Josephin shook his head negatively, and pointed with his finger at his own long sword, that lay across the table before him. It would have been quite enough for such a contingency.

"You are yourself able to rid yourself of an enemy," replied the Mauvais-Garcon. "I know it. What, then, is the job?"

The Franc-Taupin proceeded with a tremulous voice while a tear rolled down from his eye:

"Pichrocholle, I had a sister--"

"How your voice trembles! You could not look any sadder. Pichrocholle, the pots are empty, and no money to fill them with!" said Grippe-Minaud.

"'Sdeath, my sister!" cried the Franc-Taupin in despair. "There is a void in my heart that nothing can fill!" and he hid his face in his hands.

"A void is useful when it is made in the purse of a bourgeois,"

commented Grippe-Minaud, while his companion remarked:

"Come, now, Josephin, you had a sister. Is it that you have lost her?

Proceed with your story."

"She is dead!" murmured the Franc-Taupin, gulping down a sob; but recovering, he added: "I still have a niece--"

"A niece?" asked the Mauvais-Garcon. "Is it she we must help? Is she young and handsome--?"

The bandit stopped short at the fierce look that the Franc-Taupin shot at him. Presently he resumed:

"I knew you one time for a jollier fellow."

"I laugh no more," rejoined the Franc-Taupin with a sinister smile. "My cheerfulness is gone! But let us come to the point. My sister died in prison. I succeeded at least in being allowed to see her before she closed her eyes, and to receive her last wishes. She leaves behind three children--a girl and two boys, but the elder does not count."

"How's that? Explain the mystery."

"I am coming to that. My sister's daughter was seized and taken to the convent of the Augustinian sisters, where she is now detained."

"St. Cadouin! What is there to complain about? To have a niece in a convent, is almost like having an angel on your side in paradise!"

Saying which the Mauvais-Garcon crossed himself devoutly by carrying his thumb from his nose to his chin, and then across from one corner to the other of his mouth.

"Oh!" exclaimed Grippe-Minaud, "And I have neither sister, daughter nor niece in a convent! They would pray for the remission of my sins. I could then be unconcerned for the hereafter, like a fish in the water!"

"And their prayers would not cost you a denier!" added Pichrocholle with a sigh.

"Oh, if only my daughter Mariotte had not run away at the age of fourteen with a jail-bird, she would now be in a convent, praying for her good father, the Tire-Laine! By the confession! That was the dream of my life," whereupon the thief crossed himself as the Mauvais-Garcon had done.

The words of the two bandits suited the Franc-Taupin. They were fresh proofs of the mixture of superst.i.tion and crime that marked the bandits'

lives. Their fanaticism squared with his own projects. He proceeded with his story, to which his two comrades listened attentively:

"My niece has no religious vocation. She was taken to the convent, and is held there by force. She must come out. Will you help me to carry her off?'

"St. Cadouin!" cried the Mauvais-Garcon, terror stricken, and crossing himself anew. "That would be sacrilege!"

"To violate a holy place!" came from Grippe-Minaud, who grew pale and crossed himself like Pichrocholle. "By the confession! My hair stands on end at the bare thought of such a thing!"

Dumb and stupefied, the two brigands looked at each other with dilated eyes. The Franc-Taupin seemed in no wise disconcerted by their scruples.

After a moment of silence he proceeded:

"Mauvais-Garcons and Tire-Laines are good Catholics, I know. Therefore, be easy, my devout friends, I have the power to absolve you."

"Are you going to make us believe you are an Apostolic Commissioner?"

"What does it matter, provided I guarantee to you a plenary indulgence?

Eh, comrades!"

"You--you--Josephin? You are mocking us! And yet you claim you have lost your taste for mirth!"

Separated from the two thieves by the full length of the table, the Franc-Taupin placed his sword between his legs, planted his bare dagger close before him, and then drew a parchment out of the pocket of his s.p.a.cious hose. It was Herve's letter of absolution, which the Franc-Taupin had picked up from the threshold of his sister's house when the Lebrenn family was arrested. He unfolded the apostolic schedule; and holding it open in plain view of both the brigands, he said to them:

"Look and read--you can read."

"A letter of absolution!" exclaimed the Mauvais-Garcon and the Tire-Laine, with eyes that glistened with greed as they carefully ran over the parchment. "It bears the seals, the signatures--there is nothing lacking!"

"I saw day before yesterday a schedule like that in the hands of the Count of St. Mexin, who paid me two ducats to dispatch a certain fat advocate, a husband who stands in the way of the love affairs of the advocatess with the young seigneur," said the Mauvais-Garcon.

"By the confession!" cried Grippe-Minaud, re-crossing himself. "The letter is complete! It gives remission even for _reserved cases_. Thanks to this absolution, one can do anything! Anything, without danger to his soul!"

After reading and contemplating with ecstasies the apostolic schedule, the two bandits exchanged a rapid and meaning look, which, however, did not escape the Franc-Taupin, thoroughly on his guard as he was. He drew back quickly, rose from his seat, dashed the precious parchment back into his pocket, took a few steps away from the table, and standing erect, his right foot forward, his sword in one hand, his dagger in the other, thus addressed the two desperadoes:

"By the bowels of St. Quenet, my lads! I knew you for too good a brace of Catholics not to wish to stab me to death in order to get possession of this absolving schedule, which remits all past, present and future crimes. Come on, my dare-devils, I have only one eye left, but it is a good one!"

"You are crazy! It is not right to mistrust an old friend that way,"

expostulated Pichrocholle. "You misunderstood our intentions."

"We only wanted to examine more closely that blessed and priceless letter," added the Tire-Laine. "By the confession! Happy man that you are to possess such a treasure!" and he crossed himself. "Saints of paradise, but grant me such a windfall, and I shall burn twenty wax candles come Candlemas!"

"It depends upon you whether you shall own this treasure or not,"

proceeded the adventurer. "I shall give you this letter of absolution, if you help me, to-night, to carry off my niece from the convent of the Augustinian sisters. By virtue of this apostolic schedule, you will be absolved of all your sins--past, present and future, and of this night's sacrilege for good measure. Thenceforth, you will be privileged fairly to swim in crime, without concern for your souls, as Pichrocholle just said. Paradise will then be guaranteed to you!"

"But," remarked the Mauvais-Garcon, shaking his head, "this letter absolves only one Christian--we are two."

"The job being done, you will cast dice for the schedule," Josephin answered readily. "There will be one to lose and one to gain. The chances are equal for you both."

The two bandits consulted each other with their eyes. Pichrocholle spoke up:

"But how do you come into possession of that letter? Those absolutions are the most expensive. St. Cadouin! The least that they cost, I hear, is twenty-five gold crowns."

"It is none of your business from whom I hold the schedule. 'Sdeath, my sister! All the gold in the world will not pay for the tears that piece of parchment has caused to flow!" answered the Franc-Taupin, whose visage expressed a profound grief as he thought of the revelations Bridget made to him about Herve.

Recovering his composure the adventurer added:

"Will you, yes or no, both of you, lend me a strong hand to-night, in order to carry off my niece from the convent of the Augustinian sisters, and for another expedition? It is a double game we have to play."

"St. Cadouin! We are to make two strokes. You never told us about that--"