d
his complaints to the marquise, she called her husband to her bedside,
at a moment when she was surrounded by people, and made him a public
apology, begging him to attribute the words that seemed to have wounded
him to the effect of her sufferings, and not to any failure in her
regard for him. The marquis, left alone with his wife, tried to take
advantage of this reconciliation to induce her to annul the declaration
that she had made before the magistrates of Avignon; for the vice-legate
and his officers, faithful to the promises made to the marquise, had
refused to register the fresh donation which she had made at Ganges,
according to the suggestions of the abbe, and which the latter had sent
off, the very moment it was signed, to his brother. But on this point
the marquise was immovably resolute, declaring that this fortune was
reserved for her children and therefore sacred to her, and that she
could make no alteration in what had been done at Avignon, since
it represented her genuine and final wishes. Notwithstanding this
declaration, the marquis did not cease to--remain beside his wife and to
bestow upon her every care possible to a devoted and attentive husband.

Two days later than the Marquis de Ganges arrived Madame de Rossan
great was her amazement, after all the rumours that were already in
circulation about the marquis, at finding her daughter in the hands of
him whom she regarded as one of her murderers. But the marquise, far
from sharing that opinion, did all she could, not only to make her
mother feel differently, but even to induce her to embrace the marquis
as a son. This blindness on the part of the marquise caused Madame de
Rossan so much grief that notwithstanding her profound affection for her
daughter she would only stay two days, and in spite of the entreaties
that the dying woman made to her, she returned home, not allowing
anything to stop her. This departure was a great grief to the marquise,
and was the reason why she begged with renewed entreaties to be taken to
Montpellier. The very sight of the place where she had been so cruelly
tortured continually brought before her, not only the remembrance of
the murder, but the image of the murderers, who in her brief moments of
sleep so haunted her that she sometimes awoke suddenly, uttering shrieks
and calling for help. Unfortunately, the physician considered her too
weak to bear removal, and declared that no change of place could be made
without e