Feel sorry, in a way, for the French (3)
I believe the answer is:
rue
'feel sorry' is the definition.
(to rue something is to regret it)
'way for the french' is the wordplay.
'way' becomes 'e' (Compass direction - East).
'for' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'the french' becomes 'ru' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'e' put after 'ru' is 'RUE'.
'in a' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rue that I've seen before include "Fish eggs" , "French way" , "Feel sorry" , "show you're sorry!" , "Feel bad" .)