Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 80: The Accusation. (continued)

Villefort, suffocating, pressed the doctor's arm. "Listen," cried he; "pity me -- help me! No, my daughter is not guilty. If you drag us both before a tribunal I will still say, `No, my daughter is not guilty; -- there is no crime in my house. I will not acknowledge a crime in my house; for when crime enters a dwelling, it is like death -- it does not come alone.' Listen. What does it signify to you if I am murdered? Are you my friend? Are you a man? Have you a heart? No, you are a physician! Well, I tell you I will not drag my daughter before a tribunal, and give her up to the executioner! The bare idea would kill me -- would drive me like a madman to dig my heart out with my finger-nails! And if you were mistaken, doctor -- if it were not my daughter -- if I should come one day, pale as a spectre, and say to you, `Assassin, you have killed my child!' -- hold -- if that should happen, although I am a Christian, M. d'Avrigny, I should kill myself."

"Well," said the doctor, after a moment's silence, "I will wait." Villefort looked at him as if he had doubted his words. "Only," continued M. d'Avrigny, with a slow and solemn tone, "if any one falls ill in your house, if you feel yourself attacked, do not send for me, for I will come no more. I will consent to share this dreadful secret with you, but I will not allow shame and remorse to grow and increase in my conscience, as crime and misery will in your house."

"Then you abandon me, doctor?"

"Yes, for I can follow you no farther, and I only stop at the foot of the scaffold. Some further discovery will be made, which will bring this dreadful tragedy to a close. Adieu."

"I entreat you, doctor!"

"All the horrors that disturb my thoughts make your house odious and fatal. Adieu, sir."

"One word -- one single word more, doctor! You go, leaving me in all the horror of my situation, after increasing it by what you have revealed to me. But what will be reported of the sudden death of the poor old servant?"