himself that day at the water-gate, was regularly fortified by every precaution that the long experience of a vagabond could suggest, and he was permitted to pass forthwith.  The poor Westphalian student presented an instrument fairly written out in scholastic Latin, and escaped further trouble by the vanity of the unlettered agent of the police, who hastily affirmed it was a pleasure to encounter documents so perfectly in form.  But the Bernese was about to take his station by the side of the other two, appearing to think inquiry, in his case, unnecessary.  While moving through the passage in stately silence, Nicklaus Wagner was occupied in securing the strings of a well filled purse, which he had just lightened of a small copper coin, to reward the varlet of the hostelry in which he had passed the night, and who had been obliged to follow him to the port to obtain even this scanty boon; and the Genevese was fain to believe that, in the urgency of this important concern, he had overlooked those forms which all were, just then, obliged to respect, on quitting the town.

“Thou hast a name and character?” observed the latter, with official brevity.

“God help thee, friend!—­I did not think Geneva had been so particular with a Swiss;—­and a Swiss who is so favorably known on the Aar, and indeed over the whole of the great canton!  I am Nicklaus Wagner, a name of little account, perhaps, but which is well esteemed among men of substance, and which has a right even to the Buergerschaft—­Nicklaus Wagner of Berne—­thou wilt scarce need more?”

“Naught but proof of its truth.  Thou wilt remember this is Geneva; the laws of a small and exposed state need be particular in affairs of this nature.”

“I never questioned thy state being Geneva; I only wonder thou shouldst doubt my being Nicklaus Wagner!  I can journey the darkest night that ever threw a shadow from the mountains, any where between the Jura and the Oberland, and none, shall say my word is to be disputed.  Look ’ee, there is the patron, Baptiste, who will tell thee, that if he were to land the freight which is shipped in my name, his bark would float greatly the lighter.”

All this time Nicklaus was nothing loth to show his papers, which were quite in rule.  He even held them, with a thumb and finger separating the folds, ready to be presented to his questioner.  The hesitation came from a feeling of wounded vanity, which would gladly show that one of his local importance and known substance was to be exempt from the exactions required from men of smaller means.  The officer, who had great practice in this species of collision with his fellow-creatures, understood the character with which he had to deal, and, seeing no good reason for refusing to gratify a feeling which was innocent, though sufficiently silly, he yielded to the Bernese pride.

“Thou canst proceed,” he said, turning the indulgence to account, with a ready knowledge of his duty; “and when thou gettest again among thy burghers, do us of Geneva the grace to say^ we treat our allies fairly.”