if you honour me with your commands, I shall be a
gainer by my obedience."

Don Diego replied, with a smile that denoted how well he understood the
meaning of this address, "Surely, Signior, I am bound by the strongest
ties to exert my utmost endeavours for your advantage; and I pray God
this your proposal may have that issue. I am well acquainted with the
Count's generosity and refined notions of honour; and too much obliged by
him already, to hesitate with punctilious reserve in accepting his future
assistance. Nevertheless, since you have contrived a scheme for removing
all scruples of that sort, I shall execute it with pleasure; and, in the
form of business, you shall have all the security I can give for what
shall be necessary to answer my present occasions."

The preliminaries being thus settled, Joshua advanced for his use a
thousand pounds, for which he would take neither bond, note, nor receipt,
desiring only that the Castilian would mark it in his own pocket-book,
that the debt might appear, in case any accident should befall the
borrower. Although the Spaniard had been accustomed to the uncommon
generosity of Melvil, he could not help wondering at this nobleness of
behaviour, so little to be expected from any merchant, much less from a
Jewish broker.

While this affair was on the anvil, Renaldo, who could no longer withhold
the communication of his happiness from his sister and relations in
Germany, took up the pen, and, in a letter to his brother-in-law,
recounted all the circumstances of the surprising turn of fate which he
had experienced since his arrival in England. He likewise related the
story of Don Diego, informed them of the day appointed for his nuptials,
and entreated the Major to make a journey to London with his wife; or, if
that should be impracticable, to come as far as Brussels, where they
should be met by him and his Serafina. There was now but one day between
him and the accomplishment of his dearest wish, and that was spent in
procuring a licence, and adjusting the preparations for the grand
festival. Don Diego in the forenoon visited Madam Clement, to whom he
repeated his warm acknowledgments of her bounty and maternal affection to
his daughter, and presented to Serafina bank notes to the amount of five
hundred pounds, to defray the necessary expense for her wedding
ornaments.

All the previous steps being taken for the solemnisation of this
interesting event, and the hour of ap