* * * * *




Mauprat


It was while George Sand was pleading for a separation from
her husband, on the ground of incompatibility of temperament,
that "Mauprat" was written, and the powerful story, full of
storm, sentiment, and passion, bears the marks of its
tumultuous birth.


_I.--Bernard Mauprat's Childhood_


In the district of Varenne, within a gloomy ravine, stands the ruined
castle of Roche-Mauprat. It is a place I never pass at night without
some feeling of uneasiness; and now I have just learnt its history from
Bernard Mauprat, the last of the line.

Bernard Mauprat is eighty-four and no man is more represented in the
province. Passing his house with a friend who knew the old man, we
ventured to call, and were received with stately welcome. Later Mauprat
told us his story in the following words:

There were formerly two branches of the Mauprat family and I belonged to
the elder. My grandfather was that Tristan de Mauprat whose crimes are