“It has never been matter of wonder to me that human resolutions are liable to change; one passion gives them birth, another may destroy them; but when I reflect upon the sacredness of those motives that led me to St. Sulpice, and upon the heartfelt satisfaction I enjoyed while obeying their dictation, I shudder at the facility with which I outraged them all.  If it be true that the benign succour afforded by Heaven is at all times equal to the strongest of man’s pinions, I shall be glad to learn the nature of the deplorable ascendancy which causes us suddenly to swerve from the path of duty, without the power of offering the least resistance, and without even the slightest visitation of remorse.

“I now thought myself entirely safe from the dangers of love.  I fancied that I could have preferred a single page of St. Augustine, or a quarter of an hour of Christian meditation, to every sensual gratification, not excepting any that I might have derived even from Manon’s society.  Nevertheless, one unlucky moment plunged me again headlong into the gulf; and my ruin was the more irreparable, because, falling at once to the same depth from whence I had been before rescued, each of the new disorders into which I now lapsed carried me deeper and deeper still down the profound abyss of vice.  I had passed nearly a year at Paris without hearing of Manon.  It cost me no slight effort to abstain from enquiry; but the unintermitting advice of Tiberge, and my own reflections, secured this victory over my wishes.  The last months glided away so tranquilly, that I considered the memory of this charming but treacherous creature about to be consigned to eternal oblivion.

“The time arrived when I was to undergo a public examination in the class of theology:  I invited several persons of consideration to honour me with their presence on the occasion.  My name was mentioned in every quarter of Paris:  it even reached the ears of her who had betrayed me.  She had some difficulty in recognising it with the prefix of Abbe; but curiosity, or perhaps remorse for having been faithless to me (I could never after ascertain by which of these feelings she was actuated), made her at once take an interest in a name so like mine; and she came with several other women to the Sorbonne, where she was present at my examination, and had doubtless little trouble in recognising my person.

“I had not the remotest suspicion of her presence.  It is well known that in these places there are private seats for ladies, where they remain screened by a curtain.  I returned to St. Sulpice covered with honours and congratulations.  It was six in the evening.  The moment I returned, a lady was announced, who desired to speak with me.  I went to meet her.  Heavens! what a surprise!

“It was Manon.  It was she indeed, but more bewitching and brilliant than I had ever beheld her.  She was now in her eighteenth year.  Her beauty beggars all description.  The exquisite grace of her form, the mild sweetness of expression that animated her features, and her engaging air, made her seem the very personification of love.  The vision was something too perfect for human beauty.