tim's cries had been loud enough to alarm the whole street. He had shouted "Au secours au secours!" in the unmistakable accents of one engaged in a struggle of life and death, and not an instant, therefore, was to be lost. Hastily they seized upon a few of the coveted objects, thrust them into their pockets, and ran down stairs. The first and second flights were cleared without interruption, but at the foot of the lowest they saw two men approaching, gentlemen by their appearance, and the concierge of the hotel behind them carrying a light. In one of the two gentlemen, Bastide, to his astonishment, recognised Monsieur de la Roquetaillade. He bent his head and tried to force his way, but the blood with which his face was bespattered revealed the crime which the strangers, hearing cries from the house as they were passing by, had hurried to prevent, and his progress and that of his companion was opposed. A conflict at once ensued; all four were powerful men, but the odds were against the murderers: before they could free themselves from their antagonists, a crowd was assembled within the porte cochère, officers of police arrived, and they were arrested.

Caught, red-handed, in the fact, with the body of the jeweller still warm, and his property on their persons, there could be no doubt of the guilt of Bréval and Bastide, and at their trial, which Monsieur de la Roquetaillade attended as a principal witness, they were found guilty; but as the surgeons declared that the Genevese had been killed with only one blow, and as the ownership of the weapon that caused his death could be traced to neither of the culprits, "extenuating circumstances" were added to the verdict, and instead of death, the galleys for life was the sentence passed on each.

In the course of the trial, the searching interrogations of a French court of justice brought to light many particulars which made Monsieur de la Roquetaillade acquainted with Michel Bastide's whole course of life. That he was the thief who stole his ring and subsequently invented a lie to conceal the embezzlement of the money with which he had been trusted, became perfectly clear; though Bastide, in an interview with the Count in prison, refused to confess anything, and maintained throughout a sullen silence, not even yielding an answer to his earnest solicitation to tell him whether his child were alive or dead.

It was an accidental circumstance that took Monsieur de la Roquetaillade to Paris at the moment when the murder of the jeweller was perpetrated. He had been summoned from his post to give information to the government on some questions which vitally affected] the French trade in the Levant, and thus happened to be upon the spot. When his business was concluded he went back to his wife with strange intelligence, leaving behind him a deadly enemy, powerless, it is true, to all appearance, but still implacable.

It is no wonder, then, that a man of strong passions, vindictive as he was subtle, should seek to revenge himself in every way upon one to whose interference was owing the fatal mark by which his breast was branded; no wonder that Michel Bastide, when he escaped from Toulon, should seek to dishonour the name of Monsieur de la Roquetaillade by using it as his own, and try to blast with felony the character of the boy in whom he had discovered Monsieur de la Roquetaillade's long-lost

son.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SITTING FOR ONE'S PICTURE.

On the evening of the day after the excursion to Richmond, Michel Bastide kept his appointment at the lodging of Coupendeux. He found the tailor full of hope and excitement, having received a very profitable order for clothes, on which he was busily at work. That did not interest Bastide, all he wanted to know having reference to the movements of his former master. Coupendeux had not, of course, anything to report of what took place during his interview with Monsieur de la Roquetaillade, beyond the circumstances that concerned himself, but he did not quit the hotel without a long conversation with the Count's valet, Monsieur Duval, who was only too delighted to have a Frenchman to talk to. From him he learned the following particulars, which we give in the tailor's words:

"After mutual compliments," said Coupendeux, "and the offer on my part to cut him, gratuitously, a superb suit of black out of the materials I was commissioned to buy for his master-an offer acknowledged by him with effusion-we took a cup of coffee together, and soon became excellent friends.

"Is it long,' I demanded, 'since you placed yourself in relation with Monsieur de la Roquetaillade?'

"It is now two years,' returned Monsieur Duval, evidently charmed with the delicate manner in which I alluded to his position; for he saw in me at once a man who understands les bienséances.'

"Bah!' ejaculated Bastide. Go on!'

"And where,' I continued, 'have you chiefly resided ?'

"Sometimes in one place, sometimes in another; at our château in the department of the Garonne, near Agen, and at our hotel in the Faubourg Saint-Germain of Paris

"Diable!" interrupted Bastide.

"Well ?"

"Occasionally,' pursued Monsieur Duval, 'we go to the baths of Néris, Vichy, or wherever the physicians send us, our health,—that is to say, the health of Madame la Comtesse being chancelante—but generally speaking, during the proper seasons, those are the places where we are to be found.'

"Monsieur de la Roquetaillade, then,' I permitted myself to observe, 'is a nobleman of large estate?'

"By a combination of fortunate events,' answered my friend, he has become so. If it is not trespassing too much upon time, which I am convinced is of the greatest value to the world in general as to yourself,' -you see, Monsieur Duval is not a stupid,' I will inform you in what

manner.'

"I assured him my time was entirely at his disposition, and he proceeded :

"Monsieur le Comte had originally a good fortune of his own, but, as far as I can learn, he suffered so much by bad speculations of an extensive nature, and the loss of an important procès, affecting the inheritance of Madame la Comtesse, who is an English lady, that he was

induced to enter the diplomatic service, and accepted the post of consul at Athens, one of the islands of the Mediterranean ocean, not far from Jerusalem.'

"Yes,' I remarked, 'I have heard of Athens. They do not wear coats in that island. I have seen, at the Louvre, statues of those people, absolutely without clothing, which proves to me that they must be savages.'

666

It is possible,' replied Monsieur Duval. I have never been there, for I am a native of Bordeaux, and became known to my patron in my native city, on his return from that strange place. There had been what I may term an epidemic in the family of Monsieur le Comte, his greatuncle and three cousins having all died within the space of five years, leaving him sole heir to the property of the former, upon which he renounced diplomacy and settled in France. On the occasion of which I spoke, when Madame la Comtesse lost her procès, Monsieur le Comte visited England, a country he would never have desired to see again, but for a particular circumstance-indeed, I may say, for two reasons, though one of them is a secret which I would only reveal to a man of honour like yourself, who knows how to respect a confidential communication.'

"It is unnecessary for me to swear by the sacred ashes of my mother,' I returned; nevertheless, I am ready to do so if you desire it.' "On the contrary,' said Monsieur Duval, it would wound me to the heart to shock your feelings by an appearance of distrust. The candour that shines in your countenance satisfies me of your discretion. The first motive of Monsieur le Comte in coming here for the second time was to profit by a magnificent succession which has fallen to Madame la Comtesse by the death of a venerable lady, her aunt; the secoud, if I must assign to it only that rank, had for its object to ascertain the existence of a child supposed to have died in its infancy, having been left, for hygienic reasons, with its nurse, when Monsieur le Comte and Madame la Comtesse quitted England. It was only three or four days ago that an accidental occurrence revealed to them that the child was still living, their expectations being, by the kind permission of le bon Dieu, thus doubly crowned.""

The countenance of Bastide assumed a singular expression at hearing this last piece of information, and he asked Coupendeux if the valet had stated what the occurrence was to which the revelation was owing?" "That was precisely my inquiry," rejoined the tailor. "I have seen,' I said, at the theatre of the Porte Saint Martin, a drama, in which the heir of a noble family is recognised by the lively similitude of a cockchafer impressed on one of the surfaces of the epidermis suddenly, by a torn garment, exposed to view. Did this discovery partake of that nature ?'

"His answer was in the negative.

"In effect,' he replied, they have beheld no part of their offspring's person, for as yet they have not seen him at all." "

A grim smile spread over the face of Bastide, but he made no observation, and Conpendeux went on.

"To what circumstance, then,' I asked, 'is to be ascribed the knowledge of which you speak ?""

"To this,' returned Monsieur Duval. In former years-as far back as the period of Monsieur le Comte's residence in England—a very wicked fellow was my predecessor in the office which I have the honour to hold. This villain-can you credit it, Monsieur ?-did a thing wholly unheard of! He robbed his master! Not only of valuable property, but also of money, with which he absconded, at the same time persuading Monsieur le Comte by means of documents, whose testimony seemed undoubted, that the infant whom he had been sent to reclaim from its nurse had died. Afterwards this man became notorious amongst thieves, and, having committed a murder in Paris, was branded as a felon, and sent for life to the galleys at Toulon, where, if living, he now expiates his numerous crimes.'

Another smile, bitter but triumphant, played for an instant on the thin lips of the listener to this narrative of his own misdeeds.

"Did he mention the name of the hero of this pleasant tale?" he carelessly inquired.

"He called him Michel Bastide," replied Coupendeux. "When one hears the name of a rascal like that one does not readily forget it."

"No!" said Bastide. "Such rascals fortunately are great rarities. Let us be thankful, mon cher, that neither you nor I have ever met with

one.

But what was the end of all this galimatias, none of which, I imagine, will prove of interest to my cousin Marguérite ?"

"The end of it," returned Coupendeux, "was, that we had each of us a chasse-café of excellent cognac, and I came away."

"Monsieur de la Roquetaillade," said Bastide, after a short pause, seems to bestow his confidence very freely: a defect in his character, as it strikes me. However, that is his affair. I think Monsieur Duval led you to believe that he had never seen his far-off predecessor !" "Evidently not."

ap

"And I should say," pursued Bastide, in a cynical manner, "that the Comte de la Roquetaillade was not likely to have preserved his portrait, so that Monsieur Duval's curiosity, if he has any, remains ungratified. A la bonne heure! But, do you know, Coupendeux, your new friend pears so pleasant a person that I should like to make his acquaintance. You must give him an invitation to sup with you; he will doubtless be glad of an opportunity to escape from the monotony of the hotel, where, probably, there are none but English people; and I can meet him here." "With all my heart," said Coupendeux, "and we can have a little écarté. I shall see him again to-morrow morning, and will ask him for the same evening."

"I will look in, then, in the course of the day. Adieu!"

Bastide went straight to the Devonshire Hotel, and wistfully examined the range of windows in front; this scrutiny over without apparently affording him the satisfaction he sought, he went round to the Mews behind, and made a longer and closer examination. He then turned away, and was lost to the sight of the policeman on the beat, whose attention his movements had attracted.

THE FRENCH ALMANACKS FOR 1862.

THE annual recurrence of a class of publications, which some are inclined to treat with too great an indifference, presents us with an excellent opportunity of treating of various minor matters and topics, which are not precisely adapted for formal or lengthy notice, and which it is, nevertheless, grievous to pass by altogether. The French Almanacks, which are not so business-like as the same class of publications in our own country, and do not devote themselves to particular interests, as in the instance of our Clerical, Agricultural, Gardening, Meteorological, and other annuals, but seek simply to amuse and at the same time inform the public generally, are especially adapted for this kind of treatment.

The great topics of the past year were the eclipse and the comet; the progress of French arms in China, in Cochin-China, and in Syria; the cession of Menton and Roquebrune to France; Garibaldi in Italy, and the siege of Gaeta; the advent of the Siamese ambassadors; geographical discovery; commercial reform; literature and the drama; the opening of the Boulevard Malesherbes, and of the canal of Suez; for, with respect to the latter, we are gravely told that "au point où sont les travaux, il est humainement certain que l'année 1862 verra un canal.”

The antithesis is admirable, and is, we have no doubt, duly appreciated by the unfortunate Mentonites and Roquebrunites.

Passing over all questions as to the origin of species, or specific creations, or developmental energies, it is gratifying to know that although Providence has endowed particular countries with peculiar forms of animal and vegetable life, it has not limited their existence to the countries in which they have apparently had their origin. Every one knows how many plants and animals now acclimatised in this country we are indebted for to others. Why should not this apply to fish as well as to animals, birds, and plants? It must be acknowledged that the French are before us in this respect. They are always making experiments in this useful direction, and some, as in the case of the Prussian carp, have been most successful.

A gentleman sent into China on a special mission by the French government, M. Eugène Simon, has made a valuable report on the fish and fisheries of that country, and has also despatched specimens of several kinds, which he thinks capable of being bred in Europe. He speaks of these in the highest terms, and says that it would not be difficult to select forty or fifty species worthy of observation. Amongst others is the Lo-in, or king of fish, classed as Crenilabrus by Dr. Bridgman, measuring sometimes six or seven feet in length, weighing from fifty to two hundred pounds, or even more, and said to be equal to the famous salmon of the Rhine. Then come the Lien-in-wang and the Kan-in, almost as good, and even larger in size than the other; the Li-in, finer than any carp in Europe, and weighing sometimes thirty pounds; and the Ki-in, or Tsi-in, which does not weigh more than ten or twelve pounds or so, and is the finest and most delicate of all in flavour, partaking at once of the characteristics of the trout and sole. M. Simon also speaks of the immense care which the Chinese in former times paid to the embankment