The Mass had commenced when she entered, but the spot occupied by the Duke and his son was vacant.

She followed the service in a purely mechanical manner, and at last noticed that the priest had taken his place in the pulpit.
This was generally an exciting moment for the inhabitants of Bevron, for it was immediately before the sermon that the banns of marriage were published.

The priest gazed blandly down upon the expectant crowd, coughed slightly, used his handkerchief, and finally took from his breviary a sheet of paper.
"I have," said he, "to publish the banns of marriage between----" here he made a little pause, and all the congregation were on the tenterhooks of expectation; "between," he continued, "Monsieur Louis Norbert, Marquis de Champdoce, a minor, and only legitimate son of Guillaume Caesar, Duke de Champdoce, and of his wife Isabella de Barnaville, now deceased, but who both formerly resided in this parish, and Desiree Anne Marie Palouzet, minor, and legitimate daughter of Rene Augustus Palouzet, Count de Puymandour, and of Zoe Staplet, his wife, but now deceased, also residents of this parish." This was the thunderbolt launched from the pulpit, which seemed to crush Diana into the earth, and her heart almost ceased to beat.
"Let any one," continued the priest, "who knows of any impediment to this marriage, take warning that he or she must acquaint us with it, under the penalty of excommunication.

At the same time let him be warned under the same penalty to bring forward nothing in malice or without some foundation." An impediment! What irony lay veiled beneath that word.

Mademoiselle de Laurebourg knew of more than one.