im from a dangerous accomplice; the death of Fleur-de-Marie
(he believed her dead) delivered him from a living proof of one of his
earliest crimes. Finally, thanks to the death of the Chouette, and the
unexpected murder of the Countess Macgregor (whose life was despaired
of), he no longer had these two women to fear, whose disclosures and
attacks might have been most disastrous to him.

The disposition, habits, and former life of Jacques Ferrand known and
displayed, the exciting beauty of the creole admitted, as we have
endeavoured to paint her, together with other facts we shall detail as
we proceed, will account, we presume, for the sudden passion, the
unbridled desire of the notary for this seductive and dangerous
creature. Then we must add, that if women of Cecily's stamp inspire
nothing but repugnance and disgust to men endued with tender and
elevated sentiments, with delicate and pure tastes, they exercise a
sudden action, a magic omnipotence, over men of brutal sensuality like
Jacques Ferrand. Thus a just, an avenging fatality, brought the creole
into contact with the notary, and a terrible expiation was beginning for
him. A fierce passion had urged him on to persecute, with pitiless
malice, an indigent and honest family, and to spread amongst them
misery, madness, and death. This passion was now to be the formidable
chastisement of this great culprit.

Although Jacques Ferrand was never to have his desires realised, the
creole took care not to deprive him of all hope; but the vague and
distant prospects she held out were so coloured by caprices that they
were an additional torture, and more completely enslaved him.

If we are astonished that a man of such vigour and audacity had not
recourse to stratagem or violence to triumph over the calculating
resistance of Cecily, we forget that Cecily was not a second Louise.
Besides, the day after her presentation to the notary, she had played
quite another part from that by aid of which she had been introduced to
her master, for he had not been the dupe of his servant two days.

Forewarned of the fate of Louise by the Baron de Grauen, and knowing
besides by what abominable means she had become the prey of the notary,
the creole, on entering this solitary house, had taken excellent
precautions for passing her first night there in perfect security. The
evening of her arrival, being alone with Jacques Ferrand, he, in order
not to alarm her, pretended scarcely to look at