“I employed great part of the time in devising schemes for relieving Manon.  I felt persuaded that her prison was even more inaccessible than mine had been.  Force was out of the question.  Artifice was the only resource; but the goddess of invention herself could not have told me how to begin.  I felt the impossibility of working in the dark, and therefore postponed the further consideration of my schemes until I could acquire some knowledge of the internal arrangements of the Hospital, in which she was confined.

“As soon as night restored to me my liberty, I begged of Lescaut to accompany me.  We were not long in drawing one of the porters into conversation; he appeared a reasonable man.  I passed for a stranger who had often with admiration heard talk of the Hospital, and of the order that reigned within it.  I enquired into the most minute details; and, proceeding from one subject to another, we at length spoke of the managers, and of these I begged to know the names and the respective characters.  He gave me such information upon the latter point as at once suggested an idea which flattered my hopes, and I immediately set about carrying it into execution.

“I asked him (this being a matter essential to my plan) whether any of the gentlemen had children.  He said he could not answer me with certainty as to all, but as for M. de T——­, one of the principal directors, he knew that he had a son old enough to be married, and who had come several times to the Hospital with his father.  This was enough for my purpose.

“I immediately put an end to our interview, and, in returning, I told Lescaut of the plan I had formed. `I have taken it,’ said I, `into my head, that M. de T——­, the son, who is rich and of good family, must have the same taste for pleasure that other young men of his age generally have.  He could hardly be so bad a friend to the fair sex, nor so absurd as to refuse his services in an affair of love.  I have arranged a plan for interesting him in favour of Manon.  If he is a man of feeling and of right mind, he will give us his assistance from generosity.  If he is not to be touched by a motive of this kind, he will at least do something for a handsome girl, if it were only with the hope of hereafter sharing her favours.  I will not defer seeing him,’ added I, `beyond tomorrow.  I really feel so elated by this project, that I derive from it a good omen.’

“Lescaut himself allowed that the idea was not unreasonable, and that we might fairly entertain a hope of turning it to account.  I passed the night less sorrowfully.