ored to his
country."

Such was the first paragraph; here is the second

"A madman, the fourth this week, but the most dangerous of all,
presented himself yesterday at one of the entrances of the Tuilleries.
Decked out in a grotesque costume, his eyes flashing, his hat cocked
over his ear, and addressing the most respectable people with unheard-of
rudeness, he attempted to force his way past the sentry, and thrust
himself, for what purpose God only knows, into the presence of the
Sovereign. During his incoherent ejaculations, the following words were
distinguished: 'bravery, _Vendome_ column, fidelity, the dial-plate of
time, the tablets of history.' When he was arrested by one of the
detective watch, and taken before the police commissioner of the
Tuilleries section, he was recognized as the same individual who, the
evening before, at the opera, had interrupted the performance of Charles
VI. with most unseemly cries. After the customary medical and legal
proceedings, he was ordered to be sent to the Charenton Hospital. But
opposite the _porte Saint-Martin_, taking advantage of a lock among the
vehicles, and of the Herculean strength with which he is endowed, he
wrested his hands from his keeper, threw him down, beat him, leaped at a
bound into the street, and disappeared in the crowd. The most active
search was immediately set on foot, and we have it from the best
authority that the police are already on the track of the fugitive."

CHAPTER XVII.

WHEREIN HERR NICHOLAS MEISER, ONE OF THE SOLID MEN OF DANTZIC, RECEIVES
AN UNWELCOME VISIT.

The wisdom of mankind declares that ill-gotten gains never do any good.
I maintain that they do the robbers more good than the robbed, and the
good fortune of Herr Nicholas Meiser is an argument in support of my
proposition.

The nephew of the illustrious physiologist, after brewing a great deal
of beer from a very little hops, and prematurely appropriating the
legacy intended for Fougas, had amassed, by various operations, a
fortune of from eight to ten millions. "In what kind of operations?" No
one ever told me, but I know that he called all operations that would
make money, good ones. To lend small sums at a big interest, to
accumulate great stores of grain in order to relieve a scarcity after
producing it himself, to foreclose on unfortunate debtors, to fit out a
vessel or two for trade in black flesh on the African coast--such are
specimens of the speculations whi