n
this did not awaken the slightest recollection in their minds.

Jean was about to take his departure when Mother Chupin, probably in the
hope of extracting a few pennies, began to deplore her present misery,
which was, she declared, all the harder to bear since she had wanted for
nothing during the life of her poor husband, who had always obtained
as much money as he wanted from a lady of high degree--the Duchesse de
Sairmeuse, in short.

Lacheneur uttered such a terrible oath that the old woman and her son
started back in affright.

He saw at once the close connection between the researches of Mme.
Blanche and her generosity to Chupin.

"It was she who poisoned Marie-Anne," he said to himself. "It was
through my sister that she became aware of the existence of the
child. She loaded Chupin with favors because he knew the crime she had
committed--that crime in which his father had been only an accomplice."

He remembered Martial's oath at the bedside of the murdered girl, and
his heart overflowed with savage exultation. He saw his two enemies, the
last of the Sairmeuse and the last of the Courtornieu take in their own
hands his work of vengeance.

But this was mere conjecture; he desired to be assured of the
correctness of his suppositions.

He drew from his pocket a handful of gold, and, throwing it upon the
table, he said:

"I am very rich; if you will obey me and keep my secret, your fortune is
made."

A shrill cry of delight from mother and son outweighed any protestations
of obedience.

The Widow Chupin knew how to write, and Lacheneur dictated this letter:

"Madame la Duchesse--I shall expect you at my establishment to-morrow
between twelve and four o'clock. It is on business connected with the
Borderie. If at five o'clock I have not seen you, I shall carry to the
post a letter for the duke."

"And if she comes what am I to say to her?" asked the astonished widow.

"Nothing; you will merely ask her for money."

"If she comes, it is as I have guessed," he reflected.

She came.

Hidden in the loft of the Poivriere, Jean, through an opening in the
floor, saw the duchess give a banknote to Mother Chupin.

"Now, she is in my power!" he thought exultantly. "Through what sloughs
of degradation will I drag her before I deliver her up to her husband's
vengeance!"

CHAPTER LIV

A few lines of the article consecrated to Martial de Sairmeuse in the
"General Biography of the Men of the Centur