Buttrebeurrousse, subjugated by this superior power, took the pen and wrote: "Monsieur, the man whom you receive into your home and to whom you have destined your daughter is a former convict, escaped with me from the prison of l’Archet with the aid of Harry the gatekeeper. He bore the number 59 and I the number 58. His name was Trascoletto, but he himself is ignorant of his true name and parentage."
"Sign!" continued the Count.
"Do you wish to destroy me?" squealed Buttrebeurrousse in a voice like that of the failed castrato Pippesquique.
"If I wished to destroy you, imbecile, I had first borne you to houses of lamentation, where thy shrivelled flesh would be devoured with mayonnaise and washed down with an apéritif, and afterwards ordered thee to cast thyself from this window, nor could you resist my will."
Buttrebeurrousse signed the document and addressed it to M. Sacqueville-Danglars, banker, at Maison Cul-de-Sac, according to the Count’s command. The abbé took the note.
"Now go," said the Count.
