'What a worthy, excellent man!' joyfully exclaimed the abbess; for, in
the noble integrity of her heart, she had no suspicion that he could
take advantage of her circumstances.
However Simon settled the matter with his conscience, the abbess,
trained in the school of adversity to be content with being preserved
from absolute want, passed the remainder of her life quietly and
happily with her good Margaret, both every day invoking blessings on
the head of him whom they regarded as a generous benefactor. Madame de
Vatteville lived to the age of one hundred, and her faithful Margaret
survived only a few months the mistress to whom she had given such
affecting proofs of attachment.
But Simon's detestable fraud proved of no use to him. After keeping
his treasure for several years, he thought the Emperor's coronation
presented a favourable opportunity for disposing of it. Unfortunately
for him, his grasping avarice one morning suggested a thought which
his ignorance prevented his rejecting: 'Since this ruby--old-fashioned
and stained as it is--can be worth so much, what would be its value if
freed from all defect, and in modern setting?' And he soon found a
lapidary, who, for a sum of 3000 francs, modernised it, and effaced
the spot, and with it the impress, the stamp of its antiquity--all
that gave it value, beauty, worth! This wanting, no jeweller could
recognise it: it was no longer worth a thousand crowns.
It was thus that the most splendid ruby in Europe lost its value and
its fame; and its name is now only to be found in _The Lapidaries'
Guide_, as that which had once been the most costly of gems. It seemed
as if it could not survive the last of the illustrious house to which
it owed its introduction into Europe, and its name.