initial commit of ebook 39295HEADmain

21 files changed, 13002 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/39295-8.txt b/39295-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..afd09f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4278 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man in Black, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
+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 Man in Black
+
+Author: Stanley J. Weyman
+
+Illustrator: Wal Paget
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2012 [EBook #39295]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN BLACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the
+Web Archive (University of Toronto)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/maninblackillust00weymuoft
+      (University of Toronto)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE MAN IN BLACK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "'IF YOU WANT ME TO--DRAW HER HOROSCOPE,' THE
+ASTROLOGER REPLIED" (_p_. 89).]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 The
+                             Man in Black
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+                          STANLEY J. WEYMAN
+
+            _Author of "A Gentleman of France" "The Story
+                       of Francis Cludde" etc_.
+
+
+
+
+                            Illustrated by
+                      WAL PAGET AND H. M. PAGET
+
+
+
+
+                            SIXTH THOUSAND
+
+
+
+
+                     CASSELL AND COMPANY Limited
+                      _London Paris & Melbourne_
+                                 1894
+                         ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS.
+
+
+   CHAPTER
+
+         I. The Fair at Fécamp.
+
+        II. Solomon Nôtredame.
+
+       III. Man and Wife.
+
+        IV. The House with Two Doors.
+
+         V. The Upper Portal.
+
+        VI. The Powder of Attraction.
+
+       VII. Clytæmnestra.
+
+      VIII. The Mark of Cain.
+
+        IX. Before the Court.
+
+         X. Two Witnesses.
+
+
+
+
+                        LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+   "'If you want me to draw her horoscope,' the astrologer replied."
+       Frontispiece
+
+   "The showman was counting his gains into his pouch."
+
+   "Jehan went trembling and found the hole."
+
+   "The astrologer rose slowly from his seat."
+
+   "Jehan leapt back with a shriek of pain."
+
+   "For a second the man in black stood breathless."
+
+   "'Madame! Madame de Vidoche, if you please!'"
+
+   "He watched her every motion."
+
+   "In a moment he was down, writhing on the floor."
+
+   "'Who stole him? Where has he been?'"
+
+   "They were carrying him."
+
+   "A man, half-naked, ... crawled on to the highroad."
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE MAN IN BLACK.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+                         The Fair At Fécamp.
+
+
+"_I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of---I forget the name, of a most
+noble and puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle,
+and the Low. In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my
+forefathers were three marshals of France. I stand here, the_----"
+
+It was the eve of All Saints, and the famous autumn horse-fair was in
+progress at Fécamp--Fécamp on the Normandy coast, the town between the
+cliffs, which Boisrosé, in the year '93, snatched for the Great King
+by a feat of audacity unparalleled in war. This only by the way,
+however; and that a worthy deed may not die. For at the date of this
+fair of which we write, the last day of October, 1637, stout Captain
+Boisrosé, whom Sully made for his daring Lieutenant-General of the
+Ordnance, had long ceased to ruffle it; the Great King had lain in his
+grave a score of years or more; and though Sully, duke and peer and
+marshal, still lived, an aged, formal man, in his château of Villebon
+by Chartres, all France, crouching under the iron hand of the
+Cardinal, looked other ways.
+
+The great snarled, biting at the hem of the red soutane. But that the
+mean and Jacques Bonhomme, the merchant and the trader, flourished
+under his rule, Fécamp was as good evidence this day as man could
+desire. Even old burghers who remembered Charles the Ninth, and the
+first glass windows ever seen in Fécamp outside the Abbey, could not
+say when the price of horses had been higher or the town more full.
+All day, and almost all night, the clatter of hoofs and babble of
+bargains filled the narrow streets; while hucksters' cries and
+drunkards' oaths, with all raucous sounds, went up to heaven like the
+smoke from a furnace. The _Chariot d'Or_ and the _Holy Fig_, haunts of
+those who came to buy, fairly hummed with guests, with nobles of the
+province and gay sparks from Rouen, army contractors from the Rhine,
+and dealers from the south. As for the _Dame Belle_ and the _Green
+Man_, houses that lower down the street had food and forage for those
+who came to sell, they strewed their yards a foot deep with straw, and
+saying to all alike, "Voilà, monsieur!" charged the full price of a
+bed.
+
+Beyond the streets it was the same. Strings of horses and ponies, with
+an army of grooms and chaunters, touts and cutpurses, camped on every
+piece of level ground, while the steeper slopes and hill-sides swarmed
+with troupes more picturesque, if less useful. For these were the
+pitches of the stilt-walkers and funambulists, the morris dancers and
+hobby-horses: in a word, of an innumerable company of quacks,
+jugglers, poor students, and pasteboard giants, come together for the
+delectation of the gaping Normans, and all under the sway and
+authority of the Chevalier du Guet, in whose honour two gibbets, each
+bearing a creaking corpse, rose on convenient situations overlooking
+the fair. For brawlers and minor sinners a pillory and a whipping-post
+stood handy by the landward gate, and from time to time, when a lusty
+vagrant or a handsome wench was dragged up for punishment, outvied in
+attraction all the professional shows.
+
+Of these, one that seemed as successful as any in catching and
+chaining the fancy of the shifting crowd consisted of three persons--a
+man, a boy, and an ape--who had chosen for their pitch a portion of
+the steep hill-side overhanging the road. High up in this they had
+driven home an iron peg, and stretching a cord from this to the top of
+a tree which stood on the farther edge of the highway, had improvised
+a tight-rope at once simple and effective. All day, as the changing
+throng passed to and fro below, the monkey and the boy might be seen
+twisting and turning and posturing on this giddy eminence, while the
+man, fantastically dressed in an iron cap a world too big for him, and
+a back- and breast-piece which ill-matched his stained crimson jacket
+and taffety breeches, stood beating a drum at the foot of the tree, or
+now and again stepped forward to receive in a ladle the sous and eggs
+and comfits that rewarded the show.
+
+He was a lean, middle-sized man, with squinting eyes and a crafty
+mouth. Unaided he might have made his living by cutting purses. But he
+had the wit to do by others what he could not do himself, and the luck
+to have that in his company which pleased all comers; for while the
+clowns gazed saucer-eyed at the uncouth form and hideous grimaces of
+the ape, the thin cheeks and panting lips of the boy touched the
+hearts of their mistresses, and drew from them many a cake and
+fairing. Still, with a crowd change is everything; and in the contest
+of attractions, where there was here a flying dragon and there a
+dancing bear, and in a place apart the mystery of Joseph of Arimathæa
+and the Sacred Fig-tree was being performed by a company that had
+played before the King in Paris--and when, besides all these raree
+shows, a score of quacks and wizards and collar-grinners with lungs of
+brass, were advertising themselves amid indescribable clanging of
+drums and squeaking of trumpets, it was not to be expected that a boy
+and a monkey could always hold the first place. An hour before sunset
+the ladle began to come home empty. The crowd grew thin. Gargantuan
+roars of laughter from the players' booth drew off some who lingered.
+It seemed as if the trio's run of success was at an end; and that, for
+all the profit they were still likely to make, they might pack up and
+be off to bed.
+
+But Master Crafty Eyes knew better. Before his popularity quite
+flickered out he produced a folding stool. Setting it at the foot of
+the tree with a grand air, which of itself was enough to arrest the
+waverers, he solemnly covered it with a red cloth. This done, he
+folded his arms, looked very sternly two ways at once, and raising his
+hand without glancing upwards, cried, "Tenez! His Excellency the
+Seigneur de Bault will have the kindness to descend."
+
+The little handful of gapers laughed, and the laugh added to their
+number. But the boy, to whom the words were addressed, did not move.
+He sat idly on the rope, swaying to and fro, and looked out straight
+before him, with a set face, and a mutinous glare in his eyes. He
+appeared to be about twelve years old. He was lithe-limbed, and burned
+brown by the sun, with a mass of black hair and, strange to say, blue
+eyes. The ape sat cheek by jowl with him; and even at the sound of the
+master's voice turned to him humanly, as if to say, "You had better
+go."
+
+Still he did not move. "Tenez!" Master Crafty Eyes cried again, and
+more sharply. "His Excellency the Seigneur de Bault will have the
+kindness to descend, and narrate his history. _Écoutez! Écoutez!
+mesdames et messieurs!_ It will repay you."
+
+This time the boy, frowning and stubborn, looked down from his perch.
+He seemed to be measuring the distance, and calculating whether his
+height from the ground would save him from the whip. Apparently he
+came to the conclusion it would not, for on the man crying "_Vitement!
+Vitement!_" and flinging a grim look upwards, he began to descend
+slowly, a sullen reluctance manifest in all his movements.
+
+On reaching the ground, he made his way through the audience--which
+had increased to above a score--and climbed heavily on the stool,
+where he stood looking round him with a dark shamefacedness,
+surprising in one who was part of a show, and had been posturing all
+day long for the public amusement. The women, quick to espy the
+hollows in his cheeks, and the great wheal that seamed his neck, and
+quick also to admire the straightness of his limbs and the light pose
+of his head, regarded him pitifully. The men only stared; smoking had
+not yet come in at Fécamp, so they munched cakes and gazed by turns.
+
+"Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" cried the man with the drum. "Listen to the
+remarkable, lamentable, and veritable history of the Seigneur de
+Bault, now before you! Oyez!"
+
+The boy cast a look round, but there was no escape. So, sullenly, and
+in a sing-song tone--through which, nevertheless, some note of
+dignity, some strange echo of power and authority, that gave the
+recital its bizarre charm and made it what it was, would continually
+force itself--he began with the words at the head of this chapter:--
+
+"I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of--I forget the name, of a most
+noble and puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle,
+and the Low. In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my
+forefathers were three marshals of France. I stand here, the last of
+my race; in token whereof may God preserve my mother, the King,
+France, and this Province! I was stolen by gypsies at the age of five,
+and carried off and sold by my father's steward, as Joseph was by his
+brethren, and I appeal to--I appeal to--all good subjects of France
+to--help me to----"
+
+"My rights!" interjected Crafty Eyes, with a savage glance.
+
+"My rights," the boy whispered, lowering his head.
+
+The drum-man came forward briskly. "Just so, ladies and gentlemen," he
+cried with wonderful glibness. "And seldom as it is that you have
+before you the representative of one of our most noble and ancient
+families a-begging your help, seldom as that remarkable, lamentable,
+and veritable sight is to be seen in Fécamp, sure I am that you will
+respond willingly, generously, and to the point, my lord, ladies and
+gentlemen!" And with this, and a far grander air than when it had been
+merely an affair of a boy and an ape, the knave carried round his
+ladle, doffing his cap to each who contributed, and saying politely,
+"The Sieur de Bault thanks you, sir. The Sieur de Bault is your
+servant, madam."
+
+There was something so novel in the whole business, something so odd
+and inexplicably touching in the boy's words and manner, that with all
+the appearance of a barefaced trick, appealing only to the most
+ignorant, the thing wrought on the crowd: as doubtless it had wrought
+on a hundred crowds before. The first man to whom the ladle came
+grinned sheepishly and gave against his will; and his fellows
+throughout maintained a position of reserve, shrugging their shoulders
+and looking wisdom. But a dozen women became believers at once, and
+despite the blare and flare of rival dragons and Moriscoes and the
+surrounding din and hubbub, the ladle came back full of deniers and
+sous.
+
+The showman was counting his gains into his pouch, when a silver franc
+spun through the air and fell at his feet, and at the same time a
+harsh voice cried, "Here, you, sirrah! A word with you."
+
+Master Crafty Eyes looked up, and doffing his cap humbly--for the
+voice was a voice of authority--went cringing to the speaker. This was
+an elderly man, well mounted, who had reined up his horse on the
+skirts of the crowd as the boy began his harangue. He had a plain
+soldier's face, with grey moustachios and a small, pointed grey beard,
+and he seemed to be a person of rank on his way out of the town; for
+he had two or three armed servants behind him, of whom one carried a
+valise on his crupper.
+
+"What is your will, noble sir?" the showman whined, standing
+bare-headed at his stirrup and looking up at him.
+
+"Who taught the lad that rubbish?" the horseman asked sternly.
+
+"No one, my lord. It is the truth."
+
+"Then bring him here, liar!" was the answer.
+
+The showman obeyed, not very willingly, dragging the boy off the
+stool, and jerking him through the crowd. The stranger looked down at
+the child for a moment in silence. Then he said sharply, "Hark ye,
+tell me the truth, boy. What is your name?"
+
+The lad stood straight up, and answered without hesitation, "Jehan de
+Bault."
+
+"Of nowhere in the County of No Name," the stranger gibed gravely. "Of
+a noble and puissant family--and the rest. All that is true, I
+suppose?"
+
+A flicker as of hope gleamed in the boy's eyes. His cheek reddened. He
+raised his hand to the horse's shoulder, and answered in a voice which
+trembled a little, "It is true."
+
+
+[Illustration: "THE SHOWMAN WAS COUNTING HIS GAINS INTO HIS POUCH"
+(_p_. 11).]
+
+
+"Where is Bault?" the stranger asked grimly.
+
+The lad looked puzzled and disappointed. His lip trembled, his colour
+lied again. He glanced here and there, and finally shook his head. "I
+do not know," he said faintly.
+
+"Nor do I," the horseman replied, striking his long brown boot with
+his riding-switch to give emphasis to the words, and looking sternly
+round. "Nor do I. And what is more, you may take it from me that there
+is no family of that name in France! And once more you may take this
+from me too. I am the Vicomte de Bresly, and I have a government in
+Guienne. Play this game in my county, and I will have you both whipped
+for common cheats, and you, Master Drummer, branded as well! Bear it
+in mind, sirrah; and when you perform, give Perigord a wide berth.
+That is all."
+
+He struck his horse at the last word, and rode off; sitting, like an
+old soldier, so straight in his saddle that he did not see what
+happened behind him, or that the boy sprang forward with a hasty cry,
+and would, but for the showman's grasp, have followed him. He rode
+away, unheeding and without looking back; and the boy, after a brief
+passionate struggle with his master, collapsed.
+
+"You limb!" the man with the drum cried, as he shook him. "What bee
+has stung you? You won't be quiet, eh? Then take that! and that!" and
+he struck the child brutally in the face--twice.
+
+Some cried shame and some laughed. But it was nobody's business, and
+there were a hundred delights within sight. What was one little boy,
+or a blow more or less, amid the whirl and tumult of the fair? A score
+of yards away a dancing girl, a very Peri--or so she seemed by the
+light of four tallow candles--was pirouetting on a rickety platform.
+Almost rubbing elbows with her was a philosopher, who had conquered
+all the secrets of Nature except cleanliness, and was prepared to sell
+infallible love-philtres and the potion of perpetual youth--for four
+farthings! And beyond these stretched a vista of wonders and
+prodigies, all vocal, not to say deafening. So one by one, with a
+shrug or a sneer, the onlookers melted away, until only our trio
+remained: Master Crafty Eyes counting his gains, the boy sobbing
+against the bank on which he had thrown himself, and the monkey
+gibbering and chattering overhead--a dark shapeless object on an
+invisible rope. For night was falling: where the fun of the fair was
+not were gloom and a rising wind, lurking cutpurses, and waste land.
+
+The showman seemed to feel this, for having counted his takings, he
+kicked up the boy and began to pack up. He had nearly finished, and
+was stooping over the coil of rope, securing the end, when a touch on
+his shoulder caused him to jump a yard. A tall man wrapped in a cloak,
+who had come up unseen, stood at his elbow.
+
+"Well!" the showman cried, striving to hide his alarm under an
+appearance of bluster. "And what may you want?"
+
+"A word with you," the unknown answered.
+
+The voice was so cold and passionless it gave Crafty Eyes a turn.
+"Diable!" he muttered, striving to pierce the darkness and see what
+the other was like. But he could not; so as to shake off the
+impression, he asked, with a sneer, "You are not a vicomte, are you?"
+
+"No," the stranger replied gravely, "I am not."
+
+"Nor the governor of a county?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you may speak!" rejoined the showman grandly.
+
+"Not here," the cloaked man answered. "I must see you alone."
+
+"Then you will have to come home with me, and wait until I have put up
+the boy," the other said. "I am not going to lose him for you or
+anyone. And for a penny he'd be off! Does it suit you? You may take it
+or leave it."
+
+The unknown, whose features were completely masked by the dusk, nodded
+assent, and without more ado the four turned their faces towards the
+streets; the boy carrying the monkey, and the two men following close
+on his heels. Whenever they passed before a lighted booth the showman
+strove to learn something of his companion's appearance but the latter
+wore his cloak so high about his face, and was so well served by a
+wide-flapped hat which almost met it, that curiosity was completely
+baffled; and they reached the low inn where the showman rented a
+corner of the stable without that cunning gentleman being a jot the
+wiser for his pains.
+
+It was a vile, evil-smelling place they entered, divided into six or
+eight stalls by wooden partitions reaching half-way to the tiles. A
+horn lantern hung at each end filled it with yellow lights and deep
+shadows. A pony raised its head and whinnied as the men entered, but
+most of the stalls were empty, or tenanted only by drunken clowns
+sleeping in the straw.
+
+"You cannot lock him in here," said the stranger, looking round him.
+
+The showman grunted. "Cannot I?" he said. "There are tricks in all
+trades, master. I reckon I can--with this!" And producing from
+somewhere about him a thin steel chain, he held it before the other's
+face. "That is my lock and door," he said triumphantly.
+
+"It won't hold him long," the other answered impassively. "The fifth
+link from the end is worn through now."
+
+"You have sharp eyes!" the showman exclaimed, with reluctant
+admiration. "But it will hold a bit yet. I fasten him in yonder
+corner. Do you wait here, and I will come back to you."
+
+He was not long about it. When he returned he led the stranger into
+the farthest of the stalls, which, as well as that next to it, was
+empty. "We can talk here," he said bluntly. "At any rate, I have no
+better place. The house is full. Now, what is it?"
+
+"I want that boy," the tall man answered. The showman laughed--stopped
+laughing--laughed again. "I dare say you do," he said derisively.
+"There is not a better or a pluckier boy on the rope out of Paris. And
+for patter? There is nothing on the road like the bit he did this
+afternoon, nor a bit that pays as well."
+
+"Who taught it him?" the stranger asked.
+
+"I did."
+
+"That is a lie," the other answered in a perfectly unmoved tone. "If
+you like I will tell you what you did. You taught him the latter half
+of the story. The other he knew before: down to the word 'province.'"
+
+The showman gasped. "Diable!" he muttered. "Who told you?"
+
+"Never mind. You bought the boy. From whom?"
+
+"From some gypsies at the great fair of Beaucaire," the showman
+answered sullenly.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+Crafty Eyes laughed dryly. "If I knew I should not be padding the
+hoof," he said. "Or, again, he may be nobody, and the tale patter. You
+have heard as much as I have. What do you think?"
+
+"I think I shall find out when I have bought the boy," the stranger
+answered coolly. "What will you take for him?"
+
+The showman gasped again. "You come to the point," he said.
+
+"It is my custom. What is his price?"
+
+The showman's imagination had never soared beyond nor his ears ever
+heard of a larger sum than a thousand crowns. He mentioned it
+trembling. There might be such a sum in the world.
+
+"A thousand livres, if you like. Not a sou more," was the answer.
+
+The nearer lantern threw a strong light on Crafty Eyes' face; but that
+was mere shadow beside the light of cupidity which sparkled in his
+eyes. He could get another boy; scores of boys. But a thousand livres!
+A thousand livres! "Tournois!" he said faintly. "Livres Tournois!" In
+his wildest moments of avarice he had never dreamed of possessing such
+a sum.
+
+"No, Paris livres," the stranger answered coldly. "Paid to-morrow at
+the _Golden Chariot_. If you agree, you will deliver the boy to me
+there at noon, and receive the money."
+
+The showman nodded, vanquished by the mere sound of the sum. Paris
+livres let it be. Danae did not more quickly succumb to the golden
+shower.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+                          SOLOMON NÔTREDAME.
+
+
+A little later that night, at the hour which saw the showman pay his
+second visit to the street before the _Chariot d'Or_, there to stand
+gaping at the lighted windows, and peering into the courtyard in a
+kind of fascination--or perhaps to assure himself that the house would
+not fly away, and his golden hopes with it--the twelve-year-old boy,
+the basis of those hopes, awoke and stirred restlessly in the straw.
+He was cold, and the chain galled him. His face ached where the man
+had struck him. In the next stall two drunken men were fighting, and
+the place reeked with oaths and foulness. But none of these things
+were so novel as to keep the boy awake; and sighing and drawing the
+monkey nearer to him, he would in a moment have been asleep again if
+the moon, shining with great brightness through the little square
+aperture above him, had not thrown its light directly on his head, and
+roused him more completely.
+
+He sat up and gazed at it, and God knows what softening thoughts and
+pitiful recollections the beauty of the night brought into his mind;
+but presently he began to weep--not as a child cries, with noise and
+wailing, but in silence, as a man weeps. The monkey awoke and crept
+into his breast, but he hardly regarded it. The misery, the
+hopelessness, the slavery of his life, ignored from hour to hour, or
+borne at other times with a boy's nonchalance, filled his heart to
+bursting now. Crouching in his lair in the straw, he shook with agony.
+The tears welled up, and would not be restrained, until they hid the
+face of the sky and darkened even the moon's pure light.
+
+Or was it his tears? He dashed them away and looked, and rose slowly
+to his feet; while the ape, clinging to his breast, began to mow and
+gibber. A black mass, which gradually resolved itself, as the boy's
+eyes cleared, into a man's hat and head, filled the aperture.
+
+"Hush!" came from the head in a cautious whisper. "Come nearer. I will
+not hurt you. Do you wish to escape, lad?"
+
+The boy clasped his hands in an ecstasy. "Yes, oh yes!" he murmured.
+The question chimed in so naturally with his thoughts, it scarcely
+surprised him.
+
+"If you were loose, could you get through this window?" the man asked.
+He spoke cautiously, under his breath; but the noise in the next
+stall, to say nothing of a vile drinking song which was being chanted
+forth at the farther end of the stable, was such he might safely have
+shouted. "Yes? Then take this file. Rub at the fifth link from the
+end: the one that is nearly through. Do you understand, boy?"
+
+"Yes, yes," Jehan cried again, groping in the straw for the tool,
+which had fallen at his feet. "I know."
+
+"When you are loose, cover up the chain," continued the other in a
+slow biting tone. "Or lie on that part of it, and wait until morning.
+As soon as you see the first gleam of light, climb out through the
+window. You will find me outside."
+
+The boy would have uttered his trembling thanks. But lo! in a moment
+the aperture was clear again; the moon sailed unchanged through an
+unchanged sky; and all was as before. Save for the presence of the
+little bit of rough steel in his hand, he might have thought it a
+dream. But the file was there; it was there, and with a choking sob of
+hope and fear and excitement, he fell to work on the chain.
+
+It was clumsy work he made of it in the dark. But the link was so much
+worn, a man might have wrenched it open, and the boy did not spare his
+fingers. The dispute next door covered the song of the file; and the
+smoky horn lantern which alone lighted that end of the stable had no
+effect in the dark corner where he lay. True, he had to work by feel,
+looking out all the while for his tyrant's coming; but the tool was
+good, and the fingers, hardened by many an hour of work on the rope,
+were strong and lithe. When the showman at last stumbled to his place
+in the straw, the boy lay free--free and trembling.
+
+All was not done, however. It seemed an hour before the man settled
+himself--an hour of agony and suspense to Jehan, feigning sleep; since
+at any moment his master might take it into his head to look into
+things. But Crafty Eyes had no suspicion. Having kicked the boy and
+heard the chain rattle, and so assured himself that he was there--so
+much caution he exercised every night, drunk or sober--he was
+satisfied; and by-and-by, when his imagination, heated by thoughts of
+wealth, permitted it, he fell asleep, and dreamed that he had married
+the Cardinal's cook-maid and ate collops on Sundays.
+
+Even so, the night seemed endless to the boy, lying wakeful, with his
+eyes on the sky. Now he was hot, now cold. One moment the thought that
+the window might prove too strait for him threw him into a bath of
+perspiration; the next he shuddered at the possibility of re-capture,
+and saw himself dragged back and flayed by his brutal owner. But a
+watched pot _does_ boil, though slowly. The first streak of dawn came
+at last--as it does when the sky is darkest; and with it, even as the
+boy rose warily to his feet, the sound of a faint whistle outside the
+window.
+
+A common mortal could no more have passed through that window without
+noise than an old man can make himself young again. But the boy did
+it. As he dropped to the ground outside he heard the whistle again.
+The air was still dark; but a score of paces away, beyond a low wall,
+he made out the form of a horseman, and went towards it.
+
+It was the man in the cloak, who stooped and held out his hand. "Jump
+up behind me," he muttered.
+
+The boy went to obey, but as he clasped the outstretched hand, it was
+suddenly withdrawn. "What is that? What have you got there?" the rider
+exclaimed, peering down at him.
+
+"It is only Taras, the monkey," Jehan said timidly.
+
+"Throw it away," the stranger answered. "Do you hear me?" he continued
+in a stern, composed tone. "Throw it away, I say."
+
+The boy stood hesitating a moment; then, without a word, he turned and
+fled into the darkness the way he had come. The man on the horse swore
+under his breath, but he had no remedy; and before he could tell what
+to expect, the boy was at his side again. "I've put it through the
+window," Jehan explained breathlessly. "If I had left it here, the
+dogs and the boys would have killed it."
+
+The man made no comment aloud, but jerked him roughly to the crupper;
+and bidding him hold fast, started the horse, which, setting off at an
+easy amble, quickly bore them out of Fécamp. As they passed through
+the fair-ground of yesterday--a shadowy, ghastly waste at this hour,
+peopled by wandering asses, and packhorses, and a few lurking figures
+that leapt up out of the darkness, and ran after them whining for
+alms--the boy shivered and clung close to his protector. But he had no
+more than recognised the scene before they were out of sight of it,
+and riding through the open fields. The grey dawn was spreading, the
+cocks at distant farms were crowing. The dim, misty countryside, the
+looming trees, the raw air, the chill that crept into his ill-covered
+bones--all these, which might have seemed to others wretched
+conditions enough, filled the boy with hope and gladness. For they
+meant freedom.
+
+But presently, as they rode on, his thoughts took a fresh turn. They
+began to busy themselves, and fearfully, with the man before him,
+whose continued silence and cold reserve set a hundred wild ideas
+humming in his brain. What manner of man was he? Who was he? Why had
+he helped him? Jehan had heard of ogres and giants that decoyed
+children into forests and devoured them. He had listened to ballads of
+such adventures, sung at fairs and in the streets, a hundred times;
+now they came so strongly into his mind, and so grew upon him in this
+grim companionship, that by-and-by, seeing a wood before them through
+which the road ran, he shook with terror and gave himself up for lost.
+Sure enough, when they came to the wood, and had ridden a little way
+into it, the man, whose face he had never seen, stopped. "Get down,"
+he said sternly.
+
+
+[Illustration: "JEHAN WENT TREMBLING AND FOUND THE HOLE" (_p_. 33).]
+
+
+Jehan obeyed, his teeth chattering, his legs quaking under him. He
+expected the man to produce a large carving-knife, or call some of his
+fellows out of the forest to share his repast. Instead, the stranger
+made a queer pass with his hands over his horse's neck, and bade the
+boy go to an old stump which stood by the way. "There is a hole in the
+farther side of it," he said. "Look in the hole."
+
+Jehan went trembling and found the hole, and looked. "What do you
+see?" the rider asked.
+
+"A piece of money," said Jehan.
+
+"Bring it to me," the stranger answered gravely.
+
+The boy took it--it was only a copper sou--and did as he was bidden.
+"Get up!" said the horseman curtly. Jehan obeyed, and they went on as
+before.
+
+When they had ridden half-way through the forest, however, the
+stranger stopped again. "Get down," he said.
+
+The boy obeyed, and was directed as on the former occasion--but not
+until the horseman had made the same strange gesture with his
+hands--to go to an old stump. This time he found a silver livre. He
+gave it to his master, and climbed again to his place, marvelling
+much.
+
+A third time they stopped, on the farther verge of the forest. The
+same words passed, but this time the boy found a gold crown in the
+hole.
+
+After that his mind no longer ran upon ogres and giants. Instead,
+another fancy almost as dreadful took possession of him. He remarked
+that everything the stranger wore was black: his cloak, his hat, his
+gauntlets. Even his long boots, which in those days were commonly made
+of untanned leather, were black. So was the furniture of the horse.
+Jehan noticed this as he mounted the third time; and connecting it
+with the marvellous springing up of money where the man willed, began
+to be seized with panic, never doubting but that he had fallen into
+the hands of the devil. Likely enough, he would have dropped off at
+the first opportunity that offered, and fled for his life--or his
+soul, but he did not know much of that--if the stranger had not in the
+nick of time drawn a parcel of food from his saddle-bag. He gave some
+to Jehan. Even so, the boy, hungry as he was, did not dare to touch it
+until he was assured that his companion was really eating--eating, and
+not pretending. Then, with a great sigh of relief, he began to eat
+too. For he knew that the devil never ate!
+
+After this they rode on in silence, until, about an hour before noon,
+they came to a small farm-steading standing by the road, half a league
+short of the sleepy old town of Yvetot, which Beranger was one day to
+celebrate. Here the magician--for such Jehan now took his companion to
+be--stopped. "Get down," he said.
+
+The boy obeyed, and instinctively looked for a stump. But there was no
+stump, and this time his master, after scanning his ragged garments as
+if to assure himself of his appearance, had a different order to give.
+"Go to that farm," he said. "Knock at the door, and say that Solomon
+Nôtredame de Paris requires two fowls. They will give them to you.
+Bring them to me."
+
+The boy went wide-eyed, knocked, and gave his message. A woman, who
+opened the door, stretched out her hand, took up a couple of fowls
+that lay tied together on the hearth, and gave them to him without a
+word. He took them--he no longer wondered at anything--and carried
+them back to his master in the road.
+
+"Now listen to me," said the latter, in his slow, cold tone. "Go into
+the town you see before you, and in the market-place you will find an
+inn with the sign of the _Three Pigeons_. Enter the yard and offer
+these fowls for sale, but ask a livre apiece for them, that they may
+not be bought. While offering them, make an excuse to go into the
+stable, where you will see a grey horse. Drop this white lump into the
+horse's manger when no one is looking, and afterwards remain at the
+door of the yard. If you see me, do not speak to me. Do you
+understand?"
+
+Jehan said he did; but his new master made him repeat his orders from
+beginning to end before he let him go with the fowls and the white
+lump, which was about the size of a walnut, and looked like rock-salt.
+
+About an hour later the landlord of the _Three Pigeons_ at Yvetot
+heard a horseman stop at his door. He went out to meet him. Now,
+Yvetot is on the road to Havre and Harfleur; and though the former of
+these places was then in the making and the latter was dying fast, the
+landlord had had experience of many guests. But so strange a guest as
+the one he found awaiting him he thought he had never seen. In the
+first place, the gentleman was clad from top to toe in black; and
+though he had no servants behind him, he wore an air of as grave
+consequence as though he boasted six. In the next place, his face was
+so long, thin, and cadaverous that, but for a great black line of
+eyebrows that cut it in two and gave it a very curious and sinister
+expression, people meeting him for the first time might have been
+tempted to laugh. Altogether, the landlord could not make him out; but
+he thought it safer to go out and hold his stirrup, and ask his
+pleasure.
+
+"I shall dine here," the stranger answered gravely. As he dismounted
+his cloak fell open. The landlord observed with growing wonder that
+its black lining was sprinkled with cabalistic figures embroidered in
+white.
+
+Introduced to the public room, which was over the great stone porch
+and happened to be empty, the traveller lost none of his singularity.
+He paused a little way within the door, and stood as if suddenly
+fallen into deep thought. The landlord, beginning to think him mad,
+ventured to recall him by asking what his honour would take.
+
+"There is something amiss in this house," the stranger replied
+abruptly, turning his eyes on him.
+
+"Amiss?" the host answered, faltering under his gaze, and wishing
+himself well out of the room. "Not that I am aware of, your honour."
+
+"There is no one ill?"
+
+"No, your honour, certainly not."
+
+"Nor deformed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are mistaken," the stranger answered firmly. "Know that I am
+Solomon, son to Cæsar, son to Michel Nôtredame of Paris, commonly
+called by the learned Nostradamus and the Transcendental, who read the
+future and rode the Great White Horse of Death. All things hidden are
+open to me."
+
+The landlord only gaped, but his wife and a serving wench, who had
+come to the door out of curiosity, and were listening and staring with
+all their might, crossed themselves industriously. "I am here," the
+stranger continued, after a brief pause, "to construct the horoscope
+of His Eminence the Cardinal, of whom it has been predicted that he
+will die at Yvetot. But I find the conditions unpropitious. There is
+an adverse influence in this house."
+
+The landlord scratched his head, and looked helplessly at his wife.
+But she was quite taken up with awe of the stranger, whose head nearly
+touched the ceiling of the low room; while his long, pale face seemed
+in the obscurity--for the day was dark--to be of an unearthly pallor.
+
+"An adverse influence," the astrologer continued gravely. "What is
+more, I now see where it is. It is in the stable. You have a grey
+horse."
+
+The landlord, somewhat astonished, said he had.
+
+"You had. You have not now. The devil has it!" was the astounding
+answer.
+
+"My grey horse?"
+
+The stranger inclined his head.
+
+"Nay, there you are wrong!" the host retorted briskly. "I'm hanged if
+he has! For I rode the horse this morning, and it went as well and
+quietly as ever in its life."
+
+"Send and see," the tall man answered.
+
+The serving girl, obeying a nod, went off reluctantly to the stable,
+while her master, casting a look of misliking at his guest, walked
+uneasily to the window. In a moment the girl came back, her face
+white. "The grey is in a fit," she cried, keeping the whole width of
+the room between her and the stranger. "It is sweating and
+staggering."
+
+The landlord, with an oath, ran off to see, and in a minute the
+appearance of an excited group in the square under the window showed
+that the thing was known. The traveller took no notice of this,
+however, nor of the curious and reverential glances which the
+womenfolk, huddled about the door of the room, cast at him. He walked
+up and down the room with his eyes lowered.
+
+The landlord came back presently, his face black as thunder. "It has
+got the staggers," he said resentfully.
+
+"It has got the devil," the stranger answered coldly. "I knew it was
+in the house when I entered. If you doubt me, I will prove it."
+
+"Ay?" said the landlord stubbornly.
+
+The man in black went to his saddle-bag, which had been brought up and
+laid in a corner, and took out a shallow glass bowl, curiously
+embossed with a cross and some mystic symbols. "Go to the church
+there," he said, "and fill this with holy water."
+
+The host took it unwillingly, and went on his strange errand. While he
+was away the astrologer opened the window, and looked out idly. When
+he saw the other returning, he gave the order "Lead out the horse."
+
+There was a brief delay, but presently two stablemen, with a little
+posse of wondering attendants, partly urged and partly led out a
+handsome grey horse. The poor animal trembled and hung its head, but
+with some difficulty was brought under the window. Now and again a
+sharp spasm convulsed its limbs, and scattered the spectators right
+and left.
+
+Solomon Nôtredame leaned out of the window. In his left hand he held
+the bowl, in his right a small brush. "If this beast is sick with any
+earthly sickness," he cried in a deep solemn voice, audible across the
+square, "or with such as earthly skill can cure, then let this holy
+water do it no harm, but refresh it. But if it be possessed by the
+devil, and given up to the powers of darkness and to the enemy of man
+for ever and ever to do his will and pleasure, then let these drops
+burn and consume it as with fire. Amen! Amen!"
+
+With the last word he sprinkled the horse. The effect was magical. The
+animal reared up, as if it had been furiously spurred, and plunged so
+violently that the men who held it were dragged this way and that. The
+crowd fled every way; but not so quickly but that a hundred eyes had
+seen the horse smoke where the water fell on it. Moreover, when they
+cautiously approached it, the hair in two or three places was found to
+be burned off!
+
+The magician turned gravely from the window. "I wish to eat," he said.
+
+None of the servants, however, would come into the room or serve him,
+and the landlord, trembling, set the board with his own hands and
+waited on him. Mine host had begun by doubting and suspecting, but,
+simple man! his scepticism was not proof against the holy water trial
+and his wife's terror. By-and-by, with a sidelong glance at his guest,
+he faltered the question: What should he do with the horse?
+
+The man in black looked solemn. "Whoever mounts it will die within the
+year," he said.
+
+"I will shoot it," the landlord replied, shuddering.
+
+"The devil will pass into one of the other horses," was the answer.
+
+"Then," said the miserable innkeeper, "perhaps your honour would
+accept it?"
+
+"God forbid!" the astrologer answered. And that frightened the other
+more than all the rest. "But if you can find at any time," the wizard
+continued, "a beggar-boy with black hair and blue eyes, who does not
+know his father's name, he may take the horse and break the spell. So
+I read the signs."
+
+The landlord cried out that such a person was not to be met with in a
+lifetime. But before he had well finished his sentence a shrill voice
+called through the keyhole that there was such a boy in the yard at
+that moment, offering poultry for sale.
+
+"In God's name, then, give him the horse!" the stranger said. "Bid him
+take it to Rouen, and at every running water he comes to say a
+paternoster and sprinkle its tail. So he may escape, and you, too. I
+know no other way."
+
+The trembling innkeeper said he would do that, and did it. And so,
+when the man in black rode into Rouen the next evening, he did not
+ride alone. He was attended at a respectful distance by a good-looking
+page clad in sable velvet, and mounted on a handsome grey horse.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                            MAN AND WIFE.
+
+
+It is a pleasant thing to be warmly clad and to lie softly, and at
+night to be in shelter and in the day to eat and drink. But all these
+things may be dearly bought, and so the boy Jehan de Bault soon found.
+He was no longer beaten, chained, or starved; he lay in a truckle bed
+instead of a stable; the work he had to do was of the lightest. But
+he paid for all in fears--in an ever-present, abiding, mastering fear
+of the man behind whom he rode: who never scolded, never rated, nor
+even struck him, but whose lightest word--and much more, his long
+silences--filled the lad with dread and awe unspeakable. Something
+sinister in the man's face, all found; but to Jehan, who never doubted
+his dark powers, and who shrank from his eye, and flinched at his
+voice, and cowered when he spoke, there was a cold malevolence in the
+face, an evil knowledge, that made the boy's flesh creep and chained
+his soul with dread.
+
+The astrologer saw this, and revelled in it, and went about to
+increase it after a fashion of his own. Hearing the boy, on an
+occasion when he had turned to him suddenly, ejaculate "_Oh, Dieu!_"
+he said, with a dreadful smile, "You should not say that! Do you know
+why?"
+
+The boy's face grew a shade paler, but he did not speak.
+
+"Ask me why! Say, 'Why not?'"
+
+"Why not?" Jehan muttered. He would have given the world to avert his
+eyes, but he could not.
+
+"Because you have sold yourself to the devil!" the other hissed.
+"Others may say it; you may not. What is the use? You have sold
+yourself--body, soul, and spirit. You came of your own accord, and
+climbed on the black horse. And now," he continued, in a tone which
+always compelled obedience, "answer my questions. What is your name?"
+
+"Jehan de Bault," the boy whispered, shivering and shuddering.
+
+"Louder!"
+
+"Jehan de Bault."
+
+"Repeat the story you told at the fair."
+
+"I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of Perigord, of a most noble and
+puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle, and the Low.
+In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my forefathers were three
+marshals of France. I stand here, the last of my race; in token
+whereof may God preserve my mother, the King, France, and this
+Province."
+
+"Ha! In the County of Perigord!" the astrologer said, with a sudden
+lightening of his heavy brows. "You have remembered that?"
+
+"Yes. I heard the word at Fécamp."
+
+"And all that is true?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who taught it you?"
+
+"I do not know." The boy's face, in its straining, was painful to see.
+
+"What is the first thing you can remember?"
+
+"A house in a wood."
+
+"Can you remember your father?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Your mother?"
+
+"No--yes--I am not sure."
+
+"Umph! Were you stolen by gypsies?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Or sold by your father's steward?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"How long were you with the man from whom I took you?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"I do," the astrologer answered, in the same even tone in which he had
+put the questions. And the boy never doubted him. "Beware, therefore,"
+the man in black continued, with a dreadful sidelong glance, "how you
+seek to deceive me! You can fall back now. I have done with you for
+the present."
+
+I say "the boy never doubted him." This was not wonderful in an age of
+spells and _diablerie_, when the wisest allowed the reality of magic,
+and the learned and curious could cite a hundred instances of its
+power. That La Brosse warned Henry the Great he would die in his
+coach, and that Thomassin read in the stars the very day, hour, and
+minute of the catastrophe, no man of that time questioned. That Michel
+Nôtredame promised a crown to each of Catherine de Medici's three
+sons, and that Sully's preceptor foretold in detail that Minister's
+career, were held to be facts as certain as that La Rivière cast the
+horoscope of the thirteenth Louis while the future monarch lay in his
+cradle. The men of the day believed that the Concini swayed her
+mistress by magic; that Wallenstein, the greatest soldier of his time,
+did nothing without his familiar; that Richelieu, the greatest
+statesman, had Joseph always at his elbow. In such an age it was not
+wonderful that a child should accept without question the claims of
+this man: who was accustomed to inspire fear in the many, and in the
+few that vague and subtle repulsion which we are wont to associate
+with the presence of evil.
+
+Beyond Rouen, and between that city and Paris, the two companions
+found the road well frequented. Of the passers, many stood to gaze at
+the traveller in black, and some drew to the farther side of the road
+as he went by. But none laughed or found anything ridiculous in his
+appearance; or if they did, it needed but a glance from his long, pale
+face to restore them to sobriety. At the inn at Rouen he was well
+received; at the _Grand Cerf_ at Les Andelys, where he seemed to be
+known, he was welcomed with effusion. Though the house was full, a
+separate chamber was assigned to him, and supper prepared for him with
+the utmost speed.
+
+Here, however, he was not destined to enjoy his privacy long. At the
+last moment, as he was sitting down to his meal, with the boy in
+attendance, a bustle was heard outside. The voice of someone rating
+the landlord in no measured terms became audible, the noise growing
+louder as the speaker mounted the stairs. Presently a hand was laid on
+the latch, the door was thrown open, and a gentleman strode into the
+room whose swaggering air and angry gestures showed that he was
+determined to make good his footing. A lady, masked, and in a
+travelling habit, followed more quietly; and in the background could
+be seen three or four servants, together with the unfortunate
+landlord, who was very evidently divided between fear of his
+mysterious guest and the claims of the newcomers.
+
+The astrologer rose slowly from his seat. His peculiar aspect, his
+stature and leanness and black garb, which never failed to impress
+strangers, took the intruder somewhat aback. He hesitated, and
+removing his hat, began to utter a tardy apology. "I crave your
+pardon, sir," he said ungraciously, "but we ride on after supper. We
+stay here only to eat, and they tell us there is no other chamber with
+even a degree of emptiness in it."
+
+"You are welcome, M. de Vidoche," the man in black answered.
+
+The intruder started and frowned. "You know my name," he said, with a
+sneer. "But there, I suppose it is your business to know these
+things."
+
+"It is my business to know," the astrologer answered, unmoved. "Will
+not madame be seated?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "THE ASTROLOGER ROSE SLOWLY FROM HIS SEAT" (_p_. 52).]
+
+
+The lady bowed, and taking off her mask with fingers which trembled a
+little, disclosed a fair, childish face, that would, have been pretty,
+and even charming, but for an expression of nervousness which seemed
+habitual to it. She shrank from the astrologer's gaze, and, sitting
+down as far from him as the table permitted, pretended to busy herself
+in taking off her gloves. He was accustomed to be met in this way, and
+to see the timid quake before him; but it did not escape his notice
+that this lady shrank also at the sound of her husband's voice, and
+when he spoke, listened with the pitiful air of propitiation which may
+be seen in a whipped dog. She was pale, and by the side of her husband
+seemed to lack colour. He was a man of singularly handsome exterior,
+dark-haired and hard-eyed, with a high, fresh complexion, and a
+sneering lip. His dress was in the extreme of the fashion, his falling
+collar vandyked, and his breeches open below the knee, where they were
+met by wide-mouthed boots. A great plume of feathers set off his hat,
+and he carried a switch as well as a sword.
+
+The astrologer read the story at a glance. "Madame is perhaps fatigued
+by the journey," he said politely.
+
+"Madame is very easily fatigued," the husband replied, throwing down
+his hat with a savage sneer, "especially when she is doing anything
+she does not like."
+
+"You are for Paris," Nôtredame answered, with apparent surprise. "I
+thought all ladies liked Paris. Now, if madame were leaving Paris and
+going to the country----"
+
+"The country!" M. de Vidoche exclaimed, with an impatient oath. "She
+would bury herself there if she could!" And he added something under
+his breath, the point of which it was not very difficult to guess.
+
+Madame de Vidoche forced a smile, striving, woman-like, to cover all.
+"It is natural I should like Pinatel," she said timidly, her eye on
+her husband. "I have lived there so much."
+
+"Yes, madame, you are never tired of reminding me of that!" M. de
+Vidoche retorted harshly. Women who are afraid of their husbands say
+the right thing once in a hundred times. "You will tell this gentleman
+in a moment that I was a beggar when I married you! But if I was----"
+
+"Oh, Charles!" she murmured faintly.
+
+"That is right! Cry now!" he exclaimed brutally. "Thank God, however,
+here is supper. And after supper we go on to Vernon. The roads are
+rutty, and you will have something else to do besides cry then."
+
+The man in black, going on with his meal at the other end of the
+table, listened with an impassive face. Like all his profession, he
+seemed inclined to hear rather than to talk. But when supper came up
+with only one plate for the two--a mistake due to the crowded state of
+the inn--and M. de Vidoche fell to scolding very loudly, he seemed
+unable to refrain from saying a word in the innkeeper's defence. "It
+is not so very unusual for the husband to share his wife's plate," he
+said coolly; "and sometimes a good deal more that is hers."
+
+M. de Vidoche looked at him for a moment, as if he were minded to ask
+him what business it was of his; but he thought better of it, and
+instead said, with a scowl, "It is not so very unusual either for
+astrologers to make mistakes."
+
+"Quacks," the man in black said calmly.
+
+"I quite agree," M. de Vidoche replied, with mock politeness. "I
+accept the correction."
+
+"Yet there is one thing to be said even then," the astrologer
+continued, slowly leaning forward, and, as if by chance, moving
+one of the candles so as to bring it directly between madame and
+himself. "I have noticed it, M. de Vidoche. They make mistakes
+sometimes in predicting marriages, and even births. But never in
+predicting--deaths."
+
+M. de Vidoche, who may have had some key in his own breast which
+unlocked the full meaning of the other's words, started and looked
+across at him. Whatever he read in the pale, sombre countenance which
+the removal of the candle fully revealed to him, and in which the
+eyes, burning vividly, seemed alone alive, he shuddered. He made no
+reply. His look dropped. Even a little of his high colour left his
+checks. He went on with his meal in silence. The four tall candles
+still burned dully on the table. But to M. de Vidoche they seemed on a
+sudden to be the candles that burn by the side of a corpse. In a flash
+he saw a room hung with black, a bed, and a silent covered form on
+it--a form with wan, fair hair--a woman's. And then he saw other
+things.
+
+Clearly, the astrologer was no ordinary man.
+
+He seemed to take no notice, however, of the effect his words had
+produced. Indeed, he no longer urged his attentions on M. de Vidoche.
+He turned politely to madame, and made some commonplace observation on
+the roads. She answered it--inattentively.
+
+"You are looking at my boy," he continued; for Jehan was waiting
+inside the door, watching with a frightened, fascinated gaze his
+master's every act and movement. "I do not wonder that he attracts the
+ladies' eyes."
+
+"He is a handsome child," she answered, smiling faintly.
+
+"Yes, he is good-looking," the man in black rejoined. "There is one
+thing which men of science sell that he will never need."
+
+"What is that?" she asked curiously, looking at the astrologer for the
+first time with attention.
+
+"A love-philtre," he answered courteously. "His looks, like madame's,
+will always supply its place."
+
+She coloured, smiling a little sadly. "Are there such things?" she
+said. "Is it true?--I mean, I always thought that they were a child's
+tale."
+
+"No more than poisons and antidotes, madame," he answered earnestly,
+"the preservative power of salt, or the destructive power of
+gunpowder. You take the Queen's herb, you sneeze; the drug of
+Paracelsus, you sleep; wine, you see double. Why is the powder of
+attraction more wonderful than these? Or if you remain unconvinced,"
+he continued more lightly, "look round you, madame. You see young men
+loving old women, the high-born allying themselves with the vulgar,
+the ugly enchanting the beautiful. You see a hundred inexplicable
+matches. Believe me, it is we who make them. I speak without motive,"
+he added, bowing, "for Madame de Vidoche can never have need of other
+philtre than her eyes."
+
+Madame, toying idly with a plate, her regards on the table, sighed.
+"And yet they say matches are made in heaven," she murmured softly.
+
+"It is from heaven--from the stars--we derive our knowledge," he
+answered, in the same tone.
+
+But his face!--it was well she did not see that! And before more
+passed, M. de Vidoche broke into the conversation. "What rubbish is
+this?" he said, speaking roughly to his wife. "Have you finished? Then
+let us pay this rascally landlord and be off. If you do not want to
+spend the night on the road, that is. Where are those fools of
+servants?"
+
+He rose, and went to the door and shouted for them, and came back
+and took up his cloak and hat with much movement and bustle.
+But it was noticeable in all he did that he never once met the
+astrologer's eye or looked his way. Even when he bade him a surly
+"Good-night"--casually uttered in the midst of injunctions to his wife
+to be quick--he spoke over his shoulder; and he left the room in the
+same fashion, completely absorbed, it seemed, in the fastening of his
+cloak.
+
+Some, treated in this cavalier fashion, might have been hurt, and some
+might have resented it. But the man in black did neither. Left alone,
+he remained by the table in an expectant attitude, a sneering smile,
+which the light of the candles threw into high relief, on his grim
+visage. Suddenly the door opened, and M. de Vidoche, cloaked and
+covered, came in. Without raising his eyes, he looked round the
+room--for something he had mislaid, it seemed.
+
+"Oh, by the way," he said suddenly, and without looking up.
+
+"_My address?_" the man in black interjected, with a devilish
+readiness. "The end of the Rue Touchet in the Quartier du Marais, near
+the river. Where, believe me," he continued, with a mocking bow, "I
+shall give you madame's horoscope with the greatest pleasure, or any
+other little matter you may require."
+
+"I think you are the devil!" M. de Vidoche muttered wrathfully, his
+cheek growing pale.
+
+"Possibly," the astrologer answered. "In that or any other case--_au
+revoir!_"
+
+When the landlord came up a little later to apologise to M. Solomon
+Nôtredame de Paris for the inconvenience to which he had unwillingly
+put him, he found his guest in high good-humour. "It is nothing, my
+friend--it is nothing," M. Nôtredame said kindly. "I found my company
+good enough. This M. de Vidoche is of this country; and a rich man, I
+understand."
+
+"Through his wife," the host said cautiously. "Ah! so rich that she
+could build our old castle here from the ground again."
+
+"Madame de Vidoche was of Pinatel."
+
+"To be sure. Monsieur knows everything. By Jumiéges to the north. I
+have been there once. But she has a house in Paris besides, and
+estates, I hear, in the south--in Perigord."
+
+"Ha!" the astrologer muttered. "Perigord again. That is odd, now."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                      THE HOUSE WITH TWO DOORS.
+
+
+On the site of the old Palais des Tournelles, where was held the
+tournament in which Henry the Second was killed, Henry the Fourth
+built the Place Royale. You will not find it called by that name in
+any map of Paris of to-day; modern France, which has no history,
+traditions, or reverence, has carefully erased such landmarks in
+favour of her Grévys and Eiffels, her journalists and soap-boilers.
+But for all that, and though the Place Royale has now lost even its
+name, in the reign of the thirteenth Louis it was the centre of
+fashion. The Quartier du Marais, in which it stood, opposite the Ile
+de St. Louis, was then the Court quarter. It saw coaches come into
+common use among the nobility, and ruffs and primero go out, and a
+great many other queer things, such as Court quarters in those days
+looked to see.
+
+The back stairs of a palace, however, are seldom an improving or
+brilliant place; or if they can be said to be brilliant at all, their
+brightness is of a somewhat lurid and ghastly character. The king's
+amusements--very royal and natural, no doubt, and, when viewed from
+the proper quarter, attractive enough--have another side; and that
+side is towards the back stairs. It is the same with the Court and its
+purlieus. They are the rough side of the cloth, the underside of the
+moss, the cancer under the fair linen. Secrets are no secrets there;
+and so it has always been. Things De Thou did not know, and Brantôme
+only guessed at, were household words there. They in the Court
+under-world knew all about that mysterious disease of which Gabrielle
+d'Estrées died after eating a citron at Zamet's--all, more than we
+know now or has ever been printed. That little prick of a knife which
+made the second Wednesday in May, 1610, a day memorable in history,
+was gossip down there a month before. Henry of Condé's death,
+Mazarin's marriage, D'Eon's sex, Cagliostro's birth, were no mysteries
+in the by-ways of the Louvre and Petit Trianon. He who wrote "Under
+the king's hearthstone are many cockroaches" knew his world--a seamy,
+ugly, vicious, dangerous world.
+
+If any street in the Paris of that day belonged to it, the Rue
+Touchet did; a little street a quarter of a mile from the Place
+Royale, on the verge of the Quartier du Marais. The houses on one side
+of the street had their backs to the river, from which they were
+divided only by a few paces of foul foreshore. These houses were older
+than the opposite row, were irregularly built, and piled high with
+gables and crooked chimneys. Here and there a beetle-browed passage
+led beneath them to the river; and one out of every two was a tavern,
+or worse. A fencing-school and a gambling-hell occupied the two
+largest. To the south-west the street ended in a _cul-de-sac_, being
+closed by a squat stone house, built out of the ruins of an old water
+gateway that had once stood there. The windows of this house were
+never unshuttered, the door was seldom opened in the daylight. It was
+the abode of Solomon Nôtredame. Once a week or so the astrologer's
+sombre figure might be seen entering or leaving, and men at tavern
+doors would point at him, and slatternly women, leaning out of window,
+cross themselves. But few in the Rue Touchet knew that the house had a
+second door, which did not open on the water, as the back doors of the
+riverside houses did, but on a quiet street leading to it.
+
+M. Nôtredame's house was, in fact, double, and served two sorts of
+clients. Great ladies and courtiers, wives of the long robe and city
+madams, came to the door in the quiet street, and knew nothing of the
+Rue Touchet. Through the latter, on the other hand, came those who
+paid in meal, if not in malt; lackeys and waiting-maids, and skulking
+apprentices and led-captains--the dregs of the quarter, sodden with
+vice and crime--and knowledge.
+
+The house was furnished accordingly. The clients of the Rue Touchet
+found the astrologer in a room divided into two by scarlet hangings,
+so arranged as to afford the visitor a partial view of the farther
+half, where the sullen glow of a furnace disclosed alembics and
+crucibles, mortars and retorts, a multitude of uncouth vessels and
+phials, and all the mysterious apparatus of the alchemist. Immediately
+about him the shuddering rascal found things still more striking. A
+dead hand hung over each door, a skeleton peeped from a closet. A
+stuffed alligator sprawled on the floor, and, by the wavering
+uncertain light of the furnace, seemed each moment to be awaking to
+life. Cabalistic signs and strange instruments and skull-headed staves
+were everywhere, with parchment scrolls and monstrous mandrakes, and a
+farrago of such things as might impose on the ignorant; who, if he
+pleased, might sit on a coffin, and, when he would amuse himself,
+found a living toad at his foot! Dimly seen, crowded together,
+ill-understood, these things were enough to overawe the vulgar, and
+had often struck terror into the boldest ruffians the Rue Touchet
+could boast.
+
+From this room a little staircase, closed at the top by a strong door,
+led to the chamber and antechamber in which the astrologer received
+his real clients. Here all was changed. Both rooms were hung,
+canopied, carpeted with black: were vast, death-like, empty. The
+antechamber contained two stools, and in the middle of the floor a
+large crystal ball on a bronze stand. That was all, except the silver
+hanging lamp, which burned blue, and added to the funereal gloom of
+the room.
+
+The inner chamber, which was lighted by six candles set in sconces
+round the wall, was almost as bare. A kind of altar at the farther end
+bore two great tomes, continually open. In the middle of the floor was
+an astrolabe on an ebony pillar, and the floor itself was embroidered
+in white, with the signs of the Zodiac and the twelve Houses arranged
+in a circle. A seat for the astrologer stood near the altar. And that
+was all. For power over such as visited him here Nôtredame depended on
+a higher range of ideas; on the more subtle forms of superstition, the
+influence of gloom and silence on the conscience: and above all,
+perhaps, on his knowledge of the world--_and them_.
+
+Into the midst of all this came that shrinking, terrified little
+mortal, Jehan. It was his business to open the door into the quiet
+street, and admit those who called. He was forbidden to speak under
+the most terrible penalties, so that visitors thought him dumb. For a
+week after his coming he lived in a world of almost intolerable fear.
+The darkness and silence of the house, the funereal lights and
+hangings, the skulls and bones and horrid things he saw, and on which
+he came when he least expected them, almost turned his brain. He
+shuddered, and crouched hither and thither. His face grew white, and
+his eyes took a strange staring look, so that the sourest might have
+pitied him. It wanted, in a word, but a little to send the child stark
+mad; and but for his hardy training and outdoor life, that little
+would not have been wanting.
+
+He might have fled, for he was trusted at the door, and at any moment
+could have opened it and escaped. But Jehan never doubted his master's
+power to find him and bring him back; and the thought did not enter
+his mind. After a week or so, familiarity wrought on him, as on all.
+The house grew less terrifying, the darkness lost its horror, the air
+of silence and dread its first paralysing influence. He began to sleep
+better. Curiosity, in a degree, took the place of fear. He fell to
+poring over the signs of the Zodiac, and to taking furtive peeps into
+the crystal. The toad became his playfellow. He fed it with
+cockroaches, and no longer wanted employment.
+
+The astrologer saw the change in the lad, and perhaps was not wholly
+pleased with it. By-and-by he took steps to limit it. One day he found
+Jehan playing with the toad with something of a boy's _abandon_,
+making the uncouth creature leap over his hands, and tickling it with
+a straw. The boy rose on his entrance, and shrank away; for his fear
+of the man's sinister face and silent ways was not in any way
+lessened. But Nôtredame called him back. "You are beginning to
+forget," he said, eyeing the child grimly.
+
+The boy trembled under his gaze, but did not dare to answer.
+
+"Whose are you?"
+
+Jehan looked this way and that. At length, with dry lips, he muttered,
+"Yours."
+
+"No, you are not," the man in black replied. "Think again. You have a
+short memory."
+
+Jehan thought and sweated. But the man would have his answer, and at
+last Jehan whispered, "The devil's."
+
+"That is better," the astrologer said coldly. "Do you know what this
+is?"
+
+He held up a glass bowl. The boy recognised it, and his hair began to
+rise. But he shook his head.
+
+"It is holy water," the man in black said, his small cruel eyes
+devouring the boy. "Hold out your hand."
+
+Jehan dared not refuse "This will try you," Nôtredame said slowly,
+"whether you are the devil's or not. If not, water will not hurt you.
+If so, if you are his for ever and ever, to do his will and pleasure,
+then it will burn like fire!"
+
+At the last word he suddenly sprinkled some with a brush on the boy's
+hand. Jehan leapt back with a shriek of pain, and, holding the burned
+hand to his breast, glared at his master with starting eyes.
+
+"It burns," said the astrologer pitilessly, "It burns. It is as I
+said. You are _his_. _His!_ After this I think you will remember. Now
+go."
+
+Jehan went away, shuddering with horror and pain. But the lesson had
+not the precise effect intended. He continued to fear his master, but
+he began to hate him also, with a passionate, lasting hatred strange
+in a child. Though he still shrank and crouched in his presence,
+behind his back he was no longer restrained by fear. The boy knew of
+no way in which he could avenge himself. He did not form any plans to
+that end, he did not conceive the possibility of the thing. But he
+hated; and, given the opportunity, was ripe to seize it.
+
+
+[Illustration: "JEHAN LEAPT BACK WITH A SHRIEK OF PAIN" (_p_. 74).]
+
+
+He was locked in whenever Nôtredame went out; and in this way he spent
+many solitary and fearful hours. These led him, however, in the end,
+to a discovery. One day, about the middle of December, while he was
+poking about the house in the astrologer's absence, he found a door. I
+say "found," for though it was not a secret door, it was small and
+difficult to detect, being placed in the side of the straight, narrow
+passage at the head of the little staircase which led from the lower
+to the upper chambers. At first he thought it was locked, but coming
+to examine it more closely, though in mere curiosity, he found the
+handle of the latch let into a hollow of the panel. He pressed this,
+and the door yielded a little.
+
+At the time the boy was scared. He saw the place was dark, drew the
+door to the jamb again, and went away without satisfying his
+curiosity. But in a little while the desire to know what was behind
+the door overcame his terror. He returned with a taper, and, pressing
+the latch again, pushed the door open and entered, his heart beating
+loudly.
+
+He held up his taper, and saw a very narrow, bare closet, made in the
+thickness of the wall. And that was all, for the place was empty--the
+one and only thing it contained being a soft, rough mat which covered
+the floor. The boy stared fearfully about him, still expecting
+something dreadful, but there was nothing else to be seen. And
+gradually his fears subsided, and his curiosity with them, and he went
+out again.
+
+Another day, however, when he came into this place, he made a
+discovery. Against either wall he saw a morsel of black cloth
+fastened--a little flap a few inches long and three inches wide. He
+held the light first to one and then to another of these, but he could
+make nothing of them until he noticed that the lower edges were loose.
+Then he raised one. It disclosed a long, narrow slit, through which he
+could see the laboratory, with the fire burning dully, the phials
+glistening, and the crocodile going through its unceasing pretence of
+arousing itself. He raised the other, and found a slit there, too; but
+as the chamber on that side--the room with the astrolabe--was in
+darkness, he could see nothing. He understood, however. The closet was
+a spying-place, and these were Judas-holes, so arranged that the
+occupant, himself unheard and unseen, could see and hear all that
+happened on either side of him.
+
+It was the astrologer's custom to lock up the large room next the Rue
+Touchet when he went out. For this reason, and because the place was
+forbidden, the boy lingered at the Judas-hole, gazing into it. He knew
+by this time most of the queer things it contained, and the red glow
+of the furnace fire gave it, to his mind, a weird kind of comfort. He
+listened to the ashes falling, and the ticking of some clockwork at
+the farther end. He began idly to enumerate all the things he could
+see; but the curtain which shut off the laboratory proper threw a
+great shadow across the room, and this he strove in vain to pierce. To
+see the better, he put out his light and looked again. He had scarcely
+brought his eyes back to the slit, however, when a low grating noise
+caught his ear. He started and held his breath, but before he could
+stir a finger the heavy door which communicated with the Rue Touchet
+slowly opened a foot or two, and the astrologer came in.
+
+For a few seconds the boy remained gazing, afraid to breathe or move.
+Then, with an effort, he dropped the cloth over the slit, and crept
+softly away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+                          THE UPPER PORTAL.
+
+
+The astrologer was not alone. A tall figure, cloaked and muffled to
+the chin, entered after him, and stood waiting at his elbow while he
+secured the fastenings of the door. Apparently, they had only met on
+the threshold, for the stranger, after looking round him and silently
+noting the fantastic disorder of the room, said, in a hoarse voice,
+"You do not know me?"
+
+"Perfectly, M. de Vidoche," the astrologer answered, removing his hat.
+
+"Did you know I was following you?"
+
+"I came to show you the way."
+
+"That is a lie, at any rate!" the young noble retorted, with a sneer,
+"for I did not know I was coming myself."
+
+"Until you saw me," the astrologer answered, unmoved. "Will you not
+take off your cloak? You will need it when you leave."
+
+M. de Vidoche complied with an ill grace. "The usual stock-in-trade, I
+see," he muttered, looking round him scornfully. "Skulls and bones,
+and dead hands and gibbet-ropes. Faugh! The place smells. I suppose
+these are the things you keep to frighten children."
+
+"Some," Nôtredame answered calmly--he was busy lighting a lamp--"and
+some are for sale."
+
+"For sale?" M. de Vidoche cried incredulously. "Who will buy them?"
+
+"Some one thing, and some another," the astrologer answered
+carelessly. "Take this, for instance," he continued, turning to his
+visitor, and looking at him for the first time. "I expect to find a
+customer for _that_ very shortly."
+
+M. de Vidoche followed the direction of his finger, and shuddered,
+despite himself. "That" was a coffin. "Enough of this," he said, with
+savage impatience. "Suppose you get off your high horse, and come to
+business. Can I sit, man, or are you going to keep me standing all
+night?"
+
+The man in black brought forward two stools, and led the way behind
+the curtain. "It is warmer here," he said, pushing aside an earthen
+pipkin, and clearing a space with his foot in front of the glowing
+embers. "Now I am at your service, M. de Vidoche. Pray be seated."
+
+"Are we alone?" the young noble asked suspiciously.
+
+"Trust me for that," the astrologer answered. "I know my business."
+
+But M. de Vidoche seemed to find some difficulty in stating his;
+though he had evinced so high a regard for time a moment before. He
+sat irresolute, stealing malevolent glances first at his companion,
+and then at the dull, angry-looking fire. If he expected M. Nôtredame
+to help him, however, he did not yet know his host. The astrologer sat
+patiently waiting, with every expression, save placid expectation,
+discharged from his face.
+
+"Oh, d----n you!" the young man ejaculated at last. "Have you got
+nothing to say? You know what I want," he added, with irritation, "as
+well as I do."
+
+"I shall be happy to learn," the astrologer answered politely.
+
+"Give it me without more words, and let me go!"
+
+The astrologer raised his eyebrows. "Alas! there is a limit to
+omniscience," he said, shaking his head gently. "It is true we keep it
+in stock--to frighten children. But it does not help me at present, M.
+de Vidoche."
+
+M. de Vidoche looked at him with an evil scowl. "I see; you want me to
+commit myself," he muttered. The perspiration stood on his forehead,
+and his voice was husky with rage or some other emotion. "I was a fool
+to come here," he continued. "If you must have it, I want to kill a
+cat; and I want something to give to it."
+
+The astrologer laughed silently. "The mountain was in labour, and lo!
+a cat!" he said, in a tone of amusement. "And lo! a cat! Well, in that
+case I am afraid you have come to the wrong place, M. de Vidoche. I
+don't kill cats. There is no risk in it, you see," he continued,
+looking fixedly at his companion, "and no profit. Nobody cares about a
+cat. The first herbalist you come to will give you what you want for a
+few sous. Even if the creature turns black within the hour, and its
+mouth goes to the nape of its neck," he went on, with a horrid smile,
+"as Madame de Beaufort's did--_cui malo?_--no one is a penny the
+worse. But if it were a question of---- I think I saw monsieur riding
+in company with Mademoiselle de Farincourt to-day?"
+
+M. de Vidoche, who had been contemplating his tormentor with eyes of
+rage and horror, started at the unexpected question. "Well," he
+muttered, "and what if I was?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," the man in black answered carelessly. "Mademoiselle is
+beautiful, and monsieur is a happy man if she smiles on him. But she
+is high-born; and proud, I am told." He leaned forward as he spoke,
+and warmed his long, lean hands at the fire. But his beady eyes never
+left the other's face.
+
+M. de Vidoche writhed under their gaze. "Curse you!" he muttered
+hoarsely. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Her family are proud also, I am told; and powerful. Friends of the
+Cardinal too, I hear." The man in black's smile was like nothing save
+the crocodile's.
+
+M. de Vidoche rose from his seat, but sat down again.
+
+"He would avenge the honour of the family to the death," continued the
+astrologer gently. "To the death, I should say. Don't you think so, M.
+de Vidoche?"
+
+The perspiration stood in thick drops on the young man's forehead, and
+he glared at his tormentor. But the latter met the look placidly, and
+seemed ignorant of the effect he was producing. "It is a pity,
+therefore, monsieur is not free to marry," he said, shaking his head
+regretfully--"a great pity. One does not know what may happen. Yet, on
+the other hand, if he had not married he would be a poor man now."
+
+M. de Vidoche sprang to his feet with an oath. But he sat down again.
+
+"When he married he _was_ a poor man, I think," the astrologer
+continued, for the first time averting his gaze from the other's
+face, and looking into the fire with a queer smile. "And in debt.
+Madame--the present Madame de Vidoche, I mean--paid his debts, and
+brought him an estate, I believe."
+
+"Of which she has never ceased to remind him twice a day since!" the
+young man cried in a terrible voice. And then in a moment he lost all
+self-control, all disguise, all the timid cunning which had marked him
+hitherto. He sprang to his feet. The veins in his temples swelled, his
+face grew red. So true is it that small things try us more than great
+ones, and small grievances rub deeper raws than great wrongs. "My
+God!" he said between his teeth, "if you knew what I have suffered
+from that woman! Pale-faced, puling fool, I have loathed her these
+five years, and I have been tied to her and her whining ways and her
+nun's face! Twice a day? No, ten times a day, twenty times a day, she
+has reminded me of my debts, my poverty, and my straits before I
+married her! And of her family! And her three marshals! And her----"
+
+He stopped for very lack of breath. "Madame was of good family?" the
+man in black said abruptly. He had grown suddenly attentive. His
+shadow on the wall behind him was still and straight-backed.
+
+"Oh, yes," the husband answered bitterly.
+
+"In Perigord?'
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Three marshals of France?" M. Nôtredame murmured thoughtfully; but
+there was a strange light in his eyes, and he kept his face carefully
+averted from his companion. "That is not common! That is certainly
+something to boast of!"
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_ She did boast of it, though no one else allowed the
+claim. And of her blood of Roland!" M. de Vidoche cried, with scorn.
+His voice still shook, and his hands trembled with rage. He strode up
+and down.
+
+"What was her name before she married?" the astrologer asked, stooping
+over the fire.
+
+The young man stopped, arrested in his passion--stopped, and looked at
+him suspiciously. "Her name?" he muttered. "What has that to do with
+it?"
+
+"If you want me to--draw her horoscope," the astrologer replied, with
+a cunning smile, "I must have something to go upon."
+
+"Diane de Martinbault," the young man answered sullenly; and then, in
+a fresh burst of rage, he muttered, "Diane! _Diable!_"
+
+"She inherited her estates from her father?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who had a son? A child who died young?" the astrologer continued
+coolly.
+
+M. de Vidoche looked at him. "That is true," he said sulkily. "But I
+do not see what it has to do with you."
+
+For answer, the man in black began to laugh, at first silently, then
+aloud--a sly devil's laugh, that sounded more like the glee of fiends
+sporting over a lost soul than any human mirth, so full was it of
+derision and mockery and insult. He made no attempt to check or
+disguise it, but rather seemed to flout it in the other's face; for
+when the young noble asked him, with fierce impatience, what it was,
+and what he meant, he did not explain. He only cried, "In a moment! In
+a moment, noble sir, I swear you shall have what you want. But--ha!
+ha!" And then he fell to laughing again, more loudly and shrilly than
+before.
+
+M. de Vidoche turned white and red with rage. His first thought was
+that a trap had been laid for him, and that he had fallen into it;
+that to what he had said there had been witnesses; and that now the
+astrologer had thrown off the mask. With a horrible expression of
+shame and fear on his countenance he stood at bay, peering into the
+dark corners, of which there were many in that room, and plumbing the
+shadows. When no one appeared and nothing happened, his fears passed,
+but not his rage. With his hand on his sword, he turned hotly on his
+confederate. "You dog!" he said between his teeth, and his eyes
+gleamed dangerously in the light of the lamp, "know that for a
+farthing I would slit your throat! And I will, too, if you do not this
+instant stop that witch's grin of yours! Are you going to do what I
+ask, or are you not?"
+
+"Chut! chut!" the astrologer answered, waving his hand in deprecation.
+"I said so, and I am always as good as my word."
+
+"Ay, but now--now!" the young man retorted furiously. "You have played
+with me long enough. Do you think that I am going to spend the night
+in this charnel-house of yours?"
+
+M. Nôtredame began to fear that he had carried his cruel amusement too
+far. He had enjoyed himself vastly, and made an unexpected discovery:
+one which opened an endless vista of mischief and plunder to his
+astute gaze. But it was not his policy to drive his customer to
+distraction, and he changed his tone. "Peace, peace," he said,
+spreading out his hands humbly. "You shall have it now; now, this
+instant. There is only one little preliminary."
+
+"Name it!" the other said imperiously.
+
+"The price. A horoscope, with the House of Death in the ascendant--the
+Upper Portal, as we call it--is a hundred crowns, M. de Vidoche. There
+is the risk, you see."
+
+"You shall have it. Give me the--the stuff!"
+
+The young man's voice trembled, but it was with anger and impatience,
+not with fear. The astrologer recognised the change in him, and fell
+into his place. He went, without further demur, to a little shelf in
+the darkest corner of the laboratory, whence he reached down a
+crucible. He was in the act of peering into this, with his back to his
+visitor, when M. de Vidoche uttered a startled cry, and, springing
+towards him, seized his arm. "You fiend!" the young man hissed--he was
+pale to the lips, and shook as with an ague--"there is someone there!
+There is someone listening!"
+
+
+[Illustration: "FOR A SECOND THE MAN IN BLACK STOOD BREATHLESS" (_p_.
+92).]
+
+
+For a second the man in black stood breathless, his hand arrested, the
+shadow of his companion's terror darkening his face. M. de Vidoche
+pointed with a trembling finger to the staircase which led to the
+farther part of the house, and on this the two bent their sombre,
+guilty eyes. The lamp burned unsteadily, giving out an odour of smoke.
+The room was full of shadows, uncouth distorted shapes, that rose and
+fell with the light, and had something terrifying in their sudden
+appearances and vanishings. But in all the place there was nothing so
+appalling or so ugly as the two vicious, panic-stricken faces that
+glared into the darkness.
+
+The man in black was the first to break the silence. "What did you
+hear?" he muttered at length, after a long, long period of waiting and
+watching.
+
+"Someone moved there," Vidoche answered, under his breath. His voice
+still trembled; his face was livid with terror.
+
+"Nonsense!" the other answered. He knew the place, and was fast
+recovering his courage. "What was the sound like, man?"
+
+"A dull, heavy sound. Someone moved."
+
+M. Nôtredame laughed, but not pleasantly. "It was the toad," he said.
+"There is no other living thing here. The door on the staircase is
+locked. It is thick, too. A dozen men might be behind it, yet they
+would not hear a word that passed in this room. But come; you shall
+see."
+
+He led the way to the farther end of the room, and, moving some of the
+larger things, showed M. de Vidoche that there was no one there.
+Still, the young man was only half-convinced. Even when the toad was
+found lurking in a skull which had rolled to the floor, he continued
+to glance about him doubtfully. "I do not think it was that," he said.
+"Are you sure that the door is locked?"
+
+"Try it," the astrologer answered curtly.
+
+M. de Vidoche did, and nodded. "Yes," he said. "All the same, I will
+get out of this, Give me the stuff, will you?"
+
+The man in black raised the lamp in one hand, and with the other
+selected from the crucible two tiny yellow packets. He stood a moment,
+weighing them in his hand and looking lovingly at them, and seemed
+unwilling to part with them. "They are power," he said, in a voice
+that was little above a whisper. The alarm had tried even his nerves,
+and he was not quite himself. "The greatest power of all--death. They
+are the key of the Upper Portal--the true Pulvis Olympicus. Take one
+to-day, one to-morrow, in liquid, and you will feel neither hunger,
+nor cold, nor want, nor desire any more for ever. The late King of
+England took one; but there, it is yours, my friend."
+
+"Is it painful?" the young man whispered, shuddering, and with eyes
+averted.
+
+The tempter grinned horribly. "What is that to you?" he said. "It will
+not bring her mouth to the back of her neck. That is enough for you to
+know."
+
+"It will not be detected?"
+
+"Not by the bunglers they call doctors," the astrologer answered
+scornfully. "Blind bats! You may trust me for that. Of what did the
+King of England die? A tertian ague. So will madame. But if you
+think----"
+
+He stopped on a sudden, his hand in the air, and the two stood gazing
+at one another with alarm printed on their faces. The loud clanging
+note of a bell, harshly struck in the house, came dolefully to their
+ears "What is it?" M. de Vidoche muttered uneasily.
+
+"A client," the astrologer answered quietly. "I will see. Do not stir
+until I come back to you."
+
+M. de Vidoche made an impatient movement towards the door in the Rue
+Touchet: and doubtless he would much have preferred to be gone at
+once, since he had now got what he wanted. But the man in black was
+already unlocking the door at the head of the little staircase, and
+uttering a querulous oath M. de Vidoche resigned himself to wait. With
+a dark look he hid the powders on his person.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+He thought himself alone. But all the same a white-faced boy lay
+within a few feet of him, watching his every movement, and listening
+to his breathing--a small boy, instinct with hate and loathing.
+Impunity renders people careless, or M. Nôtredame would not have been
+so ready to set down the noise his confederate made to the toad. The
+Judas-hole and the spying-place would have come to mind, and in a
+trice he would have caught the listener in the act, and this history
+would never have been written.
+
+For Jehan, though his master's first entrance and appearance had sent
+him fleeing, breathless and panic-stricken, from his post, had not
+been able to keep aloof long. The house was dull, silent, dark; only
+in the closet was amusement to be found. So while terror dragged him
+one way, curiosity haled him the other, and at last had the victory.
+He listened and shivered at the head of the stairs until that shrill
+eldritch peal of laughter in which the astrologer indulged, and for
+which he was destined to pay dearly, penetrated even the thick door.
+Then he could hold out no longer. His curiosity grew intolerable.
+Laughter! Laughter in that house! Slowly and stealthily the boy opened
+the door of the dark closet, and crept in. Just across the threshold
+he stumbled over the extinguished taper, and this it was which caused
+M. de Vidoche's alarm.
+
+Jehan fancied himself discovered, and lay sweating and trembling until
+the search for the toad was over. Then he sat up, and, finding himself
+safe, began to listen. What he heard was not clear, nor perfectly
+intelligible; but gradually there stole even into his boyish mind a
+perception of something horrible. The speakers' looks of fear, their
+low tones and dark glances, the panic which seized them when they
+fancied themselves overheard, and their relief when nothing came of
+it, did more to bring the conviction home to his mind than their
+words. Even of these he caught enough to assure him that someone was
+to be poisoned--to be put out of the world. Only the name of the
+victim--that escaped him.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+Probably M. de Vidoche, left to himself, found, his thoughts poor
+company, for by-and-by he grew restless. He walked across the room and
+listened, and walked again and listened. The latter movement brought
+him by chance to the foot of the little flight of six steps by which
+the astrologer had retired, and he looked up and saw that the door at
+the top was ajar. Impelled by curiosity, or suspicion, or the mere
+desire to escape from himself, he stole up, and, opening it farther,
+thrust his head through and listened.
+
+He remained in this position about a minute. Then he turned, and crept
+down again, and stood, thinking, at the foot of the stairs, with an
+expression of such utter and complete amazement on his face as almost
+transformed the man. Something he had heard or seen which he could not
+understand! Something incredible, something almost miraculous! For all
+else, even his guilty purpose, seemed swallowed up in sheer
+astonishment.
+
+The stupor held him until he heard the astrologer's steps. Even then
+he only turned and looked. But if ever dumb lips asked a question, his
+did then.
+
+The man in black nodded silently. He seemed not at all surprised that
+the other had heard or seen what he had. Even in him the thing,
+whatever it was, had worked a change. His eyes shone, his eyebrows
+were raised, his face wore a pale smile of triumph and conceit.
+
+M. de Vidoche found his voice at last "My wife!" he whispered.
+
+The astrologer's shoulders went up to his ears. He spread out his
+hands. He nodded--once, twice. "_Mais oui, Madame!_" he said.
+
+"Here?--now?" M. de Vidoche stammered, his eyes wide with
+astonishment.
+
+"She is in the chamber of the astrolabe."
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_" the husband exclaimed. "_Mon Dieu!_" And then for a
+moment he shook, as if someone were passing over his grave. His face
+was pale. There was dread mingled with his surprise. "I do not
+understand," he muttered at last. "What does it mean? What is she
+doing here?"
+
+"She has come for a love-philtre," M. Nôtredame answered, with a
+sphinx-like smile.
+
+"For whom?"
+
+"For you."
+
+The husband drew a deep breath. "For me?" he exclaimed. "Impossible!"
+
+"Possible," the man in black answered quietly; "and true."
+
+"Then what shall you do?"
+
+"Give her one," the astrologer answered. The enigmatical smile, which
+had been all along playing on his face, grew deeper, keener, more
+cruel. His eyes gleamed with triumph--and evil. "I shall give her
+one," he said again.
+
+"But--what will she do with it?" M. de Vidoche muttered.
+
+"_Take it!_ You fool, cannot you understand?" the man in black
+answered sharply. "Give me back the powders. I shall give them to her.
+She will take them--_herself_. You will be saved--all!"
+
+M. de Vidoche reeled. "My God!" he cried. "I think you are the devil!"
+
+"Perhaps," the man in black answered "but give me the powders."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                      THE POWDER OF ATTRACTION.
+
+
+Meanwhile, a few yards away, in the room of the astrolabe, Madame de
+Vidoche sat, waiting and trembling, afraid to move from the spot where
+the astrologer had placed her, and longing for his return. The minutes
+seemed endless, the house a grave. The silence and mystery which
+wrapped her round, the sombre hangings, the burning candles, the
+cabalistic figures filled her with awe and apprehension. She was a
+timid woman; nothing but that last and fiercest hunger of all, the
+hunger for love, could have driven her to this desperate step or
+brought her here. But she was here, it had brought her; and though
+fear blanched her cheek, and her limbs shook under her, and she dared
+not pray--for what was this she was doing?--she did not repent, or
+wish the step untaken, or go back on her desire.
+
+The place was dreadful to her; but not so dreadful as the cold home,
+the harsh words, the mockery of love, the slowly growing knowledge
+that there never had been love, from which she was here to escape. She
+was alone, but not more lonely than she had been for months in her own
+house. The man who daily met her with gibes and taunts, and seldom
+spoke without reminding her how pale and colourless she showed beside
+the florid witty beauties of the Court--_his friends_--was still her
+all, and had been her idol. If he failed her, the world was empty
+indeed. Only one thing remained therefore; by hook or crook, by all a
+woman might do or dare, by submission, by courage, to win back his
+love. She had tried. God knows she had tried! She had knelt to him,
+and he had struck her. She had dressed and been gay, and striven to
+jest as his friends jested: he had scourged her with a cutting sneer.
+She had prayed, and Heaven had not answered. She had turned from
+Heaven--a white-faced, pining woman, little more than a girl--and she
+was here.
+
+Only let the man be quick! Let him be quick and give her what she
+sought; and then scarcely any price he could ask should strain her
+gratitude. At last she heard his step, and in a moment he came in.
+Against the black background, and seen by the gloomy light of the
+candles, he looked taller, leaner, paler, more sombre than life. His
+eyes glowed with unnatural lustre. Madame shuddered as he came towards
+her; and he saw it, and grinned behind his cadaverous mask.
+
+"Madame," he said gravely, bowing his head, "it is as I hoped. Venus
+is in the ascendant for nine days from to-day, and in fortunate
+conjunction with Mars. I am happy that you come to me at a time so
+propitious. A very little effort at this season will suffice. But it
+is necessary, if you would have the charm work, to preserve the most
+absolute silence and secrecy in regard to it."
+
+Her lips were dry, her tongue seemed to cleave to her mouth. She felt
+shame as well as fear in this man's presence. But she made an effort,
+and muttered, "It will work?"
+
+"I will answer for it!" he replied bluntly, a world of dubious meaning
+in his tone and eyes. "It is the powder of attraction, by the use of
+which Diane de Poitiers won the love of the king, though she surpassed
+him by twenty years; and Madame de Valentinois held the hearts of men
+till her seventieth winter. Madame de Hautefort uses it. It is made of
+liquid gold, etherealised and strengthened with secret drugs. I have
+made up two packets, but it will be safer if madame will take both at
+once, dissolved in good wine and before the expiration of the ninth
+day."
+
+Madame de Vidoche took the packets, trembling. A little red dyed her
+pale cheeks. "Is that all?" she murmured, faintly.
+
+"All, madame; except that when you drink it, you must think of your
+husband," he answered. As he said this he averted his face; for, try
+as he would, he could not check the evil smile that curled his lip.
+_Dieu!_ Was ever so grim a jest known? Or so forlorn, so helpless, so
+infantine a fool? He could almost find it in his heart to pity her. As
+for her husband--ah, how he would bleed him when it was over!
+
+"How much am I to pay you, sir?" she asked timidly, when she had
+hidden away the precious packets in her bosom. She had got what she
+wanted; she was panting to be gone.
+
+"Twenty crowns," he answered, coldly. "The charm avails for nine
+moons. After that----"
+
+"I shall need more?" she asked; for he had paused.
+
+"Well, no, I think not," he answered slowly--hesitating strangely,
+almost stammering. "I think in your case, madame, the effect will be
+lasting."
+
+She had no clue to the fantastic impulse, the ghastly humour, which
+inspired the words; and she paid him gladly. He would not take the
+money in his hands, but bade her lay it on the great open book,
+"because the gold was alloyed, and not virgin." In one or two other
+ways he played his part; directing her, for instance, if she would
+increase the strength of the charm, to gaze at the planet Venus for
+half an hour each evening, but not through glass or with any metal on
+her person. And then he let her out by the door which opened on the
+quiet street.
+
+"Madame has, doubtless, her woman, or some attendant?" he said,
+looking up and down. "Or I----"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" she answered, gasping in the cold night air. "She is
+here. Goodnight, sir."
+
+He muttered some words in a strange tongue, and, as Madame de
+Vidoche's attendant came out of the shadow to meet her, turned and
+went in again.
+
+The night was dark as well as cold, but madame, in the first fervour
+of her spirits, did not heed it. She suffered her maid to wrap her up
+warmly, and draw the cloak more closely round her throat; but she was
+scarcely conscious of the attention, and bore it as a child might--in
+silence. Her eyes shone in the darkness; her heart beat with a soft
+subtle joy. She had the charm--the key to happiness! It was in her
+bosom; and every moment, under cover of the cloak and night, her
+fingers flew to it and assured her it was safe. The scruples with
+which she had contemplated the interview troubled her no longer. In
+her joy and relief that the ordeal was over and the philtre gained,
+she knew no doubt, no suspicion. She lived only for the moment when
+she might put the talisman to the test, and see love wake again in
+those eyes which, whether they smiled or scowled, fate had made the
+lodestones of her life.
+
+The streets, by reason of the cold, were quiet enough. No one remarked
+the two women as they flitted along under cover of the wall.
+Presently, however, the bell of a church close at hand began to ring
+for service, and the sound, startling madame, brought her suddenly,
+chillily, sharply, to earth again. She stopped. "What is that?" she
+said. "It cannot be compline. It wants three hours of midnight."
+
+"It is St. Thomas's Day," the woman with her answered.
+
+"So it is," madame replied, moving on again, but more slowly. "Of
+course; it is four days to Christmas. Don't they call him the Apostle
+of Faith, Margot?"
+
+"Yes, madame."
+
+"To be sure," madame rejoined thoughtfully. "To be sure; yes, we
+should have faith--we should have faith." And with that she buoyed
+herself up again (as people will in certain moods, using the strangest
+floats), and went on gaily, her feet tripping to the measure of her
+heart, and her hand on the precious packet that was to change the
+world for her. On the foullest mud gleams sometimes the brightest
+phosphorescence: otherwise it were not easy to conceive how even
+momentary happiness could come of the house in the Rue Touchet!
+
+The two women had nearly reached the Church of St. Gervais by the
+Grève, when the sound of a swift stealthy footstep coming along the
+street behind them caught the maid's ear. It was not a reassuring
+sound at night and in that place. The dark square of the Grève, swept
+by the icy wind from the river, lay before them; and though a brazier,
+surrounded by a knot of men belonging to the watch, burned in the
+middle of the open, the two women were reluctant to show themselves
+where they might meet with rudeness. Margot laid her hand on her
+mistress's arm, and for a few seconds the two stood listening, with
+thumping hearts. The step came on--a light, pattering step. Acting on
+a common impulse the women turned and looked at one another. Then
+slipping noiselessly into the shadow cast by the church porch, they
+pressed themselves against the wall, and stood scarcely daring to
+breathe.
+
+But fortune was against them, or their follower's eye was keen beyond
+the ordinary. They had not been there many seconds before he came
+running up--a stooping figure, slight and short. He slackened speed
+abruptly, and stopped exactly opposite their lurking-place. A moment
+of suspense, and then a pale face, rendered visible by a gleam from
+the distant fire, looked in on them, and a thin, panting voice
+murmured timidly, "Madame! Madame de Vidoche, if you please!"
+
+
+[Illustration: "'MADAME! MADAME DE VIDOCHE, IF YOU PLEASE!'" (_p_.
+112)]
+
+
+"Saint Siége!" madame's woman gasped, in a voice of astonishment. "I
+declare it is a child!"
+
+Madame almost laughed in her relief. "Ah!" she said, "how you
+frightened us! I thought you were a man dogging us--a thief!"
+
+"I am not," the boy said simply.
+
+This time Margot laughed. "Who are you, then?" she asked, briskly
+stepping out, "and why have you been following us? You seem to have my
+lady's name pretty pat," she added, sharply.
+
+"I want to speak to her," the boy answered, his lip trembling. In
+truth, he was trembling all over with fear and excitement. But the
+darkness hid that.
+
+"Oh!" Madame de Vidoche said graciously. "Well, you may speak. But
+tell me first who you are, and be quick about it. It is cold and
+late."
+
+"I am from the house where you have been," Jehan answered bravely.
+"You saw me at Les Andelys, too, when you were at supper, madame. I
+was the boy at the door. I want to speak to you alone, please."
+
+"Alone!" madame exclaimed.
+
+The boy nodded firmly. "If you please," he said.
+
+"Hoity-toity!" Margot exclaimed; and she was for demurring. "He only
+wants to beg," she said.
+
+"I don't!" the boy cried, with tears in his voice.
+
+"Then it is a present he wants!" she rejoined, scornfully. "They
+expect their vales at those places. And we are to freeze while he
+makes a tale."
+
+But madame, out of pity or curiosity, would hear him. She bade the
+woman wait a few paces away. And when they were alone: "Now," she said
+kindly, "what is it? You must be quick, for it is very cold."
+
+"_He_ sent me after you--with a message," Jehan answered.
+
+Madame started, and her hand went to the packet. "Do you mean M.
+Nôtredame?" she murmured.
+
+The boy nodded. "He--he said he had forgotten one thing," he
+continued, halting between his sentences and shivering. "He--he said
+you were to alter one thing, madame."
+
+"Oh!" Madame answered frigidly, her heart sinking, her pride roused by
+this intervention of the boy, who seemed to know all. "What thing, if
+you please?"
+
+Jehan looked quickly and fearfully over his shoulder. But all was
+quiet. "He said he had forgotten that your husband was dark," he
+stammered.
+
+"Dark!" madame muttered in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, dark-complexioned," Jehan continued desperately. "And that being
+so, you were not to take the--the charm yourself."
+
+Madame's eyes flashed with anger. "Oh!" she said, "indeed! And is that
+all?"
+
+"But to give it to him, without telling him," the boy rejoined, with
+sudden spirit and firmness.
+
+Madame started and drew a deep breath. "Are you sure you have made no
+mistake?" she said, trying to read the boy's face. But it was too dark
+for that.
+
+"Quite sure," he answered hardily.
+
+"Oh," madame said, slowly and thoughtfully; "very well. Is that all?"
+
+"That is all," he replied, drawing back a step; but reluctantly, as it
+seemed.
+
+Margot, who had been all the time moving a little nearer and a little
+nearer, came right up at this. "Now, my lady," she said sharply, "I
+beg you will have done. This is no place for us at this time of night,
+and this little imp of Satan ought to be about his business. I am sure
+I am perishing with cold, and the sound of those creaking boats on the
+river makes me think of nothing but gibbets and corpses, till I have
+got the creeps all down my back! And the watch will be here
+presently."
+
+"Very well, Margot," madame answered; "I am coming." But still she
+looked at the boy and lingered. "You are sure there is nothing else?"
+she murmured.
+
+"Nothing," he answered.
+
+She thought his manner odd, and wondered why he lingered; why he did
+not hurry off, since the night was cold and he was bareheaded. But
+Margot pressed her again, and she turned, saying reluctantly, "Very
+well, I am coming."
+
+"Ay, and so is Christmas!" the woman grumbled. And this time she
+fairly took her by the arm and hurried her away.
+
+"That is not a good retort, Margot!" madame said presently, when they
+had gone a few paces, and were flitting hand-in-hand across the Grève,
+with heads bent to the wind, "for it wants only four days to
+Christmas. You had forgotten that!"
+
+"I think you are fey, my lady!" the woman replied, in an ill-temper.
+"I have not seen you so gay these twelve months; and what with the
+cold, and fear of the watch and monsieur, I am ready to sink. You must
+have heard fine news down there."
+
+But madame did not answer. She was thinking of last Christmas. Her
+husband had gone to the revels at the Palais Cardinal, which was then
+in building. She had offered to go with him, and he had told her, with
+an oath, that if she did she should remember it. So she had stopped at
+home alone--her first Christmas in Paris. She had gone to mass, and
+then had sat all day in the cold, splendid house, and cried. Half the
+servants had played truant, and her woman had been cross, and for
+hours together no one had gone near her.
+
+This Christmas it was to be different.
+
+Madame's eyes began to shine again, and her heart to beat a pleasant
+measure. If she had her will, they would go to no pageants or
+merry-makings. But then he liked such things, and showed to advantage
+in them. Yes, they would go, and she would sit quiet as a mouse; and
+listening while they praised him, would feed all the time on the sweet
+knowledge that now he was hers--her own.
+
+She had not done dreaming when they reached the house. The porter was
+drowsing in his lodge, the gate was ajar. They slipped into the dark
+silent courtyard, and, flitting across it, entered the house. Two
+servants lay stretched asleep in the hall, and in a little room to the
+left of the door they could hear others talking; but no one looked
+out. Fortune could not have aided them better. With a little laugh of
+relief and thankfulness madame tripped up the grand staircase and
+under the great lamp which lit it and the hall.
+
+Marmot followed, but neither she nor her mistress saw who followed
+them: who had followed them across the windy Grève, through street and
+lane and byway; even, after a moment's hesitation, over the threshold
+of the court and into the house. A servant who heard the stairs creak
+as they went up, and looked out, fancied he saw a small black figure
+glide out of sight above; but as there were no children in the house,
+and this was a child, if anything, he thought his eyes deceived
+him--he was half-asleep--and, crossing himself, went back, yawning.
+
+The boy could never quite explain--though often asked in
+after-years--what led him to run this risk. It is true he dared not
+return to the Rue Touchet; and he was only twelve years old, and knew
+nowhere else to go. But---- However, that is all that can be said. He
+did follow them.
+
+He paused at the head of the stairs, and stood shivering under the
+great lamp. In front of him hung a pair of heavy curtains. After a
+moment's hesitation he crept between them and found himself in a
+splendid apartment, spacious though sparely furnished, lit from
+the roof, and in character half-hall, half-parlour. A high marble
+chimney-piece in the new Italian mode faced him, and on either hand
+were two lofty doorways screened by curtains. The floor was of
+parquet, the walls were panelled in chestnut wood. On each side of the
+fire, which smouldered low between the dogs and was nearly out, a long
+bench, velvet-covered, ran along the wall. A posset-cup stood on a
+tripod on the hearth, and in the middle of the room a marble table
+bore a dish of sweetmeats and a tray of flasks and glasses. In that
+day, when people dined at eleven and supped at six, it was customary
+to take _les épices et le vin du coucher_ before retiring at nine.
+
+The boy stood cowering and listening--a strange, pale-faced little
+figure, reflected in a narrow mirror which decked one wall. It was
+very cold even here; outside he must die of cold. He heard the two
+women moving and talking in one of the rooms on the left; otherwise
+the house was still. He looked about, hesitated, and at last stole on
+tip-toe across the floor to one of the doors on his right. The curtain
+which hid it trailed a yard on the ground. He sat down between it and
+the door, and, winding one corner of the thick heavy stuff round his
+frozen limbs, uttered a sigh of relief. He had found a refuge of a
+kind.
+
+He meant to sleep, but he could not, for all his nerves were tense
+with excitement. Not a sound in the house escaped him. He heard the
+soft ashes sink on the hearth; he heard one of the men who slept in
+the hall turn and moan in his sleep. At last, quite close to him, a
+door opened.
+
+Jehan moved a little and peered from his ambush. The noise had come
+from madame's room. He was not surprised when he saw her face thrust
+out. Presently she put the curtain quite aside and came out, and stood
+a little way from him, listening intently. She wore a loose robe of
+some soft stuff, and he fancied she was barefoot, for she moved
+without noise.
+
+She stood listening a full minute, with her hand to her bosom. Then
+she nodded, as if assured that all was well, and, going to the table,
+looked down at the things it held. Her face wore a subtle smile, her
+cheeks flamed softly, there was a shy sparkle in her eyes. The lamp
+seemed to lend her new loveliness.
+
+Apparently she did not find what she wanted on the table, for in a
+moment she turned and went to the fireplace. She took the posset from
+the trivet, and, lifting the lid of the cup, looked in. What she saw
+appeared to satisfy her, for with a quick movement she carried the cup
+to the table and set it down open. She had her back to Jehan now, and
+he could not see what she was doing, though he watched her every
+motion and partly guessed. When she had finished whatever it was, she
+raised the cup to her lips, and the boy's heart stood still. Ay, stood
+still! He half rose, his face white. But he was in error. She only
+kissed the wine and covered it, and took it back to the trivet,
+murmuring something over it as she set it down.
+
+
+[Illustration: HE WATCHED HER EVERY MOTION "(_p_. 124).]
+
+
+The boy lay still, like one fascinated, while madame, clasping two
+little silk bags to her bosom, stole back to her door. As she raised
+the curtain with one hand she turned on a sudden impulse and kissed
+the other towards the hearth. Slowly the curtain fell and hid her
+shining eyes.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                            CLYTÆMNESTRA.
+
+
+She had barely disappeared when the boy, listening eagerly, heard
+the great door below flung open, and instinctively sank down again.
+A breath of cold air rose from below. A harsh voice--a voice he
+knew--cursed someone or something in the hall, a heavy step came
+stumbling up the stairs, and in a moment M. de Vidoche, followed by a
+sleepy servant, pushed his way through the curtains. He was flushed
+with drink, yet he was not drunk, for as he crossed the floor he shot
+a swift sidelong glance at his wife's door--a glance of dark meaning;
+and, though he railed savagely at the servant for letting the fire go
+out, he had the air of listening while he spoke, and swore, to show
+himself at ease.
+
+The man muttered some excuse, and, kneeling, began to blow the embers,
+while Vidoche looked on moodily. He had not taken off his hat and
+cloak. "Has madame been out this evening?" he said suddenly.
+
+"No, my lord."
+
+"Her woman is lying with her?"
+
+"Yes, my lord."
+
+A moment's silence. Then, "Trim the lamp, curse you! Don't you see it
+is going out? Do you want to leave me in the dark? _Sacré!_ This might
+be a pigsty from the way it is kept!"
+
+The man was used to be kicked and abused, but it seemed to him that
+his master's caprices were taking a fresh direction. It was not his
+business to think, however. He trimmed the lamp and took the cloak and
+hat, and was going, when Vidoche called him back again. "Put on a
+log," he said, "and give me that drink. _Nom du diable_, it is cold!
+You lazy hound, you have been sleeping!"
+
+The man vowed he had not, and M. de Vidoche listened to his
+protestations as if he heard them. In reality his thoughts were busy
+with other things. Would it be tonight, or to-morrow, or the next day?
+he was wondering darkly. And how would it--take her? Would he be
+there, or would they come and tell him? Would she sicken and fade
+slowly, and die of some common illness to all appearance, with the
+priest by her side? Or would he awake in the night to hear her
+screaming, and be summoned to see her writhing in torture, gasping,
+choking, praying them to save--to save her from this horrible pain?
+God! The perspiration broke out on his brow. He shivered. "Give me
+that!" he muttered hoarsely, holding out a shaking hand. "Give it me,
+I say!"
+
+The man was warming the posset, but he rose hastily and handed it.
+
+"Put lights in my room! And, hark you--you will sleep there to-night.
+I am not well. Go and get your straw, and be quick about it."
+
+Vidoche listened with the cup in his hand while the man went down and
+fetched a taper and some coverings from the hall, and, coming up
+again, opened one of the doors on the right--not the one against which
+the boy lay. The servant went into the room and busied himself there
+for a time, while the master sat crouching over the fire, thinking,
+with a gloomy face. He tried to turn his thoughts to the Farincourt,
+and to what would happen afterwards, and to a dozen things with which
+his mind had been only too ready to occupy itself of late. But now
+his thoughts would not be ordered. They returned again and again to
+the door on his left. He caught himself listening, waiting, glancing
+at it askance. And this might go on for days. _Dieu!_ the house would
+be a hell! He would go away. He would make some excuse to leave
+until--until after Christmas.
+
+He shivered, cursed himself under his breath for a fool, and drank
+half the mulled wine at a draught. As he took the cup from his lips,
+his ear caught a slight sound behind him, and, starting, he peered
+hastily over his shoulder. But the noise came apparently from the next
+room, where the servant was moving about; and, with another oath,
+Vidoche drained the cup and set it down on the table.
+
+He had scarcely done so when he drew himself suddenly upright and
+remained in that position for a moment, his mouth half open, his eyes
+glaring. A kind of spasm seized him. His teeth shut with a click. He
+staggered and clutched at the table. His face grew red--purple. His
+brain seemed to be bursting; his eyes filled with blood. He tried to
+cry, to give the alarm, to get breath, but his throat was held in an
+iron vice. He was choking and reeling on his feet, when the man came
+by chance out of the bedroom.
+
+By a tremendous effort Vidoche spoke. "Who--made--this?" he muttered,
+in a hissing voice.
+
+The servant started, scared by his appearance. He answered,
+nevertheless, that he had mixed it himself.
+
+"Look at--the bottom of--the cup!" Vidoche replied in a terrible
+voice. He was swaying to and fro, and kept himself up only by his grip
+on the table. "Is there--anything there?"
+
+The servant was terribly frightened, but he had the sense to obey. He
+took up the cup and looked in it. "Is there--a powder--in it?" Vidoche
+asked, a frightful spasm distorting his features.
+
+"There is--something," the man answered, his teeth chattering. "But
+let me fetch help, my lord. You are not well. You are----"
+
+"A dead man!" the baffled murderer cried, his voice rising in a scream
+of indescribable despair and horror. "A dead man! I am poisoned! My
+wife!" He reeled with that word. He lost his hold of the table. "Ha,
+_mon Dieu!_ Mercy! Mercy!" he cried.
+
+In a moment he was down, writhing on the floor, and uttering shriek on
+shriek: cries so dreadful that on the instant doors flew open and
+sleepers awoke, and in a twinkling the room--though the lamp lay
+quenched, overturned in his struggles--was full of lights and
+frightened faces and huddled forms, and women who stopped their ears
+and wept. The doorways framed more faces, the staircase rang with
+sounds of alarm. Everywhere was turmoil and a madness of hurrying
+feet. One ran for the doctor, another for the priest, a third for the
+watch. The house seemed on a sudden alive; nay, the very courtyard,
+where the porter was gone from his post, and the doors stood open, was
+full of staring strangers, who gaped at the windows and the hurrying
+lights, and asked whose was the hotel, or answered it was M. de
+Vidoche's.
+
+
+[Illustration: "IN A MOMENT HE WAS DOWN, WRITHING ON THE FLOOR" (_p_.
+133).]
+
+
+It had been. But already the man who had gone up the stairs so full of
+strength and evil purpose lay dying, speechless, all but dead. They
+had lifted him on to a pallet which someone drew from a neighbouring
+room, and at first there had been no lack of helpers or ready hands.
+One untied his cravat, and another his doublet, and two or three of
+the coolest held him in his paroxysms. But then the magic word
+"Poison!" was whispered; and one by one, all, even the man who had
+been with him, even madame's woman, drew off, and left those two
+alone. The livid body lay on the pallet, and madame, stunned and
+horror-stricken, hung over it; but the servants stood away in a dense
+circle, and looking on with gloom and fear in their faces, some
+mechanically holding lights, some still grasping the bowls and basins
+they were afraid to use, whispered that word again and again.
+
+It seemed as if the tell-tale syllables passed the walls; for the
+first to arrive, before doctor or priest, was the captain of the
+watch. He came upstairs, his sword clanking, and, thrusting the
+curtains aside, stood looking at the strange scene, which the many
+lights, irregularly held and distributed, lit up as if it had been a
+pageant on the stage. "Who is it?" he muttered, touching the nearest
+servant on the arm.
+
+"M. de Vidoche," the man answered.
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+The man cringed before him. "Dead, or as good," he whispered. "Yes,
+sir."
+
+"Then he is not dead?"
+
+"I do not know, sir."
+
+"Then why the devil are you all standing like mutes at a funeral?" the
+soldier answered, with an oath. "Leaving madame alone, too. Poison,
+eh? Oh!" and he whistled softly. "So that is why you are all looking
+on as if the man had got the plague, is it? A pretty set of curs you
+are! But here is the doctor. Out of the way now," he added
+contemptuously, "and let no one leave the room."
+
+He went forward with the physician, and, while the latter knelt and
+made his examination, the captain muttered a few words of comfort in
+madame's ear. For all she heard or heeded, however, he might have
+spared his pains. She had been summoned so abruptly, and the call had
+so entirely snapped the thread of her thoughts, that she had not yet
+connected her husband's illness with any act of hers. She had
+absolutely forgotten the enterprise of the evening, its anticipations
+and hopes. For the time she was spared that horror. But this illness
+alone sufficed to overwhelm her, to sink her beyond the reach of
+present comfort. She no longer remembered her husband's coldness, but
+only the early days when he had come to her in her country home, a
+black-bearded, bold-eyed Apollo, and wooed her impetuously and with
+irresistible will. All his faults, all his unkindnesses, were
+forgotten now: only his beauty, his vigour, his great passion, his
+courage were remembered. A dreadful pain seized her heart when she
+recognised that his had ceased to beat. She peered white-faced into
+the physician's eyes, she hung on his lips. If she remembered her
+journey to the Rue Touchet at all, it was only to think how futile her
+hopes were now. He, whom she would have won back to her, was gone from
+her for ever!
+
+The doctor shook his head gravely as he rose. He had tried to bleed
+the patient, without waiting, in this emergency, for a barber to be
+summoned; but the blood would not flow. "It is useless," he said. "You
+must have courage, madame. More courage than is commonly required," he
+continued, in a tone of solemnity, almost of severity. He looked round
+and met the captain's eyes. He made him a slight sign.
+
+"He is dead?" she muttered.
+
+"He is dead," the physician answered slowly. "More, madame--my task
+goes farther. It is my duty to say that he has been poisoned."
+
+"Dead!" she muttered, with a dry sob. "Dead!"
+
+"Poisoned, I said, madame," the physician answered almost harshly. "In
+an older man the symptoms might be taken for those of apoplexy. But in
+this case not so. M. de Vidoche has been poisoned."
+
+"You are clear on the point?" the captain of the watch said. He was a
+grey-haired, elderly man, lately transferred from the field to the
+slums of Paris, and his kindly nature had not been wholly obliterated
+by contact with villainy.
+
+"Perfectly," the doctor answered. "More, the poison must have been
+administered within the hour."
+
+Madame rose shivering from the dead man's side. This new terror, so
+much worse than that of death, seemed to thrust her from him, to raise
+a barrier between them. The soft white robe she had thrown round her
+when she ran from her bed was not whiter than her cheeks; the lights
+were not brighter than her eyes, distended with horror. "Poisoned!"
+she muttered. "Impossible! Who would poison him?"
+
+"That is the question, madame," the captain of the watch answered, not
+without pity--not without admiration. "And if, as we are told, the
+poison must have been given within the hour, it should not be
+difficult to answer it. Let no one leave the room," he continued,
+pulling his moustachios. "Where is the valet who waited on M. de
+Vidoche?"
+
+The man stood forward from the rest, shaking with alarm, and told
+briefly all he knew; how he had left his master in his usual health,
+and found him in some kind of seizure; how Vidoche had bidden him look
+in the cup, and how he had found a sediment in it which should not
+have been there.
+
+"You mixed this wine yourself?" the captain of the watch said sharply.
+
+The man allowed he had, whimpering and excusing himself.
+
+"Very well. Let me see madame's woman," was the answer. "Which is she?
+She is here, I suppose. Let her stand out."
+
+A dozen hands were ready to point her out, a dozen lights were held up
+that the Chevalier du Guet might see her the better. She was pushed,
+nudged, impelled forward, until she stood trembling where the man had
+stood. But not for long. The captain's first question was still on his
+lips when, with a sudden gesture of despair, the woman threw herself
+on her knees before him, and, grovelling in a state of abject terror,
+cried out that she would tell all--all! All if they would let her go!
+All if they would not torture her!
+
+The captain's face grew stern, the lines about his mouth hardened.
+"Speak!" he said curtly, and with a swift side-glance at the mistress,
+who stood as if turned to stone. "Speak, but the truth only, woman!"
+while a murmur of astonishment and fear ran round the circle.
+
+It should be mentioned that at this time the crime of secret poisoning
+was held in especial abhorrence in France, the poisoning of husbands
+by wives more particularly. It was believed to be common; it was
+suspected in many cases where it could not be proved. Men felt
+themselves at the mercy of women who, sharing their bed and board,
+had often the motive and always the opportunity; and in proportion as
+the crime was easy of commission and difficult to detect was the
+rigour with which it was rewarded when detected. The high rank of
+the Princess of Condé--a Tremouille by birth and a Bourbon by
+marriage--did not avail to save her from torture when suspected of
+this; while the sudden death of a man of position was often sufficient
+to expose his servants, and particularly his wife's confidante, to the
+horrors of the question. Madame's woman knew all this. Such things
+formed the gossip of her class, and in a paroxysm of fear, in terror,
+in dread lest the moment should pass and another forestall her, she
+flung both fidelity and prudence to the winds.
+
+"I will! I will! All!" she cried. "And I swear it is true! She went
+to a house in the Tournelles quarter to-night!"
+
+"She? Who is she, woman?" the captain asked sharply.
+
+"My lady there! She stayed an hour. I waited outside. As we came back
+a boy ran after us, and talked with her by the porch of St. Gervais.
+She sent me away, and I do not know what was his business. But after
+we got home, and when she thought me asleep, she crept out of the room
+and came here, and put something in that cup. I heard her go, and
+stole to the door, and through the curtains saw her do it, but I did
+not know what it was, or what she intended. I have told the truth. But
+I did not know, I did not! I swear I did not!"
+
+The captain silenced her protestations with a fierce gesture, and
+turned from her to the woman she accused. "Madame," he said, in a low,
+unsteady voice, "is this true?"
+
+She stood with both her hands on her breast, and looked, with a face
+of stone, not at him, but beyond him. She scarcely seemed to breathe,
+so perfect was the dreadful stillness which held her. He thought she
+did not hear: and he was about to repeat his question when she moved
+her lips in a strange, mechanical fashion, and, after an effort,
+spoke. "Is it true?" she whispered--in that stricken silence every
+syllable was audible, and even at her first word some women fell to
+shuddering--"is it true that I have killed my husband? Yes, I have
+killed him. I loved him, and I have killed him. I loved him--I had no
+one else to love--and I have killed him. God has let this be in this
+world. You are real, and I am real. It is no dream. He has let it be."
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_" the captain muttered, while one woman broke into noisy
+weeping. "She is mad!"
+
+But madame was not mad, or only mad for the moment. "It is strange,"
+she continued, with writhing lips, but in the same even tone--which to
+those who had ears to hear was worse than any loud outcry--"that such
+a thing should be. God should not let it be, because I loved him. I
+loved him, and I have killed him. I--but perhaps I shall awake
+presently and find it a dream. Or perhaps he is not dead. Is he? Ha!
+is he, man? Tell me!"
+
+With the last words, which leapt from her lips in sudden frantic
+questioning, she awoke as from a trance. She sprang towards the
+doctor; then, turning swiftly, looked where the corpse lay, and with a
+dreadful peal of laughter threw herself upon it. Her shrill cries so
+filled the air, so rang through the empty hall below, so pierced the
+brain, that the captain raised his hands to his ears, and the men
+shrank back, looking at the women.
+
+"See to her!" said the captain, stamping his foot in a rage and
+addressing the physician. "I must take her away, but I cannot take her
+like this. See to her, man. Give her something; drug her, poison her,
+if you like--anything to stop her! Her cries will ring in my ears a
+twelvemonth hence. Well, woman, what is it?" he continued impatiently.
+Madame's woman had touched his arm.
+
+"The boy!" she muttered. "The boy!" Her teeth were chattering with
+terror. She pointed to the place where the servants stood most thickly
+near the great curtains which shut off the staircase.
+
+He followed the direction of her hand, but saw nothing except scared
+faces and cringing figures. "What boy, woman?" he retorted. "What do
+you mean?"
+
+"The boy who came after us to the church," she answered. "I saw him a
+minute ago--there! He was standing behind that man, looking under his
+arm."
+
+Three strides brought the captain of the watch to the place indicated.
+But there was no boy there--there was no boy to be seen. Moreover, the
+frightened servants who stood in that part declared that they had seen
+no boy--that no boy could have been there. The captain, believing that
+they had had eyes only for Madame de Vidoche, put small faith in their
+protestations; but the fact remained that the boy was gone, and the
+searcher returned baffled and perplexed: more than half inclined to
+think that this might be a ruse on the woman's part, yet at a loss to
+see what good it could do her. He asked her roughly how old the boy
+was.
+
+"About twelve," she answered, looking nervously over her shoulder. In
+truth, she began to fancy that the boy was a familiar. Or what could
+bring him here? How had he entered? And whither had he vanished?
+
+"How was he dressed?" the captain asked angrily, waving back the
+servants, who would have pressed on him in their curiosity.
+
+"In black velvet," she answered. "But he had no cap. He was
+bareheaded. And I noticed that he had black hair and blue eyes."
+
+"Are you sure that the boy you saw here was the boy who followed you
+and spoke to madame in the street?" he urged. "Be careful, woman!"
+
+"I am certain of it," she answered feverishly. "I knew him in a
+moment."
+
+"Are you sure that madame did not bring him in with you?"
+
+She vowed positively that she had not, and equally positively that the
+boy could not have followed them in without being seen. In this we
+know that she was mistaken; but she believed it, and her belief
+communicated itself to her questioner.
+
+He rubbed his head with his hand in extreme perplexity. If the boy
+were a messenger from the villain whom this wretched woman had been to
+visit, what could have brought him to the house? Why had he risked
+himself on the scene of the murder? Unless--unless, indeed, his
+mission were to learn what happened, and to warn his master!
+
+The captain caught that in a moment, and, thrusting the servants on
+one side, despatched three or four men on the instant to the Rue
+Touchet, "_Pardieu!_" he exclaimed, wiping his forehead when they were
+gone, "I was nearly forgetting him. The villain! I will be sworn he
+tempted her! But now I think I have netted all--madame, the maid, the
+man, the devil!" He ticked them off on his fingers. "There is only the
+lad wanting. The odds are they will get him, too, in the Rue Touchet.
+So far, so good. But it is hateful work," the old soldier continued,
+with an oath, looking askance at the group which surrounded madame and
+the doctor. "They will--ugh! it is horrible. It would be a mercy to
+give her a dose now, and end all."
+
+But there was no one to take the responsibility, and so the few who
+were abroad very early that morning saw a strange and mournful
+procession pass through the streets of Paris; those streets which have
+seen so many grisly and so many fantastic things. An hour before
+daybreak a litter, surrounded by a crowd of armed men, some bearing
+torches and some pikes and halberds, came out of the Hotel Vidoche and
+passed slowly down the Rue St. Denis. The night was at its darkest,
+the wind at its keenest. Vagrant wretches, lying out in the Halles,
+rose up and walked for their lives, or slowly froze and perished.
+
+But there are worse things than death in the open; worse, at any rate,
+than that death which comes with kindly numbing power. And some of
+these knew it; nay, all. The poorest outcast whom the glare of the
+cressets surprised as he lurked in porch or penthouse, the leanest
+beggar who looked out startled by the clang and tramp, knew himself
+happier than the king's prisoner bound for the Châtelet; and, hugging
+his rags, thanked Heaven for it.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                          THE MARK OF CAIN.
+
+
+When Jehan, in a fever of indignation, slipped stealthily out of the
+house in the Rue Touchet and sped up the dark, quiet street after
+Madame de Vidoche, he had no subtler purpose in his mind than to
+overtake her and warn her. The lady had spoken kindly to him on the
+night of the supper at Les Andelys. She was young, weak, oppressed;
+the plot against her seemed to the child to be fiendish in its
+artfulness. It needed no more to rouse every chivalrous instinct in
+his nature--and these in a boy should be many, or woe betide the
+man--and determine him to save her.
+
+He thought that if he could overtake her and warn her all would be
+well; and at first his purpose went no farther than that. But as he
+ran, now looking over his shoulder in terror, and now peering into the
+darkness ahead, sometimes slipping into the gutter in his haste, and
+sometimes stumbling over a projecting step, a new and whimsical
+thought flashed into his mind, and in a moment fascinated him. How it
+came to one so young, whether the astrologer's duplicity, to which he
+had been a witness, suggested it, or it sprang from some precocious
+aptitude in the boy's own nature, it is impossible to say. But on a
+sudden there it was in his mind, full-grown, full-armed, a perfect
+scheme. He had only a few minutes in which to consider it before he
+caught madame up, and the time to put it into execution came; but in
+that interval he found no flaw in it. Rather he revelled in it. It
+satisfied the boy's stern sense of retribution and justice. It more
+than satisfied the boy's love of mischief and trickery.
+
+He felt not the slightest misgiving, therefore, when it came to
+playing his part. He went through it without pity, without a scruple
+or thought of responsibility--nay, he followed madame home, and hid
+himself behind the curtain, with no feeling of apprehension as to what
+was coming, with no qualms of conscience.
+
+But when he had seen all, and lying spell-bound in his hiding-place
+had witnessed the tragedy, when covering his ears with his hands,
+and cowering down as if he would cower through the floor, he had
+heard Vidoche's death-cry and winced at each syllable of madame's
+heart-broken utterance--when, with quaking limbs and white cheeks, he
+had crept at last down the stairs and fled from the accursed house,
+then the boy knew all; knew what he had done, and was horror-stricken!
+Even the darkness and freezing cold were welcome, if he might escape
+from that house--if he might leave those haunting cries behind. But
+how? by what road? He fled through street after street, alley after
+alley, over bridges, and along quays, by the doors of churches and the
+gates of prisons. But everywhere the sights and sounds went with him,
+forestalled him, followed him. He could not forget. When at last,
+utterly exhausted, he flung himself down on a pile of refuse in a
+distant corner of the Halles, his heart seemed bursting. He had killed
+a man. He had worse than killed a woman. He would be hung. The
+astrologer had told him truly; he was doomed, given up to evil and the
+devil!
+
+He lay for a long time panting and shuddering, with his face hidden;
+while a burst of agony, provoked by some sudden pang of remembrance,
+now and again racked his frame. The spot he had, almost unconsciously,
+chosen for his hiding-place was a corner between two stalls, at the
+east end of the market: an angle well sheltered from the wind, and
+piled breast-high with porters' knots and rubbish. The air was a
+little less bitter there than outside; and by good fortune he had
+thrown himself down on an old sack, which he, by-and-bye, drew over
+him. Otherwise he must have perished. As it was, he presently sobbed
+himself into an uneasy slumber; but only to awake in a few minutes
+with a scream of affright and a dismal return of all his
+apprehensions.
+
+Still, nature was already at work to console him; and misery sleeps
+proverbially well. After a time he dozed again for a few minutes, and
+then again. At length, a little before daybreak, he went off into a
+sounder sleep, from which he did not awake until the wintry sun was
+nearly an hour up, and old-fashioned people were thinking of dinner.
+
+After opening his eyes, he lay a while between sleeping and waking,
+with the sense of some unknown trouble heavy upon him. On a sudden a
+voice, a harsh, rasping voice, speaking a strange clipped jargon,
+roused him effectually. "He is a runaway!" the voice said, with two or
+three unnecessary oaths. "A crown to a penny on it, my bully-boys!
+Well, it is an ill-wind blows no one any good. Rouse up the little
+shaveling, will you? That is not the way! Here, lend it me."
+
+The next moment the boy sat up, with a cry of pain, for a heavy
+porter's knot fell on his shin-bone and nearly broke it. He found
+himself confronted by three or four grinning ruffians, whose eyes
+glistened as they scanned his velvet clothes and the little silver
+buttons that fastened them. The man who had spoken before seemed to be
+the leader of the party: a filthy beggar with one arm and a hare-lip.
+"Ho! ho!" he chuckled; "so you can feel, M. le Marquis, can you! Flesh
+and blood like other folk. And doubtless with money in your pockets to
+pay for your night's lodging."
+
+He hauled the child to him and passed his hands through his clothes.
+But he found nothing, and his face grew dark. "_Morbleu!_" he swore.
+"The little softy has brought nothing away with him!"
+
+The other men, gathering round, glared at the boy hungrily. In the
+middle of the Forest of Bondy he could not have been more at their
+mercy than he was in this quiet corner of the market, where a velvet
+coat with silver buttons was as rare a sight as a piece of the true
+cross. Two or three houseless wretches looked on from their frowsy
+lairs under the stalls, but no one dreamed of interfering with the men
+in possession. As for the boy, he gazed at his captors stolidly; he
+was white, mute, apathetic.
+
+"Plague, if I don't think the lad is a softy!" said one, staring at
+him.
+
+"Not he!" replied the man who had hold of him. And roughly seizing the
+boy by the head with his huge hand, he forced up an eyelid with his
+finger as if to examine the eye. The boy uttered a cry of pain.
+"There!" said the ruffian, grinning with triumph. "He is all right.
+The question is, what shall we do with him?"
+
+"There are his clothes," one muttered, eyeing the boy greedily.
+
+"To be sure, there are always his clothes," was the answer. "It does
+not take an Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu to see that, gaby!
+And, of course, they would melt to the tune of something apiece! But
+maybe we can do better than that with him. He has run away. You don't
+find truffles on the dung-hill every day."
+
+"Well," said his duller fellows, their eyes beginning to sparkle with
+greed, "what then, Bec de Lièvre?"
+
+"If we take him home again, honest market porters, why should we not
+be rewarded? Eh, my bully-boys?"
+
+"That is a bright idea!" said one. So said another. The rest nodded.
+"Ask him where he lives, when he is at home."
+
+They did. But Jehan remained mute. "Twist his arm!" said the last
+speaker. "He will soon tell you. Or stick your finger in his eye
+again! Blest if I don't think the kid _is_ dumb!" the man continued,
+gazing with astonishment at the boy's dull face and lack-lustre eyes.
+
+"I think I shall find a tongue for him," the former operator replied
+with a leer. "Here, sonny, answer before you are hurt, will you? Where
+do you live?"
+
+But Jehan remained silent. The ruffian raised his hand. In another
+moment it would have fallen, but in the nick of time came an
+interruption. "Nom de ma mère!" someone close at hand cried, in a
+voice of astonishment. "It is my Jehan!"
+
+Two of the party in possession turned savagely on the intruder--a
+middle-sized man with foxy eyes, and a half-starved ape on his
+shoulder. "Who asked you to speak?" snarled one. "Begone about your
+business, my fine fellow, or I shall be making a hole in you!" cried
+another.
+
+"But he is my boy!" the new-comer answered, fairly trembling with joy
+and astonishment. "He is my boy!"
+
+"Your boy?" cried Bec de Lièvre, in a tone of contempt. "You look like
+it, don't you? You look as if you dined on gold plate every day and
+had a Rohan to your cup-bearer, you do! Go along, man; don't try to
+bamboozle us, or it will be the worse for you!" And with an angry
+scowl he turned to his victim.
+
+But the showman, though he was a coward, was not to be put down so
+easily. "It is the boy who is bamboozling you!" he said. "You take him
+for a swell! It is only his show dress he has on. He is a tumbler's
+boy, I tell you. He circled the pole with me for two years. Last
+November he ran away. If you do not believe me, ask the monkey. See,
+the monkey knows him."
+
+Bec de Lièvre had to acknowledge that the monkey did know him. For the
+poor beast was no sooner brought close to its old playmate than it
+sprang upon him and covered him with caresses, gibbering and crying
+out the while after so human a fashion that it might well have moved
+hearts less hard. The boy did not return its endearments, however; but
+a look of intelligence came into his eyes, and on a sudden he heaved a
+sigh as if his heart was breaking.
+
+The men who had taken possession of him looked at one another. "It was
+the boy's cursed clothes fooled us," Bec de Lièvre growled savagely.
+"We will have them, at any rate. Strip him and have done with it. And
+do you keep off, Master Tumbler, or we will tumble you."
+
+But when the showman, who was trembling with delight and anticipation,
+made them understand that he would give a crown for the boy as he was
+in his clothes--"and that is more than the fence will give you," he
+added--they began to see reason. True, they stood out for a while for
+a higher price; but the bargain was eventually struck at a crown and a
+livre, and the boy handed over.
+
+Master Crafty Eyes' hand shook as he laid it on the child's collar and
+turned him round so that he might see his face the better. Bec de
+Lièvre discerned the man's excitement, and looked at him curiously.
+"You must be very fond of the lad," he said.
+
+The showman's eyes glittered ferociously. "So fond of him," he said,
+in a mocking tone, "that when I get him home I shall--oh, I shall not
+hurt his fine clothes, or his face, or his little brown hands, for
+those all show, and they are worth money to me. But I shall--I shall
+put a poker in the fire, and then Master Jehan will take off his new
+clothes so that they may not be singed, and--I shall teach him several
+new tricks with the poker."
+
+"You are a queer one," the other answered. "I'll be shot if you don't
+look like a man with a good dinner before him."
+
+"That is the man I am," the showman answered, a hideous smile
+distorting his face. "I have gone without dinner or supper many a day
+because my little friend here chose to run away one fine night, when
+he was on the point of making my fortune. But I am going to dine now.
+I am going to feed--on him!"
+
+"Well, every man to his liking," the hare-lipped beggar answered
+indifferently. "You have paid for your dinner, and may cook it as you
+please, for me."
+
+"I am going to," the showman answered, with an ugly look. He plucked
+the boy almost off his feet as he spoke, and while the men cried after
+him "_Bon appétit!_" and jeered, dragged him away across the open part
+of the market; finally disappearing with him in one of the noisome
+alleys which then led out of the Halles on the east side.
+
+His way lay through a rabbit-warren of beetling passages and narrow
+lanes, where the boy, once loose, could have dodged him a hundred ways
+and escaped; and he held him with the utmost precaution, expecting him
+every moment to make a desperate attempt at it. But Jehan was not the
+old Jehan who had turned and twisted, walked and frolicked on the
+rope, and in the utmost depths of ill-treatment had still kept teeth
+to bite and spirit to use them. He was benumbed body and soul. He had
+had no food for nearly twenty hours. He had passed the night exposed
+to the cold. He had gone through intense excitement, horror, despair.
+So he stumbled along, with Vidoche's dying cries in his ears, and,
+famished, frozen, bemused, met the showman's threats with a face of
+fixed, impassive apathy. He was within a very little of madness.
+
+For a time Crafty Eyes did not heed this strange impassiveness. The
+showman's fancy was busy with the punishment he would inflict when he
+got the boy home to his miserable room. He gloated in anticipation
+over the tortures he would contrive, and the care he would take that
+they should not maim or disfigure the boy. When he had him tied down,
+and the door locked, and the poker heated--ah! how he would enjoy
+himself! The ruffian licked his lips. His eyes sparkled with pleasure.
+He jerked the boy along in his hideous impatience.
+
+But after a time the child's bearing began to annoy him. He stopped
+and, holding him with one hand, beat him brutally on the head with the
+other, until the boy fell and hung in his grasp. Then he dragged him
+up roughly and hauled him on with volleys of oaths; still scowling at
+him from time to time, as if, somehow, he found this little foretaste
+of vengeance less satisfying than he had expected.
+
+There were people coming and going in the dark filthy lane where this
+happened--a place where smoke-grimed gables almost met overhead, and
+the gutter was choked with refuse--but no one interfered. What was a
+little beating more or less? Or, for the matter of that, what was a
+boy more or less? The hulking loafers and frowsy slatterns, who
+huddled for warmth in corners, nodded their heads and looked on
+approvingly. They had their own brats to beat and business to mind.
+There was no one to take the boy's part. And another hundred yards
+would lodge him in the showman's garret.
+
+At that last moment the boy awoke from his trance and understood; and
+in a convulsion of fear hung back and struggled, screaming and
+throwing himself down. The man dragged him up savagely, and was in the
+act of taking him up bodily to carry him, when a person, who had
+already passed the pair once, came back and looked at the boy again.
+The next moment a hand fell on the showman's arm, and a voice said,
+"Stop! What boy is that?"
+
+The showman looked up, saw that the intervener was a priest, and
+sneered. "What is that to you, father?" he said, trying by a side
+movement to pass by. "Not one of your flock, at any rate."
+
+"No, but you are!" the priest retorted in a strangely sonorous voice.
+He was a stalwart man, with a mobile face and sad eyes that seemed out
+of keeping with the rest of him. "You are! And if you do not this
+minute set him down and answer my question, you ruffian, when your
+time comes you shall go to the tree alone!"
+
+"Diable!" the showman muttered, startled yet scowling. "Who are you,
+then?"
+
+"I am Father Bernard. Now tell me about that boy, and truly. What have
+you been doing to him? Ay, you may well tremble, rascal!"
+
+For the showman was trembling. In the Paris of that day the name of
+Father Bernard was almost as well known as the name of Cardinal
+Richelieu. There was not a night-prowler or cutpurse, bully or
+swindler, who did not know it, and dream in his low fits, when the
+drink was out and the money spent, of the day when he would travel by
+Father Bernard's side to Montfaucon, and find no other voice and no
+other eye to pity him in his trouble. Impelled by feelings of
+humanity, rare at that time, this man made it his life-work to attend
+on all who were cast for execution; to wait on them in prison, and be
+with them at the last, and by his presence and words of comfort to
+alleviate their sufferings here, and bring them to a better mind. He
+had become so well known in this course of work that the king himself
+did him honour, and the Cardinal granted him special rights. The mob
+also. The priest passed unharmed through the lowest wynds of Paris,
+and penetrated habitually to places where the Lieutenant of the
+Châtelet, with a dozen pikes at his back, would not have been safe for
+a moment.
+
+This was the man whose stern voice brought the showman to a
+standstill. Master Crafty Eyes faltered. Then he remembered that the
+boy was his boy, that his title to him was good. He said so sulkily.
+
+"Your boy?" the priest replied, frowning. "Who are you, then?"
+
+"An acrobat, father."
+
+"So I thought. But do acrobats' boys wear black velvet clothes with
+silver buttons?"
+
+"He was stolen from me," the showman answered eagerly. He had a good
+conscience as to the clothes. "I have only just recovered him,
+father."
+
+"Who stole him? Where has he been?" The priest spoke quickly, and with
+no little excitement. He looked narrowly at the boy the while, holding
+him at arm's length. "Where did he spend last night, for instance?"
+
+The showman spread out his palms and shrugged his shoulders. "How
+should I know?" he said. "I was not with him."
+
+"He has black hair and blue eyes!"
+
+"Yes. But what of that?" Crafty Eyes answered. "I can swear to him. He
+is my boy."
+
+"And mine!" Father Bernard retorted with energy. "The boy I want!" The
+priest's eyes sparkled, his form seemed to dilate with triumph. "Deo
+laus! Deo laus!" he murmured sonorously, so that a score of loiterers
+who had gathered round, and were staring and shivering by turns, fell
+back affrighted and crossed themselves. "He is the boy! God has put
+him in my way this day as clearly as if an angel had led me by the
+hand. And he goes with me; he goes with me. Chut, man!"--this to the
+showman, who stood frowning in his path--"don't dare to look black at
+me. The boy goes with me, I say. I want him for a purpose. If you
+choose you can come too."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"To the Châtelet," Father Bernard answered, with a grim chuckle. "You
+don't seem to relish the idea. But do as you please."
+
+"You will take the boy?"
+
+"This moment," the priest answered.
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_ but you shall not!" the showman exclaimed. Wrath for the
+moment drove out fear. He seized the child by the arm. "He is my boy!
+You shall not, I say!" he cried, almost foaming with rage. "He is
+mine!"
+
+
+[Illustration: "'WHO STOLE HIM? WHERE HAS HE BEEN?'" (_p_. 169).]
+
+
+"Idiot! Beast! Gallows-bird!" the priest thundered in reply. "For
+one-half of a denier I would throw you into the next street! Let go,
+or I will blast you with--Oh, it is well for you you are reasonable.
+Now begone! Begone! or, at a word from me, there are a score here
+will----"
+
+He did not finish his sentence, for the showman fell back
+panic-stricken, and stood off among the crowd, malevolence and craven
+fear struggling for the mastery in his countenance. The priest took
+the boy up gently in his arms and looked at him. His face grew
+strangely mild as he did so. The black brows grew smooth, the lips
+relaxed. "Get a little water," he said to the nearest man, a hulking,
+olive-skinned Southerner. "The child has swooned."
+
+"Your pardon, father," the man answered. "He is dead."
+
+But Father Bernard shook his head. "No, my son," he said kindly. "He
+who led me here to-day will keep life in him a little longer. God's
+ways never end in a _cul-de-sac_. Get the water. He has swooned only."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+                          BEFORE THE COURT.
+
+
+Since the poisoning of the Prince of Condé by his servant, Brillaut,
+at the instigation--as was alleged and commonly believed--of Madame la
+Princesse, no tragedy of the kind had caused a greater sensation in
+Paris, or been the subject of more talk, than the murder of M. de
+Vidoche. The remarkable circumstances which attended it--and which
+lost nothing in the narration--its immediate discovery, the apparent
+lack of motive, and the wealth, rank, and youth of the guilty wife,
+all helped, with the fulness of Paris at this time and the absence of
+any stirring political news, to make it the one topic of interest.
+Nothing else was talked of in chamber or tennis court, in the Grand
+Gallery at the Louvre, or in the cardinal's ante-room at the Palais
+Richelieu. Culprit and victim were alike well known. M. de Vidoche, if
+no favourite, had been at least a conspicuous figure in society. He
+had been cast for one of the parts in the royal troupe at the
+Christmas carnival. His flirtation with Mademoiselle de Farincourt had
+been sufficiently marked to cause both amusement and interest. And if
+madame was a less familiar figure at Court, if she had a reputation
+somewhat prudish, and an air of rusticity that did not belie it, and
+was even less of a favourite than her husband, her position as a great
+heiress and the last of an old family gave her a _cachet_ which did
+not fail to make her interesting now.
+
+Gladly would the great ladies in their coaches have gone down to the
+Châtelet to stare at her after the cruel fashion of that day; and,
+after buzzing round her in her misery, have gone away with a hundred
+tales of how she looked, and what she wore, and what she said in
+prison. But madame was saved this--this torture worse than the
+question--by the physician's order that no one should be admitted to
+her. He laid this down so strenuously--telling the lieutenant that if
+she had not complete repose for twenty-four hours he would be
+answerable neither for her life nor her reason--that that officer,
+who, like the Chevalier du Guet, was an old soldier, replied "No" to
+the most pressing insistences; and save and except Father Bernard, who
+had the _entrée_ at all hours by the king's command, would let no one
+go in to her. "It will be bad enough by-and-bye," he said, with an
+oath. "If she did it, she will be punished. But she shall have a
+little peace to-day."
+
+But the great world, baffled on this point, grew only the more
+curious; circulated stories only the more outrageous; and nodded and
+winked and whispered only the more assiduously. Would she be put to
+the question? And by the rack, or the boot, or the water torture? And
+who was the man? Of course there was a man. Now if it had been M. de
+Vidoche who had poisoned her, that would have been plain,
+intelligible, perspicuous; since everyone knew--and so on, and so on,
+with Mademoiselle de Farincourt's name at intervals.
+
+It was believed that madame would be first examined in private; but
+late at night, on the day before Christmas Eve, a sealed order came to
+the Lieutenant of the Châtelet, commanding him to present madame, with
+her servants and all concerned in the case, at the Palais de Justice
+on the following morning. Late as it was, the news was known in every
+part of Paris that night. Marshal Bassompierre, lying in the Bastille,
+heard it, and regretted he could not see the sight. It was rumoured
+that the king would attend in person; even that the trial had been
+hastened for his pleasure. It was certain that half the Court would be
+there, and the other half, if it could find room. The great ladies,
+who had failed to storm the Châtelet, hoped to succeed better at the
+Palais, and the First President of the Court, and even the
+Commissioners appointed to sit with him, found their doors beset at
+dawn with delicate "_poulets_," or urgent, importunate applications.
+
+Madame de Vidoche, the man and maid, were brought from the Châtelet to
+the Conciergerie an hour before daylight--madame in her coach, with
+her woman, the man on foot. That cold morning ride was such as few,
+thank God, are called on to endure. To the horrors of anticipation the
+lost wife, scarcely more than a girl, had to add the misery of
+retrospection; to the knowledge of what she had done, a woman's
+shrinking from the doom that threatened her, from shame and pain and
+death. But that which she felt perhaps as keenly as anything, as she
+crouched in a corner of her curtained vehicle and heard the yells
+which everywhere saluted its appearance, was the sudden sense of
+loneliness and isolation. True, the Lieutenant sat opposite to her,
+but his face was hard. She was no longer a woman to him, but a
+prisoner, a murderess, a poisoner. And the streets were thronged, in
+spite of the cold and the early hour. On the Pont au Change the people
+ran beside the coach and strove to get a sight of her, and jeered and
+sang and shouted. And at the entrance to the Palais, in the room in
+the Conciergerie where she had to wait, on the staircase to the court
+above, everywhere it was the same; all were set so thick with
+faces--staring, curious faces--that the guards could scarcely make a
+way for her. But she was cut off from all. She was no longer of
+them--of things living. Not one said a kind word to her; not one
+looked sympathy or pity. On a sudden, in a moment, with hundreds
+gazing at her, she, a delicate woman, found herself a thing apart,
+unclean, to be shunned. A thing, no longer a person. A prisoner, no
+longer a woman.
+
+They placed a seat for her, and she sank into it, feeling at first
+nothing but the shame of being so stared at. But presently she had to
+rise and be sworn, and then, as she became conscious of other things,
+as the details of the crowded chamber forced themselves on her
+attention, and she saw which were the judges, and heard herself called
+upon to answer the questions that should be put to her, the instinct
+of self-preservation, the desire to clear herself, to escape and live,
+took hold of her. A late instinct, for hitherto all her thoughts had
+been of the man she had killed--her husband; but the fiercer for that.
+A burning flush suddenly flamed in her cheeks. Her eyes grew bright,
+her heart began to beat quickly. She turned giddy.
+
+She knew only of one way in which she could escape; only of one man
+that could help her; and even while the first judge was in the act of
+calling upon her, she turned from him and looked round. She looked to
+the right, to the left, then behind her, for Nôtredame. He, if he told
+the truth, could clear her! He could say that she had come to him for
+a charm, and not for poison! And he only! But where was he? There was
+her woman, trembling and weeping, waiting to be called. There was the
+valet, pale and frightened. There were twice a hundred indifferent
+people. But Nôtredame? He was not visible. He was not there. When she
+had satisfied herself of this, she sank back with a moan of despair.
+She gave up hope again. A hundred curious eyes saw the colour fade
+from her cheeks; her eyes grew dull, the whole woman collapsed.
+
+The examination began. She gave her name in a hollow whisper.
+
+It was the practice of that day, and still is, in French courts, to
+take advantage of any self-betrayal or emotion on the part of the
+accused person. It is the duty of the judges to observe the prisoner
+constantly and narrowly; and the First President, on an occasion such
+as this, was not the man to overlook anything which was visible to the
+ordinary spectator. Instead, therefore, of pursuing the regular
+interrogatory he had in his mind, he leaned forward and asked madame
+what was the matter.
+
+"I wish for the man Solomon Nôtredame," Madame de Vidoche answered,
+rising and speaking in a choking voice.
+
+"That is the man from whom you bought the poison, I think?" the judge
+answered, affecting to look at his notes.
+
+"Yes, but as a love-philtre--not a poison," madame said in a whisper.
+"I wish him to be here."
+
+"You wish to be confronted with him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With the man Solomon Nôtredame?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you shall be, presently," the judge replied, leaning back, and
+casting a singular glance at his colleagues. "Be satisfied. And now,
+madame," he continued gravely, as his eyes returned to her, "it is my
+duty to help you to tell, and your duty to confess frankly, all that
+you know concerning this matter. Be good enough, therefore, to collect
+yourself, and answer my questions fully and truly, as you hope for
+mercy here and hereafter. So you will save yourself pain, and such
+also as shall examine you; and may best deserve, in the worst case,
+the king's indulgence."
+
+As he uttered this exhortation madame clung to the bar behind which
+she stood, and seemed for the moment about to faint, so that the
+President waited awhile before he proceeded. She looked, indeed,
+ghostly. Her white face gleamed through the fog--which, rising from
+the river, was fast filling the chamber--like a face seen for an
+instant on a wreck through mist and spray and tempest. Ladies who had
+known her as an equal, and who now gazed heartlessly down at her from
+galleries, felt a pleasant thrill of excitement, and whispered that
+they had not braved the early cold for nothing. There was not a man in
+the court who did not expect to see her fall.
+
+But there is in women a power of endurance far exceeding that of men.
+By an immense effort madame regained control over herself. She
+answered the President's opening questions faintly but clearly; and,
+being led at once to tell of her visit to Nôtredame, had sufficient
+sense of her position to dwell plainly on the two facts important to
+her--that the object of her visit was a love-potion, and not a poison,
+and that the instructions first given to her were to take it herself.
+The latter assertion produced a startling impression in the court. It
+was completely unexpected; and though ninety-nine out of a hundred
+fancied it the bold invention of a desperate woman, all allowed that
+it added zest to the case.
+
+Naturally the President pressed her hard on these points. He strove,
+both by cajolery and by stating objections, to make her withdraw from
+them. But she would not. Nor could he entrap her into narrating
+anything at variance with them. At length he desisted. "Very well, we
+will leave that," he said; and so subtly had her story gained sympathy
+for her that the sigh of relief uttered in the court was perfectly
+audible. "We will pass on, if you please. The boy who overtook you in
+the street, and, as you say, altered all? Who was he, madame?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"You had seen him before?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Did he not open the door at this Nôtredame's when you entered the
+house?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor when you left?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How did you know, then, madame, that he came from this abominable
+person whom you had been visiting?"
+
+"He said he did."
+
+"And do you tell us," the judge retorted, "that on the mere word of
+this boy, whom you did not know and had never seen, without the
+assurance of any token or countersign, you disregarded the man
+Nôtredame's directions on the most vital point, and, instead of taking
+this drug yourself, gave it to your husband?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Without suspecting that it was other than that for which you had
+asked?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Madame," the judge said slowly, "it is incredible." He looked for a
+moment at his colleagues, as if to collect their opinions. They
+nodded. He turned to her again. "Do you not see that?" he said almost
+kindly.
+
+"I do not," madame answered firmly. "It is true."
+
+"Describe the boy, if you please."
+
+"He had--I think he had dark clothes," she answered, faltering for the
+first time. "He looked about twelve years old."
+
+"Yes," the President said; "go on."
+
+"He had--I could not see any more," madame muttered faintly. "It was
+dark."
+
+"And do you expect us to believe this?" the President replied with
+warmth, real or assumed. "Do you expect us to believe such a story? Or
+that it was at the instance of this boy only--this boy of whom you
+knew nothing, whom you cannot describe, whom you had never seen
+before--that it was at his instance only that you gave this drug to
+your husband, instead of taking it yourself?"
+
+She reeled slightly, clinging to the bar. The court swam before her.
+She saw, as he meant her to see, the full hopelessness of her
+position, the full strength of the case which fate had made against
+her, her impotence, her helplessness. Yet she forced herself to make
+an effort. "It is the truth," she said, in a broken voice. "I loved
+him."
+
+"Ah!" the President replied cynically. He repressed by a gesture a
+slight disturbance at the rear of the court. "That, of course. It is
+part of the story. Or why a love-philtre? But do you not see, madame,"
+he continued, bending his brows and speaking in the tone he used to
+common criminals, "that all the wives in Paris might poison their
+husbands, and when they were found out say 'It was a love-potion,' if
+you are to escape? No, no; we must have some better tale than that."
+
+She looked at him in terror and shame. "I have no other," she cried
+wildly. "That is the truth. If you do not believe me, there is
+Nôtredame. Ask him."
+
+"You applied to be confronted with him some time back," the President
+answered, looking aside at his colleagues, who nodded. "Is that still
+your desire?"
+
+She murmured "Yes," with dry lips.
+
+"Then let him be called," the judge answered solemnly. "Let Solomon
+Nôtredame be called and confronted with the accused."
+
+The order was received with a general stir, a movement of curiosity
+and expectation. Those in the galleries leaned forward to see the
+better; those at the back stood up. Madame, with her lips parted and
+her breath coming quickly--madame, the poor centre of all--gazed with
+her soul in her eyes towards the door at which she saw others gazing.
+All for her depended on this man--the man she was about to see. Would
+he lie and accuse her? Or would he tell the truth and corroborate her
+story--say, in a word, that she had come for a love-charm, and not for
+poison? Surely this last? Surely it would be to his interest?
+
+But while she gazed with her soul in her eyes, the door which had been
+partly opened fell shut again, and disappointed her. At the same
+moment there was a general movement and rustling round her, an
+uprising in every part of the chamber. In bewilderment, almost in
+impatience, she turned towards the judges and found that they had
+risen too. Then through a door behind them she saw six gentlemen file
+in, with a flash and sparkle of colour that lit up the sombre bench.
+The first was the king.
+
+Louis was about thirty-five years old at this time--a dark, sallow
+man, wearing black, with a wide-leafed hat, in which a costly diamond
+secured a plume of white feathers. He carried a walking cane, and
+saluted the judges as he entered, Three gentlemen--two about the
+king's age, the third a burly, soldierly man of sixty--followed him,
+and took their places behind the canopied chair placed for him. The
+fifth to enter--but he passed behind the judges and took a chair which
+stood on their left--wore a red robe trimmed with fur, and a small red
+cap. He was a man of middle height and pale complexion, keen Italian
+features and bright piercing eyes, and so far was not remarkable. But
+he had also a coal-black moustache and chin tuft, and milk-white hair;
+and this contrast won him recognition everywhere. He was Armand Jean
+du Plessis, Duke and Cardinal Richelieu, soldier, priest, and
+playwriter, and for sixteen years the ruler of France.
+
+Madame gazed at them with a beating heart, with wild hopes that would
+rise, despite herself. But, oh God! how coldly their eyes met hers!
+With what a stony stare! With what curiosity, indifference, contempt!
+Alas, they had come for that. They had come to stare. This was their
+Christmas show--part of their Christmas revels. And she--she was a
+woman on her trial, a poisoner, a murderess, a vile thing to be
+questioned, tortured, dragged to a shameful death!
+
+For a moment or two the king talked with the judges. Then he sat back
+in his chair. The President made a sign, and an usher in a sonorous
+voice cried, "Solomon Nôtredame! Let Solomon Nôtredame stand forth!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+                            TWO WITNESSES.
+
+
+Madame de Vidoche heard the name and braced herself again, turning
+towards the door as others turned, and waiting with dry lips and
+feverish eyes for the man who was to save her--to save her in spite of
+king and court. Would he never come? The door stood open, remained
+open. She could see through it the passage with its bare walls and
+dusky ceiling, and hear in the hushed silence a noise of shuffling
+feet. Gradually the noise grew louder; though it still seemed a thing
+by itself, and so distant that in the court where they waited, with
+every eye expectant, the slightest sound, the lowest whisper was
+audible. When the usher cried again, "Solomon Nôtredame, stand
+forward!" more than one glanced at him angrily. He balked their
+expectation.
+
+Ha! at last! But they were carrying him! Madame shivered slightly as
+she watched the four men come slowly along the passage, bearing a
+chair between them. At the door they stumbled and paused, giving her
+time to think. They had been racking him, then, and he could not walk;
+she might have guessed it. Her cheek, white before, became a shade
+ghastlier, and she clutched the bar with a firmer grip.
+
+They brought him slowly down the three steps and through the narrow
+passage towards her. The men who carried him blocked her view, but she
+saw presently that there was something odd about his head. When they
+set him down, three paces from her, she saw what it was. His face was
+covered. There was a loose cloth over his head, and he leaned forward
+in a strange way.
+
+What did it mean? She began to tremble, gazing at him wildly,
+expecting she knew not what. And he did not move.
+
+
+[Illustration: "THEY WERE CARRYING HIM" (_p_. 192).]
+
+
+Suddenly the President's solemn voice broke the silence. "Madame," he
+said--but it seemed to her that he was speaking a long way off--"here
+is your witness. You asked to be confronted with him, and the court,
+hoping that this may be the more merciful way of inducing you to
+confess your crime, assent to the request. But I warn you that he is a
+witness not for you, but against you. He has confessed."
+
+For a moment she looked dumbly at the speaker; then her eyes went back
+to the veiled figure in the chair--it had a horrible attraction for
+her.
+
+"Unhappy woman," the President continued, in solemn accents, "he has
+confessed. Will you now, before you look upon him, do likewise?"
+
+She shook her head. She would have denied, protested, cried that she
+was not guilty; but her throat was parched--she had lost her voice,
+hope, all. There was a drumming noise in the court; or perhaps it was
+in her head. It was growing dark, too.
+
+"He has confessed," she heard the President go on--but he was speaking
+a long, long way off now, and his voice came to her ears dully--"by
+executing on himself that punishment which otherwise the law would
+have imposed. Are you still obstinate? Let the face be uncovered then.
+Now, wretched woman, look on your accomplice."
+
+Perhaps he spoke in mercy, and to prepare her; for she looked, and
+did not at once swoon, though the sight of that dead yellow face, with
+its stony eyes and open mouth, drew shrieks from more than one. The
+self-poisoner had done his work well. The sombre features wore even in
+death a cynical grin, the lips a smile of triumph. But this was on the
+surface. In the glassy eyes, dull and lustreless, lurked--as all saw
+who gazed closely--a horror; a look of sudden awakening, as if in the
+moment of dissolution the wicked man had come face to face with
+judgment; and, triumphant over his earthly foes, had met on the
+threshold of the dark world a shape that froze the very marrow in his
+bones.
+
+Grimmest irony that he who had so long sported with the things of
+death, and traded on men's fear of it, should himself be brought here
+dead, to be exposed and gazed at! Of small use now his tricks and
+chemicals, his dark knowledge and the mystery in which he had wrapped
+himself. Orcus had him, grim head, black heart and all.
+
+A moment, I have said, madame stared. Then gradually the truth, the
+hideous truth, came home to her. He was dead! He had killed himself!
+The horror of it overcame her at last. With a shuddering cry she fell
+swooning to the floor.
+
+When she came to herself again--after how long an interval she
+could not tell--and the piled faces and sharp outlines of the court
+began to shape themselves out of the mist, her first thought, as
+remembrance returned, was of the ghastly figure in the chair. With an
+effort--someone was sponging her forehead, and would have restrained
+her--she turned her head and looked. To her relief it was gone. She
+sighed, and closing her eyes lay for a time inert, hearing the hum of
+voices, but paying no attention. But gradually the misery of her
+position took hold of her again, and with a faint moan she looked up.
+
+In a moment she fell to trembling and crying softly, for her eyes met
+those of the woman who stooped over her and read there something new,
+strange, wonderful--kindness. The woman patted her hand softly, and
+murmured to her to be still and to listen. She was listening herself
+between times, and presently madame followed her example.
+
+Dull as her senses still were, she noticed that the king sat forward
+with an odd keen look on his face, that the judges seemed startled,
+that even the Cardinal's pale features were slightly flushed. And not
+one of all had eyes for her. They were looking at a boy who stood at
+the end of the table, beside a priest. The cold light from a window
+fell full on his face, and he was speaking. "I listened," she heard
+him say. "Yes."
+
+"And how long a time elapsed before Madame de Vidoche came?" the
+President asked, continuing, apparently, an examination of which she
+had missed the first part.
+
+"Half an hour, I think," the boy answered, in a clear, bold tone.
+
+"You are sure it was poison he required?"
+
+"I am sure."
+
+"And madame?"
+
+"A love-philtre."
+
+"You heard both interviews?"
+
+"Both."
+
+"You are sure of the arrangement made between Vidoche and this man, of
+which you have told us? That the poison should be given to madame in
+the form of a love-philtre? That she might take it herself?"
+
+"I am sure."
+
+"And it was you who ran after Madame de Vidoche and told her that the
+draught was to be given to her husband instead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you acknowledge, then," the President continued slowly, "that it
+was you who, in fact, killed M. de Vidoche?"
+
+For the first time the boy faltered and stumbled, and looked this way
+and that as if for a chance of escape. But there was none, and Father
+Bernard, by laying his hand on his arm, seemed to give him courage. "I
+do," he answered, in a low tone.
+
+"Why?" the President demanded, with a quick look at his colleagues. He
+spoke amid an irrepressible murmur of interest. The tale had been told
+once, but it was a tale that bore telling.
+
+"Because--I heard him plan his wife's death--and I thought it right,"
+the boy stammered, terror growing in his eyes. "I wanted to save her.
+I did not know. I did not think."
+
+The President looked towards the king, but suddenly from an unexpected
+quarter came an interruption. Madame rose trembling to her feet and
+stood grasping the bar before her. Her face passed from white to red,
+and red to white. Her eyes glittered through her tears. The woman
+beside her would have held her back, but she would not be restrained.
+"What is this?" she panted. "Does he say that my husband was--there?"
+
+"Yes, madame, he does," the President answered indulgently.
+
+"And that he came for poison--for me?"
+
+"He says so, madame."
+
+She looked at him for a moment wildly, then sank back on her stool and
+began to sob. She had gone through so many emotions; love and death,
+shame and fear, had so sported with her during the last few days that
+she could taste nothing to the full now, neither sweet nor bitter. As
+the dawning of life and hope had left her rather dazed than thankful,
+so this stab, that a little earlier would have pierced her very
+heartstrings, did but prick her. Afterwards the thankfulness and the
+pain--and the healing--might come. But here in the presence of all
+these people, where so much had happened to her, she could only sob
+weakly.
+
+The President turned again to the king. Louis nodded, and with a
+painful effort--for he stammered terribly--spoke. "Who is th-this
+lad?" he said. "Ask him."
+
+The judge bowed and returned to the witness. "You call yourself Jean
+de Bault?" he said somewhat roughly. The name, and especially the
+particle, displeased him.
+
+The boy assented.
+
+"Who are you, then?"
+
+Jehan opened his mouth to answer, but Father Bernard interposed. "Tell
+His Majesty," he said, "what you told me."
+
+After a moment's hesitation the boy complied, speaking fast, with his
+face on his breast and a flushed cheek. Nevertheless, in the silence
+every word reached the ear. "I am Jehan de Bault," he pattered in his
+treble voice, "seigneur of I know not where, and lord of seventeen
+lordships in the county of Perigord----" and so on, and so on, through
+the quaint formula to which we have listened more than once.
+
+Ninety-nine out of a hundred who heard him, heard him with incredulous
+surprise, and took the tale for a mountebank's patter; though patter,
+they acknowledged it was of a novel kind, aptly made and well spoken.
+Two or three of the bolder laughed. There had been little to laugh at
+before. The king moved restlessly in his chair, saying, "Pish! Wh-hat
+is this rubbish? What is he s-saying?"
+
+The President frowned, and taking his cue from the king, was about to
+rebuke the boy sharply, when one who had not before spoken, but whose
+voice in an instant produced silence among high and low, intervened.
+"The tale rings true!" the Cardinal said, in low, suave accents. "But
+there is no family of Bault in Perigord, is there?"
+
+"With His Majesty's permission, no!" replied a bluff, hearty voice;
+and therewith the elderly soldier who had come in with the king
+advanced a pace to the side of his master's chair. "I am of Perigord,
+and know, your Eminence," he continued. "More. Two months ago I saw
+this lad--I recognise him now--at the fair of Fécamp. He was
+differently dressed then, but he had the same tale, except that he did
+not mention Perigord."
+
+"S-someone has taught it him," said the king.
+
+"Your Majesty is doubtless right," the President answered
+obsequiously. Then to the boy he continued, "Speak, boy; who taught it
+you?"
+
+But Jehan only shook his head and looked puzzled. At last, being
+pressed, he said, "At Bault, in Perigord."
+
+"There is no such place!" M. de Bresly cried roundly.
+
+Father Bernard looked distressed. He began to repent that he had led
+the child to tell the tale; he began to fear that it might hurt
+instead of helping. Perhaps after all he had been too credulous. But
+again the Cardinal came to the rescue.
+
+"Is there any family in Perigord can boast of three marshals, M. de
+Bresly?" he asked, in his thin incisive tones.
+
+"None that I know of. Several that can boast of two."
+
+"The blood of Roland?"
+
+M. de Bresly shrugged his shoulders. "It is common to all of us," he
+said, smiling.
+
+The great Cardinal smiled, too--a flickering, quickly-passing smile.
+Then he leaned forward and fixed the boy with his fierce black eyes.
+"What was your father's name?" he said.
+
+Jehan shook his head, impotently, miserably.
+
+"Where did you live?"
+
+The same result. The king threw himself back and muttered, "It is no
+good." The President moved in his seat. Some in the galleries began to
+whisper.
+
+But the Cardinal raised his hand imperiously. "Can you read?" he said.
+
+"No," Jehan murmured.
+
+"Then your arms?" The Cardinal spoke rapidly now, and his face was
+growing hard. "They were over the gate, over the door, over the
+fireplace. Think--look back--reflect. What were they?"
+
+For a moment. Jehan stared at him in bewilderment, flinching under the
+gaze of those piercing eyes. Then on a sudden the boy's face grew
+crimson. He raised his hand eagerly. "_Or, on a mount vert!_" he cried
+impetuously--and stopped. But presently, in a different voice, he
+added slowly, "It was a tree--on a hill."
+
+With a swift look of triumph the Cardinal turned to M. de Bresly.
+"Now," he said, "that belongs to----"
+
+The soldier nodded almost sulkily. "It is Madame de Vidoche's," he
+said.
+
+"And her name was----"
+
+"Martinbault. Mademoiselle de Martinbault!"
+
+A murmur of astonishment rose from every part of the court. For a
+moment the King, the Cardinal, the President, M. de Bresly, all were
+inaudible. The air seemed full of exclamations, questions, answers; it
+rang with the words, "Bault--Martinbault!" Everywhere people rose to
+see the boy, or craned forward and slipped with a clattering noise.
+Etiquette, reverence, even the presence of the king, went for nothing
+in the rush of excitement. It was long before the ushers could obtain
+silence, or any get a hearing.
+
+Then M. de Bresly, who looked as much excited as any, and as red in
+the face, was found to be speaking. "Pardieu, sire, it may be so!" he
+was heard to say. "It is true enough, as I now remember. A child was
+lost in that family about eight years back. But it was at the time of
+the Rochelle expedition; the province was full of trouble, and M. and
+Madame de Martinbault were just dead; and little was made of it. All
+the same, this may be the boy. Nay, it is a thousand to one he is!"
+
+"What is he, then, to M--Madame de V--Vidoche?" the king asked, with
+an effort. He was vastly excited--for him.
+
+"A brother, sire," M. de Bresly answered.
+
+That word pierced at last through the dulness which wrapped madame's
+faculties, and had made her impervious to all that had gone before.
+She rose slowly, listened, looked at the boy---looked with growing
+wonder, like one awakening from a dream. Possibly in that moment the
+later years fell from her, and she saw herself again a child--a tall,
+lanky girl playing in the garden of the old château with a little
+toddling boy who ran and lisped, beat her sturdily with fat, bare arms
+or cuddled to her for kisses. For with a sudden gesture she stretched
+out her hands, and cried in a clear voice, "Jean! Jean! It is little
+Jean!"
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+It became the fashion--a fashion which lasted half a dozen years at
+least--to call that Christmas the Martinbault Christmas; so loudly did
+those who were present at that famous examination, and the discovery
+which attended it, profess that it exceeded all the other amusements
+of the year, not excepting even the great ball at the Palais Cardinal,
+from which every lady carried off an _étrenne_ worth a year's
+pin-money. The story became the rage. Those who had been present drove
+their friends, who had not been so fortunate, to the verge of madness.
+From the court the tale spread to the markets. Men made a broadsheet
+of it, and sold it in the streets--in the Rue Touchet, and under the
+gallows at Montfaucon, where the body of Solomon Nôtredame withered in
+the spring rains. Had Madame de Vidoche and the child stayed in Paris,
+it must have offended their ears ten times a day.
+
+
+[Illustration: "A MAN HALF-NAKED ... CRAWLED ON TO THE HIGHROAD" (_p_.
+212).]
+
+
+But they did not. As soon as madame could be moved, she retired with
+the boy to the old house four leagues from Perigueux, and there, in
+the quiet land where the name of Martinbault ranked with the name of
+the king, she sought to forget her married life. She took her maiden
+title, and in the boy's breeding, in works of mercy, in a hundred
+noble and fitting duties entirely to her taste, succeeded in finding
+peace, and presently happiness. But one thing neither time, nor
+change, nor in the event love, could erase from her mind; and that was
+a deep-seated dread of the great city in which she had suffered so
+much. She never returned to Paris.
+
+About a year after the trial a man with crafty, foxy eyes came
+wandering through Perigueux, with a monkey on his shoulder. He saw not
+far from the road--as his evil-star would have it--an old château
+standing low among trees. The place promised well, and he went to it
+and began to perform before the servants in the courtyard. Presently
+the lord of the house, a young boy, came out to see him.
+
+More need not be said, save that an hour later a man, half naked,
+covered with duckweed, and aching in every bone, crawled on to the
+highroad, and went on his way in sadness--with his mouth full of
+curses; and that for years afterwards a monkey, answering to the name
+of Taras, teased the dogs, and plucked the ivy, and gambolled at will
+on the great south terrace at Martinbault.
+
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited. La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man in Black, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN BLACK ***
+
+***** This file should be named 39295-8.txt or 39295-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/9/39295/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the
+Web Archive (University of Toronto)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/39295-8.zip b/39295-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11f1184
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-8.zip
diff --git a/39295-h.zip b/39295-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b2bab3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h.zip
diff --git a/39295-h/39295-h.htm b/39295-h/39295-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa57fe3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/39295-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,4430 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>The Man in Black</title>
+<meta name="Author" content="Stanley J. Weyman">
+
+<meta name="Publisher" content="Cassel and Company Limited">
+<meta name="Date" content="1894">
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+<style type="text/css">
+body  {margin-left:10%;
+       margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;}
+
+
+p.normal  {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;}
+.center  {margin: auto; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt}
+
+
+
+p.right          {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;}
+
+p.continue       {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;}
+.text10           {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;}
+.text20           {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;}
+
+
+.poem0 {
+  margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 0%;
+  margin-right: 0%; text-align: left;
+  margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%}
+
+.poem1 {
+  margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 2em;
+  margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;
+  margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%}
+
+.poem2 {
+  margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 20%;
+  margin-right: 20%; text-align: left;
+  margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%}
+
+.poem3 {
+  margin-top: 24pt; margin-left: 30%;
+  margin-right: 30%; text-align: left;
+  margin-bottom: 24pt; font-size:90%}
+
+
+
+
+
+figcenter  {margin:auto; text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;}
+
+.t0              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t1              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t2              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t3              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t4              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t5              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t6              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t7              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t8              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t9              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:9em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t10              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t11              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:11em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t12              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:12em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t13              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:13em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t14              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:14em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t15              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:15em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t16              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:16em; margin-right:0px;}
+
+
+.quote           {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt}
+.ctrquote        {text-align: center; font-size:90%; margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:36pt}
+
+.dateline        {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-right:10%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt}
+
+h1,h2,h3,h4,h5   {text-align: center;}
+
+span.sc		    {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:110%;}
+span.sc2		{font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%;}
+
+hr.W10		  {width:10%; color:black; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt}
+
+hr.W20        {width:20%; color:black; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt}
+
+hr.W50        {width:50%; color:black;}
+hr.W90        {width:90%; color:black;}
+
+p.hang1        {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;}
+p.hang2        {margin-left:3em; text-indent:0em;}
+
+
+</style>
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man in Black, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
+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 Man in Black
+
+Author: Stanley J. Weyman
+
+Illustrator: Wal Paget
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2012 [EBook #39295]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN BLACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the
+Web Archive (University of Toronto)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br>
+<br>
+1. Page scan source:<br>
+<br>
+http://www.archive.org/details/maninblackillust00weymuoft<br>
+(University of Toronto)</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>THE MAN IN BLACK</h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center"><a name="front"><img border="0" src="images/front.png" alt="frontispiece"></a><br>
+&quot;'IF YOU WANT ME TO--DRAW HER HOROSCOPE,' THE<br>
+ASTROLOGER REPLIED&quot; (<i>p</i>. 89).</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>The</h3>
+<h1>Man in Black</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>BY</h5>
+<h2>STANLEY J. WEYMAN</h2>
+
+<h5><i>Author of &quot;A Gentleman of France&quot; &quot;The Story<br>
+of Francis Cludde&quot; etc</i>.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>Illustrated by</h5>
+<h4>WAL PAGET AND H. M. PAGET</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>SIXTH THOUSAND</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>CASSELL AND COMPANY Limited</h4>
+<h5><i>London Paris &amp; Melbourne</i></h5>
+<h4>1894</h4>
+<h5>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table cellpadding="10" style="width:60%; margin-left:20%; font-weight:bold">
+<colgroup><col style="width:10%; text-align:right"><col style="width:90%"></colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="sc2">CHAPTER</span></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>I.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01"><span class="sc">The Fair at Fécamp.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>II.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02"><span class="sc">Solomon Nôtredame.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>III.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03"><span class="sc">Man and Wife.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>IV.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04"><span class="sc">The House with Two Doors.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>V.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05"><span class="sc">The Upper Portal.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VI.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06"><span class="sc">The Powder of Attraction.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07"><span class="sc">Clytæmnestra.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VIII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08"><span class="sc">The Mark of Cain.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>IX.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09"><span class="sc">Before the Court.</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>X.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10"><span class="sc">Two Witnesses.</span></a></td>
+</tr></table>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#front">&quot;'If you want me to draw her horoscope,' the astrologer replied.&quot;
+Frontispiece</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p11">&quot;The showman was counting his gains into his pouch.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p33">&quot;Jehan went trembling and found the hole.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p52">&quot;The astrologer rose slowly from his seat.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p74">&quot;Jehan leapt back with a shriek of pain.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p92">&quot;For a second the man in black stood breathless.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p112">&quot;'Madame! Madame de Vidoche, if you please!'&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p124">&quot;He watched her every motion.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p133">&quot;In a moment he was down, writhing on the floor.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p169">&quot;'Who stole him? Where has he been?'&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p192">&quot;They were carrying him.&quot;</a></p>
+
+<p class="hang1"><a href="#p212">&quot;A man, half-naked, ... crawled on to the highroad.&quot;</a></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE MAN IN BLACK.</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">The Fair At Fécamp.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of---I forget the name, of a most
+noble and puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle,
+and the Low. In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my
+forefathers were three marshals of France. I stand here, the</i>----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the eve of All Saints, and the famous autumn horse-fair was in
+progress at Fécamp--Fécamp on the Normandy coast, the town between the
+cliffs, which Boisrosé, in the year '93, snatched for the Great King
+by a feat of audacity unparalleled in war. This only by the way,
+however; and that a worthy deed may not die. For at the date of this
+fair of which we write, the last day of October, 1637, stout Captain
+Boisrosé, whom Sully made for his daring Lieutenant-General of the
+Ordnance, had long ceased to ruffle it; the Great King had lain in his
+grave a score of years or more; and though Sully, duke and peer and
+marshal, still lived, an aged, formal man, in his château of Villebon
+by Chartres, all France, crouching under the iron hand of the
+Cardinal, looked other ways.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The great snarled, biting at the hem of the red soutane. But that the
+mean and Jacques Bonhomme, the merchant and the trader, flourished
+under his rule, Fécamp was as good evidence this day as man could
+desire. Even old burghers who remembered Charles the Ninth, and the
+first glass windows ever seen in Fécamp outside the Abbey, could not
+say when the price of horses had been higher or the town more full.
+All day, and almost all night, the clatter of hoofs and babble of
+bargains filled the narrow streets; while hucksters' cries and
+drunkards' oaths, with all raucous sounds, went up to heaven like the
+smoke from a furnace. The <i>Chariot d'Or</i> and the <i>Holy Fig</i>, haunts of
+those who came to buy, fairly hummed with guests, with nobles of the
+province and gay sparks from Rouen, army contractors from the Rhine,
+and dealers from the south. As for the <i>Dame Belle</i> and the <i>Green
+Man</i>, houses that lower down the street had food and forage for those
+who came to sell, they strewed their yards a foot deep with straw, and
+saying to all alike, &quot;Voilà, monsieur!&quot; charged the full price of a
+bed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Beyond the streets it was the same. Strings of horses and ponies, with
+an army of grooms and chaunters, touts and cutpurses, camped on every
+piece of level ground, while the steeper slopes and hill-sides swarmed
+with troupes more picturesque, if less useful. For these were the
+pitches of the stilt-walkers and funambulists, the morris dancers and
+hobby-horses: in a word, of an innumerable company of quacks,
+jugglers, poor students, and pasteboard giants, come together for the
+delectation of the gaping Normans, and all under the sway and
+authority of the Chevalier du Guet, in whose honour two gibbets, each
+bearing a creaking corpse, rose on convenient situations overlooking
+the fair. For brawlers and minor sinners a pillory and a whipping-post
+stood handy by the landward gate, and from time to time, when a lusty
+vagrant or a handsome wench was dragged up for punishment, outvied in
+attraction all the professional shows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Of these, one that seemed as successful as any in catching and
+chaining the fancy of the shifting crowd consisted of three persons--a
+man, a boy, and an ape--who had chosen for their pitch a portion of
+the steep hill-side overhanging the road. High up in this they had
+driven home an iron peg, and stretching a cord from this to the top of
+a tree which stood on the farther edge of the highway, had improvised
+a tight-rope at once simple and effective. All day, as the changing
+throng passed to and fro below, the monkey and the boy might be seen
+twisting and turning and posturing on this giddy eminence, while the
+man, fantastically dressed in an iron cap a world too big for him, and
+a back- and breast-piece which ill-matched his stained crimson jacket
+and taffety breeches, stood beating a drum at the foot of the tree, or
+now and again stepped forward to receive in a ladle the sous and eggs
+and comfits that rewarded the show.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was a lean, middle-sized man, with squinting eyes and a crafty
+mouth. Unaided he might have made his living by cutting purses. But he
+had the wit to do by others what he could not do himself, and the luck
+to have that in his company which pleased all comers; for while the
+clowns gazed saucer-eyed at the uncouth form and hideous grimaces of
+the ape, the thin cheeks and panting lips of the boy touched the
+hearts of their mistresses, and drew from them many a cake and
+fairing. Still, with a crowd change is everything; and in the contest
+of attractions, where there was here a flying dragon and there a
+dancing bear, and in a place apart the mystery of Joseph of Arimathæa
+and the Sacred Fig-tree was being performed by a company that had
+played before the King in Paris--and when, besides all these raree
+shows, a score of quacks and wizards and collar-grinners with lungs of
+brass, were advertising themselves amid indescribable clanging of
+drums and squeaking of trumpets, it was not to be expected that a boy
+and a monkey could always hold the first place. An hour before sunset
+the ladle began to come home empty. The crowd grew thin. Gargantuan
+roars of laughter from the players' booth drew off some who lingered.
+It seemed as if the trio's run of success was at an end; and that, for
+all the profit they were still likely to make, they might pack up and
+be off to bed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Master Crafty Eyes knew better. Before his popularity quite
+flickered out he produced a folding stool. Setting it at the foot of
+the tree with a grand air, which of itself was enough to arrest the
+waverers, he solemnly covered it with a red cloth. This done, he
+folded his arms, looked very sternly two ways at once, and raising his
+hand without glancing upwards, cried, &quot;Tenez! His Excellency the
+Seigneur de Bault will have the kindness to descend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The little handful of gapers laughed, and the laugh added to their
+number. But the boy, to whom the words were addressed, did not move.
+He sat idly on the rope, swaying to and fro, and looked out straight
+before him, with a set face, and a mutinous glare in his eyes. He
+appeared to be about twelve years old. He was lithe-limbed, and burned
+brown by the sun, with a mass of black hair and, strange to say, blue
+eyes. The ape sat cheek by jowl with him; and even at the sound of the
+master's voice turned to him humanly, as if to say, &quot;You had better
+go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still he did not move. &quot;Tenez!&quot; Master Crafty Eyes cried again, and
+more sharply. &quot;His Excellency the Seigneur de Bault will have the
+kindness to descend, and narrate his history. <i>Écoutez! Écoutez!
+mesdames et messieurs!</i> It will repay you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This time the boy, frowning and stubborn, looked down from his perch.
+He seemed to be measuring the distance, and calculating whether his
+height from the ground would save him from the whip. Apparently he
+came to the conclusion it would not, for on the man crying &quot;<i>Vitement!
+Vitement!</i>&quot; and flinging a grim look upwards, he began to descend
+slowly, a sullen reluctance manifest in all his movements.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On reaching the ground, he made his way through the audience--which
+had increased to above a score--and climbed heavily on the stool,
+where he stood looking round him with a dark shamefacedness,
+surprising in one who was part of a show, and had been posturing all
+day long for the public amusement. The women, quick to espy the
+hollows in his cheeks, and the great wheal that seamed his neck, and
+quick also to admire the straightness of his limbs and the light pose
+of his head, regarded him pitifully. The men only stared; smoking had
+not yet come in at Fécamp, so they munched cakes and gazed by turns.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!&quot; cried the man with the drum. &quot;Listen to the
+remarkable, lamentable, and veritable history of the Seigneur de
+Bault, now before you! Oyez!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy cast a look round, but there was no escape. So, sullenly, and
+in a sing-song tone--through which, nevertheless, some note of
+dignity, some strange echo of power and authority, that gave the
+recital its bizarre charm and made it what it was, would continually
+force itself--he began with the words at the head of this chapter:--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of--I forget the name, of a most
+noble and puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle,
+and the Low. In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my
+forefathers were three marshals of France. I stand here, the last of
+my race; in token whereof may God preserve my mother, the King,
+France, and this Province! I was stolen by gypsies at the age of five,
+and carried off and sold by my father's steward, as Joseph was by his
+brethren, and I appeal to--I appeal to--all good subjects of France
+to--help me to----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My rights!&quot; interjected Crafty Eyes, with a savage glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My rights,&quot; the boy whispered, lowering his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The drum-man came forward briskly. &quot;Just so, ladies and gentlemen,&quot; he
+cried with wonderful glibness. &quot;And seldom as it is that you have
+before you the representative of one of our most noble and ancient
+families a-begging your help, seldom as that remarkable, lamentable,
+and veritable sight is to be seen in Fécamp, sure I am that you will
+respond willingly, generously, and to the point, my lord, ladies and
+gentlemen!&quot; And with this, and a far grander air than when it had been
+merely an affair of a boy and an ape, the knave carried round his
+ladle, doffing his cap to each who contributed, and saying politely,
+&quot;The Sieur de Bault thanks you, sir. The Sieur de Bault is your
+servant, madam.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something so novel in the whole business, something so odd
+and inexplicably touching in the boy's words and manner, that with all
+the appearance of a barefaced trick, appealing only to the most
+ignorant, the thing wrought on the crowd: as doubtless it had wrought
+on a hundred crowds before. The first man to whom the ladle came
+grinned sheepishly and gave against his will; and his fellows
+throughout maintained a position of reserve, shrugging their shoulders
+and looking wisdom. But a dozen women became believers at once, and
+despite the blare and flare of rival dragons and Moriscoes and the
+surrounding din and hubbub, the ladle came back full of deniers and
+sous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman was counting his gains into his pouch, when a silver franc
+spun through the air and fell at his feet, and at the same time a
+harsh voice cried, &quot;Here, you, sirrah! A word with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Master Crafty Eyes looked up, and doffing his cap humbly--for the
+voice was a voice of authority--went cringing to the speaker. This was
+an elderly man, well mounted, who had reined up his horse on the
+skirts of the crowd as the boy began his harangue. He had a plain
+soldier's face, with grey moustachios and a small, pointed grey beard,
+and he seemed to be a person of rank on his way out of the town; for
+he had two or three armed servants behind him, of whom one carried a
+valise on his crupper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is your will, noble sir?&quot; the showman whined, standing
+bare-headed at his stirrup and looking up at him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who taught the lad that rubbish?&quot; the horseman asked sternly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one, my lord. It is the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then bring him here, liar!&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman obeyed, not very willingly, dragging the boy off the
+stool, and jerking him through the crowd. The stranger looked down at
+the child for a moment in silence. Then he said sharply, &quot;Hark ye,
+tell me the truth, boy. What is your name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The lad stood straight up, and answered without hesitation, &quot;Jehan de
+Bault.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of nowhere in the County of No Name,&quot; the stranger gibed gravely. &quot;Of
+a noble and puissant family--and the rest. All that is true, I
+suppose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A flicker as of hope gleamed in the boy's eyes. His cheek reddened. He
+raised his hand to the horse's shoulder, and answered in a voice which
+trembled a little, &quot;It is true.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p11"><img border="0" src="images/p11.png" alt="p11"></a><br>
+&quot;THE SHOWMAN WAS COUNTING HIS GAINS INTO HIS POUCH&quot;
+(<i>p</i>. 11).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is Bault?&quot; the stranger asked grimly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The lad looked puzzled and disappointed. His lip trembled, his colour
+lied again. He glanced here and there, and finally shook his head. &quot;I
+do not know,&quot; he said faintly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor do I,&quot; the horseman replied, striking his long brown boot with
+his riding-switch to give emphasis to the words, and looking sternly
+round. &quot;Nor do I. And what is more, you may take it from me that there
+is no family of that name in France! And once more you may take this
+from me too. I am the Vicomte de Bresly, and I have a government in
+Guienne. Play this game in my county, and I will have you both whipped
+for common cheats, and you, Master Drummer, branded as well! Bear it
+in mind, sirrah; and when you perform, give Perigord a wide berth.
+That is all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He struck his horse at the last word, and rode off; sitting, like an
+old soldier, so straight in his saddle that he did not see what
+happened behind him, or that the boy sprang forward with a hasty cry,
+and would, but for the showman's grasp, have followed him. He rode
+away, unheeding and without looking back; and the boy, after a brief
+passionate struggle with his master, collapsed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You limb!&quot; the man with the drum cried, as he shook him. &quot;What bee
+has stung you? You won't be quiet, eh? Then take that! and that!&quot; and
+he struck the child brutally in the face--twice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some cried shame and some laughed. But it was nobody's business, and
+there were a hundred delights within sight. What was one little boy,
+or a blow more or less, amid the whirl and tumult of the fair? A score
+of yards away a dancing girl, a very Peri--or so she seemed by the
+light of four tallow candles--was pirouetting on a rickety platform.
+Almost rubbing elbows with her was a philosopher, who had conquered
+all the secrets of Nature except cleanliness, and was prepared to sell
+infallible love-philtres and the potion of perpetual youth--for four
+farthings! And beyond these stretched a vista of wonders and
+prodigies, all vocal, not to say deafening. So one by one, with a
+shrug or a sneer, the onlookers melted away, until only our trio
+remained: Master Crafty Eyes counting his gains, the boy sobbing
+against the bank on which he had thrown himself, and the monkey
+gibbering and chattering overhead--a dark shapeless object on an
+invisible rope. For night was falling: where the fun of the fair was
+not were gloom and a rising wind, lurking cutpurses, and waste land.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman seemed to feel this, for having counted his takings, he
+kicked up the boy and began to pack up. He had nearly finished, and
+was stooping over the coil of rope, securing the end, when a touch on
+his shoulder caused him to jump a yard. A tall man wrapped in a cloak,
+who had come up unseen, stood at his elbow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well!&quot; the showman cried, striving to hide his alarm under an
+appearance of bluster. &quot;And what may you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A word with you,&quot; the unknown answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The voice was so cold and passionless it gave Crafty Eyes a turn.
+&quot;Diable!&quot; he muttered, striving to pierce the darkness and see what
+the other was like. But he could not; so as to shake off the
+impression, he asked, with a sneer, &quot;You are not a vicomte, are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; the stranger replied gravely, &quot;I am not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor the governor of a county?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you may speak!&quot; rejoined the showman grandly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not here,&quot; the cloaked man answered. &quot;I must see you alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you will have to come home with me, and wait until I have put up
+the boy,&quot; the other said. &quot;I am not going to lose him for you or
+anyone. And for a penny he'd be off! Does it suit you? You may take it
+or leave it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The unknown, whose features were completely masked by the dusk, nodded
+assent, and without more ado the four turned their faces towards the
+streets; the boy carrying the monkey, and the two men following close
+on his heels. Whenever they passed before a lighted booth the showman
+strove to learn something of his companion's appearance but the latter
+wore his cloak so high about his face, and was so well served by a
+wide-flapped hat which almost met it, that curiosity was completely
+baffled; and they reached the low inn where the showman rented a
+corner of the stable without that cunning gentleman being a jot the
+wiser for his pains.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a vile, evil-smelling place they entered, divided into six or
+eight stalls by wooden partitions reaching half-way to the tiles. A
+horn lantern hung at each end filled it with yellow lights and deep
+shadows. A pony raised its head and whinnied as the men entered, but
+most of the stalls were empty, or tenanted only by drunken clowns
+sleeping in the straw.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You cannot lock him in here,&quot; said the stranger, looking round him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman grunted. &quot;Cannot I?&quot; he said. &quot;There are tricks in all
+trades, master. I reckon I can--with this!&quot; And producing from
+somewhere about him a thin steel chain, he held it before the other's
+face. &quot;That is my lock and door,&quot; he said triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It won't hold him long,&quot; the other answered impassively. &quot;The fifth
+link from the end is worn through now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have sharp eyes!&quot; the showman exclaimed, with reluctant
+admiration. &quot;But it will hold a bit yet. I fasten him in yonder
+corner. Do you wait here, and I will come back to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was not long about it. When he returned he led the stranger into
+the farthest of the stalls, which, as well as that next to it, was
+empty. &quot;We can talk here,&quot; he said bluntly. &quot;At any rate, I have no
+better place. The house is full. Now, what is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I want that boy,&quot; the tall man answered. The showman laughed--stopped
+laughing--laughed again. &quot;I dare say you do,&quot; he said derisively.
+&quot;There is not a better or a pluckier boy on the rope out of Paris. And
+for patter? There is nothing on the road like the bit he did this
+afternoon, nor a bit that pays as well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who taught it him?&quot; the stranger asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a lie,&quot; the other answered in a perfectly unmoved tone. &quot;If
+you like I will tell you what you did. You taught him the latter half
+of the story. The other he knew before: down to the word 'province.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman gasped. &quot;Diable!&quot; he muttered. &quot;Who told you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never mind. You bought the boy. From whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From some gypsies at the great fair of Beaucaire,&quot; the showman
+answered sullenly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Crafty Eyes laughed dryly. &quot;If I knew I should not be padding the
+hoof,&quot; he said. &quot;Or, again, he may be nobody, and the tale patter. You
+have heard as much as I have. What do you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think I shall find out when I have bought the boy,&quot; the stranger
+answered coolly. &quot;What will you take for him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman gasped again. &quot;You come to the point,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is my custom. What is his price?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman's imagination had never soared beyond nor his ears ever
+heard of a larger sum than a thousand crowns. He mentioned it
+trembling. There might be such a sum in the world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A thousand livres, if you like. Not a sou more,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The nearer lantern threw a strong light on Crafty Eyes' face; but that
+was mere shadow beside the light of cupidity which sparkled in his
+eyes. He could get another boy; scores of boys. But a thousand livres!
+A thousand livres! &quot;Tournois!&quot; he said faintly. &quot;Livres Tournois!&quot; In
+his wildest moments of avarice he had never dreamed of possessing such
+a sum.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Paris livres,&quot; the stranger answered coldly. &quot;Paid to-morrow at
+the <i>Golden Chariot</i>. If you agree, you will deliver the boy to me
+there at noon, and receive the money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman nodded, vanquished by the mere sound of the sum. Paris
+livres let it be. Danae did not more quickly succumb to the golden
+shower.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">SOLOMON NÔTREDAME.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">A little later that night, at the hour which saw the showman pay his
+second visit to the street before the <i>Chariot d'Or</i>, there to stand
+gaping at the lighted windows, and peering into the courtyard in a
+kind of fascination--or perhaps to assure himself that the house would
+not fly away, and his golden hopes with it--the twelve-year-old boy,
+the basis of those hopes, awoke and stirred restlessly in the straw.
+He was cold, and the chain galled him. His face ached where the man
+had struck him. In the next stall two drunken men were fighting, and
+the place reeked with oaths and foulness. But none of these things
+were so novel as to keep the boy awake; and sighing and drawing the
+monkey nearer to him, he would in a moment have been asleep again if
+the moon, shining with great brightness through the little square
+aperture above him, had not thrown its light directly on his head, and
+roused him more completely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He sat up and gazed at it, and God knows what softening thoughts and
+pitiful recollections the beauty of the night brought into his mind;
+but presently he began to weep--not as a child cries, with noise and
+wailing, but in silence, as a man weeps. The monkey awoke and crept
+into his breast, but he hardly regarded it. The misery, the
+hopelessness, the slavery of his life, ignored from hour to hour, or
+borne at other times with a boy's nonchalance, filled his heart to
+bursting now. Crouching in his lair in the straw, he shook with agony.
+The tears welled up, and would not be restrained, until they hid the
+face of the sky and darkened even the moon's pure light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Or was it his tears? He dashed them away and looked, and rose slowly
+to his feet; while the ape, clinging to his breast, began to mow and
+gibber. A black mass, which gradually resolved itself, as the boy's
+eyes cleared, into a man's hat and head, filled the aperture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush!&quot; came from the head in a cautious whisper. &quot;Come nearer. I will
+not hurt you. Do you wish to escape, lad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy clasped his hands in an ecstasy. &quot;Yes, oh yes!&quot; he murmured.
+The question chimed in so naturally with his thoughts, it scarcely
+surprised him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you were loose, could you get through this window?&quot; the man asked.
+He spoke cautiously, under his breath; but the noise in the next
+stall, to say nothing of a vile drinking song which was being chanted
+forth at the farther end of the stable, was such he might safely have
+shouted. &quot;Yes? Then take this file. Rub at the fifth link from the
+end: the one that is nearly through. Do you understand, boy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; Jehan cried again, groping in the straw for the tool,
+which had fallen at his feet. &quot;I know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When you are loose, cover up the chain,&quot; continued the other in a
+slow biting tone. &quot;Or lie on that part of it, and wait until morning.
+As soon as you see the first gleam of light, climb out through the
+window. You will find me outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy would have uttered his trembling thanks. But lo! in a moment
+the aperture was clear again; the moon sailed unchanged through an
+unchanged sky; and all was as before. Save for the presence of the
+little bit of rough steel in his hand, he might have thought it a
+dream. But the file was there; it was there, and with a choking sob of
+hope and fear and excitement, he fell to work on the chain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was clumsy work he made of it in the dark. But the link was so much
+worn, a man might have wrenched it open, and the boy did not spare his
+fingers. The dispute next door covered the song of the file; and the
+smoky horn lantern which alone lighted that end of the stable had no
+effect in the dark corner where he lay. True, he had to work by feel,
+looking out all the while for his tyrant's coming; but the tool was
+good, and the fingers, hardened by many an hour of work on the rope,
+were strong and lithe. When the showman at last stumbled to his place
+in the straw, the boy lay free--free and trembling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All was not done, however. It seemed an hour before the man settled
+himself--an hour of agony and suspense to Jehan, feigning sleep; since
+at any moment his master might take it into his head to look into
+things. But Crafty Eyes had no suspicion. Having kicked the boy and
+heard the chain rattle, and so assured himself that he was there--so
+much caution he exercised every night, drunk or sober--he was
+satisfied; and by-and-by, when his imagination, heated by thoughts of
+wealth, permitted it, he fell asleep, and dreamed that he had married
+the Cardinal's cook-maid and ate collops on Sundays.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Even so, the night seemed endless to the boy, lying wakeful, with his
+eyes on the sky. Now he was hot, now cold. One moment the thought that
+the window might prove too strait for him threw him into a bath of
+perspiration; the next he shuddered at the possibility of re-capture,
+and saw himself dragged back and flayed by his brutal owner. But a
+watched pot <i>does</i> boil, though slowly. The first streak of dawn came
+at last--as it does when the sky is darkest; and with it, even as the
+boy rose warily to his feet, the sound of a faint whistle outside the
+window.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A common mortal could no more have passed through that window without
+noise than an old man can make himself young again. But the boy did
+it. As he dropped to the ground outside he heard the whistle again.
+The air was still dark; but a score of paces away, beyond a low wall,
+he made out the form of a horseman, and went towards it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the man in the cloak, who stooped and held out his hand. &quot;Jump
+up behind me,&quot; he muttered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy went to obey, but as he clasped the outstretched hand, it was
+suddenly withdrawn. &quot;What is that? What have you got there?&quot; the rider
+exclaimed, peering down at him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is only Taras, the monkey,&quot; Jehan said timidly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Throw it away,&quot; the stranger answered. &quot;Do you hear me?&quot; he continued
+in a stern, composed tone. &quot;Throw it away, I say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy stood hesitating a moment; then, without a word, he turned and
+fled into the darkness the way he had come. The man on the horse swore
+under his breath, but he had no remedy; and before he could tell what
+to expect, the boy was at his side again. &quot;I've put it through the
+window,&quot; Jehan explained breathlessly. &quot;If I had left it here, the
+dogs and the boys would have killed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man made no comment aloud, but jerked him roughly to the crupper;
+and bidding him hold fast, started the horse, which, setting off at an
+easy amble, quickly bore them out of Fécamp. As they passed through
+the fair-ground of yesterday--a shadowy, ghastly waste at this hour,
+peopled by wandering asses, and packhorses, and a few lurking figures
+that leapt up out of the darkness, and ran after them whining for
+alms--the boy shivered and clung close to his protector. But he had no
+more than recognised the scene before they were out of sight of it,
+and riding through the open fields. The grey dawn was spreading, the
+cocks at distant farms were crowing. The dim, misty countryside, the
+looming trees, the raw air, the chill that crept into his ill-covered
+bones--all these, which might have seemed to others wretched
+conditions enough, filled the boy with hope and gladness. For they
+meant freedom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But presently, as they rode on, his thoughts took a fresh turn. They
+began to busy themselves, and fearfully, with the man before him,
+whose continued silence and cold reserve set a hundred wild ideas
+humming in his brain. What manner of man was he? Who was he? Why had
+he helped him? Jehan had heard of ogres and giants that decoyed
+children into forests and devoured them. He had listened to ballads of
+such adventures, sung at fairs and in the streets, a hundred times;
+now they came so strongly into his mind, and so grew upon him in this
+grim companionship, that by-and-by, seeing a wood before them through
+which the road ran, he shook with terror and gave himself up for lost.
+Sure enough, when they came to the wood, and had ridden a little way
+into it, the man, whose face he had never seen, stopped. &quot;Get down,&quot;
+he said sternly.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p33"><img border="0" src="images/p33.png" alt="p33"></a><br>
+&quot;JEHAN WENT TREMBLING AND FOUND THE HOLE&quot; (<i>p</i>. 33).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan obeyed, his teeth chattering, his legs quaking under him. He
+expected the man to produce a large carving-knife, or call some of his
+fellows out of the forest to share his repast. Instead, the stranger
+made a queer pass with his hands over his horse's neck, and bade the
+boy go to an old stump which stood by the way. &quot;There is a hole in the
+farther side of it,&quot; he said. &quot;Look in the hole.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan went trembling and found the hole, and looked. &quot;What do you
+see?&quot; the rider asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A piece of money,&quot; said Jehan.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bring it to me,&quot; the stranger answered gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy took it--it was only a copper sou--and did as he was bidden.
+&quot;Get up!&quot; said the horseman curtly. Jehan obeyed, and they went on as
+before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When they had ridden half-way through the forest, however, the
+stranger stopped again. &quot;Get down,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy obeyed, and was directed as on the former occasion--but not
+until the horseman had made the same strange gesture with his
+hands--to go to an old stump. This time he found a silver livre. He
+gave it to his master, and climbed again to his place, marvelling
+much.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A third time they stopped, on the farther verge of the forest. The
+same words passed, but this time the boy found a gold crown in the
+hole.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After that his mind no longer ran upon ogres and giants. Instead,
+another fancy almost as dreadful took possession of him. He remarked
+that everything the stranger wore was black: his cloak, his hat, his
+gauntlets. Even his long boots, which in those days were commonly made
+of untanned leather, were black. So was the furniture of the horse.
+Jehan noticed this as he mounted the third time; and connecting it
+with the marvellous springing up of money where the man willed, began
+to be seized with panic, never doubting but that he had fallen into
+the hands of the devil. Likely enough, he would have dropped off at
+the first opportunity that offered, and fled for his life--or his
+soul, but he did not know much of that--if the stranger had not in the
+nick of time drawn a parcel of food from his saddle-bag. He gave some
+to Jehan. Even so, the boy, hungry as he was, did not dare to touch it
+until he was assured that his companion was really eating--eating, and
+not pretending. Then, with a great sigh of relief, he began to eat
+too. For he knew that the devil never ate!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After this they rode on in silence, until, about an hour before noon,
+they came to a small farm-steading standing by the road, half a league
+short of the sleepy old town of Yvetot, which Beranger was one day to
+celebrate. Here the magician--for such Jehan now took his companion to
+be--stopped. &quot;Get down,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy obeyed, and instinctively looked for a stump. But there was no
+stump, and this time his master, after scanning his ragged garments as
+if to assure himself of his appearance, had a different order to give.
+&quot;Go to that farm,&quot; he said. &quot;Knock at the door, and say that Solomon
+Nôtredame de Paris requires two fowls. They will give them to you.
+Bring them to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy went wide-eyed, knocked, and gave his message. A woman, who
+opened the door, stretched out her hand, took up a couple of fowls
+that lay tied together on the hearth, and gave them to him without a
+word. He took them--he no longer wondered at anything--and carried
+them back to his master in the road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now listen to me,&quot; said the latter, in his slow, cold tone. &quot;Go into
+the town you see before you, and in the market-place you will find an
+inn with the sign of the <i>Three Pigeons</i>. Enter the yard and offer
+these fowls for sale, but ask a livre apiece for them, that they may
+not be bought. While offering them, make an excuse to go into the
+stable, where you will see a grey horse. Drop this white lump into the
+horse's manger when no one is looking, and afterwards remain at the
+door of the yard. If you see me, do not speak to me. Do you
+understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan said he did; but his new master made him repeat his orders from
+beginning to end before he let him go with the fowls and the white
+lump, which was about the size of a walnut, and looked like rock-salt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">About an hour later the landlord of the <i>Three Pigeons</i> at Yvetot
+heard a horseman stop at his door. He went out to meet him. Now,
+Yvetot is on the road to Havre and Harfleur; and though the former of
+these places was then in the making and the latter was dying fast, the
+landlord had had experience of many guests. But so strange a guest as
+the one he found awaiting him he thought he had never seen. In the
+first place, the gentleman was clad from top to toe in black; and
+though he had no servants behind him, he wore an air of as grave
+consequence as though he boasted six. In the next place, his face was
+so long, thin, and cadaverous that, but for a great black line of
+eyebrows that cut it in two and gave it a very curious and sinister
+expression, people meeting him for the first time might have been
+tempted to laugh. Altogether, the landlord could not make him out; but
+he thought it safer to go out and hold his stirrup, and ask his
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall dine here,&quot; the stranger answered gravely. As he dismounted
+his cloak fell open. The landlord observed with growing wonder that
+its black lining was sprinkled with cabalistic figures embroidered in
+white.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Introduced to the public room, which was over the great stone porch
+and happened to be empty, the traveller lost none of his singularity.
+He paused a little way within the door, and stood as if suddenly
+fallen into deep thought. The landlord, beginning to think him mad,
+ventured to recall him by asking what his honour would take.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is something amiss in this house,&quot; the stranger replied
+abruptly, turning his eyes on him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Amiss?&quot; the host answered, faltering under his gaze, and wishing
+himself well out of the room. &quot;Not that I am aware of, your honour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no one ill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, your honour, certainly not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor deformed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken,&quot; the stranger answered firmly. &quot;Know that I am
+Solomon, son to Cæsar, son to Michel Nôtredame of Paris, commonly
+called by the learned Nostradamus and the Transcendental, who read the
+future and rode the Great White Horse of Death. All things hidden are
+open to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord only gaped, but his wife and a serving wench, who had
+come to the door out of curiosity, and were listening and staring with
+all their might, crossed themselves industriously. &quot;I am here,&quot; the
+stranger continued, after a brief pause, &quot;to construct the horoscope
+of His Eminence the Cardinal, of whom it has been predicted that he
+will die at Yvetot. But I find the conditions unpropitious. There is
+an adverse influence in this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord scratched his head, and looked helplessly at his wife.
+But she was quite taken up with awe of the stranger, whose head nearly
+touched the ceiling of the low room; while his long, pale face seemed
+in the obscurity--for the day was dark--to be of an unearthly pallor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An adverse influence,&quot; the astrologer continued gravely. &quot;What is
+more, I now see where it is. It is in the stable. You have a grey
+horse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord, somewhat astonished, said he had.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You had. You have not now. The devil has it!&quot; was the astounding
+answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My grey horse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stranger inclined his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, there you are wrong!&quot; the host retorted briskly. &quot;I'm hanged if
+he has! For I rode the horse this morning, and it went as well and
+quietly as ever in its life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Send and see,&quot; the tall man answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The serving girl, obeying a nod, went off reluctantly to the stable,
+while her master, casting a look of misliking at his guest, walked
+uneasily to the window. In a moment the girl came back, her face
+white. &quot;The grey is in a fit,&quot; she cried, keeping the whole width of
+the room between her and the stranger. &quot;It is sweating and
+staggering.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord, with an oath, ran off to see, and in a minute the
+appearance of an excited group in the square under the window showed
+that the thing was known. The traveller took no notice of this,
+however, nor of the curious and reverential glances which the
+womenfolk, huddled about the door of the room, cast at him. He walked
+up and down the room with his eyes lowered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord came back presently, his face black as thunder. &quot;It has
+got the staggers,&quot; he said resentfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It has got the devil,&quot; the stranger answered coldly. &quot;I knew it was
+in the house when I entered. If you doubt me, I will prove it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay?&quot; said the landlord stubbornly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man in black went to his saddle-bag, which had been brought up and
+laid in a corner, and took out a shallow glass bowl, curiously
+embossed with a cross and some mystic symbols. &quot;Go to the church
+there,&quot; he said, &quot;and fill this with holy water.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The host took it unwillingly, and went on his strange errand. While he
+was away the astrologer opened the window, and looked out idly. When
+he saw the other returning, he gave the order &quot;Lead out the horse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a brief delay, but presently two stablemen, with a little
+posse of wondering attendants, partly urged and partly led out a
+handsome grey horse. The poor animal trembled and hung its head, but
+with some difficulty was brought under the window. Now and again a
+sharp spasm convulsed its limbs, and scattered the spectators right
+and left.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Solomon Nôtredame leaned out of the window. In his left hand he held
+the bowl, in his right a small brush. &quot;If this beast is sick with any
+earthly sickness,&quot; he cried in a deep solemn voice, audible across the
+square, &quot;or with such as earthly skill can cure, then let this holy
+water do it no harm, but refresh it. But if it be possessed by the
+devil, and given up to the powers of darkness and to the enemy of man
+for ever and ever to do his will and pleasure, then let these drops
+burn and consume it as with fire. Amen! Amen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With the last word he sprinkled the horse. The effect was magical. The
+animal reared up, as if it had been furiously spurred, and plunged so
+violently that the men who held it were dragged this way and that. The
+crowd fled every way; but not so quickly but that a hundred eyes had
+seen the horse smoke where the water fell on it. Moreover, when they
+cautiously approached it, the hair in two or three places was found to
+be burned off!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The magician turned gravely from the window. &quot;I wish to eat,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">None of the servants, however, would come into the room or serve him,
+and the landlord, trembling, set the board with his own hands and
+waited on him. Mine host had begun by doubting and suspecting, but,
+simple man! his scepticism was not proof against the holy water trial
+and his wife's terror. By-and-by, with a sidelong glance at his guest,
+he faltered the question: What should he do with the horse?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man in black looked solemn. &quot;Whoever mounts it will die within the
+year,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will shoot it,&quot; the landlord replied, shuddering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The devil will pass into one of the other horses,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then,&quot; said the miserable innkeeper, &quot;perhaps your honour would
+accept it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God forbid!&quot; the astrologer answered. And that frightened the other
+more than all the rest. &quot;But if you can find at any time,&quot; the wizard
+continued, &quot;a beggar-boy with black hair and blue eyes, who does not
+know his father's name, he may take the horse and break the spell. So
+I read the signs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The landlord cried out that such a person was not to be met with in a
+lifetime. But before he had well finished his sentence a shrill voice
+called through the keyhole that there was such a boy in the yard at
+that moment, offering poultry for sale.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In God's name, then, give him the horse!&quot; the stranger said. &quot;Bid him
+take it to Rouen, and at every running water he comes to say a
+paternoster and sprinkle its tail. So he may escape, and you, too. I
+know no other way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The trembling innkeeper said he would do that, and did it. And so,
+when the man in black rode into Rouen the next evening, he did not
+ride alone. He was attended at a respectful distance by a good-looking
+page clad in sable velvet, and mounted on a handsome grey horse.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">MAN AND WIFE.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It is a pleasant thing to be warmly clad and to lie softly, and at
+night to be in shelter and in the day to eat and drink. But all these
+things may be dearly bought, and so the boy Jehan de Bault soon found.
+He was no longer beaten, chained, or starved; he lay in a truckle bed
+instead of a stable; the work he had to do was of the lightest. But
+he paid for all in fears--in an ever-present, abiding, mastering fear
+of the man behind whom he rode: who never scolded, never rated, nor
+even struck him, but whose lightest word--and much more, his long
+silences--filled the lad with dread and awe unspeakable. Something
+sinister in the man's face, all found; but to Jehan, who never doubted
+his dark powers, and who shrank from his eye, and flinched at his
+voice, and cowered when he spoke, there was a cold malevolence in the
+face, an evil knowledge, that made the boy's flesh creep and chained
+his soul with dread.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer saw this, and revelled in it, and went about to
+increase it after a fashion of his own. Hearing the boy, on an
+occasion when he had turned to him suddenly, ejaculate &quot;<i>Oh, Dieu!</i>&quot;
+he said, with a dreadful smile, &quot;You should not say that! Do you know
+why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy's face grew a shade paler, but he did not speak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ask me why! Say, 'Why not?'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not?&quot; Jehan muttered. He would have given the world to avert his
+eyes, but he could not.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because you have sold yourself to the devil!&quot; the other hissed.
+&quot;Others may say it; you may not. What is the use? You have sold
+yourself--body, soul, and spirit. You came of your own accord, and
+climbed on the black horse. And now,&quot; he continued, in a tone which
+always compelled obedience, &quot;answer my questions. What is your name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jehan de Bault,&quot; the boy whispered, shivering and shuddering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Louder!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jehan de Bault.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Repeat the story you told at the fair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of Perigord, of a most noble and
+puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle, and the Low.
+In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my forefathers were three
+marshals of France. I stand here, the last of my race; in token
+whereof may God preserve my mother, the King, France, and this
+Province.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ha! In the County of Perigord!&quot; the astrologer said, with a sudden
+lightening of his heavy brows. &quot;You have remembered that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes. I heard the word at Fécamp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And all that is true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who taught it you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know.&quot; The boy's face, in its straining, was painful to see.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the first thing you can remember?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A house in a wood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you remember your father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No--yes--I am not sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Umph! Were you stolen by gypsies?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or sold by your father's steward?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How long were you with the man from whom I took you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do,&quot; the astrologer answered, in the same even tone in which he had
+put the questions. And the boy never doubted him. &quot;Beware, therefore,&quot;
+the man in black continued, with a dreadful sidelong glance, &quot;how you
+seek to deceive me! You can fall back now. I have done with you for
+the present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">I say &quot;the boy never doubted him.&quot; This was not wonderful in an age of
+spells and <i>diablerie</i>, when the wisest allowed the reality of magic,
+and the learned and curious could cite a hundred instances of its
+power. That La Brosse warned Henry the Great he would die in his
+coach, and that Thomassin read in the stars the very day, hour, and
+minute of the catastrophe, no man of that time questioned. That Michel
+Nôtredame promised a crown to each of Catherine de Medici's three
+sons, and that Sully's preceptor foretold in detail that Minister's
+career, were held to be facts as certain as that La Rivière cast the
+horoscope of the thirteenth Louis while the future monarch lay in his
+cradle. The men of the day believed that the Concini swayed her
+mistress by magic; that Wallenstein, the greatest soldier of his time,
+did nothing without his familiar; that Richelieu, the greatest
+statesman, had Joseph always at his elbow. In such an age it was not
+wonderful that a child should accept without question the claims of
+this man: who was accustomed to inspire fear in the many, and in the
+few that vague and subtle repulsion which we are wont to associate
+with the presence of evil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Beyond Rouen, and between that city and Paris, the two companions
+found the road well frequented. Of the passers, many stood to gaze at
+the traveller in black, and some drew to the farther side of the road
+as he went by. But none laughed or found anything ridiculous in his
+appearance; or if they did, it needed but a glance from his long, pale
+face to restore them to sobriety. At the inn at Rouen he was well
+received; at the <i>Grand Cerf</i> at Les Andelys, where he seemed to be
+known, he was welcomed with effusion. Though the house was full, a
+separate chamber was assigned to him, and supper prepared for him with
+the utmost speed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here, however, he was not destined to enjoy his privacy long. At the
+last moment, as he was sitting down to his meal, with the boy in
+attendance, a bustle was heard outside. The voice of someone rating
+the landlord in no measured terms became audible, the noise growing
+louder as the speaker mounted the stairs. Presently a hand was laid on
+the latch, the door was thrown open, and a gentleman strode into the
+room whose swaggering air and angry gestures showed that he was
+determined to make good his footing. A lady, masked, and in a
+travelling habit, followed more quietly; and in the background could
+be seen three or four servants, together with the unfortunate
+landlord, who was very evidently divided between fear of his
+mysterious guest and the claims of the newcomers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer rose slowly from his seat. His peculiar aspect, his
+stature and leanness and black garb, which never failed to impress
+strangers, took the intruder somewhat aback. He hesitated, and
+removing his hat, began to utter a tardy apology. &quot;I crave your
+pardon, sir,&quot; he said ungraciously, &quot;but we ride on after supper. We
+stay here only to eat, and they tell us there is no other chamber with
+even a degree of emptiness in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are welcome, M. de Vidoche,&quot; the man in black answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The intruder started and frowned. &quot;You know my name,&quot; he said, with a
+sneer. &quot;But there, I suppose it is your business to know these
+things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is my business to know,&quot; the astrologer answered, unmoved. &quot;Will
+not madame be seated?&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p52"><img border="0" src="images/p52.png" alt="p52"></a><br>
+&quot;THE ASTROLOGER ROSE SLOWLY FROM HIS SEAT&quot; (<i>p</i>. 52).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The lady bowed, and taking off her mask with fingers which trembled a
+little, disclosed a fair, childish face, that would, have been pretty,
+and even charming, but for an expression of nervousness which seemed
+habitual to it. She shrank from the astrologer's gaze, and, sitting
+down as far from him as the table permitted, pretended to busy herself
+in taking off her gloves. He was accustomed to be met in this way, and
+to see the timid quake before him; but it did not escape his notice
+that this lady shrank also at the sound of her husband's voice, and
+when he spoke, listened with the pitiful air of propitiation which may
+be seen in a whipped dog. She was pale, and by the side of her husband
+seemed to lack colour. He was a man of singularly handsome exterior,
+dark-haired and hard-eyed, with a high, fresh complexion, and a
+sneering lip. His dress was in the extreme of the fashion, his falling
+collar vandyked, and his breeches open below the knee, where they were
+met by wide-mouthed boots. A great plume of feathers set off his hat,
+and he carried a switch as well as a sword.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer read the story at a glance. &quot;Madame is perhaps fatigued
+by the journey,&quot; he said politely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame is very easily fatigued,&quot; the husband replied, throwing down
+his hat with a savage sneer, &quot;especially when she is doing anything
+she does not like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are for Paris,&quot; Nôtredame answered, with apparent surprise. &quot;I
+thought all ladies liked Paris. Now, if madame were leaving Paris and
+going to the country----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The country!&quot; M. de Vidoche exclaimed, with an impatient oath. &quot;She
+would bury herself there if she could!&quot; And he added something under
+his breath, the point of which it was not very difficult to guess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Vidoche forced a smile, striving, woman-like, to cover all.
+&quot;It is natural I should like Pinatel,&quot; she said timidly, her eye on
+her husband. &quot;I have lived there so much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, madame, you are never tired of reminding me of that!&quot; M. de
+Vidoche retorted harshly. Women who are afraid of their husbands say
+the right thing once in a hundred times. &quot;You will tell this gentleman
+in a moment that I was a beggar when I married you! But if I was----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Charles!&quot; she murmured faintly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is right! Cry now!&quot; he exclaimed brutally. &quot;Thank God, however,
+here is supper. And after supper we go on to Vernon. The roads are
+rutty, and you will have something else to do besides cry then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man in black, going on with his meal at the other end of the
+table, listened with an impassive face. Like all his profession, he
+seemed inclined to hear rather than to talk. But when supper came up
+with only one plate for the two--a mistake due to the crowded state of
+the inn--and M. de Vidoche fell to scolding very loudly, he seemed
+unable to refrain from saying a word in the innkeeper's defence. &quot;It
+is not so very unusual for the husband to share his wife's plate,&quot; he
+said coolly; &quot;and sometimes a good deal more that is hers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche looked at him for a moment, as if he were minded to ask
+him what business it was of his; but he thought better of it, and
+instead said, with a scowl, &quot;It is not so very unusual either for
+astrologers to make mistakes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quacks,&quot; the man in black said calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I quite agree,&quot; M. de Vidoche replied, with mock politeness. &quot;I
+accept the correction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yet there is one thing to be said even then,&quot; the astrologer
+continued, slowly leaning forward, and, as if by chance, moving
+one of the candles so as to bring it directly between madame and
+himself. &quot;I have noticed it, M. de Vidoche. They make mistakes
+sometimes in predicting marriages, and even births. But never in
+predicting--deaths.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche, who may have had some key in his own breast which
+unlocked the full meaning of the other's words, started and looked
+across at him. Whatever he read in the pale, sombre countenance which
+the removal of the candle fully revealed to him, and in which the
+eyes, burning vividly, seemed alone alive, he shuddered. He made no
+reply. His look dropped. Even a little of his high colour left his
+checks. He went on with his meal in silence. The four tall candles
+still burned dully on the table. But to M. de Vidoche they seemed on a
+sudden to be the candles that burn by the side of a corpse. In a flash
+he saw a room hung with black, a bed, and a silent covered form on
+it--a form with wan, fair hair--a woman's. And then he saw other
+things.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Clearly, the astrologer was no ordinary man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He seemed to take no notice, however, of the effect his words had
+produced. Indeed, he no longer urged his attentions on M. de Vidoche.
+He turned politely to madame, and made some commonplace observation on
+the roads. She answered it--inattentively.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are looking at my boy,&quot; he continued; for Jehan was waiting
+inside the door, watching with a frightened, fascinated gaze his
+master's every act and movement. &quot;I do not wonder that he attracts the
+ladies' eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is a handsome child,&quot; she answered, smiling faintly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he is good-looking,&quot; the man in black rejoined. &quot;There is one
+thing which men of science sell that he will never need.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is that?&quot; she asked curiously, looking at the astrologer for the
+first time with attention.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A love-philtre,&quot; he answered courteously. &quot;His looks, like madame's,
+will always supply its place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She coloured, smiling a little sadly. &quot;Are there such things?&quot; she
+said. &quot;Is it true?--I mean, I always thought that they were a child's
+tale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No more than poisons and antidotes, madame,&quot; he answered earnestly,
+&quot;the preservative power of salt, or the destructive power of
+gunpowder. You take the Queen's herb, you sneeze; the drug of
+Paracelsus, you sleep; wine, you see double. Why is the powder of
+attraction more wonderful than these? Or if you remain unconvinced,&quot;
+he continued more lightly, &quot;look round you, madame. You see young men
+loving old women, the high-born allying themselves with the vulgar,
+the ugly enchanting the beautiful. You see a hundred inexplicable
+matches. Believe me, it is we who make them. I speak without motive,&quot;
+he added, bowing, &quot;for Madame de Vidoche can never have need of other
+philtre than her eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame, toying idly with a plate, her regards on the table, sighed.
+&quot;And yet they say matches are made in heaven,&quot; she murmured softly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is from heaven--from the stars--we derive our knowledge,&quot; he
+answered, in the same tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But his face!--it was well she did not see that! And before more
+passed, M. de Vidoche broke into the conversation. &quot;What rubbish is
+this?&quot; he said, speaking roughly to his wife. &quot;Have you finished? Then
+let us pay this rascally landlord and be off. If you do not want to
+spend the night on the road, that is. Where are those fools of
+servants?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He rose, and went to the door and shouted for them, and came back
+and took up his cloak and hat with much movement and bustle.
+But it was noticeable in all he did that he never once met the
+astrologer's eye or looked his way. Even when he bade him a surly
+&quot;Good-night&quot;--casually uttered in the midst of injunctions to his wife
+to be quick--he spoke over his shoulder; and he left the room in the
+same fashion, completely absorbed, it seemed, in the fastening of his
+cloak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some, treated in this cavalier fashion, might have been hurt, and some
+might have resented it. But the man in black did neither. Left alone,
+he remained by the table in an expectant attitude, a sneering smile,
+which the light of the candles threw into high relief, on his grim
+visage. Suddenly the door opened, and M. de Vidoche, cloaked and
+covered, came in. Without raising his eyes, he looked round the
+room--for something he had mislaid, it seemed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, by the way,&quot; he said suddenly, and without looking up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>My address?</i>&quot; the man in black interjected, with a devilish
+readiness. &quot;The end of the Rue Touchet in the Quartier du Marais, near
+the river. Where, believe me,&quot; he continued, with a mocking bow, &quot;I
+shall give you madame's horoscope with the greatest pleasure, or any
+other little matter you may require.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think you are the devil!&quot; M. de Vidoche muttered wrathfully, his
+cheek growing pale.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Possibly,&quot; the astrologer answered. &quot;In that or any other case--<i>au
+revoir!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the landlord came up a little later to apologise to M. Solomon
+Nôtredame de Paris for the inconvenience to which he had unwillingly
+put him, he found his guest in high good-humour. &quot;It is nothing, my
+friend--it is nothing,&quot; M. Nôtredame said kindly. &quot;I found my company
+good enough. This M. de Vidoche is of this country; and a rich man, I
+understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Through his wife,&quot; the host said cautiously. &quot;Ah! so rich that she
+could build our old castle here from the ground again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame de Vidoche was of Pinatel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure. Monsieur knows everything. By Jumiéges to the north. I
+have been there once. But she has a house in Paris besides, and
+estates, I hear, in the south--in Perigord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ha!&quot; the astrologer muttered. &quot;Perigord again. That is odd, now.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">THE HOUSE WITH TWO DOORS.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">On the site of the old Palais des Tournelles, where was held the
+tournament in which Henry the Second was killed, Henry the Fourth
+built the Place Royale. You will not find it called by that name in
+any map of Paris of to-day; modern France, which has no history,
+traditions, or reverence, has carefully erased such landmarks in
+favour of her Grévys and Eiffels, her journalists and soap-boilers.
+But for all that, and though the Place Royale has now lost even its
+name, in the reign of the thirteenth Louis it was the centre of
+fashion. The Quartier du Marais, in which it stood, opposite the Ile
+de St. Louis, was then the Court quarter. It saw coaches come into
+common use among the nobility, and ruffs and primero go out, and a
+great many other queer things, such as Court quarters in those days
+looked to see.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The back stairs of a palace, however, are seldom an improving or
+brilliant place; or if they can be said to be brilliant at all, their
+brightness is of a somewhat lurid and ghastly character. The king's
+amusements--very royal and natural, no doubt, and, when viewed from
+the proper quarter, attractive enough--have another side; and that
+side is towards the back stairs. It is the same with the Court and its
+purlieus. They are the rough side of the cloth, the underside of the
+moss, the cancer under the fair linen. Secrets are no secrets there;
+and so it has always been. Things De Thou did not know, and Brantôme
+only guessed at, were household words there. They in the Court
+under-world knew all about that mysterious disease of which Gabrielle
+d'Estrées died after eating a citron at Zamet's--all, more than we
+know now or has ever been printed. That little prick of a knife which
+made the second Wednesday in May, 1610, a day memorable in history,
+was gossip down there a month before. Henry of Condé's death,
+Mazarin's marriage, D'Eon's sex, Cagliostro's birth, were no mysteries
+in the by-ways of the Louvre and Petit Trianon. He who wrote &quot;Under
+the king's hearthstone are many cockroaches&quot; knew his world--a seamy,
+ugly, vicious, dangerous world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If any street in the Paris of that day belonged to it, the Rue
+Touchet did; a little street a quarter of a mile from the Place
+Royale, on the verge of the Quartier du Marais. The houses on one side
+of the street had their backs to the river, from which they were
+divided only by a few paces of foul foreshore. These houses were older
+than the opposite row, were irregularly built, and piled high with
+gables and crooked chimneys. Here and there a beetle-browed passage
+led beneath them to the river; and one out of every two was a tavern,
+or worse. A fencing-school and a gambling-hell occupied the two
+largest. To the south-west the street ended in a <i>cul-de-sac</i>, being
+closed by a squat stone house, built out of the ruins of an old water
+gateway that had once stood there. The windows of this house were
+never unshuttered, the door was seldom opened in the daylight. It was
+the abode of Solomon Nôtredame. Once a week or so the astrologer's
+sombre figure might be seen entering or leaving, and men at tavern
+doors would point at him, and slatternly women, leaning out of window,
+cross themselves. But few in the Rue Touchet knew that the house had a
+second door, which did not open on the water, as the back doors of the
+riverside houses did, but on a quiet street leading to it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. Nôtredame's house was, in fact, double, and served two sorts of
+clients. Great ladies and courtiers, wives of the long robe and city
+madams, came to the door in the quiet street, and knew nothing of the
+Rue Touchet. Through the latter, on the other hand, came those who
+paid in meal, if not in malt; lackeys and waiting-maids, and skulking
+apprentices and led-captains--the dregs of the quarter, sodden with
+vice and crime--and knowledge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The house was furnished accordingly. The clients of the Rue Touchet
+found the astrologer in a room divided into two by scarlet hangings,
+so arranged as to afford the visitor a partial view of the farther
+half, where the sullen glow of a furnace disclosed alembics and
+crucibles, mortars and retorts, a multitude of uncouth vessels and
+phials, and all the mysterious apparatus of the alchemist. Immediately
+about him the shuddering rascal found things still more striking. A
+dead hand hung over each door, a skeleton peeped from a closet. A
+stuffed alligator sprawled on the floor, and, by the wavering
+uncertain light of the furnace, seemed each moment to be awaking to
+life. Cabalistic signs and strange instruments and skull-headed staves
+were everywhere, with parchment scrolls and monstrous mandrakes, and a
+farrago of such things as might impose on the ignorant; who, if he
+pleased, might sit on a coffin, and, when he would amuse himself,
+found a living toad at his foot! Dimly seen, crowded together,
+ill-understood, these things were enough to overawe the vulgar, and
+had often struck terror into the boldest ruffians the Rue Touchet
+could boast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">From this room a little staircase, closed at the top by a strong door,
+led to the chamber and antechamber in which the astrologer received
+his real clients. Here all was changed. Both rooms were hung,
+canopied, carpeted with black: were vast, death-like, empty. The
+antechamber contained two stools, and in the middle of the floor a
+large crystal ball on a bronze stand. That was all, except the silver
+hanging lamp, which burned blue, and added to the funereal gloom of
+the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The inner chamber, which was lighted by six candles set in sconces
+round the wall, was almost as bare. A kind of altar at the farther end
+bore two great tomes, continually open. In the middle of the floor was
+an astrolabe on an ebony pillar, and the floor itself was embroidered
+in white, with the signs of the Zodiac and the twelve Houses arranged
+in a circle. A seat for the astrologer stood near the altar. And that
+was all. For power over such as visited him here Nôtredame depended on
+a higher range of ideas; on the more subtle forms of superstition, the
+influence of gloom and silence on the conscience: and above all,
+perhaps, on his knowledge of the world--<i>and them</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Into the midst of all this came that shrinking, terrified little
+mortal, Jehan. It was his business to open the door into the quiet
+street, and admit those who called. He was forbidden to speak under
+the most terrible penalties, so that visitors thought him dumb. For a
+week after his coming he lived in a world of almost intolerable fear.
+The darkness and silence of the house, the funereal lights and
+hangings, the skulls and bones and horrid things he saw, and on which
+he came when he least expected them, almost turned his brain. He
+shuddered, and crouched hither and thither. His face grew white, and
+his eyes took a strange staring look, so that the sourest might have
+pitied him. It wanted, in a word, but a little to send the child stark
+mad; and but for his hardy training and outdoor life, that little
+would not have been wanting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He might have fled, for he was trusted at the door, and at any moment
+could have opened it and escaped. But Jehan never doubted his master's
+power to find him and bring him back; and the thought did not enter
+his mind. After a week or so, familiarity wrought on him, as on all.
+The house grew less terrifying, the darkness lost its horror, the air
+of silence and dread its first paralysing influence. He began to sleep
+better. Curiosity, in a degree, took the place of fear. He fell to
+poring over the signs of the Zodiac, and to taking furtive peeps into
+the crystal. The toad became his playfellow. He fed it with
+cockroaches, and no longer wanted employment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer saw the change in the lad, and perhaps was not wholly
+pleased with it. By-and-by he took steps to limit it. One day he found
+Jehan playing with the toad with something of a boy's <i>abandon</i>,
+making the uncouth creature leap over his hands, and tickling it with
+a straw. The boy rose on his entrance, and shrank away; for his fear
+of the man's sinister face and silent ways was not in any way
+lessened. But Nôtredame called him back. &quot;You are beginning to
+forget,&quot; he said, eyeing the child grimly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy trembled under his gaze, but did not dare to answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whose are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan looked this way and that. At length, with dry lips, he muttered,
+&quot;Yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, you are not,&quot; the man in black replied. &quot;Think again. You have a
+short memory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan thought and sweated. But the man would have his answer, and at
+last Jehan whispered, &quot;The devil's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is better,&quot; the astrologer said coldly. &quot;Do you know what this
+is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He held up a glass bowl. The boy recognised it, and his hair began to
+rise. But he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is holy water,&quot; the man in black said, his small cruel eyes
+devouring the boy. &quot;Hold out your hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan dared not refuse &quot;This will try you,&quot; Nôtredame said slowly,
+&quot;whether you are the devil's or not. If not, water will not hurt you.
+If so, if you are his for ever and ever, to do his will and pleasure,
+then it will burn like fire!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the last word he suddenly sprinkled some with a brush on the boy's
+hand. Jehan leapt back with a shriek of pain, and, holding the burned
+hand to his breast, glared at his master with starting eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It burns,&quot; said the astrologer pitilessly, &quot;It burns. It is as I
+said. You are <i>his</i>. <i>His!</i> After this I think you will remember. Now
+go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan went away, shuddering with horror and pain. But the lesson had
+not the precise effect intended. He continued to fear his master, but
+he began to hate him also, with a passionate, lasting hatred strange
+in a child. Though he still shrank and crouched in his presence,
+behind his back he was no longer restrained by fear. The boy knew of
+no way in which he could avenge himself. He did not form any plans to
+that end, he did not conceive the possibility of the thing. But he
+hated; and, given the opportunity, was ripe to seize it.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p74"><img border="0" src="images/p74.png" alt="p74"></a><br>
+&quot;JEHAN LEAPT BACK WITH A SHRIEK OF PAIN&quot; (<i>p</i>. 74).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">He was locked in whenever Nôtredame went out; and in this way he spent
+many solitary and fearful hours. These led him, however, in the end,
+to a discovery. One day, about the middle of December, while he was
+poking about the house in the astrologer's absence, he found a door. I
+say &quot;found,&quot; for though it was not a secret door, it was small and
+difficult to detect, being placed in the side of the straight, narrow
+passage at the head of the little staircase which led from the lower
+to the upper chambers. At first he thought it was locked, but coming
+to examine it more closely, though in mere curiosity, he found the
+handle of the latch let into a hollow of the panel. He pressed this,
+and the door yielded a little.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the time the boy was scared. He saw the place was dark, drew the
+door to the jamb again, and went away without satisfying his
+curiosity. But in a little while the desire to know what was behind
+the door overcame his terror. He returned with a taper, and, pressing
+the latch again, pushed the door open and entered, his heart beating
+loudly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He held up his taper, and saw a very narrow, bare closet, made in the
+thickness of the wall. And that was all, for the place was empty--the
+one and only thing it contained being a soft, rough mat which covered
+the floor. The boy stared fearfully about him, still expecting
+something dreadful, but there was nothing else to be seen. And
+gradually his fears subsided, and his curiosity with them, and he went
+out again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Another day, however, when he came into this place, he made a
+discovery. Against either wall he saw a morsel of black cloth
+fastened--a little flap a few inches long and three inches wide. He
+held the light first to one and then to another of these, but he could
+make nothing of them until he noticed that the lower edges were loose.
+Then he raised one. It disclosed a long, narrow slit, through which he
+could see the laboratory, with the fire burning dully, the phials
+glistening, and the crocodile going through its unceasing pretence of
+arousing itself. He raised the other, and found a slit there, too; but
+as the chamber on that side--the room with the astrolabe--was in
+darkness, he could see nothing. He understood, however. The closet was
+a spying-place, and these were Judas-holes, so arranged that the
+occupant, himself unheard and unseen, could see and hear all that
+happened on either side of him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the astrologer's custom to lock up the large room next the Rue
+Touchet when he went out. For this reason, and because the place was
+forbidden, the boy lingered at the Judas-hole, gazing into it. He knew
+by this time most of the queer things it contained, and the red glow
+of the furnace fire gave it, to his mind, a weird kind of comfort. He
+listened to the ashes falling, and the ticking of some clockwork at
+the farther end. He began idly to enumerate all the things he could
+see; but the curtain which shut off the laboratory proper threw a
+great shadow across the room, and this he strove in vain to pierce. To
+see the better, he put out his light and looked again. He had scarcely
+brought his eyes back to the slit, however, when a low grating noise
+caught his ear. He started and held his breath, but before he could
+stir a finger the heavy door which communicated with the Rue Touchet
+slowly opened a foot or two, and the astrologer came in.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a few seconds the boy remained gazing, afraid to breathe or move.
+Then, with an effort, he dropped the cloth over the slit, and crept
+softly away.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">THE UPPER PORTAL.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer was not alone. A tall figure, cloaked and muffled to
+the chin, entered after him, and stood waiting at his elbow while he
+secured the fastenings of the door. Apparently, they had only met on
+the threshold, for the stranger, after looking round him and silently
+noting the fantastic disorder of the room, said, in a hoarse voice,
+&quot;You do not know me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perfectly, M. de Vidoche,&quot; the astrologer answered, removing his hat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you know I was following you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I came to show you the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a lie, at any rate!&quot; the young noble retorted, with a sneer,
+&quot;for I did not know I was coming myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Until you saw me,&quot; the astrologer answered, unmoved. &quot;Will you not
+take off your cloak? You will need it when you leave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche complied with an ill grace. &quot;The usual stock-in-trade, I
+see,&quot; he muttered, looking round him scornfully. &quot;Skulls and bones,
+and dead hands and gibbet-ropes. Faugh! The place smells. I suppose
+these are the things you keep to frighten children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Some,&quot; Nôtredame answered calmly--he was busy lighting a lamp--&quot;and
+some are for sale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For sale?&quot; M. de Vidoche cried incredulously. &quot;Who will buy them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Some one thing, and some another,&quot; the astrologer answered
+carelessly. &quot;Take this, for instance,&quot; he continued, turning to his
+visitor, and looking at him for the first time. &quot;I expect to find a
+customer for <i>that</i> very shortly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche followed the direction of his finger, and shuddered,
+despite himself. &quot;That&quot; was a coffin. &quot;Enough of this,&quot; he said, with
+savage impatience. &quot;Suppose you get off your high horse, and come to
+business. Can I sit, man, or are you going to keep me standing all
+night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man in black brought forward two stools, and led the way behind
+the curtain. &quot;It is warmer here,&quot; he said, pushing aside an earthen
+pipkin, and clearing a space with his foot in front of the glowing
+embers. &quot;Now I am at your service, M. de Vidoche. Pray be seated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are we alone?&quot; the young noble asked suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Trust me for that,&quot; the astrologer answered. &quot;I know my business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But M. de Vidoche seemed to find some difficulty in stating his;
+though he had evinced so high a regard for time a moment before. He
+sat irresolute, stealing malevolent glances first at his companion,
+and then at the dull, angry-looking fire. If he expected M. Nôtredame
+to help him, however, he did not yet know his host. The astrologer sat
+patiently waiting, with every expression, save placid expectation,
+discharged from his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, d----n you!&quot; the young man ejaculated at last. &quot;Have you got
+nothing to say? You know what I want,&quot; he added, with irritation, &quot;as
+well as I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall be happy to learn,&quot; the astrologer answered politely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give it me without more words, and let me go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer raised his eyebrows. &quot;Alas! there is a limit to
+omniscience,&quot; he said, shaking his head gently. &quot;It is true we keep it
+in stock--to frighten children. But it does not help me at present, M.
+de Vidoche.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche looked at him with an evil scowl. &quot;I see; you want me to
+commit myself,&quot; he muttered. The perspiration stood on his forehead,
+and his voice was husky with rage or some other emotion. &quot;I was a fool
+to come here,&quot; he continued. &quot;If you must have it, I want to kill a
+cat; and I want something to give to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer laughed silently. &quot;The mountain was in labour, and lo!
+a cat!&quot; he said, in a tone of amusement. &quot;And lo! a cat! Well, in that
+case I am afraid you have come to the wrong place, M. de Vidoche. I
+don't kill cats. There is no risk in it, you see,&quot; he continued,
+looking fixedly at his companion, &quot;and no profit. Nobody cares about a
+cat. The first herbalist you come to will give you what you want for a
+few sous. Even if the creature turns black within the hour, and its
+mouth goes to the nape of its neck,&quot; he went on, with a horrid smile,
+&quot;as Madame de Beaufort's did--<i>cui malo?</i>--no one is a penny the
+worse. But if it were a question of---- I think I saw monsieur riding
+in company with Mademoiselle de Farincourt to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche, who had been contemplating his tormentor with eyes of
+rage and horror, started at the unexpected question. &quot;Well,&quot; he
+muttered, &quot;and what if I was?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, nothing,&quot; the man in black answered carelessly. &quot;Mademoiselle is
+beautiful, and monsieur is a happy man if she smiles on him. But she
+is high-born; and proud, I am told.&quot; He leaned forward as he spoke,
+and warmed his long, lean hands at the fire. But his beady eyes never
+left the other's face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche writhed under their gaze. &quot;Curse you!&quot; he muttered
+hoarsely. &quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her family are proud also, I am told; and powerful. Friends of the
+Cardinal too, I hear.&quot; The man in black's smile was like nothing save
+the crocodile's.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche rose from his seat, but sat down again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He would avenge the honour of the family to the death,&quot; continued the
+astrologer gently. &quot;To the death, I should say. Don't you think so, M.
+de Vidoche?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The perspiration stood in thick drops on the young man's forehead, and
+he glared at his tormentor. But the latter met the look placidly, and
+seemed ignorant of the effect he was producing. &quot;It is a pity,
+therefore, monsieur is not free to marry,&quot; he said, shaking his head
+regretfully--&quot;a great pity. One does not know what may happen. Yet, on
+the other hand, if he had not married he would be a poor man now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche sprang to his feet with an oath. But he sat down again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When he married he <i>was</i> a poor man, I think,&quot; the astrologer
+continued, for the first time averting his gaze from the other's
+face, and looking into the fire with a queer smile. &quot;And in debt.
+Madame--the present Madame de Vidoche, I mean--paid his debts, and
+brought him an estate, I believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of which she has never ceased to remind him twice a day since!&quot; the
+young man cried in a terrible voice. And then in a moment he lost all
+self-control, all disguise, all the timid cunning which had marked him
+hitherto. He sprang to his feet. The veins in his temples swelled, his
+face grew red. So true is it that small things try us more than great
+ones, and small grievances rub deeper raws than great wrongs. &quot;My
+God!&quot; he said between his teeth, &quot;if you knew what I have suffered
+from that woman! Pale-faced, puling fool, I have loathed her these
+five years, and I have been tied to her and her whining ways and her
+nun's face! Twice a day? No, ten times a day, twenty times a day, she
+has reminded me of my debts, my poverty, and my straits before I
+married her! And of her family! And her three marshals! And her----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stopped for very lack of breath. &quot;Madame was of good family?&quot; the
+man in black said abruptly. He had grown suddenly attentive. His
+shadow on the wall behind him was still and straight-backed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes,&quot; the husband answered bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In Perigord?'</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Three marshals of France?&quot; M. Nôtredame murmured thoughtfully; but
+there was a strange light in his eyes, and he kept his face carefully
+averted from his companion. &quot;That is not common! That is certainly
+something to boast of!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Mon Dieu!</i> She did boast of it, though no one else allowed the
+claim. And of her blood of Roland!&quot; M. de Vidoche cried, with scorn.
+His voice still shook, and his hands trembled with rage. He strode up
+and down.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What was her name before she married?&quot; the astrologer asked, stooping
+over the fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man stopped, arrested in his passion--stopped, and looked at
+him suspiciously. &quot;Her name?&quot; he muttered. &quot;What has that to do with
+it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you want me to--draw her horoscope,&quot; the astrologer replied, with
+a cunning smile, &quot;I must have something to go upon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Diane de Martinbault,&quot; the young man answered sullenly; and then, in
+a fresh burst of rage, he muttered, &quot;Diane! <i>Diable!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She inherited her estates from her father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who had a son? A child who died young?&quot; the astrologer continued
+coolly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche looked at him. &quot;That is true,&quot; he said sulkily. &quot;But I
+do not see what it has to do with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For answer, the man in black began to laugh, at first silently, then
+aloud--a sly devil's laugh, that sounded more like the glee of fiends
+sporting over a lost soul than any human mirth, so full was it of
+derision and mockery and insult. He made no attempt to check or
+disguise it, but rather seemed to flout it in the other's face; for
+when the young noble asked him, with fierce impatience, what it was,
+and what he meant, he did not explain. He only cried, &quot;In a moment! In
+a moment, noble sir, I swear you shall have what you want. But--ha!
+ha!&quot; And then he fell to laughing again, more loudly and shrilly than
+before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche turned white and red with rage. His first thought was
+that a trap had been laid for him, and that he had fallen into it;
+that to what he had said there had been witnesses; and that now the
+astrologer had thrown off the mask. With a horrible expression of
+shame and fear on his countenance he stood at bay, peering into the
+dark corners, of which there were many in that room, and plumbing the
+shadows. When no one appeared and nothing happened, his fears passed,
+but not his rage. With his hand on his sword, he turned hotly on his
+confederate. &quot;You dog!&quot; he said between his teeth, and his eyes
+gleamed dangerously in the light of the lamp, &quot;know that for a
+farthing I would slit your throat! And I will, too, if you do not this
+instant stop that witch's grin of yours! Are you going to do what I
+ask, or are you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Chut! chut!&quot; the astrologer answered, waving his hand in deprecation.
+&quot;I said so, and I am always as good as my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, but now--now!&quot; the young man retorted furiously. &quot;You have played
+with me long enough. Do you think that I am going to spend the night
+in this charnel-house of yours?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. Nôtredame began to fear that he had carried his cruel amusement too
+far. He had enjoyed himself vastly, and made an unexpected discovery:
+one which opened an endless vista of mischief and plunder to his
+astute gaze. But it was not his policy to drive his customer to
+distraction, and he changed his tone. &quot;Peace, peace,&quot; he said,
+spreading out his hands humbly. &quot;You shall have it now; now, this
+instant. There is only one little preliminary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Name it!&quot; the other said imperiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The price. A horoscope, with the House of Death in the ascendant--the
+Upper Portal, as we call it--is a hundred crowns, M. de Vidoche. There
+is the risk, you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall have it. Give me the--the stuff!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man's voice trembled, but it was with anger and impatience,
+not with fear. The astrologer recognised the change in him, and fell
+into his place. He went, without further demur, to a little shelf in
+the darkest corner of the laboratory, whence he reached down a
+crucible. He was in the act of peering into this, with his back to his
+visitor, when M. de Vidoche uttered a startled cry, and, springing
+towards him, seized his arm. &quot;You fiend!&quot; the young man hissed--he was
+pale to the lips, and shook as with an ague--&quot;there is someone there!
+There is someone listening!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p92"><img border="0" src="images/p92.png" alt="p92"></a><br>
+&quot;FOR A SECOND THE MAN IN BLACK STOOD BREATHLESS&quot; (<i>p</i>.
+92).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">For a second the man in black stood breathless, his hand arrested, the
+shadow of his companion's terror darkening his face. M. de Vidoche
+pointed with a trembling finger to the staircase which led to the
+farther part of the house, and on this the two bent their sombre,
+guilty eyes. The lamp burned unsteadily, giving out an odour of smoke.
+The room was full of shadows, uncouth distorted shapes, that rose and
+fell with the light, and had something terrifying in their sudden
+appearances and vanishings. But in all the place there was nothing so
+appalling or so ugly as the two vicious, panic-stricken faces that
+glared into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man in black was the first to break the silence. &quot;What did you
+hear?&quot; he muttered at length, after a long, long period of waiting and
+watching.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Someone moved there,&quot; Vidoche answered, under his breath. His voice
+still trembled; his face was livid with terror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense!&quot; the other answered. He knew the place, and was fast
+recovering his courage. &quot;What was the sound like, man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A dull, heavy sound. Someone moved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. Nôtredame laughed, but not pleasantly. &quot;It was the toad,&quot; he said.
+&quot;There is no other living thing here. The door on the staircase is
+locked. It is thick, too. A dozen men might be behind it, yet they
+would not hear a word that passed in this room. But come; you shall
+see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He led the way to the farther end of the room, and, moving some of the
+larger things, showed M. de Vidoche that there was no one there.
+Still, the young man was only half-convinced. Even when the toad was
+found lurking in a skull which had rolled to the floor, he continued
+to glance about him doubtfully. &quot;I do not think it was that,&quot; he said.
+&quot;Are you sure that the door is locked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Try it,&quot; the astrologer answered curtly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche did, and nodded. &quot;Yes,&quot; he said. &quot;All the same, I will
+get out of this, Give me the stuff, will you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man in black raised the lamp in one hand, and with the other
+selected from the crucible two tiny yellow packets. He stood a moment,
+weighing them in his hand and looking lovingly at them, and seemed
+unwilling to part with them. &quot;They are power,&quot; he said, in a voice
+that was little above a whisper. The alarm had tried even his nerves,
+and he was not quite himself. &quot;The greatest power of all--death. They
+are the key of the Upper Portal--the true Pulvis Olympicus. Take one
+to-day, one to-morrow, in liquid, and you will feel neither hunger,
+nor cold, nor want, nor desire any more for ever. The late King of
+England took one; but there, it is yours, my friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it painful?&quot; the young man whispered, shuddering, and with eyes
+averted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The tempter grinned horribly. &quot;What is that to you?&quot; he said. &quot;It will
+not bring her mouth to the back of her neck. That is enough for you to
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It will not be detected?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not by the bunglers they call doctors,&quot; the astrologer answered
+scornfully. &quot;Blind bats! You may trust me for that. Of what did the
+King of England die? A tertian ague. So will madame. But if you
+think----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stopped on a sudden, his hand in the air, and the two stood gazing
+at one another with alarm printed on their faces. The loud clanging
+note of a bell, harshly struck in the house, came dolefully to their
+ears &quot;What is it?&quot; M. de Vidoche muttered uneasily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A client,&quot; the astrologer answered quietly. &quot;I will see. Do not stir
+until I come back to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche made an impatient movement towards the door in the Rue
+Touchet: and doubtless he would much have preferred to be gone at
+once, since he had now got what he wanted. But the man in black was
+already unlocking the door at the head of the little staircase, and
+uttering a querulous oath M. de Vidoche resigned himself to wait. With
+a dark look he hid the powders on his person.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He thought himself alone. But all the same a white-faced boy
+lay
+within a few feet of him, watching his every movement, and listening
+to his breathing--a small boy, instinct with hate and loathing.
+Impunity renders people careless, or M. Nôtredame would not have been
+so ready to set down the noise his confederate made to the toad. The
+Judas-hole and the spying-place would have come to mind, and in a
+trice he would have caught the listener in the act, and this history
+would never have been written.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For Jehan, though his master's first entrance and appearance had sent
+him fleeing, breathless and panic-stricken, from his post, had not
+been able to keep aloof long. The house was dull, silent, dark; only
+in the closet was amusement to be found. So while terror dragged him
+one way, curiosity haled him the other, and at last had the victory.
+He listened and shivered at the head of the stairs until that shrill
+eldritch peal of laughter in which the astrologer indulged, and for
+which he was destined to pay dearly, penetrated even the thick door.
+Then he could hold out no longer. His curiosity grew intolerable.
+Laughter! Laughter in that house! Slowly and stealthily the boy opened
+the door of the dark closet, and crept in. Just across the threshold
+he stumbled over the extinguished taper, and this it was which caused
+M. de Vidoche's alarm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan fancied himself discovered, and lay sweating and trembling until
+the search for the toad was over. Then he sat up, and, finding himself
+safe, began to listen. What he heard was not clear, nor perfectly
+intelligible; but gradually there stole even into his boyish mind a
+perception of something horrible. The speakers' looks of fear, their
+low tones and dark glances, the panic which seized them when they
+fancied themselves overheard, and their relief when nothing came of
+it, did more to bring the conviction home to his mind than their
+words. Even of these he caught enough to assure him that someone was
+to be poisoned--to be put out of the world. Only the name of the
+victim--that escaped him.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Probably M. de Vidoche, left to himself, found, his thoughts
+poor
+company, for by-and-by he grew restless. He walked across the room and
+listened, and walked again and listened. The latter movement brought
+him by chance to the foot of the little flight of six steps by which
+the astrologer had retired, and he looked up and saw that the door at
+the top was ajar. Impelled by curiosity, or suspicion, or the mere
+desire to escape from himself, he stole up, and, opening it farther,
+thrust his head through and listened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He remained in this position about a minute. Then he turned, and crept
+down again, and stood, thinking, at the foot of the stairs, with an
+expression of such utter and complete amazement on his face as almost
+transformed the man. Something he had heard or seen which he could not
+understand! Something incredible, something almost miraculous! For all
+else, even his guilty purpose, seemed swallowed up in sheer
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stupor held him until he heard the astrologer's steps. Even then
+he only turned and looked. But if ever dumb lips asked a question, his
+did then.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man in black nodded silently. He seemed not at all surprised that
+the other had heard or seen what he had. Even in him the thing,
+whatever it was, had worked a change. His eyes shone, his eyebrows
+were raised, his face wore a pale smile of triumph and conceit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche found his voice at last &quot;My wife!&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The astrologer's shoulders went up to his ears. He spread out his
+hands. He nodded--once, twice. &quot;<i>Mais oui, Madame!</i>&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here?--now?&quot; M. de Vidoche stammered, his eyes wide with
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is in the chamber of the astrolabe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Mon Dieu!</i>&quot; the husband exclaimed. &quot;<i>Mon Dieu!</i>&quot; And then for a
+moment he shook, as if someone were passing over his grave. His face
+was pale. There was dread mingled with his surprise. &quot;I do not
+understand,&quot; he muttered at last. &quot;What does it mean? What is she
+doing here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She has come for a love-philtre,&quot; M. Nôtredame answered, with a
+sphinx-like smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The husband drew a deep breath. &quot;For me?&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;Impossible!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Possible,&quot; the man in black answered quietly; &quot;and true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then what shall you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give her one,&quot; the astrologer answered. The enigmatical smile, which
+had been all along playing on his face, grew deeper, keener, more
+cruel. His eyes gleamed with triumph--and evil. &quot;I shall give her
+one,&quot; he said again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But--what will she do with it?&quot; M. de Vidoche muttered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Take it!</i> You fool, cannot you understand?&quot; the man in black
+answered sharply. &quot;Give me back the powders. I shall give them to her.
+She will take them--<i>herself</i>. You will be saved--all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Vidoche reeled. &quot;My God!&quot; he cried. &quot;I think you are the devil!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps,&quot; the man in black answered &quot;but give me the powders.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">THE POWDER OF ATTRACTION.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile, a few yards away, in the room of the astrolabe, Madame de
+Vidoche sat, waiting and trembling, afraid to move from the spot where
+the astrologer had placed her, and longing for his return. The minutes
+seemed endless, the house a grave. The silence and mystery which
+wrapped her round, the sombre hangings, the burning candles, the
+cabalistic figures filled her with awe and apprehension. She was a
+timid woman; nothing but that last and fiercest hunger of all, the
+hunger for love, could have driven her to this desperate step or
+brought her here. But she was here, it had brought her; and though
+fear blanched her cheek, and her limbs shook under her, and she dared
+not pray--for what was this she was doing?--she did not repent, or
+wish the step untaken, or go back on her desire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The place was dreadful to her; but not so dreadful as the cold home,
+the harsh words, the mockery of love, the slowly growing knowledge
+that there never had been love, from which she was here to escape. She
+was alone, but not more lonely than she had been for months in her own
+house. The man who daily met her with gibes and taunts, and seldom
+spoke without reminding her how pale and colourless she showed beside
+the florid witty beauties of the Court--<i>his friends</i>--was still her
+all, and had been her idol. If he failed her, the world was empty
+indeed. Only one thing remained therefore; by hook or crook, by all a
+woman might do or dare, by submission, by courage, to win back his
+love. She had tried. God knows she had tried! She had knelt to him,
+and he had struck her. She had dressed and been gay, and striven to
+jest as his friends jested: he had scourged her with a cutting sneer.
+She had prayed, and Heaven had not answered. She had turned from
+Heaven--a white-faced, pining woman, little more than a girl--and she
+was here.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only let the man be quick! Let him be quick and give her what she
+sought; and then scarcely any price he could ask should strain her
+gratitude. At last she heard his step, and in a moment he came in.
+Against the black background, and seen by the gloomy light of the
+candles, he looked taller, leaner, paler, more sombre than life. His
+eyes glowed with unnatural lustre. Madame shuddered as he came towards
+her; and he saw it, and grinned behind his cadaverous mask.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame,&quot; he said gravely, bowing his head, &quot;it is as I hoped. Venus
+is in the ascendant for nine days from to-day, and in fortunate
+conjunction with Mars. I am happy that you come to me at a time so
+propitious. A very little effort at this season will suffice. But it
+is necessary, if you would have the charm work, to preserve the most
+absolute silence and secrecy in regard to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her lips were dry, her tongue seemed to cleave to her mouth. She felt
+shame as well as fear in this man's presence. But she made an effort,
+and muttered, &quot;It will work?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will answer for it!&quot; he replied bluntly, a world of dubious meaning
+in his tone and eyes. &quot;It is the powder of attraction, by the use of
+which Diane de Poitiers won the love of the king, though she surpassed
+him by twenty years; and Madame de Valentinois held the hearts of men
+till her seventieth winter. Madame de Hautefort uses it. It is made of
+liquid gold, etherealised and strengthened with secret drugs. I have
+made up two packets, but it will be safer if madame will take both at
+once, dissolved in good wine and before the expiration of the ninth
+day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Vidoche took the packets, trembling. A little red dyed her
+pale cheeks. &quot;Is that all?&quot; she murmured, faintly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All, madame; except that when you drink it, you must think of your
+husband,&quot; he answered. As he said this he averted his face; for, try
+as he would, he could not check the evil smile that curled his lip.
+<i>Dieu!</i> Was ever so grim a jest known? Or so forlorn, so helpless, so
+infantine a fool? He could almost find it in his heart to pity her. As
+for her husband--ah, how he would bleed him when it was over!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How much am I to pay you, sir?&quot; she asked timidly, when she had
+hidden away the precious packets in her bosom. She had got what she
+wanted; she was panting to be gone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Twenty crowns,&quot; he answered, coldly. &quot;The charm avails for nine
+moons. After that----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall need more?&quot; she asked; for he had paused.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, no, I think not,&quot; he answered slowly--hesitating strangely,
+almost stammering. &quot;I think in your case, madame, the effect will be
+lasting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had no clue to the fantastic impulse, the ghastly humour, which
+inspired the words; and she paid him gladly. He would not take the
+money in his hands, but bade her lay it on the great open book,
+&quot;because the gold was alloyed, and not virgin.&quot; In one or two other
+ways he played his part; directing her, for instance, if she would
+increase the strength of the charm, to gaze at the planet Venus for
+half an hour each evening, but not through glass or with any metal on
+her person. And then he let her out by the door which opened on the
+quiet street.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame has, doubtless, her woman, or some attendant?&quot; he said,
+looking up and down. &quot;Or I----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, yes!&quot; she answered, gasping in the cold night air. &quot;She is
+here. Goodnight, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He muttered some words in a strange tongue, and, as Madame de
+Vidoche's attendant came out of the shadow to meet her, turned and
+went in again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The night was dark as well as cold, but madame, in the first fervour
+of her spirits, did not heed it. She suffered her maid to wrap her up
+warmly, and draw the cloak more closely round her throat; but she was
+scarcely conscious of the attention, and bore it as a child might--in
+silence. Her eyes shone in the darkness; her heart beat with a soft
+subtle joy. She had the charm--the key to happiness! It was in her
+bosom; and every moment, under cover of the cloak and night, her
+fingers flew to it and assured her it was safe. The scruples with
+which she had contemplated the interview troubled her no longer. In
+her joy and relief that the ordeal was over and the philtre gained,
+she knew no doubt, no suspicion. She lived only for the moment when
+she might put the talisman to the test, and see love wake again in
+those eyes which, whether they smiled or scowled, fate had made the
+lodestones of her life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The streets, by reason of the cold, were quiet enough. No one remarked
+the two women as they flitted along under cover of the wall.
+Presently, however, the bell of a church close at hand began to ring
+for service, and the sound, startling madame, brought her suddenly,
+chillily, sharply, to earth again. She stopped. &quot;What is that?&quot; she
+said. &quot;It cannot be compline. It wants three hours of midnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is St. Thomas's Day,&quot; the woman with her answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So it is,&quot; madame replied, moving on again, but more slowly. &quot;Of
+course; it is four days to Christmas. Don't they call him the Apostle
+of Faith, Margot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, madame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure,&quot; madame rejoined thoughtfully. &quot;To be sure; yes, we
+should have faith--we should have faith.&quot; And with that she buoyed
+herself up again (as people will in certain moods, using the strangest
+floats), and went on gaily, her feet tripping to the measure of her
+heart, and her hand on the precious packet that was to change the
+world for her. On the foullest mud gleams sometimes the brightest
+phosphorescence: otherwise it were not easy to conceive how even
+momentary happiness could come of the house in the Rue Touchet!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two women had nearly reached the Church of St. Gervais by the
+Grève, when the sound of a swift stealthy footstep coming along the
+street behind them caught the maid's ear. It was not a reassuring
+sound at night and in that place. The dark square of the Grève, swept
+by the icy wind from the river, lay before them; and though a brazier,
+surrounded by a knot of men belonging to the watch, burned in the
+middle of the open, the two women were reluctant to show themselves
+where they might meet with rudeness. Margot laid her hand on her
+mistress's arm, and for a few seconds the two stood listening, with
+thumping hearts. The step came on--a light, pattering step. Acting on
+a common impulse the women turned and looked at one another. Then
+slipping noiselessly into the shadow cast by the church porch, they
+pressed themselves against the wall, and stood scarcely daring to
+breathe.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But fortune was against them, or their follower's eye was keen beyond
+the ordinary. They had not been there many seconds before he came
+running up--a stooping figure, slight and short. He slackened speed
+abruptly, and stopped exactly opposite their lurking-place. A moment
+of suspense, and then a pale face, rendered visible by a gleam from
+the distant fire, looked in on them, and a thin, panting voice
+murmured timidly, &quot;Madame! Madame de Vidoche, if you please!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p112"><img border="0" src="images/p112.png" alt="p112"></a><br>
+&quot;'MADAME! MADAME DE VIDOCHE, IF YOU PLEASE!'&quot; (<i>p</i>.
+112)</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Saint Siége!&quot; madame's woman gasped, in a voice of astonishment. &quot;I
+declare it is a child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame almost laughed in her relief. &quot;Ah!&quot; she said, &quot;how you
+frightened us! I thought you were a man dogging us--a thief!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not,&quot; the boy said simply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This time Margot laughed. &quot;Who are you, then?&quot; she asked, briskly
+stepping out, &quot;and why have you been following us? You seem to have my
+lady's name pretty pat,&quot; she added, sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I want to speak to her,&quot; the boy answered, his lip trembling. In
+truth, he was trembling all over with fear and excitement. But the
+darkness hid that.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh!&quot; Madame de Vidoche said graciously. &quot;Well, you may speak. But
+tell me first who you are, and be quick about it. It is cold and
+late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am from the house where you have been,&quot; Jehan answered bravely.
+&quot;You saw me at Les Andelys, too, when you were at supper, madame. I
+was the boy at the door. I want to speak to you alone, please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Alone!&quot; madame exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy nodded firmly. &quot;If you please,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hoity-toity!&quot; Margot exclaimed; and she was for demurring. &quot;He only
+wants to beg,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't!&quot; the boy cried, with tears in his voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then it is a present he wants!&quot; she rejoined, scornfully. &quot;They
+expect their vales at those places. And we are to freeze while he
+makes a tale.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But madame, out of pity or curiosity, would hear him. She bade the
+woman wait a few paces away. And when they were alone: &quot;Now,&quot; she said
+kindly, &quot;what is it? You must be quick, for it is very cold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>He</i> sent me after you--with a message,&quot; Jehan answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame started, and her hand went to the packet. &quot;Do you mean M.
+Nôtredame?&quot; she murmured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy nodded. &quot;He--he said he had forgotten one thing,&quot; he
+continued, halting between his sentences and shivering. &quot;He--he said
+you were to alter one thing, madame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh!&quot; Madame answered frigidly, her heart sinking, her pride roused by
+this intervention of the boy, who seemed to know all. &quot;What thing, if
+you please?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan looked quickly and fearfully over his shoulder. But all was
+quiet. &quot;He said he had forgotten that your husband was dark,&quot; he
+stammered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dark!&quot; madame muttered in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, dark-complexioned,&quot; Jehan continued desperately. &quot;And that being
+so, you were not to take the--the charm yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame's eyes flashed with anger. &quot;Oh!&quot; she said, &quot;indeed! And is that
+all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But to give it to him, without telling him,&quot; the boy rejoined, with
+sudden spirit and firmness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame started and drew a deep breath. &quot;Are you sure you have made no
+mistake?&quot; she said, trying to read the boy's face. But it was too dark
+for that.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite sure,&quot; he answered hardily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh,&quot; madame said, slowly and thoughtfully; &quot;very well. Is that all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is all,&quot; he replied, drawing back a step; but reluctantly, as it
+seemed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Margot, who had been all the time moving a little nearer and a little
+nearer, came right up at this. &quot;Now, my lady,&quot; she said sharply, &quot;I
+beg you will have done. This is no place for us at this time of night,
+and this little imp of Satan ought to be about his business. I am sure
+I am perishing with cold, and the sound of those creaking boats on the
+river makes me think of nothing but gibbets and corpses, till I have
+got the creeps all down my back! And the watch will be here
+presently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, Margot,&quot; madame answered; &quot;I am coming.&quot; But still she
+looked at the boy and lingered. &quot;You are sure there is nothing else?&quot;
+she murmured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing,&quot; he answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She thought his manner odd, and wondered why he lingered; why he did
+not hurry off, since the night was cold and he was bareheaded. But
+Margot pressed her again, and she turned, saying reluctantly, &quot;Very
+well, I am coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ay, and so is Christmas!&quot; the woman grumbled. And this time she
+fairly took her by the arm and hurried her away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is not a good retort, Margot!&quot; madame said presently, when they
+had gone a few paces, and were flitting hand-in-hand across the Grève,
+with heads bent to the wind, &quot;for it wants only four days to
+Christmas. You had forgotten that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think you are fey, my lady!&quot; the woman replied, in an ill-temper.
+&quot;I have not seen you so gay these twelve months; and what with the
+cold, and fear of the watch and monsieur, I am ready to sink. You must
+have heard fine news down there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But madame did not answer. She was thinking of last Christmas. Her
+husband had gone to the revels at the Palais Cardinal, which was then
+in building. She had offered to go with him, and he had told her, with
+an oath, that if she did she should remember it. So she had stopped at
+home alone--her first Christmas in Paris. She had gone to mass, and
+then had sat all day in the cold, splendid house, and cried. Half the
+servants had played truant, and her woman had been cross, and for
+hours together no one had gone near her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This Christmas it was to be different.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame's eyes began to shine again, and her heart to beat a pleasant
+measure. If she had her will, they would go to no pageants or
+merry-makings. But then he liked such things, and showed to advantage
+in them. Yes, they would go, and she would sit quiet as a mouse; and
+listening while they praised him, would feed all the time on the sweet
+knowledge that now he was hers--her own.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had not done dreaming when they reached the house. The porter was
+drowsing in his lodge, the gate was ajar. They slipped into the dark
+silent courtyard, and, flitting across it, entered the house. Two
+servants lay stretched asleep in the hall, and in a little room to the
+left of the door they could hear others talking; but no one looked
+out. Fortune could not have aided them better. With a little laugh of
+relief and thankfulness madame tripped up the grand staircase and
+under the great lamp which lit it and the hall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Marmot followed, but neither she nor her mistress saw who followed
+them: who had followed them across the windy Grève, through street and
+lane and byway; even, after a moment's hesitation, over the threshold
+of the court and into the house. A servant who heard the stairs creak
+as they went up, and looked out, fancied he saw a small black figure
+glide out of sight above; but as there were no children in the house,
+and this was a child, if anything, he thought his eyes deceived
+him--he was half-asleep--and, crossing himself, went back, yawning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy could never quite explain--though often asked in
+after-years--what led him to run this risk. It is true he dared not
+return to the Rue Touchet; and he was only twelve years old, and knew
+nowhere else to go. But---- However, that is all that can be said. He
+did follow them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused at the head of the stairs, and stood shivering under the
+great lamp. In front of him hung a pair of heavy curtains. After a
+moment's hesitation he crept between them and found himself in a
+splendid apartment, spacious though sparely furnished, lit from
+the roof, and in character half-hall, half-parlour. A high marble
+chimney-piece in the new Italian mode faced him, and on either hand
+were two lofty doorways screened by curtains. The floor was of
+parquet, the walls were panelled in chestnut wood. On each side of the
+fire, which smouldered low between the dogs and was nearly out, a long
+bench, velvet-covered, ran along the wall. A posset-cup stood on a
+tripod on the hearth, and in the middle of the room a marble table
+bore a dish of sweetmeats and a tray of flasks and glasses. In that
+day, when people dined at eleven and supped at six, it was customary
+to take <i>les épices et le vin du coucher</i> before retiring at nine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy stood cowering and listening--a strange, pale-faced little
+figure, reflected in a narrow mirror which decked one wall. It was
+very cold even here; outside he must die of cold. He heard the two
+women moving and talking in one of the rooms on the left; otherwise
+the house was still. He looked about, hesitated, and at last stole on
+tip-toe across the floor to one of the doors on his right. The curtain
+which hid it trailed a yard on the ground. He sat down between it and
+the door, and, winding one corner of the thick heavy stuff round his
+frozen limbs, uttered a sigh of relief. He had found a refuge of a
+kind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He meant to sleep, but he could not, for all his nerves were tense
+with excitement. Not a sound in the house escaped him. He heard the
+soft ashes sink on the hearth; he heard one of the men who slept in
+the hall turn and moan in his sleep. At last, quite close to him, a
+door opened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan moved a little and peered from his ambush. The noise had come
+from madame's room. He was not surprised when he saw her face thrust
+out. Presently she put the curtain quite aside and came out, and stood
+a little way from him, listening intently. She wore a loose robe of
+some soft stuff, and he fancied she was barefoot, for she moved
+without noise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stood listening a full minute, with her hand to her bosom. Then
+she nodded, as if assured that all was well, and, going to the table,
+looked down at the things it held. Her face wore a subtle smile, her
+cheeks flamed softly, there was a shy sparkle in her eyes. The lamp
+seemed to lend her new loveliness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Apparently she did not find what she wanted on the table, for in a
+moment she turned and went to the fireplace. She took the posset from
+the trivet, and, lifting the lid of the cup, looked in. What she saw
+appeared to satisfy her, for with a quick movement she carried the cup
+to the table and set it down open. She had her back to Jehan now, and
+he could not see what she was doing, though he watched her every
+motion and partly guessed. When she had finished whatever it was, she
+raised the cup to her lips, and the boy's heart stood still. Ay, stood
+still! He half rose, his face white. But he was in error. She only
+kissed the wine and covered it, and took it back to the trivet,
+murmuring something over it as she set it down.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p124"><img border="0" src="images/p124.png" alt="p124"></a><br>
+HE WATCHED HER EVERY MOTION &quot;(<i>p</i>. 124).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy lay still, like one fascinated, while madame, clasping two
+little silk bags to her bosom, stole back to her door. As she raised
+the curtain with one hand she turned on a sudden impulse and kissed
+the other towards the hearth. Slowly the curtain fell and hid her
+shining eyes.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">CLYTÆMNESTRA.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">She had barely disappeared when the boy, listening eagerly, heard
+the great door below flung open, and instinctively sank down again.
+A breath of cold air rose from below. A harsh voice--a voice he
+knew--cursed someone or something in the hall, a heavy step came
+stumbling up the stairs, and in a moment M. de Vidoche, followed by a
+sleepy servant, pushed his way through the curtains. He was flushed
+with drink, yet he was not drunk, for as he crossed the floor he shot
+a swift sidelong glance at his wife's door--a glance of dark meaning;
+and, though he railed savagely at the servant for letting the fire go
+out, he had the air of listening while he spoke, and swore, to show
+himself at ease.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man muttered some excuse, and, kneeling, began to blow the embers,
+while Vidoche looked on moodily. He had not taken off his hat and
+cloak. &quot;Has madame been out this evening?&quot; he said suddenly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, my lord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her woman is lying with her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, my lord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A moment's silence. Then, &quot;Trim the lamp, curse you! Don't you see it
+is going out? Do you want to leave me in the dark? <i>Sacré!</i> This might
+be a pigsty from the way it is kept!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man was used to be kicked and abused, but it seemed to him that
+his master's caprices were taking a fresh direction. It was not his
+business to think, however. He trimmed the lamp and took the cloak and
+hat, and was going, when Vidoche called him back again. &quot;Put on a
+log,&quot; he said, &quot;and give me that drink. <i>Nom du diable</i>, it is cold!
+You lazy hound, you have been sleeping!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man vowed he had not, and M. de Vidoche listened to his
+protestations as if he heard them. In reality his thoughts were busy
+with other things. Would it be tonight, or to-morrow, or the next day?
+he was wondering darkly. And how would it--take her? Would he be
+there, or would they come and tell him? Would she sicken and fade
+slowly, and die of some common illness to all appearance, with the
+priest by her side? Or would he awake in the night to hear her
+screaming, and be summoned to see her writhing in torture, gasping,
+choking, praying them to save--to save her from this horrible pain?
+God! The perspiration broke out on his brow. He shivered. &quot;Give me
+that!&quot; he muttered hoarsely, holding out a shaking hand. &quot;Give it me,
+I say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man was warming the posset, but he rose hastily and handed it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Put lights in my room! And, hark you--you will sleep there to-night.
+I am not well. Go and get your straw, and be quick about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Vidoche listened with the cup in his hand while the man went down and
+fetched a taper and some coverings from the hall, and, coming up
+again, opened one of the doors on the right--not the one against which
+the boy lay. The servant went into the room and busied himself there
+for a time, while the master sat crouching over the fire, thinking,
+with a gloomy face. He tried to turn his thoughts to the Farincourt,
+and to what would happen afterwards, and to a dozen things with which
+his mind had been only too ready to occupy itself of late. But now
+his thoughts would not be ordered. They returned again and again to
+the door on his left. He caught himself listening, waiting, glancing
+at it askance. And this might go on for days. <i>Dieu!</i> the house would
+be a hell! He would go away. He would make some excuse to leave
+until--until after Christmas.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He shivered, cursed himself under his breath for a fool, and drank
+half the mulled wine at a draught. As he took the cup from his lips,
+his ear caught a slight sound behind him, and, starting, he peered
+hastily over his shoulder. But the noise came apparently from the next
+room, where the servant was moving about; and, with another oath,
+Vidoche drained the cup and set it down on the table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had scarcely done so when he drew himself suddenly upright and
+remained in that position for a moment, his mouth half open, his eyes
+glaring. A kind of spasm seized him. His teeth shut with a click. He
+staggered and clutched at the table. His face grew red--purple. His
+brain seemed to be bursting; his eyes filled with blood. He tried to
+cry, to give the alarm, to get breath, but his throat was held in an
+iron vice. He was choking and reeling on his feet, when the man came
+by chance out of the bedroom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By a tremendous effort Vidoche spoke. &quot;Who--made--this?&quot; he muttered,
+in a hissing voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servant started, scared by his appearance. He answered,
+nevertheless, that he had mixed it himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Look at--the bottom of--the cup!&quot; Vidoche replied in a terrible
+voice. He was swaying to and fro, and kept himself up only by his grip
+on the table. &quot;Is there--anything there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servant was terribly frightened, but he had the sense to obey. He
+took up the cup and looked in it. &quot;Is there--a powder--in it?&quot; Vidoche
+asked, a frightful spasm distorting his features.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is--something,&quot; the man answered, his teeth chattering. &quot;But
+let me fetch help, my lord. You are not well. You are----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A dead man!&quot; the baffled murderer cried, his voice rising in a scream
+of indescribable despair and horror. &quot;A dead man! I am poisoned! My
+wife!&quot; He reeled with that word. He lost his hold of the table. &quot;Ha,
+<i>mon Dieu!</i> Mercy! Mercy!&quot; he cried.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In a moment he was down, writhing on the floor, and uttering shriek on
+shriek: cries so dreadful that on the instant doors flew open and
+sleepers awoke, and in a twinkling the room--though the lamp lay
+quenched, overturned in his struggles--was full of lights and
+frightened faces and huddled forms, and women who stopped their ears
+and wept. The doorways framed more faces, the staircase rang with
+sounds of alarm. Everywhere was turmoil and a madness of hurrying
+feet. One ran for the doctor, another for the priest, a third for the
+watch. The house seemed on a sudden alive; nay, the very courtyard,
+where the porter was gone from his post, and the doors stood open, was
+full of staring strangers, who gaped at the windows and the hurrying
+lights, and asked whose was the hotel, or answered it was M. de
+Vidoche's.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p133"><img border="0" src="images/p133.png" alt="p133"></a><br>
+&quot;IN A MOMENT HE WAS DOWN, WRITHING ON THE FLOOR&quot; (<i>p</i>.
+133).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It had been. But already the man who had gone up the stairs so full of
+strength and evil purpose lay dying, speechless, all but dead. They
+had lifted him on to a pallet which someone drew from a neighbouring
+room, and at first there had been no lack of helpers or ready hands.
+One untied his cravat, and another his doublet, and two or three of
+the coolest held him in his paroxysms. But then the magic word
+&quot;Poison!&quot; was whispered; and one by one, all, even the man who had
+been with him, even madame's woman, drew off, and left those two
+alone. The livid body lay on the pallet, and madame, stunned and
+horror-stricken, hung over it; but the servants stood away in a dense
+circle, and looking on with gloom and fear in their faces, some
+mechanically holding lights, some still grasping the bowls and basins
+they were afraid to use, whispered that word again and again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It seemed as if the tell-tale syllables passed the walls; for the
+first to arrive, before doctor or priest, was the captain of the
+watch. He came upstairs, his sword clanking, and, thrusting the
+curtains aside, stood looking at the strange scene, which the many
+lights, irregularly held and distributed, lit up as if it had been a
+pageant on the stage. &quot;Who is it?&quot; he muttered, touching the nearest
+servant on the arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;M. de Vidoche,&quot; the man answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is he dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man cringed before him. &quot;Dead, or as good,&quot; he whispered. &quot;Yes,
+sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he is not dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then why the devil are you all standing like mutes at a funeral?&quot; the
+soldier answered, with an oath. &quot;Leaving madame alone, too. Poison,
+eh? Oh!&quot; and he whistled softly. &quot;So that is why you are all looking
+on as if the man had got the plague, is it? A pretty set of curs you
+are! But here is the doctor. Out of the way now,&quot; he added
+contemptuously, &quot;and let no one leave the room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He went forward with the physician, and, while the latter knelt and
+made his examination, the captain muttered a few words of comfort in
+madame's ear. For all she heard or heeded, however, he might have
+spared his pains. She had been summoned so abruptly, and the call had
+so entirely snapped the thread of her thoughts, that she had not yet
+connected her husband's illness with any act of hers. She had
+absolutely forgotten the enterprise of the evening, its anticipations
+and hopes. For the time she was spared that horror. But this illness
+alone sufficed to overwhelm her, to sink her beyond the reach of
+present comfort. She no longer remembered her husband's coldness, but
+only the early days when he had come to her in her country home, a
+black-bearded, bold-eyed Apollo, and wooed her impetuously and with
+irresistible will. All his faults, all his unkindnesses, were
+forgotten now: only his beauty, his vigour, his great passion, his
+courage were remembered. A dreadful pain seized her heart when she
+recognised that his had ceased to beat. She peered white-faced into
+the physician's eyes, she hung on his lips. If she remembered her
+journey to the Rue Touchet at all, it was only to think how futile her
+hopes were now. He, whom she would have won back to her, was gone from
+her for ever!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The doctor shook his head gravely as he rose. He had tried to bleed
+the patient, without waiting, in this emergency, for a barber to be
+summoned; but the blood would not flow. &quot;It is useless,&quot; he said. &quot;You
+must have courage, madame. More courage than is commonly required,&quot; he
+continued, in a tone of solemnity, almost of severity. He looked round
+and met the captain's eyes. He made him a slight sign.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is dead?&quot; she muttered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is dead,&quot; the physician answered slowly. &quot;More, madame--my task
+goes farther. It is my duty to say that he has been poisoned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dead!&quot; she muttered, with a dry sob. &quot;Dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poisoned, I said, madame,&quot; the physician answered almost harshly. &quot;In
+an older man the symptoms might be taken for those of apoplexy. But in
+this case not so. M. de Vidoche has been poisoned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are clear on the point?&quot; the captain of the watch said. He was a
+grey-haired, elderly man, lately transferred from the field to the
+slums of Paris, and his kindly nature had not been wholly obliterated
+by contact with villainy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perfectly,&quot; the doctor answered. &quot;More, the poison must have been
+administered within the hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame rose shivering from the dead man's side. This new terror, so
+much worse than that of death, seemed to thrust her from him, to raise
+a barrier between them. The soft white robe she had thrown round her
+when she ran from her bed was not whiter than her cheeks; the lights
+were not brighter than her eyes, distended with horror. &quot;Poisoned!&quot;
+she muttered. &quot;Impossible! Who would poison him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the question, madame,&quot; the captain of the watch answered, not
+without pity--not without admiration. &quot;And if, as we are told, the
+poison must have been given within the hour, it should not be
+difficult to answer it. Let no one leave the room,&quot; he continued,
+pulling his moustachios. &quot;Where is the valet who waited on M. de
+Vidoche?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man stood forward from the rest, shaking with alarm, and told
+briefly all he knew; how he had left his master in his usual health,
+and found him in some kind of seizure; how Vidoche had bidden him look
+in the cup, and how he had found a sediment in it which should not
+have been there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You mixed this wine yourself?&quot; the captain of the watch said sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man allowed he had, whimpering and excusing himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well. Let me see madame's woman,&quot; was the answer. &quot;Which is she?
+She is here, I suppose. Let her stand out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dozen hands were ready to point her out, a dozen lights were held up
+that the Chevalier du Guet might see her the better. She was pushed,
+nudged, impelled forward, until she stood trembling where the man had
+stood. But not for long. The captain's first question was still on his
+lips when, with a sudden gesture of despair, the woman threw herself
+on her knees before him, and, grovelling in a state of abject terror,
+cried out that she would tell all--all! All if they would let her go!
+All if they would not torture her!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The captain's face grew stern, the lines about his mouth hardened.
+&quot;Speak!&quot; he said curtly, and with a swift side-glance at the mistress,
+who stood as if turned to stone. &quot;Speak, but the truth only, woman!&quot;
+while a murmur of astonishment and fear ran round the circle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It should be mentioned that at this time the crime of secret poisoning
+was held in especial abhorrence in France, the poisoning of husbands
+by wives more particularly. It was believed to be common; it was
+suspected in many cases where it could not be proved. Men felt
+themselves at the mercy of women who, sharing their bed and board,
+had often the motive and always the opportunity; and in proportion as
+the crime was easy of commission and difficult to detect was the
+rigour with which it was rewarded when detected. The high rank of
+the Princess of Condé--a Tremouille by birth and a Bourbon by
+marriage--did not avail to save her from torture when suspected of
+this; while the sudden death of a man of position was often sufficient
+to expose his servants, and particularly his wife's confidante, to the
+horrors of the question. Madame's woman knew all this. Such things
+formed the gossip of her class, and in a paroxysm of fear, in terror,
+in dread lest the moment should pass and another forestall her, she
+flung both fidelity and prudence to the winds.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will! I will! All!&quot; she cried. &quot;And I swear it is true! She went
+to a house in the Tournelles quarter to-night!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She? Who is she, woman?&quot; the captain asked sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My lady there! She stayed an hour. I waited outside. As we came back
+a boy ran after us, and talked with her by the porch of St. Gervais.
+She sent me away, and I do not know what was his business. But after
+we got home, and when she thought me asleep, she crept out of the room
+and came here, and put something in that cup. I heard her go, and
+stole to the door, and through the curtains saw her do it, but I did
+not know what it was, or what she intended. I have told the truth. But
+I did not know, I did not! I swear I did not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The captain silenced her protestations with a fierce gesture, and
+turned from her to the woman she accused. &quot;Madame,&quot; he said, in a low,
+unsteady voice, &quot;is this true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stood with both her hands on her breast, and looked, with a face
+of stone, not at him, but beyond him. She scarcely seemed to breathe,
+so perfect was the dreadful stillness which held her. He thought she
+did not hear: and he was about to repeat his question when she moved
+her lips in a strange, mechanical fashion, and, after an effort,
+spoke. &quot;Is it true?&quot; she whispered--in that stricken silence every
+syllable was audible, and even at her first word some women fell to
+shuddering--&quot;is it true that I have killed my husband? Yes, I have
+killed him. I loved him, and I have killed him. I loved him--I had no
+one else to love--and I have killed him. God has let this be in this
+world. You are real, and I am real. It is no dream. He has let it be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Mon Dieu!</i>&quot; the captain muttered, while one woman broke into noisy
+weeping. &quot;She is mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But madame was not mad, or only mad for the moment. &quot;It is strange,&quot;
+she continued, with writhing lips, but in the same even tone--which to
+those who had ears to hear was worse than any loud outcry--&quot;that such
+a thing should be. God should not let it be, because I loved him. I
+loved him, and I have killed him. I--but perhaps I shall awake
+presently and find it a dream. Or perhaps he is not dead. Is he? Ha!
+is he, man? Tell me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With the last words, which leapt from her lips in sudden frantic
+questioning, she awoke as from a trance. She sprang towards the
+doctor; then, turning swiftly, looked where the corpse lay, and with a
+dreadful peal of laughter threw herself upon it. Her shrill cries so
+filled the air, so rang through the empty hall below, so pierced the
+brain, that the captain raised his hands to his ears, and the men
+shrank back, looking at the women.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;See to her!&quot; said the captain, stamping his foot in a rage and
+addressing the physician. &quot;I must take her away, but I cannot take her
+like this. See to her, man. Give her something; drug her, poison her,
+if you like--anything to stop her! Her cries will ring in my ears a
+twelvemonth hence. Well, woman, what is it?&quot; he continued impatiently.
+Madame's woman had touched his arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The boy!&quot; she muttered. &quot;The boy!&quot; Her teeth were chattering with
+terror. She pointed to the place where the servants stood most thickly
+near the great curtains which shut off the staircase.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He followed the direction of her hand, but saw nothing except scared
+faces and cringing figures. &quot;What boy, woman?&quot; he retorted. &quot;What do
+you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The boy who came after us to the church,&quot; she answered. &quot;I saw him a
+minute ago--there! He was standing behind that man, looking under his
+arm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Three strides brought the captain of the watch to the place indicated.
+But there was no boy there--there was no boy to be seen. Moreover, the
+frightened servants who stood in that part declared that they had seen
+no boy--that no boy could have been there. The captain, believing that
+they had had eyes only for Madame de Vidoche, put small faith in their
+protestations; but the fact remained that the boy was gone, and the
+searcher returned baffled and perplexed: more than half inclined to
+think that this might be a ruse on the woman's part, yet at a loss to
+see what good it could do her. He asked her roughly how old the boy
+was.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;About twelve,&quot; she answered, looking nervously over her shoulder. In
+truth, she began to fancy that the boy was a familiar. Or what could
+bring him here? How had he entered? And whither had he vanished?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How was he dressed?&quot; the captain asked angrily, waving back the
+servants, who would have pressed on him in their curiosity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In black velvet,&quot; she answered. &quot;But he had no cap. He was
+bareheaded. And I noticed that he had black hair and blue eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you sure that the boy you saw here was the boy who followed you
+and spoke to madame in the street?&quot; he urged. &quot;Be careful, woman!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am certain of it,&quot; she answered feverishly. &quot;I knew him in a
+moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you sure that madame did not bring him in with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She vowed positively that she had not, and equally positively that the
+boy could not have followed them in without being seen. In this we
+know that she was mistaken; but she believed it, and her belief
+communicated itself to her questioner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He rubbed his head with his hand in extreme perplexity. If the boy
+were a messenger from the villain whom this wretched woman had been to
+visit, what could have brought him to the house? Why had he risked
+himself on the scene of the murder? Unless--unless, indeed, his
+mission were to learn what happened, and to warn his master!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The captain caught that in a moment, and, thrusting the servants on
+one side, despatched three or four men on the instant to the Rue
+Touchet, &quot;<i>Pardieu!</i>&quot; he exclaimed, wiping his forehead when they were
+gone, &quot;I was nearly forgetting him. The villain! I will be sworn he
+tempted her! But now I think I have netted all--madame, the maid, the
+man, the devil!&quot; He ticked them off on his fingers. &quot;There is only the
+lad wanting. The odds are they will get him, too, in the Rue Touchet.
+So far, so good. But it is hateful work,&quot; the old soldier continued,
+with an oath, looking askance at the group which surrounded madame and
+the doctor. &quot;They will--ugh! it is horrible. It would be a mercy to
+give her a dose now, and end all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But there was no one to take the responsibility, and so the few who
+were abroad very early that morning saw a strange and mournful
+procession pass through the streets of Paris; those streets which have
+seen so many grisly and so many fantastic things. An hour before
+daybreak a litter, surrounded by a crowd of armed men, some bearing
+torches and some pikes and halberds, came out of the Hotel Vidoche and
+passed slowly down the Rue St. Denis. The night was at its darkest,
+the wind at its keenest. Vagrant wretches, lying out in the Halles,
+rose up and walked for their lives, or slowly froze and perished.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But there are worse things than death in the open; worse, at any rate,
+than that death which comes with kindly numbing power. And some of
+these knew it; nay, all. The poorest outcast whom the glare of the
+cressets surprised as he lurked in porch or penthouse, the leanest
+beggar who looked out startled by the clang and tramp, knew himself
+happier than the king's prisoner bound for the Châtelet; and, hugging
+his rags, thanked Heaven for it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">THE MARK OF CAIN.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">When Jehan, in a fever of indignation, slipped stealthily out of the
+house in the Rue Touchet and sped up the dark, quiet street after
+Madame de Vidoche, he had no subtler purpose in his mind than to
+overtake her and warn her. The lady had spoken kindly to him on the
+night of the supper at Les Andelys. She was young, weak, oppressed;
+the plot against her seemed to the child to be fiendish in its
+artfulness. It needed no more to rouse every chivalrous instinct in
+his nature--and these in a boy should be many, or woe betide the
+man--and determine him to save her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He thought that if he could overtake her and warn her all would be
+well; and at first his purpose went no farther than that. But as he
+ran, now looking over his shoulder in terror, and now peering into the
+darkness ahead, sometimes slipping into the gutter in his haste, and
+sometimes stumbling over a projecting step, a new and whimsical
+thought flashed into his mind, and in a moment fascinated him. How it
+came to one so young, whether the astrologer's duplicity, to which he
+had been a witness, suggested it, or it sprang from some precocious
+aptitude in the boy's own nature, it is impossible to say. But on a
+sudden there it was in his mind, full-grown, full-armed, a perfect
+scheme. He had only a few minutes in which to consider it before he
+caught madame up, and the time to put it into execution came; but in
+that interval he found no flaw in it. Rather he revelled in it. It
+satisfied the boy's stern sense of retribution and justice. It more
+than satisfied the boy's love of mischief and trickery.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He felt not the slightest misgiving, therefore, when it came to
+playing his part. He went through it without pity, without a scruple
+or thought of responsibility--nay, he followed madame home, and hid
+himself behind the curtain, with no feeling of apprehension as to what
+was coming, with no qualms of conscience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But when he had seen all, and lying spell-bound in his hiding-place
+had witnessed the tragedy, when covering his ears with his hands,
+and cowering down as if he would cower through the floor, he had
+heard Vidoche's death-cry and winced at each syllable of madame's
+heart-broken utterance--when, with quaking limbs and white cheeks, he
+had crept at last down the stairs and fled from the accursed house,
+then the boy knew all; knew what he had done, and was horror-stricken!
+Even the darkness and freezing cold were welcome, if he might escape
+from that house--if he might leave those haunting cries behind. But
+how? by what road? He fled through street after street, alley after
+alley, over bridges, and along quays, by the doors of churches and the
+gates of prisons. But everywhere the sights and sounds went with him,
+forestalled him, followed him. He could not forget. When at last,
+utterly exhausted, he flung himself down on a pile of refuse in a
+distant corner of the Halles, his heart seemed bursting. He had killed
+a man. He had worse than killed a woman. He would be hung. The
+astrologer had told him truly; he was doomed, given up to evil and the
+devil!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He lay for a long time panting and shuddering, with his face hidden;
+while a burst of agony, provoked by some sudden pang of remembrance,
+now and again racked his frame. The spot he had, almost unconsciously,
+chosen for his hiding-place was a corner between two stalls, at the
+east end of the market: an angle well sheltered from the wind, and
+piled breast-high with porters' knots and rubbish. The air was a
+little less bitter there than outside; and by good fortune he had
+thrown himself down on an old sack, which he, by-and-bye, drew over
+him. Otherwise he must have perished. As it was, he presently sobbed
+himself into an uneasy slumber; but only to awake in a few minutes
+with a scream of affright and a dismal return of all his
+apprehensions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still, nature was already at work to console him; and misery sleeps
+proverbially well. After a time he dozed again for a few minutes, and
+then again. At length, a little before daybreak, he went off into a
+sounder sleep, from which he did not awake until the wintry sun was
+nearly an hour up, and old-fashioned people were thinking of dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After opening his eyes, he lay a while between sleeping and waking,
+with the sense of some unknown trouble heavy upon him. On a sudden a
+voice, a harsh, rasping voice, speaking a strange clipped jargon,
+roused him effectually. &quot;He is a runaway!&quot; the voice said, with two or
+three unnecessary oaths. &quot;A crown to a penny on it, my bully-boys!
+Well, it is an ill-wind blows no one any good. Rouse up the little
+shaveling, will you? That is not the way! Here, lend it me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next moment the boy sat up, with a cry of pain, for a heavy
+porter's knot fell on his shin-bone and nearly broke it. He found
+himself confronted by three or four grinning ruffians, whose eyes
+glistened as they scanned his velvet clothes and the little silver
+buttons that fastened them. The man who had spoken before seemed to be
+the leader of the party: a filthy beggar with one arm and a hare-lip.
+&quot;Ho! ho!&quot; he chuckled; &quot;so you can feel, M. le Marquis, can you! Flesh
+and blood like other folk. And doubtless with money in your pockets to
+pay for your night's lodging.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He hauled the child to him and passed his hands through his clothes.
+But he found nothing, and his face grew dark. &quot;<i>Morbleu!</i>&quot; he swore.
+&quot;The little softy has brought nothing away with him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other men, gathering round, glared at the boy hungrily. In the
+middle of the Forest of Bondy he could not have been more at their
+mercy than he was in this quiet corner of the market, where a velvet
+coat with silver buttons was as rare a sight as a piece of the true
+cross. Two or three houseless wretches looked on from their frowsy
+lairs under the stalls, but no one dreamed of interfering with the men
+in possession. As for the boy, he gazed at his captors stolidly; he
+was white, mute, apathetic.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Plague, if I don't think the lad is a softy!&quot; said one, staring at
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not he!&quot; replied the man who had hold of him. And roughly seizing the
+boy by the head with his huge hand, he forced up an eyelid with his
+finger as if to examine the eye. The boy uttered a cry of pain.
+&quot;There!&quot; said the ruffian, grinning with triumph. &quot;He is all right.
+The question is, what shall we do with him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are his clothes,&quot; one muttered, eyeing the boy greedily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure, there are always his clothes,&quot; was the answer. &quot;It does
+not take an Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu to see that, gaby!
+And, of course, they would melt to the tune of something apiece! But
+maybe we can do better than that with him. He has run away. You don't
+find truffles on the dung-hill every day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; said his duller fellows, their eyes beginning to sparkle with
+greed, &quot;what then, Bec de Lièvre?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If we take him home again, honest market porters, why should we not
+be rewarded? Eh, my bully-boys?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a bright idea!&quot; said one. So said another. The rest nodded.
+&quot;Ask him where he lives, when he is at home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They did. But Jehan remained mute. &quot;Twist his arm!&quot; said the last
+speaker. &quot;He will soon tell you. Or stick your finger in his eye
+again! Blest if I don't think the kid <i>is</i> dumb!&quot; the man continued,
+gazing with astonishment at the boy's dull face and lack-lustre eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think I shall find a tongue for him,&quot; the former operator replied
+with a leer. &quot;Here, sonny, answer before you are hurt, will you? Where
+do you live?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Jehan remained silent. The ruffian raised his hand. In another
+moment it would have fallen, but in the nick of time came an
+interruption. &quot;Nom de ma mère!&quot; someone close at hand cried, in a
+voice of astonishment. &quot;It is my Jehan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Two of the party in possession turned savagely on the intruder--a
+middle-sized man with foxy eyes, and a half-starved ape on his
+shoulder. &quot;Who asked you to speak?&quot; snarled one. &quot;Begone about your
+business, my fine fellow, or I shall be making a hole in you!&quot; cried
+another.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But he is my boy!&quot; the new-comer answered, fairly trembling with joy
+and astonishment. &quot;He is my boy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your boy?&quot; cried Bec de Lièvre, in a tone of contempt. &quot;You look like
+it, don't you? You look as if you dined on gold plate every day and
+had a Rohan to your cup-bearer, you do! Go along, man; don't try to
+bamboozle us, or it will be the worse for you!&quot; And with an angry
+scowl he turned to his victim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the showman, though he was a coward, was not to be put down so
+easily. &quot;It is the boy who is bamboozling you!&quot; he said. &quot;You take him
+for a swell! It is only his show dress he has on. He is a tumbler's
+boy, I tell you. He circled the pole with me for two years. Last
+November he ran away. If you do not believe me, ask the monkey. See,
+the monkey knows him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bec de Lièvre had to acknowledge that the monkey did know him. For the
+poor beast was no sooner brought close to its old playmate than it
+sprang upon him and covered him with caresses, gibbering and crying
+out the while after so human a fashion that it might well have moved
+hearts less hard. The boy did not return its endearments, however; but
+a look of intelligence came into his eyes, and on a sudden he heaved a
+sigh as if his heart was breaking.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men who had taken possession of him looked at one another. &quot;It was
+the boy's cursed clothes fooled us,&quot; Bec de Lièvre growled savagely.
+&quot;We will have them, at any rate. Strip him and have done with it. And
+do you keep off, Master Tumbler, or we will tumble you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But when the showman, who was trembling with delight and anticipation,
+made them understand that he would give a crown for the boy as he was
+in his clothes--&quot;and that is more than the fence will give you,&quot; he
+added--they began to see reason. True, they stood out for a while for
+a higher price; but the bargain was eventually struck at a crown and a
+livre, and the boy handed over.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Master Crafty Eyes' hand shook as he laid it on the child's collar and
+turned him round so that he might see his face the better. Bec de
+Lièvre discerned the man's excitement, and looked at him curiously.
+&quot;You must be very fond of the lad,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman's eyes glittered ferociously. &quot;So fond of him,&quot; he said,
+in a mocking tone, &quot;that when I get him home I shall--oh, I shall not
+hurt his fine clothes, or his face, or his little brown hands, for
+those all show, and they are worth money to me. But I shall--I shall
+put a poker in the fire, and then Master Jehan will take off his new
+clothes so that they may not be singed, and--I shall teach him several
+new tricks with the poker.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a queer one,&quot; the other answered. &quot;I'll be shot if you don't
+look like a man with a good dinner before him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the man I am,&quot; the showman answered, a hideous smile
+distorting his face. &quot;I have gone without dinner or supper many a day
+because my little friend here chose to run away one fine night, when
+he was on the point of making my fortune. But I am going to dine now.
+I am going to feed--on him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, every man to his liking,&quot; the hare-lipped beggar answered
+indifferently. &quot;You have paid for your dinner, and may cook it as you
+please, for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am going to,&quot; the showman answered, with an ugly look. He plucked
+the boy almost off his feet as he spoke, and while the men cried after
+him &quot;<i>Bon appétit!</i>&quot; and jeered, dragged him away across the open part
+of the market; finally disappearing with him in one of the noisome
+alleys which then led out of the Halles on the east side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His way lay through a rabbit-warren of beetling passages and narrow
+lanes, where the boy, once loose, could have dodged him a hundred ways
+and escaped; and he held him with the utmost precaution, expecting him
+every moment to make a desperate attempt at it. But Jehan was not the
+old Jehan who had turned and twisted, walked and frolicked on the
+rope, and in the utmost depths of ill-treatment had still kept teeth
+to bite and spirit to use them. He was benumbed body and soul. He had
+had no food for nearly twenty hours. He had passed the night exposed
+to the cold. He had gone through intense excitement, horror, despair.
+So he stumbled along, with Vidoche's dying cries in his ears, and,
+famished, frozen, bemused, met the showman's threats with a face of
+fixed, impassive apathy. He was within a very little of madness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a time Crafty Eyes did not heed this strange impassiveness. The
+showman's fancy was busy with the punishment he would inflict when he
+got the boy home to his miserable room. He gloated in anticipation
+over the tortures he would contrive, and the care he would take that
+they should not maim or disfigure the boy. When he had him tied down,
+and the door locked, and the poker heated--ah! how he would enjoy
+himself! The ruffian licked his lips. His eyes sparkled with pleasure.
+He jerked the boy along in his hideous impatience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But after a time the child's bearing began to annoy him. He stopped
+and, holding him with one hand, beat him brutally on the head with the
+other, until the boy fell and hung in his grasp. Then he dragged him
+up roughly and hauled him on with volleys of oaths; still scowling at
+him from time to time, as if, somehow, he found this little foretaste
+of vengeance less satisfying than he had expected.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There were people coming and going in the dark filthy lane where this
+happened--a place where smoke-grimed gables almost met overhead, and
+the gutter was choked with refuse--but no one interfered. What was a
+little beating more or less? Or, for the matter of that, what was a
+boy more or less? The hulking loafers and frowsy slatterns, who
+huddled for warmth in corners, nodded their heads and looked on
+approvingly. They had their own brats to beat and business to mind.
+There was no one to take the boy's part. And another hundred yards
+would lodge him in the showman's garret.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At that last moment the boy awoke from his trance and understood; and
+in a convulsion of fear hung back and struggled, screaming and
+throwing himself down. The man dragged him up savagely, and was in the
+act of taking him up bodily to carry him, when a person, who had
+already passed the pair once, came back and looked at the boy again.
+The next moment a hand fell on the showman's arm, and a voice said,
+&quot;Stop! What boy is that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman looked up, saw that the intervener was a priest, and
+sneered. &quot;What is that to you, father?&quot; he said, trying by a side
+movement to pass by. &quot;Not one of your flock, at any rate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, but you are!&quot; the priest retorted in a strangely sonorous voice.
+He was a stalwart man, with a mobile face and sad eyes that seemed out
+of keeping with the rest of him. &quot;You are! And if you do not this
+minute set him down and answer my question, you ruffian, when your
+time comes you shall go to the tree alone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Diable!&quot; the showman muttered, startled yet scowling. &quot;Who are you,
+then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am Father Bernard. Now tell me about that boy, and truly. What have
+you been doing to him? Ay, you may well tremble, rascal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For the showman was trembling. In the Paris of that day the name of
+Father Bernard was almost as well known as the name of Cardinal
+Richelieu. There was not a night-prowler or cutpurse, bully or
+swindler, who did not know it, and dream in his low fits, when the
+drink was out and the money spent, of the day when he would travel by
+Father Bernard's side to Montfaucon, and find no other voice and no
+other eye to pity him in his trouble. Impelled by feelings of
+humanity, rare at that time, this man made it his life-work to attend
+on all who were cast for execution; to wait on them in prison, and be
+with them at the last, and by his presence and words of comfort to
+alleviate their sufferings here, and bring them to a better mind. He
+had become so well known in this course of work that the king himself
+did him honour, and the Cardinal granted him special rights. The mob
+also. The priest passed unharmed through the lowest wynds of Paris,
+and penetrated habitually to places where the Lieutenant of the
+Châtelet, with a dozen pikes at his back, would not have been safe for
+a moment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was the man whose stern voice brought the showman to a
+standstill. Master Crafty Eyes faltered. Then he remembered that the
+boy was his boy, that his title to him was good. He said so sulkily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your boy?&quot; the priest replied, frowning. &quot;Who are you, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An acrobat, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So I thought. But do acrobats' boys wear black velvet clothes with
+silver buttons?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He was stolen from me,&quot; the showman answered eagerly. He had a good
+conscience as to the clothes. &quot;I have only just recovered him,
+father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who stole him? Where has he been?&quot; The priest spoke quickly, and with
+no little excitement. He looked narrowly at the boy the while, holding
+him at arm's length. &quot;Where did he spend last night, for instance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The showman spread out his palms and shrugged his shoulders. &quot;How
+should I know?&quot; he said. &quot;I was not with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has black hair and blue eyes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes. But what of that?&quot; Crafty Eyes answered. &quot;I can swear to him. He
+is my boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And mine!&quot; Father Bernard retorted with energy. &quot;The boy I want!&quot; The
+priest's eyes sparkled, his form seemed to dilate with triumph. &quot;Deo
+laus! Deo laus!&quot; he murmured sonorously, so that a score of loiterers
+who had gathered round, and were staring and shivering by turns, fell
+back affrighted and crossed themselves. &quot;He is the boy! God has put
+him in my way this day as clearly as if an angel had led me by the
+hand. And he goes with me; he goes with me. Chut, man!&quot;--this to the
+showman, who stood frowning in his path--&quot;don't dare to look black at
+me. The boy goes with me, I say. I want him for a purpose. If you
+choose you can come too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whither?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To the Châtelet,&quot; Father Bernard answered, with a grim chuckle. &quot;You
+don't seem to relish the idea. But do as you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will take the boy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This moment,&quot; the priest answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Mon Dieu!</i> but you shall not!&quot; the showman exclaimed. Wrath for the
+moment drove out fear. He seized the child by the arm. &quot;He is my boy!
+You shall not, I say!&quot; he cried, almost foaming with rage. &quot;He is
+mine!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p169"><img border="0" src="images/p169.png" alt="p169"></a><br>
+&quot;'WHO STOLE HIM? WHERE HAS HE BEEN?'&quot; (<i>p</i>. 169).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Idiot! Beast! Gallows-bird!&quot; the priest thundered in reply. &quot;For
+one-half of a denier I would throw you into the next street! Let go,
+or I will blast you with--Oh, it is well for you you are reasonable.
+Now begone! Begone! or, at a word from me, there are a score here
+will----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not finish his sentence, for the showman fell back
+panic-stricken, and stood off among the crowd, malevolence and craven
+fear struggling for the mastery in his countenance. The priest took
+the boy up gently in his arms and looked at him. His face grew
+strangely mild as he did so. The black brows grew smooth, the lips
+relaxed. &quot;Get a little water,&quot; he said to the nearest man, a hulking,
+olive-skinned Southerner. &quot;The child has swooned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your pardon, father,&quot; the man answered. &quot;He is dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Father Bernard shook his head. &quot;No, my son,&quot; he said kindly. &quot;He
+who led me here to-day will keep life in him a little longer. God's
+ways never end in a <i>cul-de-sac</i>. Get the water. He has swooned only.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09">BEFORE THE COURT.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Since the poisoning of the Prince of Condé by his servant, Brillaut,
+at the instigation--as was alleged and commonly believed--of Madame la
+Princesse, no tragedy of the kind had caused a greater sensation in
+Paris, or been the subject of more talk, than the murder of M. de
+Vidoche. The remarkable circumstances which attended it--and which
+lost nothing in the narration--its immediate discovery, the apparent
+lack of motive, and the wealth, rank, and youth of the guilty wife,
+all helped, with the fulness of Paris at this time and the absence of
+any stirring political news, to make it the one topic of interest.
+Nothing else was talked of in chamber or tennis court, in the Grand
+Gallery at the Louvre, or in the cardinal's ante-room at the Palais
+Richelieu. Culprit and victim were alike well known. M. de Vidoche, if
+no favourite, had been at least a conspicuous figure in society. He
+had been cast for one of the parts in the royal troupe at the
+Christmas carnival. His flirtation with Mademoiselle de Farincourt had
+been sufficiently marked to cause both amusement and interest. And if
+madame was a less familiar figure at Court, if she had a reputation
+somewhat prudish, and an air of rusticity that did not belie it, and
+was even less of a favourite than her husband, her position as a great
+heiress and the last of an old family gave her a <i>cachet</i> which did
+not fail to make her interesting now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gladly would the great ladies in their coaches have gone down to the
+Châtelet to stare at her after the cruel fashion of that day; and,
+after buzzing round her in her misery, have gone away with a hundred
+tales of how she looked, and what she wore, and what she said in
+prison. But madame was saved this--this torture worse than the
+question--by the physician's order that no one should be admitted to
+her. He laid this down so strenuously--telling the lieutenant that if
+she had not complete repose for twenty-four hours he would be
+answerable neither for her life nor her reason--that that officer,
+who, like the Chevalier du Guet, was an old soldier, replied &quot;No&quot; to
+the most pressing insistences; and save and except Father Bernard, who
+had the <i>entrée</i> at all hours by the king's command, would let no one
+go in to her. &quot;It will be bad enough by-and-bye,&quot; he said, with an
+oath. &quot;If she did it, she will be punished. But she shall have a
+little peace to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the great world, baffled on this point, grew only the more
+curious; circulated stories only the more outrageous; and nodded and
+winked and whispered only the more assiduously. Would she be put to
+the question? And by the rack, or the boot, or the water torture? And
+who was the man? Of course there was a man. Now if it had been M. de
+Vidoche who had poisoned her, that would have been plain,
+intelligible, perspicuous; since everyone knew--and so on, and so on,
+with Mademoiselle de Farincourt's name at intervals.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was believed that madame would be first examined in private; but
+late at night, on the day before Christmas Eve, a sealed order came to
+the Lieutenant of the Châtelet, commanding him to present madame, with
+her servants and all concerned in the case, at the Palais de Justice
+on the following morning. Late as it was, the news was known in every
+part of Paris that night. Marshal Bassompierre, lying in the Bastille,
+heard it, and regretted he could not see the sight. It was rumoured
+that the king would attend in person; even that the trial had been
+hastened for his pleasure. It was certain that half the Court would be
+there, and the other half, if it could find room. The great ladies,
+who had failed to storm the Châtelet, hoped to succeed better at the
+Palais, and the First President of the Court, and even the
+Commissioners appointed to sit with him, found their doors beset at
+dawn with delicate &quot;<i>poulets</i>,&quot; or urgent, importunate applications.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Vidoche, the man and maid, were brought from the Châtelet to
+the Conciergerie an hour before daylight--madame in her coach, with
+her woman, the man on foot. That cold morning ride was such as few,
+thank God, are called on to endure. To the horrors of anticipation the
+lost wife, scarcely more than a girl, had to add the misery of
+retrospection; to the knowledge of what she had done, a woman's
+shrinking from the doom that threatened her, from shame and pain and
+death. But that which she felt perhaps as keenly as anything, as she
+crouched in a corner of her curtained vehicle and heard the yells
+which everywhere saluted its appearance, was the sudden sense of
+loneliness and isolation. True, the Lieutenant sat opposite to her,
+but his face was hard. She was no longer a woman to him, but a
+prisoner, a murderess, a poisoner. And the streets were thronged, in
+spite of the cold and the early hour. On the Pont au Change the people
+ran beside the coach and strove to get a sight of her, and jeered and
+sang and shouted. And at the entrance to the Palais, in the room in
+the Conciergerie where she had to wait, on the staircase to the court
+above, everywhere it was the same; all were set so thick with
+faces--staring, curious faces--that the guards could scarcely make a
+way for her. But she was cut off from all. She was no longer of
+them--of things living. Not one said a kind word to her; not one
+looked sympathy or pity. On a sudden, in a moment, with hundreds
+gazing at her, she, a delicate woman, found herself a thing apart,
+unclean, to be shunned. A thing, no longer a person. A prisoner, no
+longer a woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They placed a seat for her, and she sank into it, feeling at first
+nothing but the shame of being so stared at. But presently she had to
+rise and be sworn, and then, as she became conscious of other things,
+as the details of the crowded chamber forced themselves on her
+attention, and she saw which were the judges, and heard herself called
+upon to answer the questions that should be put to her, the instinct
+of self-preservation, the desire to clear herself, to escape and live,
+took hold of her. A late instinct, for hitherto all her thoughts had
+been of the man she had killed--her husband; but the fiercer for that.
+A burning flush suddenly flamed in her cheeks. Her eyes grew bright,
+her heart began to beat quickly. She turned giddy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She knew only of one way in which she could escape; only of one man
+that could help her; and even while the first judge was in the act of
+calling upon her, she turned from him and looked round. She looked to
+the right, to the left, then behind her, for Nôtredame. He, if he told
+the truth, could clear her! He could say that she had come to him for
+a charm, and not for poison! And he only! But where was he? There was
+her woman, trembling and weeping, waiting to be called. There was the
+valet, pale and frightened. There were twice a hundred indifferent
+people. But Nôtredame? He was not visible. He was not there. When she
+had satisfied herself of this, she sank back with a moan of despair.
+She gave up hope again. A hundred curious eyes saw the colour fade
+from her cheeks; her eyes grew dull, the whole woman collapsed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The examination began. She gave her name in a hollow whisper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the practice of that day, and still is, in French courts, to
+take advantage of any self-betrayal or emotion on the part of the
+accused person. It is the duty of the judges to observe the prisoner
+constantly and narrowly; and the First President, on an occasion such
+as this, was not the man to overlook anything which was visible to the
+ordinary spectator. Instead, therefore, of pursuing the regular
+interrogatory he had in his mind, he leaned forward and asked madame
+what was the matter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish for the man Solomon Nôtredame,&quot; Madame de Vidoche answered,
+rising and speaking in a choking voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the man from whom you bought the poison, I think?&quot; the judge
+answered, affecting to look at his notes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but as a love-philtre--not a poison,&quot; madame said in a whisper.
+&quot;I wish him to be here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You wish to be confronted with him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With the man Solomon Nôtredame?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you shall be, presently,&quot; the judge replied, leaning back, and
+casting a singular glance at his colleagues. &quot;Be satisfied. And now,
+madame,&quot; he continued gravely, as his eyes returned to her, &quot;it is my
+duty to help you to tell, and your duty to confess frankly, all that
+you know concerning this matter. Be good enough, therefore, to collect
+yourself, and answer my questions fully and truly, as you hope for
+mercy here and hereafter. So you will save yourself pain, and such
+also as shall examine you; and may best deserve, in the worst case,
+the king's indulgence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he uttered this exhortation madame clung to the bar behind which
+she stood, and seemed for the moment about to faint, so that the
+President waited awhile before he proceeded. She looked, indeed,
+ghostly. Her white face gleamed through the fog--which, rising from
+the river, was fast filling the chamber--like a face seen for an
+instant on a wreck through mist and spray and tempest. Ladies who had
+known her as an equal, and who now gazed heartlessly down at her from
+galleries, felt a pleasant thrill of excitement, and whispered that
+they had not braved the early cold for nothing. There was not a man in
+the court who did not expect to see her fall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But there is in women a power of endurance far exceeding that of men.
+By an immense effort madame regained control over herself. She
+answered the President's opening questions faintly but clearly; and,
+being led at once to tell of her visit to Nôtredame, had sufficient
+sense of her position to dwell plainly on the two facts important to
+her--that the object of her visit was a love-potion, and not a poison,
+and that the instructions first given to her were to take it herself.
+The latter assertion produced a startling impression in the court. It
+was completely unexpected; and though ninety-nine out of a hundred
+fancied it the bold invention of a desperate woman, all allowed that
+it added zest to the case.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Naturally the President pressed her hard on these points. He strove,
+both by cajolery and by stating objections, to make her withdraw from
+them. But she would not. Nor could he entrap her into narrating
+anything at variance with them. At length he desisted. &quot;Very well, we
+will leave that,&quot; he said; and so subtly had her story gained sympathy
+for her that the sigh of relief uttered in the court was perfectly
+audible. &quot;We will pass on, if you please. The boy who overtook you in
+the street, and, as you say, altered all? Who was he, madame?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You had seen him before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did he not open the door at this Nôtredame's when you entered the
+house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor when you left?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How did you know, then, madame, that he came from this abominable
+person whom you had been visiting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He said he did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And do you tell us,&quot; the judge retorted, &quot;that on the mere word of
+this boy, whom you did not know and had never seen, without the
+assurance of any token or countersign, you disregarded the man
+Nôtredame's directions on the most vital point, and, instead of taking
+this drug yourself, gave it to your husband?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Without suspecting that it was other than that for which you had
+asked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame,&quot; the judge said slowly, &quot;it is incredible.&quot; He looked for a
+moment at his colleagues, as if to collect their opinions. They
+nodded. He turned to her again. &quot;Do you not see that?&quot; he said almost
+kindly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not,&quot; madame answered firmly. &quot;It is true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Describe the boy, if you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He had--I think he had dark clothes,&quot; she answered, faltering for the
+first time. &quot;He looked about twelve years old.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; the President said; &quot;go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He had--I could not see any more,&quot; madame muttered faintly. &quot;It was
+dark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And do you expect us to believe this?&quot; the President replied with
+warmth, real or assumed. &quot;Do you expect us to believe such a story? Or
+that it was at the instance of this boy only--this boy of whom you
+knew nothing, whom you cannot describe, whom you had never seen
+before--that it was at his instance only that you gave this drug to
+your husband, instead of taking it yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She reeled slightly, clinging to the bar. The court swam before her.
+She saw, as he meant her to see, the full hopelessness of her
+position, the full strength of the case which fate had made against
+her, her impotence, her helplessness. Yet she forced herself to make
+an effort. &quot;It is the truth,&quot; she said, in a broken voice. &quot;I loved
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah!&quot; the President replied cynically. He repressed by a gesture a
+slight disturbance at the rear of the court. &quot;That, of course. It is
+part of the story. Or why a love-philtre? But do you not see, madame,&quot;
+he continued, bending his brows and speaking in the tone he used to
+common criminals, &quot;that all the wives in Paris might poison their
+husbands, and when they were found out say 'It was a love-potion,' if
+you are to escape? No, no; we must have some better tale than that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked at him in terror and shame. &quot;I have no other,&quot; she cried
+wildly. &quot;That is the truth. If you do not believe me, there is
+Nôtredame. Ask him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You applied to be confronted with him some time back,&quot; the President
+answered, looking aside at his colleagues, who nodded. &quot;Is that still
+your desire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She murmured &quot;Yes,&quot; with dry lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then let him be called,&quot; the judge answered solemnly. &quot;Let Solomon
+Nôtredame be called and confronted with the accused.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The order was received with a general stir, a movement of curiosity
+and expectation. Those in the galleries leaned forward to see the
+better; those at the back stood up. Madame, with her lips parted and
+her breath coming quickly--madame, the poor centre of all--gazed with
+her soul in her eyes towards the door at which she saw others gazing.
+All for her depended on this man--the man she was about to see. Would
+he lie and accuse her? Or would he tell the truth and corroborate her
+story--say, in a word, that she had come for a love-charm, and not for
+poison? Surely this last? Surely it would be to his interest?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But while she gazed with her soul in her eyes, the door which had been
+partly opened fell shut again, and disappointed her. At the same
+moment there was a general movement and rustling round her, an
+uprising in every part of the chamber. In bewilderment, almost in
+impatience, she turned towards the judges and found that they had
+risen too. Then through a door behind them she saw six gentlemen file
+in, with a flash and sparkle of colour that lit up the sombre bench.
+The first was the king.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Louis was about thirty-five years old at this time--a dark, sallow
+man, wearing black, with a wide-leafed hat, in which a costly diamond
+secured a plume of white feathers. He carried a walking cane, and
+saluted the judges as he entered, Three gentlemen--two about the
+king's age, the third a burly, soldierly man of sixty--followed him,
+and took their places behind the canopied chair placed for him. The
+fifth to enter--but he passed behind the judges and took a chair which
+stood on their left--wore a red robe trimmed with fur, and a small red
+cap. He was a man of middle height and pale complexion, keen Italian
+features and bright piercing eyes, and so far was not remarkable. But
+he had also a coal-black moustache and chin tuft, and milk-white hair;
+and this contrast won him recognition everywhere. He was Armand Jean
+du Plessis, Duke and Cardinal Richelieu, soldier, priest, and
+playwriter, and for sixteen years the ruler of France.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame gazed at them with a beating heart, with wild hopes that would
+rise, despite herself. But, oh God! how coldly their eyes met hers!
+With what a stony stare! With what curiosity, indifference, contempt!
+Alas, they had come for that. They had come to stare. This was their
+Christmas show--part of their Christmas revels. And she--she was a
+woman on her trial, a poisoner, a murderess, a vile thing to be
+questioned, tortured, dragged to a shameful death!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment or two the king talked with the judges. Then he sat back
+in his chair. The President made a sign, and an usher in a sonorous
+voice cried, &quot;Solomon Nôtredame! Let Solomon Nôtredame stand forth!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">TWO WITNESSES.</a></h3>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Vidoche heard the name and braced herself again, turning
+towards the door as others turned, and waiting with dry lips and
+feverish eyes for the man who was to save her--to save her in spite of
+king and court. Would he never come? The door stood open, remained
+open. She could see through it the passage with its bare walls and
+dusky ceiling, and hear in the hushed silence a noise of shuffling
+feet. Gradually the noise grew louder; though it still seemed a thing
+by itself, and so distant that in the court where they waited, with
+every eye expectant, the slightest sound, the lowest whisper was
+audible. When the usher cried again, &quot;Solomon Nôtredame, stand
+forward!&quot; more than one glanced at him angrily. He balked their
+expectation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ha! at last! But they were carrying him! Madame shivered slightly as
+she watched the four men come slowly along the passage, bearing a
+chair between them. At the door they stumbled and paused, giving her
+time to think. They had been racking him, then, and he could not walk;
+she might have guessed it. Her cheek, white before, became a shade
+ghastlier, and she clutched the bar with a firmer grip.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They brought him slowly down the three steps and through the narrow
+passage towards her. The men who carried him blocked her view, but she
+saw presently that there was something odd about his head. When they
+set him down, three paces from her, she saw what it was. His face was
+covered. There was a loose cloth over his head, and he leaned forward
+in a strange way.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What did it mean? She began to tremble, gazing at him wildly,
+expecting she knew not what. And he did not move.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p192"><img border="0" src="images/p192.png" alt="p192"></a><br>
+&quot;THEY WERE CARRYING HIM&quot; (<i>p</i>. 192).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the President's solemn voice broke the silence. &quot;Madame,&quot; he
+said--but it seemed to her that he was speaking a long way off--&quot;here
+is your witness. You asked to be confronted with him, and the court,
+hoping that this may be the more merciful way of inducing you to
+confess your crime, assent to the request. But I warn you that he is a
+witness not for you, but against you. He has confessed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment she looked dumbly at the speaker; then her eyes went back
+to the veiled figure in the chair--it had a horrible attraction for
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Unhappy woman,&quot; the President continued, in solemn accents, &quot;he has
+confessed. Will you now, before you look upon him, do likewise?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shook her head. She would have denied, protested, cried that she
+was not guilty; but her throat was parched--she had lost her voice,
+hope, all. There was a drumming noise in the court; or perhaps it was
+in her head. It was growing dark, too.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has confessed,&quot; she heard the President go on--but he was speaking
+a long, long way off now, and his voice came to her ears dully--&quot;by
+executing on himself that punishment which otherwise the law would
+have imposed. Are you still obstinate? Let the face be uncovered then.
+Now, wretched woman, look on your accomplice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Perhaps he spoke in mercy, and to prepare her; for she looked, and
+did not at once swoon, though the sight of that dead yellow face, with
+its stony eyes and open mouth, drew shrieks from more than one. The
+self-poisoner had done his work well. The sombre features wore even in
+death a cynical grin, the lips a smile of triumph. But this was on the
+surface. In the glassy eyes, dull and lustreless, lurked--as all saw
+who gazed closely--a horror; a look of sudden awakening, as if in the
+moment of dissolution the wicked man had come face to face with
+judgment; and, triumphant over his earthly foes, had met on the
+threshold of the dark world a shape that froze the very marrow in his
+bones.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Grimmest irony that he who had so long sported with the things of
+death, and traded on men's fear of it, should himself be brought here
+dead, to be exposed and gazed at! Of small use now his tricks and
+chemicals, his dark knowledge and the mystery in which he had wrapped
+himself. Orcus had him, grim head, black heart and all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A moment, I have said, madame stared. Then gradually the truth, the
+hideous truth, came home to her. He was dead! He had killed himself!
+The horror of it overcame her at last. With a shuddering cry she fell
+swooning to the floor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When she came to herself again--after how long an interval she
+could not tell--and the piled faces and sharp outlines of the court
+began to shape themselves out of the mist, her first thought, as
+remembrance returned, was of the ghastly figure in the chair. With an
+effort--someone was sponging her forehead, and would have restrained
+her--she turned her head and looked. To her relief it was gone. She
+sighed, and closing her eyes lay for a time inert, hearing the hum of
+voices, but paying no attention. But gradually the misery of her
+position took hold of her again, and with a faint moan she looked up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In a moment she fell to trembling and crying softly, for her eyes met
+those of the woman who stooped over her and read there something new,
+strange, wonderful--kindness. The woman patted her hand softly, and
+murmured to her to be still and to listen. She was listening herself
+between times, and presently madame followed her example.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Dull as her senses still were, she noticed that the king sat forward
+with an odd keen look on his face, that the judges seemed startled,
+that even the Cardinal's pale features were slightly flushed. And not
+one of all had eyes for her. They were looking at a boy who stood at
+the end of the table, beside a priest. The cold light from a window
+fell full on his face, and he was speaking. &quot;I listened,&quot; she heard
+him say. &quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And how long a time elapsed before Madame de Vidoche came?&quot; the
+President asked, continuing, apparently, an examination of which she
+had missed the first part.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Half an hour, I think,&quot; the boy answered, in a clear, bold tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are sure it was poison he required?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And madame?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A love-philtre.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You heard both interviews?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are sure of the arrangement made between Vidoche and this man, of
+which you have told us? That the poison should be given to madame in
+the form of a love-philtre? That she might take it herself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And it was you who ran after Madame de Vidoche and told her that the
+draught was to be given to her husband instead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you acknowledge, then,&quot; the President continued slowly, &quot;that it
+was you who, in fact, killed M. de Vidoche?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For the first time the boy faltered and stumbled, and looked this way
+and that as if for a chance of escape. But there was none, and Father
+Bernard, by laying his hand on his arm, seemed to give him courage. &quot;I
+do,&quot; he answered, in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why?&quot; the President demanded, with a quick look at his colleagues. He
+spoke amid an irrepressible murmur of interest. The tale had been told
+once, but it was a tale that bore telling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because--I heard him plan his wife's death--and I thought it right,&quot;
+the boy stammered, terror growing in his eyes. &quot;I wanted to save her.
+I did not know. I did not think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The President looked towards the king, but suddenly from an unexpected
+quarter came an interruption. Madame rose trembling to her feet and
+stood grasping the bar before her. Her face passed from white to red,
+and red to white. Her eyes glittered through her tears. The woman
+beside her would have held her back, but she would not be restrained.
+&quot;What is this?&quot; she panted. &quot;Does he say that my husband was--there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, madame, he does,&quot; the President answered indulgently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And that he came for poison--for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He says so, madame.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked at him for a moment wildly, then sank back on her stool and
+began to sob. She had gone through so many emotions; love and death,
+shame and fear, had so sported with her during the last few days that
+she could taste nothing to the full now, neither sweet nor bitter. As
+the dawning of life and hope had left her rather dazed than thankful,
+so this stab, that a little earlier would have pierced her very
+heartstrings, did but prick her. Afterwards the thankfulness and the
+pain--and the healing--might come. But here in the presence of all
+these people, where so much had happened to her, she could only sob
+weakly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The President turned again to the king. Louis nodded, and with a
+painful effort--for he stammered terribly--spoke. &quot;Who is th-this
+lad?&quot; he said. &quot;Ask him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The judge bowed and returned to the witness. &quot;You call yourself Jean
+de Bault?&quot; he said somewhat roughly. The name, and especially the
+particle, displeased him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy assented.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who are you, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan opened his mouth to answer, but Father Bernard interposed. &quot;Tell
+His Majesty,&quot; he said, &quot;what you told me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After a moment's hesitation the boy complied, speaking fast, with his
+face on his breast and a flushed cheek. Nevertheless, in the silence
+every word reached the ear. &quot;I am Jehan de Bault,&quot; he pattered in his
+treble voice, &quot;seigneur of I know not where, and lord of seventeen
+lordships in the county of Perigord----&quot; and so on, and so on, through
+the quaint formula to which we have listened more than once.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ninety-nine out of a hundred who heard him, heard him with incredulous
+surprise, and took the tale for a mountebank's patter; though patter,
+they acknowledged it was of a novel kind, aptly made and well spoken.
+Two or three of the bolder laughed. There had been little to laugh at
+before. The king moved restlessly in his chair, saying, &quot;Pish! Wh-hat
+is this rubbish? What is he s-saying?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The President frowned, and taking his cue from the king, was about to
+rebuke the boy sharply, when one who had not before spoken, but whose
+voice in an instant produced silence among high and low, intervened.
+&quot;The tale rings true!&quot; the Cardinal said, in low, suave accents. &quot;But
+there is no family of Bault in Perigord, is there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With His Majesty's permission, no!&quot; replied a bluff, hearty voice;
+and therewith the elderly soldier who had come in with the king
+advanced a pace to the side of his master's chair. &quot;I am of Perigord,
+and know, your Eminence,&quot; he continued. &quot;More. Two months ago I saw
+this lad--I recognise him now--at the fair of Fécamp. He was
+differently dressed then, but he had the same tale, except that he did
+not mention Perigord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;S-someone has taught it him,&quot; said the king.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your Majesty is doubtless right,&quot; the President answered
+obsequiously. Then to the boy he continued, &quot;Speak, boy; who taught it
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Jehan only shook his head and looked puzzled. At last, being
+pressed, he said, &quot;At Bault, in Perigord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no such place!&quot; M. de Bresly cried roundly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Father Bernard looked distressed. He began to repent that he had led
+the child to tell the tale; he began to fear that it might hurt
+instead of helping. Perhaps after all he had been too credulous. But
+again the Cardinal came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is there any family in Perigord can boast of three marshals, M. de
+Bresly?&quot; he asked, in his thin incisive tones.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;None that I know of. Several that can boast of two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The blood of Roland?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">M. de Bresly shrugged his shoulders. &quot;It is common to all of us,&quot; he
+said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The great Cardinal smiled, too--a flickering, quickly-passing smile.
+Then he leaned forward and fixed the boy with his fierce black eyes.
+&quot;What was your father's name?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jehan shook his head, impotently, miserably.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where did you live?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The same result. The king threw himself back and muttered, &quot;It is no
+good.&quot; The President moved in his seat. Some in the galleries began to
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the Cardinal raised his hand imperiously. &quot;Can you read?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; Jehan murmured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then your arms?&quot; The Cardinal spoke rapidly now, and his face was
+growing hard. &quot;They were over the gate, over the door, over the
+fireplace. Think--look back--reflect. What were they?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment. Jehan stared at him in bewilderment, flinching under the
+gaze of those piercing eyes. Then on a sudden the boy's face grew
+crimson. He raised his hand eagerly. &quot;<i>Or, on a mount vert!</i>&quot; he cried
+impetuously--and stopped. But presently, in a different voice, he
+added slowly, &quot;It was a tree--on a hill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a swift look of triumph the Cardinal turned to M. de Bresly.
+&quot;Now,&quot; he said, &quot;that belongs to----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The soldier nodded almost sulkily. &quot;It is Madame de Vidoche's,&quot; he
+said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And her name was----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Martinbault. Mademoiselle de Martinbault!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A murmur of astonishment rose from every part of the court. For a
+moment the King, the Cardinal, the President, M. de Bresly, all were
+inaudible. The air seemed full of exclamations, questions, answers; it
+rang with the words, &quot;Bault--Martinbault!&quot; Everywhere people rose to
+see the boy, or craned forward and slipped with a clattering noise.
+Etiquette, reverence, even the presence of the king, went for nothing
+in the rush of excitement. It was long before the ushers could obtain
+silence, or any get a hearing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then M. de Bresly, who looked as much excited as any, and as red in
+the face, was found to be speaking. &quot;Pardieu, sire, it may be so!&quot; he
+was heard to say. &quot;It is true enough, as I now remember. A child was
+lost in that family about eight years back. But it was at the time of
+the Rochelle expedition; the province was full of trouble, and M. and
+Madame de Martinbault were just dead; and little was made of it. All
+the same, this may be the boy. Nay, it is a thousand to one he is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is he, then, to M--Madame de V--Vidoche?&quot; the king asked, with
+an effort. He was vastly excited--for him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A brother, sire,&quot; M. de Bresly answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That word pierced at last through the dulness which wrapped madame's
+faculties, and had made her impervious to all that had gone before.
+She rose slowly, listened, looked at the boy---looked with growing
+wonder, like one awakening from a dream. Possibly in that moment the
+later years fell from her, and she saw herself again a child--a tall,
+lanky girl playing in the garden of the old château with a little
+toddling boy who ran and lisped, beat her sturdily with fat, bare arms
+or cuddled to her for kisses. For with a sudden gesture she stretched
+out her hands, and cried in a clear voice, &quot;Jean! Jean! It is little
+Jean!&quot;</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20pt">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It became the fashion--a fashion which lasted half a dozen
+years at
+least--to call that Christmas the Martinbault Christmas; so loudly did
+those who were present at that famous examination, and the discovery
+which attended it, profess that it exceeded all the other amusements
+of the year, not excepting even the great ball at the Palais Cardinal,
+from which every lady carried off an <i>étrenne</i> worth a year's
+pin-money. The story became the rage. Those who had been present drove
+their friends, who had not been so fortunate, to the verge of madness.
+From the court the tale spread to the markets. Men made a broadsheet
+of it, and sold it in the streets--in the Rue Touchet, and under the
+gallows at Montfaucon, where the body of Solomon Nôtredame withered in
+the spring rains. Had Madame de Vidoche and the child stayed in Paris,
+it must have offended their ears ten times a day.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><a name="p212"><img border="0" src="images/p212.png" alt="p212"></a><br>
+&quot;A MAN HALF-NAKED ... CRAWLED ON TO THE HIGHROAD&quot; (<i>p</i>.
+212).</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">But they did not. As soon as madame could be moved, she retired with
+the boy to the old house four leagues from Perigueux, and there, in
+the quiet land where the name of Martinbault ranked with the name of
+the king, she sought to forget her married life. She took her maiden
+title, and in the boy's breeding, in works of mercy, in a hundred
+noble and fitting duties entirely to her taste, succeeded in finding
+peace, and presently happiness. But one thing neither time, nor
+change, nor in the event love, could erase from her mind; and that was
+a deep-seated dread of the great city in which she had suffered so
+much. She never returned to Paris.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">About a year after the trial a man with crafty, foxy eyes came
+wandering through Perigueux, with a monkey on his shoulder. He saw not
+far from the road--as his evil-star would have it--an old château
+standing low among trees. The place promised well, and he went to it
+and began to perform before the servants in the courtyard. Presently
+the lord of the house, a young boy, came out to see him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">More need not be said, save that an hour later a man, half naked,
+covered with duckweed, and aching in every bone, crawled on to the
+highroad, and went on his way in sadness--with his mouth full of
+curses; and that for years afterwards a monkey, answering to the name
+of Taras, teased the dogs, and plucked the ivy, and gambolled at will
+on the great south terrace at Martinbault.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="W20">
+<h5>Printed by Cassell &amp; Company, Limited. La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man in Black, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN BLACK ***
+
+***** This file should be named 39295-h.htm or 39295-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/9/39295/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the
+Web Archive (University of Toronto)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+
diff --git a/39295-h/images/front.png b/39295-h/images/front.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c0d300
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/front.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p11.png b/39295-h/images/p11.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6fb462e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p11.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p112.png b/39295-h/images/p112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d18af3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p112.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p124.png b/39295-h/images/p124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31280f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p124.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p133.png b/39295-h/images/p133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..769dd72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p133.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p169.png b/39295-h/images/p169.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..392bf43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p169.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p192.png b/39295-h/images/p192.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c3772c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p192.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p212.png b/39295-h/images/p212.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4b6b3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p212.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p33.png b/39295-h/images/p33.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f89ed5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p33.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p52.png b/39295-h/images/p52.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2de048
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p52.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p74.png b/39295-h/images/p74.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71a6cf2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p74.png
diff --git a/39295-h/images/p92.png b/39295-h/images/p92.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdd3395
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295-h/images/p92.png
diff --git a/39295.txt b/39295.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fff56b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4278 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man in Black, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
+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 Man in Black
+
+Author: Stanley J. Weyman
+
+Illustrator: Wal Paget
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2012 [EBook #39295]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN BLACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the
+Web Archive (University of Toronto)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/maninblackillust00weymuoft
+      (University of Toronto)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE MAN IN BLACK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "'IF YOU WANT ME TO--DRAW HER HOROSCOPE,' THE
+ASTROLOGER REPLIED" (_p_. 89).]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 The
+                             Man in Black
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+                          STANLEY J. WEYMAN
+
+            _Author of "A Gentleman of France" "The Story
+                       of Francis Cludde" etc_.
+
+
+
+
+                            Illustrated by
+                      WAL PAGET AND H. M. PAGET
+
+
+
+
+                            SIXTH THOUSAND
+
+
+
+
+                     CASSELL AND COMPANY Limited
+                      _London Paris & Melbourne_
+                                 1894
+                         ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS.
+
+
+   CHAPTER
+
+         I. The Fair at Fecamp.
+
+        II. Solomon Notredame.
+
+       III. Man and Wife.
+
+        IV. The House with Two Doors.
+
+         V. The Upper Portal.
+
+        VI. The Powder of Attraction.
+
+       VII. Clytaemnestra.
+
+      VIII. The Mark of Cain.
+
+        IX. Before the Court.
+
+         X. Two Witnesses.
+
+
+
+
+                        LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+   "'If you want me to draw her horoscope,' the astrologer replied."
+       Frontispiece
+
+   "The showman was counting his gains into his pouch."
+
+   "Jehan went trembling and found the hole."
+
+   "The astrologer rose slowly from his seat."
+
+   "Jehan leapt back with a shriek of pain."
+
+   "For a second the man in black stood breathless."
+
+   "'Madame! Madame de Vidoche, if you please!'"
+
+   "He watched her every motion."
+
+   "In a moment he was down, writhing on the floor."
+
+   "'Who stole him? Where has he been?'"
+
+   "They were carrying him."
+
+   "A man, half-naked, ... crawled on to the highroad."
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE MAN IN BLACK.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+                         The Fair At Fecamp.
+
+
+"_I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of---I forget the name, of a most
+noble and puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle,
+and the Low. In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my
+forefathers were three marshals of France. I stand here, the_----"
+
+It was the eve of All Saints, and the famous autumn horse-fair was in
+progress at Fecamp--Fecamp on the Normandy coast, the town between the
+cliffs, which Boisrose, in the year '93, snatched for the Great King
+by a feat of audacity unparalleled in war. This only by the way,
+however; and that a worthy deed may not die. For at the date of this
+fair of which we write, the last day of October, 1637, stout Captain
+Boisrose, whom Sully made for his daring Lieutenant-General of the
+Ordnance, had long ceased to ruffle it; the Great King had lain in his
+grave a score of years or more; and though Sully, duke and peer and
+marshal, still lived, an aged, formal man, in his chateau of Villebon
+by Chartres, all France, crouching under the iron hand of the
+Cardinal, looked other ways.
+
+The great snarled, biting at the hem of the red soutane. But that the
+mean and Jacques Bonhomme, the merchant and the trader, flourished
+under his rule, Fecamp was as good evidence this day as man could
+desire. Even old burghers who remembered Charles the Ninth, and the
+first glass windows ever seen in Fecamp outside the Abbey, could not
+say when the price of horses had been higher or the town more full.
+All day, and almost all night, the clatter of hoofs and babble of
+bargains filled the narrow streets; while hucksters' cries and
+drunkards' oaths, with all raucous sounds, went up to heaven like the
+smoke from a furnace. The _Chariot d'Or_ and the _Holy Fig_, haunts of
+those who came to buy, fairly hummed with guests, with nobles of the
+province and gay sparks from Rouen, army contractors from the Rhine,
+and dealers from the south. As for the _Dame Belle_ and the _Green
+Man_, houses that lower down the street had food and forage for those
+who came to sell, they strewed their yards a foot deep with straw, and
+saying to all alike, "Voila, monsieur!" charged the full price of a
+bed.
+
+Beyond the streets it was the same. Strings of horses and ponies, with
+an army of grooms and chaunters, touts and cutpurses, camped on every
+piece of level ground, while the steeper slopes and hill-sides swarmed
+with troupes more picturesque, if less useful. For these were the
+pitches of the stilt-walkers and funambulists, the morris dancers and
+hobby-horses: in a word, of an innumerable company of quacks,
+jugglers, poor students, and pasteboard giants, come together for the
+delectation of the gaping Normans, and all under the sway and
+authority of the Chevalier du Guet, in whose honour two gibbets, each
+bearing a creaking corpse, rose on convenient situations overlooking
+the fair. For brawlers and minor sinners a pillory and a whipping-post
+stood handy by the landward gate, and from time to time, when a lusty
+vagrant or a handsome wench was dragged up for punishment, outvied in
+attraction all the professional shows.
+
+Of these, one that seemed as successful as any in catching and
+chaining the fancy of the shifting crowd consisted of three persons--a
+man, a boy, and an ape--who had chosen for their pitch a portion of
+the steep hill-side overhanging the road. High up in this they had
+driven home an iron peg, and stretching a cord from this to the top of
+a tree which stood on the farther edge of the highway, had improvised
+a tight-rope at once simple and effective. All day, as the changing
+throng passed to and fro below, the monkey and the boy might be seen
+twisting and turning and posturing on this giddy eminence, while the
+man, fantastically dressed in an iron cap a world too big for him, and
+a back- and breast-piece which ill-matched his stained crimson jacket
+and taffety breeches, stood beating a drum at the foot of the tree, or
+now and again stepped forward to receive in a ladle the sous and eggs
+and comfits that rewarded the show.
+
+He was a lean, middle-sized man, with squinting eyes and a crafty
+mouth. Unaided he might have made his living by cutting purses. But he
+had the wit to do by others what he could not do himself, and the luck
+to have that in his company which pleased all comers; for while the
+clowns gazed saucer-eyed at the uncouth form and hideous grimaces of
+the ape, the thin cheeks and panting lips of the boy touched the
+hearts of their mistresses, and drew from them many a cake and
+fairing. Still, with a crowd change is everything; and in the contest
+of attractions, where there was here a flying dragon and there a
+dancing bear, and in a place apart the mystery of Joseph of Arimathaea
+and the Sacred Fig-tree was being performed by a company that had
+played before the King in Paris--and when, besides all these raree
+shows, a score of quacks and wizards and collar-grinners with lungs of
+brass, were advertising themselves amid indescribable clanging of
+drums and squeaking of trumpets, it was not to be expected that a boy
+and a monkey could always hold the first place. An hour before sunset
+the ladle began to come home empty. The crowd grew thin. Gargantuan
+roars of laughter from the players' booth drew off some who lingered.
+It seemed as if the trio's run of success was at an end; and that, for
+all the profit they were still likely to make, they might pack up and
+be off to bed.
+
+But Master Crafty Eyes knew better. Before his popularity quite
+flickered out he produced a folding stool. Setting it at the foot of
+the tree with a grand air, which of itself was enough to arrest the
+waverers, he solemnly covered it with a red cloth. This done, he
+folded his arms, looked very sternly two ways at once, and raising his
+hand without glancing upwards, cried, "Tenez! His Excellency the
+Seigneur de Bault will have the kindness to descend."
+
+The little handful of gapers laughed, and the laugh added to their
+number. But the boy, to whom the words were addressed, did not move.
+He sat idly on the rope, swaying to and fro, and looked out straight
+before him, with a set face, and a mutinous glare in his eyes. He
+appeared to be about twelve years old. He was lithe-limbed, and burned
+brown by the sun, with a mass of black hair and, strange to say, blue
+eyes. The ape sat cheek by jowl with him; and even at the sound of the
+master's voice turned to him humanly, as if to say, "You had better
+go."
+
+Still he did not move. "Tenez!" Master Crafty Eyes cried again, and
+more sharply. "His Excellency the Seigneur de Bault will have the
+kindness to descend, and narrate his history. _Ecoutez! Ecoutez!
+mesdames et messieurs!_ It will repay you."
+
+This time the boy, frowning and stubborn, looked down from his perch.
+He seemed to be measuring the distance, and calculating whether his
+height from the ground would save him from the whip. Apparently he
+came to the conclusion it would not, for on the man crying "_Vitement!
+Vitement!_" and flinging a grim look upwards, he began to descend
+slowly, a sullen reluctance manifest in all his movements.
+
+On reaching the ground, he made his way through the audience--which
+had increased to above a score--and climbed heavily on the stool,
+where he stood looking round him with a dark shamefacedness,
+surprising in one who was part of a show, and had been posturing all
+day long for the public amusement. The women, quick to espy the
+hollows in his cheeks, and the great wheal that seamed his neck, and
+quick also to admire the straightness of his limbs and the light pose
+of his head, regarded him pitifully. The men only stared; smoking had
+not yet come in at Fecamp, so they munched cakes and gazed by turns.
+
+"Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" cried the man with the drum. "Listen to the
+remarkable, lamentable, and veritable history of the Seigneur de
+Bault, now before you! Oyez!"
+
+The boy cast a look round, but there was no escape. So, sullenly, and
+in a sing-song tone--through which, nevertheless, some note of
+dignity, some strange echo of power and authority, that gave the
+recital its bizarre charm and made it what it was, would continually
+force itself--he began with the words at the head of this chapter:--
+
+"I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of--I forget the name, of a most
+noble and puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle,
+and the Low. In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my
+forefathers were three marshals of France. I stand here, the last of
+my race; in token whereof may God preserve my mother, the King,
+France, and this Province! I was stolen by gypsies at the age of five,
+and carried off and sold by my father's steward, as Joseph was by his
+brethren, and I appeal to--I appeal to--all good subjects of France
+to--help me to----"
+
+"My rights!" interjected Crafty Eyes, with a savage glance.
+
+"My rights," the boy whispered, lowering his head.
+
+The drum-man came forward briskly. "Just so, ladies and gentlemen," he
+cried with wonderful glibness. "And seldom as it is that you have
+before you the representative of one of our most noble and ancient
+families a-begging your help, seldom as that remarkable, lamentable,
+and veritable sight is to be seen in Fecamp, sure I am that you will
+respond willingly, generously, and to the point, my lord, ladies and
+gentlemen!" And with this, and a far grander air than when it had been
+merely an affair of a boy and an ape, the knave carried round his
+ladle, doffing his cap to each who contributed, and saying politely,
+"The Sieur de Bault thanks you, sir. The Sieur de Bault is your
+servant, madam."
+
+There was something so novel in the whole business, something so odd
+and inexplicably touching in the boy's words and manner, that with all
+the appearance of a barefaced trick, appealing only to the most
+ignorant, the thing wrought on the crowd: as doubtless it had wrought
+on a hundred crowds before. The first man to whom the ladle came
+grinned sheepishly and gave against his will; and his fellows
+throughout maintained a position of reserve, shrugging their shoulders
+and looking wisdom. But a dozen women became believers at once, and
+despite the blare and flare of rival dragons and Moriscoes and the
+surrounding din and hubbub, the ladle came back full of deniers and
+sous.
+
+The showman was counting his gains into his pouch, when a silver franc
+spun through the air and fell at his feet, and at the same time a
+harsh voice cried, "Here, you, sirrah! A word with you."
+
+Master Crafty Eyes looked up, and doffing his cap humbly--for the
+voice was a voice of authority--went cringing to the speaker. This was
+an elderly man, well mounted, who had reined up his horse on the
+skirts of the crowd as the boy began his harangue. He had a plain
+soldier's face, with grey moustachios and a small, pointed grey beard,
+and he seemed to be a person of rank on his way out of the town; for
+he had two or three armed servants behind him, of whom one carried a
+valise on his crupper.
+
+"What is your will, noble sir?" the showman whined, standing
+bare-headed at his stirrup and looking up at him.
+
+"Who taught the lad that rubbish?" the horseman asked sternly.
+
+"No one, my lord. It is the truth."
+
+"Then bring him here, liar!" was the answer.
+
+The showman obeyed, not very willingly, dragging the boy off the
+stool, and jerking him through the crowd. The stranger looked down at
+the child for a moment in silence. Then he said sharply, "Hark ye,
+tell me the truth, boy. What is your name?"
+
+The lad stood straight up, and answered without hesitation, "Jehan de
+Bault."
+
+"Of nowhere in the County of No Name," the stranger gibed gravely. "Of
+a noble and puissant family--and the rest. All that is true, I
+suppose?"
+
+A flicker as of hope gleamed in the boy's eyes. His cheek reddened. He
+raised his hand to the horse's shoulder, and answered in a voice which
+trembled a little, "It is true."
+
+
+[Illustration: "THE SHOWMAN WAS COUNTING HIS GAINS INTO HIS POUCH"
+(_p_. 11).]
+
+
+"Where is Bault?" the stranger asked grimly.
+
+The lad looked puzzled and disappointed. His lip trembled, his colour
+lied again. He glanced here and there, and finally shook his head. "I
+do not know," he said faintly.
+
+"Nor do I," the horseman replied, striking his long brown boot with
+his riding-switch to give emphasis to the words, and looking sternly
+round. "Nor do I. And what is more, you may take it from me that there
+is no family of that name in France! And once more you may take this
+from me too. I am the Vicomte de Bresly, and I have a government in
+Guienne. Play this game in my county, and I will have you both whipped
+for common cheats, and you, Master Drummer, branded as well! Bear it
+in mind, sirrah; and when you perform, give Perigord a wide berth.
+That is all."
+
+He struck his horse at the last word, and rode off; sitting, like an
+old soldier, so straight in his saddle that he did not see what
+happened behind him, or that the boy sprang forward with a hasty cry,
+and would, but for the showman's grasp, have followed him. He rode
+away, unheeding and without looking back; and the boy, after a brief
+passionate struggle with his master, collapsed.
+
+"You limb!" the man with the drum cried, as he shook him. "What bee
+has stung you? You won't be quiet, eh? Then take that! and that!" and
+he struck the child brutally in the face--twice.
+
+Some cried shame and some laughed. But it was nobody's business, and
+there were a hundred delights within sight. What was one little boy,
+or a blow more or less, amid the whirl and tumult of the fair? A score
+of yards away a dancing girl, a very Peri--or so she seemed by the
+light of four tallow candles--was pirouetting on a rickety platform.
+Almost rubbing elbows with her was a philosopher, who had conquered
+all the secrets of Nature except cleanliness, and was prepared to sell
+infallible love-philtres and the potion of perpetual youth--for four
+farthings! And beyond these stretched a vista of wonders and
+prodigies, all vocal, not to say deafening. So one by one, with a
+shrug or a sneer, the onlookers melted away, until only our trio
+remained: Master Crafty Eyes counting his gains, the boy sobbing
+against the bank on which he had thrown himself, and the monkey
+gibbering and chattering overhead--a dark shapeless object on an
+invisible rope. For night was falling: where the fun of the fair was
+not were gloom and a rising wind, lurking cutpurses, and waste land.
+
+The showman seemed to feel this, for having counted his takings, he
+kicked up the boy and began to pack up. He had nearly finished, and
+was stooping over the coil of rope, securing the end, when a touch on
+his shoulder caused him to jump a yard. A tall man wrapped in a cloak,
+who had come up unseen, stood at his elbow.
+
+"Well!" the showman cried, striving to hide his alarm under an
+appearance of bluster. "And what may you want?"
+
+"A word with you," the unknown answered.
+
+The voice was so cold and passionless it gave Crafty Eyes a turn.
+"Diable!" he muttered, striving to pierce the darkness and see what
+the other was like. But he could not; so as to shake off the
+impression, he asked, with a sneer, "You are not a vicomte, are you?"
+
+"No," the stranger replied gravely, "I am not."
+
+"Nor the governor of a county?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then you may speak!" rejoined the showman grandly.
+
+"Not here," the cloaked man answered. "I must see you alone."
+
+"Then you will have to come home with me, and wait until I have put up
+the boy," the other said. "I am not going to lose him for you or
+anyone. And for a penny he'd be off! Does it suit you? You may take it
+or leave it."
+
+The unknown, whose features were completely masked by the dusk, nodded
+assent, and without more ado the four turned their faces towards the
+streets; the boy carrying the monkey, and the two men following close
+on his heels. Whenever they passed before a lighted booth the showman
+strove to learn something of his companion's appearance but the latter
+wore his cloak so high about his face, and was so well served by a
+wide-flapped hat which almost met it, that curiosity was completely
+baffled; and they reached the low inn where the showman rented a
+corner of the stable without that cunning gentleman being a jot the
+wiser for his pains.
+
+It was a vile, evil-smelling place they entered, divided into six or
+eight stalls by wooden partitions reaching half-way to the tiles. A
+horn lantern hung at each end filled it with yellow lights and deep
+shadows. A pony raised its head and whinnied as the men entered, but
+most of the stalls were empty, or tenanted only by drunken clowns
+sleeping in the straw.
+
+"You cannot lock him in here," said the stranger, looking round him.
+
+The showman grunted. "Cannot I?" he said. "There are tricks in all
+trades, master. I reckon I can--with this!" And producing from
+somewhere about him a thin steel chain, he held it before the other's
+face. "That is my lock and door," he said triumphantly.
+
+"It won't hold him long," the other answered impassively. "The fifth
+link from the end is worn through now."
+
+"You have sharp eyes!" the showman exclaimed, with reluctant
+admiration. "But it will hold a bit yet. I fasten him in yonder
+corner. Do you wait here, and I will come back to you."
+
+He was not long about it. When he returned he led the stranger into
+the farthest of the stalls, which, as well as that next to it, was
+empty. "We can talk here," he said bluntly. "At any rate, I have no
+better place. The house is full. Now, what is it?"
+
+"I want that boy," the tall man answered. The showman laughed--stopped
+laughing--laughed again. "I dare say you do," he said derisively.
+"There is not a better or a pluckier boy on the rope out of Paris. And
+for patter? There is nothing on the road like the bit he did this
+afternoon, nor a bit that pays as well."
+
+"Who taught it him?" the stranger asked.
+
+"I did."
+
+"That is a lie," the other answered in a perfectly unmoved tone. "If
+you like I will tell you what you did. You taught him the latter half
+of the story. The other he knew before: down to the word 'province.'"
+
+The showman gasped. "Diable!" he muttered. "Who told you?"
+
+"Never mind. You bought the boy. From whom?"
+
+"From some gypsies at the great fair of Beaucaire," the showman
+answered sullenly.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+Crafty Eyes laughed dryly. "If I knew I should not be padding the
+hoof," he said. "Or, again, he may be nobody, and the tale patter. You
+have heard as much as I have. What do you think?"
+
+"I think I shall find out when I have bought the boy," the stranger
+answered coolly. "What will you take for him?"
+
+The showman gasped again. "You come to the point," he said.
+
+"It is my custom. What is his price?"
+
+The showman's imagination had never soared beyond nor his ears ever
+heard of a larger sum than a thousand crowns. He mentioned it
+trembling. There might be such a sum in the world.
+
+"A thousand livres, if you like. Not a sou more," was the answer.
+
+The nearer lantern threw a strong light on Crafty Eyes' face; but that
+was mere shadow beside the light of cupidity which sparkled in his
+eyes. He could get another boy; scores of boys. But a thousand livres!
+A thousand livres! "Tournois!" he said faintly. "Livres Tournois!" In
+his wildest moments of avarice he had never dreamed of possessing such
+a sum.
+
+"No, Paris livres," the stranger answered coldly. "Paid to-morrow at
+the _Golden Chariot_. If you agree, you will deliver the boy to me
+there at noon, and receive the money."
+
+The showman nodded, vanquished by the mere sound of the sum. Paris
+livres let it be. Danae did not more quickly succumb to the golden
+shower.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+                          SOLOMON NOTREDAME.
+
+
+A little later that night, at the hour which saw the showman pay his
+second visit to the street before the _Chariot d'Or_, there to stand
+gaping at the lighted windows, and peering into the courtyard in a
+kind of fascination--or perhaps to assure himself that the house would
+not fly away, and his golden hopes with it--the twelve-year-old boy,
+the basis of those hopes, awoke and stirred restlessly in the straw.
+He was cold, and the chain galled him. His face ached where the man
+had struck him. In the next stall two drunken men were fighting, and
+the place reeked with oaths and foulness. But none of these things
+were so novel as to keep the boy awake; and sighing and drawing the
+monkey nearer to him, he would in a moment have been asleep again if
+the moon, shining with great brightness through the little square
+aperture above him, had not thrown its light directly on his head, and
+roused him more completely.
+
+He sat up and gazed at it, and God knows what softening thoughts and
+pitiful recollections the beauty of the night brought into his mind;
+but presently he began to weep--not as a child cries, with noise and
+wailing, but in silence, as a man weeps. The monkey awoke and crept
+into his breast, but he hardly regarded it. The misery, the
+hopelessness, the slavery of his life, ignored from hour to hour, or
+borne at other times with a boy's nonchalance, filled his heart to
+bursting now. Crouching in his lair in the straw, he shook with agony.
+The tears welled up, and would not be restrained, until they hid the
+face of the sky and darkened even the moon's pure light.
+
+Or was it his tears? He dashed them away and looked, and rose slowly
+to his feet; while the ape, clinging to his breast, began to mow and
+gibber. A black mass, which gradually resolved itself, as the boy's
+eyes cleared, into a man's hat and head, filled the aperture.
+
+"Hush!" came from the head in a cautious whisper. "Come nearer. I will
+not hurt you. Do you wish to escape, lad?"
+
+The boy clasped his hands in an ecstasy. "Yes, oh yes!" he murmured.
+The question chimed in so naturally with his thoughts, it scarcely
+surprised him.
+
+"If you were loose, could you get through this window?" the man asked.
+He spoke cautiously, under his breath; but the noise in the next
+stall, to say nothing of a vile drinking song which was being chanted
+forth at the farther end of the stable, was such he might safely have
+shouted. "Yes? Then take this file. Rub at the fifth link from the
+end: the one that is nearly through. Do you understand, boy?"
+
+"Yes, yes," Jehan cried again, groping in the straw for the tool,
+which had fallen at his feet. "I know."
+
+"When you are loose, cover up the chain," continued the other in a
+slow biting tone. "Or lie on that part of it, and wait until morning.
+As soon as you see the first gleam of light, climb out through the
+window. You will find me outside."
+
+The boy would have uttered his trembling thanks. But lo! in a moment
+the aperture was clear again; the moon sailed unchanged through an
+unchanged sky; and all was as before. Save for the presence of the
+little bit of rough steel in his hand, he might have thought it a
+dream. But the file was there; it was there, and with a choking sob of
+hope and fear and excitement, he fell to work on the chain.
+
+It was clumsy work he made of it in the dark. But the link was so much
+worn, a man might have wrenched it open, and the boy did not spare his
+fingers. The dispute next door covered the song of the file; and the
+smoky horn lantern which alone lighted that end of the stable had no
+effect in the dark corner where he lay. True, he had to work by feel,
+looking out all the while for his tyrant's coming; but the tool was
+good, and the fingers, hardened by many an hour of work on the rope,
+were strong and lithe. When the showman at last stumbled to his place
+in the straw, the boy lay free--free and trembling.
+
+All was not done, however. It seemed an hour before the man settled
+himself--an hour of agony and suspense to Jehan, feigning sleep; since
+at any moment his master might take it into his head to look into
+things. But Crafty Eyes had no suspicion. Having kicked the boy and
+heard the chain rattle, and so assured himself that he was there--so
+much caution he exercised every night, drunk or sober--he was
+satisfied; and by-and-by, when his imagination, heated by thoughts of
+wealth, permitted it, he fell asleep, and dreamed that he had married
+the Cardinal's cook-maid and ate collops on Sundays.
+
+Even so, the night seemed endless to the boy, lying wakeful, with his
+eyes on the sky. Now he was hot, now cold. One moment the thought that
+the window might prove too strait for him threw him into a bath of
+perspiration; the next he shuddered at the possibility of re-capture,
+and saw himself dragged back and flayed by his brutal owner. But a
+watched pot _does_ boil, though slowly. The first streak of dawn came
+at last--as it does when the sky is darkest; and with it, even as the
+boy rose warily to his feet, the sound of a faint whistle outside the
+window.
+
+A common mortal could no more have passed through that window without
+noise than an old man can make himself young again. But the boy did
+it. As he dropped to the ground outside he heard the whistle again.
+The air was still dark; but a score of paces away, beyond a low wall,
+he made out the form of a horseman, and went towards it.
+
+It was the man in the cloak, who stooped and held out his hand. "Jump
+up behind me," he muttered.
+
+The boy went to obey, but as he clasped the outstretched hand, it was
+suddenly withdrawn. "What is that? What have you got there?" the rider
+exclaimed, peering down at him.
+
+"It is only Taras, the monkey," Jehan said timidly.
+
+"Throw it away," the stranger answered. "Do you hear me?" he continued
+in a stern, composed tone. "Throw it away, I say."
+
+The boy stood hesitating a moment; then, without a word, he turned and
+fled into the darkness the way he had come. The man on the horse swore
+under his breath, but he had no remedy; and before he could tell what
+to expect, the boy was at his side again. "I've put it through the
+window," Jehan explained breathlessly. "If I had left it here, the
+dogs and the boys would have killed it."
+
+The man made no comment aloud, but jerked him roughly to the crupper;
+and bidding him hold fast, started the horse, which, setting off at an
+easy amble, quickly bore them out of Fecamp. As they passed through
+the fair-ground of yesterday--a shadowy, ghastly waste at this hour,
+peopled by wandering asses, and packhorses, and a few lurking figures
+that leapt up out of the darkness, and ran after them whining for
+alms--the boy shivered and clung close to his protector. But he had no
+more than recognised the scene before they were out of sight of it,
+and riding through the open fields. The grey dawn was spreading, the
+cocks at distant farms were crowing. The dim, misty countryside, the
+looming trees, the raw air, the chill that crept into his ill-covered
+bones--all these, which might have seemed to others wretched
+conditions enough, filled the boy with hope and gladness. For they
+meant freedom.
+
+But presently, as they rode on, his thoughts took a fresh turn. They
+began to busy themselves, and fearfully, with the man before him,
+whose continued silence and cold reserve set a hundred wild ideas
+humming in his brain. What manner of man was he? Who was he? Why had
+he helped him? Jehan had heard of ogres and giants that decoyed
+children into forests and devoured them. He had listened to ballads of
+such adventures, sung at fairs and in the streets, a hundred times;
+now they came so strongly into his mind, and so grew upon him in this
+grim companionship, that by-and-by, seeing a wood before them through
+which the road ran, he shook with terror and gave himself up for lost.
+Sure enough, when they came to the wood, and had ridden a little way
+into it, the man, whose face he had never seen, stopped. "Get down,"
+he said sternly.
+
+
+[Illustration: "JEHAN WENT TREMBLING AND FOUND THE HOLE" (_p_. 33).]
+
+
+Jehan obeyed, his teeth chattering, his legs quaking under him. He
+expected the man to produce a large carving-knife, or call some of his
+fellows out of the forest to share his repast. Instead, the stranger
+made a queer pass with his hands over his horse's neck, and bade the
+boy go to an old stump which stood by the way. "There is a hole in the
+farther side of it," he said. "Look in the hole."
+
+Jehan went trembling and found the hole, and looked. "What do you
+see?" the rider asked.
+
+"A piece of money," said Jehan.
+
+"Bring it to me," the stranger answered gravely.
+
+The boy took it--it was only a copper sou--and did as he was bidden.
+"Get up!" said the horseman curtly. Jehan obeyed, and they went on as
+before.
+
+When they had ridden half-way through the forest, however, the
+stranger stopped again. "Get down," he said.
+
+The boy obeyed, and was directed as on the former occasion--but not
+until the horseman had made the same strange gesture with his
+hands--to go to an old stump. This time he found a silver livre. He
+gave it to his master, and climbed again to his place, marvelling
+much.
+
+A third time they stopped, on the farther verge of the forest. The
+same words passed, but this time the boy found a gold crown in the
+hole.
+
+After that his mind no longer ran upon ogres and giants. Instead,
+another fancy almost as dreadful took possession of him. He remarked
+that everything the stranger wore was black: his cloak, his hat, his
+gauntlets. Even his long boots, which in those days were commonly made
+of untanned leather, were black. So was the furniture of the horse.
+Jehan noticed this as he mounted the third time; and connecting it
+with the marvellous springing up of money where the man willed, began
+to be seized with panic, never doubting but that he had fallen into
+the hands of the devil. Likely enough, he would have dropped off at
+the first opportunity that offered, and fled for his life--or his
+soul, but he did not know much of that--if the stranger had not in the
+nick of time drawn a parcel of food from his saddle-bag. He gave some
+to Jehan. Even so, the boy, hungry as he was, did not dare to touch it
+until he was assured that his companion was really eating--eating, and
+not pretending. Then, with a great sigh of relief, he began to eat
+too. For he knew that the devil never ate!
+
+After this they rode on in silence, until, about an hour before noon,
+they came to a small farm-steading standing by the road, half a league
+short of the sleepy old town of Yvetot, which Beranger was one day to
+celebrate. Here the magician--for such Jehan now took his companion to
+be--stopped. "Get down," he said.
+
+The boy obeyed, and instinctively looked for a stump. But there was no
+stump, and this time his master, after scanning his ragged garments as
+if to assure himself of his appearance, had a different order to give.
+"Go to that farm," he said. "Knock at the door, and say that Solomon
+Notredame de Paris requires two fowls. They will give them to you.
+Bring them to me."
+
+The boy went wide-eyed, knocked, and gave his message. A woman, who
+opened the door, stretched out her hand, took up a couple of fowls
+that lay tied together on the hearth, and gave them to him without a
+word. He took them--he no longer wondered at anything--and carried
+them back to his master in the road.
+
+"Now listen to me," said the latter, in his slow, cold tone. "Go into
+the town you see before you, and in the market-place you will find an
+inn with the sign of the _Three Pigeons_. Enter the yard and offer
+these fowls for sale, but ask a livre apiece for them, that they may
+not be bought. While offering them, make an excuse to go into the
+stable, where you will see a grey horse. Drop this white lump into the
+horse's manger when no one is looking, and afterwards remain at the
+door of the yard. If you see me, do not speak to me. Do you
+understand?"
+
+Jehan said he did; but his new master made him repeat his orders from
+beginning to end before he let him go with the fowls and the white
+lump, which was about the size of a walnut, and looked like rock-salt.
+
+About an hour later the landlord of the _Three Pigeons_ at Yvetot
+heard a horseman stop at his door. He went out to meet him. Now,
+Yvetot is on the road to Havre and Harfleur; and though the former of
+these places was then in the making and the latter was dying fast, the
+landlord had had experience of many guests. But so strange a guest as
+the one he found awaiting him he thought he had never seen. In the
+first place, the gentleman was clad from top to toe in black; and
+though he had no servants behind him, he wore an air of as grave
+consequence as though he boasted six. In the next place, his face was
+so long, thin, and cadaverous that, but for a great black line of
+eyebrows that cut it in two and gave it a very curious and sinister
+expression, people meeting him for the first time might have been
+tempted to laugh. Altogether, the landlord could not make him out; but
+he thought it safer to go out and hold his stirrup, and ask his
+pleasure.
+
+"I shall dine here," the stranger answered gravely. As he dismounted
+his cloak fell open. The landlord observed with growing wonder that
+its black lining was sprinkled with cabalistic figures embroidered in
+white.
+
+Introduced to the public room, which was over the great stone porch
+and happened to be empty, the traveller lost none of his singularity.
+He paused a little way within the door, and stood as if suddenly
+fallen into deep thought. The landlord, beginning to think him mad,
+ventured to recall him by asking what his honour would take.
+
+"There is something amiss in this house," the stranger replied
+abruptly, turning his eyes on him.
+
+"Amiss?" the host answered, faltering under his gaze, and wishing
+himself well out of the room. "Not that I am aware of, your honour."
+
+"There is no one ill?"
+
+"No, your honour, certainly not."
+
+"Nor deformed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are mistaken," the stranger answered firmly. "Know that I am
+Solomon, son to Caesar, son to Michel Notredame of Paris, commonly
+called by the learned Nostradamus and the Transcendental, who read the
+future and rode the Great White Horse of Death. All things hidden are
+open to me."
+
+The landlord only gaped, but his wife and a serving wench, who had
+come to the door out of curiosity, and were listening and staring with
+all their might, crossed themselves industriously. "I am here," the
+stranger continued, after a brief pause, "to construct the horoscope
+of His Eminence the Cardinal, of whom it has been predicted that he
+will die at Yvetot. But I find the conditions unpropitious. There is
+an adverse influence in this house."
+
+The landlord scratched his head, and looked helplessly at his wife.
+But she was quite taken up with awe of the stranger, whose head nearly
+touched the ceiling of the low room; while his long, pale face seemed
+in the obscurity--for the day was dark--to be of an unearthly pallor.
+
+"An adverse influence," the astrologer continued gravely. "What is
+more, I now see where it is. It is in the stable. You have a grey
+horse."
+
+The landlord, somewhat astonished, said he had.
+
+"You had. You have not now. The devil has it!" was the astounding
+answer.
+
+"My grey horse?"
+
+The stranger inclined his head.
+
+"Nay, there you are wrong!" the host retorted briskly. "I'm hanged if
+he has! For I rode the horse this morning, and it went as well and
+quietly as ever in its life."
+
+"Send and see," the tall man answered.
+
+The serving girl, obeying a nod, went off reluctantly to the stable,
+while her master, casting a look of misliking at his guest, walked
+uneasily to the window. In a moment the girl came back, her face
+white. "The grey is in a fit," she cried, keeping the whole width of
+the room between her and the stranger. "It is sweating and
+staggering."
+
+The landlord, with an oath, ran off to see, and in a minute the
+appearance of an excited group in the square under the window showed
+that the thing was known. The traveller took no notice of this,
+however, nor of the curious and reverential glances which the
+womenfolk, huddled about the door of the room, cast at him. He walked
+up and down the room with his eyes lowered.
+
+The landlord came back presently, his face black as thunder. "It has
+got the staggers," he said resentfully.
+
+"It has got the devil," the stranger answered coldly. "I knew it was
+in the house when I entered. If you doubt me, I will prove it."
+
+"Ay?" said the landlord stubbornly.
+
+The man in black went to his saddle-bag, which had been brought up and
+laid in a corner, and took out a shallow glass bowl, curiously
+embossed with a cross and some mystic symbols. "Go to the church
+there," he said, "and fill this with holy water."
+
+The host took it unwillingly, and went on his strange errand. While he
+was away the astrologer opened the window, and looked out idly. When
+he saw the other returning, he gave the order "Lead out the horse."
+
+There was a brief delay, but presently two stablemen, with a little
+posse of wondering attendants, partly urged and partly led out a
+handsome grey horse. The poor animal trembled and hung its head, but
+with some difficulty was brought under the window. Now and again a
+sharp spasm convulsed its limbs, and scattered the spectators right
+and left.
+
+Solomon Notredame leaned out of the window. In his left hand he held
+the bowl, in his right a small brush. "If this beast is sick with any
+earthly sickness," he cried in a deep solemn voice, audible across the
+square, "or with such as earthly skill can cure, then let this holy
+water do it no harm, but refresh it. But if it be possessed by the
+devil, and given up to the powers of darkness and to the enemy of man
+for ever and ever to do his will and pleasure, then let these drops
+burn and consume it as with fire. Amen! Amen!"
+
+With the last word he sprinkled the horse. The effect was magical. The
+animal reared up, as if it had been furiously spurred, and plunged so
+violently that the men who held it were dragged this way and that. The
+crowd fled every way; but not so quickly but that a hundred eyes had
+seen the horse smoke where the water fell on it. Moreover, when they
+cautiously approached it, the hair in two or three places was found to
+be burned off!
+
+The magician turned gravely from the window. "I wish to eat," he said.
+
+None of the servants, however, would come into the room or serve him,
+and the landlord, trembling, set the board with his own hands and
+waited on him. Mine host had begun by doubting and suspecting, but,
+simple man! his scepticism was not proof against the holy water trial
+and his wife's terror. By-and-by, with a sidelong glance at his guest,
+he faltered the question: What should he do with the horse?
+
+The man in black looked solemn. "Whoever mounts it will die within the
+year," he said.
+
+"I will shoot it," the landlord replied, shuddering.
+
+"The devil will pass into one of the other horses," was the answer.
+
+"Then," said the miserable innkeeper, "perhaps your honour would
+accept it?"
+
+"God forbid!" the astrologer answered. And that frightened the other
+more than all the rest. "But if you can find at any time," the wizard
+continued, "a beggar-boy with black hair and blue eyes, who does not
+know his father's name, he may take the horse and break the spell. So
+I read the signs."
+
+The landlord cried out that such a person was not to be met with in a
+lifetime. But before he had well finished his sentence a shrill voice
+called through the keyhole that there was such a boy in the yard at
+that moment, offering poultry for sale.
+
+"In God's name, then, give him the horse!" the stranger said. "Bid him
+take it to Rouen, and at every running water he comes to say a
+paternoster and sprinkle its tail. So he may escape, and you, too. I
+know no other way."
+
+The trembling innkeeper said he would do that, and did it. And so,
+when the man in black rode into Rouen the next evening, he did not
+ride alone. He was attended at a respectful distance by a good-looking
+page clad in sable velvet, and mounted on a handsome grey horse.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                            MAN AND WIFE.
+
+
+It is a pleasant thing to be warmly clad and to lie softly, and at
+night to be in shelter and in the day to eat and drink. But all these
+things may be dearly bought, and so the boy Jehan de Bault soon found.
+He was no longer beaten, chained, or starved; he lay in a truckle bed
+instead of a stable; the work he had to do was of the lightest. But
+he paid for all in fears--in an ever-present, abiding, mastering fear
+of the man behind whom he rode: who never scolded, never rated, nor
+even struck him, but whose lightest word--and much more, his long
+silences--filled the lad with dread and awe unspeakable. Something
+sinister in the man's face, all found; but to Jehan, who never doubted
+his dark powers, and who shrank from his eye, and flinched at his
+voice, and cowered when he spoke, there was a cold malevolence in the
+face, an evil knowledge, that made the boy's flesh creep and chained
+his soul with dread.
+
+The astrologer saw this, and revelled in it, and went about to
+increase it after a fashion of his own. Hearing the boy, on an
+occasion when he had turned to him suddenly, ejaculate "_Oh, Dieu!_"
+he said, with a dreadful smile, "You should not say that! Do you know
+why?"
+
+The boy's face grew a shade paler, but he did not speak.
+
+"Ask me why! Say, 'Why not?'"
+
+"Why not?" Jehan muttered. He would have given the world to avert his
+eyes, but he could not.
+
+"Because you have sold yourself to the devil!" the other hissed.
+"Others may say it; you may not. What is the use? You have sold
+yourself--body, soul, and spirit. You came of your own accord, and
+climbed on the black horse. And now," he continued, in a tone which
+always compelled obedience, "answer my questions. What is your name?"
+
+"Jehan de Bault," the boy whispered, shivering and shuddering.
+
+"Louder!"
+
+"Jehan de Bault."
+
+"Repeat the story you told at the fair."
+
+"I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of
+seventeen lordships in the County of Perigord, of a most noble and
+puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle, and the Low.
+In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my forefathers were three
+marshals of France. I stand here, the last of my race; in token
+whereof may God preserve my mother, the King, France, and this
+Province."
+
+"Ha! In the County of Perigord!" the astrologer said, with a sudden
+lightening of his heavy brows. "You have remembered that?"
+
+"Yes. I heard the word at Fecamp."
+
+"And all that is true?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who taught it you?"
+
+"I do not know." The boy's face, in its straining, was painful to see.
+
+"What is the first thing you can remember?"
+
+"A house in a wood."
+
+"Can you remember your father?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Your mother?"
+
+"No--yes--I am not sure."
+
+"Umph! Were you stolen by gypsies?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Or sold by your father's steward?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"How long were you with the man from whom I took you?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"I do," the astrologer answered, in the same even tone in which he had
+put the questions. And the boy never doubted him. "Beware, therefore,"
+the man in black continued, with a dreadful sidelong glance, "how you
+seek to deceive me! You can fall back now. I have done with you for
+the present."
+
+I say "the boy never doubted him." This was not wonderful in an age of
+spells and _diablerie_, when the wisest allowed the reality of magic,
+and the learned and curious could cite a hundred instances of its
+power. That La Brosse warned Henry the Great he would die in his
+coach, and that Thomassin read in the stars the very day, hour, and
+minute of the catastrophe, no man of that time questioned. That Michel
+Notredame promised a crown to each of Catherine de Medici's three
+sons, and that Sully's preceptor foretold in detail that Minister's
+career, were held to be facts as certain as that La Riviere cast the
+horoscope of the thirteenth Louis while the future monarch lay in his
+cradle. The men of the day believed that the Concini swayed her
+mistress by magic; that Wallenstein, the greatest soldier of his time,
+did nothing without his familiar; that Richelieu, the greatest
+statesman, had Joseph always at his elbow. In such an age it was not
+wonderful that a child should accept without question the claims of
+this man: who was accustomed to inspire fear in the many, and in the
+few that vague and subtle repulsion which we are wont to associate
+with the presence of evil.
+
+Beyond Rouen, and between that city and Paris, the two companions
+found the road well frequented. Of the passers, many stood to gaze at
+the traveller in black, and some drew to the farther side of the road
+as he went by. But none laughed or found anything ridiculous in his
+appearance; or if they did, it needed but a glance from his long, pale
+face to restore them to sobriety. At the inn at Rouen he was well
+received; at the _Grand Cerf_ at Les Andelys, where he seemed to be
+known, he was welcomed with effusion. Though the house was full, a
+separate chamber was assigned to him, and supper prepared for him with
+the utmost speed.
+
+Here, however, he was not destined to enjoy his privacy long. At the
+last moment, as he was sitting down to his meal, with the boy in
+attendance, a bustle was heard outside. The voice of someone rating
+the landlord in no measured terms became audible, the noise growing
+louder as the speaker mounted the stairs. Presently a hand was laid on
+the latch, the door was thrown open, and a gentleman strode into the
+room whose swaggering air and angry gestures showed that he was
+determined to make good his footing. A lady, masked, and in a
+travelling habit, followed more quietly; and in the background could
+be seen three or four servants, together with the unfortunate
+landlord, who was very evidently divided between fear of his
+mysterious guest and the claims of the newcomers.
+
+The astrologer rose slowly from his seat. His peculiar aspect, his
+stature and leanness and black garb, which never failed to impress
+strangers, took the intruder somewhat aback. He hesitated, and
+removing his hat, began to utter a tardy apology. "I crave your
+pardon, sir," he said ungraciously, "but we ride on after supper. We
+stay here only to eat, and they tell us there is no other chamber with
+even a degree of emptiness in it."
+
+"You are welcome, M. de Vidoche," the man in black answered.
+
+The intruder started and frowned. "You know my name," he said, with a
+sneer. "But there, I suppose it is your business to know these
+things."
+
+"It is my business to know," the astrologer answered, unmoved. "Will
+not madame be seated?"
+
+
+[Illustration: "THE ASTROLOGER ROSE SLOWLY FROM HIS SEAT" (_p_. 52).]
+
+
+The lady bowed, and taking off her mask with fingers which trembled a
+little, disclosed a fair, childish face, that would, have been pretty,
+and even charming, but for an expression of nervousness which seemed
+habitual to it. She shrank from the astrologer's gaze, and, sitting
+down as far from him as the table permitted, pretended to busy herself
+in taking off her gloves. He was accustomed to be met in this way, and
+to see the timid quake before him; but it did not escape his notice
+that this lady shrank also at the sound of her husband's voice, and
+when he spoke, listened with the pitiful air of propitiation which may
+be seen in a whipped dog. She was pale, and by the side of her husband
+seemed to lack colour. He was a man of singularly handsome exterior,
+dark-haired and hard-eyed, with a high, fresh complexion, and a
+sneering lip. His dress was in the extreme of the fashion, his falling
+collar vandyked, and his breeches open below the knee, where they were
+met by wide-mouthed boots. A great plume of feathers set off his hat,
+and he carried a switch as well as a sword.
+
+The astrologer read the story at a glance. "Madame is perhaps fatigued
+by the journey," he said politely.
+
+"Madame is very easily fatigued," the husband replied, throwing down
+his hat with a savage sneer, "especially when she is doing anything
+she does not like."
+
+"You are for Paris," Notredame answered, with apparent surprise. "I
+thought all ladies liked Paris. Now, if madame were leaving Paris and
+going to the country----"
+
+"The country!" M. de Vidoche exclaimed, with an impatient oath. "She
+would bury herself there if she could!" And he added something under
+his breath, the point of which it was not very difficult to guess.
+
+Madame de Vidoche forced a smile, striving, woman-like, to cover all.
+"It is natural I should like Pinatel," she said timidly, her eye on
+her husband. "I have lived there so much."
+
+"Yes, madame, you are never tired of reminding me of that!" M. de
+Vidoche retorted harshly. Women who are afraid of their husbands say
+the right thing once in a hundred times. "You will tell this gentleman
+in a moment that I was a beggar when I married you! But if I was----"
+
+"Oh, Charles!" she murmured faintly.
+
+"That is right! Cry now!" he exclaimed brutally. "Thank God, however,
+here is supper. And after supper we go on to Vernon. The roads are
+rutty, and you will have something else to do besides cry then."
+
+The man in black, going on with his meal at the other end of the
+table, listened with an impassive face. Like all his profession, he
+seemed inclined to hear rather than to talk. But when supper came up
+with only one plate for the two--a mistake due to the crowded state of
+the inn--and M. de Vidoche fell to scolding very loudly, he seemed
+unable to refrain from saying a word in the innkeeper's defence. "It
+is not so very unusual for the husband to share his wife's plate," he
+said coolly; "and sometimes a good deal more that is hers."
+
+M. de Vidoche looked at him for a moment, as if he were minded to ask
+him what business it was of his; but he thought better of it, and
+instead said, with a scowl, "It is not so very unusual either for
+astrologers to make mistakes."
+
+"Quacks," the man in black said calmly.
+
+"I quite agree," M. de Vidoche replied, with mock politeness. "I
+accept the correction."
+
+"Yet there is one thing to be said even then," the astrologer
+continued, slowly leaning forward, and, as if by chance, moving
+one of the candles so as to bring it directly between madame and
+himself. "I have noticed it, M. de Vidoche. They make mistakes
+sometimes in predicting marriages, and even births. But never in
+predicting--deaths."
+
+M. de Vidoche, who may have had some key in his own breast which
+unlocked the full meaning of the other's words, started and looked
+across at him. Whatever he read in the pale, sombre countenance which
+the removal of the candle fully revealed to him, and in which the
+eyes, burning vividly, seemed alone alive, he shuddered. He made no
+reply. His look dropped. Even a little of his high colour left his
+checks. He went on with his meal in silence. The four tall candles
+still burned dully on the table. But to M. de Vidoche they seemed on a
+sudden to be the candles that burn by the side of a corpse. In a flash
+he saw a room hung with black, a bed, and a silent covered form on
+it--a form with wan, fair hair--a woman's. And then he saw other
+things.
+
+Clearly, the astrologer was no ordinary man.
+
+He seemed to take no notice, however, of the effect his words had
+produced. Indeed, he no longer urged his attentions on M. de Vidoche.
+He turned politely to madame, and made some commonplace observation on
+the roads. She answered it--inattentively.
+
+"You are looking at my boy," he continued; for Jehan was waiting
+inside the door, watching with a frightened, fascinated gaze his
+master's every act and movement. "I do not wonder that he attracts the
+ladies' eyes."
+
+"He is a handsome child," she answered, smiling faintly.
+
+"Yes, he is good-looking," the man in black rejoined. "There is one
+thing which men of science sell that he will never need."
+
+"What is that?" she asked curiously, looking at the astrologer for the
+first time with attention.
+
+"A love-philtre," he answered courteously. "His looks, like madame's,
+will always supply its place."
+
+She coloured, smiling a little sadly. "Are there such things?" she
+said. "Is it true?--I mean, I always thought that they were a child's
+tale."
+
+"No more than poisons and antidotes, madame," he answered earnestly,
+"the preservative power of salt, or the destructive power of
+gunpowder. You take the Queen's herb, you sneeze; the drug of
+Paracelsus, you sleep; wine, you see double. Why is the powder of
+attraction more wonderful than these? Or if you remain unconvinced,"
+he continued more lightly, "look round you, madame. You see young men
+loving old women, the high-born allying themselves with the vulgar,
+the ugly enchanting the beautiful. You see a hundred inexplicable
+matches. Believe me, it is we who make them. I speak without motive,"
+he added, bowing, "for Madame de Vidoche can never have need of other
+philtre than her eyes."
+
+Madame, toying idly with a plate, her regards on the table, sighed.
+"And yet they say matches are made in heaven," she murmured softly.
+
+"It is from heaven--from the stars--we derive our knowledge," he
+answered, in the same tone.
+
+But his face!--it was well she did not see that! And before more
+passed, M. de Vidoche broke into the conversation. "What rubbish is
+this?" he said, speaking roughly to his wife. "Have you finished? Then
+let us pay this rascally landlord and be off. If you do not want to
+spend the night on the road, that is. Where are those fools of
+servants?"
+
+He rose, and went to the door and shouted for them, and came back
+and took up his cloak and hat with much movement and bustle.
+But it was noticeable in all he did that he never once met the
+astrologer's eye or looked his way. Even when he bade him a surly
+"Good-night"--casually uttered in the midst of injunctions to his wife
+to be quick--he spoke over his shoulder; and he left the room in the
+same fashion, completely absorbed, it seemed, in the fastening of his
+cloak.
+
+Some, treated in this cavalier fashion, might have been hurt, and some
+might have resented it. But the man in black did neither. Left alone,
+he remained by the table in an expectant attitude, a sneering smile,
+which the light of the candles threw into high relief, on his grim
+visage. Suddenly the door opened, and M. de Vidoche, cloaked and
+covered, came in. Without raising his eyes, he looked round the
+room--for something he had mislaid, it seemed.
+
+"Oh, by the way," he said suddenly, and without looking up.
+
+"_My address?_" the man in black interjected, with a devilish
+readiness. "The end of the Rue Touchet in the Quartier du Marais, near
+the river. Where, believe me," he continued, with a mocking bow, "I
+shall give you madame's horoscope with the greatest pleasure, or any
+other little matter you may require."
+
+"I think you are the devil!" M. de Vidoche muttered wrathfully, his
+cheek growing pale.
+
+"Possibly," the astrologer answered. "In that or any other case--_au
+revoir!_"
+
+When the landlord came up a little later to apologise to M. Solomon
+Notredame de Paris for the inconvenience to which he had unwillingly
+put him, he found his guest in high good-humour. "It is nothing, my
+friend--it is nothing," M. Notredame said kindly. "I found my company
+good enough. This M. de Vidoche is of this country; and a rich man, I
+understand."
+
+"Through his wife," the host said cautiously. "Ah! so rich that she
+could build our old castle here from the ground again."
+
+"Madame de Vidoche was of Pinatel."
+
+"To be sure. Monsieur knows everything. By Jumieges to the north. I
+have been there once. But she has a house in Paris besides, and
+estates, I hear, in the south--in Perigord."
+
+"Ha!" the astrologer muttered. "Perigord again. That is odd, now."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                      THE HOUSE WITH TWO DOORS.
+
+
+On the site of the old Palais des Tournelles, where was held the
+tournament in which Henry the Second was killed, Henry the Fourth
+built the Place Royale. You will not find it called by that name in
+any map of Paris of to-day; modern France, which has no history,
+traditions, or reverence, has carefully erased such landmarks in
+favour of her Grevys and Eiffels, her journalists and soap-boilers.
+But for all that, and though the Place Royale has now lost even its
+name, in the reign of the thirteenth Louis it was the centre of
+fashion. The Quartier du Marais, in which it stood, opposite the Ile
+de St. Louis, was then the Court quarter. It saw coaches come into
+common use among the nobility, and ruffs and primero go out, and a
+great many other queer things, such as Court quarters in those days
+looked to see.
+
+The back stairs of a palace, however, are seldom an improving or
+brilliant place; or if they can be said to be brilliant at all, their
+brightness is of a somewhat lurid and ghastly character. The king's
+amusements--very royal and natural, no doubt, and, when viewed from
+the proper quarter, attractive enough--have another side; and that
+side is towards the back stairs. It is the same with the Court and its
+purlieus. They are the rough side of the cloth, the underside of the
+moss, the cancer under the fair linen. Secrets are no secrets there;
+and so it has always been. Things De Thou did not know, and Brantome
+only guessed at, were household words there. They in the Court
+under-world knew all about that mysterious disease of which Gabrielle
+d'Estrees died after eating a citron at Zamet's--all, more than we
+know now or has ever been printed. That little prick of a knife which
+made the second Wednesday in May, 1610, a day memorable in history,
+was gossip down there a month before. Henry of Conde's death,
+Mazarin's marriage, D'Eon's sex, Cagliostro's birth, were no mysteries
+in the by-ways of the Louvre and Petit Trianon. He who wrote "Under
+the king's hearthstone are many cockroaches" knew his world--a seamy,
+ugly, vicious, dangerous world.
+
+If any street in the Paris of that day belonged to it, the Rue
+Touchet did; a little street a quarter of a mile from the Place
+Royale, on the verge of the Quartier du Marais. The houses on one side
+of the street had their backs to the river, from which they were
+divided only by a few paces of foul foreshore. These houses were older
+than the opposite row, were irregularly built, and piled high with
+gables and crooked chimneys. Here and there a beetle-browed passage
+led beneath them to the river; and one out of every two was a tavern,
+or worse. A fencing-school and a gambling-hell occupied the two
+largest. To the south-west the street ended in a _cul-de-sac_, being
+closed by a squat stone house, built out of the ruins of an old water
+gateway that had once stood there. The windows of this house were
+never unshuttered, the door was seldom opened in the daylight. It was
+the abode of Solomon Notredame. Once a week or so the astrologer's
+sombre figure might be seen entering or leaving, and men at tavern
+doors would point at him, and slatternly women, leaning out of window,
+cross themselves. But few in the Rue Touchet knew that the house had a
+second door, which did not open on the water, as the back doors of the
+riverside houses did, but on a quiet street leading to it.
+
+M. Notredame's house was, in fact, double, and served two sorts of
+clients. Great ladies and courtiers, wives of the long robe and city
+madams, came to the door in the quiet street, and knew nothing of the
+Rue Touchet. Through the latter, on the other hand, came those who
+paid in meal, if not in malt; lackeys and waiting-maids, and skulking
+apprentices and led-captains--the dregs of the quarter, sodden with
+vice and crime--and knowledge.
+
+The house was furnished accordingly. The clients of the Rue Touchet
+found the astrologer in a room divided into two by scarlet hangings,
+so arranged as to afford the visitor a partial view of the farther
+half, where the sullen glow of a furnace disclosed alembics and
+crucibles, mortars and retorts, a multitude of uncouth vessels and
+phials, and all the mysterious apparatus of the alchemist. Immediately
+about him the shuddering rascal found things still more striking. A
+dead hand hung over each door, a skeleton peeped from a closet. A
+stuffed alligator sprawled on the floor, and, by the wavering
+uncertain light of the furnace, seemed each moment to be awaking to
+life. Cabalistic signs and strange instruments and skull-headed staves
+were everywhere, with parchment scrolls and monstrous mandrakes, and a
+farrago of such things as might impose on the ignorant; who, if he
+pleased, might sit on a coffin, and, when he would amuse himself,
+found a living toad at his foot! Dimly seen, crowded together,
+ill-understood, these things were enough to overawe the vulgar, and
+had often struck terror into the boldest ruffians the Rue Touchet
+could boast.
+
+From this room a little staircase, closed at the top by a strong door,
+led to the chamber and antechamber in which the astrologer received
+his real clients. Here all was changed. Both rooms were hung,
+canopied, carpeted with black: were vast, death-like, empty. The
+antechamber contained two stools, and in the middle of the floor a
+large crystal ball on a bronze stand. That was all, except the silver
+hanging lamp, which burned blue, and added to the funereal gloom of
+the room.
+
+The inner chamber, which was lighted by six candles set in sconces
+round the wall, was almost as bare. A kind of altar at the farther end
+bore two great tomes, continually open. In the middle of the floor was
+an astrolabe on an ebony pillar, and the floor itself was embroidered
+in white, with the signs of the Zodiac and the twelve Houses arranged
+in a circle. A seat for the astrologer stood near the altar. And that
+was all. For power over such as visited him here Notredame depended on
+a higher range of ideas; on the more subtle forms of superstition, the
+influence of gloom and silence on the conscience: and above all,
+perhaps, on his knowledge of the world--_and them_.
+
+Into the midst of all this came that shrinking, terrified little
+mortal, Jehan. It was his business to open the door into the quiet
+street, and admit those who called. He was forbidden to speak under
+the most terrible penalties, so that visitors thought him dumb. For a
+week after his coming he lived in a world of almost intolerable fear.
+The darkness and silence of the house, the funereal lights and
+hangings, the skulls and bones and horrid things he saw, and on which
+he came when he least expected them, almost turned his brain. He
+shuddered, and crouched hither and thither. His face grew white, and
+his eyes took a strange staring look, so that the sourest might have
+pitied him. It wanted, in a word, but a little to send the child stark
+mad; and but for his hardy training and outdoor life, that little
+would not have been wanting.
+
+He might have fled, for he was trusted at the door, and at any moment
+could have opened it and escaped. But Jehan never doubted his master's
+power to find him and bring him back; and the thought did not enter
+his mind. After a week or so, familiarity wrought on him, as on all.
+The house grew less terrifying, the darkness lost its horror, the air
+of silence and dread its first paralysing influence. He began to sleep
+better. Curiosity, in a degree, took the place of fear. He fell to
+poring over the signs of the Zodiac, and to taking furtive peeps into
+the crystal. The toad became his playfellow. He fed it with
+cockroaches, and no longer wanted employment.
+
+The astrologer saw the change in the lad, and perhaps was not wholly
+pleased with it. By-and-by he took steps to limit it. One day he found
+Jehan playing with the toad with something of a boy's _abandon_,
+making the uncouth creature leap over his hands, and tickling it with
+a straw. The boy rose on his entrance, and shrank away; for his fear
+of the man's sinister face and silent ways was not in any way
+lessened. But Notredame called him back. "You are beginning to
+forget," he said, eyeing the child grimly.
+
+The boy trembled under his gaze, but did not dare to answer.
+
+"Whose are you?"
+
+Jehan looked this way and that. At length, with dry lips, he muttered,
+"Yours."
+
+"No, you are not," the man in black replied. "Think again. You have a
+short memory."
+
+Jehan thought and sweated. But the man would have his answer, and at
+last Jehan whispered, "The devil's."
+
+"That is better," the astrologer said coldly. "Do you know what this
+is?"
+
+He held up a glass bowl. The boy recognised it, and his hair began to
+rise. But he shook his head.
+
+"It is holy water," the man in black said, his small cruel eyes
+devouring the boy. "Hold out your hand."
+
+Jehan dared not refuse "This will try you," Notredame said slowly,
+"whether you are the devil's or not. If not, water will not hurt you.
+If so, if you are his for ever and ever, to do his will and pleasure,
+then it will burn like fire!"
+
+At the last word he suddenly sprinkled some with a brush on the boy's
+hand. Jehan leapt back with a shriek of pain, and, holding the burned
+hand to his breast, glared at his master with starting eyes.
+
+"It burns," said the astrologer pitilessly, "It burns. It is as I
+said. You are _his_. _His!_ After this I think you will remember. Now
+go."
+
+Jehan went away, shuddering with horror and pain. But the lesson had
+not the precise effect intended. He continued to fear his master, but
+he began to hate him also, with a passionate, lasting hatred strange
+in a child. Though he still shrank and crouched in his presence,
+behind his back he was no longer restrained by fear. The boy knew of
+no way in which he could avenge himself. He did not form any plans to
+that end, he did not conceive the possibility of the thing. But he
+hated; and, given the opportunity, was ripe to seize it.
+
+
+[Illustration: "JEHAN LEAPT BACK WITH A SHRIEK OF PAIN" (_p_. 74).]
+
+
+He was locked in whenever Notredame went out; and in this way he spent
+many solitary and fearful hours. These led him, however, in the end,
+to a discovery. One day, about the middle of December, while he was
+poking about the house in the astrologer's absence, he found a door. I
+say "found," for though it was not a secret door, it was small and
+difficult to detect, being placed in the side of the straight, narrow
+passage at the head of the little staircase which led from the lower
+to the upper chambers. At first he thought it was locked, but coming
+to examine it more closely, though in mere curiosity, he found the
+handle of the latch let into a hollow of the panel. He pressed this,
+and the door yielded a little.
+
+At the time the boy was scared. He saw the place was dark, drew the
+door to the jamb again, and went away without satisfying his
+curiosity. But in a little while the desire to know what was behind
+the door overcame his terror. He returned with a taper, and, pressing
+the latch again, pushed the door open and entered, his heart beating
+loudly.
+
+He held up his taper, and saw a very narrow, bare closet, made in the
+thickness of the wall. And that was all, for the place was empty--the
+one and only thing it contained being a soft, rough mat which covered
+the floor. The boy stared fearfully about him, still expecting
+something dreadful, but there was nothing else to be seen. And
+gradually his fears subsided, and his curiosity with them, and he went
+out again.
+
+Another day, however, when he came into this place, he made a
+discovery. Against either wall he saw a morsel of black cloth
+fastened--a little flap a few inches long and three inches wide. He
+held the light first to one and then to another of these, but he could
+make nothing of them until he noticed that the lower edges were loose.
+Then he raised one. It disclosed a long, narrow slit, through which he
+could see the laboratory, with the fire burning dully, the phials
+glistening, and the crocodile going through its unceasing pretence of
+arousing itself. He raised the other, and found a slit there, too; but
+as the chamber on that side--the room with the astrolabe--was in
+darkness, he could see nothing. He understood, however. The closet was
+a spying-place, and these were Judas-holes, so arranged that the
+occupant, himself unheard and unseen, could see and hear all that
+happened on either side of him.
+
+It was the astrologer's custom to lock up the large room next the Rue
+Touchet when he went out. For this reason, and because the place was
+forbidden, the boy lingered at the Judas-hole, gazing into it. He knew
+by this time most of the queer things it contained, and the red glow
+of the furnace fire gave it, to his mind, a weird kind of comfort. He
+listened to the ashes falling, and the ticking of some clockwork at
+the farther end. He began idly to enumerate all the things he could
+see; but the curtain which shut off the laboratory proper threw a
+great shadow across the room, and this he strove in vain to pierce. To
+see the better, he put out his light and looked again. He had scarcely
+brought his eyes back to the slit, however, when a low grating noise
+caught his ear. He started and held his breath, but before he could
+stir a finger the heavy door which communicated with the Rue Touchet
+slowly opened a foot or two, and the astrologer came in.
+
+For a few seconds the boy remained gazing, afraid to breathe or move.
+Then, with an effort, he dropped the cloth over the slit, and crept
+softly away.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+                          THE UPPER PORTAL.
+
+
+The astrologer was not alone. A tall figure, cloaked and muffled to
+the chin, entered after him, and stood waiting at his elbow while he
+secured the fastenings of the door. Apparently, they had only met on
+the threshold, for the stranger, after looking round him and silently
+noting the fantastic disorder of the room, said, in a hoarse voice,
+"You do not know me?"
+
+"Perfectly, M. de Vidoche," the astrologer answered, removing his hat.
+
+"Did you know I was following you?"
+
+"I came to show you the way."
+
+"That is a lie, at any rate!" the young noble retorted, with a sneer,
+"for I did not know I was coming myself."
+
+"Until you saw me," the astrologer answered, unmoved. "Will you not
+take off your cloak? You will need it when you leave."
+
+M. de Vidoche complied with an ill grace. "The usual stock-in-trade, I
+see," he muttered, looking round him scornfully. "Skulls and bones,
+and dead hands and gibbet-ropes. Faugh! The place smells. I suppose
+these are the things you keep to frighten children."
+
+"Some," Notredame answered calmly--he was busy lighting a lamp--"and
+some are for sale."
+
+"For sale?" M. de Vidoche cried incredulously. "Who will buy them?"
+
+"Some one thing, and some another," the astrologer answered
+carelessly. "Take this, for instance," he continued, turning to his
+visitor, and looking at him for the first time. "I expect to find a
+customer for _that_ very shortly."
+
+M. de Vidoche followed the direction of his finger, and shuddered,
+despite himself. "That" was a coffin. "Enough of this," he said, with
+savage impatience. "Suppose you get off your high horse, and come to
+business. Can I sit, man, or are you going to keep me standing all
+night?"
+
+The man in black brought forward two stools, and led the way behind
+the curtain. "It is warmer here," he said, pushing aside an earthen
+pipkin, and clearing a space with his foot in front of the glowing
+embers. "Now I am at your service, M. de Vidoche. Pray be seated."
+
+"Are we alone?" the young noble asked suspiciously.
+
+"Trust me for that," the astrologer answered. "I know my business."
+
+But M. de Vidoche seemed to find some difficulty in stating his;
+though he had evinced so high a regard for time a moment before. He
+sat irresolute, stealing malevolent glances first at his companion,
+and then at the dull, angry-looking fire. If he expected M. Notredame
+to help him, however, he did not yet know his host. The astrologer sat
+patiently waiting, with every expression, save placid expectation,
+discharged from his face.
+
+"Oh, d----n you!" the young man ejaculated at last. "Have you got
+nothing to say? You know what I want," he added, with irritation, "as
+well as I do."
+
+"I shall be happy to learn," the astrologer answered politely.
+
+"Give it me without more words, and let me go!"
+
+The astrologer raised his eyebrows. "Alas! there is a limit to
+omniscience," he said, shaking his head gently. "It is true we keep it
+in stock--to frighten children. But it does not help me at present, M.
+de Vidoche."
+
+M. de Vidoche looked at him with an evil scowl. "I see; you want me to
+commit myself," he muttered. The perspiration stood on his forehead,
+and his voice was husky with rage or some other emotion. "I was a fool
+to come here," he continued. "If you must have it, I want to kill a
+cat; and I want something to give to it."
+
+The astrologer laughed silently. "The mountain was in labour, and lo!
+a cat!" he said, in a tone of amusement. "And lo! a cat! Well, in that
+case I am afraid you have come to the wrong place, M. de Vidoche. I
+don't kill cats. There is no risk in it, you see," he continued,
+looking fixedly at his companion, "and no profit. Nobody cares about a
+cat. The first herbalist you come to will give you what you want for a
+few sous. Even if the creature turns black within the hour, and its
+mouth goes to the nape of its neck," he went on, with a horrid smile,
+"as Madame de Beaufort's did--_cui malo?_--no one is a penny the
+worse. But if it were a question of---- I think I saw monsieur riding
+in company with Mademoiselle de Farincourt to-day?"
+
+M. de Vidoche, who had been contemplating his tormentor with eyes of
+rage and horror, started at the unexpected question. "Well," he
+muttered, "and what if I was?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," the man in black answered carelessly. "Mademoiselle is
+beautiful, and monsieur is a happy man if she smiles on him. But she
+is high-born; and proud, I am told." He leaned forward as he spoke,
+and warmed his long, lean hands at the fire. But his beady eyes never
+left the other's face.
+
+M. de Vidoche writhed under their gaze. "Curse you!" he muttered
+hoarsely. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Her family are proud also, I am told; and powerful. Friends of the
+Cardinal too, I hear." The man in black's smile was like nothing save
+the crocodile's.
+
+M. de Vidoche rose from his seat, but sat down again.
+
+"He would avenge the honour of the family to the death," continued the
+astrologer gently. "To the death, I should say. Don't you think so, M.
+de Vidoche?"
+
+The perspiration stood in thick drops on the young man's forehead, and
+he glared at his tormentor. But the latter met the look placidly, and
+seemed ignorant of the effect he was producing. "It is a pity,
+therefore, monsieur is not free to marry," he said, shaking his head
+regretfully--"a great pity. One does not know what may happen. Yet, on
+the other hand, if he had not married he would be a poor man now."
+
+M. de Vidoche sprang to his feet with an oath. But he sat down again.
+
+"When he married he _was_ a poor man, I think," the astrologer
+continued, for the first time averting his gaze from the other's
+face, and looking into the fire with a queer smile. "And in debt.
+Madame--the present Madame de Vidoche, I mean--paid his debts, and
+brought him an estate, I believe."
+
+"Of which she has never ceased to remind him twice a day since!" the
+young man cried in a terrible voice. And then in a moment he lost all
+self-control, all disguise, all the timid cunning which had marked him
+hitherto. He sprang to his feet. The veins in his temples swelled, his
+face grew red. So true is it that small things try us more than great
+ones, and small grievances rub deeper raws than great wrongs. "My
+God!" he said between his teeth, "if you knew what I have suffered
+from that woman! Pale-faced, puling fool, I have loathed her these
+five years, and I have been tied to her and her whining ways and her
+nun's face! Twice a day? No, ten times a day, twenty times a day, she
+has reminded me of my debts, my poverty, and my straits before I
+married her! And of her family! And her three marshals! And her----"
+
+He stopped for very lack of breath. "Madame was of good family?" the
+man in black said abruptly. He had grown suddenly attentive. His
+shadow on the wall behind him was still and straight-backed.
+
+"Oh, yes," the husband answered bitterly.
+
+"In Perigord?'
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"Three marshals of France?" M. Notredame murmured thoughtfully; but
+there was a strange light in his eyes, and he kept his face carefully
+averted from his companion. "That is not common! That is certainly
+something to boast of!"
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_ She did boast of it, though no one else allowed the
+claim. And of her blood of Roland!" M. de Vidoche cried, with scorn.
+His voice still shook, and his hands trembled with rage. He strode up
+and down.
+
+"What was her name before she married?" the astrologer asked, stooping
+over the fire.
+
+The young man stopped, arrested in his passion--stopped, and looked at
+him suspiciously. "Her name?" he muttered. "What has that to do with
+it?"
+
+"If you want me to--draw her horoscope," the astrologer replied, with
+a cunning smile, "I must have something to go upon."
+
+"Diane de Martinbault," the young man answered sullenly; and then, in
+a fresh burst of rage, he muttered, "Diane! _Diable!_"
+
+"She inherited her estates from her father?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who had a son? A child who died young?" the astrologer continued
+coolly.
+
+M. de Vidoche looked at him. "That is true," he said sulkily. "But I
+do not see what it has to do with you."
+
+For answer, the man in black began to laugh, at first silently, then
+aloud--a sly devil's laugh, that sounded more like the glee of fiends
+sporting over a lost soul than any human mirth, so full was it of
+derision and mockery and insult. He made no attempt to check or
+disguise it, but rather seemed to flout it in the other's face; for
+when the young noble asked him, with fierce impatience, what it was,
+and what he meant, he did not explain. He only cried, "In a moment! In
+a moment, noble sir, I swear you shall have what you want. But--ha!
+ha!" And then he fell to laughing again, more loudly and shrilly than
+before.
+
+M. de Vidoche turned white and red with rage. His first thought was
+that a trap had been laid for him, and that he had fallen into it;
+that to what he had said there had been witnesses; and that now the
+astrologer had thrown off the mask. With a horrible expression of
+shame and fear on his countenance he stood at bay, peering into the
+dark corners, of which there were many in that room, and plumbing the
+shadows. When no one appeared and nothing happened, his fears passed,
+but not his rage. With his hand on his sword, he turned hotly on his
+confederate. "You dog!" he said between his teeth, and his eyes
+gleamed dangerously in the light of the lamp, "know that for a
+farthing I would slit your throat! And I will, too, if you do not this
+instant stop that witch's grin of yours! Are you going to do what I
+ask, or are you not?"
+
+"Chut! chut!" the astrologer answered, waving his hand in deprecation.
+"I said so, and I am always as good as my word."
+
+"Ay, but now--now!" the young man retorted furiously. "You have played
+with me long enough. Do you think that I am going to spend the night
+in this charnel-house of yours?"
+
+M. Notredame began to fear that he had carried his cruel amusement too
+far. He had enjoyed himself vastly, and made an unexpected discovery:
+one which opened an endless vista of mischief and plunder to his
+astute gaze. But it was not his policy to drive his customer to
+distraction, and he changed his tone. "Peace, peace," he said,
+spreading out his hands humbly. "You shall have it now; now, this
+instant. There is only one little preliminary."
+
+"Name it!" the other said imperiously.
+
+"The price. A horoscope, with the House of Death in the ascendant--the
+Upper Portal, as we call it--is a hundred crowns, M. de Vidoche. There
+is the risk, you see."
+
+"You shall have it. Give me the--the stuff!"
+
+The young man's voice trembled, but it was with anger and impatience,
+not with fear. The astrologer recognised the change in him, and fell
+into his place. He went, without further demur, to a little shelf in
+the darkest corner of the laboratory, whence he reached down a
+crucible. He was in the act of peering into this, with his back to his
+visitor, when M. de Vidoche uttered a startled cry, and, springing
+towards him, seized his arm. "You fiend!" the young man hissed--he was
+pale to the lips, and shook as with an ague--"there is someone there!
+There is someone listening!"
+
+
+[Illustration: "FOR A SECOND THE MAN IN BLACK STOOD BREATHLESS" (_p_.
+92).]
+
+
+For a second the man in black stood breathless, his hand arrested, the
+shadow of his companion's terror darkening his face. M. de Vidoche
+pointed with a trembling finger to the staircase which led to the
+farther part of the house, and on this the two bent their sombre,
+guilty eyes. The lamp burned unsteadily, giving out an odour of smoke.
+The room was full of shadows, uncouth distorted shapes, that rose and
+fell with the light, and had something terrifying in their sudden
+appearances and vanishings. But in all the place there was nothing so
+appalling or so ugly as the two vicious, panic-stricken faces that
+glared into the darkness.
+
+The man in black was the first to break the silence. "What did you
+hear?" he muttered at length, after a long, long period of waiting and
+watching.
+
+"Someone moved there," Vidoche answered, under his breath. His voice
+still trembled; his face was livid with terror.
+
+"Nonsense!" the other answered. He knew the place, and was fast
+recovering his courage. "What was the sound like, man?"
+
+"A dull, heavy sound. Someone moved."
+
+M. Notredame laughed, but not pleasantly. "It was the toad," he said.
+"There is no other living thing here. The door on the staircase is
+locked. It is thick, too. A dozen men might be behind it, yet they
+would not hear a word that passed in this room. But come; you shall
+see."
+
+He led the way to the farther end of the room, and, moving some of the
+larger things, showed M. de Vidoche that there was no one there.
+Still, the young man was only half-convinced. Even when the toad was
+found lurking in a skull which had rolled to the floor, he continued
+to glance about him doubtfully. "I do not think it was that," he said.
+"Are you sure that the door is locked?"
+
+"Try it," the astrologer answered curtly.
+
+M. de Vidoche did, and nodded. "Yes," he said. "All the same, I will
+get out of this, Give me the stuff, will you?"
+
+The man in black raised the lamp in one hand, and with the other
+selected from the crucible two tiny yellow packets. He stood a moment,
+weighing them in his hand and looking lovingly at them, and seemed
+unwilling to part with them. "They are power," he said, in a voice
+that was little above a whisper. The alarm had tried even his nerves,
+and he was not quite himself. "The greatest power of all--death. They
+are the key of the Upper Portal--the true Pulvis Olympicus. Take one
+to-day, one to-morrow, in liquid, and you will feel neither hunger,
+nor cold, nor want, nor desire any more for ever. The late King of
+England took one; but there, it is yours, my friend."
+
+"Is it painful?" the young man whispered, shuddering, and with eyes
+averted.
+
+The tempter grinned horribly. "What is that to you?" he said. "It will
+not bring her mouth to the back of her neck. That is enough for you to
+know."
+
+"It will not be detected?"
+
+"Not by the bunglers they call doctors," the astrologer answered
+scornfully. "Blind bats! You may trust me for that. Of what did the
+King of England die? A tertian ague. So will madame. But if you
+think----"
+
+He stopped on a sudden, his hand in the air, and the two stood gazing
+at one another with alarm printed on their faces. The loud clanging
+note of a bell, harshly struck in the house, came dolefully to their
+ears "What is it?" M. de Vidoche muttered uneasily.
+
+"A client," the astrologer answered quietly. "I will see. Do not stir
+until I come back to you."
+
+M. de Vidoche made an impatient movement towards the door in the Rue
+Touchet: and doubtless he would much have preferred to be gone at
+once, since he had now got what he wanted. But the man in black was
+already unlocking the door at the head of the little staircase, and
+uttering a querulous oath M. de Vidoche resigned himself to wait. With
+a dark look he hid the powders on his person.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+He thought himself alone. But all the same a white-faced boy lay
+within a few feet of him, watching his every movement, and listening
+to his breathing--a small boy, instinct with hate and loathing.
+Impunity renders people careless, or M. Notredame would not have been
+so ready to set down the noise his confederate made to the toad. The
+Judas-hole and the spying-place would have come to mind, and in a
+trice he would have caught the listener in the act, and this history
+would never have been written.
+
+For Jehan, though his master's first entrance and appearance had sent
+him fleeing, breathless and panic-stricken, from his post, had not
+been able to keep aloof long. The house was dull, silent, dark; only
+in the closet was amusement to be found. So while terror dragged him
+one way, curiosity haled him the other, and at last had the victory.
+He listened and shivered at the head of the stairs until that shrill
+eldritch peal of laughter in which the astrologer indulged, and for
+which he was destined to pay dearly, penetrated even the thick door.
+Then he could hold out no longer. His curiosity grew intolerable.
+Laughter! Laughter in that house! Slowly and stealthily the boy opened
+the door of the dark closet, and crept in. Just across the threshold
+he stumbled over the extinguished taper, and this it was which caused
+M. de Vidoche's alarm.
+
+Jehan fancied himself discovered, and lay sweating and trembling until
+the search for the toad was over. Then he sat up, and, finding himself
+safe, began to listen. What he heard was not clear, nor perfectly
+intelligible; but gradually there stole even into his boyish mind a
+perception of something horrible. The speakers' looks of fear, their
+low tones and dark glances, the panic which seized them when they
+fancied themselves overheard, and their relief when nothing came of
+it, did more to bring the conviction home to his mind than their
+words. Even of these he caught enough to assure him that someone was
+to be poisoned--to be put out of the world. Only the name of the
+victim--that escaped him.
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+Probably M. de Vidoche, left to himself, found, his thoughts poor
+company, for by-and-by he grew restless. He walked across the room and
+listened, and walked again and listened. The latter movement brought
+him by chance to the foot of the little flight of six steps by which
+the astrologer had retired, and he looked up and saw that the door at
+the top was ajar. Impelled by curiosity, or suspicion, or the mere
+desire to escape from himself, he stole up, and, opening it farther,
+thrust his head through and listened.
+
+He remained in this position about a minute. Then he turned, and crept
+down again, and stood, thinking, at the foot of the stairs, with an
+expression of such utter and complete amazement on his face as almost
+transformed the man. Something he had heard or seen which he could not
+understand! Something incredible, something almost miraculous! For all
+else, even his guilty purpose, seemed swallowed up in sheer
+astonishment.
+
+The stupor held him until he heard the astrologer's steps. Even then
+he only turned and looked. But if ever dumb lips asked a question, his
+did then.
+
+The man in black nodded silently. He seemed not at all surprised that
+the other had heard or seen what he had. Even in him the thing,
+whatever it was, had worked a change. His eyes shone, his eyebrows
+were raised, his face wore a pale smile of triumph and conceit.
+
+M. de Vidoche found his voice at last "My wife!" he whispered.
+
+The astrologer's shoulders went up to his ears. He spread out his
+hands. He nodded--once, twice. "_Mais oui, Madame!_" he said.
+
+"Here?--now?" M. de Vidoche stammered, his eyes wide with
+astonishment.
+
+"She is in the chamber of the astrolabe."
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_" the husband exclaimed. "_Mon Dieu!_" And then for a
+moment he shook, as if someone were passing over his grave. His face
+was pale. There was dread mingled with his surprise. "I do not
+understand," he muttered at last. "What does it mean? What is she
+doing here?"
+
+"She has come for a love-philtre," M. Notredame answered, with a
+sphinx-like smile.
+
+"For whom?"
+
+"For you."
+
+The husband drew a deep breath. "For me?" he exclaimed. "Impossible!"
+
+"Possible," the man in black answered quietly; "and true."
+
+"Then what shall you do?"
+
+"Give her one," the astrologer answered. The enigmatical smile, which
+had been all along playing on his face, grew deeper, keener, more
+cruel. His eyes gleamed with triumph--and evil. "I shall give her
+one," he said again.
+
+"But--what will she do with it?" M. de Vidoche muttered.
+
+"_Take it!_ You fool, cannot you understand?" the man in black
+answered sharply. "Give me back the powders. I shall give them to her.
+She will take them--_herself_. You will be saved--all!"
+
+M. de Vidoche reeled. "My God!" he cried. "I think you are the devil!"
+
+"Perhaps," the man in black answered "but give me the powders."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                      THE POWDER OF ATTRACTION.
+
+
+Meanwhile, a few yards away, in the room of the astrolabe, Madame de
+Vidoche sat, waiting and trembling, afraid to move from the spot where
+the astrologer had placed her, and longing for his return. The minutes
+seemed endless, the house a grave. The silence and mystery which
+wrapped her round, the sombre hangings, the burning candles, the
+cabalistic figures filled her with awe and apprehension. She was a
+timid woman; nothing but that last and fiercest hunger of all, the
+hunger for love, could have driven her to this desperate step or
+brought her here. But she was here, it had brought her; and though
+fear blanched her cheek, and her limbs shook under her, and she dared
+not pray--for what was this she was doing?--she did not repent, or
+wish the step untaken, or go back on her desire.
+
+The place was dreadful to her; but not so dreadful as the cold home,
+the harsh words, the mockery of love, the slowly growing knowledge
+that there never had been love, from which she was here to escape. She
+was alone, but not more lonely than she had been for months in her own
+house. The man who daily met her with gibes and taunts, and seldom
+spoke without reminding her how pale and colourless she showed beside
+the florid witty beauties of the Court--_his friends_--was still her
+all, and had been her idol. If he failed her, the world was empty
+indeed. Only one thing remained therefore; by hook or crook, by all a
+woman might do or dare, by submission, by courage, to win back his
+love. She had tried. God knows she had tried! She had knelt to him,
+and he had struck her. She had dressed and been gay, and striven to
+jest as his friends jested: he had scourged her with a cutting sneer.
+She had prayed, and Heaven had not answered. She had turned from
+Heaven--a white-faced, pining woman, little more than a girl--and she
+was here.
+
+Only let the man be quick! Let him be quick and give her what she
+sought; and then scarcely any price he could ask should strain her
+gratitude. At last she heard his step, and in a moment he came in.
+Against the black background, and seen by the gloomy light of the
+candles, he looked taller, leaner, paler, more sombre than life. His
+eyes glowed with unnatural lustre. Madame shuddered as he came towards
+her; and he saw it, and grinned behind his cadaverous mask.
+
+"Madame," he said gravely, bowing his head, "it is as I hoped. Venus
+is in the ascendant for nine days from to-day, and in fortunate
+conjunction with Mars. I am happy that you come to me at a time so
+propitious. A very little effort at this season will suffice. But it
+is necessary, if you would have the charm work, to preserve the most
+absolute silence and secrecy in regard to it."
+
+Her lips were dry, her tongue seemed to cleave to her mouth. She felt
+shame as well as fear in this man's presence. But she made an effort,
+and muttered, "It will work?"
+
+"I will answer for it!" he replied bluntly, a world of dubious meaning
+in his tone and eyes. "It is the powder of attraction, by the use of
+which Diane de Poitiers won the love of the king, though she surpassed
+him by twenty years; and Madame de Valentinois held the hearts of men
+till her seventieth winter. Madame de Hautefort uses it. It is made of
+liquid gold, etherealised and strengthened with secret drugs. I have
+made up two packets, but it will be safer if madame will take both at
+once, dissolved in good wine and before the expiration of the ninth
+day."
+
+Madame de Vidoche took the packets, trembling. A little red dyed her
+pale cheeks. "Is that all?" she murmured, faintly.
+
+"All, madame; except that when you drink it, you must think of your
+husband," he answered. As he said this he averted his face; for, try
+as he would, he could not check the evil smile that curled his lip.
+_Dieu!_ Was ever so grim a jest known? Or so forlorn, so helpless, so
+infantine a fool? He could almost find it in his heart to pity her. As
+for her husband--ah, how he would bleed him when it was over!
+
+"How much am I to pay you, sir?" she asked timidly, when she had
+hidden away the precious packets in her bosom. She had got what she
+wanted; she was panting to be gone.
+
+"Twenty crowns," he answered, coldly. "The charm avails for nine
+moons. After that----"
+
+"I shall need more?" she asked; for he had paused.
+
+"Well, no, I think not," he answered slowly--hesitating strangely,
+almost stammering. "I think in your case, madame, the effect will be
+lasting."
+
+She had no clue to the fantastic impulse, the ghastly humour, which
+inspired the words; and she paid him gladly. He would not take the
+money in his hands, but bade her lay it on the great open book,
+"because the gold was alloyed, and not virgin." In one or two other
+ways he played his part; directing her, for instance, if she would
+increase the strength of the charm, to gaze at the planet Venus for
+half an hour each evening, but not through glass or with any metal on
+her person. And then he let her out by the door which opened on the
+quiet street.
+
+"Madame has, doubtless, her woman, or some attendant?" he said,
+looking up and down. "Or I----"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" she answered, gasping in the cold night air. "She is
+here. Goodnight, sir."
+
+He muttered some words in a strange tongue, and, as Madame de
+Vidoche's attendant came out of the shadow to meet her, turned and
+went in again.
+
+The night was dark as well as cold, but madame, in the first fervour
+of her spirits, did not heed it. She suffered her maid to wrap her up
+warmly, and draw the cloak more closely round her throat; but she was
+scarcely conscious of the attention, and bore it as a child might--in
+silence. Her eyes shone in the darkness; her heart beat with a soft
+subtle joy. She had the charm--the key to happiness! It was in her
+bosom; and every moment, under cover of the cloak and night, her
+fingers flew to it and assured her it was safe. The scruples with
+which she had contemplated the interview troubled her no longer. In
+her joy and relief that the ordeal was over and the philtre gained,
+she knew no doubt, no suspicion. She lived only for the moment when
+she might put the talisman to the test, and see love wake again in
+those eyes which, whether they smiled or scowled, fate had made the
+lodestones of her life.
+
+The streets, by reason of the cold, were quiet enough. No one remarked
+the two women as they flitted along under cover of the wall.
+Presently, however, the bell of a church close at hand began to ring
+for service, and the sound, startling madame, brought her suddenly,
+chillily, sharply, to earth again. She stopped. "What is that?" she
+said. "It cannot be compline. It wants three hours of midnight."
+
+"It is St. Thomas's Day," the woman with her answered.
+
+"So it is," madame replied, moving on again, but more slowly. "Of
+course; it is four days to Christmas. Don't they call him the Apostle
+of Faith, Margot?"
+
+"Yes, madame."
+
+"To be sure," madame rejoined thoughtfully. "To be sure; yes, we
+should have faith--we should have faith." And with that she buoyed
+herself up again (as people will in certain moods, using the strangest
+floats), and went on gaily, her feet tripping to the measure of her
+heart, and her hand on the precious packet that was to change the
+world for her. On the foullest mud gleams sometimes the brightest
+phosphorescence: otherwise it were not easy to conceive how even
+momentary happiness could come of the house in the Rue Touchet!
+
+The two women had nearly reached the Church of St. Gervais by the
+Greve, when the sound of a swift stealthy footstep coming along the
+street behind them caught the maid's ear. It was not a reassuring
+sound at night and in that place. The dark square of the Greve, swept
+by the icy wind from the river, lay before them; and though a brazier,
+surrounded by a knot of men belonging to the watch, burned in the
+middle of the open, the two women were reluctant to show themselves
+where they might meet with rudeness. Margot laid her hand on her
+mistress's arm, and for a few seconds the two stood listening, with
+thumping hearts. The step came on--a light, pattering step. Acting on
+a common impulse the women turned and looked at one another. Then
+slipping noiselessly into the shadow cast by the church porch, they
+pressed themselves against the wall, and stood scarcely daring to
+breathe.
+
+But fortune was against them, or their follower's eye was keen beyond
+the ordinary. They had not been there many seconds before he came
+running up--a stooping figure, slight and short. He slackened speed
+abruptly, and stopped exactly opposite their lurking-place. A moment
+of suspense, and then a pale face, rendered visible by a gleam from
+the distant fire, looked in on them, and a thin, panting voice
+murmured timidly, "Madame! Madame de Vidoche, if you please!"
+
+
+[Illustration: "'MADAME! MADAME DE VIDOCHE, IF YOU PLEASE!'" (_p_.
+112)]
+
+
+"Saint Siege!" madame's woman gasped, in a voice of astonishment. "I
+declare it is a child!"
+
+Madame almost laughed in her relief. "Ah!" she said, "how you
+frightened us! I thought you were a man dogging us--a thief!"
+
+"I am not," the boy said simply.
+
+This time Margot laughed. "Who are you, then?" she asked, briskly
+stepping out, "and why have you been following us? You seem to have my
+lady's name pretty pat," she added, sharply.
+
+"I want to speak to her," the boy answered, his lip trembling. In
+truth, he was trembling all over with fear and excitement. But the
+darkness hid that.
+
+"Oh!" Madame de Vidoche said graciously. "Well, you may speak. But
+tell me first who you are, and be quick about it. It is cold and
+late."
+
+"I am from the house where you have been," Jehan answered bravely.
+"You saw me at Les Andelys, too, when you were at supper, madame. I
+was the boy at the door. I want to speak to you alone, please."
+
+"Alone!" madame exclaimed.
+
+The boy nodded firmly. "If you please," he said.
+
+"Hoity-toity!" Margot exclaimed; and she was for demurring. "He only
+wants to beg," she said.
+
+"I don't!" the boy cried, with tears in his voice.
+
+"Then it is a present he wants!" she rejoined, scornfully. "They
+expect their vales at those places. And we are to freeze while he
+makes a tale."
+
+But madame, out of pity or curiosity, would hear him. She bade the
+woman wait a few paces away. And when they were alone: "Now," she said
+kindly, "what is it? You must be quick, for it is very cold."
+
+"_He_ sent me after you--with a message," Jehan answered.
+
+Madame started, and her hand went to the packet. "Do you mean M.
+Notredame?" she murmured.
+
+The boy nodded. "He--he said he had forgotten one thing," he
+continued, halting between his sentences and shivering. "He--he said
+you were to alter one thing, madame."
+
+"Oh!" Madame answered frigidly, her heart sinking, her pride roused by
+this intervention of the boy, who seemed to know all. "What thing, if
+you please?"
+
+Jehan looked quickly and fearfully over his shoulder. But all was
+quiet. "He said he had forgotten that your husband was dark," he
+stammered.
+
+"Dark!" madame muttered in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, dark-complexioned," Jehan continued desperately. "And that being
+so, you were not to take the--the charm yourself."
+
+Madame's eyes flashed with anger. "Oh!" she said, "indeed! And is that
+all?"
+
+"But to give it to him, without telling him," the boy rejoined, with
+sudden spirit and firmness.
+
+Madame started and drew a deep breath. "Are you sure you have made no
+mistake?" she said, trying to read the boy's face. But it was too dark
+for that.
+
+"Quite sure," he answered hardily.
+
+"Oh," madame said, slowly and thoughtfully; "very well. Is that all?"
+
+"That is all," he replied, drawing back a step; but reluctantly, as it
+seemed.
+
+Margot, who had been all the time moving a little nearer and a little
+nearer, came right up at this. "Now, my lady," she said sharply, "I
+beg you will have done. This is no place for us at this time of night,
+and this little imp of Satan ought to be about his business. I am sure
+I am perishing with cold, and the sound of those creaking boats on the
+river makes me think of nothing but gibbets and corpses, till I have
+got the creeps all down my back! And the watch will be here
+presently."
+
+"Very well, Margot," madame answered; "I am coming." But still she
+looked at the boy and lingered. "You are sure there is nothing else?"
+she murmured.
+
+"Nothing," he answered.
+
+She thought his manner odd, and wondered why he lingered; why he did
+not hurry off, since the night was cold and he was bareheaded. But
+Margot pressed her again, and she turned, saying reluctantly, "Very
+well, I am coming."
+
+"Ay, and so is Christmas!" the woman grumbled. And this time she
+fairly took her by the arm and hurried her away.
+
+"That is not a good retort, Margot!" madame said presently, when they
+had gone a few paces, and were flitting hand-in-hand across the Greve,
+with heads bent to the wind, "for it wants only four days to
+Christmas. You had forgotten that!"
+
+"I think you are fey, my lady!" the woman replied, in an ill-temper.
+"I have not seen you so gay these twelve months; and what with the
+cold, and fear of the watch and monsieur, I am ready to sink. You must
+have heard fine news down there."
+
+But madame did not answer. She was thinking of last Christmas. Her
+husband had gone to the revels at the Palais Cardinal, which was then
+in building. She had offered to go with him, and he had told her, with
+an oath, that if she did she should remember it. So she had stopped at
+home alone--her first Christmas in Paris. She had gone to mass, and
+then had sat all day in the cold, splendid house, and cried. Half the
+servants had played truant, and her woman had been cross, and for
+hours together no one had gone near her.
+
+This Christmas it was to be different.
+
+Madame's eyes began to shine again, and her heart to beat a pleasant
+measure. If she had her will, they would go to no pageants or
+merry-makings. But then he liked such things, and showed to advantage
+in them. Yes, they would go, and she would sit quiet as a mouse; and
+listening while they praised him, would feed all the time on the sweet
+knowledge that now he was hers--her own.
+
+She had not done dreaming when they reached the house. The porter was
+drowsing in his lodge, the gate was ajar. They slipped into the dark
+silent courtyard, and, flitting across it, entered the house. Two
+servants lay stretched asleep in the hall, and in a little room to the
+left of the door they could hear others talking; but no one looked
+out. Fortune could not have aided them better. With a little laugh of
+relief and thankfulness madame tripped up the grand staircase and
+under the great lamp which lit it and the hall.
+
+Marmot followed, but neither she nor her mistress saw who followed
+them: who had followed them across the windy Greve, through street and
+lane and byway; even, after a moment's hesitation, over the threshold
+of the court and into the house. A servant who heard the stairs creak
+as they went up, and looked out, fancied he saw a small black figure
+glide out of sight above; but as there were no children in the house,
+and this was a child, if anything, he thought his eyes deceived
+him--he was half-asleep--and, crossing himself, went back, yawning.
+
+The boy could never quite explain--though often asked in
+after-years--what led him to run this risk. It is true he dared not
+return to the Rue Touchet; and he was only twelve years old, and knew
+nowhere else to go. But---- However, that is all that can be said. He
+did follow them.
+
+He paused at the head of the stairs, and stood shivering under the
+great lamp. In front of him hung a pair of heavy curtains. After a
+moment's hesitation he crept between them and found himself in a
+splendid apartment, spacious though sparely furnished, lit from
+the roof, and in character half-hall, half-parlour. A high marble
+chimney-piece in the new Italian mode faced him, and on either hand
+were two lofty doorways screened by curtains. The floor was of
+parquet, the walls were panelled in chestnut wood. On each side of the
+fire, which smouldered low between the dogs and was nearly out, a long
+bench, velvet-covered, ran along the wall. A posset-cup stood on a
+tripod on the hearth, and in the middle of the room a marble table
+bore a dish of sweetmeats and a tray of flasks and glasses. In that
+day, when people dined at eleven and supped at six, it was customary
+to take _les epices et le vin du coucher_ before retiring at nine.
+
+The boy stood cowering and listening--a strange, pale-faced little
+figure, reflected in a narrow mirror which decked one wall. It was
+very cold even here; outside he must die of cold. He heard the two
+women moving and talking in one of the rooms on the left; otherwise
+the house was still. He looked about, hesitated, and at last stole on
+tip-toe across the floor to one of the doors on his right. The curtain
+which hid it trailed a yard on the ground. He sat down between it and
+the door, and, winding one corner of the thick heavy stuff round his
+frozen limbs, uttered a sigh of relief. He had found a refuge of a
+kind.
+
+He meant to sleep, but he could not, for all his nerves were tense
+with excitement. Not a sound in the house escaped him. He heard the
+soft ashes sink on the hearth; he heard one of the men who slept in
+the hall turn and moan in his sleep. At last, quite close to him, a
+door opened.
+
+Jehan moved a little and peered from his ambush. The noise had come
+from madame's room. He was not surprised when he saw her face thrust
+out. Presently she put the curtain quite aside and came out, and stood
+a little way from him, listening intently. She wore a loose robe of
+some soft stuff, and he fancied she was barefoot, for she moved
+without noise.
+
+She stood listening a full minute, with her hand to her bosom. Then
+she nodded, as if assured that all was well, and, going to the table,
+looked down at the things it held. Her face wore a subtle smile, her
+cheeks flamed softly, there was a shy sparkle in her eyes. The lamp
+seemed to lend her new loveliness.
+
+Apparently she did not find what she wanted on the table, for in a
+moment she turned and went to the fireplace. She took the posset from
+the trivet, and, lifting the lid of the cup, looked in. What she saw
+appeared to satisfy her, for with a quick movement she carried the cup
+to the table and set it down open. She had her back to Jehan now, and
+he could not see what she was doing, though he watched her every
+motion and partly guessed. When she had finished whatever it was, she
+raised the cup to her lips, and the boy's heart stood still. Ay, stood
+still! He half rose, his face white. But he was in error. She only
+kissed the wine and covered it, and took it back to the trivet,
+murmuring something over it as she set it down.
+
+
+[Illustration: HE WATCHED HER EVERY MOTION "(_p_. 124).]
+
+
+The boy lay still, like one fascinated, while madame, clasping two
+little silk bags to her bosom, stole back to her door. As she raised
+the curtain with one hand she turned on a sudden impulse and kissed
+the other towards the hearth. Slowly the curtain fell and hid her
+shining eyes.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                            CLYTAEMNESTRA.
+
+
+She had barely disappeared when the boy, listening eagerly, heard
+the great door below flung open, and instinctively sank down again.
+A breath of cold air rose from below. A harsh voice--a voice he
+knew--cursed someone or something in the hall, a heavy step came
+stumbling up the stairs, and in a moment M. de Vidoche, followed by a
+sleepy servant, pushed his way through the curtains. He was flushed
+with drink, yet he was not drunk, for as he crossed the floor he shot
+a swift sidelong glance at his wife's door--a glance of dark meaning;
+and, though he railed savagely at the servant for letting the fire go
+out, he had the air of listening while he spoke, and swore, to show
+himself at ease.
+
+The man muttered some excuse, and, kneeling, began to blow the embers,
+while Vidoche looked on moodily. He had not taken off his hat and
+cloak. "Has madame been out this evening?" he said suddenly.
+
+"No, my lord."
+
+"Her woman is lying with her?"
+
+"Yes, my lord."
+
+A moment's silence. Then, "Trim the lamp, curse you! Don't you see it
+is going out? Do you want to leave me in the dark? _Sacre!_ This might
+be a pigsty from the way it is kept!"
+
+The man was used to be kicked and abused, but it seemed to him that
+his master's caprices were taking a fresh direction. It was not his
+business to think, however. He trimmed the lamp and took the cloak and
+hat, and was going, when Vidoche called him back again. "Put on a
+log," he said, "and give me that drink. _Nom du diable_, it is cold!
+You lazy hound, you have been sleeping!"
+
+The man vowed he had not, and M. de Vidoche listened to his
+protestations as if he heard them. In reality his thoughts were busy
+with other things. Would it be tonight, or to-morrow, or the next day?
+he was wondering darkly. And how would it--take her? Would he be
+there, or would they come and tell him? Would she sicken and fade
+slowly, and die of some common illness to all appearance, with the
+priest by her side? Or would he awake in the night to hear her
+screaming, and be summoned to see her writhing in torture, gasping,
+choking, praying them to save--to save her from this horrible pain?
+God! The perspiration broke out on his brow. He shivered. "Give me
+that!" he muttered hoarsely, holding out a shaking hand. "Give it me,
+I say!"
+
+The man was warming the posset, but he rose hastily and handed it.
+
+"Put lights in my room! And, hark you--you will sleep there to-night.
+I am not well. Go and get your straw, and be quick about it."
+
+Vidoche listened with the cup in his hand while the man went down and
+fetched a taper and some coverings from the hall, and, coming up
+again, opened one of the doors on the right--not the one against which
+the boy lay. The servant went into the room and busied himself there
+for a time, while the master sat crouching over the fire, thinking,
+with a gloomy face. He tried to turn his thoughts to the Farincourt,
+and to what would happen afterwards, and to a dozen things with which
+his mind had been only too ready to occupy itself of late. But now
+his thoughts would not be ordered. They returned again and again to
+the door on his left. He caught himself listening, waiting, glancing
+at it askance. And this might go on for days. _Dieu!_ the house would
+be a hell! He would go away. He would make some excuse to leave
+until--until after Christmas.
+
+He shivered, cursed himself under his breath for a fool, and drank
+half the mulled wine at a draught. As he took the cup from his lips,
+his ear caught a slight sound behind him, and, starting, he peered
+hastily over his shoulder. But the noise came apparently from the next
+room, where the servant was moving about; and, with another oath,
+Vidoche drained the cup and set it down on the table.
+
+He had scarcely done so when he drew himself suddenly upright and
+remained in that position for a moment, his mouth half open, his eyes
+glaring. A kind of spasm seized him. His teeth shut with a click. He
+staggered and clutched at the table. His face grew red--purple. His
+brain seemed to be bursting; his eyes filled with blood. He tried to
+cry, to give the alarm, to get breath, but his throat was held in an
+iron vice. He was choking and reeling on his feet, when the man came
+by chance out of the bedroom.
+
+By a tremendous effort Vidoche spoke. "Who--made--this?" he muttered,
+in a hissing voice.
+
+The servant started, scared by his appearance. He answered,
+nevertheless, that he had mixed it himself.
+
+"Look at--the bottom of--the cup!" Vidoche replied in a terrible
+voice. He was swaying to and fro, and kept himself up only by his grip
+on the table. "Is there--anything there?"
+
+The servant was terribly frightened, but he had the sense to obey. He
+took up the cup and looked in it. "Is there--a powder--in it?" Vidoche
+asked, a frightful spasm distorting his features.
+
+"There is--something," the man answered, his teeth chattering. "But
+let me fetch help, my lord. You are not well. You are----"
+
+"A dead man!" the baffled murderer cried, his voice rising in a scream
+of indescribable despair and horror. "A dead man! I am poisoned! My
+wife!" He reeled with that word. He lost his hold of the table. "Ha,
+_mon Dieu!_ Mercy! Mercy!" he cried.
+
+In a moment he was down, writhing on the floor, and uttering shriek on
+shriek: cries so dreadful that on the instant doors flew open and
+sleepers awoke, and in a twinkling the room--though the lamp lay
+quenched, overturned in his struggles--was full of lights and
+frightened faces and huddled forms, and women who stopped their ears
+and wept. The doorways framed more faces, the staircase rang with
+sounds of alarm. Everywhere was turmoil and a madness of hurrying
+feet. One ran for the doctor, another for the priest, a third for the
+watch. The house seemed on a sudden alive; nay, the very courtyard,
+where the porter was gone from his post, and the doors stood open, was
+full of staring strangers, who gaped at the windows and the hurrying
+lights, and asked whose was the hotel, or answered it was M. de
+Vidoche's.
+
+
+[Illustration: "IN A MOMENT HE WAS DOWN, WRITHING ON THE FLOOR" (_p_.
+133).]
+
+
+It had been. But already the man who had gone up the stairs so full of
+strength and evil purpose lay dying, speechless, all but dead. They
+had lifted him on to a pallet which someone drew from a neighbouring
+room, and at first there had been no lack of helpers or ready hands.
+One untied his cravat, and another his doublet, and two or three of
+the coolest held him in his paroxysms. But then the magic word
+"Poison!" was whispered; and one by one, all, even the man who had
+been with him, even madame's woman, drew off, and left those two
+alone. The livid body lay on the pallet, and madame, stunned and
+horror-stricken, hung over it; but the servants stood away in a dense
+circle, and looking on with gloom and fear in their faces, some
+mechanically holding lights, some still grasping the bowls and basins
+they were afraid to use, whispered that word again and again.
+
+It seemed as if the tell-tale syllables passed the walls; for the
+first to arrive, before doctor or priest, was the captain of the
+watch. He came upstairs, his sword clanking, and, thrusting the
+curtains aside, stood looking at the strange scene, which the many
+lights, irregularly held and distributed, lit up as if it had been a
+pageant on the stage. "Who is it?" he muttered, touching the nearest
+servant on the arm.
+
+"M. de Vidoche," the man answered.
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+The man cringed before him. "Dead, or as good," he whispered. "Yes,
+sir."
+
+"Then he is not dead?"
+
+"I do not know, sir."
+
+"Then why the devil are you all standing like mutes at a funeral?" the
+soldier answered, with an oath. "Leaving madame alone, too. Poison,
+eh? Oh!" and he whistled softly. "So that is why you are all looking
+on as if the man had got the plague, is it? A pretty set of curs you
+are! But here is the doctor. Out of the way now," he added
+contemptuously, "and let no one leave the room."
+
+He went forward with the physician, and, while the latter knelt and
+made his examination, the captain muttered a few words of comfort in
+madame's ear. For all she heard or heeded, however, he might have
+spared his pains. She had been summoned so abruptly, and the call had
+so entirely snapped the thread of her thoughts, that she had not yet
+connected her husband's illness with any act of hers. She had
+absolutely forgotten the enterprise of the evening, its anticipations
+and hopes. For the time she was spared that horror. But this illness
+alone sufficed to overwhelm her, to sink her beyond the reach of
+present comfort. She no longer remembered her husband's coldness, but
+only the early days when he had come to her in her country home, a
+black-bearded, bold-eyed Apollo, and wooed her impetuously and with
+irresistible will. All his faults, all his unkindnesses, were
+forgotten now: only his beauty, his vigour, his great passion, his
+courage were remembered. A dreadful pain seized her heart when she
+recognised that his had ceased to beat. She peered white-faced into
+the physician's eyes, she hung on his lips. If she remembered her
+journey to the Rue Touchet at all, it was only to think how futile her
+hopes were now. He, whom she would have won back to her, was gone from
+her for ever!
+
+The doctor shook his head gravely as he rose. He had tried to bleed
+the patient, without waiting, in this emergency, for a barber to be
+summoned; but the blood would not flow. "It is useless," he said. "You
+must have courage, madame. More courage than is commonly required," he
+continued, in a tone of solemnity, almost of severity. He looked round
+and met the captain's eyes. He made him a slight sign.
+
+"He is dead?" she muttered.
+
+"He is dead," the physician answered slowly. "More, madame--my task
+goes farther. It is my duty to say that he has been poisoned."
+
+"Dead!" she muttered, with a dry sob. "Dead!"
+
+"Poisoned, I said, madame," the physician answered almost harshly. "In
+an older man the symptoms might be taken for those of apoplexy. But in
+this case not so. M. de Vidoche has been poisoned."
+
+"You are clear on the point?" the captain of the watch said. He was a
+grey-haired, elderly man, lately transferred from the field to the
+slums of Paris, and his kindly nature had not been wholly obliterated
+by contact with villainy.
+
+"Perfectly," the doctor answered. "More, the poison must have been
+administered within the hour."
+
+Madame rose shivering from the dead man's side. This new terror, so
+much worse than that of death, seemed to thrust her from him, to raise
+a barrier between them. The soft white robe she had thrown round her
+when she ran from her bed was not whiter than her cheeks; the lights
+were not brighter than her eyes, distended with horror. "Poisoned!"
+she muttered. "Impossible! Who would poison him?"
+
+"That is the question, madame," the captain of the watch answered, not
+without pity--not without admiration. "And if, as we are told, the
+poison must have been given within the hour, it should not be
+difficult to answer it. Let no one leave the room," he continued,
+pulling his moustachios. "Where is the valet who waited on M. de
+Vidoche?"
+
+The man stood forward from the rest, shaking with alarm, and told
+briefly all he knew; how he had left his master in his usual health,
+and found him in some kind of seizure; how Vidoche had bidden him look
+in the cup, and how he had found a sediment in it which should not
+have been there.
+
+"You mixed this wine yourself?" the captain of the watch said sharply.
+
+The man allowed he had, whimpering and excusing himself.
+
+"Very well. Let me see madame's woman," was the answer. "Which is she?
+She is here, I suppose. Let her stand out."
+
+A dozen hands were ready to point her out, a dozen lights were held up
+that the Chevalier du Guet might see her the better. She was pushed,
+nudged, impelled forward, until she stood trembling where the man had
+stood. But not for long. The captain's first question was still on his
+lips when, with a sudden gesture of despair, the woman threw herself
+on her knees before him, and, grovelling in a state of abject terror,
+cried out that she would tell all--all! All if they would let her go!
+All if they would not torture her!
+
+The captain's face grew stern, the lines about his mouth hardened.
+"Speak!" he said curtly, and with a swift side-glance at the mistress,
+who stood as if turned to stone. "Speak, but the truth only, woman!"
+while a murmur of astonishment and fear ran round the circle.
+
+It should be mentioned that at this time the crime of secret poisoning
+was held in especial abhorrence in France, the poisoning of husbands
+by wives more particularly. It was believed to be common; it was
+suspected in many cases where it could not be proved. Men felt
+themselves at the mercy of women who, sharing their bed and board,
+had often the motive and always the opportunity; and in proportion as
+the crime was easy of commission and difficult to detect was the
+rigour with which it was rewarded when detected. The high rank of
+the Princess of Conde--a Tremouille by birth and a Bourbon by
+marriage--did not avail to save her from torture when suspected of
+this; while the sudden death of a man of position was often sufficient
+to expose his servants, and particularly his wife's confidante, to the
+horrors of the question. Madame's woman knew all this. Such things
+formed the gossip of her class, and in a paroxysm of fear, in terror,
+in dread lest the moment should pass and another forestall her, she
+flung both fidelity and prudence to the winds.
+
+"I will! I will! All!" she cried. "And I swear it is true! She went
+to a house in the Tournelles quarter to-night!"
+
+"She? Who is she, woman?" the captain asked sharply.
+
+"My lady there! She stayed an hour. I waited outside. As we came back
+a boy ran after us, and talked with her by the porch of St. Gervais.
+She sent me away, and I do not know what was his business. But after
+we got home, and when she thought me asleep, she crept out of the room
+and came here, and put something in that cup. I heard her go, and
+stole to the door, and through the curtains saw her do it, but I did
+not know what it was, or what she intended. I have told the truth. But
+I did not know, I did not! I swear I did not!"
+
+The captain silenced her protestations with a fierce gesture, and
+turned from her to the woman she accused. "Madame," he said, in a low,
+unsteady voice, "is this true?"
+
+She stood with both her hands on her breast, and looked, with a face
+of stone, not at him, but beyond him. She scarcely seemed to breathe,
+so perfect was the dreadful stillness which held her. He thought she
+did not hear: and he was about to repeat his question when she moved
+her lips in a strange, mechanical fashion, and, after an effort,
+spoke. "Is it true?" she whispered--in that stricken silence every
+syllable was audible, and even at her first word some women fell to
+shuddering--"is it true that I have killed my husband? Yes, I have
+killed him. I loved him, and I have killed him. I loved him--I had no
+one else to love--and I have killed him. God has let this be in this
+world. You are real, and I am real. It is no dream. He has let it be."
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_" the captain muttered, while one woman broke into noisy
+weeping. "She is mad!"
+
+But madame was not mad, or only mad for the moment. "It is strange,"
+she continued, with writhing lips, but in the same even tone--which to
+those who had ears to hear was worse than any loud outcry--"that such
+a thing should be. God should not let it be, because I loved him. I
+loved him, and I have killed him. I--but perhaps I shall awake
+presently and find it a dream. Or perhaps he is not dead. Is he? Ha!
+is he, man? Tell me!"
+
+With the last words, which leapt from her lips in sudden frantic
+questioning, she awoke as from a trance. She sprang towards the
+doctor; then, turning swiftly, looked where the corpse lay, and with a
+dreadful peal of laughter threw herself upon it. Her shrill cries so
+filled the air, so rang through the empty hall below, so pierced the
+brain, that the captain raised his hands to his ears, and the men
+shrank back, looking at the women.
+
+"See to her!" said the captain, stamping his foot in a rage and
+addressing the physician. "I must take her away, but I cannot take her
+like this. See to her, man. Give her something; drug her, poison her,
+if you like--anything to stop her! Her cries will ring in my ears a
+twelvemonth hence. Well, woman, what is it?" he continued impatiently.
+Madame's woman had touched his arm.
+
+"The boy!" she muttered. "The boy!" Her teeth were chattering with
+terror. She pointed to the place where the servants stood most thickly
+near the great curtains which shut off the staircase.
+
+He followed the direction of her hand, but saw nothing except scared
+faces and cringing figures. "What boy, woman?" he retorted. "What do
+you mean?"
+
+"The boy who came after us to the church," she answered. "I saw him a
+minute ago--there! He was standing behind that man, looking under his
+arm."
+
+Three strides brought the captain of the watch to the place indicated.
+But there was no boy there--there was no boy to be seen. Moreover, the
+frightened servants who stood in that part declared that they had seen
+no boy--that no boy could have been there. The captain, believing that
+they had had eyes only for Madame de Vidoche, put small faith in their
+protestations; but the fact remained that the boy was gone, and the
+searcher returned baffled and perplexed: more than half inclined to
+think that this might be a ruse on the woman's part, yet at a loss to
+see what good it could do her. He asked her roughly how old the boy
+was.
+
+"About twelve," she answered, looking nervously over her shoulder. In
+truth, she began to fancy that the boy was a familiar. Or what could
+bring him here? How had he entered? And whither had he vanished?
+
+"How was he dressed?" the captain asked angrily, waving back the
+servants, who would have pressed on him in their curiosity.
+
+"In black velvet," she answered. "But he had no cap. He was
+bareheaded. And I noticed that he had black hair and blue eyes."
+
+"Are you sure that the boy you saw here was the boy who followed you
+and spoke to madame in the street?" he urged. "Be careful, woman!"
+
+"I am certain of it," she answered feverishly. "I knew him in a
+moment."
+
+"Are you sure that madame did not bring him in with you?"
+
+She vowed positively that she had not, and equally positively that the
+boy could not have followed them in without being seen. In this we
+know that she was mistaken; but she believed it, and her belief
+communicated itself to her questioner.
+
+He rubbed his head with his hand in extreme perplexity. If the boy
+were a messenger from the villain whom this wretched woman had been to
+visit, what could have brought him to the house? Why had he risked
+himself on the scene of the murder? Unless--unless, indeed, his
+mission were to learn what happened, and to warn his master!
+
+The captain caught that in a moment, and, thrusting the servants on
+one side, despatched three or four men on the instant to the Rue
+Touchet, "_Pardieu!_" he exclaimed, wiping his forehead when they were
+gone, "I was nearly forgetting him. The villain! I will be sworn he
+tempted her! But now I think I have netted all--madame, the maid, the
+man, the devil!" He ticked them off on his fingers. "There is only the
+lad wanting. The odds are they will get him, too, in the Rue Touchet.
+So far, so good. But it is hateful work," the old soldier continued,
+with an oath, looking askance at the group which surrounded madame and
+the doctor. "They will--ugh! it is horrible. It would be a mercy to
+give her a dose now, and end all."
+
+But there was no one to take the responsibility, and so the few who
+were abroad very early that morning saw a strange and mournful
+procession pass through the streets of Paris; those streets which have
+seen so many grisly and so many fantastic things. An hour before
+daybreak a litter, surrounded by a crowd of armed men, some bearing
+torches and some pikes and halberds, came out of the Hotel Vidoche and
+passed slowly down the Rue St. Denis. The night was at its darkest,
+the wind at its keenest. Vagrant wretches, lying out in the Halles,
+rose up and walked for their lives, or slowly froze and perished.
+
+But there are worse things than death in the open; worse, at any rate,
+than that death which comes with kindly numbing power. And some of
+these knew it; nay, all. The poorest outcast whom the glare of the
+cressets surprised as he lurked in porch or penthouse, the leanest
+beggar who looked out startled by the clang and tramp, knew himself
+happier than the king's prisoner bound for the Chatelet; and, hugging
+his rags, thanked Heaven for it.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                          THE MARK OF CAIN.
+
+
+When Jehan, in a fever of indignation, slipped stealthily out of the
+house in the Rue Touchet and sped up the dark, quiet street after
+Madame de Vidoche, he had no subtler purpose in his mind than to
+overtake her and warn her. The lady had spoken kindly to him on the
+night of the supper at Les Andelys. She was young, weak, oppressed;
+the plot against her seemed to the child to be fiendish in its
+artfulness. It needed no more to rouse every chivalrous instinct in
+his nature--and these in a boy should be many, or woe betide the
+man--and determine him to save her.
+
+He thought that if he could overtake her and warn her all would be
+well; and at first his purpose went no farther than that. But as he
+ran, now looking over his shoulder in terror, and now peering into the
+darkness ahead, sometimes slipping into the gutter in his haste, and
+sometimes stumbling over a projecting step, a new and whimsical
+thought flashed into his mind, and in a moment fascinated him. How it
+came to one so young, whether the astrologer's duplicity, to which he
+had been a witness, suggested it, or it sprang from some precocious
+aptitude in the boy's own nature, it is impossible to say. But on a
+sudden there it was in his mind, full-grown, full-armed, a perfect
+scheme. He had only a few minutes in which to consider it before he
+caught madame up, and the time to put it into execution came; but in
+that interval he found no flaw in it. Rather he revelled in it. It
+satisfied the boy's stern sense of retribution and justice. It more
+than satisfied the boy's love of mischief and trickery.
+
+He felt not the slightest misgiving, therefore, when it came to
+playing his part. He went through it without pity, without a scruple
+or thought of responsibility--nay, he followed madame home, and hid
+himself behind the curtain, with no feeling of apprehension as to what
+was coming, with no qualms of conscience.
+
+But when he had seen all, and lying spell-bound in his hiding-place
+had witnessed the tragedy, when covering his ears with his hands,
+and cowering down as if he would cower through the floor, he had
+heard Vidoche's death-cry and winced at each syllable of madame's
+heart-broken utterance--when, with quaking limbs and white cheeks, he
+had crept at last down the stairs and fled from the accursed house,
+then the boy knew all; knew what he had done, and was horror-stricken!
+Even the darkness and freezing cold were welcome, if he might escape
+from that house--if he might leave those haunting cries behind. But
+how? by what road? He fled through street after street, alley after
+alley, over bridges, and along quays, by the doors of churches and the
+gates of prisons. But everywhere the sights and sounds went with him,
+forestalled him, followed him. He could not forget. When at last,
+utterly exhausted, he flung himself down on a pile of refuse in a
+distant corner of the Halles, his heart seemed bursting. He had killed
+a man. He had worse than killed a woman. He would be hung. The
+astrologer had told him truly; he was doomed, given up to evil and the
+devil!
+
+He lay for a long time panting and shuddering, with his face hidden;
+while a burst of agony, provoked by some sudden pang of remembrance,
+now and again racked his frame. The spot he had, almost unconsciously,
+chosen for his hiding-place was a corner between two stalls, at the
+east end of the market: an angle well sheltered from the wind, and
+piled breast-high with porters' knots and rubbish. The air was a
+little less bitter there than outside; and by good fortune he had
+thrown himself down on an old sack, which he, by-and-bye, drew over
+him. Otherwise he must have perished. As it was, he presently sobbed
+himself into an uneasy slumber; but only to awake in a few minutes
+with a scream of affright and a dismal return of all his
+apprehensions.
+
+Still, nature was already at work to console him; and misery sleeps
+proverbially well. After a time he dozed again for a few minutes, and
+then again. At length, a little before daybreak, he went off into a
+sounder sleep, from which he did not awake until the wintry sun was
+nearly an hour up, and old-fashioned people were thinking of dinner.
+
+After opening his eyes, he lay a while between sleeping and waking,
+with the sense of some unknown trouble heavy upon him. On a sudden a
+voice, a harsh, rasping voice, speaking a strange clipped jargon,
+roused him effectually. "He is a runaway!" the voice said, with two or
+three unnecessary oaths. "A crown to a penny on it, my bully-boys!
+Well, it is an ill-wind blows no one any good. Rouse up the little
+shaveling, will you? That is not the way! Here, lend it me."
+
+The next moment the boy sat up, with a cry of pain, for a heavy
+porter's knot fell on his shin-bone and nearly broke it. He found
+himself confronted by three or four grinning ruffians, whose eyes
+glistened as they scanned his velvet clothes and the little silver
+buttons that fastened them. The man who had spoken before seemed to be
+the leader of the party: a filthy beggar with one arm and a hare-lip.
+"Ho! ho!" he chuckled; "so you can feel, M. le Marquis, can you! Flesh
+and blood like other folk. And doubtless with money in your pockets to
+pay for your night's lodging."
+
+He hauled the child to him and passed his hands through his clothes.
+But he found nothing, and his face grew dark. "_Morbleu!_" he swore.
+"The little softy has brought nothing away with him!"
+
+The other men, gathering round, glared at the boy hungrily. In the
+middle of the Forest of Bondy he could not have been more at their
+mercy than he was in this quiet corner of the market, where a velvet
+coat with silver buttons was as rare a sight as a piece of the true
+cross. Two or three houseless wretches looked on from their frowsy
+lairs under the stalls, but no one dreamed of interfering with the men
+in possession. As for the boy, he gazed at his captors stolidly; he
+was white, mute, apathetic.
+
+"Plague, if I don't think the lad is a softy!" said one, staring at
+him.
+
+"Not he!" replied the man who had hold of him. And roughly seizing the
+boy by the head with his huge hand, he forced up an eyelid with his
+finger as if to examine the eye. The boy uttered a cry of pain.
+"There!" said the ruffian, grinning with triumph. "He is all right.
+The question is, what shall we do with him?"
+
+"There are his clothes," one muttered, eyeing the boy greedily.
+
+"To be sure, there are always his clothes," was the answer. "It does
+not take an Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu to see that, gaby!
+And, of course, they would melt to the tune of something apiece! But
+maybe we can do better than that with him. He has run away. You don't
+find truffles on the dung-hill every day."
+
+"Well," said his duller fellows, their eyes beginning to sparkle with
+greed, "what then, Bec de Lievre?"
+
+"If we take him home again, honest market porters, why should we not
+be rewarded? Eh, my bully-boys?"
+
+"That is a bright idea!" said one. So said another. The rest nodded.
+"Ask him where he lives, when he is at home."
+
+They did. But Jehan remained mute. "Twist his arm!" said the last
+speaker. "He will soon tell you. Or stick your finger in his eye
+again! Blest if I don't think the kid _is_ dumb!" the man continued,
+gazing with astonishment at the boy's dull face and lack-lustre eyes.
+
+"I think I shall find a tongue for him," the former operator replied
+with a leer. "Here, sonny, answer before you are hurt, will you? Where
+do you live?"
+
+But Jehan remained silent. The ruffian raised his hand. In another
+moment it would have fallen, but in the nick of time came an
+interruption. "Nom de ma mere!" someone close at hand cried, in a
+voice of astonishment. "It is my Jehan!"
+
+Two of the party in possession turned savagely on the intruder--a
+middle-sized man with foxy eyes, and a half-starved ape on his
+shoulder. "Who asked you to speak?" snarled one. "Begone about your
+business, my fine fellow, or I shall be making a hole in you!" cried
+another.
+
+"But he is my boy!" the new-comer answered, fairly trembling with joy
+and astonishment. "He is my boy!"
+
+"Your boy?" cried Bec de Lievre, in a tone of contempt. "You look like
+it, don't you? You look as if you dined on gold plate every day and
+had a Rohan to your cup-bearer, you do! Go along, man; don't try to
+bamboozle us, or it will be the worse for you!" And with an angry
+scowl he turned to his victim.
+
+But the showman, though he was a coward, was not to be put down so
+easily. "It is the boy who is bamboozling you!" he said. "You take him
+for a swell! It is only his show dress he has on. He is a tumbler's
+boy, I tell you. He circled the pole with me for two years. Last
+November he ran away. If you do not believe me, ask the monkey. See,
+the monkey knows him."
+
+Bec de Lievre had to acknowledge that the monkey did know him. For the
+poor beast was no sooner brought close to its old playmate than it
+sprang upon him and covered him with caresses, gibbering and crying
+out the while after so human a fashion that it might well have moved
+hearts less hard. The boy did not return its endearments, however; but
+a look of intelligence came into his eyes, and on a sudden he heaved a
+sigh as if his heart was breaking.
+
+The men who had taken possession of him looked at one another. "It was
+the boy's cursed clothes fooled us," Bec de Lievre growled savagely.
+"We will have them, at any rate. Strip him and have done with it. And
+do you keep off, Master Tumbler, or we will tumble you."
+
+But when the showman, who was trembling with delight and anticipation,
+made them understand that he would give a crown for the boy as he was
+in his clothes--"and that is more than the fence will give you," he
+added--they began to see reason. True, they stood out for a while for
+a higher price; but the bargain was eventually struck at a crown and a
+livre, and the boy handed over.
+
+Master Crafty Eyes' hand shook as he laid it on the child's collar and
+turned him round so that he might see his face the better. Bec de
+Lievre discerned the man's excitement, and looked at him curiously.
+"You must be very fond of the lad," he said.
+
+The showman's eyes glittered ferociously. "So fond of him," he said,
+in a mocking tone, "that when I get him home I shall--oh, I shall not
+hurt his fine clothes, or his face, or his little brown hands, for
+those all show, and they are worth money to me. But I shall--I shall
+put a poker in the fire, and then Master Jehan will take off his new
+clothes so that they may not be singed, and--I shall teach him several
+new tricks with the poker."
+
+"You are a queer one," the other answered. "I'll be shot if you don't
+look like a man with a good dinner before him."
+
+"That is the man I am," the showman answered, a hideous smile
+distorting his face. "I have gone without dinner or supper many a day
+because my little friend here chose to run away one fine night, when
+he was on the point of making my fortune. But I am going to dine now.
+I am going to feed--on him!"
+
+"Well, every man to his liking," the hare-lipped beggar answered
+indifferently. "You have paid for your dinner, and may cook it as you
+please, for me."
+
+"I am going to," the showman answered, with an ugly look. He plucked
+the boy almost off his feet as he spoke, and while the men cried after
+him "_Bon appetit!_" and jeered, dragged him away across the open part
+of the market; finally disappearing with him in one of the noisome
+alleys which then led out of the Halles on the east side.
+
+His way lay through a rabbit-warren of beetling passages and narrow
+lanes, where the boy, once loose, could have dodged him a hundred ways
+and escaped; and he held him with the utmost precaution, expecting him
+every moment to make a desperate attempt at it. But Jehan was not the
+old Jehan who had turned and twisted, walked and frolicked on the
+rope, and in the utmost depths of ill-treatment had still kept teeth
+to bite and spirit to use them. He was benumbed body and soul. He had
+had no food for nearly twenty hours. He had passed the night exposed
+to the cold. He had gone through intense excitement, horror, despair.
+So he stumbled along, with Vidoche's dying cries in his ears, and,
+famished, frozen, bemused, met the showman's threats with a face of
+fixed, impassive apathy. He was within a very little of madness.
+
+For a time Crafty Eyes did not heed this strange impassiveness. The
+showman's fancy was busy with the punishment he would inflict when he
+got the boy home to his miserable room. He gloated in anticipation
+over the tortures he would contrive, and the care he would take that
+they should not maim or disfigure the boy. When he had him tied down,
+and the door locked, and the poker heated--ah! how he would enjoy
+himself! The ruffian licked his lips. His eyes sparkled with pleasure.
+He jerked the boy along in his hideous impatience.
+
+But after a time the child's bearing began to annoy him. He stopped
+and, holding him with one hand, beat him brutally on the head with the
+other, until the boy fell and hung in his grasp. Then he dragged him
+up roughly and hauled him on with volleys of oaths; still scowling at
+him from time to time, as if, somehow, he found this little foretaste
+of vengeance less satisfying than he had expected.
+
+There were people coming and going in the dark filthy lane where this
+happened--a place where smoke-grimed gables almost met overhead, and
+the gutter was choked with refuse--but no one interfered. What was a
+little beating more or less? Or, for the matter of that, what was a
+boy more or less? The hulking loafers and frowsy slatterns, who
+huddled for warmth in corners, nodded their heads and looked on
+approvingly. They had their own brats to beat and business to mind.
+There was no one to take the boy's part. And another hundred yards
+would lodge him in the showman's garret.
+
+At that last moment the boy awoke from his trance and understood; and
+in a convulsion of fear hung back and struggled, screaming and
+throwing himself down. The man dragged him up savagely, and was in the
+act of taking him up bodily to carry him, when a person, who had
+already passed the pair once, came back and looked at the boy again.
+The next moment a hand fell on the showman's arm, and a voice said,
+"Stop! What boy is that?"
+
+The showman looked up, saw that the intervener was a priest, and
+sneered. "What is that to you, father?" he said, trying by a side
+movement to pass by. "Not one of your flock, at any rate."
+
+"No, but you are!" the priest retorted in a strangely sonorous voice.
+He was a stalwart man, with a mobile face and sad eyes that seemed out
+of keeping with the rest of him. "You are! And if you do not this
+minute set him down and answer my question, you ruffian, when your
+time comes you shall go to the tree alone!"
+
+"Diable!" the showman muttered, startled yet scowling. "Who are you,
+then?"
+
+"I am Father Bernard. Now tell me about that boy, and truly. What have
+you been doing to him? Ay, you may well tremble, rascal!"
+
+For the showman was trembling. In the Paris of that day the name of
+Father Bernard was almost as well known as the name of Cardinal
+Richelieu. There was not a night-prowler or cutpurse, bully or
+swindler, who did not know it, and dream in his low fits, when the
+drink was out and the money spent, of the day when he would travel by
+Father Bernard's side to Montfaucon, and find no other voice and no
+other eye to pity him in his trouble. Impelled by feelings of
+humanity, rare at that time, this man made it his life-work to attend
+on all who were cast for execution; to wait on them in prison, and be
+with them at the last, and by his presence and words of comfort to
+alleviate their sufferings here, and bring them to a better mind. He
+had become so well known in this course of work that the king himself
+did him honour, and the Cardinal granted him special rights. The mob
+also. The priest passed unharmed through the lowest wynds of Paris,
+and penetrated habitually to places where the Lieutenant of the
+Chatelet, with a dozen pikes at his back, would not have been safe for
+a moment.
+
+This was the man whose stern voice brought the showman to a
+standstill. Master Crafty Eyes faltered. Then he remembered that the
+boy was his boy, that his title to him was good. He said so sulkily.
+
+"Your boy?" the priest replied, frowning. "Who are you, then?"
+
+"An acrobat, father."
+
+"So I thought. But do acrobats' boys wear black velvet clothes with
+silver buttons?"
+
+"He was stolen from me," the showman answered eagerly. He had a good
+conscience as to the clothes. "I have only just recovered him,
+father."
+
+"Who stole him? Where has he been?" The priest spoke quickly, and with
+no little excitement. He looked narrowly at the boy the while, holding
+him at arm's length. "Where did he spend last night, for instance?"
+
+The showman spread out his palms and shrugged his shoulders. "How
+should I know?" he said. "I was not with him."
+
+"He has black hair and blue eyes!"
+
+"Yes. But what of that?" Crafty Eyes answered. "I can swear to him. He
+is my boy."
+
+"And mine!" Father Bernard retorted with energy. "The boy I want!" The
+priest's eyes sparkled, his form seemed to dilate with triumph. "Deo
+laus! Deo laus!" he murmured sonorously, so that a score of loiterers
+who had gathered round, and were staring and shivering by turns, fell
+back affrighted and crossed themselves. "He is the boy! God has put
+him in my way this day as clearly as if an angel had led me by the
+hand. And he goes with me; he goes with me. Chut, man!"--this to the
+showman, who stood frowning in his path--"don't dare to look black at
+me. The boy goes with me, I say. I want him for a purpose. If you
+choose you can come too."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"To the Chatelet," Father Bernard answered, with a grim chuckle. "You
+don't seem to relish the idea. But do as you please."
+
+"You will take the boy?"
+
+"This moment," the priest answered.
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_ but you shall not!" the showman exclaimed. Wrath for the
+moment drove out fear. He seized the child by the arm. "He is my boy!
+You shall not, I say!" he cried, almost foaming with rage. "He is
+mine!"
+
+
+[Illustration: "'WHO STOLE HIM? WHERE HAS HE BEEN?'" (_p_. 169).]
+
+
+"Idiot! Beast! Gallows-bird!" the priest thundered in reply. "For
+one-half of a denier I would throw you into the next street! Let go,
+or I will blast you with--Oh, it is well for you you are reasonable.
+Now begone! Begone! or, at a word from me, there are a score here
+will----"
+
+He did not finish his sentence, for the showman fell back
+panic-stricken, and stood off among the crowd, malevolence and craven
+fear struggling for the mastery in his countenance. The priest took
+the boy up gently in his arms and looked at him. His face grew
+strangely mild as he did so. The black brows grew smooth, the lips
+relaxed. "Get a little water," he said to the nearest man, a hulking,
+olive-skinned Southerner. "The child has swooned."
+
+"Your pardon, father," the man answered. "He is dead."
+
+But Father Bernard shook his head. "No, my son," he said kindly. "He
+who led me here to-day will keep life in him a little longer. God's
+ways never end in a _cul-de-sac_. Get the water. He has swooned only."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+                          BEFORE THE COURT.
+
+
+Since the poisoning of the Prince of Conde by his servant, Brillaut,
+at the instigation--as was alleged and commonly believed--of Madame la
+Princesse, no tragedy of the kind had caused a greater sensation in
+Paris, or been the subject of more talk, than the murder of M. de
+Vidoche. The remarkable circumstances which attended it--and which
+lost nothing in the narration--its immediate discovery, the apparent
+lack of motive, and the wealth, rank, and youth of the guilty wife,
+all helped, with the fulness of Paris at this time and the absence of
+any stirring political news, to make it the one topic of interest.
+Nothing else was talked of in chamber or tennis court, in the Grand
+Gallery at the Louvre, or in the cardinal's ante-room at the Palais
+Richelieu. Culprit and victim were alike well known. M. de Vidoche, if
+no favourite, had been at least a conspicuous figure in society. He
+had been cast for one of the parts in the royal troupe at the
+Christmas carnival. His flirtation with Mademoiselle de Farincourt had
+been sufficiently marked to cause both amusement and interest. And if
+madame was a less familiar figure at Court, if she had a reputation
+somewhat prudish, and an air of rusticity that did not belie it, and
+was even less of a favourite than her husband, her position as a great
+heiress and the last of an old family gave her a _cachet_ which did
+not fail to make her interesting now.
+
+Gladly would the great ladies in their coaches have gone down to the
+Chatelet to stare at her after the cruel fashion of that day; and,
+after buzzing round her in her misery, have gone away with a hundred
+tales of how she looked, and what she wore, and what she said in
+prison. But madame was saved this--this torture worse than the
+question--by the physician's order that no one should be admitted to
+her. He laid this down so strenuously--telling the lieutenant that if
+she had not complete repose for twenty-four hours he would be
+answerable neither for her life nor her reason--that that officer,
+who, like the Chevalier du Guet, was an old soldier, replied "No" to
+the most pressing insistences; and save and except Father Bernard, who
+had the _entree_ at all hours by the king's command, would let no one
+go in to her. "It will be bad enough by-and-bye," he said, with an
+oath. "If she did it, she will be punished. But she shall have a
+little peace to-day."
+
+But the great world, baffled on this point, grew only the more
+curious; circulated stories only the more outrageous; and nodded and
+winked and whispered only the more assiduously. Would she be put to
+the question? And by the rack, or the boot, or the water torture? And
+who was the man? Of course there was a man. Now if it had been M. de
+Vidoche who had poisoned her, that would have been plain,
+intelligible, perspicuous; since everyone knew--and so on, and so on,
+with Mademoiselle de Farincourt's name at intervals.
+
+It was believed that madame would be first examined in private; but
+late at night, on the day before Christmas Eve, a sealed order came to
+the Lieutenant of the Chatelet, commanding him to present madame, with
+her servants and all concerned in the case, at the Palais de Justice
+on the following morning. Late as it was, the news was known in every
+part of Paris that night. Marshal Bassompierre, lying in the Bastille,
+heard it, and regretted he could not see the sight. It was rumoured
+that the king would attend in person; even that the trial had been
+hastened for his pleasure. It was certain that half the Court would be
+there, and the other half, if it could find room. The great ladies,
+who had failed to storm the Chatelet, hoped to succeed better at the
+Palais, and the First President of the Court, and even the
+Commissioners appointed to sit with him, found their doors beset at
+dawn with delicate "_poulets_," or urgent, importunate applications.
+
+Madame de Vidoche, the man and maid, were brought from the Chatelet to
+the Conciergerie an hour before daylight--madame in her coach, with
+her woman, the man on foot. That cold morning ride was such as few,
+thank God, are called on to endure. To the horrors of anticipation the
+lost wife, scarcely more than a girl, had to add the misery of
+retrospection; to the knowledge of what she had done, a woman's
+shrinking from the doom that threatened her, from shame and pain and
+death. But that which she felt perhaps as keenly as anything, as she
+crouched in a corner of her curtained vehicle and heard the yells
+which everywhere saluted its appearance, was the sudden sense of
+loneliness and isolation. True, the Lieutenant sat opposite to her,
+but his face was hard. She was no longer a woman to him, but a
+prisoner, a murderess, a poisoner. And the streets were thronged, in
+spite of the cold and the early hour. On the Pont au Change the people
+ran beside the coach and strove to get a sight of her, and jeered and
+sang and shouted. And at the entrance to the Palais, in the room in
+the Conciergerie where she had to wait, on the staircase to the court
+above, everywhere it was the same; all were set so thick with
+faces--staring, curious faces--that the guards could scarcely make a
+way for her. But she was cut off from all. She was no longer of
+them--of things living. Not one said a kind word to her; not one
+looked sympathy or pity. On a sudden, in a moment, with hundreds
+gazing at her, she, a delicate woman, found herself a thing apart,
+unclean, to be shunned. A thing, no longer a person. A prisoner, no
+longer a woman.
+
+They placed a seat for her, and she sank into it, feeling at first
+nothing but the shame of being so stared at. But presently she had to
+rise and be sworn, and then, as she became conscious of other things,
+as the details of the crowded chamber forced themselves on her
+attention, and she saw which were the judges, and heard herself called
+upon to answer the questions that should be put to her, the instinct
+of self-preservation, the desire to clear herself, to escape and live,
+took hold of her. A late instinct, for hitherto all her thoughts had
+been of the man she had killed--her husband; but the fiercer for that.
+A burning flush suddenly flamed in her cheeks. Her eyes grew bright,
+her heart began to beat quickly. She turned giddy.
+
+She knew only of one way in which she could escape; only of one man
+that could help her; and even while the first judge was in the act of
+calling upon her, she turned from him and looked round. She looked to
+the right, to the left, then behind her, for Notredame. He, if he told
+the truth, could clear her! He could say that she had come to him for
+a charm, and not for poison! And he only! But where was he? There was
+her woman, trembling and weeping, waiting to be called. There was the
+valet, pale and frightened. There were twice a hundred indifferent
+people. But Notredame? He was not visible. He was not there. When she
+had satisfied herself of this, she sank back with a moan of despair.
+She gave up hope again. A hundred curious eyes saw the colour fade
+from her cheeks; her eyes grew dull, the whole woman collapsed.
+
+The examination began. She gave her name in a hollow whisper.
+
+It was the practice of that day, and still is, in French courts, to
+take advantage of any self-betrayal or emotion on the part of the
+accused person. It is the duty of the judges to observe the prisoner
+constantly and narrowly; and the First President, on an occasion such
+as this, was not the man to overlook anything which was visible to the
+ordinary spectator. Instead, therefore, of pursuing the regular
+interrogatory he had in his mind, he leaned forward and asked madame
+what was the matter.
+
+"I wish for the man Solomon Notredame," Madame de Vidoche answered,
+rising and speaking in a choking voice.
+
+"That is the man from whom you bought the poison, I think?" the judge
+answered, affecting to look at his notes.
+
+"Yes, but as a love-philtre--not a poison," madame said in a whisper.
+"I wish him to be here."
+
+"You wish to be confronted with him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With the man Solomon Notredame?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you shall be, presently," the judge replied, leaning back, and
+casting a singular glance at his colleagues. "Be satisfied. And now,
+madame," he continued gravely, as his eyes returned to her, "it is my
+duty to help you to tell, and your duty to confess frankly, all that
+you know concerning this matter. Be good enough, therefore, to collect
+yourself, and answer my questions fully and truly, as you hope for
+mercy here and hereafter. So you will save yourself pain, and such
+also as shall examine you; and may best deserve, in the worst case,
+the king's indulgence."
+
+As he uttered this exhortation madame clung to the bar behind which
+she stood, and seemed for the moment about to faint, so that the
+President waited awhile before he proceeded. She looked, indeed,
+ghostly. Her white face gleamed through the fog--which, rising from
+the river, was fast filling the chamber--like a face seen for an
+instant on a wreck through mist and spray and tempest. Ladies who had
+known her as an equal, and who now gazed heartlessly down at her from
+galleries, felt a pleasant thrill of excitement, and whispered that
+they had not braved the early cold for nothing. There was not a man in
+the court who did not expect to see her fall.
+
+But there is in women a power of endurance far exceeding that of men.
+By an immense effort madame regained control over herself. She
+answered the President's opening questions faintly but clearly; and,
+being led at once to tell of her visit to Notredame, had sufficient
+sense of her position to dwell plainly on the two facts important to
+her--that the object of her visit was a love-potion, and not a poison,
+and that the instructions first given to her were to take it herself.
+The latter assertion produced a startling impression in the court. It
+was completely unexpected; and though ninety-nine out of a hundred
+fancied it the bold invention of a desperate woman, all allowed that
+it added zest to the case.
+
+Naturally the President pressed her hard on these points. He strove,
+both by cajolery and by stating objections, to make her withdraw from
+them. But she would not. Nor could he entrap her into narrating
+anything at variance with them. At length he desisted. "Very well, we
+will leave that," he said; and so subtly had her story gained sympathy
+for her that the sigh of relief uttered in the court was perfectly
+audible. "We will pass on, if you please. The boy who overtook you in
+the street, and, as you say, altered all? Who was he, madame?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"You had seen him before?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Did he not open the door at this Notredame's when you entered the
+house?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor when you left?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How did you know, then, madame, that he came from this abominable
+person whom you had been visiting?"
+
+"He said he did."
+
+"And do you tell us," the judge retorted, "that on the mere word of
+this boy, whom you did not know and had never seen, without the
+assurance of any token or countersign, you disregarded the man
+Notredame's directions on the most vital point, and, instead of taking
+this drug yourself, gave it to your husband?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Without suspecting that it was other than that for which you had
+asked?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Madame," the judge said slowly, "it is incredible." He looked for a
+moment at his colleagues, as if to collect their opinions. They
+nodded. He turned to her again. "Do you not see that?" he said almost
+kindly.
+
+"I do not," madame answered firmly. "It is true."
+
+"Describe the boy, if you please."
+
+"He had--I think he had dark clothes," she answered, faltering for the
+first time. "He looked about twelve years old."
+
+"Yes," the President said; "go on."
+
+"He had--I could not see any more," madame muttered faintly. "It was
+dark."
+
+"And do you expect us to believe this?" the President replied with
+warmth, real or assumed. "Do you expect us to believe such a story? Or
+that it was at the instance of this boy only--this boy of whom you
+knew nothing, whom you cannot describe, whom you had never seen
+before--that it was at his instance only that you gave this drug to
+your husband, instead of taking it yourself?"
+
+She reeled slightly, clinging to the bar. The court swam before her.
+She saw, as he meant her to see, the full hopelessness of her
+position, the full strength of the case which fate had made against
+her, her impotence, her helplessness. Yet she forced herself to make
+an effort. "It is the truth," she said, in a broken voice. "I loved
+him."
+
+"Ah!" the President replied cynically. He repressed by a gesture a
+slight disturbance at the rear of the court. "That, of course. It is
+part of the story. Or why a love-philtre? But do you not see, madame,"
+he continued, bending his brows and speaking in the tone he used to
+common criminals, "that all the wives in Paris might poison their
+husbands, and when they were found out say 'It was a love-potion,' if
+you are to escape? No, no; we must have some better tale than that."
+
+She looked at him in terror and shame. "I have no other," she cried
+wildly. "That is the truth. If you do not believe me, there is
+Notredame. Ask him."
+
+"You applied to be confronted with him some time back," the President
+answered, looking aside at his colleagues, who nodded. "Is that still
+your desire?"
+
+She murmured "Yes," with dry lips.
+
+"Then let him be called," the judge answered solemnly. "Let Solomon
+Notredame be called and confronted with the accused."
+
+The order was received with a general stir, a movement of curiosity
+and expectation. Those in the galleries leaned forward to see the
+better; those at the back stood up. Madame, with her lips parted and
+her breath coming quickly--madame, the poor centre of all--gazed with
+her soul in her eyes towards the door at which she saw others gazing.
+All for her depended on this man--the man she was about to see. Would
+he lie and accuse her? Or would he tell the truth and corroborate her
+story--say, in a word, that she had come for a love-charm, and not for
+poison? Surely this last? Surely it would be to his interest?
+
+But while she gazed with her soul in her eyes, the door which had been
+partly opened fell shut again, and disappointed her. At the same
+moment there was a general movement and rustling round her, an
+uprising in every part of the chamber. In bewilderment, almost in
+impatience, she turned towards the judges and found that they had
+risen too. Then through a door behind them she saw six gentlemen file
+in, with a flash and sparkle of colour that lit up the sombre bench.
+The first was the king.
+
+Louis was about thirty-five years old at this time--a dark, sallow
+man, wearing black, with a wide-leafed hat, in which a costly diamond
+secured a plume of white feathers. He carried a walking cane, and
+saluted the judges as he entered, Three gentlemen--two about the
+king's age, the third a burly, soldierly man of sixty--followed him,
+and took their places behind the canopied chair placed for him. The
+fifth to enter--but he passed behind the judges and took a chair which
+stood on their left--wore a red robe trimmed with fur, and a small red
+cap. He was a man of middle height and pale complexion, keen Italian
+features and bright piercing eyes, and so far was not remarkable. But
+he had also a coal-black moustache and chin tuft, and milk-white hair;
+and this contrast won him recognition everywhere. He was Armand Jean
+du Plessis, Duke and Cardinal Richelieu, soldier, priest, and
+playwriter, and for sixteen years the ruler of France.
+
+Madame gazed at them with a beating heart, with wild hopes that would
+rise, despite herself. But, oh God! how coldly their eyes met hers!
+With what a stony stare! With what curiosity, indifference, contempt!
+Alas, they had come for that. They had come to stare. This was their
+Christmas show--part of their Christmas revels. And she--she was a
+woman on her trial, a poisoner, a murderess, a vile thing to be
+questioned, tortured, dragged to a shameful death!
+
+For a moment or two the king talked with the judges. Then he sat back
+in his chair. The President made a sign, and an usher in a sonorous
+voice cried, "Solomon Notredame! Let Solomon Notredame stand forth!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+                            TWO WITNESSES.
+
+
+Madame de Vidoche heard the name and braced herself again, turning
+towards the door as others turned, and waiting with dry lips and
+feverish eyes for the man who was to save her--to save her in spite of
+king and court. Would he never come? The door stood open, remained
+open. She could see through it the passage with its bare walls and
+dusky ceiling, and hear in the hushed silence a noise of shuffling
+feet. Gradually the noise grew louder; though it still seemed a thing
+by itself, and so distant that in the court where they waited, with
+every eye expectant, the slightest sound, the lowest whisper was
+audible. When the usher cried again, "Solomon Notredame, stand
+forward!" more than one glanced at him angrily. He balked their
+expectation.
+
+Ha! at last! But they were carrying him! Madame shivered slightly as
+she watched the four men come slowly along the passage, bearing a
+chair between them. At the door they stumbled and paused, giving her
+time to think. They had been racking him, then, and he could not walk;
+she might have guessed it. Her cheek, white before, became a shade
+ghastlier, and she clutched the bar with a firmer grip.
+
+They brought him slowly down the three steps and through the narrow
+passage towards her. The men who carried him blocked her view, but she
+saw presently that there was something odd about his head. When they
+set him down, three paces from her, she saw what it was. His face was
+covered. There was a loose cloth over his head, and he leaned forward
+in a strange way.
+
+What did it mean? She began to tremble, gazing at him wildly,
+expecting she knew not what. And he did not move.
+
+
+[Illustration: "THEY WERE CARRYING HIM" (_p_. 192).]
+
+
+Suddenly the President's solemn voice broke the silence. "Madame," he
+said--but it seemed to her that he was speaking a long way off--"here
+is your witness. You asked to be confronted with him, and the court,
+hoping that this may be the more merciful way of inducing you to
+confess your crime, assent to the request. But I warn you that he is a
+witness not for you, but against you. He has confessed."
+
+For a moment she looked dumbly at the speaker; then her eyes went back
+to the veiled figure in the chair--it had a horrible attraction for
+her.
+
+"Unhappy woman," the President continued, in solemn accents, "he has
+confessed. Will you now, before you look upon him, do likewise?"
+
+She shook her head. She would have denied, protested, cried that she
+was not guilty; but her throat was parched--she had lost her voice,
+hope, all. There was a drumming noise in the court; or perhaps it was
+in her head. It was growing dark, too.
+
+"He has confessed," she heard the President go on--but he was speaking
+a long, long way off now, and his voice came to her ears dully--"by
+executing on himself that punishment which otherwise the law would
+have imposed. Are you still obstinate? Let the face be uncovered then.
+Now, wretched woman, look on your accomplice."
+
+Perhaps he spoke in mercy, and to prepare her; for she looked, and
+did not at once swoon, though the sight of that dead yellow face, with
+its stony eyes and open mouth, drew shrieks from more than one. The
+self-poisoner had done his work well. The sombre features wore even in
+death a cynical grin, the lips a smile of triumph. But this was on the
+surface. In the glassy eyes, dull and lustreless, lurked--as all saw
+who gazed closely--a horror; a look of sudden awakening, as if in the
+moment of dissolution the wicked man had come face to face with
+judgment; and, triumphant over his earthly foes, had met on the
+threshold of the dark world a shape that froze the very marrow in his
+bones.
+
+Grimmest irony that he who had so long sported with the things of
+death, and traded on men's fear of it, should himself be brought here
+dead, to be exposed and gazed at! Of small use now his tricks and
+chemicals, his dark knowledge and the mystery in which he had wrapped
+himself. Orcus had him, grim head, black heart and all.
+
+A moment, I have said, madame stared. Then gradually the truth, the
+hideous truth, came home to her. He was dead! He had killed himself!
+The horror of it overcame her at last. With a shuddering cry she fell
+swooning to the floor.
+
+When she came to herself again--after how long an interval she
+could not tell--and the piled faces and sharp outlines of the court
+began to shape themselves out of the mist, her first thought, as
+remembrance returned, was of the ghastly figure in the chair. With an
+effort--someone was sponging her forehead, and would have restrained
+her--she turned her head and looked. To her relief it was gone. She
+sighed, and closing her eyes lay for a time inert, hearing the hum of
+voices, but paying no attention. But gradually the misery of her
+position took hold of her again, and with a faint moan she looked up.
+
+In a moment she fell to trembling and crying softly, for her eyes met
+those of the woman who stooped over her and read there something new,
+strange, wonderful--kindness. The woman patted her hand softly, and
+murmured to her to be still and to listen. She was listening herself
+between times, and presently madame followed her example.
+
+Dull as her senses still were, she noticed that the king sat forward
+with an odd keen look on his face, that the judges seemed startled,
+that even the Cardinal's pale features were slightly flushed. And not
+one of all had eyes for her. They were looking at a boy who stood at
+the end of the table, beside a priest. The cold light from a window
+fell full on his face, and he was speaking. "I listened," she heard
+him say. "Yes."
+
+"And how long a time elapsed before Madame de Vidoche came?" the
+President asked, continuing, apparently, an examination of which she
+had missed the first part.
+
+"Half an hour, I think," the boy answered, in a clear, bold tone.
+
+"You are sure it was poison he required?"
+
+"I am sure."
+
+"And madame?"
+
+"A love-philtre."
+
+"You heard both interviews?"
+
+"Both."
+
+"You are sure of the arrangement made between Vidoche and this man, of
+which you have told us? That the poison should be given to madame in
+the form of a love-philtre? That she might take it herself?"
+
+"I am sure."
+
+"And it was you who ran after Madame de Vidoche and told her that the
+draught was to be given to her husband instead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you acknowledge, then," the President continued slowly, "that it
+was you who, in fact, killed M. de Vidoche?"
+
+For the first time the boy faltered and stumbled, and looked this way
+and that as if for a chance of escape. But there was none, and Father
+Bernard, by laying his hand on his arm, seemed to give him courage. "I
+do," he answered, in a low tone.
+
+"Why?" the President demanded, with a quick look at his colleagues. He
+spoke amid an irrepressible murmur of interest. The tale had been told
+once, but it was a tale that bore telling.
+
+"Because--I heard him plan his wife's death--and I thought it right,"
+the boy stammered, terror growing in his eyes. "I wanted to save her.
+I did not know. I did not think."
+
+The President looked towards the king, but suddenly from an unexpected
+quarter came an interruption. Madame rose trembling to her feet and
+stood grasping the bar before her. Her face passed from white to red,
+and red to white. Her eyes glittered through her tears. The woman
+beside her would have held her back, but she would not be restrained.
+"What is this?" she panted. "Does he say that my husband was--there?"
+
+"Yes, madame, he does," the President answered indulgently.
+
+"And that he came for poison--for me?"
+
+"He says so, madame."
+
+She looked at him for a moment wildly, then sank back on her stool and
+began to sob. She had gone through so many emotions; love and death,
+shame and fear, had so sported with her during the last few days that
+she could taste nothing to the full now, neither sweet nor bitter. As
+the dawning of life and hope had left her rather dazed than thankful,
+so this stab, that a little earlier would have pierced her very
+heartstrings, did but prick her. Afterwards the thankfulness and the
+pain--and the healing--might come. But here in the presence of all
+these people, where so much had happened to her, she could only sob
+weakly.
+
+The President turned again to the king. Louis nodded, and with a
+painful effort--for he stammered terribly--spoke. "Who is th-this
+lad?" he said. "Ask him."
+
+The judge bowed and returned to the witness. "You call yourself Jean
+de Bault?" he said somewhat roughly. The name, and especially the
+particle, displeased him.
+
+The boy assented.
+
+"Who are you, then?"
+
+Jehan opened his mouth to answer, but Father Bernard interposed. "Tell
+His Majesty," he said, "what you told me."
+
+After a moment's hesitation the boy complied, speaking fast, with his
+face on his breast and a flushed cheek. Nevertheless, in the silence
+every word reached the ear. "I am Jehan de Bault," he pattered in his
+treble voice, "seigneur of I know not where, and lord of seventeen
+lordships in the county of Perigord----" and so on, and so on, through
+the quaint formula to which we have listened more than once.
+
+Ninety-nine out of a hundred who heard him, heard him with incredulous
+surprise, and took the tale for a mountebank's patter; though patter,
+they acknowledged it was of a novel kind, aptly made and well spoken.
+Two or three of the bolder laughed. There had been little to laugh at
+before. The king moved restlessly in his chair, saying, "Pish! Wh-hat
+is this rubbish? What is he s-saying?"
+
+The President frowned, and taking his cue from the king, was about to
+rebuke the boy sharply, when one who had not before spoken, but whose
+voice in an instant produced silence among high and low, intervened.
+"The tale rings true!" the Cardinal said, in low, suave accents. "But
+there is no family of Bault in Perigord, is there?"
+
+"With His Majesty's permission, no!" replied a bluff, hearty voice;
+and therewith the elderly soldier who had come in with the king
+advanced a pace to the side of his master's chair. "I am of Perigord,
+and know, your Eminence," he continued. "More. Two months ago I saw
+this lad--I recognise him now--at the fair of Fecamp. He was
+differently dressed then, but he had the same tale, except that he did
+not mention Perigord."
+
+"S-someone has taught it him," said the king.
+
+"Your Majesty is doubtless right," the President answered
+obsequiously. Then to the boy he continued, "Speak, boy; who taught it
+you?"
+
+But Jehan only shook his head and looked puzzled. At last, being
+pressed, he said, "At Bault, in Perigord."
+
+"There is no such place!" M. de Bresly cried roundly.
+
+Father Bernard looked distressed. He began to repent that he had led
+the child to tell the tale; he began to fear that it might hurt
+instead of helping. Perhaps after all he had been too credulous. But
+again the Cardinal came to the rescue.
+
+"Is there any family in Perigord can boast of three marshals, M. de
+Bresly?" he asked, in his thin incisive tones.
+
+"None that I know of. Several that can boast of two."
+
+"The blood of Roland?"
+
+M. de Bresly shrugged his shoulders. "It is common to all of us," he
+said, smiling.
+
+The great Cardinal smiled, too--a flickering, quickly-passing smile.
+Then he leaned forward and fixed the boy with his fierce black eyes.
+"What was your father's name?" he said.
+
+Jehan shook his head, impotently, miserably.
+
+"Where did you live?"
+
+The same result. The king threw himself back and muttered, "It is no
+good." The President moved in his seat. Some in the galleries began to
+whisper.
+
+But the Cardinal raised his hand imperiously. "Can you read?" he said.
+
+"No," Jehan murmured.
+
+"Then your arms?" The Cardinal spoke rapidly now, and his face was
+growing hard. "They were over the gate, over the door, over the
+fireplace. Think--look back--reflect. What were they?"
+
+For a moment. Jehan stared at him in bewilderment, flinching under the
+gaze of those piercing eyes. Then on a sudden the boy's face grew
+crimson. He raised his hand eagerly. "_Or, on a mount vert!_" he cried
+impetuously--and stopped. But presently, in a different voice, he
+added slowly, "It was a tree--on a hill."
+
+With a swift look of triumph the Cardinal turned to M. de Bresly.
+"Now," he said, "that belongs to----"
+
+The soldier nodded almost sulkily. "It is Madame de Vidoche's," he
+said.
+
+"And her name was----"
+
+"Martinbault. Mademoiselle de Martinbault!"
+
+A murmur of astonishment rose from every part of the court. For a
+moment the King, the Cardinal, the President, M. de Bresly, all were
+inaudible. The air seemed full of exclamations, questions, answers; it
+rang with the words, "Bault--Martinbault!" Everywhere people rose to
+see the boy, or craned forward and slipped with a clattering noise.
+Etiquette, reverence, even the presence of the king, went for nothing
+in the rush of excitement. It was long before the ushers could obtain
+silence, or any get a hearing.
+
+Then M. de Bresly, who looked as much excited as any, and as red in
+the face, was found to be speaking. "Pardieu, sire, it may be so!" he
+was heard to say. "It is true enough, as I now remember. A child was
+lost in that family about eight years back. But it was at the time of
+the Rochelle expedition; the province was full of trouble, and M. and
+Madame de Martinbault were just dead; and little was made of it. All
+the same, this may be the boy. Nay, it is a thousand to one he is!"
+
+"What is he, then, to M--Madame de V--Vidoche?" the king asked, with
+an effort. He was vastly excited--for him.
+
+"A brother, sire," M. de Bresly answered.
+
+That word pierced at last through the dulness which wrapped madame's
+faculties, and had made her impervious to all that had gone before.
+She rose slowly, listened, looked at the boy---looked with growing
+wonder, like one awakening from a dream. Possibly in that moment the
+later years fell from her, and she saw herself again a child--a tall,
+lanky girl playing in the garden of the old chateau with a little
+toddling boy who ran and lisped, beat her sturdily with fat, bare arms
+or cuddled to her for kisses. For with a sudden gesture she stretched
+out her hands, and cried in a clear voice, "Jean! Jean! It is little
+Jean!"
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+
+It became the fashion--a fashion which lasted half a dozen years at
+least--to call that Christmas the Martinbault Christmas; so loudly did
+those who were present at that famous examination, and the discovery
+which attended it, profess that it exceeded all the other amusements
+of the year, not excepting even the great ball at the Palais Cardinal,
+from which every lady carried off an _etrenne_ worth a year's
+pin-money. The story became the rage. Those who had been present drove
+their friends, who had not been so fortunate, to the verge of madness.
+From the court the tale spread to the markets. Men made a broadsheet
+of it, and sold it in the streets--in the Rue Touchet, and under the
+gallows at Montfaucon, where the body of Solomon Notredame withered in
+the spring rains. Had Madame de Vidoche and the child stayed in Paris,
+it must have offended their ears ten times a day.
+
+
+[Illustration: "A MAN HALF-NAKED ... CRAWLED ON TO THE HIGHROAD" (_p_.
+212).]
+
+
+But they did not. As soon as madame could be moved, she retired with
+the boy to the old house four leagues from Perigueux, and there, in
+the quiet land where the name of Martinbault ranked with the name of
+the king, she sought to forget her married life. She took her maiden
+title, and in the boy's breeding, in works of mercy, in a hundred
+noble and fitting duties entirely to her taste, succeeded in finding
+peace, and presently happiness. But one thing neither time, nor
+change, nor in the event love, could erase from her mind; and that was
+a deep-seated dread of the great city in which she had suffered so
+much. She never returned to Paris.
+
+About a year after the trial a man with crafty, foxy eyes came
+wandering through Perigueux, with a monkey on his shoulder. He saw not
+far from the road--as his evil-star would have it--an old chateau
+standing low among trees. The place promised well, and he went to it
+and began to perform before the servants in the courtyard. Presently
+the lord of the house, a young boy, came out to see him.
+
+More need not be said, save that an hour later a man, half naked,
+covered with duckweed, and aching in every bone, crawled on to the
+highroad, and went on his way in sadness--with his mouth full of
+curses; and that for years afterwards a monkey, answering to the name
+of Taras, teased the dogs, and plucked the ivy, and gambolled at will
+on the great south terrace at Martinbault.
+
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          *   *   *   *   *
+Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited. La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man in Black, by Stanley J. Weyman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN BLACK ***
+
+***** This file should be named 39295.txt or 39295.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/2/9/39295/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the
+Web Archive (University of Toronto)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/39295.zip b/39295.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0596d94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/39295.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4bed1fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #39295 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39295)