, then, Chourineur?"

"Remorse? No; for I have served my time," said the savage; "but at
first, a night did not pass but I saw--like a nightmare--the sergeant
and soldiers whom I had slashed and slaughtered; that is, they were not
alone," added the brigand, in a voice of terror; "these were in tens,
and dozens, and hundreds, and thousands, each waiting his turn, in a
kind of slaughter-house, like the horses whose throats I used to cut at
Montfaucon, awaiting each his turn. Then, then, I saw _red_, and began
to cut and slash away on these men as I used formerly to do on the
horses. The more, however, I chopped down the soldiers, the faster the
ranks filled up with others; and as they died, they looked at one with
an air so gentle,--so gentle, that I cursed myself for killing 'em; but
I couldn't help it. That was not all. I never had a brother; and yet it
seemed as if every one of those whom I killed was my brother, and I
loved all of them. At last, when I could bear it no longer, I used to
wake covered all over with sweat, as cold as melting snow."

"That was a horrid dream, Chourineur!"

"It was; yes. That dream, do you see, was enough to drive one mad or
foolish; so, twice, I tried to kill myself, once by swallowing
verdigris, and another time by trying to choke myself with my chain;
but, confound it, I am as strong as a bull. The verdigris only made me
thirsty; and as for the twist of the chain round my neck, why, that
only gave me a natural cravat of a blue colour. Afterwards, the desire
of life came back to me, nay nightmare ceased to torment me, and I did
as others did."

"At the Bagne, you were in a good school for learning how to thieve?"

"Yes, but it was not to my taste. The other 'prigs' bullied me; but I
soon silenced them with a few thumps of my chain. It was in this way I
first knew the Schoolmaster; and I must pay him the compliment due to
his blows,--he paid me off as you did some little time ago."

"He is, then, a criminal who has served his time?"

"He was sentenced for life, but escaped."

"Escaped, and not denounced?"

"I'm not the man to denounce him. Besides, it would seem as if I were
afraid of him."

"But how is it that the police do not detect him? Have they not got his
description?"

"His description? Oh! yes, yes; but it is long since he has scraped out
from his phiz what nature had placed there; now, none but the 'baker who
puts the condemned in his oven' (the devil) could recogni