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The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The murders in the Rue
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  Speaker 1: Morgue Edgar Allan Poe, What song the sirens sang? Or
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  Speaker 1: what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women?
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  Speaker 1: Although puzzling questions are not beyond all conjecture, Sir Thomas Brown,
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  Speaker 1: the mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are in
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  Speaker 1: themselves but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only
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  Speaker 1: in their effects. We know of them, among other things,
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  Speaker 1: that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed,
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  Speaker 1: a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man
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  Speaker 1: exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as
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  Speaker 1: call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in
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  Speaker 1: that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even
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  Speaker 1: the most trivial occupations, bringing his talent into play. He
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  Speaker 1: is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphic exhibiting in
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  Speaker 1: his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears
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  Speaker 1: to the ordinary apprehension preternatural. His results brought about by
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  Speaker 1: the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth
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  Speaker 1: the whole air of intuition. The faculty of resolution is
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  Speaker 1: possibly much invigorated by mathematical study, and especially by that
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  Speaker 1: highest branch of it, which, unjustly and merely on account
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  Speaker 1: of its retrograde operations, has been called as if par excellence.
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  Speaker 1: Analysis yet to calculate, is not, in itself to analyze
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  Speaker 1: a chess player, for example, does the one without effort
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  Speaker 1: at the other. It follows that the game of chess,
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  Speaker 1: in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I
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  Speaker 1: am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a
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  Speaker 1: somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random. I
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  Speaker 1: will therefore take occasion to assert that the higher powers
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  Speaker 1: of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully
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  Speaker 1: tasked by the unostentatious game of drafts than by all
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  Speaker 1: the elaborate for volity of chess. In this latter, where
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  Speaker 1: the pieces have different and bizarre motions with various and
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  Speaker 1: variable values, what is only complex is mistaken a not
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  Speaker 1: unusual error for what is profound. The attention is here
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  Speaker 1: called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant
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  Speaker 1: an oversight is committed resulting in injury or defeat. The
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  Speaker 1: possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances
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  Speaker 1: of such oversights are multiplied, and in nine cases out
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  Speaker 1: of ten, it is the more concentrative rather than the
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  Speaker 1: more acute player who conquers. In drafts. On the contrary,
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  Speaker 1: where the moves are unique and have but little variation,
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  Speaker 1: the probabilities of inadvertence are diminished, and the mere attention
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  Speaker 1: being left comparatively unemployed. What advantages are obtained by either
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  Speaker 1: party are obtained by superior acumen. To be less abstract,
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  Speaker 1: Let us suppose a game of drafts, where the pieces
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  Speaker 1: are reduced to four kings, and where of course no
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  Speaker 1: oversight is to be expected. It is obvious that here
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  Speaker 1: the victory can be decided, the player's being at all equal,
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  Speaker 1: only by some racherchet movement, the result of some strong
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  Speaker 1: exertion of the intellect. Deprived of ordinary resources, The analyst
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  Speaker 1: throws himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies himself therewith,
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  Speaker 1: and not unfrequently sees thus at a glance the sole methods,
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  Speaker 1: sometime indeed absurdly simple, ones by which he may seduce
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  Speaker 1: into error or hurry into miscalculation. WIST has long been
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  Speaker 1: noted for its influence upon what is termed the calculating power,
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  Speaker 1: and men of the highest order of intellect have been
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  Speaker 1: known to take an apparently unaccountable delight in it, while
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  Speaker 1: issuwing chess as frivolous. Beyond doubt, there is nothing of
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  Speaker 1: a similar nature so greatly tasking the faculty of analysis.
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  Speaker 1: The best chess player in Christendom may be little more
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  Speaker 1: than the best player of chess, but proficiency in WIST
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  Speaker 1: implies capacity for success in all those more important undertakings
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  Speaker 1: where mind struggles with mind. When I I say proficiency,
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  Speaker 1: I mean that perfection in the game, which includes a
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  Speaker 1: comprehension of all the sources, whence legitimate advantage may be derived.
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  Speaker 1: These are not only manifold, but multiform, and lie frequently
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  Speaker 1: among recesses of thought altogether inaccessible to the ordinary understanding.
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  Speaker 1: To observe attentively is to remember distinctly, and so far
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  Speaker 1: the concentrative chess player will do very well at whist,
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  Speaker 1: while the rules of Hoyle themselves, based upon the mere
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  Speaker 1: mechanism of the game, are sufficiently and generally comprehensible. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: to have a retentive memory, and to proceed by the
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  Speaker 1: book are points commonly regarded as the sum total of
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  Speaker 1: good playing. But it is in matters beyond the limits
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  Speaker 1: of mere rule that the skill of the analyst is evinced.
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  Speaker 1: He makes in silence a host of observations and inferences,
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  Speaker 1: so perhaps do his companions, And the difference in the
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  Speaker 1: extent of the information obtained lies not so much in
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  Speaker 1: the validity of the inference as in the quality of
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  Speaker 1: the observation. The necessary knowledge is that of what to observe.
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  Speaker 1: Our player confines himself not at all, nor because the
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  Speaker 1: game is the object, does he reject deductions from things
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  Speaker 1: external to the game. He examines the countenance of his partner,
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  Speaker 1: comparing it carefully with that of each of his opponents.
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  Speaker 1: He considers the mode of assorting the cards in each hand,
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  Speaker 1: often counting trump by trump and honor by honor. Through
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  Speaker 1: the glances bestowed by their holders upon each he notes
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  Speaker 1: every variation of face as the play progresses, gathering a
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  Speaker 1: fund of thought from the differences in the expression of certainty,
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  Speaker 1: of surprise, of triumph, or of chagrin. From the manner
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  Speaker 1: of gathering up a trick. He judges whether the person
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  Speaker 1: taking it can make another in the suit. He recognizes
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  Speaker 1: what is played through faint by the manner with which
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  Speaker 1: it is thrown upon the table a casual or inadvertent word,
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  Speaker 1: the accidental dropping or turning of a card, with the
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  Speaker 1: accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its concealment, The
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  Speaker 1: counting of the tricks with the order of their arrangement, embarrassment, hesitation, eagerness,
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  Speaker 1: or trepidation, all afford to his apparently intuitive perception indications
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  Speaker 1: of the true state of affairs. The first two or
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  Speaker 1: three rounds having been played, he is in full possession
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  Speaker 1: of the contents of each hand, and thenceforward puts down
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  Speaker 1: his cards with as absolute a precision of purpose as
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  Speaker 1: if the rest of the party had turned out with
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  Speaker 1: the faces of their own. The analytical power should not
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  Speaker 1: be confounded with ample ingenuity, for while the analyst is
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  Speaker 1: necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis.
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  Speaker 1: The constructive or combining power by which ingenuity is usually manifested,
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  Speaker 1: and to which the phrenologists I believe erroneously have assigned
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  Speaker 1: a separate organ, supposing it a primitive faculty, has been
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  Speaker 1: so frequently seen in those whose intellect bordered otherwise upon idiocy,
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  Speaker 1: as to have attracted general observation among writers on morals.
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  Speaker 1: Between ingenuity and the anamal palytic ability, there exists a
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  Speaker 1: difference far greater, indeed, than that between the fancy and
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  Speaker 1: the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous. It
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  Speaker 1: will be found in fact that the ingenious are always fanciful,
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  Speaker 1: and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic. The narrative
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  Speaker 1: which follows will appear to the reader somewhat in the
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  Speaker 1: light of a commentary upon the propositions just advanced. Residing
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  Speaker 1: in Paris during the spring and part of the summer
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen either became acquainted with a Monsieur c ou
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  Speaker 1: Goose dpan. This young gentleman was of an excellent indeed
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  Speaker 1: of an illustrious family, but by a variety of untoward events,
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  Speaker 1: had been reduced to such poverty that the energy of
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  Speaker 1: his characters succumbed beneath it, and he ceased to bestir
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  Speaker 1: himself in the world, or to care for the retrieval
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  Speaker 1: of his fortunes by courtesy of his creditors. There still
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  Speaker 1: remained in his possession a small remnant of his patrimony,
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  Speaker 1: and upon the income arising from this, he managed, by
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  Speaker 1: means of a rigorous economy, to procure them necessaries of
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  Speaker 1: life without troubling himself about its superfluities. Books, indeed were
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  Speaker 1: his sole luxuries, and in Paris these are easily obtained.
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  Speaker 1: Our first meeting was at an obscure library in the
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  Speaker 1: Rue mon Matra, where the accident of our both being
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  Speaker 1: in search of the same, very rare and very remarkable
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  Speaker 1: volume brought us into closer communion. We saw each other
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  Speaker 1: again and again. I was deeply interested in the little
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  Speaker 1: family history, which he detailed to me with all the
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  Speaker 1: candor which a Frenchman indulges whenever mere self is his theme.
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  Speaker 1: I was astonished too at the vast extent of his reading,
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  Speaker 1: And above all, I felt my soul enkindled within me
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  Speaker 1: by the wild fervor and the vivid freshness of his imagination,
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  Speaker 1: seeking in Paris the objects I then sought. I felt
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  Speaker 1: that the society of such a man would be to
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  Speaker 1: me a treasure beyond price, and this feeling I frankly
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  Speaker 1: confided to him. It was at length arranged that we
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  Speaker 1: should live together during my stay in the city, and
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  Speaker 1: as my worldly circumstances were somewhat less embarrassed than his own,
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  Speaker 1: I was permitted to be at the expense of renting
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  Speaker 1: and furnishing in a style which suited the rather fantastic
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  Speaker 1: gloom of our common temper, a time eaten and grotesque mansion,
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  Speaker 1: long deserted through superstitions into which we did not inquire,
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  Speaker 1: and tottering to its fall in a retired and desolate
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  Speaker 1: portion of the Faubourg Saint Germain. Had the routine of
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  Speaker 1: our life at this place been known to the world,
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  Speaker 1: we should have been regarded as madmen, although perhaps as
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  Speaker 1: madmen of a harmless nature. Our seclusion was perfect. We
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  Speaker 1: admitted no visitors. Indeed, the locality of our retirement had
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  Speaker 1: been carefully kept a secret from my own former associates,
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  Speaker 1: and it had been many years since Japan had ceased
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  Speaker 1: to know or be known. In Paris. We existed within
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  Speaker 1: ourselves alone. It was a freak of fancy in my friend,
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  Speaker 1: for what else shall I call it? To be enamored
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  Speaker 1: of the night for her own sake? And into this
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  Speaker 1: bizarre as into all his others, I quietly fell, giving
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  Speaker 1: myself up to a wild whims with a perfect abandon
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  Speaker 1: The sable divinity would not herself dwell with us always,
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  Speaker 1: but we could counterfeit her presence. At the first dawn
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  Speaker 1: of the morning, we closed all the messy shutters of
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  Speaker 1: our old building, lighting a couple of tapers, which strongly perfumed,
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  Speaker 1: threw out only the ghastliest and feeblest of rays. By
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  Speaker 1: the aid of these we then busied our souls in dreams, reading, writing,
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  Speaker 1: or conversing, until warned by the clock of the advent
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  Speaker 1: of the true darkness. Then we sallied forth into the
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  Speaker 1: street's arm in arm, continuing the topics of the day,
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  Speaker 1: or roaming far and wide until a late hour, seeking
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  Speaker 1: amid the wild lights and shadows of the populous city,
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  Speaker 1: that infinity of mental excitement which quiet observation can afford.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: At such times I could not help remarking and admiring,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: although from his rich ideality I had been prepared to
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  Speaker 1: expect it a peculiar analytic ability in Japan. He seemed, too,
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  Speaker 1: to take an eager delight in its exercise, if not
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  Speaker 1: exactly in its day display, and did not hesitate to
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  Speaker 1: confess the pleasure thus derived. He boasted to me with
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  Speaker 1: a low, chuckling laugh, that most men, in respect to himself,
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  Speaker 1: wore windows in their bosoms, and was wont to follow
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  Speaker 1: up such assertions by direct and very startling proofs of
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  Speaker 1: his intimate knowledge of my own. His manner at these
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  Speaker 1: moments was frigid and abstract, His eyes were vacant in expression,
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  Speaker 1: while his voice, usually a rich tenor, rose into a treble,
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  Speaker 1: which would have sounded petulantly but for the deliberateness and
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  Speaker 1: entire distinctness of the nunciation. Observing him in these moods,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I often dwelt meditatively upon the old philosophy of the
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  Speaker 1: Bipart's soul, and amused myself with the fancy of a
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  Speaker 1: double Dapan, the creative and the resolvant. Let it not
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  Speaker 1: be supposed from what I have just said that I
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  Speaker 1: am detailing any mystery or penning any romance. What I
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: have described in the Frenchman was merely the result of
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  Speaker 1: an excited or perhaps of a diseased intelligence. But of
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  Speaker 1: the character of his remarks at the peure periods in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: question and example will best convey the idea. We were
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: strolling one night down a long, dirty street in the
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  Speaker 1: vicinity of the Palais royal, Being both apparently occupied with thought,
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  Speaker 1: neither of us had spoken a syllable for fifteen minutes,
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  Speaker 1: at least all at once. Jupan broke forth with these words,
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  Speaker 1: he is a very little fellow, that's true, and would
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  Speaker 1: do better for the theater de varieties. There can be
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  Speaker 1: no doubt of that, I replied, unwittingly, and not at
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  Speaker 1: first observing so much had I been absorbed in reflection
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  Speaker 1: the extraordinary manner in which the speaker had chimed in
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  Speaker 1: with my meditations. In an instant afterward, I recollected myself,
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  Speaker 1: and my astonishment was profound. Dpan said I gravely. This
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  Speaker 1: is beyond my comprehension. I do not hesitate to say
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  Speaker 1: that I am amazed and can scarcely credit my senses.
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  Speaker 1: How is it possible you should know I was thinking
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  Speaker 1: of here? I paused to ascertain, beyond a doubt, whether
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  Speaker 1: he really knew of whom I thought of. Chantilly said he,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Why do you pause? You were remarking to yourself that
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  Speaker 1: his diminutive figure unfitted him for tragedy. This was precisely
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  Speaker 1: what had formed the subject of my reflections. Chantilly was
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: a quandam cobbler of the Rue Saint Denis, who, becoming
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  Speaker 1: stage mad, had attempted the role of Xerxes in Kremlin's
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  Speaker 1: tragedy so called, and been notoriously pasquinaded for his pains.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me, for Heaven's sake, I exclaimed, the method, if
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  Speaker 1: method there is by which you have been enabled to
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  Speaker 1: fathom my soul in this matter. In fact, I was
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  Speaker 1: even more startled than I would have been willing to express.
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  Speaker 1: It was the fruiter, replied my friend, who brought you
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  Speaker 1: to the conclusion that the mender of Sauls was not
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  Speaker 1: of sufficient height for Xerxes. Ed I d genus omni
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  Speaker 1: the fruiter you astonish me. I know no fruiter, whomsoever
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  Speaker 1: the man who ran up against you as we entered
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  Speaker 1: the street it may have been fifteen minutes ago. I
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  Speaker 1: now remembered that, in fact, a fruiter, carrying upon his
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  Speaker 1: head a large basket of apples, had nearly thrown me
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  Speaker 1: down by accident as we passed from the Rue Si
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  Speaker 1: into the thoroughfare where we stood. But what this had
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  Speaker 1: to do with Chantilli I could not possibly understand. There
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: was not a particle of charlatanery about Japan. I will explain,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: he said, and that you may comprehend all clearly. We
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: will first retrace the course of your meditations from the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: moment in which I spoke to you until that of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the rencontter with the fruiter in question. The larger links
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: of the chain run thus Chantilly Orion, Doctor Nichols, Epicurus, stereotomy,
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  Speaker 1: the street stones the fruiter. There are few persons who
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  Speaker 1: have not, at some period of their lives amused themselves
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: in retracing the steps by which particular conclusions of their
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: own minds have been attained. The occupation is often full
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of interest, and he who attempts it for the first
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: time is astonished by the apparently illimitable distance and incohiearrance
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: between the starting point and the goal. What then, must
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: have been my amazement when I heard the Frenchman speak
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  Speaker 1: what he had just spoken, and when I could not
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  Speaker 1: help acknowledging that he had spoken the truth, he continued.
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  Speaker 1: We had been talking of horses, if I remember aright,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: just before leaving the Rue SII. This was the last
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  Speaker 1: subject we discussed. As we crossed into this street. A
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: fruiter with a large basket upon his head brushing quickly
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  Speaker 1: past us, thrust you upon a pile of paving stones
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  Speaker 1: collected at a spot where the causeway is undergoing repair.
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  Speaker 1: You stepped upon one of the loose fragments, slipped, slightly strained.
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  Speaker 1: Your ankle appeared vexed or sulky, muttered a few words,
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  Speaker 1: turned to look at the pile, and then proceeded in silence.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I was not particularly attentive to what you did, but
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: observation has become with me of late a species of necessity.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: You kept your eyes upon the ground, glancing with a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: petulant expression at the holes and ruts in the pavement,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: so that I saw you were still thinking of the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: stones until we reached the little alley called Lamartine, which
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: has been paved by way of experiment with the overlapping
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and riveted blocks. Here, your countenance brightened up, and, perceiving
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: your lips move, I could not doubt that you murmured
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the word stereotomy, a term very affectively applied to this
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: species of pavement. I knew that you could not say
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  Speaker 1: to yourself stereotomy without being brought to think of atomis,
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  Speaker 1: and thus of the theories of Epicurus. And since when
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: we discussed this subject not very long ago. I mentioned
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: to you how singularly yet with how little notice, the
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: vague guesses of that noble Greek had met with confirmation
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: in the late Nebular cosmogony. I felt that you could
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: not avoid casting your eyes upward to the great Nebula
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and Orion, and I certainly expected that you would do so.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: You did look up, and I was now assured that
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I had correctly followed your steps. But in that bitter
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: tirade upon Chantilly which appeared in yesterday's music, the satirist,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: making some disgraceful allusions to the cobbler's change of name
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: upon assuming the buskin, quoted a Latin line about which
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: we have often conversed. I mean the line perded at
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: antiquam lit era prima sonum. I had told you that
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: this was in reference to Orion, formerly written Urion, and
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: from certain pungencies connected with this explanation, I was aware
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: that you could not have forgotten it. It was clear
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  Speaker 1: therefore that you would not fail to combine the two
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: ideas of Orion and Chantilly. That you did combine them,
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  Speaker 1: I saw by the character of the smile which passed
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: over your lips you thought of the poor cobbler's immolation.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: So far you had been stooping in your gait, but
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: now I saw you draw yourself up to your full height.
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  Speaker 1: I was then sure that you reflected upon the diminutive
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: figure of Chantilly. At this point I interrupted your meditations
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  Speaker 1: to remark that, as in fact he was a very
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: little fellow, that Chantilly, he would do better at the
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Theater de Varietes. Not long after this, we were looking
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: over an evening edition of the Gazette de Tribunax, when
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the following paragraphs arrested our attention. Extraordinary murders dot This morning,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: about three o'clock, the inhabitants of the Cartier Saint Roc
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: were aroused from sleep by a succession of terrific shrieks
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: issuing apparently from the fourth story of a house in
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the Rue Morgue, known to be in the sole occupancy
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: of one Madame Lesbionet and her daughter, Mademoiselle Camille Lesboney.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: After some delay occasioned by a fruitless attempt to procure
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: admission in the usual manner, the gateway was broken in
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: with a crowbar, and eight or ten of the neighbors entered,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: accompanyed by two gendarmes. By this time the cries had ceased,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: but as the party rushed up the first flight of stairs,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: two or more rough voices in angry contention were distinguished
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and seemed to proceed from the upper part of the house.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: As the second landing was reached, these sounds also had ceased,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and everything remained perfectly quiet. The parties spread themselves elves
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: and hurried from room to room. Upon arriving at a
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: large back chamber in the fourth story, the door of which,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: being found locked with the key inside, was forced open,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: a spectacle presented itself, which struck every one present, not
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: less with horror than with astonishment. The apartment was in
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the wildest disorder, the furniture broken and thrown about in
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: all directions. There was only one bedstead, and from this
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the bed had been removed and thrown into the middle
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: of the floor. On a chair lay a razor besmeared
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: with blood. On the hearth were two or three long
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and thick tresses of gray human hair, also dabbled in
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: blood and seeming to have been pulled out by the roots.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Upon the floor were found four napoleons, an ear ring
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of topaz, three large silver spoons, three smaller of metal dilger,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and two bags containing nearly four thousand francs in gold.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: The drawers of a bureau which stood in one corner
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: were open and had been apparently rifled, although though many
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: articles still remained in them. A small iron safe was
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: discovered under the bed not under the bedstead. It was open,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: with the key still in the door. It had no
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: contents beyond a few old letters and other papers of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: little consequence of Madame Lesboney. No traces were here seen,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: but an unusual quantity of soot being observed in the fireplace.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: A search was made in the chimney, and horrible to relate.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: The corpse of the daughter, head downward, was dragged therefrom it,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: having been thus forced up the narrow aperture for a
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: considerable distance. The body was quite warm. Upon examining it,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: many excoriations were perceived, no doubt occasioned by the violence
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: with which it had been thrust up and disengaged. Upon
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the face were many severe scratches, and upon the throat
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: dark bruises and deep indentations of finger nails, as if
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the deceased had been throttled to death. After a thorough
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: investigation of every portion of the house, with us out
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: farther discovery, the party made its way into a small
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: paved yard in the rear of the building, where lay
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the corpse of the old lady, with her throat so
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: entirely cut that upon an attempt to raise her, the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: head fell off. The body as well as the head,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: was fearfully mutilated, the former so much so as scarcely
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to retain any semblance of humanity. To this horrible mystery,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: there is not, as yet, we believe, the slightest clue.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: The next day's paper had these additional particulars the tragedy
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: in the rue Moor Dot. Many individuals have been examined
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in relation to this most extraordinary and frightful affair. The
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: word affair has not yet in France that levity of
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: import which it conveys with us, but nothing whatever has
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: transpired to throw light upon it. We give below all
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the material testimony elicited. Pauline Dubourg, laundress, deposes that she
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: has known both the deceased for three years, having washed
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: for them. During that period. The old lady and her
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: daughter seemed on good terms, very affectionate towards each other.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: They were excellent pay could not speak in regard to
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: their mode or means of living. Believed that Madamel told
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: fortunes for a living, was reputed to have money put by.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Never met any persons in the house when she called
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: for the clothes or took them home. Was sure that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: they had no servant in employ There appeared to be
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: no furniture in any part of the building except in
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the fourth story. Pierre Moreau, tobacconist, deposes that he has
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: been in the habit of selling small quantities of tobacco
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and snuff to Madame Lesboney for nearly four years. Was
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: born in the neighborhood and has always resided there. The
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: deceased in her daughter had occupied the house in which
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the corpses were found for more than six years. It
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: was formerly occupied by a jeweler who underlet the upper
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: rooms to various persons. The house was the property of Madamel.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: She became dissatisfied with the abuse of the premises by
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: her tenant and moved into them herself, refusing to let
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: any portion. The old lady was childish. Witness had seen
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the daughter some five or six times during the six
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: years the two lived in exceedingly retired life, were reputed
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: to have money. Had heard it said among the neighbors
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: that Madamel told Fortunes did not believe it, had never
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: seen any person enter the door except the old lady
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and her daughter, a porter once or twice, and a
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: physician some eight or ten times. Many other persons neighbors
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: gave evidence to the same effect. No one was spoken
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of as frequenting the house. It was not known whether
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: there were any living connections of Madamel and her daughter.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: The shutters of the front windows were seldom opened, those
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: in the rear were always closed, with the exception of
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: the large back room fourth story. The house was a
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: good house, not very old. Isidore Music Jondarme deposes that
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: he was called to the house about three o'clock in
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the morning and found some twenty or thirty persons at
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the gateway, endeavoring to gain admittance, forced it open at
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: length with a bayonet, not with a crowbar, had but
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: little difficulty in getting it open, on account of its
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: being a double or folding gait, and bolted neither at
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: bottom not top. The shrieks were continued until the gate
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: was forced and then suddenly ceased. They seemed to be
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: screams of some person or persons in great agony, were
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: loud and drawn out, not short and quick. Witness led
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the way upstairs. Upon reaching the first landing, heard two
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: voices in loud and angry contention, the one a gruff voice,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the other much shriller, A very strange voice. Could distinguish
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: some words of the former, which was that of a Frenchman.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Was positive that it was not a woman's voice. Could
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: distinguish the word words sacre and diable. The shrill voice
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: was that of a foreigner. Could not be sure whether
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: it was the voice of a man or of a woman.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Could not make out what was said, but believed the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: language to be Spanish. The state of the room and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of the bodies was described by this witness as we
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: described them yesterday. Henri Duval, a neighbor and by trade
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: a silversmith, deposes that he was one of the party
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: who first entered the house. Corroborates the testimony of music
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: in general. As soon as they forced an entrance, they
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: reclosed the door to keep out the crowd, which collected
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: very fast, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour. The shrill voice,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: this witness thinks was that of an Italian. Was certain
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: it was not French. Could not be sure that it
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: was a man's voice. It might have been a woman's.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Was not acquainted with the Italian language, could not distinguish
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the words, but was convinced by the intonate that the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: speaker was an Italian. New Madamel and her daughter had
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: conversed with both frequently. Was sure that the shrill voice
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: was not that of either of the deceased. Odenheimer resturteur
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: this witness volunteered his testimony. Not speaking French, was examined
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: through an interpreter. Is, a native of Amsterdam, was passing
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the house at the time of the shrieks. They lasted
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: for several minutes, probably ten. They were long and loud,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: very awful and distressing. Was one of those who entered
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the building. Corroborated the previous evidence in every respect, but
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: one was sure that the shrill voice was that of
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a man of a Frenchman. Could not distinguish the words uttered.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: They were loud and quick, unequal, spoken apparently in fear
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: as well as in anger. The voice was harsh, not
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: so much shrill as harsh could not a shrill voice.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: The gruff voice said repeatedly, sacre diable and once Mondu
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Jules Mignod, banker of the firm of Mignod ed Phil's
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Rue de la Raine, is the elder Mignod. Madame Lesboney
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: had some property, had opened an account with his banking
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: house in the spring of the year eight years. Previously
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: made frequent deposits in small sums, had checked for nothing
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: until the third day before her death, when she took
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: out in person the sum of four thousand francs. This
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: sum was paid in gold, and a clerk went home
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: with the money. A doll flew bond clerk to mignod
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: ed Phills deposes that on the day in question, about noon,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: he accompanied Madame Lesboney to her residence with the four
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: thousand francs put up in two bags. Upon the door
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: being opened, Mademoiselle l appeared and took from his hands
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: one of the bags, while the old lady relieved him
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: of the other. He then and departed. Did not see
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: any person in the street at the time. It is
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: a by street very lonely. William Byrd Taylor deposes that
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: he was one of the party who entered the house
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: is an Englishman has lived in Paris two years. Was
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: one of the first to ascend the stairs. Heard the
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: voices in contention. The gruff voice was that of a Frenchman.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Could make out several words, but cannot now remember all.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Heard distinctly sacred and Mondeu. There was a sound at
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the moment, as if of several persons struggling, a scraping
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: and scuffling sound. The shrill voice was very loud, louder
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: than the gruff One is sure that it was not
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the voice of an Englishman, appeared to be that of
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: a German. Might have been a woman's voice. Does not
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: understand German. Four of the above named witnesses being recalled
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: deposed that the door of the chamber in which was
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: found the body of Mademoiselle l was locked on the inside.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: When the party reached it, everything was perfectly silent, no
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: groans or noises of any kind. Upon forcing the door,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: no person was seen. The windows both of the back
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: and front room were down and firmly fastened from within.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: A door between the two rooms was closed, but not locked.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: The door leading from the front room into the passage
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: was locked with the key on the inside. A small
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: room in the front of the house, on the fourth story,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: at the head of the passage was open, the door
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: being ajar. This room was crowded with old beds, boxes
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: and so forth. These were carefully removed and searched. There
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: was not an inch of any portion of the house
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: which was not carefully searched. Sweeps were sent up and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: down the chimneys. The house was a four story one
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: with garrets mansards. A trap door on the roof was
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: nailed down very secure early did not appear to have
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: been opened for years. The time elapsing between the hearing
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: of the voices in contention and the breaking open of
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the room door was variously stated by the witnesses. Some
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: made it as short as three minutes, some as long
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: as five. The door was opened with difficulty. Alfonso Garcio, undertaker,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: deposes that he resides in the Rouem Morgue Is a
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: native of Spain, was one of the party who entered
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the house, did not proceed upstairs. Is nervous and was
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: apprehensive of the consequences of agitation. Heard the voices in contention,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: The gruff voice was that of a Frenchman. Could not
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: distinguish what was said. The shrill voice was that of
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: an Englishman, is sure of this, does not understand the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: English language, but judges by the intonation. Alberto Montoni, confectioner,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: deposes that he was among the first to ascend the stairs,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: heard the voices in question. The gruff voice was that
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: of a Frenchman, distinguished several words. The speaker appeared to
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: be expostulating, could not make out the words of the
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: shrill voice. Spoke quick and unevenly. Thinks it the voice
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: of a Russian. Corroborates the general testimony is an Italian
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: never conversed with a native of Russia. Several witnesses recalled
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: here testified that the chimneys of all the rooms on
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the fourth story were too narrow to admit the passage
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: of a human being by sweeps were meant cylindrical sweeping brushes,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: such as are employed by those who clean chimneys. These
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: brushes were passed up and down every flu in the house.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: There is no back passage by which any one could
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: have descended. While the party proceeded upstairs, the body of
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Lesboney was so firmly wedged in the chimney that
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: it could not be got down until four or five
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of the party united their strength. Paul Dumas, physician, deposes
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: that he was called to view the bodies about daybreak.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: They were both then lying on the sacking of the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: bedstead in a chamber where Mademoiselle l was found. The
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: corpse of the young lady was much bruised and excoriated.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: The fact that it had been thrust up the chimney
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: would sufficiently account for these appearances. The throat was greatly chafed.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: There were several deep scratches just below the chin, together
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: with a series of livid spots which were evidently the
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: impression of fingers. The face was fearfully discolored, and the
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: eyeballs protruded. The tongue had been partially bitten through. A
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: large bruise was discovered upon the pit of the stomach,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: produced apparently by the pressure of a knee. In the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: opinion of m. Dumas, Mademoiselle Lesponey had been throttled to
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: death by some person or persons unknown. The corpse of
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: the mother was horribly mutilated. All the bones of the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: right leg and arm were more or less shattered, the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: left tibia much splintered, as well as all the ribs
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: of the left side. Whole body dreadfully bruised and discolored.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: It was not possible to say how the injuries had
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: been inflicted. A heavy club of wood or a broad
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: bar of iron, a chair, any large, heavy, an obtuse
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: weapon would have produced such results if wielded by the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: hands of a very powerful man. No woman could have
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: inflicted the blows with any weapon. The head of the deceased,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: when seen by witness, was entirely separated from the body,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and was also greatly shattered. The throat had evidently been
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: cut with some very sharp instrument, probably with a razor.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: Alexander eight Yen surgeon was called with him Dumas to
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: view the bodies. Corroborated the testimony and the opinions of m. Dumas.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Nothing farther of importance was elicited, although several other persons
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: were examined. A murder so mysterious and so perplexing in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: all its particulars was never before committed in Paris. If
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: indeed a murder has been committed at all, the police
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: are entirely at fault. An unusual occurrence in affairs of
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: this nature. There is not, however, the shadow of a
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: clue apparent. The evening edition of the paper stated that
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the greatest excitement still continued in the Cartier Saint Roc,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: that the premises in question had been carefully researched, and
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: fresh examinations of witnesses instituted, but all to no purpose.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: A PostScript, however, mentioned that Adolph Lauban had been arrested
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: and imprisoned, although nothing appeared to criminate him beyond the
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: facts already detailed. Dapan seemed singularly interested in the progress
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: of this affair, at least so I judged from his manner,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: for he made no comments. It was only after the
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: announcement that Lauban had been imprisoned that he asked me
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: my opinion respecting the murders. I could merely agree with
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: all Paris in considering them an insoluble mystery. I saw
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: no means by which it would be possible to trace
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the murderer. We must not judge of the means said
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: to pan by this shell of an examination. The Parisian police,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: so much extalled for acumen, are cunning, but no more.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: There is no method in their proceedings. Beyond the method
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: of the moment. They make a vast parade of measures,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: but not unfrequently these are so ill adapted to the
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: objects proposed as to put us in mind of Monsieur
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Jordaine's calling for his robe to chamber poor mio entndre
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: la musique. The results attained by them are not unfrequently surprising,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: but for the most part are brought about by simple
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: diligence and activity. When these qualities are unavailing, their schemes fail. Viddock,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: for example, was a good guesser and a persevering man,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: but without educated thought. He aired continually by the very
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: intensity of his investigations. He impaired his vision by holding
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the object too close. He might see perhaps one or
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: two points with unusual clearness, but in so doing he
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: necessarily lost sight of the matter as a whole. Thus
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: there is such a thing as being too profound. Truth
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: is not always in a well. In fact, as regards
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the more important knowledge, I do believe that she is
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: invariably superficial. The depth flies in the valleys where we
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: seek her, and not upon the mountain tops where she
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: is found. The modes and sources of this kind of
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: error are well typified in the contemplation of the heavenly bodies.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: To look at a star by glances, to view it
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: in a sidelong way by turning toward it, the exterior
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: portions of the retina more susceptible of feeble impressions of
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: light than the interior. Is to behold the star distinctly
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: is to have the best appreciation of its luster, a
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: luster which grows dim just in proportion as we turn
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: our vision fully upon it. A greater number of rays
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: actually fall upon the eye in the latter case, but
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: in the former there is the more refined capacity for comprehension.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: By undue profundity, we perplex an enfeeble thought. And it
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: is possible to make even Venus herself vanish from the
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: firmament by a scrutiny too sustained, too concentrated, or too direct.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: As for these murders, let us enter into some examinations
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: for ourselves before we make up an opinion respecting them.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: An inquiry will afford us amusement. I thought this an
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: odd term, so applied, but said nothing. And besides, Laban
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: once rendered me a service for which I am not ungrateful.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: We will go and see the premises with our own eyes.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I know g the Prefect of Police, and shall have
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: no difficulty in obtaining the necessary permission. The permission was obtained,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: and we proceeded at once to the Rue Morgue. This
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: is one of those miserable thoroughfares which intervened between the
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Rue Richelieu and the Rue Saint Roc. It was late
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon when we reached it, as this quarter
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: is at a great distance from that in which we resided.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: The house was readily found, for there were still many
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: persons gazing up at the closed shutters with an objectless
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: curiosity from the opposite side of the way. It was
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: an ordinary Parisian house with a gateway on one side
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: of which was a glazed watch box with a sliding
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: panel in the window, indicating a loge to concierge. Before
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: going in, we walked up the street, turned down an alley,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: and then again turning passed in the rear of the building, Japan,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: meanwhile examining the whole neighborhood as well as the house
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: with a minuteness of attention, for which I could see
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: no possible object. Retracing our steps, we came again to
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the front of the dwelling rang, and having shown our credentials,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: were admitted by the agents in charge. We went upstairs
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: into the chamber, where the body of Mademoiselle Lesponey had
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: been found, and where both the deceased still lay. The
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: disorders of the room had, as usual, been suffered to exist.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I saw nothing beyond what had been stated in the
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Gazette de Tribunox. The pan scrutinized everything, not excepting the
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: bodies of the victims. We then went into the other
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: rooms and into the yard. A gendarme accompanying us throughout
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the examination occupied us until dark, when we took our departure.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: On our way home, my companion stepped in for a
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: moment at the office of one of the daily papers.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I have said that the whims of my friend were manifold,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: and that j E less menageees for this phrase there
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: is no English equivalent. It was his humor now to
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: decline all conversation on the subject of the murder until
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: about noon the next day. He then asked me suddenly
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: if I had observed anything peculiar at the scene of
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: the atrocity. There was something in his manner of emphasizing
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: the word peculiar, which caused me to shudder, without knowing why. No,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: nothing peculiar, I said, nothing more at least than we
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: both saw stated in the paper the Gazette, he replied,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: has not entered, I fear into the unusual horror of
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the thing, but dismiss the idle opinions of this print.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: It appears to me that this mystery is considered insoluble
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: for the very reason which should cause it to be
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: regarded as easy of solution, I mean, for the utree
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: character of its features. The police are confounded by the
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: seeming absence of motive, not for the murder itself, but
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: for the atrocity of the murder. They are puzzled, too,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: by the seeming impossibility of reconciling the voices heard in
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: contention with the facts that no one was discovered upstairs
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: but the assassinated Mademoiselle Lesponey, and that there were no
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: means of egress without the notice of the party ascending,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: the wild disorder of the room, the corpse thrust with
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: the head downward up the chimney, the frightful mutilation of
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: the body of the old lady. These considerations, with those
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: just mentioned, and others which I need not mention, have
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: sufficed to paralyze the powers. By putting completely at fault
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: the boasted acumen of the government agents. They have fallen
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: into the gross but common error of confounding the unusual
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: with the abstruse. But it is by these deviations from
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the plane of the ordinary, that reason feels its way,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: if at all, in its search for the true. In
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: investigations such as we are now pursuing, it should not
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: be so much asked what has occurred as what has
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: occurred that has never occurred before. In fact, the facility
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: with which I shall arrive, or have arrived at, the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: solution of this mystery is in the direct ratio of
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: its apparent insolubility in the eyes of the police. I
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: stared at the speaker in mute astonishment. I am now awaiting,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: continued he, looking toward the door of our apartment. I
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: am now awaiting a person who, although perhaps not the
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: perpetrator of these butcheries, must have been, in some measure
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: implicated in their perpetration of the worst portion of the
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: crimes committed. It is probable that he is innocent. I
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: hope that I am right in this supposie for upon
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: it I build my expectation of reading the entire riddle.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: I look for the man here in this room every moment.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: It is true that he may not arrive, but the
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: probability is that he will. Should he come, it will
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: be necessary to detain him. Here are pistols, and we
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: both know how to use them when occasion demands their use.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I took the pistols scarcely knowing what I did or
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: believing what I heard, while du Pan went on very
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: much as if in a soliloquy. I have already spoken
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: of his abstract manner at such times. His discourse was
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: addressed to myself. But his voice, although by no means loud,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: had that intonation which is commonly employed in speaking to
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: some one at a great distance. His eyes, vacant in expression,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: regarded only the wall. That the voices heard in contention,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: he said by the party upon the stairs, were not
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the voices of the women themselves, was fully proved by
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: the evidence. This relieves us of all doubt upon the
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: question whether the old lady could have first destroyed the
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: daughter and afterward have committed suicide. I speak of this
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: point chiefly for the sake of method, for the strength
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: of Madame Lesponey would have been utterly unequal to the
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: task of thrusting her daughter's corpse up the chimney as
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: it was found, and the nature of the wounds upon
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: her own person entirely preclude the idea of self destruction.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Murder then has been committed by some third party, and
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the voices of this third party were those heard in contention.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Let me now advert not to the whole testimony respecting
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: these voices, but to what was peculiar in that testimony?
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Did you observe anything peculiar about it? I remark that
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: while all the witnesses agreed in supposing the gruff voice
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: to be that of a Frenchman, there was much disagreement
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: in regard to the shrill or, as one individual termed it,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: the harsh voice. That was the evidence itself, said to Pan,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: But it was not the peculiarity of the evidence. You
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: have observed nothing distinctive. Yet there was something to be observed.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: The witnesses, as you remark, agreed about the gruff voice.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: They were here unanimous. But in regard to the shrill voice.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: The peculiarity is not that they disagreed, but that while
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: an Italian, an Englishman, a Spaniard, a Hollander, and a
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Frenchman attempted to describe it. Each one spoke of it
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: as that of a foreigner. Each is sure that it
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: was not the voice of one of his own countrymen.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Each likens it not to the voice of an individual
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: of any nation with whose language he is conversant, but
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: the converse. The Frenchman supposes it the voice of a Spaniard,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: and might have distinguished some words had he been acquainted
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: with the Spanish. The Dutchman maintains it to have been
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: that of a Frenchman, but we find it stated that
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: not understanding French. This witness was examined through an interpreter.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: The Englishman thinks it the voice of a German, and
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: does not understand German. The Spaniard is sure that it
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: was that of an Englishman, but judges by the intonation altogether,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: as he has no knowledge of the English. The Italian
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: believes it the voice of a Russian, but has never
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: conversed with a native of Russia. A second Frenchman differs
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: moreover with the first, and is positive that the voice
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: was that of an Italian, but not being cognizant of
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: that tongue is like the Spaniard convinced by the intonation. Now,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: how strangely unusual must that voice have really been? About
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: which such testimony as this could have been elicited? In
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: whose tones even denizens of the five great divisions of
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Europe could recognize? Nothing familiar. You will say that it
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: might have been the voice of an Asiatic of an African.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: Neither Asiatics nor Africans abound in Paris. But without denying
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: the inference, I will now merely call your attention to
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: three points. The voice is termed by one witness harsh
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: rather than shrill. It is represented by two others to
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: have been quick and unequal. No words, no sounds resembling words,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: were by any witness mentioned as distinguishable. I know not
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: continued to pan what impression I may have made so
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: far upon your own understanding. But I do not hesitate
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: to say that legitimate deductions, even from this portion of
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: the testimony, the portion respecting the gruff and shrill voices,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: are in themselves sufficient to engender a suspicion which should
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: give direction to all farther progress in the investigation of
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: the mystery. I said, legitimate deductions but my meaning is
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: not thus fully expressed. I design to imply that the
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: deductions are the sole proper ones, and that the suspicion
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: arises inevitably from them as the single result. What the
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: suspicion is, however, I will not say just yet. I
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: merely wish you to bear in mind that with myself
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: it was sufficiently forcible to give a definite form, a
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: certain tendency to my inquiries in the chamber. Let us
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: now try transport ourselves in fancy to this chamber. What
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: shall we first seek here the means of egress employed
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: by the murderers. It is not too much to say
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: that neither of us believe in preternatural events. Madame and
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Lesponey were not destroyed by spirits. The doers of
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the deed were material and escaped materially. Then, how fortunately,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: there is but one mode of reasoning upon the point,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: and that mode must lead us to a definite decision.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: Let us examine, each by each the possible means of egress.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: It is clear that the assassins were in the room
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: where Mademoiselle Lesponey was found, or at least in the
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: room adjoining when the party ascended the stairs. It is
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: then only from these two apartments that we have to
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: seek issues. The police have laid bare the floors, the ceilings,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: and the masonry of the walls in every direction. No
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: secret issues could have escaped their vigilance. But not trusting
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: to their eyes, I examined with my own there were
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: then no secret issues. Both doors leading from the rooms
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: into the passage were securely locked, with the keys inside.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Let us turn to the chimneys. These, although of ordinary
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: width for some eight or ten feet above the hearths,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: will not admit throughout their extent the body of a
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: large cat. The impossibility of egress by means already stated,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: being thus absolute, we are reduced to the windows. Through
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: those of the front room, no one could have escaped
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: without notice from the crowd in the street. The murderers
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: must have passed, then, through those of the back room.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Now brought to this conclusion in so unequivocal a manner
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: as we are, it is not our part as reasoners
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: to reject it on account of apparent impossibilities. It is
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: only left for us to prove that these apparent impossibilities are,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: in reality not such. There are two windows in the chamber.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: One of them is unobstructed by furniture and is wholly visible.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: The lower portion of the other is hidden from view
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: by the head of the unwieldy bedstead, which is thrust
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: close up against it. The former was found securely fastened
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: from within. It resisted the utmost force of those who
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: endeavored to raise it. A large gimlet hole had been
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: pierced in its frame to the left, and a very
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: stout nail was found fitted therein nearly to the head.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Upon examining the other window, a similar nail was seen
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: similarly fitted in it, and a vigorous attempt to raise
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: this sash failed. Also. The police were now entirely satisfied
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: that egress had not been in these directions, and therefore
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: it was thought a matter of supererogation to withdraw the
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: nails and open the windows. My own examination was somewhat
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: more particular, and was so for the reason I have
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: just given, Because here it was I knew that all
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: apparent impossibilities must be proved to be not such in reality.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: I proceeded to think thus a posteriority. The murderers did
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: escape from one of these windows. This being so, they
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: could not have refastened the sashes from the inside, as
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: they were found fastened. The consideration, which put a stop,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: through its obviousness, to the scrutiny of the police in
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: this quarter. Yet the sashes were fastened, they must then
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: have the power of fastening themselves. There was no escape
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: from this conclusion. I stepped to the unobstructed casement, withdrew
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the nail with some difficulty, and attempted to raise the sash.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: It resisted all my efforts. As I had anticipated, a
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: concealed spring must I now know exist, And this corroboration
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: of my idea convinced me that my premises at least
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: were correct. However, mysterious still appeared the circumstances attending the nails.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: A careful search soon brought to light the hidden spring.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: I pressed it, and, satisfied with the discovery, forbore to
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: upraise the sash. I now replaced the nail and regarded
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: it attentively. A person passing out through this window might
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: have reclosed it, and the spring would have caught. But
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: the nail could not have been replaced. The conclusion was plain,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: and again narrowed in the field of my investigations. The
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: assassins must have escaped through the other window. Supposing then
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: the springs upon each sash to be the same as
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: was probable, there must be found a difference between the nails,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: or at least between the modes of their fixture. Getting
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: upon the sacking of the bedstead, I looked over the
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: head board minutely at the second casement, Passing my hand
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: down behind the board, I readily discovered and pressed the spring,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: which was, as I had supposed, identical in character with
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: its neighbor. I now looked at the nail. It was
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: as stout as the other, and apparently fitted in the
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: same manner, driven in nearly up to the head. You
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: will say that I was puzzled. But if you think so,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: you must have misunderstood the nature of the inductions. To
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: use a sporting phrase, I had not been once at fault.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: The scent had never for an instant been lost. There
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: was no flaw in any link of the chain. I
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: had traced the secret to its ultimate result, and that
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: result was the nail. It had, I say, in every respect,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: the appearance of its fellow in the other window. But
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: this fact was an absolute nullity, conclusive, as it might
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: seem to be when compared with the consideration that here,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: at this point terminated the clue. There must be something wrong,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: I said about the nail. I touched it, and the head,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: with about a quarter of an inch of the shank,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: came off in my fingers. The rest of the shank
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: was in the gimlet hole where it had been broken off.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: The fracture was an old one, for its edges were
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: encrusted with rust, and had apparently been accomplished by the
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: blow of a hammer, which had partially embedded in the
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: top of the bottom sash the head portion of the nail.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: I now carefully replaced this head portion in the indentation.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Whence I had taken it, and the resemblance to a
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: perfect nail was complete, the fissure was invisible. Pressing the spring,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: I gently raised the sash for a few inches. The
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: head went up, with it remaining firm in its bed.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: I closed the window, and the semblance of the whole
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: nail was again perfect. The riddle so far was now unriddled.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: The assassin had escaped through the window, which looked upon
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: the bed, dropping of its own accord. Upon his exit,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: or perhaps purposely closed, it had become fastened by the spring,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: and it was the retention of this spring which had
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: been mistaken by the police for that of the nail
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: farther in query. Being thus considered unnecessary, the next question
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: is that of the mode of descent. Upon this point
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: I have been satisfied in my walk with you around
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: the building. About five feet and a half from the
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: casement in question, there runs a lightning rod. From this
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: rod it would have been impossible for any one to
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: reach the window itself, to say nothing of entering it.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: I observed, however, that the shutters of the fourth story
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: were of the peculiar kind called by Parisian carpenter's farades,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: a kind rarely employed at the present day, but frequently
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: seen upon very old mansions at Lions and Bordeaux. They
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: are in the form of an ordinary door, a single
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: not a folding door, except that the lower half is
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: latticed or worked in open trellis, thus affording an excellent
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: hold for the hands. In the present instance, these shutters
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: are fully three feet and a half broad. When we
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: saw them from the rear of the house, they were
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: both about half open, that is to say, they stood
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: off at right angles from the wall. It is probable
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: that the police, as well as myself examined the back
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: of the tenement. But if so, in looking at these
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: farades in the line of their breadth, as they must
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: have done, they did not perceive this great breadth itself,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: or at all events failed to take it into Duken's iteration.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: In fact, having once satisfied themselves that no egress could
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: have been made in this quarter, they would naturally bestow
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: here a very cursory examination. It was clear to me, however,
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: that the shutter belonging to the window at the head
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: of the bed, would, if swung fully back to the wall,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: reached to within two feet of the lightning rod. It
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: was also evident that, by exertion of a very unusual
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: degree of activity and courage, an entrance into the window
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: from the rod might have been thus effected. By reaching
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: to the distance of two feet and a half, we
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: now supposed the shutter open to its whole extent, a
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: robber might have taken a firm grasp upon the trellis work,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: letting go then his hold upon the rod, placing his
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: feet securely against the wall, and springing boldly from it,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: he might have swung the shutter so as to close it,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: and if we imagined the window open at the time,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: might even have swung himself into the room. I wish
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: you to bear, especially in mind, that I have spoken
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: of a very unusual of activity is requisite to success
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: in so hazardous and so difficult a feat. It is
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: my design to show you first that the thing might
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: possibly have been accomplished. But secondly, and chiefly, I wish
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: to impress upon your understanding the very extraordinary, the almost
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: preternatural character of that agility which could have accomplished it.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: You will say, no doubt, using the language of the law,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: that to make out my case, I should rather undervalue
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: than insist upon a full estimation of the activity required
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: in this matter. This may be the practice in law,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: but it is not the usage of reason. My ultimate
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: object is only the truth. My immediate purpose is to
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: lead you to place in juxtaposition that very unusual activity
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: of which I have just spoken with that very peculiar,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: shrill or harsh and unequal voice, about whose nationality no
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: two persons could be found to agree, and in whose
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: utterance no syllabification could be detected. At these words, a
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: vague and half formed conception of the meaning of Japan
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: flitted over my mind. I seemed to be upon the
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: verge of comprehension, without power to comprehend, as men at
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: times find themselves upon the brink of remembrance, without being
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: able in the end to remember. My friend went on
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: with his discourse. You will see he said that I
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: have shifted the question from the mode of egress to
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: that of ingress. It was my design to convey the
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: idea that both were affected in the same manner at
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the same point. Let us now revert to the interior
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: of the room. Let us survey the appearances here. The
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: drawers of the bureau, it is said, had been rifled,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: although many articles of apparel still remained within them. The
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: conclusion here is absurd. It is a mere guess, a
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: very silly one. And no more, how are we to
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: know that the articles found in the drawers where not
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: all these drawers had originally contained. Madame Lesbionnet and her
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: daughter lived in exceedingly retired life, saw no company, seldom
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: went out, had little use for numerous changes of habiliment.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Those found were at least of as good quality as
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: any likely to be possessed by these ladies. If a
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: thief had taken any why did he not take the best?
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: Why did he not take all? In a word, why
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: did he abandon four thousand francs in gold to encumber
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: himself with a bundle of linen. The gold was abandoned,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: nearly the whole sum mentioned by Monsieur Mignod. The banker
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: was discovered in bags upon the floor. I wish you, therefore,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: to discard from your thoughts the blundering idea of motive
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: engendered in the brains of the police by that portion
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: of the evidence which speaks of money delivered at the
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: door of the house. Coincidences ten times as remarkable as this,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: the delivery of the money and murder committed within three
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: days upon the party receiving it happened to all of
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: us every hour of our lives, without attracting even momentary notice.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Coincidences in general, are greats stumbling blocks in the way
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: of that class of thinkers who have been educated to
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: know nothing of the theory of probabilities, that theory to
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: which the most glorious objects of human research are indebted
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: for the most glorious of illustration. In the present instance,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: had the gold been gone, the fact of its delivery
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: three days before would have formed something more than a coincidence.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: It would have been corroborative of this idea of motive.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: But under the real circumstances of the case, if we
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: are to suppose gold the motive of this outrage, we
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: must also imagine the perpetrator so vacillating an idiot as
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: to have abandoned his gold and his motive together. Keeping
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: now steadily in mind the points to which I have
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: drawn your attention, that peculiar voice, that unusual agility, and
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: that startling absence of motive in a murder so singularly
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: atrocious as this, let us glance at the butchery itself.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Here is a woman strangled to death by manual strength
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: and thrust up a chimney head downward. Ordinary assassins employ
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: no such modes of mone murder as this, Least of
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: all do they thus dispose of the murdered in the
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: manner of thrusting the corpse up the chimney. You will
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: admit that there was something excessively you tray, something altogether
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: irreconcilable with our common notions of human action. Even when
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: we suppose the actors the most depraved of men. Think too,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: how great must have been that strength which could have
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: thrust the body up such an aperture so forcibly, that
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: the united vigor of several persons was found barely sufficient
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: to drag it down. Turn now to other indications of
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: the employment of a vigor. Most marvelous on the hearth
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: were thick tresses, very thick tresses of gray human hair.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: These had been torn out by the roots. You are
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: aware of the great force necessary in tearing thus from
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: the head even twenty or thirty hairs together. You saw
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: the locks in question, as well as myself. Their roots,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: a hideous sight, were clotted with fragments of the flesh
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: of the scalp, sure token of the prodigious power which
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: had been exerted in appruding perhaps half a million of
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: hairs at a time. The throat of the old lady
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: was not merely cut, but the head absolutely severed from
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: the body. The instrument was a mere razor. I wish
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: you also to look at the brutal ferocity of these deeds,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: of the bruises upon the body of Madame Lesbonet. I
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: do not speak Monsieur Dumas and his worthy coadjutor Monsieur
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Etienne have pronounced that they were inflicted by some obtuse instrument,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: and so far these gentlemen are very correct. The obtuse
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: instrument was clearly the stone pavement in the yard upon
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: which the victim had fallen from the window which looked
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: in upon the bed. This idea, however simple it may
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: now seem, escaped the police for the same reason that
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: the breadth of the shutters escaped them, because by the
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: affair of the nails, their perceptions had been hermetically sealed
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: against the possibility of the windows having ever been opened
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: at all. If now, in addition to all these things
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: you have properly reflected upon the odds disorder of the chamber,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: we have gone so far as to combine the ideas
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: of an agility astounding, a strength superhuman, a ferocity brutal,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: a butchery without motive, a grotesquery and horror absolutely alien
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: from humanity, and a voice foreign in tone to the
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: ears of men of many nations, and devoid of all
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: distinct or intelligible syllabification. What result, then has ensued? What
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: impression have I made upon your fancy? I felt a
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: creeping of the flesh as Dupan asked me the question.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: A madman, I said, has done this deed, some raving
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: maniac escaped from a neighboring Maison de sante in some respects,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: he replied, Your idea is not irrelevant. But the voices
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: of madmen, even in their wildest paroxysms, are never found
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: to tally with that peculiar voice heard upon the stairs.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Madmen are of some nation, and their language, however incoherent
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: in its words, has always the coherence of syllabification. Besides,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: the hair of a madman is not such as I
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: now hold in my hand. I disentangled this little tuft
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: from the rigidly clutched fingers of Madame Lesbiney tell me
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: what you can make of it, d' pan, I said,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: completely unnerved. This hair is most unusual. This is no
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: human hair. I have not asserted that it is, said he.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: But before we decide this point, I wish you to
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: glance at the little sketch I have here traced upon
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: this paper. It is an efes simile drawing of what
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: has been described in one portion of the testimony as
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: dark bruises and deep indentations of finger nails upon the
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: throat of Mademoiselle Lesponey, and in another by Messrs du
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Mass and eight Yen as a series of livid spots.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: Evidently the impression of fingers you will perceive, continued my friend,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: spreading out the paper upon the table before us, that
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: this drawing gives the idea of a firm and fixed hold.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: There is no slipping apparent. Each finger has retained, possibly
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: until the death of the victim, the fearful grasp by
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: which it originally embedded itself. Attempt now to place all
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: your fingers at the same time in the respective impressions
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: as you see them. I made the attempt in vain.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: We are possibly not giving this matter a fair trial,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: he said. The paper is spread out upon a plain surface,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: but the human throat is cylindrical. Here is a billet
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: of wood, the circumference of which is about that of
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: the throat. Wrap the drawing around it, and try the
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: experiment again. I did so, but the difficulty was even
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: more obvious than before. This, I said, is the mark
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: of no human hand? Read? Now, replied Dupan. This passage
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: from Cuvier it was a minute, anatomical, and generally descriptive
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: account of the large ful vasoorhinotanue of the East Indian Islands.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: The gigantic stature, the prodigious strength and activity the wild ferocit,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: and the imitative propensities of these mammalia are sufficiently well
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: known to all. I understood the full horrors of the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: murder at once. The description of the digits, said I,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: as I made an end of reading, is in exact
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: accordance with this drawing. I see that no animal but
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: an ouranoutan of the species here mentioned, could have impressed
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: the indentations as you have traced them. This tuft of
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: tawny hair, too, is identical in character with that of
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: the beast of Cuvier. But I cannot possibly comprehend the
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: particulars of this frightful mystery. Besides, there were two voices
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: heard in contention, and one of them was unquestionably the
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: voice of a Frenchman. True, and you will remember an
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: expression attributed almost unanimously by the evidence to this voice,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: the expression mondeux. This under the circumstances has been justly
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: characterized by one of the witnesses, Montony the confectioner, as
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: an expression of remonstrance or expostulation. Upon these two words. Therefore,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: I have mainly built my hopes of a full solution
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: of the riddle. A Frenchman was cognizant of the murder.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: It is possible, indeed, it is far more than probable,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: that he was innocent of all participation in the bloody
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: transactions which took place. The ourangotong may have escaped from him,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: He may have traced it to the chamber, but under
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: the agitating circumstances which ensued he could never have recaptured it.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: It is still at large. I will not pursue these guesses,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: for I have no right to call them more, since
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: the shades of reflection upon which they are based are
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: scarcely of sufficient depth to be appreciable by my own intellect,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: and since I could not pretend to make them intelligible
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: to the understanding of another. We will call them guesses, then,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: and speak of them as such. If the Frenchman in
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: question is, indeed, as I suppose, innocent of this atrocity,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: this advertisement, which I left last night upon our return
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: home at the office of LeMond, a paper devoted to
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: the shipping interest and much sought by sailors, will bring
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: him to our residence. He handed me a paper, and
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: I read thus, caught in the Bois de Boulogne, Burly
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: in the morning of the irons Tea the morning of
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: the murder a very large tawny orangoutan of the Bornese species.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: The owner, who is ascertained to be a sailor belonging
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: to a Maltese vessel, may have the animal again, upon
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: identifying it satisfactorily and paying a few charges arising from
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: its capture and keeping call at no Rue Faubourg. Saint
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: germain o choasim, how was it possible? I asked, that
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: you should know the man to be a sailor and
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: belonging to a Maltese vessel. I do not know it,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: said d'pan. I am not sure of it. Here, however,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: is a small piece of ribbon which, from its form
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: and from its greasy appearance, has evidently been used in
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: tying the hair in one of those long cues of
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: which sailors are so fond. Moreover, this knot is one
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: which few beside sailors can tie, and is peculiar to
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: the Maltese. I picked the ribbon up at the foot
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: of the lightning rod. It could not have belonged to
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: either of the deceased. Now, if after all, I am
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: wrong in my induction from this ribbon that the Frenchman
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: was a sailor belonging to a Maltese vessel, still I
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: can have done no harm in saying what I did
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: in the advertisement. If I am in error, he will
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: merely suppose that I have been misled by some circumstance
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: into which he will not take the trouble to inquire.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: But if I am right, a great point is gained. Cognizant,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: although innocent of the murder, the Frenchman will naturally hesitate
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: about replying to the advertisement, about demanding the aran out on.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: He will reason, thus, I am innocent, I am poor.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: My iaran out on is of great value to one
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: in my circumstances, a fortune of itself. Why should I
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: lose it through idle apprehensions of danger? Here it is
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: within my It was found in the Bois de Boulogne,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: at a vast distance from the scene of that butchery.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: How can it ever be suspected that a brute beast
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: should have done the deed. The police are at fault.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: They have failed to procure the slightest clue. Should they
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: even trace the animal, it would be impossible to prove
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: me cognizant of the murder, or to implicate me in
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: guilt on account of that cognizance. Above all, I am
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: known the advertiser designates me as the possessor of the beast.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: I am not sure to what limit his knowledge may extend.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Should I avoid claiming a property of so great value
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: which it is known that I possess, I will render
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: the animal at least liable to suspicion. It is not
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: my policy to attract attention, either to myself or to
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: the beast. I will answer the advertisement, get the orano tongue,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: and keep it close until this matter has blown over.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: At this moment we heard a step upon the stairs.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: Be ready said to pan with your pistols, but neither
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: used them nor show them, until at a signal from myself.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: The front door of the house had been left open,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: and the visitor had entered without ringing, and advanced several
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: steps upon the staircase. Now, however, he seemed to hesitate.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: Presently we heard him descending. Dupan was moving quickly to
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: the door. When we again heard him coming up. He
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: did not turn back a second time, but stepped up
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: with decision and rapped at the door of our chamber.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Come in, said to Pan in a cheerful and hearty tone.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: A man entered. He was a sailor, evidently a tall,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: stout and muscular looking person, with a certain dare devil
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: expression of countenance, not altogether unprepossessing. His face greatly sunburned,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: was more than half hidden by whisker and mustacho. He
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: had with him a huge oaken cudgel, but appeared to
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: be otherwise unarmed. He bowed awkwardly and bade us good
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: e evening in French accents, which, although somewhat naschatelish, were
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: still sufficiently indicative of a Parisian origin. Sit Down, my
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: friend said, du Pan, I suppose you have called about
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: the Oorangotan. Upon my word, I almost envy you the
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: possession of him, but remarkably fine, and no doubt a
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: very valuable animal. How old do you suppose him to be?
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: The sailor drew a long breath with the air of
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: a man relieved of some intolerable burden, and then replied,
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: in an assured tone, I have no way of telling,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: but he can't be more than four or five years old.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: Have you got him here? Oh? No, we had no
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: conveniences for keeping him here. He is at a livery
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: stable in the Rue Dubourg just by. You can get
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: him in the morning. Of course, you are prepared to
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: identify the property. To be sure, I am sir, I
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: shall be sorry to part with him, said Dupan. I
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: don't mean that you should be at all this trouble
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: for nothing, sir, said the man couldn't expect it. I
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: am very willing to pay a reward for the finding
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: of the animal, that is to say, anything in reason, well,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: replied my friend. That is all very fair. To be sure,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: let me think what should I have? Oh, I will
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: tell you. My reward shall be this. You shall give
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: me all the information in your power about these murders
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: in the rouem Morgue. D'pan said the last words in
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: a very low tone, and very quietly. Just as quietly too,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: he walked toward the door, locked it, and put the
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: key in his pocket. He then drew a pistol from
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: his bosom and placed it without the least flurry, upon
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: the table. The sailor's face flushed up as if he
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: were struggling with suffocation, he started to his feet and
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: grasped his cudgel, But the next moment he fell back
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: into his seat, trembling violently and with the countenance of
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: death itself. He spoke not a word. I pitied him
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: from the bottom of my heart. My friend said to
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: Pan in a kind tone. You are alarming yourself unnecessarily.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: You are indeed, we mean you no harm whatever. I
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: pledge you the honor of a gentleman and of a Frenchman,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: that we intend you no injury. I perfectly well know
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: that you are innocent of the atrocities in the room Morgue.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: It will not do, however, to deny that you are,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: in some measure implicated in them. From what I have
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: already said, you must know that I have had means
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: of information about this matter, means of which you could
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: never have dreamed. Now the thing stands. Thus you have
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: done nothing which you could have avoided, nothing certainly which
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: renders you culpable. You were not even guilty of robbery,
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: when you might have robbed. With impunity. You have nothing
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: to conceal, You have no reason for concealment. On the
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: other hand, you are bound by every principle of honor
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: to confess all you know. An innocent man is now imprisoned,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: charged with that crime of which you can point out
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: the perpetrator. The sailor had recovered his presence of mind
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: in a great measure while d'apan uttered these words, but
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: his original boldness of bearing was all gone. So help me, God,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: said he after a brief pause. I will tell you
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: all I know about this affair, but I do not
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: expect you to believe one half I say, I would
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: be a fool. Indeed if I did. Still, I am innocent,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: and I will make a clean breast if I die
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: for it. What he stated was in substance this. He
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: had lately made a voyage to the Indian Archipelago, a
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: party of which he formed one landed at Borneo and
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: passed into the interior. On an excursion of pleasure. Himself
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: and a companion had captured the Oranotan, this companion dying,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: the animal fell into his own exclusive possession. After great
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: trouble occasion by the intractable ferocity of his captive during
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: the home voyage, he at length succeeded in lodging it
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: safely at his own residence in Paris, where not to
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: attract toward himself the unpleasant curiosity of his neighbors, he
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: kept it carefully secluded until such time as it should
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: recover from a wound in the foot received from a
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: splinter on board ship. His ultimate design was to sell it.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: Returning home from some sailor's frolic the night, or rather
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: in the morning of the murder, he found the beast
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: occupying his own bed room, into which it had broken
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: from a closet adjoining where it had been, as was thought,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: securely confined, razor in hand and fully lathered. It was
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: sitting before a looking glass, attempting the operation of shaving,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: in which it had no doubt previously watched its master
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: through the keyhole of the closet. Terrified at the sight
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: of so dangerous a weapon in the possession of an animal,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: so ferocious and so well able to use it, the man,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: for some moments was at a loss what to do.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: He had been a customed, however, to quiet the creature,
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: even in its fiercest moods, by the use of a whip,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: and to this he now resorted. Upon sight of it.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: The Oranotan sprang at once through the door of the chamber,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: down the stairs, and thence through a window unfortunately open,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: into the street. The Frenchman followed in despair, the ape
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: razor still in hand, occasionally stopping to look back and
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: gesticulate at its pursuer, until the latter had nearly come
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: up with it. It then again made off in this manner.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: The chase continued for a long time. The streets were
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: profoundly quiet, as it was nearly three o'clock in the morning.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: In passing down an alley in the rear of the
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: room morgue, the fugitive's attention was arrested by a light
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: gleaming from the open window of Madame Lespone's chamber in
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: the fourth story of her house. Rushing to the building,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: it perceived the lightning rod, clambered up with inconceivable agility,
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: grasped the shutter, which was thrown fully back against the wall,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: and by its means, swung itself directly upon the headboard
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: of the bed. The whole feet did not occupy a minute.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: The shutter was kicked open again by the orangotan as
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: it entered the room. The sailor, in the meantime, was
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: both rejoiced and perplexed. He had strong hopes of now
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: recapturing the brute, as it could scarcely escape from the
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: trap into which it had ventured, except by the rod,
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: where it might be intercepted as it came down. On
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: the other hand, there was much cause for anxiety as
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: to what it might do in the house. This latter
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: reflection urged the man still to follow the fugitive. A
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: lightning rod is ascended without difficulty, especially by a sailor.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: But when he had arrived as high as the window,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: which lay far to his left, his career was stopped.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: The most that he could accomplish was to reach over
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: so as to obtain a glimpse of the interior of
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: the room. At this glimpse he nearly fell from his
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: hold through excess of horror. Now it was that those
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: hideous shrieks arose upon the night which had startled from slumber.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: The inmates of the room Morgue, Madame Lesbiney and her daughter,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: habited in their night clothes, had apparently been occupied in
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: arranging some papers in the iron chest already mentioned, which
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: had been wheeled into the middle of the room. It
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: was open, and its contents lay beside it on the floor.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: The victims must have been sitting with their backs toward
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: the window, and from the time elapsing between the ingress
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: of the beast and the screams, it seems probable that
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: it was not immediately perceived The flapping two of the
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: shutter would naturally have been attributed to the wind. As
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: the sailor looked in, the gigantic animal had seized Madame
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: Lesbiney by the hair, which was loose as she had
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: been combing it, and was flourishing the razor about her
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: face in imitation of the motions of a barber. The
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: daughter lay prostrate and motionless. She had swooned. The screams
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: and struggles of the old lady, during which the hair
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: was torn from her head, had the effect of changing
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: the probably pacific purposes of the orango tongue into those
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: of wrath. With one determined sweep of its muscular arm,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: it nearly severed her head from her body. The sight
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: of blood inflamed its anger into frenzy. Gnashing its teeth
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: and flashing fire from its eyes, it flew upon the
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: body of the girl and embedded its fearful talons in
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: her throat. Retaining its grasp until she expired. Its wandering
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: and wild glances fell at this moment upon the head
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: of the bed, over which the face of its master,
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: rigid with horror, was just discernible the fury of the beast,
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: who no doubt bore still in mind. The dreaded whip
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: was instantly converted into fear. Conscious of having deserved punishment,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: it seemed desirous of concealing its bloody deeds, and skipped
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: about the chamber in an agony of nervous agitation, throwing
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: down and breaking the furniture as it moved, and dragging
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: the bed from the bedstead. In conclusion, it seized first
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: the corpse of the daughter and thrust it up the
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: chimney as it was found, then that of the old lady,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: which it immediately hurled through the window headlong. As the
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: ape approached the casement with its mutilated burden, the sailor
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: shrank AGAs to the rod, and, rather gliding than clambering down,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: it hurried at once home, dreading the consequences of the butchery,
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: and gladly abandoning in his terror all solicitude about the
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: fate of the Orangotang. The words heard by the party
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: upon the staircase were the Frenchman's exclamations of horror and affright,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: commingled with the fiendish jabberings of the brute. I have
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: scarcely anything to add. The Orango Tang must have escaped
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: from the chamber by the rod just before the breaking
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: of the door. It must have closed the window as
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: it passed through it. It was subsequently caught by the
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: owner himself, who obtained for it a very large sum
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: at the jardend of Plants. Loudan was instantly released upon
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: our narration of the circumstances, with some comments from Dupan
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: at the Bureau of the prefect of Police. This functionary,
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: however well disposed to my friend, could not altogether conceal
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: his chagrin at the turn which affairs had taken, and
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: was fain to indulge in a sarcasm or two about
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: the propriety of every person minding his own business. Let
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: him talk, said the Pan, who had not thought it
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: necessary to reply. Let him discourse. It will ease his conscience.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: I am satisfied with having defeated him in his own castle. Nevertheless,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: that he failed in a solution of this mystery is
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: by no means that matter, for wonder which he supposes it.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: For in truth, our friend the Prefect is somewhat too
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: cunning to be profound in his wisdom is no stamen.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: It is all had in no body, like the pictures
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: of the goddess Laverna, or at best all had in
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: shoulders like a codfish. But he is a good creature
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: after all. I like him, especially for one master's stroke
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: of cant by which he has attained his reputation for ingenuity.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: I mean the way he has the near si E
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: ca est et d x speaker c. E Canepa