ed
to unloose my tears--she stooped down, and kissed my forehead, and said
"Poor child!" almost as if she thanked me for feeling that old grief of
hers.

"Being once in France, it was no difficult thing for Clement to get into
Paris. The difficulty in those days was to leave, not to enter. He came
in dressed as a Norman peasant, in charge of a load of fruit and
vegetables, with which one of the Seine barges was freighted. He worked
hard with his companions in landing and arranging their produce on the
quays; and then, when they dispersed to get their breakfasts at some of
the estaminets near the old Marche aux Fleurs, he sauntered up a street
which conducted him, by many an odd turn, through the Quartier Latin to a
horrid back alley, leading out of the Rue l'Ecole de Medecine; some
atrocious place, as I have heard, not far from the shadow of that
terrible Abbaye, where so many of the best blood of France awaited their
deaths. But here some old man lived, on whose fidelity Clement thought
that he might rely. I am not sure if he had not been gardener in those
very gardens behind the Hotel Crequy where Clement and Urian used to play
together years before. But whatever the old man's dwelling might be,
Clement was only too glad to reach it, you may be sure, he had been kept
in Normandy, in all sorts of disguises, for many days after landing in
Dieppe, through the difficulty of entering Paris unsuspected by the many
ruffians who were always on the look-out for aristocrats.

"The old gardener was, I believe, both faithful and tried, and sheltered
Clement in his garret as well as might be. Before he could stir out, it
was necessary to procure a fresh disguise, and one more in character with
an inhabitant of Paris than that of a Norman carter was procured; and
after waiting in-doors for one or two days, to see if any suspicion was
excited, Clement set off to discover Virginie.

"He found her at the old concierge's dwelling. Madame Babette was the
name of this woman, who must have been a less faithful--or rather,
perhaps, I should say, a more interested--friend to her guest than the
old gardener Jaques was to Clement.

"I have seen a miniature of Virginie, which a French lady of quality
happened to have in her possession at the time of her flight from Paris,
and which she brought with her to England unwittingly; for it belonged to
the Count de Crequy, with whom she was slightly acquainted. I should
fancy from it, tha