Murderer, poisoner, Brinvilliers, a hundred more such epithets he used
against his kinswoman, regretting that the good old times were past--that
there was no Chambre Ardente to try her, and no rack and wheel to give
her her due.
The biographer of the Newcomes has no need (although he possesses the
fullest information) to touch upon the Duchesse's doings, further than as
they relate to that most respectable English family. When the Duke took
his wife into the country, Florac never hesitated to say that to live
with her was dangerous for the old man, and to cry out to his friends of
the Boulevards or the Jockey Club, "Ma parole d'honneur, cette femme le
tuera!"
Do you know, O gentle and unsuspicious readers, or have you ever reckoned
as you have made your calculation of society, how many most respectable
husbands help to kill their wives--how many respectable wives aid in
sending their husbands to Hades? The wife of a chimney-sweep or a
journeyman butcher comes shuddering before a police magistrate--her head
bound up--her body scarred and bleeding with wounds, which the drunken
ruffian, her lord, has administered: a poor shopkeeper or mechanic is
driven out of his home by the furious ill-temper of the shrill virago his
wife--takes to the public-house--to evil courses--to neglecting his
business--to the gin-bottle--to delirium tremens--to perdition.
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