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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wandering Jew, Book IV., by Eugene Sue
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Wandering Jew, Book IV.
+
+Author: Eugene Sue
+
+Release Date: October 25, 2004 [EBook #3342]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERING JEW, BOOK IV. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger and Pat Castevens
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WANDERING JEW
+
+By Eugene Sue
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+
+PART SECOND.--THE CHASTISEMENT.
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.--THE BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF TWO WORLDS.
+
+I.        The Masquerade
+II.       The Contrast
+III.      The Carouse
+IV.       The Farewell
+V.        The Florine
+VI.       Mother Sainte-Perpetue
+VII.      The Temptation
+VIII.     Mother Bunch and Mdlle. De Cardoville
+IX.       The Encounters--The Meeting
+XI.       Discoveries
+XII.      The Penal Code
+XIII.     Burglary
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.--THE BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF TWO WORLDS.
+
+As the eagle, perched upon the cliff, commands an all-comprehensive
+view--not only of what happens on the plains and in the woodlands, but of
+matters occurring upon the heights, which its aerie overlooks, so may the
+reader have sights pointed out to him, which lie below the level of the
+unassisted eye.
+
+In the year 1831, the powerful Order of the Jesuits saw fit to begin to
+act upon information which had for some time been digesting in their
+hands.
+
+As it related to a sum estimated at no less than thirty or forty millions
+of francs, it is no wonder that they should redouble all exertions to
+obtain it from the rightful owners.
+
+These were, presumably, the descendants of Marius, Count of Rennepont, in
+the reign of Louis XIV. of France.
+
+They were distinguished from other men by a simple token, which all, in
+the year above named, had in their hands.
+
+It was a bronze medal, bearing these legends on reverse and obverse:
+
+                 VICTIM
+                  of
+               L. C. D. J.
+               Pray for me!
+
+                 PARIS,
+            February the 13th, 1682.
+
+                IN PARIS
+            Rue St Francois, No. 3,
+            In a century and a half
+               you will be.
+
+            February the 13th, 1832.
+               PRAY FOR ME!
+
+Those who had this token were descendants of a family whom, a hundred and
+fifty years ago, persecution scattered through the world, in emigration
+and exile; in changes of religion, fortune and name. For this
+family--what grandeur, what reverses, what obscurity, what lustre, what
+penury, what glory! How many crimes sullied, how many virtues honored it!
+The history of this single family is the history of humanity! Passing
+through many generations, throbbing in the veins of the poor and the
+rich, the sovereign and the bandit, the wise and the simple, the coward
+and the brave, the saint and the atheist, the blood flowed on to the year
+we have named.
+
+Seven representatives summed up the virtue, courage, degradation,
+splendor, and poverty of the race. Seven: two orphan twin daughters of
+exiled parents, a dethroned prince, a humble missionary priest, a man of
+the middle class, a young lady of high name and large fortune, and a
+working man.
+
+Fate scattered them in Russia, India, France, and America.
+
+The orphans, Rose and Blanche Simon, had left their dead mother's grave
+in Siberia, under charge of a trooper named Francis Baudoin, alias
+Dagobert, who was as much attached to them as he had been devoted to
+their father, his commanding general.
+
+On the road to France, this little party had met the first check, in the
+only tavern of Mockern village. Not only had a wild beast showman, known
+as Morok the lion-tamer, sought to pick a quarrel with the inoffensive
+veteran, but that failing, had let a panther of his menagerie loose upon
+the soldier's horse. That horse had carried Dagobert, under General
+Simon's and the Great Napoleon's eyes, through many battles; had borne
+the General's wife (a Polish lady under the Czar's ban) to her home of
+exile in Siberia, and their children now across Russia and Germany, but
+only to perish thus cruelly. An unseen hand appeared in a manifestation
+of spite otherwise unaccountable. Dagobert, denounced as a French spy,
+and his fair young companions accused of being adventuresses to help his
+designs, had so kindled at the insult, not less to him than to his old
+commander's daughters, that he had taught the pompous burgomaster of
+Mockern a lesson, which, however, resulted in the imprisonment of the
+three in Leipsic jail.
+
+General Simon, who had vainly sought to share his master's St. Helena
+captivity, had gone to fight the English in India. But notwithstanding
+his drilling of Radja-sings sepoys, they had been beaten by the troops
+taught by Clive, and not only was the old king of Mundi slain, and the
+realm added to the Company's land, but his son, Prince Djalma, taken
+prisoner. However, at length released, he had gone to Batavia, with
+General Simon. The prince's mother was a Frenchwoman, and among the
+property she left him in the capital of Java, the general was delighted
+to find just such another medal as he knew was in his wife's possession.
+
+The unseen hand of enmity had reached to him, for letters miscarried, and
+he did not know either his wife's decease or that he had twin daughters.
+
+By a trick, on the eve of the steamship leaving Batavia for the Isthmus
+of Suez, Djalma was separated from his friend, and sailing for Europe
+alone, the latter had to follow in another vessel.
+
+The missionary priest trod the war trails of the wilderness, with that
+faith and fearlessness which true soldiers of the cross should evince. In
+one of these heroic undertakings, Indians had captured him, and dragging
+him to their village under the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, they had
+nailed him in derision to a cross, and prepared to scalp him.
+
+But if an unseen hand of a foe smote or stabbed at the sons of Rennepont,
+a visible interpositor had often shielded them, in various parts of the
+globe.
+
+A man, seeming of thirty years of age, very tall, with a countenance as
+lofty as mournful, marked by the black eyebrows meeting, had thrown
+himself--during a battle's height--between a gun of a park which General
+Simon was charging and that officer. The cannon vomited its hail of
+death, but when the flame and smoke had passed, the tall man stood erect
+as before, smiling pityingly on the gunner, who fell on his knees as
+frightened as if he beheld Satan himself. Again, as General Simon lay
+upon the lost field of Waterloo, raging with his wounds, eager to die
+after such a defeat, this same man staunched his hurts, and bade him live
+for his wife's sake.
+
+Years after, wearing the same unalterable look, this man accosted
+Dagobert in Siberia, and gave him for General Simon's wife, the diary and
+letters of her husband, written in India, in little hope of them ever
+reaching her hands. And at the year our story opens, this man unbarred
+the cell-door of Leipsic jail, and let Dagobert and the orphans out, free
+to continue their way into France.
+
+On the other hand, when the scalping-knife had traced its mark around the
+head of Gabriel the missionary, and when only the dexterous turn and tug
+would have removed the trophy, a sudden apparition had terrified the
+superstitious savages. It was a woman of thirty, whose brown tresses
+formed a rich frame around a royal face, toned down by endless sorrowing.
+The red-skins shrank from her steady advance, and when her hand was
+stretched out between them and their young victim, they uttered a howl of
+alarm, and fled as if a host of their foemen were on their track. Gabriel
+was saved, but all his life he was doomed to bear that halo of martyrdom,
+the circling sweep of the scalper's knife.
+
+He was a Jesuit. By the orders of his society he embarked for Europe. We
+should say here, that he, though owning a medal of the seven described,
+was unaware that he should have worn it. His vessel was driven by storms
+to refit at the Azores, where he had changed ship into the same as was
+bearing Prince Djalma to France, via Portsmouth.
+
+But the gales followed him, and sated their fury by wrecking the "Black
+Eagle" on the Picardy coast. This was at the same point as were a
+disabled Hamburg steamer, among whose passengers where Dagobert and his
+two charges, was destroyed the same night. Happily the tempest did not
+annihilate them all. There were saved, Prince Djalma and a countryman of
+his, one Faringhea, a Thuggee chief, hunted out of British India;
+Dagobert, and Rose and Blanche Simon, whom Gabriel had rescued. These
+survivors had recovered, thanks to the care they had received in
+Cardoville House, a country mansion which had sheltered them, and except
+the prince and the Strangler chief, the others were speedily able to go
+on to Paris.
+
+The old grenadier and the orphans--until General Simon should be heard
+from--dwelt in the former's house. His son had kept it, from his mother's
+love for the life-long home. It was such a mean habitation as a workman
+like Agricola Baudoin could afford to pay the rent of, and far from the
+fit abode of the daughters of the Duke de Ligny and Marshal of France,
+which Napoleon had created General Simon, though the rank had only
+recently been approved by the restoration.
+
+But in Paris the unknown hostile hand showed itself more malignant than
+ever.
+
+The young lady of high name and large fortune was Adrienne de Cardoville,
+whose aunt, the Princess de Saint-Dizier, was a Jesuit. Through her and
+her accomplices' machinations, the young lady's forward yet virtuous,
+wildly aspiring but sensible, romantic but just, character was twisted
+into a passable reason for her immurement in a mad-house.
+
+This asylum adjoined St. Mary's Convent, into which Rose and Blanche
+Simon were deceitfully conducted. To secure their removal, Dagobert had
+been decoyed into the country, under pretence of showing some of General
+Simon's document's to a lawyer; his son Agricola arrested for treason, on
+account of some idle verses the blacksmith poet was guilty of, and his
+wife rendered powerless, or, rather, a passive assistant, by the
+influence of the confessional! When Dagobert hurried back from his wild
+goose chase, he found the orphans gone: Mother Bunch (a fellow-tenant of
+the house, who had been brought up in the family) ignorant, and his wife
+stubbornly refusing to break the promise she had given her confessor, and
+acquaint a single soul where she had permitted the girls to be taken. In
+his rage, the soldier rashly accused that confessor, but instead of
+arresting the Abbe Dubois, it was Mrs. Baudoin whom the magistrate felt
+compelled to arrest, as the person whom alone he ventured to commit for
+examination in regard to the orphans' disappearance. Thus triumphs, for
+the time being, the unseen foe.
+
+The orphans in a nunnery; the dethroned prince a poor castaway in a
+foreign land; the noble young lady in a madhouse; the missionary priest
+under the thumb of his superiors.
+
+As for the man of the middle class, and the working man, who concluded
+the list of this family, we are to read of them, as well as of the
+others, in the pages which now succeed these.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE MASQUERADE.
+
+The following day to that on which Dagobert's wife (arrested for not
+accounting for the disappearance of General Simon's daughters) was led
+away before a magistrate, a noisy and animated scene was transpiring on
+the Place du Chatelet, in front of a building whose first floor and
+basement were used as the tap-rooms of the "Sucking Calf" public-house.
+
+A carnival night was dying out.
+
+Quite a number of maskers, grotesquely and shabbily bedecked, had rushed
+out of the low dance-houses in the Guildhall Ward, and were roaring out
+staves of songs as they crossed the square. But on catching sight of a
+second troop of mummers running about the water-side, the first party
+stopped to wait for the others to come up, rejoicing, with many a shout,
+in hopes of one of those verbal battles of slang and smutty talk which
+made Vade so illustrious.
+
+This mob--nearly all its members half seas over, soon swollen by the many
+people who have to be up early to follow their crafts--suddenly
+concentrated in one of the corners of the square, so that a pale,
+deformed girl, who was going that way, was caught in the human tide. This
+was Mother Bunch. Up with the lark, she was hurrying to receive some work
+from her employer. Remembering how a mob had treated her when she had
+been arrested in the streets only the day before, by mistake, the poor
+work-girl's fears may be imagined when she was now surrounded by the
+revellers against her will. But, spite of all her efforts--very feeble,
+alas!--she could not stir a step, for the band of merry-makers, newly
+arriving, had rushed in among the others, shoving some of them aside,
+pushing far into the mass, and sweeping Mother Bunch--who was in their
+way--clear over to the crowd around the public-house.
+
+The new-comers were much finer rigged out than the others, for they
+belonged to the gay, turbulent class which goes frequently to the
+Chaumiere, the Prado, the Colisee, and other more or less rowdyish haunts
+of waltzers, made up generally of students, shop-girls, and counter
+skippers, clerks, unfortunates, etc., etc.
+
+This set, while retorting to the chaff of the other party, seemed to be
+very impatiently expecting some singularly desired person to put in her
+appearance.
+
+The following snatches of conversation, passing between clowns and
+columbines, pantaloons and fairies, Turks and sultans, debardeurs and
+debardeuses, paired off more or less properly, will give an idea of the
+importance of the wished-for personage.
+
+"They ordered the spread to be for seven in the morning, so their
+carriages ought to have come up afore now."
+
+"Werry like, but the Bacchanal Queen has got to lead off the last dance
+in the Prado."
+
+"I wish to thunder I'd 'a known that, and I'd 'a stayed there to see
+her--my beloved Queen!"
+
+"Gobinet; if you call her your beloved Queen again, I'll scratch you!
+Here's a pinch for you, anyhow!"
+
+"Ow, wow, Celeste! hands off! You are black-spotting the be-yutiful white
+satin jacket my mamma gave me when I first came out as Don Pasqually!"
+
+"Why did you call the Bacchanal Queen your beloved, then? What am I, I'd
+like to know?"
+
+"You are my beloved, but not my Queen, for there is only one moon in the
+nights of nature, and only one Bacchanal Queen in the nights at the
+Prado."
+
+"That's a bit from a valentine! You can't come over me with such
+rubbish."
+
+"Gobinet's right! the Queen was an out-and-outer tonight!"
+
+"In prime feather!"
+
+"I never saw her more on the go!"
+
+"And, my eyes! wasn't her dress stunning?"
+
+"Took your breath away!"
+
+"Crushing!"
+
+"Heavy!"
+
+"Im-mense!"
+
+"The last kick!"
+
+"No one but she can get up such dresses."
+
+"And, then, the dance!"
+
+"Oh, yes! it was at once bounding waving, twisting! There is not such
+another bayadere under the night-cap of the sky!"
+
+"Gobinet, give me back my shawl directly. You have already spoilt it by
+rolling it round your great body. I don't choose to have my things ruined
+for hulking beasts who call other women bayaderes!"
+
+"Celeste, simmer down. I am disguised as a Turk, and, when I talk of
+bayaderes, I am only in character."
+
+"Your Celeste is like them all, Gobinet; she's jealous of the Bacchanal
+Queen."
+
+"Jealous!--do you think me jealous? Well now! that's too bad. If I chose
+to be as showy as she is they would talk of me as much. After all, it's
+only a nickname that makes her reputation! nickname!"
+
+"In that you have nothing to envy her--since you are called Celeste!"
+
+"You know well enough, Gobinet, that Celeste is my real name."
+
+"Yes; but it's fancied a nickname--when one looks in your face."
+
+"Gobinet, I will put that down to your account."
+
+"And Oscar will help you to add it up, eh?"
+
+"Yes; and you shall see the total. When I carry one, the remainder will
+not be you."
+
+"Celeste, you make me cry! I only meant to say that your celestial name
+does not go well with your charming little face, which is still more
+mischievous than that of the Bacchanal Queen."
+
+"That's right; wheedle me now, wretch!"
+
+"I swear by the accursed head of my landlord, that, if you liked, you
+could spread yourself as much as the Bacchanal Queen--which is saying a
+great deal."
+
+"The fact is, that the Bacchanal had cheek enough, in all conscience."
+
+"Not to speak of her fascinating the bobbies!"
+
+"And magnetizing the beaks."
+
+"They may get as angry as they please; she always finishes by making them
+laugh."
+
+"And they all call her: Queen!"
+
+"Last night she charmed a slop (as modest as a country girl) whose purity
+took up arms against the famous dance of the Storm-blown Tulip."
+
+"What a quadrille! Sleepinbuff and the Bacchanal Queen, having opposite
+to them Rose-Pompon and Ninny Moulin!"
+
+"And all four making tulips as full-blown as could be!"
+
+"By-the-bye, is it true what they say of Ninny Moulin?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Why that he is a writer, and scribbles pamphlets on religion."
+
+"Yes, it is true. I have often seen him at my employer's, with whom he
+deals; a bad paymaster, but a jolly fellow!"
+
+"And pretends to be devout, eh?"
+
+"I believe you, my boy--when it is necessary; then he is my Lord
+Dumoulin, as large as life. He rolls his eyes, walks with his head on one
+side, and his toes turned in; but, when the piece is played out, he slips
+away to the balls of which he is so fond. The girls christened him Ninny
+Moulin. Add, that he drinks like a fish, and you have the photo of the
+cove. All this doesn't prevent his writing for the religious newspapers;
+and the saints, whom he lets in even oftener than himself, are ready to
+swear by him. You should see his articles and his tracts--only see, not
+read!--every page is full of the devil and his horns, and the desperate
+fryings which await your impious revolutionists--and then the authority
+of the bishops, the power of the Pope--hang it! how could I know it all?
+This toper, Ninny Moulin, gives good measure enough for their money!"
+
+"The fact is, that he is both a heavy drinker and a heavy swell. How he
+rattled on with little Rose-Pompon in the dance and the full-blown
+tulip!"
+
+"And what a rum chap he looked in his Roman helmet and top-boots."
+
+"Rose-Pompon dances divinely, too; she has the poetic twist."
+
+"And don't show her heels a bit!"
+
+"Yes; but the Bacchanal Queen is six thousand feet above the level of any
+common leg-shaker. I always come back to her step last night in the
+full-blown tulip."
+
+"It was huge!"
+
+"It was serene!"
+
+"If I were father of a family, I would entrust her with the education of
+my sons!"
+
+"It was that step, however, which offended the bobby's modesty."
+
+"The fact is, it was a little free."
+
+"Free as air--so the policeman comes up to her, and says: 'Well, my
+Queen, is your foot to keep on a-goin' up forever?' 'No, modest warrior!'
+replies the Queen; 'I practice the step only once every evening, to be
+able to dance it when I am old. I made a vow of it, that you might become
+an inspector.'"
+
+"What a comic card!"
+
+"I don't believe she will remain always with Sleepinbuff."
+
+"Because he has been a workman?"
+
+"What nonsense! it would preciously become us, students and shop-boys, to
+give ourselves airs! No; but I am astonished at the Queen's fidelity."
+
+"Yes--they've been a team for three or four good months."
+
+"She's wild upon him, and he on her."
+
+"They must lead a gay life."
+
+"Sometimes I ask myself where the devil Sleepinbuff gets all the money he
+spends. It appears that he pays all last night's expenses, three
+coaches-and-four, and a breakfast this morning for twenty, at ten francs
+a-head."
+
+"They say he has come into some property. That's why Ninny Moulin, who
+has a good nose for eating and drinking, made acquaintance with him last
+night--leaving out of the question that he may have some designs on the
+Bacchanal Queen."
+
+"He! In a lot! He's rather too ugly. The girls like to dance with him
+because he makes people laugh--but that's all. Little Rose-Pompon, who is
+such a pretty creature, has taken him as a harmless chap-her-own, in the
+absence of her student."
+
+"The coaches! the coaches!" exclaimed the crowd, all with one voice.
+
+Forced to stop in the midst of the maskers, Mother Bunch had not lost a
+word of this conversation, which was deeply painful to her, as it
+concerned her sister, whom she had not seen for a long time. Not that the
+Bacchanal Queen had a bad heart; but the sight of the wretched poverty of
+Mother Bunch--a poverty which she had herself shared, but which she had
+not had the strength of mind to bear any longer--caused such bitter grief
+to the gay, thoughtless girl, that she would no more expose herself to
+it, after she had in vain tried to induce her sister to accept
+assistance, which the latter always refused, knowing that its source
+could not be honorable.
+
+"The coaches! the coaches!" once more exclaimed the crowd, as they
+pressed forward with enthusiasm, so that Mother Bunch, carried on against
+her will, was thrust into the foremost rank of the people assembled to
+see the show.
+
+It was, indeed, a curious sight. A man on horseback, disguised as a
+postilion, his blue jacket embroidered with silver, and enormous tail
+from which the powder escaped in puffs, and a hat adorned with long
+ribbons, preceded the first carriage, cracking his whip, and crying with
+all his might: "Make way for the Bacchanal Queen and her court!"
+
+In an open carriage, drawn by four lean horses, on which rode two old
+postilions dressed as devils, was raised a downright pyramid of men and
+women, sitting, standing, leaning, in every possible variety of odd,
+extravagant, and grotesque costume; altogether an indescribable mass of
+bright colors, flowers, ribbons, tinsel and spangles. Amid this heap of
+strange forms and dresses appeared wild or graceful countenances, ugly or
+handsome features--but all animated by the feverish excitement of a
+jovial frenzy--all turned with an expression of fanatical admiration
+towards the second carriage, in which the Queen was enthroned, whilst
+they united with the multitude in reiterated shouts of "Long live the
+Bacchanal Queen."
+
+This second carriage, open like the first, contained only the four
+dancers of the famous step of the Storm-blown Tulip--Ninny Moulin, Rose
+Pompon, Sleepinbuff, and the Bacchanal Queen.
+
+Dumoulin, the religious writer, who wished to dispute possession of Mme.
+de la Sainte-Colombe with his patron, M. Rodin--Dumoulin, surnamed Ninny
+Moulin, standing on the front cushions, would have presented a
+magnificent study for Callot or Gavarni, that eminent artist, who unites
+with the biting strength and marvellous fancy of an illustrious
+caricaturist, the grace, the poetry, and the depth of Hogarth.
+
+Ninny Moulin, who was about thirty-five years of age, wore very much back
+upon his head a Roman helmet of silver paper. A voluminous plume of black
+feathers, rising from a red wood holder, was stuck on one side of this
+headgear, breaking the too classic regularity of its outline. Beneath
+this casque, shone forth the most rubicund and jovial face, that ever was
+purpled by the fumes of generous wine. A prominent nose, with its
+primitive shape modestly concealed beneath a luxuriant growth of pimples,
+half red, half violet, gave a funny expression to a perfectly beardless
+face; while a large mouth, with thick lips turning their insides
+outwards, added to the air of mirth and jollity which beamed from his
+large gray eyes, set flat in his head.
+
+On seeing this joyous fellow, with a paunch like Silenus, one could not
+help asking how it was, that he had not drowned in wine, a hundred times
+over, the gall, bile, and venom which flowed from his pamphlets against
+the enemies of Ultramontanism, and how his Catholic beliefs could float
+upwards in the midst of these mad excesses of drink and dancing. The
+question would have appeared insoluble, if one had not remembered how
+many actors, who play the blackest and most hateful first robbers on the
+stage, are, when off it, the best fellow in the world.
+
+The weather being cold, Ninny Moulin wore a kind of box-coat, which,
+being half-open, displayed his cuirass of scales, and his flesh-colored
+pantaloons, finishing just below the calf in a pair of yellow tops to his
+boots. Leaning forward in front of the carriage, he uttered wild shouts
+of delight, mingled with the words: "Long live the Bacchanal
+Queen!"--after which, he shook and whirled the enormous rattle he held in
+his hand. Standing beside him, Sleepinbuff waved on high a banner of
+white silk, on which were the words: "Love and joy to the Bacchanal
+Queen!"
+
+Sleepinbuff was about twenty-five years of age. His countenance was gay
+and intelligent, surrounded by a collar of chestnut-colored whiskers; but
+worn with late hours and excesses, it expressed a singular mixture of
+carelessness and hardihood, recklessness and mockery; still, no base or
+wicked passion had yet stamped there its fatal impress. He was the
+perfect type of the Parisian, as the term is generally applied, whether
+in the army, in the provinces, on board a king's ship, or a merchantman.
+It is not a compliment, and yet it is far from being an insult; it is an
+epithet which partakes at once of blame, admiration, and fear; for if, in
+this sense, the Parisian is often idle and rebellious, he is also quick
+at his work, resolute in danger, and always terribly satirical and fond
+of practical jokes.
+
+He was dressed in a very flashy style. He wore a black velvet jacket with
+silver buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, trousers with broad blue stripes, a
+Cashmere shawl for a girdle with ends loosely floating, and a chimney-pot
+hat covered with flowers and streamers. This disguise set off his light,
+easy figure to great advantage.
+
+At the back of the carriage, standing up on the cushions, were Rose
+Pompon and the Bacchanal Queen.
+
+Rose-Pompon, formerly a fringe-maker, was about seventeen years old, and
+had the prettiest and most winning little face imaginable. She was gayly
+dressed in debardeur costume. Her powdered wig, over which was smartly
+cocked on one side an orange and green cap laced with silver, increased
+the effect of her bright black eyes, and of her round, carnation cheeks.
+She wore about her neck an orange-colored cravat, of the same material as
+her loose sash. Her tight jacket and narrow vest of light green velvet,
+with silver ornaments, displayed to the best advantage a charming figure,
+the pliancy of which must have well suited the evolutions of the Storm
+blown Tulip. Her large trousers, of the same stuff and color as the
+jacket, were not calculated to hide any of her attractions.
+
+The Bacchanal Queen, being at the least a head taller, leaned with one
+hand on the shoulder of Rose-Pompon. Mother Bunch's sister ruled, like a
+true monarch, over this mad revelry, which her very presence seemed to
+inspire, such influence had her own mirth and animation over all that
+surrounded her.
+
+She was a tall girl of about twenty years of age, light and graceful,
+with regular features, and a merry, racketing air. Like her sister, she
+had magnificent chestnut hair, and large blue eyes; but instead of being
+soft and timid, like those of the young sempstress, the latter shone with
+indefatigable ardor in the pursuit of pleasure. Such was the energy of
+her vivacious constitution, that, notwithstanding many nights and days
+passed in one continued revel, her complexion was as pure, her cheeks as
+rosy, her neck as fresh and fair, as if she had that morning issued from
+some peaceful home. Her costume, though singular and fantastic, suited
+her admirably. It was composed of a tight, long-waisted bodice in cloth
+of gold, trimmed with great bunches of scarlet ribbon, the ends of which
+streamed over her naked arms, and a short petticoat of scarlet velvet,
+ornamented with golden beads and spangles. This petticoat reached half
+way down a leg, at once trim and strong, in a white silk stocking, and
+red buskin with brass heel.
+
+Never had any Spanish dancer a more supple, elastic, and tempting form,
+than this singular girl, who seemed possessed with the spirit of dancing
+and perpetual motion, for, almost every moment, a slight undulation of
+head, hips, and shoulders seemed to follow the music of an invisible
+orchestra; while the tip of her right foot, placed on the carriage door
+in the most alluring manner, continued to beat time--for the Bacchanal
+Queen stood proudly erect upon the cushions.
+
+A sort of gilt diadem, the emblem of her noisy sovereignty, hung with
+little bells, adorned her forehead. Her long hair, in two thick braids,
+was drawn back from her rosy cheeks, and twisted behind her head. Her
+left hand rested on little Rose-Pompon's shoulder, and in her right she
+held an enormous nosegay, which she waved to the crowd, accompanying each
+salute with bursts of laughter.
+
+It would be difficult to give a complete idea of this noisily animated
+and fantastic scene, which included also a third carriage, filled, like
+the first, with a pyramid of grotesque and extravagant masks. Amongst the
+delighted crowd, one person alone contemplated the picture with deep
+sorrow. It was Mother Bunch, who was still kept, in spite of herself, in
+the first rank of spectators.
+
+Separated from her sister for a long time, she now beheld her in all the
+pomp of her singular triumph, in the midst of the cries of joy, and the
+applause of her companions in pleasure. Yet the eyes of the young
+sempstress grew dim with tears; for, though the Bacchanal Queen seemed to
+share in the stunning gayety of all around her--though her face was
+radiant with smiles, and she appeared fully to enjoy the splendors of her
+temporary elevation--yet she had the sincere pity of the poor workwoman,
+almost in rags, who was seeking, with the first dawn of morning, the
+means of earning her daily bread.
+
+Mother Bunch had forgotten the crowd, to look only at her sister, whom
+she tenderly loved--only the more tenderly, that she thought her
+situation to be pitied. With her eyes fixed on the joyous and beautiful
+girl, her pale and gentle countenance expressed the most touching and
+painful interest.
+
+All at once, as the brilliant glance of the Bacchanal Queen travelled
+along the crowd, it lighted on the sad features of Mother Bunch.
+
+"My sister!" exclaimed Cephyse--such was the name of the Bacchanal
+Queen--"My sister!"--and with one bound, light as a ballet-dancer, she
+sprang from her movable throne (which fortunately just happened to be
+stopping), and, rushing up to the hunchback, embraced her affectionately.
+
+All this had passed so rapidly, that the companions of the Bacchanal
+Queen, still stupefied by the boldness of her perilous leap, knew not how
+to account for it; whilst the masks who surrounded Mother Bunch drew back
+in surprise, and the latter, absorbed in the delight of embracing her
+sister, whose caresses she returned, did not even think of the singular
+contrast between them, which was sure to soon excite the astonishment and
+hilarity of the crowd.
+
+Cephyse was the first to think of this, and wishing to save her sister at
+least one humiliation, she turned towards the carriage, and said: "Rose
+Pompon, throw me down my cloak; and, Ninny Moulin, open the door
+directly!"
+
+Having received the cloak, the Bacchanal Queen hastily wrapped it round
+her sister, before the latter could speak or move. Then, taking her by
+the hand, she said to her: "Come! come!"
+
+"I!" cried Mother Bunch, in alarm. "Do not think of it!"
+
+"I must speak with you. I will get a private room, where we shall be
+alone. So make haste, dear little sister! Do not resist before all these
+people--but come!"
+
+The fear of becoming a public sight decided Mother Bunch, who, confused
+moreover with the adventure, trembling and frightened, followed her
+sister almost mechanically, and was dragged by her into the carriage, of
+which Ninny Moulin had just opened the door. And so, with the cloak of
+the Bacchanal Queen covering Mother Bunch's poor garments and deformed
+figure, the crowd had nothing to laugh at, and only wondered what this
+meeting could mean, while the coaches pursued their way to the eating
+house in the Place du Chatelet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CONTRAST.
+
+Some minutes after the meeting of Mother Bunch with the Bacchanal Queen,
+the two sisters were alone together in a small room in the tavern.
+
+"Let me kiss you again," said Cephyse to the young sempstress; "at least
+now we are alone, you will not be afraid?"
+
+In the effort of the Bacchanal Queen to clasp Mother Bunch in her arms,
+the cloak fell from the form of the latter. At sight of those miserable
+garments, which she had hardly had time to observe on the Place du
+Chatelet, in the midst of the crowd, Cephyse clasped her hands, and could
+not repress an exclamation of painful surprise. Then, approaching her
+sister, that she might contemplate her more closely, she took her thin,
+icy palms between her own plump hands, and examined for some minutes,
+with increasing grief, the suffering, pale, unhappy creature, ground down
+by watching and privations, and half-clothed in a poor, patched cotton
+gown.
+
+"Oh, sister! to see you thus!" Unable to articulate another word, the
+Bacchanal Queen threw herself on the other's neck, and burst into tears.
+Then, in the midst of her sobs, she added: "Pardon! pardon!"
+
+"What is the matter, my dear Cephyse?" said the young sewing-girl, deeply
+moved, and gently disengaging herself from the embrace of her sister.
+"Why do you ask my pardon?"
+
+"Why?" resumed Cephyse, raising her countenance, bathed in tears, and
+purple with shame; "is it not shameful of me to be dressed in all this
+frippery, and throwing away so much money in follies, while you are thus
+miserably clad, and in need of everything--perhaps dying of want, for I
+have never seen your poor face look so pale and worn."
+
+"Be at ease, dear sister! I am not ill. I was up rather late last night,
+and that makes me a little pale--but pray do not cry--it grieves me."
+
+The Bacchanal Queen had but just arrived, radiant in the midst of the
+intoxicated crowd, and yet it was Mother Bunch who was now employed in
+consoling her!
+
+An incident occurred, which made the contrast still more striking. Joyous
+cries were heard suddenly in the next apartment, and these words were
+repeated with enthusiasm: "Long live the Bacchanal Queen!"
+
+Mother Bunch trembled, and her eyes filled with tears, as she saw her
+sister with her face buried in her hands, as if overwhelmed with shame.
+"Cephyse," she said, "I entreat you not to grieve so. You will make me
+regret the delight of this meeting, which is indeed happiness to me! It
+is so long since I saw you! But tell me--what ails you?"
+
+"You despise me perhaps--you are right," said the Bacchanal Queen, drying
+her tears.
+
+"Despise you? for what?"
+
+"Because I lead the life I do, instead of having the courage to support
+misery along with you."
+
+The grief of Cephyse was so heart-breaking, that Mother Bunch, always
+good and indulgent, wishing to console her, and raise her a little in her
+own estimation, said to her tenderly: "In supporting it bravely for a
+whole year, my good Cephyse, you have had more merit and courage than I
+should have in bearing with it my whole life."
+
+"Oh, sister! do not say that."
+
+"In simple truth," returned Mother Bunch, "to what temptations is a
+creature like me exposed? Do I not naturally seek solitude, even as you
+seek a noisy life of pleasure? What wants have I? A very little
+suffices."
+
+"But you have not always that little?"
+
+"No--but, weak and sickly as I seem, I can endure some privations better
+than you could. Thus hunger produces in me a sort of numbness, which
+leaves me very feeble--but for you, robust and full of life, hunger is
+fury, is madness. Alas! you must remember how many times I have seen you
+suffering from those painful attacks, when work failed us in our wretched
+garret, and we could not even earn our four francs a week--so that we had
+nothing--absolutely nothing to eat--for our pride prevented us from
+applying to the neighbors."
+
+"You have preserved the right to that honest pride."
+
+"And you as well! Did you not struggle as much as a human creature could?
+But strength fails at last--I know you well, Cephyse--it was hunger that
+conquered you; and the painful necessity of constant labor, which was yet
+insufficient to supply our common wants."
+
+"But you could endure those privations--you endure them still."
+
+"Can you compare me with yourself? Look," said Mother Bunch, taking her
+sister by the hand, and leading her to a mirror placed above a couch,
+"look!--Dost think that God made you so beautiful, endowed you with such
+quick and ardent blood, with so joyous, animated, grasping a nature and
+with such taste and fondness for pleasure, that your youth might be spent
+in a freezing garret, hid from the sun, nailed constantly to your chair,
+clad almost in rags, and working without rest and without hope? No! for
+He has given us other wants than those of eating and drinking. Even in
+our humble condition, does not beauty require some little ornament? Does
+not youth require some movement, pleasure, gayety? Do not all ages call
+for relaxation and rest? Had you gained sufficient wages to satisfy
+hunger, to have a day or so's amusement in the week, after working every
+other day for twelve or fifteen hours, and to procure the neat and modest
+dress which so charming a face might naturally claim--you would never
+have asked for more, I am sure of it--you have told me as much a hundred
+times. You have yielded, therefore, to an irresistible necessity, because
+your wants are greater than mine."
+
+"It is true," replied the Bacchanal Queen, with a pensive air; "if I
+could but have gained eighteenpence a day, my life would have been quite
+different; for, in the beginning, sister, I felt cruelly humiliated to
+live at a man's expense."
+
+"Yes, yes--it was inevitable, my dear Cephyse; I must pity, but cannot
+blame you. You did not choose your destiny; but, like me, you have
+submitted to it."
+
+"Poor sister!" said Cephyse, embracing the speaker tenderly; "you can
+encourage and console me in the midst of your own misfortunes, when I
+ought to be pitying you."
+
+"Be satisfied!" said Mother Bunch; "God is just and good. If He has
+denied me many advantages, He has given me my joys, as you have yours."
+
+"Joys?"
+
+"Yes, and great ones--without which life would be too burdensome, and I
+should not have the courage to go through with it."
+
+"I understand you," said Cephyse, with emotion; "you still know how to
+devote yourself for others, and that lightens your own sorrows."
+
+"I do what I can, but, alas! it is very little; yet when I succeed,"
+added Mother Bunch, with a faint smile, "I am as proud and happy as a
+poor little ant, who, after a great deal of trouble, has brought a big
+straw to the common nest. But do not let us talk any more of me."
+
+"Yes, but I must, even at the risk of making you angry," resumed the
+Bacchanal Queen, timidly; "I have something to propose to you which you
+once before refused. Jacques Rennepont has still, I think, some money
+left--we are spending it in follies--now and then giving a little to poor
+people we may happen to meet--I beg of you, let me come to your
+assistance--I see in your poor face, you cannot conceal it from me, that
+you are wearing yourself out with toil."
+
+"Thanks, my dear Cephyse, I know your good heart; but I am not in want of
+anything. The little I gain is sufficient for me."
+
+"You refuse me," said the Bacchanal Queen, sadly, "because you know that
+my claim to this money is not honorable--be it so--I respect your
+scruples. But you will not refuse a service from Jacques; he has been a
+workman, like ourselves, and comrades should help each other. Accept it I
+beseech you, or I shall think you despise me."
+
+"And I shall think you despise me, if you insist any more upon it, my
+dear Cephyse," said Mother Bunch, in a tone at once so mild and firm that
+the Bacchanal Queen saw that all persuasion would be in vain. She hung
+her head sorrowfully, and a tear again trickled down her cheek.
+
+"My refusal grieves you," said the other, taking her hand; "I am truly
+sorry--but reflect--and you will understand me."
+
+"You are right," said the Bacchanal Queen, bitterly, after a moment's
+silence; "you cannot accept assistance from my lover--it was an insult to
+propose it to you. There are positions in life so humiliating, that they
+soil even the good one wishes to do."
+
+"Cephyse, I did not mean to hurt you--you know it well."
+
+"Oh! believe me," replied the Bacchanal Queen, "gay and giddy as I am, I
+have sometimes moments of reflection, even in the midst of my maddest
+joy. Happily, such moments are rare."
+
+"And what do you think of, then?"
+
+"Why, that the life I lead is hardly the thing; then resolve to ask
+Jacques for a small sum of money, just enough to subsist on for a year,
+and form the plan of joining you, and gradually getting to work again."
+
+"The idea is a good one; why not act upon it?"
+
+"Because, when about to execute this project, I examined myself
+sincerely, and my courage failed. I feel that I could never resume the
+habit of labor, and renounce this mode of life, sometimes rich, as to
+day, sometimes precarious,--but at least free and full of leisure, joyous
+and without care, and at worst a thousand times preferable to living upon
+four francs a week. Not that interest has guided me. Many times have I
+refused to exchange a lover, who had little or nothing, for a rich man,
+that I did not like. Nor have I ever asked anything for myself. Jacques
+has spent perhaps ten thousand francs the last three or four months, yet
+we only occupy two half-furnished rooms, because we always live out of
+doors, like the birds: fortunately, when I first loved him, he had
+nothing at all, and I had just sold some jewels that had been given me,
+for a hundred francs, and put this sum in the lottery. As mad people and
+fools are always lucky, I gained a prize of four thousand francs. Jacques
+was as gay, and light-headed, and full of fun as myself, so we said: 'We
+love each other very much, and, as long as this money lasts, we will keep
+up the racket; when we have no more, one of two things will
+happen--either we shall be tired of one another, and so part--or else we
+shall love each other still, and then, to remain together, we shall try
+and get work again; and, if we cannot do so, and yet will not part--a
+bushel of charcoal will do our business!'"
+
+"Good heaven!" cried Mother Bunch, turning pale.
+
+"Be satisfied! we have not come to that. We had still something left,
+when a kind of agent, who had paid court to me, but who was so ugly that
+I could not bear him for all his riches, knowing that I was living with
+Jacques asked me to--But why should I trouble you with all these details?
+In one word, he lent Jacques money, on some sort of a doubtful claim he
+had, as was thought, to inherit some property. It is with this money that
+we are amusing ourselves--as long as its lasts."
+
+"But, my dear Cephyse, instead of spending this money so foolishly, why
+not put it out to interest, and marry Jacques, since you love him?"
+
+"Oh! in the first place," replied the Bacchanal Queen, laughing, as her
+gay and thoughtless character resumed its ascendancy, "to put money out
+to interest gives one no pleasure. All the amusement one has is to look
+at a little bit of paper, which one gets in exchange for the nice little
+pieces of gold, with which one can purchase a thousand pleasures. As for
+marrying, I certainly like Jacques better than I ever liked any one; but
+it seems to me, that, if we were married, all our happiness would
+end--for while he is only my lover, he cannot reproach me with what has
+passed--but, as my husband, he would be stare to upbraid me, sooner or
+later, and if my conduct deserves blame, I prefer giving it to myself,
+because I shall do it more tenderly."
+
+"Mad girl that you are! But this money will not last forever. What is to
+be done next?"
+
+"Afterwards!--Oh! that's all in the moon. To-morrow seems to me as if it
+would not come for a hundred years. If we were always saying: 'We must
+die one day or the other'--would life be worth having?"
+
+The conversation between Cephyse and her sister was here again
+interrupted by a terrible uproar, above which sounded the sharp, shrill
+noise of Ninny Moulin's rattle. To this tumult succeeded a chorus of
+barbarous cries, in the midst of which were distinguishable these words,
+which shook the very windows: "The Queen! the Bacchanal Queen!"
+
+Mother Bunch started at this sudden noise.
+
+"It is only my court, who are getting impatient," said Cephyse--and this
+time she could laugh.
+
+"Heavens!" cried the sewing-girl, in alarm; "if they were to come here in
+search of you?"
+
+"No, no--never fear."
+
+"But listen! do you not hear those steps? they are coming along the
+passage--they are approaching. Pray, sister, let me go out alone, without
+being seen by all these people."
+
+That moment the door was opened, and Cephyse, ran towards it. She saw in
+the passage a deputation headed by Ninny Moulin, who was armed with his
+formidable rattle, and followed by Rose-Pompon and Sleepinbuff.
+
+"The Bacchanal Queen! or I poison myself with a glass of water;" cried
+Ninny Moulin.
+
+"The Bacchanal Queen! or I publish my banns of marriage with Ninny
+Moulin!" cried little Rose-Pompon, with a determined air.
+
+"The Bacchanal Queen! or the court will rise in arms, and carry her off
+by force!" said another voice.
+
+"Yes, yes--let us carry her off!" repeated a formidable chorus.
+
+"Jacques, enter alone!" said the Bacchanal Queen, notwithstanding these
+pressing summonses; then, addressing her court in a majestic tone, she
+added: "In ten minutes, I shall be at your service--and then for a--of a
+time!"
+
+"Long live the Bacchanal Queen," cried Dumoulin, shaking his rattle as he
+retired, followed by the deputation, whilst Sleepinbuff entered the room
+alone.
+
+"Jacques," said Cephyse, "this is my good sister."
+
+"Enchanted to see you," said Jacques, cordially; "the more so as you will
+give me some news of my friend Agricola. Since I began to play the rich
+man, we have not seen each other, but I like him as much as ever, and
+think him a good and worthy fellow. You live in the same house. How is
+he?"
+
+"Alas, sir! he and his family have had many misfortunes. He is in
+prison."
+
+"In prison!" cried Cephyse.
+
+"Agricola in prison! what for?" said Sleepinbuff.
+
+"For a trifling political offence. We had hoped to get him out on bail."
+
+"Certainly; for five hundred francs it could be done," said Sleepinbuff.
+
+"Unfortunately, we have not been able; the person upon whom we relied--"
+
+The Bacchanal Queen interrupted the speaker by saying to her lover: "Do
+you hear, Jacques? Agricola in prison, for want of five hundred francs!"
+
+"To be sure! I hear and understand all about it. No need of your winking.
+Poor fellow! he was the support of his mother."
+
+"Alas! yes, sir--and it is the more distressing, as his father has but
+just returned from Russia, and his mother--"
+
+"Here," said Sleepinbuff, interrupting, and giving Mother Bunch a purse;
+"take this--all the expenses here have been paid beforehand--this is what
+remains of my last bag. You will find here some twenty-five or thirty
+Napoleons, and I cannot make a better use of them than to serve a comrade
+in distress. Give them to Agricola's father; he will take the necessary
+steps, and to-morrow Agricola will be at his forge, where I had much
+rather he should be than myself."
+
+"Jacques, give me a kiss!" said the Bacchanal Queen.
+
+"Now, and afterwards, and again and again!" said Jacques, joyously
+embracing the queen.
+
+Mother Bunch hesitated for a moment; but reflecting that, after all, this
+sum of money, which was about to be spent in follies, would restore life
+and happiness to the family of Agricola, and that hereafter these very
+five hundred francs, when returned to Jacques, might be of the greatest
+use to him, she resolved to accept this offer. She took the purse, and
+with tearful eyes, said to him: "I will not refuse your kindness M.
+Jacques; you are so good and generous, Agricola's father will thus at
+least have one consolation, in the midst of heavy sorrows. Thanks! many
+thanks!"
+
+"There is no need to thank me; money was made for others as well as
+ourselves."
+
+Here, without, the noise recommenced more furiously than ever, and Ninny
+Moulin's rattle sent forth the most doleful sounds.
+
+"Cephyse," said Sleepinbuff, "they will break everything to pieces, if
+you do not return to them, and I have nothing left to pay for the damage.
+Excuse us," added he, laughing, "but you see that royalty has its
+duties."
+
+Cephyse deeply moved, extended her arms to Mother Bunch, who threw
+herself into them, shedding sweet tears.
+
+"And now," said she, to her sister, "when shall I see you again?"
+
+"Soon--though nothing grieves me more than to see you in want, out of
+which I am not allowed to help you."
+
+"You will come, then, to see me? It is a promise?"
+
+"I promise you in her name," said Jacques; "we will pay a visit to you
+and your neighbor Agricola."
+
+"Return to the company, Cephyse, and amuse yourself with a light heart,
+for M. Jacques has made a whole family happy."
+
+So saying, and after Sleepinbuff had ascertained that she could go down
+without being seen by his noisy and joyous companions, Mother Bunch
+quietly withdrew, eager to carry one piece of good news at least to
+Dagobert; but intending, first of all, to go to the Rue de Babylone, to
+the garden-house formerly occupied by Adrienne de Cardoville. We shall
+explain hereafter the cause of this determination.
+
+As the girl quitted the eating-house, three men plainly and comfortably
+dressed, were watching before it, and talking in a low voice. Soon after,
+they were joined by a fourth person, who rapidly descended the stairs of
+the tavern.
+
+"Well?" said the three first, with anxiety.
+
+"He is there."
+
+"Are you sure of it?"
+
+"Are there two Sleepers-in-buff on earth?" replied the other. "I have
+just seen him; he is togged out like one of the swell mob. They will be
+at table for three hours at least."
+
+"Then wait for me, you others. Keep as quiet as possible. I will go and
+fetch the captain, and the game is bagged." So saying, one of the three
+men walked off quickly, and disappeared in a street leading from the
+square.
+
+At this same instant the Bacchanal Queen entered the banqueting-room,
+accompanied by Jacques, and was received with the most frenzied
+acclamations from all sides.
+
+"Now then," cried Cephyse, with a sort of feverish excitement, as if she
+wished to stun herself; "now then, friends--noise and tumult, hurricane
+and tempest, thunder and earthquake--as much as you please!" Then,
+holding out her glass to Ninny Moulin, she added: "Pour out! pour out!"
+
+"Long live the Queen!" cried they all, with one voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CAROUSE.
+
+The Bacchanal Queen, having Sleepinbuff and Rose-Pompon opposite her, and
+Ninny Moulin on her right hand, presided at the repast, called a
+reveille-matin (wake-morning), generously offered by Jacques to his
+companions in pleasure.
+
+Both young men and girls seemed to have forgotten the fatigues of a ball,
+begun at eleven o'clock in the evening, and finished at six in the
+morning; and all these couples, joyous as they were amorous and
+indefatigable, laughed, ate, and drank, with youthful and Pantagruelian
+ardor, so that, during the first part of the feast, there was less
+chatter than clatter of plates and glasses.
+
+The Bacchanal Queen's countenance was less gay, but much more animated
+than usual; her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes announced a feverish
+excitement; she wished to drown reflection, cost what it might. Her
+conversation with her sister often recurred to her, and she tried to
+escape from such sad remembrances.
+
+Jacques regarded Cephyse from time to time with passionate adoration;
+for, thanks to the singular conformity of character, mind, and taste
+between him and the Bacchanal Queen, their attachment had deeper and
+stronger roots than generally belong to ephemeral connections founded
+upon pleasure. Cephyse and Jacques were themselves not aware of all the
+power of a passion which till now had been surrounded only by joys and
+festivities, and not yet been tried by any untoward event.
+
+Little Rose-Pompon, left a widow a few days before by a student, who, in
+order to end the carnival in style, had gone into the country to raise
+supplies from his family, under one of those fabulous pretences which
+tradition carefully preserves in colleges of law and medicine--Rose
+Pompon, we repeat, an example of rare fidelity, determined not to
+compromise herself, had taken for a chaperon the inoffensive Ninny
+Moulin.
+
+This latter, having doffed his helmet, exhibited a bald head, encircled
+by a border of black, curling hair, pretty long at the back of the head.
+By a remarkable Bacchic phenomenon, in proportion as intoxication gained
+upon him, a sort of zone, as purple as his jovial face, crept by degrees
+over his brow, till it obscured even the shining whiteness of his crown.
+Rose-Pompon, who knew the meaning of this symptom, pointed it out to the
+company, and exclaimed with a loud burst of laughter: "Take care, Ninny
+Moulin! the tide of the wine is coming in."
+
+"When it rises above his head he will be drowned," added the Bacchanal
+Queen.
+
+"Oh, Queen! don't disturb me; I am meditating, answered Dumoulin, who was
+getting tipsy. He held in his hand, in the fashion of an antique goblet,
+a punch-bowl filled with wine, for he despised the ordinary glasses,
+because of their small size.
+
+"Meditating," echoed Rose-Pompon, "Ninny Moulin is meditating. Be
+attentive!"
+
+"He is meditating; he must be ill then!"
+
+"What is he meditating? an illegal dance?"
+
+"A forbidden Anacreontic attitude?"
+
+"Yes, I am meditating," returned Dumoulin, gravely; "I am meditating upon
+wine, generally and in particular--wine, of which the immortal
+Bossuet"--Dumoulin had the very bad habit of quoting Bossuet when he was
+drunk--"of which the immortal Bossuet says (and he was a judge of good
+liquor): 'In wine is courage, strength joy, and spiritual fervor'--when
+one has any brains," added Ninny Moulin, by way of parenthesis.
+
+"Oh, my! how I adore your Bossuet!" said Rose-Pompon.
+
+"As for my particular meditation, it concerns the question, whether the
+wine at the marriage of Cana was red or white. Sometimes I incline to one
+side, sometimes to the other--and sometimes to both at once."
+
+"That is going to the bottom of the question," said Sleepinbuff.
+
+"And, above all, to the bottom of the bottles," added the Bacchanal
+Queen.
+
+"As your majesty is pleased to observe; and already, by dint of
+reflection and research, I have made a great discovery--namely, that, if
+the wine at the marriage of Cana was red--"
+
+"It couldn't 'a' been white," said Rose-Pompon, judiciously.
+
+"And if I had arrived at the conviction that it was neither white nor
+red?" asked Dumoulin, with a magisterial air.
+
+"That could only be when you had drunk till all was blue," observed
+Sleepinbuff.
+
+"The partner of the Queen says well. One may be too athirst for science;
+but never mind! From all my studies on this question, to which I have
+devoted my life--I shall await the end of my respectable career with the
+sense of having emptied tuns with a historical--theological--and
+archeological tone!"
+
+It is impossible to describe the jovial grimace and tone with which
+Dumoulin pronounced and accentuated these last words, which provoked a
+general laugh.
+
+"Archieolopically?" said Rose-Pompon. "What sawnee is that? Has he a
+tail? does he live in the water?"
+
+"Never mind," observed the Bacchanal Queen; "these are words of wise men
+and conjurers; they are like horsehair bustles--they serve for filling
+out--that's all. I like better to drink; so fill the glasses, Ninny
+Moulin; some champagne, Rose-Pompon; here's to the health of your
+Philemon and his speedy return!"
+
+"And to the success of his plant upon his stupid and stingy family!"
+added Rose-Pompon.
+
+The toast was received with unanimous applause.
+
+"With the permission of her majesty and her court," said Dumoulin, "I
+propose a toast to the success of a project which greatly interests me,
+and has some resemblance to Philemon's jockeying. I fancy that the toast
+will bring me luck."
+
+"Let's have it, by all means!"
+
+"Well, then--success to my marriage!" said Dumoulin, rising.
+
+These words provoked an explosion of shouts, applause, and laughter.
+Ninny Moulin shouted, applauded, laughed even louder than the rest,
+opening wide his enormous mouth, and adding to the stunning noise the
+harsh springing of his rattle, which he had taken up from under his
+chair.
+
+When the storm had somewhat subsided, the Bacchanal Queen rose and said:
+"I drink to the health of the future Madame Ninny Moulin."
+
+"Oh, Queen! your courtesy touches me so sensibly that I must allow you to
+read in the depths of my heart the name of my future spouse," exclaimed
+Dumoulin. "She is called Madame Honoree-Modeste-Messaline-Angele de la
+Sainte-Colombe, widow."
+
+"Bravo! bravo!"
+
+"She is sixty years old, and has more thousands of francs-a-year than she
+has hair in her gray moustache or wrinkles on her face; she is so
+superbly fat that one of her gowns would serve as a tent for this
+honorable company. I hope to present my future spouse to you on Shrove
+Tuesday, in the costume of a shepherdess that has just devoured her
+flock. Some of them wish to convert her--but I have undertaken to divert
+her, which she will like better. You must help me to plunge her headlong
+into all sorts of skylarking jollity."
+
+"We will plunge her into anything you please."
+
+"She shall dance like sixty!" said Rose-Pompon, humming a popular tune.
+
+"She will overawe the police."
+
+"We can say to them: 'Respect this lady; your mother will perhaps be as
+old some day!'"
+
+Suddenly, the Bacchanal Queen rose; her countenance wore a singular
+expression of bitter and sardonic delight. In one hand she held a glass
+full to the brim. "I hear the Cholera is approaching in his seven-league
+boots," she cried. "I drink luck to the Cholera!" And she emptied the
+bumper.
+
+Notwithstanding the general gayety, these words made a gloomy impression;
+a sort of electric shudder ran through the assemblage, and nearly every
+countenance became suddenly serious.
+
+"Oh, Cephyse!" said Jacques, in a tone of reproach.
+
+"Luck to the Cholera," repeated the Queen, fearlessly. "Let him spare
+those who wish to live, and kill together those who dread to part!"
+
+Jacques and Cephyse exchanged a rapid glance, unnoticed by their joyous
+companions, and for some time the Bacchanal Queen remained silent and
+thoughtful.
+
+"If you put it that way, it is different," cried Rose-Pompon, boldly. "To
+the Cholera! may none but good fellows be left on earth!"
+
+In spite of this variation, the impression was still painfully
+impressive. Dumoulin, wishing to cut short this gloomy subject,
+exclaimed: "Devil take the dead, and long live the living! And, talking
+of chaps who both live and live well, I ask you to drink a health most
+dear to our joyous queen, the health of our Amphitryon. Unfortunately, I
+do not know his respectable name, having only had the advantage of making
+his acquaintance this night; he will excuse me, then, if I confine myself
+to proposing the health of Sleepinbuff--a name by no means offensive to
+my modesty, as Adam never slept in any other manner. I drink to
+Sleepinbuff."
+
+"Thanks, old son!" said Jacques, gayly; "were I to forget your name, I
+should call you 'Have-a-sip?' and I am sure that you would answer: 'I
+will.'"
+
+"I will directly!" said Dumoulin, making the military salute with one
+hand, and holding out the bowl with the other.
+
+"As we have drunk together," resumed Sleepinbuff, cordially, "we ought to
+know each other thoroughly. I am Jacques Rennepont?"
+
+"Rennepont!" cried Dumoulin, who appeared struck by the name, in spite of
+his half-drunkenness; "you are Rennepont?"
+
+"Rennepont in the fullest sense of the word. Does that astonish you?"
+
+"There is a very ancient family of that name--the Counts of Rennepont."
+
+"The deuce there is!" said the other, laughing.
+
+"The Counts of Rennepont are also Dukes of Cardoville," added Dumoulin.
+
+"Now, come, old fellow! do I look as if I belonged to such a family?--I,
+a workman out for a spree?"
+
+"You a workman? why, we are getting into the Arabian Nights!" cried
+Dumoulin, more and more surprised. "You give us a Belshazzar's banquet,
+with accompaniment of carriages and four, and yet are a workman? Only
+tell me your trade, and I will join you, leaving the Vine of the Divine
+to take care of itself."
+
+"Come, I say! don't think that I am a printer of flimsies, and a
+smasher!" replied Jacques, laughing.
+
+"Oh, comrade! no such suspicion--"
+
+"It would be excusable, seeing the rigs I run. But I'll make you easy on
+that point. I am spending an inheritance."
+
+"Eating and drinking an uncle, no doubt?" said Dumoulin, benevolently.
+
+"Faith, I don't know."
+
+"What! you don't know whom you are eating and drinking?"
+
+"Why, you see, in the first place, my father was a bone-grubber."
+
+"The devil he was!" said Dumoulin, somewhat out of countenance, though in
+general not over-scrupulous in the choice of his bottle-companions: but,
+after the first surprise, he resumed, with the most charming amenity:
+"There are some rag-pickers very high by scent--I mean descent!"
+
+"To be sure! you may think to laugh at me," said Jacques, "but you are
+right in this respect, for my father was a man of very great merit. He
+spoke Greek and Latin like a scholar, and often told me that he had not
+his equal in mathematics; besides, he had travelled a good deal."
+
+"Well, then," resumed Dumoulin, whom surprise had partly sobered, "you
+may belong to the family of the Counts of Rennepont, after all."
+
+"In which case," said Rose-Pompon, laughing, "your father was not a
+gutter-snipe by trade, but only for the honor of the thing."
+
+"No, no--worse luck! it was to earn his living," replied Jacques; "but,
+in his youth, he had been well off. By what appeared, or rather by what
+did not appear, he had applied to some rich relation, and the rich
+relation had said to him: 'Much obliged! try the work'us.' Then he wished
+to make use of his Greek, and Latin, and mathematics. Impossible to do
+anything--Paris, it seems, being choke-full of learned men--so my father
+had to look for his bread at the end of a hooked stick, and there, too,
+he must have found it, for I ate of it during two years, when I came to
+live with him after the death of an aunt, with whom I had been staying in
+the country."
+
+"Your respectable father must have been a sort of philosopher," said
+Dumoulin; "but, unless he found an inheritance in a dustbin, I don't see
+how you came into your property."
+
+"Wait for the end of the song. At twelve years of age I was an apprentice
+at the factory of M. Tripeaud; two years afterwards, my father died of an
+accident, leaving me the furniture of our garret--a mattress, a chair,
+and a table--and, moreover, in an old Eau de Cologne box, some papers
+(written, it seems, in English), and a bronze medal, worth about ten
+sous, chain and all. He had never spoken to me of these papers, so, not
+knowing if they were good for anything, I left them at the bottom of an
+old trunk, instead of burning them--which was well for me, since it is
+upon these papers that I have had money advanced."
+
+"What a godsend!" said Dumoulin. "But somebody must have known that you
+had them?"
+
+"Yes; one of those people that are always looking out for old debts came
+to Cephyse, who told me all about it; and, after he had read the papers,
+he said that the affair was doubtful, but that he would lend me ten
+thousand francs on it, if I liked. Ten thousand francs was a large sum,
+so I snapped him up!"
+
+"But you must have supposed that these old papers were of great value."
+
+"Faith, no! since my father, who ought to have known their value, had
+never realized on them--and then, you see, ten thousand francs in good,
+bright coin, falling as it were from the clouds, are not to be sneezed
+at--so I took them--only the man made me do a bit of stiff as guarantee,
+or something of that kind."
+
+"Did you sign it?"
+
+"Of course--what did I care about it? The man told me it was only a
+matter of form. He spoke the truth, for the bill fell due a fortnight
+ago, and I have heard nothing of it. I have still about a thousand francs
+in his hands, for I have taken him for my banker. And that's the way, old
+pal, that I'm able to flourish and be jolly all day long, as pleased as
+Punch to have left my old grinder of a master, M. Tripeaud."
+
+As he pronounced this name, the joyous countenance of Jacques became
+suddenly overcast. Cephyse, no longer under the influence of the painful
+impression she had felt for a moment, looked uneasily at Jacques, for she
+knew the irritation which the name of M. Tripeaud produced within him.
+
+"M. Tripeaud," resumed Sleepinbuff, "is one that would make the good bad,
+and the bad worse. They say that a good rider makes a good horse; they
+ought to say that a good master makes a good workman. Zounds! when I
+think of that fellow!" cried Sleepinbuff, striking his hand violently on
+the table.
+
+"Come, Jacques--think of something else!" said the Bacchanal Queen. "Make
+him laugh, Rose-Pompon."
+
+"I am not in a humor to laugh," replied Jacques, abruptly, for he was
+getting excited from the effects of the wine; "it is more than I can bear
+to think of that man. It exasperates me! it drives me mad! You should
+have heard him saying: 'Beggarly workmen! rascally workmen! they grumble
+that they have no food in their bellies; well, then, we'll give them
+bayonets to stop their hunger.'[11] And there's the children in his
+factory--you should see them, poor little creatures!--working as long as
+the men--wasting away, and dying by the dozen--what odds? as soon as they
+were dead plenty of others came to take their places--not like horses,
+which can only be replaced with money."
+
+"Well, it is clear, that you do not like your old master," said Dumoulin,
+more and more surprised at his Amphitryon's gloomy and thoughtful air,
+and, regretting that the conversation had taken this serious turn, he
+whispered a few words in the ear of the Bacchanal Queen, who answered by
+a sign of intelligence.
+
+"I don't like M. Tripeaud!" exclaimed Jacques. "I hate him--and shall I
+tell you why? Because it is as much his fault as mine, that I have become
+a good-for-nothing loafer. I don't say it to screen myself; but it is the
+truth. When I was 'prenticed to him as a lad, I was all heart and ardor,
+and so bent upon work, that I used to take my shirt off to my task,
+which, by the way, was the reason that I was first called Sleepinbuff.
+Well! I might have toiled myself to death; not one word of encouragement
+did I receive. I came first to my work, and was the last to leave off;
+what matter? it was not even noticed. One day, I was injured by the
+machinery. I was taken to the hospital. When I came out, weak as I was, I
+went straight to my work; I was not to be frightened; the others, who
+knew their master well, would often say to me: 'What a muff you must be,
+little one! What good will you get by working so hard?'--still I went on.
+But, one day, a worthy old man, called Father Arsene, who had worked in
+the house many years, and was a model of good conduct, was suddenly
+turned away, because he was getting too feeble. It was a death-blow to
+him; his wife was infirm, and, at his age, he could not get another
+place. When the foreman told him he was dismissed, he could not believe
+it, and he began to cry for grief. At that moment, M. Tripeaud passes;
+Father Arsene begs him with clasped hands to keep him at half-wages.
+'What!' says M. Tripeaud, shrugging his shoulders; 'do you think that I
+will turn my factory into a house of invalids? You are no longer able to
+work--so be off!' 'But I have worked forty years of my life; what is to
+become of me?' cried poor Father Arsene. 'That is not my business,'
+answered M. Tripeaud; and, addressing his clerk, he added: 'Pay what is
+due for the week, and let him cut his stick.' Father Arsene did cut his
+stick; that evening, he and his old wife suffocated themselves with
+charcoal. Now, you see, I was then a lad; but that story of Father Arsene
+taught me, that, however hard you might work, it would only profit your
+master, who would not even thank you for it, and leave you to die on the
+flags in your old age. So all my fire was damped, and I said to myself:
+'What's the use of doing more than I just need? If I gain heaps of gold
+for M. Tripeaud, shall I get an atom of it?' Therefore, finding neither
+pride nor profit in my work, I took a disgust for it--just did barely
+enough to earn my wages--became an idler and a rake--and said to myself:
+'When I get too tired of labor, I can always follow the example of Father
+Arsene and his wife."'
+
+Whilst Jacques resigned himself to the current of these bitter thoughts,
+the other guests, incited by the expressive pantomime of Dumoulin and the
+Bacchanal Queen, had tacitly agreed together; and, on a signal from the
+Queen, who leaped upon the table, and threw down the bottles and glasses
+with her foot, all rose and shouted, with the accompaniment of Ninny
+Moulin's rattle "The storm blown Tulip! the quadrille of the Storm-blown
+Tulip!"
+
+At these joyous cries, which burst suddenly, like shell, Jacques started;
+then gazing with astonishment at his guests, he drew his hand across his
+brow, as if to chase away the painful ideas that oppressed him, and
+exclaimed: "You are right. Forward the first couple! Let us be merry!"
+
+In a moment, the table, lifted by vigorous arms, was removed to the
+extremity of the banqueting-room; the spectators, mounted upon chairs,
+benches, and window-ledges, began to sing in chorus the well-known air of
+les Etudiants, so as to serve instead of orchestra, and accompany the
+quadrille formed by Sleepinbuff, the Queen, Ninny Moulin, and Rose
+Pompon.
+
+Dumoulin, having entrusted his rattle to one of the guests, resumed his
+extravagant Roman helmet and plume; he had taken off his great-coat at
+the commencement of the feast, so that he now appeared in all the
+splendor of his costume. His cuirass of bright scales ended in a tunic of
+feathers, not unlike those worn by the savages, who form the oxen's
+escort on Mardi Gras. Ninny Moulin had a huge paunch and thin legs, so
+that the latter moved about at pleasure in the gaping mouths of his large
+top boots.
+
+Little Rose-Pompon, with her pinched-up cocked-hat stuck on one side, her
+hands in the pockets of her trousers, her bust a little inclined forward,
+and undulating from right to left, advanced to meet Ninny-Moulin; the
+latter danced, or rather leaped towards her, his left leg bent under him,
+his right leg stretched forward, with the toe raised, and the heel
+gliding on the floor; moreover, he struck his neck with his left hand,
+and by a simultaneous movement, stretched forth his right, as if he would
+have thrown dust in the eyes of his opposite partner.
+
+This first figure met with great success, and the applause was
+vociferous, though it was only the innocent prelude to the step of the
+Storm-blown Tulip--when suddenly the door opened, and one of the waiters,
+after looking about for an instant, in search of Sleepinbuff, ran to him,
+and whispered some words in his ear.
+
+"Me!" cried Jacques, laughing; "here's a go!"
+
+The waiter added a few more words, when Sleepinbuff's face assumed an
+expression of uneasiness, as he answered. "Very well! I come
+directly,"--and he made a step towards the door.
+
+"What's the matter, Jacques?" asked the Bacchanal Queen, in some
+surprise.
+
+"I'll be back immediately. Some one take my place. Go on with the dance,"
+said Sleepinbuff, as he hastily left the room.
+
+"Something, that was not put down in the bill," said Dumoulin; "he will
+soon be back."
+
+"That's it," said Cephyse. "Now cavalier suel!" she added, as she took
+Jacques's place, and the dance continued.
+
+Ninny Moulin had just taken hold of Rose Pompon with his right hand, and
+of the Queen with his left, in order to advance between the two, in which
+figure he showed off his buffoonery to the utmost extent, when the door
+again opened, and the same waiter, who had called out Jacques, approached
+Cephyse with an air of consternation, and whispered in her ear, as he had
+before done to Sleepinbuff.
+
+The Bacchanal Queen grew pale, uttered a piercing scream, and rushed out
+of the room without a word, leaving her guests in stupefaction.
+
+[11] These atrocious words were actually spoken during the Lyons Riots.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE FAREWELL
+
+The Bacchanal Queen, following the waiter, arrived at the bottom of the
+staircase. A coach was standing before the door of the house. In it she
+saw Sleepinbuff, with one of the men who, two hours before, had been
+waiting on the Place du Chatelet.
+
+On the arrival of Cephyse, the man got down, and said to Jacques, as he
+drew out his watch: "I give you a quarter of an hour; it is all that I
+can do for you, my good fellow; after that we must start. Do not try to
+escape, for we'll be watching at the coach doors."
+
+With one spring, Cephyse was in the coach. Too much overcome to speak
+before, she now exclaimed, as she took her seat by Jacques, and remarked
+the paleness of his countenance: "What is it? What do they want with
+you?"
+
+"I am arrested for debt," said Jacques, in a mournful voice.
+
+"You!" exclaimed Cephyse, with a heart-rending sob.
+
+"Yes, for that bill, or guarantee, they made me sign. And yet the man
+said it was only a form--the rascal!"
+
+"But you have money in his hands; let him take that on account."
+
+"I have not a copper; he sends me word by the bailiff, that not having
+paid the bill, I shall not have the last thousand francs."
+
+"Then let us go to him, and entreat him to leave you at liberty. It was
+he who came to propose to lend you this money. I know it well, as he
+first addressed himself to me. He will have pity on you."
+
+"Pity?--a money broker pity? No! no!"
+
+"Is there then no hope? none?" cried Cephyse clasping her hands in
+anguish. "But there must be something done," she resumed. "He promised
+you!"
+
+"You can see how he keeps his promises," answered Jacques, with
+bitterness. "I signed, without even knowing what I signed. The bill is
+over-due; everything is in order, it would be vain to resist. They have
+just explained all that to me."
+
+"But they cannot keep you long in prison. It is impossible."
+
+"Five years, if I do not pay. As I'll never be able to do so, my fate is
+certain."
+
+"Oh! what a misfortune! and not to be able to do anything!" said Cephyse,
+hiding her face in her hands.
+
+"Listen to me, Cephyse," resumed Jacques, in a voice of mournful emotion;
+"since I am here, I have thought only of one thing--what is to become of
+you?"
+
+"Never mind me!"
+
+"Not mind you?--art mad? What will you do? The furniture of our two rooms
+is not worth two hundred francs. We have squandered our money so
+foolishly, that we have not even paid our rent. We owe three quarters,
+and we must not therefore count upon the furniture. I leave you without a
+coin. At least I shall be fed in prison--but how will you manage to live?
+
+"What is the use of grieving beforehand?"
+
+"I ask you how you will live to-morrow?" cried Jacques.
+
+"I will sell my costume, and some other clothes. I will send you half the
+money, and keep the rest. That will last some days."
+
+"And afterwards?--afterwards?"
+
+"Afterwards?--why, then--I don't know--how can I tell you!
+Afterwards--I'll look about me."
+
+"Hear me, Cephyse," resumed Jacques, with bitter agony. "It is now that I
+first know how mach I love you. My heart is pressed as in a vise at the
+thought of leaving you and I shudder to thinly what is to become of you."
+Then--drawing his hand across his forehead, Jacques added: "You see we
+have been ruined by saying--'To-morrow will never come!'--for to morrow
+has come. When I am no longer with you, and you have spent the last penny
+of the money gained by the sale of your clothes--unfit for work as you
+have become--what will you do next? Must I tell you what you will
+do!--you will forget me and--" Then, as if he recoiled from his own
+thoughts, Jacques exclaimed, with a burst of rage and despair--"Great
+Heaven! if that were to happen, I should dash my brains out against the
+stones!"
+
+Cephyse guessed the half-told meaning of Jacques, and throwing her arms
+around his neck, she said to him: "I take another lover?--never! I am
+like you, for I now first know how much I love you."
+
+"But, my poor Cephyse--how will you live?"
+
+"Well, I shall take courage. I will go back and dwell, with my sister, as
+in old times; we will work together, and so earn our bread. I'll never go
+out, except to visit you. In a few days your creditor will reflect, that,
+as you can't pay him ten thousand francs, he may as well set you free. By
+that time I shall have once more acquired the habit of working. You shall
+see, you shall see!--and you also will again acquire this habit. We shall
+live poor, but content. After all, we have had plenty of amusement for
+six month, while so many others have never known pleasure all their
+lives. And believe me, my dear Jacques, when I say to you--I shall profit
+by this lesson. If you love me, do not feel the least uneasiness; I tell
+you, that I would rather die a hundred times, than have another lover."
+
+"Kiss me," said Jacques, with eyes full of tears. "I believe you--yes, I
+believe you--and you give me back my courage, both for now and hereafter.
+You are right; we must try and get to work again, or else nothing remains
+but Father Arsene's bushel of charcoal; for, my girl," added Jacques, in
+a low and trembling voice, "I have been like a drunken man these six
+months, and now I am getting sober, and see whither we are going. Our
+means once exhausted, I might perhaps have become a robber, and you--"
+
+"Oh, Jacques! don't talk so--it is frightful," interrupted Cephyse; "I
+swear to you that I will return to my sister--that I will work--that I
+will have courage!"
+
+Thus saying, the Bacchanal Queen was very sincere; she fully intended to
+keep her word, for her heart was not yet completely corrupted. Misery and
+want had been with her, as with so many others, the cause and the excuse
+of her worst errors. Until now, she had at least followed the instincts
+of her heart, without regard to any base or venal motive. The cruel
+position in which she beheld Jacques had so far exalted her love, that
+she believed herself capable of resuming, along with Mother Bunch, that
+life of sterile and incessant toil, full of painful sacrifices and
+privations, which once had been impossible for her to bear, and which the
+habits of a life of leisure and dissipation would now render still more
+difficult.
+
+Still, the assurances which she had just given Jacques calmed his grief
+and anxiety a little; he had sense and feeling enough to perceive that
+the fatal track which he had hitherto so blindly followed was leading
+both him and Cephyse directly to infamy.
+
+One of the bailiffs, having knocked at the coach-door, said to Jacques:
+"My lad, you have only five minutes left--so make haste."
+
+"So, courage, my girl--courage!" said Jacques.
+
+"I will; you may rely upon me."
+
+"Are you going upstairs again?"
+
+"No--oh no!" said Cephyse. "I have now a horror of this festivity."
+
+"Everything is paid for, and the waiter will tell them not to expect us
+back. They will be much astonished," continued Jacques, "but it's all the
+same now."
+
+"If you could only go with me to our lodging," said Cephyse, "this man
+would perhaps permit it, so as not to enter Sainte-Pelagie in that
+dress."
+
+"Oh! he will not forbid you to accompany me; but, as he will be with us
+in the coach, we shall not be able to talk freely in his presence.
+Therefore, let me speak reason to you for the first time in my life.
+Remember what I say, my dear Cephyse--and the counsel will apply to me as
+well as to yourself," continued Jacques, in a grave and feeling
+tone--"resume from to-day the habit of labor. It may be painful,
+unprofitable--never mind--do not hesitate, for too soon will the
+influence of this lesson be forgotten. By-and-bye it will be too late,
+and then you will end like so many unfortunate creatures--"
+
+"I understand," said Cephyse, blushing; "but I will rather die than lead
+such a life."
+
+"And there you will do well--for in that case," added Jacques, in a deep
+and hollow voice, "I will myself show you how to die."
+
+"I count upon you, Jacques," answered Cephyse, embracing her lover with
+excited feeling; then she added, sorrowfully: "It was a kind of
+presentiment, when just now I felt so sad, without knowing why, in the
+midst of all our gayety--and drank to the Cholera, so that we might die
+together."
+
+"Well! perhaps the Cholera will come," resumed Jacques, with a gloomy
+air; "that would save us the charcoal, which we may not even be able to
+buy."
+
+"I can only tell you one thing, Jacques, that to live and die together,
+you will always find me ready."
+
+"Come, dry your eyes," said he, with profound emotion. "Do not let us
+play the children before these men."
+
+Some minutes after, the coach took the direction to Jacques's lodging,
+where he was to change his clothes, before proceeding to the debtors'
+prison.
+
+Let us repeat, with regard to the hunchback's sister--for there are
+things which cannot be too often repeated--that one of the most fatal
+consequences of the Inorganization of Labor is the Insufficiency of
+Wages.
+
+The insufficiency of wages forces inevitably the greater number of young
+girls, thus badly paid, to seek their means of subsistence in connections
+which deprave them.
+
+Sometimes they receive a small allowance from their lovers, which, joined
+to the produce of their labor, enables them to live. Sometimes like the
+sempstress's sister, they throw aside their work altogether, and take up
+their abode with the man of their choice, should he be able to support
+the expense. It is during this season of pleasure and idleness that the
+incurable leprosy of sloth takes lasting possession of these unfortunate
+creatures.
+
+This is the first phase of degradation that the guilty carelessness of
+Society imposes on an immense number of workwomen, born with instincts of
+modesty, and honesty, and uprightness.
+
+After a certain time they are deserted by their seducers--perhaps when
+they are mothers. Or, it may be, that foolish extravagance consigns the
+imprudent lover to prison, and the young girl finds herself alone,
+abandoned, without the means of subsistence.
+
+Those who have still preserved courage and energy go back to their
+work--but the examples are very rare. The others, impelled by misery, and
+by habits of indolence, fall into the lowest depths.
+
+And yet we must pity, rather than blame them, for the first and virtual
+cause of their fall has been the insufficient remuneration of labor and
+sudden reduction of pay.
+
+Another deplorable consequence of this inorganization is the disgust
+which workmen feel for their employment, in addition to the insufficiency
+of their wages. And this is quite conceivable, for nothing is done to
+render their labor attractive, either by variety of occupations, or by
+honorary rewards, or by proper care, or by remuneration proportionate to
+the benefits which their toil provides, or by the hope of rest after long
+years of industry. No--the country thinks not, cares not, either for
+their wants or their rights.
+
+And yet, to take only one example, machinists and workers in foundries,
+exposed to boiler explosions, and the contact of formidable engines, run
+every day greater dangers than soldiers in time of war, display rare
+practical sagacity, and render to industry--and, consequently, to their
+country--the most incontestable service, during a long and honorable
+career, if they do not perish by the bursting of a boiler, or have not
+their limbs crushed by the iron teeth of a machine.
+
+In this last case, does the workman receive a recompense equal to that
+which awaits the soldier's praiseworthy, but sterile courage--a place in
+an asylum for invalids? No.
+
+What does the country care about it? And if the master should happen to
+be ungrateful, the mutilated workman, incapable of further service, may
+die of want in some corner.
+
+Finally, in our pompous festivals of commerce, do we ever assemble any of
+the skillful workmen who alone have woven those admirable stuffs, forged
+and damascened those shining weapons, chiselled those goblets of gold and
+silver, carved the wood and ivory of that costly furniture, and set those
+dazzling jewels with such exquisite art? No.
+
+In the obscurity of their garrets, in the midst of a miserable and
+starving family, hardly able to subsist on their scanty wages, these
+workmen have contributed, at least, one half to bestow those wonders upon
+their country, which make its wealth, its glory, and its pride.
+
+A minister of commerce, who had the least intelligence of his high
+functions and duties, would require of every factory that exhibits on
+these occasions, the selection by vote of a certain number of candidates,
+amongst whom the manufacturer would point out the one that appeared most
+worthy to represent the working classes in these great industrial
+solemnities.
+
+Would it not be a noble and encouraging example to see the master propose
+for public recompense and distinction the workman, deputed by his peers,
+as amongst the most honest, laborious, and intelligent of his profession?
+Then one most grievous injustice would disappear, and the virtues of the
+workman would be stimulated by a generous and noble ambition--he would
+have an interest in doing well.
+
+Doubtless, the manufacturer himself, because of the intelligence he
+displays, the capital he risks, the establishment he founds, and the good
+he sometimes does, has a legitimate right to the prizes bestowed upon
+him. But why is the workman to be rigorously excluded from these rewards,
+which have so powerful an influence upon the people? Are generals and
+officers the only ones that receive rewards in the army? And when we have
+remunerated the captains of this great and powerful army of industry, why
+should we neglect the privates?
+
+Why for them is there no sign of public gratitude? no kind or consoling
+word from august lips? Why do we not see in France, a single workman
+wearing a medal as a reward for his courageous industry, his long and
+laborious career? The token and the little pension attached to it, would
+be to him a double recompense, justly deserved. But, no! for humble labor
+that sustains the State, there is only forgetfulness, injustice,
+indifference, and disdain!
+
+By this neglect of the public, often aggravated by individual selfishness
+and ingratitude, our workmen are placed in a deplorable situation.
+
+Some of them, notwithstanding their incessant toil, lead a life of
+privations, and die before their time cursing the social system that
+rides over them. Others find a temporary oblivion of their ills in
+destructive intoxication. Others again--in great number--having no
+interest, no advantage, no moral or physical inducement to do more or
+better, confine themselves strictly to just that amount of labor which
+will suffice to earn their wages. Nothing attaches them to their work,
+because nothing elevates, honors, glorifies it in their eyes. They have
+no defence against the reductions of indolence; and if, by some chance,
+they find means of living awhile in repose, they give way by degrees to
+habits of laziness and debauchery, and sometimes the worst passions soil
+forever natures originally willing, healthy and honest--and all for want
+of that protecting and equitable superintendence which should have
+sustained, encouraged, and recompensed their first worthy and laborious
+tendencies.
+
+We now follow Mother Bunch, who after seeking for work from the person
+that usually employed her, went to the Rue de Babylone, to the lodge
+lately occupied by Adrienne de Cardoville.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+FLORINE.
+
+While the Bacchanal Queen and Sleepinbuff terminated so sadly the most
+joyous portion of their existence, the sempstress arrived at the door of
+the summer-house in the Rue de Babylone.
+
+Before ringing she dried her tears; a new grief weighed upon her spirits.
+On quitting the tavern, she had gone to the house of the person who
+usually found her in work; but she was told that she could not have any
+because it could be done a third more cheaply by women in prison. Mother
+Bunch, rather than lose her last resource, offered to take it at the
+third less; but the linen had been already sent out; and the girl could
+not hope for employment for a fortnight to come, even if submitting to
+this reduction of wages. One may conceive the anguish of the poor
+creature; the prospect before her was to die of hunger, if she would not
+beg or steal. As for her visit to the lodge in the Rue de Babylone, it
+will be explained presently.
+
+She rang the bell timidly; a few minutes after, Florine opened the door
+to her. The waiting-maid was no longer adorned after the charming taste
+of Adrienne; on the contrary, she was dressed with an affectation of
+austere simplicity. She wore a high-necked dress of a dark color, made
+full enough to conceal the light elegance of her figure. Her bands of
+jet-black hair were hardly visible beneath the flat border of a starched
+white cap, very much resembling the head-dress of a nun. Yet, in spite of
+this unornamental costume, Florine's pale countenance was still admirably
+beautiful.
+
+We have said that, placed by former misconduct at the mercy of Rodin and
+M. d'Aigrigny, Florine had served them as a spy upon her mistress,
+notwithstanding the marks of kindness and confidence she had received
+from her. Yet Florine was not entirely corrupted; and she often suffered
+painful, but vain, remorse at the thought of the infamous part she was
+thus obliged to perform.
+
+At the sight of Mother Bunch, whom she recognized--for she had told her,
+the day before, of Agricola's arrest and Mdlle. de Cardoville's
+madness--Florine recoiled a step, so much was she moved with pity at the
+appearance of the young sempstress. In fact, the idea of being thrown out
+of work, in the midst of so many other painful circumstances, had made a
+terrible impression upon the young workwoman, the traces of recent tears
+furrowed her cheeks--without her knowing it, her features expressed the
+deepest despair--and she appeared so exhausted, so weak, so overcome,
+that Florine offered her arm to support her, and said to her kindly:
+"Pray walk in and rest yourself; you are very pale, and seem to be ill
+and fatigued."
+
+So saying, Florine led her into a small room; with fireplace and carpet,
+and made her sit down in a tapestried armchair by the side of a good
+fire. Georgette and Hebe had been dismissed, and Florine was left alone
+in care of the house.
+
+When her guest was seated, Florine said to her with an air of interest:
+"Will you not take anything? A little orange flower-water and sugar,
+warm."
+
+"I thank you, mademoiselle," said Mother Bunch, with emotion, so easily
+was her gratitude excited by the least mark of kindness; she felt, too, a
+pleasing surprise, that her poor garments had not been the cause of
+repugnance or disdain on the part of Florine.
+
+"I thank you, mademoiselle," said she, "but I only require a little rest,
+for I come from a great distance. If you will permit me--"
+
+"Pray rest yourself as long as you like, mademoiselle; I am alone in this
+pavilion since the departure of my poor mistress,"--here Florine blushed
+and sighed;--"so, pray make yourself quite at home. Draw near the
+fire--you wilt be more comfortable--and, gracious! how wet your feet
+are!--place them upon this stool."
+
+The cordial reception given by Florine, her handsome face and agreeable
+manners, which were not those of an ordinary waiting-maid, forcibly
+struck Mother Bunch, who, notwithstanding her humble condition, was
+peculiarly susceptible to the influence of everything graceful and
+delicate. Yielding, therefore, to these attractions, the young
+sempstress, generally so timid and sensitive, felt herself almost at her
+ease with Florine.
+
+"How obliging you are, mademoiselle!" said she in a grateful tone. "I am
+quite confused with your kindness."
+
+"I wish I could do you some greater service than offer you a place at the
+fire, mademoiselle. Your appearance is so good and interesting."
+
+"Oh, mademoiselle!" said the other, with simplicity, almost in spite of
+herself; "it does one so much good to sit by a warm fire!" Then, fearing,
+in her extreme delicacy, that she might be thought capable of abusing the
+hospitality of her entertainer, by unreasonably prolonging her visit, she
+added: "the motive that has brought me here is this. Yesterday, you
+informed me that a young workman, named Agricola Baudoin, had been
+arrested in this house."
+
+"Alas! yes, mademoiselle. At the moment, too, when my poor mistress was
+about to render him assistance."
+
+"I am Agricola's adopted sister," resumed Mother Bunch, with a slight
+blush; "he wrote to me yesterday evening from prison. He begged me to
+tell his father to come here as soon as possible, in order to inform
+Mdlle. de Cardoville that he, Agricola, had important matters to
+communicate to her, or to any person that she might send; but that he
+could not venture to mention them in a letter, as he did not know if the
+correspondence of prisoners might not be read by the governor of the
+prison."
+
+"What!" said Florine, with surprise; "to my mistress, M. Agricola has
+something of importance to communicate?"
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle; for, up to this time, Agricola is ignorant of the
+great calamity that has befallen Mdlle. de Cardoville."
+
+"True; the attack was indeed so sudden," said Florine, casting down her
+eyes, "that no one could have foreseen it."
+
+"It must have been so," answered Mother Bunch; "for, when Agricola saw
+Mdlle. de Cardoville for the first time, he returned home, struck with
+her grace, and delicacy, and goodness."
+
+"As were all who approached my mistress," said Florine, sorrowfully.
+
+"This morning," resumed the sewing-girl, "when, according to Agricola's
+instructions, I wished to speak to his father on the subject, I found him
+already gone out, for he also is a prey to great anxieties; but my
+adopted brother's letter appeared to me so pressing, and to involve
+something of such consequence to Mdlle. de Cardoville, who had shown
+herself so generous towards him, that I came here immediately."
+
+"Unfortunately, as you already know, my mistress is no longer here."
+
+"But is there no member of her family to whom, if I could not speak
+myself, I might at least send word by you, that Agricola has something to
+communicate of importance to this young lady?"
+
+"It is strange!" said Florine, reflecting, and without replying. Then,
+turning towards the sempstress, she added: "You are quite ignorant of the
+nature of these revelations?"
+
+"Completely so, mademoiselle; but I know Agricola. He is all honor and
+truth, and you may believe whatever he affirms. Besides, he would have no
+interest--"
+
+"Good gracious!" interrupted Florine, suddenly, as if struck with a
+sadden light; "I have just remembered something. When he was arrested in
+a hiding-place where my mistress had concealed him, I happened to be
+close at hand, and M. Agricola said to me, in a quick whisper: 'Tell your
+generous mistress that her goodness to me will not go unrewarded, and
+that my stay in that hiding-place may not be useless to her.' That was
+all he could say to me, for they hurried him off instantly. I confess
+that I saw in those words only the expression of his gratitude, and his
+hope of proving it one day to my mistress; but now that I connect them
+with the letter he has written you--" said Florine, reflecting.
+
+"Indeed!" remarked Mother Bunch, "there is certainly some connection
+between his hiding-place here and the important secrets which he wishes
+to communicate to your mistress, or one of her family."
+
+"The hiding-place had neither been inhabited nor visited for some time,"
+said Florine, with a thoughtful air; "M. Agricola may have found therein
+something of interest to my mistress."
+
+"If his letter had not appeared to me so pressing," resumed the other, "I
+should not have come hither; but have left him to do so himself, on his
+release from prison, which now, thanks to the generosity of one of his
+old fellow-workmen, cannot be very distant. But, not knowing if bail
+would be accepted to-day, I have wished faithfully to perform his
+instructions. The generous kindness of your mistress made it my first
+duty."
+
+Like all persons whose better instincts are still roused from time to
+time, Florine felt a sort of consolation in doing good whenever she could
+with impunity--that is to say, without exposing herself to the inexorable
+resentments of those on whom she depended. Thanks to Mother Bunch, she
+might now have an opportunity of rendering a great service to her
+mistress. She knew enough of the Princess de Saint-Dizier's hatred of her
+niece, to feel certain that Agricola's communication could not, from its
+very importance, be made with safety to any but Mdlle. de Cardoville
+herself. She therefore said very gravely: "Listen to me, mademoiselle! I
+will give you a piece of advice which will, I think, be useful to my poor
+mistress--but which would be very fatal to me if you did not attend to my
+recommendations."
+
+"How so, mademoiselle?" said the hunchback, looking at Florine with
+extreme surprise.
+
+"For the sake of my mistress, M. Agricola must confide to no one, except
+herself, the important things he has to communicate."
+
+"But, if he cannot see Mdlle. Adrienne, may he not address himself to
+some of her family?"
+
+"It is from her family, above all, that he must conceal whatever he
+knows. Mdlle. Adrienne may recover, and then M. Agricola can speak to
+her. But should she never get well again, tell your adopted brother that
+it is better for him to keep his secret than to place it (which would
+infallibly happen) at the disposal of the enemies of my mistress."
+
+"I understand you, mademoiselle," said Mother Bunch, sadly. "The family
+of your generous mistress do not love her, and perhaps persecute her?"
+
+"I cannot tell you more on this subject now; and, as regards myself, let
+me conjure you to obtain M. Agricola's promise that he will not mention
+to any one in the world the step you have taken, or the advice I have
+given you. The happiness--no, not the happiness," resumed Florine
+bitterly, as if that were a lost hope, "not the happiness--but the peace
+of my life depends upon your discretion."
+
+"Oh! be satisfied!" said the sewing-girl, both affected and amazed by the
+sorrowful expression of Florine's countenance; "I will not be ungrateful.
+No one in the world but Agricola shall know that I have seen you."
+
+"Thank you--thank you, mademoiselle," cried Florine, with emotion.
+
+"Do you thank me?" said the other, astonished to see the large tears roll
+down her cheeks.
+
+"Yes! I am indebted to you for a moment of pure, unmixed happiness; for I
+have perhaps rendered a service to my dear mistress, without risking the
+increase of the troubles that already overwhelm me."
+
+"You are not happy, then?"
+
+"That astonishes you; but, believe me, whatever may be, your fate, I
+would gladly change with you."
+
+"Alas, mademoiselle!" said the sempstress: "you appear to have too good a
+heart, for me to let you entertain such a wish--particularly now."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I hope sincerely, mademoiselle," proceeded Mother Bunch, with deep
+sadness, "that you may never know what it is to want work, when labor is
+your only resource."
+
+"Are you reduced to that extremity?" cried Florine, looking anxiously at
+the young sempstress, who hung her head, and made no answer. She
+reproached herself, in her excessive delicacy, with having made a
+communication which resembled a complaint, though it had only been wrung
+from her by the thought of her dreadful situation.
+
+"If it is so," went on Florine, "I pity you with all my heart; and yet I
+know not, if my misfortunes are not still greater than yours."
+
+Then, after a moment's reflection, Florine exclaimed, suddenly: "But let
+me see! If you are really in that position, I think I can procure you
+some work."
+
+"Is it possible, mademoiselle?" cried Mother Bunch. "I should never have
+dared to ask you such a service; but your generous offer commands my
+confidence, and may save me from destruction. I will confess to you,
+that, only this morning, I was thrown out of an employment which enabled
+me to earn four francs a week."
+
+"Four francs a week!" exclaimed Florine, hardly able to believe what she
+heard.
+
+"It was little, doubtless," replied the other; "but enough for me.
+Unfortunately, the person who employed me, has found out where it can be
+done still cheaper."
+
+"Four francs a week!" repeated Florine, deeply touched by so much misery
+and resignation. "Well! I think I can introduce you to persons, who will
+secure you wages of at least two francs a day."
+
+"I could earn two francs a day? Is it possible?"
+
+"Yes, there is no doubt of it; only, you will have to go out by the day,
+unless you chose to take a pace as servant."
+
+"In my position," said Mother Bunch, with a mixture of timidity and
+pride, "one has no right, I know, to be overnice; yet I should prefer to
+go out by the day, and still more to remain at home, if possible, even
+though I were to gain less."
+
+"To go out is unfortunately an indispensable condition," said Florine.
+
+"Then I must renounce this hope," answered Mother Bunch, timidly; "not
+that I refuse to go out to work--but those who do so, are expected to be
+decently clad--and I confess without shame, because there is no disgrace
+in honest poverty, that I have no better clothes than these."
+
+"If that be all," said Florine, hastily, "they will find you the means of
+dressing yourself properly."
+
+Mother Bunch looked at Florine with increasing surprise. These offers
+were so much above what she could have hoped, and what indeed was
+generally earned by needlewomen, that she could hardly credit them.
+
+"But," resumed she, with hesitation, "why should any one be so generous
+to me, mademoiselle? How should I deserve such high wages?"
+
+Florine started. A natural impulse of the heart, a desire to be useful to
+the sempstress, whose mildness and resignation greatly interested her,
+had led her to make a hasty proposition; she knew at what price would
+have to be purchased the advantages she proposed, and she now asked
+herself, if the hunchback would ever accept them on such terms. But
+Florine had gone too far to recede, and she durst not tell all. She
+resolved, therefore, to leave the future to chance and as those, who have
+themselves fallen, are little disposed to believe in the infallibility of
+others, Florine said to herself, that perhaps in the desperate position
+in which she was, Mother Bunch would not be so scrupulous after all.
+Therefore she said: "I see, mademoiselle, that you are astonished at
+offers so much above what you usually gain; but I must tell you, that I
+am now speaking of a pious institution, founded to procure work for
+deserving young women. This establishment, which is called St. Mary's
+Society, undertakes to place them out as servants, or by the day as
+needlewomen. Now this institution is managed by such charitable persons,
+that they themselves undertake to supply an outfit, when the young women,
+received under their protection are not sufficiently well clothed to
+accept the places destined for them."
+
+This plausible explanation of Florine's magnificent offers appeared to
+satisfy the hearer. "I can now understand the high wages of which you
+speak, mademoiselle," resumed she; "only I have no claim to be patronized
+by the charitable persons who direct this establishment."
+
+"You suffer--you are laborious and honest--those are sufficient claims;
+only, I must tell you, they will ask if you perform regularly your
+religious duties."
+
+"No one loves and blesses God more fervently than I do, mademoiselle,"
+said the hunchback, with mild firmness; "but certain duties are an affair
+of conscience, and I would rather renounce this patronage, than be
+compelled--"
+
+"Not the least in the world. Only, as I told you, there are very pious
+persons at the head of this institution, and you must not be astonished
+at their questions on such a subject. Make the trial, at all events; what
+do you risk? If the propositions are suitable--accept them; if, on the
+contrary, they should appear to touch your liberty of conscience, you can
+always refuse--your position will not be the worse for it."
+
+Mother Bunch had nothing to object to this reasoning which left her at
+perfect freedom, and disarmed her of all suspicion. "On these terms,
+mademoiselle," said she, "I accept your offer, and thank you with all my
+heart. But who will introduce me?"
+
+"I will--to-morrow, if you please."
+
+"But they will perhaps desire to make some inquiries about me."
+
+"The venerable Mother Sainte-Perpetue, Superior of St, Mary's Convent,
+where the institution is established, will, I am sure, appreciate your
+good qualities without inquiry; but if otherwise, she will tell you, and
+you can easily satisfy her. It is then agreed--to-morrow."
+
+"Shall I call upon you here, mademoiselle?"
+
+"No; as I told you before, they must not know that you came here on the
+part of M. Agricola, and a second visit might be discovered, and excite
+suspicion. I will come and fetch you in a coach; where do you live?"
+
+"At No. 3, Rue Brise-Miche; as you are pleased to give yourself so much
+trouble, mademoiselle, you have only to ask the dyer, who acts as porter,
+to call down Mother Bunch."
+
+"Mother Bunch?" said Florine, with surprise.
+
+"Yes, mademoiselle," answered the sempstress, with a sad smile; "it is
+the name every one gives me. And you see," added the hunchback, unable to
+restrain a tear, "it is because of my ridiculous infirmity, to which this
+name alludes, that I dread going out to work among strangers, because
+there are so many people who laugh at one, without knowing the pain they
+occasion. But," continued she, drying her eyes, "I have no choice, and
+must make up my mind to it."
+
+Florine, deeply affected, took the speaker's hand, and said to her: "Do
+not fear. Misfortunes like yours must inspire compassion, not ridicule.
+May I not inquire for you by your real name?"
+
+"It is Magdalen Soliveau; but I repeat, mademoiselle, that you had better
+ask for Mother Bunch, as I am hardly known by any other name."
+
+"I will, then, be in the Rue Brise-Miche to-morrow, at twelve o'clock."
+
+"Oh, mademoiselle! How can I ever requite your goodness?"
+
+"Don't speak of it: I only hope my interference may be of use to you. But
+of this you must judge for yourself. As for M. Agricola, do not answer
+his letter; wait till he is out of prison, and then tell him to keep his
+secret till he can see my poor mistress."
+
+"And where is the dear young lady now?"
+
+"I cannot tell you. I do not know where they took her, when she was
+attacked with this frenzy. You will expect me to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes--to-morrow," said Mother Bunch.
+
+The convent whither Florine was to conduct the hunchback contained the
+daughters of Marshal Simon, and was next door to the lunatic asylum of
+Dr. Baleinier, in which Adrienne de Cardoville was confined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MOTHER SAINTE-PERPETUE.
+
+St. Mary's Convent, whither the daughters of Marshal Simon had been
+conveyed, was a large old building, the vast garden of which was on the
+Boulevard de l'Hopital, one of the most retired places in Paris,
+particularly at this period. The following scenes took place on the 12th
+February, the eve of the fatal day, on which the members of the family of
+Rennepont, the last descendants of the sister of the Wandering Jew, were
+to meet together in the Rue St. Francois. St. Mary's Convent was a model
+of perfect regularity. A superior council, composed of influential
+ecclesiastics, with Father d'Aigrigny for president, and of women of
+great reputed piety, at the head of whom was the Princess de Saint
+Dizier, frequently assembled in deliberation, to consult on the means of
+extending and strengthening the secret and powerful influence of this
+establishment, which had already made remarkable progress.
+
+Skillful combinations and deep foresight had presided at the foundation
+of St. Mary's Convent, which, in consequence of numerous donations,
+possessed already real estate to a great extent, and was daily augmenting
+its acquisitions. The religious community was only a pretext; but, thanks
+to an extensive connection, kept up by means of the most decided members
+of the ultramontane (i. e. high-church) party, a great number of rich
+orphans were placed in the convent, there to receive a solid, austere,
+religious education, very preferable, it was said, to the frivolous
+instruction which might be had in the fashionable boarding schools,
+infected by the corruption of the age. To widows also, and lone women who
+happened moreover to be rich, the convent offered a sure asylum from the
+dangers and temptations of the world; in this peaceful retreat, they
+enjoyed a delightful calm, and secured their salvation, whilst surrounded
+by the most tender and affectionate attentions. Nor was this all. Mother
+Sainte-Perpetue, the superior of the convent, undertook in the name of
+the institution to procure for the faithful, who wished to preserve the
+interior of their houses from the depravity of the age, companions for
+aged ladies, domestic servants, or needlewomen working by the day, all
+selected persons whose morality could be warranted. Nothing would seem
+more worthy of sympathy and encouragement than such an institution; but
+we shall presently unveil the vast and dangerous network of intrigue
+concealed under these charitable and holy appearances. The lady Superior,
+Mother Sainte-Perpetue, was a tall woman of about forty years of age,
+clad in a stuff dress of the Carmelite tan color, and wearing a long
+rosary at her waist; a white cap tied under the chin, and a long black
+veil, closely encircled her thin, sallow face. A number of deep wrinkles
+had impressed their transverse furrows in her forehead of yellow ivory;
+her marked and prominent nose was bent like the beak of a bird of prey;
+her black eye was knowing and piercing; the expression of her countenance
+was at once intelligent, cold and firm.
+
+In the general management of the pecuniary affairs of the community,
+Mother Sainte-Perpetue would have been a match for the most cunning
+attorney. When women are possessed of what is called a talent for
+business, and apply to it their keen penetration, their indefatigable
+perseverance, their prudent dissimulation, and, above all, that quick and
+exact insight, which is natural to them, the results are often
+prodigious. To Mother Sainte-Perpetue, a woman of the coolest and
+strongest intellect, the management of the vast transactions of the
+community was mere child's play. No one knew better how to purchase a
+depreciated property, to restore it to its former value, and then sell it
+with advantage; the price of stock, the rate of exchange, the current
+value of the shares in the different companies, were all familiar to her;
+she had yet never been known to make bad speculation, when the question
+was to invest any of the funds which were given by pious souls for the
+purposes of the convent. She had established in the house the utmost
+order and discipline, and, above all, an extreme economy. The constant
+aim of all her efforts was to enrich, not herself, but the community she
+directed; for the spirit of association, when become a collective
+egotism, gives to corporations the faults and vices of an individual.
+Thus a congregation may dote upon power and money, just as a miser loves
+them for their own sake. But it is chiefly with regard to estates that
+congregations act like a single man. They dream of landed property; it is
+their fixed idea, their fruitful monomania. They pursue it with their
+most sincere, and warm, and tender wishes.
+
+The first estate is to a rising little community what the wedding
+trousseau is to a young bride, his first horse to a youth, his first
+success to a poet, to a gay girl her first fifty-guinea shawl; because,
+after all, in this material age, an estate gives a certain rank to a
+society on the Religious Exchange, and has so much the more effect upon
+the simple-minded, that all these partnerships in the work of salvation,
+which end by becoming immensely rich, begin with modest poverty as social
+stock-in-trade, and charity towards their neighbors as security reserve
+fund. We may therefore imagine what bitter and ardent rivalry must exist
+between the different congregations with regard to the various estates
+that each can lay claim to; with what ineffable satisfaction the richer
+society crushes the poorer beneath its inventory of houses, and farms and
+paper securities! Envy and hateful jealousy, rendered still more
+irritable by the leisure of a cloistered life, are the necessary
+consequences of such a comparison; and yet nothing is less Christian--in
+the adorable acceptation of that divine word--nothing has less in common
+with the true, essential, and religiously social spirit of the gospel,
+than this insatiable ardor to acquire wealth by every possible
+means--this dangerous avidity, which is far from being atoned for, in the
+eyes of public opinion, by a few paltry alms, bestowed in the narrow
+spirit of exclusion and intolerance.
+
+Mother Sainte-Perpetue was seated before a large cylindrical-fronted desk
+in the centre of an apartment simply but comfortably furnished. An
+excellent fire burned within the marble chimney, and a soft carpet
+covered the floor. The superior, to whom all letters addressed to the
+sisters or the boarders were every day delivered, had just been opening
+she first, according to her acknowledged right, and carefully unsealing
+the second, without their knowing it, according to a right that she
+ascribed to herself, of course, with a view to the salvation of those
+dear creatures; and partly, perhaps, a little to make herself acquainted
+with their correspondence, for she also had imposed on herself the duty
+of reading all letters that were sent from the convent, before they were
+put into the post. The traces of this pious and innocent inquisition were
+easily effaced, for the good mother possessed a whole arsenal of steel
+tools, some very sharp, to cut the pager imperceptibly round the
+seal--others, pretty little rods, to be slightly heated and rolled round
+the edge of the seal, when the letter had been read and replaced in its
+envelope, so that the wax, spreading as it melted, might cover the first
+incision. Moreover, from a praiseworthy feeling of justice and equality,
+there was in the arsenal of the good mother a little fumigator of the
+most ingenious construction, the damp and dissolving vapor of which was
+reserved for the letters humbly and modestly secured with wafers, thus
+softened, they yielded to the least efforts, without any tearing of the
+paper. According to the importance of the revelations, which she thus
+gleaned from the writers of the letters, the superior took notes more or
+less extensive. She was interrupted in this investigation by two gentle
+taps at the bolted door. Mother Sainte-Perpetue immediately let down the
+sliding cylinder of her cabinet, so as to cover the secret arsenal, and
+went to open the door with a grave and solemn air. A lay sister came to
+announce to her that the Princess de Saint-Dizier was waiting for her in
+the parlor, and that Mdlle. Florine, accompanied by a young girl,
+deformed and badly dressed, was waiting at the door of the little
+corridor.
+
+"Introduce the princess first," said Mother Sainte Perpetue. And, with
+charming forethought, she drew an armchair to the fire. Mme. de Saint
+Dizier entered.
+
+Without pretensions to juvenile coquetry, still the princess was
+tastefully and elegantly dressed. She wore a black velvet bonnet of the
+most fashionable make, a large blue cashmere shawl, and a black satin
+dress, trimmed with sable, to match the fur of her muff.
+
+"To what good fortune am I again to-day indebted for the honor of your
+visit, my dear daughter?" said the superior, graciously.
+
+"A very important recommendation, my dear mother, though I am in a great
+hurry. I am expected at the house of his Eminence, and have,
+unfortunately, only a few minutes to spare. I have again to speak of the
+two orphans who occupied our attention so long yesterday."
+
+"They continue to be kept separate, according to your wish; and this
+separation has had such an effect upon them that I have been obliged to
+send this morning for Dr. Baleinier, from his asylum. He found much fever
+joined to great depression, and, singular enough, absolutely the same
+symptoms in both cases. I have again questioned these unfortunate
+creatures, and have been quite confounded and terrified to find them
+perfect heathens."
+
+"It was, you see, very urgent to place them in your care. But to the
+subject of my visit, my dear mother: we have just learned the unexpected
+return of the soldier who brought these girls to France, and was thought
+to be absent for some days; but he is in Paris, and, notwithstanding his
+age, a man of extraordinary boldness, enterprise and energy. Should he
+discover that the girls are here (which, however, is fortunately almost
+impossible), in his rage at seeing them removed from his impious
+influence, he would be capable of anything. Therefore let me entreat you,
+my dear mother, to redouble your precautions, that no one may effect an
+entrance by night. This quarter of the town is so deserted!"
+
+"Be satisfied, my dear daughter; we are sufficiently guarded. Our porter
+and gardeners, all well armed, make a round every night on the side of
+the Boulevard de l'Hopital. The walls are high, and furnished with spikes
+at the more accessible places. But I thank you, my dear daughter, for
+having warned me. We will redouble our precautions."
+
+"Particularly this night, my dear mother."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because if this infernal soldier has the audacity to attempt such a
+thing, it will be this very night."
+
+"How do you know, my dear daughter?"
+
+"We have information which makes us certain of it," replied the princess,
+with a slight embarrassment, which did not escape the notice of the
+Superior, though she was too crafty and reserved to appear to see it;
+only she suspected that many things were concealed from her.
+
+"This night, then," resumed Mother Sainte-Perpetue, "we will be more than
+ever on our guard. But as I have the pleasure of seeing you, my dear
+daughter, I will take the opportunity to say a word or two on the subject
+of that marriage we mentioned."
+
+"Yes, my dear mother," said the princess, hastily, "for it is very
+important. The young Baron de Brisville is a man full of ardent devotion
+in these times of revolutionary impiety; he practises openly, and is able
+to render us great services. He is listened to in the Chamber, and does
+not want for a sort of aggressive and provoking eloquence; I know not any
+one whose tone is more insolent with regard to his faith, and the plan is
+a good one, for this cavalier and open manner of speaking of sacred
+things raises and excites the curiosity of the indifferent. Circumstances
+are happily such that he may show the most audacious violence towards our
+enemies, without the least danger to himself, which, of course, redoubles
+his ardor as a would-be martyr. In a word, he is altogether ours, and we,
+in return, must bring about this marriage. You know, besides, my dear
+mother, that he proposes to offer a donation of a hundred thousand francs
+to St. Mary's the day he gains possession of the fortune of Mdlle.
+Baudricourt."
+
+"I have never doubted the excellent intentions of M. de Brisville with
+regard to an institution which merits the sympathy of all pious persons,"
+answered the superior, discreetly; "but I did not expect to meet with so
+many obstacles on the part of the young lady."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"This girl, whom I always believed a most simple, submissive, timid,
+almost idiotic person--instead of being delighted with this proposal of
+marriage, asks time to consider!"
+
+"It is really pitiable!"
+
+"She opposes to me an inert resistance. It is in vain for me to speak
+severely, and tell her that, having no parents or friends, and being
+absolutely confided to my care, she ought to see with my eyes, hear with
+my ears, and when I affirm that this union is suitable in all respects,
+give her adhesion to it without delay or reflection."
+
+"No doubt. It would be impossible to speak more sensibly."
+
+"She answers that she wishes to see M. de Brisville, and know his
+character before being engaged."
+
+"It is absurd--since you undertake to answer for his morality, and esteem
+this a proper marriage."
+
+"Therefore, I remarked to Mdlle. Baudricourt, this morning, that till now
+I had only employed gentle persuasion, but that, if she forced me to it,
+I should be obliged, in her own interest, to act with rigor, to conquer
+so much obstinacy that I should have to separate her from her companions,
+and to confine her closely in a cell, until she made up her mind, after
+all, to consult her own happiness, and--marry an honorable man."
+
+"And these menaces, my dear mother?"
+
+"Will, I hope, have a good effect. She kept up a correspondence with an
+old school-friend in the country. I have put a stop to this, for it
+appeared to me dangerous. She is now under my sole influence, and I hope
+we shall attain our ends; but you see, my dear daughter, it is never
+without crosses and difficulties that we succeed in doing good!"
+
+"And I feel certain that M. de Brisville will even go beyond his first
+promise, and I will pledge myself for him, that, should he marry Mdlle.
+Baudricourt--"
+
+"You know, my dear daughter," said the superior, interrupting the
+princess, "that if I were myself concerned, I would refuse everything;
+but to give to this institution is to give to Heaven, and I cannot
+prevent M. de Brisville from augmenting the amount of his good works.
+Then, you see, we are exposed to a sad disappointment."
+
+"What is that, my dear mother?"
+
+"The Sacred Heart Convent disputes an estate with us that would have
+suited us exactly. Really, some people are quite insatiable! I gave the
+lady superior my opinion upon it pretty freely."
+
+"She told me as much," answered Madame de Saint-Dizier, "and laid the
+blame on the steward."
+
+"Oh! so you see her, my dear daughter?" exclaimed the superior, with an
+air of great surprise.
+
+"I met her at the bishop's," answered Madame de Saint-Dizier, with a
+slight degree of hesitation, that Mother Sainte-Perpetue did not appear
+to notice.
+
+"I really do not know," resumed the latter, "why our establishment should
+excite so violently the jealousy of the Sacred Heart. There is not an
+evil report that they have not spread with regard to St. Mary's Convent.
+Certain persons are always offended by the success of their neighbors!"
+
+"Come, my dear mother," said the princess, in a conciliating tone, "we
+must hope that the donation of M. de Brisville will enable you to outbid
+the Sacred Heart. This marriage will have a double advantage, you see, my
+dear mother; it will place a large fortune at the disposal of a man who
+is devoted to us, and who will employ it as we wish; and it will also
+greatly increase the importance of his position as our defender, by the
+addition to his income of 100,000 francs a year. We shall have at length
+an organ worthy of our cause, and shall no longer be obliged to look for
+defenders amongst such people as that Dumoulin."
+
+"There is great power and much learning in the writings of the man you
+name. It is the style of a Saint Bernard, in wrath at the impiety of the
+age."
+
+"Alas, my dear mother! if you only knew what a strange Saint Bernard this
+Dumoulin is! But I will not offend your ears; all I can tell you is, that
+such defenders would compromise the most sacred cause. Adieu, my dear
+mother! pray redouble your precautions to-night--the return of this
+soldier is alarming."
+
+"Be quite satisfied, my dear daughter! Oh! I forgot. Mdlle. Florine
+begged me to ask you a favor. It is to let her enter your service. You
+know the fidelity she displayed in watching your unfortunate niece; I
+think that, by rewarding her in this way, you will attach her to you
+completely, and I shall feel grateful on her account."
+
+"If you interest yourself the least in the world in Florine, my dear
+mother, the thing is done. I will take her into my service. And now it
+strikes me, she may be more useful to me than I thought."
+
+"A thousand thanks, my dear daughter, for such obliging attention to my
+request. I hope we shall soon meet again. The day after to-morrow, at two
+o'clock, we have a long conference with his Eminence and the Bishop; do
+not forget!"
+
+"No, my dear mother; I shall take care to be exact. Only, pray, redouble
+your precautions to-night for fear of a great scandal!"
+
+After respectfully kissing the hand of the superior, the princess went
+out by the great door, which led to an apartment opening on the principal
+staircase. Some minutes after, Florine entered the room by another way.
+The superior was seated and Florine approached her with timid humility.
+
+"Did you meet the Princess de Saint-Dizier?" asked Mother Sainte
+Perpetue.
+
+"No, mother; I was waiting in the passage, where the windows look out on
+the garden."
+
+"The princess takes you into her service from to-day," said the superior.
+
+Florine made a movement of sorrowful surprise, and exclaimed: "Me,
+mother! but--"
+
+"I asked her in your name, and you have only to accept," answered the
+other imperiously.
+
+"But, mother, I had entreated you--"
+
+"I tell you, that you accept the offer," said the superior, in so firm
+and positive a tone that Florine cast down her eyes, and replied in a low
+voice: "I accept."
+
+"It is in M. Rodin's name that I give you this order."
+
+"I thought so, mother," replied Florine, sadly; "on what conditions am I
+to serve the princess?"
+
+"On the same conditions as those on which you served her niece."
+
+Florine shuddered and said: "I am, then, to make frequent secret reports
+with regard to the princess?"
+
+"You will observe, you will remember, and you will give an account."
+
+"Yes, my mother."
+
+"You will above all direct your attention to the visits that the princess
+may receive from the lady superior of the Sacred Heart. You must try and
+listen--for we have to preserve the princess from evil influences."
+
+"I will obey, my mother."
+
+"You will also try and discover why two young orphans have been brought
+hither, and recommended to be severely treated, by Madame Grivois, the
+confidential waiting-woman of the princess."
+
+"Yes, mother."
+
+"Which must not prevent you from remembering anything else that may be
+worthy of remark. To-morrow I will give you particular instructions upon
+another subject."
+
+"It is well, mother."
+
+"If you conduct yourself in a satisfactory manner, and execute faithfully
+the instructions of which I speak, you will soon leave the princess to
+enter the service of a young bride; it will be an excellent and lasting
+situation always on the same conditions. It is, therefore, perfectly
+understood that you have asked me to recommend you to Madame de Saint
+Dizier."
+
+"Yes, mother; I shall remember."
+
+"Who is this deformed young girl that accompanies you?"
+
+"A poor creature without any resources, very intelligent, and with an
+education above her class; she works at her needle, but is at present
+without employment, and reduced to the last extremity. I have made
+inquiries about her this morning; she has an excellent character."
+
+"She is ugly and deformed, you say?"
+
+"She has an interesting countenance, but she is deformed."
+
+The superior appeared pleased at this information, and added, after a
+moment's reflection: "She appears intelligent?"
+
+"Very intelligent."
+
+"And is absolutely without resources?"
+
+"Yes, without any."
+
+"Is she pious?"
+
+"She does not practice."
+
+"No matter," said the superior to herself; "if she be intelligent, that
+will suffice." Then she resumed aloud. "Do you know if she is a good
+workwoman?"
+
+"I believe so, mother."
+
+The superior rose, took a register from a shelf, appeared to be looking
+into it attentively for some time, and then said, as she replaced it:
+"Fetch in this young girl, and go and wait for me in the press-room."
+
+"Deformed--intelligent--clever at her needle," said the superior,
+reflecting; "she will excite no suspicion. We must see."
+
+In about a minute, Florine returned with Mother Bunch, whom she
+introduced to the superior, and then discreetly withdrew. The young
+sempstress was agitated, trembling, and much troubled, for she could, as
+it were, hardly believe a discovery which she had chanced to make during
+Florine's absence. It was not without a vague sense of terror that the
+hunchback remained alone with the lady superior.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE TEMPTATION.
+
+This was the cause of Mother Bunch's emotion. Florine, when she went to
+see the superior, had left the young sempstress in a passage supplied
+with benches, and forming a sort of ante-chamber on the first story.
+Being alone, the girl had mechanically approached a window which looked
+upon the convent garden, shut in by a half demolished wall, and
+terminating at one end in an open paling. This wall was connected with a
+chapel that was still building, and bordered on the garden of a
+neighboring house. The sewing-girl, at one of the windows on the ground
+floor of this house--a grated window, still more remarkable by the sort
+of tent-like awning above it--beheld a young female, with her eyes fixed
+upon the convent, making signs with her hand, at once encouraging and
+affectionate. From the window where she stood, Mother Bunch could not see
+to whom these signs were addressed; but she admired the rare beauty of
+the telegrapher, the brilliancy of her complexion, the shining blackness
+of her large eyes, the sweet and benevolent smile which lingered on her
+lips. There was, no doubt, some answer to her graceful and expressive
+pantomime, for, by a movement full of elegance, the girl laid her left
+hand on her bosom, and waved her right, which seemed to indicate that her
+heart flew towards the place on which she kept her eyes. One faint
+sunbeam, piercing the clouds, came at this moment to play with the
+tresses of the pale countenance, which, now held close to the bars of the
+window, was suddenly, as it were, illuminated by the dazzling reflection
+of her splendid golden hair. At sight of that charming face, set in its
+admirable frame of red curls, Mother Bunch started involuntarily; the
+thought of Mdlle. de Cardoville crossed her mind, and she felt persuaded
+(nor was she, indeed, mistaken), that the protectress of Agricola was
+before her. On thus beholding, in that gloomy asylum, this young lady, so
+marvellously beautiful, and remembering the delicate kindness with which
+a few days before she had received Agricola in her luxurious little
+palace of dazzling splendor, the work-girl felt her heart sink within
+her. She believed Adrienne insane; and yet, as she looked attentively at
+her, it seemed as if intelligence and grace animated that adorable
+countenance. Suddenly, Mdlle. de Cardoville laid her fingers upon her
+lips, blew a couple of kisses in the direction towards which she had been
+looking, and all at once disappeared. Reflecting upon the important
+revelations which Agricola had to make to Mdlle. de Cardoville, Mother
+Bunch regretted bitterly that she had no means of approaching her; for
+she felt sure that, if the young lady were mad, the present was a lucid
+interval. She was yet absorbed in these uneasy reflections, when she saw
+Florine return, accompanied by one of the nuns. Mother Bunch was obliged,
+therefore, to keep silence with regard to the discovery she had made, and
+soon after she found herself in the superior's presence. This latter,
+after a rapid and searching examination of the countenance of the young
+workwoman, judged her appearance so timid, gentle and honest, that she
+thought she might repose full confidence in the information given by
+Florine.
+
+"My dear daughter," said Mother Sainte-Perpetue, in an affectionate
+voice, "Florine has told me in what a cruel situation you are placed. Is
+it true that you are entirely without work?"
+
+"Alas! yes, madame."
+
+"Call me mother, my dear daughter; that name is dearer to me, and it is
+the rule of our house. I need not ask you what are your principles?"
+
+"I have always lived honestly by my labor, mother," answered the girl,
+with a simplicity at once dignified and modest.
+
+"I believe you, my dear daughter, and I have good reasons for so doing.
+We must thank the Lord, who has delivered you from temptation; but tell
+me--are you clever at your trade?"
+
+"I do my best, mother, and have always satisfied my employers. If you
+please to try me, you will be able to judge."
+
+"Your affirmation is sufficient, my dear daughter. You prefer, I think,
+to go out by the day?"
+
+"Mdlle. Florine told me, mother, that I could not have work at home."
+
+"Why, no--not for the present, my child. If hereafter an opportunity
+should offer, I will think of it. Just now I have this to propose to you.
+A very respectable old lady has asked me to recommend to her a
+needle-woman by the day; introduced by me, you will certainly suit her.
+The institution will undertake to clothe you becomingly, and this advance
+we shall retain by degrees out of your wages, for you will look to us for
+payment. We propose to give you two francs a day; does that appear to you
+sufficient?"
+
+"Oh, mother! it is much more than I could have expected."
+
+"You will, moreover, only be occupied from nine o'clock in the morning
+till six in the evening; you will thus have still some off hours, of
+which you might make use. You see, the situation is not a hard one."
+
+"Oh! quite the contrary, mother."
+
+"I must tell you, first of all, with whom the institution intends to
+place you. It is a widow lady, named Mme. de Bremant, a person of the
+most steadfast piety. In her house, I hope, you will meet with none but
+excellent examples. If it should be otherwise, you can come and inform
+me."
+
+"How so, mother?" said the sewing-girl, with surprise.
+
+"Listen to me, my dear daughter," said Mother Sainte-Perpetue, in a tone
+ever more and more affectionate; "the institution of St. Mary has a
+double end in view. You will perfectly understand that, if it is our duty
+to give to masters and mistresses every possible security as to the
+morality of the persons that we place in their families, we are likewise
+bound to give to the persons that we so place out every possible security
+as to the morality of their employers."
+
+"Nothing can be more just and of a wiser foresight, mother."
+
+"Naturally, my dear daughter; for even as a servant of bad morals may
+cause the utmost trouble in a respectable family, so the bad conduct of a
+master or mistress may have the most baneful influence on the persons who
+serve them, or who come to work in their houses. Now, it is to offer a
+mutual guarantee to good masters and honest servants, that we have
+founded this institution."
+
+"Oh, madame!" cried Mother Bunch, with simplicity; "such designs merit
+the thanks and blessings of every one."
+
+"And blessings do not fail us, my dear daughter, because we perform our
+promises. Thus, an interesting workwoman--such as you, for example--is
+placed with persons that we suppose irreproachable. Should she, however,
+perceive, on the part of her employers, or on that of the persons who
+frequent the house, any irregularity of morals, any tendency to what
+would offend her modesty, or shock her religious principles, she should
+immediately give us a detailed account of the circumstances that have
+caused her alarm. Nothing can be more proper--don't you think so?"
+
+"Yes, mother," answered Mother Bunch, timidly, for she began to find this
+provision somewhat singular.
+
+"Then," resumed the superior, "if the case appears a serious one, we
+exhort our befriended one to observe what passes more attentively, so as
+to convince herself whether she had really reason to be alarmed. She
+makes a new report to us, and should it confirm our first fears, faithful
+to our pious guardianship, we withdraw her instantly from the house.
+Moreover, as the majority of our young people, notwithstanding their
+innocence and virtue, have not always sufficient experience to
+distinguish what may be injurious to their soul's health, we think it
+greatly to their interest that they should confide to us once a week, as
+a child would to her mother, either in person or by letter, whatever has
+chanced to occur in the house in which we have placed them. Then we can
+judge for them, whether to withdraw them or not. We have already about a
+hundred persons, companions to ladies, young women in shops, servants,
+and needlewomen by the day, whom we have placed in a great number of
+families, and, for the interest of all, we have every reason to
+congratulate ourselves on this mode of proceeding. You understand me, do
+you not, my dear daughter?"
+
+"Yes-yes, mother," said the sempstress, more and more embarrassed. She
+had too much uprightness and sagacity not to perceive that this plan of
+mutually insuring the morality of masters and servants resembled a vast
+spy system, brought home to the domestic hearth, and carried on by the
+members of the institution almost without their knowledge, for it would
+have been difficult to disguise more skillfully the employment for which
+they were trained.
+
+"If I have entered into these long details my dear daughter," resumed
+Mother Sainte-Perpetue, taking the hearer's silence for consent, "it is
+that you may not suppose yourself obliged to remain in the house in
+question, if, against our expectation, you should not find there holy and
+pious examples. I believe Mme. de Bremont's house to be a pure and godly
+place; only I have heard (though I will not believe it) that Mme. de
+Bremont's daughter, Mme. de Noisy, who has lately come to reside with
+her, is not so exemplary in her conduct as could be desired, that she
+does not fulfil regularly her religious duties, and that, during the
+absence of her husband, who is now in America, she receives visits,
+unfortunately too frequent, from one M. Hardy, a rich manufacturer."
+
+At the name of Agricola's master, Mother Bunch could not suppress a
+movement of surprise, and also blushed slightly. The superior naturally
+mistook this surprise and confusion for a proof of the modest
+susceptibility of the young sempstress, and added: "I have told you all
+this, my dear daughter, that you might be on your guard. I have even
+mentioned reports that I believe to be completely erroneous, for the
+daughter of Mme. de Bremont has always had such good examples before her
+that she cannot have so forgotten them. But, being in the house from
+morning to night, you will be able, better than any one, to discover if
+these reports have any foundation in truth. Should it unfortunately so
+turn out, my dear daughter, you would come and confide to me all the
+circumstances that have led you to such a conclusion; and, should I then
+agree in your opinion, I would withdraw you instantly from the house--for
+the piety of the mother would not compensate sufficiently for the
+deplorable example of the daughter's conduct. For, as soon as you form
+part of the institution, I am responsible for your salvation, and, in
+case your delicacy should oblige you to leave Mme. de Bremont's, as you
+might be some time without employment, the institution will allow you, if
+satisfied with your zeal and conduct, one franc a day till we could find
+you another place. You see, my dear daughter, that you have everything to
+gain with us. It is therefore agreed that the day after to-morrow you go
+to Mme. de Bremont's." Mother Bunch found herself in a very hard
+position. Sometimes she thought that her first suspicions were confirmed,
+and, notwithstanding her timidity, her pride felt hurt at the
+supposition, that, because they knew her poor, they should believe her
+capable of selling herself as a spy for the sake of high wages.
+Sometimes, on the contrary, her natural delicacy revolted at the idea
+that a woman of the age and condition of the superior could descend to
+make a proposition so disgraceful both to the accepter and the proposer,
+and she reproached herself with her first doubts and asked herself if the
+superior had not wished to try her, before employing her, to see if her
+probity would enable her to resist a comparatively brilliant offer.
+Mother Bunch was naturally so inclined to think well of every one, that
+she made up her mind to this last conclusion, saying to herself, that if,
+after all, she were deceived, it would be the least offensive mode of
+refusing these unworthy offers. With a movement, exempt from all
+haughtiness, but expressive of natural dignity, the young workman raised
+her head, which she had hitherto held humbly cast down, looked the
+superior full in the face, that the latter might read in her countenance
+the sincerity of her words, and said to her in a slightly agitated voice,
+forgetting this time to call her "mother": "Ah, madame! I cannot blame
+you for exposing me to such a trial. You see that I am very poor, and I
+have yet done nothing to command your confidence. But, believe me, poor
+as I am, I would never stoop to so despicable an action as that which you
+have thought fit to propose to me, no doubt to assure yourself, by my
+refusal, that I am worthy of your kindness. No, no, madame--I could never
+bring myself to be a spy at any price."
+
+She pronounced these last words with so much animation that her cheeks
+became slightly flushed. The superior had too much tact and experience
+not to perceive the sincerity of the words. Thinking herself lucky that
+the young girl should put this construction upon the affair, she smiled
+upon her affectionately, and stretched out her arms to her, saying: "It
+is well, my dear daughter. Come and embrace me!"
+
+"Mother--I am really confused--with so much kindness--"
+
+"No--you deserve it--your words are so full of truth and honesty. Only be
+persuaded that I have not put you to any trial, because there is no
+resemblance between the act of a spy and the marks of filial confidence
+that we require of our members for the sake of watching over their
+morals. But certain persons--I see you are of the number, my dear
+daughter--have such fixed principles, and so mature a judgment, that they
+can do without our advice and guardianship, and can appreciate themselves
+whatever might be dangerous to their salvation. I will therefore leave
+the entire responsibility to yourself, and only ask you for such
+communications as you may think proper to make."
+
+"Oh, madame! how good you are!" said poor Mother Bunch, for she was not
+aware of the thousand devices of the monastic spirit, and thought herself
+already sure of gaining just wages honorably.
+
+"It is not goodness--but justice!" answered Mother Sainte-Perpetue, whose
+tone was becoming more and more affectionate. "Too much tenderness cannot
+be shown to pious young women like you, whom poverty has only purified
+because they have always faithfully observed the divine laws."
+
+"Mother--"
+
+"One last question, my child! how many times a month do you approach the
+Lord's table?"
+
+"Madame," replied the hunchback, "I have not taken the sacrament since my
+first communion, eight years ago. I am hardly able, by working every day,
+and all day long, to earn my bread. I have no time--"
+
+"Gracious heaven!" cried the superior, interrupting, and clasping her
+hands with all the signs of painful astonishment. "Is it possible? you do
+not practise?"
+
+"Alas, madame! I tell you that I have no time," answered Mother Bunch,
+looking disconcertedly at Mother Saint-Perpetue.
+
+"I am grieved, my dear daughter," said the latter sorrowfully, after a
+moment's silence, "but I told you that, as we place our friends in none
+but pious houses, so we are asked to recommend none but pious persons,
+who practise their religious duties. It is one of the indispensable
+conditions of our institution. It will, therefore, to my great regret, be
+impossible for me to employ you as I had hoped. If, hereafter, you should
+renounce your present indifference to those duties, we will then see."
+
+"Madame," said Mother Bunch, her heart swollen with tears, for she was
+thus forced to abandon a cheering hope, "I beg pardon for having detained
+you so long--for nothing."
+
+"It is I, my dear daughter, who regret not to be able to attach you to
+the institution; but I am not altogether hopeless, that a person, already
+so worthy of interest, will one day deserve by her piety the lasting
+support of religious people. Adieu, my dear daughter! go in peace, and
+may God be merciful to you, until the day that you return with your whole
+heart to Him!"
+
+So saying, the superior rose, and conducted her visitor to the door, with
+all the forms of the most maternal kindness. At the moment she crossed
+the threshold, she said to her: "Follow the passage, go down a few steps,
+and knock at the second door on the right hand. It is the press-room, and
+there you will find Florine. She will show you the way out. Adieu, my
+dear daughter!"
+
+As soon as Mother Bunch had left the presence of the superior, her tears,
+until now restrained, gushed forth abundantly. Not wishing to appear
+before Florine and the nuns in this state, she stopped a moment at one of
+the windows to dry her eyes. As she looked mechanically towards the
+windows of the next house, where she fancied she had seen Adrienne de
+Cardoville, she beheld the latter come from a door in the building, and
+advance rapidly towards the open paling that separated the two gardens.
+At the same instant, and to her great astonishment, Mother Bunch saw one
+of the two sisters whose disappearance had caused the despair of
+Dagobert, with pale and dejected countenance, approach the fence that
+separated her from Mdlle. de Cardoville, trembling with fear and anxiety,
+as though she dreaded to be discovered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MOTHER BUNCH AND MDLLE. DE CARDOVILLE.
+
+Agitated, attentive, uneasy, leaning from one of the convent-windows, the
+work-girl followed with her eyes the movements of Mdlle. de Cardoville
+and Rose Simon, whom she so little expected to find together in such a
+place. The orphan, approaching close to the fence, which separated the
+nunnery-garden from that of Dr. Baleinier's asylum, spoke a few words to
+Adrienne, whose features at once expressed astonishment, indignation, and
+pity. At this juncture, a nun came running, and looking right and left,
+as though anxiously seeking for some one; then, perceiving Rose, who
+timidly pressed close to the paling, she seized her by the arm, and
+seemed to scold her severely, and notwithstanding some energetic words
+addressed to her by Mdlle. de Cardoville, she hastily carried off the
+orphan, who with weeping eyes, turned several times to look back at
+Adrienne; whilst the latter, after showing the interest she took in her
+by expressive gestures, turned away suddenly, as if to conceal her tears.
+
+The passage in which the witness stood, during this touching scene, was
+situated on the first story. The thought immediately occurred to the
+sempstress, to go down to the ground-floor, and try to get into the
+garden, so that she might have an opportunity of speaking to the fair
+girl with the golden hair, and ascertaining if it were really Mdlle. de
+Cardoville, to whom; if she found her in a lucid interval, she might say
+that Agricola had things of the greatest importance to communicate, but
+that he did not know how to inform her of them. The day was advancing,
+the sun was on its decline, and fearing that Florine would be tired of
+waiting for her, Mother Bunch made haste to act; with a light step,
+listening anxiously as she went, she reached the end of the passage,
+where three or four stairs led down to the landing-place of the press
+room, and then formed a spiral descent to the ground-floor. Hearing
+voices in the pressroom, the sempstress hastened down the stairs, and
+found herself in a long passage, in the centre of which was a glass door,
+opening on that part of the garden reserved for the superior. A path,
+bordered by a high box-hedge, sheltered her from the gaze of curious
+eyes, and she crept along it, till she reached the open paling; which, at
+this spot, separated the convent-garden from that of Dr. Baleinier's
+asylum. She saw Mdlle. de Cardoville a few steps from her, seated, and
+with her arm resting upon a rustic bench. The firmness of Adrienne's
+character had for a moment been shaken by fatigue, astonishment, fright,
+despair, on the terrible night when she had been taken to the asylum by
+Dr. Baleinier; and the latter, taking a diabolical advantage of her
+weakness and despondency, had succeeded for a moment in making her doubt
+of her own sanity. But the calm, which necessarily follows the most
+painful and violent emotions, combined with the reflection and reasoning
+of a clear and subtle intellect, soon convinced Adrienne of the
+groundlessness of the fears inspired by the crafty doctor. She no longer
+believed that it could even be a mistake on the part of the man of
+science. She saw clearly in the conduct of this man, in which detestable
+hypocrisy was united with rare audacity, and both served by a skill no
+less remarkable, that M. Baleinier was, in fact, the blind instrument of
+the Princess de Saint-Dizier. From that moment, she remained silent and
+calm, but full of dignity; not a complaint, not a reproach was allowed to
+pass her lips. She waited. Yet, though they left her at liberty to walk
+about (carefully depriving her of all means of communicating with any one
+beyond the walls), Adrienne's situation was harsh and painful,
+particularly for her, who so loved to be surrounded by pleasant and
+harmonious objects. She felt, however, that this situation could not last
+long. She did not thoroughly understand the penetration and action of the
+laws; but her good sense taught her, that a confinement of a few days
+under the plea of some appearances of insanity, more or less plausible in
+themselves, might be attempted, and even executed with impunity; but that
+it could not be prolonged beyond certain limits, because, after all, a
+young lady of her rank in society could not disappear suddenly from the
+world, without inquiries being made on the subject--and the pretence of a
+sudden attack of madness would lead to a serious investigation. Whether
+true or false, this conviction had restored Adrienne to her accustomed
+elasticity and energy of character. And yet she sometimes in vain asked
+herself the cause of this attempt on her liberty. She knew too well the
+Princess de Saint-Dizier, to believe her capable of acting in this way,
+without a certain end in view, and merely for the purpose of inflicting a
+momentary pang. In this, Mdlle. de Cardoville was not deceived: Father
+d'Aigrigny and the princess were both persuaded, that Adrienne, better
+informed than she wished to acknowledge, knew how important it was for
+her to find herself in the house in the Rue Saint-Francois on the 13th of
+February, and was determined to maintain her rights. In shutting up
+Adrienne as mad, it was intended to strike a fatal blow at her future
+prospects; but this last precaution was useless, for Adrienne, though
+upon the true scent of the family-secret they lead wished to conceal from
+her, had not yet entirely penetrated its meaning, for want of certain
+documents, which had been lost or hidden.
+
+Whatever had been the motives for the odious conduct of Mdlle. de
+Cardoville's enemies, she was not the less disgusted at it. No one could
+be more free from hatred or revenge, than was this generous young girl,
+but when she thought of all the sufferings which the Princess de Saint
+Dizier, Abbe d'Aigrigny, and Dr. Baleinier had occasioned her, she
+promised herself, not reprisals, but a striking reparation. If it were
+refused her, she was resolved to combat--without truce or rest--this
+combination of craft, hypocrisy, and cruelty, not from resentment for
+what she had endured, but to preserve from the same torments other
+innocent victims, who might not, like her, be able to struggle and defend
+themselves. Adrienne, still under the painful impression which had been
+caused by her interview with Rose Simon, was leaning against one of the
+sides of the rustic bench on which she was seated, and held her left hand
+over her eyes. She had laid down her bonnet beside her, and the inclined
+position of her head brought the long golden curls over her fair, shining
+cheeks. In this recumbent attitude, so full of careless grace, the
+charming proportions of her figure were seen to advantage beneath a
+watered green dress, while a broad collar, fastened with a rose-colored
+satin bow, and fine lace cuffs, prevented too strong a contrast between
+the hue of her dress and the dazzling whiteness of the swan-like neck and
+Raphaelesque hands, imperceptibly veined with tiny azure lines. Over the
+high and well-formed instep, were crossed the delicate strings of a
+little, black satin shoe--for Dr. Baleinier had allowed her to dress
+herself with her usual taste, and elegance of costume was not with
+Adrienne a mark of coquetry, but of duty towards herself, because she had
+been made so beautiful. At sight of this young lady, whose dress and
+appearance she admired in all simplicity, without any envious or bitter
+comparison with her own poor clothes and deformity of person, Mother
+Bunch said immediately to herself, with the good sense and sagacity
+peculiar to her, that it was strange a mad woman should dress so sanely
+and gracefully. It was therefore with a mixture of surprise and emotion
+that she approached the fence which separated her from Adrienne
+--reflecting, however, that the unfortunate girl might still be insane,
+and that this might turn out to be merely a lucid interval. And now, with
+a timid voice, but loud enough to be heard, Mother Bunch, in order to
+assure herself of Adrienne's identity, said, whilst her heart beat fast:
+"Mdlle. de Cardoville!"
+
+"Who calls me?" said Adrienne. On hastily raising her head, and
+perceiving the hunchback, she could not suppress a slight cry of
+surprise, almost fright. For indeed this poor creature, pale, deformed,
+miserably clad, thus appearing suddenly before her, must have inspired
+Mdlle, de Cardoville, so passionately fond of grace and beauty, with a
+feeling of repugnance, if not of terror--and these two sentiments were
+both visible in her expressive countenance.
+
+The other did not perceive the impression she had made. Motionless, with
+her eyes fixed, and her hands clasped in a sort of adoring admiration,
+she gazed on the dazzling beauty of Adrienne, whom she had only half seen
+through the grated window. All that Agricola had told her of the charms
+of his protectress, appeared to her a thousand times below the reality;
+and never, even in her secret poetic visions, had she dreamed of such
+rare perfection. Thus, by a singular contrast, a feeling of mutual
+surprise came over these two girls--extreme types of deformity and
+beauty, wealth and wretchedness. After rendering, as it were, this
+involuntary homage to Adrienne, Mother Bunch advanced another step
+towards the fence.
+
+"What do you want?" cried Mdlle. de Cardoville, rising with a sentiment
+of repugnance, which could not escape the work-girl's notice;
+accordingly, she held down her head timidly, and said in a soft voice: "I
+beg your pardon, madame, to appear so suddenly before you. But moments
+are precious, I come from Agricola."
+
+As she pronounced these words, the sempstress raised her eyes anxiously,
+fearing that Mdlle. de Cardoville might have forgotten the name of the
+workman. But, to her great surprise and joy, the fears of Adrienne seemed
+to diminish at the name of Agricola, and approaching the fence, she
+looked at the speaker with benevolent curiosity.
+
+"You come from M. Agricola Baudoin?" said she. "Who are you?"
+
+"His adopted sister, madame--a poor needlewoman, who lives in the same
+house."
+
+Adrienne appeared to collect her thoughts, and said, smiling kindly,
+after a moment's silence: "It was you then, who persuaded M. Agricola to
+apply to me to procure him bail?"
+
+"Oh, madame, do you remember--"
+
+"I never forget anything that is generous and noble. M. Agricola was much
+affected when he spoke of your devotion. I remember it well; it would be
+strange if I did not. But how came you here, in this convent?"
+
+"They told me that I should perhaps be able to get some occupation here,
+as I am out of work. Unfortunately, I have been refused by the lady
+superior."
+
+"And how did you recognize me?"
+
+"By your great beauty, madame, of which Agricola had told me."
+
+"Or rather by this," said Adrienne, smiling as she lifted, with the tips
+of her rosy fingers, one end of a long, silky ringlet of golden hair.
+
+"You must pardon Agricola, madame," said the sewing girl, with one of
+those half smiles, which rarely settled on her lips: "he is a poet, and
+omitted no single perfection in the respectful and admiring description
+which he gave of his protectress."
+
+"And what induced you to come and speak to me?"
+
+"The hope of being useful to you, madame. You received Agricola with so
+much goodness, that I have ventured to go shares in his gratitude."
+
+"You may well venture to do so, my dear girl," said Adrienne, with
+ineffable grace; "until now, unfortunately, I have only been able to
+serve your adopted brother by intention."
+
+As they exchanged these words, Adrienne and Mother Bunch looked at each
+other with increasing surprise. The latter was, first of all, astonished
+that a person who passed for mad should express herself as Adrienne did;
+next, she was amazed at the ease and freedom with which she herself
+answered the questions of Mdlle. de Cardoville--not knowing that the
+latter was endowed with the precious privilege of lofty and benevolent
+natures, to draw out from those who approached her whatever sympathized
+with herself. On her side, Mdlle. de Cardoville was deeply moved and
+astonished to hear this young, low-born girl, dressed almost like a
+beggar, express herself in terms selected with so much propriety. The
+more she looked at her, the more the feeling of repugnance she at first
+experienced wore off, and was at length converted into quite the opposite
+sentiment. With that rapid and minute power of observation natural to
+women, she remarked beneath the black crape of Mother Bunch's cap, the
+smoothness and brilliancy of the fair, chestnut hair. She remarked, too,
+the whiteness of the long, thin hand, though it displayed itself at the
+end of a patched and tattered sleeve--an infallible proof that care, and
+cleanliness, and self-respect were at least struggling against symptoms
+of fearful distress. Adrienne discovered, also, in the pale and
+melancholy features, in the expression of the blue eyes, at once
+intelligent, mild and timid, a soft and modest dignity, which made one
+forget the deformed figure. Adrienne loved physical beauty, and admired
+it passionately, but she had too superior a mind, too noble a soul, too
+sensitive a heart, not to know how to appreciate moral beauty, even when
+it beamed from a humble and suffering countenance. Only, this kind of
+appreciation was new to Mdlle. de Cardoville; until now, her large
+fortune and elegant habits had kept her at a distance from persons of
+Mother Bunch's class. After a short silence, during which the fair
+patrician and the poor work-girl had closely examined each other,
+Adrienne said to the other: "It is easy, I think, to explain the cause of
+our mutual astonishment. You have, no doubt, discovered that I speak
+pretty reasonably for a mad woman--if they have told you I am one. And
+I," added Mdlle. de Cardoville, in a tone of respectful commiseration,
+"find that the delicacy of your language and manners so singularly
+contrast with the position in which you appear to be, that my surprise
+must be even greater than yours."
+
+"Ah, madame!" cried Mother Bunch, with a welling forth of such deep and
+sincere joy that the tears started to her eyes; "is it true?--they have
+deceived me--you are not mad! Just now, when I beheld you so kind and
+beautiful, when I heard the sweet tone of your voice, I could not believe
+that such a misfortune had happened to you. But, alas! how is it then,
+madame, that you are in this place?"
+
+"Poor child!" said Adrienne, touched by the affectionate interest of this
+excellent creature; "and how is it that you, with such a heart and head,
+should be in such distress? But be satisfied! I shall not always be
+here--and that will suffice to tell you, that we shall both resume the
+place which becomes us. Believe me, I shall never forget how, in spite of
+the painful ideas which must needs occupy your mind, on seeing yourself
+deprived of work--your only resource--you have still thought of coming to
+me, and of trying to serve me. You may, indeed, be eminently useful to
+me, and I am delighted at it, for then I shall owe you much--and you
+shall see how I will take advantage of my gratitude!" said Adrienne, with
+a sweet smile. "But," resumed she, "before talking of myself, let us
+think of others. Is your adopted brother still in prison?"
+
+"By this time, madame, I hope he has obtained his freedom; thanks to the
+generosity of one of his comrades. His father went yesterday to offer
+bail for him, and they promised that he should be released to-day. But,
+from his prison, he wrote to me, that he had something of importance to
+reveal to you."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"Yes, madame. Should Agricola be released immediately by what means can
+he communicate with you?"
+
+"He has secrets to tell me!" resumed Mdlle. de Cardoville, with an air of
+thoughtful surprise. "I seek in vain to imagine what they can be; but so
+long as I am confined in this house, and secluded from every one, M.
+Agricola must not think of addressing himself directly or indirectly to
+me. He must wait till I am at liberty; but that is not all, he must
+deliver from that convent two poor children, who are much more to be
+pitied than I am. The daughters of Marshal Simon are detained there
+against their will."
+
+"You know their name, madame?"
+
+"When M. Agricola informed me of their arrival in Paris, he told me they
+were fifteen years old, and that they resembled each other exactly--so
+that, the day before yesterday, when I took my accustomed walk, and
+observed two poor little weeping faces come close to the windows of their
+separate cells, one on the ground floor, the other on the first story, a
+secret presentiment told me that I saw in them the orphans of whom M.
+Agricola had spoken, and in whom I already took a lively interest, as
+being my relations."
+
+"They are your relations, madame, then?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. So, not being able to do more, I tried to express by
+signs how much I felt for them. Their tears, and the sadness of their
+charming faces, sufficiently told me that they were prisoners in the
+convent, as I am myself in this house."
+
+"Oh! I understand, madame--the victim of the animosity of your family?"
+
+"Whatever may be my fate, I am much less to be pitied than these two
+children, whose despair is really alarming. Their separation is what
+chiefly oppresses them. By some words that one of them just now said to
+me, I see that they are, like me, the victims of an odious machination.
+But thanks to you, it will be possible to save them: Since I have been in
+this house I have had no communication with any one; they have not
+allowed me pen or paper, so it is impossible to write. Now listen to me
+attentively, and we shall be able to defeat an odious persecution."
+
+"Oh, speak! speak, madame!"
+
+"The soldier, who brought these orphans to France, the father of M.
+Agricola, is still in town?"
+
+"Yes, madame. Oh! if you only knew his fury, his despair, when, on his
+return home, he no longer found the children that a dying mother had
+confided to him!"
+
+"He must take care not to act with the least violence. It would ruin all.
+Take this ring," said Adrienne, drawing it from her finger, "and give it
+to him. He must go instantly--are you sure that you can remember a name
+and address?"
+
+"Oh! yes, madame. Be satisfied on that point. Agricola only mentioned
+your name once, and I have not forgotten it. There is a memory of the
+heart."
+
+"I perceive it, my dear girl. Remember, then, the name of the Count de
+Montbron."
+
+"The Count de Montbron--I shall not forget."
+
+"He is one of my good old friends, and lives on the Place Vendome, No.
+7."
+
+"Place Vendome, No. 7--I shall remember."
+
+"M. Agricola's father must go to him this evening, and, if he is not at
+home, wait for his coming in. He must ask to speak to him, as if from me,
+and send him this ring as a proof of what he says. Once with him, he must
+tell him all--the abduction of the girls, the name of the convent where
+they are confined, and my own detention as a lunatic in the asylum of Dr.
+Baleinier. Truth has an accent of its own, which M. de Montbron will
+recognize. He is a man of much experience and judgment, and possessed of
+great influence. He will immediately take the necessary steps, and
+to-morrow, or the day after, these poor orphans and myself will be
+restored to liberty--all thanks to you! But moments are precious; we
+might be discovered; make haste, dear child!"
+
+At the moment of drawing back, Adrienne said to Mother Bunch, with so
+sweet a smile and affectionate a tone, that it was impossible not to
+believe her sincere: "M. Agricola told me that I had a heart like yours.
+I now understand how honorable, how flattering those words were for me.
+Pray, give me your hand!" added Mdlle. de Cardoville, whose eyes were
+filling with tears; and, passing her beautiful hand through an opening in
+the fence, she offered it to the other. The words and the gesture of the
+fair patrician were full of so much real cordiality, that the sempstress,
+with no false shame, placed tremblingly her own poor thin hand in
+Adrienne's, while the latter, with a feeling of pious respect, lifted it
+spontaneously to her lips, and said: "Since I cannot embrace you as my
+sister, let me at least kiss this hand, ennobled by labor!"
+
+Suddenly, footsteps were heard in the garden of Dr. Baleinier; Adrienne
+withdrew abruptly, and disappeared behind some trees, saying: "Courage,
+memory, and hope!"
+
+All this had passed so rapidly that the young workwoman had no time to
+speak or move; tears, sweet tears, flowed abundantly down her pale
+cheeks. For a young lady, like Adrienne de Cardoville, to treat her as a
+sister, to kiss her hand, to tell her that she was proud to resemble her
+in heart--her, a poor creature, vegetating in the lowest abyss of
+misery--was to show a spirit of fraternal equality, divine, as the gospel
+words.
+
+There are words and impressions which make a noble soul forget years of
+suffering, and which, as by a sudden flash, reveal to it something of its
+own worth and grandeur. Thus it was with the hunchback. Thanks to this
+generous speech, she was for a moment conscious of her own value. And
+though this feeling was rapid as it was ineffable, she clasped her hands
+and raised her eyes to heaven with an expression of fervent gratitude;
+for, if the poor sempstress did not practise, to use the jargon of
+ultramontane cant, no one was more richly endowed with that deep
+religious sentiment, which is to mere dogmas what the immensity of the
+starry heaven is to the vaulted roof of a church.
+
+Five minutes after quitting Mdlle. de Cardoville, Mother Bunch, having
+left the garden without being perceived, reascended to the first story,
+and knocked gently at the door of the press-room. A sister came to open
+the door to her.
+
+"Is not Mdlle. Florine, with whom I came, still here, sister?" asked the
+needlewoman.
+
+"She could not wait for you any longer. No doubt, you have come from our
+mother the superior?"
+
+"Yes, yes, sister," answered the sempstress, casting down her eyes;
+"would you have the goodness to show me the way out?"
+
+"Come with me."
+
+The sewing-girl followed the nun, trembling at every step lest she should
+meet the superior, who would naturally have inquired the cause of her
+long stay in the convent.
+
+At length the inner gate closed upon Mother Bunch. Passing rapidly across
+the vast court-yard and approaching the porter's lodge, to ask him to let
+her out, she heard these words pronounced in a gruff voice: "It seems,
+old Jerome, that we are to be doubly on our guard to-night. Well, I shall
+put two extra balls in my gun. The superior says we are to make two
+rounds instead of one."
+
+"I want no gun, Nicholas," said the other voice; "I have my sharp scythe,
+a true gardener's weapon--and none the worse for that."
+
+Feeling an involuntary uneasiness at these words, which she had heard by
+mere chance, Mother Bunch approached the porter's lodge, and asked him to
+open the outer gate.
+
+"Where do you come from?" challenged the porter, leaning half way out of
+his lodge, with a double barrelled gun, which he was occupied in loading,
+in his hand, and at the same time examining the sempstress with a
+suspicious air.
+
+"I come from speaking to the superior," answered Mother Bunch timidly.
+
+"Is that true?" said Nicholas roughly. "You look like a sanctified
+scarecrow. Never mind. Make haste and cut!"
+
+The gate opened, and Mother Bunch went out. Hardly had she gone a few
+steps in the sweet, when, to her great surprise, she saw the dog Spoil
+sport run up to her, and his master, Dagobert, a little way behind him,
+arriving also with precipitation. She was hastening to meet the soldier,
+when a full, sonorous voice exclaimed from a little distance: "Oh my good
+sister!" which caused the girl to turn round. From the opposite side to
+that whence Dagobert was coming, she saw Agricola hurrying towards the
+spot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE ENCOUNTERS.
+
+At the sight of Dagobert and Agricola, Mother Bunch remained motionless
+with surprise, a few steps from the convent-gate. The soldier had not yet
+perceived the sempstress. He advanced rapidly, following the dog, who
+though lean, half-starved, rough-coated, and dirty, seemed to frisk with
+pleasure, as he turned his intelligent face towards his master, to whom
+he had gone back, after caressing Mother Bunch.
+
+"Yes, yes; I understand you, old fellow!" said the soldier, with emotion.
+"You are more faithful than I was; you did not leave the dear children
+for a minute. Yes, you followed them, and watched day and night, without
+food, at the door of the house to which they were taken--and, at length,
+weary of waiting to see them come forth, ran home to fetch me. Yes;
+whilst I was giving way to despair, like a furious madman, you were doing
+what I ought to have done--discovering their retreat. What does it all
+prove? Why, that beasts are better than men--which is well known. Well,
+at length I shall see them again. When I think that tomorrow is the 13th,
+and that without you, my did Spoil-sport, all would be lost--it makes me
+shudder. But I say, shall we soon be there? What a deserted quarter! and
+night coming on!"
+
+Dagobert had held this discourse to Spoil-sport, as he walked along
+following the good dog, who kept on at a rapid pace. Suddenly, seeing the
+faithful animal start aside with a bound, he raised his eyes, and
+perceived the dog frisking about the hunchback and Agricola, who had just
+met at a little distance from the convent-gate.
+
+"Mother Bunch?" exclaimed both father and son, as they approached the
+young workwoman, and looked at her with extreme surprise.
+
+"There is good hope, M. Dagobert," said she with inexpressible joy. "Rose
+and Blanche are found!" Then, turning towards the smith, she added,
+"There is good hope, Agricola: Mdlle. de Cardoville is not mad. I have
+just seen her."
+
+"She is not mad? what happiness!" exclaimed the smith.
+
+"The children!" cried Dagobert, trembling with emotion, as he took the
+work-girl's hands in his own. "You have seen them?"
+
+"Yes; just now--very sad--very unhappy--but I was not able to speak to
+them."
+
+"Oh!" said Dagobert, stopping as if suffocated by the news, and pressing
+his hands on his bosom; "I never thought that my old heart could beat
+so!--And yet, thanks to my dog, I almost expected what has taken place.
+Anyhow, I am quite dizzy with joy."
+
+"Well, father, it's a good day," said Agricola, looking gratefully at the
+girl.
+
+"Kiss me, my dear child!" added the soldier, as he pressed Mother Bunch
+affectionately in his arms; then, full of impatience, he added: "Come,
+let us go and fetch the children."
+
+"Ah, my good sister!" said Agricola, deeply moved; "you will restore
+peace, perhaps life, to my father--and Mdlle. de Cardoville--but how do
+you know?"
+
+"A mere chance. And how did you come here?"
+
+"Spoil-sport stops and barks," cried Dagobert, who had already made
+several steps in advance.
+
+Indeed the dog, who was as impatient as his master to see the orphans,
+and far better informed as to the place of their retreat, had posted
+himself at the convent gate, and was beginning to bark, to attract the
+attention of Dagobert. Understanding his dog, the latter said to the
+hunchback, as he pointed in that direction with his finger: "The children
+are there?"
+
+"Yes, M. Dagobert."
+
+"I was sure of it. Good dog!--Oh, yes! beasts are better than men--except
+you, my dear girl, who are better than either man or beast. But my poor
+children! I shall see them, I shall have them once more!"
+
+So saying, Dagobert, in spite of his age, began to run very fast towards
+Spoil-sport. "Agricola," cried Mother Bunch, "prevent thy father from
+knocking at that door. He would ruin all."
+
+In two strides, the smith had reached his father, just as the latter was
+raising his hand to the knocker. "Stop, father!" cried the smith, as he
+seized Dagobert by the arm.
+
+"What the devil is it now?"
+
+"Mother Bunch says that to knock would ruin all."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"She will explain it to you." Although not so nimble as Agricola, Mother
+Bunch soon came up, and said to the soldier: "M. Dagobert, do not let us
+remain before this gate. They might open it, and see us; and that would
+excite suspicion. Let us rather go away--"
+
+"Suspicion!" cried the veteran, much surprised, but without moving from
+the gate; "what suspicion?"
+
+"I conjure you, do not remain there!" said Mother Bunch, with so much
+earnestness, that Agricola joined her, and said to his father: "Since
+sister rashes it, father, she has some reason for it. The Boulevard de
+l'Hopital is a few steps from here; nobody passes that way; we can talk
+there without being interrupted."
+
+"Devil take me if I understand a word of all this!" cried Dagobert,
+without moving from his post. "The children are here, and I will fetch
+them away with me. It is an affair of ten minutes."
+
+"Do not think that, M. Dagobert," said Mother Bunch. "It is much more
+difficult than you imagine. But come! come!--I can hear them talk in the
+court-yard."
+
+In fact, the sound of voices was now distinctly audible. "Come father!"
+said Agricola, forcing away the soldier, almost in spite of himself.
+Spoil-sport, who appeared much astonished at these hesitations, barked
+two or three times without quitting his post, as if to protest against
+this humiliating retreat; but, being called by Dagobert, he hastened to
+rejoin the main body.
+
+It was now about five o'clock in the evening. A high wind swept thick
+masses of grayish, rainy cloud rapidly across the sky. The Boulevard de
+l'Hopital, which bordered on this portion of the convent-garden, was, as
+we before said, almost deserted. Dagobert, Agricola, and the serving girl
+could hold a private conference in this solitary place.
+
+The soldier did not disguise the extreme impatience that these delays
+occasioned in him. Hardly had they turned the corner of the street, when
+he said to Mother Bunch: "Come, my child, explain yourself. I am upon hot
+coals."
+
+"The house in which the daughters of Marshal Simon are confined is a
+convent, M. Dagobert."
+
+"A convent!" cried the soldier: "I might have suspected it." Then he
+added: "Well, what then? I will fetch them from a convent as soon as from
+any other place. Once is not always."
+
+"But, M. Dagobert, they are confined against their will and against
+yours. They will not give them up."
+
+"They will not give them up? Zounds! we will see about that." And he made
+a step towards the street.
+
+"Father," said Agricola, holding him back, "one moment's patience; let us
+hear all."
+
+"I will hear nothing. What! the children are there--two steps from me--I
+know it--and I shall not have them, either by fair means or foul? Oh!
+that would indeed be curious. Let me go."
+
+"Listen to me, I beseech you, M. Dagobert," said Mother Bunch, taking his
+hand: "there is another way to deliver these poor children. And that
+without violence--for violence, as Mdlle. de Cardoville told me, would
+ruin all."
+
+"If there is any other way--quick--let me know it!"
+
+"Here is a ring of Mdlle. de Cardoville's."
+
+"And who is this Mdlle. de Cardoville?"
+
+"Father," said Agricola, "it is the generous young lady, who offered to
+be my bail, and to whom I have very important matters to communicate."
+
+"Good, good," replied Dagobert; "we will talk of that presently. Well, my
+dear girl--this ring?"
+
+"You must take it directly, M. Dagobert, to the Count de Montbron, No. 7,
+Place Vendome. He appears to be a person of influence, and is a friend of
+Mdlle. de Cardoville's. This ring will prove that you come on her behalf,
+and you will tell him, that she is confined as a lunatic in the asylum
+next door to this convent, in which the daughters of Marshal Simon are
+detained against their will."
+
+"Well, well--what next?"
+
+"Then the Count de Montbron will take the proper steps with persons in
+authority, to restore both Mdlle. de Cardoville and the daughters of
+Marshal Simon to liberty--and perhaps, to-morrow, or the day after--"
+
+"To-morrow or the day after!" cried Dagobert; "perhaps?--It is to-day, on
+the instant, that I must have them. The day after to-morrow would be of
+much use! Thanks, my good girl, but keep your ring: I will manage my own
+business. Wait for me here, my boy."
+
+"What are you going to do, father?" cried Agricola, still holding back
+the soldier. "It is a convent, remember."
+
+"You are only a raw recruit; I have my theory of convents at my fingers'
+end. In Spain, I have put it in practice a hundred times. Here is what
+will happen. I knock; a portress opens the door to me; she asks me what I
+want, but I make no answer; she tries to stop me, but I pass on; once in
+the convent, I walk over it from top to bottom, calling my children with
+all my might."
+
+"But, M. Dagobert, the nuns?" said Mother Bunch, still trying to detain
+the soldier.
+
+"The nuns run after me, screaming like so many magpies. I know them. At
+Seville I fetched out an Andalusian girl, whom they were trying to keep
+by force. Well, I walk about the convent calling for Rose and Blanche.
+They hear me, and answer. If they are shut in, I take the first piece of
+furniture that comes to hand, and break open the door."
+
+"But, M. Dagobert--the nuns--the nuns?"
+
+"The nuns, with all their squalling, will not prevent my breaking open
+the door, seizing my children in my arms, and carrying them off. Should
+the outer door be shut, there will be a second smash--that's all. So,"
+added Dagobert, disengaging himself from the grasp, "wait for me here. In
+ten minutes I shall be back again. Go and get a hackney-coach ready, my
+boy."
+
+More calm than Dagobert, and, above all, better informed as to the
+provisions of the Penal Code, Agricola was alarmed at the consequences
+that might attend the veteran's strange mode of proceeding. So, throwing
+himself before him, he exclaimed: "One word more, I entreat you."
+
+"Zounds! make haste!"
+
+"If you attempt to enter the convent by force, you will ruin all."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"First of all, M. Dagobert," said Mother Bunch, "there are men in the
+convent. As I came out just now, I saw the porter loading his gun, and
+heard the gardener talking of his sharp scythe, and the rounds he was to
+make at night."
+
+"Much I care for a porter's gun and a gardener's scythe!"
+
+"Well, father; but listen to me a moment, I conjure you. Suppose you
+knock, and the door is opened--the porter will ask you what you want.'
+
+"I tell him that I wish to speak to the superior, and so walk into the
+convent."
+
+"But, M. Dagobert," said Mother Bunch, "when once you have crossed the
+court-yard, you reach a second door, with a wicket. A nun comes to it, to
+see who rings, and does not open the door till she knows the object of
+the visit."
+
+"I will tell her that I wish to see the lady superior."
+
+"Then, father, as you are not known in the convent, they will go and
+inform the superior."
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"She will come down."
+
+"What next?"
+
+"She will ask you what you want, M. Dagobert."
+
+"What I want?--the devil! my children!"
+
+"One minute's patience, father. You cannot doubt, from the precautions
+they have taken, that they wish to detain these young ladies against
+their will, and against yours."
+
+"Doubt! I am sure of it. To come to that point, they began by turning the
+head of my poor wife."
+
+"Then, father, the superior will reply to you that she does not know what
+you mean, and that the young ladies are not in the convent."
+
+"And I will reply to her, that they are in the convent witness--Mother
+Bunch and Spoil-sport."
+
+"The superior will answer, that she does not know you; that she has no
+explanations to give you; and will close the wicket."
+
+"Then I break it open--since one must come to that in the end--so leave
+me alone, I tell you! 'sblood! leave me alone!"
+
+"And, on this noise and violence, the porter will run and fetch the
+guard, and they will begin by arresting you."
+
+"And what will become of your poor children, then, M. Dagobert?" said
+Mother Bunch.
+
+Agricola's father had too much good sense not to feel the truth of these
+observations of the girl and his son; but he knew also, that, cost what
+it might, the orphans must be delivered before the morrow. The
+alternative was terrible--so terrible, that, pressing his two hands to
+his burning forehead, Dagobert sunk back upon a stone bench, as if struck
+down by the inexorable fatality of the dilemma.
+
+Agricola and the workwoman, deeply moved by this mute despair, exchanged
+a sad look. The smith, seating himself beside the soldier, said to him:
+"Do not be down-hearted, father. Remember what's been told you. By going
+with this ring of Mdlle. de Cardoville's to the influential gentleman she
+named, the young ladies may be free by to-morrow, or, at worst, by the
+day after."
+
+"Blood and thunder! you want to drive me mad!" exclaimed Dagobert,
+starting up from the bench, and looking at Mother Bunch and his son with
+so savage an expression that Agricola and the sempstress drew back, with
+an air of surprise and uneasiness.
+
+"Pardon me, my children!" said Dagobert, recovering himself after a long
+silence. "I am wrong to get in a passion, for we do not understand one
+another. What you say is true; and yet I am right to speak as I do.
+Listen to me. You are an honest man, Agricola; you an honest girl; what I
+tell you is meant for you alone. I have brought these children from the
+depths of Siberia--do you know why? That they may be to-morrow morning in
+the Rue Saint-Francois. If they are not there, I have failed to execute
+the last wish of their dying mother."
+
+"No. 3, Rue Saint Francois?" cried Agricola, interrupting his father.
+
+"Yes; how do you know the number?" said Dagobert.
+
+"Is not the date inscribed on a bronze medal?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dagobert, more end more surprised; "who told you?"
+
+"One instant, father!" exclaimed Agricola; "let me reflect. I think I
+guess it. Did you not tell me, my good sister, that Mdlle. de Cardoville
+was not mad?"
+
+"Not mad. They detain her in this asylum to prevent her communicating
+with any one. She believes herself, like the daughters of Marshal Simon,
+the victim of an odious machination."
+
+"No doubt of it," cried the smith. "I understand all now, Mdlle. de
+Cardoville has the same interest as the orphans to appear to-morrow at
+the Rue Saint-Francois. But she does not perhaps know it."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"One word more, my good girl. Did Mdlle. de Cardoville tell you that she
+had a powerful motive to obtain her freedom by to-morrow?"
+
+"No; for when she gave me this ring for the Count de Montbron, she said
+to me: 'By this means both I and Marshal Simon's daughters will be at
+liberty either to-morrow or the day after--'"
+
+"But explain yourself, then," said Dagobert to his son, with impatience.
+
+"Just now," replied the smith, "when you came to seek me in prison, I
+told you, father, that I had a sacred duty to perform, and that I would
+rejoin you at home."
+
+"Yes; and I went, on my side, to take some measures, of which I will
+speak to you presently."
+
+"I ran instantly to the house in the Rue de Babylone, not knowing that
+Mdlle. de Cardoville was mad, or passed for mad. A servant, who opened
+the door to me, informed me that the young lady had been seized with a
+sudden attack of madness. You may conceive, father, what a blow that was
+to me! I asked where she was: they answered, that they did not know. I
+asked if I could speak to any of the family; as my jacket did not inspire
+any great confidence, they replied that none of her family were at
+present there. I was in despair, but an idea occurred to me. I said to
+myself: 'If she is mad, her family physician must know where they have
+taken her; if she is in a state to hear me, he will take me to her; if
+not, I will speak to her doctor, as I would to her relations. A doctor is
+often a friend.' I asked the servant, therefore, to give me the doctor's
+address. I obtained it without difficulty--Dr. Baleinier, No. 12, Rue
+Taranne. I ran thither, but he had gone out; they told me that I should
+find him about five o'clock at his asylum, which is next door to the
+convent. That is how we have met."
+
+"But the medal--the medal?" said Dagobert, impatiently; "where did you
+see it?"
+
+"It is with regard to this and other things that I wished to make
+important communications to Mdlle. de Cardoville."
+
+"And what are these communications?"
+
+"The fact is, father, I had gone to her the day of your departure, to beg
+her to get me bail. I was followed; and when she learned this from her
+waiting-woman, she concealed me in a hiding-place. It was a sort of
+little vaulted room, in which no light was admitted, except through a
+tunnel, made like a chimney; yet in a few minutes, I could see pretty
+clearly. Having nothing better to do, I looked all about me and saw that
+the walls were covered with wainscoting. The entrance to this room was
+composed of a sliding panel, moving by means of weights and wheels
+admirably contrived. As these concern my trade, I was interested in them,
+so I examined the springs, spite of my emotion, with curiosity, and
+understood the nature of their play; but there was one brass knob, of
+which I could not discover the use. It was in vain to pull and move it
+from right to left, none of the springs were touched. I said to myself:
+'This knob, no doubt, belongs to another piece of mechanism'--and the
+idea occurred to me, instead of drawing it towards me, to push it with
+force. Directly after, I heard a grating sound, and perceived, just above
+the entrance to the hiding-place, one of the panels, about two feet
+square, fly open like the door of a secretary. As I had, no doubt, pushed
+the spring rather too hard, a bronze medal and chain fell out with a
+shock."
+
+"And you saw the address--Rue Saint-Francois?" cried Dagobert.
+
+"Yes, father; and with this medal, a sealed letter fell to the ground. On
+picking it up, I saw that it was addressed, in large letters: 'For Mdlle.
+de Cardoville. To be opened by her the moment it is delivered.' Under
+these words, I saw the initials 'R.' and 'C.,' accompanied by a flourish,
+and this date: 'Paris, November the 13th, 1830.' On the other side of the
+envelope I perceived two seals, with the letters 'R.' and 'C.,'
+surmounted by a coronet."
+
+"And the seals were unbroken?" asked Mother Bunch.
+
+"Perfectly whole."
+
+"No doubt, then, Mdlle. de Cardoville was ignorant of the existence of
+these papers," said the sempstress.
+
+"That was my first idea, since she was recommended to open the letter
+immediately, and, notwithstanding this recommendation, which bore date
+two years back, the seals remained untouched."
+
+"It is evident," said Dagobert. "What did you do?"
+
+"I replaced the whole where it was before, promising myself to inform
+Mdlle. de Cardoville of it. But, a few minutes after, they entered my
+hiding-place, which had been discovered, and I did not see her again. I
+was only able to whisper a few words of doubtful meaning to one of her
+waiting-women, on the subject of what I had found, hoping thereby to
+arouse the attention of her mistress; and, as soon as I was able to write
+to you, my good sister, I begged you to go and call upon Mdlle. de
+Cardoville."
+
+"But this medal," said Dagobert, "is exactly like that possessed by the
+daughter of Marshal Simon. How can you account for that?"
+
+"Nothing so plain, father. Mdlle. de Cardoville is their relation. I
+remember now, that she told me so."
+
+"A relation of Rose and Blanche?"
+
+"Yes," added Mother Bunch; "she told that also to me just now."
+
+"Well, then," resumed Dagobert, looking anxiously at his son, "do you now
+understand why I must have my children this very day? Do you now
+understand, as their poor mother told me on her death-bed, that one day's
+delay might ruin all? Do you now see that I cannot be satisfied with a
+perhaps to-morrow, when I have come all the way from Siberia, only, that
+those children might be to-morrow in the Rue Saint-Francois? Do you at
+last perceive that I must have them this night, even if I have to set
+fire to the convent?"
+
+"But, father, if you employ violence--"
+
+"Zounds! do you know what the commissary of police answered me this
+morning, when I went to renew my charge against your mother's confessor?
+He said to me that there was no proof, and that they could do nothing."
+
+"But now there is proof, father, for at least we know where the young
+girls are. With that certainty we shall be strong. The law is more
+powerful than all the superiors of convents in the world."
+
+"And the Count de Montbron, to whom Mdlle. de Cardoville begs you to
+apply," said Mother Bunch, "is a man of influence. Tell him the reasons
+that make it so important for these young ladies, as well as Mdlle. de
+Cardoville, to be at liberty this evening and he will certainly hasten
+the course of justice, and to-night your children will be restored to
+you."
+
+"Sister is in the right, father. Go to the Count. Meanwhile, I will run
+to the commissary, and tell him that we now know where the young girls
+are confined. Do you go home, and wait for us, my good girl. We will meet
+at our own house!"
+
+Dagobert had remained plunged in thought; suddenly, he said to Agricola:
+"Be it so. I will follow your counsel. But suppose the commissary says to
+you: 'We cannot act before to-morrow'--suppose the Count de Montbron says
+to me the same thing--do not think I shall stand with my arms folded
+until the morning."
+
+"But, father--"
+
+"It is enough," resumed the soldier in an abrupt voice: "I have made up
+my mind. Run to the commissary, my boy; wait for us at home, my good
+girl; I will go to the Count. Give me the ring. Now for the address!"
+
+"The Count de Montbron, No. 7, Place Vendome," said she; "you come on
+behalf of Mdlle. de Cardoville."
+
+"I have a good memory," answered the soldier. "We will meet as soon as
+possible in the Rue Brise-Miche."
+
+"Yes, father; have good courage. You will see that the law protects and
+defends honest people."
+
+"So much the better," said the soldier; "because, otherwise, honest
+people would be obliged to protect and defend themselves. Farewell, my
+children! we will meet soon in the Rue Brise-Miche."
+
+When Dagobert, Agricola, and Mother Bunch separated, it was already dark
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE MEETING.
+
+It is eight o'clock in the evening, the rain dashes against the windows
+of Frances Baudoin's apartment in the Rue Brise-Miche, while violent
+squalls of wind shake the badly dosed doors and casements. The disorder
+and confusion of this humble abode, usually kept with so much care and
+neatness, bore testimony to the serious nature of the sad events which
+had thus disturbed existences hitherto peaceful in their obscurity.
+
+The paved floor was soiled with mud, and a thick layer of dust covered
+the furniture, once so bright and clean. Since Frances was taken away by
+the commissary, the bed had not been made; at night Dagobert had thrown
+himself upon it for a few hours in his clothes, when, worn out with
+fatigue, and crushed by despair, he had returned from new and vain
+attempts to discover Rose and Blanche's prison-house. Upon the drawers
+stood a bottle, a glass, and some fragments of dry bread, proving the
+frugality of the soldier, whose means of subsistence were reduced to the
+money lent by the pawnbroker upon the things pledged by Mother Bunch,
+after the arrest of Frances.
+
+By the faint glimmer of a candle, placed upon the little stove, now cold
+as marble, for the stock of wood had long been exhausted, one might have
+seen the hunchback sleeping upon a chair, her head resting on her bosom,
+her hands concealed beneath her cotton apron, and her feet resting on the
+lowest rung of the chair; from time to time, she shivered in her damp,
+chill garments.
+
+After that long day of fatigue and diverse emotions, the poor creature
+had eaten nothing. Had she even thought of it, she would have been at a
+loss for bread. Waiting for the return of Dagobert and Agricola, she had
+sunk into an agitated sleep--very different, alas! from calm and
+refreshing slumber. From time to time, she half opened her eyes uneasily,
+and looked around her. Then, again, overcome by irresistible heaviness,
+her head fell upon her bosom.
+
+After some minutes of silence, only interrupted by the noise of the wind,
+a slow and heavy step was heard on the landing-place. The door opened,
+and Dagobert entered, followed by Spoil-sport.
+
+Waking with a start, Mother Bunch raised her head hastily, sprang from
+her chair, and, advancing rapidly to meet Agricola's father, said to him:
+"Well, M. Dagobert! have you good news? Have you--"
+
+She could not continue, she was so struck with the gloomy expression of
+the soldier's features. Absorbed in his reflections, he did not at first
+appear to perceive the speaker, but threw himself despondingly on a
+chair, rested his elbows upon the table, and hid his face in his hands.
+After a long meditation, he rose, and said in a low voice: "It must--yes,
+it must be done!"
+
+Taking a few steps up and down the room, Dagobert looked around him, as
+if in search of something. At length, after about a minute's examination,
+he perceived near the stove, a bar of iron, perhaps two feet long,
+serving to lift the covers, when too hot for the fingers. Taking this in
+his hand, he looked at it closely, poised it to judge of its weight, and
+then laid it down upon the drawers with an air of satisfaction. Surprised
+at the long silence of Dagobert, the needlewoman followed his movements
+with timid and uneasy curiosity. But soon her surprise gave way to
+fright, when she saw the soldier take down his knapsack, place it upon a
+chair, open it, and draw from it a pair of pocket-pistols, the locks of
+which he tried with the utmost caution.
+
+Seized with terror, the sempstress could not forbear exclaiming: "Good
+gracious, M. Dagobert! what are you going to do?"
+
+The soldier looked at her as if he only now perceived her for the first
+time, and said to her in a cordial, but abrupt voice: "Good-evening, my
+good girl! What is the time?"
+
+"Eight o'clock has just struck at Saint-Mery's, M. Dagobert."
+
+"Eight o'clock," said the soldier, speaking to himself; "only eight!"
+
+Placing the pistols by the side of the iron bar, he appeared again to
+reflect, while he cast his eyes around him.
+
+"M. Dagobert," ventured the girl, "you have not, then, good news?"
+
+"No."
+
+That single word was uttered by the soldier in so sharp a tone, that, not
+daring to question him further, Mother Bunch sat down in silence. Spoil
+sport came to lean his head on the knees of the girl, and followed the
+movements of Dagobert with as much curiosity as herself.
+
+After remaining for some moments pensive and silent, the soldier
+approached the bed, took a sheet from it, appeared to measure its length,
+and then said, turning towards Mother Bunch: "The scissors!"
+
+"But, M. Dagobert--"
+
+"Come, my good girl! the scissors!" replied Dagobert, in a kind tone, but
+one that commanded obedience. The sempstress took the scissors from
+Frances' work-basket, and presented them to the soldier.
+
+"Now, hold the other end of the sheet, my girl, and draw it out tight."
+
+In a few minutes, Dagobert had cut the sheet into four strips, which he
+twisted in the fashion of cords, fastening them here and there with bits
+of tape, so as to preserve the twist, and tying them strongly together,
+so as to make a rope of about twenty feet long. This, however, did not
+suffice him, for he said to himself: "Now I must have a hook."
+
+Again he looked around him, and Mother Bunch, more and more frightened,
+for she now no longer doubted Dagobert's designs, said to him timidly:
+"M. Dagobert, Agricola has not yet come in. It may be some good news that
+makes him so late."
+
+"Yes," said the soldier, bitterly, as he continued to cast round his eyes
+in search of something he wanted; "good news like mine! But I must have a
+strong iron hook."
+
+Still looking about, he found one of the coarse, gray sacks, that Frances
+was accustomed to make. He took it, opened it, and said to the work girl:
+"Put me the iron bar and the cord into this bag, my girl. It will be
+easier to carry."
+
+"Heavens!" cried she, obeying his directions; "you will not go without
+seeing Agricola, M. Dagobert? He may perhaps have some good news to tell
+you."
+
+"Be satisfied! I shall wait for my boy. I need not start before ten
+o'clock--so I have time."
+
+"Alas, M. Dagobert! have you last all hope?"
+
+"On the contrary. I have good hope--but in myself."
+
+So saying, Dagobert twisted the upper end of the sack, for the purpose of
+closing it, and placed it on the drawers, by the side of his pistols.
+
+"At all events, you will wait for Agricola, M. Dagobert?"
+
+"Yes, if he arrives before ten o'clock."
+
+"Alas; you have then quite made up your mind?"
+
+"Quite. And yet, if I were weak enough to believe in bad omens--"
+
+"Sometimes, M. Dagobert, omens do not deceive one," said the girl, hoping
+to induce the soldier to abandon his dangerous resolution.
+
+"Yes," resumed Dagobert; "old women say so--and, although I am not an old
+woman, what I saw just now weighed heavily on my heart. After all, I may
+have taken a feeling of anger for a presentiment."
+
+"What have you seen?"
+
+"I will tell it you, my good girl; it may help to pass the time, which
+appears long enough." Then, interrupting himself, he exclaimed: "Was it
+the half hour that just struck?"
+
+"Yes, M. Dagobert; it is half-past eight."
+
+"Still an hour and a half," said Dagobert, in a hollow voice. "This," he
+added, "is what I saw. As I came along the street, my notice was
+attracted by a large red placard, at the head of which was a black
+panther devouring a white horse. That sight gave me a turn, for you must
+know, my good girl, that a black panther destroyed a poor old white horse
+that I had, Spoil-sport's companion, whose name was Jovial."
+
+At the sound of this name, once so familiar, Spoil-sport, who was
+crouching at the workwoman's feet, raised his head hastily, and looked at
+Dagobert.
+
+"You see that beasts have memory--he recollects," said the soldier,
+sighing himself at the remembrance. Then, addressing his dog he added:
+"Dost remember Jovial?"
+
+On hearing this name a second time pronounced by his master, in a voice
+of emotion, Spoil-sport gave a low whine, as if to indicate that he had
+not forgotten his old travelling companion.
+
+"It was, indeed, a melancholy incident, M. Dagobert," said Mother Bunch,
+"to find upon this placard a panther devouring a horse."
+
+"That is nothing to what's to come; you shall hear the rest. I drew near
+the bill, and read in it, that one Morok, just arrived from Germany, is
+about to exhibit in a theatre different wild beasts that he tamed, among
+others a splendid lion, a tiger, and a black Java panther named Death."
+
+"What an awful name!" said the hearer.
+
+"You will think it more awful, my child, when I tell you, that this is
+the very panther which strangled my horse at Leipsic, four months ago."
+
+"Good Heaven! you are right, M. Dagobert," said the girl, "it is awful."
+
+"Wait a little," said Dagobert, whose countenance was growing more and
+more gloomy, "that is not all. It was by means of this very Morok, the
+owner of the panther, that I and my poor children were imprisoned in
+Leipsic."
+
+"And this wicked man is in Paris, and wishes you evil?" said Mother
+Bunch. "Oh! you are right, M. Dagobert; you must take care of yourself;
+it is a bad omen."
+
+"For him, if I catch him," said Dagobert, in a hollow tone. "We have old
+accounts to settle."
+
+"M. Dagobert," cried Mother Bunch, listening; "some one is running up the
+stairs. It is Agricola's footsteps. I am sure he has good news."
+
+"That will just do," said the soldier, hastily, without answering.
+"Agricola is a smith. He will be able to find me the iron hook."
+
+A few moments after, Agricola entered the room; but, alas! the sempstress
+perceived at the first glance, in the dejected countenance of the
+workman, the ruin of her cherished hopes.
+
+"Well!" said Dagobert to his son, in a tone which clearly announced the
+little faith he attached to the steps taken by Agricola; "well, what
+news?"
+
+"Father, it is enough to drive one mad--to make one dash one's brains out
+against the wall!" cried the smith in a rage.
+
+Dagobert turned towards Mother Bunch, and said: "You see, my poor
+child--I was sure of it."
+
+"Well, father," cried Agricola; "have you seen the Court de Montbron?"
+
+"The Count de Montbron set out for Lorraine three days ago. That is my
+good news," continued the soldier, with bitter irony; "let us have
+yours--I long to know all. I need to know, if, on appealing to the laws,
+which, as you told me, protect and defend honest people, it ever happens
+that the rogues get the best of it. I want to know this, and then I want
+an iron hook--so I count upon you for both."
+
+"What do you mean, father?"
+
+"First, tell me what you have done. We have time. It is not much more
+than half-past eight. On leaving me, where did you go first?"
+
+"To the commissary, who had already received your depositions."
+
+"What did he say to you?"
+
+"After having very kindly listened to all I had to state, he answered,
+that these young girls were placed in a respectable house, a convent--so
+that there did not appear any urgent necessity for their immediate
+removal--and besides, he could not take upon himself to violate the
+sanctity of a religious dwelling upon your simple testimony; to-morrow,
+he will make his report to the proper authorities, and steps will be
+taken accordingly."
+
+"Yes, yes--plenty of put offs," said the soldier.
+
+"'But, sir,' answered I to him," resumed Agricola, "'it is now, this very
+night, that you ought to act, for if these young girls should not be
+present to-morrow morning in the Rue Saint Francois, their interests may
+suffer incalculable damage. 'I am very sorry for it,' replied he, 'but I
+cannot, upon your simple declaration, or that of your father, who--like
+yourself--is no relation or connection of these young persons, act in
+direct opposition to forms, which could not be set aside, even on the
+demand of a family. The law has its delays and its formalities, to which
+we are obliged to submit.'"
+
+"Certainly!" said Dagobert. "We must submit to them, at the risk of
+becoming cowardly, ungrateful traitors!"
+
+"Didst speak also of Mdlle. de Cardoville to him?" asked the work-girl.
+
+"Yes--but he: answered me on this subject in much the same manner: 'It
+was very serious; there was no proof in support of my deposition. A third
+party had told me that Mdlle. de Cardoville affirms she was not mad; but
+all mad people pretend to be sane. He could not, therefore, upon my sole
+testimony, take upon himself to enter the house of a respectable
+physician. But he would report upon it, and the law would have its
+course--'"
+
+"When I wished to act just now for myself," said Dagobert, "did I not
+forsee all this? And yet I was weak enough to listen to you."
+
+"But, father, what you wished to attempt was impossible, and you agreed
+that it would expose you to far too dangerous consequences."
+
+"So," resumed the soldier, without answering his son, "they told you in
+plain terms, that we must not think of obtaining legally the release of
+Rose and Blanche this evening or even to-morrow morning?"
+
+"Yes, father. In the eyes of the law, there is no special urgency. The
+question may not be decided for two or three days."
+
+"That is all I wished to know," said Dagobert, rising and walking up and
+down the room.
+
+"And yet," resumed his son, "I did not consider myself beaten. In
+despair, but believing that justice could not remain deaf to such
+equitable claims, I ran to the Palais de Justice, hoping to find there a
+judge, a magistrate who would receive my complaint, and act upon it."
+
+"Well?" said the soldier, stopping him.
+
+"I was told that the courts shut every day at five o'clock, and do not
+open again til ten in the morning. Thinking of your despair, and of the
+position of poor Mdlle. de Cardoville, I determined to make one more
+attempt. I entered a guard-house of troops of the line, commanded by a
+lieutenant. I told him all. He saw that I was so much moved, and I
+spoke with such warmth and conviction, that he became interested.
+--'Lieutenant,' said I to him, 'grant me one favor; let a petty officer
+and two soldiers go to the convent to obtain a legal entrance. Let them
+ask to see the daughters of Marshal Simon, and learn whether it is their
+choice to remain, or return to my father, who brought them from Russia.
+You will then see if they are not detained against their will--'"
+
+"And what answer did he give you, Agricola?" asked Mother Bunch, while
+Dagobert shrugged his shoulders, and continued to walk up and down.
+
+"'My good fellow,' said he, 'what you ask me is impossible. I understand
+your motives, but I cannot take upon myself so serious a measure. I
+should be broke were I to enter a convent by force.--'Then, sir, what am
+I to do? It is enough to turn one's head.'--'Faith, I don't know,' said
+the lieutenant; 'it will be safest, I think, to wait.'--Then, believing I
+had done all that was possible, father, I resolved to come back, in the
+hope that you might have been more fortunate than I--but, alas! I was
+deceived!"
+
+So saying, the smith sank upon a chair, for he was worn out with anxiety
+and fatigue. There was a moment of profound silence after these words of
+Agricola, which destroyed the last hopes of the three, mute and crushed
+beneath the strokes of inexorable fatality.
+
+A new incident came to deepen the sad and painful character of this
+scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+DISCOVERIES.
+
+The door which Agricola had not thought of fastening opened, as it were,
+timidly, and Frances Baudoin, Dagobert's wife, pale, sinking, hardly able
+to support herself, appeared on the threshold.
+
+The soldier, Agricola, and Mother Bunch, were plunged in such deep
+dejection, that neither of them at first perceived the entrance. Frances
+advanced two steps into the room, fell upon her knees, clasped her hands
+together, and said in a weak and humble voice; "My poor husband--pardon!"
+
+At these words, Agricola and the work-girl--whose backs were towards the
+door--turned round suddenly, and Dagobert hastily raised his head.
+
+"My mother!" cried Agricola, running to Frances.
+
+"My wife!" cried Dagobert, as he also rose, and advanced to meet the
+unfortunate woman.
+
+"On your knees, dear mother!" said Agricola, stooping down to embrace her
+affectionately. "Get up, I entreat you!"
+
+"No, my child," said Frances, in her mild, firm accents, "I will not
+rise, till your father has forgiven me. I have wronged him much--now I
+know it."
+
+"Forgive you, my poor wife?" said the soldier, as he drew near with
+emotion. "Have I ever accused you, except in my first transport of
+despair? No, no; it was the bad priests that I accused, and there I was
+right. Well! I have you again," added he, assisting his son to raise
+Frances; "one grief the less. They have then restored you to liberty?
+Yesterday, I could not even learn in what prison they had put you. I have
+so many cares that I could not think of you only. But come, dear wife:
+sit down!"
+
+"How feeble you are, dear mother!--how cold--how pale!" said Agricola
+with anguish, his eyes filling with tears.
+
+"Why did you not let us know?" added he. "We would have gone to fetch
+you. But how you tremble! Your hands are frozen!" continued the smith, as
+he knelt down before Frances. Then, turning towards Mother Bunch: "Pray,
+make a little fire directly."
+
+"I thought of it, as soon as your father came in, Agricola, but there is
+no wood nor charcoal left."
+
+"Then pray borrow some of Father Loriot, my dear sister. He is too good a
+fellow to refuse. My poor mother trembles so--she might fall ill."
+
+Hardly had he said the words, than Mother Bunch went out. The smith rose
+from the ground, took the blanket from the bed, and carefully wrapped it
+about the knees and feet of his mother. Then, again kneeling down, he
+said to her: "Your hands, dear mother!" and, taking those feeble palms in
+his own, he tried to warm them with his breath.
+
+Nothing could be more touching than this picture: the robust young man,
+with his energetic and resolute countenance, expressing by his looks the
+greatest tenderness, and paying the most delicate attentions to his poor,
+pale, trembling old mother.
+
+Dagobert, kind-hearted as his son, went to fetch a pillow, and brought it
+to his wife, saying: "Lean forward a little, and I will put this pillow
+behind you; you will be more comfortable and warmer."
+
+"How you both spoil me!" said Frances, trying to smile. "And you to be so
+kind, after all the ill I have done!" added she to Dagobert, as,
+disengaging one of her hands from those of her son, she took the
+soldier's hand and pressed it to her tearful eyes. "In prison," said she
+in a low voice, "I had time to repent."
+
+Agricola's heart was near breaking at the thought that his pious and good
+mother, with her angelic purity, should for a moment have been confined
+in prison with so many miserable creatures. He would have made some
+attempt to console her on the subject of the painful past, but he feared
+to give a new shock to Dagobert, and was silent.
+
+"Where is Gabriel, dear mother?" inquired he. "How is he? As you have
+seen him, tell us all about him."
+
+"I have seen Gabriel," said Frances, drying her tears; "he is confined at
+home. His superiors have rigorously forbidden his going out. Luckily,
+they did not prevent his receiving me, for his words and counsels have
+opened my eyes to many things. It is from him that I learned how guilty I
+had been to you, my poor husband."
+
+"How so?" asked Dagobert.
+
+"Why, you know that if I caused you so much grief, it was not from
+wickedness. When I saw you in such despair, I suffered almost as much
+myself; but I durst not tell you so, for fear of breaking my oath. I had
+resolved to keep it, believing that I did well, believing that it was my
+duty. And yet something told me that it could not be my duty to cause you
+so much pain. 'Alas, my God! enlighten me!' I exclaimed in my prison, as
+I knelt down and prayed, in spite of the mockeries of the other women.
+'Why should a just and pious work, commanded by my confessor, the most
+respectable of men, overwhelm me and mine with so much misery? 'Have
+mercy on me, my God, and teach me if I have done wrong without knowing
+it!' As I prayed with fervor, God heard me, and inspired me with the idea
+of applying to Gabriel. 'I thank Thee, Father! I will obey!' said I
+within myself. 'Gabriel is like my own child; but he is also a priest, a
+martyr--almost a saint. If any one in the world imitates the charity of
+our blessed Saviour, it is surely he. When I leave this prison, I will go
+and consult him and he will clear up my doubts.'"
+
+"You are right, dear mother," cried Agricola; "it was a thought from
+heaven. Gabriel is an angel of purity, courage, nobleness--the type of
+the true and good priest!"
+
+"Ah, poor wife!" said Dagobert, with bitterness; "if you had never had
+any confessor but Gabriel!"
+
+"I thought of it before he went on his journey," said Frances, with
+simplicity. "I should have liked to confess to the dear boy--but I
+fancied Abbe Dubois would be offended, and that Gabriel would be too
+indulgent with regard to my sins.
+
+"Your sins, poor dear mother?" said Agricola. "As if you ever committed
+any!"
+
+"And what did Gabriel tell you?" asked the soldier.
+
+"Alas, my dear! had I but had such an interview with him sooner! What I
+told him of Abbe Dubois roused his suspicions, and he questioned me, dear
+child, as to many things of which he had never spoken to me before. Then
+I opened to him my whole heart, and he did the same to me, and we both
+made sad discoveries with regard to persons whom we had always thought
+very respectable, and who yet had deceived each of us, unknown to the
+other."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, they used to tell him, under the seal of secrecy, things that were
+supposed to come from me; and they used to tell me, under the same seal
+of secrecy, things that were supposed to come from him. Thus, he
+confessed to me, that he did not feel at first any vocation for the
+priesthood; but they told him that I should not believe myself safe in
+this world or in the next, if he did not take orders, because I felt
+persuaded that I could best serve the Lord by giving Him so good a
+servant; and that yet I had never dared to ask Gabriel himself to give me
+this proof of his attachment, though I had taken him from the street, a
+deserted orphan, and brought him up as my own son, at the cost of labor
+and privations. Then, how could it be otherwise? The poor dear child,
+thinking he could please me, sacrificed himself. He entered the
+seminary."
+
+"Horrible," said Agricola; "'tis an infamous snare, and, for the priests
+who were guilty of it, a sacrilegious lie!"
+
+"During all that time," resumed Frances, "they were holding very
+different language to me. I was told that Gabriel felt his vocation, but
+that he durst not avow it to me, for fear of my being jealous on account
+of Agricola, who, being brought up as a workman, would not enjoy the same
+advantages as those which the priesthood would secure to Gabriel. So when
+he asked my permission to enter the seminary dear child! he entered it
+with regret, but he thought he was making me so happy!--instead of
+discouraging this idea, I did all in my power to persuade him to follow
+it, assuring him that he could not do better, and that it would occasion
+me great joy. You understand, I exaggerated, for fear he should think me
+jealous on account of Agricola."
+
+"What an odious machination!" said Agricola, in amazement. "They were
+speculating in this unworthy manner upon your mutual devotion. Thus
+Gabriel saw the expression of your dearest wish in the almost forced
+encouragement given to his resolution."
+
+"Little by little, however, as Gabriel has the best heart in the world,
+the vocation really came to him. That was natural enough--he was born to
+console those who suffer, and devote himself for the unfortunate. He
+would never have spoken to me of the past, had it not been for this
+morning's interview. But then I beheld him, who is usually so mild and
+gentle, become indignant, exasperated, against M. Rodin and another
+person whom he accuses. He had serious complaints against them already,
+but these discoveries, he says, will make up the measure."
+
+At these words of Frances, Dagobert pressed his hand to his forehead, as
+if to recall something to his memory. For some minutes he had listened
+with surprise, and almost terror, to the account of these secret plots,
+conducted with such deep and crafty dissimulation.
+
+Frances continued: "When at last I acknowledged to Gabriel, that by the
+advice of Abbe Dubois, my confessor, I had delivered to a stranger the
+children confined to my husband--General Simon's daughters--the dear boy
+blamed me, though with great regret, not for having wished to instruct
+the poor orphans in the truths of our holy religion, but for having acted
+without the consent of my husband, who alone was answerable before God
+and man for the charge entrusted to him. Gabriel severely censured Abbe
+Dubois' conduct, who had given me, he said, bad and perfidious counsels;
+and then, with the sweetness of an angel, the dear boy consoled me, and
+exhorted me to come and tell you all. My poor husband! he would fain have
+accompanied me, for I had scarcely courage to come hither, so strongly
+did I feel the wrong I had done you; but, unfortunately, Gabriel is
+confined at the seminary by the strict order of his superiors; he could
+not come with me, and--"
+
+Here Dagobert, who seemed much agitated, abruptly interrupted his wife.
+"One word, Frances," said he; "for, in truth, in the midst of so many
+cares, and black, diabolical plots, one loses one's memory, and the head
+begins to wander. Didst not tell me, the day the children disappeared,
+that Gabriel, when taken in by you, had round his neck a bronze medal,
+and in his pocket a book filled with papers in a foreign language?"
+
+"Yes, my dear."
+
+"And this medal and these papers were afterwards delivered to your
+confessor?"
+
+"Yes, my dear."
+
+"And Gabriel never spoke of them since?"
+
+"Never."
+
+Agricola, hearing this from his mother, looked at her with surprise, and
+exclaimed: "Then Gabriel has the same interest as the daughters of
+General Simon, or Mdlle. de Cardoville, to be in the Rue Saint-Francois
+to-morrow?"
+
+"Certainly," said Dagobert. "And now do you remember what he said to us,
+just after my arrival--that, in a few days, he would need our support in
+a serious matter?"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"And he is kept a prisoner at his seminary! And he tells your mother that
+he has to complain of his superiors! and he asked us for our support with
+so sad and grave an air, that I said to him--"
+
+"He would speak so, if about to engage in a deadly duel," interrupted
+Agricola. "True, father! and yet you, who are a good judge of valor,
+acknowledged that Gabriel's courage was equal to yours. For him so to
+fear his superiors, the danger must be great indeed."
+
+"Now that I have heard your mother, I understand it all," said Dagobert.
+"Gabriel is like Rose and Blanche, like Mdlle. de Cardoville, like your
+mother, like all of us, perhaps--the victim of a secret conspiracy of
+wicked priests. Now that I know their dark machinations, their infernal
+perseverance, I see," added the soldier, in a whisper, "that it requires
+strength to struggle against them. I had not the least idea of their
+power."
+
+"You are right, father; for those who are hypocritical and wicked do as
+much harm as those who are good and charitable, like Gabriel, do good.
+There is no more implacable enemy than a bad priest."
+
+"I know it, and that's what frightens me; for my poor children are in
+their hands. But is all lost? Shall I bring myself to give them up
+without an effort? Oh, no, no! I will not show any weakness--and yet,
+since your mother told us of these diabolical plots, I do not know how it
+is but I seem less strong, less resolute. What is passing around me
+appears so terrible. The spiriting away of these children is no longer an
+isolated fact--it is one of the ramifications of a vast conspiracy, which
+surrounds and threatens us all. It seems to me as if I and those I love
+walked together in darkness, in the midst of serpents, in the midst of
+snares that we can neither see nor struggle against. Well! I'll speak
+out! I have never feared death--I am not a coward and yet I confess--yes,
+I confess it--these black robes frighten me--"
+
+Dagobert pronounced these words in so sincere a tone, that his son
+started, for he shared the same impression. And it was quite natural.
+Frank, energetic, resolute characters, accustomed to act and fight in the
+light of day, never feel but one fear--and that is, to be ensnared and
+struck in the dark by enemies that escape their grasp. Thus, Dagobert had
+encountered death twenty times; and yet, on hearing his wife's simple
+revelation of this dark tissue of lies, and treachery, and crime, the
+soldier felt a vague sense of fear; and, though nothing was changed in
+the conditions of his nocturnal enterprise against the convent, it now
+appeared to him in a darker and more dangerous light.
+
+The silence, which had reigned for some moments, was interrupted by
+Mother Bunch's return. The latter, knowing that the interview between
+Dagobert, his wife, and Agricola, ought not have any importunate witness,
+knocked lightly at the door, and remained in the passage with Father
+Loriot.
+
+"Can we come in, Mme. Frances?" asked the sempstress. "Here is Father
+Loriot, bringing some wood."
+
+"Yes, yes; come in, my good girl," said Agricola, whilst his father wiped
+the cold sweat from his forehead.
+
+The door opened, and the worthy dyer appeared, with his hands and arms of
+an amaranthine color; on one side, he carried a basket of wood, and on
+the other some live coal in a shovel.
+
+"Good-evening to the company!" said Daddy Loriot. "Thank you for having
+thought of me, Mme. Frances. You know that my shop and everything in it
+are at your service. Neighbors should help one another; that's my motto!
+You were kind enough, I should think, to my late wife!"
+
+Then, placing the wood in a corner, and giving the shovel to Agricola,
+the worthy dyer, guessing from the sorrowful appearance of the different
+actors in this scene, that it would be impolite to prolong his visit,
+added: "You don't want anything else, Mme. Frances?"
+
+"No, thank you, Father Loriot."
+
+"Then, good-evening to the company!" said the dyer; and, addressing
+Mother Bunch, he added: "Don't forget the letter for M. Dagobert. I
+durstn't touch it for fear of leaving the marks of my four fingers and
+thumb in amaranthine! But, good evening to the company!" and Father
+Loriot went out.
+
+"M. Dagobert, here is a letter," said Mother Bunch. She set herself to
+light the fire in the stove, while Agricola drew his mother's arm-chair
+to the hearth.
+
+"See what it is, my boy," said Dagobert to his son; "my head is so heavy
+that I cannot see clear." Agricola took the letter, which contained only
+a few lines, and read it before he looked at the signature.
+
+     "At Sea, December 25th, 1831.
+
+     "I avail myself of a few minutes' communication with a ship bound
+     direct for Europe, to write to you, my old comrade, a few hasty
+     lines, which will reach you probably by way of Havre, before the
+     arrival of my last letters from India. You must by this time be at
+     Paris, with my wife and child--tell them--I am unable to say more
+     --the boat is departing. Only one word; I shall soon be in France.
+     Do not forget the 13th February; the future of my wife and child
+     depends upon it.
+
+     "Adieu, my friend! Believe in my eternal gratitude.
+
+     "SIMON."
+
+"Agricola--quick! look to your father!" cried the hunchback.
+
+From the first words of this letter, which present circumstances made so
+cruelly applicable, Dagobert had become deadly pale. Emotion, fatigue,
+exhaustion, joined to this last blow, made him stagger.
+
+His son hastened to him, and supported him in his arms. But soon the
+momentary weakness passed away, and Dagobert, drawing his hand across his
+brow, raised his tall figure to its full height. Then, whilst his eye
+sparkled, his rough countenance took an expression of determined
+resolution, and he exclaimed, in wild excitement: "No, no! I will not be
+a traitor; I will not be a coward. The black robes shall not frighten me;
+and, this night, Rose and Blanche Simon shall be free!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE PENAL CODE.
+
+Startled for a moment by the dark and secret machinations of the black
+robes, as he called them, against the persons he most loved, Dagobert
+might have hesitated an instant to attempt the deliverance of Rose and
+Blanche; but his indecision ceased directly on the reading of Marshal
+Simon's letter, which came so timely to remind him of his sacred duties.
+
+To the soldier's passing dejection had succeeded a resolution full of
+calm and collected energy.
+
+"Agricola, what o'clock is it?" asked he of his son.
+
+"Just struck nine, father."
+
+"You must make me, directly, an iron hook--strong enough to support my
+weight, and wide enough to hold on the coping of a wall. This stove will
+be forge and anvil; you will find a hammer in the house; and, for iron,"
+said the soldier, hesitating, and looking around him, "as for iron--here
+is some!"
+
+So saying, the soldier took from the hearth a strong pair of tongs, and
+presented them to his son, adding: "Come, my boy! blow up the fire, blow
+it to a white heat, and forge me this iron!"
+
+On these words, Frances and Agricola looked at each other with surprise;
+the smith remained mute and confounded, not knowing the resolution of his
+father, and the preparations he had already commenced with the
+needlewoman's aid.
+
+"Don't you hear me, Agricola," repeated Dagobert, still holding the pair
+of tongs in his hand; "you must make me a hook directly."
+
+"A hook, father?--for what purpose?"
+
+"To tie to the end of a cord that I have here. There must be a loop at
+one end large enough to fix it securely."
+
+"But this cord--this hook--for what purpose are they?"
+
+"To scale the walls of the convent, if I cannot get in by the door."
+
+"What convent?" asked Frances of her son.
+
+"How, father?" cried the latter, rising abruptly. "You still think of
+that?"
+
+"Why! what else should I think of?"
+
+"But, father, it is impossible; you will never attempt such an
+enterprise."
+
+"What is it, my child?" asked Frances, with anxiety. "Where is father
+going?"
+
+"He is going to break into the convent where Marshal Simon's daughters
+are confined, and carry them off."
+
+"Great God! my poor husband--a sacrilege!" cried Frances, faithful to her
+pious traditions, and, clasping her hands together, she endeavored to
+rise and approach Dagobert.
+
+The soldier, forseeing that he would have to contend with observations
+and prayers of all sorts, and resolved not to yield, determined to cut
+short all useless supplications, which would only make him lose precious
+time. He said, therefore, with a grave, severe, and almost solemn air,
+which showed the inflexibility of his determination: "Listen to me,
+wife--and you also, my son--when, at my age, a man makes up his mind to
+do anything, he knows the reason why. And when a man has once made up his
+mind, neither wife nor child can alter it. I have resolved to do my duty;
+so spare yourselves useless words. It may be your duty to talk to me as
+you have done; but it is over now, and we will say no more about it. This
+evening I must be master in my own house."
+
+Timid and alarmed, Frances did not dare to utter a word, but she turned a
+supplicating glance towards her son.
+
+"Father," said the latter, "one word more--only one."
+
+"Let us hear," replied Dagobert, impatiently.
+
+"I will not combat your resolution; but I will prove to you that you do
+not know to what you expose yourself."
+
+"I know it all," replied the soldier, in an abrupt tone. "The undertaking
+is a serious one; but it shall not be said that I neglected any means to
+accomplish what I promised to do."
+
+"But father, you do not know to what danger you expose yourself," said
+the smith, much alarmed.
+
+"Talk of danger! talk of the porter's gun and the gardener's scythe!"
+said Dagobert, shrugging his shoulders contemptuously. "Talk of them, and
+have done with it for, after all, suppose I were to leave my carcass in
+the convent, would not you remain to your mother? For twenty years, you
+were accustomed to do without me. It will be all the less trying to you."
+
+"And I, alas! am the cause of these misfortunes!" cried the poor mother.
+"Ah! Gabriel had good reason to blame me."
+
+"Mme. Frances, be comforted," whispered the sempstress, who had drawn
+near to Dagobert's wife. "Agricola will not suffer his father to expose
+himself thus."
+
+After a moment's hesitation, the smith resumed, in an agitated voice: "I
+know you too well, father, to think of stopping you by the fear of
+death."
+
+"Of what danger, then, do you speak?"
+
+"Of a danger from which even you will shrink, brave as you are," said the
+young man, in a voice of emotion, that forcibly struck his father.
+
+"Agricola," said the soldier, roughly and severely, "that remark is
+cowardly, you are insulting."
+
+"Father--"
+
+"Cowardly!" resumed the soldier, angrily; "because it is cowardice to wish
+to frighten a man from his duty--insulting! because you think me capable
+of being so frightened."
+
+"Oh, M. Dagobert!" exclaimed the sewing-girl, "you do not understand
+Agricola."
+
+"I understand him too well," answered the soldier harshly.
+
+Painfully affected by the severity of his father, but firm in his
+resolution, which sprang from love and respect, Agricola resumed, whilst
+his heart beat violently. "Forgive me, if I disobey you, father; but,
+were you to hate me for it, I must tell you to what you expose yourself
+by scaling at night the walls of a convent--"
+
+"My son! do you dare?" cried Dagobert, his countenance inflamed with
+rage-"Agricola!" exclaimed Frances, in tears. "My husband!"
+
+"M. Dagobert, listen to Agricola!" exclaimed Mother Bunch. "It is only in
+your interest that he speaks."
+
+"Not one word more!" replied the soldier, stamping his foot with anger.
+
+"I tell you, father," exclaimed the smith, growing fearfully pale as he
+spoke, "that you risk being sent to the galleys!"
+
+"Unhappy boy!" cried Dagobert, seizing his son by the arm; "could you not
+keep that from me--rather than expose me to become a traitor and a
+coward?" And the soldier shuddered, as he repeated: "The galleys!"--and,
+bending down his head, remained mute, pensive, withered, as it were, by
+those blasting words.
+
+"Yes, to enter an inhabited place by night, in such a manner, is what the
+law calls burglary, and punishes with the galleys," cried Agricola, at
+once grieved and rejoicing at his father's depression of mind--"yes,
+father, the galleys, if you are taken in the act; and there are ten
+chances to one that you would be so. Mother Bunch has told you, the
+convent is guarded. This morning, had you attempted to carry off the two
+young ladies in broad daylight, you would have been arrested; but, at
+least, the attempt would have been an open one, with a character of
+honest audacity about it, that hereafter might have procured your
+acquittal. But to enter by night, and by scaling the walls--I tell you,
+the galleys would be the consequence. Now, father, decide. Whatever you
+do, I will do also--for you shall not go alone. Say but the word, and I
+will forge the hook for you--I have here hammer and pincers--and in an
+hour we will set out."
+
+A profound silence followed these words--a silence that was only
+interrupted by the stifled sobs of Frances, who muttered to herself in
+despair: "Alas! this is the consequence of listening to Abbe Dubois!"
+
+It was in vain that Mother Bunch tried to console Frances. She was
+herself alarmed, for the soldier was capable of braving even infamy, and
+Agricola had determined to share the perils of his father.
+
+In spite of his energetic and resolute character, Dagobert remained for
+some time in a kind of stupor. According to his military habits, he had
+looked at this nocturnal enterprise only as a ruse de guerre, authorized
+by his good cause, and by the inexorable fatality of his position; but
+the words of his son brought him back to the fearful reality, and left
+him the choice of a terrible alternative--either to betray the confidence
+of Marshal Simon, and set at naught the last wishes of the mother of the
+orphan--or else to expose himself, and above all his son, to lasting
+disgrace--without even the certainty of delivering the orphans after all.
+
+Drying her eyes, bathed in tears, Frances exclaimed, as if by a sudden
+inspiration: "Dear me! I have just thought of it. There is perhaps a way
+of getting these dear children from the convent without violence."
+
+"How so, mother?" said Agricola, hastily.
+
+"It is Abbe Dubois, who had them conveyed thither; but Gabriel supposes,
+that he probably acted by the advice of M. Rodin.
+
+"And if that were so, mother, it would be in vain to apply to M. Rodin.
+We should get nothing from him."
+
+"Not from him--but perhaps from that powerful abbe, who is Gabriel's
+superior, and has always patronized him since his first entrance at the
+seminary."
+
+"What abbe, mother?"
+
+"Abbe d'Aigrigny."
+
+"True mother; before being a priest, he was a soldier he may be more
+accessible than others--and yet--"
+
+"D'Aigrigny!" cried Dagobert, with an expression of hate and horror.
+"There is then mixed up with these treasons, a man who was a soldier
+before being a priest, and whose name is D'Aigrigny?"
+
+"Yes, father; the Marquis d'Aigrigny--before the Restoration, in the
+service of Russia--but, in 1815, the Bourbons gave him a regiment."
+
+"It is he!" said Dagobert, in a hollow voice. "Always the same! like an
+evil spirit--to the mother, father, children."
+
+"What do you mean, father?"
+
+"The Marquis d'Aigrigny!" replied Dagobert. "Do you know what is this
+man? Before he was a priest, he was the murderer of Rose and Blanche's
+mother, because she despised his love. Before he was a priest, he fought
+against his country, and twice met General Simon face to face in war.
+Yes; while the general was prisoner at Leipsic, covered with wounds at
+Waterloo, the turncoat marquis triumphed with the Russians and
+English!--Under the Bourbons, this same renegade, loaded with honors,
+found himself once more face to face with the persecuted soldier of the
+empire. Between them, this time, there was a mortal duel--the marquis was
+wounded--General Simon was proscribed, condemned, driven into exile. The
+renegade, you say, has become a priest. Well! I am now certain, that it
+is he who has carried off Rose and Blanche, in order to wreak on them his
+hatred of their father and mother. It is the infamous D'Aigrigny, who
+holds them in his power. It is no longer the fortune of these children
+that I have to defend; it is their life--do you hear what I say?--their
+very life?"
+
+"What, father! do you think this man capable--"
+
+"A traitor to his country, who finishes by becoming a mock priest, is
+capable of anything. I tell you, that, perhaps at this moment he may be
+killing those children by a slow-fire!" exclaimed the soldier, in a voice
+of agony. "To separate them from one another was to begin to kill them.
+Yes!" added Dagobert, with an exasperation impossible to describe; "the
+daughters of Marshal Simon are in the power of the Marquis d'Aigrigny and
+his band, and I hesitate to attempt their rescue, for fear of the
+galleys! The galleys!" added he, with a convulsive burst of laughter;
+"what do I care for the galleys? Can they send a corpse there? If this
+last attempt fail, shall I not have the right to blow my brains out?--Put
+the iron in the fire, my boy--quick! time presses--and strike while the
+iron's hot!"
+
+"But your son goes with you!" exclaimed Frances, with a cry of maternal
+despair. Then rising, she threw herself at the feet of Dagobert, and
+said: "If you are arrested, he will be arrested also."
+
+"To escape the galleys, he will do as I do. I have two pistols."
+
+"And without you--without him," cried the unhappy mother, extending her
+hands in supplication, "what will become of me?"
+
+"You are right--I was too selfish," said Dagobert. "I will go alone."
+
+"You shall not go alone, father," replied Agricola.
+
+"But your mother?"
+
+"Mother Bunch sees what is passing; she will go to Mr. Hardy, my master,
+and tell him all. He is the most generous of men, and my mother will have
+food and shelter for the rest of her days."
+
+"And I am the cause of all!" cried Frances, wringing her hands in
+despair. "Punish me, oh, heaven! for it is my fault. I gave up those
+children. I shall be punished by the death of my child!"
+
+"Agricola, you shall not go with me--I forbid it!" said Dagobert,
+clasping his son closely to his breast.
+
+"What! when I have pointed out the danger, am I to be the first to shrink
+from it? you cannot think thus lowly of me, father! Have I not also some
+one to deliver? The good, the generous Mdlle. de Cardoville, who tried to
+save me from a prison, is a captive in her turn. I will follow you,
+father. It is my right, my duty, my determination."
+
+So saying, Agricola put into the heated stove the tongs that were
+intended to form the hook. "Alas! may heaven have pity upon us!" cried
+his poor mother, sobbing as she still knelt, whilst the soldier seemed a
+prey to the most violent internal struggle.
+
+"Do not cry so, dear mother; you will break my heart," said Agricola, as
+he raised her with the sempstress's help. "Be comforted! I have
+exaggerated the danger of my father. By acting prudently, we two may
+succeed in our enterprise; without much risk--eh, father?" added he, with
+a significant glance at Dagobert. "Once more, be comforted, dear mother.
+I will answer for everything. We will deliver Marshal Simon's daughters,
+and Mdlle. de Cardoville too. Sister, give me the hammer and pincers,
+there in the press."
+
+The sempstress, drying her tears, did as desired, while Agricola, by the
+help of bellows, revived the fire in which the tongs were heating.
+
+"Here are your tools, Agricola," said the hunchback, in a deeply-agitated
+voice, as she presented them with trembling hands to the smith, who, with
+the aid of the pincers, soon drew from the fire the white-hot tongs, and,
+with vigorous blows of the hammer, formed them into a hook, taking the
+stove for his anvil.
+
+Dagobert had remained silent and pensive. Suddenly he said to Frances,
+taking her by the hand: "You know what metal your son is. To prevent his
+following me would now be impossible. But do not be afraid, dear wife; we
+shall succeed--at least, I hope so. And if we should not succeed--if
+Agricola and me should be arrested--well! we are not cowards; we shall
+not commit suicide; but father and son will go arm in arm to prison, with
+heads high and proud, look like two brave men who have done their duty.
+The day of trial must come, and we will explain all, honestly, openly--we
+will say, that, driven to the last extremity, finding no support, no
+protection in the law, we were forced to have recourse to violence. So
+hammer away, my boy!" added Dagobert, addressing his son, pounding the
+hot iron; "forge, forge, without fear. Honest judges will absolve honest
+men."
+
+"Yes, father, you are right, be at ease dear mother! The judges will see
+the difference between rascals who scale walls in order to rob, and an
+old soldier and his son who, at peril of their liberty, their life, their
+honor, have sought only to deliver unhappy victims."
+
+"And if this language should not be heard," resumed Dagobert, "so much
+the worse for them! It will not be your son, or husband, who will be
+dishonored in the eyes of honest people. If they send us to the galleys,
+and we have courage to survive--the young and the old convict will wear
+their chains proudly--and the renegade marquis, the traitor priest, will
+bear more shame than we. So, forge without fear, my boy! There are things
+which the galleys themselves cannot disgrace--our good conscience and our
+honor! But now," he added, "two words with my good Mother Bunch. It grows
+late, and time presses. On entering the garden, did you remark if the
+windows of the convent were far from the ground?"
+
+"No, not very far, M. Dagobert--particularly on that side which is
+opposite to the madhouse, where Mdlle. de Cardoville is confined."
+
+"How did you manage to speak to that young lady?"
+
+"She was on the other side of an open paling, which separates the two
+gardens."
+
+"Excellent!" said Agricola, as he continued to hammer the iron: "we can
+easily pass from one garden to the other. The madhouse may perhaps be the
+readier way out. Unfortunately, you do not know, Mdlle. de Cardoville's
+chamber."
+
+"Yes, I do," returned the work-girl, recollecting herself. "She is lodged
+in one of the wings, and there is a shade over her window, painted like
+canvas, with blue and white stripes."
+
+"Good! I shall not forget that."
+
+"And can you form no guess as to where are the rooms of my poor
+children?" said Dagobert.
+
+After a moment's reflection, Mother Bunch answered, "They are opposite to
+the chamber occupied by Mdlle. de Cardoville, for she makes signs to them
+from her window: and I now remember she told me, that their two rooms are
+on different stories, one on the ground-floor, and the other up one pair
+of stairs."
+
+"Are these windows grated?" asked the smith.
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Never mind, my good girl: with these indications we shall do very well,"
+said Dagobert. "For the rest, I have my plans."
+
+"Some water, my little sister," said Agricola, "that I may cool my iron."
+Then addressing his father: "Will this hook do?"
+
+"Yes, my boy; as soon as it is cold we will fasten the cord."
+
+For some time, Frances Baudoin had remained upon her knees, praying with
+fervor. She implored Heaven to have pity on Agricola and Dagobert, who,
+in their ignorance, were about to commit a great crime; and she entreated
+that the celestial vengeance might fall upon her only, as she alone had
+been the cause of the fatal resolution of her son and husband.
+
+Dagobert and Agricola finished their preparations in silence. They were
+both very pale, and solemnly grave. They felt all the danger of so
+desperate an enterprise.
+
+The clock at Saint-Mery's struck ten. The sound of the bell was faint,
+and almost drowned by the lashing of the wind and rain, which had not
+ceased for a moment.
+
+"Ten o'clock!" said Dagobert, with a start. "There is not a minute to
+lose. Take the sack, Agricola."
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+As he went to fetch the sack, Agricola approached Mother Bunch, who was
+hardly able to sustain herself, and said to her in a rapid whisper: "If
+we are not here to-morrow, take care of my mother. Go to M. Hardy, who
+will perhaps have returned from his journey. Courage, my sister! embrace
+me. I leave poor mother to you." The smith, deeply affected, pressed the
+almost fainting girl in his arms.
+
+"Come, old Spoil-sport," said Dagobert: "you shall be our scout."
+Approaching his wife, who, just risen from the ground, was clasping her
+son's head to her bosom, and covering it with tears and kisses, he said
+to her, with a semblance of calmness and serenity: "Come, my dear wife,
+be reasonable! Make us a good fire. In two or three hours we will bring
+home the two poor children, and a fine young lady. Kiss me! that will
+bring me luck."
+
+Frances threw herself on her husband's neck, without uttering a word.
+This mute despair, mingled with convulsive sobs, was heart-rending.
+Dagobert was obliged to tear himself from his wife's arms, and striving
+to conceal his emotion, he said to his son, in an agitated voice: "Let us
+go--she unmans me. Take care of her, my good Mother Bunch.
+Agricola--come!"
+
+The soldier slipped the pistols into the pocket of his great coat, and
+rushed towards the door, followed by Spoil-sport.
+
+"My son, let me embrace you once more--alas! it is perhaps for the last
+time!" cried the unfortunate mother, incapable of rising, but stretching
+out her arms to Agricola. "Forgive me! it is all my fault."
+
+The smith turned back, mingled his tears with those of his mother--for he
+also wept--and murmured, in a stifled voice: "Adieu, dear mother! Be
+comforted. We shall soon meet again."
+
+Then, escaping from the embrace, he joined his father upon the stairs.
+
+Frances Baudoin heaved a long sigh, and fell almost lifeless into the
+needlewoman's arms.
+
+Dagobert and Agricola left the Rue Brise-Miche in the height of the
+storm, and hastened with great strides towards the Boulevard de
+l'Hopital, followed by the dog.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+BURGLARY.
+
+Half-past eleven had just struck, when Dagobert and his son arrived on
+the Boulevard de l'Hopital.
+
+The wind blew violently, and the rain fell down in torrents, but
+notwithstanding the thickness of the watery clouds, it was tolerably
+light, thanks to the late rising of the moon. The tall, dark trees, and
+the white walls of the convent garden, were distinguishable in the midst
+of the pale glimmer. Afar off, a street lamp, acted on by the wind, with
+its red lights hardly visible through the mist and rain, swung backwards
+and forwards over the dirty causeway of the solitary boulevard.
+
+At rare intervals, they heard, at a very great distance, the rattle and
+rumble of a coach, returning home late; then all was again silent.
+
+Since their departure from the Rue Brise-Miche, Dagobert and his son had
+hardly exchanged a word. The design of these two brave men was noble and
+generous, and yet, resolute but pensive, they glided through the darkness
+like bandits, at the hour of nocturnal crimes.
+
+Agricola carried on his shoulders the sack containing the cord, the hook,
+and the iron bar; Dagobert leaned upon the arm of his son, and Spoil
+sport followed his master.
+
+"The bench, where we sat down, must be close by," said Dagobert,
+stopping.
+
+"Yes," said Agricola, looking around; "here it is, father."
+
+"It is oily half-past eleven--we must wait for midnight," resumed
+Dagobert. "Let us be seated for an instant, to rest ourselves, and
+decide upon our plan."
+
+After a moment's silence, the soldier took his son's hands between his
+own, and thus continued: "Agricola, my child--it is yet time. Let me go
+alone, I entreat you. I shall know very well how to get through the
+business; but the nearer the moment comes, the more I fear to drag you
+into this dangerous enterprise."
+
+"And the nearer the moment comes, father, the more I feel I may be of
+some use; but, be it good or bad, I will share the fortune of your
+adventure. Our object is praiseworthy; it is a debt of honor that you
+have to pay, and I will take one half of it. Do not fancy that I will now
+draw back. And so, dear father, let us think of our plan of action."
+
+"Then you will come?" said Dagobert, stifling a sigh.
+
+"We must do everything," proceeded Agricola, "to secure success. You have
+already noticed the little garden-door, near the angle of the wall--that
+is excellent."
+
+"We shall get by that way into the garden, and look immediately for the
+open paling."
+
+"Yes; for on one side of this paling is the wing inhabited by Mdlle. de
+Cardoville, and on the other that part of the convent in which the
+general's daughters are confined."
+
+At this moment, Spoil-sport, who was crouching at Dagobert's feet, rose
+suddenly, and pricked up his ears, as if to listen.
+
+"One would think that Spoil-sport heard something," said Agricola. They
+listened--but heard only the wind, sounding through the tall trees of the
+boulevard.
+
+"Now I think of it, father--when the garden-door is once open, shall we
+take Spoil-sport with us?"
+
+"Yes; for if there is a watch-dog, he will settle him. And then he will
+give us notice of the approach of those who go the rounds. Besides, he is
+so intelligent, so attached to Rose and Blanche, that (who knows?) he may
+help to discover the place where they are. Twenty times I have seen him
+find them in the woods, by the most extraordinary instinct."
+
+A slow and solemn knell here rose above the noise of the wind: it was the
+first stroke of twelve.
+
+That note seemed to echo mournfully through the souls of Agricola and his
+father. Mute with emotion, they shuddered, and by a spontaneous movement,
+each grasped the hand of the other. In spite of themselves, their hearts
+kept time to every stroke of the clock, as each successive vibration was
+prolonged through the gloomy silence of the night.
+
+At the last strobe, Dagobert said to his son, in a firm voice: "It is
+midnight. Shake hands, and let us forward!"
+
+The moment was decisive and solemn. "Now, father," said Agricola, "we
+will act with as much craft and daring as thieves going to pillage a
+strong box."
+
+So saying, the smith took from the sack the cord and hook; Dagobert armed
+himself with the iron bar, and both advanced cautiously, following the
+wall in the direction of the little door, situated not far from the angle
+formed by the street and the boulevard. They stopped from time to time,
+to listen attentively, trying to distinguish those noises which were not
+caused either by the high wind or the rain.
+
+It continued light enough for them to be able to see surrounding objects,
+and the smith and the soldier soon gained the little door, which appeared
+much decayed, and not very strong.
+
+"Good!" said Agricola to his father. "It will yield at one blow."
+
+The smith was about to apply his shoulder vigorously to the door, when
+Spoil-sport growled hoarsely, and made a "point." Dagobert silenced the
+dog with a word, and grasping his son's arm, said to him in a whisper:
+"Do not stir. The dog has scented some one in the garden."
+
+Agricola and his father remained for some minutes motionless, holding
+their breath and listening. The dog, in obedience to his master, no
+longer growled, but his uneasiness and agitation were displayed more and
+more. Yet they heard nothing.
+
+"The dog must have been deceived, father," whispered Agricola.
+
+"I am sure of the contrary. Do not move."
+
+After some seconds of expectation, Spoil-sport crouched down abruptly,
+and pushed his nose as far as possible under the door, snuffling up the
+air.
+
+"They are coming," said Dagobert hastily, to his son.
+
+"Let us draw off a little distance," replied Agricola.
+
+"No," said his father; "we must listen. It will be time to retire, if
+they open the door. Here, Spoil-sport! down!"
+
+The dog obeyed, and withdrawing from the door, crouched down at the feet
+of his master. Some seconds after, they heard a sort of splashing on the
+damp ground, caused by heavy footsteps in puddles of water, and then the
+sound of words, which carried away by the wind, did not reach distinctly
+the ears of the soldier and the smith.
+
+"They are the people of whom Mother Bunch told us, going their round,"
+said Agricola to his father.
+
+"So much the better. There will be an interval before they come round
+again, and we shall have some two hours before us, without interruption.
+Our affair is all right now."
+
+By degrees, the sound of the footsteps became less and less distinct, and
+at last died away altogether.
+
+"Now, quick! we must not lose any time," said Dagobert to his son, after
+waiting about ten minutes; "they are far enough. Let us try to open the
+door."
+
+Agricola leaned his powerful shoulder against it, and pushed vigorously;
+but the door did not give way, notwithstanding its age.
+
+"Confound it!" said Agricola; "there is a bar on the inside. I am sure of
+it, or these old planks would not have resisted my weight."
+
+"What is to be done?"
+
+"I will scale the wall by means of the cord and hook, and open the door
+from the other side."
+
+So saying, Agricola took the cord, and after several attempts, succeeded
+in fixing the hook on the coping of the wall.
+
+"Now, father, give me a leg up; I will help myself up with the cord; once
+astride on the wall, I can easily turn the hook and get down into the
+garden."
+
+The soldier leaned against the wall, and joined his two hands, in the
+hollow of which his son placed one of his feet, then mounting upon the
+robust shoulders of his father, he was able, by help of the cord, and
+some irregularities in the wall, to reach the top. Unfortunately, the
+smith had not perceived that the coping of the wall was strewed with
+broken bottles, so that he wounded his knees and hands; but, for fear of
+alarming Dagobert, he repressed every exclamation of pain, and replacing
+the hook, he glided down the cord to the ground. The door was close by,
+and he hastened to it; a strong wooden bar had indeed secured it on the
+inside. This was removed, and the lock was in so bad a state, that it
+offered no resistance to a violent effort from Agricola.
+
+The door was opened, and Dagobert entered the garden with Spoil-sport.
+
+"Now," said the soldier to his son, "thanks to you, the worst is over.
+Here is a means of escape for the poor children, and Mdlle. de
+Cardoville. The thing is now to find them, without accident or delay.
+Spoil-sport will go before as a scout. Come, my good dog!" added
+Dagobert, "above all--fair and softly!"
+
+Immediately, the intelligent animal advanced a few steps, sniffing and
+listening with the care and caution of a hound searching for the game.
+
+By the half-light of the clouded moon, Dagobert and his son perceived
+round them a V-shaped grove of tall trees, at which several paths met.
+Uncertain which to choose, Agricola said to his father: "Let us take the
+path that runs alongside the wall. It will surely lead to some building."
+
+"Right! Let us walk on the strips of grass, instead of through the mud.
+It will make less noise."
+
+The father and son, preceded by the Siberian dog, kept for some time in a
+winding path, at no great distance from the wall. They stopped now and
+then to listen, or to satisfy themselves, before continuing their
+advance, with regard to the changing aspects of the trees and bushes,
+which, shaken by the wind, and faintly illumined by the pale light of the
+moon, often took strange and doubtful forms.
+
+Half-past twelve struck as Agricola and his father reached a large iron
+gate which shut in that part of the garden reserved for the Superior--the
+same into which Mother Bunch had intruded herself, after seeing Rose
+Simon converse with Adrienne de Cardoville.
+
+Through the bars of this gate, Agricola and his father perceived at a
+little distance an open paling, which joined a half-finished chapel, and
+beyond it a little square building.
+
+"That is no doubt the building occupied by Mdlle. de Cardoville," said
+Agricola.
+
+"And the building which contains the chambers of Rose and Blanche, but
+which we cannot see from here, is no doubt opposite it," said Dagobert.
+"Poor children! they are there, weeping tears of despair," added he, with
+profound emotion.
+
+"Provided the gate be but open," said Agricola.
+
+"It will probably be so--being within the walls."
+
+"Let us go on gently."
+
+The gate was only fastened by the catch of the lock. Dagobert was about
+to open it, when Agricola said to him: "Take care! do not make it creak
+on its hinges."
+
+"Shall I push it slowly or suddenly?"
+
+"Let me manage it," said Agricola; and he opened the gate so quickly,
+that it creaked very little; still the noise might have been plainly
+heard, in the silence of the night, during one of the lulls between the
+squalls of wind.
+
+Agricola and his father remained motionless for a moment, listening
+uneasily, before they ventured to pass through the gate. Nothing stirred,
+however; all remained calm and still. With fresh courage, they entered
+the reserved garden.
+
+Hardly had the dog arrived on this spot, when he exhibited tokens of
+extraordinary delight. Picking up his ears, wagging his tail, bounding
+rather than running, he had soon reached the paling where, in the
+morning, Rose Simon had for a moment conversed with Mdlle. de Cardoville.
+He stopped an instant at this place, as if at fault, and turned round and
+round like a dog seeking the scent.
+
+Dagobert and his son, leaving Spoil-sport to his instinct, followed his
+least movements with intense interest, hoping everything from his
+intelligence and his attachment to the orphans.
+
+"It was no doubt near this paling that Rose stood when Mother Bunch saw
+her," said Dagobert. "Spoil-sport is on her track. Let him alone."
+
+After a few seconds, the dog turned his head towards Dagobert, and
+started at full trot in the direction of a door on the ground-floor of a
+building, opposite to that occupied by Adrienne. Arrived at this door,
+the dog lay down, seemingly waiting for Dagobert.
+
+"No doubt of it! the children are there!" said Dagobert, hastening to
+rejoin Spoil-sport; "it was by this door that they took Rose into the
+house."
+
+"We must see if the windows are grated," said Agricola, following his
+father.
+
+"Well, old fellow!" whispered the soldier, as he came up to the dog and
+pointed to the building, "are Rose and Blanche there?"
+
+The dog lifted his head, and answered by a joyful bark. Dagobert had just
+time to seize the mouth of the animal with his hands.
+
+"He will ruin all!" exclaimed the smith. "They have, perhaps, heard him."
+
+"No," said Dagobert. "But there is no longer any doubt--the children are
+here."
+
+At this instant, the iron gate, by which the soldier and his son had
+entered the reserved garden, and which they had left open, fell to with a
+loud noise.
+
+"They've shut us in," said Agricola, hastily; "and there is no other
+issue."
+
+For a moment, the father and son looked in dismay at each other; but
+Agricola instantly resumed: "The gate has perhaps shut of itself. I will
+make haste to assure myself of this, and to open it again if possible."
+
+"Go quickly; I will examine the windows."
+
+Agricola flew towards the gate, whilst Dagobert, gliding along the wall,
+soon reached the windows on the ground floor. They were four in number,
+and two of them were not grated. He looked up at the first story; it was
+not very far from the ground, and none of the windows had bars. It would
+then be easy for that one of the two sisters, who inhabited this story,
+once informed of their presence, to let herself down by means of a sheet,
+as the orphans had already done to escape from the inn of the White
+Falcon. But the difficult thing was to know which room she occupied.
+Dagobert thought they might learn this from the sister on the ground
+floor; but then there was another difficulty--at which of the four
+windows should they knock?
+
+Agricola returned precipitately. "It was the wind, no doubt, which shut
+the gate," said he. "I have opened it again, and made it fast with a
+stone. But we have no time to lose."
+
+"And how shall we know the windows of the poor children?" said Dagobert,
+anxiously.
+
+"That is true," said Agricola, with uneasiness. "What is to be done?"
+
+"To call them at hap-hazard," continued Dagobert, "would be to give the
+alarm."
+
+"Oh, heavens!" cried Agricola, with increasing anguish. "To have arrived
+here, under their windows, and yet not to know!"
+
+"Time presses," said Dagobert, hastily, interrupting his son; "we must
+run all risks."
+
+"But how, father?"
+
+"I will call out loud, 'Rose and Blanche'--in their state of despair, I
+am sure they do not sleep. They will be stirring at my first summons. By
+means of a sheet, fastened to the window, she who is on the first story
+will in five minutes be in our arms. As for the one on the ground
+floor--if her window is not grated, we can have her in a second. If it
+is, we shall soon loosen one of the bars."
+
+"But, father--this calling out aloud?"
+
+"Will not perhaps be heard."
+
+"But if it is heard--all will be lost."
+
+"Who knows? Before they have time to call the watch, and open several
+doors, the children may be delivered. Once at the entrance of the
+boulevard, and we shall be safe."
+
+"It is a dangerous course; but I see no other."
+
+"If there are only two men, I and Spoil-sport will keep them in check,
+while you will have time to carry off the children."
+
+"Father, there is a better way--a surer one," cried Agricola, suddenly.
+"From what Mother Bunch told us, Mdlle. de Cardoville has corresponded by
+signs with Rose and Blanche."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Hence she knows where they are lodged, as the poor children answered her
+from their windows."
+
+"You are right. There is only that course to take. But how find her
+room?"
+
+"Mother Bunch told me there was a shade over the window."
+
+"Quick! we have only to break through a wooden fence. Have you the iron
+bar?"
+
+"Here it is."
+
+"Then, quick!"
+
+In a few steps, Dagobert and his son had reached the paling. Three
+planks, torn away by Agricola, opened an easy passage.
+
+"Remain here, father, and keep watch," said he to Dagobert, as he entered
+Dr. Baleinier's garden.
+
+The indicated window was easily recognized. It was high and broad; a sort
+of shade surmounted it, for this window had once been a door, since
+walled in to the third of its height. It was protected by bars of iron,
+pretty far apart. Since some minutes, the rain had ceased. The moon,
+breaking through the clouds, shone full upon the building. Agricola,
+approaching the window, saw that the room was perfectly dark; but light
+came from a room beyond, through a door left half open. The smith, hoping
+that Mdlle. de Cardoville might be still awake, tapped lightly at the
+window. Soon after, the door in the background opened entirely, and
+Mdlle. de Cardoville, who had not yet gone to bed, came from the other
+chamber, dressed as she had been at her interview with Mother Bunch. Her
+charming features were visible by the light of the taper she held in her
+hand. Their present expression was that of surprise and anxiety. The
+young girl set down the candlestick on the table, and appeared to listen
+attentively as she approached the window. Suddenly she started and
+stopped abruptly. She had just discerned the face of a man, looking at
+her through the window. Agricola, fearing that Mdlle. de Cardoville would
+retire in terror to the next room, again tapped on the glass, and running
+the risk of being heard by others, said in a pretty loud voice: "It is
+Agricola Baudoin."
+
+These words reached the ears of Adrienne. Instantly remembering her
+interview with Mother Bunch, she thought that Agricola and Dagobert must
+have entered the convent for the purpose of carrying off Rose and
+Blanche. She ran to the window, recognized Agricola in the clear
+moonlight, and cautiously opened the casement.
+
+"Madame," said the smith, hastily; "there is not an instant to lose. The
+Count de Montbron is not in Paris. My father and myself have come to
+deliver you."
+
+"Thanks, thanks, M. Agricola!" said Mdlle. de Cardoville, in a tone
+expressive of the most touching gratitude; "but think first of the
+daughters of General Simon."
+
+"We do think of them, madame, I have come to ask you which are their
+windows."
+
+"One is on the ground floor, the last on the garden-side; the other is
+exactly over it, on the first story."
+
+"Then they are saved!" cried the smith.
+
+"But let me see!" resumed Adrienne, hastily; "the first story is pretty
+high. You will find, near the chapel they are building, some long poles
+belonging to the scaffolding. They may be of use to you."
+
+"They will be as good as a ladder, to reach the upstairs window. But now
+to think of you madame."
+
+"Think only of the dear orphans. Time presses. Provided they are
+delivered to-night, it makes little difference to me to remain a day or
+two longer in this house."
+
+"No, mademoiselle," cried the smith, "it is of the first importance that
+you should leave this place to-night. Interests are concerned, of which
+you know nothing. I am now sure of it."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I have not time to explain myself further; but I conjure you madame, to
+come. I can wrench out two of these bars; I will fetch a piece of iron."
+
+"It is not necessary. They are satisfied with locking the outer door of
+this building, which I inhabit alone. You can easily break open the
+lock."
+
+"And, in ten minutes, we shall be on the boulevard," said the smith.
+"Make yourself ready, madame; take a shawl, a bonnet, for the night is
+cold. I will return instantly."
+
+"M. Agricola," said Adrienne, with tears in her eyes, "I know what you
+risk for my sake. I shall prove to you, I hope, that I have as good a
+memory as you have. You and your adopted sister are noble and valiant
+creatures, and I am proud to be indebted to you. But do not return for me
+till the daughters of Marshal Simon are in safety."
+
+"Thanks to your directions, the thing will be done directly, madame. I
+fly to rejoin my father, and we will come together to fetch you."
+
+Following the excellent advice of Mdlle. de Cardoville, Agricola took one
+of the long, strong poles that rested against the wall of the chapel,
+and, bearing it on his robust shoulders, hastened to rejoin his father.
+Hardly had Agricola passed the fence, to direct his steps towards the
+chapel, obscured in shadow, than Mdlle. de Cardoville thought she
+perceived a human form issue from one of the clumps of trees in the
+convent-garden, cross the path hastily, and disappear behind a high hedge
+of box. Alarmed at the sight, Adrienne in vain called to Agricola in a
+low voice, to bid him beware. He could not hear her; he had already
+rejoined his father, who, devoured by impatience, went from window to
+window with ever-increasing anguish.
+
+"We are saved," whispered Agricola. "Those are the windows of the poor
+children--one on the ground floor, the other on the first story."
+
+"At last!" said Dagobert, with a burst of joy impossible to describe. He
+ran to examine the windows. "They are not grated!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Let us make sure, that one of them is there," said Agricola; "then, by
+placing this pole against the wall, I will climb up to the first story,
+which is not so very high."
+
+"Right, my boy!--once there, tap at the window, and call Rose or Blanche.
+When she answers, come down. We will rest the pole against the window,
+and the poor child will slide along it. They are bold and active. Quick,
+quick! to work!"
+
+"And then we will deliver Mdlle. de Cardoville."
+
+Whilst Agricola placed his pole against the wall, and prepares to mount,
+Dagobert tapped at the panes of the last window on the ground floor, and
+said aloud: "It is I--Dagobert."
+
+Rose Simon indeed occupied the chamber. The unhappy child, in despair at
+being separated from her sister, was a prey to a burning fever, and,
+unable to sleep, watered her pillow with her tears. At the sound of the
+tapping on the glass, she started up affrighted, then, hearing the voice
+of the soldier--that voice so familiar and so dear--she sat up in bed,
+pressed her hands across her forehead, to assure herself that she was not
+the plaything of a dream, and, wrapped in her long night-dress, ran to
+the window with a cry of joy. But suddenly--and before she could open the
+casement--two reports of fire-arms were heard, accompanied by loud cries
+of "Help! thieves!"
+
+The orphan stood petrified with terror, her eyes mechanically fixed upon
+the window, through which she saw confusedly, by the light of the moon,
+several men engaged in a mortal struggle, whilst the furious barking of
+Spoil-sport was heard above all the incessant cries of "Help! Help!
+Thieves! Murder!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wandering Jew, Book IV., by Eugene Sue
+
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