Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/248

252 and the cruelty of my enemies to blame for all my unhappiness.

On leaving me, my father paid his promised visit to G M. He found him with his son, whom the Guardsman had duly released. The particulars of their conversation I have never known, but it has been only too easy for me to surmise what the purport of it was, from the tragical results to which it led. They—the two fathers, that is to say—went off together to the Lieutenant-General of Police, of whom they asked two favors. One was that he would order my immediate release from the Châtelet; the other, that he would condemn Manon to to prison for the rest of her life, or send her out to the penal settlements of America.

Preparations were being made at this very time for the transportation of a number of convicts and vagrants to the Mississippi. The Lieutenant-General promised that Manon should go on the first vessel that was dispatched.

As soon as this matter was settled, M. de G M and my father came together to inform me that I was once more at liberty.

M. de G M, after courteously assuring me that he bore me no ill-will for what had occurred in the past,