etrayed it.

Ladies of rank and condition would come, earnestly entreating that they
might obtain leave to attend the sick in the hospitals, and nurse the
"dear brothers" who had fallen in the cause of liberty. Others, of equal
station, requested that materials might be distributed to them to knit
stockings for the soldiers of the republic, regretting their poverty
at not being able to supply them from their own resources. Shopkeepers
besought the authorities that their taxes might be doubled, or
even trebled; and some professed to hope that the maladies which
incapacitated them from military service might be compensated by
works of charity and benevolence. There was an abject meanness in the
character of these petitions too revolting to endure the thought of.
The nation seemed prostrated by its' terror, and degraded to the very
deepest abyss of shame and self-contempt. The horrible scenes of blood
through which they had passed might, indeed, excuse much, but there
were proofs of national cowardice at this juncture such as scarcely any
suffering could justify or palliate.

For these considerations I had but a passing thought. My whole attention
was devoted to the little circle of cares and sorrows around me; and,
in addition to other calamities, poor old Lizette, my aid and help
throughout all difficulties, was seized with a violent fever, and
obliged to be conveyed to hospital. I do not believe that anything can
sustain mere bodily strength more powerfully than the sense of doing a
benevolent action. Fatigue, weariness, exhaustion, sickness itself,
can be combated by this one stimulant. For myself, I can aver that
I scarcely ate or slept during the ten days that these events were
happening. Never had any incident of my own life so much engrossed me
as the care of these unhappy people; and when once or twice Le Monnier
adverted to my own story, I always replied that for the moment I had
no thoughts, nor hopes, nor fears, save for the widow and her orphan
daughter.

The old lawyer's benevolence enabled me to meet all the expenses which
from day to day were incurred. He supplied me with means to pay the
charges of the _maison de sante_ and the fees to the physicians, and
enabled me to procure some articles of mourning for poor "Margot,"
who had now sufficiently recovered from her illness to comprehend her
bereavement and the desolate condition in which she was placed. It
was, indeed, a sad lesson to teach the poor chil