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and Lescaut, and about the little chapels of which he supposed I
must have had time to erect a great many in St. Lazare, as I was
so fond of that occupation. But he happened, unluckily both for
me and for himself, to add, that he hoped Manon had also employed
herself in the same edifying manner at the Magdalen.
Notwithstanding the thrill of horror I felt at the sound of the
name, I had still presence of mind enough to beg, in the gentlest
manner, that he would explain himself. `Oh! yes,' he replied,
`she has been these last two months at the Magdalen learning to
be prudent, and I trust she has improved herself as much there,
as you have done at St. Lazare!'

"If an eternal imprisonment, or death itself, had been presented
to my view, I could not have restrained the excitement into which
this afflicting announcement threw me. I flung myself upon him
in so violent a rage that half my strength was exhausted by the
effort. I had, however, more than enough left to drag him to the
ground, and grasp him by the throat. I should infallibly have
strangled him, if his fall, and the half-stifled cries which he
had still the power to utter, had not attracted the governor and
several of the priests to my room. They rescued him from my
fury.

"I was, myself, breathless and almost impotent from rage. `Oh
God!' I cried--`Heavenly justice! Must I survive this infamy?'
I tried again to seize the barbarian who had thus roused my
indignation--they prevented me. My despair--my cries--my tears,
exceeded all belief: I raved in so incoherent a manner that all
the bystanders, who were ignorant of the cause, looked at each
other with as much dread as surprise.

"G---- M---- in the meantime adjusted his wig and cravat, and in
his anger at having been so ill-treated, ordered me to be kept
under more severe restraint than before, and to be punished in
the manner usual with offenders in St. Lazare. `No, sir!' said
the governor, `it is not with a person of his birth that we are
in the habit of using such means of coercion; besides, he is
habitually so mild and well-conducted, that I cannot but think
you must have given provocation for such excessive violence.'
This reply disconcerted G---- M---- beyond measure and he went
away, declaring that he knew how to be revenged on the governor,
as well as on me, and everyone else who dared to thwart him.

"The Superior, having ordered some of the brotherhood to escort
him out of the prison, remained alone with me. He conjured me to
tell him at once what was the cause of the fracas.--`Oh, my good
sir!' said I to him, continuing to cry like a child, `imagine the
most horrible cruelty, figure to yourself the most inhuman of
atrocities--that is what G---- M---- has had the cowardly
baseness to perpetrate: he has pierced my heart. Never shall I
recover from this blow! I would gladly tell you the whole
circumstance,' added I, sobbing with grief; `you are
kind-hearted, and cannot fail to pity me.

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