her to take nourishing food for which her illness had given her a repugnance; the color of her skin changed; but the condition of her head was terrible.  Monsieur Martener entreated the great physician his adviser to come down.  Bianchon came, stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an operation.  To spare the feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and brought back with him the celebrated Desplein.  Thus the operation was performed by the greatest surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that terrible diviner said to Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his best-loved pupil:—­

“Nothing but a miracle can save her.  As Horace told you, caries of the bone has begun.  At her age the bones are so tender.”

The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828.  During all that month, distressed by Pierrette’s horrible sufferings, Monsieur Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted Desplein and Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an operation of the nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into the head a hollow instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can be applied to the diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries.  Even the bold Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical measure, which despair alone had suggested to Martener.  When he returned home from Paris he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy.  He was forced to announce on that fatal evening to the Auffrays and Madame Lorrain and to the two priests and Brigaut that science could do no more for Pierrette, whose recovery was now in God’s hands only.  The consternation among them was terrible.  The grandmother made a vow, and requested the priests to say a mass every morning at daybreak before Pierrette rose,—­a mass at which she and Brigaut might be present.

The trial came on.  While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating her in court.  The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family Council, and Vinet instantly appealed.  The newly appointed procureur du roi made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence.  Rogron and his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison.  The order for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself.  When Monsieur Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays’ to receive it, Pierrette was dying, her confessor was at her bedside about to administer extreme unction.  At that moment she entreated all present to forgive her cousins as she herself forgave them, saying with her simple good sense that the judgment of these things belonged to God alone.

“Grandmother,” she said, “leave all you have to Brigaut” (Brigaut burst into tears); “and,” continued Pierrette, “give a thousand francs to that kind Adele who warmed my bed.  If Adele had remained with my cousins I should not now be dying.”

It was at three o’clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer.  Her heroic grandmother wished to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her stiff old fingers her darling’s shroud.  Towards evening Brigaut left the Auffray’s house and went to Frappier’s.