n la Voisin, still a young woman, and far from
having the reputation which she subsequently acquired, was yet beginning
to be talked of. Several friends of the Marquise de Castellane had been
to consult her, and had received strange predictions from her, some of
which, either through the art of her who framed them, or through some
odd concurrence of circumstances, had come true. The marquise could not
resist the curiosity with which various tales that she had heard of this
woman's powers had inspired her, and some days before setting out for
Avignon she made the visit which we have narrated. What answer she
received to her questions we have seen.

The marquise was not superstitious, yet this fatal prophecy impressed
itself upon her mind and left behind a deep trace, which neither the
pleasure of revisiting her native place, nor the affection of her
grandfather, nor the fresh admiration which she did not fail to receive,
could succeed in removing; indeed, this fresh admiration was a weariness
to the marquise, and before long she begged leave of her grandfather to
retire into a convent and to spend there the last three months of her
mourning.

It was in that place, and it was with the warmth of these poor
cloistered maidens, that she heard a man spoken of for the first time,
whose reputation for beauty, as a man, was equal to her own, as a woman.
This favourite of nature was the sieur de Lenide, Marquis de Ganges,
Baron of Languedoc, and governor of Saint-Andre, in the diocese of Uzes.
The marquise heard of him so often, and it was so frequently declared
to her that nature seemed to have formed them for each other, that
she began to allow admission to a very strong desire of seeing him.
Doubtless, the sieur de Lenide, stimulated by similar suggestions,
had conceived a great wish to meet the marquise; for, having got M. de
Nocheres who no doubt regretted her prolonged retreat--to entrust him
with a commission for his granddaughter, he came to the convent parlour
and asked for the fair recluse. She, although she had never seen him,
recognised him at the first glance; for having never seen so handsome
a cavalier as he who now presented himself before her, she thought this
could be no other than the Marquis de Ganges, of whom people had so
often spoken to her.

That which was to happen, happened: the Marquise de Castellane and the
Marquis de Ganges could not look upon each other without loving. Both
were young, the marquis