rd W---- was colonel of an English regiment, and
joined the allied army which invaded France. Shortly before his
departure from Dover, where he was in garrison, the Colonel
married a rich heiress, but he left her with her family whilst
he went to encounter the risk of combats. The campaign of
France being terminated, nothing further was heard of the
colonel; it was known, however, that his regiment had been
almost entirely destroyed in a combat with the French in the
south of France, but his death not having been regularly
proved, some law proceedings took place between the different
members of his family respecting property to a very large
amount. These proceedings, which are not yet terminated, will,
no doubt, receive a solution from the following singular
circumstances:--Some time ago an old soldier, M. R----,
residing in the environs of Marseilles, came to Paris on family
affairs, and took up his residence in a hotel in the quarter of
the Chaussee d' Antin. Having run short of money, he begged the
hotel-keeper, M. D----, to advance him 100f., and as a
guarantee he left him provisionally a superb gold watch,
ornamented with diamonds, and on the back of which was the
miniature of a lady, with the initials 'E. W----.' M. R----
told the hotel-keeper that in a combat in 1814, in the south of
France, he had wounded and taken prisoner an English colonel;
that the colonel dying almost immediately after of his wounds,
his watch had remained in his hands. He recommended M. D----to
take particular care of the watch, and he went away, some days
ago, announcing that he would soon send by the messageries the
sum lent, and demand restitution of the watch. Two days back
there was such a numerous gathering of travellers in the hotel
of M. D----, that he was obliged to give up his own room to an
Englishman. On seeing the watch hanging over the chimney the
Englishman uttered a cry of surprise, and examined it closely.
From the miniature on the back, and the replies of the hotel
keeper to his questions, he recognized it as the property of
his brother, Colonel W----. With an obstinacy peculiarly
English, the Englishman would not give up the watch, and
offered to pay 100,000f. for it if required; for it was, with
the testimony of R----, the proof of the de