ders from some powerful personages."

"What followed this?"

"Scarcely was the hackney-coach in motion, than the wicked creature, who
is called La Chouette, exclaimed, 'I have some vitriol here, and I'll
rub La Goualeuse's face, to disfigure her with it!'"

"Oh, horrible! Unhappy girl! And who has saved you from this danger?"

"The woman's confederate, a blind man called the Schoolmaster."

"And he defended you?"

"Yes, madame, this and another time also. On this occasion there was a
struggle between him and La Chouette: exerting his strength, the
Schoolmaster compelled her to throw out of window the bottle which held
the vitriol. This was the first service he rendered me, after having,
however, aided in carrying me off. The night was excessively dark. At
the end of an hour and a half the coach stopped, as I think, on the
highroad which traverses the Plain St. Denis, and here was a man on
horseback, evidently awaiting us. 'What!' said he, 'have you got her at
last?' 'Yes, we've got her,' answered La Chouette, who was furious
because she had been hindered from disfiguring me. 'If you wish to get
rid of the little baggage at once, it will be a good plan to stretch her
on the ground, and let the coach wheels pass over her skull. It will
appear as if she had been accidentally killed.'"

"You make me shudder."

"Alas, madame, La Chouette was quite capable of doing what she said!
Fortunately, the man on horseback replied that he would not have any
harm done to me, and all he wanted was to have me confined somewhere for
two months in a place whence I could neither go out nor be allowed to
write to any one. Then La Chouette proposed to take me to a man's called
Bras Rouge, who keeps a tavern in the Champs Elysees. In this tavern
there are several subterranean chambers, and one of these, La Chouette
said, would serve me for a prison. The man on horseback agreed to this
proposition; and he promised me that, after remaining two months at Bras
Rouge's, I should be properly taken care of, and not be sorry for having
quitted the farm at Bouqueval."

"What a strange mystery!"

"This man gave money to La Chouette, and promised her more when she
should bring me from Bras Rouge's, and then galloped away. Our
hackney-coach continued its way on to Paris; and a short time before we
reached the barrier the Schoolmaster said to La Chouette, 'You want to
shut Goualeuse up in one of Bras Rouge's cellars, when you know very
well that