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Updated: June 17, 2025
La Roulante sat as motionless as the Sphynx in the Desert. Gudel said to her, respectfully: "Are you coming?" The woman turned her eyes slowly upon him, and then, with a sniff of disdain, called for Robeccal, who heard the stentorian shout, but did not care to be disturbed in his contemplation of the spit on which the fowls were roasting.
"It is nothing!" answered La Roulante, superciliously. "It is only the girl waking up at last!" "But she will scream, I am sure!" "Let her, if she dare!" and the giantess clenched her enormous fist. "I would crush her to jelly if she did!" "And then you would lose the twenty thousand francs!" The woman nodded in a tipsy manner. "That's so!" she answered.
They thought him dead. Fanfar drew Caillette away, and then leaned over his friend. La Roulante pushed him aside. "Don't interfere," she said, "he is my husband." Fanfar looked her in the face, and continued his examination. He opened Gudel's vest and shirt, and laid his hand on his heart. There was a moment of silence. "He is living," said Fanfar.
"She can't know anything!" said Gudel, uneasily. "Bobichel!" he called. "I am here, master!" answered the clown. "Where is Robeccal?" "I don't know he went away three hours ago." "Where was he going?" "I don't know I was too sleepy to ask." Gudel questioned Caillette again. "Had La Roulante distinctly spoken of papers?" It was only too clear that there had been spies in their camp.
This man, who was none other than Fernando, the worthy friend of the Vicomte de Talizac, now slipped a gold piece into the scoundrel's hand. "Twenty louis more," he said, "when the affair is accomplished!" "Very good, sir. When I undertake anything, it is sure, let me tell you. La Roulante will see to everything." The two men separated.
I have something better than that," said Bobichel, and dashing to the inn he returned with a bottle of brandy. "Two drops of this," he said, "will do more than all the salts in the world." Fanfar administered a few drops to Gudel, who presently uttered a long sigh. "Living!" cried Fanfar. "Heaven be praised!" shouted Bobichel. Then, turning swiftly toward La Roulante, he added,
"I had best go and talk to the Princess, anyway." Another long sigh. "I am coming! I am coming!" grunted La Roulante, slowly feeling her way up the stairs that creaked under her weight. She drew the key from her pocket with considerable difficulty, and finally succeeded in opening the door.
La Roulante uttered a cry as they reached the house, for the door was open. She ran into the house, and flew toward the stairs. Fanfar was behind her. She beheld the window open. "Look!" she cried, "he has taken her away!" "Of whom do you speak?" "Of the Vicomte de Talizac." "Talizac!" exclaimed Fanfar, "would that I could kill that man!" The house was searched, and found entirely deserted.
He was so impressed by her beauty and her innocence that he was ready to kneel before her. But La Roulante touched his arm with a cynical laugh. "Open the door, I say!" La Roulante closed the panel with a snap, and slowly drew a key from her pocket and stood with it in her fingers, and then said quietly and firmly: "If I unlock that door, it will cost you twenty thousand francs!"
She hated Caillette for her youth and her beauty; she hated Fanfar for his goodness, and hated Gudel for his patience and for his good spirits. Robeccal joined the troop. Gudel had found him dying of hunger, and had rescued him. Soon he and Roulante were on excellent terms; both were thoroughly vicious.
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