THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS.
49
ful," said Rigolette, with indignation—" to dare to joke
before such misery I"
"Well, without joking, "said the other bailiff, " since
you wish to do some good, try to prevent the woman
from seeing us carry off the husband. You will pre-
vent both from spending a bad quarter of an hour."
Although brutal, the aujuee was good; Rigolette fol-
lowed it, and approach?- Madeleine. She, wild with
grief, did not observe the young girl, who knelt down
alongside of the bed with the other children. Morel re-
covered from his temporary alienation only to sink un-
der the most poignant reflections. More calm, he was
able to contemplate the horror of his position. Decided
to this extremity, the notary must be unrelenting; the
bailiffs did their duty. The artisan gave himself up.
"Ahl now are we coining to the end," said Bourdin to
him. " I cannot leave these diamonds here; my wife
is half crazy," said Morel, showing the precious stones
on his table. "The broker for whom I work will come
to get them this morning; they are very valuable."
"Good," said Tortillard, who still remained outside
listening; "good, good, good—La Chouette shall know
this."
" Grant me only until to-morrow," continued Morel,
"so that I can return these diamonds to the broker."
" Impossible 1 let us finish at once." " But I cannot, in
leaving these diamonds, expose them to being lost."
"Take them with you; our hack is below—we will go
to yourbroker; if he is not at home, you can leave them
at the office at Clichy; they will be as safe there as in
the bank. Come, make haste, we will go without your
wife and children perceiving it." " Grant me until to-
morrow, so that I can bury my child," asked Morel,
in a supplicating tone, almost choked with tears. " No ;
we have already lost more than an hour here. The
funeral would only make you more sad," added Mali-
corne. "Ahl yes; it would make me more sad," said
Morel, bitterly. "You fear so much to make people
sad! then, a last word." "Come, sacreblue! make
haste," said Malicorne, with brutal impatience. " How
long since you were ordered to arrest me 1" " It was
only yesterday that we received the order from the
notary." "Yesterday? So lately? yesterday? and
Louise has not been here ; where is she? what has be-
come of her?" said the artisan, taking from the work-
bench a box filled with cotton, in which he placed the
stones. " But I will not think of this now—in prison
I'll have time enough."
"Come, make up your bundle and dress yourself."
"I have no bundle to make; I have only these dia-
monds to carry with me, to leave at the office."
"Dress yourself, then!" "I have no other clothes
than these." " You are going out in these rags?" said
Bourdin. "I shall make you ashamed, doubtless?"
said the workman, with bitterness. " No, since you
go in your carriage," answered Malicorne. "Papa,
mamma calls you," saidone of the children. "Listen,"
whispered Morel quickly to one of the bailiffs: " do not
be inhuman ; grant me a last favor. I have not the
courage to say farewell to my wife, to my children ;
my heart will break. If they see you take me away,
they will run after me.   I wish to avoid that.   I beg
?-ou will say to me out loud, that you will return iu
hree or four days, and pretend to go away—you will
wait for me at the landing below. I will come out five
minutes afterward; that will spare me the parting. I
will not resist, I assure you ; I shall become crazy—I was
almost so just now." " No you don't; you wish to play
me a trick!" said Malicorne; " you wish to escape, old
fellow." "Oh! mon Dieu! mon Dieul" cried Morel, in
mournful indignation. "I don't think that he'll fail,"
whispered Bourdin to his companion: ".let us do as he
asks, otherwise we will never get from here ; I'll go and
watch at the door; there is no other way of getting
out: he cannou escape us."
"Very well, but may thunder catch him! what a
kennel 1 what & kennel!" Then, addressing Morel in a
low tone, he said, " It is agreed upon; we will wait for
you below: I play your game, and make haste!" "I
thank you," said Morel. " Well, well 1" cried Bourdin
in a loud tone, "since it is so, and you promise to pay,
we will leave yiu; we will return in five or six days;
but you must bo punctual thenl" "Yes, gentlemen, I
hope then to beivble to pay," answered Morel.
The bailiffs went out; Tortillard, for fear of being
surprised, bad disappeared from the staircase at the
moment the officers came out of the garret.
" Madame Morel, do you understand?" said Rigo-
lette, addressing tho wife of the artisan, to arouse her
from her mournful contemplation; " they leave your
husband quiet. Thés* two men have gone." "Mamma,
do you hear? they (fo not take papa away," cried tho
eldest of the boys. " Morel 1 listen—listen—take one of
your large diamonds, \%.&y will not know it, and we are
saved," murmured Madeleine, quite delirious: "our
little Adele will be no longer cold, she will be no longer
dead."
Profiting by a moment when they were not looking
at him, the artisan went tut with precipitation. The
bailiff awaited him without, on a kind of little plat-
form, at the head of the landing-place. On this plat-
form opened the door of a snia.ll el. vet, where M. Pipe-
let kept his stock of leather. Besides, as we have said,
the worthy porter called this idace his " box at the
melo-drama," because, by mea.is of a hole he had
made in the wainscot, he could witness the sad scenes
which took place in the garret.
The bailiff had remarked this door; for an instant he
thought that perhaps his prisoner had reckoned on this
place to fly to, or conceal himself. " Come, let us be
moving!" said he, putting his foot on th» first step of
the staircase, and making à sign fe*' Moi-tl to follow
him. " One minute more, for mercy's pake!" said the
artisan. He knelt en the platform-,'tl;i iiigh one of the
chinks of the door he cast a last look on hvs family,
joined his hands, and said in a touching ton,?, weeping
bitter tears. "Farewell! my poor children, llarewellI
my poor wife, farewell !" "Ah, now! wili you finish
your anthems!" said Bourdin, brutally; ''Malicorne
was right; what a kennel !"
Morel arose; he was about to follow the bailiff when
these words resounded on the staircase, "My father!
my father!"
"Louise!" cried the artisan, lifting his hands towards
heaven*. "I can. then, embrace her before ï go!"
"Thanks, mon Dieu! I arrive in time," said the voice,
drawing nearer and nearer. And one could heur the
young girl ascending the staircase. " Be tranquil, mv
dear," said a third voice, sharp, broken-winded, puff-
ing and blowing, coming from a place lower down.
"I'll hide myself, if it is necessary, in the alley: us
three, my broom and my old darling, and if they don't
walk out of this after you have spoken to them—the
" -   The   reader   has,   doubtless,  recognized
Madame Pipelet, who, less active than Louise, followed
ker slowly.
In a few moments, the daughter of the artisan was
in the arms of Wer father. "It is you. Louise! my dear
Louise! said Morel, weeping; " but how pale you are!
Mon Dieul what is the matter?" "Nothing—nothing,"
answered Louise, confusedly; "I have run so fast!
here is the money."
"Howl" "You are free!" "You know, then?"
yes, yes; here, sir, take the money," said the young
girl, giving a rouleau of gold to Malicorne. " But this
money, Louise! this money:" "You shall know all;
be calm; come and pacify my mother." " No, direct-
ly!" cried Morel, placing himself before the door. He
thought of the deatli of his little girl, of which Louise
was ignorant: " Stop, I must speak to you. But this
money?" "'Minute!' " said Malicorne, having counted
the pieces of gold which he put in his pocket. " Sixty-
four, sixty-five, that makes thirteen hundred francs.
Is that all you have, my little woman?" " But you
only owe thirteen hundred francs?" said Louise, in-
quiringly, to her father. "Yes," said Morel. "'Min-
ute!'" answered the bailiff, "the note is for thirteen
hundred francs; good; here is the note paid, but the
costs, without the arrest, is already eleven hundred
and forty francs."
"Oh! mon Dieul mon Dieu!" cried Louise; "I
thought it was only thirteen hundred francs. But, Sir,
a iittle later we will pay you the rest; here is a large
amount on account, is it not, my father?" " Later-
very well; bring the money to the office, and we will
let your father go.   Come, march I"
"You take him away 1" "Straight off. It is on ac-
count— let him pay the rest and he shall be free. Oo
on, Bourdin; push ahead!" "Mercy, mercyl" cried
Louise. "Ah! what a row! now thé winnings are to
begin again; it is enough to make one sweat in mid-
winter—my word of honor!" said the bailiff, brutally.
Then, advancing towards Morel, "If you don't walk
right off, I'll take you by the collar arid make you go
another fashion; this is too tiresome, and there's an
end of it." "Oh! my poor father—I, who thought to
save him, at least!" said Louise, quite overcome.
"Noi no! God is not justl" cried the artisan, in a
despairing tone. "Yes, God is just: He always has
pity on honest people who suffer," said a soft and
thrilling voice.
At the same moment Rodolphe appeared at the door
of the little store-room, where he had witnessed many
of the scenes we have just described. He was pale,
and highly affected. At this sudden apparition, the
bailiffs fell back. Morelandhis daughter regarded the
prince with astonishment.
Taking from the pocket of his waistcoat a little pack-
age of bank bills, folded, Rodolphe drew out three, and,
presenting them to Malicorne, said, " There are twenty-
five hundred francs; return to this young girl the gold
she gave you." Still more astonished, the officer took
the notes in a hesitating manner, examined them,
turned and returned, and finally pocketed them. Then,
recovering his impudence and assurancaas his aston-
ishment vanished, he measured Rodolphe with a look,
and said, " Are they good, your bills? how came you
by such a sum? Does it honestly belong to you?"
added he. Rodolphe was very plainly dressed, and
covered with dust,.owing to his concealment in the
store-room of M. Pipelet. " I told you to give back the
gold to this young girl," answered he, in a-shortand
rough tone.
"I told you! and how do you dare to speak to me
thus?" cried the bailiff, advancing towards Rodolphe
in a threatening manner.
"The gold! the goldl" said the prince, seizing and
pressing his arm so tightly that under his iron grasp
the bailiff cried out, "Ohl you hurt me! let me go!"
" Give up the gold, then ! you are paid ; go away, with-
out uttering a word of insolence, or I'll pitch you
head foremost down the stairs!" "Well, here is the
gold," said Malicorne, returning the roieau to the
young girl; "but don't be so familiar, nor injure me,
because you are the strongest."
" That's true; who are you, that you give yourself
such airs?" said Bourdin, standing behind his confed-
erate; "who are you?" "Who is he, impudence! he
is my lodger, the prince of lodgers, foulmouth as you
are!" cried Madame Pipelet, who at last appeared,
quite out of breath, and as usual " coiffée " with her
flaxen periwig "a la Titus." The portiere held in her
hand an earthen saucepan filled with smoking soup,
which she charitably brought to the Morels.
"What does she want, this old weasel?" said Bour-
din.' " If you make any remarks about my appear-
ance, I'll throw myself on you and bite," cried
Madame Pipelet; "and then my lodger, my prince of
lodgers, will pitch you from the top to the bottom of
the stairs, as he said he would; and I'll sweep you out
with my broom, like dirty rubbish as you are.'
"This old woman is capable of raising the house
against us: We are paid, we have made our expenses,
let us go," said Bourdin to Malicorne. "There are
your pieces!" said he. throwing the documents at the
feet of Morel. "Pick them up, you are paid to be
polite," said Rodolphe, stopping the bailiff with a
strong grasp, and pointing to the papers.
Feelinir, at this new and formidable grasp, that he
could not struggle against such an adversary, the
officer stooped down, grumbling, and picked up the
papers, wdiich he handed to Morel.
"You, although you have a fist of iron, had better
not fall under our1 hands!" said Malicorne; and after
shaking his clinched hand at Rodolphe, with one
bound he descended ten steps, followed by his accom-
plice, who looked behind, rather alarmed. Madame
Pipelet prepared herself to avenge the threat of the
bailiff towards Rodolphe: looking at her saucepan
with an inspired air. she cried, heroically, " The debts
of the Morels are paid : they are going to have enough
to eat: they have no longer any need of my paste: look
out below!" and, leaning on the railing, the old woman
emptied the contents of her saucepan on the backs of
the two bailiffs, who had reached at this moment the
first story. "And get out, then!" added the portiere.
"Ahl they are nicelv soused—like a piper—like two
pipers—eh ! eh ! eh ! oh !—must say so." " Ten thousand
thunders!" cried Malicorne, inundated with the culin-
ary preparation of Madame Pipelet, "will you look out
above there, old hell-cat!"
"Alfred!" shouted Madame Pipelet, screeching in a
sharp, piercing voice, loud enough to make a deaf man
hear: "Alfred! fetch them a kick, old darling! They
wished to come the Bedouins over your Stasie (Anas-
tasia!. Thev are two blackguards—they have ran-
sacked me—clip 'em behind with the broom—ask the
oysterman and ' rogomiste ' to help you!   Heu! you!
you! you! s'cat! s'cat] thieves! murder! Kss! kssl
kss! Brrrrrr! How, how! Kick'em behind, old dar-
ling! Boum! boum!" And by way of a formidable
finish to these " onomatopoeias," which she had accom-
panied with most ferocious stampings of the feet Ma-
dome Pipelet, carried away by the intoxication of vic-
tory, pitched from the top to the bottom of the stairs
her earthern saucepan„whieh, breaking with a terrible
noise, at the moment when the bailiffs, alarmed at
these frightful cries, descended by four steps at the
time the last flight of stairs, augmented considerably
their fears. "And, get out then!" cried Anastasia,
shouting with laughter, and crossing her arms in à
triumphal attitude.
While Madame Pipelet pursued the bailiffs with her
shouts and insults, Morel cast himself at the feet of
Rodolphe. "Ah, Monsieur, you have saved our lives!
To whom do we owe this unlooked for succor?" "To
God; you see he has always pity on honest people."
Chapter X.—Rigolette.
Louise, the daughter of the artisan, was remarkably
handsome, a serious beauty: tall and slender, she re-
sembled the antique Juno, in the|regularity of her feat-
ures, and the huntress Diana in the elegance of her
lofty figure. Notwithstanding her sunburnt complex-
ion, the rough redness of her well-shaped hand, and
her humble dress, this young girl, in her exterior was
commanding—as the poor artisan would say in his
paternal admiration, she had the air of a princess
We will not endeavor to paint the gratitude the ioyous
transport of this family, so suddenly relieved from a
frightful fate. For a moment, in this joyful reverse
even the death of the little girl was foi-gotten Ro-
dolphe alone remarked the extreme pallor of Louise
and the sombre thoughts with which she appeared
overwhelmed, notwithstanding the deliverance of her
father.
Wishing to tranquilize the Morels completelv as to
the future, and to explain a liberality which'might
compromise his incognito, Rodolphe said to the arti-
san, whom he led to the landing place, whilst Rigolette
prepared Louise for the death of her little sister.
" The day before yesterday, in the morning, a young
lady came to see you?" "Yes, sir; and she appeared
much grieved at the state in which she found us."
" After God, it is she you must thank, not me."   " Can
it be true, Monsieur? this young lady------"   "Is your
benefactress." "I have often taken goods to her
house; the other day in coming to hire a room on the
fourth story, I learned from the porter vour cruel
situation; counting on the charity of this lâdy, I went
to her house; soon she was here to judge for herself of
the extent of your sufferings; shewas much affected;
but as this might have been the fruits of misconduct,
she told me to get every information concerning you,
desiring to conform her benefactions according to your
probity."    "Good and excellent lady!    I had much
reason to say-----"   "To say to Madeleine, if the rich
only knew ! is it not- so?" " How, Monsieur, you know
the name of my wife?   Who has told you that?"
"Since six o'clock this morning," said Rodolphe, "I
have been concealed in the little store-room near you.
garret."
"You, Monsieur?" "And I have heard all, all, excel-
lent and honest man?" "Mon Dieu! But how came -
you there?" " For good or bad, I could not be bette.
informed than from your own mouth; I wanted to see
and hear everything without your knowing it. The
porter had spoken to me of this storeroom, proposing
to let me have it for a storeroom. This morning I
asked to visit it, I remained there an hour, and I have
convinced myself that there is not a character more
uupright, more noble, more courageously resigned than
yours."
" Mon Dieu, Monsieur, there is no great merit in it—
I am born so, and I cannot, therefore, do otherwise."
" I know it; and if I do not praise you, still I esteem
you. I was coming out of my covert to deliver you
from the bailiffs, when I heard the voice of your daugh-
ter. I wished to allow her the pleasure of saving you
Unfortunately, the cupidity cf these officers prevented
this sweet satisfaction from poor Louise; then I ap-
peared. I had recovered yesterday some sums that
were due to me, and I have only made an advance to
your benefactress in paying this unhappy debt. But
your misfortunes have been so great, you have been so
honest, so worthy, that the interest that is felt for you
will not stop here. I can, in the name of your angel
benefactress, promise you a peaceful, happy future,
for you and yours." "Can it be possible? But, at
least, her name, Monsieur, her name? this angel from
Heaven, this angel benefactress, as you call her'"
"Yes, she is an angel; and you have great reason to
say that both high and low have their troubles." "Is
this lady unhappy?" "Who has not their sorrows?
But I have no reason to conceal her name; she is
called------"
Thinking that Madame Pipelet was not ignorant that
Madame d'Harville had come into the house to ask for
tbe Commandment, Rodolphe, fearing the indiscreet
twattle of the portiere, said, after a moment's reflec-
tion, "I will tell you fhe name of this lady, on one con-
dition." "Oh! speak, Monsieur!" "It'is, that you
repeat it to no one: you understand—to no one." "Oh!
I swear to you. But may I not at least thank her, this
Providence of the unfortunate?"
"I wiil ask Madame d'Harville. I do not doubt but
that she'll consent."
" This  lady  is   called-----"   " Madame  la  Marquis
d'Harville."
"Oh! I shall never forget that name. She shall be
my saint—my adoration. When I think that, thanks to
lier, my wife, my children are saved—saved ! not at all
—not at all—my poor little Adele, we shall never see
her again! Alas! mon Dieu! we must acknowledge
that we must soon have lost her, that she was con-
demned." And the artisan dried his tears. "As to the
last duties to render to this little one, if you will be-
lieve me, this is what you must do. I do not occupy
my room: it is large ami airy: there is already one bed
there; what is iiecesparv shall be brought there foryou
and your family: you must move there; the body of
your child can remain in the garret, where it will be
this night, guarded and" watched by a priest. I will g»
and beg Monsieur Pipelet to attend to these sad de-
tails."
"But, Monsieur, to deprive you of your room! too
much trouble. Now that we are quiet, and I have no
longer any fear of a prison, our poor garretwill appear
like a. palace; above all, if my Louise remains with us.'
" Your Louise shall leave you no more. You said it
would be your luxury to have her always with you.
This shall be better—it shall be your recompense."
"Mon Dieu! Monsieur, is this possible ? it seeme like