"Detachments of mounted gendarmes were
immediately sent off in pursuit, the order being
to arrest any foot-traveller whose suspicious
appearance might challenge scrutiny."

It is needless to say how much I appeared to
fulfil the signs they sought for, not to add that
the intemperance of my language, when captured,
was in itself sufficient to establish a grave charge
against me. It is true, there was in the act of
allegation a lengthened description of me with
which my own appearance but ill corresponded. I
was described as of middle age, of a strong frame
and muscular habit, and with an expression that
denoted energy and fierceness. How much of
that vigour must they imagine had been washed
away by the torrent, to leave me the poor helpless-
looking thing I now appeared!

I know it is a very weak confession, I feel
as I make it how damaging to my character is
the acknowledgment, and how seriously I
compromise myself in my reader's estimation; but I
cannot help owning that I felt very proud to be
thought so wicked, to be classed with those
Brutuses of modern history, who were scattering
explosive shells like bonbons, and throwing
grenades broadcast like " confetti" in a carnival.
I fancied how that miserable Staats Procurator
must have trembled in his inmost heart as he
sat there in close proximity with such an infuriate
desperado as I was. I hoped that every
look, every gesture, every word of mine struck
terror into his abject soul. It must also
unquestionably do them good, these besotted, self-
satisfied, narrow-minded Germans, to learn how
an Englishman, a bom Briton, regards their
miserable system of government, and that poor
and meagre phantasm they call their " civilisation."
Well, they have had their opportunity
now, and I hope they will make much
of it.

As I pondered over the late incident as recorded
in the allegation, I remembered the
name of Rigges as that of the man Harpar
mentioned as having " run" or escaped with
their joint finances, and had very little difficulty
in filling up the probable circumstances of their
rencontre. It was easy to see how Rigges,
travelling " extra-post," with all the appearance
of wealth and station, could impute to the poor
wayfarer any criminality he pleased. Cunningly
enough, too, he had hit upon the precise imputation
which was sure to enlist Austrian sympathies
in the pursuit, and calling him a
" Socialist and a Rouge" was almost sealing
his fate at once. How glad I felt that the
poor fellow had escaped, even though it cost
me all the penalty of personating him; yes, I
really was generous enough for that sentiment,
though I perceive that my reader smiles incredulously
as I declare it. " No, no," mutters he,
"the arrant snob must not try to impose upon
us in that fashion. He was trembling to the
very marrow of his bones, and nothing was
further from his thoughts than self-sacrifice or
devotion." I know your opinion of me takes
this lively shape, I feel it, and I shrink under
it; but I know, besides, that I owe all this
depreciating estimate of me to nothing so much
as my own frankness and candour. If my
reader, therefore, scruples to accord me the
merit of the generosity that I Iay claim to,
let him revel in the depreciating confession that
I am about to make. I knew that when it was
discovered I was not Harpar, I must instantly
be set at liberty. I felt this, and could therefore
be at any moment the arbiter of my own
freedom. To do this, of course, would set in
motion a search after the real delinquent, and I
determined I would keep my secret till he had
ample time to get away. When I had satisfied
myself that all pursuit of him must be hopeless,
I would declare myself to be Potts, and proudly
demand my liberation.

My convalescence made now such progress
that I was able to walk about the gallery, and
indeed occasionally to stroll out upon a long
terrace which flanked the entire building, and
gaze upon a garden, beyond which again I could
see the town of Feldkirch and the open Platz in
which the weekly market was held. By the recurrence
of these— they always fell upon a Saurday
— was I enabled to mark time, and I now
reckoned that three weeks had gone over since
the day of the Herr Procurator's visit, and yet
I had heard nothing more of him, nor of the
accusation against me. I was seriously thinking
whether my wisest plan might not be to
take French leave and walk off, when my gaoler
came one morning to announce that I was to be
transferred to Innspruck, where, in due course,
my trial would take place.
"What if I refuse to go?" said I; "what
if I demand my liberation here on the spot?"

"I don't imagine that you'd delay your journey
much by that, my good friend," said he;
" the Imperial and Royal Government takes little
heed of foolish remonstrances."

"What if the Imperial and Royal Government,
in the plenitude of its sagacity, should be in the
wrong? What if I be not the person who is
accused of this crime? What if the real man
be now at liberty? What if the accuser himself
will declare, when he sees me, that he
never met me before, nor so much as heard of
me?"

"Well, all that may happen; I won't say it
is impossible, but it cannot occur here, for the
Herr Von Rigges has already set off for Innspruck,
and you are to follow him to-morrow."

A DAY'S RIDE: A LIFE'S ROMANCE,
WILL BE
CONCLUDED
With the present volume, in No. 100 of ALL THE
YEAR ROUND, for the 23rd of March, 1861.