""Ah! you want to see Bahuchet, do you?" they said; "ah! it is that villain, that seducer of a Bahuchet, whom you want to see?--On my word, he"s a lucky rascal!--It seems that you don"t go in for height, or for physique!--Who would believe that such a pygmy would be picked out by such a pretty girl?--I say, when you take his arm, you must tower above him! and if he doesn"t walk fast enough to suit you, you can easily take him under your arm and carry him; he weighs only thirty-three pounds and a half."
"To put an end to all this nonsense, I said loudly:
""Messieurs, I wish to see Monsieur Bahuchet in behalf of Mademoiselle Valentine de Mongarcin, who is my mistress, and who desires to speak with him."
"Ah! mademoiselle, you should have seen what a change took place in the office when they heard your name! All the clerks a.s.sumed a most sedate air, and the jests instantly came to an end; they became very polite, and one of them, who, when he took off his cap to salute me, showed a head prematurely bald, said: "Mademoiselle, Bahuchet is out, on business for the master, and he will not return for an hour at the earliest. But if mademoiselle your mistress wishes to speak with Bahuchet on business, one of us might take his place; myself, for example, Eudoxe Plumard; I am ready to go at once to the Hotel de Mongarcin. Unless you prefer to speak to the solicitor himself; but he is not in, he has just mounted his mule to go to the Palais."
"I answered that it was about a matter with which Monsieur Bahuchet was already familiar, and that, for that reason, you desired to speak with him personally. Thereupon they promised to send him to you as soon as he returned.
""But," added the clerk who called himself Plumard, "don"t expect him very early; for when Bahuchet goes out, it is always an eternity before he comes back."
"And that, mademoiselle, is the result of my visit to the solicitor"s office."
"Very well," said Valentine, apparently lost in thought. After a few moments, she added: "Is it a long while, Miretta, since you have been to see your acquaintance the bath keeper"s daughter on Rue Saint-Jacques?"
"No, mademoiselle, not more than a week."
"Did you ask her about--about her friend, the other bath keeper"s daughter?"
"Yes, mademoiselle; I asked her if she had seen her lately. She answered that, as Bathilde"s mother had returned, she could see her only very rarely. And when I tried to question her further on the subject, she abruptly changed the conversation. Which led me to think that, if she is in her friend"s confidence, she does not propose to betray her secret."
"A fine secret, on my word! which must be known ere this to the whole city, except perhaps those who are most deeply interested in it; but it is always so.--At what time were you on Rue du Bac, Miretta?"
"At half-past ten, mademoiselle."
"And it is now?"
"After twelve."
"Well, we must wait until it pleases Monsieur Bahuchet to return to his desk. Really, these solicitors are very patient with messieurs their clerks! Go, Miretta; and as soon as the fellow arrives at the house, bring him hither yourself--instantly! Above all things, do not let my aunt know anything of all this!"
"Never fear, mademoiselle; in fact, Madame de Ravenelle is at this moment shut up in her oratory, and she is paying little heed to what goes on in the house."
The clock on the Capucines Church, which could be heard at the Hotel de Mongarcin, struck four. Valentine had been for a long time in a state of the most intense impatience; she could not stay in one place; she wandered hither and thither; took up a book and threw it down again in a moment; attempted to play on her zither, but let the instrument fall from her hands; and exclaimed continually:
"He will not come! Four o"clock, and he went out early this morning! And a solicitor keeps such clerks in his employ! Ah! how quickly I would dismiss such fellows if I were in his place!--Suppose I should intrust to Miretta the execution of my plan? But, no! no woman can perform such a commission; besides, she is in my service--she would be recognized, and I do not want to be compromised; I want to be revenged! but in such wise that no one will know from what quarter the vengeance comes."
Valentine had abandoned all hope of seeing the solicitor"s clerk that day, when the door of the room in which she was sitting was suddenly thrown open, and Miretta announced:
"Monsieur Bahuchet."
At a sign from her mistress she admitted the little man, who confounded himself in reverences to Mademoiselle de Mongarcin.
"Here you are at last, monsieur! that is most fortunate!" cried Valentine; "it seems that it is very difficult to have speech with you.--Stay, Miretta, stay; I have no secrets from you, as you know.--When you go out for an hour, monsieur le clerc, does it mean that you will not return during the day?"
"A thousand pardons, mademoiselle!" replied Bahuchet, trying to a.s.sume a graceful att.i.tude; "most certainly, if I had known, if I had been able to guess, that mademoiselle wished to speak with me, I would have returned to the office much sooner; and yet, mademoiselle, I am very excusable this time. I did not pa.s.s my time, as I often do, watching the open-air exhibitions of Turlupin and Gauthier-Garguille, or Brioche"s Marionettes. No, indeed! The news was too interesting to-day; it had to do with so serious an event, accompanied by such mysterious circ.u.mstances, that--I give you my word, mademoiselle--the least inquisitive man could not have resisted the desire to see what I saw."
"Some new amourette, I suppose? some nocturnal rendezvous that you surprised?"
"No, mademoiselle; this is no question of amourettes, but of a murder committed last night. When I say _last night_, I am wrong; it was perhaps a fortnight ago, perhaps longer; but the victim was not discovered until last night."
"A murder! and you witnessed it?"
"No, thank G.o.d! When I say _thank G.o.d_, I do not mean that I am not very curious to know how it came about. But, no, although I am very brave, there are things that make one shudder simply to think of them!"
"Come, monsieur, pray explain to us what you have learned that is so shocking?"
"Mademoiselle, I had been as far as the corner of Rue Barbette on business for the office; I was about to return to Maitre Bourdinard"s, planning, I admit, to go by way of Pont-Neuf, for I know no more attractive, more diverting spot for the curious observer. It is the rendezvous of the whole city! Who does not cross Pont-Neuf? One sees there at the same moment, soldiers, bourgeois, priests, students, abbes, courtiers, pages, peasants, and women!"
"Do you propose to tell us the history of Pont-Neuf, Monsieur Bahuchet?"
"No, mademoiselle, no; excuse me. My story has to do with a much less cheerful bridge, the dismal Pont-aux-Choux!"
At the mention of the Pont-aux-Choux, Miretta involuntarily shuddered and listened more closely to what the little clerk said.
"Yes, mademoiselle; it was close by the Pont-aux-Choux that the horrible tragedy, which was discovered only this morning, took place.--I was saying--where was I?--Oh, yes! I was about to return to my solicitor"s office, when, as I was taking a gla.s.s in a wine shop, I heard a peasant say to a good woman--I say a good woman, she may have been a bad one, but it"s the custom, you know, to say _good woman_ when you are speaking of a woman advanced in years--he said: "Yes, mother, there has been someone murdered on the road I take from Faubourg Saint-Antoine to the Market. And I tell you, it isn"t very pleasant; I don"t know yet whether I shall dare to go across Pont-aux-Choux after dark."
"My curiosity being aroused at that, I accosted the peasant and asked him what he meant, and he answered:
""About two hours ago, they found in the Fosses Jaunes----""
"What are the Fosses Jaunes, Monsieur Bahuchet?" said Valentine; "I am very ignorant, am I not? but we are taught so few things!"
"The Fosses Jaunes, mademoiselle, were made in the time of King Charles V, and they surrounded the outer wall of Paris that was built long ago, in the time of Philippe-Auguste; they extend from the Bastille to Porte Saint-Honore."
"Are they filled with water?"
"There used to be water in them, no doubt, mademoiselle, but for a long time they have contained nothing but muddy pools, in which very tall gra.s.s grows, and from which it isn"t at all easy to get out if you happen to fall in. But as they are no longer of any use, I presume they will very soon be filled up.--I resume my narrative. The peasant said:
""They found a dead man in the Fosses Jaunes, near Porte Saint-Antoine, on the other side of the Pont-aux-Choux. From the condition of his wounds, they know that he must have been killed quite a while ago; consequently, no one knows just when the crime was committed. And to think that I went by there at three o"clock in the morning, monsieur!
Suppose the brigands had seen me! No doubt they would have murdered me too!"
""But," I said to the peasant, "as you pa.s.sed the place at three o"clock this morning, how do you know that they found a dead man there two hours ago? Have you been back there?"
""No; but I just heard about it from a neighbor, a market gardener like myself, who just came from the faubourg. He saw the poor fellow they had taken out of the Fosses Jaunes; it seems he is a young man, and as handsome as a picture! He is still lying there at full length on the bank. Near the place where they found him, there are archers and soldiers keeping watch; and they have gone to tell the magistrates, who will make an investigation, of course, and search the neighborhood, and try to find something to put them on the track of the guilty ones."
"I" faith, mademoiselle, I no sooner heard that than I felt a most intense longing to see the unfortunate man, who was found last night in the Fosses Jaunes. And I said to myself: "If they need the magistrates, they may need a solicitor"s clerk too; I must go and see the man, and then I can tell the whole story _de visu_!"
"So I took my legs around my neck--the phrase is still in use, although it lacks sense--and I can a.s.sure you that I ran without stopping, although I overturned two children, an a.s.s, and a milkwoman on the way; but that is a detail.
"When I arrived at the Pont-aux-Choux, someone pointed out the spot where the poor young man still lay. I hurried to the place, and I was not the only one whom curiosity had drawn thither; there was a large crowd, and the soldiers had much ado to keep a s.p.a.ce clear about the corpse. But as I am never at a loss for an expedient, I said to one of the guards that I was a clerk and employed in the magistracy, so he let me go near."
"So that you saw the man who was found dead?" said Miretta, in a voice trembling with emotion.
"Yes, my pretty lady"s-maid, I saw it as plainly as I see you.--Ah! what a calamity! It was a young man--that is to say, a man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight at most, with a graceful figure, very well built, and a face--oh! a fascinating face! so refined and distinguished! He must have been a n.o.bleman, or a gentleman of some ancient family."
"He was not disfigured, then, not wounded in the face?"