“And let that be said,” she added, turning toward John Mauprat with a polite bow, “without any reference to the holy man in this court, who was once a great sinner, and is now a great saint.  But at what a price,” she continued, facing the judges again, “had this miserable bandit saved my dear mistress!  He had dishonoured her, gentlemen; and, throughout the days that followed, the poor young lady had abandoned herself to grief and shame on account of the violence which had been done her, for which nothing could bring consolation.  Too proud to breath her misfortune to a single soul, and too honest to deceive any man, she broke off her engagement with M. de la Marche, whom she loved passionately, and who returned her passion.  She refused every offer of marriage that was made her, and all from a sense of honour, for in reality she hated M. Bernard.  At first she wanted to kill herself; indeed, she had one of her father’s little hunting-knives sharpened and (M.  Marcasse can tell you the same, if he chooses to remember) she would certainly have killed herself, if I had not thrown this knife into the well belonging to the house.  She had to think, too, of defending herself against the night attacks of her persecutor; and, as long as she had this knife, she always used to put it under her pillow; every night she would bolt the door of her room; and frequently I have seen her rush back, pale and ready to faint, quite out of breath, like a person who has just been pursued and had a great fright.  When this gentleman began to receive some education, and learn good manners, mademoiselle, seeing that she could never have any other husband, since he was always talking of killing any man who dared to present himself, hoped he would get rid of his fierceness, and was most kind and good to him.  She even nursed him during his illness; not that she liked and esteemed him as much as M. Marcasse was pleased to say in his version; but she was always afraid that in his delirium he might reveal, either to the servants or her father, the secret of the injury he had done her.  This her modesty and pride made her most anxious to conceal, as all the ladies present will readily understand.  When the family went to Paris for the winter of ’77, M. Bernard became jealous and tyrannical and threatened so frequently to kill M. de la Marche that mademoiselle was obliged to send the latter away.  After that she had some violent scenes with Bernard, and declared that she did not and never would love him.  In his rage and grief—­for it cannot be denied that he was enamoured of her in his tigerish fashion—­he went off to America, and during the six years he spent there his letters seemed to show that he had much improved.  By the time he returned, mademoiselle had made up her mind to be an old maid, and had become quite calm again.  And M. Bernard, too, seemed to have grown into a fairly good young gentleman.  However, through seeing her every day and everlastingly leaning over the back of her arm-chair, or winding