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"Oh, ny, "the most selfish of all animals, the most personal of all creatures, who believes the earth turns, the sun shines, and death strikes for hirass! And have those who have lost their lives lost nothing?--M de Saint-Meran, Madame de Saint-Meran, M Noirtier"-"How? M Noirtier?"

"Yes; think you it was the poor servant's life was coveted? No, no; like Shakespeare's 'Polonius,' he died for another It was Noirtier the le, who drank it The other drank it only by accident, and, although Barrois is dead, it was Noirtier whose death ished for"

"But why did it not kill arden after Madame de Saint-Meran's death--because his syste to him, which would be fatal to another; because no one knows, not even the assassin, that, for the last twelve iven M Noirtier brucine for his paralytic affection, while the assassin is not ignorant, for he has proved that brucine is a violent poison"

"Oh, have pity--have pity!"his hands

"Follow the culprit's steps; he first kills M de Saint-Meran"-"O doctor!"

"I would swear to it; what I heard of his syrees too hat I have seen in the other cases" Villefort ceased to contend; he only groaned "He first kills M de Saint-Meran," repeated the doctor, "then Madame de Saint-Meran,--a double fortune to inherit" Villefort wiped the perspiration from his forehead "Listen attentively"

"Alas," stale word"

"M Noirtier," resuny in the saainst you--against your family--in favor of the poor, in fact; M Noirtier is spared, because nothing is expected from him But he has no sooner destroyed his first will and made a second, than, for fear he should make a third, he is struck down The as made the day before yesterday, I believe; you see there has been no tiny!"

"No mercy, sir! The physician has a sacred ins at the source of life, and goes down to the mysterious darkness of the toer, turns away his face, it is for the physician to bring the culprit to justice"

"Have mercy on my child, sir," murmured Villefort