infuriated
viper; her pinched-up lips became livid, and she twisted her manacled
arms. Then, as if sorry she had made this mute display of impotent rage,
she subdued her emotion, and became cold and calm again.

Whilst the commissary and his clerk were writing their depositions,
Narcisse Borel, rubbing his hands, cast a satisfied look on the
important capture he had made, and which freed Paris from a band of
dangerous criminals; but, confessing to himself how useful Bras-Rouge
had really been in the affair, he could not help casting on him an
expressive and grateful look.

Tortillard's father was to share until after trial the confinement and
lot of those he had informed against, and, like them, he was handcuffed;
and even more than them did he assume a trembling air of consternation,
twisting his weasel's features with all his might, in order to give them
a despairing expression, and heaving tremendous sighs. He embraced
Tortillard, as if he should find some consolation in his paternal
caresses.

The little cripple did not seem much moved by these marks of tenderness;
he had just learned that, for a time, he would be moved off to the
prison for young offenders.

"What a misery to have a dear child!" cried Bras-Rouge, pretending to be
greatly affected. "It is we two who are most unfortunate, madame, for we
shall be separated from our children."

The widow could no longer preserve her calmness; and having no doubt of
Bras-Rouge's treachery, which she had foretold, she exclaimed:

"I was sure it was you who had sold my son at Toulon. There, Judas!" and
she spat in his face. "You sell our heads! Well, they shall see the
right sort of deaths,--deaths of true Martials!"

"Yes; we shan't shrink before the carline (guillotine)," added Calabash,
with savage excitement.

The widow, glancing towards Nicholas, said to her daughter, with an air
of unutterable contempt:

"That coward there will dishonour us on the scaffold!"

Some minutes afterwards the widow and Calabash, accompanied by two
policemen, got into a hackney-coach to go to St. Lazare; Barbillon,
Nicholas, and Bras Rouge were conveyed to La Force, whilst the
Schoolmaster was conveyed to the Conciergerie, where there are cells for
the reception of lunatics.

END OF VOLUME IV.

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Transcriber's Notes:

This e-text was prepared from numbered edition 505 of the 1000 printed.

Minor punctuation and capitalization