unconcerned at this little display of
mawkish sensibility, and felt, indeed, now that my prize was secure.

That evening I gave the Chevalier de Magny the emerald, which he
promised to restore to the Princess; and now the only difficulty in my
way lay with the Hereditary Prince, of whom his father, his wife, and
the favourite, were alike afraid. He might not be disposed to allow the
richest heiress in his duchy to be carried off by a noble, though not
a wealthy foreigner. Time was necessary in order to break the matter to
Prince Victor. The Princess must find him at some moment of good-humour.
He had days of infatuation still, when he could refuse his wife nothing;
and our plan was to wait for one of these, or for any other chance which
might occur.

But it was destined that the Princess should never see her husband at
her feet, as often as he had been. Fate was preparing a terrible ending
to her follies, and my own hope. In spite of his solemn promises to me,
Magny never restored the emerald to the Princess Olivia.

He had heard, in casual intercourse with me, that my uncle and I had
been beholden to Mr. Moses Lowe, the banker of Heidelberg, who had given
us a good price for our valuables; and the infatuated young man took
a pretext to go thither, and offered the jewel for pawn. Moses Lowe
recognised the emerald at once, gave Magny the sum the latter demanded,
which the Chevalier lost presently at play: never, you may be sure,
acquainting us with the means by which he had made himself master of so
much capital. We, for our parts, supposed that he had been supplied by
his usual banker, the Princess: and many rouleaux of his gold pieces
found their way into our treasury, when at the Court galas, at our own
lodgings, or at the apartments of Madame de Liliengarten (who on these
occasions did us the honour to go halves with us) we held our bank of
faro.

Thus Magny's money was very soon gone. But though the Jew held his
jewel, of thrice the value no doubt of the sums he had lent upon it,
that was not all the profit which he intended to have from his unhappy
creditor; over whom he began speedily to exercise his authority. His
Hebrew connections at X--, money-brokers, bankers, horse-dealers, about
the Court there, must have told their Heidelberg brother what Magny's
relations with the Princess were; and the rascal determined to take
advantage of these, and to press to the utmost both victims. My
uncle and I were, meanwhi