Volume III Part 43 (2/2)
”I am not delirious, Rudolph. In this casket, among some papers and a portrait, which will prove to you the truth of what I say, you will find a paper stained with my blood.”
”With your blood?”
”The woman who informed me that our child was still living dictated to me this revelation--then I was stabbed by a poniard.”
”And who was she? how did she know?”
”It was to her our child was delivered--quite an infant--after having falsely reported her death.”
”But this woman--her name? can she be believed? where did you become acquainted with her?”
”I tell you, Rudolph, that all this is fate--providential. Some months since, you rescued a poor girl from poverty, to send her to the country--is it not so?”
”Yes, to Bouqueval.”
”Jealousy and hatred drove me wild. I caused this young girl to be carried off by the woman of whom I have spoken.”
”And she took the unhappy child to Saint Lazare?”
”Where she yet is.”
”She is there no longer. Ah! you do not know, madame, the frightful evil you have caused by tearing this poor child from the retreat where I had placed her; but--”
”The girl no longer at Saint Lazare?” cried the lady in alarm; ”and you speak of a frightful evil!”
”A monster of cupidity had an interest in her death. They have drowned her, madame; but answer, you say--”
”My daughter!” cried Sarah, interrupting Rudolph, and rising on her feet, immovable as a marble statue.
”What does she say? good heavens!” cried Rudolph.
”My child!” repeated Sarah, whose face became livid and frightful from despair; ”they have killed my child!”
”The Goualeuse your child!” repeated Rudolph, recoiling with horror.
”The Goualeuse! yes! that is the name the woman mentioned--this woman called La Chouette. Dead--dead!” cried Sarah, still motionless, her eyes fixed and glaring; ”they have killed her!”
”Sarah!” replied Rudolph, as pale and alarmed as she, ”calm yourself-- answer me--La Goualeuse--this girl whom you caused to be carried off by La Chouette from Bouqueval, was--”
”Our child!”
”She!”
”And they have killed her.”
”Oh!--no, no--you rave--this cannot be. You know not, no, you know not how frightful this is. Sarah! compose yourself; speak to me tranquilly. Seat yourself--calm yourself. Often there are appearances--resemblances which deceive; one is inclined to believe what one desires. It is not a reproach I make you; but explain to me well--tell me all the reasons you have to credit this, for it cannot be--no, no; it must not be!--it is not so!”
After a moment's pause, the countess collected her thoughts, and said to Rudolph in an expiring voice, ”Hearing of your marriage, thinking to be married myself, I could not keep our daughter with me; she was then four years old.”
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