nough
of these asses of country people at the end of a week, shouldn't I,
boy?" asked the ruffian, to flatter Tortillard.

"If you had stayed here I should have been very much annoyed, 'pon my
word and honour," replied Bras Rouge's son, in a mocking tone.

"Yes, yes, there's a good business to be done in this house; and, if
there should be nothing to steal, yet I will return here with the
Chouette, if only to have my revenge," said the miscreant, in a tone
full of fury and malice, "for now I am sure it is my wife who excited
that infernal Rodolph against me; he who, in blinding me, has put me at
the mercy of all the world, of the Chouette, and a young blackguard like
yourself. Well, if I cannot avenge myself on him, I will have vengeance
against my wife,--yes, she shall pay me for all, even if I set fire to
this accursed house and bury myself in its smouldering ruins. Yes, I
will--I will have--"

"You will, you want to get hold of your wife, eh, old gentleman? She is
within ten paces of you! that's vexing, ain't it? If I liked, I could
lead you to the door of her room, that's what I could, for I know the
room. I know it--I know it--I know it," added Tortillard, singing
according to his custom.

"You know her room?" said the Schoolmaster, in an agony of fervent joy;
"you know it?"

"I see you coming," said Tortillard; "come, play the pretty, and get on
your hind legs like a dog when they throw him a dainty bone. Now, old
Cupid!"

"You know my wife's chamber?" said the miscreant, turning to the side
whence the sound of Tortillard's voice proceeded.

"Yes, I know it; and, what's still better, only one of the farm servants
sleeps on the side of the house where we are. I know his door--the key
is in it--click, one turn, and he's all safe and fast. Come, get up, old
blind Cupid!"

"Who told you all this?" asked the blind scoundrel, rising
involuntarily.

"Capital, Cupid! By the side of your wife's room sleeps an old cook--one
more turn of the key, and click! we are masters of the house--masters of
your wife, and the young girl with the gray mantle that you must catch
hold of and carry off. Now, then, your paw, old Cupid; do the pretty to
your master directly."

"You lie! you lie! how could you know all this?"

"Why, I'm lame in my leg, but not in my head. Before we left the kitchen
I said to the old guzzling labourer that sometimes in the night you had
convulsions, and I asked him where I could get assistance i