"I beg your pardon; I did not know he was a friend of yours; and if
you vouch for his character, I will believe him to have been a very
respectable man, who only spoke the truth when he boasted of his power
to be in two places at the same time."

"Is that so difficult?" said the old gentleman; "if so, you have never
dreamed!"

Here ended our conversation; but from that time an acquaintance was
formed between us which lasted till my venerable friend departed
this life. Peace to his ashes! He was a person of singular habits and
eccentric opinions; but the chief part of his time was occupied in acts
of quiet and unostentatious goodness. He was an enthusiast in the duties
of the Samaritan; and as his virtues were softened by the gentlest
charity, so his hopes were based upon the devoutest belief. He never
conversed upon his own origin and history, nor have I ever been able to
penetrate the darkness in which they were concealed. He seemed to have
seen much of the world, and to have been an eye-witness of the first
French Revolution, a subject upon which he was equally eloquent and
instructive. At the same time he did not regard the crimes of that
stormy period with the philosophical leniency with which enlightened
writers (their heads safe upon their shoulders) are, in the present day,
inclined to treat the massacres of the past: he spoke not as a student
who had read and reasoned, but as a man who had seen and suffered. The
old gentleman seemed alone in the world; nor did I know that he had one
relation, till his executor, a distant cousin, residing abroad, informed
me of the very handsome legacy which my poor friend had bequeathed
me. This consisted, first, of a sum about which I think it best to be
guarded, foreseeing the possibility of a new tax upon real and funded
property; and, secondly, of certain precious manuscripts, to which the