 Part one of the murders in the Rue Morgue. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Reynard The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe What song the sirens sang? Or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women? Although puzzling questions are not beyond all conjecture. Sir Thomas Brown The mental features discussed of as the analytical are in themselves but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exalts in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles interaction, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics, exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen, which appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural. His results brought about by the very soul and essence of method have in truth the whole air of intuition. The faculty of resolution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study and especially by that highest branch of it, which unjustly and merely on account of its retrograde operations has been called as if par excellence analysis. Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyse. A chess player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows that the game of chess in its effects upon mental character is greatly misunderstood. I am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random. I will therefore take occasion to assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of drafts than by the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken a not unusual error for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instance, an oversight is committed resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not only manifold, but involute. The chances of such oversights are multiplied and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrated rather than the more acute player who conquers. In drafts, on the contrary, where the moves are unique and have but little variation, the probabilities of inadvertence are diminished and the mere attention being left comparatively unemployed. What advantages are obtained by either party are obtained by superior acumen. To be less abstract, let us suppose a game of drafts where the pieces are reduced to four kings and where, of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is obvious that here the victory can be decided. The player is being at all equal, only by some recherche movement the result of some strong exertion of the intellect. Deprived of ordinary resources, the analyst throws himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies himself therewith, and not unfrequently sees thus at a glance the sole methods, sometime indeed absurdly simple ones, by which he may seduce into error or hurry into miscalculation. Wist has long been noted for its influence upon what is termed the calculating power and men of the highest order of intellect have been known to take an apparently unaccountable delight in it, while eschewing chess as frivolous. Beyond doubt, there is nothing of a similar nature so greatly tasking the faculty of analysis. The best chess player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess, but proficiency in wist implies capacity for success in all those more important undercutings, where mind struggles with mind. When I say proficiency, I mean that perfection in the game, which includes a comprehension of all the sources quaint legitimate advantage may be derived. These are not only manifold but multi-form, and lie frequently among recesses of thought altogether inaccessible to the ordinary understanding. To observe attentively is to remember distinctly, and so far the concentrated chess player will do very well at wist, while the rules of Hoyle themselves based upon the mere mechanism of the game are sufficiently and generally comprehensible. Thus, to have a retentive memory and to proceed by the book are points commonly regarded as the sum total of good playing. But it is in matters beyond the limits of mere rule that the skill of the analyst is evinced. He makes, in silence, a host of observations and inferences. So perhaps do his companions, and the difference in the extent of the information obtained lies not so much in the validity of the inference, as in the quality of the observation. The necessary knowledge is that of what to observe. Our player confines himself not at all, nor, because the game is the object, does he reject deductions from things external to the game. He examines the countenance of his partner, comparing it carefully with that of each of his opponents. He considers the mode of assorting the cards in each hand, often counting trump by trump and honour by honour, through the glances bestowed by the holders upon each. He notes every variation of face as the play progresses, gathering a fund of thought from the differences in the expression of, certainly, of surprise, of triumph or of chagrin. From the manner of gathering up a trick, he judges whether the person taking it can make another in the suit. He recognises what is played through faint, by the air with which it is thrown upon the table, a casual or inadvertent word, the accidental dropping or turning of a card, with the accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its concealment, the counting of the tricks, with the order of their arrangement, hesitation, eagerness, or trepidation. All afford to his apparently intuitive perception, indications of the true state of affairs. The first two or three rounds, having been played, he is in full possession of the contents of each hand, and, henceforward, puts down his cards with as absolute a precision of purpose, as if the rest of the party had turned outward the faces of their own. The analytical power should not be confounded with ample ingenuity. For, while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis. The constructive or combining power by which ingenuity is usually manifested, and to which the phrenologists, I believe erroneously, have assigned a separate organ, supposing it a primitive faculty, has been so frequently seen by those whose intellect bordered otherwise upon idiocy, as to have been attracted general observation among writers on morals. Between ingenuity and the analytic ability, there exists a difference far greater indeed than that between the fancy and the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous. It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative, never otherwise than analytic. The narrative which follows will appear to the reader somewhat in the light of a commentary upon the propositions just advanced, residing in Paris during the spring and part of the summer of 18 dash dash. I there became acquainted with a Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin. This young gentleman was of an excellent, indeed of an illustrious family, but by a variety of untoward events had been reduced to such poverty that the energy of his character succumbed beneath it, and he ceased to bestow himself in the world or to care for the retrieval of his fortunes. By courtesy of his creditors, they still remained in his possession a small remnant of his patrimony. And upon the income arising from this, he managed, by means of a rigorous economy, to procure the necessaries of life without troubling himself about its superfluities. Books, indeed, were his sole luxuries, and in Paris, these are easily obtained. Our first meeting was at an obscure library in the room on Martre where the extent of our both being in search of the same very rare and very remarkable volume brought us into closer communion. We saw each other again and again. I was deeply interested in the little family history which he detailed to me with all that candour which a Frenchman indulges whenever may a self is his theme. I was astonished, too, at the vast extent of his reading. And, above all, I felt my soul in kindled within me by the wild fervour and the vivid freshness of his imagination. Seeking in Paris the objects I then sought, I felt that the society of such a man would be to me a treasure beyond the price. And this feeling, I frankly confided to him. It was at length arranged that we should live together during my stay in the city. And, as my worldly circumstances were somewhat less embarrassed than his own, I was permitted to be at the expense of renting and furnishing in a style which suited the rather fantastic gloom of our common temper. A time-eaten and grotesque mansion long deserted through superstitions into which we did not inquire and tottering to its fall in a retired and desolate portion of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Had the routine of our life at this place been known to the world, we should have been regarded as madmen, although perhaps as madmen of a harmless nature. Our seclusion was perfect. We admitted no visitors. Indeed, the locality of our retirement had been carefully kept a secret from my former associates. And it had been many years since Dupin had ceased to know or be known in Paris. We existed within ourselves, alone. It was a freak of fancy in my friend, for what else shall I call it to be enamoured of the night for her own sake. And into this bizarrerie, as into all his others, I quietly fell, giving myself up to his wild whims with a perfect abandon. The sable divinity would not herself dwell with us always, but we could counterfeit her presence. At the first dawn of the morning we closed all the messy shutters of our old building, lighting a couple of tapers which strongly perfumed throughout only the glass list and feeblest of rays. By the aid of these, we then busied our souls in dreams, reading, writing or conversing, until warned by the clock of the advent of the true darkness. Then we sallied forth into the streets, arm in arm, continuing the topics of the day, or roaming far and wide until a late hour, seeking amid the wild lights and shadows of the populous city, that infinity of mental excitement which quiet observation can afford. I could not help remarking and admiring, although from his rich ideality I had been prepared to expect it, a peculiar analytic ability in Dupin. He seemed, too, to take an eager delight in its exercise, if not exactly in its display, and did not hesitate to confess the pleasure thus derived. He boasted to me, with a low, chuckling laugh, that most men, in respect himself, wore windows in their bosoms and was wont to follow up such assertions by direct and very startling proofs of his intimate knowledge of my own. The manner at these moments was frigid and abstract. His eyes were vacant in expression, while his voice, usually a rich tenor, rose into a treble which would have sounded petulantly, but for the deliberateness and entire distinctness of the annunciations. Observing him in these moods, I often dwelt meditatively upon the old philosophy of the bipartisan soul, and amused myself with the fancy of a double dupin. The creative and the resolvent. Let it not be supposed from what I have just said that I am detailing any mystery or penning any romance. What I have described in the Frenchman was merely the result of an excited or perhaps of a diseased intelligence. But of the character of his remark at the period in question, an example will best convey the idea. We were strolling one night down a long dirty street in the vicinity of the Palais Royale. Being both apparently occupied with thought, neither of us had spoken a syllable for fifteen minutes at least. All at once, Dupin broke forth with these words, he is a very little fellow, that's true, and would do better for the theater de variety. There can be no doubt of that, I replied unwittingly, and not at first observing. So much had I been absorbed in reflection, the extraordinary manner in which the speaker had chimed in with my own meditations. In an instant afterward, I recollected myself, and my astonishment was profound. Dupin said I gravely, this is beyond my comprehension. I do not hesitate to say that I am amazed and can scarcely credit my senses. How was it possible you should know that I was thinking of Here I paused to ascertain beyond a doubt whether he really knew of whom I thought. Of Chantilly, said he, why do you pause? You were remarking to yourself that his diminutive figure unfitted him for tragedy. This was precisely what had formed the subject of my reflections. Chantilly was a quandam cobbler of the Roussandenie, who, becoming stage-mad, had attempted the role of Xerxes in Crebion's tragedy, so-called, and been notoriously pasquinated for his pains. Tell me for heaven's sake, I exclaimed, the method, if method there is, by which you have been enabled to fathom my soul in this matter. In fact, I was even more startled than I would have been willing to express. It was the frutera, replied my friend, who brought you to the conclusion that the mender of souls was not of sufficient height for Xerxes, et id genus omne. The frutera? You astonish me, I know no frutera whomsoever. The man who ran up against you as we entered the street, it may have been fifteen minutes ago. I now remembered that, in fact, a frutera carrying upon his head a large basket of apples had nearly thrown me down by accident as we passed from the rue into the thoroughfare where we stood. But what this had to do with Chantilly I could not possibly understand. There was not a particle of charlatanery about Dupin. I would explain, he said, and that you may comprehend all clearly, we will first retrace the course of your meditations, from the moment in which I spoke to you, until that of the wrong contra with the frutera in question. The larger links of the chain run thus Chonti, Orion, Dr. Nichols, Epicurus, Stereotomy, the street stones, the frutera. There are few persons who have not at some period of their lives amuse themselves in retracing the steps by which particular conclusions of their own minds have been attained. The occupation is often full of interest, and he who attempts it for the first time is astonished by the apparently illimitable distance and incoherence between the starting point and the goal. What then must have been my amazement when I heard the Frenchman speak what he had just spoken, and when I could not help acknowledging that he had spoken the truth. He continued, we had been talking of horses just before roving the roux. This was the last subject we discussed. As we crossed into this street a frutera with a large basket upon his head brushing quickly past us thrust you upon a pile of paving stones collected at a spot where the causeway is undergoing repair. You stepped upon one of the loose fragments slipped slightly, strained your ankle appeared vexed or sulky muttered a few words well, and then proceeded in silence. I was not particularly attentive to what you did but observation has become with me of late a species of necessity. You kept your eyes upon the ground glancing with a petulant expression at the holes and ruts in the pavement so that I saw you were still thinking of the stones. Until we reached the little alley called La Matine which has been paved by way of experiment with the overlapping and riveted blocks. Here your countenance brightened up and perceiving your lips move I could not doubt that you murmured the word stereotomy a term very effectively applied to this species of pavement. I knew that you could not say to yourself stereotomy without being brought to think of atomis and thus of the theories of apacurus and since when we discuss this subject not very long ago I mentioned to you how singularly yet with how little notice the vague guesses of that noble Greek had met with confirmation in the late nebula cosmogony I felt that you could not avoid casting your eyes upward to the great nebula in Orion and I certainly expected that you would do so. You did look up and I was now assured that I had correctly followed your steps but in that bitter tirade upon Shanti which appeared in yesterday's Musée the satirist making some disgraceful illusions to the cobbler's change of name upon assuming the buskin quoted a Latin line about which we have often conversed I mean the line Perditi antiquum littera sonum I had told you that this was in reference to Orion formerly written Urion and from certain pungencies connected with this explanation I was aware that you could not have forgotten it it was clear therefore that you would not fail to combine the two ideas of Orion and Shanti that you did combine them I saw by the character of the smile which passed over your lips you thought of the poor cobbler's immolation so far you had been stooping in your gate but now I saw you draw yourself up to your full height I was then sure that you reflected upon the diminutive figure of Shanti at this point I interrupted your meditations to remark that as, in fact, he was a very little fellow that Shanti he would do better at the theater not long after this we were looking over an evening edition of the Gazette de Tribuneau when the following paragraphs arrested our attention Extraordinary Murders This morning, about three o'clock the inhabitants of the Cartier-Saint-Roch were aroused from sleep by a succession of terrific shrieks issuing, apparently, from the fourth story of a house in the Rue Morgue known to be in the sole occupancy of one Madame Lesbenny and her daughter, mademoiselle Camille Lesbenny After some delay occasioned by a fruitless attempt to procure admission in the usual manner the gateway was broken in with a crowbar and eight or ten of the neighbours entered, accompanied by two gendarmes By this time, the cries had ceased but as the party rushed up the first flight of stairs two or more rough voices in angry contention were distinguished and seemed to proceed from the upper part of the house As the second landing was reached these sounds also had ceased and everything remained perfectly quiet The party spread themselves and hurried from room to room Upon arriving at a large back chamber in the fourth story the door of which being found locked with the key inside was forced open A spectacle presented itself which struck everyone present not less with horror than with astonishment The apartment was in the wildest disorder the furniture broken and thrown about in all directions There was only one bedstead and from this the bed had been removed and thrown into the middle of the floor On a chair lay a razor besmeared with blood On the hearth were two or three long and thick tresses of grey human hair also dabbled in blood and seeming to have been pulled out by the roots Upon the floor were found four napoleons an earring of topaz three large silver spoons three smaller of metal d'Alger and two bags containing nearly 4,000 francs in gold The drawers of a bureau which stood in one corner were open and had been apparently rifled although many articles still remained in them A small iron safe was discovered under the bed not under the bedstead It was open with the key still in the door It had no contents beyond the few old letters and other papers of little consequence Of Madame Lesbenay No traces were here seen but an unusual quantity of soot being observed in the fireplace A search was made in the chimney and horrible to relate The corpse of the daughter head downward was dragged there from It having been thus forced up the narrow aperture for a considerable distance The body was quite warm Upon examining it many excoriations were perceived No doubt occasioned by the violence which it had been thrust up and disengaged Upon the face were many severe scratches and upon the throat dark bruises and deep indentations of fingernails as if the deceased had been throttled to death After a thorough investigation of every portion of the house without further discovery the party made its way into a small paved yard in the rear of the building where lay the corpse of the old lady with her throat so entirely cut that upon an attempt to raise her the head fell off The body as well as the head was fiercely mutilated The former so much so as scarcely to retain any semblance of humanity To this horrible mystery there is not as yet we believe the slightest clue End of Part 1 of The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe Part 2 of The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Reynard The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe The next day's papers had these additional particulars The Tragedy in the Rue Morgue Many individuals have been examined in relation to this most extraordinary and frightful affair The word affair has not yet in France that levity of import which it conveys with us But nothing whatever has transpired to throw light upon it We give below all the material testimony elicited Pauline Dubois Laundress Deposes that she has known both the deceased for three years having wash of them during that period The lady and her daughter seemed on good terms Very affectionate towards each other They were excellent pay could not speak in regard to their mode or means of living Believed that Madame L told fortunes for a living was reputed to have money put by Never met any persons in the house when she called for the clothes or took them home Was sure that they had no servants and employ There appeared to be no furniture in any part of the building A novel story Pierre Morro Tobaconist Deposes that he has been in the habit of selling small quantities of tobacco and stuff to Madame Lesbenet for nearly four years Was born in the neighbourhood and has always resided there The deceased and her daughter had occupied the house in which the corpuses were found for more than six years It was formerly occupied by a jeweler who under let the upper rooms to various persons The house was the property of Madame L She became dissatisfied with the abuse of the premises by her tenant and moved into them herself refusing to let any portion The old lady was childish Witness had seen the daughter some five or six times during the six years The two lived in exceedingly retired life were reputed to have money had heard it said among the neighbours that Madame L told fortunes did not believe it had never seen any person enter the door except the old lady and her daughter a porter once or twice and a physician some eight or ten times Many other persons neighbours gave evidence to the same effect No one was spoken of as frequenting the house It was not known whether there were any living connections of Madame L and her daughter The shutters of the front windows were seldom open and the doors were closed with the exception of the large back room fourth story The house was a good house not very old Isidore Mousset deposes that he was called to the house about three o'clock in the morning and found some twenty or thirty persons in the gateway endeavouring to gain admittance Forced it open at length with a bayonet not with a crowbar had but little difficulty of it being a double or folding gate and bolted neither at bottom nor top The shrieks were continued until the gate was forced and then suddenly ceased They seemed to be screams of some person or persons in great agony were loud and drawn out not short and quick Witness led the way upstairs Upon reaching the first landing heard two voices in loud and angry contention The one a gruff voice the other much shriller a very strange voice could distinguish some words of the former which was that of a Frenchman was positive that it was not a woman's voice could distinguish the words sacra and diable The shrill voice was that of a foreigner could not be sure whether it was the voice of a man or of a woman could not make out what was said but believe the language to be Spanish The state of the room and of the bodies was described by this witness as we described them yesterday Henri Duval a neighbour and by trade a silversmith deposes that he was one of the party who first entered the house corroborates the testimony of Musée in general As soon as they forced an entrance they reclosed the door to keep out the crowd which collected very fast notwithstanding the lateness of the hour The shrill voice this witness things was that of an Italian was certain it was not French could not be sure that it was a man's voice it might have been a woman's was not acquainted with the Italian language could not distinguish the words but was convinced by the intonation that the speaker was an Italian knew Madame El and her daughter had conversed with both frequently was sure that the shrill voice was not that of either of the deceased Odenheimer restaurateur this witness volunteered his testimony not speaking French was examined through an interpreter is a native of Amsterdam was passing the house at the time of the shrieks they lasted for several minutes probably ten they were long and loud very awful and distressing was one of those who entered the building corroborated the previous evidence in every respect but one was sure that the shrill voice was that of a man of a Frenchman could not distinguish the words uttered they were loud and quick unequal spoken apparently in fear as well as in anger the voice was harsh not so much shrill as harsh could not call it a shrill voice the gruff voice said repeatedly sacre, diable and once mon Dieu banker of the firm of Mignon-Ephise Rue de Lorraine is the elder Mignon Madame Lesbonnet had some property and opened an account with his banking house in the spring of the year eight years previously made frequent deposits in small sums had checked for nothing until the third day before her death when she took out in person the sum of 4000 francs the sum was paid in gold and the clerk went home with the money Adolf Le Bon Clark to Mignon-Ephise deposes that on the day in question about noon he accompanied Madame Lesbonnet to her residence with the 4000 francs put up in two bags upon the door being opened mademoiselle L appeared and took from his hands one of the bags while the old lady relieved him of the other he then bowed and departed did not see any person in the street at the time it is a by street very lonely William Bird Taylor deposes that he was one of the party who entered the house is an Englishman has lived in Paris two years was one of the first to ascend the stairs heard the voices in contention the gruff voice was that of a Frenchman could make out several words but cannot now remember all heard distinctly Sackler and Montje there was a sound at the moment as if of several persons struggling a scraping and scruffling sound the shrill voice was very loud louder than the gruff one is sure that it was not the voice of an Englishman appeared to be that of a German might have been a woman's voice does not understand German four of the above-named witnesses being recalled deposed that the door of the chamber in which was found the body of mademoiselle L was locked on the inside when the party reached it everything was perfectly silent no groans or noises of any kind upon forcing the door no person was seen the windows both at the back and front room were down and firmly fastened from within a door between the two rooms was closed but not locked the door was locked the door leading from the front room into the passage was locked with a key on the inside a small room in the front of the house on the fourth story at the head of the passage was open the door being a jar this room was crowded with old beds, boxes and so forth these were carefully removed and searched there was not an inch of any portion of the house which was not carefully searched sweeps were sent up and down the chimneys the house was a four story one with garrets, mansards a trap door on the roof was nailed down very securely did not appear to have been open for years the time elapsing between the hearing of the voices in contention and the breaking open of the room door was variously stated by the witnesses some made it as short as three minutes some as long as five the door was opened with difficulty Alfonso Garcia undertaker deposes that he resides in the rumour is a native of Spain was one of the party who entered the house did not proceed upstairs is nervous and was apprehensive of the consequences of agitation heard the voices in contention the graph voice was that of a Frenchman could not distinguish what was said the shrill voice the shrill voice was that of an Englishman is sure of this does not understand the English language but judges by the intonation Alberto Montani confectioner deposes that he was among the first to ascend the stairs heard the voices in question the graph voice was that of a Frenchman distinguished several words the speaker appeared to be expostulating could not make out the words of the shrill voice spoke quick and unevenly things hit the voice of a Russian corroborates the general testimony is an Italian never converse with a native of Russia several witnesses recalled here testified that the chimneys of all the rooms on the fourth story were too narrow to admit the passage of a human being by sweeps were meant cylindrical sweeping brushes such as are employed by those who clean chimneys these brushes were passed up and down every flu in the house there is no back passage by which anyone could have descended while the party proceeded upstairs the body of mademoiselle lesbanay was so firmly wedged in the chimney that it could not be got down until four or five of the party united their strength Paul Dumas, physician deposes that he was called to view the bodies about daybreak they were both then lying on the sacking of the bedstead where mademoiselle L. was found the corpse of the young lady was much bruised and excoriated the fact that it had been thrust up the chimney was sufficiently account for these appearances the throat was greatly chafed there were several deep scratches just below the chin together with a series of livid spots which were evidently the impression of fingers the face was fearfully discoloured and the eyeballs protruded the tongue had been partially bitten through a large bruise was discovered upon the pit of the stomach produced apparently by the pressure of a knee in the opinion of monsieur Dumas mademoiselle lesbanay had been throttled to death by some person or persons unknown the corpse of the mother was horribly mutilated all the bones of the right leg and arm were more or less chattered the left tibia which splintered as well as all the ribs of the left side the whole body dreadfully bruised and discoloured it was not possible to say how the injuries had been inflicted a heavy club of wood or a broad bar of iron a chair any large heavy and obtuse weapon would have produced such results if wielded by the hands of a very powerful man no woman could have inflicted the blows with any weapon the head of the deceased when seen by witness was entirely separated from the body and was also greatly shattered the throat had evidently been cut with some very sharp instrument probably with a razor alexandra etienne surgeon was called with monsieur Dumas to view the bodies corroborated the testimony and the opinions of monsieur Dumas nothing further of importance was elicited although several other persons were examined a murder so mysterious and so perplexing in all its particulars was never before committed in Paris if indeed a murder has been committed at all the police are entirely at fault an unusual occurrence in affairs of this nature there is not however the shadow of a clue apparent the evening edition of the paper stated that the greatest excitement still continued in the coutier san roche that the premises in question had been carefully researched and fresh examination of witnesses instituted but all to no purpose a post script however mentioned that adult Le Bon had been arrested and imprisoned although nothing appeared to discriminate him beyond the facts already detailed Dupin seemed singularly interested in the progress of this affair at least sighed judged from his manner for he made no comments it was only after the announcement that Le Bon had been imprisoned that he asked me my opinion respecting the murders I could merely agree with all Paris in considering them an insoluble mystery I saw no means by which it would be possible to trace the murderer we must not judge of the means said Dupin but this shell of an examination the Parisian police so much extolled for acumen are cunning but no more there is no method in their proceedings beyond the method of the moment they make a vast parade of measures but not unfrequently these are so ill adapted to the objects proposed as to put us in mind of Monsieur Jardin's calling for his rub de chambre pour mire entendre la musique the results attained by them are not unfrequently surprising but for the most part are brought about by simple diligence and activity when these qualities are unavailing their shims fail for example was a good guesser and a persevering man but without educated thought he erred continually by the very intensity of investigations he impaired his vision by holding the object too close he might see perhaps one or two points with unusual clearness but in so doing he necessarily lost sight of the matter as a whole thus there is such a thing as being too profound that she is not always in a well in fact as regards the more important knowledge I do believe that she is invariably superficial the depth lies in the valleys where we seek her and not upon the mountain tops where she is found the modes and sources of this kind of error are well typified by the contemplation of the heavenly bodies to look at a star by glances to view it in a side long way by turning towards it the interior portions of the retina more susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the interior is to behold the star distinctly is to have the best appreciation of its luster a luster which grows dim just in proportion as we turn our vision fully upon it a greater number of rays actually fall upon the eye in the latter case but in the former there is the more refined capacity for comprehension by undue profundity and in feeble thought it is possible to make even Venus herself vanish from the firmament by a scrutiny too sustained too concentrated or too direct as for these murders let us enter into some examinations for ourselves before we make up an opinion respecting them an inquiry will afford us amusement I thought this an odd term so applied but said nothing and besides, Lebon once rendered me a service for which I am not ungrateful we will go and see the premises with our own eyes I know she the prefect of police and shall have no difficulty in obtaining the necessary permission the permission was obtained and we proceeded at once to the Rue Morg this is one of those miserable thoroughfares which intervene between the Rue Richelieu and the Rue Saint Roche it was late in the afternoon when we reached it as his quarter is at a great distance from that in which we resided the house was readily found for there were still many persons gazing up at the closed shutters with an objectless curiosity from the opposite side of the way it was an ordinary Parisian house with a gateway on one side of which was a glazed watchbox with a sliding panel in the window indicating a loge de concierge before going in we walked up the street turned down an alley and then again turning passed in the rear of the building Dupin meanwhile examining the whole neighbourhood as well as the house with a minuteness of attention for which I could see no possible object retracing our steps we came again to the front of the dwelling rang and having shown our credentials in charge we went upstairs into the chamber where the body of Mademoiselle Lesbanais had been found and where both the deceased still lay the disorders of the room had as usual been suffered to exist I saw nothing beyond what had been stated in the Gazette de Tribuneau Dupin scrutinised everything not accepting the bodies of the victims we then went into the other rooms and into the yard a gendarm accompanying us throughout the examination occupied us until dark when we took our departure on our way home my companion stepped in for a moment at the office of one of the daily papers I have said that the whims of my friend were manifold and that Jula Managé for this phrase there is no English equivalent it was his humour now to decline all conversation on the subject of the murder until about noon the next day he then asked me suddenly if I had observed anything peculiar at the scene of the atrocity there was something in his manner of emphasising the word peculiar which caused me to shudder without knowing why no, nothing peculiar I said nothing more at least than we both saw stated in the paper the Gazette has not entered I fear into the unusual horror of the thing but dismiss the idle opinions of this print it appears to me that this mystery is considered insoluble for the very reason which should cause it to be regarded as easy of solution I mean for the ultra character of its features the police are confounded by the seeming absence of notice not for the murder itself but for the atrocity of the murder they are puzzled too by the seeming impossibility of reconciling the voices heard in contention with the facts that no one was discovered upstairs but the assassinated Mademoiselle Lesbenay and that there were no means of egress without the notice of the party ascending the wild disorder of the room the corpse thrust with the head downward up the chimney the frightful mutilation of the body of the old lady these considerations with those just mentioned and others which I need not mention have suffice to paralyze the powers by putting completely at fault the boasted acumen of the government agents they have fallen into the gross but common error of confounding the unusual with the abtruse but is by these deviations from the plain of the ordinary it reveals its way if at all it is searched for the true in investigations such as we are now pursuing it should not be so much asked what has occurred as what has occurred that has never occurred before in fact the facility with which I shall arrive or have arrived at the solution of this mystery is in the direct ratio of its apparent insolubility in the eyes of the police I stared at the speaker in mute astonishment I am now waiting continued he looking toward the door of our apartment I am now awaiting a person who although perhaps not the perpetrator of these book trees must have been in some measure implicated in their perpetration of the worst portion of the crimes committed it is probable that he is innocent I hope that I am right in this supposition for upon it I build my expectation of reading the entire riddle I look to the man here in this room every moment it is true that he may not arrive but the probability is that he will should he come it will be necessary to detain him here are pistols and we both know how to use them when occasion demands their use I took the pistols scarcely knowing what I did or believing what I heard while Dupin went on very much as if in a soliloquy I have already spoken of his abstract manner at such times his discourse was addressed to myself but his voice although by no means loud had that intonation which is commonly employed in speaking to someone at a great distance his eyes vacant an expression regarded only the wall that the voices heard in contention he said by the party upon the stairs was fully proved by the evidence this relieves us of all doubt upon the question whether the old lady could have first destroyed the daughter and after that have committed suicide I speak of this point chiefly for the sake of method for the strength of Madame Lesbenay would have been utterly unequal to the task of thrusting her daughter's corpse up the chimney as it was found and the nature of the wounds upon her own person entirely preclude the idea of self-discruction murder then has been committed by some third party and the voices of this third party were those heard in contention let me now advert not to the whole testimony respecting these voices but to what was peculiar in that testimony did you observe anything peculiar about it I remarked that while all the witnesses agreed in supposing the gruff voice to be that of a Frenchman there was much disagreement in regard to the shrill or as one individual termed it the harsh voice that was the evidence itself said Dupin but it was not the peculiarity of the evidence you have observed nothing distinctive yet there was something to be observed the witnesses as you remark agreed upon the gruff voice they were unanimous but in regard to the shrill voice the peculiarity is not that they disagreed but that while an Italian and Englishman a Spaniard a Hollander and a Frenchman attempt to describe it each one spoke of it as that of a foreigner it is sure that it is not the voice of one of his own countrymen each likens it not the voice of an individual of any nation with whose language he is conversant but the converse the Frenchman supposes it the voice of a Spaniard and might have distinguished some words had he been acquainted with the Spanish the Dutchman maintains it to have been that of a Frenchman but we find it stated that not understanding French this witness was examined through an interpreter the Englishman thinks it is the voice of a German and does not understand German the Spaniard is sure that it was that of an Englishman but judges by the intonation altogether as he has no knowledge of the English the Italian believes it is the voice of a Russian but has never conversed with a native of Russia a second Frenchman differs moreover with the first and is positive that the voice was that of an Italian but not being cognizant of that tongue is like the Spaniard convinced by the intonation now how strange and unusual must that voice have really been about which such testimony as this could have been elicited in whose tones even denizens of the five great divisions of Europe could recognise nothing familiar you will say that it might have been the voice of an Asiatic of an African neither Asiatic nor Africans abound in Paris but without denying the inference I will now merely call your attention to three points the voice is turned by one witness harsh rather than shrill it is represented by two others to have been quick and unequal no words no sounds resembling words were by any witness mentioned as distinguishable I know not continued Dupin what impression I may have made so far upon your own understanding but I do not hesitate to say that legitimate deductions even from this portion of the testimony the portion respecting the gruff and shrill voices are in themselves sufficient to engender a suspicion which should give directions to all father progress in the investigation of the mystery I said legitimate deductions but my meaning is not thus fully expressed I designed to imply that the deductions are the sole proper ones and that the suspicion arises inevitably from them as to the single result what the suspicion is however I will not say just yet I merely wish you to bear in mind that with myself it was sufficiently forcible to give a definite form a certain tendency to my inquiries in the chamber end of part 2 of the murders in the rumour by Edgar Allan Poe part 3 of the murders in the rumour by Edgar Allan Poe this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Reynard the murders in the rumour by Edgar Allan Poe let us now transport ourselves in fancy to this chamber what shall we first seek here the means of Egress employed by the murderers it is not too much to say that neither of us believe in preternatural events Madame and mademoiselle Espenay were not destroyed by spirits the doers of the deed were material and escaped materially then how fortunately there is but one mode of reasoning upon the point and that mode must lead us to a definite decision let us examine each by each the possible means of Egress it is clear that the assassins were in the room where mademoiselle Espenay was found or at least in the room adjoining when the party ascended the stairs it is then only from these two apartments that we have to seek issues the police have laid bare the floors the ceilings and the masonry of the walls in every direction no secret issues could have escaped their vigilance but not trusting to their eyes I examined with my own there were then no secret issues both doors leading from the rooms into the passage were securely locked with the keys inside let us turn to the chimneys these although of ordinary width for some 8 or 10 feet above the hearth will not admit throughout their extent the body of a large cat the impossibility of Egress by means already stated being thus absolute we are reduced to the windows through those of the front room no one could have escaped without notice from the crowd in the streets the murderers must have passed then through those of the back room now brought to this conclusion in so unequivocal a manner as we are it is not our part as reasoners to reject it it is only left for us to prove that these apparent impossibilities are in reality not such there are two windows in the chamber one of them is unobstructed by furniture and is wholly visible the lower portion of the other is hidden from view by the head of the unwieldy bedstead which is thrust close up against it the former was found securely fastened from within it resisted the utmost force of those who endeavoured to raise it a large gimlet hole had been pierced in its frame to the left and a very stout nail was found fitted therein nearly to the head upon examining the other window a similar nail was seen similarly fitted in it and a vigorous attempt to raise this sash failed also the police were now entirely satisfied that Egress had not been in these directions and therefore it was thought a matter of serpa-erogation to withdraw the nails and open the windows my own examination was somewhat more particular and was so far for the reason I have just given because here it was I knew that in all apparent impossibilities must be proved to be not such in reality I proceeded to think thus a postiori to escape from one of these windows this being so they could not have re-fastened the sashes from the inside as they were found fastened the consideration which put a stop through its own obviousness to the scrutiny of the police in this quarter yet the sashes were fastened they must then have the power of fastening themselves there was no escape from this conclusion I stepped to the obstructed casement we drew the nail with some difficulty and attempted to raise a sash it resisted all my efforts as I had anticipated a concealed spring must I now know exist and this corroboration of my idea convinced me that my premises at least were correct however mysterious still appeared the circumstances attending the nails a careful search soon brought to light the hidden spring I pressed it and satisfied with the discovery for bore to upraise the sash I now replaced the nail and regarded it attentively a person passing out through this window might have re-closed it and the spring would have caught but the nail could not have been replaced the conclusion was plain and again narrowed in the field of my investigations the assassins must have escaped through the other window supposing then the springs upon each sash to be the same as was probable there must be found a difference between the nails or at least between the modes of their fixture getting upon the sacking of the bedstead I looked over the headboard minutely at the second casement passing my hand down behind the board I readily discovered and pressed the spring which was as I had supposed identical in character with its neighbour I now looked at the nail it was as stout as the other and apparently fitted in the same manner driven in nearly up to the head you will say that I was puzzled but if you think so you must have misunderstood the nature of the inductions to use a sporting phrase I had not been once at fault the scent had never for an instance been lost there was no flaw in any link of the chain I had traced a secret to its ultimate result and that result was the nail it had I say in every respect the appearance of its fellow in the other window but this fact was an absolute nullity conclusive us it might seem to be when compared with the consideration that here at this point terminated the clue there must be something wrong I said about the nail I touched it and the head with about a quarter of an inch of the shank came off in my fingers the rest of the shank was in the gimlet hole where it had been broken off the fracture was an old one for its edges were encrusted with rust and had apparently been accomplished by the blow of a hammer which had partially embedded in the top of the bottom sash the head portion of the nail I now carefully replaced this head portion in the indentation and the resemblance to a perfect nail was complete the fissure was invisible pressing the spring I gently raised the sash for a few inches the head went up with it remaining firm in its bed I closed the window and the semblance of the whole nail was again perfect the riddle so far was now unriddled the assassin had escaped through the window which looked upon the bed dropping of its own accord upon his exit or perhaps purposely closed it had become fastened by the spring and it was a retention of this spring which had been mistaken by the police for that of the nail father inquiry being thus considered unnecessary the next question is that of the mode of descent upon this point I had been satisfied in my walk with you around the building five feet and a half from the casement in question there runs a lightning rod from this rod it would have been impossible for anyone to reach the window itself to say nothing of entering it I observed however that the shutters of the fourth story were of the peculiar kind called by Parisian carpenters forades a kind rarely employed at the present day but frequently seen upon very old mansions at Lyon and Bordeaux they are in the form of an ordinary door a single not a folding door except that the lower half is lattice or worked in open trellis thus affording an excellent hold for the hands in the present instance these shutters are fully three feet and a half broad when we saw them from the rear of the house they were both about half open that is to say they stood off at right angles from the wall it is probable that the police as well as my asex self examined the back of the tenement but if so in looking at these ferrards in the line of their breath as they must have done they did not perceive that this great breath itself or at all events failed to take it into due consideration in fact having once satisfied themselves that no egress could have been made in this quarter they would naturally bestow here it was clear to me however that the shutter belonging to the window at the head of the bed would if swung fully back to the wall reached within two feet of the lightning rod it was also evident that by exertion of a very unusual degree of activity and courage an entrance into the window from the rod might have been thus affected by reaching the distance of two feet and a half we now suppose the shutter open to its whole extent a robber might have taken a firm grasp upon the trellis work letting go then his hold upon the rod placing his feet securely against the wall and spitting boldly from it he might have swung the shutter so as to close it and if we imagine the window open at the time might even have swung himself into the room I wish you to bear especially in mind that I have spoken of a very unusual degree of activity as requisites to success in so hazardous and so difficult a feat it is my design to show you first that the thing might possibly have been accomplished but secondly and chiefly I wish to impress upon your understanding the very extraordinary the almost preternatural character of that agility which could have accomplished it you will say no doubt using the language of the law that to make out my case I should rather undervalue that insist upon a full estimation of the activity required in this matter this may be the practice in law but it is not the usage of reason my ultimate object is only the truth my immediate purpose is to lead you to place in juxtaposition that very unusual activity of which I have just spoken with that very peculiar shrill or harsh and unequal voice about whose nationality persons could be found to agree and in whose utterances no syllabification could be detected at these words a vague and half formed conception of the meaning of dupin filtered over my mind I seem to be upon the verge of a comprehension without power to comprehend men at times find themselves upon the brink of remembrance without being able in the end to remember my friend went on with his discourse you will see, he said that I have shifted the question from the mode of egress to that of ingress it was my design to convey the idea that both were affected in the same manner at the same point let us now revert to the interior of the room let us survey the appearances here the drawers of the bureau it is said had been rifled although many articles of apparel still remained within them the conclusion here is absurd it is a mere guess a very silly one and no more how are we to know that the articles found in the drawers were not at all these drawers had originally contained Madame Lesbenay and her daughter lived an exceedingly retired life saw no company, seldom went out had little use for numerous changes of habillment these found were at least of as good quality as any likely to be possessed by these ladies if a thief had taken any why did he not take the best why did he not take all in a word why did he abandon 4000 francs in gold to encumber himself with a bundle of linen the gold was abandoned nearly the whole sum mentioned by Monsieur Mignot the banker was discovered in bags upon the floor I wish you therefore to discard from your thoughts the blundering idea of motive engendered in the brains of the police by that portion of the evidence which speaks of money delivered at the door of the house Coincidence is ten times as remarkable as this the delivery of the money the murder committed within three days upon the party receiving it happened to all of us every hour of our lives without attracting even momentary notice Coincidences in general are great stumbling blocks in the way of that class of thinkers who have been educated to know nothing of the theory of probabilities that theory to which the most glorious objects of human research are indebted for the most glorious of illustration in the present instance had the gold been gone the fact of its delivery three days before would have formed something more than a coincidence it would have been corroborative of this idea of motive but under the real circumstance of the case if we are to suppose gold the motive of this outrage we must also imagine the perpetrator so vacillating an idiot as to have abandoned his gold and his motive altogether keeping now steadily in mind the points to which I have drawn your attention that's peculiar voice that's unusual agility and that's startling absence of motive in a murder so singularly atrocious as this let us dance at the butchery itself here is a woman strangled to death by manual strength and thrust up a chimney head downward ordinary assassins employ no such modes of murder as this least of all do they thus dispose of the murdered in the manner of thrusting the corpse up a chimney you'll admit that there was something excessively ultra something altogether irreconcilable with our common notions of human action even when we suppose the actors the most depraved of men think too how great must have been the strength which could have thrust the body up such an aperture so forcibly that the united vigor of several persons was found barely sufficient to drag it down turn now to other indications of the employments of a vigor most marvellous on the half were thick tresses very thick tresses of grey human hair these had been torn out by the roots you are aware of the great force necessary in tearing thus from the head even 20 or 30 hairs together you saw the locks in question as well as myself their roots, a hideous sight were clotted with fragments of the flesh of the scalp sure token of the prodigious power which had been exerted at uprooting perhaps half a million of hairs at a time the throat of the old lady was not merely cut but the head absolutely severed from the body the instrument was a mere razor I wish you also to look at the brutal ferocity of these deeds of the bruises upon the body of madame lesben eye I do not speak monsieur Dumas and his worthy co-editor monsieur Etienne have pronounced that they were inflicted by some obtuse instrument and so far these gentlemen are very correct the obtuse instrument was clearly the stone pavement in the yard upon which the victims had fallen from the window which looked in upon the bed this idea however simple it may seem escapes the police for the same reason that the breadth of the shutters escaped them because by the affair of the nails their perceptions had been hermetically sealed against the possibility of the windows having ever been opened at all if now in addition to all these things you have properly reflected upon the odd disorder of the chamber we have gone so far as to combine the ideas of an agility astounding a strength superhuman a ferocity brutal a butchery without motive a grotesquely in horror absolutely alien from humanity and devoid foreign in tone to the ears of men of many nations and devoid of all distinct or intelligible syllabification what result then has ensued what impression have I made upon your fancy I felt a creeping of the flesh as jupan asked me the question a mad man I said has done this deed some raving maniac escaped from a neighbouring Maison de Sontre in some respects he replied your idea is not irrelevant but the voices of mad men even in their wildest paroxyms are bound to tally with that peculiar voice heard upon the stairs mad men are of some nation and their language however incoherent in its words has always the coherence of syllabification besides the hair of this mad man is not such as I now hold in my hand I disentangled this little tuft from the rigidly clutched fingers of madame lesben eye tell me what you can make of it dupan I said completely unnerved this hair is most unusual this is no human hair I have not asserted that it is said he but before we decide this point I wish you to glance at the little sketch I have here traced upon this paper it is a facsimile drawing of what has been described in one portion of the testimony as dark bruises and deep indentations of fingernails upon the throat of mademoiselle lesben eye and in another by messes do mass and etian has a series of livid spots evidently the impression of fingers you'll perceive continued my friend spreading out the paper upon the table before us this drawing gives the idea of a firm and fixed hold there is no slipping apparent each finger has retained possibly until the death of the victim the fearful graft by which it originally embedded itself attempt now to place all your fingers at the same time in the respective impressions as you see them I made the attempt in vain we are possibly not giving this matter a fair trial he said the paper is spread out upon a plain surface but the human throat is cylindrical here is a billet of wood the circumference of which is about that of the throat wrap the drawing around it and try the experiment again I did so but the difficulty was even more obvious than before this, I said is the mark of no human hand read now, replied Dupain this passage from Cuvier it was a minute anatomical and generally descriptive account of the large fulvas orang utang of the east indian islands the gigantic stature the prodigious strength and activity the wild ferocity and the imitative propensities of these mammalia are sufficiently well known to all I understood the full horrors of the murder at once the description of the digits, said I as I made an end of reading is in exact accordance with this drawing I see that no animal but an orang utang of the species here mentioned could have impressed the indentations as you have traced them this tuft of trawny hair too is identical in character with that of the beast of Cuvier but I cannot possibly comprehend the particulars of this frightful mystery besides, there were two voices heard in contention and one of them was unquestionably the voice of a Frenchman true, and you will remember an expression attributed almost unanimously by the evidence to this voice the expression this under the circumstances has been justly characterised by one of the witnesses Montani, the confectioner as an expression of remonstrance or expostulation upon these two words therefore I have mainly built my hopes of a full solution of the riddle a Frenchman was cognizant of the murder it is possible indeed, it is far more than probable that he was innocent of all participation in the bloody transactions which took place the orang utang may have escaped from him he may have traced it to the chamber but under the agitating circumstances which ensued he could never have recaptured it it is still at large I will not pursue these guesses for I have no right to call them more since the shades of reflection upon which they are based are scarcely of sufficient depth to be appreciable by my own intellect and since I could not pretend to make them intelligible to the understanding of another we will call them guesses then and speak of them as such if the Frenchman in question is indeed as I suppose innocent of this atrocity this advertisement which I left last night upon our return home at the offices of Le Monde a paper denoted to the shipping interest and which sought by sailors will bring him to our residence he handed me a paper and I read thus caught in the boire de Boulogne early in the morning of the inst the morning of the murder a very large tawny orangutan of the bournese species the owner who is ascertained to be a sailor belonging to a Maltese vessel may have the animal again upon identifying it satisfactorily and paying a few charges arising from its capture and keeping call at number rou Fábor Saint-Germain Otoisiem I asked that you should know the man to be a sailor and belonging to a Maltese vessel I do not know it said Dupain I am not sure of it here however is a small piece of ribbon which from its form and from its greasy appearance has evidently been used in tying the hair in one of those long cues of which sailors are so fond moreover this knot is one which few besides sailors can tie and is peculiar to the Maltese I picked the ribbon up at the foot of the lightning rod he could not have belonged to either of the deceased now if after all I am wrong in my induction from this ribbon that the Frenchman was a sailor belonging to a Maltese vessel still I can have done no harm in saying what I did in the advertisement if I am in error he will merely suppose that I have been misled by some circumstance into which he will not take the trouble to inquire but if I am right a great point is gained cognizant although innocent of the murder the Frenchman will naturally hesitate about replying to the advertisement about demanding the orangutan he will reason thus I am innocent I am poor my orangutan is of great value to one in my circumstances a fortune of itself why should I lose it through idle apprehension of danger here it is within my grasp it was found in the bridal loin at a vast distance from the scene of that butchery how can it ever be suspected that a brute beast should have done the deed the police are at fault they have failed to procure the slightest clue should they even trace the animal it would be impossible to prove me cognizant of the murder or to implicate me in guilt on account of that cognizance above all I am known the advertiser designates me as the possessor of the beast I am not sure to what limits his knowledge may extend should I avoid claiming a property of so great value which it is known that I possess I will render the animal at least liable to suspicion it is not my policy to attract attention either to myself or to the beast I will answer the advertisement get the orangutan and keep it close until this matter has blown over at this moment we heard a step upon the stairs be ready said dupain with your pistols but neither use them nor show them until I had a signal from myself the front door of the house had been left open and the visitor had entered without ringing and advanced several steps upon the staircase now however he seemed to hesitate presently we heard him descending dupain was moving quickly to the door when we again heard him coming up he did not turn back a second time but stepped up with decision and wrapped at the door of our chamber come in said dupain in a cheerful and hearty tone a man entered he was a sailor evidently a tall, stout and muscular looking person with a certain daredevil expression of countenance not altogether unprepossessing his face greatly sunburned hidden by whisker and mustachio he had with him a huge oaken cudgel that appeared to be otherwise unarmed he bowed awkwardly and bathed us good evening in French accents which although somewhat nochatelliche were still sufficient the indicative of a Parisian origin sit down my friend said dupain I suppose you have called about the orangutan upon my word I almost envied the possession of him a remarkably fine and no doubt a very valuable animal how old do you suppose him to be the sailor drew a long breath with the air of a man relieved of some intolerable burden and then replied in an assured tone I have no way of telling but he can't be more than four or five years old have you got him here oh no we had no conveniences for keeping him here he's at a livery stable in the rue du Bois just by you can get him in the morning of course you are prepared to identify the property to be sure I am sir I shall be sorry to part with him said dupain I don't mean that you should be at all this trouble for nothing sir said the man couldn't expect it I'm very willing to pay a reward for the finding of the animal that is to say anything in reason well replied my friend that is all very fair to be sure let me think what should I have oh I will tell you my reward shall be this you shall give me all the information in your power about these murders in the rue morgue dupain said the last words in a very low tone and very quietly just as quietly too he walked toward the door locked it and put the key in his pocket he then drew a pistol from his bosom and placed it without the least flurry upon the table the sailors face flushed up as if he was struggling with suffocation he started to his feet and grasped his cudgel but the next moment he fell back into his seat trembling violently and with the countenance of death itself he spoke not a word I pitted him from the bottom of my heart my friend said dupain in a kind tone you are alarming yourself unnecessarily you are indeed we mean you no harm whatever I pledge you the honour of a gentleman and of a Frenchman that we intend you no injury I perfectly well know that you are innocent of the atrocities in the rue morgue it will not do however deny that you are in some measure implicated in them from what I have already said you must know that I have had means of information in this matter means of which you could never have dreamed now the thing stands thus you have done nothing which you could have avoided nothing certainly which renders you culpable you are not even guilty of robbery when you might have robbed with impunity you have nothing to conceal you have no reason for concealment on the other hand you are bound by every principle of honour to confess all you know is now imprisoned charged with that crime of which you can point out the perpetrator the sailor had recovered his presence of mind in a great measure while Dupain uttered these words but his original boldness of bearing was all gone so help me God said he after a brief pause I will tell you all I know about this affair but I do not expect you to believe one half I say I will be a fool indeed if I did still I am innocent and I will make you a clean breast if I die for it what he stated was in substance this he had lately made a voyage to the Indian Archipelago a party of which he formed one landed at Borneo and passed into the interior of an excursion of pleasure himself and a companion had captured the orangutan this companion dying the animal fell into his own exclusive possession after great trouble occasioned by the intractable ferocity of his captive during the home voyage he at length acceded in lodging it safely at his own residence in Paris where not to attract toward himself the unpleasant curiosity of his neighbours he kept it carefully secluded until such time as it should recover from a wound in the foot received from a splinter on board ship his ultimate design was to sell it moving home from sailors frolic one night or rather in the morning of the murder he found the beast occupying his own bedroom into which it had broken from a closet adjoining where it had been as was thought securely confined razor in hand and fully lathered it was sitting before a looking glass attempting the operation of shaving in which it had no doubt previously watched its master through the keyhole of the closet terrified at the sight of so dangerous a weapon in the possession of an animal so ferocious and so well able to use it the man for some moments was at a loss what to do he had been accustomed however to quiet the creature even in its fiercest moods by the use of a whip and to this he now resorted upon sight of it the orangutan sprang at once through the door of the chamber down the stairs and thence through a window unfortunately open into the street the frenchman followed in despair the ape razor still in hand occasionally stopping to look back and gesticulate at its pursuer until the latter had nearly come up with it it then again made off in this manner the chase continued for a long time the streets were profoundly quiet as it was nearly three o'clock in the morning in passing down an alley in the rear of the rue morgue the fugitive's attention was arrested by a light gleaming from the open window of madame lesbania's chamber in the fourth story of her house rushing to the building it perceived the lightning rod clambered up with inconceivable agility grasped the shutter which was thrown fully back against the wall and by its means swung itself directly upon the headboard of the bed the whole feet did not occupy a minute the shutter was kicked open again by the orangutan as it entered the room the sailor, in the meantime was both rejoiced and perplexed he had strong hopes of now recapturing the brute as it could scarcely escape from the trap into which it had ventured except by the rod where it might be intercepted as it came down on the other hand there was much cause for anxiety as to what it might do in the house this latter reflection urged the man still to follow the fugitive a lightning rod is ascended without difficulty especially by a sailor but when he had arrived as high as the window which lay far to his left his career was stopped the most that he could accomplish was to reach over so as to obtain a glimpse of the interior of the room at this glimpse he nearly fell from his hold through excess of horror now it was that those hideous streaks arose upon the night from slumber the inmates of the room or Madame Lesbenay and her daughter habited in their night clothes had apparently been occupied in arranging some paper in the iron chest already mentioned which had been wheeled into the middle of the room it was open and its contents lay beside it on the floor the victims must have been sitting with their backs toward the window and from the time elapsing between the ingress of the beast and the screams immediately perceived the flapping two of the shutter would naturally have been attributed to the wind as the sailor looked in the gigantic animal had seized Madame Lesbenay by the hair which was loose as she had been combing it and was flourishing the razor about her face in imitation of the motions of a barber the daughter laid prostrates and motionless she had swooned the screams and struggles of the old lady which the hair was torn from her head had the effect of changing the probably pacific purposes of the orangutan into those of wrath with one determined sweep of its muscular arm it nearly severed her head from her body the sight of blood inflamed its anger into frenzy gnashing its teeth and flashing fire from its eyes it flew upon the body of the girl and embedded its fearful talons in her throat retaining its grasp until she expired its wandering and wild glasses fell at this moment upon the head of the bed over which the face of its master rigid with horror was just discernible the fury of the beast who no doubt bore still in mind the dreaded whip was instantly converted into fear conscious of having deserved punishment it seemed desirous of concealing its bloody deeds and skipped about the chamber in an agony of nervous agitation throwing down and breaking the furniture as it moved and dragging the bed from the bedstead in conclusion it seized first the corpse of the daughter and thrust it up the chimney as it was found then that of the old lady which it immediately hurled through the window headlong as the ape approached the casement with its mutilated burden the sailor shrank aghast to the rod and rather gliding than clambering down it hurried at once home dreading the consequences of the butchery and gladly abandoning in his terror all solicitude about the fate of the orangutan the words heard by the party upon the staircase were the Frenchmen's exclamations of horror and a fright commingled with the fiendish jabberings of the brute I have scarcely anything to add the orangutan must have escaped from the chamber by the rod just before the break of the door it must have closed the window as it passed through it it was subsequently caught by the owner himself who obtained for it a very large sum at the Jardin de Plante the don was instantly released upon our narration of the circumstances with some comments from Dupin at the bureau of the prefect of police this functionary, however well disposed to my friend could not altogether conceal his chagran at the turn of affairs had taken and was feigned to indulge in a sarcasm or two and it was subsequently caught by the owner himself who obtained for it a large sum to indulge in a sarcasm or two about the proprietary of every person minding his own business let him talk, said Dupin who had not thought it necessary to reply let him discourse it will ease his conscience I am satisfied with having defeated him in his own carful nevertheless, that he failed in the solution of his mystery is by no means that matter for wonder which he supposes it for in truth our friend the prefect is somewhat too cunning to be profound in his wisdom is no a stamen it is all head and no body like the pictures of the goddess Laverne or at best all head and shoulders, like a codfish but he is a good creature after all I like him especially for one master stroke of Kant by which he has attained his reputation for ingenuity I mean the way he has the near the near the near end of the murders in the rumour by Edgar Allen Poe