This avowal by Severine placed
her in his mind in a different category from all other woman; she had
killed, and was a person sacred and apart, a woman he could love without
his lust for blood being evoked. At the request of Severine, Jacques
promised to kill Roubaud, her husband, whom she had come to hate; but,
though all the preparations were made, it was Severine herself whom he
killed, in an accession of that homicidal rage which he imagined he
had conquered. He escaped all suspicion, and calmly allowed Roubaud and
Cabuche to be punished for the crime. In order to see whether the murder
of Severine had cured him of his blood lust, he made love to Philomene
Sauvagnat, thereby arousing the jealousy of her lover, Pecqueux, who was
stoker on the engine driven by Lantier. A quarrel between the two men
on the footplate of the engine resulted in both of them falling off, and
being cut in pieces beneath the wheels. La Bete Humaine.
LANTIER (JACQUES LOUIS), born 1860, was the son of Claude Lantier and
Christine Hallegrain. He was allowed to grow up wild at Bennecourt until
he was two and a half years old, when his parents removed to Paris,
taking him with them.
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