And when he failed in this enterprise, she recommended him to file a petition for a hearing before the Spiritual Court of Arches, to place the affair in the hands of a competent attorney to manage during his absence, and then to embark for America, and take up his residence with his uncle, the pleasant old madman, who fancied himself King of the Isles; but who would nevertheless receive his nephew with open arms. Madame also resolved to accompany her son and re-establish herself on the Island, where she felt that with Victoire by her side, she should be perfectly safe. Upon inquiring at St. Catherine’s docks she found her old acquaintance, Captain Brande, with his clipper the Mercury, about to sail for the Chesapeake, and gladly availed herself of the opportunity afforded to secure a passage for herself and son. They embarked the same night and set sail the next morning. And from the hour of their embarkation, Monsieur Victoire’s spirits had sunk, as I said, until they had reached the point of despair. A presentiment of approaching death overshadowed him. A necessity of putting in order his earthly affairs weighed upon him. And it was under the influence of this feeling that he pressed his friend Julius Luxmore to accept the guardianship of his young daughter, and executed a testament leaving her to his charge, which he placed in Mr. Luxmore’s keeping. “If I survive, Luxmore,” he said, “I shall find Estelle, inform her of the existence of her child, and through that child constrain her to my will. If I die, Luxmore, you are to take charge of Etoile, advise her mother of her existence, but make Estelle’s eternal separation from Montressor the only condition of the restoration of her child.” “I promise to execute your will, and to do all else that you desire. Nevertheless, I must assure you that your talk of death is an absurdity that proves you to be a hypochondriac,” said Julius Luxmore. Victoire shook his head, and dropped into a mournful silence. And three weeks after that conversation, the Mercury was wrecked as we have shown, and all on board were lost except Julius Luxmore, who being rescued by Lord Montressor, and carried on board the Queen Charlotte, and finding there no one who knew him, gave his name, for reasons of his own, as Julius Levering. In the strong box that had been picked up from the wreck of the Mercury, he found the will of Victoire L’Orient, and carefully secured it. When the Queen Charlotte had reached the port of Baltimore, and the mournful intelligence of the wreck of the Mercury went abroad to spread grief and terror over the land, it was also said that every soul on board perished, except one Mr. Levering, whom no one seemed to know, and who, in fact, had disappeared.