'M'sieu' was in a deep sleep.
Louis Trudel scarcely knew why he had listened, why he had opened the door and stood looking at the figure in the bed, barely definable in the semi-darkness of the room.

If he had meant harm to the helpless man, he had brought no weapon; if he had been curious, there the man was peacefully sleeping! His sick, morbid imagination was so alive, that he scarcely knew what he did.

As he stood there listening, hatred and horror in his heart, a voice said to him: "Thou shalt do no murder." The words kept ringing in his ears.

Yet he had not thought of murder.

The fancied command itself was his first temptation towards such a deed.