"Sire de Jarnonville!" exclaimed she who had stopped the Black Chevalier. "Ah! Providence befriends me.--You will not spurn me, seigneur, you will come to my assistance. I am no courtesan; I am not one of the women who frequent this house from which you have just come. I am an honest girl, and I can hold up my head before you without fear! Perhaps you would recognize me if the daylight were not still so faint. My name is Ambroisine--I am the daughter of Master Hugonnet, the bath keeper on Rue Saint-Jacques; and you have often been to my father's place." Jarnonville gazed at the _belle baigneuse_ for some seconds, then said: "And what is Hugonnet's daughter doing, alone, in the middle of the night, in this lonely quarter, so far from her father's house?" "She is here, chevalier, in the hope of restoring peace of mind and happiness to a friend who is now in the lowest depths of despair.--Oh! this is not the first time that I have passed the whole night near this house, watching for Comte Léodgard to go in or out. There has been scarcely an evening for a month past that I have not stolen secretly from our house to come to this place to do sentry duty. My father does not know it; he thinks that I am in bed; he would be anxious if he knew that his daughter exposed herself to danger, alone, at night, in this horrible neighborhood! And yet, he could not be angry with me, for I am doing it all to save my friend." "I do not understand you." "I have no reason to conceal the truth, least of all from you, whom I know to be less hard-hearted than you choose to appear.--Comte Léodgard has seduced, dragged down into the depths of despair, a poor girl who had been, until she fell in with him, as pure as the angels. He promised her, swore on his honor, that she should be his wife. She believed in the sincerity of his love and his oaths.--Bathilde's parents discovered her sin, and drove her from their house without pity. I took her in, and my father did not blame me--far from it!--But the author of all Bathilde's sufferings, the man who lives here, Comte Léodgard---- Can you believe, seigneur, that he has utterly deserted the girl he seduced?--Bathilde wrote to him that her parents had turned her out of doors; and he has not come to see her, he has not even deigned to answer her letter. He received it, however, for I myself gave it to his concierge. In the last month, I have come here twenty times, to see him, to speak to him--it is impossible to find him! He has refused to admit me!--And that man gives grand parties in his fine house! He passes his nights in dissipation, while his poor victim weeps in despair and appeals to him in vain for a word of comfort!--Ah! it is frightful!--But I vowed that I would see this Léodgard, this unworthy nobleman, who dishonors the name he bears--that I would see him and speak to him. I am only a woman, but I am brave and determined.--To-day, Providence has permitted me to meet you, and I am deeply grateful.