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In 1859 he had become a captain, and was on the point of being made admiral, when he had all of a sudden sent in his resignation, and taken up his residence at the Castle of Valpinson, although the house had nothing to show of its former splendor but two towers falling to pieces, and an immense mass of ruin and rubbish.
"Oh, wait!" cried Jacques. "I am quite sure, at all events, that I killed that rabbit at the first shot. Consequently, I can have fouled only one barrel of the gun. If I have used the same barrel at Valpinson, to get a light, I am safe. With a double gun, one almost instinctively first uses the right-hand barrel." M. Magloire's face grew darker.
"Now," said the magistrate again, "if fire should break out at Valpinson, would you see it from here?" "I think not, sir. There are hills and tall woods between." "Can you hear the Brechy bells from here?" "When the wind is north, yes, sir." "And last night, how was it?" "The wind was from the west, as it always is when we have a storm." "So that you have heard nothing?
"But this cartridge-case which I have just shown you was picked up at Valpinson, close by the ruins of the old castle." "Well, sir, have I not told you before that I have seen a hundred times children pick up these cases to play with? Besides, if I had really been at Valpinson, why should I deny it?" M. Galpin rose to his full height, and said in the most solemn manner,
But you are becoming serious; you want sober affections, and you leave me. Well, be it so. But what is to become of me when you are married? "I was suffering terribly. "'You have your husband, I stammered, 'your children' "She stopped me. "'Yes, she said. 'I shall go back go live at Valpinson, in that country full of associations, where every place recalls a rendezvous.
I am impatient to be off; my carriage is ready; let us go!" In a straight line it is only a mile from Sauveterre to Valpinson; but that mile is as long as two elsewhere. M. Seneschal, however, had a good horse, "the best perhaps in the county," he said, as he got into his carriage. In ten minutes they had overtaken the firemen, who had left some time before them.
Then Goudar asked, "Ah! you did not have such good wine to drink at Valpinson?" "Oh, yes!" replied Cocoleu. "But as much as you wanted?" "Yes. Quite enough." And, laughing with some difficulty, he stammered, and stuttered out, "I got got into the cellar through one of the windows; and I drank drank through through a a straw." "You must be sorry you are no longer there?" "Oh, yes!"
On the mantelpiece stood a worn-out clock and half-broken candelabra; then, here and there, pieces of furniture that would not match, such as had been rescued from the fire at Valpinson, chairs, sofas, arm-chairs, and a round table, all battered and blackened by the flames. But M. Folgat paid little attention to these details.
M. Tetard disappeared without saying another word; and the doctor, very much excited by this scene, turned to the youngest daughter of the countess, the one with whom she was sitting up when the fire broke out, and who was now decidedly better: after that nothing could keep him at Valpinson.
Whether M. Magloire accepted every thing that the prisoner said as truth, or not, he was evidently deeply interested. He had drawn up his chair, and at every statement he uttered half-loud exclamations. "Under any other circumstances," said Jacques, "I should have taken one of the two public roads in going to Valpinson.
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