CHAPTER XV.
"I came hither with a heart desponding of success: adversity had weakened my faith in the promises of the future, and I was prepared to receive just such tidings as you have communicated. Unacquainted with the secret motives of Waldegrave and his sister, it is impossible for me to weigh the probabilities of their rectitude. I have only my own assertion to produce in support of my claim; all other evidence, all vouchers, and papers, which might attest my veracity, or sanction my claim in a court of law, are buried in the ocean. The bill was transmitted just before my departure from Madeira, and the letters by which it was accompanied informed Waldegrave of my design to follow it immediately: hence he did not, it is probable, acknowledge the receipt of my letters. The vessels in which they were sent arrived in due season: I was assured that all letters were duly deposited in the post-office, where, at present, mine are not to be found.
"You assure me that nothing has been found among his papers, hinting at any pecuniary transaction between him and me. Some correspondence passed between us previous to that event: have no letters, with my signature, been found? Are you qualified, by your knowledge of his papers, to answer me explicitly? Is it not possible for some letters to have been mislaid?"
"I am qualified," said I, "to answer your enquiries beyond any other person in the world. Waldegrave maintained only general intercourse with the rest of mankind; with me his correspondence was copious, and his confidence, as I imagined, without bounds. His books and papers were contained in a single chest at his lodgings, the keys of which he had about him when he died: these keys I carried to his sister, and was authorised by her to open and examine the contents of this chest. This was done with the utmost care. These papers are now in my possession: among them no paper of the tenour you mention was found, and no letter with your signature. Neither Mary Wal-
