The next day the funeral of Count
Claudieuse took place. His youngest daughter
was buried at the same time; and in the evening the
Countess left Sauveterre, to make her home henceforth
with her father in Paris.
In the proper course of the law, the
sentence which condemned Jacques was declared null
and void; and Cocoleu, found guilty of having committed
the crime at Valpinson, was sentenced to hard labor
for life.
A month later Jacques de Boiscoran
was married at the church in Brechy to Dionysia de
Chandore. The witnesses for the bridegroom were
M. Magloire and Dr. Seignebos; the witnesses for the
bride, M. Folgat and M. Daubigeon.
Even the excellent commonwealth attorney
laid aside on that day some of his usual gravity.
He continually repeated, —
“Nunc est
bibendum, nunc pede libero
Pulsanda tellus.”
And he really did drink his glass
of wine, and opened the ball with the bride.
M. Galpin, who was sent to Algiers,
was not present at the wedding. But M. Mechinet
was there, quite brilliant, and, thanks to Jacques,
free from all pecuniary troubles.
The two Blangins, husband and wife,
have well-nigh spent the whole of the large sums of
money which they extorted from Dionysia. Trumence,
private bailiff at Boiscoran, is the terror of all
vagrants.
And Goudar, in his garden and nursery,
sells the finest peaches in Paris.