she playfully terms it
afterwards, when retracing the circumstances in a letter to her old
friend Francois Rollinat:--

The day before that upon which I was suddenly taken very seriously
ill, I had felt quite well. I had scribbled the beginning of a
novel; I had placed all my personages; I knew them thoroughly; I
knew their situations in the world, their characters, tendencies,
ideas, relations to each other. I saw their faces. All that
remained to be known was what they were going to do, and I did not
trouble my head about that, having time to think it over to-morrow.

Struck down on the morrow, she was for many days in a precarious
condition; and in the confused fancies of fever found herself wandering
with _La Famille de Germandre_ about the country, alighting in ruined
castles, and encountering the most whimsical adventures in flood and
field.

It would have been an easy death, she remarked afterwards, had she died
then, as she might, in her dream; but she came to herself to find her
son and friends in such anxiety on her account, so overjoyed at her
convalescence, that she could not but be glad of the life that was given
back to her. Early in 1861 we find her recruiting her forces by a stay
at Tamaris, near Toulon, completing the novel interrupted by illness;
resuming her long walks and botanic studies, and thoroughly enjoying the
sense of returning vital powers.

She stood always in great dread of the idea of possibly losing her
activity as she advanced in years. The infirmities of old age, however,
she was happily to be spared, preserving her energy and mental
faculties, as will be seen, till just before her death. But though she
was restored to health and strength, this illness seems to have left its
traces on her constitution.

Her son's marriage to Mdlle. Calamatta, spoken of by Madame Sand as a
heart's desire of hers at length fulfilled, took place in 1862, not many
months after his return from half a year of travel in Africa and
America, in the company of Prince Napoleon. The event proved a fresh
source of the purest happiness to her, and was not to separate her from
her son. The young people settled at Nohant, which remained her
head-quarters. There a few years later we find her residing almost
exclusively, except when called by matters of business to her
_pied-a-terre_ in Paris, where she never lingered long. To the two
little grand-daughters, Aurore and Gabrielle,