The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-15 00:00:00

THE FEMALE FOOTPAD.

Lately, as the Countess of N. was going int.
the church of St. Thomas Aquinas in Paris, she was
accosted by a young woman clethed in rags, her pale
and haggard countenance bearing ample evidence to
the severity of her mental and physical sufferings. Clad
in nasty rags, which dingily represented the trap-
pings of woe, the gill might still have been
deemed beautiful but. for the sickly pale cast of
thought and premature wrinkles which furrowed
her brow. " Madame la Comtesse," she exclaimed in a
voice gentle and low as overwhelmed by shame and emo-
tion, " you are rich, good, and charitable ; I am in sor-
row and misery, have pity on me, and relieve my wants."
She whose hand was ever open to relieve the distressed,
finding that she had forgotten her purse, told the girl to
wait for her at the church-door whilst she attended
mass, and that on her return she should accompany her
to her hotel where her wants should be relieved.
" And is net the giving alms as good a work as attend-
ing mass," reified the fair mendicant, " your prayers
will detain you far an hour, and long ere the t has
elapsed I shall not have the power to fellow you, for
even now I am fainting." The Countess, shocked at,
the piteous demeanour of the wretched girl, told her to
follow her to the hotel. The charitable lady and her
tattered guest forthwith rroceedel to the Countess's
bedroom, when the girl bolted the door, and, drawing
from under her rags a book and a pistol, she laid the
former on the writ Men, and presented the latter at
the Countess, calling upon her to swear by all that was
sacred she would never reveal anything that occur: el,
The terrified Countess sprang to the bell, but she was
stopped by the firm grasp of the sturdy mendicant,
who ordered her, in terms not to be misunderstood or
disputed by those who value their breath and brains, to
draw forth six bank bills, for I,ooof. each, which she
knew to lie imprisoned in the writing-case on the table.
The notes were there and so was the pistol, so the
Countess did not hesitate to take the required oath,
drew forth the money, and the female Jack Sheppard
departed, regretting the stern necessity which com-
pelled her to adopt so harsh a measure, but solemnly
promising that the money should be repaid as soon as
possible.
Two hours after this event, a young and joyous gri-
sette bounced into the apartments of an extravagant
scope-grace of a student, who delis ed a precarious and
unhealthy subsistence from bills and post obits. Throw-
ing her arms round the student's neck, she exclaimed,
"Mon cher Auguste, this very night will we caper at
the hal masque." "Ma there Eglantine," replied the
knight of the sorrowful countenance, " every cursed Jew
and money-lender is lying wait to pounce upon me in
every nook and corner of this charming city of Paris."
(due le diable cmporte all Jews and usurers," quoth
the grisette ; " I have herewithal to keep them at bay ;"
and, throwing back his flaxen locks, the laughing girl
laid before the astonished Auguste the 6,000 francs, and
then gave the details of what she called an admirable
" farce du carnisal." In spite of the prayers, ejacula-
tions, caresses, and entreaties of the pretty grisette,
Auguste hurried to his aunt, the Countess de N.,
whom he found, as he expected, closeted with the Com-
missaire de Police. As soon as the functionary had
taken his departure, the prodigal Auguste threw him-
self into the arms of his kind-hearted aunt, and narrated
how his " Chere Eglantine" had availed herself of her
skill as a mimic to procure for her dissipated loser the
means of " keeping it up" during the carnival. The
good Gountess, faithful to her oath, had not even men-
, tioned the subject to the Commissaire. She immedi-
ately forgave her nephew and his pretty agent, laughed
heartily at the ads enture, and concluded by requesting
a list of the student's debts, which have since been paid ;
and he who was but a student in name is now one in
practice, preferring the classic shades of Sorbonnc to
the noisy gambols of the carnival. ,