CHAP. IV.

ON my arrival I found Adelaide surrounded by her blooming daughters. I quickly marked a great alteration in her appearance. Her look was strange and confused; her form was emaciated; her countenance pale. She lifted her eyes as I entered, but immediately dropped them again. Then I soon perceived that she was far gone. Having saluted my children, I addressed myself to Adelaide, telling her that I must have some conversation with her instantly.

"Instantly!" said she, in a fluttering voice, "you're in a great hurry indeed." She now offered to rise, which she did with some difficulty; upon which she observed, "Ah, Reginald, your neglect has driven me to this!"

"I am come to you," cried I, "a repenting prodigal. Take me and mould me at your pleasure."

Next morning, as I sat surrounded with my children, a second consequence of my wealth, still more alarming than the former, occurred to me. Certain officers of justice belonging to the supreme tribunal of the city, entered the room. They were sent, as they informed me, to conduct me to prison. My blood at this intelligence mounted into my face, and thinking

to daunt them, I told them I was a gentleman of France, and that they would repent this insolence.

"You will please not to talk of insolence to us," was their reply; "if you do not demean yourself quietly

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Here a delicious, a delightful little incident must not be passed over.

Julia, who was ready to faint, occupied the attention of her mother. The little Marguerite clung round my knees, and shewed that this was a spectacle which the affectionateness of her nature was unable to endure.

Seeing this, a speech full of nature directly struck me, which I made to the officers.-It was this: "See how you have terrified the children!"

Then my little Marguerite said (O so prettily!) "They shall not take you away, papa; that they shall not! I will hold you, and will

not let you go!"

Finding however, that they would have me, she, flinging her arms around my neck, cried, "good bye, papa, good bye!"

The following day I was brought up for ex-amination. I entered the room naughtily, and with the most sovereign and ineffable contempt sitting on my brow for every soul in court. I tried on the judge what had failed on his myr

midons.

"Do you know, sir," said I, "that I am a gentleman of France ?" Of this however the magistrate took no notice. But he presently

much abated my pride, and astonished my hearing by this speech.

"Seven years ago, you can well remember, that you and your family were almost perishing with hunger. But within the last six months the scene is wholly changed. You appear to have suddenly grown rich, and here and in other parts of Germany have actually disbursed enormous sums. Now, the stranger who was seen with you at your cottage on the lake, died, or in some manner disappeared about six months since, while under your protection. In the registers of the church there is no notice of that event. You are required to account clearly and unequivocally for these circumstances. If you do not, you will, according to our laws, the mildest in the universe, be condemned to perpetual imprisonment."

Feeling that I could not answer these questions, I determined to carry it off with a high hand, and after some little dialogue between me and the judge, during which, by the way of quizzing each other, we used the terms, Monsieur le Comte, and Monsieur le Juge, I said, "I feel myself animated by the soul of honour, and incapable of crime. I know my innocence, and I rest on it with confidence. vulgar citizens, habituated to none but the grovelling notions of traffic and barter, are not the peers of D'Orveau, nor able to comprehend the views and sentiments by which HE is guided. Your prisons I despise!"

This was a clincher!

Your

"What!" exclaimed the judge, "have you the insolence to brave our authority, and scorn our proffered lenity? But we will see how far you can carry your contumacy." Then turning to the officers, he sternly ordered them to bear me to prison, and added, "He will soon learn there to entertain more respect for this tribunal, and more docility of temper. I was about to reply.

"I have done with you;"-said the judge. "Away with him!”

Soon after I was confined in prison, I learned that Monsieur Monluc, an agent of the court of France, making a tour of several of the German states, was then at the city of Constance. To him I applied, in hopes of obtaining my release. After some days investigation, he came, perfectly prepossessed against me, and when he had heard my story, and told me that my appeal was full of energy, that he admired, at least the gallantry of my sentiments, &c. &c. he made his bow, and I never saw him more.

I might now be said to have reached the end of my adventure: I had closed one grand experiment upon the donation of the stranger, and witnessed the fallacy of my calculations on the possession of his gift. Here I was, in prison, deprived of the aid of powerful friends from without, or even the means of awakening their sympathies in my favour. However, there was another experiment which I had neglected, almost never-failing in its operations, and which might have had its effect even on Monsieur

Monluc-Bribery.-This was now my last resort. Impressed with this opinion, I fixed upon a negro, a servant of the prison, and who had the keys of my apartment, as the subject of my pecuniary experiment.

I had been listening one day to my wife's voice as to the sound of an angelic lyre; I was all ear, when I heard my keeper open the door. Adelaide had left me in tears, and I was considering from what cause they could arise—I knew they sprung from various sources, and amongst others, according to Homer, Odyss. 19. and Heliodorus, Ethiop. b. 5. from too much wine-I was thinking of this, I say, at the time the negro entered, which I deemed the best, being alone, to sound him on my purpose. I began,

"You are very poor," said I.

"So they tell me," said he.

I was surprised at the propriety of his answers. I am unable at this distance of time to recall the defects of his language; and I disdain the mimic toil of inventing a jargon;—yes, my characters shall all think and speak like philosophers, such philosophers as myself. I went on: "It is a very sad thing to be poor!"

"Why, yes," said he, "so I have heard,sir." I had before been struck with a certain correctness of thinking in him; but his last answer was so just and philosophical, that I could not help gazing upon him with amazement. I marked the lineaments of his face, in which I faneied I decerned the interminable lines which