Pierre de la Motte lies in the Chatelet in Paris, so crushed that his wife cannot rouse him. Even an acquittal would only hand him back to the justice he fled before, because Paris is where his old crimes were committed. The narrator then explains what the Marquis is charging him with. Soon after settling at the abbey, La Motte ran short of money, met a lone chevalier riding in the forest, hesitated, attacked him, and shot him when the rider's attendants appeared. He took a diamond star, rings, a purse of seventy louis d'ors and a miniature, hid them in the tomb near the abbey, and sank into remorse, sure he had killed a man. When the living Marquis arrived at the abbey, he offered to spare La Motte on one condition: that he give up Adeline. La Motte agreed, returned the jewels he still had, and urged the Marquis to win her slowly rather than take her at once.
At the trial the advocate Nemours argues that the charge is malicious. The Marquis stayed on friendly terms with La Motte for months and prosecuted him only after Adeline was taken out of his reach. The Marquis answers with servants who swear to La Motte's face, though none saw him except at dusk and at full gallop, and under cross-examination most contradict each other. The court adjourns to wait for two more witnesses. On his way back to prison La Motte passes a stranger who stares hard at him. Meanwhile La Luc reaches Paris, throws himself before the king with his petition, cannot speak, and faints. At Vaceau, Adeline, ill in her room, swings between hope and despair while Louis carries news between her and Theodore. La Luc returns on the day before the execution and says nothing, and Adeline reads his failure in his face. Too faint to reach the prison that night, he sends Louis to prepare his son. The narrator adds a cruel detail: the king might have granted the petition, but the Marquis was at court, and his answer to the king's question about the offence convinced the king that Theodore deserved no mercy.
On the morning, with soldiers already in the prison court at eight for a sentence due at noon, La Luc, Adeline and Clara reach Theodore's cell. Theodore catches Adeline as she nearly falls and, with a calm he has forced on himself, puts her into La Luc's care as the most precious legacy he can leave. La Luc, who has prayed through the night, tries to stay for the end, but Theodore begs him to go, saying his father's presence would destroy what composure he has. La Luc gives way and says farewell for this world, then collapses into a chair at the door.
Then Louis comes back with news. A letter that morning from his mother, Madame de la Motte, speaks of strange things at the Paris trial that damage the Marquis, and on the strength of it he has won a respite from the commanding officer until the king's pleasure is known. Joy fills the prison, though Clara voices the fear that the reprieve may be taken away, and a look from Adeline silences her. Louis must leave for Paris, where Adeline will be needed too. The chapter closes on what the letter left out. The stranger in the prison avenue is the man who once handed Adeline to La Motte. He tells La Motte that he knows the Marquis for a villain and will reveal everything in court, if the judge promises his words will not condemn him, and La Motte promises to have his advocate ask for that.
Coming Up in Chapter 22
Next, Du Bosse stands in the Paris court, and the Marquis's face shows alarm. Du Bosse tells how an old acquaintance, Jean D'Aunoy, came to his lodging with a plan to carry a young girl off from a convent for a nobleman, and how that plan, he says, turned into an order to kill her.
