Part 127 (2/2)

They were keeping a drinking-saloon not far from the Chateau-des-Rentiers; and their establishment, known as the Poivriere, bore anything but an enviable reputation.

Lacheneur questioned the widow and her son in vain; they could give him no information whatever on the subject. He told them his name, but even this did not awaken the slightest recollection in their minds.

Jean was about to take his departure when Mother Chupin, probably in the hope of extracting a few pennies, began to deplore her present misery, which was, she declared, all the harder to bear since she had wanted for nothing during the life of her poor husband, who had always obtained as much money as he wanted from a lady of high degree--the d.u.c.h.esse de Sairmeuse, in short.

Lacheneur uttered such a terrible oath that the old woman and her son started back in affright.

He saw at once the close connection between the researches of Mme.

Blanche and her generosity to Chupin.

”It was she who poisoned Marie-Anne,” he said to himself. ”It was through my sister that she became aware of the existence of the child. She loaded Chupin with favors because he knew the crime she had committed--that crime in which his father had been only an accomplice.”

He remembered Martial's oath at the bedside of the murdered girl, and his heart overflowed with savage exultation. He saw his two enemies, the last of the Sairmeuse and the last of the Courtornieu take in their own hands his work of vengeance.

But this was mere conjecture; he desired to be a.s.sured of the correctness of his suppositions.

He drew from his pocket a handful of gold, and, throwing it upon the table, he said:

”I am very rich; if you will obey me and keep my secret, your fortune is made.”

A shrill cry of delight from mother and son outweighed any protestations of obedience.

The Widow Chupin knew how to write, and Lacheneur dictated this letter:

”Madame la d.u.c.h.esse--I shall expect you at my establishment to-morrow between twelve and four o'clock. It is on business connected with the Borderie. If at five o'clock I have not seen you, I shall carry to the post a letter for the duke.”

”And if she comes what am I to say to her?” asked the astonished widow.

”Nothing; you will merely ask her for money.”

”If she comes, it is as I have guessed,” he reflected.

She came.

Hidden in the loft of the Poivriere, Jean, through an opening in the floor, saw the d.u.c.h.ess give a banknote to Mother Chupin.

”Now, she is in my power!” he thought exultantly. ”Through what sloughs of degradation will I drag her before I deliver her up to her husband's vengeance!”

CHAPTER LIV

A few lines of the article consecrated to Martial de Sairmeuse in the ”General Biography of the Men of the Century,” give the history of his life after his marriage.

”Martial de Sairmeuse,” it says there, ”brought to the service of his party a brilliant intellect and admirable endowments. Called to the front at the moment when political strife was raging with the utmost violence, he had courage to a.s.sume the sole responsibility of the most extreme measures.

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