“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.