ew
more familiar, and did not spread their wings for flight till he came up
close to them. They were always the same, he knew them by sight, and
perhaps like himself they were inhabitants of that ancient pile. He
called them his birds; and his first action, when the door into the
terrace was opened, was to look towards that side,--and the sparrows were
always there. He delighted in their chirping, and he must have envied
them their wings.

Though so little could be done to alleviate his sufferings, a moral
improvement was taking place in him. He was touched by the lively
interest displayed by his physician, who never failed to visit him at nine
o'clock every morning. He seemed pleased with the attention paid him, and
ended by placing entire confidence in M. Desault. Gratitude loosened his
tongue; brutality and insult had failed to extort a murmur, but kind
treatment restored his speech he had no words for anger, but he found them
to express his thanks. M. Desault prolonged his visits as long as the
officers of the municipality would permit. When they announced the close
of the visit, the child, unwilling to beg them to allow a longer time,
held back M. Desault by the skirt of his coat. Suddenly M. Desault's
visits ceased. Several days passed and nothing was heard of him. The
keepers wondered at his absence, and the poor little invalid was much
distressed at it. The commissary on duty (M. Benoist) suggested that it
would be proper to send to the physician's house to make inquiries as to
the cause of so long an absence. Gomin and Larne had not yet ventured to
follow this advice, when next day M. Benoist was relieved by M. Bidault,
who, hearing M. Desault's name mentioned as he came in, immediately said,
"You must not expect to see him any more; he died yesterday."

M. Pelletan, head surgeon of the Grand Hospice de l'Humanite, was next
directed to attend the prisoner, and in June he found him in so alarming a
state that he at once asked for a coadjutor, fearing to undertake the
responsibility alone. The physician--sent for form's sake to attend the
dying child, as an advocate is given by law to a criminal condemned
beforehand--blamed the officers of the municipality for not having removed
the blind, which obstructed the light, and the numerous bolts, the noise
of which never failed to remind the victim of his captivity. That sound,
which always caused him an involuntary shudder, disturbed him in the last
mour