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Updated: June 14, 2025
He sent for the corporal of gendarmes, with two of his men, called into requisition the services of a locksmith, and, thus accompanied, followed the neighbours of the Widow Lerouge. La Jonchere owes some celebrity to the inventor of the sliding railway, who for some years past has, with more enterprise than profit, made public trials of his system in the immediate neighbourhood.
"Alas!" cried the count, "why is not Claudine dead instead of my faithful Germain?" "You see, sir," concluded Albert, "Claudine Lerouge would alone render all your efforts useless." "Ah, no!" cried the count; "I shall find some expedient." The obstinate old gentleman was not willing to give in to this argument, the very clearness of which blinded him.
On Thursday, the 6th of March, 1862, two days after Shrove Tuesday, five women belonging to the village of La Jonchere presented themselves at the police station at Bougival. They stated that for two days past no one had seen the Widow Lerouge, one of their neighbours, who lived by herself in an isolated cottage. They had several times knocked at the door, but all in vain.
"Noel, then, must have assassinated Widow Lerouge, to prevent her confessing that the substitution had never taken place, and have burnt the letters and papers which proved it!" But he repelled this supposition with horror, as every honest man drives away a detestable thought which by accident enters his mind.
Why is it that women can turn an honest man's conscience about like a weather-cock with their wheedling?" M. Daburon's only reply was a heavy blow of his fist on the table. Lerouge proceeded more quickly. "As for me, I upset that arrangement, pretending to be too jealous to leave my wife a minute. They were obliged to give way to me. The other nurse went up to bed first.
"It is my duty, sir, to point out to you the evils I see threatening, and which there is yet time to shun. M. Noel Gerdy is your legitimate son, recognize him, acknowledge his just pretensions, and receive him. We can make the change very quietly. It is easy to account for it, through a mistake of the nurse, Claudine Lerouge, for instance.
Do not, however, mention our plans to her; for she has been given to understand that you know nothing. I wish to charge myself with the sole responsibility of the deed; it is more prudent. This woman is a native of Normandy. She was born on our estate, almost in our house. Her husband is a brave and honest sailor. Her name is Claudine Lerouge.
Seeing how I felt, Claudine, hoping to pacify me, resolved to tell me the whole truth. 'See here, she said to me, " Lerouge stopped, and, changing his tone, said, "You understand that it is my wife who is speaking?" "Yes, yes. Go on."
You had, indeed on your side, the count, and your mother; but M. Gerdy was in possession of evidence that was certain to win his cause, that of Widow Lerouge." "I have never doubted that, sir." "Now," continued the magistrate, seeking to hide the look which he fastened upon Albert, "justice supposes that, to do away with the only existing proof, you have assassinated Widow Lerouge."
"But what," murmured he, "has become of the child? Has it been destroyed? No; for the Widow Lerouge, an accomplice in an infanticide, would be no longer formidable. The child has been preserved, and confided to the care of our widow, by whom it has been reared. They have been able to take the infant away from her, but not the proofs of its birth and its existence. Here is the opening.
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