slowly made the sign of the cross, and knelt down.

"Jacques covered his eyes, blinded with tears. The report of a pistol
made him look up. She was gone--another victim in her place--and where
there had been a little stir in the crowd not five minutes before, some
men were carrying off a dead body. A man had shot himself, they said.
Pierre told me who that man was."




CHAPTER IX.


After a pause, I ventured to ask what became of Madame de Crequy,
Clement's mother.

"She never made any inquiry about him," said my lady. "She must have
known that he was dead; though how, we never could tell. Medlicott
remembered afterwards that it was about, if not on--Medlicott to this day
declares that it was on the very Monday, June the nineteenth, when her
son was executed, that Madame de Crequy left off her rouge and took to
her bed, as one bereaved and hopeless. It certainly was about that time;
and Medlicott--who was deeply impressed by that dream of Madame de
Crequy's (the relation of which I told you had had such an effect on my
lord), in which she had seen the figure of Virginie--as the only light
object amid much surrounding darkness as of night, smiling and beckoning
Clement on--on--till at length the bright phantom stopped, motionless,
and Madame de Crequy's eyes began to penetrate the murky darkness, and to
see closing around her the gloomy dripping walls which she had once seen