The Count of Monte Cristo

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come and say, 'It was I who sold the arsenic to the gentleman;' and
rather than not recognize the guilty purchaser, they will recognize
twenty. Then the foolish criminal is taken, imprisoned, interrogated,
confronted, confounded, condemned, and cut off by hemp or steel; or if
she be a woman of any consideration, they lock her up for life. This
is the way in which you Northerns understand chemistry, madame. Desrues
was, however, I must confess, more skilful."

"What would you have, sir?" said the lady, laughing; "we do what we can.
All the world has not the secret of the Medicis or the Borgias."

"Now," replied the count, shrugging his shoulders, "shall I tell you the
cause of all these stupidities? It is because, at your theatres, by what
at least I could judge by reading the pieces they play, they see persons
swallow the contents of a phial, or suck the button of a ring, and
fall dead instantly. Five minutes afterwards the curtain falls, and the
spectators depart. They are ignorant of the consequences of the murder;