Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 15, 2025
Citizen Marat's orders were very stern, and he was wont to terrify the Leridans with awful threats of the guillotine if they ever allowed the child out of their sight." Chauvelin sat silent for a while. A ray of light had traversed the dark and tortuous ways of his subtle brain. While he mused the woman became impatient. She continued to talk on with the volubility peculiar to her kind.
He was satisfied that its name was Lannoy for the child had remembered it when first he had been brought to the Leridans. Since then he had apparently forgotten it, even though he often cried after his "Maman!" Chauvelin listened to all these explanations with some impatience.
The thought that such a confusion might exist, that Fouquier-Tinville might be deluded into doubting the real personality of Paul Mole, brought an icy sweat all down Chauvelin's spine. He hurried along the interminably long Chemin de Pantin, only paused at the Barriere du Combat in order to interview the Commissary of the Section on the matter of sending men to watch over the Leridans' house.
Then, when the men of the Surete came. ... Ah! they had no cause to doubt that they were men of the Surete! ... their clothes, their speech, their appearance ... figure to yourself, even their uniforms! They spoke so nicely, so reassuringly. The Leridans were so thankful to see them!
Anon, when the Leridans' rasping voices died away in one of the more distant portions of the house and the men of the Surete were busy accepting refreshment and gratuity from the two terrified wretches, he had put down the candle with a steady hand and then walked with a firm step out of the house. Soon the slender figure was swallowed up in the gloom as he strode back rapidly towards the city.
He paid no heed to her, until one phrase struck his ear. "So now," Jeannette Marechal was saying, "I don't know what to do. The ring has disappeared, and the Leridans are suspicious." "The ring?" queried Chauvelin curtly. "What ring?" "As I was telling you, citizen," she replied querulously, "when I went to see the child, the citizen Marat always gave me this ring to show to the Leridans.
Chauvelin broke in roughly. "You can go!" "But, citizen " "You can go, I said," he reiterated sharply. "The matter of the child and the Leridans and the ring no longer concerns you. You understand?" "Y y yes, citizen," murmured Jeannette, vaguely terrified. And of a truth the change in citizen Chauvelin's demeanour was enough to scare any timid creature. Not that he raved or ranted or screamed.
"You know it, citizen." Chauvelin nodded. He was beginning to understand. "Well, now, tell me," he said, with that bland patience which had so oft served him in good stead in his unavowable profession. "Tell me. Last year citizen Marat adopted we'll say adopted a child, whom he placed in the Leridans' house on the Pantin road. Is that correct?" "That is just how it is, citizen. And I "
The house of the Leridans now lay immediately on his left; from it a small, feeble ray of light, finding its way no doubt through an ill-closed shutter, pierced the surrounding gloom. Chauvelin, without hesitation, turned up a narrow track which led up to the house across a field of stubble. The next moment a peremptory challenge brought him to a halt. "Who goes there?"
Then they made themselves happy in the two rooms below, and for additional safety the Lannoy child was brought down from its attic and put to sleep in the one room with the men of the Surete. After that the Leridans went to bed. Name of a dog! how were they to blame? Whether Chauvelin heard all these jeremiads, he could not afterwards have told you.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking