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Updated: June 5, 2025
In fact, why should not the Sairmeuse have regretted their odious conduct? Was it impossible that Lacheneur, in spite of his indignation, should conclude to accept honorable separation? Such were M. d'Escorval's reflections. "To say that the marquis has been kind is saying too little," continued Lacheneur. "He has shown us the most delicate attentions.
Poor girl! she is my wife, after all. The reasons that influenced me in my rupture with her father exist no longer, and the Marquis de Courtornieu may be regarded as dead." All the inhabitants of Sairmeuse were congregated on the public square when Martial passed through the village.
Of the five hundred men that composed it on its departure from Sairmeuse, only fifteen remained, including the two retired officers. Marie-Anne was in the centre of this little party. M. Lacheneur and his friends were trying to decide what course it was best for them to pursue.
For twenty seconds after Martial disappeared with Jean Lacheneur, the guests stood as motionless as statues, pale, mute, stupefied. It was Blanche who broke the spell. While the Marquis de Courtornieu was panting for breath while the Duc de Sairmeuse was trembling and speechless with suppressed anger, the young marquise made an heroic attempt to come to the rescue.
Here is also a decree of his non-complicity rendered in favor of Abbe Midon, and an order from the bishop which reinstates him as Cure of Sairmeuse; and lastly, a discharge, drawn up in due form, and an acknowledged right to a pension in the name of Corporal Bavois." He paused, and as his astonished hearers stood rooted to their places with wonder, he turned and approached Marie-Anne's bedside.
But a robust young fellow, with an intelligent face, who, perhaps, read Father Chupin's secret heart, brusquely interrupted him: "What does the presence of the Duc de Sairmeuse at Montaignac matter to us?" he exclaimed. "Let him remain at the Hotel de France as long as he chooses; we shall not go in search of him." "No! we shall not go in search of him," echoed the other peasants, approvingly.
"I cannot return to Sairmeuse," he wrote, "and yet it is of the utmost importance that I should see you. "You will, I trust, approve my determinations when I explain the reasons that have guided me in making them. "Come to Montaignac, then, the sooner the better. I am waiting for you." Had he listened to the prompting of his impatience, the duke would have started at once.
At the same hour that Lacheneur presented himself at the house of the Abbe Midon, they were seated upon the terrace in front of the house, gazing anxiously at the two roads leading from Escorval to the chateau, and to the village of Sairmeuse. Warned, that same morning, by his friends in Montaignac of the arrival of the duke, the baron had sent his son to inform M. Lacheneur.
But he knew that the trap had been set for him by Jean Lacheneur; and he read a whole volume of suspicion in the eyes of the young officer who had cut off his retreat, and who was called Lecoq by his companions. The Duc de Sairmeuse was one of those men who remain superior to all fortuitous circumstances, good or bad. He was a man of vast experience, and great natural shrewdness.
The chosen companion of the dissipated and licentious Count d'Artois was not likely to prove a very good husband. The young duchess was contemplating a separation when she died, in giving birth to a boy, who was baptized under the names of Anne-Marie-Martial. The loss of his wife did not render the Duc de Sairmeuse inconsolable. He was free and richer than he had ever been.
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