He then briefly related Mr. O’Loughlin’s intercourse with Sir Oscar de Bracy, but carefully refrained from stating his friend’s early history, merely saying that Sir Oscar de Bracy was Captain O’Loughlin’s guardian, and that he had saved his boy’s life when a mere child of two years old. “Providence, my dear Mr. Thornton,” observed Madame Volney, much interested, “brings about and reveals circumstances, apparently wrapped up in impenetrable mystery, in its own good time. I feel quite satisfied you are the child taken out of the long boat by the crew of the Surveillante, and I greatly regret not having that portrait, which I always carried with me, in my possession. My brother was exceedingly annoyed at the loss of the child, for he had intended questioning one of the English prisoners, who seemed greatly interested in the little boy; but he did not know what to do, for he was, from the death of the Captain of the Surveillante, the next in command, and her situation required her going into port. He therefore took her into Rochefort, and almost immediately after was ordered to Paris. I was there with my family. Alas! there were then symptoms of the terrible times coming. One evening he related to me all the circumstances concerning the child, and gave me the portrait to keep, putting down in a pocket-book everything connected with the event, the date, the day, and even hour. Immediately after this he was ordered on a secret expedition to the West Indies in command of a frigate, and there, alas, he died of the yellow fever. When forced to fly from Paris, I had to leave everything behind me in our mansion, and Heaven knows what became of all! I saved our jewels; and by the precaution of my deeply lamented husband, a large sum of money was secured for our support in a foreign land. We fled to Toulon, where my husband possessed a fine estate, thinking that the march of the Revolution might be checked by the determined loyalty of the Toulon inhabitants and the fleet; but you are aware how affairs turned out.” William Thornton expressed himself very grateful to Madame for her narrative, and the interest she expressed, and that he must only rest contented with the state of things as they were, until he could communicate with Sir Oscar de Bracy, if he still lived. Little Mabel, who had been listening with wrapt attention, and watching the changes in the expressive features of our hero, suddenly said— “Mamma’s name was De Bracy; and if you, dear William, are a De Bracy, we must be relations; is it not so?” “I trust it may prove so, Mabel; such a contingency would make me very happy indeed.” Captain O’Loughlin joined them, with the two Miss Volneys, who had been walking the deck with him; for somehow the gallant Captain contrived—whether with his tongue or his eyes, we cannot say—to make himself wonderfully agreeable to both these young ladies, and, as he hoped, especially to Mademoiselle Agatha.