and in spite of the entreaties that the
dying woman made to her, she returned home, not allowing anything to stop
her. This departure was a great grief to the marquise, and was the
reason why she begged with renewed entreaties to be taken to Montpellier.
The very sight of the place where she had been so cruelly tortured
continually brought before her, not only the remembrance of the murder,
but the image of the murderers, who in her brief moments of sleep so
haunted her that she sometimes awoke suddenly, uttering shrieks and
calling for help. Unfortunately, the physician considered her too weak to
bear removal, and declared that no change of place could be made without
extreme danger.

Then, when she heard this verdict, which had to be repeated to her, and
which her bright and lively complexion and brilliant eyes seemed to
contradict, the marquise turned all her thoughts towards holy things, and
thought only of dying like a saint after having already suffered like a
martyr. She consequently asked to receive the last sacrament, and while
it was being sent for, she repeated her apologies to her husband and her
forgiveness of his brothers, and this with a gentleness that, joined to
her beauty, made her whole personality appear angelic. When, however,
the priest bearing the viaticum entered, this expression suddenly
changed, and her face presented every token of the greatest terror. She
had just recognised in the priest who was bringing her the last
consolations of Heaven the infamous Perette, whom she could not but
regard as an accomplice of the abbe and the chevalier, since, after
having tried to hold her back, he had attempted to crush her beneath the
pitcher of water which he had thrown at her from the window, and since,
when he saw her escaping, he had run to warn her assassins and to set
them on her track. She recovered herself quickly, however, and seeing
that the priest, without any sign of remorse, was drawing near to her
bedside, she would not cause so great a scandal as would have been caused
by denouncing him at such a moment. Nevertheless, bending towards him,
she said, "Father, I hope that, remembering what has passed, and in order
to dispel fears that--I may justifiably entertain, you will make no
difficulty of partaking with me of the consecrated wafer; for I have
sometimes heard it said that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, while
remaining a token of salvation, has been known to be made a principle