Part 26 (1/2)
Josephin shook his head negatively, and pointed with his finger at his own long sword, that lay across the table before him. It would have been quite enough for such a contingency.
”You are yourself able to rid yourself of an enemy,” replied the Mauvais-Garcon. ”I know it. What, then, is the job?”
The Franc-Taupin proceeded with a tremulous voice while a tear rolled down from his eye:
”Pichrocholle, I had a sister--”
”How your voice trembles! You could not look any sadder. Pichrocholle, the pots are empty, and no money to fill them with!” said Grippe-Minaud.
”'Sdeath, my sister!” cried the Franc-Taupin in despair. ”There is a void in my heart that nothing can fill!” and he hid his face in his hands.
”A void is useful when it is made in the purse of a bourgeois,”
commented Grippe-Minaud, while his companion remarked:
”Come, now, Josephin, you had a sister. Is it that you have lost her?
Proceed with your story.”
”She is dead!” murmured the Franc-Taupin, gulping down a sob; but recovering, he added: ”I still have a niece--”
”A niece?” asked the Mauvais-Garcon. ”Is it she we must help? Is she young and handsome--?”
The bandit stopped short at the fierce look that the Franc-Taupin shot at him. Presently he resumed:
”I knew you one time for a jollier fellow.”
”I laugh no more,” rejoined the Franc-Taupin with a sinister smile. ”My cheerfulness is gone! But let us come to the point. My sister died in prison. I succeeded at least in being allowed to see her before she closed her eyes, and to receive her last wishes. She leaves behind three children--a girl and two boys, but the elder does not count.”
”How's that? Explain the mystery.”
”I am coming to that. My sister's daughter was seized and taken to the convent of the Augustinian sisters, where she is now detained.”
”St. Cadouin! What is there to complain about? To have a niece in a convent, is almost like having an angel on your side in paradise!”
Saying which the Mauvais-Garcon crossed himself devoutly by carrying his thumb from his nose to his chin, and then across from one corner to the other of his mouth.
”Oh!” exclaimed Grippe-Minaud, ”And I have neither sister, daughter nor niece in a convent! They would pray for the remission of my sins. I could then be unconcerned for the hereafter, like a fish in the water!”
”And their prayers would not cost you a denier!” added Pichrocholle with a sigh.
”Oh, if only my daughter Mariotte had not run away at the age of fourteen with a jail-bird, she would now be in a convent, praying for her good father, the Tire-Laine! By the confession! That was the dream of my life,” whereupon the thief crossed himself as the Mauvais-Garcon had done.
The words of the two bandits suited the Franc-Taupin. They were fresh proofs of the mixture of superst.i.tion and crime that marked the bandits'
lives. Their fanaticism squared with his own projects. He proceeded with his story, to which his two comrades listened attentively:
”My niece has no religious vocation. She was taken to the convent, and is held there by force. She must come out. Will you help me to carry her off?'
”St. Cadouin!” cried the Mauvais-Garcon, terror stricken, and crossing himself anew. ”That would be sacrilege!”
”To violate a holy place!” came from Grippe-Minaud, who grew pale and crossed himself like Pichrocholle. ”By the confession! My hair stands on end at the bare thought of such a thing!”
Dumb and stupefied, the two brigands looked at each other with dilated eyes. The Franc-Taupin seemed in no wise disconcerted by their scruples.