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Updated: June 26, 2025
"This is no very extraordinary history," said Gervaise, "and in the whole of it I see nothing of any Egyptian women or children." "Patience!" resumed Mahiette, "you will see one child. In '66, 'twill be sixteen years ago this month, at Sainte-Paule's day, Paquette was brought to bed of a little girl. The unhappy creature! it was a great joy to her; she had long wished for a child.
Oudarde, in her turn, in a sweeter, more caressing voice, "Sister!" said she, "Sister Sainte-Gudule!" The same silence; the same immobility. "A singular woman!" exclaimed Gervaise, "and one not to be moved by a catapult!" "Perchance she is deaf," said Oudarde. "Perhaps she is blind," added Gervaise. "Dead, perchance," returned Mahiette.
Gervaise repeated her question, and shook her arm, calling her by name. Mahiette appeared to awaken from her thoughts. "What became of la Chantefleurie?" she said, repeating mechanically the words whose impression was still fresh in her ear; then, ma king an effort to recall her attention to the meaning of her words, "Ah!" she continued briskly, "no one ever found out." She added, after a pause,
Plump and worthy Oudarde was preparing to retort, and the quarrel might, perhaps, have proceeded to a pulling of caps, had not Mahiette suddenly exclaimed, "Look at those people assembled yonder at the end of the bridge! There is something in their midst that they are looking at!" "In sooth," said Gervaise, "I hear the sounds of a tambourine.
I hope you drowned it also." "No." replied Mahiette. "What? You burned it then? In sooth, that is more just. A witch child!" "Neither the one nor the other, Gervaise. Monseigneur the archbishop interested himself in the child of Egypt, exorcised it, blessed it, removed the devil carefully from its body, and sent it to Paris, to be exposed on the wooden bed at Notre-Dame, as a foundling."
I believe 'tis the little Esmeralda, who plays her mummeries with her goat. Eh, be quick, Mahiette! redouble your pace and drag along your boy. You are come hither to visit the curiosities of Paris. You saw the Flemings yesterday; you must see the gypsy to-day." "The gypsy!" said Mahiette, suddenly retracing her steps, and clasping her son's arm forcibly. "God preserve me from it!
Then, poor Chantefleurie, she belonged to every one: she had reached the last sou of her gold piece. What shall I say to you, my damoiselles? At the coronation, in the same year, '61, 'twas she who made the bed of the king of the debauchees! In the same year!" * Ox-eye daisy. Easter daisy. Mahiette sighed, and wiped away a tear which trickled from her eyes.
For what do you take us, Gervaise?" It is certain that the provincial was on the point of taking offence, for the honor of her pillory. Fortunately, that discreet damoiselle, Oudarde Musnier, turned the conversation in time. "By the way, Damoiselle Mahiette, what say you to our Flemish Ambassadors? Have you as fine ones at Reims?"
"Ah my dear," interrupted provincial Mahiette, assuming in her turn an air of superiority, "what would you say then, if you had seen in '61, at the consecration at Reims, eighteen years ago, the horses of the princes and of the king's company?
"The tale is fair and good," said Gervaise in a low tone; "but where do gypsies come into all that?" "Here," replied Mahiette. "One day there arrived in Reims a very queer sort of people. They were beggars and vagabonds who were roaming over the country, led by their duke and their counts. They were browned by exposure to the sun, they had closely curling hair, and silver rings in their ears.
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