emed to
give greater certitude to his belief, and to render further doubt
impossible. Ere the prince could bring himself to place implicit
credence in the self-condemnation of Jacques Ferrand, as conveyed in the
notes furnished by him to Cecily, he had made the closest inquiries at
Asnieres, and had ascertained that two females, one old, the other
young, dressed in the garb of countrywomen, had been drowned while
crossing the river to the Isle du Ravageur, and that Martial was openly
accused of having committed this fresh crime.

Let us add, in conclusion, that, despite the utmost care and attention
on the part of Doctor Griffon, Count de Saint-Remy, and La Louve,
Fleur-de-Marie was long ere she could be pronounced out of danger, and
then so extreme was her exhaustion, both of body and mind, that she had
been unfit for the least conversation, and wholly unequal to making any
effort to apprise Madame Georges of her situation.

This coincidence of circumstances left the prince without the smallest
shadow of hope; but had such even remained, it was doomed to disappear
before a last and fatal proof of the reality of his misfortune. He, for
the first time, ventured to cast his eyes towards the miniature he had
received. The blow fell with stunning conviction on his heart; for in
the exquisitely beautiful features it revealed, rich in all the
infantine loveliness ascribed to cherubic innocence, he recognised the
striking portrait of Fleur-de-Marie,--her finely chiselled nose, the
lofty forehead, with the small, delicately formed mouth, even then
wearing an expression of sorrowing tenderness. Alas! Had not Madame
Seraphin well accounted for this somewhat uncommon peculiarity in an
infant's face by saying, in a letter written by her to Sarah, which
Rodolph had just perused, "The child is continually inquiring for its
mother, and seems to grieve very much at not seeing her." There were
also those large, soft, blue eyes, "the colour of a blue-bell," as the
Chouette observed to Sarah, upon recognising in this miniature the
features of the unfortunate creature she had so ruthlessly tormented as
Pegriotte, and as a young girl under the appellation of La Goualeuse. At
the sight of this picture the violent and tumultuous emotions of the
prince were lost amid a flood of mingled tears and sighs.

While Rodolph thus indulged his bitter grief, the countenance of Sarah
become powerfully agitated; she saw the last hope which had hitherto