In short, he planned the crime in a manner to secure himself
impunity. The other bank of the river was occupied by the Austrian
army; below the windows lay a boat and boatman; he would cut the
throat of that man, throw the body into the Rhine, and escape with the
valise; gold would buy the boatman and he could reach the Austrians.
He went so far as to calculate the professional ability he had reached
in the use of instruments, so as to cut through his victim's throat
without leaving him the chance for a single cry.
[Here Monsieur Taillefer wiped his forehead and drank a little water.]
Prosper rose slowly, making no noise. Certain of having waked no one,
he dressed himself and went into the public room. There, with that
fatal intelligence a man suddenly finds on some occasions within him,
with that power of tact and will which is never lacking to prisoners
or to criminals in whatever they undertake, he unscrewed the iron
bars, slipped them from their places without the slightest noise,
placed them against the wall, and opened the shutters, leaning heavily
upon their hinges to keep them from creaking. The moon was shedding
its pale pure light upon the scene, and he was thus enabled to faintly
see into the room where Wilhelm and Wahlenfer were sleeping. There, he
told me, he stood still for a moment.
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