I have already informed you that your marriage with Claudet is impossible.

I now declare that it would be criminal, for the reason that incest is an abomination." "Incest!" repeated Reine, pale and trembling, "what do you mean ?" "I mean," sighed the cure, "that you are Claudet's sister, not having the same mother, but the same father: Claude-Odouart de Buxieres." "Oh! you are mistaken! that cannot be!" "I am stating facts.

It grieves me to the heart, my dear child, that in speaking of your deceased mother, I should have to reveal an error over which she lamented, like David, with tears of blood.

She confessed her sin, not to the priest, but to a friend, a few days before her death.
In justice to her memory, I ought to add that, like most of the unfortunates seduced by this untamable de Buxieres, she succumbed to his wily misrepresentations.

She was a victim rather than an accomplice.