ct and had received him with the same
sweetness and the same indifference as the others. He had not dared
to speak to her about me; but he extorted me not to despair. There was
nothing in Edmee's condition that time and rest could not triumph over;
there was but little fever left; none of her vital organs were really
affected; her wounds were almost healed; and it did not seem as if her
brain were in such an excited condition that it would be permanently
deranged. The weak state of her mind, and the prostration of all the
other organs could not, according to Arthur, long withstand the vitality
of youth and the recuperative power of an admirable constitution.
Finally, he advised me to think of myself; I might help towards her
recovery, and I might again find happiness in her affection and esteem.

In a fortnight Arthur returned from Paris with an order from the King
for the revision of my sentence. Fresh witnesses were heard. Patience
did not appear; but I received a note from him containing these words
in a shapeless hand, "You are not guilty, so don't despair." The doctors
declared that Mademoiselle de Mauprat might be examined without danger,
but that her answers would have no meaning. She was now in better
health. She had recognised her father, and at present would never leave
him; but she could understand nothing that was not connected with him.
She seemed to derive great pleasure from tending him like a child, and,
on his side, the chevalier would now and then recognise his beloved
daughter; but his vital powers were visibly decaying. They questioned
him in one of his lucid moments. He replied that his daughter had,
indeed, fallen from her horse while hunting, and that she had torn her
breast on the stump of a tree, but that not a soul had fired at her,
even by mistake, and that only a madman could possibly believe her
cousin capable of such a crime. This was all the information they could
draw from him. When they asked him what he thought of his nephew's
absence, he answered that his nephew was still in the house, and that
he saw him every day. Was it that, in his devotion to the good name of
a family--alas! so compromised--he thought to defeat the aims of justice
by childish lies? This is a point I was never able to ascertain. As for
Edmee, it was impossible to examine her. At the first question that was
asked her, she shrugged her shoulders and made a sign that she did not
wish to be bothered. As the public prose