Manon Lescaut

by the Abbe Prevost

Chapter V

Infected with that leprosy of lust,
Which taints the hoariest years of vicious men
Making them ransack to the very last
The dregs of pleasure for their vanished joys.
~ BYRON.


"On sitting down to reflect upon this strange turn of fate, I
found myself so perplexed, and consequently so incapable of
arriving at any rational conclusion, that I allowed Lescaut to
put repeated questions to me without in the slightest degree
attending to their purport.  It was then that honour and virtue
made me feel the most poignant remorse, and that I recalled with
bitterness Amiens, my father's house, St. Sulpice, and every spot
where I had ever lived in happy innocence.  By what a terrific
interval was I now separated from that blessed state!  I beheld
it no longer but as a dim shadow in the distance, still
attracting my regrets and desires, but without the power of
rousing me to exertion.  `By what fatality,' said I, `have I
become thus degraded?  Love is not a guilty passion! why then has
it been to me the source of profligacy and distress?  Who
prevented me from leading a virtuous and tranquil life with
Manon?  Why did I not marry her before I obtained any concession
from her love?  Would not my father, who had the tenderest regard
for me, have given his consent, if I had taken the fair and
candid course of soliciting him?  Yes, my father would himself
have cherished her as one far too good to be his son's wife!  I
should have been happy in the love of Manon, in the affection of
my father, in the esteem of the world, with a moderate portion of
the good things of life, and above all with the consciousness of
virtue.  Disastrous change!  Into what an infamous character is
it here proposed that I should sink?  To share----  But can I
hesitate, if Manon herself suggests it, and if I am to lose her
except upon such conditions?  `Lescaut,' said I, putting my hands
to my eyes as if to shut out such a horrifying vision, `if your
intention was to render me a service, I give you thanks.  You
might perhaps have struck out a more reputable course, but it is
so settled, is it not?  Let us then only think of profiting by
your labour, and fulfilling your engagements.'

"Lescaut, who had been considerably embarrassed, not only by my
fury, but by the long silence which followed it, was too happy to
see me now take a course so different from what he had
anticipated.  He had not a particle of courage, of which indeed I
have, in the sequel of my story, abundant proof.  `Yes, yes,' he
quickly answered, `it is good service I have rendered you, and
you will find that we shall derive infinitely more advantage from
it than you now expect.'  We consulted then as to the best mode
of preventing the suspicions which G---- M---- might entertain of
our relationship, when he found me older and of riper manhood
than he probably imagined.  The only plan we could hit upon was
to assume in his presence an innocent and provincial air, and to
persuade him that it was my intention to enter the Church, and
that with that view I was obliged to go every day to the college. 
We also determined that I should appear as awkward as I possibly
could the first time I was admitted to the honour of an
introduction.

"He returned to town three or four days after, and at once
conducted Manon to the house which his steward had in the
meantime prepared.  She immediately apprised Lescaut of her
return, and he having informed me, we went together to her new
abode.  The old lover had already gone out.

"In spite of the submission with which I had resigned myself to
her wishes, I could not, at our meeting, repress the compunctious
visitings of my conscience.  I appeared before her grieved and
dejected.  The joy I felt at seeing her once more could not
altogether dispel my sorrow for her infidelity: she, on the
contrary, appeared transported with the pleasure of seeing me. 
She accused me of coldness.  I could not help muttering the words
perfidious and unfaithful, though they were profusely mixed with
sighs.

"At first she laughed at me for my simplicity; but when she
found that I continued to look at her with an unchanging
expression of melancholy, and that I could not bring myself to
enter with alacrity into a scene so repugnant to all my feelings,
she went alone into her boudoir.  I very soon followed her, and
then I found her in a flood of tears.  I asked the cause of her
sorrow.  `You can easily understand it,' said she; `how can you
wish me to live, if my presence can no longer have any other
effect than to give you an air of sadness and chagrin?  Not one
kiss have you given me during the long hour you have been in the
house, while you have received my caresses with the dignified
indifference of a Grand Turk, receiving the forced homage of the
Sultanas of his harem.'

"`Hearken to me, Manon,' said I, embracing her; `I cannot
conceal from you that my heart is bitterly afflicted.  I do not
now allude to the uneasiness your sudden flight caused me, nor to
the unkindness of quitting me without a word of consolation,
after having passed the night away from me.  The pleasure of
seeing you again would more than compensate for all; but do you
imagine that I can reflect without sighs and tears upon the
degrading and unhappy life which you now wish me to lead in this
house?  Say nothing of my birth, or of my feelings of honour;
love like mine derives no aid from arguments of that feeble
nature; but do you imagine that I can without emotion see my love
so badly recompensed, or rather so cruelly treated, by an
ungrateful and unfeeling mistress?'

"She interrupted me. `Stop, chevalier,' said she, `it is useless
to torture me with reproaches, which, coming from you, always
pierce my heart.  I see what annoys you.  I had hoped that you
would have agreed to the project which I had devised for mending
our shattered fortunes, and it was from a feeling of delicacy to
you that I began the execution of it without your assistance; but
I give it up since it does not meet your approbation.'  She added
that she would now merely request a little patient forbearance
during the remainder of the day; that she had already received
five hundred crowns from the old gentleman, and that he had
promised to bring her that evening a magnificent pearl necklace
with other jewels, and, in advance, half of the yearly pension he
had engaged to allow her.  `Leave me only time enough,' said she
to me, to get possession of these presents; I promise you that he
will have little to boast of from his connection with me, for in
the country I repulsed all his advances, putting him off till our
return to town.  It is true that he has kissed my hand a thousand
times over, and it is but just that he should pay for even this
amusement:  I am sure that, considering his riches as well as his
age, five or six thousand francs is not an unreasonable price!'

"Her determination was of more value in my eyes than twenty
thousand crowns.  I could feel that I was not yet bereft of every
sentiment of honour, by the satisfaction I experienced at
escaping thus from infamy,  But I was born for brief joys, and
miseries of long duration.  Fate never rescued me from one
precipice, but to lead me to another.  When I had expressed my
delight to Manon at this change in her intentions, I told her she
had better inform Lescaut of it, in order that we might take our
measures in concert.  At first he murmured, but the money in hand
induced him to enter into our views.  It was then determined that
we should all meet at G---- M----'s supper table, and that, for
two reasons: first, for the amusement of passing me off as a
schoolboy, and brother to Manon; and secondly, to prevent the old
profligate from taking any liberties with his mistress, on the
strength of his liberal payments in advance.  Lescaut and I were
to retire, when he went to the room where he expected to pass the
night; and Manon, instead of following him, promised to come out,
and join us.  Lescaut undertook to have a coach waiting at the
door.

"The supper hour having arrived, M. G---- M---- made his
appearance.  Already Lescaut was with his sister in the supper
room.  The moment the lover entered, he presented his fair one
with a complete set of pearls, necklaces, ear-rings, and
bracelets, which must have cost at least a thousand crowns.  He
then placed on the table before her, in louis d'or, two thousand
four hundred francs, the half of her year's allowance.  He
seasoned his present with many pretty speeches in the true style
of the old court.  Manon could not refuse him a few kisses: it
was sealing her right to the money which he had just handed to
her.  I was at the door, and waiting for Lescaut's signal to
enter the room.

"He approached to take me by the hand, while Manon was securing
the money and jewels, and leading me towards M. G---- M----, he
desired me to make my bow.  I made two or three most profound
ones.  `Pray excuse him, sir,' said Lescaut, `he is a mere child. 
He has not yet acquired much of the ton of Paris; but no doubt
with a little trouble we shall improve him.  You will often have
the honour of seeing that gentleman, here,' said he, turning
towards me : `take advantage of it, and endeavour to imitate so
good a model.'

"The old libertine appeared to be pleased with me.  He patted me
on the cheek, saying that I was a fine boy, but that I should be
on my guard in Paris, where young men were easily debauched. 
Lescaut assured him that I was naturally of so grave a character
that I thought of nothing but becoming a clergyman, and that,
even as a child, my favourite amusement was building little
chapels.  `I fancy a likeness to Manon,' said the old gentleman,
putting his hand under my chin.  I answered him, with the most
simple air-- `Sir, the fact is, that we are very closely
connected, and I love my sister as another portion of myself.' 
`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 I 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.  It
was perhaps fortunate for me that I was kept in a state of
ignorance, for had I known what she suffered, I should have lost
my senses, probably my life.

"My unhappy mistress was dragged then from my presence, and
taken to a place the very name of which fills me with horror to
remember.  This to be the lot of a creature the most perfect, who
must have shared the most splendid throne on earth, if other men
had only seen and felt as I did!  She was not treated harshly
there, but was shut up in a narrow prison, and obliged, in
solitary confinement, to perform a certain quantity of work each
day, as a necessary condition for obtaining the most unpalatable
food.  I did not learn this till a long time after, when I had
myself endured some months of rough and cruel treatment.

"My guards not having told me where it was that they had been
ordered to conduct me, it was only on my arrival at St. Lazare
that I learned my destination.  I would have preferred death, at
that moment, to the state into which I believed myself about to
be thrown.  I had the utmost terror of this place.  My misery was
increased by the guards on my entrance, examining once more my
pockets, to ascertain whether I had about me any arms or weapons
of defence.

"The governor appeared.  He had been informed of my
apprehension.  He saluted me with great mildness.  `Do not, my
good sir,' said I to him, `allow me to be treated with indignity. 
I would suffer a hundred deaths rather than quietly submit to
degrading treatment.'  `No, no,' he replied, `you will act
quietly and prudently, and we shall be mutually content with each
other.'  He begged of me to ascend to one of the highest rooms; I
followed him without a murmur.  The archers accompanied us to the
door, and the governor, entering the room, made a sign for them
to depart.  `I am your prisoner, I suppose?' said I; `well, what
do you intend to do with me?'  He said, he was delighted to see
me adopt so reasonable a tone; that it would be his duty to
endeavour to inspire me with a taste for virtue and religion, and
mine to profit by his exhortations and advice: that lightly as I
might be disposed to rate his attentions to me, I should find
nothing but enjoyment in my solitude.  `Ah, enjoyment, indeed!'
replied I; "you do not know, my good sir, the only thing on
earth that could afford me enjoyment.'  `I know it,' said he,
`but I trust your inclinations will change.'  His answer showed
that he had heard of my adventures, and perhaps of my name.  I
begged to know if such were the fact.  He told me candidly that
they had informed him of every particular.

"This blow was the severest of any I had yet experienced.  I
literally shed a torrent of tears, in all the bitterness of
unmixed despair; I could not reconcile myself to the humiliation
which would make me a proverb to all my acquaintances, and the
disgrace of my family.  I passed a week in the most profound
dejection, without being capable of gaining any information, or
of occupying myself with anything but my own degradation.  The
remembrance even of Manon added nothing to my grief; it only
occurred to me as a circumstance that had preceded my new sorrow;
and the sense of shame and confusion was at present the
all-absorbing passion.

"There are few persons who have experienced the force of these
special workings of the mind.  The generality of men are only
sensible of five or six passions, in the limited round of which
they pass their lives, and within which all their agitations are
confined.  Remove them from the influence of love and hate,
pleasure and pain, hope and fear, and they have no further
feeling.  But persons of a finer cast can be affected in a
thousand different ways; it would almost seem that they had more
than five senses, and that they are accessible to ideas and
sensations which far exceed the ordinary faculties of human
nature; and, conscious that they possess a capacity which raises
them above the common herd, there is nothing of which they are
more jealous.  Hence springs their impatience under contempt and
ridicule; and hence it is that a sense of debasement is perhaps
the most violent of all their emotions. 

"I had this melancholy advantage at St. Lazare.  My grief
appeared to the governor so excessive, that, dreading the
consequences, he thought he was bound to treat me with more
mildness and indulgence.  He visited me two or three times a day;
he often made me take a turn with him in the garden, and showed
his interest for me in his exhortations and good advice.  I
listened always attentively; and warmly expressed my sense of his
kindness, from which he derived hopes of my ultimate conversion.

"`You appear to me,' said he one day, `of a disposition so mild
and tractable, that I cannot comprehend the excesses into which
you have fallen.  Two things astonish me: one is, how, with your
good qualities, you could have ever abandoned yourself to vice;
and the other, which amazes me still more, is, how you can
receive with such perfect temper my advice and instructions,
after having lived so long in a course of debauchery.  If it be
sincere repentance, you present a singular example of the benign
mercy of Heaven; if it proceed from the natural goodness of your
disposition, then you certainly have that within you which
warrants the hope that a protracted residence in this place will
not be required to bring you back to a regular and respectable
life.'

"I was delighted to find that he had such an opinion of me.  I
resolved to strengthen it by a continuance of good conduct,
convinced that it was the surest means of abridging the term of
my confinement.  I begged of him to furnish me with books.  He
was agreeably surprised to find that when he requested me to say
what I should prefer, I mentioned only some religious and
instructive works.  I pretended to devote myself assiduously to
study, and I thus gave him convincing proof of the moral
reformation he was so anxious to bring about.  It was nothing,
however, but rank hypocrisy--I blush to confess it.  Instead of
studying, when alone I did nothing but curse my destiny.  I
lavished the bitterest execrations on my prison, and the tyrants
who detained me there.  If I ceased for a moment from these
lamentations, it was only to relapse into the tormenting
remembrance of my fatal and unhappy love.  Manon's absence--the
mystery in which her fate was veiled--the dread of never again
beholding her; these formed the subject of my melancholy
thoughts.  I fancied her in the arms of G---- M----.  Far from
imagining that he could have been brute enough to subject her to
the same treatment to which I was condemned, I felt persuaded
that he had only procured my removal, in order that he might
possess her in undisturbed enjoyment.

"Oh! how miserable were the days and nights I thus passed!  They
seemed to be of endless duration.  My only hope of escape now,
was in hypocrisy; I scrutinised the countenance, and carefully
marked every observation that fell from the governor, in order to
ascertain what he really thought of me; and looking on him as the
sole arbiter of my future fate, I made it my study to win, if
possible, his favour.  I soon had the satisfaction to find that I
was firmly established in his good graces, and no longer doubted
his disposition to befriend me.

"I, one day, ventured to ask him whether my liberation depended
on him.  He replied that it was not altogether in his hands, but
that he had no doubt that on his representation M. G---- M----,
at whose instance the lieutenant-general of police had ordered me
to be confined, would consent to my being set at liberty.  `May I
flatter myself,' rejoined I, in the mildest tone, `that he will
consider two months, which I have now spent in this prison, as a
sufficient atonement?'  He offered to speak to him, if I wished
it.  I implored him without delay to do me that favour.

"He told me two days afterwards that G---- M---- was so sensibly
affected by what he had heard, that he not only was ready to
consent to my liberation, but that he had even expressed a strong
desire to become better acquainted with me, and that he himself
purposed to pay me a visit in prison.  Although his presence
could not afford me much pleasure, I looked upon it as a certain
prelude to my liberation.

"He accordingly came to St. Lazare.  I met him with an air more
grave and certainly less silly than I had exhibited at his house
with Manon.  He spoke reasonably enough of my former bad conduct. 
He added, as if to excuse his own delinquencies, that it was
graciously permitted to the weakness of man to indulge in certain
pleasures, almost, indeed, prompted by nature, but that
dishonesty and such shameful practices ought to be, and always
would be, inexorably punished.

"I listened to all he said with an air of submission, which
quite charmed him.  I betrayed no symptoms of annoyance even at
some jokes in which he indulged about my relationship with Manon
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.'

"I gave him, as briefly as I could, a history of my
long-standing and insurmountable passion for Manon, of the
flourishing condition of our fortunes previous to the robbery
committed by our servants, of the offers which G---- M---- had
made to my mistress, of the understanding they had come to, and
the manner in which it had been defeated.  To be sure, I
represented things to him in as favourable a light for us as
possible.  `Now you can comprehend,' continued I, `the source of
M. G---- M----'s holy zeal for my conversion.  He has had
influence enough to have me shut up here, out of mere revenge. 
That I can pardon; but, my good sir, that is not all.  He has
taken from me my heart's blood: he has had Manon shamefully
incarcerated in the Magdalen; and had the effrontery to announce
it to me this day with his own lips.  In the Magdalen, good sir! 
Oh heavens! my adorable mistress, my beloved Manon, a degraded
inmate of the Hospital!  How shall I command strength of mind
enough to survive this grief and shame!'

"The good Father, seeing me in such affliction, endeavoured to
console me.  He told me that he had never understood my history,
as I just now related it; he had of course known that I led a
dissolute life, but he had imagined that M. G---- M----'s
interest about me was the result of his esteem and friendship for
my family; that it was in this sense he had explained the matter
to him; that what I had now told him should assuredly produce a
change in my treatment, and that he had no doubt but the accurate
detail which he should immediately transmit to the
lieutenant-general of police would bring about my liberation.

"He then enquired why I had never thought of informing my family
of what had taken place, since they had not been instrumental to
my incarceration.  I satisfactorily answered this by stating my
unwillingness to cause my father pain, or to bring upon myself
the humiliation of such an exposure.  In the end, he promised to
go directly to the lieutenant-general of police if it were only,
said he, to be beforehand with M. G---- M----, who went off in
such a rage, and who had sufficient influence to make himself
formidable.

"I looked for the good Father's return with all the suspense of
a man expecting sentence of death.  It was torture to me to think
of Manon at the Magdalen.  Besides the infamy of such a prison, I
knew not how she might be treated there; and the recollection of
some particulars I had formerly heard of this horrible place,
incessantly renewed my misery.  Cost what it might, I was so bent
upon relieving her by some means or other, that I should
assuredly have set fire to St. Lazare, if no other mode of escape
had presented itself.

"I considered what chances would remain to me if the lieutenant-
general still kept me in confinement.  I taxed my ingenuity: I
scanned every imaginable gleam of hope--I could discover nothing
that gave me any prospect of escape, and I feared that I should
experience only more rigid confinement, if I made an unsuccessful
attempt.  I thought of some friends from whom I might hope for
aid, but then, how was I to make them aware of my situation?  At
length I fancied that I had hit upon a plan so ingenious, as to
offer a fair probability of success.  I postponed the details of
its arrangement until after the Superior's return, in case of his
having failed in the object of his visit.

"He soon arrived: I did not observe upon his countenance any of
those marks of joy that indicate good news.  `I have spoken,'
said he, `to the lieutenant-general of police, but I was too
late, M. G---- M---- went straight to him after quitting us, and
so prejudiced him against you, that he was on the point of
sending me fresh instructions to subject you to closer
confinement.

"`However, when I let him know the truth of your story, he
reconsidered the matter, and, smiling at the incontinence of old
G---- M----, he said it would be necessary to keep you here for
six months longer, in order to pacify him; the less to be
lamented,' he added, `because your morals would be sure to
benefit by your residence here.  He desired that I would show you
every kindness and attention, and I need not assure you that you
shall have no reason to complain of your treatment.'

"This speech of the Superior's was long enough to afford me time
to form a prudent resolution.  I saw that by betraying too strong
an impatience for my liberty, I should probably be upsetting all
my projects.  I acknowledged to him, that, as it was necessary to
me to remain, it was an infinite comfort to know that I possessed
a place in his esteem.  I then requested, and with unaffected
sincerity, a favour, which could be of no consequence to others,
and which would contribute much to my peace of mind; it was to
inform a friend of mine, a devout clergyman, who lived at St.
Sulpice, that I was at St. Lazare, and to permit me occasionally
to receive his visits.

"This was of course my friend Tiberge; not that I could hope
from him the assistance necessary for effecting my liberty; but I
wished to make him the unconscious instrument of my designs.  In
a word, this was my project: I wished to write to Lescaut, and to
charge him and our common friends with the task of my
deliverance.  The first difficulty was to have my letter conveyed
to him: this should be Tiberge's office.  However, as he knew him
to be Manon's brother, I doubted whether he would take charge of
this commission.  My plan was to enclose my letter to Lescaut in
another to some respectable man of my acquaintance, begging of
him to transmit the first to its address without delay; and as it
was necessary that I should have personal communication with
Lescaut, in order to arrange our proceedings, I told him to call
on me at St. Lazare, and assume the name of my eldest brother, as
if he had come to Paris expressly to see me.  I postponed till
our meeting all mention of the safest and most expeditious course
I intended to suggest for our future conduct.  The governor
informed Tiberge of my wish to see him.  This ever-faithful
friend had not so entirely lost sight of me as to be ignorant of
my present abode, and it is probable that, in his heart, he did
not regret the circumstance, from an idea that it might furnish
the means of my moral regeneration.  He lost no time in paying me
the desired visit.

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