d not reach Ganges until four days after the
murder, then he went to the house of M. Desprats and asked to see his
wife, whom some kind priests had already prepared for the meeting; and
the marquise, as soon as she heard of his arrival, consented to receive
him. The marquis immediately entered the room, with his eyes full of
tears, tearing his hair, and giving every token of the deepest despair.

The marquise receivers her husband like a forgiving wife and a dying
Christian. She scarcely even uttered some slight reproaches about the
manner in which he had deserted her; moreover, the marquis having
complained to a monk of these reproaches, and the monk having reported
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,