Isabelle's
tender heart was moved to pity at the sight of so much misery, and she
stopped in front of the forlorn little group while she searched in her
pocket for her purse--not finding it there she turned to her companion
and asked him to lend her a little money for the poor old blind beggar,
which the baron hastened to do--though he was thoroughly out of patience
with his whining jeremiads--and, to prevent Isabelle's coming in actual
contact with him, stepped forward himself to deposit the coins in his
wooden bowl. Thereupon, instead of tearfully thanking his benefactor
and invoking blessings upon his head, after the usual fashion of such
gentry, the blind man--to Isabelle's inexpressible alarm--suddenly
sprang to his feet, and straightening himself up with a jerk, opened his
arms wide, as a vulture spreads its wings for flight, gathered up his
ample cloak about his shoulders with lightning rapidity and flung
it from him with a quick, sweeping motion like that with which the
fisherman casts his net. The huge, heavy mantle spread itself out like
a dense cloud directly above de Sigognac, and falling over and about him
enveloped him from head to foot in its long, clinging folds, held
firmly down by the lead with which its edges were weighted--making him a
helpless prisoner--depriving him at once of sight and breath, and of the
use of his hands and feet.
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