BICETRE.
Fifteen days had passed since Rudolph, by marrying the Countess M'Gregor
_in extremis_, had legitimatized the birth of Fleur-de-Marie. It was
Mid-Lent. This date being established, we will conduct the reader to
Bicetre. This immense establishment, founded for the treatment of the
insane, serves also as a place of refuge for seven or eight hundred poor
old men, who are admitted when they have reached the age of seventy, or are
afflicted with any very serious infirmity. On arriving at Bicetre, the
visitor enters at first a vast court planted with large trees, and divided
into grass plots, ornamented in summer with flower borders. Nothing could
be more cheerful, more peaceful, or more salubrious than this promenade,
which was specially designed for the indigent old men of whom we have
spoken. It surrounds the buildings, in which, on the first floor, are found
the spacious sleeping apartments; and on the ground floor, the dining
halls, kept in admirable order, where the pensioners of Bicetre eat, in
common, most excellent food, prepared with great care, thanks to the
paternal solicitude of the directors of this establishment. To enumerate
completely the different purposes for which this institution is designed,
we mention that, at the time of which we speak, the condemned prisoners
were brought here after their sentence. It was in one of the cells of this
house that Widow Martial and her daughter Calabash awaited the moment of
their execution, which was fixed for the next day. Nicholas, Skeleton, and
several other scoundrels, had succeeded in making their escape from La
Force.
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