The Urchin of Malaval 



My grandparents * were people whose quarrel 

 with the alphabet was so great that they had never 

 opened a book in their lives; and they kept a lean 

 farm on the cold granite ridge of the Rouergue 



1 These paternal grandparents, of whom our hero has 

 retained so vivid a recollection, bore the names of Jean- 

 Pierre Fabre and Elisabeth Poujade. Patient searching 

 of the archives, assisted, fortunately, by the goodwill of 

 M. Toscan, registrar to the Justice of the Peace for 

 Vezins, has enabled us to reproduce their marriage con- 

 tract, which is full of information hitherto unpublished, 

 and curious details of domestic life which will not fail 

 to interest the reader: 



"In the year 1791 and on the 15th day of the month 

 of February, in the locality of Segur, province of Avei- 

 ron, in the presence of me, Raymond Rous, man of law 

 and notary royal . . . have been devised and concluded 

 the following articles of marriage between Pierre-Jean 

 Fabre, legitimate son of Pierre Fabre, landowner and 

 farmer, and Anne Fages, husband and wife of the village 

 of Malaval, on the one part, and Elisabeth Poujade, 

 legitimate daughter of Antoine Poujade, landowner, and 

 Francoise Azemar, husband and wife of the village of 

 Mont, parish of Notre-Dame d'Arques, on the other part 

 — the said parties acting, namely, the said future hus- 

 band with the knowledge and consent of his father and 

 mother here present, and the said future wife, she being 

 absent, but the said Poujade for her, being here pres- 

 ent stipulating and accepting — have in the first place 

 promised that the said marriage shall be solemnised be- 

 fore the Church at the first demand of one of the par- 

 ties, under penalty of all expenses, damages, and inter- 

 ests — in the second place, the said Fabre and Fages, 

 husband and wife, favouring and contemplating the 

 present marriage have given and are giving by dona- 

 tion, declared between living persons, to the aforesaid 

 their son, the future husband, all and each of their pos- 

 sessions, movable and immovable, present and future, 

 under the clauses, conditions, and reserves hereafter fol- 

 lowing: firstly, to be fed at the same table of the same 

 victuals as the said donor; secondly, and in case of in- 



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