Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 248: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

232 THE CONVENT IN THE RUE DU CHERCHE-MIDI. has named me to this position. He will not stop at this. The minister knows how to appreciate my services.’’ In pronouncing these words Bouletord seemed to be stifling in his uniform; he spoke in loud tones and turned his eyes in all directions to see if any one was looking at him. Grippard had enough sense to understand that this man only asked to be questioned in order to reply. He proposed to him to go and drink a bottle or two together, and the quartermaster accepted, in the double hope of re- freshing himself and having an auditor. ‘‘Therefore,’’ said Grippard, when they were seated be- fore the table of a neighboring cabaret, ‘‘you have seen the minister. ’’ ‘‘AsI see you; he has given me twenty louis and has told me that I was a brave man whom it was necessary to push.”’ ‘“‘You have performed all sorts of courageous deeds, then?’’ ‘Only one, but it was worth a thousand.”’ ‘*What was it?’’ ‘‘T have killed Belle-Rose.’’ Grippard let fall the glass which he was holding to his mouth. “Oh! when I say killed, I am not altogether sure of it; but he must be dead by this time. I have placed a ball at this spot in him,’’ added Bouletord, placing his finger upon Grippard’s doublet. ‘‘See what one gains,’’ continued Bouletord, who took his comrade’s silence for admiration, ‘by struggling against us. The man is almost dead and the woman imprisoned,”’ ‘“‘What woman?’’ asked Grippard, with an innocent air. ‘“‘Eh! parbleu! Madame d’Albergotti. She is in a con- vent.”’ ‘“What convent?’’ ‘‘Faith, I do not know. It is a convent like all convents. Visitandines, Visulines, or Benedictines—what difference does it make?’’ ‘That is true,’’ said Grippard. Bouletord was beginning to get tipsy; he quitted Madame d’Albergotti and returned to Belle-Rose; at the end of a quarter of an hour he had narrated six times the history of the shot. It was more than Grippard wished to hear; he paid his reckoning and ran to Claudine. Claudine came near dying of despair on hearing the narrative of the poor soldier. Twenty times she made him (E(0) =} 1Gbooks.¢co