o the prophetic howlings of Medor,
Turk, and Sultan, and quickly dispersed them to their separate kennels,
and as the noise ceased, the gloomy cloud passed away from the kitchen,
and the peasants looked up with the same honest cheerfulness they had
worn upon the entrance of the two travellers. Ere long they had left off
wondering at the repulsive ugliness of the Schoolmaster, and only
thought with pity of his great affliction, in being blind; they
commiserated the lameness of the poor boy, admired the interesting
sharpness of his countenance, the deep, cute glance of his ever-moving
eye, and, above all, loaded him with praises for the extreme care and
watchfulness with which he attended to his afflicted parent. The
appetite of the labourers, which had been momentarily forgotten, now
returned with redoubled violence, and for a time nothing could be heard
but the clattering of plates and rattling of knives and forks. Still,
however busily employed with their suppers, the servants assembled round
the table, both male and female, could not but remark, with infinite
pleasure, the tender assiduity of the lad towards the blind creature who
sat beside him. Nothing could exceed the devoted affection and filial
care with which Tortillard prepared his meat for him, cutting both that
and his bread with most accurate nicety, pouring out his drink, and
never attempting even to taste a morsel himself, till his father
expressed himself as having completed his supper. But, for all this
dutiful attention, the young ruffian took ample and bitter revenge.
Instigated as much by an innate spirit of cruelty as the desire of
imitation natural to his age, Tortillard found an equal enjoyment with
the Chouette in having something to torment (_a bete de souffrance_);
and it was a matter of inexpressible exultation to his wretched mind
that he, a poor, distorted, crippled, abject creature, should have it in
his power to tyrannise over so powerful and ferocious a creature as the
Schoolmaster,--it was like torturing a muzzled tiger. He even refined
his gratification, by compelling his victim to endure all the agonies he
inflicted, without wincing or exhibiting the slightest external sign of
his suffering. Thus he accompanied each outward mark of devoted
tenderness towards his supposed parent, by aiming a severe kick against
the Schoolmaster's legs, on one of which there was (in common with many
who had long worked in the galleys) a deep and severe woun