"So," said the barrister, without winking, "you have discovered that the police had plotted in advance the smothering of your pamphlet?""Yes, my dear fellow; and what is more, I know the actual sum paid to the person who agreed to carry out this honorable plot.""The person," said la Peyrade, thinking a moment,--"perhaps I know the person; but as for the money, I don't know a word about that.""Well, I can tell you the amount. It was twenty-five--thousand--francs," said Thuillier, dwelling on each word; "that was the sum paid to Judas.""Oh! excuse me, my dear fellow, but twenty-five thousand francs is a good deal of money. I don't deny that you have become an important man; but you are not such a bugbear to the government as to lead it to make such sacrifices. Twenty-five thousand francs is as much as would ever be given for the suppression of one of those annoying pamphlets about the Civil list. But our financial lucubrations didn't annoy in that way; and such a sum borrowed from the secret-service money for the mere pleasure of plaguing you, seems to me rather fabulous.""Apparently," said Thuillier, acrimoniously, "this honest go-between had some interest in exaggerating my value. One thing is very sure;this monsieur had a debt of twenty-five thousand francs which harassed him much; and a short time before the seizure this same monsieur, who had no means of his own, paid off that debt; and unless you can tell me where else he got the money, the inference I think is not difficult to draw."It was la Peyrade's turn to look fixedly at Thuillier.
"Monsieur Thuillier," he said, raising his voice, "let us get out of enigmas and generalities; will you do me the favor to name that person?""Well, no," replied Thuillier, striking his hand upon the table, "Ishall not name him, because of the sentiments of esteem and affection which formerly united us; but you have understood me, Monsieur la Peyrade.""I ought to have known," said the Provencal, in a voice changed by emotion, "that in bringing a serpent to this place I should soon be soiled by his venom. Poor fool! do you not see that you have made yourself the echo of Cerizet's calumny?""Cerizet has nothing to do with it; on the contrary, he has told me the highest good of you. How was it, not having a penny the night before,--and I had reason to know it,--that you were able to pay Dutocq the round sum of twenty-five thousand francs the next day?"La Peyrade reflected for a moment.
"No," he said, "it was not Dutocq who told you that. He is not a man to wrestle with an enemy of my strength without a strong interest in it. It was Cerizet; he's the infamous calumniator, from whose hands Iwrenched the lease of your house near the Madeleine,--Cerizet, whom in kindness, I went to seek on his dunghill that I might give him the chance of honorable employment; that is the wretch, to whom a benefit is only an encouragement to treachery. Tiens! if I were to tell you what that man is I should turn you sick with disgust; in the sphere of infamy he has discovered worlds."This time Thuillier made an able reply.