r Heaven!" says the landlord, "we saw you go away three hours ago!"

'"ME!" says I; "why, man, I have been in bed all the morning. I am
ill--I have taken physic--I have not left the house this morning! Where
is that scoundrel Ambrose? But, stop! where are my clothes and wig?"
for I was standing before them in my chamber-gown and stockings, with my
nightcap on.

'"I have it--I have it!" says a little chambermaid: "Ambrose is off in
your honour's dress."

'"And my money--my money!" says I; "where is my purse with forty-eight
Frederics in it? But we have one of the villains left. Officers, seize
him!"

'"It's the young Herr von Potzdorff!" says the landlord, more and more
astonished.

'"What! a gentleman breaking open my trunk with hammer and
chisel--impossible!"

'Herr von Potzdorff was returning to life by this time, with a swelling
on his skull as big as a saucepan; and the officers carried him off, and
the judge who was sent for dressed a proces verbal of the matter, and I
demanded a copy of it, which I sent forthwith to my ambassador.

'I was kept a prisoner to my room the next day, and a judge, a general,
and a host of lawyers, officers, and officials, were set upon me to
bully, perplex, threaten, and cajole me. I said it was true you had told
me that you had been kidnapped into the service, that I thought you were
released from it, and that I had you with the best recommendations. I
appealed to my Minister, who was bound to come to my aid; and, to make
a long story short, poor Potzdorff is now on his way to Spandau; and his
uncle, the elder Potzdorff, has brought me five hundred louis, with a
humble request that I would leave Berlin forthwith, and hush up this
painful matter.

'I shall be with you at the "Three Crowns" the day after you receive
this. Ask Mr. Lumpit to dinner. Do not spare your money--you are my son.
Everybody in Dresden knows your loving uncle,

'THE CHEVALIER DE BALIBARI.'

And by these wonderful circumstances I was once more free again: and I
kept my resolution then made, never to fall more into the hands of any
recruiter, and henceforth and for ever to be a gentleman.

With this sum of money, and a good run of luck which ensued presently,
we were enabled to make no ungenteel figure. My uncle speedily joined
me at the inn at Dresden, where, under pretence of illness, I had
kept quiet until his arrival; and, as the Chevalier de Balibari was in
particular good odour at the Court of D