"What so likely, from Augustus or your sister." "No. I can answer for it that neither of them ever spoke of him to me. I know it was not from them I heard it." "But how tell the story of this suit without naming him?" "They never did tell me the story of the suit, beyond the fact that my grandfather had been married privately in early life, and left a son whom he had not seen nor recognized, but took every means to disavow and disown. Wait now, a moment; my mind is coming to it. I think I have the clue to this old fellow's name. I must go back to the villa, however, to be certain." "Not a word of our discovery here to any one," cried Cutbill. "We must arrange to bring them all here, and let them be surprised as we were." "I'll be back with you within an hour," said Jack. "My head is full of this, and I'll tell you why when I return." And they parted. Before Cuthill could believe it possible, Jack, flushed and heated, re-entered the room. He had run at top speed, found what he sought for, and came back in intense eagerness to declare the result. "You've lost no time, Jack; nor have I either. I took up the flags under the altarsteps, and came upon this oak box. I suppose it was sacrilege, but I carried it off here to examine at our leisure." "Look here," cried Jack, "look at this scrap of paper. It was given to me at the galleys at Ischia by the fellow I was chained to. Read these names, Giacomo Lami whose daughter was Enrichetta - I was to trace him out, and communicate, if I could, with this other man, Tonino Baldassare or Pracontal - he was called by both names. Bolton of Naples could trace him." A long low whistle was Cutbill's only reply as he took the paper, and studied it long and attentively. brother I was. He trusted me to do him a service, and I told him I would." Though Cutbill paid but little attention to him, Jack talked on for some time of his old comrade, recounting the strange traits of his nature, and remembering with gratitude such little kindness as it was in his power to show. "I'd have gone clean out of my mind but for him," said he at last. "And we have all believed that this fellow was lost at sea," muttered Cutbill. "Bolton gave up all his papers and the remnant of his property to his son in that belief." "Nor does he wish to be thought living now. He charged me to give no clue to him. He even said I was to speak of him as one I had met at Monte Video years ago." "These are things for a 'cuter head than yours or mine, Jack," said Cutbill, with a cunning look. "We're not the men to see our way through this tangle. Go and show that scrap of paper to Sedley, and take this box with you. Tell him how you came by each. That old fox will soon see whether they confirm the case against your brother or disclose a flaw in it." "And is that the way I'm to keep my word to Old Nick?" said Jack, doggedly. "I don't suppose you ever bound yourself to injure your own flesh and blood by a blank promise. I don't believe there's a. family in Europe with as many scruples, and as little sense how to deal with them." "Civil that, certainly." "Not a bit civil, only true; but let us not squabble. Go and tell Sedley what we have chanced upon. These men have a way of looking at the commonest events and this is no common event that you nor I have never dreamed of. If Pracontal's father be alive, Pracontal cannot be the claimant to your estates; that much, I take it, is certain. At all events Sedley's the man to answer this." Half pushing Jack out of the room while he deposited the box in his hands, Cutbill "Why, this is the whole story," ." cried he at last. "This old galley-slave is the real claimant, and Pracontal has no right, while Niccolo, or whatever his name may at last sent him off, not very willingly inbe, lives. This may turn out glorious deed, or concurringly, but like one who, in news for your brother, but I'm not lawyer spite of himself, saw he was obliged to take enough to say whether it may not be the Crown that will benefit, if his estates be confiscated for felony." "I don't think that this was the sort of service Old Nick asked me to render him when we parted," said Jack, drily. "Probably not. He only asked you to help his son to take away your brother's estate." a particular course, and travel a road without the slightest suspicion of where it led to. CHAPTER LXV. THE LIGHT STRONGER. "SEDLEY asks for the best Italian schol "Old Nick knew nothing about whose ar amongst us," said Augustus the next morning at breakfast, " and the voice of public opinion calls upon you, Julia." "You know what Figaro said of 'common report.' I'll not repeat it," said she, laughing, "and I'll even behave as if I didn't believe it. And now what is wanted of me, or my Italian scholarship?" "The matter is thus: Sedley has received some papers" - here a look of intelligence passed between Augustus and Jack - "which he imagines may be of consequence, but being in Italian, he can't read them. He needs a translator "I am equal to that," broke she in, "but why don't we do it in committee, as you political people call it? Five heads are better than one." "Mr. Sedley is absolute, and will have but one." "And am I to be closeted for a whole morning with Mr. Sedley? I declare it seems compromising. Jack frowns at me. There is nothing so prudish as a sailor. I wish any one would tell me why it is so." "Well, the matter is as you have stated it," said Augustus. "Mr. Sedley says, 'Let me have the aid of some one who will not grudge me two hours, mayhap three." " "What if the documents should turn out love-letters?" "Julia! Julia!" cried Jack reprovingly, for in reality her sallies kept him in constant anxiety. "I can't help it, Jack; I must be prudent, even if 1 shock you by my precautions. I repeat, if these be love-letters?" "Well, I can answer so far," said Augustus. "They are not - at least I can almost assert they are not." "I wish Nelly would go," said Julia, with mock seriousness. "I see Jack is wretched about it, and after all Mr. Sedley, though not exactly a young man, "I declare this is too bad," said Jack, rising angrily from table, and then throwing himself back in his chair, as if in conflict with his own temper. "She is provoking, there is no doubt of it, and on board ship we'd not stand that sort of thing five minutes," said Julia, with a demure air, "but on land, and amongst terrestrial creatures, Master Jack, I know nothing for it but patience." "Patience!" muttered he, with an expression that made them all burst out laughing. "So I may tell Sedley you will aid him?" asked Bramleigh. "I'm ready now. Indeed, the sooner begun the better, for we have a long walk project-haven't we, Jack? - for this afternoon." "Yes, if we have patience for it," said he. And once more the laugh broke forth as they arose from table and separated into little knots and groups through the room. "I may tell you, Julia," said Augustus, in a half whisper, "that though I have given up hoping this many a day, it is just possible there may be something in these papers of moment to me, and I know I have only to say as much to secure your interest in them." "I believe you can rely upon that," said she; and within less than five minutes afterwards she was seated at the table with Mr. Sedley in the study, an oblong box of oak clasped with brass in front of them, and a variety of papers lying scattered about. "Have you got good eyes, Miss L'Estrange?" said Sedley, as he raised his spectacles, and turned a peering glance towards her. "Good eyes?" repeated she, in some astonishment. "Yes; I don't mean pretty eyes, or expressive eyes. I mean, have you keen sight?" "I think I have." "That's what I need from you at this moment; here are some papers with erasures and re-writings, and corrections in many places, and it will take all your acuteness to distinguish between the several contexts. Aided by a little knowledge of Latin, I have myself discovered some passages of considerable interest. I was half the night over them; but with your help, I count on accomplishing more in half an hour." While he spoke, he continued to arrange papers in little packets before him, and, last of all, took from the box a painter's pallet and several brushes, along with two or three of those quaintly shaped knives men use in fresco-painting. "Have you ever heard of the painter Giacomo Lami?" asked he. "Of course I have. I know the whole story in which he figures. Mr. Bramleigh has told it to me." "These are his tools. With these he accomplished those great works which have made him famous among modern artists, and by his will - at least I have spelled out so much - they were buried along with him." "And where was he buried?" "Here! here in Cattaro; his last work was the altar-piece of the little chapel of the villa." "Was there ever so strange a coincidence!" "The world is full of them, for it is a very small world, after all. This old man, driven from place to place by police persecutions - for he had been a great conspirator in early life, and never got rid of the taste for it - came here as a sort of refuge, and painted the frescoes of the chapel at the price of being buried at the foot of the altar, which was denied him afterwards; for they only buried there this box, with his painting utensils and his few papers. It is to these papers I wish now to direct your attention, if good luck will have it that some of them may be of use. As for me, I can do little more than guess at the contents of most of them." "Now these," continued he, "seem to me bills and accounts; are they such? " "Yes, these are notes of expenses incurred in travelling; and he would seem to have been always on the road. Here is a curious note: 'Nuremburg: I like this old town much; its staid propriety and quietness suit me. I feel that I could work here; work at something greater and better than these daily efforts for mere bread; but why after all should I do more? I have none now to live for none to work for! Enrichetta, and her boy, gone! and Carlotta "Wait a moment," said the lawyer, laying his hand on hers. "Enrichetta was the wife of Montagu Bramleigh, and this boy their son." "Yes, and subsequently the father of Pracontal." "And how so, if he died in boyhood?" muttered he; "read on." ""Now, Carlotta has deserted me! and for whom? For the man who betrayed me! for that Niccolo Baldassare who denounced five of us at Verona, and whose fault it is not that I have not died by the hangman." "This is very important; a light is breaking on me through this cloud, too, that gives me hope." " "I see what you mean. You think probably "No that matter what I think. Search on through the papers: what is this? here is a drawing. Is it a mausoleum?" "Yes; and the memorandum says: 'If * I ever be rich enough, I shall place this over Enrichetta's remains at Louvain, and have her boy's body laid beside her. Poor child, that, if spared, might have inherited a princely state and fortune, he lies now in the pauper burial-ground at St. Michel. They let me, in consideration of what I had done in repairing their frescoes, place a wooden cross over him. I cut the inscription with my own hands - G. L. B., aged four years; the last hope of a shattered heart." " "Does not this strengthen your impression?" asked Julia, turning and confronting him. "Aged four years; he was born, I think, in '99- the year after the rebellion in Ireland; this brings us nigh the date of his death. One moment. Let me note this." He hurriedly scratched off a few lines. "St. Michel; where is St. Michel? It may be a church in some town." "Or it may be that village in Savoy, at the foot of the Alps." "True! We shall try there." "These are without interest; they are notes of sums paid on the road, or received for his labour. All were evidently leaves of a book, and torn out." "What is this about Carlotta here?" "Ah, yes. With this I send her all I had saved and put by. I knew he would ill-treat her; but to take her boy from her, - her one joy and comfort in life, - and to send him away she knows not whither, his very name changed, is more than I believed possible. She says that Niccolo has been to England, and found means to obtain money from M. B.י" "Montagu Bramleigh," muttered Sedley; but she read on: ""This is too base; but it explains why he stole all the letters in poor Enrichetta's box, and the papers that told of her marriage.'" "Are we on the right track now?" cried the old lawyer, triumphantly. "This Baldassare was the father of the claimant, clearly enough. Enrichetta's child died, and the sister's husband substituted himself in his place." "But this Niccolo who married Carlotta," said Julia, "must have been many years older than Enrichetta's son would have been had he lived." "Who was to detect that? Don't you see that he never made personal application to the Bramleighs. He only addressed them by letter, which, knowing all Enrichetta's story, he could do without risk or danger. Kelson couldn't have been aware of this," muttered he; "but he had some misgivings what were they?" While the lawyer sat in deep thought, his face buried in his hands, Julia hurriedly turned over the papers. There were constant references to Carlotta's boy, whom the old man seemed to have loved tenderly; and different jottings showed how he had kept his birthday, which fell on the 4th of August. He was born at Zurich, where Baldassare worked as a watchmaker, his trade being, however, a mere mask to con - ceal his real occupation, that of a conspira tor. "No," said Sedley, raising his head at last, "Kelson knew nothing of it. I'm certain he did not. It was a cleverly planned scheme throughout; and all the more so by suffering a whole generation to lapse before litigating the claim." "But what is this here?" cried Julia, eagerly. "It is only a fragment, but listen to it: There is no longer a doubt about it. Baldassare's first wife a certain Marie de Pracontal - is alive, and living with her parents at Aix, in Savoy. Four of the committee have denounced him, and his fate is certain. "I had begun a letter to Bramleigh, to expose the fraud this scoundrel would pass upon him; but why should I spare him who killed my child?יי me that you will do this, for I leave Europe within a week, - I shall return to it no more. Answer this Yes or No, at once, as I am about to quit this place. You know me well enough to know that I never threaten though I sometimes counsel, and my counsel now is, consent to the demand of -N. BALDASSARE." Underneath was written in Lami's hand, "I will carry this to my grave, that I may curse him who wrote it here and hereafter." "Now the story stands out complete," said Julia, "and this Pracontal belonged to neither Bramleigh nor Lami." "Make me a literal translation of that letter," said Sedley. "It is of more moment than almost all we have yet read. I do not mean now, Miss Julia," said he, seeing she had already commenced to write; "for we have these fragments still to look over." While the lawyer occupied himself with drawing up a memorandum for his own guidance, Julia, by his directions, went care "First of all," said Sedley, reading from his notes, "we have the place and date of Enrichetta's death; secondly, the burialplace of Godfrey Lami Bramleigh set down as St. Michel, perhaps in Savoy. We fully over the remaining papers: few were have then the fact of the stolen papers, the of any interest, but these she docketed accopies of registries, and other documents. curately, and with such brevity and clearThe marriage of Carlotta is not specified, but it is clearly evident, and we can even fix the time; and, last of all, we have this second wife, whose name, Pracontal, was always borne by the present claimant." "And are you of opinion that this same Pracontal was a party to the fraud?" asked Julia. "I am not certain," muttered he. "It is not too clear; the point is doubtful." "But what have we here? It is a letter, with a post-mark on it." She read, " Leghorn, February 8, 1812." It was addressed to the Illustrissimo Maestro Lami, Porta Rossa, Florence, and signed N. Baldassare. It was but a few lines, and ran thus: "Seeing that Carlotta and her child now sleep at Pisa, why deny me your interest for my boy Anatole? You know well to what he might succeed, and how. Be unforgiving to me if you will. I have borne as hard things even as your hatred, but the child that has never wronged you deserves no part of this hate. I want but little from you: some dates, a few names - that I know you remember, - and last of all, my mind refreshed on a few events which I have heard you talk of again and again. Nor is it for ness combined, that Sedley, little given to compliments, could not but praise her skill. It was not till the day began to decline that their labours drew to a close. It was a day of intense attention and great work, but only when it was over did she feel the exhaustion of overwrought powers. "You are very, very tired," said Sedley. "It was too thoughtless of me; I ought to have remembered how unused you must be to fatigue like this." "But I couldn't have left it; the interest was intense, and nothing would have persuaded me to leave the case without seeing how it ended." "It will be necessary to authenticate these," said he, laying his hand on the papers, "and then we must show how we came by them." "Jack can tell you this," said she; and now her strength failed her outright, and she lay back, overcome, and almost fainting. Sedley hurriedly rang for help, but before any one arrived Julia rallied, and with a faint smile said, "Don't make a fuss about me. You have what is really important to occupy you. I will go and lie down till evening;" and so she left him. From Macmillan's Magazine. "ON A PIECE OF CHALK." BY PROFESSOR HUXLEY, F.R.S., ETC., ETC. IF a well were to be sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the diggers would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance, almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as "chalk." Not only here, but over the whole county of Norfolk, the well-sinker might carry his shaft down many hundred feet without If all the points at which true chalk occurs were circumscribed, they would lie within an irregular oval about 3,000 miles in long diameter - the area of which would be as great as that of Europe, and would many times exceed that of the largest existing inland sea - the Mediterranean. Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the conditions to which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts in which it occurs. The undulating downs and rounded coombs, covered with sweet-grassed turf, coming to the end of the chalk; and, on of our inland chalk country, have a peacethe sea-coast, where the waves have pared fully domestic and mutton-suggesting pretaway the face of the land which breasts tiness, but can hardly be called either grand them, the scarped faces of the high cliffs or beautiful. But on our southern coasts, are often wholly formed of the same mate- the wall-sided cliffs, many hundred feet rial. Northward, the chalk may be fol- high, with vast needles and pinnacles standlowed as far as Yorkshire; on the south ing out in the sea, sharp and solitary coast it appears abruptly in the picturesque western bays of Dorset, and breaks into the Needles of the Isle of Wight; while on the shores of Kent it supplies that long line of white cliffs to which England owes her name of Albion. Were the thin soil which covers it all washed away, a curved band of white chalk, here broader and there narrower, might be followed diagonally across England from Lulworth in Dorset to Flamborough Head in Yorkshire - a distance of over 280 miles as the crow flies. From this band to the North Sea on the east and the Channel on the south, the chalk is largely hidden by other deposits; but except in the Weald of Kent and Sussex, it enters into the very foundation of all the south-eastern counties. enough to serve as perches for the weary cormorant, confer a wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk headlands. And, in the East, chalk has its share in the formation of some of the most venerable of mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon. What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and whence did it come? You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to no result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, incapable alike of refutation and of verification. If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject than "a piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so Attaining, as it does in some places, a thickness of more than a thousand feet, the English chalk must be admitted to be a mass of considerable magnitude. Never- well enable me to lead you to see how solid theless, it covers but an insignificant por- is the foundation upon which some of the tion of the whole area occupied by the chalk formation of the globe which has precisely the same general characters as ours, and is found in detached patches, some less, and others more extensive, than the English. Chalk occurs in north-west Ireland; it stretches over a large part of France, the chalk which underlies Paris being, in fact, a continuation of that of the London pasin; runs through Denmark and Central Europe, and extends southward to North Africa; while eastward it appears in the Crimea and Syria, and may be traced as far as the shores of the Sea of Aral in Central Asia. * Delivered during the meeting of the British As sociation at Norwich. most startling conclusions of physical science rest. A great chapter of the history of the world is written in the chalk. Few passages in the history of man can be supported by such an overwhelming mass of direct and indirect evidence as that which testifies to the truth of the fragment of the history of the globe which I hope to enable you to read with your own eyes to-night. Let me add, that few chapters of human history have a more profound significance for ourselves. I weigh my words well when I assert, that the man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every carpenter carries about in his breeches pocket, though ignorant of all |