"And so saying, he struck the purse against the side of the gateway; but, instead of the merry clink of gold coin, we heard only the dull sound of a far less valuable metal. This startled him not a little. He changed color, then drew his knife, and in an instant cut the string, and emptied the contents of the purse upon his open palm.
"Horrible! Instead of bright golden Louis, he held in his hand a small pile of leaden disks? Each one of these disks had a number and a letter on it, and one of them was engraved, on the obverse side, with the simple words--'Place the coins in order.' We did so, and found that each letter formed part of a word. When they were all placed, the inscription read, 'All is not gold that glitters!'
"My soul quailed before the mystery. I could scarcely move or speak, so great was my bewilderment; and as for the patron, it is impossible to describe his terror and consternation, as he stood there, with open mouth and protruding eyeballs, gazing on the coins upon the board where he had laid them. I too looked upon them; and even while we did so, a terrible thing took place; for the letters upon the disks changed color before our very eyes, first to a light blue, changing to deep crimson, and finally assuming a blood-red color. When, at the end of thirty seconds, this color did not change, we looked closer at them, and, to our absolute amazement, found that the characters themselves had altered, and instead of the sentence above quoted, we read the following:
"With a cry of agony the man dashed the accursed coins to the ground, and instantly fell himself in a deathly swoon. A great excitement now ensued. The porter, Jeanette, and half a dozen other inmates, rushed to the assistance of their fallen master.
"Tenderly and carefully we bore him into the house, and speedily resorted to those well-known means of restoration used in such cases, which it were superfluous to mention; suffice it that, at the expiration of half an hour, the man revived, and bidding him and the rest a short good-bye, and promising to return on the morrow if I did not quit Paris, I took my departure.
"Before I left, however, it occurred to me that I would secure the marvellous coins, or, at least, a few of them; and for this purpose I, accompanied by the _concierge_, who had seen his master dash them away, went into the court-yard where he had thrown them. Carefully and long we searched over the smooth stone pavements. The marks where they had struck were there, but not a single coin could be found. It was absolutely certain that no person _in_ the house had picked them up, for all these were in attendance on the patron. It was equally certain that no one from the street had done so; for the gate was fast bolted and shut, and had been ever since I had entered the premises to inquire of the porter.