She was alone in the world.

Her only son had died during his military service in Madagascar.

Although her man was dead, the law would not regard her as a widow because she had never been married, and therefore refused to exempt her only son.

"_On ne peut-etre Jeune qu'une fois, n'est-ce pas, Monsieur ?_" she said, in extenuation of her early fault.
"And Jean-Marie," she added, "was as brave a fellow and as devoted a son as if I had been married by the Saint-Pere himself." I waved my hand in deprecation and told her it did not matter in the least.

The della Scalas, supreme lords of Verona for many generations, were every man jack of them so parented.