ille_. No, thank God, the times are changed. I walked and
walked, till I came here, where I became one _philologue_ and taught
tongues--French and Italian. I found good friends here, those of my
religion. "He very good man," they say; "one banished priest; we must
help him." I am no longer a vagabond--ride a good horse when I go to
visit pupils in the country--stop at _auberge_--landlord comes to the
door: "What do you please to want, sir?" "Only to bait my horse, that is
all." _Eh bien_, landlord very polite; he not call me vagabond; I carry
pistols in my pocket.

_Myself_. I know you do; I have often seen them. But why do you carry
pistols?

_D'Eterville_. I ride along the road from the distant village. I have
been to visit my pupil whom I instruct in philology. My pupil has paid
me my bill, and I carry in my purse the fruits of my philology. I come
to one dark spot. Suddenly my bridle is seized, and one tall robber
stands at my horse's head with a very clumsy club in his hand. "Stand,
rascal," says he; "your life or your purse!" "Very good, sir," I
respond; "there you have it." So I put my hand, not into my pocket, but
into my holster; I draw out, not my purse, but my weapon, and--bang! I
shoot the English robber through the head.

_Myself_. It is a bad thing to shed blood; I should be loth to shoot a
robber to save a purse.

_D'Eterville_. _Que tu es bete_! _mon ami_. Am I to be robbed of the
fruits of my philology, made in foreign land, by one English robber?
Shall I become once more one vagabond as of old? one exiled priest turned
from people's doors, my shoe broken, toe sticking through it, like that
bad poet who put the Pope in hell? Bah, bah!

By degrees D'Eterville acquired a considerable fortune for one in his
station. Some people go so far as to say that it was principally made by
an extensive contraband trade in which he was engaged. Be this as it
may, some twenty years from the time of which I am speaking, he departed
this life, and shortly before his death his fellow-religionists, who knew
him to be wealthy, persuaded him to make a will, by which he bequeathed
all his property to certain popish establishments in England. In his
last hours, however, he repented, destroyed his first will, and made
another, in which he left all he had to certain of his relations in his
native country;--"for," said he, "they think me one fool, but I will show
them that they are mistaken. I came