den
china, which stand on my mantle-piece; Third, 'The Virgin,' by
Perugino, in my drawing-room at Ferouzat.

"Likewise, to my much-beloved wife and legitimate spouse, Marie Gretchen
Van Cloth, dwelling at Amsterdam: First, a sum of twenty thousand
francs, which I have agreed by contract to pay her; Second, a sum of
sixty thousand francs, to be distributed by her, as it may please her,
among the different children whom she has by me; Third, my
dinner-service in Delph, known as No. 3; Fourth, a barrel-organ, set
with four of Haydn's symphonies.

"Likewise, to my much-beloved wife and legitimate spouse, Marie Louise
Antoinette Cora de La Pescade, dwelling at Les Grands Palmiers (Ile
Bourbon), my plantation upon which she lives, including the annexes of
Le Grand Morne.

"Likewise, to my much-beloved wife and legitimate spouse, Anita Josepha
Christina de Postero, dwelling at Cadiz: First, a sum of twelve thousand
francs; which I have agreed by contract to pay her; Second, my pardon
for her little adventure with my lieutenant Jean Bonaffe."

If some very precise person should seek to insinuate his criticisms upon
my uncle's matrimonial principles, my reply would be that
Barbassou-Pasha was a Turk and a Mussulman, and that consequently he can
only be praised for having so faithfully obeyed the Laws of the
Prophet--laws which permitted him to indulge in all this hymeneal luxury
without in the least degree outraging the social proprieties--and for
having in this matter piously fulfilled a religious duty, which his
premature death alone, so far as we can judge, has hindered him from
accomplishing with greater fervour. I trust that the God of the Faithful
will at least give him credit for his efforts.

Having said so much on behalf of a memory which is dear to me, and
having enumerated the chief clauses of the will, I may add in a few
words that, after the payment of my uncle's matrimonial donations, and
the various legacies to his "god-children," with those to his sailors in
addition, there remained for me about thirty-seven million francs.

"But, these children of my uncle's?" said I.

"Oh, sir! everything is in order! The Turkish law not recognising
marriages contracted abroad with unbelievers, excepting in the case of
certain prescribed formalities which your uncle happens to have
neglected to go through, it results that his will expresses his
deliberate intentions. Moreover, he had during his lifetime provided for