The commissary was convinced of this as soon as he crossed the threshold.

Everything in the first room pointed with a sad eloquence to the recent presence of a malefactor.

The furniture was knocked about, and a chest of drawers and two large trunks had been forced and broken open.
In the inner room, which served as a sleeping apartment, the disorder was even greater.

It seemed as though some furious hand had taken a fiendish pleasure in upsetting everything.

Near the fireplace, her face buried in the ashes, lay the dead body of Widow Lerouge.