“Realize, my dear, that this Jacques Collin is a giant of cunning, of dissimulation, of deceit. — He is — what shall I say? — the Cromwell of the hulks!
— I never met such a scoundrel; he almost took me in.
— But in examining a criminal, a little end of thread leads you to find a ball, is a clue to the investigation of the darkest consciences and obscurest facts.
— When Jacques Collin saw me turning over the letters seized in Lucien de Rubempre’s lodgings, the villain glanced at them with the evident intention of seeing whether some particular packet were among them, and he allowed himself to give a visible expression of satisfaction.
This look, as of a thief valuing his booty, this movement, as of a man in danger saying to himself,
‘My weapons are safe,’ betrayed a world of things.
“Only you women, besides us and our examinees, can in a single flash epitomize a whole scene, revealing trickery as complicated as safety-locks.
Volumes of suspicion may thus be communicated in a second.
It is terrifying — life or death lies in a wink.
“Said I to myself, ‘The rascal has more letters in his hands than these!’— Then the other details of the case filled my mind; I overlooked the incident, for I thought I should have my men face to face, and clear up this point afterwards.
But it may be considered as quite certain that Jacques Collin, after the fashion of such wretches, has hidden in some safe place the most compromising of the young fellow’s letters, adored as he was by ——”
“And yet you are afraid, Camusot?
Why, you will be President of the Supreme Court much sooner than I expected!” cried Madame Camusot, her face beaming. “Now, then, you must proceed so as to give satisfaction to everybody, for the matter is looking so serious that it might quite possibly be snatched from us. — Did they not take the proceedings out of Popinot’s hands to place them in yours when Madame d’Espard tried to get a Commission in Lunacy to incapacitate her husband?” she added, in reply to her husband’s gesture of astonishment. “Well, then, might not the public prosecutor, who takes such keen interest in the honor of Monsieur and Madame de Serizy, carry the case to the Upper Court and get a councillor in his interest to open a fresh inquiry?”
“Bless me, my dear, where did you study criminal law?” cried Camusot. “You know everything; you can give me points.”
“Why, do you believe that, by to-morrow morning, Monsieur de Granville will not have taken fright at the possible line of defence that might be adopted by some liberal advocate whom Jacques Collin would manage to secure; for lawyers will be ready to pay him to place the case in their hands!
— And those ladies know their danger quite as well as you do — not to say better; they will put themselves under the protection of the public prosecutor, who already sees their families unpleasantly close to the prisoner’s bench, as a consequence of the coalition between this convict and Lucien de Rubempre, betrothed to Mademoiselle de Grandlieu — Lucien, Esther’s lover, Madame de Maufrigneuse’s former lover, Madame de Serizy’s darling.
So you must conduct the affair in such a way as to conciliate the favor of your public prosecutor, the gratitude of Monsieur de Serizy, and that of the Marquise d’Espard and the Comtesse du Chatelet, to reinforce Madame de Maufrigneuse’s influence by that of the Grandlieus, and to gain the complimentary approval of your President.
“I will undertake to deal with the ladies — d’Espard, de Maufrigneuse, and de Grandlieu.
“You must go to-morrow morning to see the public prosecutor.
Monsieur de Granville is a man who does not live with his wife; for ten years he had for his mistress a Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille, who bore him illegitimate children — didn’t she?
Well, such a magistrate is no saint; he is a man like any other; he can be won over; he must give a hold somewhere; you must discover the weak spot and flatter him; ask his advice, point out the dangers of attending the case; in short, try to get him into the same boat, and you will be ——”
“I ought to kiss your footprints!” exclaimed Camusot, interrupting his wife, putting his arm round her, and pressing her to his heart. “Amelie, you have saved me!”
“I brought you in tow from Alencon to Mantes, and from Mantes to the Metropolitan Court,” replied Amelie. “Well, well, be quite easy!
— I intend to be called Madame la Presidente within five years’ time.
But, my dear, pray always think over everything a long time before you come to any determination.
A judge’s business is not that of a fireman; your papers are never in a blaze, you have plenty of time to think; so in your place blunders are inexcusable.”
“The whole strength of my position lies in identifying the sham Spanish priest with Jacques Collin,” the judge said, after a long pause. “When once that identity is established, even if the Bench should take the credit of the whole affair, that will still be an ascertained fact which no magistrate, judge, or councillor can get rid of.
I shall do like the boys who tie a tin kettle to a cat’s tail; the inquiry, whoever carries it on, will make Jacques Collin’s tin kettle clank.”
“Bravo!” said Amelie.
“And the public prosecutor would rather come to an understanding with me than with any one else, since I am the only man who can remove the Damocles’ sword that hangs over the heart of the Faubourg Saint–Germain.
“Only you have no idea how hard it will be to achieve that magnificent result.
Just now, when I was with Monsieur de Granville in his private office, we agreed, he and I, to take Jacques Collin at his own valuation — a canon of the Chapter of Toledo, Carlos Herrera. We consented to recognize his position as a diplomatic envoy, and allow him to be claimed by the Spanish Embassy.
It was in consequence of this plan that I made out the papers by which Lucien de Rubempre was released, and revised the minutes of the examinations, washing the prisoners as white as snow.
“To-morrow, Rastignac, Bianchon, and some others are to be confronted with the self-styled Canon of Toledo; they will not recognize him as Jacques Collin who was arrested in their presence ten years ago in a cheap boarding-house, where they knew him under the name of Vautrin.”
There was a short silence, while Madame Camusot sat thinking.
“Are you sure your man is Jacques Collin?” she asked.
“Positive,” said the lawyer, “and so is the public prosecutor.”
“Well, then, try to make some exposure at the Palais de Justice without showing your claws too much under your furred cat’s paws.
If your man is still in the secret cells, go straight to the Governor of the Conciergerie and contrive to have the convict publicly identified.
Instead of behaving like a child, act like the ministers of police under despotic governments, who invent conspiracies against the monarch to have the credit of discovering them and making themselves indispensable. Put three families in danger to have the glory of rescuing them.”
“That luckily reminds me!” cried Camusot. “My brain is so bewildered that I had quite forgotten an important point. The instructions to place Jacques Collin in a private room were taken by Coquart to Monsieur Gault, the Governor of the prison. Now, Bibi–Lupin, Jacques Collin’s great enemy, has taken steps to have three criminals, who know the man, transferred from La Force to the Conciergerie; if he appears in the prison-yard to-morrow, a terrific scene is expected ——”
“Why?”
“Jacques Collin, my dear, was treasurer of the money owned by the prisoners in the hulks, amounting to considerable sums; now, he is supposed to have spent it all to maintain the deceased Lucien in luxury, and he will be called to account.
There will be such a battle, Bibi–Lupin tells me, as will require the intervention of the warders, and the secret will be out.
Jacques Collin’s life is in danger.
“Now, if I get to the Palais early enough I may record the evidence of identity.”
“Oh, if only his creditors should take him off your hands!
You would be thought such a clever fellow!
— Do not go to Monsieur de Granville’s room; wait for him in his Court with that formidable great gun.
It is a loaded cannon turned on the three most important families of the Court and Peerage.