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'
`Do you hear that,' said he to Lescaut; `he is indeed a clever
boy! It is a pity he should not see something of the world.'
`Oh, sir,' I replied, `I have seen a great deal of it at home,
attending church, and I believe I might find in Paris some
greater fools than myself.' `Listen,' said he; `it is positively
wonderful in a boy from the country.'

"The whole conversation during supper was of the same kind.
Manon, with her usual gaiety, was several times on the point of
spoiling the joke by her bursts of laughter. I contrived, while
eating, to recount his own identical history, and to paint even
the fate that awaited him. Lescaut and Manon were in an agony of
fear during my recital, especially while I was drawing his
portrait to the life: but his own vanity prevented him from
recognising it, and I did it so well that he was the first to
pronounce it extremely laughable. You will allow that I had
reason for dwelling on this ridiculous scene.

"At length it was time to retire. He hinted at the impatience of
love. Lescaut and I took our departure. G---- M---- went to his
room, and Manon, making some excuse for her absence, came to join
us at the gate. The coach, that was waiting for us a few doors
off, drove up towards us, and we were out of the street in an
instant.

"Although I must confess that this proceeding appeared to me
little short of actual robbery, it was not the most dishonest one
with which I thought I had to reproach myself. I had more
scruples about the money which I had won at play. However, we
derived as little advantage from one as from the other; and
Heaven sometimes ordains that the lightest fault shall meet the
severest punishment.

"M. G---- M---- was not long in finding out that he had been
duped. I am not sure whether he took any steps that night to
discover us, but he had influence enough to ensure an effectual
pursuit, and we were sufficiently imprudent to rely upon the
extent of Paris and the distance between our residence and his.
Not only did he discover our abode and our circumstances, but
also who I was--the life that I had led in Paris--Manon's former
connection with B----,--the manner in which she had deceived him:
in a word, all the scandalous facts of our history. He therefore
resolved to have us apprehended, and treated less as criminals
than as vagabonds. An officer came abruptly one morning into our
bedroom, with half a dozen archers of the guard. They first took
possession of our money, or I should rather say, of G----M----'s.
They made us quickly get up, and conducted us to the door,
where we found two coaches, into one of which they forced
poor Manon, without any explanation, and I was taken in the
other to St. Lazare.

"One must have experienced this kind of reverse, to understand the
despair that is caused by it. The police were savage enough to
deny me the consolation of embracing Manon, or of bidding her
farewell. I remained for a long time ignorant of her fate.

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