sat by the bed and caressed her darling.  To the three doctors she told every detail she had obtained from Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house.  Horace Bianchon expressed his indignation in vehement language.  Shocked at such barbarity he insisted on all the physicians in the town being called in to see the case; the consequence was that Dr. Neraud, the friend of the Rogrons, was present.  The report was unanimously signed.  It is useless to give a text of it here.  If Moliere’s medical terms were barbarous, those of modern science have the advantage of being so clear that the explanation of Pierrette’s malady, though natural and unfortunately common, horrified all ears.

At four o’clock, after the usual rising of the court, president Tiphaine again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by Monsieur Auffray and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, entered the court-room.  Vinet was alone.  This contrast struck the minds of those present.  The lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned his cold face to the judge, settled his spectacles on his pallid green eyes, and then in a shrill, persistent voice he stated that two strangers had forced themselves at night into the Rogron domicile and had abducted therefrom the minor Lorrain.  The legal rights were with the guardian, who now demanded the restoration of his ward.

Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be heard.

“If the judge,” he said, “will admit the report, which I hold in my hand, signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all the physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand of the Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the minor had grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors.  Here are the facts.  The report of these physicians attribute the almost dying condition of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has received from the Sieur Rogron and his sister.  We shall, as the law directs, convoke a Family Council with the least possible delay, and discuss the question as to whether or not the guardian should be deposed.  And we now ask that the minor be not returned to the domicile of the said guardian but that she be confided to some member of her family who shall be designated by the judge.”

Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians’ report ought to have been submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it.

“Not submitted to your side,” said the judge, severely, “but possibly to the procureur du roi.  The case is heard.”

The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following order:—­