felt his conscience reproach him for what he had done:  he pictured to himself those unfortunate people leaving the hospital in tears, sinking with weakness and grief, and perhaps calling for curses upon him.  He thought of the three days that they had been without either bread or broth, and he fancied he saw their pale and emaciated countenances, and began to consider each of them individually, as you just now began to consider the trees of the forest.  There was not one of them that he would not have shed his blood to save.  He could not endure the idea of all the evil which he had caused them, and endeavoured to throw all the blame upon the director.  He wrote to his agent, desiring him to send relief to a considerable amount, and as soon as it was possible, he set off himself to this estate, where he had not been for a long time.  On his arrival, he repaired to the town where the hospital had been:  it was closed:  the last patient had left it, and the house was to be sold to satisfy the creditors.  Monsieur de Marne perceived that a great many people avoided him; the lawsuit had given them a very bad opinion of him, and the friends and relations of the director had contributed to increase it; indeed, the misery which had been caused to so many poor people had thrown an odium over the whole affair, and turned every person against him.  The report spread that he was come to purchase the house and the rest of the hospital lands; and one day, as he was passing through the streets, the children threw stones at him.  He began to feel all the injury he had done, and a thousand circumstances perpetually reminded him of it.  The son of Jacques, the poor man whose widow he had assisted, had broken his leg, and it remained quite distorted.  Monsieur de Marne told his mother that she ought to have had it set.  “That would have been easy,” she replied, “when there was an hospital here; but now”------and she stopped.

’He saw that the country people were neglecting to cultivate their gardens, which he knew had been profitable to them, and inquired the reason.  “Oh,” said they, “we used to sell our vegetables to the hospital; but now”------and they stopped; and Monsieur de Marne saw that every one’s mind was filled with a subject which it would be impossible for him ever to forget.  He was about to quit the country, and even to sell his estate, when an epidemical disease broke out in the next village.  It was prevalent there almost every year; and it was for that reason especially that the hospital had been originally founded by a man of wealth, who, having been attacked by the disease, made a vow that, if he recovered, he would found an hospital, into which all the poor of the village, and of a certain distance round it, should be received and taken care of.  “When his benevolent object was completed, all the poor, on the first symptom of disease, repaired to the hospital, where, from the care and attention they received, they in most cases soon recovered;