should succeed to the estate. These two children were, one a boy of six
years old, the other a girl of five. But this was not enough for the
marquise, so deep was her impression that she would not survive this
fatal journey; she gathered together, secretly and at night, the
magistrates of Avignon and several persons of quality, belonging to the
first families of the town, and there, before them, verbally at first,
declared that, in case of her death, she begged the honourable witnesses
whom she had assembled on purpose, not to recognise as valid, voluntary,
or freely written anything except the will which she had signed the day
before, and affirmed beforehand that any later will which might be
produced would be the effect of fraud or of violence. Then, having made
this verbal declaration, the marquise repeated it in writing, signed the
paper containing it, and gave the paper to be preserved by the honour of
those whom she constituted its guardians. Such a precaution, taken with
such minute detail, aroused the lively curiosity of her hearers. Many
pressing questions were put to the marquise, but nothing could be
extracted from her except that she had reasons for her action which she
could not declare. The cause of this assemblage remained a secret, and
every person who formed part of it promised the marquise not to reveal
it.

On the next day, which was that preceding her departure for Ganges, the
marquise visited all the charitable institutions and religious
communities in Avignon; she left liberal alms everywhere, with the
request that prayers and masses should be said for her, in order to
obtain from God's grace that she should not be suffered to die without
receiving the sacraments of the Church. In the evening, she took leave
of all her friends with the affection and the tears of a person convinced
that she was bidding them a last farewell; and finally she spent the
whole night in prayer, and the maid who came to wake her found her