eady suspected, isolated, and
imprisoned, has no friend to come forward in defence, and demand, in his
or her name, the protection of the authorities! Is it not imperative,
therefore, on the civil power, to meet these necessities by a periodical
and well-organized system of inspection?

What we here say of lunatic asylums will apply with still greater force
to convents for women, seminaries, and houses inhabited by religious
bodies. Recent and notorious facts, with which all France has rung,
have, unfortunately, proved that violence, forcible detention, barbarous
usage, abduction of minors, and illegal imprisonment, accompanied by
torture, are occurrences which, if not frequent, are at least possible
in religious houses. It required singular accidents, audacious and
cynical brutalities; to bring these detestable actions to public
knowledge. How many other victims have been, and, perhaps still are,
entombed in those large silent mansions, where no profane look may
penetrate, and which, through the privileges of the clergy, escape the
superintendence of the civil power. Is it not deplorable that these
dwellings should not also be subject to periodical inspection, by
visitors consisting, if it be desired, of a priest, a magistrate, and
some delegate of the municipal authorities? If nothing takes place, but
what is legal, human, and charitable, in these establishments, which
have all the character, and incur all the responsibility, of public
institutions, why this resistance, this furious indignation of the
church party, when any mention is made of touching what they call their
privileges? There is something higher than the constitutions devised
at Rome. We mean the Law of France--the common law--which grants to all
protection, but which, in return, exacts from all respect and obedience.

BOOK VII.

XL. The East Indian in Paris XLI. Rising XLII. Doubts XLIII.
The Letter XLIV. Adrienne and Djalma XLV. The Consultation
XLVI. Mother Bunch's Diary XLVII. The Diary Continued
XLVIII. The Discovery XLIX. The Trysting-Place of the Wolves
L. The Common Dwelling-House LI. The Secret LII. Revelations

CHAPTER XL. THE EAST INDIAN IN PARIS.

Since three days, Mdlle. de Cardoville had left Dr. Baleinier's. The
following scene took place in a little dwelling in the Rue Blanche, to
which Djalma had been conducted in the name of his unknown protector.
Fancy to yourself a pretty, circular apartment,