"
"Stop," said Cap, "don't be too certain of that! 'Be always sure
you're right--then go ahead!' Is not any one here cool enough to
reflect that if I had fired six bullets at that man's forehead and
every one had struck, I should have blown his head to the sky? Will
not somebody at once wash his face and see how deep the wounds are?"
The doctor who had been restrained by others now took a sponge and
water and cleaned the face of Le Noir, which was found to be well
peppered with split peas!
Cap looked around, and seeing the astonished looks of the good
people, bust into an irrepressible fit of laughter, saying, as soon
as she had got breath enough:
"Upon my word, neighbors, you look more shocked, if not actually
more disappointed, to find that, after all he is not killed, and
there'll be no spectacle, than you did at first when you thought
murder had been done."
"Will you be good enough to explain this, young woman?" said the
magistrate, severely.
"Certainly, for your worship seems as much disappointed as others!"
said Cap. Then turning toward the group around the bed, she said:
"You have heard Mr. Le Noir's 'last dying speech and confession,' as
he supposed it to be; and you know the maddening provocations that
inflamed my temper against him. Last night, after having received
his insulting answer to my challenge, there was evil in my heart, I
do assure you! I possessed myself of my uncle's revolvers and
resolved to waylay him this morning and force him to give me
satisfaction, or if he refused--well, no matter! I tell you, there
was danger in me! But, before retiring to bed at night, it is my
habit to say my prayers; now the practice of prayer and the purpose
of 'red-handed violence' cannot exist in the same person at the same
time! I wouldn't sleep without praying, and I couldn't pray without
giving up my thoughts of fatal vengeance upon Craven Le Noir.
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