a. Now, none of these things touched _me_, and I was
growing very weary of my search when I lighted upon the following:--

"We are informed, on authority that we cannot question, that the young
C. de P. is now making the tour of Germany alone and in disguise, his
object being to ascertain for himself how the various relatives of his
house, on the maternal side, would feel affected by any movement in
France to renew his pretensions. Strange, undignified, and ill advised
as such a step must seem, there is nothing in it at all repulsive to the
well-known traditions of the younger branch. Our informant himself
met the P. at Mayence, and speedily recognized him, from the marked
resemblance he bears to the late Duchess, his mother; he addressed him
at once by his title, but was met by the cold assurance that he was
mistaken, and that a casual similarity in features bad already led
others into the same error. The General--for our informant is an old and
honored soldier of France--confessed he was astounded at the _aplomb_
and self-possession displayed by so young a man; and although their
conversation lasted for nearly an hour, and ranged over a wide field,
the C. never for an instant exposed himself to a detection, nor offered
the slightest clew to his real rank and station. Indeed, he affected to
be English by birth, which his great facility in the language enabled
him to do. When he quitted Mayence, it was for Central Germany."

Here was the whole mystery revealed, and I was no less a person than a
royal prince,--very like my mother, but neither so tall nor robust as
my distinguished father! "Oh, Potts! in all the wildest ravings of your
most florid moments you never arrived at this!"

A very strange thrill went through me as I finished this paragraph. It
came this wise. There is, in one of Hoffman's tales, the story of a
man who, in a compact with the Fiend, acquired the power of personating
whomsoever he pleased, but who, sated at last with the enjoyment of
this privilege, and eager for a new sensation, determined he would try
whether the part of the Devil himself might not be amusing. Apparently
Mephistopheles won't stand joking, for he resented the liberty by
depriving the transgressor of his identity forever, and made him become
each instant whatever character occurred to the mind of him he talked
to.

Though the parallel scarcely applied, the very thought of it sent an
aguish thrill through me,--a terror so great a