And Mathieu remained alone in the great crowd. Thus every year did these
crows of ill omen carry off from Paris no fewer than 20,000 children, who
were never, never seen again! Ah! that great question of the depopulation
of France! Not merely were there those who were resolved to have no
children, not only were infanticide and crime of other kinds rife upon
all sides, but one-half of the babes saved from those dangers were
killed. Thieves and murderesses, eager for lucre, flocked to the great
city from the four points of the compass, and bore away all the budding
Life that their arms could carry in order that they might turn it to
Death! They beat down the game, they watched in the doorways, they
sniffed from afar the innocent flesh on which they preyed. And the babes
were carted to the railway stations; the cradles, the wards of hospitals
and refuges, the wretched garrets of poor mothers, without fires and
without bread--all, all were emptied! And the packages were heaped up,
moved carelessly hither and thither, sent off, distributed to be murdered
either by foul deed or by neglect. The raids swept on like tempest
blasts; Death's scythe never knew dead season, at every hour it mowed
down budding life.
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