Note 2 — Chapter V · SAINTE-CROIX AND HIS CREATURE

‘It read as follows: “Exili’s potion has done its work. I have started with everything to the frontier. Do not return to the Croce Bianca until after daybreak.” The officer followed the advice; and when he went back to the inn the noble had been found dead in the room, with an empty phial of the terrible “Manna of St. Nicholas de Barri”2 clutched in his hand. He was presumed to have committed suicide, and the crime was in twenty-four hours hidden by the grave. The officer soon afterwards left Milan and joined the other in Paris. His name was Gaudin de Sainte-Croix; the renegade and real murderer was called Lachaussée.’