nt of view, was supremely reprehensible. Flore, born in
1787, grew up in the midst of the saturnalias of 1793 and 1798, whose
lurid gleams penetrated these country regions, then deprived of priests
and faith and altars and religious ceremonies; where marriage was
nothing more than legal coupling, and revolutionary maxims left a deep
impression. This was markedly the case at Issoudun, a land where, as we
have seen, revolt of all kinds is traditional. In 1802, Catholic worship
was scarcely re-established. The Emperor found it a difficult matter
to obtain priests. In 1806, many parishes all over France were still
widowed; so slowly were the clergy, decimated by the scaffold, gathered
together again after their violent dispersion.

In 1802, therefore, nothing was likely to reproach Flore Brazier, unless
it might be her conscience; and conscience was sure to be weaker than
self-interest in the ward of Uncle Brazier. If, as everybody chose to
suppose, the cynical doctor was compelled by his age to respect a child
of fifteen, the Rabouilleuse was none the less considered very "wide
awake," a term much used in that region. Still, some persons thought
she could claim a certificate of innocence from the cessation of the
doctor's cares and attentions in the last two years of his life, during
which time he showed her something more than coldness.

Old Rouget had killed too many people not to know when his own end was
nigh; and his notary, finding him on his death-bed, draped as it
were, in the mantle of encyclopaedic philosophy, pressed him to make a
provision in favor of the young girl, then seventeen years old.

"So I do," he said, cynically; "my death sets her at liberty."

This speech paints the nature of the old man. Covering his evil doings
with witty sayings, he obtained indulgence for them, in a land where
wit is always applauded,--especially when addressed to obvious
self-interest. In those words the notary read the concentrated hatred
of a man whose calculations had been balked by Nature herself, and who
revenged himself upon the innocent object of an impotent love. This
opinion was confirmed to some extent by the obstinate resolution of the
doctor to leave nothing to the Rabouilleuse, saying with a bitter smile,
when the notary again urged the subject upon him,--

"Her beauty will make her rich enough!"

CHAPTER IX

Jean-Jacques Rouget did not mourn his father, though Flore Brazier did.
The old doctor had ma