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+Project Gutenberg's The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 1 of 6, by Eugène 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 Mysteries of Paris, Volume 1 of 6
+
+Author: Eugène Sue
+
+Illustrators: G. Mercier
+ Bicknell
+ Léon Poiteau
+ Adrian Marcel
+
+Release Date: September 22, 2010 [EBook #33800]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS, V.1 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Christine Aldridge and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(Stanford University, SUL Books in the Public Domain)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
+
+2. Passages in Gothic Bold are surrounded by +plus+ signs.
+
+3. Other transcription notes appear at the end of this e-text.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Portrait of Eugene Sue_
+Etching by Bicknell, from a portrait]
+
+
+
+
++The Mysteries of Paris.+
+
+ _ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS
+ BY MERCIER, BICKNELL, POITEAU,
+ AND ADRIAN MARCEL._
+
+ _BY EUGENE SUE_
+
+
+ _IN SIX VOLUMES
+ VOLUME I._
+
+
+ _PRINTED FOR
+ FRANCIS A. NICCOLLS & CO.
+ BOSTON_
+
+
+ _EDITION DE LUXE._
+
+_Limited to One Thousand Copies._
+
+ No. _____
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAP. PAGE
+ I. THE TAPIS-FRANC 11
+ II. THE OGRESS 19
+ III. HISTORY OF LA GOUALEUSE 31
+ IV. THE CHOURINEUR'S HISTORY 47
+ V. THE ARREST 59
+ VI. THOMAS SEYTON AND THE COUNTESS SARAH 67
+ VII. "YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE" 74
+ VIII. THE WALK 80
+ IX. THE SURPRISE 90
+ X. CASTLES IN THE AIR 99
+ XI. MURPHY AND RODOLPH 119
+ XII. THE RENDEZVOUS 137
+ XIII. PREPARATIONS 150
+ XIV. THE BLEEDING HEART 157
+ XV. THE VAULT 166
+ XVI. THE SICK-NURSE 172
+ XVII. THE PUNISHMENT 189
+ XVIII. THE ISLE ADAM 206
+ XIX. RECOMPENSE 212
+ XX. THE DEPARTURE 221
+ XXI. RESEARCHES 225
+ XXII. HISTORY OF DAVID AND CECILY 246
+ XXIII. A HOUSE IN THE RUE DU TEMPLE 258
+ XXIV. THE FOUR STORIES 292
+ XXV. TOM AND SARAH 302
+ XXVI. THE BALL 323
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+ PAGE
+ PORTRAIT OF EUGENE SUE _Frontispiece_
+ THE CHOURINEUR, RODOLPH, AND LA GOUALEUSE 22
+ "SHE PROFFERED TO RODOLPH THE BOUQUET" 89
+ "'AH, HERE IS THE DARLING ONE!'" 158
+ "RODOLPH ADDRESSED THE SCHOOLMASTER." 190
+ "THIS INDIVIDUAL WAS SEATED BY THE STOVE" 260
+ "'THIS, I SUPPOSE, IS THE WORK OF M. CABRION'" 296
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE TAPIS-FRANC.[1]
+
+
+It was on a cold and rainy night, towards the end of October, 1838, that
+a tall and powerful man, with an old broad-brimmed straw hat upon his
+head, and clad in a blue cotton carter's frock, which hung loosely over
+trousers of the same material, crossed the Pont au Change, and darted
+with a hasty step into the Cité, that labyrinth of obscure, narrow, and
+winding streets which extends from the Palais de Justice to Notre Dame.
+
+ [1] _Tapis-franc_: literally, a "free carpet;" a low haunt
+ equivalent to what in English slang is termed "a boozing ken."
+
+Although limited in space, and carefully watched, this quarter serves as
+the lurking-place, or rendezvous, of a vast number of the very dregs of
+society in Paris, who flock to the _tapis-franc_. This word, in the
+slang of theft and murder, signifies a drinking-shop of the lowest
+class. A returned convict, who, in this foul phraseology, is called an
+"ogre," or a woman in the same degraded state, who is termed an
+"ogress," generally keep such "cribs," frequented by the refuse of the
+Parisian population; freed felons, thieves, and assassins are there
+familiar guests. If a crime is committed, it is here, in this filthy
+sewer, that the police throws its cast-net, and rarely fails to catch
+the criminals it seeks to take.
+
+On the night in question, the wind howled fiercely in the dark and dirty
+gullies of the Cité; the blinking and uncertain light of the lamps which
+swung to and fro in the sudden gusts were dimly reflected in pools of
+black slush, which flowed abundantly in the midst of the filthy
+pavement.
+
+The murky-coloured houses, which were lighted within by a few panes of
+glass in the worm-eaten casements, overhung each other so closely that
+the eaves of each almost touched its opposite neighbour, so narrow were
+the streets. Dark and noisome alleys led to staircases still more black
+and foul, and so perpendicular that they could hardly be ascended by the
+help of a cord fixed to the dank and humid walls by holdfasts of iron.
+
+Stalls of charcoal-sellers, fruit-sellers, or venders of refuse meat
+occupied the ground floor of some of these wretched abodes.
+Notwithstanding the small value of their commodities, the fronts of
+nearly all these shops were protected by strong bars of iron,--a proof
+that the shopkeepers knew and dreaded the gentry who infested the
+vicinity.
+
+The man of whom we have spoken, having entered the Rue aux Fêves, which
+is in the centre of the Cité, slackened his pace: he felt he was on his
+own soil. The night was dark, and strong gusts of wind, mingled with
+rain, dashed against the walls. Ten o'clock struck by the distant dial
+of the Palais de Justice. Women were huddled together under the vaulted
+arches, deep and dark, like caverns; some hummed popular airs in a low
+key; others conversed together in whispers; whilst some, dumb and
+motionless, looked on mechanically at the wet, which fell and flowed in
+torrents. The man in the carter's frock, stopping suddenly before one of
+these creatures, silent and sad as she gazed, seized her by the arm, and
+said, "Ha! good evening, La Goualeuse."[2]
+
+ [2] Sweet-throated: in reference to the tone of her voice.
+
+The girl receded, saying, in a faint and fearful tone, "Good evening,
+Chourineur.[3] Don't hurt me."
+
+ [3] One who strikes with the knife; the stabber, or slasher.
+
+This man, a liberated convict, had been so named at the hulks.
+
+"Now I have you," said the fellow; "you must pay me the glass of 'tape'
+(_eau d'aff_), or I'll make you dance without music," he added, with a
+hoarse and brutal laugh.
+
+"Oh, Heaven! I have no money," replied Goualeuse, trembling from head to
+foot, for this man was the dread of the district.
+
+"If you're stumped, the ogress of the _tapis-franc_ will give you tick
+for your pretty face."
+
+"She won't; I already owe her for the clothes I'm wearing."
+
+"What, you want to shirk it?" shouted the Chourineur, darting after La
+Goualeuse, who had hid herself in a gully as murk as midnight.
+
+"Now, then, my lady, I've got you!" said the vagabond, after groping
+about for a few moments, and grasping in one of his coarse and powerful
+hands a slim and delicate wrist; "and now for the dance I promised you."
+
+"No, it is _you_ who shall dance!" was uttered by a masculine and deep
+voice.
+
+"A man! Is't you, Bras Rouge? Speak, why don't you? and don't squeeze so
+hard. I am here in the entrance to your 'ken,' and you it must be."
+
+"'Tis not Bras Rouge!" said the voice.
+
+"Oh! isn't it? Well, then, if it is not a friend, why, here goes at
+you," exclaimed the Chourineur. "But whose bit of a hand is it I have
+got hold of? It must be a woman's!"
+
+"It is the fellow to this," responded the voice.
+
+And under the delicate skin of this hand, which grasped his throat with
+sudden ferocity, the Chourineur felt himself held by nerves of iron.
+The Goualeuse, who had sought refuge in this alley, and lightly ascended
+a few steps, paused for an instant, and said to her unknown defender,
+"Thanks, sir, for having taken my part. The Chourineur said he would
+strike me because I could not pay for his glass of brandy; but I think
+he only jested. Now I am safe, pray let him go. Take care of yourself,
+for he is the Chourineur."
+
+"If he be the Chourineur, I am a bully boy who never knuckles down,"
+exclaimed the unknown.
+
+All was then silent for a moment, and then were heard for several
+seconds, in the midst of the pitchy darkness, sounds of a fierce
+struggle.
+
+"Who the devil is this?" then said the ruffian, making a desperate
+effort to free himself from his adversary, whose extraordinary power
+astonished him. "Now, then, now you shall pay both for La Goualeuse and
+yourself!" he shouted, grinding his teeth.
+
+"Pay! yes, I will pay you, but it shall be with my fists; and it shall
+be cash in full," replied the unknown.
+
+"If," said the Chourineur, in a stifled voice, "you do but let go my
+neckcloth, I will bite your nose off."
+
+"My nose is too small, my lad, and you haven't light enough to see it."
+
+"Come under the 'hanging glim'[4] there."
+
+ [4] Under the lamp, called _reverbère_.
+
+"That I will," replied the unknown, "for then we may look into the
+whites of each other's eyes."
+
+He then made a desperate rush at the Chourineur, whom he still held by
+the throat, and forced him to the end of the alley, and then thrust him
+violently into the street, which was but dimly lighted by the suspended
+street-lamp. The bandit stumbled; but, rapidly recovering his feet, he
+threw himself furiously upon the unknown, whose slim and graceful form
+appeared to belie the possession of the irresistible strength he had
+displayed. After a struggle of a few minutes, the Chourineur, although
+of athletic build, and a first-rate champion in a species of pugilism
+vulgarly termed the _savate_, found that he had got what they call his
+master. The unknown threw him twice with immense dexterity, by what is
+called, in wrestling, the leg-pass, or crook. Unwilling, however, to
+acknowledge the superiority of his adversary, the Chourineur, boiling
+with rage, returned again to the charge. Then the defender of La
+Goualeuse, suddenly altering his mode of attack, rained on the head and
+face of the bandit a shower of blows with his closed fist, as hard and
+heavy as if stricken by a steel gauntlet. These blows, worthy of the
+admiration of Jem Belcher, Dutch Sam, Tom Cribb, or any other celebrated
+English pugilist, were so entirely different from the system of the
+_savate_, that the Chourineur dropped like an ox on the pavement,
+exclaiming, as he fell, "I'm floored!" (_Mon linge est lavé!_)
+
+"_Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_ Have pity on him!" exclaimed La Goualeuse, who,
+during the contest, had ventured on the threshold of the alley, adding,
+with an air of astonishment, "But who are you, then? Except the
+Schoolmaster and Skeleton, there is no one, from the Rue Saint Eloi to
+Notre Dame, who can stand against the Chourineur. I thank you very, very
+much, sir, for, indeed, I fear that, without your aid, he would have
+beaten me."
+
+The unknown, instead of replying, listened with much attention to the
+voice of this girl. Perhaps a tone more gentle, sweet, and silvery never
+fell on human ear. He endeavoured to examine the features of La
+Goualeuse; but the night was too dark, and the beams of the street-lamp
+too flickering and feeble. After remaining for some minutes quite
+motionless, the Chourineur shook his legs and arms, and then partly rose
+from the ground.
+
+"Pray be on your guard!" exclaimed the Goualeuse, retreating again into
+the dark passage, and taking her champion by the arm; "take care, or he
+will have his revenge on you."
+
+"Don't be frightened, my child; if he has not had enough, I have more
+ready for him."
+
+The brigand heard these words.
+
+"Thanks," he murmured; "I'm half throttled, and one eye is closed,--that
+is quite enough for one day. Some other time, perhaps, when we may meet
+again--"
+
+"What! not content yet,--grumbling still?" said the unknown, with a
+menacing tone.
+
+"No, no,--not at all; I do not grumble in the least. You have regularly
+served me out,--you are a lad of mettle," said the Chourineur, in a
+coarse tone, but still with that sort of deference which physical
+superiority always finds in persons of his grade. "You are the better
+man, that's clear. Well, except the Skeleton, who seems to have bones of
+iron, he is so thin and powerful, and the Schoolmaster, who could eat
+three Herculeses for his breakfast, no man living could boast of having
+put his foot on my neck."
+
+"Well, and what then?"
+
+"Why, now I have found my master, that's all; you will find yours some
+day sooner or later,--everybody does. One thing, however, is certain;
+now that you are a better man than the Chourineur, you may 'go your
+length' in the Cité. All the women will be your slaves; ogres and
+ogresses will give you credit, if it is only for fear; you may be a king
+in your way! But who and what are you? You 'patter flash' like a family
+man! If you are a 'prig' I'll have nothing to do with you. I have used
+the knife, it is true, because, when the blood comes into my eyes, I see
+_red_, and I must strike, in spite of myself; but I have paid for my
+slashing, by going to the hulks for fifteen years. My time is up, and I
+am free from surveillance. I can now live in the capital, without fear
+of the 'beaks;' and I have never prigged,--have I, La Goualeuse?"
+
+"No, he was never a thief," said the girl.
+
+"Come along, then, and let us have a glass of something together, and
+I'll tell you who I am," said the unknown. "Come, don't let us bear
+malice."
+
+"Bear malice! Devil a bit! You are master,--I confess it. You do know
+how to handle your fists; I never knew anything like it. Thunder and
+lightning! how your thumps fell on my sconce,--I never felt anything
+like it. Yours is a new game, and you must teach it to me."
+
+"I will recommence whenever you like."
+
+"Not on me, though, thank ye,--not on me," exclaimed the Chourineur,
+laughing; "your blows fell as if from a sledge-hammer; I am still giddy
+from them. But do you know Bras Rouge, in whose passage you were?"
+
+"Bras Rouge?" said the unknown, who appeared disagreeably surprised at
+the question; adding, however, with an indifferent air, "I do not know
+Bras Rouge. Is he the only person who inhabits this abode? It rained in
+torrents, and I took shelter in the alley. You meant to beat this poor
+girl, and I have thrashed you,--that's all."
+
+"You're right; I have nothing to do with your affairs. Bras Rouge has a
+room here, but does not occupy it often. He is usually at his
+_estaminet_ in the Champs Elysées. But what's the good of talking about
+him?" Then turning to the Goualeuse, "On my word, you are a good wench,
+and I would not have beaten you; you know I would not harm a child,--it
+was only my joke. Never mind; it was very good of you not to set on this
+friend of yours against me when I was down, and at his mercy. Come and
+drink with us; he pays for all. By the way, my trump," said he to the
+unknown, "what say you, instead of going to tipple, shall we go and have
+a crust for supper with the ogress at the White Rabbit? It is a
+_tapis-franc_."
+
+"With all my heart. I will pay for the supper. You'll come with us,
+Goualeuse?" inquired the unknown.
+
+"Thanks, sir," she replied, "but, after having seen your struggle, it
+has made my heart beat so that I have no appetite."
+
+"Pooh! pooh! one shoulder of mutton pokes the other down," said the
+Chourineur; "the cookery at the White Rabbit is first-rate."
+
+The three personages then, in perfect amity, bent their steps together
+towards the tavern.
+
+During the contest between the Chourineur and the unknown, a
+charcoal-seller, of huge size, ensconced in another passage, had
+contemplated with much anxiety the progress of the combat, but without
+attempting to offer the slightest assistance to either antagonist. When
+the unknown, the Chourineur, and the Goualeuse proceeded to the
+public-house, the charcoal-man followed them.
+
+The beaten man and the Goualeuse first entered the _tapis-franc_; the
+unknown was following, when the charcoal-man accosted him, and said, in
+a low voice, in the German language, and in a most respectful tone of
+remonstrance, "Pray, your highness, be on your guard."
+
+The unknown shrugged his shoulders, and rejoined his new companion. The
+charcoal-dealer did not leave the door of the cabaret, but listened
+attentively, and gazed from time to time through a small hole which had
+been accidentally made in the thick coat of whitening, with which the
+windows of such haunts as these are usually covered on the inside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE OGRESS.
+
+
+The White Rabbit is situated in the centre of the Rue aux Fêves. This
+tavern occupies the ground floor of a lofty house, the front of which is
+formed by two windows, which are styled "a guillotine." Hanging from the
+front of the door leading to a dark and arched passage, was an oblong
+lamp, on the cracked panes of which were written, in red letters,
+"Nightly Lodgings Here."
+
+The Chourineur, the unknown, and the Goualeuse entered into a large but
+low apartment, with the ceiling smoked, and crossed by black rafters,
+just visible by the flickering light of a miserable suspended lamp. The
+cracked walls, formerly covered with plaster, were now ornamented in
+places with coarse drawings, or sentences of flash and obscenity.
+
+The floor, composed of earth beaten together with saltpetre, was thick
+with dirt; an armful of straw--an apology for a carpet--was placed at
+the foot of the ogress's counter, which was at the right hand of the
+door, just beneath the dim lantern.
+
+On each side of this room there were six tables, one end of each of
+which was nailed to the wall, as well as the benches on either side of
+them. At the farther end was a door leading to a kitchen; on the right,
+near the counter, was a passage which led into a den where persons slept
+for the night at three halfpence a head.
+
+A few words will describe the ogress and her guests. The lady was called
+Mother Ponisse; her triple trade consisted in letting furnished
+apartments, keeping a public-house, and _lending_ clothes to the
+miserable creatures who infest these foul streets.
+
+The ogress was about forty years of age, bulky, fat, and heavy. She had
+a full colour, and strong symptoms of a beard. Her deep voice, her
+enormous arms, and coarse hands betokened uncommon strength. She wore on
+her cap a large red and yellow handkerchief; a shawl of rabbit-skin was
+crossed over her bosom, and tied behind; her woollen gown fell upon
+black wooden shoes, scorched almost black by the small stove at which
+she warmed her feet; and, to crown her beauty, she had a copper
+complexion, which the use of strong liquors had materially tended to
+heighten.
+
+The counter, covered with lead, was decked with jugs with iron hoops,
+and various pewter measures. In an open cupboard, fastened to the wall,
+there were several flasks of glass, so fashioned as to represent the
+pedestrian figure of the Emperor. These bottles contained sundry
+cordials, red and green in colour, and known by the names of "Drops for
+the Brave," "Ratafia of the Column," etc., etc.
+
+A large black cat, with green eyes, was sitting near the ogress, and
+seemed the familiar demon of the place. Then, in strange contrast, a
+holy branch of boxwood, bought at church by the ogress, was suspended at
+the back of an old cuckoo clock.
+
+Two marvellously ill-favoured fellows, with unshaven beards, and their
+garb all in tatters, hardly tasted of the pitcher of wine before them,
+and conversed together in low voices, and with uneasy aspect. One of the
+two, very pale and livid, pulled, from time to time, his shabby
+skull-cap over his brows, and concealed as much as possible his left
+hand, and, even when compelled to use it, he did so with caution.
+
+Further on there was a young man, hardly sixteen years of age, with
+beardless chin, and a countenance wan, wrinkled, and heavy, his eye
+dull, and his long black hair straggling down his neck. This youthful
+rake, the emblem of precocious vice, was smoking a short black pipe. His
+back was resting against the wall, and his two hands were in the pockets
+of his blouse, and his legs stretched along the bench. He did not cease
+smoking for a moment, unless it was to drink from a cannikin of brandy
+placed before him.
+
+The other inmates of the _tapis-franc_, men and women, presented no
+remarkable characteristics. There was the ferocious or embruted
+face,--the vulgar and licentious mirth; but from time to time there was
+a deep and dull silence. Such were the guests of the _tapis-franc_ when
+the unknown, the Chourineur, and the Goualeuse entered.
+
+These three persons play such important parts in our recital, that we
+must put them in relief.
+
+The Chourineur was a man of lofty stature and athletic make, with hair
+of a pale brown, nearly white; thick eyebrows, and enormous whiskers of
+deep red. The sun's rays, misery, and the severe toil of the galleys had
+bronzed his skin to that deep and olive hue which is peculiar to
+convicts. In spite of his horrible nickname, his features did not
+express ferocity, but a sort of coarse familiarity and irrepressible
+audacity. We have said already that the Chourineur was clothed in
+trousers and frock of blue cotton, and on his head he had one of those
+large straw hats usually worn by workmen in timber-yards, and
+barge-emptiers.
+
+The Goualeuse was, perhaps, about sixteen and a half years old. A
+forehead, of the purest and whitest, surmounted a face of perfect oval
+and angel-like expression; a fringe of eyelids, so long that they curled
+slightly, half veiled her large blue eyes, which had a melancholy
+expression. The down of early youth graced cheeks lightly coloured with
+a scarlet tinge. Her small and rosy mouth, which hardly ever smiled, her
+nose, straight, and delicately chiselled, her rounded chin, had, in
+their combined expression, a nobility and a sweetness such as we can
+only find in the most beautiful of Raphael's portraits. On each side of
+her fair temples was a band of hair, of the most splendid auburn hue,
+which descended in luxuriant ringlets half way down her cheeks, and was
+then turned back behind the ear, a portion of which--ivory shaded with
+carnation--was thus visible, and was then lost under the close folds of
+a large cotton handkerchief, with blue checks, tied, as it is called,
+_en marmotte_. Her graceful neck, of dazzling whiteness, was encircled
+by a small necklace of grains of coral. Her gown, of brown stuff, though
+much too large, could not conceal a charming form, supple and round as a
+cane; a worn-out small orange-coloured shawl, with green fringe, was
+crossed over her bosom.
+
+The lovely voice of the Goualeuse had made a strong impression on her
+unknown defender, and, in sooth, that voice, so gentle, so deliciously
+modulated and harmonious, had an attraction so irresistible that the
+horde of villains and abandoned women, in the midst of whom this
+unfortunate girl lived, often begged her to sing, and listened to her
+with rapture.
+
+The Goualeuse had another name, given, doubtless, to the maiden
+sweetness of her countenance,--she was also called Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+The defender of La Goualeuse (we shall call the unknown Rodolph)
+appeared about thirty-six years of age; his figure, tall, graceful, and
+admirably proportioned, yet did not betoken the astonishing vigour which
+he had displayed in his rencounter with the Chourineur.
+
+It would have been difficult to assign a decided character to the
+physiognomy of Rodolph. Certain wrinkles in his forehead betokened a man
+of meditation; and yet the firm expression of his mouth, the dignified
+and bold carriage of the head, assured us of the man of action, whose
+physical strength and presence of mind would always command an
+ascendancy over the multitude.
+
+[Illustration: _The Chourineur, Rodolph, and La Goualeuse_
+Etching by Adrian Marcel, after the drawing by Frank T. Merrill]
+
+In his struggle with the Chourineur, Rodolph had neither betrayed anger
+nor hatred. Confident in his own strength, his address, and agility, he
+had only shown a contempt for the brute beast which he subdued.
+
+We will finish this bodily picture of Rodolph by saying that his
+features, regularly handsome, seemed too beautiful for a man. His eyes
+were large, and of a deep hazel, his nose aquiline, his chin rather
+projecting, his hair bright chestnut, of the same shade as his eyebrows,
+which were strongly arched, and his small moustache, which was fine and
+silky. Thanks to the manners and the language which he assumed with so
+much ease, Rodolph was exactly like the other guests of the ogress.
+Round his graceful neck, as elegantly modelled as that of the Indian
+Bacchus, he wore a black cravat, carelessly tied, the ends of which fell
+on the collar of his blue blouse. A double row of nails decorated his
+heavy shoes, and, except that his hands were of most aristocratic shape,
+nothing distinguished him from the other guests of the _tapis-franc_;
+though, in a moral sense, his resolute air, and what we may term his
+bold serenity, placed an immense distance between them.
+
+On entering the _tapis-franc_, the Chourineur, laying one of his heavy
+hands on the shoulders of Rodolph, cried, "Hail the conqueror of the
+Chourineur! Yes, my boys, this springald has floored me; and if any
+young gentleman wishes to have his ribs smashed, or his 'nob in
+Chancery,' even including the Schoolmaster and the Skeleton, here is
+their man; I will answer for him, and back him!"
+
+At these words, all present, from the ogress to the lowest ruffian of
+the _tapis-franc_, contemplated the victor of the Chourineur with
+respect and fear. Some, moving their glasses and jugs to the end of the
+table at which they were seated, offered Rodolph a seat, if he were
+inclined to sit near them; others approached the Chourineur, and asked
+him, in a low voice, for the particulars of this unknown, who had made
+his entrance into their world in so striking a manner.
+
+Then the ogress, accosting Rodolph with one of her most gracious
+smiles,--a thing unheard of, and almost deemed fabulous, in the annals
+of the White Rabbit,--rose from the bar to take the orders of her guest,
+and know what he desired to have for the refreshment of his party,--an
+attention which she did not evince either to the Schoolmaster or the
+Skeleton, two fearful ruffians, who made even the Chourineur tremble.
+
+One of the men with the villainous aspect, whom we have before described
+as being very pale, hiding his left hand, and continually pulling his
+cap over his brows, leaned towards the ogress, who was carefully wiping
+the table where Rodolph had taken his seat, and said to her, in a hoarse
+tone, "Hasn't the Gros-Boiteux been here to-day?"
+
+"No," said Mother Ponisse.
+
+"Nor yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, he came yesterday."
+
+"Was Calebasse with him,--the daughter of Martial, who was guillotined?
+You know whom I mean,--the Martials of the Ile de Ravageur?"
+
+"What! do you take me for a spy, with your questions? Do you think I
+watch my customers?" said the ogress, in a brutal tone.
+
+"I have an appointment to-night with the Gros-Boiteux and the
+Schoolmaster," replied the fellow; "we have some business together."
+
+"That's your affair,--a set of ruffians, as you are, altogether."
+
+"Ruffians!" said the man, much incensed; "it is such ruffians you get
+your living by."
+
+"Will you hold your jaw?" said the Amazon, with a threatening gesture,
+and lifting, as she spoke, the pitcher she held in her hand.
+
+The man resumed his place, grumbling as he did so.
+
+"The Gros-Boiteux has, perhaps, stayed to give that young fellow
+Germain, who lives in the Rue du Temple, his gruel," said he, to his
+companion.
+
+"What, do they mean to _do_ for him?"
+
+"No, not quite, but to make him more careful in future. It appears he
+has 'blown the gaff' in the job at Nantes, so Bras Rouge declares."
+
+"Why, that is Gros-Boiteux's affair; he has only just left prison, and
+has his hands full already."
+
+Fleur-de-Marie had followed the Chourineur into the tavern of the
+ogress, and he, responding to a nod given to him by the young scamp with
+the jaded aspect, said, "Ah, Barbillon! what, pulling away at the old
+stuff?"
+
+"Yes; I would rather fast, and go barefoot any day, than be without my
+drops for my throttle, and the weed for my pipe," said the rapscallion,
+in a thick, low, hoarse voice, without moving from his seat, and puffing
+out volumes of tobacco-smoke.
+
+"Good evening, Fleur-de-Marie," said the ogress, looking with a prying
+eye on the clothes of the poor girl,--clothes which she had lent her.
+After her scrutiny, she said, in a tone of coarse satisfaction, "It's
+really a pleasure--so it is--to lend one's good clothes to you; you are
+as clean as a kitten, or else I would never have trusted you with that
+shawl. Such a beauty as that orange one is, I would never have trusted
+it to such gals as Tourneuse and Boulotte; but I have taken every care
+_on_ you ever since you came here six weeks ago; and, if the truth must
+be said, there is not a tidier nor more nicer girl than you in all the
+Cité; that there ain't; though you be al'ays so sad like, and too
+particular."
+
+The Goualeuse sighed, turned her head, and said nothing.
+
+"Why, mother," said Rodolph to the old hag, "you have got some holy
+boxwood, I see, over your cuckoo," and he pointed with his finger to the
+consecrated bough behind the old clock.
+
+"Why, you heathen, would you have us live like dogs?" replied the
+ogress. Then addressing Fleur-de-Marie, she added, "Come, now,
+Goualeuse, tip us one of your pretty little ditties" (_goualantes_).
+
+"Supper, supper first, Mother Ponisse," said the Chourineur.
+
+"Well, my lad of wax, what can I do for you?" said the ogress to
+Rodolph, whose good-will she was desirous to conciliate, and whose
+support she might, perchance, require.
+
+"Ask the Chourineur; he orders, I pay."
+
+"Well, then," said the ogress, turning to the bandit, "what will you
+have for supper, you 'bad lot?'"
+
+"Two quarts of the best wine, at twelve sous, three crusts of wheaten
+bread, and a harlequin,"[5] said the Chourineur, after considering for a
+few moments what he should order.
+
+ [5] A "harlequin" is a collection of odds and ends of fish,
+ flesh, and fowl, after they come from table, which the Parisian,
+ providing for the class to which the Chourineur belongs, finds a
+ profitable and popular composition.
+
+"Ah! you are a dainty dog, I know, and as fond as ever of them
+harlequins."
+
+"Well, now, Goualeuse," said the Chourineur, "are you hungry?"
+
+"No, Chourineur."
+
+"Would you like anything better than a harlequin, my lass?" said
+Rodolph.
+
+"No, I thank you; I have no appetite."
+
+"Come, now," said the Chourineur, with a brutal grin, "look my master in
+the face like a jolly wench. You have no objection, I suppose?"
+
+The poor girl blushed, and did not look at Rodolph. A few moments
+afterwards, and the ogress herself placed on the table a pitcher of
+wine, bread, and a harlequin, of which we will not attempt to give an
+idea to the reader, but which appeared most relishing to the Chourineur;
+for he exclaimed, "_Dieu de Dieu!_ what a dish! What a glorious dish! It
+is a regular omnibus; there is something in it to everybody's taste.
+Those who like fat can have it; so can they who like lean; as well as
+those who prefer sugar, and those who choose pepper. There's tender bits
+of chicken, biscuit, sausage, tarts, mutton-bones, pastry crust, fried
+fish, vegetables, woodcock's heads, cheese, and salad. Come, eat,
+Goualeuse, eat; it is so capital! You have been to a wedding breakfast
+somewhere this morning."
+
+"No more than on other mornings. I ate this morning, as usual, my
+ha'porth of milk, and my ha'porth of bread."
+
+The entrance of another personage into the cabaret interrupted all
+conversation for a moment, and everybody turned his head in the
+direction of the newcomer, who was a middle-aged man, active and
+powerful, wearing a loose coat and cap. He was evidently quite at home
+in the _tapis-franc_, and, in language familiar to all the guests,
+requested to be supplied with supper. He was so placed that he could
+observe the two ill-looking scoundrels who had asked after Gros-Boiteux
+and the Schoolmaster. He did not take his eyes off them; but in
+consequence of their position, they could not see that they were the
+objects of such marked and constant attention.
+
+The conversation, momentarily interrupted, was resumed. In spite of his
+natural audacity, the Chourineur showed a deference for Rodolph, and
+abstained from familiarity.
+
+"By Jove," said he to Rodolph, "although I have smarted for it, yet I am
+very glad to have met with you."
+
+"What! because you relish the harlequin?"
+
+"Why, may be so; but more because I am all on the fret to see you
+'serve out' the Schoolmaster. To see him who has always crowed over me,
+crowed over in his turn would do me good."
+
+"Do you suppose, then, that for your amusement I mean to spring at the
+Schoolmaster, and pin him like a bull-dog?"
+
+"No, but he'll have at you in a moment, when he learns that you are a
+better man than he," replied the Chourineur, rubbing his hands.
+
+"Well, I have coin enough left to pay him in full," said Rodolph, in a
+careless tone; "but it is horrible weather: what say you to a cup of
+brandy with sugar in it?"
+
+"That's the ticket!" said the Chourineur.
+
+"And, that we may be better acquainted, we will tell each other who we
+are," added Rodolph.
+
+"The Albinos called the Chourineur a freed convict, worker at the wood
+that floats at St. Paul's Quay; frozen in the winter, scorched in the
+summer, from twelve to fifteen hours a day in the water; half man, half
+frog; that's my description," said Rodolph's companion, making him a
+military salute with his left hand. "Well, now, and you, my master, this
+is your first appearance in the Cité. I don't mean anything to offend;
+but you entered head foremost against my skull, and beating the drum on
+my carcass. By all that's ugly, what a rattling you made, especially
+with these blows with which you doubled me up! I never can forget
+them--thick as buttons--what a torrent! But you have some trade besides
+'polishing off' the Chourineur?"
+
+"I am a fan-painter, and my name is Rodolph."
+
+"A fan-painter! Ah! that's the reason, then, that your hands are so
+white," added the Chourineur. "If all your fellow workmen are like you,
+there must be a tidy lot of you. But, as you are a workman, what brings
+you to a _tapis-franc_ in the Cité, where there are only prigs,
+cracksmen or freed convicts like myself, and who only come here because
+we cannot go elsewhere? This is no place for you. Honest mechanics have
+their coffee-shops, and don't talk slang."
+
+"I come here because I like good company."
+
+"Gammon!" said the Chourineur, shaking his head with an air of doubt. "I
+found you in the passage of Bras Rouge. Well, man, never mind. You say
+you don't know him?"
+
+"What do you mean with all your nonsense about your Bras Rouge? Let him
+go to the--"
+
+"Stay, master of mine. You, perhaps, distrust me; but you are wrong, and
+if you like I will tell you my history; but that is on condition that
+you teach me how to give those precious thumps which settled my business
+so quickly. What say you?"
+
+"I agree, Chourineur; tell me your story, and Goualeuse will also tell
+hers."
+
+"Very well," replied the Chourineur; "it is not weather to turn a mangy
+cur out-of-doors, and it will be an amusement. Do you agree, Goualeuse?"
+
+"Oh, certainly; but my story is a very short one," said Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+"And you will have to tell us your history, comrade Rodolph," added the
+Chourineur.
+
+"Well, then, I'll begin."
+
+"Fan-painter!" said Goualeuse, "what a very pretty trade!"
+
+"And how much can you earn if you stick close to work?" inquired the
+Chourineur.
+
+"I work by the piece," responded Rodolph; "my good days are worth three
+francs, sometimes four, in summer, when the days are long."
+
+"And you are idle sometimes, you rascal?"
+
+"Yes, as long as I have money, though I do not waste it. First, I pay
+ten sous for my night's lodging."
+
+"Your pardon, monseigneur; you sleep, then, at ten sous, do you?" said
+the Chourineur, raising his hand to his cap.
+
+The word monseigneur, spoken ironically by the Chourineur, caused an
+almost imperceptible smile on the lips of Rodolph, who replied, "Oh, I
+like to be clean and comfortable."
+
+"Here's a peer of the realm for you! a man with mines of wealth!"
+exclaimed the Chourineur; "he pays ten sous for his bed!"
+
+"Well, then," continued Rodolph, "four sous for tobacco; that makes
+fourteen sous; four sous for breakfast, eighteen; fifteen sous for
+dinner; one or two sous for brandy; that all comes to about thirty-four
+or thirty-five sous a day. I have no occasion to work all the week, and
+so the rest of the time I amuse myself."
+
+"And your family?" said the Goualeuse.
+
+"Dead," replied Rodolph.
+
+"Who were your friends?" asked the Goualeuse.
+
+"Dealers in old clothes and marine stores under the pillars of the
+market-place."
+
+"How did you spend what they left you?" inquired the Chourineur.
+
+"I was very young, and my guardian sold the stock; and, when I came of
+age, he brought me in his debtor for thirty francs; that was my
+inheritance."
+
+"And who is now your employer?" the Chourineur demanded.
+
+"His name is Gauthier, in the Rue des Bourdonnais, a
+beast--brute--thief--miser! He would almost as soon lose the sight of an
+eye as pay his workmen. Now this is as true a description as I can give
+you of him; so let's have done with him. I learned my trade under him
+from the time when I was fifteen years of age; I have a good number in
+the Conscription, and my name is Rodolph Durand. My history is told."
+
+"Now it's your turn, Goualeuse," said the Chourineur; "I keep my history
+till last, as a _bonne bouche_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+HISTORY OF LA GOUALEUSE.
+
+
+"Let us begin at the beginning," said the Chourineur.
+
+"Yes; your parents?" added Rodolph.
+
+"I never knew them," said Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+"The deuce!" said the Chourineur. "Well, that is odd, Goualeuse! you and
+I are of the same family."
+
+"What! you, too, Chourineur?"
+
+"An orphan of the streets of Paris like you, my girl."
+
+"Then who brought you up, Goualeuse?" asked Rodolph.
+
+"I don't know, sir. As far back as I can remember--I was, I think, about
+six or seven years old--I was with an old one-eyed woman, whom they call
+the Chouette,[6] because she had a hooked nose, a green eye quite round,
+and was like an owl with one eye out."
+
+ [6] The Screech-owl.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! I think I see her, the old night-bird!" shouted the
+Chourineur, laughing.
+
+"The one-eyed woman," resumed Fleur-de-Marie, "made me sell barley-sugar
+in the evenings on the Pont Neuf; but that was only an excuse for asking
+charity; and when I did not bring her in at least ten sous, the Chouette
+beat me instead of giving me any supper."
+
+"Are you sure the woman was not your mother?" inquired Rodolph.
+
+"Quite sure; for she often scolded me for being fatherless and
+motherless, and said she picked me up one day in the street."
+
+"So," said the Chourineur, "you had a dance instead of a meal, if you
+did not pick up ten sous?"
+
+"Yes. And after that I went to lie down on some straw spread on the
+ground; when I was cold--very cold."
+
+"I do not doubt it, for the feather of beans (straw) is a very cold sort
+of stuff," said the Chourineur. "A dung-heap is twice as good; but then
+people don't like your smell, and say, 'Oh, the blackguard! where has he
+been?'"
+
+This remark made Rodolph smile, whilst Fleur-de-Marie thus continued:
+"Next day the one-eyed woman gave me a similar allowance for breakfast
+as for supper, and sent me to Montfauçon to get some worms to bait for
+fish; for in the daytime the Chouette kept her stall for selling
+fishing-lines, near the bridge of Notre Dame. For a child of seven years
+of age, who is half dead with hunger and cold, it is a long way from the
+Rue de la Mortellerie to Montfauçon."
+
+"But exercise has made you grow as straight as an arrow, my girl; you
+have no reason to complain of that," said the Chourineur, striking a
+light for his pipe.
+
+"Well," said the Goualeuse, "I returned very, very tired; then, at noon,
+the Chouette gave me a little bit of bread."
+
+"Ah, eating so little has kept your figure as fine as a needle, girl;
+you must not find fault with that," said Chourineur, puffing out a cloud
+of tobacco-smoke. "But what ails you, comrade--I mean, Master Rodolph?
+You seem quite down like; are you sorry for the girl and her miseries?
+Ah, we all have, and have had, our miseries!"
+
+"Yes, but not such miseries as mine, Chourineur," said Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+"What! not I, Goualeuse? Why, my lass, you were a queen to me! At least,
+when you were little you slept on straw and ate bread; I passed my most
+comfortable nights in the lime-kilns at Clichy, like a regular vagabond;
+I fed on cabbage-stumps and other refuse vegetables, which I picked up
+when and where I could; but very often, as it was so far to the
+lime-kilns at Clichy, and I was tired after my work, I slept under the
+large stones at the Louvre; and then, in winter, I had white
+sheets,--that is, whenever the snow fell."
+
+"A man is stronger; but a poor little girl--" said Fleur-de-Marie. "And
+yet, with all that, I was as plump as a skylark."
+
+"What! you remember that, eh?"
+
+"To be sure I do. When the Chouette beat me I fell always at the first
+blow; then she stamped upon me, screaming out, 'Ah, the nasty little
+brute! she hasn't a farden's worth of strength,--she can't stand even
+two thumps!' And then she called me Pegriotte (little thief). I never
+had any other name,--that was my baptismal name."
+
+"Like me. I had the baptism of a dog in a ditch, and they called me
+'Fellow,' or 'You, sir,' or 'Albino.' It is really surprising, my wench,
+how much we resemble each other!" said the Chourineur.
+
+"That's true,--in our misery," said Fleur-de-Marie, who addressed
+herself to the Chourineur almost always, feeling, in spite of herself, a
+sort of shame at the presence of Rodolph, hardly venturing to raise her
+eyes to him, although in appearance he belonged to that class with whom
+she ordinarily lived.
+
+"And when you had fetched the worms for the Chouette, what did you do?"
+inquired the Chourineur.
+
+"Why, she made me beg until night; then, in the evening, she went to
+sell fried fish on the Pont Neuf. Oh, dear! at that time it was a long
+while to wait for my morsel of bread; and if I dared to ask the Chouette
+for something to eat, she beat me and said, 'Get ten sous, and then you
+shall have your supper.' Then I, being very hungry, and as she hurt me
+very much, cried with a very full heart and sore body. The Chouette tied
+my little basket of barley-sugar round my neck, and stationed me on the
+Pont Neuf, where, in winter, I was frozen to death. Yet sometimes, in
+spite of myself, I slept as I stood,--but not long; for the Chouette
+kicked me until I awoke. I remained on the bridge till eleven o'clock,
+my stock of barley-sugar hanging round my neck, and often crying
+heartily. The passengers, touched by my tears, sometimes gave me a sou;
+and then I gained ten and sometimes fifteen sous, which I gave to the
+Chouette, who searched me all over, and even looked in my mouth, to see
+if I had kept back anything."
+
+"Well, fifteen sous was a good haul for a little bird like you."
+
+"It was. And then the one-eyed woman seeing that--"
+
+"With her one eye?" said the Chourineur, laughing.
+
+"Of course, because she had but one. Well, then, she finding that when I
+cried I got most money, always beat me severely before she put me on the
+bridge."
+
+"Brutal, but cunning."
+
+"Well, at last I got hardened to blows; and as the Chouette got in a
+passion when I did not cry, why I, to be revenged upon her, the more she
+thumped me the more I laughed, although the tears came into my eyes with
+the pain."
+
+"But, poor Goualeuse, did not the sticks of barley-sugar make you long
+for them?"
+
+"Ah, yes, Chourineur; but I never tasted them. It was my ambition, and
+my ambition ruined me. One day, returning from Montfauçon, some little
+boys beat me and stole my basket. I came back, well knowing what was in
+store for me; and I had a shower of thumps and no bread. In the evening,
+before going to the bridge, the Chouette, savage because I had not
+brought in anything the evening before, instead of beating me as usual
+to make me cry, made me bleed by pulling my hair from the sides of the
+temples, where it is most tender."
+
+"_Tonnerre!_ that was coming it too strong," said the bandit, striking
+his fist heavily on the table, and frowning sternly. "To beat a child is
+no such great thing, but to ill-use one so--Heaven and earth!"
+
+Rodolph had listened attentively to the recital of Fleur-de-Marie, and
+now looked at the Chourineur with astonishment: the display of such
+feeling quite surprised him.
+
+"What ails you, Chourineur?" he inquired.
+
+"What ails me? Ails me? Why, have you no feeling? That devil's dam of a
+Chouette who so brutally used this girl! Are you as hard as your own
+fists?"
+
+"Go on, my girl," said Rodolph to Fleur-de-Marie, without appearing to
+notice the Chourineur's appeal.
+
+"I have told you how the Chouette ill-used me to make me cry. I was then
+sent on to the bridge with my barley-sugar. The one-eyed was at her
+usual spot, and from time to time shook her doubled fist at me. However,
+as I had not broken my fast since the night before, and as I was very
+hungry, at the risk of putting the Chouette in a passion, I took a piece
+of barley-sugar, and began to eat it."
+
+"Well done, girl!"
+
+"I ate another piece--"
+
+"Bravo! go it, my hearties!"
+
+"I found it so good, not from daintiness, but real hunger. But then a
+woman, who sold oranges, cried out to the one-eyed woman, 'Look ye
+there, Chouette; Pegriotte is eating the barley-sugar!'"
+
+"Oh, thunder and lightning!" said the Chourineur; "that would enrage
+her,--make her in a passion! Poor little mouse, what a fright you were
+in when the Chouette saw you!--eh?"
+
+"How did you get out of that affair, poor Goualeuse?" asked Rodolph,
+with as much interest as the Chourineur.
+
+"Why, it was a serious matter to me,--but that was afterwards; for the
+Chouette, although boiling over with rage at seeing me devour the
+barley-sugar, could not leave her stove, for the fish was frying."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! True, true,--that was a difficult position for her," said
+the Chourineur, laughing heartily.
+
+"At a distance, the Chouette threatened me with her long iron fork; but
+when her fish was cooked, she came towards me. I had only collected
+three sous, and I had eaten six sous' worth. She did not say a word, but
+took me by the hand and dragged me away with her. At this moment, I do
+not know how it was that I did not die on the spot with fright. I
+remember it as well as if it was this very moment,--it was very near to
+New Year's day, and there were a great many shops on the Pont Neuf, all
+filled with toys, and I had been looking at them all the evening with
+the greatest delight,--beautiful dolls, little furnished houses,--you
+know how very amusing such things are for a child."
+
+"You had never had any playthings, had you, Goualeuse?" asked the
+Chourineur.
+
+"I? _Mon Dieu!_ who was there to give me any playthings?" said the girl,
+in a sad tone. "Well, the evening passed. Although it was in the depth
+of winter, I only had on a little cotton gown, no stockings, no shift,
+and with wooden shoes on my feet: that was not enough to stifle me with
+heat, was it? Well, when the old woman took my hand, I burst out into a
+perspiration from head to foot. What frightened me most was, that,
+instead of swearing and storming as usual, she only kept on grumbling
+between her teeth. She never let go my hand, but made me walk so
+fast--so very fast--that I was obliged to run to keep up with her, and
+in running I had lost one of my wooden shoes; and as I did not dare to
+say so, I followed her with one foot naked on the bare stones. When we
+reached home it was covered with blood."
+
+"A one-eyed old devil's kin!" said the Chourineur, again thumping the
+table in his anger. "It makes my heart quite cold to think of the poor
+little thing trotting along beside that cursed old brute, with her poor
+little foot all bloody!"
+
+"We lived in a garret in the Rue de la Montellerie; beside the entrance
+to our alley there was a dram-shop, and there the Chouette went in,
+still dragging me by the hand. She then had a half pint of brandy at the
+bar."
+
+"The deuce! Why, I could not drink that without being quite fuddled!"
+
+"It was her usual quantity; perhaps that was the reason why she beat me
+of an evening. Well, at last we got up into our cock-loft; the Chouette
+double-locked the door; I threw myself on my knees, and asked her pardon
+for having eaten the barley-sugar. She did not answer me, but I heard
+her mumbling to herself, as she walked about the room, 'What shall I do
+this evening to this little thief, who has eaten all that barley-sugar?
+Ah, I see!' And she looked at me maliciously with her one green eye. I
+was still on my knees, when she suddenly went to a shelf and took down a
+pair of pincers."
+
+"Pincers!" exclaimed the Chourineur.
+
+"Yes, pincers."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To strike you?" inquired Rodolph.
+
+"To pinch you?" said the Chourineur.
+
+"No, no," answered the poor girl, trembling at the very recollection.
+
+"To pull out your hair?"
+
+"No; to take out one of my teeth."
+
+The Chourineur uttered a blasphemous oath, accompanied with such furious
+imprecations that all the guests in the _tapis-franc_ looked at him with
+astonishment.
+
+"Why, what is the matter with you?" asked Rodolph.
+
+"The matter! the matter! I'll skin her alive, that infernal old hag, if
+I can catch her! Where is she? Tell me, where is she? Let me find her,
+and I'll throttle the old--"
+
+"And did she really take out your tooth, my poor child,--that wretched
+monster in woman's shape?" demanded Rodolph, whilst the Chourineur was
+venting his rage in a volley of the most violent reproaches.
+
+"Yes, sir; but not at the first pull. How I suffered! She held me with
+my head between her knees, where she held it as if in a vice. Then, half
+with her pincers, half with her fingers, she pulled out my tooth, and
+then said, 'Now I will pull out one every day, Pegriotte; and when you
+have not a tooth left I will throw you into the river, and the fish
+shall eat you.'"
+
+"The old devil! To break and pull out a poor child's teeth in that way!"
+exclaimed the Chourineur, with redoubled fury.
+
+"And how did you escape her then?" inquired Rodolph of the Goualeuse.
+
+"Next day, instead of going to Montfauçon, I went on the side of the
+Champs Elysées, so frightened was I of being drowned by the Chouette. I
+would have run to the end of the world, rather than be again in the
+Chouette's hands. After walking and walking, I fairly lost myself; I had
+not begged a farthing, and the more I thought the more frightened did I
+become. At night I hid myself in a timber-yard, under some piles of
+wood. As I was very little, I was able to creep under an old door and
+hide myself amongst a heap of logs. I was so hungry that I tried to gnaw
+a piece of the bark, but I could not bite it,--it was too hard. At
+length I fell asleep. In the morning, hearing a noise, I hid myself
+still further back in the wood-pile. It was tolerably warm, and, if I
+had had something to eat, I could not have been better off for the
+winter."
+
+"Like me in the lime-kiln."
+
+"I did not dare to quit the timber-yard, for I fancied that the Chouette
+would seek for me everywhere, to pull out my teeth and drown me, and
+that she would be sure to catch me if I stirred from where I was."
+
+"Stay, do not mention that old beast's name again,--it makes the blood
+come into my eyes! The fact is, that you have known misery,--bitter,
+bitter misery. Poor little mite! how sorry I am that I threatened to
+beat you just now, and frightened you. As I am a man, I did not mean to
+do it."
+
+"Why, would you not have beaten me? I have no one to defend me."
+
+"That's the very reason, because you are not like the others,--because
+you have no one to take your part,--that I would not have beaten you.
+When I say no one, I do not mean our comrade Rodolph; but his coming was
+a chance, and he certainly did give me my full allowance when we met."
+
+"Go on, my child," said Rodolph. "How did you get away from the
+timber-yard?"
+
+"Next day, about noon, I heard a great dog barking under the wood-pile.
+I listened, and the bark came nearer and nearer; then a deep voice
+exclaimed, 'My dog barks,--somebody is hid in the yard!' 'They are
+thieves,' said another voice; and the men then began to encourage the
+dog, and cry, 'Find 'em! find 'em, lad!' The dog ran to me, and, for
+fear of being bitten, I began to cry out with all my might and main.
+'Hark!' said one of them; 'I hear the cry of a child.' They called back
+the dog; I came out from the pile of wood, and saw a gentleman and a man
+in a blouse. 'Ah, you little thief! what are you doing in my
+timber-yard?' said the gentleman, in a cross tone. I put my hands
+together and said, 'Don't hurt me, pray. I have had nothing to eat for
+two days, and I've run away from the Chouette, who pulled out my tooth,
+and said she would throw me over to the fishes. Not knowing where to
+sleep, I was passing before your door, and I slept for the night
+amongst these logs, under this heap, not thinking I hurt anybody.'
+
+"'I'm not to be gammoned by you, you little hussy! You came to steal my
+logs. Go and call the watch,' said the timber-merchant to his man."
+
+"Ah, the old vagabond! The old reprobate! Call the watch! Why didn't he
+send for the artillery?" said the Chourineur. "Steal his logs, and you
+only eight years old! What an old ass!"
+
+"'Not true, sir,' his man replied. 'Steal your logs, master! How can she
+do that? She is not so big as the smallest piece!' 'You are right,'
+replied the timber-merchant; 'but if she does not come for herself, she
+does for others. Thieves have a parcel of children, whom they send to
+pry about and hide themselves to open the doors of houses. She must be
+taken to the commissary, and mind she does not escape.'"
+
+"Upon my life, this timber-merchant was more of a log than any log in
+his own yard," said the Chourineur.
+
+"I was taken to the commissary," resumed Goualeuse. "I accused myself of
+being a wanderer, and they sent me to prison. I was sent before the
+Tribunal, and sentenced, as a rogue and vagabond, to remain until I was
+sixteen years of age in a house of correction. I thank the judges much
+for their kindness; for in prison I had food, I was not beaten, and it
+was a paradise after the cock-loft of the Chouette. Then, in prison I
+learned to sew; but, sad to say, I was idle: I preferred singing to
+work, and particularly when I saw the sun shine. Ah, when the sun shone
+on the walls of the prison I could not help singing; and then, when I
+could sing, I seemed no longer to be a prisoner. It was after I began to
+sing so much that they called me Goualeuse, instead of Pegriotte. Well,
+when I was sixteen, I left the gaol. At the door, I found the ogress
+here, and two or three old women, who had come to see my fellow
+prisoners, and who had always told me that when I left the prison they
+would find work for me."
+
+"Yes, yes, I see," said the Chourineur.
+
+"'My pretty little maid,' said the ogress and her old companions, 'come
+and lodge with us; we will give you good clothes, and then you may amuse
+yourself.' I didn't like them, and refused, saying to myself, 'I know
+how to sew very well, and I have two hundred francs in hand. I have been
+eight years in prison, I should like to enjoy myself a bit,--that won't
+hurt anybody; work will come when the money is spent.' And so I began to
+spend my two hundred francs. Ah, that was my mistake," added
+Fleur-de-Marie, with a sigh. "I ought first to have got my work; but I
+hadn't a soul on earth to advise me. At sixteen, to be thrown on the
+city of Paris, as I was, one is so lonely; and what is done is done. I
+have done wrong, and I have suffered for it. I began then to spend my
+money: first, I bought flowers to put in my room,--I do love
+flowers!--then I bought a gown, a nice shawl, and I took a walk in the
+Bois de Boulogne, and I went to St. Germains, Vincennes, and other
+country places. Oh, how I love the country!"
+
+"With a lover by your side, my girl?" asked the Chourineur.
+
+"Oh, _mon Dieu!_ no! I like to be my own mistress. I had my little
+excursions with a friend who was in prison with me,--a good little girl
+as can be: they call her Rigolette, because she is always laughing."
+
+"Rigolette! Rigolette! I don't know her," said the Chourineur, who
+appeared to be appealing to his memory.
+
+"I didn't think you knew her. I am sure Rigolette was very well behaved
+in prison, and always so gay and so industrious, she took out with her
+when she left the prison at least four hundred francs that she had
+earned. And then she is so particular!--you should see her! When I say I
+had no one to advise me, I am wrong: I ought to have listened to her;
+for, after having had a week's amusement together, she said to me, 'Now
+we have had such a holiday, we ought to try for work, and not spend our
+money in waste.' I, who was so happy in the fields and the woods,--it
+was just at the end of spring, this year,--I answered, 'Oh, I must be
+idle a little longer, and then I will work hard.' Since that time I have
+not seen Rigolette, but I heard a few days since that she was living
+near the Temple,--that she was a famous needlewoman, and earned at least
+twenty-five sous a-day, and has a small workroom of her own; but now I
+could not for the world see her again,--I should die with shame if I met
+her."
+
+"So, then, my poor girl," said Rodolph, "you spent your money in the
+country,--you like the country, do you?"
+
+"Like it? I love it! Oh, what would I not give to live there? Rigolette,
+on the contrary, prefers Paris, and likes to walk on the Boulevards; but
+she is so nice and so kind, she went into the country only to please
+me."
+
+"And you did not even leave yourself a few sous to live upon whilst you
+found work?" said the Chourineur.
+
+"Yes, I had reserved about fifty francs; but it happened that I had for
+my washerwoman a woman called Lorraine, a poor thing, with none but the
+good God to protect her. She was then very near her confinement, and yet
+was obliged all day long to be with her hands and feet in her
+washing-tubs. She fell sick, and, not being able to work, applied for
+admittance to a lying-in hospital, but there was no room. She could not
+work, and her time was very near at hand, and she had not a son to pay
+for the bed in a garret, from which they drove her. Fortunately, she met
+one day, at the end of the Pont Notre-Dame, with Goubin's wife, who had
+been hiding for four days in a cellar of a house which was being pulled
+down behind the Hôtel Dieu--"
+
+"But why was Goubin's wife hiding?"
+
+"To escape from her husband, who threatened to kill her; and she only
+went out at night to buy some bread, and it was then she met with the
+poor Lorraine, ill, and hardly able to drag herself along, for she was
+expecting to be brought to bed every hour. Well, it seems this Goubin's
+wife took her to the cellar where she was hiding,--it was just a
+shelter, and no more. There she shared her bread and straw with the poor
+Lorraine, who was confined in this cellar of a poor little infant; her
+only covering and bed was straw! Well, it seems that Goubin's wife could
+not bear it, and so, going out at all risks, even of being killed by her
+husband, who was looking for her everywhere, she left the cellar in open
+day, and came to me. She knew I had still a little money left, and that
+I could assist her if I would; so, when Helmina had told me all about
+poor Lorraine, who was obliged to lie with her new-born babe on straw, I
+told her to bring them both to my room at once, and I would take a
+chamber for her next to mine. This I did; and, oh, how happy she was,
+poor Lorraine, when she found herself in a bed, with her babe beside her
+in a little couch which I had bought for her! Helmina and I nursed her
+until she was able to get about again, and then, with the rest of my
+money, I enabled her to return to her washing-tubs."
+
+"And when all your money was spent on Lorraine and her infant, what did
+you do, my child?" inquired Rodolph.
+
+"I looked out for work; but it was too late. I can sew very well, I have
+good courage, and thought that I had only to ask for work and get it.
+Ah! how I deceived myself! I went into a shop where they sell ready-made
+linen, and asked for employment, and as I would not tell a story, I said
+I had just left prison. They showed me the door, without making me any
+answer. I begged they would give me a trial, and they pushed me into the
+street as if I had been a thief. Then I remembered, too late, what
+Rigolette had told me. Little by little I sold my small stock of clothes
+and linen, and when all was gone they turned me out of my lodging. I had
+not tasted food for two days; I did not know where to sleep. At this
+moment I met the ogress and one of her old women who knew where I
+lodged, and was always coming about me since I left prison. They told me
+they would find me work, and I believed them. I went with them, so
+exhausted for want of food that my senses were gone. They gave me brandy
+to drink, and--and--here I am!" said the unhappy creature, hiding her
+face in her hands.
+
+"Have you lived a long time with the ogress, my poor girl?" asked
+Rodolph, in accents of the deepest compassion.
+
+"Six weeks, sir," replied Goualeuse, shuddering as she spoke.
+
+"I see,--I see," said the Chourineur; "I know you now as well as if I
+were your father and mother, and you had never left my lap. Well, well,
+this is a confession indeed!"
+
+"It makes you sad, my girl, to tell the story of your life," said
+Rodolph.
+
+"Alas! sir," replied Fleur-de-Marie, sorrowfully, "since I was born this
+is the first time it ever happened to me to recall all these things at
+once, and my tale is not a merry one."
+
+"Well," said the Chourineur, ironically, "you are sorry, perhaps, that
+you are not a kitchen-wench in a cook-shop, or a servant to some old
+brutes who think of no one but themselves."
+
+"Ah!" said Fleur-de-Marie, with a deep sigh, "to be quite happy, we must
+be quite virtuous."
+
+"Oh, what is your little head about now?" exclaimed the Chourineur, with
+a loud burst of laughter. "Why not count your rosary in honour of your
+father and mother, whom you never knew?"
+
+"My father and mother abandoned me in the street like a puppy that is
+one too many in the house; perhaps they had not enough to feed
+themselves," said Goualeuse, with bitterness. "I want nothing of
+them,--I complain of nothing,--but there are lots happier than mine."
+
+"Yours! Why, what would you have? You are as handsome as a Venus, and
+yet only sixteen and a half; you sing like a nightingale, behave
+yourself very prettily, are called Fleur-de-Marie, and yet you complain!
+What will you say, I should like to know, when you will have a stove
+under your 'paddlers,' and a chinchilla boa, like the ogress?"
+
+"Oh, I shall never be so old as she is."
+
+"Perhaps you have a charm for never growing any older?"
+
+"No; but I could not lead such a life. I have already a bad cough."
+
+"Ah, I see you already in the 'cold-meat box.' Go along, you silly
+child, you!"
+
+"Do you often have such thoughts as these, Goualeuse?" said Rodolph.
+
+"Sometimes. You, perhaps, M. Rodolph, understand me. In the morning,
+when I go to buy my milk from the milkwoman at the corner of Rue de la
+Vieille-Draperie, with the sous which the ogress gives me, and see her
+go away in her little cart drawn by her donkey, I do envy her so, and I
+say to myself, 'She is going into the country, to the pure air, to her
+home and her family;' and then I return alone into the garret of the
+ogress, where you cannot see plainly even at noonday."
+
+"Well, child, be good--laugh at your troubles--be good," said the
+Chourineur.
+
+"Good! _mon Dieu!_ and how do you mean be good? The clothes I wear
+belong to the ogress, and I am in debt to her for my board and lodging.
+I can't stir from her; she would have me taken up as a thief. I belong
+to her, and I must pay her."
+
+When she had uttered these last words, the unhappy girl could not help
+shuddering, and a tear trembled in her long eyelashes.
+
+"Well, but remain as you are, and do not compare yourself to a country
+milkwoman," said the Chourineur. "Are you taking leave of your senses?
+Only think, you may yet cut a figure in the capital, whilst the
+milkwoman must boil the pot for her brats, milk her cows, gather grass
+for her rabbits, and, perhaps, after all, get a black eye from her
+husband when he comes home from the pot-house. Why, it is really
+ridiculous to hear you talk of envying her."
+
+The Goualeuse did not reply; her eye was fixed, her heart was full, and
+the expression of her face was painfully distressed. Rodolph had
+listened to the recital, made with so painful a frankness, with deep
+interest. Misery, destitution, ignorance of the world, had weighed down
+this wretched girl, cast at sixteen years of age on the wide world of
+Paris!
+
+Rodolph involuntarily thought of a beloved child whom he had lost,--a
+girl, dead at six years of age, and who, had she survived, would have
+been, like Fleur-de-Marie, sixteen years and a half old. This
+recollection excited the more highly his solicitude for the unhappy
+creature whose narration he had just heard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE CHOURINEUR'S HISTORY.
+
+
+The reader has not forgotten the two guests at the _tapis-franc_ who
+were watched so closely by the third individual who had come into the
+cabaret. We have said that one of these fellows, who had on a Greek cap,
+and concealed his left hand with much care, asked the ogress if the
+Schoolmaster and Gros-Boiteux had not arrived.
+
+During the story of the Goualeuse, which they could not overhear, they
+had been constantly talking in a very low tone, throwing occasional
+hurried glances at the door. He who wore the Greek cap said to his
+comrade, "The Gros-Boiteux does not 'show,' nor the Schoolmaster."
+
+"Perhaps the Skeleton has 'done for him,' and made off with the 'swag.'"
+
+"A precious 'go' that would be for us, who 'laid the plant,' and look
+out for our 'snacks,'" replied the other.
+
+The newcomer, who observed the two men, was seated too far off to hear a
+word they said, but, after having cautiously consulted a small paper
+concealed at the bottom of his cap, he appeared satisfied with his
+remarks, rose from the table, and said to the ogress, who was sleeping
+at the bar, with her feet on the stove, and her great cat on her knee:
+
+"I say, Mother Ponisse, I shall soon be back again; take care of my
+pitcher and my plate; I don't want any one to make free with them."
+
+"Make yourself easy, my fine fellow," said Mother Ponisse; "if your
+plate and pitcher are empty, no one will touch them."
+
+The newcomer laughed loudly at the joke of the ogress, and then slipped
+out, so that his departure was unnoticed. At that moment when this man
+retired, and before the door could be shut, Rodolph saw the
+charcoal-dealer, whose black face and tall form we have already alluded
+to, and he had just time to manifest to him, by an impatient gesture,
+how much he disliked his watchful attendance; but the charcoal-man did
+not appear to heed this in the least, and still kept hanging about the
+_tapis-franc_. The countenance of the Goualeuse became still more
+saddened; with her back to the wall, her head drooping on her bosom, her
+full blue eyes gazing mechanically about her, the unfortunate being
+seemed bowed down with the weight of her oppressive thoughts. Two or
+three times, having met Rodolph's fixed look, she turned away, unable to
+account to herself for the singular impression which the unknown had
+caused her. Weighed down and abashed at his presence, she almost
+regretted having made so candid a narrative to him of her unhappy life.
+The Chourineur, on the contrary, was quite in high spirits; he had
+devoured the whole harlequin without the least assistance; the wine and
+brandy had made him very communicative; the fact of his having found his
+master, as he called him, had been forgotten in the generous conduct of
+Rodolph; and he also detected so decided a physical superiority, that
+his humiliation had given way to a sentiment of admiration, mingled with
+fear and respect. This absence of rancour, and the savage pride with
+which he boasted of never having robbed, proved that the Chourineur was
+not as yet thoroughly hardened. This had not escaped the sagacity of
+Rodolph, and he awaited the man's recital with curiosity.
+
+"Now, my boy," said he, "we are listening."
+
+The Chourineur emptied his glass, and thus began:
+
+"You, my poor girl, were at last taken to by the Chouette, whom the
+devil confound! You never had a shelter until the moment when you were
+imprisoned as a vagabond. I can never recollect having slept in what is
+called a bed before I was nineteen years of age,--a happy age!--and then
+I became a trooper."
+
+"What, you have served, then, Chourineur?" said Rodolph.
+
+"Three years; but you will hear all about it: the stones of the Louvre,
+the lime-kilns of Clichy, and the quarries of Montrouge, these were the
+hôtels of my youth. Then I had my house in Paris and in the country. Who
+but I--"
+
+"And what was your trade?"
+
+"Faith, master, I have a foggy recollection of having strolled about in
+my childhood with an old rag-picker, who almost thumped me to death; and
+it must be true, for I have never since met one of these old Cupids,
+with a wicker-work quiver, without a longing to pitch into him,--a proof
+that one of them must have thumped me when I was a child. My first
+employment was to help the knackers to cut the horses' throats at
+Montfauçon. I was about ten or twelve. When I began to slash
+(_chouriner_) these poor old beasts, it had quite an impression on me.
+At the month's end I thought no more about it; on the contrary, I began
+to like my trade. No one had his knife so sharpened and keen-edged as
+mine; and that made me rejoice in using it. When I had cut the animals'
+throats, they gave me for my trouble a piece of the thigh of some animal
+that had died of disease; for those that they slaughter are sold to the
+'cag-mag' shops near the School of Medicine, who convert it into beef,
+mutton, veal, or game, according to the taste of purchasers. However,
+when I got to my morsel of horse's flesh, I was as happy as a king! I
+went with it into the lime-kiln like a wolf to his lair, and then, with
+the leave of the lime-burners, I made a glorious fry on the ashes. When
+the burners were not at work, I picked up some dry wood at Romainville,
+set light to it, and broiled my steak under the walls of the bone-house.
+The meat certainly was bloody, and almost raw, but that made a change."
+
+"And your name? What did they call you?" asked Rodolph.
+
+"I had hair much more flaxen than now, and the blood was always in my
+eyes, and so they called me the 'Albino.' The Albinos are the white
+rabbits amongst men; they have red eyes," added the Chourineur, in a
+grave tone, and, as it were, with a physiological parenthesis.
+
+"And your relations? your family?"
+
+"My relations? Oh! they lodge at the same number as the Goualeuse's.
+Place of my birth? Why, the first corner of no-matter-what street,
+either on the right or left-hand side of the way, and either going up or
+coming down the kennel."
+
+"Then you have cursed your father and mother for having abandoned you?"
+
+"Why, that would not have set my leg if I had broken it! No matter;
+though it's true they played me a scurvy trick in bringing me into the
+world. But I should not have complained if they had made me as beggars
+ought to be made; that is to say, without the sense of cold, hunger, or
+thirst. Beggars who don't like thieving would find it greatly to their
+advantage."
+
+"You were cold, thirsty, hungry, Chourineur, and yet you did not steal?"
+
+"No; and yet I was horribly wretched. It's a fact, that I have often
+gone with an empty bread-basket (fasted) for two days at a time: that
+was more than my share; but I never stole."
+
+"For fear of a gaol?"
+
+"Pooh!" said the Chourineur, shrugging his shoulders, and laughing
+loudly, "I should then not have stolen bread, for fear of getting my
+allowance, eh? An honest man, I was famishing; a thief, I should have
+been supported in prison, and right well, too! But I did not steal,
+because--because--why, because the idea of stealing never came across
+me; so that's all about it!"
+
+This reply, noble as it was in itself, but of the rectitude of which the
+Chourineur himself had no idea, perfectly astonished Rodolph. He felt
+that the poor fellow who had remained honest in the midst of the most
+cruel privations was to be respected twofold, since the punishment of
+the crime became a certain resource for him. Rodolph held out his hand
+to this ill-used savage of civilisation, whom misery had been unable
+wholly to corrupt. The Chourineur looked at his host in
+astonishment,--almost with respect; he hardly dared to touch the hand
+tendered to him. He felt impressed with some vague idea that there was a
+wide abyss between Rodolph and himself.
+
+"'Tis well," said Rodolph to him, "you have heart and honour."
+
+"Heart? honour? what, I? Come, now, don't chaff me," he replied, with
+surprise.
+
+"To suffer misery and hunger rather than steal, is to have heart and
+honour," said Rodolph, gravely.
+
+"Well, it may be," said the Chourineur, as if thinking, "it may be so."
+
+"Does it astonish you?"
+
+"It really does; for people don't usually say such things to me; they
+generally treat me as they would a mangy dog. It's odd, though, the
+effect what you say has on me. Heart! honour!" he repeated, with an air
+which was actually pensive.
+
+"Well, what ails you?"
+
+"I' faith, I don't know," replied the Chourineur, in a tone of emotion;
+"but these words, do you see, they quite make my heart beat; and I feel
+more flattered than if any one told me I was a 'better man' than either
+the Skeleton or the Schoolmaster. I never felt anything like it before.
+Be sure, though, that these words, and the blows of the fist at the end
+of my tussle,--you did lay 'em on like a good 'un,--not alluding to what
+you pay for the supper, and the words you have said--in a word," he
+exclaimed, bluntly, as if he could not find language to express his
+thoughts, "make sure that in life or death you may depend on the
+Chourineur."
+
+Rodolph, unwilling to betray his emotion, replied in a tone as calm as
+he could assume, "How long did you go on as an amateur knacker?"
+
+"Why, at first, I was quite sick of cutting up old worn-out horses, who
+could not even kick; but when I was about sixteen, and my voice began to
+get rough, it became a passion--a taste--a relish--a rage--with me to
+cut and slash. I did not care for anything but that; not even eating and
+drinking. You should have seen me in the middle of my work! Except an
+old pair of woollen trousers, I was quite naked. When, with my large and
+well-whetted knife in my hand, I had about me fifteen or twenty horses
+waiting their turn, by Jupiter! when I began to slaughter them, I don't
+know what possessed me,--I was like a fury. My ears had singing in them,
+and I saw everything _red_,--all was red; and I slashed, and slashed,
+and slashed, until my knife fell from my hands! Thunder! what happiness!
+Had I had millions, I could have paid them to have enjoyed my trade!"
+
+"It is that which has given you the habit of stabbing," said Rodolph.
+
+"Very likely; but when I was turned of sixteen, the passion became so
+strong that when I once began slashing, I became mad; I spoiled my work;
+yes, I spoiled the skins, because I slashed and cut them across and
+across; for I was so furious that I could not see clearly. At last they
+turned me out of the yard. I wanted employment with the butchers, for I
+have always liked that sort of business. Well, they quite looked down
+upon me; they despised me as a shoemaker does a cobbler. Then I had to
+seek my bread elsewhere, and I didn't find it very readily; and this was
+the time when my bread-basket was so often empty. At length I got
+employment in the quarries at Montrouge; but, at the end of two years, I
+was tired of going always around like a squirrel in his cage, and
+drawing stone for twenty sous a day. I was tall and strong, and so I
+enlisted in a regiment. They asked my name, my age, and my papers. My
+name?--the Albino. My age?--look at my beard. My papers?--here's the
+certificate of the master quarryman. As I was just the fellow for a
+grenadier, they took me."
+
+"With your strength, courage, and taste for chopping and slashing, you
+ought, in war-time, to have been made an officer."
+
+"Thunder and lightning! what do you say? What! to cut up English or
+Prussians! Why, that would have been better than to cut up old horses;
+but, worse luck, there was no war, but a great deal of discipline. An
+apprentice tries to hit his master a thump; well, if he be the weaker,
+why, he gets the worst of it; if he be the stronger, he has the best of
+it; he is turned out-of-doors, perhaps put into the cage,--and that is
+all. In the army it is quite a different thing. One day our sergeant had
+bullied me a good deal, to make me more attentive,--he was right, for I
+was very slow; I did not like a poke he gave me, and I kicked at him; he
+pushed me again, I returned his poke; he collared me, and I gave him a
+punch of the head. They fell on me, and then my blood was up in my eyes,
+and I was enraged in a moment. I had my knife in my hand--I belonged to
+the cookery--and I 'went it my hardest.' I cut, slashed,--slashed,
+chopped, as if I was in the slaughter-house. I made 'cold meat' of the
+sergeant, wounded two soldiers,--it was a real shambles; I gave the
+three eleven wounds,--yes, eleven. Blood flowed, flowed everywhere,
+blood, as though we were in the bone-house,--I swam in it--"
+
+The brigand lowered his head with a sombre, sullen air, and was silent.
+
+"What are you thinking of, Chourineur?" asked Rodolph, with interest.
+
+"Nothing," he replied, abruptly; and then, with an air of brutish
+carelessness, he added, "At length they handcuffed me, and brought me
+before the 'big wigs,' and I was cast for death."
+
+"You escaped, however?"
+
+"True; but I had fifteen years at the galleys instead of being
+'scragged.' I forgot to tell you that whilst in the regiment I had saved
+two of my comrades from drowning in the Marne, when we were quartered at
+Milan. At another time,--you will laugh, and say I am amphibious either
+in fire or water when saving men or women,--at another time, being in
+garrison at Rouen, all the wooden houses in one quarter were on fire,
+and burning like so many matches. I am the lad for a fire, and so I went
+to the place in an instant. They told me that there was an old woman who
+was bedridden, and could not escape from her room, which was already in
+flames. I went towards it, and, by Jove! how it did burn; it reminded me
+of the lime-kilns in my happy days. However, I saved the old woman,
+although I had the very soles of my feet scorched. Thanks to my having
+done these things, and the cunning of my advocate, my sentence was
+changed, and, instead of being 'scragged,' I was only sent to the hulks
+for fifteen years. When I found that my life would be spared, and I was
+to go to the galleys, I would have jumped upon the babbling fool, and
+twisted his neck, at the moment when he came to wish me joy, and to tell
+me he had saved my life, and be hanged to him! only they prevented me."
+
+"Were you sorry, then, to have your sentence commuted?"
+
+"Yes; for those who sport with the knife, the headsman's steel is the
+proper fate; for those who steal, the 'darbies' to their heels: each his
+proper punishment. But to force you to live amongst galley-slaves, when
+you have a right to be guillotined out of hand, is infamous; and,
+besides, my life, when I first went to the Bagne, was rather queer; one
+don't kill a man, and soon forget it, you must know."
+
+"You feel some remorse, then, Chourineur?"
+
+"Remorse? No; for I have served my time," said the savage; "but at
+first, a night did not pass but I saw--like a nightmare--the sergeant
+and soldiers whom I had slashed and slaughtered; that is, they were not
+alone," added the brigand, in a voice of terror; "these were in tens,
+and dozens, and hundreds, and thousands, each waiting his turn, in a
+kind of slaughter-house, like the horses whose throats I used to cut at
+Montfauçon, awaiting each his turn. Then, then, I saw _red_, and began
+to cut and slash away on these men as I used formerly to do on the
+horses. The more, however, I chopped down the soldiers, the faster the
+ranks filled up with others; and as they died, they looked at one with
+an air so gentle,--so gentle, that I cursed myself for killing 'em; but
+I couldn't help it. That was not all. I never had a brother; and yet it
+seemed as if every one of those whom I killed was my brother, and I
+loved all of them. At last, when I could bear it no longer, I used to
+wake covered all over with sweat, as cold as melting snow."
+
+"That was a horrid dream, Chourineur!"
+
+"It was; yes. That dream, do you see, was enough to drive one mad or
+foolish; so, twice, I tried to kill myself, once by swallowing
+verdigris, and another time by trying to choke myself with my chain;
+but, confound it, I am as strong as a bull. The verdigris only made me
+thirsty; and as for the twist of the chain round my neck, why, that
+only gave me a natural cravat of a blue colour. Afterwards, the desire
+of life came back to me, nay nightmare ceased to torment me, and I did
+as others did."
+
+"At the Bagne, you were in a good school for learning how to thieve?"
+
+"Yes, but it was not to my taste. The other 'prigs' bullied me; but I
+soon silenced them with a few thumps of my chain. It was in this way I
+first knew the Schoolmaster; and I must pay him the compliment due to
+his blows,--he paid me off as you did some little time ago."
+
+"He is, then, a criminal who has served his time?"
+
+"He was sentenced for life, but escaped."
+
+"Escaped, and not denounced?"
+
+"I'm not the man to denounce him. Besides, it would seem as if I were
+afraid of him."
+
+"But how is it that the police do not detect him? Have they not got his
+description?"
+
+"His description? Oh! yes, yes; but it is long since he has scraped out
+from his phiz what nature had placed there; now, none but the 'baker who
+puts the condemned in his oven' (the devil) could recognise him" (the
+Schoolmaster).
+
+"What has he done to himself?"
+
+"He began by destroying his nose, which was an ell long; he ate it off
+with vitriol."
+
+"You jest."
+
+"If he comes in this evening, you'll see. He had a nose like a parrot,
+and now it is as flat as in a death's head; to say nothing of his lips,
+which are as thick as your fist, and his face, which is as wrinkled as
+the waistcoat of a rag-picker."
+
+"And so he is not recognised?"
+
+"It is six months since he escaped from Rochefort, and the 'traps' have
+met him a hundred times without knowing him."
+
+"Why was he at the Bagne?"
+
+"For having been a forger, thief, and assassin. He is called the
+Schoolmaster because he wrote a splendid hand, and has had a good
+education."
+
+"And is he much feared?"
+
+"He will not be any longer, when you have given him such a licking as
+you gave me. Oh, by Jove, I am anxious to see it!"
+
+"What does he do for a living?"
+
+"He is associated with an old woman as bad as himself, and as deep as
+the 'old one;' but she is never seen, though he has told the ogress that
+some day or other he would bring his 'mot' (woman) with him."
+
+"And this women helps him in his robberies?"
+
+"Yes, and in his murders too. They say he brags of having already, with
+her assistance, 'done for' two or three persons; and, amongst others,
+three weeks ago, a cattle-dealer on the road to Poissy, whom they also
+robbed."
+
+"He will be taken sooner or later."
+
+"They must be very cunning, as well as powerful, to do that, for he
+always has under his blouse a brace of loaded pistols and a dagger. He
+says that Charlot (the executioner) waits for him, and he can only lose
+his head once, and so he will kill all he can kill to try and escape.
+Oh! he makes no mystery of it; and as he is twice as strong as you and
+I, they will have a tough job who take him."
+
+"What did you do, Chourineur, when you left the Bagne?"
+
+"I offered myself to the master-lighterman of the Quai St. Paul, and I
+get my livelihood there."
+
+"But as you have never been a 'prig,' why do you live in the Cité?"
+
+"Why, where else can I live? Who likes to be seen with a discharged
+criminal? I should be tired of always being alone, for I like company,
+and here I am with my equals. I have a bit of a row sometimes, and they
+fear me like fire in the Cité; but the police have nothing to say to
+me, except now and then for a 'shindy,' for which they give me, perhaps,
+twenty-four hours at the watch-house, and there's an end of that."
+
+"What do you earn a day?"
+
+"Thirty-five sous for taking in the river foot-baths, up to the stomach
+from twelve to fifteen hours a day, summer and winter; but let me be
+just, and tell the truth; so if, through having my toes in the water, I
+get the _grenouille_,[7] I am allowed to break my arms in breaking up
+old vessels, and unloading timber on my back. I begin as a beast of
+burden, and end like a fish's tail. When I lose my strength entirely, I
+shall take a rake and a wicker basket, like the old rag-picker whom I
+see in the recollections of my childhood."
+
+ [7] A disease of the skin to which all who work in the water are
+ liable.
+
+"And yet you are not unhappy."
+
+"There are worse than I am; and without my dreams of the sergeant and
+soldiers with their throats cut,--for I have the dream still
+sometimes,--I could quietly wait for the moment when I should drop down
+dead at the corner of some dunghill, like that at which I was born; but
+the dream--the dream--by heaven and earth! I don't like even to think of
+that," said the Chourineur, and he emptied his pipe at the corner of the
+table.
+
+The Goualeuse had hardly listened to the Chourineur; she seemed wholly
+absorbed in a deep and melancholy reverie. Rodolph himself was pensive.
+A tragic incident occurred, which brought these three personages to a
+recollection of the spot in which they were.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ARREST.
+
+
+The man who had gone out for a moment, after having requested the ogress
+to look after his jug and plate, soon returned, accompanied by a tall,
+brawny man, to whom he said, "It was a chance to meet in this way, old
+fellow! Come in, and let us have a glass together."
+
+The Chourineur said, in a low voice, to Rodolph and the Goualeuse,
+pointing to the newcomer, "We shall have a row. He's a 'trap.' Look out
+for squalls."
+
+The two ruffians, one of whom, with the Greek skull-cap pulled over his
+brows, had inquired several times for the Schoolmaster and the
+Gros-Boiteux, exchanged rapid glances of the eye, and, rising suddenly
+from the table, went towards the door; but the two police officers,
+uttering a peculiar note, seized them. A fierce struggle ensued. The
+door of the tavern opened, and all of the policemen dashed into the
+room, whilst, outside, were seen the muskets of the _gens-d'armes_.
+Taking advantage of the tumult, the charcoal-seller, of whom we have
+spoken, advanced to the threshold of the _tapis-franc_, and, meeting the
+eye of Rodolph, he put to his lips the forefinger of his right hand.
+Rodolph, with a gesture as rapid as it was imperious, desired him to go,
+and then turned his attention to the scene before him. The man with the
+Greek skull-cap shrieked with rage, and, half extended on a table,
+struggled so desperately, that three men could scarcely hold him. His
+companion, enfeebled, dejected, with livid aspect and pale lips, his
+lower jaw fallen, and shaking convulsively, made no resistance, but
+held out his hands to be enclasped by the handcuffs. The ogress, seated
+at her bar, and used to such scenes, remained motionless, with her hands
+in the pockets of her apron.
+
+"What have these fellows done, my dear M. Narcisse Borel?" inquired she
+of one of the policemen whom she knew.
+
+"Killed an old woman yesterday in the Rue St. Christophe, and robbed her
+chamber. Before she died, the poor old thing said that she had bitten
+one of her murderers in the hand. We had our eyes on these two
+scoundrels; and my comrade, having come to make sure of his men, why, we
+have made free to take them."
+
+"How lucky they paid me beforehand for their pint!" said the ogress.
+"Won't you take a dram o' nothin' 'short,' M. Narcisse? Just a 'go' of
+'Ratifi' of the Column.'"
+
+"Thanks, Mother Ponisse, but I must make sure of my game; one fellow
+shows fight still."
+
+The assassin in the Greek cap was furious with rage, and when they tried
+to get him into a hackney-coach which was waiting in the street, he
+resisted so stoutly that they were obliged to carry him. His accomplice,
+seized with a nervous tremor, could hardly support himself, and his blue
+lips trembled as though he were speaking. They threw him, helpless and
+unresisting, into the vehicle. Before he left the _tapis-franc_, the
+head officer looked attentively at the other guests assembled, and said
+to the Chourineur, in a tone almost kind:
+
+"What, you here, you bad lot? Why, it is a long time since we heard
+anything of you. What, no more rows? Are you growing steady?"
+
+"Steady as a stone figure. Why, you know that now I never break a head,
+even if I am begged to do so!"
+
+"Oh, I don't think that would cost you much trouble, strong as you
+are."
+
+"Yet here is my master," said the Chourineur, laying his hand on
+Rodolph's shoulder.
+
+"Stay, I do not know him," said the _agent de police_, looking
+steadfastly at Rodolph.
+
+"And I do not think we shall form an acquaintance now," replied he.
+
+"I hope not, for your sake, my fine fellow," said the agent; then,
+turning to the ogress, "Good night, Mother Ponisse; your _tapis-franc_
+is a regular mouse-trap; this is the third assassin I have taken here."
+
+"I hope it won't be the last, M. Narcisse; it is quite at your service,"
+said the ogress, making a very insinuating nod with her head.
+
+After the departure of the police, the young vagabond with the haggard
+visage, who was smoking and drinking brandy, refilled his pipe, and said
+in a hoarse voice to the Chourineur:
+
+"Didn't you 'twig' the 'cove' in the Greek cap? He's Boulotte's man.
+When I saw the traps walk in, I says to myself, says I, there's
+something up; and then, too, I saw him keep his hand always under the
+table."
+
+"It's lucky for the Schoolmaster and Gros-Boiteux that they were not
+here," said the ogress; "Greek cap asked twice for him, and said they
+had business together; but I never turn 'nose' (informer) on any
+customer. If they take them, very well,--every one to his trade; but I
+never sell my friends. Oh, talk of the old gentleman, and you see his
+horns," added the hag, as at the moment a man and woman entered the
+cabaret; "here they are,--the Schoolmaster and his companion. Well, he
+was right not to show her, for I never see such an ugly creetur in my
+born days. She ought to be very much obliged to him for having taken up
+with such a face."
+
+At the name of the Schoolmaster, a sort of shudder seemed to circulate
+amongst the guests of the _tapis-franc_. Rodolph, himself, in spite of
+his natural intrepidity, could not wholly subdue a slight emotion at the
+sight of this redoubtable ruffian, whom he contemplated for some
+seconds with a mixed feeling of curiosity and horror. The Chourineur had
+spoken truth when he said that the Schoolmaster was frightfully
+mutilated. Nothing can be imagined more horrible than the countenance of
+this man. His face was furrowed in all directions with deep, livid
+cicatrices; the corrosive action of the vitriol had puffed out his lips;
+the cartilages of his nose were divided, and two misshapen holes
+supplied the loss of nostrils. His gray eyes were bright, small,
+circular, and sparkled savagely; his forehead, as flat as a tiger's, was
+half hidden beneath a fur cap, with long yellow hair, looking like the
+crest of a monster.
+
+The Schoolmaster was not more than five feet four or five; his head,
+which was disproportionately large, was buried between two shoulders,
+broad, powerful, and fleshy, displaying themselves even under the loose
+folds of his coarse cotton blouse; he had long, muscular arms, hands
+short, thick, and hairy to the very fingers' end, with legs somewhat
+bowed, whose enormous calves betokened his vast strength. This man
+presented, in fact, the exaggeration of what there is of short,
+thickset, and condensed, in the type of the Hercules Farnese. As to the
+expression of ferocity which suffused this hideous mask, and the
+restless, wild, and glaring look, more like a wild beast than a human
+being, it is impossible to describe them.
+
+The woman who accompanied the Schoolmaster was old, and rather neatly
+dressed in a brown gown, with a plaid shawl, of red and black check, and
+a white bonnet. Rodolph saw her profile, and her green eye, hooked nose,
+skinny lips, peaked chin, and countenance at once wicked and cunning,
+reminded him involuntarily of La Chouette, that horrible old wretch who
+had made poor Fleur-de-Marie her victim. He was just on the point of
+saying this to the girl, when he saw her suddenly turn pale with fright,
+whilst looking at the hideous companion of the Schoolmaster, and
+seizing the arm of Rodolph with a trembling hand, the Goualeuse said, in
+a low voice:
+
+"Oh, the Chouette! the Chouette!--the one-eyed woman!"
+
+At this moment the Schoolmaster, after having exchanged a few words in
+an undertone with Barbillon, came slowly towards the table where
+Rodolph, the Goualeuse, and the Chourineur were sitting, and addressing
+himself to Fleur-de-Marie, in a hoarse voice, said:
+
+"Ah, my pretty, fair miss, you must quit these two 'muffs,' and come
+with me."
+
+The Goualeuse made no reply, but clung to Rodolph, her teeth chattering
+with fright.
+
+"And I shall not be jealous of my man, my little _fourline_" (a pet word
+for assassin), added the Chouette, laughing loudly. She had not yet
+recognised in Goualeuse "Pegriotte," her old victim.
+
+"Well, my little white face, dost hear me?" said the monster, advancing.
+"If thou dost not come, I'll poke your eye out, and make you a match for
+the Chouette. And thou with the moustache," he said to Rodolph, "if thou
+dost not stand from between me and the wench, I'll crack thy crown."
+
+"Defend me! oh, defend me!" cried Fleur-de-Marie to Rodolph, clasping
+her hands. Then, reflecting that she was about to expose him to great
+danger, she added, in a low voice, "No, no, do not move, Mister Rodolph;
+if he comes nearer, I will cry out for help, and for fear of the
+disturbance, which may call in the police, the ogress will take my
+part."
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my child," said Rodolph, looking calmly at the
+Schoolmaster; "you are beside me,--don't stir; and as this ill-looking
+scoundrel makes you as well as myself feel uncomfortable, I will kick
+him out."
+
+"Thou?" said the Schoolmaster.
+
+"I!" said Rodolph. And, in spite of the efforts of the Goualeuse, he
+rose from the table. Despite his hardihood, the Schoolmaster retreated a
+step, so threatening were the looks, so commanding the deportment, of
+Rodolph. There are peculiar glances of the eye which are irresistible,
+and certain celebrated duellists are said to owe their bloody triumphs
+to this fascinating glance, which unmans, paralyses, and destroys their
+adversaries. The Schoolmaster trembled, retreated a step, and, for once,
+distrustful of his giant strength, felt under his blouse for his long
+cut-and-thrust knife. A murder would have stained the _tapis-franc_, no
+doubt, if the Chouette, taking the Schoolmaster by the arm, had not
+screamed out:
+
+"A minute, a minute, _fourline_,--let me say a word! You shall walk into
+these two 'muffs' all the same, presently."
+
+The Schoolmaster looked at her with astonishment. For some minutes she
+had been looking at Fleur-de-Marie with fixed and increasing attention,
+as if trying to refresh her memory. At length no doubt remained, and she
+recognised the Goualeuse.
+
+"Is it possible?" she cried, clasping her hands in astonishment. "It is
+Pegriotte, who stole my barley-sugar. But where do you come from? Is it
+the devil who sends you back?" and she shook her clenched hand at the
+young girl. "You won't come into my clutch again, eh? But be easy; if I
+do not pull out your teeth, I will have out of your eyes every tear in
+your body. Come, no airs and graces. You don't know what I mean. Why, I
+have found out the people who had the care of you before you were handed
+over to me. The Schoolmaster saw at the _Pré_ (the galleys) the man who
+brought you to my 'crib' when you were a brat, and he has proofs that
+the people who had you first were 'gentry coves'" (rich people).
+
+"My parents! Do you know them?" cried Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+"Never mind whether I know them or not, you shall know nothing about it.
+The secret is mine and my _fourline's_, and I will tear out his tongue
+rather than he shall blab it. What! it makes you snivel, does it,
+Pegriotte?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Goualeuse, with a bitterness of accent; "_now_ I do not
+care ever to know my parents."
+
+Whilst La Chouette was speaking, the Schoolmaster had resumed his
+assurance, for, looking at Rodolph, he could not believe that a young
+man of slight and graceful make could for a moment cope with him, and,
+confident in his brutal force, he approached the defender of Goualeuse,
+and said to the Chouette, in an imperious voice:
+
+"Hold your jaw! I'll tackle with this swell, and then the fair lady may
+think me more to her fancy than he is."
+
+With one bound Rodolph leaped on the table.
+
+"Take care of my plates!" shouted the ogress.
+
+The Schoolmaster stood on his guard, his two hands in front, his chest
+advanced, firmly planted on his legs, and arched, as it were, on his
+brawny legs, which were like balusters of stone. At the moment when
+Rodolph was springing at him, the door of the _tapis-franc_ opened with
+violence, and the charcoal-man, of whom we have before spoken, and who
+was upwards of six feet high, dashed into the apartment, pushed the
+Schoolmaster on one side rudely, and coming up to Rodolph, said, in
+German, in his ear:
+
+"Monseigneur, the countess and her brother--they are at the end of the
+street."
+
+At these words Rodolph made an impatient and angry gesture, threw a
+louis d'or on the bar of the ogress, and made for the door in haste. The
+Schoolmaster attempted to arrest Rodolph's progress, but he, turning to
+him, gave him two or three rapid blows with his fists over the nose and
+eyes, and with such potent effect, that the beast staggered with very
+giddiness, and fell heavily against a table, which alone prevented his
+prostration on the floor.
+
+"_Vive la Charte!_ those are _my_ blows,--I know them," cried the
+Chourineur; "two or three more lessons like that, and I shall know all
+about it."
+
+Restored to himself after a few moments, the Schoolmaster darted off in
+pursuit of Rodolph, but he had disappeared with the charcoal-man in the
+dark labyrinth of the streets of the Cité, and the brigand found it
+useless to follow.
+
+At the moment when the Schoolmaster had returned, foaming with rage, two
+persons, approaching from the opposite side to that by which Rodolph had
+disappeared, entered into the _tapis-franc_, hastily, and out of breath,
+as if they had been running far and fast. Their first impulse was to
+look around the room.
+
+"How unfortunate!" said one of them; "he has gone,--another opportunity
+lost."
+
+The two newcomers spoke in English. The Goualeuse, horror-struck at
+meeting with the Chouette, and dreading the threats of the Schoolmaster,
+took advantage of the tumult and confusion caused by the arrival of the
+two fresh guests in the _tapis-franc_, and, quietly gliding out by the
+half-opened door, left the cabaret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THOMAS SEYTON AND THE COUNTESS SARAH.
+
+
+The two persons who had just entered the _tapis-franc_ were quite of
+another class from those who ordinarily frequented it. One, tall and
+erect, had hair almost white, black eyebrows and whiskers, a long and
+tanned face, with a stiff, formal air. His long frock coat was buttoned
+up to the throat, _à la militaire_. We shall call this individual Thomas
+Seyton. His companion was young, pale, and handsome, and appeared about
+thirty-one or two years of age. His hair, eyebrows, and eyes were of a
+deep black, which showed off the more fully the pure whiteness of his
+face. By his step, the smallness of his stature, and the delicacy of his
+features, it was easy to detect a woman in male habiliments. This female
+was the Countess Sarah Macgregor. We will hereafter inform our readers
+of the motives and events which had brought the countess and her brother
+into this cabaret of the Cité.
+
+"Call for something to drink, Thomas, and ask the people here about
+_him_; perhaps they may give us some information," said Sarah, still
+speaking English.
+
+The man with white hair and black eyebrows sat down at a table, whilst
+Sarah was wiping her forehead, and said to the ogress, in excellent
+French, "Madame, let us have something to drink, if you please."
+
+The entrance of these two persons into the _tapis-franc_ had excited
+universal attention. Their dress, their manners, all announced that they
+never frequented low drinking-shops, whilst, by their restless looks
+and disturbed countenances, it might be judged that some very powerful
+motives had led them hither. The Chourineur, the Schoolmaster, and the
+Chouette viewed them with increasing curiosity.
+
+Startled by the appearance of such strange customers, the ogress shared
+in the general surprise. Thomas Seyton, a second time, and with an
+impatient tone, said, "We have called for something to drink, ma'am;
+pray let us have it."
+
+Mother Ponisse, flattered by their courtesy of manner, left her bar,
+and, coming towards her new guests, leaned her arms on their table, and
+said, "Will you have a pint of wine in measure or a bottle?"
+
+"A bottle of wine, glasses, and some water."
+
+The ogress brought the supplies demanded, and Thomas Seyton threw her a
+five-franc piece, and refused the change which she offered to him.
+
+"Keep it, my good woman, for yourself, and perhaps you will take a glass
+with us."
+
+"You're uncommon purlite, sir," looking at the countess's brother with
+as much surprise as gratitude.
+
+"But tell me, now," said he; "we had appointed to meet a friend in a
+cabaret in this street, and have, perhaps, mistaken the house in coming
+here."
+
+"This is the 'White Rabbit,' at your service, sir."
+
+"That's right enough, then," said Thomas, making a sign to Sarah; "yes,
+it was at the 'White Rabbit' that he was to give us the meeting."
+
+"There are not two 'White Rabbits' in this street," said the ogress,
+with a toss of her head. "But what sort of a person was your friend?"
+
+"Tall, slim, and with hair and moustaches of light chestnut," said
+Seyton.
+
+"Exactly, exactly; that's the man who has just gone out. A charcoal-man,
+very tall and stout, came in and said a few words to him, and they left
+together."
+
+"The very man we want to meet," said Tom.
+
+"Were they alone here?" inquired Sarah.
+
+"Why, the charcoal-man only came in for one moment; but your comrade
+supped here with the Chourineur and Goualeuse;" and with a nod of her
+head, the ogress pointed out the individual of the party who was left
+still in the cabaret.
+
+Thomas and Sarah turned towards the Chourineur. After contemplating him
+for a few minutes, Sarah said, in English, to her companion, "Do you
+know this man?"
+
+"No; Karl lost all trace of Rodolph at the entrance of these obscure
+streets. Seeing Murphy disguised as a charcoal-seller, keeping watch
+about this cabaret, and constantly peeping through the windows, he was
+afraid that something wrong was going on, and so came to warn us.
+Murphy, no doubt, recognised him."
+
+During this conversation, held in a very low tone, and in a foreign
+tongue, the Schoolmaster said to the Chouette, looking at Tom and Sarah,
+"The swell has shelled out a 'bull' to the ogress. It is just twelve,
+rains and blows like the devil. When they leave the 'crib,' we will be
+on their 'lay,' and draw the 'flat' of his 'blunt.' As his 'mot' is with
+him, he'll hold his jaw."
+
+If Tom and Sarah had heard this foul language, they would not have
+understood it, and would not have detected the plot against them.
+
+"Be quiet, _fourline_," answered the Chouette; "if the 'cull' sings out
+for the 'traps,' I have my vitriol in my pocket, and will break the
+phial in his 'patter-box.' Nothing like a drink to keep children from
+crying," she added. "Tell me, darling, sha'n't we lay hands on Pegriotte
+the first time we meet with her? And only let me once get her to our
+place, and I'll rub her chops with my vitriol, and then my lady will no
+longer be proud of her fine skin."
+
+"Well said, Chouette; I shall make you my wife some day or other," said
+the Schoolmaster; "you have no equal for skill and courage. On that
+night with the cattle-dealer, I had an opportunity of judging of you;
+and I said, 'Here's the wife for me; she works better than a man.'"
+
+"And you said right, _fourline_; if the Skeleton had had a woman like me
+at his elbow, he would not have been nabbed with his gully in the dead
+man's weasand."
+
+"He's done up, and now he will not leave the 'stone jug,' except to kiss
+the headsman's daughter, and be a head shorter."
+
+"What strange language these people talk!" said Sarah, who had
+involuntarily heard the last few words of the conversation between the
+Schoolmaster and the Chouette. Then she added, pointing to the
+Chourineur, "If we ask this man some questions about Rodolph, perhaps he
+may be able to answer them."
+
+"We can but try," replied Thomas, who said to the Chourineur, "Comrade,
+we expected to find in this cabaret a friend of ours; he supped with
+you, I find. Perhaps, as you know him, you will tell us which way he has
+gone?"
+
+"I know him because he gave me a precious good hiding two hours ago, to
+prevent me from beating Goualeuse."
+
+"And have you never seen him before?"
+
+"Never; we met by chance in the alley which leads to Bras Rouge's
+house."
+
+"Hostess, another bottle of the best," said Thomas Seyton.
+
+Sarah and he had hardly moistened their lips, and their glasses were
+still full; but Mother Ponisse, doubtless anxious to pay proper respect
+to her own cellar, had frequently filled and emptied hers.
+
+"And put it on the table where that gentleman sits, if he will permit,"
+added Thomas, who, with Sarah, seated themselves beside the Chourineur,
+who was as much astonished as flattered by such politeness.
+
+The Schoolmaster and the Chouette were talking over their own dark plans
+in low tones and "flash" language. The bottle being brought, and Sarah
+and her brother seated with the Chourineur and the ogress, who had
+considered a second invitation as superfluous, the conversation was
+resumed.
+
+"You told us, my good fellow, that you met our comrade Rodolph in the
+house where Bras Rouge lives?" inquired Thomas Seyton, as he hob and
+nobbed with the Chourineur.
+
+"Yes, my good fellow," replied he, as he emptied his glass at a gulp.
+
+"What a singular name is Bras Rouge! What is this Bras Rouge?"
+
+"_Il pastique la maltouze_" (smuggles), said the Chourineur, in a
+careless tone, and then added, "This is jolly good wine, Mother
+Ponisse!"
+
+"If you think so, do not spare it, my fine fellow," said Seyton, and he
+filled the Chourineur's glass as he spoke.
+
+"Your health, mate," said he, "and the health of your little friend,
+who--but mum. 'If my aunt was a man, she'd be my uncle,' as the proverb
+says. Ah! you sly rogue, I'm up to you!"
+
+Sarah coloured slightly as her brother continued, "I did not quite
+understand what you meant about Bras Rouge. Rodolph came from his house,
+no doubt?"
+
+"I told you that Bras Rouge _pastique la maltouze_."
+
+Thomas regarded the Chourineur with an air of surprise.
+
+"What do you mean by _pastique la mal_--What do you call it?"
+
+"_Pastiquer la maltouze._ He smuggles, I suppose you would call it; but
+it seems you can't 'patter flash?'"
+
+"My fine fellow, I don't understand one word you say."
+
+"I see you can't talk slang like M. Rodolph."
+
+"Slang?" said Thomas Seyton, looking at Sarah with an astonished air.
+
+"Ah! you are yokels; but comrade Rodolph is an out-and-out pal, he is.
+Though only a fan-painter, yet he is as 'downy' in 'flash' as I am
+myself. Well, since you can't speak this very fine language, I tell you,
+in plain French, that Bras Rouge is a smuggler, and, besides that, has a
+small tavern in the Champs Elysées. I say, without breaking faith, that
+he is a smuggler, for he makes no secret of it, but owns it under the
+very nose of the custom-house officers. Find him out, though, if you
+can; Bras Rouge is a deep one."
+
+"What could Rodolph want at the house of this man?" asked Sarah.
+
+"Really, sir, or madam, which you please, I know nothing about anything,
+as true as I drink this glass of wine. I was chaffing to-night with the
+Goualeuse, who thought I was going to beat her, and she ran up Bras
+Rouge's alley, and I after her; it was as dark as the devil. Instead of
+hitting Goualeuse, however, I stumbled on Master Rodolph, who soon gave
+me better than I sent. Such thumps! and especially those infernal
+thwacks with his fist at last. My eyes! how hot and heavy they did fall!
+But he's promised to teach me, and to--"
+
+"And Bras Rouge, what sort of a person is he?" asked Tom. "What goods
+does he sell?"
+
+"Bras Rouge? Oh, by the Holy! he sells everything he is forbidden to
+sell, and does everything which it is forbidden to do. That's his line,
+ain't it, Mother Ponisse?"
+
+"Oh! he's a boy with more than one string to his bow," answered the
+ogress. "He is, besides, principal occupier of a certain house in the
+Rue du Temple,--a rum sort of a house, to be sure; but mum," added she,
+fearing to have revealed too much.
+
+"And what is the address of Bras Rouge in that street?" asked Seyton of
+the Chourineur.
+
+"No. 13, sir."
+
+"Perhaps we may learn something there," said Seyton, in a low voice, to
+his sister. "I will send Karl thither to-morrow."
+
+"As you know M. Rodolph," said the Chourineur, "you may boast the
+acquaintance of a stout friend and a good fellow. If it had not been for
+the charcoal-man, he would have 'doubled up' the Schoolmaster, who is
+there in the corner with the Chouette. By the Lord! I can hardly contain
+myself, when I see that old hag, and know how she behaved to the
+Goualeuse,--but patience, 'a blow delayed is not a blow lost,' as the
+saying is."
+
+The Hotel de Ville clock struck midnight; the lamp of the tavern only
+shed a dim and flickering light. Except the Chourineur and his two
+companions, the Schoolmaster, and the Screech-owl, all the guests of the
+_tapis-franc_ had retired one after the other.
+
+The Schoolmaster said, in an undertone, to the Chouette, "If we go and
+hide in the alley opposite, we shall see the swells come out, and know
+which road they take. If they turn to the left, we can double upon them
+at the turning of the Rue Saint Eloi; if to the right, we will wait for
+them by the ruins close to the tripe-market. There's a large hole close
+by, and I have a capital idea."
+
+The Schoolmaster and the Chouette then went towards the door.
+
+"You won't, then, take a 'drain' of nothin' to-night?" said the ogress.
+
+"No, Mother Ponisse, we only came in to take shelter from the rain,"
+said the Schoolmaster, as he and the Chouette went out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE."
+
+
+The noise which was made by the shutting of the door aroused Tom and
+Sarah from their reverie, and they rose, and, having thanked the
+Chourineur for the information he had given them, the fellow went out,
+the wind blowing very strongly, and the rain falling in torrents. The
+Schoolmaster and the Chouette, hidden in an alley opposite the
+_tapis-franc_, saw the Chourineur go down the street, in the direction
+of the street in which the house in ruins was situated. His steps, which
+were somewhat irregular, in consequence of the frequent libations of the
+evening, were soon unheard amidst the whistling of the storm and the
+sheets of rain which dashed against the walls. Sarah and Tom left the
+tavern in spite of the tempest, and took a contrary direction to the
+Chourineur.
+
+"They're done for," said the Schoolmaster, in a low key, to the
+Chouette; "out with your vitriol, and mind your eye."
+
+"Let us take off our shoes, and then they won't hear us as we follow,"
+suggested the Chouette.
+
+"You are right,--always right; let us tread like cats, my old darling."
+
+The two monsters took off their shoes, and moved stealthily along,
+keeping in the shadows of the houses. By means of this stratagem they
+followed so closely, that, although within a few steps of Sarah and Tom,
+they did not hear them.
+
+"Fortunately our hackney-coach is at the end of the street; the rain
+falls in torrents. Are you not cold, Sarah?"
+
+"Perhaps we shall glean something from this smuggler,--this Bras Rouge,"
+said Sarah, in a thoughtful tone, and not replying to her brother's
+inquiry.
+
+He suddenly stopped, and said, "I have taken a wrong turning; I ought to
+have gone to the right when I left the tavern; we must pass by a house
+in ruins to reach the _fiacre_. We must turn back."
+
+The Schoolmaster and the Chouette, who followed on the heels of their
+intended victims, retreated into the dark porch of a house close at
+hand, so that they might not be perceived by Tom and Sarah, who, in
+passing, almost touched them with their elbows.
+
+"I am glad they have gone that way," said the Schoolmaster, "for if the
+'cove' resists, I have my own idea."
+
+Sarah and her brother, having again passed by the _tapis-franc_, arrived
+close to the dilapidated house, which was partly in ruins, and its
+opened cellars formed a kind of gulf, along which the street ran in that
+direction. In an instant, the Schoolmaster, with a leap resembling in
+strength and agility the spring of a tiger, seized Seyton with one hand
+by the throat, and exclaimed, "Your money, or I will fling you into this
+hole!"
+
+Then the brigand, pushing Seyton backwards, shoved him off his balance,
+and with one hand held him suspended over the mouth of the deep
+excavation; whilst, with his other hand, he grasped the arm of Sarah, as
+if in a vice. Before Tom could make the slightest struggle, the Chouette
+had emptied his pockets with singular dexterity. Sarah did not utter a
+cry, nor try to resist; she only said, in a calm tone, "Give up your
+purse, brother;" and then accosting the robber, "We will make no noise;
+do not do us any injury."
+
+The Chouette, having carefully searched the pockets of the two victims
+of this ambush, said to Sarah, "Let's see your hands, if you've got any
+rings. No," said the old brute, grumblingly, "no, not one ring. What a
+shame!"
+
+Tom Seyton did not lose his presence of mind during this scene, rapidly
+and unexpectedly as it had occurred.
+
+"Will you strike a bargain? My pocketbook contains papers quite useless
+to you; return it to me, and to-morrow I will give you twenty-five louis
+d'ors," said Tom to the Schoolmaster, whose hand relaxed something of
+its fierce gripe.
+
+"Oh! ah! to lay a trap to catch us," replied the thief. "Be off, without
+looking behind you, and be thankful that you have escaped so well."
+
+"One moment," said the Chouette; "if he behaves well, he shall have his
+pocketbook. There is a way." Then, addressing Thomas Seyton, "You know
+the plain of St. Denis?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Do you know where St. Ouen is?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Opposite St. Ouen, at the end of the road of La Revolte, the plain is
+wide and open. Across the fields, one may see a long way. Come there
+to-morrow, quite alone, with your money in your hand; you will find me
+and the pocketbook ready. Hand me the cash, and I will hand you the
+pocketbook."
+
+"But he'll trap you, Chouette."
+
+"Oh, no, he won't; I'm up to him or any of his dodges. We can see a long
+way off. I have only one eye, but that is a piercer; and if the 'cove'
+comes with a companion, he won't find anybody; I shall have 'mizzled.'"
+
+A sudden idea seemed to strike Sarah, and she said to the brigand, "Will
+you like to gain some money?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you see, in the cabaret we have just left--for I know you
+again--the man whom the charcoal-man came to seek?"
+
+"A dandy with moustaches? Yes, I would have stuck it into the fellow,
+but he did not give me time. He stunned me with two blows of his fists,
+and upset me on the table,--for the first time that any man ever did so.
+Curses on him! but I will be revenged."
+
+"He is the man I mean," said Sarah.
+
+"He?" cried the Schoolmaster, "a thousand francs, and I'll kill him."
+
+"Wretch! I do not seek his life," replied Sarah to the Schoolmaster.
+
+"What, then, would you have?"
+
+"Come to-morrow to the plain of St. Denis; you will there find my
+companion," she replied; "you will see that he is alone, and he will
+tell you what to do. I will not give you one thousand, but two thousand,
+francs, if you succeed."
+
+"_Fourline_," said the Chouette, in a low tone, to the Schoolmaster,
+"there's 'blunt' to be had; these are a 'swell' lot, who want to be
+revenged on an enemy, and that enemy is the beggar that you wished to
+'floor.' Let's go and meet him. I would go, if I were you. Fire and
+smoke! Old boy, it will pay for looking after."
+
+"Well, my wife shall be there," said the Schoolmaster; "you will tell
+her what you want, and I shall see--"
+
+"Be it so; to-morrow at one."
+
+"At one o'clock."
+
+"In the plain of St. Denis?"
+
+"In the plain of St. Denis."
+
+"Between St. Ouen and the road of La Revolte, at the end of the road?"
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"I will bring your pocketbook."
+
+"And you shall have the five hundred francs I promised you, and we will
+agree in the other matter, if you are reasonable."
+
+"Now, you go to the right, and we to the left hand. Do not follow us, or
+else--"
+
+The Schoolmaster and the Chouette hurried off, whilst Tom and the
+countess went in the other direction, towards Notre Dame.
+
+A concealed witness had been present at this transaction; it was the
+Chourineur, who had entered the cellars of the house to get shelter from
+the rain. The proposal which Sarah made to the brigand respecting
+Rodolph deeply interested the Chourineur, who, alarmed for the perils
+which appeared about to beset his new friend, regretted that he could
+not warn him of them. Perhaps his detestation of the Schoolmaster and
+the Chouette might have something to do with this feeling.
+
+The Chourineur resolved to inform Rodolph of the danger which threatened
+him; but how? He had forgotten the address of the self-styled
+fan-painter. Perhaps Rodolph would never again come to the
+_tapis-franc_, and then how could he warn him? Whilst he was conning all
+this over in his mind, the Chourineur had mechanically followed Tom and
+Sarah, and saw them get into a coach which awaited them near Notre Dame.
+
+The _fiacre_ started. The Chourineur got up behind, and at one o'clock
+it stopped on the Boulevard de l'Observatoire, and Thomas and Sarah went
+down a narrow entrance, which was close at hand. The night was pitch
+dark, and the Chourineur, that he might know the next day the place
+where he then was, drew from his pocket his clasp-knife, and cut a deep
+notch in one of the trees at the corner of the entrance, and then
+returned to his resting-place, which was at a considerable distance.
+
+For the first time for a very long while, the Chourineur enjoyed in his
+den a comfortable sleep, which was not once interrupted by the horrible
+vision of the "Sergeant's slaughter-house," as, in his coarse language,
+he styled it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE WALK.
+
+
+On the day after the evening on which the various events we have
+described had passed, a bright autumnal sun shone from a pure sky; the
+darkness of the night had wholly disappeared. Although always shaded by
+the height of the houses, the disreputable neighbourhood into which the
+reader has followed us seemed less horrible when viewed in the light of
+open day.
+
+Whether Rodolph no longer feared meeting with the two persons whom he
+had evaded the over-night, or did not care whether he faced them or not,
+about eleven o'clock in the morning he entered the Rue aux Fêves, and
+directed his steps towards the tavern of the ogress.
+
+Rodolph was still in a workman's dress; but there was a decided neatness
+in his costume. His new blouse, open on his chest, showed a red woollen
+shirt, closed by several silver buttons; whilst the collar of another
+shirt, of white cotton, fell over a black silk cravat, loosely tied
+around his neck. From under his sky blue velvet cap, with a bright
+leather peak, several locks of chestnut hair were seen; and his boots,
+cleaned very brightly, and replacing the heavy iron shoes of the
+previous evening, showed off to advantage a well-formed foot, which
+seemed all the smaller from appearing out of a loose pantaloon of olive
+velveteen. The costume was well calculated to display the elegant shape
+and carriage of Rodolph, which combined so much grace, suppleness, and
+power. The ogress was airing herself at her door when Rodolph presented
+himself.
+
+"Your servant, young man; you have come, no doubt, for your change of
+the twenty francs," she said, with some show of respect, not venturing
+to forget that the conqueror of the Chourineur had handed her a louis
+d'or the previous evening. "There is seventeen francs ten sous coming to
+you; but that's not all. There was somebody here asking after you last
+night,--a tall gent, well dressed, and with him a young woman in men's
+clothes. They drank my best wine along with the Chourineur."
+
+"Oh, with the Chourineur, did they? And what could they have to say to
+him?"
+
+"When I say they drank, I make a mistake; they only just sipped a drain
+or so, and--"
+
+"But what did they say to the Chourineur?"
+
+"Oh, they talked of all manner of things,--of Bras Rouge, and the rain,
+and fine weather."
+
+"Do they know Bras Rouge?"
+
+"Not by no means; the Chourineur told 'em all about him, and as how as
+you--"
+
+"Well, well, that is not what I want to know."
+
+"You want your change."
+
+"Yes, and I want to take Goualeuse to pass the day in the country."
+
+"Oh, that's impossible!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why? Because she may never come back again. Her things belong to me,
+not including as she owes me a matter of ninety francs as a balance for
+her board and lodging, for the six weeks as she has lodged with me; and
+if I didn't know her to be as honest a gal as is, I should never let her
+go out of sight."
+
+"Goualeuse owes you ninety francs?"
+
+"Ninety francs ten sous; but what's that to you, my lad? Are you a-going
+to come 'my lord,' and pay it for her?"
+
+"Yes," said Rodolph, throwing five louis on the ogress's bar, "and
+what's your price for the clothes she wears?"
+
+The old hag, amazed, looked at the louis one after the other, with an
+air of much doubt and mistrust.
+
+"What! do you think I have given you bad money? Send and get change for
+one of them; but make haste about it. I say, again, how much for the
+garments the poor girl is wearing?"
+
+The ogress, divided between her desire to make a good harvest, her
+surprise to see a workman with so much money, the fear of being cheated,
+and the hopes of still greater gain, was silent for an instant, and then
+replied, "Oh, them things is well worth a hundred francs."
+
+"What! those rags? Come, now, you shall keep the change from yesterday,
+and I'll give you another louis, and no more. If I give you all I have,
+I shall cheat the poor, who ought to get some alms out of me."
+
+"Well, then, my fine fellow, I'll keep my things, and Goualeuse sha'n't
+go out. I have a right to sell my things for what I choose."
+
+"May Lucifer one day fry you as you deserve! Here's your money; go and
+look for Goualeuse."
+
+The ogress pocketed the gold, thinking that the workman had committed a
+robbery, or received a legacy, and then said, with a nasty leer, "Well,
+indeed! Why not go up-stairs, and find Goualeuse yourself; she'll be
+very glad to see you, for, on my life, she was much smitten with you
+yesterday?"
+
+"Do you go and fetch her, and tell her I will take her into the country;
+that's all you need say; not a word about my having paid you her debt."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"What's that to you?"
+
+"Oh, nothing; it's no matter to me; I would rather that she still
+believed herself in my clutch--"
+
+"Will you hold your tongue, and do as I bid you?"
+
+"Oh, what a cross creetur you are! I pity anybody who is under you.
+Well, I'm going, I'm going;" and the ogress went up-stairs.
+
+After a few minutes she came down again.
+
+"Goualeuse would not believe me, and really turned quite crimson when
+she knew you were here; and when I told her that I would give her leave
+to pass the day in the country, I thought she would have gone
+crazy,--for the first time in her life she was inclined to throw her
+arms about my neck."
+
+"That was her delight at leaving you."
+
+Fleur-de-Marie entered at this moment, dressed as she was the
+over-night, with her gown of brown stuff, her little orange shawl tied
+behind her, and her handkerchief of red checks over her head, leaving
+only two thick bands of light hair visible. She blushed when she saw
+Rodolph, and looked down with a confused air.
+
+"Would you like to pass the day in the country with me, my lass?" asked
+Rodolph.
+
+"Very much, indeed, M. Rodolph," said Goualeuse, "since madame gives me
+leave."
+
+"Yes, yes, you may go, my little duck, because you're such a good gal.
+Come and kiss me afore you go."
+
+And the old beldam offered her bloated lips to Fleur-de-Marie. The poor
+girl, overcoming her disgust, bent her forehead to the ogress, but
+Rodolph, giving a sudden push with his elbow, shoved the hag back on her
+seat, took Fleur-de-Marie's arm, and left the _tapis-franc_, amidst the
+loud maledictions of Mother Ponisse.
+
+"Mind, M. Rodolph," said Goualeuse; "the ogress will, perhaps, throw
+something at you,--she is very spiteful."
+
+"Oh, don't heed her, my girl. But what's the matter with you? You seem
+embarrassed, sad. Are you sorry for having come out with me?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no; but--but--you give me your arm!"
+
+"Well, and what of that?"
+
+"You are a workman, and some one may tell your master that they met you
+with me, and harm may come of it; masters do not like their workmen to
+be unsteady." And Goualeuse gently removed her arm from that of Rodolph,
+adding, "Go on by yourself; I will follow you to the barrier; when we
+are once in the fields I can walk with you."
+
+"Do not be uneasy," said Rodolph, touched by the poor girl's
+consideration, and taking her arm again; "my master does not live in
+this quarter, and we shall find a coach on the Quai aux Fleurs."
+
+"As you please, M. Rodolph; I only said so that you might not get into
+trouble."
+
+"I am sure of that, and thank you very much. But tell me, is it all the
+same to you what part of the country we go into?"
+
+"Yes, quite so, M. Rodolph, so that it be the country. It is so fine and
+it is so nice to breathe the open air! Do you know that I have not been
+farther than the flower-market for these six weeks? And now, if the
+ogress allows me to leave the Cité, she must have great confidence in
+me."
+
+"And when you came here, was it to buy flowers?"
+
+"Oh, no, I had no money; I only came to look at them, and breathe their
+beautiful smell. During the half-hour which the ogress allowed me to
+pass on the quay on market-days, I was so happy that I forgot everything
+else."
+
+"And on returning to the ogress, and those filthy streets?"
+
+"Oh, why, then I returned more sad than when I set out; but I wiped my
+eyes, that I might not be beaten for crying. Yet, at the market, what
+made me envious--oh, so envious!--was to see neat, clean little
+workwomen, who were going away so gaily with a beautiful pot of flowers
+in their hands."
+
+"I am sure that if you had had but a few flowers in your own window,
+they would have kept you company."
+
+"What you say is quite true, M. Rodolph. Only imagine, one day, on her
+birthday, the ogress, knowing my taste, gave me a little rose-tree. If
+you only knew how happy it made me,--I was never tired of looking at
+it,--my own rose-tree! I counted its leaves, its flowers; but the air of
+the Cité is bad, and it began to wither in two days. Then--but you'll
+laugh at me, M. Rodolph."
+
+"No, no; go on."
+
+"Well, then, I asked the ogress to let me go out, and take my rose-tree
+for a walk, as I would have taken a child out. Well, then, I carried it
+to the quay, thinking that to be with other flowers in the fresh and
+balmy air would do it good. I bathed its poor fading leaves in the clear
+waters of the fountain, and then to dry it I placed it for a full
+quarter of an hour in the sun. Dear little rose-tree! it never saw the
+sun in the Cité any more than I did, for in our street it never descends
+lower than the roof. At last I went back again, and I assure you, M.
+Rodolph, that, thanks to these walks, my rose-tree lived at least ten
+days longer than it would have done, had I not taken such pains with
+it."
+
+"No doubt of it. But when it died, what a loss it must have been to
+you!"
+
+"I cried heartily, for it grieved me very, very much; and you see, M.
+Rodolph,--for you know one loves flowers, although one hasn't any of
+one's own,--you see, I felt grateful to it, that dear rose-tree, for
+blooming so kindly for me, although I was so--"
+
+Goualeuse bent her head, and blushed deeply.
+
+"Unhappy child! With this feeling of your own position, you must
+often--"
+
+"Have desired to end it, you mean, sir?" said Goualeuse, interrupting
+her companion. "Yes, yes, more than once. A month ago I looked over the
+parapet at the Seine; but then, when I looked at the flowers, and the
+sun, then I said, 'The river will be always there; I am but sixteen and
+a half,--who knows?'"
+
+"When you said 'who knows,' you had hope?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And what did you hope?"
+
+"To find some charitable soul who would get me work, so that I might be
+enabled to leave the ogress; and this hope comforted me. Then I said to
+myself, I am very wretched, but I have never injured anybody, and if I
+had any one to advise me I should not be as I am. This lightened my
+sorrow a little, though it had greatly increased at the loss of my
+rose-tree," added Goualeuse, with a sigh.
+
+"Always so very sad."
+
+"Yes; but look, here it is."
+
+And Goualeuse took from her pocket a little bundle of wood trimmed very
+carefully, and tied with a rose-coloured bow.
+
+"What, have you kept it?"
+
+"I have, indeed; it is all I possess in the world."
+
+"What, have you nothing else?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"This coral necklace?"
+
+"Belongs to the ogress."
+
+"And you have not a piece of riband, a cap, or handkerchief?"
+
+"No, nothing,--nothing but the dead branches of my poor rose-tree; and
+that is why I love it so."
+
+When Rodolph and Goualeuse had reached the Quai aux Fleurs, a coach was
+waiting there, into which Rodolph handed Goualeuse. He got in himself,
+saying to the driver:
+
+"To St. Denis; I will tell you presently which road to take."
+
+The coach went on. The sun was bright, and the sky cloudless, whilst the
+air, fresh and crisp, circulated freely through the open windows.
+
+"Here is a woman's cloak!" said Goualeuse, remarking that she had seated
+herself on the garment without having at first noticed it.
+
+"Yes, it is for you, my child; I brought it with me for fear you should
+be cold."
+
+Little accustomed to such attention, the poor girl looked at Rodolph
+with surprise.
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_ M. Rodolph, how kind you are; I am really ashamed--"
+
+"Because I am kind?"
+
+"No; but you do not speak as you did yesterday; you appear quite another
+person."
+
+"Tell me, then, Fleur-de-Marie, which do you like best,--the Rodolph of
+yesterday, or the Rodolph of to-day?"
+
+"I like you better now; yet yesterday I seemed to be more your equal."
+Then, as if correcting herself, and fearing to have annoyed Rodolph, she
+said to him, "When I say your equal, M. Rodolph, I do not mean that I
+can ever be that."
+
+"One thing in you astonishes me very much, Fleur-de-Marie."
+
+"And what is that, M. Rodolph?"
+
+"You appear to have forgotten that the Chouette said to you yesterday
+that she knew the persons who had brought you up."
+
+"Oh! I have not forgotten it; I thought of it all night, and I cried
+bitterly; but I am sure it is not true; she invented this tale to make
+me unhappy."
+
+"Yet the Chouette may know more than you think. If it were so, should
+you not be delighted to be restored to your parents?"
+
+"Alas, sir! if my parents never loved me, what should I gain by
+discovering them? They would only see me and--But if they _did_ ever
+love me, what shame I should bring on them! Perhaps I should kill them!"
+
+"If your parents ever loved you, Fleur-de-Marie, they will pity,
+pardon, and still love you. If they have abandoned you, then, when they
+see the frightful destiny to which they have brought you, _their_ shame
+and remorse will avenge you."
+
+"What is the good of vengeance?"
+
+"You are right; let us talk no more on the subject."
+
+At this moment the carriage reached St. Ouen, where the road divides to
+St. Denis and the Revolte. In spite of the monotony of the landscape,
+Fleur-de-Marie was so delighted at seeing the fields, as she called
+them, that, forgetting the sad thoughts which the recollection of the
+Chouette had awakened in her, her lovely countenance grew radiant with
+delight. She leaned out of the window, clasping her hands, and crying:
+
+"M. Rodolph, how happy I am! Grass! Fields! May I get out? It is so
+fine! I should so like to run in the meadows."
+
+"Let us run, then, my child. Coachman, stop."
+
+"What! You, too? Will you run, M. Rodolph?"
+
+"I'm having a holiday."
+
+"Oh! What pleasure!"
+
+And Rodolph and Goualeuse, taking each other's hand, ran as fast as they
+could over a long piece of latter-grass, just mowed. It would be
+impossible to describe the leaps and exclamations of joy, the intense
+delight, of Fleur-de-Marie. Poor lamb! so long a prisoner, she inspired
+the free air with indescribable pleasure. She ran, returned, stopped,
+and then raced off again with renewed happiness. At the sight of the
+daisies and buttercups Goualeuse could not restrain her transport,--she
+did not leave one flower which she could gather. After having run about
+in this way for some time, she became rather tired, for she had lost the
+habit of exercise, and stopped to take breath, sitting down on the trunk
+of a fallen tree which was lying at the edge of a deep ditch.
+
+[Illustration: "_She Proffered to Rodolph the Bouquet_"
+Etching by Mercier, after the drawing by Frank T. Merrill]
+
+The clear and white complexion of Fleur-de-Marie, generally rather pale,
+was now heightened by the brightest colour. Her large blue eyes sparkled
+brightly, her vermilion lips, partly opened to recover her breath,
+displayed two rows of liquid pearls; her bosom throbbed under her
+worn-out little orange shawl, and she placed one of her hands upon her
+heart, as if to restrain its quickened pulsation, whilst with the other
+hand she proffered to Rodolph the bouquet of field flowers which she had
+just gathered. Nothing could be more charming than the combination of
+innocence and pure joy which beamed on her expressive countenance. When
+Fleur-de-Marie could speak, she said to Rodolph, with an accent of
+supreme happiness and of gratitude, almost amounting to piety:
+
+"How good is the great God to give us so fine a day!"
+
+A tear came into Rodolph's eye when he heard this poor, forsaken,
+despised, lost creature utter a cry of happiness and deep gratitude to
+the Creator, because she enjoyed a ray of sunshine and the sight of a
+green field. He was roused from his reverie by an unexpected
+occurrence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE SURPRISE.
+
+
+We have said that Goualeuse was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree,
+at the edge of a deep ditch. Suddenly a man, springing up from the
+bottom of this hollow, shook the rubbish from him under which he had
+concealed himself, and burst into a loud fit of laughter. Goualeuse
+turned around, screaming with alarm. It was the Chourineur.
+
+"Don't be frightened, my girl," said the Chourineur, when he saw her
+extreme fear, and that she had sought protection from her companion.
+"Ah, Master Rodolph, here's a curious meeting, which I am sure neither
+you nor I expected." Then he added, in a serious tone, "Listen, master.
+People may say what they like, but there is something in the
+air,--there, up there, above our heads, very wonderful; which seems to
+say to a man, 'Go where I send you.' See how you two have been sent
+here. It is devilish wonderful!"
+
+"What are you doing there?" said Rodolph, greatly surprised.
+
+"I was on the lookout in a matter of yours, master; but, thunder and
+lightning! what a high joke that you should come at this particular
+moment into this very neighbourhood of my country-house! There's
+something in all this,--decidedly there is something."
+
+"But again I ask you, what are you doing there?"
+
+"All in good time, I'll tell you; only let me first look about me for a
+moment."
+
+The Chourineur then ran towards the coach, which was some distance off,
+looked this way and that way over the plain with a keen and rapid
+glance, and then rejoined Rodolph, running quickly.
+
+"Will you explain to me the meaning of all this?"
+
+"Patience, patience, good master; one word more. What's o'clock?"
+
+"Half past twelve," said Rodolph, looking at his watch.
+
+"All right; we have time, then. The Chouette will not be here for the
+next half-hour."
+
+"The Chouette!" cried Rodolph and the girl both at once.
+
+"Yes, the Chouette; in two words, master, I'll tell you all. Yesterday,
+after you had left the _tapis-franc_, there came--"
+
+"A tall man with a woman in man's attire, who asked for me; I know all
+about that, but then--"
+
+"Then they paid for my liquor, and wanted to 'draw' me about you. I had
+nothing to tell them, because you had communicated nothing to me, except
+those fisticuffs which settled me. All I know is, that I learned
+something then which I shall not easily forget. But we are friends for
+life and death, Master Rodolph, though the devil burn me if I know why.
+I feel for you the regard which the bulldog feels for his master. It was
+after you told me that I had 'heart and honour;' but that's nothing, so
+there's an end of it. It is no use trying to account for it; so it is,
+and so let it be, if it's any good to you."
+
+"Many thanks, my man; but go on."
+
+"The tall man and the little lady in men's clothes, finding that they
+could get nothing out of me, left the ogress's, and so did I; they going
+towards the Palais de Justice, and I to Notre Dame. On reaching the end
+of the street I found it was raining pitchforks, points downward,--a
+complete deluge. There was an old house in ruins close at hand, and I
+said to myself, 'If this shower is to last all night, I shall sleep as
+well here as in my own "crib."' So I rolled myself into a sort of cave,
+where I was high and dry; my bed was an old beam, and my pillow a heap
+of lath and plaster, and there I slept like a king."
+
+"Well, well, go on."
+
+"We had drank together, Master Rodolph; I had drank, too, with the tall
+man and the little woman dressed in man's clothes, so you may believe my
+head was rather heavy, and, besides, nothing sends me off to sleep like
+a good fall of rain. I began then to snooze, but I had not been long
+asleep, I think, when, aroused by a noise, I sat up and listened. I
+heard the Schoolmaster, who was talking in a friendly tone with
+somebody. I soon made out that he was parleying with the tall man who
+came into the _tapis-franc_ with the little woman dressed in man's
+clothes."
+
+"They in conference with the Schoolmaster and the Chouette?" said
+Rodolph, with amazement.
+
+"With the Schoolmaster and the Chouette; and they agreed to meet again
+on the morrow."
+
+"That's to-day!" said Rodolph.
+
+"At one o'clock."
+
+"This very moment!"
+
+"Where the road branches off to St. Denis and La Revolte."
+
+"This very spot!"
+
+"Just as you say, Master Rodolph, on this very spot."
+
+"The Schoolmaster! Oh, pray be on your guard, M. Rodolph," exclaimed
+Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my child, he won't come; it's only the Chouette."
+
+"How could the man who, with the female in disguise, sought me at the
+_tapis-franc_, come into contact with these two wretches?" said Rodolph.
+
+"I'faith I don't know, and I think I only awoke at the end of the
+affair, for the tall man was talking of getting back his pocketbook,
+which the Chouette was to bring here in exchange for five hundred
+francs. I should say that the Schoolmaster had begun by robbing him, and
+that it was after that that they began to parley, and to come to
+friendly terms."
+
+"It is very strange."
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_ it makes me quite frightened on your account, M. Rodolph,"
+said Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+"Master Rodolph is no chicken, girl; but as you say, there may be
+something working against him, and so I am here."
+
+"Go on, my good fellow."
+
+"The tall man and the little woman have promised two thousand francs to
+the Schoolmaster to do to you--I don't know what. The Chouette is to be
+here directly to return the pocketbook, and to know what is required
+from them, which she is to tell the Schoolmaster, who will undertake
+it."
+
+Fleur-de-Marie started. Rodolph smiled disdainfully.
+
+"Two thousand francs to do something to you, Master Rodolph; that makes
+me think that when I see a notice of a dog that has been lost (I don't
+mean to make a comparison), and the offer of a hundred francs reward for
+his discovery, I say to myself, 'Animal, if you were lost, no one would
+give a hundred farthings to find you.' Two thousand francs to do
+something to you! Who are you, then?"
+
+"I'll tell you by and by."
+
+"That's enough, master. When I heard this proposal, I said to myself, I
+must find out where these two dons live who want to set the Schoolmaster
+on the haunches of M. Rodolph; it may be serviceable. So when they had
+gone away, I got out of my hiding-place, and followed them quietly. I
+saw the tall man and little woman get into a coach near Notre Dame, and
+I got up behind, and we went on until we reached the Boulevard de
+l'Observatoire. It was as dark as the mouth of an oven, and I could not
+distinguish anything, so I cut a notch in a tree, that I might find out
+the place in the morning."
+
+"Well thought of, my good fellow."
+
+"This morning I went there, and about ten yards from the tree I saw a
+narrow entrance, closed by a gate. In the mud there were little and
+large footsteps, and at the end of the entrance a small garden-gate,
+where the traces ended; so the roosting-place of the tall man and the
+little woman must be there."
+
+"Thanks, my worthy friend, you have done me a most essential piece of
+service, without knowing it."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Master Rodolph, but I believed I was serving you,
+and that was the reason I did as I did."
+
+"I know it, my fine fellow, and I wish I could recompense your service
+more properly than by thanks; but, unfortunately, I am only a poor devil
+of a workman, although you say they offer two thousand francs for
+something to be done against me. I will explain that to you."
+
+"Yes, if you like, but not unless. Somebody threatens you with
+something, and I will come across them if I can; the rest is your
+affair."
+
+"I know what they want. Listen to me. I have a secret for cutting fans
+in ivory by a mechanical process, but this secret does not belong to me
+alone. I am awaiting my comrade to go to work, and, no doubt, it is the
+model of the machine which I have at home that they are desirous of
+getting from me at any price, for there is a great deal of money to be
+made by this discovery."
+
+"The tall man and the little woman then are--"
+
+"Work-people with whom I have been associated, and to whom I have
+refused my secret."
+
+This explanation appeared satisfactory to the Chourineur, whose
+apprehension was not the clearest in the world, and he replied:
+
+"Now I understand it all. The beggars! you see they have not the courage
+to do their dirty tricks themselves. But to come to the end of my story.
+I said to myself this morning, I know the rendezvous of the Chouette and
+the tall man; I will go there and wait for them; I have good legs, and
+my employer will wait for me. I came here and found this hole, and,
+taking an armful of stuff from the dunghill yonder, I hid myself here up
+to my nose, and waited for the Chouette. But, lo and behold! you came
+into the field, and poor Goualeuse came and sat down on the very edge of
+my park, and then I determined to have a bit of fun, and, jumping out of
+my lair, I called out like a man on fire."
+
+"And now what do you propose to do?"
+
+"To wait for the Chouette, who is sure to come first; to try and
+overhear what she and the tall man talk about, for that may be useful
+for you to know. There is nothing in the field but this trunk of a tree,
+and from here you may see all over the plain; it is as if it were made
+on purpose to sit down upon. The rendezvous of the Chouette is only four
+steps off at the cross-road, and I will lay a bet they come and sit here
+when they arrive. If I cannot hear anything, then, as soon as they
+separate, I will follow the Chouette, who is sure to stay last, and I'll
+pay her the old grudge I owe her for the Goualeuse's tooth; and I'll
+twist her neck until she tells me the name of the parents of the poor
+girl, for she says she knows them. What do you think of my idea, Master
+Rodolph?"
+
+"I like it very well, my lad; but there is one part which you must
+alter."
+
+"Oh, Chourineur, do not get yourself into any quarrel on my account. If
+you beat the Chouette, then the Schoolmaster--"
+
+"Say no more, my lass. The Chouette shall not go scot free for me.
+Confound it! why, for the very reason that the Schoolmaster will defend
+her, I will double her dose."
+
+"Listen, my man, to me; I have a better plan for avenging the Chouette's
+brutalities to Goualeuse, which I will tell you hereafter. Now," said
+Rodolph, moving a few paces from Goualeuse, and speaking low, "Now, will
+you render me a real service?"
+
+"Name it, Master Rodolph."
+
+"The Chouette does not know you?"
+
+"I saw her yesterday for the first time at the _tapis-franc_."
+
+"This is what you must do. Hide yourself first; but, when you see her
+come close to you, get out of this hole--"
+
+"And twist her neck?"
+
+"No, defer that for a time. To-day, only prevent her from speaking to
+the tall man. He, seeing some one with her, will not approach; and if he
+does, do not leave her alone for a moment. He cannot make his proposal
+before you."
+
+"If the man thinks me curious, I know what to do; he is neither the
+Schoolmaster nor Master Rodolph. I will follow the Chouette like her
+shadow, and the man shall not say a word that I do not overhear. He will
+then be off, and after that I will have one little turn with the
+Chouette. I must have it; it will be such a sweet drop for me."
+
+"Not yet; the one-eyed hag does not know whether you are a thief or
+not?"
+
+"No, not unless the Schoolmaster has talked of me to her, and told her
+that I did not do business in that line."
+
+"If he have, you must appear to have altered your ideas on that
+subject."
+
+"I?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ten thousand thunders! M. Rodolph, what do you mean? Indeed--truly--I
+don't like it; it does not suit me to play such a farce as that."
+
+"You shall only do what you please; but you will not find that I shall
+suggest any infamous plan to you. The tall man once driven away, you
+must try and talk over the Chouette. As she will be very savage at
+having missed the good haul she expected, you must try and smooth her
+down by telling her that you know of a capital bit of business which may
+be done, and that you are then waiting for your comrade, and that, if
+the Schoolmaster will join you, there is a lump of money to be made."
+
+"Well, well."
+
+"After waiting with her for an hour, you may say, 'My mate does not
+come, and so the job must be put off;' and then you may make an
+appointment with the Chouette and the Schoolmaster for to-morrow, at an
+early hour. Do you understand me?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"And this evening, at ten o'clock, meet me at the corner of the Champs
+Elysées and the Allée des Veuves, and I will tell you more."
+
+"If it is a trap, look out! The Schoolmaster is a scoundrel. You have
+beaten him, and, no doubt, he will kill you if he can."
+
+"Have no fear."
+
+"By Jove! it is a 'rum start;' but do as you like with me. I do not
+hesitate, for something tells me that there is a rod in pickle for the
+Schoolmaster and the Chouette. One word, though, if you please, M.
+Rodolph."
+
+"Say it."
+
+"I do not think you are the man to lay a trap, and set the police on the
+Schoolmaster. He is an arrant blackguard, who deserves a hundred deaths;
+but to have them arrested, that I will not have a hand in."
+
+"Nor I, my boy; but I have a score to wipe off with him and the
+Chouette, because they are in a plot with others against me; but we two
+will baffle them completely, if you will lend me your assistance."
+
+"Of course I will; and, if that is to be the game, I am your man. But
+quick, quick," cried the Chourineur, "down there I see the head of the
+Chouette. I know it is her bonnet. Go, go, and I will drop into my
+hole."
+
+"To-night, then, at ten o'clock."
+
+"At the corner of the Champs Elysées and the Allée des Veuves; all
+right."
+
+Fleur-de-Marie had not heard a word of the latter part of the
+conversation between the Chourineur and Rodolph, and now entered again
+into the coach with her travelling companion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+CASTLES IN THE AIR.
+
+
+For some time after this conversation with the Chourineur, Rodolph
+remained preoccupied and pensive, while Fleur-de-Marie, too timid to
+break the silence, continued to gaze on him with saddened earnestness.
+At length Rodolph looked up, and, meeting her mournful look, smiled
+kindly on her, and said, "What are you thinking of, my child? I fear our
+rencontre with the Chourineur has made you uncomfortable, and we were so
+merry, too."
+
+"Oh, no, M. Rodolph, indeed, I do not mind it at all; nay, I even
+believe the meeting with the Chourineur may be useful to you."
+
+"Did not this man pass amongst the inhabitants of the _tapis-franc_ as
+possessing some good points among his many bad ones?"
+
+"Indeed, I know not, M. Rodolph; for although, previously to the scene
+of yesterday, I had frequently seen him, I had scarcely ever spoken to
+him. I always looked upon him as bad as all the rest."
+
+"Well, well, do not let us talk any more about him, my pretty
+Fleur-de-Marie. I should be sorry, indeed, to make you sad,--I, who
+brought you out purposely that you might spend a happy day."
+
+"Oh, I am happy. It is so very long since I have been out of Paris."
+
+"Not since your grand doings with Rigolette."
+
+"Yes, indeed, M. Rodolph; but that was in the spring. Yet, though it is
+now autumn, I enjoy it quite as much. How beautifully the sun shines!
+Only look at the gold-coloured clouds out there--there, I mean; and then
+that hill, with its pretty white houses half hid among the trees, and
+the leaves still so green, though we are in the middle of the month of
+October. Do not you think it is wonderful, M. Rodolph, they should so
+well preserve their verdure? In Paris, all the leaves wither so soon.
+Look! look at those pigeons! how many there are! and how high they fly!
+Now they are settling on that old mill. One is never tired in the open
+fields of looking at all these amusing sights."
+
+"It, is, indeed, a pleasure to behold the delight you seem to take in
+all these trifling matters, Fleur-de-Marie; though they, in reality,
+constitute the charm of a landscape."
+
+And Rodolph was right; for the countenance of his companion, while
+gazing upon the fair, calm scene before her, was lit up with an
+expression of the purest joy.
+
+"See!" she exclaimed, after intently watching the different objects that
+unfolded themselves to her eager look, "see how beautifully the clear
+white smoke rises from those cottages, and ascends to the very clouds
+themselves; and there are some men ploughing the land. What a capital
+plough they have got, drawn by those two fine gray horses. Oh, if I were
+a man, how I should like to be a husbandman, to go out in the fields,
+and drive one's own plough; and then when you look to see the blue
+skies, and the green shiny leaves of the neighbouring forests,--such a
+day as to-day, for instance, when you feel half inclined to weep,
+without knowing why, and begin singing old and melancholy songs, like
+'Geneviève de Brabant.' Do you know 'Geneviève de Brabant,' M. Rodolph?"
+
+"No, my child; but I hope you will have the kindness to sing it to me
+before the day is over. You know our time is all our own."
+
+At these words, which reminded the poor Goualeuse that her newly tasted
+happiness was fast fleeting away, and that, at the close of this, the
+brightest day that had ever shone on her existence, she must return to
+all the horrors of a corrupt city, her feelings broke through all
+restraint, she hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. Much
+surprised at her emotion, Rodolph kindly inquired its cause.
+
+"What ails you, Fleur-de-Marie? What fresh grief have you found?"
+
+"Nothing,--nothing indeed, M. Rodolph," replied the girl, drying her
+eyes and trying to smile. "Pray forgive me for being so sad, and please
+not to notice it. I assure you I have nothing at all to grieve
+about,--it is only a fancy; and now I am going to be quite gay, you will
+see."
+
+"And you were as gay as could be a few minutes ago."
+
+"Yes, I know I was; and it was my thinking how soon--" answered
+Fleur-de-Marie, naïvely, and raising her large, tearful blue eyes, with
+touching candour, to his face.
+
+The look, the words, fully enlightened Rodolph as to the cause of her
+distress, and, wishing to dissipate it, he said, smilingly:
+
+"I would lay a wager you are regretting your poor rose-tree, and are
+crying because you could not bring it out walking with you, as you used
+to do."
+
+La Goualeuse fell into the good-natured scheme for regaining her
+cheerfulness, and by degrees the clouds of sadness cleared away from her
+fair young face; and once again she appeared absorbed in the pleasure of
+the moment, without allowing herself to recollect the future that would
+succeed it. The vehicle had by this time almost arrived at St. Denis,
+and the tall spires of the cathedral were visible.
+
+"Oh, what a fine steeple!" exclaimed La Goualeuse.
+
+"It is that of the splendid church of St. Denis: would you like to see
+it? We can easily stop our carriage."
+
+Poor Fleur-de-Marie cast down her eyes. "From the hour I went to live
+with the ogress," said she, in a low tone, while deep blushes dyed her
+cheek, "I never once entered a church,--I durst not. When in prison, on
+the contrary, I used to delight in helping to sing the mass; and,
+against the Fête-Dieu, oh, I made such lovely bouquets for the altar!"
+
+"But God is merciful and good; why, then, fear to pray to him, or to
+enter his holy church?"
+
+"Oh, no, no, M. Rodolph! I have offended God deeply enough; let me not
+add impiety and sacrilege to my sins."
+
+After a moment's silence, Rodolph again renewed the conversation, and,
+kindly taking the hand of La Goualeuse, said, "Fleur-de-Marie, tell me
+honestly, have you ever known what it is to love?"
+
+"Never, M. Rodolph."
+
+"And how do you account for this?"
+
+"You saw the kind of persons who frequented the _tapis-franc_. And then,
+to love, the object should be good and virtuous--"
+
+"Why do you think so?"
+
+"Oh, because one's lover, or husband, would be all in all to us, and we
+should seek no greater happiness than devoting our life to him. But, M.
+Rodolph, if you please, we will talk of something else, for the tears
+will come into my eyes."
+
+"Willingly, Fleur-de-Marie; let us change the conversation. And now tell
+me, why do you look so beseechingly at me with those large, tearful
+eyes? Have I done anything to displease you?"
+
+"On the contrary, 'tis the excess of your goodness that makes me weep;
+indeed, I could almost fancy that you had brought me out solely for my
+individual pleasure and enjoyment, without thinking of yourself. Not
+content with your generous defence of me yesterday, you have to-day
+procured for me happiness such as I never hoped to enjoy."
+
+"You are, then, truly and entirely happy?"
+
+"Never, never shall I forget to-day."
+
+"Happiness does not often attend us on earth," said Rodolph, sighing.
+
+"Alas, no! Seldom, perhaps never."
+
+"For my own part, to make up for a want of reality in its possession, I
+often amuse myself with pictures of what I would have if I could, saying
+to myself, this is how, and where, I should like to live,--this is the
+sort of income I should like to enjoy. Have you never, my little
+Fleur-de-Marie, amused yourself with building similar 'castles in the
+air?'"
+
+"Yes, formerly, when I was in prison, before I went to live with the
+ogress,--then I used to do nothing all day but dance, sing, and build
+these fairy dreams; but I very seldom do so now. Tell me, M. Rodolph, if
+you could have any wish you liked, what should you most desire?"
+
+"Oh, I should like to be rich, with plenty of servants and carriages; to
+possess a splendid hôtel, and to mix in the first circles of fashion; to
+be able to obtain any amusement I pleased, and to go to the theatres and
+opera whenever I chose."
+
+"Well, then, you would be more unreasonable than I should. Now I will
+tell you exactly what would satisfy me in every respect: first of all,
+sufficient money to clear myself with the ogress, and to keep me till I
+could obtain work for my future support; then a pretty, little, nice,
+clean room, all to myself, from the window of which I could see the
+trees while I sat at my work."
+
+"Plenty of flowers in your casement, of course?"
+
+"Oh, certainly! And, if it could be managed, to live in the country
+always. And that, I think, is all I should want."
+
+"Let me see: a little room, and work enough to maintain you,--those are
+positive necessaries; but, when one is merely wishing, there is no harm
+in adding a few superfluities. Should you not like such nice things as
+carriages, diamonds, and rich clothes?"
+
+"Not at all! All I wish for is my free and undisturbed liberty,--a
+country life, and the certainty of not dying in a hospital. Oh, that
+idea is dreadful! Above all things, I would desire the certainty of its
+never being my fate. Oh, M. Rodolph, that dread often comes across me
+and fills me with terror."
+
+"Alas! poor folks, such as we are, should not shrink from such things."
+
+"'Tis not the dying in a charitable institution I dread, or the poverty
+that would send me into it, but the thoughts of what they do to your
+lifeless remains."
+
+"What do they do that shocks you so much?"
+
+"Is it possible, M. Rodolph, you have never been told what will become
+of you if you die in one of those places?"
+
+"No, indeed, I have not; do you tell me."
+
+"Well, then, I knew a young girl, who had been a sort of companion to me
+when I was in prison; she afterwards died in a hospital, and what do you
+think? Her body was given to the surgeons for dissection!" murmured the
+shuddering Fleur-de-Marie.
+
+"That is, indeed, a frightful idea! And do these miserable anticipations
+often trouble you, my poor girl?"
+
+"Ah, M. Rodolph, it surprises you that, after my unhappy life, I can
+feel any concern as to what becomes of my miserable remains! God knows,
+the feeling which makes me shrink from such an outrage to modesty is all
+my wretched fate has left me!"
+
+The mournful tone in which these words were uttered, and the bitter
+feelings they contained, went to the heart of Rodolph; but his
+companion, quickly perceiving his air of dejection, and blaming herself
+for having caused it, said, timidly:
+
+"M. Rodolph, I feel that I am behaving very ill and ungratefully towards
+you, who so kindly brought me out to amuse me and give me pleasure; in
+return for which I only keep talking to you about all the dull and
+gloomy things I can think of! I wonder how I can do so!--to be able even
+to recollect my misery, when all around me smiles and looks so gay! I
+cannot tell how it is, words seem to rise from my lips in spite of
+myself; and, though I feel happier to-day than I ever did before in my
+life, my eyes are continually filling with tears! You are not angry with
+me, are you, M. Rodolph? See, too, my sadness is going away as suddenly
+as it came. There now, it is all gone, and shall not return to vex you
+any more, I am determined. Look, M. Rodolph, just look at my eyes,--they
+do not show that I have been crying, do they?"
+
+And here Fleur-de-Marie, having repeatedly closed her eyes to get rid of
+the rebellious tears that would gather there, opened them full upon
+Rodolph, with a look of most enchanting candour and sweetness.
+
+"Put no restraint on yourself, I beseech you, Fleur-de-Marie: be gay, if
+you really feel so; or sad, if sadness most suits your present state of
+mind. I have my own hours of gloom and melancholy, and my sufferings
+would be much increased were I compelled to feign a lightness of heart I
+did not really possess."
+
+"Can it be possible, M. Rodolph, that you are ever sad?"
+
+"Quite possible, my child, and true. Alas! the prospect before me is but
+little brighter than your own. I, like you, am without friends or
+parents; what would become of me if I were to fall ill and be unable to
+earn my daily bread,--for I need scarcely tell you I live but from day
+to day, and spend my money quite as fast as I obtain it?"
+
+"Oh, but that is wrong, M. Rodolph,--very, very wrong!" said La
+Goualeuse, in a tone of such deep and grave remonstrance as made him
+smile. "You should always lay by something. Look at me: why, all my
+troubles and misfortunes have happened because I did not save my money
+more carefully. If once a person can get a hundred francs beforehand, he
+need never fear falling into any one's power; generally, a difficulty
+about money puts very evil thoughts into our head."
+
+"All that is very wise and very sensible, my frugal little friend; but a
+hundred francs!--that is a large sum; how could a man like myself ever
+amass so much?"
+
+"Why, M. Rodolph, it is really very easy, if you will but consider a
+little. First of all, I think you said you could earn five francs a
+day?"
+
+"Yes, so I can, when I choose to work."
+
+"Ah! but you should work, constantly and regularly; and yours is such a
+pretty trade. To paint fans! how nice such work must be,--mere
+amusement, quite a recreation! I cannot think why you should ever be
+tired or dull. Indeed, M. Rodolph, I must tell you plainly I do not pity
+you at all; and, besides, really you talk like a mere child when you say
+you cannot save money out of such large earnings," added La Goualeuse,
+in a sweet, but, for her, severe tone. "Why, a workman may live well
+upon three francs a day; there remain forty sous; at the end of a month,
+if you manage prudently, you will have saved sixty francs. Think of
+that! There's a sum!--sixty francs in one month!"
+
+"Oh, but one likes to show off sometimes, and to indulge in a little
+idleness."
+
+"There now, M. Rodolph, I declare you make me quite angry to hear you
+talk so childishly! Pray let me advise you to be wiser."
+
+"Come, then, my sage little monitress, I will be a good boy, and listen
+to all your careful advice. And your idea of saving, too, is a
+remarkably good one; I never thought of it before."
+
+"Really!" exclaimed the poor girl, clapping her hands with joy. "Oh, if
+you knew how delighted I am to hear you say so! Then you will begin from
+to-day to lay by the forty sous we were talking about, will you? Will
+you, indeed?"
+
+"I give you my honour that, from this very hour, I will resolve to
+follow up your most excellent plan, and save forty sous out of each
+day's pay."
+
+"Are you quite, quite sure you will?"
+
+"Nay, have I not promised you that I will?"
+
+"You will see how proud and happy you will be with your first savings;
+and that is not all--ah, if you would promise not to be angry!"
+
+"Do I look as though I could be so unkind, Fleur-de-Marie, as to find
+fault with anything you said?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, that you do not; only I hardly know whether I ought--"
+
+"You ought to tell me everything you think or feel, Fleur-de-Marie."
+
+"Well, then, I was wondering how _you_, who, it is easily seen, are
+above your condition, can frequent such low cabarets as that kept by the
+ogress."
+
+"Had I not done so, I should not have had the pleasure of wandering in
+the fields with you to-day, my dear Fleur-de-Marie."
+
+"That is, indeed, true, M. Rodolph; but, still, it does not alter my
+first opinion. No, much as I enjoy to-day's treat, I would cheerfully
+give up all thoughts of ever passing such another if I thought it could
+in any way injure you."
+
+"Injure me! Far from it! Think of the excellent advice you have been
+giving me."
+
+"Which you have promised me to follow?"
+
+"I have; and I pledge my word of honour to save henceforward at least
+forty sous a day." Thus speaking, Rodolph called out to the driver of
+their vehicle, who was passing the village of Sarcelles, "Take the first
+road to the right, cross Villiers to Bel, turn to the left, then keep
+along quite straight."
+
+"Now," said Rodolph, turning to his companion, "that I am a good boy,
+and promised to do all you tell me, let us go back to our diversion of
+building castles in the air: that does not run away with much money. You
+will not object to such a method of amusing myself, will you?"
+
+"Oh, no, build as many as you like, they are very cheaply raised, and
+very easily knocked down when you are tired of them. Now, then, you
+begin."
+
+"Well, then--No! Fleur-de-Marie, you shall build up yours first."
+
+"I wonder if you could guess what I should choose, if wishing were all,
+M. Rodolph."
+
+"Let us try. Suppose that this road--I say _this_ road, because we
+happen to be on it--"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course; this road is as good as any other."
+
+"Well, then, I say, I suppose that this road leads to a delightful
+little village, at a considerable distance from the highroad--"
+
+"Oh, yes; that makes it so much more still and quiet!"
+
+"It is built facing the south, and half surrounded by trees--"
+
+"And close by flows a gentle river."
+
+"Exactly!--a clear, gently flowing river. At the end of this village
+stands a pretty farm, with a nice orchard on one side of it, and a
+garden, filled with flowers, on the other--"
+
+"That farm shall be called my farm, to which we will pretend we are now
+going."
+
+"Just so."
+
+"And where we know we shall get some delicious milk to drink after our
+journey!"
+
+"Milk, indeed! Excellent cream, and newly laid eggs, if you please."
+
+"And where we would be glad to stay all our lives!"
+
+"All our lives! Quite right,--go on."
+
+"And then we should go and see all the cows!"
+
+"To be sure we should."
+
+"And afterwards visit the dairy?"
+
+"Visit the dairy! Yes."
+
+"Then the pigeon-house?"
+
+"Yes, so we should."
+
+"Oh, how very, very nice, only to think of such things!"
+
+"But let me finish the description of the farm--"
+
+"Yes, pray do! I quite forgot that."
+
+"Well, then, the ground floor contains two rooms; one, a large kitchen
+for the farm servants, and the other for the owner of the place."
+
+"Make that room have green blinds, M. Rodolph,--do, pray; they are so
+cool, and look so pretty!"
+
+"Yes, yes,--green blinds to the windows. I quite agree with you,--they
+do look uncommonly pretty, and set off a place so well! Of course, the
+person tenanting this farm is your aunt."
+
+"Of course she is my aunt, and a very good, sensible, kind woman, M.
+Rodolph, is she not?"
+
+"Particularly so, and loves you like her own child."
+
+"Dear, good aunt! Oh, how delightful to have some one to love us!"
+
+"And you return the tender affection she bears you?"
+
+"Oh, with all my heart!" exclaimed Fleur-de-Marie, clasping her hands,
+and raising her eyes to heaven with an expression impossible to
+describe. "And I should help her to work, to attend to the family linen,
+to keep everything neat and clean, to store up the summer fruits against
+winter--oh, she would never have to complain that I was idle, I promise!
+First of all, in the morning--"
+
+"Wait a bit, Fleur-de-Marie; you are in too great a hurry. I want to
+finish describing the house to you; never mind your aunt just yet."
+
+"Ah, ha, Mr. Painter! All this is taken from some pretty landscape you
+have been painting on a fan. Now I know what makes you so expert at
+describing it!" said La Goualeuse, laughing merrily at her own little
+jest.
+
+"You little chatterer, be quiet, will you?"
+
+"Yes, I am a chatterer, indeed, to interrupt you so often, M. Rodolph;
+but pray go on, and I will not speak again till you have finished
+painting this dear farm."
+
+"Your room is on the first floor--"
+
+"My room! how charming! Oh, go on--go on, please, M. Rodolph, and
+describe all about it to me!" And the delighted girl opened her large
+laughing eyes, and pressed more closely against Rodolph, as if she
+expected to see the picture in his hand.
+
+"Your chamber has two windows looking out upon the flower garden, and a
+small meadow, watered by the river we mentioned. On the opposite bank of
+the stream rises a small hill, planted with fine old chestnut-trees; and
+from amongst them peeps out the village church--"
+
+"Oh, how beautiful,--how very beautiful, M. Rodolph! It makes one quite
+long to be there."
+
+"Three or four fine cows are grazing in the meadow, which is only
+separated from the garden by a hedge of honeysuckle--"
+
+"And from my windows I can see the cows?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"And one among them ought to be my favourite, you know, M. Rodolph; and
+I ought to put a little bell round its neck, and use it to feed out of
+my hands!"
+
+"Of course she would come when you called her. Let me see, what name
+shall we give her? Suppose we say, Musette. Do you like that? She shall
+be very young and gentle, and entirely white."
+
+"Oh, what a pretty name! Musette! Ah, Musette, Musette, I shall be
+always feeding you and patting you to make you know me."
+
+"Now we will finish the inside of your apartment, Fleur-de-Marie. The
+curtains and furniture are green, like the blinds; and outside the
+window grow an enormous rose-tree and honeysuckle, which entirely cover
+this side of the farm, and so surround your casements that you have only
+to stretch out your hand to gather a large bunch of roses and
+honeysuckle wet with the early morning dew."
+
+"Ah, M. Rodolph, what a good painter you are!"
+
+"Now this is the way you will pass your day--"
+
+"Yes, yes, let us see how I shall employ myself all day."
+
+"Early in the morning your good aunt wakes you with a tender kiss; she
+brings with her a bowl of new milk, just warm, which she prays you to
+drink, as she fancies you are delicate about the lungs, poor dear child!
+Well, you do as she wishes you; then rise, and take a walk around the
+farm; pay a visit to Musette, the poultry, your pets the pigeons, the
+flowers in the garden, till nine o'clock, when your writing-master
+arrives--"
+
+"My writing-master?"
+
+"Why, you know, unless you learned such necessary things as reading,
+writing, and accounts, you would not be able to assist your aunt to keep
+her books relative to the produce of the farm."
+
+"Oh, to be sure! How very stupid of me not to recollect that I must
+learn to write well, if I wished to help my aunt!" cried the young girl,
+so thoroughly absorbed in the picture of this peaceful life as to
+believe for the moment in its reality.
+
+"After your lesson is concluded, you will occupy yourself in household
+matters, or embroider some pretty little article of dress for yourself;
+then you will practise your writing for an hour or two, and, when that
+is done, join your aunt in her round of visits to the different
+operations of the farm; in the summer, to see how the reapers get on in
+the hay field; in harvest-time, to observe the reapers, and afterwards
+to enjoy the delight with which the gleaners pick up the scattered ears
+of grain; by this time you will have almost tired yourself, and
+gathering a large handful of wild herbs, carefully selected by you as
+the known favourites of your dear Musette, you turn your steps
+homewards--"
+
+"But we go back through the meadow, dear M. Rodolph, do we not?"
+inquired La Goualeuse, as earnestly as though every syllable her ears
+drank in was to be effectually brought to pass.
+
+"Oh, yes! by all means; and there happens, fortunately, to be a nice
+little bridge, by which the river separating the farm-land from the
+meadow may be crossed. By the time you reach home, upon my word, it is
+seven o'clock; and, as the evenings begin to be a little chill, a
+bright, cheerful fire is blazing in the large farm kitchen; you go in
+there for a few minutes, just to warm yourself and to speak a few kind
+words to the honest labourers, who are enjoying a hearty meal after the
+day's toil is over. Then you sit down to dinner with your aunt;
+sometimes the curé, or a neighbouring farmer, is invited to share the
+meal. After dinner you read or work, while your aunt and her guest have
+a friendly game at piquet. At ten o'clock she dismisses you, with a kiss
+and a blessing, to your chamber; you retire to your room, offer prayers
+and thanksgivings to the Great Author of all your happiness, then sleep
+soundly till morning, when the same routine begins again."
+
+"Oh, M. Rodolph, one might lead such a life as that for a hundred years,
+without ever knowing one moment's weariness."
+
+"But that is not all. There are Sundays and fête-days to be thought of."
+
+"Yes; and how should we pass those?"
+
+"Why, you would put on your holiday dress, with one of those pretty
+little caps _à la paysanne_, which all admit you look so very nicely in,
+and accompany your aunt in her large old-fashioned chaise, driven by
+James the farm servant, to hear mass in the village church; after which,
+during summer, your kind relative would take you to the different fêtes
+given in the adjoining parishes. You, so gentle, so modest and
+good-looking, so tenderly beloved by your aunt, and so well spoken of by
+the curé for all the virtues and qualifications which make a good wife,
+will have no scarcity of offers for your hand in the dance,--indeed, all
+the principal young farmers will be anxious to secure you as a partner,
+by way of opening an acquaintance which shall last for life. By degrees
+you begin to remark one more than the others; you perceive his deep
+desire to attract your undivided attention, and so--" And here Rodolph,
+struck by the continued silence of La Goualeuse, looked up at her. Alas!
+the poor girl was endeavouring, though fruitlessly, to choke the deep
+sobs which almost suffocated her. For a brief period, carried away by
+the words of Rodolph, the bright future presented to her mental vision
+had effaced the horrible present; but too quickly did the hideous
+picture return, and sweep away for ever the dear delight of believing so
+sweet, so calm an existence could ever be hers.
+
+"Fleur-de-Marie," asked Rodolph, in a kind and affectionate tone, "why
+is this? Why these tears?"
+
+"Ah, M. Rodolph, you have unintentionally caused me much pain. Foolish
+girl that I was, I had listened to you till I quite fancied this
+paradise were a true picture."
+
+"And so it is, my dear child! This paradise, as you call it, is no
+fiction."
+
+"Stop, coachman!"
+
+"Now look! see! observe where we are!"
+
+As the carriage stopped, La Goualeuse, at Rodolph's bidding,
+mechanically raised her head,--they were on the summit of a little
+hill. What was her surprise, her astonishment, at the scene which
+revealed itself to her gaze! The pretty village, built facing the south,
+the farm, the meadow, the beautiful cows, the little winding river, the
+chestnut grove, the church in the distance,--the whole picture, so
+vividly painted, was before her eyes. Nothing was wanting,--even the
+milk-white heifer, Musette, her future pet, was peacefully grazing as
+she had been described. The rich colouring of an October sun gilded the
+charming landscape, while the variegated tint of the chestnut-leaves,
+slightly tinged by the autumnal breezes, stood out in bold relief
+against the clear blue of the surrounding sky.
+
+"Well, my little Fleur-de-Marie, what do you say to this? Am I a good
+painter, or not?"
+
+La Goualeuse looked at him with a surprise in which a degree of
+uneasiness was mingled; all she saw and heard appeared to her to partake
+largely of the supernatural.
+
+"M. Rodolph," she at length exclaimed, with a bewildered look, "how can
+this be? Indeed, indeed, I feel afraid to look at it,--it is so exactly
+alike. I cannot believe it is anything but a dream you have conjured up,
+and which will quickly pass away. Speak to me! pray do; and tell me what
+to believe."
+
+"Calm yourself, my dear child! Nothing is more simple or true than what
+you behold here. The good woman who owns this farm was my nurse, and
+brought me up here; intending to give myself a treat, I sent to her
+early this morning to say I was coming to see her. You see I painted
+after nature."
+
+"You are quite right, M. Rodolph," sighed La Goualeuse. "There is,
+indeed, nothing but what is quite natural in all this."
+
+The farm to which Rodolph had conducted Fleur-de-Marie was situated at
+the outer extremity of the village of Bouqueval,--a small, isolated, and
+unknown hamlet, entirely surrounded by its own lands, and about two
+leagues' distance from Ecouen; the vehicle, following the directions of
+Rodolph, rapidly descended the hill, and entered a long avenue bordered
+with apple and cherry trees, while the wheels rolled noiselessly over
+the short fine grass with which the unfrequented road was overgrown.
+
+Fleur-de-Marie, whose utmost efforts were unavailing to shake off the
+painful sensations she experienced, remained so silent and mournful that
+Rodolph reproached himself with having, by his well-intentioned
+surprise, been the cause of it. In a few moments more, the carriage,
+passing by the large entrance to the farm, entered a thick avenue of
+elm-trees, and stopped before a little rustic porch, half hidden by the
+luxuriant branches of the vine which clustered round it.
+
+"Now, Fleur-de-Marie, here we are. Are you pleased with what you see?"
+
+"Indeed I am, M. Rodolph. But how shall I venture before the good person
+you mentioned as living here? Pray do not let her see me,--I cannot
+venture to approach her."
+
+"And why, my child?"
+
+"True, M. Rodolph; I forget she does not know me, and will not guess how
+unworthy I am." And poor Fleur-de-Marie tried to suppress the deep sigh
+that would accompany her words.
+
+The arrival of Rodolph had, no doubt, been watched for; the driver had
+scarcely opened the carriage door when a prepossessing female, of middle
+age, dressed in the style of wealthy landholders about Paris, and whose
+countenance, though melancholy, was also gentle and benevolent in its
+expression, appeared in the porch, and with respectful eagerness
+advanced to meet Rodolph.
+
+Poor Goualeuse felt her cheeks flush and her heart beat as she timidly
+descended from the vehicle.
+
+"Good day, good day, Madame Georges," said Rodolph, advancing towards
+the individual so addressed, "you see I am punctual." Then turning to
+the driver, and putting money into his hand, he said, "Here, my friend,
+there is no further occasion to detain you; you may return to Paris as
+soon as you please."
+
+The coachman, a little, short, square-built man, with his hat over his
+eyes, and his countenance almost entirely concealed by the high collar
+of his driving-coat, pocketed the money without a word, remounted his
+seat, gave his horses the whip, and disappeared down the _allée verte_
+by which he had entered.
+
+Fleur-de-Marie sprang to the side of Rodolph, and with an air of
+unfeigned alarm, almost amounting to distress, said, in a tone so low as
+not to be overheard by Madame Georges:
+
+"M. Rodolph! M. Rodolph! pray do not be angry, but why have you sent
+away the carriage? Will it not return to fetch us away?"
+
+"Of course not; I have quite done with the man, and therefore dismissed
+him."
+
+"But the ogress!"
+
+"What of her? Why do you mention her name?"
+
+"Alas! alas! because I must return to her this evening; indeed, indeed,
+I must, or--or she will consider me a thief. The very clothes I have on
+are hers, and, besides, I owe her--"
+
+"Make yourself quite easy, my dear child; it is my part to ask your
+forgiveness, not you mine."
+
+"My forgiveness! Oh, for what can you require me to pardon you?"
+
+"For not having sooner told you that you no longer owe the ogress
+anything; that it rests only with yourself to decide whether you will
+henceforward make this quiet spot your home, and cast off the garments
+you now wear for others my kind friend, Madame Georges, will furnish you
+with. She is much about your height, and can supply you with everything
+you require. She is all impatience to commence her part of 'aunt,' I
+can assure you."
+
+Poor Fleur-de-Marie seemed utterly unable to comprehend the meaning of
+all she saw and heard, and gazed with wondering and perplexed looks from
+one companion to the other, as though fearing to trust either her eyes
+or ears.
+
+"Do I understand you rightly?" she cried at length, half breathless with
+emotion. "Not go back to Paris? Remain here? And this lady will permit
+me to stay with her? Oh, it cannot be possible; I dare not hope it; that
+would, indeed, be to realise our 'castles in the air.'"
+
+"Dear Fleur-de-Marie, your wishes are realised,--your dream a true one."
+
+"No, no, you must be jesting; that would be too much happiness to
+expect, or even dare to hope for."
+
+"Nay, Fleur-de-Marie, we should never find fault with an oversupply of
+happiness."
+
+"Ah, M. Rodolph, for pity's sake deceive me not; you cannot believe the
+misery I should experience were you to tell me all this happiness was
+but a jest."
+
+"My child, listen to me," said Rodolph, with a tone and manner which,
+although still affectionate, was mingled with a dignified accent and
+manner Fleur-de-Marie had never previously remarked in him. "I repeat
+that, if you please, you may from this very hour lead here, with Madame
+Georges, that peaceful life whose description but a short time since so
+much delighted you. Though the kind lady with whom you will reside be
+not your aunt, she will feel for you the most lively and affectionate
+interest, and with the personages about the farm you will pass as being
+really and truly her niece, and this innocent deception will render your
+residence here more agreeable and advantageous. Once more I repeat to
+you, Fleur-de-Marie, you may now at your own pleasure realise the dream
+of our journey. As soon as you have assumed your village dress," said
+Rodolph, smilingly, "we will take you to see that milk-white heifer,
+Musette, who is to be your favourite henceforward, and who is only
+waiting for the pretty collar you designed to ornament her with; then we
+will go and introduce ourselves to your pets, the pigeons, afterwards
+visit the dairy, and so go on till we have been all over the farm. I
+mean to keep my promise in every respect, I assure you."
+
+Fleur-de-Marie pressed her hands together with earnest gratitude.
+Surprise, joy, and the deepest thankfulness, mingled with respect, lit
+up her beautiful countenance, while, with eyes streaming with tears, she
+exclaimed:
+
+"M. Rodolph, you are, you must be, one of those beneficent angels sent
+by the Almighty to do good upon earth, and to rescue poor fallen
+creatures, like myself, from shame and misery."
+
+"My poor girl," replied Rodolph, with a smile of deep sadness and
+ineffable kindness, "though still young, I have already deeply suffered.
+I lost a dear child, who, if living, would now be about your age. Let
+that explain my deep sympathy with all who suffer, and for yourself
+particularly, Fleur-de-Marie, or, rather, _Marie_ only. Now, go with
+Madame Georges, who will shew you the pretty chamber, with its
+clustering roses and honeysuckle to form your morning bouquets. Yes,
+Marie, henceforward let that name, simple and sweet as yourself, be your
+only appellation. Before my departure we will have some talk together,
+and then I shall quit you, most happy in the knowledge of your full
+contentment."
+
+Fleur-de-Marie, without one word of reply, gracefully bent her knee,
+and, before Rodolph could prevent her, gently and respectfully raised
+his hand to her lips; then rising with an air of modest submission,
+followed Madame Georges, who eyed her with a profound interest, out of
+the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MURPHY AND RODOLPH.
+
+
+Upon quitting the house, Rodolph bent his steps towards the farmyard,
+where he found the individual who, the preceding evening, disguised as a
+charcoal-man, had warned him of the arrival of Tom and Sarah. Murphy,
+which was the name of this personage, was about fifty years of age; his
+head, nearly bald, was still ornamented with a fringe of light brown
+hair at each side, which the hand of time had here and there slightly
+tinged with gray; his face was broad, open, and ruddy, and free from all
+appearance of hair, except very short whiskers, of a reddish colour,
+only reaching as low as the tip of the ear, from which it diverged, and
+stretched itself in a gentle curve across his rubicund cheeks. Spite of
+his years and _embonpoint_, Murphy was active and athletic; his
+countenance, though somewhat phlegmatic, was expressive of great
+resolution and kindliness of nature; he wore a white neck-handkerchief,
+a deep waistcoat, and a long black coat, with very wide skirts; his
+breeches, of an olive green colour, corresponded in material with the
+gaiters which protected his sturdy legs, without reaching entirely to
+the knee, but allowing the strings belonging to his upper garment to
+display themselves in long unstudied bows; in fact, the dress and whole
+_tournure_ of Murphy exactly accorded with the idea of what in England
+is styled a "gentleman farmer." Now, the personage we are describing,
+though an English squire, was no farmer. At the moment of Rodolph's
+appearance in the yard, Murphy was in the act of depositing, in the
+pocket of a small travelling _caléche_, a pair of small pistols he had
+just been carefully cleaning.
+
+"What the devil are you going to do with those pistols?" inquired
+Rodolph.
+
+"That is my business, my lord," replied Murphy, descending the carriage
+steps; "attend to your affairs, and I will mind mine."
+
+"At what o'clock have you ordered the horses?"
+
+"According to your directions,--at nightfall."
+
+"You got here this morning, I suppose?"
+
+"I did, at eight o'clock. Madame Georges has had ample time to make all
+the preparations you desired."
+
+"What has gone wrong, Murphy? You seem completely out of humour. Have I
+done anything to offend you?"
+
+"Can you not, my lord, accomplish your self-imposed task without
+incurring so much personal risk?"
+
+"Surely, in order to lull all suspicion in the minds of the persons I
+seek to understand and fully appreciate, I cannot do better than, for a
+time, to adopt their garb, their language, and their customs."
+
+"But all this did not prevent you, my lord, last night (in that
+abominable place where we went to unkennel Bras Rouge, in hopes of
+getting out of him some particulars relative to that unhappy son of
+Madame Georges), from being angry, and ready to quarrel with me, because
+I wished to aid in your tussle with the rascal you encountered in that
+horrid cut-throat alley."
+
+"I suppose, then, Murphy, you do not think I am capable of defending
+myself, and you either doubt my courage or the strength of my arm?"
+
+"Unfortunately, you have given me too many reasons to form a contrary
+opinion of both. Thank God! Flatman, the Bertrand of Germany, perfected
+you in the knowledge of fencing; Tom Cribb taught you to box; Lacour, of
+Paris, accomplished you in single-stick, wrestling, and slang, so as to
+render you fully provided for your venturesome excursions. You are bold
+as a lion, with muscles like iron, and, though so slight in form, I
+should have no more chance with you than a dray-horse would against a
+racer, were they to compete with each other. No mistake about that."
+
+"Then what are you afraid of?"
+
+"Why, I maintain, my lord, that it is not the right thing for you to
+throw yourself in the way of all these blackguards. I do not say that
+because of the nuisance it is to a highly respectable individual of my
+acquaintance to blacken his face with charcoal, and make himself look
+like a devil. No, God knows, spite of my age, my figure, and my gravity,
+I would disguise myself as a rope-dancer, if, by so doing, I could serve
+you. But I still stick to what I say, and--"
+
+"Oh! I know all you would say, my excellent old fellow, and that when
+once you have taken an idea into your thick skull, the very devil
+himself could no more drive it out of you than he could, by all his
+arts, remove the fidelity and devotion implanted in your brave and
+valiant heart."
+
+"Come, come, my lord, now you begin to flatter me, I suspect you are up
+to some fresh mischief."
+
+"Think no such thing, Murphy; give yourself no uneasiness, but leave all
+to me."
+
+"My lord, I cannot be easy; there is some new folly in hand, and I am
+sure of it."
+
+"My good friend, you mean well; but you are choosing a very ill hour for
+your lectures; forbear, I beg."
+
+"And why, my lord, can you not listen to me now, as well as any other
+time?"
+
+"Because you are interfering with one of my short-lived moments of pride
+and happiness. I am here, in this dear spot!"
+
+"Where you have done so much good. I know it. Your 'model farm,' as you
+term it, built by you to instruct, to encourage, and to reward deserving
+labourers, has been of incalculable service to this part of the country.
+Ordinary men think but of improving their cattle; you, more wisely and
+benevolently, have directed your exertions for the bettering your fellow
+creatures. Nothing can be better; and when you placed Madame Georges at
+the head of the establishment, you acted with the utmost wisdom and
+provident good sense. What a woman she is! No, she is an angel!--so
+good, so firm, so noble, and upright! I am not easily moved, my lord, as
+you know; but often have I felt my eyes grow moist, as her many trials
+and misfortunes rise to my recollection. But about your new protégée,
+however, my lord; if you please, we will not say much on that subject.
+'The least said is soonest mended,' as the old proverb has it."
+
+"Why not, Murphy?"
+
+"My lord, you will do what you think proper."
+
+"I do what is just," said Rodolph, with an air of impatience.
+
+"What is just, according to your own interpretation."
+
+"What is just before God and my own conscience," replied Rodolph, in a
+severe tone.
+
+"Well, my lord, this is a point on which we cannot agree, and therefore
+let us speak no more about it."
+
+"I desire you will continue to talk about it!" cried Rodolph,
+imperiously.
+
+"I have never been so circumstanced that your royal highness should have
+to bid me hold my tongue, and I hope I shall not now be ordered to speak
+when I should be silent," said Murphy, proudly.
+
+"Mr. Murphy!" said Rodolph, with a tone of increased irritation.
+
+"My lord!"
+
+"You know, sir, how greatly I detest anything like concealment."
+
+"Your royal highness will excuse me, but it suits me to have certain
+concealments," said Murphy, bluntly.
+
+"If I descend to familiarity with you, sir, it is on condition that you,
+at least, act with entire frankness towards me."
+
+It is impossible to describe the extreme hauteur which marked the
+countenance of Rodolph as he uttered these words.
+
+"I am fifty years of age, I am a gentleman, and your royal highness
+should not address me in such a tone."
+
+"Be silent!"
+
+"My lord!"
+
+"Be silent! I say."
+
+"Your royal highness does wrong in compelling a man of honour and
+feeling to recall the services he has rendered to you," said the squire,
+in a calm tone.
+
+"Have I not repaid those services in a thousand ways?"
+
+It should be stated that Rodolph had not attached to these bitter words
+the humiliating sense which could place Murphy in the light of a
+mercenary; but such, unfortunately, was the esquire's interpretation of
+them. He became purple with shame, lifted his two clenched hands to his
+forehead with an expression of deep grief and indignation, and then, in
+a moment, as by a sudden revulsion of feeling, throwing his eyes on
+Rodolph, whose noble countenance was convulsed by the violence of
+extreme disdain, he said, in a faltering voice, and stifling a sigh of
+the tenderest pity, "My lord, be yourself; you surpass the bounds of
+reason."
+
+These words impelled Rodolph to the very height of irritation; his
+glance had even a savage glare in it; his lips were blanched; and,
+advancing towards Murphy with a threatening aspect, he exclaimed, "Dare
+you?"
+
+Murphy retreated, and said, in a quick tone, and as if in spite of
+himself, "My lord, my lord, _remember the thirteenth of January!_"
+
+These words produced a magical effect on Rodolph. His countenance,
+contracted by anger, now expanded. He looked at Murphy steadfastly,
+bowed his head, and then, after a moment's silence, murmured, in
+faltering accents, "Ah, sir, you are now cruel, indeed. I had thought
+that my repentance--my deep remorse--and yet it is you--you--"
+
+Rodolph could not finish; his voice was stifled; he sunk, subdued, on a
+stone bench, and concealed his countenance with both his hands.
+
+"My lord," said Murphy, in deep distress, "my good lord, forgive me!
+Forgive your old and faithful Murphy. It was only when driven to an
+extremity, and fearing, alas! not for myself, but for you, the
+consequences of your passion, that I uttered those words. I said them in
+spite of myself, and with sorrow. My lord, I was wrong to be so
+sensitive. _Mon Dieu!_ who can know your character, your feelings, if I
+do not,--I, who have never left you from your childhood! Pray, oh, pray
+say that you forgive me for having called to your recollection that sad,
+sad day. Alas! what expiations have you not made--"
+
+Rodolph raised his head; he was very pale, and said to his companion, in
+a gentle and saddened voice, "Enough, enough, my old friend; I thank you
+for having, by one word, checked my headlong passion. I make no
+apologies to you for the severe things I have said; you know well that
+'it is a long way from the heart to the lips,' as the good people at
+home say. I was wrong; let us say no more on the subject."
+
+"Alas! now we shall be out of spirits for a long time, as if I were not
+sufficiently unhappy! I only wished to see you roused from your low
+spirits, and yet I add to them by my foolish tenaciousness. Good Heaven!
+what's the use of being an honest man, and having gray hairs, if it does
+not enable us to endure reproaches which we do not deserve?"
+
+"Be it so, be it so; we were both in the wrong, my good friend," said
+Rodolph, mildly; "let us forget it, and return to our former
+conversation. You approved entirely of my establishment of this farm,
+and the deep interest I have always felt in Madame Georges. You will
+allow, won't you, that she had merited it by her excellent qualities,
+her misfortunes, even if she did not belong to the family of
+Harville,--a family to which my father had vowed eternal gratitude."
+
+"I have always approved of the sentiments which your lordship has
+entertained for Madame Georges."
+
+"But you are astonished at the interest I take in this poor girl, are
+you not?"
+
+"Pray, pray, my lord, I was wrong; I was wrong."
+
+"No, I can imagine that appearances have deceived you; but, as you know
+my life--all my life, and as you aid me always with as much fidelity as
+courage in my self-inflicted expiation, it is my duty, or, if you like
+the phrase better, my gratitude, to convince you that I am not acting
+from a frivolous impulse."
+
+"Of that I am sure, my lord."
+
+"You know my ideas on the subject of the good which a man ought to do
+who has the knowledge, the will, and the power. To succour unhappy, but
+deserving, fellow creatures is well; to seek after those who are
+struggling against misfortune with energy and honour, and to aid them,
+sometimes without their knowledge,--to prevent, in right time, misery
+and temptation, is better; to reinstate such perfectly in their own
+estimation,---to lead back to honesty those who have preserved in purity
+some generous and ennobling sentiments in the midst of the contempt that
+withers them, the misery that eats into them, the corruption that
+encircles them, and, for that end, to brave, in person, this misery,
+this corruption, this contagion, is better still; to pursue, with
+unalterable hatred, with implacable vengeance, vice, infamy, and crime,
+whether they be trampling in the mud, or be clothed in purple and fine
+linen, that is justice; but to give aid inconsiderately to well-merited
+degradation, to prostitute and lavish charity and commiseration, by
+bestowing help on unworthy and undeserving objects, is most infamous; it
+is impiety,--very sacrilege! it is to doubt the existence of the
+Almighty; and so, he who acts thus ought to be made to understand."
+
+"My lord, I pray you do not think that I would for a moment assert that
+you have bestowed your benefits unworthily."
+
+"One word more, my old friend. You know well that the child whose death
+I daily deplore--that that daughter whom I should have loved the more,
+as her unworthy mother, Sarah, had shown herself so utterly indifferent
+about her--would have been sixteen years of age, like this unhappy girl.
+You know, too, that I cannot prevent the deep, and almost painful,
+sympathy I feel for young girls of that age."
+
+"True, my lord; and I ought so to have interpreted the interest you
+evince for your protégée. Besides, to succour the unfortunate is to
+honour God."
+
+"It is, my friend, when the objects deserve it; and thus nothing is more
+worthy of compassion and respect than a woman like Madame Georges, who,
+brought up by a pious and good mother in the strict observance of all
+her duties, has never failed,--never! and has, moreover, courageously
+borne herself in the midst of the most severe trials. But is it not to
+honour God in the most acceptable way, to raise from the dust one of
+those beings of the finest mould, whom he has been pleased to endow
+richly? Does not she deserve compassion and respect,--yes,
+respect,--who, unhappy girl! abandoned to her own instinct,--who,
+tortured, imprisoned, degraded, sullied, has yet preserved, in holiness
+and pureness of heart, those noble germs of good first implanted by the
+Almighty? If you had but seen, poor child! how, at the first word of
+interest expressed for her,--the first mark of kindness and right
+feeling,--the most charming natural impulses, the purest tastes, the
+most refined thoughts, the most poetic ideas, developed themselves
+abundantly in her ingenuous mind, even as, in the early spring, a
+thousand wild flowers lift up their heads at the first rays of the sun!
+In a conversation of about an hour with Fleur-de-Marie, I have
+discovered treasures of goodness, worth, prudence,--yes, prudence, old
+Murphy. A smile came to my lips, and a tear in my eye, when, in her
+gentle and sensible prattle, she urged on me the necessity of saving
+forty sous a day, that I might be beyond want or evil temptations. Poor
+little creature! she said all this with so serious and persuasive a
+tone. She seemed so delighted to give me good advice, and experienced so
+extreme a pleasure in hearing me promise to follow it! I was moved even
+to tears; and you,--it affects you, my old friend."
+
+"It does, my lord; the idea of making you lay by forty sous a day,
+thinking you a workman, instead of urging you to spend money on her;
+that does touch me."
+
+"Hush; here are Madame Georges and Marie. Get all ready for our
+departure; we must be in Paris in good time."
+
+Thanks to the care of Madame Georges, Fleur-de-Marie was no longer like
+her former self. A pretty peasant's cap, and two thick braids of light
+brown hair, encircled her charming face. A large handkerchief of white
+muslin crossed her bosom, and disappeared under the high fold of a small
+shot taffetas apron, whose blue and red shades appeared to advantage
+over a dark nun's dress, which seemed expressly made for her. The young
+girl's countenance was calm and composed. Certain feelings of delight
+produce in the mind an unspeakable sadness,--a holy melancholy. Rodolph
+was not surprised at the gravity of Fleur-de-Marie; he had expected it.
+Had she been merry and talkative, she would not have retained so high a
+place in his good opinion. In the serious and resigned countenance of
+Madame Georges might easily be traced the indelible marks of
+long-suffering; but she looked at Fleur-de-Marie with a tenderness and
+compassion quite maternal, so much gentleness and sweetness did this
+poor girl evince.
+
+"Here is my child, who has come to thank you for your goodness, M.
+Rodolph," said Madame Georges, presenting Goualeuse to Rodolph.
+
+At the words, "my child," Goualeuse turned her large eyes slowly towards
+her protectress, and contemplated her for some moments with a look of
+unutterable gratitude.
+
+"Thanks for Marie, my dear Madame Georges; she deserves this kind
+interest, and always will deserve it."
+
+"M. Rodolph," said Goualeuse, with a trembling voice, "you understand, I
+know, I feel that you do, that I cannot find anything to say to you."
+
+"Your emotion tells me all, my child."
+
+"Oh, she feels deeply the good fortune that has come to her so
+providentially," said Madame Georges, deeply affected; "her first
+impulse on entering my room was to prostrate herself before my
+crucifix."
+
+"Because now, thanks to you, M. Rodolph, I dare to pray," said
+Goualeuse.
+
+Murphy turned away hastily; his pretensions to firmness would not allow
+of any one seeing to what extent the simple words of Goualeuse had
+touched him.
+
+Rodolph said to her, "My child, I wish to have some conversation with
+Madame Georges. My friend Murphy will lead you over the farm, and
+introduce you to your future protégés. We will join you presently. Well,
+Murphy, Murphy, don't you hear me?"
+
+The worthy gentleman turned his back, and pretended to blow his nose
+with a very loud noise, then put his handkerchief in his pocket, pulled
+his hat over his eyes, and, turning half around, offered his arm to
+Marie, managing so skilfully that neither Rodolph nor Madame Georges
+could see his face. Taking the arm of Marie, he walked away with her
+towards the farm buildings, and so quickly, that, to keep up with him,
+Goualeuse was obliged to run, as in her infant days she ran beside the
+Chouette.
+
+"Well, Madame Georges, what do you think of Marie?" inquired Rodolph.
+
+"M. Rodolph, I have told you: she had scarcely entered my room, when,
+seeing the crucifix, she fell on her knees before it. It is impossible
+for me to tell you, to describe the spontaneous and naturally religious
+feeling that evidently dictated this. I saw in an instant that hers was
+no degraded soul. And then, M. Rodolph, the expression of her gratitude
+to you had nothing exaggerated in it; but it is not the less sincere.
+And I have another proof of how natural and potent is this religious
+instinct in her. I said to her, 'You must have been much astonished, and
+very happy, when M. Rodolph told you that you were to remain here for
+the future? What an effect it must have had on you!' 'Yes, oh, yes,' was
+her reply; 'when M. Rodolph told me so, I cannot describe what passed
+within me; but I felt that kind of holy happiness which I experience in
+going into a church. When I could go there,' she added, 'for you know,
+madame--' 'I know, my child, for I shall always call you my child (I
+could not let her go on when I saw her cover her face for shame), I know
+that you have suffered deeply; but God blesses those who love and fear
+him, those who have been unhappy, and those who repent.'"
+
+"Then, my good Madame Georges, I am doubly happy at what I have done.
+This poor girl will greatly interest you, her disposition is so
+excellent, her instincts so right."
+
+"What has besides affected me, M. Rodolph, is that she has not allowed
+one single question to escape her about you, although her curiosity
+must be so much excited. Struck with a reserve so full of delicacy, I
+wished to know what she felt. I said to her, 'You must be very curious
+to know who your mysterious benefactor is?' 'Know him!' she replied,
+with delightful simplicity; 'he is my benefactor.'"
+
+"Then you will love her. Excellent woman! she will find some interest in
+your heart."
+
+"Yes, I shall occupy my heart with her as I should with _him_," said
+Madame Georges, in a broken voice.
+
+Rodolph took her hand.
+
+"Do not be discouraged; come, come, if our search has been unsuccessful
+so far, yet one day, perhaps--"
+
+Madame Georges shook her head sorrowfully, and said, in bitter accents,
+"My poor son would be now twenty years old!"
+
+"Say he is that age--"
+
+"God hear you, and grant it, M. Rodolph."
+
+"He will hear, I fully believe. Yesterday I went (but in vain) to find a
+certain fellow called Bras Rouge who might, perhaps, have given me some
+information about your son. Coming away from this Bras Rouge's abode,
+after a struggle in which I was engaged, I met with this unfortunate
+girl--"
+
+"Alas! but your kind endeavour in my behalf has thrown in your way
+another unfortunate being, M. Rodolph."
+
+"You have no intelligence from Rochefort?"
+
+"None," said Madame Georges, shuddering, and in a low voice.
+
+"So much the better! We can no longer doubt but that the monster met his
+death in the attempt to escape from the--"
+
+Rodolph hesitated to pronounce the horrible word.
+
+"From the Bagne? Oh, say it!--the Bagne!" exclaimed the wretched woman
+with horror, and almost frantic as she spoke. "The father of my child!
+Ah! if the unhappy boy still lives--if, like me, he has not changed his
+name--oh, shame! shame! And yet it may be nothing: his father has,
+perhaps, carried out his horrid threat! What has he done with my boy?
+Why did he tear him from me?"
+
+"That mystery I cannot fathom," said Rodolph, with a pensive air. "What
+could induce the wretch to carry off your son fifteen years ago, and
+when he was trying to escape into a foreign land? A child of that age
+could only embarrass his flight."
+
+"Alas, M. Rodolph! when my husband" (the poor woman shuddered as she
+pronounced the word) "was arrested on the frontier and thrown into
+prison, where I was allowed to visit him, he said to me these horrible
+words: 'I took away the brat because you were fond of him, and it will
+be a means of compelling you to send me money, which may or may not be
+of service to him,--that's my affair. Whether he lives or dies it is no
+matter to you; but if he lives, he will be in good hands: you shall
+drink as deep of the shame of the son as you have of the disgrace of the
+father!' Alas! a month afterwards my husband was condemned to the
+galleys for life; and since then all my entreaties, my prayers, and
+letters have been in vain. I have never been able to learn the fate of
+my boy. Ah, M. Rodolph! where is my child at this moment? These
+frightful words are always ringing in my ears: 'You shall drink as deep
+of the shame of the son as you have of the disgrace of the father!'"
+
+"This atrocity is most inexplicable; why should he demoralise the
+unhappy child? Why carry him off?"
+
+"I have told you, M. Rodolph,--to compel me to send him money; although
+he had nearly ruined me, yet I had still some small resources, but they
+at length were exhausted also. In spite of his wickedness, I could not
+believe but that he would employ, at least, a portion of this money in
+the bringing-up of this unhappy child."
+
+"And your son had no sign, no mark, by which he could be recognised?"
+
+"No other than that of which I have spoken to you, M. Rodolph,--a small
+Saint Esprit, sculptured in lapis lazuli, tied round his neck by a chain
+of silver: a sacred relic, blessed by the holy father."
+
+"Courage, courage; God is all-powerful."
+
+"Providence placed me in your path, M. Rodolph."
+
+"Too late, Madame Georges; too late. I might have saved you many years
+of sorrow."
+
+"Ah, M. Rodolph, how kind you have been to me!"
+
+"In what way? I bought this farm; in time of your prosperity you were
+not idle, and now you have become my manager here, where--thanks to your
+excellent superintendence, intelligence, and activity--this
+establishment produces me--"
+
+"Produces you, my lord?" said Madame Georges, interrupting Rodolph;
+"why, all the returns are employed, not only in ameliorating the
+condition of the labourers, who consider the occupation on this model
+farm as a great favour, but, moreover, to succour all the needy in the
+district; through the mediation of our good Abbé Laporte--"
+
+"Ah, the dear abbé!" said Rodolph, desirous of escaping the praise of
+Madame Georges; "have you had the kindness to inform him of my arrival?
+I wish to recommend my protégée to him. He has had my letter?"
+
+"Mr. Murphy gave it to him when he came this morning."
+
+"In that letter I told our good curé, in a few words, the history of
+this poor girl. I was not sure that I should be able to come to-day
+myself, and if not, then Murphy would have conducted Marie--"
+
+A labourer of the farm interrupted this conversation, which had been
+carried on in the garden.
+
+"Madame, M. le Curé is waiting for you."
+
+"Are the post-horses arrived, my lad?" inquired Rodolph.
+
+"Yes, M. Rodolph; and they are putting to." And the man left the garden.
+
+Madame Georges, the curé, and the inhabitants of the farm only knew
+Fleur-de-Marie's protector as M. Rodolph. Murphy's discretion was
+faultless; and although when in private he was very precise in
+"my-lording" Rodolph, yet before strangers he was very careful not to
+address him otherwise than as _M. Rodolph_.
+
+"I forgot to mention, my dear Madame Georges," said Rodolph, when he
+returned to the house, "that Marie has, I fear, very weak
+lungs,--privations and misery have tried her health. This morning early
+I was struck with the pallor of her countenance, although her cheeks
+were of a deep rose colour; her eyes, too, seem to me to have a
+brilliancy which betokens a feverish system. Great care must be taken of
+her."
+
+"Rely on me, M. Rodolph; but, thank God! there is nothing serious to
+apprehend. At her age, in the country, with pure air, rest, and quiet,
+she will soon be quite restored."
+
+"I hope so; but I will not trust to your country doctors. I will desire
+Murphy to bring here my medical man,--a negro,--a very skilful person,
+who will tell you the best regimen to pursue. You must send me news of
+Marie very often. Some time hence, when she shall be better, and more at
+ease, we will talk about her future life; perhaps it would be best that
+she always remained with you, if you were pleased with her."
+
+"I should like it greatly, M. Rodolph; she would supply the place of the
+child I have lost, and must for ever bewail."
+
+"Let us still hope for you and for her."
+
+At the moment when Rodolph and Madame Georges approached the farm,
+Murphy and Marie also entered. The worthy gentleman let go the arm of
+Goualeuse, and said to Rodolph in a low voice, and with an air of some
+confusion:
+
+"This girl has bewitched me; I really do not know which interests me
+most, she or Madame Georges. I was a brute--a beast!"
+
+"I knew, old Murphy, that you would do justice to my protégée," said
+Rodolph, smiling, and shaking hands with the squire.
+
+Madame Georges, leaning on Marie's arm, entered with her into a small
+room on the ground floor, where the Abbé Laporte was waiting. Murphy
+went away, to see all ready for their departure. Madame Georges, Marie,
+Rodolph, and the curé remained together.
+
+Plain, but very comfortable, this small apartment was fitted up with
+green hangings, like the rest of the house, as had been exactly
+described to Goualeuse by Rodolph. A thick carpet covered the floor, a
+good fire burnt in the grate, and two large nosegays of daisies of all
+colours, placed in two crystal vases, shed their agreeable odour
+throughout the room. Through the windows, with their green blinds, which
+were half opened, was to be seen the meadow, the little stream, and,
+beyond it, the bank planted with chestnut-trees.
+
+The Abbé Laporte, who was seated near the fireplace, was upwards of
+eighty years of age, and had, ever since the last days of the
+Revolution, done duty in this small parish. Nothing can be imagined more
+venerable than his aged, withered, and somewhat melancholy countenance,
+shaded by long white locks, which fell on the collar of his black
+cassock, which was pieced in more places than one; the abbé liked
+better, as they said, to clothe one or two poor children in good warm
+broadcloth, than _faire le muguet_; that is, to wear his cassocks less
+than two or three years. The good abbé was so old, so very old, that his
+hands trembled continually, and when he occasionally lifted them up,
+when speaking, it might have been supposed that he was giving a
+benediction.
+
+"M. l'Abbé," said Rodolph, respectfully, "Madame Georges has undertaken
+the guardianship of this young girl, for whom I also beg your kindness."
+
+"She is entitled to it, sir, like all who come to us. The mercy of God
+is inexhaustible, my dear child, and he has evinced it in not abandoning
+you in most severe trials. I know all." And he took the hand of Marie in
+his own withered and trembling palms. "The generous man who has saved
+you has realised the words of Holy Writ, 'The Lord is near to all those
+who call upon him; he will fulfil the desire of those who fear him; he
+will hear their cries, and he will save them.' Now deserve his bounty by
+your conduct, and you will always find one ready to encourage and
+sustain you in the good path on which you have entered. You will have in
+Madame Georges a constant example, in me a careful adviser. The Lord
+will finish his work."
+
+"And I will pray to him for those who have had compassion on me and have
+led me to him, father," said La Goualeuse, throwing herself on her knees
+before the priest. Her emotion overcame her; her sobs almost choked her.
+Madame Georges, Rodolph, and the abbé were all deeply affected.
+
+"Rise, my dear child," said the curé; "you will soon deserve absolution
+from those serious faults of which you have rather been the victim than
+the criminal; for, in the words of the prophet, 'The Lord raises up all
+those who are ready to fall, and elevates those who are oppressed.'"
+
+Murphy, at this moment, opened the door.
+
+"M. Rodolph," he said, "the horses are ready."
+
+"Adieu, father! adieu, Madame Georges! I commend your child to your
+care,--our child, I should say. Farewell, Marie; I will soon come and
+see you again."
+
+The venerable pastor, leaning on the arms of Madame Georges and La
+Goualeuse, who supported his tottering steps, left the room to see
+Rodolph depart.
+
+The last rays of the sun shed their light on this interesting yet sad
+group:
+
+An old priest, the symbol of charity, pardon, and everlasting hope; a
+female, overwhelmed by every grief that can distress a wife and mother;
+a young girl, hardly out of her infancy, and but recently thrown into an
+abyss of vice through misery and the close contact with crime.
+
+Rodolph got into the carriage, Murphy took his place by his side, and
+the horses set off at speed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE RENDEZVOUS.
+
+
+The day after he had confided the Goualeuse to the care of Madame
+Georges, Rodolph, still dressed as a mechanic, was, at noon precisely,
+at the door of a cabaret with the sign of the Panier-Fleuri, not far
+from the barrier of Bercy.
+
+The evening before, at ten o'clock, the Chourineur was punctual to the
+appointment which Rodolph had fixed with him. The result of this
+narrative will inform our readers of the particulars of the meeting. It
+was twelve o'clock, and the rain fell in torrents; the Seine, swollen by
+perpetual falls of rain, had risen very high, and overflowed a part of
+the quay. Rodolph looked from time to time, with a gesture of
+impatience, towards the barrier, and at last observed a man and woman,
+who were coming towards him under the shelter of an umbrella, and whom
+he recognised as the Chouette and the Schoolmaster.
+
+These two individuals were completely metamorphosed. The ruffian had
+laid aside his ragged garments and his air of brutal ferocity. He wore a
+long frock coat of green cloth, and a round hat; whilst his shirt and
+cravat were remarkable for their whiteness. But for the hideousness of
+his features and the fierce glance of his eyes, always restless and
+suspicious, this fellow might have been taken, by his quiet and steady
+step, for an honest citizen.
+
+The Chouette was also in her Sunday costume, wearing a large shawl of
+fine wool, with a large pattern, and held in her hand a capacious
+basket.
+
+The rain having ceased for the moment, Rodolph, overcoming a sensation
+of disgust, went to meet the frightful pair. For the slang of the
+_tapis-franc_ the Schoolmaster now substituted a style almost polished,
+and which betokened a cultivated mind, in strange contrast with his real
+character and crimes. When Rodolph approached, the brigand made him a
+polite bow, and the Chouette curtseyed respectfully.
+
+"Sir, your humble servant," said the Schoolmaster. "I am delighted to
+pay my respects to you--delighted--or, rather, to renew our
+acquaintance; for the night before last you paid me two blows of the
+fist which were enough to have felled a rhinoceros. But not a word of
+that now; it was a joke on your part, I am sure,--merely done in jest.
+Let us not say another word about it, for serious business brings us now
+together. I saw the Chourineur yesterday, about eleven o'clock, at the
+_tapis-franc_, and appointed to meet him here to-day, in case he chose
+to join us,--to be our fellow labourer; but it seems that he most
+decidedly refuses."
+
+"You, then, accept the proposal?"
+
+"Your name, sir, if you be so good?"
+
+"Rodolph."
+
+"M. Rodolph, we will go into the Panier-Fleuri,--neither myself nor
+madame has breakfasted,--and we will talk over our little matters whilst
+we are taking a crust."
+
+"Most willingly."
+
+"We can talk as we go on. You and the Chourineur certainly do owe some
+satisfaction to my wife and myself,--you have caused us to lose more
+than two thousand francs. Chouette had a meeting near St. Ouen with the
+tall gentleman in mourning, who came to ask for you at the
+_tapis-franc_. He offered us two thousand francs to do something to you.
+The Chourineur has told me all about this. But, Finette," said the
+fellow, "go and select a room at the Panier-Fleuri, and order
+breakfast,--some cutlets, a piece of veal, a salad, and a couple of
+bottles of vin de beaune, the best quality,--and we will join you
+there."
+
+The Chouette, who had not taken her eye off Rodolph for a moment, went
+off after exchanging looks with the Schoolmaster, who then said:
+
+"I say, M. Rodolph, that the Chourineur has edified me on the subject of
+the two thousand francs."
+
+"What do you mean by edified you?"
+
+"You are right,--the language is a little too refined for you. I would
+say that the Chourineur nearly told me all that the tall gentleman in
+mourning, with his two thousand francs, required."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Not so good, young man; for the Chourineur, having yesterday morning
+met the Chouette, near St. Ouen, did not leave her for one moment, when
+the tall gentleman in mourning came up, so that he could not approach
+and converse with her. You, then, ought to put us in the way of
+regaining our two thousand francs."
+
+"Nothing easier; but let us 'hark back.' I had proposed a glorious job
+to the Chourineur, which he at first accepted, but afterwards refused to
+go on with."
+
+"He always had very peculiar ideas."
+
+"But whilst he refused he observed to me--"
+
+"He made you observe--"
+
+"Oh, _diable_! You are very grand with your grammar."
+
+"It is my profession, as a schoolmaster."
+
+"He made me, then, observe, that if he would not go on this 'lay,' he
+did not desire to discourage any other person, and that you would
+willingly lend a hand in the affair."
+
+"May I, without impertinence, ask why you appointed a meeting with the
+Chourineur at St. Ouen yesterday, which gave him the advantage of
+meeting the Chouette? He was too much puzzled at my question to give me
+a clear answer."
+
+Rodolph bit his lips imperceptibly, and replied, shrugging his
+shoulders:
+
+"Very likely; for I only told him half my plan, you must know, not
+knowing if he had made up his mind."
+
+"That was very proper."
+
+"The more so as I had two strings to my bow."
+
+"You are a careful man. You met the Chourineur, then, at St. Ouen,
+for--"
+
+Rodolph, after a moment's hesitation, had the good luck to think of a
+story which would account for the want of address which the Chourineur
+had displayed, and said:
+
+"Why, this it is. The attempt I propose is a famous one, because the
+person in question is in the country; all my fear was that he should
+return to Paris. To make sure, I went to Pierrefitte, where his
+country-house is situated, and there I learned that he would not be back
+again until the day after to-morrow."
+
+"Well, but to return to my question; why did you appoint to meet the
+Chourineur at St. Ouen?"
+
+"Why, you are not so bright as I took you for. How far is it from
+Pierrefitte to St. Ouen?"
+
+"About a league."
+
+"And from St. Ouen to Paris?"
+
+"As much."
+
+"Well, if I had not found any one at Pierrefitte,--that is, if there had
+been an empty house there,--why, there also would have been a good job;
+not so good as in Paris, but still well worth having. I went back to the
+Chourineur, who was waiting for me at St. Ouen. We should have returned
+then to Pierrefitte, by a cross-path which I know, and--"
+
+"I understand. If, on the contrary, the job was to be done in Paris?"
+
+"We should have gained the Barrier de l'Étoile by the road of the
+Rivolte, and thence to the Allée des Veuves--"
+
+"Is but a step; that is plain enough. At St. Ouen you were well placed
+for either operation,--that was clear; and now I can understand why the
+Chourineur was at St. Ouen. So the house in the Allée des Veuves will be
+uninhabited until the day after to-morrow?"
+
+"Uninhabited, except the porter."
+
+"I see. And is it a profitable job?"
+
+"Sixty thousand francs in gold in the proprietor's cabinet."
+
+"And you know all the ways?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Silence, here we are; not a word before the vulgar. I do not know if
+you feel as I do, but the morning air has given me an appetite."
+
+The Chouette was awaiting them at the door.
+
+"This way; this way," she said. "I have ordered our breakfast."
+
+Rodolph wished the brigand to pass in first, for certain reasons; but
+the Schoolmaster insisted on showing so much politeness, that Rodolph
+entered before him. Before he sat down, the Schoolmaster tapped lightly
+against each of the divisions of the wainscot, that he might ascertain
+their thickness and power of transmitting sounds.
+
+"We need not be afraid to speak out," said he; "the division is not
+thin. We shall have our breakfast soon, and shall not be disturbed in
+our conversation."
+
+A waiter brought in the breakfast, and before he shut the door Rodolph
+saw the charcoal-man, Murphy, seated with great composure at a table in
+a room close at hand.
+
+The room in which the scene took place that we are describing was long
+and narrow, lighted by one window, which looked into the street, and was
+opposite to the door. The Chouette turned her back to this window,
+whilst the Schoolmaster was at one side of the table, and Rodolph on the
+other.
+
+When the servant left the room, the brigand got up, took his plate, and
+seated himself beside Rodolph and between him and the door.
+
+"We can talk better," he said, "and need not talk so loud."
+
+"And then you can prevent me from going out," replied Rodolph, calmly.
+
+The Schoolmaster gave a nod in the affirmative, and then, half drawing
+out of the pocket of his frock coat a stiletto, round and as thick as a
+goose's quill, with a handle of wood which disappeared in the grasp of
+his hairy fingers, said:
+
+"You see that?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Advice to amateurs!" And bringing his shaggy brows together, by a frown
+which made his wide and flat forehead closely resemble a tiger's, he
+made a significant gesture.
+
+"And you may believe me," added the Chouette, "I have made the tool
+sharp."
+
+Rodolph, with perfect coolness, put his hand under his blouse, and took
+out a double-barrelled pistol, which he showed to the Schoolmaster, and
+then put into his pocket.
+
+"All right; and now we understand each other; but do not misunderstand
+me, I am only alluding to an impossibility. If they try to arrest me,
+and you have laid any trap for me, I will make 'cold meat' of you."
+
+And he gave a fierce look at Rodolph.
+
+"And I will spring upon him and help you, _fourline_," cried the
+Chouette.
+
+Rodolph made no reply, but shrugged his shoulders, and, pouring out a
+glass of wine, tossed it off. His coolness deceived the Schoolmaster.
+
+"I only put you on your guard."
+
+"Well, then, put up your 'larding-pin' into your pocket; you have no
+chicken to lard now. I am an old cock, and know my game as well as
+most," said Rodolph. "But, to our business."
+
+"Yes, let us talk of business; but do not speak against my
+'larding-pin;' it makes no noise, and does not disturb anybody."
+
+"And does its work as should be; doesn't it, _fourline_?" added the old
+beldam.
+
+"By the way," said Rodolph to the Chouette, "do you really know the
+Goualeuse's parents?"
+
+"My man has in his pocket two letters about it, but she shall never see
+them,--the little slut! I would rather tear her eyes out with my own
+hands. Oh, when I meet her again at the _tapis-franc_, won't I pay her
+off--"
+
+"There, that'll do, Finette; we have other things to talk of, and so
+leave off your gossip."
+
+"May we 'patter' before the 'mot?'" asked Rodolph.
+
+"Most decidedly! She's true as steel, and is worth her weight in gold to
+watch for us, to get information or impressions of keys, to conceal
+stolen goods or sell them,--nothing comes amiss to her. She is a
+first-rate manager. Good Finette!" added the robber, extending his hand
+to the horrid hag. "You can have no idea of the services she has done
+me. Take off your shawl, Finette, or you'll be cold when you go out; put
+it on the chair with your basket."
+
+The Chouette took off her shawl.
+
+In spite of his presence of mind, and the command which he had over
+himself, Rodolph could not quite conceal his surprise when he saw
+suspended by a ring of silver, from a thick chain of metal which hung
+round the old creature's neck, a small Saint Esprit in lapis lazuli,
+precisely resembling that which the son of Madame Georges had round his
+neck when he was carried off.
+
+At this discovery, a sudden idea flashed across the mind of Rodolph.
+According to the Chourineur's statement, the Schoolmaster had escaped
+from the Bagne six months ago, and had since defied all search after him
+by disfiguring himself as he had now; and six months ago the husband of
+Madame Georges had disappeared from the Bagne. Rodolph surmised that,
+very possibly, the Schoolmaster was the husband of that unhappy lady. If
+this were so, he knew the fate of the son she lamented,--he possessed,
+too, some papers relative to the birth of the Goualeuse. Rodolph had,
+then, fresh motives for persevering in his projects, and, fortunately,
+his absence of mind was not observed by the Schoolmaster, who was busy
+helping the Chouette.
+
+"_Morbleu!_ What a pretty chain you have!" said Rodolph to the one-eyed
+woman.
+
+"Pretty, and not dear," answered the old creature, laughing. "It is only
+a sham till my man can afford to give me a real one."
+
+"That will depend on this gentleman, Finette. If our job comes off well,
+why then--"
+
+"It is astonishing how well it is imitated," continued Rodolph. "And
+what is that little blue thing at the end?"
+
+"It is a present from my man, which I shall wear until he gives me a
+'ticker.' Isn't it, _fourline_?"
+
+Rodolph's suspicions were thus half confirmed, and he waited with
+anxiety for the reply of the Schoolmaster, who said:
+
+"You must take care of that, notwithstanding the 'ticker,' Finette; it
+is a talisman, and brings good luck."
+
+"A talisman!" said Rodolph, in a careless tone; "do you believe in
+talismans? And where the devil did you pick it up? Give me the address
+of the shop."
+
+"They do not make them now; the shop is shut up. As you see it, that bit
+of jewelry has a very great antiquity,--three generations. I value it
+highly, for it is a family loom," added he, with a hideous grin; "and
+that's why I gave it to Finette, that she might have good fortune in the
+enterprises in which she so skilfully seconds me. Only see her at work!
+only see her! If we go into 'business' together, why--But let us now to
+our affair in hand. You say that in the Allée des Veuves--"
+
+"At No. 17 there is a house inhabited by a rich man, whose name is--"
+
+"I will not be guilty of the indiscretion of asking his name. You say
+there are sixty thousand francs in gold in a cabinet?"
+
+"Sixty thousand francs in gold!" exclaimed the Chouette.
+
+Rodolph nodded his head in the affirmative.
+
+"And you know this house, and the people in it?" said the Schoolmaster.
+
+"Quite well."
+
+"Is the entry difficult?"
+
+"A wall seven feet high on the side of the Allée des Veuves, a garden,
+windows down to the ground, and the house has only the ground floor
+throughout."
+
+"And there is only the porter to guard this treasure?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And what, young man, is your proposed plan of proceeding?"
+
+"Simple enough: to climb over the wall, pick the lock of the door, or
+force open a shutter or lock. What do you think of it?"
+
+"I cannot answer you before I have examined it all myself,--that is, by
+the aid of my wife; but, if all you tell me is as you say, I think it
+would be the thing to do it at once this evening."
+
+And the ruffian looked earnestly at Rodolph.
+
+"This evening!--impossible!" replied he.
+
+"Why, since the occupier does not return until the day after
+to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, but I--I cannot this evening--"
+
+"Really? Well, and I--I cannot to-morrow."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"For the reason that prevents you this evening," said the robber, in a
+tone of mockery.
+
+After a moment's reflection, Rodolph replied:
+
+"Well, then, this evening be it. Where shall we meet?"
+
+"We will not separate," said the Schoolmaster.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Why should we?"
+
+"What is the use of separating? The weather has cleared up, and we will
+go and walk about, and give a look at the Allée des Veuves; you will see
+how my woman will work. When that is done, we will return and play a
+hand at piquet, and have a bit of something in a place in the Champs
+Elysées that I know, near the river; and, as the Allée des Veuves is
+deserted at an early hour, we will walk that way about ten o'clock."
+
+"I will join you at nine o'clock."
+
+"Do you or do you not wish that we should do this job together?"
+
+"I do wish it."
+
+"Well, then, we do not separate before evening, or else--"
+
+"Or else?"
+
+"I shall think that you are making 'a plant' for me, and that's the
+reason you wish to part company now."
+
+"If I wished to set the 'traps' after you, what is to prevent my doing
+so this evening?"
+
+"Why, everything. You did not expect that I should propose the affair to
+you so soon, and if you do not leave us you cannot put anybody up to
+it."
+
+"You mistrust me, then?"
+
+"Most extremely. But as what you propose may be quite true and honest,
+and the half of sixty thousand francs is worth a risk, I am willing to
+try for it; but this evening, or never; if never, I shall have my
+suspicions of you confirmed, and one day or other I will take care and
+let you dine off a dish of my cooking."
+
+"And I will return your compliment, rely on it."
+
+"Oh, this is all stuff and nonsense!" said the Chouette. "I think with
+_fourline_, to-night or never."
+
+Rodolph was in a state of extreme anxiety; if he allowed this
+opportunity to escape of laying hands on the Schoolmaster, he might
+never again light on him. The ruffian would ever afterwards be on his
+guard, or if recognised, apprehended, and taken back to the Bagne, would
+carry with him that secret which Rodolph had so much interest in
+discovering. Confiding in his address and courage, and trusting to
+chance, he said to the Schoolmaster:
+
+"Agreed, then; and we will not part company before evening."
+
+"Then I'm your man. It is now two o'clock; it is some distance from here
+to the Allée des Veuves; it is raining again in torrents; let us pay the
+reckoning and take a coach."
+
+"If we have a coach, I should like first to smoke a cigar."
+
+"Why not?" said the Schoolmaster. "Finette does not mind the smell of
+tobacco."
+
+"Well, then, I'll go and fetch some cigars," said Rodolph, rising.
+
+"Pray don't give yourself that trouble," said the Schoolmaster, stopping
+him; "Finette will go."
+
+Rodolph resumed his seat. The Schoolmaster had penetrated his design.
+The Chouette went out.
+
+"What a clever manager I have, haven't I?" said the ruffian; "and so
+tractable, she would throw herself into the fire for me."
+
+"Apropos of fire, it is not overwarm here," replied Rodolph, placing
+both his hands under his blouse; and then, continuing his conversation
+with the Schoolmaster, he took out a lead-pencil and a morsel of paper,
+which he had in his waistcoat pocket, without being detected, and wrote
+some words hastily, taking care to make his letters wide apart, so that
+they might be more legible; for he wrote under his blouse, and without
+seeing what he wrote.
+
+This note escaped the penetration of the Schoolmaster; the next thing
+was to enable it to reach its address.
+
+Rodolph rose and went listlessly towards the window, and began to hum a
+tune between his teeth, accompanying himself on the window glasses.
+
+The Schoolmaster came up to the window and said to Rodolph:
+
+"What tune are you playing?"
+
+"I am playing '_Tu n'auras pas ma rose._'"
+
+"And a very pretty tune it is. I should like to know if it would have
+the effect of making any of the passers-by turn round?"
+
+"I had no such intention."
+
+"You are wrong, young man; for you are playing the tambourine on that
+pane of glass with all your might. But I was thinking, the porter of
+this house in the Allée des Veuves is perhaps a stout fellow; if he
+resists, you have only your pistol, which is a noisy weapon, whilst a
+tool like this (and he showed Rodolph the handle of his poniard) makes
+no noise, and does not disturb anybody."
+
+"Do you mean, then, to assassinate him?" exclaimed Rodolph. "If you have
+any such intention, let us give up the job altogether; I will have no
+hand in it,--so don't rely on me--"
+
+"But if he wakes?"
+
+"We will take to our heels."
+
+"Well, just as you like; only it is better to come to a clear
+understanding beforehand. So, then, ours is simply a mere robbery with
+forcible entry--"
+
+"Nothing more."
+
+"That's very silly and contemptible; but so be it."
+
+"And as I will not leave you for a second," thought Rodolph, "I will
+prevent you from shedding blood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+PREPARATIONS.
+
+
+The Chouette returned to the room, bringing the cigars with her.
+
+"I don't think it rains now," said Rodolph, lighting his cigar. "Suppose
+we go and fetch the coach ourselves,--it will stretch our legs."
+
+"What! not rain!" replied the Schoolmaster; "are you blind? Do you think
+I will expose Finette to the chance of catching cold, and exposing her
+precious life, and spoiling her new shawl?"
+
+"You are right, old fellow; it rains cats and dogs. Let the servant come
+and we can pay him, and desire him to fetch us a coach," replied
+Rodolph.
+
+"That's the most sensible thing you have said yet, young fellow; we may
+go and look about as we seek the Allée des Veuves."
+
+The servant entered, and Rodolph gave her five francs.
+
+"Ah, sir, it is really an imposition,--I cannot allow it," exclaimed the
+Schoolmaster.
+
+"Oh, all right; your turn next time."
+
+"Be it so, but on condition that I shall offer you something, by and by,
+in a little cabaret in the Champs Elysées,--a capital little snuggery
+that I know of."
+
+"Just as you like."
+
+The servant paid, and they left the room.
+
+Rodolph wished to go last, out of politeness to the Chouette, but the
+Schoolmaster would not allow it, and followed close on his heels,
+watching his every movement.
+
+The master of the house kept a wine-shop also, and amongst other
+drinkers, a charcoal-man, with his face blackened and his large hat
+flapping over his eyes, was paying his "shot" at the bar when these
+three personages appeared. In spite of the close lookout of the
+Schoolmaster and the one-eyed hag, Rodolph, who walked before the
+hideous pair, exchanged a rapid and unperceived glance with Murphy as he
+got into the hackney-coach.
+
+"Which way am I to go, master?" asked the driver.
+
+Rodolph replied, in a loud voice:
+
+"Allée des--"
+
+"Des Acacias, in the Bois de Boulogne," cried the Schoolmaster,
+interrupting him. Then he added, "And we will pay you well, coachman."
+
+The door was shut.
+
+"What the devil made you bawl out which way we were going before these
+people?" said the Schoolmaster. "If the thing were found out to-morrow,
+we might be traced and discovered. Young man,--young man, you are very
+imprudent!"
+
+The coach was already in motion. Rodolph answered:
+
+"True; I did not think of that. But with my cigar I shall smoke you like
+herrings; let us have a window open."
+
+And, joining the action to the words, Rodolph, with much dexterity, let
+fall outside the window the morsel of paper, folded very small, on which
+he had hastily written a few words in pencil under his blouse. The
+Schoolmaster's glance was so quick, that, in spite of the calmness of
+Rodolph's features, the ruffian detected some expression of triumph,
+for, putting his head out of the window, he called out to the driver:
+
+"Whip behind! whip behind! there is some one getting up at the back of
+the coach!"
+
+The coach stopped, and the driver, standing on his seat, looked back,
+and said:
+
+"No, master, there is no one there."
+
+"_Parbleu!_ I will look myself," replied the Schoolmaster, jumping out
+into the street.
+
+Not seeing any person or anything (for since Rodolph had dropped the
+paper the coach had gone on several yards), the Schoolmaster thought he
+was mistaken.
+
+"You will laugh at me," he said, as he resumed his seat, "but I don't
+know why I thought some one was following us."
+
+The coach at this moment turned round a corner, and Murphy, who had not
+lost sight of it with his eyes, and had seen Rodolph's manoeuvre, ran
+and picked up the little note, which had fallen into a crevice between
+two of the paving-stones.
+
+At the end of a quarter of an hour the Schoolmaster said to the driver
+of the hackney-coach:
+
+"My man, we have changed our minds; drive to the Place de la Madelaine."
+
+Rodolph looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"All right, young man; from hence we may go to a thousand different
+places. If they seek to track us hereafter, the deposition of the
+coachman will not be of the slightest service to them."
+
+At the moment when the coach was approaching the barrier, a tall man,
+clothed in a long white riding-coat, with his hat drawn over his eyes,
+and whose complexion appeared of a deep brown, passed rapidly along the
+road, stooping over the neck of a high, splendid hunter, which trotted
+with extraordinary speed.
+
+"A good horse and a good rider," said Rodolph, leaning forward to the
+door of the coach and following Murphy (for it was he) with his eyes.
+"What a pace that stout man goes! Did you see him?"
+
+"_Ma foi!_ he passed so very quickly," said the Schoolmaster, "that I
+did not remark him."
+
+Rodolph calmly concealed his satisfaction; Murphy had, doubtless,
+deciphered the almost hieroglyphic characters of the note which he had
+dropped, and which had escaped the vigilance of the Schoolmaster.
+Certain that the coach was not followed, he had become more assured, and
+desirous of imitating the Chouette, who slept, or rather pretended to
+sleep, he said to Rodolph:
+
+"Excuse me, young man, but the motion of the coach always produces a
+singular effect on me,--it sends me off to sleep like a child."
+
+The ruffian, under the guise of assumed sleep, thought to examine
+whether the physiognomy of his companion betrayed any emotion; but
+Rodolph was on his guard, and replied:
+
+"I rose so early that I feel sleepy, and will have a nap, too."
+
+He shut his eyes, and very soon the hard breathing of the Schoolmaster
+and the Chouette, who snored in chorus, so completely deceived Rodolph,
+that, thinking his companions sound asleep, he half opened his eyes. The
+Schoolmaster and the Chouette, in spite of their loud snoring, had their
+eyes open, and were exchanging some mysterious signs by means of their
+fingers curiously placed or bent in the palms of their hands. In an
+instant this mute language ceased. The brigand no doubt perceived, by
+some almost imperceptible sign, that Rodolph was not asleep, and said,
+in a laughing tone:
+
+"Ah, ah, comrade! what, you were trying your friends, were you?"
+
+"That can't astonish you, who sleep with your eyes open."
+
+"I, who--That's different, young man; I am a somnambulist."
+
+The hackney-coach stopped in the Place de la Madelaine. The rain had
+ceased for a moment, but the clouds, driven by the violence of the wind,
+were so dark and so low, that it was almost night in appearance.
+Rodolph, the Chouette, and the Schoolmaster went towards the Cours la
+Reine.
+
+"Young man, I have an idea, which is not a bad one," said the robber.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"To ascertain if all that you have told us respecting the interior of
+the house in the Allée des Veuves is true."
+
+"You surely will not go there now, under any circumstances? It would
+awaken suspicion."
+
+"I am not such a flat as that, young fellow; but why have I a wife whose
+name is Finette?"
+
+The Chouette drew up her head.
+
+"Do you see her, young man? Why, she looks like a war-horse when he
+hears the blast of the trumpet!"
+
+"You mean to send her as a lookout?"
+
+"Precisely so."
+
+"No. 17, Allée des Veuves, isn't it, my man?" cried the Chouette,
+impatiently. "Make yourself easy: I have but one eye, but that is a good
+one."
+
+"Do you see, young man,--do you see she is all impatience to be at
+work?"
+
+"If she manages cleverly to get into the house, I do not think your idea
+a bad one."
+
+"Take the umbrella, _fourline_; in half an hour I will be here again,
+and you shall see what I will do," said the Chouette.
+
+"One moment, Finette; we are going down to the Bleeding Heart,--only two
+steps from here. If the little Tortillard (cripple) is there, you had
+better take him with you; he will remain outside on the watch whilst you
+go inside the house."
+
+"You are right,--little Tortillard is as cunning as a fox; he is not ten
+years of age, and yet it was he who the other day--"
+
+A signal from the Schoolmaster interrupted the Chouette.
+
+"What does the 'Bleeding Heart' mean? It is an odd sign for a cabaret,"
+asked Rodolph.
+
+"You must complain to the landlord."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"The landlord of the Bleeding Heart?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is that to you? He never asks the names of his customers."
+
+"But, still--"
+
+"Call him what you like,--Peter, Thomas, Christopher, or Barnabas,--he
+will answer to any and all. But here we are, and it's time we were, for
+the rain is coming down again in floods; and how the river roars! It has
+almost become a torrent! Why, look at it! Two more days of such rain,
+and the water will overflow the arches of the bridge."
+
+"You say that we are _there_, but where the devil is the cabaret? I do
+not see any house here."
+
+"Certainly not, if you look round about you."
+
+"Where should I look, then?"
+
+"At your feet."
+
+"At my feet?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And whereabouts?"
+
+"Here,--look; do you see the roof? Mind, and don't step upon it."
+
+Rodolph had not remarked one of those subterraneans which used to be
+seen, some years since, in certain spots in the Champs Elysées, and
+particularly near the Cours la Reine.
+
+A flight of steps, cut out of the damp and greasy ground, led to the
+bottom of this sort of deep ditch, against one end of which, cut
+perpendicularly, leaned a low, mean, dilapidated hovel; its roof,
+covered with moss-covered tiles, was scarcely so high as the ground on
+which Rodolph was standing; two or three out-buildings, constructed of
+worm-eaten planks, serving as cellar, wood-house, and rabbit-hutches,
+surrounded this wretched den.
+
+A narrow path, which extended along this ditch, led from the stairs to
+the door of the hut; the rest of the ground was concealed under a mass
+of trellis-work, which sheltered two rows of clumsy tables, fastened to
+the ground. A worn-out iron sign swung heavily backwards and forwards on
+its creaking hinges, and through the rust that covered it might still be
+seen a red heart pierced with an arrow. The sign was supported by a post
+erected above this cave,--this real human burrow.
+
+A thick and moist fog was added to the rain as night approached.
+
+"What think you of this hôtel, young fellow?" inquired the Schoolmaster.
+
+"Why, thanks to the torrents that have fallen for the last fortnight, it
+must be deliciously fresh. But come on."
+
+"One moment,--I wish to know if the landlord is in. Hark!"
+
+The ruffian then, thrusting his tongue forcibly against his palate,
+produced a singular noise,--a sort of guttural sound, loud and
+lengthened, something like P-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!!! A similar note came from
+the depths of the hovel.
+
+"He's there," said the Schoolmaster. "Pardon me, young man,--respect to
+the ladies,--allow the Chouette to pass first; I follow you. Mind how
+you come,--it's slippery."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BLEEDING HEART.
+
+
+The landlord of the Bleeding Heart, after having responded to the signal
+of the Schoolmaster, advanced politely to the threshold of his door.
+
+This personage, whom Rodolph had been to see in the Cité, and whom he
+did not yet know under his true name, or, rather, his habitual surname,
+was Bras Rouge.
+
+Lank, mean-looking, and feeble, this man might be fifty years of age.
+His countenance resembled both the weasel and the rat; his peaked nose,
+his receding chin, his high cheek-bones, his small eyes, black,
+restless, and keen, gave his features an indescribable expression of
+malice, cunning, and sagacity. An old brown wig, or, rather, as yellow
+as his bilious complexion, perched on the top of his head, showed the
+nape of the old fellow's withered neck. He had on a round jacket, and
+one of those long black aprons worn by the waiters at the wine shops.
+
+Our three acquaintances had hardly descended the last step of the
+staircase when a child of about ten years of age, rickety, lame, and
+somewhat misshapen, came to rejoin Bras Rouge, whom he resembled in so
+striking a manner that there was no mistaking them for father and son.
+There was the same quick and cunning look, joined to that impudent,
+hardened, and knavish air, which is peculiar to the scamp (_voyou_) of
+Paris,--that fearful type of precocious depravity, that real 'hemp-seed'
+(_graine de bagne_), as they style it, in the horrible slang of the
+gaol. The forehead of the brat was half lost beneath a thatch of
+yellowish locks, as harsh and stiff as horse-hair. Reddish-coloured
+trousers and a gray blouse, confined by a leather girdle, completed
+Tortillard's costume, whose nickname was derived from his infirmity. He
+stood close to his father, standing on his sound leg like a heron by the
+side of a marsh.
+
+"Ah, here is the darling one (_môme_)!" said the Schoolmaster. "Finette,
+night is coming on, and time is pressing; we must profit by the daylight
+which is left to us."
+
+"You are right, my man; I will ask the father to spare his darling."
+
+"Good day, old friend," said Bras Rouge, addressing the Schoolmaster, in
+a voice which was cracked, sharp, and shrill. "What can I do for you?"
+
+"Why, if you could spare your 'small boy' to my mistress for a quarter
+of an hour, she has lost something which he could help her to look for."
+
+Bras Rouge winked his eye and made a sign to the Schoolmaster, and then
+said to the child:
+
+"Tortillard, go with madame."
+
+The hideous brat hopped forward and took hold of the "one-eyed's" hand.
+
+"Love of a bright boy, come along! There is a child!" said Finette. "And
+how like his father! He is not like Pegriotte, who always pretended to
+have a pain in her side when she came near me,--a little baggage!"
+
+"Come, come away!--be off, Finette! Keep your weather-eye open, and
+bright lookout. I await you here."
+
+"I won't be long. Go first, Tortillard."
+
+The one-eyed hag and the little cripple went up the slippery steps.
+
+"Finette, take the umbrella," the brigand called out.
+
+[Illustration: "'_Ah, Here is the 'Darling One'!_'"
+Original Etching by Adrian Marcel]
+
+"It would be in the way, my man," said the old woman, who quickly
+disappeared with Tortillard in the midst of the fog, which thickened
+with the twilight, and the hollow murmur of the wind as it moaned
+through the thick and leafless branches of the tall elms in the Champs
+Elysées.
+
+"Let us go in," said Rodolph.
+
+It was requisite to stoop in passing in at the door of the cabaret,
+which was divided into two apartments. In one was a bar and a
+broken-down billiard-table; in the other, tables and garden chairs,
+which had once been painted green. Two narrow windows, with their
+cracked panes festooned with spiders' webs, cast a dim but not religious
+light on the damp walls.
+
+Rodolph was alone for one moment only, during which Bras Rouge and the
+Schoolmaster had time to exchange some words, rapidly uttered, and some
+mysterious signs.
+
+"You'll take a glass of beer,--or brandy, perhaps,--whilst we wait for
+Finette?" said the Schoolmaster.
+
+"No; I am not thirsty."
+
+"Do as you like,--I am for a 'drain' of brandy," said the ruffian; and
+he seated himself on one of the little green tables in the second
+apartment.
+
+Darkness came on to this den so completely, that it was impossible to
+see in one of the angles of this inner apartment the open mouth of one
+of those cellars which are entered by a door in two divisions, one of
+which was constantly kept open for the convenience of access. The table
+at which the Schoolmaster sat was close upon this dark and deep hole,
+and he turned his back upon it, so that it was entirely concealed from
+Rodolph's view.
+
+He was looking through the window, in order to command his countenance
+and conceal the workings of his thoughts. The sight of Murphy speeding
+through the Allée des Veuves did not quite assure him; he was afraid
+that the worthy squire had not quite understood the full meaning of his
+note, necessarily so laconic, and containing only these words:
+
+"This evening--ten o'clock. Be on your guard."
+
+Resolved not to go to the Allée des Veuves before that moment, nor to
+lose sight of the Schoolmaster for an instant, he yet trembled at the
+idea of losing the only opportunity that might ever be afforded him of
+obtaining that secret which he was so excessively anxious to possess.
+Although he was powerful and well armed, yet he had to deal with an
+unscrupulous assassin, capable of any and every thing. Not desiring,
+however, that his thoughts should be detected, he seated himself at the
+table with the Schoolmaster, and, by way of seeming at his ease, called
+for a glass of something. Bras Rouge having exchanged a few words, in a
+low tone, with the brigand, looked at Rodolph with an air in which
+curiosity, distrust, and contempt were mingled.
+
+"It is my advice, young man," said the Schoolmaster, "that if my wife
+informs us that the persons we wish to see are within, we had better
+make our call about eight o'clock."
+
+"That will be two hours too soon," said Rodolph; "and that will spoil
+all."
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"Bah! amongst friends there should be no ceremony."
+
+"I know them well, and I tell you that we must not think of going before
+ten o'clock."
+
+"Are you out of your senses, young man?"
+
+"I give you my opinion, and devil fetch me if I stir from here before
+ten o'clock."
+
+"Don't disturb yourself,--I never close my establishment before
+midnight," said Bras Rouge, in his falsetto voice; "it is the time when
+my best customers drop in; and my neighbours never complain of the noise
+which is made in my house."
+
+"I must agree to all you wish, young man," continued the Schoolmaster.
+"Be it so, then; we will not set out on our visit until ten o'clock."
+
+"Here is the Chouette!" said Bras Rouge, hearing and replying to a
+warning cry similar to that which the Schoolmaster had uttered before he
+descended to the subterraneous abode.
+
+A minute afterwards the Chouette entered the billiard-room alone.
+
+"It is all right, my man,--I've done the trick!" cried the one-eyed hag,
+as she entered.
+
+Bras Rouge discreetly withdrew, without asking a word about Tortillard,
+whom, perhaps, he did not expect to see return. The beldam sat with her
+face towards Rodolph and the brigand.
+
+"Well?" said the Schoolmaster.
+
+"The young fellow has told us all true, so far."
+
+"Ah! you see I was right," exclaimed Rodolph.
+
+"Let the Chouette tell her tale, young man. Come, tell us all about it,
+Finette."
+
+"I went straight to No. 17, leaving Tortillard on the lookout and
+concealed in a corner. It was still daylight, and I rung at a side door
+which opens outwards, and here's about two inches of space between it
+and the sill; nothing else to notice. I rang; the porter opened. Before
+I pulled the bell I had put my bonnet in my pocket, that I might look
+like a neighbour. As soon as I saw the porter I pretended to cry
+violently, saying that I had lost a pet parrot, Cocotte,--a little
+darling that I adored. I told him I lived in the Rue Marboeuf, and that
+I had pursued Cocotte from garden to garden, and entreated him to allow
+me to enter and try and find the bird."
+
+"Ah!" said the Schoolmaster, with an air of proud satisfaction, pointing
+to Finette, "what a woman!"
+
+"Very clever," said Rodolph. "And what then?"
+
+"The porter allowed me to look for the creature, and I went trotting all
+around the garden, calling 'Cocotte! Cocotte!' and looked about me in
+every direction to scrutinise every thing. Inside the walls," continued
+the horrid old hag, going on with her description of the premises,
+"inside the walls, trellis-work all around,--a perfect staircase; at the
+left-hand corner of the wall a fir-tree, just like a ladder,--a lying-in
+woman might descend by it. The house has six windows on the ground
+floor, and has no upper story,--six small windows without any fastening.
+The windows of the ground floor close with shutters, having hooks below
+and staples in the upper part: press in the bottom, use your steel
+file--"
+
+"A push," said the Schoolmaster, "and it is open."
+
+The Chouette continued:
+
+"The entrance has a glass door, two Venetian blinds outside--"
+
+"Memorandum," said the ruffian.
+
+"Quite correct; it is as precise as if we saw it," said Rodolph.
+
+"On the left," resumed the Chouette, "near the courtyard, is a well; the
+rope may be useful (for at that particular spot there is no trellis
+against the wall), in case retreat should be cut off in the direction of
+the door. On entering into the house--"
+
+"You got inside the house, then? Young man, she got inside the house!"
+said the Schoolmaster, with pride.
+
+"To be sure I got in! Not finding Cocotte, I had made so much
+lamentation that I pretended I was quite out of breath; I begged the
+porter to allow me to sit down on the step of the door, and he very
+kindly asked me to step in, offering me a glass of wine and water. 'A
+glass of plain water,' I said; 'plain water only, my good sir.' Then he
+made me go into the antechamber,--carpeted all over; good
+precaution,--footsteps or broken glass cannot be heard, if we must 'mill
+the glaze' (break a pane of glass); right and left, doors with sliding
+bolts, which open by a gentle push from the top. At the bottom was a
+strong door, locked,--it looked very like a money-chest. I had my wax in
+my basket--"
+
+"She had her wax, young man! She never goes without her wax!" said the
+brigand.
+
+The Chouette proceeded:
+
+"It was necessary to approach the door which smelled so strongly of the
+cash, so I pretended that I was seized with a fit of coughing,--so
+violent, that I was compelled to lean against the wall for support.
+Hearing me cough, the porter said,'I'll fetch you a morsel of sugar to
+put in your water.' He probably looked for a spoon, for I heard plate
+chink,--plate in the room on the left-hand; don't forget that,
+_fourline_. Well, coughing and wheezing, I reached the door at the
+bottom,--I had my wax in the palm of my hand. I leaned against the lock
+as though accidentally, and here is the impression; we may not want it
+to-day, but another time it may be useful."
+
+And the Chouette gave the brigand a bit of yellow wax, on which the
+print of the lock was perfectly impressed.
+
+"You can tell us whether this is the door of the money-chest," said the
+Chouette.
+
+"It is, and there is the cash," replied Rodolph; and then said to
+himself, "Has Murphy, then, been the dupe of this cursed old hag?
+Perhaps so, and he only expects to be assailed at ten o'clock; by that
+time every precaution will have been taken."
+
+"But all the money is not there," continued the Chouette, and her one
+green eye sparkled. "As I approached the windows, still searching for my
+darling Cocotte, I saw in one of the chambers (door on the left) some
+bags of crown pieces, in a bureau. I saw them as plainly as I see you,
+my man; there were at least a dozen of them."
+
+"Where is Tortillard?" said the Schoolmaster.
+
+"In his hiding-place,--not more than two paces from the garden. He can
+see in the dark like a cat. There is only that one entrance to No. 17,
+so when we go he will tell us if any one has come or not."
+
+"That's good--"
+
+The Schoolmaster had scarcely uttered these words than he made a sudden
+rush at Rodolph, grappled him by the throat, and flung him violently
+down the cellar which was yawning behind the table.
+
+The attack was so rapid, unexpected, and powerful, that Rodolph could
+neither foresee nor avoid it. The Chouette, alarmed, uttered a piercing
+shriek; for at the first moment she had not seen the result of the
+struggle. When the noise of Rodolph's body rolling down the steps had
+ceased, the Schoolmaster, who knew all the ways and windings of the
+underground vaults in the place, went down the stairs slowly, listening
+as he went.
+
+"_Fourline_, be on your guard," cried the beldam, leaning over the
+opening of the trap; "draw your 'pinking iron.'"
+
+The brigand disappeared without any reply. For a time nothing was heard,
+but at the end of a few moments the distant noise of a door shutting,
+which creaked on its rusty hinges, sounded harshly in the depths of the
+cavern; then all was again still as death. The darkness was complete.
+The Chouette fumbled in her basket, and then, producing a lucifer-match,
+lighted a wax taper, whose feeble ray made visible the darkness of this
+dreary den.
+
+At this moment the monster-visage of the Schoolmaster appeared at the
+opening of the trap. The Chouette could not repress an exclamation of
+horror at the sight of his ghastly, seamed, mutilated, and fearful face,
+with eyes that gleamed like phosphorus, and seemed to glare on the
+ground even in the midst of the darkness which the lighted taper could
+not entirely dissipate. Having subdued her feeling of fright, the old
+hag exclaimed, in a tone of horrible flattery:
+
+"You must be an awful man, _fourline_, for even I was frightened!--yes,
+I!"
+
+"Quick, quick, for the Allée des Veuves!" said the ruffian, securely
+closing the double flap of the trap with a bar of iron. "In another
+hour, perhaps, it will be too late. If it is a trap, it is not yet
+baited; if it is not, why, we can do the job alone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE VAULT.
+
+
+Stunned by his horrible fall, Rodolph lay senseless and motionless at
+the bottom of the stairs, down which he had been hurled. The
+Schoolmaster, dragging him to the entrance of a second and still deeper
+cavern, thrust him into its hideous recesses, and closing and securely
+bolting a massy iron-shod door, returned to his worthy confederate, the
+Chouette, who was waiting to join him in the proposed robbery (it might
+be murder) in the Allée des Veuves.
+
+About the end of an hour Rodolph began, though slowly, to resume his
+consciousness. He found himself extended on the ground, in the midst of
+thick darkness; he extended his hand and touched the stone stairs
+descending to the vault; a sensation of extreme cold about his feet
+induced him to endeavour, by feeling the ground, to ascertain the cause:
+his fingers dabbled in a pool of water.
+
+With a violent effort he contrived to seat himself on the lower step of
+the staircase; the giddiness arising from his fall subsided by degrees,
+and as he became able to extend his limbs he found, to his great joy,
+that, though severely shaken and contused, no bones were broken. He
+listened: the only sound that reached his ear was a low, dull,
+pattering, but continued noise, of which he was then far from divining
+the cause.
+
+As his senses became more clear, so did the circumstances, to which he
+had been the unfortunate victim, return to his imagination; and just as
+he had recalled each particular, and was deeply considering the possible
+result of the whole, he became aware that his feet were wholly submerged
+in water; it had, indeed, risen above his ankle.
+
+In the midst of the heavy gloom and deep silence which surrounded him,
+he heard still the same dull, trickling sound he had observed before;
+and now the matter was clear to him. Now, indeed, he comprehended all
+the horrors of his situation: the cave was filling with water, arising
+from the fearful and formidable overflowing of the Seine,--the dungeon
+in which he had been thrown was doubtless beneath the level of the
+river, and was chosen by his gaolers for that purpose, as offering a
+slow though certain means of destruction.
+
+The conviction of his danger recalled Rodolph entirely to himself. Quick
+as lightning he made his way up the damp, slippery stairs; arrived at
+the top, he came in contact with a thick door; he tried in vain to open
+it,--its massy hinges resisted his most vigorous efforts to force them.
+
+At this moment of despair and danger, his first thought was for Murphy.
+"If he be not on his guard, those monsters will murder him!" cried he.
+"It will be I who shall have caused his death,--my good, my faithful
+Murphy!" This cruel thought nerved the arm of Rodolph with fresh vigour,
+and again he bent his most powerful energy to endeavour to force the
+ponderous door. Alas! the thickly plated iron with which it was covered
+mocked his utmost efforts; and sore, weary, and exhausted, he was
+compelled to relinquish the fruitless task. Again he descended into the
+cave, in hopes of obtaining something which might serve as a lever to
+force the hinges or wrench the fastenings. Groping against the slimy
+walls, he felt himself continually treading on some sort of round
+elastic bodies, which appeared to slip from under his feet, and to
+scramble for safety past him. They were rats, driven by the fast-rising
+water from their retreats. Groping about the place on all fours, with
+the water half way up his leg, Rodolph felt in all directions for the
+weapon he so much desired to find; nothing but the damp walls met his
+touch, however, and, in utter despair, he resumed his position at the
+top of the steps,--of the thirteen stairs which composed the flight,
+three were already under water.
+
+Thirteen had ever been Rodolph's unlucky number. There are moments when
+the strongest minds are under the influence of superstitious ideas, and,
+at this juncture, Rodolph viewed the fatal amount of stairs as an ill
+augury. Again the possible fate of Murphy recurred to him, and, as if
+inspired by a fresh hope, he eagerly felt around the door to discover
+some slight chink, or opening, by which his cries for help might be
+heard. In vain; the dampness of the soil had swollen the wood, and
+joined it hermetically to the wet, slimy earth.
+
+Rodolph next tried the powers of his voice, and shouted with the fullest
+expansion of his lungs, trusting that his cries for assistance might
+reach the adjoining cabaret; and then, tired and exhausted, sat down to
+listen. Nothing was to be heard, no sound disturbed the deep silence
+which reigned, but the drop, drop, drop, the dull, trickling, monotonous
+bubbling of the fast-increasing waters.
+
+His last hope extinguished, Rodolph seated himself in gloomy despair,
+and, leaning his back against the door, bewailed the perilous situation
+of his faithful friend,--perhaps at that very moment struggling beneath
+the assassin's knife. Bitterly did he then regret his rash and
+venturesome projects, however good and generous the motives by which he
+had been instigated; and severely did he reproach himself for having
+taken advantage of the devotion of Murphy, who, rich, honoured, and
+esteemed by all who knew him, had quitted a beloved wife and child, to
+assist Rodolph in the bold undertaking he had imposed on himself.
+
+During these sorrowful reflections, the water was still rising rapidly,
+and five steps only now remained dry. Rodolph now found himself
+compelled to assume a standing position, though, in so doing, his
+forehead was brought in close contact with the very top of the vault. He
+calculated the probable duration of his mortal agony,--of the period
+which must elapse ere this slow, inch-like death would put a period to
+his misery; he bethought him of the pistol he carried with him, and, at
+the risk of injuring himself in the attempt, he determined to fire it
+off against the door, so as to disturb some of the fastenings by the
+concussion; but here, again, a disappointment awaited him,--the pistol
+was nowhere to be found, and he could but conclude it had fallen from
+his pocket during his struggle with the Schoolmaster. But for his deep
+concern on Murphy's account, Rodolph would have met his death
+unmoved,--his conscience acquitted him of all intentional offence; nay,
+it solaced him with the recollection of good actually performed, and
+much more meditated. To the decrees of an all-wise and inscrutable
+Providence he resigned himself, and humbly accepted his present
+punishment as the just reward for a criminal action as yet unexpiated.
+
+A fresh trial of his fortitude awaited him. The rats, still pursued by
+the fast-gathering waters, finding no other means of escape, sought
+refuge from one step to another, ascending as fast as the rising flood
+rendered their position untenable; unable to scale the perpendicular
+walls or doors, they availed themselves of the vestments of Rodolph,
+whose horror and disgust rose to an indescribable degree, as he felt
+their cold, clammy paws, and wet, hairy bodies, crawling or clinging to
+him; in his attempts to repulse them, their sharp, cold bite inflicted
+on him a most acute agony, while his face and hands streamed with blood,
+from the multitude of wounds received. Again he called for help, shouted
+aloud, and almost screamed in his pain and wretchedness. Alas! the dull
+echo of the vault and the gurgling waters alone replied. A few short
+moments, and he would be bereft even of the power of calling upon God or
+man to help him; the rapidly rising flood had now reached his very
+throat, and ere long would have ascended to his lips.
+
+The choked air began, too, to fail in the narrow space now left it, and
+the first symptoms of asphyxia began to oppress Rodolph; the arteries of
+his temples beat violently, his head became giddy, and the faint
+sickness of death seemed to make his chest heave convulsively. Already
+were the waters gurgling in his ears; a dizziness of sight and a
+confusion of ideas had well-nigh deprived him of all powers of sight or
+sound; the last glimmer of reason was well-nigh shaken from her throne,
+when hasty steps and the sound of voices on the other side of the door
+were heard.
+
+Hope recalled his expiring strength, and, making one powerful effort,
+Rodolph was able to distinguish the following words, after which all
+consciousness forsook him:
+
+"Did I not tell you so? There, you see there is no one here!"
+
+"Deuce take it! no more there is," replied the voice of the Chourineur,
+in a tone of vexation and disappointment. And the sounds died away.
+
+Rodolph, utterly exhausted, had no longer power to sustain himself; his
+limbs sunk from under him, and he slid unresistingly down the stone
+steps.
+
+All at once the door of the vault was abruptly opened from the other
+side, and the swelling masses contained in the inner vault, glad to find
+a further outlet, rushed onwards as though bursting through the gates of
+a sluice, and the Chourineur, whose opportune return shall be accounted
+for by and by, seized the two arms of Rodolph, who, half dead, had
+mechanically clung to the threshold of the door, and bore him from the
+black and rushing waters which had nigh proved his grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SICK-NURSE.
+
+
+Snatched by the Chourineur from a certain death, and removed to the
+house in the Allée des Veuves which had been reconnoitred by the
+Chouette, previously to the attempt on it by the Schoolmaster, Rodolph
+was placed in bed, in a comfortably furnished apartment; a cheerful fire
+was burning on the hearth. A lamp, placed on a neighbouring table,
+diffused a strong, clear light; while the bed of Rodolph, shaded by
+thick curtains of green damask, remained protected from the glare, and
+in the shadow of its deep recess.
+
+A negro of middle stature, with white hair and eyebrows, wearing an
+orange and green riband at the buttonhole of his blue coat, sat by the
+bedside, holding in his right hand a seconds' watch, which he appeared
+to consult while counting with his left the beating of Rodolph's pulse.
+The expression of the negro's countenance was at once sad and pensive,
+and he continued from time to time to gaze on the sleeping man with the
+most tender solicitude.
+
+The Chourineur, clad in rags and soiled with mud, stood motionless, with
+folded arms, at the foot of the bed; his red beard was long and matted,
+in disorder; his thick, bushy hair was tangled with mud and wet, which
+still dripped from it; while his hard, bronzed features were marked by
+the most profound pity for the patient: hardly venturing to breathe lest
+the heaving of his huge chest should disturb the invalid, he awaited
+with the most intense anxiety the result of the doctor's observations
+on the sick man's state; then, as though to while away the fearful
+apprehension of an unfavourable opinion, he continued to deliver his
+thoughts aloud, after the following manner:
+
+"Who would think, now, to see him lying there so helpless, he could ever
+have been the man to give me such a precious drubbing as I got from him?
+I dare say, though, he will soon be up again, well and strong as ever.
+Don't you think so, M. le Docteur? Faith, I only wish he could drum
+himself well upon my back; I'd lend it him as long as he liked. But,
+perhaps, that would shake him too much, and overfatigue him; would it,
+sir?" addressing the negro, whose only reply was an impatient wave of
+the hand.
+
+The Chourineur was instantly silent.
+
+"The draught!" said the doctor.
+
+The Chourineur, who had respectfully left his nailed shoes at the door,
+at these words arose, and walked towards the table indicated by the
+negro's finger; going on the very top of his toes, drawing up his legs,
+extending his arms, and swelling out his back and shoulders, in a manner
+so ludicrous as, under other circumstances, would have been highly
+diverting. The poor fellow seemed endeavouring to collect his whole
+weight, so that no portion of it should touch the floor; which, in spite
+of his energetic efforts to prevent it, groaned beneath his ponderous
+limbs as they moved towards the desired spot. Unfortunately, between his
+overanxiety to acquit himself well in his important mission, and his
+fear of dropping the delicate phial he was bringing so overcarefully, he
+grasped the slight neck so tightly in his huge hand that it shivered to
+atoms, and the precious liquid was expended on the carpet.
+
+At the sight of this unfortunate mischance the Chourineur remained in
+mute astonishment, one of his huge legs in the air, his toes nervously
+contracted, and looking with a stupefied air alternately from the
+doctor to the fragments of the bottle, and from that to the morsel his
+thumb and finger were yet tightly holding.
+
+"Awkward devil!" exclaimed the negro, impatiently.
+
+"Yes, that I am!" responded the Chourineur, as though grateful for the
+sound of a voice to break the frightful bewilderment of his ideas.
+
+"Ah!" cried the Æsculapius, observing the table attentively, "happily
+you took the wrong phial,--I wanted the other one."
+
+"What, that little one with the red stuff?" inquired the unlucky
+sick-nurse, in a low and humble tone.
+
+"Of course I mean that; why, there is no other left."
+
+The Chourineur, turning quickly around upon his heels, after his old
+military fashion, crushed the fragments of glass which lay on the carpet
+beneath his feet. More delicate ones might have suffered severely from
+the circumstance, but the _ex-débardeur_ had a pair of natural sandals,
+hard as the hoofs of a horse.
+
+"Have a care!" cried the physician. "You will hurt yourself!"
+
+To this caution the Chourineur paid no attention, but seemed wholly
+absorbed in so discharging his new mission as should effectually destroy
+all recollection of his late clumsiness. It was really beautiful to
+behold the scrupulous delicacy and lightness of touch with which,
+spreading out his two first fingers, he seized the fragile crystal;
+avoiding all use of the unlucky thumb whose undue pressure, he rightly
+conceived, had brought about his previous accident, he kept so widely
+stretched from his forefinger that a butterfly might have passed
+between, with outspread wings, without losing one atom of its golden
+plumage. The black doctor trembled lest all this caution should lead to
+a second misadventure, but, happily, the phial reached its destination
+in safety. As the Chourineur approached the bed, he again smashed
+beneath his tread some of the fallen relics of the former potion.
+
+"The deuce take you, man! Do you want to _maim_ yourself for life?"
+
+"_Lame_ myself?" asked the eager nurse.
+
+"Why, yes; you keep walking upon glass as though you were trying for
+it."
+
+"Oh, bless you! never mind that; the soles of my feet are hard as iron;
+must be something sharper than glass could hurt them."
+
+"A teaspoon--" said the doctor.
+
+The Chourineur recommenced his _évolutions sylphidiques_, and returned
+with the article required.
+
+After having swallowed a few spoonfuls of the mixture, Rodolph began to
+stir in his bed, and faintly moved his hands.
+
+"Good! good! he is recovering from his stupor," said the doctor,
+speaking to himself. "That bleeding has relieved him; he is now out of
+danger."
+
+"Saved? Bravo! Vive la Charte!" exclaimed the Chourineur, in the full
+burst of his joy.
+
+"Hold your tongue! and pray be quiet!" said the negro, in a tone of
+command.
+
+"To be sure I will, M. le Médécin."
+
+"His pulse is becoming regular--very well, indeed--excellent--"
+
+"And that poor friend of M. Rodolph's,--body and bones of me!--when he
+comes to know that--But, then, luckily--"
+
+"Silence! I say."
+
+"Certainly, M. le Docteur."
+
+"And sit down."
+
+"But, M. le--"
+
+"Sit down, I tell you! You disturb me, twisting and fidgeting about in
+that manner,--you distract my attention. Come, sit down at once, and
+keep still."
+
+"But, doctor, don't you perceive I am as dirty as a pile of floating
+wood just going to be unloaded?--all slime and wet, you see. I should
+spoil the furniture."
+
+"Then sit down on the ground."
+
+"I should soil the carpet."
+
+"Do what you like, but, for heaven's sake, be quiet!" said the doctor,
+in a tone of impatience; then, throwing himself into an armchair, he
+leaned his head upon his clasped hands, and appeared lost in deep
+reflection.
+
+After a moment of profound meditation, the Chourineur, less from any
+need he felt for repose than in obedience to the doctor's commands, took
+a chair with the utmost precaution, turned it upside down with an air of
+intense self-satisfaction at having at length devised a plan to act in
+strict conformity with the orders received, and yet avoid all risk of
+soiling the silken cushion; having laid the back on the ground, he
+proceeded, after all manner of delicate arrangements, to take his seat
+on the outer rails; but, unhappily, the Chourineur was entirely ignorant
+of the laws of the lever and the equilibrium of bodies, the chair
+overbalanced, and the luckless individual seated thereon, in
+endeavouring to save himself from falling, by an involuntary movement
+caught hold of a small stand, on which was a tray containing some
+tea-things.
+
+At the formidable noise caused by so many falling articles clattering
+upon the head of the unfortunate cause of all this discord and havoc,
+the doctor sprung from his seat, while Rodolph, awaking with a start,
+raised himself on his elbow, looked about him with an anxious and
+perturbed glance, then, passing his hand over his brows, as though
+trying to arrange his ideas, he inquired:
+
+"Where is Murphy?"
+
+"Your royal highness need be under no apprehensions on his account,"
+answered the negro, respectfully; "there is every hope of his recovery."
+
+"Recovery! He is, then, wounded?"
+
+"Unhappily, my lord, he is."
+
+"Where is he? Let me see him!" And Rodolph endeavoured to rise, but fell
+back again, overcome by weakness and the intense pain he felt from his
+many and severe contusions. "Since I cannot walk," cried he, at length,
+"let me be instantly carried to Murphy,--this moment!"
+
+"My lord, he sleeps at present; it would be highly dangerous, at this
+particular juncture, to expose him to the slightest agitation."
+
+"You are deceiving me, and he is dead! He has been murdered! And I--I am
+the wretched cause of it!" cried Rodolph, in a tone of agony, raising
+his clasped hands towards heaven.
+
+"My lord knows that his servant is incapable of a falsehood. I assert by
+my honour, that, although severely wounded, Murphy lives, and that his
+chance of recovery is all but certain."
+
+"You say that but to prepare me for more disastrous tidings; he lies,
+doubtless, wounded past all hope; and he, my faithful friend, will die!"
+
+"My lord--"
+
+"Yes, you are seeking to deceive me till all is over. But I will see
+him,--I will judge for myself; the sight of a friend cannot be hurtful.
+Let me be instantly removed to his chamber."
+
+"Once more, my lord, I pledge my solemn assurance, that, barring chances
+not likely to occur, Murphy will soon be convalescent."
+
+"My dear David, may I indeed believe you?"
+
+"You may, indeed, my lord."
+
+"Hear me. You know the high opinion I entertain of your ability and
+knowledge, and that, from the hour in which you were attached to my
+household, you have possessed my most unbounded confidence,--never, for
+one instant, have I doubted your great skill and perfect acquaintance
+with your profession; but I conjure you, if a consultation be
+necessary--"
+
+"My lord, that would have been my first thought, had I seen the
+slightest reason for such a step; but, up to the present moment, it
+would be both useless and unnecessary. And, besides, I should be
+somewhat tenacious of introducing strangers into the house until I knew
+whether your orders of yesterday--"
+
+"But how has all this happened?" said Rodolph, interrupting the black.
+"Who saved me from drowning in that horrid cellar? I have a confused
+recollection of having heard the Chourineur's voice there; was I
+mistaken?"
+
+"Not at all mistaken, my lord. But let the brave fellow, to whom all
+praise is due, relate the affair in which he was the principal actor
+himself."
+
+"Where is he? Where is he?"
+
+The doctor looked about for the recently elected sick-nurse, and at
+length found him, thoroughly silenced and shamed by his late tumble,
+ensconced behind the curtains of the bed.
+
+"Here he is," said the doctor; "he looks somewhat shamefaced."
+
+"Come forward, my brave fellow!" said Rodolph, extending his hand to his
+preserver.
+
+The confusion of the poor Chourineur was still further increased from
+having, when behind his curtain, heard the black doctor address Rodolph
+continually as "my lord," or "your royal highness."
+
+"Approach, my friend,--my deliverer!" said Rodolph, "and give me your
+hand."
+
+"I beg pardon, sir,--I mean, my lord,--no, highness,--no--"
+
+"Call me M. Rodolph, as you used to do; I like it better."
+
+"And so do I,--it comes so much easier to one. But be so good as to
+excuse my hand; I have done so much work lately, that--"
+
+"Your hand, I tell you,--your hand!"
+
+Overcome by this kind and persevering command, the Chourineur timidly
+extended his black and horny palm, which Rodolph warmly shook.
+
+"Now, then, sit down, and tell me all about it,--how you discovered the
+cellar. But I think I can guess. The Schoolmaster?"
+
+"We have him in safety," said the black doctor.
+
+"Yes, he and the Chouette, tied together like two rolls of tobacco. A
+pair of pretty creatures they look, as ever you would wish to see, and,
+I doubt not, sick enough of each other's company by this time."
+
+"And my poor Murphy! What a selfish wretch must I be to think only of
+myself! Where is he wounded, David?"
+
+"In the right side, my lord; but, fortunately, towards the lower false
+rib."
+
+"Oh, I must have a deep and terrible revenge for this! David, I depend
+upon your assistance."
+
+"My lord knows full well that I am wholly devoted to him, both body and
+soul," replied the negro, coldly.
+
+"But how, my noble fellow, were you able to arrive here in time?" said
+Rodolph to the Chourineur.
+
+"Why, if you please, my lor--no, sir--highness--Rodolph--I had better
+begin by the beginning--"
+
+"Quite right. I am listening,--go on. But mind, you are only to call me
+M. Rodolph."
+
+"Very well. You know that last night you told me, after you returned
+from the country, where you had gone with poor Goualeuse, 'Try and find
+the Schoolmaster in the Cité; tell him you know of a capital "put-up,"
+that you have refused to join it, but that if he will take your place he
+has only to be to-morrow (that's to-day) at the barrier of Bercy, at the
+Panier-Fleuri, and there he will see the man who has "made the plant"
+(_qui a nourri le poupard_).'"
+
+"Well."
+
+"On leaving you, I pushed on briskly for the Cité. I goes to the
+ogress's,--no Schoolmaster; then to the Rue Saint Eloi; on to the Rue
+aux Fêves; then to the Rue de la Vieille Draperie,--couldn't find my
+man. At last I stumbled upon him and that old devil's kin, Chouette, in
+the front of Notre Dame, at the shop of a tailor, who is a 'fence'[8]
+and thief; they were 'sporting the blunt' which they had prigged from
+the tall gentleman in black, who wanted to do something to you; they
+bought themselves some toggery. The Chouette bargained for a red
+shawl,--an old monster! I told my tale to the Schoolmaster and he
+snapped at it, and said he would be at the rendezvous accordingly. So
+far so good. This morning, according to your orders, I ran here to bring
+you the answer. You said to me, 'My lad, return to-morrow before
+daybreak; you must pass the day in the house, and in the evening you
+will see something which will be worth seeing.' You did not let out more
+than that, but I was 'fly,' and said to myself, 'This is a "dodge" to
+catch the Schoolmaster to-morrow, by laying a right bait for him. He is
+a----scoundrel; he murdered the cattle-dealer, and, as they say, another
+person besides, in the Rue du Roule. I see all about it--'"
+
+ [8] Receiver of stolen goods.
+
+"My mistake was not to have told you all, my good fellow; then this
+horrible result would not have occurred."
+
+"That was your affair, M. Rodolph; all that concerned me was to serve
+you; for, truth to say, I don't know how or why, but, as I have told you
+before, I feel as if I were your bulldog. But that's enough. I said,
+then, 'M. Rodolph pays me for my time, so my time is his, and I will
+employ it for him.' Then an idea strikes me: the Schoolmaster is
+cunning, he may suspect a trap. M. Rodolph will propose to him the job
+for to-morrow, it is true, but the 'downy cove' is likely enough to come
+to-day and lurk about, and reconnoitre the ground, and if he is
+suspicious of M. Rodolph he will bring some other 'cracksman' (robber)
+with him, and do the trick on his own account. To prevent this, I said
+to myself, 'I must go and plant myself somewhere where I may get a view
+of the walls, the garden-gate,--there is no other entrance. If I find a
+snug corner, as it rains, I will remain there all day, perhaps all
+night, and to-morrow morning I shall be all right and ready to go to M.
+Rodolph's.' So I goes to the Allée des Veuves to place myself, and what
+should I see but a small tavern, not ten paces from your door! I entered
+and took my seat near the window, in a room on the ground floor. I
+called for a quart of drink and a quart of nuts, saying I expected some
+friends,--a humpbacked man and a tall woman. I chose them because it
+would appear more natural. I was very comfortably seated, and kept my
+eye on the door. It rained cats and dogs; no one passed; night came
+on--"
+
+"But," interrupted Rodolph, "why did you not go at once to my house?"
+
+"You told me to come the next day morning, M. Rodolph, and I didn't dare
+return there sooner; I should have looked like an intruder,--a sneak
+(_brosseur_), as the troopers call it. You understand? Well, there I was
+at the window of the wine-shop, cracking my nuts and drinking my liquor,
+when, through the fog, I saw the Chouette approach, accompanied by Bras
+Rouge's brat, little Tortillard. 'Ah, ah!' said I to myself, 'now the
+farce begins!' Well, the little hound of a child hid himself in one of
+the ditches of the Allée, and was evidently on the lookout. As for
+that----, the Chouette, she takes off her bonnet, puts it into her
+pocket, and rings the gate-bell. Our poor friend, M. Murphy, opens the
+door, and the one-eyed mother of mischief tosses up her arms and makes
+her way into the garden. I could have kicked myself for not being able
+to make out what the Chouette was up to. At last out she comes, puts on
+her bonnet, says two words to Tortillard, who returns to his hole, and
+then 'cuts her stick.' I say to myself, 'Caution! no blunder now!
+Tortillard has come with the Chouette; then the Schoolmaster and M.
+Rodolph are at Bras Rouge's. The Chouette has come out to reconnoitre
+about the house; then, sure as a gun, they'll "try it on" this very
+night! If they do, M. Rodolph, who believes they will not go to work
+till to-morrow, is quite over-reached; and if he is over-reached, I
+ought to go to Bras Rouge's and see for him. True; but then suppose that
+the Schoolmaster arrives in the meantime,--that's to be thought of.
+Suppose I go to the house and see M. Murphy,--mind your eye! that urchin
+Tortillard is near the door; he will hear me ring the bell, see me, and
+give the word to the Chouette; and if she returns, that will spoil all;
+and the more particularly as perhaps M. Rodolph has, after all, made his
+arrangements for this evening.' Confound it! these yes and no bothered
+my brain tremendously. I was quite bewildered, and saw nothing clear
+before me. I didn't know what to do for the best, so I said, 'I'll walk
+out, and perhaps the clear air will brighten my thoughts a bit.' I went
+out, and the open air cleared my brain; so I took off my blouse and my
+neck-handkerchief, I went to the ditch where Tortillard lay, and taking
+the young devil's kin by the cuff of his neck,--how he did wriggle, and
+twist, and scuffle, and scratch!--I put him into my blouse, tying up one
+end with the sleeves and the bottom tightly with my cravat. He could
+breathe very well. Well, then I took the bundle under my arm, and
+passing a low, damp garden, surrounded by a little wall, I threw the
+brat Tortillard into the midst of a cabbage-bed. He squeaked like a
+sucking-pig, but nobody could hear him two steps off. I cut off; it was
+time. I climbed up one of the high trees in the Allée, just in front of
+your door, and over the ditch in which Tortillard had been stationed.
+Ten minutes afterwards I heard footsteps; it was raining still, and the
+night was very dark. I listened,--it was the Chouette. 'Tortillard!
+Tortillard!' says she, in a low voice. 'It rains, and the little brat is
+tired of waiting,' said the Schoolmaster, swearing; 'if I catch him,
+I'll skin him alive!' '_Fourline_, take care!' replied the Chouette.
+'Perhaps he has gone to warn us of something that has happened,--maybe,
+some trap for us. The young fellow would not make the attempt till ten
+o'clock.' 'That's the very reason,' replies the Schoolmaster; 'it is now
+only seven o'clock. You saw the money,--nothing venture, nothing have.
+Give me the ripping chisel and the jemmy--'"
+
+"What instruments are they?" asked Rodolph.
+
+"They came from Bras Rouge's. Oh, he has a well-furnished house! In a
+crack the door is opened. 'Stay where you are,' said the Schoolmaster to
+the Chouette; 'keep a bright lookout, and give me the signal if you hear
+anything.' 'Put your "pinking-iron" in the buttonhole of your waistcoat,
+that you may have it handy,' said the old hag. The Schoolmaster entered
+the garden, and I instantly, coming down from the tree, fell on the
+Chouette. I silenced her with two blows of my fist,--my new style,--and
+she fell without a word. I ran into the garden, but, thunder and
+lightning, M. Rodolph! it was too late--"
+
+"Poor Murphy!"
+
+"He was struggling on the ground with the Schoolmaster at the entrance,
+and, although wounded, he held his voice and made no cry for help.
+Excellent man! he is like a good dog, bites, but doesn't bark. Well, I
+went bang, heads or tails, at it, hitting the Schoolmaster on the
+shoulder, which was the only place I could at the moment touch. 'Vive la
+Charte! it's I!' 'The Chourineur!' shouts M. Murphy. 'Ah, villain! where
+do you come from?' cries out the Schoolmaster, quite off his guard at
+that. 'What's that to you?' says I, fixing one of his legs between my
+knees, and grasping his 'fin' with my other hand; it was that in which
+he held his dagger. 'And M. Rodolph?' asked M. Murphy of me, whilst
+doing all in his power to aid me--"
+
+"Worthy, kind-hearted creature!" murmured Rodolph, in a tone of deep
+distress.
+
+"'I know nothing of him,' says I; 'this scoundrel, perhaps, has killed
+him.' And then I went with redoubled strength at the Schoolmaster, who
+tried to stick me with his larding-pin; but I lay with my breast on his
+arm, and so he only had his fist at liberty. 'You are, then, quite
+alone?' says I to M. Murphy, whilst we still struggled desperately with
+the Schoolmaster. 'There are people close at hand,' he replied; 'but
+they did not hear me cry out.' 'Is it far off?' 'They would be here in
+ten minutes.' 'Let us call out for help; there are passers-by who will
+come and help us.' 'No, as we have got him we must hold him here. But I
+am growing weak, I am wounded.' 'Thunder and lightning! then run and get
+assistance, if you have strength left; I will try and hold him.' M.
+Murphy then disengaged himself, and I was alone with the Schoolmaster. I
+don't want to brag, but, by Jove! these were moments when I was not
+having a holiday. We were half on the ground, half on the bottom step of
+the flight. I had my arms round the neck of the villain, my cheek
+against his cheek; and he was puffing like a bull, I heard his teeth
+grind. It was dark, it rained pouring; the lamp left in the passage
+lighted us a little. I had twisted one of my legs around his, but, in
+spite of that, his loins were so powerful that he moved himself and me
+on to the bare ground. He tried to bite me, but couldn't; I never felt
+so strong. Thunder! my heart beat, but it was in the right place. I
+said, 'I am like a man who is grappling with a mad dog, to prevent him
+from fastening on some passer-by.' 'Let me go, and I will do you no
+harm,' said the Schoolmaster, in an exhausted voice. 'What! a coward?'
+says I to him. 'So, then, your pluck is in your strength? So you
+wouldn't have stabbed the cattle-dealer at Poissy, and robbed him, if he
+had only been as strong as me, eh?' 'No,' says he; 'but I will kill you
+as I did him.' And saying that, he made so violent a heave, and gave so
+powerful a jerk with his legs at the same time, that he half threw me
+over; if I had not kept a tight hold of his wrist which held the
+stiletto, I was done for. At this moment my left hand was seized with
+the cramp, and I was compelled to loosen my hold; that nearly spoiled
+all, and I said to myself, 'I am now undermost and he at top,--he'll
+kill me. Never mind, I had rather be in my place than his; M. Rodolph
+said that I had heart and honour.' I felt it was all over with me, and
+at that moment I saw the Chouette standing close by us, with her glaring
+eye and red shawl. Thunder and lightning! I thought I had the nightmare.
+'Finette,' cries the Schoolmaster, 'I have let fall the knife; pick it
+up, there, there, under him, and strike him home, in the back, between
+the shoulders; quick! quick!' 'Only wait, only wait till I find it, till
+I see it, _fourline_.' And then the cursed Chouette turned and poked
+about us, like an old bird of mischief as she was. At last she found the
+dagger and sprung towards it, but as I was flat on my belly I gave her a
+kick in the stomach, which sent her neck over crop; she got up, and in a
+desperate rage. I could do no more; I still held on and struggled with
+the Schoolmaster, but he kept giving me such dreadful blows on my jaw
+that I was about to let go my hold, when I saw three or four armed men
+who came down the stairs, and M. Murphy, pale as ashes, and with
+difficulty supporting himself with the assistance of the doctor here.
+They seized hold of the Schoolmaster and the Chouette, and soon bound
+them hand and foot. That was not all, I still wanted M. Rodolph. I
+sprang at the Chouette; remembering the tooth of the poor dear
+Goualeuse, I grasped her arm and twisted it, saying, 'Where is M.
+Rodolph?' She bore it well, and silently. I took a second turn, and then
+she screeched out, 'At Bras Rouge's, in the vault at the Bleeding
+Heart!' All right! As I went, I meant to take Tortillard from his
+cabbage-bed, as it was on my road. I looked for him, but only found my
+blouse,--he had gnawed his way out with his teeth. I reached the
+Bleeding Heart, and I laid hold of Bras Rouge. 'Where is the young man
+who came here this evening with the Schoolmaster?' 'Don't squeeze so
+hard, and I'll tell you. They wanted to play him a trick and shut him up
+in my cellar; we'll go now and let him out.' We went down, but there was
+no one to be seen. 'He must have gone out whilst my back was turned,'
+says Bras Rouge; 'you see plain enough he is not here.' I was going away
+sad enough, when, by the light of the lantern, I saw at the bottom of
+the cellar another door. I ran towards it and opened the door, and had,
+as it were, a pail of water thrown at me. I saw your two poor arms in
+the air. I fished you out and brought you here on my back, as there was
+nobody at hand to get a coach. That's all my tale, M. Rodolph; and I may
+say, without bragging, that I am satisfied with myself."
+
+"My man, I owe my life to you; it is a heavy debt, but be assured I will
+pay it. David, will you go and learn how Murphy is," added Rodolph, "and
+return again instantly?"
+
+The black went out.
+
+"Where is the Schoolmaster, my good fellow?"
+
+"In another room, with the Chouette. You will send for the police, M.
+Rodolph?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You surely will not let him go! Ah, M. Rodolph, none of that
+nonsensical generosity! I say again, he is a mad dog,--let the
+passengers look out!"
+
+"He will never bite again, be assured."
+
+"Then you are going to shut him up somewhere?"
+
+"No; in half an hour he will leave this house."
+
+"The Schoolmaster?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Without _gens-d'armes_?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"_He_ will go out from here, and free?"
+
+"Free."
+
+"And quite alone?"
+
+"Quite alone."
+
+"But he will go--"
+
+"Wherever he likes," said Rodolph, interrupting the Chourineur with a
+meaning smile.
+
+The black returned.
+
+"Well, David, well, and how is Murphy?"
+
+"He sleeps, my lord," said the doctor, despondingly; "his respiration is
+very difficult."
+
+"Not out of danger?"
+
+"His case is very critical, my lord; yet there is hope."
+
+"Oh, Murphy! vengeance! vengeance!" exclaimed Rodolph, in a tone of
+concentrated rage. Then he added, "David, a word--"
+
+And he whispered something in the ear of the black. He started back.
+
+"Do you hesitate?" said Rodolph. "Yet I have often suggested this idea
+to you; the moment is come to put it into practice."
+
+"I do not hesitate, my lord; the suggestion is well worthy the
+consideration of the most elevated jurists, for this punishment is at
+the same time terrible and yet fruitful for repentance. In this case it
+is most applicable. Without enumerating the crimes which have
+accumulated to send this wretch to the Bagne for his life, he has
+committed three murders,--the cattle-dealer, Murphy, and yourself; it is
+in his case justice--"
+
+"He will have before him an unlimited horizon for expiation," added
+Rodolph. After a moment's silence he resumed: "And five thousand francs
+will suffice, David?"
+
+"Amply, my lord."
+
+"My good fellow," said Rodolph to the bewildered Chourineur, "I have two
+words to say to M. David; will you go into that chamber on the other
+side, where you will see a large red pocketbook on a bureau; open it and
+take out five notes of a thousand francs each, and bring them to me."
+
+"And," inquired the Chourineur, involuntarily, "who are those five
+thousand francs for?"
+
+"For the Schoolmaster. And do you, at the same time, tell them to bring
+him in here."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE PUNISHMENT.
+
+
+The scene we are about to describe took place in a room hung with red,
+and brilliantly lighted. Rodolph, clothed in a long dressing-gown of
+black velvet, which increased the pallor of his features, was seated
+before a large table covered with a green cloth. On this table was the
+Schoolmaster's pocketbook, the pinchbeck chain of the Chouette (to which
+was suspended the little Saint Esprit of lapis lazuli), the
+blood-stained stiletto with which Murphy had been stabbed, the crowbar
+with which the door had been forced, and the five notes of a thousand
+francs each, which the Chourineur had fetched out of the next apartment.
+
+The negro doctor was seated at one side of the table, the Chourineur on
+the other. The Schoolmaster, tightly bound with cords, and unable to
+move a limb, was placed in a large armchair on casters, in the middle of
+the salon. The people who had brought in this man had withdrawn, and
+Rodolph, the doctor, the Chourineur, and the assassin were left alone.
+Rodolph was no longer out of temper, but calm, sad, and collected; he
+was about to discharge a solemn, self-imposed, and important duty. The
+doctor was lost in meditation. The Chourineur felt an indescribable
+fear; he could not take his eyes off Rodolph. The Schoolmaster's
+countenance was ghastly; he was in an agony of fear. The most profound
+silence reigned within; nothing was heard but the splash, splash of the
+rain without, as it fell from the roof on to the pavement. Rodolph
+addressed the Schoolmaster:
+
+"Anselm Duresnel, you have escaped from the Bagne at Rochefort, where
+you were condemned for life for forgery, robbery, and murder!"
+
+"It's false!" said the Schoolmaster, in a hollow voice, and looking
+about him with his restless and glaring glance.
+
+"You are Anselm Duresnel, and you murdered and robbed a cattle-dealer on
+the road to Poissy--"
+
+"It's a lie!"
+
+"You shall confess it presently."
+
+The scoundrel looked at Rodolph with an air of astonishment.
+
+"This very night you came here to rob, and you have stabbed the master
+of this house--"
+
+"It was you who suggested this robbery!" assuming an air of assurance.
+"I was attacked, and I defended myself."
+
+"The man you stabbed did not attack you,--he was unarmed. True, I did
+suggest this robbery to you,--I'll tell you why. Last night only, after
+having robbed a man and woman in the Cité, you offered to kill me for a
+thousand francs--"
+
+"I heard him," said the Chourineur.
+
+The Schoolmaster darted at him a glance of deadliest hate.
+
+Rodolph continued:
+
+"You see there was no occasion to tempt you to do mischief."
+
+"You are not my judge, and I will not answer you another question."
+
+[Illustration: "_Rodolph Addressed the Schoolmaster_"
+Etching by Mercier, after the drawing by Frank T. Merrill]
+
+"I'll tell you why I proposed this robbery to you. I knew you were a
+runaway convict,--you know the parents of the unfortunate girl, all
+whose misfortunes have been caused by your miserable accomplice, the
+Chouette. I wished to draw you here by the temptation of a robbery,
+because this was the only temptation that could avail with you. Once in
+my power, I leave you the choice of being handed over to the hands of
+justice, which will make you pay with your head the assassination of the
+cattle-dealer--"
+
+"It is false! I did not commit that crime."
+
+"Or of being conducted out of France, under my direction, to a place of
+perpetual confinement, where your lot will be less painful than at the
+Bagne; but I will only allow you this relaxation of punishment on
+condition that you give me the information which I desire to acquire.
+Condemned for life, you have broken away from your confinement, and by
+seizing upon you and placing you hereafter beyond the possibility of
+doing injury, I serve society; and from your confession I may, perhaps,
+find the means of restoring to her family a poor creature much more
+unfortunate than guilty. This was my first intention,--it was not legal;
+but your escape and your fresh crimes forbid any such course on my part
+now, and place you beyond all law. Yesterday, by a remarkable
+revelation, I discovered that you are Anselm Duresnel--"
+
+"It's false! I am not called Duresnel."
+
+Rodolph took from the table the chain of the Chouette, and pointing to
+the little Saint Esprit of lapis lazuli said, in a threatening voice:
+
+"Sacrilege! You have prostituted to an infamous wretch this holy
+relic,--thrice holy, for your infant boy had this pious gift from his
+mother and grandmother!"
+
+The Schoolmaster, dumfounded at this discovery, lowered his head and
+made no response.
+
+"You carried off your child from his mother fifteen years ago, and you
+alone possess the secret of his existence. I had in this an additional
+motive for laying hands on you when I had detected who you were. I seek
+no revenge for what you have done to me personally, but to-night you
+have again shed blood without provocation. The man you have assassinated
+came to you in full confidence, not suspecting your sanguinary purpose.
+He asked you what you wanted: 'Your money or your life!' and you stabbed
+him with your poniard."
+
+"So M. Murphy said when I first came to his aid," said the doctor.
+
+"It's false! He lied!"
+
+"Murphy never lies," said Rodolph, calmly. "Your crimes demand a
+striking reparation. You came into this garden forcibly; you stabbed a
+man that you might rob him; you have committed another murder; you ought
+to die on this spot; but pity, respect for your wife and son, they shall
+save you from the shame of a scaffold. It will be said that you were
+killed in a brawl with weapons in your hand. Prepare, the means for your
+punishment are at hand."
+
+Rodolph's countenance was implacable. The Schoolmaster had remarked in
+the next room two men, armed with carbines. His name was known; he
+thought they were going to make away with him and bury in the shade his
+later crimes, and thus spare his family the new opprobrium. Like his
+fellows, this wretch was as cowardly as he was ferocious. Thinking his
+hour was come, he trembled, and cried "Mercy!"
+
+"No mercy for you," said Rodolph. "If your brains are not blown out
+here, the scaffold awaits you--"
+
+"I prefer the scaffold,--I shall live, at least, two or three months
+longer. Why, why should I be punished at once? Mercy! mercy!"
+
+"But your wife--your son--they bear your name--"
+
+"My name is dishonoured already. If only for eight days, let me live! in
+mercy do!"
+
+"Not even that contempt of life which is sometimes displayed by the
+greatest criminals!" said Rodolph, with disgust.
+
+"Besides, the law forbids any one to take justice into their own hands,"
+said the Schoolmaster, with assurance.
+
+"The law! the _law!_" exclaimed Rodolph. "Do you dare to invoke the
+law? you, who have always lived in open revolt and constant enmity
+against society?"
+
+The ruffian bowed his head and made no answer; then added, in a more
+humble tone:
+
+"At least, for pity's sake, spare my life!"
+
+"Will you tell me where your son is?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I will tell you all I know."
+
+"Will you tell me who are the parents of the young girl whose childhood
+the Chouette made one scene of torture?"
+
+"In my pocketbook there are papers which will put you on the track of
+the persons who gave her to the Chouette."
+
+"Where is your son?"
+
+"Will you let me live?"
+
+"First make a full confession."
+
+"And then, when I have told you all--" said the Schoolmaster with
+hesitation.
+
+"You have killed him!"
+
+"No, no! I have confided him to one of my accomplices, who, when I was
+apprehended, effected his escape."
+
+"What did he do with him?"
+
+"He brought him up, and gave him an education which fitted him to enter
+into a banking-house at Nantes, so that we might get information, manage
+an introduction to the banker, and so facilitate our plans. Although at
+Rochefort, and preparing for my escape, I arranged this plan and
+corresponded in cipher with my friend--"
+
+"Oh, _mon Dieu!_ his child! his son! This man appals me!" cried Rodolph,
+with horror, and hiding his head between his hands.
+
+"But it was only of forgery that we thought," exclaimed the scoundrel;
+"and when my son was informed what was expected of him, he was
+indignant, told all to his employer, and quitted Nantes. You will find
+in my pocketbook notes of all the steps taken to discover his traces.
+The last place we ascertained he had lived in was the Rue du Temple,
+where he was known under the name of François Germain; the exact address
+is also in my pocketbook. You see I do not wish to conceal anything,--I
+have told you everything I know. Now keep your promise. I only ask you
+to have me taken into custody for _this_ night's robbery."
+
+"And the cattle-merchant at Poissy?"
+
+"That affair can never be brought to light,--there are no proofs. I own
+it to _you_, in proof of the sincerity with which I am speaking, but
+before any other person I should deny all knowledge of the business."
+
+"You confess it, then, do you?"
+
+"I was destitute, without the smallest means of living,--the Chouette
+instigated me to do it; but now I sincerely repent ever having listened
+to her. I do, indeed. Ah! would you but generously save me from the
+hands of justice, I would promise you most solemnly to forsake all such
+evil practices for the future."
+
+"Be satisfied, your life shall be spared; neither will I deliver you
+into the hands of the law."
+
+"Do you, then, pardon me?" exclaimed the Schoolmaster, as though
+doubting what he heard. "Can it be? Can you be so generous as to
+forgive?"
+
+"I both judge you and award your sentence," cried Rodolph, in a solemn
+tone. "I will not surrender you to the power of the laws, because they
+would condemn you to the galleys or the scaffold; and that must not be.
+No, for many reasons. The galleys would but open a fresh field for the
+development of your brutal strength and villainy, which would soon be
+exercised in endeavouring to obtain domination over the guilty or
+unfortunate beings you would be associated with, to render yourself a
+fresh object of horror or of dread; for even crime has its ambition, and
+yours has long consisted in a preëminence in vicious deeds and monstrous
+vices, while your iron frame would alike defy the labours of the oar or
+the chastisement of those set over you. And the strongest chains may be
+broken, the thickest wall pierced through,--steep ramparts have been
+scaled before now,--and you might one day burst your yoke and be again
+let loose upon society, like an infuriated beast, marking your passage
+with murder and destruction; for none would be safe from your Herculean
+strength, or from the sharpness of your knife; therefore such
+consequences must be avoided. But since the galleys might fail to stop
+your infamous career, how is society to be preserved from your brutal
+violence? The scaffold comes next in consideration--"
+
+"It is my life, then, you seek!" cried the ruffian. "My life! Oh, spare
+it!"
+
+"Peace, coward! Hope not that I mean so speedy a termination to your
+just punishment. No; your eager craving after a wretched existence would
+prevent you from suffering the agony of anticipated death, and, far from
+dwelling upon the scaffold and the block, your guilty soul would be
+filled with schemes of escape and hopes of pardon; neither would you
+believe you were truly doomed to die till in the very grasp of the
+executioner; and even in that terrible moment it is probable that,
+brutalised by terror, you would be a mere mass of human flesh, offered
+up by justice as an expiatory offering to the manes of your victims.
+That mode of settling your long and heavy accounts will not half pay the
+debt. No; poor, wretched, trembling craven! we must devise a more
+terrific method of atonement for you. At the scaffold, I repeat, you
+would cling to hope while one breath remained within you; wretch that
+you are, you would dare to hope! you, who have denied all hope and mercy
+to so many unhappy beings! No, no! unless you repent, and that with all
+your heart, for the misdeeds of your infamous life, I would (in this
+world, at least) shut out from you the faintest glimmer of hope--"
+
+"What man is this? What have I ever done to injure _him_?--whence comes
+he thus to torture me?--where am I?" asked the Schoolmaster, in almost
+incoherent tones, and nearly frantic with terror.
+
+Rodolph continued:
+
+"If even you could meet death with a man's courage, I would not have you
+ascend the scaffold; for you it would be merely the arena in which, like
+many others, you would make a disgusting display of hardened ferocity;
+or, dying as you have lived, exhale your last sigh with an impious scoff
+or profane blasphemy. That must not be permitted. It is a bad example to
+set before a gazing crowd the spectacle of a condemned being making
+sport of the instrument of death, swaggering before the executioner, and
+yielding with an obscene jest the divine spark infused into man by the
+breath of a creating God. To punish the body is easily done; to save the
+soul is the great thing to be laboured for and desired. 'All sin may be
+forgiven,' said our blessed Saviour, but from the tribunal to the
+scaffold the passage is too short,--time and opportunity are required to
+repent and make atonement; this leisure you shall have. May God grant
+that you turn it to the right purpose!"
+
+The Schoolmaster remained utterly bewildered; for the first time in his
+life a vague and confused dread of something more horrible far than
+death itself crossed his guilty mind,--he trembled before the
+suggestions of his own imagination.
+
+Rodolph went on:
+
+"Anselm Duresnel, I will not sentence you to the galleys, neither shall
+you die--"
+
+"Then do you intend sending me to hell? or what are you going to do with
+me?"
+
+"Listen!" said Rodolph, rising from his seat with an air of menacing
+authority. "You have wickedly abused the great bodily strength bestowed
+upon you,--I will paralyse that strength; the strongest have trembled
+before you,--I will make you henceforward shrink in the presence of the
+weakest of beings. Assassin! murderer! you have plunged God's creatures
+into eternal night; your darkness shall commence even in this life.
+Now--this very hour--your punishment shall be proportioned to your
+crimes. But," added Rodolph, with an accent of mournful pity, "the
+terrible judgment I am about to pronounce will, at least, leave the
+future open to your efforts for pardon and for peace. I should be guilty
+as you are were I, in punishing you, to seek only for vengeance, just as
+is my right to demand it; far from being unrelenting as death, your
+sentence shall bring forth good fruits for hereafter; far from
+destroying your soul, it shall help you to seek its salvation. If, to
+prevent you from further violating the commandments of your Maker, I for
+ever deprive you of the beauties of this outer world, if I plunge you
+into impenetrable darkness, with no other companion than the remembrance
+of your crimes, it is that you may incessantly contemplate their
+enormity. Yes, separated for ever from this external world, your
+thoughts must needs revert to yourself, and your vision dwell internally
+upon the bygone scenes of your ill-spent life; and I am not without hope
+that such a mental and constantly presented picture will send the blush
+of shame even upon your hardened features, that your soul, deadened as
+it now is to every good and holy impulse, will become softened and
+tender by repentance. Your language, too, will be changed, and good and
+prayerful words take place of those daring and blasphemous expressions
+which now disgrace your lips. You are brutal and overbearing, because
+you are strong; you will become mild and gentle when you are deprived of
+that strength. Now your heart scoffs at the very mention of repentance,
+but the day will come when, bowed to the earth with deep contrition, you
+will bewail your victims in dust and ashes. You have degraded the
+intelligence placed within you by a supreme power,--you have reduced it
+to the brutal instincts of rapine and murder; from a man formed after
+the image of his Creator, you have made yourself a beast of prey: one
+day, as I trust and believe, that intelligence will be purified by
+remorse and rendered again guiltless through divine expiation. You, more
+inhuman than the beast which perisheth, have trampled on the tender
+feelings by which even animals are actuated,--you have been the
+destroyer of your partner and your offspring. After a long life,
+entirely devoted to the expiation of your crimes, you may venture to
+implore of the Almighty the great though unmerited happiness of
+obtaining the pardon of your wife and son, and dying in their presence."
+
+As Rodolph uttered these last words his voice trembled with emotion, and
+he was obliged to conclude.
+
+The Schoolmaster's terrors had, during this long discourse, entirely
+yielded to an opinion that he was only to be subjected to a long lecture
+on morality, and so forth, and then discharged upon his own promise of
+amendment; for the many mysterious words uttered by Rodolph he looked
+upon as mere vague expressions intended to alarm him,--nothing more.
+Still further reassured by the mild tone in which Rodolph had addressed
+him, the ruffian assumed his usually insolent air and manner as he said,
+bursting into a loud and vulgar laugh:
+
+"Well done, upon my word! A very good sermon, and very well spoken! Only
+we must recollect where we leave off in our moral catechism, that we may
+begin all right next lesson day. Come, let us have something lively now.
+What do you say, master; will you guess a charade or two, just to
+enliven us a bit?"
+
+Instead of replying, Rodolph addressed the black doctor:
+
+"Proceed, David! And if I do wrong, may the Almighty punish me alone!"
+
+The negro rang; two men entered. David pointed to a side door, which
+opened into an adjoining closet.
+
+The chair in which the Schoolmaster remained bound, so as to be
+incapable of the smallest movement, was then rolled into the anteroom.
+
+"Are you going to murder me, then? Mercy! mercy!" shrieked the wretched
+man, as he was being removed.
+
+"Gag him!" cried the negro, entering the closet.
+
+Rodolph and the Chourineur were left alone.
+
+"M. Rodolph," said the Chourineur, pale and trembling, "M. Rodolph, what
+is going to be done? I never felt so frightened. Pray speak; I must be
+dreaming, surely. What have they done to the Schoolmaster? He does not
+cry out,--all is so silent; it makes me more fearful still!"
+
+At this moment David issued from the cabinet; his complexion had that
+livid hue peculiar to the negro countenance, while his lips were ashy
+pale.
+
+The men who had conveyed the Schoolmaster into the closet now replaced
+him, still bound in his chair, on the spot he had previously occupied in
+Rodolph's presence.
+
+"Unbind him, and remove the gag!" exclaimed David.
+
+There was a moment of fearful silence while the two attendants relieved
+the Schoolmaster of his gag and untied the cords which bound him to the
+chair. As the last ligature gave way, he sprang up, his hideous
+countenance expressing rage, horror, and alarm. He advanced one step
+with extended hands, then, falling back into the chair, he uttered a cry
+of unspeakable agony, and, raising his hands towards the ceiling,
+exclaimed, with maddened fury:
+
+"Blind, by heaven!"
+
+"Give him this pocketbook, David," said Rodolph.
+
+The negro placed a small pocketbook in the trembling hands of the
+Schoolmaster.
+
+"You will find in that pocketbook wherewithal to provide yourself with
+a home and the means of living for the remainder of your days. Go, seek
+out some safe and solitary dwelling, where, by humble repentance, you
+may seek to propitiate an offended God! You are free! Go and repent; the
+Lord is merciful, and his ears are ever open to such as truly repent."
+
+"Blind! quite blind!" repeated the Schoolmaster, mechanically grasping
+the pocketbook.
+
+"Open the doors,--let him depart!" said Rodolph.
+
+"Blind! blind!" repeated the bewildered and discomfited ruffian.
+
+"You are free; you have the means of providing for yourself; begone!"
+
+"And whither am I to go?" exclaimed he, with the most unbounded rage.
+"You have taken away my sight; how, then, do I know in which direction
+to go? Call you not this a crime thus to abuse your power over one
+unhappily in your hands? Thus to--"
+
+"To abuse my power!" repeated Rodolph, in a solemn voice. "And how have
+you employed the power granted to you? How used _your_ superior
+strength?"
+
+"O Death! how gladly would I now accept you!" cried the wretched man.
+"To be henceforward at every one's mercy,--to fear the weakest, the
+smallest object!--a child might now master me! Gracious God! what will
+become of me?"
+
+"You have plenty of money."
+
+"It will be taken from me!" cried the ruffian.
+
+"Mark those words,--'It will be taken from me!' See how they fill you
+with fear and dread! You have plundered so many, unmindful of their
+helpless, destitute condition,--begone!"
+
+"For the love of God," cried the Schoolmaster, in a suppliant tone, "let
+some person lead me forth! What will become of me in the streets? Oh, in
+mercy kill me! take my miserable life! but do not turn me out thus
+wretched, thus helpless! Kill, for pity's sake, and save me from being
+crushed beneath the first vehicle I encounter!"
+
+"No! Live and repent."
+
+"Repent!" shouted the Schoolmaster, in a fearful voice. "Never! I will
+live for vengeance,--for deep and fearful vengeance!" And again he threw
+himself from the chair, holding his clenched fists in a menacing
+attitude towards the ceiling, as though calling upon Heaven to witness
+the fixedness of his resolve. In an instant his step faltered; he again
+hesitated, as though fearful of a thousand dangers.
+
+"Alas! alas! I cannot proceed,--I dare not move! And I, lately so strong
+and so dreaded by all,--look at me now! Yet no one pities me,--no one
+cares for me,--no hand is stretched out to help the wretched blind upon
+his lonely way!"
+
+It is impossible to express the stupefaction and alarm expressed by the
+countenance of the Chourineur during this terrible scene. His rough
+features exhibited the deepest compassion for his fallen foe, and
+approaching Rodolph, he said, in a low tone:
+
+"M. Rodolph, he was an accomplished villain, and has only got what he
+richly deserves; he wanted to murder me a little while ago, too. But he
+is now blind,--he does not even know how to find his way out of the
+house, and he may be crushed to death in the streets; may I lead him to
+some safe place, where, at least, he may remain quiet for a time?"
+
+"Nobly said!" replied Rodolph, kindly pressing the hand of the
+Chourineur. "Go, my worthy fellow! Go with him, by all means!"
+
+The Chourineur approached the Schoolmaster and laid his hand on his
+shoulder; the miserable villain started.
+
+"Who touches me?" asked he, in a husky voice.
+
+"It is I."
+
+"I? Who? Who are you,--friend or foe?"
+
+"The Chourineur."
+
+"And you have come to avenge yourself now you find I am incapable of
+protecting myself, I suppose?"
+
+"Nothing of the sort. Here, take my arm; you cannot find the way out by
+yourself; let me lead you--there--"
+
+"You, Chourineur? You!"
+
+"Yes, for all you doubt it; but you vex me by not seeming to like my
+help. Come, hold tight by me; I will see you all right before I leave
+you."
+
+"Are you quite sure you do not mean me some harm? that you are only
+laying a trap to ensnare me?"
+
+"I am not such a scoundrel as to take advantage of your misfortune. But
+let us begone. Come on, old fellow; it will be daylight directly."
+
+"Day! which I shall never more behold! Day and night to me are
+henceforward all the same!" exclaimed the Schoolmaster, in such piteous
+tones that Rodolph, unable longer to endure this scene, abruptly
+retired, followed by David, who first dismissed his two assistants.
+
+The Chourineur and the Schoolmaster remained alone. After a lengthened
+silence the latter spoke first, by inquiring whether it were really true
+that the pocketbook presented to him contained money.
+
+"Yes, I can positively speak to its containing five thousand francs,"
+replied the Chourineur, "since I put them in it with my own hand. With
+that sum you could easily place yourself to board with some quiet, good
+sort of people, who would look to you,--in some retired spot in the
+country, where you might pass your days happily. Or would you like me to
+take you to the ogress's?"
+
+"She! she would not leave me a rap."
+
+"Well, then, will you go to Bras Rouge?"
+
+"No, no! He would poison me first and rob me afterwards."
+
+"Well, then, where shall I take you?"
+
+"I know not. Happily for both, you are no thief, Chourineur. Here, take
+my pocketbook, and conceal it carefully in my waistcoat, that La
+Chouette may not see it; she would plunder me of every sou."
+
+"Oh, bless you! the Chouette is quite safe just now; she lies in the
+Hôpital Beaujon. While I was struggling with you both to-night I
+happened to dislocate her leg, so she's obliged to lie up for the
+present."
+
+"But what, in heaven's name, shall I do with this black curtain
+continually before my eyes? In vain I try to push it away; it is still
+there, fixed, immovable; and on its surface I see the pale, ghastly
+features of those--"
+
+He shuddered, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Chourineur, did I quite
+do for that man last night?"
+
+"No."
+
+"So much the better," observed the robber. And then, after some minutes'
+silence, he exclaimed, under a fresh impulse of ungovernable fury, "And
+it is you I have to thank for all this! Rascal! scoundrel! I hate you!
+But for you, I should have 'stiffened' my man and walked off with his
+money. My very blindness I owe to you; my curses upon you for your
+meddling interference! But through you I should have had my blessed eyes
+to see my own way with. How do I know what devil's trick you are
+planning at this moment?"
+
+"Try to forget all that is past,--it can't be helped now; and do not put
+yourself in such a terrible way,--it is really very bad for you. Come,
+come along--now, no nonsense--will you? yes or no?--because I am
+regularly done up, and must get a short snooze somewhere. I can tell you
+I have had a bellyful of such doings, and to-morrow I shall get back to
+my timber-pile, and earn an honest dinner before I eat it. I am only
+waiting to take you wherever you decide upon going, and then on goes my
+nightcap and I goes to sleep."
+
+"But how can I tell you where to take me, when I do not know myself? My
+lodging--No, no, that will not do; I should be obliged to tell--"
+
+"Well, then, hark ye. Will you, for a day or two, make shift with my
+crib? I may meet with some decent sort of people, who, not knowing who
+you really are, would receive you as a boarder; and we might say you
+were a confirmed invalid, and required great care and perfect
+retirement. Now I think of it, there is a person of my acquaintance,
+living at Port St. Nicolas, has a mother, a very worthy woman, but in
+humble circumstances, residing at St. Mandé: very likely she would be
+glad to take charge of you. What do you say,--will you come or not?"
+
+"One may trust you, Chourineur. I am not at all fearful of going, money
+and all, to your place; happily you have kept yourself honest, amidst
+all the evil example others have set you."
+
+"Ay, and even bore the taunts and jests you used to heap upon me,
+because I would not turn prig like yourself."
+
+"Alas! who could foresee?"
+
+"Now, you see, if I had listened to you, instead of trying to be of real
+service to you, I should clean you out of all your cash."
+
+"True, true. But you are a downright good fellow, and have neither
+malice nor hatred in your heart," said the unhappy Schoolmaster, in a
+tone of deep dejection and humility. "You are a vast deal better to me
+than, I fear, I should have been to you under the same circumstances."
+
+"I believe you, too. Why, M. Rodolph himself told me I had both heart
+and honour."
+
+"But who the devil is this M. Rodolph?" exclaimed the Schoolmaster,
+breaking out fresh at the mention of his name. "He is not a man; he is a
+monster,--a fiend,--a--"
+
+"Hold, hold!" cried the Chourineur. "Now you are going to have another
+fit, which is bad for you and very disagreeable to me, because it makes
+you abuse my friends. Come, are you ready? Shall we set forth on our
+journey?"
+
+"We are going to your lodging, are we not, Chourineur?"
+
+"Yes, yes, if you are agreeable."
+
+"And you swear to me that you bear me no ill-will for the events of the
+last twelve hours?"
+
+"Swear it? Of course I swear it. Why, I have no ill-will against you nor
+anybody."
+
+"And you are certain that he (the man, I mean) is not dead?"
+
+"I am as sure of it as that I am living myself."
+
+"That will at least give me one crime the less to answer for. If they
+only knew--And that little old man of the Rue du Roule--and that woman
+of the Canal St. Martin--But it is useless thinking of all those things
+now; I have enough to occupy my thoughts without trying to recall past
+misfortunes. Blind! blind!" repeated the miserable wretch, as, leaning
+on the arm of the Chourineur, he slowly took his departure from the
+house in the Allée des Veuves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE ISLE-ADAM.
+
+
+A month has elapsed since the occurrence of the events we have just
+narrated. We now conduct the reader into the little town of the
+Isle-Adam, situated in a delightful locality on the banks of the Oise,
+and at the foot of a forest.
+
+The least things become great events in the country; and so the idlers
+of Isle-Adam, who were on the morning before us walking in the square
+before the church, were very anxiously bestirring themselves to learn
+when the individual would arrive who had recently become the purchaser
+of the most eligible premises for a butcher in that town, and which were
+exactly opposite to the church.
+
+One of those idlers, more inquisitive than his companions, went and
+asked the butcher-boy, who, with a merry face and active hands, was very
+busy in completing the arrangements of the shop. This lad replied that
+he did not know who was the new proprietor, for he had bought the
+property through an agent. At this moment two persons, who had come from
+Paris in a cabriolet, alighted at the door of the shop.
+
+The one was Murphy, quite cured of his wound, and the other the
+Chourineur. At the risk of repeating a vulgar saying, we will assert
+that the impression produced by dress is so powerful, that the guest of
+the "cribs" of the Cité was hardly to be recognised in his present
+attire. His countenance had undergone the same change; he had put off,
+with his rags, his savage, coarse, and vulgar air; and to see him walk
+with both his hands in the pockets of his long and warm coat of dark
+broadcloth, he might have been taken for one of the most inoffensive
+citizens in the world.
+
+"'Faith, my fine fellow, the way was long and the cold excessive; were
+they not?"
+
+"Why, I really did not perceive it, M. Murphy; I am too happy, and joy
+keeps one warm. Besides, when I say happy, why--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Yesterday you came to seek for me at the Port St. Nicolas, where I was
+unloading as hard as I could to keep myself warm. I had not seen you
+since the night when the white-haired negro had put out the
+Schoolmaster's eyes. By Jove! it quite shook me, that affair did. And M.
+Rodolph, what a countenance!--he who looked so mild and gentle! I was
+quite frightened at that moment; I was, indeed--"
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"You said to me, 'Good day, Chourineur.' 'Good day, M. Murphy,' says I.
+'What, you are up again, I see! So much the better,--so much the better.
+And M. Rodolph?' 'He was obliged to leave Paris some days after the
+affair of the Allée des Veuves, and he forgot you, my man.' 'Well, M.
+Murphy, I can only say that if M. Rodolph has forgotten me, why--I shall
+be very sorry for it, that's all.' 'I meant to say, my good fellow, that
+he had forgotten to recompense your services, but that he should always
+remember them.' So, M. Murphy, those words cheered me up again directly.
+_Tonnerre!_ I--I shall never forget him. He told me I had heart and
+honour,--that's enough."
+
+"Unfortunately, my lad, monseigneur left without giving any orders about
+you. I have nothing but what monseigneur gives me, and I am unable to
+repay as I could wish all that I owe you personally."
+
+"Come, come, M. Murphy, you are jesting with me."
+
+"But why the devil did you not come back again to the Allée des Veuves
+after that fatal night? Then monseigneur would not have left without
+thinking of you."
+
+"Why, M. Rodolph did not tell me to do so, and I thought that perhaps he
+had no further occasion for me."
+
+"But you might have supposed that he would, at least, desire to express
+his gratitude to you."
+
+"Did you not tell me that M. Rodolph has not forgotten me, M. Murphy?"
+
+"Well, well, don't let us say another word about it; only I have had a
+great deal of trouble to find you out. You do not now go to the
+ogress's?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh, from some foolish notions I have had."
+
+"Very well. But to return to what you were telling me--"
+
+"To what, M. Murphy?"
+
+"You told me, I am glad I have found you, and still happy, perhaps--"
+
+"Oh, yes, M. Murphy! Why, you see, when you came to where I was at work
+at the timber-yard, you said, 'My lad, I am not rich, but I can procure
+you a situation where your work will be easier than on the Quai, and
+where you will gain four francs a day.' Four francs a day! Vive la
+Charte! I could not believe it; 'twas the pay of an adjutant
+sub-officer! I replied, 'That's the very thing for me, M. Murphy!' but
+you said then that I must not look so like a beggar, as that would
+frighten the employer to whom you would take me. I answered, 'I have not
+the means of dressing otherwise.' You said to me, 'Come to the Temple.'
+I followed you. I chose the most spicy attire that Mother Hubart
+had,--you advanced me the money to pay her,--and in a quarter of an hour
+I was as smart as a landlord or a dentist. You appointed me to meet you
+this morning at the Porte St. Denis, at daybreak; I found you there in a
+cab, and here we are."
+
+"Well, do you find anything to regret in all this?"
+
+"Why, I'll tell you, M. Murphy. You see, to be dressed in this way
+spoils a fellow; and so, you see, when I put on again my old smock-frock
+and trousers, I sha'n't like it. And then, to gain four francs a
+day,--I, who never earned but two,--and that all at once! why, I seem to
+have made too great a start all of a sudden, and that it cannot last. I
+would rather sleep all my life on the wretched straw bed in my
+cock-loft, than sleep five or six nights only in a good bed. That's my
+view of the thing."
+
+"And you are by no means peculiar in your view; but the best thing is to
+sleep always in a good bed."
+
+"And no mistake; it is better to have a bellyful of victuals every day
+than to starve with hunger. Ah! here is a butchery here," said the
+Chourineur, as he listened to the blows of the chopper which the boy was
+using, and observed the quarters of beef through the curtains.
+
+"Yes, my lad; it belongs to a friend of mine. Would you like to see it
+whilst the horse just recovers his wind?"
+
+"I really should, for it reminds me of my boyish days, if it was only
+when I had Montfauçon for a slaughter-house and broken-down horses for
+cattle. It is droll, but if I had the means, a butcher's is the trade in
+which I should set up, for I like it. To go on a good nag to buy cattle
+at fairs,--to return home to one's own fireside, to warm yourself if
+cold, or dry yourself if wet,--to find your housekeeper, or a good,
+jolly, plump wife, cheerful and pleasant, with a parcel of children to
+feel in your pockets to see if you have brought them home anything! And
+then, in the morning, in the slaughter-house, to seize an ox by the
+horns, particularly when he's fierce,--_nom de nom!_ he must be
+fierce!--then to put on the ring, to cleave him down, cut him up, dress
+him,--_Tonnerre!_ that would have been my ambition, as it was the
+Goualeuse's to suck barley-sugar when she was a little 'un. By the way,
+that poor girl, M. Murphy,--not seeing her any more at the ogress's, I
+supposed that M. Rodolph had taken her away from there. That's a good
+action, M. Murphy. Poor child! she never liked to do wrong,--she was so
+young! And then the habit! Ah, M. Rodolph has behaved quite right!"
+
+"I am of your opinion. But will you come into the shop until our horse
+has rested awhile?"
+
+The Chourineur and Murphy entered the shop, and then went to see the
+yard, where three splendid oxen and a score of sheep were fastened up;
+they then visited the stable, the chaise-house, the slaughter-house, the
+lofts, and the out-buildings of the house, which were all in excellent
+order, and kept with a cleanliness and care which bespoke regularity and
+easy circumstances.
+
+When they had seen all but the up-stairs, Murphy said:
+
+"You must own that my friend is a lucky fellow. This house and property
+are his, without counting a thousand crowns in hand to carry on his
+business with; and he is, besides, only thirty-eight, strong as a bull,
+with an iron constitution, and very fond of his business. The
+industrious and civil journeyman that you saw in the shop supplies his
+place, with much capability, when he goes to the fairs to purchase
+cattle. I say again, is he not a lucky fellow?"
+
+"He is, indeed, M. Murphy. But, you see, there are lucky and unlucky
+people; and when I think that I am going to gain four francs a day, and
+know how many there are who only earn the half, or even less--"
+
+"Will you come up and see the rest of the house?"
+
+"With all my heart, M. Murphy."
+
+"The person who is about to employ you is up-stairs."
+
+"The person who is going to employ me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why, then, didn't you tell me that before?"
+
+"I'll tell you--"
+
+"One moment," said the Chourineur, with a downcast and embarrassed air,
+taking Murphy by the arm; "listen whilst I say a word to you, which
+perhaps M. Rodolph did not tell you, but which I ought not to conceal
+from the master who employs me, because, if he is offended by it--why
+then, you see--why, afterwards--"
+
+"What do you mean to say?"
+
+"I mean to say--"
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"That I am a convict, who has served his time,--that I have been at the
+Bagne," said Chourineur, in a low voice.
+
+"Indeed!" replied Murphy.
+
+"But I never did wrong to any one," exclaimed the Chourineur; "and I
+would sooner die of hunger than rob; but I have done worse than rob," he
+added, bending his head down; "I have killed my fellow creature in a
+passion. But that is not all," he continued, after a moment's pause. "I
+will tell everything to my employer; I would rather be refused at first
+than detected afterwards. You know him, and if you think he would refuse
+me, why, spare me the refusal, and I will go as I came."
+
+"Come along with me," said Murphy.
+
+The Chourineur followed Murphy up the staircase; a door opened, and they
+were both in the presence of Rodolph.
+
+"My good Murphy," said he, "leave us together awhile."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+RECOMPENSE.
+
+
+"Vive la Charte!" cried the Chourineur. "How precious glad I am to see
+you again, M. Rodolph--or, rather, my lord!"
+
+"Good day, my excellent friend. I am equally glad to see you."
+
+"Oh, what a joker M. Murphy is! He told me you had gone away. But stay,
+my lord--"
+
+"Call me M. Rodolph; I like that best."
+
+"Well, then, M. Rodolph, I have to ask your pardon for not having been
+to see you after the night with the Schoolmaster. I see now that I was
+guilty of a great rudeness; but I do not suppose that you had any desire
+to see me?"
+
+"I forgive you," said Rodolph, smiling; and then added, "Murphy has
+shown you all over the house?"
+
+"Yes, M. Rodolph; and a fine house and fine shop it is,--all so neat and
+so comfortable! Talking of comfortable, I am the man that will be so, M.
+Rodolph! M. Murphy is going to put me in the way of earning four francs
+a day,--yes, four francs a day!"
+
+"I have something better than that to propose to you, my good fellow."
+
+"Better! It's unpolite to contradict you, but I think that would be
+difficult. Four francs a day!"
+
+"I tell you I have something better: for this house, all that it
+contains, the shop, and a thousand crowns which are in this
+pocketbook,--all are yours."
+
+The Chourineur smiled with a stupid air, flattened his long-napped hat
+between his knees, and squeezed it convulsively, evidently not
+understanding what Rodolph said to him, although his language was plain
+enough.
+
+Rodolph, with much kindness, said to him:
+
+"I can imagine your surprise; but I again repeat, this house and this
+money are yours,--they are your property."
+
+The Chourineur became purple, passed his horny hand over his brow, which
+was bathed with perspiration, and stammered out, in a faltering voice:
+
+"What!--eh!--that is--indeed--my property!"
+
+"Yes, your property; for I bestow it all upon you. Do you understand? I
+give it to you."
+
+The Chourineur rocked backwards and forwards on his chair, scratched his
+head, coughed, looked down on the ground, and made no reply. He felt
+that the thread of his ideas had escaped him. He heard quite well what
+Rodolph said to him, and that was the very reason he could not credit
+what he heard. Between the depth of misery, the degradation in which he
+had always existed, and the position in which Rodolph now placed him,
+there was an abyss so wide that the service he had rendered to Rodolph,
+important as it was, could not fill it up.
+
+"Does what I give you, then, seem beyond your hopes?" inquired Rodolph.
+
+"My lord," said the Chourineur, starting up suddenly, "you offer me this
+house and a great deal of money,--to tempt me; but I cannot take them; I
+never robbed in my life. It is, perhaps, to kill; but I have too often
+dreamed of the sergeant," added he, in a hoarse tone.
+
+"Oh, the unfortunate!" exclaimed Rodolph, with bitterness. "The
+compassion evinced for them is so rare, that they can only explain
+liberality as a temptation to crime!"
+
+Then addressing the Chourineur, in a voice full of gentleness:
+
+"You judge me wrong,--you mistake: I shall require from you nothing but
+what is honourable. What I give you, I give because you have deserved
+it."
+
+"I," said the Chourineur, whose embarrassments recommenced, "I deserve
+it! How?"
+
+"I will tell you. Abandoned from your infancy, without any knowledge of
+right or wrong, left to your natural instinct, shut up for fifteen years
+in the Bagne with the most desperate villains, assailed by want and
+wretchedness, compelled by your own disgrace, and the opinion of honest
+men, to continue to haunt the low dens infested by the vilest
+malefactors, you have not only remained honest, but remorse for your
+crime has outlived the expiation which human justice had inflicted upon
+you."
+
+This simple and noble language was a new source of astonishment for the
+Chourineur; he contemplated Rodolph with respect, mingled with fear and
+gratitude, but was still unable to convince himself that all he heard
+was reality.
+
+"What, M. Rodolph, because you beat me, because, thinking you a workman,
+like myself, because you spoke 'slang' as if you had learned it from the
+cradle, I told you my history over two bottles of wine, and afterwards I
+saved you from being drowned,--you give me a house--money--I shall be
+master! Say really, M. Rodolph, once more, is it possible?"
+
+"Believing me like yourself, you told me your history naturally and
+without concealment, without withholding either what was culpable or
+generous. I have judged you, and judged you well, and I have resolved to
+recompense you."
+
+"But, M. Rodolph, it ought not to be; there are poor labourers who have
+been honest all their lives, and who--"
+
+"I know it, and it may be I have done for many others more than I am
+doing for you; but, if the man who lives honestly in the midst of
+honest men, encouraged by their esteem, deserves assistance and support,
+he who, in spite of the aversion of good men, remains honest amidst the
+most infamous associates on earth,--he, too, deserves assistance and
+support. This is not all; you saved my life, you saved the life of
+Murphy, the dearest friend I have; and what I do for you is as much the
+dictate of personal gratitude as it is the desire to withdraw from
+pollution a good and generous nature, which has been perverted, but not
+destroyed. And that is not all."
+
+"What else have I done, M. Rodolph?"
+
+Rodolph took his hand, and, shaking it heartily, said:
+
+"Filled with commiseration for the mischief which had befallen the very
+man who had tried just before to kill you, you even gave him an asylum
+in your humble dwelling,--No. 9, close to Notre Dame."
+
+"You knew, then, where I lived, M. Rodolph?"
+
+"If you forget the services you have done to me, I do not. When you left
+my house you were followed, and were seen to enter there with the
+Schoolmaster."
+
+"But M. Murphy told me that you did not know where I lived, M. Rodolph."
+
+"I was desirous of trying you still further; I wished to know if you had
+disinterestedness in your generosity, and I found that, after your
+courageous conduct, you returned to your hard daily labour, asking
+nothing, hoping for nothing, not even uttering a word of reproach for
+the apparent ingratitude with which I repaid your services; and when
+Murphy yesterday proposed to you employment a little more profitable
+than that of your habitual toil, you accepted it with joy, with
+gratitude."
+
+"Why, M. Rodolph, do you see, sir, four francs a day are always four
+francs a day. As to the service I rendered you, why, it is rather I who
+ought to thank you."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Yes, yes, M. Rodolph," he added, with a saddened air, "I do not forget
+that, since I knew you, it was you who said to me those two words,'You
+have both heart and honour!' It is astonishing how I have thought of
+that. They are only two little words, and yet those two words had that
+effect. But, in truth, sow two small grains of anything in the soil, and
+they will put forth shoots."
+
+This comparison, just and almost poetical as it was, struck Rodolph. In
+sooth, two words, but two magic words for the heart that understood
+them, had almost suddenly developed the generous instincts which were
+inherent in this energetic nature.
+
+"You placed the Schoolmaster at St. Mandé?" said Rodolph.
+
+"Yes, M. Rodolph. He made me change his notes for gold, and buy a belt,
+which I sewed round his body, and in which I put his 'mopuses;' and
+then, good day! He boards for thirty sous a day with good people, to
+whom that sum is of much service. When I have time to leave my
+wood-piles, I shall go and see how he gets on."
+
+"Your wood-piles! You forget your shop, and that you are here at home!"
+
+"Come, M. Rodolph, do not amuse yourself by jesting with a poor devil
+like me; you have had your fun in 'proving' me, as you term it. My house
+and my shop are songs to the same tune. You said to yourself,'Let us see
+if this Chourineur is such a gulpin as to believe that I will make him
+such a present.' Enough, enough, M. Rodolph; you are a wag, and there's
+an end of the matter."
+
+And he laughed long, loud, and heartily.
+
+"But, once more, believe--"
+
+"If I were to believe you, then you would say, 'Poor Chourineur! go! you
+are a trouble to me now.'"
+
+Rodolph began to be really troubled how to convince the Chourineur, and
+said in a solemn, impressive, and almost severe tone:
+
+"I never make sport of the gratitude and sympathy with which noble
+conduct inspires me. I have said this house and this establishment are
+yours, if they suit you, for the bargain is conditional. I swear to you,
+on my honour, all this belongs to you; and I make you a present of it,
+for the reasons I have already given."
+
+The dignified and firm tone, and the serious expression of the features
+of Rodolph, at length convinced the Chourineur. For some moments he
+looked at his protector in silence, and then said, in a voice of deep
+emotion:
+
+"I believe you, my lord, and I thank you much. A poor man like me cannot
+make fine speeches, but once more, indeed, on my word, I thank you very
+much. All I can say is, that I will never refuse assistance to the
+unhappy; because Hunger and Misery are ogresses of the same sort as
+those who laid hands on the poor Goualeuse; and, once in that sink, it
+is not every one that has the fist strong enough to pull you out again."
+
+"My worthy fellow, you cannot prove your gratitude more than in speaking
+to me thus."
+
+"So much the better, my lord; for else I should have a hard job to prove
+it."
+
+"Come, now, let us visit your house; my good old Murphy has had the
+pleasure, and I should like it also."
+
+Rodolph and the Chourineur came down-stairs. At the moment they reached
+the yard, the shopman, addressing the Chourineur, said to him,
+respectfully:
+
+"Since you, sir, are to be my master, I beg to tell you that our custom
+is capital. We have no more cutlets or legs of mutton left, and we must
+kill a sheep or two directly."
+
+"_Parbleu!_" said Rodolph to the Chourineur; "here is a capital
+opportunity for exercising your skill. I should like to have the first
+sample,--the open air has given me an appetite, and I will taste your
+cutlets."
+
+"You are very kind, M. Rodolph," said the Chourineur, in a cheerful
+voice; "you flatter me, but I will do my best."
+
+"Shall I bring two sheep to the slaughter-house, master?" asked the
+journeyman.
+
+"Yes; and bring a well-sharpened knife, not too thin in the blade, and
+strong in the back."
+
+"I have just what you want, master. There, you could shave with it. Take
+it--"
+
+"_Tonnerre_, M. Rodolph!" said the Chourineur, taking off his upper coat
+with haste, and turning up his shirtsleeves, which displayed a pair of
+arms like a prize-fighter's; "this reminds me of my boyish days and the
+slaughter-house. You shall see how I handle a knife! _Nom de nom!_ I
+wish I was at it. The knife, lad! the knife! That's it; I see you know
+your trade. This is a blade! Who will have it? _Tonnerre!_ with a tool
+like this I could face a wild bull."
+
+And the Chourineur brandished his knife,--his eyes began to fill with
+blood; the beast was regaining the mastery; the instinct and thirst for
+blood reappeared in all the fullness of their fearful predominance.
+
+The butchery was in the yard,--a vaulted, dark place, paved with stones,
+and lighted by a small, narrow opening at the top.
+
+The man drove one of the sheep to the door.
+
+"Shall I fasten him to the ring, master?"
+
+"Fasten him! _Tonnerre!_ and I with my knees at liberty? Oh, no; I will
+hold him here as fast as if in a vice. Give me the beast, and go back to
+the shop."
+
+The journeyman obeyed. Rodolph was left alone with the Chourineur, and
+watched him attentively, almost anxiously.
+
+"Now, then, to work!" said he.
+
+"Oh, I sha'n't be long. _Tonnerre!_ you shall see how I handle a knife!
+My hands burn, and I have a singing in my ears; my temples beat, as they
+used when I was going to 'see red.' Come here, thou--Ah, _Madelon!_ let
+me stab you dead!"
+
+Then his eyes sparkled with a fierce delight, and, no longer conscious
+of the presence of Rodolph, the Chourineur lifted the sheep without an
+effort; with one spring he carried it off as a wolf would do, bounding
+towards his lair with his prey.
+
+Rodolph followed him, and leaned on one of the wings of the door, which
+he closed. The butchery was dark; one strong ray of light, falling
+straight down, lighted up, _à la Rembrandt_, the rugged features of the
+Chourineur, his light hair, and his red whiskers. Stooping low, holding
+in his teeth a long knife, which glittered in the "darkness visible," he
+drew the sheep between his legs, and, when he had adjusted it, took it
+by the head, stretched out its neck, and cut its throat.
+
+At the instant when the sheep felt the keen blade, it gave one gentle,
+low, and pitiful bleat, and, raising its dying eyes to the Chourineur,
+two spurts of blood jetted forth into the face of its slayer. The cry,
+the look, the blood that spouted out, made a fearful impression on the
+man. His knife fell from his hands; his features grew livid, contracted,
+and horrible, beneath the blood that covered them; his eyes expanded,
+his hair stiffened; and then retreating, with a gesture of horror, he
+cried, in a suffocating voice, "Oh, the sergeant! the sergeant!"
+
+Rodolph hastened to him: "Recover yourself, my good fellow!"
+
+"There! there! the sergeant!" repeated the Chourineur, retreating step
+by step, with his eyes fixed and haggard, and pointing with his finger
+as if at some invisible phantom. Then uttering a fearful cry, as if the
+spectre had touched him, he rushed to the bottom of the butchery, into
+the darkest corner; and there, with his face, breast, and arms against
+the wall, as if he would break through it to escape from so horrible a
+vision, he repeated, in a hollow and convulsive tone, "Oh, the sergeant!
+the sergeant! the sergeant!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE DEPARTURE.
+
+
+Thanks to the care of Murphy and Rodolph, who with difficulty calmed his
+agitation, the Chourineur was completely restored to himself, and was
+alone with the prince in one of the rooms on the first floor in the
+house.
+
+"My lord," said he, despondingly, "you have been very kind, indeed, to
+me; but, hear me: I would rather be a thousand times more wretched than
+I have yet been than become a butcher."
+
+"Yet reflect a little."
+
+"Why, my lord, when I heard the cry of the poor animal which could not
+make the slightest resistance; when I felt its blood spring into my
+face,--hot blood, which seemed as coming from a living thing; you cannot
+imagine what I felt; then I had my dream all over again,--the sergeant
+and those poor young fellows whom I cut and stabbed, who made no
+defence, and died giving me a look so gentle, so gentle that they seemed
+as if they pitied me! My lord, it would drive me mad!"
+
+And the poor fellow hid his face in his hands with a convulsive start.
+
+"Come, come, calm yourself."
+
+"Excuse me, my lord; but just now the sight of blood--of a knife--I
+could not bear; at every instant it would renew those dreams which I was
+beginning to forget. To have every day my hands and feet in blood, to
+cut the throats of poor animals who do not so much as make a
+struggle--oh, no, no! I could not for the world. I would rather lose my
+eyesight at once, like the Schoolmaster, than be compelled to follow
+such a business."
+
+It is impossible to depict the energetic gesture, action, and
+countenance of the Chourineur, as he thus expressed himself. Rodolph was
+deeply affected by it, and satisfied with the horrible effect which the
+sight of the blood had caused to his protégé.
+
+For a moment the savage feeling, the bloodthirsty instinct, had overcome
+the human being in the Chourineur; but remorse eventually overwhelmed
+the instinct. That was as it should be, and it was a fine lesson.
+
+"Forgive me, my lord," said the Chourineur, in a faltering voice; "I
+make but a bad recompense for all your kindness to me, but--"
+
+"Not at all, my good fellow; I told you that our bargain was
+conditional. I selected for you the business of a butcher, because your
+inclinations and taste seemed to lie in that direction--"
+
+"Alas! my lord, that's true; and, had it not been for what you know of,
+that would have been the trade of all others I should have chosen. I was
+only saying so to M. Murphy a little while since."
+
+"As it was just possible that your taste did not lie that way, I have
+thought of another arrangement for you. A person who has a large tract
+of property at Algiers will give me up, for you, one of the extensive
+farms he holds in that country. The lands belonging to it are very
+fertile, and in full bearing; but I will not conceal from you, this
+estate is situated on the boundaries of the Atlas mountains,--that is,
+near the outposts, and exposed to the frequent attacks of the Arabs, and
+one must be as much of a soldier as a husbandman: it is, at the same
+time, a redoubt and a farm. The man who occupies this dwelling in the
+absence of the proprietor will explain everything to you; they say he is
+honest and faithful, and you may retain him there as long as you like.
+Once established there, you will not only increase your means by your
+labour and ability, but render a real service to your country by your
+courage. The colonists have formed a militia, and the extent of your
+property, the number of your tenants who will depend on you, will make
+you the chief of a very considerable troop. Headed by your courage, this
+band may be extremely useful in protecting the properties which are
+throughout the plain. I repeat to you, that this prospect for you would
+please me very much, in spite of, or, rather, in consequence of the
+danger; because you could at the same time display your natural
+intrepidity; and because, having thus expiated, and, as I may say,
+ransomed yourself from a great crime, your restitution to society would
+be more noble, more complete, more heroic, if it were worked out, in the
+midst of perils in an unconquered clime, than in the midst of the quiet
+inhabitants of a little town. If I did not first offer you this, it was
+because it was probable that the other would suit you, and the latter is
+so hazardous that I would not expose you to it without giving you the
+choice. There is still time, and, if this proposition for Algiers does
+not suit you, tell me so frankly, and we will look out for something
+else; if not, to-morrow everything shall be signed, and you will start
+for Algiers with a person commissioned by the former proprietor of the
+farm to put you in full possession. Two years' rent will be due, and
+paid to you on your arrival. The land yields three thousand francs a
+year: work, improve it, be active, vigilant, and you will soon increase
+your comfort and the security of the colonists, whom you will aid and
+assist I am sure, for you will always be charitable and generous; and
+remember, too, to be rich implies that we should give much away.
+Although separated from you, I shall not lose sight of you, and never
+forget that I and my best friend owe our lives to you. The only proof of
+attachment and gratitude I ask, is to learn to write and read as quickly
+as you can, that you may inform me regularly, once a week, what you do,
+and to address yourself to me direct if you need any advice or
+assistance."
+
+It is useless to describe the extreme delight of the Chourineur. His
+disposition, his instincts, are already sufficiently known to the
+reader, so that he may understand that no proposal could have been made
+more acceptable to him.
+
+Next day all was arranged, and the Chourineur set out for Algiers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+RESEARCHES.
+
+
+The house which Rodolph had in the Allée des Veuves was not his usual
+place of residence; he lived in one of the largest mansions in the
+Faubourg St. Germain, situated at the end of the Rue Plumet and the
+Boulevard des Invalides.
+
+To avoid the honours due to his sovereign rank, the prince had preserved
+his incognito since his arrival in Paris, his _chargé d'affaires_ at the
+court of France having announced that his master would pay his official
+and indispensable visits under the name and title of the Count de Duren.
+Thanks to this usage (a very common one in the Northern courts), a
+prince may travel with as much liberty as pleasure, and escape all the
+bore of ceremonious introductions. In spite of his slight incognito,
+Rodolph kept up in his mansion full state and etiquette. We will
+introduce the reader into the hôtel of the Rue Plumet, the day after the
+Chourineur had started for Algiers.
+
+The clock had just struck ten, A.M. In the middle of a large salon on
+the ground floor and which formed the antechamber to Rodolph's business
+chamber, Murphy was seated before a bureau, and sealing several
+despatches. A groom of the chambers, dressed in black and wearing a
+silver chain around his neck, opened the folding-doors and announced:
+
+"His Excellency M. le Baron de Graün."
+
+Murphy, without ceasing from his employment, received the baron with a
+nod at once cordial and familiar.
+
+"M. le Chargé d'Affaires," said he, smiling, "will you warm yourself at
+the fire? I will be at your service in one moment."
+
+"M. the Private Secretary, I await your leisure," replied M. de Graün,
+gaily, and making, with mock respect, a low and respectful bow to the
+worthy squire.
+
+The baron was about fifty years of age, with hair gray, thin, and
+lightly curled and powdered. His chin, rather projecting, was partly
+concealed in a high cravat of white muslin, starched very stiffly, and
+of unimpeachable whiteness. His countenance was expressive of great
+intelligence, and his carriage was _distingué_; whilst beneath his gold
+spectacles there beamed an eye as shrewd as it was penetrating. Although
+it was only ten o'clock in the morning, M. de Graün wore a black
+coat,--that was etiquette,--and a riband, shot with several bright
+colours, was suspended from his buttonhole. He placed his hat on a chair
+and took his station near the fireplace, whilst Murphy continued his
+work.
+
+"His royal highness, no doubt, was up the best part of the night, my
+dear Murphy, for your correspondence appears considerable?"
+
+"Monseigneur went to bed at six o'clock this morning. He wrote, amongst
+other letters, one of eight pages to the Grand Marshal, and dictated to
+me one equally long to the Chief of the Upper Council, the Prince
+Herkhaüsen-Oldenzaal, his royal highness's cousin."
+
+"You know that his son, Prince Henry, has entered as lieutenant in the
+guards in the service of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria?"
+
+"Yes; monseigneur recommended him most warmly as his relation; and he
+really is a fine, excellent young man, handsome as an angel, and as good
+as gold."
+
+"The fact is, my dear Murphy, that if the young Prince Henry had had his
+_entrée_ to the grand ducal abbey of Ste. Hermenegilde, of which his
+aunt is the superior, the poor nuns--"
+
+"Baron! baron! why--"
+
+"My dear sir, the air of Paris--But let us talk seriously. Shall I await
+the rising of his royal highness to communicate all the particulars
+which I have procured?"
+
+"No, my dear baron. Monseigneur has desired that he should not be called
+before two or three o'clock in the afternoon; he desires, also, that you
+send off this morning these despatches by a special courier, instead of
+waiting till Monday. You will entrust me with all the particulars you
+have acquired, and I will communicate them to monseigneur when he wakes.
+These are his orders."
+
+"Nothing can be better, and I think his royal highness will be satisfied
+with what I have collected. But, my dear Murphy, I hope the despatch of
+the special courier is not a bad sign; the last despatches which I had
+the honour of sending to his royal highness--"
+
+"Announced that all was going on well at home; and it is precisely
+because my lord is desirous of expressing as early as possible his
+entire satisfaction, that he wishes a courier to be despatched this very
+day to Prince Herkhaüsen-Oldenzaal, Chief of the Supreme Council."
+
+"That is so like his royal highness; were it to blame instead of
+commend, he would observe less haste."
+
+"Nothing new has transpired with us, my dear baron,--nothing at all. Our
+mysterious adventures--"
+
+"Are wholly unknown. You know that, since the arrival of his royal
+highness in Paris, his friends have become used to see him but little in
+public; it is understood that he prefers seclusion, and is in the habit
+of making frequent excursions to the environs of Paris, and, with the
+exception of the Countess Sarah Macgregor and her brother, no person is
+aware of the disguises assumed by his royal highness; and neither of the
+personages I have mentioned have the smallest interest in betraying the
+secret."
+
+"Ah! my dear baron," exclaimed Murphy, heaving a deep sigh, "what an
+unfortunate thing it is that this accursed countess should be left a
+widow at this very important moment!"
+
+"She was married, I think, in 1827 or 1828?"
+
+"In 1827, shortly after the death of the unfortunate child, who would
+now be in her sixteenth or seventeenth year, and whose loss his royal
+highness seems daily more to deplore."
+
+"Far more so, indeed, than he appears to feel for the loss of his
+legitimate offspring."
+
+"And thus, my dear baron, we may account for the deep interest his royal
+highness takes in the poor Goualeuse, arising as it does from the fact
+that the daughter so deeply deplored would, had she lived, have been
+precisely the same age as this unfortunate young creature."
+
+"It is, indeed, an unfortunate affair that the Countess Sarah, from whom
+we fancied we were for ever freed, should have become a widow exactly
+eighteen months after his royal highness had been deprived by death of
+the wife with whom he had passed years of wedded happiness. The
+countess, I am persuaded, looks upon this double freedom from all
+marriage vows as a signal intervention of Providence to further her
+views."
+
+"And her impetuous passion has become more ardent than ever, though she
+is well aware that my lord feels for her the deepest aversion and
+well-merited contempt. Was not her culpable indifference the cause of
+her child's death? Did she not cause--Ah, baron," said Murphy, leaving
+the sentence unfinished, "this woman is our evil genius. God grant she
+may not reappear amongst us laden with fresh misfortunes!"
+
+"But still, under present circumstances, any views Countess Sarah may
+entertain must be absurd in the greatest degree; the death of the
+unfortunate child you just now alluded to has broken the last tie which
+might have attached my lord to this dangerous woman. She must be mad,
+as well as foolish, to persist in so hopeless a pursuit."
+
+"If she be mad, there is a dangerous 'method in her madness;' her
+brother, you are aware, partakes of her ambitious schemes and obstinate
+opinions of ultimate success. Although this worthy pair have as much
+reason for utter despair as they had eighteen years since of entire
+success--"
+
+"Eighteen years! What an accumulation of evil has been wrought during
+that period by the criminal compliance of that rascally Polidori!"
+
+"By the way, talking of that miserable wretch, I have traced that he was
+here about a year or two ago, suffering, no doubt, from the most perfect
+destitution, or else subsisting by disgraceful and dishonourable
+practices."
+
+"What a pity that a man so largely endowed with penetration, talent,
+deep learning, and natural intelligence, should sink so low!"
+
+"The innate perversity of his character marred all these high qualities.
+It is to be hoped he and the countess will not meet; the junction of two
+such evil spirits is indeed to be feared, for what frightful
+consequences might there not result from it! Now, touching the facts you
+have been collecting, have you them about you?"
+
+"Here," said the baron, drawing a paper from his pocket, "are the
+various particulars I have been enabled to collect touching the birth of
+a young girl known as La Goualeuse, and also of the now residence of an
+individual called François Germain, son of the Schoolmaster."
+
+"Be kind enough to read me the result of your inquiries, my dear De
+Graün. I am well aware what are his royal highness's intentions in the
+matter; I shall be able to judge then whether the information you
+possess will be sufficient to enable him to carry them into effect. You
+have every reason to be satisfied with the agent you employ, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, he is a rare fellow! so precise, methodical, zealous, and
+intelligent! I am, indeed, sometimes obliged to moderate his energy; for
+I am well aware there are certain points, the clearing up of which his
+highness reserves for himself."
+
+"And, of course, your agent is far from suspecting the deep interest his
+royal highness has in the matter?"
+
+"Entirely so. My diplomatic position affords an excellent pretext for
+the inquiries I have undertaken. M. Badinot (for such is the name of the
+person I am speaking of) is a sharp, shrewd individual, having
+connections, either recognised or concealed, in every grade of society.
+He was formerly a lawyer, but compelled to quit his profession from some
+very serious breach of trust; he has, however, retained very accurate
+recollections touching the fortunes and situations of his old clients;
+he knows many a secret, which he boasts, with considerable effrontery,
+of having turned to a good account. By turns, rich and poor,--now
+successful, and then a ruined man,--he only ceased his speculations when
+none could be found to take part in them with him; reduced to live from
+day to day by expedients more or less illegal, he became a curious
+specimen of the Figaro school,--so long as his interest was concerned he
+would devote himself, soul and body, to his employer; and we are sure of
+his fidelity, for the simple reason that he has nothing to gain, though
+a great deal to lose, by deceiving us; and, besides, I make him careful
+of our interests, even unknown to himself."
+
+"The particulars he has hitherto furnished us with have been very
+correct and satisfactory."
+
+"Oh, he has a very straightforward manner of going to work! And I assure
+you, my dear Murphy, that M. Badinot is the very original type of one of
+those mysterious existences which are to be met with, and only
+possible, in Paris. He would greatly amuse his royal highness, if it
+were not necessary to avoid their being known to each other in this
+business."
+
+"You can augment the pay of M. Badinot if you deem it necessary."
+
+"Why, really, five hundred francs a month, and his expenses, amounting
+to nearly the same sum, appear to me quite sufficient; we shall see by
+and by."
+
+"And does he not seem ashamed of the part he plays?"
+
+"On the contrary, he is not a little vain of his employment, and when he
+brings me any particulars assumes a certain air of importance he would
+fain pass off as due to his diplomatic functions; for the fellow either
+thinks, or feigns to do so, that he is deeply engaged in state affairs,
+and ventures to observe at times, in a sort of undertone, how very
+marvellous it is that such close and intimate relationship should be
+found to exist between every-day events and the destinies of kingdoms!
+Yes, really, he had the impudence to remark to me the other day, 'What
+complicated machinery is contained in the grand machine of state
+affairs! Who would think now, M. le Baron, those little humble notes
+collected by me will have their part to play in directing and regulating
+the affairs of Europe!'"
+
+"Yes, yes, rascals generally seek to veil their mean and base practices
+beneath some high-sounding pretext. But the notes you are to give me, my
+dear baron, have you them with you?"
+
+"Here they are, drawn up precisely from the accounts furnished by M.
+Badinot."
+
+"Pray let me hear them; I am all attention."
+
+M. de Graün then read as follows:
+
+"_Note relative to Fleur-de-Marie._--About the beginning of the year
+1827, a man named Pierre Tournemine, then under sentence in the galleys
+at Rochefort for forgery, proposed to a woman named Gervais, but also
+known as La Chouette, to take perpetual charge of a little girl, then
+between five and six years of age, for a sum of one thousand francs paid
+down.
+
+"The bargain being concluded, the child was delivered over to the woman,
+with whom she remained two years, when, unable longer to endure the
+cruelty shown her, the little girl disappeared; nor did the Chouette
+hear anything of her for several years, when she unexpectedly met with
+her at a small public-house in the Cité, nearly seven weeks ago. The
+infant, now grown into a young woman, then bore the appellation of La
+Goualeuse.
+
+"A few days previously to this meeting, the above mentioned Tournemine,
+who had become acquainted with the Schoolmaster at the galleys of
+Rochefort, had sent to Bras Rouge (the regular, though concealed
+correspondent of every rogue and felon either in prison or out of it) a
+lengthened detail of every particular relative to the child formerly
+confided to the woman Gervais, otherwise the Chouette.
+
+"From this account, and the declarations of the Chouette, it appeared
+that one Madame Séraphin, housekeeper to a notary named Jacques Ferrand,
+had in 1827 instructed Tournemine to find a person who, for the sum of
+one thousand francs, would be willing to take the entire charge of a
+child of from five to six years of age whom it was desired to get rid
+of, as has before been mentioned.
+
+"The Chouette accepted the proposition, and received both the child and
+the stipulated sum of money.
+
+"The aim of Tournemine, in addressing these particulars to Bras Rouge,
+was to enable the latter to extort money from Madame Séraphin, whom
+Tournemine considered but as the agent of a third party, under a threat
+of revealing the whole affair unless well paid for silence.
+
+"Bras Rouge entrusted the Chouette, long the established partner in all
+the Schoolmaster's schemes of villainy; and this explains how so
+important a document found its way to that monster's possession, and
+also accounts for the expression used by the Chouette at her rencontre
+with the Goualeuse in the cabaret of the White Rabbit, when, by way of
+tormenting her victim, she said, 'We have found out all about your
+parents, but you shall never know who or what they are.'
+
+"The point to be decided was as to the veracity of the circumstances
+detailed by Tournemine in his letter to the Chouette.
+
+"It has been ascertained that Madame Séraphin and the notary, Jacques
+Ferrand, are both living; the address of the latter is Rue du Sentier,
+No. 41, where he passes for a person of pious and austere life; at
+least, he is constant in his attendance at church,--his attention to his
+professional duties, close and severe, though some accuse him of
+following up the severity of the law with unnecessary rigour. In his
+mode of living he observes a parsimony bordering on avarice. Madame
+Séraphin still resides with him, as manager of his household; and M.
+Jacques Ferrand, spite of his original poverty, has invested thirty-five
+thousand francs in the funds, the greatest part of this sum having been
+supplied to him through a M. Charles Robert, a superior officer of the
+National Guard,--a young and handsome man, in high repute with a certain
+class of society. 'Tis true that some ill-natured persons are found to
+assert that, owing either to fortunate speculations or lucky hits upon
+the Stock Exchange, undertaken in partnership with the above mentioned
+Charles Robert, the worthy notary could now well afford to pay back the
+original loan with high interest; but the rigidly austere and
+self-denying life of this worthy man gives a flat denial to all such
+gossiping reports, and, spite of the incredulity with which he is
+occasionally listened to, he persists in styling himself a man
+struggling for a maintenance. There can be no manner of doubt but that
+Madame Séraphin, this worthy gentleman's housekeeper, could, if she
+pleased, throw an entire light upon every circumstance connected with
+La Goualeuse."
+
+"Bravo, my dear baron!" exclaimed Murphy; "nothing can be better. These
+declarations of Tournemine carry with them an appearance of truth, and
+it seems more than probable that we may, through Jacques Ferrand, obtain
+the right clue to discovering the parents of this unfortunate girl. Now
+tell me, have you been equally successful in the information collected
+touching the son of the Schoolmaster?"
+
+"Perhaps, as regards him, I am not furnished with such minute
+particulars; but, upon the whole, I think the result of our inquiries
+very satisfactory."
+
+"Upon my word, your M. Badinot is a downright treasure!"
+
+"You see, Bras Rouge is the hinge upon which everything turns. M.
+Badinot, who has several acquaintances in the police, pointed him out to
+us as the go-between of several notorious felons, and knew the man
+directly he was set to discover what had become of the ill-fated son of
+Madame Georges Duresnel, the unfortunate wife of this atrocious
+Schoolmaster."
+
+"And it was in going to search for Bras Rouge, in his den in the Cité
+(Rue aux Fêves, No. 13), that my lord fell in with the Chourineur and La
+Goualeuse. His royal highness hoped, too, that the opportunity now
+before him, of visiting these abodes of vice and wretchedness, might
+afford him the means of rescuing some unfortunate being from the depths
+of guilt and misery. His benevolent anticipations were gratified, but at
+what risk it is painful even to remember."
+
+"Whatever dangers attended the scheme, you, at least, my dear Murphy,
+bravely bore your share in them."
+
+"Was not I, for that very purpose, appointed charcoal-man in waiting
+upon his royal highness?" replied the squire, smilingly.
+
+"Say, rather, his intrepid body-guard, my worthy friend. But to touch
+upon your courage and devotion is only to repeat what every one knows. I
+will, therefore, spare your modesty, and continue my relation. Here are
+the various particulars we have been able to glean concerning François
+Germain, son of Madame Georges and the Schoolmaster, properly called
+Duresnel:
+
+"About eighteen months since, a young man, named François Germain,
+arrived in Paris from Nantes, where he had been employed in the
+banking-house of Noël and Co.
+
+"It seems, both from the confession of the Schoolmaster as well as from
+several letters found upon him, that the scoundrel to whom he had
+entrusted his unfortunate offspring, for the purpose of perverting his
+young mind, and rendering him one day a worthy assistant to his
+unprincipled father in his nefarious schemes, proposed to the young man
+to join in a plot for robbing his employers, as well as to forge upon
+the firm to a considerable amount. This proposition was received by the
+youth with well-merited indignation, but, unwilling to denounce the man
+by whom he had been brought up, he first communicated anonymously to his
+master the designs projected against the bank, and then privately
+quitted Nantes, that he might avoid the rage and fury of those whose
+sinful practices his soul sickened and shuddered to think of, far less
+to bear the idea of participating in.
+
+"These wretches, aware that they had betrayed themselves to the young
+man, and dreading the use he might make of his information, immediately
+upon finding he had quitted Nantes followed him to Paris, with the most
+sinister intentions of silencing him for ever. After long and
+persevering inquiries, they succeeded in discovering his address, but,
+happily for the persecuted object of their search, he had a few days
+previously encountered the villain who had first sought to corrupt his
+principles, and, well divining the motive which had brought him to
+Paris, lost no time in changing his abode; and so, for this time, the
+Schoolmaster's hapless son escaped his pursuers. Still, however,
+following up the scent, they succeeded in tracing the youth to his fresh
+abode, 17 Rue du Temple. One evening, however, he narrowly escaped
+falling into an ambush laid for him (the Schoolmaster concealed this
+circumstance from my lord), but again Providence befriended him, and he
+escaped, though too much alarmed to remain in his lodgings; he once more
+changed his abode, since which time all traces of him have been lost.
+And matters had reached thus far when the Schoolmaster received the just
+punishment of his crimes; since which period, by order of my lord, fresh
+inquiries have been instituted, of which the following is the result.
+
+"François Germain lived for about three months at No. 17 Rue du Temple,
+a house rendered worthy of observation by the habits and ingenious
+practices of its inhabitants. Germain was a great favourite among them,
+by reason of his kind and amiable disposition, as well as for the frank
+gaiety of his temper. Although his means of livelihood appeared very
+slender, yet he had rendered the most generous assistance to an indigent
+family occupying the garrets of the house. In vain has been every
+inquiry made in the Rue du Temple touching the present residence of
+François Germain, or the profession he was supposed to follow; every one
+in the house believed him to be employed in some counting-house, or
+office, as he went out early in the morning and never returned till late
+in the evening. The only person who really knows the present residence
+of the young man is a female, lodging in the house No. 17 Rue du
+Temple,--a young and pretty grisette, named Rigolette, between whom and
+Germain a very close acquaintance appears to have existed. She occupies
+the adjoining room to that which Germain tenanted, and which chamber, by
+the by, is still vacant; and it was under pretext of inquiring about it
+that these particulars were obtained."
+
+"Rigolette!" exclaimed Murphy, after having been for several minutes
+apparently in deep thought. "Yes, I am sure I know her."
+
+"_You!_ Sir Walter Murphy," replied the baron, much amused. "You, most
+worthy and respectable father of a family! _you_ know anything of pretty
+grisettes! And so the name of Mlle. Rigolette is familiar to you, is it?
+Fie, fie! Oh, positively I am ashamed of you!"
+
+"'Pon my soul, my lord compelled me to have so many strange
+acquaintances, that such a mere trifle as this should pass for nothing.
+But wait a bit. Yes, now I recollect perfectly, that when my lord was
+relating the history of La Goualeuse, I could not help laughing at the
+very odd name of Rigolette, which, as far as I can call to mind, was the
+name of a prison acquaintance of that poor Fleur-de-Marie."
+
+"Well, then, just at this particular juncture Mlle. Rigolette may be of
+the utmost service to us. Let me conclude my report:
+
+"There might possibly be an advantage in engaging the vacant chamber
+recently belonging to Germain, in the Rue du Temple. We have no
+instructions to proceed further in our investigations, but, from some
+words which escaped the porteress, there is every reason to believe that
+not only would it be possible to find in this house certain indications
+of where the Schoolmaster's son may be heard of, through the means of
+Mlle. Rigolette, but the house itself would afford my lord an
+opportunity of studying human nature amid wants, difficulties, and
+misery, the very existence of which he is far from suspecting."
+
+"Thus you see, my dear Murphy," said M. de Graün, finishing his report
+and presenting it to his companion, "you see evidently that it is from
+the notary, Jacques Ferrand, we must hope to obtain information
+respecting the parentage of La Goualeuse, and that we must go to Mlle.
+Rigolette to trace the dwelling of François Germain. It seems to me a
+great point to have ascertained the direction in which to search."
+
+"Undoubtedly, baron; you are quite right; and, besides, I am sure my
+lord will find a fine field for observation in the house of which you
+speak. But I have not yet done with you. Have you made any inquiries
+respecting the Marquis d'Harville?"
+
+"I have; and, so far as concerns money matters, his royal highness's
+fears are wholly unfounded. M. Badinot affirms (and he is very likely to
+be well informed on the subject) that the fortune of the marquis has
+never been in a more prosperous condition, or better managed."
+
+"Why, after having in vain exhausted every other conjecture as to the
+secret grief which is preying upon M. d'Harville, my lord imagined that
+it was just probable the marquis had some pecuniary difficulties; had it
+proved so, he would have removed them with that delicate assumption of
+mystery you know he so frequently employs to veil his munificence. But,
+since even this conjecture has failed, he must abandon all hope of
+guessing the enigma; and this he will do the more reluctantly, as his
+great desire to discover it arose out of his ardent friendship for M.
+d'Harville."
+
+"A friendship which is founded on a grateful recollection of the
+important services rendered by the marquis's father to his own parent.
+Are you aware, my dear Murphy, that at the remodelling of the States in
+1815, at the Germanic confederation, the father of his royal highness
+had a chance of being excluded, from his well-known attachment to
+Napoleon? Thanks to the friendship with which the Emperor Alexander
+honoured him, the deceased Marquis d'Harville was enabled to render most
+effectual service to the father of our patron. The emperor, whose warm
+regard for the late marquis had taken its date from the period of that
+nobleman's emigration to Russia, exerted his powerful influence in
+congress so successfully, that at the grand meeting to decide the
+destinies of the princes of Germany, the father of our noble employer
+was reinstated in all his pristine rights. As for the friendship now
+subsisting between the present marquis and his royal highness, I believe
+it commenced when, as mere boys, they met together on a visit paid by
+the then reigning grand duke to the late Marquis d'Harville."
+
+"So I have heard; and they appear to have retained a most lively
+recollection of this happy period of their youth. Nor is this all I have
+to say on the subject of the interest our noble master takes in every
+matter concerning the house of D'Harville. So profound is his gratitude
+for the services rendered to his father, that all bearing the honoured
+name of D'Harville, or belonging to the family, possess a powerful claim
+on the kindness of the prince. Thus, not alone to her virtues or her
+misfortunes does poor Madame Georges owe the increasing and unwearied
+goodness of my lord."
+
+"Madame Georges!" exclaimed the astounded baron. "What, the wife of
+Duresnel, the felon known as the Schoolmaster?"
+
+"And the mother of François Germain, the youth we are seeking for, and
+whom, I trust, we shall find."
+
+"Is the relation of M. d'Harville?"
+
+"She was his mother's cousin, and her most intimate friend; the old
+marquis entertained the most perfect friendship and esteem for Madame
+Georges."
+
+"But how, for heaven's sake, my dear Murphy, did it ever come about that
+the D'Harville family ever permitted a descendant of theirs to marry
+such a monster as this Duresnel?"
+
+"Why, thus it was. The father of this unfortunate woman was a M. de
+Lagny, who, previous to the Revolution, possessed considerable property
+in Languedoc, and who, having fortunately escaped the proscription so
+fatal to many, availed himself of the first tranquillity which succeeded
+these days of discord and anarchy to establish his only daughter in
+marriage. Among the various candidates for the hand of the young heiress
+was this Duresnel, the representative of a wealthy and respectable
+family, possessing powerful parliamentary influence, and concealing the
+depravity of his disposition beneath the most specious exterior. To this
+man was Mlle. de Lagny united, by desire of her father; but a very short
+time sufficed to strip the mask from his vicious character, and to
+display his natural propensities. A gambler, a spendthrift, and
+profligate, addicted to the lowest vices that can disgrace a human
+being, he quickly dissipated, not only his own fortune, but that of his
+wife also. Even the estate to which Madame Georges Duresnel had retired
+was involved in the general ruin occasioned by her worthless husband's
+passion for play, and his dissolute mode of life; and the unfortunate
+woman would have been left without a shelter for herself or infant son
+but for the kind affection of her relation, the Marquise d'Harville,
+whom she loved with the tenderness of a sister. With this valued friend
+Madame Duresnel found a welcome home, while her wretched husband,
+finding himself utterly ruined, plunged into the blackest crimes, and
+stopped at no means, however guilty and desperate, to supply his
+pleasures. He became the associate of thieves, murderers, pickpockets,
+and forgers, and ere long, falling into the hands of the law, was
+sentenced to the galleys for the term of his natural life. Yet, while
+suffering the just punishment of his crimes, his base mind devised the
+double atrocity of tearing the child from its miserable mother, for the
+sake of breaking down every good principle it might have imbibed, and of
+training it up in vicious readiness to join his future schemes of
+villainy. You know the rest. After the condemnation of her husband,
+Madame Georges, without giving any reason for so doing, quitted the
+Marquise d'Harville, and went to hide her shame and her sorrows in
+Paris, where she soon fell into the utmost distress. It would occupy
+too much time to tell you by what train of events my lord became aware
+of the misfortunes of this excellent woman, as well as the ties which
+connect her with the D'Harville family; it is sufficient that he came
+most opportunely and generously to her assistance, induced her to quit
+Paris and establish herself at the farm at Bouqueval, where she now is,
+with the Goualeuse. In this peaceful retreat she has found tranquillity,
+if not happiness; and the overlooking and management of the farm may
+serve to recreate her thoughts, and prevent them from dwelling too
+deeply on her past sorrows. As much to spare the almost morbid
+sensibility of Madame Georges, as because he dislikes to blazon forth
+his good deeds, my lord has not even acquainted M. d'Harville with the
+fact of his having relieved his kinswoman from such severe distress."
+
+"I comprehend now the twofold interest which my lord has in desiring to
+discover the traces of the son of this poor woman."
+
+"You may also judge by that, my dear baron, of the affection which his
+royal highness bears to the whole family, and how deep is his vexation
+at seeing the young marquis so sad, with so many reasons to be happy."
+
+"What can there be wanting to M. d'Harville? He unites all,--birth,
+fortune, wit, youth; his wife is charming, and as prudent as she is
+lovely."
+
+"True, and his royal highness only had recourse to the inquiries we have
+been talking over after having in vain endeavoured to penetrate the
+cause of M. d'Harville's deep melancholy; he showed himself deeply
+affected by the kind attentions of monseigneur, but still has been
+entirely reserved on the subject of his low spirits. It may be some
+_peine de coeur_."
+
+"Yet it is said that he is excessively fond of his wife, and she does
+not give him the least cause for jealousy. I often meet her in society,
+and, although she is constantly surrounded by admirers (as every young
+and lovely woman is), still her reputation is unsullied."
+
+"The marquis is always speaking of her in the highest terms; he has had,
+however, one little discussion with her on the subject of the Countess
+Sarah Macgregor."
+
+"Has she, then, seen her?"
+
+"By a most unlucky chance, the father of the Marquis d'Harville knew
+Sarah Seyton of Halsburg, and her brother Tom, seventeen or eighteen
+years ago, during their residence in Paris, and when they were much
+noticed by the lady of the English ambassador. Learning that the brother
+and sister were going into Germany, the old marquis gave them letters of
+introduction to the father of our noble lord, with whom he kept up a
+constant correspondence. Alas! my dear De Graün, perhaps but for these
+introductions many misfortunes would have been avoided, for then
+monseigneur would not have known this woman. When the Countess Sarah
+returned hither, knowing the friendship of his royal highness for the
+marquis, she presented herself at the Hotel d'Harville, in the hope of
+meeting monseigneur; for she shows as much pertinacity in pursuing him
+as he evinces resolution to avoid her."
+
+"Only imagine her disguising herself in male attire, and following him
+into the Cité! No woman but she would have dreamt of such a thing."
+
+"She, perhaps, hoped by such a step to touch his royal highness and
+compel him to an interview, which he has always refused and avoided. To
+return to Madame d'Harville: her husband, to whom monseigneur has spoken
+of Sarah as she deserved, has begged his wife to see her as seldom as
+possible; but the young marquise, seduced by the hypocritical flatteries
+of the countess, has gone somewhat counter to the marquis's request.
+Some trifling differences have arisen, but not of sufficient importance
+to cause or explain the extreme dejection of the marquis."
+
+"Oh, the women! the women! My dear Murphy, I am very sorry that Madame
+d'Harville should have formed any acquaintance with this Sarah. So young
+and charming a woman must suffer by the contact with such an infernal--"
+
+"Talking of infernal creatures," said Murphy, "here is a communication
+relative to Cecily, the unworthy spouse of the excellent David."
+
+"Between ourselves, my dear Murphy, this audacious _métisse_[9] well
+deserves the terrible punishment that her husband, our dear black
+doctor, has inflicted on the Schoolmaster by monseigneur's order. She
+has also shed blood, and her unblushing infamy is astounding."
+
+ [9] The Creole issue of a white and quadroon slave. The
+ _métisses_ only differ from the whites by some peculiarities
+ hardly perceptible.
+
+"Yet she is so very handsome,--so seductive! A perverted mind within an
+attractive outside always inspires me with twofold disgust."
+
+"In this sense Cecily is doubly hateful. But I hope that this despatch
+annuls the last orders issued by monseigneur with regard to this
+wretched creature."
+
+"On the contrary, baron."
+
+"My lord, then, desires that her escape from the fortress in which she
+had been shut up for life may be effected?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And that her pretended ravisher should bring her to France,--to Paris?"
+
+"Yes; and, besides, this despatch orders the arrangement to be carried
+out as soon as possible, and that Cecily be made to travel hither so
+speedily that she may arrive here in a fortnight."
+
+"I am lost in astonishment! Monseigneur has always evinced such a horror
+of her!"
+
+"And that horror he still experiences; if possible, stronger than ever."
+
+"And yet he causes her to be sent to him! To be sure, it will always be
+easy to apprehend Cecily again, if she does not carry out what he
+requires of her. Orders are given to the son of the gaoler of the
+fortress of Gerolstein to carry her off, as if he were enamoured of her,
+and every facility will be given to him for effecting this purpose.
+Overjoyed at this opportunity of escaping, the _métisse_ will follow her
+supposed ravisher, and reach Paris; then she will always have her
+sentence of condemnation hanging over her, always be but an escaped
+prisoner, and I shall be always ready, when it shall please his royal
+highness to desire, again to lay hands upon and incarcerate her."
+
+"I should tell you, my dear baron, that when David learned from
+monseigneur of the proposed arrival of Cecily, he was absolutely
+petrified, and exclaimed, 'I hope that your royal highness will not
+compel me to see the monster?' 'Make yourself easy,' replied
+monseigneur; 'you shall not see her, but I may require her services for
+a particular purpose.' David felt relieved of an enormous weight off his
+mind. Nevertheless, I am sure that some very painful reminiscences were
+awakened in his mind."
+
+"Poor negro! he loves her still. They say, too, that she is yet so
+lovely!"
+
+"Charming!--too charming! It requires the pitiless eye of a creole to
+detect the mixed blood in the all but imperceptible shade which lightly
+tinges her rosy finger-nails. Our fresh and hale beauties of the North
+have not a more transparent complexion, nor a skin of more dazzling
+whiteness."
+
+"I was in France when monseigneur returned from America, accompanied by
+David and Cecily, and I know that that excellent man was from that time
+attached to his royal highness by ties of the strongest gratitude; but I
+never learned how he became attached to the service of our master, and
+how he had married Cecily, whom I saw, for the first time, about a year
+after his marriage; and God knows the scandal that followed!"
+
+"I can tell you every particular that you may wish to learn, my dear
+baron; I accompanied monseigneur in his voyage to America, when he
+rescued David and the _métisse_ from the most awful fate."
+
+"You are always most kind, my dear Murphy, and I am all attention," said
+the baron.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+HISTORY OF DAVID AND CECILY.
+
+
+"Mr. Willis, a rich American planter, settled in Florida," said Murphy,
+"had discovered in one of his young black slaves, named David, who was
+employed in the infirmary attached to his dwelling, a very remarkable
+degree of intelligence, combined with a constant and deep commiseration
+for the sick poor, to whom he gave, with the utmost attention and care,
+the medicine ordered by the doctors, and, moreover, so strong a
+prepossession for the study of botany, as applied to medicine, that
+without any tuition he had composed and classified a sort of flora of
+the plants around the dwelling and the vicinity. The establishment of
+Mr. Willis, situated on the borders of the sea, was fifteen or twenty
+leagues from the nearest town; and the medical men of the district,
+ignorant as they were, gave themselves no great deal of care or trouble,
+in consequence of the long distance and the difficulty in procuring any
+means of conveyance. Desirous of remedying so extreme an inconvenience
+in a country subject to violent epidemics, and to have at hand at all
+times a skilful practitioner, the colonist made up his mind to send
+David to France to learn surgery and medicine. Enchanted at this offer,
+the young black set out for Paris, and the planter paid all the expenses
+of his course of study. David, having for eight years studied with great
+diligence and remarkable effect, received the degree of surgeon and
+physician with the most distinguished success, and then returned to
+America to place himself and his skill under the direction of his
+master."
+
+"But David ought to have considered himself free and emancipated, in
+fact and in law, when he set foot in France."
+
+"David's loyalty is very rare: he had promised Mr. Willis to return, and
+he did so. He did not consider as his own the instruction which he had
+acquired with his master's money; and, besides, he hoped to improve
+morally as well as physically the sufferings of the slaves, his former
+companions; he trusted to become not only their doctor, but their firm
+friend and defender with the colonist."
+
+"He must, indeed, be imbued with the most unflinching probity and the
+most intense love for his fellow creatures to return to a master,--an
+owner,--after having spent eight years in the midst of the society of
+the most democratic young men in Europe."
+
+"Judge of the man by this one trait. Well, he returned to Florida, and,
+truth to tell, was used by Mr. Willis with consideration and kindness,
+eating at his table, sleeping under his roof. But this colonist was as
+stupid, malevolent, selfish, and despotic as most creoles are, and he
+thought himself very generous in giving David six hundred francs
+(24_l._) a year salary. At the end of some months a terrible typhus
+fever broke out in the plantation. Mr. Willis was attacked by it, but
+soon restored through the careful attentions and efficacious remedies of
+David. Out of thirty negroes dangerously affected by this fatal disease,
+only two perished. Mr. Willis, much gratified by the services which
+David had so auspiciously rendered, raised his wages to twelve hundred
+francs, to the extreme gratification of the black doctor, whose fellows
+regarded him as a divinity amongst them, for he had, with much
+difficulty it is true, obtained from their master some few indulgences,
+and was hoping to procure still more. In the meanwhile, he consoled
+these poor people, and exhorted them to patience; spake to them of God,
+who watches over the black and the white man with an equal eye; of
+another world not peopled with masters and slaves, but with the just and
+the unjust; of another life in eternity, where man was no longer the
+beast of burden,--the property,--the thing of his fellow man, but where
+the victims of this world were so happy that they prayed in heaven for
+their tormentors. What shall I tell you more? To those unhappy wretches
+who, contrary to other men, count with bitter joy the hours which bring
+them nearer to the tomb,--to those unfortunate creatures, who looked
+forward only to nothingness hereafter, David breathed the language and
+the hope of a free and happy immortality; and then their chains appeared
+less heavy and their toil less irksome. He was their idol. A year passed
+away in this manner. Amongst the handsomest of the female slaves at the
+house was a _métisse_, about fifteen years of age, named Cecily, and for
+this poor girl Mr. Willis took a fancy. For the first time in his life
+his advances were repulsed and obstinately resisted; Cecily was in love,
+and with David, who, during the late fearful distemper, had attended her
+with the most vigilant care. Afterwards a deep and mutual love repaid
+him the debt of gratitude. David's taste was too refined to allow him to
+boast of his happiness before the time when he should marry Cecily,
+which was to be when she had turned her sixteenth year. Mr. Willis,
+ignorant of their love, had thrown his handkerchief right royally at the
+pretty _métisse_, and she, in deep despair, sought David, and told him
+all the brutal attempts that she had been subjected to and with
+difficulty escaped. The black comforted her, and instantly went to Mr.
+Willis to request her hand in marriage."
+
+"_Diable!_ my dear Murphy, I can easily surmise the answer of the
+American sultan,--he refused?"
+
+"He did. He said he had an inclination for the girl himself; that in
+his life before he had never experienced the repulse of a slave; he
+meant to possess her, and he would. David might choose another wife or
+mistress, whichsoever might best suit his inclination; there were in the
+plantation ten _capusses_ or _métisses_ as pretty as Cecily. David
+talked of his love,--love so long and tenderly shared, and the planter
+shrugged his shoulders; David urged, but it was all in vain. The creole
+had the cool impudence to tell him that it was a bad 'example' to see a
+master concede to a slave, and that he would not set that 'example' to
+satisfy a caprice of David's! He entreated,--supplicated, and his master
+lost his temper. David, blushing to humiliate himself further, spake in
+a firm tone of his services and disinterestedness,--that he had been
+contented with a very slender salary. Mr. Willis was desperately
+enraged, and, telling him he was a contumacious slave, threatened him
+with the chain. David replied with a few bitter and violent words; and,
+two hours afterwards, bound to a stake, his skin was torn with the lash,
+whilst they bore Cecily to the harem of the planter in his sight."
+
+"The conduct of the planter was brutal and horrible; it was adding
+absurdity to cruelty, for he must after that have required the man's
+services."
+
+"Precisely so; for that very day the very fury into which he had worked
+himself, joined to the drunkenness in which the brute indulged every
+evening, brought on an inflammatory attack of the most dangerous
+description, the symptoms of which appeared with the rapidity peculiar
+to such affections. The planter was carried to his bed in a state of the
+highest fever. He sent off an express for a doctor, but he could not
+reach his abode in less than six and thirty hours."
+
+"Really, this attack seems providential. The desperate condition of the
+man was quite deserved by him."
+
+"The malady made fearful strides. David only could save the colonist,
+but Willis, distrustful, as all evil-doers are, imagined that the black
+would revenge himself by administering poison; for, after having
+scourged him with a rod, he had thrown him into prison. At last,
+horrified at the progress of his illness, broken down by bodily anguish,
+and thinking that, as death also stared him in the face, he had one
+chance left in trusting to the generosity of his slave, after many
+distrusting doubts, Willis ordered David to be unchained."
+
+"And David saved the planter?"
+
+"For five days and five nights he watched and tended him as if he had
+been his father, counteracting the disease, step by step, with great
+skill and perfect knowledge, until, at last, he succeeded in defeating
+it, to the extreme surprise of the doctor who had been sent for, and who
+did not arrive until the second day."
+
+"And, when restored to health at last, the colonist--"
+
+"Not desiring to blush before his own slave, whose presence constantly
+oppressed him with the recollection of his excessive nobleness of
+conduct, the colonist made an enormous sacrifice to attach the doctor he
+had sent for to his establishment, and David was again conducted to his
+dungeon."
+
+"Horrible, but by no means astonishing. David must have been in the eyes
+of his brutal master a complete living remorse."
+
+"Such conduct was dictated alike by revenge and jealousy. The blacks of
+Mr. Willis loved David with all the warmth of gratitude, for he had
+saved them body and soul. They knew the care he had bestowed on him when
+he lay tossing with fever between life and death, and, shaking off the
+deadening apathy which ordinarily besets slavery, these unfortunate
+creatures evinced their indignation, or rather grief, most powerfully
+when they saw David lacerated by the whip. Mr. Willis, deeply
+exasperated, affected to discover in this manifestation the appearance
+of revolt, and, when he considered the influence which David had
+acquired over the slaves, he believed him capable of placing himself at
+the head of a rebellion to avenge himself of his wrongs. This fear was
+another motive with the colonist for using David in the most shameful
+manner, and entirely preventing him from effecting the malicious designs
+of which he suspected him."
+
+"Considering him as actuated by an irrepressible amount of terror, this
+conduct seems less stupid, but quite as ferocious."
+
+"A short time after these events we arrived in America. Monseigneur had
+freighted a Danish brig at St. Thomas's, and we visited incognito all
+the settlements of the American coast along which we were sailing. We
+were most hospitably received by Mr. Willis, who, the evening after our
+arrival, after he had been drinking, and as much from the excitement of
+wine as from a desire to boast, told us, in a horrid tone of brutal
+jesting, the history of David and Cecily. I forgot to say that, after
+having maltreated the girl, he had thrown her into a dungeon also, as a
+punishment for her disdain of him. His royal highness, on hearing
+Willis's fearful narration, thought the man was either drunk or a liar;
+but he was drunk,--it was no lie. To remove any and all doubt, the
+colonist rose from the table, and desired a slave to bear a lantern and
+conduct us to David's cell."
+
+"Well, what followed?"
+
+"In my life I never saw so distressing a spectacle. Pale, wan, meagre,
+half naked, and covered with wounds, David and the unhappy girl, chained
+by the middle of the body, one at one end and the other at the other end
+of the dungeon, looked like spectres. The lantern that lighted us threw
+over this scene a still more ghastly hue. David did not utter a word
+when he saw us; his gaze was fixed and fearful. The colonist said to
+him, with cruel irony, 'Well, doctor, how goes it? You, who are so
+clever, why don't you cure yourself?' The black replied by a noble word
+and a dignified gesture; he raised his right hand slowly, his forefinger
+pointed to the roof, and, without looking at the colonist, said in a
+solemn tone, 'God!' and then was silent. 'God?' replied the planter,
+bursting into a loud fit of laughter, 'tell him, then,--tell God to come
+and snatch you from my power! I defy him!' Then Willis, overcome by fury
+and intoxication, shook his fist to heaven, and said, in blasphemous
+language, 'Yes, I defy God to carry off my slaves before they are
+dead!'"
+
+"The man was mad as well as brutal."
+
+"We were utterly disgusted. Monseigneur did not say a word, and we left
+the cell. This dungeon was situated, as well as the house, on the
+seashore. We returned to our brig, which was moored a short distance
+off, and at one o'clock in the morning, when all in the building were
+plunged in profound sleep, monseigneur went on shore with eight men well
+armed, and, going straight to the prison, burst open the doors, and
+freed David and Cecily. The two victims were carried on board so quietly
+that they were not perceived; and then monseigneur and I went to the
+planter's house. Strange contrast! These men torture their slaves, and
+yet do not take any precaution against them, but sleep with doors and
+windows open. We easily got access to the sleeping-room of the planter,
+which was lighted on the inside by a small glass lamp. Monseigneur
+awakened the man, who sat upright in his bed, his brain still disturbed
+by the effect of his drunkenness. 'You have to-night defied God to carry
+off your two victims before their death, and he has taken them,' said
+monseigneur. Then taking a bag which I carried, and which contained
+twenty-five thousand francs in gold, he threw it on the fellow's bed,
+and added, 'This will indemnify you for the loss of your two slaves,--to
+your violence that destroys I oppose a violence that saves. God will
+judge between us.' We then retreated, leaving Mr. Willis stupefied,
+motionless, and believing himself under the influence of a dream. A few
+minutes later we were again on board the brig, which instantly set
+sail."
+
+"It appears to me, my dear Murphy, that his royal highness overpaid this
+wretch for the loss of his slaves; for, in fact, David no longer
+belonged to him."
+
+"We calculated, as nearly as we could, the expense which his studies had
+cost for eight years, and then the price, thrice over, of himself and
+Cecily as slaves. Our conduct was contrary to the rights of property, I
+know; but if you had seen in what a horrible state we found this
+unfortunate and half-dead couple, if you had heard the sacrilegious
+defiance almost cast in the face of the Almighty by this man, drunk with
+wine and ferocity, you would comprehend how monseigneur desired, as he
+said, on this occasion to act as it were in behalf of Providence."
+
+"All this is as assailable and as justifiable as the punishment of the
+Schoolmaster, my worthy squire. And had not this adventure any
+consequences?"
+
+"It could not. The brig was under Danish colours; the incognito of his
+royal highness was closely kept; we were taken for rich Englishmen. To
+whom could Willis have addressed his complaints, if he had any to make?
+In fact, he had told us himself, and the medical man of monseigneur
+declared it in a _procès verbal_, that the two slaves could not have
+lived eight days longer in this frightful dungeon. It required the
+greatest possible care to snatch David and Cecily from almost certain
+death. At last they were restored to life. From this period David has
+been attached to the suite of monseigneur as a medical man, and is most
+devotedly attached to him."
+
+"David married Cecily, of course, on arriving in Europe?"
+
+"This marriage, which ought to have been followed by results so happy,
+took place in the chapel of the palace of monseigneur; but, by a most
+extraordinary revulsion of conduct, hardly was she in the full enjoyment
+of an unhoped-for position, when, forgetting all that David had suffered
+for her and what she had suffered for him, blushing in the new world to
+be wedded to a black, Cecily, seduced by a man of most depraved morals,
+committed her first fault. It would seem as though the natural
+perversity of this abandoned woman, having till then slumbered, was
+suddenly awakened, and developed itself with fearful energy. You know
+the rest, and all the scandal of the adventures that followed. After
+having been two years a wife, David, whose confidence in her was only
+equalled by his love, learned the full extent of her infamy,--a
+thunderbolt aroused him from his blind security."
+
+"They say he tried to kill his wife."
+
+"Yes; but, through the interference of monseigneur, he consented to
+allow her to be immured for life in a prison, and it is thence that
+monseigneur now seeks to have her released,--to your great astonishment,
+as well as mine, my dear baron. But it is growing late, and his royal
+highness is anxious that your courier should start for Gerolstein with
+as little delay as possible."
+
+"In two hours' time he shall be on the road. So now, my dear Murphy,
+farewell till the evening."
+
+"Till the evening, adieu."
+
+"Have you, then, forgotten that there is a grand ball at the ----
+Embassy, and that his royal highness will be present?"
+
+"True. I have always forgotten that, since the absence of Colonel Verner
+and the Count d'Harneim, I have the honour to fulfil the functions of
+chamberlain and aide-de-camp."
+
+"Ah, apropos of the count and the colonel, when may we expect their
+return? Will they have soon completed their respective missions?"
+
+"You know that monseigneur will keep them away as long as possible,
+that he may enjoy more solitude and liberty. As to the errand on which
+his royal highness has employed each of them, as an ostensible motive
+for getting rid of them in a quiet way,--sending one to Avignon and the
+other to Strasbourg,--I will tell you all about it some day, when we are
+both in a dull mood; for I will defy the most hypochondriacal person in
+existence not to burst with laughter at the narrative, as well as with
+certain passages in the despatches of these worthy gentlemen, who have
+assumed their pretended missions with so serious an air."
+
+"To tell the truth, I have never clearly understood why his royal
+highness attached the colonel and the count to his private person."
+
+"Why, my dear fellow, is not Colonel Verner the accurate type of
+military perfection? Is there, in the whole Germanic confederation, a
+more elegant figure, more flourishing and splendid moustaches, and a
+more complete military figure? And when he is fully decorated, screwed
+in, uniformed, gold-laced, plumed, etc., etc., it is impossible to see a
+more glorious, self-satisfied, proud, handsome--animal."
+
+"True, but it is his very good looks that prevent him from having the
+appearance of a man of refined and acute intellect."
+
+"Well! and monseigneur says that, thanks to the colonel, he is in the
+habit of finding even the dullest people in the world bearable. Before
+certain audiences, which are of necessity, he shuts himself up with the
+colonel for a half-hour or so, and then leaves him, full of spirits and
+light as air, quite ready to meet bores and defy them."
+
+"Just as the Roman soldier who, before a forced march, used to sole his
+sandals with lead, and so found all fatigue light by leaving them off. I
+now discover the usefulness of the colonel. But the Count d'Harneim?"
+
+"Is also very serviceable to our dear lord; for, always hearing at his
+side the tinkling of this old cracked bell, shining and
+chattering,--continually seeing this soap-bubble so puffed up with
+nothingness, so magnificently variegated, and, as such, portraying the
+theatrical and puerile phase of sovereign power,--his royal highness
+feels the more sensibly the vanity of those barren pomps and glories of
+the world, and, by contrast, has often derived the most serious and
+happy ideas from the contemplation of his useless and pattering
+chamberlain."
+
+"Well, well; but let us be just, my dear Murphy: tell me, in what court
+in the world would you find a more perfect model of a chamberlain? Who
+knows better than dear old D'Harneim the numberless rules and strict
+observances of etiquette? Who bears with more becoming demeanour an
+enamelled cross around his neck, or more majestically comports himself
+when the keys of office are suspended from his shoulders?"
+
+"Apropos, baron; monseigneur declares that the shoulders of a
+chamberlain have a peculiar physiognomy: that is, he says, an appearance
+at once constrained and repulsive, which it is painful to look at; for,
+alas and alackaday! it is at the back of a chamberlain that the symbol
+of his office glitters, and, as monseigneur avers, the worthy D'Harneim
+always seems tempted to present himself backwards, that his importance
+may at once be seen, felt, and acknowledged."
+
+"The fact is, that the incessant subject of the count's meditations is
+to ascertain by what fatal imagination and direction the chamberlain's
+key has been placed behind the chamberlain's back; for it is related of
+him that he said, with his accustomed good sense, and with a kind of
+bitter grief, 'What, the devil! one does not open a door with one's
+back, at all events!'"
+
+"Baron, the courier! the courier!" said Murphy, pointing to the clock.
+
+"Sad old reprobate, to make me chatter thus! It is your fault. Present
+my respects to his royal highness," said M. de Graün, taking his hat up
+in haste. "And now, adieu till the evening, my dear Murphy."
+
+"Till the evening, my dear baron, fare thee well. It will be late before
+we meet, for I am sure that monseigneur will go this very day to pay a
+visit to the mysterious house in the Rue du Temple."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+A HOUSE IN THE RUE DU TEMPLE.
+
+
+In order to profit by the particulars furnished by Baron de Graün
+respecting La Goualeuse and Germain, the Schoolmaster's son, it became
+necessary for Rodolph to visit the house in the Rue du Temple, formerly
+the abode of that young man, whose retreat the prince likewise hoped to
+discover through the intervention of Mlle. Rigolette. Although prepared
+to find it a difficult task, inasmuch as it was more than probable, if
+the grisette were really sufficiently in Germain's confidence to be
+aware of his present abode, she also knew too well his anxiety to
+conceal it to be likely to give the desired information.
+
+By renting the chamber lately occupied by the young man, Rodolph,
+besides being on the spot to follow up his researches, considered he
+should also be enabled to observe closely the different individuals
+inhabiting the rest of the house.
+
+The same day on which the conversation passed between the Baron de Graün
+and Murphy, Rodolph, plainly and unpretendingly dressed, wended his way
+about three o'clock, on a gloomy November afternoon, towards the Rue du
+Temple.
+
+Situated in a district of much business and dense population, the house
+in question had nothing remarkable in its appearance; it was composed of
+a ground floor, occupied by a man keeping a low sort of dram-shop, and
+four upper stories, surmounted by attics. A dark and narrow alley led
+to a small yard, or, rather, a species of square well, of about five or
+six feet in width, completely destitute of either air or light, and
+serving as a pestilential receptacle for all the filth thrown by the
+various occupants of the respective chambers from the unglazed sashes
+with which each landing-place was provided.
+
+At the bottom of a damp, dismal-looking staircase, a glimmering light
+indicated the porter's residence, rendered smoky and dingy by the
+constant burning of a lamp, requisite, even at midday, to enlighten the
+gloomy hole, into which Rodolph entered for the purpose of asking leave
+to view the apartment then vacant.
+
+A lamp, placed behind a glass globe filled with water, served as a
+reflector; and by its light might be seen, at the far end of the "lodge"
+(as in courtesy it was styled), a bed, covered with a sort of patchwork
+counterpane, exhibiting a mingled mass of every known colour and
+material. A walnut-tree table graced the side of the room, bearing a
+variety of articles suited to the taste and ornamental notions of its
+owners. First in order appeared a little waxen Saint John, with a very
+fat lamb at his feet, and a large peruke of flowing white curls on his
+head, the whole enclosed in a cracked glass case, the joinings of which
+were ingeniously secured by slips of blue paper; secondly, a pair of old
+plated candlesticks, tarnished by time, and bearing, instead of lights,
+two gilded oranges,--doubtless an offering to the porteress on the last
+New Year's day; and, thirdly, two boxes, the one composed of variegated
+straw, the other covered with multitudinous shells, but both smelling
+strongly of the galleys or house of correction[10] (let us hope, for the
+sake of the morality of the porteress in the Rue du Temple, that these
+precious specimens were not presented to her from the original owners
+and fabricators of them); and, lastly, between the two boxes, and just
+beneath a circular clock, was suspended a pair of red morocco
+dress-boots, small enough for the feet of fairies, but elaborately and
+skilfully designed and completed. This _chef-d'oeuvre_, as the ancient
+masters of the craft would style them, joined to the fantastic designs
+sketched on the walls representing boots and shoes, abundantly indicated
+that the porter of this establishment devoted his time and his talents
+to the repairing of shoes and shoe leather.
+
+ [10] These boxes were the exclusive manufacture of the criminals
+ confined either in the galleys or prisons, and who spent nearly
+ all their spare hours in making them.
+
+At the instant when Rodolph ventured into the smoky den, M. Pipelet, the
+porter, temporarily absent, had left his better half, Madame Pipelet, as
+his representative. This individual was seated by the stove in the
+centre of the lodge, deeply engrossed in watching the boiling of a pot
+placed over it. The description of Madame Pipelet may be given in a few
+words. She was the most ugly, forbidding, wrinkled, toothless old hag
+one might meet in the course of a long life. Her dress was dirty,
+tawdry, and untidy; while her head-dress was composed of a Brutus wig,
+originally of a blond colour, but changed by time into every shade of
+red, brown, and yellow, the stiff ends of the perished hair standing out
+like the ears of wheat in a wheat-sheaf. Much did Madame Pipelet pride
+herself upon this tasteful covering to her sexagenarian skull; nor was
+it believed she ever laid it aside, whether sleeping or waking.
+
+At the sight of Rodolph the porteress inquired, in a surly tone:
+
+"Well, and pray what do you want?"
+
+"I believe, madame," replied Rodolph, laying a profound emphasis on the
+word madame, "I believe there is an apartment to be let in this house?"
+
+The deep respect implied in his voice and words somewhat mollified the
+porteress, who answered, rather less sourly:
+
+[Illustration: "_This Individual Was Seated by the Stove_"
+Original Etching by Adrian Marcel]
+
+"Yes, there is a room to let on the fourth floor, but you cannot see it
+now,--Alfred has gone out."
+
+"You are speaking of your son, I presume, madame; may I take the liberty
+of asking whether he is expected in shortly?"
+
+"I am not speaking of my son, but my husband. I suppose there is no act
+of parliament why my Pipelet should not be called 'Alfred.' Is there,
+pray?"
+
+"None, certainly, madame, that I am aware of; but, with your kind
+permission, I will await his return. I am very desirous of taking the
+vacant chamber,--both the street and neighbourhood suit me; and the
+admirable order in which the house seems kept pleases me excessively.
+But, previously to viewing the lodging I am anxious to take, I should be
+very glad to ascertain whether you, madame, could do me the favour to
+take the management of my little housekeeping off my hands? I never like
+to have any one about me but the authorised housekeeper belonging to the
+house, when such arrangements meet with their approbation."
+
+This proposition, so flatteringly expressed, and the word "housekeeper"
+completely won Madame Pipelet, who replied:
+
+"With the greatest of pleasure, sir, I will attend to all you require. I
+am sure I shall be proud to wait upon such a gentleman; and, for the
+small charge of six francs a month, you shall be treated like a prince."
+
+"Then for six francs a month, I may reckon upon your valuable services.
+Will you permit me to ask your name?"
+
+"Pomona Fortunata Anastasia Pipelet."
+
+"Well, then, Madame Pipelet, having agreed as to your own terms, will
+you be pleased to tell me those for the apartment I wish to engage?"
+
+"With the adjoining small closet, one hundred and fifty francs a
+month,--not a farthing less. The principal lessee is a screw,--a regular
+skinflint."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"M. Bras Rouge."
+
+This name, and the remembrances so unexpectedly presented by it, made
+Rodolph start.
+
+"I think, Madame Pipelet, you were saying that the principal lessee of
+the house is----"
+
+"M. Bras Rouge."
+
+"And he lives----"
+
+"Rue aux Fêves, No. 13. He also keeps an estaminet near the Champs
+Elysées."
+
+All doubt was then at an end,--it was the Bras Rouge of infamous
+notoriety; and singular indeed did the circumstance of thus coming
+across him strike Rodolph.
+
+"But though M. Bras Rouge is your principal lessee, he is not, I
+presume, the owner of the house; may I ask who is?"
+
+"M. Bourdon; but I have never had communication with any one besides M.
+Bras Rouge."
+
+With the design of still further ingratiating himself with the
+porteress, Rodolph resumed:
+
+"My dear madame, this cold day would make a little of something warm and
+comfortable very acceptable. Might I venture to solicit the favour of
+your stepping as far as the spirit-shop, kept so conveniently at hand,
+and bring a bottle of cassia and two glasses? For I feel very tired, and
+the cold has quite seized me. Stay, madame, we will have three glasses,
+if you please; because I hope your husband will join us when he
+returns."
+
+So saying, he placed a franc in the fat, dirty hand of the porteress.
+
+"Ah, monsieur, you are determined to make us all fall in love with you!"
+cried Madame Pipelet, nodding her approval of the commission, and
+thereby sending the flush of pleasure into a face glowing with all the
+fiery honours of an excited Bacchante.
+
+"To be sure! There is nothing like a drop of really good cordial such a
+day as this; and they do keep most excellent here at hand. I'll go,--of
+course I will; but I shall only bring a couple of glasses, for Alfred
+and I always drink out of the same glass. Poor old darling! he is so
+very nice and particular in showing all those sort of delicate
+attentions to women."
+
+"Then go along, my good Madame Pipelet, and we will wait till Alfred
+comes."
+
+"But, then, suppose any one wants me whilst I am out, who will mind the
+lodge?"
+
+"Oh, I'll take care of the lodge."
+
+The old woman departed on her agreeable errand.
+
+At the termination of a few minutes the postman tapped at the lodge
+window, and putting his hand into the apartment, presented two letters,
+merely saying, "Three sous."
+
+"Six sous, you mean, for two letters," replied Rodolph.
+
+"One is free," answered the man.
+
+Having paid and dismissed the postman, Rodolph mechanically examined the
+two letters thus committed to his charge; but at a further glance they
+seemed to him worthy a more attentive observation. The epistle addressed
+to Madame Pipelet exhaled through its hot-pressed envelope a strong
+odour of Russia leather; it bore, on a seal of red wax, the initials "C.
+R." surmounted by a helmet, and supported by a cross of the Legion of
+Honour. The direction was written in a firm, bold hand. The heraldic
+device of the commingled casque and cross made Rodolph smile, and
+confirmed him in the idea that the writer of the letter in question was
+not a female. Who was this scented, emblazoned correspondent of old
+Anastasia Pipelet? Rodolph felt an undefinable curiosity to know. The
+other epistle, written upon coarse and common paper, was united only by
+a common wafer, pricked over with the point of a pin, and was addressed
+to "M. César Bradamanti, Operating Dentist." Evidently disguised, the
+superscription was entirely composed of capital letters. Whether founded
+on a true or false presage, this letter seemed to Rodolph to wear a
+mournful look, as though evil or misery were contained within its shabby
+folds. He perceived that some of the letters in the direction were
+fainter than the others, and that the paper there seemed a little
+rumpled: a tear had evidently fallen upon it.
+
+Madame Pipelet returned, bearing the bottle of cassia and two glasses.
+
+"I have dawdled,--have I not, monsieur?" said she, gaily. "But let you
+once get into that good Père Joseph's shop, and it is hard work to get
+out again. Oh, that old man is a very insinuating----"
+
+"Here, madame," interrupted Rodolph, "here are two letters the postman
+left while you were gone."
+
+"Dear me! Two letters! Pray excuse me, monsieur. I suppose you paid for
+them?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"You are very good. I tell you what, then, we will settle that out of
+the first money you have to pay me; how much was it?"
+
+"Three sous," answered Rodolph, much amused at the ingenious method of
+reimbursement employed by Madame Pipelet. "But may I, without offence,
+observe that one of the letters is addressed to you, and that you
+possess in the writer a correspondent whose _billets-doux_ are
+marvellously well perfumed?"
+
+"Let us see what it is about," said the porteress, taking the epistle in
+the scented envelope. "Yes, upon my word, it is scented up like a real
+_billet-doux_! Now, I should very much like to know who would dare write
+_me_ a love-letter! He must be a villain!"
+
+"And suppose it had fallen into your husband's hands, Madame Pipelet?"
+
+"Oh, for goodness' sake don't mention that, or I shall faint away in
+your arms! But how stupid I am! Now I know all about it," replied the
+fat porteress, shrugging her shoulders. "To be sure! to be sure! it
+comes from the Commandant! Lord bless me, what a fright I have had! for
+Alfred is as jealous as a Turk."
+
+"Here is another letter addressed to M. César Bradamanti."
+
+"Ah! to be sure, the dentist on the third floor. I will put it in the
+letter-boot."
+
+Rodolph fancied he had not caught the right words, but, to his
+astonishment, he saw Madame Pipelet gravely throw the letter alluded to
+into an old top-boot hanging up against the wall. He looked at her with
+surprise.
+
+"Do you mean," said he at length, "to put the gentleman's letter in----"
+
+"Oh, yes, that is all right," replied the porteress. "I have put it in
+the letter-boot,--there, you see. So now nobody's letters can be
+mislaid; and when the different lodgers return home, Alfred or myself
+turns the boot upside down,--we sort them out, and everybody gets his
+own."
+
+So saying, the porteress proceeded to break the seal of the letter
+addressed to her; which having done, she turned it round and round,
+looked at it in every direction, then, after a short appearance of
+embarrassment and uncertainty, she said to Rodolph:
+
+"Alfred generally reads my letters for me, because I do not happen to be
+able to read them myself; perhaps you would not mind just looking over
+this for me?"
+
+"With the utmost pleasure!" quickly replied Rodolph, curious to dive
+into the mysteries of who Madame Pipelet's correspondent might be; and
+forthwith he read what follows, written upon hot-pressed paper, stamped
+in its right-hand corner with the helmet, the letters "C. R.," the
+heraldic supporters, and the cross of honour.
+
+ "To-morrow (Friday), about eleven o'clock, let there be a good
+ (not an overfierce) fire lighted in both rooms; have everything
+ well dusted, and remove the coverings from the furniture, taking
+ especial care not to scratch the gilding, or to soil or burn the
+ carpet while lighting the fires. If I should not be in about one
+ o'clock, when a lady will arrive in a hackney-coach and inquire
+ for me by the name of M. Charles, let her be shown up to the
+ apartment; after which the key is to be taken down-stairs again,
+ and kept till my arrival."
+
+Spite of the want of finished composition displayed in this _billet_,
+Rodolph perfectly comprehended to whom and what it alluded, and merely
+added, after perusing it:
+
+"Who lives on the first floor, then?"
+
+The old woman placed her yellow, shrivelled finger upon her pendulous
+lip, and replied, by a half-malicious grin:
+
+"Hush! There is a woman in the way,--silence!"
+
+"Oh, my dear Madame Pipelet, I merely asked because, before living in a
+house, one likes to know a little."
+
+"Yes, yes! Of course, everybody likes to know all they can; that is all
+fair enough; and I am sure I have no objection to tell you all I know
+myself, and that is but very little. Well, but to begin. About six weeks
+ago a carpet-maker came here to look at the first floor, which was then
+to let, and to ask the price, and other particulars about it. Next day
+he came again, accompanied by a young man of fair complexion, small
+moustaches, and wearing a cross of honour and very fine linen. The
+carpet-maker called him commandant."
+
+"A military man, I suppose?" said Rodolph.
+
+"Military!" exclaimed Madame Pipelet, with a chuckle. "Not he! Why,
+Alfred might as well call himself porter to a prince."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, he is only in the National Guard! The carpet-maker only called him
+commandant to flatter him: just the same as it tickles up Alfred's
+vanity to be styled _concierge_ instead of porter. So when the
+commandant (that is the only name we know him by) had looked over the
+rooms, he said to the upholsterer, his friend, 'Well, I think the place
+will do for me,--just see the landlord, and arrange all about it.' 'Yes,
+commandant,' says the other. And the very next day the upholsterer-man
+signed the lease with M. Bras Rouge (in his own name, mind you); and,
+further, paid six months in advance, because, he said, the gentleman did
+not wish to be bored about references. And such a power of fine
+furniture as was sent into the first floor! _Sophesus_ (sarcophagus)
+curtains, all silk; glasses set in gold, and everything you can mention,
+all beautiful enough to astonish you; just, for all the world, like one
+of them grand cafes on the Boulevards! As for the carpets,--oh, you
+never trod on the like of them, I'll be bound. Put your foot on them,
+and you'd fancy you was stepping on velvet, and take it off again for
+fear of spoiling it. When everything was completed, the commandant came
+to look at it,--just to see if he could find out anything more he
+wanted; but he could not. So then he spoke to Alfred, and says he,
+'Could you take charge of my rooms and keep them in nice order, light
+fires from time to time, and get them ready for me when I wish to occupy
+them? I shall not be here often,' says he, 'and would always write you a
+line before coming, to give you time to prepare them.' 'Yes, commandant,
+I can,' answers my flatterer of an Alfred. 'And what shall you charge?'
+'Twenty francs a month, commandant.' 'Twenty francs!' exclaimed the
+commandant. 'Why, porter, you are jesting, surely!' And hereupon he
+began bating Alfred down in the most shabby manner, trying to squeeze
+poor people like us out of two or three miserable francs, when he had
+been squandering thousands in fitting up his grand apartments, which,
+after all, he did not mean to live in! However, after a deal of
+battling, we got twelve francs a month out of him,--a paltry, pitiful,
+two-farthing captain! What a difference, now, between you and him!"
+added the porteress, addressing Rodolph with an admiring glance. "You
+don't call yourself fine names and titles,--you only look like a plain
+body,--you must be poor, or you would not perch yourself on the fourth
+floor; and yet you agreed with me for six francs, without attempting to
+bate me down!"
+
+"And when did the commandant pay you his next visit?"
+
+"I'll tell you,--and good fun it is, too. My gentleman must have been
+nicely choused by somebody. Three times did he write (same as to-day),
+ordering us to light a fire and have everything ready for the reception
+of a lady he expected would come. Come! Yes, I daresay he may expect a
+long time first, I rather think."
+
+"Nobody came then?"
+
+"Listen. The first time the commandant arrived, strutting and swelling
+like a turkey-cock, humming and singing, after his manner, all the gay
+tunes of the day, walking up and down his fine room with his hands stuck
+in his pockets, and occasionally stopping to arrange his hair before the
+glass,--we were watching him all the time. Well, this went on for two or
+three hours, when, I suppose, he knew it was no use waiting any longer;
+so he came down-stairs very softly, and with quite a different manner to
+the pride and consequence he had marched up with. By way of teasing him,
+Pipelet and I went out to him and said, 'Commandant, there has been no
+lady whatever to inquire for you,' 'Very well! Very well!' exclaimed he,
+half mad and half ashamed of being laughed at, and, buttoning up his
+coat, he walked off as fast as he could. The next time, before he came
+himself, a small note was brought here by a man, directed to M. Charles;
+I strongly suspected he was done again, and Pipelet and me were enjoying
+a hearty good laugh over it when the commandant arrived. 'Captain,'
+says I, putting the back of my hand up to my wig, by way of military
+salute, 'here is a letter for you, but I am afraid it contains news of a
+second countermarch against you.' He looked at me sour as a crab,
+snatched the letter from my hand, read it, turned scarlet as a boiled
+lobster, then walked off, pretending to whistle; but he was finely
+vexed,--ready to hang himself, I could see he was,--and it was rare nuts
+to me. 'Go, and swallow that pill, my two-farthing captain,' says I to
+myself; 'that serves you right for only giving twelve francs a month for
+minding your apartments.'"
+
+"And the third time?"
+
+"Ah, the third time I really thought it was all right. The commandant
+arrived more stuck up with pride than ever; his eyes staring with
+self-satisfied admiration at himself and the certainty of not being
+disappointed this time. Let me tell the truth about him; he really is a
+good-looking man, and dresses well, though he stinks of musk like a
+civet cat. Well, there was my gentleman arrayed in all his finery, and
+scarcely condescending to look at us poor folks; he seemed as though he
+conferred a favour on the earth by deigning to walk on it, and went,
+sticking his nose into the air, as if he meant to touch the clouds with
+it. He took the key, and said to us, as he passed up-stairs, in a
+jeering, self-complacent tone, as though to revenge himself for having
+been laughed at twice before, 'You will direct the lady to my apartments
+when she comes.' Well, Pipelet and I were so anxious to see the lady he
+expected, though we did not much reckon upon her keeping her
+appointment, even if she ever made one, that we went and hid ourselves
+behind the little door that belongs to the alley; and, behold! in a
+short time a blue hackney-coach, with its blinds drawn down, stopped at
+the entrance to the house. 'There she is!' says I to Alfred. 'There is
+his madame; let's keep back a bit for fear we frighten her away.' The
+coachman got off his box and opened the door. Then we saw a female,
+closely covered with a black veil, and carrying a muff; she had
+apparently been crying, for she kept her handkerchief to her face; for
+when the steps were let down, instead of alighting, she said some few
+words to the driver, who, much surprised, shut the door up again."
+
+"Then the lady did not get out?"
+
+"No! she threw herself back in the coach and pressed her handkerchief
+tightly to her eyes. I rushed out, and before the coachman had time to
+get on his seat again, I called out, 'Hallo, there, coachy! are you
+going back again?' 'Yes,' says he. 'Where?' says I. 'Where I came from,'
+answers he. 'And where did you come from?' asks I again. 'From the Rue
+St. Dominique, corner of the Rue Belle Chasse.'"
+
+Rodolph started at these words. His dearest friend, the Marquis
+d'Harville, who, as elsewhere stated, had been for some time labouring
+under a deep melancholy none could penetrate, lived in the very place
+just mentioned by Madame Pipelet. Could this mysterious female in the
+blue _fiacre_ be the Marquise d'Harville? And was it from the lightness
+and frivolity of her conduct that the mind of her excellent husband was
+bowed down by doubts and misgivings? These painful suggestions crowded
+on Rodolph's mind, but, although well acquainted with all the various
+guests received by the marquise, he could recollect no one answering the
+description of the commandant; added to which, any female might have
+taken a hackney-coach from that spot without necessarily living in the
+street. There was really nothing to identify the unknown of the blue
+_fiacre_ with Madame d'Harville, and yet a thousand vague fears and
+painful suspicions crossed his mind; his uneasy manner and deep
+abstraction did not escape the porteress.
+
+"What are you thinking of, sir?" asked she at length.
+
+"I was wondering what could have induced the lady, after coming to the
+very door, to change her mind so suddenly."
+
+"There is no saying; some sudden thought,--dread or fear,--for we poor
+women are but weak, cowardly things," said the porteress, assuming a
+timid, frightened manner. "Well, I think if it had been myself now,
+coming secretly to visit Alfred, I should have had to try back a great
+many times before I could have screwed up my courage to venture in. But
+then, as for visiting your great dons in this kind of way, I never could
+have done such a thing. No, never! I am sure there is nobody under the
+face of heaven can say I ever give them the least freedom,--I should
+think not, indeed, while my poor dear old darling of a husband is left."
+
+"No doubt,--no doubt, Madame Pipelet; but about the young person you
+were describing in the blue _fiacre_?"
+
+"Oh! mind, I don't know whether she was young or old; I could not even
+catch a glimpse of the tip of her nose; all I can say is she went as she
+came, and that is all about it. As for Alfred and me, we were better
+pleased than if we had found ten francs."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"By enjoying the rage and confusion of the commandant when he found
+himself a third time disappointed; but, instead of going and telling him
+at once that his 'madame' had been and gone, we allowed him to fume and
+fret for a whole hour. Then I went softly up-stairs with only my list
+slippers on. I reached his door, which I found half shut; as I pushed
+against it, it creaked; the staircase is as black as night, and the
+entrance to the apartment quite as obscure. Scarcely had I crept into
+the room, when the commandant caught me in his arms, saying, in a
+languishing voice, 'My dearest angel! what makes you so late?'"
+
+Spite of the serious nature of the thoughts crowding upon his mind,
+Rodolph could not restrain a smile as he surveyed the grotesque periwig
+and hideously wrinkled, carbuncled visage of the heroine of this comic
+scene.
+
+Madame Pipelet, however, resumed her narration with a mirthful chuckle
+that increased her ugliness:
+
+"That was a go, wasn't it? But stop a bit. Well, I did not make the
+least reply, but, almost keeping in my breath, I waited to see what
+would be the end of this strange reception. For a minute or two the
+commandant kept hugging me up, then, all of a sudden, the brute pushed
+me away, exclaiming with as much disgust as though he had touched a
+toad, 'Who the devil are you?' 'Me, commandant,--the porteress,--Madame
+Pipelet; and, as such, I will thank you to keep your hands off my waist,
+and not to call me your angel, and scold me for being late. Suppose
+Alfred had heard you, a pretty business we should have made of it!'
+'What the deuce brings you here?' cried he. 'Merely to let you know the
+lady in the hackney-coach has just arrived!' 'Well, then, you stupid old
+fool, show her up directly. Did I not tell you to do so?' 'Yes,
+commandant; you said I was to show her up.' 'Then why do you not obey
+me?' 'Because the lady--' 'Speak out, woman, if you can!' 'The lady has
+gone again.' 'Something you have said or done, then, to offend her, I am
+sure!' roared he in a perfect fury. 'Not at all, commandant. The lady
+did not alight, but when the coach stopped and the driver opened the
+door, she desired him to take her back to where she came from.' 'The
+vehicle cannot have got far by this time,' exclaimed the commandant,
+hastening towards the door. 'It has been gone upwards of an hour,'
+answered I, enjoying his fury and disappointment. 'An hour! an hour! and
+what, in the devil's name, hindered you from letting me know this
+sooner?' 'Because, commandant, Alfred and I thought we would spare you
+as long as we could the tidings of this third breakdown, which we
+fancied might be too much for you.' Come, thinks I, there is something
+to make you remember flinging me out of your arms, as though it made you
+sick to touch me. 'Begone!' bawled out the commandant. 'You hideous old
+hag! You can neither say nor do the thing that is right,' and with this
+he pulled off his dressing-gown and threw his beautiful Greek cap, made
+of velvet embroidered with gold, on the ground: it was a real shame, for
+the cap was a downright beauty; and as for the dressing-gown, oh, my! it
+would set anybody longing. Meanwhile the commandant kept pacing the
+room, with his eyes glaring like a wild beast and glowing like two
+glow-worms."
+
+"But were you not afraid of losing his employ?"
+
+"He knew too well what he was about for that; we had him in a fix, we
+knew where his 'madame' lived, and had he said anything to us, we should
+have threatened to expose the whole affair. And who do you think for his
+beggarly twelve francs would have undertaken to attend to his rooms,--a
+stranger? No! That we would have prevented; we would soon have made the
+place too hot to hold any person he might appoint,--poor, shabby fellow
+that he is! What do you think? He actually had the meanness to examine
+his wood and put out the quantity he should allow to be burnt while he
+was away. He is nothing but an upstart, I am sure,--a nobody, who has
+suddenly tumbled into money he does not know how to spend properly,--a
+rich man's head and a beggar's body, who squanders with one hand and
+nips and pinches with the other. I do not wish him any harm, but it
+amuses me immensely to think how he has been befooled; and he will go on
+believing and expecting from day to day, because he is too vain to
+imagine he is being laughed at. At any rate, if the lady ever comes in
+reality, I will let my friend the oyster-woman next door know; she
+enjoys a joke as well as I do, and is quite as curious as myself to find
+out what sort of person she is, whether fair or dark, pretty or plain.
+And--who knows?--this woman may be cheating some easygoing simpleton of
+a husband for the sake of our two-penny-halfpenny of a commandant! Well,
+that is no concern of mine, but I am sorry, too, for the poor, dear,
+deceived individual, whoever he may be. Dear me! Dear me! My pot is
+boiling over,--excuse me a minute, I must just look to it. Ah, it is
+time Alfred was in, for dinner is quite ready, and tripe, you know,
+should never be kept waiting. This tripe is done to a turn. Do you
+prefer the thick or thin tripe? Alfred likes it thick. The poor darling
+has been sadly out of spirits lately, and I got this dainty dish to
+cheer him up a bit; for, as Alfred says himself, that for a bribe of
+good thick tripe he would betray France itself,--his beloved France.
+Yes, the dear old pet would change his country for such fine fat tripe
+as this, he would."
+
+While Madame Pipelet was thus delivering her domestic harangue upon the
+virtues of tripe and the powerful influence it possessed over even the
+patriotism of her husband, Rodolph was buried in the deepest and most
+sombre reflections. The female, whose visits to the house had just been
+detailed, be she the Marquise d'Harville or any other individual, had
+evidently long struggled with her imprudence ere she had brought herself
+to grant a first and second rendezvous, and then, terrified at the
+probable consequences of her imprudence, a salutary remorse had, in all
+probability, prevented her from fulfilling her dangerous engagement. It
+might be that the fine person this M. Charles was described as
+possessing had captivated the senses of Madame d'Harville, whom Rodolph
+knew well as a woman of deep feeling, high intellect, and superior
+taste, of an elevated turn of mind, and a reputation unsullied by the
+faintest breath of slander. After long and mature consideration, he
+succeeded in persuading himself that the wife of his friend had nothing
+to do with the unknown female in the blue _fiacre_. Madame Pipelet,
+having completed her culinary arrangements, resumed her conversation
+with Rodolph.
+
+"And who lives on the second floor?" inquired he of the porteress.
+
+"Why, Mother Burette does,--a most wonderful woman at fortune-telling;
+bless you, she can read in your hand the same as a book, and many quite
+first-rate people come to her to have the cards consulted when they are
+anxious about any particular matter. She earns her weight in gold, and
+that is not a trifle, for she is a rare bundle of an old body. However,
+telling fortunes is only one of her means of gaining a livelihood."
+
+"Why, what does she do besides?"
+
+"She keeps what you would call a pawnbroker's shop upon a small scale."
+
+"I see; your second-floor lodger lends out again the money she derives
+from her skill in foretelling events by reading the cards."
+
+"Exactly so; only she is cheaper and more easy to deal with than the
+regular pawnbrokers: she does not confuse you with a heap of paper
+tickets and duplicates,--nothing of the sort. Now suppose: Some one
+brings Mother Burette a shirt worth three francs; well, she lends ten
+sous upon condition of being paid twenty at the end of the week,
+otherwise she keeps the shirt for ever. That is simple enough, is it
+not? Always in round figures, you see,--a child could understand it. And
+the odd things she has brought her as pledges you would scarcely
+believe. You can hardly guess what she sometimes is asked to lend upon.
+I saw her once advance money upon a gray parrot that swore like a
+trooper,--the blackguard did."
+
+"A parrot? But to what amount did she advance money?"
+
+"I'll tell you; the parrot was well known; it belonged to a Madame
+Herbelot, the widow of a factor, living close by, and it was also well
+understood that Madame Herbelot valued the parrot as much as she did her
+life. Well, Mother Burette said to her, 'I will lend you ten francs on
+your bird, but if by this day week at twelve o'clock I do not receive
+twenty francs with interest (it would amount to that in round numbers),
+if I am not paid my twenty francs, with the expenses of his keep, I
+shall give your Polly a trifling dose of arsenic mixed with his food.'
+She knew her customer well, bless you! However, by this threat Mother
+Burette received her twenty francs at the end of seven days, and Madame
+Herbelot got back her disagreeable, screaming parrot."
+
+"Mother Burette has no other way of living besides the two you have
+named, I suppose?"
+
+"Not that I know of. I don't know, however, what to say of some rather
+sly and secret transactions, carried on in a small room she never allows
+any one to enter, except M. Bras Rouge and an old one-eyed woman, called
+La Chouette."
+
+Rodolph opened his eyes with unmixed astonishment as these names sounded
+on his ear, and the porteress, interpreting the surprise of her future
+lodger according to her own notions, said:
+
+"That name would make any one stare with astonishment. Certainly La
+Chouette is uncommonly odd; is it not?"
+
+"It is, indeed. Does the woman who is so styled come here frequently?"
+
+"We saw her the day before yesterday, for the first time these six
+weeks. She was rather lame, I observed."
+
+"And what do you suppose she wants with the fortune-telling woman?"
+
+"That I do not know; at least, as to what takes place in the little room
+I was telling you of, where La Chouette alone is admitted with M. Bras
+Rouge and Mother Burette. I have, however, particularly observed that on
+those occasions the one-eyed woman always has a large bundle with her
+in her basket, and that M. Bras Rouge also carries a parcel of some size
+beneath his cloak, and that they always return empty-handed."
+
+"And what can these packets contain?"
+
+"The Lord above knows, for I don't; only they kick up the devil's own
+row with them, whatever they are. And then such whiffs of sulphur,
+charcoal, and melted lead, as you go up the stairs; and blow, blow,
+blow, like a smith's forge. I verily believe Mother Burette has dealings
+with the old one, and practises magic in this private apartment;
+leastways, that is what M. César Bradamanti, our third-floor lodger,
+said to me. A very clever individual is M. César. When I say an
+'individual,' I mean an Italian, though he speaks as good French as you
+or me, excepting his accent, and that is nothing. Oh, he is very clever,
+indeed! knows all about physic; and pulls out teeth, not for the sake of
+the money but the honour of his profession,--yes, really, sir, for
+downright honour. Now, suppose you had six decayed teeth,--and he says
+the same thing to all who choose to listen to him,--well, then he will
+take out five for nothing, and only charge you for the sixth. Besides
+which, he sells all manner of remedies for all sorts of
+complaints,--diseases of the lungs, coughs, colds, every complaint you
+can name; but then he makes his own drugs, and he has for his assistant
+the son of our principal lessee, little Tortillard. He says that his
+master is going to buy himself a horse and a red coat, and to sell his
+drugs in the market-places, and that young Tortillard is to be dressed
+like a page and be at the drum, to attract customers."
+
+"This seems to me a very humble occupation for the son of your principal
+lessee."
+
+"Why, his father says unless he gets a pretty strong hand over him, and
+a tolerably powerful taste of whipcord, in the way of a sound thrashing,
+every now and then, he is safe to come to the scaffold. And he is about
+the ugliest, most spiteful, ill-disposed young rascal one would wish to
+meet: he has played more than one abominable trick upon poor M. César
+Bradamanti, who is the best creature possible; for he cured Alfred of a
+rheumatic attack, and I promise you we have not forgotten it. Yet there
+are some people wicked enough to--But no, I will not tell you: it would
+make the hair of your head stand on end. As Alfred says, if it were
+true, it would send him to the galleys."
+
+"Why, what do they accuse him of?"
+
+"Oh, I really cannot tell you! I can't, indeed; for it is so--"
+
+"Then we will drop the subject."
+
+"And to say such things of a young man! Upon my life and soul, it is too
+bad."
+
+"Pray, Madame Pipelet, do not give yourself the trouble of saying any
+more about it: let us speak of other matters."
+
+"Why, I don't know but, as you are to live in the house, it is only fair
+and right to prepare you for any falsehoods you may hear. I suppose you
+are sufficiently well off to make the acquaintance of M. César
+Bradamanti, and unless you are put on your guard against these reports,
+they might lead to your breaking off with him. So, just put your ear
+down and I'll whisper what it is people say about him."
+
+And the old woman, in a low tone, muttered a few words as Rodolph
+inclined his head; he started from her, with mingled disgust and horror.
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed he. "Surely human nature is not capable of such
+crimes!"
+
+"Shocking! Is it not? But treat it as I do,--all scandal and lies. What,
+do you think the man who cured Alfred's rheumatism,--who draws five
+teeth out of six for nothing,--who has testimonies (testimonials) from
+every prince and king in the world,--and, above all, pays as he goes,
+down on the nail, would go for to do such things? Not he! I'll stake my
+blessed life upon it."
+
+While Madame Pipelet thus vented her indignant opinion concerning the
+reports in circulation, Rodolph recalled to his memory the letter he had
+seen addressed to the quack dentist; he remembered the counterfeited
+writing and the coarse, common paper, stained with tears, which had
+well-nigh obliterated part of the address,--too well did he see in the
+mysterious grief-stained epistle the opening of a drama of deep and
+fearful import; and while these sad presages filled his mind, a powerful
+impression whispered within him that the dreadful doings ascribed to the
+Italian were not altogether unfounded.
+
+"Oh, I declare, here comes Alfred!" exclaimed the porteress. "Now he
+will tell you his opinion of all these spiteful stories about poor M.
+Bradamanti. Bless you! Alfred thinks him as innocent as a lamb, ever
+since he cured his rheumatics."
+
+M. Pipelet entered the lodge with a grave, magisterial air. He was about
+sixty years of age, comfortably fat, with a large, broad countenance,
+strongly resembling in its cast and style the faces carved upon the
+far-famed nutcrackers of Nuremberg; a nose, of more than ordinary
+proportions, helping to complete the likeness. An old and dingy-looking
+hat, with a very deep brim, surmounted the whole. Alfred, who adhered to
+this upper ornament as tenaciously as his wife did to her Brutus wig,
+was further attired in an ancient green coat, with immense flaps turned
+up with grease,--if so might be described the bright and shiny patches
+of long-accumulated dirt, which had given an entirely different hue to
+some portions of the garment. But, though clad in a hat and coat
+esteemed by Pipelet and his wife as closely resembling full dress,
+Alfred had not laid aside the modest emblem of his trade, but from his
+waist uprose the buff-coloured triangular front of his leathern apron,
+partly concealing a waistcoat boasting nearly as great a variety of
+colours as did the patchwork counterpane of Madame Pipelet.
+
+The porter's recognition of Rodolph as he entered was gracious in the
+extreme; but, alas! he smiled a melancholy welcome, and his countenance
+and languid air marked a man of secret sorrow.
+
+"Alfred," said Madame Pipelet, when she had introduced her two
+companions, "here is a gentleman after the apartment on the fourth
+floor, and we have only been waiting for you to drink a glass of cordial
+he sent for."
+
+This delicate attention won for Rodolph the entire trust and confidence
+of the melancholy porter, who, touching the brim of his hat, said, in a
+deep bass voice worthy of being employed in a cathedral:
+
+"We shall give the gentleman every satisfaction as porters, and,
+doubtless, he will act the same by us as a lodger; 'birds of a feather
+flock together,' as the proverb says." Then, interrupting himself, M.
+Pipelet anxiously added, "Providing, sir, you are not a painter!"
+
+"No, I am not a painter, but a plain merchant's clerk."
+
+"My most humble duty to you, sir. I congratulate you that Nature did not
+make you one of those monsters called artists."
+
+"Artists, monsters!" returned Rodolph. "Tell me, pray, why you style
+them so."
+
+Instead of replying, M. Pipelet elevated his clasped hands towards the
+ceiling, and allowed a heavy sound, between a grunt and a groan, to
+escape his overcharged breast.
+
+"You must know, sir," said Madame Pipelet, in a low tone, to Rodolph,
+"that painters have embittered Alfred's life; they have worried my poor
+old dear almost out of his senses, and made him half stupefied, as you
+see him now." Then speaking loud, she added, in a caressing tone, "Oh,
+never mind the blackguard, there's a dear, but try and forget all about
+it, or you will be ill, and unable to eat the nice tripe I have got for
+your dinner."
+
+"Let us hope I shall have courage and firmness enough for all things,"
+replied M. Pipelet, with a dignified and resigned air; "but he has done
+me much harm; he has been my persecutor, almost my executioner,--long
+have I suffered, but now I despise him! Ah," said he, turning to
+Rodolph, "never allow a painter to enter your doors; they are the
+plague--the ruin--the destruction of a house!"
+
+"You have, then, had a painter lodging with you, I presume?"
+
+"Unhappily, sir, I did have one," replied M. Pipelet, with much
+bitterness, "and that one named Cabrion. Ah!"
+
+At the recollections brought back by this name, the porter's declaration
+of courage and endurance utterly failed him, and again his clenched
+fists were raised, as though to invoke the vengeance he had so lately
+described himself as despising.
+
+"And was this individual the last occupant of the chamber I am about
+engaging?" inquired Rodolph.
+
+"No, no! The last lodger was an excellent young man named M. Germain.
+No, this Cabrion had the room before he came. Ah, sir, since Cabrion
+left, he has all but driven me stark staring mad!"
+
+"Did you, then, so much regret him?" asked Rodolph.
+
+"Regret him! Regret Cabrion!" screamed the astounded porter; "why, only
+imagine, M. Bras Rouge paid him two quarters' rent to induce him to quit
+the place, for, unluckily, he had taken his apartments for a term. What
+a scamp he was! You have no idea of the horrible tricks he played off
+upon all the lodgers as well as us. Why, just to give you one little
+proof of his villainy, there was hardly a single wind instrument he did
+not make use of as a sort of annoyance to the lodgers; from the French
+horn to the flageolet, he made use of all, and even carried his
+rascality so far as to play false and to keep blowing the same note for
+hours together; it was enough to worry one out of one's senses. Well, I
+suppose there were upwards of twenty different petitions sent to our
+chief lessee, M. Bras Rouge, to turn the beggar out; and, at last, he
+was only got rid of by paying him two quarters' rent,--rather droll, is
+it not, for a landlord to pay his lodger? But, bless you, the house was
+so upset by him that he might have had any price so he would but take
+himself off; however, he _did_ go. And now you suppose we were clear of
+M. Cabrion? I'll tell you. Next night, about eleven o'clock, I was in
+bed, when rap, rap, rap, comes to the gate. I pulls up the
+string,--somebody walks up to my door, 'How do you do, porter?' says a
+voice; 'will you oblige me with a lock of your hair?' 'Somebody has
+mistaken the door,' says my wife. So I calls out to the stranger, 'You
+are wrong, friend, you want next door.' 'I think not,' returns the
+voice; 'this is No. 17, is it not, and the porter's name is Pipelet? I'm
+all right; so please to open the door and oblige me with a lock of your
+beautiful hair.' 'My name is Pipelet, certainly,' answers I. 'Well,
+then, friend Pipelet, Cabrion has sent me for a piece of your hair; he
+says he must and he will have it.'"
+
+As Pipelet uttered the last words he gave his head a mournful shake,
+and, folding his arms, assumed an attitude of martyrlike resolution.
+
+"Do you perceive, sir? He sends to me, his mortal enemy, whom he
+overwhelmed with insults and continually outraged in every way, to beg a
+lock of my hair,--a favour which even ladies have been known to refuse
+to a lover!"
+
+"But, supposing this Cabrion had been as good a lodger as was M.
+Germain," replied Rodolph, with some difficulty preserving the gravity
+of countenance, "do you think you might have accorded him the favour?"
+
+"Not to the best lodger that treads shoe-leather would I grant a similar
+request," replied the man in the flapped hat, waving it majestically
+over his brows as he spoke; "it is contrary to my principles and habits
+to give my hair to any one,--only I should have refused with the most
+scrupulous regard to politeness."
+
+"That is not all," chimed in the porteress. "Only conceive, sir, the
+abominable conduct of that Cabrion, who, from morning to night, at all
+hours and at all times, sends a swarm of vagabonds like himself to ask
+Alfred for a lock of his hair,--always for Cabrion!"
+
+"Ah, monsieur," sighed out poor Pipelet, "had I committed the most
+atrocious crimes, my sleep could not have been rendered more broken and
+unrefreshing; scarcely do I fall into a doze than I wake starting with
+the idea of being called by that cursed Cabrion! I suspect
+everybody,--in each person who approaches me I see an emissary from my
+persecutor come to request a lock of my hair. I am losing my good
+spirits, my temper, and becoming gloomy, suspicious, peevish, and
+ill-natured. This infernal Cabrion has murdered my whole life!"
+
+And Pipelet heaved so profound a sigh that his hat, vibrating for some
+time from the consequences of the convulsive shake of the head
+occasioned thereby, fell forward and completely veiled his care-stricken
+features.
+
+"I can well understand, now," said Rodolph, "that you are not
+particularly partial to painters; but I suppose the M. Germain you were
+praising so highly made up for the bad treatment you received from M.
+Cabrion?"
+
+"Yes, yes, sir; as I told you, M. Germain was a delightful young man, so
+honourable and kind-hearted, open as the day, and ever ready to serve
+and oblige; he was cheerful and merry as need be, but then he always
+kept his high spirits within proper bounds instead of worrying people to
+death by his unmeaning hoaxes, like that Cabrion, who I wish was at the
+devil!"
+
+"Come, come, my good M. Pipelet, I must not let you thus excite
+yourself; and who, now, is the person fortunate enough to possess such a
+pattern of a lodger as this M. Germain seems to have been?"
+
+"That is more than I can tell you; no one knows whither he has gone, nor
+are they likely, except, indeed, through Mlle. Rigolette."
+
+"And who is Mlle. Rigolette?" demanded Rodolph.
+
+"Why, she is a needlewoman, also living on the fourth floor," cried
+Madame Pipelet; "another pattern lodger, always pays her rent in
+advance, and keeps her little chamber so nice and clean; then she is
+well behaved to every one, so merry and happy, like a bird, though, poor
+thing! very like a caged bird, obliged to work early and late to earn
+two francs a day, and often not half that, let her try ever so hard."
+
+"How does it happen that Mlle. Rigolette should be the only person
+entrusted with the secret of M. Germain's present abode?"
+
+"Why, when he was going away, he came to us and said," returned Madame
+Pipelet, "'I do not expect any letters; but if, by chance, any should
+come, please to give them to Mlle. Rigolette.' And she is well worthy of
+his confidence, if his letters were filled with gold; don't you think
+so, Alfred?"
+
+"The fact is," said the porter, in a severe tone, "that I know no harm
+of Mlle. Rigolette, excepting her permitting herself to be wheedled over
+by that vile scamp, Cabrion."
+
+"But you know, Alfred, that nothing more than a few harmless attentions
+passed between them," interrupted the porteress; "for, though Mlle.
+Rigolette is as merry as a kitten, she is as prudent and correct as I am
+myself. You should see the strong bolts she has inside her door; and if
+her next-door neighbour will make love to her, that is not her fault; it
+follows as a matter of course when people are so close to each other.
+It was just the same with the travelling-clerk we had here before
+Cabrion, and so it was when M. Germain took the room this abominable
+painter occupied. So, as I say, there is no blame to Mlle. Rigolette; it
+arises out of the two rooms joining one another so closely,--naturally
+that brings about a little flirtation, but nothing more."
+
+"So, then, it becomes a matter of course, does it," said Rodolph, "that
+every one who occupies the apartment I am to have should make love to
+Mlle. Rigolette?"
+
+"Why, of course, monsieur; how can you be good neighbours without
+it,--don't you see? Now, imagine yourself lodging in the very next room
+to a nice, pretty, obliging young person, like Mlle. Rigolette; well,
+then, young people will be young people,--sometimes you want a light,
+sometimes a few live coals to kindle up your fire, maybe a little
+water,--for one is sure always to find plenty of fresh spring water at
+Mlle. Rigolette's, she is never without it; it is her only luxury,--she
+is like a little duck, always dabbling in it; and if she does happen to
+have a little leisure, such a washing down of floors and cleaning of
+windows! Never the least soil or neglect about either herself or her
+apartment, and so you will find."
+
+"And so M. Germain, by reason of his close proximity to Mlle. Rigolette,
+became what you style upon perfectly neighbourly terms with her?"
+
+"Oh, bless you, yes! Why, the two seemed cut out for each other, so
+young and so good-looking! It was quite a pleasure to look at them as
+they came down-stairs of a Sunday to take the only walk, poor things!
+they could afford themselves throughout the week; she dressed in a smart
+little cap and a gown that cost, probably, not more than twenty-five
+sous the ell, but made by herself, and that so tastily that it became
+her as much as though it had been of satin; he, mind ye, dressed and
+looking like a regular gentleman."
+
+"And M. Germain has not been to see Mlle. Rigolette, I suppose, since he
+quitted the house?"
+
+"No, monsieur; unless on Sunday, for Mlle. Rigolette has no time during
+the other six days of the week to think of sweethearting. Why, the poor
+girl rises at five or six o'clock, and works incessantly till ten or
+eleven o'clock at night, never once leaving her room except for a few
+minutes in the morning, when she goes out to buy food for herself and
+her two canary-birds; and the three eat but very little, just a
+penn'orth of milk, a little bread, some chickweed, bird-seed, and clear
+fresh water, and the whole three of them sing away as merrily as though
+they fared ever so sumptuously. And Mlle. Rigolette is kind and
+charitable, too, as far as lies in her power; that is to say, she gives
+her time, her sleep, and her services; for, poor girl! she can scarcely
+manage to keep herself by working closely for twelve hours a day. Those
+poor, unfortunate creatures in the attics, whom M. Bras Rouge is going
+to turn into the streets in two or three days' time, if even he wait so
+long,--why, Mlle. Rigolette and M. Germain sat up with the children
+night after night!"
+
+"You have a distressed family, then, here?"
+
+"Distressed! Oh, God bless you, my good sir, I think we have, indeed.
+Why, there are five young children, an almost dying mother, an idiotic
+grandmother, and their only support a man who, though he slaves like a
+negro, cannot even get bread enough to eat,--and a capital workman he
+is, too; three hours' sleep out of the twenty-four is all he allows
+himself,--and what sleep it is! broken by his children crying for food,
+by the groans of his sick wife tossing on her miserable straw bed, or
+the idiotic screams of the poor bedridden old grandmother, who sometimes
+howls like a wolf,--from hunger, too,--for, poor creature! she has not
+sense or reason to know better, and when she gets very hungry you may
+hear cries and screams all down the staircase."
+
+"Horrible!" exclaimed Rodolph, with a shudder; "and does no one afford
+them any assistance?"
+
+"Truly, sir, we do all we can; we are but poor ourselves; however, since
+the commandant has allowed me his paltry twelve francs a month for
+looking after his apartments, I have managed once a week to make a
+little broth for these poor, unfortunate creatures. Mlle. Rigolette
+deprives herself of her night's rest, and sits up, poor girl (though it
+burns her candles), contriving out of one bit and the other of her
+cutting out, to make up a few clothes for the children; sometimes from
+the morsels left of her work she manages a small nightcap or gown; and
+M. Germain, who had not a franc more than he knew what to do with, used
+to pretend, from time to time, that he had received a present of a few
+bottles of wine from his friends; and Morel (that is the name of the
+workman with the sick family) was sure to be invited to share it with
+him; and it was really wonderful to see how refreshed and strengthened
+poor Morel used to seem after M. Germain had made him take a good pull
+at his wine, to put, as he used to say, a little life and soul into his
+half-exhausted body."
+
+"And the surgeon-dentist, what did he do for this wretched family?"
+
+"M. Bradamanti?" said the porter. "Ah! he cured my rheumatism, and I owe
+him my eternal gratitude; but from that day I said to my wife,
+'Anastasia, M. Bradamanti'--hum!--hum!--did I not say so, Anastasia?"
+
+"Exactly; that is precisely what you did say."
+
+"But I want to know what this M. Bradamanti did to assist the poor
+starving beings in your garrets."
+
+"Why, you see, monsieur, when I mentioned to M. Bradamanti the misery
+and utter destitution of poor Morel--by the way, he first began the
+conversation by complaining that the raving and screaming of the old
+idiot woman throughout the night for food prevented him from sleeping,
+and that he found it very unpleasant; however, he listened to my
+description of the state the whole family was in, and then he said,
+'Well, if they are so much distressed, you may tell them that if they
+want any teeth drawn, I will excuse them paying even for the sixth.'"
+
+"I tell you what, Madame Pipelet," said Rodolph, "I have a decidedly bad
+opinion of this man. And your female pawnbroker, was she more
+charitable?"
+
+"Very much after the fashion of M. Bradamanti," said the porteress; "she
+lent a few sous upon their wretched clothes; every garment they had has
+passed into her hands, and even their last mattress; but they were not
+long coming to the last, for they never had but two."
+
+"But she gave them no further aid?"
+
+"Help them, poor creatures! Not she. Mother Burette is as great a brute
+in her way as her lover, M. Bras Rouge, is in his; for between you and
+I," added the porteress, with an uncommonly knowing wink of the eye and
+sagacious shake of the head, "there is something rather tender going on
+between these two."
+
+"Really!" cried Rodolph.
+
+"I think so,--I do, upon my life. And why not? Why, the folks in St.
+Martin are as loving as the rest of the world; are they not, my old
+pet?"
+
+A melancholy shake of the head, which produced a corresponding motion in
+the huge black hat, was M. Pipelet's only answer. As for Madame Pipelet,
+since she had begun expressing sympathy for the poor sufferers in the
+attics, her countenance had ceased to strike Rodolph as repulsive, and
+he even thought it wore an agreeable expression.
+
+"And what is this poor Morel's trade?"
+
+"A maker of false jewelry; he works by the piece; but, dear me! that
+sort of work is so much imitated, and so cheaply got up that--For a man
+can but work his best, and he cannot do more than he can; besides, when
+you have got to find bread for seven persons without reckoning yourself,
+it is rather a hard job, I take it. And though his eldest daughter does
+her best to assist the family, she has but very little in her power."
+
+"How old is this daughter?"
+
+"About eighteen, and as lovely a young creature as you would see in a
+long summer's day. She lives as servant with an old miserly fellow, rich
+enough to buy and sell half Paris,--a notary, named M. Jacques Ferrand."
+
+"M. Jacques Ferrand!" exclaimed Rodolph, surprised at the fresh
+coincidence which brought under his notice the very individual from
+whom, or from whose confidential housekeeper, he expected to glean so
+many particulars relative to La Goualeuse. "M. Jacques Ferrand, who
+lives in the Rue du Sentier, do you mean?" inquired he.
+
+"The very same; are you acquainted with him?"
+
+"Not at all; but he does the law business for the firm I belong to."
+
+"Ah! then you must know that he is a regular money-grubbing old usurer;
+but then, let me do the man justice. He is strictly religious, and
+devout as a monk; never absent from mass or vespers, making his Easter
+offerings, and going regularly to confession. If he ever enjoys himself,
+it is only along with the priests, drinking holy water, and eating
+blessed bread. Oh, he is almost a saint in the strictness of his life;
+but, then, his heart is as hard as iron, and as stern and rigid towards
+others as he is severe towards himself. Why, poor Louise, daughter to
+our sick lodger, has been his only servant for the last eighteen months.
+And what a good girl she is! Gentle as a lamb in temper and disposition,
+but willing as a horse to work; and he only gives this poor thing, who
+slaves herself to death for him, eighteen francs a month,--not a
+farthing more, I give you my word; and out of this she only keeps back
+six francs for her own maintenance, and hands over the other twelve to
+her starving family; that has been all their dependence for some time
+past; but when seven persons have to live upon it, it does not go far."
+
+"But what does the father earn,--I mean, provided he is industrious?"
+
+"Industrious! God bless you, he has always overworked himself; he is the
+soberest, steadiest creature alive; and I verily believe that if he had
+the promise of obtaining any favour he liked to ask of Heaven, it would
+be that the day might be made doubly as long as it now is, that he might
+earn bread enough to stop the cries of his starving brats."
+
+"Then the father cannot earn enough if he were to try ever so hard, it
+seems?"
+
+"Why, the poor man was ill abed for three months, and that threw them
+all behind; his wife's health was quite ruined by the fatigue of nursing
+him and the severe want she experienced of common necessaries for
+herself and family. She now lies in a dying state; they have had nothing
+for all that period besides Louise's wages and what they could obtain
+from Mother Burette upon the few wretched articles they could dispose
+of. True, the master for whom Morel had worked advanced them a trifle,
+out of respect for a man he had always found punctual and honest when he
+could work. But, la! Eight people only to be found in bread, that is
+what I say,--just imagine how hard it must be to keep life and soul
+together upon such small means; and if you could only see the hole they
+are all huddled together in--But do not let us talk any more about that,
+monsieur, for our dinner is ready, and the very thought of their
+wretched garret turns my stomach. However, happily, M. Bras Rouge is
+going to clear the house of them,--when I say happily, I don't mean it
+ill-naturedly in the least; but since these poor Morels have fallen
+into such misery, and it is quite out of our power to help them, why
+let them go and be miserable elsewhere; it will be a heartache the less
+for us all."
+
+"But, if they are turned out from here, where will they go to?"
+
+"Truly, I don't know."
+
+"And how much can this poor workman earn daily when in health, and
+without any calls upon his time or attention?"
+
+"Why, if he had not to attend to his old mother, nurse his sick wife,
+and look after the five children, he could earn his three or four francs
+a day, because he works like a downright slave; but now that at least
+three-quarters of his time are taken up with the family, he can hardly
+manage to earn forty sous."
+
+"That is little, indeed,--poor creatures!"
+
+"Yes, it is easy to say poor creatures, but there are so many equally
+poor creatures, that, as we can do nothing for them, it is no use to
+worry ourselves about it,--is it, Alfred? And, talking of consoling
+ourselves, there stands the cassia, and we have never thought of tasting
+it."
+
+"To tell you the truth, Madame Pipelet, after what I have just heard I
+have no inclination to partake of it. You and M. Pipelet must drink my
+health in it when I am gone."
+
+"You are extremely kind, sir," said the porter; "but will you not like
+to see the rooms up-stairs?"
+
+"I shall be glad to do so, if perfectly convenient; and, if they suit, I
+will engage them at once and leave a deposit."
+
+The porter, followed by Rodolph, emerged from the gloomy lodge, and
+proceeded up-stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE FOUR STORIES.
+
+
+The damp, dark staircase looked still more gloomy through the fog of a
+November day. The entrance to each separate set of apartments in this
+house bore its own peculiar and distinctive character to the observant
+eye. Thus, the door conducting to those of the commandant bore evidences
+of having been recently painted in close imitation of ebony, being
+further set off with a brass knob rubbed up to a most dazzling
+brightness, while a gay-coloured bell-rope, finished by an enormous
+tassel of scarlet silk, contrasted strongly with the mean and shabby
+wall against which it hung.
+
+The door of the flight above, where dwelt the female money-lender and
+dealer in divination, was singularly characterised by the appearance of
+that mystical symbol of deep wisdom and oracular knowledge, an owl,
+which, stuffed to resemble life as closely as the artist could contrive
+it, was nailed on a small bracket just above the doorway; while a sort
+of small wicket, latticed with wire-work, enabled all visitors to be
+duly scrutinised ere they were admitted.
+
+The dwelling of the Italian charlatan, who was said to pursue such
+fearful avocations, had, likewise, its whimsical mode of designating the
+pursuits of its occupant, whose name, traced in large letters formed of
+horses' teeth upon a square black board, was nailed to the
+entrance-door; while, instead of adopting the classical agency of a
+deer's foot or a hare's pad for the handle of his bell, there hung
+dangling from the cord the hand and arm of a dried ape,--the withered
+limb, the shrivelled hand, with its five fingers, each so distinctly
+preserved, and the articulation of every joint so clearly defined, the
+tiny tips bearing the nails long and taper as those of a human creature,
+presented a close and hideous resemblance to the hand and arm of a
+child.
+
+As Rodolph passed before a door so singularly indicative of all his
+worst suspicions, he fancied he could detect the sound of smothered sobs
+from within. Then rose up a cry so full of agony, of convulsive,
+irrepressible misery,--a cry as if wrung from a breaking heart or the
+last wail of expiring nature, that the whole house seemed to reëcho it.
+Rodolph started; then, by a movement more rapid than thought itself, he
+rushed to the door and violently pulled the bell.
+
+"What is the matter, sir?" inquired the astonished porter.
+
+"That cry!" said Rodolph; "did you not hear it?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I heard it; I dare say it is some person whose teeth M.
+Bradamanti is taking out; perhaps he may be taking out several,--and it
+is painful!"
+
+This explanation, though a probable one, did not satisfy Rodolph as to
+the horrid scream which still resounded in his ears. Though he had rung
+the bell with considerable violence, no person had as yet replied to his
+summons; he could distinctly hear the shutting of several doors, and
+then, behind a small oval glass let in beside the door, and on which
+Rodolph had mechanically kept his eyes fixed, he saw the haggard,
+cadaverous countenance of a human being; a mass of reddish hair strongly
+mixed with gray, and a long beard of the same hue, completed the hideous
+ensemble; the face was seen but for an instant, and vanished as quickly
+as though it had been a mere creation of fancy, leaving Rodolph in a
+state of perturbation impossible to describe.
+
+Short as had been the period of this apparition's visit, he had yet in
+those brief instants recalled features precisely similar and for ever
+engraved on his memory,--the eyes shining with the colour and brilliancy
+of the _aqua marina_ beneath their bushy sandy eyebrows, the livid
+complexion, the nose thin, projecting, and curving like an eagle's beak,
+with its nostrils so curiously expanded and carved out till they exposed
+a portion of the nasal cartilage, resembled closely a certain Polidori,
+whose name had been so unceremoniously committed by Murphy, in his
+conversation with Graün, to regions not mentionable to polite ears.
+Though Rodolph had not seen Polidori during the last sixteen or
+seventeen years, he had a thousand reasons for keeping every feature
+well in his remembrance. The only thing that told against the identity
+of the individual he believed existed under the disguised name of this
+quack dentist was the circumstance of his having red hair, while the
+Polidori of Rodolph's acquaintance had almost black. That Rodolph
+experienced no wonder (always supposing his conjectures as to the
+identity correct) at finding a man whose profound learning, rare talent,
+and vast intelligence he well knew, sunk to such a degradation,--it
+might even be infamy,--was because he knew equally well that all these
+high attainments and noble gifts were allied to such entire perversity,
+such wild and irregular passions, inclinations so corrupt, and, above
+all, an affected scorn and contempt for the opinion of the world, which
+might lead this man, when want and misery overtook him, to seek, from
+choice, the lowest and least honourable paths of subsistence, and to
+enjoy a sort of malevolent satisfaction in the idea of him, the
+talented, the learned, burying all these precious treasures beneath the
+ignoble calling to which he had devoted his vast powers of mind and
+body. Still, be it remembered that, spite of the close resemblance
+between the charlatan surgeon-dentist and the Polidori of bygone years,
+there still existed discrepancies so great that Rodolph balanced, in
+deep uncertainty, respecting their proving to be one and the same
+person.
+
+At length, turning to Pipelet, he inquired:
+
+"How long has this M. Bradamanti been an inmate of this house?"
+
+"About a year, sir, as nearly as I can remember,--yes, it is a year; I
+recollect he took the lodgings in the January quarter. Oh, he is a very
+regular and exact lodger; he cured me of a desperate attack of
+rheumatism."
+
+"Madame Pipelet was telling me of the reports which are circulated of
+him."
+
+"How could she be so foolish?"
+
+"Nay, pray do not fear me! I assure you I may safely be trusted."
+
+"But, really, sir," rejoined Pipelet, "I do not think there is the least
+dependence to be placed in such reports. I do not believe them, for one.
+I never can believe them; my modesty would not let me," added M.
+Pipelet, turning very red, and preceding his new lodger to the floor
+above.
+
+The more resolved upon clearing up his doubts in proportion to the very
+great annoyance he felt that the residence of Polidori in the same house
+would prove to him, and becoming momentarily more disposed to affix a
+painful solution to the enigma of the piercing cry he had heard from the
+apartments of the Italian, Rodolph bound himself by a rigid promise to
+investigate the matter, so as to place it beyond the power of a doubt,
+and followed the porter to the upper floor, where was situated the
+chamber he was desirous of engaging.
+
+It was easy to ascertain the abode of his next-door neighbour Mlle.
+Rigolette. Thanks to the charming gallantry of the painter, Pipelet's
+mortal foe, the door of her chamber was ornamented after the manner of
+Watteau, with a panel design representing about half a dozen fat little
+chubby Loves, grouped round a space painted sky blue, and on which was
+traced, in pink letters, "_Mademoiselle Rigolette, Dressmaker_." These
+plump little Cupids had all a task to perform besides encircling this
+important announcement. One held the thimble of Mlle. Rigolette upon his
+tiny finger; another held her scissors; a third was provided with a
+smoothing-iron for her use; whilst a fourth held up a mirror, as if to
+tempt the young sempstress to forsake her work for the more gratifying
+view of her own pretty countenance. The whole was surrounded with a
+well-chosen wreath of flowers, whose gay colours contrasted agreeably
+with the sea-green colour of the door; the whole offering a very
+unfavourable contrast to the mean and shabby-looking staircase. At the
+risk of opening anew the bleeding wounds of Alfred, Rodolph ventured to
+observe, while pointing to the door of Mlle. Rigolette:
+
+"This, I suppose, is the work of M. Cabrion?"
+
+"It is; he destroyed the painting of the door by daubing it over with a
+parcel of fat, indecent children he called his _loves_. Had it not been
+for the entreaties of Mlle. Rigolette, and the weakness of M. Bras
+Rouge, I would have scratched it all off, as well as this palette filled
+with horrid monsters, with their equally abominable master, whom you can
+see drawn amongst them. You may know him by his steeple-crowned hat."
+
+And there, sure enough, on the door of the room Rodolph was about to
+hire, might be seen a palette surrounded by all kinds of odd and
+whimsical creatures, the witty conceit of which might have done honour
+to Callot. Rodolph followed the porter into a tolerably good-sized room,
+accessible by a small entrance-closet, or antechamber, having two
+windows opening into the Rue du Temple. Some fantastic sketches from the
+pencil of M. Cabrion, on the second door, had been scrupulously
+respected by M. Germain. Rodolph saw too many reasons for desiring to
+obtain this lodging to hesitate further; therefore, modestly placing a
+couple of francs in the hand of the porter, he said:
+
+[Illustration: "'_This, I Suppose, Is the Work of M. Cabrion_'"
+Etching by Mercier, after the drawing by Frank T. Merrill]
+
+"This chamber will exactly suit me. Here is a deposit to complete the
+bargain. To-morrow I will send in my furniture; but let me beg of you
+not to destroy the merry creatures painted on the palette at the
+entrance. It is really very droll! Don't you think so?"
+
+"Droll!" groaned poor Pipelet; "not I! Ah, sir, how would you like to
+dream night after night that you were being hunted by a legion of little
+ugly devils like these on the door, with Cabrion at their head urging
+them on, and then fancying you are trying to get away, and cannot? Oh, I
+have woke all in a perspiration from such dreams hundreds of times since
+that infamous Cabrion began persecuting me."
+
+"Why, honestly speaking, I cannot say the chase would be a very
+agreeable one, even though but a dream. However, tell me, have I any
+need to see M. Bras Rouge--your great man here--about renting this
+apartment?"
+
+"None whatever, sir. He rarely comes near the place, except when he has
+any private matters to arrange with Mother Burette. I am the only person
+to treat with about hiring apartments. I must beg the favour of your
+name."
+
+"Rodolph."
+
+"Rodolph what?"
+
+"Plain Rodolph, M. Pipelet,--nothing more, if you please."
+
+"Just as you please, sir. I did not ask from curiosity. Every man has a
+right to his own free will, as well as to decide upon the name he
+chooses to be called."
+
+"What do you think, M. Pipelet, as to the propriety of my going
+to-morrow, as a new neighbour of Morel's, to inquire whether I can be of
+any service to them? Since my predecessor, M. Germain, was permitted to
+assist them according to _his_ means, why should they not accept of what
+trifling help I can afford?"
+
+"Why, sir, I see no harm in your going to call on the Morels, because it
+may please the poor things; but I hardly see much good it can do, as
+they are so shortly to be turned out of the house." Then, as if suddenly
+struck with a new idea, M. Pipelet exclaimed, winking at Rodolph with
+what he intended should be a very facetious and penetrating look, "I
+see, I see,--you mean to begin making acquaintance with the lodgers at
+the top of the house, that you may be able to work your way down to
+Mlle. Rigolette. Ah, I've found you out, you see,--pretty girl--"
+
+"Well, I think you have discovered my intentions, so I will confess at
+once that I mean to try and be on friendly terms with my agreeable
+neighbour."
+
+"There is no harm in that, sir,--it is customary; only all correct, all
+right and honourable,--you understand. Between you and me, I strongly
+suspect Mlle. Rigolette heard us coming up-stairs, and that she is
+watching to have a look as we go down. I will make a noise purposely in
+locking the door; if you look sharp, you will see her as we pass the
+landing." And, true to the porter's suspicions, the door so tastefully
+enlivened by the fat Cupids, _à la Watteau_, was seen to open gently,
+and Rodolph had a brief view of a little, turned-up nose, and a pair of
+large, staring black eyes, peeping through the narrow space; but, as he
+slacked his steps, the door was hastily shut. "I told you she was
+watching us," said the porter. Then added, "Excuse me one instant, sir;
+I want to step up to my warehouse."
+
+"Where is that?"
+
+"At the top of this ladder is the landing-place, on which the door of
+Morel's garret opens, and in the wainscoting of this landing is a small
+dark cupboard, where I keep my leather, and the wall is so full of
+cracks, that when I am in this hole I can see and hear everything, the
+same as if I was in Morel's room. Not that I wish to spy what the poor
+creatures are about, God knows,--quite the contrary. But please to
+excuse me for a few minutes, sir, whilst I fetch my bit of leather. If
+you will have the goodness to go down-stairs, I will rejoin you."
+
+And, so saying, Pipelet commenced ascending the steep ladder
+communicating with his warehouse, as he styled it,--a somewhat perilous
+feat for a person of his age.
+
+Rodolph, thus left alone, cast another glance towards the chambers of
+Mlle. Rigolette, remembering with deep interest all he had heard of her
+being the favourite companion of the poor Goualeuse, and recalling also
+the information she was said to possess touching the residence of the
+Schoolmaster's son, when the sound of some person quitting the
+apartments of the quack doctor below attracted his attention, and he
+could distinctly hear the light step of a female, with the rustling of a
+silk dress. Rodolph paused till the sounds had died away, and then
+descended the stairs. Something white had fallen about half-way down; it
+had evidently been dropped by the person who had just quitted Polidori.
+Rodolph picked it up, and carried it to one of the narrow windows which
+lighted the staircase. It was a pocket-handkerchief, of the finest
+cambric, trimmed with costly lace, and bearing in one corner the
+initials "L. N." beautifully embroidered, and surmounted with a ducal
+coronet. The handkerchief was literally soaked in tears.
+
+Rodolph's first impulse was to follow the person from whose hand this
+mute evidence of deep woe had fallen, with the view of restoring it,
+but, reflecting that such a step might be mistaken for impertinent
+curiosity, he determined to preserve it carefully, as the first link in
+an adventure he found himself almost involuntarily engaged in, and from
+which he augured a painful and melancholy termination. As he returned to
+the porteress, he inquired whether a female had not just come
+down-stairs.
+
+"A female! No indeed, sir,--it was a fine, tall, slender-looking lady,
+not a female, and covered over with a thick black veil. She has come
+from M. Bradamanti. Little Tortillard fetched a coach for her, and she
+has just driven away in it. What struck me was the impudence of that
+little beggar to seat himself behind the coach. I dare say, though, it
+was to see where the lady went to, for he is as mischievous as a magpie,
+and as prying as a ferret, for all his club-foot."
+
+"So, then," thought Rodolph, "the name and address of this unhappy lady
+will soon be known to this imposter, since it is, doubtless, by his
+directions she is followed and watched by this imp of an emissary."
+
+"Well, sir, and what do you think of the apartment? Will it suit you?"
+inquired Madame Pipelet.
+
+"Nothing could have suited me better. I have taken it, and to-morrow I
+shall send in my furniture."
+
+"Well, then, thank God for a good lodger! I am sure it was a lucky
+chance for us sent you here."
+
+"I hope you will find it so, madame. I think it is well understood
+between us that you undertake to manage all my little domestic matters
+for me. I shall come and superintend the removal of my goods. Adieu!"
+
+So saying, Rodolph left the lodge. The results of his visit to the house
+in the Rue du Temple were highly important, both as regarded the
+solution of the deep mystery he so ardently desired to unravel, and also
+as affording a wide field for the exercise of his earnest endeavours to
+do good and to prevent evil. After mature calculation, he considered
+himself to have achieved the following results:
+
+First, he had ascertained that Mlle. Rigolette was in possession of the
+address of Germain, the Schoolmaster's son. Secondly, a young female,
+who, from appearances, might unhappily be the Marquise d'Harville, had
+made an appointment with the commandant for the morrow,--perhaps to her
+own utter ruin and disgrace; and Rodolph had (as we have before
+mentioned) numerous reasons for wishing to preserve the honour and peace
+of one for whom he felt so lively an interest as he took in all
+concerning M. d'Harville. An honest and industrious artisan, crushed by
+the deepest misery, was, with his whole family, about to be turned into
+the streets through the means of Bras Rouge. Further, Rodolph had
+undesignedly caught a glimpse of an adventure in which the charlatan
+César Bradamanti (possibly Polidori) and a female, evidently of rank and
+fashion, were the principal actors. And, finally, La Chouette, having
+lately quitted the hospital, where she had been since the affair in the
+Allée des Veuves, had reappeared on the stage, and was evidently engaged
+in some underhand proceedings with the fortune-teller and female
+money-lender who occupied the second floor of the house.
+
+Having carefully noted down all these particulars, Rodolph returned to
+his house, Rue Plumet, deferring till the following day his visit to the
+notary, Jacques Ferrand.
+
+It will be no doubt fresh in the memory of our readers, that on this
+same evening Rodolph was engaged to be present at a grand ball given by
+the ambassador of ----. Before following our hero in this new excursion,
+let us cast a retrospective glance on Tom and Sarah,--personages of the
+greatest importance in the development of this history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+TOM AND SARAH.
+
+
+Sarah Seyton, widow of Count Macgregor, and at this time thirty-six or
+thirty-seven years of age, was of an excellent Scotch family, daughter
+of a baronet, and a country gentleman. Beautiful and accomplished, an
+orphan at seventeen years old, she had left Scotland with her brother,
+Thomas Seyton of Halsbury. The absurd predictions of an old Highland
+nurse had excited almost to madness the two leading vices in Sarah's
+character,--pride and ambition; the destiny predicted for her, and in
+which she fully believed, was of the highest order,--in fact, sovereign
+rank. The prophecy had been so often repeated, that the young Scotch
+girl eventually fully credited its fulfilment; and she constantly
+repeated to herself, to bear out her ambitious dream, that a
+fortune-teller had thus promised a crown to the handsome and excellent
+creature who afterwards sat on the throne of France, and who was queen
+as much by her graces and her kind heart as others have been by their
+grandeur and majesty.
+
+Strange to say, Thomas Seyton, as superstitious as his sister,
+encouraged her foolish hopes, and resolved on devoting his life to the
+realisation of Sarah's dream,--a dream as dazzling as it was deceptive.
+However, the brother and sister were not so blind as to believe
+implicitly in this Highland prophecy, and to look absolutely for a
+throne of the first rank in a splendid disdain of secondary royalties or
+reigning principalities; on the contrary, so that the handsome Scotch
+lassie should one day encircle her imperial forehead with a sovereign
+crown, the haughty pair agreed to condescend to shut their eyes to the
+importance of the throne they coveted. By the assistance of the
+_Almanach de Gotha_ for the year of grace 1819, Seyton arranged, before
+he left Scotland, a sort of synopsis of the ages of all the kings and
+ruling powers in Europe then unmarried.
+
+Although very ridiculous, yet the brother and sister's ambition was
+freed from all shameful modes; Seyton was prepared to aid his sister
+Sarah in snatching at the thread of the conjugal band by which she hoped
+eventually to fasten a crown upon her brows. He would be her
+participator in any and all stratagems which could tend to consummate
+this end; but he would rather have killed his sister than see her the
+mistress of a prince, even though the _liaison_ should terminate in a
+marriage of reparation.
+
+The matrimonial inventory that resulted from Seyton and Sarah's
+researches in the _Almanach de Gotha_ was satisfactory. The Germanic
+Confederation furnished forth a numerous contingent of young presumptive
+sovereigns. Seyton was not ignorant of the sort of German wedlock which
+is called a "left-handed marriage," to which, as being legitimate to a
+certain extent, he would, as a last resource, have resigned his sister.
+To Germany, then, it was resolved to bend their steps, in order to
+commence this search for the royal spouse.
+
+If the project appears improbable, such hopes ridiculous, let us first
+reply by saying that unbridled ambition, excited by superstitious
+belief, rarely claims for itself the light of reason in its enterprises,
+and will dare the wildest impossibilities; yet, when we recall certain
+events, even in our own times, from high and most reputable morganatic
+marriages between sovereigns and female subjects, down to the loving
+elopement of Miss Penelope Smith and the Prince of Capua, we cannot
+refuse some chance of fortunate result to the imagination of Seyton and
+Sarah. Let us add that the lady united to a very lovely person, singular
+abilities and very varied talents; whilst there were added a power of
+seduction the more dangerous as it was united to a mind unbending and
+calculating, a disposition cunning and selfish, a deep hypocrisy, a
+stubborn and despotic will,--all covered by the outward show of a
+generous, warm, and impassioned nature.
+
+In her appearance, there was as much deceit as in her mind. Her full and
+dark eyes, now sparkling, now languishing, beneath her coal black brow,
+could well dissimulate all the warmth of love and desire. Yet the
+burning impulses of love never throbbed beneath her icy bosom; no
+surprise of the heart or of the senses ever intervened to disturb the
+cold and pitiless calculations of this woman,--crafty, selfish, and
+ambitious. When she reached the Continent, she resolved, in accordance
+with her brother's advice, not to commence her conjugal and regal
+campaign until she had resided some time in Paris, where she determined
+to complete her education, and rub off the rust of her native country,
+by associating with a society which was embellished by all that was
+elegant, tasteful, and refined. Sarah was introduced into the best
+society and the highest circles, thanks to the letters of recommendation
+and considerate patronage of the English "ambassador's" lady and the old
+Marquis d'Harville, who had known Tom and Sarah's father in England.
+
+Persons of deceitful, calculating, and cold dispositions acquire with
+great facility language and manners quite in opposition to their natural
+character, as with them all is outside, surface, appearance, varnish,
+bark; or they soon find that, if their real characters are detected,
+they are undone; so, thanks to the sort of instinct of self-preservation
+with which they are gifted, they feel all the necessity of the moral
+mask, and so paint and costume themselves with all the alacrity and
+skill of a practised comedian. Thus, after six months' residence in
+Paris, Sarah was in a condition to contest with the most Parisian of
+Parisian women, as to the piquant finish of her wit, the charm of her
+liveliness, the ingenuousness of her flirtation, and the exciting
+simplicity of her looks, at once chaste and passionate.
+
+Finding his sister in full panoply for his campaign, Seyton left with
+her for Germany, furnished with the best letters of introduction. The
+first state of the German Confederation which headed Sarah's "road-book"
+was the Grand Duchy of Gerolstein, thus styled in the diplomatic and
+infallible _Almanach de Gotha_ for the year of grace 1819:
+
+ "_Genealogy of the Sovereigns of Europe and their Families_.
+
+ "GEROLSTEIN.
+
+ "Grand Duke: MAXIMILIAN RODOLPH, 10th December, 1764. Succeeded
+ his father, CHARLES FREDERIC RODOLPH, 21st April, 1785. Widower
+ January, 1808, by decease of his wife, LOUISA AMELIA, daughter
+ of JOHN AUGUSTUS, Prince of BURGLEN.
+
+ "_Son_: GUSTAVUS RODOLPH, born 17th April, 1803.
+
+ "_Mother_: Dowager Grand Duchess Judith, widow of the Grand
+ Duke, CHARLES FREDERIC RODOLPH, 21st April, 1785."
+
+Seyton, with much practical good sense, had first noted down on his list
+the youngest princes whom he coveted as brothers-in-law, thinking that
+extreme youth is more easily seduced than ripened age. Moreover, we have
+already said that the brother and sister were particularly recommended
+to the reigning Duke of Gerolstein by the old Marquis d'Harville,
+caught, like the rest of the world, by Sarah, whose beauty, grace, and,
+above all, delightful manners, he could not sufficiently admire.
+
+It is superfluous to say that the presumptive heir of the Grand Duchy of
+Gerolstein was Gustavus Rodolph: he was hardly eighteen when Tom and
+Sarah were presented to his father. The arrival of the young Scotch
+lady was an event in the German court, so quiet, simple, and almost
+patriarchal in its habits and observances. The Grand Duke, a most worthy
+gentleman, governed his states with wise firmness and paternal kindness.
+Nothing could exceed the actual and moral happiness of the principality,
+whose laborious and steady population, by their soberness and piety,
+presented a pure specimen of the German character. This excellent people
+enjoyed so much real felicity, and were so perfectly contented with
+their condition, that the enlightened care of the Grand Duke was not
+much called into action to preserve them from the mania of
+constitutional innovations. As far as modern discovery went, and those
+practical suggestions which have a wholesome influence over the
+well-being and morals of his people, the Grand Duke was always anxious
+to acquire knowledge himself, and apply it invariably for the use and
+benefit of his people, his residents at the capitals of the different
+states of Europe having little else to occupy themselves whilst on their
+mission but to keep their master fully informed as to the rise and
+progress of science and all the arts which are connected with public
+welfare and public utility.
+
+We have said that the Duke felt as much affection as gratitude for the
+old Marquis d'Harville, who, in 1815, had rendered him immense service;
+and so, thanks to his powerful recommendation, Sarah of Halsbury and her
+brother were received at the court of Gerolstein with every distinction,
+and with marked kindness. A fortnight after her arrival, the young
+Scotch girl, endued with so profound a spirit of observation, had easily
+penetrated the firm character and open heart of the Grand Duke. Before
+she began to seduce his son,--a thing of course,--she had wisely
+resolved to discover the disposition of the father. Although he had
+appeared to dote on his son, she was yet fully convinced that this
+father, with all his tenderness, would never swerve from certain
+principles, certain ideas as to the duty of princes, and would never
+consent to what he would consider a _mésalliance_ for his son, and that
+not through pride, but from conscience, reason, and dignity. A man of
+this firm mould, and the more affectionate and good in proportion as he
+is firm and determined, never abates one jot of that which affects his
+conscience, his reason, and his dignity.
+
+Sarah was on the point of renouncing her enterprise in the face of
+obstacles so insurmountable; but, reflecting that, as Rodolph was very
+young, and his gentleness and goodness, his character at once timid and
+meditative, were generally spoken of, she thought she might find
+compensation in the feeble and irresolute disposition of the young
+prince, and therefore persisted in her project, and again revived her
+hopes.
+
+On this new essay, the management of herself and brother were most
+masterly. The young lady knew full well how to propitiate all around
+her, and particularly the persons who might have been jealous or envious
+of her accomplishments, and she caused her beauty and grace to be
+forgotten beneath the veil of modest simplicity with which she covered
+them. She soon became the idol, not only of the Grand Duke, but of his
+mother, the Dowager Grand Duchess Judith, who, in spite of, or through,
+her ninety years of age, loved to excess every thing that was young and
+charming.
+
+Sarah and her brother often talked of their departure, but the sovereign
+of Gerolstein would never consent to it; and that he might completely
+attach the two to him, he pressed on Sir Thomas Seyton the acceptance of
+the vacant post of his "first groom of the chamber," and entreated Sarah
+not to quit the Grand Duchess Judith, as she could not do without her.
+After much hesitation, overcome by the most pressing entreaties, Sarah
+and Seyton accepted such brilliant offers, and decided on establishing
+themselves at the court of Gerolstein, where they had been for two
+months.
+
+Sarah, who was an accomplished musician, knowing the taste of the Grand
+Duchess for the old masters, and, above all, for Gluck, sent for the
+_chef-d'oeuvre_ of this attractive composer, and fascinated the old
+princess by her unfailing complaisance, as well as the remarkable skill
+with which she sang those old airs, so beautiful in their melody, so
+expressive in their character.
+
+As for Seyton, he knew how to make himself very useful in the occupation
+which had been conferred upon him. He was a good judge of horses, was
+orderly and firm in his conduct and arrangements, and so, in a short
+time, completely remodelled the stables of the Grand Duke, which, up to
+that time, had been neglected, and become disorganised.
+
+The brother and sister were soon equally beloved, fêted, and admired in
+this court. The master's preference soon commands the preference of
+those below him. Sarah required, in aid of her future projects, too much
+aid not to employ her insinuating powers in acquiring partisans. Her
+hypocrisy, clothed in most attractive shapes, easily deluded the
+simple-hearted Germans, and the general feeling soon authorised the
+extreme kindness of the Grand Duke.
+
+Thus, then, our designing pair were established at the court of
+Gerolstein, agreeably and securely placed without any reference to
+Rodolph. By a lucky chance, some days after the arrival of Sarah, the
+young prince had gone away to the inspection of troops, with an
+aide-de-camp and the faithful Murphy. This absence, doubly auspicious to
+the views of Sarah, allowed her to arrange at her ease the principal
+threads of the fillet she was weaving, without being deterred by the
+presence of the young prince, whose too open admiration might, perhaps,
+have awakened the suspicions of the Grand Duke. On the contrary, in the
+absence of his son, he did not, unfortunately, reflect that he was
+admitting into the closest intimacy a young girl of surpassing beauty,
+and of lively wit, as Rodolph must discover at every moment of the day.
+
+Sarah was perfectly insensible to a reception so kind and generous,--to
+the full confidence with which she was introduced into the very heart of
+this sovereign family. Neither brother nor sister paused for a moment in
+their bad designs; they determined upon a principle to bring trouble and
+annoyance into this peaceable and happy court; they calmly calculated
+the probable results of the cruel divisions they should establish
+between a father and son, up to that period so tenderly united.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+A few words concerning Rodolph's early days may be necessary. During his
+infancy, he had been extremely delicate. His father reasoned thereon in
+this strange manner: "English country gentlemen are generally remarkable
+for their robust health. This advantage results generally from their
+bodily training, which is simple, rural, and develops their full vigour.
+Rodolph must leave the hands of women; his temperament is delicate, and,
+perhaps, by accustoming this child to live like the son of an English
+farmer (with some few exceptions), I shall strengthen his constitution."
+
+The Grand Duke sent to England for a man worthy of the trust, and
+capable of directing such a course of bodily culture, and Sir Walter
+Murphy, an athletic specimen, of a Yorkshire country gentleman, was
+entrusted with this important charge. The direction which he gave to the
+mind and body of the young prince were such as entirely coincided with
+the views and wishes of the Grand Duke. Murphy and his pupil lived for
+many years in a beautiful farmhouse, situated in the midst of woods and
+fields, some leagues from the capital of Gerolstein, and in a most
+picturesque and salubrious spot. Rodolph, free from all etiquette, and
+employed with Murphy in outdoor labour proportionate to his age, lived
+the sober, manly, and regular life of the country, having for his
+pleasure and amusement the violent exercises of wrestling, pugilism,
+riding on horseback, and hunting. In the midst of the pure air of the
+meadows, woods, and mountains, he underwent an entire change, and grew
+up as vigorous as a young oak; his pale cheek became suffused with the
+ruddy glow of health; always lithe and active, he underwent now the most
+severe fatigues, his address, energy, and courage supplying what was
+deficient in his muscular power; so that, when only in his fifteenth or
+sixteenth year, he was always the conqueror in his contests with young
+men his superiors in age.
+
+His scientific education necessarily suffered from the preference given
+to his physical training, and Rodolph's knowledge was very limited; but
+the Grand Duke very wisely reflected that, to have a well-informed mind,
+it must be supported by a strong physical frame, and that, this
+acquired, the intellectual faculties would develop themselves the more
+rapidly.
+
+The kind Walter Murphy was by no means a sage, and could only convey to
+Rodolph some primary instruction; but no one knew better than he how to
+inspire his pupil with the feeling of what is just, loyal, and generous,
+and a horror of every thing that was mean, low, and contemptible. These
+repugnances, these powerful and wholesome admonitions, took deep and
+lasting root in the very soul of Rodolph; and although, in after life,
+these principles were violently shaken by the storm of passions, yet
+they were never eradicated from his heart. The levin bolt strikes,
+splits, and rends the deeply planted tree; but the sap still maintains
+its hold in the roots, and a thousand green branches spring fresh from
+what was taken for a withered and dead tree.
+
+Murphy, then, gave to Rodolph, if we may use the expression, health to
+both body and mind; he made him robust, active, and daring, with a love
+for all that was good and right, and a hatred for whatsoever was wicked
+and bad. Having fulfilled his task to admiration, the squire, called to
+England on very important business, left Germany for some time, to the
+great regret of Rodolph, who loved him extremely.
+
+His son's health having been so satisfactorily established, the Grand
+Duke turned his most serious attention to the mental education of his
+dearly beloved son. A certain Doctor César Polidori, a renowned
+linguist, a distinguished chemist, learned historian, and deeply versed
+in the study of all the exact and physical sciences, was entrusted with
+the charge of cultivating and improving the rich but virgin soil so
+carefully and well prepared by Murphy. This time the Grand Duke's choice
+was a most unfortunate one, or, rather, his religious feelings were
+infamously imposed upon by the person who introduced the doctor to him,
+and caused him to think on Polidori as the preceptor of the young
+prince. Atheist, cheat, and hypocrite, full of stratagem and trick,
+concealing the most dangerous immorality, the most hardened scepticism,
+under an austere exterior, profoundly versed in the knowledge of human
+nature, or, rather, only having tried the worst side,--the disgraceful
+passions of humanity,--Doctor Polidori was the most hateful Mentor that
+could have been entrusted with the education of a young man.
+
+Rodolph left with the deepest regrets the independent and animating life
+which he had hitherto led with Murphy to go and become pale with the
+study of books, and submit himself to the irksome ceremonies of his
+father's court, and he at once entertained a strong prejudice against
+his tutor. It could not be otherwise.
+
+On quitting his young friend, the poor squire had compared him, and with
+justice, to a young wild colt, full of grace and fire, carried off from
+his native prairies, where he had dwelt, free as air, and joyous as a
+bird, to be bridled and spurred, that he might under that system learn
+how to moderate and economise those powers which, hitherto, he had only
+employed in running and leaping in any way he pleased.
+
+Rodolph began by telling Polidori that he had no taste for study, but
+that he greatly preferred the free exercise of his arms and legs, to
+breathe the pure air of the fields, to traverse the woods and the
+mountains, and that a good horse and a good gun were preferable to all
+the books in the universe. The doctor was prepared for this antipathy,
+and was secretly delighted at it, for, in another way, the hopes of this
+man were as ambitious as those of Sarah. Although the grand duchy of
+Gerolstein was only a secondary state, Polidori indulged the idea of
+being one day its Richelieu, and of making Rodolph play the part of the
+do-nothing prince. But, desirous above all things of currying favour
+with his pupil, and of making him forget Murphy, by his own concession
+and compliance, he concealed from the Grand Duke the young prince's
+repugnance for study, and boasted of his application to, and rapid
+progress in, his studies; whilst some examinations arranged between
+himself and Rodolph, which had the air of being impromptu questions,
+confirmed the Grand Duke in his blind and implicit confidence. By
+degrees the dislike which Rodolph at first entertained for the doctor
+changed, on the young prince's part, into a cool familiarity, very
+unlike the real attachment he had for Murphy. By degrees, he found
+himself leagued with Polidori (although from very innocent causes) by
+the same ties that unite two guilty persons. Sooner or later, Rodolph
+was sure to despise a man of the age and character of the doctor, who so
+unworthily lied to excuse the idleness of his pupil. This Polidori knew;
+but he also knew that if we do not at once sever our connections with
+corrupt minds in disgust, by degrees, and in spite of our better reason,
+we become familiar with and too frequently admire them, until,
+insensibly, we hear without shame or reproach those things mocked at and
+vituperated which we formerly loved and revered. Besides, the doctor
+was too cunning all at once to shock certain noble sentiments and
+convictions which Rodolph had derived from the admirable lessons of
+Murphy. After having vented much raillery on the coarseness of the early
+occupations of his young pupil, the doctor, laying aside his thin mask
+of austerity, had greatly aroused the curiosity and heated the fancy of
+the young prince, by the exaggerated descriptions, strongly drawn and
+deeply coloured, of the pleasures and gallantries which had illustrated
+the reigns of Louis XIV., the Regent, and especially Louis XV., the hero
+of César Polidori. He assured the misled boy, who listened to him with a
+fatal earnestness, that pleasures, however excessive, far from
+demoralising a highly accomplished prince, often made him merciful and
+generous, inasmuch as fine minds are never more predisposed to
+benevolence and clemency than when acted upon by their own enjoyments.
+Louis XV., the _bien aimé_, the well-beloved, was an unanswerable proof
+of this. And then, added the doctor, how entirely have the greatest men
+of all ages and all countries abandoned themselves to the most refined
+epicureanism,--from Alcibiades to Maurice of Saxony, from Anthony to the
+great Condé, from Cæsar to Vendome! Such conversations must make deep
+and dangerous impressions on a young, ardent, and virgin mind, and such
+theories could not be without their results.
+
+In the midst of this well regulated and virtuous court, accustomed,
+after the example of its ruler, to honest pleasures and harmless
+amusements, Rodolph, instructed by Polidori, dreamt of the dissipated
+nights of Versailles, the orgies of Choisy, the attractive
+voluptuousness of the Parc-au-Cerfs, and also, from time to time, of
+some romantic amours contrasting with these. Neither had the doctor
+failed to prove to Rodolph that a prince of the Germanic Confederation
+should not have any military pretension beyond sending his contingent to
+the Diet. The feeling of the time was not warlike. According to the
+doctor, to pass his time delightfully and idly amongst women and the
+refinements of luxury,--to repose from time to time from the animation
+of sensual pleasures, amidst the delightful attractions of the fine
+arts,--to hunt occasionally, not as a Nimrod, but as an intelligent
+epicurean, and enjoy the transitory fatigues which make idleness and
+repose taste but the sweeter,--this, this was the only life which a
+prince should think of enjoying, who (and this was his height of
+happiness) could find a prime minister capable of devoting himself
+boldly to the distressing and overwhelming burden of state affairs.
+
+Rodolph, in abandoning himself to ideas which were free from
+criminality, because they did not spring from the circle of fatal
+probabilities, resolved that when Providence should call to himself the
+Grand Duke, his father, he would devote himself to the life which César
+Polidori had painted to him under such brilliant and attractive colours,
+and to have as his prime minister one whose knowledge and understanding
+he admired, and whose blind complaisance he fully appreciated. It is
+useless to say that the young prince kept the most perfect silence upon
+the subject of those pernicious hopes which had been excited within him.
+Knowing that the heroes of the Grand Duke's admiration were Gustavus
+Adolphus, Charles XII., and the great Frederic (Maximilian Rodolph had
+the honour of belonging to the royal house of Brandenburg), Rodolph
+thought, reasonably enough, that the prince, his father, who professed
+so profound an admiration for these king-captains, always booted and
+spurred, continually mounted on their chargers, and engaged in making
+war, would consider his son out of his senses if he believed him capable
+of wishing to displace the Tudescan gravity of his court by the
+introduction of the light and licentious manners of the Regency.
+
+A year--eighteen months--passed away. At the end of this time Murphy
+returned from England, and wept for joy on again embracing his young
+pupil. After a few days, although unable to discover the reason of a
+change which so deeply afflicted him, the worthy squire found Rodolph
+chilled and constrained in his demeanour towards him, and almost rude
+when he recalled to him his sequestered and rural life. Assured of the
+natural kind heart of the young prince, and warned by a secret
+presentiment, Murphy thought him for a time perverted by the pernicious
+influence of Doctor Polidori, whom he instinctively abhorred, and
+resolved to watch very narrowly. The doctor, for his part, was very much
+annoyed by Murphy's return, for he feared his frankness, good sense, and
+keen penetration. He instantly resolved, therefore, cost what it might,
+to ruin the worthy Englishman in Rodolph's estimation. It was at this
+crisis that Seyton and Sarah were presented and received at the court of
+Gerolstein with such extreme distinction. We have said that Rodolph,
+accompanied by Murphy, had been absent from the court on a journey for
+some weeks. During this absence the doctor was by no means idle. It is
+said that intriguers discover and recognise each other by certain
+mysterious signs, which allow of them observing each other until their
+interests decide them to form a close alliance, or declare unremitting
+hostility.
+
+Some days after the establishment of Sarah and her brother at the court
+of the Grand Duke, Polidori became a close ally of Seyton's. The doctor
+confessed to himself, with delectable cynicism, that he felt a natural
+affinity for rogues and villains, and so he said that without pretending
+to discover the end which Sarah and her brother desired to achieve, he
+was attracted towards them by a sympathy so strong as to lead him to
+imagine that they plotted some devilish purpose. Some questions of
+Seyton's as to the disposition and early life of Rodolph, questions
+which would have passed without notice with a person less awake to all
+that occurred than the doctor, in a moment enlightened him as to the
+ulterior aims of the brother and sister; all he doubted was, that the
+aspirations of the Scotch lady were at the same time honourable as well
+as ambitious. The arrival of this lovely young woman appeared to
+Polidori a godsend. Rodolph's mind was already inflamed with amorous
+imaginings; Sarah might become, or be made, the delicious reality which
+should substantiate so many glorious dreams. It was not to be doubted
+but that she would secure an immense influence over a heart submitted to
+the witching spell of a first love. The doctor instantly laid his plan
+to direct and secure this influence, and to make it serve also as the
+means of destroying Murphy's power and reputation. Like a skilful
+intriguer, he soon informed the aspiring pair that they must come to an
+understanding with him, as he alone was responsible to the Grand Duke
+for the private life of the young prince.
+
+Sarah and her brother understood him in a moment, although they had not
+told the doctor a syllable of their secret designs. On the return of
+Rodolph and Murphy, all three, combined by one common intent, tacitly
+leagued against the squire, their most redoubtable enemy.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+What was to happen did happen. Rodolph saw Sarah daily after his return,
+and became desperately enamoured. She soon told him that she shared his
+love, although she foresaw that this love would create great trouble. He
+could never be happy; the distance that separated them was too wide! She
+then recommended to Rodolph the most profound discretion, for fear of
+arousing the Grand Duke's suspicions, as he would be inexorable, and
+deprive them of their only happiness,--that of seeing each other every
+day. The young prince promised to be cautious, and conceal his love. The
+Scotch maiden was too ambitious, too self-possessed, to compromise and
+betray herself in the eyes of the court; and Rodolph, perceiving the
+necessity of dissimulation, imitated Sarah's prudence. The lovers'
+secret was carefully preserved for some time; nor was it until the
+brother and sister saw the unbridled passion of their dupe reach its
+utmost excess, and that his infatuation, which he could hardly restrain,
+threatened to burst forth afresh, and destroy all, that they resolved on
+their final _coup_. The doctor's character authorising the confidence,
+besides the morality which invested it, Seyton opened to him on the
+necessity of a marriage between Rodolph and Sarah; otherwise, he added,
+with perfect sincerity, he and his sister would instantly leave
+Gerolstein. Sarah participated in the prince's affection, but,
+preferring death to dishonour, she could only be the wife of his
+highness.
+
+This exalted flight of ambition stupefied the doctor, who had never
+imagined that Sarah's imagination soared so high. A marriage surrounded
+by numberless difficulties and dangers appeared impossible to Polidori,
+and he frankly told Seyton the reasons why the Grand Duke would never
+submit to such a union. Seyton agreed in the importance of the reasons,
+but proposed, as a _mezzo termini_ which should meet all objections, a
+marriage, which, although secret, should be legal, and only avowed after
+the decease of the Grand Duke. Sarah was of a noble and ancient house,
+and such a union was not without precedent. Seyton gave the prince eight
+days to decide; his sister could not longer endure the cruel anguish of
+uncertainty, and, if she must renounce Rodolph's love, she must act up
+to her painful resolve as promptly as might be.
+
+Certain that he could not mistake Sarah's views, the doctor was sorely
+perplexed. He had three ways before him,--to inform the Grand Duke of
+the matrimonial project, to open Rodolph's eyes as to the manoeuvres
+of Tom and Sarah, to lend himself to the marriage. But to inform the
+Grand Duke would be to alienate from him for ever the heir presumptive
+to the throne. To enlighten Rodolph on the interested views of Sarah was
+to expose himself to the reception which a lover is sure to give when
+she whom he loves is depreciated in his eyes; and then, what a blow for
+the vanity or the heart of the young prince, to let him know that it was
+for his royal rank alone that the lady was desirous to wed him! On the
+other hand, by lending himself to this match, Polidori bound Rodolph and
+Sarah to him by a tie of the strongest gratitude, or, at least, by the
+complicity of a dangerous act. No doubt, all might be discovered, and
+the doctor exposed to the anger of the Grand Duke, but then the marriage
+would have been concluded, the union legal. The storm would blow over,
+and the future sovereign of Gerolstein would become the more bound to
+Polidori, in proportion as the doctor had undergone greater dangers in
+his service. After much consideration, therefore, he resolved on serving
+Sarah, but with a certain qualification, which we will presently refer
+to.
+
+Rodolph's passion had reached a height almost of frenzy. Violently
+excited by constraint, and the skilful management of Sarah, who
+pretended to feel still more than he did the insurmountable obstacles
+which honour and duty placed between them and their liberty, in a few
+days more the young prince would have betrayed himself. Thus, when the
+doctor proposed that he must never see his enchantress again, or possess
+her by a secret marriage, Rodolph threw himself on Polidori's neck,
+called him his saviour, his friend, his father; he only wished that the
+temple and the priest were at hand, that he might marry her that
+instant. The doctor resolved (for reasons of his own) to undertake the
+management of all. He found a priest,--witnesses; and the union (all the
+formalities of which were carefully scrutinised and verified by Seyton)
+was secretly celebrated during a temporary absence of the Grand Duke at
+a conference of the German Diet. The prophecy of the Scotch soothsayer
+was fulfilled,--Sarah wedded the heir to a throne.
+
+Without quenching the fire of his love, possession rendered Rodolph more
+circumspect, and cooled down that violence which might have compromised
+the secret of his passion for Sarah; but, directed by Seyton and the
+doctor, the young couple managed so well, and observed so much
+circumspection towards each other, that they eluded all detection.
+
+An event, impatiently desired by Sarah, soon turned this calm into a
+tempest,--she was about to become a mother. It was then that this woman
+evinced all those exactions which were so new to, and so much
+astonished, Rodolph. She protested, with hypocritical tears streaming
+from her eyes, that she could no longer support the constraint in which
+she lived; a constraint rendered the more insupportable by her
+pregnancy. In this extremity she boldly proposed to the young prince to
+tell all to his father, who was, as well as the Dowager Grand Duchess,
+fonder than ever of her. No doubt, she added, he will be very angry,
+greatly enraged, at first, but he loves his son so tenderly, so blindly,
+and had for her (Sarah) so strong an affection, that his paternal anger
+would gradually subside, and she would at last take in the court of
+Gerolstein the rank which was due to her, she might say in a double
+sense, because she was about to give birth to a child, which would be
+the heir presumptive to the Grand Duke. These pretensions alarmed
+Rodolph: he knew the deep attachment which his father had for him, but
+he also well knew the inflexibility of his principles with regard to all
+the duties of a prince. To all these objections Sarah replied, unmoved:
+
+"I am your wife in the presence of God and men. In a short time, I shall
+no longer be able to conceal my situation; and I ought not to blush at
+that of which I am, on the contrary, so proud, and would desire openly
+to acknowledge."
+
+The expectation of posterity had redoubled Rodolph's tenderness for
+Sarah, and, placed between the desire to accede to her wishes and the
+dread of his father's wrath, he experienced the bitterest anguish.
+Seyton sided with his sister.
+
+"The marriage is indissoluble," said he to his royal brother-in-law;
+"the Grand Duke may exile you from his court,--you and your
+wife,--nothing more; but he loves you too much to have recourse to such
+an extremity. He will endure what he cannot prevent."
+
+These reasons, strong enough in themselves, did not soothe Rodolph's
+anxieties. At this juncture, Seyton was charged by the Grand Duke with
+an errand to visit several breeding studs in Austria. This mission,
+which he could not refuse, would only detain him a fortnight: he set out
+with much regret, and in a very important moment for his sister. She was
+chagrined, yet satisfied, at the departure of her brother; for she would
+lose his advice, but then he would be safe from the Grand Duke's anger
+if all were discovered. Sarah promised to keep Seyton fully informed,
+day by day, of the progress of events, so important to both of them;
+and, that they might correspond more surely and secretly, they agreed
+upon a cipher, of which Polidori also held the key. This precaution
+alone proves that Sarah had other matters to tell her brother of besides
+her love for Rodolph. In truth, this selfish, cold, ambitious woman had
+not felt the ice of her heart melt even by the beams of the passionate
+love which had been breathed to her. Her maternity was only with her a
+means of acting more effectually on Rodolph, and had no softening effect
+on her iron soul. The youth, headlong love, and inexperience of the
+prince, who was hardly more than a child, and so perfidiously ensnared
+into an inextricable position, hardly excited an interest in the mind of
+this selfish creature; and, in her confidential communications with him,
+she complained, with disdain and bitterness, of the weakness of this
+young man, who trembled before the most paternal of German princes, who
+lived, however, very long! In a word, this correspondence between the
+brother and sister clearly developed their unbounded selfishness, their
+ambitious calculations, their impatience, which almost amounted to
+homicide, and laid bare the springs of that dark conspiracy crowned by
+the marriage of Rodolph. One of Sarah's letters to her brother was
+abstracted by Polidori, the channel of their mutual communications; for
+what purpose we shall see hereafter.
+
+A few days after Seyton's departure, Sarah was at the evening court of
+the Dowager Grand Duchess. Many of the ladies present looked at her with
+an astonished air, and whispered to their neighbours. The Grand Duchess
+Judith, in spite of her ninety years, had a quick ear and a sharp eye,
+and this little whispering did not escape her. She made a sign to one of
+the ladies in waiting to come to her, and from her she learned that
+everybody was remarking that the figure of Miss Sarah Seyton of Halsbury
+was less slender, less delicate in its proportions than usual. The old
+princess adored her young protégée and would have answered to God
+himself for Sarah's virtue. Indignant at the malevolence of these
+remarks, she shrugged her shoulders, and said aloud, from the end of the
+saloon in which she was sitting:
+
+"My dear Sarah, come here."
+
+Sarah rose. It was requisite to cross the circle to reach the place
+where the princess was seated, who was anxious most kindly to destroy
+the rumour that was circulated, and, by the simple fact of thus crossing
+the room, confound her calumniators, and prove triumphantly that the
+fair proportions of her protégée had lost not one jot of their symmetry
+and delicacy. Alas! the most perfidious enemy could not have devised a
+better plan than that suggested by the worthy princess in her desire to
+defend her protégée. Sarah came towards her, and it required all the
+deep respect due to the Grand Duchess to repress the murmur of surprise
+and indignation when the young lady crossed the room. The
+nearest-sighted persons saw what Sarah would no longer conceal, for her
+pregnancy might have been hidden longer had she but have chosen; but the
+ambitious woman had sought this display in order to compel Rodolph to
+declare his marriage. The Grand Duchess, who, however, would not be
+convinced in spite of her eyesight, said, in a low voice, to Sarah:
+
+"My dear child, how very ill you have dressed yourself to-day,--you,
+whose shape may be spanned by ten fingers. I hardly know you again."
+
+We will relate hereafter the results of this discovery, which led to
+great and terrible events. At this moment, we will content ourselves
+with stating, what the reader has no doubt already guessed, that
+Fleur-de-Marie was the fruit of the secret marriage of Rodolph and
+Sarah, and that they both believed their daughter dead.
+
+It has not been forgotten that Rodolph, after having visited the house
+in the Rue du Temple, had returned home, and intended, in the evening,
+to be present at a ball given by the ---- ambassadress. It was to this
+fête that we shall follow his royal highness, the reigning Grand Duke of
+Gerolstein, Gustavus Rodolph, travelling in France under the name of the
+Count de Duren.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE BALL.
+
+
+As the eleventh hour of the night sounded from the different clocks in
+Paris, the gates of an hôtel in the Rue Plumet were thrown open by a
+Swiss in rich livery, and forthwith issued a magnificent dark blue
+Berlin carriage, drawn by two superb long-tailed gray horses; on the
+seat, which was covered by a rich hammercloth, trimmed with a mossy silk
+fringe, sat a portly-looking coachman, whose head was ornamented by a
+three-cornered hat, while his rotund figure looked still more imposing
+in his dress livery-coat of blue cloth, trimmed up the seams with silver
+lace, and thickly braided with the same material; the whole finished by
+a splendid sable collar and cuffs. Behind the carriage stood a tall
+powdered lacquey, dressed in a livery of blue turned up with yellow and
+silver; and by his side was a chasseur, whose fierce-looking moustaches,
+gaily embroidered dress and hat, half concealed by a waving plume of
+blue and yellow feathers, completed a most imposing _coup-d'oeil_.
+
+The bright light of the lamps revealed the costly satin lining of the
+interior of the vehicle we are describing, in which were seated Rodolph,
+having on his right hand the Baron de Graün, and opposite to him the
+faithful Murphy.
+
+Out of deference for the sovereign represented by the ambassador to
+whose ball he was then proceeding, Rodolph wore no other mark of
+distinction than the diamond order of ----.
+
+Round the neck of Sir Walter Murphy, and suspended by a broad orange
+riband, hung the enamelled cross of the grand commander of the Golden
+Eagle of Gerolstein; and a similar insignia decorated the Baron de
+Graün, amidst an infinite number of the crosses and badges of honour
+belonging to all countries, depending by a gold chain placed in the two
+full buttonholes of the diplomatist's coat.
+
+"I am delighted," said Rodolph, "with the very favourable accounts I
+have received from Madame Georges respecting my poor little protégée at
+the farm of Bouqueval. David's care and attention have worked wonders.
+Apropos of La Goualeuse: what do you think, Sir Walter Murphy, any of
+your Cité acquaintances would say at seeing you so strangely disguised,
+as at present they would consider you, most valiant charcoal-man, to be?
+They would be somewhat astonished, I fancy."
+
+"Much in the same degree as the surprise your royal highness would
+excite among your new acquaintances in the Rue du Temple, were you to
+proceed thither, as now attired, to pay a friendly visit to Madame
+Pipelet, and to inquire after the health of Cabrion's victim, the poor
+melancholy Alfred!"
+
+"My lord has drawn so lively a sketch of Alfred, attired in his
+long-skirted green coat and bell-crowned hat," said the baron, "that I
+can well imagine him seated in magisterial dignity in his dark and smoky
+lodge. Let me hope that your royal highness's visit to the Rue du Temple
+has fully answered your expectations, and that you are in every way
+satisfied with the researches of my agent?"
+
+"Perfectly so," answered Rodolph. "My success was even beyond my
+expectations."
+
+Then, after a moment's painful silence, and to drive away the train of
+thought conjured up by the recollection of the probable guilt of Madame
+d'Harville, he resumed, in a tone more gay:
+
+"I am almost ashamed to own to so much childishness, but I confess
+myself amused with the contrast between my treating Madame Pipelet in
+the morning to a glass of cordial, and then proceeding in the evening to
+a grand fête, with all the pomp and prestige of one of those privileged
+beings who, by the grace of God, 'reign over this lower world.' Some men
+of small fortune would speak of my revenues as those of a millionaire,"
+added Rodolph, in a sort of parenthesis, alluding to the limited extent
+of his estates.
+
+"And many millionaires, my lord, might not have the rare, the admirable
+good sense, of the man of narrow means."
+
+"Ah, my dear De Graün, you are really too good, much too good! You
+really overwhelm me," replied Rodolph, with an ironical smile, while the
+baron glanced at Murphy with the consciousness of a man who has just
+discovered he has been saying a foolish thing.
+
+"Really, my dear De Graün," resumed Rodolph, "I know not how to
+acknowledge the weight of your compliment, or how to repay such delicate
+flattery in its own way."
+
+"My lord, let me entreat of you not to take the trouble," exclaimed the
+baron, who had for the instant forgotten that Rodolph, who detested
+every species of flattery, always revenged himself by the most unsparing
+raillery on those who, directly or indirectly, addressed it to him.
+
+"Nay, baron, I cannot allow myself to remain in your debt. You have
+praised my understanding,--I will, in return, admire your countenance;
+for by my honour, as I sit beside you, you look like a youth of twenty.
+Antinous himself could not boast of finer features, or a more
+captivating expression."
+
+"My lord! my lord! I cry your mercy!"
+
+"Behold him, Murphy, and say whether Apollo could display more graceful
+limbs, more light, and youthful proportions!"
+
+"I beseech you, my lord, to pardon me, from the recollection of how long
+it is since I have permitted myself to utter the slightest compliment to
+your royal highness."
+
+"Observe, Murphy, this band of gold which restrains, without concealing,
+the locks of rich black hair flowing over this graceful neck, and--"
+
+"My lord! my lord! for pity's sake spare me! I repent, most sincerely,
+of my involuntary fault," said the unfortunate baron, with an expression
+of comic despair on his countenance truly ludicrous.
+
+It must not be forgotten that the original of this glowing picture was
+at least fifty years of age; his hair gray, frizzled and powdered; a
+stiff white cravat round his throat; a pale, withered countenance; and
+golden spectacles upon the horny bridge of his sharp, projecting nose.
+
+"Pardon, my lord! pardon, for the baron," exclaimed the squire,
+laughing. "I beseech you not to overwhelm him beneath the weight of your
+mythological allusions. I will be answerable to your royal highness that
+my unlucky friend here will never again venture to utter a flattery,
+since so truth is translated in the new vocabulary of Gerolstein."
+
+"What! old Murphy, too? Are you going to join in the rebellion against
+sincerity?"
+
+"My lord, I am so sorry for the position of my unfortunate _vis-à-vis_,
+that--I beg I may divide his punishment with him."
+
+"Charcoal-man in ordinary, your disinterested friendship does you
+honour. But seriously now, my dear De Graün, how have you forgotten that
+I only allow such fellows as D'Harneim and his train to flatter, for the
+simple reason that they know not how to speak the truth? That
+cuckoo-note of false praise belongs to birds of such feather as
+themselves, and the species they claim relationship with; but for a
+person of your mind and good taste to descend to its usage--oh, fie!
+baron, fie!"
+
+"It is all very well, my lord," said the baron, sturdily; "but I must be
+allowed to say (with all due apology for my boldness) that there is no
+small portion of pride in your royal highness's aversion to receive even
+a just compliment."
+
+"Well said, baron! Come, I like you better now you speak plain truths.
+But tell me how you prove your assertion?"
+
+"Why, just so, my lord; because you repudiate it upon the same principle
+that might induce a beautiful woman, well aware of her charms, to say to
+one of her most enthusiastic admirers, 'I know perfectly well how
+handsome I am, and therefore your approval is perfectly uncalled for and
+unnecessary. What is the use of reiterating what everybody knows? Is it
+usual to proclaim in the open streets that the sun shines, when all may
+see and feel certain of his midday brightness?'"
+
+"Now, baron, you are shifting your ground, and becoming more dangerous
+as you become more adroit; and, by way of varying your punishment, I
+will only say that the infernal Polidori himself could not have more
+ingeniously disguised the poisonous draught of flattery, when seeking to
+persuade some poor victim to swallow it."
+
+"My lord, I am now effectually silenced."
+
+"Then," said Murphy (and this time with an air of real seriousness),
+"your royal highness has now no doubt as to its being really Polidori
+you encountered in the Rue du Temple?"
+
+"I have ceased to have the least doubt on the subject, since I learned
+through you that he had been in Paris for some time past."
+
+"I had forgotten, or, rather, purposely omitted to mention to your
+lordship," said Murphy in a sorrowing tone, "a name that never failed to
+awaken painful feelings; and knowing as I do how justly odious the
+remembrance of this man was to your royal highness, I studiously
+abstained from all reference to it."
+
+The features of Rodolph were again overshadowed with gloom, and, plunged
+in deep reverie, he continued to preserve unbroken the silence which
+prevailed until the carriage stopped in the courtyard of the embassy.
+The windows of the hôtel were blazing with a thousand lights, which
+shone brightly through the thick darkness of the night, while a crowd of
+lacqueys, in full-dress liveries, lined the entrance-hall, extending
+even to the salons of reception, where the grooms of the chamber waited
+to announce the different arrivals.
+
+M. le Comte ----, the ambassador, with his lady, had purposely remained
+in the first reception-room until the arrival of Rodolph, who now
+entered, followed by Murphy and M. de Graün.
+
+Rodolph was then in his thirty-sixth year, in the very prime and
+perfection of manly health and strength. His regular and handsome
+features, with the air of dignity pervading his whole appearance, would
+have rendered him, under any circumstances, a strikingly attractive man;
+but, combined with the _éclat_ of high birth and exalted rank, he was a
+person of first-rate importance in every circle in which he presented
+himself, and whose notice was assiduously sought for. Dressed with the
+utmost simplicity, Rodolph wore a white waistcoat and cravat; a blue
+coat, buttoned up closely, on the right breast of which sparkled a
+diamond star, displayed to admiration the light yet perfect proportions
+of his graceful figure, while his well-fitting pantaloons, of black
+kerseymere, defined the finely formed leg and handsome foot in its
+embroidered stocking.
+
+From the rareness of the Grand Duke's visits to the _haut monde_, his
+arrival produced a great sensation, and every eye was fixed upon him
+from the moment that, attended by Murphy and Baron de Graün, he entered
+the first salon at the embassy. An attaché, deputed to watch for his
+arrival, hastened immediately to appraise the ambassadress of the
+appearance of her illustrious guest. Her excellency instantly hurried,
+with her noble husband, to welcome their visitor, exclaiming:
+
+"Your royal highness is, indeed, kind, thus to honour our poor
+entertainment."
+
+"Nay, madame," replied Rodolph, gracefully bowing on the hand extended
+to him, "your ladyship is well aware of the sincere pleasure it affords
+to pay my compliments to yourself; and as for M. le Comte, he and I are
+two old friends, who are always delighted to meet. Are we not, my lord?"
+
+"Your royal highness, in deigning to continue to me so flattering a
+place in your recollection, makes it still more impossible for me ever
+to forget your many acts of condescending kindness."
+
+"I assure you, M. le Comte, that in my memory the past never dies; or,
+at least, the pleasant part of it; for I make it a strict rule never to
+preserve any reminiscences of my friends but such as are agreeable and
+gratifying."
+
+"Your royal highness has found the secret of being happy in your
+thoughts, and rendering others so at the same time," rejoined the
+ambassador, smiling with gratified pride and pleasure at a conference so
+cordially carried on before a gathering crowd of admiring auditors.
+
+"Thus, then, madame," replied Rodolph, "will your flattering reception
+of to-night live long in my memory; and I shall promise myself the
+happiness of recalling this evening's fête, with its tasteful
+arrangements and crowd of attending beauties. Ah, Madame la Comtesse,
+who like you can effect such a union of taste and elegance as now
+sparkles around us?"
+
+"Your royal highness is too indulgent."
+
+"But I have a very important question to ask you: Why is it that,
+lovely as are your fair guests, their charms are never seen to such
+perfection as when assembled beneath your hospitable roof?"
+
+"Your royal highness is pleased to view our fair visitants through the
+same flattering medium with which you are graciously pleased to behold
+our poor endeavours for your and their amusement," answered the
+ambassador, with a deferential bow.
+
+"Your pardon, count," replied Rodolph, "if I differ with you in opinion.
+According to my judgment, the cause proceeds wholly from our amiable
+hostess, Madame l'Ambassadrice."
+
+"May I request of your royal highness to solve this enigma?" inquired
+the countess, smiling.
+
+"That is easily given, madame, and may be found in the perfect urbanity
+and exquisite grace with which you receive your lovely guests, and
+whisper to each a few charming and encouraging words, which, if the
+least bit exceeding strict truth," said Rodolph, smiling with
+good-tempered satire, "renders those who are even praised above their
+merits more radiant in beauty from your kind commendations, while those
+whose charms admit of no exaggeration are no less radiant with the
+happiness of finding themselves so justly appreciated by you; thus each
+countenance, thanks to the gentle arts you practise, is made to exhibit
+the most smiling delight, for perfect content will set off even homely
+features. And thus I account for why it is that woman, all lovely as she
+is, never looks so much so as when seen beneath your roof. Come, M.
+l'Ambassadeur, own that I have made out a good case, and that you
+entirely concur with me in opinion."
+
+"Your royal highness has afforded me too many previous reasons to admire
+and adopt your opinions for me to hesitate in the present instance."
+
+"And for me, my lord," said the countess, "at the risk of being included
+among those fair ladies who get a little more praise or flattery (which
+was it your highness styled it?) than they deserve, I accept your very
+flattering explanation with as much qualified pleasure as if it were
+really founded on truth."
+
+"In order more effectually to convince you, madame, that nothing is more
+correct than all I have asserted, let us make a few observations
+touching the fine effect of praise in animating and lighting up the
+countenance."
+
+"Ah, my lord, you are laying a very mischievous snare for me," said the
+countess, smiling.
+
+"Well, then, I will abandon that idea; but upon one condition, that you
+honour me by taking my arm. I have been told wonderful things of a
+'Winter Garden,'--a work from Fairyland. May I put up my humble petition
+to be allowed to see this new wonder of a 'hundred and one nights?'"
+
+"Oh, my lord, with the utmost pleasure. But I see that your highness had
+received a most exaggerated account. Perhaps you will accompany me, and
+judge for yourself. Only in this instance I would fain hope that your
+habitual indulgence may induce you to feel as little disappointment as
+possible at finding how imperfectly the reality equals your
+expectations."
+
+The ambassadress then took the offered arm of Rodolph, and proceeded
+with him to the other salons, while the count remained conversing with
+the Baron de Graün and Murphy, whom he had been acquainted with for some
+time.
+
+And a more beautiful scene of enchantment never charmed the eye than
+that presented by the aspect of the winter garden, to which Rodolph had
+conducted his noble hostess. Let the reader imagine an enclosure of
+about forty feet in length, and thirty in width (leading out of a long
+and splendid gallery), surmounted by a glazed and vaulted roof, the
+building being securely covered in for about fifty feet. Round the
+parallelogram it described, the walls were concealed by an infinite
+number of mirrors, over which was placed a small and delicate trellis of
+fine green rushes, which, thanks to the strong light reflected on the
+highly polished glass, resembled an arbour, and were almost entirely
+hidden by a thick row of orange-trees, as large as those of the
+Tuileries, mixed with camellias of equal size; while the golden fruit
+and verdant foliage of the one contrasted beautifully with the rich
+clusters of waxen flowers, of all colours, with which the other was
+loaded. The remainder of the garden was thus devised:
+
+Five or six enormous clumps of trees, and Indian or other tropical
+shrubs, planted in immense cases filled with peat earth, were surrounded
+by alleys paved with a mosaic shell-work, and sufficiently wide for two
+or three persons to walk abreast. It is impossible to describe the
+wondrous effect produced by this rich display of tropical vegetation in
+the midst of a European winter, and almost in the very centre of a
+ballroom. Here might be seen gigantic bananas stretching their tall arms
+to the glass roof which covered them, and blending the vivid green of
+their palms with the lanceolated leaves of the large magnolias, some of
+which already displayed their matchless and odoriferous flowers with
+their bell-shaped calices, purple without and silvery white within, from
+which started forth the little gold-threaded stamens. At a little
+distance were grouped the palm and date-trees of the Levant; the red
+macaw, and fig-trees from India; all blooming in full health and vigour,
+and displaying their foliage in all its luxuriance, gave to the _tout
+ensemble_ a mass of rich, brilliant tropical verdure, which, glittering
+among the thousand lights, sparkled with the colours of the emerald.
+
+Along the trellising, between the orange-trees, and amid the clumps,
+were trained every variety of rare climbing plants; sometimes hanging
+their long wreaths of leaves and flowers in graceful festoons, then
+depending like blooming serpents from the tall boughs; now trailing at
+their roots, then ambitiously scaling the very walls, till they hung
+their united tresses round the transparent and vaulted roof, from which
+again they floated in mingled masses, waving in the pure, light breeze
+loaded with so many odours. The winged pomegranate, the passion-flower,
+with its large purple flowers striated with azure, and crowned with its
+dark violet tuft, waved in long spiral wreaths over the heads of the
+admiring crowd, then, as though fatigued with the sport, threw their
+colossal garlands of delicate flowers across the hard, prickly leaves of
+the gigantic aloes.
+
+The bignonia of India, with its long, cup-shaped flower of dark sulphur
+colour, and slight, slender leaves, was placed beside the delicate
+flesh-coloured petals of the stephanotis, so justly appreciated for its
+exquisite perfume; the two stems mutually clinging to each other for
+support, and mingling their leaves and flowers in one confused mass,
+disposed them in elegant festoons of green fringe spangled with gold and
+silver spots, around the immense velvet foliage of the Indian fig.
+Farther on, started forth, and then fell again in a sort of variegated
+and floral cascade, immense quantities of the stalks of the asclepias,
+whose leaves, large, umbellated, and in clusters of from fifteen to
+twenty star-shaped flowers, grew so thickly, so evenly, that they might
+have been mistaken for bouquets of pink enamel surrounded with leaves of
+fine green porcelain. The borders of the cases containing the orange
+sand camellias were filled with the choicest cape heaths, the tulips of
+Thol, the narcissus of Constantinople, the hyacinth, irides, and
+cyclamina of Persia; forming a sort of natural carpet, presenting one
+harmonious blending of the loveliest tints.
+
+Chinese lanterns of transparent silk, some pale blue, others pink,
+partly concealed amid the foliage, threw a soft and gentle light over
+this enchanting scene; nor could a more ingenious idea have been
+resorted to than in the happy amalgamation of these two colours, by
+which a charming and almost unearthly light was produced combining the
+clear cerulean blue of a summer's night with the rose-coloured
+coruscations emitted from sparkling rays of an aurora borealis.
+
+The entrance to this immense hothouse was from a long gallery glittering
+with gold, with mirrors, crystal vases filled with the choicest
+perfumes, and brilliantly lighted, and also raised a few steps above the
+fairy palace we have been endeavouring to describe. The dazzling
+brightness of the approach served as a sort of penumbra, in which were
+indistinctly traced out the gigantic exotics discernible through a
+species of arch, partly concealed by two crimson velvet curtains looped
+back with golden cords so as to give a dim and misty view of the
+enchanted land that lay beyond. An imaginative mind might easily have
+persuaded himself he stood near a huge window opening on some beautiful
+Asiatic landscape during the tranquillity of a summer's twilight.
+
+The sounds of the orchestra, weakened by distance, and broken by the
+joyous hum proceeding from the gallery, died languidly away among the
+motionless foliage of the huge trees. Insensibly each fresh visitant to
+this enchanting spot lowered his voice until his words fell in whispers;
+for the light genuine air, embalmed with a thousand rich odours,
+appeared to cast a sort of somnolency over the senses; every breath
+seemed to speak of the clustering plants whose balmy sweetness filled
+the atmosphere. Certainly two lovers, seated in some corner of this
+Eden, could conceive no greater happiness to be enjoyed on earth, than
+thus dreamily to rest beneath the trees and flowers of this terrestrial
+paradise.
+
+At the end of this winter garden were placed immense divans beneath
+canopies of leaves and flowers; the subdued light of the hothouse
+forming a powerful contrast with the gallery, the distance seemed filled
+with a species of gold-coloured, shining fog, in the midst of which
+glittered and flickered, like a living embroidery, the dazzling and
+varied robes of the ladies, combined with the prismatic scintillations
+of the congregated mass of diamonds and precious stones. Rodolph's first
+sensation upon arriving at this enchanting triumph of art over nature
+was that of most unfeigned surprise.
+
+"This is, indeed, a wonderfully beautiful carrying out of a poetical
+idea," said he, almost involuntarily; then, turning to the ambassadress,
+he exclaimed, "Madame, till now, I had not deemed such wonders
+practicable. We have not in the scene before us a mere union of
+unbounded expense with the most exquisite taste, but you give us poetry
+in action. Instead of writing as a master poet, or painting as a
+first-rate artist, you create that which they would scarcely venture to
+dream of."
+
+"Your royal highness is too indulgent."
+
+"Nay, but candidly, all must agree that the mind which could so
+faithfully depict this ravishing scene, with its charm of colours and
+contrasts,--beyond us, the loud notes of joy and mirthful revelry, here
+the soft silence and sweet, gentle murmurs of distant voices, that lull
+the spirit into a fancied flight beyond this fitful existence,--surely,
+surely, without suspicion of flattery, it may be said of the planner and
+contriver of all this, such a one was born a poet and a painter
+combined."
+
+"The praises of your royal highness are so much the more dangerous from
+the skill and cleverness with which they are uttered, and which makes us
+listen to them with delight, even in defiance of our sternest
+resolutions. But allow me to call your royal highness's attention to the
+very lovely person who is approaching us. I must have you admit that the
+Marquise d'Harville must shine preeminently beautiful any and every
+where. Is she not graceful? And does not the gentle elegance of her
+whole appearance acquire a fresh charm, from the contrast with the
+severe yet classic beauty by whom she is accompanied?"
+
+The individuals thus alluded to were the Countess Sarah Macgregor and
+the Marquise d'Harville, who were at this moment descending the steps
+which led from the gallery to the winter garden. Neither was the
+panegyric bestowed by the ambassadress on Madame d'Harville at all
+exaggerated. No words can accurately describe the loveliness of her
+person, and the Marquise d'Harville was then in the first bloom of
+youthful charms; but her beauty, delicate and fragile as it was,
+appeared less to belong to the strict regularity of her features than to
+the irresistible expression of sweetness and universal kindness, which
+imparted a charm to her countenance impossible to resist or to describe;
+and this peculiar charm served invariably to distinguish Madame
+d'Harville from all other fashionable beauties; for goodness of heart
+and kindliness of disposition are but rarely seen as the prevailing
+passions revealed in a face as fair, as young, high-born, and ardently
+worshipped by all, as was the Marquise d'Harville, who shone forth in
+all her lustre as the brightest star in the galaxy of fashion. Too wise,
+virtuous, and right-minded to listen to the host of flatterers by whom
+she was surrounded, Madame d'Harville smiled as gratefully on all as
+though she could have given them credit for speaking the truth, had not
+her own modest opinion of her just claims to such homage have forbidden
+her accepting of praise she never could have deserved. Wholly
+indifferent to flattery, yet sensibly alive to kindness, she perfectly
+distinguished between sympathy and insincerity. Her acute penetration,
+correct judgment, and lively wit, unmixed by the slightest ill-nature,
+made her wage an early, though good-tempered war with those vain and
+egotistical beings who crowd and oppress society with the view of
+monopolising general attention, and, blinded by their own self-love,
+expect one universal deference and submission.
+
+"Those kind of persons," said Madame d'Harville one day, laughingly,
+"appear to me as if their whole lives were passed in dancing '_Le
+Cavalier Seul_' before an invisible mirror."
+
+An unassuming and unpretending person, however reserved and consequently
+unpopular he might be with others, was sure to find a steady friend and
+partial observer in Madame d'Harville.
+
+This trifling digression is absolutely essential to the right
+understanding of facts of which we shall speak hereafter.
+
+The complexion of Madame d'Harville was of the purest white, tinged with
+the most delicate carnation; her long tresses of bright chestnut hair
+floated over her beautifully formed shoulders, white and polished as
+marble. It would be an impossible task to describe her large dark gray
+eyes, fringed with their thick lashes, and beaming with angelic
+sweetness; her coral lips, with their gentle smile, gave to her eyes the
+indefinable charm that her affable and winning mode of expressing
+herself derived from their mild and angelic expression of approving
+goodness. We will not farther delay the reader by describing the
+perfection of her figure, nor dwell upon the distinguished air which
+marked her whole appearance. She wore a white crape dress, trimmed with
+the natural flowers of the camellia, intermixed with its own rich green
+leaves. Here and there a diamond sparkled among the waxy petals, as if a
+dewdrop fresh from its native skies had fallen there. A garland of the
+same flowers, equally ornamented with precious stones, was placed with
+infinite grace upon her fair and open brow.
+
+The peculiar style of the Countess Sarah Macgregor's beauty served to
+set off the fair feminine loveliness of her companion. Though turned
+thirty-five years of age, Sarah looked much younger. Nothing appears to
+preserve the body more effectually from all the attacks of sickness or
+decay than a cold-hearted, egotistical disregard of every one but
+ourselves; it encrusts the body with a cold, icy covering, which alike
+resists the inroads of bodily or mental wear and tear. To this cause may
+be ascribed the wonderful preservation of Countess Sarah's appearance.
+
+The lady whose name we last mentioned wore a dress of pale amber watered
+silk, beneath a crape tunic of the same colour. A simple wreath of the
+dark leaves of the _Pyrus Japonicus_ encircled her head, and harmonised
+admirably with the bandeaux of raven hair it confined. This classically
+severe mode of head-dress gave to the profile of this imperious woman
+the character and resemblance of an antique statue. Many persons,
+mistaking their real cast of countenance, imagine some peculiar vocation
+delineated in their traits. Thus one man, who fancies he possesses a
+warlike air, assumes the warrior; another imagines
+
+ "His eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,"
+
+marks him out as a poet; instantly he turns down his shirt-collar,
+adopts poetical language, and writes himself poet. So the self-imagined
+conspirator wastes days and hours in pondering over mighty deeds he
+feels called upon to do. The politician, upon the same terms, bores the
+world and his friends with his perpetual outpourings upon political
+economy; and the man whose saintly turn of countenance persuades its
+owner into the belief of a corresponding character within, forthwith
+abjures the pomps and vanities of the world, and aims at reforming his
+brethren by his pulpit eloquence. Now, ambition being Sarah's ruling
+passion, and her noble and aristocratical features well assisting the
+delusion, she smiled as the word "diadem" crossed her thoughts, and lent
+a willing ear to the predictions of her Highland nurse, and firmly
+believed herself predestined to a sovereign destiny. Spite of the
+trifling embonpoint that gave to her figure (which, though fatter than
+Madame d'Harville's, was not less slender and nymph-like) a voluptuous
+gracefulness, Sarah boasted of all the freshness of early youth, and few
+could long sustain the fire of her black and piercing eyes; her nose was
+aquiline; her finely formed mouth and rich ruby lips were expressive of
+the highest determination, haughtiness, and pride.
+
+The marquise and Sarah had recognised Rodolph in the winter garden at
+the moment they were descending into it from the gallery; but the prince
+feigned not to observe their presence.
+
+"The prince is so absorbed with the ambassadress," said Madame
+d'Harville to Sarah, "that he pays not the slightest attention to us."
+
+"You are quite mistaken, my dear Clémence," rejoined the countess; "the
+prince saw us as quickly and as plainly as we saw him, but I frightened
+him away; you see he still bears malice with me."
+
+"I am more than ever at a loss to understand the singular obstinacy with
+which he persists in shunning you,--you, formerly an old friend.
+'Countess Sarah and myself are sworn enemies,' replied he to me once in
+a joking manner; 'I have made a vow never to speak to her; and you may
+judge how sacred must be the vow that hinders me from conversing with so
+charming a lady.' And, strange and unaccountable as was this reply, I
+had no alternative but to submit to it."
+
+"And yet I can assure you that the cause of this deadly feud, half in
+jest, and half in earnest as it is, originates in the most simple
+circumstance. Were it not that a third party is implicated in it, I
+should have explained the whole to you long ago. But what is the matter,
+my dear child? You seem as though your thoughts were far from the
+present scene."
+
+"Nothing, nothing, I assure you," replied the marquise, faintly; "but
+the gallery is so very hot, it gave me a violent headache. Let us sit
+down here for a minute or two. I hope and believe it will soon be
+better."
+
+"You are right; see, here is a nice quiet corner, where you will be in
+perfect safety from the researches of those who are lamenting your
+absence," added Sarah, pronouncing the last words with marked emphasis.
+
+The two ladies then seated themselves on a divan, almost concealed
+beneath the clustering shrubs and overhanging plants.
+
+"I said those who would be lamenting your absence, my dear
+Clémence,--come, own that I deserve praise for so discreetly forming my
+speech."
+
+The marquise blushed slightly, cast down her eyes, but spoke not.
+
+"How unreasonable you are!" exclaimed Sarah, in a tone of friendly
+reproach. "Can you not trust me, my dear child?--yes, child; for am I
+not old enough to be your mother?"
+
+"Not trust you?" uttered the marquise, sadly; "alas! have I not on the
+contrary confessed that to you which I should hardly have dared to own
+to myself?"
+
+"Well, then, come, rouse yourself; now, let us have a little talk about
+him: and so you have really sworn to drive him to despair?"
+
+"For the love of heaven," exclaimed Madame d'Harville, "think what you
+are saying!"
+
+"I tell you I know him better than you do, my poor child; he is a man of
+cool and decided energy, who sets but little value on his life; he has
+had misfortunes enough to make him quite weary of it; and it really
+seems as if you daily found greater pleasure in tormenting him, and
+playing with his feelings."
+
+"Is it possible you can really think so?"
+
+"Indeed, in spite of myself, I cannot refrain from entertaining that
+opinion. Oh, if you but knew how over-susceptible some minds are
+rendered by a continuance of sorrows and afflictions,--just now I saw
+two large tears fall from his eyes, as he gazed on you."
+
+"Are you quite sure of what you say?"
+
+"Indeed, I am quite certain; and that, too, in a ballroom, at the risk
+of becoming an object of general derision, if this uncontrollable misery
+were perceived! Ah! let me tell you, a person must truly love to bear
+all this, and even to be careless about concealing his sufferings from
+the world."
+
+"For the love of heaven, do not speak thus!" replied Madame d'Harville,
+in a voice trembling with emotion. "Alas! you have touched me nearly; I
+know too well what it is to struggle with a hidden grief, yet wear an
+outward expression of calmness and resignation. Alas! alas! 'tis the
+deep pity and commiseration I feel for him has been my ruin," added she,
+almost unconsciously.
+
+"Nonsense! What an over-nice person you are, to talk of a little
+innocent flirtation being ruinous, and that, too, with a man so
+scrupulously guarded as to abstain from ever appearing in your husband's
+presence, for fear of compromising you. You must admit that M. Charles
+Robert is a man of surprising honour, delicacy, and real feeling. I feel
+the more inclined to espouse his cause from the recollection that you
+have never met him elsewhere but at my house, and because I can answer
+for his principles, and that his devoted attachment to you can only be
+equalled by the deep respect he bears you."
+
+"I have never doubted the many noble qualities you have so repeatedly
+assured me he possesses, but you know well that it is his long
+succession of bitter afflictions which have so warmly interested me in
+his favour."
+
+"And well does he merit this interest, and most fully do his excellent
+qualities absolve you of all blame in thus bestowing it. Surely so fine
+and noble a countenance bespeaks a mind equally superior to all mankind.
+How completely are you reminded, while gazing on his tall and finely
+proportioned figure, of the _preux chevaliers_ of bygone days,'_sans
+peur et sans reproche_.' I once saw him dressed in his uniform as
+commandant of the national guard, and, handsome as he is, I really
+think he looked surpassingly well, and I could but say to myself, that,
+if nobility were the award of inward merit and external beauty, M.
+Charles Robert, instead of being so called, would take precedence of
+nearly all our dukes and peers. Would he not be a fitting representative
+of any of the most distinguished families in France?"
+
+"You know, my dear countess, how very little importance I attach to mere
+birth, and you yourself have frequently reproached me with being
+strongly inclined to republicanism," said Madame d'Harville, smiling
+gently.
+
+"For my own part, I always thought, with you, that M. Charles Robert
+required not the aid of rank or titles to render him worthy of universal
+admiration. Then, what extreme talent he possesses! What a fine voice he
+has! And what delightful morning concerts we three have been able to
+achieve, owing to his all-powerful assistance! Ah, my dear Clémence, do
+you remember the first time you ever sang with him: what passionate
+expression did he not throw into the words of that beautiful duet, so
+descriptive of his love, and his fear of offending her who was the
+object of it, by revealing it?"
+
+"Let me entreat of you," said Madame d'Harville, after a long silence,
+"to speak of something else; indeed I dare not listen further: what you
+but just now intimated of his depressed and unhappy appearance has
+caused me much pain."
+
+"Nay, my dear friend, I meant not to grieve you, but merely to point out
+the probability that a man, rendered doubly sensitive by the succession
+of past misfortunes, might feel his courage insufficient to encounter
+the fresh trial of your rejection of his suit, and thus be induced to
+end his hopeless love and his life together."
+
+"Oh, no more! no more!" almost shrieked Madame d'Harville, interrupting
+Sarah; "this fearful idea has glanced across my mind already." Then,
+after a second silence of some minutes, the marquise resumed, "Let us,
+as I said before, talk of somebody else,--of your mortal enemy, for
+instance," added she, with assumed gaiety of manner; "come, we will take
+the prince for a fresh theme of conversation; I had not seen him,
+previously to this evening, for a very long time. Do you know that I
+think he looks handsomer than ever? Though all but king, he has lost
+none of the winning sweetness and affability of his manner, and, spite
+of my republicanism, I must confess I have seldom, if ever, known so
+irresistible a person."
+
+Sarah threw a side glance of deep and scrutinising hatred upon her
+unconscious rival, but, quickly recovering herself, she said, gaily:
+
+"Now, my dear Clémence, you must confess to being a most capricious
+little lady; you have regular alternating paroxysms of admiration and
+violent dislike for the prince; why, a few months ago, I mean about his
+first arrival here, you were so captivated by him, that, between
+ourselves, I was half afraid you had lost your heart past all hope of
+recall."
+
+"Thanks to you," replied Madame d'Harville, smiling, "my admiration was
+very short-lived; for so well did you act up to your character of the
+prince's sworn foe, and such fearful tales did you tell me of his
+profligacy and misconduct, that you succeeded in inspiring me with an
+aversion as powerful as had been the infatuation which led you to fear
+for the safety of my heart; which, by the way, I cannot think would ever
+have been placed in any danger from the attempts of your enemy to
+disturb its repose, since, shortly before you gave me those frightful
+particulars of the prince's character, he had quite ceased to honour me
+with his visits, although on the most intimate and friendly terms with
+my husband."
+
+"Talking of your husband, pray is he here to-night?" inquired Sarah.
+
+"No," replied Madame d'Harville, in a tone of embarrassment; "he
+preferred remaining at home."
+
+"He seems to me to mix less and less in the world."
+
+"He never liked what is called fashionable gaiety."
+
+The marquise's agitation visibly increased; and Sarah, whose quick eye
+easily perceived it, continued:
+
+"The last time I saw him he looked even paler than usual."
+
+"He has been very much out of health lately."
+
+"My dearest Clémence, will you permit me to speak to you without
+reserve?"
+
+"Oh, yes, pray do!"
+
+"How comes it that the least allusion to your husband always throws you
+into such a state of extraordinary alarm and uneasiness?"
+
+"What an idea! Is it possible you can mean it seriously?" asked poor
+Madame d'Harville, trying to smile.
+
+"Indeed, I am quite in earnest," rejoined her companion; "whenever you
+are speaking of him, your countenance assumes, even in spite of
+yourself,--but how shall I make myself understood?" and Sarah, with the
+tone and fixed gaze of one who wished to read the most secret thoughts
+of the person she addressed, slowly and emphatically added, "a look of
+mingled aversion and fear!"
+
+The fixed pallid features of Madame d'Harville at first defied even
+Sarah's practised eye, but her keen gaze soon detected a slight
+convulsive working of the mouth, with a tremulous movement of the under
+lip of her victim; but feeling it unsafe to pursue the subject farther
+at this moment so as to awaken the marquise's mistrust of her friendly
+intentions, by way, therefore, of concealing her real suspicions, she
+continued:
+
+"Yes, just that sort of dislike any woman would entertain for a peevish,
+jealous, ill-tempered--"
+
+At this explanation of the countess's meaning, as regarded Madame
+d'Harville's imagined dislike for her husband, a heavy load seemed
+taken from her; the working of her lip ceased, and she replied:
+
+"Let me assure you M. d'Harville is neither peevish nor jealous." Then,
+as if searching for some means of breaking a conversation so painful to
+her feelings, she suddenly exclaimed, "Ah! here comes that tiresome
+friend of my husband's, the Duke de Lucenay. I hope he has not seen us.
+Where can he have sprung from? I thought he was a thousand miles off!"
+
+"It was reported that he had gone somewhere in the East for a year or
+two, and behold, at the end of five months, here he is back again! His
+unexpected arrival must have sadly annoyed the Duchess de Lucenay,
+though poor De Lucenay is a very inoffensive creature," said Sarah, with
+an ill-natured smile. "Nor will Madame de Lucenay be the only one to
+feel vexation at his thus changing his mind; her friend, M. de St. Remy,
+will duly and affectionately sympathise in all her regrets on the
+subject."
+
+"Come, come, my dear Sarah, I cannot allow you to scandalise; say that
+this return of M. de Lucenay is a nuisance to everybody; the duke is
+sufficiently disagreeable for you to generalise the regret his
+unexpected presence occasions."
+
+"I do not slander, I merely repeat. It is also said that M. de St. Remy,
+the model of our young _élégantes_, whose splendid doings have filled
+all Paris, is all but ruined! 'Tis true, he has by no means reduced
+either his establishment or his expenditure; however, there are several
+ways of accounting for that; in the first place, Madame de Lucenay is
+immensely rich."
+
+"What a horrible idea!"
+
+"Still I only repeat what others say. There, the duke sees us; he is
+coming towards us; we must resign ourselves to our fate,--miserable, is
+it not? I know nothing so hard to bear as that man's company; he makes
+himself so very disagreeable, and then laughs so disgustingly loud at
+the silly things he says. Indeed, he is so boisterous that the bare idea
+of him makes one think of pretending to faint, or any other pretext, to
+avoid him. Talking of fainting, pray let me beg of you, if you have the
+least regard for your fan or essence-bottle, to beware how you allow him
+to handle either, for he has the unfortunate habit of breaking whatever
+he touches, and all with the most facetious self-satisfied air
+imaginable."
+
+
+END OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+ * * * * *
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+This e-text was prepared from numbered edition 505 of the 1000 printed.
+
+Minor punctuation and capitalization corrections have been made without
+comment.
+
+Minor typographical errors of single words, otherwise spelled correctly
+throughout the text have been made without comment.
+
+Word Variations appearing in the original text which have been retained:
+
+"bull-dog" (1) and "bulldog" (2)
+"protégé" (1), "protégée" (8) and "protégés" (1)
+"rencontre" (2) and "rencounter" (1)
+"Sarah Seyton of Halsburg" (1) and "Sarah Seyton of Halsbury" (1)
+
+Words using the [oe] ligature, which have been herein represented as
+"oe": "manoeuvre", "coeur", "chef-d'oeuvre", "coup-d'oeil".
+
+Throughout the text, illustrations and their captions were placed on
+facing pages. For the purpose of this e-text these pages have been
+combined into one entry.
+
+Footnotes, originally at the bottom of a printed page, have been placed
+directly below the paragraph in which their anchor symbol appears.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 1 of 6, by
+Eugène Sue
+
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