however; Adelaide, it is true, had married Rougon under the common
property system; but as the whole fortune consisted of land, the young
woman, according to law, again came into possession of everything at her
husband's death. Moreover, Macquart and Adelaide had duly acknowledged
their children when declaring their birth for registration, and thus
these children were entitled to inherit from their mother. For
sole consolation, Pierre learnt that the law reduced the share of
illegitimate children in favour of the others. This, however, did not
console him at all. He wanted to have everything. He would not have
shared ten sous with Ursule and Antoine.

This vista of the intricacies of the Code opened up a new horizon, which
he scanned with a singularly thoughtful air. He soon recognised that
a shrewd man must always keep the law on his side. And this is what he
devised without consulting anyone, even the lawyer, whose suspicions he
was afraid of arousing. He knew how to turn his mother round his finger.
One fine morning he took her to a notary and made her sign a deed of
sale. Provided she were left the hovel in the Impasse Saint-Mittre,
Adelaide would have sold all Plassans. Besides, Pierre assured her an
annual income of six hundred francs, and made the most solemn promises
to watch over his brother and sister. This oath satisfied the good
woman. She recited, before the notary, the lesson which it had pleased
her son to teach her. On the following day the young man made her place
her name at the foot of a document in which she acknowledged having
received fifty thousand francs as the price of the property. This was
his stroke of genius, the act of a rogue. He contented himself with
telling his mother, who was a little surprised at signing such a receipt
when she had not seen a centime of the fifty thousand francs, that it
was a pure formality of no consequence whatever. As he slipped the paper
into his pocket, he thought to himself, "Now, let the young wolves ask