Manon Lescaut
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the Abbe Prevost >> Manon Lescaut
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"These thoughts restored me a little to my spirits and to my
reason. I determined first to consult M. Lescaut, the brother of
Manon. He knew Paris perfectly; and I had too many opportunities
of learning that it was neither from his own estates, nor from
the king's pay, that he derived the principal portion of his
income. I had about thirty-three crowns left, which I
fortunately happened to have about me. I showed him my purse,
and explained to him my misfortune and my fears, and then asked
him whether I had any alternative between starvation and blowing
out my brains in despair. He coolly replied that suicide was the
resource of fools. As to dying of want, there were hundreds of
men of genius who found themselves reduced to that state when
they would not employ their talents; that it was for myself to
discover what I was capable of doing, and he told me to reckon
upon his assistance and his advice in any enterprise I might
undertake.
"`Vague enough, M. Lescaut!' said I to him: `my wants demand a
more speedy remedy; for what am I to say to Manon?' `Apropos of
Manon,' replied he, `what is it that annoys you about her?
Cannot you always find in her wherewithal to meet your wants,
when you wish it? Such a person ought to support us all, you and
me as well as herself.' He cut short the answer which I was
about to give to such unfeeling and brutal impertinence, by going
on to say, that before night he would ensure me a thousand crowns
to divide between us, if I would only follow his advice; that he
was acquainted with a nobleman, who was so liberal in affairs of
the kind, that he was certain he would not hesitate for a moment
to give the sum named for the favours of such a girl as Manon.
"I stopped him. `I had a better opinion of you,' said I; `I had
imagined that your motive for bestowing your friendship upon me
was very different indeed from the one you now betray.' With the
greatest effrontery he acknowledged that he had been always of
the same mind, and that his sister having once sacrificed her
virtue, though it might be to the man she most loved, he would
never have consented to a reconciliation with her, but with the
hope of deriving some advantage from her past misconduct.
"It was easy to see that we had been hitherto his dupes.
Notwithstanding the disgust with which his proposition inspired
me, still, as I felt that I had occasion for his services, I
said, with apparent complacency, that we ought only to entertain
such a plan as a last resource. I begged of him to suggest some
other.
"He proposed to me to turn my youth and the good looks nature
had bestowed upon me to some account, by establishing a liaison
with some generous old dame. This was just as little to my
taste, for it would necessarily have rendered me unfaithful to
Manon.
"I mentioned play as the easiest scheme, and the most suitable
to my present situation. He admitted that play certainly was a
resource, but that it was necessary to consider the point well.
`Mere play,' said he, `with its ordinary chances, is the certain
road to ruin; and as for attempting, alone and without an ally,
to employ the little means an adroit man has for correcting the
vagaries of luck, it would be too dangerous an experiment.'
There was, he stated, a third course, which was to enter into
what he called a partnership; but he feared his confederates
would consider my youth an objection to my admittance. He,
however, promised to use his influence with them; and, what was
more than I expected at his hands, he said that he would supply
me with a little money whenever I had pressing occasion for any.
The only favour I then asked of him was to say nothing to Manon
of the loss I had experienced, nor of the subject of our
conversation.
"I certainly derived little comfort from my visit to Lescaut; I
felt even sorry for having confided my secret to him: not a
single thing had he done for me that I might not just as well
have done for myself, without troubling him; and I could not help
dreading that he would violate his promise to keep the secret
from Manon. I had also reason to apprehend, from his late
avowals, that he might form the design of making use of her for
his own vile purposes, or at least of advising her to quit me for
some happier and more wealthy lover. This idea brought in its
train a thousand reflections, which had no other effect than to
torment me, and throw me again into the state of despair in which
I had passed the morning. It occurred to me, more than once, to
write to my father; and to pretend a new reformation, in order to
obtain some pecuniary assistance from him; but I could not forget
that, notwithstanding all his natural love and affection for me,
he had shut me up for six months in a confined room for my first
transgression; and I was certain that, after the scandalous
sensation caused by my flight from St. Sulpice, he would be sure
to treat me with infinitely more rigour now.
"At length, out of this chaos of fancies came an idea that all
at once restored ease to my mind, and which I was surprised at
not having hit upon sooner; this was, to go again to my friend
Tiberge, in whom I might be always sure of finding the same
unfailing zeal and friendship. There is nothing more
glorious--nothing that does more honour to true virtue, than the
confidence with which one approaches a friend of tried integrity;
no apprehension, no risk of unkind repulse: if it be not always
in his power to afford the required succour, one is sure at least
of meeting kindness and compassion. The heart of the poor
supplicant, which remains impenetrably closed to the rest of the
world, opens in his presence, as a flower expands before the orb
of day, from which it instinctively knows it can derive a
cheering and benign influence only.
"I consider it a blessing to have thought so apropos of Tiberge,
and resolved to take measures to find him before evening. I
returned at once to my lodgings to write him a line, and fix a
convenient place for our meeting. I requested secrecy and
discretion, as the most important service he could render me
under present circumstances.
"The pleasure I derived from the prospect of seeing Tiberge
dissipated every trace of melancholy, which Manon would not have
failed otherwise to detect in my countenance. I described our
misfortune at Chaillot as a trifle which ought not to annoy her;
and Paris being the spot she liked best in the world, she was not
sorry to hear me say that it would be necessary for us to remain
there entirely, until the little damage was repaired which had
been caused by the fire at Chaillot.
"In an hour I received an answer from Tiberge, who promised to
be at the appointed rendezvous. I went there punctually. I
certainly felt some shame at encountering a friend whose presence
alone ought to be a reproach to my iniquities; but I was
supported by the opinion I had of the goodness of his heart, as
well as by my anxiety about Manon.
"I had begged of him to meet me in the garden of the Palais
Royal. He was there before me. He hastened towards me, the
moment he saw me approach and shook me warmly by both hands. I
said that I could not help feeling perfectly ashamed to meet him,
and that I was weighed down by a sense of my ingratitude; that
the first thing I implored of him was to tell me whether I might
still consider him my friend, after having so justly incurred the
loss of his esteem and affection. He replied, in the kindest
possible manner, that it was not in the nature of things to
destroy his regard for me; that my misfortunes even, or, if he
might so call them, my faults and transgressions, had but
increased the interest he felt for me; but that he must confess
his affection was not unalloyed by a sentiment of the liveliest
sorrow, such as a person may be supposed to feel at seeing a
beloved object on the brink of ruin, and beyond the reach of his
assistance.
"We sat down upon a bench. `Alas!' said I with a deep sigh,
`your compassion must be indeed great, my dear Tiberge, if you
assure me it is equal to my sufferings. I am almost ashamed to
recount them, for I confess they have been brought on by no very
creditable course of conduct: the results, however, are so truly
melancholy, that a friend even less attached than you would be
affected by the recital.'
"He then begged of me, in proof of friendship, to let him know,
without any disguise, all that had occurred to me since my
departure from St. Sulpice. I gratified him; and so far from
concealing anything, or attempting to extenuate my faults, I
spoke of my passion with all the ardour with which it still
inspired me. I represented it to him as one of those especial
visitations of fate, which draw on the devoted victim to his
ruin, and which it is as impossible for virtue itself to resist,
as for human wisdom to foresee. I painted to him in the most
vivid colours, my excitement, my fears, the state of despair in
which I had been two hours before I saw him, and into which I
should be again plunged, if I found my friends as relentless as
fate had been. I at length made such an impression upon poor
Tiberge, that I saw he was as much affected by compassion, as I
by the recollection of my sufferings.
"He took my hand, and exhorted me to have courage and be
comforted; but, as he seemed to consider it settled that Manon
and I were to separate, I gave him at once to understand that it
was that very separation I considered as the most intolerable of
all my misfortunes; and that I was ready to endure not only the
last degree of misery, but death itself, of the cruellest kind,
rather than seek relief in a remedy worse than the whole
accumulation of my woes.
"`Explain yourself, then,' said he to me; `what assistance can
I afford you, if you reject everything I propose?' I had not
courage to tell him that it was from his purse I wanted relief.
He, however, comprehended it in the end; and acknowledging that
he believed he now understood me, he remained for a moment in an
attitude of thought, with the air of a person revolving something
in his mind. `Do not imagine,' he presently said, `that my
hesitation arises from any diminution of my zeal and friendship;
but to what an alternative do you now reduce me, since I must
either refuse you the assistance you ask, or violate my most
sacred duty in affording it! For is it not participating in your
sin to furnish you with the means of continuing its indulgence?'
"`However,' continued he, after a moment's thought, `it is
perhaps the excited state into which want has thrown you, that
denies you now the liberty of choosing the proper path. Man's
mind must be at rest, to know the luxury of wisdom and virtue. I
can afford to let you have some money; and permit me, my dear
chevalier, to impose but one condition; that is, that you let me
know the place of your abode, and allow me the opportunity of
using my exertions to reclaim you. I know that there is in your
heart a love of virtue, and that you have been only led astray by
the violence of your passions.'
"I, of course, agreed to everything he asked, and only begged of
him to deplore the malign destiny which rendered me callous to
the counsels of so virtuous a friend. He then took me to a
banker of his acquaintance, who gave one hundred and seventy
crowns for his note of hand, which was taken as cash. I have
already said that he was not rich. His living was worth about
six thousand francs a year, but as this was the first year since
his induction, he had as yet touched none of the receipts, and it
was out of the future income that he made me this advance.
"I felt the full force of his generosity, even to such a degree
as almost to deplore the fatal passion which thus led me to break
through all the restraints of duty. Virtue had for a moment the
ascendancy in my heart, and made me sensible of my shame and
degradation. But this was soon over. For Manon I could have
given up my hopes of heaven, and when I again found myself at her
side, I wondered how I could for an instant have considered
myself degraded by my passion for this enchanting girl.
"Manon was a creature of most extraordinary disposition. Never
had mortal a greater contempt for money, and yet she was haunted
by perpetual dread of wanting it. Her only desire was for
pleasure and amusement. She would never have wished to possess a
sou, if pleasure could be procured without money. She never even
cared what our purse contained, provided she could pass the day
agreeably; so that, being neither fond of play nor at all dazzled
by the desire of great wealth, nothing was more easy than to
satisfy her, by daily finding out amusements suited to her
moderate wishes. But it became by habit a thing so absolutely
necessary for her to have her mind thus occupied, that, without
it, it was impossible to exercise the smallest influence over her
temper or inclinations. Although she loved me tenderly, and I
was the only person, as she often declared, in whose society she
could ever find the pure enjoyments of love, yet I felt
thoroughly convinced that her attachment could not withstand
certain apprehensions. She would have preferred me, even with a
moderate fortune, to the whole world; but I had no kind of doubt
that she would, on the other hand, abandon me for some new M. de
B----, when I had nothing more to offer her than fidelity and
love.
"I resolved therefore so to curtail my own individual expenses,
as to be able always to meet hers, and rather to deprive myself
of a thousand necessaries than even to limit her extravagance.
The carriage made me more uneasy than anything else, for I saw no
chance of being able to maintain either coachman or horses.
"I told M. Lescaut of my difficulties, and did not conceal from
him that I had received a thousand francs from a friend. He
repeated, that if I wished to try the chances of the
gaming-table, he was not without hopes that, by spending a few
crowns in entertaining his associates, I might be, on his
recommendation, admitted into the association. With all my
repugnance to cheating, I yielded to dire necessity.
"Lescaut presented me that night as a relation of his own. He
added, that I was the more likely to succeed in my new
profession, from wanting the favours of fortune. However, to
show them that I was not quite reduced to the lowest ebb, he said
it was my intention to treat them with a supper. The offer was
accepted, and I entertained them en prince. They talked a good
deal about my fashionable appearance and the apparent amiability
of my disposition; they said that the best hopes might be
entertained of me, because there was something in my countenance
that bespoke the gentleman, and no one therefore could have a
suspicion of my honesty: they voted thanks to Lescaut for having
introduced so promising a novice, and deputed one of the members
to instruct me for some days in the necessary manoeuvres.
"The principal scene of my exploits was the hotel of
Transylvania, where there was a faro table in one room, and other
games of cards and dice in the gallery. This academy was kept by
the Prince of R----, who then lived at Clagny, and most of his
officers belonged to our society. Shall I mention it to my
shame? I profited quickly by my instructor's tuition. I
acquired an amazing facility in sleight of hand tricks, and
learned in perfection to sauter le coup; with the help of a pair
of long ruffles, I shuffled so adroitly as to defy the quickest
observer, and I ruined several fair players. My unrivalled skill
so quickened the progress of my fortunes, that I found myself
master, in a few weeks, of very considerable sums, besides what I
divided in good faith with my companions.
"I had no longer any fear of communicating to Manon the extent
of our loss at Chaillot, and, to console her on the announcement
of such disastrous news, I took a furnished house, where we
established ourselves in all the pride of opulence and security.
"Tiberge was in the habit, at this period, of paying me frequent
visits. He was never tired of his moral lectures. Over and over
again did he represent to me the injury I was inflicting upon my
conscience, my honour, and my fortune. I received all his advice
kindly, and although I had not the smallest inclination to adopt
it, I had no doubt of its sincerity, for I knew its source.
Sometimes I rallied him good-humouredly, and entreated him not to
be more tight-laced than some other priests were, and even
bishops, who by no means considered a mistress incompatible with
a good and holy life.' `Look,' I said, `at Manon's eyes, and tell
me if there is one in the long catalogue of sins that might not
there find a plea of justification.' He bore these sallies
patiently, and carried his forbearance almost too far: but when
he saw my funds increase, and that I had not only returned him
the hundred and seventy crowns, but having hired a new house and
trebled my expenses, I had plunged deeper than ever into a life
of pleasure, he changed his tone and manner towards me. He
lamented my obduracy. He warned me against the chastisement of
the Divine wrath, and predicted some of the miseries with which
indeed I was shortly afterwards visited. `It is impossible,' he
said, `that the money which now serves to support your
debaucheries can have been acquired honourably. You have come by
it unjustly, and in the same way shall it be taken from you. The
most awful punishment Heaven could inflict would be to allow you
the undisturbed enjoyment of it. All my advice,' he added, `has
been useless; I too plainly perceive that it will shortly become
troublesome to you. I now take my leave; you are a weak, as well
as an ungrateful friend! May your criminal enjoyments vanish as
a shadow! may your ill-gotten wealth leave you without a
resource; and may you yourself remain alone and deserted, to
learn the vanity of these things, which now divert you from
better pursuits! When that time arrives, you will find me
disposed to love and to serve you; this day ends our intercourse,
and I once for all avow my horror of the life you are leading.'
"It was in my room and in Manon's presence that he delivered
this apostolical harangue. He rose to depart. I was about to
detain him; but was prevented by Manon, who said it was better to
let the madman go.
"What he said, however, did not fail to make some impression
upon me. I notice these brief passages of my life when I
experienced a returning sentiment of virtue, because it was to
those traces, however light, that I was afterwards indebted for
whatever of fortitude I displayed under the most trying
circumstances.
"Manon's caresses soon dissipated the annoyance this scene had
caused me. We continued to lead a life entirely devoted to
pleasure and love. The increase of our wealth only redoubled our
affection. There none happier among all the devotees of Venus
and Fortune. Heavens! why call this a world of misery, when it
can furnish a life of such rapturous enjoyment? But alas, it is
too soon over! For what ought man to sigh, could such felicity
but last for ever? Ours shared the common fate--in being of
short duration, and followed by lasting regrets.
"I had realised by play such a considerable sum of money, that I
thought of investing a portion of it. My servants were not
ignorant of my good luck, particularly my valet and Manon's own
maid, before whom we often talked without any reserve. The maid
was handsome, and my valet in love with her. They knew they had
to deal with a young and inexperienced couple, whom they fancied
they could impose upon without much difficulty. They laid a
plan, and executed it with so much skill, that they reduced us to
a state from which it was never afterwards possible for us to
extricate ourselves.
"Having supped one evening at Lescaut's, it was about midnight
when we returned home. I asked for my valet, and Manon for her
maid; neither one nor the other could be found. They had not
been seen in the house since eight o'clock, and had gone out,
after having some cases carried before them, according to orders
which they pretended to have received from me. I at once foresaw
a part of the truth, but my suspicions were infinitely surpassed
by what presented itself on going into my room. The lock of my
closet had been forced, and my cash as well as my best clothes
were gone. While I stood stupefied with amazement, Manon came,
in the greatest alarm, to inform me that her apartment had been
rifled in the same manner.
"This blow was so perfectly astounding, so cruel, that it was
with difficulty I could refrain from tears. The dread of
infecting Manon with my despair made me assume a more contented
air. I said, smiling, that I should avenge myself upon some
unhappy dupe at the hotel of Transylvania. However, she appeared
so sensibly affected, that her grief increased my sorrow
infinitely more than my attempt succeeded in supporting her
spirits. `We are destroyed!' said she, with tears in her eyes.
I endeavoured, in vain, by my entreaties and caresses, to console
her. My own lamentations betrayed my distress and despair. In
fact, we were so completely ruined, that we were bereft almost of
decent covering.
"I determined to send off at once for Lescaut. He advised me to
go immediately to the lieutenant of police, and to give
information also to the Grand Provost of Paris. I went, but it
was to add to my calamities only; for, independently of my visit
producing not the smallest good effect, I, by my absence, allowed
Lescaut time for discussion with his sister, during which he did
not fail to inspire her with the most horrible resolutions. He
spoke to her about M. G---- M----, an old voluptuary, who paid
prodigally for his pleasures; he so glowingly described the
advantages of such a connection, that she entered into all his
plans. This discreditable arrangement was all concluded before
my return, and the execution of it only postponed till the next
morning, after Lescaut should have apprised G---- M----.
"I found him, on my return, waiting for me at my house; but
Manon had retired to her own apartment, and she had desired the
footman to tell me that, having need of repose, she hoped she
should not be disturbed that night. Lescaut left me, after
offering me a few crowns which I accepted.
"It was nearly four o'clock when I retired to bed; and having
revolved in my mind various schemes for retrieving my fortunes, I
fell asleep so late that I did not awake till between eleven and
twelve o'clock. I rose at once to enquire after Manon's health;
they told me that she had gone out an hour before with her
brother, who had come for her in a hired carriage. Although
there appeared something mysterious in such a proceeding, I
endeavoured to check my rising suspicions. I allowed some hours
to pass, during which I amused myself with reading. At length,
being unable any longer to stifle my uneasiness, I paced up and
down the apartments. A sealed letter upon Manon's table at last
caught my eye. It was addressed to me, and in her handwriting.
I felt my blood freeze as I opened it; it was in these words:
I protest to you, dearest chevalier, that you are the idol of my
heart, and that you are the only being on earth whom I can truly
love; but do you not see, my own poor dear chevalier, that in the
situation to which we are now reduced, fidelity would be worse
than madness? Do you think tenderness possibly compatible with
starvation? For my part, hunger would be sure to drive me to
some fatal end. Heaving some day a sigh for love, I should find
it was my last. I adore you, rely upon that; but leave to me,
for a short while, the management of our fortunes. God help the
man who falls into my hands. My only wish is to render my
chevalier rich and happy. My brother will tell you about me; he
can vouch for my grief in yielding to the necessity of parting
from you.
"I remained, after reading this, in a state which it would be
difficult to describe; for even now I know not the nature of the
feelings which then agitated me. It was one of those unique
situations of which others can never have experienced anything
even approaching to similarity. It is impossible to explain it,
because other persons can have no idea of its nature; and one can
hardly even analyse it to oneself. Memory furnishes nothing that
will connect it with the past, and therefore ordinary language is
inadequate to describe it. Whatever was its nature, however, it
is certain that grief, hate, jealousy, and shame entered into its
composition. Fortunate would it have proved for me if love also
had not been a component part!
"`That she loves me,' I exclaimed, `I can believe; but could
she, without being a monster, hate me? What right can man ever
have to woman's affections which I had not to Manon's? What is
left to me, after all the sacrifices I have made for her sake?
Yet she abandons me, and the ungrateful creature thinks to screen
herself from my reproaches by professions of love! She pretends
to dread starvation! God of love, what grossness of sentiment!
What an answer to the refinement of my adoration! I had no dread
of that kind; I, who have almost sought starvation for her sake,
by renouncing fortune and the comforts of my father's house! I,
who denied myself actual necessaries, in order to gratify her
little whims and caprices! She adores me, she says. If you
adored me, ungrateful creature, I well know what course you would
have taken; you would never have quitted me, at least without
saying adieu. It is only I who can tell the pangs and torments,
of being separated from all one loves. I must have taken leave
of my senses, to have voluntarily brought all this misery upon
myself.'
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