spirit, reflected from the exquisite perfection of his frame (which
rendered all his senses so vigorous and acute) and his riotous fancy and
his fitful energy, which was capable at times of great application, but
not of definite purpose or earnest study. All about him was flashy and
hollow. He had not the natural subtlety and depth of mind that had
characterized his terrible father. The graft of the opera-dancer was
visible on the stock of the scholar; wholly without the habits of method
and order, without the patience, without the mathematical calculating
brain of Dalibard, he played wantonly with the horrible and loathsome
wickedness of which Olivier had made dark and solemn study. Extravagant
and lavish, he spent money as fast as he gained it; he threw away all
chances of eminence and career. In the midst of the direst plots of his
villany or the most energetic pursuit of his art, the poorest excitement,
the veriest bauble would draw him aside. His heart was with Falri in the
sty, his fancy with Aladdin in the palace. To make a show was his
darling object; he loved to create effect by his person, his talk, his
dress, as well as by his talents. Living from hand to mouth, crimes
through which it is not our intention to follow him had at times made him
rich to-day, for vices to make him poor again to-morrow. What he called
"luck," or "his star," had favoured him,--he was not hanged!--he lived;
and as the greater part of his unscrupulous career had been conducted in
foreign lands and under other names, in his own name and in his own
country, though something scarcely to be defined, but equivocal and
provocative of suspicion, made him displeasing to the prudent, and
vaguely alarmed the experience of the sober, still, no positive
accusation was attached to the general integrity of his character, and
the mere dissipation of his habits was naturally little known out of his
familiar circle. Hence he had the most presumptuous confidence in
himself,--a confidence native to his courage, and confirmed by his
experience. His conscience was so utterly obtuse that he might almost be