n
& French, which was immediately given to him, as it was one of the most
celebrated in Rome. It was situated in the Via dei Banchi, near St.
Peter's. In Rome, as everywhere else, the arrival of a post-chaise is an
event. Ten young descendants of Marius and the Gracchi, barefooted and
out at elbows, with one hand resting on the hip and the other gracefully
curved above the head, stared at the traveller, the post-chaise, and the
horses; to these were added about fifty little vagabonds from the Papal
States, who earned a pittance by diving into the Tiber at high water
from the bridge of St. Angelo. Now, as these street Arabs of Rome,
more fortunate than those of Paris, understand every language, more
especially the French, they heard the traveller order an apartment, a
dinner, and finally inquire the way to the house of Thomson & French.
The result was that when the new-comer left the hotel with the cicerone,
a man detached himself from the rest of the idlers, and without having
been seen by the traveller, and appearing to excite no attention from
the guide, followed the stranger with as much skill as a Parisian police
agent would have used.

The Frenchman had been so impatient to reach the house of Thomson &
French that he would not wait for the horses to be harnessed, but left
word for the carriage to overtake him on the road, or to wait for him
at the bankers' door. He reached it before the carriage arrived. The
Frenchman entered, leaving in the anteroom his guide, who immediately
entered into conversation with two or three of the industrious idlers
who are always to be found in Rome at the doors of banking-houses,
churches, museums, or theatres. With the Frenchman, the man who had
followed him entered too; the Frenchman knocked at the inner door, and
entered the first room; his shadow did the same.

"Messrs. Thomson & French?" inquired the stranger.

An attendant arose at a sign from a confidential clerk at the first
desk. "Whom shall I announce?" said the attendant.

"Baron Danglars."

"Follow me," said the man. A door opened, through which the attendant
and the baron disappeared. The man who had followed Danglars sat down on
a bench. The clerk continued to write for the next five minutes; the man
preserved profound silence, and remained perfectly motionless. Then the
pen of the clerk ceased to move over the paper; he raised his head, and
appearing to be perfectly sure of privacy,--"Ah, ha," he said, "here you