Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/160

 by order of the Minister of Interior, Ledru Rollin, which, to a certain extent, lent an official character to her movements:—

While at Montpellier, during this tour of 1848, Rachel visited Madame Lafarge, who was imprisoned in the Maison Centrale of that town. Marie Cappelle, veuve Lafarge, had been the heroine of the most singular drama of the century. Born in 1816, she was married by her guardians, in 1840, to a man whose acquaintance she had only made a few days before through an advertisement. Taken away to live in a lonely, tumble-down country house, in daily intercourse with this man, her indifference soon deepened into dislike, which was increased by the morbid idea that he had misrepresented his circumstances and means, and by the uncompromising attitude of his mother, sister, and servants. Who is ever to tell whether she was guilty or not? The great Berryer himself said, talking of the case, "The older I grow the less I venture to decide on the innocence or culpability of a prisoner." The evidence was overwhelming, but, we must remember, given by people who were