The Count of Monte Cristo

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I discovered that the thick warm drops that had so bedewed me as I lay
beneath the staircase must have been the blood of La Carconte. I pointed
to the spot where I had concealed myself. 'What does he mean?' asked a
gendarme. One of the officers went to the place I directed. 'He means,'
replied the man upon his return, 'that he got in that way;' and he
showed the hole I had made when I broke through.

"Then I saw that they took me for the assassin. I recovered force and
energy enough to free myself from the hands of those who held me, while
I managed to stammer forth--'I did not do it! Indeed, indeed I did not!'
A couple of gendarmes held the muzzles of their carbines against my
breast.--'Stir but a step,' said they, 'and you are a dead man.'--'Why
should you threaten me with death,' cried I, 'when I have already
declared my innocence?'--'Tush, tush,' cried the men; 'keep your
innocent stories to tell to the judge at Nimes. Meanwhile, come along
with us; and the best advice we can give you is to do so unresistingly.'
Alas, resistance was far from my thoughts. I was utterly overpowered