The English | Page 9

night was far advanced, and then left off, though I was at a loss.
However, the general had a run of luck, and I thought it best to stop.
Before leaving he took me and Lord Pembroke aside, and begged me to
contrive that the two knaves should not come to his house the
followifig day. "For," said he, "if that Gascon were to be half as
insolent to me as he was to you, I should shew him out by the window."
Pembroke said he would tell the lady of the general's wishes.
"Do you think," said I, "that those four notes of theirs can be
forgeries?"
"It's very possible."
"What would you advise my doing to clear the matter up?"
"I would send them to the bank."
"And if they should be forgeries?"
"I would have patience, or I would arrest the rascals."
The next day I went to the bank myself, and the person to whom I gave
the notes gave me them back, saying, coldly,--
"These notes are bad, sir."
"Be kind enough to examine them closely."
"It's no good, they are evident forgeries. Return them to the person
from whom you got them, and he will be only too glad to cash them."
I was perfectly aware that I could put the two knaves under lock and
key, but I did not want to do so. I went to Lord Pembroke to find out
their address, but he was still in bed, and one of his servants took me to
them. They were surprised to see me. I told them coolly enough that the
four notes were forged, and that I should feel much obliged if they
would give me forty guineas and take their notes back.

"I haven't got any money," said Castelbajac, "and what you say
astonishes me very much. I can only return them to the persons who
gave them to me, if the are really the same notes that we gave you
yesterday."
At this suggestion the blood rushed to my face, and with a withering
glance and an indignant apostrophe I left them. Lord Pembroke's
servant took me to a magistrate who, having heard my statement on
oath, gave me a paper authorizing me to arrest two counts. I gave the
document to an alderman, who said he would see it was carried out, and
I went home ill pleased with the whole business.
Martinelli was waiting for me; he had come to ask me to give him a
dinner. I told him my story, without adding that the knaves were to be
arrested, and his advice delivered with philosophic calm was to make
an autoda-fe of the four notes. It was very good advice, but I did not
take it.
The worthy Martinelli, thinking to oblige me, told me that he had
arranged with Lord Spencer the day on which I was to be introduced to
the club, but I answered that my fancy for going there was over. I ought
to have treated this learned and distinguished man with more politeness,
but who can sound human weakness to its depths? One often goes to a
wise man for advice which one has not the courage to follow.
In the evening I went to the general's, and found the self-styled
Countess Castelbajac seated on Lord Pembroke's knees. The supper
was a good one, and passed off pleasantly; the two rascals were not
there, and their absence was not remarked. When we left the table we
went into another room, and played till day-break. I left the board with
a loss of two or three hundred guineas.
I did not wake till late the next morning, and when I did my man told
me that a person wanted to speak to me. I had him shewn in, and as he
only spoke English the negro had to be our interpreter. He was the chief
of the police, and told me that if I would pay for the journey he would
arrest Castelbajac at Dover, for which town he had started at noon. As
to the other he was sure of having him in the course of the night. I gave

him a guinea, and told him it would be enough to catch the one, and
that the other could go where he liked.
The next day was Sunday, the only day on which Madame Cornelis
could go abroad without fear of the bailiff. She came to dine with me,
and brought her daughter, whom the prospect of leaving her mother had
quite cured. The school which Madame Cornelis had chosen was at
Harwich, and we went there after dinner.
The head-mistress was a Catholic, and though she must have been sixty,
she looked keen, witty, and as if she knew the ways