Honore de Balzac

The Recruit Honore de Balzac

Madame de Dey is a noble, rich widow whose son, an officer in the dragoons, has chosen to follow the Princes into exile. She remains behind in a precarious position to look after his fortune. Now, she is desperately worried that he's going to be caught and executed. She gets herself agitated and hears a soldier's been billetted in her large house - when she gets to the room, she discovers it isn't him... and dies (at just the same moment that he's been shot hundreds of miles away while crossing the border)...