Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/15

Rh crying that she could not bear to see such horrible barbarity, it was enough to excite the pity of any one but a savage.

"What is amiss?" I asked her.

"Oh, sir!" she replied, "go in yonder and see if 'tis not a heart-rending sight."

Urged by curiosity I dismounted, leaving my horse to the care of my groom. I had some difficulty in effecting an entrance, but pushing my way through the crowd, I beheld, in truth, a most touching spectacle.

Among the twelve girls who were chained together by their waists in two groups of six each, was one whose face and whole appearance were so little in keeping with her present situation that under any other circumstances I should have taken her to be a person of the highest rank.

The sadness of her expression, and her soiled and bedraggled dress, detracted so little from her beauty, that I was filled with pity and respect as I looked at her. She endeavored, however, to turn herself away as far as her chain would allow, in order to conceal her face from the gaze of the bystanders. There was something so unaffected in her efforts to hide herself, that they seemed to be prompted by an innate sense of modesty.

The six guards who were in charge of this unhappy