hem.

Then commenced this famous lawsuit, which long occupied all France, and
is parallel in some respects, but not in the time occupied in the
hearing, to the case heard by Solomon, in which one child was claimed by
two mothers.

The Marquis de Saint-Maixent and Madame de Bouille being dead, were
naturally no parties to the suit, which was fought against the
Saint-Geran family by la Pigoreau and Mesdames du Lude and de Ventadour.
These ladies no doubt acted in good faith, at first at any rate, in
refusing to believe the crime; for if they had originally known the truth
it is incredible that they could have fought the case so long aid so
obstinately.

They first of all went to the aid of the midwife, who had fallen sick in
prison; they then consulted together, and resolved as follows:

That the accused should appeal against criminal proceedings;

That la Pigoreau should lodge a civil petition against the judgments
which ordered her arrest and the confronting of witnesses;

That they should appeal against the abuse of obtaining and publishing
monitories, and lodge an interpleader against the sentence of the judge
of first instruction, who had condemned the matron to capital punishment;

And that finally, to carry the war into the enemy's camp, la Pigoreau
should impugn the maternity of the countess, claiming the child as her
own; and that the ladies should depose that the countess's accouchement
was an imposture invented to cause it to be supposed that she had given
birth to a child.

For more safety and apparent absence of collusion Mesdames du Lude and de
Ventadour pretended to have no communication with la Pigoreau.

About this time the midwife died in prison, from an illness which
vexation and remorse had aggravated. After her death, her son Guillemin
confessed that she had often told him that the countess had given birth
to a son whom Baulieu had carried off, and that the child entrusted to
Baulieu at the chateau Saint-Geran was the same as the one recovered; the
youth added that he had concealed this fact so long as it might injure
his mother, and he further stated that the ladies de Ventadour and du
Lude had helped her in prison with money and advice--another strong piece
of presumptive evidence.

The petitions of the accused and the interpleadings of Mesdames du Lude
and de Ventadour were discussed in seven hearings, before three courts
convened. The suit proceeded with all the languor and chicanery