me, and that I must pay the penalty. While thus wavering as to how I should act, to escape the danger which seemed inevitable, and almost determined to throw down the purse and its contents by the side of the stranger, and hurry away, I saw the door of the coffee house, to which I had been going, open, and the master come out, and walk towards me. I waited for him, and as he came up, instantly began to relate my story. "This," said he, interrupting me before I had quite concluded, "is very well composed in so short a time, but I witnessed the whole affair: never was there an honester gentleman, than he who there lies dead,—I have lost a good customer in him. I saw you meet him; I saw you attempt to seize him, and fight with him; and now I see him murdered, and you, standing with the purse which I know to be his, in your hand who do you suppose will credit your story? You will be sent to the galleys, or the scaffold, that's certain."

I felt that the man spoke with but too much reason, and that his story, and the circumstances together, must condemn me. "But," said he, "hark ye! no one has seen this business but I; if my word can bring you to the gallows, it can save you from it too: divide the gold with me-I will swear he attacked, and would have robbed you, and will bring you off." I felt the extraordinary and dreadful alternative to which I was reduced. This man's evidence would convict me: I must either run the almost certain risk of suffering as a criminal, or acknowledge that I had robbed and murdered, and share my gold with a villain, to purchase his silence. The struggle was but momentary: I would not proclaim myself a villain, even to one man, although none other on earth suspected me. "No," said I, "do your worst: I will rather lose my own, than lie myself into infamy." I threw down the purse and hurried off, leaving my accuser in precisely as critical a situation as that in which I stood before he came up to me.

This reflection did not occur to me at the time: I had no idea, that in thus acting on my own feelings of honour, I was leaving the other to the very fate which I dreaded; but so it turned out. Many years afterwards, when I returned through Vienna, feeling an inclination to renew the sensations which I had before experienced, (for there is at times a strange pleasure in renewing the recollection of critical scenes,) one evening, I went in disguise to the café, in the Place San Joseph; and upon making inquiries respecting Frederick Hoĕrder-the former host-I learned, that about twelve years agone he had been tried, and executed, on account of an atrocious murder, which he had committed for the sake of plunder, upon a gentleman who had been in the habit of frequenting his house. This intelligence, at first, strangely agitated me. The man had suffered unjustly but when I reflected upon his character, and still more, when I considered that the fate of this man would have assuredly been mine, I could not regret that Hoërder (who was at all events more guilty than I was) had met punishment in my stead.

But to return-I hurried from the spot, and went at a rapid pace, without any other object, than to get far from the scene in which I had unintentionally been so prominent an actor.

There was a strange discrepancy between my feelings and the aspect of every thing around me. The sun had risen, and gilded with his morning beams the tops of the spires and pinnacles of the palace, which lifted themselves into the calm morning air. All was hushed-the city was yet buried in deep sleep but my own mind, although, thank God! strong in innocence, was fearfully agitated by doubt and danger.

After a rapid walk I found myself approaching one of the gates of the city. It was not yet open: I loitered about, troubled with the most uneasy sensations, until I could be permitted to pass. Fortunately, but a few minutes elapsed, before five chimed on the clock of the great cathedral. This was the signal for opening the gates. I passed out and no one questioned me. I walked as rapidly as I could, consistently with the danger of exciting suspicion, across the open space which lies between the city and the suburb, and soon found myself on the banks of the river, and close to a pier, upon which two men were employed in detaching a cable which moored a boat to the shore; and from the busile upon deck, and the appearance of several passengers, it seemed on the point of dropping down the river. I stepped into it, and the next moment we were in the middle of the stream, and rapidly leaving the city behind us.

I had not been many minutes in the boat, when the master came up to me to receive his fare, asking the distance which I intended to go. I was equally unable to comply with the demand, as unprepared to answer the question. I had not one copeck in my possession; and as to telling whither I was going, I did not even know the boat's destination. After a moment's pause, I said, that I had no convenient coin; but putting into his hands a handsome gold watch, which I had purchased when I came to Vienna, I told him to keep it till he was satisfied. However, he refused the pledge, observing that I could pay the fare at Presburg, Roab, or Buda, as I liked best, or at whatever place I should leave the boat.

In a short time, we had left all traces of the metropolis behind, and were gliding noiselessly, but swiftly, from the recent scene of blood and peril.

It is a surprising effect, that which is produced upon unquiet feelings, by the serenity of nature. Where remorse does not mingle with them, the beauty and calmness of the external world can cheat us of our misfortunes, and almost reconcile us to our fate, however dark it may be. It was not three hours since I had stood beside the dying stranger, with almost no hope of escape from the gibbet; and now, I was going, I knew not whither; without money, without object, without a friend,—but I was young, I was in health, and all nature looked so joyful, that I felt as if I had been on a party of pleasure, with my purse full of gold.

I soon discovered from the conversation of those around, that the boat was bound for Belgrade, and I spoke as if that were also my destination. I will not detail the particulars of the voyage; suffice it to say, that on the afternoon of the fifth day we came in sight of Buda-the hill and castle illuminated by the setting sun, which had already left the city to the shades of evening: here I determined to dispose of my diamond ring. I told the master of the boat I should sleep on shore, and as I was considerably in his debt, I insisted upon leaving my watch in his hands: my ring was, therefore, my only resource: I was loth to part with it, but there was no room for hesitation.

Every one who has been to Buda, must recollect the long narrow street that runs up from the river into the heart of the town. I had not proceeded very far up this street, when I descried, through a window, a person engaged in working jewels. It so happened that my evil genius had conducted me to the shop of one of the most unprincipled villains in Hungary he had gained enormous riches by his evil practices and extortions-and by means of his wealth, had acquired great influence in the city where he lived. I pulled my ring off my finger, and putting it into his hand, demanded the value of it. He looked first at the ring, and then at me, and alternately for several moments, at the one and at the other. He saw by my appearance, and knew by my dialect, that I was not of his city; and probably guessed that I had arrived by the boat, which regularly stops at Buda on those days, and about that hour. After examining the ring attentively for several minutes, he snapped it in two with an instrument by which he had held it, and let the pieces drop into a box full of other jewels. "How now?" cried I, and I attempted to seize him; but he jerked himself out of my grasp, and out of his shop, the door of which closed behind him with a spring lock. I immediately heard him call out loudly, several times, "Thieves, thieves!" and in a few minutes he re-entered, accompanied by half a dozen others, who laid hold on me, and, without listening to a word, hurried me off to prison.

At an early hour the next morning I was brought to the hall of justice, where the jeweller appeared in the character of my accuser. "This man," said he, "came into my shop late yesterday evening, where, as is my custom, I was working, after all the other merchants had shut their doors, and, under pretence of asking me to value a worthless bauble, he attempted to snatch from me a diamond ring, which I held in my forceps, and was examining with a magnifying glass, and which broke in the struggle. Here is the ring which he asked me to value; and there are the pieces of the ring which he attempted to take from me: his own ring is not worth six ducats, while this other is worth not less than two hundred."

* It must be recollected, that the Sieur Godolph speaks of Buda as it was a hundred years ago: there is now a handsome modern street, in place of that which he found.

Vol. I.-No. I.

3

:

It was in vain that I protested my innocence, and declared the villainy of my accuser it was in vain that I told my story, and requested that the captain of the boat in which I sailed should be sent for, to corroborate my detail. "That," said my accuser, "is an impossible demand, since the boat has sailed six hours agone; and besides, added he, is it likely that a man without one creutzer in his pocket should be possessed of jewels of such value?" In short, this reasoning prevailed, and I was on the point of being condemned to the galleys, when a thought struck me. "Hold!" said I to the judge, "I have yet something to say that will prove my accuser a liar, and myself an injured man. You have, in your own hands, the pieces of the broken ring which he says is his bid my accuser tell, of how many diamonds his ring is composed if the ring indeed be his, he cannot fail to know this, since he has, in your hearing, put a value upon the ring." My accuser hesitated; but at last ventured to say, that the chief value of the ring lay in the large diamond in the centre, and that of the others he had taken little note. "Then," said I, addressing the judge, "I know more of a ring, which, according to his account, I have seen but for a moment, than he himself knows of his own ring the ring is composed of nine diamonds; and in place of the central jewel being the most valuable, there is a flaw in it. Now, ask my accuser if there be any writing in the inside of his ring." Upon this question being put, my accuser answered that there was writing; but that, as writing did not alter the value of a ring, he had never taken the trouble to decypher it. "Then," said I, "if my accuser be in the right, and the ring his, I must have been able in one moment, and that a moment of struggle, to perceive what he has never discovered even through a magnifying glass-in the inside is rudely scratched the name "Godolph." The roguery of my accuser was now so plain that even his wealth and influence were insufficient altogether to turn the scale, though they hindered the execution of deserved punishment. "I decree," said the judge, "that this stranger be paid by his accuser double the value which he has himself set upon the ring ;"—and before leaving the court I put into my pocket four hundred ducats.

[There is here a gap of seventeen leaves in the journal of the Sieur Godolph. These must have contained the history of his peregrinations, from the time when this adventure ended, as we have seen above, until the Sieur is on the eve of sailing for India.] The journal proceeds again thus:

I shall assuredly, said I to myself, find a vessel at this port bound for India, whither I may go and traffic with my gold. I walked on until I reached the quay, which is very long and forms a crescent, and here I determined to abide until I should find a ship bound for India. My inquiries were soon successful; and, in less than a week, the port of Marseilles was lessening behind me.

I had ample leisure, during my voyage, for reflecting upon the eventful life which I had led since quitting my paternal house. Hundreds, similarly situated, have passed on without the occurrence of a single event to interrupt the calm of life. I seemed a remarkable example of the changeful destiny which attends upon some individuals. The most trivial causes had to me produced the most uncommon events; circumstances which, in the lives of others, would have led to nothing, or to a jest, had put me in jeopardy of my life. Six times I had been on the point of suffering death or imprisonment as a criminal, and been extricated from danger by means as unpremeditated as the circumstances which had led me into it; and now, once more, the world was before me. "God grant," said I, "that life may now flow smoother." But my prayer was not yet granted. Fair winds continued to attend us through the Mediterranean sea and the South Atlantic Ocean; and without any disaster, we doubled the African cape. Our vessel being bound for Surat, which is the great emporium of the most precious productions of Hindoostan,* the most direct course into the gulph of Persia, lay through the channel of Mozambique, between the island of Madagascar and the coast of Africa. Light airs accompanied our progress until we reached the gulph of Sofala, where we proposed to traffic a little with the natives on the African coast; and on the 11th August we cast anchor in the channel, about two miles from shore. It was the close of one of those fainting days which occur between the tropics: the sun was getting low in the horizon, and I was reclining upon deck, watching it slowly sink suddenly I heard from below the cry of "Fire!" and, at the same instant, a crowd of sailors with horror-stricken faces, scrambled up the hatchway and rushed to the stern to lower the boat. I sprang to my feet, and followed them instinctively; but saw that the numbers were far too great for the frail vessel to which they were about to commit themselves; and that to embark in it would only be to exchange one death for another-not so horrible, perhaps, but no less sure. The mounting flames were already rising from the hold, and a moment's delay might be fatal; for the seas being infested. with pirates, a large quantity of gunpowder was in the ship. There was a small boat floating, attached to the vessel by a rope; but it was so small, that the crew thought it unworthy of consideration. I decided my part in a moment, leaped into the sea, gained the little boat, unloosed the cable, and abandoned myself alone to the wide ocean.

Awful now was the scene: the sun had gone down, and there being little or no twilight between the tropics, I was soon in darkness, save the glare from the burning vessel. I saw, by the red flaring light, many hanging on its sides; these the melting pitch soon forced to quit their hold, and I saw them drop, one by one, into the ocean: I saw a multitude • The journal of the Sieur Godolph will be frequently found at variance with our present knowledge of facts. Surat is not now of the importance it was then, the great trade of the west of Hindoostan having been transferred to Bombay.