professional note-books and journals, and in various places I have
incorporated with the narrative some of the information which they
contain. At other times I have inserted minor details of conversation and
incident, and have endeavored to throw over the whole as "fictitious" an
air as was consistent with the conscientious observance of my compact with
the Doctor. And now, without further preface, I will proceed to business.




I.


Archibald Malmaison was the second son of Sir Clarence Butt Malmaison, of
Malmaison, Sussex. He had the odd distinction of being born on the 29th of
February, 1800. His elder brother, Edward, born 1798, died before him, as
will be hereinafter shown. There were no other brothers, but four girls
appeared after Archibald, two of whom died in childhood of scarlet fever,
while the other two grew up to be married. They have nothing to do with
the story, and will not be mentioned again.

The Malmaisons, as their name denotes, were of French descent--Huguenots.
Like many other emigrants, they yielded, in the course of a generation or
two, to a barbarous mispronunciation of their patronymic, which came to be
spoken of as if spelt "Malmsey."

How it happened that the chateau of the Empress Josephine was christened by
the same name, I know not; at all events, the Sussex Malmaisons have prior
claim to the title. The estate, which embraced between seven and eight
hundred acres, lay in that portion of the county which borders upon the