"Ah! she is there!" exclaimed the baron.
He fell on his knees and burst into tears, crying out in a heart-rending voice: "In the name of Jesus dying on the cross, forgive, forgive me, for my daughter has suffered a thousand deaths!"The old man fell forward on the floor so prone that the agitated spectators thought him dead.At that instant Madame de la Chanterie appeared like a spectre at the door of her room, against the frame of which she supported herself.
"In the name of Louis XVI.and Marie-Antoinette whom I see on their scaffold, in the name of Madame Elisabeth, in the name of my daughter and of yours, and for Jesus' sake, I forgive you."Hearing those words the old man raised his head."It is the vengeance of angels!" he said.
Monsieur Joseph and Monsieur Nicolas raised him and led him to the courtyard; Godefroid went to fetch a carriage, and when they put the old man into it Monsieur Nicolas said to him gravely:--"Do not return here, monsieur; the power of God is infinite, but human nature has its limits."On that day Godefroid was admitted to the order of the Brotherhood of Consolation.
End