Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 4, 2025
In what order was he arranging in his mind la Esmeralda, Phoebus, Jacques Charmolue, his young brother so beloved, yet abandoned by him in the mire, his archdeacon's cassock, his reputation perhaps dragged to la Falourdel's, all these adventures, all these images? I cannot say. But it is certain that these ideas formed in his mind a horrible group.
Djali reared himself on his hind legs, and began to bleat, marching along with so much dainty gravity, that the entire circle of spectators burst into a laugh at this parody of the interested devoutness of the captain of pistoliers. "Djali," resumed the young girl, emboldened by her growing success, "how preaches Master Jacques Charmolue, procurator to the king in the ecclesiastical court?"
Terror chilled the very marrow of her bones; she stood there bewildered and stupefied. At a sign from Charmolue, the two assistants took her and placed her in a sitting posture on the bed. They did her no harm; but when these men touched her, when that leather touched her, she felt all her blood retreat to her heart. She cast a frightened look around the chamber.
A bailiff banded the dead leaf to the crocodile, who made a doleful shake of the head, and passed it on to the president, who gave it to the procurator of the king in the ecclesiastical court, and thus it made the circuit of the hail. "It is a birch leaf," said Master Jacques Charmolue. "A fresh proof of magic." A counsellor took up the word.
Master Pierrat, make room for mademoiselle, and close the door." Pierrat rose with a growl. "If I shut the door," he muttered, "my fire will go out." "Well, my dear fellow," replied Charmolue, "leave it open then." Meanwhile, la Esmeralda had remained standing. That leather bed on which so many unhappy wretches had writhed, frightened her.
So saying, he pointed to the little goat, who, on seeing Charmolue gesticulating, had, in point of fact, thought it appropriate to do the same, and had seated himself on his haunches, reproducing to the best of his ability, with his forepaws and his bearded head the pathetic pantomine of the king's procurator in the ecclesiastical court.
"Be at ease," said Charmolue with a smile; "I'll buckle him down again for you on the leather bed when I get home. But 'tis a devil of a man; he wearies even Pierrat Torterue himself, who hath hands larger than my own. As that good Plautus saith, 'Nudus vinctus, centum pondo, es quando pendes per pedes. The torture of the wheel and axle! 'Tis the most effectual! He shall taste it!"
"'Tis a cat of mine," said the archdeacon, quickly, "who is regaling herself under there with a mouse." This explanation satisfied Charmolue. "In fact, master," he replied, with a respectful smile, "all great philosophers have their familiar animal. You know what Servius saith: 'Nullus enim locus sine genio est, for there is no place that hath not its spirit."
"Yes," replied the priest; "'tis Augustin Nypho who writes it, that Italian doctor who had a bearded demon who acquainted him with all things. However, we will descend, and I will explain it to you with the text before us." "Thanks, master," said Charmolue, bowing to the earth. "By the way, I was on the point of forgetting. When doth it please you that I shall apprehend the little sorceress?"
Master Jacques Charmolue approached the gypsy with a very sweet smile. "My dear child," said he, "do you still persist in your denial?" "Yes," she replied, in a dying voice. "In that case," replied Charmolue, "it will be very painful for us to have to question you more urgently than we should like. Pray take the trouble to seat yourself on this bed.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking