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Updated: June 11, 2025
Renardet felt a strange rumbling in his stomach; then he gave vent to a sort of loud sneeze that issued at the same time through his nose and through his mouth; and, drawing his handkerchief from his pocket, he began to weep internally, coughing, sobbing, and wiping his face noisily. He stammered "Damn damn damned pig to do this! I would like to see him guillotined."
And each day the wood grew thinner, losing its trees which fell down one by one, as an army loses its soldiers. Renardet no longer walked up and down. He remained from morning till night, contemplating, motionless, and with his hands behind his back the slow death of his wood. When a tree fell, he placed his foot on it as if it were a corpse.
The doctor and the cure went to their respective homes, while Renardet, after a long walk through the meadows, returned to the wood, where he remained walking till nightfall with slow steps, his hands behind his back. He went to bed early and was still asleep next morning when the magistrate entered his room. He was rubbing his hands together with a self-satisfied air. "Ha! ha!
Two woodcutters standing close to the giant, remained with axes in their grip, like two executioners ready to strike once more, and Renardet, motionless, with his hand on the bark, awaited the fall with an uneasy, nervous feeling. One of the men said to him: "You're too near, Monsieur le Maire. When it falls, it may hurt you." He did not reply and did not recoil.
The mayor asked: "What's the matter now, Mederic?" "I found a little girl dead in your wood." Renardet rose to his feet, his face the color of brick. "What do you say a little girl?" "Yes, m'sieu, a little girl, quite naked, on her back, with blood on her, dead quite dead!" The mayor gave vent to an oath: "By God, I'd make a bet it is little Louise Roque!
The examining magistrate, the mayor, the captain, and the doctor, set to work by searching in pairs, putting aside the smallest branches along the water. Renardet said to the judge: "How does it happen that this wretch has concealed or carried away the clothes, and has thus left the body exposed in the open air and visible to everyone?" The other, sly and knowing, answered: "Ha! Ha!
Then he began looking at it, turning it round and round between his fingers, much perplexed, much troubled by the fear of either committing a grave offence or of making an enemy of the mayor. Seeing his hesitation, Renardet made a movement for the purpose of seizing the letter and snatching it away from him.
He then came back, and sat down before his table. He pulled out a drawer in the middle of it, and taking from it a revolver, laid it down over his papers, under the glare of the sun. The barrel of the fire-arm glittered and cast reflections which resembled flames. Renardet gazed at it for some time with the uneasy glance of a drunken man; then he rose by, and began to pace up and down the room.
Twenty woodcutters were already at work. They had commenced at the corner nearest to the house and worked rapidly in the master's presence. And each day the wood grew thinner, losing its trees, which fell down one by one, as an army loses its soldiers. Renardet no longer walked up, and down.
He knew Renardet was not a Republican, and he knew all the tricks and chicanery employed at elections. He asked: "To whom is it addressed, this letter of yours?" "To Monsieur Putoin, the magistrate you know, my friend, Monsieur Putoin!" The postman searched through the papers and found the one asked for.
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