The Mesmerist's Victim

  CHAPTER XXXI.

  THE TRIAL.

  The parlor was well lighted, and Balsamo entering could see the grim airof the five men who kept their seats until he was before them and bowed.Then they all rose and returned the salute.

  He took an armchair facing theirs without appearing to remark thattheirs formed a horse-shoe in front of his so that he occupied the placeof the culprit at a trial.

  He did not speak first as he would have done on another occasion. Fromthe painful dulness which succeeded the shock to him he looked withoutseeing.

  "You seem to have understood what we come for, brother," said the manwho held the central chair: "yet you were long coming and we weredeliberating if we should not send for you."

  "I do not understand you," simply replied the mesmerist.

  "That did not seem so when you took the place of the accused."

  "Accused?" faltered the other, vaguely. "Still I do not understand."

  "It will not be hard to make you do so," said the chief officer:"judging by your pale front, dull eyes and tremulous voice. Do you nothear me?"

  "Yes, I hear," was the reply, while he shook his head to drive away thethoughts oppressing him.

  "Do you remember, brother," said the president, "that at the lastmeeting, the Superior Committee gave you warning of treason meditated byone of the main upholders of the Order?"

  "Perhaps so, I do not know."

  "You answer as with a perturbed and tumultuous conscience. Butrecover--do not be cast down. Answer with the clearness and precisenesswhich a dreadful position demands. Answer with such certainty that youwill convince us, for we come with no more hatred than prejudice. We arethe Law. It speaks not till after the judges pronounce."

  Balsamo made no reply.

  Seeing the calm and immobility of the accused, the others stared at himnot without astonishment, before fastening their eyes on the chiefagain.

  "You are warned. Protect yourself, for I resume.

  "After this warning the Order delegated five of the members to watch atParis about him who was designated as a traitor. It was not easy towatch a man like you, whose power was to enter everywhere. You had atyour disposal all the means, which are immense, of our association,given for the triumph of our cause. But we respected the mystery of yourconduct as you fluctuated between the adherents of Dubarry, of Richelieuand Rohan. But three days ago, five warrants of arrest, signed by theKing and put in motion by Sartines, were presented on the same day tofive of our principal agents, very faithful and devoted brothers whohave been taken away. Two are put in solitary confinement in theBastile, two at Vincennes Castle, in the dungeons, and one is in Bicetrein the deepest cell. Did you know of this?"

  "No," replied the accused.

  "Strange, with the close connections you have with royalty. But this isstranger still. To arrest those friends, Sartines must have had the notenaming them, the only one, under Arabian characters, which was addressedto the Supreme Circle in 1769, when you received them and gave them thegrade assigned to them. But the sixth name was the Count of Fenix's."

  "I grant that," said Balsamo.

  "Then how comes it that they five should be arrested as by that listwhile you were spared? you deserved prison as well as they. What haveyou to answer?"

  "Nothing."

  "Your pride survives your honor. The police discovered those names inreading our papers which you kept in a casket. One day a woman came outof your house with this casket and went to the Chief of Police. Thus allwas discovered. Is this true?"

  "Perfectly true."

  The president stood up.

  "Who was this woman?" he said. "A fair and passionate one devoted to youbody and soul and affectionately loved. Lorenza Feliciani is your wife,Balsamo."

  He groaned in despair.

  "A quarter of an hour after she called on the head of the police, youcalled in your turn. She had sown the seed and you were to gather theharvest. An obedient servant she committed the treachery and you had butto give the finishing touches to the infernal work. Lorenza came outalone. No doubt you arranged this and did not want to be compromised byher company. You came out triumphantly with Lady Dubarry, called thereto receive from your mouth the information which she was to pay. You gotinto the carriage of this courtesan, leaving the papers which ruined usin the hands of Lord Sartines but carrying away the empty casket.Happily we saw you. The light of the All-seeing Eye did not fail us onall occasions."

  Balsamo bowed still without remark.

  "I conclude," said the chief judge. "Two guilty ones are pointed out:the woman who was your accomplice and may have unwittingly injured us byconveying the revelations of our secrets; the second, yourself the GrandCopt, the luminous ray who had the cowardice to let your wife shield youin this deed of treason."

  Balsamo slowly raised his pale face, and fixed on the speaker a glancewith the fire in it which had accumulated while the speech was made.

  "Why do you accuse this woman?" he demanded.

  "We know that you will try to defend her; that you love her to idolatryand prefer her above all. She is your treasure of science, happiness andfortune; the most precious of your instruments."

  "You know this?"

  "And that in striking her we hurt you more than in striking you. This isthe sentence, then: Joseph Balsamo is a traitor. He has broken his oath,but his science is immense and useful to the Order. He ought to live forthe cause he has betrayed; he belongs still to his brothers though hehas renounced them. A perpetual prison will protect the society againstfuture perfidy, and at the same time let the brothers gather the gaindue to them if only as a forfeit. As for Lorenza Feliciani, a dreadfuldoom---- "

  "Stay," said Balsamo, with the greatest calm in his voice. "You areforgetting that I have not defended myself. The accused ought to have ahearing in his justification. One word will suffice--one piece ofevidence. Wait for me one moment while I bring the proof I speak of."

  The judges consulted an instant.

  "Do you fear that I will commit suicide?" said the accused with a bittersmile. "I wear a ring that would kill this room-full of people were I toopen it. Do you fear that I will flee? Let me be escorted, if that beyour fear."

  "Go," said the president.

  For only a while did the prisoner disappear; then they heard his stepdescending the stairs, heavily. He entered.

  On his shoulder was the cold discolored, rigid corpse of Lorenza, withher white hand sweeping the floor.

  "As you said, this woman--whom I adored and was my treasure, my onlyjoy, my very life--she betrayed us," he said: "here she is--take her!The High Justicer of heaven did not wait for you to come and slay her."

  With a movement as swift as lightning, he slid the corpse out of hisarms, and rolled it to the feet of the judges. The dark hair and inerthands struck them with all their profound horror while by the lamplightthe wound glared with its ominous red, deeply yawning in the midst ofthe swan-white neck.

  "Utter your sentence, now," said Balsamo.

  Aghast, the judges uttered a terror-stricken cry, and fled dizzily inconfusion inexpressible. The horses of their carriage and escort wereheard neighing in the yard and trampling; the carriage-gate groaned onits hinges and then solemn silence sat once more on the abode of deathand despair.