e longed to see her son, whom his present wife hated. She herself
had become a mother; the Vicomte Jean Talizac had been held at the
baptismal font by the Queen Marie Antoinette.

The Marquise determined to oust Simon from his place in his father's
heart. She but half succeeded in this, and was too wise to attack the
memory of the dead.

The Marquis wrote in secret to his son, and occasionally went to see him
among the Vosges, and embraced the lad, who inherited all his mother's
intelligence and goodness.

Then the Vicomte returned like a truant schoolboy to Versailles, and the
Marquise brought in her boy with an expression that seemed to say, "This
is your boy! He is the one in whose veins runs only noble blood!"

In 1787 the Marquis was dangerously ill. His wife was devoted to him,
and one day when he was in a critical condition she said, gently:

"Shall I send for the peasant's child?"

He closed his eyes and did not reply. When, after long weeks of illness,
he was restored to health, he belonged to the Marquise. He never spoke
of his eldest child, and adored Jean.

Then came the emigration. Monsieur de Fongereues, friend of Conde and of
Polignac, yielded to his wife's entreaties and joined the Prince de
Conde at Worms, where he was making an appeal to foreign powers against
France. Although yielding to the wishes of the Marquise, De Fongereues
was fully aware that it was a base act to desert his country, and excite
against her the hatred of her most violent enemies. Young Simon, the
son of the peasant, could not join in this parricidal act, although the
Marquis sent Pierre Labarre, who was even then in his service, to his
son, then fifteen years of age, to sound his views. If the youth would
enter the army of Conde, the Marquis assured him a brilliant future. If
he remained in France, however, he could no longer rely on his father,
who, however, sent him a large sum of money. The youth refused the
money, and replied:

"Say to my father that I love him, and that if ever he requires a
devoted heart and a courageous arm that he may summon me to his side;
but now, if I am to choose between poverty in my own country and wealth
in a foreign land, I remain here!"

"It was Simonne's soul that spoke through his lips!" murmured the
Marquis, when Pierre repeated the message sent by the young man.

The father and son did not meet after 1790. We will now return to
Fribourg, to that room where Pierre Labarre had just t