"There is no doubt, madame," said the Princess de Lamballe, "that your good deed is a complete success. Everyone is here. See, all the good townsfolk of Orleans are enchanted with this splendid singer, and the whole court is ready to applaud her." She gave the signal for applause, and the audience, who, according to custom, had hitherto remained silent out of respect for the Queen, gave full vent to their enthusiasm. From that moment, scarcely a word of _Rose's_ was allowed to pass without tremendous clapping. The Queen was delighted. At the end of the piece the ladies threw their bouquets to _Rose_. "Where is the real lover?" inquired the Queen of the Duc de Lauzun, who thereupon left the box, and beckoned to my captain in the corridor. Again the nervous trembling seized me, for I felt that something--I could not guess what--was about to happen to me. My captain bowed respectfully, and conversed in a low tone with M. de Lauzun. Marie Antoinette was looking at _me_! I leaned against the wall to keep myself from falling. There were footsteps upon the staircase, and I saw Michel Sedaine, followed by Grévey and the podgy and pompous manager; and they were bringing Pierrette, the real Pierrette, _my_ Pierrette, to me--my sister, my wife, my Pierrette of Montreuil! The manager was exclaiming joyfully:-- "Here is a good night's work! Eighteen thousand francs!" The Queen now came forward, and, taking Pierrette's hand, said in her gay, kindly manner:-- "You see, my child, there was no other way in which you could honourably earn your _dot_ in a single hour. To-morrow I shall take you back to the curé of Montreuil, who will, I trust, absolve us both. He will forgive you for playing in a comedy once in your life." Here the Queen, with a gracious bow, turned to me. To poor, bewildered, stupid _me_! "I hope," said she, "that M. Mathurin will deign to accept Pierrette's fortune. I have added nothing to it; she has earned it all herself!" [Illustration: "SHE HAS EARNED IT ALL HERSELF!"] _The Queer Side of Things._ The Judge's Penance [Illustration] "Your crime," said Lord Justice Pimblekin, "is the most heartless, atrocious, inhuman, and horrible that it has ever been my misfortune to hear of: your long and cold-blooded premeditation; the cynical indifference to the result of your atrocities, combined with the delight with which you have wallowed in human gore; your contempt for all the dictates of honesty, truth, pity, and good faith; your greed, ingratitude, treachery, savageness, meanness, and cannibalism; all these things stamp you as the most atrocious, unmitigated and loathsome scoundrel, savage, monster, and vampire that ever wallowed in the foul and fathomless quagmire of infinite and immeasurable dastardliness. [Illustration] "Under these circumstances I ought to inflict upon you the severest penalty which the law allows. I say it is my unmistakable duty to sentence you to penal servitude for life, with the cat once a week.