day, not a doubt of it."

"Then you are not come about my business?"

"Not the least, although I shall take you back with me, now I have
found you. A very different affair brings me over. By the by, you may
perhaps help me. You know all Paris. I am come to look for an
Englishman."

"You need not look long," said I, glancing at a party of unmistakable
Britons, who stood talking broad Cockney on the Boulevard.

"Ay, but not _any_ Englishman. I want one in particular, the heir to a
pretty estate of eight or ten thousand a-year. He was last heard of in
Paris three years ago, and since then all trace of him is lost. 'Tis
an odd affair enough. No one could have expected his coming to the
estate. A couple of years since, there were two young healthy men in
his way. Both have died off,--and he is the owner of Oakley Manor."

"Of what?" I exclaimed, in a tone of voice that made Scrivington
stagger back, and for a moment drew the eyes of the whole street upon
us. "What did you say?"

"Oakley Manor," stammered the alarmed attorney, settling his
well-brushed hat, which had almost fallen from his head with the start
he had given. "Old Valentine Oakley died the other day, and his nephew
Francis comes into the estate. But what on earth is the matter with
you?"

For sole reply I grasped his arm, and dragged him into my house, close
to which we had arrived. There, five minutes cleared up everything,
and convinced Scrivington and myself that the man he sought now
languished, a condemned criminal, in a French military prison.

It is unnecessary to dwell upon what all will conjecture; superfluous
to detail the active steps that were at once taken in Oakley's behalf,
with very different success, now that the unknown sergeant had
suddenly assumed the character of an English gentleman of honourable
name and ample fortune. Persons of great influence and diplomatic
weight, who before had refused to espouse the cause of an obscure
adventurer in a foreign service, suffered themselves to be prevailed
upon, and interceded efficaciously for the master of Oakley Manor. It
was even said that a letter was written on the subject by an English
general of high distinction to an old opponent in arms. Be that as it
may, all difficulties were at length overcome, and Oakley received his
free pardon and discharge from the French service. And that equal
measure of clemency might be shown, De Berg, upon the same day, was
allowed to resume his place in