as ready to
receive me I told her all.

"There can be no hesitation in the matter," said this delightful woman.
"We must make a confidant of M. de Sartine, and I will speak to him
myself to-day without fail."

Forthwith she went to her desk and wrote to the criminal lieutenant
asking him to see her at three o'clock in the afternoon. In less than an
hour the servant returned with a note in which he said he would expect
her. We agreed that I should come again in the evening, when she would
tell me the result of her interview.

I went to the house at five o'clock, and had only a few minutes to wait.

"I have concealed nothing," said she; "he knows that she is on the eve of
her confinement, and that you are not the father, which speaks highly for
your generosity. I told him that as soon as the confinement was over, and
the young lady had recovered her health, she would return to her mother,
though she would make no confession, and that the child should be well
looked after. You have now nothing to fear, and can calm yourself; but as
the case must go on you will be cited before the court the day after
to-morrow. I advise you to see the clerk of the court on some pretext or
other, and to make him accept a sum of money."

I was summoned to appear, and I appeared. I saw M. de Sartine, 'sedentem
pro tribunali'. At the end of the sitting he told me that he was obliged
to remand me, and that during my remand I must not leave Paris or get
married, as all my civil rights were in suspense pending the decision. I
promised to follow his commands.

I acknowledged in my examination that I was at the ball in a black domino
on the night named in my accusation, but I denied everything else. As for
Mdlle. X. C. V., I said that neither I nor anyone of her family had any
suspicion that she was with child.

Recollecting that I was an alien, and that this circumstance might make
Vauversin call for my arrest, on the plea that I might fly the kingdom, I
thought the moment opportune for making interest with the clerk of the
court, and I accordingly paid him a visit. After telling him of my fears,
I slipped into his hand a packet of three hundred louis, for which I did
not ask for a receipt, saying that they were to defray expenses if I were
mulcted in costs. He advised me to require the midwife to give bail for
her appearance, and I told my attorney to do so; but, four days after,
the following incident took place:

I was walking in the Te