Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/287

Rh intentions would have commended themselves to the approval of any man of honor, considering the circumstances in which I was placed; hopelessly enslaved, that is to say, by a passion which it was beyond my power to conquer, and assailed by a remorse which I should have done wrong to stifle. Can any one, then, accuse me of murmuring without just cause when I bewail the harshness of Providence in spurning a design which I had formed only in the thought of pleasing it? In spurning it, do I say? Alas! it punished it as though it had been a crime! Strange! Heaven had borne with me patiently while I was rushing blindfold along the high-road of vice, and reserved its severest chastisement for the hour when I should seek to return to the path of virtue! I almost fear that my strength will fail me before I can finish this recital of the saddest events that ever fell to the experience of man!

I waited upon the Governor, as I had arranged with Manon, to obtain his consent to the solemnization of our marriage. I would gladly have avoided mentioning the subject to him, or to any one else, could I have been sure that his chaplain, who was then the only priest in the town, would have rendered me this service without his knowledge; but as I did not dare to hope that he would promise to keep it a secret, I had determined to act openly in the matter.

The Governor had a nephew, named Synnelet, for whom he entertained the deepest affection. This Synnelet was thirty years of age, and a man of honor and spirit, but violent and headstrong in temper. He was unmarried. Manon's beauty had made an impression upon him from the day of our first arrival; and the numerous opportunities he had had of seeing her during the nine or ten months which had gone by since then, had so inflamed his