Both he and
his wife knew that he was approaching the term of his mortal sufferings;
but others, and among them Henri was the most sanguine, still hoped that
he would recover; and there certainly was nothing in his cheery manner
On the morning of the wedding, to make any one think that such hopes
were misplaced. The old Marquis was more sad and melancholy than he had
used to be among his beloved birds and cherry trees at Durbelliere; and,
on this occasion, he was probably the saddest of the party, for he was
the one who would have rejoiced the most that the wedding of his son
should be an occasion of joy to relatives, servants, tenants, and the
numerous neighbours among whom he had always lived with so much mutual
affection.
The most singular figure of the whole party was Father Jerome, the Cure
of St. Laud's. He still wore the same long grey coat in which he was
first introduced to the reader at Durbelliere; which had since that time
figured at Saumur and many another scene of blood and violence, and
which we last saw when he was found by Madame de Lescure in the chapel
at Genet.
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