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98 all been removed; the last bit of shoring had been taken away.

Béjard had escorted Mademoiselle Dobouziez close to the mooring. Taking a plush-handled hatchet, the blade of which had been filed down to a razor-like keenness, he offered it to the godmother, and asked her to cut the last restraining cable with one sharp blow. The beautiful Gina, usually so adroit, went about it badly; she struck the cable, but the stout hemp held fast. She hacked at it a second and a third time, became impatient, and uttered a clicking sound of irritation. The silence in the crowd was such that the panting spectators, holding their breath, perceived the spoiled child's obstinate access of temper. The wags laughed.

"Ifs a bad omen for the ship," said the sailors to each other.

"And for the godmother!" added the lookers on. As Mademoiselle Dobouziez did not make an end to it, Béjard, in turn, became impatient, took the recalcitrant tool from her hands, and with a firm and vigorous stroke cut the cable.

The enormous hulk creaked in every plank, began to move, and slid majestically down into its ultimate domain.

It was an affecting moment. What was it that made the hearts of all these people beat a little faster; not only those of the unpretentious, but those of the most vain and haughty, more difficult to move than the enormous colossus itself?

In slipping down to the water the boat, which now seemed possessed of a strange life, continued to creak and groan. Nothing could have been as majestic as the prolonged rumble that reverberated in the flanks