The Mystery of Orcival | Page 9

old poacher obeyed.
"You say that you saw the body from your boat?"
"Yes, Monsieur Mayor."
"Where is your boat?"
"There, hauled up to that field."

"Well, lead us to it."
It was clear to all that this order had a great effect upon the man. He
trembled and turned pale under his rough skin, tanned as it was by sun
and storM. He was even seen to cast a menacing look toward his son.
"Let us go," said he at last.
They were returning to the house when the valet proposed to pass over
the ditch. "That will be the quickest way," said he, "I will go for a
ladder which we will put across."
He went off, and quickly reappeared with his improvised foot-bridge.
But at the moment he was adjusting it, the mayor cried out to him:
"Stop!"
The imprints left by the Bertauds on both sides of the ditch had just
caught his eye.
"What is this?" said he; "evidently someone has crossed here, and not
long ago; for the traces of the steps are quite fresh."
After an examination of some minutes he ordered that the ladder should
be placed farther off. When they had reached the boat, he said to Jean,
"Is this the boat with which you went to take up your nets this
morning?"
Yes."
"Then," resumed M. Courtois, "what implements did you use? your
cast net is perfectly dry; this boat-hook and these oars have not been
wet for twenty-four hours."
The distress of the father and son became more and more evident.
"Do you persist in what you say, Bertaud?" said the mayor.
Certainly."

"And you, Philippe?"
"Monsieur," stammered the young man, "we have told the truth."
"Really!" said M. Courtois, in an ironical tone. "Then you will explain
to the proper authorities how it was that you could see anything from a
boat which you had not entered. It will be proved to you, also, that the
body is in a position where it is impossible to see it from the middle of
the river. Then you will still have to tell what these foot-prints on the
grass are, which go from your boat to the place where the ditch has
been crossed several times and by several persons."
The two Bertauds hung their heads.
"Brigadier," ordered the mayor, "arrest these two men in the name of
the law, and prevent all communication between them."
Philippe seemed to be ill. As for old Jean, he contented himself with
shrugging his shoulders and saying to his son:
"Well, you would have it so, wouldn't you?"
While the brigadier led the two poachers away, and shut them up
separately, and under the guard of his men, the justice and the mayor
returned to the park. With all this," muttered M. Courtois, "no traces of
the count."
They proceeded to take up the body of the countess. The mayor sent for
two planks, which, with a thousand precautions, they placed on the
ground, being able thus to move the countess without effacing the
imprints necessary for the legal examination. Alas! it was indeed she
who had been the beautiful, the charming Countess de Tremorel! Here
were her smiling face, her lovely, speaking eyes, her fine, sensitive
mouth.
There remained nothing of her former self. The face was
unrecognizable, so soiled and wounded was it. Her clothes were in
tatters. Surely a furious frenzy had moved the monsters who had slain

the poor lady! She had received more than twenty knife-wounds, and
must have been struck with a stick, or rather with a hammer; she had
been dragged by her feet and by her hair!
In her left hand she grasped a strip of common cloth, torn, doubtless,
from the clothes of one of the assassins. The mayor, in viewing the
spectacle, felt his legs fail him, and supported himself on the arm of the
impassible Plantat.
"Let us carry her to the house," said the justice, "and then we will
search for the count."
The valet and brigadier (who had now returned) called on the domestics
for assistance. The women rushed into the garden. There was then a
terrible concert of cries, lamentations, and imprecations.
"The wretches! So noble a mistress! So good a lady!"
M. and Mme. de Tremorel, one could see, were adored by their people.
The countess had just been laid upon the billiard-table, on the
ground-floor, when the judge of instruction and a physician were
announced.
"At last!" sighed the worthy mayor; and in a lower tone he added, "the
finest medals have their reverse."
For the first time in his life, he seriously cursed his ambition, and
regretted being the most important personage in Orcival.

III
The judge of instruction of the tribunal at Corbeil, was M. Antoine
Domini,