nine or ten days; but it may be rendered more durable by laying it on in several coats, and mixing with it different ingredients. Hitherto our suppositions are at least plausible; what follows approrches much nearer to certainty, and even to demonstration.
It is indisputable, that some way or other these two children have been brought to Europe by sea. Now, the nearer we shall suppose the place where they were landed, to have been to that where they were found, the more simple and natural will their story appear. Let us then suppose them to have been sold in some port of the Zuyder Sea, and from thence conveyed by the Issel, or by some of the canals which traverse the country thereabouts, to the habitations of their new masters, either in the country of Guelders, for example, or in that of Cleves, upon the banks of the Moselle. We may judge from the account that has been given of the little Le Blanc, how difficult to keep she and her companion were, and that the first moment they found an opportunity to escape, they would not fail to make use of it. That country is very woody, and when once they had reached the forest of the Ardennes, the rest of their story needs no explanation. We have seen that they passed the day in trees, that they knew how to provide their food, and that they nevertravelled
