THE PROSCRIBED. 319 



reigned in all its immensity. The vast city slept like a giant after 

 his fatigue. Midnight struck. The slightest noise, even the fall of 

 a leaf, or the flight of a jack-daw changing its place in the towers 

 of Notre-Dame, might then have recalled the spirit of the strano-er 

 upon the earth, or the soul of the youth from the celestial heights 

 towards which it had mounted on the wings of ecstasy. At this 

 moment the exile heard with horror the heavy groaning of a dyino- 

 person in the adjoining chamber. The funereal cry was confounded 

 with the fall of a heavy substance ; and, by the manner in which it 

 fell, the experienced ear of the proscribed stranger enabled him to 

 recognise it as that of an inanimate body. He quitted his own room 

 instantly and entered that of Godfrey, w^here he saw the poor 

 youth lying like a shapeless mass, and perceived, by the light of the 

 moon, a long cord twisted like a serpent on the floor, and when he 

 had loosened the noose by which it had been fastened round his 

 neck the youth opened his eyes : " Where am I ?" asked he with 

 an appearance of pleasure. 



— " In your own apartment," replied the old man, regarding not 

 without surprise, mingled with curiosity, the neck of Godfrey, the 

 cord, and the nail to which he had attached it, and which still remained 

 at the end. 



— " In heaven?" asked the youth, in the sweetest tones. 



— " No, upon the earth," replied the exile. 



Godfrey walked in the girdle of light traced by the moon through 

 the chamber, the window of which was open, and he saw the Seine 

 rippling, the willows and the weeds upon the bank. A cloudy haze 

 rose above the waters like a canopy of white smoke. At this sight, 

 desolating to him, he crossed his arms upon his breast and sunk into 

 an attitude of despair. His aged companion approached him, 

 astonishment painted on his countenance. 



— " You wished to destroy yourself then? " he asked. 



— " Yes," replied Godfrey, allowing the stranger with perfect 

 indifference to pass his hand repeatedly over his throat, in order to 

 examine the spot on which the cord had pressed the most severely. 



Perceiving that, with the exception of some slight contusions, the 

 youth had not sustained any injury, the exile concluded that the 

 nail, having little hold, had quickly yielded to the weight of the body, 

 and the fatal attempt had terminated by a fall of little consequence. ' 



—"And why, my dear child, did you wish to die?" asked the 

 stranger. 



— " Ah!" replied Godfrey, no longer retaining the tears which 

 had been rapidly gathering in his eyes, " I heard a voice from on 

 high ! It called me by my name ! O, I know it ! it had not before 

 named me; but this time it invited me to heaven. Oh how sweet 

 that voice is! Not being able to spring up into the heavens," he 

 continued, with infantine simplicity, " I took, in order to seek God, 

 the only road that we have." 



— " Oh, child ! sublime child !" cried the old man, enlacing God- 

 frey \n ins arms, and pressing him with enthusiasm to his' heart, 

 "thou art a poet, thou canst mount intrepidly upon the hurricane! 

 Thy poesy, truly thine, issues not from the depths of thy heart ! 



