e; for those that they slaughter are sold to the
'cag-mag' shops near the School of Medicine, who convert it into beef,
mutton, veal, or game, according to the taste of purchasers. However,
when I got to my morsel of horse's flesh, I was as happy as a king! I
went with it into the lime-kiln like a wolf to his lair, and then, with
the leave of the lime-burners, I made a glorious fry on the ashes. When
the burners were not at work, I picked up some dry wood at Romainville,
set light to it, and broiled my steak under the walls of the bone-house.
The meat certainly was bloody, and almost raw, but that made a change."

"And your name? What did they call you?" asked Rodolph.

"I had hair much more flaxen than now, and the blood was always in my
eyes, and so they called me the 'Albino.' The Albinos are the white
rabbits amongst men; they have red eyes," added the Chourineur, in a
grave tone, and, as it were, with a physiological parenthesis.

"And your relations? your family?"

"My relations? Oh! they lodge at the same number as the Goualeuse's.
Place of my birth? Why, the first corner of no-matter-what street,
either on the right or left-hand side of the way, and either going up or
coming down the kennel."

"Then you have cursed your father and mother for having abandoned you?"

"Why, that would not have set my leg if I had broken it! No matter;
though it's true they played me a scurvy trick in bringing me into the
world. But I should not have complained if they had made me as beggars
ought to be made; that is to say, without the sense of cold, hunger, or
thirst. Beggars who don't like thieving would find it greatly to their
advantage."

"You were cold, thirsty, hungry, Chourineur, and yet you did not steal?"

"No; and yet I was horribly wretched. It's a fact, that I have often
gone with an empty bread-basket (fasted) for two days at a time: that
was more than my share; but I never stole."

"For fear of a gaol?"

"Pooh!" said the Chourineur, shrugging his shoulders, and laughing
loudly, "I should then not have stolen bread, for fear of getting my
allowance, eh? An honest man, I was famishing; a thief, I should have
been supported in prison, and right well, too! But I did not steal,
because--because--why, because the idea of stealing never came across
me; so that's all about it!"

This reply, noble as it was in itself, but of the rectitude of which the
Chourineur himself had no idea, perfectly astonished Rodolph. H