XCviii AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



visiters were known to have the eyes of lynxes. 

 To send it out would be running fully an equal 

 risk. In this uncertainty the good lay brother 

 who had charge of the fringe requested leave 

 that he might try to save it ; and his plan was 

 such as would have done honour to the brains 

 of Annibal himself. 



Having collected the immense mass of golden 

 fringe, he threw it negligently into an unfre- 

 quented room, and covered it with a heap of 

 bedclothes ready for the washing-tub. He 

 then went into the street with a couple of 

 buckets in his hands ; and having procured 

 enough of what in London would never be 

 found exposed to the open air, he conveyed it 

 to the unoccupied apartment mentioned above, 

 where he had already taken the precaution to 

 place a certain number of nocturnal crockery 

 conveniences. Into these he discharged from his 

 buckets a fair proportion of his imported guano. 

 He then shut the window, and having closed 

 the door without locking it, he returned to the 

 performance of his ordinary occupations. In a 

 day or two a detachment of French troops paid 

 their visit to the Gesii, and were so taken 

 with the appearance of it, that they expressed 



