"Madame de la Chanterie never knew the causes of this desertion until the lightning of a dreadful storm revealed them.Her daughter, brought up with anxious care and trained in the purest religious sentiments, kept total silence as to her troubles.This lack of confidence in her mother was a painful blow to Madame de la Chanterie.Already she had several times noticed in her daughter indications of the reckless disposition of the father, increased in the daughter by an almost virile strength of will.
"The husband, however, abandoned his home of his own free will, leaving his affairs in a pitiable condition.Madame de la Chanterie is, even to this day, amazed at the catastrophe, which no human foresight could have prevented.The persons she prudently consulted before the marriage had assured her that the suitor's fortune was clear and sound, and that no mortgages were on his estate.
Nevertheless it appeared, after the husband's departure, that for ten years his debts had exceeded the entire value of his property.
Everything was therefore sold, and the poor young wife, now reduced to her own means, came back to her mother.Madame de la Chanterie knew later that the most honorable persons of the province had vouched for her son-in-law in their own interests; for he owed them all large sums of money, and they looked upon his marriage with Mademoiselle de la Chanterie as a means to recover them.
"There were, however, other reasons for this catastrophe, which you will find later in a confidential paper written for the eyes of the Emperor.Moreover, this man had long courted the good-will of the royalist families by his devotion to the royal cause during the Revolution.He was one of Louis XVIII.'s most active emissaries, and had taken part after 1793 in all conspiracies,--escaping their penalties, however, with such singular adroitness that he came, in the end, to be distrusted.Thanked for his services by Louis XVIII., but completely set aside in the royalist affairs, he had returned to live on his property, now much encumbered with debt.