His first thought when he awaked, was the secret the duchess had promised to reveal to him. But how great was his astonishment to find himself lying on a mattrass in the old chamber, with the tattered tapestry, where he had been with the Chaldean! A little fire still burned in the stove. The old yager, with his faded uniform, was standing at the window, and had no sooner perceived the movement of the sleeper, than he hurried to the door and shouted-" Master Abubeker, he is awake!"

The Chaldean entered in a moment, and, going up to the mattrass, enquir ed how he was.

"Not very well," replied Le Blond "my head feels quite puzzled ; but, for heaven's sake, tell me where I am, and what devilry you are playing with

me now."

"Where should you be, my friend, but in Valerien des Anges ?"

"Where is my castle; my wife, the Duchess de Melfi; my servants?"

The Chaldean burst into a laugh"You haven't shaken off your dreams yet, I see; but let us have no more on't. Take a drop of this tincture-it will restore your strength, for it is no joke to lie insensible for more than three months. We have had an immense deal of trouble with you. Come, take a good gulp. The tincture will do you good.'

Le Blond at first refused, but when the Chaldean declared he would answer no question till he had drank, he obeyed. The liquid flew through his blood like fire.

"Now, then," said Le Blond, "tell me where is the Duchess, my wife? I must go to her whatever may happen."

"Master Le Blond," replied Abubeker, drily, "you remember where you are, and the purpose of your coming? Don't be ridiculous, and speak like a fool. What the deuce do you mean by castles, and wives, and servants? I have a great deal more right to ask you about your behaviour in causing me such anxiety; for your trance was your own fault, by your having been guilty of some deceit or mental reservation. I warned you sufficiently before we came. Why did you behave so ill?"

"Don't play any more tricks upon me, Master Abubeker," said Le Blond,

haughtily; "where is my Chateau des Charmes-my wife, the Duchess de Melfi ?"

The Chaldean thought for a while, and then shook his head.

"There is no Duchess de Melfi in France, and no Chateau des Charmes. How came you, a lace-merchant in Namur, to marry a princess-eh? think quietly for a moment, and such nonsense will get out of your head."

"But I have letters from the Duke of Orleans-the Duke de Guiennethe Duchess of Nemours, from-yesfrom his Majesty himself."

"Have you-where are they then?" said Abubeker, with a short dry cough.

Le Blond looked round. There he lay on the mattrass, dressed in the very clothes he had travelled in from Namur. He rubbed his eyes, and jumped up. The sun was just sinking. He paced thoughtfully through the room-stood still and searched his pockets, one after the other but could discover no vestige of his ducal existence whatever.

"I wish to heaven you would tell me what the deuce has taken place! You don't wish to persuade me that I have been in a dream for a quarter of a year, when I know very well I have eaten, and drank, and slept, and waked, every day, as regularly as clockwork.”

"And you, sir," replied the Chaldean, with evident indignation, " don't mean to persuade me to believe in your trumpery dreams? Think yourself what you please, whether duke or lace-man, but be thankful to me for awakening you from your trance."

"Thankful!-there is no great occasion for thankfulness, Master Abubeker, when one is transmogrified from a duke into a dealer of silks and lace."

"Well, sir, I will argue with you no longer," said the Chaldean, quietly; "but my time is precious; the carriage is at the door, and we must back to Namur. Please to follow me."

"By no manner of means; not an inch from this spot. The Chateau des Charmes, and my wife, can't be far from this."

"If such is your opinion, Master Le Blond, you may stay here in this wood. For my part, I am off to Namur. Farewell.

The Chaldean seemed really to be

going. Le Blond thought it unadvisable to continue by himself in an unknown part of the country. He accordingly shouted to him, when he had already got to the door.

"Ho! stop, Abubeker; what's become of the treasure we were to lift?" "We will speak of that in the car

riage, when you have come to your senses a little more."

Le Blond said nothing, and followed the Chaldean. The carriage was ready drawn up, with servants before and behind. They got in, and in an instant were in full trot through the forest.

Le Blond was deep in meditation, and Abubeker had apparently no inclination to disturb him. The extraordinary rapidity of their course seemed to lull the old gentleman to sleep. The disenchanted duke, however, made two sensible observations from the swiftness of their progress. One was, that the treasure, if it was in the carriage, could not be very heavy; and the second was, that his companion must have his enchantments and disenchantments perfectly at his command, for at every station horses were ready stationed, as if the travellers had been expected.

"About the treasure, Master Abubeker, how have you got on? Did we lift it ?"

"To be sure we did," answered the Chaldean, half asleep; "it isn't quite so much as we expected, owing to your trance, but quite enough to make you comfortable as long as you live." "How much?" "Can't say." "Is it here?"

"Certainly," said the Chaldean, yawning, "but, with your leave, I am terribly tired. I shall be obliged to you to let me have an hour or two's snooze. You can determine, in the mean-time, what you will do with the money.

33

"That's determined on already. As soon as I get the money, I will search through every inch of France, till I find my chateau and wife."

"The surest method, my friend, to make your money disappear from the chest; for your good genius did not bestow it on you to be lavished away upon a dream. I am sorry for the trouble I have given you, for already your absurd resolution has made a portion of it disappear-you should use the rest wisely."

"And what do you mean by wisely,' if I may ask?"

"You love the daughter of General what's his name, in Namur."

"Ah!" said Le Blond, " 'tis no lon ger to be thought of. I am married to another-nay, in a few months I shall be a fath"

"Hush!" shouted Abubeker, "and trouble me no more with your ri diculous dream. You will lose the whole treasure. That foolish sentence has swept off a good lot of it already; if you go on, I tell you, you will ruin yourself—and, hark ye, sir, you will ruin me."

The last words were uttered in a tone that made Le Blond silent. The man had always been a riddle to him; he was now an object of suspicion. He began to think the Chaldean had played him a trick, but by no means put him in the way of a treasure. Only he could not comprehend the object of so expensive a hoax. His residence also at Charmes-that, he was well persuaded, was neither hoax nor dream.

When morning dawned, the car. riage stopped for a change of horses at a small house near a bridge, and the Chaldean yawned mightily, but seemed to compose himself again to sleep. Le Blond could keep silence no lon ger, but nudged his neighbour.

"Come, be a little open with me, Abubeker. Do you persist in saying I have been asleep all this time, and that I never"

The Chaldean whistled as if to prevent his hearing what was said; but Le Blond persevered.

"Listen to me, Abubeker-you shall never persuade me, for I am in a condition to prove what I say: I have irresistible evidence that I was really in Charmes; that I was really the busband of the duchess, and"

But Abubeker broke in on him in a voice of thunder-" Again? how often have you to be warned, young man ?"

he continued, grasping his hand, and looking sternly. "You have already lost a great part of the fortune you had won; see that you lose not all. Listen to me once and for ever. Forget your dream. Let not a syllable of your idiotical fancy pass your lips, neither to me nor to any living soulwrite it not, draw it not, let it be buried as in the tomb; on these conditions you will see me again, and be fortunate; if not"

An impressive look finished the sentence, and the Chaldean opened the door of the carriage and leapt out. At the same moment, a strong broadshouldered man tumbled in, and sat down unceremoniously at the young man's side, and the carriage rattled over the bridge.

Monsieur Le Blond was astonished at the new incident, and still more so when his new companion pulled a pistol from his breast, and said, with a dubious sort of smile, ""Tis loaded, and never fails." He then drew forth a prodigious knife, and, remarking it was very sharp, begged Le Blond to try the edge of it with his finger.

"I haven't the least wish," said the bewildered Le Blond," and believe it on your word. But why all these preparations ?"

"On the first noise you make," replied the man, quietly,-" on the first movement you show, I shall have the honour to stick this knife between your ribs, or send a bullet through your brain. I am sorry we must live on such peremptory terms; and for your own sake, I must beg you to let me tie a handkerchief over your eyes, till I tell you to open them again.'

"But why?" enquired Le Blond. "Because you are my prisoner, sir," answered his ferocious companion ; "do you consent to be blindfolded, or".

He placed the point of the knife within a few inches of Le Blond's breast.

In a situation of that kind submission is unavoidable. The bandage was tied round so scientifically that not a glimmer of daylight could be perceived. How long the journey lasted it is impossible to tell. Le Blond himself couldn't even guess. He waked and slept, and dreamt and waked again. His greatest anxiety was to know what was to be done with him-where they were carrying him. But on these points his companion gave him no information.

The carriage suddenly stopped, and Le Blond was ordered to descend. Visions of sharp knives and loaded pistols passed in quick succession before his closed eyes. The carriage in the mean time rolled off, leaving him standing blindfolded, afraid to make any motion towards removing the bandage, in case of the threat of his growling companion being carried into execution. At last, on hearing no noise he slowly lifted the handkerchief; but as to seeing any thing around him, he might just as well have kept it on. It was pitch dark, as if the night had been built of black marble. Le Blond thought he had gone blind, but as he turned himself round he saw certain lights flickering before him, which he could not doubt proceeded from the windows of a house. On looking closer he recognised the well-known

scene.

He was standing before the house of the President of the Court, in front of his own little wareroom of

silks and laces. 'The doors were closed. The clock struck twelve. Not a vestige was to be seen of carriage, or Chaldean, or man with the sharp knife! After much knocking, the door was at last opened by his gaping domestic; the carpet-bag carried into the back parlour, which appeared in precisely the same condition -not a chair moved, not a table disturbed as when he left it; and, silent and meditating many things, the weary traveller betook himself to his couch, not without some vague hopes of awakening once more in the Chateau des Charmes. But in the morning he found himself just where he was; and, on coolly reflecting over all matters, and calculating his gains by the journey, which consisted of nothing but the five thousand livres the Chaldean had given him the night before they started, he came to the conclusion that he must once more betake himself to trade, and

forget, as much as possible, the interlude in which he had been a performer. But when trade is once lost, it is difficult for even the handsomest youth in Flanders to recover it all of a sudden. The slacker, however, was his employment, the more earnestly he gazed out of the back window at the jasmin bower, and watched for the appearance of Jacqueline. But no Jacqueline appeared. He was constantly in the arbour musing over his former happiness; and, the more he mused, the more the image of the Duchess de Melfi disappeared from his heart. It had been but a temporary falling away -a portion, perhaps, of the enchantment cast over him. And, again, he had no thought, no wish, no heart, but for Jacqueline. He began the Italian grammar once more; for he found, on making enquiry after General de Fano, that he had left Namur several weeks before, with his whole family, probably on his return to Naples. This news completed his misery. He cursed his bad luck; he cursed his poverty; and, above all, he cursed the Chaldean. The latter, indeed, he considered it a Christian duty to hate and detest, for he had not the slightest doubt that he was the devil. Whether it was that all this cursing had a good effect on his constitution, or that time brought its usual soothing influence, and mitigated the sorrow it could not altogether cure, we must candidly confess that Le Blond in six weeks looked handsomer than ever, and had almost got over every thing except his love for Jacqueline. That, indeed, grew warmer every day; for, in cases like that,

“Time but the impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.' And an incident happened about this time that fed him with fresh hopes.

One morning a letter was presented him, addressed to "Monsieur de Blond de Laure." Street, house, and number-every thing was correct, except the "de" before the Blond; and the addition at the end. He opened the letter, and the contents were still more surprising than the superscription. It was a petition from a certain "Martin Crispin, steward and overseer of the barony of De Laure," begging to be retained in the service of the new proprietor, and referring for testimonials to the nobleman who had

just sold it. He said he applied to him, as he had been advised to do by Monsieur Valerien des Anges, who had purchased it for him, and who would shortly send him the deeds that were necessary for his signature. The experience of the last few months had made Le Blond more cautious than before. He said nothing on the subject of his letter, but waited patiently till the promised documents should arrive. And even when, at the end of eight days, a thick packet made its appearance, and on being opened displayed sundry skins of parchment, and various signatures and acquittances of persons whose names he had never heard of, he was still uncertain whether to take any notice of the incident. And yet there was every appearance of reality about it; but not more so, he thought again, than about his wife the Duchess de Melfi, or even about the Chaldean; and he was completely puzzled what to do. The letters were dated from "De Laure, near Gaillac, in the Government of Languedoc." A gazetteer convinced him of the existence of Gaillac; but better authority than a gazetteer had convinced him of the existence of the duchess; and, in short, in this state of perplexity, he took the very sensible resolution of consulting his landlord, the President. That official, a good-natured, pompous man, perused the documents with great

care.

At the end of the first page he called him Monsieur de Blond, and begged him to be seated; and when he had folded up the papers he shook him very kindly by the hand, called him his good friend De Laure, and asked him to meet a few neighbours that day at dinner at his house. But Monsieur de Blond de Laure had no time to eat dinners with stately Presidents of the Sovereign Court. He conveyed all his goods and chattels, silks, bobbinets, and laces to the church of St Mary of Cologne, to make petticoats for the nine thousand virgins, and was off, in about an hour after his interview with the official, as fast as six horses would carry him, to the Government of Languedoc, and city of Gaillac. There could be no longer any doubt that he was the person intended by "De Laure," for, in addition to all the other evidence which had satisfied the legal mind of the President, he had picked up a slip of paper, on which was written, "Monsieur,-Here you have the

treasure we talked of converted into a splendid and valuable estate. Enjoy it with silence, and farewell. ABU BEKER."

Now that he was lord of something more than a handsome person and a few bales of silk, he resolved to search the world over till he found General

de Fano, and begged of him the hand of his daughter. And when a man has plenty of money, it is astonishing how much easier it is to find a general of division, with a beautiful daughter, however far away from one, than to find a needle in a bottle of straw, though just under one's nose.

His journey was without any adventure worth recording, till one evening when he had entered the province of Languedoc, and was ascending the hill on which the town of Alby is situated, he encountered one which promised to cast all former incidents into the shade. The hill was so steep that he had left the carriage, in order to walk up and enjoy at the same time the cool air of the evening and the splendid view. By a short cut he had attained a part of the hill to which the carriage had to toil by a long and tedious round, when he was startled from his reverie by the wheels of a carriage coming down in the opposite direction, at so prodigious a pace that he could barely jump to one side to avoid being run over. The glance he caught inside, as he stood on a heap of stones while the vehicle rushed past, had nearly converted him into a statue of horror and surprise. Earnestly bending her ear to catch the whispers of the Chaldean, sat a female, whom the beating of his heart immediately revealed to him to be Jacqueline. The lovedthe lost!and in company with the enemy of mankind! He rushed after them as fast as he could; but his motionlessness had given them a few minutes' start. He was forced, besides, to go the roundabout way, for fear of missing his carriage; and when at last he reached that ponderous machine, and had succeeded in turning it the other way, the carriage he was in pursuit of was nowhere to be seen; but whether lost in the defiles of the mountain, or evanished into thin air, he could not at that moment determine. A party of horsemen now gallopped rapidly past; but turned back when they had got fairly in his front, while one of them asked if he had seen a carriage in which were a gentleman and a lady.

"Yes!" exclaimed Le Blond; and was about to ask a number of questions when he was interrupted by the stranger, who seemed overwhelmed with anguish.

"Did the lady scream?"

"By no means," replied Le Blond "she rather".

"Was she gagged?" "No, no-she was listen". "Was she making no effort to escape from the villain that ran away with her?"

"Ran away with her!" exclaimed Le Blond, and sank back into the carriage with a groan. Before he had recovered his voice, the horsemen had galloped on. On reaching the town where he had changed horses, he could hear nothing of the fugitives. Further pursuit was useless. He went into every coffee-room, in hopes of some discovery; and to a public concert for the same purpose, but all in vain. The weariest and saddest man that night that went to bed in Languedoc was Monsieur de Blond de Laure. At day-break, he was disturbed by a rustling at his curtains, and standing beside his bed between two of his servants, who had lighted him into the room, was the long figure of the Chaldean. Le Blond bit his finger, to discover whether he was awake-Abubeker smiled, and motioned the servants to retire.

"Monsieur Le Blond," he said, "I promised to see you once more."

"I am glad to see you," stuttered Le Blond, "but, Master Abu——”

"Hush!-that is no longer my name. In France, my name is Monsieur Valerien des Anges. What I promised I have done !-and, now,' "he added, in his usual tone, "I go to Iceland to pulverise the philosopher's stone at the flames of Hecla."

"Very good," replied Le Blond"but let me ask a single question. Is