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Updated: July 3, 2025
But Martial responded only mechanically. His mind was occupied with thoughts of two women who had made a profound impression upon his by no means susceptible heart that day. He was thinking of those two young girls, so utterly unlike. Blanche de Courtornieu Marie-Anne Lacheneur.
The man dragged himself toward him, took his hands and kissed them, imploring mercy and forgiveness, swearing that to preserve his life he was ready to do anything, yes, anything, even to deliver up M. Lacheneur. To capture Lacheneur! Such a prospect had powerful attractions for the Marquis de Courtornieu. "Do you know, then, where this brigand is concealed?" he inquired.
She listened to it, trembling with anger, her hands so convulsively clinched that the nails penetrated the flesh. "What audacity!" she exclaimed. "What impudence!" The old poacher seemed to be of the same opinion. "If each of her lovers gives her as much she will be richer than a queen. She will have enough to buy both Sairmeuse and Courtornieu, if she chooses," he remarked, maliciously.
Heaven knows that M. de Courtornieu and the Duc de Sairmeuse were now doing their best to make the people of Montaignac forget the atrocious cruelty of which they had been guilty during their dictatorship. Of the hundred or more who were confined in the citadel, only eighteen or twenty were tried, and they received only some very slight punishment; the others were released.
But, while writing a list of the names of persons in the neighborhood with whom she was acquainted, Mlle. de Courtornieu did not neglect this favorable opportunity for verifying the suspicions which had been aroused by Martial's momentary agitation. "It is inconceivable," she remarked to her friend, "that the Duc de Sairmeuse should allow you to be reduced to such an extremity."
Chelteux did not believe a word of it, however; for, as soon as it was ended, he tapped her familiarly on the shoulder, and said: "In short, my dear, we have had our little escapades before our marriage." She shrank back as if from some venomous reptile. To be treated thus! she a Courtornieu Duchesse de Sairmeuse! "I think you are laboring under a wrong impression," she said, haughtily.
He left the room with a muttered oath, and Blanche approached her father, who still seemed to be unconscious. She seized his arm and shook it roughly, saying, in the most peremptory tone: "Father! father!" This voice, which had so often made the Marquis de Courtornieu tremble, was far more efficacious than eau de cologne.
Had it not removed her rival from her path? "Now," she thought, "the marquis will return to me, and I will make him forget the bold creature who has bewitched him!" Chimeras! The charm had vanished which had once caused the love of Martial de Sairmeuse to oscillate between Mlle. de Courtornieu and the daughter of Lacheneur. Captivated at first by the charms of Mlle.
I am boring you with my silly chat when you should undoubtedly be up there." "Certainly not," he replied, laughing. "What should I do there? The role of men of action does not begin until the orators have concluded." He spoke so energetically, in spite of his jesting tone, that Mlle. de Courtornieu was fascinated.
And yet only one rope could be found the one which the peasant woman had perceived hanging from the rocky platform, where it was made fast to an iron crowbar. From the window to the platform, there was no rope. "This is most extraordinary!" murmured Martial, thoughtfully. "Very strange!" approved M. de Courtornieu. "How the devil could they have reached the base of the tower?"
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