t scandal
fresh from the city.

La Corriveau resolved to send Mere Malheur to Beaumanoir, under the
pretence of paying a visit to Dame Tremblay, in order to open a way
of communication between herself and Caroline. She had learned enough
during her brief interview with Caroline in the forest of St. Valier,
and from what she now heard respecting the Baron de St. Castin, to
convince her that this was no other than his missing daughter.

"If Caroline could only be induced to admit La Corriveau into her secret
chamber and take her into her confidence, the rest--all the rest,"
muttered the hag to herself, with terrible emphasis, "would be easy, and
my reward sure. But that reward shall be measured in my own bushel, not
in yours, Mademoiselle des Meloises, when the deed is done!"

La Corriveau knew the power such a secret would enable her to exercise
over Angelique. She already regarded the half of her reputed riches as
her own. "Neither she nor the Intendant will ever dare neglect me after
that!" said she. "When once Angelique shall be linked in with me by a
secret compact of blood, the fortune of La Corriveau is made. If
the death of this girl be the elixir of life to you, it shall be the
touchstone of fortune forever to La Corriveau!"

Mere Malheur was next day despatched on a visit to her old gossip, Dame
Tremblay. She had been well tutored on every point, what to say and how
to demean herself. She bore a letter to Caroline, written in the Italian
hand of La Corriveau, who had learned to write well from her mother,
Marie Exili.

The mere possession of the art of writing was a rarity in those days in
the class among whom she lived. La Corriveau's ability to write at all
was a circumstance as remarkable to her illiterate neighbors as the
possession of the black art which they ascribed to her, and not without
a strong suspicion that it had the same origin.

Mere Malheur, in anticipation of a cup of tea and brandy with Dame
Tremblay, had dressed herself with some appearance of smartness in
a clean striped gown of linsey. A peaked Artois hat surmounted a
broad-frilled cap, which left visible some tresses of coarse gray hair
and a pair of silver ear-rings, which dangled with every motion of
her head. Her shoes displayed broad buckles of brass, and her short
petticoat showed a pair of stout ankles enclosed in red clocked
stockings. She carried a crutched stick in her hand, by help of which
she proceeded vigorously on her