Returning afterward to the two women, he took Calabash by the shoulders, and, in spite of her resistance, her cries, and a blow from the hatchet which wounded him slightly in the hand, he locked her in the lower room of the tavern, which was adjoining the kitchen; then, addressing the widow, still stupefied at this maneuver, as skillful as it was unexpected, he said, coldly, "Now, mother, for us two." "Well! yes; for us two," cried the widow, and her stoical face became animated, her wan complexion became suffused, her eyes sparkled, anger and hatred gave a terrible character to her features. "Yes; now for us two!" said she, in a threatening tone; "I expected this moment--you shall know at last what I have on my heart." "And I also will tell you." "If you live a hundred years you shall recollect this night." "I shall remember it! My brother and sister wished to murder me; you did nothing to prevent it. But come, speak: what have you against me?" "What's my grudge?" "Yes." "Since the death of your father, you have done nothing but cowardly acts." "I?" "Yes, coward! Instead of staying with us to sustain us, you fled to Rambouillet, to poach in the woods with the game-peddler you knew at Bercy." "If I remained here, I should now have been at the galleys, like Ambrose, or fit to go, like Nicholas; I did not wish to be a robber like the others. Hence your hatred." "And what was your trade? You stole game; you stole fish; no danger in that, coward!" "Fish, as well as game, belong to no one; to-day in one place, to-morrow in another; it is for who can get it. I do not steal; as for being a coward---" "You fight for money men who are weaker than you are!" "Because they have beaten those who are weaker than they are!" "Trade of a coward! Trade of a coward!" "There are more honest, it is true; it is not for you to tell me of it." "Why have you not followed these honest callings, instead of lounging here and living at my expense?" "I give you the first fish I take, and what money I have--it is not much, but it is enough. I cost you nothing. I have tried to be a locksmith, to gain more; but when one from his infancy has idled on the river and in the woods, one can't do anything else; it is done for life. And besides, I have always preferred to live alone, on the river or in the woods; there no one questions me. Instead of that, in other places, if any one should ask me of my father, must I not answer-- guillotined! of my brother--galley-slave! of my sister--thief!" "And of your mother, what would you say!" "I'd say she was dead." "And you would do well; it is all as--I disown you, coward! Your brother is at the galleys. Your grandfather and father have bravely finished on the scaffold, in defying the priest and the executioner. Instead of avenging them, you tremble!" "Avenge them!" "Yes, to show yourself a real Martial, spit on the knife of Jack Ketch and his red cap, and finish like father and mother, brother and sister."