ing my determination, he granted me a written permission.

Early next morning I took what remained of my feminine wardrobe and
hastened to the Marche de Vieux Linge, (old clothes market,) which was
not far distant from my place of abode. Built on the site of the ancient
Temple, the princely residence of the Knights Templar of old, and in
later times the prison of Louis XVI. previous to his execution--this
vast market, with its eighteen hundred and eighty-eight stalls, hung
with the cast-off garments of both sexes, and of every age, condition
and clime, presents the appearance of a miniature city. Men's apparel,
women's apparel, garments for children of all sizes, boots and shoes,
hats and bonnets, tawdry finery of every description, sheets and
blankets, carpets, tattered and stained, military accouterments, swords
and belts, harness, old pots and kettles, and innumerable other
articles, attract attention in the different stalls. There, on every
side, sharp-faced and shrill-voiced dealers haggle with timid customers
over garments more or less decayed. There the adroit thief finds a ready
market for the various articles he has procured from chamber and entry,
or purloined from the pockets of the unwary. There the petted lady's
maid disposes of the rich robe which her careless mistress has given
her, and the Parisian grisette, with the money her nimble fingers have
earned, purchases it to adorn her neat and pretty form for the _Bal pare
et masque_, to which her lover takes her, at Belleville or Montmartre.
In yonder stall hangs a tattered coat which once belonged to a marquis,
but has gone through so many hands since then, and accumulated so much
dirt and grease in the process, that one wonders how the dealer would
have ventured to advance the few sous which its last wretched owner had
raised upon it.

In this place I exchanged, without much difficulty, my female
habiliments for a suit of respectable masculine attire. I took it home,
and with a feeling of shame of which I could not get rid, but yet with
unflinching resolution, arrayed myself in it. As a woman I know I am not
handsome; my mouth is large and my skin dark; but this rather favored my
disguise; for had I been very pretty, my beardless face and weak voice
might have awakened more suspicion. I cut my hair off short, parted it
at one side, brushed it with great care, and crowned it with a jaunty
cap, which, I must say, was very becoming to me. In this dress I
app