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Unhappily she left Gascony when quite young, came to France and had no more news of M. d'Asterac, of his bottles and his puppets. I sincerely hope, my dear Jacquot, that he renounced his wicked works, which could not be accomplished without the help of the devil." I asked: "Tell me, my dear mother, did Cadette Saint-Avit, the rector's servant, see the bodies in the bottles with her own eyes?"
Therefore I should be thankful for the assurance you would kindly give on that subject." M. d'Asterac, with a movement which seemed to remove an invisible object, gave M. Jerome Coignard the wished-for assurance; for myself, curious as I was of all I saw, I did not wish for anything better than to enter into a new life.
You will follow the road to St Germain till you come to the Cross of the Sablons, from that cross you'll count one hundred paces, going westward, and you'll find a small green door in a garden wall. You'll use the knocker which represents a veiled figure having a finger in her mouth. An old follower will open the door to you; you'll ask to see M. d'Asterac."
Manilius, may it not displease M. d'Asterac, writes on the same subjects with more elegance." Hardly had my tutor said these last words when a shadow arose between him and myself. It was that of M. d'Asterac, or rather it was M. d'Asterac himself, thin and black like a shadow. It may be that he had not heard that talk, maybe he disdained it, for certainly he did not show any kind of resentment.
I did my best by making such researches as he wanted me to make; I took no little pleasure in it. Truly, we lived happily and quietly. At about the seventh week, M. d'Asterac gave me leave to go and see my parents at their cookshop. The shop appeared strangely smaller to me. My mother was there alone and sad. She cried aloud on seeing me fitted out like a prince.
We put our heads together to get an idea of the man for whom that beautiful woman had ventured on such an early morning visit, and were easily agreed that it could be no other but that old fool d'Asterac you know, Tournebroche, I suspected him before who awaits her intimacy in an adjoining room, if not, and without your knowledge, in your own. Are you not of the same opinion?"
Nothing is more detestable than the deviltries wherewith the Capuchins frighten old women." "I see," said M. d'Asterac, "you do your best to think as an honest man. You hate as much as I do myself the coarse superstitions of the monks. But, after all, you do believe in demons, and I have not had much trouble to make you avow it.
Caressingly she pushed me back, hardly able to hide the wish to keep me with her, then placing one finger over her mouth she whispered again: "Till to-night." Taken by M. d'Asterac to the Isle of Swans I listen to his Discourse on Creation and Salamanders. I really do not know how it was possible to tear myself out of Catherine's arms.
I am pardoned and return to Paris Again at the Queen Pedauque I go as Assistant to M. Blaizot Burning of the Castle of Sablons Death of Mosaide and of M. d'Asterac. From now onwards my life loses the interest which events had lent it, and my destiny, having again become in conformity with my character, offers nothing but ordinary occurrences.
Then I began to think of the oddness of my destiny, while at my side some musketeers were drinking Spanish wine with girls of the town. I was not quite sure that Croix-des-Sablons, M. d'Asterac, Mosaide, the papyrus of Zosimus and my fine clothes were not dreams, out of which I should wake to find myself clad in the dimity vest, back again turning the spit at the Queen Pedauque.
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