"Then she is coming out to you?" said the host, with a grin. Roscorla's face flushed with anger. "There is no she in the matter,' said, abruptly, almost fiercely. "I thank God I am not tied to any woman.” " he a woman who is in love with, or has been | What life I have got before me I shall in love with another man, even if he could live in Jamaica - that is my view of the overlook her breach of faith and the question." shameless thoughtlessness of her conduct? My course is clear, at all events. I give you back the promise that you did not know how to keep; and now you can go and ask the young man who has been making a holiday toy of you, whether he | will be pleased to marry you. "Oh, I beg your pardon," said his host, good-naturedly, who did not care to recall the occasions on which Mr. Roscorla had been rather pleased to admit that certain tender ties bound him to his native land. "RICHARD ROSCORLA." He sealed and addressed this letter, still with the firm, hard look about his face; then he summoned a servant-a tall, red-haired Irishman. He did not hesitate for a moment. "No, there is not!" he said. "What fool would have his comfort and peace of mind depend on the caprice of a woman? I like your plan better, Rogers: when they're dependent on you, you can do as you like; but when they've got to be treated as equals, they're the devil. No, my boys, you don't find me going in for the angel in the house-she's too exact "Look here, Sullivan, the English mails go out to-morrow morning you must ride down to the post-office, as hard as you can go; and if you're a few minutes late, see Mr. Keith, and give him my compliments, and ask him if he can possibly take this letter if the mails are not made up. It is of great impor-ing. Is it to be unlimited?" tance. Quick now!" He watched the man go clattering down the cactus avenue until he was out of sight. Then he turned, put the letters in his pocket, went in-doors, and again struck a small gong that did duty for a bell. He wanted his horse brought round at once. He was going over to Pleasant Farm; probably he would not return that night. He lit another cigar and paced up and down the gravel in front of the house until the horse was brought round. When he reached Pleasant Farm, the stars were shining overhead, and the odours of the night-flowers came floating out of the forest; but inside the house there were brilliant lights and the voices of men talking. A bachelor supper-party was going forward. Mr. Roscorla entered, and presently was seated at the hospitable board. They had never seen him so gay; and they had certainly never seen him so generously inclined, for Mr. Roscorla was economical in his habits. He would have them all to dinner the next evening, and promised them such champagne as had never been sent to Kingston before. He passed round his best cigars; he hinted something about unlimited loo; he drank pretty freely; and was altogether in a jovial humour. "England?" he said, when some one mentioned the mother-country. "Of one thing I am pretty certain - England will never see me again. No-a man lives here; in England he waits for his death. Now to play unlimited loo in a reckless fashion is about the easiest way of getting rid of money that the ingenuity of man has devised. The other players were much better qualified to run such risks than Mr. Roscorla; but none played half so wildly as he. I.O.U.'s went freely about. At one point in the evening the floating paper bearing the signature of Mr. Roscorla represented a sum of about 300l.; and yet his losses did not weigh heavily on him. At length every one got tired, and it was resolved to stop short at a certain hour. But from this point the luck changed; nothing could stand against his cards; one by one his I.O.U.'s were recalled; and when they all rose from the table, he had won about 481. He was not elated. He went to his room, and sat down in an easy-chair; and then it seemed to him that he saw Eglosilyan once more, and the far coasts of Cornwall, and the broad uplands lying under a blue English sky. That was his home, and he had cut himself away from it, and from the little glimmer of romance that had recently brightened it for him. Every bit of the place, too, was associated somehow with Wenna Rosewarne. He could see the seat, fronting the Atlantic, on which she used to sit and sew on the fine summer forenoons. He could see the rough road, leading over the downs, on which he met her one wintry morning, she wrapped up and driving her father's dogcart, while the red sun in the sky seemed he was not aware that, when he reached the sleeping town, a pale grey was lightening the eastern skies. He went to the house of the postmaster and hurriedly aroused him. Mr. Keith began to think that the ordinarily sedate Mr. Roscorla had gone mad. to brighten the pink colour the cold wind How long he walked he did not know; had brought into her cheeks. He thought of her walking sedately up to church; of her wild scramblings among the rocks with Mabyn; of her enjoyment of a fierce wind when it came laden with the spray of the great rollers breaking on the cliff outside. What was the song she used to sing to herself as she went along the quiet woodland ways? — Your Polly has never been false, she declares, Stairs. "But I must have the letter," he said. "Come now, Keith, you can give it me back if you like. Of course, I know it is very wrong; but you'll do it to oblige a friend "My dear sir," said the postmaster, who could not get time for explanation, "the mails were made up last night — Yes, yes; but you can open the English bag." 66 He could not let her go. All the anger of wounded vanity had left his heart; he thought now only of the chance he was throwing away. Where else could he hope to find for himself so pleasant a "They were sent on board last night." companion and friend, who would cheer "Then the packet is still in the harup his dull daily life with her warm sym-bour; you might come down to her with pathies, her quick humour, her winning womanly ways? He thought of that letter he had sent away, and cursed his own folly. So long as she was bound by her promise, he knew he could marry her when he pleased; but now he had voluntarily released her. In a couple of weeks she would hold her manumission in her hands; the past would no longer have any power over her; if ever they met, they would meet as mere acquaintances. Every moment the prize slipping out of his grasp seemed to grow more valuable ; his vexation with himself grew intolerable; he suddenly resolved that he would make a wild effort to get back that fatal letter. He had sat communing with himself for over an hour; all the household was fast asleep. He would not wake any one, for fear of being compelled to give explanations; so he noiselessly crept along the dark passages until he got to the door, which he carefully opened and let himself out. The night was wonderfully clear; the constellations throbbing and glittering overhead; the trees were black against the pale sky. me "She sails at daybreak "It is not daybreak yet," said Mr. Roscorla, looking up. Then he saw how the grey dawn had come over the skies, banishing the stars, and he became aware of the wan light shining around him. With the new day his life was altered; he would no more be as he had been; the chief aim and purpose of his existence had been changed. Walking heedlessly back, he came to a point from which he had a distant view of the harbour and the sea beyond. Far away out on the dull grey plain was a steamer slowly making her way towards the east. Was that the packet bound for England, carrying to Wenna Rosewarne the message that she was free? From Fraser's Magazine. SECRET PAPERS OF THE EMPIRE. THE late Alexander Dumas, who assisted in one of the attacks regularly made on the Tuileries in French revoluHe made his way round to the stables, tions, describes how the air was filled and had some sort of notion that he with what seemed to be snowy clouds of would try to get at his horse, until it oc- feathers, which floated from the windows. curred to him that some suddenly awak- These proved to be the papers of the ened servant or master would probably royal family, rifled, torn up, and scattered send a bullet whizzing at him. So he to the winds by the mob. At the later abandoned that enterprise, and set off Imperialist downfall a more piquant shape to walk, as quickly as he could, down the slopes of the mountain, with the stars still shining over his head, the air sweet with powerful scents, the leaves of the bushes hanging silently in the semi-darkness. of vengeance was contrived, and the huge bulk of confidential papers was handed over to a government commission for publication. It was anticipated that a rich crop of scandals would repay the -- 66 trouble of investigation, and that the joyed pensions; and quite a horde of damage done to the Imperial cause would princes, princesses, Italian marchionessbe irretrievable. The issue was at once es and countesses, with their sons and commenced, and continued during the nephews, all enjoyed the bounty of this first weeks of the siege; but the pieces fortunate kinsman. The very names of were selected without intelligence, and the recipients. Pepolir Pimoli," "Rawithout arrangement or method. Neither tazzi née Wyse," " Turr née Wyse," "Nawas anything of a sensational kind, or poléon-Wyse,"" Booker," &c.— show the that seriously compromised the Imperial adventurous and cosmopolitan character family personally discovered. The pro- of the connection. These regular grants ceeding was a stupid one, as all the more reached a heavy total, which however, damaging documents were certain to have did not include the presents and "rebeen destroyed or carried away. What liefs" for which the connections were was left merely concerned the routine of always importuning, nor the sumptuous the Imperial system, and it may be fairly offices which many of them enjoyed. presumed that had M. Gambetta's desk The aged Jerome, for instance, received been rifled in the same rude fashion the a yearly allowance of 4.000/., besides revelations made would perhaps have 2,400l. as marshal of France and senator, been as awkward. with a palace, or maison militaire, and a But it must not be supposed that this présent of 80,000l. in hand. His obsemass of papers was without interest. Its quies cost about 7,000l. His son, Prince value is found in the light it sheds upon Napoleon, had a thousand a year, besides the Imperial system, and that corruption a present of 7,000l., the maintenance of which any adventurous form of govern- the Palais Royal, and the cost of his marment is certain to engender. It presents riage, which reached the enormous sum to us a picture of the greedy parasites of nearly 40,000l. The Princess Baiocchi, crowding round the fountain of honour besides 6,000l. a year, received a present and wealth, proffering their fulsome hom- of 40,000l. in 1852; 4,000l. a year for the age, ready to sell their pens or their poli-rachat d'un majorat à Bologne, 9,000l., tics for the lowest wage; recriminating to purchase a property in the Landes, and spying on each other; and, most together with a house at Rennes, and curious of all, it makes evident that the 12,000l. on other occasions. This fortucrew of retainers and flatterers had, sev-nate lady enjoyed in all about a quarter eral years before the crash came, lost confidence in their patron and believed that a catastrophe was at hand. It is surprising that more account has not been taken of these papers, which show in the most satisfactory way what Imperialism was, and what, from its very conditions, it must ever be. of a million. The Lucien Bonapartes were provided for on the same handsome scale, receiving four and two thousand a year and grants of 4,000l. and 8,000l. a piece, to pay their debts. It would be tedious to enumerate all these largesses. The hapless emperor seems to have been persecuted with the demands and debts One of these conditions is the perpet-of his relations. The Murats were indeed ual and reckless waste of money. The the most rapacious and insatiable. The revived Imperialism was not a cause like family, it can be calculated, received that of Legitimacy, but a speculation; ad- about three millions sterling from the herents, therefore, were only to be at-head of the house. To Prince Lucien tracted by magnificent prospects and the hope of gain. Any existing adherents were entitled to rewards for past services, while the spectacle of such handsome recognition enticed new recruits. It is certain that a few years more of this Imperial waste would have crippled the nation almost as severely as the German indemnity. The Imperial family and its numerous connections were a frightful burden on the public purse. It would seem that there was an everlasting drain on the French treasury, not only in the shape of regular allowances, but also in that of reliefs and grants of all kinds. Nearly forty members of the family en Murat was given in April 1852 a grant of 40,000l., payable in instalments of 4.000l.; and, in the same year, an annuity of 2,000l. sterling was added. Altogether he appears to have enjoyed 9,000l. a year. The Princess Lucien had 4,000l. a year; Madame Achille Murat a present of 8,000l.; a Baroness Classiron, "born Murat," 1,200l. a year; and the Duchess de Mouchy, another "born Murat," a dowry of 80,000l. and an allowance of 4,000l. a year. The Pepoli-Murats, the Rasponis, divided about 5,000l. a year, so that the Murat family during eighteen years or so received about half a million sterling or nearly 30,000l. a year. There is also a sort of pension-list which shows | turer prince, like the prodigal heir, must how the emperor was preyed upon by come into his estate heavily burdened satellites, agents, and even flatterers, who with obligations. Besides this debt there appear to have been quite insatiable. was 80,000l. for the secret police, and a Thus one Bachon, the Prince Imperial's regular bureau of subsidies for the proequerry, besides his salary of 240/., was vincial press, which, like the Journal de one day presented with 8,000l. Montébliard was content to receive such low sums as 25., or even 10. for the editor's travelling expenses. One Captain Delage received 1,000l. as "a dowry for his bride." On the other hand, there is one false impression to be corrected. There has been a popular belief that D'Orsay, the brilliant fashionable, whose guest and protégé the prince had been at Gore House, had been neglected or treated ungratefully, the truth being that he was in receipt of a pension of 800l. It must be of course admitted that the emperor had a large civil list, more than a million sterling, for the disposal of which he was accountable to no one. But it is clear that it must have been exhausted by the costly charges of Imperial state, and the Roman magnificence, exceeding that of any country in Europe, by which All the old agents and accomplices in the Boulogne and Strasburg attempts were persevering in applying for recognition, and their services were duly requited. A Dr. Schaller, of Strasburg, enjoyed a pension of nearly 500l. a year, besides gratuities amounting to 10,000l. But the substantial plunder was reserved for the Fleurys and Persignys. In 1853 the emperor's cheque-book contains an entry, "last payment of 2,000l. to Fleury," besides various entries during the years 1867-70 amounting to 12,000. Fleury, who was master of the horse, administered about 30,000l. a year, and the story of the horse which the emperor by an accident discovered was charged to him at double the price paid for it, shows what profits were to be made. His piteous answer is well known he was it was sustained. It is rather the prinvirtually helpless in the matter. More ciple of this secret budget which so fasignificant than any of these entries is tally condemns the empire, as a demoralone of an attaché at Lisbon, the young izing system and engine of wholesale Duke de Bellune, who, besides his sal- corruption. As the decay increased, and · ary, had various debts discharged for the security grew precarious, so the syshim to the amount of 7,000l. An old tem had to be worked on an increasing comrade of the emperor's, one Bataille, scale. Everything was becoming venal; who persisted in "standing" at various elections, and was always unsuccessful, received 12,000l. A Baron Dietfürt recalls a service-that of having lent the prince his passport at a critical time and was rewarded with 100l. a year. Indeed, when he was simple Prince Napoleon, it appears that there were people with faith enough in his star to lend him large sums. At both Rothschilds and Barings he had overdrawn his account by 2,000l. or 3,000l. Even after two or three years' presidency, he was to have been pressed for money, and had borrowed from Narvaaz, the Spanish general, a sum of 20,000/.; while his master of the horse, in 1849, writes to say that he can get no more credit from the carriage-builders and other fournisseurs of his department. "Still," he adds significantly, "it is better to owe to one creditor than to all the world, and believe me, I am a good judge in such matters." One creditor in 1848 lent 10,000/., and was not repaid in full until the year 1856. A Mr. Strode, an English friend, during three years received 36,000l., repayment, it would seem, of a debt. Thus an adven at court everything was purchasable. This alone is enough to explain the enfeebled state of all the departments. There was no reponsibility, no muscle or nerve, every one being deceived, or even self-deceived, by the pantomime, “mounted" so gorgeously and lavishly, of “hunts at Compiègne," "three toilettes a day," the great man-milliner engendered in the very spawn of the empire, the sumptuous progresses and receptions, Centgardes, and all the rest of it. Nor are there glimpses wanting of the faithlessness almost invariably found in unscrupulous instruments. On the eve of the coup d'état, we find Persigny and Rouher taking fright at the last moment, and sending a message to the printers of the proclamations which were to be scattered over the country. They had heard, they said, that their names were to be attached to certain papers. This was to be done without their authority, and they cautioned the printer accordingly. The note was in the emperor's hands, and he had carefully put it aside in an envelope and endorsed it "plot." Years later the secret police kept watch on Rouher, and 66 a formal report was sent in to the emperor that he had been seen to shake hands with a radical in a café." There is one incident almost dramatic, and which is truly significant as to the character of the adventurers about the emperor, and the shocking result their influence entailed. One Sandon had been arrested seventeen times by order of a minister, and had finally been shut up in a mad-house for nearly two years. Not content with this, various communiqués of a slanderous sort had been sent to the papers, as it were to justify the proceedings. His mother had died of grief, either from this persecution or from some treatment on the part of one of the court, but this is not clear. The unfortunate man appealed for justice to the emperor, and was told by Dr. Conneau to apply to the courts. He then threatened to make the whole public; but the shrewd Persigny saw the danger. "My dear Conti," he writes in alarm to the emperor's secretary, "this is a serious business and must be hushed up. Billault's (the minister) behaviour has been outrageous. This victim will get into the hands of the factions, and we shall have a terrible scandal. It seems that twenty or thirty thousand francs would settle the business. There has been, besides, fearful injustice done, which ought to be set right." time for checking Prussia is hopelessly gone by, the safety of the empire depends on respecting the principles of nationalities, which the emperor himself has established." He is against official candidature, the law of public safety, and Article 75, all arbitrary engines of the system. If the emperor does not go with him in these views, he can be of no use; if he does, then he is willing to grapple with radicalism, as a minister with full powers. This seemed frank and noble, and after about three weeks of negotiation a personal interview is proposed, and the prefect of police arranges one at Compiègne, which he suggests should be at midnight in order "to avoid the indiscretion of the newspapers, and the vigilance of the penny-a-liners who are hanging about the place." He would meet Ollivier at the station at ten o'clock, and bring him to the palace, but the deputy must cover up his head in a muffler. He could get back to Paris by four in the morning. The interview seems to have taken place, but the candidate could not obtain his own terms. He was asked to join the ministry, not to make one. Non possumus was his answer, and he must go back to the country. After some weeks the emperor wrote himself, and Ollivier found his letter "so confiding, so noble" that all scruples gave way. When the Plébiscite of 1870 was Nothing is more characteristic than ordered, and when Ollivier came into ofthe stages of the seduction, as it might fice we find him showering telegrams on be called, of the wretched Ollivier, and the officials of the departments with an which really forms a pitiable chapter in energy which shows that the last act of the history of human weakness. The "Rabagas" is not in the least overdrawn. Clément Duvernois, who figured_recent-“Tell all the juges de paix that I wish to ly in a criminal trial as connected with a see them on the election committees." bubble company," was the agent em- "Exact information as to the feeling of ployed. The coquetry, the pretence at the priests." "I hear that the president republican virtue, and the painstaking re- of the court exhibits an apathy that borgard paid to scruples, are amusing ders on hostility. He has a right to do enough. In October 1869 the first ap-so. But I wish to know the exact truth." proaches had been made to him. "You" Instantly arrest all the leaders of the know," he answered, "my lively sympa- International." "Don't hesitate an inthy for the emperor's character, which stant to prosecute every newspaper that has been won in these times by his atti- encourages civil war, or attacks the emtude, so noble, grand, so worthy of all ad-peror. We can't look on with folded miration, and with which he has calmly arms at anything that touches on revolumet so much abuse, injustice, and un-tion and perfect liberty: but provocation worthy attacks. If I myself were only in to assassinate or civil war is opposed to question, I would say, Let him dispose all liberty." "The prefect writes that vaof me as he pleases.' But there is his rious chambrées of the town have pubsituation to be considered and what is his lished an odious letter; prosecute the own interest." He then proceeds to lay principal persons who have signed, and down some principles by which the exminister must himself be fatally condemned. As for war, "it would control everything, compromise everything. The arrest those most compromised" (this last injunction was erased). Was there ever such a ludicrous change from the stickler for the law of personal safety and |