But she had soon tired of domestic servitude, and for the last year she had supported herself by sewing waistcoats in a great wholesale establishment.

At the commencement of the siege she had been discharged, and for some days she found employment in a Government workshop, but for the last three weeks she had wandered here and there, vainly asking for work.

One by one she had sold every article of dress she possessed, except the scanty garments she wore, and she had lived upon bread and celery.

The day before she had spent her last sou, and when I saw her she had come down to the river, starving and exhausted, to throw herself into it.

"But the water looked so cold, I did not dare," she said.