houlder watching it eagerly,
until it should be within shot. "You have killed the duck," he said,
"and the drake will not fly away."

He certainly did not fly away; he turned round over our heads
continually, and continued his cries. Never have any groans of suffering
pained me so much as that desolate appeal, as that lamentable reproach
of this poor bird which was lost in space.

Occasionally he took a flight under the menace of the gun which followed
his flight, and seemed ready to continue his flight alone, but as he
could not make up his mind to this, he soon returned to find his mate.

"Leave her on the ground," Karl said to me, "he will come within shot by
and by." And he did indeed come near us, careless of danger, infatuated
by his animals' love, by his affection for that other animal which I had
just killed.

Karl fired, and it was as if somebody had cut the string which held the
bird suspended. I saw something black descend, and I heard the noise of
a fall among the rushes. And Pierrot brought it to me.

I put them--they were already cold--into the same bag, and I returned to
Paris the same evening.

THE HOLE

CUTS AND WOUNDS WHICH CAUSED DEATH. That was the heading of the charge
which brought Leopold Renard, upholsterer, before the Assize Court.

Round him were the principal witnesses, Madame Flameche, widow of the
victim, and Louis Ladureau, cabinetmaker, and Jean Durdent, plumber.

Near the criminal was his wife, dressed in black, a little ugly woman,
who looked like a monkey dressed as a lady.

This is how Renard (Leopold) recounted the drama:

"Good heavens, it is a misfortune of which I was the first victim all
the time, and with which my will has nothing to do. The facts are their
own commentary, Monsieur le President. I am an honest man, a hard
working man, an upholsterer in the same street for the last sixteen
years, known, liked, respected and esteemed by all, as my neighbors have
testified, even the porter who is not _folatre_ every day. I am fond of
work, I am fond of saving, I like honest men, and respectable pleasures.
That is what has ruined me, so much the worse for me; but as my will had
nothing to do with it, I continue to respect myself.

"Every Sunday for the last five years, my wife and I have been to spend
the day at Passy. We get fresh air, without counting that we are fond of
fishing. Oh! we are as fond of it as we are of small onions. Melie
inspired me with that p