Right willingly does Evelyn devote himself to the task of stripping the borrowed feathers from this fine jackdaw.  After inaugurating his work by quoting the Horatian sneer, “Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?” he at once plunges in medias res, and not mincing his language, says:—­“This impudent vagabond is a native of Wallachia, born of Christian parents in the city of Trogovisti;” and throughout his exposure employs phrases which are decidedly more forcible than polite.  From Evelyn’s revelation it appears that the family of the pretended Cigala were at one time well-to-do, and ranked high in the esteem of Prince Mathias of Moldavia, but that this youth was a black sheep in the flock from the very beginning.  After the death of his father he had a fair chance of distinguishing himself, for the Moldavian prince took him into his service, and sent him to join his minister at Constantinople.  Here he might have risen to some eminence; but he was too closely watched to render his life agreeable, and after a brief sojourn in the Turkish capital returned to his native land.  Here he became intimately acquainted with a married priest of the Greek Church, and made love to his wife; but the woman, the better to conceal the familiarity which existed between herself and the young courtier, led her husband to believe that he had an affection for her daughter, of which she approved.  The simple ecclesiastic credited the story; until it became apparent that the stranger’s practical fondness extended to the mother as well as the daughter, and that he had taken advantage of the hospitality which was extended to him to debauch all the priest’s womankind.  A complaint was laid before Prince Mathias, who would have executed him if he had not fled to the shores of the Golden Horn.  He remained in Constantinople until the death of the Moldavian ruler, when he impudently returned to Wallachia, thinking that his former misdemeanours had been forgotten, and hoping to be advanced to some prominent post during the general disarrangement of affairs.  His identity was, however, discovered; his old crimes were brought against him; and he only escaped the executioner’s sword by flight.  For the third time Constantinople became his home, and on this occasion he embraced the Moslem faith, hoping to secure his advancement thereby.  The Turks, however, viewed the renegade with suspicion, and treated him with neglect.  Therefore, driven by starvation, he ranged from place to place about Christendom, and in countries where he was utterly unknown concocted and published the specious story of his being so nearly related to the Sultan, and succeeded in deceiving many.  Of his ultimate fate nothing is known.

THE SELF-STYLED PRINCE OF MODENA.