window in the Tower of Charlemagne, and, thinking she heard him call
her, as at that moment a ray of moonlight seemed to throw a bridge
between them, she walked toward him. But when in the middle she made in
her haste a false step and overpassed the ray, she fell, and was crushed
at the foot of the tower. So since that day, each night when the moon is
bright and clear, she can be seen walking in the air around the Chateau,
which is bathed in white by the silent touch of her immense robe. Then
Balbine, wife of Herve VII, thought for six months that her husband had
been killed in the wars. But, unwilling to give up all hope, she watched
for him daily from the top of the donjon, and when at last she saw him
one morning on the highway, returning to his home, she ran down quickly
to meet him, but was so overcome with joy, that she fell dead at the
entrance of the castle. Even at this day, notwithstanding the ruins, as
soon as twilight falls, it is said she still descends the steps, runs
from story to story, glides through the corridors and the rooms, and
passes like a phantom through the gaping windows which open into the
desert void. All return. Isabeau, Gudule, Vonne, Austreberthe, all these
"happy dead," loved by the stern messenger, who spared them from the
vicissitudes of life by taking them suddenly when, in early youth, they
thought only of happiness. On certain nights this white-robed band fill
the house as if with a flight of doves. To their number had lately been
added the mother of the son of Monseigneur, who was found lifeless on
the floor by the cradle of her infant, where, although ill, she dragged
herself to die, in the fullness of her delight at embracing him. These
had haunted the imagination of Angelique; she spoke of them as if they
were facts of recent occurrence, which might have happened the day
before. She had read the names of Laurette and of Balbine on old
memorial tablets let into the walls of the chapel. Then why should not
she also die young and very happy, as they had? The armouries would
glisten as now, the saint would come down from his place in the