his conversational powers were wonderful. He seemed perfectly familiar
with Latin and Greek, and had a commanding knowledge of history,
theology, mathematics, and astronomy. I never met his equal in
penmanship, drawing, and designing.

A few days of sociability sufficed to win a mutual confidence, and to
demand the mutual stories of our lives.

Germaine was born so high up on those picturesque borders of Piedmont,
that it was difficult to say whether the Swiss or Italian predominated
in his blood. The troubles and wars of the region impoverished his
parents, who had been gentlefolks in better times; yet they managed to
bestow the culture that made him the accomplished person I have
described. No opportunity offered, however, for his advancement as he
reached maturity, and it was thought best that he should go abroad in
search of fortune. For a while the quiet and modest youth was
successful in the humbler employments to which he stooped for bread;
but his address and talents, and especially his skill in designing and
penmanship, attracted the notice of a sharper, with whom he
accidentally became intimate; so that, before he knew it, the adroit
scrivener was both _used_ and _compromised_ by the knave. In truth, I
do not suppose that Germaine's will was made of stern and tough
materials. Those soft and gentle beings are generally disposed to
grasp the pleasures of life without labor; and whenever a relaxed
conscience has once allowed its possessor to tamper with crime, its
success is not only a stimulant but a motive for farther enterprise.
Germaine was soon a successful forger. He amassed twenty or thirty
thousand _francs_ by practices so perfect in their execution, that he
never dreamed of detection. But, at last, a daring speculation made
him our companion in the tower.

Three days before his introduction to the _chateau_ of Brest, and a
few hours before the regular departure of the Paris mail, Germaine
called on an exchange broker with seventeen thousand _francs_ in gold,
with which he purchased a sight draft on the capital. Soon after he
called a second time on the broker, and exhibiting a letter of orders,
bearing a regular post-mark, from his principals, who were alleged to
be oil merchants at Marseilles, desired to countermand the
transaction, and receive back his gold for the bill of exchange which
he tendered. The principal partner of the brokers did not happen to be
within at the moment, and the junior dec