The unfortunate mother left a letter, addressed to the Sire de Lescun--a friend on whom she could rely--which, on some future occasion, was to be delivered to him; but the long absence of the Knight of Lescun, in the wars, had hitherto prevented its being done.
Whether the mother of Raymond would have continued in the same intentions, cannot be known; for grief and sickness soon brought her to the close of her sad career.

When she was dying, the poor man who had succoured her and her child, conceiving that he was not acting according to his conscience, in withholding from her the exact situation in which he was himself placed, threw himself on his knees at her bed-side, and with tears entreated her forgiveness, for that he had the misfortune to be _a Cagot_.
"'Have pity upon me,' said he, 'that I thus add to the weight of sorrow which you carry with you to the tomb.'" Instead of the start of abhorrent contempt which the persecuted man dreaded, she turned upon him a look of the most ineffable benevolence; and, placing her cold hand upon his head, uttered these words:-- "'It is well;--Cagot since thou art, I bless thee; for thy heart is more noble than the proudest blazon could make it.' "No human description can convey an idea of the impression made on the heart of the good man by these few words,--the first of pity and consolation he had ever heard addressed to one of his own fated race.

A new life, a new being seemed given him as he heard them; and, from that instant, he vowed to exist only for the salvation of the being left behind by the angel who had shed her benediction upon him.

She died, and he kept his word." * * * * * The supreme tribunal of Bearn, the _Cour Majour_, was assembled at Orthez, in one of the grand saloons of the castle of Moncade, to dispense to the people, by its irrevocable decrees, the national justice of its celebrated _Fors_.

Great excitement prevailed; for it was known that the Knight-Cagot, or Cagot-Knight, as Raymond was called, was about to appear, to defend himself from his accusers.
"The Lord and Lady of Artiguelouve were present in the great assembly, summoned to appear for their deceased son, to support the charge he had made.