When, a few days later, he sold the caldron in which his wife had boiled her chestnuts, and the wooden horse which she used in reseating old chairs, he foully accused the Divinity of having robbed him of that strong strapping woman of whom he had often felt ashamed, but whose real worth he now appreciated.

He now also fell upon the children's earnings with greater avidity than ever.

But, a month later, Gervaise, tired of his continual exactions, ran away with her two children and Lantier, whose mother was dead.

The lovers took refuge in Paris.

Antoine, overwhelmed, vented his rage against his daughter by expressing the hope that she might die in hospital like most of her kind.