Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/42

46 seized by three men, whom I recognized as servants of my father's. They offered me no violence; but, two of them having grasped me by the arms, the third searched my pockets, from which he took a small knife—the only weapon I had about me. They begged me to pardon them for the necessity they were under of treating me so disrespectfully, and told me frankly that they were acting by my father's orders, and that my eldest brother was waiting for me in a coach below.

My astonishment and agitation were so great that I suffered myself to be led away without attempting to resist or to reply. My brother was awaiting me, as they had said. They put me into the coach beside him, and the coachman, who had received his orders, drove us rapidly toward St. Denis. My brother embraced me affectionately, but did not speak to me; so that I had all the leisure I required to ponder over my misfortune.

It seemed to me, at first, so wrapped in obscurity that I could not see my way even to a plausible conjecture to account for it. I had been cruelly betrayed—but by whom? Tiberge was the first person who occurred to my mind. "Traitor!" I exclaimed to myself, "your life shall answer for this, if my suspicions prove correct!" However,