lock of
best workmanship, the freedom of her walls, an income of four thousand
dollars, a place in the chief council with due precedence, and many
other minor advantages. If you accept these terms a large installment
of money will be paid within three days,--that is, within the time
for the return of post. You will naturally inquire, Why the city of
Hambro' should make so extravagant an offer? I will recall to you
the extreme jealousy which has always existed between these two
great commercial cities. You will remember that this rivalry is
unceasing--that it comprehends all things, the smallest as well as the
greatest. They attempted to vie with each other in the construction of
their doms: Dantzic gained the advantage. The fame and the prize given
for excellence in these clocks, and of the unrivaled workmanship which
may be expected, has spread throughout Germany. The inhabitants
of Hambro' are inferior in science. They wish to obtain a piece of
workmanship which shall be unrivaled, in the easiest manner, and I
was sent here to negotiate the purchase. Well, I was selected by the
Council here as one of the judges. It is an act of treachery--granted:
that cannot affect you. All that there is for you to decide on are the
terms I have offered you."

"Oh! Marguerite!" exclaimed Dumiger, "if you were here, what would you
counsel?"

"What would she counsel," said the stranger, "except to accept this
offer? Remember, if you refuse it you remain here for days, if not
weeks. You cannot hope to obtain the preference unless you are enabled
to inform any one of the secret of setting the works in motion, and
then it would require a hand as steady and experienced as my own to
carry out your directions; and I should not undertake to do it except
on the conditions which I have named."

"Show me the conditions drawn out," said Dumiger.

The man rolled out slowly one of the long strips of parchment which he
held in his hand; he gave it to Dumiger, who drew the lamp near him,
and for a few minutes reveled in the ideas of freedom and wealth. He
had but to say the word, and he enjoyed all that he had been laboring
for through life; but then, at what price? at that which it pained him
to contemplate--the citizenship of his native town, where his family
had dwelt respected for centuries. No doubt he was selling his
birthright; he was parting with all that a man should cling to in
adversity as in prosperity--that which is not to be purcha