"It is necessary to avow it, madame; I entered into your service with the intention of stealing your cat; the fortune-teller wished to have him, to make him play the part of the devil Astaroth; and she had seduced me by the promise of a crown of six livres and a pair of shoes. They treated me so well, and Moumouth appeared to me so charming, that I renounced my wicked plans; I never, no, never would have put them into execution, if I had not found it was necessary to get Moumouth out of the way in order to rescue him from the attacks of an enemy all the more terrible because he was hidden." "Of whom does he wish to speak?" demanded Lustucru. "Of you! of you who have said to me, 'Kill Moumouth, or I chase you from the house!'" "I, I have said that! what an impudent falsehood! Ah, Madame the Countess, you know me well enough not to hesitate between the declarations of this fellow and my flat denial." "Faribole," said the Countess severely, "your charge is grave; can you bring any proof to support it?" "Proof, alas! no, madame; but I am ready to swear to you"-- "Enough," interrupted the Countess; "do not add calumny to the theft of the cat, but deliver me of your presence." [Illustration: Faribole is treated Roughly on the Staircase.] The miserable Faribole wished to protest, but at a sign from Madame de la Grenouillere, Lustucru seized him by the arm, led him through the door without further ceremony, and treated him in so rough a manner on the staircase as to quite relieve him of any idea of asking for his personal effects. However, the iniquities of the steward were not to remain long unpunished; that same day, Mother Michel, in arranging the closet in the antechamber, was very much astonished at finding the bodies of several dead rats and mice; she was wondering what had caused their death, when she recognized the famous hash that the cat had refused to eat, and which had been left there by mistake. Two mice were dead in the plate itself, so powerful and subtile was the poison! This discovery tore away the veil which covered the past of Lustucru. Mother Michel, divining that the charges of Faribole were well founded, hastened to inform Madame de la Grenouillere, who recommended her to keep silent, and sent for the steward. "Have you still the 'Death to Rats?'" she asked him. "Yes, madame, I think I have a little left." "Some should be placed in the antechamber; you have not thought of that before?" "Never, madame; I did not know there were rats in that part of the house." "Very well; you can retire." [Illustration: A Celebrated Chemist analyzes the Hash.] Madame de la Grenouillere wrote to a celebrated chemist, who, after having analyzed the hash, declared that it contained a prodigious quantity of poison.