and she then recollected
all the accusation Pierre had made, her own observations which had
confirmed it, all her grief and trouble. She inquired about the village
news. Pierre, evidently, had kept silence why? Had he seen that his
suspicions were unjust, or was he only seeking further evidence? She
sank back into her cruel uncertainty, and resolved to watch Martin
closely, before deciding as to his guilt or innocence.

How was she to suppose that God had created two faces so exactly alike,
two beings precisely similar, and then sent them together into the
world, and on the same track, merely to compass the ruin of an unhappy
woman! A terrible idea took possession of her mind, an idea not uncommon
in an age of superstition, namely, that the Enemy himself could assume
human form, and could borrow the semblance of a dead man in order to
capture another soul for his infernal kingdom. Acting on this idea,
she hastened to the church, paid for masses to be said, and prayed
fervently. She expected every day to see the demon forsake the body he
had animated, but her vows, offerings, and prayers had no result. But
Heaven sent her an idea which she wondered had not occurred to her
sooner. "If the Tempter," she said to herself, "has taken the form of my
beloved husband, his power being supreme for evil, the resemblance would
be exact, and no difference, however slight, would exist. If, however,
it is only another man who resembles him, God must have made them with
some slight distinguishing marks."

She then remembered, what she had not thought of before, having been
quite unsuspicious before her uncle's accusation, and nearly out of her
mind between mental and bodily suffering since. She remembered that on
her husband's left shoulder, almost on the neck, there used to be one of
those small, almost imperceptible, but ineffaceable birthmarks. Martin
wore his hair very long, it was difficult to see if the mark were there
or not. One night, while he slept, Bertrande cut away a lock of hair
from the place where this sign ought to be--it was not there!

Convinced at length of the deception, Bertrande suffered inexpressible
anguish. This man whom she had loved and respected for two whole years,
whom she had taken to her heart as a husband bitterly mourned for--this
man was a cheat, an infamous impostor, and she, all unknowing, was yet
a guilty woman! Her child was illegitimate, and the curse of Heaven
was due to this sacrilegious uni