ils grands ces journaux Anglais?
Look, sir," he said, handing over an immense sheet of The Times to Mr.
Gambouge, "was ever anything so monstrous?"

Gambouge smiled politely, and examined the proffered page. "It is
enormous" he said; "but I do not read English."

"Nay," said the man with the orders, "look closer at it, Signor
Gambouge; it is astonishing how easy the language is."

Wondering, Simon took a sheet of paper. He turned pale as he looked at
it, and began to curse the ices and the waiter. "Come, M. l'Abbe," he
said; "the heat and glare of this place are intolerable."

The stranger rose with them. "Au plaisir de vous revoir, mon cher
monsieur," said he; "I do not mind speaking before the Abbe here,
who will be my very good friend one of these days: but I thought
it necessary to refresh your memory, concerning our little business
transaction six years since; and could not exactly talk of it AT CHURCH,
as you may fancy."

Simon Gambouge had seen, in the double-sheeted Times, the paper signed
by himself, which the little Devil had pulled out of his fob.

There was no doubt on the subject; and Simon, who had but a year to
live, grew more pious, and more careful than ever. He had consultations
with all the doctors of the Sorbonne and all the lawyers of the Palais.
But his magnificence grew as wearisome to him as his poverty had been
before; and not one of the doctors whom he consulted could give him a
pennyworth of consolation.

Then he grew outrageous in his demands upon the Devil, and put him to
all sorts of absurd and ridiculous tasks; but they were all punctually
performed, until Simon could invent no new ones, and the Devil sat all
day with his hands in his pockets doing nothing.

One day, Simon's confessor came bounding into the room, with the
greatest glee. "My friend," said he, "I have it! Eureka!--I have found
it. Send the Pope a hundred thousand crowns, build a new Jesuit college
at Rome, give a hundred gold candlesticks to St. Peter's; and tell his
Holiness you will double all, if he will give you absolution!"

Gambouge caught at the notion, and hurried off a courier to Rome ventre
a terre. His Holiness agreed to the request of the petition, and sent
him an absolution, written out with his own fist, and all in due form.

"Now," said he, "foul fiend, I defy you! arise, Diabolus! your contract
is not worth a jot: the Pope has absolved me, and I am safe on the
road to salvation." In a fervor of gra