I shrank away, horrified by my deed, despising her, my love stricken dead.

In that moment my life was changed; I cared for nothing except to get away from my fellows, to expiate my sin in the sight of God.

I felt no interest in what became of her; I neither smiled nor wept, when, three days later, she married the prefect of that village.

All was over; the fire within me had become ashes." "But the woman?
this Marie Fousard ?" "She went her way, the broad road leading to destruction.

We met never again, yet I heard, for there were those eager to tell such things.