tunate as to displease his majesty, but they requested permission to say, that, in every step taken, they were tied down by, and had minutely followed the strict letter of the law; in a word, that they could not have acted otherwise without forfeiting their oaths and violating the laws of the land.

"I will not hear of laws which sanction such palpable injustice."

"Will your majesty suffer us to say, that we were, and still are, much concerned at the ruin of the miller; but it was his own act. He purchased the lease, perhaps without reading the covenants, one of which expressly authorises the count to furnish his fish ponds with water from any part of the stream, in any manner, and to any quantity he chooses; this was a hard condition, but, as it is the duty of our office to deliver the law, and as we possess no authority for prescribing to a landholder on what terms he shall let his property, it was not in our power to act otherwise."

The king still insisted on the absurdity and inhumanity of the sentence, and immediately dismissed the chancellor from his post; ordered the judges and members of the court of Custrin to be taken into custody, nor would he suffer them to be liberated till they had paid Arnold the whole amount of the law proceedings, and for his loss of time; he also severely reprimanded Count Schmettau, and obliged him to pay back to his late tenant all the rent he had received from the time of drawing off the water.

The conduct of the King of Prussia, in this transaction, has been warmly censured, as arbitrary and tyrannical, by an ingenious writer, and the determination in favour of Arnold was reversed a few months after the decease of the hero of Rosbach. The writer of this article has also had his share of reprehension, " for having entered too warmly into the merits of the cause, and being, in fact, an advocate for Arnold.' I hope in this, as in every other instance, to be an advocate, as far as lies in my power, and without a fee, for truth and justice; nor shall I be deterred by the heavy penalty of being obliged to peruse a bulky packet of German law, transmitted from a distant country. I conclude, with relating the conduct of Old Fritz, as his soldiers used to call him, when laying out his own garden at Sans Souci; on this occasion the surveyor reported to his majesty that a neighbouring mill was an insurmountable impediment to all his improvements; that the occupier had been applied to for purchasing it, that double its value had been offered, or, if he preferred it, that another mill should be erected in any part of the country he might choose; but that nothing could prevail on the old man to part with his property. "Don't you know," said the king, who called on him to repeat his offers; "don't you know that I may, if I please, seize your mill, and not pay you a farthing.” "Aye,” replied the miller, "that you might, if there was no such thing as a supreme court of justice at Berlin.' The king laughed heartily at the cock crowing on his own dunghill, and altered the whole plan of his garden.

ARNOLD DU TILB, a native of Sagias, a village near the city of Rieux, in the Upper Languedoc, who, towards the middle of the six

teenth century, was the object of a criminal prosecution, extraordinary in its nature, perplexing and difficult to decide.

At Artigues, a country hamlet, only a few miles from the place of Du Tilb's residence, lived a little farmer, whose name was Martin Guerre, married to a modest handsome young woman born in that neighbourhood, but himself of the Spanish province of Biscay; they had a son, and, for their situation in life, possessed tolerable property. Ten years after their marriage, in consequence of a dispute with his father-inlaw, Martin suddenly quitted his family, and charmed with the licentious freedom of a roving life, or cooled in affection towards his wife, although she had conducted herself with exemplary propriety, had not been seen or heard of for eight years.

In

It was during this long absence,-to lovers as well as husbands a dangerous interval,—it was at this time, that Arnold du Tilb, the subject of our present article, who had formerly seen and admired the wife of Martin Guerre, meditated a most perfidious and cruel stratagem. age and appearance he greatly resembled the absent man, like him, too, Du Tilb, having for many years quitted his country, was generally considered as dead, and having made himself acquainted with all the circumstances, connections, and general habits of Guerre, as well by collateral inquiries, as by actual association with him during two campaigns as a private soldier, he boldly presented himself to the wife and family, as her long lost husband.

The risk he incurred, and the difficulties he encountered, were considerable; a thousand little circumstances, which it is easy to imagine, but unnecessary to describe, must daily and hourly have led him to the brink of detection; indeed, it is not easy to conceive how he could succeed, unless the unhappy dupe of his delusion had been herself a promoter of the cheat, which does not appear to have been the case. The stranger, at once and without hesitation, was received with transports of joy by the wife and all the family, which at that time consisted of four of her husband's sisters and an uncle. One of them remarking that his clothes were somewhat out of repair, he replied "yes," and, in a careless and apparently unpremeditated way, desired that a pair of taffety breeches might be brought to him. The wife, not immediately recollecting where she had put them, he added, "I am not surprised you have forgot, for I have not worn them since the christening of my son; they are in a drawer at the bottom of the large chest in the next room; in this place they were found, and immediately brought to him. supposed Martin's return was welcomed by the neighbours in the old French way, by song and dance; he enjoyed the privileges and pleasures, he shared the emoluments and cares of a husband, and a few days after his arrival, repaired to Rieux to transact some necessary law business, which had been deferred in consequence of his absence; the fond couple lived apparently happy for three years, in which time two children were added to their family. But their tranquillity was gradually interrupted by the uncle, whose suspicions of imposture were first excited by a traveller passing through the village. This person, hearing the name of Martin Guerre accidentally mentioned, declared that,

The

eighteen months before, he had seen and conversed with an invalid of that name in a distant province of France, who informed him that he had a wife and child in Languedoc, but that it was not his design to return during the life of his uncle. The stranger being sent for, and privately questioned, repeated, in a clear and consistent manner, what he had before communicated, confirmed the apprehensions of the uncle, that the real Martin Guerre was still absent, and added, that since quitting his wife, he had lost one of his legs in the battle of St. Quintin. The family, alarmed by this account, now saw, or thought they saw, many little circumstances which had before escaped their notice, but all tending to prove that the man with whom Mrs. Guerre cohabited, and by whom she had had two children, was not, in fact, her lawful husband. But they found it extremely difficult to convince the deluded female of her mistake; she loudly, and with tears, insisted that her present domestic companion was her first love, her real and original husband; it was not till after several months that the unhappy woman was at length prevailed on to prosecute the impostor.

He was taken into custody, and imprisoned by order of the criminal judge of Rieux, and a time fixed for examining the evidence, and hearing what Du Tilb had to offer in his defence. On the day appointed, the offender was brought into court, followed by a number of people, whose curiosity was naturally excited; the deposition of the traveller, concerning the absent Martin Guerre, was first read; the uncle, the sisters, and many of the inhabitants of Sagias were next closely questioned, on their oaths; some declared that the prisoner was not Martin Guerre, others as positively insisted that he was the identical person, corroborating their testimony by many collateral circumstances; but the greater number avowed, without scruple, that the resemblance between the two, if two there were, was so great, that it was not in their power to distinguish ; the weight of evidence was thought by many to preponderate in favour of the prisoner.

The judge demanding of him what he had to say in his defence, he answered without embarrassment, that the whole was a conspiracy of the uncle and a certain part of the family, who, taking advantage of the easy temper and weak understanding of his wife, had contrived the story in order to be rid of him, and to get possession of his property, which he valued at eight thousand livres. The uncle, he observed, had for some time taken a dislike to him, had frequently assaulted him, and in one instance would have killed him by the stroke of an iron bar on his head, had he not fortunately parried the blow. The remark of the prisoner on the weakness of his wife's understanding, served to diminish the surprise of the court at her being so easily duped, nor indeed could they blame any relations, for endeavouring, in any manner they were able, to expel the violator of the wife and property of their kinsman,

Du Tilb then proceeded to inform the court of the reasons which first induced him to quit his house and family; related minutely where, how, and with whom he had passed his time; "that he had served in the French army seven years, and, on his regiment being disbanded, had entered into the Spanish service, from which, being impatient to

see his wife, and sorely repenting that he had ever quitted her, at a considerable expense he procured his discharge, and made the best of his way to Artigues. At this place, notwithstanding his long absence, and the loss of his hair, he was directly and universally recognised by his old acquaintance, and received with transports of joy by his wife and sisters, particularly by his uncle; although that unnatural and cruel relation had now thought proper to stir up the present prosecution against him." The prisoner, in consequence of certain leading questions from the judge, gave a minute description of the situation and peculiar circumstances of the place in Biscay, where he said he was born, (still insisting that he was Martin Guerre,) mentioning the names, age, and occupation of the relations he had left there, the year, the day, and the month of his marriage, also the persons who were present at the ceremony, as well as those who dined with them, which, on referring to collateral evidence, were found to tally.

On the other hand, forty-five reputable and credible witnesses, who were well acquainted with Martin Guerre and Arnold Du Tilb, swore that the prisoner was not and could not be Martin: one of these, Carbon Barreau, maternal uncle of Du Tilb, acknowledged his nephew with tears, and, observing that he was fettered like a malefactor, bitterly lamented the disgrace it would bring upon his family. These persons also insisted that Martin Guerre was tall, of a slender make, and, as persons of that form frequently are, awkward and stooping in his gait; that he had a remarkable way of protruding and hanging down his under lip; that his nose was flat, and that several scars were to be seen on his left eye-brow, and other parts of his face. On the contrary, they observed that Du Tilb was a middle-sized, well-set man, upright, with thick legs, a well-formed nose, and without anything remarkable about his mouth or lips; they agreed that his countenance exhibited the same scars as that of Martin. The shoe-maker, who had for many years furnished Guerre with shoes, being called, deposed that his foot reached the twelfth size, but that the prisoner's was rather short of the ninth. It further appeared that the former had, from his early youth, been dexterous at cudgelling and wrestling, of which the impostor was wholly ignorant. As a strong circumstance against the person accused, it was added that his manner of speaking, and the sort of language he used, though, at times, artfully interlarded with patois and unintelligible gibberish, was very different from that which used to be spoken by the real Martin Guerre, who, being a Biscayan, spoke neither wholly Spanish, wholly French, nor wholly Gascon, but a curious mixture of each, a sort of language called the Basque. Lastly, and what seemed to make an impression on the court, the prosecutors referred to the internal evidence of the offender's character, which they proved had been, from his childhood, vicious and incorrigible in the extreme; they produced satisfactory proofs of his being hardened in all manner of wickedness and uncleanness, a common swearer and blasphemer, a notorious profligate, every way capable of the crime laid to his charge. The accusation lay heavy upon the prisoner; a pause ensued for deliberation, and the court, fatigued by

the long and patient examination of a host of witnesses, took refreshment; the town-house being still crowded with persons impatient to give their testimony in behalf of the prisoner, whom they considered and pitied as an injured man.

The first parties next examined astonished the judge, and staggered the whole court: they were the four sisters of Martin Guerre, all reputed to be women of sound understanding, and of character unblemished: they positively swore that the man in custody was their dear brother Martin. Two of their husbands, and thirty-five persons born or brought up in the neighbourhood, corroborated their assertions; among others, Catherine Boere, who carried Martin and his wife the medianoche, or, as an Englishman would call it, the sackposset, after they were put to bed on their wedding-night, declared, as she hoped for everlasting salvation, that the prisoner and the man she saw in bed with the bride, was the same person. The majority of these last witnesses also deposed that Martin Guerre had two scars in his face, and that the nail of his fore-finger, on the left hand, in consequence of a wound received in his childhood, grew across the top of his finger; that he had three warts on the back of his right hand, towards the knuckles, and another on his little finger; the judge ordered the culprit to stretch forth both his hands, which were found to agree with this description. It further appeared that on his first arrival at Artigues, the prisoner addressed most of the inhabitants by name, and recalled to the memory of those who had forgotten him several circumstances with respect to the village, on the subject of births, marriages, and deaths, which had happened ten, fifteen, and twenty years before.

He who could give an assumed character so strong a resemblance to reality, and so dexterously clothe falsehood in the robes of truth, was no common impostor: like other great villains, he must have been a man of abilities.

To add to the perplexities of this business, the wife being called, her pretended husband solemnly addressed, and called on her, as she valued peace of mind here, and everlasting happiness hereafter, to speak truth without fear or affection, and declared that he would submit to instant death, without repining, if she would swear that he was not her real husband; the woman replied that she would by no means take an oath on the occasion, at the same time she would not give credit to anything he could say. The evidence on both sides being closed, and the defence of the prisoner having been heard, the judge pronounced Arnold du Tilb guilty, and sentenced him to suffer death; but the culprit appealed to the parliament of Thoulouse, who not long after ordered a copy of the proceedings and the convict to be forthwith transmitted to them. The parliament, at that period a court of justice as well as registry of royal edicts, wisely determined to take no decisive step in the business till they had endeavoured to get sight of and secure the man with a wooden leg, as described by the traveller; the uncle strenuously insisting that he, and no other, was his long-lost nephew. A commission was appointed to examine the papers, and call for