the required bail, satisfying himself that he could adopt measures to
prevent my escape, and took his leave. He had scarcely gone when Mr.
Edward Bingham was announced--the reason for this visit I could not so
easily divine; but I had little time allowed for my conjectures, as the
same instant a very smart, dapper little gentleman presented himself,
dressed in all the extravagance of French mode. His hair, which was
permitted to curl upon his shoulders, was divided along the middle of the
head; his moustaches were slightly upturned and carefully waxed, and his
small chin-tuft or Henri-quatre most gracefully pointed; he wore three
most happily contrasting coloured waistcoats, and spurs of glittering
brass. His visit was of scarcely five minutes' duration; but was
evidently the opening of a breaching battery by the Bingham family
in all form--the object of which I could at least guess at.

My embarrassments were not destined to end here; for scarcely had I
returned Mr. Bingham's eighth salutation at the head of the staircase,
when another individual presented himself before me. This figure was in
every respect the opposite of my last visitor. Although framed perfectly
upon the late Parisian school of dandyism, his, however, was the "ecole
militaire." Le Capitaine Eugene de Joncourt, for so he introduced
himself, was a portly personage, of about five-and-thirty or forty years
of age, with that mixture of bon hommie and ferocity in his features
which the soldiers of Napoleon's army either affected or possessed
naturally. His features, which were handsome, and the expression of
which was pleasing, were, as it seemed, perverted, by the warlike turn of
a most terrific pair of whiskers and moustaches, from their naturally
good-humoured bent; and the practised frown and quick turn of his dark
eye were evidently only the acquired advantages of his military career;
a handsome mouth, with singularly regular and good teeth, took much away
from the farouche look of the upper part of his face; and contributed,