wife what the fellow wanted; she replied that he had come to
ask her to take a child to nurse. I would not hear of it at first, for
our means were sufficient to allow Claudine to keep all her milk for
our own child. But she gave me the very best of reasons. She said she
regretted her past flirtations and her extravagance. She wished to
earn a little money, being ashamed of doing nothing while I was killing
myself with work. She wanted to save, to economize, so that our child
should not be obliged in his turn to go to sea. She was to get a very
good price, that we could save up to go towards the three hundred
pistoles. That confounded meadow, to which she alluded, decided me."

"Did she not tell you of the commission with which she was charged?"
asked the magistrate.

This question astonished Lerouge. He thought that there was good reason
to say that justice sees and knows everything.

"Not then," he answered, "but you will see. Eight days after, the
postman brought a letter, asking her to go to Paris to fetch the
child. It arrived in the evening. 'Very well,' said she, 'I will start
to-morrow by the diligence.' I didn't say a word then; but next morning,
when she was about to take her seat in the diligence, I declared that I
was going with her. She didn't seem at all angry, on the contrary. She
kissed me, and I was delighted. At Paris, she was to call for the little
one at a Madame Gerdy's, who lived on the Boulevard. We arranged that
she should go alone, while I awaited for her at our inn. After she
had gone, I grew uneasy. I went out soon after, and prowled about near
Madame Gerdy's house, making inquiries of the servants and others; I
soon discovered that she was the Count de Commarin's mistress. I felt
so annoyed that, if I had been master, my wife should have come away
without the little bastard. I am only a poor sailor, and I know that
a man sometimes forgets himself. One takes too much to drink, for
instance, or goes out on the loose with some friends; but that a man
with a wife and children should live with another woman and give her
what really belongs to his legitimate offspring, I think is bad--very
bad. Is it not so, sir?"

The investigating magistrate moved impatiently in his chair. "Will
this man never come to the point," he muttered. "Yes, you are perfectly
right," he added aloud; "but never mind your thoughts. Go on, go on!"

"Claudine, sir, was more obstinate than a mule. After three days of
viole