I rang the bell quite quietly.  ‘Zamor,’ said I to a tall negro fellow habited like a Turk, that used to wait upon me, ’when you hear the bell ring a second time, you will take this packet to the Marshal of the Court, this to his Excellency the General de Magny, and this you will place in the hands of one of the equerries of his Highness the Hereditary Prince.  Wait in the ante-room, and do not go with the parcels until I ring again.’

The black fellow having retired, I turned to Monsieur de Magny and said, ’Chevalier, the first packet contains a letter from you to me, declaring your solvency, and solemnly promising payment of the sums you owe me; it is accompanied by a document from myself (for I expected some resistance on your part), stating that my honour has been called in question, and begging that the paper may be laid before your august master his Highness.  The second packet is for your grandfather, enclosing the letter from you in which you state yourself to be his heir, and begging for a confirmation of the fact.  The last parcel, for his Highness the Hereditary Duke,’ added I, looking most sternly, ’contains the Gustavus Adolphus emerald, which he gave to his princess, and which you pledged to me as a family jewel of your own.  Your influence with her Highness must be great indeed,’ I concluded, ’when you could extort from her such a jewel as that, and when you could make her, in order to pay your play-debts, give up a secret upon which both your heads depend.’

‘Villain!’ said the Frenchman, quite aghast with fury and terror, ‘would you implicate the Princess?’

‘Monsieur de Magny,’ I answered, with a sneer, ’no:  I will say you stole the jewel.’  It was my belief he did, and that the unhappy and infatuated Princess was never privy to the theft until long after it had been committed.  How we came to know the history of the emerald is simple enough.  As we wanted money (for my occupation with Magny caused our bank to be much neglected), my uncle had carried Magny’s trinkets to Mannheim to pawn.  The Jew who lent upon them knew the history of the stone in question; and when he asked how her Highness came to part with it, my uncle very cleverly took up the story where he found it, said that the Princess was very fond of play, that it was not always convenient to her to pay, and hence the emerald had come into our hands.  He brought it wisely back with him to S—­; and, as regards the other jewels which the Chevalier pawned to us, they were of no particular mark:  no inquiries have ever been made about them to this day; and I did not only not know then that they came from her Highness, but have only my conjectures upon the matter now.