“Die, then, both of you!” he cried. “You, vile abortion, the proof of my shame--and you,” he said to Gabrielle, “miserable strumpet with the viper tongue, who has poisoned my house.” These words struck home to the hearts of the two children the terror that already surcharged them. At the moment when Etienne saw the huge hand of his father raising a weapon upon Gabrielle he died, and Gabrielle fell dead in striving to retain him. The old man left them, and closed the door violently, saying to Mademoiselle de Grandlieu:-- “I will marry you myself!” “You are young and gallant enough to have a fine new lineage,” whispered the countess in the ear of the old man, who had served under seven kings of France. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hated Son, by Honore de Balzac