Cossack horseman sitting motionless with a long,
tall, slender spear pointed upwards.

In answer to some inquiries, which it is not
easy to get answered in the general excitement,
the banker at last learns, from an apparently
awe-stricken but communicative corn-broker's
tout, who has just lounged in, and whom he
has had occasion sometimes to employ, that the
great Russian aide-de-camp-general, his
Highness the Prince Vassili Ivanovitch
Dooyoumalsky's coming has been telegraphed from St.
Petersburg. The Hospodar has ordered the
local authorities to receive him in state, and
messages are arriving from various crowned
heads every hour. That shaggy Cossack, with
the spear, is waiting to convey immediate news
of his highness's arrival to the head-quarters
of the Russian army of observation now on the
neighbouring frontier. The coming of this great
man is supposed to have reference to recent
political events in Austria and Hungary. So
far the communicative broker's tout. His local
name is "Courtier de Commerce," or Courtier
of Trade. He buys nothing, he sells nothing
himself; but he belongs to a very large class
in Eastern Europe. He is a word-monger, and
finds it a very good business.

As he still speaks, a wild yelling is heard in
the distance, and a clump of straggling spears
are seen just pointing above a neighbouring
hillock. On they come, and after them a post-
cart, with six horses at a headlong gallop,
the postboys screaming like devils; and in
rushes the prince's avant-courier. Amidst
smoke, steam, mud, and hurry, this important
personage jumps down from his straw perch,
and announces the immediate coming of his
highness. The local authorities flock hastily
down, adjusting their sword-belts and uniforms;
a military band forms before the hotel; troops
line the street; and there they wait, hour after
hour, till, towards dusk, the outriders of the
main escort are signalled, and almost hidden by
a cloud of spears, three tall travelling britzkas,
with ten straggling ponies harnessed to each of
them, are seen approaching rapidly. The first
contains the prince's cook, the second his
highness in person, and the third his secretary.
The military band bursts into a deafening
welcome as they roll into the inn-yard; and his
highness, descending with the aid of two
lackeys, makes his way into the chief room of
the inn, where the town authorities and local
magnates are assembled to receive him. He is
in the splendid full uniform of a Russian
general, covered with stars and crosses; it
being the invariable custom for great men to
travel in these countries so arrayed.

As the first screaming notes of the band
strike up, the Cossack horseman lowers his
spear. He raises his head stiffly, and the wiry
little horse raises his tail in like manner, and
away they go like a flash of lightning for the
frontier, where they will bring the glad tidings
that the first move in a new corn swindle is
about to begin.

Late on the same night, just as the British
banker is thinking of bed, and when his
confidential clerk, who has passed the evening with
him, has gone home, he hears a soft continued
knocking at his back door. Soon afterwards
his principal servant comes in with a mysterious
air. That servant is his chief butler, always a
prominent personage, and the prime minister of
every Oriental household. The banker has
discovered quite a treasure of a chief butler in a
Polish exiled count of the handiest character,
who puts his nobility in his pocket quite out of
the way, and is valet, housemaid, and often cook
altogether, and always cheerfully. The banker,
who does not know much of local market prices,
thinks he was never better served in his life,
and wonders how other people can complain of
their domestic comforts in these easy-going
places. Consequently, a very kindly and a
pleasant feeling has sprung up in the Briton's
heart towards his chief butler, and he means to
lift up his head by-and-by, when time and
occasion serve. The Polish nobleman seems to
guess something of this, and with devoted
attention and touching good taste, humbly
conveys to him hints that he has found
several times beyond price in his business.
Upon the present occasion the Polish nobleman
appears big with some tremendous idea. When
mildly interrogated, he affirms that a poor but
honest person of his acquaintance desires
admittance on pressing business, of which he (the
Polish nobleman) can only fancy the nature.
He appears in an ecstasy of subdued joy as he
makes that announcement. He has the generous
and happy look of a man announcing good
tidings of almost incredible fortune, in which he
has no other concern than the rejoicing of a
grateful heart over the coming pleasure of those
it loves. Mr. Heavyside is infinitely softened,
and bids him admit the poor but honest man
at once. He does so, and it appears that he
is the shabby talkative courtier of the inn-
yard.

He has come to say that he has a marvellous
bargain to propose. He has seen the prince's
secretary, the fair young man whose hands were
full of telegrams. Mr. Heavyside nods his
remembrance of the secretary. Well, the poor
but honest person has seen the secretary; that
is, he watched for him till he had left the great
man and was going to bed. It was impossible
to get at him while with the prince, for the
Circassian chief lies down on a carpet spread
outside my prince's door, and would defend the
entrance with his life. But the poor honest
person has wits, and knowing that a great
English banker (Mr. Heavyside winces) is
established at Galatz, he saw that business
might be done, and he has done it. He has
ascertained that the prince has got sixty
thousand acres of standing wheat in Bessarabia,
just within a day's journey; and if a proper
bribe is given to the secretary, perhaps the
prince may be induced to sell it before any of
the Greek or Italian dealers get at him. His
highness is only going to stop a few hours, and
his horses are ordered on to Bucharest at