be found to help us. Here, again, more difficulties interposed
themselves, and more useless formalities were to be gone through, but
in the end patience, perseverance, and money triumphed, and two men came
expressly from Rome to undertake the duties we required of them.

It is unnecessary that I should shock the reader by entering into any
detail in this part of my narrative. When I have said that the progress
of decay was so far suspended by chemical means as to allow of
the remains being placed in the coffin, and to insure their being
transported to England with perfect safety and convenience, I have
said enough. After ten days had been wasted in useless delays and
difficulties, I had the satisfaction of seeing the convent outhouse
empty at last; passed through a final ceremony of snuff-taking,
or rather, of snuff-giving, with the old Capuchin, and ordered the
traveling carriages to be ready at the inn door. Hardly a month had
elapsed since our departure ere we entered Naples successful in the
achievement of a design which had been ridiculed as wildly impracticable
by every friend of ours who had heard of it.

The first object to be accomplished on our return was to obtain the
means of carrying the coffin to England--by sea, as a matter of course.
All inquiries after a merchant vessel on the point of sailing for any
British port led to the most unsatisfactory results. There was only one
way of insuring the immediate transportation of the remains to England,
and that was to hire a vessel. Impatient to return, and resolved not
to lose sight of the coffin till he had seen it placed in Wincot vault,
Monkton decided immediately on hiring the first ship that could be
obtained. The vessel in port which we were informed could soonest be got
ready for sea was a Sicilian brig, and this vessel my friend accordingly
engaged. The best dock-yard artisans that could be got were set to
work, and the smartest captain and crew to be picked up on an emergency
in Naples were chosen to navigate the brig.

Monkton, after again expressing in the warmest terms his gratitude for
the services I had rendered him, disclaimed any intention of asking me
to accompany him on the voyage to England. Greatly to his surprise and
delight, however, I offered of my own accord to take passage in the
brig. The strange coincidences I had witnessed, the extraordinary
discovery I had hit on since our first meeting in Naples, had made his
one great interest in