initial commit of ebook 6781HEADmain

3 files changed, 5107 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/fs21w10.txt b/old/fs21w10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a66f68f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/fs21w10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5107 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Ghost-Seer and Sport of Destiny, by Schiller
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
+
+
+Title: The Ghost-Seer [or The Apparitionist], and Sport of Destiny
+
+Author: Frederich Schiller
+
+Release Date: Oct, 2004  [EBook #6781]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 15, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+
+
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GHOST-SEER BY SCHILLER ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net
+
+
+
+
+
+                     THE GHOST-SEER; OR, APPARITIONIST.
+
+                                  AND
+
+                           SPORT OF DESTINY
+
+
+
+
+FROM THE PAPERS OF COUNT O-------
+
+I am about to relate an adventure which to many will appear incredible,
+but of which I was in great part an eye-witness. The few who are
+acquainted with a certain political event will, if indeed these pages
+should happen to find them alive, receive a welcome solution thereof.
+And, even to the rest of my readers, it will be, perhaps, important as
+a contribution to the history of the deception and aberrations of the
+human intellect.  The boldness of the schemes which malice is able to
+contemplate and to carry out must excite astonishment, as must also the
+means of which it can avail itself to accomplish its aims.  Clear,
+unvarnished truth shall guide my pen; for, when these pages come before
+the public, I shall be no more, and shall therefore never learn their
+fate.
+
+On my return to Courland in the year 17--, about the time of the
+Carnival, I visited the Prince of ------- at Venice.  We had been
+acquainted in the ------ service, and we here renewed an intimacy which,
+by the restoration of peace, had been interrupted.  As I wished to see
+the curiosities of this city, and as the prince was waiting only for the
+arrival of remittances to return to his native country, he easily
+prevailed on me to tarry till his departure.  We agreed not to separate
+during the time of our residence at Venice, and the prince was kind
+enough to accommodate me at his lodgings at the Moor Hotel.
+
+As the prince wished to enjoy himself, and his small revenues did not
+permit him to maintain the dignity of his rank, he lived at Venice in
+the strictest incognito.  Two noblemen, in whom he had entire
+confidence, and a few faithful servants, composed all his retinue.  He
+shunned expenditure, more however from inclination than economy.  He
+avoided all kinds of dissipation, and up to the age of thirty-five years
+had resisted the numerous allurements of this voluptuous city.  To the
+charms of the fair sex he was wholly indifferent.  A settled gravity and
+an enthusiastic melancholy were the prominent features of his character.
+His affections were tranquil, but obstinate to excess.  He formed his
+attachments with caution and timidity, but when once formed they were
+cordial and permanent.  In the midst of a tumultuous crowd he walked in
+solitude.  Wrapped in his own visionary ideas, he was often a stranger
+to the world about him; and, sensible of his own deficiency in the
+knowledge of mankind, he scarcely ever ventured an opinion of his own,
+and was apt to pay an unwarrantable deference to the judgment of others.
+Though far from being weak, no man was more liable to be governed; but,
+when conviction had once entered his mind, he became firm and decisive;
+equally courageous to combat an acknowledged prejudice or to die for a
+new one.
+
+As he was the third prince of his house, he had no likely prospect of
+succeeding to the sovereignty.  His ambition had never been awakened;
+his passions had taken another direction.  Contented to find himself
+independent of the will of others, he never enforced his own as a law;
+his utmost wishes did not soar beyond the peaceful quietude of a private
+life, free from care.  He read much, but without discrimination.  As his
+education had been neglected, and, as he had early entered the career of
+arms, his understanding had never been fully matured.  Hence the
+knowledge he afterwards acquired served but to increase the chaos
+of his ideas, because it was built on an unstable foundation.
+
+He was a Protestant, as all his family had been, by birth, but not by
+investigation, which he had never attempted, although at one period of
+his life he had been an enthusiast in its cause.  He had never, so far
+as came to my knowledge, been a freemason.
+
+One evening we were, as usual, walking by ourselves, well masked in the
+square of St. Mark.  It was growing late, and the crowd was dispersing,
+when the prince observed a mask which followed us everywhere.  This mask
+was an Armenian, and walked alone.  We quickened our steps, and
+endeavored to baffle him by repeatedly altering our course.  It was in
+vain, the mask was always close behind us.  "You have had no intrigue
+here, I hope," said the prince at last, "the husbands of Venice are
+dangerous."  "I do not know a single lady in the place," was my answer.
+"Let us sit down here, and speak German," said he; "I fancy we are
+mistaken for some other persons."  We sat down upon a stone bench, and
+expected the mask would have passed by.  He came directly up to us, and
+took his seat by the side of the prince.  The latter took out his watch,
+and, rising at the same time, addressed me thus in a loud voice in
+French, "It is past nine.  Come, we forget that we are waited for at the
+Louvre."  This speech he only invented in order to deceive the mask as
+to our route.  "Nine!" repeated the latter in the same language, in a
+slow and expressive voice, "Congratulate yourself, my prince" (calling
+him by his real name); "he died at nine."  In saying this, he rose and
+went away.
+
+We looked at each other in amazement.  "Who is dead?" said the prince
+at length, after a long silence.  "Let us follow him," replied I, "and
+demand an explanation."  We searched every corner of the place; the mask
+was nowhere to be found.  We returned to our hotel disappointed.  The
+prince spoke not a word to me the whole way; he walked apart by himself,
+and appeared to be greatly agitated, which he afterwards confessed to me
+was the case.  Having reached home, he began at length to speak: "Is it
+not laughable," said he, "that a madman should have the power thus to
+disturb a man's tranquillity by two or three words?"  We wished each
+other a goodnight; and, as soon as I was in my own apartment, I noted
+down in my pocket-book the day and the hour when this adventure
+happened.  It was on a Thursday.
+
+The next evening the prince said to me, "Suppose we go to the square of
+St. Mark, and seek for our mysterious Armenian.  I long to see this
+comedy unravelled."  I consented.  We walked in the square till eleven.
+The Armenian was nowhere to be seen.  We repeated our walk the four
+following evenings, and each time with the same bad success.
+
+On the sixth evening, as we went out of the hotel, it occurred to me,
+whether designedly or otherwise I cannot recollect, to tell the servants
+where we might be found in case we should be inquired for.  The prince
+remarked my precaution, and approved of it with a smile.  We found the
+square of St. Mark very much crowded.  Scarcely had we advanced thirty
+steps when I perceived the Armenian, who was pressing rapidly through
+the crowd, and seemed to be in search of some one.  We were just
+approaching him, when Baron F-----, one of the prince's retinue, came up
+to us quite breathless, and delivered to the prince a letter.  "It is
+sealed with black," said he, "and we supposed from this that it might
+contain matters of importance."  I was struck as with a thunderbolt.
+The prince went near a torch, and began to read.  "My cousin is dead!"
+exclaimed he.  "When?"  inquired I anxiously, interrupting him.  He
+looked again into the letter.  "Last Thursday night at nine."
+
+We had not recovered from our surprise when the Armenian stood before
+us.  "You are known here, my prince!" said he.  "Hasten to your hotel.
+You will find there the deputies from the Senate.  Do not hesitate to
+accept the honor they intend to offer you.  Baron I--forgot to tell you
+that your remittances are arrived."  He disappeared among the crowd.
+
+We hastened to our hotel, and found everything as the Armenian had told
+us.  Three noblemen of the republic were waiting to pay their respects
+to the prince, and to escort him in state to the Assembly, where the
+first nobility of the city were ready to receive him.  He had hardly
+time enough to give me a hint to sit up for him till his return.
+
+About eleven o'clock at night he returned.  On entering the room he
+appeared grave and thoughtful.  Having dismissed the servants, he took
+me by the hand, and said, in the words of Hamlet, "Count -----
+
+             "'There are more things in heav'n and earth,
+               Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'"
+
+"Gracious prince!" replied I, "you seem to forget that you are retiring
+to your pillow greatly enriched in prospect."  The deceased was the
+hereditary prince.
+
+"Do not remind me of it," said the prince; "for should I even have
+acquired a crown I am now too much engaged to occupy myself with such a
+trifle.  If that Armenian has not merely guessed by chance"
+
+"How can that be, my prince?"  interrupted I.
+
+"Then will I resign to you all my hopes of royalty in exchange for a
+monk's cowl."
+
+I have mentioned this purposely to show how far every ambitious idea was
+then distant from his thoughts.
+
+The following evening we went earlier than usual to the square of St.
+Mark.  A sudden shower of rain obliged us to take shelter in a coffee-
+house, where we found a party engaged at cards.  The prince took his
+place behind the chair of a Spaniard to observe the game.  I went into
+an adjacent chamber to read the newspapers.  A short time afterwards I
+heard a noise in the card-room.  Previously to the entrance of the
+prince the Spaniard had been constantly losing, but since then he had
+won upon every card.  The fortune of the game was reversed in a striking
+manner, and the bank was in danger of being challenged by the pointeur,
+whom this lucky change of fortune had rendered more adventurous.  A
+Venetian, who kept the bank, told the prince in a very rude manner that
+his presence interrupted the fortune of the game, and desired him to
+quit the table.  The latter looked coldly at him, remained in his place,
+and preserved the same countenance, when the Venetian repeated his
+insulting demand in French.  He thought the prince understood neither
+French nor Italian; and, addressing himself with a contemptuous laugh to
+the company, said "Pray, gentlemen, tell me how I must make myself
+understood to this fool."  At the same time he rose and prepared to
+seize the prince by the arm.  His patience forsook the latter; he
+grasped the Venetian with a strong hand, and threw him violently on the
+ground.  The company rose up in confusion.  Hearing the noise, I hastily
+entered the room, and unguardedly called the prince by his name.  "Take
+care," said I, imprudently; "we are in Venice."  The name of the prince
+caused a general silence, which ended in a whispering which appeared to
+me to have a dangerous tendency.  All the Italians present divided into
+parties, and kept aloof.  One after the other left the room, so that we
+soon found ourselves alone with the Spaniard and a few Frenchmen.  "You
+are lost, prince," said they, "if you do not leave the city immediately.
+The Venetian whom you have handled so roughly is rich enough to hire a
+bravo.  It costs him but fifty zechins to be revenged by your death."
+The Spaniard offered, for the security of the prince, to go for the
+guards, and even to accompany us home himself.  The Frenchmen proposed
+to do the same.  We were still deliberating what to do when the doors
+suddenly opened, and some officers of the Inquisition entered the room.
+They produced an order of government, which charged us both to follow
+them immediately.  They conducted us under a strong escort to the canal,
+where a gondola was waiting for us, in which we were ordered to embark.
+We were blindfolded before we landed.  They led us up a large stone
+staircase, and through a long, winding passage, over vaults, as I judged
+from the echoes that resounded under our feet.  At length we came to
+another staircase, and, having descended a flight of steps, we entered a
+hall, where the bandage was removed from our eyes.  We found ourselves
+in a circle of venerable old men, all dressed in black; the hall was
+hung round with black and dimly lighted.  A dead silence reigned in the
+assembly, which inspired us with a feeling of awe.  One of the old men,
+who appeared to be the principal Inquisitor, approached the prince with
+a solemn countenance, and said, pointing to the Venetian, who was led
+forward:
+
+"Do you recognize this man as the same who offended you at the coffee-
+house?"
+
+"I do," answered the prince.
+
+Then addressing the prisoner: "Is this the same person whom you meant to
+have assassinated to-night?"
+
+The prisoner replied, "Yes."
+
+In the same instant the circle opened, and we saw with horror the head
+of the Venetian severed from his body.
+
+"Are you content with this satisfaction?"  said the Inquisitor.  The
+prince had fainted in the arms of his attendants.  "Go," added the
+Inquisitor, turning to me, with a terrible voice, "Go; and in future
+judge less hastily of the administration of justice in Venice."
+
+Who the unknown friend was who had thus saved us from inevitable death,
+by interposing in our behalf the active arm of justice, we could not
+conjecture.  Filled with terror we reached our hotel.  It was past
+midnight.  The chamberlain, Z-------, was waiting anxiously for us at
+the door.
+
+"How fortunate it was that you sent us a message," said he to the
+prince, as he lighted us up the staircase.  "The news which Baron F-----
+soon after brought us respecting you from the square of St.  Mark would
+otherwise have given us the greatest uneasiness."
+
+"I sent you a message!" said the prince.  "When?  I know nothing of it."
+
+"This evening, after eight, you sent us word that we must not be alarmed
+if you should come home later to-night than usual."
+
+The prince looked at me.  "Perhaps you have taken this precaution
+without mentioning it to me."
+
+I knew nothing of it.
+
+"It must be so, however," replied the chamberlain, "since here is your
+repeating-watch, which you sent me as a mark of authenticity."
+
+The prince put his hand to his watch-pocket.  It was empty, and he
+recognized the watch which the chamberlain held as his own.
+
+"Who brought it?" said he, in amazement.
+
+"An unknown mask, in an Armenian dress, who disappeared immediately."
+
+We stood looking at each other.  "What do you think of this?"  said the
+prince at last, after a long silence.  "I have a secret guardian here in
+Venice."
+
+The frightful transaction of this night threw the prince into a fever,
+which confined him to his room for a week.  During this time our hotel
+was crowded with Venetians and strangers, who visited the prince from a
+deference to his newly-discovered rank.  They vied with each other in
+offers of service, and it was not a little entertaining to observe that
+the last visitor seldom failed to hint some suspicion derogatory to the
+character of the preceding one.  Billets-doux and nostrums poured in
+upon us from all quarters.  Every one endeavored to recommend himself in
+his own way.  Our adventure with the Inquisition was no more mentioned.
+The court of --------, wishing the prince to delay his departure from
+Venice for some time, orders were sent to several bankers to pay him
+considerable sums of money.  He was thus, against his will, compelled to
+protract his residence in Italy; and at his request I also resolved to
+postpone my departure for some time longer.
+
+As soon as the prince had recovered strength enough to quit his chamber
+he was advised by his physician to take an airing in a gondola upon the
+Brenta, for the benefit of the air, to which, as the weather was serene,
+he readily consented.  Just as the prince was about to step into the
+boat he missed the key of a little chest in which some very valuable
+papers were enclosed..  We immediately turned back to search for it.  He
+very distinctly remembered that he had locked the chest the day before,
+and he had never left the room in the interval.  As our endeavors to
+find it proved ineffectual, we were obliged to relinquish the search in
+order to avoid being too late.  The prince, whose soul was above
+suspicion, gave up the key as lost, and desired that it might not be
+mentioned any more.
+
+Our little voyage was exceedingly delightful.  A picturesque country,
+which at every winding of the river seemed to increase in richness and
+beauty; the serenity of the sky, which formed a May day in the middle of
+February; the charming gardens and elegant countryseats which adorned
+the banks of the Brenta; the maestic city of Venice behind us, with its
+lofty spires, and a forest of masts, rising as it were out of the waves;
+all this afforded us one of the most splendid prospects in the world.
+We wholly abandoned ourselves to the enchantment of Nature's luxuriant
+scenery; our minds shared the hilarity of the day; even the prince
+himself lost his wonted gravity, and vied with us in merry jests
+and diversions.  On landing about two Italian miles from the city we
+heard the sound of sprightly music; it came from a small village at a
+little distance from the Brenta, where there was at that time a fair.
+The place was crowded with company of every description.  A troop of
+young girls and boys, dressed in theatrical habits, welcomed us in a
+pantomimical dance.  The invention was novel; animation and grace
+attended their every movement.  Before the dance was quite concluded
+the principal actress, who represented a queen, stopped suddenly,
+as if arrested by an invisible arm.  Herself and those around her were
+motionless.  The music ceased.  The assembly was silent.  Not a breath
+was to be heard, and the queen stood with her eyes fixed on the ground
+in deep abstraction.  On a sudden she started from her reverie with the
+fury of one inspired, and looked wildly around her.  "A king is among
+us," she exclaimed, taking her crown from her head, and laying it at the
+feet of the prince.  Every one present cast their eyes upon him, and
+doubted for some time whether there was any meaning in this farce; so
+much were they deceived by the impressive seriousness of the actress.
+This silence was at length broken by a general clapping of hands, as a
+mark of approbation.  I looked at the prince.  I noticed that he
+appeared not a little disconcerted, and endeavored to escape the
+inquisitive glances of the spectators.  He threw money to the players,
+and hastened to extricate himself from the crowd.
+
+We had advanced but a few steps when a venerable barefooted friar,
+pressing through the crowd, placed himself in the prince's path.  "My
+lord," said he, "give the holy Virgin part of your gold.  You will want
+her prayers."  He uttered these words in a tone of voice which startled
+us extremely, and then disappeared in the throng.
+
+In the meantime our company had increased.  An English lord, whom the
+prince had seen before at Nice, some merchants of Leghorn, a German
+prebendary, a French abbe with some ladies, and a Russian officer,
+attached themselves to our party.  The physiognomy of the latter had
+something so uncommon as to attract our particular attention.  Never in
+my life did I see such various features and so little expression; so
+much attractive benevolence and such forbidding coldness in the same
+face.  Each passion seemed by turns to have exercised its ravages on it,
+and to have successively abandoned it.  Nothing remained but the calm,
+piercing look of a person deeply skilled in the knowledge of mankind;
+but it was a look that abashed every one on whom it was directed.  This
+extraordinary man followed us at a distance, and seemed apparently to
+take but little interest in what was passing.
+
+We came to a booth where there was a lottery.  The ladies bought shares.
+We followed their example, and the prince himself purchased a ticket.
+He won a snuffbox.  As he opened it I saw him turn pale and start back.
+It contained his lost key.
+
+"How is this?" said he to me, as we were left for a moment alone.
+"A superior power attends me, omniscience surrounds me.  An invisible
+being, whom I cannot escape, watches over my steps.  I must seek for the
+Armenian, and obtain an explanation from him."
+
+The sun was setting when we arrived at the pleasurehouse, where a supper
+had been prepared for us.  The prince's name had augmented our company
+to sixteen.  Besides the above-mentioned persons there was a virtuoso
+from Rome, several Swiss gentlemen, and an adventurer from Palermo in
+regimentals, who gave himself out for a captain.  We resolved to spend
+the evening where we were, and to return home by torchlight.  The
+conversation at table was lively.  The prince could not forbear relating
+his adventure of the key, which excited general astonishment.  A warm
+dispute on the subject presently took place.  Most of the company
+positively maintained that the pretended occult sciences were nothing
+better than juggling tricks.  The French abbe, who had drank rather too
+much wine, challenged the whole tribe of ghosts, the English lord
+uttered blasphemies, and the musician made a cross to exorcise the
+devil.  Some few of the company, amongst whom was the prince, contended
+that opinions respecting such matters ought to be kept to oneself.  In
+the meantime the Russian officer discoursed with the ladies, and did not
+seem to pay attention to any part of conversation.  In the heat of the
+dispute no one observed that the Sicilian had left the room.  In less
+than half an hour he returned wrapped in a cloak, and placed himself
+behind the chair of the Frenchman.  "A few moments ago," said he, "you
+had the temerity to challenge the whole tribe of ghosts.  Would you wish
+to make a trial with one of them?"
+
+"I will," answered the abbe, "if you will take upon yourself to
+introduce one."
+
+"That I am ready to do," replied the Sicilian, turning to us, "as soon
+as these ladies and gentlemen have left us."
+
+"Why only then?"  exclaimed the Englishman.  "A courageous ghost will
+surely not be afraid of a cheerful company."
+
+"I would not answer for the consequences," said the Sicilian.
+
+"For heaven's sake, no!"  cried the ladies, starting affrighted from
+their chairs.
+
+"Call your ghost," said the abbe, in a tone of defiance, "but warn him
+beforehand that there are sharp-pointed weapons here."  At the same time
+he asked one of the company for a sword.
+
+"If you preserve the same intention in his presence," answered the
+Sicilian, coolly, "you may then act as you please."  He then turned
+towards the prince: "Your highness," said he, "asserts that your key has
+been in the hands of a stranger; can you conjecture in whose?"
+
+"No"
+
+"Have you no suspicion?"
+
+"It certainly occurred to me that"--
+
+"Should you know the person if you saw him?"
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+The Sicilian, throwing back his cloak, took out a looking-glass and held
+it before the prince.  "Is this the man?"
+
+The prince drew back with affright.
+
+"Whom have you seen?"  I inquired.
+
+"The Armenian."
+
+The Sicilian concealed his looking-glass under his cloak.
+
+"Is it the person whom you thought of?" demanded the whole company.
+
+"The same."
+
+A sudden change manifested itself on every face; no more laughter was to
+be heard.  All eyes were fixed with curiosity on the Sicilian.
+
+"Monsieur l'Abbe!  The matter grows serious," said the Englishman.
+"I advise you to think of beating a retreat."
+
+"The fellow is in league with the devil," exclaimed the Frenchman, and
+rushed out of the house.  The ladies ran shrieking from the room.  The
+virtuoso followed them.  The German prebendary was snoring in a chair.
+The Russian officer continued sitting in his place as before, perfectly
+indifferent to what was passing.
+
+"Perhaps your attention was only to raise a laugh at the expense of that
+boaster," said the prince, after they were gone, "or would you indeed
+fulfil your promise to us?"
+
+"It is true," replied the Sicilian; "I was but jesting with the abbe.
+I took him at his word, because I knew very well that the coward would
+not suffer me to proceed to extremities.  The matter itself is, however,
+too serious to serve merely as a jest."
+
+"You grant, then, that it is in your power?"
+
+The sorcerer maintained a long silence, and kept his look fixed steadily
+on the prince, as if to examine him.
+
+"It is!" answered he at last.
+
+The prince's curiosity was now raised to the highest pitch.  A fondness
+for the marvellous had ever been his prevailing weakness.  His improved
+understanding and a proper course of reading had for some time
+dissipated every idea of this kind; but the appearance of the Armenian
+had revived them.  He stepped aside with the Sicilian, and I heard them
+in very earnest conversation.
+
+"You see in me," said the prince, "a man who burns with impatience to be
+convinced on this momentous subject.  I would embrace as a benefactor,
+I would cherish as my best friend him who could dissipate my doubts
+and remove the veil from my eyes.  Would you render me this important
+service?"
+
+"What is your request!" inquired the Sicilian, hesitating.
+
+"For the present I only beg some proof of your art.  Let me see an
+apparition."
+
+"To what will this lead?"
+
+"After a more intimate acquaintance with me you may be able to judge
+whether I deserve further instruction."
+
+"I have the greatest esteem for your highness, gracious prince.  A
+secret power in your countenance, of which you yourself are as yet
+ignorant, drew me at first sight irresistibly towards you.  You are more
+powerful than you are yourself aware.  You may command me to the utmost
+extent of my power, but--"
+
+"Then let me see an apparition."
+
+"But I must first be certain that you do not require it from mere
+curiosity.  Though the invisible powers are in some degree at my
+command, it is on the sacred condition that I do not abuse my
+authority."
+
+"My intentions are most pure.  I want truth."
+
+They left their places, and removed to a distant window, where I could
+no longer hear them.  The English lord, who had likewise overheard this
+conversation, took me aside.  "Your prince has a noble mind.  I am sorry
+for him.  I will pledge my salvation that he has to do with a rascal."
+
+"Everything depends on the manner in which the sorcerer will extricate
+himself from this business."
+
+"Listen to me.  The poor devil is now pretending to be scrupulous.  He
+will not show his tricks unless he hears the sound of gold.  There are
+nine of us.  Let us make a collection.  That will spoil his scheme, and
+perhaps open the eyes of the prince."
+
+"I am content."  The Englishman threw six guineas upon a plate, and went
+round gathering subscriptions.  Each of us contributed some louis-d'ors.
+The Russian officer was particularly pleased with our proposal; he laid
+a bank-note of one hundred zechins on the plate, a piece of extravagance
+which startled the Englishman.  We brought the collection to the prince.
+"Be so kind," said the English lord, "as to entreat this gentleman in
+our names to let us see a specimen of his art, and to accept of this
+small token of our gratitude."  The prince added a ring of value, and
+offered the whole to the Sicilian.  He hesitated a few moments.
+"Gentlemen," answered he, "I am humbled by this generosity, but I yield
+to your request.  Your wishes shall be gratified."  At the same time he
+rang the bell.  "As for this money," continued he, "to which I have no
+right myself, permit me to send it to the next monastery to be applied
+to pious uses.  I shall only keep this ring as a precious memorial of
+the worthiest of princes."
+
+Here the landlord entered; and the Sicilian handed him over the money.
+"He is a rascal notwithstanding," whispered the Englishman to me.
+"He refuses the money because at present his designs are chiefly on the
+prince."
+
+"Whom do you wish to see?" asked the sorcerer.
+
+The prince considered for a moment.  "We may as well have a great man at
+once," said the Englishman.  "Ask for Pope Ganganelli.  It can make no
+difference to this gentleman."
+
+The Sicilian bit his lips.  "I dare not call one of the Lord's
+anointed."
+
+"That is a pity!"  replied the English lord; "perhaps we might have
+heard from him what disorder he died of."
+
+"The Marquis de Lanoy," began the prince, "was a French brigadier in the
+late war, and my most intimate friend.  Having received a mortal wound
+in the battle of Hastinbeck, he was carried to my tent, where he soon
+after died in my arms.  In his last agony he made a sign for me to
+approach.  'Prince,' said he to me, 'I shall never again behold my
+native land.  I must, therefore, acquaint you with a secret known to
+none but myself.  In a convent on the frontiers of Flanders lives
+a --------'  He expired.  Death cut short the thread of his discourse.
+I wish to see my friend to hear the remainder."
+
+"You ask much," exclaimed the Englishman, with an oath.  "I proclaim you
+the greatest sorcerer on earth if you can solve this problem," continued
+he, turning to the Sicilian.  We admired the wise choice of the prince,
+and unanimously gave our approval to the proposition.  In the meantime
+the sorcerer paced up and down the room with hasty steps, apparently
+struggling with himself.
+
+"This was all that the dying marquis communicated to you?"
+
+"It is all."
+
+"Did you make no further inquiries about the matter in his native
+country?"
+
+"I did, but they all proved fruitless."
+
+"Had the Marquis de Lanoy led an irreproachable life?  I dare not call
+up every shade indiscriminately."
+
+"He died, repenting the excesses of his youth."
+
+"Do you carry with you any token of his!"
+
+"I do."  (The prince had really a snuff-box with the marquis' portrait
+enamelled in miniature on the lid, which he had placed upon the table
+near his plate during the time of supper.)
+
+"I do not want to know what it is.  If you will leave me you shall see
+the deceased."
+
+He requested us to wait in the other pavilion until he should call us.
+At the same time he caused all the furniture to be removed from the
+room, the windows to be taken out, and the shutters to be bolted.  He
+ordered the innkeeper, with whom he appeared to be intimately connected,
+to bring a vessel with burning coals, and carefully to extinguish every
+fire in the house.  Previous to our leaving the room he obliged us
+separately to pledge our honor that we would maintain an everlasting
+silence respecting everything we should see and hear.  All the doors of
+the pavilion we were in were bolted behind us when we left it.
+
+It was past eleven, and a dead silence reigned throughout the whole
+house.  As we were retiring from the saloon the Russian officer asked me
+whether we had loaded pistols.  "For what purpose?"  asked I.  "They may
+possibly be of some use," replied he.  "Wait a moment.  I will provide
+some."  He went away.  The Baron F------ and I opened a window opposite
+the pavilion we had left.  We fancied we heard two persons whispering
+to each other, and a noise like that of a ladder applied to one of the
+windows.  This was, however, a mere conjecture, and I did not dare
+affirm it as a fact.  The Russian officer came back with a brace of
+pistols, after having been absent about half an hour.  We saw him load
+them with powder and ball.  It was almost two o'clock in the morning
+when the sorcerer came and announced that all was prepared.  Before we
+entered the room he desired us to take off our shoes, and to appear in
+our shirts, stockings, and under-garments.  He bolted the doors after us
+as before.
+
+We found in the middle of the room a large, black circle, drawn with
+charcoal, the space within which was capable of containing us all very
+easily.  The planks of the chamber floor next to the wall were taken up
+all round the room, so that we stood as it were upon an island.  An
+altar covered with black cloth was placed in the centre upon a carpet of
+red satin.  A Chaldee Bible was laid open, together with a skull; and a
+silver crucifix was fastened upon the altar.  Instead of candles some
+spirits of wine were burning in a silver vessel.  A thick smoke of
+frankincense darkened the room and almost extinguished the lights.  The
+sorcerer was undressed like ourselves, but barefooted; about his bare
+neck he wore an amulet, suspended by a chain of human hair; round his
+middle was a white apron marked with cabalistic characters and
+symbolical figures.
+
+     [Amulet is a charm or preservative against mischief, witchcraft, or
+     diseases.  Amulets were made of stone metal, simples, animals, and
+     everything which fancy or caprice suggested; and sometimes they
+     consisted of words, characters, and sentences ranged in a
+     particular order and engraved upon wood, and worn about the neck or
+     some other part of the body.  At other times they were neither
+     written nor engraved, but prepared with many superstitious
+     ceremonies, great regard being usually paid to the influence of the
+     stars.  The Arabians have given to this species of amulets the name
+     of talismans.  All nations have been fond of amulets.  The Jews
+     were extremely superstitious in the use of them to drive away
+     diseases; and even amongst the Christians of the early times
+     amulets were made of the wood of the cross or ribbons, with a text
+     of Scripture written on them, as preservatives against diseases.]
+
+He desired us to join hands and to observe profound silence; above all
+he ordered us not to ask the apparition any question.  He desired the
+Englishman and myself, whom he seemed to distrust the most, constantly
+to hold two naked swords crossways an inch above his head as long as the
+conjuration should last.  We formed a half-moon round him; the Russian
+officer placed himself close to the English lord, and was the nearest to
+the altar.  The sorcerer stood upon the satin carpet with his face
+turned to the east.  He sprinkled holy water in the direction of the
+four cardinal points of the compass, and bowed three times before the
+Bible.  The formula of the conjuration, of which we did not understand a
+word, lasted for the space of seven or eight minutes, at the end of
+which he made a sign to those who stood close behind to seize him firmly
+by the hair.  Amid the most violent convulsions he called the deceased
+three times by his name, and the third time he stretched forth his hand
+towards the crucifix.
+
+On a sudden we all felt at the same instant a stroke as of a flash of
+lightning, so powerful that it obliged us to quit each other's hands; a
+terrible thunder shook the house; the locks jarred; the doors creaked;
+the cover of the silver box fell down and extinguished the light; and on
+the opposite wall over the chimney-piece appeared a human figure in a
+bloody shirt, with the paleness of death on its countenance.
+
+"Who calls me?" said a hollow, hardly intelligible voice.
+
+"Thy friend," answered the sorcerer, "who respects thy memory, and prays
+for thy soul."  He named the prince.
+
+The answers of the apparition were always given at very long intervals.
+
+"What does he want with me?"  continued the voice.
+
+"He wants to hear the remainder of the confession which then had begun
+to impart to him in thy dying hour, but did not finish."
+
+"In a convent on the frontiers of Flanders lives a -------"
+
+The house again trembled; a dreadful thunder rolled; a flash of
+lightning illuminated the room; the doors flew open, and another human
+figure, bloody and pale as the first, but more terrible, appeared on the
+threshold.  The spirit in the box began to burn again by itself, and the
+hall was light as before.
+
+"Who is amongst us?" exclaimed the sorcerer, terrified, casting a look
+of horror on the assemblage; "I did not want thee."  The figure advanced
+with noiseless and majestic steps directly up to the altar, stood on the
+satin Carpet over against us, and touched the crucifix.  The first
+apparition was seen no more.
+
+"Who calls me?"  demanded the second apparition.
+
+"The sorcerer began to tremble.  Terror and amazement kept us motionless
+for some time.  I seized a pistol.  The sorcerer snatched it out of my
+hand, and fired it at the apparition.  The ball rolled slowly upon the
+altar, and the figure emerged unaltered from the smoke.  The Sorcerer
+fell senseless on the ground.
+
+"What is this?"  exclaimed the Englishman, in astonishment, aiming a
+blow at the ghost with a sword.  The figure touched his arm, and the
+weapon fell to the ground.  The perspiration stood on my brow with
+horror.  Baron ------ afterwards confessed to me that he had prayed
+silently.
+
+During all this time the prince stood fearless and tranquil, his eyes
+riveted on the second apparition.  "Yes, I know thee," said he at
+length, with emotion; "thou art Lanoy; thou art my friend.  Whence
+comest thou?"
+
+"Eternity is mute.  Ask me concerning my past life."
+
+"Who is it that lives in the convent which thou mentionedst to me in thy
+last moments?"
+
+"My daughter."
+
+"How?  Hast thou been a father?"
+
+"Woe is me that I was not."
+
+"Art thou not happy, Lanoy?"
+
+"God has judged."
+
+"Can I render thee any further service in this world?"
+
+"None but to think of thyself."
+
+"How must I do that?"
+
+"Thou wilt learn at Rome."
+
+The thunder again rolled; a black cloud of smoke filled the room; when
+it had dispersed the figure was no longer visible.  I forced open one of
+the window shutters.  It was daylight.
+
+The sorcerer now recovered from his swoon.  "Where are we?"  asked he,
+seeing the daylight.
+
+The Russian officer stood close beside him, and looked over his
+shoulder.  "Juggler," said he to him, with a terrible countenance,
+"Thou shalt summon no more ghosts."
+
+The Sicilian turned round, looked steadfastly in his face, uttered a
+loud shriek, and threw himself at his feet.
+
+We looked all at once at the pretended Russian.  The prince instantly
+recognized the features of the Armenian, and the words he was about to
+utter expired on his tongue.  We were all as it were petrified with fear
+and amazement.  Silent and motionless, our eyes were fixed on this
+mysterious being, who beheld us with a calm but penetrating look of
+grandeur and superiority.  A minute elapsed in this awful silence;
+another succeeded; not a breath was to be heard.
+
+A violent battering against the door roused us at last from this stupor.
+The door fell in pieces into the room, and several officers of justice,
+with a guard, rushed in.  "Here they are, all together," said the leader
+to his followers.  Then addressing himself to us, "In the name of the
+government," continued he, "I arrest you."  We had no time to recollect
+ourselves; in a few moments we were surrounded.  The Russian officer,
+whom I shall again call the Armenian, took the chief officer aside, and,
+as far as I in my confusion could notice, I observed him whisper a few
+words to the latter, and show him a written paper.  The officer, bowing
+respectfully, immediately quitted him, turned to us, and taking off his
+hat, said "Gentlemen, I humbly beg your pardon for having confounded
+you with this impostor.  I shall not inquire who you are, as this
+gentleman assures me you are men of honor."  At the same time he gave
+his companions a sign to leave us at liberty.  He ordered the Sicilian
+to be bound and strictly guarded.  "The fellow is ripe for punishment,"
+added he; "we have been searching for him these seven months."
+
+The wretched sorcerer was really an object of pity.  The terror caused
+by the second apparition, and by this unexpected arrest, had together
+overpowered his senses.  Helpless as a child, he suffered himself to be
+bound without resistance.  His eyes were wide open and immovable; his
+face was pale as death; his lips quivered convulsively, but he was
+unable to utter a sound.  Every moment we expected he would fall into a
+fit.  The prince was moved by the situation in which he saw him.  He
+undertook to procure his discharge from the leader of the police, to
+whom he discovered his rank.  "Do you know, gracious prince," said the
+officer, "for whom your highness is so generously interceding?  The
+juggling tricks by which he endeavored to deceive you are the least of
+his crimes.  We have secured his accomplices; they depose terrible facts
+against him.  He may think himself fortunate if he is only punished with
+the galleys."
+
+In the meantime we saw the innkeeper and his family led bound through
+the yard.  "This man, too?"  said the prince; "and what is his crime?"
+
+"He was his comrade and accomplice," answered the officer.  "He assisted
+him in his deceptions and robberies, and shared the booty with him.
+Your highness shall be convinced of it presently.  Search the house,"
+continued he, turning to his followers, "and bring me immediate notice
+of what you find."
+
+The prince looked around for the Armenian, but he had disappeared.  In
+the confusion occasioned by the arrival of the watch he had found means
+to steal away unperceived.  The prince was inconsolable; he declared he
+would send all his servants, and would himself go in search of this
+mysterious man; and he wished me to go with him.  I hastened to the
+window; the house was surrounded by a great number of idlers, whom the
+account of this event had attracted to the spot.  It was impossible to
+get through the crowd.  I represented this to the prince.  "If," said I,
+"it is the Armenian's intention to conceal himself from us, he is
+doubtless better acquainted with the intricacies of the place than we,
+and all our inquiries would prove fruitless.  Let us rather remain here
+a little longer, gracious prince," added I.  "This officer, to whom, if
+I observed right, he discovered himself, may perhaps give us some
+information respecting him."
+
+We now for the first time recollected that we were still undressed.
+We hastened to the other pavilion and put on our clothes as quickly
+as possible.  When we returned they had finished searching the house.
+
+On removing the altar and some of the boards of the floor a spacious
+vault was discovered.  It was high enough, for a man might sit upright
+in it with ease, and was separated from the cellar by a door and a
+narrow staircase.  In this vault they found an electrical machine, a
+clock, and a little silver bell, which, as well as the electrical
+machine, was in communication with the altar and the crucifix that was
+fastened upon it.  A hole had been made in the window-shutter opposite
+the chimney, which opened and shut with a slide.  In this hole, as we
+learnt afterwards, was fixed a magic lantern, from which the figure of
+the ghost had been reflected on the opposite wall, over the chimney.
+From the garret and the cellar they brought several drums, to which
+large leaden bullets were fastened by strings; these had probably been
+used to imitate the roaring of thunder which we had heard.
+
+On searching the Sicilian's clothes they found, in a case, different
+powders, genuine mercury in vials and boxes, phosphorus in a glass
+bottle, and a ring, which we immediately knew to be magnetic, because it
+adhered to a steel button that by accident had been placed near it.  In
+his coat-pockets were found a rosary, a Jew's beard, a dagger, and a
+brace of pocket-pistols.  "Let us see whether they are loaded," said one
+of the watch, and fired up the chimney.
+
+"Jesus Maria!" cried a hollow voice, which we knew to be that of the
+first apparition, and at the same instant a bleeding person came
+tumbling down the chimney.  "What! not yet laid, poor ghost!" cried the
+Englishman, while we started back in affright.  "Home to thy grave.
+Thou hast appeared what thou wert not; now thou wilt become what thou
+didst but seem."
+
+"Jesus Maria! I am wounded," repeated the man in the chimney.  The ball
+had fractured his right leg.  Care was immediately taken to have the
+wound dressed.
+
+"But who art thou?"  said the English lord; "and what evil spirit
+brought thee here?"
+
+"I am a poor mendicant friar," answered the wounded man; "a strange
+gentleman gave me a zechin to--"
+
+"Repeat a speech.  And why didst thou not withdraw as soon as thy task
+was finished?"
+
+I was waiting for a signal which we had agreed on to continue my speech;
+but as this signal was not given, I was endeavoring to get away, when I
+found the ladder had been removed"
+
+"And what was the formula he taught thee?"
+
+The wounded man fainted away; nothing more could be got from him.  In
+the meantime the prince turned towards the principal officer of the
+watch, giving him at the same time some pieces of gold.  "You have
+rescued us," said he, "from the hands of an impostor, and done us
+justice without even knowing who we were; would you increase our
+gratitude by telling us the name of the stranger who, by speaking
+only a few words, was able to procure us our liberty."
+
+"Whom do you mean?"  inquired the party addressed, with an air which
+plainly showed that the question was useless.
+
+"The gentleman in a Russian uniform, who took you aside, showed you a
+written paper, and whispered a few words, in consequence of which you
+immediately set us free."
+
+"Do not you know the gentleman?  Was he not one of your company?"
+
+"No," answered the prince; "and I have very important reasons for
+wishing to be more intimately acquainted with him."
+
+"I know very little of him myself.  Even his name is unknown to me, and
+I saw him to-day for the first time in my life."
+
+"How?  And was he in so short a time, and by using only a few words,
+able to convince you both of our innonocence and his own?"
+
+"Undoubtedly, with a single word."
+
+"And this was?  I confess I wish to know it."
+
+"This stranger, my prince," said the officer, weighing the zechins in
+his band,--"you have been too generous for me to make a secret of it any
+longer,--this stranger is an officer of the Inquisition."
+
+"Of the Inquisition?  This man?"
+
+"He is, indeed, gracious prince.  I was convinced of it by the paper
+which he showed to me."
+
+"This man, did you say?  That cannot be."
+
+"I will tell your highness more.  It was upon his information that I
+have been sent here to arrest the sorcerer."
+
+We looked at each other in the utmost astonishment.
+
+"Now we know," said the English lord at length, "why the poor devil of a
+sorcerer started in such a terror when he looked more closely into his
+face.  He knew him to be a spy, and that is why he uttered that shriek,
+and fell down before him."
+
+"No!" interrupted the prince.  "This man is whatever he wishes to be,
+and whatever the moment requires him to be.  No mortal ever knew what he
+really was.  Did you not see the knees of the Sicilian sink under him,
+when he said, with that terrible voice: 'Thou shalt summon no more
+ghosts?'  There is something inexplicable in this matter.  No person can
+persuade me that one man should be thus alarmed at the sight of
+another."
+
+"The sorcerer himself will probably explain it the best," said the
+English lord, "if that gentleman," pointing to the officer, "will afford
+us an opportunity of speaking with his prisoner."
+
+The officer consented to it, and, having agreed with the Englishman to
+visit the Sicilian in the morning, we returned to Venice.
+
+     [The Count O-------, whose narrative I have thus far literally
+     copied, describes minutely the various effects of this adventure
+     upon the mind of the prince and of his companions, and recounts a
+     variety of tales of apparitions which this event gave occasion to
+     introduce.  I shall omit giving them to the reader, on the
+     supposition that he is as curious as myself to know the conclusion
+     of the adventure, and its effect on the conduct of the prince.  I
+     shall only add that the prince got no sleep the remainder of the
+     night, and that he waited with impatience for the moment which was
+     to disclose this incomprehensible mystery, Note of the German
+     Editor.]
+
+Lord Seymour (this was the name of the Englishman) called upon us very
+early in the forenoon, and was soon after followed by a confidential
+person whom the officer had entrusted with the care of conducting us to
+the prison.
+
+I forgot to mention that one of the prince's domestics, a native of
+Bremen, who had served him many years with the strictest fidelity, and
+had entirely gained his confidence, had been missing for several days.
+Whether he had met with any accident, whether he had been kidnapped,
+or had voluntarily absented himself, was a secret to every one.  The
+last supposition was extremely improbable, as his conduct had always
+been quiet and regular, and nobody had ever found fault with him.  All
+that his companions could recollect was that he had been for some time
+very melancholy, and that, whenever he had a moment's leisure, he used
+to visit a certain monastery in the Giudecca, where he had formed an
+acquaintance with some monks.  This induced us to suppose that he might
+have fallen into the hands of the priests and had been persuaded to turn
+Catholic; and as the prince was very tolerant, or rather indifferent
+about matters of this kind, and the few inquiries he caused to be made
+proved unsuccessful, he gave up the search.  He, however, regretted the
+loss of this man, who had constantly attended him in his campaigns,
+had always been faithfully attached to him, and whom it was therefore
+difficult to replace in a foreign country.  The very same day the
+prince's banker, whom he had commissioned to provide him with another
+servant, was announced at the moment we were going out.  He presented to
+the prince a middle-aged man, well-dressed, and of good appearance, who
+had been for a long time secretary to a procurator, spoke French and a
+little German, and was besides furnished with the best recommendations.
+The prince was pleased with the man's physiognomy; and as he declared
+that he would be satisfied with such wages as his service should be
+found to merit, the prince engaged him immediately.
+
+We found the Sicilian in a private prison where, as the officer assured
+us, he had been lodged for the present, to accommodate the prince,
+before being removed to the lead roofs, to which there is no access.
+These lead roofs are the most terrible prisons in Venice.  They are
+situated on the top of the palace of St. Mark, and the miserable
+criminals suffer so dreadfully from the heat of the leads occasioned by
+the heat of the burning rays of the sun descending directly upon them
+that they frequently become delirious.  The Sicilian had recovered from
+his yesterday's terror, and rose respectfully on seeing the prince
+enter.  He had fetters on one hand and on one leg, but was able to walk
+about the room at liberty.  The sentinel at the door withdrew as soon as
+we had entered.
+
+"I come," said the prince, "to request an explanation of you on two
+subjects.  You owe me the one, and it shall not be to your disadvantage
+if you grant me the other."
+
+"My part is now acted," replied the Sicilian, "my destiny is in your
+hands."
+
+"Your sincerity alone can mitigate your punishment.
+
+"Speak, honored prince, I am ready to answer you.  I have nothing now to
+lose."
+
+"You showed me the face of the Armenian in a looking-glass.  How was
+this effected?"
+
+"What you saw was no looking-glass.  A portrait in crayons behind a
+glass, representing a man in an Armenian dress, deceived you.  My
+quickness, the twilight, and your astonishment favored the deception.
+The picture itself must have been found among the other things seized at
+the inn."
+
+"But how could you read my thoughts so accurately as to hit upon the
+Armenian?"
+
+"This was not difficult, your highness.  You must frequently have
+mentioned your adventure with the Armenian at table in the presence of
+your domestics.  One of my accomplices accidentally got acquainted with
+one of your domestics in the Giudecca, and learned from him gradually as
+much as I wished to know."
+
+"Where is the man?" asked the prince; "I have missed him, and doubtless
+you know of his desertion."
+
+"I swear to your honor, sir, that I know not a syllable about it.  I
+have never seen him myself, nor had any other concern with him than the
+one before mentioned."
+
+"Proceed with your story," said the prince.
+
+"By this means, also, I received the first information of your residence
+and of your adventures at Venice; and I resolved immediately to profit
+by them.  You see, prince, I am sincere.  I was apprised of your
+intended excursion on the Brenta.  I prepared for it, and a key that
+dropped by chance from your pocket afforded me the first opportunity of
+trying my art upon you."
+
+"How!  Have I been mistaken?  The adventure of the key was then a trick
+of yours, and not of the Armenian?  You say this key fell from my
+pocket?"
+
+"You accidentally dropped it in taking out your purse, and I seized an
+opportunity, when no one noticed me, to cover it with my foot.  The
+person of whom you bought the lottery-ticket acted in concert with me.
+He caused you to draw it from a box where there was no blank, and the
+key had been in the snuff-box long before it came into your possession."
+
+"I understand you.  And the monk who stopped me in my way and addressed
+me in a manner so solemn."
+
+"Was the same who, as I hear, has been wounded in the chimney.  He is
+one of my accomplices, and under that disguise has rendered me many
+important services."
+
+"But what purpose was this intended to answer?"
+
+"To render you thoughtful; to inspire you with such a train of ideas as
+should be favorable to the wonders I intended afterwards to show you."
+
+"The pantomimical dance, which ended in a manner so extraordinary, was
+at least none of your contrivance?"
+
+"I had taught the girl who represented the queen.  Her performance was
+the result of my instructions.  I supposed your highness would be not a
+little astonished to find yourself known in this place, and (I entreat
+your pardon, prince) your adventure with the Armenian gave me reason to
+hope that you were already disposed to reject natural interpretations,
+and to attribute so marvellous an occurrence to supernatural agency."
+
+"Indeed," exclaimed the prince, at once angry and amazed, and casting
+upon me a significant look; "indeed, I did not expect this."
+
+     [Neither did probably the greater number of my readers.  The
+     circumstance of the crown deposited at the feet of the prince, in a
+     manner so solemn and unexpected, and the former prediction of the
+     Armenian, seem so naturally and obviously to aim at the same object
+     that at the first reading of these memoirs I immediately remembered
+     the deceitful speech of the witches in Macbeth:--
+
+              "Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
+               All hail, Macbeth! that shall he king hereafter!"
+
+     and probably the same thing has occurred to many of my readers.
+
+     When a certain conviction has taken hold upon a man's mind in a
+     solemn and extraordinary manner, it is sure to follow that all
+     subsequent ideas which are in any way capable of being associated
+     with this conviction should attach themselves to, and in some
+     degree seem to be consequent upon it.  The Sicilian, who seems to
+     have had no other motive for his whole scheme than to astonish the
+     prince by showing him that his rank was discovered, played, without
+     being himself aware of it, the very game which most furthered the
+     view of the Armenian; but however much of its interest this
+     adventure will lose if I take away the higher motive which at first
+     seemed to influence these actions, I must by no means infringe upon
+     historical truth, but must relate the facts exactly as they
+     occurred.--Note of the German Editor.]
+
+"But," continued he, after a long silence, "how did you produce the
+figure which appeared on the wall over the chimney?"
+
+"By means of a magic lantern that was fixed in the opposite window-
+shutter, in which you have undoubtedly observed an opening."
+
+"But how did it happen that not one of us perceived the lantern?"  asked
+Lord Seymour.
+
+"You remember, my lord, that on your re-entering the room it was
+darkened by a thick smoke of frankincense.  I likewise took the
+precaution to place the boards which had been taken up from the floor
+upright against the wall near the window.  By these means I prevented
+the shutter from immediately attracting observation.  Moreover, the
+lantern remained covered by a slide until you had taken your places, and
+there was no further reason to apprehend that you would institute any
+examination of the saloon."
+
+"As I looked out of the window in the other pavilion," said I,
+"I fancied I heard a noise like that of a person placing a ladder
+against the side of the house.  Was I right?"
+
+"Exactly; it was the ladder upon which my assistants stood to direct the
+magic-lantern."
+
+"The apparition," continued the prince, "had really a superficial
+likeness to my deceased friend, and what was particularly striking, his
+hair, which was of a very light color, was exactly imitated.  Was this
+mere chance, or how did you come by such a resemblance?"
+
+"Your highness must recollect that you had at table a snuff-box by your
+plate, with an enamelled portrait of an officer in a uniform.  I asked
+whether you had anything about you as a memento of your friend, and as
+your highness answered in the affirmative, I conjectured that it might
+be the box.  I had attentively examined the picture during supper, and
+being very expert in drawing and not less happy in taking likenesses, I
+had no difficulty in giving to my shade the superficial resemblance you
+have perceived, the more so as the marquis' features are very marked."
+
+"But the figure seemed to move?"
+
+"It appeared so, yet it was not the figure that moved but the smoke
+on which the light was reflected."
+
+"And the man who fell down in the chimney spoke for the apparition?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"But he could not hear your question distinctly."
+
+"There was no occasion for it.  Your highness will recollect that I
+cautioned you all very strictly not to propose any question to the
+apparition yourselves.  My inquiries and his answers were preconcerted
+between us; and that no mistake might happen, I caused him to speak at
+long intervals, which he counted by the beating of a watch."
+
+"You ordered the innkeeper carefully to extinguish every fire in the
+house with water; this was undoubtedly--"
+
+"To save the man in the chimney from the danger of being suffocated;
+because the chimneys in the house communicate with each other, and I did
+not think myself very secure from your retinue."
+
+"How did it happen," asked Lord Seymour, "that your ghost appeared
+neither sooner nor later than you wished him?"
+
+"The ghost was in the room for some time before I called him, but while
+the room was lighted, the shade was too faint to be perceived.  When the
+formula of the conjuration was finished, I caused the cover of the box,
+in which the spirit was buring, to drop down, the saloon was darkened,
+and it was not till then that the figure on the wall could be distinctly
+seen, although it had been reflected there a considerable time before."
+
+"When the ghost appeared, we all felt an electric shock.  How was that
+managed?"
+
+"You have discovered the machine under the altar.  You have also seen
+that I was standing upon a silk carpet.  I directed you to form a half-
+moon around me, and to take each other's hands.  When the crisis
+approached, I gave a sign to one of you to seize me by the hair.  The
+silver crucifix was the conductor, and you felt the electric shock when
+I touched it with my hand."
+
+"You ordered Count O----- and myself," continued Lord Seymour, "to hold
+two naked swords crossways over your head, during the whole time of the
+conjuration; for what purpose?"
+
+"For no other than to engage your attention during the operation;
+because I distrusted you two the most.  You remember, that I expressly
+commanded you to hold the sword one inch above my head; by confining you
+exactly to this distance, I prevented you from looking where I did not
+wish you.  I had not then perceived my principal enemy."
+
+"I own," cried Lord Seymour, "you acted with due precaution--but why
+were we obliged to appear undressed?"
+
+"Merely to give a greater solemnity to the scene, and to excite your
+imaginations by the strangeness of the proceeding."
+
+"The second apparition prevented your ghost from speaking," said the
+prince.  "What should we have learnt from him?"
+
+"Nearly the same as what you heard afterwards.  It was not without
+design that I asked your highness whether you had told me everything
+that the deceased communicated to you, and whether you had made any
+further inquiries on this subject in his country.  I thought this was
+necessary, in order to prevent the deposition of the ghost from being
+contradicted by facts with which you were previously acquainted.
+Knowing likewise that every man in his youth is liable to error,
+I inquired whether the life of your friend had been irreproachable,
+and on your answer I founded that of the ghost."
+
+"Your explanation of this matter is satisfactory," resumed the prince,
+after a short silence; "but there remains a principal circumstance which
+I must ask you to clear up."
+
+"If it be in my power, and--"
+
+"No conditions!  Justice, in whose hands you now are, might perhaps not
+interrogate you with so much delicacy.  Who was this unknown at whose
+feet we saw you fall?  What do you know of him?  How did you get
+acquainted with him?  And in what way was he connected with the
+appearance of the second apparition?
+
+"Your highness"--
+
+"On looking at him more attentively, you gave a loud scream, and fell at
+his feet.  What are we to understand by that?"
+
+"This man, your highness"--He stopped, grew visibly perplexed, and with
+an embarrassed countenance looked around him.  "Yes, prince, by all that
+is sacred, this unknown is a terrible being."
+
+"What do you know of him?  What connection have you with him?  Do not
+hope to conceal the truth from us."
+
+"I shall take care not to do so,--for who will warrant that he is not
+among us at this very moment?"
+
+"Where?  Who?" exclaimed we altogether, "half-amused, half-startled,
+looking about the room.  "That is impossible."
+
+"Oh! to this man, or whatever he may be, things still more
+incomprehensible are possible."
+
+"But who is he?  Whence comes he?  Is he an Armenian or a Russian?  Of
+the characters be assumes, which is his real one?"
+
+"He is nothing of what he appears to be.  There are few conditions or
+countries of which he has not worn the mask.  No person knows who he is,
+whence he comes, or whither he goes.  That he has been for a long time
+in Egypt, as many pretend, and that he has brought from thence, out of a
+catacomb, his, occult sciences, I will neither affirm nor deny.  Here we
+only know him by the name of the Incomprehensible.  How old, for
+instance, do you suppose he is?"
+
+"To judge from his appearance he can scarcely have passed forty."
+
+"And of what age do you suppose I am?"
+
+"Not far from fifty."
+
+"Quite right; and I must tell you that I was but a boy of seventeen when
+my grandfather spoke to me of this marvellous man whom he had seen at
+Famagusta; at which time he appeared nearly of the same age as he does
+at present."
+
+"This is exaggerated, ridiculous, and incredible."
+
+"By no means.  Were I not prevented by these fetters I could produce
+vouchers whose dignity and respectability should leave you no room for
+doubt.  There are several credible persons who remember having seen him,
+each, at the same time, in different parts of the globe.  No sword can
+wound, no poison can hurt, no fire can burn him; no vessel in which he
+embarks can be wrecked.  Time itself seems to lose its power over him.
+Years do not affect his constitution, nor age whiten his hair.  Never
+was he seen to take any food.  Never did he approach a woman.  No sleep
+closes his eyes.  Of the twenty-four hours in the day there is only one
+which he cannot command; during which no person ever saw him, and during
+which he never was employed in any terrestrial occupation."
+
+"And this hour is?"
+
+"The twelfth in the night.  When the clock strikes twelve at midnight
+he ceases to belong to the living.  In whatever place he is he must
+immediately be gone; whatever business he is engaged in he must
+instantly leave it.  The terrible sound of the hour of midnight tears
+him from the arms of friendship, wrests him from the altar, and would
+drag him away even in the agonies of death.  Whither he then goes, or
+what he is then engaged in, is a secret to every one.  No person
+ventures to interrogate, still less to follow him.  His features, at
+this dread ful hour, assume a sternness of expression so gloomy and
+terrifying that no person has courage sufficient to look him in the
+face, or to speak a word to him.  However lively the conversation may
+have been, a dead silence immediately succeeds it, and all around wait
+for his return in respectful silence without venturing to quit their
+seats, or to open the door through which he has passed."
+
+"Does nothing extraordinary appear in his person when he returns?"
+inquired one of our party.
+
+"Nothing, except that he seems pale and exhausted, like a man who has
+just suffered a painful operation, or received some disastrous
+intelligence.  Some pretend to have seen drops of blood on his linen,
+but with what degree of veracity I cannot affirm."
+
+"Did no person ever attempt to conceal the approach of this hour from
+him, or endeavor to preoccupy his mind in such a manner as to make him
+forget it?"
+
+"Once only, it is said, he missed the appointed time.  The company was
+numerous and remained together late in the night.  All the clocks and
+watches were purposely set wrong, and the warmth of conversation carried
+him away.  When the stated hour arrived he suddenly became silent and
+motionless; his limbs continued in the position in which this instant
+had arrested them; his eyes were fixed; his pulse ceased to beat.  All
+the means employed to awake him proved fruitless, and this situation
+endured till the hour had elapsed.  He then revived on a sudden without
+any assistance, opened his eyes, and resumed his speech at the very
+syllable which he was pronouncing at the moment of interruption.  The
+general consternation discovered to him what had happened, and he
+declared, with an awful solemnity, that they ought to think themselves
+happy in having escaped with the fright alone.  The same night he
+quitted forever the city where this circumstance had occurred.  The
+common opinion is that during this mysterious hour he converses with his
+genius.  Some even suppose him to be one of the departed who is allowed
+to pass twenty-three hours of the day among the living, and that in the
+twenty-fourth his soul is obliged to return to the infernal regions to
+suffer its punishment.  Some believe him to be the famous Apollonius of
+Tyana; and others the disciple of John, of whom it is said, 'He shall
+remain until the last judgment.'"
+
+"A character so wonderful," replied the prince, "cannot fail to give
+rise to whimsical conjectures.  But all this you profess to know only by
+hearsay, and yet his behavior to you and yours to him, seemed to
+indicate a more intimate acquaintance.  Is it not founded upon some
+particular event in which you have yourself been concerned?  Conceal
+nothing from us."
+
+The Sicilian looked at us doubtingly and remained silent.
+
+"If it concerns something," continued the prince, "that you do not wish
+to be made known, I promise you, in the name of these two gentlemen, the
+most inviolable secrecy.  But speak candidly and without reserve."
+
+"Could I hope," answered the prisoner, after a long silence, "that you
+would not make use of what I am going to relate as evidence against me,
+I would tell you a remarkable adventure of this Armenian, of which I
+myself was witness, and which will leave you no doubt of his
+supernatural powers.  But I beg leave to conceal some of the names."
+
+"Cannot you do it without this condition?"
+
+"No, your highness.  There is a family concerned in it whom I have
+reason to respect."
+
+"Let us hear your story."
+
+"It is about five years ago," began the Sicilian, "that at Naples, where
+I was practising my art with tolerable success, I became acquainted with
+a person of the name of Lorenzo del M-------, chevalier of the Order of
+St. Stephen, a young and rich nobleman, of one of the first families in
+the kingdom, who loaded me with kindnesses, and seemed to have a great
+esteem for my occult knowledge.  He told me that the Marquis del M--nte,
+his father, was a zealous admirer of the cabala, and would think himself
+happy in having a philosopher like myself (for such he was pleased to
+call me) under his roof.  The marquis lived in one of his country seats
+on the sea-shore, about seven miles from Naples.  There, almost entirely
+secluded from the world, he bewailed, the loss of a beloved son, of whom
+he had been deprived by a terrible calamity.  The chevalier gave me to
+understand that he and his family might perhaps have occasion to employ
+me on a matter of the most grave importance, in the hope of gaining
+through my secret science some information, to procure which all natural
+means had been tried in vain.  He added, with a very significant look,
+that he himself might, perhaps at some future period, have reason to
+look upon me as the restorer of his tranquillity, and of all his earthly
+happiness.  The affair was as follows:--
+
+"This Lorenzo was the younger son of the marquis, and for that reason
+had been destined for the church; the family estates were to descend to
+the eldest.  Jeronymo, which was the name of the latter, had spent many
+years on his travels, and had returned to his country about seven years
+prior to the event which I am about to relate, in order to celebrate his
+marriage with the only daughter of the neighboring Count C----tti.  This
+marriage had been determined on by the parents during the infancy of the
+children, in order to unite the large fortunes of the two houses.  But
+though this agreement was made by the two families, without consulting
+the hearts of the parties concerned, the latter had mutually pledged
+their faith to each other in secret.  Jeronymo del M------ and Antonia
+C----- had been brought up together, and the little restraint imposed on
+two children, whom their parents were already accustomed to regard as
+destined for each other, soon produced between them a connection of the
+tenderest kind; the congeniality of their tempers cemented this
+intimacy; and in later years it ripened insensibly into love.  An
+absence of four years, far from cooling this passion, had only served to
+inflame it; and Jeronymo returned to the arms of his intended bride as
+faithful and as ardent as if they had never been separated.
+
+"The raptures occasioned by his return had not yet subsided, and the
+preparations for the happy day were advancing with the utmost zeal and
+activity, when the bridegroom disappeared.  He used frequently to pass
+whole afternoons in a summer-house which commanded a prospect of the
+sea, and was accustomed to take the diversion of sailing on the water.
+One day, on an evening spent in this manner, it was observed that he
+remained absent a much longer time than usual, and his friends began to
+be very uneasy on his account.  Messengers were despatched after him,
+vessels were sent to sea in quest of him; no person had seen him.  None
+of his servants were missed; he must, therefore, have gone alone.  Night
+came on, and he did not appear.  The next morning dawned; the day
+passed, the evening succeeded--, Jeronymo came not.  Already they had
+begun to give themselves up to the most melancholy conjectures when the
+news arrived that an Algerine pirate had landed the preceeding day on
+that coast, and carried off several of the inhabitants.  Two galleys
+which were ready for sea were immediately manned; the old marquis
+himself embarked in one of them, to attempt the deliverance of his son
+at the peril of his own life.  On the third morning they perceived the
+corsair.  They had the advantage of the wind; they were just about to
+overtake the pirate, and had even approached so near that Lorenzo, who
+was in one of the galleys, fancied that he saw upon the deck of the
+adversary's ship a signal made by his brother, when a sudden storm
+separated the vessels.  Hardly could the damaged galleys sustain the
+fury of the tempest.  The pirate in the meantime had disappeared, and
+the distressed state of the other vessels obliged them to land at Malta.
+The affliction of the family knew no bounds.  The distracted old marquis
+tore his gray hairs in the utmost violence of grief; and fears were
+entertained for the life of the young countess.  Five years were
+consumed in fruitless inquiries.  Diligent search was made along all the
+coast of Barbary; immense sums were offered for the ransom of the poor
+marquis, but no person came forward to claim them.  The only probable
+conjecture which remained for the family to form was, that the same
+storm which had separated the galleys from the pirate had destroyed the
+latter, and that the whole ship's company had perished in the waves.
+
+"But, however this supposition might be, it did not by any means amount
+to a certainty, and could not authorize the family altogether to
+renounce the hope that the lost Jeronymo might again appear.  In case,
+however, that he was really dead, either the family must become extinct,
+or the younger son must relinquish the church, and assume the rights of
+the elder.  As justice, on the one hand, seemed to oppose the latter
+measure, so, on the other hand, the necessity of preserving the family
+from annihilation required that the scruple should not be carried too
+far.  In the meantime through grief and the infirmities of age, the old
+marquis was fast sinking to his grave; every unsuccessful attempt
+diminished the hope of finding his lost son; he saw the danger of his
+family's becoming extinct, which might be obviated by a trifling
+injustice on his part, in consenting to favor his younger son at the
+expense of the elder.  The consummation of his alliance with the house
+of Count C---tti required only that a name should be changed, for the
+object of the two families was equally accomplished, whether Antonia
+became the wife of Lorenzo or of Jeronymo.  The faint probability of the
+latter's appearing again weighed but little against the certain and
+pressing danger of the total extinction of the family, and the old
+marquis, who felt the approach of death every day more and more,
+ardently wished at least to die free from this inquietude.
+
+"Lorenzo, however, who was to be principally benefited by this measure,
+opposed it with the greatest obstinacy.  Alike unmoved by the
+allurements of an immense fortune, and the attractions of the beautiful
+and accomplished being whom his family were about to deliver into his
+arms, he refused, on principles the most generous and conscientious, to
+invade the rights of a brother, who perhaps was still alive, and might
+some day return to claim his own.  'Is not the lot of my dear Jeronymo,'
+said he, 'made sufficiently miserable by the horrors of a long
+captivity, that I should yet add bitterness to his cup of grief by
+stealing from him all that he holds most dear?  With what conscience
+could I supplicate heaven for his return when his wife is in my arms?
+With what countenance could I hasten to meet him should he at last be
+restored to us by some miracle?  And even supposing that he is torn
+from us forever, how can we better honor his memory than by keeping
+constantly open the chasm which his death has caused in our circle?  Can
+we better show our respect to him than by sacrificing our dearest hopes
+upon his tomb, and keeping untouched, as a sacred deposit, what was
+peculiarly his own?'
+
+"But all the arguments which fraternal delicacy could adduce were
+insufficient to reconcile the old marquis to the idea of being obliged
+to witness the extinction of a pedigree which nine centuries had beheld
+flourishing.  All that Lorenzo could obtain was a respite of two years
+before leading the affianced bride of his brother to the altar.  During
+this period they continued their inquiries with the utmost diligence.
+Lorenzo himself made several voyages, and exposed his person to many
+dangers.  No trouble, no expense was spared to recover the lost
+Jeronymo.  These two years, however, like those which preceded them,
+were in vain?"
+
+"And the Countess Antonia?"  said the prince, "You tell us nothing of
+her.  Could she so calmly submit to her fate?  I cannot suppose it."
+
+"Antonia," answered the Sicilian, "experienced the most violent struggle
+between duty and inclination, between hate and admiration.  The
+disinterested generosity of a brother's love affected her; she felt
+herself forced to esteem a person whom she could never love.  Her heart
+was torn by conflicting sentiments.  But her repugnance to the chevalier
+seemed to increase in the same degree as his claims upon her esteem
+augmented.  Lorenzo perceived with heartfelt sorrow the grief that
+consumed her youth.  A tender compassion insensibly assumed the place of
+that indifference with which, till then, he had been accustomed to
+regard her; but this treacherous sentiment quickly deceived him, and an
+ungovernable passion began by degrees to shake the steadiness of his
+virtue--a virtue which, till then, had been unequalled.
+
+"He, however, still obeyed the dictates of generosity, though at the
+expense 'of his love.  By his efforts alone was the unfortunate victim
+protected against the arbitrary proceedings of the rest of the family.
+But his endeavors were ineffectual.  Every victory he gained over his
+passion rendered him more worthy of Antonia; and the disinterestedness
+with which he refused her left her no excuse for resistance.
+
+"This was the state of affairs when the chevalier engaged me to visit
+him at his father's villa.  The earnest recommendation of my patron
+procured me a reception which exceeded my most sanguine hopes.  I must
+not forget to mention that by some remarkable operations I had
+previously rendered my name famous in different lodges of Freemasons,
+which circumstance may, perhaps, have contributed to strengthen the old
+marquis' confidence in me, and to heighten his expectations.  I beg you
+will excuse me from describing particularly the lengths I went with him,
+and the means which I employed; you may judge of them from what I have
+already confessed to you.  Profiting by the mystic books which I found
+in his very extensive library, I was soon able to converse with him in
+his own language, and to adorn my system of the invisible world with the
+most extraordinary inventions.  In a short time I could make him believe
+whatever I pleased, and he would have sworn as readily as upon an
+article in the canon.  Morover, as he was very devout, and was by nature
+somewhat credulous, my fables received credence the more readily, and in
+a short time I had so completely surrounded and hemmed him in with
+mystery that he cared for nothing that was not supernatural.  In short I
+became the patron saint of the house.  The usual subject of my lectures
+was the exaltation of human nature, and the intercourse of men with
+superior beings; the infallible Count Gabalis was my oracle.
+
+     [A mystical work of that title, written in French in 1670 by the
+     Abbe do Villars, and translated into English in 1600.  Pope is said
+     to have borrowed from it the machinery of his Rape of the Lock.-H.
+     G.  B.]
+
+"The young countess, whose mind since the loss of her lover had been more
+occupied in the world of spirits than in that of nature, and who had,
+moreover, a strong shade of melancholy in her composition, caught my
+hints with a fearful satisfaction.  Even the servants contrived to have
+some business in the room when I was speaking, and seizing now and then
+one of my expressions, joined the fragments together in their own way.
+
+"Two months were passed in this manner at the marquis' villa, when the
+chevalier one morning entered my apartment.  A deep sorrow was painted
+on his countenance, his features were convulsed, he threw himself into a
+chair, with gestures of despair.
+
+"'Captain,' said he, 'it is all over with me, I must begone; I can
+remain here no longer.'
+
+"'What is the matter, chevalier?  What ails you?'
+
+"'Oh! this fatal passion!' said he, starting frantically from his chair.
+'I have combated it like a man; I can resist it no longer.'
+
+"'And whose fault is it but yours, my dear chevalier?  Are they not all
+in your favor?  Your father, your relations.'
+
+"'My father, my relations!  What are they to me?  I want not a forced
+union, but one of inclination, Have not I a rival?  Alas! and what a
+rival!  Perhaps among the dead!  Oh!  let me go!  Let me go to the end
+of the world,--I must find my brother.'
+
+"'What! after so many unsuccessful attempts can you still cherish hope?'
+
+"'Hope!' replied the chevalier; 'alas!  no.  It has long since vanished
+from my heart, but it has not from hers.  Of what consequence are my
+sentiments?  Can I be happy while there remains a gleam of hope in
+Antonia's heart?  Two words, my friend, would end my torments.  But it
+is in vain.  My destiny must continue to be miserable till eternity
+shall break its long silence, and the grave shall speak in my behalf.'
+
+"'Is it then a state of certainty that would render you happy?'
+
+"'Happy!  Alas!  I doubt whether I can ever again be happy.  But
+uncertainty is of all others the most dreadful pain.'
+
+"After a short interval of silence he suppressed his emotion, and
+continued mournfully, 'If he could but see my torments!  Surely a
+constancy which renders his brother miserable cannot add to his
+happiness.  Can it be just that the living should suffer so much for the
+sake of the dead, who can no longer enjoy earthly felicity?  If he knew
+the pangs I suffer,' continued he, hiding his face on my shoulder, while
+the tears streamed from his eyes, 'yes, perhaps he himself would
+conducts her to my arms.'
+
+"'But is there no possibility of gratifying your wishes?'
+
+"He started.  'What do you say, my friend?'
+
+"'Less important occasions than the present,' said I, 'have disturbed
+the repose of the dead for the sake of the living.  Is not the whole
+earthly happiness of a man, of a brother'
+
+"'The whole earthly happiness!  Ah, my friend, I feel what you say is
+but too true; my entire felicity.'
+
+"'And the tranquillity of a distressed family, are not these sufficient
+to justify such a measure?  Undoubtedly.  If any sublunary concern can
+authorize us to interrupt the peace of the blessed, to make use of a
+power'
+
+"'For God's sake, my friend,' said he, interrupting me, no more of this.
+Once, I avow it, I had such a thought; I think I mentioned it to you;
+but I have long since rejected it as horrid and abominable.'
+
+"You will have conjectured already," continued the Sicilian, "to what
+this conversation led us.  I endeavored to overcome the scruples of the
+chevalier, and at last succeeded.  We resolved to summon the spirit of
+the deceased Jeronymo.  I only stipulated for the delay of a fortnight,
+in order, as I pretended, to prepare myself in a suitable manner for so
+solemn an act.  The time being expired, and my machinery in readiness,
+I took advantage of a very gloomy day, when we were all assembled as
+usual, to obtain the consent of the family, or rather, gradually to lead
+them to the subject, so that they themselves requested it of me.  The
+most difficult part of the task was to obtain the approbation of
+Antonia, whose presence was most essential.  My endeavors were, however,
+greatly assisted by the melancholy turn of her mind, and perhaps still
+more so by a faint hope that Jeronymo might still be living, and
+therefore would not appear.  A want of confidence in the thing itself,
+or a doubt of my ability, was the only obstacle which I had not to
+contend with.
+
+"Having obtained the consent of the family, the third day was fixed on
+for the operation.  I prepared them for the solemn transaction by
+mystical instruction, by fasting, solitude, and prayers, which I ordered
+to be continued till late in the night.  Much use was also made of a
+certain musical instrument, unknown till that time, and which, in such
+cases, has often been found very powerful.  The effect of these
+artifices was so much beyond my expectation that the enthusiasm to which
+on this occasion I was obliged to force myself was infinitely heightened
+by that of my audience.  The anxiously-expected hour at last arrived."
+
+"I guess," said the prince, "whom you are now going to introduce.  But
+go on, go on."
+
+"No, your highness.  The incantation succeeded according to my wishes."
+
+"How?  Where is the Armenian?"
+
+"Do not fear, your highness.  He will appear but too soon.  I omit the
+description of the farce itself, as it would lead me to too great a
+length.  Be it sufficient to say that it answered my utmost
+expectations.  The old marquis, the young countess, her mother, Lorenzo,
+and a few others of the family, were present.  You may imagine that
+during my long residence in this house I had not wanted opportunities of
+gathering information respecting everything that concerned the deceased.
+Several portraits of him enabled me to give the apparition the most
+striking likeness, and as I suffered the ghost to speak only by signs,
+the sound of his voice could excite no suspicion.
+
+"The departed Jeronymo appeared--in the dress of a Moorish slave, with a
+deep wound in his neck.  You observe that in this respect I was
+counteracting the general supposition that he had perished in the waves,
+for I had reason to hope that the unexpectedness of this circumstance
+would heighten their belief in the apparition itself, while, on the
+other hand, nothing appeared to me more dangerous than to keep too
+strictly to what was natural."
+
+"I think you judged rightly," said the prince.  "In whatever respects
+apparitions the most probable is the least acceptable.  If their
+communications are easily comprehended we undervalue the channel by
+which they are obtained.  Nay, we even suspect the reality of the
+miracle if the discoveries which it brings to light are such as might
+easily have been imagined.  Why should we disturb the repose of a spirit
+if it is to inform us of nothing more than the ordinary powers of the
+intellect are capable of teaching us?  But, on the other hand, if the
+intelligence which we receive is extraordinary and unexpected it
+confirms in some degree the miracle by which it is obtained; for who can
+doubt an operation to be supernatural when its effect could not be
+produced by natural means?  I interrupt you," added the prince.
+"Proceed in your narrative."
+
+"I asked the ghost whether there was anything in this world which he
+still considered as his own," continued the Sicilian, "and whether he
+had left anything behind that was particularly dear to him?  The ghost
+shook his head three times, and lifted up his hand towards heaven.
+Previous to his retiring he dropped a ring from his finger, which was
+found on the floor after he had disappeared.  Antonia took it, and,
+looking at it attentively, she knew it to be the ring she had given her
+intended husband on their betrothal."
+
+"The ring!" exclaimed the prince, surprised.  "How did you get it?"
+
+"Who? I?  It was not the true one, your highness; I got it.  It was only
+a counterfeit."
+
+"A counterfeit!" repeated the prince.  "But in order to counterfeit you
+required the true one.  How did you come by it?  Surely the deceased
+never went without it."
+
+"That is true," replied the Sicilian, with symptoms of confusion.  "But
+from a description which was given me of the genuine ring"
+
+"A description which was given you!  By whom?"
+
+"Long before that time.  It was a plain gold ring, and had, I believe,
+the name of the young countess engraved on it.  But you made me lose the
+connection."
+
+"What happened further?"  said the prince, with a very dissatisfied
+countenance.
+
+"The family felt convinced that Jeronymo was no more.  From that day
+forward they publicly announced his death, and went into mourning.  The
+circumstance of the ring left no doubt, even in the mind of Antonia, and
+added a considerable weight to the addresses of the chevalier.
+
+"In the meantime the violent shock which the young countess had received
+from the sight of the apparition brought on her a disorder so dangerous
+that the hopes of Lorenzo were very near being destroyed forever.  On
+her recovery she insisted upon taking the veil; and it was only at the
+most serious remonstrances of her confessor, in whom she placed implicit
+confidence, that she was induced to abandon her project.  At length the
+united solicitations of the family, and of the confessor, forced from
+her a reluctant consent.  The last day of mourning was fixed on for the
+day of marriage, and the old marquis determined to add to the solemnity
+of the occasion by making over all his estates to his lawful heir.
+
+"The day arrived, and Lorenzo received his trembling bride at the altar.
+In the evening a splendid banquet was prepared for the cheerful guests
+in a hall superbly illuminated, and the most lively and delightful music
+contributed to increase the general gladness.  The happy old marquis
+wished all the world to participate in his joy.  All the entrances of
+the palace were thrown open, and every one who sympathized in his
+happiness was joyfully welcomed.  In the midst of the throng--"
+
+The Sicilian paused.  A trembling expectation suspended our breath.
+
+"In-the midst of the throng," continued the prisoner, "appeared a
+Franciscan monk, to whom my attention was directed by the person who sat
+next to me at table.  He was standing motionless like a marble pillar.
+His shape was tall and thin; his face pale and ghastly; his eyes were
+fixed with a grave and mournful expression on the new-married couple.
+The joy which beamed on the face of every one present appeared not on
+his.  His countenance never once varied.  He seemed like a statue among
+the living.  Such an object, appearing amidst the general joy, struck me
+more forcibly from its contrast with everything around.  It left on my
+mind so indelible an impression that from it alone I have been enabled
+(which would otherwise have been impossible) to recollect the features
+of the Franciscan monk in the Russian officer; for, without doubt, you
+must have already conceived that the person I have described was no
+other than your Armenian.
+
+"I frequently attempted to withdraw my eyes from this terrible figure,
+but they wandered back involuntarily, and found his countenance
+unaltered.  I pointed him out to the person who sat nearest to me on the
+other side, and he did the same to the person next to him.  In a few
+minutes a general curiosity and astonishment pervaded the whole company.
+The conversation languished; a general silence succeeded; the monk did
+not heed it.  He continued motionless as before; his grave and mournful
+looks constantly fixed upon the new-married couple; his appearance
+struck every one with terror.  The young countess alone, who found the
+transcript of her own sorrow in the fact of the stranger, beheld with
+a melancholy satisfaction the only object that seemed to understand and
+sympathize in her sufferings.  The crowd insensibly diminished.  It was
+past midnight; the music became fainter and more languid; the tapers
+grew dim, and many of them went out.  The conversation, declining by
+degrees, lost itself at last in secret murmurs, and the faintly
+illuminated hall was nearly deserted.  The monk, in the meantime,
+continued motionless, with the same grave and mournful look still fixed
+on the new-married couple.  The company at length rose from the table;
+the guests dispersed; the family assembled in a separate group, and the
+monk, though uninvited, continued near them.  How it happened that no
+person spoke to him I cannot conceive.
+
+"The female friends now surrounded the trembling bride, who cast a
+supplicating and distressed look on the venerable stranger; he did not
+answer it.  The gentlemen assembled in the same manner around the
+bridegroom.  A solemn and anxious silence prevailed among them.  'That
+we should be so happy here together,' began at length the old marquis,
+who alone seemed not to behold the stranger, or at least seemed to
+behold him without dismay.  'That we should be so happy here together,
+and my son Jeronymo cannot be with us!'
+
+"'Have you invited him, and has he failed to come?' asked the monk.
+It was the first time he had spoken.  We looked at him in alarm.
+
+"'Alas! he is gone to a place from whence there is no return,' answered
+the old man.  'Reverend father I you misunderstood me.  My son Jeronymo
+is dead.'
+
+"'Perhaps he only fears to appear in this company,' replied the monk.
+'Who knows how your son Jeronymo may be situated?  Let him now hear the
+voice which he heard the last.  Desire your son Lorenzo to call him.'
+
+"'What means he?' whispered the company to one another.  Lorenzo changed
+color.  I will not deny that my own hair began to stand on end.
+
+"In the meantime the monk approached a sideboard; he took a glass of
+wine and carried to his lips.  'To the memory of our dear Jeronymo!'
+said he.  'Let every one who loved the deceased follow my example.'
+
+"'Be you who you may, reverend father!' exclaimed the old marquis, 'you
+have pronounced a name dear to us all, and you are heartily welcome
+here;' then turning to us, he offered us full glasses.  'Come, my
+friends!' continued he, 'let us not be surpassed by a stranger.  The
+memory of my son Jeronymo!
+
+"Never, I believe, was any toast less heartily received.
+
+"'There is one glass still unemptied," said the marquis.  'Why does my
+son Lorenzo refuse to drink this friendly toast?'
+
+"Lorenzo, trembling, received the glass from the hands of the monk;
+tremblingly he put it to his lips.  'To my dearly-beloved brother
+Jeronymo!' he stammered out, and replaced the glass with a shudder.
+
+"'That was my murderer's voice!' exclaimed a terrible figure, which
+appeared suddenly in the midst of us, covered with blood, and disfigured
+with horrible wounds.
+
+"Do not ask me the rest," added the Sicilian, with every symptom of
+horror in his countenance.  "I lost my senses the moment I looked at
+this apparition.  The same happened to every one present.  When we
+recovered the monk and the ghost had disappeared; Lorenzo was writhing
+in the agonies of death.  He was carried to bed in the most dreadful
+convulsions.  No person attended him but his confessor and the sorrowful
+old marquis, in whose presence he expired.  The marquis died a few weeks
+after him.  Lorenzo's secret is locked in the bosom of the priest who
+received his last confession; no person ever learnt what it was.
+
+"Soon after this event a well was cleaned in the farmyard of the
+marquis' villa.  It had been disused for many years, and was almost
+closed up by shrubs and old trees.  On digging among the rubbish a human
+skeleton was found.  The house where this happened is now no more; the
+family del M-----nte is extinct, and Antonia's tomb may be seen in a
+convent not far from Salerno.
+
+"You see," continued the Sicilian, seeing us all stand silent and
+thoughtful, "you see how my acquaintance with this Russian officer,
+Armenian, or Franciscan friar originated.  Judge now whether I had not
+good cause to tremble at the sight of a being who has twice placed
+himself in my way in a manner so terrible."
+
+"I beg you will answer me one question more," said the prince, rising
+from his seat.  "Have you been always sincere in your account of
+everything relating to the chevalier?"
+
+"To the best of my knowledge I have," replied the Sicilian.
+
+"You really believed him to be an honest man?"
+
+"I did; by heaven!  I did," answered he again.
+
+"Even at the tine he gave you the ring?"
+
+"How!  He gave me no ring.  I did not say that he gave me the ring."
+
+"Very well!"  said the prince, pulling the bell, and preparing to
+depart.  "And you believe" (going back to the prisoner) "that the ghost
+of the Marquis de Lanoy, which the Russian officer introduced after your
+apparition, was a true and real ghost?"
+
+"I cannot think otherwise."
+
+"Let us go!" said the prince, addressing himself to us.  The gaoler came
+in.  "We have done," said the prince to him.  "You, sir," turning to the
+prisoner, "you shall hear further from me."
+
+"I am tempted to ask your highness the last question you proposed to the
+sorcerer," said I to the prince, when we were alone.  "Do you believe
+the second ghost to have been a real and true one?"
+
+"I believe it!  No, not now, most assuredly."
+
+"Not now?  Then you did once believe it?"
+
+"I confess I was tempted for a moment to believe it something more than
+the contrivance of a juggler."
+
+"And I could wish to see the man who under similar circumstances would
+not have had the same impression. But what reasons have you for
+retracting your opinion?  What the prisoner has related of the Armenian
+ought to increase rather than diminish your belief in his super natural
+powers."
+
+"What this wretch has related of him," said the prince, interrupting me
+very gravely.  "I hope," continued he, "you have now no doubt but that
+we have had to do with a villain."
+
+"No; but must his evidence on that account--"
+
+"The evidence of a villain, even supposing I had no other reason for
+doubt, can have no weight against common sense and established truth.
+Does a man who has already deceived me several times, and whose trade it
+is to deceive, does he deserve to be heard in a cause in which the
+unsupported testimony of even the most sincere adherent to truth could
+not be received?  Ought we to believe a man who perhaps never once spoke
+truth for its own sake?  Does such a man deserve credit, when he appears
+as evidence against human reason and the eternal laws of nature?  Would
+it not be as absurd as to admit the accusation of a person notoriously
+infamous against unblemished and irreproachable innocence?"
+
+"But what motives could he have for giving so great a character to a man
+whom he has so many reasons to hate?"
+
+"I am not to conclude that he can have no motives for doing this because
+I am unable to comprehend them.  Do I know who has bribed him to deceive
+me?  I confess I cannot penetrate the whole contexture of his plan; but
+he has certainly done a material injury to the cause he advocates by
+proving himself to be at least an impostor, and perhaps something
+worse."
+
+"The circumstance of the ring, I allow, appears somewhat suspicions."
+
+"It is more than suspicious," answered the prince; "it is decisive.  He
+received this ring from the murderer, and at the moment he received it
+he must have been certain that it was from the murderer.  Who but the
+assassin, could have taken from the finger of the deceased a ring which
+he undoubtedly never took off himself?  Throughout the whole of his
+narration the Sicilian has labored to persuade us that while he was
+endeavoring to deceive Lorenzo, Lorenzo was in reality deceiving him.
+Would he have had recourse to this subterfuge if he had not been
+sensible how much he should lose in our estimation by confessing himself
+an accomplice with the assassin?  The whole story is visibly nothing but
+a series of impostures, invented merely to connect the few truths he has
+thought proper to give us.  Ought I then to hesitate in disbelieving the
+eleventh assertion of a person who has already deceived me ten times,
+rather than admit a violation of the fundamental laws of nature, which I
+have ever found in the most perfect harmony?"
+
+"I have nothing to reply to all this, but the apparition we saw
+yesterday is to me not the less incomprehensible."
+
+"It is also incomprehensible to me, although I have been tempted to
+believe that I have found a key to it."
+
+"How so?" asked I.
+
+"Do not you recollect that the second apparition, as soon as he entered,
+walked directly up to the altar, took the crucifix in his hand, and
+placed himself upon the carpet?"
+
+"It appeared so to me."
+
+"And this crucifix, according to the Sicilian's confession, was a
+conductor.  You see that the apparition hastened to make himself
+electrical.  Thus the blow which Lord Seymour struck him with a sword
+was of course ineffectual; the electric stroke disabled his arm."
+
+"This is true with respect to the sword.  But the pistol fired by the
+Sicilian, the ball of which we heard roll slowly upon the altar?"
+
+"Are you convinced that this was the same ball which was fired from the
+pistol?"  replied the prince.  "Not to mention that the puppet, or the
+man who represented the ghost, may have been so well accoutred as to be
+invulnerable by sword or bullet; but consider who it was that loaded the
+pistols."
+
+"True," said I, and a sudden light broke upon my mind; "the Russian.
+officer had loaded them, but it was in our presence.  How could he have
+deceived us?"
+
+"Why should he not have deceived us?  Did you suspect him sufficiently
+to observe him?  Did you examine the ball before it was put into the
+pistol?  May it not have been one of quicksilver or clay?  Did you take
+notice whether the Russian officer really put it into the barrel, or
+dropped it into his other hand?  But supposing that he actually loaded
+the pistols, what is to convince you that he really took the loaded ones
+into the room where the ghost appeared, and did not change them for
+another pair, which he might have done the more easily as nobody ever
+thought of noticing him, and we were besides occupied in undressing?
+And could not the figure, at the moment when we were prevented from
+seeing it by the smoke of the pistol, have dropped another ball, with
+which it had been beforehand provided, on the the altar?  Which of these
+conjectures is impossible?"
+
+"You are right.  But that striking resemblance to your deceased friend!
+I have often seen him with you, and I immediately recognized him in the
+apparition."
+
+"I did the same, and I must confess the illusion was complete.  But if
+the juggler from a few stolen glances at my snuff-box was able to give
+to his apparition a resemblance, what was to prevent the Russian
+officer, who had used the box during the whole time of supper, who had
+had liberty to observe the picture unnoticed, and to whom I had
+discovered in confidence whom it represented, what was to prevent him
+from doing the same?  Add to this what has been before observed by the
+Sicilian, that the prominent features of the marquis were so striking as
+to be easily imitated; what is there so inexplicable in this second
+ghost?"
+
+"But the words he uttered?  The information he gave you about your
+friend?"
+
+"What?"  said the prince, "Did not the Sicilian assure us, that from
+the little which he had learnt from me he had composed a similar story?
+Does not this prove that the invention was obvious and natural?
+Besides, the answers of the ghost, like those of an oracle, were so
+obscure that he was in no danger of being detected in a falsehood.  If
+the man who personated the ghost possessed sagacity and presence of
+mind, and knew ever sonlittle of the affair on which he was consulted,
+to what length might not he have carried the deception?"
+
+"Pray consider, your highness, how much preparation such a complicated
+artifice would have required from the Armenian; how much time it takes
+to paint a face with sufficient exactness; how much time would have been
+requisite to instruct the pretended ghost, so as to guard him against
+gross errors; what a degree of minute attention to regulate every minor
+attendant or adventitious circumstance, which must be answered in some
+manner, lest they should prove detrimental!  And remember that the
+Russian officer was absent but half an hour.  Was that short space
+of time sufficient to make even such arrangements as were most
+indispensable?  Surely, my prince, not even a dramatic writer, who has
+the least desire to preserve the three terrible unities of Aristotle,
+durst venture to load the interval between one act and another with such
+a variety of action, or to presume upon such a facility of belief in his
+audience."
+
+"What!  You think it absolutely impossible that every necessary
+preparation should have been made in the space of half an hour?"
+
+"Indeed, I look upon it as almost impossible."
+
+"I do not understand this expression.  Does it militate against the
+physical laws of time and space, or of matter and motion, that a man so
+ingenious and so expert as this Armenian must undoubtedly be, assisted
+by agents whose dexterity and acuteness are probably not inferior to his
+own; favored by the time of night, and watched by no one, provided with
+such means and instruments as a man of this profession is never without
+--is it impossible that such a man, favored by such circumstances,
+should be able to effect so much in so short a time?  Is it ridiculous
+or absurd to suppose, that by a very small number of words or signs he
+can convey to his assistants very extensive commissions, and direct very
+complex operations?  Nothing ought to be admitted that is contrary to
+the established laws of nature, unless it is something with which these
+laws are absolutely incompatible.  Would you rather give credit to a
+miracle than admit an improbability?  Would you solve a difficulty
+rather by overturning the powers of nature than by believing an artful
+and uncommon combination of them?"
+
+"Though the fact will not justify a conclusion such as you have
+condemned, you must, however, grant that it is far beyond our
+conception."
+
+"I am almost tempted to dispute even this," said the prince, with a
+quiet smile.  "What would you say, my dear count, if it should be
+proved, for instance, that the operations of the Armenian were prepared
+and carried on, not only during the half-hour that he was absent from
+us, not only in haste and incidentally, but during the whole evening and
+the whole night?  You recollect that the Sicilian employed nearly three
+hours in preparation."
+
+"The Sicilian?  Yes, my prince."
+
+"And how will you convince me that this juggler had not as much concern
+in the second apparition as in the first?"
+
+"How so, your highness?"
+
+"That he was not the principal assistant of the Armenian?  In a word,
+how will you convince me that they did not co-operate?"
+
+"It would be a difficult task to prove that," exclaimed I, with no
+little surprise.
+
+"Not so difficult, my dear count, as you imagine.  What!  Could it have
+happened by mere chance that these two men should form a design so
+extraordinary and so complicated upon the same person, at the same time,
+and in the same place?  Could mere chance have produced such an exact
+harmony between their operations, that one of them should play so
+exactly the game of the other?  Suppose for a moment that the Armenian
+intended to heighten the effect of his deception, by introducing it
+after a less refined one--that he created a Hector to make himself his
+Achilles.  Suppose that he has done all this to discover what degree of
+credulity he could expect to find in me, to examine the readiest way to
+gain my confidence, to familiarize himself with his subject by an
+attempt that might have miscarried without any prejudice to his plan; in
+a word, to tune the instrument on which he intended to play.  Suppose he
+did this with the view of exciting my suspicions on one subject in order
+to divert my attention from another more important to his design.
+Lastly, suppose he wishes to have some indirect methods of information,
+which he had himself occasion to practise, imputed to the sorcerer, in
+order to divert suspicion from the true channel."
+
+"How do you mean?"  said I.
+
+"Suppose, for instance, that he may have bribed some of my servants to
+give him secret intelligence, or, perhaps, even some papers which may
+serve his purpose.  I have missed one of my domestics.  What reason have
+I to think that the Armenian is not concerned in his leaving me?  Such a
+connection, however, if it existed, may be accidently discovered; a
+letter may be intercepted; a servant, who is in the secret, may betray
+his trust.  Now all the consequence of the Armenian is destroyed if I
+detect the source of his omniscience.  He therefore introduces this
+sorcerer, who must be supposed to have some design upon me.  He takes
+care to give me early notice of him and his intentions, so that whatever
+I may hereafter discover my suspicions must necessarily rest upon the
+Sicilian.  This is the puppet with which he amuses me, whilst he
+himself, unobserved and unsuspected, is entangling me in invisible
+snares."
+
+"We will allow this.  But is it consistent with the Armenian's plan that
+he himself should destroy the illusion which he has created, and
+disclose the mysteries of his science to the eyes of the uninitiated?"
+
+"What mysteries does he disclose?  None, surely, which he intends to
+practise on me.  He therefore loses nothing by the discovery.  But,
+on the other hand, what an advantage will he gain, if this pretended
+victory over juggling and deception should render me secure and
+unsuspecting; if he succeeds in diverting my attention from the right
+quarter, and in fixing my wavering suspicions on an object the most
+remote from the real one!  He could naturally expect that, sooner or
+later, either from my own doubts, or at the suggestion of another, I
+should be tempted to seek a key to his mysterious wonders, in the mere
+art of a juggler; how could he better provide against such an inquiry
+than by contrasting his prodigies with juggling tricks.  By confining
+the latter within artificial limits, and by delivering, as it were, into
+my hands a scale by which to appreciate them, he naturally exalts and
+perplexes my ideas of the former.  How many suspicions he precludes by
+this single contrivance!  How many methods of accounting for his
+miracles, which afterwards have occurred to me, does he refute
+beforehand!"
+
+"But in exposing such a finished deception he has acted very much
+against his own interest, both by quickening the penetration of those
+whom he meant to impose upon, and by staggering their belief in miracles
+in general.  Your highness' self is the best proof of the insufficiency
+of his plan, if indeed he ever had one."
+
+"Perhaps he has been mistaken in respect to myself," said the prince;
+"but his conclusions have nevertheless been well founded.  Could he
+foresee that I should exactly notice the very circumstance which
+threatens to become the key to the whole artifice?  Was it in his plan
+that the creature he employed should render himself thus vulnerable?
+Are we certain that the Sicilian has not far exceeded his commission?
+He has undoubtedly done so with respect to the ring, and yet it is
+chiefly this single circumstance which determined my distrust in him.
+How easily may a plan, whose contexture is most artful and refined, be
+spoiled in the execution by an awkward instrument.  It certainly was not
+the Armenian's intention that the sorcerer should trumpet his fame to us
+in the style of a mountebank, that he should endeavor to impose upon us
+such fables as are too gross to bear the least reflection.  For
+instance, with what countenance could this impostor affirm that the
+miraculous being he spoke of must renounce all commerce with mankind at
+twelve in the night?  Did we not see him among us at that very hour?"
+
+"That is true," cried I.  "He must have forgotten it."
+
+"It often happens, to people of this description, that they overact
+their parts; and, by aiming at too much, mar the effects which a well-
+managed deception is calculated to produce."
+
+"I cannot, however, yet prevail on myself to look upon the whole as a
+mere preconcerted scheme.  What! the Sicilian's terror, his convulsive
+fits, his swoon, the deplorable situation in which we saw him, and which
+was even such as to move our pity, were all these nothing more than a
+studied part?  I allow that a skilful performer may carry imitation to a
+very high pitch, but he certainly has no power over the organs of life."
+
+"As for that, my friend," replied the prince, "I have seen Richard III.
+performed by Garrick.  But were we at that moment sufficiently cool to
+be capable of observing dispassionately?  Could we judge of the emotion
+of the Sicilian when we were almost overcome by our own?  Besides, the
+decisive crisis even of a deception is so momentous to the deceiver
+himself that excessive anxiety may produce in him symptoms as violent
+as those which surprise excites in the deceived.  Add to this the
+unexpected entrance of the watch."
+
+"I am glad you remind me of that, prince.  Would the Armenian have
+ventured to discover such a dangerous scheme to the eye of justice; to
+expose the fidelity of his creature to so severe a test?  And for what
+purpose?"
+
+"Leave that matter to him; he is no doubt acquainted with the people he
+employs.  Do we know what secret crimes may have secured him the silence
+of this man?  You have been informed of the office he holds in Venice;
+what difficulty will he find in saving a man of whom he himself is the
+only accuser?"
+
+[This suggestion of the prince was but too well justified by the event.
+For, some days after, on inquiring after the prisoner, we were told that
+he had escaped, and had not since been heard of.]
+
+"You ask what could be his motives for delivering this man into the
+hands of justice?"  continued the prince.  "By what other method, except
+this violent one, could be have wrested from the Sicilian such an
+infamous and improbable confession, which, however, was so material to
+the success of his plan?  Who but a man whose case is desperate, and who
+has nothing to lose, would consent to give so humiliating an account of
+himself?  Under what other circumstances could we have believed such a
+confession?"
+
+"I grant all this, my prince.  That the two apparitions were mere
+contrivances of art; that the Sicilian has imposed upon us a tale which
+the Armenian his master, had previously taught him; that the efforts of
+both have been directed to the same end, and, from this mutual
+intelligence all the wonderful incidents which have astonished us in
+this adventure may be easily explained.  But the prophecy in the square
+of St. Mark, that first miracle, which, as it were, opened the door to
+all the rest, still remains unexplained; and of what use is the key to
+all his other wonders if we despair of resolving this single one?"
+
+"Rather invert the proposition, my dear count," answered the prince,
+"and say what do all these wonders prove if I can demonstrate that a
+single one among them is a juggling trick?  The prediction, I own, is
+totally beyond my conception.  If it stood alone; if the Armenian had
+closed the scene with it, instead of beginning it, I confess I do not
+know how far I might have been carried.  But in the base alloy with
+which it is mixed it is certainly rather suspicious.  Time may explain,
+or not explain it; but believe me, my friend!" added the prince, taking
+my hand, with a grave countenance,--"a man who can command supernatural
+powers has no occasion to employ the arts of a juggler; he despises
+them."
+
+"Thus," says Count O------, "ended a conversation which I have related
+word for word, because it shows the difficulties which were to be
+overcome before the prince could be effectually imposed upon; and I
+hope it may free his memory from the imputation of having blindly and
+inconsiderately thrown himself into a snare, which was spread for his
+destruction by the most unexampled and diabolical wickedness.  Not all,"
+continues Count O------, "who, at the moment I am writing, smile
+contemptuously at the prince's credulity, and, in the fancied
+superiority of their own yet untempted understanding, unconditionally
+condemn him; not all of these, I apprehend, would have stood his first
+trial so courageously.  If afterwards, notwithstanding this providential
+warning, we witness his downfall; if we see that the black design
+against which, at the very outset, he was thus cautioned, is finally
+successful, we shall be less inclined to ridicule his weakness than to
+be astonished at the infamous ingenuity of a plot which could seduce an
+understanding so fully prepared.  Considerations of worldly interest can
+have no influence upon my testimony; he, who alone would be thankful for
+it, is now no more.  His dreadful destiny is accomplished; his soul has
+long since been purified before the throne of truth, where mine will
+likewise have appeared before these passages meet the eyes of the world.
+Pardon the involuntary tears which now flow at the remembrance of my
+dearest friend.  But for the sake of justice I must write this.  His was
+a noble character, and would have adorned a throne which, seduced by the
+most atrocious artifice, he attempted to ascend by the commission of a
+crime.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+"Not long after these events," continues Count O-----, in his narrative,
+"I began to observe an extraordinary alteration in the disposition of
+the prince, which was partly the immediate consequence of the last event
+and partly produced by the concurrence of many adventitious
+circumstances.  Hitherto he had avoided every severe trial of his faith,
+and contented himself with purifying the rude and abstract notions of
+religion, in which he had been educated, by those more rational ideas
+upon this subject which forced themselves upon his attention, or
+comparing the many discordant opinions with each other, without
+inquiring into the foundations of his faith.  Religious subjects, he has
+many times confessed to me, always appeared to him like an enchanted
+castle, into which one does not set one's foot without horror, and that
+they act therefore much the wiser part who pass it in respectful
+silence, without exposing themselves to the danger of being bewildered
+in its labyrinths.  A servile and bigoted education was the source of
+this dread; this had impressed frightful images upon his tender brain,
+which, during the remainder of his life, he was never able wholly to
+obliterate.  Religious melancholy was an hereditary disorder in his
+family.  The education which he and his brothers had received was
+calculated to produce it; and the men to whose care they were entrusted,
+selected with this object, were also either enthusiasts or hypocrites.
+
+"To stifle all the sprightliness of the boy, by a gloomy restraint of
+his mental faculties, was the only method of securing to themselves the
+highest approbation of his royal parents.  The whole of our prince's
+childhood wore a dark and gloomy aspect; mirth was banished even from
+his amusements.  All his ideas of religion were accompanied by some
+frightful image; and the representations of terror and severity were
+those which first took hold of his lively imagination, and which the
+longest retained their empire over it.  His God was an object of terror,
+a being whose occupation is to chastise; and the adoration he paid him
+was either slavish fear, or a blind submission which stifled all his
+energies.  In all his youthful propensities, which a vigorous growth and
+a fine constitution naturally excited to break out with the greater
+violence, religion stood in his way; it opposed everything upon which
+his young heart was bent; he learned to consider it not as a friend,
+but as the scourge of his passions; so that a silent indignation was
+gradually kindled against it in his heart, which, together with a
+bigoted faith and a blind fear, produced an incongruous mixture of
+feelings, and an abhorrence of a ruler before whom he trembled.
+
+"It is no wonder, therefore, that he took the first opportunity of
+escaping from so galling a yoke--but he fled from it as a bond-slave
+who, escaping from his rigorous master, drags along with him a sense of
+his servitude, even in the midst of freedom; for, as he did not renounce
+the faith of his earlier years from a deliberate conviction, and did not
+wait till the maturity and improvement of his reasoning had weaned him
+from it, but escaped from it like a fugitive, upon whose person the
+rights of his master are still in force, so was he obliged, even after
+his widest separation, to return to it at last.  He had escaped with his
+chain, and for that reason must necessarily become the prey of any one
+who should discover it, and know how to make use of the discovery.  That
+such a one presented himself, the sequel of this history will prove;
+most likely the reader has already surmised it.
+
+"The confessions of the Sicilian left a deeper impression upon his mind
+than they ought, considering the circumstances; and the small victory
+which his reason had thence gained over this weak imposture, remarkably
+increased his reliance upon his own powers.  The facility with which he
+had been able to unravel this deception appeared to have surprised him.
+Truth and error were not yet so accurately distinguished from each other
+in his mind but that he often mistook the arguments which were in favor
+of the one for those in favor of the other.  Thence it arose that the
+same blow which destroyed his faith in wonders made the whole edifice of
+it totter.  In this instance, he fell into the same error as an
+inexperienced man who has been deceived in love or friendship, because
+he happened to make a bad choice, and who denies the existence of these
+sensations, because he takes the occasional exceptions for
+distinguishing features.  The unmasking of a deception made even truth
+suspicious to him, because he had unfortunately discovered truth by
+false reasoning.
+
+"This imaginary triumph pleased him in proportion to the magnitude of
+the oppression from which it seemed to deliver him.  From this instant
+there arose in his mind a scepticism which did not spare even the most
+sacred objects.
+
+"Many circumstances concurred to encourage, and still more to confirm,
+him in this turn of mind.  He now quitted the retirement in which he had
+hitherto lived, and gave way to a more dissipated mode of life.  His
+rank was discovered; attentions which he was obliged to return,
+etiquettes for which he was indebted to his rank, drew him imperceptibly
+within the vortex of the great world.  His rank, as well as his personal
+attractions, opened to him the circles of all the beaux esprits in
+Venice, and he soon found himself on terms of intimacy with the most
+enlightened persons in the republic, men of learning as well as
+politicians.  This obliged him to en large the monotonous and limited
+circle to which his understanding had hitherto been confined.  He began
+to perceive the poverty and feebleness of his ideas, and to feel the
+want of more elevated impressions.  The old-fashioned turn of his
+understanding, in spite of the many advantages with which it was
+accompanied, formed an unpleasing contrast with the current ideas of
+society; his ignorance of the commonest things frequently exposed him to
+ridicule, than which he dreaded nothing more.  The unfortunate prejudice
+which attached to his native country appeared to him a challenge to
+overcome it in his own person.  Besides this, there was a peculiarity in
+his character; he was offended with every attention that he thought was
+paid him on account of his rank rather than his personal qualities.  He
+felt this humiliation principally in the company of persons who shone by
+their abilities, and triumphed, as it were, over their birth by their
+merit.  To perceive himself distinguished as a prince, in such a
+society, was always a deep humiliation to him, because he unfortunately
+fancied himself excluded by his rank from all competition.  These
+circumstances convinced him of the necessity of cultivating his mind,
+in order to raise it to a level with the thinking part of the world,
+from which he had hitherto been so separated; and for that purpose he
+chose the most modern books, and applied himself to them with all the
+ardor with which he was accustomed to pursue every object to which he
+devoted himself.  But the unskilful hand that directed his choice always
+prompted him to select such as were little calculated to improve either
+his heart or his reason; besides that, he was influenced by a propensity
+which rendered everything irresistible which was incomprehensible.  He
+had neither attention nor memory for anything that was not of that
+character, and both his reason and his heart remained untouched, while
+he was filling the vacuities of his brain with confused ideas.  The
+dazzling style of some writers captivated his imagination, while the
+subtlety of others ensnared his reason.  Together, they easily took
+possession of a mind which became the prey of whatever was obtruded upon
+it with a certain degree of dogmatism.  A course of reading, which had
+been continued with ardor for more than a year, had scarcely enriched
+him with one benevolent idea, but had filled his head with doubts,
+which, as a natural consequence with such a character, had almost found
+an unfortunate road to his heart.  In a word, he had entered this
+labyrinth as a credulous enthusiast, had left it as a sceptic, and at
+length became a perfect free-thinker.
+
+"Among the circles into which he had been introduced there was a private
+society called the Bucentauro, which, under the mask of a noble and
+rational liberality of sentiment, encouraged the most unbridled
+licentiousness of manners and opinion.  As it enumerated many of the
+clergy among its members, and could even boast of some cardinals at its
+head, the prince was the more easily induced to join it.  He thought
+that certain dangerous truths, which reason discovers, could be nowhere
+better preserved than in the hands of such persons, whose rank compelled
+them to moderation, and who had the advantage of hearing and examining
+the other side of the question.  The prince did not recollect that
+licentiousness of sentiment and manners takes so much the stronger hold
+among persons of this rank, inasmuch as they for that reason feel one
+curb less; and this was the case with the Bucentauro, most of whose
+members, through an execrable philosophy, and manners worthy of such a
+guide, were not only a disgrace to their own rank, but even to human
+nature itself.  The society had its secret degrees; and I will believe,
+for the credit of the prince, that they never thought him worthy of
+admission into the inmost sanctuary.  Every one who entered this society
+was obliged, at least so long as he continued to be a member of it, to
+lay aside all distinctions arising from rank, nation, or religion, in
+short, every general mark or distinction whatever, and to submit himself
+to the condition of universal equality.  To be elected a member was
+indeed a difficult matter, as superiority of understanding alone paved
+the way to it.  The society boasted of the highest ton and the most
+cultivated taste, and such indeed was its fame throughout all Venice.
+This, as well as the appearance of equality which predominated in it,
+attracted the prince irresistibly.  Sensible conversations, set off by
+the most admirable humor, instructive amusements, and the flower of the
+learned and political world, which were all attracted to this point as
+to their common centre, concealed from him for a long time the danger
+of this connection.  As he by degrees discovered through its mask the
+spirit of the institution, as they grew tired of being any longer on
+their guard before him, to recede was dangerous, and false shame and
+anxiety for his safety obliged him to conceal the displeasure he felt.
+But he already began, merely from familiarity with men of this class and
+their sentiments, though they did not excite him to imitation, to lose
+the pure and charming simplicity of his character, and the delicacy of
+his moral feelings.  His understanding, supported by real knowledge,
+could not without foreign assistance solve the fallacious sophisms with
+which he had been here ensnared; and this fatal poison had already
+destroyed all, or nearly all, the basis on which his morality rested.
+He surrendered the natural and indispensable safeguards of his happiness
+for sophisms which deserted him at the critical moment, and he was
+consequently left to the operation of any specious argument which came
+in his way.
+
+"Perhaps the hand of a friend might yet have been in time to extricate
+him from this abyss; but, besides that I did not become acquainted with
+the real character of the Bucentauro till long after the evil had taken
+place, an urgent circumstance called me away from Venice just at the
+beginning of this period.  Lord Seymour, too, a valuable acquaintance of
+the prince, whose cool understanding was proof against every species of
+deception, and who would have infallibly been a secure support to him,
+left us at this time in order to return to his native country.  Those in
+whose hands I left the prince were indeed worthy men, but inexperienced,
+excessively narrow in their religious opinions, deficient in their
+perception of the evil, and wanting in credit with the prince.  They had
+nothing to oppose to his captious sophisms except the maxims of a blind
+and uninquiring faith, which either irritated him or excited his
+ridicule.  He saw through them too easily, and his superior reason soon
+silenced those weak defenders of the good cause, as will be clearly
+evinced from an instance which I shall introduce in the sequel.  Those
+who, subsequent to this, possessed themselves of his confidence, were
+much more interested in plunging him deeper into error.  When I returned
+to Venice in the following year how great a change had already taken
+place in everything!
+
+"The influence of this new philosophy soon showed itself in the prince's
+conduct.  The more openly he pursued pleasure, and acquired new friends,
+the more did he lose in the estimation of his old ones.  He pleased me
+less and less every day; we saw each other more seldom, and indeed he
+was seldom accessible.  He had launched out into the torrent of the
+great world.  His threshold was eternally thronged when he was at home.
+Amusements, banquets, and galas followed each other in rapid succession.
+He was the idol whom every one courted, the great attraction of every
+circle.  In proportion as he, in his secluded life, had fancied living
+in society to be difficult, did he to his astonishment find it easy.
+Everything met his wishes.  Whatever he uttered was admirable, and when
+he remained silent it was like committing a robbery upon the company.
+They understood the art of drawing his thoughts insensibly from his
+soul, and then with a little delicate management to surprise him with
+them.  This happiness, which accompanied him everywhere, and this
+universal success, raised him indeed too much in his own ideas, because
+it gave him too much confidence and too much reliance upon himself.
+
+"The heightened opinion which he thus acquired of his own worth made him
+credit the excessive and almost idolatrous adoration that was paid to
+his understanding; which but for this increased self-complacency, must
+have necessarily recalled him from his aberrations.  For the present,
+however, this universal voice was only a confirmation of what his
+complacent vanity whispered in his ear; a tribute which he felt entitled
+to by right.  He would have infallibly disengaged himself from this
+snare had they allowed him to take breath; had they granted him a moment
+of uninterrupted leisure to compare his real merit with the picture that
+was exhibited to him in this seducing mirror; but his existence was a
+continued state of intoxication, a whirl of excitement.  The higher he
+had been elevated the more difficulty had he to support himself in his
+elevation.  This incessant exertion slowly undermined him; rest had
+forsaken even his slumbers.  His weakness had been discovered, and the
+passion kindled in his breast turned to good account.
+
+"His worthy attendants soon found to their cost that their lord had
+become a wit.  That anxious sensibility, those glorious truths which his
+heart once embraced with the greatest enthusiasm, now began to be the
+objects of his ridicule.  He revenged himself on the great truths of
+religion for the oppression which he had so long suffered from
+misconception.  But, since from too true a voice his heart combated the
+intoxication of his head, there was more of acrimony than of humor in
+his jests.  His disposition began to alter, and caprice to exhibit
+itself.  The most beautiful ornament of his character, his modesty,
+vanished; parasites had poisoned his excellent heart.  That tender
+delicacy of address which frequently made his attendants forget that he
+was their lord, now gave place to a decisive and despotic tone, which
+made the more sensible impression, because it was not founded upon
+distinction of rank, for the want of which they could have consoled
+themselves, but upon an arrogant estimation of his own superior merit.
+When at home he was attacked by reflections that seldom made their
+appearance in the bustle of company; his own people scarcely ever saw
+him otherwise than gloomy, peevish, and unhappy, whilst elsewhere a
+forced vivacity made him the soul of every circle.  With the sincerest
+sorrow did we behold him treading this dangerous path, but in the vortex
+in which he was involved the feeble voice of friendship was no longer
+heard, and he was too much intoxicated to understand it.
+
+"Just at the beginning of this epoch an affair of the greatest
+consequence required my presence in the court of my sovereign, which
+I dared not postpone even for the dearest interests of friendship.
+An invisible hand, the agency of which I did not discover till long
+afterwards, had contrived to derange my affairs, and to spread reports
+concerning me which I was obliged to contradict by my presence.  The
+parting from the prince was painful to me, but did not affect him.  The
+ties which united us had been severed for some time, but his fate had
+awakened all my anxiety.  I, on that account, prevailed on Baron von
+F------ to inform me by letter of every event, which he has done in the
+most conscientious manner.  As I was for a considerable time no longer
+an eye-witness of these events, it will be allowable for me to introduce
+the Baron von F------  in my stead, and to fill up the gap in my
+narrative by the contents of his letters.  Notwithstanding that the
+representation of my friend F------ is not always what I should have
+given, I would not alter any of his expressions, so that the reader will
+be enabled to discover the truth with very little trouble."
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.
+
+BARON VON F----- TO COUNT VON O---------.
+
+May 17.
+
+I thank you, my most honored friend, for the permission you have given
+me to continue in your absence that confidential intercourse with you,
+which during your stay here formed my great pleasure.  You must be aware
+that there is no one here with whom I can venture to open my heart on
+certain private matters.  Whatever you may urge to the contrary, I
+detest the people here.  Since the prince has become one of them, and
+since we have lost your society, I feel solitary in the midst of this
+populous city.  Z------ takes it less to heart, and the fair ones of
+Venice manage to make him forget the mortifications he is compelled to
+share with me at home.  And why should he make himself unhappy?  He
+desires nothing more in the prince than a master, whom he could also
+find elsewhere.  But I!--you know how deep an interest I feel in our
+prince's weal and woe, and how much cause I have for doing so; I have
+now lived with him sixteen years, and seem to exist only for his sake.
+As a boy of nine years old I first entered his service, and since that
+time we have never been separated.  I have grown up under his eye--a
+long intercourse has insensibly attached me more and more to him--I have
+borne a part in all his adventures, great and small.  Until this last
+unhappy year I had been accustomed to look upon him in the light of a
+friend, or of an elder brother--I have basked in his smile as in the
+sunshine of a summer's day--no cloud hung over my happiness!--and all
+this must now go to ruin in this unlucky Venice!
+
+Since your departure several changes have taken place in our
+establishment.  The Prince of --d----- arrived here last week, with a
+numerous and brilliant retinue, and has caused a new and tumultuous life
+in our circle.  As he is so nearly related to our prince, and as they
+are moreover at present upon pretty good terms, they will be very little
+apart during his sojourn, which I hear is to last until after the feast
+of the Ascension.  A good beginning has already been made; for the last
+ten days our prince has hardly had time to breathe.  The Prince of
+--d---- has all along been living in a very expensive way, which was
+excusable in him, as he will soon take his departure; but the worst of
+the business is that he has inoculated our prince with his extravagance,
+because he could not well withdraw himself from his company, and, in the
+peculiar relation which exists between the two houses, thought it
+incumbent upon himself to assert the dignity of his own.  We shall,
+moreover, depart from Venice in a few weeks, which will relieve the
+prince from the necessity of continuing for any length of time this
+extraordinary expenditure.
+
+The Prince of --d-----, it is reported, is here on business of the
+Order, in which he imagines that he plays an important part.  That he
+has taken advantage of all the acquaintances of our prince you may
+readily imagine.  He has been introduced with distinguished honor into
+the society of the Bucentauro, as he is pleased to consider himself a
+wit, and a man of great genius, and allows himself to be styled in his
+correspondences, which he keeps up throughout all parts of the world,
+the "prince philosophique."  I do not know whether you have ever had the
+pleasure of meeting him.  He displays a promising exterior, piercing
+eyes, a countenance full of expression, much show of reading, much
+acquired naturalness (if I may be allowed the expression), joined to a
+princely condescension towards the human race, a large amount of
+confidence in himself, and an eloquence which talks down all opposition.
+Who could refuse to pay homage to such splendid qualities in a "Royal
+Highness?"  But to what advantage the quiet and sterling worth of our
+prince will appear, when contrasted with these dazzling accomplishments,
+the event must show.
+
+In the arrangement of our establishment, various and important changes
+have taken place.  We have rented a new and magnificent house opposite
+the new Procuracy, because the lodging at the Moor Hotel became too
+confined for the prince.  Our suite has been augmented by twelve
+persons, pages, Moors, guards, etc.  During your stay here you
+complained of unnecessary expense--you should see us now!
+
+Our internal arrangements remain the same as of old, except that the
+prince, no longer held in check by your presence, is, if possible, more
+reserved and distant towards us than ever; we see very little of him,
+except while dressing or undressing him.  Under the pretext that we
+speak the French language very badly, and the Italian not at all, he has
+found means to exclude us from most of his entertainments, which to me
+personally is not a very great grievance; but I believe I know the true
+reason of it--he is ashamed of us; and this hurts me, for we have not
+deserved it of him.
+
+As you wish to know all our minor affairs, I must tell you, that of all
+his attendants, the prince almost exclusively employs Biondello, whom he
+took into his service, as you will recollect, on the disappearance of
+his huntsman, and who, in his new mode of life, has become quite
+indispensable to him.  This man knows Venice thoroughly, and turns
+everything to some account.  It is as though he had a thousand eyes,
+and could set a thousand hands in motion at once.  This he accomplishes,
+as he says, by the help of the gondoliers.  To the prince he renders
+himself very useful by making him acquainted with all the strange faces
+that present themselves at his assemblies, and the private information
+he gives his highness has always proved to be correct.  Besides this,
+he speaks and writes both Italian and French excellently, and has in
+consequence already risen to be the prince's secretary.  I must,
+however, relate to you an instance of fidelity in him which is rarely
+found among people of his station.  The other day a merchant of good
+standing from Rimini requested an audience of the prince.  The object
+of his visit was an extraordinary complaint concerning Biondello.  The
+procurator, his former master, who must have been rather an odd fellow,
+had lived in irreconcilable enmity with his relations; this enmity he
+wished if possible to continue even after his death.  Biondello
+possessed his entire confidence, and was the repository of all his
+secrets; while on his deathbed he obliged him to swear that he would
+keep them inviolably, and would never disclose them for the benefit of
+his relations; a handsome legacy was to be the reward of his silence.
+When the deceased procurator's will was opened and his papers inspected,
+many blanks and irregularities were found to which Biondello alone could
+furnish a key.  He persisted in denying that he knew anything about it,
+gave up his very handsome legacy to the heirs, and kept his secrets to
+himself.  Large offers were made to him by the relations, but all in
+vain; at length, in order to escape from their importunities and their
+threats of legally prosecuting him he entered the service of the prince.
+The merchant, who was the chief heir, now applied to the prince, and
+made larger offers than, before if Biondello would alter his
+determination.  But even the persuasions of the prince were fruitless.
+He admitted that secrets of consequence had really been confided to him;
+he did not deny that the deceased had perhaps carried his enmity towards
+his relations too far; but, added he, he was my dear master and
+benefactor, and died with a firm belief in my integrity.  I was the only
+friend he had left in the world, and will therefore never prove myself
+unworthy of his confidence.  At the same time he hinted that the avowals
+they wished him to make would not tend to the honor of the deceased.
+Was not that acting nobly and delicately?  You may easily imagine that
+the prince did not renew his endeavors to shake so praiseworthy a
+determination.  The extraordinary fidelity which he has shown towards
+his deceased master has procured him the unlimited confidence of his
+present one!
+
+Farewell, my dear friend.  How I sigh for the quiet life we led when
+first you came amongst us, for the stillness of which your society so
+agreeably indemnified us.  I fear my happy days in Venice are over, and
+shall be glad if the same remark does not also apply to the prince.  The
+element in which he now lives is not calculated to render him
+permanently happy, or my sixteen years' experience has deceived me.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.
+
+BARON VON F----  TO COUNT VON O------
+June 4.
+
+I should never have thought that our stay at Venice would have been
+productive of any good consequences.  It has been the means of saving a
+man's life, and I am reconciled to it.
+
+Some few evenings ago the prince was being carried home late at night
+from the Bucentauro; two domestics, of whom Biondello was one,
+accompanied him.  By some accident it happened that the sedan, which had
+been hired in haste, broke down, and the prince was obliged to proceed
+the remainder of the way-on foot.  Biondello walked in front; their
+course lay through several dark, retired streets, and, as daybreak was
+at hand, the lamps were either burning dimly or had gone out altogether.
+They had proceeded about a quarter of an hour when Biondello discovered
+that he had lost his way.  The similarity of the bridges had deceived
+him, and, instead of crossing that of St. Mark, they found themselves in
+Sestiere di Castello.  It was in a by-street, and not a soul was
+stirring; they were obliged to turn back in order to gain a main street
+by which to set themselves right.  They had proceeded but a few paces
+when they heard cries of "murder" in a neighboring street.  With his
+usual determined courage, the prince, unarmed as he was, snatched a
+stick from one of his attendants, and rushed forward in the direction
+whence the sound came.  Three ruffianly-looking fellows were just about
+to assassinate a man, who with his companion was feebly defending
+himself; the prince appeared just in time to arrest the fatal blow.  The
+voices of the prince and his followers alarmed the murderers, who did
+not expect any interruption in so lonely a place; after inflicting a few
+slight wounds with their daggers, they abandoned their victim and took
+to their heels.  Exhausted with the unequal combat, the wounded man sunk
+half fainting into the arms of the prince; his companion informed my
+master that the man whose life be had saved was the Marquis Civitella,
+a nephew of the Cardinal A------.  As the marquis' wounds bled freely,
+Biondello acted as surgeon to the best of his ability, and the prince
+took care to have him conveyed to the palace of his uncle, which was
+near at hand, and whither he himself accompanied him.  This done, he
+left the house without revealing his name.
+
+This, however, was discovered by a servant who had recognized Biondello.
+Already on the following morning the cardinal, an old acquaintance from
+the Bucentauro, waited upon the prince.  The interview lasted an hour;
+the cardinal was much moved; tears stood in his eyes when they parted;
+the prince, too, was affected.  The same evening a visit was paid to the
+sick man, of whose case the surgeon gives a very favorable report; the
+mantle in which he was wrapped had rendered the thrusts unsteady, and
+weakened their force.  Since this event not a day has passed without the
+prince's paying a visit at the cardinal's, or receiving one from him,
+and a close intimacy has begun to exist between him and the cardinal's
+family.
+
+The cardinal is a venerable man of sixty, with a majestic aspect, but
+full of gayety and good health.  He is said to be the richest prelate
+throughout all the dominions of the republic.  He is reported to manage
+his immense fortune in a very liberal manner, and, although prudently
+economical, to despise none of the joys of this life.  This nephew, who
+is his sole heir, is not always on the best of terms with his uncle.
+For, although the cardinal is anything but an enemy to youthful
+pleasures, the conduct of the nephew must exhaust the utmost tolerance.
+His loose principles and dissipated manner of living, aided unhappily by
+all the attractions which can make vice tempting and excite sensuality,
+have rendered him the terror of all fathers and the bane of all
+husbands; this last attack also was said to have been caused by an
+intrigue he had begun with the wife of the ambassador, without speaking
+of other serious broils from which the power and the money of the
+cardinal could scarcely extricate him.  But for this the cardinal would
+be the happiest man in Italy, for he possesses everything that can make
+life agreeable; but by this one domestic misfortune all the gifts of
+fortune are annulled, and the enjoyment of his wealth is embittered to
+the cardinal by the continual fear of finding nobody to inherit it.
+
+The whole of this information I have obtained from Biondello.  The
+prince has found in this man a real treasure.  Every day he becomes more
+indispensable, and we are continually discovering in him some new
+talent.  Some days ago the prince felt feverish and could not sleep; the
+night-lamp was extinguished, and all his ringing failed to arouse the
+valet-de-chambre, who had gone to sleep out of the house with an opera-
+dancer.  At length the prince determined to rise himself, and to rouse
+one of his people.  He had not proceeded far when a strain of delicious
+melody met his ear.  Like one enchanted, he followed the sound, and
+found Biondello in his room playing upon the flute, with his fellow-
+servants assembled around him.  The prince could hardly believe his
+senses, and commanded him to proceed.  With a surprising degree of
+facility he began to vary a touching adagio air with some fine extempore
+variations, which he executed with all the taste of a virtuoso.  The
+prince, who, as you know, is a judge of music, says that he might play
+with confidence in the finest choir in Italy.
+
+"I must dismiss this man," said he to me next morning, "for I am unable
+to reward him according to his merits."  Biondello, who had overheard
+these words, came forward, "If you dismiss me, gracious prince," said
+he, "you deprive me of my best reward."
+
+"You are born to something better than to serve," answered my master.
+"I must not stand in the way of your fortune."
+
+"Do not press upon me any better fortune, gracious sir, than that which
+I have chosen for myself."
+
+"To neglect talent like yours--No!  I can never permit it."
+
+"Then permit me, gracious sir, sometimes to exercise it in your
+presence."
+
+Preparations were immediately made for carrying this proposition into
+effect.  Biondello had a room assigned to him next the apartment of the
+prince, so that he can lull him to sleep with his strains, and wake him
+in the same manner.  The prince wished to double his salary, but
+Biondello declined, requesting that this intended boon should be
+retained in his master's hands as a capital of which he might some day
+wish to avail himself.  The prince expects that he will soon come to ask
+a favor at his hands; and whatever it may be it is granted beforehand.
+Farewell, dearest friend.  I am waiting with impatience for tidings from
+K-----n.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.
+
+BARON VON F------  TO COUNT VON O-------
+June 4.
+
+The Marquis of Civitella, who is now entirely recovered from his wounds,
+was last week introduced to the prince by his uncle, the cardinal, and
+since then he has followed him like his shadow.  Biondello cannot have
+told me the truth respecting this marquis, or at any rate his account
+must be greatly exaggerated.  His mien is highly engaging, and his
+manners irresistibly winning.
+
+It is impossible to be out of humor with him; the first sight of him
+has disarmed me.  Imagine a man of the most enchanting figure, with
+corresponding grace and dignity, a countenance full of thought and
+genius, an expression frank and inviting; a persuasive tone of voice,
+the most flowing eloquence, and a glow of youthful beauty, joined to all
+the advantages of a most liberal education.  He has none of that
+contemptuous pride, none of that solemn starchness, which we disliked so
+much in all the other nobles.  His whole being is redolent of youthful
+joyousness, benevolence, and warmth of feeling.  His excesses must have
+been much exaggerated; I never saw a more perfect picture of health.  If
+he is really so wholly abandoned as Biondello represents him he is a
+syren whom none can resist.
+
+Towards me he behaved with much frankness.  He confessed with the most
+pleasing sincerity that he was by no means on the best of terms with his
+uncle, the cardinal, and that it was his own fault.  But he was
+seriously resolved to amend his life, and the merit would be entirely
+the prince's.  At the same time he hoped through his instrumentality to
+be reconciled to his uncle, as the prince's influence with the cardinal
+was unbounded.  The only thing he had wanted till now was a friend and a
+guide, and he trusted he should find both in the person of the prince.
+
+The prince has now assumed the authority of a preceptor towards him, and
+treats him with all the watchfulness fulness and strictness of a Mentor.
+But this intimacy also gives the marquis a certain degree of influence,
+of which he well knows how to avail himself.  He hardly stirs from his
+side; he is present at all parties where the prince is one of the
+guests; for the Bucentauro alone he is fortunately as yet too young.
+Wherever be appears in public with the prince he manages to draw him
+away from the rest of the company by the pleasing manner in which he
+engages him in conversation and arrests his attention.  Nobody, they
+say, has yet been able to reclaim him, and the prince will deserve to
+be immortalized in an epic should he accomplish such an Herculean task.
+I am much afraid, however, that the tables may be turned, and the guide
+be led away by the pupil, of which, in fact, there seems to be every
+prospect.
+
+The Prince of ---d------ has taken his departure, much to the
+satisfaction of us all, my master not excepted.  What I predicted, my
+dear O-----, has come to pass.  Two characters so widely opposed must
+inevitably clash together, and cannot maintain a good understanding for
+any length of time.  The Prince of ---d------ had not been long in
+Venice before a terrible schism took place in the intellectual world,
+which threatened to deprive our prince of one-half of his admirers.
+Wherever he went he was crossed by this rival, who possessed exactly
+the requisite amount of small cunning to avail himself of every little
+advantage he gained.  As he besides never scrupled to make use of any
+petty manoeuvres to increase his consequence, he in a short time drew
+all the weak-minded of the community on his side, and shone at the head
+of a company of parasites worthy of such a leader.
+
+     [The harsh judgment which Baron F----- (both here and in some
+     passages of his first letter) pronounces upon this talented prince
+     will be found exaggerated by every one who has the good fortune to
+     be acquainted with him, and must be attributed to the prejudiced
+     views of the young observer.--Note of the Count von O------.]
+
+The wiser course would certainly have been not to enter into competition
+at all with an adversary of this description, and a few months back this
+is the part which the prince would have taken.  But now he has launched
+too far into the stream easily to regain the shore.  These trifles have,
+perhaps by the circumstances in which he is placed, acquired a certain
+degree of importance in his eyes, and had he even despised them his
+pride would not have allowed him to retire at a moment when his yielding
+would have been looked upon less as a voluntary act than as a confession
+of inferiority.  Added to this, an unlucky revival of forgotten
+satirical speeches had taken place, and the spirit of rivalry which took
+possession of his followers had affected the prince himself.  In order,
+therefore, to maintain that position in society which public opinion had
+now assigned him, he deemed it advisable to seize every possible
+opportunity of display, and of increasing the number of his admirers;
+but this could only be effected by the most princely expenditure;
+he was therefore eternally giving feasts, entertainments, and expensive
+concerts, making costly presents, and playing high.  As this strange
+madness, moreover, had also infected the prince's retinue, who are
+generally much more punctilious in respect to what they deem "the honor
+of the family" than their masters, the prince was obliged to assist the
+zeal of his followers by his liberality.  Here, then, is a whole
+catalogue of ills, all irremediable consequences of a sufficiently
+excusable weakness to which the prince in an unguarded moment gave way.
+
+We have, it is true, got rid of our rival, but the harm he has done will
+not so soon be remedied.  The finances of the prince are exhausted; all
+that he had saved by the wise economy of years is spent; and he must
+hasten from Venice if he would escape plunging into debt, which till now
+he has most scrupulously avoided.  It is decisively settled that we
+leave as soon as fresh remittances arrive.
+
+I should not have minded all this splendor if the prince had but reaped
+the least real satisfaction from it.  But he was never less happy than
+at present.  He feels that he is not what he formerly was; he seeks to
+regain his self-respect; he is dissatisfied with himself, and launches
+into fresh dissipation in order to drown the recollection of the last.
+One new acquaintance follows another, and each involves him more deeply.
+I know not where this will end.  We must away--there is no other chance
+of safety--we must away from Venice.
+
+But, my dear friend, I have not yet received a single line from you.
+How am I to interpret this long and obstinate silence?
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.
+
+BARON VON F------  TO COUNT VON O------.
+June 12.
+
+I thank you, my dear friend, for the token of your remembrance which
+young B---hl brought me.  But what is it you say about letters I ought
+to have received?  I have received no letter from you; not a single one.
+What a circuitous route must they have taken.  In future, dear O------,
+when you honor me with an epistle despatch it via Trent, under cover to
+the prince, my master.
+
+We have at length been compelled, my dear friend, to resort to a measure
+which till now we had so happily avoided.  Our remittances have failed
+to arrive--failed, for the first time, in this pressing emergency, and
+we have been obliged to have recourse to a usurer, as the prince is
+willing to pay handsomely to keep the affair secret.  The worst of this
+disagreeable occurrence is, that it retards our departure.  On this
+affair the prince and I have had an explanation.  The whole transaction
+had been arranged by Biondello, and the son of Israel was there before I
+had any suspicion of the fact.  It grieved me to the heart to see the
+prince reduced to such an extremity, and revived all my recollections of
+the past, and fears for the future; and I suppose I may have looked
+rather sorrowful and gloomy when the usurer left the room.  The prince,
+whom the foregoing scene had left in not the happiest frame of mind, was
+pacing angrily up and down the room; the rouleaus of gold were still
+lying on the table; I stood at the window, counting the panes of glass
+in the procurator's house opposite.  There was a long pause.  At length
+the prince broke silence.  "F------!"  he began, "I cannot bear to see
+dismal faces about me."
+
+I remained silent.
+
+"Why do you not answer me?  Do I not perceive that your heart is almost
+bursting to vent some of its vexation?  I insist on your speaking,
+otherwise you will begin to fancy that you are keeping some terribly
+momentous secret."
+
+"If I am gloomy, gracious sir," replied I, "it is only because I do not
+see you cheerful."
+
+"I know," continued he, "that you have been dissatisfied with me for
+some time past--that you disapprove of every step I take--that--what
+does Count O------ say in his letters?"
+
+"Count O------  has not written to me."
+
+"Not written?  Why do you deny it?  You keep up a confidential
+correspondence together, you and the count; I am quite aware of that.
+Come, you may confess it, for I have no wish to pry into your secrets."
+
+"Count O------," replied I, "has not yet answered any of the three
+letters which I have written to him."
+
+"I have done wrong," continued he; "don't you think so?" (taking up one
+of the rouleaus) "I should not have done this?"
+
+"I see that it was necessary."
+
+"I ought not to have reduced myself to such a necessity?"
+
+I did not answer.
+
+"Oh, of course!  I ought never to have indulged my wishes, but have
+grown gray in the same dull manner in which I was brought up!  Because I
+once venture a step beyond the drear monotony of my past life, and look
+around me to see whether there be not some new source of enjoyment in
+store for me--because I--"
+
+"If it was but a trial, gracious sir, I have no more to say; for the
+experience you have gained would not be dearly bought at three times the
+price it has cost.  It grieves me, I confess, to think that the opinion
+of the world should be concerned in determining the question--how are
+you to choose your own happiness."
+
+"It is well for you that you can afford to despise the world's opinion,"
+replied he, "I am its creature, I must be its slave.  What are we
+princes but opinion?  With us it is everything.  Public opinion is our
+nurse and preceptor in infancy, our oracle and idol in riper years, our
+staff in old age.  Take from us what we derive from the opinion of the
+world, and the poorest of the humblest class is in a better position
+than we, for his fate has taught him a lesson of philosophy which
+enables him to bear it.  But a prince who laughs at the world's opinion
+destroys himself, like the priest who denies the existence of a God."
+
+"And yet, gracious prince--"
+
+"I see what you would say; I can break through the circle which my birth
+has drawn around me.  But can I also eradicate from my memory all the
+false impressions which education and early habit have implanted, and
+which a hundred thousand fools have been continually laboring to impress
+more and more firmly?  Everybody naturally wishes to be what he is in
+perfection; in short, the whole aim of a prince's existence is to appear
+happy.  If we cannot be happy after your fashion, is that any reason why
+we should discard all other means of happiness, and not be happy at all?
+If we cannot drink of joy pure from the fountain-head, can there be any
+reason why we should not beguile ourselves with artificial pleasure--
+nay, even be content to accept a sorry substitute from the very hand
+that robs us of the higher boon?"
+
+"You were wont to look for this compensation in your own heart."
+
+"But if I no longer find it there?  Oh, how came we to fall on this
+subject?  Why did you revive these recollections in me?  I had recourse
+to this tumult of the senses in order to stifle an inward voice which
+embitters my whole life; in order to lull to rest this inquisitive
+reason, which, like a sharp sickle, moves to and fro in my brain, at
+each new research lopping off another branch of my happiness."
+
+"My dearest prince"--He had risen, and was pacing up and down the room
+in unusual agitation.
+
+     [I have endeavored, dearest O------, to relate to you this
+     remarkable conversation exactly as it occurred; but this I found
+     impossible, although I sat down to write it the evening of the day
+     it took place.  In order to assist my memory I was obliged to
+     transpose the observation of the prince, and thus this compound of
+     a conversation and a philosophical lecture, which is in some
+     respects better and in others worse than the source from which I
+     took it, arose; but I assure you that I have rather omitted some of
+     the prince's words than ascribed to him any of my own; all that is
+     mine is the arrangement, and a few observations, whose ownership
+     you will easily recognize by their stupidity.--Note of the Baron
+     von F------]
+
+"When everything gives way before me and behind me; when the past lies
+in the distance in dreary monotony, like a city of the dead; when the
+future offers me naught; when I see my whole being enclosed within the
+narrow circle of the present, who can blame me if I clasp this niggardly
+present of time in my arms with fiery eagerness, as though it were a
+friend whom I was embracing for the last time?  Oh, I have learnt to
+value the present moment.  The present moment is our mother; let us love
+it as such."
+
+"Gracious sir, you were wont to believe in a more lasting good."
+
+"Do but make the enchantment last and fervently will I embrace it.  But
+what pleasure can it give to me to render beings happy who to-morrow
+will have passed away like myself?  Is not everything passing away
+around me?  Each one bustles and pushes his neighbor aside hastily to
+catch a few drops from the fountain of life, and then departs thirsting.
+At this very moment, while I am rejoicing in lily strength, some being
+is waiting to start into life at my dissolution.  Show me one being who
+will endure, and I will become a virtuous man."
+
+"But what, then, has become of those benevolent sentiments which used to
+be the joy and the rule of your life?  To sow seeds for the future, to
+assist in carrying out the designs of a high and eternal Providence"--
+
+"Future!  Eternal Providence!  If you take away from man all that he
+derives from his own heart, all that he associates with the idea of a
+godhead, and all that belongs to the law of nature, what, then, do you
+leave him?
+
+"What has already happened to me, and what may still follow, I look upon
+as two black, impenetrable curtains hanging over the two extremities of
+human life, and which no mortal has ever yet drawn aside.  Many hundred
+generations have stood before the second of these curtains, casting the
+light of their torches upon its folds, speculating and guessing as to
+what it may conceal.  Many have beheld themselves, in the magnified
+image of their passions, reflected upon the curtain which hides futurity
+from their gaze, and have turned away shuddering from their own shadows.
+Poets, philosophers, and statesmen have painted their fancies on the
+curtain in brighter or more sombre colors, according as their own
+prospects were bright or gloomy.  Many a juggler has also taken
+advantage of the universal curiosity, and by well-managed deceptions
+led astray the excited imagination.  A deep silence reigns behind this
+curtain; no one who passes beyond it answers any questions; all the
+reply is an empty echo, like the sound yielded by a vault.
+
+"Sooner or later all must go behind this curtain, and they approach it
+with fear and trembling, in doubt who may be waiting there behind to
+receive them; /quid sit id, quod tanturn morituri vident/.  There have
+been infidels who asserted that this curtain only deluded mankind, and
+that we saw nothing behind it, because there was nothing there to see;
+but, to convince them, they were quickly sent behind it themselves."
+
+"It was indeed a rash conclusion," said I, "if they had no better ground
+for it than that they saw nothing themselves."
+
+"You see, my dear friend, I am modest enough not to wish to look behind
+this curtain, and the wisest course will doubtless be to abstain from
+all curiosity.  But while I draw this impassable circle around me, and
+confine myself within the bounds of present existence, this small point
+of time, which I was in danger of neglecting in useless researches,
+becomes the more important to me.  What you call the chief end and aim
+of my existence concerns me no longer.  I cannot escape my destiny; I
+cannot promote its consummation; but I know, and firmly believe, that I
+am here to accomplish some end, and that I do accomplish it.  But the
+means which nature has chosen to fulfil my destiny are so much the more
+sacred to me; to me it is everything; my morality, my happiness.  All
+the rest I shall never learn.  I am like a messenger who carries a
+sealed letter to its place of destination.  What the letter contains is
+indifferent to him; his business is only to earn his fee for carrying
+it."
+
+"Alas!" said I, "how poor a thing you would leave me!"
+
+"But in what a labyrinth have we lost ourselves!" exclaimed the prince,
+looking with a smile at the table on which the rouleaus lay.  "After all
+perhaps not far from the mark," continued he; "you will now no doubt
+understand my reasons for this new mode of life.  I could not so
+suddenly tear myself away from my fancied wealth, could not so readily
+separate the props of my morality and happiness from the pleasing dream
+with which everything within me was so closely bound up.  I longed for
+the frivolity which seems to render the existence of most of those about
+me endurable to themselves.  Everything which precluded reflection was
+welcome to me.  Shall I confess it to you?  I wished to lower myself, in
+order to destroy this source of my griefs, by deadening the power of
+reflection."
+
+Here we were interrupted by a visit.  In my next I shall have to
+communicate to you a piece of news, which, from the tenor of a
+conversation like the one of to-day, you would scarcely have
+anticipated.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.
+
+BARON VON F------  TO COUNT VON O------.
+
+As the time of our departure from Venice is now approaching with rapid
+steps, this week was to be devoted to seeing everything worthy of notice
+in pictures and public edifices; a task which, when one intends making a
+long stay in a place, is always delayed till the last moment.
+
+The "Marriage at Cana," by Paul Veronese, which is to be seen in a
+Benedictine convent in the Island of St. George, was in particular
+mentioned to us in high terms.  Do not expect me to give you a
+description of this extraordinary work of art, which, on the whole,
+made a very surprising, but not equally pleasing, impression on me.
+We should have required as many hours as we had minutes to study a
+composition of one hundred and twenty figures, upon a ground thirty feet
+broad.  What human eye is capable of grasping so complicated a whole, or
+at once to enjoy all the beauty which the artist has everywhere
+lavished, upon it!  It is, however, to be lamented, that a work of so
+much merit, which if exhibited in some public place, would command the
+admiration of every one, should be destined merely to ornament the
+refectory of a few monks.  The church of the monastery is no less worthy
+of admiration, being one of the finest in the whole city.  Towards
+evening we went in a gondola to the Guidecca, in order to spend the
+pleasant hours of evening in its charming garden.  Our party, which was
+not very numerous, soon dispersed in various directions; and Civitella,
+who had been waiting all day for an opportunity of speaking to me
+privately, took me aside into an arbor.
+
+"You are a friend to the prince," he began, "from whom he is accustomed
+to keep no secrets, as I know from very good authority.  As I entered
+his hotel to-day I met a man coming out whose occupation is well known
+to me, and when I entered the room the prince's brow was clouded."
+I wished to interrupt him,--"You cannot deny it," continued he; "I knew
+the man, I looked at him well.  And is it possible that the prince
+should have a friend in Venice--a friend who owes his life to him, and
+yet be reduced on an emergency to make use of such creatures?"
+
+"Tell me frankly, Baron!  Is the prince in difficulties?  It is in vain
+you strive to conceal it from me.  What! you refuse to tell me!  I can
+easily learn from one who would sell any secret for gold."
+
+"My good Marquis!"
+
+"Pardon me!  I must appear intrusive in order not to be ungrateful.
+To the prince I am indebted for life, and what is still more, for a
+reasonable use of it.  Shall I stand idly by and see him take steps
+which, besides being inconvenient to him, are beneath his dignity?
+Shall I feel it in my power to assist him, and hesitate for a moment to
+step forward?"
+
+"The prince," replied I, "is not in difficulties.  Some remittances
+which we expected via Trent have not yet arrived, most likely either by
+accident, or because not feeling certain whether he had not already left
+Venice, they waited for a communication from him.  This has now been
+done, and until their arrival"
+
+Civitella shook his head.  "Do not mistake my motive," said he; "in this
+there can be no question as to diminishing the extent of my obligations
+towards the prince, which all my uncle's wealth would be insufficient to
+cancel.  My object is simply to spare him a few unpleasant moments.  My
+uncle possesses a large fortune which I can command as freely as though
+it were my own.  A fortunate circumstance occurs, which enables me to
+avail myself of the only means by which I can possibly be of the
+slightest use to your master.  I know," continued he, "how much delicacy
+the prince possesses, but the feeling is mutual, and it would be noble
+on his part to afford me this slight gratification, were it only to make
+me appear to feel less heavily the load of obligation under which I
+labor."
+
+He continued to urge his request, until I had pledged my word to assist
+him to the utmost of my ability.  I knew the prince's character, and had
+but small hopes of success.  The marquis promised to agree to any
+conditions the prince might impose, but added, that it would deeply
+wound him to be regarded in the light of a stranger.
+
+In the heat of our conversation we had strayed far away from the rest of
+the company, and were returning, when Z-------- came to meet us.
+
+"I am in search of the prince," he cried; "is he not with you?"
+
+"We were just going to him," was our reply.  "We thought to find him
+with the rest of the party."
+
+"The company is all together, but he is nowhere to be found.  I cannot
+imagine how we lost sight of him."
+
+It now occurred to Civitella that he might have gone to look at the
+adjoining church, which had a short time before attracted his attention.
+We immediately went to look for him there.  As we approached, we found
+Biondello waiting in the porch.  On coining nearer, we saw the prince
+emerge hastily from a side door; his countenance was flushed, and he
+looked anxiously round for Biondello, whom he called.  He seemed to be
+giving him very particular instructions for the execution of some
+commission, while his eyes continued constantly fixed on the church
+door, which had remained open.  Biondello hastened into the church.  The
+prince, without perceiving us, passed through the crowd, and went back
+to his party, which he reached before us.
+
+We resolved to sup in an open pavilion of the garden, where the marquis
+had, without our knowledge, arranged a little concert, which was quite
+first-rate.  There was a young singer in particular, whose delicious
+voice and charming figure excited general admiration.  Nothing, however,
+seemed to make an impression on the prince; he spoke little, and gave
+confused answers to our questions; his eyes were anxiously fixed in the
+direction whence he expected Biondello; and he seemed much agitated.
+Civitella asked him what he thought of the church; he was unable to give
+any description of it.  Some beautiful pictures, which rendered the
+church remarkable, were spoken of; the prince had not noticed them.  We
+perceived that our questions annoyed him, and therefore discontinued
+them.  Hour after hour rolled on and still Biondello returned not.  The
+prince could no longer conceal his impatience; he rose from the table,
+and paced alone, with rapid strides, up and down a retired walk.  Nobody
+could imagine what had happened to him.  I did not venture to ask him
+the reason of so remarkable a change in his demeanor; I have for some
+time past resigned my former place in his confidence.  It was,
+therefore, with the utmost impatience that I awaited the return of
+Biondello to explain this riddle to me.
+
+It was past ten o'clock when he made his appearance.  The tidings he
+brought did not make the prince more communicative.  He returned in an
+ill-humor to the company, the gondola was ordered, and we returned.
+home.
+
+During the remainder of that evening I could find no opportunity of
+speaking to Biondello, and was, therefore, obliged to retire to my
+pillow with my curiosity unsatisfied.  The prince had dismissed us
+early, but a thousand reflections flitted across my brain, and kept me
+awake.  For a long time I could hear him pacing up and down his room; at
+length sleep overcame me.  Late at midnight I was awakened by a voice,
+and I felt a hand passed across my face; I opened my eyes, and saw the
+prince standing at my bedside, with a lamp in his hand.  He told me he
+was unable to sleep, and begged me to keep him company through the
+night.  I was going to dress myself, but he told me to stay where I was,
+and seated himself at my bedside.
+
+"Something has happened to me to-day," he began, "the impression of
+which will never be effaced from my soul.  I left you, as you know, to
+see the church, respecting which Civitella had raised my curiosity, and
+which had already attracted my attention.  As neither you nor he were at
+hand, I walked the short distance alone, and ordered Biondello to wait
+for me at the door.  The church was quite empty; a dim and solemn light
+surrounded me as I entered from the blazing sultry day without.  I stood
+alone in the spacious building, throughout which there reigned the
+stillness of the grave.  I placed myself in the centre of the church,
+and gave myself up to the feelings which the sight was calculated to
+produce; by degrees the grand proportions of this majestic building
+expanded to my gaze, and I stood wrapt in deep and pleasing
+contemplation.  Above me the evening bell was tolling; its tones died
+softly away in the aisles, and found an echo in my heart.  Some altar-
+pieces at a distance attracted my attention.  I approached to look at
+them; unconsciously I had wandered through one side of the church, and
+was now standing at the opposite end.  Here a few steps, raised round a
+pillar, led into a little chapel, containing several small altars, with
+statues of saints in the niches above them.  On entering the chapel on
+the right I heard a whispering, as though some one near was speaking in
+a low voice.  I turned towards the spot whence the sound proceeded, and
+saw before me a female form.  No!  I cannot describe to you the beauty
+of this form.  My first feeling was one of awe, which, however, soon
+gave place to ravishing surprise."
+
+"But this figure, your highness?  Are you certain that it was something
+living, something real, and not perhaps a picture, or an illusion of
+your fancy?"
+
+"Hear me further.  It was a lady.  Surely, till that moment, I have
+never seen her sex in its full perfection!  All around was sombre; the
+setting sun shone through a single window into the chapel, and its rays
+rested upon her figure.  With inexpressible grace, half kneeling, half
+lying, she was stretched before an altar; one of the most striking, most
+lovely, and picturesque objects in all nature.  Her dress was of black
+moreen, fitting tightly to her slender waist and beautifully-formed
+arms, the skirts spreading around her like a Spanish robe; her long
+light-colored hair was divided into two broad plaits, which, apparently
+from their own weight, had escaped from under her veil, and flowed in
+charming disorder down her back.  One of her hands grasped the crucifix,
+and her head rested gracefully upon the other.  But, where shall I find
+words to describe to you the angelic beauty of her countenance, in which
+the charms of a seraph seemed displayed.  The setting sun shone full
+upon her face, and its golden beams seemed to surround it as with a
+glory.  Can you recall to your mind the Madonna of our Florentine
+painter?  She was here personified, even to those few deviations from
+the studied costume which so powerfully, so irresistibly attracted me in
+the picture."
+
+With regard to the Madonna, of whom the prince spoke, the case is this:
+Shortly after your departure he made the acquaintance of a Florentine
+painter, who had been summoned to Venice to paint an altar-piece for
+some church, the name of which I do not recollect.  He had brought with
+him three paintings, which had been intended for the gallery in the
+Cornari palace.  They consisted of a Madonna, a Heloise, and a Venus,
+very lightly apparelled.  All three were of great beauty; and, although
+the subjects were quite different, they were so intrinsically equal that
+it seemed almost impossible to determine which to prefer.  The prince
+alone did not hesitate for a moment.  As soon as the pictures were
+placed before him the Madonna absorbed his whole attention; in the two
+others he admired the painter's genius; but in this he forgot the artist
+and his art, his whole soul being absorbed in the contemplation of the
+work.  He was quite moved, and could scarcely tear himself away from it.
+We could easily see by the artist's countenance that in his heart he
+coincided with the prince's judgment; he obstinately refused to separate
+the pictures, and demanded fifteen hundred zechins for the three.  The
+prince offered him half that sum for the Madonna alone, but in vain.
+The artist insisted on his first demand, and who knows what might have
+been the result if a ready purchaser had not stepped forward.
+
+Two hours afterwards all three pictures were sold, and we never saw them
+again.  It was this Madonna which now recurred to the prince's mind.
+
+"I stood," continued he, "gazing at her in silent admiration.  She did
+not observe me; my arrival did not disturb her, so completely was she
+absorbed in her devotion.  She prayed to her Deity, and I prayed to her
+--yes, I adored her!  All the pictures of saints, all the altars and the
+burning tapers around me had failed to remind me of what now for the
+first time burst upon me, that I was in a sacred place.  Shall I confess
+it to you?  In that moment I believed firmly in Him whose image was
+clasped in her beautiful hand.  I read in her eyes that he answered her
+prayers.  Thanks be to her charming devotion, it had revealed him to me.
+I wandered with her through all the paradise of prayer.
+
+"She rose, and I recollected myself.  I stepped aside confused; but the
+noise I made in moving discovered me.  I thought that the unexpected
+presence of a man might alarm, that my boldness would offend her; but
+neither of these feelings were expressed in the look with which she
+regarded me.  Peace, benign peace, was portrayed in her countenance, and
+a cheerful smile played upon her lips.  She was descending from her
+heaven; and I was the first happy mortal who met her benevolent look.
+Her mind was still wrapt in her concluding prayer; she had not yet come
+in contact with earth.
+
+"I now heard something stir in the opposite corner of the chapel.  It
+was an elderly lady, who rose from a cushion close behind me.  Till now
+I had not observed her.  She had been distant only a few steps from me.
+and must have seen my every motion.  This confused me.  I cast my eyes
+to the earth, and both the ladies passed by me."
+
+On this last point I thought myself able to console the prince.
+
+"Strange," continued he, after a long silence, "that there should be
+something which one has never known--never missed; and that yet on a
+sudden one should seem to live and breathe for that alone.  Can one
+single moment so completely metamorphose a human being?  It would now be
+as impossible for me to indulge in the wishes or enjoy the pleasures of
+yesterday as it would be to return to the toys of my childhood, and all
+this since I have seen this object which lives and rules in the inmost
+recesses of my soul.  It seems to say that I can love nothing else, and
+that nothing else in this world can produce an impression on me."
+
+"But consider, gracious prince," said I, "the excitable mood you were in
+when this apparition surprised you, and how all the circumstances
+conspired to inflame your imagination.  Quitting the dazzling light of
+day and the busy throng of men, you were suddenly surrounded by twilight
+and repose.  You confess that you had quite given yourself up to those
+solemn emotions which the majesty of the place was calculated to awaken;
+the contemplation of fine works of art had rendered you more susceptible
+to the impressions of beauty in any form.  You supposed yourself alone--
+when you saw a maiden who, I will readily allow, may have been very
+beautiful, and whose charms were heightened by a favorable illumination
+of the setting sun, a graceful attitude, and an expression of fervent
+devotion--what is more natural than that your vivid fancy should look
+upon such a form as something supernaturally perfect?"
+
+"Can the imagination give what it never received?"  replied he.  "In the
+whole range of my fancy there is nothing which I can compare with that
+image.  It is impressed on my mind distinctly and vividly as in the
+moment when I beheld it.  I can think of nothing but that picture; but
+you might offer me whole worlds for it in vain."
+
+"My gracious prince, this is love."
+
+"Must the sensation which makes me happy necessarily have a name?
+Love!  Do not degrade my feeling by giving it a name which is so often
+misapplied by the weak-minded.  Who ever felt before what I do now?
+Such a being never before existed; how then can the name be admitted
+before the emotion which it is meant to express?  Mine is a novel and
+peculiar feeling, connected only with this being, and capable of being
+applied to her alone.  Love!  From love I am secure!"
+
+"You sent away Biondello, no doubt, to follow in the steps of these
+strangers, and to make inquiries concerning them.  What news did he
+bring you?"
+
+"Biondello discovered nothing; or, at least, as good as nothing.  An
+aged, respectably dressed man, who looked more like a citizen than a
+servant, came to conduct them to their gondola.  A number of poor people
+placed themselves in a row, and quitted her, apparently well satisfied.
+Biondello said he saw one of her hands, which was ornamented with
+several precious stones.  She spoke a few words, which Biondello could
+not comprehend, to her companion; he says it was Greek.  As she had some
+distance to walk to the canal, the people began to throng together,
+attracted by the strangeness of her appearance.  Nobody knew her--but
+beauty seems born to rule.  All made way for her in a respectful manner.
+She let fall a black veil, that covered half of her person, over her
+face, and hastened into the gondola.  Along the whole Giudecca Biondello
+managed to keep the boat in view, but the crowd prevented his following
+it further."
+
+"But surely he took notice of the gondolier so as to be able to
+recognize him again."
+
+"He has undertaken to find out the gondolier, but he is not one of those
+with whom he associates.  The mendicants, whom he questioned, could give
+him no further information than that the signora had come to the church
+for the last few Saturdays, and had each time divided a gold-piece among
+them.  It was a Dutch ducat, which Biondello changed for them, and
+brought to me."
+
+"It appears, then, that she is a Greek--most likely of rank; at any
+rate, rich and charitable.  That is as much as we dare venture to
+conclude at present, gracious sir; perhaps too much.  But a Greek lady
+in a Catholic church?"
+
+"Why not?  She may have changed her religion.  But there is certainly
+some mystery in the affair.  Why should she go only once a week?  Why
+always on Saturday, on which day, as Biondello tells me, the church is
+generally deserted.  Next Saturday, at the latest, must decide this
+question.  Till then, dearest friend, you must help me to while away the
+hours.  But it is in vain.  They will go their lingering pace, though my
+soul is burning with expectation!"
+
+"And when this day at length arrives--what, then, gracious prince?  What
+do you purpose doing?"
+
+"What do I purpose doing?  I shall see her.  I will discover where she
+lives and who she is.  But to what does all this tend?  I hear you ask.
+What I saw made me happy; I therefore now know wherein my happiness
+consists!
+
+"And our departure from Venice, which is fixed for next Monday?"
+
+"How could I know that Venice still contained such a treasure for me?
+You ask me questions of my past life.  I tell you that from this day
+forward I will begin a new existence."
+
+"I thought that now was the opportunity to keep my word to the marquis.
+I explained to the prince that a protracted stay in Venice was
+altogether incompatible with the exhausted state of his finances, and
+that, if he extended his sojourn here beyond the appointed time, he
+could not reckon on receiving funds from his court.  On this occasion,
+I learned what had hitherto been a secret to me, namely, that the prince
+had, without the knowledge of his other brothers, received from his
+sister, the reigning ----- of --------, considerable loans, which she
+would gladly double if his court left him in the lurch.  This sister,
+who, as you know, is a pious enthusiast, thinks that the large savings
+which she makes at a very economical court cannot be deposited in better
+hands than in those of a brother whose wise benevolence she well knows,
+and whose character she warmly honors.  I have, indeed, known for some
+time that a very close intercourse has been kept up between the two,
+and that many letters have been exchanged; but, as the prince's own
+resources have hitherto always been sufficient to cover his expenditure,
+I had never guessed at this hidden channel.  It is clear, therefore,
+that the prince must have had some expenses which have been and still
+are unknown to me; but if I can judge of them by his general character,
+they will certainly not be of such a description as to tend to his
+disgrace.  And yet I thought I understood him thoroughly.  After this
+disclosure, I of course did not hesitate to make known to him the
+marquis' offer, which, to my no small surprise, he immediately accepted.
+He gave me the authority to transact the business with the marquis in
+whatever way I thought most advisable, and then immediately to settle
+the account with the usurer.  To his sister he proposed to write without
+delay.
+
+It was morning when we separated.  However disagreeable this affair is
+to me for more than one reason, the worst of it is that it seems to
+threaten a longer residence in Venice.  From the prince's passion I
+rather augur good than evil.  It is, perhaps, the most powerful method
+of withdrawing him from his metaphysical dreams to the concerns and
+feelings of real life.  It will have its crisis, and, like an illness
+produced by artificial means, will eradicate the natural disorder.
+
+Farewell, my dear friend.  I have written down these incidents
+immediately upon their occurrence.  The post starts immediately; you
+will receive this letter on the same day as my last.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.
+
+BARON F------  TO COUNT O-------.
+June 20.
+
+This Civitella is certainly one of the most obliging personages in the
+world.  The prince had scarcely left me the other day before I received
+a note from the marquis enforcing his former offers with renewed
+earnestness.  I instantly forwarded, in the prince's name, a bond for
+six thousand zechins; in less than half an hour it was returned, with
+double the sum required, in notes and gold.  The prince at length
+assented to this increase, but insisted that the bond, which was drawn
+only for six weeks, should be accepted.
+
+The whole of the present week has been consumed in inquiries after the
+mysterious Greek.  Biondello set all his engines to work, but until now
+in vain.  He certainly discovered the gondolier; but from him he could
+learn nothing, save that the ladies had disembarked on the island of
+Murano, where they entered two sedan chairs which were waiting for them.
+He supposed them to be English because they spoke a foreign language,
+and had paid him in gold.  He did not even know their guide, but
+believed him to be a glass manufacturer from Murano.  We were now, at
+least, certain that we must not look for her in the Giudecca, and that
+in all probability she lived in the island of Murano; but, unluckily,
+the description the prince gave of her was not such as to make her
+recognizable by a third party.  The passionate interest with which he
+had regarded her had hindered him from observing her minutely; for all
+the minor details, which other people would not have failed to notice,
+had escaped his observation; from his description one would have sooner
+expected to find her prototype in tha works of Ariosto or Tasso than on
+a Venetian island.  Besides, our inquiries had to be conducted with the
+utmost caution, in order not to become prejudicial to the lady, or to
+excite undue attention.  As Biondello was the only man besides the
+prince who had seen her, even through her veil, and could therefore
+recognize her, he strove to be as much as possible in all the places
+where she was likely to appear; the life of the poor man, during the
+whole week, was a continual race through all the streets of Venice.  In
+the Greek church, particularly, every inquiry was made, but always with
+the same ill-success; and the prince, whose impatience increased with
+every successive failure, was at last obliged to wait till Saturday,
+with what patience he might.  His restlessness was excessive.  Nothing
+interested him, nothing could fix his attention.  He was in constant
+feverish excitement; he fled from society, but the evil increased in
+solitude.  He had never been so much besieged by visitors as in this
+week.  His approaching departure had been announced, and everybody
+crowded to see him.  It was necessary to occupy the attention of the
+people in order to lull their suspicions, and to amuse the prince with
+the view of diverting his mind from its all-engrossing object.  In this
+emergency Civitella hit upon play; and, for the purpose of driving away
+most of the visitors, proposed that the stakes should be high.  He hoped
+by awakening in the prince a transient liking for play, from which it
+would afterwards be easy to wean him, to destroy the romantic bent of
+his passion.  "The cards," said Civitella, "have saved me from many a
+folly which I had intended to commit, and repaired many which I had
+already perpetrated.  At the faro table I have often recovered my
+tranquillity of mind, of which a pair of bright eyes had robbed me, and
+women never had more power over me than when I had not money enough to
+play."
+
+I will not enter into a discussion as to how far Civitella was right;
+but the remedy we had hit upon soon began to be worse than the disease
+it was intended to cure.  The prince, who could only make the game at
+all interesting to himself by staking extremely high, soon overstepped
+all bounds.  He was quite out of his element.  Everything he did seemed
+to be done in a passion; all his actions betrayed the uneasiness of his
+mind.  You know his general indifference to money; he seemed now to have
+become totally insensible to its value.  Gold flowed through his hands
+like water.  As he played without the slightest caution he lost almost
+invariably.  He lost immense sums, for he staked like a desperate
+gamester.  Dearest O------- , with an aching heart I write it, in four
+days he had lost above twelve thousand zechins.
+
+Do not reproach me.  I blame myself sufficiently.  But how could I
+prevent it?  Could I do more than warn him?  I did all that was in my
+power, and cannot find myself guilty.  Civitella, too, lost not a
+little; I won about six hundred zechins.  The unprecedented ill-luck of
+the prince excited general attention, and therefore he would not leave
+off playing.  Civitella, who is always ready to oblige him, immediately
+advanced him the required sum.  The deficit is made up; but the prince
+owes the marquis twenty-four thousand zechins.  Oh, how I long for the
+savings of his pious sister.  Are all sovereigns so, my dear friend?
+The prince behaves as though he had done the marquis a great honor, and
+he, at any rate, plays his part well.
+
+Civitella sought to quiet me by saying that this recklessness, this
+extraordinary ill-luck, would be most effectual in bringing the prince
+to his senses.  The money, he said, was of no consequence.  He himself
+would not feel the loss in the least, and would be happy to serve the
+prince, at any moment, with three times the amount.  The cardinal also
+assured me that his nephew's intentions were honest, and that he should
+be ready to assist him in carrying them out.
+
+The most unfortunate thing was that these tremendous sacrifices did not
+even effect their object.  One would have thought that the prince would
+at least feel some interest in his play.  But such was not the case.
+His thoughts were wandering far away, and the passion which we wished to
+stifle by his ill-luck in play seemed, on the contrary, only to gather
+strength.  When, for instance, a decisive stroke was about to be played,
+and every one's eyes were fixed, full of expectation, on the board, his
+were searching for Biondello, in order to catch the news he might have
+brought him, from the expression of his countenance.  Biondello brought
+no tidings, and his master's losses continued.
+
+The gains, however, fell into very needy hands.  A few "your
+excellencies," whom scandal reports to be in the habit of carrying home
+their frugal dinner from the market in their senatorial caps, entered
+our house as beggars, and left it with well-lined purses.  Civitella
+pointed them out to me.  "Look," said he, "how many poor devils make
+their fortunes by one great man taking a whim into his head.  This is
+what I like to see.  It is princely and royal.  A great man must, even
+by his failings, make some one happy, like a river which by its
+overflowing fertilizes the neighboring fields."
+
+Civitella has a noble and generous way of thinking, but the prince owes
+him twenty-four thousand zechins.
+
+At length the long-wished-for Saturday arrived, and my master insisted
+upon going, directly after dinner, to the church.  He stationed himself
+in the chapel where he had first seen the unknown, but in such a way as
+not to be immediately observed.  Biondello had orders to keep watch at
+the church door, and to enter into conversation with the attendant of
+the ladies.  I had taken upon myself to enter, like a chance passenger,
+into the same gondola with them on their return, in order to follow
+their track if the other schemes should fail.  At the spot where the
+gondolier said he had landed them the last time two sedans were
+stationed; the chamberlain, Z------, was ordered to follow in a separate
+gondola, in order to trace the retreat of the unknown, if all else
+should fail.  The prince wished to give himself wholly up to the
+pleasure of seeing her, and, if possible, try to make her acquaintance
+in the church.  Civitella was to keep out of the way altogether, as his
+reputation among the women of Venice was so bad that his presence could
+not have failed to excite the suspicions of the lady.  You see, dear
+count, it was not through any want of precaution on our part that the
+fair unknown escaped us.
+
+Never, perhaps, was there offered up in any church such ardent prayers
+for success, and never were hopes so cruelly disappointed.  The prince
+waited till after sunset, starting in expectation at every sound which
+approached the chapel, and at every creaking of the church door.  Seven
+full hours passed, and no Greek lady.  I need not describe his state of
+mind.  You know what hope deferred is, hope which one has nourished
+unceasingly for seven days and nights.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.
+
+BARON VON F------  TO COUNT VON O-------
+July.
+
+The mysterious unknown of the prince reminded Marquis Civitella of a
+romantic incident which happened to himself a short time since, and, to
+divert the prince, he offered to relate it.  I will give it you in his
+own words; but the lively spirit which he infuses into all he tells will
+be lost in my narration.
+
+(Here follows the subjoined fragment, which appeared in the eighth part
+of the Thalia, and was originally intended for the second volume of the
+Ghost-Seer.  It found a place here after Schiller had given up the idea
+of completing the Ghost-Seer.)
+
+"In the spring of last year," began Civitella, "I had the misfortune to
+embroil myself with the Spanish ambassador, a gentleman who, in his
+seventieth year, had been guilty of the folly of wishing to marry a
+Roman girl of eighteen.  His vengeance pursued me, and my friends
+advised me to secure my safety by a timely flight, and to keep out of
+the way until the hand of nature, or an adjustment of differences, had
+secured me from the wrath of this formidable enemy.  As I felt it too
+severe a punishment to quit Venice altogether, I took up my abode in a
+distant quarter of the town, where I lived in a lonely house, under a
+feigned name, keeping myself concealed by day, and devoting the night to
+the society of my friends and of pleasure.
+
+"My windows looked upon a garden, the west side of which was bounded by
+the walls of a convent, while towards the east it jutted out into the
+Laguna in the form of a little peninsula.  The garden was charmingly
+situated, but little frequented.  It was my custom every morning, after
+my friends had left me, to spend a few moments at the window before
+retiring to rest, to see the sun rise over the Adriatic, and then to bid
+him goodnight.  If you, my dear prince, have not yet enjoyed this
+pleasure, I recommend exactly this station, the only eligible one
+perhaps in all Venice to enjoy so splendid a prospect in perfection.
+A purple twilight hangs over the deep, and a golden mist on the Laguna
+announces the sun's approach.  The heavens and the sea are wrapped in
+expectant silence.  In two seconds the orb of day appears, casting a
+flood of fiery light on the waves.  It is an enchanting sight.
+
+"One morning, when I was, according to custom, enjoying the beauty of
+this prospect, I suddenly discovered that I was not the only spectator
+of the scene.  I fancied I heard voices in the garden, and turning to
+the quarter whence the sound proceeded, I perceived a gondola steering
+for the land.  In a few moments I saw figures walking at a slow pace up
+the avenue.  They were a man and a woman, accompanied by a little negro.
+The female was clothed in white, and had a brilliant on her finger.  It
+was not light enough to perceive more.
+
+"My curiosity was raised.  Doubtless a rendezvous of a pair of lovers--
+but in such a place, and at so unusual an hour!  It was scarcely three
+o'clock, and everything was still veiled in dusky twilight.  The
+incident seemed to me novel and proper for a romance, and I waited to
+see the end.
+
+"I soon lost sight of them among the foliage of the garden, and some
+time elapsed before they again emerged to view.  Meanwhile a delightful
+song was heard.  It proceeded from the gondolier, who was in this manner
+shortening the time, and was answered by a comrade a short way off.
+They sang stanzas from Tasso; time and place were in unison, and the
+melody sounded sweetly, in the profound silence around.
+
+"Day in the meantime had dawned, and objects were discerned more
+plainly.  I sought my people, whom I found walking hand-in-hand up a
+broad walk, often standing still, but always with their backs turned
+towards me, and proceeding further from my residence.  Their noble, easy
+carriage convinced me at once that they were people of rank, and the
+splendid figure of the lady made me augur as much of her beauty.  They
+appeared to converse but little; the lady, however, more than her
+companion.  In the spectacle of the rising sun, which now burst out in
+all its splendor, they seemed to take not the slightest interest.
+
+"While I was employed in adjusting my glass, in order to bring them into
+view as closely as possible, they suddenly disappeared down a side path,
+and some time elapsed before I regained sight of them.  The sun had now
+fully risen; they were approaching straight towards me, with their eyes
+fixed upon where I stood.  What a heavenly form did I behold!  Was it
+illusion, or the magic effect of the beautiful light?  I thought I
+beheld a supernatural being, for my eyes quailed before the angelic
+brightness of her look.  So much loveliness combined with so much
+dignity!--so much mind, and so much blooming youth!  It is in vain I
+attempt to describe it.  I had never seen true beauty till that moment.
+
+"In the heat of conversation they lingered near me, and I had full
+opportunity to contemplate her.  Scarcely, however, had I cast my eyes
+upon her companion, but even her beauty was not powerful enough to fix
+my attention.  He appeared to be a man still in the prime of life,
+rather slight, and of a tall, noble figure.  Never have I beheld so much
+mind, so much noble expression, in a human countenance.  Though
+perfectly secured from observation, I was unable to meet the lightning
+glance that shot from beneath his dark eyebrows.  There was a moving
+expression of sorrow about his eyes, but an expression of benevolence
+about the mouth which relieved the settled gravity spread over his whole
+countenance.  A certain cast of features, not quite European, together
+with his dress, which appeared to have been chosen with inimitable good
+taste from the most varied costumes, gave him a peculiar air, which not
+a little heightened the impression produced by his appearance.  A degree
+of wildness in his looks warranted the supposition that lie was an
+enthusiast, but his deportment and carriage showed that his character
+had been formed by mixing in society."
+
+Z--------, who you know must always give utterance to what he thinks,
+could contain himself no longer.  "Our Armenian!"  cried he.  "Our very
+Armenian, and nobody else."
+
+"What Armenian, if one may ask?"  inquired Civitella.
+
+"Has no one told you of the farce?"  replied the prince.  "But no
+interruption!  I begin to feel interested in your hero.  Pray continue
+your narrative."
+
+"There was something inexplicable in his whole demeanor," continued
+Civitella.  "His eyes were fixed upon his companion with an expression
+of anxiety and passion, but the moment they met hers he looked down
+abashed.  'Is the man beside himself!' thought I.  I could stand for
+ages and gaze at nothing else but her.
+
+"The foliage again concealed them from my sight.  Long, long did I look
+for their reappearance, but in vain.  At length I caught sight of them
+from another window.
+
+"They were standing before the basin of a fountain at some distance
+apart, and both wrapped in deep silence.  They had, probably, remained
+some time in the same position.  Her clear and intelligent eyes were
+resting inquiringly on his, and seemed as if they would imbibe every
+thought from him as it revealed itself in his countenance.  He, as if he
+wanted courage to look directly into her face, furtively sought its
+reflection in the watery mirror before him, or gazed steadfastly at the
+dolphin which bore the water to the basin.  Who knows how long this
+silent scene might have continued could the lady have endured it?  With
+the most bewitching grace the lovely girl advanced towards him, and
+passing her arm round his neck, raised his hand to her lips.  Calmly and
+unmoved the strange being suffered her caresses, but did not return
+them.
+
+"This scene moved me strangely.  It was the man that chiefly excited my
+sympathy and interest.  Some violent emotion seemed to struggle in his
+breast; it was as if some irresistible force drew him towards her, while
+an unseen arm held him back.  Silent, but agonizing, was the struggle,
+and beautiful the temptation.  'No,' I thought, 'he attempts too much;
+he will, he must yield.'
+
+"At his silent intimation the young negro disappeared.  I now expected
+some touching scene--a prayer on bended knees, and a reconciliation
+sealed with glowing kisses.  But no! nothing of the kind occurred.  The
+incomprehensible being took from his pocketbook a sealed packet, and
+placed it in the hands of the lady.  Sadness overcast her face as she
+she looked at it, and a tear bedewed her eye.
+
+"After a short silence they separated.  At this moment an elderly lady
+advanced from one of the sidewalks, who had remained at a distance, and
+whom I now first discovered.  She and the fair girl slowly advanced
+along the path, and, while they were earnestly engaged in conversation,
+the stranger took the opportunity of remaining behind.  With his eyes
+turned towards her, he stood irresolute, at one instant making a rapid
+step forward, and in the next retreating.  In another moment he had
+disappeared in the copse.
+
+"The women at length look round, seem uneasy at not finding him, and
+pause as if to await his coming.  He comes not.  Anxious glances are
+cast around, and steps are redoubled.  My eyes aid in searching through
+the garden; be comes not, he is nowhere to be seen.
+
+"Suddenly I see a plash in the canal, and see a gondola moving from the
+shore.  It is he, and I scarcely can refrain from calling to him.  Now
+the whole thing is clear--it was a parting.
+
+"She appears to have a presentiment of what has happened.  With a speed
+that her companion cannot use she hastens to the shore.  Too late!
+Quick as the arrow in its flight the gondola bounds forward, and soon
+nothing is visible but a white handkerchief fluttering in the air from
+afar.  Soon after this I saw the fair incognita and her companion cross
+the water.
+
+"When I awoke from a short sleep I could not help smiling at my
+delusion.  My fancy had incorporated these events in my dreams until
+truth itself seemed a dream.  A maiden, fair as an houri, wandering
+beneath my windows at break of day with her lover--and a lover who did
+not know how to make a better use of such an hour.  Surely these
+supplied materials for the composition of a picture which might well
+occupy the fancy of a dreamer!  But the dream had been too lovely for me
+not to desire its renewal again and again; nay, even the garden had
+become more charming in my sight since my imagination had peopled it
+with such attractive forms.  Several cheerless days that succeeded this
+eventful morning drove me from the window, but the first fine evening
+involuntarily drew me back to my post of observation.  Judge of my
+surprise when after a short search I caught sight of the white dress of
+my incognita!  Yes, it was she herself.  I had not dreamed!
+
+"Her former companion was with her, and led by the hand a little boy;
+but the fair girl herself walked apart, and seemed absorbed in thought.
+All spots were visited that had been rendered memorable by the presence
+of her friend.  She paused for a long time before the basin, and her
+fixed gaze seemed to seek on its crystal mirror the reflection of one
+beloved form.
+
+"Although her noble beauty had attracted me when I first saw her the
+impression produced was even stronger on this occasion, although perhaps
+at the same time more conducive to gentler emotions.  I had now ample
+opportunity of considering this divine form; the surprise of the first
+impression gradually gave place to softer feelings.  The glory that
+seemed to invest her had departed, and I saw before me the loveliest of
+women, and felt my senses inflamed.  In a moment the resolution was
+formed that she must be mine.
+
+"While I was deliberating whether I should descend and approach her, or
+whether before I ventured on such a step it would not be better to
+obtain information regarding her, a door opened in the convent wall,
+through which there advanced a Carmelite monk.  The sound of his
+approach roused the lady, and I saw her advance with hurried steps
+towards him.  He drew from his bosom a paper, which she eagerly grasped,
+while a vivid color instantaneously suffused her countenance.
+
+"At this moment I was called from the window by the arrival of my usual
+evening visitor.  I carefully avoided approaching the spot again as I
+had no desire to share my conquest with another.  For a whole hour I was
+obliged to endure this painful constraint before I could succeed in
+freeing myself from my importunate guest, and when I hastened to the
+window all had disappeared.
+
+"The garden was empty when I entered it; no vessel of any kind was
+visible in the canal; no trace of people on any side; I neither knew
+whence she had come nor whither she bad gone.  While I was looking round
+me in all directions I observed something white upon the ground.  On
+drawing near I found it was a piece of paper folded in the shape of a
+note.  What could it be but the letter which the Carmelite had brought?
+'Happy discovery!' I exclaimed; 'this will reveal the whole secret, and
+make me master of her fate.'
+
+"The letter was sealed with a sphinx, had no superscription, and was
+written in cyphers; this, however, did not discourage me, for I have
+some knowledge of this mode of writing.  I copied it hastily, as there
+was every reason to expect that she would soon miss it and return in
+search of it.  If she should not find it she would regard its loss as an
+evidence that the garden was resorted to by different persons, and such
+a discovery might easily deter her from visiting it again.  And what
+worse fortune could attend my hopes.
+
+"That which I had conjectured actually took place, and I had scarcely
+ended my copy when she reappeared with her former companion, anxiously
+intent on the search.  I attached the note to a tile which I had
+detached from the roof, and dropped it at a spot which she would pass.
+Her gracefully expressed joy at finding it rewarded me for my
+generosity.  She examined it in every part with keen, searching glances,
+as if she were seeking to detect the unhallowed hands that might have
+touched it; but the contented look with which she hid it in her bosom
+showed that she was free from all suspicion.  She went, and the parting
+glance she threw on the garden seemed expressive of gratitude to the
+guardian deities of the spot, who had so faithfully watched over the
+secret of her heart.
+
+"I now hastened to decipher the letter.  After trying several languages,
+I at length succeeded by the use of English.  Its contents were so
+remarkable that my memory still retains a perfect recollection of them."
+
+I am interrupted, and must give you the conclusion on a future occasion.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.
+
+BARON F------  TO COUNT O-------
+August.
+
+In truth, my dearest friend, you do the good Biondello injustice.  The
+suspicion you entertain against him is unfounded, and while I allow you
+full liberty to condemn all Italians generally, I must maintain that
+this one at least is an honest man.
+
+You think it singular that a person of such brilliant endowments and
+such exemplary conduct should debase himself to enter the service of
+another if he were not actuated by secret motives; and these, you
+further conclude, must necessarily be of a suspicious character.  But
+where is the novelty of a man of talent and of merit endeavoring to win
+favor with a prince who has the power of establishing his fortune?  Is
+there anything derogatory in serving the prince? and has not Biondello
+clearly shown that his devotion is purely personal by confessing that he
+earnestly desired to make a certain request of the prince?  The whole
+mystery will, therefore, no doubt be revealed when he acquaints him of
+his wishes.  He may certainly be actuated by secret motives, but why may
+these not be innocent in their nature?
+
+You think it strange that this Biondello should have kept all his great
+talents concealed, and in no way have attracted attention during the
+early months of our acquaintance with him, when you were still with us.
+This I grant; but what opportunity had he then of distinguishing
+himself?  The prince had not yet called his powers into requisition, and
+chance, therefore, could alone aid us in discovering his talents.
+
+He very recently gave a proof of his devotion and honesty of purpose
+which must at once annihilate all your doubts.  The prince was watched;
+measures were being taken to gain information regarding his mode of
+life, associates, and general habits.  I know not with whom this
+inquisitiveness originated.  Let me beg your attention, however, to what
+I am about to relate:--
+
+There is a house in St.  George's which Biondello is in the habit of
+frequenting.  He probably finds some peculiar attractions there, but of
+this I know nothing.  It happened a few days ago that he there met
+assembled together a party of civil and military officers in the service
+of the government, old acquaintances and jovial comrades of his own.
+Surprise and pleasure were expressed on all sides at this meeting.
+Their former good-fellowship was re-established; and after each in turn
+had related his own history up to the present time, Biondello was called
+upon to give an account of his life; this be did in a few words.  He was
+congratulated on his new position; his companions had heard accounts of
+the splendid footing on which the Prince of -------'s establishment was
+maintained; of his liberality, especially to persons who showed
+discretion in keeping secrets; the prince's connection with the Cardinal
+A------i was well known, he was said to be addicted to play, etc.
+Biondello's surprise at this is observed, and jokes are passed upon the
+mystery which he tries to keep up, although it is well known that he is
+the emissary of the Prince of ------.  The two lawyers of the party make
+him sit down between them; their glasses are repeatedly emptied, he is
+urged to drink, but excuses himself on the grounds of inability to bear
+wine; at last, however, he yields to their wishes, in order that he may
+the better pretend intoxication.
+
+"Yes!" cried one of the lawyers, "Biondello understands his business,
+but he has not yet learned all the tricks of the trade; he is but a
+novice."
+
+"What have I still to learn?"  ask Biondello.
+
+"You understand the art of keeping a secret," remarked the other; "but
+you have still to learn that of parting with it to advantage."
+
+"Am I likely to find a purchaser for any that I may have to dispose of?"
+asked Biondello.
+
+On this the other guests withdrew from the apartment, and left him alone
+with his two neighbors, who continued the conversation in the same
+strain.  The substance of the whole was, however, briefly as follows:
+Biondello was to procure them certain information regarding the
+intercourse of the prince with the cardinal and his nephew, acquaint
+them with the source from whence the prince derived his money, and to
+intercept all letters written to Count O------.  Biondello put them off
+to a future occasion, but he was unsuccessful in his attempts to draw
+from them the name of the person by whom they were employed.  From the
+splendid nature of the proposals made to him it was evident, however,
+that they emanated from some influential and extremely wealthy party.
+
+Last night he related the whole occurrence to the prince, whose first
+impulse was without further ceremony to secure the maneuverers at once,
+but to this Biondello strongly objected.  He urged that he would be
+obliged to set them at liberty again, and that, in this case, he should
+endanger not only his credit among this class of men, but even his life.
+All these men were connected together, and bound by one common interest,
+each one making the cause of the others his own; in fact, he would
+rather make enemies of the senate of Venice than be regarded by these
+men as a traitor--and, besides, he could no longer be useful to the
+prince if he lost the confidence of this class of people.
+
+We have pondered and conjectured much as to the source of all this.  Who
+is there in Venice that can care to know what money my master receives
+or pays out, what passess between Cardinal A-----i and himself, and what
+I write to you?  Can it be some scheme of the Prince of ---d-----, or is
+the Armenian again on the alert?
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.
+
+BARON F------  TO COUNT O-------.
+August.
+
+The prince is revelling in love and bliss.  He has recovered his fair
+Greek.  I must relate to you how this happened.
+
+A traveller, who had crossed from Chiozza, gave the prince so animated
+an account of the beauty of this place, which is charmingly situated on
+the shores of the gulf, that he became very anxious to see it.
+Yesterday was fixed upon for the excusion; and, in order to avoid all
+restraint and display, no one was to accompany him but Z------- and
+myself, together with Biondello, as my master wished to remain unknown.
+We found a vessel ready to start, and engaged our passage at once.  The
+company was very mixed but not numerous, and the passage was made
+without the occurrence of any circumstance worthy of notice.
+
+Chiozza is built, like Venice, on a foundation of wooden piles, and is
+said to contain about forty thousand inhabitants.  There are but few of
+the higher classes resident there, but one meets sailors and fishermen
+at every step.  Whoever appears in a peruke, or a cloak, is regarded as
+an aristocrat--a rich man; the cap and overcoat are here the insignia of
+the poor.  The situation is certainly very lovely, but it will not bear
+a comparison with Venice.
+
+We did not remain long, for the captain, who had more passengers for the
+return voyage, was obliged to be in Venice at an early hour, and there
+was nothing at Chiozza to make the prince desirous of remaining.  All
+the passengers were on board when we reached the vessel.  As we had
+found it so difficult to place ourselves on a social footing with the
+company on the outward passage, we determined on this occasion to secure
+a cabin to ourselves.  The prince inquired who the new-comers were, and
+was informed that they were a Dominican and some ladies, who were
+returning to Venice.  My master evincing no curiosity to see them, we
+immediately betook ourselves to our cabin.
+
+The Greek was the subject of our conversation throughout the whole
+passage, as she had been during our former transit.  The prince dwelt
+with ardor on her appearance in the church; and whilst numerous plans
+were in turn devised and rejected, hours passed like a moment of time,
+and we were already in sight of Venice.  Some of the passengers now
+disembarked, the Dominican amongst the number.  The captain went to the
+ladies, who, as we now first learned, had been separated from us by only
+a thin wooden partition, and asked them where they wished to land.  The
+island of Murano was named in reply to his inquiry, and the house
+indicated .  "The island of Murano!" exclaimed the prince, who seemed
+suddenly struck by a startling presentiment.  Before I could reply to
+his exclamation, Biondello rushed into the cabin.  "Do you know," asked
+he eagerly, "who is on board with us?"  The prince started to his feet,
+as Biondello continued, "She is here! she herself!  I have just spoken
+to her companion!"
+
+The prince hurried out.  He felt as if he could not breathe in our
+narrow cabin, and I believe at that moment as if the whole world would
+have been too narrow for him.  A thousand conflicting feelings struggled
+for the mastery in his heart; his knees trembled, and his countenance
+was alternately flushed and pallid.  I sympathized and participated in
+his emotion, but I cannot by words convey to your mind any idea of the
+state in which he was.
+
+When we stopped at Murano, the prince sprang on shore.  She advanced
+from her cabin.  I read in the face of the prince that it was indeed
+the Greek.  One glance was sufficient to dispel all doubt on that point.
+A more lovely creature I have never seen.  Even the prince's glowing
+descriptions fell far short of the reality.  A radiant blush suffused
+her face when she saw my master.  She must have heard all we said, and
+could not fail to know that she herself had been the subject of our
+conversation.  She exchanged a significant glance with her companion,
+which seemed to say, "That is he;" and then cast her eyes to the ground
+with diffident confusion.  On placing her foot on the narrow plank,
+which had been thrown from the vessel to the shore, she seemed anxiously
+to hesitate, less, as it seemed to me, from the fear of falling than
+from her inability to cross the board without assistance, which was
+proffered her by the outstretched arm of the prince.  Necessity overcame
+her reluctance, and, accepting the aid of his hand, she stepped on
+shore.  Excessive mental agitation had rendered the prince uncourteous,
+and he wholly forgot to offer his services to the other lady--but what
+was there that he would not have forgotten at this moment?  My attention
+in atoning for the remissness of the prince prevented my hearing the
+commencement of a conversation which had begun between him and the young
+Greek, while I had been helping the other lady on shore.
+
+He was still holding her hand in his, probably from absence of mind, and
+without being conscious of the fact.
+
+"This is not the first time, Signora, that--that"--he stopped short,
+unable to finish the sentence.
+
+"I think I remember"  she faltered.
+
+"We met in the church of ---------,"  said he, quickly.
+
+"Yes, it was in the church of ---------,"  she rejoined.
+
+"And could I have supposed that this day would have brought me--"
+
+Here she gently withdrew her hand from his--he was evidently
+embarrassed; but Biondello, who had in the meantime been speaking to the
+servant, now came to his aid.
+
+"Si-nor," said he, "the ladies had ordered sedans to be in readiness for
+them; they have not yet come, for we are here before the expected time.
+But there is a garden close by in which you may remain until the crowd
+has dispersed."
+
+The proposal was accepted; you may conceive with what alacrity on the
+part of the prince!  We remained in the garden till late in the evening;
+and, fortunately, Z-------- and myself so effectually succeeded in
+occupying the attention of the elder lady that the prince was enabled,
+undisturbed, to carry on his conversation with the fair Greek.  You will
+easily believe that he made good use of his time, when I tell you that
+he obtained permission to visit her.  At the very moment that I am now
+writing he is with her; on his return I shall be able to give you
+further particulars regarding her.
+
+When we got home yesterday we found that the long-expected remittances
+had arrived from our court; but at the same time the prince received a
+letter which excited his indignation to the highest pitch.  He has been
+recalled, and that in a tone and manner to which he is wholly
+unaccustomed.  He immediately wrote a reply in a similar spirit, and
+intends remaining.  The remittances are only just sufficient to pay the
+interest on the capital which he owes.  We are looking with impatience
+for a reply from his sister.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.
+
+BARON F------ TO COUNT O-------
+September.
+
+The prince has fallen out with his court, and all resources have
+consequently been cut off from home.
+
+The term of six weeks, at the end of which my master was to pay the
+marquis, has already elapsed several days; but still no remittances
+have been forwarded, either from his cousin, of whom he had earnestly
+requested an additional allowance in advance, or from his sister.  You
+may readily suppose that Civitella has not reminded him of his debt; the
+prince's memory is, however, all the more faithful.  Yesterday morning
+at length brought an answer from the seat of government.
+
+We had shortly before concluded a new arrangement with the master of our
+hotel, and the prince had publicly announced his intention to remain
+here sometime longer.  Without uttering a word my master put the letter
+into my hand.  His eyes sparkled, and I could read the contents in his
+face.
+
+Can you believe it, dear O; all my master's proceedings here are known
+at and have been most calumniously misrepresented by an abominable
+tissue of lies?  "Information has been received," says the letter,
+amongst other things, "to the effect that the prince has for some time
+past belied his former character, and adopted a node of conduct totally
+at variance with his former exemplary manner of acting and thinking."
+"It is known," the writer says, "that he has addicted himself with the
+greatest excess to women and play; that he is overwhelmed with debts;
+puts his confidence in visionaries and charlatans, who pretend to have
+power over spirits; maintains suspicious relations with Roman Catholic
+prelates, and keeps up a degree of state which exceeds both his rank and
+his means.  Nay, it is even said, that he is about to bring this highly
+offensive conduct to a climax by apostacy to the Church of Rome! and in
+order to clear himself from this last charge he is required to return
+immediately.  A banker at Venice, to whom he must make known the true
+amount of his debts, has received instructions to satisfy his creditors
+immediately after his departure; for, under existing circumstances, it
+does not appear expedient to remit the money directly into his hands."
+
+What accusations, and what a mode of preferring them.  I read the letter
+again and again, in the hope of discovering some expression that
+admitted of a milder construction, but in vain; it was wholly
+incomprehensible.
+
+Z------- now reminded me of the secret inquiries which had been made
+some time before of Biondello.  The true nature of the inquiries and
+circumstances all coincided.  He had falsely ascribed them to the
+Armenian; but now the source from whence the came was very evident.
+Apostacy!  But who can have any interest in calumniating my master so
+scandalously?  I should fear it was some machination of the Prince of
+---d-----, who is determined on driving him from Venice.
+
+In the meantime the prince remained absorbed in thought, with his eyes
+fixed on the ground.  His continued silence alarmed me.  I threw myself
+at his feet.  "For God's sake, your highness," I cried, "moderate your
+feelings--you will--nay, you shall have satisfaction.  Leave the whole
+affair to me.  Let me be your emissary.  It is beneath your dignity to
+reply to such accusations; but you will not, I know, refuse me the
+privilege of doing so for you.  The name of your calumniator must be
+given up, and -------'s eyes must be opened."
+
+At this moment we were interrupted by the entrance of Civitella, who
+inquired with surprise into the cause of our agitation.  Z------- and
+I did not answer; but the prince, who had long ceased to make any
+distinction between him and us, and who, besides, was too much excited
+to listen to the dictates of prudence, desired me to communicate the
+contents of the letter to him.  On my hesitating to obey him, he
+snatched the letter from my hand and gave it to the marquis.
+
+"I am in your debt, marquis," said he, as Civitella gave him back the
+letter, after perusing it, with evident astonishment, "but do not let
+that circumstance occasion you any uneasiness; grant me but a respite of
+twenty days, and you shall be fully satisfied."
+
+"Do I deserve this at your hands, gracious prince?"  exclaimed
+Civitella, with extreme emotion.
+
+"You have refrained from pressing me, and I gratefully appreciate your
+delicacy.  In twenty days, as I before said, you shall be fully
+satisfied."
+
+"But how is this?"  asked Civitella, with agitation and surprise.  "What
+means all this?  I cannot comprehend it."
+
+We explained to him all that we knew, and his indignation was unbounded.
+The prince, he asserted, must insist upon full satisfaction; the insult
+was unparalleled.
+
+In the meanwhile he implored him to make unlimited use of his fortune
+and his credit.
+
+When the marquis left us the prince still continued silent.  He paced
+the apartment with quick and determined steps, as if some strange and
+unusual emotion were agitating his frame.  At length he paused,
+muttering between his teeth, "Congratulate yourself; he died at ten
+o'clock."
+
+We looked at him in terror.
+
+"Congratulate yourself," he repeated.  "Did he not say that I should
+congratulate myself?  What could he have meant?"
+
+"What has reminded you of those words?"  I asked; "and what have they to
+do with the present business?"
+
+"I did not then understand what the man meant, but now I do.  Oh, it is
+intolerable to be subject to a master."
+
+"Gracious prince!"
+
+"Who can make us feel our dependence.  Ha! it must be sweet, indeed."
+
+He again paused.  His looks alarmed me, for I had never before seen him
+thus agitated.
+
+"Whether a man be poorest of the poor," he continued, "or the next heir
+to the throne, it is all one and the same thing.  There is but one
+difference between men--to obey or to command."
+
+He again glanced over the letter.
+
+"You know the man," he continued, "who has dared to write these words to
+me.  Would you salute him in the street if fate had not made him your
+master?  By Heaven, there is something great in a crown."
+
+He went on in this strain, giving expression to many things which I dare
+not trust to paper.  On this occasion the prince confided a circumstance
+to me which alike surprised and terrified me, and which may be followed
+by the most alarming consequences.  We have hitherto been entirely
+deceived regarding the family relations of the court of --------.
+
+He answered the letter on the spot, notwithstanding my earnest entreaty
+that he should postpone doing so; and the strain in which he wrote
+leaves no ground to hope for a favorable settlement of those
+differences.
+
+You are no doubt impatient, dear O------, to hear something definite
+with respect to the Greek; but in truth I have very little to tell you.
+From the prince I can learn nothing, as he has been admitted into her
+confidence, and is, I believe, bound to secrecy.  The fact has, however,
+transpired that she is not a Greek, as we supposed, but a German of the
+highest descent.  From a certain report that has reached me, it would
+appear that her mother is of the most exalted rank, and that she is the
+fruit of an unfortunate amour which was once talked of all over Europe.
+A course of secret persecution to which she had been exposed, in
+consequence of her origin, compelled her to seek protection in Venice,
+and to adopt that concealment which had rendered it impossible for the
+prince to discover her retreat.  The respect with which the prince
+speaks of her, and a certain deferential deportment which he maintains
+towards her, appear to corroborate the truth of this report.
+
+He is devoted to her with a fearful intensity of passion which increases
+day by day.  In the earliest stage of their acquaintance but few
+interviews were granted; but after the first week the separations were
+of shorter duration, and now there is scarce a day on which the prince
+is not with her.  Whole evenings pass without our even seeing him, and
+when he is not with her she appears to form the sole object of his
+thoughts.  His whole being seems metamorphosed.  He goes about as if
+wrapped in a dream, and nothing that formerly interested him has now
+power to arrest his attention even for a moment.
+
+How will this end, my dear friend?  I tremble for the future.  The
+rupture with his court has placed my master in a state of humiliating
+dependence on one sole person--the Marquis Civitella.  This man is now
+master of our secrets--of our whole fate.  Will he always conduct
+himself as nobly as he does now?  Are his good intentions to be relied
+upon; and is it expedient to confide so much weight and power to one
+person--even were he the best of men?  The prince's sister has again
+been written to--the result of this fresh appeal you shall learn in my
+next letter.
+
+
+
+
+COUNT O-------  IN CONTINUATION.
+
+This letter never reached me.  Three months passed without my receiving
+any tidings from Venice,--an interruption to our correspondence which
+the sequel but too clearly explained.  All my friend's letters to me had
+been kept back and suppressed.  My emotion may be conceived when, in the
+December of the same year, the following letter reached me by mere
+accident (as it afterwards appeared), owing to the sudden illness of
+Biondello, into whose hands it had been committed.
+
+"You do not write; you do not answer me.  Come, I entreat you, come on
+the wings of friendship!  Our hopes are fled!  Read the enclosed,--all
+our hopes are at an end!
+
+"The wounds of the marquis are reported mortal.  The cardinal vows
+vengeance, and his bravos are in pursuit of the prince.  My master--oh!
+my unhappy master!  Has it come to this!  Wretched, horrible fate!  We
+are compelled to hide ourselves, like malefactors, from assassins and
+creditors.
+
+"I am writing to you from the convent of --------, where the prince has
+found an asylum.  At this moment he is resting on his hard couch by my
+side, and is sleeping--but, alas! it is only the sleep of deadly
+exhaustion, that will but give him new strength for new trials.  During
+the ten days that she was ill no sleep closed his eyes.  I was present
+when the body was opened.  Traces of poison were detected.  To-day she
+is to be buried.
+
+"Alas! dearest O------, my heart is rent.  I have lived through scenes
+that can never be effaced from my memory.  I stood beside her deathbed.
+She departed like a saint, and her last strength was spent in trying
+with persuasive eloquence to lead her lover into the path that she was
+treading in her way to heaven.  Our firmness was completely gone--the
+prince alone maintained his fortitude, and although he suffered a triple
+agony of death with her, he yet retained strength of mind sufficient to
+refuse the last prayer of the pious enthusiast."
+
+This letter contained the following enclosure:
+
+TO THE PRINCE OF --------, FROM HIS SISTER.
+
+"The one sole redeeming church which has made so glorious a conquest of
+the Prince of -------- will surely not refuse to supply him with means
+to pursue the mode of life to which she owes this conquest.  I have
+tears and prayers for one that has gone astray, but nothing further to
+bestow on one so worthless!  HENRIETTE."
+
+
+I instantly threw myself into a carriage--travelled night and day, and
+in the third week I was in Venice.  My speed availed nothing.  I had
+come to bring comfort and help to an unhappy one, but I found a happy
+one who needed not my weak aid.  F------- was ill when I arrived, and
+unable to see me, but the following note was brought to me from him.
+
+"Return, dearest O-----, to whence you came.  The prince no longer needs
+you or me.  His debts have been paid; the cardinal is reconciled to him,
+and the marquis has recovered.  Do you remember the Armenian who
+perplexed us so much last year?  In his arms you will find the prince,
+who five days since attended mass for the first time."
+
+Notwithstanding all this I earnestly sought an interview with the
+prince, but was refused.  By the bedside of my friend I learnt the
+particulars of this strange story.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE SPORT OF DESTINY
+
+ALOYSIUS VON G------  was the son of a citizen of distinction, in the
+service of -------, and the germs of his fertile genius had been early
+developed by a liberal education.  While yet very young, but already
+well grounded in the principles of knowledge, he entered the military
+service of his sovereign, to whom he soon made himself known as a young
+man of great merit and still greater promise.  G------ was now in the
+full glow of youth, so also was the prince.  G------ was ardent and
+enterprising; the prince, of a similar disposition, loved such
+characters.  Endued with brilliant wit and a rich fund of information,
+G------ possessed the art of ingratiating himself with all around him;
+he enlivened every circle in which he moved by his felicitous humor, and
+infused life and spirit into every subject that came before him.  The
+prince had discernment enough to appreciate in another those virtues
+which he himself possessed in an eminent degree.  Everything which
+G------ undertook, even to his very sports, had an air of grandeur; no
+difficulties could daunt him, no failures vanquish his perseverance.
+The value of these qualities was increased by an attractive person, the
+perfect image of blooming health and herculean strength, and heightened
+by the eloquent expression natural to an active mind; to these was added
+a certain native and unaffected dignity, chastened and subdued by a
+noble modesty.  If the prince was charmed with the intellectual
+attractions of his young companion, his fascinating exterior
+irresistibly captivated his senses.  Similarity of age, of tastes, and
+of character soon produced an intimacy between them, which possessed all
+the strength of friendship and all the warmth and fervor of the most
+passionate love.  G------  rose with rapidity from one promotion to
+another; but whatever the extent of favors conferred they still seemed
+in the estimation of the prince to fall short of his deserts.  His
+fortune advanced with gigantic strides, for the author of his greatness
+was his devoted admirer and his warmest friend.  Not yet twenty-two
+years of age, he already saw himself placed on an eminence hitherto
+attained only by the most fortunate at the close of their career.  But
+his active spirit was incapable of reposing long in the lap of indolent
+vanity, or of contenting itself with the glittering pomp of an elevated
+office, to perform the behests of which he was conscious of possessing
+both the requisite courage and the abilities.  Whilst the prince was
+engaged in rounds of pleasure, his young favorite buried himself among
+archives and books, and devoted himself with laborious assiduity to
+affairs of state, in which he at length became so expert that every
+matter of importance passed through his hands.  From the companion of
+his pleasures he soon became first councillor and minister, and finally
+the ruler of his sovereign.  In a short time there was no road to the
+prince's favor but through him.  He disposed of all offices and
+dignities; all rewards were received from his hands.
+
+G------ had attained this vast influence at too early an age, and had
+risen by too rapid strides to enjoy his power with moderation.  The
+eminence on which he beheld himself made his ambition dizzy, and no
+sooner was the final object of his wishes attained than his modesty
+forsook him.  The respectful deference shown him by the first nobles of
+the land, by all who, in birth, fortune, and reputation, so far
+surpassed him, and which was even paid to him, youth as he was, by the
+oldest senators, intoxicated his pride, while his unlimited power served
+to develop a certain harshness which had been latent in his character,
+and which, throughout all the vicissitudes of his fortune, remained.
+There was no service, however considerable or toilsome, which his
+friends might not safely ask at his hands; but his enemies might well
+tremble! for, in proportion as he was extravagant in rewards, so was he
+implacable in revenge.  He made less use of his influence to enrich
+himself than to render happy a number of beings who should pay homage
+to him as the author of their prosperity; but caprice alone, and not
+justice, dictated the choice of his subjects.  By a haughty, imperious
+demeanor he alienated the hearts even of those whom he had most
+benefited; while at the same time he converted his rivals and secret
+enviers into deadly enemies.
+
+Amongst those who watched all his movements with jealousy and envy, and
+who were silently preparing instruments for his destruction, was Joseph
+Martinengo, a Piedmontese count belonging to the prince's suite, whom
+G------ himself had formerly promoted, as an inoffensive creature,
+devoted to his interests, for the purpose of supplying his own place in
+attending upon the pleasures of the prince--an office which he began to
+find irksome, and which he willingly exchanged for more useful
+employment.  Viewing this man merely as the work of his own hands, whom
+he might at any period consign to his former insignificance, he felt
+assured of the fidelity of his creature from motives of fear no less
+than of gratitude.  He fell thus into the error committed by Richelieu,
+when he made over to Louis XII., as a sort of plaything, the young Le
+Grand.  Without Richelieu's sagacity, however, to repair his error, he
+had to deal with a far more wily enemy than fell to the lot of the
+French minister.  Instead of boasting of his good fortune, or allowing
+his benefactor to feel that be could now dispense with his patronage,
+Martinengo was, on the contrary, the more cautious to maintain a show of
+dependence, and with studied humility affected to attach himself more
+and more closely to the author of his prosperity.  Meanwhile, he did not
+omit to avail himself, to its fullest extent, of the opportunities
+afforded him by his office, of being continually about the prince's
+person, to make himself daily more useful, and eventually indispensable
+to him.  In a short time he had fathomed the prince's sentiments
+thoroughly, had discovered all the avenues to his confidence, and
+imperceptibly stolen himself into his favor.  All those arts which a
+noble pride, and a natural elevation of character, had taught the
+minister to disdain, were brought into play by the Italian, who scrupled
+not to avail himself of the most despicable means for attaining his
+object.  Well aware that man never stands so much in need of a guide and
+assistant as in the paths of vice, and that nothing gives a stronger
+title to bold familiarity than a participation in secret indiscretions,
+he took measures for exciting passions in the prince which had hitherto
+lain dormant, and then obtruded himself upon him as a confidant and an
+accomplice.  He plunged him especially into those excesses which least
+of all endure witnesses, and imperceptibly accustomed the prince to make
+him the depository of secrets to which no third person was admitted.
+Upon the degradation of the prince's character he now began to found his
+infamous schemes of aggrandizement, and, as he had made secrecy a means
+of success, he had obtained entire possession of his master's heart
+before G------ even allowed himself to suspect that he shared it with
+another.
+
+It may appear singular that so important a change should escape the
+minister's notice; but G------ was too well assured of his own worth
+ever to think of a man like Martinengo in the light of a competitor;
+while the latter was far too wily, and too much on his guard, to commit
+the least error which might tend to rouse his enemy from his fatal
+security.  That which has caused thousands of his predecessors to
+stumble on the slippery path of royal favor was also the cause of
+G------'s fall, immoderate self-confidence.  The secret intimacy between
+his creature, Martinengo, and his royal master gave him no uneasiness;
+he readily resigned a privilege which he despised and which had never
+been the object of his ambition.  It was only because it smoothed his
+way to power that he had ever valued the prince's friendship, and he
+inconsiderately threw down the ladder by which he had risen as soon as
+he had attained the wished-for eminence.
+
+Martinengo was not the man to rest satisfied with so subordinate a part.
+At each step which he advanced in the prince's favor his hopes rose
+higher, and his ambition began to grasp at a more substantial
+gratification.  The deceitful humility which he had hitherto found it
+necessary to maintain towards his benefactor became daily more irksome
+to him, in proportion as the growth of his reputation awakened his
+pride.  On the other hand, the minister's deportment toward him by no
+means improved with his marked progress in the prince's favor, but was
+often too visibly directed to rebuke his growing pride by reminding him
+of his humble origin.  This forced and unnatural position having become
+quite insupportable, he at length formed the determination of putting an
+end to it by the destruction of his rival.  Under an impenetrable veil
+of dissimulation he brought his plan to maturity.  He dared not venture
+as yet to come into open conflict with his rival; for, although the
+first glow of the minister's favor was at an end, it had commenced too
+early, and struck root too deeply in the bosom of the prince, to be torn
+from it abruptly.  The slightest circumstance might restore it to all
+its former vigor; and therefore Martinengo well understood that the blow
+which he was about to strike must be a mortal one.  Whatever ground
+G------ might have lost in the prince's affections he had gained in his
+respect.  The more the prince withdrew himself from the affairs of
+state, the less could he dispense with the services of a man, who with
+the most conscientious devotion and fidelity had consulted his master's
+interests, even at the expense of the country,--and G------ was now as
+indispensable to him as a minister as he had formerly been dear to him
+as a friend.
+
+By what means the Italian accomplished his purpose has remained a secret
+between those on whom the blow fell and those who directed it.  It was
+reported that he laid before the prince the original draughts of a
+secret and very suspicious correspondence which G------  is said to have
+carried on with a neighboring court; but opinions differ as to whether
+the letters were authentic or spurious. Whatever degree of truth there
+may have been in the accusation it is but too certain that it fearfully
+accomplished the end in view.  In the eyes of the prince G-----
+appeared the most ungrateful and vilest of traitors, whose treasonable
+practices were so thoroughly proved as to warrant the severest measures
+without further in vestigation.  The whole affair was arranged with the
+most profound secrecy between Martinengo and his master, so that G------
+had not the most distant presentiment of the impending storm.  He
+continued wrapped in this fatal security until the dreadful moment in
+which he was destined, from being the object of universal homage and
+envy, to become that of the deepest commiseration.
+
+When the decisive day arrived, G------ appeared, according to custom,
+upon the parade.  He had risen in a few years from the rank of ensign to
+that of colonel; and even this was only a modest name for that of prime
+minister, which he virtually filled, and which placed him above the
+foremost of the land.  The parade was the place where his pride was
+greeted with universal homage, and where he enjoyed for one short hour
+the dignity for which he endured a whole day of toil and privation.
+Those of the highest rank approached him with reverential deference,
+and those who were not assured of his favor with fear and trembling.
+Even the prince, whenever he visited the parade, saw himself neglected
+by the side of his vizier, inasmuch as it was far more dangerous to
+incur the displeasure of the latter than profitable to gain the
+friendship of the former.  This very place, where he was wont to be
+adored as a god, had been selected for the dreadful theatre of his
+humiliation.
+
+With a careless step he entered the well-known circle of courtiers,
+who, as unsuspicious as himself of what was to follow, paid their usual
+homage, awaiting his commands.  After a short interval appeared
+Martinengo, accompanied by two adjutants, no longer the supple,
+cringing, smiling courtier, but overbearing and insolent, like a lackey
+suddenly raised to the rank of a gentleman.  With insolence and
+effrontery he strutted up to the prime minister, and, confronting him
+with his head covered, demanded his sword in the prince's name.  This
+was handed to him with a look of silent consternation; Martinengo,
+resting the naked point on the ground, snapped it in two with his foot,
+and threw the fragments at G-----'s feet.  At this signal the two
+adjutants seized him; one tore the Order of the Cross from his breast;
+the other pulled off his epaulettes, the facings of his uniform, and
+even the badge and plume of feathers from his hat.  During the whole of
+the appalling operation, which was conducted with incredible speed, not
+a sound nor a respiration was heard from more than five hundred persons
+who were present; but all, with blanched faces and palpitating hearts,
+stood in deathlike silence around the victim, who in his strange
+disarray--a rare spectacle of the melancholy and the ridiculous--
+underwent a moment of agony which could only be equalled by feelings
+engendered on the scaffold.  Thousands there are who in his situation
+would have been stretched senseless on the ground by the first shock;
+but his firm nerves and unflinching spirit sustained him through this
+bitter trial, and enabled him to drain the cup of bitterness to its
+dregs.
+
+When this procedure was ended he was conducted through rows of thronging
+spectators to the extremity of the parade, where a covered carriage was
+in waiting.  He was motioned to ascend, an escort of hussars being
+ready-mounted to attend to him.  Meanwhile the report of this event had
+spread through the whole city; every window was flung open, every street
+lined with throngs of curious spectators, who pursued the carriage,
+shouting his name, amid cries of scorn and malicious exultation, or of
+commiseration more bitter to bear than either.  At length he cleared the
+town, but here a no less fearful trial awaited him.  The carriage turned
+out of the high road into a narrow, unfrequented path--a path which led
+to the gibbet, and alongside which, by command of the prince, he was
+borne at a slow pace.  After he had suffered all the torture of
+anticipated execution the carriage turned off into the public road.
+Exposed to the sultry summer-heat, without refreshment or human
+consolation, he passed seven dreadful hours in journeying to the place
+of destination--a prison fortress.  It was nightfall before he arrived;
+when, bereft of all consciousness, more dead than alive, his giant
+strength having at length yielded to twelve hours' fast and consuming
+thirst, he was dragged from the carriage; and, on regaining his senses,
+found himself in a horrible subterraneous vault.  The first object that
+presented itself to his gaze was a horrible dungeon-wall, feebly
+illuminated by a few rays of the moon, which forced their way through
+narrow crevices to a depth of nineteen fathoms.  At his side he found a
+coarse loaf, a jug of water, and a bundle of straw for his couch.  He
+endured this situation until noon the ensuing day, when an iron wicket
+in the centre of the tower was opened, and two hands were seen lowering
+a basket, containing food like that he had found the preceding night.
+For the first time since the terrible change in his fortunes did pain
+and suspense extort from him a question or two.  Why was he brought
+hither?  What offence had he committed?  But he received no answer; the
+hands disappeared; and the sash was closed.  Here, without beholding the
+face, or hearing the voice of a fellow-creature; without the least clue
+to his terrible destiny; fearful doubts and misgivings overhanging alike
+the past and the future; cheered by no rays of the sun, and soothed by
+no refreshing breeze; remote alike from human aid and human compassion;
+--here, in this frightful abode of misery, he numbered four hundred and
+ninety long and mournful days, which he counted by the wretched loaves
+that, day after day, with dreary monotony, were let down into his
+dungeon.  But a discovery which he one day made early in his confinement
+filled up the measure of his affliction.  He recognized the place.  It
+was the same which he himself, in a fit of unworthy vengeance against a
+deserving officer, who had the misfortune to displease him, had ordered
+to be constructed only a few months before.  With inventive cruelty he
+had even suggested the means by which the horrors of captivity might be
+aggravated; and it was but recently that he had made a journey hither in
+order personally to inspect the place and hasten its completion.  What
+added the last bitter sting to his punishment was that the same officer
+for whom he had prepared the dungeon, an aged and meritorious colonel,
+had just succeeded the late commandant of the fortress, recently
+deceased, and, from having been the victim of his vengeance, had become
+the master of his fate.  He was thus deprived of the last melancholy
+solace, the right of compassionating himself, and of accusing destiny,
+hardly as it might use him, of injustice.  To the acuteness of his other
+suffering was now added a bitter self-contempt, contempt, and the pain
+which to a sensitive mind is the severest--dependence upon the
+generosity of a foe to whom he had shown none.
+
+But that upright man was too noble-minded to take a mean revenge.
+It pained him deeply to enforce the severities which his instructions
+enjoined; but as an old soldier, accustomed to fulfil his orders to
+the letter with blind fidelity, he could do no more than pity,
+compassionate.  The unhappy man found a more active assistant in the
+chaplain of the garrison, who, touched by the sufferings of the
+prisoner, which had just reached his ears, and then only through vague
+and confused reports, instantly took a firm resolution to do something
+to alleviate them.  This excellent man, whose name I unwillingly
+suppress, believed he could in no way better fulfil his holy vocation
+than by bestowing his spiritual support and consolation upon a wretched
+being deprived of all other hopes of mercy.
+
+As he could not obtain permission from the commandant himself to visit
+him he repaired in person to the capital, in order to urge his suit
+personally with the prince.  He fell at his feet, and implored mercy for
+the unhappy man, who, shut out from the consolations of Christianity, a
+privilege from which even the greatest crime ought not to debar him, was
+pining in solitude, and perhaps on the brink of despair.  With all the
+intrepidity and dignity which the conscious discharge of duty inspires,
+he entreated, nay demanded, free access to the prisoner, whom he claimed
+as a penitent for whose soul he was responsible to heaven.  The good
+cause in which he spoke made him eloquent, and time had already somewhat
+softened the prince's anger.  He granted him permission to visit the
+prisoner, and administer to his spiritual wants.
+
+After a lapse of sixteen months, the first human face which the unhappy
+G------ beheld was that of his new benefactor.  The only friend he had
+in the world he owed to his misfortunes, all his prosperity had gained
+him none.  The good pastor's visit was like the appearance of an angel--
+it would be impossible to describe his feelings, but from that day forth
+his tears flowed more kindly, for he had found one human being who
+sympathized with and compassionated him.
+
+The pastor was filled with horror on entering the frightful vault.  His
+eyes sought a human form, but beheld, creeping towards him from a corner
+opposite, which resembled rather the lair of a wild beast than the abode
+of anything human, a monster, the sight of which made his blood run
+cold.  A ghastly deathlike skeleton, all the hue of life perished from a
+face on which grief and despair had traced deep furrows--his beard and
+nails, from long neglect, grown to a frightful length-his clothes rotten
+and hanging about him in tatters; and the air he breathed, for want of
+ventilation and cleansing, foul, fetid, and infectious.  In this state
+be found the favorite of fortune;--his iron frame had stood proof
+against it all!  Seized with horror at the sight, the pastor hurried
+back to the governor, in order to solicit a second indulgence for the
+poor wretch, without which the first would prove of no avail.
+
+As the governor again excused himself by pleading the imperative nature
+of his instructions, the pastor nobly resolved on a second journey to
+the capital, again to supplicate the prince's mercy.  There he protested
+solemnly that, without violating the sacred character of the sacrament,
+be could not administer it to the prisoner until some resemblance of the
+human form was restored to him.  This prayer was also granted; and from
+that day forward the unfortunate man might be said to begin a new
+existence.
+
+Several long years were spent by him in the fortress, but in a much more
+supportable condition, after the short summer of the new favorite's
+reign had passed, and others succeeded in his place, who either
+possessed more humanity or no motive for revenge.  At length, after ten
+years of captivity, the hour of his delivery arrived, but without any
+judicial investigation or formal acquittal.  He was presented with his
+freedom as a boon of mercy, and was, at the same time, ordered to quit
+his native country forever.
+
+Here the oral traditions which I have been able to collect respecting
+his history begin to fail; and I find myself compelled to pass in
+silence over a period of about twenty years.  During the interval
+G------ entered anew upon his military career, in a foreign service,
+which eventually brought him to a pitch of greatness quite equal to that
+from which he had, in his native country, been so awfully precipitated.
+At length time, that friend of the unfortunate, who works a slow but
+inevitable retribution, took into his hands the winding up of this
+affair.  The prince's days of passion were over; humanity gradually
+resumed its sway over him as his hair whitened with age.  At the brink
+of the grave he felt a yearning towards the friend of his early youth.
+In order to repay, as far as possible, the gray-headed old man, for the
+injuries which had been heaped upon the youth, the prince, with friendly
+expressions, invited the exile to revisit his native land, towards which
+for some time past G------'s heart had secretly yearned.  The meeting
+was extremely trying, though apparently warm and cordial, as if they had
+only separated a few days before.  The prince looked earnestly at his
+favorite, as if trying to recall features so well known to him, and yet
+so strange; he appeared as if numbering the deep furrows which he had
+himself so cruelly traced there.  He looked searchingly in the old man's
+face for the beloved features of the youth, but found not what he
+sought.  The welcome and the look of mutual confidence were evidently
+forced on both sides; shame on one side and dread on the other had
+forever separated their hearts.  A sight which brought back to the
+prince's soul the full sense of his guilty precipitancy could not be
+gratifying to him, while G------ felt that he could no longer love the
+author of his misfortunes.  Comforted, nevertheless, and in
+tranquillity, he looked back upon the past as the remembrance of a
+fearful dream.
+
+In a short time G------  was reinstated in all his former dignities, and
+the prince smothered his feelings of secret repugnance by showering upon
+him the most splendid favors as some indemnification for the past.  But
+could he also restore to him the heart which he had forever untuned for
+the enjoyment of life?  Could he restore his years of hope?  or make
+even a shadow of reparation to the stricken old man for what he had
+stolen from him in the days of his youth?
+
+For nineteen years G------- continued to enjoy this clear, unruffled
+evening of his days.  Neither misfortune nor age had been able to quench
+in him the fire of passion, nor wholly to obscure the genial humor of
+his character.  In his seventieth year he was still in pursuit of the
+shadow of a happiness which he had actually possessed in his twentieth.
+He at length died governor of the fortress where state prisoners are
+confined.  One would naturally have expected that towards these he would
+have exercised a humanity, the value of which he had been so thoroughly
+taught to appreciate in his own person; but he treated them with
+harshness and caprice; and a paroxysm of rage, in which he broke out
+against one of his prisoners, laid him in his coffin, in his eightieth
+year.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GHOST-SEER, BY SCHILLER ***
+
+******** This file should be named fs21w10.txt or fs21w10.zip ********
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, fs21w11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, fs21w10a.txt
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
+
diff --git a/old/fs21w10.zip b/old/fs21w10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..18a2166
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/fs21w10.zip
diff --git a/old/fs21w10h.zip b/old/fs21w10h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..80cd103
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/fs21w10h.zip