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HOFFMANN'S STRANGE STORIES.

cued from the sentence that awaits him. On account of his attachment to Madelon, he will not accuse Cardillac as an assassin. But this course he might follow, at all events, because, if by an exposure of the secret passage, and the collected treasures, he were to prove the goldsmith's guilt, he would not the less be looked on as an accomplice. The same difficulties, of course, remain, though the Count de Miossen were to reveal his adventures to the judge. Delay is, in short, the only advantage we can hope for at present, and, in order to obtain this, we must not speculate, but use, at once, the means, however limited, that are within our power. With this view, Count de Miossen may, if he pleases, go to the Conciergerie, may have an interview with the prisoner, and identify him as the person who came up to the assistance of Cardillac. He may then go to la Regnie, and say, "I was walking in the Rue St. Honoree, and saw a man knocked down. I ran to give my assistance, when another man started out from the opposite side of the street, came up, and kneeled beside him who had fallen, and as he found life not extinct, took him up on his shoulders and carried him away. This person's features were clearly visible to me in the moonlight, and I have recognized them in Olivier Brusson." Should the Count think proper to give in a deposition of this tenor, it will, of course, bring on a new hearing in court, and the deponent will be examined along with the prisoner. At all events, it is satisfactory that the torture will be for the present postponed, and farther investigations will be commenced.—Then will be the proper time to make an application to the king,—and this last must, of course, be entrusted to the management of the lady de Scuderi, on whose good sense and admirable talents success with his majesty must depend. In my opinion it would be proper to reveal to him the whole mystery. Brusson's confessions to you are fully supported by the deposition of the Count, and farther proof will probably be gained by an examination of Cardillac's house. All this, however, could not warrant any favorable sentence of the