The Count of Monte Cristo

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"How? M. Noirtier?"

"Yes; think you it was the poor servant's life was coveted? No, no;
like Shakespeare's 'Polonius,' he died for another. It was Noirtier the
lemonade was intended for--it is Noirtier, logically speaking, who drank
it. The other drank it only by accident, and, although Barrois is dead,
it was Noirtier whose death was wished for."

"But why did it not kill my father?"

"I told you one evening in the garden after Madame de Saint-Meran's
death--because his system is accustomed to that very poison, and the
dose was trifling to him, which would be fatal to another; because no
one knows, not even the assassin, that, for the last twelve months, I
have given M. Noirtier brucine for his paralytic affection, while the
assassin is not ignorant, for he has proved that brucine is a violent
poison."