"There oft are heard the notes of infant woe, The short thick sob, loud scream, and shriller squall-- How can you, mothers, vex your infants so?"--POPE "D'abord, madame, c'est impossible!--Madame ne descendra pas ici?" said Francois, the footman of Madame de Fleury, with a half expostulatory, half indignant look, as he let down the step of her carriage at the entrance of a dirty passage, that led to one of the most miserable-looking houses in Paris. "But what can be the cause of the cries which I hear in this house?" said Madame de Fleury. "'Tis only some child who is crying," replied Francois; and he would have put up the step, but his lady was not satisfied. "'Tis nothing in the world," continued he, with a look of appeal to the coachman, "it _can_ be nothing, but some children who are locked up there above. The mother, the workwoman my lady wants, is not at home: that's certain." "I must know the cause of these cries; I must see these children" said Madame de Fleury, getting out of her carriage. Francois held his arm for his lady as she got out. "Bon!" cried he, with an air of vexation. "Si madame la vent absolument, a la bonne heure!--Mais madame sera abimee. Madame verra que j'ai raison. Madame ne montera jamais ce vilain escalier. D'ailleurs c'est au cinquieme. Mais, madame, c'est impossible." Notwithstanding the impossibility, Madame de Fleury proceeded; and bidding her talkative footman wait in the entry, made her way up the dark, dirty, broken staircase, the sound of the cries increasing every instant, till, as she reached the fifth storey, she heard the shrieks of one in violent pain. She hastened to the door of the room from which the cries proceeded; the door was fastened, and the noise was so great that, though she knocked as loud as she was able, she could not immediately make herself heard. At last the voice of a child from within answered, "The door is locked--mamma has the key in her pocket, and won't be home till night; and here's Victoire has tumbled from the top of the big press, and it is she that is shrieking so." Madame de Fleury ran down the stairs which she had ascended with so much difficulty, called to her footman, who was waiting in the entry, despatched him for a surgeon, and then she returned to obtain from some people who lodged in the house assistance to force open the door of the room in which the children were confined.