his assemblage remained a secret, and
every person who formed part of it promised the marquise not to reveal
it.

On the next day, which was that preceding her departure for Ganges,
the marquise visited all the charitable institutions and religious
communities in Avignon; she left liberal alms everywhere, with the
request that prayers and masses should be said for her, in order to
obtain from God's grace that she should not be suffered to die without
receiving the sacraments of the Church. In the evening, she took
leave of all her friends with the affection and the tears of a person
convinced that she was bidding them a last farewell; and finally she
spent the whole night in prayer, and the maid who came to wake her found
her kneeling in the same spot where she, had left her the night before.

The family set out for Ganges; the journey was performed without
accident. On reaching the castle, the marquise found her mother-in-law
there; she was a woman of remarkable distinction and piety, and her
presence, although it was to be but temporary, reassured the poor
fearful marquise a little. Arrangements had been made beforehand at the
old castle, and the most convenient and elegant of the rooms had been
assigned to the marquise; it was on the first floor, and looked out upon
a courtyard shut in on all sides by stables.

On the first evening that she was to sleep here, the marquise explored
the room with the greatest attention. She inspected the cupboards,
sounded the walls, examined the tapestry, and found nothing anywhere
that could confirm her terrors, which, indeed, from that time began to
decrease. At the end of a certain time; however, the marquis's mother
left Ganges to return to Montpellier. Two, days after her departure, the
marquis talked of important business which required him to go back to
Avignon, and he too left the castle. The marquise thus remained alone
with the abbe, the chevalier, and a chaplain named Perette, who had been
attached for five-and-twenty years to the family of the marquis. The
rest of the household consisted of a few servants.

The marquise's first care, on arriving at the castle, had been to
collect a little society for herself in the town. This was easy: not
only did her rank make it an honour to belong to her circle, her kindly
graciousness also inspired at first-sight the desire of having her for
a friend. The marquise thus endured less dulness than she had at
first feared. This precau