Marquise de Ganges | Page 7

Alexandre Dumas, père
during which their marriage had
lasted, on receipt of the news she went at once into retreat, going to live
with Madame d'Ampus, her mother-in-law, and ceasing not only to
receive visitors but also to go out.
Six months after the death of her husband, the marquise received letters
from her grandfather, M. Joannis de Nocheres, begging her to come
and finish her time of mourning at Avignon. Having been fatherless
almost from childhood, Mademoiselle de Chateaublanc had been
brought up by this good old man, whom she loved dearly; she hastened
accordingly to accede to his invitation, and prepared everything for her
departure.
This was at the moment when la Voisin, still a young woman, and far
from having the reputation which she subsequently acquired, was yet

beginning to be talked of. Several friends of the Marquise de Castellane
had been to consult her, and had received strange predictions from her,
some of which, either through the art of her who framed them, or
through some odd concurrence of circumstances, had come true. The
marquise could not resist the curiosity with which various tales that she
had heard of this woman's powers had inspired her, and some days
before setting out for Avignon she made the visit which we have
narrated. What answer she received to her questions we have seen.
The marquise was not superstitious, yet this fatal prophecy impressed
itself upon her mind and left behind a deep trace, which neither the
pleasure of revisiting her native place, nor the affection of her
grandfather, nor the fresh admiration which she did not fail to receive,
could succeed in removing; indeed, this fresh admiration was a
weariness to the marquise, and before long she begged leave of her
grandfather to retire into a convent and to spend there the last three
months of her mourning.
It was in that place, and it was with the warmth of these poor cloistered
maidens, that she heard a man spoken of for the first time, whose
reputation for beauty, as a man, was equal to her own, as a woman.
This favourite of nature was the sieur de Lenide, Marquis de Ganges,
Baron of Languedoc, and governor of Saint-Andre, in the diocese of
Uzes. The marquise heard of him so often, and it was so frequently
declared to her that nature seemed to have formed them for each other,
that she began to allow admission to a very strong desire of seeing him.
Doubtless, the sieur de Lenide, stimulated by similar suggestions, had
conceived a great wish to meet the marquise; for, having got M. de
Nocheres who no doubt regretted her prolonged retreat--to entrust him
with a commission for his granddaughter, he came to the convent
parlour and asked for the fair recluse. She, although she had never seen
him, recognised him at the first glance; for having never seen so
handsome a cavalier as he who now presented himself before her, she
thought this could be no other than the Marquis de Ganges, of whom
people had so often spoken to her.
That which was to happen, happened: the Marquise de Castellane and
the Marquis de Ganges could not look upon each other without loving.
Both were young, the marquis was noble and in a good position, the
marquise was rich; everything in the match, therefore, seemed suitable:

and indeed it was deferred only for the space of time necessary to
complete the year of mourning, and the marriage was celebrated
towards the beginning of the year 1558. The marquis was twenty years
of age, and the marquise twenty-two.
The beginnings of this union were perfectly happy; the marquis was in
love for the first time, and the marquise did not remember ever to have
been in love. A son and a daughter came to complete their happiness.
The marquise had entirely forgotten the fatal prediction, or, if she
occasionally thought of it now, it was to wonder that she could ever
have believed in it. Such happiness is not of this world, and when by
chance it lingers here a while, it seems sent rather by the anger than by
the goodness of God. Better, indeed, would it be for him who possesses
and who loses it, never to have known it.
The Marquis de Ganges was the first to weary of this happy life. Little
by little he began to miss the pleasures of a young man; he began to
draw away from the marquise and to draw nearer to his former friends.
On her part, the marquise, who for the sake of wedded intimacy had
sacrificed her habits of social life, threw herself into society, where new
triumphs awaited her. These triumphs aroused the jealousy of the
marquis; but he was too much a man of his century
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