Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/252

256 General of Police, and then to make an armed attack upon the Hôpital at the head of as many of my friends as I could persuade to take up my grievance. I question even whether my father himself would not have been included in a vengeance that seemed to me more than justifiable; for the Warder had made no secret of the fact that he and G M were the authors of my impending bereavement.

But I had not walked far before the fresh air began to cool my heated brain, and my blind fury gradually gave way to a more reasonable frame of mind. The destruction of our enemies, I reflected, would not be of much benefit to Manon, while it would expose me to the almost certain risk of being deprived of all further power to help her. My very soul revolted, moreover, against the infamy of resorting to assassination. How else, then, could I be revenged?

First I must rescue Manon, and, postponing the consideration of all other matters until I had succeeded in that important task, I summoned every faculty of body and mind to aid me in its accomplishment.

I had but little money left; yet money was the first and most essential requisite in my project. I could think of only three persons from whom I might hope to obtain any—M. de T, my father, and Tiberge. There seemed but little likelihood of my getting anything from the last two; and I was ashamed to weary the other by my importunities.

But a desperate man cannot afford to indulge in delicate scruples, and I hastened at once to the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, with utter indifference as to whether I was recognized there or not. I asked to see Tiberge. His first words showed me that my latest adventures were as yet unknown to him.