HE BLEEDING HEART 157
XV. THE VAULT 166
XVI. THE SICK-NURSE 172
XVII. THE PUNISHMENT 189
XVIII. THE ISLE ADAM 206
XIX. RECOMPENSE 212
XX. THE DEPARTURE 221
XXI. RESEARCHES 225
XXII. HISTORY OF DAVID AND CECILY 246
XXIII. A HOUSE IN THE RUE DU TEMPLE 258
XXIV. THE FOUR STORIES 292
XXV. TOM AND SARAH 302
XXVI. THE BALL 323

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
PORTRAIT OF EUGENE SUE _Frontispiece_
THE CHOURINEUR, RODOLPH, AND LA GOUALEUSE 22
"SHE PROFFERED TO RODOLPH THE BOUQUET" 89
"'AH, HERE IS THE DARLING ONE!'" 158
"RODOLPH ADDRESSED THE SCHOOLMASTER." 190
"THIS INDIVIDUAL WAS SEATED BY THE STOVE" 260
"'THIS, I SUPPOSE, IS THE WORK OF M. CABRION'" 296

THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS.

CHAPTER I.

THE TAPIS-FRANC.[1]

It was on a cold and rainy night, towards the end of October, 1838, that
a tall and powerful man, with an old broad-brimmed straw hat upon his
head, and clad in a blue cotton carter's frock, which hung loosely over
trousers of the same material, crossed the Pont au Change, and darted
with a hasty step into the Cite, that labyrinth of obscure, narrow, and
winding streets which extends from the Palais de Justice to Notre Dame.

[1] _Tapis-franc_: literally, a "free carpet;" a low haunt
equivalent to what in English slang is termed "a boozing ken."

Although limited in space, and carefully watched, this quarter serves as
the lurking-place, or rendezvous, of a vast number of the very dregs of
society in Paris, who flock to the _tapis-franc_. This word, in the
slang of theft and murder, signifies a drinking-shop of the lowest
class. A returned convict, who, in this foul phraseology, is called an
"ogre," or a woman in the same degraded state, who is termed an
"ogress," generally keep such "cribs," frequen