instructions as to what he was
to say to Massol, one of the editors of the _Gazette des Tribunaux_.

While beauties, ministers, and magistrates were conspiring to save
Lucien, this was what he was doing at the Conciergerie. As he passed
the gate the poet told the keeper that Monsieur Camusot had granted
him leave to write, and he begged to have pens, ink, and paper. At
a whispered word to the Governor from Camusot's usher a warder was
instructed to take them to him at once. During the short time that it
took for the warder to fetch these things and carry them up to Lucien,
the hapless young man, to whom the idea of facing Jacques Collin had
become intolerable, sank into one of those fatal moods in which the idea
of suicide--to which he had yielded before now, but without succeeding
in carrying it out--rises to the pitch of mania. According to certain
mad-doctors, suicide is in some temperaments the closing phase of mental
aberration; and since his arrest Lucien had been possessed by that
single idea. Esther's letter, read and reread many times, increased the
vehemence of his desire to die by reminding him of the catastrophe of
Romeo dying to be with Juliet.

This is what he wrote:--

"_This is my Last Will and Testament_.

"AT THE CONCIERGERIE, May 15th, 1830.

"I, the undersigned, give and bequeath to the children of my
sister, Madame Eve Chardon, wife of David Sechard, formerly a
printer at Angouleme, and of Monsieur David Sechard, all the
property, real and personal, of which I may be possessed at the
time of my decease, due deduction being made for the payments and
legacies, which I desire my executor to provide for.

"And I earnestly beg Monsieur de Serizy to undertake the charge of
being the executor of this my will.

"First, to Monsieur l'Abbe Carlos Herrera I direct the payment of
the sum of three hundred thousand francs. Secondly, to Monsieur le
Baron de Nucingen the sum of fourteen hundred thousand francs,
less seven hundred and fifty thousand if the sum stolen from
Mademoiselle Esther should be recovered.

"As universal legatee to Mademoiselle Esther Gobseck, I give and
bequeath the sum of seven hundred and sixty thousand francs to the
Board of Asylums of Paris for the foundation of a refuge
especially dedicated to the use of public prostitutes who may wish
to forsake their life of vice and ruin.

"I also bequeath to the A