It had a ribbon delicately ornamented, with the words "Toulouse a Jasmin." When the work was finished and placed in its case, the Mayor desired to send it to Jasmin by a trusty messenger.

He selected Mademoiselle Gasc, assisted by her father, advocate and member of the municipal council, to present the tribute to Jasmin.

It ought to have been a fete day for the people of Agen, when their illustrious townsman, though a barber, was about to receive so cordial an appreciation of his poetical genius from the learned city of Toulouse.

It ought also to have been a fete day for Jasmin himself.
But alas! an unhappy coincidence occurred which saddened the day that ought to have been a day of triumph for the poet.

His mother was dying.
When Mademoiselle Gasc, accompanied by her father, the Mayor of Agen, and other friends of Jasmin, entered the shop, they were informed that he was by the bedside of his mother, who was at death's door.