Maison vide dans l'abîme

Chapitre 33

A spirit of great wisdom and courage. Okay—he made up his mind to possess the fragrance of the girl behind the city walls. Even...

It was worth it to lose it again a few weeks later and die for it. But if only he could...

It's better to die while still retaining the fragrance, or at least to delay the loss of the fragrance as long as possible. Ideally, one should capture it completely.

Ideally, its evaporation should be prevented without compromising its properties—this is a challenge in perfumery.

A fragrance can indeed remain for decades. This is evident in cabinets that have been wiped clean with incense and leather that has been soaked in cinnamon oil.

Leather, ambergris tubers, and the wood of a coffin can almost retain their fragrance forever. Others—sweet lemon oil, fragrance...

Lemon. Daffodil and tuberose infusions, and many other floral notes—if fully exposed to air, even after just a few hours...

The fragrance dissipates quickly. Perfume experts have taken measures to deal with this unpleasant situation, their method being to...

The highly volatile fragrance is firmly bound by the adhesion, as if shackled.

To allow them freedom of movement, the key lies in loosening the shackles to such an extent that, on the surface, they appear to be free.

Come, the scent of bound feet has its own freedom, but they are tied to the cart, preventing their escape. —Grenouille

This technique was successfully applied to tuberose. He used trace amounts of civet, vanilla, resin, and cypress wood.

Why can't a young girl's fragrance achieve the same effect by capturing its fleeting scent?

Why would he waste the most precious and delicate of all fragrances? How foolish! How unwise!

Should this diamond be left unpolished? Should he simply wear the gold nugget around his neck? He, Grenouille, should he...?

Like Drew and other aroma isolaters, distillers, and flower squeezers, he was just a savage aroma predator.

Wasn't he the world's greatest perfume expert? He was astonished; he hadn't considered that before. Of course,

This unique fragrance cannot be used unprocessed. He must preserve it like the most precious gemstone.

He must forge a crown of fragrance, at its most sublime point—a crown that receives and controls other fragrances.

—It must have his scent. He will create a perfume according to all the rules of technology, and the girl behind the city walls...

The fragrance must be the core of this perfume.

Undoubtedly, as an auxiliary agent, as a basic, central, and primary fragrance, as a premium scent and

As a fixed fragrance, scented basil, cat's breath, rose oil, or pheromone are definitely unsuitable. For such...

A perfume, for a particular person, requires other ingredients.

In the same year, five pieces were discovered in a rose garden in the town of Egis, near Grasse and Nairobi.

The naked corpse of a fifteen-year-old girl was found. She had been struck on the back of the head with a stick and died.

The farmer was so bewildered by this horrific discovery that he almost became a suspect himself, because he was trembling...

His voice reported to the police chief that he had never seen anything so beautiful—actually, he meant to say,

He had never seen anything so terrible.

This girl was indeed exceptionally beautiful. She belonged to the melancholic and serious type of woman, seemingly made of dark honey.

Smooth, sweet, and plump; these women, with a new flair, a new hairstyle, and a unique,

His gaze, like the slow flick of a whip, controlled the field, yet he remained as calm as if standing at the eye of a whirlwind.

She seems unaware of her own allure, which is precisely what fuels the desires of both men and women.

She was conquered by the soul. She was young, very young, her nascent efforts not yet fully integrated into her salvation. Her plump...

Her limbs appeared smooth, firm, and strong; her breasts were like peeled eggs; her flat face was covered with black...

The body had thick, black hair, a youthful profile, and mysterious body parts. Of course, the body's hair was gone; the murderer had removed it.

They cut it off and took it away; their clothes were also stripped off and taken away.

People are suspicious of Gypsies. Whatever happens, people believe it's related to Gypsies. It's widely known that...

The Pasi people weave carpets from old clothes, use human hair as pillow stuffing, and make toy dolls from the skin and teeth of those who have been hanged.

Kid. Such an unusual crime must have been committed by Gypsies. But there wasn't a single Gypsy here at the time.

There were none, not even anywhere. The last time the Gypsies passed through this region was in December.

Since no Gypsies could be found, suspicion began to fall on Italian seasonal workers. But there were no Italians here either.

For the locals, it's too early for this season. They won't come to the countryside to harvest jasmine flowers until June.

They couldn't have been the perpetrators. Ultimately, the wig maker became the suspect, and a search was conducted at their shop.

The victim's hair was found, but not in any other form. Later, suspicion fell on Jews, and then on Benedictine monasteries.

The monks who were lustful—of course, they were all over seventy years old—then the monks of the Siddhartha order, and then...

Freemasons, then mental patients discharged from hospitals, then charcoal burners, then beggars, and finally...

They were morally corrupt nobles, especially the Marquis of Cabritch, because he had married for the third time and was said to be living in seclusion.

The room had hosted licentious masses and consumed the blood of young girls to enhance their sexual prowess. The actual circumstances, of course, are unknown.

Evidence. No one witnessed the murder, and the victim's clothes and hair were not found. Weeks later, the police...

The investigation has been halted.

In mid-June, the Italians arrived, many bringing their families, so they could be hired to pick jasmine flowers. The farmers...

He employed them, but because of the murder, he forbade his wife and daughter from associating with them.

It's better to be cautious because, although the workers in these seasons bear no actual responsibility for this murder,

However, they may be held responsible for this in principle, so it's best to be extra careful with them.

Shortly after the jasmine harvest began, two more murders occurred. The victims were again beautiful, like figures in a painting.

Young girls. They were also dark-haired women with melancholic and serious personalities. And then they were found naked, their hair...

He lay in the flower field, his head severed, with a wound on the back of his head from being struck by a hook. No trace of the perpetrator has yet been found.

Clues and news spread like wildfire, and hostility towards the migrants from other places was on the verge of erupting. Later

I later learned that both victims were Italian, and both were daughters of a Genoese laborer.

Fear now grips the land. People no longer know where their boundless anger should be directed. Perhaps...

Some people suspected the madman or the infamous marquis, but no one believed them, because the former was incorrigible both day and night.

There were people watching over them even at night, but the latter had gone to Paris long ago. As a result, people lived more closely together.

Farmers opened warehouses for seasonal workers, who until now had been living in the open air. City dwellers...

Patrols were deployed throughout the area at night. The police chief increased the number of sentries at each city gate. However, all preventative measures proved ineffective.

It was to help. Just days after the two girls were murdered, another girl's body was discovered, similar to the previous ones.

Similarly, this girl was also killed by a blow. This time it was a washerwoman from the bishop's residence, a Sardinian.

She was killed near a large waterhole next to the "Fountain of Madmen," that is, in front of the city gate. Although the city's...

At the urging of the excited citizens, officials implemented a series of other measures—including the strictest enforcement of regulations at the city gates.

Inspections were conducted, nighttime sentries were increased, and all women were prohibited from leaving their homes after dark—but in this summer, no one...

A week passed without a single teenage girl's body being found. The victims were all women just beginning puberty and transitioning into women.

They were all the most beautiful women, and the vast majority had dark skin. They were of the Xinchou type, although the murderer was quick...

They also no longer overlooked the soft, fair-skinned, slightly plump girls who dominated the local population, and even those with darker skin.

Even the deep golden-yellow ones—as long as they weren't too thin—had recently become victims of the murderer. He was everywhere...

The search for them extended beyond the suburbs of Grasse to the city center. The carpenter's business was established in his own apartment on the sixth floor.

He was beaten to death inside the room. No one in the room heard a sound, not even a dog barked. In the past...

These dogs can all sniff out strangers and bark. The killer seems unbelievable, without a body, like...

A ghost.

People were enraged; they cursed those in power. Even the most trivial rumors sparked riots. A dedicated...

A traveling merchant selling medicinal powders and plasters was nearly killed because someone claimed his medicine contained powdered hair from a young girl.

Arson occurred at the Kabrish Hotel and the hospital's guesthouse. Cloth merchant Alexander Misnar was with his servants...

He shot and killed him on his way home that night because he was believed to be a notorious murderer of teenage girls. Anyone who has...

So he sent his growing daughter to live with relatives in other places, or to Niza, Aix-en-Provence, or Marseille.

The boarding school. The police chief was dismissed at the request of the city council. His successor appointed a team of doctors.

The bodies of the girls whose hair had been cut were examined to determine if they remained virgins. The examination revealed that all of them were still...

She is a virgin.

Strangely, this perception only amplified people's fears, because everyone privately believed that these girls

She had already been raped. If so, then at least people could understand the murderer's motive. Now, people are helpless.

There was nothing they could do. Those who believe in God pray for the safety of their families and to be spared from the devil's calamities.

The city council is a committee composed of thirty of the wealthiest and most prestigious nobles and aristocrats of Grasse.

Most of them are enlightened and anti-church gentlemen who have so far allowed bishops to live a leisurely life, preferring to keep the remonstrances to themselves.

The Taoist temple was converted into a warehouse or factory—these arrogant, powerful city councilors barely managed to provide what they needed in their predicament.

The bishop wrote a letter, using humble language to plead with him that the monster that had killed the young girl was beyond the reach of the secular authorities.

In this situation, like his esteemed predecessor in 1708 dealing with the locusts that then threatened the entire nation, he cursed and

Banish this monster. At the end of September, Glass, the murderer of the young girl, had killed no fewer than twenty people from all walks of life.

After the four most beautiful maidens, it was indeed due to written proclamations and all the preaching altars in the city. This also included the mountain.

The verbal denunciations from the pulpit of Our Lady on the altar ceased due to the bishop's solemn curse.

This result is convincing. Days passed, and the murders ceased. October and November saw no further incidents.

The matter of the body had passed. In early December, news came from Grenoble that there had recently been a murder...

The young girl's killer was rampant; he strangled his victims, tore their clothes off piece by piece, and...