La Conquete de Plassans.
Macquart lived to an old age at Les Tulettes, though he increasingly
gave way to drunkenness. His relations with the Rougons were friendly,
but he was hated by Felicite on account of his knowledge of the origin
of the family fortune. At eighty-four years of age he was still healthy,
but his flesh was so saturated with alcohol that it seemed to be
preserved by it. One day, as he was sitting helpless with drink and
smoking his pipe, he set fire to his clothes, and his body, soaked as
it was with ardent spirits, was burned to the last bone. Felicite Rougon
chanced to enter the house just as the conflagration began, but she
did nothing to stop it, and went silently away. The combustion was so
complete that there was nothing left to bury, and the family had to
content itself with having masses said for the repose of the dead. When
Macquart's will was opened, it was found that he had left all his money
for the erection of a magnificent tomb for himself, with weeping angels
at the head and foot. Le Docteur Pascal.
MACQUART (MADAME ANTOINE), wife of the preceding. See Josephine
Gavaudan.
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