13 March 1864, followed by her husband, who suffered from neurasthenia, on 9 August. The now orphaned Charles (age 6) and his sister Marie (age 3) were put in the care of their paternal grandmother, Viscountess Clothilde de Foucauld, who died of a heart attack shortly afterwards.

The children were then taken in by their maternal grandparents, Colonel Beaudet de Morlet and his wife, who lived in Strasbourg. De Morlet, an alumnus of the École Polytechnique