Genestas saw a mound of earth about twenty feet high.  It was bare as yet, but dwellers in the district were already busily covering the sloping sides with green turf.  La Fosseuse, her face buried in her hands, was sobbing bitterly; she was sitting on the pile of stones in which they had planted a great wooden cross, made from the trunk of a pine-tree, from which the bark had not been removed.  The officer read the inscription; the letters were large, and had been deeply cut in the wood.

D. O. M.

HERE LIES

THE GOOD MONSIEUR BENASSIS

THE FATHER OF US ALL

PRAY FOR HIM.

“Was it you, sir,” asked Genestas, “who——?”

“No,” answered the cure; “it is simply what is said everywhere, from the heights up there above us down to Grenoble, so the words have been carved here.”

Genestas remained silent for a few moments.  Then he moved from where he stood and came nearer to La Fosseuse, who did not hear him, and spoke again to the cure.

“As soon as I have my pension,” he said, “I will come to finish my days here among you.”

ADDENDUM

The following personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Murat, Joachim, Prince
  The Vendetta
  The Gondreville Mystery
  Colonel Chabert
  Domestic Peace