Had she been able to rise, to utter the cry of horror that ascended to her throat, and curse the murderers of her son, she would have suffered less.

But, after hearing and understanding everything, she was forced to remain motionless and mute, inwardly preserving all the glare of her grief.
It seemed to her that Therese and Laurent had bound her, riveted her to her armchair to prevent her springing up, and that they took atrocious pleasure in repeating to her, after gagging her to stifle her cries-- "We have killed Camille!" Terror and anguish coursed furiously in her body unable to find an issue.

She made superhuman efforts to raise the weight crushing her, to clear her throat and thus give passage to her flood of despair.

In vain did she strain her final energy; she felt her tongue cold against her palate, she could not tear herself from death.

Cadaverous impotence held her rigid.