MOIRON...............................................................................................................................................42

THE DISPENSER OF HOLY WATER ................................................................................................46

A PARRICIDE......................................................................................................................................49

BERTHA...............................................................................................................................................53

THE PATRON .......................................................................................................................................58

THE DOOR...........................................................................................................................................62

A SALE ..................................................................................................................................................66

THE IMPOLITE SEX ............................................................................................................................70

A WEDDING GIFT ...............................................................................................................................73

THE RELIC...........................................................................................................................................77

There were seven of us on a drag, four women and three men; one of the latter sat on the box seat beside the

coachman. We were ascending, at a snail's pace, the winding road up the steep cliff along the coast.

Setting out from Etretat at break of day in order to visit the ruins of Tancarville, we were still half asleep,

benumbed by the fresh air of the morning. The women especially, who were little accustomed to these early

excursions, half opened and closed their eyes every moment, nodding their heads or yawning, quite insensible

It was autumn. On both sides of the road stretched the bare fields, yellowed by the stubble of wheat and oats

which covered the soil like a beard that had been badly shaved. The moist earth seemed to steam. Larks were

The sun rose at length in front of us, bright red on the plane of the horizon, and in proportion as it ascended,

growing clearer from minute to minute, the country seemed to awake, to smile, to shake itself like a young

girl leaving her bed in her white robe of vapor. The Comte d'Etraille, who was seated on the box, cried:

"Look! look! a hare!" and he extended his arm toward the left, pointing to a patch of clover. The animal

scurried along, almost hidden by the clover, only its large ears showing. Then it swerved across a furrow,

stopped, started off again at full speed, changed its course, stopped anew, uneasy, spying out every danger,

uncertain what route to take, when suddenly it began to run with great bounds, disappearing finally in a large

"We are not at all gallant this morning," and; regarding his neighbor, the little Baroness de Serennes, who

struggled against sleep, he said to her in a low tone: "You are thinking of your husband, baroness. Reassure

"How stupid you are!" Then, shaking off her torpor, she added: "Now, let somebody say something to make

us laugh. You, Monsieur Chenal, who have the reputation of having had more love affairs than the Due de

Richelieu, tell us a love story in which you have played a part; anything you like."

Leon Chenal, an old painter, who had once been very handsome, very strong, very proud of his physique and

very popular with women, took his long white beard in his hand and smiled. Then, after a few moments'

"Ladies, it will not be an amusing tale, for I am going to relate to you the saddest love affair of my life, and I

sincerely hope that none of my friends may ever pass through a similar experience.

"I was twentyfive years of age and was pillaging along the coast of Normandy. I call 'pillaging' wandering

about, with a knapsack on one's back, from inn to inn, under the pretext of making studies and sketching

landscapes. I knew nothing more enjoyable than that happygolucky wandering life, in which one is

perfectly free, without shackles of any kind, without care, without preoccupation, without thinking even of

the morrow. One goes in any direction one pleases, without any guide save his fancy, without any counsellor

save his eyes. One stops because a running brook attracts one, because the smell of potatoes frying tickles

one's olfactories on passing an inn. Sometimes it is the perfume of clematis which decides one in his choice

or the roguish glance of the servant at an inn. Do not despise me for my affection for these rustics. These girls

have a soul as well as senses, not to mention firm cheeks and fresh lips; while their hearty and willing kisses

have the flavor of wild fruit. Love is always love, come whence it may. A heart that beats at your approach,

an eye that weeps when you go away are things so rare, so sweet, so precious that they must never be

"I have had rendezvous in ditches full of primroses, behind the cow stable and in barns among the straw, still

warm from the heat of the day. I have recollections of coarse gray cloth covering supple peasant skin and

regrets for simple, frank kisses, more delicate in their unaffected sincerity than the subtle favors of charming

"But what one loves most amid all these varied adventures is the country, the woods, the rising of the sun, the

twilight, the moonlight. These are, for the painter, honeymoon trips with Nature. One is alone with her in that

long and quiet association. You go to sleep in the fields, amid marguerites and poppies, and when you open

your eyes in the full glare of the sunlight you descry in the distance the little village with its pointed clock

"You sit down by the side of a spring which gushes out at the foot of an oak, amid a growth of tall, slender

weeds, glistening with life. You go down on your knees, bend forward and drink that cold, pellucid water

which wets your mustache and nose; you drink it with a physical pleasure, as though you kissed the spring,

lip to lip. Sometimes, when you find a deep hole along the course of these tiny brooks, you plunge in quite

naked, and you feel on your skin, from head to foot, as it were, an icy and delicious caress, the light and

"You are gay on the hills, melancholy on the edge of ponds, inspired when the sun is setting in an ocean of

bloodred clouds and casts red reflections or the river. And at night, under the moon, which passes across the

vault of heaven, you think of a thousand strange things which would never have occurred to your mind under

"So, in wandering through the same country where we, are this year, I came to the little village of Benouville,

on the cliff between Yport and Etretat. I came from Fecamp, following the coast, a high coast as straight as a

wall, with its projecting chalk cliffs descending perpendicularly into the sea. I had walked since early

morning on the short grass, smooth and yielding as a carpet, that grows on the edge of the cliff. And, singing

lustily, I walked with long strides, looking sometimes at the slow circling flight of a gull with its white

curved wings outlined on the blue sky, sometimes at the brown sails of a fishing bark on the green sea. In

"A little farmhouse where travellers were lodged was pointed out to me, a kind of inn, kept by a peasant

woman, which stood in the centre of a Norman courtyard surrounded by a double row of beeches.

"Leaving the coast, I reached the hamlet, which was hemmed in by great trees, and I presented myself at the

"She was an old, wrinkled and stern peasant woman, who seemed always to receive customers under protest,

"It was the month of May. The spreading apple trees covered the court with a shower of blossoms which

"In five minutes we had come to an agreement, and I deposited my bag upon the earthen floor of a rustic

room, furnished with a bed, two chairs, a table and a washbowl. The room looked into the large, smoky

kitchen, where the lodgers took their meals with the people of the farm and the landlady, who was a widow.

"I washed my hands, after which I went out. The old woman was making a chicken fricassee for dinner in the

"'I have a lady, an English lady, who has reached years of maturity. She occupies the other room.'

"I obtained, by means of an extra five sous a day, the privilege of dining alone out in the yard when the

"My place was set outside the door, and I was beginning to gnaw the lean limbs of the Normandy chicken, to

drink the clear cider and to munch the hunk of white bread, which was four days old but excellent.

"Suddenly the wooden gate which gave on the highway was opened, and a strange lady directed her steps

toward the house. She was very thin, very tall, so tightly enveloped in a red Scotch plaid shawl that one might

have supposed she had no arms, if one had not seen a long hand appear just above the hips, holding a white

tourist umbrella. Her face was like that of a mummy, surrounded with curls of gray hair, which tossed about

at every step she took and made me think, I know not why, of a pickled herring in curl papers. Lowering her

"That singular apparition cheered me. She undoubtedly was my neighbor, the English lady of mature age of

"I did not see her again that day. The next day, when I had settled myself to commence painting at the end of

that beautiful valley which you know and which extends as far as Etretat, I perceived, on lifting my eyes

suddenly, something singular standing on the crest of the cliff, one might have said a pole decked out with

flags. It was she. On seeing me, she suddenly disappeared. I reentered the house at midday for lunch and took

my seat at the general table, so as to make the acquaintance of this odd character. But she did not respond to

my polite advances, was insensible even to my little attentions. I poured out water for her persistently, I

passed her the dishes with great eagerness. A slight, almost imperceptible, movement of the head and an

English word, murmured so low that I did not understand it, were her only acknowledgments.

"At the end of three days I knew as much about her as did Madame Lecacheur herself.

"She was called Miss Harriet. Seeking out a secluded village in which to pass the summer, she had been

attracted to Benouville some six months before and did not seem disposed to leave it. She never spoke at

table, ate rapidly, reading all the while a small book of the Protestant propaganda. She gave a copy of it to

everybody. The cure himself had received no less than four copies, conveyed by an urchin to whom she had

paid two sous commission. She said sometimes to our hostess abruptly, without preparing her in the least for

"'I love the Saviour more than all. I admire him in all creation; I adore him in all nature; I carry him always in

"And she would immediately present the old woman with one of her tracts which were destined to convert the

"In, the village she was not liked. In fact, the schoolmaster having pronounced her an atheist, a kind of stigma

attached to her. The cure, who had been consulted by Madame Lecacheur, responded:

"'She is a heretic, but God does not wish the death of the sinner, and I believe her to be a person of pure

"These words, 'atheist,' 'heretic,' words which no one can precisely define, threw doubts into some minds. It

was asserted, however, that this English woman was rich and that she had passed her life in travelling through

every country in the world because her family had cast her off. Why had her family cast her off? Because of

"She was, in fact, one of those people of exalted principles; one of those opinionated puritans, of which

England produces so many; one of those good and insupportable old maids who haunt the tables d'hote of

every hotel in Europe, who spoil Italy, poison Switzerland, render the charming cities of the Mediterranean

uninhabitable, carry everywhere their fantastic manias their manners of petrified vestals, their indescribable

toilets and a certain odor of indiarubber which makes one believe that at night they are slipped into a rubber

"Whenever I caught sight of one of these individuals in a hotel I fled like the birds who see a scarecrow in a

"Madame Lecacheur, hostile by instinct to everything that was not rustic, felt in her narrow soul a kind of

hatred for the ecstatic declarations of the old maid. She had found a phrase by which to describe her, a term

of contempt that rose to her lips, called forth by I know not what confused and mysterious mental

ratiocination. She said: 'That woman is a demoniac.' This epithet, applied to that austere and sentimental

creature, seemed to me irresistibly droll. I myself never called her anything now but 'the demoniac,'

experiencing a singular pleasure in pronouncing aloud this word on perceiving her.

"'What do you think, sir? She picked up a toad which had had its paw crushed and carried it to her room and

has put it in her washbasin and bandaged it as if it were a man. If that is not profanation I should like to know

"On another occasion, when walking along the shore she bought a large fish which had just been caught,

simply to throw it back into the sea again. The sailor from whom she had bought it, although she paid him

handsomely, now began to swear, more exasperated, indeed, than if she had put her hand into his pocket and

taken his money. For more than a month he could not speak of the circumstance without becoming furious

and denouncing it as an outrage. Oh, yes! She was indeed a demoniac, this Miss Harriet, and Mother

"The stable boy, who was called Sapeur, because he had served in Africa in his youth, entertained other

"The little kindhearted Celeste did not wait upon her willingly, but I was never able to understand why.

Probably her only reason was that she was a stranger, of another race; of a different tongue and of another

"She passed her time wandering about the country, adoring and seeking God in nature. I found her one

evening on her knees in a cluster of bushes. Having discovered something red through the leaves, I brushed

aside the branches, and Miss Harriet at once rose to her feet, confused at having been found thus, fixing on

"Sometimes, when I was working among the rocks, I would suddenly descry her on the edge of the cliff like a

lighthouse signal. She would be gazing in rapture at the vast sea glittering in the sunlight and the boundless

sky with its golden tints. Sometimes I would distinguish her at the end of the valley, walking quickly with her

elastic English step, and I would go toward her, attracted by I know not what, simply to see her illuminated

visage, her driedup, ineffable features, which seemed to glow with inward and profound happiness.

"I would often encounter her also in the corner of a field, sitting on the grass under the shadow of an apple

tree, with her little religious booklet lying open on her knee while she gazed out at the distance.

"I could not tear myself away from that quiet country neighborhood, to which I was attached by a thousand

links of love for its wide and peaceful landscape. I was happy in this sequestered farm, far removed from

everything, but in touch with the earth, the good, beautiful, green earth. Andmust I avow it?there was,

besides, a little curiosity which retained me at the residence of Mother Lecacheur. I wished to become

acquainted a little with this strange Miss Harriet and to know what transpires in the solitary souls of those

"We became acquainted in a rather singular manner. I had just finished a study which appeared to me to be

worth something, and so it was, as it sold for ten thousand francs fifteen years later. It was as simple,

however, as two and two make four and was not according to academic rules. The whole right side of my

canvas represented a rock, an enormous rock, covered with seawrack, brown, yellow and red, across which

the sun poured like a stream of oil. The light fell upon the rock as though it were aflame without the sun,

which was at my back, being visible. That was all. A first bewildering study of blazing, gorgeous light.

"On the left was the sea, not the blue sea, the slatecolored sea, but a sea of jade, greenish, milky and solid

"I was so pleased with my work that I danced from sheer delight as I carried it back to the inn. I would have

liked the whole world to see it at once. I can remember that I showed it to a cow that was browsing by the

wayside, exclaiming as I did so: 'Look at that, my old beauty; you will not often see its like again.'

"When I had reached the house I immediately called out to Mother Lecacheur, shouting with all my might:

"The rustic approached and looked at my work with her stupid eyes which distinguished nothing and could

"Miss Harriet just then came home, and she passed behind me just as I was holding out my canvas at arm's

length, exhibiting it to our landlady. The demoniac could not help but see it, for I took care to exhibit the

thing in such a way that it could not escape her notice. She stopped abruptly and stood motionless,

astonished. It was her rock which was depicted, the one which she climbed to dream away her time

"She uttered a British 'Aoh,' which was at once so accentuated and so flattering that I turned round to her,

"I colored and was more touched by that compliment than if it had come from a queen. I was captured,

"I took my seat at table beside her as usual. For the first time she spoke, thinking aloud:

"I passed her some bread, some water, some wine. She now accepted these with a little smile of a mummy. I

"After the meal we rose from the table together and walked leisurely across the courtyard; then, attracted

doubtless by the fiery glow which the setting sun cast over the surface of the sea, I opened the gate which led

to the cliff, and we walked along side by side, as contented as two persons might be who have just learned to

"It was one of those warm, soft evenings which impart a sense of ease to flesh and spirit alike. All is

enjoyment, everything charms. The balmy air, laden with the perfume of grasses and the smell of seaweed,

soothes the olfactory sense with its wild fragrance, soothes the palate with its sea savor, soothes the mind

"We were now walking along the edge of the cliff, high above the boundless sea which rolled its little waves

below us at a distance of a hundred metres. And we drank in with open mouth and expanded chest that fresh

breeze, briny from kissing the waves, that came from the ocean and passed across our faces.

"Wrapped in her plaid shawl, with a look of inspiration as she faced the breeze, the English woman gazed

fixedly at the great sun ball as it descended toward the horizon. Far off in the distance a threemaster in full

sail was outlined on the bloodred sky and a steamship, somewhat nearer, passed along, leaving behind it a

trail of smoke on the horizon. The red sun globe sank slowly lower and lower and presently touched the water

just behind the motionless vessel, which, in its dazzling effulgence, looked as though framed in a flame of

"Miss Harriet gazed in rapture at the last gleams of the dying day. She seemed longing to embrace the sky,

"She murmured: 'Aoh! I loveI love' I saw a tear in her eye. She continued: 'I wish I were a little bird, so

"She remained standing as I had often before seen her, perched on the cliff, her face as red as her shawl. I

should have liked to have sketched her in my album. It would have been a caricature of ecstasy.

"I then spoke to her of painting as I would have done to a fellow artist, using the technical terms common

among the devotees of the profession. She listened attentively, eagerly seeking to divine the meaning of the

"The next day, on seeing me, she approached me, cordially holding out her hand; and we at once became firm

"She was a good creature who had a kind of soul on springs, which became enthusiastic at a bound. She

lacked equilibrium like all women who are spinsters at the age of fifty. She seemed to be preserved in a

pickle of innocence, but her heart still retained something very youthful and inflammable. She loved both

nature and animals with a fervor, a love like old wine fermented through age, with a sensuous love that she

"One thing is certain, that the sight of a bitch nursing her puppies, a mare roaming in a meadow with a foal at

its side, a bird's nest full of young ones, screaming, with their open mouths and their enormous heads,

"Poor, solitary, sad, wandering beings! I love you ever since I became acquainted with Miss Harriet.

"I soon discovered that she had something she would like to tell me, but dare not, and I was amused at her

timidity. When I started out in the morning with my knapsack on my back, she would accompany me in

silence as far as the end of the village, evidently struggling to find words with which to begin a conversation.

"I would like to see how you paint pictures. Are you willing? I have been very curious.'

"I conducted her to the bottom of the PetitVal, where I had begun a large picture.

"She remained standing behind me, following all my gestures with concentrated attention. Then, suddenly,

fearing perhaps that she was disturbing me, she said: 'Thank you,' and walked away.

"But she soon became more friendly, and accompanied me every day, her countenance exhibiting visible

pleasure. She carried her camp stool under her arm, not permitting me to carry it. She would remain there for

hours, silent and motionless, following with her eyes the point of my brush, in its every movement. When I

obtained unexpectedly just the effect I wanted by a dash of color put on with the palette knife, she

involuntarily uttered a little 'Ah!' of astonishment, of joy, of admiration. She had the most tender respect for

my canvases, an almost religious respect for that human reproduction of a part of nature's work divine. My

studies appeared to her a kind of religious pictures, and sometimes she spoke to me of God, with the idea of

"Oh, he was a queer, goodnatured being, this God of hers! He was a sort of village philosopher without any

great resources and without great power, for she always figured him to herself as inconsolable over injustices

"She was, however, on excellent terms with him, affecting even to be the confidante of his secrets and of his

"'God wills' or 'God does not will,' just like a sergeant announcing to a recruit: 'The colonel has commanded.'

"At the bottom of her heart she deplored my ignorance of the intentions of the Eternal, which she endeavored

"Almost every day I found in my pockets, in my hat when I lifted it from the ground, in my paintbox, in my

polished shoes, standing in front of my door in the morning, those little pious tracts which she no doubt,

"I treated her as one would an old friend, with unaffected cordiality. But I soon perceived that she had

changed somewhat in her manner, though, for a while, I paid little attention to it.

"When I was painting, whether in my valley or in some country lane, I would see her suddenly appear with

her rapid, springy walk. She would then sit down abruptly, out of breath, as though she had been running or

were overcome by some profound emotion. Her face would be red, that English red which is denied to the

people of all other countries; then, without any reason, she would turn ashy pale and seem about to faint

away. Gradually, however, her natural color would return and she would begin to speak.

"Then, without warning, she would break off in the middle of a sentence, spring up from her seat and walk

away so rapidly and so strangely that I was at my wits' ends to discover whether I had done or said anything

"I finally came to the conclusion that those were her normal manners, somewhat modified no doubt in my

"When she returned to the farm, after walking for hours on the windy coast, her long curls often hung straight

down, as if their springs had been broken. This had hitherto seldom given her any concern, and she would

But now she would go to her room and arrange the untidy locks, and when I would say, with familiar

gallantry, which, however, always offended her "'You are as beautiful as a star today, Miss Harriet,' a blush

would immediately rise to her cheeks, the blush of a young girl, of a girl of fifteen.

"Then she would suddenly become quite reserved and cease coming to watch me paint. I thought, 'This is

only a fit of temper; it will blow over.' But it did not always blow over, and when I spoke to her she would

"She became by turns rude, impatient and nervous. I never saw her now except at meals, and we spoke but

little. I concluded at length that I must have offended her in some way, and, accordingly, I said to her one

"'Miss Harriet, why is it that you do not act toward me as formerly? What have I done to displease you? You

"'I am just the same with you as formerly. It is not true, not true,' and she ran upstairs and shut herself up in

"Occasionally she would look at me in a peculiar manner. I have often said to myself since then that those

who are condemned to death must look thus when they are informed that their last day has come. In her eye

there lurked a species of insanity, an insanity at once mystical and violent; and even more, a fever, an

aggravated longing, impatient and impotent, for the unattained and unattainable.

"Nay, it seemed to me there was also going on within her a struggle in which her heart wrestled with an

unknown force that she sought to master, and even, perhaps, something else. But what do I know? What do I

"For some time I had commenced to work, as soon as daylight appeared, on a picture the subject of which

"A deep ravine, enclosed, surmounted by two thickets of trees and vines, extended into the distance and was

lost, submerged in that milky vapor, in that cloud like cotton down that sometimes floats over valleys at

daybreak. And at the extreme end of that heavy, transparent fog one saw, or, rather, surmised, that a couple of

human beings were approaching, a human couple, a youth and a maiden, their arms interlaced, embracing

"A first ray of the sun, glistening through the branches, pierced that fog of the dawn, illuminated it with a

rosy reflection just behind the rustic lovers, framing their vague shadows in a silvery background. It was well

"I was working on the declivity which led to the Valley of Etretat. On this particular morning I had, by

chance, the sort of floating vapor which I needed. Suddenly something rose up in front of me like a phantom;

it was Miss Harriet. On seeing me she was about to flee. But I called after her, saying: 'Come here, come

"She came forward, though with seeming reluctance. I handed her my sketch. She said nothing, but stood for

a long time, motionless, looking at it, and suddenly she burst into tears. She wept spasmodically, like men

who have striven hard to restrain their tears, but who can do so no longer and abandon themselves to grief,

though still resisting. I sprang to my feet, moved at the sight of a sorrow I did not comprehend, and I took her

by the hand with an impulse of brusque affection, a true French impulse which acts before it reflects.

"She let her hands rest in mine for a few seconds, and I felt them quiver as if all her nerves were being

"I recognized that tremor, for I had felt it, and I could not be deceived. Ah! the love tremor of a woman,

whether she be fifteen or fifty years of age, whether she be of the people or of society, goes so straight to my

"Her whole frail being had trembled, vibrated, been overcome. I knew it. She walked away before I had time

to say a word, leaving me as surprised as if I had witnessed a miracle and as troubled as if I had committed a

"I did not go in to breakfast. I went to take a turn on the edge of the cliff, feeling that I would just as lief weep

as laugh, looking on the adventure as both comic and deplorable and my position as ridiculous, believing her

"I asked myself what I ought to do. It seemed best for me to leave the place, and I immediately resolved to do

"Somewhat sad and perplexed, I wandered about until dinner time and entered the farmhouse just when the

"I sat down at the table as usual. Miss Harriet was there, eating away solemnly, without speaking to any one,

without even lifting her eyes. Her manner and expression were, however, the same as usual.

"I waited patiently till the meal had been finished, when, turning toward the landlady, I said: 'Well, Madame

Lecacheur, it will not be long now before I shall have to take my leave of you.'

"The good woman, at once surprised and troubled, replied in her drawling voice: 'My dear sir, what is it you

"I glanced at Miss Harriet out of the corner of my eye. Her countenance did not change in the least. But

Celeste, the little servant, looked up at me. She was a fat girl, of about eighteen years of age, rosy, fresh, as

strong as a horse, and possessing the rare attribute of cleanliness. I had kissed her at odd times in

"The dinner being at length over, I went to smoke my pipe under the apple trees, walking up and down from

one end of the enclosure to the other. All the reflections which I had made during the day, the strange

discovery of the morning, that passionate and grotesque attachment for me, the recollections which that

revelation had suddenly called up, recollections at once charming and perplexing, perhaps also that look

which the servant had cast on me at the announcement of my departureall these things, mixed up and

combined, put me now in a reckless humor, gave me a tickling sensation of kisses on the lips and in my veins

"Night was coming on, casting its dark shadows under the trees, when I descried Celeste, who had gone to

fasten up the poultry yard at the other end of the enclosure. I darted toward her, running so noiselessly that

she heard nothing, and as she got up from closing the small trapdoor by which the chickens got in and out, I

clasped her in my arms and rained on her coarse, fat face a shower of kisses. She struggled, laughing all the

time, as she was accustomed to do in such circumstances. Why did I suddenly loose my grip of her? Why did

"It was Miss Harriet, who had come upon us, who had seen us and who stood in front of us motionless as a

"I was ashamed, embarrassed, more desperate at having been thus surprised by her than if she had caught me

"I slept badly that night. I was completely unnerved and haunted by sad thoughts. I seemed to hear loud

weeping, but in this I was no doubt deceived. Moreover, I thought several times that I heard some one

"Toward morning I was overcome by fatigue and fell asleep. I got up late and did not go downstairs until the

late breakfast, being still in a bewildered state, not knowing what kind of expression to put on.

"No one had seen Miss Harriet. We waited for her at table, but she did not appear. At length Mother

Lecacheur went to her room. The English woman had gone out. She must have set out at break of day, as she

"The weather was hot, very hot, one of those broiling, heavy days when not a leaf stirs. The table had been

placed out of doors, under an apple tree, and from time to time Sapeur had gone to the cellar to draw a jug of

cider, everybody was so thirsty. Celeste brought the dishes from the kitchen, a ragout of mutton with

potatoes, a cold rabbit and a salad. Afterward she placed before us a dish of strawberries, the first of the

"As I wished to wash and freshen these, I begged the servant to go and draw me a pitcher of cold water.

"In about five minutes she returned, declaring that the well was dry. She had lowered the pitcher to the full

extent of the cord and had touched the bottom, but on drawing the pitcher up again it was empty. Mother

Lecacheur, anxious to examine the thing for herself, went and looked down the hole. She returned,

announcing that one could see clearly something in the well, something altogether unusual. But this no doubt

"I wished to look down the well also, hoping I might be able to clear up the mystery, and I perched myself

close to the brink. I perceived indistinctly a white object. What could it be? I then conceived the idea of

lowering a lantern at the end of a cord. When I did so the yellow flame danced on the layers of stone and

gradually became clearer. All four of us were leaning over the opening, Sapeur and Celeste having now

joined us. The lantern rested on a blackandwhite indistinct mass, singular, incomprehensible. Sapeur

"'It is a horse. I see the hoofs. It must have got out of the meadow during the night and fallen in headlong.'

"But suddenly a cold shiver froze me to the marrow. I first recognized a foot, then a leg sticking up; the

"I stammered out in a loud voice, trembling so violently that the lantern danced hither and thither over the

"Sapeur alone did not manifest horror. He had witnessed many such scenes in Africa.

"But it was necessary to recover the corpse of the dead woman. I attached the young man securely by the

waist to the end of the pulley rope and lowered him very slowly, watching him disappear in the darkness. In

one hand he held the lantern and a rope in the other. Soon I recognized his voice, which seemed to come from

"I then saw him fish something out of the water. It was the other leg. He then bound the two feet together and

"I began to wind up, but I felt my arms crack, my muscles twitch, and I was in terror lest I should let the man

"We both got on the stone slab at the edge of the well and from opposite sides we began to haul up the body.

"Mother Lecacheur and Celeste watched us from a distance, concealed from view behind the wall of the

house. When they saw issuing from the hole the black slippers and white stockings of the drowned person

"Sapeur seized the ankles, and we drew up the body of the poor woman. The head was shocking to look at,

being bruised and lacerated, and the long gray hair, out of curl forevermore, hanging down tangled and

"'In the name of all that is holy! how lean she is,' exclaimed Sapeur in a contemptuous tone.

"We carried her into the room, and as the women did not put in an appearance I, with the assistance of the

"I washed her disfigured face. Under the touch of my finger an eye was slightly opened and regarded me with

that pale, cold look, that terrible look of a corpse which seems to come from the beyond. I braided as well as I

could her dishevelled hair and with my clumsy hands arranged on her head a novel and singular coiffure.

Then I took off her dripping wet garments, baring, not without a feeling of shame, as though I had been guilty

of some profanation, her shoulders and her chest and her long arms, as slim as the twigs of a tree.

"I next went to fetch some flowers, poppies, bluets, marguerites and fresh, sweetsmelling grass with which

"I then had to go through the usual formalities, as I was alone to attend to everything. A letter found in her

pocket, written at the last moment, requested that her body be buried in the village in which she had passed

the last days of her life. A sad suspicion weighed on my heart. Was it not on my account that she wished to be

"Toward evening all the female gossips of the locality came to view the remains of the defunct, but I would

not allow a single person to enter. I wanted to be alone, and I watched beside her all night.

"I looked at the corpse by the flickering light of the candles, at this unhappy woman, unknown to us all, who

had died in such a lamentable manner and so far away from home. Had she left no friends, no relations

behind her? What had her infancy been? What had been her life? Whence had she come thither alone, a

wanderer, lost like a dog driven from home? What secrets of sufferings and of despair were sealed up in that

unprepossessing body, in that poor body whose outward appearance had driven from her all affection, all

"How many unhappy beings there are! I felt that there weighed upon that human creature the eternal injustice

of implacable nature! It was all over with her, without her ever having experienced, perhaps, that which

sustains the greatest outcasts to wit, the hope of being loved once! Otherwise why should she thus have

concealed herself, fled from the face of others? Why did she love everything so tenderly and so passionately,

"I recognized the fact that she believed in a God, and that she hoped to receive compensation from the latter

for all the miseries she had endured. She would now disintegrate and become, in turn, a plant. She would

blossom in the sun, the cattle would browse on her leaves, the birds would bear away the seeds, and through

these changes she would become again human flesh. But that which is called the soul had been extinguished

at the bottom of the dark well. She suffered no longer. She had given her life for that of others yet to come.

"Hours passed away in this silent and sinister communion with the dead. A pale light at length announced the

dawn of a new day; then a red ray streamed in on the bed, making a bar of light across the coverlet and across

her hands. This was the hour she had so much loved. The awakened birds began to sing in the trees.

"I opened the window to its fullest extent and drew back the curtains that the whole heavens might look in

upon us, and, bending over the icy corpse, I took in my hands the mutilated head and slowly, without terror or

disgust, I imprinted a kiss, a long kiss, upon those lips which had never before been kissed."

Leon Chenal remained silent. The women wept. We heard on the box seat the Count d'Atraille blowing his

nose from time to time. The coachman alone had gone to sleep. The horses, who no longer felt the sting of

the whip, had slackened their pace and moved along slowly. The drag, hardly advancing at all, seemed

[Miss Harriet appeared in Le Gaulois, July 9, 1883, under the title of Miss Hastings. The story was later

revised, enlarged; and partly reconstructed. This is what De Maupassant wrote to Editor Havard March 15,

1884, in an unedited letter, in regard to the title of the story that was to give its name to the volume:

"I do not believe that Hastings is a bad name, inasmuch as it is known all over the world, and recalls the

greatest facts in English history. Besides, Hastings is as much a name as Duval is with us.

"The name Cherbuliez selected, Miss Revel, is no more like an English name than like a Turkish name. But

here is another name as English as Hastings, and more euphonious; it is Miss Harriet. I will ask you therefore

It was in regard to this very tittle that De Maupassant had a disagreement with Audran and Boucheron

director of the Bouffes Parisiens in October, 1890 They had given this title to an operetta about to be played

at the Bouffes. It ended however, by their ceding to De Maupassant, and the title of the operetta was changed

The former soldier, Mederic Rompel, familiarly called Mederic by the country folks, left the post office of

RoiiyleTors at the usual hour. After passing through the village with his long stride, he cut across the

meadows of Villaume and reached the bank of the Brindille, following the path along the water's edge to the

village of Carvelin, where he commenced to deliver his letters. He walked quickly, following the course of

the narrow river, which frothed, murmured and boiled in its grassy bed beneath an arch of willows.

Mederic went on without stopping, with only this thought in his mind: "My first letter is for the Poivron

His blue blouse, fastened round his waist by a black leather belt, moved in a quick, regular fashion above the

green hedge of willow trees, and his stout stick of holly kept time with his steady tread.

He crossed the Brindille on a bridge consisting of a tree trunk, with a handrail of rope, fastened at either end

The wood, which belonged to Monsieur Renardet, the mayor of Carvelin and the largest landowner in the

district, consisted of huge old trees, straight as pillars and extending for about half a league along the left

bank of the stream which served as a boundary to this immense dome of foliage. Alongside the water large

shrubs had grown up in the sunlight, but under the trees one found nothing but moss, thick, soft and yielding,

Mederic slackened his pace, took off his black cap adorned with red lace and wiped his forehead, for it was

by this time hot in the meadows, though it was not yet eight o'clock in the morning.

He had just recovered from the effects of the heat and resumed his quick pace when he noticed at the foot of a

tree a knife, a child's small knife. When he picked it up he discovered a thimble and also a needlecase not far

Having taken up these objects, he thought: "I'll entrust them to the mayor," and he resumed his journey, but

All of a sudden he stopped short, as if he had struck against a wooden barrier. Ten paces in front of him lay

stretched on her back on the moss a little girl, perfectly nude, her face covered with a handkerchief. She was

Meredic advanced on tiptoe, as if he apprehended some danger, and he glanced toward the spot uneasily.

What was this? No doubt she was asleep. Then he reflected that a person does not go to sleep naked at

halfpast seven in the morning under the cool trees. So, then, she must be dead, and he must be face to face

with a crime. At this thought a cold shiver ran through his frame, although he was an old soldier. And then a

murder was such a rare thing in the country, and, above all, the murder of a child, that he could not believe

his eyes. But she had no woundnothing save a spot of blood on her leg. How, then, had she been killed?

He stopped close to her and gazed at her, while he leaned on his stick. Certainly he must know her, for he

knew all the inhabitants of the district; but, not being able to get a look at her face, he could not guess her

name. He stooped forward in order to take off the handkerchief which covered her face, then paused, with

Had he the right to disarrange anything in the condition of the corpse before the official investigation? He

pictured justice to himself as a kind of general whom nothing escapes and who attaches as much importance

to a lost button as to the stab of a knife in the stomach. Perhaps under this handkerchief evidence could be

found to sustain a charge of murder; in fact, if such proof were there it might lose its value if touched by an

Then he raised himself with the intention of hastening toward the mayor's residence, but again another

thought held him back. If the little girl were still alive, by any chance, he could not leave her lying there in

this way. He sank on his knees very gently, a little distance from her, through precaution, and extended his

hand toward her foot. It was icy cold, with the terrible coldness of death which leaves us no longer in doubt.

The letter carrier, as he touched her, felt his heart in his mouth, as he said himself afterward, and his mouth

parched. Rising up abruptly, he rushed off under the trees toward Monsieur Renardet's house.

He walked on faster than ever, with his stick under his arm, his hands clenched and his head thrust forward,

while his leathern bag, filled with letters and newspapers, kept flapping at his side.

The mayor's residence was at the end of the wood which served as a park, and one side of it was washed by

It was a big square house of gray stone, very old, and had stood many a siege in former days, and at the end

From the top of this fortress one could formerly see all the surrounding country. It was called the Fox's tower,

without any one knowing exactly why; and from this appellation, no doubt, had come the name Renardet,

borne by the owners of this fief, which had remained in the same family, it was said, for more than two

hundred years. For the Renardets formed part of the upper middle class, all but noble, to be met with so often

The postman dashed into the kitchen, where the servants were taking breakfast, and exclaimed:

Mederic was recognized as a man of standing and authority, and they understood that something serious had

As soon as word was brought to Monsieur Renardet, he ordered the postman to be sent up to him. Pale and

out of breath, with his cap in his hand, Mederic found the mayor seated at a long table covered with scattered

He was a large, tall man, heavy and redfaced, strong as an ox, and was greatly liked in the district, although

of an excessively violent disposition. Almost forty years old and a widower for the past six months, he lived

on his estate like a country gentleman. His choleric temperament had often brought him into trouble from

which the magistrates of RoiiyleTors, like indulgent and prudent friends, had extricated him. Had he not

one day thrown the conductor of the diligence from the top of his seat because he came near running over his

retriever, Micmac? Had he not broken the ribs of a gamekeeper who abused him for having, gun in hand,

passed through a neighbor's property? Had he not even caught by the collar the subprefect, who stopped

over in the village during an administrative circuit, called by Monsieur Renardet an electioneering circuit, for

"Yes, m'sieu, a little girl, quite naked, on her back, with blood on her, deadquite dead!"

"By God, I'd make a bet it is little Louise Roque! I have just learned that she did not go home to her mother

The postman described the spot, gave full details and offered to conduct the mayor to the place.

"No, I don't need you. Send the watchman, the mayor's secretary and the doctor to me at once, and resume

The letter carrier, a man used to discipline, obeyed and withdrew, angry and grieved at not being able to be

The mayor, in his turn, prepared to go out, took his big soft hat and paused for a few seconds on the threshold

of his abode. In front of him stretched a wide sward, in which were three large beds of flowers in full bloom,

one facing the house and the others at either side of it. Farther on the outlying trees of the wood rose skyward,

while at the left, beyond the Brindille, which at that spot widened into a pond, could be seen long meadows,

an entirely green flat sweep of country, intersected by trenches and hedges of pollard willows.

To the right, behind the stables, the outhouses and all the buildings connected with the property, might be

Renardet slowly descended the steps in front of his house, and, turning to the left, gained the water's edge,

which he followed at a slow pace, his hand behind his back. He walked on, with bent head, and from time to

When he stood beneath the trees he stopped, took off his hat and wiped his forehead as Mederic had done, for

the burning sun was darting its fiery rays on the earth. Then the mayor resumed his journey, stopped once

more and retraced his steps. Suddenly, stooping down, he steeped his handkerchief in the stream that glided

along at his feet and spread it over his head, under his hat. Drops of water flowed down his temples over his

ears, which were always purple, over his strong red neck, and made their way, one after the other, under his

And the doctor appeared under the trees. He was a thin little man, an exmilitary surgeon, who passed in the

neighborhood for a very skillful practitioner. He limped, having been wounded while in the service, and had

Next came the watchman and the mayor's secretary, who, having been sent for at the same time, arrived

together. They looked scared, and hurried forward, out of breath, walking and running alternately to hasten

their progress, and moving their arms up and down so vigorously that they seemed to do more work with

Their steps made no sound on the moss. Their eyes were gazing ahead in front of them.

Far ahead of them under the trees they saw something white on which the sun gleamed down through the

branches. As they approached they gradually distinguished a human form lying there, its head toward the

"I am fearfully warm," said the mayor, and stooping down, he again soaked his handkerchief in the water and

The doctor hastened his steps, interested by the discovery. As soon as they were near the corpse, he bent

down to examine it without touching it. He had put on his pincenez, as one does in examining some curious

"Violated and murdered, as we shall prove presently. This little girl, moreover, is almost a womanlook at

The doctor lightly drew away the handkerchief which covered her face, which looked black, frightful, the

"Strangled with the hands without leaving any special trace, neither the mark of the nails nor the imprint of

"There's nothing for me to do. She's been dead for the last hour at least. We must give notice of the matter to

Renardet, standing up, with his hands behind his back, kept staring with a stony look at the little body

"Do you, Principe" (this was his secretary), "go and find those clothes for me along the stream. You,

Maxime" (this was the watchman), "hurry on toward RouyleTors and bring with you the magistrate with

"Who knows? Any one is capable of that. Every one in particular and nobody in general. No matter, it must

be some prowler, some workman out of employment. Since we have become a Republic we meet only this

"Yes, it can only be a stranger, a passerby, a vagabond without hearth or home."

"And without a wife. Having neither a good supper nor a good bed, he became reckless. You can't tell how

many men there may be in the world capable of a crime at a given moment. Did you know that this little girl

And with the end of his stick he touched one after the other the stiffened fingers of the corpse, resting on

"Yes, the mother came last night to look for me about nine o'clock, the child not having come home at seven

to supper. We looked for her along the roads up to midnight, but we did not think of the wood. However, we

They remained standing beside the corpse of the young girl, so pale on the dark moss. A big blue fly was

walking over the body with his lively, jerky movements. The two men kept watching this wandering speck.

"How pretty it is, a fly on the skin! The ladies of the last century had good reason to paste them on their

But, all of a sudden, he turned round, surprised by a shrill noise. A woman in a cap and blue apron was

running toward them under the trees. It was the mother, La Roque. As soon as she saw Renardet she began to

"My little girl! Where's my little girl?" so distractedly that she did not glance down at the ground. Suddenly

she saw the corpse, stopped short, clasped her hands and raised both her arms while she uttered a sharp,

heartrending crythe cry of a wounded animal. Then she rushed toward the body, fell on her knees and

snatched away the handkerchief that covered the face. When she saw that frightful countenance, black and

distorted, she rose to her feet with a shudder, then sinking to the ground, face downward, she pressed her face

Her tall, thin frame, with its closeclinging dress, was palpitating, shaken with spasms. One could see her

bony ankles and her driedup calves covered with coarse blue stockings shaking horribly. She was digging

the soil with her crooked fingers, as though she were trying to make a hole in which to hide herself.

Renardet felt a strange sensation. Then he gave vent to a sort of loud sneeze, and, drawing his handkerchief

from his pocket, he began to weep internally, coughing, sobbing and blowing his nose noisily.

The man, knowing that the mayor would not brook opposition, set forth again with hesitating steps, casting a

Distant voices were heard under the trees, a confused sound, the noise of an approaching crowd, for Mederic

had, in the course of his rounds, carried the news from door to door. The people of the neighborhood, dazed

at first, had gossiped about it in the street, from one threshold to another. Then they gathered together. They

talked over, discussed and commented on the event for some minutes and had now come to see for

They arrived in groups, a little faltering and uneasy through fear of the first impression of such a scene on

their minds. When they saw the body they stopped, not daring to advance, and speaking low. Then they grew

bolder, went on a few steps, stopped again, advanced once more, and presently formed around the dead girl,

her mother, the doctor and Renardet a close circle, restless and noisy, which crowded forward at the sudden

impact of newcomers. And now they touched the corpse. Some of them even bent down to feel it with their

fingers. The doctor kept them back. But the mayor, waking abruptly out of his torpor, flew into a rage, and

Mother La Roque had risen to a sitting posture and now remained weeping, with her hands clasped over her

The crowd was discussing the affair, and young lads' eager eyes curiously scrutinized this nude young form.

Renardet perceived this, and, abruptly taking off his coat, he flung it over the little girl, who was entirely

The secretary drew near quietly. The wood was filled with people, and a continuous hum of voices rose up

The mayor, in his shirt sleeves, remained standing, with his stick in his hands, in a fighting attitude. He

seemed exasperated by this curiosity on the part of the people and kept repeating:

The peasants were greatly afraid of him. They held back. Dr. Labarbe, who was smoking, sat down beside La

Roque and spoke to her in order to distract her attention. The old woman at once removed her hands from her

face and replied with a flood of tearful words, emptying her grief in copious talk. She told the whole story of

her life, her marriage, the death of her man, a cattle drover, who had been gored to death, the infancy of her

daughter, her wretched existence as a widow without resources and with a child to support. She had only this

one, her little Louise, and the child had been killedkilled in this wood. Then she felt anxious to see her

again, and, dragging herself on her knees toward the corpse, she raised up one corner of the garment that

covered her; then she let it fall again and began wailing once more. The crowd remained silent, eagerly

But suddenly there was a great commotion at the cry of "The gendarmes! the gendarmes!"

Two gendarmes appeared in the distance, advancing at a rapid trot, escorting their captain and a little

gentleman with red whiskers, who was bobbing up and down like a monkey on a big white mare.

The watchman had just found Monsieur Putoin, the magistrate, at the moment when he was mounting his

horse to take his daily ride, for he posed as a good horseman, to the great amusement of the officers.

He dismounted, along with the captain, and pressed the hands of the mayor and the doctor, casting a

When he was made acquainted with all the facts, he first gave orders to disperse the crowd, whom the

gendarmes drove out of the wood, but who soon reappeared in the meadow and formed a hedge, a big hedge

The doctor, in his turn, gave explanations, which Renardet noted down in his memorandum book. All the

evidence was given, taken down and commented on without leading to any discovery. Maxime, too, came

This disappearance surprised everybody; no one could explain it except on the theory of theft, and as her rags

The magistrate, the mayor, the captain and the doctor set to work searching in pairs, putting aside the smallest

"How does it happen that this wretch has concealed or carried away the clothes, and has thus left the body

"Ha! ha! Perhaps a dodge? This crime has been committed either by a brute or by a sly scoundrel. In any

The noise of wheels made them turn their heads round. It was the deputy magistrate, the doctor and the

registrar of the court who had arrived in their turn. They resumed their search, all chatting in an animated

Every one smilingly accepted the invitation, and the magistrate, thinking that the case of little Louise Roque

"I can have the body brought to your house, can I not? You have a room in which you can keep it for me till

"Yesnono. To tell the truth, I prefer that it should not come into my house on account ofon account

of my servants, who are already talking about ghosts inin my tower, in the Fox's tower. You knowI

"Good! I will have it taken at once to Roily for the legal examination." And, turning to his deputy, he said:

They all came back to the place where the corpse lay. Mother La Roque, now seated beside her daughter, was

holding her hand and was staring right before her with a wandering, listless eye.

The two doctors endeavored to lead her away, so that she might not witness the dead girl's removal, but she

understood at once what they wanted to do, and, flinging herself on the body, she threw both arms round it.

"You shall not have itit's mineit's mine now. They have killed her for me, and I want to keep heryou

All the men, affected and not knowing how to act, remained standing around her. Renardet fell on his knees

"Listen, La Roque, it is necessary, in order to find out who killed her. Without this, we could not find out. We

must make a search for the man in order to punish him. When we have found him we'll give her up to you. I

This explanation bewildered the woman, and a feeling of hatred manifested itself in her distracted glance.

She rose up, deciding to let them do as they liked, but when the captain remarked:

"It is surprising that her clothes were not found," a new idea, which she had not previously thought of,

They explained to her that they had not been found. Then she demanded them persistently, crying and

The more they tried to calm her the more she sobbed and persisted in her demands. She no longer wanted the

body, she insisted on having the clothes, as much perhaps through the unconscious cupidity of a wretched

being to whom a piece of silver represents a fortune as through maternal tenderness.

And when the little body, rolled up in blankets which had been brought out from Renardet's house, had

disappeared in the vehicle, the old woman standing under the trees, sustained by the mayor and the captain,

"I have nothing, nothing, nothing in the world, not even her little cap her little cap."

The cure, a young priest, had just arrived. He took it on himself to accompany the mother, and they went

away together toward the village. The mother's grief was modified by the sugary words of the clergyman,

who promised her a thousand compensations. But she kept repeating: "If I had only her little cap." This idea

And they all directed their steps toward the house, whose gray front, with the large tower built on the edge of

The meal lasted a long time. They talked about the crime. Everybody was of the same opinion. It had been

committed by some tramp passing there by mere chance while the little girl was bathing.

Then the magistrates returned to Rouy, announcing that they would return next day at an early hour. The

doctor and the cure went to their respective homes, while Renardet, after a long walk through the meadows,

returned to the wood, where he remained walking till nightfall with slow steps, his hands behind his back.

He went to bed early and was still asleep next morning when the magistrate entered his room. He was

"Ha! ha! You are still sleeping! Well, my dear fellow, we have news this morning."

"Oh! Something strange. You remember well how the mother clamored yesterday for some memento of her

daughter, especially her little cap? Well, on opening her door this morning she found on the threshold her

child's two little wooden shoes. This proves that the crime was perpetrated by some one from the district,

some one who felt pity for her. Besides, the postman, Mederic, brought me the thimble, the knife and the

needle case of the dead girl. So, then, the man in carrying off the clothes to hide them must have let fall the

articles which were in the pocket. As for me, I attach special importance to the wooden shoes, as they

indicate a certain moral culture and a faculty for tenderness on the part of the assassin. We will, therefore, if

you have no objection, go over together the principal inhabitants of your district."

Renardet covered his chin with a white lather while he looked at himself in the glass. Then he sharpened his

"The principal inhabitant of Carvelin bears the name of Joseph Renardet, mayor, a rich landowner, a rough

"The second in importance is Pelledent, his deputy, a cattle breeder, an equally rich landowner, a crafty

peasant, very sly, very closefisted on every question of money, but incapable in my opinion of having

Renardet, while proceeding with his toilet, reviewed the characters of all the inhabitants of Carvelin. After

two hours' discussion their suspicions were fixed on three individuals who had hitherto borne a shady

reputationa poacher named Cavalle, a fisherman named Paquet, who caught trout and crabs, and a cattle

The search for the perpetrator of the crime lasted all summer, but he was not discovered. Those who were

suspected and arrested easily proved their innocence, and the authorities were compelled to abandon the

But this murder seemed to have moved the entire country in a singular manner. There remained in every one's

mind a disquietude, a vague fear, a sensation of mysterious terror, springing not merely from the

impossibility of discovering any trace of the assassin, but also and above all from that strange finding of the

wooden shoes in front of La Roque's door the day after the crime. The certainty that the murderer had assisted

at the investigation, that he was still, doubtless, living in the village, possessed all minds and seemed to brood

The wood had also become a dreaded spot, a place to be avoided and supposed to be haunted.

Formerly the inhabitants went there to spend every Sunday afternoon. They used to sit down on the moss at

the feet of the huge tall trees or walk along the water's edge watching the trout gliding among the weeds. The

boy's used to play bowls, hideandseek and other games where the ground had been cleared and levelled,

and the girls, in rows of four or five, would trip along, holding one another by the arms and screaming songs

with their shrill voices. Now nobody ventured there for fear of finding some corpse lying on the ground.

Autumn arrived, the leaves began to fall from the tall trees, whirling round and round to the ground, and the

sky could be seen through the bare branches. Sometimes, when a gust of wind swept over the tree tops, the

slow, continuous rain suddenly grew heavier and became a rough storm that covered the moss with a thick

And the sound of the falling leaves seemed like a wail and the leaves themselves like tears shed by these

great, sorrowful trees, that wept in the silence of the bare and empty wood, this dreaded and deserted wood

The Brindille, swollen by the storms, rushed on more quickly, yellow and angry, between its dry banks,

And here was Renardet suddenly resuming his walks under the trees. Every day, at sunset, he came out of his

house, descended the front steps slowly and entered the wood in a dreamy fashion, with his hands in his

pockets, and paced over the damp soft moss, while a legion of rooks from all the neighboring haunts came

thither to rest in the tall trees and then flew off like a black cloud uttering loud, discordant cries.

Night came on, and Renardet was still strolling slowly under the trees; then, when the darkness prevented him

from walking any longer, he would go back to the house and sink into his armchair in front of the glowing

One morning an important bit of news was circulated through the district; the mayor was having his wood cut

Twenty woodcutters were already at work. They had commenced at the corner nearest to the house and

And each day the wood grew thinner, losing its trees, which fell down one by one, as an army loses its

Renardet no longer walked up, and down. He remained from morning till night, contemplating, motionless,

with his hands behind his back, the slow destruction of his wood. When a tree fell he placed his foot on it as

if it were a corpse. Then he raised his eyes to the next with a kind of secret, calm impatience, as if he

Meanwhile they were approaching the place where little Louise Roque had been found. They came to it one

As it was dark, the sky being overcast, the woodcutters wanted to stop their work, putting off till next day the

fall of an enormous beech tree, but the mayor objected to this and insisted that they should at once lop and cut

When the lopper had laid it bare and the woodcutters had sapped its base, five men commenced hauling at the

The tree resisted; its powerful trunk, although notched to the centre, was as rigid as iron. The workmen, all

together, with a sort of simultaneous motion,' strained at the rope, bending backward and uttering a cry which

Two woodcutters standing close to the giant remained with axes in their grip, like two executioners ready to

strike once more, and Renardet, motionless, with his hand on the trunk, awaited the fall with an uneasy,

He did not reply and did not move away. He seemed ready to catch the beech tree in his open arms and to

All at once, at the base of the tall column of wood there was a rent which seemed to run to the top, like a

painful shock; it bent slightly, ready to fall, but still resisting. The men, in a state of excitement, stiffened

their arms, renewed their efforts with greater vigor, and, just as the tree came crashing down, Renardet

suddenly made a forward step, then stopped, his shoulders raised to receive the irresistible shock, the mortal

But the beech tree, having deviated a little, only rubbed against his loins, throwing him on his face, five

The workmen dashed forward to lift him up. He had already arisen to his knees, stupefied, with bewildered

eyes and passing his hand across his forehead, as if he were awaking from an attack of madness.

When he had got to his feet once more the men, astonished, questioned him, not being able to understand

what he had done. He replied in faltering tones that he had been dazed for a moment, or, rather, he had been

thinking of his childhood days; that he thought he would have time to run under the tree, just as street boys

rush in front of vehicles driving rapidly past; that he had played at danger; that for the past eight days he felt

this desire growing stronger within him, asking himself each time a tree began to fall whether he could pass

beneath it without being touched. It was a piece of stupidity, he confessed, but every one has these moments

He made this explanation in a slow tone, searching for his words, and speaking in a colorless tone.

As soon as he got back to his room he sat down at his table which his lamp lighted up brightly, and, burying

He remained thus for a long time, then wiped his eyes, raised his head and looked at the clock. It was not yet

And he went to the door and locked it. He then came back, and, sitting down at his table, pulled out the

middle drawer. Taking from it a revolver, he laid it down on his papers in full view. The barrel of the firearm

Renardet gazed at it for some time with the uneasy glance of a drunken man. Then he rose and began to pace

He walked from one end of the apartment to the other, stopping from time to time, only to pace up and down

again a moment afterward. Suddenly he opened the door of his dressingroom, steeped a towel in the water

Then he, began walking up and down again. Each time he passed the table the gleaming revolver attracted his

It struck halfpast six. Then he took up the revolver, opened his mouth wide with a frightful grimace and

stuck the barrel into it as if he wanted to swallow it. He remained in this position for some seconds without

moving, his finger on the trigger. Then, suddenly seized with a shudder of horror, he dropped the pistol on the

"I cannot. I dare not! My God! my God! How can I have the courage to kill myself?'"

Then he picked up the revolver, locked it up again in the drawer and looked at himself in the mirror over the

mantelpiece to see whether his face did not look too much troubled. It was as red as usual, a little redder

He ate slowly, like a man who wants to prolong the meal, who does not want to be alone.

Then he smoked several pipes in the hall while the table was being cleared. After that he went back to his

As soon as he had locked himself in he looked, under the bed, opened all the closets, explored every corner,

rummaged through all the furniture. Then he lighted the candles on the mantelpiece, and, turning round

several times, ran his eye all over the apartment with an anguish of terror that distorted his face, for he knew

well that he would see her, as he did every nightlittle Louise Roque, the little girl he had attacked and

Every night the odious vision came back again. First he seemed to hear a kind of roaring sound, such as is

made by a threshing machine or the distant passage of a train over a bridge. Then he commenced to gasp, to

suffocate, and he had to unbutton his collar and his belt. He moved about to make his blood circulate, he tried

to read, he attempted to sing. It was in vain. His thoughts, in spite of himself, went back to the day of the

murder and made him begin it all over again in all its most secret details, with all the violent emotions he had

He had felt on rising that morning, the morning of the horrible day, a little dizziness and headache, which he

After the meal he had taken a siesta, then, toward the close of the afternoon, he had gone out to breathe the

But, as soon as he was outside, the heavy, scorching air of the plain oppressed him still more. The sun, still

high in the heavens, poured down on the parched soil waves of burning light. Not a breath of wind stirred the

leaves. Every beast and bird, even the grasshoppers, were silent. Renardet reached the tall trees and began to

walk over the moss where the Brindille produced a slight freshness of the air beneath the immense roof of

branches. But he felt ill at ease. It seemed to him that an unknown, invisible hand was strangling him, and he

scarcely thought of anything, having usually few ideas in his head. For the last three months only one thought

haunted him, the thought of marrying again. He suffered from living alone, suffered from it morally and

physically. Accustomed for ten years past to feeling a woman near him, habituated to her presence every

moment, he had need, an imperious and perplexing need of such association. Since Madame Renardet's death

he had suffered continually without knowing why, he had suffered at not feeling her dress brushing past him,

and, above all, from no longer being able to calm and rest himself in her arms. He had been scarcely six

months a widower and he was already looking about in the district for some young girl or some widow he

He had a chaste soul, but it was lodged in a powerful, herculean body, and carnal imaginings began to disturb

his sleep and his vigils. He drove them away; they came back again; and he murmured from time to time,

Having this special morning had several of these visions, the desire suddenly came into his breast to bathe in

He knew of a large deep pool, a little farther down, where the people of the neighborhood came sometimes to

Thick willow trees hid this clear body of water where the current rested and went to sleep for a while before

starting on its way again. Renardet, as he appeared, thought he heard a light sound, a faint plashing which

was not that of the stream on the banks. He softly put aside the leaves and looked. A little girl, quite naked in

the transparent water, was beating the water with both hands, dancing about in it and dipping herself with

pretty movements. She was not a child nor was she yet a woman. She was plump and developed, while

preserving an air of youthful precocity, as of one who had grown rapidly. He no longer moved, overcome

with surprise, with desire, holding his breath with a strange, poignant emotion. He remained there, his heart

beating as if one of his sensuous dreams had just been realized, as if an impure fairy had conjured up before

him this young creature, this little rustic Venus, rising from the eddies of the stream as the real Venus rose

Suddenly the little girl came out of the water, and, without seeing him, came over to where he stood, looking

for her clothes in order to dress herself. As she approached gingerly, on account of the sharppointed stones,

he felt himself pushed toward her by an irresistible force, by a bestial transport of passion, which stirred his

She remained standing some seconds behind the willow tree which concealed him from view. Then, losing

his reason entirely, he pushed aside the branches, rushed on her and seized her in his arms. She fell, too

terrified to offer any resistance, too terrorstricken to cry out. He seemed possessed, not understanding what

He woke from his crime as one wakes from a nightmare. The child burst out weeping.

She kept shrieking as she tried to free herself. He suddenly realized that he was ruined, and he caught her by

the neck to stop her mouth from uttering these heartrending, dreadful screams. As she continued to struggle

with the desperate strength of a being who is seeking to fly from death, he pressed his enormous hands on the

little throat swollen with screaming, and in a few seconds he had strangled her, so furiously did he grip her.

She lay before him, her face bleeding and blackned. He was about to rush away when there sprang up in his

agitated soul the mysterious and undefined instinct that guides all beings in the hour of danger.

He was going to throw the body into the water, but another impulse drove him toward the clothes, which he

made into a small package. Then, as he had a piece of twine in his pocket, he tied it up and hid it in a deep

Then he went off at a rapid pace, reached the meadows, took a wide turn in order to show himself to some

peasants who dwelt some distance away at the opposite side of the district, and came back to dine at the usual

hour, telling his servants all that was supposed to have happened during his walk.

He slept, however, that night; he slept with a heavy, brutish sleep like the sleep of certain persons condemned

to death. He did not open his eyes until the first glimmer of dawn, and he waited till his usual hour for riding,

Then he had to be present at the inquiry as to the cause of death. He did so like a somnambulist, in a kind of

vision which showed him men and things as in a dream, in a cloud of intoxication, with that sense of

But the agonized cry of Mother Roque pierced his heart. At that moment he had felt inclined to cast himself

But he had restrained himself. He went back, however, during the night to fish up the dead girl's wooden

As long as the inquiry lasted, as long as it was necessary to lead justice astray he was calm, master of himself,

crafty and smiling. He discussed quietly with the magistrates all the suppositions that passed through their

minds, combated their opinions and demolished their arguments. He even took a keen and mournful pleasure

in disturbing their investigations, in embroiling their ideas, in showing the innocence of those whom they

But as soon as the inquiry was abandoned he became gradually nervous, more excitable than he had been

before, although he mastered his irritability. Sudden noises made him start with fear; he shuddered at the

slightest thing and trembled sometimes from head to foot when a fly alighted on his forehead. Then he was

seized with an imperious desire for motion, which impelled him to take long walks and to remain up whole

It was not that he was goaded by remorse. His brutal nature did not lend itself to any shade of sentiment or of

moral terror. A man of energy and even of violence, born to make war, to ravage conquered countries and to

massacre the vanquished, full of the savage instincts of the hunter and the fighter, he scarcely took count of

human life. Though he respected the Church outwardly, from policy, he believed neither in God nor the devil,

expecting neither chastisement nor recompense for his acts in another life. His sole belief was a vague

philosophy drawn from all the ideas of the encyclopedists of the last century, and he regarded religion as a

moral sanction of the law, the one and the other having been invented by men to regulate social relations. To

kill any one in a duel, or in war, or in a quarrel, or by accident, or for the sake of revenge, or even through

bravado would have seemed to him an amusing and clever thing and would not have left more impression on

his mind than a shot fired at a hare; but he had experienced a profound emotion at the murder of this child. He

had, in the first place, perpetrated it in the heat of an irresistible gust of passion, in a sort of tempest of the

senses that had overpowered his reason. And he had cherished in his heart, in his flesh, on his lips, even to the

very tips of his murderous fingers a kind of bestial love, as well as a feeling of terrified horror, toward this

little girl surprised by him and basely killed. Every moment his thoughts returned to that horrible scene, and,

though he endeavored to drive this picture from his mind, though he put it aside with terror, with disgust, he

felt it surging through his soul, moving about in him, waiting incessantly for the moment to reappear.

Then, as evening approached, he was afraid of the shadow falling around him. He did not yet know why the

darkness seemed frightful to him, but he instinctively feared it, he felt that it was peopled with terrors. The

bright daylight did not lend itself to fears. Things and beings were visible then, and only natural things and

beings could exhibit themselves in the light of day. But the night, the impenetrable night, thicker than walls

and empty; the infinite night, so black, so vast, in which one might brush against frightful things; the night,

when one feels that a mysterious terror is wandering, prowling about, appeared to him to conceal an unknown

He knew ere long. As he sat in his armchair, rather late one evening when he could not sleep, he thought he

saw the curtain of his window move. He waited, uneasily, with beating heart. The drapery did not stir; then,

all of a sudden, it moved once more. He did not venture to rise; he no longer ventured to breathe, and yet he

was brave. He had often fought, and he would have liked to catch thieves in his house.

Was it true that this curtain did move? he asked himself, fearing that his eyes had deceived him. It was,

moreover, such a slight thing, a gentle flutter of drapery, a kind of trembling in its folds, less than an

Renardet sat still, with staring eyes and outstretched neck. He sprang to his feet abruptly, ashamed of his fear,

took four steps, seized the drapery with both hands and pulled it wide apart. At first he saw nothing but

darkened glass, resembling plates of glittering ink. The night, the vast, impenetrable night, stretched beyond

as far as the invisible horizon. He remained standing in front of this illimitable shadow, and suddenly he

Then he put his face close to the window pane, thinking that a person looking for crabs might be poaching in

the Brindille, for it was past midnight, and this light rose up at the edge of the stream, under the trees. As he

was not yet able to see clearly, Renardet placed his hands over his eyes, and suddenly this light became an

illumination, and he beheld little Louise Roque naked and bleeding on the moss. He recoiled, frozen with

horror, knocked over his chair and fell over on his back. He remained there some minutes in anguish of mind;

then he sat up and began to reflect. He had had a hallucinationthat was all, a hallucination due to the fact

that a night marauder was walking with a lantern in his hand near the water's edge. What was there

astonishing, besides, in the circumstance that the recollection of his crime should sometimes bring before him

He rose from the ground, swallowed a glass of wine and sat down again. He was thinking:

And it would occur; he felt it; he was sure of it. Already his glance was drawn toward the window; it called

him; it attracted him. In order to avoid looking at it, he turned his chair round. Then he took a book and tried

to read, but it seemed to him that he presently heard something stirring behind him, and he swung round his

The curtain was moving again; unquestionably, it moved this time. He could no longer have any doubt about

He rushed forward and grasped it so violently that he pulled it down with its pole. Then he eagerly glued his

face to the glass. He saw nothing. All was black outside, and he breathed with the joy of a man whose life has

Then he went back to his chair and sat down again, but almost immediately he felt a longing to look out once

more through the window. Since the curtain had fallen down, the window made a sort of gap, fascinating and

terrible, on the dark landscape. In order not to yield to this dangerous temptation, he undressed, blew out the

Lying on his back motionless, his skin warm and moist, he awaited sleep. Suddenly a great gleam of light

flashed across his eyelids. He opened them, believing that his dwelling was on fire. All was black as before,

and he leaned on his elbow to try to distinguish the window which had still for him an unconquerable

attraction. By dint of, straining his eyes he could perceive some stars, and he rose, groped his way across the

room, discovered the panes with his outstretched hands, and placed his forehead close to them. There below,

under the trees, lay the body of the little girl gleaming like phosphorus, lighting up the surrounding darkness.

Renardet uttered a cry and rushed toward his bed, where he lay till morning, his head hidden under the

From that moment his life became intolerable. He passed his days in apprehension of each succeeding night,

and each night the vision came back again. As soon as he had locked himself up in his room he strove to

resist it, but in vain. An irresistible force lifted him up and pushed him against the window, as if to call the

phantom, and he saw it at once, lying first in the spot where the crime was committed in the position in which

Then the dead girl rose up and came toward him with little steps just as the child had done when she came out

of the river. She advanced quietly, passing straight across the grass and over the bed of withered flowers.

Then she rose up in the air toward Renardet's window. She came toward him as she had come on the day of

the crime. And the man recoiled before the apparitionhe retreated to his bed and sank down upon it,

knowing well that the little one had entered the room and that she now was standing behind the curtain,

which presently moved. And until daybreak he kept staring at this curtain with a fixed glance, ever waiting to

But she did not show herself any more; she remained there behind the curtain, which quivered tremulously

And Renardet, his fingers clutching the clothes, squeezed them as he had squeezed the throat of little Louise

He heard the clock striking the hours, and in the stillness the pendulum kept ticking in time with the loud

beating of his heart. And he suffered, the wretched man, more than any man had ever suffered before.

Then, as soon as a white streak of light on the ceiling announced the approaching day, he felt himself free,

alone at last, alone in his room; and he went to sleep. He slept several hoursa restless, feverish sleep in

When he went down to the late breakfast he felt exhausted as after unusual exertion, and he scarcely ate

anything, still haunted as he was by the fear of what he had seen the night before.

He knew well, however, that it was not an apparition, that the dead do not come back, and that his sick soul,

his soul possessed by one thought alone, by an indelible remembrance, was the only cause of his torture, was

what brought the dead girl back to life and raised her form before his eyes, on which it was ineffaceably

imprinted. But he knew, too, that there was no cure, that he would never escape from the savage persecution

of his memory, and he resolved to die rather than to endure these tortures any longer.

Then he thought of how he would kill himself, It must be something simple and natural, which would

preclude the idea of suicide. For he clung to his reputation, to the name bequeathed to him by his ancestors;

and if his death awakened any suspicion people's thoughts might be, perhaps, directed toward the mysterious

crime, toward the murderer who could not be found, and they would not hesitate to accuse him of the crime.

A strange idea came into his head, that of allowing himself to be crushed by the tree at the foot of which he

had assassinated little Louise Roque. So he determined to have the wood cut down and to simulate an

Returning to his house, a prey to utter despair, he had snatched up his revolver, and then did not dare to fire

The dinner bell summoned him. He could eat nothing, and he went upstairs again. And he did not know what

to do. Now that he had escaped the first time, he felt himself a coward. Presently he would be ready, brave,

decided, master of his courage and of his resolution; now he was weak and feared death as much as he did the

Then he glanced with terror, first at the revolver on the table and next at the curtain which hid his window. It

seemed to him, moreover, that something horrible would occur as soon as his life was ended. Something?

What? A meeting with her, perhaps. She was watching for him; she was waiting for him; she was calling him;

and it was in order to seize him in her turn, to draw him toward the doom that would avenge her, and to lead

"My God! my God!" without believing, nevertheless, in God. And he no longer dared, in fact, to look at his

window, where he knew the apparition was hiding, nor at his table, where his revolver gleamed. When he had

The sound of his voice in the silent room made a chill of fear pass through his limbs, but as he could not

bring himself to come to a determination, as he felt certain that his finger would always refuse to pull the

trigger of his revolver, he turned round to hide his head under the bedclothes and began to reflect.

He would have to find some way in which he could force himself to die, to play some trick on himself which

would not permit of any hesitation on his part, any delay, any possible regrets. He envied condemned

criminals who are led to the scaffold surrounded by soldiers. Oh! if he could only beg of some one to shoot

him; if after confessing his crime to a true friend who would never divulge it he could procure death at his

hand. But from whom could he ask this terrible service? From whom? He thought of all the people he knew.

The doctor? No, he would talk about it afterward, most probably. And suddenly a fantastic idea entered his

mind. He would write to the magistrate, who was on terms of close friendship with him, and would denounce

himself as the perpetrator of the crime. He would in this letter confess everything, revealing how his soul had

been tortured, how he had resolved to die, how he had hesitated about carrying out his resolution and what

means he had employed to strengthen his failing courage. And in the name of their old friendship he would

implore of the other to destroy the letter as soon as he had ascertained that the culprit had inflicted justice on

himself. Renardet could rely on this magistrate; he knew him to be true, discreet, incapable of even an idle

word. He was one of those men who have an inflexible conscience, governed, directed, regulated by their

Scarcely had he formed this project when a strange feeling of joy took possession of his heart. He was calm

now. He would write his letter slowly, then at daybreak he would deposit it in the box nailed to the outside

wall of his office; then he would ascend his tower to watch for the postman's arrival; and when the man in the

blue blouse had gone away, he would cast himself head foremost on the rocks on which the foundations

rested, He would take care to be seen first by the workmen who had cut down his wood. He could climb to

the projecting stone which bore the flagstaff displayed on festivals, He would smash this pole with a shake

Who would suspect that it was not an accident? And he would be killed outright, owing to his weight and the

Presently he got out of bed, went over to the table and began to write. He omitted nothing, not a single detail

of the crime, not a single detail of the torments of his heart, and he ended by announcing that he had passed

sentence on himself, that he was going to execute the criminal, and begged his friend, his old friend, to be

He closed, sealed it and wrote the address. Then he descended with light steps, hurried toward the little white

box fastened to the outside wall in the corner of the farmhouse, and when he had thrown into it this letter,

which made his hand tremble, he came back quickly, drew the bolts of the great door and climbed up to his

tower to wait for the passing of the postman, who was to bear away his death sentence.

A cold dry wind, an icy wind passed across his face. He inhaled it eagerly with open mouth, drinking in its

chilling kiss. The sky was red, a wintry red, and all the plain, whitened with frost, glistened under the first

Renardet, standing up, his head bare, gazed at the vast tract of country before him, the meadows to the left

and to the right the village whose chimneys were beginning to smoke in preparation for the morning meal. At

his feet he saw the Brindille flowing amid the rocks, where he would soon be crushed to death. He felt new

life on that beautiful frosty morning. The light bathed him, entered his being like a newborn hope. A

thousand recollections assailed him, recollections of similar mornings, of rapid walks on the hard earth which

rang beneath his footsteps, of happy days of shooting on the edges of pools where wild ducks sleep. All the

good things that he loved, the good things of existence, rushed to his memory, penetrated him with fresh

And he was about to die! Why? He was going to kill himself stupidly because he was afraid of a

shadowafraid of nothing! He was still rich and in the prime of life. What folly! All he needed was

This night even he had not seen the little girl because his mind was preoccupied and had wandered toward

some other subject. Perhaps he would not see her any more? And even if she still haunted him in this house,

certainly she would not follow him elsewhere! The earth was wide, the future was long.

His glance travelled across the meadows, and he perceived a blue spot in the path which wound alongside the

Brindille. It was Mederic coming to bring letters from the town and to carry away those of the village.

Renardet gave a start, a sensation of pain shot through his breast, and he rushed down the winding staircase to

get back his letter, to demand it back from the postman. Little did it matter to him now whether he was seen,

He hurried across the grass damp from the light frost of the previous night and arrived in front of the box in

The latter had opened the little wooden door and drew forth the four papers deposited there by the inhabitants

"I say, Mederic, I threw a letter into the box that I want back again. I came to ask you to give it back to me."

And the postman raised his eyes. He stood petrified at the sight of Renardet's face. The mayor's cheeks were

purple, his eyes were anxious and sunken, with black circles round them, his hair was unbrushed, his beard

The other, suddenly comprehending that his appearance must be unusual, lost countenance and faltered:

"Oh! nooh! no. Only I jumped out of bed to ask you for this letter. I was asleep. You understand?"

Mederic now began to hesitate. The mayor's attitude did not strike him as natural. There was perhaps a secret

in that letter, a political secret. He knew Renardet was not a Republican, and he knew all the tricks and

The postman searched through the papers and found the one asked for. Then he began looking at it, turning it

round and round between his fingers, much perplexed, much troubled by the fear of either committing a grave

Seeing his hesitation, Renardet made a movement for the purpose of seizing the letter and snatching it away

from him. This abrupt action convinced Mederic that some important secret was at stake and made him

"Why, you know me well. You are even able to recognize my handwriting. I tell you I want that paper."

"Look here, Mederic, you know that I'm incapable of deceiving youI tell you I want it."

"Damn it all, take care! You know that I never trifle and that I could get you out of your job, my good fellow,

and without much delay, either, And then, I am the mayor of the district, after all; and I now order you to give

Thereupon Renardet, losing his head, caught hold of the postman's arms in order to take away his bag; but,

freeing himself by a strong effort, and springing backward, the letter carrier raised his big holly stick.

"Don't touch me, Monsieur le Maire, or I'll strike. Take care, I'm only doing my duty!"

Feeling that he was lost, Renardet suddenly became humble, gentle, appealing to him like a whimpering

"Look here, look here, my friend, give me back that letter and I'll recompense youI'll give you money.

"Mederic, Mederic, listen! I'll give you a thousand francs, you understanda thousand francs."

"I'll make your fortune, you understandwhatever you wishfifty thousand francsfifty thousand francs

for that letter! What does it matter to you? You won't? Well, a hundred thousandI saya hundred

thousand francs. Do you understand? A hundred thousand francsa hundred thousand francs."

"Enough of this, or else I'll repeat to the magistrate everything you have just said to me."

Renardet stopped abruptly. It was all over. He turned back and rushed toward his house, running like a hunted

Then, in his turn, Mederic stopped and watched his flight with stupefaction. He saw the mayor reenter his

In fact, presently the tall form of Renardet appeared on the summit of the Fox's tower. He ran round the

platform like a madman. Then he seized the flagstaff and shook it furiously without succeeding in breaking it;

then, all of a sudden, like a diver, with his two hands before him, he plunged into space.

Mederic rushed forward to his assistance. He saw the woodcutters going to work and called out to them,

telling them an accident had occurred. At the foot of the walls they found a bleeding body, its head crushed

on a rock. The Brindille surrounded this rock, and over its clear, calm waters could be seen a long red thread

There was not a breath of air stirring; a heavy mist was lying over the river. It was like a layer of cotton

placed on the water. The banks themselves were indistinct, hidden behind strange fogs. But day was breaking

and the hill was becoming visible. In the dawning light of day the plaster houses began to appear like white

On the other side of the river, hidden behind the fogs, just opposite Frette, a slight noise from time to time

broke the dead silence of the quiet morning. At times it was an indistinct plashing, like the cautious advance

of a boat, then again a sharp noise like the rattle of an oar and then the sound of something dropping in the

Sometimes whispered words, coming perhaps from a distance, perhaps from quite near, pierced through these

opaque mists. They passed by like wild birds which have slept in the rushes and which fly away at the first

light of day, crossing the mist and uttering a low and timid sound which wakes their brothers along the

Suddenly along the bank, near the village, a barely perceptible shadow appeared on the water. Then it grew,

became more distinct and, coming out of the foggy curtain which hung over the river, a flatboat, manned by

The one who was rowing rose and took a pailful of fish from the bottom of the boat, then he threw the

dripping net over his shoulder. His companion, who had not made a motion, exclaimed: "Say, Mailloche, get

The other one answered: "All right. I'll be with you in a minute." Then he disappeared, in order to hide their

The man who had stayed in the boat slowly filled his pipe and lighted it. His name was Labouise, but he was

called Chicot, and was in partnership with Maillochon, commonly called Mailloche, to practice the doubtful

They were a low order of sailors and they navigated regularly only in the months of famine. The rest of the

time they acted as junkgatherers. Rowing about on the river day and night, watching for any prey, dead or

alive, poachers on the water and nocturnal hunters, sometimes ambushing venison in the SaintGermain

forests, sometimes looking for drowned people and searching their clothes, picking up floating rags and

At times they would set out on foot about noon and stroll along straight ahead. They would dine in some inn

on the shore and leave again side by side. They would remain away for a couple of days; then one morning

At Joinville or at Nogent some boatman would be looking for his boat, which had disappeared one night,

probably stolen, while twenty or thirty miles from there, on the Oise, some shopkeeper would be rubbing his

hands, congratulating himself on the bargain he had made when he bought a boat the day before for fifty

Maillochon reappeared with his gun wrapped up in rags. He was a man of forty or fifty, tall and thin, with the

restless eye of people who are worried by legitimate troubles and of hunted animals. His open shirt showed

his hairy chest, but he seemed never to have had any more hair on his face than a short brush of a mustache

and a few stiff hairs under his lower lip. He was bald around the temples. When he took off the dirty cap that

he wore his scalp seemed to be covered with a fluffy down, like the body of a plucked chicken.

Chicot, on the contrary, was red, fat, short and hairy. He looked like a raw beefsteak. He continually kept his

left eye closed, as if he were aiming at something or at somebody, and when people jokingly cried to him,

"Open your eye, Labouise!" he would answer quietly: "Never fear, sister, I open it when there's cause to."

He took up the oars again, and once more the boat disappeared in the heavy mist, which was now turned

They were approaching the other shore so slowly, so quietly that no noise betrayed them. This bank belongs

to the SaintGermain forest and is the boundary line for rabbit hunting. It is covered with burrows hidden

under the roots of trees, and the creatures at daybreak frisk about, running in and out of the holes.

Maillochon was kneeling in the bow, watching, his gun hidden on the floor. Suddenly he seized it, aimed, and

Labouise, in a few strokes, touched the beach, and his companion, jumping to the ground, picked up a little

Then the boat once more disappeared into the fog in order to get to the other side, where it could keep away

The two men seemed to be riding easily on the water. The weapon had disappeared under the board which

After about a quarter of an hour Labouise asked: "Well, sister, shall we get one more?"

The boat started swiftly down the current. The mist, which was hiding both shores, was beginning to rise. The

trees could be barely perceived, as through a veil, and the little clouds of fog were floating up from the water.

When they drew near the island, the end of which is opposite Herblay, the two men slackened their pace and

Then they went down until they were half way to Conflans. Here they stopped their boat, tied it to a tree and

From time to time Labouise would sit up and look over the horizon with his open eye. The last of the

morning mist had disappeared and the large summer sun was climbing in the blue sky.

On the other side of the river the vineyardcovered hill stretched out in a semicircle. One house stood out

Something was moving slowly along the towpath, advancing with difficulty. It was a woman dragging a

donkey. The stubborn, stiff jointed beast occasionally stretched out a leg in answer to its companion's

efforts, and it proceeded thus, with outstretched neck and ears lying flat, so slowly that one could not tell

The woman, bent double, was pulling, turning round occasionally to strike the donkey with a stick.

Chicot took the oars. When he had crossed the river he stopped opposite the woman and called:

At last the woman answered: "I'm going to Macquart, at Champioux, to have him killed. He's worthless."

Labouise answered: "You're right. How much do you think Macquart will give you for him?"

The woman wiped her forehead on the back of her hand and hesitated, saying: "How do I know? Perhaps

Chicot exclaimed: "I'll give you five francs and your errand's done! How's that?"

The two men landed. Labouise grasped the animal by the bridle. Maillochon asked in surprise:

Chicot this time opened his other eye in order to express his gaiety. His whole red face was grinning with joy.

He gave five francs to the woman, who then sat down by the road to see what was going to happen. Then

Labouise, in great humor, got the gun and held it out to Maillochon, saying: "Each one in turn; we're going

after big game, sister. Don't get so near or you'll kill it right away! You must make the pleasure last a little."

He placed his companion about forty paces from the victim. The ass, feeling itself free, was trying to get a

little of the tall grass, but it was so exhausted that it swayed on its legs as if it were about to fall.

Maillochon aimed slowly and said: "A little pepper for the ears; watch, Ghicot!" And he fired.

The tiny shot struck the donkey's long ears and he began to shake them in order to get rid of the stinging

sensation. The two men were doubled up with laughter and stamped their feet with joy. The woman,

indignant, rushed forward; she did not want her donkey to be tortured, and she offered to return the five

francs. Labouise threatened her with a thrashing and pretended to roll up his sleeves. He had paid, hadn't he?

Well, then, he would take a shot at her skirts, just to show that it didn't hurt. She went away, threatening to

call the police. They could hear her protesting indignantly and cursing as she went her way.

Labouise aimed and fired. The donkey received the charge in his thighs, but the shot was so small and came

from such a distance that he thought he was being stung by flies, for he began to thrash himself with his tail.

Labouise sat down to laugh more comfortably, while Maillochon reloaded the weapon, so happy that he

seemed to sneeze into the barrel. He stepped forward a few paces, and, aiming at the same place that his

friend had shot at, he fired again. This time the beast started, tried to kick and turned its head. At last a little

blood was running. It had been wounded and felt a sharp pain, for it tried to run away with a slow, limping,

Both men darted after the beast, Maillochon with a long stride, Labouise with the short, breathless trot of a

little man. But the donkey, tired out, had stopped, and, with a bewildered look, was watching his two

Labouise, out of breath, had taken the gun. This time he walked right up close, as he did not wish to begin the

When the poor beast had finished its mournful cry, like a last call for help, the man called: "Hey, Mailloche!

Come here, sister; I'm going to give him some medicine." And while the other man was forcing the animal's

mouth open, Chicot stuck the barrel of his gun down its throat, as if he were trying to make it drink a potion.

He pressed the trigger. The donkey stumbled back a few steps, fell down, tried to get up again and finally lay

on its side and closed its eyes: The whole body was trembling, its legs were kicking as if it were, trying to

run. A stream of blood was oozing through its teeth. Soon it stopped moving. It was dead.

The two men went along, laughing. It was over too quickly; they had not had their money's worth.

Labouise answered: "Don't worry, sister. Get the thing on the boat; we're going to have some fun when night

They went and got the boat. The animal's body was placed on the bottom, covered with fresh grass, and the

Toward noon Labouise drew a bottle of wine, some bread and butter and raw onions from a hiding place in

When the meal was over they once more stretched out on the dead donkey and slept. At nightfall Labouise

awoke and shook his comrade, who was snoring like a buzzsaw. "Come on, sister," he ordered.

Maillochon began to row. As they had plenty of time they went up the Seine slowly. They coasted along the

reaches covered with waterlilies, and the heavy, mudcovered boat slipped over the lily pads and bent the

When they reached the wall of the Eperon, which separates the Saint Germain forest from the

MaisonsLaffitte Park, Labouise stopped his companion and explained his idea to him. Maillochon was

They threw into the water the grass which had covered the body, took the animal by the feet and hid it behind

The night was perfectly black when they reached the wine shop of old man Jules. As soon as the dealer saw

them he came up, shook hands with them and sat down at their table. They began to talk of one thing and

another. By eleven o'clock the last customer had left and old man Jules winked at Labouise and asked: "Well,

Chicot dug his hands into his flannel shirt, drew out the ears of a rabbit and declared: "Three francs a pair!"

Then began a long discussion about the price. Two francs sixtyfive and the two rabbits were delivered. As

the two men were getting up to go, old man Jules, who had been watching them, exclaimed:

The man, growing eager, kept asking: "What is it? Something big? Perhaps we might make a deal."

Labouise, who seemed perplexed, pretended to consult Maillochon with a glance. Then he answered in a slow

voice: "This is how it is. We were in the bushes at Eperon when something passed right near us, to the left, at

the end of the wall. Mailloche takes a shot and it drops. We skipped on account of the game people. I can't

tell you what it is, because I don't know. But it's big enough. But what is it? If I told you I'd be lying, and you

Labouise answered: "Might be and then again it might not! Venison?uh! uh!might be a little big for

Labouise stretched out his hand, exclaiming: "No, it's not that! It's not a buck. I should have seen the horns.

"Because, sister, from now on I sell from where I stand. Plenty of people will buy. All you have to do is to

"He's there, I swear!first bush to the left. What it is, I don't know. But it's not a buck, I'm positive. It's for

Then he took out four big fivefranc pieces from the cash drawer, and the two friends pocketed the money.

Labouise arose, emptied his glass and left. As he was disappearing in the shadows he turned round to

exclaim: "It isn't a buck. I don't know what it is!but it's there. I'll give you back your money if you find

And he disappeared in the darkness. Maillochon, who was following him, kept punching him in the back to

As we were still talking about Pranzini, M. Maloureau, who had been attorney general under the Empire,

said: "Oh! I formerly knew a very curious affair, curious for several reasons, as you will see.

"I was at that time imperial attorney in one of the provinces. I had to take up the case which has remained

"Monsieur Moiron, who was a teacher in the north of France, enjoyed an excellent reputation throughout the

whole country. He was a person of intelligence, quiet, very religious, a little taciturn; he had married in the

district of Boislinot, where he exercised his profession. He had had three children, who had died of

consumption, one after the other. From this time he seemed to bestow upon the youngsters confided to his

care all the tenderness of his heart. With his own money he bought toys for his best scholars and for the good

boys; he gave them little dinners and stuffed them with delicacies, candy and cakes: Everybody loved this

good man with his big heart, when suddenly five of his pupils died, in a strange manner, one after the other. It

was supposed that there was an epidemic due to the condition of the water, resulting from drought; they

looked for the causes without being able to discover them, the more so that the symptoms were so peculiar.

The children seemed to be attacked by a feeling of lassitude; they would not eat, they complained of pains in

their stomachs, dragged along for a short time, and died in frightful suffering.

"A postmortem examination was held over the last one, but nothing was discovered. The vitals were sent to

"For a year nothing new developed; then two little boys, the best scholars in the class, Moiron's favorites,

died within four days of each other. An examination of the bodies was again ordered, and in both of them

were discovered tiny fragments of crushed glass. The conclusion arrived at was that the two youngsters must

imprudently have eaten from some carelessly cleaned receptacle. A glass broken over a pail of milk could

have produced this frightful accident, and the affair would have been pushed no further if Moiron's servant

had not been taken sick at this time. The physician who was called in noticed the same symptoms he had seen

in the children. He questioned her and obtained the admission that she had stolen and eaten some candies that

"On an order from the court the schoolhouse was searched, and a closet was found which was full of toys and

dainties destined for the children. Almost all these delicacies contained bits of crushed glass or pieces of

"Moiron was immediately arrested; but he seemed so astonished and indignant at the suspicion hanging over

him that he was almost released. How ever, indications of his guilt kept appearing, and baffled in my mind

my first conviction, based on his excellent reputation, on his whole life, on the complete absence of any

"Why should this good, simple, religious man have killed little children, and the very children whom he

seemed to love the most, whom he spoiled and stuffed with sweet things, for whom he spent half his salary in

"One must consider him insane to believe him guilty of this act. Now, Moiron seemed so normal, so quiet, so

"However, the proofs kept growing! In none of the candies that were bought at the places where the

schoolmaster secured his provisions could the slightest trace of anything suspicious be found.

"He then insisted that an unknown enemy must have opened his cupboard with a false key in order to

introduce the glass and the needles into the eatables. And he made up a whole story of an inheritance

dependent on the death of a child, determined on and sought by some peasant, and promoted thus by casting

suspicions on the schoolmaster. This brute, he claimed, did not care about the other children who were forced

"The story was possible. The man appeared to be so sure of himself and in such despair that we should

undoubtedly have acquitted him, notwithstanding the charges against him, if two crushing discoveries had not

"The first one was a snuffbox full of crushed glass; his own snuffbox, hidden in the desk where he kept his

"He explained this new find in an acceptable manner, as the ruse of the real unknown criminal. But a mercer

from SaintMarlouf came to the presiding judge and said that a gentleman had several times come to his

store to buy some needles; and he always asked for the thinnest needles he could find, and would break them

to see whether they pleased him. The man was brought forward in the presence of a dozen or more persons,

and immediately recognized Moiron. The inquest revealed that the schoolmaster had indeed gone into

"I will pass over the terrible testimony of children on the choice of dainties and the care which he took to

"Public indignation demanded capital punishment, and it became more and more insistent, overturning all

"Moiron was condemned to death, and his appeal was rejected. Nothing was left for him but the imperial

"One morning, as I was working in my study, the visit of the prison almoner was announced. He was an old

priest who knew men well and understood the habits of criminals. He seemed troubled, ill at ease, nervous.

After talking for a few minutes about one thing and another, he arose and said suddenly: 'If Moiron is

"Then he left without bowing, leaving me behind with the deep impression made by his words. He had

pronounced them in such a sincere and solemn manner, opening those lips, closed and sealed by the secret of

"An hour later I left for Paris, and my father immediately asked that I be granted an audience with the

"The following day I was received. His majesty was working in a little reception room when we were

introduced. I described the whole case, and I was just telling about the priest's visit when a door opened

behind the sovereign's chair and the empress, who supposed he was alone, appeared. His majesty, Napoleon,

consulted her. As soon as she had heard the matter, she exclaimed: 'This man must be pardoned. He must,

"Why did this sudden conviction of a religious woman cast a terrible doubt in my mind?

"Until then I had ardently desired a change of sentence. And now I suddenly felt myself the toy, the dupe of a

cunning criminal who had employed the priest and confession as a last means of defence.

"I explained my hesitancy to their majesties. The emperor remained undecided, urged on one side by his

natural kindness and held back on the other by the fear of being deceived by a criminal; but the empress, who

was convinced that the priest had obeyed a divine inspiration, kept repeating: 'Never mind! It is better to

spare a criminal than to kill an innocent man!' Her advice was taken. The death sentence was commuted to

"A few years later I heard that Moiron had again been called to the emperor's attention on account of his

exemplary conduct in the prison at Toulon and was now employed as a servant by the director of the

"For a long time I heard nothing more of this man. "But about two years ago, while I was spending a summer

near Lille with my cousin, De Larielle, I was informed one evening, just as we were sitting down to dinner,

"I had him shown in and he begged me to come to a dying man who desired absolutely to see me. This had

often happened to me in my long career as a magistrate, and, although I had been set aside by the Republic, I

was still often called upon in similar circumstances. I therefore followed the priest, who led me to a miserable

"There I found a strangelooking man on a bed of straw, sitting with his back against the wall, in order to get

"'The story is too long. I haven't time to tell it. I was going to die and that priest was brought to meand

as I knew that you were here I sent for you. It is to you that I wish to confesssince you were the one who

"His hands clutched the straw of his bed through the sheet and he continued in a hoarse, forcible and low

tone: 'You seeI owe you the truthI owe it to youfor it must be told to some one before I leave this

"'Listen. I was an honest, straightforward, pure manadoring Godthis good Fatherthis Master who

teaches us to love, and not the false God, the executioner, the robber, the murderer who governs the earth. I

had never done any harm; I had never committed an evil act. I was as good as it is possible to be, monsieur.

"'I married and had children, and I loved them as no father or mother ever loved their children. I lived only

for them. I was wild about them. All three of them died! Why? why? What had I done? I was rebellious,

furious; and suddenly my eyes were opened as if I were waking up out of a sleep. I understood that God is

bad. Why had He killed my children? I opened my eyes and saw that He loves to kill. He loves only that,

monsieur. He gives life but to destroy it! God, monsieur, is a murderer! He needs death every day. And He

makes it of every variety, in order the better to be amused. He has invented sickness and accidents in order to

give Him diversion all through the months and the years; and when He grows tired of this, He has epidemics,

the plague, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, everything possible! But this does not satisfy Him; all these things

are too similar; and so from time to time He has wars, in order to see two hundred thousand soldiers killed at

once, crushed in blood and in the mud, blown apart, their arms and legs torn off, their heads smashed by

"'But this is not all. He has made men who eat each other. And then, as men become better than He, He has

made beasts, in order to see men hunt them, kill them and eat them. That is not all. He has made tiny little

animals which live one day, flies who die by the millions in one hour, ants which we are continually crushing

under our feet, and so many, many others that we cannot even imagine. And all these things are continually

killing each other and dying. And the good Lord looks on and is amused, for He sees everything, the big ones

as well as the little ones, those who are in the drops of water and those in the other firmaments. He watches

"'Then, monsieur, I began to kill children played a trick on Him. He did not get those. It was not He, but I!

"'I was to be executed. I! How He would have laughed! Then I asked for a priest, and I lied. I confessed to

"'Now, all is over. I can no longer escape from Him. I no longer fear Him, monsieur; I despise Him too

"This poor wretch was frightful to see as he lay there gasping, opening an enormous mouth in order to utter

words which could scarcely be heard, his breath rattling, picking at his bed and moving his thin legs under a

"I turned to the ashenfaced priest, whose dark outline stood out against the wall, and asked: 'Are you going

We lived formerly in a little house beside the high road outside the village. He had set up in business as a

wheelwright, after marrying the daughter of a farmer of the neighborhood, and as they were both industrious,

they managed to save up a nice little fortune. But they had no children, and this caused them great sorrow.

Finally a son was born, whom they named Jean. They both loved and petted him, enfolding him with their

When he was five years old some mountebanks passed through the country and set up their tent in the town

Jean, who had seen them pass by, made his escape from the house, and after his father had made a long

search for him, he found him among the learned goats and trick dogs, uttering shouts of laughter and sitting

Three days later, just as they were sitting down to dinner, the wheelwright and his wife noticed that their son

was not in the house. They looked for him in the garden, and as they did not find him, his father went out into

Night came on. A brown vapor arose making distant objects look still farther away and giving them a dismal,

weird appearance. Three tall pines, close at hand, seemed to be weeping. Still there was no reply, but the air

appeared to be full of indistinct sighing. The father listened for some time, thinking he heard a sound first in

one direction, then in another, and, almost beside himself, he ran, out into the night, calling incessantly "Jean!

He ran along thus until daybreak, filling the, darkness with his shouts, terrifying stray animals, torn by a

terrible anguish and fearing that he was losing his mind. His wife, seated on the stone step of their home,

They did not find their son. They both aged rapidly in their inconsolable sorrow. Finally they sold their house

They inquired of the shepherds on the hillsides, of the tradesmen passing by, of the peasants in the villages

and of the authorities in the towns. But their boy had been lost a long time and no one knew anything about

him. He had probably forgotten his own name by this time and also the name of his village, and his parents

Before long their money came to an end, and they worked out by the day in the farms and inns, doing the

most menial work, eating what was left from the tables, sleeping on the ground and suffering from cold. Then

as they became enfeebled by hard work no one would employ them any longer, and they were forced to beg

along the high roads. They accosted passersby in an entreating voice and with sad, discouraged faces; they

begged a morsel of bread from the harvesters who were dining around a tree in the fields at noon, and they

ate in silence seated on the edge of a ditch. An innkeeper to whom they told their story said to them one day:

When they entered the great city they were bewildered by its size and by the crowds that they saw. But they

knew that Jean must be in the midst of all these people, though they did not know how to set about looking

for him. Then they feared that they might not recognize him, for he was only five years old when they last

They visited every place, went through all the streets, stopping whenever they saw a group of people, hoping

for some providential meeting, some extraordinary luck, some compassionate fate.

They frequently walked at haphazard straight ahead, leaning one against the other, looking so sad and

They spent every Sunday at the doors of the churches, watching the crowds entering and leaving, trying to

distinguish among the faces one that might be familiar. Several times they thought they recognized him, but

In the vestibule of one of the churches which they visited the most frequently there was an old dispenser of

holy Water who had become their friend. He also had a very sad history, and their sympathy for him had

established a bond of close friendship between them. It ended by them all three living together in a poor

lodging on the top floor of a large house situated at some distance, quite on the outskirts of the city, and the

wheelwright would sometimes take his new friend's place at the church when the latter was ill.

Winter came, a very severe winter. The poor holy water sprinkler died and the parish priest appointed the

wheelwright, whose misfortunes had come to his knowledge, to replace him. He went every morning and sat

in the same place, on the same chair, wearing away the old stone pillar by continually leaning against it. He

would gaze steadily at every man who entered the church and looked forward to Sunday with as much

impatience as a schoolboy, for on that day the church was filled with people from morning till night.

He became very old, growing weaker each day from the dampness of the church, and his hope oozed away

He now knew by sight all the people who came to the services; he knew their hours, their manners, could

His interests had become so contracted that the entrance of a stranger in the church was for him a great event.

One day two ladies came in; one was old, the other younga mother and daughter probably. Behind them

came a man who was following them. He bowed to them as they came out, and after offering them some holy

"That must be the fiance of the younger one," thought the wheelwright. And until evening he kept trying to

recall where he had formerly seen a young man who resembled this one. But the one he was thinking of must

be an old man by this time, for it seemed as if he had known him down home in his youth.

The same man frequently came again to walk home with the ladies, and this vague, distant, familiar

resemblance which he could not place worried the old man so much that he made his wife come with him to

One evening as it was growing dusk the three strangers entered together. When they had passed the old man

His wife anxiously tried to ransack her memory. Suddenly she said in a low tone:

"Yesyesbut he is darker, taller, stouter and is dressed like a gentleman, but, father, all the same, it is

It was true. He looked like himself and also like his brother who was dead, and like his father, whom he

remembered while he was yet young. The old couple were so affected that they could not speak. The three

The man touched his finger to the holy water sprinkler. Then the old man, whose hand was trembling so that

The man stooped down, with his face close to the old man's, and as a memory of his childhood dawned on

He had forgotten everything, his father's surname and the name of his native place, but he always

remembered those two words that he had so often repeated: "Papa Pierre, Mamma Jeanne."

He sank to the floor, his face on the old man's knees, and he wept, kissing now his father and then his mother,

The two ladies also wept, understanding as they did that some great happiness had come to pass.

Then they all went to the young man's house and he told them his history. The circus people had carried him

off. For three years he traveled with them in various countries. Then the troupe disbanded, and one day an old

lady in a chateau had paid to have him stay with her because she liked his appearance. As he was intelligent,

he was sent to school, then to college, and the old lady having no children, had left him all her money. He, for

his part, had tried to find his parents, but as he could remember only the two names, "Papa Pierre, Mamma

Jeanne," he had been unable to do so. Now he was about to be married, and he introduced his fiancee, who

When the two old people had told their story in their turn he kissed them once more. They sat up very late

that night, not daring to retire lest the happiness they had so long sought should escape them again while they

But misfortune had lost its hold on them and they were happy for the rest of their lives.

The lawyer had presented a plea of insanity. How could anyone explain this strange crime otherwise?

One morning, in the grass near Chatou, two bodies had been found, a man and a woman, well known, rich, no

longer young and married since the preceding year, the woman having been a widow for three years before.

They were not known to have enemies; they had not been robbed. They seemed to have been thrown from the

roadside into the river, after having been struck, one after the other, with a long iron spike.

The investigation revealed nothing. The boatmen, who had been questioned, knew nothing. The matter was

about to be given up, when a young carpenter from a neighboring village, Georges Louis, nicknamed "the

"I had known the man for two years, the woman for six months. They often had me repair old furniture for

This man was undoubtedly an illegitimate child, put out to nurse and then abandoned. He had no other name

than Georges Louis, but as on growing up he became particularly intelligent, with the good taste and native

refinement which his acquaintances did not have, he was nicknamed "the Bourgeois," and he was never

called otherwise. He had become remarkably clever in the trade of a carpenter, which he had taken up. He

was also said to be a socialist fanatic, a believer in communistic and nihilistic doctrines, a great reader of

bloodthirsty novels, an influential political agitator and a clever orator in the public meetings of workmen or

Indeed, how could one imagine that this workman should kill his best customers, rich and generous (as he

knew), who in two years had enabled him to earn three thousand francs (his books showed it)? Only one

explanation could be offered: insanity, the fixed idea of the unclassed individual who reeks vengeance on two

bourgeois, on all ,the bourgeoisie, and the lawyer made a clever allusion to this nickname of "The

Bourgeois," given throughout the neighborhood to this poor wretch. He exclaimed:

"Is this irony not enough to unbalance the mind of this poor wretch, who has neither father nor mother? He is

an ardent republican. What am I saying? He even belongs to the same political party, the members of which,

formerly shot or exiled by the government, it now welcomes with open arms this party to which arson is a

"These gloomy doctrines, now applauded in public meetings, have ruined this man. He has heard

republicanseven women, yes, womenask for the blood of M. Gambetta, the blood of M. Grevy; his

Everywhere could be heard murmurs of assent. Everyone felt that the lawyer had won his case. The

He was a short, flaxen blond, with calm, clear, gray eyes. A strong, frank, sonorous voice came from this

fraillooking boy and, at the first words, quickly changed the opinion which had been formed of him.

He spoke loud in a declamatory manner, but so distinctly that every word could be understood in the farthest

"Your honor, as I do not wish to go to an insane asylum, and as I even prefer death to that, I will tell

"A woman, having given birth to a boy, sent him out, somewhere, to a nurse. Did she even know where her

accomplice carried this innocent little being, condemned to eternal misery, to the shame of an illegitimate

birth; to more than thatto death, since he was abandoned and the nurse, no longer receiving the monthly

"The woman who nursed me was honest, better, more noble, more of a mother than my own mother. She

brought me up. She did wrong in doing her duty. It is more humane to let them die, these little wretches who

"I grew up with the indistinct impression that I was carrying some burden of shame. One day the other

children called me a 'b'. They did not know the meaning of this word, which one of them had heard at

"I was, I may say, one of the cleverest boys in the school. I would have been a good man, your honor,

perhaps a man of superior intellect, if my parents had not committed the crime of abandoning me.

"This crime was committed against me. I was the victim, they were the guilty ones. I was defenseless, they

"I owed them lifebut is life a boon? To me, at any rate, it was a misfortune. After their shameful desertion,

I owed them only vengeance. They committed against me the most inhuman, the most infamous, the most

"A man who has been insulted, strikes; a man who has been robbed, takes back his own by force. A man who

has been deceived, played upon, tortured, kills; a man who has been slapped, kills; a man who has been

dishonored, kills. I have been robbed, deceived, tortured, morally slapped, dishonored, all this to a greater

"I revenged myself, I killed. It was my legitimate right. I took their happy life in exchange for the terrible one

"You will call me parricide! Were these people my parents, for whom I was an abominable burden, a terror,

an infamous shame; for whom my birth was a calamity and my life a threat of disgrace? They sought a selfish

pleasure; they got an unexpected child. They suppressed the child. My turn came to do the same for them.

"As I have said, this man, my father, came to me for the first time two years ago. I suspected nothing. He

ordered two pieces of furniture. I found out, later on, that, under the seal of secrecy, naturally, he had sought

"He returned often. He gave me a lot of work and paid me well. Sometimes he would even talk to me of one

"At the beginning of this year he brought with him his wife, my mother. When she entered she was trembling

so that I thought her to be suffering from some nervous disease. Then she asked for a seat and a glass of

water. She said nothing; she looked around abstractedly at my work and only answered 'yes' and 'no,' at

random, to all the questions which he asked her. When she had left I thought her a little unbalanced.

"The following month they returned. She was calm, selfcontrolled. That day they chattered for a long time,

and they left me a rather large order. I saw her three more times, without suspecting anything. But one day

she began to talk to me of my life, of my childhood, of my parents. I answered: 'Madame, my parents were

wretches who deserted me.' Then she clutched at her heart and fell, unconscious. I immediately thought: 'She

is my mother!' but I took care not to let her notice anything. I wished to observe her.

"I, in turn, sought out information about them. I learned that they had been married since last July, my mother

having been a widow for only three years. There had been rumors that they had loved each other during the

lifetime of the first husband, but there was no proof of it. I was the proofthe proof which they had at first

"I waited. She returned one evening, escorted as usual by my father. That day she seemed deeply moved, I

don't know why. Then, as she was leaving, she said to me: 'I wish you success, because you seem to me to be

honest and a hard worker; some day you will undoubtedly think of getting married. I have come to help you

to choose freely the woman who may suit you. I was married against my inclination once and I know what

suffering it causes. Now I am rich, childless, free, mistress of my fortune. Here is your dowry.'

"She drew back a few steps and hid her face in her hands so as not to see me. He, the man, my father,

"I answered: 'Not in the least. I know that you are my parents. I cannot be thus deceived. Admit it and I will

keep the secret; I will bear you no ill will; I will remain what I am, a carpenter.'

"He retreated towards the door, still supporting his wife who was beginning to sob. Quickly I locked the door,

put the key in my pocket and continued: 'Look at her and dare to deny that she is my mother.'

"Then he flew into a passion, very pale, terrified at the thought that the scandal, which had so far been

avoided, might suddenly break out; that their position, their good name, their honor might all at once be lost.

He stammered out: 'You are a rascal, you wish to get money from us! That's the thanks we get for trying to

"Then, when he found the door locked, he exclaimed : 'If you do not open this door immediately, I will have

"Then I seemed to have been suddenly orphaned, deserted, pushed to the wall. I was seized with an

overwhelming sadness, mingled with anger, hatred, disgust; my whole being seemed to rise up in revolt

against the injustice, the meanness, the dishonor, the rejected love. I began to run, in order to overtake them

along the Seine, which they had to follow in order to reach the station of Chaton.

"I soon caught up with them. It was now pitch dark. I was creeping up behind them softly, that they might not

hear me. My mother was still crying. My father was saying: 'It's all your own fault. Why did you wish to see

him? It was absurd in our position. We could have helped him from afar, without showing ourselves. Of what

'You see! You are my parents. You have already rejected me once; would you repulse me again?'

"Then, your honor, he struck me. I swear it on my honor, before the law and my country. He struck me, and

"The blood rushed to my head, I no longer knew what I was doing, I had my compass in my pocket; I struck

"Then she began to cry: 'Help! murder!' and to pull my beard. It seems that I killed her also. How do I know

"Then, when I saw them both lying on the ground, without thinking, I threw them into the Seine.

The prisoner sat down. After this revelation the case was carried over to the following session. It comes up

Dr. Bonnet, my old friendone sometimes has friends older than one's selfhad often invited me to spend

some time with him at Riom, and, as I did not know Auvergne, I made up my mind to visit him in the

I arrived by the morning train, and the first person I saw on the platform was the doctor. He was dressed in a

gray suit, and wore a soft, black, widebrimmed, highcrowned felt hat, narrow at the top like a chimney pot,

a hat which hardly any one except an Auvergnat would wear, and which reminded one of a charcoal burner.

Dressed like that, the doctor had the appearance of an old young man, with his spare body under his thin coat,

He embraced me with that evident pleasure which country people feel when they meet longexpected friends,

"This is Auvergne!" I saw nothing before me except a range of mountains, whose summits, which resembled

"Riom, the fatherland of magistrates, the pride of the magistracy, and which ought rather to be the fatherland

"Why?" he replied with a laugh. "If you transpose the letters, you have the Latin word 'mori', to die. That is

As soon as I had swallowed a cup of coffee, he made me go and see the town. I admired the druggist's house,

and the other noted houses, which were all black, but as pretty as bricabrac, with their facades of

sculptured stone. I admired the statue of the Virgin, the patroness of butchers, and he told me an amusing

story about this, which I will relate some other time, and then Dr. Bonnet said to me:

"I must beg you to excuse me for a few minutes while I go and see a patient, and then I will take you to

ChatelGuyon, so as to show you the general aspect of the town, and all the mountain chain of the

PuydeDome before lunch. You can wait for me outside; I shall only go upstairs and come down

He left me outside one of those old, gloomy, silent, melancholy houses, which one sees in the provinces, and

this one appeared to look particularly sinister, and I soon discovered the reason. All the large windows on the

first floor were boarded half way up. The upper part of them alone could be opened, as if one had wished to

prevent the people who were locked up in that huge stone box from looking into the street.

"You are quite right; the poor creature who is living there must never see what is going on outside. She is a

madwoman, or rather an idiot, what you Normans would call a Niente. It is a miserable story, but a very

"Twenty years ago the owners of this house, who were my patients, had a daughter who was like all other

girls, but I soon discovered that while her body became admirably developed, her intellect remained

"She began to walk very early, but she could not talk. At first I thought she was deaf, but I soon discovered

that, although she heard perfectly, she did not understand anything that was said to her. Violent noises made

"She grew up into a superb woman, but she was dumb, from an absolute want of intellect. I tried all means to

introduce a gleam of intelligence into her brain, but nothing succeeded. I thought I noticed that she knew her

nurse, though as soon as she was weaned, she failed to recognize her mother. She could never pronounce that

word which is the first that children utter and the last which soldiers murmur when they are dying on the field

of battle. She sometimes tried to talk, but she produced nothing but incoherent sounds.

"When the weather was fine, she laughed continually, and emitted low cries which might be compared to the

twittering of birds; when it rained she cried and moaned in a mournful, terrifying manner, which sounded like

"She was fond of rolling on the grass, as young animals do, and of running about madly, and she would clap

her hands every morning, when the sun shone into her room, and would insist, by signs, on being dressed as

"She did not appear to distinguish between people, between her mother and her nurse, or between her father

and me, or between the coachman and the cook. I particularly liked her parents, who were very unhappy on

her account, and went to see them nearly every day. I dined with them quite frequently, which enabled me to

remark that Bertha (they had called her Bertha) seemed to recognize the various dishes, and to prefer some to

others. At that time she was twelve years old, but as fully formed in figure as a girl of eighteen, and taller

than I was. Then the idea struck me of developing her greediness, and by this means of cultivating some

slight power of discrimination in her mind, and to force her, by the diversity of flavors, if not to reason, at any

rate to arrive at instinctive distinctions, which would of themselves constitute a kind of process that was

necessary to thought. Later on, by appealing to her passions, and by carefully making use of those which

could serve our purpose, we might hope to obtain a kind of reaction on her intellect, and by degrees increase

"One day I put two plates before her, one of soup, and the other of very sweet vanilla cream. I made her taste

each of them successively, and then I let her choose for herself, and she ate the plate of cream. In a short time

I made her very greedy, so greedy that it appeared as if the only idea she had in her head was the desire for

eating. She perfectly recognized the various dishes, and stretched out her hands toward those that she liked,

and took hold of them eagerly, and she used to cry when they were taken from her. Then I thought I would

try and teach her to come to the diningroom when the dinner bell rang. It took a long time, but I succeeded

in the end. In her vacant intellect a vague correlation was established between sound and taste, a

correspondence between the two senses, an appeal from one to the other, and consequently a sort of

connection of ideasif one can call that kind of instinctive hyphen between two organic functions an

ideaand so I carried my experiments further, and taught her, with much difficulty, to recognize meal times

"It was impossible for me for a long time to attract her attention to the hands, but I succeeded in making her

remark the clockwork and the striking apparatus. The means I employed were very simple; I asked them not

to have the bell rung for lunch, and everybody got up and went into the diningroom when the little brass

hammer struck twelve o'clock, but I found great difficulty in making her learn to count the strokes. She ran to

the door each time she heard the clock strike, but by degrees she learned that all the strokes had not the same

value as far as regarded meals, and she frequently fixed her eyes, guided by her ears, on the dial of the clock.

"When I noticed that, I took care every day at twelve, and at six o'clock, to place my fingers on the figures

twelve and six, as soon as the moment she was waiting for had arrived, and I soon noticed that she attentively

followed the motion of the small brass hands, which I had often turned in her presence.

"She had understood! Perhaps I ought rather to say that she had grasped the idea. I had succeeded in getting

the knowledge, or, rather, the sensation, of the time into her, just as is the case with carp, who certainly have

"When once I had obtained that result all the clocks and watches in the house occupied her attention almost

exclusively. She spent her time in looking at them, listening to them, and in waiting for meal time, and once

something very funny happened. The striking apparatus of a pretty little Louis XVI clock that hung at the

head of her bed having got out of order, she noticed it. She sat for twenty minutes with her eyes on the hands,

waiting for it to strike ten, but when the hands passed the figure she was astonished at not hearing anything;

so stupefied was she, indeed, that she sat down, no doubt overwhelmed by a feeling of violent emotion such

as attacks us in the face of some terrible catastrophe. And she had the wonderful patience to wait until eleven

o'clock in order to see what would happen, and as she naturally heard nothing, she was suddenly either seized

with a wild fit of rage at having been deceived and imposed upon by appearances, or else overcome by that

fear which some frightened creature feels at some terrible mystery, and by the furious impatience of a

passionate individual who meets with some obstacle; she took up the tongs from the fireplace and struck the

"It was evident, therefore, that her, brain did act and calculate, obscurely it is true, and within very restricted

limits, for I could never succeed in making her distinguish persons as she distinguished the time; and to stir

her intellect, it was necessary to appeal to her passions, in the material sense of the word, and we soon had

"She had grown up into a splendid girl, a perfect type of a race, a sort of lovely and stupid Venus. She was

sixteen, and I have rarely seen such perfection of form, such suppleness and such regular features. I said she

was a Venus; yes, a fair, stout, vigorous Venus, with large, bright, vacant eyes, which were as blue as the

flowers of the flax plant; she had a large mouth with full lips, the mouth of a glutton, of a sensualist, a mouth

made for kisses. Well, one morning her father came into my consulting room with a strange look on his face,

"'I want to speak to you about a very serious matter. Would it be possiblewould it be possible for Bertha to

"'Yes, I know, I know,' he replied. 'But reflect, doctor. Don't you thinkperhapswe hopedif she had

childrenit would be a great shock to her, but a great happiness, andwho knows whether maternity might

"I was in a state of great perplexity. He was right, and it was possible that such a new situation, and that

wonderful instinct of maternity, which beats in the hearts of the lower animals as it does in the heart of a

woman, which makes the hen fly at a dog's jaws to defend her chickens, might bring about a revolution, an

utter change in her vacant mind, and set the motionless mechanism of her thoughts in motion. And then,

moreover, I immediately remembered a personal instance. Some years previously I had owned a spaniel bitch

who was so stupid that I could do nothing with her, but when she had had puppies she became, if not exactly

intelligent, yet almost like many other dogs who had not been thoroughly broken.

"As soon as I foresaw the possibility of this, the wish to get Bertha married grew in me, not so much out of

friendship for her and her poor parents as from scientific curiosity. What would happen? It was a singular

"'Perhaps you are right. You might make the attempt, but you will never find a man to consent to marry her.'

"I was dumfounded, and said: 'Somebody really suitable? Some one of your own rank and position in

"'I came on purpose to tell you, and to consult you. It is Monsieur Gaston du Boys de Lucelles.'

"I felt inclined to exclaim: 'The wretch!' but I held my tongue, and after a few moments' silence I said:

"Monsieur Gaston du Boys de Lucelles was a scapegrace of good family, who, after having spent all that he

had inherited from his father, and having incurred debts in all kinds of doubtful ways, had been trying to

discover some other means of obtaining money, and he had discovered this method. He was a goodlooking

young fellow, and in capital health, but fast; one of that odious race of provincial fast men, and he appeared

to me to be as suitable as anyone, and could be got rid of later by making him an allowance. He came to the

house to pay his addresses and to strut about before the idiot girl, who, however, seemed to please him. He

brought her flowers, kissed her hands, sat at her feet, and looked at her with affectionate eyes; but she took no

notice of any of his attentions, and did not make any distinction between him and the other persons who were

"However, the marriage took place, and you may guess how my curiosity was aroused. I went to see Bertha

the next day to try and discover from her looks whether any feelings had been awakened in her, but I found

her just the same as she was every day, wholly taken up with the clock and dinner, while he, on the contrary,

appeared really in love, and tried to rouse his wife's spirits and affection by little endearments and such

"I called upon the married couple pretty frequently, and I soon perceived that the young woman knew her

husband, and gave him those eager looks which she had hitherto only bestowed on sweet dishes.

"She followed his movements, knew his step on the stairs or in the neighboring rooms, clapped her hands

when he came in, and her face was changed and brightened by the flames of profound happiness and of

"She loved him with her whole body and with all her soul to the very depths of her poor, weak soul, and with

all her heart, that poor heart of some grateful animal. It was really a delightful and innocent picture of simple

passion, of carnal and yet modest passion, such as nature had implanted in mankind, before man had

complicated and disfigured it by all the various shades of sentiment. But he soon grew tired of this ardent,

beautiful, dumb creature, and did not spend more than an hour during the day with her, thinking it sufficient

if he came home at night, and she began to suffer in consequence. She used to wait for him from morning till

night with her eyes on the clock; she did not even look after the meals now, for he took all his away from

home, Clermont, ChatelGuyon, Royat, no matter where, as long as he was not obliged to come home.

"She began to grow thin; every other thought, every other wish, every other expectation, and every confused

hope disappeared from her mind, and the hours during which she did not see him became hours of terrible

suffering to her. Soon he ceased to come home regularly of nights; he spent them with women at the casino at

Royat and did not come home until daybreak. But she never went to bed before he returned. She remained

sitting motionless in an easychair, with her eyes fixed on the hands of the clock, which turned so slowly and

"She heard the trot of his horse in the distance and sat up with a start, and when he came into the room she

got up with the movements of an automaton and pointed to the clock, as if to say: 'Look how late it is!'

"And he began to be afraid of this amorous and jealous, halfwitted woman, and flew into a rage, as brutes

do; and one night he even went so far as to strike her, so they sent for me. When I arrived she was writhing

and screaming in a terrible crisis of pain, anger, passion, how do I know what? Can one tell what goes on in

"I calmed her by subcutaneous injections of morphine, and forbade her to see that man again, for I saw

"Then she went mad! Yes, my dear friend, that idiot went mad. She is always thinking of him and waiting for

him; she waits for him all day and night, awake or asleep, at this very moment, ceaselessly. When I saw her

getting thinner and thinner, and as she persisted in never taking her eyes off the clocks, I had them removed

from the house. I thus made it impossible for her to count the hours, and to try to remember, from her

indistinct reminiscences, at what time he used to come home formerly. I hope to destroy the recollection of it

in time, and to extinguish that ray of thought which I kindled with so much difficulty.

"The other day I tried an experiment. I offered her my watch; she took it and looked at it for some time; then

she began to scream terribly, as if the sight of that little object had suddenly awakened her memory, which

was beginning to grow indistinct. She is pitiably thin now, with hollow and glittering eyes, and she walks up

and down ceaselessly, like a wild beast in its cage; I have had gratings put on the windows, boarded them up

half way, and have had the seats fixed to the floor so as to prevent her from looking to see whether he is

The gloomy town looked like some ancient city. Behind it a green, wooded plain studded with towns and

villages, and bathed in a soft blue haze, extended until it was lost in the distance. Far away, on my right, there

was a range of lofty mountains with round summits, or else cut off flat, as if with a sword, and the doctor

began to enumerate the villages, towns and hills, and to give me the history of all of them. But I did not listen

to him; I was thinking of nothing but the madwoman, and I only saw her. She seemed to be hovering over

My friend seemed rather surprised, but after a few moments' hesitation, he replied:

"He is living at Royat, on an allowance that they made him, and is quite happy; he leads a very fast life."

As we were slowly going back, both of us silent and rather lowspirited, an English dogcart, drawn by a

thoroughbred horse, came up behind us and passed us rapidly. The doctor took me by the arm.

I saw nothing except a gray felt hat, cocked over one ear above a pair of broad shoulders, driving off in a

We never dreamed of such good fortune! The son of a provincial bailiff, Jean Marin had come, as do so many

others, to study law in the Quartier Latin. In the various beerhouses that he had frequented he had made

friends with several talkative students who spouted politics as they drank their beer. He had a great

admiration for them and followed them persistently from cafe to cafe, even paying for their drinks when he

He became a lawyer and pleaded causes, which he lost. However, one morning he read in the papers that one

He again became his faithful hound, the friend who does the drudgery, the unpleasant tasks, for whom one

sends when one has need of him and with whom one does not stand on ceremony. But it chanced through

some parliamentary incident that the deputy became a minister. Six months later Jean Marin was appointed a

He was so elated with pride at first that he lost his head. He would walk through the streets just to show

himself off, as though one could tell by his appearance what position he occupied. He managed to say to the

shopkeepers as soon as he entered a store, bringing it in somehow in the course of the most insignificant

Then, in consequence of his position as well as for professional reasons and as in duty bound through being

an influential and generous man, he felt an imperious need of patronizing others. He offered his support to

When he met any one he recognized on the boulevards he would advance to meet them with a charmed air,

would take their hand, inquire after their health, and, without waiting for any questions, remark:

"You know I am state councillor, and I am entirely at your service. If I can be of any use to you, do not

Then he would go into some cafe with the friend he had just met and ask for a pen and ink and a sheet of

And he wrote ten, twenty, fifty letters of recommendation a day. He wrote them to the Cafe Americain, to

Bignon's, to Tortoni's, to the Maison Doree, to the Cafe Riche, to the Helder, to the Cafe Anglais, to the

Napolitain, everywhere, everywhere. He wrote them to all the officials of the republican government, from

One morning as he was starting out to go to the council it began to rain. He hesitated about taking a cab, but

The rain came down in torrents, swamping the sidewalks and inundating the streets. M. Marin was obliged to

take shelter in a doorway. An old priest was standing therean old priest with white hair. Before he became

a councillor M. Marin did not like the clergy. Now he treated them with consideration, ever since a cardinal

had consulted him on an important matter. The rain continued to pour down in floods and obliged the two

men to take shelter in the porter's lodge so as to avoid getting wet. M. Marin, who was always itching to talk

"Yes indeed, sir, it is very unpleasant when one comes to Paris for only a few days."

"It certainly is very disagreeable to have rain during the few days one spends in the capital. We officials who

The priest did not reply. He was looking at the street where the rain seemed to be falling less heavily. And

with a sudden resolve he raised his cassock just as women raise their skirts in stepping across water.

"You will get drenched, Monsieur l'Abbe. Wait a few moments longer; the rain will be over."

"But you will be absolutely drenched. Might I ask in which direction you are going?"

"In that case, if you will allow me, Monsieur l'Abbe, I will offer you the shelter of my umbrella: As for me, I

M. Marin then took his arm and led him away. He directed him, watched over him and advised him.

"Be careful of that stream, Monsieur 1'Abbe. And be very careful about the carriage wheels; they spatter you

with mud sometimes from head to foot. Look out for the umbrellas of the people passing by; there is nothing

more dangerous to the eyes than the tips of the ribs. Women especially are unbearable; they pay no heed to

where they are going and always jab you in the face with the point of their parasols or umbrellas. And they

never move aside for anybody. One would suppose the town belonged to them. They monopolize the

pavement and the street. It is my opinion that their education has been greatly neglected."

The priest did not reply. He walked along, slightly bent over, picking his steps carefully so as not to get mud

"Ali! Is it important business? Might I venture to ask what it is? If I can be of any service to you, you may

"Oh, it is a little personal matter; a little difficulty withwith my bishop. It would not interest you. It is a

"But it is precisely the state council that regulates all those things. In that case, make use of me."

"Yes, monsieur, it is to the council that I am going. You are a thousand times too kind. I have to see M.

"Why, those are my friends, Monsieur l'Abbe, my best friends, excellent colleagues, charming men. I will

The cure thanked him, apologizing for troubling him, and stammered out a thousand grateful promises.

"Ah, you may be proud of having made a stroke of luck, Monsieur l'Abbe. You will seeyou will see that,

They reached the council hall. M. Marin took the priest into his office, offered him a chair in front of the fire

"My dear colleague, allow me to recommend to you most highly a venerable and particularly worthy and

"M. l'Abbe Ceinture, who needs your good office in a little matter which he will communicate to you.

"I am pleased at this incident which gives me an opportunity, my dear colleague"

When he had written the three letters he handed them to his protege, who took his departure with many

M. Marin attended to some business and then went home, passed the day quietly, slept well, woke in a good

"We shall never make an end of enumerating the misdeeds of the clergy. A certain priest, named Ceinture,

convicted of conspiracy against the present government, accused of base actions to which we will not even

allude, suspected besides of being a former Jesuit, metamorphosed into a simple priest, suspended by a

bishop for causes that are said to be unmentionable and summoned to Paris to give an explanation of his

conduct, has found an ardent defender in the man named Marin, a councillor of state, who was not afraid to

give this frocked malefactor the warmest letters of recommendation to all the republican officials, his

"We call the, attention of the ministry to the unheard of attitude of this councillor of state"

M. Marin bounded out of bed, dressed himself and hastened to his colleague, Petitpas, who said to him:

"Why noyou seeI was deceived. He looked such an honest man. He played me a tricka disgraceful

trick! I beg that you will sentence him severely, very severely. I am going to write. Tell me to whom I should

write about having him punished. I will go and see the attorneygeneral and the archbishop of Parisyes,

"Monseigneur, I have the honor to bring to your grace's notice the fact that I have recently been made a

victim of the intrigues and lies of a certain Abbe Ceinture, who imposed on my kindheartedness.

Then, having signed and sealed his letter, he turned to his colleague and exclaimed:

"See here; my dear friend, let this be a warning to you never to recommend any one again."

"Bah!" exclaimed Karl Massouligny, "the question of complaisant husbands is a difficult one. I have seen

many kinds, and yet I am unable to give an opinion about any of them. I have often tried to determine

whether they are blind, weak or clairvoyant. I believe that there are some which belong to each of these

"Let us quickly pass over the blind ones. They cannot rightly be called complaisant, since they do not know,

but they are good creatures who cannot see farther than their nose. It is a curious and interesting thing to

notice the ease with which men and women can, be deceived. We are taken in by the slightest trick of those

who surround us, by our children, our friends, our servants, our tradespeople. Humanity is credulous, and in

order to discover deceit in others, we do not display onetenth the shrewdness which we use when we, in

"Clairvoyant husbands may be divided into three classes: Those who have some interest, pecuniary,

ambitious or otherwise, in their wife's having love affairs. These ask only to safeguard appearances as much

"Next come those who get angry. What a beautiful novel one could write about them!

"There are also those who are powerless, or, rather, tired, who flee from the duties of matrimony through fear

"But I once met a husband of a rare species, who guarded against the common accident in a strange and witty

"In Paris I had made the acquaintance of an elegant, fashionable couple. The woman, nervous, tall, slender,

courted, was supposed to have had many love adventures. She pleased me with her wit, and I believe that I

pleased her also. I courted her, a trial courting to which she answered with evident provocations. Soon we got

to tender glances, hand pressures, all the little gallantries which precede the final attack.

"Nevertheless, I hesitated. I consider that, as a rule, the majority of society intrigues, however short they may

be, are not worth the trouble which they give us and the difficulties which may arise. I therefore mentally

compared the advantages and disadvantages which I might expect, and I thought I noticed that the husband

"One evening, at a ball, as I was saying tender things to the young woman in a little parlor leading from the

big hall where the dancing was going on, I noticed in a mirror the reflection of some one who was watching

"'Nonsense! You are not the first one to pay attention to me. Every woman who is a little in view drags

"She thought for an instant and then continued: 'No. I do not think that I ever noticed any jealousy on his

"From that day my courting became much more assiduous. The woman did not please me any more than

"As for her, I judged her coolly and clearly. She had a certain worldly charm, due to a quick, gay, amiable

and superficial mind, but no real, deep attraction. She was, as I have already said, an excitable little being, all

on the surface, with rather a showy elegance. How can I explain myself? She was an ornament, not a home.

"One day, after taking dinner with her, her husband said to me, just as I was leaving: 'My dear friend' (he now

called me 'friend'), 'we soon leave for the country. It is a great pleasure to my wife and myself to entertain

people whom we like. We would be very pleased to have you spend a month with us. It would be very nice of

"A month later I arrived at their estate of Vertcresson, in Touraine. They were waiting for me at the station,

five miles from the chateau. There were three of them, she, the husband and a gentleman unknown to me, the

Comte de Morterade, to whom I was introduced. He appeared to be delighted to make my acquaintance, and

the strangest ideas passed through my mind while we trotted along the beautiful road between two hedges. I

was saying to myself: 'Let's see, what can this mean? Here is a husband who cannot doubt that his wife and I

are on more than friendly terms, and yet he invites me to his house, receives me like an old friend and seems

"'Then I am introduced to a very pleasant gentleman, who seems already to have settled down in the house,

andand who is perhaps trying to get out of it, and who seems as pleased at my arrival as the husband

"'Is it some former admirer who wishes to retire? One might think so. But, then, would these two men tacitly

have come to one of these infamous little agreements so common in society? And it is proposed to me that I

should quietly enter into the pact and carry it out. All hands and arms are held out to me. All doors and hearts

"'And what about her? An enigma. She cannot be ignorant of everything. Howeverhowever Well, I

"The dinner was very gay and cordial. On leaving the table the husband and his friend began to play cards,

while I went out on the porch to look at the moonlight with madame. She seemed to be greatly affected by

nature, and I judged that the moment for my happiness was near. That evening she was really delightful. The

country had seemed to make her more tender. Her long, slender waist looked pretty on this stone porch beside

a great vase in which grew some flowers. I felt like dragging her out under the trees, throwing myself at her

"We returned to the house, and she gave us some tea. When the two men had finished playing cards, they

were visibly tired. I had to go to my room. I did not get to sleep till late, and then I slept badly.

"An excursion was decided upon for the following afternoon, and we went in an open carriage to visit some

ruins. She and I were in the back of the vehicle and they were opposite us, riding backward. The conversation

was sympathetic and agreeable. I am an orphan, and it seemed to me as though I had just found my family, I

"Suddenly, as she had stretched out her foot between her husband's legs, he murmured reproachfully: 'Louise,

please don't wear out your old shoes yourself. There is no reason for being neater in Paris than in the country.'

"I lowered my eyes. She was indeed wearing wornout shoes, and I noticed that her stockings were not

"She had blushed and hidden her foot under her dress. The friend was looking out in the distance with an

"The husband offered me a cigar, which I accepted. For a few days it was impossible for me to be alone with

her for two minutes; he was with us everywhere. He was delightful to me, however.

"One morning he came to get me to take a walk before breakfast, and the conversation happened to turn on

marriage. I spoke a little about solitude and about how charming life can be made by the affection of a

woman. Suddenly he interrupted me, saying: 'My friend, don't talk about things you know nothing about. A

woman who has no other reason for loving you will not love you long. All the little coquetries which make

them so exquisite when they do not definitely belong to us cease as soon as they become ours. And thenthe

respectable womenthat is to say our wivesareare notin fact do not understand their profession of

"Two days after this conversation he called me to his room quite early, in order to show me a collection of

engravings. I sat in an easy chair opposite the big door which separated his apartment from his wife's, and

behind this door I heard some one walking and moving, and I was thinking very little of the engravings,

"He suddenly said: 'Oh, I have a beautiful specimen in the next room. I'll go and get it.'

"He ran to the door quickly, and both sides opened as though for a theatrical effect.

"In a large room, all in disorder, in the midst of skirts, collars, waists lying around on the floor, stood a tall,

driedup creature. The lower part of her body was covered with an old, wornout silk petticoat, which was

hanging limply on her shapeless form, and she was standing in front of a mirror brushing some short, sparse

blond hairs. Her arms formed two acute angles, and as she turned around in astonishment I saw under a

common cotton chemise a regular cemetery of ribs, which were hidden from the public gaze by

"The husband uttered a natural exclamation and came back, closing the doors, and said: 'Gracious! how

"I already felt like thanking him. I left three days later, after cordially shaking hands with the two men and

"I don't knowhoweverhowever he looked greatly distressed to see me leaving so soon."

The defendants, CesaireIsidore Brument and ProsperNapoleon Cornu, appeared before the Court of

Assizes of the SeineInferieure, on a charge of attempted murder, by drowning, of Mme. Brument, lawful

The two prisoners sat side by side on the traditional bench. They were two peasants; the first was small and

stout, with short arms, short legs, and a round head with a red pimply face, planted directly on his trunk,

which was also round and short, and with apparently no neck. He was a raiser of pigs and lived at

Cornu (ProsperNapoleon) was thin, of medium height, with enormously long arms. His head was on

crooked, his jaw awry, and he squinted. A blue blouse, as long as a shirt, hung down to his knees, and his

yellow hair, which was scanty and plastered down on his head, gave his face a worn out, dirty look, a

dilapidated look that was frightful. He had been nicknamed "the cure" because he could imitate to perfection

the chanting in church, and even the sound of the serpent. This talent attracted to his cafefor he was a

saloon keeper at Criquetota great many customers who preferred the "mass at Cornu" to the mass in

Mme. Brument, seated on the witness bench, was a thin peasant woman who seemed to be always asleep. She

sat there motionless, her hands crossed on her knees, gazing fixedly before her with a stupid expression.

"Well, then, Mme. Brument, they came into your house and threw you into a barrel full of water. Tell us the

She rose. She looked as tall as a flag pole with her cap which looked like a white skull cap. She said in a

"I was shelling beans. Just then they came in. I said to myself, 'What is the matter with them? They do not

seem natural, they seem up to some mischief.' They watched me sideways, like this, especially Cornu,

because he squints. I do not like to see them together, for they are two goodfornothings when they are in

company. I said: 'What do you want with me?' They did not answer. I had a sort of mistrust"

"Well, Brument said to me, 'Do you wish to earn a hundred sous?' 'Yes,' I replied, seeing that a hundred sous

are not picked up in a horse's tracks. Then he said: 'Open your eyes and do as I do,' and he went to fetch the

large empty barrel which is under the rain pipe in the corner, and he turned it over and brought it into my

kitchen, and stuck it down in the middle of the floor, and then he said to me: 'Go and fetch water until it is

"So I went to the pond with two pails and carried water, and still more water for an hour, seeing that the

"All this time Brument and Cornu were drinking a glass, and then another glass, and then another. They were

finishing their drinks when I said to them: 'You are full, fuller than this barrel.' And Brument answered me.

'Do not worry, go on with your work, your turn will come, each one has his share.' I paid no attention to what

"And then Cornu gave me a hundred sous, not Brument, Cornu; it was Cornu gave them to me. And Brument

said: 'Do you wish to earn a hundred sous more?' 'Yes,' I said, for I am not accustomed to presents like that.

"A hundred sous is a hundred sous, and I have to undress myself; but I did not fancy undressing before those

two goodfornothings. I took off my cap, and then my jacket, and then my skirt, and then my sabots.

"So there I was, almost like mother Eve. And they got up from their chairs, but could not stand straight, they

"And then they took me, Brument by the head, and Cornu by the feet, as one might take, for instance, a sheet

"And they lifted me up in the air and put me into the barrel, which was full of water, so that I had a check of

"Brument said: 'The head is not in, that will make a difference in the measure.'

"And then Brument pushed down my head as if to drown me, so that the water ran into my nose, so that I

"And then he must have been frightened. He pulled me out and said: 'Go and get dry, carcass.'

"As for me, I took to my heels and ran as far as M. le cure's. He lent me a skirt belonging to his servant, for I

was almost in a state of nature, and he went to fetch Maitre Chicot, the country watchman who went to

"Brument was bawling: 'It isn't true, I tell you that there is at least a cubic metre in it. It is the method that

"Cornu bawled: 'Four pails, that is almost half a cubic metre. You need not reply, that's what it is.'

She sat down. The audience in the court room laughed. The jurors looked at one another in astonishment. The

"Defendant Cornu, you seem to have been the instigator of this infamous plot. What have you to say?"

"I will. Well, Brument came to my place about nine o'clock, and ordered two drinks, and said: 'There's one

for you, Cornu.' I sat down opposite him and drank, and out of politeness, I offered him a glass. Then he

returned the compliment and so did I, and so it went on from glass to glass until noon, when we were full.

"Then Brument began to cry. That touched me. I asked him what was the matter. He said: 'I must have a

thousand francs by Thursday.' That cooled me off a little, you understand. Then he said to me all at once: 'I

"I was full, and I was a widower. You understand, that stirred me up. I did not know his wife, but she was a

"He reflected, or pretended to reflect. When one is full one is not very clearheaded, and he replied: 'I will

"That did not surprise me, for I was as drunk as he was, and I knew what a cubic metre is in my business. It is

"But the price remained to be settled. All depends on the quality. I said: 'How much do you want a cubic

"I gave a bound like a rabbit, and then I reflected that a woman ought not to measure more than three hundred

"You understand, one is not a dealer in hogs for nothing. One understands one's business. But, if he is smart,

the seller of bacon, I am smarter, seeing that I sell them also. Ha, Ha, Ha! So I said to him: 'If she were new, I

would not say anything, but she has been married to you for some time, so she is not as fresh as she was. I

will give you fifteen hundred francs a cubic metre, not a sou more. Will that suit you?'

"I agreed, and we started out, arm in arm. We must help each other in this world.

"But a fear came to me: 'How can you measure her unless you put her into the liquid?'

"Then he explained his idea, not without difficulty for he was full. He said to me: 'I take a barrel, and fill it

with water to the brim. I put her in it. All the water that comes out we will measure, that is the way to fix it.'

"I said: 'I see, I understand. But this water that overflows will run away; how are you going to gather it up?'

"Then he began stuffing me and explained to me that all we should have to do would be to refill the barrel

with the water his wife had displaced as soon as she should have left. All the water we should pour in would

be the measure. I supposed about ten pails; that would be a cubic metre. He isn't a fool, all the same, when he

"To be brief, we reached his house and I took a look at its mistress. A beautiful woman she certainly was not.

Anyone can see her, for there she is. I said to myself: 'I am disappointed, but never mind, she will be of value;

handsome or ugly, it is all the same, is it not, monsieur le president?' And then I saw that she was as thin as a

rail. I said to myself: 'She will not measure four hundred litres.' I understand the matter, it being in liquids.

"She told you about the proceeding. I even let her keep on her chemise and stockings, to my own

"He replied: 'Do not be afraid. I will catch her all right. She will have to come back to sleep, I will measure

The witness began to laugh so persistently that a gendarme was obliged to punch him in the back. Having

"In short, Brument exclaimed: 'Nothing doing, that is not enough.' I bawled and bawled, and bawled again, he

punched me, I hit back. That would have kept on till the Day of judgment, seeing we were both drunk.

"Then came the gendarmes! They swore at us, they took us off to prison. I want damages."

Brument confirmed in every particular the statements of his accomplice. The jury, in consternation, retired to

At the end of an hour they returned a verdict of acquittal for the defendants, with some severe strictures on

the dignity of marriage, and establishing the precise limitations of business transactions.

I am coming to see you without anyone knowing it. I shall be at Les Fresnes on the 2d of September, the day

before the hunting season opens, as I do not want to miss it, so that I may tease these gentlemen. You are too

good, aunt, and you will allow them, as you usually do when there are no strange guests, to come to table,

They are delighted, of course, when I am not present. But I shall be there and will hold a review, like a

general, at dinner time; and, if I find a single one of them at all careless in dress, no matter how little, I mean

The men of today have so little consideration for others and so little good manners that one must be always

severe with them. We live indeed in an age of vulgarity. When they quarrel, they insult each other in terms

worthy of longshoremen, and, in our presence, they do not conduct themselves even as well as our servants. It

is at the seaside that you see this most clearly. They are to be found there in battalions, and you can judge

Just imagine, in a train, a gentleman who looked well, as I thought at first sight, thanks to his tailor, carefully

took off his boots in order to put on a pair of old shoes! Another, an old man who was probably some wealthy

upstart (these are the most illbred), while sitting opposite to me, had the delicacy to place his two feet on the

At the wateringplaces the vulgarity is unrestrained. I must here make one admissionthat my indignation is

perhaps due to the fact that I am not accustomed to associate, as a rule, with the sort of people one comes

across here, for I should be less shocked by their manners if I had the opportunity of observing them oftener.

In the office of the hotel I was nearly thrown down by a young man who snatched the key over my head.

Another knocked against me so violently without begging my pardon or lifting his hat, coming away from a

ball at the Casino, that it gave me a pain in the chest. It is the same way with all of them. Watch them

addressing ladies on the terrace; they scarcely ever bow. They merely raise their hands to their headgear. But,

But what exasperates and disgusts me particularly is the liberty they take of talking in public, without any

kind of precaution, about the most revolting adventures. When two men are together, they relate to each

other, in the broadest language and with the most abominable comments really horrible stories, without

caring in the slightest degree whether a woman's ear is within reach of their voices. Yesterday, on the beach, I

was forced to leave the place where I was sitting in order not to be any longer the involuntary confidante of

an obscene anecdote, told in such immodest language that I felt just as humiliated as indignant at having

heard it. Would not the most elementary goodbreeding teach them to speak in a lower tone about such

matters when we are near at hand. Etretat is, moreover, the country of gossip and scandal. From five to seven

o'clock you can see people wandering about in quest of scandal, which they retail from group to group. As

you remarked to me, my dear aunt, tittletattle is the mark of petty individuals and petty minds. It is also the

consolation of women who are no longer loved or sought after. It is enough for me to observe the women

The other day I was present at a musical evening at the Casino, given by a remarkable artist, Madame

Masson, who sings in a truly delightful manner. I took the opportunity of applauding the admirable Coquelin,

as well as two charming vaudeville performers, M and Meillet. I met, on this occasion, all the bathers

Next day I went to lunch at Yport. I noticed a tall man with a beard, coming out of a large house like a castle.

It was the painter, Jean Paul Laurens. He is not satisfied apparently with imprisoning the subjects of his

Then I found myself seated on the shingle close to a man still young, of gentle and refined appearance, who

was reading poetry. But he read it with such concentration, with such passion, I may say, that he did not even

raise his eyes towards me. I was somewhat astonished and asked the proprietor of the baths, without

appearing to be much concerned, the name of this gentleman. I laughed to myself a little at this reader of

rhymes; he seemed behind the age, for a man. This person, I thought, must be a simpleton. Well, aunt, I am

now infatuated about this stranger. Just fancy, his name is Sully Prudhomme! I went back and sat down

beside him again so as to get a good look at him. His face has an expression of calmness and of penetration.

Somebody came to look for him, and I heard his voice, which is sweet and almost timid. He would certainly

not tell obscene stories aloud in public or knock up against ladies without apologizing. He is assuredly a man

of refinement, but his refinement is of an almost morbid, sensitive character, I will try this winter to get an

I have no more news, my dear aunt, and I must finish this letter in haste, as the mail will soon close. I kiss

P. S.I should add, however, by way of justification of French politeness, that our fellowcountrymen are,

when travelling, models of good manners in comparison with the abominable English, who seem to have

been brought up in a stable, so careful are they not to discommode themselves in any way, while they always

Many of the things you have said to me are very sensible, but that does not prevent you from being wrong.

Like you, I used formerly to feel very indignant at the impoliteness of men, who, as I supposed, constantly

treated me with neglect; but, as I grew older and reflected on everything, putting aside coquetry, and

observing things without taking any part in them myself, I perceived this muchthat if men are not always

We imagine that we should be permitted to do anything, my darling, and at the same time we consider that

we have a right to the utmost respect, and in the most flagrant manner we commit actions devoid of that

I find, on the contrary, that men consider us much more than we consider them. Besides, darling, men must

needs be, and are, what we make them. In a state of society, where women are all true gentlewomen, all men

Look at two women meeting in the street. What an attitude each assumes towards the other! What

disparaging looks! What contempt they throw into each glance! How they toss their heads while they inspect

each other to find something to condemn! And, if the footpath is narrow, do you think one woman would

make room for another, or would beg pardon as she sweeps by? Never! When two men jostle each other by

accident in some narrow lane, each of them bows and at the same time gets out of the other's way, while we

women press against each other stomach to stomach, face to face, insolently staring each other out of

Look at two women who are acquaintances meeting on a staircase outside the door of a friend's

drawingroom, one of them just leaving, the other about to go in. They begin to talk to each other and block

up all the landing. If anyone happens to be coming up behind them, man or woman, do you imagine that they

I was waiting myself, with my watch in my hands, one day last winter at a certain drawingroom door. And,

behind me, two gentlemen were also waiting without showing any readiness, as I did, to lose their temper.

The reason was that they had long grown accustomed to our unconscionable insolence.

The other day, before leaving Paris, I went to dine with no less a person than your husband, in the Champs

Elysees, in order to enjoy the fresh air. Every table was occupied. The waiter asked us to wait and there

At that moment I noticed an elderly lady of noble figure, who, having paid for her dinner, seemed on the

point of going away. She saw me, scanned me from head to foot, and did not budge. For more than a quarter

of an hour she sat there, immovable, putting on her gloves, and calmly staring at those who were waiting like

myself. Now, two young men who were just finishing their dinner, having seen me in their turn, hastily

summoned the waiter, paid what they owed, and at once offered me their seats, even insisting on standing

while waiting for their change. And, bear in mind, my fair niece, that I am no longer pretty, like you, but old

It is we, you see, who should be taught politeness, and the task would be such a difficult one that Hercules

himself would not be equal to it. You speak to me about Etretat and about the people who indulged in "tittle

tattle" along the beach of that delightful wateringplace. It is a spot now lost to me, a thing of the past, but I

There were only a few of us, people in good society, really good society, and a few artists, and we all

As we had no monotonous Casino, where people only gather for show, where they whisper, where they dance

stupidly, where they succeed in thoroughly boring one another, we sought some other way of passing our

evenings pleasantly. Now, just guess what came into the head of one of our husbands? Nothing less than to

We started out in a group with a streetorgan, generally played by Le Poittevin, the painter, with a cotton

nightcap on his head. Two men carried lanterns. We followed in procession, laughing and chattering like a

We woke up the farmer and his servantmaids and farm hands. We got them to make onion soup (horror!),

and we danced under the apple trees, to the sound of the barrelorgan. The cocks waking up began to crow in

the darkness of the outhouses; the horses began prancing on the straw of their stables. The cool air of the

I do not want you, my darling, to come for the opening of the hunting season. Why spoil the pleasure of our

friends by inflicting on them fashionable toilettes on this day of vigorous exercise in the country? This is the

For a long time Jacques Bourdillere had sworn that he would never marry, but he suddenly changed his mind.

One morning as he lay stretched out on the sand, watching the women coming out of the water, a little foot

had struck him by its neatness and daintiness. He raised his eyes and was delighted with the whole person,

although in fact he could see nothing but the ankles and the head emerging from a flannel bathrobe carefully

held closed. He was supposed to be sensual and a fast liver. It was therefore by the mere grace of the form

that he was at first captured. Then he was held by the charm of the young girl's sweet mind, so simple and

He was presented to the family and pleased them. He immediately fell madly in love. When he saw Berthe

Lannis in the distance, on the long yellow stretch of sand, he would tingle to the roots of his hair. When he

was near her he would become silent, unable to speak or even to think, with a kind of throbbing at his heart,

He did not know or understand, but he had fully decided to have this child for his wife.

Her parents hesitated for a long time, restrained by the young man's bad reputation. It was said that he had an

old sweetheart, one of these binding attachments which one always believes to be broken off and yet which

Besides, for a shorter or longer period, he loved every woman who came within reach of his lips.

Then he settled down and refused, even once, to see the one with whom he had lived for so long. A friend

took care of this woman's pension and assured her an income. Jacques paid, but he did not even wish to hear

of her, pretending even to ignore her name. She wrote him letters which he never opened. Every week he

would recognize the clumsy writing of the abandoned woman, and every week a greater anger surged within

him against her, and he would quickly tear the envelope and the paper, without opening it, without reading

one single line, knowing in advance the reproaches and complaints which it contained.

As no one had much faith in his constancy, the test was prolonged through the winter, and Berthe's hand was

not granted him until the spring. The wedding took place in Paris at the beginning of May.

The young couple had decided not to take the conventional wedding trip, but after a little dance for the

younger cousins, which would not be prolonged after eleven o'clock, in order that this day of lengthy

ceremonies might not be too tiresome, the young pair were to spend the first night in the parental home and

then, on the following morning, to leave for the beach so dear to their hearts, where they had first known and

Night had come, and the dance was going on in the large parlor. 'The two had retired into a little Japanese

boudoir hung with bright silks and dimly lighted by the soft rays of a large colored lantern hanging from the

ceiling like a gigantic egg. Through the open window the fresh air from outside passed over their faces like a

They were silent, holding each other's hands and from time to time squeezing them with all their might. She

sat there with a dreamy look, feeling a little lost at this great change in her life, but smiling, moved, ready to

cry, often also almost ready to faint from joy, believing the whole world to be changed by what had just

happened to her, uneasy, she knew not why, and feeling her whole body and soul filled with an indefinable

He was looking at her persistently with a fixed smile. He wished to speak, but found nothing to say, and so

sat there, expressing all his ardor by pressures of the hand. From time to time he would murmur: "Berthe!"

And each time she would raise her eyes to him with a look of tenderness; they would look at each other for a

They found no thoughts to exchange. They had been left alone, but occasionally some of the dancers would

cast a rapid glance at them, as though they were the discreet and trusty witnesses of a mystery.

A door opened and a servant entered, holding on a tray a letter which a messenger had just brought. Jacques,

trembling, took this paper, overwhelmed by a vague and sudden fear, the mysterious terror of swift

He looked for a longtime at the envelope, the writing on which he did not know, not daring to open it, not

wishing to read it, with a wild desire to put it in his pocket and say to himself: "I'll leave that till to morrow,

when I'm far away!" But on one corner two big words, underlined, "Very urgent," filled him with terror.

Saying, "Please excuse me, my dear," he tore open the envelope. He read the paper, grew frightfully pale,

When he raised his head his whole expression showed how upset he was. He stammered: "My dear, it'sit's

from my best friend, who has had ,a very great misfortune. He has need of me immediatelyfor a matter of

life or death. Will you excuse me if I leave you for half an hour? I'll be right back."

Trembling and dazed, she stammered: "Go, my dear!" not having been his wife long enough to dare to

question him, to demand to know. He disappeared. She remained alone, listening to the dancing in the

He had seized the first hat and coat he came to and rushed downstairs three steps at a time. As he was

emerging into the street he stopped under the gasjet of the vestibule and reread the letter. This is what it

When he reached the sickroom the woman was already on the point of death. He did not recognize her at

first. The doctor and two nurses were taking care of her. And everywhere on the floor were pails full of ice

and rags covered with blood. Water flooded the carpet; two candles were burning on a bureau; behind the

bed, in a little wicker crib, the child was crying, and each time it would moan the mother, in torture, would

She was mortally wounded, killed by this birth. Her life was flowing from her, and, notwithstanding the ice

She recognized Jacques and wished to raise her arms. They were so weak that she could not do so, but tears

coursed down her pallid cheeks. He dropped to his knees beside the bed, seized one of her hands and kissed it

frantically. Then, little by little, he drew close to the thin face, which started at the contact. One of the nurses

was lighting them with a candle, and the doctor was watching them from the back of the room.

Then she said in a voice which sounded as though it came from a distance: "I am going to die, dear. Promise

He kissed her face and her hair, and, weeping, he murmured: "Do not be uneasy; I will stay."

It was several minutes before she could speak again, she was so weak. She continued: "The little one is yours.

I swear it before God and on my soul. I swear it as I am dying! I have never loved another man but you

He was trying to take this poor painracked body in his arms. Maddened by remorse and sorrow, he

stammered: "I swear to you that I will bring him up and love him. He shall never leave me."

Then she tried to kiss Jacques. Powerless to lift her head, she held out her white lips in an appeal for a kiss.

As soon as she felt a little calmer, she murmured: "Bring him here and let me see if you love him."

He went and got the child. He placed him gently on the bed between them, and the little one stopped crying.

She murmured: "Don't move any more!" And he was quiet. And he stayed there, holding in his burning hand

this other hand shaking in the chill of death, just as, a while ago, he had been holding a hand trembling with

love. From time to time he would cast a quick glance at the clock, which marked midnight, then one o'clock,

The physician had returned. The two nurses, after noiselessly moving about the room for a while, were now

sleeping on chairs. The child was asleep, and the mother, with eyes shut, appeared also to be resting.

Suddenly, just as pale daylight was creeping in behind the curtains, she stretched out her arms with such a

quick and violent motion that she almost threw her baby on the floor. A kind of rattle was heard in her throat,

He looked once more at this woman whom he had so loved, then at the clock, which pointed to four, and he

ran away, forgetting his overcoat, in the evening dress, with the child in his arms.

After he had left her alone the young wife had waited, calmly enough at first, in the little Japanese boudoir.

Then, as she did not see him return, she went back to the parlor with an indifferent and calm appearance, but

terribly anxious. When her mother saw her alone she asked: "Where is your husband?" She answered: "In his

After an hour, when everybody had questioned her, she told about the letter, Jacques' upset appearance and

Still they waited. The guests left; only the nearest relatives remained. At midnight the bride was put to bed,

sobbing bitterly. Her mother and two aunts, sitting around the bed, listened to her crying, silent and in

despair. The father had gone to the commissary of police to see if he could obtain some news.

At five o'clock a slight noise was heard in the hall. A door was softly opened and closed. Then suddenly a

All the women started forward and Berthe sprang ahead of them all, pushing her way past her aunts, wrapped

Jacques stood in the middle of the room, pale and out of breath, holding an infant in his arms. The four

women looked at him, astonished; but Berthe, who had suddenly become courageous, rushed forward with

Without saying a word, Berthe seized the child, kissed it and hugged it to her. Then she raised her tearfilled

eyes to him, asking: "Did you say that the mother was dead?" He answered: "Yesjust nowin my arms. I

"My marriage with your cousin is broken off in the most stupid way, all on account of an idiotic trick which I

almost involuntarily played my intedded. In my perplexity I turn to you, my old school chum, for you may be

able to help me out of the difficulty. If you can, I shall be grateful to you until I die.

"You know Gilberte, or, rather, you think you know her, but do we ever understand women? All their

opinions, their ideas, their creeds, are a surprise to us. They are all full of twists and turns, cf the unforeseen,

of unintelligible arguments, of defective logic and of obstinate ideas, which seem final, but which they alter

"I need not tell you that your cousin is very religious, as she was brought up by the White (or was it the

Black?) Ladies at Nancy. You know that better than I do, but what you perhaps do not know is, that she is

just as excitable about other matters as she is about religion. Her head flies away, just as a leaf is whirled

away by the wind; and she is a true woman, or, rather, girl, for she is moved or made angry in a moment,

starting off at a gallop in affection, just as she does in hatred, and returning in the same manner; and she is

"Well, we became engaged, and I adored her, as I adore her still, and she appeared to love me.

"One evening, I received a telegram summoning me to Cologne for a consultation, which might be followed

by a serious and difficult operation, and as I had to start the next morning, I went to wish Gilberte goodby,

and tell her why I could not dine with them on Wednesday, but would do so on Friday, the day of my return.

"When I told her that I had to go to Germany, I saw that her eyes filled with tears, but when I said I should be

"'I am very glad you are going, then! You must bring me back something; a mere trifle, just a souvenir, but a

souvenir that you have chosen for me. You must guess what I should like best, do you hear? And then I shall

"'I forbid you to spend more than twenty francs on it. I want it for the intention, and for a remembrance of

"And then, after another moment's silence, she said, in a low voice, and with downcast eyes:

"'If it costs you nothing in money, but is something very ingenious and pretty, I willI will kiss you.'

"The next day I was in Cologne. It was a case of a terrible accident, which had plunged a whole family into

despair, and a difficult amputation was necessary. They lodged me in the house; I might say, they almost

locked me up, and I saw nobody but people in tears, who almost deafened me with their lamentations; I

operated on a man who appeared to be in a moribund state, and who nearly died under my hands, and with

whom I remained two nights; and then, when I saw that there was a chance of his recovery, I drove to the

station. I had, however, made a mistake in the trains, and I had an hour to wait, and so I wandered about the

streets, still thinking of my poor patient, when a man accosted me. I do not know German, and he was totally

ignorant of French, but at last I made out that he was offering me some relics. I thought of Gilberte, for I

knew her fanatical devotion, and here was my present ready to hand, so I followed the man into a shop where

religious objects were for sale, and I bought a small piece of a bone of one of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.

"The pretended relic was inclosed in a charming old silver box, and that determined my choice, and, putting

"As soon as I got home, I wished to examine my purchase again, and on taking hold of it, I found that the box

was open, and the relic missing! I searched in vain in my pocket, and turned it inside out; the small bit of

"You know, my dear little Abbe, that my faith is not very fervent, but, as my friend, you are magnanimous

enough to put up with my lukewarmness, and to leave me alone, and to wait for the future, so you say. But I

absolutely disbelieve in the relics of secondhand dealers in piety, and you share my doubts in that respect.

Therefore, the loss of that bit of sheep's carcass did not grieve me, and I easily procured a similar fragment,

which I carefully fastened inside my jewelbox, and then I went to see my intended.

"I pretended to have forgotten, but she did not believe me, and I made her beg, and even beseech me. But

when I saw that she was devoured by curiosity, I gave her the sacred silver box. She appeared overjoyed.

"And she kissed the box passionately, so that I was ashamed of my deception. She was not quite satisfied,

however, and her uneasiness soon turned to terrible fear, and looking straight into my eyes, she said:

"I was trapped; for to say that I had bought it of a man in the streets would be my destruction. What was I to

"That was the climax; I could not retract what I had said. I made up a fanciful story; with precise details: I

had given the custodian of the building a hundred francs to be allowed to go about the building by myself; the

shrine was being repaired, but I happened to be there at the breakfast hour of the workmen and clergy; by

removing a small panel, I had been enabled to seize a small piece of bone (oh! so small), among a quantity of

others (I said a quantity, as I thought of the amount that the remains of the skeletons of eleven thousand

virgins must produce). Then I went to a goldsmith's and bought a casket worthy of the relic; and I was not

"But she did not think of that; she listened to me, trembling, in an ecstasy, and whispering: 'How I love you!'

"Just note this: I had committed sacrilege for her sake. I had committed a theft; I had violated a church; I had

violated a shrine; violated and stolen holy relics, and for that she adored me, thought me perfect, tender,

"For two months I was the most admirable of lovers. In her room, she had made a kind of magnificent chapel

in which to keep this bit of mutton chop, which, as she thought, had made me commit that divine lovecrime,

and she worked up her religious enthusiasm in front of it every morning and evening. I had asked her to keep

the matter secret, for fear, as I said, that I might be arrested, condemned, and given over to Germany, and she

"Well, at the beginning of the summer, she was seized with an irresistible desire to see the scene of my

exploit, and she teased her father so persistently (without telling him her secret reason), that he took her to

Cologne, but without telling me of their trip, according to his daughter's wish.

"I need not tell you that I had not seen the interior of the cathedral. I do not know where the tomb (if there be

a tomb) of the Eleven Thousand Virgins is; and then, it appears, it is unapproachable, alas!

"A week afterward, I received ten lines, breaking off our engagement, and then an explanatory letter from her

"At the sight of the shrine, she had suddenly seen through my trickery and my lie, and at the same time

discovered my real innocence of any crime. Having asked the keeper of the relics whether any robbery had

been committed, the man began to laugh, and pointed out to them how impossible such a crime was. But,

from the moment that I had not plunged my profane hand into venerable relics, I was no longer worthy of my

"I was forbidden the house; I begged and prayed in vain; nothing could move the fair devotee, and I became

ill from grief. Well, last week, her cousin, Madame d'Arville, who is your cousin also, sent me word that she

should like to see me, and when I called, she told me on what conditions I might obtain my pardon, and here

they are. I must bring her a relic, a real, authentic relic of some virgin and martyr, certified to be such by our

"I will go to Rome, if needful, but I cannot call on the Pope unexpectedly, to tell him my stupid

misadventure; and, besides, I doubt whether they allow private individuals to have relics. Could not you give

me an introduction to some cardinal, or even to some French prelate who possesses some remains of a female

saint? Or, perhaps, you may have the precious object she wants in your collection?

"Help me out of my difficulty, my dear Abbe, and I promise you that I will be converted ten years sooner

"My dear old schoolmate, will you allow your cousin to die the victim of a stupid piece of subterfuge on my