Who has taken my child?’
The street was deserted, the house isolated; no one could tell her anything about it.
She went about the town, searched all the streets, ran hither and thither the whole day long, wild, beside herself, terrible, snuffing at doors and windows like a wild beast which has lost its young.
She was breathless, dishevelled, frightful to see, and there was a fire in her eyes which dried her tears. She stopped the passers-by and cried: ‘My daughter! my daughter! my pretty little daughter!
If any one will give me back my daughter, I will be his servant, the servant of his dog, and he shall eat my heart if he will.’ She met M. le Cure of Saint-Remy, and said to him: ‘Monsieur, I will till the earth with my finger-nails, but give me back my child!’
It was heartrending, Oudarde; and IL saw a very hard man, Master Ponce Lacabre, the procurator, weep.
Ah! poor mother! In the evening she returned home.
During her absence, a neighbor had seen two gypsies ascend up to it with a bundle in their arms, then descend again, after closing the door.
After their departure, something like the cries of a child were heard in Paquette’s room.
The mother, burst into shrieks of laughter, ascended the stairs as though on wings, and entered.—A frightful thing to tell, Oudarde!
Instead of her pretty little Agnes, so rosy and so fresh, who was a gift of the good God, a sort of hideous little monster, lame, one-eyed, deformed, was crawling and squalling over the floor.
She hid her eyes in horror. ‘Oh!’ said she, ‘have the witches transformed my daughter into this horrible animal?’
They hastened to carry away the little club-foot; he would have driven her mad.
It was the monstrous child of some gypsy woman, who had given herself to the devil.
He appeared to be about four years old, and talked a language which was no human tongue; there were words in it which were impossible.
La Chantefleurie flung herself upon the little shoe, all that remained to her of all that she loved.
She remained so long motionless over it, mute, and without breath, that they thought she was dead.
Suddenly she trembled all over, covered her relic with furious kisses, and burst out sobbing as though her heart were broken.
I assure you that we were all weeping also.
She said: ‘Oh, my little daughter! my pretty little daughter! where art thou?’—and it wrung your very heart. I weep still when I think of it.
Our children are the marrow of our bones, you see.—-My poor Eustache! thou art so fair!—If you only knew how nice he is! yesterday he said to me: ‘I want to be a gendarme, that I do.’
Oh! my Eustache! if I were to lose thee!—All at once la Chantefleurie rose, and set out to run through Reims, screaming:
‘To the gypsies’ camp! to the gypsies’ camp!
Police, to burn the witches!’
The gypsies were gone.
It was pitch dark.
They could not be followed.
On the morrow, two leagues from Reims, on a heath between Gueux and Tilloy, the remains of a large fire were found, some ribbons which had belonged to Paquette’s child, drops of blood, and the dung of a ram.
The night just past had been a Saturday.
There was no longer any doubt that the Egyptians had held their Sabbath on that heath, and that they had devoured the child in company with Beelzebub, as the practice is among the Mahometans.
When La Chantefleurie learned these horrible things, she did not weep, she moved her lips as though to speak, but could not.
On the morrow, her hair was gray.
On the second day, she had disappeared.
“‘Tis in truth, a frightful tale,” said Oudarde, “and one which would make even a Burgundian weep.”
“I am no longer surprised,” added Gervaise, “that fear of the gypsies should spur you on so sharply.”
“And you did all the better,” resumed Oudarde, “to flee with your Eustache just now, since these also are gypsies from Poland.”
“No,” said Gervais, “‘tis said that they come from Spain and Catalonia.”
“Catalonia? ‘tis possible,” replied Oudarde. “Pologne, Catalogue, Valogne, I always confound those three provinces, One thing is certain, that they are gypsies.”
“Who certainly,” added Gervaise, “have teeth long enough to eat little children.
I should not be surprised if la Smeralda ate a little of them also, though she pretends to be dainty.
Her white goat knows tricks that are too malicious for there not to be some impiety underneath it all.”
Mahiette walked on in silence.
She was absorbed in that revery which is, in some sort, the continuation of a mournful tale, and which ends only after having communicated the emotion, from vibration to vibration, even to the very last fibres of the heart.
Nevertheless, Gervaise addressed her,
“And did they ever learn what became of la Chantefleurie?”
Mahiette made no reply.
Gervaise repeated her question, and shook her arm, calling her by name.
Mahiette appeared to awaken from her thoughts.
“What became of la Chantefleurie?” she said, repeating mechanically the words whose impression was still fresh in her ear; then, ma king an effort to recall her attention to the meaning of her words,
“Ah!” she continued briskly, “no one ever found out.”