"
"I will play blindfold," he replied. "My mother has told me that that
couple deserve the worst torments--"
"The rack is out of date," said the old woman.
"You answer for the result?"
"Leave it all to me," said the woman; "your vengeance is simmering."
She looked at the clock; it was six.
"Your avenger is dressing; the fires are lighted at the _Rocher de
Cancale_; the horses are pawing the ground; my irons are getting hot.
--Oh, I know your Madame Marneffe by heart!--Everything is ready. And
there are some boluses in the rat-trap; I will tell you to-morrow
morning if the mouse is poisoned. I believe she will be; good evening,
my son."
"Good-bye, madame."
"Do you know English?"
"Yes."
"Well, my son, thou shalt be King. That is to say, you shall come into
your inheritance," said the dreadful old witch, foreseen by
Shakespeare, and who seemed to know her Shakespeare.
She left Hulot amazed at the door of his study.
"The consultation is for to-morrow!" said she, with the gracious air
of a regular client.
She saw two persons coming, and wished to pass in their eyes a
pinchbeck countess.
"What impudence!" thought Hulot, bowing to his pretended client.
Baron Montes de Montejanos was a _lion_, but a lion not accounted for.
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