THE THREE FRIENDS THE ARTIST'S DAUGHTER THE BLIND MAN OF ARGENTEUIL THE BRIDAL WREATH THE DUKE OF NORMANDY DUTCH ANNA THE LOCKSMITH OF PHILADELPHIA TALES FOR YOUNG AND OLD.

THE BLIND MAN OF ARGENTEUIL.

' Three weeks from that time there was great excitement in the village of Argenteuil.

In short, the large room of the hotel was for this day transformed into a justice-chamber, where Laurence Bigot, assisted by the magistrate of Argenteuil, questioned numerous witnesses about the murder of Zambelli.

When he was about to return, in despair of accomplishing his object, he was informed that, some months before, a corpse had been discovered hid in a vineyard near Argenteuil.

When his way led through Argenteuil, he was always admitted to the hotel, and having arrived that day, he had seated himself unnoticed, in his usual place in the chimney-corner.

But what could a blind man, and one so long absent from Argenteuil, have to communicate?

Then the old man related how, many months since, he was leaving Argenteuil on his usual pilgrimage, and had gained the high ground beyond the village, when the violent barking of his dog caused him to listen attentively.

Call the people of Argenteuil; they will tell you how they amuse themselves with embarrassing me, and saying, in counterfeited tones, "Who speaks to thee?"

Some hours after, Laurence Bigot departed for Rouen, and everything went on as usual in the village of Argenteuil.

The murder of the merchant of Lucca, the arrest of the presumed criminal, the discovery of the body of his supposed victim, the unhoped-for testimony given by a blind man at Argenteuil, furnished an inexhaustible subject of discussion for the crowd that thronged the avenues of the palace.

The parliament, after many long debates, had decided that the blind man of Argenteuil should be heard.

At the first words that Martel uttered, in reply to the president's questions, the blind man, who, ignorant of his presence, had hitherto remained quiet and immovable, suddenly bent forward, listening intently; then shrinking back with horror and fear, cried out: 'It is he!it is the voice that I heard on the heights of Argenteuil!'

Fresh questions elicited fresh replies; but the blind man, shaking his head with an air of incredulity, immediately cried out: 'No, no; it is all a feint; that is the voice which conversed with me on the heights of Argenteuil.'

I had likewise been very lately at Argenteuil, once the place of her asylum described by Pope: In these deep solitudes and awful cells and had the same day witnessed the ruins of the house in which Abélard was born, and in which Héloïse resided and became a mother, and from whence she used to make frequent visits to this spot: all these circumstances combined, gave the scene before me a most powerful interest.

But I must be gone to discover an underground passage the Sisters of Marie-Joseph, in their contumacy, have driven right from the Prison of Saint-Lazare to the Mother Convent in the village of Argenteuil.

In the smallest villages, as well as in Paris, the mortality was such that at Argenteuil, for example, where there were wont to be numbered seven hundred hearths, there remained no more than forty or fifty."

HELOÏSE, niece of Canon Fulbert, born at Paris; celebrated for her amour with ABELARD (q. v.); became prioress of the convent of Argenteuil and abbess of the Paraclete, where she founded a new convent and lived a pious life (1101-1164).

It was just at this unfortunate juncture that he went to live in the house of a certain Canon Fulbert, of the cathedral, whose brilliant niece, Héloïse, had at the age of seventeen just returned from a convent at Argenteuil, where she had been at school.

As the facts were too patent, however, Abélard removed her from Paris, and placed her in the convent at Argenteuil, where she had been educated.

Without any vocation, as he well knew, he assumed the monkish habit and retired to the monastery of St. Denis, while Héloïse, by his order, took the veil at Argenteuil.

Meanwhile the jealous abbot of St. Denis succeeded in establishing a claim to the lands of the convent at Argenteuil,of which Héloïse, long since famous not only for learning but also for saintliness, was now the head,and she and her nuns were violently evicted and cast on the world.

When prioress of Argenteuil, you practiced all these duties; and if you give the same attention to your daughters that you then gave to your sisters, it is enough.