se.

"G---- M---- in the meantime adjusted his wig and cravat, and in his
anger at having been so ill-treated, ordered me to be kept under more
severe restraint than before, and to be punished in the manner usual
with offenders in St. Lazare. 'No, sir!' said the governor, 'it is not
with a person of his birth that we are in the habit of using such means
of coercion; besides, he is habitually so mild and well-conducted, that
I cannot but think you must have given provocation for such excessive
violence.' This reply disconcerted G---- M---- beyond measure and he
went away, declaring that he knew how to be revenged on the governor,
as well as on me, and everyone else who dared to thwart him.

"The Superior, having ordered some of the brotherhood to escort him out
of the prison, remained alone with me. He conjured me to tell him at
once what was the cause of the fracas.--'Oh, my good sir!' said I to
him, continuing to cry like a child, 'imagine the most horrible
cruelty, figure to yourself the most inhuman of atrocities--that is
what G---- M---- has had the cowardly baseness to perpetrate: he has
pierced my heart. Never shall I recover from this blow! I would
gladly tell you the whole circumstance,' added I, sobbing with grief;
'you are kind-hearted, and cannot fail to pity me.'

"I gave him, as briefly as I could, a history of my long-standing and
insurmountable passion for Manon, of the flourishing condition of our
fortunes previous to the robbery committed by our servants, of the
offers which G---- M---- had made to my mistress, of the understanding
they had come to, and the manner in which it had been defeated. To be
sure, I represented things to him in as favourable a light for us as
possible. 'Now you can comprehend,' continued I, 'the source of M.
G---- M----'s holy zeal for my conversion. He has had influence enough
to have me shut up here, out of mere revenge. That I can pardon; but,
my good sir, that is not all. He has taken from me my heart's blood:
he has had Manon shamefully incarcerated in the Magdalen; and had the
effrontery to announce it to me this day with his own lips. In the
Magdalen, good sir! Oh heavens! my adorable mistress, my beloved Manon,
a degraded inmate of the Hospital! How shall I command strength of
mind enough to survive this grief and shame!'

"The good Father, seeing me in such affliction, endeavoured to console
me. He told me that he had never understood my history, as I jus