"Kill you, you wolf-brat!" roared Simon. "As if I wanted to, or ever
had wanted to! Oh, the miserable viper! So you do not know that if I
only took fairly hold of your neck, you never would scream again!"
And with his powerful arm he seized the boy and hurled him upon the
water-soaked bed. Louis lay down without a word, without a
complaint, and remained there shivering and with chattering teeth
until morning. [Footnote: Beauchesne, "Louis XVII.," vol. ii., p.
185.]
From this period there was a change in the boy. Until this time his
moist eyes had fixed themselves with a supplicating look upon his
tormentors when they threatened him, but after this they were cast
down. Until now he had always sought to fulfil his master's commands
with great alacrity; afterward he was indifferent, and made no
effort to do so, for he had learned that it was all to no purpose,
and that he must accept a fate of slavery and affliction. The face
of the child, once so rosy and smiling, now took on a sad,
melancholy expression, his cheeks were pale and sunken. The
attractive features of his face were disfigured, his limbs grew to a
length disproportionate to his age; his back bent into a bow, as if
he felt the burden of the humiliations which were thrown upon him.
When the child had learned that every thing that he said was
twisted, turned into ridicule, and made the cause of chastisement,
he was entirely silent, and only with the greatest pains could a
word be drawn from him.
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