It is like The Blind Girl, a touching story of disappointment in love.

Martha was an orphan living at Laffitte, on the banks of the Lot.
She was betrothed to a young fellow, but the conscription forbade their union.

The conscript was sent to the wars of the first Napoleon, which were then raging.

The orphan sold her little cottage in the hope of buying him off, or providing him with a substitute.

But it was all in vain.