e I had even contemplated against his family, and my gratitude
for his having assisted in procuring my liberation.

"We all left the prison together, without the mention of Manon's name.
I dared not in their presence speak of her to the turnkeys. Alas! all
my entreaties in her favour would have been useless. The cruel
sentence upon Manon had arrived at the same time as the warrant for my
discharge. The unfortunate girl was conducted in an hour after to the
Hospital, to be there classed with some other wretched women, who had
been condemned to the same punishment.

"My father having forced me to accompany him to the house where he was
residing, it was near six o'clock before I had an opportunity of
escaping his vigilance. In returning to Le Chatelet, my only wish was
to convey some refreshments to Manon, and to recommend her to the
attention of the porter; for I had no hope of being permitted to see
her; nor had I, as yet, had time to reflect on the best means of
rescuing her.

"I asked for the porter. I had won his heart, as much by my liberality
to him, as by the mildness of my manner; so that, having a disposition
to serve me, he spoke of Manon's sentence as a calamity which he
sincerely regretted, since it was calculated to mortify me. I was at
first unable to comprehend his meaning. We conversed for some minutes
without my understanding him. At length perceiving that an explanation
was necessary, he gave me such a one, as on a former occasion I wanted
courage to relate to you, and which, even now, makes my blood curdle in
my veins to remember."

[1] Who has e'er been at Paris must needs know the Greve,
The fatal retreat of th' unfortunate brave,
Where honour and justice most oddly contribute,
To ease heroes' pains by the halter and gibbet.--PRIOR.

XI

Alack! it is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily that we think on
other people's sufferings; but when the hour of trouble comes, said
Jeanie Deans.--WALTER SCOTT.

"Never did apoplexy produce on mortal a more sudden or terrific effect
than did the announcement of Manon's sentence upon me. I fell
prostrate, with so intense a palpitation of the heart, that as I
swooned I thought that death itself was come upon me. This idea
continued even after I had been restored to my senses. I gazed around
me upon every part of the room, then upon my own paralysed limbs,
doubting, in my delirium, whether I still bore about me the attribute