Arrest by Authorities
Horrified, the narrator tries to flee but is intercepted by five or six customs officers and gendarmes who have arrived at the scene. He offers no resistance, and realizes his clothes are stained with La Carconte’s blood from when he lay beneath the staircase earlier. He points to the hole he made to enter the house, which the officers confirm as his entry point, and he protests his innocence, but the gendarmes threaten to kill him if he resists, then handcuff him, tie him to a horse’s tail, and transport him to Nîmes.
Imprisonment and Trial
The narrator was tracked to the tavern by a customs officer who had lost sight of him earlier; the officer summoned reinforcements that arrived just in time to find the murder scene and take the narrator into custody based on the strong circumstantial evidence against him. He is imprisoned, and spends two months awaiting trial, with only the hope that Abbé Busoni, who had stayed at the local inn earlier that day, can be located to testify to his innocence. His trial is scheduled for the upcoming assizes.
Abbé Busoni’s Intervention
On September 8, three months and five days after the murder, Abbé Busoni arrives at the prison, having learned of the narrator’s imprisonment in Marseille and come to testify on his behalf. The narrator eagerly recounts the full events of the night to the abbé, who confirms every detail of the diamond story and believes his account of innocence.
The Confession
Won over by the abbé’s kindness and trust, the narrator makes a full confession under the seal of secrecy, recounting both the Auteuil assassination and every other transaction of his life. The abbé assures him this voluntary confession will prove he did not commit the jeweller’s murder, and promises to work to convince the judges of his innocence.
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