d, the effect
of the heavy iron chain worn during the term of punishment around the
right leg; and, by way of compelling the miserable sufferer to exercise
a greater degree of stoical courage, the urchin always seized the moment
when the object of his malice was either drinking or speaking.

"Here, dear father! here is a nice peeled nut," said Tortillard, placing
on the plate of his supposed parent a nut carefully prepared.

"Good boy," said old Chatelain, smiling kindly at him. Then, addressing
the bandit, he added: "However great may be your affliction, my friend,
so good a son is almost sufficient to make up even for the loss of
sight; but Providence is so gracious, he never takes away one blessing
without sending another."

"You are quite right, kind sir! My lot is a very hard one, and, but for
the noble conduct of my excellent child, I--"

A sharp cry of irrepressible anguish here broke from the quivering lips
of the tortured man; the son of Bras Rouge had this time aimed his blow
so effectually, that the point of his heavy-nailed shoe had reached the
very centre of the wound, and produced unendurable agony.

"Father! dear father! what is the matter?" exclaimed Tortillard, in a
whimpering voice; then, suddenly rising, he threw both his arms round
the Schoolmaster's neck, whose first impulse of rage and pain was to
stifle the limping varlet in his Herculean grasp; and so powerfully did
he compress the boy's chest against his own, that his impeded
respiration vented itself in a low moaning sound. A few minutes, and
Tortillard's last prank would have been played; but, reflecting that the
lad was for the present indispensable to the furtherance of the schemes
he had on hand, the Schoolmaster, by a violent effort, controlled his
desire to annihilate his tormentor, and contented himself with pushing
him off his shoulders back into his own chair. The sympathising group
around the table were far from seeing through all this, and merely
considered these close embraces as an interchange of paternal and filial
tenderness, while the half suffocation and deadly pallor of Tortillard
they attributed to emotion caused by the sudden illness of his beloved
father.

"What ailed you just now, my good man?" inquired Father Chatelain; "only
see, you have quite frightened your poor boy. Why, he looks pale as
death, and can scarcely breathe. Come, my little man; you must not take
on so--your father is all right again."

"I beg you