The next day the funeral of Count Claudieuse took place. His youngest
daughter was buried at the same time; and in the evening the Countess
left Sauveterre, to make her home henceforth with her father in Paris.
In the proper course of the law, the sentence which condemned Jacques
was declared null and void; and Cocoleu, found guilty of having
committed the crime at Valpinson, was sentenced to hard labor for life.
A month later Jacques de Boiscoran was married at the church in Brechy
to Dionysia de Chandore. The witnesses for the bridegroom were M.
Magloire and Dr. Seignebos; the witnesses for the bride, M. Folgat and
M. Daubigeon.
Even the excellent commonwealth attorney laid aside on that day some of
his usual gravity. He continually repeated,--
“Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero
Pulsanda tellus.”
And he really did drink his glass of wine, and opened the ball with the
bride.
M. Galpin, who was sent to Algiers, was not present at the wedding. But
M. Mechinet was there, quite brilliant, and, thanks to Jacques, free
from all pecuniary troubles.
The two Blangins, husband and wife, have well-nigh spent the whole of
the large sums of money which they extorted from Dionysia. Trumence,
private bailiff at Boiscoran, is the terror of all vagrants.
And Goudar, in his garden and nursery, sells the finest peaches in
Paris.