The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-22 00:00:00

CHAPTER VIL-THE REWARD

When the tailor recovered his recollection, he received
orders to descend. A post-chaise waited in the court-yard
of the fortress—he was desired to enter it. Rifol6 was driven
to the hotel of the Minister of Police. He once more found
himself in the presence of Fouche, and was received with
open arms : Fouche looked more smilingly than ever.
" My good ltifole," said the minister, " you have passed
two rough days ; but I declare to you my first impression
was that you were an accomplice of the spy. I cannot un-
derstand how, with your simple air and way of dealing, you
have obtained the secret of a man ,cho breathed nothing but
defiance to the Emperor and myself. The original way by
which you have put me on the track, and finished the mat-
ter, has quite bewildered me. You could not more truly
prove to me that you are a man of spirit, and that you have
a right to be usefully employed under my administration.
Let us see now what will recompense you? I have orders
from his Majesty the Emperor to give you all that you re-
quire."

Rifolc baked at Fouch6 with eyes full of stupidity.
" What would you ? Speak without fear. The service
that you have done to your country is immense. The re-
ward ought not to be a pcur one. Do you desire to be em-
ployed under my government ? "

I only want to go back to my wife," murmured Rifole.
" I have since this morning calmed the uneasiness that
your disappearance has caused her. She knows that you are
detained by my orders. You do not speak—you hesitate.
Come, I see that the word police' intimidates you—l can
guess your thoughts—you are right."

IlifOl6 returned home with one hundred notes of one thou-
sand francs buried at the bottom of his breast pocket. He
threw himself into the arms of his wife, and began to cry and
sob without having the power to reply to the interrogations
addressed to him by her. When he had a little recovered
his sang froid, the fair questioner did not find she advanced
much further. Rifole, ignorant of the motives of his arrest,
knew still less why the minister had so richly recompensed
him in the name of the emperor. The reproaches of the
unfortunate but brave Englisman—the questions of the ge-
neral—the Council of War—appeared to him as so many
problems to resolve, and seemed to him more the results of
nightmare than of reality.
Agatha contrived to throw him into a state of greater as:
tonishment, when she informed him that their young guest,
the handsome fair young man who had hired the little room
adjoining their apartment, had not appeared during the lust
two days.
This absence being prolonged a month, the tailor and his
wife visited the chamber of the stranger.
They found therein a great quantity of papers, from which

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Rifol6 took a packet to his protector—the Duke of Otranto-4'
hoping thereby to obtain some tidings of his lodger.
" What the deuce of a man art thou ?" cried the minister,
as he cast his eyes on the papers. " During the last two
months we have in vainendeavoured to trace these documents,
taken out of the emperor's cabinet, and you bring them back
to me !"

Rif°le related his history and that of his absent guest.
The Duke of Otranto listened in silence. When the tailor
had concluded—
" Come," said the statesman, " I see that chance alone
has brought about the whole affair. I took you for a lad of
spirit, and you turn out after all but a simpleton. To think
that it never struck me toquestion you respecting the manner
in which you found yourself in possession of those paper
measures which have revealed to me the treirson and the spy !
I fancied that you had stolen them most adroitly from his
dwelling. Here are some more bank bills : but if ever you
open -your mouth respecting this affair, remember Vin-
cennes !"
Rifole., rich, being of a quiet disposition, then ended his con-
nection with the ancient pupil of the Pere Lombois, pros-
pered exceedingly, and became one of the most renowned
tailors in Paris, and now possesses rich property in Lorraine,
where he figures away like a grand Seigneur,

CRAP. VIII.-A WORD OF EXPLANATION.
Now, to render this history altogether intelligible, as yet a
little confused, explanations become necessary.
The Emperor Napoleon had always near him a certain
number of secretaries, attached to his person, who worked
in a closet next to his own. At the time of the adventure of
which we write, ,Baron Monnier, Baron Pain, and many
others, took part in the service
Nov

, amongst the translators entrusted to put before the
eyes of Napoleon the extracts of foreign journals, there was
a fine young man, whose distinguished manners and obliging
disposition gained for him the respect of his colleagues.
The first at his labour—he never quitted the closet until
after the others had left. The Emperor was pleased with
the concise and clear mode in which the young man trans-
lated and summed up the English journals. Many times
had he expressed to him his satisfaction.
It happened one morning the secretaries of Napoleon saw
with surprise the stranger's seat remain unoccupied. They
joked amongst themselves upon the unprecedented circum-
stance.

The day passed without the Englishman appearing.
day, and the next to that, his place continued empty.
Full of uneasiness the young people repaired to the Rue
de la Universite to the house of their comrade. He had not
been home for two days. One of them ran to the Minister
of Police, and communicated to him the uneasiness which had
been caused by a disappearance so strange.
" Sir," said the Duc d'Otranto, " do not trouble yourself
any more about the affair. The Englishman respecting whom
you interest yourself so warmly, is a villain ! a villain. Yes !
a spy in the pay of England ; not only has he abused the
confidence of the Emperor, and falsified the passages in the
journals which he translated for his majesty, but he has even
stolen the cabinet secrets, and sold them to the most mortal
enemies of France."

If we add that to lull suspicion and to avoid having at home
any dangerous paper, the English spy had rented under the
supposed name of Dubois, the little room attached to the
apartment of Rifole; if we yet add that Agatha had given to
her husband the first piece of paper which came to hand,
wherewith to make a measure, and on which was one of the
most flagrant proofs of the Englishman's treason, all will be
explained.
Rifole even now talks of Fouche's liberality as a mystery
—for the life of him he cannot make out the reason of his
profuseness.