n, but he did pour out all his purposes, all the infernal
cornucopia, into her breast from his. You have no secrets between
you; you, his mother, know all his course; his thoughts, intents,
conspiracies and plots; his loves, his hates, his loose, irregular
life; his merry moments, and his moods of malice. I charge thee,
tell us where he was last night, where yesterday, where he is now,
and where he will be to-morrow."

"Monsieur, I know no more, know nothing," cried the woman, appealing
to Claude. "My master is mad," and, bursting into tears, began:
"Here have I been his housekeeper twenty years--"

"Twenty years too long," vociferated the advocate. "One half the
period that heaven was vexed with a stiff-necked generation have
I endured you, Babet. Housekeeper! eh? Keeper of the King's
conscience next, a she Lord Chancellor,--but continue: call yourself
Keeper of the Seals, and mistress--or master either--of the Rolls,
so you unroll your secret. Tell all you may; empty your flask of
falsehood, then at the bottom we may find some sediment of truth.
Commence; don't count upon concealment. I will wring the truth from
you, though it shall ooze out drop by drop, and each drop be a
portion of your life."

Babet was still silent, but the lawyer pursued:

"Oh, toad, ugly and venomous, you have a precious jewel in your
head; deliver it; discover to myself and to this gentleman all that
you know about your son's late conduct. Speak, or you shall have
your closed lips forced apart, or there shall be found and set you
such tormenting penance, that you shall sue with speed to make
confession. What! still silent? Bathe no longer that face with
tears. Out on thee, crocodile! Oh, that those trite tears were
scales, falling, to leave you bare and vulnerable to arrows of
adjurement; then, with patience I could see them fall as fast as
flakes of snow in winter, till thou wert as white as Judge's ermine
with them! Creature, hast thou nothing plausible, nothing for us,
nothing for him, nor me?"

"Nothing for you, nor for this gentleman," she answered quietly.

"Do not imagine him to be so gentle, neither. Though he dwells
staid and silent, he is a roaring lion, that should I let slip may
soon devour thee, Babet. Overweening woman, you do not know how
much you and yours have wronged him," said the advocate.

Claude had heard all this without speaking, but now he interposed,
to try persuasion.

"Good Babet," said he, soothingly, "i