feet betrayed me on the gravel. Before I could
steal suddenly round the corner, as I had
proposed, I heard lighter feet than mine and more
than one pair of them, as I thought—retreating
in a hurry. By the time I had got to the
corner, the trespassers, whoever they were, had
run into the shrubbery at the off side of the
walk, and were hidden from sight among the
thick trees and bushes in that part of the
grounds. From the shrubbery, they could
easily make their way, over our fence, into the
road. If I had been forty years younger, I
might have had a chance of catching them before
they got clear of our premises. As it was, I
went back to set a-going a younger pair of legs
than mine. Without disturbing anybody,
Samuel and I got a couple of guns, and went all
round the house and through the shrubbery.
Having made sure that no persons were lurking
about anywhere in our grounds, we turned
back. Passing over the walk where I had seen
the shadow, I now noticed, for the first time, a
little bright object, lying on the clean gravel,
under the light of the moon. Picking the
object up, I discovered that it was a small bottle,
containing a thick sweet-smelling liquor, as
black as ink.

I said nothing to Samuel. But, remembering
what Penelope had told me about the jugglers,
and the pouring of the little pool of ink into the
palm of the boy's hand, I instantly suspected
that I had disturbed the three Indians, lurking
about the house, and bent, in their heathenish
way, on discovering the whereabouts of the
Diamond that night.

THE FRENCH PRESS.

IN the year 1631 there lived in Paris a
doctor named Théophraste Renandot. This
man, an intimate friend of the famous
genealogist d'Hozier, was often allowed by the
latter to take copies of letters received by him
from different cities in Europe. As the genealogist's
correspondence was not only extensive,
but varied, it occurred to Renandot that what
gave so much pleasure to himself might also
interest his patients, and whether it was that
his faith in pills and potions was meagre, or
that he fancied physic would operate better
when combined with light doses of literature,
tradition reports that the worthy doctor usually
paved the way to a prescription with one of his
friend d'Hozier's letters. The system worked
well, it seems, for Renandot, enchanted, began
to dream of putting the famous letters within
reach of others, besides the sick, by having
them printed. He was well known to the
terrible and powerful Cardinal Richelieu, who
had already appointed him to several posts of
trust and emolument, and he accordingly applied
to that great statesman for license to found a
public and periodical gazette. Richelieu at once
saw of what immense use to the government
would be a paper that would spread news
amongst the public under the form most
concordant with the views of the ministers; he
acceded, therefore, with pleasure to the doctor's
proposal, and even did more, for he became an
active, although, of course, anonymous, member
of Renandot's staff. He frequently contributed
news, articles upon treaties, capitulations, battles,
sieges, and also despatches from generals and
ambassadors. Louis the Thirteenth, it is said,
became an occasional contributor, too, and
this accounts for the great importance attached
to the early volumes of the Gazette de France
by historians who have written on the policy of
the cardinal's government.

The first number of the Gazette appeared in
the month of May, 1631, and contains two very
curious prefaces—too long, however, to quote in
full. The first is a letter to the king, signed
by the editor, and couched in the most loyal
and deferential terms. Louis the Thirteenth is
styled in it, as one might expect, more " glorious
than any of his sixty-three predecessors," and
Renandot adds that his chief ambition in founding
the Gazette is, that all the world should hear
the fame of so illustrious and good a monarch.
"This journal," says the letter, in conclusion,
"is the journal of the kings and powers of the
earth; everything in it will be for them, and
will have relation to them; other men will only
be spoken of in so far as they have acted
for the good and glory of their monarchs."
This programme has all the elasticity desirable,
for every one, beginning with the field-marshal
who wins a battle, and ending with the cook who
prepares the royal dinners. Each may be said to
act, either directly or indirectly, for the good or
glory of his king. The thief, even, who
acknowledges the might and majesty of regal
justice, by putting his neck in the gallows-
noose, contributes his mite towards the glory of
his sovereign.

The preface-address to the public is in a
more free and easy style. After speaking
of the estimable blessing to be afforded to
letter-writers by the foundation of a gazette
which will give them all the news without
compelling them to invent, as heretofore, for the
benefit of their correspondents, Renandot
exclaims, in allusion to the trouble which his work
will cost him:

"But you must not think that I say all this
to enhance the merit of my undertaking in your
eyes. Those who know me can tell to those
who do not that I have other and honourable
occupations besides that of compiling news.
What I say, then, is by way of excuse for the
imperfections of my style, if, by hazard, it should
fail to satisfy you. . . .

"It is impossible, as we know, to please
everybody: soldiers would have these pages be
full of nothing else but battles; those who love
to plead will look here for reports of lawsuits;
the devout will expect of us the names of
worthy preachers, or, better still, of good
confessors; those who know nothing of the ways
and doings of court will clamour to be enlightened
on the subject; and if there is a man who
has carried a parcel safe and sound to the