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Pub One Info - Émile Gaboriau

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190 pages

English

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. The traveller who wishes to go from Poitiers to London by the shortest route will find that the simplest way is to take a seat in the stage-coach which runs to Saumur; and when you book your place, the polite clerk tells you that you must take your seat punctually at six o'clock. The next morning, therefore, the traveller has to rise from his bed at a very early hour, and make a hurried and incomplete toilet, and on arriving, flushed and panting, at the office, discover that there was no occasion for such extreme haste.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819942870
Langue	English

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THE CHAMPDOCE MYSTERY
by Emile Gaboriau
CHAPTER I.
A DUCAL MONOMANIAC.
The traveller who wishes to go from Poitiers toLondon by the shortest route will find that the simplest way is totake a seat in the stage-coach which runs to Saumur; and when youbook your place, the polite clerk tells you that you must take yourseat punctually at six o'clock. The next morning, therefore, thetraveller has to rise from his bed at a very early hour, and make ahurried and incomplete toilet, and on arriving, flushed andpanting, at the office, discover that there was no occasion forsuch extreme haste.
In the hotel from whence the coach starts every oneseems to be asleep, and a waiter, whose eyes are scarcely open,wanders languidly about. There is not the slightest good in losingyour temper, or in pouring out a string of violent remonstrances.In a small restaurant opposite a cup of hot coffee can be procured,and it is there that the disappointed travellers congregate, toawait the hour when the coach really makes a start.
At length, however, all is ready, the conductorutters a tremendous execration, the coachman cracks his whip, thehorses spring forward, the wheels rattle, and the coach is off atlast. Whilst the conductor smokes his pipe tranquilly, thepassengers gaze out of the windows and admire the beautiful aspectof the surrounding country. On each side stretch the woods andfields of Bevron. The covers are full of game, which has increasedenormously, as the owner of the property has never allowed a shotto be fired since he had the misfortune, some twenty years ago, tokill one of his dependents whilst out shooting. On the right handside some distance off rise the tower and battlements of theChateau de Mussidan. It is two years ago since the Dowager Countessof Chevanche died, leaving all her fortune to her niece,Mademoiselle Sabine de Mussidan. She was a kind-hearted woman,rough and ready in her manner, but very popular amongst thepeasantry. Farther off, on the top of some rising ground, appearsan imposing structure, of an ancient style of architecture; this isthe ancient residence of the Dukes of Champdoce. The left wing is apicturesque mass of ruins; the roof has fallen in, and the mullionsof the windows are dotted with a thick growth of clustering ivy.Rain, storm, and sunshine have all done their work, and painted themouldering walls with a hundred varied tints. In 1840 the inheritorof one of the noblest names of France resided here with his onlyson. The name of the present proprietor was Caesar GuillaumeDuepair de Champdoce. He was looked upon both by the gentry andpeasantry of the country side as a most eccentric individual. Hecould be seen any day wandering about, dressed in the most shabbymanner, and wearing a coat that was frequently in urgent need ofrepair, a leathern cap on his head, wooden shoes, and a stout oakencudgel in his hand. In winter he supplemented to these an ancientsheepskin coat. He was sixty years of age, very powerfully built,and possessing enormous strength. The expression upon his faceshowed that his will was as strong as his thews and sinews. Beneathhis shaggy eyebrows twinkled a pair of light-gray eyes, whichdarkened when a fit of passion overtook him, and this was nounusual occurrence.
During his military career in the army of the Conde,he had received a sabre cut across his cheek, and the cicatriceimparted a strange and unpleasant expression to his face. He wasnot a bad-hearted man, but headstrong, violent, and tyrannical to adegree. The peasants saluted him with a mixture of respect anddread as he walked to the chapel, to which he was a regularattendant on Sundays, with his son. During the Mass he made theresponses in an audible voice, and at its conclusion invariably puta five-franc piece into the plate. This, his subscription to thenewspaper, and the sum he paid for being shaved twice each week,constituted the whole of his outlay upon himself. He kept anexcellent table, however; plump fowls, vegetables of all kinds, andthe most delicious fruit were never absent from it. Everything,however, that appeared upon his well-plenished board was theproduce of his fields, gardens, or woods. The nobility and gentryof the neighborhood frequently invited him to their hospitabletables, for they looked upon him as the head and chief of thenobility of the county; but he always refused their invitations,saying plainly, “No man who has the slightest respect for himselfwill accept hospitalities which he is not in a position to return.” It was not the grinding clutch of poverty that drove the Duke tothis exercise of severe economy, for his income from his estatesbrought him in fifty thousand francs per annum; and it was reportedthat his investments brought him in as much more. As a matter ofcourse, therefore, he was looked upon as a miser, and a victim tothe sordid vice of avarice.
His past life might, in some degree, offer anexplanation of this conduct. Born in 1780, the Duke de Champdocehad joined the band of emigrants which swelled the ranks of Conde'sarmy. An implacable opposer of the Revolution, he resided, duringthe glorious days of the Empire, in London, where dire povertycompelled him to gain a livelihood as a fencing master at theRestoration. He came back with the Bourbons to his native land,and, by an almost miraculous chance, was put again in possession ofhis ancestral domains. But in his opinion he was living in a stateof utter destitution as compared to the enormous revenues enjoyedby the dead-and-gone members of the Champdoce family; and whatpained him more was to see rise up by the side of the oldaristocracy a new race which had attached itself to commerce andentered into business transactions. As he gazed upon the new orderof things, the man whose pride of birth and position almostamounted to insanity, conceived the project to which he determinedto devote the remainder of his life. He imagined that he haddiscovered a means by which he could restore the ancient house ofChampdoce to all its former splendor and position. “I can, ” saidhe, “by living like a peasant and resorting to no unnecessaryexpense, treble my capital in twenty years; and if my son and mygrandson will only follow my example, the race of Champdoce willagain recover the proud position that it formerly held. ” Faithfulto this idea, he wedded, in 1820, although his heart was entirelyuntouched, a young girl of noble birth but utterly devoid ofbeauty, though possessed of a magnificent dowry. Their union was anextremely unhappy one, and many persons did not hesitate to accusethe Duke of treating with harshness and severity a young girl, who,having brought her husband five hundred thousand francs, could notunderstand why she should be refused a new dress when she urgentlyneeded it. After twelve months of inconceivable unhappiness, shegave birth to a son who was baptized Louis Norbert, and six monthsafterwards she sank into an untimely grave.
Norbert was brought up exactly as a farmer's sonwould have been. Every morning he started off to work, carrying hisday's provisions in a basket slung upon his back. As he grew older,he was taught to sow and reap, to estimate the value of a standingcrop at a glance, and, last but not least, to drive a hard bargain.For a long time the Duke debated the expediency of permitting hisson to be taught to read or write; and if he did so at last, it wasowing to some severe remarks by the parish priest upon the day onwhich Norbert took the sacrament for the first time.
All went on well and smoothly until the day whenNorbert, on his sixteenth birthday, accompanied his father toPoitiers for the first time.
At sixteen years of age, Louis Norbert de Champdocelooked fully twenty, and was as handsome a youth as could be seenfor miles round. The sun had given a bronzed tint to his featureswhich was exceedingly becoming. He had black hair, with a slightcurl running through it, and large melancholy blue eyes, which heinherited from his mother. Poor girl! it was the sole beauty thatshe had possessed. He was utterly uncultured, and had been ruledwith such a rod of iron by his father that he had never been aleague from the Chateau. His ideas were barred by the little townof Bevron, with its sixty houses, its town hall, its small chapel,and principal river; and to him it seemed a spot full of noise andconfusion. In the whole course of his life he had never spoken tothree persons who did not belong to the district. Bred up in thissecluded manner, it was almost impossible for him to understandthat any one could lead a different existence to that of his own.His only pleasure was in procuring an abundant harvest, and hissole idea of excitement was High Mass on Sunday.
For more than a year the village girls had cast slyglances at him, but he was far too simple and innocent to noticethis. When Mass was over, he generally walked over the farm withhis father to inspect the work of the past week, or to set snaresfor the birds. His father at last determined to give him a widerexperience, and one day said that he was to accompany him toPoitiers.
At a very early hour in the morning they started inone of the low country carts of the district, and under the seatwere small sacks, containing over forty thousand francs in silvermoney. Norbert had long wished to visit Poitiers, but had neverdone so, though it was but fifteen miles off. Poitiers is a quaintold town, with dilapidated pavements and tall, gloomy houses, thearchitecture of which dates from the tenth century; but Norbertthought that it must be one of the most magnificent cities in theworld. It was market day when they drove in, and he was absolutelystupefied with surprise and excitement. He had never believed therecould be so many people in one place, and hardly noticed that thecart had pulled up opposite a lawyer's office. His father shook himroughly by the shoulder.
“Come, Norbert, lad, we are there, ” said he.
The young man jumped to the ground, and assi