Ten minutes afterward, the post-chaise carried far from Paris Gilbert and his friend and the son of Andrea of Charny.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
THE CROWN OF ANGE'S LOVE.
A little over a year after the execution of the king and the departure of Gilbert, his son, and Billet, on a fine, cold morning of the hard winter of 1794, three or four hundred persons—that is, a sixth of the population of Villers Cotterets—waited on the square before the manor-house and in the mayor's yard for the coming out of two married folks whom Mayor Longpre was uniting in the holy bonds. These were Ange Pitou and Catherine Billet.
Alas! it had taken many grave events to bring the flame of Viscount Charny, the mother of little Isidore, to become Mistress Pitou.
Everybody was chattering over these events; but in whatever manner they related and discussed them, there was always something to the greater glory of the devotion of Ange Pitou and the good behavior of Billet's daughter.
Only, the more interesting the couple were, the more they were pitied.
Perhaps they were happier than any in the crowd; but human nature is inclined that way—it must pity or applaud!
On this occasion it was in the compassionate vein.
Indeed, what Cagliostro had foreseen, had come on rapidly, leaving a long track of blood after it.