Explore "Monsieur Lecoq, Volume II" by Emile Gaboriau on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It will be recollected that of all those who witnessed the Baron d'Escorval's terrible fall over the precipice below the citadel of Montaignac, the Abbe Midon was the only one who did not despair. He set about his task with more than courage, with a reverent faith in the protection of providence, remembering Ambroise Pare's sublime phrase -- "I dress the wound -- God heals it. " That he was right to hope was conclusively shown by the fact that after six months sojourn in Father Poignot's house, the baron was able to sit up and even to limp about with the aid of crutches. On reaching this stage of recovery, however, when it was essential he should take some little exercise, he was seriously inconvenienced by the diminutive proportions of Poignot's loft, so that he welcomed with intense delight the prospect of taking up his abode at the Borderie with Marie-Anne; and when indeed the abbe fixed the day for moving, he grew as impatient for it to arrive, as a schoolboy is for the holidays.
"I am suffocating here," he said to his wife, "literally suffocating. The time passes so slowly. When will the happy day come!"