MANON LESCAUT
by
Abbé Prévost
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII
I
Why did he love her? Curious fool, be still!
Is human love the fruit of human will?
BYRON.
Just about six months before my departure for Spain, I first met theChevalier des Grieux. Though I rarely quitted my retreat, still theinterest I felt in my child's welfare induced me occasionally toundertake short journeys, which, however, I took good care to abridgeas much as possible.
I was one day returning from Rouen, where I had been, at her request,to attend a cause then pending before the Parliament of Normandy,respecting an inheritance to which I had claims derived from mymaternal grandfather. Having taken the road by Evreux, where I sleptthe first night, I on the following day, about dinner-time, reachedPassy, a distance of five or six leagues. I was amazed, on enteringthis quiet town, to see all the inhabitants in commotion. They werepouring from their houses in crowds, towards the gate of a small inn,immediately before which two covered vans were drawn up. Their horsesstill in harness, and reeking from fatigue and heat, showed that thecortege had only just arrived. I stopped for a moment to learn thecause of the tumult, but could gain little information from the curiousmob as they rushed by, heedless of my enquiries, and hasteningimpatiently towards the inn in the utmost confusion. At length anarcher of the civic guard, wearing his bandolier, and carrying acarbine on his shoulder, appeared at the gate; so, beckoning himtowards me, I begged to know the cause of the uproar. "Nothing, sir,"said he, "but a dozen of the frail sisterhood, that I and my comradesare conducting to Havre-de-Grace, whence we are to ship them forAmerica. There are one or two of them pretty enough; and it is that,apparently, which attracts the curiosity of these good people."
I should have passed on, satisfied with this explanation, if myattention had not been arrested by the cries of an old woman, who wascoming out of the inn with her hands clasped, and exclaiming:
"A downright barbarity!—A scene to excite horror and compassion!""What may this mean?" I enquired. "Oh! sir; go into the houseyourself," said the woman, "and see if it is not a sight to rend yourheart!" Curiosity made me dismount; and leaving my horse to the careof the ostler, I made my way with some difficulty through the crowd,and did indeed behold a scene sufficiently touching.
Among the twelve girls, who were chained together by the waist in tworows, there was one, whose whole air and figure seemed so ill-suited toher present condition, that under other circumstances I should not havehesitated to pronounce her a person of high birth. Her excessivegrief, and even the