Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 45: The Rain of Blood. (continued)

"As I noticed the significant manner in which the whole party pointed to my blood-stained garments, I involuntarily surveyed myself, and then I discovered that the thick warm drops that had so bedewed me as I lay beneath the staircase must have been the blood of La Carconte. I pointed to the spot where I had concealed myself. `What does he mean?' asked a gendarme. One of the officers went to the place I directed. `He means,' replied the man upon his return, `that he got in that way;' and he showed the hole I had made when I broke through.

"Then I saw that they took me for the assassin. I recovered force and energy enough to free myself from the hands of those who held me, while I managed to stammer forth -- `I did not do it! Indeed, indeed I did not!' A couple of gendarmes held the muzzles of their carbines against my breast. -- `Stir but a step,' said they, `and you are a dead man.' -- `Why should you threaten me with death,' cried I, `when I have already declared my innocence?' -- `Tush, tush,' cried the men; `keep your innocent stories to tell to the judge at Nimes. Meanwhile, come along with us; and the best advice we can give you is to do so unresistingly.' Alas, resistance was far from my thoughts. I was utterly overpowered by surprise and terror; and without a word I suffered myself to be handcuffed and tied to a horse's tail, and thus they took me to Nimes.