that I had wronged him."

"And the emperor consented?"

"Pardieu, my dear sister, what else could his Majesty do? My proposition
smoothed every obstacle, and reconciled policy with mercy. It remains,
therefore, only to find out what has hitherto baffled all our researches,
the retreat of our dear kinsfolk, and to make myself a welcome lover to
the demoiselle. There is some disparity of years, I own; but--unless
your sex and my glass flatter me overmuch--I am still a, match for many
a gallant of five-and-twenty."

The count said this with so charming a smile, and looked so pre-eminently
handsome, that he carried off the coxcombry of the words as gracefully as
if they had been spoken by some dazzling hero of the grand old comedy of
Parisian life.

Then interlacing his fingers and lightly leaning his hands, thus clasped,
upon his sister's shoulder, he looked into her face, and said slowly,
"And now, my sister, for some gentle but deserved reproach. Have you not
sadly failed me in the task I imposed on your regard for my interests?
Is it not some years since you first came to England on the mission of
discovering these worthy relations of ours? Did I not entreat you to
seduce into your toils the man whom I new to be my enemy, and who was
indubitably acquainted with our cousin's retreat,--a secret he has
hitherto locked within his bosom? Did you not tell me, that though he
was then in England, you could find no occasion even to meet him, but
that you had obtained the friendship of the statesman to whom I directed
your attention, as his most intimate associate? And yet you, whose
charms are usually so irresistible, learn nothing from the statesman, as