"Morel, my good fellow," said Rodolph to him, "we are here. Your daughter is near you,—she is innocent."
"Thirteen hundred francs!" said the lapidary, not attending to Rodolph, but going on with his sham employment.
"My father!" exclaimed Louise, throwing herself at his feet, and clasping his hands in her own, in spite of his resistance, "it is I—it is your Louise!"
"Thirteen hundred francs," he repeated, wresting his hands from the grasp of his daughter. "Thirteen hundred francs,—and if not," he added, in a low and as it were, confidential tone, "and if not, Louise is to be guillotined."
And again he imitated the turning of his lathe.
Louise gave a piercing shriek.
"He is mad!" she exclaimed, "he is mad! and it is I—it is I who am the cause! Oh! Yet it is not my fault,—I did not desire to do ill,—it was that monster."
"Courage, courage, my poor girl," said Rodolph, "let us hope that this attack is but momentary. Your father has suffered so much; so many troubles, all at once, were more than he could bear. His reason wanders for a moment; it will soon be restored."
"But my mother, my grandmother, my sisters, my brothers, what will become of them all?" exclaimed Louise, "Now they are deprived of my father and myself, they must die of hunger, misery and despair!"
"Am I not here?—make your mind, easy; they shall want for nothing. Courage, I say to you. Your disclosure will bring about the punishment of a great criminal. You have convinced me of your innocence, and I have no doubt but that it will be discovered and proclaimed."