t-Mittre, he had never
been known to have either relatives or friends. The proximity of the
frontiers and the neighbouring forests of the Seille had turned this
singular, lazy fellow into a combination of smuggler and poacher, one
of those suspicious-looking characters of whom passers-by observe: "I
shouldn't care to meet that man at midnight in a dark wood." Tall, with
a formidable beard and lean face, Macquart was the terror of the
good women of the Faubourg of Plassans; they actually accused him of
devouring little children raw. Though he was hardly thirty years old,
he looked fifty. Amidst his bushy beard and the locks of hair which hung
over his face in poodle fashion, one could only distinguish the gleam
of his brown eyes, the furtive sorrowful glance of a man of vagrant
instincts, rendered vicious by wine and a pariah life. Although no
crimes had actually been brought home to him, no theft or murder was
ever perpetrated in the district without suspicion at once falling upon
him.

And it was this ogre, this brigand, this scoundrel Macquart, whom
Adelaide had chosen! In twenty months she had two children by him, first
a boy and then a girl. There was no question of marriage between
them. Never had the Faubourg beheld such audacious impropriety. The
stupefaction was so great, the idea of Macquart having found a young and
wealthy mistress so completely upset the gossips, that they even spoke
gently of Adelaide. "Poor thing! She's gone quite mad," they would say.
"If she had any relatives she would have been placed in confinement long
ago." And as they never knew anything of the history of those strange
amours, they accused that rogue Macquart of having taken advantage of
Adelaide's weak mind to rob her of her money.

The legitimate son, little Pierre Rougon, grew up with his mother's
other offspring. The latter, Antoine and Ursule, the young wolves as
they were called in the district, were kept at home by Adelaide, who
treated them as affectionately as her first child. She did not appear to
entertain a very clear idea of the position in life reserved for these
two poor creatures. To her they were the same in every respect as her
first-born. She would sometimes go out holding Pierre with one hand and
Antoine with the other, never noticing how differently the two little
fellows were already regarded.

It was a strange home. For nearly twenty years everyone lived there
after his or her fancy, the children like the mo