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+Project Gutenberg's The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 5 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 5 of 6
+
+Author: Eugène Sue
+
+Illustrators: G. Mercier
+              Bicknell
+              Léon Poiteau
+              Adrian Marcel
+
+Release Date: September 22, 2010 [EBook #33804]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS, V.5 ***
+
+
+
+
+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: "_'Cecily! Cecily!' Murmured a Voice_"
+Original Etching by Adrian Marcel]
+
+
+
+
++The Mysteries of Paris.+
+
+  _ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS
+  BY MERCIER, BICKNELL, POITEAU,
+  AND ADRIAN MARCEL._
+
+                 _BY EUGENE SUE_
+
+
+      _IN SIX VOLUMES
+          VOLUME V._
+
+
+       _PRINTED FOR
+  FRANCIS A. NICCOLLS & CO.
+          BOSTON_
+
+
+     +Edition de Luxe+
+
+_This edition is limited to one thousand copies,
+of which this is_
+
+         No.______
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+      CHAP.                                               PAGE
+         I. THE PRESENTATION                                11
+        II. MURPHY AND POLIDORI                             35
+       III. THE CLERK'S OFFICE                              57
+        IV. AVOID TEMPTATION                                69
+         V. LA FORCE                                        99
+        VI. PIQUE-VINAIGRE                                 114
+       VII. MAÎTRE BOULARD                                 139
+      VIII. FRANÇOIS GERMAIN                               148
+        IX. THE LIONS' DEN                                 169
+         X. THE STORY-TELLER                               193
+        XI. GRINGALET AND CUT-IN-HALF                      211
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                                                          PAGE
+      "'CECILY! CECILY!' MURMURED A VOICE"      _Frontispiece_
+      "SLOWLY DANCING AND WHIRLING AROUND ME"               26
+      "THEN LEFT ME"                                       126
+      "TOUCHED WITH HIS LIPS THROUGH THE GRATING"          167
+      "THE SKELETON STAGGERED AT FIRST"                    243
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE PRESENTATION.
+
+
+A few days after the murder of Madame Séraphin, the death of the
+Chouette, and the arrest of the gang of desperadoes taken by surprise at
+Bras-Rouge's house, Rodolph paid another visit to the house in the Rue
+du Temple.
+
+We have already observed that, with the view of practising artifice for
+artifice with Jacques Ferrand, discovering his hidden crimes, obliging
+him to repair them, and inflicting condign punishment should the guilty
+wretch, either by skill or hypocrisy, continue to evade the just
+punishment of the laws, Rodolph had sent to fetch from one of the
+prisons in Germany a young and beautiful creole, the unworthy wife of
+the negro David. This female, lovely in person as depraved in mind, as
+fascinating as dangerous, had reached Paris the preceding evening, and
+had received the most minute instructions from Baron de Graün.
+
+The reader will recollect that in the last interview between Rodolph and
+Madame Pipelet, the latter having very cleverly managed to propose
+Cecily to Madame Séraphin, as a servant to the notary in place of Louise
+Morel, her proposition had been so well received that the _femme de
+charge_ had promised to speak to Jacques Ferrand on the subject; and
+this she had done, in terms most flattering to Cecily, the very morning
+of the day on which she (Madame Séraphin) had been drowned at the Isle
+du Ravageur.
+
+The motive for Rodolph's visit was, therefore, to inquire the result of
+Cecily's introduction. To his great astonishment, he found, on entering
+the lodge, that although eleven o'clock in the morning had struck by all
+the neighbouring dials, Pipelet had not yet risen, while Anastasie was
+standing beside his bed, offering him some sort of drink.
+
+As Alfred, whose forehead and eyes were entirely concealed beneath his
+huge cotton nightcap, did not reply to his wife's inquiries, she
+concluded he slept, and therefore closed the curtains of his bed.
+Turning around, she perceived Rodolph, and, as usual, gave him a
+military salute, by lifting the back of her left hand up to her wig.
+
+"Ah, my king of lodgers! Service to you! How are you? As for me, I'm
+upset--bewildered--stupefied. Pretty doings have there been in the house
+since you was here. And my poor Alfred,--obliged to keep his bed ever
+since yesterday!"
+
+"Why, what has happened?"
+
+"Positively, don't you guess? Still going on in the old way with that
+monster of a painter, who is more bitter than ever against Alfred. He
+has quite muddled his brains, till I declare I don't know what to do
+with him."
+
+"Cabrion again?"
+
+"Oh, _he'll_ never leave off."
+
+"He must be the very devil!"
+
+"Really, M. Rodolph, I shall very soon think so; for he always knows the
+very instant I quit the house. Scarcely is my back turned, than there he
+is, in the twinkling of an eye, worrying and tormenting my poor old dear
+of a husband, who is as helpless and frightened as a babby. Only last
+night, when I had just stepped out as far as M. Ferrand's the
+notary's--Ah, there's pretty work there, too!"
+
+"But Cecily?" said Rodolph, with some little impatience. "I called to
+know--"
+
+"Hold hard, my king of lodgers! Don't be in such a hurry, or you'll put
+me out. And I've such a deal to tell you, I don't know when I shall have
+done; and if once I'm interrupted in a story, I never know when to begin
+again."
+
+"There now, go on as fast as you can; I'm listening."
+
+"Well, then, first and foremost, what do you think has happened in the
+house? Ah, you'll never guess, so I'll tell you. Only imagine, old
+Mother Burette's being taken up!"
+
+"What, the female pawnbroker?"
+
+"Oh, Lord, she seems to have had a curious mixture of trades: for
+besides being a money-lender, she was a receiver of stolen goods, a
+melter of gold and silver, a fortune-teller, a cheat, a dealer in
+second-hand clothes, and any sort of contraband articles. The worst of
+the story is that M. Bras-Rouge, her old sweetheart and our principal
+lodger, is also arrested. I tell you the house is thoroughly upset with
+these strange doings."
+
+"Arrested! Bras-Rouge arrested?"
+
+"That he was, I can promise you. Why, even his mischievous little imp of
+a son--the lame boy we call Tortillard--has also been locked up. They
+say that lots of murders have been planned and managed at his house,
+which was the well-known resort of a gang of ruffians; that the
+Chouette, one of Mother Burette's most particular friends, has been
+strangled; and that, if assistance had not arrived in time, Mother
+Mathieu, the dealer in precious stones for whom Morel worked, would also
+have been murdered. Come, I think there's a pretty penn'orth of news for
+you,--and cheap, too, at the price!"
+
+"Bras-Rouge arrested and the Chouette dead!" murmured Rodolph to
+himself, in deep astonishment at the tidings. "Well, the vile old hag
+deserved her fate, and poor Fleur-de-Marie is at least avenged!"
+
+"So that is the state of things here," continued Anastasie. "As for M.
+Cabrion and his devil's tricks, I'll tell you all about it. Oh, you
+never knew such a bold howdacious willin as he is! But you shall
+hear,--I'll go straight on with my story. But there never,--no, there
+never was his feller for inperence! So when Mother Burette was took up,
+and we heard how that M. Bras-Rouge, our principal lodger, was quodded
+also, I says to my old boy, 'Alfred, darling,' says I, 'you must toddle
+off to the landlord and let him know as M. Bras-Rouge is in the stone
+jug.' Well, Alfred goes; but in about two hours' time back he comes--in
+such a state!--such a state! White as a sheet and puffing like an ox!"
+
+"Why, what was the matter?"
+
+"I'm a-going to tell you. I suppose, M. Rodolph, you recollect the high
+wall about ten steps from here? Well, my poor, dear, darling husband was
+going along thinking of nothing, when, quite by chance, he just looked
+upon this wall. And what do you think he saw written in great staring
+letters with a piece of charcoal?--why, 'Pipelet and Cabrion!'--the two
+names joined together by a sort of true-lover's knot. (Ah, it is that
+true-lover's knot which sticks so tight in the gizzard of my poor old
+chick!) That sight rather upset him; but still he tried to act like a
+man and not mind it. So on he went. But hardly had he proceeded ten
+steps farther when, on the principal entrance to the Temple, there again
+were the same hateful words, 'Pipelet and Cabrion,' united as before!
+Still he walked on; but at every turn he saw the same detestable writing
+on the walls, doors, and even shutters of houses! Everywhere Pipelet
+and Cabrion danced before his eyes, for ever bound in the same tender
+tie of love or friendship! My poor dear Alfred's head began to turn
+around, and his eyes to grow dizzy; all sorts of horrid objects seemed
+to meet him and laugh him to scorn. He fancied the very people in the
+streets were laughing at him. So, quite confused and ashamed, he pulled
+his hat over his face, and took the road towards the Boulevards,
+believing that the scamp Cabrion would have confined his abominations to
+the Rue du Temple. But no--not he! All along the Boulevards, wherever a
+blank spot remained or a place could be found to hold the words, had he
+written 'Pipelet and Cabrion!'--sometimes adding, 'till death!' At last
+my poor dear man arrived at the house of the landlord, but so bewildered
+and stupefied that, after hammering and stammering and bodgering about
+without being able to utter a clear sentence, the landlord, having tried
+for nearly half an hour to bring him sufficiently to his senses to say
+what had made him come to his house, got quite in a passion, and called
+him a stupid old fool, and told him to go home and send his wife or
+somebody who could speak common sense. Well, poor dear Alfred left as he
+was ordered, thinking, at any rate, he would return by a different road,
+so as to escape those dreadful words that had so overcome him going. Do
+you believe he could get rid of them, though? No; there they were, large
+as life, scrawled upon every place, and united by the lover's band as
+before."
+
+"What, Pipelet and Cabrion still written along the walls?"
+
+"Precisely so, my king of lodgers. The end of it was that my poor
+darling came home to me regularly brain-struck, talked in the wildest
+and most desperate way of leaving France, exiling himself for ever, and
+no one knows what. Well, I persuaded him to tell me all that had
+happened; then I did my best to quiet him, and persuade him not to
+worry himself about such a beggar as that Cabrion; and when I found he
+had grown a little calmer, I left him, and went to take Cecily to the
+notary's, before I proceeded on to the landlord to finish poor Alfred's
+message. Now, perhaps, you think I've done? But I haven't, though. No; I
+had hardly quitted the place, than that abominable Cabrion, who must
+have watched me out, sent a couple of impudent great creatures, who
+pursued Alfred with the most determined villainy. Oh, bless you, it
+makes my very hair stand on end when I think of it! I'll tell you all
+about their proceedings another time; let me first finish about the
+notary. Well, off I started with Cecily in a hackney-coach,--as you told
+me to do, you know. She was dressed in her pretty costume of a German
+peasant; for having only just arrived, she had not had time to procure
+any other, which I was to explain to M. Ferrand, and beg of him to
+excuse. You may believe me or not, just as you please, my king of
+lodgers, but though I have seen some pretty girls in my time,--myself,
+for instance,--yet I never saw one (not even myself) comparable to
+Cecily. And then she has such a way of using those wicked black eyes of
+hers! She throws into them a look--a look--that seems--to mean--I know
+not what--only they seem to pierce you through, and make you feel so
+strange; I never saw such eyes in my life! Why, there's my poor, dear,
+darling Alfred, whose virtue has never been suspected; well, the first
+time that she fixed her looks on him, the dear fellow turned as red as a
+carrot, and nothing in the world could have induced him to gaze in her
+face a second time. I'm sure for more than an hour afterwards he kept
+fidgeting about in his chair, as though he were sitting upon nettles. He
+told me afterwards he could not account for it, but that somehow the
+look Cecily bestowed on him seemed to bring to his thoughts all the
+dreadful stories that shameless Bradamanti used to tell about the female
+savages, and which used to make my poor dear simpleton of an Alfred
+blush to his very fingers' ends."
+
+"But I want to hear what passed at the notary's. Never mind Alfred's
+modesty just now, but tell me."
+
+"I was just going, M. Rodolph. It was just seven o'clock in the evening
+when we arrived at M. Ferrand's, and I told the porter to let his master
+know that Madame Pipelet was there with the young woman she had spoke to
+Madame Séraphin about, and by whose orders she had brought her. Upon
+which the porter heaved a deep sigh, and asked me if I knew what had
+happened to Madame Séraphin? I told him, 'No; I hadn't heard of anything
+being the matter with her.' Ah, M. Rodolph, prepare for another strange
+event,--a most astounding circumstance!"
+
+"What can it be?"
+
+"Why, Madame Séraphin was drowned while on a party of pleasure to which
+she had gone with her relations."
+
+"Drowned, and on a party of pleasure in the winter?" exclaimed Rodolph,
+much surprised.
+
+"Yes, drowned, M. Rodolph. For my part I must say that I was more
+astonished than distressed at the news; for since that affair of poor
+Louise, who was taken to prison entirely through her information, I
+downright hated Madame Séraphin. So when I heard what had befallen her,
+all I did was to say to myself, 'Oh, she's drowned, is she,--drowned?
+Well, I don't mean to make myself ill with crying, that's very sure. I
+sha'n't die of grief,--that's my disposition.'"
+
+"And M. Ferrand?"
+
+"The porter said at first he did not think I could see his master, and
+begged me to wait in his lodge while he went to see. But he almost
+directly came back to fetch me. We crossed the courtyard, and entered an
+apartment on the ground floor, where a single miserable candle was
+twinkling its best to light it, but without success. The notary was
+sitting beside the fireplace, and on the hearth a few smouldering ashes
+still sent out a small degree of warmth. But such a wretched hole I
+never saw! It was my first view of M. Ferrand. Oh, my stars, what a
+downright ugly fellow he is! Such a man as he might have offered to make
+me Queen of Arabia before I would have played Alfred false."
+
+"And tell me, did the notary appear much struck with Cecily when she
+entered?"
+
+"Why, how can any one tell what he thinks while he keeps those great
+green spectacles on? Besides, a godly saint such as he passes for has no
+business to know whether a woman is handsome or ugly. However, when we
+both walked into the room and stood before him, he gave quite a spring
+up from his seat. Most likely, he was astonished at Cecily's dress, for
+she looked for all the world (only a hundred thousand times better) like
+one of those 'buy-a-broom' girls with her short petticoats and her
+handsome legs set off by her blue stockings with red clocks. My
+conscience, what a leg she has! Such a slender ankle!--and then, oh,
+such a calf! With a foot as small and delicate as an opera dancer's. I
+can tell you that the notary seemed almost speechless with surprise,
+after he had looked at her through his green specs from head to toe."
+
+"Doubtless, as you say, he was struck by the whimsicality of Cecily's
+costume."
+
+"Well, maybe so; however, I felt that the critical moment had arrived,
+and began to feel rather queer; fortunately, just as my courage began to
+fail me, M. Rodolph, I recollected a maxim I learned from you, and that
+got me safe through my difficulty."
+
+"What maxim do you mean,--I don't remember teaching you any?"
+
+"Don't you know?--'It is always enough for one to wish, for the other to
+refuse; or, for one to desire, for the other to be unwilling.' 'So,'
+said I to myself, 'here goes to rid my king of lodgers of his German
+niece, and to burthen the hard-hearted master of poor Louise with her.
+Now, then, for a good piece of shamming;' and, without giving the notary
+breathing time, I began by saying, in a polite and insinuating tone, 'I
+hope, sir, you'll excuse my niece being dressed as she is, but she has
+only just arrived, and has brought nothing with her but the costume of
+her country; and I am sure it don't lay in my power to provide her with
+others; and, besides, it would not be worth while, since we have merely
+called to thank you for having allowed Madame Séraphin to say you would
+see Cecily, in consequence of the favourable character I had given her.
+Still, sir, I don't think, after all, she would suit you.'"
+
+"Capital, Madame Pipelet; go on."
+
+"'And why so?' inquired the notary, who had established himself by the
+warmest corner of the fire, and seemed to be looking very attentively at
+us from over his green spectacles, 'why should you suppose your niece
+not likely to suit me?' 'Because, sir, Cecily is already quite homesick;
+she has only been here three days and yet she wants to go back; and so,
+she says, she will, too, if she is obliged to beg her way, or sing songs
+and sell little brooms, like the rest of her countrywomen.' 'But bless
+me!' answered M. Ferrand, 'do you, who are her principal relation, mean
+to allow of that?' 'I don't see how I am to hinder her, sir,' said I.
+'Certainly, I am the nearest relation she has, for the poor thing is an
+orphan, as I told good Madame Séraphin; but then she is twenty years of
+age, and, of course, mistress of her own actions.' 'Stuff and nonsense!'
+interrupted he, quite impatiently; 'don't tell me about being her own
+mistress; at her time of life she is bound to obey her relations, and
+take their advice in all things.' Upon which Cecily began to cry and to
+creep up to me, all of a tremble, as if she was quite afraid of the
+notary."
+
+"And what said Jacques Ferrand further?"
+
+"Oh, he kept muttering in a grumbling tone, 'A young creature at that
+age left to her own guidance! Why, it would be the ruin of her! And, as
+for begging her way back to Germany--a pretty idea! And you mean to call
+yourself her aunt, and say that you would sanction such conduct?' 'All
+right,' says I to myself; 'you are falling into the trap as neat as
+ninepence, you miserly old hunks, and if I do not saddle you with
+Cecily, my name is not what it is!' 'Yes,' cried I, in a discontented
+voice, 'I'm her aunt, sure enough, and worse luck to me for having such
+an encumbrance; I have difficulty enough to earn my bread, without
+having a great overgrown girl like that, to take it out of my mouth; and
+I would much rather she went back to her own country than stop here to
+be a burthen to me. The deuce take people who can't manage to maintain
+their own children, but just send them for others to work for and keep
+without even so much as paying their travelling expenses!' And then, as
+if Cecily were up to my schemes, and desirous of playing into my hands,
+she burst out into such a fit of crying and sobbing as quite touched the
+notary, who began in a sniffling, whining tone, as though preaching a
+sermon, 'Let me tell you that you are accountable before Providence for
+the charge he has entrusted to your care and keeping, and you are
+answerable for any false step this poor girl may take. Now I am willing
+to join you in a charitable action; and if your niece will promise me to
+be honest, industrious, virtuous, pious, and, above all, never upon any
+occasion to desire to leave the house, I will take pity on her, and
+receive her into my service.' 'No, no!' said Cecily, crying more
+violently than ever, 'I don't want to stop here with this gentleman; I
+wish to go back to my home; and I will, too!'"
+
+"Ah, ah," thought Rodolph, "her dangerous falsehood has not deserted
+her,--the depraved creature has, evidently, fully comprehended the
+instructions she received from Baron de Graün." Then, speaking aloud,
+the prince continued, "Did Cecily's resistance appear to displease M.
+Jacques Ferrand?"
+
+"Yes, M. Rodolph, it seemed to make him as savage as could be, and he
+muttered something between his teeth I could not make out. Then he said,
+abruptly, 'It is not what you would prefer, young woman, but what is
+most suitable and creditable that is to be considered. Providence will
+never forsake you, so long as you conduct yourself respectably and
+virtuously, and carefully attend to your religious duties. You will be
+here in a family as pious as it is strict in all such matters; and if
+your aunt has any real regard for your welfare, she will take advantage
+of my offer. Your wages will be trifling at first, but hereafter I may
+be induced to increase them should your good behaviour render you
+deserving of encouragement.' 'Bravo!' thinks I to myself, 'I've
+regularly hooked the miser, and fixed him with Cecily as right as a
+trivet. Why, you old curmudgeon! You old skinflint! You miserable,
+hard-hearted old hypocrite! You know very well that Séraphin was your
+slave for years, and yet you seem to have forgotten her death, and the
+dreadful manner of it, as much as though nothing had happened.' Then I
+said out loud, 'No doubt, sir, yours is a very good place, and one as
+many would be thankful to have, but if this girl is so homesick, what am
+I to do?' 'Oh, take no notice of it,' replied the notary, 'and it will
+soon wear away. But make up your minds,--just say one way or the other;
+if you decide upon your niece entering my service, bring her here
+to-morrow evening at the same hour you came to-night; and my porter will
+show her about the premises, and also explain her work to her. As for
+her wages, I shall begin with twenty francs a month and her food.' 'Oh,
+sir, I hope you will make it twenty-five francs,--twenty is really too
+little!' 'No, no, not at present; by and by perhaps I may, if I am
+satisfied. One thing, however, I must impress upon you, and that is,
+that your niece will never go beyond these walls, neither will she be
+allowed to receive any visitors.' 'Bless your heart, sir! Who could come
+to see her? Why, she does not know a single soul in Paris, except
+myself, and I am obliged to stay at home to mind my lodge. I have been
+terribly put about to come out this evening, so you will see nothing of
+me; and as for my niece, she will be as great a stranger to me as though
+she was in her own country; and the best way to prevent her going out
+will be to make her wear the costume of her country,--she could not
+venture in the streets dressed in that manner.' 'You are quite right,'
+replied the notary; 'it is, besides, always respectable to wear the
+dress of our own country; your niece shall, therefore, continue to dress
+as she now is.' 'Come, my girl,' said I to Cecily, who, with her head
+hanging down, and her finger in the corner of her mouth, was keeping up
+a continual weeping, 'come, make up your mind. A good place with a
+worthy master is not to be found every day; so, if you choose to refuse
+it, do, but don't look to me for any further support; I'll have nothing
+to do with you, I can tell you!' Upon which Cecily, swelling as though
+her heart would burst, replied, sobbing, 'Very well, then, if aunt was
+so particular, she should stay, but only on condition that, if she did
+not find herself comfortable, she might come away at the end of a
+fortnight.' 'Don't be alarmed,' answered the notary, 'I shall not force
+you to stop against your will. I can promise you there are too many
+young persons would be thankful to have my situation; but I pity your
+position as an orphan, and, therefore, give you the preference. There,
+take your earnest money; and let your aunt bring you here about this
+time to-morrow evening.' Cecily was too busy crying to take the two
+francs' piece the old starvemouse offered, so I took it for her. We made
+our courtesies and came away."
+
+"You have managed admirably, Madame Pipelet; and I do not forget my
+promise; here is what I promised you, if you managed to get this girl
+taken off my hands."
+
+"Wait till to-morrow before you give it me, my king of lodgers!" cried
+Madame Pipelet, putting back the money Rodolph offered her; "perhaps,
+when I go to take Cecily this evening, M. Ferrand may have changed his
+mind."
+
+"Not he, depend upon it! But where is she?"
+
+"In the small room adjoining the apartments of the commandant; she will
+not stir out after the orders you gave. She seems mild and gentle as a
+lamb; but then, her eyes! Oh, dear! It is difficult to fancy her either
+one or the other, when one looks at those--Talking of the commandant,
+what a plotting, mysterious person he is! Would you believe it? When he
+came here to superintend the packing up of his furniture, he told me
+that if any letters came addressed to 'Madame Vincent,' they were for
+him, and that I was to send them to the Rue Mondine, No. 5. The idea of
+the pretty creature having his letters addressed as if for a female!
+What a conceited jackanapes he is! But the best of it was, he asked me
+what had become of his wood! 'Your wood?' said I, 'why don't you ask
+after your forest when you are about it?' Oh, I said it so flat and
+plain! A mean, grasping hound, to trouble himself to ask after two
+pitiful loads of wood,--his wood, indeed! 'What has become of your
+wood?' repeated I, still working him on, till he got quite white with
+passion, 'why, I burnt it to keep your things from the damp, which would
+otherwise have made mushrooms grow upon your fine embroidered cap, and
+the mildew from rotting your smart, glittering _robe de chambre_, which
+you must love so dearly, because you have put it on so many times when
+you were fool enough to wait for those who never meant to come, but were
+only laughing at you,--like the lady who made believe she was going to
+pay you a visit, and then passed your door, though you had set it wide
+open to show yourself decked in all your finery. Your wood, indeed! I
+like that! You poor squeeze-penny of a commandant,--enough to disgust
+one with men altogether.'"
+
+A deep, plaintive groan, something between a grunt and a sigh, from the
+bed on which Alfred reposed, here interrupted Madame Pipelet.
+
+"Ah, there's the old duck beginning to stir; he will not be long before
+he wakes now. Will you excuse me, my king of lodgers?"
+
+"Certainly; but I have yet some particulars to inquire of you."
+
+"Oh, very well," answered Madame Pipelet. Then going up to her husband,
+she drew back the curtains, saying, "How are you by this time, my old
+chick? Look! there's M. Rodolph, who has heard all about this fresh
+villainy of Cabrion's, and is as sorry about it as can be."
+
+"Ah, M. Rodolph," murmured Alfred, languidly turning his head towards
+the announced visitor, "this time the monster has struck at my heart; I
+shall quit this bed no more. I am now the object of all the placards of
+this vast city; my name is blazoned upon every wall in Paris, linked
+with that of a wretch unworthy of mention. Yes, _môssieur_, there you
+may see 'Pipelet and Cabrion,' bound together by an enormous band of
+union. Yes, I--I--the injured Pipelet--united in bonds of seeming amity
+and intimacy with that fellow Cabrion! Oh, _môssieur_, pity me! My name
+joined with his in the eyes of all the dwellers of this great
+capital,--the leading city of Europe!"
+
+"Ah, M. Rodolph knows all about that; but he has yet to be told of your
+yesterday's adventures with those two singular women, or whatever they
+were."
+
+"Alas, monsieur," sighed Alfred, in a mournful voice, "he reserved his
+master-stroke of wickedness and fiendish malice till the last. This,
+however, passes all bounds, and human patience can bear no more!"
+
+"Come, my dear M. Pipelet, calm yourself, and endeavour to relate this
+fresh annoyance to me."
+
+"All that he has hitherto done to vex and insult me is as nothing
+compared to his last malignant scheme to break my heart and ruin my
+peace. But now the shameless monster has gone the full extent of
+fiendish provocation. I know not whether I have the power of describing
+to you the scene of last night; when I attempt to speak, shame,
+confusion, and outraged modesty seem to deprive me of voice and breath."
+
+M. Pipelet, having managed with some difficulty to raise himself in his
+bed, modestly buttoned his flannel waistcoat up to his throat, and began
+in the following terms:
+
+"My wife had just gone out, absorbed in the bitter reflections arising
+from the sight of my name so disgracefully prostituted on every wall in
+Paris; I sought to while away my solitary hours by attending to the new
+soling of a boot twenty times commenced and as often abandoned,--thanks
+to the unceasing persecutions of my pitiless persecutor. Well, sir, I
+was sitting at a table with the boot on my arm, though my thoughts were
+far otherwise engaged, when I saw the lodge door open and a female
+enter. The person who had just come in was wrapped in a large hooded
+cloak, and, without thinking any harm, I civilly rose from my seat, and
+put my hand to my hat. Then I observed another female, also attired in a
+similar cloak, with a large hood, enter the lodge and shut the door
+after her. Although somewhat astonished at the familiarity of such a
+proceeding, and the silence maintained by both the women, I rose a
+second time from my chair, and a second time I lifted my hand to my hat.
+And then, sir,--but no, no, I can never finish the recital; my wounded
+modesty chokes my utterance."
+
+"Come, come, old pet," said Madame Pipelet, encouragingly, "get on with
+your story; we are all men here."
+
+"Well, then," stammered forth Alfred, his face becoming scarlet as the
+fullest blown peony, "then their mantles fell to the ground. And what do
+you think I saw? Why, a couple of sirens, or nymphs, or witches of one
+kind or the other, with no sort of clothing except a petticoat made of
+leaves, while a wreath of similar descriptions decorated their heads.
+And then the two advanced towards me with outstretched arms, as though
+inviting me to throw myself into them."
+
+"Oh, the impudent sluts!" exclaimed Anastasie.
+
+"Their impure advances disgusted me," continued Alfred, animated with a
+chaste indignation; "and, in conformity with a habit which has ever
+attended the most critical moments of my life, I remained still and
+motionless on my chair. Then, profiting by my surprise and stupor, the
+two sirens came gently forward to a sort of low music, turning and
+twisting and extending their arms and legs in all directions. I became
+petrified, as though changed to stone; I waited their approach in silent
+agony. They came nearer and nearer, till at last they wrapped me tight
+in their arms."
+
+"Did they, though?" cried Anastasie. "Oh, the hussies! I only wish I had
+been there with my broomstick; I'd have taught them how to come hopping
+and skipping, and holding out their arms for an innocent, virtuous,
+married man to tumble into,--I would, the bold-faced beggars!"
+
+[Illustration: "_Slowly Dancing and Whirling around Me_"
+Original Etching by Porteau]
+
+"When I felt myself in a manner half stifled between them, I gave myself
+up for lost. My blood retreated from my heart,--I felt as if struck with
+death; when one of the sirens--a great, fair girl, and the boldest of
+the two--leaned upon my shoulder, took off my hat, and, still slowly
+dancing and whirling around me, left me bald-headed and defenceless.
+Then the other one, accompanying the action with all sorts of attitudes
+and singular dances, and waving of the arms, draws out a pair of
+scissors she must have hid somewhere,--for I'm quite sure she had no
+pockets,--came close behind me, and grasping with one hand all my
+remaining hair, snipped it all off with one cut of her huge scissors;
+yes, all,--every lock,--every hair I had to cover my poor old head;
+dancing, and wheeling, and balancing, first on one foot, then on the
+other, swaying out legs and arms in all sorts of stage-struck ways; then
+joining voices, the pair of audacious spirits began singing, ''Tis for
+Cabrion,--for Cabrion; we take your locks for Cabrion,--your dear friend
+Cabrion!' Whilst the second voice repeated in a louder strain, 'Your
+head is shorn for Cabrion,--for Cabrion, your friend!'"
+
+After a pause, interrupted by repeated sighs and groans, Alfred resumed:
+
+"During this impudent spoliation I once ventured to raise my eyes, and
+then I saw flat against the windows of the lodge the detestable
+countenance of Cabrion, with his large beard and pointed-crowned hat. He
+was laughing, too,--laughing with all his might. Oh, how I shuddered at
+the horrible vision! To escape from so harrowing a sight I closed my
+eyes. When I opened them again all had disappeared, and I found myself
+seated on my chair, bald-headed and completely disfigured for life. You
+see, monsieur, that, by dint of obstinacy, impudence, and cunning,
+Cabrion has at length effected his fell design. But by what fearful,
+what diabolical means, has he succeeded! He wishes the world to believe
+he is my accepted friend; began by sticking up a notice here in my
+immediate neighbourhood to the effect that he and I had entered into a
+treaty of friendship! Then, not content with so infamous an assertion,
+he has caused my name, in conjunction with his own, to be displayed on
+every wall in Paris, binding them together with an enormous band of
+union, so that at this moment the whole of this vast capital is
+impressed with the most perfect belief of my close intimacy with this
+scoundrel. Then he desired locks of my hair, and he has every hair off
+my head,--no doubt with the view, the guilty view, of exhibiting them as
+proofs of our sworn friendship. Thanks to the merciless exaction of his
+bold-faced dancing women, my last lock is stolen. So now, monsieur, you
+see plainly there is nothing left for me but to quit France,--my lovely
+and beloved France,--in whose dear bosom I had hoped to live and die!"
+
+And with these pathetic words Alfred clasped his hands, closed his eyes,
+and threw himself back upon his bed.
+
+"Oh, nonsense, you old duck!" cried Anastasie. "On the contrary, now the
+villain has gained his point and stolen your hair, he will let you alone
+for the future. He has no further cause to disturb and torment you."
+
+"Let me alone?" exclaimed M. Pipelet, with a convulsive spring upwards.
+"Oh, you know him not; he is insatiable. True, he has got the hair he so
+much desired to obtain; but who can say what he may further require of
+me?"
+
+The appearance of Rigolette at the entrance to the lodge put a stop to
+the lamentations of M. Pipelet.
+
+"Stay where you are, mademoiselle!" cried he, faithful to his habitual
+chaste delicacy. "Pray don't think of coming in, for I am undressed and
+in bed!" So saying, he covered himself up almost to his eyes, while
+Rigolette, surprised and bewildered, remained at the threshold of the
+door.
+
+"Oh, my pretty neighbour," said Rodolph, pitying her confusion, "I was
+just coming up to speak with you. Can you wait for me one minute?" Then
+addressing Anastasie, he said, "Pray let nothing prevent your taking
+Cecily to Jacques Ferrand's this evening."
+
+"Make yourself perfectly easy, my king of lodgers; at seven o'clock
+precisely she shall be duly placed there. Now that Morel's wife is able
+to get about, I will ask her to mind the lodge for me while I am away;
+for, bless you, Alfred would not stay by himself,--not for a 'varsal
+crown!"
+
+The bright freshness of Rigolette's complexion was daily fading away,
+while her once round, dimpled cheek had sunk and given place to a pale,
+careworn countenance, the usually gay, mirthful expression of which had
+changed into a grave, thoughtful cast, more serious and mournful still
+since her meeting with Fleur-de-Marie at the gate of St. Lazare.
+
+"I am so glad to see you," said Rigolette to Rodolph, when they were at
+a convenient distance from the lodge of Madame Pipelet. "I have so much
+to say to you; I have, indeed."
+
+"Well, then, first of all, tell me of yourself and your health. Let me
+look at this pretty face, and see whether it is as gay and blooming as
+usual. No, indeed. I declare you have grown quite pale and thin; I am
+sure you work too hard."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, M. Rodolph, it is not that. On the contrary, my work
+does me good; it hinders me from thinking too much, for I am obliged to
+attend to what I am about. But it is grief, M. Rodolph, and nothing
+else, that has altered me so much. And how can I help it? Every time I
+see that poor Germain, I grieve more and more."
+
+"He is still as desponding as ever, then?"
+
+"Oh, worse than ever, M. Rodolph. And what is the most distressing is,
+that, whatever I try to do to cheer him up, takes quite the contrary
+effect; it seems as though a spell hung over me!" And here the large,
+dark eyes of Rigolette were filled with tears.
+
+"How do you know, my dear neighbour?"
+
+"Why, only yesterday I went to see him, and to take him a book he was
+desirous of having; it was a romance we read together when we lived
+happily as near neighbours and dear friends. Well, directly he saw the
+book, he burst into tears; but that did not astonish me,--it seemed
+natural enough. Poor fellow! I dare say it brought back to his
+recollection those happy evenings when he used to sit beside the fire in
+my nice, pretty little room; while now he was in a horrid prison, the
+companion of vile and wicked men, who only jeered at his melancholy.
+Poor, dear Germain! It is very, very hard!"
+
+"Take courage, my dear friend," said Rodolph. "When Germain quits his
+prison, and his innocence is proved, he will find his mother and many
+dear friends, in whose society, as well as in yours, he will soon forget
+his present sufferings, as well as the hard trials he has undergone."
+
+"That's all very pleasant when it arrives, but that won't stop his
+tormenting himself till it does. But that is not all, neither."
+
+"What other uneasiness has he?"
+
+"Why, he being the only innocent man among all the bad people there,
+they are always annoying and behaving ill to him, because he will not
+join in their idle and vicious amusements. The head turnkey, who is a
+very good sort of man, advised me to recommend Germain, for his own
+sake, not to keep himself at quite such a distance from his companions,
+but to try and familiarise himself with these bad men. However, it is no
+use trying; he cannot bring himself to endure their company or
+conversation. And I am constantly tormented with the dread that some of
+these days they will do him some harm out of spite."
+
+Then all at once interrupting herself, and drying her tears, Rigolette
+resumed:
+
+"But, dear me, how selfish I am! I keep talking of my own concerns
+without ever recollecting to speak to you about the Goualeuse."
+
+"The Goualeuse!" exclaimed Rodolph, with surprise.
+
+"I met her the day before yesterday, when I went to see Louise at St.
+Lazare."
+
+"The Goualeuse?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, M. Rodolph."
+
+"At St. Lazare?"
+
+"She was leaving the prison in company with an elderly female."
+
+"It cannot be," exclaimed Rodolph, in extreme astonishment; "you must be
+mistaken."
+
+"I assure you it was herself, M. Rodolph."
+
+"You really must be in error."
+
+"Oh, no, I was not mistaken; although she was dressed as a country girl
+I recollected her again directly. She looked beautiful as ever, though
+pale; and she had just the same melancholy look she used to have."
+
+"How very strange that she should be in Paris without my having heard of
+it! I can scarcely credit it. And what had she been doing at St.
+Lazare?"
+
+"I suppose, like myself, she had been to see some one confined there;
+but I had not time to ask her many questions, for the person who was
+with her seemed so very cross, and to be in such a hurry! Then it seems
+you know the Goualeuse as well as myself, M. Rodolph?"
+
+"I do, certainly."
+
+"Oh, then, that settles the matter! And it must have been of you she
+spoke."
+
+"Of me?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, M. Rodolph. For, you see, I was just mentioning to her
+what had happened to poor Louise and Germain,--both so good, yet so
+persecuted by that wicked Jacques Ferrand,--taking care to do as you bid
+me, and not say a word of your being interested in their welfare so then
+the Goualeuse told me if a generous person she knew were once acquainted
+with their hard fate, and how little they deserved it, he would be sure
+to assist them. And then I asked her the name of the person she alluded
+to, and she named you, M. Rodolph."
+
+"Oh, then, it was her, sure enough."
+
+"You can't imagine how much surprised we both were at this discovery,
+either of resemblance or name; and before we parted we agreed to let
+each other know whether our M. Rodolph was one and the same. And it
+seems you are the very identical Rodolph both of La Goualeuse and
+myself. Are you not, neighbour?"
+
+"I believe so; and I can, at least, assure you I take the greatest
+possible interest in the fate of this poor girl,--still I am much
+surprised to find, by what you say, that she is in Paris. And so great
+is my astonishment that, had you not so faithfully related your
+interview, I should have persisted in believing you were mistaken. But I
+must say good-bye for the present,--what you tell me respecting La
+Goualeuse obliges me to quit you. Be as careful as ever in not
+mentioning to any one that there are certain unknown friends watching
+over the welfare both of Louise and Germain, who will come forward at a
+right moment and see them safe through their troubles; it is more
+essential than ever that strict secrecy should be kept on this point. By
+the way, how are the Morel family getting on?"
+
+"Oh, extremely well, M. Rodolph. The mother has quite got about again,
+and the children are daily improving. Ah, the whole family owe their
+life and happiness to you! You are so good and so generous to them."
+
+"And how is poor Morel himself? Does he get any better?"
+
+"Oh, dear, yes; I heard of him yesterday, he seems from time to time to
+have some lucid moments, and hopes are entertained of his madness being
+curable. So be of good heart, neighbour, take care of yourself, and
+good-bye for the present."
+
+"But first tell me truly, are you quite sure you want for nothing? Are
+you still able to maintain yourself with the profits of your needle?"
+
+"Oh, yes, thank you, M. Rodolph. I work rather later at night to make up
+for my lost time during the day. But it does not matter much, for if I
+go to bed I don't sleep."
+
+"Poor, dear neighbour! Why, you have grown sadly out of spirits. I am
+afraid that Papa Crétu and Ramonette don't sing much, if they wait for
+you to set them the example."
+
+"You are right enough, M. Rodolph, my birds have quite left off singing,
+as well as myself. Now I know you will laugh at me, but I'll tell you
+what I firmly think and believe,--the poor little creatures are aware
+that I am dull and out of spirits, and instead of singing and warbling
+as if their little throats would burst for joy when they see me, they
+just give a little gentle twitter, as though they would not disturb me
+for the world, but would be so glad to console me if they had the power.
+It is very stupid of me to fancy such things, is it not, M. Rodolph?"
+
+"Not at all! And I am quite sure that your affectionate friends the
+birds have observed your being less happy than usual."
+
+"Well, I'm sure I shouldn't wonder! The poor, dear things are so very
+clever," said Rigolette, innocently, delighted to find her own opinion
+as to the sagacity of her companions in solitude thus powerfully
+confirmed.
+
+"Oh, I am quite sure about it, nothing is more intelligent than
+gratitude. But once more, good-bye,--I shall see you again soon, I hope,
+and by that time, I trust your pretty eyes will have grown brighter,
+your cheeks regained their usual roses, and your merry voice have
+recovered all its gaiety, till Papa Crétu and Ramonette will scarcely be
+able to keep up with you."
+
+"Heaven grant you may prove a true prophet, M. Rodolph!" said Rigolette,
+heaving a deep sigh. "But, good-bye, neighbour, don't let me keep you."
+
+"Fare you well, for the present!"
+
+Rodolph, wholly at a loss to understand why Madame Georges should have
+brought or sent Fleur-de-Marie to Paris without giving him the least
+intimation of her intention, hastened home for the purpose of
+despatching a special messenger to the farm at Bouqueval.
+
+Just as he entered the Rue Plumet he observed a travelling carriage
+drawn up before the entrance of his hotel. The vehicle contained Murphy,
+who had that instant returned from Normandy, whither he had gone, as the
+reader is already aware, to counteract the base schemes of the stepmother
+of Madame d'Harville and her infamous confederate, Bradamanti.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MURPHY AND POLIDORI.
+
+
+Sir Walter Murphy's features were beaming with satisfaction. When he
+alighted from the carriage he gave a brace of pistols to one of the
+prince's servants, took off his long travelling coat, and, without
+giving himself time to change his clothes, followed Rodolph, who
+impatiently had preceded him to his apartment.
+
+"Good news, monseigneur! Good news!" exclaimed the squire, when he was
+alone with Rodolph; "the wretches are unmasked, M. d'Orbigny is saved.
+You despatched me just in time; one hour later and another crime would
+have been committed."
+
+"And Madame d'Harville?"
+
+"Is overjoyed at having again acquired her father's affection; and full
+of happiness at having arrived, thanks to your advice, in time to snatch
+him from certain death."
+
+"So, then, Polidori--"
+
+"Was, in this instance, the worthy accomplice of Madame d'Harville's
+stepmother. But what a wretch is this stepmother! What _sang-froid_!
+What audacity! And this Polidori! Ah, monseigneur, you have frequently
+desired to thank me for what you call my proofs of devotion."
+
+"I have always said proofs of friendship, my dear Murphy."
+
+"Well, monseigneur, never--no, never--has this friendship been exposed
+to a severer trial than in this present case!" said the squire, with an
+air half serious, half pleasant.
+
+"What mean you?"
+
+"The disguises of the coalman, the peregrinations in the Cité, and all
+that sort of thing, they have been as nothing, actually nothing, when
+compared with the journey I have just made with that infernal Polidori."
+
+"What do you mean? Polidori?"
+
+"I have brought him back with me."
+
+"With you?"
+
+"With me: judge what company! During twelve hours side by side with the
+man I most despise and hate in the world,--I'd as soon travel with a
+serpent--any beast of antipathy!"
+
+"And where is Polidori now?"
+
+"In the house in the Allée des Veuves, under good and safe guard."
+
+"Then he made no resistance to following you?"
+
+"None. I offered him the choice between being apprehended at once by the
+French authorities, or being my prisoner in the Allée des Veuves,--he
+didn't hesitate for an instant."
+
+"You are right; it is best to have him thus in our grasp. You are worth
+your weight in gold, my dear old Murphy. But tell me all about your
+journey; I am impatient to know how this shameless woman, and her
+equally shameless accomplice, were at last unmasked."
+
+"Nothing could be more simple. I had only to follow the letter of your
+instructions in order to terrify and crush these wretches. Under these
+circumstances, monseigneur, you have served, as you always do, persons
+of worth, and punished the wicked, noble preserver that you are!"
+
+"Sir Walter! Sir Walter! Do you recollect the flatteries of the Baron de
+Graün?" said Rodolph, smiling.
+
+"Well, then, monseigneur, I will begin,--or, perhaps, you would prefer
+first reading this letter of the Marquise d'Harville's, which will
+inform you on every point that occurred previous to my arrival, which so
+completely confounded Polidori."
+
+"A letter! Pray let me have it immediately."
+
+Murphy gave the letter of the marquise to Rodolph, adding:
+
+"As we had agreed, instead of accompanying Madame d'Harville to her
+father's, I alighted at a small inn quite close to the château, where I
+was to wait until the marquise sent for me."
+
+Rodolph read what follows with tender and impatient solicitude:
+
+     "MONSEIGNEUR:--After all I owe you already, I now owe to you my
+   father's life. I will allow facts to speak for themselves; they
+   will say better than I can what fresh accumulations of gratitude
+   to you I have added to those already amassed in my heart.
+   Understanding all the importance of the advice you sent to me by
+   Sir Walter Murphy, who overtook me on my way to Normandy a short
+   distance from Paris, I travelled as speedily as possible to the
+   Château des Aubiers. I know not why, but the countenances of the
+   persons who received me appeared to me sinister. I did not see
+   amongst them any one of the old servitors of our house; no one
+   knew me. I was obliged to tell them my name.
+
+   "I learned that for several days my father had been suffering
+   greatly, and that my stepmother had just brought a physician
+   from Paris. I had no doubt but this was Doctor Polidori.
+   Desirous of being immediately conducted to my father, I inquired
+   for an old _valet de chambre_ to whom he was much attached; he
+   had quitted the château some time previously. This I learned
+   from a house-steward who had shown me to my apartment, saying
+   that he would inform my stepmother of my arrival. Was it
+   illusion or suspicion? It seemed to me that my coming annoyed
+   the people at the château where all was gloomy and sinister. In
+   the bent of mind in which I was we seek to draw inferences from
+   the slightest circumstances. I remarked in every part traces of
+   disorder and neglect, as if it had been too much trouble to take
+   care of a house which was so soon to be abandoned. My
+   uneasiness--my anxiety increased at every moment.
+
+   "After having established my daughter and her governess in an
+   apartment, I was about to proceed to my father, when my
+   stepmother entered the apartment. In spite of her artfulness,
+   in spite of the control which she ordinarily exercised over
+   herself, she appeared alarmed at my sudden arrival. 'M.
+   d'Orbigny does not expect your visit, madame,' she said to me,
+   'and he is suffering so much that a surprise may be fatal. I
+   think it, therefore, best that he should not be told of your
+   arrival, for he would be unable to account for it, and--'
+
+   "I did not allow her to finish. 'A terrible event has occurred,
+   madame,' I said, 'M. d'Harville is dead, in consequence of a
+   fatal imprudence. After so deplorable a result, I could no
+   longer remain in Paris in my own house, and I have, therefore,
+   come to my father's, in order to pass the first days of my
+   mourning.'
+
+   "'A widow! Ah, that, indeed, is unexpected happiness!' exclaimed
+   my stepmother, in a rage. From what you know, monseigneur, of
+   the unhappy marriage which this woman had planned in order to
+   avenge herself on me, you will comprehend the brutality of her
+   remark.
+
+   "'It is because I fear you might be as unexpectedly happy as
+   myself, madame, that I came here,' was my (perhaps imprudent)
+   reply. 'I wish to see my father.'
+
+   "'That's impossible, at this moment!' she replied, turning very
+   pale; 'the sight of you would cause a dangerous degree of
+   excitement.'
+
+   "'If my father is so seriously ill,' I observed, 'why was I not
+   informed of it?'
+
+   "'Such was M. d'Orbigny's will,' replied my stepmother.
+
+   "'I do not believe you, madame! and I shall go and assure myself
+   of the truth,' I said, and turned towards the door of my
+   chamber.
+
+   "'I tell you again that the unexpected sight of you may have a
+   most prejudicial effect on your father!' she cried, coming
+   before me so as to hinder my further progress; 'I will not allow
+   you to go into his room, until I have informed him of your
+   arrival with all the care and precaution which his situation
+   requires.'
+
+   "I was in a cruel perplexity, monseigneur. A sudden surprise
+   might really be dangerous to my father, but this woman,--usually
+   so calm, so self-possessed--seemed to me so overcome by my
+   presence, I had so many reasons to doubt the sincerity of her
+   solicitude for the health of him whom she had married from
+   cupidity; and then, too, the presence of Doctor Polidori, the
+   murderer of my mother, caused me altogether such extreme alarm
+   that, believing my father's life menaced, I did not hesitate
+   between the hope of saving him and the fear of causing him
+   severe emotion. 'I will see my father, and that instantly!' I
+   said to my stepmother. And although she tried to retain me by
+   the arm, I went out of the room. Completely losing her presence
+   of mind, this woman tried a second time, and almost by force, to
+   prevent me from quitting the chamber. This incredible resistance
+   increased my alarm, I disengaged myself from her grasp, and,
+   knowing my father's apartment, I ran thither with all speed, and
+   entered the room.
+
+   "Oh, monseigneur, during my life I never can forget that scene,
+   and the picture presented to my eyes. My father, scarcely to be
+   recognised, pale and meagre, with suffering depicted in every
+   feature, his head reclining on a pillow, was lying extended on a
+   large armchair. At the corner of the fireplace, standing close
+   to him, was Doctor Polidori, just about to pour into a cup,
+   which a nurse presented to him, some drops of a liquor contained
+   in a small glass bottle which he held in his hand. His long red
+   beard gave even a more than usually sinister appearance to his
+   physiognomy. I entered so hastily that he gave a look of
+   surprise at my stepmother, who followed me with hasty steps; and
+   instead of handing to my father the draught he had prepared for
+   him, he suddenly placed the phial on the mantelpiece. Guided by
+   an instinct for which I am unable to account, my first movement
+   was to seize the phial. Remarking instantly the surprise and
+   alarm of my stepmother and Polidori, I congratulated myself on
+   my promptitude. My father, amazed, seemed irritated at the sight
+   of me. I expected this. Polidori darted at me a ferocious scowl,
+   and, in spite of the presence of my father and the nurse, I
+   feared the wretch, seeing his crime so nearly disclosed, would
+   have recourse to violence with me. I felt the necessity of
+   support at a moment so decisive; and ringing the bell, one of my
+   father's servants came in, whom I requested to tell my _valet de
+   chambre_ (who had already been informed) to go and seek some
+   things I had left at the little inn. Sir Walter Murphy was aware
+   that, in order not to arouse my stepmother's suspicions, in case
+   it should be necessary to give my orders in her presence, I
+   should employ this means of requesting him to come to me. Such
+   was the surprise of my father and stepmother, that the servant
+   quitted the room before they could utter a word. I felt my
+   courage then rise, for, in a few minutes, Sir Walter Murphy
+   would be at my side.
+
+   "'What does all this mean?' said my father to me, in a voice
+   feeble, but still angry and imperious. 'You here, Clémence
+   without my sending for you? Then, scarcely arrived, you seize
+   the phial containing the draught the doctor was about to give
+   me. Will you explain this madness?'
+
+   "'Leave the room,' said my stepmother to the nurse. The woman
+   obeyed. 'Compose yourself, my dear!' said my stepmother,
+   addressing my father; 'you know how injurious the slightest
+   emotion is to you. Since your daughter will come here in spite
+   of you, and her presence is so disagreeable to you, give me your
+   arm. I will lead you into the small salon, and then our good
+   doctor will make Madame d'Harville comprehend how imprudent her
+   conduct has been, to say the least of it.' And she gave her
+   accomplice a meaning look. I at once saw through my stepmother's
+   design. She was desirous of leading my father away, and leaving
+   me alone with Polidori, who, in this extreme case, no doubt,
+   would have used force to obtain from me the phial which might
+   supply so evident a proof of his criminal designs.
+
+   "'You are right,' said my father to my stepmother. 'Since I am
+   thus pursued, even in my private apartments, without respect for
+   my wishes, I will leave the place free to intruders.' And rising
+   with difficulty, he took the arm that was offered to him by my
+   stepmother, and went towards the salon.
+
+   "At this moment Polidori advanced towards me; but I went close
+   up to my father and said to him, 'I will explain to you why I
+   have arrived so suddenly, and what may appear strange in my
+   conduct. I became yesterday a widow; and it was yesterday,
+   father, that I learned your life was threatened.' He was walking
+   very much bent, but at these words he stopped, threw himself
+   erect, and looking at me with intense surprise, said:
+
+   "'You are a widow? My life is threatened? What does all this
+   mean?'
+
+   "'And who dares threaten the life of M. d'Orbigny, madame?'
+   asked my stepmother, most audaciously.
+
+   "'Yes, who threatens it?' added Polidori.
+
+   "'You, sir!--you, madame!' I replied.
+
+   "'What horror!' exclaimed my stepmother, advancing a step
+   towards me.
+
+   "'What I assert I will prove, madame!' I replied.
+
+   "'Such an accusation is most frightful!' cried my father.
+
+   "'I will leave the house this very moment, since I am exposed to
+   such shameful calumnies,' said Doctor Polidori, with the
+   apparent indignation of a man whose honour has been outraged.
+   Beginning to feel the danger of his position, no doubt, he was
+   desirous of effecting his escape. At the moment when he was
+   trying to open the door, it opened, and he found himself face to
+   face with Sir Walter Murphy."
+
+Rodolph ceased reading, held out his hand to the squire, and said:
+
+"Well done, my good old friend; your presence must have crushed the
+scoundrel!"
+
+"That's precisely the word, monseigneur. He turned livid, receded a
+couple of paces, looking at me aghast; he seemed thunderstruck. To find
+me at the further extremity of Normandy, in such a moment, he must have
+thought he had a terrible dream. But go on, monseigneur; you will see
+that this infernal Comtesse d'Orbigny had her share of the overwhelming
+shame, thanks to what you told me as to her visit to the charlatan
+Bradamanti--Polidori--in the house in the Rue du Temple; for, after all,
+it was you who acted in this, I assure you, and you came in most happily
+and opportunely to the rescue on this occasion."
+
+Rodolph smiled, and continued reading Madame d'Harville's letter:
+
+   "At the sight of Sir Walter Murphy, Polidori was panic-struck;
+   my stepmother went on from one surprise to another; my father,
+   agitated at this scene, weakened by his malady, was compelled to
+   sit down in an armchair. Sir Walter double-locked the door by
+   which he had entered; and placing himself before that which led
+   to the next apartment, that Doctor Polidori might not escape, he
+   said to my poor father, with a tone of the utmost respect, 'A
+   thousand pardons, Monsieur le Comte, for the liberty I take, but
+   an imperious necessity, dictated by your interest alone (and
+   which you will speedily recognise), compels me to act thus. My
+   name is Sir Walter Murphy, as this wretch can testify, who at
+   the sight of me trembles in every limb. I am the private adviser
+   of his royal highness Monseigneur the Grand Duke Regnant of
+   Gerolstein.'
+
+   "'Quite true!' stammered forth Doctor Polidori, overcome with
+   fright. 'But then, sir, what have you come here for? What seek
+   you?'
+
+   "'Sir Walter Murphy,' I observed, addressing my father, 'is here
+   with me to unmask the wretches whose victim you have so nearly
+   been.' Then handing the phial to Sir Walter, I added, 'I was
+   suddenly tempted to seize on this phial at the moment when
+   Doctor Polidori was about to pour some drops of the liquor it
+   contains into a draught he was about to offer to my father.'
+
+   "'A practitioner in the neighbouring village shall analyse
+   before you the contents of this bottle, which I will deposit in
+   your hands, M. le Comte; and if it is proved to contain a slow
+   and sure poison,' said Sir Walter Murphy to my father, 'you
+   cannot have any further doubt as to the dangers you have run,
+   and which the tender care of your daughter will most happily
+   have averted.'
+
+   "My poor father looked by turns at his wife, Doctor Polidori,
+   and Sir Walter, with an air of doubt and anxiety; his features
+   betrayed indescribable anguish. No doubt but he resisted with
+   all his might increasing and terrible suspicions, fearing to be
+   obliged to confess the infamy of my stepmother. At length,
+   concealing his head in his hands, he exclaimed, 'Oh, this is,
+   indeed, horrible!--impossible! Am I in a dream?'
+
+   "'No, it is no dream!' cried my stepmother, audaciously;
+   'nothing can be more real than this atrocious calumny, concerted
+   beforehand to destroy an unhappy woman, whose only crime is that
+   of consecrating her whole existence to you. Come, come, my dear,
+   do not remain a moment longer here!' she continued, addressing
+   my father; 'I do not suppose that your daughter will have the
+   insolence to retain you here against your will.'
+
+   "'Yes, yes, let me go!' said my father, highly excited; 'all
+   this is not true--cannot be true! I will not hear any more, my
+   brain cannot endure it. Fearful misgivings would arise in my
+   mind, which would embitter the few days I have still to live,
+   and nothing could console me for so horrible a discovery.'
+
+   "My father seemed to suffer so much, to be so despairing that,
+   at all hazards, I resolved on putting an end to this scene,
+   which was so acutely trying for him. Sir Walter guessed my
+   desire, but desirous of full and entire justice, he replied to
+   my father, 'But a few words more, M. le Comte. You will, no
+   doubt, suffer chagrin of a most painful kind, when you detect in
+   the woman's conduct, whom you believe attached to you by
+   gratitude, a system of most atrocious ingratitude,--in herself a
+   hypocritical monster. But you will find your consolation in the
+   affections of your daughter, who has never failed you.'
+
+   "'This passes all bounds!' cried my stepmother, with rage. 'And
+   by what right, sir, and on what proofs, dare you to base such
+   infamous calumnies? You say the phial contains poison? I deny
+   it, and will deny it until you prove the contrary. And even
+   supposing Doctor Polidori has by mistake confounded one medicine
+   with another, is that a reason why you should dare to accuse me
+   of having sought--desired to be his accomplice? Oh, no, no! I
+   cannot go on! An idea so horrible is already a crime! Once
+   again, sir, I defy you to say upon what proofs you and madame
+   here dare rely to support this shameful calumny!' said my
+   stepmother, with incredible audacity.
+
+   "'Yes, on what proofs?' exclaimed my poor father; 'the torture I
+   undergo must have an end.'
+
+   "'I am not here, sir, without proofs, M. le Comte,' replied Sir
+   Walter; 'and these proofs, the answer of this wretch shall
+   supply to you instantly.' Then Sir Walter spoke in German to
+   Doctor Polidori, who seemed to have suddenly assumed a little
+   assurance, but lost it as soon."
+
+"What did you say to him?" inquired Rodolph of the squire, pausing from
+his perusal of the letter.
+
+"A few significant words, monseigneur, something like this: 'You have
+escaped by flight from the sentence passed upon you by law and justice
+in the Grand Duchy; you live in the Rue du Temple, under the false name
+of Bradamanti; we know the infamous calling you pursue there. You
+poisoned the count's first wife. Three days since Madame d'Orbigny went
+to find you, in order to bring you here to poison her husband. His royal
+highness is in Paris, and has proofs of all I now aver. If you confess
+the truth in order to confound this wretched woman, you may hope, not
+for pardon, but for an amelioration of the punishment you deserve. You
+will accompany me to Paris, where I will deposit you in a safe place,
+until his royal highness decides on what shall be done with you. If not,
+one of two things: either his royal highness will demand and obtain your
+delivery up to him, or this very moment I will send for the nearest
+magistrate, this phial containing the poison shall be handed to him, you
+will be apprehended on the spot, and a search be made instantly at your
+domicile in the Rue du Temple; you know how utterly that must compromise
+you, and then the justice of the French courts will take its course.
+Choose therefore.' These disclosures, accusations, and threats, which he
+knew to be so well founded, succeeding each other thus rapidly,
+overwhelmed the scoundrel, who did not dream of my being so thoroughly
+informed. In the hope of diminishing his expected punishment, he did not
+hesitate to sacrifice his accomplice, and replied to me, 'Interrogate
+me, and I will disclose the whole truth as regards this woman.'"
+
+"Capital! Excellent! my dear Murphy. I expected no less of you."
+
+"During my conversation with Polidori, the features of Madame
+d'Harville's stepmother became greatly agitated. Although she did not
+understand German, she saw, by the increasing dejection of her
+accomplice, by his deprecating attitude, that I controlled him. In a
+state of fearful anxiety, she endeavoured to catch Polidori's glance, in
+order to inspire him with courage, or implore his discretion, but he
+carefully avoided looking towards her."
+
+"And the count?"
+
+"His agitation was inexpressible! With his clenched hands he grasped
+convulsively the arms of his chair, the perspiration stood on his brow,
+and he scarcely breathed, whilst his burning and fixed eyes never
+quitted mine; his agony was equal to his wife's. The remainder of Madame
+d'Harville's letter will tell you the conclusion of this painful scene,
+monseigneur."
+
+Rodolph continued the perusal of Madame d'Harville's letter:
+
+   "After a conversation in German, which lasted for some minutes,
+   between Sir Walter Murphy and Polidori, Sir Walter said to the
+   latter, 'Now reply. Was it not madame,' and he looked towards my
+   stepmother, 'who, during the illness of the count's first wife,
+   introduced you to him as a physician?'
+
+   "'Yes, it was!' replied Polidori.
+
+   "'In order that you might serve the horrid projects of madame,
+   were you not criminal enough to render mortal, by your deadly
+   prescriptions, the malady of the Countess d'Orbigny, which was
+   but slight in the first instance?'
+
+   "'Yes!' replied Polidori. My father heaved a painful sigh,
+   raised both his hands to heaven, and let them fall perfectly
+   overcome.
+
+   "'Lies and infamies!' cried my stepmother; 'it is all false,--a
+   plot got up to destroy me!'
+
+   "'Silence, madame!' said Sir Walter Murphy, in an authoritative
+   voice. Then continuing to address Polidori, 'Is it true that
+   three days since madame was at your residence in the Rue du
+   Temple, No. 17, where you lived under the assumed name of
+   Bradamanti?'
+
+   "'That is true.'
+
+   "'Did not madame propose to you to come here to assassinate the
+   Comte d'Orbigny, as you had assassinated his wife?'
+
+   "'Alas! I cannot deny it!' said Polidori.
+
+   "At this overwhelming revelation my father rose up, then,
+   extending his arms to me, he exclaimed, in a broken voice, 'In
+   the name of your unfortunate mother, pardon, pardon! I made her
+   suffer much, but I swear to you I was a stranger to the crime
+   which led her to the tomb!' and before I could prevent it, my
+   father fell at my knees. When Sir Walter and I raised him he had
+   fainted. I rang for the servants. Sir Walter took Polidori by
+   the arm and led him out of the room with him, saying to my
+   stepmother, 'Believe me, madame, it is best for you to leave
+   this house within an hour, otherwise I will deliver you up to
+   justice.' The wretched woman left the room in a state of rage
+   and affright, which you will easily conceive. When my father
+   recovered his senses, all that had occurred seemed to him a
+   horrid dream. I was under the sad necessity of imparting to him
+   my first suspicions as to my mother's premature death,
+   suspicions which your knowledge of Doctor Polidori's earlier
+   crimes had converted into certainty. I also told him how my
+   stepmother had persecuted me to the time of my marriage, and
+   what had been her object in making me marry M. d'Harville. In
+   proportion as my father had shown himself weak with respect to
+   this woman, so was he now pitiless towards her. He was desirous
+   of handing Madame d'Orbigny over to the tribunals. I represented
+   to him the horrible scandal of such a process, the publicity of
+   which must be so distressing to him; and I induced him to allow
+   her as much as was requisite for her to live upon. I had
+   considerable difficulty in persuading my father to these terms,
+   and he then wished me to dismiss her. This task was so painful
+   that I requested Sir Walter to perform it for me, which he did."
+
+"I consented with pleasure," interrupted Murphy.
+
+"And what said this woman?"
+
+"Madame d'Harville kindly solicited a pension of a hundred louis for
+this woman: this appeared to me not only kindness, but weakness; it was
+bad enough to allow her to escape from justice; and the count agreeing
+with me, it was arranged that we should give her in all twenty-five
+louis to maintain her until she should find some occupation. 'And to
+what occupation can I, the Countess d'Orbigny, turn?' she asked me,
+insolently. '_Ma foi!_ that is your affair,--you may do as a nurse or
+housekeeper; but take my advice and seek some humbler, more obscure
+occupation, for if you have the daring to mention your name--a name
+which you owe to a crime--people will be astonished to see the Countess
+d'Orbigny reduced to such a condition; they will then begin to make
+inquiries, and you may judge what will be the result, if you are so
+indiscreet as to say one word of the past. Hide yourself, therefore, at
+a distance,--try and become forgotten; become Madame Pierre or Madame
+Jacques, and repent if you can.' 'And do you suppose, sir,' she said,
+having, no doubt, resolved on a piece of stage effect, 'do you suppose
+that I shall not sue for the advantage which my marriage settlement
+awards me?' 'Why, madame, nothing can be more just; it will be
+dishonourable of M. d'Orbigny not to execute his promises, and forget
+all you have done--and particularly all you wished to do towards him. Go
+to law--go to law! Try for justice, and, no doubt, it will right you
+with your husband.' A quarter of an hour after our conversation the
+wretch of a woman was on the road to the neighbouring town."
+
+"You are right, it is painful to leave such an abandoned creature
+unpunished, but a law proceeding is impossible."
+
+   "I easily persuaded my father to leave Aubiers the same day,"
+
+resumed Rodolph, continuing the perusal of Madame d'Harville's letter,
+
+   "as too many painful feelings were excited by his being where he
+   was. His weak health will be benefited by a few days' change of
+   air and scene, as the doctor saw, whom Polidori had succeeded,
+   and for whom I sent from the neighbouring town. My father wished
+   him to analyse the contents of the phial, without giving him any
+   information as to what had passed. The doctor informed us that
+   he must do this at home, and that in two hours we should know
+   the result of his scrutiny; which was that several doses of this
+   liquor, composed with devilish skill, would, within a certain
+   time, cause death, without leaving any traces beyond those of an
+   ordinary malady, which he mentioned. In a few hours,
+   monseigneur, I go with my father and daughter to Fontainebleau,
+   where we shall remain for some time; then my father wishes to
+   return to Paris, but not to my house, for I could not reside
+   there after the late appalling event. As I mentioned in the
+   beginning of my letter, monseigneur, facts prove all I shall owe
+   to your inexhaustible care and solicitude. Forewarned by you,
+   aided by your advice, strong in the assistance of your excellent
+   and high-couraged Sir Walter, I have been enabled to snatch my
+   father from certain death, and am again assured of his love.
+   Adieu, monseigneur, it is impossible for me to say more; my
+   heart is too full, and I explain but faintly all I feel."
+
+                                       "D'ORBIGNY D'HARVILLE."
+
+   "I open my letter to repair something I had, I regret to say,
+   forgotten. According to your noble suggestion, I went to the
+   prison of St. Lazare, to visit the poor women prisoners, and I
+   found there an unhappy girl in whom you are interested. Her
+   angelic mildness, her pious resignation, were the admiration of
+   the respectable women who superintend the prisoners. To say that
+   she is called La Goualeuse is to urge you to obtain her liberty
+   instantly. The poor girl will tell you under what circumstances
+   she was carried off from the asylum in which you had placed her,
+   and was put in prison, where, at least, the candour and
+   sweetness of her disposition have been appreciated. Permit me,
+   also, to recall to you my two future protégées, the unhappy
+   mother and daughter despoiled by the notary Ferrand,--where are
+   they? I pray of you to try and discover them, so that, on my
+   return to Paris, I may pay the debt I have contracted towards
+   all unfortunate beings."
+
+"What! Has La Goualeuse, then, left the Bouqueval farm?" inquired
+Murphy, as much astonished as Rodolph at this fresh discovery.
+
+"Just now I was informed that she had been seen quitting St. Lazare,"
+replied Rodolph. "I am quite bewildered on the subject; Madame Georges's
+silence surprises and disturbs me. Poor little Fleur-de-Marie, what
+fresh disasters can have befallen her? Send a man on horseback directly
+to the farm, and write to Madame Georges that I beg of her to come to
+Paris instantly. Request M. de Graün to procure for me a permission to
+visit St. Lazare. By what Madame d'Harville says to me, Fleur-de-Marie
+must be confined there. Yet, no," he added, "she cannot be there, for
+Rigolette saw her leave the prison with an aged woman. Could it be
+Madame Georges? If not, who could be the woman that accompanied La
+Goualeuse?"
+
+"Patience, monseigneur; before the evening you will know all about it.
+Then to-morrow you can interrogate that vagabond Polidori, who has, he
+assures me, important disclosures to make,--but to you alone."
+
+"This interview will be most odious to me!" said Rodolph, sorrowfully;
+"for I have never seen this man since the fatal day when I--"
+
+Rodolph, unable to finish, hid his face in his hands.
+
+"But, monseigneur, why accede to Polidori's request? Threaten him with
+the justice of the French law, or immediate surrender to your authority,
+and then he will reveal to me what he now declares he will only reveal
+to you."
+
+"You are right, my worthy friend; for the presence of this wretch would
+make my terrible recollections even still more distressing, connected as
+they are with incurable griefs,--from my father's death to that of my
+daughter. I know not how it is, but as I advance in life the more I seem
+to miss that dear child. How I should have adored her! How very dear and
+precious to me she would have been, this offspring of my first love, of
+my earliest and purest beliefs--or, rather, my young illusions! I should
+have poured out on this innocent creature those treasures of affection
+of which her hateful mother is so unworthy; and it seems to me that, as
+I have dreamt, this child, by the beauty of her mind, the charm of her
+qualities, would have soothed and softened all my griefs, all these
+pangs of remorse, which are, alas, attached to her fatal birth."
+
+"Monseigneur, I see with grief the increasing empire which these
+regrets, as vain as they are bitter, assume over your mind."
+
+After some moments' silence, Rodolph said to Murphy:
+
+"I will now make a confession to you, my old friend. I love--yes, I
+passionately love--a woman worthy of the noblest, the most devoted
+affection. Since my heart has again expanded to all the sweetness of
+love, since I am thus again affected by tender emotions, I feel more
+deeply than ever the loss of my daughter. I might have feared that an
+attachment of the heart would weaken the bitterness of my regrets. It is
+not so; all my loving qualities--my affections--are but the keener. I
+feel myself better, more charitable; and more than ever is it afflicting
+to me not to have my daughter to adore."
+
+"Nothing more easily explained, monseigneur,--forgive me the
+comparison,--but, as certain men have a joyous and benevolent
+intoxication, so you have good and generous love."
+
+"Still, my hatred of the wicked has become more intense; my aversion for
+Sarah increases, in proportion, no doubt, to the grief I experience at
+my daughter's death. I imagine to myself that that wretched mother must
+have neglected her, and that, when once her ambitious hopes were ruined
+by my marriage, the countess, in her pitiless selfishness, abandoned our
+daughter to mercenary hands, and, perhaps, my child died from actual
+neglect. It is my fault, also. I did not then think of the sacred duties
+which paternity imposes. When Sarah's real character was suddenly
+revealed to me, I ought instantly to have taken my daughter from her,
+and watched over her with love and anxiety. I ought to have foreseen
+that the countess would make but a very unnatural mother. It is my
+fault,--yes, indeed, my fault."
+
+"Monseigneur, grief distracts you! Could you, after the sad event you
+know of, delay for a day the long journey imposed on you, as--"
+
+"As an expiator! You are right, my friend," said Rodolph, greatly
+agitated.
+
+"You have not heard anything of the Countess Sarah since my departure,
+monseigneur?"
+
+"No; since those infamous plots which twice nearly destroyed Madame
+d'Harville, I have heard nothing of her. Her presence here is hateful to
+me,--oppresses me; it seems as though my evil demon was near me, and
+some new misfortune threatens me."
+
+"Patience, patience, monseigneur! Fortunately Germany is forbidden
+ground to her, and Germany awaits us."
+
+"Yes, we shall go very soon. At least, during my short residence in
+Paris, I shall have accomplished a sacred vow, and have made some steps
+in the meritorious path which an august and merciful will has traced for
+my redemption. As soon as Madame Georges's son is restored to her tender
+arms, free and innocent; as soon as Jacques Ferrand shall be convicted
+and punished for his crimes; as soon as I am assured of the good
+prosperity of all the honest and hard-working creatures who, by their
+resignation, courage, and probity, have deserved my interest, we will
+return to Germany, and then my journey will not have been wholly
+unfruitful."
+
+"Particularly if you achieve the exposure of that abominable wretch,
+Jacques Ferrand, monseigneur,--the angular stone, the pivot on which
+turn so many crimes."
+
+"Although the end justifies the means, and scruples with such a
+scoundrel are absurd, yet I sometimes regret that I have allowed Cecily
+to become an instrument in working out this just and avenging
+reparation."
+
+"She ought to be here very shortly."
+
+"She has arrived."
+
+"Cecily?"
+
+"Yes; I refused to see her. De Graün has given her ample instructions,
+and she has promised to comply with them."
+
+"Will she keep that promise?"
+
+"Why, everything conspires to make me think so. There is the hope of
+ameliorating her future condition, and the fear of being instantly sent
+back to Germany to prison; for De Graün will not lose sight of her, and
+the least defection on her part will cause her being handed over to
+justice."
+
+"True, she comes here as an escaped criminal, and when we know the
+crimes that have led to her perpetual imprisonment, she would be at once
+surrendered to our demand."
+
+"And then, even if it were not her interest to aid our schemes, the task
+which is assigned to her being one which can only be effected by
+stratagem, perfidy, and the most devilish seduction, Cecily must be (and
+the baron assures me she really is) overjoyed at such an opportunity for
+playing off those infernal advantages with which she is so liberally
+endowed."
+
+"Is she as handsome as she was, monseigneur?"
+
+"De Graün declares that she is more attractive than ever; he told me
+that he was really quite dazzled at her beauty, to which the Alsatian
+costume she had chosen gave even more piquancy. The glance of this devil
+in petticoats, he says, has still the same really magic expression."
+
+"Why, monseigneur, I have never been what is called a dissipated fellow,
+a man without heart or conduct, but if at twenty years of age I had met
+with Cecily, even knowing her then to be as dangerous, as wicked as I do
+now, I assure you I would not have answered for myself, if I had been
+for any time exposed to the fire of her large, black, and brilliant
+eyes, sparkling in the centre of her pale and ardent countenance. Yes,
+by heaven! I dare not think of the extremities into which so fatal an
+amour might have urged me."
+
+"I am not astonished, my dear Murphy, for I know this woman. Moreover,
+the baron was really frightened at the quickness with which Cecily
+understood--or, rather guessed--the part, at once inciting and platonic,
+which she was to play with the notary."
+
+"But will she, think you, be introduced as easily as you wish,
+monseigneur, by the intervention of Madame Pipelet? Individuals like
+Jacques Ferrand are so suspicious."
+
+"I had relied, with reason, on the sight of Cecily to overcome and
+dissipate the notary's distrust."
+
+"What! Has he already seen her?"
+
+"Yesterday. And from what Madame Pipelet told me, I have no doubt but he
+was fascinated by the creole, for he instantly took her into service."
+
+"Then, monseigneur, the game is won, and ours."
+
+"I hope so. A ferocious cupidity, a brutal passion, have impelled the
+injurer of Louise Morel to the most odious crimes. It is in his passion
+and his cupidity that he shall find the terrible punishment of his
+crimes,--a punishment which, moreover, shall not be without fruit for
+his victims, for you know the aim of all the Creole's wiles."
+
+"Cecily! Cecily! Never did greater wickedness, never more dangerous
+corruption, never blacker soul have served for the accomplishment of a
+more strict morality, a more just result! And David, monseigneur, what
+does he say to this arrangement?"
+
+"Approves of everything. At the pitch of contempt and horror which he
+has reached for this creature, he sees in her only the instrument of a
+just vengeance. 'If this accursed woman ever could deserve any
+commiseration after all the ill she has done me,' he said to me, 'it
+would be by devoting herself to the remorseless punishment of this
+scoundrel, whose exterminating demon she may become.'"
+
+A servant having knocked at the door, Murphy went out, but soon returned
+with two letters, only one of which was for Rodolph.
+
+"A line from Madame Georges," he said, as he hastily perused it.
+
+"Well, monseigneur, and La Goualeuse?"
+
+"There can be no further doubt," exclaimed Rodolph, after having read,
+"there is some dark plot afoot. On the evening of the day when the poor
+girl disappeared from the farm, and at the instant when Madame Georges
+was about to inform me of this event, a man unknown to her, sent express
+and on horseback, came as from me to tell her that I was aware of the
+sudden disappearance of Fleur-de-Marie, and that in a few days I should
+take her back to the farm. In spite of this, Madame Georges, uneasy at
+my silence with respect to her protégée, cannot, as she says, resist the
+desire to hear how her dear daughter is, for so she calls her."
+
+"It is very strange, monseigneur."
+
+"What could be the motive for carrying off Fleur-de-Marie?"
+
+"Monseigneur!" said Murphy, suddenly, "the Countess Sarah is no stranger
+to this carrying off."
+
+"Sarah! And what makes you think so?"
+
+"Compare this event with her denunciations against Madame d'Harville."
+
+"You are right!" cried Rodolph, struck with a sudden light, "it is
+evident--now I understand. Yes, constantly the one calculation. The
+countess persists in thinking that by breaking down all the affections
+which she supposes me to form, she will make me feel the necessity of
+attaching myself to her. This is as odious as it is absurd. Still, such
+unworthy persecution must be put a stop to. It is not only myself, but
+all that deserve respect, interest, and pity, that this woman assails.
+Send M. de Graün instantly and officially to the countess and let him
+say that I have the certain assurance that she has been instrumental in
+carrying off Fleur-de-Marie, and if she does not give me at once such
+information as is necessary for me to find the poor girl, I will show no
+mercy; and then M. de Graün will go to the law officers of the crown."
+
+"According to Madame d'Harville's letter, La Goualeuse must be in St.
+Lazare."
+
+"Yes, but Rigolette declares that she saw her free, and quit the prison.
+There is some mystery which I must clear up."
+
+"I will instantly go and give the Baron de Graün your orders,
+monseigneur. But allow me to open this letter, which comes from my
+correspondent at Marseilles, to whom I had recommended the Chourineur,
+as he was to facilitate the passage of the poor devil to Algeria."
+
+"Well, has he set sail?"
+
+"Monseigneur, it is really singular!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"After having waited for a long time at Marseilles for a ship to convey
+him to Algeria, the Chourineur, who seemed every day more sad and
+serious, suddenly protested, on the very day fixed for his embarkation,
+that he should prefer returning to Paris."
+
+"What a whim!"
+
+"Although my correspondent had, as agreed, placed a considerable sum at
+the disposal of the Chourineur, he had only taken sufficient for his
+return to Paris, where he must shortly arrive."
+
+"Then he will explain to us his change of resolution. But despatch De
+Graün immediately to the Countess Macgregor, and go yourself to St.
+Lazare, and inquire about Fleur-de-Marie."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After the lapse of an hour, the Baron de Graün returned from the
+Countess Sarah Macgregor's. In spite of his habitual and official
+_sang-froid_, the diplomatist seemed overwhelmed; the groom of the
+chambers had scarcely admitted him before Rodolph observed his paleness.
+
+"Well, De Graün, what ails you? Have you seen the countess?"
+
+"Your royal highness must prepare for very painful intelligence--so
+unexpected--the Countess Macgregor--"
+
+"The countess, then, is dead?"
+
+"No, but her life is despaired of; she has been stabbed with a
+stiletto."
+
+"Horrible!" exclaimed Rodolph. "Who committed the crime?"
+
+"That is not ascertained; the murder was accompanied with robbery; a
+large quantity of jewels have been stolen."
+
+"And how is she now?"
+
+"She has not recovered her senses yet; her brother is in despair."
+
+"Send some one daily to make inquiries, my dear De Graün."
+
+At this moment Murphy entered, having returned from St. Lazare.
+
+"Sad news!" said Rodolph to him; "Sarah has been stabbed."
+
+"Ah, monseigneur, though very guilty, one must still pity her."
+
+"Yes, such a fearful end! And La Goualeuse?"
+
+"Set at liberty by the intercession of Madame d'Harville."
+
+"That is impossible! for Madame d'Harville entreats me to take the
+necessary steps for getting the poor, unhappy girl out of prison."
+
+"Yet an elderly woman came to St. Lazare, bringing an order to set
+Fleur-de-Marie at liberty, and they both quitted the prison together."
+
+"As Rigolette said. But this elderly woman, who can she be? The Countess
+Sarah alone can clear this up, and she is in no state to afford us
+particulars."
+
+"But her brother, Tom Seyton, may throw some light on it, he has always
+been in his sister's confidence."
+
+"His sister is dying, and if there is any fresh plot, he will not say a
+word. But," added Rodolph, "we must learn the name of the person who
+liberated Fleur-de-Marie, and then we shall arrive at something."
+
+"True, monseigneur."
+
+"Try, then, and find out this person, my dear De Graün; and if you do
+not succeed, put your M. Badinot on the scent."
+
+"Your royal highness may rely on my zeal."
+
+"Upon my word, monseigneur," said Murphy, "it is, perhaps, fortunate
+that the Chourineur returns to us, his services may be useful."
+
+"You are right; and now I am impatient to see my brave preserver arrive
+in Paris, for I never can forget that I owe my life to him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CLERK'S OFFICE.
+
+
+Several days had elapsed since Jacques Ferrand had taken Cecily into his
+service. We will conduct the reader (who already knows the place) into
+the notary's office, whilst his clerks are at breakfast. Unheard of,
+extravagant, wonderful thing! Instead of the meagre and repulsive broth
+brought each morning to these young men by the late Madame Séraphin, an
+enormous cold roast turkey, placed in a large box, was enthroned in the
+centre of one of the office-tables, flanked by two new loaves, a Dutch
+cheese, and three bottles of wine; an ancient leaden inkstand served to
+hold a mixture of pepper and salt. Each clerk, provided with a knife and
+a strong appetite, awaited the arrival of the head clerk with hungry
+impatience, without whom they could not, without a breach of etiquette,
+begin to breakfast. A revolution so radical in Jacques Ferrand's office
+bespoke some extraordinary domestic mutation. The following conversation
+may throw some light on this phenomenon:
+
+"Here is a turkey who did not expect when he was ushered into life ever
+to appear on the breakfast-table of our governor's clerks."
+
+"No more than the governor, when he was ushered into the life of a
+notary, expected to give his clerks a turkey for breakfast."
+
+"But, at least, the turkey is ours!" said the junior fag of the office,
+with a greedy grin.
+
+"Hop-the-Gutter, my friend, you forget yourself; this poultry is and
+must be a stranger to you."
+
+"And, like a good Frenchman, you should have a wholesome hatred of the
+stranger."
+
+"All that will come to your share may be his feet."
+
+"Emblem of the velocity with which you run on the office errands."
+
+"I thought I might at least have a right to the carcass to pick!"
+muttered Hop-the-Gutter.
+
+"Perchance, as an excessive favour, but not as a right; just as with the
+Charter of 1814, which was but another carcass of liberty!" said the
+Mirabeau of the office.
+
+"Talking of carcasses," observed one youth, with brutal insensibility,
+"may heaven receive the soul of Madame Séraphin! For since she was
+drowned in her water-party of pleasure, we are no longer condemned to
+eternal 'cag-mag.'"
+
+"And, for a whole week, the governor, instead of giving us breakfast--"
+
+"Allows us each two francs a day."
+
+"It was that which made me say, 'Heaven receive the soul of Mother
+Séraphin!'"
+
+"Talking of Madame Séraphin, who has seen the servant who has come in
+her place?"
+
+"The Alsatian girl whom the portress of the house in which poor Louise
+lived brought one evening, as the porter told us?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"_Parbleu!_ It is quite impossible to get a glimpse of her; for the
+governor is more resolute than ever in preventing us from entering into
+the pavilion in the courtyard."
+
+"And besides, as it is the porter who now cleans out the office, how can
+one see this damsel?"
+
+"Well, I've seen her."
+
+"You?"
+
+"When I say I've seen her, I've seen her cap; such a rum cap!"
+
+"Oh, pooh! What sort?"
+
+"It was cherry-coloured velvet, I think; a kind of skull-cap like the
+'buy-a-broom' girls wear."
+
+"Like the Alsaciennes? Why, that's simple enough, as she is an
+Alsacienne!"
+
+"I was passing across the yard the day before yesterday, and she was
+leaning with her back against one of the windows of the ground floor."
+
+"What! The yard?"
+
+"No, donkey, no,--the servant! The panes of the lower part are so dirty
+that I could not see much of the Alsacienne; but those in the middle of
+the window were not so grubby, and I saw her cherry-coloured cap and a
+profusion of curling hair as black as jet, for she had her head dressed
+_à la Titus_."
+
+"I'm sure the governor has not seen even as much as that through his
+spectacles; for he is one who, as they say, if he were left alone with
+one woman on the earth, then the world would end."
+
+"That is not astonishing. 'He laughs best who laughs last!' And the more
+so, as 'Punctuality is the politeness of monarchs!'"
+
+"Jupiter! How stupid Chalamel is when he likes!"
+
+"Deuce take it! Tell me where you go, and I'll tell you who you are!"
+
+"Beautiful!"
+
+"As for me, I think it is superstition which makes our governor more and
+more hoggish."
+
+"And, perhaps, it is as a penitence that he gives us forty sous a day
+for our breakfast."
+
+"He must, indeed, have taken leave of his senses."
+
+"Or be ill."
+
+"I have thought him very much bewildered these many days past."
+
+"It is not that we see so much of him. He who, for our misery, was in
+his study at sunrise, and always at our backs, is now two days without
+even poking his nose into the office."
+
+"That gives the head clerk so much to do."
+
+"And we are obliged to die of hunger waiting for him this morning."
+
+"What a change in the office!"
+
+"How poor Germain would be astonished if any one told him, 'Only think,
+old fellow, of the governor giving us forty sous for our breakfast.'
+'Pooh! Impossible!' 'Quite possible! And I, Chalamel, announce the fact
+in my own proper person.' 'What, you want to make me laugh?' 'Yes. Well,
+this is the way it came about. For the two or three days which followed
+the death of Madame Séraphin we had no breakfast at all; and, in one
+respect, that was an improvement, because it was less nasty, but, in
+another, our refection cost us money. Still we were patient, saying,
+"The governor has no servant or housekeeper; as soon as he gets one we
+shall resume the filthy paste gruel." No, by no means, my dear Germain;
+the governor has a servant, and yet our breakfast continued buried in
+the wave of oblivion. Then I was appointed as a deputation to inform the
+governor of the griefs of our stomachs. He was with the chief clerk. "I
+will not feed you any longer in the morning," he replied, in his harsh
+tone, and as if thinking of something else; "my servant has no time to
+prepare your breakfast." "But, sir, it was agreed that you should find
+us in breakfasts." "Well, send for your breakfasts from some house, and
+I will pay for it. How much is sufficient,--forty sous each?" he added;
+all the time evidently thinking of something else, and saying forty sous
+as he would say twenty sous or a hundred sous. "Yes, sir, forty sous
+will be sufficient," cried I, catching the ball at the bound. "Be it so;
+the head clerk will pay you and settle with me." And so saying, the
+governor respectfully slammed the door in my face.' You must own,
+messieurs, that Germain would be most extraordinarily astonished at the
+liberality of the governor."
+
+"Seriously, I think the governor is ill. For the last ten days he has
+scarcely been recognisable; his cheeks are so furrowed you could hide
+your fist in them."
+
+"And so absent; you should just see him. The other day he lifted his
+spectacles to read a deed, and his eyes were as red and glaring as fiery
+coals."
+
+"He was right. 'Short reckonings make long friends!'"
+
+"Let me say a word. I will tell you, gentlemen, something very strange.
+I handed this deed to the governor, and it was topsy-turvy."
+
+"The governor? How strange! What could he mean by topsy-turvying thus?
+Enough to choke him, unless, as you say, his habits are so completely
+altered."
+
+"Oh, what a fellow you are, Chalamel! I say I gave him the deed wrong
+end up'ards."
+
+"Wasn't he in a rage?"
+
+"Not the slightest. He did not even notice it, but kept his great red
+eyes fixed upon it for at least ten minutes, and then handed me back the
+deed, saying, 'Very good!'"
+
+"What, still topsy-turvy?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then he couldn't have read it?"
+
+"_Pardieu!_ not unless he can read upside down."
+
+"How odd!"
+
+"The governor looked so dull and cross at the moment that I did not dare
+to say a word, and so I left him, just as if nothing had occurred."
+
+"Well, four days ago I was in the head clerk's office; there came a
+client, then two or three clients with whom the governor had
+appointments. They got tired of waiting; and, at their request, I went
+and knocked at his study door. No answer; so in I went."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"M. Jacques Ferrand had his arms crossed on his desk, and his bald and
+not overdelicate forehead leaning on his hands. He never stirred."
+
+"Was he asleep?"
+
+"I thought so, and went towards him: 'Sir, there are clients waiting
+with whom you have made appointments.' He didn't stir. 'Sir!' No answer.
+Then I touched his shoulder, and he bounced up as if the devil had
+bitten him. In his start his large green spectacles fell from his eyes
+on to his nose, and I saw--you'll never believe it--"
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"Tears."
+
+"Oh, what nonsense!"
+
+"Quite true."
+
+"What! the governor snivel? No, I won't have that."
+
+"When that's the case why cockchafers will play the cornet-à-piston."
+
+"And cocks and hens wear top-boots."
+
+"Ta, ta, ta, ta; all your folly will not prevent my having seen what I
+did see as plain as I see you."
+
+"Weeping?"
+
+"Yes, weeping. And he was in such a precious rage at being surprised in
+this lachrymose mood that he adjusted his spectacles in great haste, and
+said to me, 'Get out--get out!' 'But, sir--' 'Get out!' 'Three clients
+are waiting to whom you have given appointments, and--' 'I have not
+time; let them go to the devil along with you!' Then he got up in a
+desperate rage to turn me out, but I didn't wait, but went and dismissed
+the clients, who were not by any means satisfied; but, for the honour of
+the office, I told them that the governor had the whooping-cough."
+
+This interesting conversation was interrupted by the head clerk, who
+entered apparently quite overcome. His arrival was hailed by general
+acclamation, and all eyes were sympathetically turned towards the
+turkey with impatient anxiety.
+
+"Without saying a word, seigneur, you have kept us waiting an infernally
+long while," said Chalamel.
+
+"Take care! Another time our appetite will not remain so subordinate."
+
+"Well, gents, it was no fault of mine. I have had much to annoy
+me,--more than you have. On my word and honour, the governor must be
+going mad."
+
+"Didn't I say so?"
+
+"But that need not prevent one eating."
+
+"On the contrary."
+
+"We can talk just as well with something in our mouths."
+
+"We can talk better," cried Hop-the-Gutter; whilst Chalamel, dissecting
+the turkey, said to the head clerk:
+
+"What makes you think that the governor is mad?"
+
+"We have a right to suppose he is perfectly beside himself when he
+allows us forty sous a head for our daily breakfast."
+
+"I confess that has surprised me as much as yourselves, gents. But that
+is nothing--absolutely nothing--to what has just now occurred."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"What! has the unhappy old gent become so decidedly lunatic that he
+insists on our dining at the Cadran Bleu every day at his expense?"
+
+"Theatre in the evening?"
+
+"Then coffee, with punch to follow?"
+
+"And then--"
+
+"Gents, laugh as much as you please; but the scene I have just witnessed
+is rather alarming than pleasant."
+
+"Well, then, relate this scene to us."
+
+"Yes, do. Don't mind your breakfast," observed Chalamel; "we are all
+ears."
+
+"And jaws, my lads. I think I see you whilst I am talking working away
+with your teeth; and the turkey would be finished before my tale. By
+your leave, patience, and the story shall come in with the dessert."
+
+Whether it was the spur of appetite or curiosity which incited the young
+men we will not decide, but they went through their gastronomic
+operation with such celerity that the moment for the head clerk's
+history came in no time. In order that they might not be surprised by
+their employer, they sent Hop-the-Gutter into the adjoining room as a
+sentinel, having liberally supplied him with the carcass and drumsticks
+of the bird.
+
+The head clerk then said to his colleagues, "You must know, in the first
+place, the porter has been very uneasy, for he has frequently seen M.
+Ferrand, in spite of the cold and rain, pace the garden at night for a
+considerable time. Once he ventured to ask his master if he wanted
+anything; but he sent him about his business in such a manner that he
+has not again ventured to intrude himself."
+
+"Perhaps the governor is a sleep-walker?"
+
+"That is not probable. But, to continue; a short time since I wanted his
+signature to several papers. As I was turning the handle of his door, I
+thought I heard some one speaking. I stopped, and made out two or three
+repressed sounds, like stifled groans. After pausing an instant in fear,
+I opened the door, and saw the governor kneeling on the floor, his
+forehead buried in his hands, and his elbows resting on the seat of one
+of his old armchairs."
+
+"Oh, it's all plain enough: he has turned pious, and was saying an extra
+prayer."
+
+"Well, then, it was a strong prayer enough. I heard stifled groans, and
+every now and then he murmured between his teeth '_Mon Dieu! mon Dieu!
+mon Dieu!_' like a despairing man. Then,--and this is very singular,--in
+a movement which he made as if to tear his breast with his nails, his
+shirt came partly open, and I saw on his hairy chest a small red
+pocketbook fastened around his neck by a steel chain. When I saw that I
+did not really know whether I ought to retreat or advance. I remained,
+however, very much embarrassed, when he rose and suddenly turned around,
+holding between his teeth an old check pocket-handkerchief; his
+spectacles were left on the chair. Let me say, gents, that I never in my
+life saw such a figure; he looked like one of the damned. I retreated
+really in alarm. Then he--"
+
+"Seized you by the throat?"
+
+"You are quite wrong. He looked at me first with a bewildered air; then
+letting fall his handkerchief, he threw himself into my arms,
+exclaiming, 'Oh, I am very unhappy!'"
+
+"What a farce!"
+
+"Well, but that did not prevent his voice--in spite of his death's-head
+look--from being so distressing, I may say so imploring--"
+
+"Imploring! Come, come, no gammon! Why, there is no night-owl with a
+cold in her head which is not music to the governor's voice."
+
+"That may be; but yet at this moment his voice was so plaintive that I
+was almost affected. 'Sir,' I said to him, believe me--' 'Let me!--let
+me!' replied he, interrupting me. 'It is so consoling to be able to say
+to any one that we are suffering!' He evidently mistook me for some
+other person. You may suppose that when he thus addressed me I felt sure
+it was a mistake, or that he had a brain fever. I disengaged myself from
+him, saying, 'Sir, compose yourself, it is I!' Then he looked at me with
+a stupid air, and exclaimed, 'Who is it? Who's there? What do you want
+with me?' And he passed, at each question, his hand over his brow, as if
+to dispel the cloud which obscured his mind."
+
+"Which obscured his mind! Capital! Well spoken! We'll get up a melodrama
+amongst us!
+
+    "'Methinks a man with such a power of words,
+      Should try his hand at melodrame!'"
+
+"Chalamel, will you be quiet?"
+
+"What could ail the governor?"
+
+"_Ma foi!_ How can I tell? But of this I'm sure, that when he recovers
+he'll sing to another tune, for he frowned terribly, and said to me
+sharply, without giving me time to reply, 'What did you come for? Have
+you been here long? Am I to be surrounded with spies? What did I say?
+Reply--answer!' _Ma foi!_ he looked so savage that I replied, 'I heard
+nothing, sir; I only this moment entered.' 'You are not deceiving me?'
+'No, sir.' 'Well, what do you want?' 'Some signatures, sir.' 'Give me
+the papers!' And then he signed and signed--without reading--half a
+dozen notarial deeds; he who never put his initials to a deed without
+spelling it over word by word, and twice over from one end to the other.
+I remarked that from time to time his hand relaxed in the middle of his
+signature, as if he were absorbed in some fixed idea; then he went on
+signing very quick, and, as it were, convulsively. When all were signed
+he told me to retire, and I heard him descend the small staircase which
+leads from his room to the courtyard."
+
+"I still ask what can be the matter with him?"
+
+"Gentlemen, it is perhaps Madame Séraphin whom he regrets."
+
+"He? What, he regret any one?"
+
+"Now I think of it, the porter said that the curé of Bonne Nouvelle and
+the vicar had called several times to see the governor, and he was
+denied to them. Is not that surprising?--they who almost lived here!"
+
+"What puzzles me is to know what the workpeople are at."
+
+"They have been working at the pavilion three days running."
+
+"And one evening they brought furniture covered up with a carpet."
+
+"Perhaps he feels remorse for having put Germain into prison?"
+
+"Talking of Germain, he will have some fine recruits in his prison, poor
+fellow! For I read in the _Gazette des Tribunaux_ that the band of
+robbers and assassins, whom they seized in the Champs Elysées, in one of
+the small underground public-houses, had been locked up in La Force."
+
+"Poor Germain! What society for him!"
+
+"Louise Morel, too, will have her share of the recruits; for in this
+gang, they say, there is a whole family of thieves."
+
+"Then they will send the women to St. Lazare, where Louise is?"
+
+"Perhaps it was some of that gang who stabbed the countess, one of the
+governor's clients. He has often sent me to inquire after the state of
+this countess, and seems much interested in her recovery."
+
+"Did they let you enter the house and see the spot where the
+assassination was committed?"
+
+"Oh, no! I could not go farther than the entrance; and the porter was
+not at all a person inclined to talk."
+
+"Gents, gents, take your places; here's the gov'nor coming up!" shouted
+Hop-the-Gutter, coming into the office with the carcass still in his
+hand.
+
+The young men instantly took their seats at their respective desks, over
+which they bent, handling their pens with great dexterity; whilst
+Hop-the-Gutter deposited his turkey's skeleton in a box filled with law
+papers.
+
+Jacques Ferrand entered the room. His red hair, mingled with gray,
+escaping from beneath an old black silk cap, fell in disorder down each
+side of his temples. Some of the veins which marbled his head appeared
+injected with blood, whilst his face, his flat nose, his furrowed
+cheeks, were all of ghastly paleness. The expression of his look,
+concealed by his large green spectacles, could not be seen; but the
+great alteration in the man's features announced the ravages of a
+consuming passion.
+
+He crossed the office slowly, without saying a word to one of the
+clerks, or without even appearing to notice that they were there; then
+went into the room in which the chief clerk was employed, traversed it
+as well as his own cabinet, and again instantly descended the small
+staircase which led to the courtyard.
+
+Jacques Ferrand having left all the doors open behind him, the clerks
+had a right to be astonished at the strange demeanour of their employer,
+who had come up one staircase and gone down another without pausing for
+a moment in any of the apartments he had mechanically traversed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AVOID TEMPTATION!
+
+
+It is night. Profound silence reigns in the pavilion inhabited by
+Jacques Ferrand, interrupted only at intervals by gusts of wind and the
+dashing of rain, which falls in torrents. These melancholy sounds seemed
+to render still more complete the solitude of this abode. In a
+sleeping-room in the first floor, very nicely and newly furnished, and
+covered with a thick carpet, a young female is standing up before a
+fireplace, in which there is a cheerful blaze. It is strange, but in the
+centre of the door, carefully bolted, and which is opposite to the bed,
+is a small glass door, five or six inches square, which opens from the
+outside. A small reflecting lamp casts a half shadow in this chamber,
+hung with garnet-coloured paper; the curtains of the bed and the window,
+as well as the cover of the large sofa, are of silk and woollen damask
+of the same colour. We are precise in the details of this demi-luxury so
+recently imported into the notary's residence, because it announces a
+complete revolution in the habits of Jacques Ferrand, who, until now,
+was of the most sordid avarice, and of Spartan disregard (especially as
+it concerned others) to everything that respected comfortable existence.
+It is on this garnet-coloured ground that was shadowed forth the figure
+of Cecily, which we will now attempt to paint.
+
+Tall and graceful, the creole was in the full flower of her age. Her
+spreading shoulders and hips made her waist appear so singularly small
+that it seemed as if it could be easily spanned. As simple as it was
+coquettish, her Alsatian costume was of singular taste, somewhat
+theatrical,--but for that reason more capable of producing the effect
+she desired. Her bodice, of black cassimere, half open on her full
+bosom, was very long-waisted, with tight sleeves, plain back, and
+slightly embroidered with purple wool down the seams, perfected by a row
+of small cut silver buttons. A short petticoat, of orange merino, which
+seemed of vast fullness, descended little lower than the knee; her
+stockings were of scarlet, with blue clocks, as we see them in the
+drawings of the old Flemish painters, who so complacently show us the
+garters of their robust heroines.
+
+No artist ever drew more perfect legs than were those of Cecily:
+symmetrical and slim beneath the swelling calf, they terminated in a
+small foot, quite at ease, and yet restrained in a small slipper of
+black morocco, with silver buckles. Cecily was looking into the glass
+over the mantelpiece. The slope of her bodice displayed her elegant and
+dimpled neck of dazzling but not transparent whiteness.
+
+Taking off her cap of cherry-coloured velvet to replace it with a
+kerchief, she displayed her thick, magnificent head of hair, of lustrous
+black, which, divided over her brows, and naturally curling, came down
+only to the necklace of Venus, which unites the neck and shoulders.
+
+It is necessary to know the inimitable taste with which the Creoles
+twist around their heads their kerchiefs of bright hues, to have an idea
+of the graceful head-dress of Cecily, and the piquant contrast of this
+variegated covering of purple, blue, and orange, with the black silky
+tresses, which, escaping from beneath the tight fold of the
+nightkerchief, surrounded her pale but round and firm cheeks. With her
+two arms raised above her head, she proceeded with the ends of her
+fingers, as slender as spindles of ivory, to arrange a large rosette,
+placed very low on the left side, almost over the ear.
+
+Cecily's features were such as once seen it is impossible ever to
+forget. A bold forehead, somewhat projecting, surmounts her face, which
+was a perfect oval; her pearly white complexion, the satiny freshness of
+the camelia leaf slightly touched by a sun-ray; her eyes, of almost
+disproportionate size, have a singular expression, for their irises,
+extremely large, black, and brilliant, hardly allow the blue
+transparency of the orbits, at the two extremities of the lids, fringed
+with long lashes, to be visible; her chin is very distinctly prominent;
+her nose, straight and thin, ends in two delicate nostrils, which dilate
+on the least emotion; her mouth, insolent and amorous, is of bright
+purple.
+
+We must imagine this colourless countenance, with its bright black
+glance, its two red, pulpy, and humid lips, which glisten like wet
+coral. Such was Cecily. Her infamous instincts, at first repressed by
+her real attachment for David, not being developed till she reached
+Europe, civilisation and the influence of northern climates had tempered
+their violence.
+
+We have already said that Cecily had scarcely reached Germany, when,
+first seduced by a man of desperately depraved habits, she, unknown to
+David, who loved her with equal idolatry and blindness, exercised and
+turned to account, for a considerable time, all her seductive powers;
+but soon the scandal of her adventures was raised abroad, and such
+exposures ensued that she was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.
+
+To all this let there be joined a plastic, adroit, insinuating mind, an
+intelligence so wonderful that in a year she spoke French and German
+with perfect ease, sometimes even with natural eloquence; then add a
+corrupted heart worthy of the courtesan queen of ancient Rome, an
+audacity and courage proof against everything, instincts of diabolical
+wickedness, and then we may understand the new servant of Jacques
+Ferrand, the resolute being who had dared to venture into the wolf's
+den.
+
+Yes, strange anomaly! On learning from M. de Graün the inciting and
+platonic part she was to play with the notary, and what avenging ends
+were to be derived from her seductions, Cecily had promised to go
+through the character with love, or, rather, terrible hatred against
+Jacques Ferrand, being sincerely indignant at the recital of the
+infamous violence he had exercised against Louise,--a recital necessary
+to be unfolded to the creole, to put her on her guard against the
+hypocritical attempts of this monster. A few retrospective words as to
+this latter are indispensable.
+
+When Cecily was presented by Madame Pipelet as an orphan over whom she
+did not desire to maintain any right, any control, the notary was,
+perhaps, less smitten by the beauty of the creole than fascinated by her
+irresistible look,--a look which, at the first interview, disturbed the
+reason of Jacques Ferrand.
+
+We have already said, in reference to the insensate boldness of some of
+his words when conversing with Madame de Lucenay, that this man, usually
+so completely master of himself, so calm, so cunning, so subtle, forgot
+the cold calculations of his deep dissimulation when the demon of desire
+darkened his better sense.
+
+Besides, he had no cause to distrust the protégée of Madame Pipelet.
+After her conversation with Alfred's spouse, Madame Séraphin had
+proposed to Jacques Ferrand a young girl, almost destitute, to replace
+Louise, and he had eagerly accepted the offer, in the hopes of taking
+advantage of the isolated and precarious position of his new servant.
+Moreover, far from being predisposed to mistrust, Jacques Ferrand found,
+in the march of events, fresh motives for security.
+
+All succeeded to his utmost wishes. The death of Madame Séraphin
+released him from a dangerous accomplice; the death of Fleur-de-Marie
+(he believed her dead) delivered him from a living proof of one of his
+earliest crimes. Finally, thanks to the death of the Chouette, and the
+unexpected murder of the Countess Macgregor (whose life was despaired
+of), he no longer had these two women to fear, whose disclosures and
+attacks might have been most disastrous to him.
+
+The disposition, habits, and former life of Jacques Ferrand known and
+displayed, the exciting beauty of the creole admitted, as we have
+endeavoured to paint her, together with other facts we shall detail as
+we proceed, will account, we presume, for the sudden passion, the
+unbridled desire of the notary for this seductive and dangerous
+creature. Then we must add, that if women of Cecily's stamp inspire
+nothing but repugnance and disgust to men endued with tender and
+elevated sentiments, with delicate and pure tastes, they exercise a
+sudden action, a magic omnipotence, over men of brutal sensuality like
+Jacques Ferrand. Thus a just, an avenging fatality, brought the creole
+into contact with the notary, and a terrible expiation was beginning for
+him. A fierce passion had urged him on to persecute, with pitiless
+malice, an indigent and honest family, and to spread amongst them
+misery, madness, and death. This passion was now to be the formidable
+chastisement of this great culprit.
+
+Although Jacques Ferrand was never to have his desires realised, the
+creole took care not to deprive him of all hope; but the vague and
+distant prospects she held out were so coloured by caprices that they
+were an additional torture, and more completely enslaved him.
+
+If we are astonished that a man of such vigour and audacity had not
+recourse to stratagem or violence to triumph over the calculating
+resistance of Cecily, we forget that Cecily was not a second Louise.
+Besides, the day after her presentation to the notary, she had played
+quite another part from that by aid of which she had been introduced to
+her master, for he had not been the dupe of his servant two days.
+
+Forewarned of the fate of Louise by the Baron de Graün, and knowing
+besides by what abominable means she had become the prey of the notary,
+the creole, on entering this solitary house, had taken excellent
+precautions for passing her first night there in perfect security. The
+evening of her arrival, being alone with Jacques Ferrand, he, in order
+not to alarm her, pretended scarcely to look at her, and rudely ordered
+her to bed. She told him, _naïvely_, that she was afraid of thieves in
+the night, but that she was resolute, and capable of defending herself;
+at the same time drawing from her large woollen pelisse a small but
+exceedingly keen stiletto, the sight of which set the notary thinking.
+
+Believing that Cecily was afraid of robbers only, he showed her to the
+late chamber of Louise; after having examined it, Cecily said,
+trembling, she would sleep in a chair, because the door had neither lock
+nor bolt. Jacques Ferrand, unwilling to compromise himself by rousing
+Cecily's suspicions, promised a bolt should be fixed. The creole did not
+go to bed.
+
+In the morning the notary sent to her to show her how to set about her
+work. He had promised himself to preserve for the first few days a
+hypocritical reserve with respect to his new servant, in order to
+inspire her with confidence; but smitten by her beauty, which by
+daylight was even more striking, blinded, maddened by his desires, which
+already got the better of him, he stammered out some compliments as to
+the figure and beauty of Cecily. She, with keen sagacity, had judged
+that, from her first interview with the notary, he was completely caught
+in her spells; at the confession he made of his flame, she thought it
+policy to cast aside at once her feigned timidity, and, as we have said,
+to change her mask. The creole suddenly assumed a bold air. Jacques
+Ferrand again complimented her beauty and her graceful figure.
+
+"Look at me well!" said Cecily to him, in a bold tone. "Although I am
+dressed as an Alsatian peasant, do I look like a servant?"
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Jacques Ferrand.
+
+"Look at this hand, does it appear accustomed to hard labour?" and she
+presented a white, delicate hand, with long and slender fingers, with
+nails as rosy and polished as agate, but whose root, slightly browned,
+betrayed the creole blood. "And this foot, is it that of a servant?" and
+she protruded a beautiful small foot, coquettishly shod, which the
+notary had not before remarked, and from which he only removed his eyes
+to gaze on Cecily with amazement. "I told my Aunt Pipelet what story I
+chose; she knew nothing of my former life, and believes me reduced to my
+present condition through the death of my parents, and takes me for a
+servant,--but you, I hope, have too much sagacity to show her error,
+dear master."
+
+"Who, then, are you?" exclaimed Jacques Ferrand, more and more surprised
+at her language.
+
+"That is my secret. For reasons best known to myself I was obliged to
+quit Germany in this attire. I wished to remain concealed in Paris for
+some time, being as secluded as possible. My aunt, supposing me reduced
+to misery, proposed to me your service, telling me of the solitary life
+which I must of compulsion lead in your house, informing me that I
+should never have leave to quit it. I accepted the offer
+unhesitatingly,--without knowing it my aunt had anticipated my most
+earnest desire. Who would think of looking for and finding me here?"
+
+"And what have you done to compel you to seek concealment?"
+
+"Agreeable sins, perhaps; but that is, also, my secret."
+
+"And what are your intentions, mademoiselle?"
+
+"What they always have been. But for your significant compliments as to
+my shape and beauty, perhaps I should not have confessed so much to you;
+although, no doubt, your clear-sightedness would, sooner or later, have
+induced my confession. Now listen to me, my dear master. I have for the
+moment accepted the condition--or, rather, the character--of a servant;
+circumstances compelled me. I have courage enough to sustain the
+character to the end, and will risk all the consequences. I will serve
+you with zeal, activity, and respect, in order to retain my situation,
+that is to say, a sure and unknown asylum. But on the least word of
+gallantry, the least liberty you take with me, I will leave you,--not
+from prudery, there is nothing of the prude about me, I fancy." And she
+darted a look at the notary which had full effect. "No, I am no prude!"
+she continued, with a provoking smile, which displayed her teeth of
+dazzling whiteness. "Indeed, no, when I love, I do love! But be
+discreet, and you will see that your unworthy servant has no desire but
+honestly to discharge her duty as a servant.
+
+"Now you have my secret, or, at least, a portion of it. But should you,
+by any chance, desire to act as a gentleman, should you find me too
+handsome to serve you, should you like to change parts, and become my
+slave, be it so! Frankly speaking, I should prefer it, and had rather
+you should feel paternally disposed towards me. That would not prevent
+you from saying that you found me charming; this will be the recompense
+of your devotion and discretion."
+
+"The only one? The only one?" stammered Jacques Ferrand.
+
+"The only one, unless solitude make me mad,--which is impossible, for
+you will keep me company. Come, make up your mind,--no ambiguity. I
+either serve you, or you shall serve me; if not, I leave your house, and
+beg my aunt to find me another place. All this may, perhaps, appear
+strange to you; but if you take me for an adventuress, without any means
+of existence, you are wrong. In order that my aunt should be my
+accomplice without knowing it, I have made her believe that I was so
+poor that I could not purchase any other garments than those I now wear.
+I have, however, as you see, a tolerably well filled purse; on this side
+gold, on the other diamonds" (and Cecily displayed before the notary's
+eyes a long, red silk purse, filled with gold, and through the meshes of
+which he could also see several sparkling gems). "Unfortunately all the
+money in the world could not purchase for me a retreat so secure as your
+house,--so isolated, from the very solitude in which you live. Accept,
+then, one or other of my offers, and you will do me a kindness. You see
+I place myself almost at your discretion; for to say to you, I conceal
+myself, is to say to you I am sought for. But I am sure you will not
+betray me, even if you could."
+
+This romantic confidence, this sudden change of character, completely
+upset all Jacques Ferrand's ideas. Who was this woman? Why did she
+conceal herself? Was it chance alone that had brought her to him? If she
+came with some secret aim, what could it be? Amongst all the ideas which
+this singular adventure gave rise to in the notary's mind, the real
+motive of the creole's presence did not occur to him. He had not, or,
+rather, he believed he had no other enemies than the victims of his
+licentiousness and his cupidity, and all these were in such miserable
+circumstances that he could not suspect them capable of spreading any
+net for him, of which Cecily should be the bait.
+
+And then, moreover, what could be the motive of any such snare? No, the
+sudden transformation of Cecily inspired Jacques Ferrand with one fear
+only--he believed that this woman did not tell the truth, and was,
+perhaps, an adventuress, who, thinking him rich, had introduced herself
+into his house to wheedle and get money from him, and, perhaps, induce
+him to marry her. But although his avarice at once revolted at this
+idea, he perceived (and trembled) that his suspicions and reflections
+were too late, for he might by one word have calmed his distrust by
+sending away this woman from his house,--but this word he could not say.
+
+These thoughts hardly occupied him a moment, so fascinated had he
+become. He already loved, after his own fashion, and the idea of being
+separated from this enchanting creature seemed impossible; and he felt
+also a jealousy, which made him say to himself, "So long as she is
+immured in my house, she can have no other lover." The boldness of her
+language, the wantonness of her look, the freedom of her manner, all
+revealed that she was not (as she had said) a prude. This conviction,
+giving vague hopes to the notary, still more assured Cecily's empire. In
+a word, Jacques Ferrand's passion choking the calm voice of reason, he
+blindly resigned himself to all that might result.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was agreed that Cecily should only be the servant in appearance; thus
+there would be no scandal. Besides, in order the more completely to
+render his guest at her ease, he was not to engage any other servant,
+but make up his mind to wait on her and on himself. The meals were
+brought from a neighbouring tavern, the porter swept out and attended to
+the office, and he paid for his clerks' breakfast. Then the notary would
+furnish at once an apartment on the first floor, as Cecily wished. She
+desired to pay for it, but he refused, and spent two thousand francs
+(80_l._). This was enormous generosity, and proved the unheard-of
+violence of his passion.
+
+Then began the terrible life of this miserable wretch. Enclosed in the
+impenetrable solitude of this house, inaccessible to all, more and more
+under the galling yoke of his mad love, careless of penetrating the
+secret of this singular woman; from a master he was made a slave,--he
+was Cecily's valet, served her at meal-times, and took care of her
+apartment. Forewarned by the baron that Louise had been overcome by a
+narcotic, the creole drank only pure water, eating only of dishes with
+which it was impossible to tamper. She had selected the apartment she
+was to occupy, assuring herself that there was there no concealed
+entrance. Besides, Jacques Ferrand soon discovered that Cecily was not a
+woman whom he could assail with impunity; she was vigorous, agile, and
+dangerously armed; thus a frenzied delirium alone could have incited him
+to attempt force, and she was quite protected from this peril.
+
+Yet, that she might not weary and utterly repulse the notary's passion,
+the creole seemed sometimes touched by his assiduities, and flattered by
+the control which she exercised over him. And, perceiving that he hoped,
+by dint of proofs of devotion and self-denial, he should contrive to
+make her overlook his age and ugliness, she amused herself with telling
+him that, if she ever could love him, how excessive that love would be.
+With this Jacques Ferrand's reason wandered, and he would frequently
+walk in his garden at night absorbed in his own reflections. Sometimes
+he gazed for hours into the bedroom of the creole; for she had allowed a
+small window to be made in the door, which she frequently and
+intentionally left open. Absorbed, lost, wandering, indifferent to his
+most important interests, or the preservation of his reputation as an
+austere, serious, and pious man,--a reputation usurped, it is true, but,
+at the same time, acquired after long years of dissimulation and
+chicanery,--he amazed his clerks by his aberration of mind, offended his
+clients by his refusals to receive them, and abruptly refused the visits
+of the priests, who, deceived by his hypocrisy, had been until then his
+warmest champions.
+
+We have said that Cecily was dressing her head before her glass. At a
+slight noise in the corridor she turned her head towards the door. In
+spite of the noise she had heard, Cecily continued her night toilet
+tranquilly. She drew from her corsage, where it was placed almost like a
+busk, a stiletto five or six inches long, enclosed in a case of black
+shagreen, having a small ebony handle, with silver threads,--a plain
+handle, but very fit for use; it was not a mere weapon for show. Cecily
+took the dagger from its scabbard with excessive precaution, and laid it
+on the marble mantelpiece. The blade, of finest temper and Damascus
+steel, was triangular, with keen edges; and the point, as sharp as a
+needle, would have pierced a shilling without turning the edge.
+Impregnated with a subtle and rapid poison, the slightest puncture of
+this poniard was mortal. Jacques Ferrand having one day alluded to the
+danger of this weapon, the creole made in his presence an experiment,
+_in animâ vita_,--that is to say, on the unfortunate house-dog, which,
+slightly pricked on the nose, fell and died in horrible convulsions. The
+stiletto placed on the mantelpiece, Cecily took off her black bodice,
+and was then, with her shoulders, neck, and arms denuded, like a lady in
+her ball-dress. Like most of the creole women, she wore, instead of
+stays, another bodice of stout linen, which fitted her figure very
+closely; her orange-coloured petticoat, remaining attached to this sort
+of white spencer, with short sleeves, and cut very low, formed a costume
+less precise than the other, and harmonised wonderfully with the scarlet
+stocking, and the coloured handkerchief, so coquettishly arranged around
+the creole's head. Nothing could be more perfect, more beautifully
+defined, than the graceful contour of her arms and shoulders. A heavy
+sigh aroused Cecily's attention. She smiled, as she twisted around her
+finger one of her curling tresses, which had escaped from beneath her
+head-dress.
+
+"Cecily! Cecily!" murmured a voice, which was plaintive though coarse.
+And through the wicket was visible the pale and flat face of Jacques
+Ferrand.
+
+Cecily, silent until then, began to hum a creole air; the words of this
+melody were sweet and expressive. Although repressed, the full
+contra-alto of Cecily was heard above the noise of the torrents of the
+rain and gusts of wind, which seemed to shake the old house to its very
+foundation.
+
+"Cecily! Cecily!" repeated Jacques Ferrand, in a tone of supplication.
+
+The creole paused suddenly and turned her head around quickly, as if,
+for the first time, she then heard the notary's voice; and going towards
+the door,--
+
+"What, dear master (she called him so in derision), you there?" she
+said, with a slight foreign accent, which gave additional charm to her
+full and sarcastic voice.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful you are!" murmured the notary.
+
+"You think so?" said Cecily. "Doesn't my head-dress become me?"
+
+"I think you handsomer every day."
+
+"Only see how white my arm is."
+
+"Monster, begone! Begone!" shouted Jacques Ferrand, furious.
+
+Cecily burst into a loud fit of laughter.
+
+"No, no, it is too much to suffer! Oh, if I were not afraid of death!"
+said the notary, gloomily. "But to die is to renounce you altogether,
+and you are so beautiful! I would rather, then, suffer--and look at
+you."
+
+"Look at me? Why, that's what the wicket was made for; and so we can
+thus chat, like two friends in our solitude, which really is not irksome
+to me, you are such a good master! What a dangerous confession I make
+through the door!"
+
+"Will you never open this door? You see how submissive I am; this
+evening I might have tried to enter into your chamber with you, but I
+did not do so."
+
+"You are submissive for two reasons: in the first place, because you
+know that, having, from the necessity of my wandering life, always had
+the precaution to carry a stiletto, I can manage with a strong hand this
+inestimable jewel, whose tooth is sharper than a viper's; and you know,
+too, that, from the day in which I have to complain of you, I will quit
+this roof for ever, leaving you a thousand times more enamoured than
+ever,--since you have so greatly honoured your unworthy servant as to
+say that you are enamoured of her."
+
+"My servant? It is I who am your slave,--your mocked, derided, despised
+slave!"
+
+"That's true enough."
+
+"And yet it does not move you?"
+
+"It amuses me; the days, and especially the nights, are so long!"
+
+"Accursed creature!"
+
+"But, seriously, you look so perfectly wretched, your features have so
+sensibly altered, that I am quite flattered at it. It is a poor triumph,
+but you are the only one here."
+
+"To hear that, and me consume in impotent rage!"
+
+"Have you really any understanding? Why, I never said anything more
+tender."
+
+"Jeer at me,--jeer at me!"
+
+"I do not jeer. I never before saw a man of your age in love after your
+fashion; and, I must confess, a young and handsome man would be
+incapable of these outrageous passions. An Adonis admires himself as
+much as he admires us; he likes us, and we choose to notice
+him,--nothing more simple. He has a claim to our love, but is hardly
+grateful; but to show favour to a man like you, my master dear, would be
+to take him from earth to heaven, to fulfil his wildest dreams, his most
+insensate hopes. For if some being were to say to you, 'You love Cecily
+to distraction, if I chose she should be yours next minute,' you would
+suppose such a being endued with supernatural power, shouldn't you,
+master dear?"
+
+"Yes! Ah, yes!"
+
+"Well, if you could convince me more satisfactorily of your passion, I
+might, perchance, have the whimsical fancy to enact this supernatural
+part myself in your favour. Do you comprehend?"
+
+"I comprehend that you are still fooling me,--that you are still
+pitiless."
+
+"Perhaps,--for solitude creates so many singular fancies."
+
+Until this moment Cecily's accent had been sarcastic, but she pronounced
+these last words with a serious, reflecting tone, and accompanied them
+with a look which made the notary start.
+
+"Silence! Do not look at me thus,--you will drive me mad! I would rather
+you denied me,--at least, I could then hate you,--drive you from my
+house!" cried Jacques Ferrand, who again gave himself up to a vain hope.
+"Yes, for I should then hope nothing from you. But, misery! Misery! I
+know you well enough now to hope, in spite of myself, that one day I
+might, from your very hate or proud caprice, obtain what I shall never
+owe to your love. You bid me convince you of my passion,--do you not see
+how unhappy I am? I will do all I can to please you. You desire to, be
+concealed from all eyes, and from all eyes I conceal you, perchance at
+the risk of compromising myself most seriously; for, indeed, I know not
+who you are. I respect your secret,--I never speak to you of it. I have
+interrogated you as to your past life, and you have given me no answer."
+
+"Well, then, I was very wrong. I'll give you a mark of blind confidence,
+oh, master, dear! And so, listen."
+
+"Another bitter jest, no doubt."
+
+"No, a serious tale. You ought, at least, to know the life of her to
+whom you afford such generous hospitality." Then Cecily continued, in a
+tone of hypocritical and lachrymose earnestness, "Daughter of a brave
+soldier, brother of my Aunt Pipelet, I received an education, beyond my
+condition. I was seduced, and then abandoned, by a rich young gentleman;
+then, to escape the anger of my father, whose notions of honour were
+most strict, I fled my native country." Then bursting into a loud fit of
+laughter, Cecily added, "Now I hope that's what you call a very pretty
+and particularly probable tale, for it has been very often told. Amuse
+your curiosity with that until you get hold of some other story more
+interesting."
+
+"I was certain it was some cruel jest," said the notary, with
+concentrated rage; "nothing touches you,--nothing. What must I do? Tell
+me. I serve you like the lowest footboy, for you I neglect my dearest
+interests,--I no longer know what I do. I am a subject of astonishment
+and derision to my own clerks; my clients hesitate any longer to entrust
+me with their affairs; I have severed my connection with some religious
+persons whom I knew intimately. I dare not think of what the world will
+say of my change of demeanour and habits. But you do not know,--no, you
+do not know the fatal consequences my mad passion for you may entail on
+me. Yet I give you ample proof of my devotion. Will you have more?
+Speak! Is it gold you would have? They think me richer than I am, but
+I--"
+
+"What could I do with your gold?" asked Cecily, interrupting the notary,
+and shrugging her shoulders; "living in this chamber, what is the use of
+gold? Your invention is at fault."
+
+"It is no fault of mine if you are a prisoner. Is this chamber
+displeasing to you? Will you have one more splendid? Speak! Order!"
+
+"Once more, what is the use? What is the use? Oh, if I might here
+expect a beloved one, full of the love he inspires and participates, I
+would have gold, silks, flowers, perfumes, all the wonders of luxury;
+nothing could be too sumptuous, too enchanting to enshrine my love,"
+said Cecily, with an impassioned voice.
+
+"Well, these wonders of luxury, say but a word, and--"
+
+"What's the use? What's the use? Why make a frame for which there is no
+picture? And the adored one! Where is he,--where is he, master, dear?"
+
+"True," exclaimed the notary, with bitterness, "I am old, I am ugly, I
+can only inspire disgust and aversion. She overwhelms me with contempt,
+jests at me,--and yet I have not the resolution, the power to send her
+away. I have only the resolution to suffer!"
+
+"Oh, silly old mourner! And what an absurd elderly gentleman, with his
+sufferings!" cried Cecily, in a contemptuous and sarcastic tone; "he
+only knows how to groan, to despair,--and yet he has been for ten days
+shut up alone with a young woman in a lone house."
+
+"But this woman scorns me,--this woman is armed,--this woman is shut
+up!" groaned the notary, furiously.
+
+"Well, conquer her scorn, make the dagger fall from her hands, compel
+her to open the door which separates her from yourself! But not by brute
+force, that would be useless."
+
+"How, then?"
+
+"By the strength of your passion."
+
+"Passion! And can I inspire it?"
+
+"Why, you are nothing but a lawyer, affecting piety,--I really pity you.
+Is it for me to teach you your part? You are ugly,--be terrible, and one
+may forget your ugliness. You are old,--be energetic, and one may forget
+your age. You are repulsive,--become menacing. Since you cannot be the
+noble steed that neighs proudly in the midst of his harem, do not
+become the stupid camel that bends the knee and offers his back; be the
+tiger! The old tiger, that roars in the midst of carnage, still excites
+admiration; his tigress responds to him from the deepest recesses of the
+desert."
+
+At this language, which was not deficient in a sort of natural and hardy
+eloquence, Jacques Ferrand shuddered; struck by the expression, wild and
+almost fierce, which Cecily's features displayed, as, with her bosom
+palpitating, her nostrils open, her mouth defying, she fastened on him
+her large and brilliant black eyes. Never had she seemed to him more
+fascinating, or more resplendently beautiful than at this moment.
+
+"Speak,--speak again!" he exclaimed, with excitement. "For now you speak
+in earnest. Oh, if I could--"
+
+"One can do what one wishes," replied Cecily, sternly.
+
+"But--"
+
+"But I tell you, old as you are, if I were in your place I would
+undertake to engage the affections of a young and handsome woman, and
+once having achieved this result, what had been against me would turn to
+my advantage. What pride, what triumph to say to oneself, I have made my
+age and ugliness forgotten! The love that is shown me I do not owe to
+pity, but to my spirit, my courage, and my skill. Yes, and now if there
+were here some handsome young fellows, brilliant with grace and
+attractions, the lovely woman, whom I have subdued by proofs of a
+resistless and unbounded devotion, would not deign to cast a look at
+them. No; for she would know that these elegant effeminates would fear
+to compromise the tie of their cravat, or a curl of their hair, in
+obedience to her caprices; whilst if she cast her handkerchief in the
+midst of flames, on a signal from her her old tiger would rush into the
+furnace with a roar of ecstasy."
+
+"Yes, I would do it! Try! Try!" exclaimed Jacques Ferrand, more and more
+excited.
+
+Cecily continued drawing nearer to the aperture, and fixing on Jacques
+Ferrand a steadfast and penetrating look.
+
+"For this woman would well know," continued the creole, "that she would
+have some exorbitant caprice to satisfy,--that these dandies would look
+at their money, if they had any, or, if they had not, at some other low
+consideration, whilst her old tiger--"
+
+"Would consider nothing,--nothing, I tell you.
+Fortune,--honour,--he--he--would sacrifice all!"
+
+"Really?" said Cecily, putting her lovely fingers on the bony fingers of
+Jacques Ferrand, whose clutched hands, passed through the small glass
+door, were clasping the top of the ledge. "Would not this woman be
+ardently loved?" added Cecily. "If she had an enemy, and with a gesture
+pointed him out to her old tiger, and said to him, Strike--"
+
+"And he would strike!" exclaimed Jacques Ferrand, attempting to press
+Cecily's fingers with his parched lips.
+
+"Really, the old tiger would strike?" said the creole, placing her hand
+gently on the hand of Jacques Ferrand.
+
+"To possess you," cried the wretch, "I could commit a crime--"
+
+"Ah, master," said Cecily, suddenly, and withdrawing her hand,
+"go--go,--in my turn I scarcely know you,--you do not seem to me so ugly
+as you did just now. But go--go!" and she left the aperture abruptly.
+
+The artful creature gave to her gestures and these last words an
+appearance of truth so perfect, and a look of such surprise, as if angry
+and disappointed with herself for having for an instant only appeared to
+forget the ugliness of Jacques Ferrand, that he, transported by frenzied
+hope, cried, as he clung convulsively to the ledge of the aperture:
+
+"Cecily, come back,--come back! Bid me do what you will, I will be your
+tiger."
+
+"No, no, master!" said Cecily, still retreating. "And in order to forget
+you, I will sing a song of my country."
+
+"Cecily, return!" exclaimed Jacques Ferrand, in a supplicating tone.
+
+"No, no! Later, when I can without danger. But the light of this lamp
+hurts my eyes,--a soft languor overcomes my senses!" and Cecily
+extinguished the lamp, took down a guitar, and made up the fire, whose
+increased blaze then lighted up the whole apartment.
+
+From the narrow window, where he stood motionless, such was the picture
+that Jacques Ferrand perceived. In the midst of the luminous circle
+formed by the flickering blaze on the fire Cecily, in a position full of
+softness and _abandonnement_, half reclining on a large sofa of garnet
+damask, held a guitar, on which she ran over several harmonious
+preludes. The fire-light threw its red tints on the creole, who appeared
+thus in strong relief. To complete the tableau, the reader must call to
+mind the mysterious and singular appearance of a room in which the fire
+from the grate struggles with the deep and large black shadows, which
+tremble on the ceiling and the walls. The storm without increased, and
+roared loudly.
+
+Whilst she preludised on her guitar, Cecily fixed her eyes immovably on
+Jacques Ferrand, who, fascinated, could not take his look from her.
+
+"Now, master mine," said the creole, "listen to a song of my country. We
+do not understand how to make verses, but have a simple recitative,
+without rhyme, and between each rest we improvise, as well as we can, a
+symphony appropriate to the idea of the couplet; it is very simple and
+pastoral, and I am sure, master, it will please you."
+
+And Cecily began a kind of recitative, much more accentuated by the
+expression of the voice than the modulation of the music. Some soft and
+vibrating chords served as accompaniment. This was Cecily's song:
+
+    "Flowers--still flowers, everywhere.
+    My lover is coming--my hope of happiness unnerves me.
+    Let us subdue the glare of daylight, pleasure seeks the softer
+        shade.
+    My lover prefers my breath to the perfume of the sweetest
+        flowers.
+    The brightness of day will not affect his eyelids, for my kisses
+        will keep them closed.
+    Come--come--come--come, love! Come--come--come!"
+
+These words, uttered with animation, as if the creole was addressing an
+unseen lover, were rendered by her the theme of a delicious melody; her
+charming fingers produced from the guitar, an instrument of no great
+power, vibrations full of harmony. The impassioned look of Cecily, her
+half closed, humid eyes fastened on Jacques Ferrand, were full of the
+expression of expectation. Words of love, delicious music, together
+conspired at the moment to bereave Jacques Ferrand of his reason; and,
+half frenzied, he exclaimed:
+
+"Mercy, Cecily, mercy! You will drive me distracted! Oh, be silent, or I
+die! Oh, that I were mad!"
+
+"Listen to the second couplet, master," said the creole, again touching
+the chords; and she thus continued her impassioned recitative:
+
+    "If my lover were here, and his hand touched my bare shoulder, I
+        should tremble and die.
+    If he were here, and his curly hair touched my cheek, my pale
+        cheek would become purple--my pale cheek would be on fire.
+    Soul of my Soul, if thou wert here, my parched lips would not
+        utter a word.
+    Life of my Life, if thou wert here, I should expiring ask thy
+        pardon.
+    'Tis sweet to die for and with those we love.
+    Angel, come--come to my heart--come--come--come!"
+
+If the creole had rendered the first strophe with languid pleasure, she
+put in her last words all the enthusiasm of antique love; and as if the
+music had been powerless to express her intense passion, she threw her
+guitar from her, and, half rising and extending her arms towards the
+door, where Jacques Ferrand stood, she repeated, in a faltering, dying
+tone, "Oh, come--come--come!" It would be impossible to depict the
+electric look with which she accompanied these words. Jacques Ferrand
+uttered a terrible cry.
+
+"Oh, death! Death to him whom you could thus love!" he cried, shaking
+the door in a burst of jealousy and furious rage.
+
+Agile as a panther, Cecily was at the door with one bound; and, as if
+she with difficulty repressed her feigned transports, she said to
+Jacques Ferrand, in a low, concentrated, palpitating voice:
+
+"Well, then, I will confess I am excited by my song. I did not mean to
+approach the door again, yet here I am, in spite of myself; for I hear
+still the words you said just now, 'If you bade me strike, I would
+strike.' You love me, then?"
+
+"Will you have gold,--all my gold?"
+
+"No, I have enough."
+
+"Have you an enemy? I will kill him."
+
+"I have no enemy."
+
+"Will you be my wife? I'll marry you."
+
+"I am married."
+
+"What would you, then? Oh, what would you?"
+
+"Prove to me that your passion for me is blind,--furious! And that you
+would sacrifice all to it."
+
+"Ah!--yes--all. But how?"
+
+"I do not know,--but a moment since your eyes fascinated me. If again
+you give me one of those marks of intense love, which excite the
+imagination of a woman to madness, I know not of what I should not be
+capable. Make haste, then, for I am capricious, and to-morrow, perhaps,
+all the impression will be effaced."
+
+"But what proof can I give you at this moment?" cried the notary.
+
+"You are but a fool, after all!" replied Cecily, retreating from the
+aperture with an air of disdain. "I was deceived,--I believed you
+capable of energetic devotion. Goodnight! It's a pity!"
+
+"Cecily, do not leave me! Return! What can I do?"
+
+"I was but too much disposed to listen to you; you will never have such
+another opportunity."
+
+"But oh, tell me what you would have!" cried the notary, half mad.
+
+"Eh! If you were as passionately in love as you say, you would find
+means to persuade me. Good night!"
+
+"Cecily."
+
+"I will shut the door, instead of opening it."
+
+"Cecily,--listen! I will give you yet another proof of my devotion."
+
+"What is this proof of your love?" said the creole, who, having
+approached the mantelpiece to resume her dagger, returned slowly towards
+the door, lighted by the flame of the hearth. Then, unobserved by the
+notary, she made sure of the action of an iron chain, which terminated
+in two small knobs, one of which was screwed into the door, and the
+other into the door-post.
+
+"Listen!" said Jacques Ferrand, in a hoarse and broken voice, "listen!
+If I place my honour, my fortune, my life, at your mercy,--now, this
+very instant,--will you then believe I love you?"
+
+"Your honour, your fortune, your life! I do not comprehend you."
+
+"If I confide to you a secret which may bring me to the scaffold, will
+you then believe me?"
+
+"You a criminal? You do but jest. What, then, of your austere
+life,--your piety,--your honesty?"
+
+"All--all a lie!"
+
+"You pass for a saint, and yet you boast of these iniquities! No, there
+is no man so craftily skilful, so fortunately bold, as thus to captivate
+the confidence and respect of men; that were, indeed, a fearful defiance
+cast in the teeth of society!"
+
+"I am that man,--I have cast that sarcasm, that defiance, in the face of
+society!" exclaimed the monster, in a tone of ecstatic pride.
+
+"Jacques! Jacques! Do not speak thus!" said Cecily, with a tone of
+emotion. "You make me mad!"
+
+"My head for your love,--will you have it so?"
+
+"Ah, this, indeed, is love! Here, take my poniard,--you disarm me!"
+
+Jacques Ferrand took, through the wicket, the dangerous weapon, with due
+precaution, and flung it from him to a distance in the corridor.
+
+"Cecily, you believe me, then!" he exclaimed with transport.
+
+"Do I believe you?" said the creole, energetically pressing her
+beautiful fingers on the clasped hands of Jacques Ferrand. "Oh, yes, I
+do! For now, again, you look as you did a short time since, when my very
+soul seemed fascinated by your gaze."
+
+"Cecily, you will speak the words of, truth--and truth only--to me?"
+
+"And can you doubt it for a moment? Ah, you will soon have ample proof
+of my sincerity. But what you are about to tell me is quite true,--is it
+not?"
+
+"I repeat that you may believe each word I utter."
+
+"So much the better, since you are enabled to prove your passion by the
+avowal of them."
+
+"And if I tell you all?"
+
+"Then will I, in return, withhold nothing from you; for if, indeed, you
+have this blind, this courageous confidence in me, Jacques, I will call
+no more for the ideal lover of my song, but you,--my hero, my tiger! to
+whom I will sing, 'Come--come--oh, come!'"
+
+As Cecily uttered these words, with an air and voice of seductive
+tenderness, she drew so close to the wicket that Jacques Ferrand could
+feel the hot breath of the creole pass over his cheek, while her fresh,
+full lip lightly touched his coarse, vulgar hand. "Call me your
+tiger,--your slave,--what you will,--and if after that you but divulge
+what I entrust to you, my life will be the consequence. Yes,
+enchantress, a word from you, and I perish on a scaffold. My honour,
+reputation, nay, my very existence, are henceforward in your hands."
+
+"Your honour?"
+
+"Yes, even so. But listen. About ten years ago I was entrusted with the
+care of a child, and a sum of money for her use, amounting to two
+hundred thousand francs; well, I wronged the little creature by
+spreading a false report of her death, and then appropriated the money
+to my own purposes."
+
+"It was boldly and cleverly done! Who would ever have believed you
+capable of such conduct?"
+
+"Again. I had a cashier whom I detested, and I determined upon ruining
+him one way or other. Well, one evening, under some great emergency, he
+took from my cash-box a trifling amount of gold, which he paid back the
+next day; but to wreak my malice on the object of my dislike, I accused
+him of having stolen a large sum. Of course my testimony was believed,
+and the wretched man was thrown into prison. Now is not my honour--my
+very safety--at your will and pleasure? At your word both would be in
+peril."
+
+"Then you love me, Jacques,--oh, truly, blindly love me! Since you thus
+surrender to me the most precious secrets of your heart, how plainly
+does it prove the empire I must have over you! Ah, believe me, I will
+not be niggardly in repaying you. Stoop that brow, from which have
+emanated so many infernal schemes, that I may press it with my lips."
+
+"Were the scaffold erected for me," cried the excited notary, "did death
+stare me in the face, I would not now recall my words. But hearken to
+what I have still to confess. The child I formerly wronged and forsook
+has again crossed my path, her reappearance disquieted me, and I have
+had her murdered."
+
+"Murdered! and by your orders? But how--in what manner?"
+
+"A few days since; it occurred thus: Near the bridge of Asnières, at the
+Isle du Ravageur, a man named Martial, for a bribe, contrived to sink
+her in a boat made purposely with a false bottom. Are these particulars
+sufficient? Will you believe me now?"
+
+"Oh, fiend! demon! You terrify while you fascinate me! In what consists
+your marvellous power and influence?"
+
+"But listen further, for I have not yet finished my catalogue of crimes.
+Previously to that a man had entrusted me with one hundred thousand
+crowns. I contrived to waylay and blow out his brains, making it appear
+he had fallen by his own hand. Afterwards, when his sister claimed the
+money entrusted to my charge, I denied all knowledge of it. Now, then, I
+have proclaimed myself a malefactor, guilty of every crime. Will you not
+open your door, and admit a lover so ardent, so impatient as myself?"
+
+"Jacques," exclaimed the creole, with much excitement, "I
+admire,--love,--nay, adore you!"
+
+"Let a thousand deaths come!" cried the notary, in a state of
+enthusiastic delight impossible to describe, "I will brave them all! Oh,
+you are right! Were I ever so young, so handsome, or so seducing, I
+could not hope for joy such as now swells my heart. But delay not,
+charmer of my soul,--give me the key, or yourself undo the bolts which
+separate us. I can endure this torturing suspense no longer!"
+
+The creole took from the lock, which she had carefully secured
+beforehand, the key so ardently prayed for, and, handing it to the
+notary through the aperture, said, in a languishing tone of utter
+abandonnement:
+
+"Jacques, my senses seem forsaking me,--my brain is on fire,--I know not
+what I do or say."
+
+"You are mine, then, at length, my adorable beauty!" cried he, with a
+wild shout of savage exultation, and hastily turning the key in the
+lock. But the firmly bolted door yielded not yet.
+
+"Come, beloved of my heart!" murmured Cecily, in a languid voice; "bless
+me with your presence,--come!"
+
+"The bolt! The bolt!" gasped out Jacques Ferrand, breathless with his
+exertions to force open the door.
+
+"But what if you have been deceiving me?" cried the creole, as though a
+sudden thought had seized her; "if you have only invented the secrets
+with which you affect to entrust me, to mock at my credulity, to ensnare
+my confidence?"
+
+The notary appeared thunderstruck with surprise at this fresh expression
+of doubt, at the very moment when he believed himself upon the point of
+attaining his wishes; to find a new obstacle arise when he considered
+success certain drove him almost furious. He rapidly thrust his hand
+into his breast, opened his waistcoat, impatiently snapped a steel
+chain, to which was suspended a small red morocco pocketbook, took it,
+and showing it to Cecily, through the aperture, cried, in a thick,
+palpitating voice:
+
+"This book contains papers that would bring me to a scaffold; only undo
+the bolts which deny me entrance to your presence, and this book, with
+all its precious documents, is yours."
+
+"Oh, then, let us seal the compact!" exclaimed Cecily, as, drawing back
+the bolt with as much noise as possible with one hand, with the other
+she seized the pocketbook.
+
+But Jacques Ferrand permitted it not to leave his possession till he
+felt the door yield to his pressure. But though it partially gave way,
+it was but to leave an opening about half a foot wide, the solid chain
+which passed across it above the lock preventing any person's entering
+as completely as before. At this unexpected obstacle Jacques Ferrand
+precipitated himself against the door and shook it with desperate fury,
+while Cecily, with the rapidity of thought, took the pocket-book between
+her teeth, opened the window, threw a large cloak out into the yard
+below, and, light and agile as bold and daring, seized a knotted cord
+previously secured to the balcony, and glided from her chamber on the
+first floor to the court beneath, descending with the swiftness of an
+arrow shot from a bow. Then wrapping herself hastily in the mantle, she
+flew to the porter's lodge, opened the door, drew up the string, ran
+into the street, and sprang into a hackney-coach, which, ever since
+Cecily had been with Jacques Ferrand, came regularly every evening, in
+case of need, by Baron Graün's orders, and took up its station a short
+distance from the notary's house. Directly she had entered the vehicle
+it drove off at the topmost speed of the two strong, powerful horses
+that drew it, and had reached the Boulevards ere Jacques Ferrand had
+even discovered Cecily's flight.
+
+We will now return to the disappointed wretch. From the situation of the
+door he was unable to perceive the window by which the creole had
+contrived to prepare and make good her flight; but concentrating all his
+powers, by a vigorous application of his brawny shoulders Jacques
+Ferrand succeeded in forcing out the chain which kept the door from
+opening.
+
+With furious impatience he rushed into the chamber,--it was empty. The
+knotted cord was still suspended to the balcony of the window from which
+he leaned; and then, at the other extremity of the courtyard, he saw by
+means of the moon, which just then shone out from behind the stormy
+clouds which had hitherto obscured it, the dim outline of the outer gate
+swinging to and fro as though left open by some person having hastily
+passed through. Then did Jacques Ferrand divine the whole of the scheme
+so successfully laid to entrap him; but a glimmer of hope still
+remained. Determined and vigorous, he threw his leg over the balcony,
+let himself down in his turn by the cord, and hastily quitted the house.
+
+The street was quite deserted,--not a creature was to be seen; and the
+only sound his ear could detect was the distant rumbling of the wheels
+of the vehicle that bore away the object of his search. The notary, who
+supposed it to be the carriage of some person whose business or pleasure
+took them late from home, paid no attention to this circumstance.
+
+There was then no chance of finding Cecily, whose absence was the more
+disastrous, as she carried with her the positive proof of his crimes. As
+this fearful certainty came over him, he fell, struck with
+consternation, on a bench placed against his door, where he long
+remained, mute, motionless, and as though petrified with horror. His
+eyes fixed and haggard, his teeth clenched, and his lips covered with
+foam, tearing his breast, as though unconsciously, till the blood
+streamed from it, he felt his very brain dizzy with thought, till his
+ideas were lost in a fathomless abyss.
+
+When he recovered from his stupor he arose and staggered onwards with an
+unsteady and faltering step, like a person just aroused from a state of
+complete intoxication. He violently shut the entrance door and returned
+to the courtyard. The rain had by this time ceased, but the wind still
+continued strong and gusty, and drove rapidly along the heavy gray
+clouds which veiled without entirely excluding the brightness of the
+moon, whose pale and sickly light shone on the house.
+
+Somewhat calmed by the clear freshness of the night air, Jacques
+Ferrand, as though hoping to find relief from his internal agitation by
+the rapidity of his movements, plunged into the muddy paths of his
+garden, walking with quick, hurried steps, and from time to time
+pressing his clenched hands against his forehead. Heedless of the
+direction he proceeded in, he at length reached the termination of a
+walk, adjoining to which was a dilapidated greenhouse.
+
+Suddenly he stumbled heavily against a mass of newly disturbed earth.
+Mechanically he stooped down to examine the nature of the impediment
+which presented itself; the deep hole which had been dug, and morsels of
+torn garments lying by, told him with awful certainty that he stood by
+the grave dug by poor Louise Morel to receive the remains of her dead
+infant,--her infant, which was also the child of the heartless, hardened
+wretch who now stood trembling and conscience-stricken beside this
+fearful memento of his sensuality and brutal persecution of a poor and
+helpless girl. And spite of his hardihood, his long course of sin and
+seared conscience, a deadly tremor shook his frame, he felt an
+instinctive persuasion that the hour of deep retribution was at hand.
+
+Under other circumstances Jacques Ferrand would have trampled the humble
+grave beneath his feet without remorse or concern, but now, exhausted by
+the preceding scene, he felt his usual boldness forsake him, while fear
+and trembling came upon him. A cold sweat bedewed his brow, his
+tottering knees refused to support him, and he fell motionless beside
+the open grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LA FORCE.
+
+
+We may, perhaps, be accused, from the space accorded to the following
+scenes, of injuring the unity of our story by some episodical pictures;
+but it seems to us that, at this moment particularly, when important
+questions of punishment are engaging the attention of the legislature,
+that the interior of a prison--that frightful pandemonium, that gloomy
+thermometer of civilisation--will be an opportune study. In a word, the
+various physiognomies of prisoners of all classes, the relations of kin
+or affection, which still bind them to the world from which their gaol
+walls separate them, appear to us worthy of interest and attention. We
+hope, therefore, to be excused for having grouped about many prisoners
+known to the readers of this history other secondary characters,
+intended to put in relief certain ideas of criticism, and to complete
+the initiation of a prison life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us enter La Force. There is nothing sombre or repulsive in the
+aspect of this house of incarceration in the Rue du Roi de Sicile, in
+the Marais. In the centre of one of the first courts there are some
+clumps of trees, thickened with shrubs, at the roots of which there are
+already, here and there, the green, precocious shoots of primroses and
+snowdrops. A raised ascent, surmounted by a porch covered with
+trellis-work, in which knotty stalks of the vine entwine, leads to one
+of the seven or eight walks assigned to the prisoners. The vast
+buildings which surround these courts very much resemble those of
+barrack or manufactory kept with exceeding care. There are lofty façades
+of white stone, pierced with high and large windows, which admit of the
+free circulation of pure air.
+
+The stones and pavement of the enclosures are kept excessively clean. On
+the ground floor, the large apartments, warmed during the winter, are
+kept well ventilated during the summer, and are used during the day as
+places of conversation, work, or for the meals of the prisoners. The
+upper stories are used as immense dormitories, ten or twelve feet high,
+with dry and shining floors; two rows of iron beds are there arranged,
+and excellent bedding it is, consisting of a palliasse, a soft and thick
+mattress, a bolster, white linen sheets, and a warm woollen blanket. At
+the sight of these establishments, comprising all the requisites for
+comfort and health, we are much surprised, in spite of ourselves, being
+accustomed to suppose that prisons are miserable, dirty, unwholesome,
+and dark. This is a mistake.
+
+It is such dogholes as that occupied by Morel the lapidary, and in which
+so many poor and honest workmen languish in exhaustion, compelled to
+give up their truckle-bed to a sick wife, and to leave, with hopeless
+despair, their wretched, famishing children, shuddering with cold in
+their infected straw--that is miserable, dark, dirty, and pestilent! The
+same contrast holds with respect to the physiognomy of the inhabitants
+of these two abodes. Incessantly occupied with the wants of their
+family, which they can scarcely supply from day to day, seeing a
+destructive competition lessen their wages, the laborious artisans
+become dejected, dispirited; the hour of rest does not sound for them,
+and a kind of somnolent lassitude alone breaks in upon their overtasked
+labour. Then, on awakening from this painful lethargy, they find
+themselves face to face with the same overwhelming thoughts of the
+present, and the same uneasiness for the future.
+
+But the prisoner, indifferent to the past, happy with the life he leads,
+certain of the future (for he can assure it by an offence or a crime),
+regretting his liberty, doubtless, but finding much compensation in the
+actual enjoyment, certain of taking with him when he quits prison a
+considerable sum of money, gained by easy and moderate labour, esteemed,
+or rather dreaded, by his companions, in proportion to his depravity and
+perversity, the prisoner, on the contrary, will always be gay and
+careless.
+
+Again, we ask, what does he want? Does he not find in prison good
+shelter, good bed, good food, high wages,[1] easy work, and, especially,
+society at his choice,--a society, we repeat, which measures his
+consideration by the magnitude of his crimes? A hardened convict knows
+neither misery, hunger, nor cold. What is to him the horror he inspires
+honest persons withal? He does not see, does not know them. His crimes
+made his glory, his influence, his strength, with the ruffians in the
+midst of whom he will henceforward pass his life. Why should he fear
+shame? Instead of the serious and charitable remonstrances which might
+compel him to blush for and repent the past, he hears the ferocious
+applauses which encourage him to theft and murder. Scarcely imprisoned,
+he plans fresh crimes. What can be more logical? If discovered, and at
+once apprehended, he will find the repose, the bodily supplies of a
+prison, and his joyous and daring associates of crime and debauchery. If
+his experience in crimes be less than that of others, does he for that
+evince the less remorse? It follows that he is exposed to brutal
+scoffing, infernal taunts, and horrible threats. And--a thing so rare
+that it has become the exception to the rule--if the prisoner leaves
+this fearful pandemonium with the firm resolution to return to the paths
+of honesty by excessive labour, courage, patience, and honesty, and has
+been able to conceal the infamy of his past career, the meeting with one
+of his old comrades in gaol is sufficient to overturn this good
+intention for the restoration of his character, so painfully struggled
+for.
+
+  [1] High wages, if we reflect that, with all expenses paid, a
+  prisoner may gain from five to ten sous a day. How many workmen
+  are there who can save such a sum?
+
+And in this way: A hardened, discharged convict proposes a job to a
+repentant comrade; the latter, in spite of bitter menaces, refuses this
+criminal association; forthwith an anonymous information reveals the
+life of the unfortunate fellow who was desirous, at every sacrifice, of
+concealing and expiating a first fault by honourable behaviour. Then,
+exposed to the contempt, or, at least, the distrust, of those whose
+good-will he had acquired by dint of industry and probity, this man,
+reduced to distress, and urged by want, yielding at length to incessant
+temptations, although nearly restored to society, will again fall, and
+for ever, into the depths of that abyss whence he had escaped with such
+difficulty.
+
+In the following scenes we shall endeavour to demonstrate the monstrous
+and inevitable consequences of confinement in masses. After ages of
+barbarous experiments and pernicious hesitations, it seemed suddenly
+understood how irrational it is to plunge into an atmosphere of deepest
+vice persons whom a pure and salubrious air could alone save. How many
+centuries to discover that, in placing in dense contact diseased beings,
+we redouble the intensity of their malignity, which is thus rendered
+incurable! How many centuries to discover that there is, in a word, but
+one remedy for this overwhelming leprosy which threatens
+society,--isolation!
+
+We should esteem ourselves happy if our feeble voice could be, if not
+relied upon, at least spread amongst all those which, more imposing,
+more eloquent than our own, demand with such just and impatient urgency
+the entire and unqualified application of the cell system.
+
+One day, perchance, society will know that wickedness is an accidental,
+not an organic malady; that crimes are almost always the results of
+perverted instincts, impulses, still good in their essence, but
+falsified, rendered evil, by ignorance, egotism, or the carelessness of
+governments; and that the health of the soul, like that of the body, is
+unquestionably kept subordinate to the laws of a healthy and preserving
+system of control.
+
+God bestows on all passions that strive for predominance, strong
+appetites, the desire to be at ease, and it is for society to balance
+and satisfy these wants. The man who only participates in strength,
+good-will, and health has a right--a sovereign right--to have his labour
+justly remunerated, in a way that shall assure to him not the
+superfluities, but the necessaries of life,--the means of continuing
+healthy and strong, active and industrious, and, consequently, honest
+and good, because his condition is rendered happy. The gloomy regions of
+misery and ignorance are peopled with morbid beings with withered
+hearts. Purify these moral sewers, spread instruction, the inducement to
+labour, fair wages, just rewards, and then these unhealthy faces, these
+perishing frames, will be restored to virtue, which is the health, the
+life of the soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us now introduce the reader into the room in the prison of La Force
+in which the prisoners are allowed to see persons who visit them. It is
+a dark place, partitioned in its length into two equal parts, by a
+narrow grated division. One of these divisions communicates with the
+interior of the prison, and is the place for the prisoners. The other
+communicates with the turnkey's lobby, and is devoted to the persons
+admitted to visit the prisoners. These interviews and conversations take
+place through the double iron grating of the reception room, in presence
+of the turnkey, who remains in the interior, at the extremity of the
+passage.
+
+The appearance of the prisoners, who were in this room on the day in
+question, offered great contrasts. Some were clad in wretched attire,
+others seemed to belong to the working class, and some to the wealthy
+citizen body. The same contrasts were remarkable amongst the visitors to
+the prisoners, who were nearly all women. The prisoners generally appear
+less downcast than the visitors, for, strange and sad to say, yet proved
+by experience, there is but little sorrow or shame left after the
+experience of three or four days spent in prison in society. Those who
+most dreaded this hideous community habituate themselves to it quickly;
+the contagion gains upon them. Surrounded by degraded beings, hearing
+only the language of infamy, a kind of ferocious rivalry excites them;
+and, either to emulate their companions in the struggle for brutalism,
+or to make themselves giddy by the usual drunkenness, the newcomers
+almost invariably display as much depravity and recklessness as the
+_habitués_ of the prison.
+
+Let us return to the reception-room. Notwithstanding the noisy hum of a
+great many conversations carried on in undertones on each side of the
+divisions, prisoners and visitors, after some experience, are able to
+converse with each other without being for a moment disturbed by, or
+attentive to, the conversation of their neighbours, which creates a kind
+of secrecy in the midst of this noisy interchange of words, each being
+compelled to hear the individual who addressed him, but not to hear a
+word of what was said around him.
+
+Amongst the prisoners called into the reception-room by visitors, the
+one the farthest off from the turnkey was Nicholas Martial. To the
+extreme depression with which he was seized on his apprehension, had
+succeeded the most brazen assurance. Already the detestable and
+contagious influence of a prison in common bore its fruits. No doubt,
+had he been at once conveyed to a solitary cell, this wretch, still
+under the influence of his first terror, and alone with the thought of
+his crimes, fearful of impending punishment, might have experienced, if
+not repentance, at least that wholesome dread from which nothing would
+have distracted him.
+
+And who knows what incessant, compulsory meditation may produce on a
+guilty mind, reflecting on the crimes committed and the punishment that
+is to follow? Far from this, thrown into the midst of a horde of
+bandits, in whose eyes the least sign of repentance is cowardice,--or,
+rather, treason,--which they make him dearly expiate; for, in their
+savage obduracy, their senseless bravado, they consider every man as a
+spy on them, who, sad and disconsolate, regretting his fault, does not
+join in their audacious recklessness, and trembles at their contact.
+Thrown into the midst of these miscreants, Nicholas Martial, who had for
+a long time, by report, known the prison manners, overcame his weakness,
+and wished to appear worthy of a name already celebrated in the annals
+of robbery and murder.
+
+Several old offenders had known his father, who had been executed, and
+others his brother, who was at the galleys; he was received and
+instantly patronised by these veterans in crime with savage interest.
+This fraternal reception between murderer and murderer elevated the
+widow's son; the praises bestowed on the hereditary infamy of his family
+intoxicated him. Soon forgetting, in this horrible mood, the future that
+threatened him, he only remembered his past crimes to glory in them, and
+elevate himself still higher in the eyes of his companions. The
+expression of Nicholas's physiognomy was then as insolent as that of his
+visitor was disturbed and alarmed.
+
+This visitor was Daddy Micou, the receiver and lodging-house keeper in
+the Passage de la Brasserie, into whose abode Madame de Fermont and her
+daughter, victims of Jacques Ferrand's cupidity, had been compelled to
+retreat. Father Micou knew the penalties to which he was amenable for
+having many a time and oft obtained at low prices the fruits of the
+robberies of Nicholas and many others of his stamp. The widow's son
+being apprehended, the receiver felt he was almost at the mercy of the
+ruffian, who might impeach him as a regular buyer. Although this
+accusation could not be supported by flagrant proofs, still it was not
+the less dangerous, the less dreaded by Daddy Micou, and he had thus
+instantly obeyed the orders which Nicholas had transmitted to him by a
+discharged prisoner.
+
+"Ah, ah! how goes it, Daddy Micou?" said the brigand.
+
+"At your service, my good fellow," replied the receiver, eagerly. "As
+soon as I saw the person you sent to me, I directly--"
+
+"Oh, you are becoming ceremonious, daddy!" said Nicholas, with
+impatience. "Why is this, because I'm in trouble?"
+
+"No, no, my lad,--no, no!" replied the receiver, who was not anxious to
+seem on terms of familiarity with this ruffian.
+
+"Come, come, be as familiar as usual, or I shall think you have
+forgotten our intimacy, and that would break my heart."
+
+"Well, well," said Micou, with a groan, "I directly went about your
+little commissions."
+
+"That's all right, daddy. I knew well enough that you would not forget
+your friends. And my tobacco?"
+
+"I have left two pounds at the lodge, my boy."
+
+"Is it good?"
+
+"Cannot be better."
+
+"And the knuckle of ham?"
+
+"Left at the lodge, also, with a four-pound white loaf; and I have added
+something that will surprise you, in the shape of a dozen hard eggs and
+a Dutch cheese."
+
+"This is what I call doing the thing like a friend! And the wine?"
+
+"Six bottles of capital. But, you know, you will only have one bottle a
+day."
+
+"Well, that can't be helped, and so one must make up one's mind to it."
+
+"I hope you are satisfied with me, my boy?"
+
+"Certain, and I shall be so again, and for ever, Father Micou; for the
+ham, the cheese, the eggs, and the wine will only last just so long as
+it takes to swallow them; but, as a friend of mine remarked, when they
+are gone there'll be more where they came from, thanks to you, who will
+always do the handsome thing so long as I do the same."
+
+"What! You expect--"
+
+"That in two or three days you will renew my little stock, daddy dear."
+
+"Devil burn me if I do! It's all very good for once--"
+
+"For once! What d'ye mean, man? Why, ham and wine are always good, you
+know that very well."
+
+"Certainly, but I have not undertaken to feed you in delicacies."
+
+"Oh, Daddy Micou, that's shabby--indecent. What, refuse me ham! One who
+has so often brought you 'double tresse' (stolen lead)!"
+
+"Hush, hush! You mischievous fellow," cried the alarmed receiver.
+
+"No, I'll put the question to the big-wig (the judge). I'll say to him,
+only imagine now, sir, that Daddy Micou--"
+
+"Hush, hush!" exclaimed the receiver, seeing with equal alarm and anger
+that Nicholas was much disposed to abuse the influence which their
+guilty companionship gave him. "I'll agree--I will renew your provision
+when it is consumed."
+
+"That's all right, and what's fair. And you mustn't forget, too, to send
+some coffee to mother and Calabash, who are at St. Lazare; they like a
+cup in a morning, and they'll miss it."
+
+"What more? Would you ruin me, you extortionate fellow?"
+
+"Oh, just as you like, Daddy Micou,--don't say another word, but I shall
+ask the big-wig--"
+
+"Well, then, they shall have the coffee," said the receiver,
+interrupting him. "But devil take you! Accursed be the day when I first
+knew you!"
+
+"Old boy, I say quite the contrary. I am delighted to have your valuable
+acquaintance at this particular moment. I revere you as a nursing
+father."
+
+"I hope you have nothing more to ask of me?" said Micou, with
+bitterness.
+
+"Yes; say to my mother and sister that, if I was frightened when they
+apprehended me, I am no longer so, but as determined as they two are."
+
+"I'll say so. Anything more?"
+
+"Stay another moment or two. I forgot to ask you for a couple of pairs
+of warm woollen stockings,--you'd be sorry if I caught cold, shouldn't
+you?"
+
+"I should be glad if you were dead."
+
+"Thank ye, daddy, thank ye! But that pleasure is yet to come, and to-day
+I'm alive and kicking, and inclined to take things easy. If they serve
+me as they did my father, at least I shall have enjoyed my life while it
+lasted."
+
+"It's a nice life, yours is!"
+
+"Superb! Since I have been here I've enjoyed myself like a king. If we
+had lamps and fireworks, they would have lighted them up, and fired them
+off in my honour, when they knew I was the son of the famous Martial who
+was guillotined."
+
+"How affecting! What a glorious parentage!"
+
+"Why, d'ye see, there are many dukes and marquises. Why, then, shouldn't
+we have our nobility, too?--such as us!" said the ruffian, with bitter
+irony.
+
+"To be sure, and Charlot (the headsman) will give you your letters of
+nobility on the Place du Palais."
+
+"You may be sure it won't be the gaol chaplain. But in prison we should
+have the nobility of top-sawyers (noted robbers) to be thought much of;
+if not, you are looked upon as nobody at all. You should only see how
+they behave to those who are not tip-tops and give themselves airs. Now
+there's in here a chap called Germain, a young fellow, who appears
+disgusted with us, and seems to despise us all. Let him take care of his
+hide! He's a sulky hound, and they say he is a 'nose' (a spy); if he is,
+they'll screw his nose around, just by way of warning."
+
+"Germain? A young man called Germain?"
+
+"Yes; d'ye know him? Is he one of us? If so, in spite of his looks,
+we--"
+
+"I don't know him; but if he is the Germain I have heard speak of, his
+affair is settled."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why, he has only just escaped from a plot which Velu and the
+Stout-Cripple laid for him lately."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know, but they said that in the country somewhere he had
+tricked one of their pals."
+
+"I was sure of it, Germain is a spy. Well, we'll spy him! I'll go and
+tell our friends; that'll set them sharper against him. By the way, how
+does Gros-Boiteux get on with your lodgers?"
+
+"Thank heaven, I have got rid of him,--a blackguard! You'll see him here
+to-day or to-morrow."
+
+"All right; how we shall laugh! He's a boy who is never taken aback!"
+
+"It's because I knew that he would find this Germain here that I said
+his affair was settled,--if it's the same chap."
+
+"Why have they got hold of the Gros-Boiteux?"
+
+"For a robbery committed with a discharged convict, who wanted to turn
+honest and work. Well, you see, the Gros-Boiteux soon got him in a
+string; he is such a vicious devil, the Boiteux! I am certain it was he
+who broke open the trunk of the two women who live in the little room
+on my fourth floor."
+
+"What women?--ah, yes, two women! You was smitten by the young 'un, I
+remember, you old vagabond, because you thought her so nice."
+
+"They'll not smite anybody any more, for by this time the mother must be
+dead, and the daughter is scarcely alive. I shall lose a fortnight's
+rent, and I sha'n't give a sou to pay for their burial. I've had so many
+losses, without talking of the little matters you entreat me to give you
+and your family, that my affairs are quite disarranged. I've had the
+luck of it this year."
+
+"Pooh, pooh! You are always complaining, old gentleman; you who are as
+rich as Croesus. But don't let me detain you."
+
+"You're polite."
+
+"You'll call and tell me how mother and Calabash are when you bring me
+my other provisions?"
+
+"Yes, if I must."
+
+"Ah, I'd nearly forgot; whilst you're about it, bring me a new cap, of
+plaid velvet, with an acorn at top; mine's regularly done for."
+
+"Come, now, you're laughing at me."
+
+"No, daddy, by no means; I want a plaid velvet cap. That's my wish."
+
+"Then you're resolved to make a beggar of me?"
+
+"Come, I say, Micou, don't get out of temper about it. It's only yes or
+no,--I do not force you, but--you understand?"
+
+The receiver, reflecting that he was at the mercy of Nicholas, rose,
+fearing that if he prolonged his visit he would be exposed to fresh
+demands.
+
+"You shall have your cap," he replied; "but mind, if you ask me for
+anything more, I will give you nothing,--let what will occur, you'll
+suffer as much as I shall."
+
+"Make your mind easy, I'll not make you sing (force you to give money
+under the threat of certain disclosures) more than is sufficient for you
+not to lose your voice; for that would be a pity, you sing so well."
+
+The receiver went away, shrugging his shoulders with rage, and the
+turnkey conducted Nicholas back to the interior of the prison.
+
+At the moment when Micou quitted the reception-room, Rigolette entered
+it. The turnkey, a man about forty years of age, an old soldier, with
+stern and marked features, was dressed in a round jacket, with a blue
+cap and trousers; two silver stars were embroidered on the collar and
+facings of his jacket. At the sight of the grisette the face of this man
+brightened up, and assumed an expression of benevolence. He had always
+been struck by the grace, gentleness, and touching kindness with which
+Rigolette consoled Germain when she came there to see him. Germain was,
+besides, not an ordinary prisoner; his reserve, his peaceable demeanour,
+and his melancholy inspired the persons about the prison with deep
+interest,--an interest which they did not manifest, for fear of exposing
+him to the ill-treatment of his brutal companions, who, as we have said,
+looked upon him with mistrusting hate. It was raining in torrents, but,
+thanks to her goloshes and umbrella, Rigolette had boldly faced the wind
+and rain.
+
+"What a shocking day, my poor girl!" said the turnkey, kindly. "It
+requires a good deal of courage to leave home such weather as this."
+
+"When we think as we come along of the pleasure we shall give a poor
+prisoner, we don't think much about the weather, sir."
+
+"I need not ask you whom you have come to see?"
+
+"Certainly not. And how is poor Germain?"
+
+"Why, my dear, I have seen many prisoners; they have been sad for a
+day,--two days, perhaps,--and then gradually got into the same way as
+the others; and those who were most out of sorts at first often ended
+by becoming the merriest of all. But M. Germain, is not one of these, he
+has still that melancholy air."
+
+"How sorry I am to hear it!"
+
+"When I'm on duty in the yards, I look at him from the corner of my eye,
+he is always alone. I have already told you that you should advise him
+not to do so, but to resolve on conversing with the others, or it will
+end with his becoming suspected and ill-used by them. We keep a close
+look-out, but a mischievous blow is soon given."
+
+"Oh, sir, is there any danger threatens him?" cried Rigolette.
+
+"Not precisely, but these ruffians see that he is not one of them, and
+hate him because he has an honest and proud look."
+
+"Yet I advised him to do what you told me, sir, and make up his mind to
+talk to some of the least wicked! But he cannot help it, he cannot get
+over his repugnance."
+
+"He is wrong--wrong! A struggle is so soon begun."
+
+"Can't he, then, be separated from the others?"
+
+"For the last two or three days, since I have seen their ill-will
+towards him, I advised him to place himself what we call _à la
+pistole_,--that is, in a room."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I had not thought of one thing. A whole row of cells is undergoing
+repair, and the others are full."
+
+"But these wretches may kill him!" said Rigolette, her eyes filling with
+tears. "And if, by chance, he had any protectors, what could they do for
+him, sir?"
+
+"Nothing, but enable him to obtain what these debtors who can pay for it
+obtain,--a chamber, _à la pistole_."
+
+"Alas, then, he is lost, if they hate him in prison."
+
+"Oh, don't be downhearted, we will look well to him. But I repeat, my
+dear, do advise him to familiarise himself a little,--the first step is
+half the battle."
+
+"I will advise him as strongly as I can, sir. But for a good and honest
+heart it is very hard, you know, to familiarise itself with such
+people."
+
+"Of two evils we must choose the least. Now I will fetch M. Germain. But
+now I think of it," said the turnkey, "there are only two visitors; wait
+until they are gone, there'll not be any more to-day, for it is two
+o'clock. I will then fetch M. Germain, and you can talk at your ease. I
+can then, when you are alone, let him come into the passage, so that you
+will be separated by one grating instead of two. Won't that be better?"
+
+"Ah, sir, how kind you are, and how much I thank you!"
+
+"Hush! Do not let any one hear you, or they may be jealous. Sit down
+there at the end of the bench, and when this man and woman have gone, I
+will tell M. Germain."
+
+The turnkey returned to his post inside the grating, and Rigolette sat
+down very melancholy at the end of the visitors' bench.
+
+Whilst the grisette is awaiting the coming of Germain, we will allow the
+reader to overhear the conversation of the prisoners who remained there
+after the departure of Nicholas Martial.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+PIQUE-VINAIGRE.
+
+
+The prisoner who was beside Barbillon was a man about forty-five years
+of age, thin, mean-looking, with a keen, intelligent, jovial, merry
+face. He had an enormous mouth, almost entirely toothless; and, when he
+spoke, he worked it from side to side, very much after the style of
+those orators who are accustomed to harangue from booths at fairs. His
+nose was flat, his head disproportionately large and nearly bald; he
+wore an old gray knit worsted waistcoat, a pair of trousers of
+indescribable colour, torn and patched in a thousand places; his feet,
+half wrapped up in pieces of old linen, were thrust into wooden shoes.
+
+This man, Fortuné Gobert, called Pique-Vinaigre, formerly a juggler, a
+convict freed after condemnation for the crime of uttering false money,
+was charged with having broken from gaol and committed violent burglary.
+Having been confined but very few days in La Force, Pique-Vinaigre
+already filled the office of story-teller, to the general satisfaction
+of his fellow prisoners. Now story-tellers have become very rare, but
+formerly each ward had usually, for a slight general subscription, its
+official story-teller, who, by his narrations, made the long winter
+evenings appear less tedious when the prisoners went to bed at sunset.
+
+If it be curious to note the desire for these fictions which these
+outcasts display, it is yet a more singular thing to reflect upon the
+hearing of these recitals. Men corrupted to the very marrow, thieves,
+and murderers, prefer especially the histories in which are expressed
+generous, heroic sentiments, recitals in which weakness and goodness are
+avenged in fierce retribution. It is the same thing with women of lost
+reputation; they are singularly fond of simple, touching, and
+sentimental details, and almost invariably refuse to read obscene books.
+
+Pique-Vinaigre excelled in that kind of heroic tales in which weakness,
+after a thousand trials, concludes by triumphing over persecution. He
+possessed, besides, a deep fund of satire, which had procured for him
+his name, his repartees being very frequently ironical or merry. He had
+just entered the reception-room. Opposite to him, on the other side of
+the grating, was a female of about thirty-five years of age, of pale,
+mild, and interesting countenance, meanly but cleanly clad. She was
+weeping bitterly, and held a handkerchief to her eyes. Pique-Vinaigre
+looked at her with a mixture of impatience and affection.
+
+"Come, Jeanne," he said, "do not play the child. It is sixteen years
+since we met, and to keep your handkerchief up to your eyes is not the
+way for us to know each other again."
+
+"Brother--my poor, dear Fortuné! I am choking--I cannot speak."
+
+"Ah, nonsense! What ails you?"
+
+His sister repressed her sobs, wiped her eyes, and, looking at him with
+astonishment, replied, "What ails me? What, when I find you again in
+prison, where you have already been fifteen years!"
+
+"True. It is six months to-day since I left Melun; and I didn't call
+upon you in Paris because the capital was forbidden to me."
+
+"Why did you leave Beaugency when you were under surveillance?"
+
+"In the first place, Jeanne, since the gratings are between us, you
+must fancy I have embraced you, squeezed you in my arms, as a man ought
+to do who has not seen his sister for an eternity. Now let us talk. A
+prisoner at Melun, who is called the Gros-Boiteux, told me that there
+was at Beaugency an old convict of his acquaintance, who employed the
+freed prisoners in a factory of white lead. Those who work at it in a
+month or two catch the lead-colic. One in three of those attacked die.
+It is true that others die also; but they take their time about it and
+get on, sometimes as long as a year or even eighteen months. Then the
+trade is better paid than most others, and there are fellows who hold
+out at it for two or three years. But they are elders--patriarchs--of
+the white-leaders. They die, it is true, but that is all."
+
+"And why did you choose a trade so dangerous that they die at it?"
+
+"What could I do? When I went to Melun for that well-known job of the
+forged coin I was a thimble-rigger. As in gaol there was no scope for my
+line of business, and I am not stronger than a good stout flea, they put
+me to making children's toys. There was a tradesman in Paris who found
+it very advantageous to have his wooden trumpets and swords made by the
+prisoners. Why, I must have made half the wooden swords used by the
+children of Paris; and I was great in the trumpet line. Rattles,
+too,--why, with two of my manufacture I could have set on edge the teeth
+of a whole battalion! Well, when my time was up I was a first-rate maker
+of penny trumpets, and my only resource was making child's playthings.
+Now, supposing that a whole town, young and old, were inclined to play
+tur-tu-tu-tu on my trumpets, I should still have had a good deal of
+trouble to earn a livelihood; and then I could not have induced a whole
+population to continue playing the trumpet from morning to night."
+
+"You are still such a jester!"
+
+"Better joke than cry. Well, then, seeing that at forty leagues from
+Paris my trade of juggler was no more useful to me than my trumpets, I
+requested the surveillance at Beaugency, intending to become a
+white-leader. It is a trade that gives you indigestion enough to send
+you mad; but until one bursts one lives, and that is always something,
+and it was better than turning thief. I am neither brave nor strong
+enough to thieve, and it was from pure accident that I did the thing I
+have just mentioned to you."
+
+"And yet you had the courage to take up with a deadly trade! Come now,
+Fortuné, you wish to make yourself out worse than you are."
+
+"I thought that the malady would have so little to take hold of in me
+that it would go elsewhere, and that I should become one of the
+patriarchal white-leaders. Well, when I came out of prison, I found my
+earnings had considerably increased by telling stories."
+
+"So you told us. You remember how it amused poor old mother?"
+
+"Dear soul! She never suspected that I was at Melun?"
+
+"Never. She thought you had gone abroad."
+
+"Why, my girl, my follies were my father's fault, who dressed me up as a
+clown to help in his mountebank displays, to swallow tow and spit fire,
+which did not allow me spare time to form acquaintance with the sons of
+the peers of France; and so I fell into bad company. But to return to
+Beaugency. When once I had left Melun, like the rest, I thought I must
+see some fun; if not, what was the use of my money? Well, I reached
+Beaugency, with scarcely a sou in my pocket. I asked for Velu, the
+friend of Gros-Boiteux, the head of the manufactory. Your servant! There
+was no longer any white-lead factory; it had killed eleven persons in
+the year, and the old convict had shut up shop. So here I was in the
+middle of this city, with my talent for trumpet-making as my only means
+of existence, and my discharge from prison as my only certificate of
+recommendation. I did my best to procure work, but in vain. One called
+me a thief, another a beggar, a third said I had escaped from gaol; all
+turned their backs upon me. So I had nothing to do but die of hunger in
+a city which I was not to leave for five years. Seeing this, I broke my
+ban, and came to Paris to utilise my talents. As I had not the means to
+travel in a coach and four, I came begging and tramping all the way,
+avoiding the _gens-d'armes_ as I would a mad dog. I had luck, and
+reached Auteuil without accident. I was very tired, hungry as a wolf,
+and dressed, as you may see, not in the height of the fashion." And
+Pique-Vinaigre glanced comically at his rags. "I had not a sou, and was
+liable to be taken up as a vagabond. Well, _ma foi!_ an occasion
+presented itself; the devil tempted me, and, in spite of my cowardice--"
+
+"Enough, brother,--enough!" said his sister, fearing lest the turnkey
+might hear his dangerous confession.
+
+"Are you afraid they listen?" he said. "Be tranquil; I have nothing to
+conceal. I was taken in the act."
+
+"Alas!" said Jeanne, weeping bitterly; "how calmly you say this!"
+
+"If I spoke warmly what should I gain by it? Come, listen to reason,
+Jeanne. Must I have to console you?"
+
+Jeanne wiped her eyes and sighed.
+
+"Well, to go back to my affair," continued Pique-Vinaigre. "I had nearly
+reached Auteuil, in the dusk. I could not go any farther, and I did not
+wish to enter Paris but at night; so I sat down behind a hedge to rest
+myself, and reflect on my plan of campaign. My reflections sent me to
+sleep, and when the sound of voices awoke me it was night. I listened.
+It was a man and woman, who were talking as they went along on the other
+side of the hedge. The man said to the woman, 'Who do you think would
+come and rob us? Haven't we left the house alone a hundred times?'
+'Yes,' replied the woman; 'but then we hadn't a hundred francs in the
+drawers.' 'Who knows that, you fool?' says the husband. 'You are right,'
+replies the wife; and on they went. _Ma foi!_ the occasion seemed to me
+too favourable to lose, and there was no danger. I waited until they got
+a little farther on, and then came from behind the hedge, and, looking
+twenty paces behind me, I saw a small cottage, which I was sure must be
+the house with the hundred francs, as it was the only habitation in
+sight. Auteuil was about five hundred yards off. I said to
+myself,'Courage, old boy,--there is no one. Then it is night; if there
+is no watch-dog (you know I was always afraid of dogs), why, the job is
+as good as done.' Luckily there was no dog. To make sure I knocked at
+the door. Nothing. This encouraged me. The shutters were closed on the
+ground floor, but I put my stick between and forced them. I got into the
+window, and in the room the fire was still alight. So I saw the drawers,
+but no key. With the tongs I forced the lock, and under a heap of linen
+I found the prize, wrapped in an old woollen stocking. I did not think
+of taking anything else, but jumping out of the window, I alighted on
+the back of the garde-champêtre, who was returning home."
+
+"What a misfortune!"
+
+"The moon had risen. He saw me jump from the window and seized me. He
+was a fellow who could have eaten a dozen such as I was. Too great a
+coward to resist, I surrendered quietly. I had the stocking still in my
+hand, and he heard the money chink, took it, put it in his game bag, and
+made me accompany him to Auteuil. We reached the mayor's with a crowd of
+blackguards and _gens-d'armes_. The owners of the cottage were fetched,
+and they made their depositions. There was no means of denial; so I
+confessed everything and signed the depositions, and they put on me
+handcuffs, and I was brought here."
+
+"In prison again, and for a long time, perhaps?"
+
+"Listen to me, Jeanne, for I will not deceive you. I may as well tell
+you at once; for it is no longer an affair of prison."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Why, the relapse, the breaking in and entry into a dwelling-house at
+night, the lawyer told me, is a complete affair, and I shall have
+fifteen or twenty years at the galleys, and the public exposure into the
+bargain."
+
+"The galleys,--and you so weak? Why, you'll die!"
+
+"And suppose I had been with the white-lead party?"
+
+"But the galleys,--the galleys!"
+
+"It is a prison in the open air, with a red shirt instead of a brown
+one; and then I have always had a curiosity to see the sea!"
+
+"But the public exposure! To be subject to the contempt of all the
+world! Oh, my poor brother!" And the poor woman wept bitterly.
+
+"Come, come, Jeanne, be composed; it is an uncomfortable quarter of an
+hour to pass. But you know I am used to see crowds. When I played with
+my cups and balls, I always had a crowd around me; so I'll fancy I am
+thimble-rigging, and if it has too much effect on me I'll close my eyes,
+and that will seem as if no one was looking at me."
+
+Speaking with this derision, the unhappy man affected this
+insensibility, in order to console his sister. For a man accustomed to
+the manners of prisons, and in whom all shame is utterly dead, the
+_bagne_ (galleys) is, in fact, only a change of shirt, as Pique-Vinaigre
+said, with frightful truth. Many prisoners in the central prisons even
+prefer the _bagne_, because of the riotous life they lead, often
+committing attempts at murder in order to be sent to Brest or Toulon.
+
+"Twenty years at the galleys!" repeated Pique-Vinaigre's poor sister.
+
+"Take comfort, Jeanne, they will only pay me as I deserve. I am too weak
+to be put to hard labour, and if there is no manufactory of wooden
+trumpets and swords as at Melun, why, I shall be set to some easy work;
+they will employ me at the infirmary. I am not a troublesome fellow, but
+a good, easy chap; and I shall tell my stories as I do here, and shall
+be esteemed by my chiefs, and adored by my comrades, and I will send you
+carved cocoanuts and straw boxes for my nephews and nieces."
+
+"If you had only written to me that you were coming to Paris, I would
+have tried to conceal you until you found work."
+
+"_Pardieu!_ I meant to have gone to you, but I preferred arriving with
+my hands full,--for I see you do not ride in your carriage. Well, and
+your children,--and your husband?"
+
+"Has left me these three years, after having sold off every stick, not
+leaving me or the children one single thing but a straw palliasse."
+
+"Poor Jeanne! How have you managed alone with three children?"
+
+"Why, I have suffered very much. I worked at my business as a
+trimming-maker as well as I could, the neighbours helping me a little,
+watching my children when I went out. And then I, who haven't much luck,
+had a bit of good fortune once in my life; but it was no avail, because
+of my husband."
+
+"How was that?"
+
+"My employer had spoken of my trouble to one of his customers, telling
+him how my husband had left me with nothing, after having sold all our
+furniture, and that, in spite of this, I was working as hard as I could
+to bring up my children. One day when I returned what did I find? Why,
+my room fitted up again, a good bed, furniture, and linen; it was the
+kind customer of my employer."
+
+"Poor sister! Why didn't you write and tell me of your misfortune; and
+then, instead of spending my money, I would have sent you some."
+
+"What! I free to ask of you a prisoner?"
+
+"Why not? I was fed, clothed, lodged, at the cost of government; all I
+gained was so much profit. But knowing my brother-in-law was a good
+workman, and you a good manager and worker, I was quite easy, and melted
+my 'tin' with my eyes shut, and my mouth open."
+
+"My husband was a good workman, that is true; but he became dissipated.
+However, thanks to this unexpected aid, I took courage again. My eldest
+girl began to earn a little, and we were happy, except when we
+remembered that you were at Melun. Work went well with us, and my
+children were well clad, and wanted for nothing hardly, and that gave me
+good heart; and I had actually saved thirty-three francs, when suddenly
+my husband returned. I had not seen him for a year; and when he found me
+so well off and tidily dressed, he stood for nothing, but took my money
+and lived with us without working, getting drunk every day, and beating
+me when I complained. And that is not all. He gave up a small room
+adjoining ours to a woman with whom he lived openly as his mistress; so
+I had that indignity to endure for the second time. He soon began to
+make away with the few poor things I had managed to get together; so,
+foreseeing what would be the end of such conduct, I went to a lawyer who
+lived in the same house, and begged him to advise me how to act to
+prevent my husband from taking the very bed from me and my children."
+
+"Why, there needed no lawyer, I should think, to tell you that the only
+thing you had to do was to turn your husband out of your doors."
+
+"Ah, but I could not,--the law gave me no power to do so. The lawyer
+told me that, as 'head of the family,' my husband could take up his
+abode wherever I dwelt, and was not compelled to labour unless he liked;
+that it was very hard for me to have to maintain him, and endure his
+ill-treatment into the bargain, but that he recommended me to submit to
+it, though certainly the circumstance of his having a mistress living
+under the same roof entitled me to demand separation from 'bed and
+board,' as he called it; and further, that as I would bring witnesses to
+prove his having repeatedly struck me, and otherwise ill-treated me, I
+could institute a suit against him, but that it would cost me, at the
+very least, from four to five hundred francs to obtain a perfect
+separation from him. Only think what a sum,--as much as I should earn in
+a year! And who would lend me so much money, which would have to be
+repaid heaven knows how? For four or five hundred francs is a perfect
+fortune."
+
+"Yet there is one very simple means of amassing the money," replied
+Pique-Vinaigre, bitterly; "that of living upon air during the twelve
+months it would take you to earn that sum, working all the same, but
+denying yourself even the necessaries of life; and I am only surprised
+the lawyer did not advise you to starve yourself and your children, or
+any other kind-hearted expediency."
+
+"You always make a jest of everything, brother!"
+
+"This time, however, I am not in a jesting humour. It is scandalous that
+the law should be so expensive to poor creatures such as we. Now, just
+look at yourself,--a good and affectionate mother, striving by every
+means in your power to bring up your children honestly and creditably;
+your husband, a bad, lazy fellow, who, not content with stripping you of
+all you earn, that he may spend his time in drinking and all sorts of
+loose pleasures, beats and ill-uses you into the bargain. Well, you
+apply to the justice of your country for protection for yourself and
+your children. 'Ah,' say the lawyers, 'yours is a hard case, and your
+husband is a worthless vagabond, and you shall have justice. But then
+you must pay five hundred francs for that same justice,--five hundred
+francs, mind; precisely all your utmost labour can obtain to nourish
+yourself and family for a year. I tell you what, Jeanne, all this proves
+the truth of the old saying, that 'There are but two sorts of
+people,--those who are hanged, and those who deserve to be!'"
+
+Rigolette, alone and pensively inclined, had not lost a word of all that
+tale of woe breathed by the poor, suffering, and patient wife into her
+brother's ear; while her naturally kind heart deeply sympathised with
+all she heard, and she fully resolved upon relating the whole history to
+Rodolph the very first time she saw him, feeling quite sure of his ready
+and benevolent aid in succouring them. Deeply interested in the mournful
+fate of the sister of Pique-Vinaigre, she could not take her eyes from
+the poor woman's face, and was endeavouring to draw a little closer to
+her; but unluckily, just at that moment, a fresh visitant, entering the
+room, inquired for a prisoner, and while the person he wished to see was
+sent for, he very coolly seated himself on the bench between Jeanne and
+the grisette, who, at the sight of the individual who so unceremoniously
+interrupted her making closer acquaintance with her neighbour, felt a
+degree of surprise almost amounting to fear, for in him she recognised
+one of the bailiffs sent by Jacques Ferrand to arrest poor Morel, the
+lapidary. This circumstance, recalling as it did to the mind of
+Rigolette the implacable enemy of Germain, redoubled her sadness, which
+had been in some manner diverted while listening to the touching recital
+of the unfortunate sister of Pique-Vinaigre.
+
+Retreating from the fresh arrival as far as she could, the grisette
+leaned her back against the wall, and once more relapsed into her
+mournful ruminations.
+
+"Look here, Jeanne!" cried Pique-Vinaigre, whose mirthful,
+pleasure-loving countenance was suddenly overcast by a deep gloom; "I am
+by nature neither very strong nor very courageous; but, certainly, if I
+had chanced to have been by when your husband so shamefully treated you,
+I don't think I should have let him slip through my fingers without
+leaving my mark. But you were too good for him, and you put up with more
+than you ought!"
+
+"Why, what would you have had me do? I was obliged to endure what I
+could not avoid. So long as there remained an article that would fetch
+money did my husband sell it, even to the frock of my little girl, and
+then repair to the alehouse with his mistress."
+
+"But why did you give him your daily earnings?--you should have hid them
+from him."
+
+"So I did; but he beat me so dreadfully that I was obliged to give them
+to him. I cared less for the blows he gave me than because I dreaded his
+doing me some bodily injury, such as breaking my arm and dislocating my
+wrist, that would have hindered me from working; and then, what would
+have become of my poor children? Suppose I had been compelled to go to a
+hospital, they must have perished with hunger. So, you see, brother, I
+thought it was better to give up my earnings to my husband than run the
+risk of being lamed by him."
+
+"Poor woman! People talk of martyrs, but what martyrdom can exceed what
+you have endured?"
+
+"And yet I can truly say I never injured a living creature, and my only
+desire was to work hard and do my duty to my husband and children. But
+it is no use thinking about it; there are fortunate and unfortunate
+persons, just the same as there are good people and bad people in the
+world!"
+
+"True; and it is a beautiful sight to see how happy and prosperous the
+good always are,--aren't they, sister? And do you now believe yourself
+for ever freed from your scoundrel of a husband?"
+
+"I trust so. He staid till he had sold even my bedstead and the cradle
+in which my youngest child lay. But when I think that, even more than
+that, he wished--"
+
+"What did he wish?"
+
+"When I say he, I ought rather to tell you that it was rather that
+wicked woman who urged him on. One day he said to me, 'I tell you what,
+when folks have a pretty girl of fifteen belonging to them, they are
+cursed fools if they do not turn her to good account.'"
+
+"Oh, to be sure! When he had sold the poor girl's clothes, he was
+willing to sell her also."
+
+"When I heard him say those dreadful words I lost all command over
+myself, and, I promise you, I did not spare him all the reproaches he
+merited. And when his vile paramour took upon herself to interfere, and
+say that my husband had a right to do what he liked with his own child,
+I could contain myself no longer; but I fell with all my fury on the
+wretched creature. This obtained for me a severe beating from my
+husband, who then left me; and I have never seen him since."
+
+"I tell you, Jeanne, that there are men condemned to ten years'
+punishment and imprisonment who have not done so much to deserve it as
+your husband has done."
+
+"Still he had not a bad heart. It was his frequenting alehouses, and the
+bad companions he met there who made him the lost creature he is."
+
+"True, he would not hurt a child; but a grown-up person he was not so
+very particular."
+
+[Illustration: "_Then Left Me_"
+Original Etching by Adrian Marcel]
+
+"Alas, it is no use repining! We must take life as we find it. Well,
+when my husband had left me I seemed to regain my courage, for I had no
+longer the constant dread of being crippled by him, and so prevented
+from earning bread for my children. For want of money to buy a mattress
+(for one must live and pay one's rent before thinking of other things),
+and poor Catherine (my eldest girl) working with me fifteen hours a day,
+we could scarcely earn twenty pence a day both together, and my other
+two children were too young to be able to earn anything; so, as I was
+saying, for want of a mattress we slept upon straw we picked up from
+time to time before the door of a large furniture packer in the
+neighbourhood."
+
+"And to think that I have spent and squandered all my money as I have
+done!"
+
+"Pray do not reproach yourself. How could you possibly imagine I was in
+want or difficulties when I never said a word to lead you to conclude
+so? So poor dear Catherine and I set to work again with redoubled
+courage and determination. If you only knew what a dear, good child she
+is, so honest, industrious, and good, watching me with her eyes to try
+and find out what I wish her to do. Never has a murmur escaped her lips;
+and yet she has seen much want and misery, though scarcely fifteen years
+of age! She has consoled me in the midst of my severest troubles. Oh,
+brother," added Jeanne, drying her eyes, "such a child is enough to
+repay one for the severest trials!"
+
+"You were just such another yourself at her age; and it is but fair you
+should have some consolation amidst your troubles!"
+
+"Believe me, 'tis rather on her account than mine I grieve; for it
+really seems out of nature to see a young creature like her slaving
+herself to death. For months together she has never quitted her work,
+except once a week, when she goes to wash the trifle of linen we possess
+in the river, near the Pont-au-Charge, where they only charge three sous
+an hour for the use of the boats, beaters, etc. All the rest of her time
+she is working like a galley-slave. Ah, she has known misfortune too
+early! I know well that troubles must come; but then a poor girl should
+be able to look back upon a happy childhood, at least! And another
+thing that grieves and vexes me almost as much as that, is not being
+able to render you any assistance. Still I will endeavour."
+
+"Nonsense; don't talk so! Do you suppose I would accept of anything from
+you? On the contrary, I'll tell you what I'll do to help you. From this
+time forward I'll insist upon being paid for my amusing tales and
+wonderful recitals; and those who object to pay from one to two sous for
+hearing shall no more be treated to the entertaining histories of
+Pique-Vinaigre. I shall soon collect a pretty little sum for you, I
+know. But why don't you take furnished lodgings, so that your husband
+could not molest you by selling your little possessions?"
+
+"Furnished lodgings! Only consider, there are four, and for such a
+number we should have to pay at least twenty sous (ten pence) a day.
+What should we have to live upon if we paid all that for rent? And now
+we give but fifty francs a year for the rooms we occupy."
+
+"True, my girl," replied Pique-Vinaigre, with bitter irony. "That's
+right,--work, slave, begrudge yourself necessary rest or food, in order
+to refurnish your place. And directly you have once more got things
+comfortably about you, your husband will come and strip you of
+everything; and when he has deprived you almost of the garments you
+wear, he will take your dear Catherine from you and sell her also."
+
+"No, no, brother; he should take my life ere I would suffer him to
+injure my good, my virtuous child."
+
+"Oh, but he does not wish to do her any bodily harm; he only wants to
+sell her. And then, remember, as the lawyer said, he is master until you
+can find five hundred francs to be legally separated from him. So, as
+that is not the case, at present you must make up your mind to submit to
+what cannot be helped. It seems that, by law, your husband has a right
+to take his child from you and send her where he pleases. And if he and
+his mistress are bent upon the ruin of the poor girl, doubtless they
+will stop at nothing to achieve it."
+
+"Merciful God!" exclaimed the almost frantic mother, "surely such
+wickedness can never be tolerated in a Christian land! Justice itself
+would interpose if a father could insist upon selling his daughter's
+honour."
+
+"Justice!" repeated Pique-Vinaigre, with a sardonic laugh, "justice! No,
+no, that meat is too dear for poor folks like you and I. Only, do you
+see, if it refers to sending a parcel of poor wretches to prison or the
+galleys, then it is quite a different affair; and they have justice
+without its costing them anything,--nay, it becomes a matter of life and
+death. An unhappy criminal gets his head shaved off by the guillotine
+for nothing; not a single farthing are they or their friends, whether
+rich or poor, tailed upon to pay for this act of impartial justice. The
+object of it only gives his head! All other expenses are defrayed by a
+liberal and justice-loving legislature. But the justice that would
+protect a worthy and ill-treated mother of a family from being beaten
+and pillaged to support the vices of a man who seeks even to sell the
+honour of his innocent child,--such justice as that costs five hundred
+francs! So, my dear Jeanne, you must do without it."
+
+"Brother, brother," exclaimed the poor woman, bursting into tears, "you
+break my heart by such words as these!"
+
+"Well, and my own heart aches even to bursting as I think of your fate
+and that of your children, while I recollect that I am powerless to help
+you. I seem always gay and merry; but don't you be deceived by
+appearances, Jeanne! I tell you what, I have two descriptions of gaiety,
+my gay gaiety, and my sad gaiety. I have neither the strength or the
+courage to indulge in envy, hatred, or malice, like the other prisoners;
+I never go beyond words, more or less droll as occasion requires. My
+cowardice and bodily weakness would never have allowed me to be worse
+than I am. And nothing but the opportunity presenting itself of robbing
+that poor little lone house, where there was neither a cat nor a dog to
+frighten one, would have drawn me into the scheme that brought me here.
+And then, again, by chance it was a brilliant moonlight night; for if
+ever there was a poor devil afraid of being alone in the dark it is me."
+
+"Ah, dear brother, I have always told you you are better than you
+yourself think! Well, I trust the judges will be of my opinion and deal
+mercifully with you."
+
+"Mercy! What, for me, a liberated convict? Don't reckon too much on that
+or you'll be disappointed. But, hang it, what care I? Here or elsewhere
+is all the same to me! Let my judges do as they will with me, I shall
+bear them no ill-will. For you are right; I am not a bad sort of fellow
+at heart; and those who are worse than myself I hate with all the hatred
+of a good man, and show my dislike by raillery of every sort. You can
+imagine, can you not, that, by dint of relating stories in which, to
+please my auditors, I always make those who wantonly torment others
+receive the reward of their wickedness in the end, I get into the habit
+of feeling all the indignation and virtuous desire for vengeance I
+relate?"
+
+"I should never have thought such persons as your prison companions
+would have been interested in such recitals!"
+
+"Oh, but I'm awake to how to tickle their fancies. If I were to relate
+to them the story of a man who committed no end of crimes, robbery and
+murder being among the mildest, and got scragged at last, they would get
+into a downright passion and not allow me to go on; but if I make up a
+tale of a woman or child, or a poor, cowardly fellow like myself, that a
+breath of wind would knock over, being pursued by an atrocious
+persecutor,--a sort of Blackbeard, who torments them to death, for the
+pure pleasure of the thing! Oh, how they roar and stamp for joy when I
+make Mr. Blackbeard in the end served out as he deserves. I have got a
+story they have never yet heard, called 'Gringalet and Cut-in-Half,'
+which used to delight all the folks at Melun. I have promised to tell it
+to them here to-night. But, before I begin, I shall see that they come
+down pretty handsome when I send the box around collecting; and you may
+depend upon being all the better for its contents. And, besides that, I
+will write out the story itself to amuse your children. Poor dears! How
+pleased they will be with it! 'Gringalet and Cut-in-Half,'--there's a
+title for you! And, bless you, it is so virtuous and moral that an abbé
+might read it from his pulpit! So make yourself quite happy in every
+respect."
+
+"One thing gives me great pleasure, dear brother, and that is to see
+that your disposition keeps you from being as unhappy as the rest of
+your companions here."
+
+"Why, I am quite sure if I were like a poor fellow who is a prisoner in
+our ward, I should be tempted to lay violent hands on myself. Poor young
+man! I really am sorry for him,--he seems so very wretched; and I am
+seriously afraid that before the day is over he will have sustained some
+serious mischief at the hands of the other prisoners, whom he refuses to
+associate with, and they owe him a grudge for it; and I know that a plan
+is arranged to serve him out this very evening."
+
+"Dear me, how shocking! But you, brother, do not mean to take any part
+in it, I hope?"
+
+"No, thank you, I am not such a fool; I should be sure to catch some of
+the good things intended for another. All I know about it I picked up
+while going to and fro. I heard them talking among themselves of gagging
+him to hinder him from crying out, and in order to prevent any one from
+seeing what is going on they mean to form a circle around him, making
+believe to be listening to one of their party, who should pretend to be
+reading a newspaper or anything they liked out loud."
+
+"But why should they thus ill-treat the poor man?"
+
+"Because, as he is always alone, never speaks to any person, and seems
+to hold everybody in disgust, they have taken it into their heads he is
+a spy, which is immensely stupid on their parts, because a spy would
+naturally hook on with them the better to find out all they said and
+did; but I believe that the principal cause of their spite against him
+is that he has the air of a gentleman, which is a thing they hold in
+abhorrence. It is the captain of the dormitory, who is known by the name
+of the Walking Skeleton, who is at the head of this plot; and he is like
+a wild beast after this Germain, for so the object of their dislike is
+called. But let them all do as they like; it is no affair of mine. I can
+be of no use, therefore let them go their own way. But then you see,
+Jeanne, it is of no use being dull and mopish in prison, or the others
+are sure to suspect you of something or other. They never had to find
+fault with my want of sociability, and for that reason never suspected
+me or owed me a grudge. But come, my girl, you had better return home;
+we have gossiped long enough. I know very well how it takes up your time
+to come hither. I have nothing to do but to idle away my days; it is
+very different with you; so good night. Come and see me again when you
+can; you know how happy it always makes me."
+
+"Nay, but, brother, pray do not go yet; I wish you to stay."
+
+"Nonsense, Jeanne; your children are wanting you at home. I say--I hope
+you have not told the poor, dear, little innocent things that their
+'nunky' is in prison?"
+
+"No, indeed, I have not; the children believe you are abroad, and as
+such I can always talk to them of you."
+
+"That's all right. Now then, be off, and get back to your family and
+your employment as fast as you can."
+
+"But listen to me, brother,--my poor Fortuné. I have not much to give,
+God knows! but still I cannot bear to see you in so deplorable a plight
+as you are at present. Your feet must be half frozen without any
+stockings; and that wretched old waistcoat you have on makes my heart
+ache to see it. Catherine and I together will manage to get a few things
+together for you. You know, Fortuné, that at least we do not want for
+good will--to--"
+
+"To what--to give me better clothes? Lord love you, I've got boxes full
+of everything you can mention, and directly they come I shall be able to
+dress like a prince! There, now; come, give me one little
+smile,--there's a good girl! You won't? Well, then, you shall make me
+and bring me what you like; only remember, directly the tale of
+'Gringalet and Cut-in-Half' has replenished my money-box, I am to return
+all you expend upon me. And now once more, dear Jeanne, fare you well!
+And the next time you come to see me, may I lose the name of
+Pique-Vinaigre if I don't make you laugh! But be off now; cut your
+stick, there's a good girl! I know I have kept you too long already."
+
+"No, no, dear brother, indeed you have not. Pray hear what I have to
+say!"
+
+"Hallo, here! I say, my fine fellow," cried Pique-Vinaigre to the
+turnkey, who was waiting in the lobby, "I have said my say, and I want
+to go in again. I've talked till I'm tired."
+
+"Oh, Fortuné," cried Jeanne, "how cruel you are to send me thus from
+you!"
+
+"No, no; on the contrary, I am kinder than you give me credit for."
+
+"Good-bye; keep up your spirits; and to-morrow morning tell the children
+you have been dreaming of their uncle who is abroad, and that he desired
+you to give his kind love to them. There--good-bye--good-bye!"
+
+"Good-bye, Fortuné!" replied the poor woman, bursting into tears, as her
+brother entered the interior of the prison.
+
+From the moment when the bailiff seated himself between her and Jeanne,
+Rigolette had been unable to overhear a word more of the conversation
+between Pique-Vinaigre and his sister; but she continued to gaze
+intently on the latter, her thoughts busied with devising some plausible
+pretext for obtaining the poor woman's address, for the purpose of
+recommending her as a fit object for Rodolph's benevolence. As Jeanne
+rose from her seat to quit the place, Rigolette timidly approached her,
+and said, in a kind voice:
+
+"Pray excuse my addressing you, but a little while ago I could not avoid
+overhearing your conversation, and by that I found that you were a maker
+of fringe and fancy trimmings."
+
+"You heard rightly," replied Jeanne, somewhat surprised, but, at the
+same time, much prepossessed in favour of the open, frank expression of
+Rigolette's charming countenance, as well as won to confidence by her
+kind and friendly manner.
+
+"And I," continued Rigolette, "am a dressmaker. And just now that
+fringes and gimps are so much worn, I am frequently requested by my
+customers to get a particular sort for them; so it occurred to me that
+perhaps you who make at home could supply me with what I required
+cheaper than the shops, while, on the other hand, you might obtain a
+better price from me than you get from the warehouse you work for."
+
+"Certainly, I should make a small profit by buying the silk myself, and
+then making it up to order. You are very kind to have made me the
+proposal; but I own I feel unable to account for your being so well
+acquainted with my manner of gaining a living."
+
+"Oh, I will soon explain all that to you. You must know I am waiting to
+see the person I came here to visit. Being quite alone, I could not
+help hearing all you said to your brother,--of your many trials, also of
+your dear children. So then, thinks I to myself, poor people should
+always be ready to assist each other. I hope you believe that I did not
+try to listen? And after that gentleman came and placed himself between
+us, I lost all that passed between your brother and yourself. So I tried
+to hit upon some way of being useful to you, and then it struck me that
+you being a fancy trimming-maker, I might be able to put work in your
+way more profitable than working for shops,--they pay so very little.
+So, if you are agreeable, we will take each other's address. This is
+where I live; now please to tell me where to send to you directly I have
+any work for you."
+
+With these words Rigolette presented one of her businesslike cards to
+the sister of Pique-Vinaigre, who, deeply touched by the words and
+conduct of the grisette, exclaimed with much feeling:
+
+"Your face does not belie your kind heart; and pray do not set it down
+for vanity if I say that there is something about you that reminds me so
+forcibly of my eldest daughter that when you first came in I could not
+help looking at you several times. I am very much obliged to you; and
+should you give me any work, you may rely on my doing it in my best
+possible manner. My name is Jeanne Duport, and I live at No. 1 Rue de la
+Barillerie,--No. 1, that is not a difficult number to recollect."
+
+"Thank you, madame."
+
+"Nay, 'tis rather for me to express thanks for having had the goodness
+even to think of serving a stranger like myself. But still I cannot help
+saying it does surprise me to be taken notice of by a young person like
+you, who most likely has never known what trouble was."
+
+"But, my dear Madame Duport," cried Rigolette, with a winning smile,
+"there is really nothing so astonishing in the affair. Since you fancy I
+bear some resemblance to your daughter Catherine, why should you be
+surprised at my wish to do a good action?"
+
+"What a dear, sweet creature it is!" cried Madame Duport, with
+unaffected warmth. "Well, thanks to you, I shall return home less sad
+than I expected; and perhaps we may have the pleasure of meeting here
+again before long, for I believe you, like me, come to this dreadful
+place to visit a prisoner?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I do," replied Rigolette, with a sigh, which seemed to
+proceed from the very bottom of her heart.
+
+"Then farewell for the present; we shall very shortly meet again, I
+hope, Mlle.--Rigolette!" said Jeanne Duport, after having referred for
+the necessary information to the card she held in her hand.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm sure I trust so, too. Good-bye, then, till we meet again,
+Madame Duport."
+
+"Well," thought Rigolette, as she returned and reseated herself on the
+bench, "at least I know this poor woman's address; and I feel quite sure
+M. Rodolph will assist her directly he knows what trouble she is in, for
+he always told me whenever I heard of a case of real distress to let him
+know, and I am sure this is one if ever there was." And here Rigolette
+suddenly changed the current of her ideas by wondering when it would be
+her turn to ask to see Germain.
+
+A few words as to the preceding scene. Unfortunately it must be
+confessed that the indignation of the unhappy brother of Jeanne Duport
+was quite legitimate. Yes, when he said that the law was too dear for
+the poor he spoke the truth. To plead before the civil tribunals incurs
+enormous expenses, impossible for workpeople to meet when they can
+scarcely subsist on the wages they earn.
+
+Ought not civil as well as criminal justice to be accessible to all?
+When persons are too poor to be able to invoke the benefits of any law
+which is eminently preservative and beneficial, ought not society at its
+own cost to enable them to attain it out of respect for the honour and
+repose of families?
+
+But let us speak no longer of the woman who must be, for all her life,
+the victim of a brutal and depraved husband, and speak of Jeanne
+Duport's brother. This freed prisoner leaves a den of corruption to
+reënter the world; he had submitted to his punishment, payed his debt by
+expiation. What precaution has society taken to prevent him from falling
+again into crime? None! If the freed convict has the courage to resist
+evil temptations, he will give himself up to one of those homicidal
+trades of which we have spoken.
+
+Then the condition of the freed convict is much more terrible, painful,
+and difficult than it was before he committed his first fault. He is
+surrounded by perils and rocks,--he must have refusal, disdain, and
+often even the deepest misery. And if he relapses and commits a second
+crime, you are more severe towards him than for his first fault a
+thousand times. This is unjust, for it is always the necessity you
+impose on him that makes him commit the second crime. Yes, for it is
+demonstrated that, instead of correcting, your penitentiary system
+depraves; instead of ameliorating, it renders worse; instead of curing
+slight moral defects, it renders them incurable.
+
+The severe punishment inflicted on offenders for the second time would
+be just and logical if your prisons, rendered moral, purified the
+prisoners, and if, at the termination of their punishment, good conduct
+was, if not easy, at least possible for them. If we are astonished at
+the contradictions of the law, what is it when we compare certain
+offences with certain crimes, either from the inevitable consequences,
+or from the immense disproportions which exist between the punishments,
+awarded to each?
+
+The conversation of the prisoner who came to see the bailiff will
+present one of these overwhelming contrasts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MAÎTRE BOULARD.
+
+
+The prisoner who entered the reception-room at the moment when
+Pique-Vinaigre left it was a man about thirty, with reddish brown hair,
+a jovial countenance, florid and full; and his short stature made his
+excessive fatness still more conspicuous. This prisoner, so rosy and
+plump, was attired in a long and warm dressing-gown of gray kersey, with
+pantaloons of the same down to his feet. A kind of cap of red velvet,
+called _Perinet-Leclerc_, completed this personage's costume, when we
+add that his feet were thrust into comfortable furred slippers. His gold
+chain supported a number of handsome seals with valuable stones, and
+several rings with real stones shone on the red fingers of the _détenu_,
+who was called Maître Boulard, a _huissier_ (a law-officer), and accused
+of breach of trust.
+
+The person who had come to see him was, as we have said, Pierre Bourdin,
+one of the _gardes de commerce_ (bailiffs) employed to arrest poor
+Morel, the lapidary. This bailiff was usually employed by Maître
+Boulard, the _huissier_ of M. Petit-Jean, the man of straw of Jacques
+Ferrand.
+
+Bourdin, shorter and quite as stout as the _huissier_, formed himself on
+the model of his employer, whose magnificence he greatly admired. Very
+fond as he was of jewelry, he wore on this occasion a superb topaz pin,
+and a long gilt chain was visible through the buttonholes of his
+waistcoat.
+
+"Good day, my faithful friend, Bourdin, I was sure you would not fail
+to come at my summons!" said Maître Boulard, in a joyful tone, and in a
+small, shrill voice, which contrasted singularly with his large carcass
+and full-moon face.
+
+"Fail at your summons!" replied the bailiff; "I am incapable of such
+behaviour, _mon général_."
+
+This was the appellation by which Bourdin, with a joke at once familiar
+and respectful, called the _huissier_, under whose orders he acted; this
+military appellation being very frequently used amongst certain classes
+of clerks and civil practitioners.
+
+"I observe with pleasure that friendship remains faithful to
+misfortune!" said Maître Boulard, with gay cordiality. "However, I was
+getting a little uneasy, as three days had elapsed, and no Bourdin."
+
+"Only imagine, _mon général_!--it is really quite a history. You
+remember that dashing vicomte in the Rue de Chaillot?"
+
+"Saint-Remy?"
+
+"Yes; you know how he laughed at all our attempts to 'nab' him?"
+
+"Yes; he behaved very ill in that way."
+
+"Well, this vicomte has got another title."
+
+"What, is he a comte?"
+
+"No, but from swindler he has become thief!"
+
+"Ah, bah!"
+
+"They are after him for some diamonds he has stolen; and, by the way,
+they belonged to the jeweller who used to employ that vermin of a Morel,
+the lapidary we were going to arrest in the Rue du Temple, when a tall,
+thin chap, with black moustaches, paid for this half-starved devil, and
+very nearly pitched me and Malicorne headlong down-stairs."
+
+"Ah, yes, yes, I remember; you told me all about it, Bourdin,--it was
+really very droll! But as to this dashing vicomte?"
+
+"Why, as I tell you, Saint-Remy was charged with robbery, after having
+made his worthy old father believe that he wished to blow out his
+brains. A police agent of my acquaintance, knowing that I had been long
+on the traces of the vicomte, asked me if I could not give him
+information so that he could 'grab' the dandy. I had learned (too late
+for myself) that he had 'run to earth' in a farm at Arnouville, five
+leagues from Paris; but when we got there the bird had flown!"
+
+"But next day he paid that acceptance,--thanks, as I have heard say, to
+some rich woman!"
+
+"Yes, general; but still I knew the nest, and he might have gone there
+again, and so I told my friend in the police. He proposed to me to give
+him a friendly cast of my office and show him the farm, and as I had
+nothing to do and it was a rural trip, I agreed."
+
+"Well, and the vicomte?"
+
+"Not to be found. After having lurked about the farm for some time, we
+gained admittance, and returned as wise as we went; and this is why I
+could not come to your orders sooner, general."
+
+"I was sure it was something of this sort, my good fellow."
+
+"But, if I may be allowed to ask, how the devil did you get here?"
+
+"Wretches, my dear fellow, a set of wretches who, for a miserable sixty
+thousand francs of which they declare I have wronged them, have charged
+me with a breach of trust and compelled me to resign my office."
+
+"Really, general! Well, that's unfortunate! And shall I then work for
+you no longer?"
+
+"I am on half pay now, Bourdin,--on the retired list."
+
+"But who are these vindictive persons?"
+
+"Why, only imagine, one of the most savage of all is a liberated
+convict, who employed me to recover the amount of a bill of seven
+hundred miserable francs, for which it was requisite to bring an action.
+Well, I brought the action, and got the money and used it; and because,
+in consequence of some unsuccessful speculations, I swamped that money
+and several other sums, all these blackguards have assailed me with
+warrants; and so you find me here, my dear fellow, neither more nor less
+than a malefactor."
+
+"And does it not alarm you, general?"
+
+"Yes; but the oddest thing of all is that this convict wrote me word
+some days ago that this money being his sole resource for bad times, and
+these bad times having arrived (I don't know what he means by that), I
+was responsible for the crimes he might commit in order to escape from
+starvation."
+
+"Amusing, 'pon my soul!"
+
+"Very; and the fellow is capable of saying this, but fortunately the law
+does not recognise any such accompliceships."
+
+"After all, you are only charged with breach of trust?"
+
+"That is all. Do you take me for a thief, Maître Bourdin?"
+
+"Oh, dear general! I meant to say there was nothing very serious in
+this."
+
+"Why, I don't look very down, do I, my boy?"
+
+"By no means; never saw you looking better. Indeed, if you are found
+guilty, you will only have two or three months, imprisonment and
+twenty-five francs fine. I know the law, you see!"
+
+"And these two or three months I shall contrive, I know, to pass quietly
+in some infirmary. I have a deputy at my elbow."
+
+"Oh, then, you're all right."
+
+"Yes, Bourdin; and I can scarcely help laughing to think what little
+good the fools who put me here have done themselves,--they will not
+recover a sou of the money they claim. They compel me to sell my
+post,--what do I care?"
+
+"True, general; it is only so much the worse for them."
+
+"Yes, my boy. And now for the subject on which I was anxious to see you,
+Bourdin; it is a very delicate affair,--there is a lady in the case!"
+said Maître Boulard, with mysterious self-complacency.
+
+"Oh, you gay deceiver! But, be it what it may, you may rely on me."
+
+"I am greatly interested in the welfare of a young actress at the
+theatre of the Folies-Dramatiques. I pay her rent; but, you know, the
+absent are always in the wrong! Alexandrine has applied to me for money.
+Now I have never been a very gay fellow, but yet I do not like to be
+made a fool of; so, before I comply, I should like to know if the lady
+is faithful. I know there is nothing more absurd and uncommon than
+fidelity, and so you will do me a friendly service if you could just
+watch her for a few days and let me know your opinion, either by a talk
+with the porter at her abode or--"
+
+"I understand, general," said Bourdin; "this is no worse than watching a
+debtor. Rely on me; I will have an eye to Mlle. Alexandrine,--although,
+I should say, you are too generous and too good-looking not to be
+adored!"
+
+"My good looks are no use, my friend, so long as I am absent; and so I
+rely on you to discover the truth."
+
+"Rely on me."
+
+"How can I, my dear fellow, prove my gratitude?"
+
+"Don't mention it, general."
+
+"Pray understand, my dear Bourdin, that your fees in this case will be
+the same as if you were after an arrest."
+
+"I can't allow it, general. As long as I act under your orders, have you
+not allowed me to shear the debtor to his very skin,--to double, treble,
+the costs of arrests? And have you not sued for those costs for me as
+eagerly as if they were due to yourself?"
+
+"But, my dear fellow, this is very different; and, in my turn, I declare
+I will not allow it."
+
+"_Mon général_, you will really make me quite ashamed if you do not
+allow me to make these inquiries as to Mlle. Alexandrine as a poor proof
+of my gratitude."
+
+"Well, well; be it so. I will no longer contend with your generosity;
+and your devotion will be a sweet reward to me for considerations I have
+always mixed up in our transactions."
+
+"Very good, general; and now we understand each other. Is there anything
+else I can do for you? You must be very uncomfortable here. I hope you
+are _à la pistole_ (in a private room)?"
+
+"Yes; I came just in time to get the only empty room,--the others are
+being repaired. I have made myself as comfortable as possible in my
+cell, and am not so very miserable. I have a stove and a very nice easy
+chair; I make three long meals a day, and my digestion is good; then I
+walk and go to sleep. Except my uneasiness about Alexandrine I have not
+so much to complain of."
+
+"But for you who were such an epicure, general, the prison diet is very
+poor."
+
+"Why, there is an excellent cookshop in my street, and I have a running
+account with him, and so every two days he sends me a very nice supply.
+And, by the way, I would get you to ask his wife--a nice little woman is
+Madame Michonneau--to put into the basket a bit of pickled thunny. It is
+in season now, and relishes one's wine."
+
+"Capital idea!"
+
+"And tell Madame Michonneau to send me a basket of various
+wines,--burgundy, champagne, and bordeaux,--like the last; she'll know
+what I mean. And tell her to put in two bottles of old cognac of 1817,
+and a pound of pure Mocha, fresh roasted and ground."
+
+"I'll put down the date of the cognac, lest I should forget it," said
+Bourdin, taking a memorandum-book from his pocket.
+
+"As you are writing, my good fellow, be so good as make a minute of my
+wish to have an eider-down quilt from my house."
+
+"All shall be done to the letter, general; make your mind easy. And now
+I shall be comfortable about your living. But your walks; you are
+compelled to take them along with those ruffians confined here?"
+
+"Yes; and it's really very lively and animated. I go down after
+breakfast; sometimes I go into one yard, sometimes another, and I mix
+with the mob. Really they appear very good sort of fellows! Some of them
+are very amusing. The most ferocious are collected in what is called the
+Fosse aux Lions. Ah, my good fellow, what hang-dog-looking fellows there
+are amongst them. There's one they call the Skeleton,--I never saw such
+a creature."
+
+"What a singular name!"
+
+"He is so thin, or rather bare of flesh, that this is the nickname which
+has been given to him; he is really frightful. He is, besides, director
+of his ward, and, moreover, an infernal villain. He has just left the
+galleys, and went directly to murder and assassination. But his last
+murder was really horrible, as he knew he should be condemned to death
+without chance of remission; but he laughs at it."
+
+"What a scoundrel!"
+
+"All the prisoners admire and tremble before him. I got into his good
+graces at once by offering him some cigars, and so he made a friend of
+me at once, and offered to teach me slang; and I have made considerable
+progress."
+
+"Oh, what an idea!--my general learning slang!"
+
+"I amuse myself as much as I can, and all these fellows adore me. I am
+not proud like a young fellow they call Germain, who gives himself the
+airs of a lord."
+
+"But he must be delighted at meeting with such a gentleman as you, even
+if he is disgusted with the others."
+
+"Why, really, he did not seem even to notice that I was there; but, if
+he had, I should have taken care how I took any notice of him. He is the
+_bête noire_ of the whole prison, and some day or other they'll play him
+a slippery trick; and, _pardieu!_ I have no wish to come in for my share
+of what may befall him."
+
+"You're right."
+
+"It would interfere with my pleasures, for my walk with the prisoners is
+really a pleasure to me; only these ruffians have no great opinion of me
+morally. You see, my accusation of a simple breach of trust is
+contemptible in the eyes of these out-and-outers; and they look on me as
+a nobody."
+
+"Why, really, with such criminals you are--"
+
+"A mere chicken, my dear fellow. But do not forget my commissions."
+
+"Make your mind easy, general. First, Mlle. Alexandrine; second, the
+fish-pie and basket of wine; third, the old cognac of 1817, the ground
+coffee, and the eider-down quilt; you shall have it all. Is there
+anything else?"
+
+"Yes, I forgot. You know the address of M. Badinot?"
+
+"The agent? Yes."
+
+"Well, be so kind as to call on him, and say that I rely on his
+friendship to find me a barrister such as my case requires, and that I
+shall not stand for forty or fifty pounds."
+
+"I'll see M. Badinot, depend upon it, general; and all your commissions
+shall be attended to this evening, and to-morrow you shall receive all
+you wish for. So good day, and a happy meeting to us soon, _mon
+général_."
+
+"Good-bye, my worthy friend!" And the prisoner quitted the parlour at
+one door, and the visitor by the other.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us now compare the crime of Pique-Vinaigre with that of M. Boulard,
+the _huissier_. Compare the beginning of the two, and the reasons, the
+necessities, which impelled them to evil. Compare, too, the punishment
+which awaited them respectively. The one, driven by his hunger and need,
+robs. He is apprehended, judged, and sentenced to fifteen or twenty
+years of hard labour and exposure. Property is sacred, and he who, in
+the night, breaks for plunder should undergo sacred punishment. But
+ought not the well-informed, intelligent, rich man who robs--not to
+satisfy hunger, but his caprices or gambling in the stocks--to be
+punished? Yet for the public spoliator there is two months'
+imprisonment; for the relapsed convict twenty years' hard labour and
+exposure. What can we add to these facts, which speak for themselves?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old turnkey kept his word; and when Boulard left the parlour,
+Germain entered, and Rigolette was only separated from him by a light
+wire grating.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FRANÇOIS GERMAIN.
+
+
+Although the features of Germain could not be styled regular, it was
+scarcely possible to see a more interesting countenance. There was an
+air of ease and elegance about him, while his slight, graceful figure,
+plain but neatly arranged dress (consisting of a pair of gray trousers
+and black frock coat, buttoned up to the chin), formed a striking
+contrast to the slovenliness and neglect to which the occupants of the
+prison generally gave themselves up; his white hands and well-trimmed
+nails evinced an attention to his personal appearance which had still
+further excited the ill-will of the prisoners against him, for bodily
+neglect is almost invariably the accompaniment of moral perversion. He
+wore his long and naturally curling chestnut hair parted on one side of
+his forehead, according to the fashion of the day, a style that well
+became his pale and melancholy countenance, and large, clear blue eyes,
+beaming with truth and candour; his smile, at once sweet and mournful,
+expressed benevolence of heart, mingled with a habitual dejection, for,
+though young, the unfortunate youth had already deeply tasted
+affliction.
+
+Nothing could be imagined more touching than the look of suffering
+impressed on his features, while the gentle and resigned cast of his
+whole physiognomy was but a fair transcript of the mind within, for a
+better, purer, or more upright heart could scarcely have beaten in human
+form.
+
+The very cause of his imprisonment (divested of the calumnious
+aggravations affixed to it by Jacques Ferrand) proved the goodness of
+his nature, and left him worthy of blame only for suffering himself to
+be led astray by his feelings to commit an action decidedly wrong, but
+still excusable if it be remembered that the son of Madame Georges felt
+perfectly sure of replacing on the following morning the sum temporarily
+taken from the notary's cash-box, for the purpose of saving Morel the
+lapidary, from being dragged from his family and confined in a prison.
+
+Germain coloured slightly as he perceived, through the grating of the
+visitor's room, the bright and charming countenance of Rigolette, who
+strove, as usual, to appear gay, in hopes of encouraging and enlivening
+her protégé a little; but the poor girl was too bad a dissembler to
+conceal the sorrow and agitation she invariably experienced upon
+entering the prison. She was seated on a bench at the outside of the
+grating, holding her straw basket on her lap.
+
+Instead of remaining in the adjoining passage, from whence every word
+could be heard, the old turnkey retired to the stove placed at the very
+extremity of the visiting-room, closed his eyes, and in a very few
+seconds was (as his breathing announced) fast asleep, leaving Germain
+and Rigolette at perfect liberty to converse at their ease.
+
+"Now then, M. Germain," cried the grisette, placing her pretty face as
+closely as she could to the grate, the better to examine the features of
+her friend, "let me see what sort of a countenance you have got to-day,
+and whether it is less sad than it was? Humph, humph--only middling!
+Now, do you know that I've a great mind to be very angry with you?"
+
+"Oh, no, you are too good for that. But how very kind of you to come
+again so soon!"
+
+"So soon! Does it seem to you so soon? You mean by those words to
+reproach me for coming so frequently. Well--"
+
+"Have I not good cause to find fault with you for taking so much pains
+and trouble for me, while I, alas! can merely thank you for all your
+goodness?"
+
+"That is a little mistake of yours, my fussy friend, because the little
+services in my power to render you afford me quite as much pleasure as
+they do you; so that, you see, I am as much bound to say 'Thank you for
+all favours,' as you are. So, you see, I am not to be cheated that way.
+And now I think of it, the best way to punish you for such very improper
+ideas will be not to give you what I have brought for you."
+
+"What! Another proof of your thoughtful care of me? Oh, you spoil
+me--you do, indeed! I shall be fit for nothing but to be somebody's pet
+when (if ever, alas!) I get out of prison. A thousand thanks! Nay, you
+must pardon my using that word, although it does displease you. But,
+indeed, you leave me nothing else to say."
+
+"Ah, but don't be in such a hurry to thank me, before you even know what
+I have brought!"
+
+"Why, what do I care what it is?"
+
+"Well, I'm sure that's very civil, M. Germain!"
+
+"Nay, I only meant to say that, be it what it may, it must needs be dear
+and precious to me, since it comes from you. Oh, Mlle. Rigolette, your
+unwearied kindness, your touching sympathy, fills me with the deepest
+gratitude, and--and--" But finding it impossible to conclude the
+sentence, Germain cast down his eyes and remained silent.
+
+"Well," said Rigolette, "and what else?"
+
+"And--devotion!" stammered out Germain.
+
+"Why could you not have said 'respect,' as people write at the end of a
+letter?" asked Rigolette, impatiently. "Ah, but I know very well that
+was not what you were going to say, else why did you stop all of a
+sudden?"
+
+"I assure you--"
+
+"There, don't endeavour to assure me of anything; I can see you are
+blushing through this grating. Now why can't you speak out, and tell me
+every thought and wish of your heart? Am I not your true and faithful
+friend as well as old companion?" continued the grisette, timidly, for
+she but waited the confession of Germain's love for her to tell him
+frankly and sincerely how truly she returned his affection with a
+passion as true and as generous as his own.
+
+"I assure you Mlle. Rigolette," said the poor prisoner with a sigh,
+"that I had nothing else to say, and that I am concealing nothing
+whatever from you."
+
+"For shame for shame," cried Rigolette, stamping her foot; "don't tell
+such stories. Now, look here," continued she, drawing a large, white,
+woollen neck wrapper from her basket; "do you see this beautiful thing?
+Well, I brought it on purpose for you. But now--to punish you for being
+so deceitful and sly--I will not give it to you. I knitted it on purpose
+for you, too; for, said I, it must be so damp and cold in those yards in
+the prison. And this nice, soft, woollen handkerchief is just the thing
+to keep him warm; he is so delicate!"
+
+"And is it possible you--"
+
+"Yes, sir, I said you were delicate--and so you are," cried Rigolette,
+interrupting him. "I suppose I may recollect, if I please, how chilly
+you used to be of an evening, though all the time you tried to conceal
+it, that you might hinder me from putting more wood on my fire when you
+came to sit with me. I've got a good memory, I can tell you; so don't
+contradict me."
+
+"And so have I," replied Germain, in a voice of deep feeling "far too
+good for my present position;" and, with these words, he passed his hand
+across his eyes.
+
+"Now then, I declare, I believe you are falling into low spirits again,
+though I so strictly forbade it."
+
+"How is it possible for me to avoid being moved even to tears, when I
+recollect all you have done for me ever since I entered this prison? And
+is not your last kind attention another proof of your amiable care for
+me? And do I not know that you are obliged to work at night to make up
+for the time it occupies for you to visit me in my misfortunes, and that
+on my account you impose additional labour and fatigue on yourself?"
+
+"Oh, if that be all you have to be miserable about I beg you will make
+very short work of it. Truly, I deserve a great deal of pity for taking
+a nice refreshing walk two or three times a week just to see a friend--I
+who so dearly love walking--and having a good stare at all the pretty
+shops as I come along."
+
+"And see, to-day, too, what weather you have ventured out in! Such wind
+and rain! Oh, it is too selfish of me to permit you thus to sacrifice
+your health for me!"
+
+"Oh, bless you, the wind and rain only make the walk more amusing. You
+have no idea what very droll sights one sees,--first comes a party of
+men holding on their hats with both hands, to prevent the storm from
+carrying them away; then you see an unfortunate individual with his
+umbrella blown inside out, making the most ludicrous grimaces, and
+shutting his eyes while the wind drives him about like a peg-top. I
+declare, all the way I came along this morning, it was more diverting
+than going to a play. I thought I should make you laugh by telling you
+of it; but there you are looking more dull, and solid, and serious than
+ever!"
+
+"Pray forgive me if I cannot be as mirthful as your kind heart would
+have me; you know I never have what is styled high spirits, and just now
+I feel it impossible even to affect them."
+
+Rigolette was very desirous of concealing that, spite of her lively
+prattle, she was to the full as sad and heavy-hearted as Germain
+himself could be. She therefore hastened to change the conversation by
+saying:
+
+"You say it is impossible for you to conquer your low spirits, but there
+are other things you choose to style impossibilities I have begged and
+prayed of you to do, because I very well know you could, if you chose."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean your obstinate avoidance of all the other prisoners, and never
+speaking to one of them; the turnkey has just been talking to me about
+it, and he says that for your own sake you ought to associate with them
+a little. I am sure it would not do you any harm; you do not speak; it
+is always the way. I see very well you will never be satisfied till
+these dreadful men have played you some dangerous trick in revenge."
+
+"You know not the horror with which they inspire me, any more than you
+can guess the personal reasons I have for avoiding and execrating them,
+and all who resemble them."
+
+"Indeed, but I do know your reasons! I read the accounts you wrote for
+me, and which I went to fetch away from your lodgings after your
+imprisonment; from them I learned all the dangers you had incurred upon
+your arrival in Paris, because, when you were in the country, you
+refused to participate in the crimes of the bad man who had brought you
+up; and that it was in consequence of the last snare they laid to catch
+you that you quitted the Rue du Temple, without telling any one but me
+where you had gone to. And I read something else, too, in those papers,"
+said Rigolette, casting down her eyes, while a bright blush dyed her
+cheeks; "I read things that--that--"
+
+"You would never have known, I solemnly declare," exclaimed Germain,
+eagerly, "had it not been for the misfortune which befell me. But let me
+ask you to be as generous as you are good; forget and pardon my past
+follies, my insane hopes. 'Tis true, in times past I ventured to
+indulge such dreams, wild and unfounded as they were."
+
+Rigolette had endeavoured a second time to draw a confession of his love
+from the lips of Germain by alluding to those tender and passionate
+effusions written by him, and dedicated to the remembrance of the
+grisette, for whom, as we have before stated, he had always felt the
+sincerest affection; but, the better to preserve the confiding
+familiarity with which he was treated by his pretty neighbour, he
+concealed his regard under the semblance of friendship.
+
+Rendered more timid and sensitive by imprisonment, he could not for an
+instant believe it possible for Rigolette to reciprocate the attachment
+of a poor prisoner like himself, whose character was, moreover,
+tarnished by so foul an accusation as he laboured under, while previous
+to this calamity she had never manifested more than a sisterly interest
+in him. The grisette, finding herself so little understood, stifled a
+sigh, and awaited with hopeful eagerness a better opportunity of opening
+the eyes of Germain to the real state of her heart. She contented
+herself, therefore, with merely replying:
+
+"To be sure, it is quite natural the sight of these wicked men should
+fill you with horror and disgust; but that is no reason for your
+exposing yourself to unnecessary dangers."
+
+"I assure you that, in order to follow your advice, I have endeavoured
+to force myself to converse with such as seemed the least depraved among
+them; but you can form no notion what dreadful men they are, or what
+shocking language they talk."
+
+"I dare say they do, poor unfortunate creatures! It must be horrid to
+hear them."
+
+"But there is something more terrible than that, the getting gradually
+used to the disgusting conversations which, in spite of yourself, you
+are compelled to hear all day long. Yes, I am sorry to say, I now hear
+with gloomy indifference horrible remarks and speeches that would have
+excited my utmost indignation when I first came here. So, you see,"
+continued Germain, bitterly, "I begin to be more afraid of myself than I
+am of them."
+
+"Oh, M. Germain!"
+
+"I am sure of it," pursued the unfortunate young man. "After a residence
+within a prison in company with such as are always to be found assembled
+there, the mind becomes accustomed to guilty thoughts, in the same
+manner as the ear gets inured to the coarse and vulgar expressions
+continually in use. Oh, God, I can well believe how possible it is to
+enter these walls innocent of the crimes ascribed to one, and to leave
+them with principles utterly and irretrievably perverted!"
+
+"But you never could be so changed! Oh, no, not you!"
+
+"Ay, me, and others twenty times better than myself! Alas, alas! those
+who condemn men to this fearful association little think that they
+expose their fellow creatures to breathe an air laden with the direst
+moral contagion, and inevitably fatal to every right or honourable
+feeling!"
+
+"Pray do not go on so! You know not how you grieve me!"
+
+"Nay, I but wished to explain to you why I am daily more and more
+melancholy. I wished not to have said so much, but I have only one way
+of repaying the pity you have evinced for me."
+
+"Pity? Pity? Indeed--"
+
+"Pardon me for interrupting you, but the only way by which I can acquit
+myself towards you is to speak with perfect candour; and, with
+shuddering alarm, I confess that I am no longer the same person I was.
+In vain do I fly these unfortunate wretches, their very presence, their
+contact seems to take effect on me; in spite of myself, I seem to feel a
+fatal influence in breathing the same atmosphere, as though the moral
+pestilence entered at every pore, and rested not till it had mingled
+with the heart's blood. Should I even be acquitted on my trial, the very
+sight of, and association with, good and virtuous men would cover me
+with shame and confusion; for, though I have not yet been able to find
+pleasure in the society of my companions, I have, at least, learned to
+dread the day when I shall again mix with persons of respectability,
+because now I am conscious of my weakness and cowardice; for is not he
+guilty of both who dares to make a compromise with his duties or his
+honesty? And have not I done so? When I first came here I did not
+deceive myself as to the extent of my fault, however excusable the
+circumstances under which it was committed might have seemed to make it;
+but now it appears to me an offence of a trifling description when
+compared with the crimes of which the robbers and murderers by whom I am
+surrounded make daily boast. And I sometimes surprise myself envying
+their audacious indifference, and blaming myself with my own weak
+regrets for so insignificant an action."
+
+"And so it was an insignificant action, far more generous than wrong.
+Why, what did you do but borrow for a few hours a sum of money you knew
+you could replace on the following morning; and that, too, not for
+yourself, but to save a whole family from ruin, perhaps death."
+
+"That matters not, it was a theft in the eyes of the law and all honest
+men. Doubtless it is better to rob with a good motive than a bad one,
+but it is a fearful thing to be obliged to seek an excuse for oneself by
+comparing one's own guilt with that of persons far beneath ourselves. I
+can no longer venture to compare my actions with those of upright
+persons, consequently, then, I am compelled to institute a comparison
+between myself and the degraded beings with whom I live; so that I
+plainly perceive in the end the conscience becomes hardened and is put
+to sleep. The next theft I commit, probably without the prospect of
+replacing the money, but from mere cupidity, I might still find an
+excuse for myself by comparing my conduct with that of a man who adds
+murder to theft; and yet at this moment there is as great a difference
+between me and a murderer as there is between a person of untainted
+character and myself. So, because there are beings a thousand times more
+degraded and debased than I am, by degrees my own degradation would
+become diminished in my estimation; instead of being able to say, as I
+once could, 'I am as honest a man as any I meet with,' I shall be
+obliged to content myself with saying I am the least guilty of the vile
+wretches among whom I am condemned for ever to live."
+
+"Oh, do not say for ever! Once released from this place--"
+
+"What should I gain even then? The lost creatures by whom I am
+surrounded are perfectly well acquainted with my person, and, were I
+even to be set free, I am exposed to the chance of meeting them again,
+and being hailed as a prison associate; and even though the fact of my
+imprisonment might be unknown, these unprincipled beings would be for
+ever threatening me to divulge it, thereby holding me completely in
+their power, by bands too firm for me to hope to break; while, on the
+other hand, had I been kept confined in my cell until my trial, they
+would have known nothing of me, or I of them; so that I should have
+escaped the fears which may paralyse my best resolutions. And, besides,
+had I been permitted to contemplate my fault in the solitude of my cell,
+instead of decreasing in my eyes, its enormity would have appeared still
+greater; and in the same proportion would the expiation I proposed to
+make have been augmented; and as my sin grew more and more apparent to
+my unbiassed view, so also would my earnest determination to atone for
+it by every means my humble sphere afforded have been strengthened; for
+well I know it takes a hundred good deeds to efface the recollection of
+one bad.
+
+"But how can I ever expect to turn my thoughts towards expiating a crime
+which scarcely awakens in me the smallest remorse? I tell you again--and
+I feel what I say--that I seem acting under some irresistible influence,
+against which I have long and fruitlessly struggled. I was brought up
+for evil, and, alone, friendless, and powerless to resist, I yield to my
+destiny. What matters it whether that destiny be accomplished by honest
+or dishonest means? Yet Heaven knows my thoughts and intentions were
+ever pure and upright; and I felt the greater satisfaction in the
+possession of an unsullied reputation, from recollection of all the
+attempts that had been made to lead me to a life of infamy; and mine has
+been a course of infinite difficulty while seeking to free myself from
+the odious wretches who wished to degrade me, and render me as vile as
+themselves.
+
+"But what avails my having been a person of unblemished honour and
+unspotted reputation? What am I now? Oh, dreadful, dreadful contrast!"
+exclaimed the unhappy prisoner, in an agony of tears and sobs, which
+drew a plenteous shower of sympathising drops from the tender-hearted
+grisette, who, guided by her natural right-mindedness, her woman's wit,
+as well as warmed by her deep affection for Germain, clearly perceived
+that, although as yet her protégé had lost none of the scrupulous
+notions of honour and probity he had ever entertained, yet that he spoke
+truly when he expressed his dread that the day might come when he would
+behold with guilty indifference those words and actions he now shuddered
+even to think of.
+
+Drying her eyes, therefore, and addressing Germain, who was still
+leaning his forehead against the grating, she said, in a voice and
+manner more touchingly serious than Germain had ever before observed:
+
+"Listen to me, Germain! I shall not, perhaps, be able to express myself
+as I could wish, for I am not a good speaker like you, but what I do say
+is uttered in all sincerity and truth; but first I must tell you you
+have no right to call yourself alone and friendless."
+
+"Oh, think not I can ever forget all your generous compassion has
+induced you to do to serve me!"
+
+"Just now, when you used the word pity, I did not interrupt you; but now
+that you repeat the word, or at least one quite as bad, I must tell you
+quite plainly that I feel neither pity nor compassion for you, but quite
+a different--Stay, I will try and explain myself as well as I can. While
+we were next-door neighbours, I felt for you all the regard due to one I
+esteemed as a friend and brother. We mutually aided each other; you
+shared with me all your Sunday amusements, and I did my very best to
+look as well and be as gay and entertaining as I could, in order to show
+how much I was gratified; so there again we were quits."
+
+"Quits? Oh, no, no! I--"
+
+"Now, do hold your tongue, and let me speak! I'm sure you have had all
+the talk to yourself this long while. When you were obliged to quit the
+house we lodged in, I felt more sorrow at your departure than I had ever
+done before."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, for all the other persons who had lived in your apartments
+were careless creatures, whom I did not care a pin for; while you, from
+the very first of our acquaintance, seemed just the sort of person I
+wanted to be my neighbour, because you could understand that I wished us
+to be good friends, and nothing more. Then you were so ready to pass all
+your spare time with me, teaching me to write, giving me good advice,--a
+little serious, to be sure, but all the better for that. You were ever
+kind and good, yet never presumed upon it in any way; and even when
+compelled to change your lodging, you confided to me a secret you would
+not have trusted to any one else,--the name of your new abode; and that
+made me so proud and happy, to think you should have so much reliance on
+the silence and friendship of a giddy girl like myself. I used to think
+of you so constantly that at last every other person seemed to be
+banished from my recollection, and you alone to occupy my memory. Pray
+don't turn away as if you did not believe me. You know I always speak
+the truth."
+
+"Indeed, indeed, I can scarcely believe that you were kind enough thus
+to remember me."
+
+"Oh, but I did, though; and I should have been very ungrateful had I
+acted otherwise. Sometimes I used to say to myself, 'M. Germain is the
+very nicest young man I know, though he is rather too serious at times;
+but never mind that. If I had a friend whom I wished to be very, very
+happy when she was married, I certainly should recommend her marrying M.
+Germain, who would make just such a husband as a good wife deserves to
+meet with.'"
+
+"You remembered me then, it seems, for the sake of bestowing me on
+another," murmured poor Germain, almost involuntarily.
+
+"Yes, and I should have been delighted to have helped you to obtain a
+good wife, because I felt a real and friendly interest in your
+happiness. You see I speak without any reserve; you know I never could
+disguise my thoughts."
+
+"Well, I can but thank you for caring enough about me even to wish to
+dispose of me in marriage to one of your acquaintances."
+
+"This was the state of things when your troubles came upon you, and you
+sent me that poor, dear letter in which you acquainted me with what you
+styled your fault, but which, to an ignorant mind like my own, seemed a
+noble and generous action. That letter directed me to go and fetch away
+your papers, among which I found the confession of your love for me,--a
+love you had never ventured to reveal; and there, too," continued
+Rigolette, unable longer to restrain her tears, "I learned that, kindly
+considering my future prospects (illness or want of employ might render
+so distressing), you wished, in the event of your dying a violent death
+(as your fears foretold might be the case), to secure to me the trifle
+you had accumulated by industry and care."
+
+"I did; and surely if, during my lifetime, you had been overtaken by
+sickness or any other misfortune, you would sooner have accepted
+assistance from me than from any other living creature, would you not? I
+flattered myself so, at least. Tell me, tell--I was right, that to me
+you would have turned for succour and support as to any true and devoted
+friend?"
+
+"Of course I should! Who else should I have thought of in any hour of
+need or sorrow but you, M. Germain?"
+
+"Thanks, thanks! Your words fall like healing drops upon my heart, and
+console me for all I have suffered."
+
+"But how shall I attempt to describe to you what I felt while reading
+that--oh, it is a dreadful word to utter!--that will, each word of which
+breathed only care and solicitude for my future welfare? And yet these
+tender, touching proofs of your sincere regard were to have been
+concealed from me till your death. Surely it was not strange that
+conduct so generous and delicate should at once have converted my
+feelings towards you into those of an affection sincere and fervent as
+your own for me. That is easily understood, is it not, M. Germain?"
+
+The large dark eyes of Rigolette were fixed on Germain with an
+expression so earnest and tender, her sweet voice pronounced the simple
+confession of her love in a tone so touchingly true to nature, that
+Germain, who had never for one instant flattered himself with having
+awakened so warm an interest in the heart of the grisette, gazed on her
+for an instant in utter inability to believe the words he heard; then,
+as the bright beaming look he encountered conveyed the truth to his
+mind, his colour varied from deepest red to deadly pale, he cried out in
+a voice quivering with emotion:
+
+"Can it be? Do I hear aright? Ah, repeat those dear words that I may
+feel convinced of their reality."
+
+"Why should I hesitate to assure you again and again that when I learned
+your kind consideration for me, and remembered how miserable and
+wretched you were, I no longer felt for you the calm feelings of
+friendship? And certainly, M. Germain," added Rigolette, smilingly,
+while a rosy blush mantled her intelligent features, "if I had a friend
+now I wished to see well married, I should be very sorry indeed to
+recommend her choosing you, because, because--"
+
+"You would marry me yourself!" exclaimed the delighted young man.
+
+"You compel me to tell you so myself, since you will not ask it of me."
+
+"Can this be possible?"
+
+"It is not from not having put you in the direct path more than once to
+make you understand. But you will not take a hint, and so, sir, I am
+compelled to confess the thing myself. It is wrong, perhaps; but, as
+there is no one but yourself to reprove my boldness, I have less fear;
+and then," added Rigolette, in a more serious tone, and with tender
+emotion, "you just now appeared to me so greatly overcome, so
+despairing, that I could no longer repress my feelings; and I had vanity
+enough to believe that this avowal, frankly made and from my heart,
+would prevent you from being unhappy in future. I said to myself, 'Until
+now I had been able to amuse or comfort him--' Ah, _mon Dieu!_ what is
+the matter?" exclaimed Rigolette, seeing Germain conceal his face in
+his hands. "Is not this cruel?" she added; "whatever I do, whatever I
+say, you are still as wretched as ever, and that is being too
+unkind--too selfish; it is as if it were you only who suffered from
+sorrows!"
+
+"Alas, what misery is mine!" exclaimed Germain, with despair; "you love
+me when I am no longer worthy of you."
+
+"Not worthy of me? Why, how can you talk so absurdly? It is just as if I
+said that I was not formerly worthy of your friendship because I had
+been in prison; for, after all, I have been a prisoner also; but am I
+the less an honest girl?"
+
+"But you were in prison because you were a poor forsaken girl; whilst
+I--alas, what a difference!"
+
+"Well, then, as to prison, we shall neither of us ever have anything to
+reproach each other with. It is I who am the more ambitious of the two;
+for, in my position, I have no right to think of any person but a
+workman for my husband. I was a foundling, and have nothing but my small
+apartment and my good spirits, and yet I come and boldly offer myself to
+you as a wife."
+
+"Alas, formerly such a destiny would have been the dream--the happiness
+of my life! But now I am under the odium of an infamous accusation; and
+should I take advantage of your excessive generosity, your
+commiseration, which no doubt misleads you? No, no!"
+
+"But," exclaimed Rigolette, with pained impatience, "I tell you that it
+is not pity I feel for you, it is love! I think of you only; I no longer
+sleep or eat. Your sad and gentle countenance follows me everywhere. Can
+that be pity only? Now, when you speak to me, your voice, your look, go
+to my very heart. There are a thousand things in you now which please
+me, and which I had not before marked. I like your face, I like your
+eyes, your appearance, your disposition, your good heart. Is that pity?
+Why, after having loved you as a friend, do I love you as a lover? I
+cannot say. Why was I light and gay when I liked you as a friend? Why am
+I quite a different being now I love you as a lover? I do not know. Why
+have I been so slow in finding you at once handsome and good,--in loving
+you at once with eyes and heart? I cannot say--or rather, yes--I can; it
+is because I have discovered how much you love me without having told me
+of it,--how generous and devoted you were. Then love mounted from my
+heart to my eyes, as a tear does when the heart is softened."
+
+"Really, I seem to be in a dream when I hear you speak thus!"
+
+"And I never could have believed that I could have told you all this,
+but your despair has forced me to it. Well, sir, now you know I love you
+as my friend, my lover--as my husband! Will you still call it pity?"
+
+The generous scruples of Germain were overcome in an instant before this
+plain and devoted confession, a hopeful joy prevailed over his painful
+reflections.
+
+"You love me?" he cried; "I believe you; your accent, your
+look,--everything proclaims it! I will not ask how I have merited such
+happiness, but I abandon myself to it blindly; my life, my whole life,
+will not suffice to pay my debt to you! Oh, I have greatly suffered
+already, but this moment effaces all!"
+
+"Then you will be comforted at last? Oh, I was sure I should contrive to
+do so!" cried Rigolette, in a transport of joy.
+
+"And it is in the midst of the horrors of a prison, and when all
+conspires to overwhelm me, that such happiness--"
+
+Germain could not conclude. This thought reminded him of the reality of
+his position. His scruples, for a moment lost sight of, returned more
+severe than ever, and he said, with despair:
+
+"But I am a prisoner--I am accused of robbery; I shall be
+sentenced--dishonoured, perhaps! And I cannot accept of your generous
+sacrifice--profit by your noble excitement. Oh, no, no; I am not such a
+villain as that!"
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"I may be sentenced to several years' imprisonment."
+
+"Well," replied Rigolette, with calmness and firmness, "they shall see
+that I am an honest girl, and they will not refuse to marry us in the
+prison chapel."
+
+"But I may be put in prison at a distance from Paris."
+
+"Once your wife, I will follow you and settle in the city where you may
+be. I shall find work there, and can see you every day."
+
+"But I shall be disgraced in the eyes of all."
+
+"You love me better than any one--don't you?"
+
+"Can you ask me such a question?"
+
+"Then of what consequence is it? So far from considering you as
+disgraced in my eyes, I shall consider you as the victim of your own
+kind heart."
+
+"But the world will accuse, condemn, calumniate your choice."
+
+"The world! Are not you the world to me--I to you? So let it say as it
+may!"
+
+"Well, quitting prison at length, my life will be precarious--miserable.
+Repulsed on all sides, I may, perhaps, find no employment, and then it
+is appalling to think! But if this corruption which besets me should
+seize on me in spite of myself, what a future for you!"
+
+"You will never grow corrupted. No; for now you know that I love you,
+this thought will give you the power of resisting bad examples. You will
+reflect that if all repulse you when you quit your prison, your wife
+will receive you with love and gratitude, assured, as she will be, that
+you will still be an honest man. This language astonishes you, does it
+not? It astonishes even myself. I do not know whence I derive all I say
+to you; from the bottom of my soul, assuredly--and that must convince
+you! That is, if you do not reject an offer made you most unreservedly,
+if you do not desire to reject the love of a poor girl who has only--"
+
+Germain interrupted Rigolette with impassioned voice:
+
+"Yes, indeed--I do accept--I do accept! Yes, I feel it. I am assured it
+is sometimes cowardly to refuse certain sacrifices; it is to avow
+oneself unworthy of them. I accept them, noble, brave girl!"
+
+"Really, really--are you really in earnest?"
+
+"I swear to you; and you have, too, said something which greatly struck
+me, and gives me the courage I want."
+
+"Delightful! And what did I say?"
+
+"That, for your sake, I should in future continue an honest man. Yes, in
+this thought I shall find strength to resist the detestable influences
+which surround me. I shall brave contagion, and know how to keep worthy
+of your love the heart which belongs to you."
+
+"Oh, Germain, how happy I am! If I have ever done anything for you, how
+you recompense me now!"
+
+"And then, observe, although you excuse my fault I shall never forget
+it. My future task will be double: to expiate the past and deserve the
+happiness I owe to you. For that I will do my best, and, as poor as I
+may be, the opportunity will not fail me, I am sure."
+
+"Alas! that is true; for we always find persons more unfortunate than
+ourselves."
+
+"And if we have no money, why--"
+
+"We give our tears, as I did for the poor Morels."
+
+"And that is holy alms. 'Charity of the soul is quite equal to that
+which bestows bread.'"
+
+"You accept, then, and will never retract?"
+
+"Never, never, my love--my wife! My courage returns to me, and I seem as
+though awaking from a dream, and no longer doubt myself. My heart would
+not beat as it does if it had lost its noblest energies."
+
+"Oh, Germain, how you delight me in speaking so! How you assure me, not
+for yourself but for myself. So you will promise me, now you have my
+love to urge you on, that you will no longer be afraid to speak to these
+wicked men, so that you may not excite their anger against you?"
+
+[Illustration: "_Touched with His Lips through the Grating_"
+Original Etching by Mercier]
+
+"Take courage! When they saw me sad and sorrowful, they accused me, no
+doubt, of being a prey to my remorse; but when they see me proud and
+joyous, they will believe their pernicious example has gained on me."
+
+"That's true; they will no longer suspect you, and my mind will be easy.
+So mind, no rashness, no imprudence, now you belong to me,--for I am
+your little wife."
+
+At this moment the turnkey awoke.
+
+"Quick," said Rigolette, in a low voice, and with a smile full of grace
+and modest tenderness, "quick, my dear husband, and give me a loving
+kiss on my forehead through the grating; that will be our betrothing."
+And the young girl, blushing, bowed her forehead against the iron
+trellis.
+
+Germain, deeply affected, touched with his lips through the grating her
+pure and white forehead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Oh, oh! What, three o'clock already?" said the turnkey; "and visitors
+ought to leave at two! Come, my dear little girl," he added, addressing
+the grisette, "it's a pity, but you must go."
+
+"Oh, thanks, thanks, sir, for having allowed us thus to converse alone!
+I have given Germain courage, and now he will look livelier, and need
+not fear his wicked companions."
+
+"Make yourself easy," said Germain, with a smile; "I shall in future be
+the gayest in the prison."
+
+"That's all right, and then they will no longer pay any attention to
+you," said the guardian.
+
+"Here is a cravat I have brought for Germain, sir," said Rigolette.
+"Must I leave it at the entrance?"
+
+"Why, perhaps you should; but still it is such a very small matter! So,
+to make the day complete, give him your present yourself." And the
+turnkey opened the door of the corridor.
+
+"This good man is right, and the day will be complete," said Germain,
+receiving the cravat from Rigolette's hands, which he pressed tenderly.
+
+"Adieu; and to our speedy meeting! Now I am no longer afraid to ask you
+to come and see me as soon as possible."
+
+"Nor I to promise you. Good-bye, dear Germain!"
+
+"Good-bye, my dear girl!"
+
+"Wear the cravat, for fear you should catch cold; it is so damp!"
+
+"What a pretty cravat! And when I reflect that you knitted it for me!
+Oh, I will never let it leave me!" said Germain, pressing it to his
+lips.
+
+"Now, then, your spirits will revive, I hope! And so good-bye, once
+more. Thank you, sir. And now I go away, much happier and more assured.
+Good-bye, Germain!"
+
+"Farewell, my dear little wife!"
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+A few minutes afterwards, Rigolette, having put on her goloshes and
+taken her umbrella, left the prison more joyfully than she had entered
+it. During the conversation of Germain and the grisette, other scenes
+were passing in one of the prison yards, to which we will now conduct
+the reader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE LIONS' DEN.
+
+
+If the appearance of a house of confinement, constructed with every
+attention to salubrity and humanity, has nothing repulsive in its
+aspect, the sight of the prisoners causes a very different feeling. At
+the sight of the criminals who fill the gaols, we are at first seized
+with a shudder of fear and horror. It is only after some reflection that
+this is overcome, and feelings of pity mixed with bitterness overcome
+us.
+
+To understand the feeling of horror and fear, our reader must follow us
+to the Fosse aux Lions (the Lions' Den), one of the yards in La Force so
+called. In this are usually placed the most dangerous criminals, whose
+ferocity, or the charges against whom, are most serious. At this time
+they had been compelled to place there, in consequence of the
+alterations making in the prison, many other prisoners. These, although
+equally under accusations and awaiting the assizes, were almost all
+respectable persons in comparison with the usual occupants of the Lions'
+Den. The sky, gloomy, gray, and rainy, cast a dull light over the scene
+we are about to depict, and which took place in the centre of the yard
+of considerable extent, square, and enclosed by high white walls, having
+here and there several grated windows.
+
+At one end of this yard was a narrow door with a wicket; at the other
+end, at the entrance to the day-room, a large apartment with a stove in
+the centre, surrounded by wooden benches, on which were sitting and
+lying several prisoners conversing together. Others, preferring
+exercise, were walking up and down the walks, four or five in a row, arm
+in arm. It requires the pencil of Salvator or Goya, in order to sketch
+the different specimens of physical and moral ugliness, to render in its
+hideous fantasy the variety of costumes worn by these men, for the most
+part covered with squalid rags,--for being only accused, _i. e._
+supposed innocent, they were not clad in the usual uniform of the
+central houses. Some, however, wore it; for on their entrance into gaol,
+their rags appeared so filthy and infected that, after the usual washing
+and bath, they had the frock and trousers of coarse gray cloth, as worn
+by the criminals, assigned to them.
+
+A phrenologist would have observed attentively those embrowned and
+weather-beaten countenances, those flat or narrow foreheads, those cruel
+or crafty looks, the wicked or stupid mouth, the enormous neck,--they
+nearly all presented frightful resemblances to brutes. In the cunning
+looks of one was seen the perfidious subtlety of the fox, in another was
+the sanguinary rapacity of the bird of prey, in a third, the ferocity of
+a tiger; and, in all, the animal stupidity of the brute. We will sketch
+one or two of the most striking physiognomies in the Fosse aux Lions.
+
+Whilst the turnkey was watching his charge, a sort of council was being
+held in the day-room. Amongst the prisoners there assembled were
+Barbillon and Nicholas Martial. The prisoner who appeared to preside and
+lead in this debate was a scoundrel called the Skeleton, whose name has
+been often mentioned by the Martial family in the Isle du Ravageur. The
+Skeleton was _prévôt_, or captain, of the day-room. This fellow was tall
+and about forty years of age, fully justifying his sinister nickname by
+a meagreness impossible to describe, but which might almost be termed
+osteologic.
+
+If the countenance of the Skeleton presented more or less analogy with
+that of the tiger, the vulture, or the fox, the shape of his forehead,
+receding as it did, his bony, flat, and lengthened jaws, supported by a
+neck of disproportioned length, instantly reminded you of the
+conformation of a serpent. Complete baldness increased still more this
+hideous resemblance, for beneath the corded skin of his forehead, nearly
+as flat as a reptile's, might be distinguished the smallest
+protuberances, the smallest sutures of his skull. His beardless face was
+exactly like old parchment tightly distended over the bones of his face,
+and only somewhat stretched from the projection of the cheek-bone to the
+angle of the lower jaw, the working of which was distinctly visible. His
+eyes, small and lowering, were so deeply imbedded, and the rim of his
+brow so prominent, that under his yellow brow, when the light fell, were
+seen two orbits literally filled with shadows; and, a little further on,
+the eyes seemed to disappear in the depths of these two dark cavities,
+these two black holes, which gave so sinister an aspect to the skeleton
+head. His long teeth, whose alveolar projections were to be accurately
+traced beneath the tanned skin of his bony and flat jaws, were almost
+continually developed by a habitual sneer.
+
+Although the stiffened muscles of this man were almost reduced to
+tendons, he possessed extraordinary strength, and the strongest resisted
+with difficulty the grasp of his long arms, his long and lean fingers.
+He had the formidable clutch of a skeleton of iron. He wore a blue
+smock-frock, very short, and which exposed (and he was vain of it) his
+knotted hands and half his forearm, or rather two bones, the radius and
+the ulna (this anatomy will be excused us), two bones enveloped in a
+coarse and black skin, separated by a deep groove, in which were some
+veins hard and dry as cords. When he placed his hands on a table he
+seemed, as Pique-Vinaigre justly remarked, as if he were spreading out a
+game of knuckle-bones.
+
+The Skeleton, after having passed fifteen years of his life at the
+galleys for an attempt at robbery and murder, had broken his ban and
+been taken in the very act of theft and murder. The last assassination
+had been committed with circumstances of such ferocity that the ruffian
+made up his mind, and with reason, that he should be condemned to death.
+The influence which the Skeleton exercised over the other prisoners,
+from his strength, energy, and wickedness, had caused him to be chosen
+by the director of the prison as _prévôt_ of the dormitory,--that is to
+say, the Skeleton was charged with the police of the chamber as far as
+concerned its order, arrangement, and the cleanliness of the room and
+the beds, a duty which he discharged perfectly; and no prisoner dared to
+fail in the cares and duties which he superintended. The Skeleton was
+discoursing with several prisoners, amongst whom were Barbillon and
+Nicholas Martial.
+
+"Are you sure of what you say?" inquired the Skeleton of Martial.
+
+"Yes, yes,--a hundred times, yes! Father Micou heard it from the
+Gros-Boiteux, who has already tried to knock this hound on the head
+because he peached about some one."
+
+"Then let's do for him,--brush him up!" said Barbillon. The Skeleton was
+already inclined to give that skulking Germain a turn of his hand.
+
+The _prévôt_ took his pipe from his mouth for a moment, and then said,
+in a tone so low and husky as to be scarcely audible:
+
+"Germain kept aloof from us, gave himself airs, watched us,--for the
+less one talks the more one listens. We meant to get rid of him out of
+the Fosse aux Lions, and if we had given him a quiet squeeze, they'd
+have taken him away."
+
+"Well, then," inquired Nicholas, "what alteration need there be now?"
+
+"This alteration," replied the Skeleton; "that if he has turned
+informer, as the Gros-Boiteux declares, he mustn't get off with a quiet
+squeeze."
+
+"By no manner o' means!" said Barbillon.
+
+"We must make an example of him," continued the Skeleton, warming as he
+went on. "It is not now the nabs who look out for us, but the noses.
+Jacques and Gauthier, who were guillotined the other day, were informed
+against,--nosed; Rousillon, sent to the galleys for life,--nosed."
+
+"And me, and my mother, and Calabash, and my brother at Toulon," cried
+Nicholas; "have we not all been nosed by Bras-Rouge? To be sure we have;
+because, instead of shutting him up here with us, he has been sent to La
+Roquette. They daren't put him with us; he knew he had done us wrong,
+the old--"
+
+"Well," added Barbillon, "and didn't Bras-Rouge nose upon me, too?"
+
+"And I, too," said a young prisoner, in a thin voice, and lisping
+affectedly. "I was split upon by Jobert, who had proposed to me a little
+affair in the Rue St. Martin."
+
+The latter personage, with a fluty voice, pale, fat, and effeminate
+face, and with a sly and treacherous glance, was singularly attired. He
+wore as a head-dress a red pocket-handkerchief, which exposed two locks
+of light brown hair close to his temples; the two ends of his
+handkerchief formed a projecting rosette over his forehead; his cravat
+was a merino shawl, with a large pattern, which crossed over his chest;
+his mulberry-coloured waistcoat almost disappeared beneath the tight
+waistband of a very large pair of trousers of plaid, with very large and
+different-coloured checks.
+
+"And was not that shameful? Such a man to turn against me!" he added, in
+his shrill voice. "Yet, really, nothing in the world would have made me
+distrust Jobert."
+
+"I know very well that he sold you, Javatte," replied the Skeleton, who
+seemed to protect the prisoner peculiarly; "and as a proof that they
+have done for thy nose the same as they have done for Bras-Rouge, they
+have not dared to leave Jobert here, but sent him to the stone jug of
+the Conciergerie. Well, there must be an end put to this! There must be
+an example; for traitors are doing the work of the police, and believe
+themselves safe in their skins because they are put in a different
+prison from those on whom they have nosed."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"To prevent this, every prisoner should consider every nose as his
+deadly enemy. Whether he informs against Peter or James, here or there,
+that's nothing; fall on him tooth and nail. When we have made cold meat
+of four or five in the prisons, the others will think twice before they
+turn 'snitch.'"
+
+"You're right, Skeleton," said Nicholas; "and let Germain be number
+one."
+
+"And no mistake," replied the _prévôt_; "but let us wait until the
+Gros-Boiteux arrives. When, for instance, he has proved to all the world
+that Germain is a nose the thing shall be settled out of hand; the calf
+shall bleat no more, we'll stop his wind."
+
+"And what shall we do with the turnkeys who watch us?" inquired the
+prisoner whom the Skeleton called Javatte.
+
+"I have my plan, which Pique-Vinaigre will aid."
+
+"He! He's a coward."
+
+"And no stronger than a flea."
+
+"I'm awake. Where is he?"
+
+"He had come out of the visiting-room, but went back again to see his
+lawyer."
+
+"And is Germain still in the visiting-room?"
+
+"Yes, with the little wench who comes to see him."
+
+"When he returns be on your guard. But we must wait for Pique-Vinaigre,
+without him we can do nothing."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And Germain shall be done for?"
+
+"I'll take care of that."
+
+"But with what? They have taken all our knives away."
+
+"What do you think of these nippers, would you like to have your neck in
+their clutch?" asked the Skeleton, opening his long bony fingers, hard
+as iron.
+
+"You'll choke him?"
+
+"Decidedly."
+
+"But if they find out that it is you?"
+
+"Well, what if they do? Am I a calf with two heads, such as they show at
+the fair?"
+
+"No, that's true; a man has but one throat, and yours--"
+
+"Is sentenced; my lawyer told me so yesterday. I was taken with my hand
+in the bag, and my knife in the weasand of the stiff'un. I'm a 'return
+horse,' too; so nothing can be more certain. I'll drop my head into
+Charlot's (the headsman's) basket, and I shall see if it's true that he
+does his customers, and puts sawdust into his basket instead of the bran
+which government allows us."
+
+"True, the guillotine has a right to its bran. Now, I remember my father
+was robbed in the same way," said Nicholas Martial, with a ferocious
+grin.
+
+This horrid jest created immense laughter amongst the prisoners. This is
+fearful, but far from exaggeration; we give but a faint idea of these
+conversations, so common in prisons. The prisoners were all laughing
+joyously.
+
+"Thousand thunders!" cried the Skeleton. "I wish they who punish us
+would come and see how we bear it. If they will come to the Barrière St.
+Jacques the day of my benefit they will hear me address the audience in
+a neat and appropriate speech, and say to Charlot, in a gentlemanly
+tone, 'Père Sampson, the cord if you please.'"[1]
+
+  [1] To understand this horrid jest the English reader must know
+  that the doors in France are usually opened by the porter, who
+  sits in his room and pulls a cord to allow the person going out
+  to have free egress; and the blade of the guillotine glides
+  down the grooves of the machine, after a spring has been set in
+  motion, by touching a cord that acts upon it.
+
+Fresh bursts of laughter hailed this jest.
+
+"And then Charlot opens the baker's (the devil's) door," continued the
+Skeleton, still smoking his pipe.
+
+"Ah, bah! Is there a devil?"
+
+"You fool, I was only joking. There's a sharp blade, and they put a head
+under it, and that's all. And now that I know my road, and must stay at
+the abbey of _Mont-à-Regret_ (guillotine), I would rather go there
+to-day than to-morrow," said the Skeleton, with savage excitement. "I
+wish I was there now,--my blood comes into my mouth when I think what a
+crowd there'll be to see me; there'll be, at least, I should say, from
+four to five thousand who will push and squeeze to get good places, and
+they'll hire seats and windows, as if for a grand procession. I hear 'em
+now crying, 'Seats to let! Seats to let!' And then there'll be troops of
+soldiers, cavalry and infantry, and all for me,--for the Skeleton!
+That's enough to rouse a man if he was as big a coward as
+Pique-Vinaigre, that would make you walk like a hero. All eyes on you,
+and that makes a fellow pluck up; then--'tis but a moment--a fellow dies
+game, and that annoys the big-wigs and curs, and gives the knowing ones
+pluck to face the chopper."
+
+"That's true, on Gospel!" added Barbillon, trying to imitate the fearful
+audacity of the Skeleton; "they think to make us funky when they set
+Charlot to work to get his shop open at our expense."
+
+"Ah, bah!" said Nicholas, in his turn; "we laugh at Charlot and his
+shop; it is like the prison or the galleys,--we laugh at them, too; and
+so, that we may be all friends together, let's be jolly as long as we
+can."
+
+"The thing that would do us," said the shrill-voiced prisoner, "would be
+to put us in solitary cells day and night. They do say they mean to do
+so at last."
+
+"In solitary cells!" exclaimed the Skeleton, with repressed rage; "don't
+talk of it! Solitary cell--alone! Hold your tongue! I would rather have
+my arms and legs cut off! Alone within four walls! Quite alone--without
+having our pals to laugh with! Oh, that will never be! I like the
+galleys a hundred times better than the central prison, because at the
+galleys, instead of being shut up, one is out-of-doors, sees the world,
+people going and coming, and has his jokes and fun. Well, I'd rather be
+done for at once than be put in a solitary cell, if only for a year.
+Yes, for at this moment I am sure to be guillotined--ain't I? Well, if
+they said to me, 'Would you rather have a year of solitary confinement?'
+I should hold out my neck. A year all alone! Why, is it possible? What
+do they suppose a man thinks of when he is alone?"
+
+"Suppose you were carried there by main force?"
+
+"Well, I wouldn't stay; I would make such use of my hands and feet that
+I should escape," replied the Skeleton.
+
+"But if you couldn't,--if you were unable to escape?"
+
+"Then I'd kill the first person who came near me, in order to have my
+head chopped off."
+
+"But if, instead of sentencing such as us to death, they condemned us to
+be in solitary confinement for life?"
+
+The Skeleton appeared struck at this remark, and, after a moment's
+silence, replied:
+
+"Why, then, I'll tell you what I should do,--I should dash out my brains
+against the walls. I would starve rather than be in a solitary cell.
+What, all alone! all my life alone with myself,--and no chance of
+escape! I tell you it is impossible. Well, you know, there's no man more
+reckless than I am--I'd kill a man for a dollar, and for nothing if my
+honour was concerned; they believe I have only killed two persons, but
+if the dead could tell tales there are five tongues could say what I
+have done."
+
+The ruffian was boasting. The sanguinary declarations are still another
+trait of the hardened criminals. A governor of a prison said to us, "If
+the assassinations boasted of by these scoundrels were really committed,
+the population would be decimated."
+
+"And I, too," said Barbillon, desirous of bragging in his turn; "they
+think I only silenced the husband of the milk-woman in the Cité, but I
+did many others with tall Robert, who suffered last year."
+
+"I was going to say," continued the Skeleton, "that I fear neither fire
+nor devil. Well, if I were in a solitary cell, and certain I could not
+escape,--thunder! I believe I should be frightened!"
+
+"And so, if you had to begin your time over again as prig and throttler,
+and if, instead of central houses, galleys, and guillotine, there were
+only solitary cells, you would hesitate before such a chance?"
+
+"_Ma foi!_ I believe I really should!" replied the Skeleton.
+
+And he said truly. It is impossible to describe the vast terror which
+such ruffians experience at the very idea of being in solitary
+confinement. And is not this very terror an eloquent plea in favour of
+this punishment?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An uproarious noise made by the prisoners in the yard interrupted the
+Skeleton's council. Nicholas rose hastily, and went to the door of the
+room to discover the cause of this unusual tumult.
+
+"It is the Gros-Boiteux," said Nicholas, returning.
+
+"The Gros-Boiteux!" exclaimed the _prévôt_. "And has Germain come down
+from the visiting-room?"
+
+"Not yet," replied Barbillon.
+
+"Then let him make haste," said the Skeleton, "and I'll give him an
+order for a new coffin."
+
+The Gros-Boiteux, whose arrival was so warmly hailed by the prisoners in
+the lions' den, and whose information might be so fatal to Germain, was
+a man of middle stature; but, in spite of being fat and crippled, he was
+nimble and vigorous. His countenance, brutal like that of most of his
+companions, was of the bulldog character; his low forehead, his small
+yellow eyes, his flaccid cheeks, his heavy jaws, the lower being very
+projecting, and armed with long teeth, or, rather, broken fangs, which
+in places projected beyond his lips, made his resemblance to that animal
+the more striking. He wore a felt cap, and over his clothes a blue cloak
+with a fur collar.
+
+The Gros-Boiteux was accompanied into the prison by a man about thirty
+years of age, whose tanned and freckled face appeared less dissolute
+than that of the other prisoners, although he affected to appear as
+dogged as his companion. From time to time his features became overcast,
+and he smiled bitterly. The Gros-Boiteux soon found himself amongst his
+boon companions and acquaintances, and he could scarcely reply to the
+congratulations and kind words which came to him from all sides.
+
+"What, is it you, old boy? All right! Now we shall have some fun."
+
+"You haven't hurried yourself."
+
+"Still I have done all I could to see my friends again as soon as
+possible, and it was no fault of mine if the stone jug didn't claim me
+sooner."
+
+"Don't doubt you, old boy! And a man doesn't pick out a gaol as his
+favourite residence; but once trapped he does his best to be jolly."
+
+"And so we shall be, for Pique-Vinaigre is here."
+
+"Is he? What, one of the old customers of Melun? Why, that's capital!
+For he'll help us to pass the time with his stories, and his customers
+will not fail him, for there are more recruits coming in."
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"Why, just now at the entrance, whilst I came in, I saw two fresh chaps
+brought in; one I didn't know, but the other, who wore a blue cotton cap
+and a gray blouse, I have seen before somewhere. He is a
+powerful-looking man, and I think I have met him at the Ogress's of the
+White Rabbit."
+
+"I say, Gros-Boiteux, don't you remember at Melun I bet you a wager that
+in less than a year you would be nabbed again?"
+
+"To be sure I do, and you've won. But what are you here for?"
+
+"Oh, I was caught on the prigging lay--_à la Americaine_."
+
+"Ah, always in the same line."
+
+"Yes, I continue in my usual small way. The rig is common, but there are
+always 'culls'; and but for the stupidity of a pal I should not be here.
+However, once caught twice warned; and when I begin again I will be more
+careful,--I have my plan."
+
+"Ah, here's Cardillac!" said the Boiteux, going to a little man
+wretchedly dressed, with ill-looking aspect, full of craft and
+malignity, and with features partaking of the wolf and fox. "Ah, old
+chap, how are you?"
+
+"Ah, old limper," replied the prisoner nicknamed Cardillac to the
+Gros-Boiteux; "they said every day, 'He's coming--he's not coming!' But
+you are like the pretty girls, you do as you like."
+
+"Yes, to be sure."
+
+"Well," replied Cardillac, "is it for something spicy that you are here
+now?"
+
+"Yes, my dear fellow, I had done one or two good things, but the last
+was a failure; it was an out-and-out-go, and may still be done.
+Unfortunately, Frank and I overshot the mark."
+
+And the Gros-Boiteux pointed to his companion, towards whom all eyes now
+turned.
+
+"Ah, so it is--it's Frank!" said Cardillac; "I didn't know him again
+because of his beard. What, Franky! Why, I thought you'd turned honest,
+and was, at least, mayor of your village."
+
+"I was an ass, and I've suffered for it," said Frank, quickly; "but
+every sin has its repentance. I was good once, and now I'm a prig for
+the rest of my days. Let 'em look out when I get out."
+
+"What happened to you, Frank?"
+
+"What happens to every free convict who is donkey enough to think he can
+turn honest. Fate is just! When I left Melun I'd saved nine hundred and
+odd francs."
+
+"Yes, that's true," said the Gros-Boiteux, "all his misfortunes have
+come from his keeping his savings, instead of spending 'em jolly when he
+left the 'jug.' You see what repentance leads to!"
+
+"They sent me, _en surveillance_, to Etampes," replied Frank; "being a
+locksmith by trade, I went to a master in my line and said to him, 'I am
+a freed convict, I know no one likes to employ such, but here are nine
+hundred francs of my savings, give me work, my money will be your
+guarantee, for I want to work and be honest.'"
+
+"What a joke!"
+
+"Well, you'll see how it answered. I offered my savings as a guarantee
+to the master locksmith that he might give me work. 'I'm not a banker to
+take money on interest,' says he to me, 'and I don't want any freed
+convicts in my shop. I go to work in houses to open doors where keys are
+lost, I have a confidential business, and if it were known that I
+employed a freed convict amongst my workmen I should lose my customers.
+Good day, my man.'"
+
+"Wasn't that just what he deserved, Cardillac?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"You simpleton!" said the Gros-Boiteux to Frank, with a paternal air;
+"instead of breaking your ban at once, and coming to Paris to melt your
+mopusses, so that you might not have a sou left, but be compelled to
+return to robbing. You see the end of your fine ideas."
+
+"That's what you are always saying," said Frank, with impatience; "it is
+true I was wrong not to spend my 'tin,' for I have not even enjoyed it.
+Well, as there were only four locksmiths in Etampes, he whom I had first
+addressed had soon told all the others, and they said to me as had said
+their fellow tradesman, 'No, thank ye.' All sung the same song."
+
+"Only see, now, what it all comes to! You must see that we are all
+marked for life."
+
+"Well, then, I was on the idle of Etampes, and my money melted and
+melted," continued Frank, "but no work came. I left Etampes, in spite of
+my surveillance, and came to Paris, where I found work immediately, for
+my employer did not know who or what I was, and it's no boast to say I
+am a first-rate workman. Well, I put my seven hundred francs which I had
+remaining into an agent's hands, who gave me a note for it; when that
+was due he did not pay me, so I took my note to a _huissier_, who
+brought an action against him, and recovered the money, which I left in
+his hands, saying to myself there's something for a rainy day. Well,
+just then I met the Gros-Boiteux."
+
+"True. Well, Frank was a locksmith and made keys, I had a job in which
+he could be of service, and I proposed it to him. I had the prints, and
+he had only to go to work, when, only imagine, he refused,--he meant to
+turn honest. So, says I, I'll arrange about that, I'll make him work,
+for his own interest. So I wrote a letter, without any signature, to his
+master, and another to his fellow workmen, to inform them that Frank was
+a liberated convict,--so the master turned him away. He went to another
+employer and worked there for a week,--same game again; and if he had
+gone to a dozen I'd have served him in the same way."
+
+"And if I had suspected that it was you who had informed against me,"
+answered Frank, "I'd have given you a pleasant quarter of an hour to
+pass. Well, I was at length driven away from my last employer as a scamp
+only fit to be hanged. Work, then,--be respectable,--so that people may
+say, not 'What are you doing?' but 'What have you done?' Once on the
+_pavé_ I said, 'Fortunately I have my savings to fall back upon.' So I
+went to the _huissier_, but he had cut his stick, and spent my 'tin';
+and here was I without a feather to fly with, not even enough to pay for
+a week's lodging. What a precious rage I was in! Well, at this moment
+comes the Gros-Boiteux, and he took advantage of my situation. I saw it
+was useless trying to be honest, and that once on the prig there's no
+leaving it. But, old Gros, I owe you a turn."
+
+"Come, Frank, no malice!" replied the Gros-Boiteux. "Well, he did his
+part like a man, and we entered upon the business, which promised
+royally; but, unfortunately, at the moment when we opened our mouths to
+swallow the dainty bit, the 'traps' were down upon us. Couldn't be
+helped, you know, lad! If it wasn't for that, why, our profession would
+be too good."
+
+"Yet if that vagabond of a _huissier_ had not robbed me I should not
+have been here," said Frank, with concentrated rage.
+
+"Well, well," continued the Gros-Boiteux, "do you mean to say that you
+were better off when you were breaking your back with work?"
+
+"I was free," retorted Frank.
+
+"Yes, on Sundays and when you were out of work, but the rest of the week
+you were tied up like a dog, and never sure of employ. Why, you don't
+know when you are well off."
+
+"Will you teach me?" said Frank, bitterly.
+
+"Well, you've a right to be vexed, for it was shameful to miss such a
+good stroke; but it is still to be done in a month or two. The people
+will become reassured, and it is a rich, very rich house. I shall be
+sentenced for breaking my ban, and so cannot resume the job, but if I
+find an amateur I will hand it over to him a bargain. My woman has the
+prints, and there is nothing to do but make new keys, and with the
+information I can give it must succeed. Why, there must be, at least,
+400_l._ to lay hands on, and that ought to console you, Frank."
+
+Frank shook his head, crossed his hands over his chest, and made no
+reply.
+
+Cardillac took the Gros-Boiteux by the arms, led him into a corner of
+the yard, and said to him, after a moment's silence:
+
+"Is the affair you have failed in still good?"
+
+"In two months as good as new."
+
+"Can you prove it?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And what do you ask for it?"
+
+"A hundred francs as earnest; and I will give you the word arranged with
+my woman, on which she will hand you the prints, from which you can make
+the false keys. And, moreover, if the thing comes off, I shall expect a
+fifth share of the swag to be handed over to my woman."
+
+"That's not unreasonable."
+
+"As I shall know to whom she has given the prints, if I am done out of
+my share I shall know whom to inform against."
+
+"And very right, too, if you were choused; but amongst prigs and
+cracksmen there's honour,--we must rely on each other, or all business
+would be impossible."
+
+Another anomaly in this horrid existence. This villain spoke the truth.
+It is very seldom that thieves fail in their faith in such arrangements
+as these, but they usually act with a kind of good faith,--or, rather,
+that we may not prostitute the word, we will say that necessity compels
+these ruffians to keep their words; for if they failed, as the companion
+of the Gros-Boiteux said, "All business would be impossible." A great
+number of robberies are arranged, bought, and plotted in this way in
+gaol,--another pernicious result of confinement in common.
+
+"If what you say is sure," continued Cardillac, "I can agree for the
+job. There are no proofs against me, I am sure to be acquitted, and in a
+fortnight I shall be out; let us add three weeks in order to turn
+oneself about, to get the false keys, and lay our plans, and then in six
+weeks from this--"
+
+"You'll go to the job in the very nick of time."
+
+"Well, then, it's a bargain."
+
+"But how about the earnest? I must have something down."
+
+"Here is my last button, and when I have no more,--yet there are others
+left," said Cardillac, tearing off a button covered with cloth from his
+ragged blue coat, and then tearing off the covering with his nails, he
+showed the Gros-Boiteux that, instead of a button-mould, it contained a
+piece of forty francs. "You see I can pay deposit," he added, "when the
+affair is arranged."
+
+"That's the ticket, old fellow!" said the Gros-Boiteux. "And as you are
+soon going out, and have got rhino to work with, I can put you up to
+another thing,--a real good go,--the cheese,--a regular affair which my
+woman and myself have been cooking up, and which only wants the
+finishing stroke. Only imagine a lone street in a deserted quarter, a
+ground floor, looking on one side into an obscure alley, and on the
+other a garden, and here two old people, who go to roost with the cocks
+and hens since the riots, and, for fear of being robbed, they have
+concealed behind a panel, in a pot of preserves, a quantity of gold; my
+woman found it out by gossiping with the servant. But I tell you this
+will be a dearer job than t'other, for it is in hard cash, and all
+cooked ready to eat and drink."
+
+"We'll arrange it, be assured. But you haven't worked over well since
+you left the central."
+
+"Yes, I have had a pretty fair chance. I got together some trifles which
+brought me nearly sixty pounds. One of my best bites was a pull at two
+women who lodged in the same house with me in the Passage de la
+Brasserie."
+
+"What, at Daddy Micou's?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And your Josephine?"
+
+"Just the same; a real ferret as ever. She cooks with the old couple I
+have mentioned to you, and so smelt out the pot with the golden honey in
+it."
+
+"She's nothing but a trump!"
+
+"I flatter myself she is. But, talking of trumps, you know the
+Chouette?"
+
+"Yes; Nicholas has told me the Schoolmaster did for her, and he has gone
+mad."
+
+"Perhaps from losing his sight through some accident. But I say, old
+fellow, it's quite understood that you will buy my two bargains, and so
+I shall not speak to any one else."
+
+"Don't; and we will talk them over this evening."
+
+"Well, and how are you getting on here?"
+
+"Oh, we laugh and play the fool."
+
+"Who's _prévôt_ of the chamber?"
+
+"The Skeleton."
+
+"He's not to be joked with. I have seen him at Martial's, in the Isle du
+Ravageur. We had a flare-up with Josephine and La Boulotte."
+
+"By the way, Nicholas is here."
+
+"So Micou told me when he made a lament that Nicholas was putting the
+screw on--an old hunks! Why, what else were receivers made for?"
+
+"Here is the Skeleton," said Cardillac, as the _prévôt_ appeared at the
+door of the room.
+
+"Young 'un, come forward," said the Skeleton to the Gros-Boiteux.
+
+"Here I am," he replied, going into the apartment, accompanied by Frank,
+whose arm he held.
+
+During the conversation between the Gros-Boiteux, Frank, and Cardillac,
+Barbillon had been, by order of the _prévôt_, to select twelve or
+fifteen of the choicest prisoners, who (in order to avoid the suspicions
+of the turnkey) had come separately into the day-room. The other
+_détenus_ had remained in the yard, and some of them, by Barbillon's
+advice, had appeared to be disputing, in order to take off the attention
+of the turnkey from the room in which were now assembled the Skeleton,
+Barbillon, Nicholas, Frank, Cardillac, the Gros-Boiteux, and some
+fifteen other prisoners, all awaiting with impatient curiosity until the
+_prévôt_ should open the business.
+
+Barbillon, charged with the look-out, placed himself near the door. The
+Skeleton, taking his pipe from his mouth, said to the Gros-Boiteux:
+
+"Do you know a slim young man named Germain, with blue eyes, brown hair,
+and the look of a noodle?"
+
+"What! Is Germain here?" inquired the Gros-Boiteux, with surprise, hate,
+and anger in his looks.
+
+"What, then, you know him?" said the Skeleton.
+
+"Know him?" replied the Gros-Boiteux. "Why, my lads, I denounce him as a
+nose, and he must be punished!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" replied the prisoners.
+
+"Are you sure it was he who informed against you?" asked Frank; "suppose
+it was a mistake,--we mustn't ill-use a man who's innocent."
+
+This remark was displeasing to the Skeleton, who leaned over to the
+Gros-Boiteux, and said in his ear:
+
+"Who is this man?"
+
+"One with whom I have worked."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes--but he hasn't gull enough--too much treacle in him."
+
+"Good, I'll keep an eye on him."
+
+"Tell us how Germain turned nose," said a prisoner.
+
+"Yes, let us know all about it, Gros-Boiteux," continued the Skeleton,
+who did not take his eyes off Frank.
+
+"Well, then," said Gros-Boiteux, "a man of Nantes, named Velu, a freed
+convict, brought up the young fellow, whose birth no one is acquainted
+with. When he had reached the proper age they put him into a
+banking-house at Nantes, thinking they had put a wolf to watch the
+money-box, and make use of Germain to do a bold and great stroke which
+had been meditated for a very long time. There were to be two _coups_, a
+forgery and a dip into the strong chest at the bank, something like a
+hundred and fifty thousand francs. All was arranged, and Velu relied on
+the young fellow as on himself, for the chap slept in the room in which
+the iron safe was. Velu told him his plans; Germain neither says yes or
+no, but reveals all to his employer, and the very same evening cuts his
+stick and mizzles to Paris."
+
+The prisoners burst into various murmurs of indignation and threats.
+
+"He's a spy--nose--informer!--and we'll have the bones out of his body!"
+
+"If it's agreeable, I'll seek a quarrel with him, and settle his hash!"
+
+"Silence in the stone jug!" exclaimed the Skeleton, in a tone of
+command.
+
+The prisoners were silent.
+
+"Go on," said the _prévôt_ to Gros-Boiteux, and he went on smoking.
+
+"Believing that Germain had consented, and relying on his assistance,
+Velu and two of his friends attempted the job that same night. The
+banker was on the watch; one of Velu's friends was taken as he was
+entering a window, he himself escaping with difficulty. He reached Paris
+enraged at having been sold by Germain, and foiled in a splendid affair.
+One fine day he met the young fellow; it was in the open daylight, and
+he didn't dare do anything, but he followed him, found out where he
+lived, and one night we two, Velu and little Ledru, fell on Germain.
+Unfortunately he escaped, and then changed his residence in the Rue du
+Temple, where he lived; we were unable to find him afterwards. But if he
+is here, I demand--"
+
+"You have nothing to demand," said the Skeleton, in a tone of authority.
+
+The Gros-Boiteux was instantly silent.
+
+"I take the bargain off your hands; you will concede to me Germain's
+skin, and I'll flay him alive. I am not called the Skeleton for nothing.
+I am dead-alive, my grave is dug, and I run no risk in working for the
+stone jug. The informers destroy us faster than the police; they put
+noses of La Force into La Roquette, and the noses of La Roquette in the
+Conciergerie, and they think themselves safe. Now, mind you, when each
+prison shall have killed its informer, no matter when he may have
+informed, that will take away the others' appetite. I will set the
+example, and let others follow it."
+
+All the prisoners, admiring the Skeleton's resolution, closed around
+him. Barbillon himself, instead of remaining near the door, joined the
+group, and did not perceive another prisoner, who had entered the room.
+This individual, clothed in a gray blouse, and wearing a blue cotton cap
+with a red worsted border, pulled down over his eyes, started as he
+heard the name of Germain mentioned, and then, mingling with the
+Skeleton's admirers, gave out loud tones of approbation at the deadly
+determination of the _prévôt_.
+
+"What an out-and-outer the Skeleton is!" said one.
+
+"The devil himself is a fool to him!"
+
+"This here's what I call a man!"
+
+"If all were like him, wouldn't the flats be afeard?"
+
+"He'll do a real service to the stone jug, and when they see this, the
+noses will look blue."
+
+"And no mistake!"
+
+"And since the Skeleton is safe to suffer, why, it'll cost him nothing
+to put a nose out of joint!"
+
+"Well, I think it's too bad," said Frank, "to kill the young chap."
+
+"Why? Why?" exclaimed the Skeleton, in a savage tone; "no one has a
+right to protect a traitor."
+
+"Yes, to be sure, he is a traitor,--so much the worse for him," said
+Frank, after a moment's reflection.
+
+These latter words, and Gros-Boiteux's assurance, put the doubts which
+the other prisoners had entertained against Frank to rest.
+
+The Skeleton alone continued to mistrust him.
+
+"And what are we to do with the turnkey? Tell us, Dead-Alive, for that
+is your name as well as the Skeleton," said Nicholas, with a grin.
+
+"We must draw off his attention somehow."
+
+"No; we'll hold him down by main force."
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Silence in the stone jug!" said the Skeleton.
+
+There was complete silence.
+
+"Listen to me!" said the _prévôt_, in his hoarse voice. "There is no
+means of doing the thing so long as the turnkey remains in the day-room
+or the walking-yard. I have no knife, and there must be a few groans,
+for the sneak will struggle."
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"Why, this. Pique-Vinaigre has promised to tell us to-day after dinner
+his story of 'Gringalet and Cut-in-Half.' It rains, and we shall all
+come here, and the sneak will come and sit down there in the corner, as
+he always does. We'll give Pique-Vinaigre some sous that he may begin
+his tale. It will be dinner-time in the gaol; the turnkey will see us
+quietly employed in listening to the miraculous mystery of 'Gringalet
+and Cut-in-Half,' and will, suspecting no harm, make off to the tap. As
+soon as he has left the yard we shall have a quarter of an hour to
+ourselves, and the nose will be cold meat before the turnkey can return.
+I will undertake it,--I who have done for stouter fellows in my day; and
+mind, I'll have no assistance!"
+
+"Mind your eye!" cried Cardillac; "and what about the _huissier_ who
+will always come for a gossip amongst us at dinner-time? If he comes
+into the room to listen to Pique-Vinaigre, and sees Germain done for, he
+will cry out for help. He's not one of us, the _huissier_,--he's in a
+private cell, and we should mistrust him."
+
+"Is there a _huissier_ here?" said Frank, the victim as we know of a
+breach of trust, by Maître Boulard. "Is there a _huissier_ here?" he
+repeated, with astonishment, "and what is his name?"
+
+"Boulard," replied Cardillac.
+
+"The very man! The identical villain!" cried Frank, clenching his fists.
+"It is he who has stolen my savings!"
+
+"The _huissier_?" inquired the _prévôt_.
+
+"Yes, seven hundred francs of mine."
+
+"You know him? And has he seen you?" inquired the Skeleton.
+
+"I have seen him, worse luck! But for him I should not be here."
+
+These regrets sounded ill in the Skeleton's ears, and he fixed his
+malignant eyes steadfastly on Frank, who replied to several of his
+comrade's questions. Then stooping towards the Gros-Boiteux, he said, in
+a low voice:
+
+"This is a fresh 'un who might tell the turnkey."
+
+"No, I'll answer for his not informing against any one; yet still he has
+his scruples about going the whole hog, and he might aid Germain in
+defending himself. It would be best to get him out of the yard."
+
+"I'll do it," said the Skeleton; and then aloud he said, "I say, Frank,
+won't you pitch into this thief of a lawyer?"
+
+"Won't I, that's all!"
+
+"Well, he's coming, and so look out."
+
+"I'm ready, and he shall bear my marks!"
+
+"We shall have a row, and they will send the _huissier_ to his room and
+Frank to the black-hole," said the Skeleton, in an undertone, to the
+Gros-Boiteux; "we shall thus get rid of both."
+
+"What a lucky pitch! Why, this Skeleton is a prime minister!" said the
+Boiteux, admiringly; and then he added, in a loud tone, "I say, shall we
+tell Pique-Vinaigre that we shall avail ourselves of his history to come
+over the turnkey and throttle the sneak?"
+
+"By no means; Pique-Vinaigre is too soft and too cowardly. If he was up
+to the thing he wouldn't tell the story, but when the job is done and
+over he'll bear his share."
+
+The dinner-bell sounded at this moment.
+
+"To your puddings, dogs!" said the Skeleton; "Pique-Vinaigre and Germain
+will soon be in the yard. Now mind your eyes, my boys! They call me
+Dead-Alive, but the sneak is also dead-alive!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE STORY-TELLER.
+
+
+The new prisoner of whom we have spoken, and who was dressed in a gray
+blouse, with a cotton cap on his head, had attentively listened to and
+energetically applauded the scheme for punishing the reserve of Germain,
+even at the expense of his life. This individual, whose form betokened
+strength and power of no ordinary description, quitted the day-room with
+the rest of the prisoners without being noticed, and soon mingled with
+the different groups assembled in the courtyard to receive their
+rations, crowding around the persons employed in the distribution like
+so many hungry cormorants.
+
+Each prisoner received a piece of the meat employed in making the day's
+soup, with about half a loaf of tolerably good bread. Such of the
+_détenus_ as possessed the means were allowed to purchase drink at the
+wineshop belonging to the prison, and even to go thither to regale
+themselves with their lush; while persons who, like Nicholas, had
+received provisions from their friends, generally made a sort of feast,
+to which they invited their most intimate acquaintances. The guests
+selected by the son of the executed felon upon the present occasion were
+the Skeleton, Barbillon, and, at the suggestion of the latter,
+Pique-Vinaigre, in order that good eating and drinking might quicken his
+talent for "storytelling."
+
+The ham, hard boiled eggs, cheese, and delicate white bread, wrung from
+the forced generosity of Micou the receiver, were arranged most
+temptingly on a bench in the day-room, and the Skeleton prepared himself
+to do ample justice to the repast, without in the slightest degree
+disturbing his appetite by the thoughts of the cold-blooded murder that
+was to follow it.
+
+"Just go and see whether Pique-Vinaigre is coming, will you, my fine
+fellow?" cried he, addressing an individual who stood near him. "I tell
+you what it is, while I'm waiting to choke that stuck-up young fool they
+call Germain, I'm blowed if hunger and thirst won't choke me, if I have
+to dawdle about much longer. And here; don't forget to work old Frank up
+to do for the bum-bailiff, so that we may kill two birds with one stone,
+as the saying is."
+
+"Don't you be afraid, old Dead-Alive! If Frank don't make a stiff'un of
+the bailey, it won't be our fault, that you may take your oath of!" And,
+while uttering these words, Nicholas went forth from the day-room.
+
+At this moment Maître Boulard entered the yard, smoking a cigar, his
+hands buried in the pockets of his gray duffle dressing-gown, his peaked
+cap pulled down well over his ears, and a look of chuckling satisfaction
+upon his fat, full-blown countenance. He quickly espied Nicholas, who
+was busily occupied gazing around in search of Frank. That person was at
+that precise period of time busily occupied, in company with his friend
+Gros-Boiteux, in eating his dinner, and, from the position in which they
+sat on one of the benches, they perceived not the presence of the
+bailiff. Acting in implicit obedience to the directions given him by the
+Skeleton, directly Nicholas, from the corner of his eye, descried the
+approach of Maître Boulard, he feigned entire ignorance of his vicinity,
+but made for the place where Frank and his companions were seated.
+
+"How are you, my ticket?" inquired the bailiff of Nicholas.
+
+"Bless me!" answered he; "I declare I didn't see you. I suppose you're
+like me, come out to take a sniff of fresh air and have your daily
+walk?"
+
+"Why, that's about it. But I happen to have more reasons than one
+to-day; and I tell you how it is. But, first of all, catch hold of one
+of these cigars; they're deuced good ones. Come, don't be so missy and
+shy about it; take as many as you like. Hang it all, when men are shut
+up together in a place like this, they oughtn't to be stingy."
+
+"You are very good, and so are your cigars. But you were saying you had
+several reasons for walking out to-day?"
+
+"Well, and so I have. First and foremost, I don't feel as hungry as
+usual; so, thinks I, I'll go and look on while those chaps eat their
+dinner. Who knows but the sight of their jaws all working away together
+may screw me up a bit, and give me a relish against feeding-time?"
+
+"A famous idea!" said Nicholas. "But if you really do want to see a
+couple of feeders, just draw this way. There!" added he, pointing to the
+bench on which Frank was sitting; "what do you think of a pair of
+grubbers like those? I should say we were better behind than before
+them, or they might even swallow us instead of those huge lumps of bread
+and cheese and onions so rapidly stowed away in their capacious jaws."
+
+"Let's have a look at them!" said Maître Boulard.
+
+"Well, to be sure!" cried Nicholas, with feigned surprise; "I declare
+one of them is Gros-Boiteux!"
+
+Gros-Boiteux and Frank both turned around at these words. Stupefied and
+speechless, the bailiff continued to gaze in utter amazement at the man
+he had so wronged, while, starting up with a sudden spring, Frank threw
+down the morsel he had been eating, and darting on Maître Boulard, he
+seized him by the throat, exclaiming, "My money--my money; give me my
+money!"
+
+"Hallo! Who are you? What do you mean? Hands off, or you'll strangle me!
+I--"
+
+"My money, I say!"
+
+"My good man, only calm yourself and listen to reason!"
+
+"No, not till you give me back my money. What, aren't you satisfied with
+having brought me here? Can you not restore me what you stole from me?"
+
+"But I--I--I--never--"
+
+"I tell you again, if I get sent to the galleys 'tis all along of you;
+for had you not taken my little all from me, I should not have been
+driven to the necessity of robbing others; I might have lived and died
+an honest man. You may be acquitted, you may escape the punishment you
+deserve, but, at least, you shall carry my marks away with you. Ha, ha!
+You can come it grand, and swagger about here dressed up with your gold
+chains and trinkets, bought, no doubt, with the money of other poor
+devils who have been cheated by you as I have been. Take that for your
+pains--and that--that--and that! Now, have you had enough? No! Then
+here's for you again!"
+
+"Help, help!" screamed the bailiff, as he rolled on the ground at
+Frank's feet, while his infuriated antagonist continued to belabour him
+with all his force.
+
+The rest of the prisoners took little or no interest in this affray, but
+contented themselves with forming a circle around the two combatants, or
+rather the assailant and the assailed; for Maître Boulard, frightened
+and out of breath, made not the slightest resistance, but contented
+himself with warding off his adversary's blows as well as he could.
+Fortunately, the repeated cries of the poor maltreated bailiff reached
+the ears of one of the superintending officers, by whose intervention he
+was rescued from the rough hands of Frank. Pale, terrified, and almost
+speechless with terror, Maître Boulard arose. One eye was wholly closed
+by the severe beating he had received, and without giving himself time
+to pick up his cap, he wildly cried, as he rushed towards the officer:
+
+"Open the door! Let me out--let me out! I can't and I won't stay here
+another minute. Help, here! Help, help!"
+
+"As for you," exclaimed the officer, grasping Frank by the collar, "do
+you come along with me before the governor. I know you'll catch it, too,
+for fighting; two days in the black-hole is the very least you'll get, I
+promise you."
+
+"I've paid him off, at any rate," returned Frank; "and I don't care for
+the rest."
+
+"I say," whispered Gros-Boiteux, while affecting to be merely helping to
+arrange his dress, "I say, you won't breathe a word of what's going to
+happen to the sneak, of course?"
+
+"Oh, don't be afraid; 'tis just likely, had I been by, I might have
+stood up in his defence, because to kill a man in that manner
+is--hard--at least--and for such a trifle! But as for telling of it, or
+betraying you all--oh, no!"
+
+"Now, then," called out the officer, "I say, are you coming or are you
+not?"
+
+"That's all right!" said Nicholas. "We've got well rid of Frank and the
+bailiff, now let's go to work without further loss of time upon the
+sneak!"
+
+As Frank was being led from the prison yard, Germain and Pique-Vinaigre
+entered it. It was scarcely possible to recognise Germain, for his
+hitherto melancholy and dejected countenance was radiant with joy and
+exulting happiness. He walked proudly erect, casting around him a look
+of certain and assured content; he knew himself to be beloved, and with
+that consciousness all the horrors of his prison seemed to disappear.
+Pique-Vinaigre followed him with a timid, confused air, and, after much
+hesitation, at length plucked up sufficient courage to venture to
+address Germain, whose arm he gently touched, ere the intended victim
+had reached the group of prisoners, who, from a distance, were examining
+him with looks of deadly hatred. Spite of himself, Germain shuddered at
+thus being brought into contact with a person of Pique-Vinaigre's
+appearance, whose wretched person and ragged attire were ill-calculated
+to impress any one with a favourable opinion of him; but recollecting
+the earnest advice of Rigolette, and feeling altogether too happy
+himself to act with any want of benevolence, Germain stopped, and said
+to Pique-Vinaigre, in a gentle tone of voice:
+
+"What do you want with me, my friend?"
+
+"I want to thank you."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For the kindness shown to my sister by the pretty young woman who
+visited you to-day."
+
+"I really do not understand you," said Germain, much surprised.
+
+"Well, then, I'll try and make you. Just now, when I was in the lodge of
+the prison, I saw the man who was on duty in the visitors' room a little
+while ago."
+
+"Ah, yes, a very good-hearted sort of man, too. I recollect him well."
+
+"It is not often you can apply that term to the gaolers of a prison, but
+the man I mean (Rousel is his name) is really deserving of being styled
+a kind, good-hearted man. So, all of a sudden, he whispers in my ear, 'I
+say, Pique-Vinaigre, my lad,' he says, 'do you know M. Germain?' 'Yes,'
+says I, 'I do,' says I; 'he's the _bête noire_ of the prison yard.'"
+Then suddenly interrupting himself, Pique-Vinaigre said to Germain, "I
+beg your pardon for calling you a _bête noire_. Don't, think anything of
+that, but listen to the end of my story."
+
+"Oh, I'm listening; go on."
+
+"'Yes,' says I, 'I know who you mean very well,' says I. 'You mean M.
+Germain, the _bête noire_ of the prison yard.' 'And of you, too, I
+suppose?' said the officer, in a severe and serious manner. 'Oh, bless
+you,' says I, 'I am too good-natured, as well as too much of a coward,
+to venture to call any one disagreeable; and less M. Germain than any
+one else,' says I, 'for I don't see any harm in him, and other folks
+appear to me very cruel and unjust towards him.' 'That's all right,
+then,' answers the officer; 'and I can tell you that you are bound to
+side with M. Germain, for he has been very kind to you,' he says. 'To
+me?' says I; 'how do you mean?' 'Well,' he answers, 'I don't mean M.
+Germain exactly, and it ain't to you altogether he's been kind; but
+still, for all that,' says Rousel, 'you are bound to show him your
+gratitude.'"
+
+"Try," said Germain, smilingly, "and make me understand what it is you
+do mean."
+
+"That's precisely what I said to the officer. 'Speak more clearly,' I
+says. So then he makes answer, 'Why, it was not M. Germain, but the very
+pretty young person that was here just now to see him, who loaded your
+sister with all sorts of kindnesses. She overheard the poor thing
+telling you all her troubles; and directly as the creature went out, the
+charming young woman as come visiting to M. Germain went and offered to
+serve her in every way she could.'"
+
+"Dear, good Rigolette!" murmured Germain, deeply affected by this little
+incident; "she said not one word to me of all this."
+
+"'Well, to be sure!' I says to the officer; 'what a poor stupid goose I
+am!' 'You are quite right--you are!' M. Germain--leastways, his
+friend--has been good to me,--that is to say to my sister Jeanne, which
+is the same thing, only much more than if the favour had been done to
+myself."
+
+"Poor, dear Rigolette!" said Germain; "ever the same tender,
+compassionate, generous-hearted creature!"
+
+"So then the officer goes on to say how he heard all that passed between
+your nice young woman and my poor sister Jeanne. 'And now,' he says,
+'Pique-Vinaigre, that you are aware of the fact, if you don't try to
+show kindness by every means in your power to M. Germain, and more
+especially, if you should know of any plot got up against him and not
+warn him of it, why,' he says, 'Pique-Vinaigre, you would be a regular
+scamp and a blackguard.' 'I tell you what,' I makes answer and says,
+'I'm an unfinished scamp as yet, but I'm no blackguard, and, what's
+more, I never will be worse than I am, for the sake of my poor dear
+Jeanne and her children; and so because M. Germain's friend has taken
+notice of my Jeanne, who is one of the best and worthiest creatures that
+ever lived,--I may venture to boast of my sister, though I am ashamed of
+myself, but for that reason I will do all in my power to save or serve
+M. Germain; unfortunately, I can do but little, after all!' 'Never mind!
+Do your best; that is all I ask of you. But I will give you the pleasure
+of being the pleasing bearer of news to M. Germain, which, indeed, I
+have only just learned myself.'"
+
+"What is it?" inquired Germain.
+
+"That to-morrow morning there will be a vacant chamber you can have for
+paying for, then you will be all to yourself. The officer desired me to
+tell you so."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Germain; "how truly glad I am to hear it! That
+worthy man was right in saying you would be the bearer of pleasant
+news."
+
+"Well, I do think so myself; for it is quite easy to perceive that you
+do not feel comfortable among such poor wretches as we are." Then
+suddenly breaking off, Pique-Vinaigre hastily added, in a low whisper,
+while feigning to stoop, as though searching for something he had
+dropped, "Hark ye, M. Germain, the prisoners are all looking at us,
+wondering what we are talking about. I must go. But be on your guard;
+and if any one tries to quarrel with you, don't make any answer; they
+want a pretext for all attacking you at once. Barbillon is the one
+chosen to provoke you, so take especial care of him. I will try and turn
+the attention of the others from being directed towards you in a
+spiteful manner." And, with these words, Pique-Vinaigre rose up from his
+stooping position, with the air of one who had found the object of his
+search.
+
+"Thanks, my good fellow!" said Germain, eagerly, as he separated from
+his companion; "rely on my prudence!"
+
+Only that morning aware of the plot against Germain, which, as far as he
+knew, consisted merely in an intention of involving him in some affray
+which should compel the governor of the prison to remove him to some
+other yard in the building, Pique-Vinaigre was not only ignorant of the
+murderous designs so recently projected by the Skeleton, but equally so
+that the conspirators intended to avail themselves of his recital of
+"Gringalet and Cut-in-Half" to deceive the vigilance of the officer on
+duty, as well as to beguile his attention from what was going on.
+
+"Come on, old Make-believe!" said Nicholas to Pique-Vinaigre, as he
+advanced to meet him. "Throw away that lump of dog's-meat you have got
+in your hand; we have got a regular feast among us, and you are invited
+to it!"
+
+"A feast? La, how nice! What, out of the Panier Fleuri, or the Petit
+Ramponneau?--tell us which it is! But they are both such nice places,
+there isn't a pin to choose."
+
+"Oh, you fool! Our feast is prepared in the day-room; all laid out so
+temptingly on a bench. There you'll see ham and eggs, and cheese,
+and--It's my treat, mind!"
+
+"Well, I'm one of the right sort to walk into it. But it seems a pity to
+throw away this good ration I have just received! I only wish my poor
+sister and her children could have the benefit of it. Ah, poor things!
+It's not often they see meat, unless, indeed, when they find a few
+scraps thrown out before the butcher's door."
+
+"Oh, bother about your sister and her brats! Let's go in, or Barbillon
+and the Skeleton will leave nothing but empty trenchers for us!"
+
+Nicholas and Pique-Vinaigre entered together into the day-room, where
+they found the Skeleton sitting astride on the bench on which the
+savoury viands were displayed, swearing and grumbling at the absence of
+the founder of the feast.
+
+"Oh, there you are, you creeping animal!" exclaimed the ruffian, as he
+caught sight of the story-teller. "What the deuce hindered you from
+bringing your blessed carcass here a little sooner?"
+
+"He was spinning a yarn with Germain when I found him," answered
+Nicholas, helping himself to a large slice of the ham.
+
+"Ho, ho!" cried the Skeleton, gazing earnestly on Pique-Vinaigre,
+without, however, diminishing the ardour with which he devoured the
+provisions; "so you were gossiping with Germain, were you?"
+
+"Yes, I was," returned Pique-Vinaigre. "But what a fool that Germain is!
+I used to think that he was a sort of spy in the yard; but, Lord love
+you, he is too much of a simpleton for that!"
+
+"Oh, you think so, do you?" said the Skeleton, exchanging a rapid and
+significant glance with Nicholas and Barbillon.
+
+"I'm as sure of it as I am that I see a capital ham before me. Besides,
+how the devil can he be a spy when he is always by himself? He speaks to
+no one, and nobody ever changes a word with him; and you all know that
+he runs from us as if we carried the plague in our pockets. Now, how a
+man can tell many tales who acts as he does, is more than I can
+conceive. However, spy or not, he will not be able to do us much more
+harm, as to-morrow he will obtain a room for himself."
+
+"The deuce he will!" replied the Skeleton. Then taking advantage of a
+conversation which had commenced between Barbillon and Pique-Vinaigre,
+he leaned towards Nicholas, and said, whisperingly, "You see, we have
+not an instant to lose. After four o'clock to-day all chance of serving
+him out is over; it is now nearly three. You see, unfortunately, he does
+not sleep in my dormitory, or I would settle him in the night; and
+to-morrow he will be out of our reach."
+
+"Well, I don't care!" answered Nicholas, as though replying to some
+observation of his companions; "I say--and I'll stick to it--Germain
+always seems to look down upon us as though we were not as good as he."
+
+"No, no!" interposed Pique-Vinaigre; "you are quite wrong as regards
+this young man--you are, indeed. You frighten him--you do; and I know
+that he considers himself not fit to hold a candle to you. Why, if you
+only knew what he was saying to me just now--"
+
+"Let's hear what it was!"
+
+"'Why,' says he, 'you are a lucky fellow, Pique-Vinaigre, you are,' he
+says, 'to take the liberty of speaking to the celebrated Skeleton (that
+was the very word he used), just for all the world as if you were his
+equal! But whenever I meet him,' he says, 'I feel myself overcome with
+so much awe and respect that, though I would give my eyes out of my head
+to know him and converse with him, I no more dare do it than I should
+make bold to accost the _préfet de police_ if he were in his chair of
+office, and me beholding him body and bones.'"
+
+"He said that, did he?" returned the Skeleton, feigning to believe the
+well-meant fiction of Pique-Vinaigre, as well as to feel gratified by
+the deep admiration he was reported to have excited in the breast of
+Germain.
+
+"As true as that you are the cleverest ruffian upon earth, he said those
+very words; and, more than that, he--"
+
+"Oh, then, if that is the case," said the Skeleton, "I shall make it up
+with him. Barbillon wanted to pick a quarrel with him, but I shall
+advise him to be quiet."
+
+"That's right!" exclaimed Pique-Vinaigre, fully persuaded that he had
+effectually diverted from Germain the danger that threatened him; "that
+would be much the best way! For this poor chicken-hearted fellow would
+never quarrel,--simply because, like me, he has not pluck enough to
+fight; therefore it is no use getting into a dispute."
+
+"Still," cried the Skeleton, "I am sorry, too, that we shall not have
+our fun; we had quite reckoned upon getting up a fight with Germain to
+amuse us after dinner. I don't know now what we shall do to kill the
+time."
+
+"Ah, to be sure!" chimed in Nicholas. "What the deuce shall we do with
+ourselves? Can anybody tell me?"
+
+"Well, then, I'll settle it!" said Barbillon. "Since you seem to
+recommend my leaving Germain alone, I'll agree to do so, on condition
+that Pique-Vinaigre tells us one of his best stories."
+
+"Done!" exclaimed the story-teller. "But I must make one condition as
+well as you, and, without both are agreed to, I don't open my lips."
+
+"Well, then, say what your other condition is. I dare say it is not more
+difficult than the former, and we soon agreed about that."
+
+"It is that this honourable company, which is overstocked with riches,"
+said the Pique-Vinaigre, resuming his old tone when addressing his
+audiences preparatory to commencing his juggling tricks, "will have the
+trifling kindness to club together and present me with the small sum of
+twenty sous,--a mere trifle, gents, when you are about to listen to the
+celebrated Pique-Vinaigre, who has had the honour of appearing before
+the most celebrated prigs of the day--he who is now expected at Brest or
+Toulon, by the special command of his majesty's government."
+
+"Well, then, we'll stand the twenty sous after you have finished your
+story."
+
+"After?--no--before!" said Pique-Vinaigre.
+
+"What! Do you suppose us capable of doing you out of twenty sous?" asked
+the Skeleton, with an air of disdain.
+
+"By no means!" replied Pique-Vinaigre. "I honour the stone jug with my
+confidence, and it is in order to economise its purse that I ask for
+twenty sous in advance."
+
+"On your word and honour?"
+
+"Yes, gentlemen; for, after my story, you will be so satisfied, that it
+is not twenty sous but twenty francs--a hundred francs--you will force
+me to take! I know that I should be shabby enough to accept them; and
+thus, you see, it is from consideration, and you will do wisely to give
+me twenty sous in advance."
+
+"You don't want for the gift of the gab!"
+
+"I have nothing but my tongue, and I must make use of that. And
+then,--if it must be told,--my sister and her children are in terrible
+distress, and, in a small house, even twenty sous is a consideration."
+
+"Then why doesn't your sister prig, and her kids, too, if they're old
+enough?" asked Nicholas.
+
+"Don't ask me; it distresses--dishonours me! I am too kind--"
+
+"What do you mean, you fool? Why, you encourage her!"
+
+"True; I encourage her in the vice of being honest, and that is the only
+line in which she shines. But come, it is agreed that I shall tell you
+my famous story of 'Gringalet and Cut-in-Half.' But you must hand out
+twenty sous, and Barbillon shall not pick a quarrel with this simpleton
+of a Germain!"
+
+"Well, you shall have twenty sous, and Barbillon shall not pick a
+quarrel with that simpleton of a Germain," said the Skeleton.
+
+"Then open your ears, and you will hear what you will hear! But it is
+raining, which will make the customers tumble in, and there will be no
+occasion to go out and seek them."
+
+And the rain began to fall, and the prisoners, quitting the yard, took
+refuge in the day-room, the turnkey being still in attendance.
+
+We have said that this room was large and long, with a pavement, and
+lighted by three windows, which looked out into the yard. In the centre
+was the stove, near which were the Skeleton, Barbillon, Nicholas, and
+Pique-Vinaigre. At a signal from the _prévôt_, the Gros-Boiteux joined
+this group. Germain was one of the last to enter, absorbed in most
+delightful thoughts, and he went mechanically to seat himself on the
+ledge at the lowest window in the apartment, a place he usually
+occupied, and which no one disputed with him, for it was at a distance
+from the stove around which the prisoners were assembled.
+
+We have already said that some fifteen of the prisoners had been
+informed in the first instance of the treachery attributed to Germain,
+and the murder which was to avenge it. But, soon whispered to one
+another, the plan comprised as many adherents as there were prisoners;
+these ruffians, in their blind cruelty, considering this fearful plot as
+legitimate revenge, and viewing therein a certain guarantee against the
+future disclosure of spies. Germain, Pique-Vinaigre, and the turnkey
+were alone ignorant of what was about to take place. General attention
+was divided between the executioner, the victim, and the story-teller,
+who was about innocently to deprive Germain of the only succour he could
+hope for; for it is nearly sure that the turnkey, when he saw the
+prisoners attentive to the story of Pique-Vinaigre, would think his
+surveillance useless, and take advantage of that moment of tranquillity
+to go and take his meal. And when the prisoners had entered, the
+Skeleton said to the turnkey:
+
+"Old fellow, Pique-Vinaigre has a capital idea; he is going to tell us
+his story of 'Gringalet and Cut-in-Half.' It is weather in which one
+would not put a policeman out-of-doors, and we shall quietly wait in
+till it is time to go to roost."
+
+"Why, you are always pretty quiet when he begins his talk, and have no
+need for me to be at your heels."
+
+"Yes," said the Skeleton; "but Pique-Vinaigre asks a high price,--he
+wants twenty sous for his story."
+
+"Yes, the trifle of twenty sous,--a mere nothing!" cried Pique-Vinaigre.
+"Yes, gents, nothing; for who that had a liard would not bestow it to
+hear the adventures of poor little Gringalet, Cut-in-Half, and the
+wicked Gargousse? It will rend your hearts, and make your hair stand on
+end! And, gents, who is there that would not dispose of the paltry sum
+of four liards--or, if you prefer counting my mites, of five
+centimes--to have their hearts rent and their hair standing on end?"
+
+"There are two sous," said the Skeleton, throwing down the piece of
+money before Pique-Vinaigre. "Come, is the stone-jug too niggardly to
+enjoy this pastime?" he added, looking at his accomplices with a
+significant air.
+
+Several sous fell around him, to the great joy of Pique-Vinaigre, who
+thought of his sister as he collected the money.
+
+"Eight--nine--ten--eleven--twelve--thirteen!" he said, as he picked up
+the money. "Now, my rich friends, my capitalists, and others of the
+cash interest, try once more. You cannot stop at thirteen, for it is an
+unlucky number! Only seven sous deficient, the trifle of seven sous!
+What, gents, shall it be said that the Fosse aux Lions could not produce
+seven sous--seven miserable sous? Oh, gents, gents, you would make me
+believe that you have been brought here very unjustly or that you have
+all had a sad run of ill luck."
+
+The shrill voice and broad jests of Pique-Vinaigre had brought Germain
+from his reverie, and, as much to follow Rigolette's advice and make
+himself popular with the prisoners as to give a trifle to the poor devil
+who had testified some desire to be of service to him, he rose and threw
+a piece of ten sous at the tale-teller's feet, who exclaimed, as he
+pointed at his generous benefactor:
+
+"Ten sous, gents! You see, I was speaking of capitalists! Honour to that
+gentleman! He behaves like one of the monied interest, as an ambassador
+to be agreeable to the company! Yes, gents; for it is to him that you
+will owe the greater portion of 'Gringalet and Cut-in-Half,' and you
+will thank him for it. As to the three sous over, why, I shall earn them
+by imitating the voices of the personages, instead of speaking like you
+and me. That will be another obligation you will owe to this wealthy
+capitalist, whom you ought to adore."
+
+"Come, no more blarney, but begin!" said the Skeleton.
+
+"One moment, gents!" said Pique-Vinaigre. "It is but right that the
+capitalist who has given me ten sous should be the best situated, except
+our _prévôt_, who has first choice."
+
+This proposal squared so well with the Skeleton's project that he
+exclaimed:
+
+"True; after me he ought to be best placed!" And again he looked
+significantly at the prisoners.
+
+"Yes, yes; let him come nearer," said the prisoners.
+
+"Let him sit on the front bench."
+
+"You see, young man, your liberality is recompensed; the honourable
+company sees that you have a right to the front seat," said
+Pique-Vinaigre to Germain.
+
+Believing that his liberality had really better disposed his hateful
+companions in his favour, and delighted thus to follow up Rigolette's
+earnest desires, Germain, in spite of considerable repugnance, left the
+place of his choice, and went towards the story-teller, who, having
+arranged four or five benches around the stove, by the aid of Nicholas
+and Barbillon, said, with emphasis:
+
+"Here are the dress-boxes. All respect to the worthy--the capitalist
+first."
+
+"Now, then, let those who have paid take their seats," added
+Pique-Vinaigre, gaily, firmly believing that, thanks to himself, Germain
+had nothing now to fear. "And those who have not paid," he added, "will
+sit down or stand up, which they please."
+
+Let us sum up the arrangement of his scene. Pique-Vinaigre was standing
+up near the stove ready to commence; near him was the Skeleton, also
+standing up, and with his eyes intently fixed on Germain, ready to rush
+upon him the moment the turnkey left the cell. At some distance from
+Germain, Nicholas, Barbillon, Cardillac, and other prisoners, amongst
+whom was the man with the blue cotton nightcap and gray blouse,
+occupying the remoter benches. The majority of prisoners, grouped here
+and there, some sitting on the ground, others standing and leaning
+against the wall, composed the secondary figures of this picture,
+lighted, à la Rembrandt, by three lateral windows, which threw strong
+light and deep shadows on forms so variously characterised and so
+strongly marked. The turnkey, whose departure was to be, unknown to
+himself, the signal for Germain's murder, kept close to the door, which
+was ajar.
+
+"Are we all ready?" asked Pique-Vinaigre of the Skeleton.
+
+"Silence in the stone-jug!" said the latter, turning half around; and
+then addressing Pique-Vinaigre, "Now, begin; we are all attention!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+GRINGALET AND CUT-IN-HALF.
+
+
+Pique-Vinaigre began his recital thus, in the midst of the profound
+silence of his auditory:
+
+"It is no inconsiderable time ago that the story occurred which I am
+about to relate to this honourable company. What was called La Petite
+Pologne was not then destroyed. The honourable society knows (or does
+not know) what was called La Petite Pologne?"
+
+"Well enough!" said the prisoner in the blue cap; "they were some small
+houses near the Rue du Rocher and the Rue de la Pépinière?"
+
+"Exactly so, my dear sir," replied Pique-Vinaigre; "and the Quartier of
+the Cité, which, at the same time, does not consist of palaces, would be
+in comparison to La Petite Pologne the Rue de la Paix or the Rue de
+Rivoli. What a rookery! but, at the same time, very convenient for gents
+in our line. There were no streets but narrow alleys, no houses but
+ruins, no pavement but a small carpet of mud and dungheaps, which would
+have destroyed all the noise of wheels,--that is, supposing any
+carriages passed by that way; but none did! From morn till night, and,
+particularly, from night till morn, there were only heard cries of
+'Watch! Watch! Help! Murder!' but the watch took no notice. The more
+persons were knocked on the head in La Petite Pologne, the fewer persons
+there were to apprehend. You should have seen the respectable
+inhabitants who lived there! There were very few jewellers, goldsmiths,
+and bankers; but then, on the other hand, there were quantities of
+organ-grinders, puppet-showmen, punches, and showers of remarkable
+animals. Amongst the latter was one well known as Cut-in-Half,--he was
+so cruel, and especially to children. He acquired this name because it
+was reported that he had cut a small Savoyard in two with a blow of his
+hatchet."
+
+At this moment the prison clock struck a quarter past three o'clock. The
+prisoners being made to return to their cells at four o'clock, the
+Skeleton's murderous design must be carried into execution before that
+hour.
+
+"_Mille tonnerres!_ The turnkey won't go!" he said, in a low tone, to
+Gros-Boiteux.
+
+"Be easy! He'll go when once the story is begun."
+
+Pique-Vinaigre continued: "No one knew where Cut-in-Half came from. Some
+said he was an Italian, others a Bohemian, others a Turk, others an
+African; the gossips called him a magician, although a magician in our
+times would be something to look at. What made them believe this was,
+that he always had with him a large red monkey called Gargousse, and who
+was so cunning and savage that he seemed as if possessed by the devil. I
+shall mention this beauty again presently; as to Cut-in-Half, I shall
+soon describe him. His complexion was like the old tops of a pair of
+jockey-boots, his hair as red as the hair of his monkey, his eyes green,
+and (what made the women think he was a conjuror) he had a black
+tongue."
+
+"A black tongue!" exclaimed Barbillon.
+
+"Black as ink!" replied Pique-Vinaigre.
+
+"And how did that happen?"
+
+"Because, no doubt, when his mother was in the family way she had,
+perhaps, talked of a negro," said Pique-Vinaigre, with modest assurance.
+"To these attractions Cut-in-Half joined the profession of having a
+multitude of tortoises, monkeys, guinea-pigs, white mice, foxes, and
+marmosettes, corresponding to an equivalent total of Savoyards and
+forsaken children. Every morning he distributed his animal to each, and
+a morsel of black bread, and then despatched them to beg for 'Only one
+ha'penny!' or dance the Catarina. Those who only brought in at night
+fifteen sous were beaten, soundly beaten, so that their shrieks might be
+heard from one end of La Petite Pologne to the other. I should also say
+that there was in La Petite Pologne a man called Le Doyen (the Dean),
+because he was the 'oldest inhabitant,' and, as it were, mayor, provost,
+magistrate, for it was in his room (he kept a Tom and Jerry shop) that
+all went when they could not otherwise decide their quarrels. Although
+rather aged, yet Le Doyen was as strong as Hercules, and very generally
+feared. They swore by him in La Petite Pologne; and when he said 'Very
+good!' all the world said 'Very good!' When he said 'That's bad!' all
+the world said 'That's bad!' He was a good fellow at bottom, but very
+fierce, particularly when the strong misused the weak,--then look out
+for squalls! As he was Cut-in-Half's nearest neighbour, he had heard the
+children cry very frequently from the blows which the shower of beasts
+gave them. He had said to him, 'If I hear the children cry, I will make
+you cry in your turn; and, as you have the stronger voice, I will give
+you the severer beating.'"
+
+"Well done, Le Doyen! I like Le Doyen!" said the prisoner in the blue
+nightcap.
+
+"So do I!" added the turnkey, as he approached the group.
+
+The Skeleton could not repress a movement of angry impatience.
+
+Pique-Vinaigre proceeded:
+
+"Thanks to Le Doyen, who had threatened Cut-in-Half, the cries of the
+children were heard no more in the night-time in La Petite Pologne; but
+the poor, unhappy little fellows did not suffer the less, for if they
+cried no longer when their master beat them, it was because they were
+afraid of being more cruelly beaten. As to complaining to Le Doyen, they
+had no idea of that. For the fifteen sous which each little fellow was
+obliged to bring in, Cut-in-Half lodged, boarded, and clothed them. In
+the evening a bit of black bread, as at breakfast,--this was their food.
+He never gave them clothes,--that was the way he clothed them; and he
+shut them up at night with their animals, on the same straw in a garret,
+to which they mounted by a ladder and a trap,--this was the lodging.
+When once all had ascended, and the tale of children and animals was
+complete, he took away the ladder and locked the trap.
+
+"You may judge of the life and row which these monkeys, guinea-pigs,
+foxes, mice, tortoises, marmosettes, and children made all in the dark
+in this cock-loft, which was as big as a barn. Cut-in-Half slept in a
+room underneath, with his great ape, Gargousse, fastened to the foot of
+his bed. When the brute growled, because there was too much noise in the
+loft, the beast-shower went up the ladder without any light, and, going
+into the loft, laid about him right and left with a heavy whip, without
+seeing or counting his blows. As there were always some fifteen
+children, and some of the poor dears brought him in twenty sous a day,
+Cut-in-Half having defrayed all his outlay, which was by no means
+excessive, had left for himself some four or five francs a day, with
+which he enjoyed himself, for it must be told that he was one of the
+greatest tipplers that ever lived, and was regularly blind drunk once a
+day. That was his rule; and he declared that, but for that, he should
+have the headache every day. We should add, that out of his gains he
+used to buy some sheeps' hearts for Gargousse, who ate raw flesh like a
+cannibal. But I see the honourable society are anxious to be introduced
+to Gringalet! Here he is, gents!"
+
+"Let's have Gringalet, and I'll go and eat my soup," said the turnkey.
+
+The Skeleton exchanged a look of savage satisfaction with the
+Gros-Boiteux.
+
+"Amongst the children to whom Cut-in-Half distributed his animals,"
+continued Pique-Vinaigre, "was a poor little devil named Gringalet.
+Without father or mother, brother or sister, without fire, food, or
+shelter, he was alone in the world,--quite alone in a world which he had
+not asked to enter, and which he might leave without attracting any
+one's attention. He was not called Gringalet for any pleasure he had in
+the name, for he was meagre, lean, and pallid; he did not look above
+seven or eight years old, but was really thirteen. If he did not seem
+more than half his name, it was not because of his own will, but because
+he only fed perhaps every other day, and then so scantily, so poorly,
+that it was really an exertion to make him pass for seven years old."
+
+"Poor little brat! I think I see him!" said the prisoner in the blue
+cotton nightcap; "there are so many children like him on the streets of
+Paris dying of hunger!"
+
+"They must begin to learn that way of living very young in order to get
+accustomed to it," said Pique-Vinaigre, with a bitter smile.
+
+"Come, get on!" said the Skeleton, suddenly; "the turnkey is getting
+impatient--his soup is getting cold."
+
+"Oh, never mind that!" said the _surveillant_. "I wish to know something
+more of Gringalet; it is very amusing!"
+
+"Yes, it is really very interesting!" added Germain, who was very
+attentive to the story.
+
+"Ah, thank ye for saying that, my capitalist," said Pique-Vinaigre;
+"that gives me more satisfaction than your ten-sous' piece."
+
+"_Tonnerre!_" exclaimed the Skeleton, "will you have done with your
+delays?"
+
+"Well, then," replied Pique-Vinaigre, "one day Cut-in-Half had picked up
+Gringalet in the streets, dying with cold and hunger; perhaps it would
+have been best if he had let him die. As Gringalet was weak, he was a
+coward; as he was a coward, he became the jest and sport of the other
+lads, who beat him and used him so ill that he would have become wicked
+if he had not been deficient in strength and courage. But no; when he
+had been heartily thumped, he cried, and said, 'I have not done any harm
+to anybody, and everybody is unkind to me,--that's very cruel; oh, if I
+were strong and bold!' You will, perhaps, imagine that Gringalet was
+about to add, 'I would return to others the ill they do to me?' By no
+means. He said,' Oh, if I were strong and bold, I would defend the weak
+against the strong, for I am weak, and the strong have made me suffer!'
+In the meanwhile, as he was too small a boy to prevent the strong from
+ill-using the weak, beginning with himself, he prevented the larger
+brutes from eating the smaller ones."
+
+"What a strange idea!" said the prisoner in the blue cap.
+
+"And, what is stranger still," said the tale-teller, "it was this idea
+that consoled Gringalet for being beaten; which proves that his heart
+was not bad at bottom."
+
+"_Pardieu!_ Quite the contrary," said the guardian. "What an amusing
+devil that Pique-Vinaigre is!"
+
+At this instant the chimes went half past three o'clock. The Skeleton
+and Gros-Boiteux exchanged significant glances. The time was drawing on,
+and the _surveillant_ did not go; and some of the less hardened
+prisoners seemed almost to forget the sinister projects of the Skeleton
+against Germain, as they listened attentively to Pique-Vinaigre's
+recital.
+
+"When I say," he continued, "that Gringalet prevented the larger brutes
+from eating the smaller, you must understand that Gringalet did not mix
+himself up with tigers, and lions, and wolves, or even foxes and
+monkeys, in the menagerie of Cut-in-Half,--he was too much of a coward
+for that; but if he saw, for instance, a spider hidden in his web, in
+wait for a poor foolish fly flying gaily in the sunshine of the good
+God, without hurting any one, why, in a moment, Gringalet smashed the
+web, freed the fly, and did for the spider like a regular Cæsar,--a real
+Cæsar; for he turned as white as a sheet in touching such nasty
+reptiles; and then it required resolution in him, who was afraid of a
+cockchafer, and had been a long while in forming an intimacy with the
+tortoise which Cut-in-Half handed to him every morning. Thus Gringalet,
+overcoming the fear which the spider caused him, in order to prevent
+flies from being eaten, proved himself--"
+
+"As plucky in his way as a man who attacks a wolf to take a lamb from
+his jaws," said the prisoner in the blue cap.
+
+"Or a man who would have attacked Cut-in-Half to take Gringalet from his
+clutches," added Barbillon, who was deeply interested.
+
+"As you say," continued Pique-Vinaigre; "so that after one of these
+onslaughts Gringalet did not feel himself so unhappy. He who never
+laughed, smiled, looked about him, cocked his cap on one side (when he
+had one), and hummed the 'Marseillaise' with the air of a conqueror. At
+this moment, there was not a spider that dared to look him in the face.
+Another time it was a grasshopper which was swimming and struggling in a
+brook; in a moment, Gringalet put his two fingers boldly in the water
+and rescued the grasshopper, which he put on the grass. A first-class
+swimmer, who had fished up his tenth drowning man at fifty francs a
+head, could not have been prouder than Gringalet when he saw his
+grasshopper bend his legs and jump away. And yet the grasshopper gave
+him neither money nor medal, nor uttered any more thanks than did the
+fly. But then, Pique-Vinaigre, worthy friend, the honourable company
+will say to me, what the devil pleasure could Gringalet, whom all the
+world thumped and buffeted, find in freeing grasshoppers and destroying
+spiders? Since people were unkind to him, why did he not take his
+revenge by doing all the evil in his power? For instance, in giving
+spiders flies to eat, leaving grasshoppers to drown, or even drowning
+them on purpose?"
+
+"Yes, why not? Why did he not revenge himself in that way?" asked
+Nicholas.
+
+"What good would that have been?" inquired another.
+
+"Why, to do ill, as ill was done to him."
+
+"No! Well, then, I understand he liked to save the flies, poor little
+chap!" said the man in a blue cap. "He said, perhaps, 'Who knows if some
+day they mayn't save me in the same way?'"
+
+"My right worthy friend is right," cried Pique-Vinaigre, "and has read
+in his heart what I was about to narrate to the honourable assembly.
+Gringalet was not wicked; he did not see beyond the end of his nose; but
+he said,'Cut-in-Half is my spider, and perhaps some day some one will do
+for me what I do for the other poor little flies,--break his web and
+take me from his clutches;' for till then nothing could have induced him
+to run away from his master; he would as soon have thought of killing
+himself. However, one day, when neither he nor his tortoise had had a
+chance, and had not gained between either of them more than three sous,
+Cut-in-Half beat the poor child very severely, so severely that, _ma
+foi!_ Gringalet could not stand it any longer; and, tired of being the
+butt and martyr of everybody, he watched a moment when the trap was
+open, and, whilst Cut-in-Half was feeding his animals, he slid down the
+ladder."
+
+"Oh, so much the better," said a prisoner.
+
+"But why didn't he go and complain to the Doyen?" inquired the blue cap;
+"he would have served Cut-in-Half out."
+
+"Yes, but he dared not; he was too much afraid, and preferred trying to
+escape. Unfortunately, Cut-in-Half had seen him, and, seizing him by the
+wrist, lugged him up again into the loft. Poor Gringalet, thinking of
+what must befall him, shuddered all over, although he was by no means at
+the end of his troubles. Apropos of Gringalet's troubles, I must now
+mention to you Gargousse, the large and favourite ape of Cut-in-Half.
+This mischievous brute was, _ma foi!_ taller than Gringalet; only
+imagine what a size for a monkey! I must tell you why he was never taken
+into the streets to be shown, like the other animals of the menagerie:
+it was because Gargousse was so wicked and powerful that there was not
+one amongst all the show-boys, except an Auvergnat of fourteen, a
+determined chap, who, after many skirmishes and contests with Gargousse,
+had mastered him, and could lead him about with a chain; and even with
+him Gargousse frequently got up some fights, which ended in bloodshed
+produced by Gargousse's bites. Enraged at this, the little Auvergnat
+said, one fine day, 'Very well, I will revenge myself on this infernal
+monkey;' and so, one morning, having gone out with the brute as usual,
+he, in order to appease its savageness, bought a sheep's heart. Whilst
+Gargousse was eating it, he put a rope through the end of his chain,
+tied it to a tree, and, when he had got the brute quite at his mercy, he
+gave it an outrageous walloping."
+
+"Well done! Bravo the Auvergnat! Go it, my lad! Skin the beast alive!"
+said the prisoners.
+
+"He did whack him gloriously!" continued Pique-Vinaigre. "And you should
+have seen how Gargousse cried, ground his teeth, leaped, danced, and
+skipped hither and thither; but the Auvergnat used his stick famously!
+Unfortunately, monkeys, like cats, are very tenacious of life. Gargousse
+was as crafty as he was vicious; and when he saw, as they say, how the
+wood was on fire, at a heavy blow he made a final bound, and fell flat
+at the foot of a tree, shook for a moment, and then shammed dead, lying
+as motionless as a log. The Auvergnat believed he had done for him, and,
+thinking the ape dead, he cut away, resolved never again to return to
+Cut-in-Half. But the beast Gargousse watched him out of the corner of
+his eye, and, bruised and wounded as he was, as soon as he saw himself
+alone he rent the cord asunder with his teeth. The Boulevard Monceaux,
+where he had had this hiding, was close to La Petite Pologne, and the
+monkey knew his way as easy as his paternoster; and, making off in that
+direction, arrived at his master's, who roared and foamed when he saw
+how his monkey had been served. This is not all. From this moment
+Gargousse entertained such a furious revenge against all children that
+Cut-in-Half, who was not the tenderest soul alive, dared not trust him
+to any one for fear of an accident; for Gargousse was capable of
+strangling or devouring a child, and all the little brute-showers,
+knowing that, would rather be thrashed by Cut-in-Half than go near the
+monkey."
+
+"I must really go and eat my soup," said the turnkey, turning towards
+the door; "this devil of a Pique-Vinaigre would wheedle a bird down from
+a tree to hear him! I can't tell where the deuce he fishes up all he
+tells!"
+
+"Now, then, the turnkey will go," said the Skeleton, in a whisper to the
+Gros-Boiteux. "I'm in such a rage I shake all over! Mind and form a wall
+all around the informer,--I will take care of the rest!"
+
+"Mind, now, and be good boys!" said the turnkey, turning towards the
+door.
+
+"As good as images!" replied the Skeleton, coming closer to Germain,
+whilst the Gros-Boiteux and Nicholas, after having agreed on a signal,
+made two steps in the same direction.
+
+"Ah, worthy turnkey, you are going at the most interesting moment!" said
+Pique-Vinaigre, with an air of reproach.
+
+Had it not been for the Gros-Boiteux, who anticipated his intention, and
+seized him suddenly by the arm, the Skeleton would have rushed on
+Pique-Vinaigre.
+
+"What! The most interesting moment?" replied the turnkey, turning
+towards the story-teller.
+
+"Decidedly," said Pique-Vinaigre; "you do not know all you will
+lose,--the most delightful portion of the history is now about to
+commence."
+
+"Don't attend to him," exclaimed the Skeleton, who with difficulty
+repressed his rage; "he is not in good trim to-day; for my part I think
+his story very stupid."
+
+"My story very stupid?" cried Pique-Vinaigre, wounded in his pride as a
+tale-teller. "Well, turnkey, I beg of you,--I entreat you to remain till
+the conclusion, which, at most, will not be longer than a quarter of an
+hour, and as by this time your soup must be cold, why, you haven't much
+to lose by a little delay. I will go ahead with my narrative, so that
+you may still have time to eat your soup before we are locked up for the
+night."
+
+"Well, then, I'll stay, but make haste," said the turnkey, coming closer
+towards him.
+
+"You are wise to stay, turnkey," continued Pique-Vinaigre; "without
+bragging, you never heard anything like it before, especially the
+finale, which is the triumph of the ape, and Gringalet escorted in
+procession by all the little beast-showers and inhabitants of La Petite
+Pologne. On my word and honour, it is not for the sake of boasting, but
+it is really superb."
+
+"Then tell it speedily, my boy," said the turnkey, returning towards the
+stove.
+
+The Skeleton shook with rage. He almost despaired of accomplishing his
+crime. If bedtime arrived, Germain must escape, for he was not in the
+same dormitory with his implacable enemy, and on the following day
+Germain was to be in a separate cell.
+
+"So it's very stupid!" continued Pique-Vinaigre. "Well, the honourable
+company shall be the judge of that. There could not exist a more
+vicious brute than the big ape Gargousse, who was even more savage with
+children than his master. What does Cut-in-Half do to punish Gringalet
+for trying to run away? You shall know by and by. Well, in the meantime,
+he seizes on the unhappy child, and locks him into the cock-loft for the
+night, saying, 'To-morrow morning, when all your companions are gone
+out, I will let you see what I do with vagabonds who try to run away
+from me.' You may imagine what a wretched night Gringalet passed. He did
+not close an eye, but kept asking himself what Cut-in-Half meant to do
+with him, and then he fell asleep. He had a dream,--such a horrid
+dream,--that is, the beginning of it was, as you shall see. He dreamed
+that he was one of the very poor flies that he had so often rescued from
+the spiders' webs, and that he had fallen into a large and strong web,
+where he was struggling,--struggling with all his might, without being
+able to escape. He then saw coming towards him, stealthily and
+treacherously, a kind of monster, which looked like Cut-in-Half turned
+into a spider. Poor Gringalet began to struggle again, as you may
+suppose, but the more he struggled the more he got entangled, like the
+poor flies. At last the spider came up to him, touched him, and he felt
+the cold and hairy paws of the horrid beast curl around him and enclose
+him, intending to devour him. He believed he was dead, when suddenly he
+heard a kind of clear, ringing, sharp sort of buzzing, and he saw a
+beautiful golden fly, with a kind of brilliant dart, like a diamond
+needle, which flew around the spider with a furious air, and a voice
+(when I say a voice you must imagine a fly's voice) which said, 'Poor
+little fly! You have saved flies! The spider shall not--' Unfortunately
+Gringalet jumped up at this moment, and did not see the end of his
+dream; but yet he was at first somewhat assured, and said to himself,
+'Perhaps the golden fly with the diamond dart would have killed the
+spider if I had finished the dream.' But in vain did Gringalet
+endeavour to make himself easy and take comfort; in proportion as the
+night ended, his fears renewed, so strongly, that at last he forgot his
+dream, or, rather, he only remembered the portion which affrighted him,
+the large web in which he had been caught and enfolded by the spider
+which resembled Cut-in-Half. You may imagine what a fright he was in;
+only think--only think--alone,--quite alone, and no one to defend him!
+In the morning, when he saw daybreak gradually appear through the
+skylight of the cock-loft, his fears redoubled, and the moment was at
+hand when he would be alone with Cut-in-Half. He then threw himself on
+his knees in the middle of the garret, and, weeping bitterly, entreated
+his comrades to ask Cut-in-Half to forgive him, or else to help him to
+escape if possible. But some from fear of their master, others from
+disregard, and some from ill nature, refused what poor Gringalet
+requested so earnestly."
+
+"Young scamps!" said the prisoner in the blue cap; "he is to be pitied,
+so helpless. If he could have defended himself, tooth and nail, it would
+have been very different, _ma foi!_ If you have fangs, show 'em, boy,
+and defend your tail!"
+
+"To be sure!" said several prisoners.
+
+"Holloa, there!" exclaimed the Skeleton, unable to conceal his rage, and
+addressing the Blue Cap; "won't you hold your jaw? Didn't I say silence
+in the stone-jug? Am I captain of the ward or not?"
+
+The Blue Cap's answer was to look the Skeleton full in the face, and
+then make that low-lived gesture of the blackguards, which consists in
+applying the thumb of the right hand to the end of the nose, opening the
+fingers like a fan, and putting the little finger on the thumb of the
+left hand, similarly extended. He accompanied this mute reply with so
+odd a look that many of the prisoners laughed heartily, whilst others,
+on the contrary, were actually stupefied at the audacity of the new
+prisoner, so greatly was the Skeleton feared. The latter shook his fist
+at the new prisoner, and said to him, grinding his teeth:
+
+"We'll settle this to-morrow!"
+
+"I'll make the calculation on your nob! I'll put down seventeen and
+carry nothing!"
+
+For fear the turnkey should have fresh motive for staying, in order to
+repress any row, the Skeleton quietly replied:
+
+"That is not what I mean; I am the captain of this room, and ought to be
+attended to,--ought not I, turnkey?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the superintendent; "no interruption; and go on,
+Pique-Vinaigre, and make haste, will you, my lad?"
+
+"Then," resumed Pique-Vinaigre, "Gringalet, seeing how all the world
+forsook him, resigned himself to his miserable fate. It was broad day,
+and all the boys were going out with their animals. Cut-in-Half opened
+the trap, and called each to give him his morsel of bread. They all
+descended the ladder, and Gringalet, more dead than alive, squeezed up
+in a corner of the cock-loft with his tortoise, did not move, but
+watched his companions as they descended one after the other, and would
+have given everything he had to have done as they did. At length the
+last quitted the loft, and then his heart beat quick as he thought his
+master might forget him. But Cut-in-Half, who was standing at the foot
+of the ladder, exclaimed in a loud voice, 'Gringalet! Gringalet!' 'Here
+I am, master.' 'Come down directly, or I'll fetch you!' added
+Cut-in-Half; and Gringalet believed his last hour was come. 'Oh,' said
+he to himself as he trembled in all his limbs, and recollected his
+dream, 'you are in the web, little fly, the spider is going to eat you!'
+After having put his tortoise quietly down on the ground, he said
+farewell to it, for he had become fond of the creature, and went to the
+trap, and put his leg on the ladder to go down, when Cut-in-Half, taking
+hold of his miserable little leg, as thin as a stick, pulled him down so
+suddenly that Gringalet lost his hold, and fell with his face all down
+the rounds of the ladder."
+
+"What a pity it was that the Doyen of La Petite Pologne was not there at
+that moment! What a dance he could have played to Cut-in-Half!" said the
+blue nightcap; "it is at such moments as these that a man is always
+happy and contented to feel how useful it is sometimes to be strong."
+
+"That's all right, my lad, but, unfortunately, the Doyen was not there,
+so Cut-in-Half seized hold of the child by the waistband of his little
+breeches, and carried him to his own hole of a chamber, where the huge
+monkey was kept fastened to the foot of his bed. Directly the spiteful
+beast saw the boy, he began to jump and spring about, grinding his teeth
+like a mad thing, and darting towards Gringalet as near as his chain
+permitted him, as though he meant to devour him."
+
+"Poor Gringalet! How ever will he be able to escape? If that beast of a
+monkey once gets hold of him he is safe to strangle him! I declare,"
+exclaimed the man in the blue cap, "the very thoughts of a poor innocent
+child being in such a dangerous situation makes me shiver from head to
+foot, and I seem as though I couldn't hurt a worm. How do you feel, good
+friends?"
+
+"The very same!" replied a burst of voices. "No more could we!"
+
+At this moment the prison clock chimed forth the first quarter past
+three, and the Skeleton, becoming momentarily more and more apprehensive
+that the time would slip away without their being able to accomplish
+their design, and furious at the continued interruptions, as well as
+irritated at the evident sympathy and compassion awakened in the
+breasts of the prisoners by Pique-Vinaigre's recital, called out in
+angry voice:
+
+"Silence in the stone jug, I say! We shall never get to the end of this
+unlucky history if you persist in chiming in."
+
+The buzz of voices died away at these words, and Pique-Vinaigre thus
+continued:
+
+"When it is recollected how much poor little Gringalet had had to endure
+before he could get used to his tortoise, and that even the boldest of
+his companions trembled and turned pale even at the mention of
+Gargousse's name, it may very easily be imagined what deadly terror he
+experienced when he found himself placed by his master within the reach
+of the horrible monkey. 'Oh, master, master!' he cried, as his teeth
+rattled and shook in his head, as though he were under the influence of
+an ague fit, 'pray--pray forgive me! Pray have mercy on me! I will never
+do so any more. Indeed, indeed, I never will! Oh, I promise you, master;
+only let me off this time, and I will never do so again!' But all these
+prayers and supplications escaped almost unconsciously from the poor
+child, who had indeed committed no fault that called for such promises.
+Cut-in-Half, however, laughed at the boy's terrors, and, spite of the
+struggles and resistance of the unhappy child, he dragged him within the
+grasp of Gargousse, who sprang upon him, and seized him with a savage
+grasp."
+
+A cry of execration passed throughout the assembly, which had been
+listening with the profoundest attention to the progress of the tale.
+
+"I should have been a rare fool had I gone away," said the officer on
+duty, as he drew nearer to the listening groups.
+
+"Oh, but," said Pique-Vinaigre, "you've heard nothing as yet,--the best
+is still to come. Directly poor Gringalet felt the cold hairy paws of
+the ape seize him by the head and neck, he imagined it was with the
+intention of devouring him, and driven almost mad by his agony, he began
+shrieking and groaning in a manner that would have moved a stone to pity
+him, while he wildly exclaimed, 'Oh, send help! Send help from heaven,
+God of goodness and of little children! Oh, little golden fly, come and
+preserve me! Come, little fly, and save me from the horrible spider I
+dreamed about!' 'Will you hold your noise?' exclaimed Cut-in-Half, as he
+gave him several hard kicks, for he was fearful lest his cries should be
+heard; but in a minute's time there was no further danger of that, for
+the poor boy neither cried or struggled further, but pale and cold as
+marble, he remained kneeling, while the devilish monkey clawed and
+scratched and buffeted the trembling victim, who, closing his eyes,
+resigned himself to his fate. After Gargousse had tired himself with
+thus tormenting poor Gringalet, he suddenly paused, and looked up to his
+master's countenance, as though asking what he should do next. And
+really it seemed as though the ape and his master understood each
+other's thoughts, for Gargousse immediately renewed the attack by
+plucking out handfuls of the shuddering boy's hair, upon which
+Cut-in-Half burst into fits of laughter, so long and so loud that, had
+poor Gringalet tried ever so hard, he could not have made himself heard
+amid these wicked and malicious rejoicings. They had, however, the
+effect of encouraging Gargousse, who proceeded to attack the unfortunate
+child with redoubled fierceness."
+
+"Ah, you beggar of a monkey!" exclaimed Blue Bonnet, "I only wish I had
+been near enough to catch hold of your tail! I'd have swung you round
+and round like a windmill, and finished by knocking out your dirty
+brains against the hardest stone I could find! That beastly ape was as
+cruel as if he had been a man!"
+
+"Oh!" cried a simultaneous burst of voices, "no man ever was, or ever
+will be, so cruel as that, I'm sure!"
+
+"Hallo!" interrupted Pique-Vinaigre, "you forget Cut-in-Half when you
+make that remark. However, just listen to what he did next. He
+unfastened the long chain of Gargousse from the leg of his bed, around
+which it was generally secured, and tied it to the waist of the poor
+trembling child, who by this time was more dead than alive; so that the
+monkey and the boy were thus placed at the opposite ends of the chain."
+
+"There was a devil's own invention! Ay, ay, it is quite certain that
+some human creatures are more cruel than the most savage wild beast!"
+
+"When Cut-in-Half had completed this arrangement, he said to the monkey,
+who appeared to understand every word he said,--and certainly these were
+such a precious pair it would have been a thousand pities they should
+have had any difficulty in the matter: 'Now, then, Gargousse, attention!
+You have been exhibited with all your clever tricks, but it is now your
+turn to be showman. You shall be master, and Gringalet shall be
+monkey,--yes, your monkey. So up with you, Gringalet, or I shall set
+Gargousse on you, and let him tear you to pieces!' The unhappy child,
+unable to utter a word, had again fallen on his knees, holding up his
+clasped hands in mute supplication, while the only sound he could utter
+proceeded from the convulsive rattling of his teeth. 'Make him stand
+upright, Gargousse!' said Cut-in-Half to his ape, 'and if he is
+obstinate do as I am doing;' and with these words he belaboured the
+child with a switch he held in his hand. Then passing the stick to the
+monkey, he added, 'Make him stand up! Hit harder!--harder!' You all know
+what close imitators all monkeys are, but Gargousse was ever remarkable
+for his extreme quickness in copying the actions of others. He was not
+long, therefore, in bestowing so severe a flagellation on the shoulders
+of his terrified victim as soon compelled him to try at least to stand
+upon his feet, and once up, the unhappy child became as nearly as
+possible the same height as the ape. Then Cut-in-Half went out of the
+room, and descended the staircase, calling out to Gargousse to follow
+him, which he did, tugging violently at the end of the chain to which
+Gringalet was fastened, and compelling him to follow like a slave, at
+the same time beating him as hard as he could with his cane; and thus
+they reached the small courtyard belonging to the miserable tenement
+occupied by Cut-in-Half and his live stock.
+
+"Now, then, Cut-in-Half reckoned on having good sport, so, first
+securing the door that opened into the lane, he made signs to Gargousse
+to play Gringalet round and round the yard as fast as he could. The ape
+loved the fun as well as his master, and coursed the frightened boy
+round the yard, beating him with all the strength the switch admitted
+of, while Cut-in-Half laughed till his sides ached. Perhaps you may
+think this malicious nature was now satisfied,--not a bit of it! This
+was a mere beginning!
+
+"So far Gringalet had merely endured excessive fright, been torn and
+scratched by the sharp teeth and claws of Gargousse, and severely beaten
+with the stick. This, however dreadful, was far from contenting
+Cut-in-Half's savage nature. He therefore devised another scheme,
+equally diabolical with his other proceedings. In order to enrage the
+monkey still more against the unhappy boy, who by this time was more
+dead than alive, he seized Gringalet by the hair of his head, and, after
+feigning to overwhelm him with blows, he pushed him towards the monkey,
+saying, 'Tear him! Worry him!' showing Gargousse at the same time a
+great lump of sheep's heart, as much as to say, Do as I bid you, and
+here is your reward.
+
+"And then began a fearful sight! Just imagine a huge red ape, with a
+black muzzle, grinding his teeth like a mad thing, and throwing
+himself, in a state of savage fury, on the poor helpless object of his
+cruelty, who, unable to defend himself, had no other means of preserving
+his face and eyes from being torn to pieces than by throwing himself
+down on the ground, flat on his face. Seeing this, Gargousse, wrought up
+by his master to a state of frenzied hatred against poor Gringalet,
+bestrode him as he lay on the ground, seized him by the neck, and bit
+him on the back of his head till the blood came. 'Oh, the spider! The
+spider I dreamed of!' cried poor Gringalet, firmly believing now that he
+should be devoured. All at once a noise was heard at the gate that
+opened from the lane into the yard. Knock! knock! knock!"
+
+"Ha, ha!" exclaimed all the prisoners at once. "How delightful! 'Tis Le
+Doyen come to set the boy free! Oh, tell us if it was not!"
+
+"Yes, my good friends, you have guessed right; it was Le Doyen, and he
+cried out, 'Now then, Cut-in-Half, will you open the door or no? Don't
+pretend to be deaf; I see you through the keyhole.' The exhibitor of
+beasts was obliged to answer, and went grumblingly along to open the
+gate for Le Doyen, who was a regular brick of a man, as strong and
+sturdy as a mountain for all his age, and, moreover, he was one of those
+persons with whose displeasure it was anything but safe to trifle.
+'Well, what do you want with me?' asked Cut-in-Half, half opening the
+yard door. 'I have something to say to you,' answered Le Doyen, entering
+almost forcibly into the little courtyard. Then observing the savage
+conduct of the monkey, he ran towards him, seized him by the scruff of
+the neck, and sought to fling him to the other end of the yard; but
+perceiving that the boy and the animal were chained together, Le Doyen
+cast a stern and fearful glance on Cut-in-Half, as he called out in a
+severe tone, 'Let this unfortunate child loose directly!' Only conceive
+the joyful surprise experienced by Gringalet, who, nearly dead with
+terror, found himself so unexpectedly preserved, and by means which
+seemed to him so miraculous that he could not help turning his eyes on
+his preserver, with a recollection of the golden-winged fly he had seen
+in his dream, though he saw merely a stout, square-built, elderly
+gentleman, looking more like a creature of earth than air."
+
+"Well, now then," said the officer on duty, "now that Gringalet is safe,
+I will go and take my soup."
+
+"Safe!" exclaimed Pique-Vinaigre, "not a bit of it! Bless you, poor
+little Gringalet has not got to the worst of his troubles yet."
+
+"No?" cried several prisoners, with the deepest interest. "No; hasn't
+he, though?"
+
+"But what else happened to him then?" inquired the officer.
+
+"Wait a bit and you'll hear," answered the story-teller.
+
+"What a fellow that Pique-Vinaigre is!" cried the officer; "he makes you
+do just as he pleases! Well, I'll stay a little longer, at any rate!"
+
+The Skeleton spoke not, but he actually foamed with rage, as
+Pique-Vinaigre thus continued his recital:
+
+"Cut-in-Half, who feared Le Doyen as the devil fears holy water, had, in
+a grumbling manner, unfastened the chain from Gringalet's waist, which
+done, Le Doyen tossed Gargousse up in the air, and when he fell to the
+ground he gave him so desperate a kick in his ribs that he sent him
+rolling ten feet off. The monkey screamed with passion, chattered, and
+ground his teeth with rage; then, fearing a repetition of the rough
+usage he had experienced, scampered away, and, climbing to the roof of a
+small shed, manifested his hatred of Le Doyen by a variety of
+threatening gestures. 'What do you mean by ill-using my monkey?'
+inquired Cut-in-Half of Le Doyen. 'You ought rather to ask me why I do
+not beat you instead of your spiteful beast there; for shame! Thus to
+torture and ill-use a poor helpless boy! Is it possible you can be drunk
+at this early hour of the morning?' 'I am no more drunk than you are! I
+was teaching my monkey a trick I wish him to learn. I want to get up a
+scene between Gringalet and my monkey. I attend to my business, and I
+only wish other people would do the same, and not trouble themselves
+with what does not concern them.' 'And I tell you that I have a right to
+interfere in the present case, and that it is my duty so to do. This
+morning when I missed Gringalet from among the other children who passed
+by my window, I inquired of them where he was. They did not make me any
+answer, but hung down their heads, and seemed confused. I know you,
+therefore suspected the boy was kept back for some bad purpose, and it
+seems I was not mistaken.
+
+"'Now, just listen to me. Every day that I do not see Gringalet pass my
+door with the other lads, I will come here to know the reason, whether
+you like it or not; and what's more, you shall produce him alive and
+well, or--or--or--I'll--I'll knock you down!' 'I shall do precisely as I
+please with the boy, without asking your leave,' answered Cut-in-Half,
+excessively irritated by this threat of keeping him under surveillance;
+'you'll just please to keep your hands to yourself; and if you do not
+take yourself off, and if ever you presume to show your face here again,
+I'll--I'll--' 'Take that, then, as an earnest of the future!' cried Le
+Doyen, interrupting Cut-in-Half by a couple of blows heavy enough to
+knock down a rhinoceros; 'you deserve that and more, too, for presuming
+to answer Le Doyen of La Petite Pologne in so impertinent a manner.'"
+
+"O Lord! Lord!" groaned forth the man in the blue cap, "only two blows!
+I wish I had had the handling of him. He should have had a round dozen
+to begin with, and afterwards I would have knocked all his teeth down
+his throat!"
+
+"As far as strength went," continued Pique-Vinaigre, "Le Doyen could
+have killed and eaten a score of such fellows as the beast-master, so
+Cut-in-Half was compelled to pocket the affront. But he was not the less
+incensed at being struck in the presence of Gringalet, and well did he
+promise himself to be richly avenged for the indignity he had sustained;
+and an idea suddenly suggested itself to him, which could only have
+originated in the mind of a fiend of malice like himself. While he was
+meditating on his diabolical scheme, Le Doyen said, 'Bear in mind that
+if you torment this poor boy any more I will just make you and your
+menagerie turn out and quit La Petite Pologne, or I will bring the whole
+neighbourhood to pull your house about your ears. You know very well how
+universally you are hated already, and you may rest assured you will
+have such an escort to conduct you hence as shall leave you marks enough
+on your back to serve as a remembrancer of your parting, let you live as
+long as you may, that I promise you!'
+
+"Like a treacherous, mean-spirited wretch as he was, Cut-in-Half, the
+better to effect his villainous design, instead of quarrelling further
+with Le Doyen, feigned to submit to his decision, and replied, in a
+false, wheedling tone, 'You were wrong to strike me, my worthy
+neighbour, or to imagine I had any intention of harming Gringalet; on
+the contrary, I tell you again I was merely teaching my monkey a new
+trick; he is rather awkward when he is put out in any way, and, while
+trying to manage him, the boy got a few trifling bites, which I very
+much regret.' 'Humph!' said Le Doyen, casting a scrutinising look on
+him; 'now is this all gospel you are telling me? And why, if you only
+wished to teach a thing to your monkey, did you fasten him to
+Gringalet?' 'Because the boy has to learn the trick as well as the
+animal. Now this is what I want to do,--to dress up Gargousse in a red
+coat and a hat with a feather in it, like a barber, and then Gringalet
+is to sit in a little chair, with a cloth tucked under his chin, while
+the monkey affects to shave him with a large wooden razor.' The joke
+appeared so very droll to Le Doyen that he could not forbear laughing.
+'Isn't that a funny idea?' inquired Cut-in-Half, in a crafty and
+malicious manner. 'Why, upon my word,' answered Le Doyen, 'it does
+strike me as a very amusing device, and one which, I doubt not, your
+monkey would carry into execution most admirably, that is, if he be as
+clever and skilful in imitation as he is represented.' 'Oh, bless you!'
+continued Cut-in-Half, 'when he has seen me for five or six times make
+believe to shave Gringalet, he will imitate me exactly with his large
+wooden razor; but for that purpose it is absolutely necessary he should
+become habituated to the boy, and that was my reason for fastening them
+both together.' 'But why did you select Gringalet more than any other of
+your boys?' 'Because he was the least among 'em, so that, you see, when
+he sat down the monkey was the taller of the two.
+
+"'To be sure I had another reason besides, M. le Doyen, although I know
+a man oughtn't to own such a thing as making a difference with his boys,
+but, for all that, I'll own the truth, whatever comes of it, and that
+is, that I made choice of this here little chap because I meant to give
+half the profits from the performance to whoever it was acted the scene
+with the animal, because I knew, in course, it was disagreeable.'
+'Well,' said Le Doyen, completely gulled by this false and hypocritical
+manner of accounting for the conduct which had first attracted his
+displeasure,--'well, if such be the case, I can only say, I'm very sorry
+I gave you such a very hard thump; however, it does not matter, just
+consider it as "paid on account," so that--' While Cut-in-Half was
+talking with Le Doyen, poor little Gringalet durst scarcely breathe,--he
+trembled like an aspen leaf, and, though dying with eagerness to throw
+himself at the feet of Le Doyen, and to supplicate of him to take him
+away from his cruel master, he had not courage to make the attempt, and
+in a low despairing voice he murmured to himself, 'I shall be like the
+poor fly I dreamed about, and the horrid spider will eat me up; it was
+folly of me to expect that any golden fly would come to save me!'
+
+"'Come, my lad, since your master means to let you share his profits,
+you ought to try and get used to acting with the monkey; never mind
+being tied to him, he won't hurt you, I dare say, and then, you know,
+when you have earned a large sum of money by doing this trick with him,
+you will have nothing to complain of.' 'Complain, indeed!' exclaimed his
+master, giving him at the same time a side-look that froze poor
+Gringalet's blood, 'what should he know of complaining? Now then, speak
+up, and tell this worthy gentleman whether you ever have had anything to
+complain of.' 'Come, let's hear all about it,--have you any cause of
+complaint, you are asked?' 'No--no--master,' stammered out the unhappy
+child. 'You hear what he says?' said Cut-in-Half, turning to Le Doyen,
+'he never has had anything to complain of. No; I should rather think
+not! Why, bless you, I was only thinking of his good when I tied him to
+the monkey, and if he has got a bit of a scratch from Gargousse, why,
+I'll take care it does not happen again. The monkey is just a little
+awkward at first, but I'll see to it for the future,--take my word for
+it, it won't happen again.' 'That's all right, then, and now everybody's
+satisfied, are they not?' 'Gringalet is, most especially; are you not,
+my fine fellow?' asked Cut-in-Half, casting a savage glance on the poor
+child. 'Yes--yes--master,' sobbed forth the wretched boy. 'And I'll tell
+you what I'll do further, to make up for the scratches you have got from
+the monkey, I'll let you share in a good breakfast I meant to order
+from our worthy Doyen's excellent larder; I intend having a dish of
+mutton-chops and pickles, four bottles of wine, and a pint of brandy.'
+'Much obliged to you,' answered Le Doyen; 'all shall be sent as you
+desire. Few men have a better cellar or more tempting larder, and the
+contents of both are at the service of all who can pay for them.'
+
+"Le Doyen was not a bad sort of a man, but it must be remembered that he
+had his living to get, and, therefore, so that he disposed of his
+eatables and drinkables at a sufficient profit, he cared but little who
+it was in that case,--friend or foe were quite alike to him. The beggar,
+Cut-in-Half, knew well enough where his weak side lay, so he hit upon
+this method of getting rid of him, in high good humour at having by his
+visit not only ascertained the safety of Gringalet, but also obtained a
+good order. And now was the unfortunate child thrown into the hands of
+his master, past all hopes of safety; for no sooner had Le Doyen turned
+his back than Cut-in-Half, pointing to the staircase with a dreadful
+frown, bade the trembling lad betake himself to his garret without loss
+of time; and the frightened child, glad at any rate to be freed from the
+monkey and his master, did not require a second bidding, but made off as
+fast as his strength permitted him. When Gringalet reached his own
+wretched chamber, he threw himself on the dirty straw allotted him for a
+bed beside his tortoise, and wept as though his heart were breaking. 'He
+will surely kill me!' cried the miserable boy, as he reflected on the
+cruelty of his master and his own inability to escape from him. 'What
+shall I do? Oh, how I wish I were dead and in my grave!' Thus he
+remained sobbing and lamenting for more than an hour, when he was roused
+by hearing the coarse voice of Cut-in-Half calling upon him to descend.
+And the terror of the boy was still further increased by discovering a
+considerable alteration in the rough tones of his master. 'Now, then!'
+roared out the brutal man, with a torrent of oaths, 'are you coming
+down, or must I fetch you?' The unhappy child almost slid down the
+ladder in his haste to descend, but scarcely had he reached the bottom
+than Cut-in-Half seized hold of him, and dragged him to his own room,
+stumbling at every step he took; for the fellow had been drinking so
+hard that he could scarcely stand on his legs, while his body swung to
+and fro like the sails of a windmill.
+
+"Almost bereft by extreme intoxication of the power of speech, he
+continued to gaze on the shrinking child with eyes full of dreadful
+meaning, though his tongue was unable to declare the murderous designs
+he meditated. Never had the poor boy endured such horror at the sight of
+his master. Gargousse was chained as usual to the foot of the bed, and
+in the middle of the room stood a chair, from the back of which hung a
+strong cord. 'S--s--sit down--there!' cried the tyrant, as he pointed to
+the seat. Gringalet obeyed in silence, and Cut-in-Half, without another
+word, twisted the rope around him, and finally secured him in the chair
+so firmly that, even if poor Gringalet had dared to struggle, it would
+have been impossible for him to have extricated himself. 'Great and good
+God!' murmured the wretched child, 'this time no one will come to
+deliver me from my danger!' And the poor little fellow was right, for,
+indeed, it was utterly impossible, and for this reason, that no sooner
+had Le Doyen gone away with the idea of all being comfortably arranged
+between the boy and his master than Cut-in-Half hastened to double-lock
+and bolt the entrance to his premises, so that no person could gain
+admission without his knowledge."
+
+"Oh, poor little Gringalet!" exclaimed all the prisoners, deeply excited
+by the recital, "it's all up with him, that's quite sure."
+
+"I'd give my last franc-piece to get him out of the hands of that
+blackguard--that I would!" cried a multitude of voices, as though one
+unanimous sympathy actuated each breast.
+
+"I wonder what that beggar of a Cut-in-Half is going to do with the poor
+little chap!" added they, in almost breathless interest; "come, push on,
+and let's hear."
+
+Pique-Vinaigre continued:
+
+"When Gringalet was well secured in the chair, his master said to him"
+(and here the narrator imitated most naturally the thick speech and
+stammering tones of a drunken man): 'Ah--you scoundrel!--you--you are
+the--cause of--my being thrashed by Le Doyen!--you shall--die--for
+it--you shall--you--young--devil!' Then he took from his pocket a
+freshly sharpened razor, opened it, and seized Gringalet by the hair of
+his head. At the sight of the razor the child began to weep. 'Pardon,
+master! Pardon! Do not kill me!' 'Cry away, you infernal brat! You shall
+not cry long!' replied Cut-in-Half. 'Golden fly, golden fly, come to my
+help!' exclaimed poor Gringalet, almost mad, and remembering the dream
+that had had such an effect upon him, 'for the spider is going to kill
+me!' 'What!--you call--call--me a spider--do you?' said Cut-in-Half;
+'for this--and--other--many other things--you shall die--die, I tell
+you--but not by my hand--because that wouldn't do--and besides--they'd
+"scrag" me--and so I'll say and prove that it was the ape. I have
+managed it all--and so--never mind--for that's all about it!' he added,
+preserving his equilibrium with the greatest difficulty. Then calling
+the monkey, which, at the end of his chain, was grinning and looking at
+his master and the boy, 'Here, Gargousse,' he said, pointing to the
+razor, and then to Gringalet, whom he had seized by the hair of his
+head, 'do so to him;' and then drawing the back of the razor several
+times over Gringalet's throat, he feigned to cut his throat. The devil
+of a monkey was such a close imitator--so wicked and so sly--that he
+understood what his master desired, and as if to prove to him that he
+did so, he took his chin in his left paw, put his head back, and, with
+his right paw, pretended to cut his throat. 'That's it,
+Gargousse--that's it!' said Cut-in-Half, stammering, with his eyes half
+closed, and staggering so much that he almost fell with Gringalet and
+the chair. 'Yes, that's it! I'll unfas--unfasten you, and you'll slice
+his weasand--won't you, Gargousse?' The ape shrieked as he ground his
+teeth, as much as to say yes, and put out his paw as if to take the
+razor that Cut-in-Half handed to him. 'Golden fly, come to my rescue!'
+murmured Gringalet, in a faint voice, and assured that his last hour was
+come. Alas! he called the golden fly without any hopes of its coming to
+his rescue; he did so as a drowning man exclaims, '_Mon Dieu! mon
+Dieu!_' Yet at this very moment Gringalet saw enter into the room one of
+those small gold and green flies, which look like a spangle of gold
+flying and flitting around and about; and at the very moment when
+Cut-in-Half was going to give the razor to Gargousse, the gold fly went
+plump into the eye of this horrible ruffian. A fly in the eye is no
+great thing, but at the moment it hurts like the prick of a pin, and
+thus Cut-in-Half, who could scarcely support himself, raised his hand to
+his eye so suddenly that he staggered and fell at full length, rolling
+on the ground like a log to the foot of the bed, to which Gargousse was
+fastened. 'Golden fly, many thanks! You have saved me!' cried Gringalet,
+who, seated and fastened to the chair, had observed all."
+
+"_Ma foi!_ It really was true, then, and the golden fly prevented his
+having his throat cut," exclaimed the prisoners, overjoyed.
+
+"The golden fly for ever!" cried the Blue Cap.
+
+"Listen now," continued the story-teller, "for this is the most
+beautiful and terrible of the history I had promised you. Cut-in-Half
+had fallen like a lump of lead, and was so drunk that he could move no
+more than a log,--he was dead drunk and perfectly senseless; but in his
+fall he very nearly crushed Gargousse, and almost broke his hind paw.
+You know how savage and revengeful this infernal brute was, and he still
+held in his paw the razor which his master had given him to cut
+Gringalet's throat. What do you suppose the animal did when he saw his
+master on his back and within his reach? Why, he jumped upon him,
+squatted on his breast, and whilst with one paw he pushed up his chin to
+expose his neck, with the other he cut his throat as clean as a whistle,
+just as Cut-in-Half had taught him to do with poor Gringalet a few
+minutes before."
+
+"Bravo, bravo! Well done!"
+
+"Gargousse for ever!"
+
+"The little golden fly for ever!"
+
+"Gringalet for ever! Gargousse for ever!"
+
+"Well, my friends, I assure you, as you shout now, so did the whole
+population of La Petite Pologne shout an hour afterwards," said
+Pique-Vinaigre, delighted at the success of his story and the enthusiasm
+of his hearers.
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"I told you that, in order to complete his wicked purpose at his ease,
+the vagabond Cut-in-Half had closed the door inside. Towards the
+evening, the boys came in one after the other with their animals. The
+first rapped, but no answer; then, when they had all arrived, they
+knocked at the door, but no reply; so one went to find Le Doyen to tell
+him how they had knocked in vain, and that their master did not open to
+them. 'The fellow must be as drunk as an Englishman,' said he; 'I sent
+him some wine just now. We must break open the door, for the children
+cannot pass the night out-of-doors.' So they burst in the door, and then
+they went up the stairs, and what should they see but Gargousse chained
+and crouching on his master's body, playing with the razor! Poor
+Gringalet was fortunately out of Gargousse's reach and still on the
+chair, not daring to look on Cut-in-Half's body, but gazing at,--guess
+what, the little golden fly, which, after having flitted round and round
+the child as if to congratulate him, had, at last, come and settled on
+his poor little hand.
+
+"Gringalet related all to Le Doyen and the crowd that came in, and, as
+it really appeared like the interposition of Providence, Le Doyen cried,
+'A triumph for Gringalet! A triumph to Gargousse who killed the infamous
+Cut-in-Half! He cut others, it was his turn to be cut himself.' 'Yes,
+yes,' cried the assembled mob, for the beast-shower was universally
+detested, 'a triumph to Gargousse! A triumph for Gringalet!' It was
+night, and they lighted straw torches, fastened Gargousse to a bench,
+which four chaps carried on their shoulders; and the blackguard of an
+ape seemed as if he felt his consequence, and gave himself the airs of a
+conquering hero, by showing his teeth to the multitude. After the ape
+came Le Doyen, carrying Gringalet in his arms; then all the little
+fellows, each carrying his beast, followed him, one with his fox,
+another his marmotte, another his guinea-pig; and those who played on
+the hurdy-gurdy played now; then there were the charcoal-sellers who had
+their bells, and there was such an uproar, such joy, such a fête as can
+be scarcely imagined. Behind the musicians and animal-showers came all
+the dwellers in La Petite Pologne, men, women, and children, all holding
+straw torches, and halloaing like mad, 'Vive Gringalet! Vive Gargousse!'
+The procession advanced in this way around the place in which
+Cut-in-Half dwelt. It was a very singular sight to see the old buildings
+lighted up by the red light of the straw torches, which flared and
+flared. As to Gringalet, the first thing he did when he was at liberty
+was to put the little golden fly in a paper bag, and he exclaimed during
+his triumph, 'Little flies, I did very right in preventing the spiders
+from eating you, for--'"
+
+Pique-Vinaigre was interrupted by a voice from without, exclaiming:
+
+"Père Roussel, come to your soup; it only wants ten minutes to four!"
+
+"_Ma foi!_ The story is nearly finished, and I must go. Many thanks, my
+lad, you have amused me very much, and that you may tell everybody,"
+said the superintendent to Pique-Vinaigre, going to the door; then
+pausing, "Mind and be quiet," he said, turning towards the prisoners.
+
+"We shall hear the end of the story," said the Skeleton, breathless with
+suppressed rage; then, adding in a whisper to Gros-Boiteux, "Follow him
+to the door, and, when you see him leave the yard, cry Gargousse, and
+the informer is a dead man."
+
+"All right," said Le Gros-Boiteux, who accompanied the guardian, and
+remained at the door watching his steps as he went away.
+
+"I tell you, then," resumed Pique-Vinaigre, "that Gringalet, during the
+whole time of his triumph, said, 'Little flies, I have--'"
+
+"Gargousse!" cried Gros-Boiteux, as the turnkey quitted the yard.
+
+"I'm here, Gringalet, and I will be your spider!" cried the Skeleton,
+instantly, and darting so suddenly on Germain that he could not make a
+struggle or utter a cry. His voice expired under the tremendous gripe of
+the Skeleton's iron fingers.
+
+"If you are the spider, I'm the golden fly, Skeleton of evil," cried a
+voice, at the moment when Germain, surprised at the violent and sudden
+attack of his implacable enemy, had fallen back on the bench entirely at
+the mercy of the ruffian, who, with his knee on his breast, held him by
+the neck. "Yes, I will be the fly, and a fly of the right sort!"
+repeated the man in the blue cap, of whom we have already spoken, and
+then, with a fierce spring, he dashed upon the Skeleton, and assailed
+him on the skull and between his eyes with a shower of blows from his
+fist, so tremendous that it sounded like the noise of a smith's hammer
+ringing on an anvil.
+
+[Illustration: "_The Skeleton Staggered at First_"
+Original Etching by Marcel]
+
+The man in the blue cap, who was no other than the Chourineur, added, as
+he redoubled the quickness of his hammering on the Skeleton's head:
+
+"It is the shower of blows which M. Rodolph drummed on my sconce, and I
+have recollected them."
+
+At this unexpected assault the prisoners were all struck with surprise,
+and did not take part either for or against the Chourineur. Several of
+them, still under the influence of the salutary impression made on them
+by Pique-Vinaigre's story, were even glad of an event which saved
+Germain. The Skeleton staggered at first, and, reeling like an ox under
+the butcher's poleaxe, mechanically extended his hands to try and ward
+off his adversary's blows, and Germain, thus freed from the deadly
+clutch of the Skeleton, half raised himself.
+
+"What does this mean? Who is this scoundrel?" exclaimed Le Gros-Boiteux,
+and, rushing at the Chourineur, he endeavoured to seize his arms from
+behind, whilst the latter was making violent efforts to keep the
+Skeleton down on the bench. Germain's defender replied to Le
+Gros-Boiteux's attack by a kind of kick, so violent that it sent the
+cripple rolling on the ground to the farther end of the circle formed by
+the prisoners.
+
+Germain, whose face was livid and purple, half suffocated, and on his
+knees by the bench, seemed unconscious of all that was passing around
+him. The strangulation had been so violent that he could scarcely
+breathe.
+
+After his first surprise was over, the Skeleton, by a desperate effort,
+contrived to keep the Chourineur off and regain his feet. Breathless,
+drunk with rage and hatred, he was fearful to look upon. His cadaverous
+face streamed with blood, his upper lip curled like that of a furious
+wolf, exposed his teeth clenched against each other. At last he
+exclaimed, in a voice palpitating with anger and exertion, for his
+struggle had been very violent:
+
+"Stab him,--the ruffian!--you cowards, who let me be traitorously
+attacked, or the informer will escape!"
+
+During this momentary truce, the Chourineur, raising Germain half
+fainting, had managed very cleverly to put him in an angle of the wall,
+and, availing himself of this advantageous position of defence, he was
+able, without fear of surprise from behind, to resist any attack of the
+prisoners, on whom the skill and herculean powers he had displayed had
+imposed considerable respect.
+
+Pique-Vinaigre, greatly alarmed, had disappeared without his absence
+being remarked.
+
+Seeing hesitation amongst the majority of prisoners, the Skeleton
+exclaimed:
+
+"Aid me now, let us do for both, the big 'un as well as the little 'un!"
+
+"Look out for squalls, then," replied the Chourineur, preparing for a
+struggle, with his two hands squared, and standing well-balanced on his
+loins; "and mind your eye, Skeleton! If you mean to play the
+Cut-in-Half, I'll serve you as Gargousse did, and slit your weasand."
+
+"Fall on him!" said Le Gros-Boiteux, getting up.
+
+"Why does this vagabond defend spies? Death to the informer, and to him,
+too! If he defends Germain he is a traitor!"
+
+"Yes, yes, death to the spy! Death!"
+
+"Yes, and death to the traitor who defends him!"
+
+Such were the cries uttered by the fiercest of the _détenus_. Another
+party, more merciful, exclaimed:
+
+"No, let's hear him first!"
+
+"Yes, let him explain; we mustn't kill a man without a hearing!"
+
+"And without means of defence, too! Must we be Cut-in-Halfs?"
+
+"So much the better!" replied the Skeleton's partisans.
+
+"Nothing's too bad for a spy!"
+
+"Let's fall on him! Let us support the Skeleton!"
+
+"Yes, let's at the Blue Cap!"
+
+"No, let's support the Blue Cap, and let's at the Skeleton!" retorted
+the Chourineur's party.
+
+"No, down with the Blue Cap!"
+
+"Down with the Skeleton!"
+
+"Well done, my boys!" cried the Chourineur, addressing the prisoners who
+sided with him. "You're good fellows, and would not massacre a half dead
+man; none but cowards would do that. The Skeleton does not care what
+evil he does; he is sentenced beforehand, and that is why he urges you
+on; but if you help to kill Germain, you will be severely punished for
+it. Besides, I have something to propose. The Skeleton is desirous of
+doing for this young man; well, let him come and take him if he thinks
+he has the pluck to do it; let us two settle it; leave us to ourselves,
+and see what turns up. But he's afraid; he's like Cut-in-Half, only
+strong with the weak."
+
+The vigour, energy, and rough manner of the Chourineur had powerful
+effect on the prisoners, and a considerable number of them had ranged
+themselves on his side, and surrounded Germain, whilst the Skeleton's
+party drew around that ruffian. A bloody fray would have ensued, when
+there was heard in the yard the sonorous and measured tread of a piquet
+of infantry, always on guard in the prison. Pique-Vinaigre, profiting by
+the general stir and noise, had gained the yard, and, having knocked at
+the wicket of the entrance, had told the turnkeys what was passing in
+the day-room. The arrival of the soldiers put an end to this scene.
+Germain, the Skeleton, and the Chourineur were taken before the
+governor of La Force; the first to make his complaint, the two others to
+answer for creating a disturbance inside the gaol.
+
+The fright and suffering of Germain had been so great, his weakness so
+extreme, that he was obliged to lean on two of the turnkeys, in order to
+reach a chamber next to the governor's room. There he was very ill. His
+neck, excoriated as it was, bore the livid and bleeding imprint of the
+Skeleton's iron grasp; a few minutes more, and Rigolette's betrothed
+would have been strangled. The turnkey, who had taken an interest in
+Germain, gave him first assistance. When he had recovered, his first
+thought was of his deliverer.
+
+"Thanks for your kind cares, sir," he said to the turnkey. "But for that
+brave man, I must have been killed. Where is he?"
+
+"In the governor's room, telling him how the disturbance arose. It
+appears that but for him--"
+
+"I must have been killed. Oh, tell me his name! Who is he?"
+
+"His name I do not know, but they call him the Chourineur; he is an old
+offender."
+
+"And is his crime now very serious?"
+
+"Very; burglary in the night in an inhabited house," replied the
+turnkey. "He will probably have a similar dose to Pique-Vinaigre,
+fifteen or twenty years of hard labour."
+
+Germain shuddered; he would have preferred being bound by gratitude to a
+man less criminal.
+
+"How dreadful!" he said. "And yet this man without knowing me defended
+me; such courage, such generosity!"
+
+"Ah, these men have sometimes a touch of good! The main point is that
+you are saved. To-morrow you will have your private cell, and to-night
+you will sleep in the infirmary. So, courage, sir. The bad time is over;
+and when your pretty little visitor comes to see you, you can comfort
+her, for once in a cell you have nothing to fear; only you will do
+wisely, I think, not to tell her of this affair."
+
+"Certainly not; but I should like to thank my defender."
+
+"I have just been leaving the governor, who will now interrogate the
+Skeleton, and I shall take them both, the Skeleton to his dungeon
+directly, and the Chourineur to the Fosse aux Lions; he will be,
+besides, somewhat rewarded for what he has done for you; as he is a
+determined and stout fellow, he will probably replace the Skeleton as
+captain of the ward."
+
+The Chourineur, having crossed a small passage from the governor's
+apartment, entered the room in which Germain was.
+
+"Wait for me here," said the turnkey to the Chourineur. "I will go and
+ask the governor what he decides upon as to the Skeleton, and I will
+return and let you know. Our young man has quite recovered, and wishes
+to thank you, and so he should, for otherwise it would have been all
+over with him." And the turnkey went out.
+
+The Chourineur's countenance was very joyous, and he advanced towards
+Germain, saying, with a cheerful air:
+
+"Thunder! How glad I am! How glad I saved you!" and he extended his hand
+to Germain, who, by a feeling of involuntary repulsion, withdrew
+somewhat, instead of taking the hand which the Chourineur offered to
+him; then, remembering that he owed his life to this man, he was
+desirous of repairing this display of repugnance. But the Chourineur
+perceived it; his features became overcast, and, retreating in his turn,
+he said, with bitter sorrow, "Oh, it is right; your pardon, sir!"
+
+"No, it is I who ought to ask your pardon; am I not a prisoner like
+yourself? Ought I not to think of the service you have rendered me? You
+have saved my life. Your hand, sir, I beg--I entreat--your hand!"
+
+"Thanks; but it is useless now. The first feeling is everything. If you
+had directly given me a grasp of the hand, it would have afforded me
+pleasure, but, when I reflect, I would not desire it. Not because I am a
+prisoner like you," he added, with a sombre and hesitating air,
+"because, before I came here, I have been--"
+
+"The turnkey told me all," said Germain, interrupting him; "but yet you
+saved my life."
+
+"I have done no more than my duty and pleasure, for I know who you
+are--Monsieur Germain."
+
+"You know me!"
+
+"A little, my lad," said the Chourineur, resuming his usual tone of
+habitual carelessness; "and, _pardieu!_ you would have been very wrong
+to have attributed my arrival at La Force to chance. If I had not known
+you, I should not have been in prison."
+
+Germain looked at the Chourineur with amazement.
+
+"What! It was because you knew me?"
+
+"That I am here a prisoner in La Force."
+
+"I, who owe you--"
+
+"A candle to the Virgin, for having procured me the advantage of being
+in La Force."
+
+"Really," said Germain, passing his hand over his brow. "I do not know
+whether the terrible shock I have just undergone has weakened my senses,
+but it is impossible for me to understand you. The turnkey told me you
+were here under a charge of--of--" said Germain, with hesitation.
+
+"Robbery, _pardieu_! And robbery with forcible entry, and moreover at
+night; nothing could be more complete!" cried the Chourineur, with a
+hearty laugh.
+
+Germain, painfully excited at the bold hardihood of the Chourineur,
+could not forbear saying to him:
+
+"What, you, so brave, so generous, and speak in this way! Are you not
+aware of the terrible punishment to which you are exposed?"
+
+"Twenty years at the galleys; I know that. I am an out-and-out
+scoundrel, I know that, for taking it so easy. But what's the use when
+one has been and done it? And then, for me to say that it was you, M.
+Germain," added the Chourineur, heaving a tremendous sigh, and with an
+air of assumed contrition, "who are the cause of my misfortune."
+
+"When you explain yourself more clearly, I shall understand you. Just as
+much as you please, but my gratitude for the service you have rendered
+me will never cease or diminish," added Germain, sorrowfully.
+
+"Oh, pardon me, M. Germain!" replied the Chourineur, becoming serious.
+"You do not like to see me laugh at this; do not let us add another
+word. I must let all out with you, and so, perhaps, force you to shake
+my hand."
+
+"I have no doubt of that; for, in spite of the crime of which you are
+accused, and of which you accuse yourself, all in you bespeaks so much
+courage and frankness that I am convinced you are charged unjustly;
+strong suspicions may exist, but I am sure that is all."
+
+"Oh, as to that you are mistaken, M. Germain!" said the Chourineur,
+hastily; "on my word as a man, and as true as I have a protector,"--the
+Chourineur took off his cap,--"who is more than all the world to me, I
+robbed at night by forcing the shutter, and was caught in the fact and
+deprived of all I was endeavouring to carry off."
+
+"But want--hunger--pushed you to such an extremity?"
+
+"Hunger! I had one hundred and twenty francs when they apprehended me,
+the remains of a note of one thousand francs, without including the
+protector I have mentioned to you, who, by the way, does not know that I
+am here, but will not let me want for anything. Since, however, I have
+mentioned him to you, you must suppose I am in earnest, for you must
+know that he is a man to go on your knees before. So I must tell you,
+too, that the shower of blows which I drummed on the Skeleton's sconce
+was a sketch after his style, copied from nature. The idea of the
+robbery was on his account; and, in fact, if you were not strangled by
+the Skeleton, it is through him."
+
+"But this protector?"
+
+"Is yours also."
+
+"Mine!"
+
+"Yes, M. Rodolph protects you. When I say monsieur, I should say
+monseigneur, for he is at least a prince; but I have a habit of calling
+him M. Rodolph, which he permits me to do."
+
+"You are under some mistake," said Germain, more and more surprised; "I
+do not know the prince."
+
+"Yes, but he knows you. You don't believe it? Well, that's possible, for
+that's his way. He knows that there is some worthy fellow in trouble,
+and then, in an instant, the good fellow is comforted, and, without
+being seen or known, he is at work, and kindness falls from the skies,
+like a tile from a house on your head. So patience, and one day or other
+you will have your tile."
+
+"Really, what you say amazes me!"
+
+"Ah, you'll have a great deal more to amaze you yet! To return to my
+protector: Some time ago, after a service which he persisted I had done
+him, he procured me a splendid position, I need not say where, or any
+more about it, for it would be a long tale to tell. Well, he sends me to
+Marseilles to embark and go to a capital appointment in Algeria. I left
+Paris as happy as a child; but, all of a sudden, a change comes over
+me."
+
+"That was singular!"
+
+"Why, you must know that once separated from M. Rodolph I was uneasy,
+disturbed, as fidgety as a dog who has lost his master. It was very
+stupid; but so are dogs, sometimes, but that does not prevent them from
+being at least attached, and as well mindful of the nice bits given them
+as of the thumps and kicks they have had, and M. Rodolph had given me
+many nice bits, and, in truth, M. Rodolph is everything to me. From
+being a riotous, dare-devil, good-for-nothing blackguard, he made an
+honest man of me by only saying two words, just for all the world like
+magic."
+
+"What were the words he said?"
+
+"He said I had still heart and honour, although I have been at the
+galleys, not for having stolen, it is true,--ah, never that,--but what
+perhaps is worse, for having killed,--yes," said the Chourineur, in a
+gloomy tone, "killed in a moment of passion, because formerly growing up
+like a brute beast, or, rather, as a vagabond, without father or mother,
+and left abandoned in the streets of Paris, I knew neither God nor
+devil--neither good nor evil. Sometimes the blood mounted to my eyes,
+and I saw red, and if I had a knife in my hands I slashed and hacked,--I
+was a real savage--a beast, and only lived amongst thieves and
+scoundrels. I was in the mud, and in the mud I lived as well as I could.
+But when M. Rodolph said to me that since, in spite of the contempt of
+all the world and my misery, instead of plundering like others I had
+preferred working as long as I could, and for what I could, that showed
+I had still heart and honour--thunder!--you see these two words had the
+same effect on me as if I had been seized by the hair of my head and
+lifted a thousand feet into the air above the vermin with whom I dwelt,
+and showed me the filth in which my life was spent. So I said, 'Thank
+ye, I've had enough of this!' Then my heart beat with something else
+besides anger, and I took an oath to myself always to preserve that
+honour which M. Rodolph spoke of. You see, M. Germain, that when M.
+Rodolph told me so kindly that I was not so bad as I believed myself to
+be, that encouraged me, and, thanks to him, I became better than I had
+been."
+
+When he heard this language, Germain comprehended less and less how the
+Chourineur had committed the robbery of which he accused himself.
+
+"No," he said to himself, "it is impossible; the man who was so exalted
+at the two words honour and heart cannot have committed the robbery of
+which he talks with so much self-complacency."
+
+The Chourineur continued, without remarking the astonishment of Germain:
+
+"To say the truth, what made me be like a dog to his master to M.
+Rodolph was that he raised me in my own opinion. Before I knew him I
+never felt but on my skin, but he moved me inwardly, and to the bottom
+of my heart. Once away from him and the place he inhabited, I felt like
+a body without a soul. In proportion as I proceeded farther I said to
+myself, 'He leads such a strange life,--mixes with such scamps (I can
+answer for that), that he risks his body twenty times a day, and, under
+some such circumstances, I may be his dog and defend my master, for I am
+strong in the jaws;' but then he had said to me,'My good fellow, you
+must become useful to others, therefore go where you can be
+serviceable.' I was very nearly replying, 'I have no one to serve but
+you, M. Rodolph,' but I daredn't. He said to me, 'Go,' and I went, and
+have gone as far as I could; but, thunder! when I ought to have gone on
+board the ship, left France, and put the sea between M. Rodolph and
+myself, I had not the courage. He had desired his correspondent to give
+me a great lump of money when I sailed, so I went to the gentleman, and
+said to him, 'Sir, I can't do it--I'd rather do anything, so please to
+give me enough to pay my journey on foot; I have good legs, and I will
+return to Paris, for I cannot leave France. M. Rodolph will be angry,
+and, perhaps, refuse to see me,--that's possible; but I shall see him,
+know where he is, and if he goes on as usual, sooner or later I may,
+perhaps, arrive in time to come between him and a stab with a knife; and
+then I really cannot go so far away from him! Something I cannot account
+for attracts me to his side.' Well, they gave me sufficient to pay my
+way, and I reached Paris. Then I really was frightened. What could I say
+to M. Rodolph to excuse myself? But, after all, he would not eat me up;
+so I went to find his friend, a tall, bald-headed man, but a right sort
+of fellow as ever broke bread. When I saw M. Murphy, I said,'Now my fate
+will be decided;' and my throat was dry, and my heart beat such a pace!
+I expected to catch it pretty handsomely, but, what d'ye think? Why, the
+worthy gentleman received me just as if we had only parted the previous
+evening, and told me that M. Rodolph, instead of being angry, wished to
+see me as soon as possible. Well, so I went at once to my
+protector,--him with such a stout fist and good heart,--and when I was
+face to face with him he who is as terrible as a lion and as gentle as a
+child--he who is a prince, and yet puts on a blouse like me--and once on
+a time (I bless the day, or night, rather) laid on me such a shower of
+blows that I saw nothing but fire, why, M. Germain, when I reflected on
+all the agreeable qualities he is master of, I felt completely overcome,
+and I snivelled like a woman. Well, instead of laughing at me, for I
+must be a rum-looking lot when I pipe my eye, M. Rodolph said to me,
+seriously, 'Here you are back again, my good fellow, eh?' 'Yes, M.
+Rodolph, and pray excuse me if I have done wrong, but I could not help
+it. Give me some corner in your courtyard, give me a crust and a glass,
+or let me earn it here,--that's all I ask, and pray don't be angry with
+me for coming back.' 'So far from it, my man, you have come back just in
+time to do me a service.' 'I, M. Rodolph? Is that possible? Well, there
+must have been something above, for if not, how could I explain how it
+was I must come back here at the very moment when you wanted me? What
+can I do for you, M. Rodolph?' 'An honest, worthy young man, in whom I
+take the interest I should do in a son, has been unjustly accused of
+robbery, and is a prisoner in La Force. His name is Germain; he is of a
+gentle, quiet disposition. The wretches with whom he is confined have
+conceived a great aversion for him, and he is in great danger. You
+unfortunately have known what a prison life is, and a great many
+prisoners; could not you, in case there may be any of your old
+companions in La Force (we will find that out), go and see them, and, by
+promises of money, which shall be duly performed, induce them to protect
+this unfortunate young man?'"
+
+"But who can this generous and unknown man be, who takes so much
+interest in my fate?" asked Germain, more and more surprised.
+
+"You will learn, perhaps, hereafter,--as for me, I do not know. To
+return to my conversation with M. Rodolph. Whilst he was speaking to me
+there came an idea into my head, so curious, so whimsical, that I could
+not forbear laughing outright before him. 'What is it, my lad?' said he.
+'Why, M. Rodolph, I laugh because I am so happy, and I am happy because
+I have the means of putting your M. Germain quite safe from any ill-will
+on the part of the prisoners, of giving him a protector who will defend
+him boldly, for when once the young fellow is under the care of the man
+I mean, not one will dare look at him impertinently.' 'Very good--one of
+your old comrades, no doubt?' 'Exactly so, M. Rodolph; he has been in La
+Force some days, that I know. But I must have some money.' 'How much
+shall you require,--a note for a thousand francs? Here it is.' 'Thank
+ye, M. Rodolph; in two days you will have some news.'"
+
+"I begin to understand, or, rather, I'm afraid to understand," exclaimed
+Germain. "To come and protect me in this prison you have, perhaps,
+committed a robbery? Oh, what remorse will beset all my life!"
+
+"Hold hard! M. Rodolph had said I had heart and honour,---these words
+are my law, you must know; and he may still say it to me, for if I am
+no better than I was before, at least I am no worse."
+
+"But this robbery, if you have not committed it, why are you here?"
+
+"Listen! There is a capital joke with my thousand francs, I bought
+myself a black wig, shaved my whiskers, put on blue spectacles, bent my
+head on one side, and made up my back as if it were humped, and then
+went in search of two apartments to let, on the ground floor, in a
+bustling part of the city. I found what I looked for in the Rue de
+Provence, and paid a month in advance, under the name of M. Grégoire.
+Next day I went to the Temple to buy furniture for my two rooms, with my
+black wig, my hump, and blue glasses, so that I might be easily
+recognised. Well, I sent the goods to the Rue de Provence, and,
+moreover, six silver spoons, which I bought in the Boulevard St. Denis,
+still disguised with my hump. I returned then to arrange all my affairs
+in my residence. I told the porter I should not sleep there until the
+following night, and took away my key. The windows of the two rooms were
+closed with strong shutters. Before I went away I had purposely left one
+with the bolt undrawn. The night came, and I put off my wig, my
+spectacles, my hump, and the clothes in which I had made my purchases
+and hired my apartments, putting this suit in a portmanteau, which I
+forwarded to M. Murphy, M. Rodolph's friend, begging him to take care of
+it for me. I then bought this blouse, and the blue cotton cap, and a bar
+of iron two feet long; and at one o'clock in the morning I went into the
+Rue de Provence, where I lurked about before my lodging, awaiting the
+moment when the patrol would pass and prevent my robbing
+myself,--committing a burglary on my own premises, in order to be caught
+and apprehended."
+
+And the Chourineur burst into a fit of hearty laughter.
+
+"I begin to understand," cried Germain.
+
+"But I was nearly getting in a 'fix,' for no patrol passed. I might have
+robbed myself twenty times with the greatest ease and safety. At last,
+about two o'clock in the morning, I heard the tread of the soldier boys,
+and then I pushed open the window, jumped into the room, pocketed the
+silver spoons and some other trifles. Fortunately the lively patrol had
+heard the smash of the windows, and just as I leaped out of the window
+they laid hands upon me. They knocked at the door, which the porter
+opened, they sent for the sergeant of police, who came. The porter told
+him that the two rooms had been hired that morning by a humpbacked
+gentleman, with black hair and blue spectacles, whose name was Grégoire.
+I had the thick head of hair which you now see, and my eyes were as wide
+open as a hare's on the watch, was as upright as a Russian sentinel, and
+could not be taken for a humpbacked gentleman, with blue glasses and
+black hair. I confessed all, and was conducted to the station, and from
+the station to this prison, where I arrived in the nick of time to
+snatch from the clutch of the Skeleton the young man of whom M. Rodolph
+had said to me, 'I am interested in him as much as if he were my own
+son.'"
+
+"What do I not owe you for such devotion?"
+
+"Not to me,--you owe it to M. Rodolph."
+
+"But whence arises his interest in me?"
+
+"That is for him to tell you, or, perhaps, he will not tell you, for he
+very often chooses to do good, and if you ask him why, he will not let
+you know."
+
+"M. Rodolph, then, knows you are here?"
+
+"I'm not such a fool as to tell him my plans; perhaps he would not have
+consented to my whim, and, really, I must say it was capital."
+
+"But what risks you have run,--indeed, still run."
+
+"Oh, what risk? I might not have been brought to La Force,--that was the
+worst risk,--but I relied on M. Rodolph's interest to have my prison
+changed, so that I might have got to you."
+
+"But at your trial?"
+
+"Well, I shall beg M. Murphy to send me the portmanteau. Before the
+judge I shall appear in my black wig, blue spectacles, and hump, and
+shall be again M. Grégoire for the porter who let me the chambers and
+the tradespeople who sold me the goods. So much for the robbery. If they
+wish to see the thief again, I'll put off my suit, and then it will be
+as clear as daylight that the robber and the robbed together only make a
+total of the Chourineur and no more. And what the devil would you expect
+when it is proved that I robbed myself?"
+
+"Why, indeed," said Germain, more assured; "but since you take so much
+interest in me, why did you not speak to me when you came first into the
+prison?"
+
+"I knew instantly of the scheme against you by the prisoners, and I
+might have denounced them before Pique-Vinaigre began or ended his
+story; but to denounce such ruffians did not suit my ideas,--I preferred
+trusting only to my fist in order to snatch you from the clutch of the
+Skeleton; and when I saw that scoundrel I said to myself, 'This is a
+fine opportunity for putting in practice that shower of blows to which I
+owe the honour of M. Rodolph's acquaintance.'"
+
+"But if all the prisoners had taken part against you, alone, what could
+you have done?"
+
+"Why, then, I should have shrieked like an eagle and called lustily for
+help. But I preferred having my little affair all to myself, that I
+might be able to say to M. Rodolph, 'I was all alone in the matter. I
+have defended and will defend your friend,--be easy on that subject.'"
+
+At this moment the turnkey suddenly returned to the apartment.
+
+"Monsieur Germain, go to the governor; he wishes to speak to you
+immediately. And you, Chourineur, go down into the Fosse-aux-Lions; you
+are to be _prévôt_, if you like, for you have all the qualifications for
+that duty, and the prisoners will not joke with a man of your sort."
+
+"It is all the same to me, I'd as soon be captain as private."
+
+"Will you refuse my hand now?" said Germain, cordially.
+
+"_Ma foi!_ no, M. Germain! I'll shake hands with all my heart."
+
+"We shall see one another again, for I am now under your protection. I
+shall have nothing more to fear, and shall, therefore, come down every
+day from my cell into the yard."
+
+"Make yourself quite easy on that score. But now I think of it, write a
+line to M. Rodolph, who will then no longer be uneasy about you, and
+will also learn that I am here for a good reason, for if he were to hear
+that I had committed a robbery, and did not know all the real
+facts,--thunder! That would not do by any means."
+
+"Make your mind easy. I will write this very evening to my unknown
+protector. Once more, good-bye, and thanks most heartily, my worthy
+friend."
+
+"Good-bye, M. Germain. I must return to those scoundrels, and I'll make
+them go right; if not, let them look out for squalls!"
+
+"When I reflect that it is on my account that you must remain some time
+longer with these wretches--"
+
+"What consequence is that? There is no fear of their turning on me;" and
+the Chourineur followed the turnkey.
+
+Germain went to the governor. What was his surprise to find Rigolette
+there! pale, agitated, and her eyes bathed in tears; and yet smiling
+through her tears, her countenance expressing unutterable happiness.
+
+"I have good news for you, sir," said the governor to Germain; "justice
+has declared that no prosecution can be instituted against you; and in
+consequence of the withdrawing of this, and explanations that have taken
+place, I have received an order to set you at liberty immediately."
+
+"Sir! What do you say? Can it be possible?"
+
+Rigolette tried to speak, but her extreme emotion prevented her, and she
+could only make an affirmative sign to Germain with her head, and clasp
+her hands.
+
+"Mademoiselle arrived a few minutes after I had received the order to
+set you at liberty," added the governor. "A very powerful letter of
+recommendation which she brought to me informed me of the touching
+devotion she had shown to you in prison; and it is with extreme pleasure
+that I sent for you, certain that you will be very happy to offer your
+arm to mademoiselle, and lead her hence."
+
+"A dream! It must be a dream!" said Germain. "Ah, sir, how can I thank
+you? Excuse my astonishment,--joy prevents me from thanking you as I
+ought."
+
+"And I, too, M. Germain,--I cannot find a word to say," said Rigolette;
+"only imagine my delight when I left you on finding the friend of M.
+Rodolph, who was waiting for me."
+
+"Again M. Rodolph!" exclaimed Germain, astonished.
+
+"Yes, and M. Murphy said to me, 'Germain is free--here is a letter for
+the governor of the prison; when you arrive there he will have received
+the order for Germain's release, and you may take him away with you.' I
+could not believe what I heard, and yet it was true. Well, as quick as
+possible, I took a hackney-coach, and came here; it is waiting for us at
+the gate."
+
+We will not attempt to paint the delight of the two lovers when they
+quitted La Force, and the evening they passed together in Rigolette's
+small apartment, which Germain quitted at eleven o'clock to go to a
+humble furnished room.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME V.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+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:
+
+"pocket-book" (1) and "pocketbook" (3)
+"protégé" (2) and "protégée" (3)
+
+Words using the [oe] ligature, which have been herein represented as
+"oe": "Croesus."
+
+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 5 of 6, by
+Eugène Sue
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