ition, which needed only the
co-operation of boundless wealth to set it in motion. That wealth was
mine! The common house for the laborer, the asylum for the insane, for
the orphan, the Magdalen, the destitute, the sick, the friendless, the
deserted, the bereaved, or the asylum for the victim of his own vices,
or the vices of others, for the depravity which originates in misery,
ignorance or fate--all these my riches could sustain. Around me, in the
accomplishment of this design, the uncounted wealth intrusted to my
stewardship has already gathered the mightiest minds in every department
of intellect, and the best hearts; and if but a few years are vouchsafed
us to carry out the system we have adopted, all Europe, despite her
throned and sceptred tyrants, impiously claiming the right to oppress by
the will of God, shall be free! Silently but surely, the principle of
human liberty is ceaselessly at work, undermining thrones and
overthrowing dynasties. The hush that precedes the tornado even now
broods over Europe; nations slumber the heavy sleep that preludes the
earthquake. The hour of revolution is at hand--of social regeneration,
disenthrallment, redemption, over all the world. In every capital of
Europe the mine is prepared--the train laid to be lighted, and from this
solitary chamber the free thought on the lightning's pinion flies to
Vienna, St. Petersburg, Rome, Madrid, Berlin, London, over mountain and
plain--over sea and land--through the forest wilderness and the thronged
city; taken up by the press, it makes thrones totter and tyrants
tremble--tremble at an influence which emanates they know not whence and
contemplates a purpose they know not what--an influence whose mystery
they are impotent to penetrate, and whose shadowy but awful right they
are powerless to resist!"

At that instant the silvery tinkle of a bell was heard at the table, and
a low and continuous whizzing as of clockwork at once commenced. The
Deputy advanced hastily to the table. The register of the electric
telegraph like a living thing was unfolding the secrets of events at
that moment transpiring at the furthest extremity of the Kingdom!
Eagerly seizing the slip of paper which was gliding through the machine,
he glanced over the cabalistic cipher there traced.
"Lyons--Marseilles--Rome--Algeria," he murmured. "All goes well." And
while the wonderful register, like a thing of life, still whizzed,
clicked and delivered its magic scroll, cover