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Éliçabide then recounted his student days, his connection with the Seminary at Bayonne, the beginning of his love affairs with the Widow Anizat, his arrival in Paris, the difficulties he encountered while striving to find a position in the capital. The details conformed to those which the reader already knows. He continued thus:—

Thus clearly Éliçabide pleaded a fixed idea, a fatality. He sought to reduce his crimes to the proportions of an irresistible impulse, to transform them into irresponsible acts. Let us follow him in this psychological study which he undertakes to make of himself:—

"Again and again I struggled to throw off the wretched thought which pressed upon me.

"I carried the cry of my distress from the palace to the dwelling of the actress. I invoked the princess, I supplicated the prelate, I knocked at the banker's door, I wailed before the great sentimental writer, I humiliated myself before the priest. It seemed to me that this was enough, and yet I went hungry.

"Since all my applications are in vain, let us try, I said to myself, a little charlatanism. But my face is too honest, my countenance too open. I conceived a project which must infallibly bring about happy results.

"I published a little prospectus of a school in the form of a circular. I stated that I could count upon some children who had been promised me; that was a lie. I must make the attempt cost what it might. I hired an apartment in the Rue du Richelieu, and hastened the arrival of Joseph.

"The unfortunate Marie wrote that she was much disturbed and troubled; that the mournful disposition of her son made her fearful of his future; that she should die of grief if he were kept from her long; that she passed her nights without sleep and in tears.

"I replied to these simple, tender letters in accordance with the effect they produced upon me. 'Be happy in your illusions and in your hope,' said I to her. 'I will bring you happiness in some manner or other.'

"I was sorrowfully occupied in giving a lesson to a young and interesting child, when the concierge brought me a letter announcing the arrival of Joseph by the diligence the same day. The news upset me, as if I had not been expecting it. My brain whirled. Joseph arrived! Poor child! what will be thy future? I have promised to be your father, your instructor, your guide in the path of life Life! but at your age everything pointed to a bright and happy life for me. I was intelligent; tender and thoughtful friends watched over me. Later a good education gave me the right to demand of the world that it should not blindly crush my wretched existence. It is true