MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 
jate and alone. Some one that had 
watched his steps, fell upon him 
with intention to murder him. 
Grimaldi felt himself stabbed with 
@ poignard, but he had still somuch 
Strength as to take to his heels, 
At the same time came on a dread- 
ful storm. Faint with his wound, 
his affright, and the rain, Grimaldi 
threw himself into the shop of a 
goldsmith, which by chance was 
still open. This goldsmith was in 
full pursuit of wealth, like Grimaldi, 
only that he had fallen upon a way 
less promising than that of usury, 
He was in search of the philoso- 
pher’s stone. This evening he was 
making a grand projection, and had 
left open his shop for moderating 
the heat of his furnace. 
Grimaldi’s entrance seemed some- 
what rude. Fazio, for that was 
the goldsmith’s name, immediately 
knew the man, and asked him what 
he did in the street at such an un- 
seasonable hour, andin such terrible 
weather? Ah! sighed Grimaldi, I 
am wounded! As he pronounced 
these .words, he sank into a chair, 
and expired. i 
Fazio’s confusion needs not to be 
described. Heranup to Grimaldi, 
tore open his clothes that he might 
have freer room to breathe, and 
used every means he could think of 
to recall him to life, but all in vain; 
he was dead. Fazio examined the 
body, and perceived that Grimaldi 
had a stab in the breast; the wound 
had closed of itself, so that the 
bleod could not flow out, and he 
died by suffocation. 
Fazio, at this accident, found 
himself in the greatest distress. The 
whole neighbourhood was asleep, 
or had shut up their houses on ac- 
gount of the bad weather. He was 
quite alone in the house, as his wife 
[*139 
and two children were gone to visit 
his dying father. 
All at once a bold thought came 
into his head, which under these 
circumstances seemed easily prac 
ticdble. He was certain that no one 
had seen Grimaldi come into his 
shop. In such continued rain and 
thunder there was no temptation 
for people to be gaping at their 
windows. Besides, by announcing 
Grimaldi’s death, Fazio himself 
might be brought into suspicion. 
After weighing maturely the whole 
of the affair, he shut up his shop, 
determined to turn the adventure to 
his own advantage; and in cone 
formity with his passion for transmu- 
tations, to make an experiment 
whether he could not transmute 
misfortune into fortune, as he had 
been trying to turn his lead into 
silver or gold. 
Fazio knew of Grimaldi’s wealth, 
or had always suspected him to be 
rich. He began by searching his 
potkets, and found, together with 
some Coin, a large bunch of keys. 
Good! thought he to himself, this 
is a mark of the favour of heaven ; 
the finger of Providence is manifest 
in it! That such a terrible storm 
should come on this night; that my 
shop should be standing open, that 
Grimaldi should be wounded, and 
die in my chair ; all this conld not 
happen without a particular dispen- 
sation from above. He has no re- 
lation, and perhaps even no friend, 
One stranger is as good as another 
stranger, and Fazio as good as 
another heir. I have even one 
right more. Had it got been for 
me, he would have died in the 
street, and have lain in the wet the 
whole night; who knows whether 
he dfd not come into my shop in 
order to constitute me his heir. His 
visit 
