lady in France. In vain she fell upon her knees,
and with all that tender elocution so natural to their
sex when in distress, besought them that they would
spare her life, which, as she said, could be of no
benefit to them, and could only serve to increase
the number of their sins; but they were too much flushed
in cruelty and blood to give any attention to her
entreaties, and so without respect either to the softness
of her sex, or to her tender age, with a shower of
blows from their clubs they laid her dead upon the
floor. Being thus become master of the house,
Perrier took the keys, and opening the several apartments,
disclosed to them all the riches of his deceased master.
They immediately brought away all the ready money
they found in the house, which amounted to little
less than ten thousand crowns. All the rich movables
they conveyed away to a boat which they had prepared
for that purpose, and had fastened in a creek of the
river on a bank of which the house stood. They
loaded and unloaded this vessel five or six times,
for there was no hurry in carrying away the goods,
seeing it was the dead time of the night, and when
they had thoroughly plundered it of everything that
would yield money, they then came away and went to
the place where they laid up their spoils. There
it was resolved to divide the booty, and Perrier claimed
the largest share, as well in right of his having put
them upon that project, as that he had assisted more
strenuously in the execution of it than any of them;
for when men associate themselves to commit wickedness,
he who surpasses the rest in villainy claims the same
reward, and from the same reasons, as he who in another
society surpasses all his neighbours in virtue.
When this execrable fact was over, and he had secured
his share in the plunder, he returned home to the
house of his master, and remained in carrying on the
ordinary course of business of his master.
About two days after, it happened that a man who had
business with the old gentleman called at his country
house, and after knocking a good while at the door,
finding that nobody answered, he went to town, and
meeting with Jacques Perrier at his master’s
house, he told him of his calling upon him in the
country, and that he found nobody there. Jacques
counterfeited the greatest surprise at the news, and
calling many assistants, went down immediately to
his master’s seat, and with all the seeming
horror imaginable, became a second time a witness of
those barbarities which he and his villainous associates
had committed. At the sight of the murdered maid
in the kitchen, he cried out with the greatest vehemence,
and seemed in an agony of sorrow; but when he saw
the body of his master, he roared and stamped, he cried
out, tore his hair and threw himself upon the body
as if he had never more intended to have drawn breath.
All the persons he had carried with him were effectually
deceived by his behaviour, and were under apprehensions
lest his too violent grief should throw him into a
fever or prompt him to lay hands upon himself.
He was not contented with acting thus upon the spot,
but resolved to play it over again when he came back
to Paris. There abundance of people pitied him,
and looked on him as one whom the sincere love he
had for his master had drawn to the utmost despair
by reason of his unfortunate death.