Pierre looked for his son,but he could not find him.In the morning,if that monster didn't have the face to come home,saying he had stayed at Batz all night!I should tell you that the mother had not known where to hide her money.Cambremer put his with Monsieur Dupotel at Croisic.Their son's follies had by this time cost them so much that they were half-ruined,and that was hard for folks who once had twelve thousand francs,and who owned their island.No one ever knew what Cambremer paid at Nantes to get his son away from there.Bad luck seemed to follow the family.Troubles fell upon Cambremer's brother,he needed help.Pierre said,to console him,that Jacques and Perotte (the brother's daughter)could be married.Then,to help Joseph Cambremer to earn his bread,Pierre took him with him a-fishing;for the poor man was now obliged to live by his daily labor.His wife was dead of the fever,and money was owing for Perotte's nursing.The wife of Pierre Cambremer owed about one hundred francs to divers persons for the little girl,--linen,clothes,and what not,--and it so chanced that she had sewed a bit of Spanish gold into her mattress for a nest-egg toward paying off that money.It was wrapped in paper,and on the paper was written by her:'For Perotte.'Jacquette Brouin had had a fine education;she could write like a clerk,and had taught her son to write too.I can't tell you how it was that the villain scented the gold,stole it,and went off to Croisic to enjoy himself.Pierre Cambremer,as if it was ordained,came back that day in his boat;as he landed he saw a bit of paper floating in the water,and he picked it up,looked at it,and carried it to his wife,who fell down as if dead,seeing her own writing.Cambremer said nothing,but he went to Croisic,and heard that his son was in a billiard room;so then he went to the mistress of the cafe,and said to her:--"'I told Jacques not to use a piece of gold with which he will pay you;give it back to me,and I'll give you white money in place of it.'
"The good woman did as she was told.Cambremer took the money and just said 'Good,'and then he went home.So far,all the town knows that;but now comes what I alone know,though others have always had some suspicion of it.As I say,Cambremer came home;he told his wife to clean up their chamber,which is on the lower floor;he made a fire,lit two candles,placed two chairs on one side of the hearth,and a stool on the other.Then he told his wife to bring him his wedding-clothes,and ordered her to put on hers.He dressed himself.When dressed,he fetched his brother,and told him to watch before the door,and warn him of any noise on either of the beaches,--that of Croisic,or that of Guerande.Then he loaded a gun,and placed it at a corner of the fireplace.Jacques came home late;he had drunk and gambled till ten o'clock,and had to get back by way of the Carnouf point.His uncle heard his hail,and he went over and fetched him,but said nothing.When Jacques entered the house,his father said to him,--"'Sit there,'pointing to the stool.'You are,'he said,'before your father and mother,whom you have offended,and who will now judge you.'
"At this Jacques began to howl,for his father's face was all distorted.His mother was rigid as an oar.
"'If you shout,if you stir,if you do not sit still on that stool,'said Pierre,aiming the gun at him,'I will shoot you like a dog.'
"Jacques was mute as a fish.The mother said nothing.
"'Here,'said Pierre,'is a piece of paper which wrapped a Spanish gold piece.That piece of gold was in your mother's bed;she alone knew where it was.I found that paper in the water when I landed here to-day.You gave a piece of Spanish gold this night to Mere Fleurant,and your mother's piece is no longer in her bed.Explain all this.'
"Jacques said he had not taken his mother's money,and that the gold piece was one he had brought from Nantes.
"'I am glad of it,'said Pierre;'now prove it.'
"'I had it all along.'
"'You did not take the gold piece belonging to your mother?'
"'No.'
"'Will you swear it on your eternal life?'
"He was about to swear;his mother raised her eyes to him,and said:--"'Jacques,my child,take care;do not swear if it is not true;you can repent,you can amend;there is still time.'
"And she wept.
"'You are a this and a that,'he said;'you have always wanted to ruin me.'
"Cambremer turned white and said,--
"'Such language to your mother increases your crime.Come,to the point!Will you swear?'
"'Yes.'
"'Then,'Pierre said,'was there upon your gold piece the little cross which the sardine merchant who paid it to me scratched on ours?'
"Jacques broke down and wept.
"'Enough,'said Pierre.'I shall not speak to you of the crimes you have committed before this.I do not choose that a Cambremer should die on a scaffold.Say your prayers and make haste.A priest is coming to confess you.'
"The mother had left the room;she could not hear her son condemned.
After she had gone,Joseph Cambremer,the uncle,brought in the rector of Piriac,to whom Jacques would say nothing.He was shrewd;he knew his father would not kill him until he had made his confession.