in everyone's hands; but, as always, each hesitated to take upon himself the responsibility of the attack. At last, one of the honorable peers, a declared enemy of Count de Morcerf, mounted the tribune with a solemnity which announced that the expected moment had arrived.

A frightful silence fell; Morcerf alone was ignorant of the cause of the profound attention that was this time given to an orator whom they had not always been accustomed to listen to so complaisantly.

The count quietly let pass the preamble by which the orator established that he was about to speak of a thing so grave, so sacred, so vital to the Chamber, that he claimed all the attention of his colleagues.

At the first words of Janina and Colonel Fernand, Count de Morcerf grew so horribly pale, that there was but a shudder in that assembly, all whose glances converged upon the count.

Moral wounds have this peculiarity, that they hide, but do not close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain alive and gaping in the heart.

The reading of the article finished amid that same silence, troubled then by a shudder which ceased as soon as the orator seemed disposed to take up the word again, the accuser exposed his scruple, and set about establishing how difficult his task was; it was the honor of M. de Morcerf, it was that of the whole Chamber which he pretended to defend by provoking a debate which must attack those personal questions always so burning. Finally, he concluded by asking that an inquiry be ordered, speedy enough to confound, before it had time to grow, the calumny, and to reestablish M. de Morcerf, by avenging him, in the position which public opinion had long since made for him.

Morcerf was so overwhelmed, so trembling before this immense and unexpected calamity, that he could scarcely stammer a few words, looking at his colleagues with a wild eye. This timidity, which moreover might as well have been due to the astonishment of the innocent as to the shame of the guilty, won him some sympathies. Truly generous men are always ready to become compassionate when the misfortune of their enemy exceeds the limits of their hatred.

The president put the inquiry to the vote; they voted by sitting and standing, and it was decided that the inquiry should take place.

The count was asked how much time he needed to prepare his justification.

Courage had returned to Morcerf as soon as he felt himself still alive after that horrible blow.

"Gentlemen peers," he replied, "it is not with time that one repulses an attack like that which unknown enemies, remaining in the shadow of their obscurity no doubt, now direct against me; it is on the instant, it is with a thunderbolt that I must answer the flash which for a moment blinded me; would that instead of such a justification, it were given me to shed my blood to prove to my colleagues that I am worthy to walk as their equal!"

These words made a favorable impression for the accused.

"I ask then," said he, "that the inquiry take place as soon as possible, and I shall furnish the Chamber with all the documents necessary to the efficacy of this inquiry."

"What day do you fix?" asked the president.

"I place myself at the disposition of the Chamber from this day," replied the count.

The president rang the bell.

"Is the Chamber of the opinion," he asked, "that this inquiry take place this very day?"

"Yes!" was the unanimous response of the Assembly.

They named a commission of twelve members to examine the documents to be furnished by Morcerf. The hour of the first session of this commission was fixed at eight o'clock in the evening in the offices of the Chamber. If several sessions were necessary, they would take place at the same hour and in the same place.

This decision taken, Morcerf asked permission to withdraw; he had to gather the documents long since amassed by him to face this storm, foreseen by his crafty and untamable character.

Beauchamp related to the young man all the things we have just said in our turn: only his account had over ours the advantage of the animation of living things over the coldness of dead things.

Albert listened to him shuddering now with hope, now with anger, sometimes with shame; for, by Beauchamp's confidence, he knew that his father was guilty, and he asked himself how, since he was guilty, he could ever succeed in proving his innocence.

Arrived at the point where we are, Beauchamp stopped.

"And then?" asked Albert.

"And then?" repeated Beauchamp.

"Yes."

"My friend, that word carries me into a horrible necessity. Do you then wish to know the rest?"

"I absolutely must know it, my friend, and I would rather learn it from your lips than from any other."

"Well," resumed Beauchamp, "brace your courage then, Albert; never had you more need of it."

Albert passed a hand over his brow to assure himself of his own strength, like a man who prepares to defend his life tries his cuirass and bends the blade of his sword.

He felt strong, for he took his fever for energy.

"Go on!" said he.

"Evening came," continued Beauchamp. "All Paris was awaiting the event. Many claimed that your father had but to show himself to make the accusation crumble; many also said that the count would not appear; some asserted they had seen him leave for Brussels, and a few went to the police to ask if it were true, as was said, that the count had taken his passport.

"I will confess to you that I did all in the world," continued Beauchamp, "to obtain from one of the members of the commission, a young peer and friend of mine, to be introduced into a sort of gallery. At seven o'clock he came for me, and, before anyone had arrived, recommended me to an usher who locked me into a kind of box. I was masked by a column and lost in complete obscurity; I could hope that I should see and hear from end to end the terrible scene which was about to unfold.

"At eight o'clock precisely everyone had arrived.

"M. de Morcerf entered on the last stroke of eight. He held in his hand some papers, and his bearing seemed calm; contrary to his habit, his gait was simple, his dress studied and severe; and, according to the habit of old military men, he wore his coat buttoned from bottom to top.

"His presence produced the best effect: the commission was far from ill-disposed, and several of its members came to the count and gave him their hand."

Albert felt his heart break at all these details, and yet amid his grief there slipped a sentiment of gratitude; he would have liked to be able to embrace those men who had given his father this mark of esteem in so great an embarrassment of his honor.

"At this moment an usher entered and handed a letter to the president.

"'You have the floor, M. de Morcerf,' said the president while breaking the seal of the letter.

"The count began his apology, and I assure you, Albert," continued Beauchamp, "that he was of an extraordinary eloquence and ability. He produced documents proving that the vizier of Janina had, until his last hour, honored him with all his confidence, since he had charged him with a negotiation of life and death with the emperor himself. He showed the ring, sign of command, and with which Ali-Pacha ordinarily sealed his letters, and which the latter had given him so that he might, on his return, at whatever hour of day or night it might be, and were he in his harem, penetrate to him. Unfortunately, said he, his negotiation had failed, and when he had returned to defend his benefactor, he was already dead. But, said the count, in dying, Ali-Pacha, so great was his confidence, had entrusted to him his favorite mistress and his daughter."

Albert started at these words, for as Beauchamp spoke, all Haydee's story came back to the young man's mind, and he remembered what the beautiful Greek had said of this message, of this ring, and of the way she had been sold and led into slavery.

"And what was the effect of the count's speech?" asked Albert anxiously.

"I confess that it moved me, and that at the same time as me, it moved the whole commission," said Beauchamp.

"However the president cast a negligent eye over the letter just brought him; but at the first lines his attention woke; he read it, read it again, and, fixing his eyes on M. de Morcerf:

"'Monsieur le Comte,' said he, 'you have just told us that the vizier of Janina entrusted to you his wife and his daughter?'

"'Yes, monsieur,' replied Morcerf: 'but in this, as in all the rest, misfortune pursued me. On my return, Vasiliki and her daughter Haydee had disappeared.'

"'You knew them?'

"'My intimacy with the pacha and the supreme confidence he had in my fidelity had permitted me to see them more than twenty times.'

"'Have you any idea what became of them?'

"'Yes, monsieur. I heard it said that they had succumbed to their grief and perhaps to their poverty. I was not rich, my life ran great dangers, I could not set about searching for them, to my great regret.'

"The president imperceptibly knit his brow.

"'Gentlemen,' said he, 'you have heard and followed M. le Comte de Morcerf and his explanations. Monsieur le Comte, can you, in support of the account you have just given, furnish some witness?'

"'Alas! no, monsieur,' replied the count, 'all those who surrounded the vizier and who knew me at his court are dead or dispersed; alone, I believe, at least alone of my compatriots, have I survived that awful war; I have only letters from Ali-Tebelin and I have laid them before you; I have only the ring pledge of his will, and here it is; I have finally the most convincing proof I can furnish, that is to say, after an anonymous attack, the absence of all testimony against my word as an honest man and the purity of my whole military life.'

"A murmur of approbation ran through the assembly; at this moment, Albert, and had no incident occurred, your father's cause was won.

"There remained only to proceed to the vote, when the president took the word.

"'Gentlemen,' said he, 'and you, monsieur le comte, you would not be displeased, I presume, to hear a very important witness, as he asserts, and who has just presented himself of his own accord; this witness, we do not doubt, after all the count has told us, is called to prove the perfect innocence of our colleague. Here is the letter I have just received on this subject; do you wish it read to you, or do you decide that we proceed and pay no heed to this incident?'

"M. de Morcerf grew pale and clenched his hands on the papers he held, and which cried out between his fingers.

"The commission's response was for the reading: as for the count, he was thoughtful and had no opinion to emit.

"The president accordingly read the following letter:

"'_Monsieur le Président_,

"'_I can furnish the commission of inquiry, charged with examining the conduct in Epirus and Macedonia of M. the lieutenant-general Count de Morcerf, the most positive information_.

"The president made a short pause.

"Count de Morcerf paled; the president interrogated his hearers with a look.

"'Continue!' cried they on all sides.

"The president resumed:

"'_I was on the spot at the death of Ali-Pacha; I assisted at his last moments; I know what became of Vasiliki and Haydee; I hold myself at the disposition of the commission, and even claim the honor of being heard. I shall be in the vestibule of the Chamber at the moment this note is delivered to you_.

"'And who is this witness, or rather this enemy?' asked the count in a voice in which it was easy to remark a profound alteration.

"'We shall know presently, monsieur,' replied the president. 'Is the commission of the opinion to hear this witness?'

"'Yes, yes,' said all the voices at once.

"They recalled the usher.

"'Usher,' asked the president, 'is there someone waiting in the vestibule?'

"'Yes, Monsieur le Président.'

"'Who is that someone?'

"'A woman accompanied by a servant.'

"Each looked at the other.

"'Bring in this woman,' said the president.

"Five minutes later, the usher reappeared; all eyes were fixed on the door, and I myself," said Beauchamp, "shared the general expectation and anxiety.

"Behind the usher walked a woman wrapped in a great veil which hid her entirely. One could well guess, from the forms betrayed by that veil and the perfumes exhaling from it, the presence of a young and elegant woman, but that was all.

"The president prayed the unknown to withdraw her veil and one could then see that this woman was dressed in the Greek style; moreover, she was of supreme beauty.

"'Ah!' said Morcerf, 'it was she.'

"'How, she?'

"'Yes, Haydee.'

"'Who told you so?'

"'Alas! I guess it. But continue, Beauchamp, I pray you. You see that I am calm and strong. And yet we must be approaching the denouement.'

"M. de Morcerf," continued Beauchamp, "looked at this woman with a surprise mixed with dread. For him, it was life or death which was about to issue from that charming mouth; for all the others, it was an adventure so strange and so full of curiosity, that the salvation or ruin of M. de Morcerf already entered into this event only as a secondary element.

"The president offered the young woman a seat with his hand; but she signified with a shake of her head that she would remain standing. As for the count, he had fallen back into his armchair, and it was evident that his legs refused to support him.

"'Madame,' said the president, 'you have written to the commission to give it information on the affair of Janina, and you have advanced that you were an eyewitness of the events.'

"'I was indeed,' replied the unknown with a voice full of a charming sadness, and stamped with that sonority peculiar to oriental voices.

"'However,' resumed the president, 'permit me to tell you that you were very young then.'

"'I was four years old; but as the events had for me a supreme importance, not a detail has left my mind, not a particular has escaped my memory.'

"'But what importance had these events for you, and who are you that this great catastrophe produced so profound an impression upon you?'

"'It was a question of the life or death of my father,' replied the young girl, 'and I am called Haydee, daughter of Ali-Tebelin, pacha of Janina, and of Vasiliki, his well-beloved wife.'

"The modest and proud blush, at once both, which purpled the young woman's cheeks, the fire of her glance and the majesty of her revelation, produced upon the assembly an inexpressible effect.

"As for the count, he would not have been more annihilated, had the thunderbolt in falling opened an abyss at his feet.

"'Madame,' resumed the president, after bowing with respect, 'permit me a simple question which is not a doubt, and this question shall be the last: Can you justify the authenticity of what you say?'

"'I can, monsieur,' said Haydee, drawing from beneath her veil a sachet of perfumed satin, 'for here is my birth certificate, drawn up by my father and signed by his principal officers; for here, with my birth certificate, is the certificate of my baptism, my father having consented that I be raised in the religion of my mother, certificate which the grand primate of Macedonia and Epirus has sealed; here finally (and this is the most important no doubt) the deed of sale which was made of my person and that of my mother to the Armenian merchant El-Kobbir, by the Frank officer who, in his infamous bargain with the Porte, had reserved for his share of booty the daughter and wife of his benefactor, whom he sold for the sum of a thousand purses, that is to say for about four hundred thousand francs.'

"A greenish pallor invaded Count de Morcerf's cheeks, and his eyes bloodshot at the statement of these terrible imputations which were received by the assembly with a gloomy silence.

"Haydee, always calm, but far more threatening in her calm than another would have been in her anger, tendered to the president the deed of sale drawn up in the Arabic language.

"As it had been thought that some of the documents produced would be drawn up in Arabic, Romaic or Turkish, the interpreter of the Chamber had been warned; they called him. One of the noble peers to whom the Arabic language, which he had learned during the sublime campaign of Egypt, was familiar, followed on the vellum the reading which the translator made aloud:

"'_I, El-Kobbir, merchant of slaves and purveyor of the harem of H.H., acknowledge having received, to remit to the sublime emperor, from the Frank seigneur Count de Monte-Cristo, an emerald valued at two thousand purses, for price of a young Christian slave aged eleven years, named Haydee, and recognized daughter of the late seigneur Ali-Tebelin, pacha of Janina, and of Vasiliki, his favorite; the which had been sold to me, seven years ago, with her mother, dead on arriving at Constantinople, by a Frank colonel in the service of the vizier Ali-Tebelin, named Fernand Mondego._

"'_The said sale had been made to me on account of H.H., for whom I had mandate, for the sum of one thousand purses._

"'_Done at Constantinople, with authorization of H.H. the year 1247 of the hegira._

"'_Signed EL-KOBBIR_.'

"'_The present act, to give it all faith, all belief and all authenticity, shall be sealed with the imperial seal, which the vendor binds himself to have affixed thereto._'

"Near the merchant's signature one saw in effect the seal of the sublime emperor.

"To this reading and this sight succeeded a terrible silence; the count had only his glance left, and that glance, fixed as despite himself upon Haydee, seemed of flame and of blood.

"'Madame,' said the president, 'can one interrogate the Count de Monte-Cristo, who is in Paris near you, as I believe?'

"'Monsieur,' replied Haydee, 'the Count de Monte-Cristo, my other father, has been in Normandy these three days.'

"'But then, madame,' said the president, 'who counseled you this step, a step for which the court thanks you and which moreover is wholly natural given your birth and your misfortunes?'

"'Monsieur,' replied Haydee, 'this step was counseled me by my respect and by my grief. Although a Christian, God forgive me! I have always thought to avenge my illustrious father. Now, when I set foot in France, when I learned that the traitor dwelt in Paris, my eyes and my ears remained constantly open. I live retired in the house of my noble protector, but I live thus because I love the shadow and the silence which permit me to live in my thought and in my recollection. But M. le Comte de Monte-Cristo surrounds me with paternal care, and nothing that constitutes the life of the world is strange to me; only I accept of it but the distant noise. Thus I read all the newspapers, as they send me all the albums, as I receive all the melodies, and it is by following, without involving myself, the life of others, that I learned what had passed this morning in the Chamber of Peers and what was to pass there this evening... Then, I wrote.'

"'Thus,' asked the president, 'M. le Comte de Monte-Cristo is in nothing party to your step?'

"'He is wholly ignorant of it, monsieur, and indeed I have but one fear, that he will disapprove it when he learns of it; however it is a fine day for me,' continued the young girl, raising to heaven a glance all ardent with flame, 'that on which I find at last the occasion to avenge my father.'

"The count, during all this time, had not uttered a single word; his colleagues looked at him and no doubt pitied this fortune broken beneath the perfumed breath of a woman; his misfortune wrote itself little by little in sinister lines upon his face.

"'Monsieur de Morcerf,' said the president, 'do you recognize the lady as the daughter of Ali-Tebelin, pacha of Janina?'

"'No,' said Morcerf, making an effort to rise, 'and it is a plot hatched by my enemies.'

"Haydee, who held her eyes fixed toward the door, as if she expected someone, turned abruptly, and, finding the count standing, she uttered a terrible cry:

"'You do not recognize me,' said she; 'well, I, happily, recognize you! You are Fernand Mondego, the Frank officer who instructed the troops of my noble father. It is you who delivered the castles of Janina! it is you who, sent by him to Constantinople to treat directly with the emperor for the life or death of your benefactor, brought back a false firman which granted full pardon! it is you who, with that firman, obtained the pacha's ring which was to make Selim, the guardian of the fire, obey you; it is you who stabbed Selim! it is you who sold us, my mother and me, to the merchant El-Kobbir! Assassin! assassin! assassin! you still have on your brow the blood of your master! look all of you.'

"These words had been pronounced with such an enthusiasm of truth, that all eyes turned toward the count's brow, and that he himself raised his hand to it as if he had felt, still warm, the blood of Ali.

"'Do you then positively recognize M. de Morcerf as being the same as the officer Fernand Mondego?'

"'If I recognize him! cried Haydee. 'Oh! my mother! you said to me: "You were free, you had a father whom you loved, you were destined to be almost a queen! Look well at this man, it is he who made you a slave, it is he who raised on a pike the head of your father, it is he who sold us, it is he who delivered us up! Look well at his right hand, the one with a broad scar; if you forgot his face, you would know him by that hand into which fell one by one the gold pieces of the merchant El-Kobbir!" If I recognize him! Oh! let him say now himself if he does not recognize me.'

"Each word fell like a cleaver upon Morcerf and cut off a parcel of his energy; at the last words, he hastily and despite himself hid his hand, indeed mutilated by a wound, in his breast, and fell back into his armchair, sunk in a gloomy despair.

"This scene had made the minds of the assembly whirl, as one sees the leaves detached from the trunk run before the powerful wind of the north.

"'Monsieur le Comte de Morcerf,' said the president, 'do not let yourself be cast down, answer: the justice of the court is supreme and equal for all like that of God; it will not leave you crushed by your enemies without giving you the means to combat them. Do you wish new inquiries? Do you wish that I order a journey of two members of the Chamber to Janina? Speak!'

"Morcerf answered nothing.

"Then all the members of the commission looked at each other with a sort of terror. They knew the energetic and violent character of the count. It required a very terrible prostration to annihilate the defense of this man; it required finally to think that to this silence, which resembled sleep, would succeed an awakening which would resemble thunder.

"'Well,' asked him the president, 'what do you decide?'

"'Nothing!' said the count, rising with a hollow voice.

"'The daughter of Ali-Tebelin,' said the president, 'has then truly declared the truth? she is then truly the terrible witness to whom it always happens that the guilty dares not answer: NO? you have then truly done all the things whereof you are accused?'

"The count cast around him a glance whose desperate expression would have touched tigers, but he could not disarm judges; then he raised his eyes to the vault, and turned them away at once, as if he had feared that this vault, opening, would make resplendent that second tribunal which is called heaven, that other judge who is called God.

"Then with a brusque movement he tore off the buttons of that closed coat which stifled him, and left the hall like a somber madman; for an instant his step resounded lugubriously under the sonorous vault, then soon the rolling of the carriage which bore him off at a gallop shook the portico of the Florentine edifice.

"'Gentlemen,' said the president when silence was reestablished, 'is M. le Comte de Morcerf convicted of felony, of treason and of unworthiness?'

"'Yes!' replied with a unanimous voice all the members of the commission of inquiry.

"Haydee had assisted to the end of the session; she heard the sentence of the count pronounced without a single trait of her face expressing either joy or pity.

"Then, drawing her veil over her face, she saluted the counselors majestically, and went out with that step wherewith Virgil saw the goddesses walk.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”