At such times I could not help admiring[18] a peculiar analytic ability in Dupin. He seemed, too, to be very proud of it. He boasted to me that most men, in respect to himself, were very simple, and that he could understand them very well. His manner at these moments was frigid and abstract; his eyes were empty. Observing him in these moods, I often thought about two different Dupins-the creative and the resolvent.
Once we looked over an evening edition of the “Gazette des Tribunaux,”[19] when the following paragraphs drew our attention.
“EXTRAORDINARY MURDERS.
This morning, about three o’clock, the inhabitants of the Quartier St. Roch[20] were aroused from sleep by a succession of terrific shrieks. The shrieks came, apparently, from the fourth story of a house in the Rue Morgue[21], where Madame L’Espanaye[22], and her daughter, Mademoiselle Camille L’Espanaye[23], lived. After some delay, the gateway was broken, and eight or ten of the neighbors entered, accompanied by two gendarmes. By this time the cries ceased; but, as the party rushed up the first flight of stairs, two or more rough voices were distinguished, and seemed to proceed from the upper part of the house. As the second landing was reached, these sounds, also, ceased, and everything remained perfectly quiet. The party hurried from room to room. When the people came to the large back chamber in the fourth story, (the door of which, locked with the key inside, was forced open[24],) everybody was struck with horror than with astonishment.
“The apartment was in the wildest disorder-the furniture broken and thrown about in all directions. There was only one bedstead; and from this the bed was removed, and thrown into the middle of the floor. On a chair lay a razor, besmeared with blood. On the hearth were two or three long and thick tresses of grey human hair, also dabbled in blood. Upon the floor were found four Napoleons[25], an earring of topaz, three large silver spoons, and two bags, containing nearly four thousand francs in gold. The drawers of a bureau, which stood in one corner, were open. A small iron safe was discovered under the bed (not under the bedstead). It was open, with the key still in the door. It had a few old letters, and other papers.