contrary, so like that he should have taken it for his own. But it was necessary this should be said, because if the hand writing had not been exactly like his, the clerk would have had no pretence whatever to have delivered the

fortune. Again, what was this same Father Benedick?—and how had he got all this intelligence? How insinuated himself into his pocket invisibly, and conveyed away the keys, during an interval of perhaps the only five minutes in an hour and a half that they had been trusted there without his hand upon them for their security; but, at any rate, to make the story in the smallest degree colourable, what connection had this supposed Father Benedick with them, to lend the smallest probability to their being concerned in a transaction so very derogatory to their honour as gentlemen, so totally unnecessary to their circumstances, which Monsieur Goufre had taken care, with the most scrupulous exactness, to make himself master of—and so disgraceful to the name of Englishmen? How had it been proved that they, so far from knowing the friar in question, had a single associate, even of their own country?—for both the clerks gave very clear testimony that Father Benedick spoke with an accent so pure and vernacular, that they were sure he was a Frenchman: and indeed so he was. All these circumstances considered, it was impossible this affair should be otherwise than a gross attempt—an event which occurred too frequently—to impose upon English credulity; which, however others

might pass over, would not, in the present instance, be regarded in any light either trifling or pardonable; on the contrary, it would be found that men of character had been tampered with, who were both able and willing to right themselves. He therefore insisted, for the sake of general justice and the honour of the English nation, that the matter should be fully and publicly investigated: to which and they would be content to submit to a temporary imprisonment, provided Monsieur Goufre should be laid under the same restriction.'

The general of the police, whou could not probably see that all this intelligence had been, by the most subtle train of artful insinuation, deliberately drawn from Goufre, by Figgins, with a view to forward the designs of Combrie—who the reader sees was father Benedick—had no manner of doubt but that every word he had heard was truth.
His own private opinion indeed was, that being in a short time to deliver up the fortune, the procureur had conjured up the whole accusation to cover his embezzlement of the money. As to the friar, he had not the least doubt but that