e pleased? If it seems strange that he should have been attracted to
New Orleans rather than to the Old World, we must remember what New
Orleans was in 1820. No other city, not even Paris, could at that time
compare with it as a center of genuine romance, nor was this romance
unmixed with lawlessness of the most picturesque kind. Money poured into
it from a hundred sources more or less illegitimate, besides the streams
of wealth produced by cotton, sugar, and rice industries. Gambling was
indeed a fine art, duelling appeared more a pastime than anything else,
and what went on in the gilded halls and melody-filled salles may be
imagined, I suppose, though, I do not care to cast a glance that way.

Hepworth Coleman had heard much of the gay city, of its warm, odorous
atmosphere, its hospitality, its social charm, the smack of reckless
romance in all its ways. Somehow the desire to go there got hold of his
imagination and he went.

The letter to Judge Favart de Caumartin was given to Coleman by his
banker, who in handing it to him said:

"I don't know the Judge personally, never saw him; but he has done a lot
of business through us. He is very rich, evidently very influential, and
certainly will be of use to you. I feel that I can take the liberty of
sending you to him, because--well, he is under many obligations to the
bank, and is likely to want many more large favors. I fancy that you'll
find him a trifle eccentric, but enthusiastically hospitable. A creole
of the creoles I judge him to be, and a representative of the nabobs."

Young Coleman considered himself lucky to carry with him a document that
would give him introduction to a person so renowned as Judge Favart de
Caumartin, of whom he had been recently reading a good deal owing to a
duel fought between the Judge and one Colonel Sam Smith, of the United
States army, in which the latter had been killed. The duel had brought
out history from which it appeared that Judge Favart de Caumartin had
fought before, not once only, but many times, and always to the death of
his antagonist. Along with these facts were disclosed numerous
picturesque details of the Judge's past life, with more than hints that
in his young days he had been a pirate or something of the sort. The
account also made the most of his wealth, his almost reckless
liberality, his eccentricity, and, most of all, the air of mystery which
still hung over his business operations.

All this was rich food f