inary a scene. The officer challenged him
with a pistol to his breast, and then told him, in a civil tone, that
he did not want either his money or his life; but that if he hesitated
to follow him, or if he gave the slightest alarm, he would blow his
brains out. G---- M----, seeing that his assailant was supported by
three soldiers, and perhaps not uninfluenced by a dread of the pistol,
yielded without further resistance. I saw him led away like a lamb."

X

What lost a world, and bade a hero fly?
The timid tear in Cleopatra's eye.
Yet be the soft triumvir's fault forgiven,
By this, how many lose--not earth--but heaven!
Consign their souls to man's eternal foe,
And seal their own, to spare some wanton's, woe!
BYRON.

I soon returned to Manon; and to prevent the servants from having any
suspicion, I told her in their hearing, that she need not expect M.
G---- M---- to supper; that he was most reluctantly occupied with
business which detained him, and that he had commissioned me to come
and make his excuses, and to fill his place at the supper table; which,
in the company of so beautiful a lady, I could not but consider a very
high honour. She seconded me with her usual adroitness. We sat down
to supper. I put on the most serious air I could assume, while the
servants were in the room, and at length having got rid of them, we
passed, beyond all comparison, the most agreeable evening of my life.
I gave Marcel orders to find a hackney-coach, and engage it to be at
the gate on the following morning a little before six o'clock. I
pretended to take leave of Manon about midnight, but easily gaining
admission again, through Marcel, I proceeded to occupy G---- M----'s
bed, as I had filled his place at the supper table.

"In the meantime our evil genius was at work for our destruction. We
were like children enjoying the success of our silly scheme, while the
sword hung suspended over our heads. The thread which upheld it was
just about to break; but the better to understand all the circumstances
of our ruin, it is necessary to know the immediate cause.

"G---- M---- was followed by a servant, when he was stopped by my
friend the guardsman. Alarmed by what he saw, this fellow retraced his
steps, and the first thing he did was to go and inform old G---- M----
of what had just happened.

"Such a piece of news, of course, excited him greatly. This was his
only son; and considering the old