s had no other result than that
of confirming each in his system of defense, and showing each that the
system was religiously adhered to by his companion.

Dubois was furious--he reopened the proofs for the affair of the
States-General, but that had been settled by the special parliament,
which had condemned the king of Spain's letters, and degraded the
legitimated princes from their rank; everyone regarded them as
sufficiently punished by this judgment, without raising a second
prosecution against them on the same grounds. Dubois had hoped, by the
revelations of D'Harmental, to entangle Monsieur and Madame de Maine in
a new trial, more serious than the first; for this time it was a
question of a direct attempt, if not on the life, at least on the
liberty of the regent; but the obstinacy of the chevalier destroyed all
his hopes. His anger had therefore turned solely on D'Harmental, and, as
we have said, he had ordered Leblanc and D'Argenson to expedite the
prosecution--an order which the two magistrates had obeyed with their
ordinary punctuality.

During this time the illness of Bathilde had progressed in a manner
which had brought the poor girl to death's door; but at last youth and
vigor had triumphed; to the excitement of delirium had succeeded a
complete and utter prostration; one would have said that the fever alone
had sustained her, and that, in departing, it had taken life along with
it.

Still every day brought improvement--slight, it is true, but decided--to
the eyes of the good people who surrounded the bed of sickness. Little
by little Bathilde began to recognize those who were about her, then she
had stretched out her hand to them, and then spoken to them. As yet, to
the astonishment of every one, they had remarked that Bathilde had not
mentioned the name of D'Harmental; this was a great relief to those who
watched her, for, as they had none but sad news to give her about him,
they preferred, as will easily be understood, that she should remain
silent on the subject; every one believed, and the doctor most of all,
that the young girl had completely forgotten the past, or, if she
remembered it, that she confounded the reality with the dreams of her
delirium. They were all wrong, even the doctor: this was what had
occurred:

One morning when they had thought Bathilde sleeping, and had left her
alone for a minute, Boniface, who, in spite of the severity of his
neighbor, still preserved a great fund of ten