feet wide, without a parapet! I was too
impatient to make trial of my aerial construction
to contemplate it very long at a distance, and
discover its defects: to hesitate under such
circumstances was to retreat. But love
performs impossibilities -- and I was mad with
love!

I only looked at the happy termination of
the path which I had to travel in the air, and
I bravely ventured cross-legs on this plank,
which bent and shook at every motion I made.
When I was in the middle of the bridge, which
was ready to give way with me, and when I
measured with a glance that frightful
perpendicular height, I felt a cold shiver to the very
tip of my hair, and I shut my eyes to save
myself from falling, for a giddiness made the
neighbouring objects turn and twist, caused
a singing in my ears, and a grinding of my
teeth, made my blood stagnate, and my heart
beat. It was only for one moment, a terrible
moment, that I fancied I must be killed, and I
forgot Nanette; then I took courage, and as
it was more difficult to go back than to
advance, I did advance, resigned to what
might happen. I owed thanks to my lucky
star when I got into harbour without
shipwreck, and escaped from that horrible
nightmare by reaching the shore: that is to say,
Nanette's window. This window, which I
pushed gently, resisted my efforts; from
which I concluded that it was fastened, and I
directly sought for a method of opening it
without making a noise. I determined, however,
on no account to raise the siege of a
place which was almost carried by storm. I
listened whether Nanette did not wake, and I
pressed my face against the dim glass in the
hope of distinguishing what was going on
within. I perceived a reddish glimmer, which
tinged the white curtains of the bed with a
spectral light, and I wondered at this great
fire kindled on the hearth in the midst of
summer.

A deep sigh attracted my looks and my
attention down below into the street, where a man
was standing sentinel. The presence of this
troublesome witness, who seemed to have
stopped for the purpose of observing me,
urged me to hasten the dénouement of the
adventure, and I darted a more searching
glance into the chamber. I then beheld all:--zxs
Nanette, stretched upon her bed but not
undressed, seemed deprived of consciousness;
a brasier of charcoal near her surrounded her
with an atmosphere of poisonous smoke: she
was on the point of perishing, if she was not
already dead of suffocation.

I hesitated no longer; I forgot the man
who was watching me, and the fragile support
on which I was suspended; I threw myself
with all my strength against the worm-eaten
sashes, and smashed them in pieces, as well as
the glass panes, which I could hear rattle
down upon the pavement. But I had entered
Nanette's chamber, and the fresh air which
rushed upon her immediately counteracted
the influence of that stupefying smoke. I
stamped and extinguished the burning
charcoal under my feet, and, almost suffocated
myself, I ran to the assistance of the insensible
Nanette; I called her by name, I rubbed
her hands in mine, and moistened her temples
with cold water.

Sensation gradually returned; but,
paralysed by the effects of the vapour, she
revealed the thoughts which had lulled her
sleep of death.

"Athanase! is it you? " said she, stretching
out her arms as if to embrace me. " I have
killed myself for grief because I had no more
hope of becoming your wife. Athanase, my
love, pardon me, and think of your poor
Nanette!"

"Confusion! " thought I to myself, with
disappointment. " Athanase! 'tis not me
then that she loves? 'tis a little late for me to
learn the truth. Why did not she tell me?
I should not have run the risk of breaking
my neck; yes, but then I should not have
saved her!"

"Athanase! ah! it is not he; " she continued,
regaining the use of her senses as
the carbonic exhalations were driven off by
the sharp night-air. "You here, M. Jacob?
Who gave you leave to intrude into my
room? You are not come to prevent me from
dying? But you are mistaken; I do not love
you. I love none but Athanase Gerbier, and
I am dying because they have made him a
priest."

"You shall not die, Mademoiselle," I
replied, the more respectfully that I had it at
heart to repair the errors of my presumption;
"I deceived myself, I confess, and I beg you
to forget it, in return for the service which
I am rendering to my neighbour Athanase,
by restoring you to him safe and sound. A
few minutes later, I shudder at the thought
of it, and you would have been lost. Pardon
me for having entered by your window."

"Pardon you? " cried a thundering voice,
which proceeded from my own chamber.
'' Yes, when I have punished you for your
infamous treachery; when I shall have
trampled you both under my feet, and
overwhelmed you with scorn. Where is the
wretch, that I may strangle him!"

At these words, the plank of the bridge
rattled and tottered under the steps of a
man, who darted into the attic; and, with
his fist raised, threw me down near the
bed on which Nanette was still lying,
feeble and almost asleep, as if she were
intoxicated. That voice, those steps, and
the blow which felled me to the ground,
awoke her from her stupor and she sat up
pale and haggard.

"Nanette," said he, stammering with rage,
"I find you faithless and culpable! I who
have renounced my father, my family, and
my profession, for the sake of loving you only
in the world. The very day of my departure,
you receive my rival."