Sign your letter _Jacob Hatz_. There is another point, which I beg you to observe particularly. Mention that on the gravestone, besides the name, was carved a figure, like an urn or cup, with a large ball above it. Date of death, also;--December 7, 1841. I herewith enclose five hundred francs. On receiving your reply, _with this letter enclosed_, I shall immediately send you five hundred more. If I were not a poor man, and expecting always to be so, I could remunerate your services better. With the fullest reliance on your honor and discretion, I remain, Yours, truly, ---- ----. P. S. For your better direction, I subjoin a formula to be followed in the beginning of your letter. You can word the rest in your own way. Write in French. Vinal, if he had dared, would gladly have forged such a letter as he required, instead of trusting to another person; but art or nature had not gifted him with the needful skill; and he was anxious, moreover, to have the foreign postmarks stamped upon it in form. In due time, Speyer's answer came. He had neglected to return Vinal's letter, as desired; but in other respects, his performance gave his employer ample satisfaction. The latter showed it to Leslie, who seemed convinced by it; while his daughter, on reading it, abandoned at once the hope to which she had hitherto clung, that Morton might still be living. "I remember this Hatz very well," said Vinal; "he seemed to be a plain, honest sort of man,--an agent, I believe, of a merchant in Strasburg. And yet the reward I promised might have been too great a temptation." "Then," said Leslie, "you would not receive this as a proof of Mr. Morton's death?" "No, I would not: that is, I should not but for one thing;--it is so very much like Vassall Morton to be travelling alone, on horseback, in an out-of-the-way part of the country." "Did you observe," pursued Leslie, "what he says of figures of an urn and ball cut on the gravestone?" "I saw it, but did not observe it particularly." Leslie gave him the letter, and Vinal read the part referred to. "What can it mean?" asked Leslie. "I can't conceive," replied Vinal. "It is the vase and sun," said Edith Leslie; "the device of his mother's family, the Vassalls." "Ah," exclaimed Vinal, looking up with a face of mournful interest, "you must be right; the same figures are carved on the tomb of the Vassalls, in the old churchyard at Cambridge." "They were cut," pursued Miss Leslie, "on a garnet ring, which he always used as a seal." "I remember his showing me that ring," said her father, "and telling me that it was older than the voyage of the Mayflower. It was a kind of heirloom, which his mother had left him." "Yes," suggested the sympathizing Vinal, who had long known that Morton used no other seal than this ring; "and the device on it was supposed to be his armorial bearing, and so cut on the gravestone, as it is on the Vassall tomb at Cambridge."