“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