s,
and you will find in me as much to pity as to blame; for, I
repeat to you, my intention was good, and circumstances
impossible to foresee have destroyed me. Oh, Mlle. Rigolette, I
am very unhappy! If you knew in the midst of what a set of
persons I am doomed to exist until my trial is over! Yesterday
they took me to a place which they call the depot of the
prefecture of police. I cannot tell you what I felt when, after
having gone up a dark staircase, I reached a door with an iron
wicket, which was opened and soon closed upon me. I was so
troubled in my mind that I could not, at first, distinguish
anything. A hot and fetid air came upon me, and I heard a loud
noise of voices mingled with sinister laughs, angry
exclamations, and depraved songs. I remained motionless at the
door for awhile, looking at the stone flooring of the apartment,
and neither daring to advance nor lift up my eyes, thinking
that everybody was looking at me. They were not, however,
thinking of me; for a prisoner more or less does not at all
disturb these men. At last I ventured to look up, and, oh, what
horrid countenances! What ragged wretches! What dirty and
bespattered garments! All the exterior marks of misery and vice!
There were forty or fifty seated, standing, or lying on benches
secured to the wall,--vagrants, robbers, assassins, and all who
had been apprehended during the night and day. When they
perceived me I found a sad consolation in seeing that they did
not recognise me as belonging or known to them. Some of them
looked at me with an insulting and derisive air, and then began
to talk amongst themselves in a low tone, and in some horrible
jargon, not one word of which did I understand. After a short
time one of the most brutal amongst them came, and, slapping me
on the shoulder, asked me for money to pay my footing. I gave
them some silver, hoping thus to purchase repose; but it was not
enough, and they demanded more, which I refused. Then several of
them surrounded me and assailed me with threats and
imprecations, and were proceeding to extremities, when,
fortunately for me, a turnkey entered, who had been attracted by
the noise. I complained to him, and he insisted on their
restoring to me the money I had given them already, adding that,
if I liked to pay a small fee, I should go to