The Little Ball O' Fire; or, the Life and Adventures of John Marston Hall
Page 18
CHAPTER XVIII.
The calm continued for nearly a month; and though an occasional fit ofgloom would fall upon Monsieur de Villardin, it disappeared on everyoccasion ere it had lasted many hours. So much, indeed, did theharmony of the family now seem restored, that Father Ferdinand,although he had agreed to fix his residence permanently in the houseof his friend, took advantage of the tranquillity which he had sogreatly tended to re-establish, in order to visit Rennes, and arrangehis affairs in that city before he finally settled at Dumont.
The situation of Madame de Villardin, and her appearance, became everyday more interesting; and although I could at times see a shade comeover the countenance of her husband while, as he gazed upon her, someunworthy suspicion crossed his mind, yet, in general, he seemed toregard her with that increased tenderness and interest which every manmust, or ought to feel towards a being they love, under suchcircumstances. The medical attendants of the Duchess had stronglyenjoined her to take as much exercise on foot as possible; and,followed by a servant carrying a small garden seat, she continued herwalks through the park, resting whenever she found herself tired, andproceeding again when she felt able. In many of these walks the Dukehimself accompanied her, and still more frequently joined her at oneof her halting places. All this bespoke renewed affection andconfidence; and I too certainly hoped and believed that the demonwhich had caused so much unhappiness in our household was quelled forever. Such was the state of affairs when one day, by the Duke'sdesire, I set out to visit Avranches and St. Malo, the latter of whichplaces I had a strong desire to see. My little tour lasted four days;but nothing of any interest occurred in its course, except anaccidental interview which I had at St. Malo with an acquaintance Icertainly did not expect to see so soon again and in such a place.After having visited the port, and perambulated such of thefortifications as I was permitted to see, I retired to the house ofone of those aubergistes, whose hospitable dwellings are ever ready toreceive the money of successful captains just returned from the sea;and there, sitting down in the general receptacle of guests, I orderedmy dinner, which was set before me by the servants with all thepromptitude of men accustomed to deal with a hungry and impatientrace.
Scarcely had I begun to eat, when a gaily-dressed personage entered,and placing himself nearly opposite to me, ordered his dinner also, ina tone of authority which was answered with due respect by the gar?on,with, "Yes, captain--not a moment, captain--directly, captain." Thisnew guest was a strong, square-built man, with a face that any onewould have unscrupulously pronounced a frank, open countenance; but assoon as my eyes rested upon it--although his whole garb and appearancewas perfectly naval--yet I thought that I had seen him filling theoffice of captain in the land service rather than the marine. Hecaught me gazing at him, and, as he did so, a slight frown curled hisbrow; but as I did not usually respect frowns particularly, I onlysmiled in return, and proceeded tranquilly to the discussion of mydinner. Before I had proceeded far, however, my acquaintance seemed tohave made up his mind as to his conduct; and, taking a moment when theroom was full of different persons, he exclaimed, after fixing hiseyes upon me for a moment, "I think, monsieur, I have had the honourof meeting you before."
"I think so also," I replied, making an inclination of the head: "yourface is familiar to me, though I really cannot tell where I have seenit."
"The same is my case," replied he, "in regard to you; but, at allevents, you see that I have abandoned the profession of arms, which Ifollowed till within the last six months, and have become a humblecaptain of a merchant vessel trading to the colonies."
"I admire the versatility of your talents," said I, assuming the sametone, though doubting greatly the truth of the tale he told me; "youmust have acquired a knowledge of naval matters quickly; for now Iremember you were, when last I saw you, a very distinguished, active,and expeditious officer in the service to which you were thenattached."
"Oh, monsieur, you are too flattering," he replied; "and, in regard tomy versatility, too, do me more honour than I deserve; for, to tellthe truth, I was originally brought up in the navy. You doubt me," headded, in a lower tone, "and perhaps doubt the whole story, but it istrue, nevertheless. I have, indeed," he continued aloud, "condescendedto go into the merchant service, but it is only on condition that myship be armed, and one of the finest on the water. I should be proudto show her to you, sir. We sail at high water, which will be in anhour; and if you will come with me to the port, you shall see us getunder weigh."
I very well comprehended that it might not be quite agreeable toCaptain Hubert, with whom I had made a somewhat interestingacquaintance in a certain forest near Rennes, to leave a person whoknew his former pursuits so well as I did, to walk unwatched throughthe town of St. Malo, at least till such time as he himself had fairlysailed; the merchant service, it appeared, being his real occupationat the present moment. To put his mind at ease, therefore, as itcertainly never entered into my head to betray him, I agreed to walkwith him to the port; and, after he had concluded his dinner, whichwas interrupted by the applications of half a dozen clerks, and twicethe number of seamen, all proving that his tale was true, we turnedour steps towards the spot where his vessel was lying.
Near the door of the auberge I saw the servant who had accompanied methither, and whom I had left to take care of himself. I now, however,made him a sign to follow, and we thus proceeded to the port, whichwas crowded with people of all kinds, every one busy on their ownpeculiar affairs, and seeming to think that there was nobody else inthe world but themselves. Here the worthy captain pointed out to mehis vessel, which, indeed, was of a goodly size, and, apparently, wellarmed; and it being now time that he should embark, he gave me afriendly invitation to go with him and take a hasty view of theinterior. This honour, however, I declined; and, playfully catching meby the collar, he declared I should go, pushing me at the same timetowards his boat with an air of jest, but at the same with sufficientforce to hurry me on a step or two, before I was aware. The spectatorslaughed at the good-humoured captain's badinage; but I, who had seenmore of his jests than pleased me, laid my hand upon my dagger, andbeckoned the groom towards me, saying, at the same time, "Let go mycollar, my good sir, while the matter is a joke! You know I am hasty."
"Oh, if you take it in that light," replied the other, seeing thegroom running up, "you are, of course, free to do as you like. But,remember!" he added, in a low, deep voice, "Remember!"
"Pshaw!" I replied, in the same tone, "do not be afraid; I will notbetray you."
"I trust you," he said; "I trust you;" and, springing into his boat,he was instantly rowed off to his ship, leaving me to congratulatemyself on having escaped a trip to the colonies, where most likely Ishould have been treated more as the merchandise than the merchant.[3]
----------
[Footnote 3: In explanation of this expression of the worthyautobiographer, it may be necessary to remind the reader, that numbersof persons were, about that time, kidnapped and sold as slaves in thevarious American colonies.]
----------
Amused with my adventure, I returned to my auberge, where I asked oneor two questions concerning the worthy gentleman from whom I had justparted, and found, by the replies, that, since our former rencontre inthe forest, he had already made one successful trip across theAtlantic, and had given every sort of satisfaction to the owners ofhis vessel. "All is well that ends well," I thought; but, however, itwas no business of mine to interfere with a man's return to an honestprofession, and therefore, of course, I held my peace concerning one,at least, of his previous occupations.
The next morning at an early hour, I set off on my return to Dumont,pleased with my whole expedition, and trusting, foolishly, to findeverything in the same state of tranquillity which had reigned therewhen I left it. As I rode on, and entered the park by the gates nearJuvigny, all appeared sunshine and brightness, and there was an aspectof calm serenity about the whole place which rendered it almostimpossible to conceive tha
t it was the abode of anything buthappiness. About half way up the avenue I perceived Monsieur deVillardin approaching towards me, with his arms crossed on his breast,and a sort of staggering, uncertain step, which seemed to meextraordinary. I immediately dismounted, and, giving the horse to thegroom, advanced on foot to meet the Duke, who evidently saw me, butsuddenly turning away, he took a path into one of the side alleys; andseeing that he wished to be alone, I remounted my horse and rode on tothe ch?teau. The first person I saw in the house was Gaspard deBelleville, who passed me in the vestibule, with a sort of grin uponhis countenance, which made me fear that matters were not going sowell as I could wish; for I had remarked that his smiles were not, ingeneral, the precursors of anything very pleasant to myself.
The feeling, indeed, that some disagreeable event had occurred wasvague; but I had always found it the best plan to make instantinquiries into the situation of affairs around me, as soon as ever Ihad the slightest suspicion that anything had gone amiss. Without evenproceeding to my own apartments, therefore, I directed my steps, atonce, to the room of my domestic oracle, the major-domo, and enteredunannounced. The old man was busy with papers and accounts; but themoment he saw me he threw them down upon the table, and, lifting uphis hands with an air of affliction, he exclaimed, "It has all gonewrong again, sir; it has all gone wrong."
"Why, what, in Heaven's name, is the matter now, Jerome?" I demanded."When I left you, all bade fair to continue tranquil and at peace."
"Ay! but there is some demon of mischief at work in the house,"replied the old man, "whose machinations we don't understand. My lordis a thousand times worse than ever. Indeed, he hardly appears to meto be sane."
This news, as it may well be supposed, grieved me deeply; but, ofcourse, my first thought was to discover the origin of the change thathad taken place, in order, if possible, to counteract any evil thatmight have been produced either by accident or by design. "Tell me,good Jerome," I said, as the old man was going on with desultorylamentations and vague facts, "tell me exactly what has occurred sinceI went away, step by step, as nearly as you can remember it."
"Why, my son," he replied, "I have very little to tell, except what Ihave before said, that my lord seems nearly insane. However, let mesee! The only thing that occurred worth noticing the day after youwent away was, that in returning from Juvigny, where I had beenvisiting my nephew, late in the evening, I found Master Gaspard andMadame Suzette, my lady's maid, in one of the alleys of the park agreat deal more intimate than I liked. I had seen something of thesame kind before at the Pr?s Vall?e, and then, though I did not chooseto show myself in the matter, I took good care that my lady shouldknow what was going on; and I know that she scolded Suzette severely,and threatened to discharge her if she behaved so lightly. However,there they were again, walking along together, certainly more like twolovers than a page of good birth and a lady's tiring-woman ought tobe. Coming upon them suddenly, I passed by without their well seeingwho I was; but I heard him say to her, speaking of some one else, 'Oh!he would take fire at it in a minute; anything of that kind would dovery well.' This time I thought it my bounden duty to tell my ladymyself what I had seen, and she was very angry indeed. The morningafter that, as I was just going up the great staircase, I heard aterrible noise in my mistress's dressing-room, and the next moment mymaster passed me like a madman; while I saw Lise, the other maid,running out of my mistress's room as if for help. The moment she seteyes upon me, she called me to come up and help her; and I found mymistress lying upon the floor of her dressing-room, as if she weredead; while beside her there was a large roll of bright blue riband,which seemed to have fallen out of her hand. While we were lifting herup to put her on the couch, my lord rushed in again, and, giving aglance at her as if she had been a viper, snatched up the riband, andleft us to bring her to herself as we best could. She did not recoverfor some time; and I thought it but right to call the doctor, who kepther to her bed all that day. In the meanwhile, I asked Lise to explainthe cause of all this discomfort; and she told me that she knew butlittle, not having heard all that passed between my lady and my lord.When first she went into her mistress's dressing-room, she said, shefound Suzette persuading her mistress to have her white mantle trimmedwith that blue riband; and, though her mistress said it would lookugly, still she held it in her hand. In a minute or two afterwards,Suzette went away, and the Duchess asked Lise whether she thought theriband would look well on the mantle. Just while they were speaking,in came my lord, and Lise went on into the bed-room beyond; but, in amoment after, she heard a word or two about the riband, and my lordgave my lady some hard names which she would not repeat. Hearing someone fall, she ran in, she said, to see, and found the Duchess as Ihave told you she was when I came there. Ever since that time, my lordhas been like one distracted; and though he saw his wife yesterday, hespoke not a word to her, but all the time he was in the room, hecontinued playing with the curls of Mademoiselle's hair, and thinkingof something else."
Although I saw more deeply into the mystery than good old JeromeLaborde, and felt afraid, indeed, that he himself mightunintentionally have contributed to bring about the change that weboth deplored, yet there were many points of the whole business stilldark and obscure even to myself. That the discovery of a riband in thehands of his wife, of the same colour, and probably the same shade, asthat which suspended the locket to the neck of the unfortunate Countde Mesnil, had revived in the mind of Monsieur de Villardin, with moretremendous force than ever, those suspicions which the exhortations ofFather Ferdinand and mv own direct testimony to the Duchess's conducthad crushed with difficulty, I did not in the least doubt. Nor had Imore hesitation in concluding that Gaspard's hatred of myself, anddesire to supplant me in the confidence of Monsieur de Villardin,together with the offence which the Duchess's rebuke in regard to thepage had given Suzette, were sufficient motives for the lovers, orparamours, or whatever they might be, to combine in fostering thesuspicions of Monsieur de Villardin against his wife, and thusrevenging themselves upon her while they rendered themselves agreeableto him. But how they came by the knowledge necessary to make suchschemes effectual was, I confess, a wonder to me. Could Monsieur deVillardin, I asked myself, could he have been weak enough to confidein Gaspard de Belleville the secret of his encounter with the Count deMesnil, and the discovery of the locket and its contents? or couldeither Gaspard or Suzette have watched our proceedings on thatoccasion, or have overheard any of the conversations relating to itwhich had taken place between myself and the Duke? The firstsupposition I rejected at once, for it was impossible to believe thatMonsieur de Villardin would trust to the ear of one, whom he himselfsuspected of having betrayed his confidence in former instances, asecret which, from the concealment and privacy that had attended theduel, might, in all probability, involve his own life. Neither couldI, in calling to mind with the most scrupulous accuracy everycircumstance relating to the transaction, believe that we had eitherbeen watched, or that any of our words had been overheard. The spotwhere the duel had taken place was so remote and private, everythingin the house had been so much in its usual train when we returned,that, certainly, no one could have followed us from the ch?teau to theplace of combat; and any conversations that had taken place upon thesubject afterwards had always been carried on in low tones, and inplaces where it was almost impossible that they could be overheard.
All this perplexed me greatly; and, although good Jerome Labordepressed eagerly for my opinion, I could neither give him insight intothe past, nor advice concerning the future. All that I could suggestwas, that, with the very first opportunity, he should send off noticeof what had occurred to Father Ferdinand, who might boldly originatethe subject in conversation with the Duke, without waiting till he wasaddressed upon it. This, of course, neither Jerome Laborde nor I daredattempt; though we naturally determined to do our best, should theoccasion of serving the unhappy Duchess present itself.
The means of sending off speedily to Father Ferdinand were, luckily,found without difficul
ty; for, though we could not risk despatching aservant to him from the ch?teau, yet Jerome saw that another messengermight be procured by the intervention of Jacques Marlot.
Under these circumstances, I determined to write to the Priest myself;and, having done so, I committed the letter to the hands of the goodmajor-domo, who undertook that it should go, at the latest, the nextmorning. All this occupied some time, and it was now growing late; butyet the Duke had not returned. Another hour elapsed; supper-timearrived; and, although one of the most regular men in his habits thatI ever saw, still Monsieur de Villardin did not appear. The wholehousehold became alarmed; and Madame de Villardin herself, whom someone foolishly informed of the facts, gave herself completely up toterror; and, weeping bitterly, came down to the hall in order to sendout people to seek for her husband. At that moment, however, Monsieurde Villardin's step was heard in the vestibule; and immediatelyafterwards he entered the hall.
He took but little notice of his wife, merely asking, "Why are youweeping, madam?" and after her reply, that she was apprehensive forhis safety, he cast down his eyes and stood musing, in the middle ofthe hall, for two or three minutes, which seemed perfect ages to thosewho were the spectators of so painful a scene. Then, startingsuddenly, he looked round frowningly upon myself and several of theservants, who were gazing upon him in surprise and sorrow, and satdown to table unwashed, and in his dusty dress.
He seemed, however, by this time to have recovered some kind ofcommand over his demeanour, and appeared eager to prevent theservants, whose astonishment he saw that he had excited, fromremarking that there was anything in his behaviour different from hisordinary habits. He spoke to Madame de Villardin frequently duringsupper, to which she sat down with him, using, as he addressed her,all those forms of cold courtesy and politeness, which none knewbetter how to employ than himself. To me, also, he spoke once or twiceconcerning my late expedition; and evidently strove, with a desperateeffort, to appear attentive to my replies. It was in vain, however,that he did so; for he continually relapsed into deep thought, everytwo or three minutes rousing himself violently from his reveries, andthen falling back again, whether he would or not, into a state ofdreary abstraction.
The next morning, a new change seemed to have taken place in his mood,for he came down perfectly himself, collected, and firm. He was quickand stern, it is true, but that was a frame of mind in which we hadall often remarked him, and thought there was now, perhaps, somethingmore approaching towards fierceness in his manner than we had everbeheld; yet this demeanour was so much better than the state of thepreceding evening, that it appeared a relief.
Several times during the course of the morning I hoped that he wasgoing to speak to me on the subject of his new suspicions, for morethan once he looked earnestly, I may call it wildly, in my face; andonce, when he had done so during a longer space than ever, he suddenlybroke off, and turned away, muttering, "No, no! myself alone!"
I eagerly watched his conduct to Madame de Villardin during dinner,and saw that it was certainly very different from that of the nightbefore--keen and rapid, but no longer harsh and abstracted. Yet thoughthe Duchess herself seemed delighted with the change, and did all shecould to soften him still farther, there appeared to me something notnatural in his manner, which alarmed me, and I determined to walk downto Juvigny in order to make sure that the letter had been despatchedto Father Ferdinand, for whose coming I prayed more fervently than Ihad ever done for the presence of any other man in my life. The replywas satisfactory--a messenger having been sent off to Rennes at anearly hour; and I felt certain, though it might be late the next daybefore the Confessor could arrive, that he would not suffer two sunsto rise ere he was in the ch?teau.
So far relieved was the mind of Madame de Villardin by the alterationin her husband's conduct, which she apparently trusted would nowreturn to its ordinary course, that she began to resume her usualhabits; and, accompanied by her little girl, took her stated walk inthe cool of the evening; for it was now the month of May, and as warmas June. The Duke was shut up in his library all day, and, I supposed,alone; but in descending the back staircase--which, leading from myapartments in the wing, passed one of the library doors, and thence tothe court behind the ch?teau--I encountered Suzette, the Duchess'swoman, coming out from a conference with Monsieur de Villardin; and Ifelt sure, from that moment, that no internal change of feeling hadtaken place in his bosom, though he might assume, by a great effort, adifferent demeanour to those around him. To the hour of supper he wasthis night exact: and though his conversation was evidently forced,and perhaps a little rambling, yet it was fluent and courteous.
After supper, I, as usual, retired to my own apartments, and, full ofpainful thoughts, turned to the window, and gazed out upon the park asit lay before me, sleeping in the calm moonlight. I had not been therea moment, when a figure appeared upon the terrace, which I instantlyrecognised as that of Monsieur de Villardin. With a quick andirregular pace he descended the flight of steps that led into thegarden, crossed it towards the park, and in a minute after was lost tomy view in one of the dark alleys. Never did I feel so tempted to playthe spy; but though I was conscious that the motive was not an evilone, yet my mind revolted from the thought, and casting off myclothes, I went to bed.
The next morning and day passed much in the same manner; but, abouthalf an hour before dusk, while Madame de Villardin was preparing forher evening walk, the Duke himself set out on foot before her, sayingto his wife, as he left the saloon, in which I happened to be at thetime, "As you are not going to take Laura with you to-night, if youcome down the walk by the water side, I will meet you. Our youngfriend here will accompany you!"
Madame de Villardin's joy at these words almost overflowed at hereyes; and though she had never said she was not about to take herlittle girl with her as the Duke implied, yet she determined to followhis words exactly, and leaving Mademoiselle to play in theflower-garden, under the superintendence of Suzette, she set out aboutten minutes after her husband, accompanied by myself alone. She walkedbut slowly, and rested about half way down the walk; but although thesun was below the horizon, and the light was growing faint, yet theair was so warm and the sky so clear, one could have walked on forhours with far more pleasure than in the full glare of day.
Ere we had again proceeded a dozen yards, we saw Monsieur de Villardincome into the alley as if from the bank of the river; and offering hisarm to his wife, he took the garden-seat which I was carrying, andwalked on down the alley in silence. A minute or two after, however,as we approached one of the little wooden bridges, he paused, andasked Madame de Villardin whether she was able to walk on a littlefurther on the other side of the river. "I have just now seen awounded chevreuil," he said, "and wish to put it out of its agony;"and then turning to me, he bade me run back to the house, and bringhis carbine, which I should find charged in his dressing-room.
His voice faltered, I observed, as he spoke, and the moment he haddone, he turned towards the little bridge which might lie at aboutfifty or sixty yards from the spot where we stood. A feeling of aweand agitation came over me not to be described, for I had a sort ofinstant conviction that all was not right; and though I took a fewsteps towards the ch?teau, I paused again almost immediately, notknowing how to act or what to do. Never in my existence did I feelsuch a painful state of uncertainty; and gazing after Monsieur deVillardin and his fair wife, as they advanced slowly towards thebridge, my mind in a moment ran over a thousand vague apprehensions,probable and improbable, which only left the conviction that somethingfearful was about to occur, though of what nature I could not divine.
"His carbine!" I thought; "long before I can get back, it will be toodark for him to shoot anything thirty yards from him!" and I resolvedto follow, and, pretending I had forgotten what he had said, to askwhere the weapon was to be found. When I turned--though, as I havesaid, it was quite dusk--I could see the figures of Monsieur andMadame de Villardin approaching the river; and walking fast to come upwith them, I was within twe
nty yards of the bridge when they began tocross it. Scarcely, however, had they taken two steps upon thewood-work when I heard a crash, a scream, a plunge, and both figuresat once disappeared.
I darted forward to the spot where the bridge had stood, but nothingnow remained of it but some broken fragments attached to the piles,which, driven into the high bank, had served as the foundation. Thegrowing obscurity of the twilight, the trees that overhung the banks,the height of the banks themselves, which at that spot rose fulltwenty feet above the stream, the rushing and rippling of the current,which, there, considerably confined by its bed, hurried on towards asharp turn which it took about fifty yards below; all served toprevent me seeing distinctly what were the objects on the surface ofthe water. Fragments of the bridge there certainly were; but I sawneither Madame de Villardin nor her husband, though the whirling of apart of the woodwork in one of the eddies of the river made me for amoment think I beheld the struggles of a living creature. I paused butfor a single instant to calculate what were best to do; and then,seeing that there was nothing else to be done, I leaped from the highbank at once into the stream, and as soon as I rose after the firstplunge, I struck rapidly down the current, in order, by exceeding itsown speed, to come up with whatever objects it was carrying down.Almost at the turn of the river, where the water, in circling roundthe point, drifted strongly against the bank, which was here againless steep, at least on one side, I saw, amongst some broken pieces ofwood, a larger object, impeded in its course down the stream by someprojecting stones and roots of trees, and the next moment I graspedthe arm of Monsieur de Villardin. He seemed perfectly insensible; but,springing to the shore, I dragged him up the bank, and laid him uponthe turf. Still he made no movement; but, as I confess, that fromvarious feelings which I need not explain, I felt more interested inthe fate of Madame de Villardin than even in his own, I left him atonce, and again plunging into the stream, I swam rapidly round thelittle peninsula I have mentioned.
The river here was more open, and whatever light was in the sky wasreflected clearly from its bosom; but by this time all the fragmentsof the bridge had drifted out of sight, and in vain lifting my head ashigh as I could, I attempted to discover any object floating upon thewater. Still darting on as fast as my utmost efforts could impel mealong the current, I endeavoured to regain the time lost in drawingMonsieur de Villardin on shore; and after a moment, a faint and verydistant cry for help caught my ear and encouraged me to strike on. Thecry, however, was never repeated; and after swimming till I wasperfectly exhausted, I was obliged to abandon the attempt in despair,and landed about a mile below the dwelling of good Jacques Marlot.Thither I directed my steps as fast as possible; and finding the doorlocked, I knocked for several moments so violently as to bring himhimself, with a face of terror, to the gateway. Telling him what hadoccurred, I besought him to rouse all the servants of the farm and thecotters in the neighbourhood, and dividing into two parties, one oneither bank, to search the whole course of the stream with torches andlanterns.
In the meanwhile, I hurried back, and calling the woodcutter at thenearest gate of the park, made him hasten on with me to the spot whereI had left Monsieur de Villardin, answering as well as I could theeager questions which he put to me, as we went, concerning the eventswhich had occurred.
We found the Duke exactly where I had left him; but, though he had notmoved in the slightest degree, it was evident that he was still alive,for he was breathing loud and hard, like a person in a deep sleep.Taking him up in our arms, we carried him as quickly as we could tothe ch?teau, when we were instantly surrounded by the whole household;and by the lights which were now brought, we perceived that a severeblow on the head was more probably the cause of his insensibility thanthe short time he had remained in the water.
Leaving him in the hands of the physician, who for the last month hadinhabited the ch?teau, attending upon Madame de Villardin, I set out,with the greater part of the household, all furnished with torches;and for three hours continued our search for the body of the unhappylady, from the spot where the bridge had broken to a village nearlysix miles farther down the stream. Our search, however, was in vain;and all feeling that a good mistress, a kind friend, and a gentlelady, was lost to us for ever, we returned, sad and sorrowful, to thech?teau.