I slept none that night.  I was haunted by that form and face.  I essayed to be calm, and to compose myself to slumber.  Impossible!  For the moment was swept away my past, with its dreary, lifeless forms, its ghostly ceremonies, its masked shapes, its soulless, rayless, emotionless existence.  To awake and find life has been one grand error,—­to awake and know that youth and early manhood are gone, and that you have been cheated of your honest and legitimate enjoyments,—­to feel that Pleasure might have wooed you gracefully when young, and when it would become you to sacrifice at her shrine,—­gods and fiends!  I gnashed my teeth in impotent rage,—­I blasphemed,—­I was mad!

The morning brought to me composure.  While I was dressing, I heard the music of my Savoyards under the window.  I did not trust myself to look out; but, after breakfasting, I went into the street to search for them.

I was not long unsuccessful, and was immediately recognized with a profusion of nods and grimaces by the man and a coarse smile by the woman, who prepared to set Mademoiselle Catherina instantly at work.  The young girl took scarcely any notice of me.  I bestowed some money on the couple, and bade them go to the nearest wine-shop and procure whatever they desired.  They started off, quite willing, I thought, to leave me alone with the girl.  I lost no time.  Going close to her, I said,—­

“You are not the child of these people?”

“Alas, no, Monsieur!—­I have neither father nor mother.”

“And no relations?”

“No relations, Monsieur.”

“How long have you lived in this way?”

“Almost always, I suppose.  But I remember something many years ago—­very strange.  I was all the time in one place,—­such a beautiful spot, it makes it hurt here,” (putting her hand on her heart) “when I think of that.  Afterwards it was dark a long time.  I do not remember any more.”

“And do you like to wander about in this way?”

“Oh, no, Monsieur!—­no, indeed!”

“Would you be pleased to go to a nice home, and stay, as you say, all the time in one place, and learn to read and write, and have friends to love you and take care of you?”

“Yes! oh, yes!”

“Would you be afraid to go with me?”

The young girl regarded me with a look of penetration which was surprising, and replied calmly, but with some timidity,—­

“No.”

“Then it shall be so,” I said.

I bade the child sit down and wait for my return, I took the direction which the man and his wife had pursued, and found them already busily engaged in the wine-shop, where they had purchased what for them was a sumptuous entertainment.

“You have stolen that girl,” I exclaimed, with severity; “and I shall have the matter investigated before the Syndic.”

They were not so frightened as I expected to see them, although a good deal decomposed.