Bride of New France Read Free Page B

hair in long, dark capes, and some seem to have cuts and bruises on their faces as if they had been beaten.
    “They are nothing like what I expected to see. They look like the old beggar women from Les Saints dormitory.” Laure cannot imagine what sort of men would pay to spend the night with these women.
    Despite the shabbiness of the cartload, the gathered observers whoop and holler, grabbing at the women’s dresses through the bars. One of the women spits into the crowd. Before the man she hits can retaliate, two of the archers drag her out of the cart. They restrain her with difficulty as she screams at them.
    “You should see this one, Madeleine! Two archers can hardly hold her back.” Laure laughs as the woman below hisses at her captors. “The officers are going to have a good time with her.”
    Once they reach the doors of the Maison de la Force, the rest of the women are herded off the cart and led to the entrance of the building. They are then made to stand in a line against the wall. The hospital physician comes over to them. Two officers hold a blanket in front of each woman while a doctor kneels to examine them. The women suspected of disease are separated from the others. Laure wonders what symptoms make the doctor suspicious as he passes down the line of women.
    Madeleine calls across the room. “You shouldn’t watch them being brought in. We must be examples for all the women of the hospital.”
    There are times when Laure believes, like Madeleine does, that they are somehow set apart from the women in the other dormitories. There might indeed be the possibility of a higher plan for the Bijoux . The other residents of the Salpêtrière are aware that the girls of Sainte-Claire are the first to receive the douceurs of charitable donors, gifts of seasonal fruit or vegetables. They also get the occasional thimbleful of wine in addition to their water rations. But more than just because they receive these coveted treats, the others envy the Bijoux because they are being prepared for a future.
    Laure isn’t interested in some of the other options available for residents of the Salpêtrière. Sometimes the hospital will arrange a match between a Bijou and a tradesman, a shoemaker or an innkeeper who braves public opinion to get his bride from the same place where men send for punishment the wives who dishonour them. Laure has heard that some of these pairingsend badly. The same man who comes to the hospital with his hat in his hand often takes to drinking and mistreating his wife once he has her to himself. Laure doesn’t want to take her chances on a blind match. If she can get hired by a seamstress, she will have plenty of opportunities to meet men shopping for ribbons for their sisters and mothers. She will have the time to get to know their character before deciding to marry one of them.
    Some girls from Sainte-Claire eventually get chosen to become officers at the hospital. They are then put in charge of the morning toilette of dormitory residents, of dishing out the food rations, and of reading prayers from L’Imitation de Jésus-Christ to the residents. Laure has no interest in becoming an officer at the Salpêtrière. She couldn’t imagine wearing a morose black dress and bonnet like the Sisters of Charity for the rest of her life, whispering at indignant street girls to pray and sing hymns, to straighten their dresses and comb their hair. Besides, officers get to spend only thirty minutes in the parlour with outside guests, and one day a month in the city, and then only if they are chaperoned. Even the letters the officers write must first be read by the Superior. Madeleine, who dreams of joining the Ursulines but has no dowry to pay them, is at least hoping to become an officer of one of the dormitories. She looks forward to teaching the others how to pray.
    While the physician’s inspection is going on, another group arrives in the courtyard. Several of the archers approach the newly arrived