Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/292



to the fort, where I found the Governor in company with his chaplain. In the hope of touching his feelings, I stooped to such abject supplications as would have made me die of shame, had I been guilty of uttering them in any other cause. I appealed to him in the name of every consideration which might fairly be expected to influence any heart that was not as savage and pitiless as a tiger's. The inhuman wretch had but two answers to all my entreaties, and these he repeated again and again. Manon, he said, was at his disposal, and he had given his word to his nephew.

I was determined to keep my feelings under control to the very last, and merely said quietly that I had thought