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Updated: May 2, 2025
He had massacred La Chouette, not in a fit of madness, but in a fit of fever, such as he had been attacked with at Bouqueval on the night of his horrible vision. After his arrest in the tavern of the Champs Elysees, recovering from his transient delirium, the Schoolmaster had awoke in a cell of the Conciergerie, where the insane are temporarily confined.
"Wicked little devil, why did you step on my gown to make me fall?" "I? Oh, now! I swear to you that I did not do it on purpose, my good Chouette; as if your little Tortillard would wish to hurt you; he loves you too well for that. You did well to beat him, affront him, bite him; he is attached to you like a poor little dog to his master," said the child in a caressing and coaxing voice.
But, believing they had fulfilled the twofold bargain, they had gone off rejoicing with their mother, to meet La Chouette, report their success, and join in a fresh atrocity. This new crime, the robbery and murder of a diamond-dealer in Red-Arm's public-house, was frustrated by the landlord's secret connection with the police.
This scene passed in the saloon where La Chouette had made her murderous attempt. The countess was as pale as marble, which gave a bolder relief to her dark eyes and hair; an ample white muslin wrapper completely concealed her form. "Give me the coral coronet," she said to one of her women, in a weak but imperious voice.
At length she was standing erect alongside of Sarah's seat. She, bending over the table, prepared to write. "I will read aloud slowly," said the countess, "you will correct my mistakes." "Yes, madame," answered La Chouette, watching every movement. Then she slipped her right hand into her basket, so as to take hold of the dagger without being seen. The lady began to write, "I declare that "
"And what of the Schoolmaster, this man so dangerous, so strong, and so ferocious, who was always with La Chouette? one of the old hands of the Lapin Blanc?" "The Schoolmaster?" said Bras-Rouge, feigning astonishment. "Yes, a galley-slave escaped from Rochefort, named Anselme Duresnel, condemned for life. He has disfigured himself so as not to be recognized. Have you no information of him?"
Her emotion was too violent; with her hands stretched toward La Chouette, trembling violently, surprise and joy were expressed on her countenance. "But I did not know you were going to fire up in this manner, my little lady," said the old woman. "Yet it is very plain.
In showing La Chouette Fleur-de-Marie's picture, she had exposed her jewels, and to secure them, the hag poniarded the lady and decamped. It was night. The profound silence which reigned in the house occupied by Jacques Ferrand was interrupted at intervals by the sighing of the wind, and by rain, which fell in torrents.
"Well! listen; be a good boy," answered La Chouette, restraining her anger, "I will give you something." "Very well," said the boy, drawing near, "speak so to me, and you will make me do all you can wish, Mother Chouette." "Look alive, I am in a hurry." "Yes, but promise that you will let me torment the Schoolmaster." "Some other day; now I have no time." "Only a little; just to make him foam."
Widow Martial, Nicholas, Calabash, and Barbillon had, as the reader knows, made an appointment to meet La Chouette in this den, to rob and kill the diamond broker. The "Bleeding Heart Tavern" was situated on the Champs Elysees, near the Cours la Reine, in one of the vast moats which bounded this promenade some years since. The inhabitants of the island had not yet appeared.
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