d for
by their masters, may give information thereof to the attorney-general or
the Superior Council, or to all the other officers of justice of an
inferior jurisdiction, and may put the written exposition of their wrongs
into their hands; upon which information, and even ex officio, should the
information come from another quarter, the attorney-general shall
prosecute said masters," etc. But the young law student on making his
visit was captivated by the sweetness of the lady whom he had been sent to
warn against committing unlawful misdemeanors, and withdrew filled with
indignation against any one who could suspect her of the slightest
unkindness to the humblest living thing.

III.

A TERRIBLE REVELATION.

The house that joined Madame Lalaurie's premises on the eastern side had a
staircase window that looked down into her little courtyard. One day all
by chance the lady of that adjoining house was going up those stairs just
when the keen scream of a terrified child resounded from the next yard.
She sprung to the window, and, looking down, saw a little negro girl about
eight years old run wildly across the yard and into the house, with Madame
Lalaurie, a cow-hide whip in her hand, following swiftly and close upon
her.

They disappeared; but by glimpses through the dark lattices and by the
sound of the tumult, the lady knew that the child was flying up stairway
after stairway, from gallery to gallery, hard pressed by her furious
mistress. Soon she heard them rise into the belvedere and the next instant
they darted out upon the roof. Down into its valleys and up over its
ridges the little fugitive slid and scrambled. She reached the sheer edge,
the lady at the window hid her face in her hands, there came a dull,
jarring thud in the paved court beneath, and the lady, looking down, saw
the child lifted from the ground and borne out of sight, limp, silent,
dead.

She kept her place at the window. Hours passed, the day waned, darkness
settled down. Then she saw a torch brought, a shallow hole was dug,--as it
seemed to her; but in fact a condemned well of slight depth, a mere pit,
was uncovered,--and the little broken form was buried. She informed the
officers of justice. From what came to light at a later season, it is hard
to think that in this earlier case the investigation was more than
superficial. Yet an investigation was made, and some legal action was
taken against Madame Lalaurie for cruelty to her slav