? I need not tell you how I followed this
young friend, with what assiduity I kept him in sight, up and down, all
day long, till, weary at last of his fine sport, as I certainly was of
mine, he left his steed in stall and fared on his way a-foot. Still
pursuing, now I threaded quay and square, street and alley, till he
disappeared in a small shop, in one of those dark crowded lanes leading
eastward from the Pont Neuf, in the city. It was the sign of a _marchand
des armures_, and, having provided myself with those persuasive
arguments, a _sergent-de-ville_ and a _gendarme_, I entered.

A place more characteristic it would be impossible to find. Here were
piled bows of every material, ash, and horn, and tougher fibres, with
slackened strings, and among them peered a rusty clarion and battle-axe,
while the quivers that should have accompanied lay in a distant corner,
their arrows serving to pin long, dusty, torn banners to the wall.
Opposite the entrance, an archer in bronze hung on tiptoe, and levelled
a steel bow, whose piercing _fleche_ seemed sparkling with impatience to
spring from his finger and flesh itself in the heart of the intruder.
The hauberk and halberd, lance and casque, arquebuse and sword, were
suspended in friendly congeries; and fragments of costly stuff swept
from ceiling to floor, crushed and soiled by the heaps of rusty
firelocks, cutlasses, and gauntlets thrown upon them. In one place, a
little antique bust was half hid in the folds of some pennon, still
dyed with battle-stains; in another, scattered treasures of Dresden
and Sevres brought the drawing-room into the campaign; and all around
bivouacked rifles, whose polished barrels glittered full of death,--
pistols, variously mounted, for an insurgent at the barricades, or for
a lost millionnaire at the gaming-table,--foils, with buttoned
bluntness,--and rapiers, whose even edges were viewless, as if filed
into air. Destruction lay everywhere, at the command of the owner of
this place, and, had he possessed a particle of vivacity, it would have
been hazardous to bow beneath his doorway. It did not, I must say, look
like a place where I should find a diamond. As the owner came forward, I
determined on my plan of action.

"You have, Sir," I said, handing him a bit of paper, on which were
scrawled some numbers, "a diamond in your possession, of such and so
many carats, size, and value, belonging to the Duke of X., and left with
you by an Englishman, Mr