Produced by David Edwards, Christine Aldridge and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Stanford University, SUL Books in the Public Domain) Transcriber's Notes: 1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. 2. Passages in Gothic Bold are surrounded by +plus+ signs. 3. Other transcription notes appear at the end of this e-text. [Illustration: "_'Cecily! Cecily!' Murmured a Voice_" Original Etching by Adrian Marcel] +The Mysteries of Paris.+ _ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS BY MERCIER, BICKNELL, POITEAU, AND ADRIAN MARCEL._ _BY EUGENE SUE_ _IN SIX VOLUMES VOLUME V._ _PRINTED FOR FRANCIS A. NICCOLLS & CO. BOSTON_ +Edition de Luxe+ _This edition is limited to one thousand copies, of which this is_ No.______ CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE PRESENTATION 11 II. MURPHY AND POLIDORI 35 III. THE CLERK'S OFFICE 57 IV. AVOID TEMPTATION 69 V. LA FORCE 99 VI. PIQUE-VINAIGRE 114 VII. MAITRE BOULARD 139 VIII. FRANCOIS GERMAIN 148 IX. THE LIONS' DEN 169 X. THE STORY-TELLER 193 XI. GRINGALET AND CUT-IN-HALF 211 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE "'CECILY! CECILY!' MURMURED A VOICE" _Frontispiece_ "SLOWLY DANCING AND WHIRLING AROUND ME" 26 "THEN LEFT ME" 126 "TOUCHED WITH HIS LIPS THROUGH THE GRATING" 167 "THE SKELETON STAGGERED AT FIRST" 243 THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS. CHAPTER I. THE PRESENTATION. A few days after the murder of Madame Seraphin, the death of the Chouette, and the arrest of the gang of desperadoes taken by surprise at Bras-Rouge's house, Rodolph paid another visit to the house in the Rue du Temple. We have already observed that, with the view of practising artifice for artifice with Jacques Ferrand, discovering his hidden crimes, obliging him to repair them, and inflicting condign punishment should the guilty wretch, either by skill or hypocrisy, continue to evade the just punishment of the laws, Rodolph had sent to fetch from one of the prisons in Germany a young and beautiful creole, the unworthy wife of the negro David. This female, lovely in person as depraved in mind, as fascinating as dangerous, had reached Paris the preceding evening, and had received the most minute instructions from Baron de Grauen.