So he is very popular among a certain class of women, and the
people who have put him where he is, have never perhaps been loved as
much as Ambroise.
In the middle of the garden, in a little lake shaded by a willow-tree
and bordered by plants, is a swan. With one stroke of its leg it can
swim from one side of the pond to the other, and although it crosses it
a hundred times a day and catches gold fishes to while away the time, it
never thinks of wandering away.
Further on, in a line against the wall, are some cages for rare animals
from foreign lands destined for the Museum of Paris. Most of the cages,
however, were empty. In front of one, in a narrow grated yard, a convict
was teaching a young wild-cat to obey commands like a dog. Hasn't this
man had enough of slavery himself? Why does he torment this poor little
beast? The lashes with which he is threatened he gives the wild-cat,
which, some day, will probably take its revenge by jumping over the iron
railing and killing the swan.
One moonlit evening, we decided to take a stroll through the streets
known to be frequented by _filles de joie_. They are very numerous. The
navy, the artillery, the infantry, each has its own particular streets,
without mentioning the penitentiary, which covers a whole district of
the city.
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