the poor, and we must make much of such as offer. The games at Vévey have
called every craft on the Leman to the upper end of the lake, and a little
mother-wit led me to trust to the last turn of the wheel, which, as you
see, Signore has not come up a blank."

"Have many strangers passed by your city on their way to these sports?"

"Many hundreds, noble gentleman; and report speaks of thousands that are
collecting at Vévey and in the neighboring villages. The country of Vaud
has not had a richer harvest from her games this many a year."

It is fortunate, Melchior, that the desire to witness these revels should
have arisen in us at the same moment. The hope of at last obtaining
certain tidings of thy welfare was the chief inducement that caused me to
steal from Genoa, whither I am compelled to return forthwith. There is
truly something providential in this meeting!"

"I so esteem it," returned the Baron de Willading; "though the hope of
soon embracing thee was strongly alive in me. Thou art mistaken in
fancying that curiosity, or a wish to mingle with the multitude at Vévey,
has drawn me from my castle. Italy was in my eye, as it has long been in
my heart."

"How!--Italy?"

"Nothing less. This fragile plant of the mountains has drooped of late in
her native air, and skilful advisers have counselled the sunny side of the
Alps as a shelter to revive her animation. I have promised Roger de Blonay
to pass a night or two within his ancient walls, and then we are destined
to seek the hospitality of the monks of St. Bernard. Like thee, I had