The Mystery of Orcival

y; he opened the gate, and all
entered the little court. The gendarmes had just arrived. The
mayor told the brigadier to follow him, and placed two men at the
gate, ordering them not to permit anyone to enter or go out,
unless by his orders. Then the valet de chambre opened the door
of the house.



II

If there had been no crime, at least something extraordinary had
taken place at the chateau; the impassible justice might have
been convinced of it, as soon as he had stepped into the
vestibule. The glass door leading to the garden was wide open,
and three of the panes were shattered into a thousand pieces. The
carpeting of waxed canvas between the doors had been torn up, and
on the white marble slabs large drops of blood were visible. At
the foot of the staircase was a stain larger than the rest, and
upon the lowest step a splash hideous to behold.

Unfitted for such spectacles, or for the mission he had now to
perform, M. Courtois became faint. Luckily, he borrowed from the
idea of his official importance, an energy foreign to his character.
The more difficult the preliminary examination of this affair
seemed, the more determined he was to carry it on with dignity.

"Conduct us to the place where you saw the body," said he to
Bertaud. But Papa Plantat intervened.

"It would be wiser, I think," he objected, "and more methodical,
to begin by going through the house."

"Perhaps--yes--true, that's my own view," said the mayor, grasping at
the other's counsel, as a drowning man clings to a plank. And he
made all retire excepting the brigadier and the valet de chambre,
the latter remaining to serve as guide. "Gendarmes," cried he to
the men guarding the gate, "see to it that no one goes out; prevent
anybody from entering the house, and above all, let no one go into
the garden."

Then they ascended the staircase. Drops of blood were sprinkled
all along the stairs. There was also blood on the baluster, and M.
Courtois perceived, with horror, tha

John Addington Symonds (October 5, 1840 - April 19, 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. He was an early advocate of the validity of male love which included for him pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships, and which he would refer to as lamour de limpossible.

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