ight arm, which hung useless by his side.

"No; for I felt my stick rebound!" replied Martial, kicking, as he
spoke, the knife underneath the dresser.

Then, taking advantage of the pain which Nicholas was suffering, he
seized him by the collar, and thrust him violently backwards, until he
had reached the door of the little cellar we have alluded to, which he
opened with one hand, whilst, with the other, he thrust his brother into
it, and locked him in, all stupefied as he was with this sudden attack.

Then, turning round upon the two women, he seized Calabash by the
shoulders, and, in spite of her resistance, her shrieks, and a blow from
the hatchet, which cut his head slightly, he shut her up in the lower
room of the cabaret, which communicated with the kitchen.

Then addressing the widow, who was still stupefied with this
manoeuvre, as skilful as it was sudden, Martial said to her, calmly,
"Now, mother, you and I are alone."

"Yes, we are alone," replied the widow, and her usually immobile
features became excited, her sallow skin grew red, a gloomy fire lighted
up her dull eye, whilst anger and hate gave to her countenance a
terrible expression. "Yes, we two are alone now!" she repeated, in a
menacing voice. "I have waited for this moment; and at length you shall
know all that I have on my mind."

"And I will tell you all I have on my mind."

"If you live to be a hundred years old, I tell you you shall remember
this night."

"I shall remember it, unquestionably. My brother and sister have tried
to murder me, and you have done nothing to prevent them. But come, let
me hear what you have against me?"

"What have I?"

"Yes."

"Since your father's death you have acted nothing but a coward's part."

"I?"

"Yes, a coward's! Instead of remaining with us to support us, you went
off to Rambouillet, to poach in the woods with that man who sells game
whom you knew at Bercy."

"If I had remained here, I should have been at the galleys like
Ambroise, or on the point of going there like Nicholas. I would not be a
robber like the rest, and that is the cause of your hatred."

"And what track are you following now? You steal game, you steal
fish,--thefts without danger,--a coward's thefts!"

"Fish, like game, is no man's property. To-day belongs to one, to-morrow
to another. It is his who can take it. I don't steal. As to being a
coward--"

"Why, you fight--and for money--men who are weaker than yourself."

"B