'We then got my lord out of the room; he went into his library, and
threw himself on the floor, and there he staid, and would hear no
reason, that was talked to him. When my lady recovered, she enquired
for him, but, afterwards, said she could not bear to see his grief, and
desired we would let her die quietly. She died in my arms, ma'amselle,
and she went off as peacefully as a child, for all the violence of her
disorder was passed.' Dorothee paused, and wept, and Emily wept with her; for she was much
affected by the goodness of the late Marchioness, and by the meek
patience, with which she had suffered.
'When the doctor came,' resumed Dorothee, 'alas! he came too late;
he appeared greatly shocked to see her, for soon after her death a
frightful blackness spread all over her face. When he had sent the
attendants out of the room, he asked me several odd questions about the
Marchioness, particularly concerning the manner, in which she had been
seized, and he often shook his head at my answers, and seemed to mean
more, than he chose to say. But I understood him too well. However, I
kept my remarks to myself, and only told them to my husband, who bade
me hold my tongue.
Some of the other servants, however, suspected what
I did, and strange reports were whispered about the neighbourhood, but
nobody dared to make any stir about them. When my lord heard that my
lady was dead, he shut himself up, and would see nobody but the doctor,
who used to be with him alone, sometimes for an hour together; and,
after that, the doctor never talked with me again about my lady. When
she was buried in the church of the convent, at a little distance
yonder, if the moon was up you might see the towers here, ma'amselle,
all my lord's vassals followed the funeral, and there was not a dry eye
among them, for she had done a deal of good among the poor. My lord, the
Marquis, I never saw any body so melancholy as he was afterwards, and
sometimes he would be in such fits of violence, that we almost thought
he had lost his senses.
He did not stay long at the chateau, but joined
his regiment, and, soon after, all the servants, except my husband and
I, received notice to go, for my lord went to the wars. I never saw him
after, for he would not return to the chateau, though it is such a fine
place, and never finished those fine rooms he was building on the west
side of it, and it has, in a manner, been shut up ever since, till my
lord the Count came here.'