me away. Thus, you see, though born in Paris, I was brought up in Corsica.”
There was a moment’s silence, during which one could have fancied the hall empty, so profound was the stillness.
“Proceed,” said the president.
“Certainly, I might have lived happily amongst those good people, who adored me, but my perverse disposition prevailed over the virtues which my adopted mother endeavored to instil into my heart. I increased in wickedness till I committed crime.
One day when I cursed Providence for making me so wicked, and ordaining me to such a fate, my adopted father said to me, ‘Do not blaspheme, unhappy child, the crime is that of your father, not yours—of your father, who consigned you to hell if you died, and to misery if a miracle preserved you alive.’
After that I ceased to blaspheme, but I cursed my father. That is why I have uttered the words for which you blame me; that is why I have filled this whole assembly with horror. If I have committed an additional crime, punish me, but if you will allow that ever since the day of my birth my fate has been sad, bitter, and lamentable, then pity me.”
“But your mother?” asked the president.
“My mother thought me dead; she is not guilty. I did not even wish to know her name, nor do I know it.”
Just then a piercing cry, ending in a sob, burst from the centre of the crowd, who encircled the lady who had before fainted, and who now fell into a violent fit of hysterics. She was carried out of the hall, the thick veil which concealed her face dropped off, and Madame Danglars was recognized.