ussian army; and
means were accordingly had recourse to in order to obtain a divorce, and
the breach of a marriage accomplished under a fraudulent representation.
While the proceedings were but in the initiative, there came a letter
from Oneglia, near Nice, to the afflicted mother of the young lady,
recalling to her mind the elderly gentleman with the blue spectacles who
usually sat next her at the English Church at Rome. He was the writer of
the present letter, who, in turning over the columns of the 'Times' read
the melancholy story of her daughter's betrayal and misery. By one of
those fortunate accidents more frequent in novels than in life, he had
the means of befriending her, and very probably of rescuing her from
her present calamity. He, the writer, had actually been present at the
wedding, and as a witness had signed the marriage-certificate of that
same _soi-disant_ Count Stanislaus Sobieski Something-or-other, at
Lemberg, in the year '49, and knew that the unhappy but deserted wife
was yet living. A certain momentary pressure of money prevented his
at once coming to England to testify to this fact; but if a small sum,
sufficient to pay a little balance he owed his innkeeper and wherewithal
to make his journey to England, were forwarded to the address of
Frederick Brooks, Esq., or lodged to his account at the Bank of French &
Co., Florence, he would at once hasten to London and depose formally
to every fact he had stated. By the merest accident I myself saw this
letter, which the lady had, for more accurate information about the
writer, sent to the banker at Florence, and in an instant I detected the
fine Roman hand of R. N. F. It is needless to say that this shot went
wide of the mark.

But that this fellow has lived for upwards of twenty years, travelling
the Continent in every direction, eating and drinking at the best
hotels, frequenting theatres, cafes, and public gardens, denying himself
nothing, is surely a shame and a disgrace to the police of Europe, which
has been usually satisfied to pass him over a frontier, and suffer him
to continue his depredations on the citizens of another state. Of the
obloquy he has brought upon his own country I do not speak. We must, I
take it, have our scoundrels like other people; the only great grievance
here is, that the fellow's ubiquity is such that it is hard to believe
that the swindler who walked off with the five watches from Hamburg is
the same who, in less than