La Grande Breteche | Page 6

with a jerk of his
head, 'the Count and Countess had lived in a very eccentric way; they
admitted no visitors; Madame lived on the ground-floor, and Monsieur
on the first floor. When the Countess was left alone, she was never seen
excepting at church. Subsequently, at home, at the chateau, she refused
to see the friends, whether gentlemen or ladies, who went to call on her.
She was already very much altered when she left la Grande Breteche to
go to Merret. That dear lady--I say dear lady, for it was she who gave
me this diamond, but indeed I saw her but once--that kind lady was
very ill; she had, no doubt, given up all hope, for she died without
choosing to send for a doctor; indeed, many of our ladies fancied she
was not quite right in her head. Well, sir, my curiosity was strangely
excited by hearing that Madame de Merret had need of my services.
Nor was I the only person who took an interest in the affair. That very
night, though it was already late, all the town knew that I was going to
Merret.
" 'The waiting-woman replied but vaguely to the questions I asked her
on the way; nevertheless, she told me that her mistress had received the
Sacrament in the course of the day at the hands of the Cure of Merret,
and seemed unlikely to live through the night. It was about eleven
when I reached the chateau. I went up the great staircase. After crossing
some large, lofty, dark rooms, diabolically cold and damp, I reached the
state bedroom where the Countess lay. From the rumors that were
current concerning this lady (monsieur, I should never end if I were to
repeat all the tales that were told about her), I had imagined her a
coquette. Imagine, then, that I had great difficulty in seeing her in the
great bed where she was lying. To be sure, to light this enormous room,
with old-fashioned heavy cornices, and so thick with dust that merely
to see it was enough to make you sneeze, she had only an old Argand
lamp. Ah! but you have not been to Merret. Well, the bed is one of

those old world beds, with a high tester hung with flowered chintz. A
small table stood by the bed, on which I saw an "Imitation of Christ,"
which, by the way, I bought for my wife, as well as the lamp. There
were also a deep armchair for her confidential maid, and two small
chairs. There was no fire. That was all the furniture, not enough to fill
ten lines in an inventory.
" 'My dear sir, if you had seen, as I then saw, that vast room, papered
and hung with brown, you would have felt yourself transported into a
scene of a romance. It was icy, nay more, funereal,' and he lifted his
hand with a theatrical gesture and paused.
" 'By dint of seeking, as I approached the bed, at last I saw Madame de
Merret, under the glimmer of the lamp, which fell on the pillows. Her
face was as yellow as wax, and as narrow as two folded hands. The
Countess had a lace cap showing her abundant hair, but as white as
linen thread. She was sitting up in bed, and seemed to keep upright
with great difficulty. Her large black eyes, dimmed by fever, no doubt,
and half-dead already, hardly moved under the bony arch of her
eyebrows.--There,' he added, pointing to his own brow. 'Her forehead
was clammy; her fleshless hands were like bones covered with soft skin;
the veins and muscles were perfectly visible. She must have been very
handsome; but at this moment I was startled into an indescribable
emotion at the sight. Never, said those who wrapped her in her shroud,
had any living creature been so emaciated and lived. In short, it was
awful to behold! Sickness so consumed that woman, that she was no
more than a phantom. Her lips, which were pale violet, seemed to me
not to move when she spoke to me.
" 'Though my profession has familiarized me with such spectacles, by
calling me not infrequently to the bedside of the dying to record their
last wishes, I confess that families in tears and the agonies I have seen
were as nothing in comparison with this lonely and silent woman in her
vast chateau. I heard not the least sound, I did not perceive the
movement which the sufferer's breathing ought to have given to the
sheets that covered her, and I stood motionless, absorbed in looking at
her in a sort of stupor. In fancy I am there still. At last her large eyes
moved; she tried to raise