chateau. Some said that he had had a
dreadful altercation and quarrel with the father; some averred that he
had met a contemptuous refusal from the daughter: either, or both, may
have been the truth. What is certain is, that he exacted a vengeance
far heavier than any injury he could have received. On the pretence of
seeking for some concealed royalist, a party of the Blues, headed by the
count, in disguise, broke into the old man's house in the village, and
carried off his eldest daughter,--indeed, the only child that remained
to him; for his second girl was an admitted nun of the Chaise Dieu,
which had hitherto escaped pillage and destruction. From that hour no
trace of her could ever be obtained; but on the same day twelvemonths,
as morning broke, she was found on the steps of her father's door, with
a baby in her arms. I have heard, for I have often spoken with those
who discovered her, that her reason was shattered, and her memory so
completely lost that she did not know her own name. An unbroken apathy
settled down on her from that time.

"She cared for nothing, not even her child; and though Margot was very
beautiful, and so engaging that all the neighbors loved and caressed
her, her mother saw her without the slightest touch of interest or
affection! After the lapse of thirteen, or almost fourteen years, a
young man of the village named Bernois, who had just returned from
studying at Paris, proposed to marry her. Some are of opinion that he
had never heard her real history, nor knew of the relationship between
her and Margot; others think differently, and say that he was aware
of all, and acquitted her of everything save the misfortune that had
befallen her. By what persuasion she was induced to accept him I never
knew, but she did so, and accompanied him to Paris; for, strangely
enough, they who had hitherto treated her with all the respect due to
undeserved calamity, no sooner beheld her as a married woman, and
lifted into a position of equality with them, than they vented a hundred
calumnies upon her, and affected to think her beneath their condition.
This persecution it was which drove Bernois to seek his fortune in
Paris, where he has now met his death! The _conducteur_ who arrived here
last night told who had accompanied him from Paris, and the officers,
who are all familiar with her mother's story, were curious to see the
girl. They induced me to advise you to dine at the public table, and
unhappily I yi