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Both Bourlac and Mergi showed extraordinary bitterness against mother and daughter; they called the Baronne des Tours-Minieres 'the woman Bryond, and Madame 'the woman Lechantre. The names of accused persons in those days were all brought to one republican level, and were sometimes unrecognizable.
Under the Empire none of the nobiliary titles were allowed, nor any of the names added to the patronymic or original names. Therefore, the Baronne des Tours-Minieres was called Madame Bryond. The Troisvilles became the Sieurs Guibelin." "But what happened? Did the Emperor pardon her?" "Alas, no!" replied Alain. "The unfortunate little woman, not twenty-one years old, perished on the scaffold.
At the age of thirty-five, this man, then known under his true name of des Tours-Minieres, affecting a sincere piety, professing the utmost devotion to the interests of the Comte de Lille and a reverence for the memory of the insurgents who lost their lives at the West, disguising with great ability the secrets of his exhausted youth, and powerfully protected by the silence of creditors, and by the spirit of caste which exists among all country ci-devants, this man, truly a whited sepulchre, was introduced, as possessing every claim for consideration, to Madame Lechantre, who was supposed to be the possessor of a large fortune.
"When Madame des Tours-Minieres learned from Bordin that her appeal was rejected and that nothing could save her, that sublime little woman had the courage to write twenty letters, dating them month by month after the time of her execution, so as to make her poor mother in her prison believe she was alive. In those letters she told of a gradual illness which would end in death.
"That devoted creature, condemned to twelve years' imprisonment, gave herself up that she might take care of Madame de la Chanterie, and wait upon her. Our dear vicar was the priest at Mortagne who gave the last sacraments to the Baronne des Tours-Minieres; he had the courage to go with her to the scaffold, and to him she gave her farewell kiss.
That personage is, as the prosecuting officer, the police of Paris, and the Chancellor of His Imperial and Royal Majesty well know, the Sieur Bernard-Polydor Bryond des Tours-Minieres, the correspondent, since 1794, of the Comte de Lille, known elsewhere as the Baron des Tours-Minieres, and on records of the Parisian police under the name of Contenson. He is notorious.
All parties conspired to promote a marriage between the young Henriette, only daughter of Madame Lechantre, and this protege of the ci-devants. Priests, nobles, creditors, each with a different interest, loyal in some, selfish in others, blind for the most part, all united in furthering the union of Bernard Bryond des Tours-Minieres with Henriette Lechantre.
Summary on behalf of Madame Henriette Bryond des Tours-Minieres, nee Lechantre de la Chanterie. "No longer any doubt!" murmured Godefroid. We are condemned and guilty; but if ever the Sovereign had reason to exercise his right of clemency it is surely in a case like this. Here is a young woman, about to become a mother, and condemned to death.
"He received from Amedee du Vissard a miniature of Madame des Tours-Minieres, the only portrait of her that exists; therefore, the abbe became almost sacred in Madame de la Chanterie's eyes when she re-entered social existence." "When did that happen?" asked Godefroid. "Why, at the restoration of Louis XVIII., in 1814.
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