Page 236 - madame-bovary
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kind! Honour, thrice honour! Is it not time to cry that the
blind shall see, the deaf hear, the lame walk? But that which
fanaticism formerly promised to its elect, science now ac-
complishes for all men. We shall keep our readers informed
as to the successive phases of this remarkable cure.’ ‘
This did not prevent Mere Lefrancois, from coming five
days after, scared, and crying out—
‘Help! he is dying! I am going crazy!’
Charles rushed to the ‘Lion d’Or,’ and the chemist, who
caught sight of him passing along the Place hatless, aban-
doned his shop. He appeared himself breathless, red, anxious,
and asking everyone who was going up the stairs—
‘Why, what’s the matter with our interesting strepho-
pode?’
The strephopode was writhing in hideous convulsions,
so that the machine in which his leg was enclosed was
knocked against the wall enough to break it.
With many precautions, in order not to disturb the posi-
tion of the limb, the box was removed, and an awful sight
presented itself. The outlines of the foot disappeared in
such a swelling that the entire skin seemed about to burst,
and it was covered with ecchymosis, caused by the famous
machine. Hippolyte had already complained of suffering
from it. No attention had been paid to him; they had to ac-
knowledge that he had not been altogether wrong, and he
was freed for a few hours. But, hardly had the oedema gone
down to some extent, than the two savants thought fit to
put back the limb in the apparatus, strapping it tighter to
hasten matters. At last, three days after, Hippolyte being