in the evening. "There is nothing like
energy; and if a man has only the courage
to pursue fortune boldly, he is sure to win
her."

So the duns were put off by the most
stately and wonderful excuses from day to
day, and Bouffet and his wife retained in
the same awe-struck respect. At the end of
a week, the Prince called again upon the
Grand Vizier.

His excellency received his guest with the
same pleasant smile as before, but there were
no pipes and coffee. Perhaps the Grand
Vizier had no time to attend to such trifles,
and was going to despatch him at once on his
errand of glory. The Vizier presented to
him a paper. It was his own proposal, and
His Excellency in returning it said, " That it
was a most ingenious idea, but that unluckily
it had not met with the approval of the
French ambassador, to whom he, the Grand
Vizier, had submitted it immediately it had
reached him."

The hotel was crowded with duns when he
returned to it. In his utter disappointment
he had not given them a thought, till
suddenly brought to bay in the midst of them;
and there was something touching after all in
seeing the lion thus surrounded and yelped
at with his claws tied. So thought, at least.
Monsieur and Madame Bouffet, who rescued
him, and angrily cleared the house.

And here the secretary, who had first
brought evil upon him, proved a valuable
ally. That individual had made himself
acquainted with every possible and
impossible means of obtaining money in
Constantinople; and, having been first rescued
by stratagem from the close custody in which
he had been for some time kept by his landlord,
set himself heartily to work, and at last,
by judicious puffing of his employer,
persuaded one of the wise men of Constantinople
to advance sufficient money to the Prince to
pay his hotel bill, for so many thousands per
cent., that the wise man of Canstantinople
thought he was dealing with an alchemist,
who did not happen for the moment to have
his crucibles with him.

But while the harassed adventurer was
rejoicing in the prospect of recovered
consideration at his hotel (for we may be sure he
did not say how he got the money), he
received a peremptory notice to quit. Once
paid, Monsieur and Madame Bouffet
determined to have nothing more to do with him.
People began to flock in from the country,
who considered his presence a scandal to the
house, and His Royal Highness must be
turned out.

It was a bitter thing enough for the
unmasked pretender to front the clamorous
horde of duns who waited in ambush for him
now, and dogged his heels wherever he went.
The irate Frenchwoman, who kept the nick-
nack shop, and asked if he thought she called
upon him for change of air; the savage horse-
dealer, a drunken Hungarian, who menaced
him, riding-whip in hand—what a palsy
seized upon his limbs in the midst of his
creditors, and his lips grew white, and his
heart stopped. Yet, to tell with what
inexhaustible resource of trick and evasion he
quieted them again and again—with what
wit and ingenuity he battled in the wrong
cause, would fill a volume. Driven from one
hotel to another, chased hither and thither—
hunted, badgered, jeered at, he at last took
to his bed, as the only temporary means of
peace, and how he contrived to keep body
and soul together there, was a mystery.

I never could ascertain the real history of
the man who came to Constantinople, and
called himself the Duke of Vendôme. It
remained a mystery; but he was probably the
illegitimate descendant of some branch of the
Royal family of France. There is no smoke
without fire; nor do the most unblushing
men often assert a lie which has not some
foundation, however shadowy and unsubstantial.
Thus much also was certain: he was a
brave and able soldier, but most thoroughly
unprincipled. A man tutored in a bad
school, who believed everything in life might
be won by address and trick—who
entertained from conviction the mistaken idea that
the world is to be juggled out of its
respect and consideration, or anything which
is worth having. He must have been also
ignorant, or he must have known that steam,
and " that kind of thing," puts all the world
now in such free and constant communication,
that there was no place in the world in
which his pretensions could possibly have
escaped being unmasked by return of post.
But many much wiser men than our adventurer
know very little of Constantinople. It
is the fashion to consider its inhabitants a
race of sleepy barbarians; while, heart alive!
they are quite as wide awake, and far more
wily, than the wiliest in the West. However,
after suffering every species of degradation
and contumely, our knight-errant
sunk into a valet de place under the
protection of the same bon Bouffet, who had
once bowed to him so lowly; and the
beautiful Princess opened a milliner's shop
not unsuccessfully.

There may be a doubt, however, whether
society is quite right in these cases; and,
when the pretensions of the soi-disant Duke
had dwindled down to a modest request for a
subaltern's commission, whether it was wise
to place him beyond the pale of hope and an
honourable life. The man might have done
good service, sword in hand, and the empire
of Turkey have been altogether the better
for his services. If society would give such
men a place, they would often fill it worthily.
If we would recognise their talents, their
genius for invention, their inexhaustible
resources, their valour, perseverance, and
contempt of obstacles, we might often make