entrust his vows to the mercenary
eloquence of choristers and catgut--to anything--or anybody, provided it
be done by proxy. My warning was vain; but the mischief did not befall
him exactly in the manner I had contemplated.

His cousin opened my door while I was breakfasting, and informed me that
L---- was in the house of Don G---- A----, and in bed, having received a
wound the previous night from some robbers; and that he wished to see
me. I found him in a house, into which I had already been introduced,
being one of those he most frequented. A bed had been prepared in the
drawing-room, all the window-shutters of which were closed, and he was
lying there, surrounded by the family of his host, to whom was added his
sister. As he was unable to speak above a whisper, I was given the seat
by the bedside, while he related to me his adventure.

He had just quitted the street of the balcony at about nine o'clock, and
was approaching the house we were now in, when, on turning a corner, he
was attacked by three ruffians, one of whom demanded his money in the
usual terms, "Your purse, or your life!" while, before he had time to
reply, but was endeavouring to pass on, a second faced him, and stabbed
him in the breast through his cloak. He then ran forward, followed by
the three, down the street, into the house, and up the staircase; the
robbers not quitting the pursuit until he rang the bell on the
first-floor. The surgeon had been immediately called, and had pronounced
him wounded within--not an inch, but the tenth part of an inch--of his
life; for the steel had penetrated to within that distance of his heart.

My first impression was that the robbers were acting a part, and had
been hired to get rid of him,--otherwise what were the utility of
stabbing him, when they might have rifled his pockets without such
necessity? But this he assured me could not be the case, as the person
most likely to fall under such suspicion, was incapable of employing
similar means; adding, that that was the usual mode of committing
robberies in Seville. I left him, after having assured him how much I
envied his good fortune; seeing that he was in no danger, and only
condemned to pass a week or two in the society of charming women, all
zealously employed in nursing him--for such was the truth--one of the
young ladies being supposed, and I fear with justice, to be the object
of his addresses.

The ungrateful wretch convinced me by his reply (as we