At the moment when Beauvouloir arrested his murderous hand avarice and the Legal Custom of Normandy rose up before him.

Those mighty powers stiffened his fingers and silenced the passion of his hatred.

One cried out to him, "The property of your wife cannot belong to the house of Herouville except through a male child." The other pointed to a dying countess and her fortune claimed by the collateral heirs of the Saint-Savins.

Both advised him to leave to nature the extinction of that hated child, and to wait the birth of a second son who might be healthy and vigorous before getting rid of his wife and first-born.

He saw neither wife nor child; he saw the estates only, and hatred was softened by ambition.