and protection of Robespierre; nor till the fall of that virtuous
exterminator had he withdrawn from the game of politics and effected
in disguise his escape to England. As, whether from kindly or other
motives, he had employed the power of his position in the esteem of
Robespierre to save certain noble heads from the guillotine,--amongst
others, the two brothers of the Marquis de G----, he was received with
grateful welcome by his former patrons, who readily pardoned his career
of Jacobinism from their belief in his excuses and their obligations to
the services which that very career had enabled him to render to their
kindred. Olivier Dalibard had accompanied the marquis and his family in
one of the frequent visits they paid to Laughton; and when the marquis
finally quitted England, and fixed his refuge at Vienna, with some
connections of his wife's, he felt a lively satisfaction at the thought
of leaving his friend honourably, if unambitiously, provided for as
secretary and librarian to Sir Miles St. John. In fact, the scholar,
who possessed considerable powers of fascination, had won no less favour
with the English baronet than he had with the French dictator. He played
well both at chess and backgammon; he was an extraordinary accountant;
he had a variety of information upon all points that rendered him more
convenient than any cyclopaedia in Sir Miles's library; and as he spoke
both English and Italian with a correctness and fluency extremely rare
in a Frenchman, he was of considerable service in teaching languages
to, as well as directing the general literary education of, Sir Miles's
favourite niece, whom we shall take an early opportunity to describe at
length.

Nevertheless, there had been one serious obstacle to Dalibard's
acceptance of the appointment offered to him by Sir Miles. Dalibard had
under his charge a young orphan boy of some ten or twelve years old,--a
boy whom Sir Miles was not long in suspecting to be the scholar's son.
This child had come from France with Dalibard, and while the marquis's
family were in London, remained under the eye and care of his guardian
or father, whichever was the true connection between the two. But this
superintendence became impossible if Dalibard settled in Hampshire with
Sir Miles St. John, and the boy remained in London; nor, though the
generous old gentleman offered to pay for the child's schooling, would
Dalibard consent to part with him. At last the matter was arra