'When the horses, standing on three feet and placing the tip of their
fourth foot upon the ground, were mustered in front of him in the
evening, he said, I have loved the love of earthly good above the
remembrance of things on high, and have spent the time in viewing these
horses. Bring the horses back to me. And when they were brought back
he began to cut off their legs and--'

"It was at this moment that the young Englishman sprang at me. My God!
how little can I remember of the next few minutes! He was a boxer, this
shred of a man. He had been trained to strike. I tried to catch him by
the hands. Pac, pac, he came upon my nose and upon my eye. I put down
my head and thrust at him with it. Pac, he came from below. But ah!
I was too much for him. I hurled myself upon him, and he had no place
where he could escape from my weight. He fell flat upon the cushions
and I seated myself upon him with such conviction that the wind flew
from him as from a burst bellows.

"Then I searched to see what there was with which I could tie him. I
drew the strings from my shoes, and with one I secured his wrists, and
with another his ankles. Then I tied the cravat round his mouth again,
so that he could only lie and glare at me. When I had done all this,
and had stopped the bleeding of my own nose, I looked out of the coach
and ah, monsieur, the very first thing which caught my eyes was that
candle--that dear little candle--glimmering in the window of the
minister. Alone, with these two hands, I had retrieved the capitulation
of an army and the loss of a province. Yes, monsieur, what Abercrombie
and 5,000 men had done upon the beach at Aboukir was undone by me,
single-handed, in a hackney coach in Harley Street.

"Well, I had no time to lose, for at any moment Monsieur Otto might be
down. I shouted to my driver, gave him his second guinea, and allowed
him to proceed to Watier's. For myself, I sprang into our Embassy's
carriage, and a moment later the door of the minister opened. He had
himself escorted Monsieur Otto downstairs, and now so deep was he in
talk that he walked out bareheaded as far as the carriage. As he stood
there by the open door, there came the rattle of wheels, and a man
rushed down the pavement.

"'A despatch of great importance for Milord Hawkesbury!' he cried.

"I could see that it was not my messenger, but a second one. Milord
Hawkesbury caught the paper from his hand, and read it by the li