t horrible? His father, it seems, had left him a certain sum of
money, and this was the scheme he had devised to draw from it the
greatest advantage. _Mais, mon Dieu!_" added the lively Frenchwoman, "of
what avail to afflict one's-self? Only if he would but die before I am
an old woman! And then those three months"----

Here the diligence suddenly stopped, and the conductor opening the door,
invited us to step out and take some refreshment, and so put an end for
the present to this medley conversation.

WHO WROTE GIL BLAS?

In the year 1783, Joseph Francisco De Isla, one of the most eminent of
modern Spanish writers, published a Spanish translation of Gil Blas. In
this work some events were suppressed, others altered, the diction was
greatly modified, the topographical and chronological errors with which
the French version abounded were allowed to remain, and the Spanish
origin of that celebrated work was asserted on such slender grounds, and
vindicated by such trifling arguments, as to throw considerable doubt on
the fact in the opinion of all impartial judges. The French were not
slow to seize upon so favourable an occasion to gratify their national
vanity; and in 1818, M. le Comte Francois de Neufchateau, a member of
the French Institute and an Ex-minister of the Interior, published a
dissertation, in which, after a modest insinuation that the
extraordinary merit of Gil Blas was a sufficient proof of its French
origin, the feeble arguments of Padre Isla were triumphantly refuted,
and the claims of Le Sage to the original conception of Gil Blas were
asserted, to the complete satisfaction of all patriotic Frenchmen. Here
the matter rested, till, in 1820, Don Juan Antonio Llorente drew up his
reasons for holding the opinion of which Isla had been the unsuccessful
advocate, and, with even punctilious courtesy, transmitted them before
publication to M. Le Montey, by whose judgment in the matter he
expressed his determination to abide. M. Le Montey referred the matter
to two commissioners--one being M. Raynouard, a well-known and useful
writer, the other M. Neufchateau, the author whom Llorente's work was
intended to refute.

This literary commission seems to have produced as little benefit to the
public as if each of the members had been chosen by a political party,
had received a salary varying from L1500 to L2000 a-year, and been sent
into Ireland to report upon the condition of the people, or into Canada
to