The Mysteries of Paris, vol 2 | Page 6

two men are gone."
"Mother, don't you hear? they will not take father away," said the eldest
of the boys.
"Morel, listen to me," murmured Madeleine, in a state of delirium.
"Take one of the large diamonds and sell it--no one will know it, and
we shall be saved. Our Adele will no longer feel cold; she will not be
dead."
Taking advantage of a moment when none belonging to him were
observing his actions, the lapidary cautiously left the room. The bailiff
was waiting for him upon a sort of little landing, covered also by the
roof. Upon this landing, opened the door of a loft, which had formerly
been part of the garret occupied by the Morels, and in which Pipelet
kept his stock of leather; and the worthy porter called this place his box
at the play, because, by means of a hole made in the wall between two
laths, he was sometimes a witness to the sad scenes that passed in the
Morels' room. The bailiff noticed the door of the loft; in a moment he
thought that most likely his prisoner had reckoned upon that outlet for
escape, or to hide himself.
"Come, march, old fellow!" said he, beginning to descend the stair, and

making a sign to the lapidary to follow.
"One minute more, I beseech!" said Morel; and he fell on his knees
upon the floor. Through a chink in the door, he threw a last look upon
his family, and clasping his hands, he uttered, in a low, heart-rending
voice, while tears flowed down his haggard cheeks: "Farewell, my dear
children--my poor wife! may heaven preserve you all! Farewell!"
"Make haste and cut that sermon," said Bourdin, brutally, "Malicorne is
quite right; you needn't make so much fuss about leaving the stinking
kennel. What a hole! what a hole!"
Morel rose to follow the bailiff, when the words "Father! father!"
sounded on the staircase.
"Louise!" exclaimed the lapidary, raising his hands toward heaven; "I
can then clasp you to my breast before I go!"
"I thank thee, God, I am in time!" said the voice, approaching nearer
and nearer, and light steps were heard rapidly ascending the stairs.
"Be calm, my dear," said a third voice, sharp, asthmatic, and out of
breath, coming from a lower part of the house;
"I will lay in wait, if I must, in the alley, with my broom and my old
darling, and they sha'n't leave here till you have spoken to them, the
contemptible beggars!"
The reader has doubtless recognized Mrs. Pipelet, who, less nimble
than Louise, followed her slowly. An instant after, the lapidary's
daughter was in her father's arms.
"It is indeed you, Louise, my darling Louise!" said Morel, crying; "but
how pale you are! For mercy's sake what ails you?"
"Nothing, nothing, father," stammered Louise. "I have run so fast. Here
is the money!"
"How is this?"

"You are free!"
"So you know?"
"Yes, yes! Here, sir, take the money," said the young girl, giving a
rouleau of gold to Malicorne.
"But this money, Louise--this money?"
"You shall know all presently; don't be uneasy. Come and comfort dear
mother."
"No, not now!" exclaimed Morel, placing himself before the door,
remembering that Louise was still in ignorance of the death of the little
girl; "wait, I must speak to you. Now, about this money?"
"Stay!" said Malicorne, as he finished counting the gold, and while
putting it in his pocket; "sixty-four, sixty-five--that will just make
thirteen hundred francs. Have you no more than that, my little dear?"
"Why, you only owe thirteen hundred francs?" said Louise, addressing
her father, with a stupefied air.
"Yes," said the lapidary.
"Stop!" rejoined the catchpole; "the bill is for thirteen hundred francs.
Well, the bill is paid; but the expenses? Without the execution, they are
already eleven hundred and forty francs." [Footnote: We append some
curious facts about imprisonment for debt, taken from "Le Pauvre
Jacques," a paper published by the Society of Christian Morality Prison
Committee:--
"A protest and a warrant is legally set down as at 4 francs 35 centimes
for the first, and 4 francs 70 centimes for the other, but is generally
increased by the warrant-officers to 10fr. 40c., and 16fr. 40c.
respectively. Thus 26fr. 80c. illegally obtained for what should have
been but 9fr. 50c. The law sets down bailiff fees thus:--Stamp and
registry, 3fr. 50c.; hackney-coach, 5fr.; arresting and imprisonment,

60fr. 25c.; turnkey's fee, 8fr. Total 76fr. 75c. One bill of charges taken
as the average of those sent in by sheriffs' officers, swells the above to
240 francs!"
In the same paper is this paragraph:--
"M---, bailiff, has written to desire correction of the article on the
Hanged Woman. He did not kill her, he says. We did not say that he did