society talked in various ways over this
extraordinary event, and each
person looked for the cause of it. According to the proclivities of
each reasoner, play, love,
ambition,
hidden disorders, and vices,
explained the
catastrophe, the last scene of a drama begun in 1812.
Two men alone, a
marquis and former
deputy, and an aged physician,
knew that Philippe de Sucy was one of those strong men to whom God has
given the
unhappy power of issuing daily in
triumph from awful combats
which they fight with an
unseenmonster. If, for a moment, God
withdraws from such men His all-powerful hand, they succumb.
ADDENDUM
The following
personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Note: Adieu is also entitled Farewell.
Granville, Vicomte de
The Gondreville Mystery
A Second Home
Farewell (Adieu)
Cesar Birotteau
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
A Daughter of Eve
Cousin Pons
End