In 1788, I would not have followed a starving wretch who would have dragged me to the den where she lived under police supervision; but it is probable that, in 1606, I should have seen the end of an adventure of the kind which Bassompierre[204] has told so well. * "Five or six months ago," says the marshal, "each time that I passed over the Petit Pont"--for in those days the Pont Neuf was not built--"a pretty woman, a sempstress at the sign of the Two Angels, made me deep courtesies and followed me with her eyes as far as she could; and as I had heeded her action, I also looked at her and greeted her with greater care. "It happened that when I arrived from Fontainebleau in Paris, passing over the Petit Pont, so soon as she saw me coming, she put herself at the door of her shop, and said, as I passed: "'Sir, I am your servant.' "I returned her greeting, and turning round from time to time, I saw that she followed me with her eyes as far as she could." Bassompierre obtained an assignation. [Sidenote: Bassompierre's adventure.] "I found," he says, "a very beautiful woman, twenty years of age, who had her head dressed for the night, wearing naught but a very fine shift and a short petticoat of green stuff, and slippers on her feet, with a wrapper around her. She pleased me mightily. I asked her if I could not see her once again. "'If you wish to see me again,' she replied, 'it shall be at the house of one of my aunts, who lives in the Rue Bourg-l'Abbé, near the Markets, next to the Rue aux Ours, the third door on the side of the Rue Saint-Martin; I will await you there from ten o'clock till midnight, and later yet; I will leave the door open. At the entrance, there is a little passage through which you will go quickly, for the door of my aunt's room opens on it, and you will find a stair which will bring you to the second floor.' "I came at ten o'clock and found the door she had indicated, and a great light, not only on the second floor, but on the third and the first too; but the door was closed. I knocked to show that I had come; but I heard a man's voice ask who I was. I returned to the Rue aux Ours, and having returned for the second time, finding the door opened, I climbed to the second floor, where I found that the light was the straw of the bed which they were burning, and two naked bodies lying upon the table in the room. Thereupon I retired greatly amazed, and in going out I met some crows"--buriers of the dead--"who asked me what I sought; and I, to make them turn aside, took sword in hand and passed out, returning to my lodging, somewhat moved by this unlooked-for sight[205]." *