will purge you, though you be fouler than the Augean
stable, that had been left uncleaned for thirty years;
ay, though you be as foul as is the stall that holds the
grimy company of the lost, and which goes uncleaned
for ever. Proceed, I charge thee!" and the fierce-@
eyed lawyer sat dilated and erect in his chair, glaring
upon her like a serpent rearing its crest from amidst
its coils, as he waited for an answer.

"I cannot, I know no further," she said at length
with meek doggedness.

"What say you?" exclaimed the advocate, almost
screaming with astonishment.

"I know no further; I know nothing," she replied.

"Assist me, patience, to confound this creature!
Nothing! you know all;" he shouted. "All, I say,
all; for never had such a mother such a son, but he
did pour out all his purposes, all the infernal cornu-
copia, into her breast from his. You have no secrets
between you; you, his mother, know all his course;
his thoughts, intents, conspiracies and plots; his
loves, his hates, his loose, irregular life; his merry
moments, and his moods of malice. I charge thee,
tell us where he was last night, where yesterday,
where he is now, and where he will be to-morrow."

"Monsieur, I know no more, know nothing," cried
the woman, appealing to Claude. "My master is
mad," and, bursting into tears, began: "Here have
I been his housekeeper twenty years--"

"Twenty years too long," vociferated the advocate.
"One half the period that heaven was vexed with a
stiff-necked generation have I endured you, Babet.
Housekeeper! eh? Keeper of the King's conscience
next, a she Lord Chancellor, -- but continue: call

[[108]]

p107 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p108w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p109

v?