Count Byroff overhears a strange ceremony (Lathom, La Cloche de minuit t2, Nicolle, 1797) - Mariage after Challiou

Alphonse, who long ago fled the family castle on his mother's orders, decides one day to return alone. He emerges deeply distressed and falls ill, claiming to have glimpsed his mother's shadow in the deserted corridors. Intrigued, his father-in-law, Count Byroff, decides to inspect the abandoned castle himself. In the castle church, "a short distance from the altar steps, a pale, gaunt figure was kneeling beside a coffin, holding a cross in his left hand and a discipline in his right. On the other side of the coffin, three monks were also kneeling" (Lathom, La Cloche de minuit, t. II, p. 223).

The figure is none other than Alphonse's mother, whom he had already seen on his first visit, believing then to be facing a revenant. Years earlier, she had in fact accidentally caused her husband's death. Riddled with guilt, she ordered her son to leave the estate to hide the truth from him. Every night since then, she has organized an expiatory ceremony: she prays before her husband's coffin, assisted by monks from the nearby Holy Spirit monastery.

By overhearing this scene, Count Byroff uncovers the castle's secrets, which precipitate the novel's denouement.