CHAPTER IV.
THE FRESHWATER PIRATE.After a silence of several minutes, the criminal’s widow said to her daughter:
“Go and get some wood; we will set the wood-pile to rights when Nicholas and Martial return home this evening.”
“Martial! Do you mean to tell him also that—”
“The wood, I say!” repeated the widow, abruptly interrupting her daughter, who, accustomed to yield to the imperious and iron rule of her mother, lighted a lantern, and went out.
During the preceding scene, Amandine, deeply disquieted concerning the fate of François, whom she tenderly loved, had not ventured either to lift up her eyes, or dry her tears, which fell, drop by drop, on to her lap. Her sobs, which she dared not give utterance to, almost suffocated her, and she strove even to repress the fearful beatings of
