If any rascal were to insult my girl by so much as a look, he would
find himself in the ditch with a sore back before he had time to cry
'Dieu merci!'"
He laughed;--Patoux laughed with him, and then went on,--
"I told thee of the miracle in my house, and of the boy the Cardinal
found in the streets,--well!--these things have had their good
effect in my own family. My two children, Henri and Babette--ah!
What children! God be praised for them! As bright, as kind as the
sunlight,--and their love for me and their mother is a great thing--
a good thing, look you!--one cannot be sufficiently grateful for it.
For nowadays, children too often despise their parents, which is bad
luck to them in their after days; but ours, wild as they were a
while ago, are all obedience and sweetness. I used often to wonder
what would become of them as they grew up--for they were wilful and
angry-tempered, and ofttimes cruel in speech--but I have no fear
now. Henri works well at his lessons, and Babette too,--and there is
something better than the learning of lessons about them,--something
new and bright in their dispositions which makes us all happy. And
this has come about since the Cardinal stayed with us; and also
since the pretty boy was found outside the Cathedral!"
"That boy seems to have impressed thee more than the Cardinal
himself!" said Midon--"but now I remember well--on the day the Abbe
Vergniaud preached his last sermon, and was nearly shot dead by his
own son, there was a rumour that his life had been saved by some boy
who was an attendant on the Cardinal, and who interposed himself
between the Abbe and the flying bullet,--that must have been the one
you mean?"
"No doubt--no doubt!" said Patoux, nodding gravely--"There was
something about him that seemed a sort of shield against evil--or at
least, so said my wife,--and so say my children.
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