the floor, sewing
them in the linings of my coat, and so on. The bait took: they made
a regular search, seizing my manuscripts, put great seals on all
the packages, and sent them up to Paris. The day after, I made
submission,--offered to reveal all to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
And accordingly they sent me up here with an escort. What would have
come next I cannot tell you, if Anna Maria had not found out Lord
Lauderdale, and trumped up some story to him, so that he interfered. And
we are now living at the Rue Neuve des Capucines; but how long we shall
be there, and where they may send us next, I wish I could only guess."

A few minutes' consideration satisfied me that the police were concerned
in Bubbleton's movements, and, knowing at once that no danger was to
be apprehended from such a source, were merely holding him up for some
occasion when they could make use of him to found some charge against
the British Government,--a manoeuvre constantly employed, and always
successful with the Parisians, wherever an explanation became necessary
in the public papers.

It would have served no purpose to impart these suspicions of mine to
Bubbleton himself; on the contrary, he would inevitably have destroyed
all clew to their confirmation by some false move, had I done so. With
this impression, then, I resolved to wait patiently, watch events, and
when the time came, see what best could be done towards effecting his
liberation.

As I was disposed to place more reliance on Miss Bubbleton's statements
than those of her imaginative brother, I agreed to his proposal to pay
her a visit; and accordingly we set out together for the Rue Neuve des
Capucines.

Lieutenant-General Bubbleton's quarters were by no means of that
imposing character which befitted his rank in the British army.
Traversing a dirty courtyard strewed with firewood, we entered a little
gloomy passage, from which a still gloomier stair ascended to the
topmost regions of the house, where, unlocking a door, he pushed me
before him into a small, meanly-furnished apartment, the centre of which
was occupied by a little iron stove, whose funnel pierced the ceiling
above, and gave the chamber somewhat the air of a ship's cabin.
Bubbleton, however, either did not or would not perceive any want of
comfort or propriety in the whole; on the contrary, he strode the floor
with the step of an emperor, and placed the chair for me to sit on as
though he were about to seat