accomplice, at all events as a witness.  This thought alarmed me so much, that I slipped down the first narrow street, and called a coach.  I went at once to M. de T——­’s, and he laughed at my apprehensions.  I myself thought them ridiculous enough, when he informed me that there was no more danger from Lescaut’s affray, than from the Hospital adventure.  He told me that, from the fear of their suspecting that he had a hand in Manon’s escape, he had gone that morning to the Hospital and asked to see her, pretending not to know anything of what had happened; that they were so far from entertaining the least suspicion of either of us, that they lost no time in relating the adventure as a piece of news to him; and that they wondered how so pretty a girl as Manon Lescaut could have thought of eloping with a servant:  that he replied with seeming indifference, that it by no means astonished him, for people would do anything for the sake of liberty.

“He continued to tell me how he then went to Lescaut’s apartments, in the hope of finding me there with my dear mistress; that the master of the house, who was a coachmaker, protested he had seen neither me nor Manon; but that it was no wonder that we had not appeared there, if our object was to see Lescaut, for that we must have doubtless heard of his having been assassinated about the very same time; upon which, he related all that he knew of the cause and circumstances of the murder.

“About two hours previously, a guardsman of Lescaut’s acquaintance had come to see him, and proposed play.  Lescaut had such a rapid and extravagant run of luck, that in an hour the young man was minus twelve hundred francs—­all the money he had.  Finding himself without a sou, he begged of Lescaut to lend him half the sum he had lost; and there being some difficulty on this point, an angry quarrel arose between them.  Lescaut had refused to give him the required satisfaction, and the other swore, on quitting him, that he would take his life; a threat which he carried into execution the same night.  M. de T——­ was kind enough to add, that he had felt the utmost anxiety on our account, and that, such as they were, he should gladly continue to us his services.  I at once told him the place of our retreat.  He begged of me to allow him to sup with us.

“As I had nothing more to do than to procure the linen and clothes for Manon, I told him that we might start almost immediately, if he would be so good as to wait for me a moment while I went into one or two shops.  I know not whether he suspected that I made this proposition with the view of calling his generosity into play, or whether it was by the mere impulse of a kind heart; but, having consented to start immediately, he took me to a shopkeeper, who had lately furnished his house.  He there made me select several articles of a much higher price than I had proposed to myself; and when I was about paying the bill, he desired the man not to take a sou from me.  This he did so gracefully, that I felt no shame in accepting his present.  We then took the road to Chaillot together, where I arrived much more easy in mind than when I had left it that morning.