ll hear! Three days ago, as I was at work with my
children around me, my husband came in. I saw by his look that he had
been drinking. 'I have come for Catherine,' says he. I took my
daughter's arm, and I said to Duport, 'Where do you want to take her
to?' 'What's that to you? She's my daughter. Let her make up her bundle
and come along with me.' At these words my blood ran cold in my veins;
for you must know, Lorraine, that that bad woman is still with my
husband, and it makes me shudder all over to say it. But so it was; she
had long been urging him to earn something by our daughter, who is young
and pretty. 'Take away Catherine?' said I to Duport; 'Never! I know what
that wicked woman would do with her.' 'I say,' said my husband, whose
lips were white with rage, 'do not oppose me or I'll kill you!' and then
he seized my daughter by the arm, saying, 'Come along, Catherine!' The
poor child threw her arms around my neck, and burst into tears,
exclaiming, 'I will stay with mother!' When he saw this, Duport became
furious, tore my daughter from me, and hit me a blow in my stomach,
which knocked me down; and when I was on the ground--he was very drunk,
you may be sure--he trampled on me and hurt me dreadfully. My poor
children begged for mercy on their knees,--Catherine, too; and then he
said to her, swearing like a lunatic, 'If you will not come with me I'll
do for your mother!' I was spitting blood; I felt half dead, and could
not move an inch. But I cried to Catherine, 'Let him kill me first!'
'What, you won't be quiet?' said Duport, giving me another kick, which
deprived me of all consciousness; and when I returned to myself, I found
my two little boys crying bitterly."

"And your daughter?"

"Gone!" exclaimed the unhappy mother, with convulsive sobs. "Yes; gone.
My other children told me that their father had beaten them and
threatened to finish me. Then the poor girl was quite distracted and
embraced me and her brothers, weeping dreadfully; and then my husband
dragged her away. Ah, that bad woman was waiting for him on the stairs,
I know!"

"And didn't you complain to the police?"

"At first I felt only grief at Catherine's departure; but I felt soon
great pain in all my limbs,--I could not walk. Alas, what I had so long
dreaded had happened! Yes, I told my brother that one day my husband
would beat me so that I should be obliged to go to the hospital,--and
then what would become of my children? And now here I am