THE EQUINOX
Thus talking, the two companions had arrived at the Rue
du Vieux Colombier. The lady thanked her improvised
cavalier, and renewed her invitation to come to see her.
“J will try to do so,” said Eliphas; ‘but if I come shall
I ask the porter for Mlle. de la Merlitre?”
“Do not do so,” said she; ‘I am not known under that
name; ask for Mme. Dutruck.”
“Dutruck, certainly, madam; I present my humble
compliments.”
And they separated.
The trial of the assassin began, and Eliphas, reading in
the newspapers that the man was a priest, that he had belonged
to the clergy of St. Germain |’Auxerrois, that he had been a
country vicar, and that he seemed exalted to the point of
madness, recalled the pale priest who, a year earlier, had been
looking for the gvmoive of Honorius. But the description
which the public sheets gave of the criminal disagreed with
the recollection of the Professor of Magic. In fact, the
majority of the papers said that he had black hair... . “It
is not he, then,” thought Eliphas. ‘However, I still keep
in my ear and in my memory the word which would now be
explained for me by this great crime: ‘ You will soon learn
something. Before a little, you will hear speak of me.’”
The trial took place with all the frightful vicissitudes
with which every one is familiar, and the accused was
condemned to death.
The next day, Eliphas read in a legal newspaper the
account of this unheard-of scene in the annals of justice, but
a cloud passed over his eyes when he came to the description
of the accused: “ He is blond.”
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