Balthazar was now so completely absorbed in science that neither the reverses which had overtaken France, nor the first fall of Napoleon, nor the return of the Bourbons, drew him from his laboratory; he was neither husband, father, nor citizen,--solely chemist.
Towards the close of 1814 Madame Claes declined so rapidly that she was no longer able to leave her bed.

Unwilling to vegetate in her own chamber, the scene of so much happiness, where the memory of vanished joys forced involuntary comparisons with the present and depressed her, she moved into the parlor.

The doctors encouraged this wish by declaring the room more airy, more cheerful, and therefore better suited to her condition.

The bed in which the unfortunate woman ended her life was placed between the fireplace and a window looking on the garden.

There she passed her last days, sacredly occupied in training the souls of her young daughters, striving to leave within them the fire of her own.
Conjugal love, deprived of its manifestations, allowed maternal love to have its way.