st open, and, examining a private drawer, contrived with great art
to conceal Renaldo's jewels and cash, made himself master of the contents
without hesitation; then cutting open his cloak-bag, and strewing the
tent with his linen and clothes, began to raise his voice, and produce
such a clamour as alarmed the whole neighbourhood, and brought a great
many officers into the tent.

He on this, as on all other occasions, performed his cue to a miracle,
expressing confusion and concern so naturally in his gestures and
exclamation, that no man could possibly suspect his sincerity; nay, to
such a degree of finesse did his cunning amount, that when his friend and
patron entered, in consequence of an intimation he soon received of his
loss, our adventurer exhibited undoubted signs of distraction and
delirium, and, springing upon Renaldo with all the frantic fury of a
bedlamite, "Villain," cried he, "restore the effects you have stole from
your master, or you shall be immediately committed to the care of the
prevot." However mortified M. de Melvil might be at his own misfortune,
the condition of his friend seemed to touch him more nearly; he
undervalued his own loss as a trifle that could be easily repaired; said
everything which he thought would tend to soothe and compose the
agitation of Ferdinand; and finally prevailed upon him to retire to rest.
The calamity was wholly attributed to the deserter; and Renaldo, far from
suspecting the true author, took occasion, from his behaviour on this
emergency, to admire him as a mirror of integrity and attachment; in such
an exquisite manner did he plan all his designs, that almost every
instance of his fraud furnished matter of triumph to his reputation.

Having thus profitably exercised his genius, this subtle politician
thought it high time to relinquish his military expectations, and
securing all his valuable acquisitions about his own person, rode out
with his understrapper, in the midst of fifty dragoons, who went in quest
of forage. While the troopers were employed in making up their trusses,
the two adventurers advanced towards the skirt of a wood, on pretence of
reconnoitring, and the Tyrolese, who undertook to be our hero's guide,
directing him to a path which leads towards Strasburg, they suddenly
vanished from the eyes of their companions, who in a few minutes hearing
the report of several pistols, which the confederates purposely fired,
conjectured that they had fallen in