United States or Colombia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Maurice, Chanlouineau, Jean, Marie-Anne, and about twenty of the old soldiers of the Empire, understood and shared Lacheneur's despair. They knew the terrible danger they were incurring, and they, too, repeated: "Faster! Let us march faster!" Vain exhortation! It pleased these people to go slowly. Suddenly the entire band stopped.
It was clear that they hoped for salvation through the priest alone. He was lost in thought, and it was some time before he spoke. "About an hour's walk from here," he said, at last, "beyond the Croix d'Arcy, is the hut of a peasant upon whom I can rely. His name is Poignot; and he was formerly in Monsieur Lacheneur's employ. With the assistance of his three sons, he now tills quite a large farm.
But she conquered her embarrassment, and turning away her head to hide her crimson face, she said: "But he certainly has a mistress!" Chupin burst into a noisy laugh. "Well, we have come to it at last," he said, with an audacious familiarity that made Blanche shudder. "You mean that scoundrel Lacheneur's daughter, do you not? that stuck-up minx, Marie-Anne?" Blanche felt that denial was useless.
His heart throbbed with wild exultation; and if he cast down his eyes, it was only to conceal the joy that sparkled there. He had not hoped for so prompt and so terrible a revenge. Nor was this all. After brutally repulsing Blanche, his newly wedded wife, who attempted to detain him, Martial again seized Jean Lacheneur's arm. "Now," said he, "follow me!" Jean followed him still without a word.
"He has changed since you last saw him ten years ago." It was true. It had been, at least, ten years since the baron had seen Lacheneur's son. How time flies! He had left him a boy; he found him a man. Jean was just twenty; but his haggard features and his precocious beard made him appear much older. He was tall and well formed, and his face indicated more than average intelligence.
Jean Lacheneur's revenge is far more terrible than it would have been had his bullet pierced my father's heart. It is a revenge like this that I desire. It is due me; I will have it!" She saw Chupin every two or three days; sometimes going to the place of meeting alone, sometimes accompanied by Aunt Medea. The old poacher came punctually, although he was beginning to tire of his task.
They had hoped to appease the duke's wrath a little, by informing him of Lacheneur's arrest; but he knew this already, for Chupin had ventured to awake him in the middle of the night to tell him the great news. The baron's escape afforded the duke an opportunity to exalt Chupin's merits. "The man who has discovered Lacheneur will know how to find this traitor d'Escorval," he remarked.
When the Marquis de Sairmeuse became convinced that Lacheneur's daughter would never be his, he poisoned her that she might not belong to another." Any attempt to convince Jean of the folly of his accusation would have been vain at that moment. No proofs would have convinced him. He would have closed his eyes to all evidence.
A gleam of pride flashed in M. Lacheneur's eyes; but his face soon resumed its gloomy expression. "Believe me, Monsieur le Baron, I am deeply touched by your grandeur of soul yes, deeply touched. You wish to make me forget my humiliation; but, for this very reason, I should be the most contemptible of men if I did not refuse the great honor you desire to confer upon my daughter."
But there were no new revelations, and for this reason: Polyte Chupin had been arrested under charge of theft, and this accident caused a delay in the execution of Lacheneur's plans. But, at last, he judged that all would be in readiness on the 20th of February, Shrove Sunday.
Word Of The Day