Flore, born in
1787, grew up in the midst of the saturnalias of 1793 and 1798, whose
lurid gleams penetrated these country regions, then deprived of
priests and faith and altars and religious ceremonies; where marriage
was nothing more than legal coupling, and revolutionary maxims left a
deep impression. This was markedly the case at Issoudun, a land where,
as we have seen, revolt of all kinds is traditional. In 1802, Catholic
worship was scarcely re-established. The Emperor found it a difficult
matter to obtain priests. In 1806, many parishes all over France were
still widowed; so slowly were the clergy, decimated by the scaffold,
gathered together again after their violent dispersion.
In 1802, therefore, nothing was likely to reproach Flore Brazier,
unless it might be her conscience; and conscience was sure to be
weaker than self-interest in the ward of Uncle Brazier. If, as
everybody chose to suppose, the cynical doctor was compelled by his
age to respect a child of fifteen, the Rabouilleuse was none the less
considered very "wide awake," a term much used in that region. Still,
some persons thought she could claim a certificate of innocence from
the cessation of the doctor's cares and attentions in the last two
years of his life, during which time he showed her something more than
coldness.
Old Rouget had killed too many people not to know when his own end was
nigh; and his notary, finding him on his death-bed, draped as it were,
in the mantle of encyclopaedic philosophy, pressed him to make a
provision in favor of the young girl, then seventeen years old.
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