La Corriveau heard much, but heeded little. The blood of Antonio
Exili and of La Voisin beat too vigorously in her veins to be tamed
down by the feeble whispers of a dying woman who had been weak
enough to give way at last. The death of her mother left La
Corriveau free to follow her own will. The Italian subtlety of her
race made her secret and cautious. She had few personal affronts to
avenge, and few temptations in the simple community where she lived
to practise more than the ordinary arts of a rural fortune-teller,
keeping in impenetrable shadow the darker side of her character as a
born sorceress and poisoner.
Fanchon Dodier, in obedience to the order of her mistress, started
early in the day to bear the message entrusted to her for La
Corriveau. She did not cross the river and take the king's highway,
the rough though well-travelled road on the south shore which led to
St. Valier. Angelique was crafty enough amid her impulsiveness to
see that it were better for Fanchon to go down by water and return
by land: it lessened observation, and might be important one day to
baffle inquiry.
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