her!" cried Simon, in a voice of despair.

"I set out with the two orphans the day after her death," said the
soldier.

"Dead?" exclaimed Pierre Simon, overwhelmed by the stroke; "dead?" A
mournful silence was the only answer. The marshal staggered beneath this
unexpected shock, leaned on the back of a chair for support, and then,
sinking into the seat, concealed his face with his hands. For same
minutes nothing was heard but stifled sobs, for not only had Pierre Simon
idolized his wife, but by one of those singular compromises, that a man
long cruelly tried sometimes makes with destiny, Pierre Simon, with the
fatalism of loving souls, thought he had a right to reckon upon happiness
after so many years of suffering, and had not for a moment doubted that
he should find his wife and child--a double consolation reserved to him
after going through so much. Very different from certain people, whom the
habit of misfortune renders less exacting, Simon had reckoned upon
happiness as complete as had been his misery. His wife and child were the
sole, indispensable conditions of this felicity, and, had the mother
survived her daughters, she would have no more replaced them in his eyes
than they did her. Weakness or avarice of the heart, so it was; we insist
upon this singularity, because the consequences of these incessant and
painful regrets exercised a great influence on the future life of Marshal
Simon. Adrienne and Dagobert had respected the overwhelming grief of this
unfortunate man. When he had given a free course to his tears, he raised
his manly countenance, now of marble paleness, drew his hand across his
blood-shot eyes, rose, and said to Adrienne, "Pardon me, madame; I could
not conquer my first emotion. Permit me to retire. I have cruel details
to ask of the worthy friend who only quitted my wife at the last moment.
Have the kindness to let me see my children--my poor orphans!--" And the
marshal's voice again broke.

"Marshal," said Mdlle. de Cardoville, "just now we were expecting your
dear children: unfortunately, we have been deceived in our hopes." Pierre
Simon first looked at Adrienne without answering, as if he had not heard
or understood.--"But console yourself," resumed the young girl; "we have
yet no reason to despair."

"To despair?" repeated the marshaling by turns at Mdlle. de Cardoville
despair?--"of what, in heaven's name?"

"Of seeing your children, marshal," said Adrienne; "the presence of their
fa