Bradamanti's help was
more than ever indispensable; and thereon came Madame Seraphin's vain
attempts to see the doctor. Having at length heard, in the evening, of
the departure of the charlatan, the notary, driven to act by the
imminence of his fears and danger, recalled to mind the Martial family,
those freshwater pirates established near the bridge of Asnieres, with
whom Bradamanti had proposed to place Louise, in order to get rid of her
undetected. Having absolutely need of an accomplice to carry out his
deadly purposes against Fleur-de-Marie, the notary took every precaution
not to be compromised in case a fresh crime should be committed; and,
the day after Bradamanti's departure for Normandy, Madame Seraphin went
with all speed to the Martials.

CHAPTER III.

L'ILE DU RAVAGEUR.

The following scenes took place during the evening of the day in which
Madame Seraphin, in compliance with Jacques Ferrand the notary's orders,
went to the Martials, the freshwater pirates established at the point of
a small islet of the Seine, not far from the bridge of Asnieres.

The Father Martial had died, like his own father, on the scaffold,
leaving a widow, four sons, and two daughters. The second of these sons
was already condemned to the galleys for life, and of the rest of this
numerous family there remained in the Ile du Ravageur (a name which was
popularly given to this place; why, we will hereafter explain) the
Mother Martial; three sons, the eldest (La Louve's lover) twenty-five
years of age, the next twenty, and the youngest twelve; two girls, one
eighteen years of age, the second nine.

The examples of such families, in whom there is perpetuated a sort of
fearful inheritance of crime, are but too frequent. And this must be so.
Let us repeat, unceasingly, society thinks of punishing, but never of
preventing, crime. A criminal is sentenced to the galleys for life;
another is executed. These felons will leave young families; does
society take any care or heed of these orphans,--these orphans, whom it
has made so, by visiting their father with a civil death, or cutting off
his head? Does it substitute any careful or preserving guardianship
after the removal of him whom the law has declared to be unworthy,
infamous,--after the removal of him whom the law has put to death? No;
"the poison dies with the beast," says society. It is deceived; the
poison of corruption is so subtle, so corrosive, so contagious, that it
be