[44] Should this appear incredible, we would remind the reader of the marvellous discoveries in the art of embalming—­particularly Dr. Gannal’s.

EPILOGUE.

CHAPTER I.

Four years after.

Four years had elapsed, since the events we have just related, when Gabriel de Rennepont wrote the following letter to Abbe Joseph Charpentier, curate of the Parish of Saint-Aubin, a hamlet of Sologne: 

“Springwater Farm,
“June 2d, 1836.

“Intending to write to you yesterday, my bear Joseph, I seated myself at the little old black table, that you will remember well.  My window looks, you know, upon the farmyard, and I can see all that takes place there.  These are grave preliminaries, my friend, but I am coming to the point.  I had just taken my seat at the table, when, looking from the window, this is what I saw.  You, my dear Joseph, who can draw so well, should have been there to have sketched the charming scene.  The sun was sinking, the sky serene, the air warm and balmy with the breath of the hawthorn, which, flowering by the side of a little rivulet, forms the edge which borders the yard.  Under the large pear-tree, close to the wall of the barn, sat upon the stone bench my adopted father, Dagobert, that brave and honest soldier whom you love so much.  He appeared thoughtful, his white head was bowed on his bosom; with absent mind, he patted old Spoil-sport, whose intelligent face was resting on his master’s knees.  By his side was his wife, my dear adopted mother, occupied with her sewing; and near them, on a stool, sat Angela, the wife of Agricola, nursing her last-born child, while the gentle Magdalen, with the eldest boy in her lap, was occupied in teaching him the letters of the alphabet.  Agricola had just returned from the fields, and was beginning to unyoke his cattle, when, struck, like me, no doubt, with this picture, he stood gazing on it for a moment, with his hand still leaning on the yoke, beneath which bent submissive the broad foreheads of his two large black oxen.  I cannot express to you, my friend, the enchanting repose of this picture, lighted by the last rays of the sun, here and there broken by the thick foliage.  What various and touching types!  The venerable face of the soldier—­the good, loving countenance of my adopted mother—­the fresh beauty of Angela, smiling on her little child—­the soft melancholy of the hunchback, now and then pressing her lips to the fair, laughing cheek of Agricola’s eldest son—­and then Agricola himself, in his manly beauty, which seems to reflect so well the valor and honesty of his heart!  Oh, my Friend! in contemplating this assemblage of good, devoted, noble, and loving beings, so dear to each other, living retired in a little farm of our poor Sologne, my heart rose towards heaven with a feeling of ineffable gratitude.  This peace of the family circle—­this clear