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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: mastiff, which Jeanne Malassis, the servant-woman brought back the
next day saying:--
"Your uncle doesn't want another mouth to feed."
The result proved how well-founded were the niece's fears. Pingret was
murdered on a dark night, in the middle of his clover-field, where he
may have been adding a few coins to a buried pot of gold. The servant-
woman, awakened by the struggle, had the courage to go to the
assistance of the old miser, and the murderer was under the necessity
of killing her to suppress her testimony. This necessity, which
frequently causes murderers to increase the number of their victims,
is an evil produced by the fear of the death penalty.
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