Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-09-26

plan will burst forth, with all its black
and diabolical snares.
These two letters were very long. One
was dated from the Isle of Bourbon. the
other from the Cape of Good Hope. They
would take up too much space to give
here it will be sufficient to analyze them
i'll few words. and to reduce them to the
most simple meaning. The rccapitula-
| ton will be brief Madame de Mellan, a
widow for eighteen months, had left New
York. where she had lost her husband,
and retired to Europe, after an absence of
twenty years. The desire once more to
see her own country had little come :tion
with this voyage. NJ. de Mellan, ma
tive of Brittany, was indebted for his
great fortune to his noble friend, NJ. de
kerbriant, a gentleman ruined by the
revolution, and never Unidentified. NJ.
de kcrbriant had an only son, named Al
bert. The young man, having nothing to
hope for, by way of inheritance from a
poor family, had early devoted himself to
the duties Of a sailor. Unfortunately, he
did not possess that robust health that is
demanded by the service of the sea. NJ.
de Meilan ON his death-bed made his last
will, regulating the marriage of his daugh-
ter with the son of his benefactor, on con-
ditions so generous, that they nobly dis
charged his debt of gratitude. The wild
ow, Madame de Mellan, blindly yielded
to the dying wishes Of her husband, Ell
tered into a correspondence with Albert
de kerbriant, and found in this young
man an eagerness, quite natural to fulfil
the tcstamentary clause in the will of the
father of Anna. 1t was then agreed that
the two families should meet at Toulon,
about the montho Of July, the time at which
Albert de Kerbl'iant would arrive from
Pondicherry in State vessel, and that
the marriage of the young naval officer
and Anna should be celebrated without
delay. Madame dc Mellan and her
daughter had arrived first at this rem
devious, arranged across the ocean. a
small note attached to one of these letters
announced the death of NJ. de kerbriant.
This was not in the handwriting of his
son Albert, and was post-marked Nantes.
Cardan, after long meditation, con-
ceivcd one of those cxtravagant ideas,
which the genius of evil alone can cause
to succeed by the aid of internal combi-
nations. In the first place, he did not at
once change his mean apparel, for fear
lest too sudden mctamorphosis might
compromise him in the eyes of the inn
kecper-he transformed himself piece by
piece, buying and putting on his new
dress gradually. He then lodged in a
more fashionable hotel, taking care not
ONLY to disguise the color of his hair and
his complexion, but also bis shape, bis
manners, and his voice. Sure now of be-
ing able to dodge the bloodhounds of the
police, he E4gan to look for wol thy as
sociate III one of those denS which dis
grace all great cities, concealed in its most
fi.ightful quarters.
Lavater and Gall are but children COM
pared with a galley-slaye escaped from
Toulon. The latter, in recognizing one
of his peers, is endowed with a sixth
sense. the distinguishing of crime. Car
dan observed in one of those rum holes in
old Marseilles, a young man aoout twen-
ty-five or thirty, of a pale and nervous
countenancc, with eyes of a dull green,
having in the noncholance of his manners
all the symptoms of a dread of lal IT, and
in his look the reflection of bad passions.
The dress of this person announced, un-
der his tatters, certain ease acquir |
by idlcness. Each portion of his dress
had played its part in the hands of a
famous tailor, at date forgotten by the
Journal dcs Mc les. But what, above all ,
betrayed an extreme misery and incura-
bic idleneSS. was one of those large,
coarse cravats, whose greasy folds so i'll
disguise the missing shirt.
Cardan soon united himself, with this
man, and: it was not long before he found
in him one of those organizations almost
too indolent for crime-which can be
pushed into guilt only by the external
influence of some ruling power. Yet the
>lkilful galley slave employed several days
in sounding him, before he elevated him
to the dignity of an accomplice and
when he believed that he might trust in
him, after few largeSses of tive-iranc
pieces, he unveiled his plans. From that
moment one of these two wrctches was a
blind slave, and the other sovereign
| master.
In order successfully to conduct his en-
terprise, Cardan needed larger sum of
money than that which he had stolen from
the secretary of Madame dc Mellan, and
which was besides nearly exhausted. This
obstacle was soon overcome. The money
changers of Marselles are not quite so i'm
pregnable as their Partisan contreres; they
display too careleSsly, and even within
/
their Napoleons and Spanish piasters.
| Cardan, who at need could make his fin
gers invisible, while changing two louis
at one of these exchange offices, carried
off Two rolls, with all the skill of pro-
feSsor Of slight of hand or of an Indian Jug
gler. With this acquisition he felt strong
enough to conquer Peru. The accomplice
of Cardan was named Valentine Progherc:
he preserved only his surname upon be-
coming the valet of Cardan. who had him