Then he introduced me to M.
Valavero, a man of talent, who had just left the ministry of war, his term of office having lasted the usual six months.

I paid my duty to him, and we kept up a kind of desultory conversation until the departure of the major.

When he had left us M.Valavero entreated me to confess that I had been the guilty party in the attack upon Razetta.

I candidly told him that the thrashing had been my handiwork, and I gave him all the particulars, which amused him immensely.

He remarked that, as I had perpetrated the affair before midnight, the fools had made a mistake in their accusation; but that, after all, the mistake had not materially helped me in proving the alibi, because my sprained ankle, which everybody had supposed a real accident, would of itself have been sufficient.
But I trust that my kind reader has not forgotten that I had a very heavy weight upon my conscience, of which I longed to get rid.