Bride of New France

Bride of New France Read Free Page A

Book: Bride of New France Read Free
Author: Suzanne Desrochers
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since gone. The Baudet sisters who seduced the cardinal in his antechamber. Jeanne LaVaux who took over her father’s poison trade. Mary, the twelve-year-old Irish girl who had been a prostitute since she was six.
    Laure is hungry for these stories. She wants to know all that she can about the hospital that is her home and prison. Below, she hears a man with the voice of a market vendor telling the others that the prostitutes are brought to the Salpêtrière once a month. They are gathered in by street constables and held in a smaller prison on rue Saint-Martin until they are transferred here by cart. The man who screams out this information is quickly surrounded and questioned by others who are eager to learn anything they can about the captured women before they arrive. Clearly, this spectacle provides entertainment for those who cannot afford the price of an opera ticket. For the administrators of the General Hospital, the public humiliation will provide the first of the women’s punishment.
    Madeleine, still sitting next to Mireille, calls across the room. “You shouldn’t watch the prostitutes being brought in.”
    But Laure doesn’t want to pull herself from the window. Especially not to go and listen to Madeleine fuss over Mireille. Laure has learned that prostitutes live together in the city with other women in a house like the Salpêtrière, only much smaller. While the royal authorities celebrate the Salpêtrière, showing it off to the princes and religious authorities of the kingdom, the houses of prostitutes must remain secret. Inside, there are many small rooms, but unlike the Salpêtrière, men are invited into them. Laure imagines the prostitutes dressed in bright layers of clothing, the quality of the fabric depending on which men they service, the degree of their beauty, which house they belong to. In Laure’s mind, heavy draperies of velvet and silk separate the girls’ rooms one from the other. Their skin smells of perfume, and their hair is curled and worn loose. Just like women at court, they are the queens of their domains.
    Laure knows that thinking this way about prostitutes is blasphemous, especially for a Bijou .
    The crowd below begins to cheer at some sign of the arrival that Laure cannot make out. Two archers appear first in the courtyard, pushing their way through the mass with the tips of their bows. “In the name of His Majesty, make way as we pass.” The crowd parts for the archers, but grows tight again as onlookers from the edges close in for a better view. Short seconds later, Laure hears a high-pitched screech, like that of a wounded animal, followed by loud wailing. The sound carries above the voices of the crowd. One man cheers, but otherwise an excited hush takes over.
    “Laure, please get away from the window. You’re frightening Mireille.” Madeleine starts to pray louder in an attempt to drown out the noise.
    Laure continues to look down. “What are you praying for? Nothing’s happening. They’re just screaming like that to try to get rid of the crowd.” Laure cannot see the women yet, but it sounds like there are many.
    More archers arrive in the square. Like their counterparts, they are clad in bright blue and white with red stockings. The gold buttons of their clean uniforms look impressive in the sunlight. Some of them have been recruited from the best of the male orphans. “Make way, in the name of His Majesty, King Louis XIV, and the director of the Hôpital Général de Paris. Make way at this instant.”
    The crowd opens up, leaving a circle at the centre for the archers and their sentenced charges. There are about forty women crushed tightly together on the horse-drawn cart. They are standing on straw and are contained by iron bars. Some cover their faces, while others stare out at the crowd. Laure is disappointed to see that the women look so dishevelled. Only a few of the prostitutes have bright tresses and colourful gowns. Most of them have covered their

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