Memoirs of a Physician by Alexandre Dumas Read Free Book Online Page B

this change of color, or, at least, did not appear to remark it.
    ” I thought, however,” said the young girl, ” that the person who restored me to you gave all the explanations you could wish ; my father, at least, told me he was quite satisfied.”
    ” Of course, my dear Andre ; and this man, so far as I could judge, behaved with extreme delicacy in the whole affair ; but still some parts of his tale seemed to me, not suspicious, indeed, but obscure that is the proper term.”
    ” How so, and what do you mean, brother?” asked Andre, with the frankness of innocence^
    ” For instance,” said Philip, ” there is one point which did not at first strike me, but which has since seemed to me to bear a very strange aspect.”
    ” Which ? ” asked Andre.
    ” Why, the very manner in which you were saved. Can you describe it to me ? “
     
    MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 39
    The young girl seemed to make an effort over herself.
    “Oh, Philip,”, said she, ” I have almost forgotten I was so much terrified.”
    ” No matter, my sweetest Andre ; tell me all you remember.”
    ” Well, yon know, brother, we were separated about twenty paces from the Garde Meuble. I saw you dragged away toward the garden of the Tuileries, while I was drawn toward the Rue Royale. For an instant I could distinguish you making fruitless attempts to rejoin me. I stretched out my arms toward you, crying, ‘ Philip ! Philip ! ‘ when, all at once, I was, as it were, seized by a whirlwind, which raised me aloft and bore me in the direction of the railings. I felt the living tide carrying me toward the wall, where it must be dashed to atoms ; I heard the cries of those who were crushed against the railings ; I felt that my turn would come to be crushed and mangled ; I could almost calculate the number of seconds I had yet to live, when, half dead and almost frantic, raising my hands and eyes to heaven in a last prayer, I met the burning glance of a man who seemed to govern the crowd, and whom the crowd seemed to obey.”
    “And this man was the Count Joseph Balsamo?”
    ” Yes ; the same whom I had already seen at Taverney the same who, even there, inspired me with such a strange terror ; he, in short, who seems to be endowed with some supernatural power, who has fascinated my sight with his eyes, my ears with his voice ; who has made my whole being tremble by the mere touch of his finger on my shoulder.”
    ” Proceed, proceed, Andre,” said Philip, his features and voice becoming gloomier as she spoke.
    “Well, this man seemed to tower aloft above the catastrophe, as if human suffering could not reach him. I read in his eyes that he wished to save me that he had the power to do so. Then something extraordinary took place in me and around me. Bruised, powerless, half dead as I was, I felt myself raised toward this man as if some unknown, mysterious, invincible power drew me to him. I
     
    40 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.
    felt as if some strong arm, by a mighty effort, was lifting me out of the gulf of mangled flesh in which so many unhappy victims were suffocating, and was restoring me to air, to life. Oh, Philip,” continued Andre, with a sort of feverish vehemence, ” I feel certain it was that man’s look which attracted me to him. I reached his hand, I was saved ! “
    ” Alas ! ” murmured Gilbert, ” she had eyes only for him ; and I I who was dying at her feet she saw me not ! “
    He wiped his brow, bathed in perspiration.
    ” That is how the affair happened, then?” asked Philip.
    ” Yes, up to the moment when I felt myself out of danger. Then, whether all my force had been exhausted in the last effort I had made, or whether the terror I had experienced had outstripped the measure of my strength, 1 do not know, but I fainted.”
    ” And at what time do you think you fainted ? “
    ” About ten minutes after we were separated, brother.”
    ” Yes,” pursued Philip, ” that was about midnight. How, then, did it happen that yon