time too
appropriately. One of them, advancing toward the counter, demanded change
in French coin for an English sovereign, which he laid upon the sliding
board, and passed through the wire partition. The moneychanger rose
immediately, and having ascertained that the coin was genuine, returned
its proper equivalent by the customary mode of transfer. The Italians
turned as if to leave the apartment, when he who had received the money
suddenly dropped the silver, as though accidentally, upon the floor. As it
was now nearly dark, it was scarcely to be expected that they could find
the whole of the pieces without the assistance of a light. This the
unconscious merchant hastened to supply; and unlocking, without suspicion,
the door of the partition between them, stooped with a candle over the
floor in search of the lost coin. In this position the unfortunate man was
immediately assailed with repeated stabs from a poniard, and he at length
fell, after a few feeble and ineffectual struggles, senseless, and
apparently lifeless, at the feet of his assassins.

A considerable time elapsed ere, by the fortuitous entrance of a stranger,
he was discovered in this dreadful situation; when it was found that the
assassins, having first helped themselves to an almost incredible amount
of money, had fled, without any thing being left by which a clew might
have been obtained to their retreat.

The unfortunate victim of their rapacity and cruelty was, however, not
dead. Strange as it may appear, although he had received upward of twenty
wounds, several of which plainly showed that the dagger had been driven to
the very hilt, he survived; and in a few months after the event, was again
to be seen in his long-accustomed place at the changer's board. In vain
had the most diligent search been made by the military police of Paris for
the perpetrators of this detestable deed. The villains had eluded all
inquiry and investigation, and would in all probability have escaped
undiscovered with their booty but for a mutually-cherished distrust of
each other. Upon the first and complete success of their plan, the
question arose, how to dispose of their enormous plunder, amounting to
more than a hundred thousand pounds. Fearful of the researches of the
police, they dared not retain it at their lodgings. To trust a third party
with their secret was not to be thought of. At length, after long and
anxious deliberation, they agreed to conceal the money outsid