initial commit of ebook 10095HEADmain

10 files changed, 52269 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/10095-0.txt b/old/10095-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4572b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10095-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9981 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales, by Richard Garnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
+
+Author: Richard Garnett
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2003 [eBook #10095]
+[Most recently updated: October 1, 2022]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS ***
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE TWILIGHT
+OF THE GODS:
+AND OTHER TALES
+
+by Richard Garnett
+
+MDCCCCIII
+
+
+
+
+TO
+HORACE HOWARD FURNESS
+AND
+GEORG BRANDES.
+DABO DUOBUS TESTIBUS MEIS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ The Twilight of the Gods
+ The Potion of Lao-Tsze
+ Abdallah the Adite
+ Ananda the Miracle Worker
+ The City of Philosophers
+ The Demon Pope
+ The Cupbearer
+ The Wisdom of the Indians
+ The Dumb Oracle
+ Duke Virgil
+ The Claw
+ Alexander the Ratcatcher
+ The Rewards of Industry
+ Madam Lucifer
+ The Talismans
+ The Elixir of Life
+ The Poet of Panopolis
+ The Purple Head
+ The Firefly
+ Pan’s Wand
+ A Page from the Book of Folly
+ The Bell of Saint Euschemon
+ Bishop Addo and Bishop Gaddo
+ The Philosopher and the Butterflies
+ Truth and Her Companions
+ The Three Palaces
+ New Readings in Biography
+ The Poison Maid
+ NOTES
+
+
+
+
+THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
+
+
+Truth fails not, but her outward forms that bear
+The longest date do melt like frosty rime.
+
+I
+
+The fourth Christian century was far past its meridian, when, high
+above the summit of the supreme peak of Caucasus, a magnificent eagle
+came sailing on broad fans into the blue, and his shadow skimmed the
+glittering snow as it had done day by day for thousands of years. A
+human figure—or it might be superhuman, for his mien seemed more than
+mortal—lifted from the crag, to which he hung suspended by massy gyves
+and rivets, eyes mournful with the presentiment of pain. The eagle’s
+screech clanged on the wind, as with outstretched neck he stooped
+earthward in ever narrowing circles; his huge quills already creaked in
+his victim’s ears, whose flesh crept and shrank, and involuntary
+convulsions agitated his hands and feet. Then happened what all these
+millenniums had never witnessed. No thunderbolt had blazed forth from
+that dome of cloudless blue; no marksman had approached the
+inaccessible spot; yet, without vestige of hurt, the eagle dropped
+lifeless, falling sheer down into the unfathomable abyss below. At the
+same moment the bonds of the captive snapped asunder, and, projected by
+an impetus which kept him clear of the perpendicular precipice, he
+alighted at an infinite depth on a sun-flecked greensward amid young
+ash and oak, where he long lay deprived of sense and motion.
+
+The sun fell, dew gathered on the grass, moonshine glimpsed through the
+leaves, stars peeped timidly at the prostrate figure, which remained
+prostrate and unconscious still. But as sunlight was born anew in the
+East a thrill passed over the slumberer, and he became conscious, first
+of an indescribably delicious feeling of restful ease, then of a
+gnawing pang, acute as the beak of the eagle for which he at first
+mistook it. But his wrists, though still encumbered with bonds and
+trailing fetters, were otherwise at liberty, and eagle there was none.
+Marvelling at his inward and invisible foe, he struggled to his feet,
+and found himself contending with a faintness and dizziness heretofore
+utterly unknown to him. He dimly felt himself in the midst of things
+grown wonderful by estrangement and distance. No grass, no flower, no
+leaf had met his eye for thousands of years, nothing but the
+impenetrable azure, the transient cloud, sun, moon, and star, the
+lightning flash, the glittering peaks of ice, and the solitary eagle.
+There seemed more wonder in a blade of grass than in all these things,
+but all was blotted in a dizzy swoon, and it needed his utmost effort
+to understand that a light sound hard by, rapidly growing more
+distinct, was indeed a footfall. With a violent effort he steadied
+himself by grasping a tree, and had hardly accomplished so much when a
+tall dark maiden, straight as an arrow, slim as an antelope, wildly
+beautiful as a Dryad, but liker a Maenad with her aspect of mingled
+disdain and dismay, and step hasty as of one pursuing or pursued,
+suddenly checked her speed on perceiving him.
+
+“Who art thou?” he exclaimed.
+
+“Gods! Thou speakest Greek!”
+
+“What else should I speak?”
+
+“What else? From whom save thee, since I closed my father’s eyes, have
+I heard the tongue of Homer and Plato?”
+
+“Who is Homer? Who is Plato?”
+
+The maiden regarded him with a look of the deepest astonishment.
+
+“Surely,” she said, “thy gift has been bestowed upon thee to little
+purpose. Say not, at least, that thou usest the speech of the Gods to
+blaspheme them. Thou art surely yet a votary of Zeus?”
+
+“I a votary of Zeus!” exclaimed the stranger. “By these fetters, no!”
+And, weak as he was, the forest rang with his disdainful laughter.
+
+“Farewell,” said the maiden, as with dilating form and kindling eye she
+gathered up her robes. “I parley with thee no more. Thou art tenfold
+more detestable than the howling mob down yonder, intent on rapine and
+destruction. They know no better, and can no other. But thou, apt in
+speaking the sacred tongue yet brutally ignorant of its treasures,
+knowing the father of the Gods only to revile him! Let me pass.”
+
+The stranger, if willing to hinder her, seemed little able. His eyes
+closed, his limbs relaxed, and without a cry he sank senseless on the
+sward.
+
+In an instant the maiden was kneeling by his side. Hastily undoing a
+basket she carried on her arm, she drew forth a leather flask, and,
+supporting the sunken head with one hand, poured a stream of wine
+through the lips with the other. As the gurgling purple coursed down
+his throat the sufferer opened his eyes, and thanked her silently with
+a smile of exquisite sweetness. Removing the large leaves which shaded
+the contents of the basket, she disclosed ripe figs and pomegranates,
+honeycomb and snow-white curd, lying close to each other in tempting
+array. The stranger took of each alternately, and the basket was
+well-nigh emptied ere his appetite seemed assuaged.
+
+The observant maiden, meanwhile, felt her mood strangely altered.
+
+“So have I imaged Ulysses to myself,” she thought as she gazed on the
+stranger’s goodly form, full of vigour, though not without traces of
+age, the massive brow, the kindly mouth, the expression of far-seeing
+wisdom. “Such a man ignorant of letters, and a contemner of Zeus!”
+
+The stranger’s eloquent thanks roused her from a reverie. The Greek
+tongue fell upon her ear like the sweetest music, and she grieved when
+its flow was interrupted by a question addressed directly to herself.
+
+“Can a God feel hunger and thirst?”
+
+“Surely no,” she rejoined.
+
+“I should have said the same yesterday,” returned the stranger.
+
+“Wherefore not to-day?”
+
+“Dear maiden,” responded he, with winning voice and manner, “we must
+know each other better ere my tale can gain credence with thee. Do thou
+rather unfold what thine own speech has left dark to me. Why the
+language of the Gods, as should seem, is here understood by thee and me
+alone; what foes Zeus has here other than myself; what is the profane
+crowd of which thou didst speak; and why, alone and defenceless, thou
+ascendest this mountain. Think of me, if thou wilt, as one fallen from
+the clouds.”
+
+“Strange man,” returned the maiden, “who knowest Homer’s speech and not
+Homer’s self, who renouncest Zeus and resemblest him, hear my tale ere
+I require thine. Yesterday I should have called myself the last
+priestess of Apollo in this fallen land, to-day I have neither shrine
+nor altar. Moved by I know not what madness, my countrymen have long
+ago forsaken the worship of the Gods. The temples crumbled into ruin,
+prayer was no longer offered or sacrifice made as of old, the priestly
+revenues were plundered; the sacred vessels carried away; the voice of
+oracles became dumb; the divine tongue of Greece was forgotten, its
+scrolls of wisdom mouldered unread, and the deluded people turned to
+human mechanics and fishermen. One faithful servant of Apollo remained,
+my father; but ’tis seven days since he closed his eyes for ever. It
+was time, for yesternoon the heralds proclaimed by order of the King
+that Zeus and the Olympians should be named no more in Caucasia.”
+
+“Ha!” interrupted the stranger, “I see it all. Said I not so?” he
+shouted, gazing into the sky as if his eye could pierce and his voice
+reach beyond the drifting clouds. “But to thy own tale,” he added,
+turning with a gesture of command to the astonished Elenko.
+
+“It is soon told,” she said. “I knew that it was death to serve the
+Gods any more, yet none the less in my little temple did fire burn upon
+Apollo’s altar this morning. Scarcely was it kindled ere I became aware
+of a ruffianly mob thronging to sack and spoil. I was ready for death,
+but not at their hands. I caught up this basket, and escaped up the
+mountain. On its inaccessible summit, it is reported, hangs Prometheus,
+whom Zeus (let me bow in awe before his inscrutable counsels) doomed
+for his benevolence to mankind. To him, as Aeschylus sings, Io of old
+found her way, and from him received monition and knowledge of what
+should come to pass. I will try if courage and some favouring God will
+guide me to him; if not, I will die as near Heaven as I may attain.
+Tell me on thy part what thou wilt, and let me depart. If thou art
+indeed Zeus’s enemy, thou wilt find enough on thy side down yonder.”
+
+“I have been Zeus’s enemy,” returned the stranger, mildly and gravely,
+“I am so no longer. Immortal hate befits not the mortal I feel myself
+to have become. Nor needest thou ascend the peak further. Maiden, I am
+Prometheus!”
+
+II
+
+It is a prerogative of the Gods that, when they do speak sooth, mortals
+must needs believe them. Elenko hence felt no incredulity at the
+revelation of Prometheus, or sought other confirmation than the bonds
+and broken links of chain at his wrists and ankles.
+
+“Now,” he cried, or rather shouted, “is the prophecy fulfilled with
+which of old I admonished the Gods in the halls of Olympus. I told them
+that Zeus should beget a child mightier than himself, who should send
+him and them the way he had sent his father. I knew not that this child
+was already begotten, and that his name was Man. It has taken Man ages
+to assert himself, nor has he yet, as it would seem, done more than
+enthrone a new idol in the place of the old. But for the old, behold
+the last traces of its authority in these fetters, of which the first
+smith will rid me. Expect no thunderbolt, dear maiden; none will come:
+nor shall I regain the immortality of which I feel myself bereaved
+since yesterday.”
+
+“Is this no sorrow to thee?” asked Elenko.
+
+“Has not my immortality been one of pain?” answered Prometheus. “Now I
+feel no pain, and dread one only.”
+
+“And that is?”
+
+“The pain of missing a certain fellow-mortal,” answered Prometheus,
+with a look so expressive that the hitherto unawed maiden cast her eyes
+to the ground. Hastening away from the conversation to which,
+nevertheless, she inly purposed to return.
+
+“Is Man, then, the maker of Deity?” she asked.
+
+“Can the source of his being originate in himself?” asked Prometheus.
+“To assert this were self-contradiction, and pride inflated to madness.
+But of the more exalted beings who have like him emanated from the
+common principle of all existence, Man, since his advent on the earth,
+though not the creator, is the preserver or the destroyer. He looks up
+to them, and they are; he out-grows them, and they are not. For the
+barbarian and Triballian gods there is no return; but the Olympians, if
+dead as deities, survive as impersonations of Man’s highest conceptions
+of the beautiful. Languid and spectral indeed must be their existence
+in this barbarian age; but better days are in store for them.”
+
+“And for thee, Prometheus?”
+
+“There is now no place,” replied he, “for an impeacher of the Gods. My
+cause is won, my part is played. I am rewarded for my love of man by
+myself becoming human. When I shall have proved myself also mortal I
+may haply traverse realms which Zeus never knew, with, I would hope,
+Elenko by my side.”
+
+Elenko’s countenance expressed her full readiness to accompany
+Prometheus as far beyond the limits of the phenomenal world as he might
+please to conduct her. A thought soon troubled her delicious reverie,
+and she inquired:
+
+“Peradventure, then, the creed which I have execrated may be truer and
+better than that which I have professed?”
+
+“If born in wiser brains and truer hearts, aye,” answered Prometheus,
+“but of this I can have no knowledge. It seems from thy tale to have
+begun but ill. Yet Saturn mutilated his father, and his reign was the
+Golden Age.”
+
+While conversing, hand locked in hand, they had been strolling
+aimlessly down the mountain. Turning an abrupt bend in the path, they
+suddenly found themselves in presence of an assembly of early
+Christians.
+
+These confessors were making the most of Elenko’s dilapidated temple,
+whose smoking shell threw up a sable column in the background. The
+effigies of Apollo and the Muses had been dragged forth, and were being
+diligently broken up with mallets and hammers. Others of the
+sacrilegious throng were rending scrolls, or dividing vestments, or
+firing the grove of laurel that environed the shrine, or pelting the
+affrighted birds as they flew forth. The sacred vessels, however, at
+least those of gold and silver, appeared safe in the guardianship of an
+episcopal personage of shrewd and jovial aspect, under whose inspection
+they were being piled up by a troop of sturdy young ecclesiastics, the
+only weapon-bearers among the rabble. Elenko stood riveted to the
+ground. Prometheus, to her amazement, rushed forward to one of the
+groups with a loud “By all the Gods and Goddesses!” Following his
+movements, she saw that the object of his interest was an enormous dead
+eagle carried by one of the mob. The multitude, startled by his cry and
+his emotion, gazed eagerly at the strangers, and instantly a shout went
+up:
+
+“The heathen woman!”
+
+“With a heathen man!”
+
+And clubs began to be brandished, and stones to be picked up from the
+ground.
+
+Prometheus, to whom the shouts were unintelligible, looked wistfully at
+Elenko. As their eyes met, Elenko’s countenance, which had hitherto
+been all disdain and defiance, assumed an expression of irresolution. A
+stone struck Prometheus on the temple, drawing blood; a hundred hands
+went up, each weighted with a missile.
+
+“Do as I,” cried Elenko to him, and crossed herself.
+
+Prometheus imitated her, not unsuccessfully for a novice.
+
+The uplifted arms were stayed, some even sank down.
+
+By this time the Bishop had bustled to the front, and addressed a
+torrent of questions to Prometheus, who merely shook his head, and
+turned to inspect the eagle.
+
+“Brethren,” said the Bishop, “I smell a miracle!” And, turning to
+Elenko, he rapidly proceeded to cross-examine her.
+
+“Thou wert the priestess of this temple?”
+
+“I was.”
+
+“Thou didst leave it this morning a heathen?”
+
+“I did.”
+
+“Thou returnest a Christian?”
+
+Elenko blushed fire, her throat swelled, her heart beat violently. All
+her soul seemed concentrated in the gaze she fastened on the pale and
+bleeding Prometheus. She remained silent—but she crossed herself.
+
+“Who then has persuaded thee to renounce Apollo?”
+
+Elenko pointed to Prometheus.
+
+“An enemy of Zeus, then?”
+
+“Zeus has not such another enemy in the world.”
+
+“I knew it, I was sure of it,” exclaimed the Bishop. “I can always tell
+a Christian when I see him. Wherefore speaks he not?”
+
+“He is ancient, for all his vigorous mien. His martyrdom began ere our
+present speech was, nor could he learn this in his captivity.”
+
+“Martyrdom! Captivity!” exclaimed the prelate gleefully, “I thought we
+were coming thither. An early martyr, doubtless?”
+
+“A very early martyr.”
+
+“Fettered and manacled?”
+
+“Behold his wrists and ankles.”
+
+“Tortured, of course?”
+
+“Incredibly.”
+
+“Miraculously kept alive to this day?”
+
+“In an entirely supernatural manner.”
+
+“Now,” said the Bishop, “I would wager my mitre and ring that his life
+was prolonged by the daily ministrations of yonder fowl that he
+caresses with such singular affection?”
+
+“Never,” replied Elenko, “for one day did that most punctual bird omit
+to visit him.”
+
+“Hurrah!” shouted the Bishop. “And now, its mission accomplished, the
+blessed creature, as I am informed, is found dead at the foot of the
+mountain. Saints and angels! this is glorious! On your knees, ye
+infidels!”
+
+And down they all went, the Bishop setting the example. As their heads
+were bowed to the earth, Elenko made a sign to Prometheus, and when the
+multitude looked up, it beheld him in the act of imparting the
+episcopal blessing.
+
+“Tell him that we are all his brethren,” said the Bishop, which
+announcement became in Elenko’s mouth, “Do as I do, and cleave to thy
+eagle.”
+
+A procession was formed. The new saint, his convert, and the eagle,
+rode in a car at the head of it. The Bishop, surrounded by his
+bodyguard, followed with the sacred vessels of Apollo, to which he had
+never ceased to direct a vigilant eye throughout the whole proceedings.
+The multitude swarmed along singing hymns, or contending for the stray
+feathers of the eagle. The representatives of seven monasteries put in
+their claims for the links of Prometheus’s fetters, but the Bishop
+scouted them all. He found time to whisper to Elenko:
+
+“You seem a sensible young person. Just hint to our friend that we
+don’t want to hear anything about his theology, and the less he talks
+about the primitive Church the better. No doubt he is a most
+intelligent man, but he cannot possibly be up to all the recent
+improvements.”
+
+Elenko promised most fervently that Prometheus’ theological sentiments
+should remain a mystery to the public. She then began to reflect very
+seriously on the subject of her own morals. “This day,” she said to
+herself, “I have renounced all the Gods, and told lies enough to last
+me my life, and for no other reason than that I am in love. If this is
+a sufficient reason, lovers must have a different code of morality from
+the rest of the world, and indeed it would appear that they have. Will
+you die for me? Yes. Admirable. Will you lie for me? No. Then you don’t
+love me. Βαλλ εισ κορακασ εισ Ταιναρον εισ Όγγ Κογγ.”
+
+III
+
+Elenko soon found that there was no pausing upon the path to which she
+had committed herself. As the sole medium of communication between
+Prometheus and the religious public, her time was half spent in
+instructing Prometheus in the creed in which he was supposed to have
+instructed her, and half in framing the edifying sentences which passed
+for the interpretation of discourses for the most part far more
+interesting to herself than if they had been what they professed to be.
+The rapt and impassioned attention which she was observed to bestow on
+his utterances on such occasions all but gained her the reputation of a
+saint, and was accepted as a sufficient set-off against the unhallowed
+affection which she could not help manifesting for the memory of her
+father. The judicious reluctance of the Caucasian ecclesiastics to
+inquire over-anxiously into the creeds and customs of the primitive
+Church was a great help to her; and another difficulty was removed by
+the Bishop, who, having no idea of encouraging a rival thaumaturgist,
+took an early opportunity of signifying that it was rather in the line
+of Desmotes (for by this name the new saint passed) to be the subject
+than the instrument of miracles, and that, at all events, no more were
+to be looked for from him at his time of life. The warmth with which
+Elenko espoused this view raised her greatly in his good opinion, and
+he was always ready to come to her aid when she became entangled in
+chronological or historical difficulties, or seasoned her versions of
+Desmotes’ speeches with reminiscences of Plato or Marcus Aurelius, or
+when her invention failed altogether. On such occasions, if objectors
+grew troublesome, the Bishop would thunder, “Brethren, I smell a
+heresy!” and no more was said. One minor trouble both to Prometheus and
+Elenko was the affection they were naturally expected to manifest
+towards the carcase of the wretched eagle, which many identified with
+the eagle of the Evangelist John. Prometheus was of a forgiving
+disposition, but Elenko wished nothing more ardently than that the
+whole aquiline race might have but one neck, and that she might wring
+it. It somewhat comforted her to observe that the eagle’s plumage was
+growing thin, while the eagle’s custodian was growing fat.
+
+But she had worse troubles to endure than any that eagles could
+occasion. The youth of those who resorted to her and Prometheus
+attracted remark from the graver members of the community. Young ladies
+found the precepts of the handsome and dignified saint indispensable to
+their spiritual health; young men were charmed with their purity as
+they came filtered through the lips of Elenko. Is man more conceited
+than woman, or more confiding? Elenko should certainly have been at
+ease; no temptress, however enterprising, could well be spreading her
+nets for an Antony three hundred years old. Prometheus, on the
+contrary, might have found cause for jealousy in many a noble youth’s
+unconcealed admiration of Elenko. Yet he seemed magnificently
+unconscious of any cause for apprehension, while Elenko’s heart swelled
+till it was like to burst. She had the further satisfaction of knowing
+herself the best hated woman in Caucasia, between the enmity of those
+of whose admirers she had made an involuntary conquest, and of those
+who found her standing between them and Prometheus. Her monopoly of
+Greek, she felt sure, was her only security. Two constant attendants at
+Prometheus’s receptions particularly alarmed her, the Princess Miriam,
+niece of the Bishop, a handsome widow accustomed to have things as she
+wished them; and a tall veiled woman who seemed unknown to all, but
+whose unseen eyes, she instinctively knew, were never averted from the
+unconscious Prometheus.
+
+It was therefore with some trepidation that she received a summons to
+the private apartment of the Princess Miriam.
+
+“Dear friend,” the Princess began, “thou knowest the singular affection
+which I have invariably entertained for thee.”
+
+“Right well do I know it,” responded Elenko. (“The thirty-first lie
+to-day,” she added wearily to herself.)
+
+“It is this affection, dear friend,” continued the Princess, “which
+induces me on the present occasion to transgress the limits of
+conventional propriety, and make a communication distressing to thee,
+but infinitely more so to myself.”
+
+Elenko implored the Princess to make no such sacrifice in the cause of
+friendship, but the great lady was resolute.
+
+“People say,” she continued—
+
+“What say they?”
+
+“That thy relation to Desmotes is indiscreet. That it is equivocal.
+That it is offensive. That it is sacrilegious. That, in a word, it is
+improper.”
+
+Elenko defended herself with as much energy as her candour would allow.
+
+“Dear friend,” said the Princess, “thou dost not imagine that I have
+part or lot in these odious imputations? Even could I deem them true,
+should I not think charitably of thee, but yesterday a heathen, and
+educated in impiety by a foul sorcerer? My poor lamb! But tongues must
+be stopped, and I have now to advise thee how this may be
+accomplished.”
+
+“Say on.”
+
+“People will always talk so long as thou art the sole medium of
+communication with the holy man. Some deem him less ignorant of our
+speech than he seems, but concerning this I inquire not: for, in
+society, what seems, is. Enough that thy colloquies expose thee to
+scandal. There is but one remedy. Thou must yield thy place to another.
+It is meet that thou forthwith instruct in that barbarous dialect some
+matron of unblemished repute and devout aspirations; no mere ignorant
+devotee, however, but a woman of the world, whose prudence and
+experience may preserve the holy man from the pitfalls set for him by
+the unprincipled. Manifestly she must be a married person, else nought
+were gained, yet must she not be chargeable with forsaking her duties
+towards her husband and children. It follows that she must be a widow.
+It were also well that she should be of kin to some influential
+personage, to whose counsel she might have recourse in times of
+difficulty, and whose authority might protect her against the
+slanderous and evil disposed. I have not been able to meet any one
+endowed with all these qualifications, excepting myself. I therefore
+propose to thee that thou shouldst instruct me in the speech of
+Desmotes, and when I am qualified to take thy place my uncle shall
+elevate thee to the dignity of Abbess, or bestow thee upon some young
+clergyman of extraordinary desert.”
+
+Elenko intimated, perhaps with more warmth than necessary, her aversion
+to both propositions, and the extreme improbability of the Princess
+ever acquiring any knowledge of Greek by her instrumentality.
+
+“If this is the case,” said the Princess, with perfect calmness, “I
+must have recourse to my other method, which is infallible.”
+
+Elenko inquired what it might be.
+
+“I shall represent to my uncle, what indeed he very well knows, that a
+saint is, properly speaking, of no value till he is dead. Not until his
+decease are his relics available, or pilgrimages to his shrine
+feasible. It is solely in anticipation of this event that my uncle is
+keeping Desmotes at all; and the sooner it comes to pass, the sooner
+will my revered relative come by his own. Only think of the capital
+locked up in the new church, now so nearly completed, on the spot where
+they picked up the eagle! How shall it be dedicated to Desmotes in
+Desmotes’ lifetime? Were it not a most blissful and appropriate
+coincidence if the day of the consecration were that of the saint’s
+migration to a better world? I shall submit this view of the case to my
+uncle: he is accustomed to hear reason from me, of whom, between
+ourselves, he is not a little afraid. Thou mayest rely upon it that
+about the time of the consecration Desmotes will ascend to heaven;
+while thou, it is gravely to be feared, wilt proceed in the opposite
+direction. Would’st thou avert this unpleasantness, think well of my
+first proposal. I give thee credit for loving Desmotes, and suppose,
+therefore, that thou wilt make some sacrifice for his sake. I am a
+Kettle, thou art a Pot. Take heed how thou knockest against me!”
+
+Elenko sped back to bear tidings of the threatened collision to
+Prometheus. As she approached his chamber she heard with astonishment
+two voices in eager conversation, and discovered with still greater
+amazement that their dialogue was carried on in Greek. The second
+speaker, moreover, was evidently a female. A jealous pang shot through
+Elenko’s breast; she looked cautiously in, and discerned the same
+mysterious veiled woman whose demeanour had already been an enigma to
+her. But the veil was thrown back, and the countenance went far to
+allay Elenko’s disquiet. It bore indeed traces of past beauty, but was
+altogether that of one who had known better days; worn and faded, weary
+and repining. Elenko’s jealousy vanished, though her surprise
+redoubled, when she heard Prometheus address the stranger as “Sister.”
+
+“A pretty brother I have got,” rejoined the lady, in high sharp tones:
+“to leave me in want! Never once to inquire after me!”
+
+“Nay, sister, or sister-in-law,” responded Prometheus, “if it comes to
+that, where were you while I was on Caucasus? The Oceanides ministered
+to me, Hermes came now and then, even Hercules left a card; but I never
+saw Pandora.”
+
+“How could I compromise Epimetheus, Prometheus?” demanded Pandora.
+“Besides, my attendant Hope was always telling me that all would come
+right, without any meddling of mine.”
+
+“Let her tell you so now,” retorted Prometheus.
+
+“Tell me now! Do you pretend not to know that the hussey forsook
+Olympus ten years ago, and has turned Christian?”
+
+“I am sure I am very sorry to hear it. Somehow, she never forsook _me_.
+I can’t imagine how you Gods get on without her.”
+
+“Get on! We are getting off. Except Eros and Plutus, who seem as usual,
+and the old Fates, who go on spinning as if nothing had happened, none
+of us expects to last for another ten years. The sacrifices have
+dwindled down to nothing. Zeus has put down his eagle. Hera has eaten
+her peacocks. Apollo’s lyre is never heard—pawned, no doubt. Bacchus
+drinks water, and Venus—well, you can imagine how she gets on without
+him and Ceres. And here you are, sleek and comfortable, and never
+troubling yourself about your family. But you had better, or I swear I
+will tell Zeus; and we shall see whether these Christians will keep you
+with your ante-chamber full of starving gods. Take a day to think of
+what I have been saying!”
+
+And away she flounced, not noticing Elenko. Long and earnestly did the
+pair discuss the perils that menaced them, and at the end of their
+deliberations Elenko sought the Bishop, and briefly imparted the
+Princess Miriam’s ultimatum.
+
+“It is painful to a spiritual man,” replied the prelate, “to be
+accessory to a murder. It is also repugnant to his feelings to deny a
+beloved niece anything on which she has set her heart. To avoid such
+grievous dilemma, I judge it well that ye both ascend to heaven without
+further ceremony.”
+
+That night the ascent of Prometheus and Elenko was witnessed by divers
+credible persons. The new church was consecrated shortly afterwards. It
+was amply stored with relics from the wardrobe of Prometheus and what
+remained of the eagle. The damsels of the capital regained their
+admirers, and those who had become enamoured of Prometheus mostly
+transferred their affections to the Bishop. Everybody was satisfied
+except the Princess Miriam, who never ceased to deplore her indulgence
+in giving Elenko the chance of first speech with her uncle.
+
+“If I had been five minutes beforehand with the minx!” she said.
+
+IV
+
+The heaven to which Prometheus and Elenko had ascended was situated in
+a sequestered valley of Laconia. A single winding path led into the
+glen, which was inhabited only by a few hunters and shepherds, who
+still observed the rites of the ancient faith; and sometimes, deeming
+but to show kindness to a mortal, refreshed or sheltered a forlorn and
+hungry Deity. Saving at the entrance the vale was walled round by steep
+cliffs, for the most part waving with trees, but here and there
+revealing the naked crag. It was traversed by a silvery stream, in its
+windings enclosing Prometheus’s and Elenko’s cottage, almost as in an
+island. The cot, buried in laurel and myrtle, had a garden where fig
+and mulberry, grape and almond, ripened in their season. A few goats
+browsed on the long grass, and yielded their milk to the household.
+Bread and wine, and flesh when needed, were easily procured from the
+neighbours. Beyond necessary furniture, the cottage contained little
+but precious scrolls, obtained by Elenko from Athens and the newly
+founded city of Constantine. In these, under her guidance, Prometheus
+read of matters that never, while he dwelt on Olympus, entered the
+imagination of any God.
+
+It is a chief happiness of lovers that each possesses treasures wholly
+their own, which they may yet make fully the possession of the other.
+These treasures are of divers kinds, beauty, affection, memory, hope.
+But never were such treasures of knowledge shared between lovers as
+between Prometheus and Elenko. Each possessed immeasurable stores,
+hitherto inaccessible to the other. How trifling seemed the mythical
+lore which Elenko had gleaned as the minister of Phœbus to that now
+imparted by Prometheus! The Titan had seen all, and been a part of all
+that he had seen. He had bowed beneath the sceptre of Uranus, he had
+witnessed his fall, and marked the ocean crimson with his blood. He
+remembered hoary Saturn a brisk active Deity, pushing his way to the
+throne of Heaven, and devouring in a trice the stone that now resists
+his fangs for millenniums. He had heard the shields of the Corybantes
+clash around the infant Zeus; he described to Elenko how one day the
+sea had frothed and boiled, and undraped Aphrodite had ascended from it
+in the presence of the gazing and applauding amphitheatre of
+cloud-cushioned gods. He could depict the personal appearance of
+Cybele, and sketch the character of Enceladus. He had instructed Zeus,
+as Chiron had instructed Achilles; he remembered Poseidon afraid of the
+water, and Pluto of the dark. He called to mind and expounded ancient
+oracles heretofore unintelligible: he had himself been told, and had
+disbelieved, that the happiest day of his own life would be that on
+which he should feel himself divested of immortality. Of the younger
+gods and their doings he knew but little; he inquired with interest
+whether Bacchus had returned in safety from his Indian expedition, and
+whether Proserpine had a family of divine imps.
+
+Much more, nevertheless, had Elenko to teach Prometheus than she could
+learn from him. How trivial seemed the history of the gods to what he
+now heard of the history of men! Were these indeed the beings he had
+known “like ants in the sunless recesses of caves, dwelling
+deep-burrowing in the earth, ignorant of the signs of the seasons,” to
+whom he had given fire and whom he had taught memory and number, for
+whom he had “brought the horse under the chariot, and invented the
+sea-beaten, flaxen-winged chariot of the sailor?” And now, how poorly
+showed the gods beside this once wretched brood! What Deity could die
+for Olympus, as Leonidas had for Greece? Which of them could, like
+Iphigenia, dwell for years beside the melancholy sea, keeping a true
+heart for an absent brother? Which of them could raise his fellows
+nearer to the source of all Deity, as Socrates and Plato had raised
+men? Who could portray himself as Phidias had portrayed Athene? Could
+the Muses speak with their own voices as they had spoken by Sappho’s?
+He was especially pleased to see his own moral superiority to Zeus so
+eloquently enforced by Æschylus, and delighted in criticising the
+sentiments which the other poets had put into the mouths of the gods.
+Homer, he thought, must have been in Olympus often, and Aristophanes
+not seldom. When he read in the Cyclops of Euripides, “Stranger, I
+laugh to scorn Zeus’s thunderbolts,” he grew for a moment thoughtful.
+“Am I,” he questioned, “ending where Polyphemus began?” But when he
+read a little further on:
+
+The wise man’s only Jupiter is this,
+To eat and drink during his little day,
+And give himself no care—
+
+
+“No,” he said, “the Zeus that nailed me to the rock is better than this
+Zeus. But well for man to be rid of both, if he does not put another in
+their place; or, in dropping his idolatry, has not flung away his
+religion. Heaven has not departed with Zeus.” And, taking his lyre, he
+sang:
+
+What floods of lavish splendour
+    The lofty sun doth pour!
+What else can Heaven render?
+    What room hath she for more?
+
+Yet shall his course be shortly done,
+    And after his declining
+The skies that held a single Sun
+With thousands shall be shining.
+
+V
+
+It was not long ere the gods began to find their way to Prometheus’s
+earthly paradise, and who came once came again. The first was
+Epimetheus, who had probably suffered least of all from the general
+upset, having in truth little to lose since his ill-starred union with
+Pandora. He had indeed reason for thankfulness in his practical divorce
+from his spouse, who had settled in Caucasia, and gave Greek lessons to
+the Princess Miriam. Would Prometheus lend him half a talent? a
+quarter? a tenth? a hundredth? Thanks, thanks. Prometheus might rely
+upon it that his residence should not be divulged on any account.
+Notwithstanding which assurance, the cottage was visited next day by
+eleven gods and demigods, mostly Titans. Elenko found it trying, and
+was really alarmed when by and by the Furies, having made over their
+functions to the Devil, strolled up to take the air, and dropped in for
+a chat, bringing Cerberus. But they behaved exceedingly well, and took
+back a message from Elenko to Eurydice. Ere long she was on most
+intimate terms with all the dethroned divinities, celestial, infernal,
+and marine.
+
+Beautiful and blessed beyond most things is youthful enthusiasm,
+looking up to something it feels or deems above itself. Beautiful, too,
+as autumn sunshine is maturity looking down with gentleness on the
+ideal it has surpassed, and reverencing it still for old ideas and
+associations. The thought of beholding a Deity would once have thrilled
+Elenko with rapture, if this had not been checked by awe at her own
+presumption. The idea that a Deity, other than some disgraced offender
+like Prometheus, could be the object of her compassion, would never
+have entered her mind. And now she pitied the whole Olympian cohort
+most sincerely, not so much for having fallen as for having deserved to
+fall. She could not conceal from herself how grievously they were one
+and all behind the age. It was impossible to make Zeus comprehend how
+an idea could be a match for a thunderbolt. Apollo spoke handsomely of
+Homer, yet evidently esteemed the Iliad and Odyssey but lightly in
+comparison with the blind bard’s hymn to himself. Ceres candidly
+admitted that her mind was a complete blank on the subject of the
+Eleusinian mysteries. Aphrodite’s dress was admirable for summer, but
+in winter seemed obstinate conservatism; and why should Pallas make
+herself a fright with her Gorgon helmet, now that it no longer
+frightened anybody? Where Elenko would fain have adored she found
+herself tolerating, excusing, condescending. How many Elenkos are even
+now tenderly nursing ancient creeds, whose main virtue is the virtue of
+their professors!
+
+One autumn night all the principal gods were assembled under
+Prometheus’s roof, doing justice to the figs and mulberries, and wine
+cooled with Taygetan snow. The guests were more than usually
+despondent. Prometheus was moody and abstracted, his breast seemed
+labouring with thought. “So looked my Pythoness,” whispered Apollo to
+his neighbour, “when about to deliver an oracle.”
+
+And the oracle came—in lyric verse, not to infringe any patent of
+Apollo’s—
+
+When o’er the towers of Constantine
+An Orient Moon begins to shine,
+Waning nor waxing aught, and bright
+In daytide as in deep of night:
+Then, though the fane be brought
+    To wreck, the God shall find,
+Enthroned in human thought,
+    A temple in the mind.
+
+
+“And what becomes of us while this prodigious moonshine is concocting?”
+demanded Zeus, who had become the most sceptical of any of the gods.
+
+“Go to Elysium,” suggested Prometheus.
+
+“There’s an idea!” cried Zeus and Pallas together.
+
+“To Elysium! to Elysium!” exclaimed the other gods, and all rose
+tumultuously, saving two.
+
+“I go not,” said Eros, “for where Love is, there is Elysium. And yonder
+rising moon tells me that my hour is come.” And he flitted forth.
+
+“Neither go I,” said an old blind god, “for where Plutus is, Elysium is
+not. Moreover, mankind would follow after me. But I too must away.
+Strange that I should have abode so long under the roof of a pair of
+perfect virtue.” And he tottered out.
+
+But the other gods swept forth into the moonlight, and were seen no
+more. And Prometheus picked up the forsaken sandals of Hermes, and
+bound them on his own feet, and grasped Elenko, and they rose up by a
+dizzy flight to empty heaven. All was silent in those immense courts,
+vacant of everything save here and there some rusty thunderbolt or
+mouldering crumb of ambrosia. Above, around, below, beyond sight,
+beyond thought, stretched the still deeps of æther, blazing with
+innumerable worlds. Eye could rove nowhither without beholding a star,
+nor could star be beheld from which the Gods’ hall, with all its
+vastness, would not have been utterly invisible. Elenko leaned over the
+battlements, and watched the racing meteors. Prometheus stood by her,
+and pointed out in the immeasurable distance the little speck of
+shining dust from which they had flown.
+
+“There? or here?” he asked.
+
+“There!” said Elenko.
+
+
+
+
+THE POTION OF LAO-TSZE
+
+
+And there the body lay, age after age,
+    Mute, breathing, beating, warm, and undecaying,
+Like one asleep in a green hermitage,
+    With gentle sleep about its eyelids playing,
+And living in its dreams beyond the rage
+    Of death or life; while they were still arraying
+In liveries ever new the rapid, blind,
+And fleeting generations of mankind.
+
+
+In the days of the Tang dynasty China was long happy under the sceptre
+of a good Emperor, named Sin-Woo. He had overcome the enemies of the
+land, confirmed the friendship of its allies, augmented the wealth of
+the rich, and mitigated the wretchedness of the poor. But most
+especially was he admired and beloved for his persecution of the
+impious sect of Lao-tsze, which he had well-nigh exterminated.
+
+It was but natural that such an Emperor should congratulate himself
+upon his goodness and worth; yet, as no human bliss is perfect, sorrow
+could not fail to enter his mind.
+
+“It is grievous to reflect,” said he to his courtiers, “that if, as ye
+all affirm, there hath not been any Emperor of equal merit with myself
+before my time, neither will any such arise after me, my subjects must
+inevitably be sufferers by my death.”
+
+To which the courtiers unanimously responded, “O Emperor, live for
+ever!”
+
+“Happy thought!” exclaimed the Emperor; “but wherewithal shall it be
+executed?”
+
+The Prime Minister looked at the Chancellor, the Chancellor looked at
+the Treasurer, the Treasurer looked at the Chamberlain, the Chamberlain
+looked at the Principal Bonze, the Principal Bonze looked at the Second
+Bonze, who, to his great surprise, looked at him in return.
+
+“When the turn comes to me,” murmured the inferior functionary, “I
+would say somewhat.”
+
+“Speak!” commanded the Emperor.
+
+“O Uncle of the stars,” said the Bonze, “there are those in your
+Majesty’s dominions who possess the power of lengthening life, who
+have, in fact, discovered the Elixir of Immortality.”
+
+“Let them be immediately brought hither,” commanded the Emperor.
+
+“Unhappily,” returned the Bonze, “these persons, without exception,
+belong to the abominable sect of Lao-tsze, whose members your Majesty
+long ago commanded to cease from existence, with which august order
+they have for the most part complied. In my own diocese, where for some
+years after your Majesty’s happy accession we were accustomed to impale
+twenty thousand annually, it is now difficult to find twenty, with the
+utmost diligence on the part of the executioners.”
+
+“It has of late sometimes appeared to me,” said the Emperor, “that
+there may be more good in that sect than I have been led to believe by
+my counsellors.”
+
+“I have always thought,” said the Prime Minister, “that they were
+rather misguided than wilfully wicked.”
+
+“They are a kind of harmless lunatics,” said the Chancellor; “they
+should, I think, be made wards in Chancery.”
+
+“Their money does not appear different from other men’s,” said the
+Treasurer.
+
+“I,” said the Chamberlain, “have known an old woman who had known
+another old woman who belonged to this sect, and who assured her that
+she had been very good when she was a little girl.”
+
+“If,” said the Emperor, “it appears that his Grace the Principal Bonze
+hath in any respect misled us, his property will necessarily be
+confiscated to the Imperial Treasury, and the Second Bonze will succeed
+to his office. It is needful, however, to ascertain before all things
+whether this sect does really possess the Elixir of Immortality, for on
+that the entire question of its deserts obviously depends. Our
+Counsellor the Second Bonze having, next to myself, the greatest
+interest in the matter, I desire him to make due inquiries and report
+to us at the next council, when I shall be prepared to state what fine
+will be imposed upon him, should he not have succeeded.”
+
+That night all the members of the Lao-tsze sect inhabiting prisons
+under the jurisdiction of the Principal Bonze were decapitated, and the
+P.B. laid his own head upon his pillow with some approach to peace of
+mind, trusting that the knowledge of the Elixir of Immortality had
+perished with them.
+
+The Second Bonze, having a different object to attain, proceeded in a
+different manner. He sent for his captives, and discoursed to them
+touching the evil arts of unprincipled courtiers, and the facility with
+which they mislead even the best intentioned princes. For years had he,
+the Second Bonze, pleaded the cause of toleration at court; and had at
+length succeeded in enlightening his Majesty to such an extent that
+there was every prospect of an edict of indulgence being shortly
+promulgated, provided always that the Elixir of Life was previously
+forthcoming.
+
+The unfortunate heretics would have been only too thankful to prolong
+the Emperor’s life indefinitely in consideration of securing peace for
+their own, but they could only inform the Bonze of the general
+tradition of their sect. This was that the knowledge of Lao-tsze’s
+secret was confined to certain adepts, most of whom were plunged into
+so deep a trance that any communication with them was impossible. For
+the administration of the miraculous draught, it appeared, was attended
+with this inconvenience, that it threw the partaker into a deep sleep,
+lasting any time between ten years and eternity, according to the depth
+of his potation. During its continuance the ordinary operations of
+nature were suspended, and the patient awoke with precisely the same
+bodily constitution, old or young, as he had possessed on falling into
+his lethargy; and though still liable to wounds and accidents, he or
+she continued to enjoy undiminished health and vigour for a period
+equal to the duration of the trance, after which he sank back into the
+ranks of mortality, unless he could repeat the potion. All the adepts
+who had come to life under his present Majesty’s most clement reign had
+immediately emigrated: the only persons, therefore, capable of giving
+information were now buried in slumber, and of course would only speak
+when they should awake. They were mostly concealed in the recesses of
+caverns, those inhabited by wild beasts being usually preferred for the
+sake of better security, as no tiger or bear would harm a follower of
+Lao-tsze. The witnesses, therefore, advised the Bonze to ascertain the
+residences of the most ferocious tigers in his diocese, and to wait
+upon them personally, in the hope of thus discovering what he sought.
+
+This suggestion was exceedingly unpalatable to the Bonze, who felt
+almost equally unwilling to venture himself into a wild beast’s den or
+to give any other person the chance of making the discovery. While he
+hesitated in unspeakable perplexity he was informed that an old man,
+about to expire at the age of an hundred and twenty years, desired to
+have speech with him. Thinking so venerable a personage likely to have
+at least a glimmering of the great secret, the Bonze hurried to his
+bedside.
+
+“Our master, Lao-tsze,” began the old man, “forbids us to leave this
+world with anything undisclosed which may contribute to the advantage
+of our fellow-creatures. Whether he deemed the knowledge of the cup of
+immortality conducive to this end I cannot say, but the question doth
+not arise, for I do not possess it. Hear my tale, nevertheless. Ninety
+years ago, being a hunter, it was my hap to fall into the jaws of an
+enormous tiger, who bore me off to his cavern. I there found myself in
+the presence of two ladies, one youthful and of surpassing loveliness,
+the other haggard and wrinkled. The younger lady expostulated with the
+tiger, and he forthwith released me. My gratitude won the women’s
+confidence, and I learned that they were disciples of Lao-tsze who had
+repaired to the cavern to partake of the miraculous draught, which they
+were just about to do. They were, it appeared, mother and daughter, and
+I distinctly remember that the composition of the beverage was known to
+the daughter only. This impressed me, for I should naturally have
+expected the contrary. The tiger escorted me home. I forswore hunting,
+and became, and have secretly continued, a disciple of Lao-tsze. I will
+now indicate the position of the cavern to thee: whether the ladies
+will still be found in it is beyond my power to say.”
+
+And having pointed out the direction of the cavern, he expired.
+
+The thing had to be done. The Bonze dressed himself up as much like a
+votary of Lao-tsze as possible, provided himself with a body-guard of
+_bona fide_ disciples, and, accompanied by a small army of huntsmen and
+warriors as well, marched in quest of the den of the tiger. It was
+discovered about nightfall, and having tethered a small boy near the
+entrance, that his screams when being devoured might give notice of the
+tiger’s issue from or return to his habitation, the Bonze and his
+myrmidons took up a flank position and awaited the dawn. The distant
+howls of roaming beasts of prey entirely deprived the holy man of his
+rest, but nothing worse befell him, and when in the morning the small
+boy, instead of providing the tiger with a breakfast, was heard crying
+for his own, the besiegers mustered up courage to enter the cavern. The
+glare of their torches revealed no tiger: but, to the Bonze’s
+inexpressible delight, two females lay on the floor of the cave,
+corresponding in all respects to the description of the old man. Their
+costume was that of the preceding century. One was wrinkled and hoary;
+the inexpressible loveliness of the other, who might have seen
+seventeen or eighteen summers, extorted a universal cry of admiration,
+followed by a hush of enraptured silence. Warm, flexible, fresh in
+colour, breathing naturally as in slumber, the figures lay, the younger
+woman’s arm underneath the elder woman’s neck, and her chin nestling on
+the other’s shoulder. The countenance of each seemed to indicate happy
+dreams.
+
+“Can this indeed be but a trance?” simultaneously questioned several of
+the Bonze’s followers.
+
+“_Fiat experimentum in corpore vili!_” exclaimed the Bonze; and he
+thrust his long hunting spear into the elder woman’s bosom. Blood
+poured forth freely, but there was no change in the expression of the
+countenance. No struggle announced dissolution; not until the body grew
+chill and the limbs stiff could they be sure the old woman was indeed
+dead.
+
+“Carry the young woman like porcelain,” ordered the priest, and like
+the most fragile porcelain the exquisite young beauty was borne from
+the cavern smiling in her trance and utterly unconscious, while the
+corpse of her aged companion was abandoned to the hyænas. So often did
+the bearers pause to look on her beauty that it was found necessary to
+drape the countenance entirely, until reaching the closed sedan in
+which, vigilantly watched by the Bonze, she was transported to the
+Imperial palace.
+
+And so she was brought to the Emperor, and he worshipped her. She was
+laid on a couch of cloth of gold in the Imperial apartments. Wonderful
+was the contrast between her youthful beauty, so still in its repose,
+and the old haggard Emperor, fevered with the lust of beauty and love
+of life.
+
+“O Majesty,” said his wisest counsellor, “is there any sect in thy
+dominions that possesses the secret of perpetual youth?”
+
+And the Emperor made proclamation, but no such sect could be found. And
+he mourned exceedingly, and caused strong perfumes to be burned around
+the sleeper, and conches to be blown and gongs beaten in her ears,
+hoping that she would awake ere he was dead or wholly decrepit. But she
+stirred not. And he shut himself up with her and passed his time
+praying to Fo for her awakening.
+
+But one day the door of the chamber was beaten down, and his old wife
+came in passionately upbraiding him.
+
+“Sin-Woo,” she cried, “thou hast not the heart of a man! Thou wouldest
+be deathless, leaving me to die! I shall be laid in the grave, and thou
+wilt reign with another! Wherefore have I been true to thee, if not
+that our ashes might mingle at the last? Thou hoary sensualist!”
+
+“Su-Ti,” said the Emperor, with feeling, “thou dost grievously misjudge
+me. I am no heartless sensualist, no butterfly sipper at the lips of
+beauty. Is not my soul entirely possessed by this divine creature, whom
+I love with an affection infinitely exceeding that which I have
+entertained for thee at any period? And how knowest thou,” added he,
+striving to soothe her, “that I will not give thee to drink of the
+miraculous potion?”
+
+“And keep my grey hairs and wrinkles through all time! Nay, Sin-Woo, I
+am no fool like thee, and were I so, I am not in love with any youth.
+And know I not that even if I would accept the boon, thou would’st
+never give it?”
+
+And she rushed away in fury and hanged herself by her Imperial girdle.
+Whereupon all the other wives and concubines of the Emperor did
+likewise, as custom and reason prescribe. All the palace was filled
+with lamentation and funerals. But the Emperor lamented not, nor turned
+his gaze from the sleeper, nor did the sleeper awaken.
+
+And his son came to him angry with exceeding wrath.
+
+“Thou hast murdered my mother. Thou would’st rob me of the crown that
+is rightfully mine. I, born to be an Emperor, shall die a subject! Nay,
+but I will save thee from thyself. I will pierce thy leman with the
+sword, or burn her with fire.”
+
+And the Emperor, fearing he would do as he threatened, commanded him to
+be slain, as also his brothers and sisters. And he paid no heed to the
+affairs of State, but gave all into the hand of the Second, now the
+Principal Bonze. And the laws ceased to be observed, and rebellions
+broke out in the provinces, and enemies invaded the country, and there
+was famine in the land.
+
+And now the Emperor was well-nigh ten years nearer to the gates of
+death than when the Sleeping Beauty had been brought to his court. The
+love of beauty was nearly quenched in him, but the longing for life
+grew more intense. He became angry with the sleeper, that she awakened
+not, and with his little remaining strength smote her fiercely on the
+cheeks, but she gave no sign of reviving. Remembering that if he gained
+the potion of immortality he would himself be plunged into a trance, he
+made all preparations for the interregnum. He decreed that he was to be
+seated erect on his throne, with all his imperial insignia, and it was
+to be death to any one who should presume to remove any of them. His
+slumbering figure was to preside at all councils, and to be consulted
+in every act of state, and all ministers and officers were to do homage
+daily. The revived Sleeping Beauty was to partake of the draught anew,
+at the same time and in the same manner as himself, that she might
+awake with him, and that he might find her charms unimpaired. All the
+ministers swore solemnly to observe these regulations; firmly purposing
+to burn the sleeper, if sleep he ever did, at the very first
+opportunity, and scatter his ashes to the winds. Then they would fight
+for the Empire among themselves; each, meanwhile, was mainly occupied
+in striving to gain the rebels over to his interest, insomuch that the
+people grew more miserable day by day.
+
+And as the aged Emperor waxed more and more feeble, he began to see
+visions. Legions of little black imps surrounded him crying, “We are
+thy sins, and would be punished—would’st thou by living for ever
+deprive us of our due?” And fair female forms came veiled with drooping
+heads, and murmured, “We are thy virtues, and would be
+rewarded—would’st thou cheat us?” And other figures came, dark but
+lovely, and whispered, “We are thy dead friends who have long waited
+for thee—would’st thou take to thyself new friends, and forget us?” And
+others said, “We are thy memories—wilt thou live on till we are all
+withered in thy heart?” And others said, “We are thy strength and thy
+beauty, thy memory and thy wit—canst thou live, knowing thou wilt never
+see us more?” And at last came two warders, officers of the King of
+Death, and one of them was laughing. And the other asked why he
+laughed, and he replied:
+
+“I laugh at the Emperor, who thinks to escape our master, not knowing
+that the moment of his decease was engraved with a pen of iron upon a
+rock of adamant a million million years or ever this world was.”
+
+“And when comes it?” asked the other.
+
+“In ten minutes,” said the first.
+
+When the Emperor heard this he was wild with terror, and tottered to
+the couch on which the Sleeping Beauty lay. “Oh, awake!” he cried,
+“awake and save me ere it is too late!” And, oh wonder! the sleeper
+stirred, and opened her eyes.
+
+If she had been so beautiful while sleeping, what was she when awake!
+But the love of life had overcome the love of beauty in the Emperor’s
+bosom, and he saw not the eyes like stars, and the bloom as of peaches
+and lilies, or the aspect grand and smiling as daybreak. He could only
+cry, “Give me the potion, lest I die, give me the potion!”
+
+“That cannot I,” she said. “The secret was known only to my daughter.”
+
+“Who is thy daughter?”
+
+“The hoary woman, she who slept with me in the cavern.”
+
+“That aged crone thy daughter, daughter to thee so youthful and so
+fresh?
+
+“Even so,” she said, “I bore her at sixteen, and slumbered for seventy
+years. When I awoke she was withered and decrepit: I youthful as when I
+closed my eyes. But she had learned the secret, which I never knew.”
+
+“The Bonze shall be crucified!” yelled the Emperor.
+
+“It is too late,” said she; “he is torn in pieces already.”
+
+“By whom?”
+
+“By the multitude that are now coming to do the like unto thee.”
+
+And as she spoke the doors were burst open, and in rushed the people,
+headed by the most pious Bonze in the Empire (after the late Principal
+Bonze), who plunged a sword into the Emperor’s breast, exclaiming:
+
+“He who despises this life in comparison with another deserves to lose
+the life which he has.” Words, saith the historian Li, which have been
+thought worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold in the Hall of
+Confucius.
+
+And the people were crying, “Kill the sorceress!” But she looked upon
+them, and they cried, “Be our Empress!”
+
+“Remember,” said she, “that ye will have to bear with me for a hundred
+years!”
+
+“Would,” said they, “that it might be a hundred thousand!”
+
+So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously. Among her good acts is
+enumerated her toleration of the followers of Lao-tsze. Since, however,
+they have ceased to be persecuted by man, it is observed that wild
+beasts have lost their ancient respect for them, and devour them with
+no less appetite than the members of other sects and denominations.
+
+
+
+
+ABDALLAH THE ADITE
+
+
+An aged hermit named Sergius dwelt in the wilds of Arabia, addicting
+himself to the pursuit of religion and alchemy. Of his creed it could
+only be said that it was so much better than that of his neighbours as
+to cause him to be commonly esteemed a Yezidi, or devil worshipper. But
+the better informed deemed him a Nestorian monk, who had retired into
+the wilderness on account of differences with his brethren, who sought
+to poison him.
+
+The imputation of Yezidism against Sergius was the cause that a certain
+inquisitive young man resorted to him, trusting to obtain light
+concerning the nature of demons. But he found that Sergius could give
+him no information on that subject, but, on the contrary, discoursed so
+wisely and beautifully on holy things, that his pupil’s intellect was
+enlightened, and his enthusiasm was inflamed, and he longed to go forth
+and instruct the ignorant people around him; the Saracens, and the
+Sabaeans, and the Zoroastrians, and the Carmathians, and the
+Baphometites, and the Paulicians, who are a remnant of the ancient
+Manichees.
+
+“Nay, good youth,” said Sergius, “I have renounced the sending forth of
+missionaries, having made ample trial with my spiritual son, the
+Prophet Abdallah.”
+
+“What!” exclaimed the youth, “was Abdallah the Adite thy disciple?”
+
+“Even so,” said Sergius. “Hearken to his history.
+
+“Never have I instructed so promising a pupil as Abdallah, nor when he
+was first my disciple do I deem that he was other than the most
+simple-minded and well-intentioned of youths. I always called him son,
+a title I have never bestowed on another. Like thee, he had compassion
+on the darkness around him, and craved my leave to go forth and dispel
+it.
+
+“‘My son,’ said I, ‘I will not restrain thee: thou art no longer a
+child. Thou hast heard me discourse on the subject of persecution, and
+knowest that poison was administered to me personally on account of my
+inability to perceive the supernatural light emanating from the navel
+of Brother Gregory. Thou art aware that thou wilt be beaten with rods
+and pricked with goads, chained and starved in a dungeon, very probably
+blinded, very possibly burned with fire?’
+
+“‘All these things I am prepared to undergo,’ said Abdallah; and he
+embraced me and bid me farewell.
+
+“After certain moons he returned covered with weals and scars, and his
+bones protruded through his skin.
+
+“‘Whence are these weals and scars?’ asked I, ‘and what signifies this
+protrusion of thy bones?’
+
+“‘The weals and the scars,’ answered he, ‘proceed from the floggings
+inflicted upon me by command of the Caliph; and my bones protrude by
+reason of the omission of his officers to furnish me with either food
+or drink in the dungeon wherein I was imprisoned by his orders.’
+
+“‘O my son,’ exclaimed I, ‘in the eyes of faith and right reason these
+scars are lovelier than the moles of beauty, and the sight of thy bones
+is like the beholding of hidden treasure!’
+
+“And Abdallah strove to look as though he believed me; nor did he
+entirely fail therein. And I took him, and fed him, and healed him, and
+sent him forth a second time into the world.
+
+“And after a space he returned, covered as before with wounds and
+bruises, but comely and somewhat fat.
+
+“‘Whence this sleekness of body, my son?’ I asked.
+
+“‘Through the charity of the Caliph’s wives,’ he answered, ‘who have
+fed me secretly, I having assured them that in remembrance of this good
+work each of them in the world to come would have seven husbands.’
+
+“‘How knewest thou this, my son?’ I inquired.
+
+“‘In truth, father,’ he said, ‘I did not know it; but I thought it
+probable.’
+
+“‘O my son! my son!’ exclaimed I, ‘thou art on a dangerous road. To win
+over weak ignorant people by promises of what they shall receive in a
+future life, whereof thou knowest no more than they do! Knowest thou
+not that the inestimable blessings of religion are of an inward and
+spiritual nature? Did I ever promise any disciple any recompense for
+his enlightenment and good deeds, save flogging, starvation, and
+burning?’
+
+“‘Never, father,” said he, ‘and therefore thou hast had no follower of
+thy law save one, and he hath broken it.’
+
+“He left me after a shorter stay than before, and again went forth to
+preach. After a long time he returned in good condition of body, yet
+manifestly having something upon his mind.
+
+“‘Father,’ he said, ‘thy son hath preached with faithfulness and
+acceptance, and turned thousands unto righteousness. But a sorcerer
+hath arisen, saying, “Why follow ye Abdallah, seeing that he breathes
+not fire out of his mouth and nostrils?” And the people give ear unto
+the words that come from this man’s lips, when they behold the flame
+that cometh from his nose. And unless thou teachest me to do as he doth
+I shall assuredly perish.’
+
+“And I told Abdallah that it was better to perish for the truth’s sake
+than to prolong life by lies and deceit. But he wept and lamented
+exceeding sore, and in the end he prevailed with me; and I taught him
+to breathe flame and smoke out of a hollow nut filled with combustible
+powder. And I took a certain substance called soap, but little known in
+this country, and anointed his feet therewith. And when he and the
+sorcerer met, both breathing flame, the people knew not which to
+follow; but when Abdallah walked over nine hot ploughshares, and the
+sorcerer could not touch one of them, they beat his brains out, and
+became Abdallah’s disciples.
+
+“A long time afterward Abdallah came to me again, this time with a
+joyful, and yet with somewhat of a troubled look, carrying a camel-hair
+blanket, which he undid, and lo! it was full of bones.
+
+“‘O father,’ he said, ‘I bring thee happy tidings. We have found the
+bones of the camel of the prophet Ad, upon which his revelation was
+engraved by him.’
+
+“‘If this be so,’ said I, ‘thou art acquainted with the precepts of the
+prophet, and hast no need of mine.’
+
+“‘Nay, but father,’ said he, ‘although the revelation was without
+question originally engraved by the prophet on these very bones, it
+hath come to pass by the injury of time that not one letter of his
+writing can be distinguished. I have therefore come to ask thee to
+write it over again.’
+
+“‘What!’ I exclaimed, ‘I forge a revelation in the name of the prophet
+Ad! Get thee behind me!’
+
+“‘Thou knowest, father,’ he rejoined, ‘that if we had the original
+words of the prophet Ad here they would profit us nought, as by reason
+of their antiquity none would understand them. Seeing therefore that I
+myself cannot write, it is meet that thou shouldst set down in his name
+those things which he would have desired to deliver had he been now
+among us; but if thou wilt not, I shall ask Brother Gregory.’
+
+“And when I heard him speak of having recourse to that cheat and
+impostor my spirit was grieved within me, and I wrote the Book of Ad
+myself. And I was heedful to put in none but wholesome and profitable
+precepts, and more especially did I forbid polygamy, having perceived a
+certain inclination thereunto in my disciple.
+
+“After many days he came again, and this time he was in violent terror
+and agitation, and hair was wanting to the lower part of his
+countenance.
+
+“‘O Abdallah,’ I inquired, ‘where is thy beard?’
+
+“‘In the hands of my ninth wife,’ said he.
+
+“‘Apostate!’ I exclaimed, ‘hast thou dared to espouse more wives than
+one? Rememberest thou not what is written in the Book of the prophet
+Ad?’
+
+“‘O father,’ he said, ‘the revelation of Ad being, as thou knowest, so
+exceedingly ancient, doth of necessity require a commentary. This hath
+been supplied by one of my disciples, a young Syrian and natural son of
+Gregory, as I opine. This young man can not only write, but write to my
+dictation, an accomplishment in which thou hast been found lacking, O
+Sergius. In this gloss it is set forth how, since woman hath the ninth
+part of the soul of man, the prophet, in enjoining us Adites (as we now
+call ourselves) to take but one wife, doth instruct us to take nine; to
+espouse a tenth would, I grant, be damnable. It ensues, therefore, that
+having become enamoured of a most charming young virgin, I am
+constrained to repudiate one of the wives whom I have taken already. To
+this, each thinking that it may be her turn speedily, if not now, they
+will in no wise consent, and have maltreated me as thou seest, and the
+dens of wild beasts are at this moment abodes of peace, compared to my
+seraglio. What is even worse, they threaten to disclose to the people
+the fact, of which they have unhappily become aware, that the
+revelation of the blessed Ad is not written upon the bones of a camel
+at all, but of a cow, and will therefore be accounted spurious,
+inasmuch as the prophet is not recorded to have ridden upon this
+quadruped. And seeing that thou didst inscribe the characters, O
+father, I cannot but fear that the fury of the people will extend unto
+thee, and that thou wilt be even in danger of thy life from them.’
+
+“This argument of Abdallah’s had much weight with me, and I the more
+readily consented to his request as he did not on this occasion require
+any imposture at my hands, but merely the restitution of his domestic
+peace. And I went with him to his wives, and discoursed with them, and
+they agreed to abide by my sentence. And, willing to please him, I
+directed that he should marry the beautiful virgin, and put away one of
+his wives who was old and ugly, and endowed with the dispositions of
+Sheitan.
+
+“‘O father,’ said Abdallah, ‘thou hast brought me from death unto life!
+And thou, Zarah,’ he continued, ‘wilt lose nought, but gain
+exceedingly, in becoming the spouse of the wise and virtuous Sergius.’
+
+“‘I marry Zarah!’ I exclaimed, ‘I! a monk!’
+
+“‘Surely,’ said he, ‘thou would’st not take away her husband without
+giving her another in his stead?’
+
+“‘If he does I will throttle him,’ cried Zarah.
+
+“And I wept sore, and made great intercession. And it was agreed that
+there should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else
+would marry Zarah, I should be free of her. And I promised all my
+substance to any one who would do this, and no one was found. And she
+was offered to thirteen criminals doomed to suffer death, and they all
+chose death. And at the last I was constrained to marry her. And truly
+I have now the comfort of thinking that if I have offended by
+encouraging Abdallah’s deceits, or otherwise, the debt is paid, and
+Eternal Justice hath now nothing against me; for verily I was an inmate
+of Gehenna until it came to pass that she was herself translated
+thither. And respecting the manner of her translation, inquire not thou
+too curiously. It was doubtless a token of the displeasure of Heaven at
+her enormities that the water of the well of Kefayat, which had been
+known as the Diamond of the Desert, became about this time undrinkable,
+and pernicious to man and beast.
+
+“As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased
+wife, which consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah
+again appeared before me.
+
+“‘Hast thou come,’ said I, ‘to solicit me to abet thee in any new
+imposture? Know, once for all, that I will not.’
+
+“‘On the contrary,’ said he, ‘I am come to set thee at ease by proving
+to thee that I shall not again require thy assistance. Follow me.’
+
+“And I followed him to a great plain, where was a host of armed
+horsemen and footmen, more than I could number. And they bore banners
+on which the name of Abdallah was embroidered in letters of gold. And
+in the midst was an ark of gold, with the bones of Ad’s camel, or cow.
+And by this was a great pile of the heads of men, and warriors were
+continually casting more and more upon the heap.
+
+“‘How many?’ asked Abdallah.
+
+“‘Twelve thousand, O Apostle of God,’ answered they, ‘but there are
+more to come.’
+
+“‘Thou monster!’ said I to Abdallah.
+
+“‘Nay, father,’ said he, ‘there will not be more than sixteen thousand
+in all, and these men were unbelievers. Moreover we have spared such of
+their women as were young and handsome, and have taken them for our
+concubines, as is ordained in the eleventh supplement to the Book of
+Ad, just promulgated by my authority. But come, I have other things to
+manifest unto thee.’
+
+“And he led me where a stake was driven into the earth, and a man was
+chained unto it, and fuel was heaped all around him, and many stood by
+with lighted torches in their hands.
+
+“‘O Abdallah,’ I exclaimed, ‘wherefore this atrocity?’
+
+“‘This man,’ he replied, ‘is a blasphemer, who hath said that the Book
+of Ad is written on the bones of a cow.’
+
+“‘But it is written on the bones of a cow! ‘I cried.
+
+“‘Even so,’ said he, ‘and therefore is his heresy the more damnable,
+and his punishment the more exemplary. Had it been indeed written on
+the bones of a camel, he might have affirmed what pleased him.’
+
+“And I shook off the dust from my feet, and hastened to my dwelling.
+The rest of Abdallah’s acts thou knowest, and how he fell warring with
+the Carmathians. And now I ask thee, art thou yet minded to go forth as
+a missionary of the truth?”
+
+“O Sergius,” said the young man, “I perceive that the temptations are
+greater, and the difficulties far surpassing what I had thought. Yet
+will I go, and I trust by Heaven’s grace not to fail utterly.”
+
+“Then go,” said Sergius, “and Heaven’s blessing go with thee! Come back
+in ten years, should I be living, and if thou canst declare that thou
+hast forged no scriptures, and worked no miracles, and persecuted no
+unbelievers, and flattered no potentate, and bribed no one with the
+promise of aught in heaven or earth, I will give thee the philosopher’s
+stone.”
+
+
+
+
+ANANDA THE MIRACLE WORKER
+
+
+The holy Buddha, Sakhya Muni, on dispatching his apostles to proclaim
+his religion throughout the peninsula of India, failed not to provide
+them with salutary precepts for their guidance. He exhorted them to
+meekness, to compassion, to abstemiousness, to zeal in the promulgation
+of his doctrine, and added an injunction never before or since
+prescribed by the founder of any religion—namely, on no account to
+perform any miracle.
+
+It is further related, that whereas the apostles experienced
+considerable difficulty in complying with the other instructions of
+their master, and sometimes actually failed therein, the prohibition to
+work miracles was never once transgressed by any of them, save only the
+pious Ananda, the history of whose first year’s apostolate is recorded
+as follows.
+
+Ananda repaired to the kingdom of Magadha, and instructed the
+inhabitants diligently in the law of Buddha. His doctrine being
+acceptable, and his speech persuasive, the people hearkened to him
+willingly, and began to forsake the Brahmins whom they had previously
+revered as spiritual guides. Perceiving this, Ananda became elated in
+spirit, and one day he exclaimed:
+
+“How blessed is the apostle who propagates truth by the efficacy of
+reason and virtuous example, combined with eloquence, rather than error
+by imposture and devil-mongering, like those miserable Brahmins!”
+
+As he uttered this vainglorious speech, the mountain of his merits was
+diminished by sixteen yojanas, and virtue and efficacy departed from
+him, insomuch that when he next addressed the multitude they first
+mocked, then hooted, and finally pelted him.
+
+When matters had reached this pass, Ananda lifted his eyes and
+discerned a number of Brahmins of the lower sort, busy about a boy who
+lay in a fit upon the ground. They had long been applying exorcisms and
+other approved methods with scant success, when the most sagacious
+among them suggested:
+
+“Let us render the body of this patient an uncomfortable residence for
+the demon; peradventure he will then cease to abide therein.”
+
+They were accordingly engaged in branding the sufferer with hot irons,
+filling his nostrils with smoke, and otherwise to the best of their
+ability disquieting the intrusive devil. Ananda’s first thought was,
+“The lad is in a fit;” the second, “It were a pious deed to deliver him
+from his tormentors;” the third, “By good management this may extricate
+me from my present uncomfortable predicament, and redound to the glory
+of the most holy Buddha.”
+
+Yielding to this temptation, he strode forward, chased away the
+Brahmins with an air of authority, and, uplifting his countenance to
+heaven, recited the appellations of seven devils. No effect ensuing, he
+repeated seven more, and so continued until, the fit having passed off
+in the course of nature, the patient’s paroxysms ceased, he opened his
+eyes, and Ananda restored him to his relatives. But the people cried
+loudly, “A miracle! a miracle!” and when Ananda resumed his
+instructions, they gave heed to him, and numbers embraced the religion
+of Buddha. Whereupon Ananda exulted, and applauded himself for his
+dexterity and presence of mind, and said to himself:
+
+“Surely the end sanctifies the means,”
+
+As he propounded this heresy, the eminence of his merits was reduced to
+the dimensions of a mole-hill, and he ceased to be of account in the
+eyes of any of the saints, save only of Buddha, whose compassion is
+inexhaustible.
+
+The fame of his achievement, nevertheless, was bruited about the whole
+country, and soon reached the ears of the king, who sent for him, and
+inquired if he had actually expelled the demon.
+
+Ananda replied in the affirmative.
+
+“I am indeed rejoiced,” returned the king, “as thou now wilt without
+doubt proceed to heal _my_ son, who has lain in a trance for
+twenty-nine days.”
+
+“Alas! dread sovereign,” modestly returned Ananda, “how should the
+merits which barely suffice to effect the cure of a miserable Pariah
+avail to restore the offspring of an Elephant among Kings?”
+
+“By what process are these merits acquired?” demanded the monarch.
+
+“By the exercise of penance,” responded Ananda, “in virtue of which the
+austere devotee quells the winds, allays the waters, expostulates
+convincingly with tigers, carries the moon in his sleeve, and otherwise
+performs all acts and deeds appropriate to the character of a
+peripatetic thaumaturgist.”
+
+“This being so,” answered the king, “thy inability to heal my son
+manifestly arises from defect of merit, and defect of merit from defect
+of penance. I will therefore consign thee to the charge of my Brahmins,
+that they may aid thee to fill up the measure of that which is
+lacking.”
+
+Ananda vainly strove to explain that the austerities to which he had
+referred were entirely of a spiritual and contemplative character. The
+Brahmins, enchanted to get a heretic into their clutches, immediately
+seized upon him, and conveyed him to one of their temples. They
+stripped him, and perceived with astonishment that not one single weal
+or scar was visible anywhere on his person. “Horror!” they exclaimed;
+“here is a man who expects to go to heaven in a whole skin!” To obviate
+this breach of etiquette, they laid him upon his face, and flagellated
+him until the obnoxious soundness of cuticle was entirely removed. They
+then departed, promising to return next day and operate in a
+corresponding manner upon the anterior part of his person, after which,
+they jeeringly assured him, his merits would be in no respect less than
+those of the saintly Bhagiratha, or of the regal Viswamitra himself.
+
+Ananda lay half dead upon the floor of the temple, when the sanctuary
+was illuminated by the apparition of a resplendent Glendoveer, who thus
+addressed him:
+
+“Well, backsliding disciple, art thou yet convinced of thy folly?”
+
+Ananda relished neither the imputation on his orthodoxy nor that on his
+wisdom. He replied, notwithstanding, with all meekness:
+
+“Heaven forbid that I should repine at any variety of martyrdom that
+tends to the propagation of my master’s faith.”
+
+“Wilt thou then first be healed, and moreover become the instrument of
+converting the entire realm of Magadha?”
+
+“How shall this be accomplished?” demanded Ananda.
+
+“By perseverance in the path of deceit and disobedience,” returned the
+Glendoveer.
+
+Ananda winced, but maintained silence in the expectation of more
+explicit directions.
+
+“Know,” pursued the spirit, “that the king’s son will revive from his
+trance at the expiration of the thirtieth day, which takes place at
+noon to-morrow. Thou hast but to proceed at the fitting period to the
+couch whereon he is deposited, and, placing thy hand upon his heart, to
+command him to rise forthwith. His recovery will be ascribed to thy
+supernatural powers, and the establishment of Buddha’s religion will
+result. Before this it will be needful that I should perform an actual
+cure upon thy back, which is within the compass of my capacity. I only
+request thee to take notice, that thou wilt on this occasion be
+transgressing the precepts of thy master with thine eyes open. It is
+also meet to apprise thee that thy temporary extrication from thy
+present difficulties will only involve thee in others still more
+formidable.”
+
+“An incorporeal Glendoveer is no judge of the feelings of a flayed
+apostle,” thought Ananda. “Heal me,” he replied, “if thou canst, and
+reserve thy admonitions for a more convenient opportunity.”
+
+“So be it,” returned the Glendoveer; and as he extended his hand over
+Ananda, the latter’s back was clothed anew with skin, and his previous
+smart simultaneously allayed. The Glendoveer vanished at the same
+moment, saying, “When thou hast need of me, pronounce but the
+incantation, _Gnooh Imdap Inam Mua_, [*] and I will immediately be by
+thy side.”
+
+*) The mystic formula of the Buddhists, read backwards.
+
+
+The anger and amazement of the Brahmins may be conceived when, on
+returning equipped with fresh implements of flagellation, they
+discovered the salubrious condition of their victim. Their scourges
+would probably have undergone conversion into halters, had they not
+been accompanied by a royal officer, who took the really triumphant
+martyr under his protection, and carried him off to the palace. He was
+speedily conducted to the young prince’s couch, whither a vast crowd
+attended him. The hour of noon not having yet arrived, Ananda
+discreetly protracted the time by a seasonable discourse on the
+impossibility of miracles, those only excepted which should be wrought
+by the professors of the faith of Buddha. He then descended from his
+pulpit, and precisely as the sun attained the zenith laid his hand upon
+the bosom of the young prince, who instantly revived, and completed a
+sentence touching the game of dice which had been interrupted by his
+catalepsy.
+
+The people shouted, the courtiers went into ecstasies, the countenances
+of the Brahmins assumed an exceedingly sheepish expression. Even the
+king seemed impressed, and craved to be more particularly instructed in
+the law of Buddha. In complying with this request, Ananda, who had made
+marvellous progress in worldly wisdom during the last twenty-four
+hours, deemed it needless to dilate on the cardinal doctrines of his
+master, the misery of existence, the need of redemption, the path to
+felicity, the prohibition to shed blood. He simply stated that the
+priests of Buddha were bound to perpetual poverty, and that under the
+new dispensation all ecclesiastical property would accrue to the
+temporal authorities.
+
+“By the holy cow!” exclaimed the monarch, “this is something like a
+religion!”
+
+The words were scarcely out of the royal lips ere the courtiers
+professed themselves converts. The multitude followed their example.
+The Brahminical church was promptly disestablished and disendowed, and
+more injustice was committed in the name of the new and purified
+religion in one day than the old corrupt one had occasioned in a
+hundred years.
+
+Ananda had the satisfaction of feeling able to forgive his adversaries,
+and of valuing himself accordingly; and to complete his felicity, he
+was received in the palace, and entrusted with the education of the
+king’s son, which he strove to conduct agreeably to the precepts of
+Buddha. This was a task of some delicacy, as it involved interference
+with the princely youth’s favourite amusement, which had previously
+consisted in torturing small reptiles.
+
+After a short interval Ananda was again summoned to the monarch’s
+presence. He found his majesty in the company of two most ferocious
+ruffians, one of whom bore a huge axe, and the other an enormous pair
+of pincers.
+
+“My chief executioner and my chief tormentor,” said the king.
+
+Ananda expressed his gratification at becoming acquainted with such
+exalted functionaries.
+
+“Thou must know, most holy man,” resumed the king, “that need has again
+arisen for the exercise of fortitude and self-denial on thy part. A
+powerful enemy has invaded my dominions, and has impiously presumed to
+discomfit my troops. Well might I feel dismayed, were it not for the
+consolations of religion; but my trust is in thee, O spiritual father!
+It is urgent that thou shouldst accumulate the largest amount of merit
+with the least delay possible. I am unable to invoke the ministrations
+of thy old friends the Brahmins to this end, they being, as thou
+knowest, in disgrace, but I have summoned these trusty and experienced
+counsellors in their room. I find them not wholly in accord. My chief
+tormentor, being a man of mild temper and humane disposition, considers
+that it might at first suffice to employ gentle measures, such, for
+example, as suspending thee head downwards in the smoke of a wood fire,
+and filling thy nostrils with red pepper. My chief executioner, taking,
+peradventure, a too professional view of the subject, deems it best to
+resort at once to crucifixion or impalement. I would gladly know thy
+thoughts on the matter.”
+
+Ananda expressed, as well as his terror would suffer him, his entire
+disapproval of both the courses recommended by the royal advisers.
+
+“Well,” said the king, with an air of resignation, “if we cannot agree
+upon either, it follows that we must try both. We will meet for that
+purpose to-morrow morning at the second hour. Go in peace!”
+
+Ananda went, but not in peace. His alarm would have well-nigh deprived
+him of his faculties if he had not remembered the promise made him by
+his former deliverer. On reaching a secluded spot he pronounced the
+mystic formula, and immediately became aware of the presence, not of a
+radiant Glendoveer, but of a holy man, whose head was strewn with
+ashes, and his body anointed with cow-dung.
+
+“Thy occasion,” said the Fakir, “brooks no delay. Thou must immediately
+accompany me, and assume the garb of a Jogi.”
+
+Ananda rebelled excessively in his heart, for he had imbibed from the
+mild and sage Buddha a befitting contempt for these grotesque and
+cadaverous fanatics. The emergency, however, left him no resource, and
+he followed his guide to a charnel house, which the latter had selected
+as his domicile. There, with many lamentations over the smoothness of
+his hair and the brevity of his nails, the Jogi besprinkled and
+besmeared Ananda agreeably to his own pattern, and scored him with
+chalk and ochre until the peaceful apostle of the gentlest of creeds
+resembled a Bengal tiger. He then hung a chaplet of infants’ skulls
+about his neck, placed the skull of a malefactor in one of his hands
+and the thigh-bone of a necromancer in the other, and at nightfall
+conducted him into the adjacent cemetery, where, seating him on the
+ashes of a recent funeral pile, he bade him drum upon the skull with
+the thigh-bone, and repeat after himself the incantations which he
+began to scream out towards the western part of the firmament. These
+charms were apparently possessed of singular efficacy, for scarcely
+were they commenced ere a hideous tempest arose, rain descended in
+torrents, phosphoric flashes darted across the sky, wolves and hyænas
+thronged howling from their dens, and gigantic goblins, arising from
+the earth, extended their fleshless arms towards Ananda, and strove to
+drag him from his seat. Urged by frantic terror, and the example and
+exhortations of his companion, he battered, banged, and vociferated,
+until on the very verge of exhaustion; when, as if by enchantment, the
+tempest ceased, the spectres disappeared, and joyous shouts and a burst
+of music announced the occurrence of something auspicious in the
+adjoining city.
+
+“The hostile king is dead,” said the Jogi; “and his army has dispersed.
+This will be attributed to thy incantations. They are coming in quest
+of thee even now. Farewell until thou again hast need of me.”
+
+The Jogi disappeared, the tramp of a procession became audible, and
+soon torches glared feebly through the damp, cheerless dawn. The
+monarch descended from his state elephant, and, prostrating himself
+before Ananda, exclaimed:
+
+“Inestimable man! why didst thou not disclose that thou wert a Jogi?
+Never more shall I feel the least apprehension of any of my enemies, so
+long as thou continuest an inmate of this cemetery.”
+
+A family of jackals were unceremoniously dislodged from a disused
+sepulchre, which was allotted to Ananda for his future residence. The
+king permitted no alteration in his costume, and took care that the
+food doled out to him should have no tendency to impair his sanctity,
+which speedily gave promise of attaining a very high pitch. His hair
+had already become as matted and his nails as long as the Jogi could
+have desired, when he received a visit from another royal messenger.
+The Rajah, so ran the regal missive, had been suddenly and mysteriously
+attacked by a dangerous malady, but confidently anticipated relief from
+Ananda’s merits and incantations.
+
+Ananda resumed his thigh-bone and his skull, and ruefully began to
+thump the latter with the former, in dismal expectation of the things
+that were to come. But the spell seemed to have lost its potency.
+Nothing more unearthly than a bat presented itself, and Ananda was
+beginning to think that he might as well desist when his reflections
+were diverted by the apparition of a tall and grave personage, wearing
+a sad-coloured robe, and carrying a long wand, who stood by his side as
+suddenly as though just risen from the earth.
+
+“The caldron is ready,” said the stranger.
+
+“What caldron?” demanded Ananda.
+
+“That wherein thou art about to be immersed.”
+
+“I immersed in a caldron! wherefore?”
+
+“Thy spells,” returned his interlocutor, “having hitherto failed to
+afford his majesty the slightest relief, and his experience of their
+efficacy on a former occasion forbidding him to suppose that they can
+be inoperative, he is naturally led to ascribe to their pernicious
+influence that aggravation of pain of which he has for some time past
+unfortunately been sensible. I have confirmed him in this conjecture,
+esteeming it for the interest of science that his anger should fall
+upon an impudent impostor like thee rather than on a discreet and
+learned physician like myself. He has consequently directed the
+principal caldron to be kept boiling all night, intending to immerse
+thee therein at daybreak, unless he should in the meantime derive some
+benefit from thy conjurations.”
+
+“Heavens!” exclaimed Ananda, “whither shall I fly?”
+
+“Nowhere beyond this cemetery,” returned the physician, “inasmuch as it
+is entirely surrounded by the royal forces.”
+
+“Wherein, then,” demanded the agonized apostle, “doth the path of
+safety lie?”
+
+“In this phial,” answered the physician. “It contains a subtle poison.
+Demand to be led before the king. Affirm that thou hast received a
+sovereign medicine from the hands of benignant spirits. He will drink
+it and perish, and thou wilt be richly rewarded by his successor.”
+
+“Ayaunt, tempter!” cried Ananda, hurling the phial indignantly away. “I
+defy thee! and will have recourse to my old deliverer—_Gnooh Imdap Inam
+Mua!”_
+
+But the charm appeared to fail of its effect. No figure was visible to
+his gaze, save that of the physician, who seemed to regard him with an
+expression of pity as he gathered up his robes and melted rather than
+glided into the encompassing darkness.
+
+Ananda remained, contending with himself. Countless times was he on the
+point of calling after the physician and imploring him to return with a
+potion of like properties to the one rejected, but something seemed
+always to rise in his throat and impede his utterance, until, worn out
+by agitation, he fell asleep and dreamed this dream.
+
+He thought he stood at the vast and gloomy entrance of Patala. [*] The
+lugubrious spot wore a holiday appearance; everything seemed to denote
+a diabolical gala. Swarms of demons of all shapes and sizes beset the
+portal, contemplating what appeared to be preparations for an
+illumination. Strings of coloured lamps were in course of disposition
+in wreaths and festoons by legions of frolicsome imps, chattering,
+laughing, and swinging by their tails like so many monkeys. The
+operation was directed from below by superior fiends of great apparent
+gravity and respectability. These bore wands of office, tipped with
+yellow flames, wherewith they singed the tails of the imps when such
+discipline appeared to them to be requisite. Ananda could not refrain
+from asking the reason of these festive preparations.
+
+*) The Hindoo Pandemonium.
+
+
+“They are in honour,” responded the demon interrogated, “of the pious
+Ananda, one of the apostles of the Lord Buddha, whose advent is hourly
+expected among us with much eagerness and satisfaction.”
+
+The horrified Ananda with much difficulty mustered resolution to
+inquire on what account the apostle in question was necessitated to
+take up his abode in the infernal regions.
+
+“On account of poisoning,” returned the fiend laconically.
+
+Ananda was about to seek further explanations, when his attention was
+arrested by a violent altercation between two of the supervising
+demons.
+
+“Kammuragha, evidently,” croaked one.
+
+“Damburanana, of course,” snarled the other.
+
+“May I,” inquired Ananda of the fiend he had before addressed, “presume
+to ask the signification of Kammuragha and Damburanana?”
+
+“They are two hells,” replied the demon. “In Kammuragha the occupant is
+plunged into melted pitch and fed with melted lead. In Damburanana he
+is plunged into melted lead and fed with melted pitch. My colleagues
+are debating which is the more appropriate to the demerits of our guest
+Ananda.”
+
+Ere Ananda had had time to digest this announcement a youthful imp
+descended from above with agility, and, making a profound reverence,
+presented himself before the disputants.
+
+“Venerable demons,” interposed he, “might my insignificance venture to
+suggest that we cannot well testify too much honour for our visitor
+Ananda, seeing that he is the only apostle of Buddha with whose company
+we are likely ever to be indulged? Wherefore I would propose that
+neither Kammuragha nor Damburanana be assigned for his residence, but
+that the amenities of all the two hundred and forty-four thousand hells
+be combined in a new one, constructed especially for his reception.”
+
+The imp having thus spoken, the senior demons were amazed at his
+precocity, and performed a _pradakshina_, exclaiming, “Truly thou art a
+highly superior young devil!” They then departed to prepare the new
+infernal chamber, agreeably to his recipe.
+
+Ananda awoke, shuddering with terror.
+
+“Why,” he exclaimed, “why was I ever an apostle? O Buddha! Buddha! how
+hard are the paths of saintliness! How prone to error are the
+well-meaning! How huge is the absurdity of spiritual pride!”
+
+“Thou hast discovered that, my son?” said a gentle voice in his
+vicinity.
+
+He turned and beheld the divine Buddha, radiant with a mild and
+benignant light. A cloud seemed rolled away from his vision, and he
+recognised in his master the Glendoveer, the Jogi, and the Physician.
+
+“O holy teacher!” exclaimed he in extreme perturbation, “whither shall
+I turn? My sin forbids me to approach thee.”
+
+“Not on account of thy sin art thou forbidden, my son,” returned
+Buddha, “but on account of the ridiculous and unsavoury plight to which
+thy knavery and disobedience have reduced thee. I have now appeared to
+remind thee that this day all my apostles meet on Mount Vindhya to
+render an account of their mission, and to inquire whether I am to
+deliver thine in thy stead, or whether thou art minded to proclaim it
+thyself.”
+
+“I will render it with my own lips,” resolutely exclaimed Ananda. “It
+is meet that I should bear the humiliation of acknowledging my folly.”
+
+“Thou hast said well, my son,” replied Buddha, “and in return I will
+permit thee to discard the attire, if such it may be termed, of a Jogi,
+and to appear in our assembly wearing the yellow robe as beseems my
+disciple. Nay, I will even infringe my own rule on thy behalf, and
+perform a not inconsiderable miracle by immediately transporting thee
+to the summit of Vindhya, where the faithful are already beginning to
+assemble. Thou wouldst otherwise incur much risk of being torn to
+pieces by the multitude, who, as the shouts now approaching may
+instruct thee, are beginning to extirpate my religion at the
+instigation of the new king, thy hopeful pupil. The old king is dead,
+poisoned by the Brahmins.”
+
+“O master! master!” exclaimed Ananda, weeping bitterly, “and is all the
+work undone, and all by my fault and folly?”
+
+“That which is built on fraud and imposture can by no means endure,”
+returned Buddha, “be it the very truth of Heaven. Be comforted; thou
+shalt proclaim my doctrine to better purpose in other lands. Thou hast
+this time but a sorry account to render of thy stewardship; yet thou
+mayest truly declare that thou hast obeyed my precept in the letter, if
+not in the spirit, since none can assert that thou hast ever wrought
+any miracle.”
+
+
+
+
+THE CITY OF PHILOSOPHERS
+
+I
+
+Nature is manifold, not infinite, though the extent of the resources of
+which she can dispose almost enables her to pass for such. Her cards
+are so multitudinous that the pairs are easily shuffled into ages so
+far asunder that their resemblance escapes remark. But sometimes her
+mischievous daughter Fortune manages to thrust these duplicates into
+such conspicuous places that their similarity cannot pass unobserved,
+and Nature is caught plagiarising from herself. She is thus detected
+dealing a king—or knave—a second time in the person of a king who has
+already fallen from her pack as an emperor. Brilliant, careless,
+selfish, yet good-natured _vauriens_, the Roman Emperor Gallienus and
+our Charles the Second excelled in every art save the art of reigning,
+and might have excelled in that also if they would have taken the
+trouble. The circumstances of their reigns were in many respects as
+similar as their characters. Both were the sons of grave and strict
+fathers, each of whom had met with terrible misfortunes: one deprived
+of his liberty by his enemies, the other of his head by his own
+subjects. Each of the sons had been grievously vexed by rebels, but
+Charles’s troubles from this quarter had mostly ended where those of
+Gallienus began. Each saw his dominions ravaged by pestilence in a
+manner beyond all former experience. The Goths destroyed the temple of
+the Ephesian Diana, and the Dutch burned the English fleet at Chatham.
+Charles shut up the Exchequer, and Gallienus debased the coinage.
+Charles accepted a pension from Louis XIV., and Gallienus devolved the
+burden of his Eastern provinces on a Syrian Emir. Their tastes and
+pursuits were as similar as their histories. Charles excelled as a wit
+and a critic; Gallienus as a poet and a gastronomer. Charles was
+curious about chemistry, and founded the Royal Society. In the third
+century the conception of the systematic investigation of nature did
+not exist. Gallienus, therefore, could not patronise exact science; and
+the great literary light of the age, Longinus, irradiated the court of
+Palmyra. But the Emperor bestowed his favour in ample measure on the
+chief contemporary philosopher, Plotinus, who strove to unite the
+characters of Plato and Pythagoras, of sage and seer. Like Schelling in
+time to come, he maintained the necessity of a special organ for the
+apprehension of philosophy, without perceiving that he thereby
+proclaimed philosophy bankrupt, and placed himself on the level of the
+Oriental hierophants, with whose sublime quackeries the modest sage
+could not hope to contend. So extreme was his humility, that he would
+not claim to have been consciously united to the Divinity more than
+four times in his life; without condemning magic and thaumaturgy, he
+left their practice to more adventurous spirits, and contented himself
+with the occasional visits of a familiar demon in the shape of a
+serpent. He experienced, however, frequent visitations of trance or
+ecstasy, sometimes lasting for a long period; and it may have been in
+one of these that he was inspired by the idea of asking the Emperor for
+a decayed city in Campania, there to establish a philosophic
+commonwealth as nearly upon the model of Plato’s Republic as the
+degeneracy of the times would allow.
+
+“I cannot,” said Gallienus, when the project had been explained to him,
+“object in principle to aught so festive and jocose. The age is turned
+upside down; its comedians are lamentable, and its sages ludicrous. It
+must moreover, I apprehend, be sated with the earthquakes, famines,
+pestilences, and barbarian invasions with which it hath been
+exclusively regaled for so long, and must crave something enlivening,
+of the nature of thy proposition. But whether, when we arrive at the
+consideration of ways and means, I shall find my interview with my
+treasurer enlivening, is gravely to be questioned. I have heard
+homilies enough on my prodigality, which merely means that I prefer
+spending my treasures on myself to saving them for my successor, whose
+title will probably have been acquired by cutting my throat.”
+
+“I know,” said Plotinus, “that the expenses of administering an empire
+must necessarily be prodigious. I am aware that the principal generals
+are only kept to their allegiance by enormous bribes. I well understand
+that the Empress must have pearls, and that the Roman populace must
+have panthers; and that, since Egypt has revolted, the hippopotamus is
+worth his weight in gold. I am further aware that the proposed colossal
+statue of your Majesty in the same metal, including a staircase, with
+room in the head for a child, like another Pallas in the brain of Zeus,
+must alone involve very considerable outlay. But I am encouraged by
+your Majesty’s wise and statesmanlike measure of debasing the currency;
+since, money having become devoid of value, there can be no difficulty
+in devoting any amount of it to any purpose required.”
+
+“Plotinus,” said Gallienus, “in this age the devil is taking the
+hindmost, and we are the hindmost. There are tidings to-day of a new
+earthquake in Bithynia, and three days’ darkness, also of outbreaks of
+pestilence, and incursions of the barbarians, too numerous as well as
+too disagreeable to mention. At this moment some revolted legion is
+probably forcing the purple upon some reluctant general; and the
+Persian king, a great equestrian, is doubtless mounting his horse by
+the aid of my father’s back. If I had been an old Roman, I should by
+this time have avenged my father, but I am a man of my age. Take the
+money for thy city, and see that it yields me some amusement at any
+rate. I assume, of course, that thou wilt exercise severe economy, and
+that cresses and spring water will be the diet of thy philosophers.
+Farewell, I go to Gaul to encounter Postumus. Willingly would I leave
+him in peace in Gaul if he would leave me in peace in Italy; but I
+foresee that if I do not attack him there he will attack me here. As if
+the Empire were not large enough for us all! What an ass the fellow
+must be!”
+
+And so Gallienus changed his silk for steel, and departed for his
+Gallic campaign, where he bore himself more stoutly than his light talk
+would have led those who judged him by it to expect. Plotinus, provided
+with an Imperial rescript, undertook the regulation of his
+philosophical commonwealth in Campania, where a brief experience of
+architects and sophists threw him into an ecstasy, not of joy, which
+endured an unusually long time.
+
+II
+
+On awakening from his long trance, Plotinus’s first sensation was one
+of bodily hunger, the second of an even keener appetite for news of his
+philosophical Republic. In both respects it promised well to perceive
+that his chamber was occupied by his most eminent scholar, Porphyry,
+though he was less gratified to observe his disciple busied, instead of
+with the scrolls of the sages, with an enormous roll of accounts, which
+appeared to be occasioning him much perplexity.
+
+“Porphyry!” cried the master, and the faithful disciple was by his
+couch in a moment.
+
+We pass over the mutual joy, the greetings, the administration of
+restoratives and creature comforts, the eager interrogations of
+Porphyry respecting the things his master had heard and seen in his
+trance, which proved to be unspeakable.
+
+“And now,” said Plotinus, who with all his mysticism was so good a man
+of business that, as his biographers acquaint us, he was in special
+request as a trustee, “and now, concerning this roll of thine. Is it
+possible that the accounts connected with the installation of a few
+abstemious lovers of wisdom can have swollen to such a prodigous bulk?
+But indeed, why few? Peradventure all the philosophers of the earth
+have flocked to my city.”
+
+“It has, indeed,” said Porphyry evasively, “been found necessary to
+incur certain expenses not originally foreseen.”
+
+“For a library, perhaps?” inquired Plotinus. “I remember thinking, just
+before my ecstasy, that the scrolls of the divine Plato, many of them
+autographic, might require some special housing.”
+
+“I rejoice to state,” rejoined Porphyry, “that it is not these volumes
+that have involved us in our present difficulties with the
+superintendent of the Imperial treasury, nor can they indeed, seeing
+that they are now impignorated with him.”
+
+“Plato’s manuscripts pawned!” exclaimed Plotinus, aghast. “Wherefore?”
+
+“As part collateral security for expenses incurred on behalf of objects
+deemed of more importance by the majority of the philosophers.”
+
+“For example?”
+
+“Repairing bath and completing amphitheatre.”
+
+“Bath! Amphitheatre!” gasped Plotinus.
+
+“O dear master,” remonstrated Porphyry, “thou didst not deem that
+philosophers could be induced to settle in a spot devoid of these
+necessaries? Not a single one would have stayed if I had not yielded to
+their demands, which, as regarded the bath, involved the addition of
+exedrae and of a sphaeristerium.”
+
+“And what can they want with an amphitheatre?” groaned Plotinus.
+
+“They _say_ it is for lectures,” replied Porphyry;
+
+“I trust there is no truth in the rumour that the head of the Stoics is
+three parts owner of a lion of singular ferocity.”
+
+“I must see to this as soon as I can get about,” said Plotinus, turning
+to the accounts. “What’s this? To couch and litter for head of
+Peripatetic school!”
+
+“Who is so enormously fat,” explained Porphyry, “that these
+conveniences are really indispensable to him. The Peripatetic school is
+positively at a standstill.”
+
+“And no great matter,” said Plotinus; “its master Aristotle was at best
+a rationalist, without perception of the supersensual. What’s this? To
+Maximus, for the invocation of demons.”
+
+“That,” said Porphyry, “is our own Platonic dirty linen, and I heartily
+wish we were washing it elsewhere. Thou must know, dear master, that
+during thy trance the theurgic movement has attained a singular
+development, and that thou art regarded with disdain by thy younger
+disciples as one wholly behind the age, unacquainted with the higher
+magic, and who can produce no other outward and visible token of the
+Divine favour than the occasional companionship of a serpent.”
+
+“I would not assert that theurgy may not be lawfully undertaken,”
+replied Plotinus, “provided that the adept shall have purified himself
+by a fast of forty months.”
+
+“It may be from neglect of this precaution,” said Porphyry, “that our
+Maximus finds it so much easier to evoke the shades of Commodus and
+Caracalla than those of Socrates and Marcus Aurelius; and that these
+good spirits, when they do come, have no more recondite information to
+convey than that virtue differs from vice, and that one’s grandmother
+is a fitting object of reverence.”
+
+“I fear this must expose Platonic truth to the derision of Epicurean
+scoffers,” remarked Plotinus.
+
+“O master, speak not of Epicureans, still less of Stoics! Wait till
+thou hast regained thy full strength, and then take counsel of some
+oracle.”
+
+“What meanest thou?” exclaimed Plotinus, “I insist upon knowing.”
+
+Porphyry was saved from replying by the hasty entrance of a bustling
+portly personage of loud voice and imperious manner, in whom Plotinus
+recognised Theocles, the chief of the Stoics.
+
+“I rejoice, Plotinus,” he began, “that thou hast at length emerged from
+that condition of torpor, so unworthy of a philosopher, which I might
+well designate as charlatanism were I not so firmly determined to speak
+no word which can offend any man. Thou wilt now be able to reprehend
+the malice or obtuseness of thy deputy, and to do me right in my
+contention with these impure dogs.”
+
+“Which be they?” asked Plotinus.
+
+“Do I not sufficiently indicate the followers of Epicurus?” demanded
+the Stoic.
+
+“O master,” explained Porphyry, “in allotting and fitting up apartments
+designed for the respective sects of philosophers I naturally gave heed
+to what I understood to be the principles of each. To the Epicureans,
+as lovers of pleasure and luxury, I assigned the most commodious
+quarters, furnished the same with soft cushions and costly hangings,
+and provided a liberal table. I should have deemed it insulting to have
+offered any of these things to the frugal followers of Zeno, and
+nothing can surpass my astonishment at the manner in which the austere
+Theocles has incessantly persecuted me for choice food and wine,
+stately rooms and soft couches.”
+
+“O Plotinus,” replied Theocles, “let me make the grounds of my conduct
+clear to thee. In the first place, the honour of my school is in my
+keeping. What will the vulgar think when they see the sty of Epicurus
+sumptuously adorned, and the porch of Zeno shabby and bare? Will they
+not deem that the Epicureans are highly respected and the Stoics made
+of little account? Furthermore, how can I and my disciples manifest our
+contempt for gold, dainties, wine, fine linen, and all the other
+instruments of luxury, unless we have them to despise? Shall we not
+appear like foxes, vilipending the grapes that we cannot reach? Not so;
+offer me delicacies that I may reject them, wine that I may pour it
+into the kennel, Tyrian purple that I may trample upon it, gold that I
+may fling it away; if it break an Epicurean’s head, so much the
+better.”
+
+“Plotinus,” said Hermon, the chief of the Epicureans, who had meanwhile
+entered the apartment, “let this hypocrite have what he wants, and send
+him away. I and my followers are perfectly willing to remove at once
+into the inferior apartments, and leave ours for his occupation with
+all their furniture, and the reversion of our bill of fare. Thou
+should’st know that the imputations of the vulgar against our sect are
+the grossest calumnies. The Epicurean places happiness in tranquil
+enjoyment, not in luxury or sensual pleasures. There is not a thing I
+possess which I am not perfectly willing to resign, except the society
+of my female disciple.”
+
+“Thy female disciple!” exclaimed the horrified Plotinus. “Thou art
+worse than the Stoic!”
+
+“Plotinus,” said the Epicurean, “consider well ere, as is the manner of
+Platonists, thou committest thyself to a proposition of a transparently
+foolish nature. Thou desirest to gather all sorts of philosophers
+around thee, but to what end, if they are restrained from manifesting
+their characteristic tenets? Thou mightest as well seek to illustrate
+the habits of animals by establishing a menagerie in which panthers
+should eat grass, and antelopes be dieted on rabbits. An Epicurean
+without his female companion, unless by his own choice, is no more an
+Epicurean than a Cynic is a Cynic without his rags and his impudence.
+Wilt thou take from me my Pannychis, an object pleasing to the eye, and
+leave yonder fellow his tatters and his vermin?”
+
+The apartment had gradually filled with philosophers, and Hermon was
+pointing to a follower of Diogenes whose robe so fully bespoke his
+obedience to his master’s precepts that his skin seemed almost clean in
+comparison.
+
+“Consider also,” continued the Epicurean, “that thou art thyself by no
+means exempt from scandal.”
+
+“What does the man mean?” demanded Plotinus, turning to Porphyry.
+
+“Get them away,” whispered the disciple, “and I will tell thee.”
+
+Plotinus hastily conceded the point raised with reference to the
+interesting Pannychis, and the philosophers went off to effect their
+exchange of quarters. As soon as the room was clear, he repeated:
+
+“What _does_ the man mean?”
+
+“I suppose he is thinking of Leaena,” said Porphyry.
+
+“The most notorious character in Rome, who, finding her charms on the
+wane, has lately betaken herself to philosophy?”
+
+“The same.”
+
+“What of her?”
+
+“She has followed thee here. She affects the greatest devotion to thee.
+She vows that nothing shall make her budge until thou hast recovered
+from thy ecstasy, and admitted her as thy disciple. She has rejected
+numerous overtures from the philosopher Theocles; entirely for thy
+sake, she affirms. She comes three times a day to inquire respecting
+thy condition, and I fear it must be acknowledged that she has once or
+twice managed to get into thy chamber.”
+
+“O ye immortal Gods!” groaned Plotinus.
+
+“Here she is!” exclaimed Porphyry, as a woman of masculine stature and
+bearing, with the remains of beauty not unskilfully patched, forced an
+entrance into the room.
+
+“Plotinus,” she exclaimed, “behold the most impassioned of thy
+disciples. Let us celebrate the mystic nuptials of Wisdom and Beauty.
+Let the claims of my sex to philosophic distinction be vindicated in my
+person.”
+
+“The question of the admission of women to share the studies and
+society of men,” rejoined Plotinus, “is one by no means exempt from
+difficulty.”
+
+“How so? I deemed it had been determined long ago in favour of
+Aspasia?”
+
+“Aspasia,” said Plotinus, “was a very exceptional woman.”
+
+“And am not I?”
+
+“I hope, that is, I conceive so,” said Plotinus. “But one may be an
+exceptional woman without being an Aspasia.”
+
+“How so? Am I inferior to Aspasia in beauty?”
+
+“I should hope not,” said Plotinus ambiguously.
+
+“Or in the irregularity of my deportment?”
+
+“I should think not,” said Plotinus, with more confidence.
+
+“Then why does the Plato of our age hesitate to welcome his Diotima?”
+
+“Because,” said Plotinus, “you are not Diotima, and I am not Plato.”
+
+“I am sure I am as much like Diotima as you are like Plato,” retorted
+the lady. “But let us come to our own time. Do I not hear that that
+creature Pannychis has obtained the freedom of the philosophers’ city,
+and the right to study therein?”
+
+“She takes private lessons from Hermon, who is responsible for her.”
+
+“The very thing!” exclaimed Leaena triumphantly. “I take private
+lessons from thee, and thou art responsible for me. Venus! what’s
+that?”
+
+The exclamation was prompted by the sudden appearance of an enormous
+serpent, which, emerging from a chink in the wall, glided swiftly
+towards the couch of Plotinus. He reached forward to greet it, uttering
+a cry of pleasure.
+
+“My guardian, my tutelary dæmon,” he exclaimed, “visible manifestation
+of Æsculapius! Then I am not forsaken by the immortal gods.”
+
+“Take away the monster,” cried Leaena, in violent agitation, “the nasty
+thing! Plotinus, how can you? Oh, I shall faint! I shall die! Take it
+away, I say. You must choose between it and me.”
+
+“Then, Madam,” said Plotinus, civilly but firmly, “I choose _it_.”
+
+“Thank Æsculapius we are rid of her,” he added, as Leaena vanished from
+the apartment.
+
+“I wish I knew that,” said Porphyry.
+
+And indeed after no long time a note came up from Theocles, who was
+sure that Plotinus would not refuse him that privilege of instructing a
+female disciple which had been already, with such manifest advantage to
+philosophical research, accorded to his colleague Hermon. No objection
+could well be made, especially as Plotinus did not foresee how many
+chambermaids, and pages, and cooks, and perfumers, and tiring women and
+bath attendants would be required, ere Leaena could feel herself
+moderately comfortable. How unlike the modest Pannychis! who wanted but
+half a bed, which need not be stuffed with the down of hares or the
+feathers of partridges, without which sleep refused to visit Leaena’s
+eyelids.
+
+It was natural that Plotinus should appeal to Gallienus, now returned
+from the Gallic expedition, but he could extract nothing save
+mysterious intimations that the Emperor had his eye upon the
+philosophers, and that they might find him among them when they least
+expected it. Plotinus’s spirits drooped, and Porphyry was almost glad
+when he again relapsed into an ecstasy.
+
+III
+
+When Plotinus’s eyes were at length opened, they fell not this time
+upon the faithful Porphyry, but upon two youthful followers of Plato
+who were beguiling the tedium of their vigil at his bedside by a game
+of dice, which prevented their observing his resuscitation. After a
+moment’s hesitation Plotinus resolved to lie quiet in the hopes of
+hearing something that might indicate what influences were in the
+ascendant in the philosophical republic. He had not long to wait.
+
+“Dice is dull work for long,” said one of the young men, indolently
+throwing himself back, and letting his caster fall upon the floor. “To
+think how much better one might be employed, but for having to watch
+this old fool here! I’ve a great mind to call up a slave.”
+
+“All the slaves are sure to have gone to the show, unless any of them
+should be Christians. Besides, Porphyry would hear you, he’s only in a
+cat’s sleep,” returned his companion.
+
+“Well, I mean to say it’s a shame. All the town will be in the theatre
+by this time.”
+
+“How many gladiators, said you?”
+
+“Forty pairs, the best show Campania has seen time out of mind.”
+
+“How has it all come about?”
+
+“Oh, news comes of the death of Postumus, killed by his own soldiers,
+and this passes as a great victory for want of a better, ‘We must have
+a day of thanksgiving,’ says Theocles. ‘Right,’ says Leaena, ‘I am
+dying to see an exhibition of gladiators.’ Theocles demurs at first,
+expecting to have to find the money—but Leaena tugs at his beard, and
+he gives in. Just at the nick of time the right sort of fellow pops up
+nobody knows whence, a lanista with hair like curling helichryse, as
+Theocritus has it, and a small army of gladiators, whom, out of
+devotion to the Emperor, he offers to exhibit for nothing. Who so
+pleased as Theocles now? He takes the chair as archon with Leaena by
+his side, and off goes every soul in the place, except Pannychis, who
+cannot bear the sight of blood, and Porphyry, who is an outrageous
+humanitarian, and us poor devils left in charge of this old dreamer.”
+
+“Couldn’t we leave him to mind himself? He isn’t likely to awake yet.”
+
+“Try him with your cloak-pin.” The student detached the implement in
+question, which was about the size of a small stiletto. Feeling
+uncertain what part of his person was to be the subject of experiment,
+Plotinus judged it advisable to manifest his recovery in an
+unmistakable fashion.
+
+“O dear Master, what joy!” cried both the students in a breath.
+“Porphyry! Porphyry!”
+
+The trusty scholar appeared immediately, and under pretence of fetching
+food, the two neophytes eloped to the amphitheatre.
+
+“What means all this, Porphyry?” demanded Plotinus sternly. “The City
+of Philosophers polluted by human blood! The lovers of wisdom mingling
+with the dregs of the rabble!”
+
+Porphyry’s account, which Plotinus could only extract by consenting to
+eat while his disciple talked, corresponded in all essential
+particulars with that of the two young men.
+
+“And I see not,” added he, “what we can do in the matter. This
+abomination is supposed to be in honour of the Emperor’s victories. If
+we interfere with it we shall be executed as rebels, supposing that we
+are not first torn to pieces as rioters.”
+
+“Porphyry,” replied Plotinus, “I should esteem this disgrace to
+philosophy a disgrace to myself if I did not my utmost to avert it.
+Remain thou here, and perform my funeral rites if it be necessary.”
+
+But to this Porphyry would by no means consent, and the two
+philosophers proceeded to the amphitheatre together. It was so crowded
+that there was no room on the seats for another person. Theocles was
+enthroned in the chair of honour, his beard manifesting evident traces
+of the depilatories administered by Leaena, who nevertheless sat by his
+side, her voluptuous face gloating over the anticipated banquet of
+agony. The philosophic part of the spectators were ranged all around,
+the remaining seats were occupied by a miscellaneous public. The master
+of the gladiators, a man of distinguished appearance, whose yellow
+locks gave him the aspect of a barbarian prince, stood in the arena
+surrounded by his myrmidons. The entry of Plotinus and Porphyry
+attracted his attention: he motioned to his followers, and in an
+instant the philosophers were seized, bound, and gagged without the
+excited assembly being in the least conscious of their presence.
+
+Two men stepped out into the arena, both fine and attractive figures.
+The athletic limbs, the fair complexion, the curling yellow hair of one
+proclaimed the Goth; he lightly swung his huge sword in his right hand,
+and looked as if his sole arm would easily put to flight the crowd of
+effeminate spectators. The other’s beauty was of another sort; young,
+slender, pensive, spiritual, he looked like anything rather than a
+gladiator, and held his downward pointed sword with a negligent grasp.
+
+“Guard thyself!” cried the Goth, placing himself in an attitude of
+offence.
+
+“I spill not the blood of a fellow-creature,” answered the other,
+casting his sword away from him.
+
+“Coward!” yelled well-nigh every voice in the amphitheatre.
+
+“No,” answered the youth with a grave smile, “Christian.”
+
+His shield and helmet followed his sword, he stood entirely defenceless
+before his adversary.
+
+“Throw him to my lion,” cried Theocles.
+
+“Or thy lioness,” suggested Hermon.
+
+This allusion to Leaena provoked a burst of laughter. Suddenly the Goth
+aimed a mighty blow at the head of the unresisting man. A shorn curl
+fell to the ground, the consummate skill of the swordsman averted all
+further contact between his blade and the Christian, who remained erect
+and smiling, without having moved a muscle or an eyelash.
+
+“Master,” said the Goth, addressing the lanista, “I had rather fight
+ten armed men than this unarmed one.”
+
+“Good,” returned his lord, with a gesture of approval. “Retire both of
+you.”
+
+A roar of disapprobation broke out from the spectators, which seemed
+not to produce the slightest effect on the lanista.
+
+“Turn out the next pair,” they cried.
+
+“I shall not,” said he.
+
+“Wherefore?”
+
+“Because I do not choose.”
+
+“Rogue! Cheat! Swindler! Cast him into prison! Throw him to the lion!”
+Such epithets and recommendations rained from the spectators’ seats,
+accompanied by a pelting of more substantial missiles. In an instant
+the yellow hair and common dress lay on the ground, and those who knew
+him not by the features could by the Imperial ornaments recognise the
+Emperor Gallienus. With no less celerity his followers, the Goth and
+the Christian excepted, disencumbered themselves of their exterior
+vesture, and stood forward in the character of Roman soldiers.
+
+“Friends,” cried Gallienus, turning to the plebeian multitude, “I am
+not about to balk you of your sport.”
+
+At a sign from him the legionaries ascended to the seats allotted to
+the philosophic portion of the audience, and a torrent of wisdom in
+their persons, including that of Leaena, flung forth with the energy of
+a catapult, descended abruptly and violently to the earth. They were
+instantly seized and dragged into an erect attitude by the remainder of
+the soldiery, who, amid the most tempestuous peals of laughter and
+applause from the delighted public, thrust swords into their hands,
+ranged them in opposite ranks, and summoned them to begin the fight and
+quit themselves like men. It was equally ludicrous and pitiable to see
+the bald, mostly grey-bearded men, their garments torn in their
+expulsion and their persons bruised by the fall, confronting each other
+with quaking limbs, helplessly brandishing their weapons or feebly
+calling their adversaries to come on, while the soldiers prodded them
+from behind with spears, and urged them into the close quarters they so
+anxiously desired to avoid. Plotinus, helpless with his bonds and gag,
+looked on in impotent horror. Gallienus was often cruel, but could he
+intend such a revolting massacre? There must be something behind.
+
+The honour of developing the Emperor’s purpose was reserved for
+Theocles, who, with admirable presence of mind, had ever since he found
+he must fight been engaged in trying to select the weakest antagonist.
+After hesitating between the unwieldy chief of the Peripatetics and the
+feminine Leaena he fixed on the latter, partly moved, perhaps, by the
+hope of avenging his beard. With a martial cry he sprang towards her,
+and upraised his weapon for a swashing blow. But he had sadly
+miscalculated. Leaena was hardly less versed in the combats of Mars
+than in those of Venus, having, in fact, commenced her distinguished
+career as a camp-follower of the Emperor Gordian. A tremendous stroke
+caught him on the hand; his blade dropped to the earth; why did not the
+fingers follow? Leaena elucidated the problem by a still more violent
+blow on his face; torrents of blood gushed forth indeed, but only from
+the nose. The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge.
+Encouraged by this opportune discovery the philosophers attacked each
+other with infinite spirit and valour. Infuriated by the blows given
+and received, by the pokings and proddings of the military, and the
+hilarious derision of the public, they cast away the shivered blades
+and resorted to the weapons of Nature. They kicked, they cuffed, they
+scratched, they tore the garments from each other’s shoulders, they
+foamed and rolled gasping in the yellow sand of the arena. At a signal
+from the Emperor the portal of the amphitheatre was thrown open, and
+the whole mass of clawing and cuffing philosophy was bundled
+ignominiously into the street.
+
+By this time Gallienus was seated on his tribunal, and Plotinus,
+released from his bonds, was standing by his side.
+
+“O Emperor,” he murmured, deeply abashed, “what can I urge? Thou wilt
+surely demolish my city!”
+
+“No, Plotinus,” replied Gallienus, pointing to the Goth and the
+Christian, “there are the men who will destroy the City of
+Philosophers. Would that were all they will destroy!”
+
+
+
+
+THE DEMON POPE
+
+
+“So you won’t sell me your soul?” said the devil.
+
+“Thank you,” replied the student, “I had rather keep it myself, if it’s
+all the same to you.”
+
+“But it’s not all the same to me. I want it very particularly. Come,
+I’ll be liberal. I said twenty years. You can have thirty.”
+
+The student shook his head.
+
+“Forty!”
+
+Another shake.
+
+“Fifty!”
+
+As before.
+
+“Now,” said the devil, “I know I’m going to do a foolish thing, but I
+cannot bear to see a clever, spirited young man throw himself away.
+I’ll make you another kind of offer. We won’t have any bargain at
+present, but I will push you on in the world for the next forty years.
+This day forty years I come back and ask you for a boon; not your soul,
+mind, or anything not perfectly in your power to grant. If you give it,
+we are quits; if not, I fly away with you. What say you to this?”
+
+The student reflected for some minutes. “Agreed,” he said at last.
+
+Scarcely had the devil disappeared, which he did instantaneously, ere a
+messenger reined in his smoking steed at the gate of the University of
+Cordova (the judicious reader will already have remarked that Lucifer
+could never have been allowed inside a Christian seat of learning),
+and, inquiring for the student Gerbert, presented him with the Emperor
+Otho’s nomination to the Abbacy of Bobbio, in consideration, said the
+document, of his virtue and learning, well-nigh miraculous in one so
+young. Such messengers were frequent visitors during Gerbert’s
+prosperous career. Abbot, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, he was
+ultimately enthroned Pope on April 2, 999, and assumed the appellation
+of Silvester the Second. It was then a general belief that the world
+would come to an end in the following year, a catastrophe which to many
+seemed the more imminent from the election of a chief pastor whose
+celebrity as a theologian, though not inconsiderable, by no means
+equalled his reputation as a necromancer.
+
+The world, notwithstanding, revolved scatheless through the dreaded
+twelvemonth, and early in the first year of the eleventh century
+Gerbert was sitting peacefully in his study, perusing a book of magic.
+Volumes of algebra, astrology, alchemy, Aristotelian philosophy, and
+other such light reading filled his bookcase; and on a table stood an
+improved clock of his invention, next to his introduction of the Arabic
+numerals his chief legacy to posterity. Suddenly a sound of wings was
+heard, and Lucifer stood by his side.
+
+“It is a long time,” said the fiend, “since I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you. I have now called to remind you of our little contract,
+concluded this day forty years.”
+
+“You remember,” said Silvester, “that you are not to ask anything
+exceeding my power to perform.”
+
+“I have no such intention,” said Lucifer. “On the contrary, I am about
+to solicit a favour which can be bestowed by you alone. You are Pope, I
+desire that you would make me a Cardinal.
+
+“In the expectation, I presume,” returned Gerbert, “of becoming Pope on
+the next vacancy.”
+
+“An expectation,” replied Lucifer, “which I may most reasonably
+entertain, considering my enormous wealth, my proficiency in intrigue,
+and the present condition of the Sacred College.”
+
+“You would doubtless,” said Gerbert, “endeavour to subvert the
+foundations of the Faith, and, by a course of profligacy and
+licentiousness, render the Holy See odious and contemptible.”
+
+“On the contrary,” said the fiend, “I would extirpate heresy, and all
+learning and knowledge as inevitably tending thereunto. I would suffer
+no man to read but the priest, and confine his reading to his breviary.
+I would burn your books together with your bones on the first
+convenient opportunity. I would observe an austere propriety of
+conduct, and be especially careful not to loosen one rivet in the
+tremendous yoke I was forging for the minds and consciences of
+mankind.”
+
+“If it be so,” said Gerbert, “let’s be off!”
+
+“What!” exclaimed Lucifer, “you are willing to accompany me to the
+infernal regions!”
+
+“Assuredly, rather than be accessory to the burning of Plato and
+Aristotle, and give place to the darkness against which I have been
+contending all my life.”
+
+“Gerbert,” replied the demon, “this is arrant trifling. Know you not
+that no good man can enter my dominions? that, were such a thing
+possible, my empire would become intolerable to me, and I should be
+compelled to abdicate?”
+
+“I do know it,” said Gerbert, “and hence I have been able to receive
+your visit with composure.”
+
+“Gerbert,” said the devil, with tears in his eyes, “I put it to you—is
+this fair, is this honest? I undertake to promote your interests in the
+world; I fulfil my promise abundantly. You obtain through my
+instrumentality a position to which you could never otherwise have
+aspired. Often have I had a hand in the election of a Pope, but never
+before have I contributed to confer the tiara on one eminent for virtue
+and learning. You profit by my assistance to the full, and now take
+advantage of an adventitious circumstance to deprive me of my
+reasonable guerdon. It is my constant experience that the good people
+are much more slippery than the sinners, and drive much harder
+bargains.”
+
+“Lucifer,” answered Gerbert, “I have always sought to treat you as a
+gentleman, hoping that you would approve yourself such in return. I
+will not inquire whether it was entirely in harmony with this character
+to seek to intimidate me into compliance with your demand by
+threatening me with a penalty which you well knew could not be
+enforced. I will overlook this little irregularity, and concede even
+more than you have requested. You have asked to be a Cardinal. I will
+make you Pope—”
+
+“Ha!” exclaimed Lucifer, and an internal glow suffused his sooty hide,
+as the light of a fading ember is revived by breathing upon it.
+
+“For twelve hours,” continued Gerbert. “At the expiration of that time
+we will consider the matter further; and if, as I anticipate, you are
+more anxious to divest yourself of the Papal dignity than you were to
+assume it, I promise to bestow upon you any boon you may ask within my
+power to grant, and not plainly inconsistent with religion or morals.”
+
+“Done!” cried the demon. Gerbert uttered some cabalistic words, and in
+a moment the apartment held two Pope Silvesters, entirely
+indistinguishable save by their attire, and the fact that one limped
+slightly with the left foot.
+
+“You will find the Pontifical apparel in this cupboard,” said Gerbert,
+and, taking his book of magic with him, he retreated through a masked
+door to a secret chamber. As the door closed behind him he chuckled,
+and muttered to himself, “Poor old Lucifer! Sold again!”
+
+If Lucifer was sold he did not seem to know it. He approached a large
+slab of silver which did duty as a mirror, and contemplated his
+personal appearance with some dissatisfaction.
+
+“I certainly don’t look half so well without my horns,” he
+soliloquised, “and I am sure I shall miss my tail most grievously.”
+
+A tiara and a train, however, made fair amends for the deficient
+appendages, and Lucifer now looked every inch a Pope. He was about to
+call the master of the ceremonies, and summon a consistory, when the
+door was burst open, and seven cardinals, brandishing poniards, rushed
+into the room.
+
+“Down with the sorcerer!” they cried, as they seized and gagged him.
+
+“Death to the Saracen!”
+
+“Practises algebra, and other devilish arts!”
+
+“Knows Greek!”
+
+“Talks Arabic!”
+
+“Reads Hebrew!”
+
+“Burn him!”
+
+“Smother him!”
+
+“Let him be deposed by a general council,” said a young and
+inexperienced Cardinal.
+
+“Heaven forbid!” said an old and wary one, _sotto voce_.
+
+Lucifer struggled frantically, but the feeble frame he was doomed to
+inhabit for the next eleven hours was speedily exhausted. Bound and
+helpless, he swooned away.
+
+“Brethren,” said one of the senior cardinals, “it hath been delivered
+by the exorcists that a sorcerer or other individual in league with the
+demon doth usually bear upon his person some visible token of his
+infernal compact. I propose that we forthwith institute a search for
+this stigma, the discovery of which may contribute to justify our
+proceedings in the eyes of the world.”
+
+“I heartily approve of our brother Anno’s proposition,” said another,
+“the rather as we cannot possibly fail to discover such a mark, if,
+indeed, we desire to find it.”
+
+The search was accordingly instituted, and had not proceeded far ere a
+simultaneous yell from all the seven cardinals indicated that their
+investigation had brought more to light than they had ventured to
+expect.
+
+The Holy Father had a cloven foot!
+
+For the next five minutes the Cardinals remained utterly stunned,
+silent, and stupefied with amazement. As they gradually recovered their
+faculties it would have become manifest to a nice observer that the
+Pope had risen very considerably in their good opinion.
+
+“This is an affair requiring very mature deliberation,” said one.
+
+“I always feared that we might be proceeding too precipitately,” said
+another.
+
+“It is written, ‘the devils believe,’” said a third: “the Holy Father,
+therefore, is not a heretic at any rate.”
+
+“Brethren,” said Anno, “this affair, as our brother Benno well remarks,
+doth indeed call for mature deliberation. I therefore propose that,
+instead of smothering his Holiness with cushions, as originally
+contemplated, we immure him for the present in the dungeon adjoining
+hereunto, and, after spending the night in meditation and prayer,
+resume the consideration of the business tomorrow morning.”
+
+“Informing the officials of the palace,” said Benno, “that his Holiness
+has retired for his devotions, and desires on no account to be
+disturbed.”
+
+“A pious fraud,” said Anno, “which not one of the Fathers would for a
+moment have scrupled to commit.”
+
+The Cardinals accordingly lifted the still insensible Lucifer, and bore
+him carefully, almost tenderly, to the apartment appointed for his
+detention. Each would fain have lingered in hopes of his recovery, but
+each felt that the eyes of his six brethren were upon him: and all,
+therefore, retired simultaneously, each taking a key of the cell.
+
+Lucifer regained consciousness almost immediately afterwards. He had
+the most confused idea of the circumstances which had involved him in
+his present scrape, and could only say to himself that if they were the
+usual concomitants of the Papal dignity, these were by no means to his
+taste, and he wished he had been made acquainted with them sooner. The
+dungeon was not only perfectly dark, but horribly cold, and the poor
+devil in his present form had no latent store of infernal heat to draw
+upon. His teeth chattered, he shivered in every limb, and felt devoured
+with hunger and thirst. There is much probability in the assertion of
+some of his biographers that it was on this occasion that he invented
+ardent spirits; but, even if he did, the mere conception of a glass of
+brandy could only increase his sufferings. So the long January night
+wore wearily on, and Lucifer seemed likely to expire from inanition,
+when a key turned in the lock, and Cardinal Anno cautiously glided in,
+bearing a lamp, a loaf, half a cold roast kid, and a bottle of wine.
+
+“I trust,” he said, bowing courteously, “that I may be excused any
+slight breach of etiquette of which I may render myself culpable from
+the difficulty under which I labour of determining whether, under
+present circumstances, ‘Your Holiness,’ or ‘Your Infernal Majesty’ be
+the form of address most befitting me to employ.”
+
+“Bub-ub-bub-boo,” went Lucifer, who still had the gag in his mouth.
+
+“Heavens!” exclaimed the Cardinal, “I crave your Infernal Holiness’s
+forgiveness. What a lamentable oversight!”
+
+And, relieving Lucifer from his gag and bonds, he set out the
+refection, upon which the demon fell voraciously.
+
+“Why the devil, if I may so express myself,” pursued Anno, “did not
+your Holiness inform us that you _were_ the devil? Not a hand would
+then have been raised against you. I have myself been seeking all my
+life for the audience now happily vouchsafed me. Whence this mistrust
+of your faithful Anno, who has served you so loyally and zealously
+these many years?”
+
+Lucifer pointed significantly to the gag and fetters.
+
+“I shall never forgive myself,” protested the Cardinal, “for the part I
+have borne in this unfortunate transaction. Next to ministering to your
+Majesty’s bodily necessities, there is nothing I have so much at heart
+as to express my penitence. But I entreat your Majesty to remember that
+I believed myself to be acting in your Majesty’s interest by
+overthrowing a magician who was accustomed to send your Majesty upon
+errands, and who might at any time enclose you in a box, and cast you
+into the sea. It is deplorable that your Majesty’s most devoted
+servants should have been thus misled.”
+
+“Reasons of State,” suggested Lucifer.
+
+“I trust that they no longer operate,” said the Cardinal. “However, the
+Sacred College is now fully possessed of the whole matter: it is
+therefore unnecessary to pursue this department of the subject further.
+I would now humbly crave leave to confer with your Majesty, or rather,
+perhaps, your Holiness, since I am about to speak of spiritual things,
+on the important and delicate point of your Holiness’s successor. I am
+ignorant how long your Holiness proposes to occupy the Apostolic chair;
+but of course you are aware that public opinion will not suffer you to
+hold it for a term exceeding that of the pontificate of Peter. A
+vacancy, therefore, must one day occur; and I am humbly to represent
+that the office could not be filled by one more congenial than myself
+to the present incumbent, or on whom he could more fully rely to carry
+out in every respect his views and intentions.”
+
+And the Cardinal proceeded to detail various circumstances of his past
+life, which certainly seemed to corroborate his assertion. He had not,
+however, proceeded far ere he was disturbed by the grating of another
+key in the lock, and had just time to whisper impressively, “Beware of
+Benno,” ere he dived under a table.
+
+Benno was also provided with a lamp, wine, and cold viands. Warned by
+the other lamp and the remains of Lucifer’s repast that some colleague
+had been beforehand with him, and not knowing how many more might be in
+the field, he came briefly to the point as regarded the Papacy, and
+preferred his claim in much the same manner as Anno. While he was
+earnestly cautioning Lucifer against this Cardinal as one who could and
+would cheat the very Devil himself, another key turned in the lock, and
+Benno escaped under the table, where Anno immediately inserted his
+finger into his right eye. The little squeal consequent upon this
+occurrence Lucifer successfully smothered by a fit of coughing.
+
+Cardinal No. 3, a Frenchman, bore a Bayonne ham, and exhibited the same
+disgust as Benno on seeing himself forestalled. So far as his requests
+transpired they were moderate, but no one knows where he would have
+stopped if he had not been scared by the advent of Cardinal No. 4. Up
+to this time he had only asked for an inexhaustible purse, power to
+call up the Devil _ad libitum_, and a ring of invisibility to allow him
+free access to his mistress, who was unfortunately a married woman.
+
+Cardinal No. 4 chiefly wanted to be put into the way of poisoning
+Cardinal No. 5; and Cardinal No. 5 preferred the same petition as
+respected Cardinal No. 4.
+
+Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the
+Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding them
+together, and of unlimited non-residence. In the course of his harangue
+he made use of the phrase _non obstantibus_, of which Lucifer
+immediately took a note.
+
+What the seventh Cardinal would have solicited is not known, for he had
+hardly opened his mouth when the twelfth hour expired, and Lucifer,
+regaining his vigour with his shape, sent the Prince of the Church
+spinning to the other end of the room, and split the marble table with
+a single stroke of his tail. The six crouched and huddling Cardinals
+cowered revealed to one another, and at the same time enjoyed the
+spectacle of his Holiness darting through the stone ceiling, which
+yielded like a film to his passage, and closed up afterwards as if
+nothing had happened. After the first shock of dismay they unanimously
+rushed to the door, but found it bolted on the outside. There was no
+other exit, and no means of giving an alarm. In this emergency the
+demeanour of the Italian Cardinals set a bright example to their
+ultramontane colleagues. “_Bisogna pazienzia_,” they said, as they
+shrugged their shoulders. Nothing could exceed the mutual politeness of
+Cardinals Anno and Benno, unless that of the two who had sought to
+poison each other. The Frenchman was held to have gravely derogated
+from good manners by alluding to this circumstance, which had reached
+his ears while he was under the table: and the Englishman swore so
+outrageously at the plight in which he found himself that the Italians
+then and there silently registered a vow that none of his nation should
+ever be Pope, a maxim which, with one exception, has been observed to
+this day.
+
+Lucifer, meanwhile, had repaired to Silvester, whom he found arrayed in
+all the insignia of his dignity; of which, as he remarked, he thought
+his visitor had probably had enough.
+
+“I should think so indeed,” replied Lucifer. “But at the same time I
+feel myself fully repaid for all I have undergone by the assurance of
+the loyalty of my friends and admirers, and the conviction that it is
+needless for me to devote any considerable amount of personal attention
+to ecclesiastical affairs. I now claim the promised boon, which it will
+be in no way inconsistent with thy functions to grant, seeing that it
+is a work of mercy. I demand that the Cardinals be released, and that
+their conspiracy against thee, by which I alone suffered, be buried in
+oblivion.”
+
+“I hoped you would carry them all off,” said Gerbert, with an
+expression of disappointment.
+
+“Thank you,” said the Devil. “It is more to my interest to leave them
+where they are.”
+
+So the dungeon-door was unbolted, and the Cardinals came forth,
+sheepish and crestfallen. If, after all, they did less mischief than
+Lucifer had expected from them, the cause was their entire bewilderment
+by what had passed, and their utter inability to penetrate the policy
+of Gerbert, who henceforth devoted himself even with ostentation to
+good works. They could never quite satisfy themselves whether they were
+speaking to the Pope or to the Devil, and when under the latter
+impression habitually emitted propositions which Gerbert justly
+stigmatised as rash, temerarious, and scandalous. They plagued him with
+allusions to certain matters mentioned in their interviews with
+Lucifer, with which they naturally but erroneously supposed him to be
+conversant, and worried him by continual nods and titterings as they
+glanced at his nether extremities. To abolish this nuisance, and at the
+same time silence sundry unpleasant rumours which had somehow got
+abroad, Gerbert devised the ceremony of kissing the Pope’s feet, which,
+in a grievously mutilated form, endures to this day. The stupefaction
+of the Cardinals on discovering that the Holy Father had lost his hoof
+surpasses all description, and they went to their graves without having
+obtained the least insight into the mystery.
+
+
+
+
+THE CUPBEARER
+
+
+The minister Photinius had fallen, to the joy of Constantinople. He had
+taken sanctuary in the immense monastery adjoining the Golden Gate in
+the twelfth region of the city, founded for a thousand monks by the
+patrician Studius, in the year 463. There he occupied himself with the
+concoction of poisons, the resource of fallen statesmen. When a
+defeated minister of our own day is indisposed to accept his
+discomfiture, he applies himself to poison the public mind, inciting
+the lower orders against the higher, and blowing up every smouldering
+ember of sedition he can discover, trusting that the conflagration thus
+kindled, though it consume the edifice of the State, will not fail to
+roast his own egg. Photinius’s conceptions of mischief were less
+refined; he perfected his toxicological knowledge in the medical
+laboratory of the monastery, and sought eagerly for an opportunity of
+employing it; whether in an experiment upon the Emperor, or on his own
+successor, or on some other personage, circumstances must determine.
+
+The sanctity of Studius’s convent, and the strength of its monastic
+garrison, rendered it a safe refuge for disgraced courtiers, and in
+this thirtieth year of the Emperor Basil the Second (reckoning from his
+nominal accession) it harboured a legion of ex-prime ministers,
+patriarchs, archbishops, chief secretaries, hypati, anthypati,
+silentiarii, protospatharii, and even spatharo-candidati. And this
+small army was nothing to the host that, maimed or blinded or tonsured
+or all three, dragged out their lives in monasteries or in dungeons or
+on rocky islets; and these again were few in comparison with the
+spirits of the traitors or the betrayed who wailed nightly amid the
+planes and cypresses of the Aretae, or stalked through the palatial
+apartments of verdantique and porphyry. But of those comparatively at
+liberty, but whose liberty was circumscribed by the hallowed precincts
+of Studius, every soul was plotting. And never, perhaps, in the corrupt
+Byzantine Court, where true friendship had been unknown since Theodora
+quarrelled with Antonia, had so near an approach to it existed as in
+this asylum of villains. A sort of freemasonry came to prevail in the
+sanctuary: every one longed to know how his neighbour’s plot throve,
+and grudged not to buy the knowledge by disclosing a little corner of
+his own. Thus rendered communicative, their colloquies would travel
+back into the past, and as the veterans of intrigue fought their
+battles over again, the most experienced would learn things that made
+them open their eyes with amazement. “Ah!” they would hear, “that is
+just where you were mistaken. You had bought Eromenus, but so had I,
+and old Nicephorus had outbid us both.” “You deemed the dancer Anthusa
+a sure card, and knew not of her secret infirmity, of which I had been
+apprised by her waiting woman.” “Did you really know nothing of that
+sliding panel? And were you ignorant that whatever one says in the blue
+chamber is heard in the green?” “Yes, I thought so too, and I spent a
+mint of money before finding out that the dog whose slaver that brazen
+impostor Panurgiades pretended to sell me was no more mad than he was.”
+After such rehearsals of future dialogues by the banks of Styx, the
+fallen statesmen were observed to appear exceedingly dejected, but the
+stimulus had become necessary to their existence. None gossiped so
+freely or disclosed so much as Photinius and his predecessor
+Eustathius, whom he had himself displaced—probably because Eustathius,
+believing in nothing in heaven or earth but gold, and labouring under
+an absolute privation of that metal, was regarded even by himself as an
+extinct volcano.
+
+“Well,” observed he one day, when discoursing with Photinius is an
+unusually confidential mood, “I am free to say that for my own part I
+don’t think over much of poison. It has its advantages, to be sure, but
+to my mind the disadvantages are even more conspicuous.”
+
+“For example?” inquired Photinius, who had the best reason for
+confiding in the efficacy of a drug administered with dexterity and
+discretion.
+
+“Two people must be in the secret at least, if not three,” replied
+Eustathius, “and cooks, as a rule, are a class of persons entirely
+unfit to be employed in affairs of State.”
+
+“The Court physician,” suggested Photinius.
+
+“Is only available,” answered Eustathius, “in case his Majesty should
+send for him, which is most improbable. If he ever did, poison, praised
+be the Lord! would be totally unnecessary and entirely superfluous.”
+
+“My dear friend,” said Photinius, venturing at this favourable moment
+on a question he had been dying to ask ever since he had been an inmate
+of the convent, “would you mind telling me in confidence, did you ever
+administer any potion of a deleterious nature to his Sacred Majesty?”
+
+“Never!” protested Eustathius, with fervour. “I tried once, to be sure,
+but it was no use.”
+
+“What was the impediment?”
+
+“The perverse opposition of the cupbearer. It is idle attempting
+anything of the kind as long as she is about the Emperor.”
+
+“_She_!” exclaimed Photinius.
+
+“Don’t you know _that_?” responded Eustathius, with an air and manner
+that plainly said, “You don’t know much.”
+
+Humbled and ashamed, Photinius nevertheless wisely stooped to avow his
+nescience, and flattering his rival on his superior penetration, led
+him to divulge the State secret that the handsome cupbearer Helladius
+was but the disguise of the lovely Helladia, the object of Basil’s
+tenderest affection, and whose romantic attachment to his person had
+already frustrated more conspiracies than the aged plotter could reckon
+up.
+
+This intelligence made Photinius for a season exceedingly thoughtful.
+He had not deemed Basil of an amorous complexion. At length he sent for
+his daughter, the beautiful and virtuous Euprepia, who from time to
+time visited him in the monastery.
+
+“Daughter,” he said, “it appears to me that the time has now arrived
+when thou mayest with propriety present a petition to the Emperor on
+behalf of thy unfortunate father. Here is the document. It is, I
+flatter myself, composed with no ordinary address; nevertheless I will
+not conceal from thee that I place my hopes rather on thy beauty of
+person than on my beauty of style. Shake down thy hair and dishevel it,
+so!—that is excellent. Remember to tear thy robe some little in the
+poignancy of thy woe, and to lose a sandal. Tears and sobs of course
+thou hast always at command, but let not the frenzy of thy grief render
+thee wholly inarticulate. Here is a slight memorandum of what is most
+fitting for thee to say: thy old nurse’s instructions will do the rest.
+Light a candle for St. Sergius, and watch for a favourable
+opportunity.”
+
+Euprepia was upright, candid, and loyal; but the best of women has
+something of the actress in her nature; and her histrionic talent was
+stimulated by her filial affection. Basil was for a moment fairly
+carried away by the consummate fact of her performance and the genuine
+feeling to her appeal; but he was himself again by the time he had
+finished perusing his late minister’s long-winded and mendacious
+memorial.
+
+“What manner of woman was thy mother?” he inquired kindly
+
+Euprepia was eloquent in praise of her deceased parent’s perfections of
+mind and person.
+
+“Then I can believe thee Photinius’s daughter, which I might otherwise
+have doubted,” returned Basil. “As concerns him, I can only say, if he
+feels himself innocent, let him come out of sanctuary, and stand his
+trial. But I will give thee a place at Court.”
+
+This was about all that Photinius hoped to obtain, and he joyfully
+consented to his daughter’s entering the Imperial court, exulting at
+having got in the thin end of the wedge. She was attached to the person
+of the Emperor’s sister-in-law, the “Slayer of the Bulgarians” himself
+being a most determined bachelor.
+
+Time wore on. Euprepia’s opportunities of visiting her father were less
+frequent than formerly. At last she came, looking thoroughly miserable,
+distracted, and forlorn.
+
+“What ails thee, child?” he inquired anxiously.
+
+“Oh, father, in what a frightful position do I find myself!”
+
+“Speak,” he said, “and rely on my counsel.”
+
+“When I entered the Court,” she proceeded, “I found at first but one
+human creature I could love or trust, and he—let me so call him—seemed
+to make up for the deficiencies of all the rest. It was the cupbearer
+Helladius.”
+
+“I hope he is still thy friend,” interrupted Photinius. “The good
+graces of an Imperial cupbearer are always important, and I would have
+bought those of Helladius with a myriad of bezants.”
+
+“They were not to be thus obtained, father,” said she. “The purest
+disinterestedness, the noblest integrity, the most unselfish devotion,
+were the distinction of my friend. And such beauty! I cannot, I must
+not conceal that my heart was soon entirely his. But—most strange it
+seemed to me then—it was long impossible for me to tell whether
+Helladius loved me or loved me not. The most perfect sympathy existed
+between us: we seemed one heart and one soul: and yet, and yet,
+Helladius never gave the slightest indication of the sentiments which a
+young man might be supposed to entertain for a young girl. Vainly did I
+try every innocent wile that a modest maiden may permit herself: he was
+ever the friend, never the lover. At length, after long pining between
+despairing fondness and wounded pride, I myself turned away, and
+listened to one who left me in no doubt of the sincerity of his
+passion.”
+
+“Who?”
+
+“The Emperor! And, to shorten the story of my shame, I became his
+mistress.”
+
+“The saints be praised!” shouted Photinius. “O my incomparable
+daughter!”
+
+“Father!” cried Euprepia, blushing and indignant. “But let me hurry on
+with my wretched tale. In proportion as the Emperor’s affection became
+more marked, Helladius, hitherto so buoyant and serene, became a
+visible prey to despondency. Some scornful beauty, I deemed, was
+inflicting on him the tortures he had previously inflicted upon me,
+and, cured of my unhappy attachment, and entirely devoted to my
+Imperial lover, I did all in my power to encourage him. He received my
+comfort with gratitude, nor did it, as I had feared might happen, seem
+to excite the least lover-like feeling towards me on his own part.”
+
+“Euprepia,” he said only two days ago, “never in this Court have I met
+one like thee. Thou art the soul of honour and generosity. I can safely
+trust thee with a secret which my bursting heart can no longer retain,
+but which I dread to breathe even to myself. Know first I am not what I
+seem, I am a woman!” And opening his vest—”
+
+“We know all about that already,” interrupted Photinius. “Get on!”
+
+“If thou knowest this already, father,” said the astonished Euprepia,
+“thou wilt spare me the pain of entering further into Helladia’s
+affection for Basil. Suffice that it was impassioned beyond
+description, and vied with whatever history or romance records. In her
+male costume she had accompanied the conqueror of the Bulgarians in his
+campaigns, she had fought in his battles; a gigantic foe, in act to
+strike him from behind, had fallen by her arrow; she had warded the
+poison-cup from his lips, and the assassin’s dagger from his heart; she
+had rejected enormous wealth offered as a bribe for treachery, and
+lived only for the Emperor. ‘And now,’ she cried, ‘his love for me is
+cold, and he deserts me for another. Who she is I cannot find, else on
+her it were, not on him, that my vengeance should alight. Oh, Euprepia,
+I would tear her eyes from her head, were they beautiful as thine! But
+vengeance I must have. Basil must die. On the third day he expires by
+my hand, poisoned by the cup which I alone am trusted to offer him at
+the Imperial banquet where thou wilt be present. Thou shalt see his
+agonies and my triumph, and rejoice that thy friend has known how to
+avenge herself.’
+
+“Thou seest now, father, in how frightful a difficulty I am placed. All
+my entreaties and remonstrances have been in vain: at my threats
+Helladia merely laughs. I love Basil with my whole heart. Shall I look
+on and see him murdered? Shall I, having first unwittingly done my
+friend the most grievous injury, proceed further to betray her, and
+doom her to a cruel death? I might anticipate her fell purpose by
+slaying her, but for that I have neither strength nor courage. Many a
+time have I felt on the point of revealing everything to her, and
+offering myself as her victim, but for this also I lack fortitude. I
+might convey a warning to Basil, but Helladia’s vengeance is
+unsleeping, and nothing but her death or mine will screen him. Oh,
+father, father! what am I to do?”
+
+“Nothing romantic or sentimental, I trust, dear child,” replied
+Photinius.
+
+“Torture me not, father. I came to thee for counsel.”
+
+“And counsel shalt thou have, but it must be the issue of mature
+deliberation. Thou mayest observe,” continued he with the air of a good
+man contending with adversity, “how weak and miserable is man’s estate
+even in the day of good fortune, how hard it is for purblind mortals to
+discern the right path, especially when two alluring routes are
+simultaneously presented for their decision! The most obvious and
+natural course, the one I should have adopted without hesitation
+half-an-hour ago, would be simply to let Helladia alone. Should she
+succeed—and Heaven forbid else!—the knot is loosed in the simplest
+manner. Basil dies—”
+
+“Father!”
+
+“I am a favourite with his sister-in-law,” continued Photinius,
+entirely unconscious of his daughter’s horror and agitation, “who will
+govern in the name of her weak husband, and is moreover thy mistress.
+She recalls me to Court, and all is peace and joy. But then, Helladia
+may fail. In that case, when she has been executed—”
+
+“Father, father!”
+
+“We are exactly where we were, save for the hold thou hast established
+over the Emperor, which is of course invaluable. I cannot but feel that
+Heaven is good when I reflect how easily thou mightest have thrown
+thyself away upon a courtier. Now there is a much bolder game to play,
+which, relying on the protection of Providence, I feel half disposed to
+attempt. Thou mightest betray Helladia.”
+
+“Deliver my friend to the tormentors!”
+
+“Then,” pursued Photinius, without hearing her, “thy claim on the
+Emperor’s gratitude is boundless, and if he has any sense of what is
+seemly—and he is what they call chivalrous—he will make thee his lawful
+consort. I father-in-law of an Emperor! My brain reels to think of it.
+I must be cool. I must not suffer myself to be dazzled or hurried away.
+Let me consider. Thus acting, thou puttest all to the hazard of the
+die. For if Helladia should deny everything, as of course she would,
+and the Emperor should foolishly scruple to put her to the rack, she
+might probably persuade him of her innocence, and where wouldst thou be
+then? It might almost be better to be beforehand, and poison Helladia
+herself, but I fear there is no time now. Thou hast no evidence but her
+threats, I suppose? Thou hast not caught her tampering with poisons?
+There can of course be nothing in writing. I daresay I could find
+something, if I had but time. Canst thou counterfeit her signature?”
+
+But long ere this Euprepia, dissolved in tears, her bosom torn by
+convulsive sobs, had become as inattentive to her parent’s discourse as
+he had been to her interjections. Photinius at last remarked her
+distress: he was by no means a bad father.
+
+“Poor child,” he said, “thy nerves are unstrung, and no wonder. It is a
+terrible risk to run. Even if thou saidest nothing, and Helladia under
+the torture accused thee of having been privy to her design, it might
+have a bad effect on the Emperor’s mind. If he put thee to the torture
+too—but no! that’s impossible. I feel faint and giddy, dear child, and
+unable to decide a point of such importance. Come to me at daybreak
+to-morrow.”
+
+But Euprepia did not reappear, and Photinius spent the day in an agony
+of expectation, fearing that she had compromised herself by some
+imprudence. He gazed on the setting sun with uncontrollable impatience,
+knowing that it would shine on the Imperial banquet, where so much was
+to happen. Basil was in fact at that very moment seating himself among
+a brilliant assemblage. By his side stood a choir of musicians, among
+them Euprepia. Soon the cup was called for, and Helladia, in her
+masculine dress, stepped forward, darting a glance of sinister triumph
+at her friend. Silently, almost imperceptibly to the bulk of the
+company, Euprepia glided forward, and hissed rather than whispered in
+Helladia’s ear, ere she could retire from the Emperor’s side.
+
+“Didst thou not say that if thou couldst discover her who had wronged
+thee, thou wouldst wreak thy vengeance on her, and molest Basil no
+further?”
+
+“I did, and I meant it.”
+
+“See that thou keepest thy word. I am she!” And snatching the cup from
+the table, she quaffed it to the last drop, and instantly expired in
+convulsions.
+
+We pass over the dismay of the banqueters, the arrest and confession of
+Helladia, the general amazement at the revelation of her sex, the
+frantic grief of the Emperor.
+
+Basil’s sorrow was sincere and durable. On an early occasion he thus
+addressed his courtiers:
+
+“I cannot determine which of these two women loved me best: she who
+gave her life for me, or she who would have taken mine. The first made
+the greater sacrifice; the second did most violence to her feelings.
+What say ye?”
+
+The courtiers hesitated, feeling themselves incompetent judges in
+problems of this nature. At length the youngest exclaimed:
+
+“O Emperor, how can we tell thee, unless we know what thou thinkest
+thyself?”
+
+“What!” exclaimed Basil, “an honest man in the Court of Byzantium! Let
+his mouth be filled with gold immediately!”
+
+This operation having been performed, and the precious metal
+distributed in fees among the proper officers, Basil thus addressed the
+object of his favour:
+
+“Manuel, thy name shall henceforth be Chrysostomus, in memory of what
+has just taken place. In further token of my approbation of thy
+honesty, I will confer upon thee the hand of the only other respectable
+person about the Court, namely, of Helladia. Take her, my son, and
+raise up a race of heroes! She shall be amply dowered out of what
+remains of the property of Photinius.”
+
+“Gennadius,” whispered a cynical courtier to his neighbour, “I hope
+thou admirest the magnanimity of our sovereign, who deems he is
+performing a most generous action in presenting Manuel with his
+cast-off mistress, who has tried to poison him, and with whom he has
+been at his wits’ end what to do, and in dowering her at the expense of
+another.”
+
+The snarl was just; but it is just also to acknowledge that Basil, as a
+prince born in the purple, had not the least idea that he was laying
+himself open to any such criticism. He actually did feel the manly glow
+of self-approbation which accompanies the performance of a good action:
+an emotion which no one else present, except Chrysostomus, was so much
+as able to conceive. It is further to be remarked that the old courtier
+who sneered at Chrysostomus was devoured by envy of his good fortune,
+and would have given his right eye to have been in his place.
+
+“Chrysostomus,” pursued Basil, “we must now think of the hapless
+Photinius. That unfortunate father is doubtless in an agony of grief
+which renders the forfeiture of the remains of his possessions
+indifferent to him. Thou, his successor therein, mayest be regarded as
+in some sort his son-in-law. Go, therefore, and comfort him, and report
+to me upon his condition.”
+
+Chrysostomus accordingly proceeded to the monastery, where he was
+informed that Photinius had retired with his spiritual adviser, and
+could on no account be disturbed.
+
+“It is on my head to see the Emperor’s orders obeyed,” returned
+Chrysostomus, and forced the door. The bereaved parent was busily
+engaged in sticking pins into a wax effigy of Basil, under the
+direction of Panurgiades, already honourably mentioned in this history.
+
+“Wretched old man!” exclaimed Chrysostomus, “is this thy grief for thy
+daughter?”
+
+“My grief is great,” answered Photinius, “but my time is small. If I
+turn not every moment to account, I shall never be prime minister
+again. But all is over now. Thou wilt denounce me, of course. I will
+give thee a counsel. Say that thou didst arrive just as we were about
+to place the effigy of Basil before a slow fire, and melt it into a
+caldron of bubbling poison.”
+
+“I shall report what I have seen,” replied Chrysostomus, “neither more
+nor less. But I think I can assure thee that none will suffer for this
+mummery except Panurgiades, and that he will at most be whipped.”
+
+“Chrysostomus,” said Basil, on receiving the report, “lust of power, a
+fever in youth, is a leprosy in age. The hoary statesman out of place
+would sell his daughter, his country, his soul, to regain it: yea, he
+would part with his skin and his senses, were it possible to hold
+office without them. I commiserate Photinius, whose faculties are
+clearly on the decline; the day has been when he would not have wasted
+his time sticking pins into a waxen figure. I will give him some shadow
+of authority to amuse his old days and keep him out of mischief. The
+Abbot of Catangion is just dead. Photinius shall succeed him.”
+
+So Photinius received the tonsure and the dignity, and made a very
+tolerable Abbot. It is even recorded to his honour that he bestowed a
+handsome funeral on his old enemy Eustathius.
+
+Helladia made Chrysostomus an excellent wife, a little over-prudish,
+some thought. When, nearly two centuries afterwards, the Courts of Love
+came to be established in Provence, the question at issue between her
+and Euprepia was referred to those tribunals, which, finding the
+decision difficult, adjourned it for seven hundred years. That period
+having now expired, it is submitted to the British public.
+
+
+
+
+THE WISDOM OF THE INDIANS
+
+
+Everybody knows that in the reign of the Emperor Elagabalus Rome was
+visited by an embassy from India; whose members, on their way from the
+East, had held that memorable interview with the illustrious (though
+heretical) Christian philosopher Bardesanes which enabled him to
+formulate his doctrine of Fate, borrowed from the Indian theory of
+Karma, and therefore, until lately, grievously misunderstood by his
+commentators.
+
+It may not, however, be equally notorious that the ambassadors returned
+by sea as far as Berytus, and upon landing there were hospitably
+entertained by the sage Euphronius, the head of the philosophical
+faculty of that University.
+
+Euphronius naturally inquired what circumstance in Rome had appeared to
+his visitors most worthy of remark.
+
+“The extreme evil of the Emperor’s Karma,” said they.
+
+Euphronius requested further explanation.
+
+“Karma,” explained their interpreter, “is that congeries of
+circumstances which has necessitated the birth of each individual, and
+of whose good or evil he is the incarnation. Every act must needs be
+attended by consequences, and as these are usually of too far-reaching
+a character to be exhausted in the life of the doer of the action, they
+cannot but engender another person by whom they are to be borne. This
+truth is popularly expressed by the doctrine of transmigration,
+according to which individuals, as the character of their deeds may
+determine, are re-born as pigs or peacocks, beggars or princes. But
+this is a loose and unscientific way of speaking, for in fact it is not
+the individual that is re-born, but the character; which, even as the
+silkworm clothes itself with silk and the caddis-worm with mud and
+small shingle, creates for itself a new personality, congruous with its
+own nature. We are therefore led to reflect what a prodigious multitude
+of sins some one must have committed ere the Roman world could be
+afflicted with such an Emperor as Elagabalus.”
+
+“What have ye found so exceedingly reprehensible in the Emperor’s
+conduct?” demanded Euphronius.
+
+“To speak only,” said the Indians, “of such of his doings as may fitly
+be recited to modest ears, we find him declaring war against Nature,
+and delighting in nothing that is not the contrary of what Heaven meant
+it to be. We see him bathing in perfumes, sailing ships in wine,
+feeding horses on grapes and lions on parrots, peppering fish with
+pearls, wearing gems on the soles of his feet, strewing his floor with
+gold-dust, paving the public streets with precious marbles, driving
+teams of stags, scorning to eat fish by the seaside, deploring his lot
+that he has never yet been able to dine on a phoenix. Enormous must
+have been the folly and wickedness which has incarnated itself in such
+a sovereign, and should his reign be prolonged, discouraging is the
+prospect for the morals of the next generation.
+
+“According to you, then,” said Euphronius, “the fates of men are not
+spun for them by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, but by their
+predecessors?”
+
+“So it is,” said they, “always remembering that man can rid himself of
+his Karma by philosophic meditation, combined with religious
+austerities, and that if all walked in this path, existence with all
+its evils would come to an end. Insomuch that the most bloodthirsty
+conqueror that ever devastated the earth hath not destroyed one
+thousandth part as many existences as the Lord Buddha.”
+
+“These are abstruse matters,” said Euphronius, “and I lament that your
+stay in Berytus will not be long enough to instruct me adequately
+therein.”
+
+“Accompany us to India,” said they, “and thou shalt receive instruction
+at the fountain head.”
+
+“I am old and feeble,” apologised Euphronius, “and adjusted by long
+habit to my present environment. Nevertheless I will propound the
+enterprise to my pupils, only somewhat repressing their ardour, lest
+the volunteers should be inconveniently numerous.”
+
+When, however, the proposition was made not a soul responded; though
+Euphronius reproached his disciples severely, and desired them to
+compare their want of spirit with his own thirst for knowledge, which,
+when he was a young man, had taken him as far as Alexandria to hear a
+celebrated rhetorician. In the evening, however, two disciples came to
+him together, and professed their readiness to undertake the
+expedition, if promised a reward commensurate with its danger and
+difficulty.
+
+“Ye would learn the secret of my celebrated dilemma,” said he, “which
+no sophist can elude? ’Tis much; ’tis immoderate; ’tis enormous;
+nevertheless, bring the wisdom of India to Berytus, and the knowledge
+of the stratagem shall be yours.”
+
+“No, Master,” they said, “it is not thy dilemma of which we are
+enamoured. It is thy daughter.”
+
+A vehement altercation ensued, but at length the old philosopher, who
+at the bottom of his heart was much readier to part with his daughter
+than his dilemma, was induced to promise her to whichever of the pupils
+should bring home the most satisfactory exposition of Indian
+metaphysics: provided always that during their absence he should not
+have been compelled to bestow her hand as the price of a quibble even
+more subtle than his own: but this he believed to be impossible.
+
+Mnesitheus and Rufus accordingly travelled with the embassy to India,
+and arrived in safety at the metropolis of Palimbothra. They had wisely
+devoted themselves meanwhile to learning the language, and were now
+able to converse with some fluency.
+
+On reaching their destination they were placed under the
+superintendence of competent instructors, who were commissioned to
+initiate them into the canon of Buddhist scriptures, comprising, to
+mention only a few of the principal, the Lalitavistara, the Dhammapada,
+the Kuddhapatha, the Palinokkha, the Uragavagga, the Kulavagga, the
+Mahavagga, the Atthakavagga, and the Upasampadakammavaca. These works,
+composed in dead languages, and written in strange and unknown
+characters, were further provided with commentaries more voluminous and
+inexplicable than the text.
+
+“Heavens,” exclaimed Mnesitheus and Rufus, “can the life of a man
+suffice to study all this?”
+
+“Assuredly not,” replied the Indians. “The diligent student will resume
+his investigations in a subsequent stage of existence, and, if endowed
+with eminent faculties, may hope to attain the end he proposes to
+himself at the fifteenth transmigration.”
+
+“The end we propose to ourselves,” said the Greeks, “is to marry our
+master’s daughter. Will the fair Euphronia also have undergone fifteen
+transmigrations, and will her charms have continued unimpaired?”
+
+“It is difficult to pronounce,” said they, “for should the maiden,
+through the exercise of virtue, have merited to be born as a white
+elephant, her transmigrations must in the order of nature be but few;
+whereas should she have unfortunately become and remained a rat, a
+frog, or other shortlived animal, they cannot but be exceedingly
+numerous.”
+
+“The prospect of wedding a frog at the end of fifteen transmigrations,”
+said the youths, “doth not in any respect commend itself to us. Are
+there no means by which the course of study may be accelerated?”
+
+“Undoubtedly,” said the Indians, “by the practice of religious
+austerities.”
+
+“Of what nature are these?” inquired the young men.
+
+“The intrepid disciple,” said the sages, “may chain himself to a tree,
+and gaze upon the sun until he is deprived of the faculty of vision. He
+may drive an iron bar through his cheeks and tongue, thus preventing
+all misuse of the gift of speech. It is open to him to bury himself in
+the earth up to his waist, relying for his maintenance on the alms of
+pious donors. He may recline upon a couch studded with spikes, until
+from the induration of his skin he shall have merited the title of a
+rhinoceros among sages. As, however, these latter practices interfere
+with locomotion, and thus prevent his close attendance on his spiritual
+guide, it is rather recommended to him to elevate his arms above his
+head, and retain them in that position until, by the withering of the
+sinews, it is impossible for him to bring them down again.”
+
+“In that case,” cried Rufus, “farewell philosophy! farewell Euphronia!”
+
+There is reason to believe that Mnesitheus would have made exactly the
+same observation if Rufus had not been beforehand with him. The spirit
+of contradiction and the affectation of superiority, however, led him
+to reproach his rival with pusillanimity, and he went so far that at
+length he found himself committed to undergo the ordeal: merely
+stipulating that, in consideration of his being a foreigner, he should
+be permitted to elevate the right arm only.
+
+The king of the country most graciously came to his assistance by
+causing him to be fastened to a tree, with his uplifted arm secured by
+iron bands above his head, a fan being put in his other hand to protect
+him against the molestations of gnats and mosquitoes. By this means,
+and with the assistance of the monks who continually recited and
+expounded the Buddhist scriptures in his ears, some time even before
+his arm had stiffened for ever, the doctrine of the misery of existence
+had become perfectly clear to him.
+
+Released from his captivity, he hastened back to Europe to claim the
+guerdon of his sufferings. History is silent respecting his adventures
+until his arrival at Berytus, where the strange wild-looking man with
+the uplifted arm found himself the centre of a turbulent and
+mischievous rabble. As he seemed about to suffer severe ill-usage, a
+personage of dignified and portly appearance hastened up, and with his
+staff showered blows to right and left upon the rioters.
+
+“Scoundrels,” he exclaimed, “finely have ye profited by my precepts,
+thus to misuse an innocent stranger! But I will no longer dwell among
+such barbarians. I will remove my school to Tarsus!”
+
+The mob dispersed. The victim and his deliverer stood face to face.
+
+“Mnesitheus!”
+
+“Rufus!”
+
+“Call me Rufinianus,” corrected the latter; “for such is the
+appellation which I have felt it due to myself to assume, since the
+enhancement of my dignity by becoming Euphronius’s successor and
+son-in-law.”
+
+“Son-in-law! Am I to lose the reward of my incredible sufferings?”
+
+“Thou forgettest,” said Rufinianus, “that Euphronia’s hand was not
+promised as the reward of any austerities, but as the meed of the most
+intelligent, that is, the most acceptable, account of the Indian
+philosophy, which in the opinion of the late eminent Euphronius, has
+been delivered by me. But come to my chamber, and let me minister to
+thy necessities.”
+
+These having been duly attended to, Rufinianus demanded Mnesitheus’s
+history, and then proceeded to narrate his own.
+
+“On my journey homeward,” said he, “I reflected seriously on the
+probable purpose of our master in sending us forth, and saw reason to
+suspect that I had hitherto misapprehended it. For I could not remember
+that he had ever admitted that he could have anything to learn from
+other philosophers, or that he had ever exhibited the least interest in
+philosophic dogmas, excepting his own. The system of the Indians, I
+thought, must be either inferior to that of Euphronius, or superior. If
+the former, he will not want it: if the latter, he will want it much
+less. I therefore concluded that our mission was partly a concession to
+public opinion, partly to enable him to say that his name was known,
+and his teaching proclaimed on the very banks of the Ganges. I formed
+my plan accordingly, and disregarding certain indications that I was
+neither expected nor wanted, presented myself before Euphronius with a
+gladsome countenance, slightly overcast by sorrow on account of thee,
+whom I affirmed to have been devoured by a tiger.
+
+“‘Well,’ said Euphronius in a disdainful tone, ‘and what about this
+vaunted wisdom of the Indians?’
+
+“‘The wisdom of the Indians,’ I replied, ‘is entirely borrowed from
+Pythagoras.’
+
+“‘Did I not tell you so? ‘Euphronius appealed to his disciples.
+
+“‘Invariably,’ they replied.
+
+“‘As if a barbarian could teach a Greek!’ said he.
+
+“‘It is much if he is able to learn from one,’ said they.
+
+“‘Pythagoras, then,’ said Euphronius addressing me,’ did not resort to
+India to be instructed by the Gymnosophists?’
+
+“‘On the contrary,’ I answered, ‘he went there to teach them, and the
+little knowledge of divine matters they possess is entirely derived
+from him. His mission is recorded in a barbarous poem called the
+Ramayana, wherein he is figuratively represented as allying himself
+with monkeys. He is worshipped all over the country under the
+appellations of Siva, Kamadeva, Kali, Gautama Buddha, and others too
+numerous to mention.’
+
+“When I further proceeded to explain that a temple had been erected to
+Euphronius himself on the banks of the Ganges, and that a festival,
+called Durga Popja, or the Feast of Reason, had been instituted in his
+honour, his good humour knew no bounds, and he granted me his
+daughter’s hand without difficulty. He died a few years ago,
+bequeathing me his celebrated dilemma, and I am now head of his school
+and founder of the Rufinianian philosophy. I am also the author of some
+admired works, especially a life of Pythagoras, and a manual of Indian
+philosophy and religion. I hope for thy own sake thou wilt forbear to
+contradict me: for no one will believe thee. I trust also that thou
+wilt speedily overcome thy disappointment with respect to Euphronia. I
+do most honestly and truthfully assure thee that for a one-armed man
+like thee to marry her would be most inexpedient, inasmuch as the
+defence of one’s beard from her, when she is in a state of excitement,
+requires the full use of both hands, and of the feet also. But come
+with me to her chamber, and I will present thee to her. She is always
+taunting me with my inferiority to thee in personal attractions, and I
+promise myself much innocent amusement from her discomfiture when she
+finds thee as gaunt as a wolf and as black as a cinder. Only, as I have
+represented thee to have been devoured by a tiger, thou wilt kindly say
+that I saved thy life, but concealed the circumstance out of modesty.”
+
+“I have learned in the Indian schools,” said Mnesitheus, “not to lie
+for the benefit of others. I will not see Euphronia; I would not
+disturb her ideal of me, nor mine of her. Farewell. May the Rufinianian
+sect flourish! and may thy works on Pythagoras and India instruct
+posterity to the tenth generation! I return to Palimbothra, where I am
+held in honour on the self-same account that here renders me
+ridiculous. It shall be my study to enlighten the natives respecting
+their obligations to Pythagoras, whose name I did not happen to hear
+while I abode among them.”
+
+
+
+
+THE DUMB ORACLE
+
+
+Many the Bacchi that brandish the rod:
+Few that be filled with the fire of the God.
+
+I
+
+In the days of King Attalus, before oracles had lost their credit, one
+of peculiar reputation, inspired, as was believed, by Apollo, existed
+in the city of Dorylseum, in Phrygia. Contrary to usage, its
+revelations were imparted through the medium of a male priest. It was
+rarely left unthronged by devout questioners, whose inquiries were
+resolved in writing, agreeably to the method delivered by the pious
+Lucian, in his work “Concerning False Prophecy.” [*] Sometimes, on
+extraordinary occasions, a voice, evidently that of the deity, was
+heard declaring the response from the innermost recesses of the shrine.
+The treasure house of the sanctuary was stored with tripods and
+goblets, in general wrought from the precious metals; its coffers were
+loaded with coins and ingots; the sacrifices of wealthy suppliants and
+the copious offerings in kind of the country people provided
+superabundantly for the daily maintenance of the temple servitors;
+while a rich endowment in land maintained the dignity of its guardians,
+and of the officiating priest. The latter reverend personage was no
+less eminent for prudence than for piety; on which account the Gods had
+rewarded him with extreme obesity. At length he died, whether of excess
+in meat or in drink is not agreed among historians.
+
+*) _Pseudomantis_, cap. 19-21.
+
+
+The guardians of the temple met to choose a successor, and, naturally
+desirous that the sanctity of the oracle should suffer no abatement,
+elected a young priest of goodly presence and ascetic life; the
+humblest, purest, most fervent, and most ingenuous of the sons of men.
+So rare a choice might well be expected to be accompanied by some
+extraordinary manifestation, and, in fact, a prodigy took place which
+filled the sacred authorities with dismay. The responses of the oracle
+ceased suddenly and altogether. No revelation was vouchsafed to the
+pontiff in his slumbers; no access of prophetic fury constrained him to
+disclose the secrets of the future; no voice rang from the shrine; and
+the unanswered epistles of the suppliants lay a hopeless encumbrance on
+the great altar. As a natural consequence they speedily ceased to
+arrive; the influx of offerings into the treasury terminated along with
+them; the temple-courts were bare of worshippers; and the only victims
+whose blood smoked within them were those slain by the priest himself,
+in the hope of appeasing the displeasure of Apollo. The modest
+hierophant took all the blame upon his own shoulders; he did not doubt
+that he had excited the Deity’s wrath by some mysterious but heinous
+pollution; and was confirmed in this opinion by the unanimous verdict
+of all whom he approached.
+
+One day as he sat sadly in the temple, absorbed in painful meditation,
+and pondering how he might best relieve himself of his sacred
+functions, he was startled by the now unwonted sound of a footstep,
+and, looking up, espied an ancient woman. Her appearance was rather
+venerable than prepossessing. He recognised her as one of the inferior
+ministers of the temple.
+
+“Reverend mother,” he addressed her, “doubtless thou comest to mingle
+with mine thy supplications to the Deity, that it may please him to
+indicate the cause, and the remedy of his wrath.”
+
+“No, son,” returned the venerable personage, “I propose to occasion no
+such needless trouble to Apollo, or any other Divinity. I hold within
+mine own hand the power of reviving the splendour of this forsaken
+sanctuary, and for such consideration as thou wilt thyself pronounce
+equitable, I am minded to impart the same unto thee.” And as the
+astonished priest made no answer, she continued:
+
+“My price is one hundred pieces of gold.”
+
+“Wretch!” exclaimed the priest indignantly, “thy mercenary demand alone
+proves the vanity of thy pretence of being initiated into the secrets
+of the Gods. Depart my presence this moment!”
+
+The old woman retired without a syllable of remonstrance, and the
+incident soon passed from the mind of the afflicted priest. But on the
+following day, at the same hour, the aged woman again stood before him,
+and said:
+
+“My price is _two_ hundred pieces of gold.”
+
+Again she was commanded to depart, and again obeyed without a murmur.
+But the adventure now occasioned the priest much serious reflection. To
+his excited fancy, the patient persistency of the crone began to assume
+something of a supernatural character. He considered that the ways of
+the Gods are not as our ways, and that it is rather the rule than the
+exception with them to accomplish their designs in the most circuitous
+manner, and by the most unlikely instruments. He also reflected upon
+the history of the Sibyl and her books, and shuddered to think that
+unseasonable obstinacy might in the end cost the temple the whole of
+its revenues. The result of his cogitations was a resolution, if the
+old woman should present herself on the following day, to receive her
+in a different manner.
+
+Punctual to the hour she made her appearance, and croaked out, “My
+price is _three_ hundred pieces of gold.”
+
+“Venerable ambassadress of Heaven,” said the priest, “thy boon is
+granted thee. Relieve the anguish of my bosom as speedily as thou
+mayest.”
+
+The old woman’s reply was brief and expressive. It consisted in
+extending her open and hollow palm, into which the priest counted the
+three hundred pieces of gold with as much expedition as was compatible
+with the frequent interruptions necessitated by the crone’s depositing
+each successive handful in a leather pouch; and the scrutiny, divided
+between jealousy and affection, which she bestowed on each individual
+coin.
+
+“And now,” said the priest, when the operation was at length completed,
+“fulfil thy share of the compact.”
+
+“The cause of the oracle’s silence,” returned the old woman, “is the
+unworthiness of the minister.”
+
+“Alas! ’tis even as I feared,” sighed the priest. “Declare now, wherein
+consists my sin?”
+
+“It consists in this,” replied the old woman, “that the beard of thy
+understanding is not yet grown; and that the egg-shell of thy
+inexperience is still sticking to the head of thy simplicity; and that
+thy brains bear no adequate proportion to the skull enveloping them;
+and in fine, lest I seem to speak overmuch in parables, or to employ a
+superfluity of epithets, that thou art an egregious nincompoop.”
+
+And as the amazed priest preserved silence, she pursued:
+
+“Can aught be more shameful in a religious man than ignorance of the
+very nature of religion? Not to know that the term, being rendered into
+the language of truth, doth therein signify deception practised by the
+few wise upon the many foolish, for the benefit of both, but more
+particularly the former? O silly as the crowds who hitherto have
+brought their folly here, but now carry it elsewhere to the profit of
+wiser men than thou! O fool! to deem that oracles were rendered by
+Apollo! How should this be, seeing that there is no such person? Needs
+there, peradventure, any greater miracle for the decipherment of these
+epistles than a hot needle? [*] As for the supernatural voice, it doth
+in truth proceed from a respectable, and in some sense a sacred
+personage, being mine own when I am concealed within a certain recess
+prepared for me by thy lamented predecessor, whose mistress I was in
+youth, and whose coadjutor I have been in age. I am now ready to
+minister to thee in the latter capacity. Be ruled by me; exchange thy
+abject superstition for common sense; thy childish simplicity for
+discreet policy; thy unbecoming spareness for a majestic portliness;
+thy present ridiculous and uncomfortable situation for the repute of
+sanctity, and the veneration of men. Thou wilt own that this is cheap
+at three hundred pieces.”
+
+*) Lucian.
+
+
+The young priest had hearkened to the crone’s discourse with an
+expression of the most exquisite distress. When she had finished, he
+arose, and disregarding his repulsive companion’s efforts to detain
+him, departed hastily from the temple.
+
+II
+
+It was the young priest’s purpose, as soon as he became capable of
+forming one, to place the greatest possible distance between himself
+and the city of Dorylæum. The love of roaming insensibly grew upon him,
+and ere long his active limbs had borne him over a considerable portion
+of Asia. His simple wants were easily supplied by the wild productions
+of the country, supplemented when needful by the proceeds of light
+manual labour. By degrees the self-contempt which had originally stung
+him to desperation took the form of an ironical compassion for the
+folly of mankind, and the restlessness which had at first impelled him
+to seek relief in a change of scene gave place to a spirit of curiosity
+and observation. He learned to mix freely with all orders of men, save
+one, and rejoiced to find the narrow mysticism which he had imbibed
+from his previous education gradually yielding to contact with the
+great world. From one class of men, indeed, he learned nothing—the
+priests, whose society he eschewed with scrupulous vigilance, nor did
+he ever enter the temples of the Gods. Diviners, augurs, all that made
+any pretension whatever to a supernatural character, he held in utter
+abhorrence, and his ultimate return in the direction of his native
+country is attributed to his inability to persevere further in the path
+he was following without danger of encountering Chaldean soothsayers,
+or Persian magi, or Indian gymnosophists.
+
+He cherished, however, no intention of returning to Phrygia, and was
+still at a considerable distance from that region, when one night, as
+he was sitting in the inn of a small country town, his ear caught a
+phrase which arrested his attention.
+
+“As true as the oracle of Dorylæum.” The speaker was a countryman, who
+appeared to have been asseverating something regarded by the rest of
+the company as greatly in need of confirmation. The sudden start and
+stifled cry of the ex-priest drew all eyes to him, and he felt
+constrained to ask, with the most indifferent air he could assume:
+
+“Is the oracle of Dorylæum, then, so exceedingly renowned for
+veracity?”
+
+“Whence comest thou to be ignorant of that?” demanded the countryman,
+with some disdain. “Hast thou never heard of the priest Eubulides?”
+
+“Eubulides!” exclaimed the young traveller, “that is my own name!”
+
+“Thou mayest well rejoice, then,” observed another of the guests, “to
+bear the name of one so holy and pure, and so eminently favoured by the
+happy Gods. So handsome and dignified, moreover, as I may well assert
+who have often beheld him discharging his sacred functions. And truly,
+now that I scan thee more closely, the resemblance is marvellous. Only
+that thy namesake bears with him a certain air of divinity, not equally
+conspicuous in thee.”
+
+“Divinity!” exclaimed another. “Aye, if Phœbus himself ministered at
+his own shrine, he could wear no more majestic semblance than
+Eubulides.”
+
+“Or predict the future more accurately,” added a priest.
+
+“Or deliver his oracles in more exquisite verse,” subjoined a poet.
+
+“Yet is it not marvellous,” remarked another speaker, “that for some
+considerable time after his installation the good Eubulides was unable
+to deliver a single oracle?”
+
+“Aye, and that the first he rendered should have foretold the death of
+an aged woman, one of the ministers of the temple.”
+
+“Ha!” exclaimed Eubulides, “how was that?”
+
+“He prognosticated her decease on the following day, which accordingly
+came to pass, from her being choked with a piece of gold, not lawfully
+appertaining to herself, which she was endeavouring to conceal under
+the root of her tongue.”
+
+“The Gods be praised for that!” ejaculated Eubulides, under his breath.
+“Pshaw! as if there were Gods! If they existed, would they tolerate
+this vile mockery? To keep up the juggle—well, I know it must be so;
+but to purloin my name! to counterfeit my person! By all the Gods that
+are not, I will expose the cheat, or perish in the endeavour.”
+
+He arose early on the following morning and took his way towards the
+city of Dorylæum. The further he progressed in this direction, the
+louder became the bruit of the oracle of Apollo, and the more emphatic
+the testimonies to the piety, prophetic endowments, and personal
+attractions of the priest Eubulides; his own resemblance to whom was
+the theme of continual remark. On approaching the city, he found the
+roads swarming with throngs hastening to the temple, about to take part
+in a great religious ceremony to be held therein. The seriousness of
+worship blended delightfully with the glee of the festival, and
+Eubulides, who at first regarded the gathering with bitter scorn, found
+his moroseness insensibly yielding to the poetic charm of the scene. He
+could not but acknowledge that the imposture he panted to expose was at
+least the source of much innocent happiness, and almost wished that the
+importance of religion, considered as an engine of policy, had been
+offered to his contemplation from this point of view, instead of the
+sordid and revolting aspect in which it had been exhibited by the old
+woman.
+
+In this ambiguous frame of mind he entered the temple. Before the high
+altar stood the officiating priest, a young man, the image, yet not the
+image, of himself. Lineament for lineament, the resemblance was exact,
+but over the stranger’s whole figure was diffused an air of majesty, of
+absolute serenity and infinite superiority, which excluded every idea
+of deceit, and so awed the young priest that his purpose of rushing
+forward to denounce the impostor and drag him from the shrine was
+immediately and involuntarily relinquished. As he stood confounded and
+irresolute, the melodious voice of the hierophant rang through the
+temple:
+
+“Let the priest Eubulides stand forth.”
+
+This summons naturally caused the greatest astonishment in every one
+but Eubulides, who emerged as swiftly as he could from the swaying and
+murmuring crowd, and confronted his namesake at the altar. A cry of
+amazement broke from the multitude as they beheld the pair, whose main
+distinction in the eyes of most was their garb. But, as they gazed, the
+form of the officiating priest assumed colossal proportions; a circle
+of beams, dimming sunlight, broke forth around his head; hyacinthine
+locks clustered on his shoulders, his eyes sparkled with supernatural
+radiance; a quiver depended at his back; an unstrung bow occupied his
+hand; the majesty and benignity of his presence alike seemed augmented
+tenfold. Eubulides and the crowd sank simultaneously on their knees,
+for all recognised Apollo.
+
+All was silence for a space. It was at length broken by Phœbus.
+
+“Well, Eubulides,” inquired he, with the bland raillery of an Immortal,
+“has it at length occurred to thee that I may have been long enough
+away from Parnassus, filling thy place here while thou hast been
+disporting thyself amid heretics and barbarians?”
+
+The abashed Eubulides made no response. The Deity continued:
+
+“Deem not that thou hast in aught excited the displeasure of the Gods.
+In deserting their altars for Truth’s sake, thou didst render them the
+most acceptable of sacrifices, the only one, it may be, by which they
+set much store. But, Eubulides, take heed how thou again sufferest the
+unworthiness of men to overcome the instincts of thine own nature. Thy
+holiest sentiments should not have been at the mercy of a knave. If the
+oracle of Dorylæum was an imposture, hadst thou no oracle in thine own
+bosom? If the voice of Religion was no longer breathed from the tripod,
+were the winds and waters silent, or had aught quenched the everlasting
+stars? If there was no power to impose its mandates from without,
+couldst thou be unconscious of a power within? If thou hadst nothing to
+reveal unto men, mightest thou not have found somewhat to propound unto
+them? Know this, that thou hast never experienced a more truly
+religious emotion than that which led thee to form the design of
+overthrowing this my temple, the abode, as thou didst deem it, of fraud
+and superstition.”
+
+“But now, Phœbus,” Eubulides ventured to reply, “shall I not return to
+the shrine purified by thy presence, and again officiate as thy
+unworthy minister?”
+
+“No, Eubulides,” returned Phœbus, with a smile; “silver is good, but
+not for ploughshares. Thy strange experience, thy long wanderings, thy
+lonely meditations, and varied intercourse with men, have spoiled thee
+for a priest, while, as I would fain hope, qualifying thee for a sage.
+Some worthy person may easily be found to preside over this temple; and
+by the aid of such inspiration as I may from time to time see meet to
+vouchsafe him, administer its affairs indifferently well. Do thou,
+Eubulides, consecrate thy powers to a more august service than
+Apollo’s, to one that shall endure when Delphi and Delos know _his_ no
+more.”
+
+“To whose service, Phœbus?” inquired Eubulides.
+
+“To the service of Humanity, my son,” responded Apollo.
+
+
+
+
+DUKE VIRGIL
+
+I
+
+The citizens of Mantua were weary of revolutions. They had acknowledged
+the suzerainty of the Emperor Frederick and shaken it off. They had had
+a Podestà of their own and had shaken him off. They had expelled a
+Papal Legate, incurring excommunication thereby. They had tried
+dictators, consuls, prætors, councils of ten, and other numbers odd and
+even, and ere the middle of the thirteenth century were luxuriating in
+the enjoyment of perfect anarchy.
+
+An assembly met daily in quest of a remedy, but its members were
+forbidden to propose anything old, and were unable to invent anything
+new.
+
+“Why not consult Manto, the alchemist’s daughter, our prophetess, our
+Sibyl?” the young Benedetto asked at last.
+
+“Why not?” repeated Eustachio, an elderly man.
+
+“Why not, indeed?” interrogated Leonardo, a man of mature years.
+
+All the speakers were noble. Benedetto was Manto’s lover; Eustachio her
+father’s friend; Leonardo his creditor. Their advice prevailed, and the
+three were chosen as a deputation to wait on the prophetess. Before
+proceeding formally on their embassy the three envoys managed to obtain
+private interviews, the two elder with Manto’s father, the youth with
+Manto herself. The creditor promised that if he became Duke by the
+alchemist’s influence with his daughter he would forgive the debt; the
+friend went further, and vowed that he would pay it. The old man
+promised his good word to both, but when he went to confer with his
+daughter he found her closeted with Benedetto, and returned without
+disburdening himself of his errand. The youth had just risen from his
+knees, pleading with her, and drawing glowing pictures of their
+felicity when he should be Duke and she Duchess.
+
+She answered, “Benedetto, in all Mantua there is not one man fit to
+rule another. To name any living person would be to set a tyrant over
+my native city. I will repair to the shades and seek a ruler among the
+dead.”
+
+“And why should not Mantua have a tyrant?” demanded Benedetto. “The
+freedom of the mechanic is the bondage of the noble, who values no
+liberty save that of making the base-born do his bidding. ’Tis hell to
+a man of spirit to be contradicted by his tailor. If I could see my
+heart’s desire on the knaves, little would I reck submitting to the
+sway of the Emperor.”
+
+“I know that well, Benedetto,” said Manto, “and hence will take good
+heed not to counsel Mantua to choose thee. No, the Duke I will give her
+shall be one without passions to gratify or injuries to avenge, and
+shall already be crowned with a crown to make the ducal cap as nothing
+in his eyes, if eyes he had.”
+
+Benedetto departed in hot displeasure, and the alchemist came forward
+to announce that the commissioners waited.
+
+“My projection,” he whispered, “only wants one more piece of gold to
+insure success, and Eustachio proffers thirty. Oh, give him Mantua in
+exchange for boundless riches!”
+
+“And they call thee a philosopher and me a visionary!” said Manto,
+patting his cheek.
+
+The envoys’ commission having been unfolded, she took not a moment to
+reply, “Be your Duke Virgil.”
+
+The deputation respectfully represented that although Virgil was no
+doubt Mantua’s greatest citizen, he laboured under the disqualification
+of having been dead more than twelve hundred years. Nothing further,
+however, could be extorted from the prophetess, and the ambassadors
+were obliged to withdraw.
+
+The interpretation of Manto’s oracle naturally provoked much diversity
+of opinion in the council.
+
+“Obviously,” said a poet, “the prophetess would have us confer the
+ducal dignity upon the contemporary bard who doth most nearly accede to
+the vestiges of the divine Maro; and he, as I judge, is even now in the
+midst of you.”
+
+“Virgil the poet,” said a priest, who had long laboured under the
+suspicion of occult practices, “was a fool to Virgil the enchanter. The
+wise woman evidently demands one competent to put the devil into a
+hole—an operation which I have striven to perform all my life.”
+
+“Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?” inquired Eustachio.
+
+“Better upon an egg than upon a quack!” retorted the priest.
+
+But such was not the opinion of Eustachio himself, who privately
+conferred with Leonardo. Eustachio had a character, but no parts;
+Leonardo had parts, but no character.
+
+“I see not why these fools should deride the oracle of the prophetess,”
+he said. “She would doubtless impress upon us that a dead master is in
+divers respects preferable to a living one.”
+
+“Surely,” said Eustachio, “provided always that the servant is a man of
+exemplary character, and that he presumes not upon his lord’s
+withdrawal to another sphere, trusting thereby to commit malpractices
+with impunity, but doth, on the contrary, deport himself as ever in his
+great taskmaster’s eye.”
+
+“Eustachio,” said Leonardo, with admiration, “it is the misery of
+Mantua that she hath no citizen who can act half as well as thou canst
+talk. I would fain have further discourse with thee.”
+
+The two statesmen laid their heads together, and ere long the mob were
+crying, “A Virgil! a Virgil!”
+
+The councillors reassembled and passed resolutions.
+
+“But who shall be Regent?” inquired some one when Virgil had been
+elected unanimously.
+
+“Who but we?” asked Eustachio and Leonardo. “Are we not the heads of
+the Virgilian party?”
+
+Thus had the enthusiastic Manto, purest of idealists, installed in
+authority the two most unprincipled politicians in the republic; and
+she had lost her lover besides, for Benedetto fled the city, vowing
+vengeance.
+
+Anyhow, the dead poet was enthroned Duke of Mantua; Eustachio and
+Leonardo became Regents, with the style of Consuls, and it was provided
+that in doubtful cases reference should be made to the Sortes
+Virgilianae. And truly, if we may believe the chronicles, the
+arrangement worked for a time surprisingly well. The Mantuans, in an
+irrational way, had done what it behoves all communities to do
+rationally if they can. They had sought for a good and worthy citizen
+to rule them; it was their misfortune that such an one could only be
+found among the dead. They felt prouder of themselves for being
+governed by a great man—one in comparison with whom kings and pontiffs
+were the creatures of a day. They would not, if they could help it,
+disgrace themselves by disgracing their hero; they would not have it
+said that Mantua, which had not been too weak to bear him, had been too
+weak to endure his government. The very hucksters and usurers among
+them felt dimly that there was such a thing as an Ideal. A glimmering
+perception dawned upon mailed, steel-fisted barons that there was such
+a thing as an Idea, and they felt uneasily apprehensive, like beasts of
+prey who have for the first time sniffed gunpowder. The railleries and
+mockeries of Mantua’s neighbours, moreover, stimulated Mantua’s
+citizens to persevere in their course, and deterred them from doing
+aught to approve themselves fools. Were not Verona, Cremona, Lodi,
+Pavia, Crema, cities that could never enthrone the Virgil they had
+never produced, watching with undissembled expectation to see them
+trip? The hollow-hearted Eustachio and the rapacious Leonardo, their
+virtual rulers, might indeed be little sensible to this enthusiasm, but
+they could not disregard the general drift of public opinion, which
+said clearly: “Mantua is trying a great experiment. Woe to you if you
+bring it to nought by your selfish quarrels!”
+
+The best proof that there was something in Manto’s idea was that after
+a while the Emperor Frederick took alarm, and signified to the Mantuans
+that they must cease their mumming and fooling and acknowledge him as
+their sovereign, failing which he would besiege their city.
+
+II
+
+Mantua was girt by a zone of fire and steel. Her villas and homesteads
+flamed or smoked; her orchards flared heavenward in a torrent of sparks
+or stood black sapless trunks charred to their inmost pith; the promise
+of her harvests lay as grey ashes over the land. But her ramparts,
+though breached in places, were yet manned by her sons, and their
+assailants recoiled pierced by the shafts or stunned by the catapults
+of the defence. Kaiser Frederick sat in his tent, giving secret
+audience to one who had stolen in disguise over from the city in the
+grey of the morning. By the Emperor’s side stood a tall martial figure,
+wearing a visor which he never removed.
+
+“Your Majesty,” Leonardo was saying, for it was he, “this madness will
+soon pass away. The people will weary of sacrificing themselves for a
+dead heathen.”
+
+“And Liberty?” asked the Emperor, “is not that a name dear to those
+misguided creatures?”
+
+“So dear, please your Majesty, that if they have but the name they will
+perfectly dispense with the thing. I do not advise that your imperial
+yoke should be too palpably adjusted to their stiff necks. Leave them
+in appearance the choice of their magistrate, but insure its falling
+upon one of approved fidelity, certain to execute obsequiously all your
+Majesty’s mandates; such an one, in short, as your faithful vassal
+Leonardo. It would only be necessary to decapitate that dangerous
+revolutionist, Eustachio.”
+
+“And the citizens are really ready for this?”
+
+“All the respectable citizens. All of whom your Majesty need take
+account. All men of standing and substance.”
+
+“I rejoice to hear it,” said the Emperor, “and do the more readily
+credit thee inasmuch as a most virtuous and honourable citizen hath
+already been beforehand with thee, assuring me of the same thing, and
+affirming that but one traitor, whose name, methinks, sounded like
+thine, stands between me and the subjugation of Mantua.”
+
+And, withdrawing a curtain, he disclosed the figure of Eustachio.
+
+“I thought he was asleep,” muttered Eustachio.
+
+“That noodle to have been beforehand with me!” murmured Leonardo.
+
+“What perplexes me,” continued Frederick, after enjoying the confusion
+of the pair for a few moments, “is that our masked friend here will
+have it that he is the man for the Dukedom, and offers to open the
+gates to me by a method of his own.”
+
+“By fair fighting, an’ please my liege,” observed the visored
+personage, “not by these dastardly treacheries.”
+
+“How inhuman!” sighed Eustachio.
+
+“How old-fashioned!” sneered Leonardo.
+
+“The truth is,” continued Frederick, “he gravely doubts whether either
+of you possesses the influence which you allege, and has devised a
+method of putting this to the proof, which I trust will commend itself
+to you.”
+
+Leonardo and Eustachio expressed their readiness to submit their credit
+with their fellow-citizens to any reasonable trial.
+
+“He proposes, then,” pursued the Emperor, “that ye, disarmed and bound,
+should be placed at the head of the storming column, and in that
+situation should, as questionless ye would, exert your entire moral
+influence with your fellow-citizens to dissuade them from shooting you.
+If the column, thus shielded, enters the city without resistance, ye
+will both have earned the Dukedom, and the question who shall have it
+may be decided by single combat between yourselves. But should the
+people, rather than submit to our clemency, impiously slay their
+elected magistrates, it will be apparent that the methods of our
+martial friend are the only ones corresponding to the exigency of the
+case. Is the storming column ready?”
+
+“All but the first file, please your Majesty,” responded the man in the
+visor.
+
+“Let it be equipped,” returned Frederick, and in half-an-hour Eustachio
+and Leonardo, their hands tied behind them, were stumbling up the
+breach, impelled by pikes in the rear, and confronting the catapults,
+_chevaux de frise_, hidden pitfalls, Greek fire, and boiling water
+provided by their own direction, and certified to them the preceding
+evening as all that could be desired. They had, however, the full use
+of their voices, and this they turned to the best account. Never had
+Leonardo been so cogent, or Eustachio so pathetic. The Mantuans,
+already disorganised by the unaccountable disappearance of the
+Executive, were entirely irresolute what to do. As they hesitated the
+visored chief incited his followers. All seemed lost, when a tall
+female figure appeared among the defenders. It was Manto.
+
+“Fools and cowards!” she exclaimed, “must ye learn your duty from a
+woman?”
+
+And, seizing a catapult, she discharged a stone which laid the masked
+warrior stunned and senseless on the ground. The next instant Eustachio
+and Leonardo fell dead, pierced by showers of arrows. The Mantuans
+sallied forth. The dismayed Imperialists fled to their camp. The bodies
+of the fallen magistrates and of the unconscious chieftain in the mask
+were brought into the city. Manto herself undid the fallen man’s visor,
+and uttered a fearful shriek as she recognised Benedetto.
+
+“What shall be done with him, mistress?” they asked.
+
+Manto long stood silent, torn by conflicting emotions. At length she
+said, in a strange, unnatural voice:
+
+“Put him into the Square Tower.”
+
+“And now, mistress, what further? How to choose the new consuls?”
+
+“Ask me no more,” she said. “I shall never prophesy again. Virtue has
+gone away from me.”
+
+The leaders departed, to intrigue for the vacant posts, and devise
+tortures for Benedetto. Manto sat on the rampart, still and silent as
+its stones. Anon she rose, and roved about as if distraught, reciting
+verses from Virgil.
+
+Night had fallen. Benedetto lay wakeful in his cell. A female figure
+stood before him bearing a lamp. It was Manto.
+
+“Benedetto,” she said, “I am a wretch, faithless to my country and to
+my master. I did but even now open his sacred volume at hazard, and on
+what did my eye first fall?
+  Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres. But I can no other.
+  I am a woman. May Mantua never entrust her fortunes to the like of me
+  again! Come with me, I will release thee.”
+
+She unlocked his chains; she guided him through the secret passage
+under the moat; they stood at the exit, in the open air.
+
+“Fly,” she said, “and never again draw sword against thy mother. I will
+return to my house, and do that to myself which it behoved me to have
+done ere I released thee.”
+
+“Manto,” exclaimed Benedetto “a truce to this folly! Forsake thy dead
+Duke, and that cheat of Liberty more crazy and fantastic still. Wed a
+living Duke in me!”
+
+“Never!” exclaimed Manto. “I love thee more than any man living on
+earth, and I would not espouse thee if the earth held no other.”
+
+“Thou canst not help thyself,” he rejoined; “thou hast revealed to me
+the secret of this passage. I hasten to the camp. I return in an hour
+with an army, and wilt thou, wilt thou not, to-morrow’s sun shall
+behold thee the partner of my throne!”
+
+Manto wore a poniard. She struck Benedetto to the heart, and he fell
+dead. She drew the corpse back into the passage, and hurried to her
+home. Opening her master’s volume again, she read:
+
+Tædet coeli convexa tueri.
+
+
+A few minutes afterwards her father entered the chamber to tell her he
+had at last found the philosopher’s stone, but, perceiving his daughter
+hanging by her girdle, he forbore to intrude upon her, and returned to
+his laboratory.
+
+It was time. A sentinel of the besiegers had marked Benedetto’s fall,
+and the disappearance of the body into the earth. A pool of blood
+revealed the entrance to the passage. Ere sunrise Mantua was full of
+Frederick’s soldiers, full also of burning houses, rifled sanctuaries,
+violated damsels, children playing with their dead mothers’ breasts,
+especially full of citizens protesting that they had ever longed for
+the restoration of the Emperor, and that this was the happiest day of
+their lives. Frederick waited till everybody was killed, then entered
+the city and proclaimed an amnesty. Virgil’s bust was broken, and his
+writings burned with Manto’s body. The flames glowed on the dead face,
+which gleamed as it were with pleasure. The old alchemist had been
+slain among his crucibles; his scrolls were preserved with jealous
+care.
+
+But Manto found another father. She sat at Virgil’s feet in Elysium;
+and as he stroked the fair head, now golden with perpetual youth,
+listened to his mild reproofs and his cheerful oracles. By her side
+stood a bowl filled with the untasted waters of Lethe.
+
+“Woe,” said Virgil—but his manner contradicted his speech—“woe to the
+idealist and enthusiast! Woe to them who live in the world to come! Woe
+to them who live only for a hope whose fulfilment they will not behold
+on earth! Drink not, therefore, of that cup, dear child, lest Duke
+Virgil’s day should come, and thou shouldst not know it. For come it
+will, and all the sooner for thy tragedy and thy comedy.”
+
+
+
+
+THE CLAW
+
+
+The balm and stillness of a summer’s night enveloped a spacious piazza
+in the city of Shylock and Desdemona. The sky teemed with light
+drifting clouds through which the beaming of the full moon broke at
+intervals upon some lamp-lit palace, thronged and musical, for it was a
+night of festivity, or silvered the dull creeping waters. Ever and anon
+some richly attired young patrician descended the steps of one or other
+of these mansions, and hurried across the wide area to the canal
+stairs, where his gondola awaited him. Whoever did this could not but
+observe a tall female figure, which, cloaked and masked, walked
+backwards and forwards across the piazza, regarding no one, yet with an
+air that seemed to invite a companion.
+
+More than one of the young nobles approached the presumably fair
+peripatetic, and, with courtesy commonly in inverse ratio to the amount
+of wine he was carrying home, proffered his escort to his gondola.
+Whenever this happened the figure removed her mask and unclasped her
+robe, and revealed a sight which for one moment rooted the young man to
+the earth and in the next sent him scampering to his bark. For the
+countenance was a death’s head, and the breast was that of a mouldering
+skeleton.
+
+At last, however, a youth presented himself who, more courageous or
+more tipsy than his fellows, or more helplessly paralysed with horror
+than they, did not decline the proffered caress, and suffered himself
+to be drawn within the goblin’s accursed embrace. Valiant or
+pot-valiant, great was his relief at finding himself clasped, instead
+of by a loathsome spectre, by a silver-haired man of noble presence,
+yet with a countenance indescribably haggard and anxious.
+
+“Come, my son,” he cried, “hasten whither the rewards of thy
+intrepidity await thee. Impouch the purse of Fortunatus! Indue the
+signet of Solomon!”
+
+The young man hesitated. “Is there nought else?” he cautiously
+demanded. “Needs it not that I should renounce my baptism? Must I not
+subscribe an infernal compact?”
+
+“In thy own blood, my son,” cheerfully responded the old gentleman.
+
+“Peradventure,” hesitatingly interrogated the youth, “peradventure you
+are _he_?”
+
+“Not so, my son, upon honour,” returned the mysterious personage. “I am
+but a distressed magician, at this present in fearful straits, from
+which I look to be delivered by thee.”
+
+The youth gazed some moments at his companion’s head, and then still
+more earnestly at his feet. He then yielded his own hand to him, and
+the pair crossed the piazza, almost at a run, the magician ever
+ejaculating, “Speed! speed!”
+
+They paused at the foot of a lofty tower, doorless and windowless, with
+no visible access of any kind. But the magician signed with his hand,
+pronounced some cabalistical words, and instantly stone and lime fell
+asunder and revealed an entrance through which they passed, and which
+immediately closed behind them. The youth quaked at finding himself
+alone in utter darkness with he knew not what, but the wizard whistled,
+and a severed hand appeared in air bearing a lamp which illuminated a
+long winding staircase. The old man motioned to the youth to precede
+him, nor dared he refuse, though feeling as though he would have given
+the world for the very smallest relic of the very smallest saint. The
+distorted shadows of the twain, dancing on stair and wall with the
+wavering lamp-shine, seemed phantoms capering in an infernal revel, and
+he glanced back ever and anon weening to see himself dogged by some
+frightful monster, but he saw only the silver hair and sable velvet of
+the dignified old man.
+
+After the ascent of many steps a door opened before them, and they
+found themselves in a spacious chamber, brightly, yet from its size
+imperfectly illumined by a single large lamp. It was wainscoted with
+ebony, and the furniture was of the same. A long table was covered with
+scrolls, skulls, crucibles, crystals, star-charts, geomantic figures,
+and other appurtenances of a magician’s calling. Tomes of necromantic
+lore lined the walls, which were yet principally occupied with crystal
+vessels, in which foul beings seemed dimly and confusedly to agitate
+themselves.
+
+The magician signed to his visitor to be seated, sat down himself and
+began:
+
+“Brave youth, ere entering upon the boundless power and riches that
+await thee, learn who I am and why I have brought thee here. Behold in
+me no vulgar wizard, no mere astrologer or alchemist, but a compeer of
+Merlin and Michael Scott, with whose name it may be the nurse of thy
+infancy hath oft-times quelled thy froward humours. I am Peter of
+Abano, falsely believed to have lain two centuries buried in the
+semblance of a dog under a heap of stones hurled by the furious
+populace, but in truth walking earth to this day, in virtue of the
+compact now to be revealed to thee. Hearken, my son! Vain must be the
+machinations of my enemies, vain the onslaughts of the rabble, so long
+as I fulfil a certain contract registered in hell’s chancery, as I have
+now done these three hundred years. And the condition is this, that
+every year I present unto the Demon one who hath at my persuasion
+assigned his soul to him in exchange for power, riches, knowledge,
+magical gifts, or whatever else his heart chiefly desireth; nor until
+this present year have I perilled the fulfilment of my obligation.
+Seest thou these scrolls? They are the assignments of which I have
+spoken. It would amaze thee to scan the subscriptions, and perceive in
+these the signatures of men exemplary in the eyes of their fellows,
+clothed with high dignities in Church and State—nay sometimes redolent
+of the very odour of sanctity. Never hath my sagacity deceived me until
+this year, when, smitten with the fair promise of a youth of singular
+impishness, I omitted to take due note of his consumptive habit, and
+have but this afternoon encountered his funeral. This is the last day
+of my year, and should my engagement be unredeemed when the sun attains
+the cusp of that nethermost house of heaven which he is even now
+traversing, I must become an inmate of the infernal kingdom. No time
+has remained for nice investigation. I have therefore proved the
+courage of the Venetian youth in the manner thou knowest, and thou
+alone hast sustained the ordeal. Fail not at my bidding, or thou
+quittest not this chamber alive. For when the Demon comes to bear me
+away, he will assuredly rend thee in pieces for being found in my
+company. Thou hast, therefore, everything to gain and nothing to lose
+by joining the goodly fellowship of my mates and partners. Delay not,
+time urges, night deepens, they that would drink thy blood are abroad.
+Hearest thou not the moaning and pelting of the rising storm, and the
+muttering and scraping of my imprisoned goblins? Save us, I entreat, I
+command, save us both!”
+
+Screaming with agitation the aged sorcerer laid a scroll engrossed with
+fairly written characters before the youth, stabbed the latter’s arm
+with a stylus that at once evoked and collected the crimson stream,
+thrust this into his hand and strove to guide it to the parchment,
+chanting at the same time litanies to the infernal powers. The crystal
+flagons rang like one great harmonica with shrill but spirit-stirring
+music; volumes of vaporous perfumes diffused themselves through the
+apartment, and an endless procession of treasure-laden figures defiled
+before the bewildered youth. He seemed buried in the opulence of the
+world, as he sat up to his waist in gold and jewels; all the earth’s
+beauty gazed at him through eyes brilliant and countless as the stars
+of heaven; courtiers beckoned him to thrones; battle-steeds neighed and
+pawed for his mounting; laden tables allured every appetite; vassals
+bent in homage; slaves fell prostrate at his feet. Now he seemed to
+collect or disperse legions of spirits with the waving of a wand; anon,
+as he pronounced a spell, golden dragons glided away from boughs laden
+with golden fruits. Well for him, doubtless, that in him Nature had
+kneaded from ordinary clay as unimaginative a youth as could be found
+in Venice: yet even so, dazzled with glamour, intoxicated with
+illusion, less and less able to resist the cunningly mingled caresses,
+entreaties, and menaces of Abano, he could not refrain from tracing a
+few characters with the stylus, when, catching reflected in a mirror
+the old magician’s expression of wolfish glee, he dropped the
+instrument from his grasp, and cast his eye upwards as if appealing to
+Heaven. But every drop of blood seemed frozen in his frame as he beheld
+an enormous claw thrust through the roof, member as it seemed of some
+being too gigantic to be contained in the chamber or the tower itself.
+Cold, poignant, glittering as steel, it rested upon a socket of the
+repulsive hue of jaundiced ivory, with no vestige of a foot or anything
+to relieve its naked horror as, rigid and lifeless, yet plainly with a
+mighty force behind it, it pointed at the magician’s heart. As Abano,
+following the youth’s eye, caught sight of the portent, his visage
+assumed an expression of frantic horror, his spells died upon his lips,
+and the gorgeous figures became grinning apes or blotchy toads: madly
+he seized the young man’s hand, and strove to force him to complete his
+signature. The robust youth felt as an infant in his grasp, but ere the
+stylus could be again thrust upon him the first stroke of the midnight
+hour rang through the chamber, and instantly the gigantic talon pierced
+Abano from breast to back, projecting far beyond his shoulders, and
+swept him upwards to the roof, through which both disappeared without
+leaving a trace of their passage.
+
+Horror and thankfulness rushed together into the young man’s mind, and
+there contended for some brief instants: but as the last stroke sounded
+all the crystal vials shivered with a stunning crash, and their hellish
+inmates, rejoicing in their deliverance, swarmed into the chamber. All
+made for the youth, who, tugged, clawed, fondled, bitten, beslimed,
+blinded, deafened, beset in every way by creatures of indescribable
+loathsomeness, grasped frantically as his sole weapon, the stylus; but
+it had become a writhing serpent. This was too much, sense forsook him
+on the spot.
+
+On recovering consciousness he found himself stretched on a pallet in
+the dungeons of the Inquisition. The Inquisitors sat on their
+tribunals; black-robed familiars flitted about, or waited attentive
+upon their orders; one expert in ecclesiastical jurisprudence proved
+the edge of an axe, and another heated pincers in a chafing-dish;
+dismal groans pierced the massy walls; two sturdy fellows, stripped to
+the waist, adjusted the rollers of a rack. A surgeon approached the
+bedside, bearing a phial and a lancet. The youth screamed and again
+became insensible.
+
+But his affright was groundless. The Inquisitors had already taken
+cognisance of Abano’s scrolls, and found that, touching these at least,
+he had spoken sooth. Besides kings, princes, ministers, magistrates,
+and other secular persons who had owed their success in life to
+dealings with the devil under his mediation, the infernal bondsmen
+included so many pillars of the Church and champions of the Faith;
+prelates plenty, abbots in abundance, cardinals not a few, a (some
+whispered _the_) Pope; above all, so many of the Inquisitors
+themselves, that further inquiry could evidently nowise conduce to
+edification. The surgeon, therefore, infused an opiate into the veins
+of the unconscious youth, and he came to himself upon a galley speeding
+him to the holy war in Cyprus, where he fell fighting the Turk.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER THE RATCATCHER
+
+
+“Alexander Octavus mures, qui Urbem supra modum vexabant, anathemate
+perculit.”—_Palatius. Fasti Cardinalium_, tom. v.p. 46.
+
+I
+
+“Rome and her rats are at the point of battle!”
+
+This metaphor of Menenius Agrippa’s became, history records, matter of
+fact in 1689, when rats pervaded the Eternal City from garret to
+cellar, and Pope Alexander the Eighth seriously apprehended the fate of
+Bishop Hatto. The situation worried him sorely; he had but lately
+attained the tiara at an advanced age—the twenty-fourth hour, as he
+himself remarked in extenuation of his haste to enrich his nephews. The
+time vouchsafed for worthier deeds was brief, and he dreaded descending
+to posterity as the Rat Pope. Witty and genial, his sense of humour
+teased him with a full perception of the absurdity of his position.
+Peter and Pasquin concurred in forbidding him to desert his post; and
+he derived but small comfort from the ingenuity of his flatterers, who
+compared him to St. Paul contending with beasts at Ephesus.
+
+It wanted three half-hours to midnight, as Alexander sat amid traps and
+ratsbane in his chamber in the Vatican, under the protection of two
+enormous cats and a British terrier. A silver bell stood ready to his
+hand, should the aid of the attendant chamberlains be requisite. The
+walls had been divested of their tapestries, and the floor gleamed with
+pounded glass. A tome of legendary lore lay open at the history of the
+Piper of Hamelin. All was silence, save for the sniffing and scratching
+of the dog and a sound of subterranean scraping and gnawing.
+
+“Why tarries Cardinal Barbadico thus?” the Pope at last asked himself
+aloud. The inquiry was answered by a wild burst of squeaking and
+clattering and scurrying to and fro, as who should say, “We’ve eaten
+him! We’ve eaten him!”
+
+But this exultation was at least premature, for just as the terrified
+Pope clutched his bell, the door opened to the narrowest extent
+compatible with the admission of an ecclesiastical personage of
+dignified presence, and Cardinal Barbadico hastily squeezed himself
+through.
+
+“I shall hardly trust myself upon these stairs again,” he remarked,
+“unless under the escort of your Holiness’s terrier.”
+
+“Take him, my son, and a cruse of holy water to boot,” the Pope
+responded. “Now, how go things in the city?”
+
+“As ill as may be, your Holiness. Not a saint stirs a finger to help
+us. The country-folk shun the city, the citizens seek the country. The
+multitude of enemies increases hour by hour. They set at defiance the
+anathemas fulminated by your Holiness, the spiritual censures placarded
+in the churches, and the citation to appear before the ecclesiastical
+courts, although assured that their cause shall be pleaded by the
+ablest advocates in Rome. The cats, amphibious with alarm, are taking
+to the Tiber. Vainly the city reeks with toasted cheese, and the
+Commissary-General reports himself short of arsenic.”
+
+“And how are the people taking it?” demanded Alexander. “To what cause
+do they attribute the public calamity?”
+
+“Generally speaking, to the sins of your Holiness,” replied the
+Cardinal.
+
+“Cardinal!” exclaimed Alexander indignantly.
+
+“I crave pardon for my temerity,” returned Barbadico. “It is with
+difficulty that I force myself to speak, but I am bound to lay the
+ungrateful truth before your Holiness. The late Pope, as all men know,
+was a personage of singular sanctity.”
+
+“Far too upright for this fallen world,” observed Alexander with
+unction.
+
+“I will not dispute,” responded the Cardinal, “that the head of
+Innocent the Eleventh might have been more fitly graced by a halo than
+by a tiara. But the vulgar are incapable of placing themselves at this
+point of view. They know that the rats hardly squeaked under Innocent,
+and that they swarm under Alexander. What wonder if they suspect your
+Holiness of familiarity with Beelzebub, the patron of vermin, and
+earnestly desire that he would take you to himself? Vainly have I
+represented to them the unreasonableness of imposing upon him a trouble
+he may well deem superfluous, considering your Holiness’s infirm health
+and advanced age. Vainly, too, have I pointed out that your anathema
+has actually produced all the effect that could have been reasonably
+anticipated from any similar manifesto on your predecessor’s part. They
+won’t see it. And, in fact, might I humbly advise, it does appear
+impolitic to hurl anathemas unless your Holiness knows that some one
+will be hit. It might be opportune, for example, to excommunicate
+Father Molinos, now fast in the dungeons of St. Angelo, unless, indeed,
+the rats have devoured him there. But I question the expediency of
+going much further.”
+
+“Cardinal,” said the Pope, “you think yourself prodigiously clever, but
+you ought to know that the state of public opinion allowed us no
+alternative. Moreover, I will give you a wrinkle, in case you should
+ever come to be Pope yourself. It is unwise to allow ancient
+prerogatives to fall entirely into desuetude. Far-seeing men
+prognosticate a great revival of sacerdotalism in the nineteenth
+century, and what is impotent in an age of sense may be formidable in
+an age of nonsense. Further, we know not from one day to another
+whether we may not be absolutely necessitated to excommunicate that
+fautor of Gallicanism, Louis the Fourteenth, and before launching our
+bolt at a king, we may think well to test its efficacy upon a rat.
+_Fiat experimentum._ And now to return to our rats, from which we have
+ratted. Is there indeed no hope?”
+
+“_Lateat scintillula forsan_,” said the Cardinal mysteriously.
+
+“Ha! How so?” eagerly demanded Alexander.
+
+“Our hopes,” answered the Cardinal, “are associated with the recent
+advent to this city of an extraordinary personage.”
+
+“Explain,” urged the Pope.
+
+“I speak,” resumed the Cardinal, “of an aged man of no plebeian mien or
+bearing, albeit most shabbily attired in the skins, now fabulously
+cheap, of the vermin that torment us; who, professing to practise as an
+herbalist, some little time ago established himself in an obscure
+street of no good repute. A tortoise hangs in his needy shop, nor are
+stuffed alligators lacking. Understanding that he was resorted to by
+such as have need of philters and love-potions, or are incommoded by
+the longevity of parents and uncles, I was about to have him arrested,
+when I received a report which gave me pause. This concerned the
+singular intimacy which appeared to subsist between him and our
+enemies. When he left home, it was averred, he was attended by troops
+of them obedient to his beck and call, and spies had observed him
+banqueting them at his counter, the rats sitting erect and comporting
+themselves with perfect decorum. I resolved to investigate the matter
+for myself. Looking into his house through an unshuttered window, I
+perceived him in truth surrounded by feasting and gambolling rats; but
+when the door was opened in obedience to my attendants’ summons, he
+appeared to be entirely alone. Laying down a pestle and mortar, he
+greeted me by name with an easy familiarity which for the moment quite
+disconcerted me, and inquired what had procured him the honour of my
+visit. Recovering myself, and wishing to intimidate him:
+
+“‘I desire in the first place,’ I said, ‘to point out to you your grave
+transgression of municipal regulations in omitting to paint your name
+over your shop.’
+
+“‘Call me Rattila,’ he rejoined with unconcern, ‘and state your further
+business.’
+
+“I felt myself on the wrong tack, and hastened to interrogate him
+respecting his relations with our adversaries. He frankly admitted his
+acquaintance with rattery in all its branches, and his ability to
+deliver the city from this scourge, but his attitude towards your
+Holiness was so deficient in respect that I question whether I ought to
+report it.”
+
+“Proceed, son,” said the Pope; “we will not be deterred from providing
+for the public weal by the ribaldry of a ratcatcher.”
+
+“He scoffed at what he termed your Holiness’s absurd position, and
+affirmed that the world had seldom beheld, or would soon behold again,
+so ridiculous a spectacle as a Pope besieged by rats. ‘I can help your
+master,’ he continued, ‘and am willing; but my honour, like his, is
+aspersed in the eyes of the multitude, and he must come to my aid, if I
+am to come to his.’
+
+“I prayed him to be more explicit, and offered to be the bearer of any
+communication to your Holiness.
+
+“‘I will unfold myself to no one but the Pope himself,’ he replied,
+‘and the interview must take place when and where I please to appoint.
+Let him meet me this very midnight, and alone, in the fifth chamber of
+the Appartamento Borgia.’
+
+“‘The Appartamento Borgia!’ I exclaimed in consternation. ‘The saloons
+which the wicked Pope Alexander the Sixth nocturnally perambulates,
+mingling poisons that have long lost their potency for Cardinals who
+have long lost their lives!’
+
+“‘Have a care!’ he exclaimed sharply. ‘You speak to his late Holiness’s
+most intimate friend.’
+
+“‘Then,’ I answered, ‘you must obviously be the Devil, and I am not at
+present empowered to negotiate with your Infernal Majesty. Consider,
+however, the peril and inconvenience of visiting at dead of night rooms
+closed for generations. Think of the chills and cobwebs. Weigh the
+probability of his Holiness being devoured by rats.’
+
+“‘I guarantee his Holiness absolute immunity from cold,’ he replied,
+‘and that none of my subjects shall molest him either going or
+returning.’
+
+“‘But,’ I objected, ‘granting that you are not the Devil, how the
+devil, let me ask, do you expect to gain admittance at midnight to the
+Appartamento Borgia?’
+
+“‘Think you I cannot pass through a stone wall?’ answered he, and
+vanished in an instant. A tremendous scampering of rats immediately
+ensued, then all was silence.
+
+“On recovering in some measure from my astounded condition, I caused
+strict search to be made throughout the shop. Nothing came to light but
+herbalists’ stuff and ordinary medicines. And now, Holy Father, your
+Holiness’s resolution? Reflect well. This Rattila may be the King of
+the Rats, or he may be Beelzebub in person.”
+
+Alexander the Eighth was principally considered by his contemporaries
+in the light of a venerable fox, but the lion had by no means been
+omitted from his composition.
+
+“All powers of good forbid,” he exclaimed, “that a Pope and a Prince
+should shrink from peril which the safety of the State summons him to
+encounter! I will confront this wizard, this goblin, in the place of
+his own appointing, under his late intimate friend’s very nose. I am a
+man of many transgressions, but something assures me that Heaven will
+not deem this a fit occasion for calling them to remembrance. Time
+presses; I lead on; follow, Cardinal Barbadico, follow! Yet stay, let
+us not forget temporal and spiritual armouries.”
+
+And hastily providing himself with a lamp, a petronel, a bunch of keys,
+a crucifix, a vial of holy water, and a manual of exorcisms, the Pope
+passed through a secret door in a corner of his chamber, followed by
+the Cardinal bearing another lamp and a naked sword, and preceded by
+the dog and the two cats, all ardent and undaunted as champions bound
+to the Holy Land for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+II
+
+The wizard had kept his word. Not a rat was seen or heard upon the
+pilgrimage, which was exceedingly toilsome to the aged Pope, from the
+number of passages to be threaded and doors to be unlocked. At length
+the companions stood before the portal of the Appartamento Borgia.
+
+“Your Holiness must enter alone,” Cardinal Barbadico admonished, with
+manifest reluctance.
+
+“Await my return,” enjoined the Pontiff, in a tone of more confidence
+than he could actually feel, as, after much grinding and grating, the
+massive door swung heavily back, and he passed on into the dim,
+unexplored space beyond. The outer air, streaming in as though eager to
+indemnify itself for years of exile, smote and swayed the flame of the
+Pope’s lamp, whose feeble ray flitted from floor to ceiling as the
+decrepit man, weary with the way he had traversed and the load he was
+bearing, tottered and stumbled painfully along, ever and anon arrested
+by a closed door, which he unlocked with prodigious difficulty. The
+cats cowered close to the Cardinal; the dog at first accompanied the
+Pope, but whined so grievously, as though he beheld a spirit, that
+Alexander bade him back.
+
+Supreme is the spell of the _genius loci_. The chambers traversed by
+the Pope were in fact adorned with fair examples of the painter’s art,
+mostly scriptural in subject, but some inspired with the devout
+Pantheism in which all creeds are reconciled. All were alike invisible
+to the Pontiff, who, with the dim flicker of his lamp, could no more
+discern Judaea wed with Egypt on the frescoed ceiling than, with the
+human limitation of his faculties, he could foresee that the
+ill-reputed rooms would one day harbour a portion of the Vatican
+Library, so greatly enriched by himself. Nothing but sinister memories
+and vague alarms presented themselves to his imagination. The
+atmosphere, heavy and brooding from the long exclusion of the outer
+air, seemed to weigh upon him with the density of matter, and to afford
+the stuff out of which phantasmal bodies perpetually took shape and, as
+he half persuaded himself, substance. Creeping and tottering between
+bowl and cord, shielding himself with lamp and crucifix from
+Michelotto’s spectral poniard and more fearful contact with fleshless
+Vanozzas and mouldering Giulias, the Pope urged, or seemed to urge, his
+course amid phantom princes and cardinals, priests and courtesans,
+soldiers and serving-men, dancers, drinkers, dicers, Bacchic and
+Cotyttian workers of whatsoever least beseemed the inmates of a
+Pontifical household, until, arrived in the fifth chamber, close by
+the, to him, invisible picture of the Resurrection, he sank exhausted
+into a spacious chair that seemed placed for his reception, and for a
+moment closed his eyes. Opening them immediately afterwards, he saw
+with relief that the phantoms had vanished, and that he confronted what
+at least seemed a fellow-mortal, in the ancient ratcatcher, habited
+precisely as Cardinal Barbadico had described, yet, for all his mean
+apparel, wearing the air of one wont to confer with the potentates of
+the earth on other subjects than the extermination of rats.
+
+“This is noble of your Holiness—really,” he said, bowing with mock
+reverence. “A second Leo the Great!”
+
+“I tell you what, my man,” responded Alexander, feeling it very
+necessary to assert his dignity while any of it remained, “you are not
+to imagine that, because I have humoured you so far as to grant you an
+audience at an unusual place and time, I am going to stand any amount
+of your nonsense and impertinence. You can catch our rats, can you?
+Catch them then, and you need not fear that we shall treat you like the
+Pied Piper of Hamelin. You have committed sundry rascalities, no doubt?
+A pardon shall be made out for you. You want a patent or a privilege
+for your ratsbane? You shall have it. So to work, in the name of St.
+Muscipulus! and you may keep the tails and skins.”
+
+“Alexander,” said the ratcatcher composedly, “I would not commend or
+dispraise you unduly, but this I may say, that of all the Popes I have
+known you are the most exuberant in hypocrisy and the most deficient in
+penetration. The most hypocritical, because you well know, and know
+that I know that you know, that you are not conversing with an ordinary
+ratcatcher: had you deemed me such, you would never have condescended
+to meet me at this hour and place. The least penetrating, because you
+apparently have not yet discovered to whom you are speaking. Do you
+really mean to say that you do not know me?”
+
+“I believe I have seen your face before,” said Alexander, “and all the
+more likely as I was inspector of prisons when I was Cardinal.”
+
+“Then look yonder,” enjoined the ratcatcher, as he pointed to the
+frescoed wall, at the same time vehemently snapping his fingers.
+Phosphoric sparks hissed and crackled forth, and coalesced into a blue
+lambent flame, which concentrated itself upon a depicted figure, whose
+precise attitude the ratcatcher assumed as he dropped upon his knees.
+The Pope shrieked with amazement, for, although the splendid Pontifical
+vestments had become ragged fur, in every other respect the kneeling
+figure was the counterpart of the painted one, and the painted one was
+Pinturicchio’s portrait of Pope Alexander the Sixth kneeling as a
+witness of the Resurrection.
+
+Alexander the Eighth would fain have imitated his predecessor’s
+attitude, but terror bound him to his chair, and the adjuration of his
+patron St. Mark which struggled towards his lips never arrived there.
+The book of exorcisms fell from his paralysed hand, and the vial of
+holy water lay in shivers upon the floor. Ere he could collect himself,
+the dead Pope had seated himself beside the Pope with one foot in the
+grave, and, fondling a ferret-skin, proceeded to enter into
+conversation.
+
+“What fear you?” he asked. “Why should I harm you? None can say that I
+ever injured any one for any cause but my own advantage, and to injure
+your Holiness now would be to obstruct a design which I have
+particularly at heart.”
+
+“I crave your Holiness’s forgiveness,” rejoined the Eighth Alexander,
+“but you must be aware that you left the world with a reputation which
+disqualifies you for the society of any Pope in the least careful of
+his character. It positively compromises me to have so much as the
+ghost of a person so universally decried as your Holiness under my
+roof, and you would infinitely oblige me by forthwith repairing to your
+own place, which I take to be about four thousand miles below where you
+are sitting. I could materially facilitate and accelerate your
+Holiness’s transit thither if you would be so kind as to hand me that
+little book of exorcisms.”
+
+“How is the fine gold become dim!” exclaimed Alexander the Sixth.
+“Popes in bondage to moralists! Popes nervous about public opinion! Is
+there another judge of morals than the Pope speaking _ex cathedra_, as
+I always did? Is the Church to frame herself after the prescriptions of
+heathen philosophers and profane jurists? How, then, shall she be
+terrible as an army with banners? Did I concern myself with such
+pedantry when the Kings of Spain and Portugal came to me like cats
+suing for morsels, and I gave them the West and the East?”
+
+“It is true,” Alexander the Eighth allowed, “that the lustre of the
+Church hath of late been obfuscated by the prevalence of heresy.”
+
+“It isn’t the heretics,” Borgia insisted. “It is the degeneracy of the
+Popes. A shabby lot! You, Alexander, are about the best of them; but
+the least Cardinal about my Court would have thought himself bigger
+than you.”
+
+Alexander’s spirit rose. “I would suggest,” he said, “that this haughty
+style is little in keeping with the sordid garb wherein your Holiness,
+consistent after death as in your life, masquerades to the scandal and
+distress of the faithful.”
+
+“How can I other? Has your Holiness forgotten your Rabelais?”
+
+“The works of that eminent Doctor and Divine,” answered Alexander the
+Eighth, “are seldom long absent from my hands, yet I fail to remember
+in what manner they elucidate the present topic.”
+
+“Let me refresh your memory,” rejoined Borgia, and, producing a volume
+of the Sage of Meudon, he turned to the chapter descriptive of the
+employments of various eminent inhabitants of the nether world, and
+pointed to the sentence:
+
+“LE PAPE ALEXANDRE ESTOYT PRENEUR DE RATZ.” [*]
+
+*) _Pantagruel_, Book XI. ch. 30.
+
+
+“Is this indeed sooth?” demanded his successor.
+
+“How else should François Rabelais have affirmed it?” responded Borgia.
+“When I arrived in the subterranean kingdom, I found it in the same
+condition as your Holiness’s dominions at the present moment, eaten up
+by rats. The attention which, during my earthly pilgrimage, I had
+devoted to the science of toxicology indicated me as a person qualified
+to abate the nuisance, which commission I executed with such success,
+that I received the appointment of Ratcatcher to his Infernal Majesty,
+and so discharged its duties as to merit a continuance of the good
+opinion which had always been entertained of me in that exalted
+quarter. After a while, however, interest began to be made for me in
+even more elevated spheres. I had not been able to cram Heaven with
+Spaniards, as I had crammed the Sacred College—on the contrary. Truth
+to speak, my nation has not largely contributed to the population of
+the regions above. But some of us are people of consequence. My
+great-grandson, the General of the Jesuits, who, as such, had the ear
+of St. Ignatius Loyola, represented that had I adhered strictly to my
+vows, he could never have come into existence, and that the Society
+would thus have wanted one of its brightest ornaments. This argument
+naturally had great weight with St. Ignatius, the rather as he, too,
+was my countryman. Much also was said of the charity I had shown to the
+exiled Jews, which St. Dominic was pleased to say made him feel ashamed
+of himself when he came to think of it; for my having fed my people in
+time of dearth, instead of contriving famines to enrich myself, as so
+many Popes’ nephews have done since; and of the splendid order in which
+I kept the College of Cardinals. Columbus said a good word for me, and
+Savonarola did not oppose. Finally I was allowed to come upstairs, and
+exercise my profession on earth. But mark what pitfalls line the good
+man’s path! I never could resist tampering with drugs of a deleterious
+nature, and was constantly betrayed by the thirst for scientific
+experiment into practices incompatible with the public health. The good
+nature which my detractors have not denied me was a veritable snare. I
+felt for youth debarred from its enjoyments by the unnatural vitality
+of age, and sympathised with the blooming damsel whose parent alone
+stood between her and her lover. I thus lived in constant apprehension
+of being ordered back to the Netherlands, and yearned for the wings of
+a dove, that I might flee away and be out of mischief. At last I
+discovered that my promotion to a higher sphere depended upon my
+obtaining a testimonial from the reigning Pope. Let a solemn procession
+be held in my honour, and intercession be publicly made for me, and I
+should ascend forthwith. I have consequently represented my case to
+many of your predecessors: but, O Alexander, you seventeenth-century
+Popes are a miserable breed! No fellow-feeling, no _esprit de corps.
+Heu pietas! heu prisca fides_! No one was so rude as your ascetic
+antecessor. The more of a saint, the less of a gentleman. Personally
+offensive, I assure you! But the others were nearly as bad. The haughty
+Paul, the fanatic Gregory, the worldly Urban, the austere Innocent the
+Tenth, the affable Alexander the Seventh, all concurred in assuring me
+that it was deeply to be regretted that I should ever have been
+emancipated from the restraints of the Stygian realm, to which I should
+do well to return with all possible celerity; that it would much
+conduce to the interests of the Church if my name could be forgotten;
+and that as for doing anything to revive its memory, they would just as
+soon think of canonising Judas Iscariot.”
+
+“And therefore your Holiness has brought these rats upon us, enlisted,
+I nothing doubt, in the infernal regions?”
+
+“Precisely so: Plutonic, necyomantic, Lemurian rats, kindly lent by the
+Prince of Darkness for the occasion, and come dripping from Styx to
+squeak and gibber in the Capitol. But I note your Holiness’s admission
+that they belong to a region exempt from your jurisdiction, and that,
+therefore, your measures against them, except as regards their status
+as belligerents, are for the most part illegitimate and _ultra vires_.”
+
+“I would argue that point,” replied Alexander the Eighth, “if my lungs
+were as tough as when I pleaded before the Rota in Pope Urban’s time.
+For the present I confine myself to formally protesting against your
+Holiness’s unprecedented and parricidal conduct in invading your
+country at the head of an army of loathsome vermin.”
+
+“Unprecedented!” exclaimed Borgia. “Am I not the modern Coriolanus? Did
+Narses experience blacker ingratitude than I? Where would the temporal
+power be but for me? Who smote the Colonna? Who squashed the Orsini?
+Who gave the Popes to dwell quietly in their own house? Monsters of
+unthankfulness!”
+
+“I am sure,” said Alexander the Eighth soothingly, “that my
+predecessors’ inability to comply with your Holiness’s request must
+have cost them many inward tears, not the less genuine because entirely
+invisible and completely inaudible. A wise Pope will, before all
+things, consider the spirit of his age. The force of public opinion,
+which your Holiness lately appeared to disparage, was, in fact, as
+operative upon yourself as upon any of your successors. If you achieved
+great things in your lifetime, it was because the world was with you.
+Did you pursue the same methods now, you would soon discover that you
+had become an offensive anachronism. It will not have escaped your
+Holiness’s penetration that what moralists will persist in terming the
+elevation of the standard of the Church, is the result of the so-called
+improvement of the world.”
+
+“There is a measure of truth in this,” admitted Alexander the Sixth,
+“and the spirit of this age is a very poor spirit. It was my felicity
+to be a Pope of the Renaissance. Blest dispensation! when men’s view of
+life was large and liberal; when the fair humanities flourished; when
+the earth yielded up her hoards of chiselled marble and breathing
+bronze, and new-found agate urns as fresh as day; when painters and
+sculptors vied with antiquity, and poets and historians followed in
+their path; when every benign deity was worshipped save Diana and
+Vesta; when the arts of courtship and cosmetics were expounded by
+archbishops; when the beauteous Imperia was of more account than the
+eleven thousand virgins; when obnoxious persons glided imperceptibly
+from the world; and no one marvelled if he met the Pope arm in arm with
+the Devil. How miserable, in comparison, is the present sapless age,
+with its prudery and its pedantry, and its periwigs and its painted
+coaches, and its urban Arcadias and the florid impotence and
+ostentatious inanity of what it calls its art! Pope Alexander! I see in
+the spirit the sepulchre destined for _you_, and I swear to you that my
+soul shivers in my ratskins! Come, now! I do not expect you to emulate
+the Popes of my time, but show that your virtues are your own, and your
+faults those of your epoch. Pluck up a spirit! Take bulls by the horns!
+Look facts in the face! Think upon the images of Brutus and Cassius!
+Recognise that you cannot get rid of me, and that the only safe course
+is to rehabilitate me. I am not a candidate for canonisation just now;
+but repair past neglect and appease my injured shade in the way you wot
+of. If this is done, I pledge my word that every rat shall forthwith
+evacuate Rome. Is it a bargain? I see it is; you are one of the good
+old sort, though fallen on evil days.”
+
+Renaissance or Rats, Alexander the Eighth yielded.
+
+“I promise,” he declared.
+
+“Your hand upon it!”
+
+Subduing his repugnance and apprehension by a strong effort, Alexander
+laid his hand within the spectre’s clammy paw. An icy thrill ran
+through his veins, and he sank back senseless into his chair.
+
+III
+
+When the Pope recovered consciousness he found himself in bed, with
+slight symptoms of fever. His first care was to summon Cardinal
+Barbadico, and confer with him respecting the surprising adventures
+which had recently befallen them. To his amazement, the Cardinal’s mind
+seemed an entire blank on the subject. He admitted having made his
+customary report to his Holiness the preceding night, but knew nothing
+of any supernatural ratcatcher, and nothing of any midnight rendezvous
+at the Appartamento Borgia. Investigation seemed to justify his
+nescience; no vestige of the man of rats or of his shop could be
+discovered; and the Borgian apartments, opened and carefully searched
+through, revealed no trace of having been visited for many years. The
+Pope’s book of exorcisms was in its proper place, his vial of holy
+water stood unbroken upon his table; and his chamberlains deposed that
+they had consigned him to Morpheus at the usual hour. His illusion was
+at first explained as the effect of a peculiarly vivid dream; but when
+he declared his intention of actually holding a service and conducting
+a procession for the weal of his namesake and predecessor, the
+conviction became universal that the rats had effected a lodgement in
+his Holiness’s upper storeys.
+
+Alexander, notwithstanding, was resolute, and so it came to pass that
+on the same day two mighty processions encountered within the walls of
+Rome. As the assembled clergy, drawn from all the churches and
+monasteries in the city, the Pope in his litter in their midst,
+marched, carrying candles, intoning chants, and, with many a secret
+shrug and sneer, imploring Heaven for the repose of Alexander the
+Sixth, they were suddenly brought to bay by another procession
+precipitated athwart their track, disorderly, repulsive, but more
+grateful to the sight of the citizens than all the pomps and pageants
+of the palmiest days of the Papacy. Black, brown, white, grey; fat and
+lean; old and young; strident or silent; the whiskered legions tore and
+galloped along; thronging from every part of the city, they united in
+single column into an endless host that appeared to stretch from the
+rising to the setting of the sun. They seemed making for the Tiber,
+which they would have speedily choked; but ere they could arrive there
+a huge rift opened in the earth, down which they madly precipitated
+themselves. Their descent, it is affirmed, lasted as many hours as
+Vulcan occupied in falling from Heaven to Lemnos; but when the last
+tail was over the brink, the gulf closed as effectually as the gulf in
+the Forum closed over Marcus Curtius, not leaving the slightest
+inequality by which any could detect it.
+
+Long ere this consummation had been attained, the Pope, looking forth
+from his litter, observed a venerable personage clad in ratskins, who
+appeared desirous of attracting his notice. Glances of recognition were
+exchanged, and instantly in place of the ratcatcher stood a tall,
+swarthy, corpulent, elderly man, with the majestic yet sensual features
+of Alexander the Sixth, accoutred with the official habiliments and
+insignia of a Pope, who rose slowly into the air as though he had been
+inflated with hydrogen.
+
+“To your prayers!” cried Alexander the Eighth, and gave the example.
+The priesthood resumed its chants, the multitude dropped upon their
+knees. Their orisons seemed to speed the ascending figure, which was
+rising rapidly, when suddenly appeared in air Luxury, Simony, and
+Cruelty, contending which should receive the Holy Father into her
+bosom. [*] Borgia struck at them with his crozier, and seemed to be
+keeping them at bay, when a cloud wrapped the group from the sight of
+men. Thunder roared, lightning glared, the rush of waters blended with
+the ejaculations of the people and the yet more tempestuous rushing of
+the rats. Accompanied as he was, it is not probable that Alexander
+passed, like Dante’s sigh, “beyond the sphere that doth all spheres
+enfold”; but, as he was never again seen on earth, it is not doubted
+that he attained at least as far as the moon.
+
+*)         Per aver riposo
+Portato fu fra l’anime beate
+Lo spirito di Alessandro glorioso;
+Del qual seguiro le sante pedate
+Tre sue familiari e care ancelle,
+Lussuria, Simonia, e Crudeltate.
+—MACHIAVELLI, _Decennale Primo_.
+
+
+
+
+THE REWARDS OF INDUSTRY
+
+
+In China, under the Tang dynasty, early in the seventh century of the
+Christian era, lived a learned and virtuous, but poor mandarin who had
+three sons, Fu-su, Tu-sin, and Wang-li. Fu-su and Tu-sin were young men
+of active minds, always labouring to find out something new and useful.
+Wang-li was clever too, but only in games of skill, in which he
+attained great proficiency.
+
+Fu-su and Tu-sin continually talked to each other of the wonderful
+inventions they would make when they arrived at man’s estate, and of
+the wealth and renown they promised themselves thereby. Their
+conversation seldom reached the ears of Wang-li, for he rarely lifted
+his eyes from the chess-board on which he solved his problems. But
+their father was more attentive, and one day he said:
+
+“I fear, my sons, that among your multifarious pursuits and studies you
+must have omitted to include that of the laws of your country, or you
+would have learned that fortune is not to be acquired by the means
+which you have proposed to yourselves.”
+
+“How so, father?” asked they.
+
+“It hath been justly deemed by our ancestors,” said the old man, “that
+the reverence due to the great men who are worshipped in our temples,
+by reason of our indebtedness to them for the arts of life, could not
+but become impaired if their posterity were suffered to eclipse their
+fame by new discoveries, or presumptuously amend what might appear
+imperfect in their productions. It is therefore, by an edict of the
+Emperor Suen, forbidden to invent anything; and by a statute of the
+Emperor Wu-chi it is further provided that nothing hitherto invented
+shall be improved. My predecessor in the small office I hold was
+deprived of it for saying that in his judgment money ought to be made
+round instead of square, and I have myself run risk of my life for
+seeking to combine a small file with a pair of tweezers.”
+
+“If this is the case,” said the young men, “our fatherland is not the
+place for us.” And they embraced their father, and departed. Of their
+brother Wang-li they took no farewell, inasmuch as he was absorbed in a
+chess problem. Before separating, they agreed to meet on the same spot
+after thirty years, with the treasure which they doubted not to have
+acquired by the exercise of their inventive faculties in foreign lands.
+They further covenanted that if either had missed his reward the other
+should share his possessions with him.
+
+Fu-su repaired to the artists who cut out characters in blocks of hard
+wood, to the end that books may be printed from the same. When he had
+fathomed their mystery he betook himself to a brass-founder, and
+learned how to cast in metal. He then sought a learned man who had
+travelled much, and made himself acquainted with the Greek, Persian,
+and Arabic languages. Then he cast a number of Greek characters in
+type, and putting them into a bag and providing himself with some
+wooden letter-tablets of his own carving, he departed to seek his
+fortune. After innumerable hardships and perils he arrived in the land
+of Persia, and inquired for the great king.
+
+“The great king is dead,” they told him, “and his head is entirely
+separated from his body. There is now no king in Persia, great or
+small,”
+
+“Where shall I find another great king?” demanded he.
+
+“In the city of Alexandria,” replied they, “where the Commander of the
+Faithful is busy introducing the religion of the Prophet.”
+
+Fu-su passed to Alexandria, carrying his types and tablets.
+
+As he entered the gates he remarked an enormous cloud of smoke, which
+seemed to darken the whole city. Before he could inquire the reason,
+the guard arrested him as a stranger, and conducted him to the presence
+of the Caliph Omar.
+
+“Know, O Caliph,” said Fu-su, “that my countrymen are at once the
+wisest of mankind and the stupidest. They have invented an art for the
+preservation of letters and the diffusion of knowledge, which the sages
+of Greece and India never knew, but they have not learned to take, and
+they refuse to be taught how to take, the one little step further
+necessary to render it generally profitable to mankind.”
+
+And producing his tablets and types, he explained to the Caliph the
+entire mystery of the art of printing.
+
+“Thou seemest to be ignorant,” said Omar, “that we have but yesterday
+condemned and excommunicated all books, and banished the same from the
+face of the earth, seeing that they contain either that which is
+contrary to the Koran, in which case they are impious, or that which is
+agreeable to the Koran, in which case they are superfluous. Thou art
+further unaware, as it would seem, that the smoke which shrouds the
+city proceeds from the library of the unbelievers, consumed by our
+orders. It will be meet to burn thee along with it.”
+
+“O Commander of the Faithful,” said an officer, “of a surety the last
+scroll of the accursed ceased to flame even as this infidel entered the
+city.”
+
+“If it be so,” said Omar, “we will not burn him, seeing that we have
+taken away from him the occasion to sin. Yet shall he swallow these
+little brass amulets of his, at the rate of one a day, and then be
+banished from the country.”
+
+The sentence was executed, and Fu-su was happy that the Court physician
+condescended to accept his little property in exchange for emetics.
+
+He begged his way slowly and painfully back to China, and arrived at
+the covenanted spot at the expiration of the thirtieth year. His
+father’s modest dwelling had disappeared, and in its place stood a
+magnificent mansion, around which stretched a park with pavilions,
+canals, willow-trees, golden pheasants, and little bridges.
+
+“Tu-sin has surely made his fortune,” thought he, “and he will not
+refuse to share it with me agreeably to our covenant.”
+
+As he thus reflected he heard a voice at his elbow, and turning round
+perceived that one in a more wretched plight than himself was asking
+alms of him. It was Tu-sin.
+
+The brothers embraced with many tears, and after Tu-sin had learned
+Fu-su’s history, he proceeded to recount his own.
+
+“I repaired,” said he, “to those who know the secret of the grains
+termed fire-dust, which Suen has not been able to prevent us from
+inventing, but of which Wu-chi has taken care that we shall make no
+use, save only for fireworks. Having learned their mystery I deposited
+a certain portion of this fire-dust in hollow tubes which I had
+constructed of iron and brass, and upon it I further laid leaden balls
+of a size corresponding to the hollow of the tubes. I then found that
+by applying a light to the fire-dust at one end of the tube I could
+send the ball out at the other with such force that it penetrated the
+cuirasses of three warriors at once. I filled a barrel with the dust,
+and concealing it and the tubes under carpets which I laid upon the
+backs of oxen, I set out to the city of Constantinople. I will not at
+present relate my adventures on the journey. Suffice it that I arrived
+at last half dead from fatigue and hardship, and destitute of
+everything except my merchandise. By bribing an officer with my carpets
+I was admitted to have speech with the Emperor. I found him busily
+studying a problem in chess.
+
+“I told him that I had discovered a secret which would make him the
+master of the world, and in particular would help him to drive away the
+Saracens, who threatened his empire with destruction.
+
+“‘Thou must perceive,’ he said, ‘that I cannot possibly attend to thee
+until I have solved this problem. Yet, lest any should say that the
+Emperor neglects his duties, absorbed in idle amusement, I will refer
+thy invention to the chief armourers of my capital. And he gave me a
+letter to the armourers, and returned to his problem. And as I quitted
+the palace bearing the missive, I came upon a great procession.
+Horsemen and running footmen, musicians, heralds, and banner-bearers
+surrounded a Chinaman who sat in the attitude of Fo under a golden
+umbrella upon a richly caparisoned elephant, his pigtail plaited with
+yellow roses. And the musicians blew and clashed, and the
+standard-bearers waved their ensigns, and the heralds proclaimed, ‘Thus
+shall it be done to the man whom the Emperor delights to honour.’ And
+unless I was very greatly mistaken, the face of the Chinaman was the
+face of our brother Wang-li.
+
+“At another time I would have striven to find what this might mean, but
+my impatience was great, as also my need and hunger. I sought the chief
+armourers, and with great trouble brought them all together to give me
+audience, I produced my tube and fire-dust, and sent my balls with ease
+through the best armour they could set before me.
+
+“‘Who will want breast-plates now?’ cried the chief breast-plate maker.
+
+“‘Or helmets?’ exclaimed one who made armour for the head.
+
+“‘I would not have taken fifty bezants for that shield, and what good
+is it now?’ said the head of the shield trade.
+
+“‘My swords will be of less account,’ said a swordsmith.
+
+“‘My arrows of none,’ lamented an arrow-maker.
+
+“‘’Tis villainy,’ cried one.
+
+“‘’Tis magic,’ shouted another.
+
+“‘’Tis illusion, as I’m an honest tradesman,’ roared a third, and put
+his integrity to the proof by thrusting a hot iron bar into my barrel.
+All present rose up in company with the roof of the building, and all
+perished, except myself, who escaped with the loss of my hair and skin.
+A fire broke out on the spot, and consumed one-third of the city of
+Constantinople.
+
+“I was lying on a prison-bed some time afterwards, partly recovered of
+my hurts, dolefully listening to a dispute between two of my guards as
+to whether I ought to be burned or buried alive, when the Imperial
+order for my disposal came down. The gaolers received it with humility,
+and read ‘Kick him out of the city.’ Marvelling at the mildness of the
+punishment, they nevertheless executed it with so much zeal that I flew
+into the middle of the Bosphorus, where I was picked up by a fishing
+vessel, and landed on the Asiatic coast, whence I have begged my way
+home. I now propose that we appeal to the pity of the owner of this
+splendid mansion, who may compassionate us on hearing that we were
+reared in the Cottage which has been pulled down to make room for his
+palace.”
+
+They entered the gates, walked timidly up to the house, and prepared to
+fall at the feet of the master, but did not, for ere they could do so
+they recognised their brother Wang-li.
+
+It took Wang-li some time to recognise them, but when at length he knew
+them he hastened to provide for their every want. When they had well
+eaten and drunk, and had been clad in robes of honour, they imparted
+their histories, and asked for his.
+
+“My brothers,” said Wang-li, “the noble game of chess, which was
+happily invented long before the time of the Emperor Suen, was followed
+by me solely for its pleasure, and I dreamed not of acquiring wealth by
+its pursuit until I casually heard one day that it was entirely unknown
+to the people of the West. Even then I thought not of gaining money,
+but conceived so deep a compassion for those forlorn barbarians that I
+felt I could know no rest until I should have enlightened them. I
+accordingly proceeded to the city of Constantinople, and was received
+as a messenger from Heaven. To such effect did I labour that ere long
+the Emperor and his officers of state thought of nothing else but
+playing chess all day and night, and the empire fell into entire
+confusion, and the Saracens mightily prevailed. In consideration of
+these services the Emperor was pleased to bestow those distinguished
+honours upon me which thou didst witness at his palace gate, dear
+brother.
+
+“After, however, the fire which was occasioned through thy
+instrumentality, though in no respect by thy fault, the people
+murmured, and taxed the Emperor with seeking to destroy his capital in
+league with a foreign sorcerer, meaning thee. Ere long the chief
+officers conspired and entered the Emperor’s apartment, purposing to
+dethrone him, but he declared that he would in nowise abdicate until he
+had finished the game of chess he was then playing with me. They looked
+on, grew interested, began to dispute with one another respecting the
+moves, and while they wrangled loyal officers entered and made them all
+captive. This greatly augmented my credit with the Emperor, which was
+even increased when shortly afterwards I played with the Saracen
+admiral blockading the Hellespont, and won of him forty corn-ships,
+which turned the dearth of the city into plenty.
+
+“The Emperor bade me choose any favour I would, but I said his
+liberality had left me nothing to ask for except the life of a poor
+countryman of mine who I had heard was in prison for burning the city.
+The Emperor bade me write his sentence with my own hand. Had I known
+that it was thou, Tu-sin, believe me I had shown more consideration for
+thy person. At length I departed for my native land, loaded with
+wealth, and travelling most comfortably by relays of swift dromedaries.
+I returned hither, bought our father’s cottage, and on its site erected
+this palace, where I dwell meditating on the problems of chessplayers
+and the precepts of the sages, and persuaded that a little thing which
+the world is willing to receive is better than a great thing which it
+hath not yet learned to value aright. For the world is a big child, and
+chooses amusement before instruction.”
+
+“Call you chess an amusement?” asked his brothers.
+
+
+
+
+MADAM LUCIFER
+
+
+Lucifer sat playing chess with Man for his soul.
+
+The game was evidently going ill for Man. He had but pawns left, few
+and straggling. Lucifer had rooks, knights, and, of course, bishops.
+
+It was but natural under such circumstances that Man should be in no
+great hurry to move. Lucifer grew impatient.
+
+“It is a pity,” said he at last, “that we did not fix some period
+within which the player must move, or resign.”
+
+“Oh, Lucifer,” returned the young man, in heart-rending accents, “it is
+not the impending loss of my soul that thus unmans me, but the loss of
+my betrothed. When I think of the grief of the Lady Adeliza, that
+paragon of terrestrial loveliness!” Tears choked his utterance; Lucifer
+was touched.
+
+“Is the Lady Adeliza’s loveliness in sooth so transcendent?” he
+inquired.
+
+“She is a rose, a lily, a diamond, a morning star!”
+
+“If that is the case,” rejoined Lucifer, “thou mayest reassure thyself.
+The Lady Adeliza shall not want for consolation. I will assume thy
+shape and woo her in thy stead.”
+
+The young man hardly seemed to receive all the comfort from this
+promise which Lucifer no doubt designed. He made a desperate move. In
+an instant the Devil checkmated him, and he disappeared.
+
+“Upon my word, if I had known what a business this was going to be, I
+don’t think I should have gone in for it,” soliloquised the Devil, as,
+wearing his captive’s semblance and installed in his apartments, he
+surveyed the effects to which he now had to administer. They included
+coats, shirts, collars, neckties, foils, cigars, and the like _ad
+libitum_; and very little else except three challenges, ten writs, and
+seventy-four unpaid bills, elegantly disposed around the looking-glass.
+To the poor youth’s praise be it said, there were no billets-doux,
+except from the Lady Adeliza herself.
+
+Noting the address of these carefully, the Devil sallied forth, and
+nothing but his ignorance of the topography of the hotel, which made
+him take the back stairs, saved him from the clutches of two bailiffs
+lurking on the principal staircase. Leaping into a cab, he thus escaped
+a perfumer and a bootmaker, and shortly found himself at the Lady
+Adeliza’s feet.
+
+The truth had not been half told him. Such beauty, such wit, such
+correctness of principle! Lucifer went forth from her presence a
+love-sick fiend. Not Merlin’s mother had produced half the impression
+upon him; and Adeliza on her part had never found her lover
+one-hundredth part so interesting as he seemed that morning.
+
+Lucifer proceeded at once to the City, where, assuming his proper shape
+for the occasion, he negotiated a loan without the smallest difficulty.
+All debts were promptly discharged, and Adeliza was astonished at the
+splendour and variety of the presents she was constantly receiving.
+
+Lucifer had all but brought her to name the day, when he was informed
+that a gentleman of clerical appearance desired to wait upon him.
+
+“Wants money for a new church or mission, I suppose,” said he. “Show
+him up.”
+
+But when the visitor was ushered in, Lucifer found with discomposure
+that he was no earthly clergyman, but a celestial saint; a saint, too,
+with whom Lucifer had never been able to get on. He had served in the
+army while on earth, and his address was curt, precise, and peremptory.
+
+“I have called,” he said, “to notify to you my appointment as Inspector
+of Devils.”
+
+“What!” exclaimed Lucifer, in consternation. “To the post of my old
+friend Michael!”
+
+“Too old,” said the Saint laconically. “Millions of years older than
+the world. About your age, I think?”
+
+Lucifer winced, remembering the particular business he was then about.
+The Saint continued:
+
+“I am a new broom, and am expected to sweep clean. I warn you that I
+mean to be strict, and there is one little matter which I must set
+right immediately. You are going to marry that poor young fellow’s
+betrothed, are you? Now you know you cannot take his wife, unless you
+give him yours.”
+
+“Oh, my dear friend,” exclaimed Lucifer, “what an inexpressibly
+blissful prospect you do open unto me!”
+
+“I don’t know that,” said the Saint. “I must remind you that the
+dominion of the infernal regions is unalterably attached to the person
+of the present Queen thereof. If you part with her you immediately lose
+all your authority and possessions. I don’t care a brass button which
+you do, but you must understand that you cannot eat your cake and have
+it too. Good morning!”
+
+Who shall describe the conflict in Lucifer’s bosom? If any stronger
+passion existed therein at that moment than attachment to Adeliza, it
+was aversion to his consort, and the two combined were well-nigh
+irresistible. But to disenthrone himself, to descend to the condition
+of a poor devil!
+
+Feeling himself incapable of coming to a decision, he sent for Belial,
+unfolded the matter, and requested his advice.
+
+“What a shame that our new inspector will not let you marry Adeliza!”
+lamented his counsellor. “If you did, my private opinion is that
+forty-eight hours afterwards you would care just as much for her as you
+do now for Madam Lucifer, neither more nor less. Are your intentions
+really honourable?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Lucifer, “it is to be a Lucifer match.”
+
+“The more fool you,” rejoined Belial. “If you tempted her to commit a
+sin, she would be yours without any conditions at all.”
+
+“Oh, Belial,” said Lucifer, “I cannot bring myself to be a tempter of
+so much innocence and loveliness.”
+
+And he meant what he said.
+
+“Well then, let me try,” proposed Belial.
+
+“You?” replied Lucifer contemptuously; “do you imagine that Adeliza
+would look at _you_?”
+
+“Why not?” asked Belial, surveying himself complacently in the glass.
+
+He was humpbacked, squinting, and lame, and his horns stood up under
+his wig.
+
+The discussion ended in a wager after which there was no retreat for
+Lucifer.
+
+The infernal Iachimo was introduced to Adeliza as a distinguished
+foreigner, and was soon prosecuting his suit with all the success which
+Lucifer had predicted. One thing protected while it baffled him—the
+entire inability of Adeliza to understand what he meant. At length he
+was constrained to make the matter clear by producing an enormous
+treasure, which he offered Adeliza in exchange for the abandonment of
+her lover.
+
+The tempest of indignation which ensued would have swept away any
+ordinary demon, but Belial listened unmoved. When Adeliza had exhausted
+herself he smilingly rallied her upon her affection for an unworthy
+lover, of whose infidelity he undertook to give her proof. Frantic with
+jealousy, Adeliza consented, and in a trice found herself in the
+infernal regions.
+
+Adeliza’s arrival in Pandemonium, as Belial had planned, occurred
+immediately after the receipt of a message from Lucifer, in whose bosom
+love had finally gained the victory, and who had telegraphed his
+abdication and resignation of Madam Lucifer to Adeliza’s betrothed. The
+poor young man had just been hauled up from the lower depths, and was
+beset by legions of demons obsequiously pressing all manner of
+treasures upon his acceptance. He stared, helpless and bewildered,
+unable to realise his position in the smallest degree. In the
+background grave and serious demons, the princes of the infernal realm,
+discussed the new departure, and consulted especially how to break it
+to Madam Lucifer—a commission of which no one seemed ambitious.
+
+“Stay where you are,” whispered Belial to Adeliza; “stir not; you shall
+put his constancy to the proof within five minutes.”
+
+Not all the hustling, mowing, and gibbering of the fiends would under
+ordinary circumstances have kept Adeliza from her lover’s side: but
+what is all hell to jealousy?
+
+In even less time than he had promised Belial returned, accompanied by
+Madam Lucifer. This lady’s black robe, dripping with blood, contrasted
+agreeably with her complexion of sulphurous yellow; the absence of hair
+was compensated by the exceptional length of her nails; she was a
+thousand million years old, and, but for her remarkable muscular
+vigour, looked every one of them. The rage into which Belial’s
+communication had thrown her was something indescribable; but, as her
+eye fell on the handsome youth, a different order of thoughts seemed to
+take possession of her mind.
+
+“Let the monster go!” she exclaimed; “who cares? Come, my love, ascend
+the throne with me, and share the empire and the treasures of thy fond
+Luciferetta.”
+
+“If you don’t, back you go,” interjected Belial.
+
+What might have been the young man’s decision if Madam Lucifer had
+borne more resemblance to Madam Vulcan, it would be wholly impertinent
+to inquire, for the question never arose.
+
+“Take me away!” he screamed, “take me away, anywhere I anywhere out of
+her reach! Oh, Adeliza!”
+
+With a bound Adeliza stood by his side. She was darting a triumphant
+glance at the discomfited Queen of Hell, when suddenly her expression
+changed, and she screamed loudly. Two adorers stood before her, alike
+in every lineament and every detail of costume, utterly
+indistinguishable, even by the eye of Love.
+
+Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza’s feet and pray
+her to defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the tidings
+of her elopement with Belial. Fearing to lose his wife and his
+dominions along with his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions
+with such expedition that he had had no time to change his costume.
+Hence the equivocation which confounded Adeliza, but at the same time
+preserved her from being torn to pieces by the no less mystified Madam
+Lucifer.
+
+Perceiving the state of the case, Lucifer with true gentlemanly feeling
+resumed his proper semblance, and Madam Lucifer’s talons were
+immediately inserted into his whiskers.
+
+“My dear! my love!” he gasped, as audibly as she would let him, “is
+this the way it welcomes its own Lucy-pucy?”
+
+“Who is that person?” demanded Madam Lucifer.
+
+“I don’t know her,” screamed the wretched Lucifer. “I never saw her
+before. Take her away; shut her up in the deepest dungeon!”
+
+“Not if I know it,” sharply replied Madam Lucifer, “You can’t bear to
+part with her, can’t you? You would intrigue with her under my nose,
+would you? Take that! and that! Turn them both out, I say! turn them
+both out!”
+
+“Certainly, my dearest love, most certainly,” responded Lucifer.
+
+“Oh, Sire,” cried Moloch and Beelzebub together, “for Heaven’s sake let
+your Majesty consider what he is doing. The Inspector——”
+
+“Bother the Inspector!” screeched Lucifer. “D’ye think I’m not a
+thousand times more afraid of your mistress than of all the saints in
+the calendar? There,” addressing Adeliza and her betrothed, “be off!
+You’ll find all debts paid, and a nice balance at the bank. Cut! Run!”
+
+They did not wait to be told twice. Earth yawned. The gates of Tartarus
+stood wide. They found themselves on the side of a steep mountain, down
+which they scoured madly, hand linked in hand. But fast as they ran, it
+was long ere they ceased to hear the tongue of Madam Lucifer.
+
+
+
+
+THE TALISMANS
+
+
+What a wondrous creature is man! What feats the humblest among us
+perform, which, if related of another order of beings, we should deem
+incredible!
+
+By what magic could the young student escape the weary old professor,
+who was prosily proving Time merely a form of thought; a proposition of
+which, to judge by the little value he appeared to set on the subject
+of his discourse, he must himself have been fully persuaded? Without
+exciting his suspicions in the smallest degree, the student stole away
+to a region inconceivably remote, and presented himself at the portal
+of a magnificent palace, guarded by goblins, imps, lions, serpents, and
+monsters whose uncouthness forbids description.
+
+A singular transformation seemed to have befallen the student. In the
+professor’s class he had been noted as timid, awkward, and painfully
+respectful. He now strode up with an air of alacrity and defiance,
+brandishing a roll of parchments, and confronted the seven principal
+goblins, by whom he was successively interrogated.
+
+“Hast thou undergone the seven probations?”
+
+“Yes,” said the student.
+
+“Hast thou swallowed the ninety-nine poisons?”
+
+“Ninety-nine times each,” said the student.
+
+“Hast thou wedded a Salamander, and divorced her?”
+
+“I have,” said the student.
+
+“Art thou at this present time betrothed to a Vampire?”
+
+“I am,” said the student.
+
+“Hast thou sacrificed thy mother and sister to the infernal powers?”
+
+“Of course,” said the student,
+
+“Hast thou attestations of all these circumstances under the hands and
+seals of a thousand and one demons?”
+
+The student displayed his parchments.
+
+“Thou hast undergone every trial,” pronounced the seventh goblin; “thou
+hast won the right to enter the treasury of the treasurer of all
+things, and to choose from it any one talisman at thy liking.”
+
+The imps cheered, the goblins congratulated, the serpents shrank
+hissing away, the lions fawned upon the student, a centaur bore him
+upon his back to the treasurer’s presence,
+
+The treasurer, an old bent man, with a single lock of silvery hair,
+received the adventurer with civility.
+
+“I have come,” said the student, “for the talismans in thy keeping, to
+the choice among which I have entitled myself.”
+
+“Thou hast fairly earned them,” replied the old man, “and I may not say
+thee nay. Thou canst, however, only possess any of them in the shape
+which it has received at my hands during the long period for which
+these have remained in my custody.”
+
+“I must submit to the condition,” said the student.
+
+“Behold, then, Aladdin’s lamp,” said the ancient personage, tendering a
+tiny vase hardly bigger than a pill-box, containing some grains of a
+coarse, rusty powder.
+
+“Aladdin’s lamp!” cried the student.
+
+“All of it, at least, that I have seen fit to preserve,” replied the
+old man. “Thou art but just in time for this even. It is proper to
+apprise thee that the virtues of the talisman having necessarily
+dwindled with its bulk, it is at present incompetent to evoke any
+Genie, and can at most summon an imp, of whose company thou wilt never
+be able to rid thyself, inasmuch as the least friction will inevitably
+destroy what little of the talisman remains.”
+
+“Confusion!” cried the young man, “Show me, then, Aladdin’s ring.”
+
+“Here,” replied the old man, producing a plain gold hoop,
+
+“This, at least,” asked the student, “is not devoid of virtue?”
+
+“Assuredly not, if placed on the finger of some fair lady. For, its
+magic properties depending wholly upon certain engraved characters,
+which I have gradually obliterated, it is at present unadapted to any
+other use than that of a wedding-ring, which it would subserve to
+admiration.”
+
+“Produce another talisman,” commanded the youth,
+
+“These,” said the ancient treasurer, holding up two shapeless pieces of
+leather, “are the shoes of swiftness, incomparable until I wore them
+out.”
+
+“This, at least, is bright and weighty,” exclaimed the student, as the
+old man displayed the sword of sharpness.
+
+“In truth a doughty weapon,” returned the treasurer, “if wielded by a
+stronger arm than thine, for it will no longer fly in the air and smite
+off heads of its own accord, since the new blade hath been fitted to
+the new hilt.”
+
+After a hasty inspection of the empty frame of a magic mirror, and a
+fragment of the original setting of Solomon’s seal, the youth’s eye
+lighted upon a volume full of mysterious characters.
+
+“Whose book is this?” he inquired. “Heavens, it is Michael Scott’s!”
+
+“Even so,” returned the venerable man, “and its spells have lost
+nothing of their efficacy. But the last leaf, containing the formula
+for dismissing spirits after they have been summoned from the nether
+world, hath been removed by me. Inattention to this circumstance hath
+caused several most respectable magicians to be torn in pieces, and
+hath notably increased the number of demons at large.”
+
+“Thou old villain!” shouted the exasperated youth, “is this the way in
+which the treasures in thy custody are protected by thee? Deemest thou
+that I will brook being thus cheated of my dear-bought talisman? Nay,
+but I will deprive thee of thine. Give me that lock of hair.”
+
+“O good youth,” supplicated the now terrified and humbled old man,
+“bereave me not of the source of all my power. Think, only think of the
+consequences!”
+
+“I will not think,” roared the youth. “Deliver it to me, or I’ll rend
+it from thy head with my own hands.”
+
+With a heavy sigh, Time clipped the lock from his brow and handed it to
+the youth, who quitted the place unmolested by any of the monsters.
+
+Entering the great city, the student made his way by narrow and winding
+streets until, after a considerable delay, he emerged into a large
+public square. It was crowded with people, gazing intently at the
+afternoon sky, and the air was rife with a confused murmur of
+altercations and exclamations.
+
+“It is.” “No, I tell you, it is impossible.” “It cannot be.” “I see it
+move.” “No, it’s only my eyes are dazzled.” “Who could have believed
+it?” “Whatever will happen next?”
+
+Following the gaze of the people, the youth discovered that the object
+of their attention was the sun, in whose aspect, however, he could
+discover nothing unusual.
+
+“No,” a man by him was saying, “it positively has not moved for an
+hour. I have my instruments by me. I cannot possibly be mistaken.”
+
+“It ought to have been behind the houses long ago,” said another.
+
+“What’s o’clock?” asked a third. The inquiry made many turn their eyes
+towards the great clock in the square. It had stopped an hour ago. The
+hands were perfectly motionless. All who had watches simultaneously
+drew them from their pockets. The motion of each was suspended; so
+intense, in turn, was the hush of the breathless crowd, that you could
+have heard a single tick, but there was none to hear.
+
+“Time is no more,” proclaimed a leader among the people.
+
+“I am a ruined man,” lamented a watchmaker.
+
+“And I,” ejaculated a maker of almanacks.
+
+“What of quarter-day?” inquired a landlord and a tenant simultaneously.
+
+“We shall never see the moon again,” sobbed a pair of lovers.
+
+“It is well this did not happen at night,” observed an optimist.
+
+“Indeed?” questioned the director of a gas company.
+
+“I told you the Last Day would come in our time,” said a preacher.
+
+It was still long before the people realised that the trance of Time
+had paralysed his daughter Mutability as well. Every operation
+depending on her silent processes was arrested. The unborn could not
+come to life. The sick could not die. The human frame could not waste.
+Every one in the enjoyment of health and strength felt assured of the
+perpetual possession of these blessings, unless he should meet with
+accident or violent death. But all growth ceased, and all dissolution
+was stayed. Mothers looked with despair on infants who could never be
+weaned or learn to walk. Expectant heirs gazed with dismay on immortal
+fathers and uncles. The reigning beauties, the fashionable boxers and
+opera dancers were in the highest feather. Nor did the intellectual
+less rejoice, counting on endless life and unimpaired faculties, and
+vowing to extend human knowledge beyond the conceivable. The poor and
+the outcast, the sick and the maimed, the broken-hearted and the dying
+made, indeed, a dismal outcry, the sincerity of which was doubted by
+some persons.
+
+As for our student, forgetting his faithful Vampire, he made his way to
+a young lady of great personal attractions, to whom he had been
+attached in former days. The sight of her beauty, and the thought that
+it would be everlasting, revived his passion. To convince her of the
+perpetuity of her charms, and establish a claim upon her gratitude, he
+cautiously revealed to her that he was the author of this blissful
+state of things, and that Time’s hair was actually in his possession.
+
+“Oh, you dear good man!” she exclaimed, “how vastly I am obliged to
+you! Ferdinand will never forsake me now.”
+
+“Ferdinand! Leonora, I thought you cared for _me_.”
+
+“Oh!” she said, “you young men of science are so conceited!”
+
+The discomfited lover fled from the house, and sought the treasurer’s
+palace. It had vanished with all its monsters. Long did he roam the
+city ere he mixed again with the crowd, which an old meteorologist was
+addressing energetically.
+
+“I ask you one thing,” he was saying. “Will it ever rain again?”
+
+“Certainly not,” replied a geologist and a metaphysician together.
+“Rain being an agent of Time in the production of change, there can be
+no place for it under the present dispensation.”
+
+“Then will not the crops be burned up? Will the fruits mature? Are they
+not withering already? What of wells and rivers, and the mighty sea
+itself? Who will feed your cattle? And who will feed _you_?”
+
+“This concerns us,” said the butchers and bakers.
+
+“Us also,” added the fishmongers.
+
+“I always thought,” said a philosopher, “that this phenomenon must be
+the work of some malignant wizard.”
+
+“Show us the wizard that we may slay him,” roared the mob.
+
+Leonora had been communicative, and the student was immediately
+identified by twenty persons. The lock of hair was found upon him, and
+was held up in sight of the multitude.
+
+“Kill him!”
+
+“Burn him!”
+
+“Crucify him!”
+
+“It moves! it moves!” cried another division of the crowd. All eyes
+were bent on the hitherto stationary luminary. It was moving—no, it
+wasn’t; yes, it certainly was. Dared men believe that their shadows
+were actually lengthening? Was the sun’s rim really drawing nigh yonder
+great edifice? That muffled sound from the vast, silent multitude was,
+doubtless, the quick beating of innumerable hearts; but that sharper
+note? Could it be the ticking of watches? Suddenly all the public
+clocks clanged the first stroke of an hour—an absurdly wrong hour, but
+it was an hour. No mortal heard the second stroke, drowned in universal
+shouts of joy and gratitude. The student mingled with the mass, no man
+regarding him.
+
+When the people had somewhat recovered from their emotion, they fell to
+disputing as to the cause of the last marvel. No scientific man could
+get beyond a working hypothesis. The mystery was at length solved by a
+very humble citizen, a barber.
+
+“Why,” he said, “the old gentleman’s hair has grown again!”
+
+And so it had! And so it was that the unborn came to life, the dying
+gave up the ghost, Leonora pulled out a grey hair, and the student told
+the professor his dream.
+
+
+
+
+THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
+
+
+The aged philosopher Aboniel inhabited a lofty tower in the city of
+Balkh, where he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and the
+occult sciences. No one was ever admitted to his laboratory. Yet
+Aboniel did not wholly shun intercourse with mankind, but, on the
+contrary, had seven pupils, towardly youths belonging to the noblest
+families of the city, whom he instructed at stated times in philosophy
+and all lawful knowledge, reserving the forbidden lore of magic and
+alchemy for himself.
+
+But on a certain day he summoned his seven scholars to the mysterious
+apartment. They entered with awe and curiosity, but perceived nothing
+save the sage standing behind a table, on which were placed seven
+crystal phials, filled with a clear liquid resembling water.
+
+“Ye know, my sons,” he began, “with what ardour I am reputed to have
+striven to penetrate the hidden secrets of Nature, and to solve the
+problems which have allured and baffled the sages of all time. In this
+rumour doth not err: such hath ever been my object; but, until
+yesterday, my fortune hath been like unto theirs who have preceded me.
+The little I could accomplish seemed as nothing in comparison with what
+I was compelled to leave unachieved. Even now my success is but
+partial. I have not learned to make gold; the talisman of Solomon is
+not mine; nor can I recall the principle of life to the dead, or infuse
+it into inanimate matter. But if I cannot create, I can preserve. I
+have found the Elixir of Life.”
+
+The sage paused to examine the countenances of his scholars. Upon them
+he read extreme surprise, undoubting belief in the veracity of their
+teacher, and the dawning gleam of a timid hope that they themselves
+might become participators in the transcendent discovery he proclaimed.
+Addressing himself to the latter sentiment—“I am willing,” he
+continued, “to communicate this secret to you, if such be your desire.”
+
+An unanimous exclamation assured him that there need be no uncertainty
+on this point.
+
+“But remember,” he resumed, “that this knowledge, like all knowledge,
+has its disadvantages and its drawbacks. A price must be paid, and when
+ye come to learn it, it may well be that it will seem too heavy.
+Understand that the stipulations I am about to propound are not of my
+imposing; the secret was imparted to me by spirits not of a benevolent
+order, and under conditions with which I am constrained strictly to
+comply. Understand also that I am not minded to employ this knowledge
+on my own behalf. My fourscore years’ acquaintance with life has
+rendered me more solicitous for methods of abbreviating existence, than
+of prolonging it. It may be well for you if your twenty years’
+experience has led you to the same conclusion.”
+
+There was not one of the young men who would not readily have admitted,
+and indeed energetically maintained, the emptiness, vanity, and general
+unsatisfactoriness of life; for such had ever been the doctrine of
+their venerated preceptor. Their present behaviour, however, would have
+convinced him, had he needed conviction, of the magnitude of the gulf
+between theory and practice, and the feebleness of intellectual
+persuasion in presence of innate instinct. With one voice they
+protested their readiness to brave any conceivable peril, and undergo
+any test which might be imposed as a condition of participation in
+their master’s marvellous secret.
+
+“So be it,” returned the sage, “and now hearken to the conditions.
+
+“Each of you must select at hazard, and immediately quaff one of these
+seven phials, in one of which only is contained the Elixir of Life. Far
+different are the contents of the others; they are the six most deadly
+poisons which the utmost subtlety of my skill has enabled me to
+prepare, and science knows no antidote to any of them. The first
+scorches up the entrails as with fire; the second slays by freezing
+every vein, and benumbing every nerve; the third by frantic
+convulsions. Happy in comparison he who drains the fourth, for he sinks
+dead upon the ground immediately, smitten as it were with lightning.
+Nor do I overmuch commiserate him to whose lot the fifth may fall, for
+slumber descends upon him forthwith, and he passes away in painless
+oblivion. But wretched he who chooses the sixth, whose hair falls from
+his head, whose skin peels from his body, and who lingers long in
+excruciating agonies, a living death. The seventh phial contains the
+object of your desire. Stretch forth your hands, therefore,
+simultaneously to this table; let each unhesitatingly grasp and
+intrepidly drain the potion which fate may allot him, and be the
+quality of his fortune attested by the result.”
+
+The seven disciples contemplated each other with visages of sevenfold
+blankness. They next unanimously directed their gaze towards their
+preceptor, hoping to detect some symptom of jocularity upon his
+venerable features. Nothing could be descried thereon but the most
+imperturbable solemnity, or, if perchance anything like an expression
+of irony lurked beneath this, it was not such irony as they wished to
+see. Lastly, they scanned the phials, trusting that some infinitesimal
+distinction might serve to discriminate the elixir from the poisons.
+But no, the vessels were indistinguishable in external appearance, and
+the contents of each were equally colourless and transparent.
+
+“Well,” demanded Aboniel at length, with real or assumed surprise,
+“wherefore tarry ye thus? I deemed to have ere this beheld six of you
+in the agonies of death!”
+
+This utterance did not tend to encourage the seven waverers. Two of the
+boldest, indeed, advanced their hands half-way to the table, but
+perceiving that their example was not followed, withdrew them in some
+confusion.
+
+“Think not, great teacher, that I personally set store by this
+worthless existence,” said one of their number at last, breaking the
+embarrassing silence, “but I have an aged mother, whose life is bound
+up with mine.”
+
+“I,” said the second, “have an unmarried sister, for whom it is meet
+that I should provide.”
+
+“I,” said the third, “have an intimate and much-injured friend, whose
+cause I may in nowise forsake.”
+
+“And I an enemy upon whom I would fain be avenged,” said the fourth.
+
+“My life,” said the fifth, “is wholly devoted to science. Can I consent
+to lay it down ere I have sounded the seas of the seven climates?”
+
+“Or I, until I have had speech of the man in the moon?” inquired the
+sixth.
+
+“I,” said the seventh, “have neither mother nor sister, friends nor
+enemies, neither doth my zeal for science equal that of my fellows. But
+I have all the greater respect for my own skin; yea, the same is
+exceedingly precious in my sight.”
+
+“The conclusion of the whole matter, then,” summed up the sage, “is
+that not one of you will make a venture for the cup of immortality?”
+
+The young men remained silent and abashed, unwilling to acknowledge the
+justice of their master’s taunt, and unable to deny it. They sought for
+some middle path, which did not readily present itself.
+
+“May we not,” said one at last, “may we not cast lots, and each take a
+phial in succession, as destiny may appoint?”
+
+“I have nothing against this,” replied Aboniel, “only remember that the
+least endeavour to contravene the conditions by amending the chance of
+any one of you, will ensure the discomfiture of all.”
+
+The disciples speedily procured seven quills of unequal lengths, and
+proceeded to draw them in the usual manner. The shortest remained in
+the hand of the holder, he who had pleaded his filial duty to his
+mother.
+
+He approached the table with much resolution, and his hand advanced
+half the distance without impediment. Then, turning to the holder of
+the second quill; the man with the sister, he said abruptly:
+
+“The relation between mother and son is notoriously more sacred and
+intimate than that which obtains between brethren. Were it not
+therefore fitting that thou shouldst encounter the first risk in my
+stead?”
+
+“The relationship between an aged mother and an adult son,” responded
+the youth addressed, in a sententious tone, “albeit most holy, cannot
+in the nature of things be durable, seeing that it must shortly be
+dissolved by death. Whereas the relationship between brother and sister
+may endure for many years, if such be the will of Allah. It is
+therefore proper that thou shouldst first venture the experiment.”
+
+“Have I lived to hear such sophistry from a pupil of the wise Aboniel!”
+exclaimed the first speaker, in generous indignation. “The maternal
+relationship—”
+
+“A truce to this trifling,” cried the other six; “fulfil the
+conditions, or abandon the task.”
+
+Thus urged, the scholar approached his hand to the table, and seized
+one of the phials. Scarcely, however, had he done so, when he fancied
+that he detected something of a sinister colour in the liquid, which
+distinguished it, in his imagination, from the innocent transparency of
+the rest. He hastily replaced it, and laid hold of the next. At that
+moment a blaze of light burst forth upon them, and, thunderstruck, the
+seven scholars were stretched senseless on the ground.
+
+On regaining their faculties they found themselves at the outside of
+Aboniel’s dwelling, stunned by the shock, and humiliated by the part
+they had played. They jointly pledged inviolable secrecy, and returned
+to their homes.
+
+The secret of the seven was kept as well as the secret of seven can be
+expected to be; that is to say, it was not, ere the expiration of seven
+days, known to more than six-sevenths of the inhabitants of Balkh. The
+last of these to become acquainted with it was the Sultan, who
+immediately despatched his guards to apprehend the sage, and confiscate
+the Elixir. Failing to obtain admission at Aboniel’s portal, they broke
+it open, and, on entering his chamber, found him in a condition which
+more eloquently than any profession bespoke his disdain for the
+life-bestowing draught. He was dead in his chair. Before him, on the
+table, stood the seven phials, six full as previously, the seventh
+empty. In his hand was a scroll inscribed as follows;
+
+“Six times twice six years have I striven after knowledge, and I now
+bequeath to the world the fruit of my toil, being six poisons. One more
+deadly I might have added, but I have refrained,
+
+“Write upon my tomb, that here he lies who forbore to perpetuate human
+affliction, and bestowed a fatal boon where alone it could be
+innoxious.”
+
+The intruders looked at each other, striving to penetrate the sense of
+Aboniel’s last words. While yet they gazed, they were startled by a
+loud crash from an adjacent closet, and were even more discomposed as a
+large monkey bounded forth, whose sleek coat, exuberant playfulness,
+and preternatural agility convinced all that the deceased philosopher,
+under an inspiration of supreme irony, had administered to the creature
+every drop of the Elixir of Life.
+
+
+
+
+THE POET OF PANOPOLIS
+
+I
+
+Although in a manner retired from the world during the fifth and sixth
+Christian centuries, the banished Gods did not neglect to keep an eye
+on human affairs, interesting themselves in any movement which might
+seem to afford them a chance of regaining their lost supremacy, or in
+any person whose conduct evinced regret at their dethronement. They
+deeply sympathised with the efforts of their votary Pamprepius to turn
+the revolt of Illus to their advantage, and excused the low magical
+arts to which he stooped as a necessary concession to the spirit of a
+barbarous age. They ministered invisibly to Damascius and his
+companions on their flight into Persia, alleviating the hardships under
+which the frames of the veteran philosophers might otherwise have sunk.
+It was not, indeed, until the burning of the Alexandrian library that
+they lost all heart and lapsed into the chrysalis-like condition in
+which they remained until tempted forth by the young sunshine of the
+Renaissance.
+
+Such a phenomenon for the fifth century as the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of
+Panopolis could not fail to excite their most lively interest.
+Forty-eight books of verse on the exploits of Bacchus in the age of
+pugnacious prelates and filthy coenobites, of imbecile rulers and
+rampant robbers, of the threatened dissolution of every tie, legal,
+social, or political; an age of earthquake, war, and famine! Bacchus,
+who is known from Aristophanes not to have excelled in criticism,
+protested that his laureate was greater than Homer; and, though Homer
+could not go quite so far as this, he graciously conceded that if he
+had himself been an Egyptian of the fifth century, with a faint
+glimmering of the poetical art, and encumbered with more learning than
+he knew how to use, he might have written almost as badly as his modern
+representative. More impartial critics judged Nonnus’s achievement more
+favourably, and all agreed that his steadfastness in the faith deserved
+some special mark of distinction. The Muses under Pallas’s direction
+(being themselves a little awkward in female accomplishments)
+embroidered him a robe; Hermes made a lyre, and Hephaestus forged a
+plectrum. Apollo added a chaplet of laurel, and Bacchus one of ivy.
+Whether from distrust of Hermes’ integrity, or wishing to make the
+personal acquaintance of his follower, Phœbus volunteered to convey the
+testimonial in person, and accordingly took his departure for the
+Egyptian Thebaid.
+
+As Apollo fared through the sandy and rugged wilderness under the
+blazing sun of an African summer afternoon, he observed with surprise a
+vast crowd of strange figures swarming about the mouth of a cavern like
+bees clustering at the entrance to a hive. On a nearer approach he
+identified them as a posse of demons besetting a hermit. Words cannot
+describe the enormous variety of whatever the universe holds of most
+heterogeneous. Naked women of surpassing loveliness displayed their
+charms to the anchorite’s gaze, sturdy porters bent beneath loads of
+gold which they heaped at his feet, other shapes not alien from
+humanity allured his appetite with costly dishes or cooling drinks, or
+smote at him with swords, or made feints at his eyes with spears, or
+burned sulphur under his nose, or displayed before him scrolls of
+poetry or learning, or shrieked blasphemies in his ears, or surveyed
+him from a little distance with glances of leering affection; while a
+motley crowd of goblins, wearing the heads of boars or lions, or
+whisking the tails of dragons, winged, or hoofed, or scaled, or
+feathered, or all at once, incessantly jostled and wrangled with each
+other and their betters, mopping and mowing, grunting and grinning,
+snapping, snarling, constantly running away and returning like gnats
+dancing over a marsh. The holy man sat doggedly at the entrance of his
+cavern, with an expression of fathomless stupidity, which seemed to
+defy all the fiends of the Thebaid to get an idea into his head, or
+make him vary his attitude by a single inch.
+
+“These people did not exist in our time,” said Apollo aloud, “or at
+least they knew their place, and behaved themselves.”
+
+“Sir,” said a comparatively grave and respectable demon, addressing the
+stranger, “I should wish your peregrinity to understand that these imps
+are mere schoolboys—my pupils, in fact. When their education has made
+further progress they will be more mannerly, and will comprehend the
+folly of pestering an unintellectual old gentleman like this worthy
+Pachymius with beauty for which he has no eyes, and gold for which he
+has no use, and dainties for which he has no palate, and learning for
+which he has no head. But _I’ll_ wake him up!” And waving his pupils
+away, the paedagogic fiend placed himself at the anchorite’s ear, and
+shouted into it—
+
+“Nonnus is to be Bishop of Panopolis!”
+
+The hermit’s features were instantly animated by an expression of envy
+and hatred.
+
+“Nonnus!” he exclaimed, “the heathen poet, to have the see of
+Panopolis, of which _I_ was promised the reversion!”
+
+“My dear sir,” suggested Apollo, “it is all very well to enliven the
+reverend eremite; but don’t you think it is rather a liberty to make
+such jokes at the expense of my good friend Nonnus?”
+
+“There is no liberty,” said the demon, “for there is no joke. Recanted
+on Monday. Baptized yesterday. Ordained to-day. To be consecrated
+to-morrow.”
+
+The anchorite poured forth a torrent of the choicest ecclesiastical
+curses, until he became speechless from exhaustion, and Apollo,
+profiting by the opportunity, addressed the demon:
+
+“Would it be an unpardonable breach of politeness, respected sir, if I
+ventured to hint that the illusions your pupils have been trying to
+impose upon this venerable man have in some small measure impaired the
+confidence with which I was originally inspired by your advantageous
+personal appearance?”
+
+“Not in the least,” replied the demon, “especially as I can easily make
+my words good. If you and Pachymius will mount my back I will transport
+you to Panopolis, where you can verify my assertion for yourselves.”
+
+The Deity and the anchorite promptly consented, and seated themselves
+on the demon’s shoulders. The shadow of the fiend’s expanded wings fell
+black and vast on the fiery sand, but diminished and became invisible
+as he soared to a prodigious height, to escape observation from below.
+By-and-by the sun’s glowing ball touched earth at the extremity of the
+horizon; it disappeared, the fires of sunset burned low in the west,
+and the figures of the demon and his freight showed like a black dot
+against a lake of green sky, growing larger as he cautiously stooped to
+earth. Grazing temples, skimming pyramids, the party came to ground in
+the precincts of Panopolis, just in time to avoid the rising moon that
+would have betrayed them. The demon immediately disappeared. Apollo
+hastened off to demand an explanation from Nonnus, while Pachymius
+repaired to a neighbouring convent, peopled, as he knew, by a legion of
+sturdy monks, ever ready to smite and be smitten in the cause of
+orthodoxy.
+
+II
+
+Nonnus sat in his study, wrinkling his brow as he polished his verses
+by the light of a small lamp. A large scroll lay open on his knees, the
+contents of which seemed to afford him little satisfaction. Forty-eight
+more scrolls, resplendent with silver knobs and coquettishly tied with
+purple cord, reposed in an adjoining book-case; the forty-eight books,
+manifestly, of the Panopolitan bard’s Dionysiaca. Homer, Euripides, and
+other poets lay on the floor, having apparently been hurriedly
+dislodged to make room for divers liturgies and lives of the saints. A
+set of episcopal robes depended from a hook, and on a side table stood
+half-a-dozen mitres, which, to all appearance, the designated prelate
+had been trying on.
+
+“Nonnus,” said Phœbus, passing noiselessly through the unresisting
+wall, “the tale of thy apostasy is then true?”
+
+It would be difficult to determine whether surprise, delight, or dismay
+preponderated in Nonnus’s expression as he lifted up his eyes and
+recognised the God of Poetry. He had just presence of mind to shuffle
+his scroll under an enormous dictionary ere he fell at Apollo’s feet.
+
+“O Phœbus,” he exclaimed, “hadst thou come a week ago!”
+
+“It is true, then?” said Apollo. “Thou forsakest me and the Muses. Thou
+sidest with them who have broken our statues, unroofed our temples,
+desecrated our altars, and banished us from among mankind. Thou
+rejectest the glory of standing alone in a barbarous age as the last
+witness to culture and civilisation. Thou despisest the gifts of the
+Gods and the Muses, of which I am even now the bearer. Thou preferrest
+the mitre to the laurel chaplet, and the hymns of Gregory to the epics
+of Homer?”
+
+“O Phœbus,” replied Nonnus, “were it any God but thou, I should bend
+before him in silence, having nought to reply. But thou art a poet, and
+thou understandest the temper of a poet. Thou knowest how beyond other
+men he is devoured by the craving for sympathy. This and not vulgar
+vanity is his motive of action; his shaft is launched in vain unless he
+can deem it embedded in the heart of a friend. Thou mayest well judge
+what scoffings and revilings my Dionysiac epic has brought upon me in
+this evil age; yet, had this been all, peradventure I might have borne
+it. But it was not all. The gentle, the good, the affectionate, they
+who in happier times would have been my audience, came about me,
+saying, Nonnus, why sing the strains against which we must shut our
+ears? Sing what we may listen to, and we will love and honour thee. I
+could not bear the thought of going to my grave without having awakened
+an echo of sympathy, and weakly but not basely I have yielded, given
+them what they craved, and suffered them, since the Muses’ garland is
+not theirs to bestow, to reward me with a mitre.”
+
+“And what demanded they?” asked Apollo.
+
+“Oh, a mere romance! Something entirely fabulous.”
+
+“I must see it,” persisted Apollo; and Nonnus reluctantly disinterred
+his scroll from under the big dictionary, and handed it up, trembling
+like a schoolboy who anticipates a castigation for a bad exercise.
+
+“What trash have we here?” cried Phœbus—
+
+“Αχρονος ην, ακιχητος, εν αρρητω Λογος αρχη,
+’Ισοφυης Γενετηρος όμηλικος Τιος αμητωρ,
+Και Λογος αυτοφυτοιο Θεου, φως, εκ φαεος φως.
+
+
+“If it isn’t the beginning of the Gospel of John! Thy impiety is worse
+than thy poetry!”
+
+Apollo cast the scroll indignantly to the ground. His countenance wore
+an expression so similar to that with which he is represented in act to
+smite the Python, that Nonnus judged it prudent to catch up his
+manuscript and hold it shield-wise before his face.
+
+“Thou doest well,” said Apollo, laughing bitterly; “that rampart is
+indeed impenetrable to my arrows.”
+
+Nonnus seemed about to fall prostrate, when a sharp rap came to the
+door.
+
+“That is the Governor’s knock,” he exclaimed. “Do not forsake me
+utterly, O Phœbus!” But as he turned to open the door, Apollo vanished.
+The Governor entered, a sagacious, good-humoured-looking man in middle
+life.
+
+“Who was with thee just now?” he asked. “Methought I heard voices.”
+
+“Merely the Muse,” explained Nonnus, “with whom I am wont to hold
+nocturnal communings.”
+
+“Indeed!” replied the Governor. “Then the Muse has done well to take
+herself off, and will do even better not to return. Bishops must have
+no flirtations with Muses, heavenly or earthly—not that I am now
+altogether certain that thou _wilt_ be a bishop.”
+
+“How so?” asked Nonnus, not without a feeling of relief.
+
+“Imagine, my dear friend,” returned the Governor, “who should turn up
+this evening but that sordid anchorite Pachymius, to whom the see was
+promised indeed, but who was reported to have been devoured by vermin
+in the desert. The rumour seemed so highly plausible that it must be
+feared that sufficient pains were not taken to verify it—cannot have
+been, in fact; for, as I said, here he comes, having been brought, as
+he affirms, through the air by an angel. Little would it have signified
+if he had come by himself, but he is accompanied by three hundred monks
+carrying cudgels, who threaten an insurrection if he is not consecrated
+on the spot. My friend the Archbishop and I are at our wits’ end: we
+have set our hearts on having a gentleman over the diocese, but we
+cannot afford to have tumults reported at Constantinople. At last,
+mainly through the mediation of a sable personage whom no one seems to
+know, but who approves himself most intelligent and obliging, the
+matter is put off till to-morrow, when them and Pachymius are to
+compete for the bishopric in public on conditions not yet settled, but
+which our swarthy friend undertakes to arrange to every one’s
+satisfaction. So keep up a good heart, and don’t run away in any case.
+I know thou art timid, but remember that there is no safety for thee
+but in victory. If thou yieldest thou wilt be beheaded by me, and if
+thou art defeated thou wilt certainly be burned by Pachymius.”
+
+With this incentive to intrepidity the Governor withdrew, leaving the
+poor poet in a pitiable state between remorse and terror. One thing
+alone somewhat comforted him! the mitres had vanished, and the gifts of
+the Gods lay on the table in their place, whence he concluded that a
+friendly power might yet be watching over him.
+
+III
+
+Next morning all Panopolis was in an uproar. It was generally known
+that the pretensions of the candidates for the episcopate would be
+decided by public competition, and it was rumoured that this would
+partake of the nature of an ordeal by fire and water. Nothing further
+had transpired except that the arrangements had been settled by the
+Governor and Archbishop in concert with two strangers, a dingy Libyan
+and a handsome young Greek, neither of whom was known in the city, but
+in both of whom the authorities seemed to repose entire confidence. At
+the appointed time the people flocked into the theatre, and found the
+stage already occupied by the parties chiefly concerned. The Governor
+and the Archbishop sat in the centre on their tribunals: the
+competitors stood on each side, Pachymius backed by the demon, Nonnus
+by Apollo; both these supporters, of course, appearing to the assembly
+in the light of ordinary mortals. Nonnus recognised Apollo perfectly,
+but Pachymius’s limited powers of intelligence seemed entirely
+engrossed by the discomfort visibly occasioned him by the proximity of
+an enormous brass vessel of water, close to which burned a bright fire.
+Nonnus was also ill at ease, and continually directed his attention to
+a large package, of the contents of which he seemed instinctively
+cognisant.
+
+All being ready, the Governor rose from his seat, and announced that,
+with the sanction of his Grace the Archbishop, the invidious task of
+determining between the claims of two such highly qualified competitors
+had been delegated to two gentlemen in the enjoyment of his full
+confidence, who would proceed to apply fitting tests to the respective
+candidates. Should one fail and the other succeed, the victor would of
+course be instituted; should both undergo the probation successfully,
+new criterions of merit would be devised; should both fall short, both
+would be set aside, and the disputed mitre would be conferred
+elsewhere. He would first summon Nonnus, long their fellow-citizen, and
+now their fellow-Christian, to submit himself to the test proposed.
+
+Apollo now rose, and proclaimed in an audible voice, “By virtue of the
+authority committed to me I call upon Nonnus of Panopolis, candidate
+for the bishopric of his native city, to demonstrate his fitness for
+the same by consigning to the flames with his own hands the forty-eight
+execrable books of heathen poetry composed by him in the days of his
+darkness and blindness, but now without doubt as detestable to him as
+to the universal body of the faithful.” So saying, he made a sign to an
+attendant, the wrapping of the package fell away, and the forty-eight
+scrolls of the Dionysiaca, silver knobs, purple cords, and all, came to
+view.
+
+“Burn my poem!” exclaimed Nonnus. “Destroy the labours of twenty-four
+years! Bereave Egypt of its Homer! Erase the name of Nonnus from the
+tablet of Time!”
+
+“How so, while thou hast the Paraphrase of St. John?” demanded Apollo
+maliciously.
+
+“Indeed, good youth,” said the Governor, who wished to favour Nonnus,
+“methinks the condition is somewhat exorbitant. A single book might
+suffice, surely!”
+
+“I am quite content,” replied Apollo. “If he consents to burn any of
+his books he is no poet, and I wash my hands of him.”
+
+“Come, Nonnus,” cried the Governor, “make haste; one book will do as
+well as another. Hand them up here.”
+
+“It must be with his own hands, please your Excellency,” said Apollo.
+
+“Then,” cried the Governor, pitching to the poet the first scroll
+brought to him, “the thirteenth book. Who cares about the thirteenth
+book? Pop it in!”
+
+“The thirteenth book!” exclaimed Nonnus, “containing the contest
+between wine and honey, without which my epic becomes totally and
+entirely unintelligible!”
+
+“This, then,” said the Governor, picking out another, which chanced to
+be the seventeenth,
+
+“In my seventeenth book,” objected Nonnus, “Bacchus plants vines in
+India, and the superiority of wine to milk is convincingly
+demonstrated.”
+
+“Well,” rejoined the Governor, “what say you to the twenty-second?”
+
+“With my Hamadryad! I can never give up my Hamadryad!”
+
+“Then,” said the Governor, contemptuously hurling the whole set in the
+direction of Nonnus, “burn which you will, only burn!”
+
+The wretched poet sat among his scrolls looking for a victim. All his
+forty-eight children were equally dear to his parental heart. The cries
+of applause and derision from the spectators, and the formidable
+bellowings of the exasperated monks who surrounded Pachymius, did not
+tend to steady his nerves, or render the task of critical
+discrimination the easier,
+
+“I won’t! I won’t!” he exclaimed at last, starting up defiantly. “Let
+the bishopric go to the devil! Any one of my similes is worth all the
+bishoprics in Egypt!”
+
+“Out on the vanity of these poets!” exclaimed the disappointed
+Governor.
+
+“It is not vanity,” said Apollo, “it is paternal affection; and being
+myself a sufferer from the same infirmity, I rejoice to find him my
+true son after all.”
+
+“Well,” said the Governor, turning to the demon: “it is thy man’s turn
+now. Trot him out!”
+
+“Brethren,” said the demon to the assembly, “it is meet that he who
+aspires to the office of bishop should be prepared to give evidence of
+extraordinary self-denial. Ye have seen even our weak brother Nonnus
+adoring what he hath burned, albeit as yet unwilling to burn what he
+hath adored. How much more may be reasonably expected of our brother
+Pachymius, so eminent for sanctity! I therefore call upon him to
+demonstrate his humility and self-renunciation, and effectually mortify
+the natural man, by washing himself in this ample vessel provided for
+the purpose”
+
+“Wash myself!” exclaimed Pacyhmius, with a vivacity of which he had
+previously shown no token. “Destroy at one splash the sanctity of
+fifty-seven years! Avaunt! thou subtle enemy of my salvation! I know
+thee who thou art, the demon who brought me hither on his back
+yesterday.”
+
+“I thought it had been an angel,” said the Governor.
+
+“A demon in the disguise of an angel of light,” said Pachymius.
+
+A tumultuous discussion arose among Pachymius’s supporters, some
+extolling his fortitude, others blaming his wrongheadedness.
+
+“What!” said he to the latter, “would ye rob me of my reputation? Shall
+it be written of me, The holy Pachymius abode in the precepts of the
+eremites so long as he dwelt in the desert where no water was, but as
+soon as he came within sight of a bath, he stumbled and fell?”
+
+“Oh, father,” urged they, “savoureth not this of vaingloriousness? The
+demon in the guise of an angel of light, as thou so well saidest even
+now. Be strong. Quit thyself valiantly. Think of the sufferings of the
+primitive confessors.”
+
+“St. John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil,” said one.
+
+“St. Apocryphus was actually drowned,” said another.
+
+“I have reason to believe,” said a third, “that the loathsomeness of
+ablution hath been greatly exaggerated by the heretics.”
+
+“I know it has,” said another. “I _have_ washed myself once, though ye
+might not think it, and can assert that it is by no means as
+disagreeable as one supposes.”
+
+“That is just what I dread,” said Pachymius. “Little by little, one
+might positively come to like it! We should resist the beginnings of
+evil.”
+
+All this time the crowd of his supporters had been pressing upon the
+anchorite, and had imperceptibly forced him nearer the edge of the
+vessel, purposing at a convenient season to throw him in. He was now
+near enough to catch a glimpse of the limpid element. Recoiling in
+horror, he collected all his energies, and with head depressed towards
+his chest, and hands thrust forth as if to ward off pollution—butting,
+kicking, biting the air—he rushed forwards, and with a preternatural
+force deserving to be enumerated among his miracles, fairly overthrew
+the enormous vase, the contents streaming on the crowd in front of the
+stage.
+
+“Take me to my hermitage!” he screamed. “I renounce the bishopric. Take
+me to my hermitage!”
+
+“Amen,” responded the demon, and, assuming his proper shape, he took
+Pachymius upon his back and flew away with him amid the cheers of the
+multitude.
+
+Pachymius was speedily deposited at the mouth of his cavern, where he
+received the visits of the neighbouring anchorites, who came to
+congratulate him on the constancy with which he had sustained his
+fiery, or rather watery trial. He spent most of his remaining days in
+the society of the devil, on which account he was canonised at his
+death.
+
+“O Phœbus,” said Nonnus, when they were alone, “impose upon me any
+penance thou wilt, so I may but regain thy favour and that of the
+Muses. But before all things let me destroy my paraphrase.”
+
+“Thou shalt not destroy it,” said Phœbus, “Thou shalt publish it. That
+shall be thy penance.”
+
+And so it is that the epic on the exploits of Bacchus and the
+paraphrase of St. John’s Gospel have alike come down to us as the work
+of Nonnus, whose authorship of both learned men have never been able to
+deny, having regard to the similarity of style, but never could explain
+until the facts above narrated came to light in one of the Fayoum
+papyri recently acquired by the Archduke Rainer.
+
+
+
+
+THE PURPLE HEAD
+
+
+Half ignorant, they turned an easy wheel
+That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel.
+
+I
+
+In the heyday of the Emperor Aurelian’s greatness, when his strong
+right arm propped Rome up, and hewed Palmyra down, when he surrounded
+his capital with walls fifty miles in circuit, and led Tetricus and
+Zenobia in triumph through its streets, and distributed elephants among
+the senators, and laid Etruria out in vineyards, and contemplated in
+leisure moments the suppression of Christianity as a subordinate detail
+of administration, a mere ripple on the broad ocean of his policy—at
+this period Bahram the First, King of Persia, naturally became
+disquieted in his mind.
+
+“This upstart soldier of fortune,” reflected he, “has an unseemly habit
+of overcoming and leading captive legitimate princes; thus prejudicing
+Divine right in the eyes of the vulgar. The skin of his predecessor
+Valerian, curried and stuffed with straw, hangs to this hour in the
+temple at Ctesiphon, a pleasing spectacle to the immortal gods. How
+would my own skin appear in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus? This
+must not be. I will send an embassy to him, and impress him with my
+greatness. But how?”
+
+He accordingly convoked his counsellors; the viziers, the warriors, the
+magi, the philosophers; and addressed them thus:
+
+“The king deigns to consult ye touching a difficult matter. I would
+flatter the pride of Rome, without lowering the pride of Persia. I
+would propitiate Aurelian, and at the same time humble him. How shall
+this be accomplished?”
+
+The viziers, the warriors, and the magi answered not a word. Unbroken
+silence reigned in the assembly, until the turn came to the sage
+Marcobad, who, prostrating himself, said, “O king, live for ever! In
+ancient times, as hath been delivered by our ancestors, Persians were
+instructed in three accomplishments—to ride, to draw the bow, and to
+speak the truth. Persia still rides and shoots; truth-speaking (praised
+be Ormuzd!) she hath discontinued as unbefitting an enlightened nation.
+Thou needest not, therefore, scruple to circumvent Aurelian. Offer him
+that which thou knowest will not be found in his treasury, seeing that
+it is unique in thine own; giving him, at the same time, to understand
+that it is the ordinary produce of thy dominions. So, while rejoicing
+at the gift, shall he be abashed at his inferiority. I refer to the
+purple robe of her majesty the queen, the like of which is not to be
+found in the whole earth, neither do any know where the dye that tinges
+it is produced, save that it proceeds from the uttermost parts of
+India.”
+
+“I approve thy advice,” replied Bahram, “and in return will save thy
+life by banishing thee from my dominions. When my august consort shall
+learn that thou hast been the means of depriving her of her robe, she
+will undoubtedly request that thou mayest be flayed, and thou knowest
+that I can deny her nothing. I therefore counsel thee to depart with
+all possible swiftness. Repair to the regions where the purple is
+produced, and if thou returnest with an adequate supply, I undertake
+that my royal sceptre shall be graciously extended to thee.”
+
+The philosopher forsook the royal presence with celerity, and his
+office of chief examiner of court spikenard was bestowed upon another;
+as also his house and his garden, his gold and his silver, his wives
+and his concubines, his camels and his asses, which were numerous.
+
+While the solitary adventurer wended his way eastward, a gorgeous
+embassy travelled westward in the direction of Rome.
+
+Arrived in the presence of Aurelian, and at the conclusion of his
+complimentary harangue, the chief envoy produced a cedar casket, from
+which he drew a purple robe of such surpassing refulgence, that, in the
+words of the historian who has recorded the transaction, the purple of
+the emperor and of the matrons appeared ashy grey in comparison. It was
+accompanied by a letter thus conceived:
+
+“Bahram to Aurelian: health! Receive such purple as we have in Persia.”
+
+“Persia, forsooth!” exclaimed Sorianus, a young philosopher versed in
+natural science, “this purple never was in Persia, except as a rarity.
+Oh, the mendacity and vanity of these Orientals!”
+
+The ambassador was beginning an angry reply, when Aurelian quelled the
+dispute with a look, and with some awkwardness delivered himself of a
+brief oration in acknowledgment of the gift. He took no more notice of
+the matter until nightfall, when he sent for Sorianus, and inquired
+where the purple actually was produced.
+
+“In the uttermost parts of India,” returned the philosopher.
+
+“Well,” rejoined Aurelian, summing up the matter with his accustomed
+rapidity and clearness of head, “either thou or the Persian king has
+lied to me, it is plain, and, by the favour of the Gods, it is
+immaterial which, seeing that my ground for going to war with him is
+equally good in either case. If he has sought to deceive me, I am right
+in punishing him; if he possesses what I lack, I am justified in taking
+it away. It would, however, be convenient to know which of these
+grounds to inscribe in my manifesto; moreover, I am not ready for
+hostilities at present; having first to extirpate the Blemmyes, Carpi,
+and other barbarian vermin. I will therefore despatch thee to India to
+ascertain by personal examination the truth about the purple. Do not
+return without it, or I shall cut off thy head. My treasury will charge
+itself with the administration of thy property during thy absence. The
+robe shall meanwhile be deposited in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
+May he have it and thee in his holy keeping!”
+
+Thus, in that age of darkness, were two most eminent philosophers
+reduced to beggary, and constrained to wander in remote and
+insalubrious regions; the one for advising a king, the other for
+instructing an emperor. But the matter did not rest here. For Aurelian,
+having continued the visible deity of half the world for one hundred
+and fifty days after the departure of Sorianus, was slain by his own
+generals. To him succeeded Tacitus, who sank oppressed by the weight of
+rule; to him Probus, who perished in a military tumult; to him Carus,
+who was killed by lightning; to him Carinus, who was assassinated by
+one whom he had wronged; to him Diocletian, who, having maintained
+himself for twenty years, wisely forbore to tempt Nemesis further, and
+retired to plant cabbages at Salona. All these sovereigns, differing
+from each other in every other respect, agreed in a common desire to
+possess the purple dye, and when the philosopher returned not,
+successively despatched new emissaries in quest of it. Strange was the
+diversity of fate which befell these envoys. Some fell into the jaws of
+lions, some were crushed by monstrous serpents, some trampled by
+elephants at the command of native princes, some perished of hunger,
+and some of thirst; some, encountering smooth-browed and dark-tressed
+girls wreathing their hair with the champak blossom or bathing by
+moonlight in lotus-mantled tanks, forsook their quest, and led
+thenceforth idyllic lives in groves of banian and of palm. Some became
+enamoured of the principles of the Gymnosophists, some couched
+themselves for uneasy slumber upon beds of spikes, weening to wake in
+the twenty-second heaven. All which romantic variety of fortune was the
+work of a diminutive insect that crawled or clung heedless of the
+purple it was weaving into the many-coloured web of human life.
+
+II
+
+Some thirty years after the departure of the Persian embassy to
+Aurelian, two travellers met at the bottom of a dell in trans-Gangetic
+India, having descended the hill-brow by opposite paths. It was early
+morning; the sun had not yet surmounted the timbered and tangled sides
+of the little valley, so that the bottom still lay steeped in shadow,
+and glittering with large pearls of limpid dew, while the oval space of
+sky circumscribed by the summit glowed with the delicate splendour of
+the purest sapphire. Songs of birds resounded through the brake, and
+the water lilies which veiled the rivulet trickling through the depths
+of the retreat were unexpanded still. One of the wayfarers was aged,
+the other a man of the latest period of middle life. Their raiment was
+scanty and soiled; their frames and countenances alike bespoke fatigue
+and hardship; but while the elder one moved with moderate alacrity, the
+other shuffled painfully along by the help of a staff, shrinking every
+time that he placed either of his feet on the ground.
+
+They exchanged looks and greetings as they encountered, and the more
+active of the two, whose face was set in an easterly direction,
+ventured a compassionate allusion to the other’s apparent distress.
+
+‘I but suffer from the usual effects of crucifixion,’ returned the
+other; and removing his sandals, displayed two wounds, completely
+penetrating each foot.
+
+The Cross had not yet announced victory to Constantine, and was as yet
+no passport to respectable society. The first traveller drew back
+hastily, and regarded his companion with surprise and suspicion.
+
+“I see what is passing in thy mind,” resumed the latter, with a smile;
+“but be under no apprehension. I have not undergone the censure of any
+judicial tribunal. My crucifixion was merely a painful but necessary
+incident in my laudable enterprise of obtaining the marvellous purple
+dye, to which end I was despatched unto these regions by the Emperor
+Aurelian.”
+
+“The purple dye!” exclaimed the Persian, for it was he. “Thou hast
+obtained it?”
+
+“I have. It is the product of insects found only in a certain valley
+eastward from hence, to obtain access to which it is before all things
+needful to elude the vigilance of seven dragons.”
+
+“Thou didst elude them? and afterwards?” inquired Marcobad, with
+eagerness.
+
+“Afterwards,” repeated Sorianus, “I made my way into the valley, where
+I descried the remains of my immediate predecessor prefixed to a
+cross.”
+
+“Thy predecessor?”
+
+“He who had last made the attempt before me. Upon any one’s penetrating
+the Valley of Purple, as it is termed, with the design I have
+indicated, the inhabitants, observant of the precepts of their
+ancestors, append him to a cross by the feet only, confining his arms
+by ropes at the shoulders, and setting vessels of cooling drink within
+his grasp. If, overcome with thirst, he partakes of the beverage, they
+leave him to expire at leisure; if he endures for three days, he is
+permitted to depart with the object of his quest. My predecessor,
+belonging, as I conjecture, to the Epicurean persuasion, and
+consequently unable to resist the allurements of sense, had perished in
+the manner aforesaid. I, a Stoic, refrained and attained.”
+
+“Thou didst bear away the tincture? thou hast it now?” impetuously
+interrogated the Persian.
+
+“Behold it!” replied the Greek, exhibiting a small flask filled with
+the most gorgeous purple liquid. “What seest thou here?” demanded he
+triumphantly, holding it up to the light. “To me this vial displays the
+University of Athens, and throngs of fair youths hearkening to the
+discourse of one who resembles myself.”
+
+“To my vision,” responded the Persian, peering at the vial, “it rather
+reveals a palace, and a dress of honour. But suffer me to contemplate
+it more closely, for my eyes have waxed dim by over application to
+study.”
+
+So saying, he snatched the flask from Sorianus, and immediately turned
+to fly. The Greek sprang after his treasure, and failing to grasp
+Marcobad’s wrist, seized his beard, plucking the hair out by handfuls.
+The infuriated Persian smote him on the head with the crystal flagon.
+It burst into shivers, and the priceless contents gushed forth in a
+torrent over the uncovered head and uplifted visage of Sorianus,
+bathing every hair and feature with the most vivid purple.
+
+The aghast and thunderstricken philosophers remained gazing at each
+other for a moment.
+
+“It is indelible!” cried Sorianus in distraction, rushing down,
+however, to the brink of the little stream, and plunging his head
+beneath the waters. They carried away a cloud of purple, but left the
+purple head stained as before.
+
+The philosopher, as he upraised his glowing and dripping countenance
+from the brook, resembled Silenus emerging from one of the rivers which
+Bacchus metamorphosed into wine during his campaign in India. He
+resorted to attrition and contrition, to maceration and laceration; he
+tried friction with leaves, with grass, with sedge, with his garments;
+he regarded himself in one crystal pool after another, a grotesque
+anti-Narcissus. At last he flung himself on the earth, and gave free
+course to his anguish.
+
+The grace of repentance is rarely denied us when our misdeeds have
+proved unprofitable. Marcobad awkwardly approached.
+
+“Brother,” he whispered, “I will restore the tincture of which I have
+deprived thee, and add thereto an antidote, if such may be found. Await
+my return under this camphor tree.”
+
+So saying, he hastened up the path by which Sorianus had descended, and
+was speedily out of sight.
+
+III
+
+Sorianus tarried long under the camphor tree, but at last, becoming
+weary, resumed his travels, until emerging from the wilderness he
+entered the dominions of the King of Ayodhya. His extraordinary
+appearance speedily attracted the attention of the royal officers, by
+whom he was apprehended and brought before his majesty.
+
+“It is evident,” pronounced the monarch, after bestowing his attention
+on the case, “that thou art in possession of an object too rare and
+precious for a private individual, of which thou must accordingly be
+deprived. I lament the inconvenience thou wilt sustain. I would it had
+been thy hand or thy foot.”
+
+Sorianus acknowledged the royal considerateness, but pleaded the
+indefeasible right of property which he conceived himself to have
+acquired in his own head.
+
+“In respect,” responded the royal logician, “that thy head is conjoined
+to thy shoulders, it is thine; but in respect that it is purple, it is
+mine, purple being a royal monopoly. Thy claim is founded on anatomy,
+mine on jurisprudence. Shall matter prevail over mind? Shall medicine,
+the most uncertain of sciences, override law, the perfection of human
+reason? It is but to the vulgar observation that thou appearest to have
+a head at all; in the eye of the law thou art acephalous.”
+
+“I would submit,” urged the philosopher, “that the corporal connection
+of my head with my body is an essential property, the colour of it a
+fortuitous accident.”
+
+“Thou mightest as well contend,” returned the king, “that the law is
+bound to regard thee in thy abstract condition as a human being, and is
+disabled from taking cognisance of thy acquired capacity of
+smuggler—rebel, I might say, seeing that thou hast assumed the purple.”
+
+“But the imputation of cruelty which might attach to your majesty’s
+proceedings?”
+
+“There can be no cruelty where there is no injustice. If any there be,
+it must be on thy part, since, as I have demonstrated, so far from my
+despoiling thee of thy head, it is thou who iniquitously withholdest
+mine. I will labour to render this even clearer to thy apprehension.
+Thou art found, as thou must needs admit, in possession of a contraband
+article forfeit to the crown by operation of law. What then? Shall the
+intention of the legislature be frustrated because thou hast
+insidiously rendered the possession of _my_ property inseparable from
+the possession of _thine_? Shall I, an innocent proprietor, be mulcted
+of my right by thy fraud and covin? Justice howls, righteousness weeps,
+integrity stands aghast at the bare notion. No, friend, thy head has
+not a leg to stand on. Wouldst thou retain it, it behoves thee to show
+that it will be more serviceable to the owner, namely, myself, upon thy
+shoulders than elsewhere. This may well be. Hast thou peradventure any
+subtleties in perfumery? any secrets in confectionery? any skill in the
+preparation of soup?”
+
+“I have condescended to none of these frivolities, O king. My study
+hath ever consisted in divine philosophy, whereby men are rendered
+equal to the gods.”
+
+“And yet long most of all for purple!” retorted the monarch, “as I
+conclude from perceiving thou hast after all preferred the latter. Thy
+head must indeed be worth the taking.”
+
+“Thy taunt is merited, O king! I will importune thee no longer. Thou
+wilt indeed render me a service in depriving me of this wretched head,
+hideous without, and I must fear, empty within, seeing that it hath not
+prevented me from wasting my life in the service of vanity and luxury.
+Woe to the sage who trusts his infirm wisdom and frail integrity within
+the precincts of a court! Yet can I foretell a time when philosophers
+shall no longer run on the futile and selfish errands of kings, and
+when kings shall be suffered to rule only so far as they obey the
+bidding of philosophers. Peace, Knowledge, Liberty—”
+
+The King of Ayodhya possessed, beyond all princes of his age, the art
+of gracefully interrupting an unseasonable discourse. He slightly
+signed to a courtier in attendance, a scimitar flashed for a moment
+from its scabbard, and the head of Sorianus rolled on the pavement; the
+lips murmuring as though still striving to dwell with inarticulate
+fondness upon the last word of hope for mankind.
+
+It soon appeared that the principle of life was essential to the
+resplendence of the Purple Head. Within a few minutes it had assumed so
+ghastly a hue that the Rajah himself was intimidated, and directed that
+it should be consumed with the body.
+
+The same full-moon that watched the white-robed throng busied with the
+rites of incremation in a grove of palms, beheld also the seven dragons
+contending for the body of Marcobad. But, for many a year, the maids
+and matrons of Rome were not weary of regarding, extolling, and
+coveting the priceless purple tissue that glowed in the fane of Jupiter
+Capitolinus.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIREFLY
+
+
+A certain Magician had retired for the sake of study to a cottage in a
+forest. It was summer in a hot country. In the trees near the cottage
+dwelt a most beautiful Firefly. The light she bore with her was
+dazzling, yet soft and palpitating, as the evening star, and she seemed
+a single flash of fire as she shot in and out suddenly from under the
+screen of foliage, or like a lamp as she perched panting upon some
+leaf, or hung glowing from some bough; or like a wandering meteor as
+she eddied gleaming over the summits of the loftiest trees; as she
+often did, for she was an ambitious Firefly. She learned to know the
+Magician, and would sometimes alight and sit shining in his hair, or
+trail her lustre across his book as she crept over the pages. The
+Magician admired her above all things:
+
+“What eyes she would have if she were a woman!” thought he.
+
+Once he said aloud;
+
+“How happy you must be, you rare, beautiful, brilliant creature!”
+
+“I am not happy,” rejoined the Firefly; “what am I, after all, but a
+flying beetle with a candle in my tail? I wish I were a star.”
+
+“Very well,” said the Magician, and touched her with his wand, when she
+became a beautiful star in the twelfth degree of the sign Pisces.
+
+After some nights the Magician asked her if she was content.
+
+“I am not,” replied she. “When I was a Firefly I could fly whither I
+would, and come and go as I pleased. Now I must rise and set at certain
+times, and shine just so long and no longer. I cannot fly at all, and
+only creep slowly across the sky. In the day I cannot shine, or if I do
+no one sees me. I am often darkened by rain, and mist, and cloud. Even
+when I shine my brightest I am less admired than when I was a Firefly,
+there are so many others like me. I see, indeed, people looking up from
+the earth by night towards me, but how do I know that they are looking
+at me?”
+
+“The laws of nature will have it so,” returned the Magician.
+
+“Don’t talk to me of the laws of Nature,” rejoined the Firefly. “I did
+not make them, and I don’t see why I should be compelled to obey them.
+Make me something else.”
+
+“What would you be?” demanded the accommodating Magician.
+
+“As I creep along here,” replied the Star, “I see such a soft pure
+track of light. It proceeds from the lamp in your study. It flows out
+of your window like a river of molten silver, both cool and warm. Let
+me be such a lamp.”
+
+“Be it so,” answered the Magician: and the star became a lovely
+alabaster lamp, set in an alcove in his study. Her chaste radiance was
+shed over his page as long as he continued to read. At a certain hour
+he extinguished her and retired to rest.
+
+Next morning the Lamp was in a terrible humour.
+
+“I don’t choose to be blown out,” she said.
+
+“You would have gone out of your own accord else,” returned the
+Magician.
+
+“What!” exclaimed the Lamp, “am I not shining by my own light?”
+
+“Certainly not: you are not now a Firefly or a Star. You must now
+depend upon others. You would be dark for ever if I did not rekindle
+you by the help of this oil.”
+
+“What!” cried the Lamp, “not shine of my own accord! Never! Make me an
+everlasting lamp, or I will not be one at all.”
+
+“Alas, poor friend,” returned the Magician sadly, “there is but one
+place where aught is everlasting. I can make thee a lamp of the
+sepulchre.”
+
+“Content,” responded the Lamp. And the Magician made her one of those
+strange occult lamps which men find ever and anon when they unseal the
+tombs of ancient kings and wizards, sustaining without nutriment a
+perpetual flame. And he bore her to a sepulchre where a great king was
+lying embalmed and perfect in his golden raiment, and set her at the
+head of the corpse. And whether the poor fitful Firefly found at last
+rest in the grave, we may know when we come thither ourselves. But the
+Magician closed the gates of the sepulchre behind him, and walked
+thoughtfully home. And as he approached his cottage, behold another
+Firefly darting and flashing in and out among the trees, as brilliantly
+as ever the first had done. She was a wise Firefly, well satisfied with
+the world and everything in it, more particularly her own tail. And if
+the Magician would have made a pet of her no doubt she would have abode
+with him. But he never looked at her.
+
+
+
+
+PAN’S WAND
+
+
+Iridion had broken her lily. A misfortune for any rustic nymph, but
+especially for her, since her life depended upon it.
+
+From her birth the fate of Iridion had been associated with that of a
+flower of unusual loveliness—a stately, candid lily, endowed with a
+charmed life, like its possessor. The seasons came and went without
+leaving a trace upon it; innocence and beauty seemed as enduring with
+it, as evanescent with the children of men. In equal though dissimilar
+loveliness its frolicsome young mistress nourished by its side. One
+thing alone, the oracle had declared, could prejudice either, and this
+was an accident to the flower. From such disaster it had long been
+shielded by the most delicate care; yet in the inscrutable counsels of
+the Gods, the dreaded calamity had at length come to pass. Broken
+through the upper part of the stem, the listless flower drooped its
+petals towards the earth, and seemed to mourn their chastity, already
+sullied by the wan flaccidity of decay. Not one had fallen as yet, and
+Iridion felt no pain or any symptom of approaching dissolution, except,
+it may be, the unwonted seriousness with which, having exhausted all
+her simple skill on behalf of the languishing plant, she sat down to
+consider its fate in the light of its bearing upon her own.
+
+Meditation upon an utterly vague subject, whether of apprehension or of
+hope, speedily lapses into reverie. To Iridion, Death was as
+indefinable an object of thought as the twin omnipotent controller of
+human destiny, Love. Love, like the immature fruit on the bough, hung
+unsoliciting and unsolicited as yet, but slowly ripening to the
+maiden’s hand. Death, a vague film in an illimitable sky, tempered
+without obscuring the sunshine of her life. Confronted with it
+suddenly, she found it, in truth, an impalpable cloud, and herself as
+little competent as the gravest philosopher to answer the
+self-suggested inquiry, “What shall I be when I am no longer Iridion?”
+Superstition might have helped her to some definite conceptions, but
+superstition did not exist in her time. Judge, reader, of its
+remoteness.
+
+The maiden’s reverie might have terminated only with her existence, but
+for the salutary law which prohibits a young girl, not in love or at
+school, from sitting still more than ten minutes. As she shifted her
+seat at the expiration of something like this period, she perceived
+that she had been sitting on a goatskin, and with a natural association
+of ideas—
+
+“I will ask Pan,” she exclaimed.
+
+Pan at that time inhabited a cavern hard by the maiden’s dwelling,
+which the judicious reader will have divined could only have been
+situated in Arcadia. The honest god was on excellent terms with the
+simple people; his goats browsed freely along with theirs, and the most
+melodious of the rustic minstrels attributed their proficiency to his
+instructions. The maidens were on a more reserved footing of
+intimacy—at least so they wished it to be understood, and so it was
+understood, of course. Iridion, however, decided that the occasion
+would warrant her incurring the risk even of a kiss, and lost no time
+in setting forth upon her errand, carrying her poor broken flower in
+its earthen vase. It was the time of day when the god might be supposed
+to be arousing himself from his afternoon’s siesta. She did not fear
+that his door would be closed against her, for he had no door.
+
+The sylvan deity stood, in fact, at the entrance of his cavern, about
+to proceed in quest of his goats. The appearance of Iridion operated a
+change in his intention, and he courteously escorted her to a seat of
+turf erected for the special accommodation of his fair visitors, while
+he placed for himself one of stone.
+
+“Pan,” she began, “I have broken my lily.”
+
+“That is a sad pity, child. If it had been a reed, now, you could have
+made a flute of it.”
+
+“I should not have time, Pan,” and she recounted her story. A godlike
+nature cannot confound truth with falsehood, though it may mistake
+falsehood for truth. Pan therefore never doubted Iridion’s strange
+narrative, and, having heard it to the end, observed, “You will find
+plenty more lilies in Elysium.”
+
+“Common lilies, Pan; not like mine.”
+
+“You are wrong. The lilies of Elysium—asphodels as they call them
+there—are as immortal as the Elysians themselves. I have seen them in
+Proserpine’s hair at Jupiter’s entertainment; they were as fresh as she
+was. There is no doubt you might gather them by handfuls—at least if
+you had any hands—and wear them to your heart’s content, if you had but
+a heart.”
+
+“That’s just what perplexes me, Pan. It is not the dying I mind, it’s
+the living. How am I to live without anything alive about me? If you
+take away my hands, and my heart, and my brains, and my eyes, and my
+ears, and above all my tongue, what is left me to live in Elysium?”
+
+As the maiden spake a petal detached itself from the emaciated lily,
+and she pressed her hand to her brow with a responsive cry of pain.
+
+“Poor child!” said Pan compassionately, “you will feel no more pain
+by-and-by.”
+
+“I suppose not, Pan, since you say so. But if I can feel no pain, how
+can I feel any pleasure?
+
+“In an incomprehensible manner,” said Pan.
+
+“How can I feel, if I have no feeling? and what am I to do without it?”
+
+“You can think!” replied Pan. “Thinking (not that I am greatly given to
+it myself) is a much finer thing than feeling; no right-minded person
+doubts that. Feeling, as I have heard Minerva say, is a property of
+matter, and matter, except, of course, that appertaining to myself and
+the other happy gods, is vile and perishable—quite immaterial, in fact.
+Thought alone is transcendent, incorruptible, and undying!”
+
+“But, Pan, how can any one think thoughts without something to think
+them with? I never thought of anything that I have not seen, or
+touched, or smelt, or tasted, or heard about from some one else. If I
+think with nothing, and about nothing, is that thinking, do you think?”
+
+“I think,” answered Pan evasively, “that you are a sensationalist, a
+materialist, a sceptic, a revolutionist; and if you had not sought the
+assistance of a god, I should have said not much better than an
+atheist. I also think it is time I thought about some physic for you
+instead of metaphysics, which are bad for my head, and for your soul.”
+Saying this, Pan, with rough tenderness, deposited the almost fainting
+maiden upon a couch of fern, and, having supported her head with a
+bundle of herbs, leaned his own upon his hand, and reflected with all
+his might. The declining sun was now nearly opposite the cavern’s
+mouth, and his rays, straggling through the creepers that wove their
+intricacies over the entrance, chequered with lustrous patches the
+forms of the dying girl and the meditating god. Ever and anon, a petal
+would drop from the flower; this was always succeeded by a shuddering
+tremor throughout Iridion’s frame and a more forlorn expression on her
+pallid countenance: while Pan’s jovial features assumed an expression
+of deeper concern as he pressed his knotty hand more resolutely against
+his shaggy forehead, and wrung his dexter horn with a more determined
+grasp, as though he had caught a burrowing idea by the tail.
+
+“Aha!” he suddenly exclaimed, “I have it!”
+
+“What have you, Pan?” faintly lisped the expiring Iridion.
+
+Instead of replying, Pan grasped a wand that leaned against the wall of
+his grot, and with it touched the maiden and the flower. O strange
+metamorphosis! Where the latter had been pining in its vase, a lovely
+girl, the image of Iridion, lay along the ground with dishevelled hair,
+clammy brow, and features slightly distorted by the last struggles of
+death. On the ferny couch stood an earthen vase, from which rose a
+magnificent lily, stately, with unfractured stem, and with no stain or
+wrinkle on its numerous petals.
+
+“Aha!” repeated Pan; “I think we are ready for him now.” Then, having
+lifted the inanimate body to the couch, and placed the vase, with its
+contents, on the floor of his cavern, he stepped to the entrance, and
+shading his eyes with his hand, seemed to gaze abroad in quest of some
+anticipated visitor.
+
+The boughs at the foot of the steep path to the cave divided, and a
+figure appeared at the foot of the rock. The stranger’s mien was
+majestic, but the fitness of his proportions diminished his really
+colossal stature to something more nearly the measure of mortality. His
+form was enveloped in a sweeping sad-coloured robe; a light, thin veil
+resting on his countenance, mitigated, without concealing, the not
+ungentle austerity of his marble features. His gait was remarkable;
+nothing could be more remote from every indication of haste, yet such
+was the actual celerity of his progression, that Pan had scarcely
+beheld him ere he started to find him already at his side.
+
+The stranger, without disturbing his veil, seemed to comprehend the
+whole interior of the grotto with a glance; then, with the slightest
+gesture of recognition to Pan, he glided to the couch on which lay the
+metamorphosed lily, upraised the fictitious Iridion in his arms with
+indescribable gentleness, and disappeared with her as swiftly and
+silently as he had come. The discreet Pan struggled with suppressed
+merriment until the stranger was fairly out of hearing, then threw
+himself back upon his seat and laughed till the cave rang.
+
+“And now,” he said, “to finish the business.” He lifted the transformed
+maiden into the vase, and caressed her beauty with an exulting but
+careful hand. There was a glory and a splendour in the flower such as
+had never until then been beheld in any earthly lily. The stem
+vibrated, the leaves shook in unison, the petals panted and suspired,
+and seemed blanched with a whiteness intense as the core of sunlight,
+as they throbbed in anticipation of the richer existence awaiting them.
+
+Impatient to complete his task, Pan was about to grasp his wand when
+the motion was arrested as the sinking beam of the sun was intercepted
+by a gigantic shadow, and the stranger again stood by his side. The
+unbidden guest uttered no word, but his manner was sufficiently
+expressive of wrath as he disdainfully cast on the ground a broken,
+withered lily, the relic of what had bloomed with such loveliness in
+the morning, and had since for a brief space been arrayed in the
+vesture of humanity. He pointed imperiously to the gorgeous tenant of
+the vase, and seemed to expect Pan to deliver it forthwith.
+
+“Look here,” said Pan, with more decision than dignity, “I am a poor
+country god, but I know the law. If you can find on this plant one
+speck, one stain, one token that you have anything to do with her, take
+her, and welcome. If you cannot, take yourself off instead.”
+
+“Be it so,” returned the stranger, haughtily declining the proffered
+inspection. “You will find it is ill joking with Death.”
+
+So saying, he quitted the cavern.
+
+Pan sat down chuckling, yet not wholly at ease, for if the charity of
+Death is beautiful even to a mortal, his anger is terrible, even to a
+god. Anxious to terminate the adventure, he reached towards the charmed
+wand by whose wonderful instrumentality the dying maiden had already
+become a living flower, and was now to undergo a yet more delightful
+metamorphosis.
+
+Wondrous wand! But where was it? For Death, the great transfigurer of
+all below this lunar sphere, had given Pan a characteristic proof of
+his superior cunning. Where the wand had reposed writhed a ghastly
+worm, which, as Pan’s glance fell upon it, glided towards him,
+uplifting its head with an aspect of defiance. Pan’s immortal nature
+sickened at the emblem of corruption; he could not for all Olympus have
+touched his metamorphosed treasure. As he shrank back the creature
+pursued its way towards the vase; but a marvellous change befell it as
+it came under the shadow of the flower. The writhing body divided, end
+from end, the sordid scales sank indiscernibly into the dust, and an
+exquisite butterfly, arising from the ground, alighted on the lily, and
+remained for a moment fanning its wings in the last sunbeam, ere it
+unclosed them to the evening breeze. Pan, looking eagerly after the
+Psyche in its flight, did not perceive what was taking place in the
+cavern; but the magic wand, now for ever lost to its possessor, must
+have cancelled its own spell, for when his gaze reverted from the
+ineffectual pursuit, the living lily had disappeared, and Iridion lay a
+corpse upon the ground, the faded flower of her destiny reposing upon
+her breast.
+
+Death now stood for a third time upon Pan’s threshold, but Pan heeded
+him not.
+
+
+
+
+A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF FOLLY
+
+
+“That owned the virtuous ring and glass.”
+—_Il Penseroso_.
+
+I
+
+“Aurelia!”
+
+“Otto!”
+
+“Must we then part?”
+
+They were folded in each other’s arms. There never was such kissing.
+
+“How shall we henceforth exchange the sweet tokens of our undying
+affection, my Otto?”
+
+“Alas, my Aurelia, I know not! Thy Otto blushes to acquaint thee that
+he cannot write.”
+
+“Blush not, my Otto, thou needest not reproach thyself. Even couldest
+thou write, thy Aurelia could not read. Oh these dark ages!”
+
+They remained some minutes gazing on each other with an expression of
+fond perplexity. Suddenly the damsel’s features assumed the aspect of
+one who experiences the visitation of a happy thought. Gently yet
+decidedly she pronounced:
+
+“We will exchange rings.”
+
+They drew off their rings simultaneously. “This, Aurelia, was my
+grandfather’s.”
+
+“This, Otto, was my grandmother’s, which she charged me with her dying
+breath never to part with save to him whom alone I loved.”
+
+“Mine is a brilliant, more radiant than aught save the eyes of my
+Aurelia.”
+
+And, in fact, Aurelia’s eyes hardly sustained the comparison. A finer
+stone could not easily be found.
+
+“Mine is a sapphire, azure as the everlasting heavens, and type of a
+constancy enduring as they.”
+
+In truth, it was of a tint seldom to be met with in sapphires.
+
+The exchange made, the lady seemed less anxious to detain her lover.
+
+“Beware, Otto!” she cried, as he slid down the cord, which yielded him
+an oscillatory transit from her casement to the moat, where he alighted
+knee-deep in mud. “Beware!—if my brother should be gazing from his
+chamber on the resplendent moon!”
+
+But that ferocious young baron was accustomed to spend his time in a
+less romantic manner; and so it came to pass that Otto encountered him
+not.
+
+II
+
+Days, weeks, months had passed by, and Otto, a wanderer in a foreign
+land, had heard no tidings of his Aurelia. Ye who have loved may well
+conceive how her ring was all in all to him. He divided his time pretty
+equally between gazing into its cerulean depths, as though her lovely
+image were mirrored therein, and pressing its chilly surface to his
+lips, little as it recalled the warmth and balminess of hers.
+
+The burnished glow of gold, the chaste sheen of silver, the dance and
+sparkle of light in multitudinous gems, arrested his attention as he
+one evening perambulated the streets of a great city. He beheld a
+jeweller’s shop. The grey-headed, spectacled lapidary sat at a bench
+within, sedulously polishing a streaked pebble by the light of a small
+lamp. A sudden thought struck Otto; he entered the shop, and,
+presenting the ring to the jeweller, inquired in a tone of suppressed
+exultation:
+
+“What hold you for the worth of this inestimable ring?”
+
+The jeweller, with no expression of surprise or curiosity, received the
+ring from Otto, held it to the light, glanced slightly at the stone,
+somewhat more carefully at the setting, laid the ring for a moment in a
+pair of light scales, and, handing it back to Otto, remarked with a
+tone and manner of the most entire indifference:
+
+“The worth of this inestimable ring is one shilling and sixpence.”
+
+“Caitiff of a huckster!” exclaimed Otto, bringing down his fist on the
+bench with such vigour that the pebbles leaped up and fell rattling
+down: “Sayest thou this of a gem framed by genii in the bowels of the
+earth?”
+
+“Nay, friend,” returned the jeweller with the same imperturbable air,
+“that thy gem was framed of earth I in nowise question, seeing that it
+doth principally consist of sand. But when thou speakest of genii and
+the bowels of the earth, thou wilt not, I hope, take it amiss if I
+crave better proof than thy word that the devil has taken to
+glass-making. For glass, and nothing else, credit me, thy jewel is.”
+
+“And the gold?” gasped Otto.
+
+“There is just as much gold in thy ring as sufficeth to gild handsomely
+a like superficies of brass, which is not saying much.”
+
+And, applying a sponge dipped in some liquid to a small part of the
+hoop, the jeweller disclosed the dull hue of the baser metal so
+evidently that Otto could hardly doubt longer. He doubted no more when
+the lapidary laid his ring in the scales against another of the same
+size and make, and pointed to the inequality of the balance.
+
+“Thou seest,” he continued, “that in our craft a very little gold goes
+a very great way. It is far otherwise in the world, as thou, albeit in
+no sort eminent for sapience, hast doubtless ere this ascertained for
+thyself. Thou art evidently a prodigious fool!”
+
+This latter disparaging observation could be safely ventured upon, as
+Otto had rushed from the shop, speechless with rage.
+
+Was Aurelia deceiver or deceived? Should he execrate her, or her
+venerable grandmother, or some unknown person? The point was too knotty
+to be solved in the agitated state of his feelings. He decided it
+provisionally by execrating the entire human race, not forgetting
+himself.
+
+In a mood like Otto’s a trifling circumstance is sufficient to
+determine the quality of action. The ancient city of which he was at
+the time an inhabitant was traversed by a large river spanned by a
+quaint and many-arched bridge, to which his frantic and aimless
+wanderings had conducted him. Spires and gables and lengthy façades
+were reflected in the water, blended with the shadows of boats, and
+interspersed with the mirrored flames of innumerable windows on land,
+or of lanterns suspended from the masts or sterns of the vessels. The
+dancing ripples bickered and flickered, and seemed to say, “Come hither
+to us,” while the dark reaches of still water in the shadow of the
+piers promised that whatever might be entrusted to them should be
+faithfully retained. Swayed by a sudden impulse, Otto drew his ring
+from his finger. It gleamed an instant aloft in air; in another the
+relaxation of his grasp would have consigned it to the stream.
+
+“Forbear!”
+
+Otto turned, and perceived a singular figure by his side. The stranger
+was tall and thin, and attired in a dusky cloak which only partially
+concealed a flame-coloured jerkin. A cock’s feather peaked up in his
+cap; his eyes were piercingly brilliant; his nose was aquiline; the
+expression of his features sinister and sardonic. Had Otto been more
+observant, or less preoccupied, he might have noticed that the
+stranger’s left shoe was of a peculiar form, and that he limped some
+little with the corresponding foot.
+
+“Forbear, I say; thou knowest not what thou doest.”
+
+“And what skills what I do with a piece of common glass?”
+
+“Thou errest, friend; thy ring is not common glass. Had thy mistress
+surmised its mystic virtues, she would have thought oftener than twice
+ere exchanging it for thy diamond.”
+
+“What may these virtues be?” eagerly demanded Otto.
+
+“In the first place, it will show thee when thy mistress may chance to
+think of thee, as it will then prick thy finger.”
+
+“Now I know thee for a lying knave,” exclaimed the youth indignantly.
+“Learn, to thy confusion, that it hath not pricked me once since I
+parted from Aurelia.”
+
+“Which proves that she has never once thought of thee.”
+
+“Villain!” shouted Otto, “say that again, and I will transfix thee.”
+
+“Thou mayest if thou canst,” rejoined the stranger, with an expression
+of such cutting scorn that Otto’s spirit quailed, and he felt a secret
+but overpowering conviction of his interlocutor’s veracity. Rallying,
+however, in some measure, he exclaimed:
+
+“Aurelia is true! I will wager my soul upon it!”
+
+“Done!” screamed the stranger in a strident voice of triumph, while a
+burst of diabolical laughter seemed to proceed from every cranny of the
+eaves and piers of the old bridge, and to be taken up by goblin echoes
+from the summits of the adjacent towers and steeples.
+
+Otto’s blood ran chill, but he mustered sufficient courage to inquire
+hoarsely:
+
+“What of its further virtues?”
+
+“When it shall have pricked thee,” returned the mysterious personage,
+“on turning it once completely round thy finger thou wilt see thy
+mistress wherever she may be. If thou turnest it the second time, thou
+wilt know what her thought of thee is; and, if the third time, thou
+wilt find thyself in her presence. But I give thee fair warning that by
+doing this thou wilt place thyself in a more disastrous plight than any
+thou hast experienced hitherto. And now farewell.”
+
+The speaker disappeared. Otto stood alone upon the bridge. He saw
+nothing around him but the stream, with its shadows and lights, as he
+slowly and thoughtfully turned round to walk to his lodgings.
+
+III
+
+Ye who have loved, et cetera, as aforesaid, will comprehend the anxiety
+with which Otto henceforth consulted his ring. He was continually
+adjusting it to his finger in a manner, as he fancied, to render the
+anticipated puncture more perceptible when it should come at last. He
+would have worn it on all his fingers in succession had the
+conformation of his robust hand admitted of its being placed on any but
+the slenderest. Thousands of times he could have sworn that he felt the
+admonitory sting; thousands of times he turned the trinket round and
+round with desperate impatience; but Aurelia’s form remained as
+invisible, her thoughts as inscrutable, as before. His great dread was
+that he might be pricked in his sleep, on which account he would sit up
+watching far into the morn. For, as he reasoned, not without
+plausibility, when could he more rationally hope for a place in
+Aurelia’s thoughts than at that witching and suggestive period? She
+might surely think of him when she had nothing else to do! Had she
+really nothing else to do? And Otto grew sick and livid with jealousy.
+It of course frequently occurred to him to doubt and deride the virtues
+of the ring, and he was several times upon the point of flinging it
+away. But the more he pondered upon the appearance and manner of the
+stranger, the less able he felt to resist the conviction of his
+truthfulness.
+
+At last a most unmistakable puncture! the distinct, though slight, pang
+of a miniature wound. A crimson bead of blood rose on Otto’s finger,
+swelled to its due proportion, and became a trickling blot.
+
+“She is thinking of me!” cried he rapturously, as if this were an
+instance of the most signal and unforeseen condescension. All the weary
+expectancy of the last six months was forgotten. He would have railed
+at himself had the bliss of the moment allowed him to remember that he
+had ever railed at her.
+
+Otto turned his ring once, and Aurelia became visible in an instant.
+She was standing before the mercer’s booth in the chief street of the
+little town which adjoined her father’s castle. Her gaze was riveted on
+a silk mantle, trimmed with costly furs, which depended from a hook
+inside the doorway. Her lovely features wore an expression of extreme
+dissatisfaction. She was replacing a purse, apparently by no means
+weighty, in her embroidered girdle.
+
+Otto turned the ring the second time, and Aurelia’s silvery accents
+immediately became audible to the following effect:
+
+“If that fool Otto were here, he would buy it for me.”
+
+She turned away, and walked down the street. Otto uttered a cry like
+the shriek of an uprooted mandrake. His hand was upon the ring to turn
+it for the third time; but the stranger’s warning occurred to him, and
+for a moment he forbore. In that moment the entire vision vanished from
+before his eyes.
+
+What boots it to describe Otto’s feelings upon this revelation of
+Aurelia’s sentiments? For lovers, description would be needless; to
+wiser people, incomprehensible. Suffice it to say, that as his lady
+deemed him a fool he appeared bent on proving that she did not deem
+amiss.
+
+A long space of time elapsed without any further admonition from the
+ring. Perhaps Aurelia had no further occasion for his purse; perhaps
+she had found another pursebearer. The latter view of the case appeared
+the more plausible to Otto, and it hugely aggravated his torments.
+
+At last the moment came. It was the hour of midnight. Again Otto felt
+the sharp puncture, again the ruby drop started from his finger, again
+he turned the ring, and again beheld Aurelia. She was in her chamber,
+but not alone. Her companion was a youth of Otto’s age. She was in the
+act of placing Otto’s brilliant upon his finger. Otto turned his own
+ring, and heard her utter, with singular distinctness:
+
+“This ring was given me by the greatest fool I ever knew. Little did he
+imagine that it would one day be the means of procuring me liberty, and
+bliss in the arms of my Arnold. My venerable grandmother—”
+
+The voice expired upon her lips, for Otto stood before her.
+
+Arnold precipitated himself from the window, carrying the ring with
+him. Otto, glaring at his faithless mistress, stood in the middle of
+the apartment with his sword unsheathed. Was he about to use it? None
+can say; for at this moment the young Baron burst into the room, and,
+without the slightest apology for the liberty he was taking, passed his
+sword through Otto’s body.
+
+Otto groaned, and fell upon his face. He was dead. The young Baron
+ungently reversed the position of the corpse, and scanned its features
+with evident surprise and dissatisfaction.
+
+“It is not Arnold, after all!” he muttered. “Who would have thought
+it?”
+
+“Thou seest, brother, how unjust were thy suspicions,” observed
+Aurelia, with an air of injured but not implacable virtue. “As for this
+abominable ravisher——” Her feelings forbade her to proceed.
+
+The brother looked mystified. There was something beyond his
+comprehension in the affair; yet he could not but acknowledge that Otto
+was the person who had rushed by him as he lay in wait upon the stairs.
+He finally determined that it was best to say nothing about the matter:
+a resolution the easier of performance as he was not wont to be lavish
+of his words at any time. He wiped his sword on his sister’s curtains,
+and was about to withdraw, when Aurelia again spoke:
+
+“Ere thou departest, brother, have the goodness to ring the bell, and
+desire the menials to remove this carrion from my apartment.”
+
+The young Baron sulkily complied, and retreated growling to his
+chamber.
+
+The attendants carried Otto’s body forth. To the honour of her sex be
+it recorded, that before this was done Aurelia vouchsafed one glance to
+the corpse of her old lover. Her eye fell on the brazen ring. “And he
+has actually worn it all this time!” thought she.
+
+“Would have outraged my daughter, would he?” said the old Baron, when
+the transaction was reported to him. “Let him be buried in a
+concatenation accordingly.”
+
+“What the guy dickens be a concatrenation, Geoffrey?” interrogated
+Giles.
+
+“Methinks it is Latin for a ditch,” responded Geoffrey.
+
+This interpretation commending itself to the general judgment of the
+retainers, Otto was interred in the shelving bank of the old moat, just
+under Aurelia’s window. A rough stone was laid upon the grave. The
+magic ring, which no one thought worth appropriating, remained upon the
+corpse’s finger. Thou mayest probably find it there, reader, if thou
+searchest long enough.
+
+The first visitor to Otto’s humble sepulchre was, after all, Aurelia
+herself, who alighted thereon on the following night after letting
+herself down from her casement to fly with Arnold. Their escape was
+successfully achieved upon a pair of excellent horses, the proceeds of
+Otto’s diamond, which had become the property of a Jew.
+
+On the third night an aged monk stood by Otto’s grave, and wept
+plentifully. He carried a lantern, a mallet, and a chisel. “He was my
+pupil,” sobbed the good old man. “It were meet to contribute what in me
+lies to the befitting perpetuation of his memory.”
+
+Setting down the lantern, he commenced work, and with pious toil
+engraved on the stone in the Latin of the period:
+
+“HAC MAGNUS STULTUS JACET IN FOSSA SEPULTUS.
+MULIER CUI CREDIDIT MORTUUM ILLUM REDDIDIT.”
+
+
+Here he paused, at the end of his strength and of his Latin.
+
+“Beshrew my old arms and brains!” he sighed.
+
+“Hem!” coughed a deep voice in his vicinity.
+
+The monk looked up. The personage in the dusky cloak and flame-coloured
+jerkin was standing over him.
+
+“Good monk,” said the fiend, “what dost thou here?”
+
+“Good fiend,” said the monk, “I am inscribing an epitaph to the memory
+of a departed friend. Thou mightest kindly aid me to complete it.”
+
+“Truly,” rejoined the demon, “it would become me to do so, seeing that
+I have his soul here in my pocket. Thou wilt not expect me to employ
+the language of the Church. Nathless, I see not wherefore the
+vernacular may not serve as well.”
+
+And, taking the mallet and chisel, he completed the monk’s inscription
+with the supplementary legend:
+
+“SERVED HIM RIGHT.”
+
+
+
+
+THE BELL OF SAINT EUSCHEMON
+
+
+The town of Epinal, in Lorraine, possessed in the Middle Ages a peal of
+three bells, respectively dedicated to St. Eulogius, St. Eucherius, and
+St. Euschemon, whose tintinnabulation was found to be an effectual
+safeguard against all thunderstorms. Let the heavens be ever so murky,
+it was merely requisite to set the bells ringing, and no lightning
+flashed and no thunder peal broke over the town, nor was the
+neighbouring country within hearing of them ravaged by hail or flood.
+
+One day the three saints, Eulogius, Eucherius, and Euschemon, were
+sitting together, exceedingly well content with themselves and
+everything around them, as indeed they had every right to be, supposing
+that they were in Paradise. We say supposing, not being for our own
+part entirely able to reconcile this locality with the presence of
+certain cans and flagons, which had been fuller than they were.
+
+“What a happy reflection for a Saint,” said Eulogius, who was rapidly
+passing from the mellow stage of good fellowship to the maudlin, “that
+even after his celestial assumption he is permitted to continue a
+source of blessing and benefit to his fellow-creatures as yet dwelling
+in the shade of mortality! The thought of the services of my bell, in
+averting lightning and inundation from the good people of Epinal, fills
+me with indescribable beatitude.”
+
+“_Your_ bell!” interposed Eucherius, whose path had lain through the
+mellow to the quarrelsome. “_Your_ bell, quotha! You had as good clink
+this cannakin” (suiting the action to the word) “as your bell. It’s my
+bell that does the business.”
+
+“I think you might put in a word for _my_ bell,” interposed Euschemon,
+a little squinting saint, very merry and friendly when not put out, as
+on the present occasion.
+
+“Your bell!” retorted the big saints, with incredible disdain; and,
+forgetting their own altercation, they fell so fiercely on their little
+brother that he ran away, stopping his ears with his hands, and vowing
+vengeance.
+
+A short time after this fracas, a personage of venerable appearance
+presented himself at Epinal, and applied for the post of sacristan and
+bell-ringer, at that time vacant. Though he squinted, his appearance
+was far from disagreeable, and he obtained the appointment without
+difficulty. His deportment in it was in all respects edifying; or if he
+evinced some little remissness in the service of Saints Eulogius and
+Eucherius, this was more than compensated by his devotion to the
+hitherto somewhat slighted Saint Euschemon. It was indeed observed that
+candles, garlands, and other offerings made at the shrines of the two
+senior saints were found to be transferred in an unaccountable and
+mystical manner to the junior, which induced experienced persons to
+remark that a miracle was certainly brewing. Nothing, however, occurred
+until, one hot summer afternoon, the indications of a storm became so
+threatening that the sacristan was directed to ring the bells. Scarcely
+had he begun than the sky became clear, but instead of the usual rich
+volume of sound the townsmen heard with astonishment a solitary tinkle,
+sounding quite ridiculous and unsatisfactory in comparison. St.
+Euschemon’s bell was ringing by itself.
+
+In a trice priests and laymen swarmed to the belfry, and indignantly
+demanded of the sacristan what he meant.
+
+“To enlighten you,” he responded. “To teach you to give honour where
+honour is due. To unmask those canonised impostors.”
+
+And he called their attention to the fact that the clappers of the
+bells of Eulogius and Eucherius were so fastened up that they could not
+emit a sound, while that of Euschemon vibrated freely.
+
+“Ye see,” he continued, “that these sound not at all, yet is the
+tempest stayed. Is it not thence manifest that the virtue resides
+solely in the bell of the blessed Euschemon?”
+
+The argument seemed conclusive to the majority, but those of the clergy
+who ministered at the altars of Eulogius and Eucherius stoutly
+resisted, maintaining that no just decision could be arrived at until
+Euschemon’s bell was subjected to the same treatment as the others.
+Their view eventually prevailed, to the great dismay of Euschemon, who,
+although firmly convinced of the virtue of his own bell, did not in his
+heart disbelieve in the bells of his brethren. Imagine his relief and
+amazed joy when, upon his bell being silenced, the storm, for the first
+time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, broke with full fury over
+Epinal, and, for all the frantic pealing of the other two bells, raged
+with unspeakable fierceness until his own was brought into requisition,
+when, as if by enchantment, the rain ceased, the thunder-clouds
+dispersed, and the sun broke out gloriously from the blue sky.
+
+“Carry him in procession!” shouted the crowd.
+
+“Amen, brethren; here I am,” rejoined Euschemon, stepping briskly into
+the midst of the troop.
+
+“And why in the name of Zernebock should we carry _you?_” demanded
+some, while others ran off to lug forth the image, the object of their
+devotion.
+
+“Why, verily,” Euschemon began, and stopped short. How indeed was he to
+prove to them that he _was_ Euschemon? His personal resemblance to his
+effigy, the work of a sculptor of the idealistic school, was in no
+respect remarkable; and he felt, alas! that he could no more work a
+miracle than you or I. In the sight of the multitude he was only an
+elderly sexton with a cast in his eye, with nothing but his office to
+keep him out of the workhouse. A further and more awkward question
+arose, how on earth was he to get back to Paradise? The ordinary method
+was not available, for he had already been dead for several centuries;
+and no other presented itself to his imagination.
+
+Muttering apologies, and glad to be overlooked, Euschemon shrank into a
+corner, but slightly comforted by the honours his image was receiving
+at the hands of the good people of Epinal. As time wore on he became
+pensive and restless, and nothing pleased him so well as to ascend to
+the belfry on moonlight nights, scribbling disparagement on the bells
+of Eulogius and Eucherius, which had ceased to be rung, and patting and
+caressing his own, which now did duty for all three. With alarm he
+noticed one night an incipient crack, which threatened to become a
+serious flaw.
+
+“If this goes on,” said a voice behind him, “I shall get a holiday.”
+
+Euschemon turned round, and with indescribable dismay perceived a
+gigantic demon, negligently resting his hand on the top of the bell,
+and looking as if it would cost him nothing to pitch it and Euschemon
+together to the other side of the town.
+
+“Avaunt, fiend,” he stammered, with as much dignity as he could muster,
+“or at least remove thy unhallowed paw from my bell.”
+
+“Come, Eusky,” replied the fiend, with profane familiarity, “don’t be a
+fool. You are not really such an ass as to imagine that your virtue has
+anything to do with the virtue of this bell?”
+
+“Whose virtue then?” demanded Euschemon.
+
+“Why truly,” said the demon, “mine! When this bell was cast I was
+imprisoned in it by a potent enchanter, and so long as I am in it no
+storm can come within sound of its ringing. I am not allowed to quit it
+except by night, and then no further than an arm’s length: this,
+however, I take the liberty of measuring by my own arm, which happens
+to be a long one. This must continue, as I learn, until I receive a
+kiss from some bishop of distinguished sanctity. Thou hast done some
+bishoping in thy time, peradventure?”
+
+Euschemon energetically protested that he had been on earth but a
+simple laic, which was indeed the fact, and was also the reason why
+Eulogius and Eucherius despised him, but which, though he did not think
+it needful to tell the demon, he found a singular relief under present
+circumstances.
+
+“Well,” continued the fiend, “I wish he may turn up shortly, for I am
+half deaf already with the banging and booming of this infernal
+clapper, which seems to have grown much worse of late; and the
+blessings and the crossings and the aspersions which I have to go
+through are most repugnant to my tastes, and unsuitable to my position
+in society. Bye-bye, Eusky; come up to-morrow night.” And the fiend
+slipped back into the bell, and instantly became invisible.
+
+The humiliation of poor Euschemon on learning that he was indebted for
+his credit to the devil is easier to imagine than to describe. He did
+not, however, fail at the rendezvous next night, and found the demon
+sitting outside the bell in a most affable frame of mind. It did not
+take long for the devil and the saint to become very good friends, both
+wanting company, and the former being apparently as much amused by the
+latter’s simplicity as the latter was charmed by the former’s
+knowingness. Euschemon learned numbers of things of which he had not
+had the faintest notion. The demon taught him how to play cards (just
+invented by the Saracens), and initiated him into divers “arts, though
+unimagined, yet to be,” such as smoking tobacco, making a book on the
+Derby, and inditing queer stories for Society journals. He drew the
+most profane but irresistibly funny caricatures of Eulogius and
+Eucherius, and the rest of the host of heaven. He had been one of the
+demons who tempted St. Anthony, and retailed anecdotes of that eremite
+which Euschemon had never heard mentioned in Paradise. He was versed in
+all scandal respecting saints in general, and Euschemon found with
+astonishment how much about his own order was known downstairs. On the
+whole he had never enjoyed himself so much in his life; he became
+proficient in all manner of minor devilries, and was ceasing to trouble
+himself about his bell or his ecclesiastical duties, when an untoward
+incident interrupted his felicity.
+
+It chanced that the Bishop of Metz, in whose diocese Epinal was
+situated, finding himself during a visitation journey within a short
+distance of the town, determined to put, up there for the night. He did
+not arrive until nightfall, but word of his intention having been sent
+forward by a messenger the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, were
+ready to receive him. When, escorted in state, he had arrived at the
+house prepared for his reception, the Mayor ventured to express a hope
+that everything had been satisfactory to his Lordship.
+
+“Everything,” said the bishop emphatically. “I did indeed seem to
+remark one little omission, which no doubt may be easily accounted
+for.”
+
+“What was that, my Lord?”
+
+“It hath,” said the bishop, “usually been the practice to receive a
+bishop with the ringing of bells. It is a laudable custom, conducive to
+the purification of the air and the discomfiture of the prince of the
+powers thereof. I caught no sound of chimes on the present occasion,
+yet I am sensible that my hearing is not what it was.”
+
+The civil and ecclesiastical authorities looked at each other. “That
+graceless knave of a sacristan!” said the Mayor.
+
+“He hath indeed of late strangely neglected his charge,” said a priest.
+
+“Poor man, I doubt his wits are touched,” charitably added another.
+
+“What!” exclaimed the bishop, who was very active, very fussy, and a
+great stickler for discipline. “This important church, so renowned for
+its three miraculous bells, confided to the tender mercies of an
+imbecile rogue who may burn it down any night! I will look to it myself
+without losing a minute.”
+
+And in spite of all remonstrances, off he started. The keys were
+brought, the doors flung open, the body of the church thoroughly
+examined, but neither in nave, choir, or chancel could the slightest
+trace of the sacristan be found.
+
+“Perhaps he is in the belfry,” suggested a chorister.
+
+“We’ll see,” responded the bishop, and bustling nimbly up the ladder,
+he emerged into the open belfry in full moonlight.
+
+Heavens! what a sight met his eye! The sacristan and the devil sitting
+_vis-a-vis_ close by the miraculous bell, with a smoking can of hot
+spiced wine between them, finishing a close game of cribbage.
+
+“Seven,” declared Euschemon.
+
+“And eight are fifteen,” retorted the demon, marking two.
+
+“Twenty-three and pair,” cried Euschemon, marking in his turn.
+
+“And seven is thirty.”
+
+“Ace, thirty-one, and I’m up.”
+
+“It _is_ up with you, my friend,” shouted the bishop, bringing his
+crook down smartly on Euschemon’s shoulders.
+
+“Deuce!” said the devil, and vanished into his bell.
+
+When poor Euschemon had been bound and gagged, which did not take very
+long, the bishop briefly addressed the assembly. He said that the
+accounts of the bell which had reached his ears had already excited his
+apprehensions. He had greatly feared that all could not be right, and
+now his anxieties were but too well justified. He trusted there was not
+a man before him who would not suffer his flocks and his crops to be
+destroyed by tempest fifty times over rather than purchase their safety
+by unhallowed means. What had been done had doubtless been done in
+ignorance, and could be made good by a mulct to the episcopal treasury.
+The amount of this he would carefully consider, and the people of
+Epinal might rest assured that it should not be too light to entitle
+them to the benefit of a full absolution. The bell must go to his
+cathedral city, there to be examined and reported on by the exorcists
+and inquisitors. Meanwhile he would himself institute a slight
+preliminary scrutiny.
+
+The bell was accordingly unhung, tilted up, and inspected by the
+combined beams of the moonlight and torchlight. Very slight examination
+served to place the soundness of the bishop’s opinion beyond dispute.
+On the lip of the bell were engraven characters unknown to every one
+else, but which seemed to affect the prelate with singular
+consternation.
+
+“I hope,” he exclaimed, “that none of you know anything about these
+characters! I earnestly trust that none can read a single one of them.
+If I thought anybody could I would burn him as soon as look at him!”
+
+The bystanders hastened to assure him that not one of them had the
+slightest conception of the meaning of the letters, which had never
+been observed before.
+
+“I rejoice to hear it,” said the bishop. “It will be an evil day for
+the church when these letters are understood.”
+
+And next morning he departed, carrying off the bell, with the invisible
+fiend inside it; the cards, which were regarded as a book of magic; and
+the luckless Euschemon, who shortly found himself in total darkness,
+the inmate of a dismal dungeon.
+
+It was some time before Euschemon became sensible of the presence of
+any partner in his captivity, by reason of the trotting of the rats. At
+length, however, a deep sigh struck upon his ear.
+
+“Who art thou?” he exclaimed.
+
+“An unfortunate prisoner,” was the answer.
+
+“What is the occasion of thy imprisonment?”
+
+“Oh, a mere trifle. A ridiculous suspicion of sacrificing a child to
+Beelzebub. One of the little disagreeables that must occasionally occur
+in our profession.”
+
+“_Our_ profession!” exclaimed Euschemon.
+
+“Art thou not a sorcerer?” demanded the voice.
+
+“No,” replied Euschemon, “I am a saint.”
+
+The warlock received Euschemon’s statement with much incredulity, but
+becoming eventually convinced of its truth—
+
+“I congratulate thee,” he said. “The devil has manifestly taken a fancy
+to thee, and he never forgets his own. It is true that the bishop is a
+great favourite with him also. But we will hope for the best. Thou hast
+never practised riding a broomstick? No? ’Tis pity; thou mayest have to
+mount one at a moment’s notice.”
+
+This consolation had scarcely been administered ere the bolts flew
+back, the hinges grated, the door opened, and gaolers bearing torches
+informed the sorcerer that the bishop desired his presence.
+
+He found the bishop in his study, which was nearly choked up by
+Euschemon’s bell. The prelate received him with the greatest
+affability, and expressed a sincere hope that the very particular
+arrangements he had enjoined for the comfort of his distinguished
+prisoner had been faithfully carried out by his subordinates. The
+sorcerer, as much a man of the world as the bishop, thanked his
+Lordship, and protested that he had been perfectly comfortable.
+
+“I have need of thy art,” said the bishop, coming to business. “I am
+exceedingly bothered—flabbergasted were not too strong an expression—by
+this confounded bell. All my best exorcists have been trying all they
+know with it, to no purpose. They might as well have tried to exorcise
+my mitre from my head by any other charm than the offer of a better
+one. Magic is plainly the only remedy, and if thou canst disenchant it,
+I will give thee thy freedom.”
+
+“It will be a tough business,” observed the sorcerer, surveying the
+bell with the eye of a connoisseur. “It will require fumigations.”
+
+“Yes,” said the bishop, “and suffumigations.”
+
+“Aloes and mastic,” advised the sorcerer.
+
+“Aye,” assented the bishop, “and red sanders.”
+
+“We must call in Primeumaton,” said the warlock.
+
+“Clearly,” said the bishop, “and Amioram.”
+
+“Triangles,” said the sorcerer.
+
+“Pentacles,” said the bishop.
+
+“In the hour of Methon,” said the sorcerer.
+
+“I should have thought Tafrac,” suggested the bishop, “but I defer to
+your better judgment.”
+
+“I can have the blood of a goat?” queried the wizard.
+
+“Yes,” said the bishop, “and of a monkey also.”
+
+“Does your Lordship think that one might venture to go so far as a
+little unweaned child?”
+
+“If absolutely necessary,” said the bishop.
+
+“I am delighted to find such liberality of sentiment on your Lordship’s
+part,” said the sorcerer. “Your Lordship is evidently of the
+profession.”
+
+“These are things which stuck by me when I was an inquisitor,”
+explained the bishop, with some little embarrassment.
+
+Ere long all arrangements were made. It would be impossible to
+enumerate half the crosses, circles, pentagrams, naked swords,
+cross-bones, chafing-dishes, and vials of incense which the sorcerer
+found to be necessary. The child was fortunately deemed superfluous.
+Euschemon was brought up from his dungeon, and, his teeth chattering
+with fright and cold, set beside his bell to hold a candle to the
+devil. The incantations commenced, and speedily gave evidence of their
+efficacy. The bell trembled, swayed, split open, and a female figure of
+transcendent loveliness attired in the costume of Eve stepped forth and
+extended her lips towards the bishop. What could the bishop do but
+salute them? With a roar of triumph the demon resumed his proper shape.
+The bishop swooned. The apartment was filled with the fumes of sulphur.
+The devil soared majestically out of the window, carrying the sorcerer
+under one arm and Euschemon under the other.
+
+It is commonly believed that the devil good-naturedly dropped Euschemon
+back again into Paradise, or wheresoever he might have come from. It is
+even added that he fell between Eulogius and Eucherius, who had been
+arguing all the time respecting the merits of their bells, and resumed
+his share in the discussion as if nothing had happened. Some maintain,
+indeed, that the devil, chancing to be in want of a chaplain, offered
+the situation to Euschemon, by whom it was accepted. But how to
+reconcile this assertion with the undoubted fact that the duties of the
+post in question are at present ably discharged by the Bishop of Metz,
+in truth we see not. One thing is certain: thou wilt not find
+Euschemon’s name in the calendar, courteous reader.
+
+The mulct to be imposed upon the parish of Epinal was never exacted.
+The bell, ruptured beyond repair by the demon’s violent exit, was taken
+back and deposited in the museum of the town. The bells of Eulogius and
+Eucherius were rung freely on occasion; but Epinal has not since
+enjoyed any greater immunity from storms than the contiguous districts.
+One day an aged traveller, who had spent many years in Heathenesse and
+in whom some discerned a remarkable resemblance to the sorcerer,
+noticed the bell, and asked permission to examine it. He soon
+discovered the inscription, recognised the mysterious characters as
+Greek, read them without the least difficulty—
+
+“Μη κινει Καμαριναν ακινητος γαρ αμεινων—”
+
+and favoured the townsmen with this free but substantially accurate
+translation:—
+
+“CANp’T YOU LET WELL ALONE?”
+
+
+
+
+BISHOP ADDO AND BISHOP GADDO
+
+
+Midday, midsummer, middle of the dark ages. Fine healthy weather at the
+city of Biserta in Barbary. Wind blowing strong from the sea,
+roughening the dark blue waters, and fretting their indigo with foam,
+as though the ocean’s coursers champed an invisible curb. On land tawny
+sand whirling, green palm-fans swaying and whistling, men abroad in the
+noonday blaze rejoicing in the unwonted freshness.
+
+“She is standing in,” they cried, “and, by the Prophet, she seemeth not
+a ship of the true believers.”
+
+She was not, but she bore a flag of truce. Pitching and rearing, the
+little bark bounded in, and soon was fast in harbour. Ere long
+messengers of peace had landed, bearing presents and a letter from the
+Bishop of Amalfi to the Emir of Biserta. The presents consisted of
+fifty casks of Lacrima Christi, and of a captive, a tall, noble-looking
+man, in soiled ecclesiastical costume, and disfigured by the loss of
+his left eye, which seemed to have been violently plucked out.
+
+“Health to the Emir!” ran the letter. “I send thee my captive, Gaddo,
+sometime Bishop of Amalfi, now an ejected intruder. For what saith the
+Scripture? ‘When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are
+in peace; but if one stronger than he cometh, he divideth the spoils.’
+Moreover it is written: ‘His bishopric let another take.’ Having
+solemnly sworn that I would not kill or blind or maim my enemy, or
+imprison him in a monastery, and the price of absolution from an oath
+in this corrupt age exceeding all reason and Christian moderation, I
+knew not how to take vengeance on him, until a sagacious counsellor
+represented that a man cannot be said to be blinded so long as he is
+deprived of only one eye. This I accordingly eradicated, and now, being
+restrained from imprisoning him, and fearing to release him, I send him
+to thee, to retain in captivity on my behalf; in return for which
+service, receive fifty casks of the choicest Lacrima Christi, which
+shall not fail to be sent thee yearly, so long as Gaddo continues in
+thy custody.
+
+“+ Addo, by Divine permission Bishop of Amalfi.”
+
+“First,” said the Emir, “I would be certified whether this vintage is
+indeed of such excellence as to prevail upon a faithful Mussulman to
+jeopard Paradise, the same being forbidden by his law.”
+
+Experiments were instituted forthwith, and the problem was resolved in
+the affirmative.
+
+“This being so,” declared the Emir, “honour and good faith towards
+Bishop Addo require that Bishop Gaddo be kept captive with all possible
+strictness. Yet bolts may be burst, fetters may be filed, walls may be
+scaled, doors may be broken through. Better to enchain the captive’s
+soul, binding him with invisible bonds, and searing out of him the very
+wish to escape. Embrace the faith of the Prophet,” continued he,
+addressing Gaddo; “become a Mollah.”
+
+“No,” said the deposed Bishop, “my inclination hath ever been towards a
+military life. At present, mutilated and banished as I am, I rather
+affect the crown of martyrdom.”
+
+“Thou shalt receive it by instalments,” said the Emir. “Thou shalt work
+at the new pavilion in my garden.”
+
+Unceasing toil under the blazing sun, combined with the discipline of
+the overseers, speedily wore down Gaddo’s strength, already impaired by
+captivity and ill-treatment. Unable to drag himself away after his
+fellow-workmen had ceased from their labours, he lay one evening, faint
+and almost senseless, among the stones and rubbish of the unfinished
+edifice. The Emir’s daughter passed by. Gaddo was handsome and
+wretched, the Princess was beautiful and compassionate. Conveyed by her
+fair hands, a cup of Bishop Addo’s wine saved Bishop Gaddo’s life.
+
+The next evening Gaddo again lingered behind, and the Princess spoke to
+him out of her balcony. The third evening they encountered in an
+arbour. The next meeting took place in her chamber, where her father
+discovered them.
+
+“I will tear thee to pieces with pincers,” shouted he to Gaddo.
+
+“Your Highness will not be guilty of that black action,” responded
+Gaddo resolutely.
+
+“No?” roared the Emir. “No? and what shall hinder me?”
+
+“The Lacrima Christi will hinder your Highness,” returned the
+far-seeing Gaddo. “Deems your Highness that Bishop Addo will send
+another cupful, once he is assured of my death?”
+
+“Thou sayest well,” rejoined the Emir. “I may not slay thee. But my
+daughter is manifestly most inflammable, wherefore I will burn her.”
+
+“Were it not better to circumcise me?” suggested Gaddo.
+
+Many difficulties were raised, but Ayesha’s mother siding with Gaddo,
+and promising a more amicable deportment for the future towards the
+other lights of the harem, the matter was arranged, and Gaddo recited
+the Mahometan profession of faith, and became the Emir’s son-in-law.
+The execrable social system under which he had hitherto lived thus
+vanished like a nightmare from an awakened sleeper. Wedded to one who
+had saved his life by her compassion, and whose life he had in turn
+saved by his change of creed, adoring her and adored by her, with the
+hope of children, and active contact with multitudes of other interests
+from which he had hitherto been estranged, he forgot the ecclesiastic
+in the man; his intellect expanded, his ideas multiplied, he cleared
+his mind of cant, and became an eminent philosopher.
+
+“Dear son,” said the Emir to him one day, “the Lacrima is spent, we
+thirst, and the tribute of that Christian dog, the Bishop of Amalfi,
+tarries to arrive. We will presently fit out certain vessels, and thou
+shalt hold a visitation of thine ancient diocese.”
+
+“Methinks I see a ship even now,” said Gaddo; and he was right. She
+anchored, the ambassadors landed and addressed the Emir:
+
+“Prince, we bring thee the stipulated tribute, yet not without a
+trifling deduction.”
+
+“Deduction!” exclaimed the Emir, bending his brows ominously.
+
+“Highness,” they represented, “by reason of the deficiency of last
+year’s vintage it hath not been possible to provide more than
+forty-nine casks, which we crave to offer thee accordingly.”
+
+“Then,” pronounced the Emir sententiously, “the compact is broken, the
+ship is confiscated, and war is declared.”
+
+“Not so, Highness,” said they, “for the fiftieth cask is worth all the
+rest.”
+
+“Let it be opened,” commanded the Emir.
+
+It was accordingly hoisted out, deposited on the quay, and prized open;
+and from its capacious interior, in a deplorable plight from hunger,
+cramp, and sea-sickness, was extracted—Bishop Addo.
+
+“We have,” explained the deputation, “wearied of our shepherd, who,
+shearing his flock somewhat too closely, hath brought the wolf to
+light. We therefore desire thee to receive him at our hands in exchange
+for our good Bishop Gaddo, promising one hundred casks of Lacrima
+Christi as yearly tribute for the future.”
+
+“He stands before you,” answered the Emir; “take him, an ye can prevail
+upon him to return with you.”
+
+The eyes of the envoys wandered hopelessly from one whiskered,
+turbaned, caftaned, and yataghaned figure to another. They could not
+discover that any of the Paynim present looked more or less like a
+bishop than his fellows.
+
+“Brethren,” said Gaddo, taking compassion on their bewilderment,
+“behold me! I thank you for your kindly thought of me, but how to
+profit by it I see not. I have become a Saracen. I have pronounced the
+Mahometan confession. I am circumcised. I am known by the name of
+Mustapha.”
+
+“We acknowledge the weight of your Lordship’s objections,” they said,
+“and do but venture to hint remotely that the times are hard, and that
+the Holy Father is grievously in want of money.”
+
+“I have also taken a wife,” said Gaddo.
+
+“A wife!” exclaimed they with one consent. “If it had been a concubine!
+Let us return instantly.”
+
+They gathered up their garments and spat upon the ground.
+
+“A bishop, then,” inquired Gaddo, “may be guilty of any enormity sooner
+than wedlock, which money itself cannot expiate?”
+
+“Such,” they answered, “is the law and the prophets.”
+
+“Unless,” added one of benignant aspect, “he sew the abomination up in
+a sack and cast her into the sea, then peradventure he may yet find
+place for repentance.”
+
+“Miserable blasphemers!” exclaimed Gaddo. “But why,” continued he,
+checking himself, “do I talk of what none will understand for five
+hundred years, which to understand myself I was obliged to become a
+Saracen? Addo,” he pursued, addressing his dejected competitor, “bad as
+thou art, thou art good enough for the world as it is. I spare thy
+life, restore thy dignity, and, to prove that the precepts of Christ
+may be practised under the garb of Mahomet, will not even exact eye for
+eye. Yet, as a wholesome admonition to thee that treachery and cruelty
+escape not punishment even in this life, I will that thou do presently
+surrender to me thy left ear. Restore my eye and I will return it
+immediately. And ye,” addressing the envoys, “will for the future pay
+one hundred casks tribute, unless ye would see my father-in-law’s
+galleys on your coasts.”
+
+So Addo returned to his bishopric, leaving his ear in Gaddo’s keeping.
+The Lacrima was punctually remitted, and as punctually absorbed by the
+Emir and his son-in-law, with some little help from Ayesha. Gaddo’s eye
+never came back, and Addo never regained his ear until, after the
+ex-prelate’s death in years and honour, he ransomed it from his
+representatives. It became a relic, and is shown in Addo’s cathedral to
+this day in proof of his inveterate enmity to the misbelievers, and of
+the sufferings he underwent at their hands. But Gaddo trumped him, the
+entry after his name in the episcopal register, “Fled to the Saracens,”
+having been altered into “Flayed by the Saracens” by a later bishop,
+jealous of the honour of the diocese.
+
+
+
+
+THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE BUTTERFLIES
+
+
+The scene was in a garden on a fine summer morning, brilliant with
+slants of sunshine, yet chequered with clouds significant of more than
+a remote possibility of rain. All the animal world was astir. Birds
+flitted or hopped from spray to spray; butterflies eddied around
+flowers within or upon which bees were bustling; ants and earwigs ran
+nimbly about on the mould; a member of the Universal Knowledge Society
+perambulated the gravel path.
+
+The Universal Knowledge Society, be it understood, exists for the
+dissemination and not for the acquisition of knowledge. Our
+philosopher, therefore, did not occupy himself with considering whether
+in that miniature world, with its countless varieties of animal and
+vegetable being, something might not be found with which he was himself
+unacquainted; but, like the honey-freighted bee, rather sought an
+opportunity of disburdening himself of his stores of information than
+of adding to them. But who was to profit by his communicativeness? The
+noisy birds could not hear themselves speak, much less him; he shrewdly
+distrusted his ability to command the attention of the busy bees; and
+even a member of the Universal Knowledge Society may well be at a loss
+for a suitable address to an earwig. At length he determined to accost
+a Butterfly who, after sipping the juice of a flower, remained perched
+indolently upon it, apparently undecided whither to direct his flight.
+
+“It seems likely to rain,” he said, “have you an umbrella?”
+
+The Butterfly looked curiously at him, but returned no answer.
+
+“I do not ask,” resumed the Philosopher, “as one who should imply that
+the probability of even a complete saturation ought to appal a
+ratiocinative being, endowed with wisdom and virtue. I rather designed
+to direct your attention to the inquiry whether these attributes are,
+in fact, rightly predicable of Butterflies.”
+
+Still no answer.
+
+“An impression obtains among our own species,” continued the
+Philosopher, “that you Butterflies are deficient in foresight and
+providence to a remarkable, I might almost say a culpable degree.
+Pardon me if I add that this suspicion is to some extent confirmed by
+my finding you destitute of protection against imbriferous inclemency
+under atmospheric conditions whose contingent humidity should be
+obvious to a being endowed with the most ordinary allotment of
+meteorological prevision.”
+
+The Butterfly still left all the talk to the Philosopher. This was just
+what the latter desired.
+
+“I greatly fear,” he continued, “that the omission to which I have
+reluctantly adverted is to a certain extent typically characteristic of
+the entire political and social economy of the lepidopterous order. It
+has even been stated, though the circumstance appears scarcely
+credible, that your system of life does not include the accumulation of
+adequate resources against the inevitable exigencies of winter.”
+
+“What is winter?” asked the Butterfly, and flew off without awaiting an
+answer.
+
+The Philosopher remained for a moment speechless, whether from
+amazement at the Butterfly’s nescience or disgust at his ill-breeding.
+Recovering himself immediately, he shouted after the fugitive:
+
+“Frivolous animal!” “It is this levity,” continued he, addressing a
+group of butterflies who had gradually assembled in the air, attracted
+by the conversation, “it is this fatal levity that constrains me to
+despair wholly of the future of you insects. That you should
+persistently remain at your present depressed level! That you should
+not immediately enter upon a process of self-development! Look at the
+Bee! How did she acquire her sting, think you? Why cannot you store up
+honey, as she does?”
+
+“We cannot build cells,” suggested a Butterfly.
+
+“And how did the Bee learn, do you suppose, unless by imbuing her mind
+with the elementary principles of mathematics? Know that time has been
+when the Bee was as incapable of architectural construction as
+yourselves, when you and she alike were indiscriminable particles of
+primary protoplasm. (I suppose you know what that is.) One has in
+process of time exalted itself to the cognition of mathematical truth,
+while the other—Pshaw! Now, really, my friends, I must beg you to take
+my observations in good part. I do not imply, of course, that any
+endeavours of yours in the direction I have indicated could benefit any
+of you personally, or any of your posterity for numberless generations.
+But I really do consider that after a while its effects would be very
+observable—that in twenty millions of years or so, provided no
+geological cataclysm supervened, you Butterflies, with your innate
+genius for mimicry, might be conformed in all respects to the
+hymenopterous model, or perhaps carry out the principle of development
+into novel and unheard-of directions. You should derive much
+encouragement from the beginning you have made already.”
+
+“How a beginning?” inquired a Butterfly.
+
+“I am alluding to your larval constitution as Caterpillars,” returned
+the Philosopher. “Your advance upon that humiliating condition is, I
+admit, remarkable. I only wonder that it should not have proceeded much
+further. With such capacity for development, it is incomprehensible
+that you should so long have remained stationary. You ought to be all
+toads by this time, at the very least.”
+
+“I beg your pardon,” civilly interposed the Butterfly. “To what
+condition were you pleased to allude?”
+
+“To that of a Caterpillar,” rejoined the Philosopher.
+
+“Caterpillar!” echoed the Butterfly, and “Caterpillar!” tittered all
+his volatile companions, till the air seemed broken into little silvery
+waves of fairy laughter. “Caterpillar! he positively thinks we were
+once Caterpillars! He! he! he!”
+
+“Do you actually mean to say you don’t know that?” responded the
+Philosopher, scandalised at the irreverence of the insects, but
+inwardly rejoicing at the prospect of a controversy in which he could
+not be worsted.
+
+“We know nothing of the sort,” rejoined a Butterfly.
+
+“Can you possibly be plunged into such utter oblivion of your embryonic
+antecedents?”
+
+“We do not understand you. All we know is that we have always been
+Butterflies.”
+
+“Sir,” said a large, dull-looking Butterfly with one wing in tatters,
+crawling from under a cabbage, and limping by reason of the deficiency
+of several legs, “let me entreat you not to deduce our scientific
+status from the inconsiderate assertions of the unthinking vulgar. I am
+proud to assure you that our race comprises many philosophical
+reasoners—mostly indeed such as have been disabled by accidental
+injuries from joining in the amusements of the rest. The Origin of our
+Species has always occupied a distinguished place in their
+investigations. It has on several occasions engaged the attention of
+our profoundest thinkers for not less than two consecutive minutes.
+There is hardly a quadruped on the land, a bird in the air, or a fish
+in the water to which it has not been ascribed by some one at some
+time; but never, I am rejoiced to say, has any Butterfly ever dreamed
+of attributing it to the obnoxious thing to which you have
+unaccountably made reference.”
+
+“We should rather think not,” chorussed all the Butterflies.
+
+“Look here,” said the Philosopher, picking up and exhibiting a large
+hairy Caterpillar of very unprepossessing appearance. “Look here, what
+do you call this?”
+
+“An abnormal organisation,” said the scientific Butterfly.
+
+“A nasty beast,” said the others.
+
+“Heavens,” exclaimed the Philosopher, “the obtuseness and arrogance of
+these creatures! No, my poor friend,” continued he, addressing the
+Caterpillar, “disdain you as they may, and unpromising as your aspect
+certainly is at present, the time is at hand when you will prank it
+with the gayest of them all.”
+
+“I cry your mercy,” rejoined the Caterpillar somewhat crossly, “but I
+was digesting a gooseberry leaf when you lifted me in that abrupt
+manner, and I did not quite follow your remarks. Did I understand you
+to mention my name in connection with those flutterers?”
+
+“I said the time would arrive when you would be even as they.”
+
+“I,” exclaimed the Caterpillar, “I retrograde to the level of a
+Butterfly! Is not the ideal of creation impersonated in me already?”
+
+“I was not aware of that,” replied the Philosopher, “although,” he
+added in a conciliatory tone, “far be it from me to deny you the
+possession of many interesting qualities.”
+
+“You probably refer to my agility,” suggested the Caterpillar; “or
+perhaps to my abstemiousness?”
+
+“I was not referring to either,” returned the Philosopher.
+
+“To my utility to mankind?”
+
+“Not by any manner of means.”
+
+“To what then?”
+
+“Well, if you must know, the best thing about you appears to me to be
+the prospect you enjoy of ultimately becoming a Butterfly.”
+
+The Caterpillar erected himself upon his tail, and looked sternly at
+the Philosopher. The Philosopher’s countenance fell. A thrush, darting
+from an adjacent tree, seized the opportunity and the insect, and bore
+the latter away in his bill. At the same moment the shower
+prognosticated by the Sage burst forth, scattering the Butterflies in
+all directions, drenching the Philosopher, whose foresight had not
+assumed the shape of an umbrella, and spoiling his new hat. But he had
+ample consolation in the superiority of his head. And the Caterpillar
+was right too, for after all he never did become a Butterfly.
+
+
+
+
+TRUTH AND HER COMPANIONS
+
+
+_Jupiter._ Daughter Truth, is this a befitting manner of presenting
+yourself before your divine father? You are positively dripping; the
+floor of my celestial mansion would be a swamp but for your
+praiseworthy economy in wearing apparel. Whence, in the name of the
+Naiads, do you come?
+
+_Truth._ From the bottom of a well, father.
+
+_Jupiter._ I thought, my daughter, that you had descended upon earth in
+the capacity of a benefactress of men rather than of frogs.
+
+_Truth._ Such, indeed, was my purpose, father, and I accordingly
+repaired to the great city.
+
+_Jupiter._ The city of the Emperor Apollyon?
+
+_Truth._ The same; and I there obtained an audience of the monarch.
+
+_Jupiter._ What passed?
+
+_Truth._ I took the liberty of observing to him, father, that, having
+obtained his throne by perjury, and cemented it by blood, and
+maintained it by hypocrisy, he could entertain no hope of preserving it
+unless the collective baseness of his subjects should be found to
+exceed his own, which was not probable.
+
+_Jupiter._ What reply did he vouchsafe to these admonitions?
+
+_Truth_. He threatened to cut out my tongue. Perceiving that this would
+interfere with my utility to mankind, I retired somewhat precipitately
+from the Imperial presence, marvelling that I should ever have been
+admitted, and resolved never to be found there for the future. I then
+proceeded to the Nobles.
+
+_Jupiter_. What said you to them?
+
+_Truth_. I represented to them that they were, as a class, both
+arrogant and luxurious, and would, indeed, have long ago become
+insupportable, only that the fabric which their rapacity was for ever
+striving to erect, their extravagance as perpetually undermined. I
+further commented upon the insecurity of any institution dependent
+solely upon prescription. Finding these suggestions unpalatable, I next
+addressed myself to the priesthood.
+
+_Jupiter_. Those holy men, my daughter, must have rejoiced at the
+opportunity of learning from you which portion of their traditions was
+impure or fabricated, and which authentic and sublime.
+
+
+_Truth_. The value they placed upon my instructions was such that they
+wished to reserve them exclusively for themselves, and proposed that
+they should be delivered within the precincts of a certain subterranean
+apartment termed a dungeon, the key of which should be kept by one of
+their order. Whereupon I betook myself to the philosophers.
+
+_Jupiter_. Your reception from these professed lovers of wisdom, my
+daughter, was, no doubt, all that could be expected.
+
+_Truth_. It was all that could be expected, my father, from learned and
+virtuous men, who had already framed their own systems of the universe
+without consulting me.
+
+_Jupiter._ You probably next addressed yourself to the middling orders
+of society?
+
+_Truth._ I can scarcely say that I did, father; for although I had much
+to remark concerning their want of culture, and their servility, and
+their greed, and the absurdity of many of their customs, and the
+rottenness of most of their beliefs, and the thousand ways in which
+they spoiled lives that might have been beautiful and harmonious, I
+soon discovered that they were so absolutely swayed by the example of
+the higher orders that it was useless to expostulate with them until I
+should have persuaded the latter.
+
+_Jupiter._ You returned, then, to the latter with this design?
+
+_Truth._ On the contrary, I hastened to the poor and needy, whom I
+fully acquainted with the various wrongs and oppressions which they
+underwent at the hands of the powerful and the rich. And here, for the
+first time, I found myself welcome. All listened with gratitude and
+assent, and none made any endeavour to stone me or imprison me, as
+those other unprincipled persons had done.
+
+_Jupiter._ That was indeed satisfactory, daughter. But when you
+proceeded to point out to these plebeians how much of their misery
+arose from their own idleness, and ignorance, and dissoluteness, and
+abasement before those higher in station, and jealousy of the best
+among themselves—what said they to that?
+
+_Truth._ They expressed themselves desirous of killing me, and indeed
+would have done so if my capital enemies, the priests, had not been
+beforehand with them.
+
+_Jupiter_. What did they?
+
+_Truth_. Burned me.
+
+_Jupiter_. Burned you?
+
+_Truth_. Burned me in the market-place. And, but for my peculiar
+property of reviving from my ashes, I should not be here now. Upon
+reconsolidating myself, I felt in such a heat that I was fain to repair
+to the bottom of the nearest well. Finding myself more comfortable
+there than I had ever yet been on earth, I have come to ask permission
+to remain.
+
+_Jupiter_. It does not appear to me, daughter, that the mission you
+have undertaken on behalf of mankind can be efficiently discharged at
+the bottom of a well.
+
+_Truth_. No, father, nor in the middle of a fire either.
+
+_Jupiter_. I fear that you are too plain and downright in your dealings
+with men, and deter where you ought to allure.
+
+_Truth_. I were not Truth, else, but Flattery. My nature is a
+mirror’s—to exhibit reality with plainness and faithfulness.
+
+_Jupiter_. It is no less the nature of man to shatter every mirror that
+does not exhibit to him what he wishes to behold.
+
+_Truth_. Let me, therefore, return to my well, and let him who wishes
+to behold me, if such there be, repair to the brink and look down.
+
+_Jupiter_. No, daughter, you shall not return to your well. I have
+already perceived that you are not of yourself sufficient for the
+office I have assigned to you, and I am about to provide you with two
+auxiliaries. You are Truth. Tell me how this one appears to you.
+
+_Truth_. Oh, father, the beautiful nymph! how mature, and yet how
+comely! how good-humoured, yet how gentle and grave! Her robe is
+closely zoned; her upraised finger approaches her lip; her foot falls
+soft as snow. What is her name?
+
+_Jupiter_. Discretion. And this other?
+
+_Truth_. Oh, father! the cordial look, the blooming cheek, the bright
+smile that is almost a laugh, the buoyant step, and the expansive
+bosom! What name bears she?
+
+_Jupiter_. Good Nature. Return, my daughter, to earth; continue to
+enlighten man’s ignorance and to reprove his folly; but let Discretion
+suggest the occasion, and Good Nature inspire the wording of your
+admonitions. I cannot engage that you may not, even with these
+precautions, sometimes pay a visit to the stake; and if, when an
+adventure of this sort appears imminent, Discretion should counsel a
+temporary retirement to your well, I am sure Good Nature will urge
+nothing to the contrary.
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE PALACES
+
+
+Three pairs of young people, each a youth with his bride, came together
+along a road to the point where it divided to the right and left. On
+one side was inscribed, “To the Palace of Truth,” and on the other, “To
+the Palace of Illusion.”
+
+“This way, my beauty!” cried one of the youths, drawing his companion
+in the direction of the Palace of Truth. “To the place where and where
+alone thy perfections may be beheld as they are!”
+
+“And my imperfections!” whispered the young spouse, but her tone was
+airy and confident.
+
+“Well,” said the second youth, “does the choice beseem you upon whom
+the moon of your nuptials is beaming still. My beloved and I are riper
+in Hymen’s lore by not less, I ween, than one fortnight. Prudence
+impels us towards the Palace of Illusion.”
+
+“Thy will is mine, Alonso,” said his lady.
+
+“I,” said the third youth, “will seek neither; for I would not be wise
+over-much, while of what I deem myself to know I would be well assured.
+Happy am I, and bless my lot, yet have I beheld a red mouse in closer
+contiguity to my beloved than I could bring myself to approve, albeit
+it leapt not from her mouth as they do sometimes. Yet do I know it for
+a red mouse and nothing worse; had I inhabited the Palace of Illusion
+haply I had deemed it a rat. And, it being a red mouse as it
+indubitably was, to what end fancy it a tawny-throated nightingale?”
+
+While, therefore, the other pairs proceeded on the paths they had
+respectively chosen, this sage youth and his bride settled themselves
+at the parting of the ways, built their cot, tended their garden,
+tilled their field and raised fruits around them, including children.
+
+The preparation of a cheerful repast was one day well advanced, when,
+lifting up their eyes, the pair beheld a haggard and emaciated couple
+tottering along the road that led from the Palace of Illusion.
+
+“Heavens!” exclaimed they simultaneously, “no! yes! ’tis surely they!”
+O friends! whence this forlorn semblance? whence this osseous
+condition?”
+
+“Of them anon,” replied the attenuated youth, “but, before all things,
+dinner!”
+
+The restorative was speedily administered, and the pilgrim commenced
+his narration.
+
+“Guarded,” he said, “though the Palace of Illusion was by every species
+of hippogriffic chimaera, my bride and I experienced no difficulty in
+penetrating inside its precincts. The giants lifted us in their arms,
+the dragons carried us on their backs, fairy bridges spanned the moats,
+golden ladders inclined against the ramparts, we scaled the towers and
+trod the courts securely, though constructed to all seeming of
+dissolving cloud. Delicate fare loaded every dish; smiling companions
+invited to every festivity; perfumes caressed our nostrils; music
+enwrapped our ears.
+
+“But while all else charmed and allured, one fact intruded of which we
+could not pretend unconsciousness, the intensity of our aversion for
+each other. Never could I behold my Imogene without marvelling whatever
+could have induced me to wed her, and she has acknowledged that she
+laboured under the like perplexity. On the other hand, our good opinion
+of ourselves had grown prodigiously. The other’s dislike appeared to
+each an insane delusion, and we seriously questioned whether it could
+be right to mate longer with a being so destitute of true aesthetic
+feeling. We confided these scruples to each other, with the result of a
+most tempestuous altercation.
+
+“As this was attaining its climax, one of the inmates of the Palace, a
+pert forward boy, resembling a page out of livery, passed by, and
+ironically, as I thought, congratulated us on the strength of our
+mutual attachment. ‘Never,’ exclaimed he, ‘have I beheld the like here
+before, and I am the oldest inhabitant.’
+
+“As this felicitation was proffered at the precise moment when I was
+engaged in staunching a rent in my cheek with a handful of my wife’s
+hair, I was constrained to regard it as unseasonable, and expressed
+myself to that effect.
+
+“‘What!’ exclaimed he, with equal surprise, ‘know ye not that this is
+the Palace of Illusion, where everything is inverted and appears the
+reverse of itself? Intense indeed must be the affection which can thus
+drive you to fisticuffs! Had I beheld you billing and cooing, truly I
+had counselled a judicial separation!’
+
+“My wife and I looked at each other, and by a common impulse made at
+our utmost speed for the gate of the Palace of Illusion.
+
+“Alas! it is one thing to enter and another to quit that domain of
+enchantment. The golden clouds enwrapt us still, cates and dainties
+tempted us as of old, the most bewitching strains detained us
+spellbound. The giant and dragon warders, indeed, offered no violent
+resistance, they simply turned into open portals which appeared to
+yield us egress, but proved entrances to interminable labyrinthine
+mazes. At last we escaped by resolutely, following the exact opposite
+track to that which we observed to be taken by a poet, who was chasing
+a phantom of Fame with a scroll of unintelligible and inharmonious
+verse.
+
+“The moment that we emerged from the enchanted castle we knew ourselves
+and each other for what we were, and fell weeping into each other’s
+arms. So feeble were we that we could hardly move, nevertheless we have
+made a shift to crawl hither, trusting to your hospitality to recruit
+us from the sawdust and ditch-water which we vehemently suspect to have
+been our diet during the whole of our residence.”
+
+“Eat and drink without stint and without ceremony,” rejoined their
+host, “provided only that somewhat remain for the guests whom I see
+approaching.”
+
+And in a few moments the fugitives from the Palace of Illusion were
+reinforced by travellers from the Palace of Truth, whose backs were
+most determinately turned to that august edifice.
+
+“My friends,” said the youth last arrived, when the first greetings
+were over, “Truth’s Palace might be a not ineligible residence were not
+the inmates necessitated not merely to know the truth but to speak it,
+and did not all innocent embellishments of her majestic person become
+entirely inefficient and absolutely nugatory. For example, the number
+of my wife’s grey hairs speedily confounded me; and how should it be
+otherwise, when the excellent dye she had brought with her had
+completely lost its virtues? She on her part found herself continually
+obliged to acquaint me with the manifold defects she was daily
+discovering in my mind and person, which I was unable to deny,
+frequently as I opened my mouth for that purpose. It is true that I had
+the satisfaction of pointing out equal defects in herself; but this
+could not be considered a great satisfaction, seeing that every such
+discovery impugned my taste and judgment, and impaired the worth of my
+most cherished possession. At length we resolved that Truth and we were
+not made for each other, and, having verified the accuracy of this
+conclusion by uttering it unrebuked in Truth’s own palace, quitted the
+unblest spot with all possible expedition. No sooner were we outside
+than our tenderness revived, and, the rites of reconciliation duly
+performed, my wife found nothing more urgent than to try whether her
+dye had recovered its natural properties, which, as ye may perceive,
+proved to be the case. We are now bound for the Palace of Illusion.”
+
+“Nay,” said he who had escaped thence, “if my experience suffices not
+to deter you, learn that they who have known Truth can never taste of
+Illusion. Illusion is for life’s golden prime, its fanes and pavilions
+may be reared but by the magic wand of Youth. The maturity that would
+recreate them builds not for Illusion but for Deceit. Yet, lest
+mortality should despair, there exists, as I have learned, yet another
+palace, founded midway between that of Illusion and that of Truth, open
+to those who are too soft for the one and too hard for the other.
+Thither, indeed, the majority of mankind in this age resort, and there
+appear to find themselves comfortable.”
+
+“And this palace is?” inquired Truth’s runaways simultaneously.
+
+“The Palace of Convention,” replied the youth.
+
+
+
+
+NEW READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY
+
+I.—TIMON OF ATHENS
+
+No, it was not true that Timon was dead, and buried on the sea-shore.
+So the first party discovered that hastened to his cave at the tidings,
+thinking to seize his treasure, and had their heads broken for their
+pains. But the second party fared better; for these were robbers,
+captained by Alcibiades, who had taken to the road, as many a man of
+spirit, has done before and since. They took Timon’s gold, and left him
+bound in his chair. But on the way home the lesser thieves mysteriously
+disappeared, and the gold became the sole property of Alcibiades. As it
+is written, “The tools to him that can handle them.”
+
+Timon sat many hours in an uncomfortable position, and though, in a
+general way, he abhorred the face of man, he was not displeased when a
+gentleman of bland appearance entered the cavern, and made him a low
+obeisance. And perceiving that Timon was bound, the bland man exclaimed
+with horror, and severed his bonds, ere one could say Themistocles. And
+in an instant the cavern was filled with Athenian senators.
+
+“Hail,” they cried, “to Timon the munificent! Hail to Timon the
+compassionate! Hail to Timon the lover of his kind!”
+
+“I am none of these things,” said Timon. “I am Timon the misanthrope.”
+
+“This must be my Lord’s wit and playfulness,” said the bland man, “for
+how else should the Senate and the people have passed a decree, indited
+by myself, ordering an altar to be raised to Timon the Benefactor, and
+appointing him chief archon? But come, hand over thy treasure, that thy
+installation may take effect with due observance.”
+
+“I have been deprived of my treasure,” said Timon.
+
+But the ambassadors gave him no credit until they had searched every
+chink and crevice in the cavern, and dug up all the earth round the
+entrance. They then regarded each other with blank consternation.
+
+“Let us leave him as we found him,” said one.
+
+“Let us hang him up,” said another.
+
+“Let us sell him into captivity,” said a third.
+
+“Nay, friends,” said the bland gentleman, “such confession of error
+would impeach our credit as statesmen. Moreover, should the people
+learn that Timon has lost his money, they will naturally conclude that
+we have taken it. Let us, therefore, keep this misfortune from their
+knowledge, and trust for relief to the chapter of accidents, as usual
+in State affairs.”
+
+They therefore robed Timon in a dress of honour, and conducted him to
+Athens, where half the inhabitants were awaiting him. Two triumphal
+arches spanned the principal street, and on one was inscribed “Timon
+the Benefactor,” and on the other “Timon the Friend of Humanity.” And
+all along, far as the eye could reach, stood those whom his bounty, as
+was stated, had rescued from perdition, the poor he had relieved, the
+sick he had medicined, the orphans he had fathered, the poets and
+painters he had patronised, all lauding and thanking him, and
+soliciting a continuance of his liberality. And the rabble cried
+“Largesse, largesse!” and horsemen galloped forth, casting among them
+nuts enveloped in silver-leaf and apples and comfits and trinkets and
+brass farthings in incredible quantities. At which the people murmured
+somewhat, and spoke amiss respecting Timon and the senators who
+escorted him, and the bland gentleman strove to keep Timon between
+himself and the populace. While Timon was pondering what the end of
+these things should be, his mob encountered another cheering for
+Alcibiades, and playing pitch and toss with drachmas and didrachmas and
+tetradrachmas, yea, even with staters and darics.
+
+“Long live Alcibiades,” cried Timon’s followers, as they attacked
+Alcibiades’s supporters to get their share.
+
+“Long live Timon,” cried Alcibiades’s party, as they defended
+themselves.
+
+Timon and Alcibiades extricated themselves from the scuffle, and walked
+away arm in arm.
+
+“My dear friend,” said Timon, “how inexpressibly beholden I am to you
+for taking the burden of my wealth upon yourself! There is nothing I
+would not do to evince my gratitude.”
+
+“Nothing?” queried Alcibiades.
+
+“Nothing,” persisted Timon.
+
+“Then,” said Alcibiades, “I will thank thee to relieve me of Timandra,
+who is as tired of me as I am of her.”
+
+Timon winced horribly, but his word was his bond, and Timandra
+accompanied him to his cavern, where at first she suffered much
+inconvenience from the roughness of the accommodation. But Timon,
+though a misanthrope, was not a brute; and when in process of time
+Timandra’s health required special care, rugs and pillows were provided
+for her, and also for Timon; for he saw that he could no longer pass
+for a churl if he made his wife more comfortable than himself. And,
+though he counted gold as dross, yet was he not dissatisfied that
+Timandra had saved the gold he had given her formerly against a rainy
+day. And when a child was born, Timon was at his wits’ end, and blessed
+the old woman who came to nurse it. And she admonished him of his duty
+to the Gods, which meant sacrifice, which meant merry-making. And the
+child grew, and craved food and drink, and Timon possessed himself of
+three acres and a cow. And not being able to doubt his child’s
+affection for him, he came to believe in Timandra’s also. And when the
+tax-gatherer oppressed his neighbours, he pleaded their cause, which
+was also his own, in the courts of Athens, and gained it by the
+interest of Alcibiades. And his neighbours made him demarch, and he
+feasted them. And Apemantus came to deride him, and Timon bore with
+him; but he was impertinent to Timandra, and Timon beat him.
+
+And in fine, Timon became very like any other Attic country gentleman,
+save that he always maintained that a young man did well to be a
+misanthrope until he got a loving and sensible wife, which, as he
+observed, could but seldom happen. And the Gods looked down upon him
+with complacency, and deferred the ruin of Athens until he should be no
+more.
+
+II.—NAPOLEON’S SANGAREE
+
+Napoleon Buonaparte sat in his garden at St. Helena, in the shadow of a
+fig-tree. Before him stood a little table, and upon the table stood a
+glass of sangaree. The day was hot and drowsy; the sea boomed
+monotonously on the rocks; the broad fig-leaves stirred not; great
+flies buzzed heavily in the sultry air. Napoleon wore a loose linen
+coat and a broad brimmed planter’s hat, and looked as red as the
+sangaree, but nowise as comfortable.
+
+“To think,” he said aloud, “that I should end my life here, with
+nothing to sweeten my destiny but this lump of sugar!”
+
+And he dropped it into the sangaree, and little ripples and beads broke
+out on the surface of the liquid.
+
+“Thou should’st have followed me,” said a voice.
+
+“Me,” said another.
+
+And a steam from the sangaree rose high over Napoleon’s head, and from
+it shaped themselves two beautiful female figures. One was fair and
+very youthful, with a Phrygian cap on her head, and eager eyes beneath
+it, and a slender spear in her hand. The other was somewhat older, and
+graver, and darker, with serious eyes; and she carried a sword, and
+wore a helmet, from underneath which her rich brown tresses escaped
+over her vesture of light steel armour.
+
+“I am Liberty,” said the first.
+
+“I am Loyalty,” said the second.
+
+And Napoleon laid his hand in that of the first spirit, and instantly
+saw himself as he had been in the days of his youthful victories, only
+beset with a multitude of people who were offering him a crown, and
+cheering loudly. But he thrust it aside, and they cheered ten times
+more, and fell into each other’s arms, and wept and kissed each other.
+And troops of young maidens robed in white danced before him, strewing
+his way with flowers. And the debts of the debtor were paid, and the
+prisoners were released from captivity. And the forty Academicians came
+bringing Napoleon the prize of virtue. And the Abbé Sieyès stood up,
+and offered Napoleon his choice of seventeen constitutions; and
+Napoleon chose the worst. And he came to sit with five hundred other
+men, mostly advocates. And when he said “Yea,” they said “Nay”; and
+when he said “white,” they said “black.” And they suffered him to do
+neither good nor evil, and when he went to war they commanded his army
+for him, until he was smitten with a great slaughter. And the enemy
+entered the country, and bread was scarce and wine dear; and the people
+cursed Napoleon, and Liberty vanished from before him. But he roamed
+on, ever looking for her, and at length he found her lying dead in the
+public way, all gashed and bleeding, and trampled with the feet of men
+and horses, and the wheel of a tumbril was over her neck. And Napoleon,
+under compulsion of the mob, ascended the tumbril; and Abbé Sieyès and
+Bishop Talleyrand rode at his side, administering spiritual
+consolation. Thus they came within sight of the guillotine, whereon
+stood M. de Robespierre in his sky-blue coat, and his jaw bound up in a
+bloody cloth, bowing and smiling, nevertheless, and beckoning Napoleon
+to ascend to him. Napoleon had never feared the face of man; but when
+he saw M. de Robespierre great dread fell upon him, and he leapt out of
+the tumbril, and fled amain, passing amid the people as it were mid
+withered leaves, until he came where Loyalty stood awaiting him.
+
+She took his hand in hers, and, lo! another great host of people
+proffering him a crown, save one little old man, who alone of them all
+wore his hair in a queue with powder.
+
+“See,” said the little old man, “that thou takest not what doth not
+belong to thee.”
+
+“To whom belongeth it then?” asked Napoleon, “for I am a plain soldier,
+and have no skill in politics.”
+
+“To Louis the Disesteemed,” said the little old man, “for he is a
+great-great-nephew of the Princess of Schwoffingen, whose ancestors
+reigned here at the flood.”
+
+“Where dwells Louis the Disesteemed?” asked Napoleon.
+
+“In England,” said the little old man.
+
+Napoleon therefore repaired to England, and sought for Louis the
+Disesteemed. But none could direct him, save that it behoved him to
+seek in the obscurest places. And one day, as he was passing through a
+mean street, he heard a voice of lamentation, and perceived a man whose
+coat and shirt were rent and dirty; but not so his pantaloons, for he
+had none.
+
+“Who art thou, thou pantaloonless one?” asked he, “and wherefore makest
+thou this lamentation?”
+
+“I am Louis the Esteemed, King of France and Navarre,” replied the
+distrousered personage, “and I lament for my pantaloons, which I have
+been enforced to pawn, inasmuch as the broker would advance nothing
+upon my coat or my shirt.”
+
+And Napoleon went upon his knees and divested himself of his own nether
+garments, and arrayed the king therein, to the great diversion of those
+who stood about.
+
+“Thou hast done wickedly,” said the king when he heard who Napoleon
+was, “in that thou hast presumed to fight battles and win victories
+without any commission from me. Go, nevertheless, and lose an arm, a
+leg, and an eye in my service, then shall thy offence be forgiven
+thee.”
+
+And Napoleon raised a great army, and gained a great battle for the
+king, and lost an arm. And he gained another greater battle, and lost a
+leg. And he gained the greatest battle of all; and the king sat on the
+throne of his ancestors, and was called Louis the Victorious: but
+Napoleon had lost an eye. And he came into the king’s presence, bearing
+his eye, his arm, and his leg.
+
+“Thou art pardoned,” said the king, “and I will even confer a singular
+honour upon thee. Thou shalt defray the expense of my coronation, which
+shall be the most splendid ever seen in France.”
+
+So Napoleon lost all his substance, and no man pitied him. But after
+certain days the keeper of the royal wardrobe rushed into the king’s
+presence, crying “Treason! treason! O Majesty, whence these republican
+and revolutionary pantaloons?”
+
+“They are those I deigned to receive from the rebel Buonaparte,” said
+the king. “It were meet to return them. Where abides he now?”
+
+“Saving your Majesty’s presence,” they said, “he lieth upon a certain
+dunghill.”
+
+“If this be so,” said the king, “life can be no gratification to him,
+and it were humane to relieve him of it. Moreover, he is a dangerous
+man. Go, therefore, and strangle him with his own pantaloons. Yet, let
+a monument be raised to him, and engrave upon it, ‘Here lies Napoleon
+Buonaparte, whom Louis the Victorious raised from the dunghill.’”
+
+They went accordingly; but behold! Napoleon already lay dead upon the
+dunghill. And this was told unto the king.
+
+“He hath ever been envious of my glory,” said the king, “let him
+therefore be buried underneath.”
+
+And it was so. And after no long space the king also died, and slept
+with his fathers. But when there was again a revolution in France, the
+people cast his bones out of the royal sepulchre, and laid Napoleon’s
+there instead. And the dunghill complained grievously that it should be
+disturbed for so slight a cause.
+
+And Napoleon withdrew his hand from the hand of Loyalty, saying,
+“Pish!” And his eyes opened, and he heard the booming of the sea, and
+the buzzing of the flies, and felt the heat of the sun, and saw that
+the sugar he had dropped into his sangaree had not yet reached the
+bottom of the tumbler.
+
+III.—CONCERNING DANIEL DEFOE
+
+Daniel Defoe, at the invitation of the judge, came forth from the
+garret wherein he abode, and rode in a cart unto the Royal Exchange,
+wherein he ascended the pillory, to the end that his ears might be
+nailed thereunto. And much people stood before him, some few pelting,
+some mocking, but the most part cheering or weeping, for they knew him
+for a friend to the poor, and especially those men who were called
+Dissenters. And a certain person in black stood by him, invisible to
+the people, but well seen of Daniel, who knew him for one whose life he
+had himself written. And the man in black reasoned with Daniel, and
+said, “Thou seest this multitude of people, but which of them shall
+deliver thee out of my hand? Nay, but let thy white be black, and thy
+black white, and I myself will deliver thee, and make thee rich, and
+heal thy hurts, save the holes in thy ears, that I may know thee for
+mine own.” But Daniel gave no heed to him. So the Devil departed,
+having great wrath, and entered into a certain smug-faced man standing
+by.
+
+And now the crowd before Daniel was greatly diminished, and consisted
+mainly of his enemies, for his friends had gone away to drown their
+sorrow. And the smug-faced man into whom Satan had entered came forth
+from among them, and said unto him, “O Daniel, inasmuch as I am a
+Dissenter I am greatly beholden to thee; but inasmuch as I am an honest
+tradesman I have somewhat against thee, for thou hast written
+concerning short weights and measures. And a man’s shop is more to him
+than his country or his religion. Wherefore I must needs be avenged of
+thee. Yet shalt thou own that the tender mercies of the good man are
+piteous, and that even in his wrath he thinketh upon compassion.”
+
+And he picked up a great stone from the ground, and wrapped it in a
+piece of paper, saying, “Lest peradventure it hurt him overmuch.” And
+the stone was very rough and sharp, and the paper was very thin. And he
+hurled it with all his might at the middle of Daniel’s forehead, and
+the blood spouted forth. And Daniel cried aloud, and called upon the
+name of the Devil. And in an instant the pillory and the people were
+gone, and he found himself in the Prime Minister’s cabinet, healed of
+all his hurts, except the holes in his ears. And the Minister was so
+like the Devil that you could not tell the difference. And he said,
+“Against what wilt thou write first, Daniel?”
+
+“Dissenters,” said Daniel.
+
+And he wrote a pamphlet, and such as read it took firebrands, and
+visited the Dissenters in their habitations. And many Dissenters were
+put into prison, and others fined and spoiled of their goods. And he
+wrote other pamphlets, and each was cleverer and wickeder than the
+last. And whatsoever Daniel had of old declared to be white, lo! it was
+black; and what he had said was black, behold! it was white. And he
+throve and prospered exceedingly, and became a commissioner for
+public-houses and hackney-coaches and the imposing of oaths and the
+levying of custom, and all other such things as one does by deputy. And
+he mended the holes in his ears.
+
+But the time came when Daniel must be judged, and he went before the
+Lord. And all the court was full of Dissenters, and the Devil was there
+also. And the Dissenters testified many and grievous things against
+Daniel.
+
+“Daniel,” said the Lord, “what answerest thou?”
+
+“Nothing, Lord,” said Daniel. “Only I would that the Dissenter who
+threw that stone at me should receive due and condign punishment,
+adequate to his misdeed.”
+
+“That,” said the Devil, “is impossible.”
+
+“Thou sayest well, Satan,” said the Lord, “and therefore shall Daniel
+go free. For if anything can excuse the apostasy of the noble, it is
+the ingratitude of the base.”
+
+So the Devil went to his own place, looking very small. And Daniel
+found himself in the same garret whence he had gone forth to the
+pillory; and before him were bread and cheese, and a pen and ink and
+paper. And he dipped the pen into the ink, and wrote _Robinson Crusoe_.
+
+IV.—CORNELIUS THE FERRYMAN
+
+Fourscore years ago there was a good ferryman named Cornelius, who
+rowed people between New York and Brooklyn. He had neither wife nor
+child, nor any one to think of except himself. It was, therefore, his
+custom, when he had earned enough in a day for his own wants, to put
+the rest aside, and bestow it upon sick or blind or maimed persons,
+lest they should come to the workhouse. And the sick and the blind and
+the maimed gathered around him, and waited by the water’s edge, until
+Cornelius’s day’s work should be over.
+
+This went on until one of the little sooty imps who are always in
+mischief came to hear of it, and told the principal devil in charge of
+the United States, whose name is Politicianus.
+
+“Dear me,” said the Devil, “this will never do. I will see to it
+immediately.”
+
+And he went off to Cornelius, and caught him in the act of giving two
+dimes to a blind beggar.
+
+“How foolish you are!” he said; “what waste of money is this! If you
+saved it up, you would by-and-by be able to build an hospital for all
+the beggars in New York.”
+
+“It would be a long time before there was enough,” objected Cornelius.
+
+“Not at all,” said the Devil, “if you let me invest your money for
+you.” And he showed Cornelius the plan of a most splendid hospital, and
+across the front of it was inscribed in letters of gold, _Cornelius
+Diabolodorus_. And Cornelius was persuaded, and that evening he gave
+nothing to the poor. And the poor had come to think that Cornelius’s
+money was their own, and abused him as though he had robbed them. And
+Cornelius drove them away: and his heart was hardened against them from
+that day forth.
+
+But the Devil kept his promise to Cornelius, and put him up to all the
+good things in Wall Street, and he soon had enough to build ten
+hospitals. But the more he had to build with, the less he wanted to
+build. And by-and-by the Devil called upon him, and found him
+contemplating two pictures. One of them showed the finest hospital you
+can imagine, full of neat, clean rooms, in one of which sat Cornelius
+himself, wearing a dress with a number and badge, and sipping
+arrowroot. The other showed fine houses, and opera-boxes, and
+fast-trotting horses, and dry champagne, and ladies who dance in
+ballets, and paintings by the great masters. Cornelius thrust the
+pictures away, and the Devil did not ask to see them, nor was it
+needful that he should, for he had painted them himself.
+
+“O dear Mr. Devil,” said Cornelius, “I am so glad that you have called,
+for I wanted to speak to you. It strikes me that there is a great
+defect in the plan which you have been so good as to draw for me.”
+
+“What is that?” asked the Devil.
+
+“There is no place for black men,” said Cornelius. “And you know white
+men will never let them come into the same hospital.”
+
+And the Devil, to do him justice, talked very reasonably to Cornelius,
+and represented to him that there were very few black men in New York,
+and that these had very vigorous constitutions. But Cornelius was
+inflamed with enthusiasm, and frantic with philanthropy, and he vowed
+that he would not give a cent to an hospital that had not a wing for
+black men as big as all the rest of the building. And the Devil had to
+take his plan back, and come again in a year and a day. And when he did
+come back, Cornelius asked him if he did not think it would be a most
+excellent thing if all the Irishmen in New York could be shut up in an
+hospital or elsewhere; and he could not deny it. So he had to take his
+plan back again. And next year it was the turn of the Chinese, and then
+of the Red Indians, and then of the dogs and cats. And then Cornelius
+thought that he ought to provide room for all the people who had been
+ruined by his speculations, and the Devil thought so too, but doubted
+whether Cornelius would be able to afford it. And at last Cornelius
+said:
+
+“Methinks I have been very foolish in wishing to build an hospital at
+all while I am living. Surely it would be better that I should enjoy my
+money myself during my life, and leave the residue for the lawyers to
+divide after my death.”
+
+“You are quite right,” said the Devil; “that is exactly what I should
+do if I were you.”
+
+So Cornelius put the plans behind a shelf in his counting-house, and
+the mice ate them. And he went on prospering and growing rich, until
+the Devil became envious of him, and insisted on changing places with
+him. So Cornelius went below, and the Devil came and dwelt in New York,
+where he still is.
+
+
+
+
+THE POISON MAID
+
+
+        O not for him
+Blooms my dark nightshade, nor doth hemlock brew
+Murder for cups within her cavernous root.
+
+I
+
+Grievous is the lot of the child, more especially of the female child,
+who is doomed from the tenderest infancy to lack the blessing of a
+mother’s care.
+
+Was it from this absence of maternal vigilance that the education of
+the lovely Mithridata was conducted from her babyhood in such an
+extraordinary manner? That enormous serpents infested her cradle,
+licking her face and twining around her limbs? That her tiny fingers
+patted scorpions? and tied knots in the tails of vipers? That her
+father, the magician Locuste, ever sedulous and affectionate, fed her
+with spoonsful of the honeyed froth that gathers under the tongues of
+asps? That as she grew older and craved a more nutritious diet, she
+partook, at first in infinitesimal doses, but in ever increasing
+quantities, of arsenic, strychnine, opium, and prussic acid? That at
+last having attained the flower of youth, she drank habitually from
+vessels of gold, for her favourite beverages were so corrosive that no
+other substance could resist their solvent properties?
+
+Gradually accustomed to this strange regimen, she had thriven on it
+marvellously, and was without a peer for beauty, sense, and goodness.
+Her father had watched over her education with care, and had instructed
+her in all lawful knowledge, save only the knowledge of poisons. As no
+other human being had entered the house, Mithridata was unaware that
+her bringing up had differed in so material a respect from that of
+other young people.
+
+“Father,” said she one day, bringing him a book she had been perusing,
+“what strange follies learned men will pen with gravity! or is it
+rather that none can set bounds to the licence of romancers? These dear
+serpents, my friends and playfellows, this henbane and antimony, the
+nourishment of my health and vigour—that any one should write of these
+as pernicious, deadly, and fatal to existence! Is it error or
+malignity? or but the wanton freak of an idle imagination?”
+
+“My child,” answered the magician, “it is fit that thou shouldst now
+learn what hath hitherto been concealed from thee, and with this object
+I left this treatise in thy way. It speaks truth. Thou hast been
+nurtured from thy infancy on substances endowed with lethal properties,
+commonly called poisons. Thy entire frame is impregnated thereby, and,
+although thou thyself art in the fullest enjoyment of health, thy kiss
+would be fatal to any one not, like thy father, fortified by a course
+of antidotes. Now hear the reason. I bear a deadly grudge to the king
+of this land. He indeed hath not injured me; but his father slew my
+father, wherefore it is meet that I should slay that ancestor’s son’s
+son. I have therefore nurtured thee from thy infancy on the deadliest
+poisons, until thou art a walking vial of pestilence. The young prince
+shall unseal thee, to his destruction and thy unspeakable advantage. Go
+to the great city; thou art beautiful as the day; he is young,
+handsome, and amorous; he will infallibly fall in love with thee. Do
+thou submit to his caresses, he will perish miserably; thou (such is
+the charm) ransomed by the kiss of love, wilt become wholesome and
+innocuous as thy fellows, preserving only thy knowledge of poisons,
+always useful, in the present state of society invaluable. Thou wilt
+therefore next repair to the city of Constantinople, bearing
+recommendatory letters from me to the Empress Theophano, now happily
+reigning.”
+
+“Father,” said Mithridata, “either I shall love this young prince, or I
+shall not. If I do not love him, I am nowise minded to suffer him to
+caress me. If I do love him, I am as little minded to be the cause of
+his death.”
+
+“Not even in consideration of the benefit which will accrue to thee by
+this event?”
+
+“Not even for that consideration.”
+
+“O these daughters!” exclaimed the old man. “We bring them up tenderly,
+we exhaust all our science for the improvement of their minds and
+bodies, we set our choicest hopes upon them, and entrust them with the
+fulfilment of our most cherished aspirations; and when all is done,
+they will not so much as commit a murder to please us! Miserable
+ingrate, receive the just requital of thy selfish disobedience!”
+
+“O father, do not turn me into a tadpole!”
+
+“I will not, but I will turn thee out of doors.”
+
+And he did.
+
+II
+
+Though disinherited, Mithridata was not destitute. She had secured a
+particle of the philosopher’s stone—a slender outfit for a magician’s
+daughter! yet ensuring her a certain portion of wealth. What should she
+do now? The great object of her life must henceforth be to avoid
+committing murder, especially murdering any handsome young man. It
+would have seemed most natural to retire into a convent, but, not to
+speak of her lack of vocation, she felt that her father would justly
+consider that she had disgraced her family, and she still looked
+forward to reconciliation with him. She might have taken a hermitage,
+but her instinct told her that a fair solitary can only keep young men
+off by strong measures; and she disliked the character of a hermitess
+with a bull-dog. She therefore went straight to the great city, took a
+house, and surrounded herself with attendants. In the choice of these
+she was particularly careful to select those only whose personal
+appearance was such as to discourage any approach to familiarity or
+endearment. Never before or since was youthful beauty surrounded by
+such moustached duennas, squinting chambermaids, hunchbacked pages, and
+stumpy maids-of-all-work. This was a real sorrow to her, for she loved
+beauty; it was a still sadder trial that she could no longer feel it
+right to indulge herself in the least morsel of arsenic; she sighed for
+strychnia, and pined for prussic acid. The change of diet was of course
+at first most trying to her health, and in fact occasioned a serious
+illness, but youth and a sound constitution pulled her through.
+
+Reader, hast thou known what it is to live with a heart inflamed by
+love for thy fellow-creatures which thou couldst manifest neither by
+word nor deed? To pine with fruitless longings for good? and to consume
+with vain yearnings for usefulness? To be misjudged and haply reviled
+by thy fellows for failing to do what it is not given thee to do? If
+so, thou wilt pity poor Mithridata, whose nature was most ardent,
+expansive, and affectionate, but who, from the necessity under which
+she laboured of avoiding as much as possible all contact with human
+beings, saw herself condemned to a life of solitude, and knew that she
+was regarded as a monster of pride and exclusiveness. She dared bestow
+no kind look, no encouraging gesture on any one, lest this small
+beginning should lead to the manifestation of her fatal power. Her own
+servants, whose minds were generally as deformed as their bodies, hated
+her, and bitterly resented what they deemed her haughty disdain of
+them. Her munificence none could deny, but bounty without tenderness
+receives no more gratitude than it deserves. The young of her own sex
+secretly rejoiced at her unamiability, regarding it as a providential
+set-off against her beauty, while they detested and denounced her as
+a—well, they would say viper in the manger, who spoiled everybody
+else’s lovers and would have none of her own. For with all Mithridata’s
+severity, there was no getting rid of the young men, the giddy moths
+that flew around her brilliant but baleful candle. Not all the cold
+water thrown upon them, literally as well as figuratively, could keep
+them from her door. They filled her house with bouquets and billets
+doux; they stood before the windows, they sat on the steps, they ran
+beside her litter when she was carried abroad, they assembled at night
+to serenade her, fighting desperately among themselves. They sought to
+gain admission as tradesmen, as errand boys, even as scullions male and
+female. To such lengths did they proceed, that a particularly audacious
+youth actually attempted to carry her off one evening, and would have
+succeeded but for the interposition of another, who flew at him with a
+drawn sword, and after a fierce contest smote him bleeding to the
+ground. Mithridata had fainted, of course. What was her horror on
+reviving to find herself in the arms of a young man of exquisite beauty
+and princely mien, sucking death from her lips with extraordinary
+relish! She shrieked, she struggled; if she made any unfeminine use of
+her hands, let the urgency of the case plead her apology. The youth
+reproached her bitterly for her ingratitude. She listened in silent
+misery, unable to defend herself. The shaft of love had penetrated her
+bosom also, and it cost her almost as much for her own sake to dismiss
+the young man as it did to see him move away, slowly and languidly
+staggering to his doom.
+
+For the next few days messages came continually, urging her to haste to
+a youth dying for her sake, whom her presence would revive effectually.
+She steadily refused, but how much her refusal cost her! She wept, she
+wrung her hands, she called for death and execrated her nurture. With
+that strange appetite for self-torment which almost seems to diminish
+the pangs of the wretched, she collected books on poisons, studied all
+the symptoms described, and fancied her hapless lover undergoing them
+all in turn. At length a message came which admitted of no evasion. The
+King commanded her presence. Admonished by past experience, she
+provided herself with a veil and mask, and repaired to the palace.
+
+The old King seemed labouring under deep affliction; under happier
+circumstances he must have been joyous and debonair. He addressed her
+with austerity, yet with kindness.
+
+“Maiden,” he began, “thy unaccountable cruelty to my son——”
+
+“Thy son!” she exclaimed, “The Prince! O father, thou art avenged for
+my disobedience!”
+
+“Surpasses what history hath hitherto recorded of the most obdurate
+monsters. Thou art indebted to him for thy honour, to preserve which he
+has risked his life. Thou bringest him to the verge of the grave by thy
+cruelty, and when a smile, a look from thee would restore him, thou
+wilt not bestow it.”
+
+“Alas! great King,” she replied, “I know too well what your Majesty’s
+opinion of me must be. I must bear it as I may. Believe me, the sight
+of me could effect nothing towards the restoration of thy son.”
+
+“Of that I shall judge,” said the King, “when thou hast divested
+thyself of that veil and mask.”
+
+Mithridata reluctantly complied.
+
+“By Heaven!” exclaimed the King, “such a sight might recall the
+departing soul from Paradise. Haste to my son, and instantly; it is not
+yet too late.”
+
+“O King,” urged Mithridata, “how could this countenance do thy son any
+good? Is he not suffering from the effects of seventy-two poisons?”
+
+“I am not aware of that,” said the King.
+
+“Are not his entrails burned up with fire? Is not his flesh in a state
+of deliquescence? Has not his skin already peeled off his body? Is he
+not tormented by incessant gripes and vomitings?”
+
+“Not to my knowledge,” said the King. “The symptoms, as I understand,
+are not unlike those which I remember to have experienced myself, in a
+milder form, certainly. He lies in bed, eats and drinks nothing, and
+incessantly calls upon thee.”
+
+“This is most incomprehensible,” said Mithridata. “There was no drug in
+my father’s laboratory that could have produced such an effect.”
+
+“The sum of the matter is,” continued the King, “that either thou wilt
+repair forthwith to my son’s chamber, and subsequently to church; or
+else unto the scaffold.”
+
+“If it must be so, I choose the scaffold,” said Mithridata resolutely.
+“Believe me, O King, my appearance in thy son’s chamber would but
+destroy whatever feeble hope of recovery may remain. I love him beyond
+everything on earth, and not for worlds would I have his blood on my
+soul.”
+
+“Chamberlain,” cried the monarch, “bring me a strait waistcoat.”
+
+Driven into a corner, Mithridata flung herself at the King’s feet,
+taking care, however, not to touch him, and confided to him all her
+wretched history.
+
+The venerable monarch burst into a peal of laughter. “À bon chat bon
+rat!” he exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered himself. “So thou art
+the daughter of my old friend the magician Locusto! I fathomed his
+craft, and, as he fed his child upon poisons, I fed mine upon
+antidotes. Never did any child in the world take an equal quantity of
+physic: but there is now no poison on earth can harm him. Ye are
+clearly made for each other; haste to his bedside, and, as the spell
+requires, rid thyself of thy venefic properties in his arms as
+expeditiously as possible. Thy father shall be bidden to the wedding,
+and an honoured guest he shall be, for having taught us that the kiss
+of Love is the remedy for every poison.”
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained
+sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression.
+Many originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in
+the annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has
+rendered it desirable to append, and which further provide an
+opportunity of tendering thanks to many friends for their assent to
+republication.
+
+P. 5. _The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,_—Hereby we may detect
+the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with
+Armenia. “Hellenic letters,” says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the
+fourth century, “were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the
+slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens” (“University Life in
+Ancient Athens,” p. 73).
+
+P. 28. _Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality._—The belief in
+this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and
+many emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the
+groundwork of Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Der Unsterblichkeitstrank,”
+which has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of “The
+Potion of Lao-Tsze.”
+
+P. 38. _So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously._—In A.D. 683,
+the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband’s death, caused her son
+to be set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In
+our day we have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.
+
+P. 50. _Ananda the Miracle Worker._—This story was originally published
+in Fraser’s Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared in
+the _Revue Britannique_ for November, 1872. Buddha’s prohibition to
+work miracles rests, so far as the present writer’s knowledge extends,
+on the authority of Professor Max Müller (“Lectures on the Science of
+Religion”). It should be needless to observe that Ananda, “the St. John
+of the Buddhist group,” is not recorded to have contravened this or any
+other of his master’s precepts.
+
+P. 66. _The City of Philosophers._—This story has been translated into
+French by M. Sarrazin.
+
+P. 68. _There to establish a philosophic commonwealth._—The petition
+was actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the
+disordered condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to
+save a sinking state, possessed the accomplishments which would have
+adorned an age of peace and culture.
+
+P. 82. _The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge._—Gallienus
+was fond of such practical jocularity. “Quum quidam gemmas vitreas pro
+veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita, vindicari vellet,
+surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea caponem
+emittit, mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici
+jussit, ‘Imposturam fecit et passus est’: deinde negotiatorem dimisit”
+(Trebellius in Gallieno, cap. xii.).
+
+P. 100. _Hypati, anthypati, &c._—_Hypati_ and _anthypati_ denote
+consuls and proconsuls, dignities of course merely titular at the court
+of Constantinople. _Silentiarii_ were properly officers charged with
+maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was perhaps performed
+by deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons of
+distinction. The _protospatharius_ was the chief of the Imperial
+body-guard, of which the _spatharocandidati_ constituted the _élite_.
+
+P. 114. _The Wisdom of the Indians._—Appeared in 1890 in _The Universal
+Review_. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian’s travels
+in Burma.
+
+P. 124. _The Dumb Oracle._—Appeared in the _University Magazine_ for
+June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here
+transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning’s
+ballad, “The Boy and the Angel.”
+
+P. 136. _Duke Virgil._—The subject of this story is derived from
+Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Die Sibylle von Mantua,” though there is but
+little resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt
+as his authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as
+their duke in the thirteenth century: but the notion seems merely
+founded upon the interpretation of the insignia accompanying a mediæval
+statue of the poet.
+
+P. 138. _To put the devil into a hole_.—“Then sayd Virgilius, ‘Shulde
+ye well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?’ ‘Yea, I shall well,’
+sayd the devyl. ‘I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not
+do it.’ ‘Well,’ sayd the devyll, ‘thereto I consent.’ And then the
+devyll wrange himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein.
+Virgilius kyvered the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the
+devyll begyled, and myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte
+still therein” (“Romance of Virgilius”).
+
+_Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?_—“Than he thought in
+his mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great
+landes belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it
+Napells. And the foundacyon of it was of eggs” (“Romance of
+Virgilius”).
+
+P. 148. _The Claw_.—Originally published in _The English Illustrated
+Magazine_.
+
+P. 151. _Peter of Abano_.—Pietro di Abano, who took his name from his
+birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with
+Dante, whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused
+of magic. It is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the
+Inquisition or stoned by the populace; but after his death he was
+burned in effigy, his remains having been secretly removed by his
+friends. Honours were afterwards paid to his memory; and there seems no
+doubt that he was a man of great attainments, including a knowledge of
+Greek, and of unblemished character, if he had not sometimes sold his
+skill at too high a rate. For his authentic history, see the article in
+the _Biographie Universelle_ by Ginguené; for the legendary, Tieck’s
+romantic tale, “Pietro von Abano” (1825), which has been translated
+into English.
+
+P. 156. _Alexander the Rat-catcher_.—This story, to whose ground-work
+History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published in
+vol. xii. of _The Yellow Book_, January, 1897.
+
+P. 157. _Cardinal Barbadico_.—This cardinal was actually entrusted by
+Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an
+occasion upon which the “sardonic grin” imputed to the Pope by a
+detractor may be conjectured to have been particularly apparent.
+Barbadico was a remarkable instance of a man “kicked upstairs.” As
+Archbishop of Corfu he had had a violent dispute with the Venetian
+governor, and Innocent XI., equally unwilling to disown the
+representative of Papal authority or offend the Republic, recalled him
+to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.
+
+P. 177. _The Rewards of Industry._—Appeared originally in _Atalanta for
+August_, 1888.
+
+P. 194. _The Talismans._—First published in _Atalanta_ for September,
+1890.
+
+P. 202. _The Elixir of Life._—Published July, 1881, in the third number
+of a magazine entitled _Our Times_, which blasted the elixir’s
+character by expiring immediately afterwards.
+
+P. 226. _The Purple Head._—Appeared originally in _Fraser’s Magazine_
+for August, 1877.
+
+P. 228. _The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey
+in comparison._ “Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini
+comparatione fulgoris” (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).
+
+P. 230. _All these sovereigns._—“Diligentissime et Aurelianus et Probus
+et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus
+requisiverunt tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt”
+(Vopiscus, _loc. cit._).
+
+P. 241. _Pan’s Wand._—Published originally in a Christmas number of The
+_Illustrated London News_.
+
+P. 249. _A Page from the Book of Folly._—Appeared in _Temple Bar_ for
+1871.
+
+P. 282. _The Philosopher and the Butterflies._—One of the contributions
+by various writers to “The New Amphion,” a little book prepared for
+sale at the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the University of
+Edinburgh in 1886.
+
+P. 294. _The Three Palaces._—Published originally on a similar occasion
+to the last story, in “A Volunteer Haversack,” an extensive repertory
+of miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse, printed and sold at
+Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.
+
+P. 300. _New Readings in Biography._—Originally published in _The Scots
+Observer_ in 1889.
+
+P. 315. _The Poison Maid._—The author wrote this tale in entire
+forgetfulness of Hawthorne’s “Rapaccinip’s Daughter,” which
+nevertheless he had certainly read.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS ***
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
+be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the
+United States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
+the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
+of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
+copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
+easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
+of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
+Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+
+START: FULL LICENSE
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
+person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
+1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
+Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country other than the United States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
+on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+
+  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+  most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
+  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+  under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+  eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
+  United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
+  you are located before using this eBook.
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
+other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
+Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+provided that:
+
+* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
+  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+  Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
+  works.
+
+* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+  receipt of the work.
+
+* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
+the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
+www.gutenberg.org
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
+Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
+to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website
+and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without
+widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
+state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+
+Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
+facility: www.gutenberg.org
+
+This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
diff --git a/old/10095-0.zip b/old/10095-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9e2314
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10095-0.zip
diff --git a/old/10095-h.zip b/old/10095-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ed6699
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10095-h.zip
diff --git a/old/10095-h/10095-h.htm b/old/10095-h/10095-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..424f68a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10095-h/10095-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,12989 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Twilight of the Gods, by Richard Garnett</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+
+body { margin-left: 20%;
+       margin-right: 20%;
+       text-align: justify; }
+
+h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight:
+normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;}
+
+h1 {font-size: 300%;
+    margin-top: 0.6em;
+    margin-bottom: 0.6em;
+    letter-spacing: 0.12em;
+    word-spacing: 0.2em;
+    text-indent: 0em;}
+h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
+h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;}
+h4 {font-size: 120%;}
+h5 {font-size: 110%;}
+
+.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */
+
+div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;}
+
+hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;}
+
+p {text-indent: 1em;
+   margin-top: 0.25em;
+   margin-bottom: 0.25em; }
+
+.p2 {margin-top: 2em;}
+
+p.poem {text-indent: 0%;
+        margin-left: 10%;
+        font-size: 90%;
+        margin-top: 1em;
+        margin-bottom: 1em; }
+
+p.letter {text-indent: 0%;
+          margin-left: 10%;
+          margin-right: 10%;
+          margin-top: 1em;
+          margin-bottom: 1em; }
+
+p.noindent {text-indent: 0% }
+
+p.center  {text-align: center;
+           text-indent: 0em;
+           margin-top: 1em;
+           margin-bottom: 1em; }
+
+p.footnote {font-size: 90%;
+           text-indent: 0%;
+           margin-left: 10%;
+           margin-right: 10%;
+           margin-top: 1em;
+           margin-bottom: 1em; }
+
+div.fig { display:block;
+          margin:0 auto;
+          text-align:center;
+          margin-top: 1em;
+          margin-bottom: 1em;}
+
+a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none}
+a:hover {color:red}
+
+</style>
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales, by Richard Garnett</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Richard Garnett</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 16, 2003 [eBook #10095]<br />
+[Most recently updated: October 1, 2022]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS ***</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:55%;">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>THE TWILIGHT<br/>
+OF THE GODS:<br/>
+AND OTHER TALES</h1>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by Richard Garnett</h2>
+
+<h3>MDCCCCIII</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p class="center">
+TO<br/>
+HORACE HOWARD FURNESS<br/>
+AND<br/>
+GEORG BRANDES.<br/>
+DABO DUOBUS TESTIBUS MEIS
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">The Twilight of the Gods</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">The Potion of Lao-Tsze</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">Abdallah the Adite</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap04">Ananda the Miracle Worker</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap05">The City of Philosophers</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap06">The Demon Pope</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap07">The Cupbearer</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap08">The Wisdom of the Indians</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap09">The Dumb Oracle</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap10">Duke Virgil</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap11">The Claw</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap12">Alexander the Ratcatcher</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap13">The Rewards of Industry</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap14">Madam Lucifer</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap15">The Talismans</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap16">The Elixir of Life</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap17">The Poet of Panopolis</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap18">The Purple Head</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap19">The Firefly</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap20">Pan’s Wand</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap21">A Page from the Book of Folly</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap22">The Bell of Saint Euschemon</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap23">Bishop Addo and Bishop Gaddo</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap24">The Philosopher and the Butterflies</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap25">Truth and Her Companions</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap26">The Three Palaces</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap27">New Readings in Biography</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap28">The Poison Maid</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap29">NOTES</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Truth fails not, but her outward forms that bear<br/>
+The longest date do melt like frosty rime.
+</p>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+The fourth Christian century was far past its meridian, when, high above the
+summit of the supreme peak of Caucasus, a magnificent eagle came sailing on
+broad fans into the blue, and his shadow skimmed the glittering snow as it had
+done day by day for thousands of years. A human figure&mdash;or it might be
+superhuman, for his mien seemed more than mortal&mdash;lifted from the crag, to
+which he hung suspended by massy gyves and rivets, eyes mournful with the
+presentiment of pain. The eagle’s screech clanged on the wind, as with
+outstretched neck he stooped earthward in ever narrowing circles; his huge
+quills already creaked in his victim’s ears, whose flesh crept and shrank, and
+involuntary convulsions agitated his hands and feet. Then happened what all
+these millenniums had never witnessed. No thunderbolt had blazed forth from
+that dome of cloudless blue; no marksman had approached the inaccessible spot;
+yet, without vestige of hurt, the eagle dropped lifeless, falling sheer down
+into the unfathomable abyss below. At the same moment the bonds of the captive
+snapped asunder, and, projected by an impetus which kept him clear of the
+perpendicular precipice, he alighted at an infinite depth on a sun-flecked
+greensward amid young ash and oak, where he long lay deprived of sense and
+motion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sun fell, dew gathered on the grass, moonshine glimpsed through the leaves,
+stars peeped timidly at the prostrate figure, which remained prostrate and
+unconscious still. But as sunlight was born anew in the East a thrill passed
+over the slumberer, and he became conscious, first of an indescribably
+delicious feeling of restful ease, then of a gnawing pang, acute as the beak of
+the eagle for which he at first mistook it. But his wrists, though still
+encumbered with bonds and trailing fetters, were otherwise at liberty, and
+eagle there was none. Marvelling at his inward and invisible foe, he struggled
+to his feet, and found himself contending with a faintness and dizziness
+heretofore utterly unknown to him. He dimly felt himself in the midst of things
+grown wonderful by estrangement and distance. No grass, no flower, no leaf had
+met his eye for thousands of years, nothing but the impenetrable azure, the
+transient cloud, sun, moon, and star, the lightning flash, the glittering peaks
+of ice, and the solitary eagle. There seemed more wonder in a blade of grass
+than in all these things, but all was blotted in a dizzy swoon, and it needed
+his utmost effort to understand that a light sound hard by, rapidly growing
+more distinct, was indeed a footfall. With a violent effort he steadied himself
+by grasping a tree, and had hardly accomplished so much when a tall dark
+maiden, straight as an arrow, slim as an antelope, wildly beautiful as a Dryad,
+but liker a Maenad with her aspect of mingled disdain and dismay, and step
+hasty as of one pursuing or pursued, suddenly checked her speed on perceiving
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who art thou?” he exclaimed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Gods! Thou speakest Greek!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What else should I speak?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What else? From whom save thee, since I closed my father’s eyes, have I heard
+the tongue of Homer and Plato?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who is Homer? Who is Plato?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The maiden regarded him with a look of the deepest astonishment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Surely,” she said, “thy gift has been bestowed upon thee to little purpose.
+Say not, at least, that thou usest the speech of the Gods to blaspheme them.
+Thou art surely yet a votary of Zeus?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I a votary of Zeus!” exclaimed the stranger. “By these fetters, no!” And, weak
+as he was, the forest rang with his disdainful laughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Farewell,” said the maiden, as with dilating form and kindling eye she
+gathered up her robes. “I parley with thee no more. Thou art tenfold more
+detestable than the howling mob down yonder, intent on rapine and destruction.
+They know no better, and can no other. But thou, apt in speaking the sacred
+tongue yet brutally ignorant of its treasures, knowing the father of the Gods
+only to revile him! Let me pass.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger, if willing to hinder her, seemed little able. His eyes closed,
+his limbs relaxed, and without a cry he sank senseless on the sward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In an instant the maiden was kneeling by his side. Hastily undoing a basket she
+carried on her arm, she drew forth a leather flask, and, supporting the sunken
+head with one hand, poured a stream of wine through the lips with the other. As
+the gurgling purple coursed down his throat the sufferer opened his eyes, and
+thanked her silently with a smile of exquisite sweetness. Removing the large
+leaves which shaded the contents of the basket, she disclosed ripe figs and
+pomegranates, honeycomb and snow-white curd, lying close to each other in
+tempting array. The stranger took of each alternately, and the basket was
+well-nigh emptied ere his appetite seemed assuaged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The observant maiden, meanwhile, felt her mood strangely altered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“So have I imaged Ulysses to myself,” she thought as she gazed on the
+stranger’s goodly form, full of vigour, though not without traces of age, the
+massive brow, the kindly mouth, the expression of far-seeing wisdom. “Such a
+man ignorant of letters, and a contemner of Zeus!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger’s eloquent thanks roused her from a reverie. The Greek tongue fell
+upon her ear like the sweetest music, and she grieved when its flow was
+interrupted by a question addressed directly to herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Can a God feel hunger and thirst?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Surely no,” she rejoined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I should have said the same yesterday,” returned the stranger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wherefore not to-day?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Dear maiden,” responded he, with winning voice and manner, “we must know each
+other better ere my tale can gain credence with thee. Do thou rather unfold
+what thine own speech has left dark to me. Why the language of the Gods, as
+should seem, is here understood by thee and me alone; what foes Zeus has here
+other than myself; what is the profane crowd of which thou didst speak; and
+why, alone and defenceless, thou ascendest this mountain. Think of me, if thou
+wilt, as one fallen from the clouds.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Strange man,” returned the maiden, “who knowest Homer’s speech and not Homer’s
+self, who renouncest Zeus and resemblest him, hear my tale ere I require thine.
+Yesterday I should have called myself the last priestess of Apollo in this
+fallen land, to-day I have neither shrine nor altar. Moved by I know not what
+madness, my countrymen have long ago forsaken the worship of the Gods. The
+temples crumbled into ruin, prayer was no longer offered or sacrifice made as
+of old, the priestly revenues were plundered; the sacred vessels carried away;
+the voice of oracles became dumb; the divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,
+its scrolls of wisdom mouldered unread, and the deluded people turned to human
+mechanics and fishermen. One faithful servant of Apollo remained, my father;
+but ’tis seven days since he closed his eyes for ever. It was time, for
+yesternoon the heralds proclaimed by order of the King that Zeus and the
+Olympians should be named no more in Caucasia.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ha!” interrupted the stranger, “I see it all. Said I not so?” he shouted,
+gazing into the sky as if his eye could pierce and his voice reach beyond the
+drifting clouds. “But to thy own tale,” he added, turning with a gesture of
+command to the astonished Elenko.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is soon told,” she said. “I knew that it was death to serve the Gods any
+more, yet none the less in my little temple did fire burn upon Apollo’s altar
+this morning. Scarcely was it kindled ere I became aware of a ruffianly mob
+thronging to sack and spoil. I was ready for death, but not at their hands. I
+caught up this basket, and escaped up the mountain. On its inaccessible summit,
+it is reported, hangs Prometheus, whom Zeus (let me bow in awe before his
+inscrutable counsels) doomed for his benevolence to mankind. To him, as
+Aeschylus sings, Io of old found her way, and from him received monition and
+knowledge of what should come to pass. I will try if courage and some favouring
+God will guide me to him; if not, I will die as near Heaven as I may attain.
+Tell me on thy part what thou wilt, and let me depart. If thou art indeed
+Zeus’s enemy, thou wilt find enough on thy side down yonder.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have been Zeus’s enemy,” returned the stranger, mildly and gravely, “I am so
+no longer. Immortal hate befits not the mortal I feel myself to have become.
+Nor needest thou ascend the peak further. Maiden, I am Prometheus!”
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+It is a prerogative of the Gods that, when they do speak sooth, mortals must
+needs believe them. Elenko hence felt no incredulity at the revelation of
+Prometheus, or sought other confirmation than the bonds and broken links of
+chain at his wrists and ankles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Now,” he cried, or rather shouted, “is the prophecy fulfilled with which of
+old I admonished the Gods in the halls of Olympus. I told them that Zeus should
+beget a child mightier than himself, who should send him and them the way he
+had sent his father. I knew not that this child was already begotten, and that
+his name was Man. It has taken Man ages to assert himself, nor has he yet, as
+it would seem, done more than enthrone a new idol in the place of the old. But
+for the old, behold the last traces of its authority in these fetters, of which
+the first smith will rid me. Expect no thunderbolt, dear maiden; none will
+come: nor shall I regain the immortality of which I feel myself bereaved since
+yesterday.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Is this no sorrow to thee?” asked Elenko.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Has not my immortality been one of pain?” answered Prometheus. “Now I feel no
+pain, and dread one only.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And that is?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The pain of missing a certain fellow-mortal,” answered Prometheus, with a look
+so expressive that the hitherto unawed maiden cast her eyes to the ground.
+Hastening away from the conversation to which, nevertheless, she inly purposed
+to return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Is Man, then, the maker of Deity?” she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Can the source of his being originate in himself?” asked Prometheus. “To
+assert this were self-contradiction, and pride inflated to madness. But of the
+more exalted beings who have like him emanated from the common principle of all
+existence, Man, since his advent on the earth, though not the creator, is the
+preserver or the destroyer. He looks up to them, and they are; he out-grows
+them, and they are not. For the barbarian and Triballian gods there is no
+return; but the Olympians, if dead as deities, survive as impersonations of
+Man’s highest conceptions of the beautiful. Languid and spectral indeed must be
+their existence in this barbarian age; but better days are in store for them.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And for thee, Prometheus?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is now no place,” replied he, “for an impeacher of the Gods. My cause is
+won, my part is played. I am rewarded for my love of man by myself becoming
+human. When I shall have proved myself also mortal I may haply traverse realms
+which Zeus never knew, with, I would hope, Elenko by my side.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko’s countenance expressed her full readiness to accompany Prometheus as
+far beyond the limits of the phenomenal world as he might please to conduct
+her. A thought soon troubled her delicious reverie, and she inquired:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Peradventure, then, the creed which I have execrated may be truer and better
+than that which I have professed?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If born in wiser brains and truer hearts, aye,” answered Prometheus, “but of
+this I can have no knowledge. It seems from thy tale to have begun but ill. Yet
+Saturn mutilated his father, and his reign was the Golden Age.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While conversing, hand locked in hand, they had been strolling aimlessly down
+the mountain. Turning an abrupt bend in the path, they suddenly found
+themselves in presence of an assembly of early Christians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These confessors were making the most of Elenko’s dilapidated temple, whose
+smoking shell threw up a sable column in the background. The effigies of Apollo
+and the Muses had been dragged forth, and were being diligently broken up with
+mallets and hammers. Others of the sacrilegious throng were rending scrolls, or
+dividing vestments, or firing the grove of laurel that environed the shrine, or
+pelting the affrighted birds as they flew forth. The sacred vessels, however,
+at least those of gold and silver, appeared safe in the guardianship of an
+episcopal personage of shrewd and jovial aspect, under whose inspection they
+were being piled up by a troop of sturdy young ecclesiastics, the only
+weapon-bearers among the rabble. Elenko stood riveted to the ground.
+Prometheus, to her amazement, rushed forward to one of the groups with a loud
+“By all the Gods and Goddesses!” Following his movements, she saw that the
+object of his interest was an enormous dead eagle carried by one of the mob.
+The multitude, startled by his cry and his emotion, gazed eagerly at the
+strangers, and instantly a shout went up:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The heathen woman!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“With a heathen man!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And clubs began to be brandished, and stones to be picked up from the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Prometheus, to whom the shouts were unintelligible, looked wistfully at Elenko.
+As their eyes met, Elenko’s countenance, which had hitherto been all disdain
+and defiance, assumed an expression of irresolution. A stone struck Prometheus
+on the temple, drawing blood; a hundred hands went up, each weighted with a
+missile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Do as I,” cried Elenko to him, and crossed herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Prometheus imitated her, not unsuccessfully for a novice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The uplifted arms were stayed, some even sank down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time the Bishop had bustled to the front, and addressed a torrent of
+questions to Prometheus, who merely shook his head, and turned to inspect the
+eagle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Brethren,” said the Bishop, “I smell a miracle!” And, turning to Elenko, he
+rapidly proceeded to cross-examine her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou wert the priestess of this temple?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I was.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou didst leave it this morning a heathen?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I did.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou returnest a Christian?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko blushed fire, her throat swelled, her heart beat violently. All her soul
+seemed concentrated in the gaze she fastened on the pale and bleeding
+Prometheus. She remained silent&mdash;but she crossed herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who then has persuaded thee to renounce Apollo?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko pointed to Prometheus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An enemy of Zeus, then?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Zeus has not such another enemy in the world.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I knew it, I was sure of it,” exclaimed the Bishop. “I can always tell a
+Christian when I see him. Wherefore speaks he not?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He is ancient, for all his vigorous mien. His martyrdom began ere our present
+speech was, nor could he learn this in his captivity.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Martyrdom! Captivity!” exclaimed the prelate gleefully, “I thought we were
+coming thither. An early martyr, doubtless?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A very early martyr.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Fettered and manacled?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Behold his wrists and ankles.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Tortured, of course?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Incredibly.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Miraculously kept alive to this day?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In an entirely supernatural manner.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Now,” said the Bishop, “I would wager my mitre and ring that his life was
+prolonged by the daily ministrations of yonder fowl that he caresses with such
+singular affection?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Never,” replied Elenko, “for one day did that most punctual bird omit to visit
+him.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hurrah!” shouted the Bishop. “And now, its mission accomplished, the blessed
+creature, as I am informed, is found dead at the foot of the mountain. Saints
+and angels! this is glorious! On your knees, ye infidels!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And down they all went, the Bishop setting the example. As their heads were
+bowed to the earth, Elenko made a sign to Prometheus, and when the multitude
+looked up, it beheld him in the act of imparting the episcopal blessing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Tell him that we are all his brethren,” said the Bishop, which announcement
+became in Elenko’s mouth, “Do as I do, and cleave to thy eagle.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A procession was formed. The new saint, his convert, and the eagle, rode in a
+car at the head of it. The Bishop, surrounded by his bodyguard, followed with
+the sacred vessels of Apollo, to which he had never ceased to direct a vigilant
+eye throughout the whole proceedings. The multitude swarmed along singing
+hymns, or contending for the stray feathers of the eagle. The representatives
+of seven monasteries put in their claims for the links of Prometheus’s fetters,
+but the Bishop scouted them all. He found time to whisper to Elenko:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You seem a sensible young person. Just hint to our friend that we don’t want
+to hear anything about his theology, and the less he talks about the primitive
+Church the better. No doubt he is a most intelligent man, but he cannot
+possibly be up to all the recent improvements.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko promised most fervently that Prometheus’ theological sentiments should
+remain a mystery to the public. She then began to reflect very seriously on the
+subject of her own morals. “This day,” she said to herself, “I have renounced
+all the Gods, and told lies enough to last me my life, and for no other reason
+than that I am in love. If this is a sufficient reason, lovers must have a
+different code of morality from the rest of the world, and indeed it would
+appear that they have. Will you die for me? Yes. Admirable. Will you lie for
+me? No. Then you don’t love me. &Beta;&alpha;&lambda;&lambda;
+&epsilon;&iota;&sigma; &kappa;&omicron;&rho;&alpha;&kappa;&alpha;&sigma;
+&epsilon;&iota;&sigma; &Tau;&alpha;&iota;&nu;&alpha;&rho;&omicron;&nu;
+&epsilon;&iota;&sigma; &#908;&gamma;&gamma; &Kappa;&omicron;&gamma;&gamma;.”
+</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Elenko soon found that there was no pausing upon the path to which she had
+committed herself. As the sole medium of communication between Prometheus and
+the religious public, her time was half spent in instructing Prometheus in the
+creed in which he was supposed to have instructed her, and half in framing the
+edifying sentences which passed for the interpretation of discourses for the
+most part far more interesting to herself than if they had been what they
+professed to be. The rapt and impassioned attention which she was observed to
+bestow on his utterances on such occasions all but gained her the reputation of
+a saint, and was accepted as a sufficient set-off against the unhallowed
+affection which she could not help manifesting for the memory of her father.
+The judicious reluctance of the Caucasian ecclesiastics to inquire
+over-anxiously into the creeds and customs of the primitive Church was a great
+help to her; and another difficulty was removed by the Bishop, who, having no
+idea of encouraging a rival thaumaturgist, took an early opportunity of
+signifying that it was rather in the line of Desmotes (for by this name the new
+saint passed) to be the subject than the instrument of miracles, and that, at
+all events, no more were to be looked for from him at his time of life. The
+warmth with which Elenko espoused this view raised her greatly in his good
+opinion, and he was always ready to come to her aid when she became entangled
+in chronological or historical difficulties, or seasoned her versions of
+Desmotes’ speeches with reminiscences of Plato or Marcus Aurelius, or when her
+invention failed altogether. On such occasions, if objectors grew troublesome,
+the Bishop would thunder, “Brethren, I smell a heresy!” and no more was said.
+One minor trouble both to Prometheus and Elenko was the affection they were
+naturally expected to manifest towards the carcase of the wretched eagle, which
+many identified with the eagle of the Evangelist John. Prometheus was of a
+forgiving disposition, but Elenko wished nothing more ardently than that the
+whole aquiline race might have but one neck, and that she might wring it. It
+somewhat comforted her to observe that the eagle’s plumage was growing thin,
+while the eagle’s custodian was growing fat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But she had worse troubles to endure than any that eagles could occasion. The
+youth of those who resorted to her and Prometheus attracted remark from the
+graver members of the community. Young ladies found the precepts of the
+handsome and dignified saint indispensable to their spiritual health; young men
+were charmed with their purity as they came filtered through the lips of
+Elenko. Is man more conceited than woman, or more confiding? Elenko should
+certainly have been at ease; no temptress, however enterprising, could well be
+spreading her nets for an Antony three hundred years old. Prometheus, on the
+contrary, might have found cause for jealousy in many a noble youth’s
+unconcealed admiration of Elenko. Yet he seemed magnificently unconscious of
+any cause for apprehension, while Elenko’s heart swelled till it was like to
+burst. She had the further satisfaction of knowing herself the best hated woman
+in Caucasia, between the enmity of those of whose admirers she had made an
+involuntary conquest, and of those who found her standing between them and
+Prometheus. Her monopoly of Greek, she felt sure, was her only security. Two
+constant attendants at Prometheus’s receptions particularly alarmed her, the
+Princess Miriam, niece of the Bishop, a handsome widow accustomed to have
+things as she wished them; and a tall veiled woman who seemed unknown to all,
+but whose unseen eyes, she instinctively knew, were never averted from the
+unconscious Prometheus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was therefore with some trepidation that she received a summons to the
+private apartment of the Princess Miriam.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Dear friend,” the Princess began, “thou knowest the singular affection which I
+have invariably entertained for thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Right well do I know it,” responded Elenko. (“The thirty-first lie to-day,”
+she added wearily to herself.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is this affection, dear friend,” continued the Princess, “which induces me
+on the present occasion to transgress the limits of conventional propriety, and
+make a communication distressing to thee, but infinitely more so to myself.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko implored the Princess to make no such sacrifice in the cause of
+friendship, but the great lady was resolute.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“People say,” she continued&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What say they?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That thy relation to Desmotes is indiscreet. That it is equivocal. That it is
+offensive. That it is sacrilegious. That, in a word, it is improper.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko defended herself with as much energy as her candour would allow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Dear friend,” said the Princess, “thou dost not imagine that I have part or
+lot in these odious imputations? Even could I deem them true, should I not
+think charitably of thee, but yesterday a heathen, and educated in impiety by a
+foul sorcerer? My poor lamb! But tongues must be stopped, and I have now to
+advise thee how this may be accomplished.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Say on.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“People will always talk so long as thou art the sole medium of communication
+with the holy man. Some deem him less ignorant of our speech than he seems, but
+concerning this I inquire not: for, in society, what seems, is. Enough that thy
+colloquies expose thee to scandal. There is but one remedy. Thou must yield thy
+place to another. It is meet that thou forthwith instruct in that barbarous
+dialect some matron of unblemished repute and devout aspirations; no mere
+ignorant devotee, however, but a woman of the world, whose prudence and
+experience may preserve the holy man from the pitfalls set for him by the
+unprincipled. Manifestly she must be a married person, else nought were gained,
+yet must she not be chargeable with forsaking her duties towards her husband
+and children. It follows that she must be a widow. It were also well that she
+should be of kin to some influential personage, to whose counsel she might have
+recourse in times of difficulty, and whose authority might protect her against
+the slanderous and evil disposed. I have not been able to meet any one endowed
+with all these qualifications, excepting myself. I therefore propose to thee
+that thou shouldst instruct me in the speech of Desmotes, and when I am
+qualified to take thy place my uncle shall elevate thee to the dignity of
+Abbess, or bestow thee upon some young clergyman of extraordinary desert.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko intimated, perhaps with more warmth than necessary, her aversion to both
+propositions, and the extreme improbability of the Princess ever acquiring any
+knowledge of Greek by her instrumentality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If this is the case,” said the Princess, with perfect calmness, “I must have
+recourse to my other method, which is infallible.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko inquired what it might be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I shall represent to my uncle, what indeed he very well knows, that a saint
+is, properly speaking, of no value till he is dead. Not until his decease are
+his relics available, or pilgrimages to his shrine feasible. It is solely in
+anticipation of this event that my uncle is keeping Desmotes at all; and the
+sooner it comes to pass, the sooner will my revered relative come by his own.
+Only think of the capital locked up in the new church, now so nearly completed,
+on the spot where they picked up the eagle! How shall it be dedicated to
+Desmotes in Desmotes’ lifetime? Were it not a most blissful and appropriate
+coincidence if the day of the consecration were that of the saint’s migration
+to a better world? I shall submit this view of the case to my uncle: he is
+accustomed to hear reason from me, of whom, between ourselves, he is not a
+little afraid. Thou mayest rely upon it that about the time of the consecration
+Desmotes will ascend to heaven; while thou, it is gravely to be feared, wilt
+proceed in the opposite direction. Would’st thou avert this unpleasantness,
+think well of my first proposal. I give thee credit for loving Desmotes, and
+suppose, therefore, that thou wilt make some sacrifice for his sake. I am a
+Kettle, thou art a Pot. Take heed how thou knockest against me!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elenko sped back to bear tidings of the threatened collision to Prometheus. As
+she approached his chamber she heard with astonishment two voices in eager
+conversation, and discovered with still greater amazement that their dialogue
+was carried on in Greek. The second speaker, moreover, was evidently a female.
+A jealous pang shot through Elenko’s breast; she looked cautiously in, and
+discerned the same mysterious veiled woman whose demeanour had already been an
+enigma to her. But the veil was thrown back, and the countenance went far to
+allay Elenko’s disquiet. It bore indeed traces of past beauty, but was
+altogether that of one who had known better days; worn and faded, weary and
+repining. Elenko’s jealousy vanished, though her surprise redoubled, when she
+heard Prometheus address the stranger as “Sister.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A pretty brother I have got,” rejoined the lady, in high sharp tones: “to
+leave me in want! Never once to inquire after me!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nay, sister, or sister-in-law,” responded Prometheus, “if it comes to that,
+where were you while I was on Caucasus? The Oceanides ministered to me, Hermes
+came now and then, even Hercules left a card; but I never saw Pandora.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How could I compromise Epimetheus, Prometheus?” demanded Pandora. “Besides, my
+attendant Hope was always telling me that all would come right, without any
+meddling of mine.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let her tell you so now,” retorted Prometheus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Tell me now! Do you pretend not to know that the hussey forsook Olympus ten
+years ago, and has turned Christian?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am sure I am very sorry to hear it. Somehow, she never forsook <i>me</i>. I
+can’t imagine how you Gods get on without her.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Get on! We are getting off. Except Eros and Plutus, who seem as usual, and the
+old Fates, who go on spinning as if nothing had happened, none of us expects to
+last for another ten years. The sacrifices have dwindled down to nothing. Zeus
+has put down his eagle. Hera has eaten her peacocks. Apollo’s lyre is never
+heard&mdash;pawned, no doubt. Bacchus drinks water, and Venus&mdash;well, you
+can imagine how she gets on without him and Ceres. And here you are, sleek and
+comfortable, and never troubling yourself about your family. But you had
+better, or I swear I will tell Zeus; and we shall see whether these Christians
+will keep you with your ante-chamber full of starving gods. Take a day to think
+of what I have been saying!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And away she flounced, not noticing Elenko. Long and earnestly did the pair
+discuss the perils that menaced them, and at the end of their deliberations
+Elenko sought the Bishop, and briefly imparted the Princess Miriam’s ultimatum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is painful to a spiritual man,” replied the prelate, “to be accessory to a
+murder. It is also repugnant to his feelings to deny a beloved niece anything
+on which she has set her heart. To avoid such grievous dilemma, I judge it well
+that ye both ascend to heaven without further ceremony.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night the ascent of Prometheus and Elenko was witnessed by divers credible
+persons. The new church was consecrated shortly afterwards. It was amply stored
+with relics from the wardrobe of Prometheus and what remained of the eagle. The
+damsels of the capital regained their admirers, and those who had become
+enamoured of Prometheus mostly transferred their affections to the Bishop.
+Everybody was satisfied except the Princess Miriam, who never ceased to deplore
+her indulgence in giving Elenko the chance of first speech with her uncle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If I had been five minutes beforehand with the minx!” she said.
+</p>
+
+<h3>IV</h3>
+
+<p>
+The heaven to which Prometheus and Elenko had ascended was situated in a
+sequestered valley of Laconia. A single winding path led into the glen, which
+was inhabited only by a few hunters and shepherds, who still observed the rites
+of the ancient faith; and sometimes, deeming but to show kindness to a mortal,
+refreshed or sheltered a forlorn and hungry Deity. Saving at the entrance the
+vale was walled round by steep cliffs, for the most part waving with trees, but
+here and there revealing the naked crag. It was traversed by a silvery stream,
+in its windings enclosing Prometheus’s and Elenko’s cottage, almost as in an
+island. The cot, buried in laurel and myrtle, had a garden where fig and
+mulberry, grape and almond, ripened in their season. A few goats browsed on the
+long grass, and yielded their milk to the household. Bread and wine, and flesh
+when needed, were easily procured from the neighbours. Beyond necessary
+furniture, the cottage contained little but precious scrolls, obtained by
+Elenko from Athens and the newly founded city of Constantine. In these, under
+her guidance, Prometheus read of matters that never, while he dwelt on Olympus,
+entered the imagination of any God.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is a chief happiness of lovers that each possesses treasures wholly their
+own, which they may yet make fully the possession of the other. These treasures
+are of divers kinds, beauty, affection, memory, hope. But never were such
+treasures of knowledge shared between lovers as between Prometheus and Elenko.
+Each possessed immeasurable stores, hitherto inaccessible to the other. How
+trifling seemed the mythical lore which Elenko had gleaned as the minister of
+Phœbus to that now imparted by Prometheus! The Titan had seen all, and been a
+part of all that he had seen. He had bowed beneath the sceptre of Uranus, he
+had witnessed his fall, and marked the ocean crimson with his blood. He
+remembered hoary Saturn a brisk active Deity, pushing his way to the throne of
+Heaven, and devouring in a trice the stone that now resists his fangs for
+millenniums. He had heard the shields of the Corybantes clash around the infant
+Zeus; he described to Elenko how one day the sea had frothed and boiled, and
+undraped Aphrodite had ascended from it in the presence of the gazing and
+applauding amphitheatre of cloud-cushioned gods. He could depict the personal
+appearance of Cybele, and sketch the character of Enceladus. He had instructed
+Zeus, as Chiron had instructed Achilles; he remembered Poseidon afraid of the
+water, and Pluto of the dark. He called to mind and expounded ancient oracles
+heretofore unintelligible: he had himself been told, and had disbelieved, that
+the happiest day of his own life would be that on which he should feel himself
+divested of immortality. Of the younger gods and their doings he knew but
+little; he inquired with interest whether Bacchus had returned in safety from
+his Indian expedition, and whether Proserpine had a family of divine imps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Much more, nevertheless, had Elenko to teach Prometheus than she could learn
+from him. How trivial seemed the history of the gods to what he now heard of
+the history of men! Were these indeed the beings he had known “like ants in the
+sunless recesses of caves, dwelling deep-burrowing in the earth, ignorant of
+the signs of the seasons,” to whom he had given fire and whom he had taught
+memory and number, for whom he had “brought the horse under the chariot, and
+invented the sea-beaten, flaxen-winged chariot of the sailor?” And now, how
+poorly showed the gods beside this once wretched brood! What Deity could die
+for Olympus, as Leonidas had for Greece? Which of them could, like Iphigenia,
+dwell for years beside the melancholy sea, keeping a true heart for an absent
+brother? Which of them could raise his fellows nearer to the source of all
+Deity, as Socrates and Plato had raised men? Who could portray himself as
+Phidias had portrayed Athene? Could the Muses speak with their own voices as
+they had spoken by Sappho’s? He was especially pleased to see his own moral
+superiority to Zeus so eloquently enforced by Æschylus, and delighted in
+criticising the sentiments which the other poets had put into the mouths of the
+gods. Homer, he thought, must have been in Olympus often, and Aristophanes not
+seldom. When he read in the Cyclops of Euripides, “Stranger, I laugh to scorn
+Zeus’s thunderbolts,” he grew for a moment thoughtful. “Am I,” he questioned,
+“ending where Polyphemus began?” But when he read a little further on:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+The wise man’s only Jupiter is this,<br/>
+To eat and drink during his little day,<br/>
+And give himself no care&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+“No,” he said, “the Zeus that nailed me to the rock is better than this Zeus.
+But well for man to be rid of both, if he does not put another in their place;
+or, in dropping his idolatry, has not flung away his religion. Heaven has not
+departed with Zeus.” And, taking his lyre, he sang:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+What floods of lavish splendour<br/>
+    The lofty sun doth pour!<br/>
+What else can Heaven render?<br/>
+    What room hath she for more?<br/>
+<br/>
+Yet shall his course be shortly done,<br/>
+    And after his declining<br/>
+The skies that held a single Sun<br/>
+With thousands shall be shining.
+</p>
+
+<h3>V</h3>
+
+<p>
+It was not long ere the gods began to find their way to Prometheus’s earthly
+paradise, and who came once came again. The first was Epimetheus, who had
+probably suffered least of all from the general upset, having in truth little
+to lose since his ill-starred union with Pandora. He had indeed reason for
+thankfulness in his practical divorce from his spouse, who had settled in
+Caucasia, and gave Greek lessons to the Princess Miriam. Would Prometheus lend
+him half a talent? a quarter? a tenth? a hundredth? Thanks, thanks. Prometheus
+might rely upon it that his residence should not be divulged on any account.
+Notwithstanding which assurance, the cottage was visited next day by eleven
+gods and demigods, mostly Titans. Elenko found it trying, and was really
+alarmed when by and by the Furies, having made over their functions to the
+Devil, strolled up to take the air, and dropped in for a chat, bringing
+Cerberus. But they behaved exceedingly well, and took back a message from
+Elenko to Eurydice. Ere long she was on most intimate terms with all the
+dethroned divinities, celestial, infernal, and marine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Beautiful and blessed beyond most things is youthful enthusiasm, looking up to
+something it feels or deems above itself. Beautiful, too, as autumn sunshine is
+maturity looking down with gentleness on the ideal it has surpassed, and
+reverencing it still for old ideas and associations. The thought of beholding a
+Deity would once have thrilled Elenko with rapture, if this had not been
+checked by awe at her own presumption. The idea that a Deity, other than some
+disgraced offender like Prometheus, could be the object of her compassion,
+would never have entered her mind. And now she pitied the whole Olympian cohort
+most sincerely, not so much for having fallen as for having deserved to fall.
+She could not conceal from herself how grievously they were one and all behind
+the age. It was impossible to make Zeus comprehend how an idea could be a match
+for a thunderbolt. Apollo spoke handsomely of Homer, yet evidently esteemed the
+Iliad and Odyssey but lightly in comparison with the blind bard’s hymn to
+himself. Ceres candidly admitted that her mind was a complete blank on the
+subject of the Eleusinian mysteries. Aphrodite’s dress was admirable for
+summer, but in winter seemed obstinate conservatism; and why should Pallas make
+herself a fright with her Gorgon helmet, now that it no longer frightened
+anybody? Where Elenko would fain have adored she found herself tolerating,
+excusing, condescending. How many Elenkos are even now tenderly nursing ancient
+creeds, whose main virtue is the virtue of their professors!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One autumn night all the principal gods were assembled under Prometheus’s roof,
+doing justice to the figs and mulberries, and wine cooled with Taygetan snow.
+The guests were more than usually despondent. Prometheus was moody and
+abstracted, his breast seemed labouring with thought. “So looked my Pythoness,”
+whispered Apollo to his neighbour, “when about to deliver an oracle.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the oracle came&mdash;in lyric verse, not to infringe any patent of
+Apollo’s&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+When o’er the towers of Constantine<br/>
+An Orient Moon begins to shine,<br/>
+Waning nor waxing aught, and bright<br/>
+In daytide as in deep of night:<br/>
+Then, though the fane be brought<br/>
+    To wreck, the God shall find,<br/>
+Enthroned in human thought,<br/>
+    A temple in the mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And what becomes of us while this prodigious moonshine is concocting?”
+demanded Zeus, who had become the most sceptical of any of the gods.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Go to Elysium,” suggested Prometheus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There’s an idea!” cried Zeus and Pallas together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To Elysium! to Elysium!” exclaimed the other gods, and all rose tumultuously,
+saving two.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I go not,” said Eros, “for where Love is, there is Elysium. And yonder rising
+moon tells me that my hour is come.” And he flitted forth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Neither go I,” said an old blind god, “for where Plutus is, Elysium is not.
+Moreover, mankind would follow after me. But I too must away. Strange that I
+should have abode so long under the roof of a pair of perfect virtue.” And he
+tottered out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the other gods swept forth into the moonlight, and were seen no more. And
+Prometheus picked up the forsaken sandals of Hermes, and bound them on his own
+feet, and grasped Elenko, and they rose up by a dizzy flight to empty heaven.
+All was silent in those immense courts, vacant of everything save here and
+there some rusty thunderbolt or mouldering crumb of ambrosia. Above, around,
+below, beyond sight, beyond thought, stretched the still deeps of æther,
+blazing with innumerable worlds. Eye could rove nowhither without beholding a
+star, nor could star be beheld from which the Gods’ hall, with all its
+vastness, would not have been utterly invisible. Elenko leaned over the
+battlements, and watched the racing meteors. Prometheus stood by her, and
+pointed out in the immeasurable distance the little speck of shining dust from
+which they had flown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There? or here?” he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There!” said Elenko.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>THE POTION OF LAO-TSZE</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+And there the body lay, age after age,<br/>
+    Mute, breathing, beating, warm, and undecaying,<br/>
+Like one asleep in a green hermitage,<br/>
+    With gentle sleep about its eyelids playing,<br/>
+And living in its dreams beyond the rage<br/>
+    Of death or life; while they were still arraying<br/>
+In liveries ever new the rapid, blind,<br/>
+And fleeting generations of mankind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the days of the Tang dynasty China was long happy under the sceptre of a
+good Emperor, named Sin-Woo. He had overcome the enemies of the land, confirmed
+the friendship of its allies, augmented the wealth of the rich, and mitigated
+the wretchedness of the poor. But most especially was he admired and beloved
+for his persecution of the impious sect of Lao-tsze, which he had well-nigh
+exterminated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was but natural that such an Emperor should congratulate himself upon his
+goodness and worth; yet, as no human bliss is perfect, sorrow could not fail to
+enter his mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is grievous to reflect,” said he to his courtiers, “that if, as ye all
+affirm, there hath not been any Emperor of equal merit with myself before my
+time, neither will any such arise after me, my subjects must inevitably be
+sufferers by my death.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To which the courtiers unanimously responded, “O Emperor, live for ever!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Happy thought!” exclaimed the Emperor; “but wherewithal shall it be executed?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Prime Minister looked at the Chancellor, the Chancellor looked at the
+Treasurer, the Treasurer looked at the Chamberlain, the Chamberlain looked at
+the Principal Bonze, the Principal Bonze looked at the Second Bonze, who, to
+his great surprise, looked at him in return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When the turn comes to me,” murmured the inferior functionary, “I would say
+somewhat.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Speak!” commanded the Emperor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Uncle of the stars,” said the Bonze, “there are those in your Majesty’s
+dominions who possess the power of lengthening life, who have, in fact,
+discovered the Elixir of Immortality.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let them be immediately brought hither,” commanded the Emperor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Unhappily,” returned the Bonze, “these persons, without exception, belong to
+the abominable sect of Lao-tsze, whose members your Majesty long ago commanded
+to cease from existence, with which august order they have for the most part
+complied. In my own diocese, where for some years after your Majesty’s happy
+accession we were accustomed to impale twenty thousand annually, it is now
+difficult to find twenty, with the utmost diligence on the part of the
+executioners.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It has of late sometimes appeared to me,” said the Emperor, “that there may be
+more good in that sect than I have been led to believe by my counsellors.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have always thought,” said the Prime Minister, “that they were rather
+misguided than wilfully wicked.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They are a kind of harmless lunatics,” said the Chancellor; “they should, I
+think, be made wards in Chancery.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Their money does not appear different from other men’s,” said the Treasurer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I,” said the Chamberlain, “have known an old woman who had known another old
+woman who belonged to this sect, and who assured her that she had been very
+good when she was a little girl.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If,” said the Emperor, “it appears that his Grace the Principal Bonze hath in
+any respect misled us, his property will necessarily be confiscated to the
+Imperial Treasury, and the Second Bonze will succeed to his office. It is
+needful, however, to ascertain before all things whether this sect does really
+possess the Elixir of Immortality, for on that the entire question of its
+deserts obviously depends. Our Counsellor the Second Bonze having, next to
+myself, the greatest interest in the matter, I desire him to make due inquiries
+and report to us at the next council, when I shall be prepared to state what
+fine will be imposed upon him, should he not have succeeded.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night all the members of the Lao-tsze sect inhabiting prisons under the
+jurisdiction of the Principal Bonze were decapitated, and the P.B. laid his own
+head upon his pillow with some approach to peace of mind, trusting that the
+knowledge of the Elixir of Immortality had perished with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Second Bonze, having a different object to attain, proceeded in a different
+manner. He sent for his captives, and discoursed to them touching the evil arts
+of unprincipled courtiers, and the facility with which they mislead even the
+best intentioned princes. For years had he, the Second Bonze, pleaded the cause
+of toleration at court; and had at length succeeded in enlightening his Majesty
+to such an extent that there was every prospect of an edict of indulgence being
+shortly promulgated, provided always that the Elixir of Life was previously
+forthcoming.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The unfortunate heretics would have been only too thankful to prolong the
+Emperor’s life indefinitely in consideration of securing peace for their own,
+but they could only inform the Bonze of the general tradition of their sect.
+This was that the knowledge of Lao-tsze’s secret was confined to certain
+adepts, most of whom were plunged into so deep a trance that any communication
+with them was impossible. For the administration of the miraculous draught, it
+appeared, was attended with this inconvenience, that it threw the partaker into
+a deep sleep, lasting any time between ten years and eternity, according to the
+depth of his potation. During its continuance the ordinary operations of nature
+were suspended, and the patient awoke with precisely the same bodily
+constitution, old or young, as he had possessed on falling into his lethargy;
+and though still liable to wounds and accidents, he or she continued to enjoy
+undiminished health and vigour for a period equal to the duration of the
+trance, after which he sank back into the ranks of mortality, unless he could
+repeat the potion. All the adepts who had come to life under his present
+Majesty’s most clement reign had immediately emigrated: the only persons,
+therefore, capable of giving information were now buried in slumber, and of
+course would only speak when they should awake. They were mostly concealed in
+the recesses of caverns, those inhabited by wild beasts being usually preferred
+for the sake of better security, as no tiger or bear would harm a follower of
+Lao-tsze. The witnesses, therefore, advised the Bonze to ascertain the
+residences of the most ferocious tigers in his diocese, and to wait upon them
+personally, in the hope of thus discovering what he sought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This suggestion was exceedingly unpalatable to the Bonze, who felt almost
+equally unwilling to venture himself into a wild beast’s den or to give any
+other person the chance of making the discovery. While he hesitated in
+unspeakable perplexity he was informed that an old man, about to expire at the
+age of an hundred and twenty years, desired to have speech with him. Thinking
+so venerable a personage likely to have at least a glimmering of the great
+secret, the Bonze hurried to his bedside.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Our master, Lao-tsze,” began the old man, “forbids us to leave this world with
+anything undisclosed which may contribute to the advantage of our
+fellow-creatures. Whether he deemed the knowledge of the cup of immortality
+conducive to this end I cannot say, but the question doth not arise, for I do
+not possess it. Hear my tale, nevertheless. Ninety years ago, being a hunter,
+it was my hap to fall into the jaws of an enormous tiger, who bore me off to
+his cavern. I there found myself in the presence of two ladies, one youthful
+and of surpassing loveliness, the other haggard and wrinkled. The younger lady
+expostulated with the tiger, and he forthwith released me. My gratitude won the
+women’s confidence, and I learned that they were disciples of Lao-tsze who had
+repaired to the cavern to partake of the miraculous draught, which they were
+just about to do. They were, it appeared, mother and daughter, and I distinctly
+remember that the composition of the beverage was known to the daughter only.
+This impressed me, for I should naturally have expected the contrary. The tiger
+escorted me home. I forswore hunting, and became, and have secretly continued,
+a disciple of Lao-tsze. I will now indicate the position of the cavern to thee:
+whether the ladies will still be found in it is beyond my power to say.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And having pointed out the direction of the cavern, he expired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The thing had to be done. The Bonze dressed himself up as much like a votary of
+Lao-tsze as possible, provided himself with a body-guard of <i>bona fide</i>
+disciples, and, accompanied by a small army of huntsmen and warriors as well,
+marched in quest of the den of the tiger. It was discovered about nightfall,
+and having tethered a small boy near the entrance, that his screams when being
+devoured might give notice of the tiger’s issue from or return to his
+habitation, the Bonze and his myrmidons took up a flank position and awaited
+the dawn. The distant howls of roaming beasts of prey entirely deprived the
+holy man of his rest, but nothing worse befell him, and when in the morning the
+small boy, instead of providing the tiger with a breakfast, was heard crying
+for his own, the besiegers mustered up courage to enter the cavern. The glare
+of their torches revealed no tiger: but, to the Bonze’s inexpressible delight,
+two females lay on the floor of the cave, corresponding in all respects to the
+description of the old man. Their costume was that of the preceding century.
+One was wrinkled and hoary; the inexpressible loveliness of the other, who
+might have seen seventeen or eighteen summers, extorted a universal cry of
+admiration, followed by a hush of enraptured silence. Warm, flexible, fresh in
+colour, breathing naturally as in slumber, the figures lay, the younger woman’s
+arm underneath the elder woman’s neck, and her chin nestling on the other’s
+shoulder. The countenance of each seemed to indicate happy dreams.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Can this indeed be but a trance?” simultaneously questioned several of the
+Bonze’s followers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“<i>Fiat experimentum in corpore vili!</i>” exclaimed the Bonze; and he thrust
+his long hunting spear into the elder woman’s bosom. Blood poured forth freely,
+but there was no change in the expression of the countenance. No struggle
+announced dissolution; not until the body grew chill and the limbs stiff could
+they be sure the old woman was indeed dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Carry the young woman like porcelain,” ordered the priest, and like the most
+fragile porcelain the exquisite young beauty was borne from the cavern smiling
+in her trance and utterly unconscious, while the corpse of her aged companion
+was abandoned to the hyænas. So often did the bearers pause to look on her
+beauty that it was found necessary to drape the countenance entirely, until
+reaching the closed sedan in which, vigilantly watched by the Bonze, she was
+transported to the Imperial palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so she was brought to the Emperor, and he worshipped her. She was laid on a
+couch of cloth of gold in the Imperial apartments. Wonderful was the contrast
+between her youthful beauty, so still in its repose, and the old haggard
+Emperor, fevered with the lust of beauty and love of life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Majesty,” said his wisest counsellor, “is there any sect in thy dominions
+that possesses the secret of perpetual youth?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the Emperor made proclamation, but no such sect could be found. And he
+mourned exceedingly, and caused strong perfumes to be burned around the
+sleeper, and conches to be blown and gongs beaten in her ears, hoping that she
+would awake ere he was dead or wholly decrepit. But she stirred not. And he
+shut himself up with her and passed his time praying to Fo for her awakening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But one day the door of the chamber was beaten down, and his old wife came in
+passionately upbraiding him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Sin-Woo,” she cried, “thou hast not the heart of a man! Thou wouldest be
+deathless, leaving me to die! I shall be laid in the grave, and thou wilt reign
+with another! Wherefore have I been true to thee, if not that our ashes might
+mingle at the last? Thou hoary sensualist!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Su-Ti,” said the Emperor, with feeling, “thou dost grievously misjudge me. I
+am no heartless sensualist, no butterfly sipper at the lips of beauty. Is not
+my soul entirely possessed by this divine creature, whom I love with an
+affection infinitely exceeding that which I have entertained for thee at any
+period? And how knowest thou,” added he, striving to soothe her, “that I will
+not give thee to drink of the miraculous potion?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And keep my grey hairs and wrinkles through all time! Nay, Sin-Woo, I am no
+fool like thee, and were I so, I am not in love with any youth. And know I not
+that even if I would accept the boon, thou would’st never give it?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And she rushed away in fury and hanged herself by her Imperial girdle.
+Whereupon all the other wives and concubines of the Emperor did likewise, as
+custom and reason prescribe. All the palace was filled with lamentation and
+funerals. But the Emperor lamented not, nor turned his gaze from the sleeper,
+nor did the sleeper awaken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And his son came to him angry with exceeding wrath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou hast murdered my mother. Thou would’st rob me of the crown that is
+rightfully mine. I, born to be an Emperor, shall die a subject! Nay, but I will
+save thee from thyself. I will pierce thy leman with the sword, or burn her
+with fire.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the Emperor, fearing he would do as he threatened, commanded him to be
+slain, as also his brothers and sisters. And he paid no heed to the affairs of
+State, but gave all into the hand of the Second, now the Principal Bonze. And
+the laws ceased to be observed, and rebellions broke out in the provinces, and
+enemies invaded the country, and there was famine in the land.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now the Emperor was well-nigh ten years nearer to the gates of death than
+when the Sleeping Beauty had been brought to his court. The love of beauty was
+nearly quenched in him, but the longing for life grew more intense. He became
+angry with the sleeper, that she awakened not, and with his little remaining
+strength smote her fiercely on the cheeks, but she gave no sign of reviving.
+Remembering that if he gained the potion of immortality he would himself be
+plunged into a trance, he made all preparations for the interregnum. He decreed
+that he was to be seated erect on his throne, with all his imperial insignia,
+and it was to be death to any one who should presume to remove any of them. His
+slumbering figure was to preside at all councils, and to be consulted in every
+act of state, and all ministers and officers were to do homage daily. The
+revived Sleeping Beauty was to partake of the draught anew, at the same time
+and in the same manner as himself, that she might awake with him, and that he
+might find her charms unimpaired. All the ministers swore solemnly to observe
+these regulations; firmly purposing to burn the sleeper, if sleep he ever did,
+at the very first opportunity, and scatter his ashes to the winds. Then they
+would fight for the Empire among themselves; each, meanwhile, was mainly
+occupied in striving to gain the rebels over to his interest, insomuch that the
+people grew more miserable day by day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And as the aged Emperor waxed more and more feeble, he began to see visions.
+Legions of little black imps surrounded him crying, “We are thy sins, and would
+be punished&mdash;would’st thou by living for ever deprive us of our due?” And
+fair female forms came veiled with drooping heads, and murmured, “We are thy
+virtues, and would be rewarded&mdash;would’st thou cheat us?” And other figures
+came, dark but lovely, and whispered, “We are thy dead friends who have long
+waited for thee&mdash;would’st thou take to thyself new friends, and forget
+us?” And others said, “We are thy memories&mdash;wilt thou live on till we are
+all withered in thy heart?” And others said, “We are thy strength and thy
+beauty, thy memory and thy wit&mdash;canst thou live, knowing thou wilt never
+see us more?” And at last came two warders, officers of the King of Death, and
+one of them was laughing. And the other asked why he laughed, and he replied:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I laugh at the Emperor, who thinks to escape our master, not knowing that the
+moment of his decease was engraved with a pen of iron upon a rock of adamant a
+million million years or ever this world was.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And when comes it?” asked the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In ten minutes,” said the first.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Emperor heard this he was wild with terror, and tottered to the couch
+on which the Sleeping Beauty lay. “Oh, awake!” he cried, “awake and save me ere
+it is too late!” And, oh wonder! the sleeper stirred, and opened her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If she had been so beautiful while sleeping, what was she when awake! But the
+love of life had overcome the love of beauty in the Emperor’s bosom, and he saw
+not the eyes like stars, and the bloom as of peaches and lilies, or the aspect
+grand and smiling as daybreak. He could only cry, “Give me the potion, lest I
+die, give me the potion!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That cannot I,” she said. “The secret was known only to my daughter.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who is thy daughter?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The hoary woman, she who slept with me in the cavern.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That aged crone thy daughter, daughter to thee so youthful and so fresh?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Even so,” she said, “I bore her at sixteen, and slumbered for seventy years.
+When I awoke she was withered and decrepit: I youthful as when I closed my
+eyes. But she had learned the secret, which I never knew.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Bonze shall be crucified!” yelled the Emperor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is too late,” said she; “he is torn in pieces already.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By whom?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By the multitude that are now coming to do the like unto thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And as she spoke the doors were burst open, and in rushed the people, headed by
+the most pious Bonze in the Empire (after the late Principal Bonze), who
+plunged a sword into the Emperor’s breast, exclaiming:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He who despises this life in comparison with another deserves to lose the life
+which he has.” Words, saith the historian Li, which have been thought worthy to
+be inscribed in letters of gold in the Hall of Confucius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the people were crying, “Kill the sorceress!” But she looked upon them, and
+they cried, “Be our Empress!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Remember,” said she, “that ye will have to bear with me for a hundred years!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Would,” said they, “that it might be a hundred thousand!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously. Among her good acts is
+enumerated her toleration of the followers of Lao-tsze. Since, however, they
+have ceased to be persecuted by man, it is observed that wild beasts have lost
+their ancient respect for them, and devour them with no less appetite than the
+members of other sects and denominations.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>ABDALLAH THE ADITE</h2>
+
+<p>
+An aged hermit named Sergius dwelt in the wilds of Arabia, addicting himself to
+the pursuit of religion and alchemy. Of his creed it could only be said that it
+was so much better than that of his neighbours as to cause him to be commonly
+esteemed a Yezidi, or devil worshipper. But the better informed deemed him a
+Nestorian monk, who had retired into the wilderness on account of differences
+with his brethren, who sought to poison him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The imputation of Yezidism against Sergius was the cause that a certain
+inquisitive young man resorted to him, trusting to obtain light concerning the
+nature of demons. But he found that Sergius could give him no information on
+that subject, but, on the contrary, discoursed so wisely and beautifully on
+holy things, that his pupil’s intellect was enlightened, and his enthusiasm was
+inflamed, and he longed to go forth and instruct the ignorant people around
+him; the Saracens, and the Sabaeans, and the Zoroastrians, and the Carmathians,
+and the Baphometites, and the Paulicians, who are a remnant of the ancient
+Manichees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nay, good youth,” said Sergius, “I have renounced the sending forth of
+missionaries, having made ample trial with my spiritual son, the Prophet
+Abdallah.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” exclaimed the youth, “was Abdallah the Adite thy disciple?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Even so,” said Sergius. “Hearken to his history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Never have I instructed so promising a pupil as Abdallah, nor when he was
+first my disciple do I deem that he was other than the most simple-minded and
+well-intentioned of youths. I always called him son, a title I have never
+bestowed on another. Like thee, he had compassion on the darkness around him,
+and craved my leave to go forth and dispel it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘My son,’ said I, ‘I will not restrain thee: thou art no longer a child. Thou
+hast heard me discourse on the subject of persecution, and knowest that poison
+was administered to me personally on account of my inability to perceive the
+supernatural light emanating from the navel of Brother Gregory. Thou art aware
+that thou wilt be beaten with rods and pricked with goads, chained and starved
+in a dungeon, very probably blinded, very possibly burned with fire?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘All these things I am prepared to undergo,’ said Abdallah; and he embraced me
+and bid me farewell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“After certain moons he returned covered with weals and scars, and his bones
+protruded through his skin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Whence are these weals and scars?’ asked I, ‘and what signifies this
+protrusion of thy bones?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘The weals and the scars,’ answered he, ‘proceed from the floggings inflicted
+upon me by command of the Caliph; and my bones protrude by reason of the
+omission of his officers to furnish me with either food or drink in the dungeon
+wherein I was imprisoned by his orders.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘O my son,’ exclaimed I, ‘in the eyes of faith and right reason these scars
+are lovelier than the moles of beauty, and the sight of thy bones is like the
+beholding of hidden treasure!’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And Abdallah strove to look as though he believed me; nor did he entirely fail
+therein. And I took him, and fed him, and healed him, and sent him forth a
+second time into the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And after a space he returned, covered as before with wounds and bruises, but
+comely and somewhat fat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Whence this sleekness of body, my son?’ I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Through the charity of the Caliph’s wives,’ he answered, ‘who have fed me
+secretly, I having assured them that in remembrance of this good work each of
+them in the world to come would have seven husbands.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘How knewest thou this, my son?’ I inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘In truth, father,’ he said, ‘I did not know it; but I thought it probable.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘O my son! my son!’ exclaimed I, ‘thou art on a dangerous road. To win over
+weak ignorant people by promises of what they shall receive in a future life,
+whereof thou knowest no more than they do! Knowest thou not that the
+inestimable blessings of religion are of an inward and spiritual nature? Did I
+ever promise any disciple any recompense for his enlightenment and good deeds,
+save flogging, starvation, and burning?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Never, father,” said he, ‘and therefore thou hast had no follower of thy law
+save one, and he hath broken it.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He left me after a shorter stay than before, and again went forth to preach.
+After a long time he returned in good condition of body, yet manifestly having
+something upon his mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Father,’ he said, ‘thy son hath preached with faithfulness and acceptance,
+and turned thousands unto righteousness. But a sorcerer hath arisen, saying,
+“Why follow ye Abdallah, seeing that he breathes not fire out of his mouth and
+nostrils?” And the people give ear unto the words that come from this man’s
+lips, when they behold the flame that cometh from his nose. And unless thou
+teachest me to do as he doth I shall assuredly perish.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And I told Abdallah that it was better to perish for the truth’s sake than to
+prolong life by lies and deceit. But he wept and lamented exceeding sore, and
+in the end he prevailed with me; and I taught him to breathe flame and smoke
+out of a hollow nut filled with combustible powder. And I took a certain
+substance called soap, but little known in this country, and anointed his feet
+therewith. And when he and the sorcerer met, both breathing flame, the people
+knew not which to follow; but when Abdallah walked over nine hot ploughshares,
+and the sorcerer could not touch one of them, they beat his brains out, and
+became Abdallah’s disciples.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A long time afterward Abdallah came to me again, this time with a joyful, and
+yet with somewhat of a troubled look, carrying a camel-hair blanket, which he
+undid, and lo! it was full of bones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘O father,’ he said, ‘I bring thee happy tidings. We have found the bones of
+the camel of the prophet Ad, upon which his revelation was engraved by him.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘If this be so,’ said I, ‘thou art acquainted with the precepts of the
+prophet, and hast no need of mine.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Nay, but father,’ said he, ‘although the revelation was without question
+originally engraved by the prophet on these very bones, it hath come to pass by
+the injury of time that not one letter of his writing can be distinguished. I
+have therefore come to ask thee to write it over again.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘What!’ I exclaimed, ‘I forge a revelation in the name of the prophet Ad! Get
+thee behind me!’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Thou knowest, father,’ he rejoined, ‘that if we had the original words of the
+prophet Ad here they would profit us nought, as by reason of their antiquity
+none would understand them. Seeing therefore that I myself cannot write, it is
+meet that thou shouldst set down in his name those things which he would have
+desired to deliver had he been now among us; but if thou wilt not, I shall ask
+Brother Gregory.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And when I heard him speak of having recourse to that cheat and impostor my
+spirit was grieved within me, and I wrote the Book of Ad myself. And I was
+heedful to put in none but wholesome and profitable precepts, and more
+especially did I forbid polygamy, having perceived a certain inclination
+thereunto in my disciple.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“After many days he came again, and this time he was in violent terror and
+agitation, and hair was wanting to the lower part of his countenance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘O Abdallah,’ I inquired, ‘where is thy beard?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘In the hands of my ninth wife,’ said he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Apostate!’ I exclaimed, ‘hast thou dared to espouse more wives than one?
+Rememberest thou not what is written in the Book of the prophet Ad?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘O father,’ he said, ‘the revelation of Ad being, as thou knowest, so
+exceedingly ancient, doth of necessity require a commentary. This hath been
+supplied by one of my disciples, a young Syrian and natural son of Gregory, as
+I opine. This young man can not only write, but write to my dictation, an
+accomplishment in which thou hast been found lacking, O Sergius. In this gloss
+it is set forth how, since woman hath the ninth part of the soul of man, the
+prophet, in enjoining us Adites (as we now call ourselves) to take but one
+wife, doth instruct us to take nine; to espouse a tenth would, I grant, be
+damnable. It ensues, therefore, that having become enamoured of a most charming
+young virgin, I am constrained to repudiate one of the wives whom I have taken
+already. To this, each thinking that it may be her turn speedily, if not now,
+they will in no wise consent, and have maltreated me as thou seest, and the
+dens of wild beasts are at this moment abodes of peace, compared to my
+seraglio. What is even worse, they threaten to disclose to the people the fact,
+of which they have unhappily become aware, that the revelation of the blessed
+Ad is not written upon the bones of a camel at all, but of a cow, and will
+therefore be accounted spurious, inasmuch as the prophet is not recorded to
+have ridden upon this quadruped. And seeing that thou didst inscribe the
+characters, O father, I cannot but fear that the fury of the people will extend
+unto thee, and that thou wilt be even in danger of thy life from them.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This argument of Abdallah’s had much weight with me, and I the more readily
+consented to his request as he did not on this occasion require any imposture
+at my hands, but merely the restitution of his domestic peace. And I went with
+him to his wives, and discoursed with them, and they agreed to abide by my
+sentence. And, willing to please him, I directed that he should marry the
+beautiful virgin, and put away one of his wives who was old and ugly, and
+endowed with the dispositions of Sheitan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘O father,’ said Abdallah, ‘thou hast brought me from death unto life! And
+thou, Zarah,’ he continued, ‘wilt lose nought, but gain exceedingly, in
+becoming the spouse of the wise and virtuous Sergius.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘I marry Zarah!’ I exclaimed, ‘I! a monk!’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Surely,’ said he, ‘thou would’st not take away her husband without giving her
+another in his stead?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘If he does I will throttle him,’ cried Zarah.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And I wept sore, and made great intercession. And it was agreed that there
+should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else would marry
+Zarah, I should be free of her. And I promised all my substance to any one who
+would do this, and no one was found. And she was offered to thirteen criminals
+doomed to suffer death, and they all chose death. And at the last I was
+constrained to marry her. And truly I have now the comfort of thinking that if
+I have offended by encouraging Abdallah’s deceits, or otherwise, the debt is
+paid, and Eternal Justice hath now nothing against me; for verily I was an
+inmate of Gehenna until it came to pass that she was herself translated
+thither. And respecting the manner of her translation, inquire not thou too
+curiously. It was doubtless a token of the displeasure of Heaven at her
+enormities that the water of the well of Kefayat, which had been known as the
+Diamond of the Desert, became about this time undrinkable, and pernicious to
+man and beast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased wife, which
+consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah again appeared
+before me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Hast thou come,’ said I, ‘to solicit me to abet thee in any new imposture?
+Know, once for all, that I will not.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘On the contrary,’ said he, ‘I am come to set thee at ease by proving to thee
+that I shall not again require thy assistance. Follow me.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And I followed him to a great plain, where was a host of armed horsemen and
+footmen, more than I could number. And they bore banners on which the name of
+Abdallah was embroidered in letters of gold. And in the midst was an ark of
+gold, with the bones of Ad’s camel, or cow. And by this was a great pile of the
+heads of men, and warriors were continually casting more and more upon the
+heap.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘How many?’ asked Abdallah.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Twelve thousand, O Apostle of God,’ answered they, ‘but there are more to
+come.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Thou monster!’ said I to Abdallah.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Nay, father,’ said he, ‘there will not be more than sixteen thousand in all,
+and these men were unbelievers. Moreover we have spared such of their women as
+were young and handsome, and have taken them for our concubines, as is ordained
+in the eleventh supplement to the Book of Ad, just promulgated by my authority.
+But come, I have other things to manifest unto thee.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And he led me where a stake was driven into the earth, and a man was chained
+unto it, and fuel was heaped all around him, and many stood by with lighted
+torches in their hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘O Abdallah,’ I exclaimed, ‘wherefore this atrocity?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘This man,’ he replied, ‘is a blasphemer, who hath said that the Book of Ad is
+written on the bones of a cow.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘But it is written on the bones of a cow! ‘I cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Even so,’ said he, ‘and therefore is his heresy the more damnable, and his
+punishment the more exemplary. Had it been indeed written on the bones of a
+camel, he might have affirmed what pleased him.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And I shook off the dust from my feet, and hastened to my dwelling. The rest
+of Abdallah’s acts thou knowest, and how he fell warring with the Carmathians.
+And now I ask thee, art thou yet minded to go forth as a missionary of the
+truth?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Sergius,” said the young man, “I perceive that the temptations are greater,
+and the difficulties far surpassing what I had thought. Yet will I go, and I
+trust by Heaven’s grace not to fail utterly.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then go,” said Sergius, “and Heaven’s blessing go with thee! Come back in ten
+years, should I be living, and if thou canst declare that thou hast forged no
+scriptures, and worked no miracles, and persecuted no unbelievers, and
+flattered no potentate, and bribed no one with the promise of aught in heaven
+or earth, I will give thee the philosopher’s stone.”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>ANANDA THE MIRACLE WORKER</h2>
+
+<p>
+The holy Buddha, Sakhya Muni, on dispatching his apostles to proclaim his
+religion throughout the peninsula of India, failed not to provide them with
+salutary precepts for their guidance. He exhorted them to meekness, to
+compassion, to abstemiousness, to zeal in the promulgation of his doctrine, and
+added an injunction never before or since prescribed by the founder of any
+religion&mdash;namely, on no account to perform any miracle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is further related, that whereas the apostles experienced considerable
+difficulty in complying with the other instructions of their master, and
+sometimes actually failed therein, the prohibition to work miracles was never
+once transgressed by any of them, save only the pious Ananda, the history of
+whose first year’s apostolate is recorded as follows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda repaired to the kingdom of Magadha, and instructed the inhabitants
+diligently in the law of Buddha. His doctrine being acceptable, and his speech
+persuasive, the people hearkened to him willingly, and began to forsake the
+Brahmins whom they had previously revered as spiritual guides. Perceiving this,
+Ananda became elated in spirit, and one day he exclaimed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How blessed is the apostle who propagates truth by the efficacy of reason and
+virtuous example, combined with eloquence, rather than error by imposture and
+devil-mongering, like those miserable Brahmins!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he uttered this vainglorious speech, the mountain of his merits was
+diminished by sixteen yojanas, and virtue and efficacy departed from him,
+insomuch that when he next addressed the multitude they first mocked, then
+hooted, and finally pelted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When matters had reached this pass, Ananda lifted his eyes and discerned a
+number of Brahmins of the lower sort, busy about a boy who lay in a fit upon
+the ground. They had long been applying exorcisms and other approved methods
+with scant success, when the most sagacious among them suggested:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let us render the body of this patient an uncomfortable residence for the
+demon; peradventure he will then cease to abide therein.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were accordingly engaged in branding the sufferer with hot irons, filling
+his nostrils with smoke, and otherwise to the best of their ability disquieting
+the intrusive devil. Ananda’s first thought was, “The lad is in a fit;” the
+second, “It were a pious deed to deliver him from his tormentors;” the third,
+“By good management this may extricate me from my present uncomfortable
+predicament, and redound to the glory of the most holy Buddha.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yielding to this temptation, he strode forward, chased away the Brahmins with
+an air of authority, and, uplifting his countenance to heaven, recited the
+appellations of seven devils. No effect ensuing, he repeated seven more, and so
+continued until, the fit having passed off in the course of nature, the
+patient’s paroxysms ceased, he opened his eyes, and Ananda restored him to his
+relatives. But the people cried loudly, “A miracle! a miracle!” and when Ananda
+resumed his instructions, they gave heed to him, and numbers embraced the
+religion of Buddha. Whereupon Ananda exulted, and applauded himself for his
+dexterity and presence of mind, and said to himself:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Surely the end sanctifies the means,”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he propounded this heresy, the eminence of his merits was reduced to the
+dimensions of a mole-hill, and he ceased to be of account in the eyes of any of
+the saints, save only of Buddha, whose compassion is inexhaustible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fame of his achievement, nevertheless, was bruited about the whole country,
+and soon reached the ears of the king, who sent for him, and inquired if he had
+actually expelled the demon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda replied in the affirmative.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am indeed rejoiced,” returned the king, “as thou now wilt without doubt
+proceed to heal <i>my</i> son, who has lain in a trance for twenty-nine days.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Alas! dread sovereign,” modestly returned Ananda, “how should the merits which
+barely suffice to effect the cure of a miserable Pariah avail to restore the
+offspring of an Elephant among Kings?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By what process are these merits acquired?” demanded the monarch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By the exercise of penance,” responded Ananda, “in virtue of which the austere
+devotee quells the winds, allays the waters, expostulates convincingly with
+tigers, carries the moon in his sleeve, and otherwise performs all acts and
+deeds appropriate to the character of a peripatetic thaumaturgist.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This being so,” answered the king, “thy inability to heal my son manifestly
+arises from defect of merit, and defect of merit from defect of penance. I will
+therefore consign thee to the charge of my Brahmins, that they may aid thee to
+fill up the measure of that which is lacking.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda vainly strove to explain that the austerities to which he had referred
+were entirely of a spiritual and contemplative character. The Brahmins,
+enchanted to get a heretic into their clutches, immediately seized upon him,
+and conveyed him to one of their temples. They stripped him, and perceived with
+astonishment that not one single weal or scar was visible anywhere on his
+person. “Horror!” they exclaimed; “here is a man who expects to go to heaven in
+a whole skin!” To obviate this breach of etiquette, they laid him upon his
+face, and flagellated him until the obnoxious soundness of cuticle was entirely
+removed. They then departed, promising to return next day and operate in a
+corresponding manner upon the anterior part of his person, after which, they
+jeeringly assured him, his merits would be in no respect less than those of the
+saintly Bhagiratha, or of the regal Viswamitra himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda lay half dead upon the floor of the temple, when the sanctuary was
+illuminated by the apparition of a resplendent Glendoveer, who thus addressed
+him:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well, backsliding disciple, art thou yet convinced of thy folly?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda relished neither the imputation on his orthodoxy nor that on his wisdom.
+He replied, notwithstanding, with all meekness:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Heaven forbid that I should repine at any variety of martyrdom that tends to
+the propagation of my master’s faith.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wilt thou then first be healed, and moreover become the instrument of
+converting the entire realm of Magadha?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How shall this be accomplished?” demanded Ananda.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By perseverance in the path of deceit and disobedience,” returned the
+Glendoveer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda winced, but maintained silence in the expectation of more explicit
+directions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Know,” pursued the spirit, “that the king’s son will revive from his trance at
+the expiration of the thirtieth day, which takes place at noon to-morrow. Thou
+hast but to proceed at the fitting period to the couch whereon he is deposited,
+and, placing thy hand upon his heart, to command him to rise forthwith. His
+recovery will be ascribed to thy supernatural powers, and the establishment of
+Buddha’s religion will result. Before this it will be needful that I should
+perform an actual cure upon thy back, which is within the compass of my
+capacity. I only request thee to take notice, that thou wilt on this occasion
+be transgressing the precepts of thy master with thine eyes open. It is also
+meet to apprise thee that thy temporary extrication from thy present
+difficulties will only involve thee in others still more formidable.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An incorporeal Glendoveer is no judge of the feelings of a flayed apostle,”
+thought Ananda. “Heal me,” he replied, “if thou canst, and reserve thy
+admonitions for a more convenient opportunity.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“So be it,” returned the Glendoveer; and as he extended his hand over Ananda,
+the latter’s back was clothed anew with skin, and his previous smart
+simultaneously allayed. The Glendoveer vanished at the same moment, saying,
+“When thou hast need of me, pronounce but the incantation, <i>Gnooh Imdap Inam
+Mua</i>, [*] and I will immediately be by thy side.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+*) The mystic formula of the Buddhists, read backwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The anger and amazement of the Brahmins may be conceived when, on returning
+equipped with fresh implements of flagellation, they discovered the salubrious
+condition of their victim. Their scourges would probably have undergone
+conversion into halters, had they not been accompanied by a royal officer, who
+took the really triumphant martyr under his protection, and carried him off to
+the palace. He was speedily conducted to the young prince’s couch, whither a
+vast crowd attended him. The hour of noon not having yet arrived, Ananda
+discreetly protracted the time by a seasonable discourse on the impossibility
+of miracles, those only excepted which should be wrought by the professors of
+the faith of Buddha. He then descended from his pulpit, and precisely as the
+sun attained the zenith laid his hand upon the bosom of the young prince, who
+instantly revived, and completed a sentence touching the game of dice which had
+been interrupted by his catalepsy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The people shouted, the courtiers went into ecstasies, the countenances of the
+Brahmins assumed an exceedingly sheepish expression. Even the king seemed
+impressed, and craved to be more particularly instructed in the law of Buddha.
+In complying with this request, Ananda, who had made marvellous progress in
+worldly wisdom during the last twenty-four hours, deemed it needless to dilate
+on the cardinal doctrines of his master, the misery of existence, the need of
+redemption, the path to felicity, the prohibition to shed blood. He simply
+stated that the priests of Buddha were bound to perpetual poverty, and that
+under the new dispensation all ecclesiastical property would accrue to the
+temporal authorities.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By the holy cow!” exclaimed the monarch, “this is something like a religion!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The words were scarcely out of the royal lips ere the courtiers professed
+themselves converts. The multitude followed their example. The Brahminical
+church was promptly disestablished and disendowed, and more injustice was
+committed in the name of the new and purified religion in one day than the old
+corrupt one had occasioned in a hundred years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda had the satisfaction of feeling able to forgive his adversaries, and of
+valuing himself accordingly; and to complete his felicity, he was received in
+the palace, and entrusted with the education of the king’s son, which he strove
+to conduct agreeably to the precepts of Buddha. This was a task of some
+delicacy, as it involved interference with the princely youth’s favourite
+amusement, which had previously consisted in torturing small reptiles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a short interval Ananda was again summoned to the monarch’s presence. He
+found his majesty in the company of two most ferocious ruffians, one of whom
+bore a huge axe, and the other an enormous pair of pincers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My chief executioner and my chief tormentor,” said the king.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda expressed his gratification at becoming acquainted with such exalted
+functionaries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou must know, most holy man,” resumed the king, “that need has again arisen
+for the exercise of fortitude and self-denial on thy part. A powerful enemy has
+invaded my dominions, and has impiously presumed to discomfit my troops. Well
+might I feel dismayed, were it not for the consolations of religion; but my
+trust is in thee, O spiritual father! It is urgent that thou shouldst
+accumulate the largest amount of merit with the least delay possible. I am
+unable to invoke the ministrations of thy old friends the Brahmins to this end,
+they being, as thou knowest, in disgrace, but I have summoned these trusty and
+experienced counsellors in their room. I find them not wholly in accord. My
+chief tormentor, being a man of mild temper and humane disposition, considers
+that it might at first suffice to employ gentle measures, such, for example, as
+suspending thee head downwards in the smoke of a wood fire, and filling thy
+nostrils with red pepper. My chief executioner, taking, peradventure, a too
+professional view of the subject, deems it best to resort at once to
+crucifixion or impalement. I would gladly know thy thoughts on the matter.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda expressed, as well as his terror would suffer him, his entire
+disapproval of both the courses recommended by the royal advisers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” said the king, with an air of resignation, “if we cannot agree upon
+either, it follows that we must try both. We will meet for that purpose
+to-morrow morning at the second hour. Go in peace!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda went, but not in peace. His alarm would have well-nigh deprived him of
+his faculties if he had not remembered the promise made him by his former
+deliverer. On reaching a secluded spot he pronounced the mystic formula, and
+immediately became aware of the presence, not of a radiant Glendoveer, but of a
+holy man, whose head was strewn with ashes, and his body anointed with
+cow-dung.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thy occasion,” said the Fakir, “brooks no delay. Thou must immediately
+accompany me, and assume the garb of a Jogi.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda rebelled excessively in his heart, for he had imbibed from the mild and
+sage Buddha a befitting contempt for these grotesque and cadaverous fanatics.
+The emergency, however, left him no resource, and he followed his guide to a
+charnel house, which the latter had selected as his domicile. There, with many
+lamentations over the smoothness of his hair and the brevity of his nails, the
+Jogi besprinkled and besmeared Ananda agreeably to his own pattern, and scored
+him with chalk and ochre until the peaceful apostle of the gentlest of creeds
+resembled a Bengal tiger. He then hung a chaplet of infants’ skulls about his
+neck, placed the skull of a malefactor in one of his hands and the thigh-bone
+of a necromancer in the other, and at nightfall conducted him into the adjacent
+cemetery, where, seating him on the ashes of a recent funeral pile, he bade him
+drum upon the skull with the thigh-bone, and repeat after himself the
+incantations which he began to scream out towards the western part of the
+firmament. These charms were apparently possessed of singular efficacy, for
+scarcely were they commenced ere a hideous tempest arose, rain descended in
+torrents, phosphoric flashes darted across the sky, wolves and hyænas thronged
+howling from their dens, and gigantic goblins, arising from the earth, extended
+their fleshless arms towards Ananda, and strove to drag him from his seat.
+Urged by frantic terror, and the example and exhortations of his companion, he
+battered, banged, and vociferated, until on the very verge of exhaustion; when,
+as if by enchantment, the tempest ceased, the spectres disappeared, and joyous
+shouts and a burst of music announced the occurrence of something auspicious in
+the adjoining city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The hostile king is dead,” said the Jogi; “and his army has dispersed. This
+will be attributed to thy incantations. They are coming in quest of thee even
+now. Farewell until thou again hast need of me.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Jogi disappeared, the tramp of a procession became audible, and soon
+torches glared feebly through the damp, cheerless dawn. The monarch descended
+from his state elephant, and, prostrating himself before Ananda, exclaimed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Inestimable man! why didst thou not disclose that thou wert a Jogi? Never more
+shall I feel the least apprehension of any of my enemies, so long as thou
+continuest an inmate of this cemetery.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A family of jackals were unceremoniously dislodged from a disused sepulchre,
+which was allotted to Ananda for his future residence. The king permitted no
+alteration in his costume, and took care that the food doled out to him should
+have no tendency to impair his sanctity, which speedily gave promise of
+attaining a very high pitch. His hair had already become as matted and his
+nails as long as the Jogi could have desired, when he received a visit from
+another royal messenger. The Rajah, so ran the regal missive, had been suddenly
+and mysteriously attacked by a dangerous malady, but confidently anticipated
+relief from Ananda’s merits and incantations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda resumed his thigh-bone and his skull, and ruefully began to thump the
+latter with the former, in dismal expectation of the things that were to come.
+But the spell seemed to have lost its potency. Nothing more unearthly than a
+bat presented itself, and Ananda was beginning to think that he might as well
+desist when his reflections were diverted by the apparition of a tall and grave
+personage, wearing a sad-coloured robe, and carrying a long wand, who stood by
+his side as suddenly as though just risen from the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The caldron is ready,” said the stranger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What caldron?” demanded Ananda.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That wherein thou art about to be immersed.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I immersed in a caldron! wherefore?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thy spells,” returned his interlocutor, “having hitherto failed to afford his
+majesty the slightest relief, and his experience of their efficacy on a former
+occasion forbidding him to suppose that they can be inoperative, he is
+naturally led to ascribe to their pernicious influence that aggravation of pain
+of which he has for some time past unfortunately been sensible. I have
+confirmed him in this conjecture, esteeming it for the interest of science that
+his anger should fall upon an impudent impostor like thee rather than on a
+discreet and learned physician like myself. He has consequently directed the
+principal caldron to be kept boiling all night, intending to immerse thee
+therein at daybreak, unless he should in the meantime derive some benefit from
+thy conjurations.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Heavens!” exclaimed Ananda, “whither shall I fly?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nowhere beyond this cemetery,” returned the physician, “inasmuch as it is
+entirely surrounded by the royal forces.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wherein, then,” demanded the agonized apostle, “doth the path of safety lie?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In this phial,” answered the physician. “It contains a subtle poison. Demand
+to be led before the king. Affirm that thou hast received a sovereign medicine
+from the hands of benignant spirits. He will drink it and perish, and thou wilt
+be richly rewarded by his successor.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ayaunt, tempter!” cried Ananda, hurling the phial indignantly away. “I defy
+thee! and will have recourse to my old deliverer&mdash;<i>Gnooh Imdap Inam
+Mua!”</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the charm appeared to fail of its effect. No figure was visible to his
+gaze, save that of the physician, who seemed to regard him with an expression
+of pity as he gathered up his robes and melted rather than glided into the
+encompassing darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda remained, contending with himself. Countless times was he on the point
+of calling after the physician and imploring him to return with a potion of
+like properties to the one rejected, but something seemed always to rise in his
+throat and impede his utterance, until, worn out by agitation, he fell asleep
+and dreamed this dream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He thought he stood at the vast and gloomy entrance of Patala. [*] The
+lugubrious spot wore a holiday appearance; everything seemed to denote a
+diabolical gala. Swarms of demons of all shapes and sizes beset the portal,
+contemplating what appeared to be preparations for an illumination. Strings of
+coloured lamps were in course of disposition in wreaths and festoons by legions
+of frolicsome imps, chattering, laughing, and swinging by their tails like so
+many monkeys. The operation was directed from below by superior fiends of great
+apparent gravity and respectability. These bore wands of office, tipped with
+yellow flames, wherewith they singed the tails of the imps when such discipline
+appeared to them to be requisite. Ananda could not refrain from asking the
+reason of these festive preparations.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+*) The Hindoo Pandemonium.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They are in honour,” responded the demon interrogated, “of the pious Ananda,
+one of the apostles of the Lord Buddha, whose advent is hourly expected among
+us with much eagerness and satisfaction.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The horrified Ananda with much difficulty mustered resolution to inquire on
+what account the apostle in question was necessitated to take up his abode in
+the infernal regions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“On account of poisoning,” returned the fiend laconically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda was about to seek further explanations, when his attention was arrested
+by a violent altercation between two of the supervising demons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Kammuragha, evidently,” croaked one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Damburanana, of course,” snarled the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“May I,” inquired Ananda of the fiend he had before addressed, “presume to ask
+the signification of Kammuragha and Damburanana?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They are two hells,” replied the demon. “In Kammuragha the occupant is plunged
+into melted pitch and fed with melted lead. In Damburanana he is plunged into
+melted lead and fed with melted pitch. My colleagues are debating which is the
+more appropriate to the demerits of our guest Ananda.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ere Ananda had had time to digest this announcement a youthful imp descended
+from above with agility, and, making a profound reverence, presented himself
+before the disputants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Venerable demons,” interposed he, “might my insignificance venture to suggest
+that we cannot well testify too much honour for our visitor Ananda, seeing that
+he is the only apostle of Buddha with whose company we are likely ever to be
+indulged? Wherefore I would propose that neither Kammuragha nor Damburanana be
+assigned for his residence, but that the amenities of all the two hundred and
+forty-four thousand hells be combined in a new one, constructed especially for
+his reception.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The imp having thus spoken, the senior demons were amazed at his precocity, and
+performed a <i>pradakshina</i>, exclaiming, “Truly thou art a highly superior
+young devil!” They then departed to prepare the new infernal chamber, agreeably
+to his recipe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda awoke, shuddering with terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why,” he exclaimed, “why was I ever an apostle? O Buddha! Buddha! how hard are
+the paths of saintliness! How prone to error are the well-meaning! How huge is
+the absurdity of spiritual pride!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou hast discovered that, my son?” said a gentle voice in his vicinity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He turned and beheld the divine Buddha, radiant with a mild and benignant
+light. A cloud seemed rolled away from his vision, and he recognised in his
+master the Glendoveer, the Jogi, and the Physician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O holy teacher!” exclaimed he in extreme perturbation, “whither shall I turn?
+My sin forbids me to approach thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not on account of thy sin art thou forbidden, my son,” returned Buddha, “but
+on account of the ridiculous and unsavoury plight to which thy knavery and
+disobedience have reduced thee. I have now appeared to remind thee that this
+day all my apostles meet on Mount Vindhya to render an account of their
+mission, and to inquire whether I am to deliver thine in thy stead, or whether
+thou art minded to proclaim it thyself.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I will render it with my own lips,” resolutely exclaimed Ananda. “It is meet
+that I should bear the humiliation of acknowledging my folly.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou hast said well, my son,” replied Buddha, “and in return I will permit
+thee to discard the attire, if such it may be termed, of a Jogi, and to appear
+in our assembly wearing the yellow robe as beseems my disciple. Nay, I will
+even infringe my own rule on thy behalf, and perform a not inconsiderable
+miracle by immediately transporting thee to the summit of Vindhya, where the
+faithful are already beginning to assemble. Thou wouldst otherwise incur much
+risk of being torn to pieces by the multitude, who, as the shouts now
+approaching may instruct thee, are beginning to extirpate my religion at the
+instigation of the new king, thy hopeful pupil. The old king is dead, poisoned
+by the Brahmins.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O master! master!” exclaimed Ananda, weeping bitterly, “and is all the work
+undone, and all by my fault and folly?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That which is built on fraud and imposture can by no means endure,” returned
+Buddha, “be it the very truth of Heaven. Be comforted; thou shalt proclaim my
+doctrine to better purpose in other lands. Thou hast this time but a sorry
+account to render of thy stewardship; yet thou mayest truly declare that thou
+hast obeyed my precept in the letter, if not in the spirit, since none can
+assert that thou hast ever wrought any miracle.”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>THE CITY OF PHILOSOPHERS</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Nature is manifold, not infinite, though the extent of the resources of which
+she can dispose almost enables her to pass for such. Her cards are so
+multitudinous that the pairs are easily shuffled into ages so far asunder that
+their resemblance escapes remark. But sometimes her mischievous daughter
+Fortune manages to thrust these duplicates into such conspicuous places that
+their similarity cannot pass unobserved, and Nature is caught plagiarising from
+herself. She is thus detected dealing a king&mdash;or knave&mdash;a second time
+in the person of a king who has already fallen from her pack as an emperor.
+Brilliant, careless, selfish, yet good-natured <i>vauriens</i>, the Roman
+Emperor Gallienus and our Charles the Second excelled in every art save the art
+of reigning, and might have excelled in that also if they would have taken the
+trouble. The circumstances of their reigns were in many respects as similar as
+their characters. Both were the sons of grave and strict fathers, each of whom
+had met with terrible misfortunes: one deprived of his liberty by his enemies,
+the other of his head by his own subjects. Each of the sons had been grievously
+vexed by rebels, but Charles’s troubles from this quarter had mostly ended
+where those of Gallienus began. Each saw his dominions ravaged by pestilence in
+a manner beyond all former experience. The Goths destroyed the temple of the
+Ephesian Diana, and the Dutch burned the English fleet at Chatham. Charles shut
+up the Exchequer, and Gallienus debased the coinage. Charles accepted a pension
+from Louis XIV., and Gallienus devolved the burden of his Eastern provinces on
+a Syrian Emir. Their tastes and pursuits were as similar as their histories.
+Charles excelled as a wit and a critic; Gallienus as a poet and a gastronomer.
+Charles was curious about chemistry, and founded the Royal Society. In the
+third century the conception of the systematic investigation of nature did not
+exist. Gallienus, therefore, could not patronise exact science; and the great
+literary light of the age, Longinus, irradiated the court of Palmyra. But the
+Emperor bestowed his favour in ample measure on the chief contemporary
+philosopher, Plotinus, who strove to unite the characters of Plato and
+Pythagoras, of sage and seer. Like Schelling in time to come, he maintained the
+necessity of a special organ for the apprehension of philosophy, without
+perceiving that he thereby proclaimed philosophy bankrupt, and placed himself
+on the level of the Oriental hierophants, with whose sublime quackeries the
+modest sage could not hope to contend. So extreme was his humility, that he
+would not claim to have been consciously united to the Divinity more than four
+times in his life; without condemning magic and thaumaturgy, he left their
+practice to more adventurous spirits, and contented himself with the occasional
+visits of a familiar demon in the shape of a serpent. He experienced, however,
+frequent visitations of trance or ecstasy, sometimes lasting for a long period;
+and it may have been in one of these that he was inspired by the idea of asking
+the Emperor for a decayed city in Campania, there to establish a philosophic
+commonwealth as nearly upon the model of Plato’s Republic as the degeneracy of
+the times would allow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I cannot,” said Gallienus, when the project had been explained to him, “object
+in principle to aught so festive and jocose. The age is turned upside down; its
+comedians are lamentable, and its sages ludicrous. It must moreover, I
+apprehend, be sated with the earthquakes, famines, pestilences, and barbarian
+invasions with which it hath been exclusively regaled for so long, and must
+crave something enlivening, of the nature of thy proposition. But whether, when
+we arrive at the consideration of ways and means, I shall find my interview
+with my treasurer enlivening, is gravely to be questioned. I have heard
+homilies enough on my prodigality, which merely means that I prefer spending my
+treasures on myself to saving them for my successor, whose title will probably
+have been acquired by cutting my throat.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I know,” said Plotinus, “that the expenses of administering an empire must
+necessarily be prodigious. I am aware that the principal generals are only kept
+to their allegiance by enormous bribes. I well understand that the Empress must
+have pearls, and that the Roman populace must have panthers; and that, since
+Egypt has revolted, the hippopotamus is worth his weight in gold. I am further
+aware that the proposed colossal statue of your Majesty in the same metal,
+including a staircase, with room in the head for a child, like another Pallas
+in the brain of Zeus, must alone involve very considerable outlay. But I am
+encouraged by your Majesty’s wise and statesmanlike measure of debasing the
+currency; since, money having become devoid of value, there can be no
+difficulty in devoting any amount of it to any purpose required.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Plotinus,” said Gallienus, “in this age the devil is taking the hindmost, and
+we are the hindmost. There are tidings to-day of a new earthquake in Bithynia,
+and three days’ darkness, also of outbreaks of pestilence, and incursions of
+the barbarians, too numerous as well as too disagreeable to mention. At this
+moment some revolted legion is probably forcing the purple upon some reluctant
+general; and the Persian king, a great equestrian, is doubtless mounting his
+horse by the aid of my father’s back. If I had been an old Roman, I should by
+this time have avenged my father, but I am a man of my age. Take the money for
+thy city, and see that it yields me some amusement at any rate. I assume, of
+course, that thou wilt exercise severe economy, and that cresses and spring
+water will be the diet of thy philosophers. Farewell, I go to Gaul to encounter
+Postumus. Willingly would I leave him in peace in Gaul if he would leave me in
+peace in Italy; but I foresee that if I do not attack him there he will attack
+me here. As if the Empire were not large enough for us all! What an ass the
+fellow must be!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so Gallienus changed his silk for steel, and departed for his Gallic
+campaign, where he bore himself more stoutly than his light talk would have led
+those who judged him by it to expect. Plotinus, provided with an Imperial
+rescript, undertook the regulation of his philosophical commonwealth in
+Campania, where a brief experience of architects and sophists threw him into an
+ecstasy, not of joy, which endured an unusually long time.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+On awakening from his long trance, Plotinus’s first sensation was one of bodily
+hunger, the second of an even keener appetite for news of his philosophical
+Republic. In both respects it promised well to perceive that his chamber was
+occupied by his most eminent scholar, Porphyry, though he was less gratified to
+observe his disciple busied, instead of with the scrolls of the sages, with an
+enormous roll of accounts, which appeared to be occasioning him much
+perplexity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Porphyry!” cried the master, and the faithful disciple was by his couch in a
+moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We pass over the mutual joy, the greetings, the administration of restoratives
+and creature comforts, the eager interrogations of Porphyry respecting the
+things his master had heard and seen in his trance, which proved to be
+unspeakable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And now,” said Plotinus, who with all his mysticism was so good a man of
+business that, as his biographers acquaint us, he was in special request as a
+trustee, “and now, concerning this roll of thine. Is it possible that the
+accounts connected with the installation of a few abstemious lovers of wisdom
+can have swollen to such a prodigous bulk? But indeed, why few? Peradventure
+all the philosophers of the earth have flocked to my city.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It has, indeed,” said Porphyry evasively, “been found necessary to incur
+certain expenses not originally foreseen.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“For a library, perhaps?” inquired Plotinus. “I remember thinking, just before
+my ecstasy, that the scrolls of the divine Plato, many of them autographic,
+might require some special housing.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I rejoice to state,” rejoined Porphyry, “that it is not these volumes that
+have involved us in our present difficulties with the superintendent of the
+Imperial treasury, nor can they indeed, seeing that they are now impignorated
+with him.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Plato’s manuscripts pawned!” exclaimed Plotinus, aghast. “Wherefore?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As part collateral security for expenses incurred on behalf of objects deemed
+of more importance by the majority of the philosophers.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“For example?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Repairing bath and completing amphitheatre.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Bath! Amphitheatre!” gasped Plotinus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O dear master,” remonstrated Porphyry, “thou didst not deem that philosophers
+could be induced to settle in a spot devoid of these necessaries? Not a single
+one would have stayed if I had not yielded to their demands, which, as regarded
+the bath, involved the addition of exedrae and of a sphaeristerium.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And what can they want with an amphitheatre?” groaned Plotinus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They <i>say</i> it is for lectures,” replied Porphyry;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I trust there is no truth in the rumour that the head of the Stoics is three
+parts owner of a lion of singular ferocity.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I must see to this as soon as I can get about,” said Plotinus, turning to the
+accounts. “What’s this? To couch and litter for head of Peripatetic school!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who is so enormously fat,” explained Porphyry, “that these conveniences are
+really indispensable to him. The Peripatetic school is positively at a
+standstill.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And no great matter,” said Plotinus; “its master Aristotle was at best a
+rationalist, without perception of the supersensual. What’s this? To Maximus,
+for the invocation of demons.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That,” said Porphyry, “is our own Platonic dirty linen, and I heartily wish we
+were washing it elsewhere. Thou must know, dear master, that during thy trance
+the theurgic movement has attained a singular development, and that thou art
+regarded with disdain by thy younger disciples as one wholly behind the age,
+unacquainted with the higher magic, and who can produce no other outward and
+visible token of the Divine favour than the occasional companionship of a
+serpent.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I would not assert that theurgy may not be lawfully undertaken,” replied
+Plotinus, “provided that the adept shall have purified himself by a fast of
+forty months.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It may be from neglect of this precaution,” said Porphyry, “that our Maximus
+finds it so much easier to evoke the shades of Commodus and Caracalla than
+those of Socrates and Marcus Aurelius; and that these good spirits, when they
+do come, have no more recondite information to convey than that virtue differs
+from vice, and that one’s grandmother is a fitting object of reverence.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I fear this must expose Platonic truth to the derision of Epicurean scoffers,”
+remarked Plotinus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O master, speak not of Epicureans, still less of Stoics! Wait till thou hast
+regained thy full strength, and then take counsel of some oracle.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What meanest thou?” exclaimed Plotinus, “I insist upon knowing.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Porphyry was saved from replying by the hasty entrance of a bustling portly
+personage of loud voice and imperious manner, in whom Plotinus recognised
+Theocles, the chief of the Stoics.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I rejoice, Plotinus,” he began, “that thou hast at length emerged from that
+condition of torpor, so unworthy of a philosopher, which I might well designate
+as charlatanism were I not so firmly determined to speak no word which can
+offend any man. Thou wilt now be able to reprehend the malice or obtuseness of
+thy deputy, and to do me right in my contention with these impure dogs.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Which be they?” asked Plotinus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Do I not sufficiently indicate the followers of Epicurus?” demanded the Stoic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O master,” explained Porphyry, “in allotting and fitting up apartments
+designed for the respective sects of philosophers I naturally gave heed to what
+I understood to be the principles of each. To the Epicureans, as lovers of
+pleasure and luxury, I assigned the most commodious quarters, furnished the
+same with soft cushions and costly hangings, and provided a liberal table. I
+should have deemed it insulting to have offered any of these things to the
+frugal followers of Zeno, and nothing can surpass my astonishment at the manner
+in which the austere Theocles has incessantly persecuted me for choice food and
+wine, stately rooms and soft couches.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Plotinus,” replied Theocles, “let me make the grounds of my conduct clear to
+thee. In the first place, the honour of my school is in my keeping. What will
+the vulgar think when they see the sty of Epicurus sumptuously adorned, and the
+porch of Zeno shabby and bare? Will they not deem that the Epicureans are
+highly respected and the Stoics made of little account? Furthermore, how can I
+and my disciples manifest our contempt for gold, dainties, wine, fine linen,
+and all the other instruments of luxury, unless we have them to despise? Shall
+we not appear like foxes, vilipending the grapes that we cannot reach? Not so;
+offer me delicacies that I may reject them, wine that I may pour it into the
+kennel, Tyrian purple that I may trample upon it, gold that I may fling it
+away; if it break an Epicurean’s head, so much the better.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Plotinus,” said Hermon, the chief of the Epicureans, who had meanwhile entered
+the apartment, “let this hypocrite have what he wants, and send him away. I and
+my followers are perfectly willing to remove at once into the inferior
+apartments, and leave ours for his occupation with all their furniture, and the
+reversion of our bill of fare. Thou should’st know that the imputations of the
+vulgar against our sect are the grossest calumnies. The Epicurean places
+happiness in tranquil enjoyment, not in luxury or sensual pleasures. There is
+not a thing I possess which I am not perfectly willing to resign, except the
+society of my female disciple.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thy female disciple!” exclaimed the horrified Plotinus. “Thou art worse than
+the Stoic!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Plotinus,” said the Epicurean, “consider well ere, as is the manner of
+Platonists, thou committest thyself to a proposition of a transparently foolish
+nature. Thou desirest to gather all sorts of philosophers around thee, but to
+what end, if they are restrained from manifesting their characteristic tenets?
+Thou mightest as well seek to illustrate the habits of animals by establishing
+a menagerie in which panthers should eat grass, and antelopes be dieted on
+rabbits. An Epicurean without his female companion, unless by his own choice,
+is no more an Epicurean than a Cynic is a Cynic without his rags and his
+impudence. Wilt thou take from me my Pannychis, an object pleasing to the eye,
+and leave yonder fellow his tatters and his vermin?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The apartment had gradually filled with philosophers, and Hermon was pointing
+to a follower of Diogenes whose robe so fully bespoke his obedience to his
+master’s precepts that his skin seemed almost clean in comparison.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Consider also,” continued the Epicurean, “that thou art thyself by no means
+exempt from scandal.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What does the man mean?” demanded Plotinus, turning to Porphyry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Get them away,” whispered the disciple, “and I will tell thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Plotinus hastily conceded the point raised with reference to the interesting
+Pannychis, and the philosophers went off to effect their exchange of quarters.
+As soon as the room was clear, he repeated:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What <i>does</i> the man mean?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I suppose he is thinking of Leaena,” said Porphyry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The most notorious character in Rome, who, finding her charms on the wane, has
+lately betaken herself to philosophy?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The same.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What of her?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“She has followed thee here. She affects the greatest devotion to thee. She
+vows that nothing shall make her budge until thou hast recovered from thy
+ecstasy, and admitted her as thy disciple. She has rejected numerous overtures
+from the philosopher Theocles; entirely for thy sake, she affirms. She comes
+three times a day to inquire respecting thy condition, and I fear it must be
+acknowledged that she has once or twice managed to get into thy chamber.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye immortal Gods!” groaned Plotinus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Here she is!” exclaimed Porphyry, as a woman of masculine stature and bearing,
+with the remains of beauty not unskilfully patched, forced an entrance into the
+room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Plotinus,” she exclaimed, “behold the most impassioned of thy disciples. Let
+us celebrate the mystic nuptials of Wisdom and Beauty. Let the claims of my sex
+to philosophic distinction be vindicated in my person.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The question of the admission of women to share the studies and society of
+men,” rejoined Plotinus, “is one by no means exempt from difficulty.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How so? I deemed it had been determined long ago in favour of Aspasia?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aspasia,” said Plotinus, “was a very exceptional woman.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And am not I?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I hope, that is, I conceive so,” said Plotinus. “But one may be an exceptional
+woman without being an Aspasia.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How so? Am I inferior to Aspasia in beauty?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I should hope not,” said Plotinus ambiguously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Or in the irregularity of my deportment?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I should think not,” said Plotinus, with more confidence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then why does the Plato of our age hesitate to welcome his Diotima?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Because,” said Plotinus, “you are not Diotima, and I am not Plato.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am sure I am as much like Diotima as you are like Plato,” retorted the lady.
+“But let us come to our own time. Do I not hear that that creature Pannychis
+has obtained the freedom of the philosophers’ city, and the right to study
+therein?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“She takes private lessons from Hermon, who is responsible for her.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The very thing!” exclaimed Leaena triumphantly. “I take private lessons from
+thee, and thou art responsible for me. Venus! what’s that?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exclamation was prompted by the sudden appearance of an enormous serpent,
+which, emerging from a chink in the wall, glided swiftly towards the couch of
+Plotinus. He reached forward to greet it, uttering a cry of pleasure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My guardian, my tutelary dæmon,” he exclaimed, “visible manifestation of
+Æsculapius! Then I am not forsaken by the immortal gods.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Take away the monster,” cried Leaena, in violent agitation, “the nasty thing!
+Plotinus, how can you? Oh, I shall faint! I shall die! Take it away, I say. You
+must choose between it and me.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then, Madam,” said Plotinus, civilly but firmly, “I choose <i>it</i>.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thank Æsculapius we are rid of her,” he added, as Leaena vanished from the
+apartment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I wish I knew that,” said Porphyry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And indeed after no long time a note came up from Theocles, who was sure that
+Plotinus would not refuse him that privilege of instructing a female disciple
+which had been already, with such manifest advantage to philosophical research,
+accorded to his colleague Hermon. No objection could well be made, especially
+as Plotinus did not foresee how many chambermaids, and pages, and cooks, and
+perfumers, and tiring women and bath attendants would be required, ere Leaena
+could feel herself moderately comfortable. How unlike the modest Pannychis! who
+wanted but half a bed, which need not be stuffed with the down of hares or the
+feathers of partridges, without which sleep refused to visit Leaena’s eyelids.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was natural that Plotinus should appeal to Gallienus, now returned from the
+Gallic expedition, but he could extract nothing save mysterious intimations
+that the Emperor had his eye upon the philosophers, and that they might find
+him among them when they least expected it. Plotinus’s spirits drooped, and
+Porphyry was almost glad when he again relapsed into an ecstasy.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+When Plotinus’s eyes were at length opened, they fell not this time upon the
+faithful Porphyry, but upon two youthful followers of Plato who were beguiling
+the tedium of their vigil at his bedside by a game of dice, which prevented
+their observing his resuscitation. After a moment’s hesitation Plotinus
+resolved to lie quiet in the hopes of hearing something that might indicate
+what influences were in the ascendant in the philosophical republic. He had not
+long to wait.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Dice is dull work for long,” said one of the young men, indolently throwing
+himself back, and letting his caster fall upon the floor. “To think how much
+better one might be employed, but for having to watch this old fool here! I’ve
+a great mind to call up a slave.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All the slaves are sure to have gone to the show, unless any of them should be
+Christians. Besides, Porphyry would hear you, he’s only in a cat’s sleep,”
+returned his companion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well, I mean to say it’s a shame. All the town will be in the theatre by this
+time.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How many gladiators, said you?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Forty pairs, the best show Campania has seen time out of mind.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How has it all come about?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, news comes of the death of Postumus, killed by his own soldiers, and this
+passes as a great victory for want of a better, ‘We must have a day of
+thanksgiving,’ says Theocles. ‘Right,’ says Leaena, ‘I am dying to see an
+exhibition of gladiators.’ Theocles demurs at first, expecting to have to find
+the money&mdash;but Leaena tugs at his beard, and he gives in. Just at the nick
+of time the right sort of fellow pops up nobody knows whence, a lanista with
+hair like curling helichryse, as Theocritus has it, and a small army of
+gladiators, whom, out of devotion to the Emperor, he offers to exhibit for
+nothing. Who so pleased as Theocles now? He takes the chair as archon with
+Leaena by his side, and off goes every soul in the place, except Pannychis, who
+cannot bear the sight of blood, and Porphyry, who is an outrageous
+humanitarian, and us poor devils left in charge of this old dreamer.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Couldn’t we leave him to mind himself? He isn’t likely to awake yet.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Try him with your cloak-pin.” The student detached the implement in question,
+which was about the size of a small stiletto. Feeling uncertain what part of
+his person was to be the subject of experiment, Plotinus judged it advisable to
+manifest his recovery in an unmistakable fashion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O dear Master, what joy!” cried both the students in a breath. “Porphyry!
+Porphyry!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The trusty scholar appeared immediately, and under pretence of fetching food,
+the two neophytes eloped to the amphitheatre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What means all this, Porphyry?” demanded Plotinus sternly. “The City of
+Philosophers polluted by human blood! The lovers of wisdom mingling with the
+dregs of the rabble!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Porphyry’s account, which Plotinus could only extract by consenting to eat
+while his disciple talked, corresponded in all essential particulars with that
+of the two young men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And I see not,” added he, “what we can do in the matter. This abomination is
+supposed to be in honour of the Emperor’s victories. If we interfere with it we
+shall be executed as rebels, supposing that we are not first torn to pieces as
+rioters.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Porphyry,” replied Plotinus, “I should esteem this disgrace to philosophy a
+disgrace to myself if I did not my utmost to avert it. Remain thou here, and
+perform my funeral rites if it be necessary.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But to this Porphyry would by no means consent, and the two philosophers
+proceeded to the amphitheatre together. It was so crowded that there was no
+room on the seats for another person. Theocles was enthroned in the chair of
+honour, his beard manifesting evident traces of the depilatories administered
+by Leaena, who nevertheless sat by his side, her voluptuous face gloating over
+the anticipated banquet of agony. The philosophic part of the spectators were
+ranged all around, the remaining seats were occupied by a miscellaneous public.
+The master of the gladiators, a man of distinguished appearance, whose yellow
+locks gave him the aspect of a barbarian prince, stood in the arena surrounded
+by his myrmidons. The entry of Plotinus and Porphyry attracted his attention:
+he motioned to his followers, and in an instant the philosophers were seized,
+bound, and gagged without the excited assembly being in the least conscious of
+their presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two men stepped out into the arena, both fine and attractive figures. The
+athletic limbs, the fair complexion, the curling yellow hair of one proclaimed
+the Goth; he lightly swung his huge sword in his right hand, and looked as if
+his sole arm would easily put to flight the crowd of effeminate spectators. The
+other’s beauty was of another sort; young, slender, pensive, spiritual, he
+looked like anything rather than a gladiator, and held his downward pointed
+sword with a negligent grasp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Guard thyself!” cried the Goth, placing himself in an attitude of offence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I spill not the blood of a fellow-creature,” answered the other, casting his
+sword away from him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Coward!” yelled well-nigh every voice in the amphitheatre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No,” answered the youth with a grave smile, “Christian.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His shield and helmet followed his sword, he stood entirely defenceless before
+his adversary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Throw him to my lion,” cried Theocles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Or thy lioness,” suggested Hermon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This allusion to Leaena provoked a burst of laughter. Suddenly the Goth aimed a
+mighty blow at the head of the unresisting man. A shorn curl fell to the
+ground, the consummate skill of the swordsman averted all further contact
+between his blade and the Christian, who remained erect and smiling, without
+having moved a muscle or an eyelash.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Master,” said the Goth, addressing the lanista, “I had rather fight ten armed
+men than this unarmed one.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Good,” returned his lord, with a gesture of approval. “Retire both of you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A roar of disapprobation broke out from the spectators, which seemed not to
+produce the slightest effect on the lanista.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Turn out the next pair,” they cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I shall not,” said he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wherefore?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Because I do not choose.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Rogue! Cheat! Swindler! Cast him into prison! Throw him to the lion!” Such
+epithets and recommendations rained from the spectators’ seats, accompanied by
+a pelting of more substantial missiles. In an instant the yellow hair and
+common dress lay on the ground, and those who knew him not by the features
+could by the Imperial ornaments recognise the Emperor Gallienus. With no less
+celerity his followers, the Goth and the Christian excepted, disencumbered
+themselves of their exterior vesture, and stood forward in the character of
+Roman soldiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Friends,” cried Gallienus, turning to the plebeian multitude, “I am not about
+to balk you of your sport.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At a sign from him the legionaries ascended to the seats allotted to the
+philosophic portion of the audience, and a torrent of wisdom in their persons,
+including that of Leaena, flung forth with the energy of a catapult, descended
+abruptly and violently to the earth. They were instantly seized and dragged
+into an erect attitude by the remainder of the soldiery, who, amid the most
+tempestuous peals of laughter and applause from the delighted public, thrust
+swords into their hands, ranged them in opposite ranks, and summoned them to
+begin the fight and quit themselves like men. It was equally ludicrous and
+pitiable to see the bald, mostly grey-bearded men, their garments torn in their
+expulsion and their persons bruised by the fall, confronting each other with
+quaking limbs, helplessly brandishing their weapons or feebly calling their
+adversaries to come on, while the soldiers prodded them from behind with
+spears, and urged them into the close quarters they so anxiously desired to
+avoid. Plotinus, helpless with his bonds and gag, looked on in impotent horror.
+Gallienus was often cruel, but could he intend such a revolting massacre? There
+must be something behind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The honour of developing the Emperor’s purpose was reserved for Theocles, who,
+with admirable presence of mind, had ever since he found he must fight been
+engaged in trying to select the weakest antagonist. After hesitating between
+the unwieldy chief of the Peripatetics and the feminine Leaena he fixed on the
+latter, partly moved, perhaps, by the hope of avenging his beard. With a
+martial cry he sprang towards her, and upraised his weapon for a swashing blow.
+But he had sadly miscalculated. Leaena was hardly less versed in the combats of
+Mars than in those of Venus, having, in fact, commenced her distinguished
+career as a camp-follower of the Emperor Gordian. A tremendous stroke caught
+him on the hand; his blade dropped to the earth; why did not the fingers
+follow? Leaena elucidated the problem by a still more violent blow on his face;
+torrents of blood gushed forth indeed, but only from the nose. The sword
+doubled up; it had neither point nor edge. Encouraged by this opportune
+discovery the philosophers attacked each other with infinite spirit and valour.
+Infuriated by the blows given and received, by the pokings and proddings of the
+military, and the hilarious derision of the public, they cast away the shivered
+blades and resorted to the weapons of Nature. They kicked, they cuffed, they
+scratched, they tore the garments from each other’s shoulders, they foamed and
+rolled gasping in the yellow sand of the arena. At a signal from the Emperor
+the portal of the amphitheatre was thrown open, and the whole mass of clawing
+and cuffing philosophy was bundled ignominiously into the street.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time Gallienus was seated on his tribunal, and Plotinus, released from
+his bonds, was standing by his side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Emperor,” he murmured, deeply abashed, “what can I urge? Thou wilt surely
+demolish my city!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No, Plotinus,” replied Gallienus, pointing to the Goth and the Christian,
+“there are the men who will destroy the City of Philosophers. Would that were
+all they will destroy!”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>THE DEMON POPE</h2>
+
+<p>
+“So you won’t sell me your soul?” said the devil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thank you,” replied the student, “I had rather keep it myself, if it’s all the
+same to you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But it’s not all the same to me. I want it very particularly. Come, I’ll be
+liberal. I said twenty years. You can have thirty.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The student shook his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Forty!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another shake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Fifty!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Now,” said the devil, “I know I’m going to do a foolish thing, but I cannot
+bear to see a clever, spirited young man throw himself away. I’ll make you
+another kind of offer. We won’t have any bargain at present, but I will push
+you on in the world for the next forty years. This day forty years I come back
+and ask you for a boon; not your soul, mind, or anything not perfectly in your
+power to grant. If you give it, we are quits; if not, I fly away with you. What
+say you to this?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The student reflected for some minutes. “Agreed,” he said at last.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely had the devil disappeared, which he did instantaneously, ere a
+messenger reined in his smoking steed at the gate of the University of Cordova
+(the judicious reader will already have remarked that Lucifer could never have
+been allowed inside a Christian seat of learning), and, inquiring for the
+student Gerbert, presented him with the Emperor Otho’s nomination to the Abbacy
+of Bobbio, in consideration, said the document, of his virtue and learning,
+well-nigh miraculous in one so young. Such messengers were frequent visitors
+during Gerbert’s prosperous career. Abbot, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, he was
+ultimately enthroned Pope on April 2, 999, and assumed the appellation of
+Silvester the Second. It was then a general belief that the world would come to
+an end in the following year, a catastrophe which to many seemed the more
+imminent from the election of a chief pastor whose celebrity as a theologian,
+though not inconsiderable, by no means equalled his reputation as a
+necromancer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The world, notwithstanding, revolved scatheless through the dreaded
+twelvemonth, and early in the first year of the eleventh century Gerbert was
+sitting peacefully in his study, perusing a book of magic. Volumes of algebra,
+astrology, alchemy, Aristotelian philosophy, and other such light reading
+filled his bookcase; and on a table stood an improved clock of his invention,
+next to his introduction of the Arabic numerals his chief legacy to posterity.
+Suddenly a sound of wings was heard, and Lucifer stood by his side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is a long time,” said the fiend, “since I have had the pleasure of seeing
+you. I have now called to remind you of our little contract, concluded this day
+forty years.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You remember,” said Silvester, “that you are not to ask anything exceeding my
+power to perform.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have no such intention,” said Lucifer. “On the contrary, I am about to
+solicit a favour which can be bestowed by you alone. You are Pope, I desire
+that you would make me a Cardinal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In the expectation, I presume,” returned Gerbert, “of becoming Pope on the
+next vacancy.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An expectation,” replied Lucifer, “which I may most reasonably entertain,
+considering my enormous wealth, my proficiency in intrigue, and the present
+condition of the Sacred College.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You would doubtless,” said Gerbert, “endeavour to subvert the foundations of
+the Faith, and, by a course of profligacy and licentiousness, render the Holy
+See odious and contemptible.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“On the contrary,” said the fiend, “I would extirpate heresy, and all learning
+and knowledge as inevitably tending thereunto. I would suffer no man to read
+but the priest, and confine his reading to his breviary. I would burn your
+books together with your bones on the first convenient opportunity. I would
+observe an austere propriety of conduct, and be especially careful not to
+loosen one rivet in the tremendous yoke I was forging for the minds and
+consciences of mankind.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If it be so,” said Gerbert, “let’s be off!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” exclaimed Lucifer, “you are willing to accompany me to the infernal
+regions!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Assuredly, rather than be accessory to the burning of Plato and Aristotle, and
+give place to the darkness against which I have been contending all my life.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Gerbert,” replied the demon, “this is arrant trifling. Know you not that no
+good man can enter my dominions? that, were such a thing possible, my empire
+would become intolerable to me, and I should be compelled to abdicate?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I do know it,” said Gerbert, “and hence I have been able to receive your visit
+with composure.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Gerbert,” said the devil, with tears in his eyes, “I put it to you&mdash;is
+this fair, is this honest? I undertake to promote your interests in the world;
+I fulfil my promise abundantly. You obtain through my instrumentality a
+position to which you could never otherwise have aspired. Often have I had a
+hand in the election of a Pope, but never before have I contributed to confer
+the tiara on one eminent for virtue and learning. You profit by my assistance
+to the full, and now take advantage of an adventitious circumstance to deprive
+me of my reasonable guerdon. It is my constant experience that the good people
+are much more slippery than the sinners, and drive much harder bargains.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Lucifer,” answered Gerbert, “I have always sought to treat you as a gentleman,
+hoping that you would approve yourself such in return. I will not inquire
+whether it was entirely in harmony with this character to seek to intimidate me
+into compliance with your demand by threatening me with a penalty which you
+well knew could not be enforced. I will overlook this little irregularity, and
+concede even more than you have requested. You have asked to be a Cardinal. I
+will make you Pope&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ha!” exclaimed Lucifer, and an internal glow suffused his sooty hide, as the
+light of a fading ember is revived by breathing upon it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“For twelve hours,” continued Gerbert. “At the expiration of that time we will
+consider the matter further; and if, as I anticipate, you are more anxious to
+divest yourself of the Papal dignity than you were to assume it, I promise to
+bestow upon you any boon you may ask within my power to grant, and not plainly
+inconsistent with religion or morals.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Done!” cried the demon. Gerbert uttered some cabalistic words, and in a moment
+the apartment held two Pope Silvesters, entirely indistinguishable save by
+their attire, and the fact that one limped slightly with the left foot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You will find the Pontifical apparel in this cupboard,” said Gerbert, and,
+taking his book of magic with him, he retreated through a masked door to a
+secret chamber. As the door closed behind him he chuckled, and muttered to
+himself, “Poor old Lucifer! Sold again!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If Lucifer was sold he did not seem to know it. He approached a large slab of
+silver which did duty as a mirror, and contemplated his personal appearance
+with some dissatisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I certainly don’t look half so well without my horns,” he soliloquised, “and I
+am sure I shall miss my tail most grievously.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A tiara and a train, however, made fair amends for the deficient appendages,
+and Lucifer now looked every inch a Pope. He was about to call the master of
+the ceremonies, and summon a consistory, when the door was burst open, and
+seven cardinals, brandishing poniards, rushed into the room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Down with the sorcerer!” they cried, as they seized and gagged him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Death to the Saracen!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Practises algebra, and other devilish arts!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Knows Greek!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Talks Arabic!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Reads Hebrew!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Burn him!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Smother him!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let him be deposed by a general council,” said a young and inexperienced
+Cardinal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Heaven forbid!” said an old and wary one, <i>sotto voce</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer struggled frantically, but the feeble frame he was doomed to inhabit
+for the next eleven hours was speedily exhausted. Bound and helpless, he
+swooned away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Brethren,” said one of the senior cardinals, “it hath been delivered by the
+exorcists that a sorcerer or other individual in league with the demon doth
+usually bear upon his person some visible token of his infernal compact. I
+propose that we forthwith institute a search for this stigma, the discovery of
+which may contribute to justify our proceedings in the eyes of the world.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I heartily approve of our brother Anno’s proposition,” said another, “the
+rather as we cannot possibly fail to discover such a mark, if, indeed, we
+desire to find it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The search was accordingly instituted, and had not proceeded far ere a
+simultaneous yell from all the seven cardinals indicated that their
+investigation had brought more to light than they had ventured to expect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Holy Father had a cloven foot!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the next five minutes the Cardinals remained utterly stunned, silent, and
+stupefied with amazement. As they gradually recovered their faculties it would
+have become manifest to a nice observer that the Pope had risen very
+considerably in their good opinion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This is an affair requiring very mature deliberation,” said one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I always feared that we might be proceeding too precipitately,” said another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is written, ‘the devils believe,’” said a third: “the Holy Father,
+therefore, is not a heretic at any rate.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Brethren,” said Anno, “this affair, as our brother Benno well remarks, doth
+indeed call for mature deliberation. I therefore propose that, instead of
+smothering his Holiness with cushions, as originally contemplated, we immure
+him for the present in the dungeon adjoining hereunto, and, after spending the
+night in meditation and prayer, resume the consideration of the business
+tomorrow morning.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Informing the officials of the palace,” said Benno, “that his Holiness has
+retired for his devotions, and desires on no account to be disturbed.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A pious fraud,” said Anno, “which not one of the Fathers would for a moment
+have scrupled to commit.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Cardinals accordingly lifted the still insensible Lucifer, and bore him
+carefully, almost tenderly, to the apartment appointed for his detention. Each
+would fain have lingered in hopes of his recovery, but each felt that the eyes
+of his six brethren were upon him: and all, therefore, retired simultaneously,
+each taking a key of the cell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer regained consciousness almost immediately afterwards. He had the most
+confused idea of the circumstances which had involved him in his present
+scrape, and could only say to himself that if they were the usual concomitants
+of the Papal dignity, these were by no means to his taste, and he wished he had
+been made acquainted with them sooner. The dungeon was not only perfectly dark,
+but horribly cold, and the poor devil in his present form had no latent store
+of infernal heat to draw upon. His teeth chattered, he shivered in every limb,
+and felt devoured with hunger and thirst. There is much probability in the
+assertion of some of his biographers that it was on this occasion that he
+invented ardent spirits; but, even if he did, the mere conception of a glass of
+brandy could only increase his sufferings. So the long January night wore
+wearily on, and Lucifer seemed likely to expire from inanition, when a key
+turned in the lock, and Cardinal Anno cautiously glided in, bearing a lamp, a
+loaf, half a cold roast kid, and a bottle of wine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I trust,” he said, bowing courteously, “that I may be excused any slight
+breach of etiquette of which I may render myself culpable from the difficulty
+under which I labour of determining whether, under present circumstances, ‘Your
+Holiness,’ or ‘Your Infernal Majesty’ be the form of address most befitting me
+to employ.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Bub-ub-bub-boo,” went Lucifer, who still had the gag in his mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Heavens!” exclaimed the Cardinal, “I crave your Infernal Holiness’s
+forgiveness. What a lamentable oversight!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, relieving Lucifer from his gag and bonds, he set out the refection, upon
+which the demon fell voraciously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why the devil, if I may so express myself,” pursued Anno, “did not your
+Holiness inform us that you <i>were</i> the devil? Not a hand would then have
+been raised against you. I have myself been seeking all my life for the
+audience now happily vouchsafed me. Whence this mistrust of your faithful Anno,
+who has served you so loyally and zealously these many years?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer pointed significantly to the gag and fetters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I shall never forgive myself,” protested the Cardinal, “for the part I have
+borne in this unfortunate transaction. Next to ministering to your Majesty’s
+bodily necessities, there is nothing I have so much at heart as to express my
+penitence. But I entreat your Majesty to remember that I believed myself to be
+acting in your Majesty’s interest by overthrowing a magician who was accustomed
+to send your Majesty upon errands, and who might at any time enclose you in a
+box, and cast you into the sea. It is deplorable that your Majesty’s most
+devoted servants should have been thus misled.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Reasons of State,” suggested Lucifer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I trust that they no longer operate,” said the Cardinal. “However, the Sacred
+College is now fully possessed of the whole matter: it is therefore unnecessary
+to pursue this department of the subject further. I would now humbly crave
+leave to confer with your Majesty, or rather, perhaps, your Holiness, since I
+am about to speak of spiritual things, on the important and delicate point of
+your Holiness’s successor. I am ignorant how long your Holiness proposes to
+occupy the Apostolic chair; but of course you are aware that public opinion
+will not suffer you to hold it for a term exceeding that of the pontificate of
+Peter. A vacancy, therefore, must one day occur; and I am humbly to represent
+that the office could not be filled by one more congenial than myself to the
+present incumbent, or on whom he could more fully rely to carry out in every
+respect his views and intentions.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the Cardinal proceeded to detail various circumstances of his past life,
+which certainly seemed to corroborate his assertion. He had not, however,
+proceeded far ere he was disturbed by the grating of another key in the lock,
+and had just time to whisper impressively, “Beware of Benno,” ere he dived
+under a table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Benno was also provided with a lamp, wine, and cold viands. Warned by the other
+lamp and the remains of Lucifer’s repast that some colleague had been
+beforehand with him, and not knowing how many more might be in the field, he
+came briefly to the point as regarded the Papacy, and preferred his claim in
+much the same manner as Anno. While he was earnestly cautioning Lucifer against
+this Cardinal as one who could and would cheat the very Devil himself, another
+key turned in the lock, and Benno escaped under the table, where Anno
+immediately inserted his finger into his right eye. The little squeal
+consequent upon this occurrence Lucifer successfully smothered by a fit of
+coughing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cardinal No. 3, a Frenchman, bore a Bayonne ham, and exhibited the same disgust
+as Benno on seeing himself forestalled. So far as his requests transpired they
+were moderate, but no one knows where he would have stopped if he had not been
+scared by the advent of Cardinal No. 4. Up to this time he had only asked for
+an inexhaustible purse, power to call up the Devil <i>ad libitum</i>, and a
+ring of invisibility to allow him free access to his mistress, who was
+unfortunately a married woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cardinal No. 4 chiefly wanted to be put into the way of poisoning Cardinal No.
+5; and Cardinal No. 5 preferred the same petition as respected Cardinal No. 4.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the Archbishoprics of
+Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding them together, and of
+unlimited non-residence. In the course of his harangue he made use of the
+phrase <i>non obstantibus</i>, of which Lucifer immediately took a note.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What the seventh Cardinal would have solicited is not known, for he had hardly
+opened his mouth when the twelfth hour expired, and Lucifer, regaining his
+vigour with his shape, sent the Prince of the Church spinning to the other end
+of the room, and split the marble table with a single stroke of his tail. The
+six crouched and huddling Cardinals cowered revealed to one another, and at the
+same time enjoyed the spectacle of his Holiness darting through the stone
+ceiling, which yielded like a film to his passage, and closed up afterwards as
+if nothing had happened. After the first shock of dismay they unanimously
+rushed to the door, but found it bolted on the outside. There was no other
+exit, and no means of giving an alarm. In this emergency the demeanour of the
+Italian Cardinals set a bright example to their ultramontane colleagues.
+“<i>Bisogna pazienzia</i>,” they said, as they shrugged their shoulders.
+Nothing could exceed the mutual politeness of Cardinals Anno and Benno, unless
+that of the two who had sought to poison each other. The Frenchman was held to
+have gravely derogated from good manners by alluding to this circumstance,
+which had reached his ears while he was under the table: and the Englishman
+swore so outrageously at the plight in which he found himself that the Italians
+then and there silently registered a vow that none of his nation should ever be
+Pope, a maxim which, with one exception, has been observed to this day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer, meanwhile, had repaired to Silvester, whom he found arrayed in all the
+insignia of his dignity; of which, as he remarked, he thought his visitor had
+probably had enough.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I should think so indeed,” replied Lucifer. “But at the same time I feel
+myself fully repaid for all I have undergone by the assurance of the loyalty of
+my friends and admirers, and the conviction that it is needless for me to
+devote any considerable amount of personal attention to ecclesiastical affairs.
+I now claim the promised boon, which it will be in no way inconsistent with thy
+functions to grant, seeing that it is a work of mercy. I demand that the
+Cardinals be released, and that their conspiracy against thee, by which I alone
+suffered, be buried in oblivion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I hoped you would carry them all off,” said Gerbert, with an expression of
+disappointment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thank you,” said the Devil. “It is more to my interest to leave them where
+they are.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the dungeon-door was unbolted, and the Cardinals came forth, sheepish and
+crestfallen. If, after all, they did less mischief than Lucifer had expected
+from them, the cause was their entire bewilderment by what had passed, and
+their utter inability to penetrate the policy of Gerbert, who henceforth
+devoted himself even with ostentation to good works. They could never quite
+satisfy themselves whether they were speaking to the Pope or to the Devil, and
+when under the latter impression habitually emitted propositions which Gerbert
+justly stigmatised as rash, temerarious, and scandalous. They plagued him with
+allusions to certain matters mentioned in their interviews with Lucifer, with
+which they naturally but erroneously supposed him to be conversant, and worried
+him by continual nods and titterings as they glanced at his nether extremities.
+To abolish this nuisance, and at the same time silence sundry unpleasant
+rumours which had somehow got abroad, Gerbert devised the ceremony of kissing
+the Pope’s feet, which, in a grievously mutilated form, endures to this day.
+The stupefaction of the Cardinals on discovering that the Holy Father had lost
+his hoof surpasses all description, and they went to their graves without
+having obtained the least insight into the mystery.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>THE CUPBEARER</h2>
+
+<p>
+The minister Photinius had fallen, to the joy of Constantinople. He had taken
+sanctuary in the immense monastery adjoining the Golden Gate in the twelfth
+region of the city, founded for a thousand monks by the patrician Studius, in
+the year 463. There he occupied himself with the concoction of poisons, the
+resource of fallen statesmen. When a defeated minister of our own day is
+indisposed to accept his discomfiture, he applies himself to poison the public
+mind, inciting the lower orders against the higher, and blowing up every
+smouldering ember of sedition he can discover, trusting that the conflagration
+thus kindled, though it consume the edifice of the State, will not fail to
+roast his own egg. Photinius’s conceptions of mischief were less refined; he
+perfected his toxicological knowledge in the medical laboratory of the
+monastery, and sought eagerly for an opportunity of employing it; whether in an
+experiment upon the Emperor, or on his own successor, or on some other
+personage, circumstances must determine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sanctity of Studius’s convent, and the strength of its monastic garrison,
+rendered it a safe refuge for disgraced courtiers, and in this thirtieth year
+of the Emperor Basil the Second (reckoning from his nominal accession) it
+harboured a legion of ex-prime ministers, patriarchs, archbishops, chief
+secretaries, hypati, anthypati, silentiarii, protospatharii, and even
+spatharo-candidati. And this small army was nothing to the host that, maimed or
+blinded or tonsured or all three, dragged out their lives in monasteries or in
+dungeons or on rocky islets; and these again were few in comparison with the
+spirits of the traitors or the betrayed who wailed nightly amid the planes and
+cypresses of the Aretae, or stalked through the palatial apartments of
+verdantique and porphyry. But of those comparatively at liberty, but whose
+liberty was circumscribed by the hallowed precincts of Studius, every soul was
+plotting. And never, perhaps, in the corrupt Byzantine Court, where true
+friendship had been unknown since Theodora quarrelled with Antonia, had so near
+an approach to it existed as in this asylum of villains. A sort of freemasonry
+came to prevail in the sanctuary: every one longed to know how his neighbour’s
+plot throve, and grudged not to buy the knowledge by disclosing a little corner
+of his own. Thus rendered communicative, their colloquies would travel back
+into the past, and as the veterans of intrigue fought their battles over again,
+the most experienced would learn things that made them open their eyes with
+amazement. “Ah!” they would hear, “that is just where you were mistaken. You
+had bought Eromenus, but so had I, and old Nicephorus had outbid us both.” “You
+deemed the dancer Anthusa a sure card, and knew not of her secret infirmity, of
+which I had been apprised by her waiting woman.” “Did you really know nothing
+of that sliding panel? And were you ignorant that whatever one says in the blue
+chamber is heard in the green?” “Yes, I thought so too, and I spent a mint of
+money before finding out that the dog whose slaver that brazen impostor
+Panurgiades pretended to sell me was no more mad than he was.” After such
+rehearsals of future dialogues by the banks of Styx, the fallen statesmen were
+observed to appear exceedingly dejected, but the stimulus had become necessary
+to their existence. None gossiped so freely or disclosed so much as Photinius
+and his predecessor Eustathius, whom he had himself displaced&mdash;probably
+because Eustathius, believing in nothing in heaven or earth but gold, and
+labouring under an absolute privation of that metal, was regarded even by
+himself as an extinct volcano.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” observed he one day, when discoursing with Photinius is an unusually
+confidential mood, “I am free to say that for my own part I don’t think over
+much of poison. It has its advantages, to be sure, but to my mind the
+disadvantages are even more conspicuous.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“For example?” inquired Photinius, who had the best reason for confiding in the
+efficacy of a drug administered with dexterity and discretion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Two people must be in the secret at least, if not three,” replied Eustathius,
+“and cooks, as a rule, are a class of persons entirely unfit to be employed in
+affairs of State.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Court physician,” suggested Photinius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Is only available,” answered Eustathius, “in case his Majesty should send for
+him, which is most improbable. If he ever did, poison, praised be the Lord!
+would be totally unnecessary and entirely superfluous.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My dear friend,” said Photinius, venturing at this favourable moment on a
+question he had been dying to ask ever since he had been an inmate of the
+convent, “would you mind telling me in confidence, did you ever administer any
+potion of a deleterious nature to his Sacred Majesty?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Never!” protested Eustathius, with fervour. “I tried once, to be sure, but it
+was no use.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What was the impediment?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The perverse opposition of the cupbearer. It is idle attempting anything of
+the kind as long as she is about the Emperor.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“<i>She</i>!” exclaimed Photinius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Don’t you know <i>that</i>?” responded Eustathius, with an air and manner that
+plainly said, “You don’t know much.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Humbled and ashamed, Photinius nevertheless wisely stooped to avow his
+nescience, and flattering his rival on his superior penetration, led him to
+divulge the State secret that the handsome cupbearer Helladius was but the
+disguise of the lovely Helladia, the object of Basil’s tenderest affection, and
+whose romantic attachment to his person had already frustrated more
+conspiracies than the aged plotter could reckon up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This intelligence made Photinius for a season exceedingly thoughtful. He had
+not deemed Basil of an amorous complexion. At length he sent for his daughter,
+the beautiful and virtuous Euprepia, who from time to time visited him in the
+monastery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Daughter,” he said, “it appears to me that the time has now arrived when thou
+mayest with propriety present a petition to the Emperor on behalf of thy
+unfortunate father. Here is the document. It is, I flatter myself, composed
+with no ordinary address; nevertheless I will not conceal from thee that I
+place my hopes rather on thy beauty of person than on my beauty of style. Shake
+down thy hair and dishevel it, so!&mdash;that is excellent. Remember to tear
+thy robe some little in the poignancy of thy woe, and to lose a sandal. Tears
+and sobs of course thou hast always at command, but let not the frenzy of thy
+grief render thee wholly inarticulate. Here is a slight memorandum of what is
+most fitting for thee to say: thy old nurse’s instructions will do the rest.
+Light a candle for St. Sergius, and watch for a favourable opportunity.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Euprepia was upright, candid, and loyal; but the best of women has something of
+the actress in her nature; and her histrionic talent was stimulated by her
+filial affection. Basil was for a moment fairly carried away by the consummate
+fact of her performance and the genuine feeling to her appeal; but he was
+himself again by the time he had finished perusing his late minister’s
+long-winded and mendacious memorial.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What manner of woman was thy mother?” he inquired kindly
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Euprepia was eloquent in praise of her deceased parent’s perfections of mind
+and person.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then I can believe thee Photinius’s daughter, which I might otherwise have
+doubted,” returned Basil. “As concerns him, I can only say, if he feels himself
+innocent, let him come out of sanctuary, and stand his trial. But I will give
+thee a place at Court.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was about all that Photinius hoped to obtain, and he joyfully consented to
+his daughter’s entering the Imperial court, exulting at having got in the thin
+end of the wedge. She was attached to the person of the Emperor’s
+sister-in-law, the “Slayer of the Bulgarians” himself being a most determined
+bachelor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Time wore on. Euprepia’s opportunities of visiting her father were less
+frequent than formerly. At last she came, looking thoroughly miserable,
+distracted, and forlorn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What ails thee, child?” he inquired anxiously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, father, in what a frightful position do I find myself!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Speak,” he said, “and rely on my counsel.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When I entered the Court,” she proceeded, “I found at first but one human
+creature I could love or trust, and he&mdash;let me so call him&mdash;seemed to
+make up for the deficiencies of all the rest. It was the cupbearer Helladius.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I hope he is still thy friend,” interrupted Photinius. “The good graces of an
+Imperial cupbearer are always important, and I would have bought those of
+Helladius with a myriad of bezants.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They were not to be thus obtained, father,” said she. “The purest
+disinterestedness, the noblest integrity, the most unselfish devotion, were the
+distinction of my friend. And such beauty! I cannot, I must not conceal that my
+heart was soon entirely his. But&mdash;most strange it seemed to me
+then&mdash;it was long impossible for me to tell whether Helladius loved me or
+loved me not. The most perfect sympathy existed between us: we seemed one heart
+and one soul: and yet, and yet, Helladius never gave the slightest indication
+of the sentiments which a young man might be supposed to entertain for a young
+girl. Vainly did I try every innocent wile that a modest maiden may permit
+herself: he was ever the friend, never the lover. At length, after long pining
+between despairing fondness and wounded pride, I myself turned away, and
+listened to one who left me in no doubt of the sincerity of his passion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Emperor! And, to shorten the story of my shame, I became his mistress.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The saints be praised!” shouted Photinius. “O my incomparable daughter!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Father!” cried Euprepia, blushing and indignant. “But let me hurry on with my
+wretched tale. In proportion as the Emperor’s affection became more marked,
+Helladius, hitherto so buoyant and serene, became a visible prey to
+despondency. Some scornful beauty, I deemed, was inflicting on him the tortures
+he had previously inflicted upon me, and, cured of my unhappy attachment, and
+entirely devoted to my Imperial lover, I did all in my power to encourage him.
+He received my comfort with gratitude, nor did it, as I had feared might
+happen, seem to excite the least lover-like feeling towards me on his own
+part.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Euprepia,” he said only two days ago, “never in this Court have I met one like
+thee. Thou art the soul of honour and generosity. I can safely trust thee with
+a secret which my bursting heart can no longer retain, but which I dread to
+breathe even to myself. Know first I am not what I seem, I am a woman!” And
+opening his vest&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We know all about that already,” interrupted Photinius. “Get on!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If thou knowest this already, father,” said the astonished Euprepia, “thou
+wilt spare me the pain of entering further into Helladia’s affection for Basil.
+Suffice that it was impassioned beyond description, and vied with whatever
+history or romance records. In her male costume she had accompanied the
+conqueror of the Bulgarians in his campaigns, she had fought in his battles; a
+gigantic foe, in act to strike him from behind, had fallen by her arrow; she
+had warded the poison-cup from his lips, and the assassin’s dagger from his
+heart; she had rejected enormous wealth offered as a bribe for treachery, and
+lived only for the Emperor. ‘And now,’ she cried, ‘his love for me is cold, and
+he deserts me for another. Who she is I cannot find, else on her it were, not
+on him, that my vengeance should alight. Oh, Euprepia, I would tear her eyes
+from her head, were they beautiful as thine! But vengeance I must have. Basil
+must die. On the third day he expires by my hand, poisoned by the cup which I
+alone am trusted to offer him at the Imperial banquet where thou wilt be
+present. Thou shalt see his agonies and my triumph, and rejoice that thy friend
+has known how to avenge herself.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou seest now, father, in how frightful a difficulty I am placed. All my
+entreaties and remonstrances have been in vain: at my threats Helladia merely
+laughs. I love Basil with my whole heart. Shall I look on and see him murdered?
+Shall I, having first unwittingly done my friend the most grievous injury,
+proceed further to betray her, and doom her to a cruel death? I might
+anticipate her fell purpose by slaying her, but for that I have neither
+strength nor courage. Many a time have I felt on the point of revealing
+everything to her, and offering myself as her victim, but for this also I lack
+fortitude. I might convey a warning to Basil, but Helladia’s vengeance is
+unsleeping, and nothing but her death or mine will screen him. Oh, father,
+father! what am I to do?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nothing romantic or sentimental, I trust, dear child,” replied Photinius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Torture me not, father. I came to thee for counsel.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And counsel shalt thou have, but it must be the issue of mature deliberation.
+Thou mayest observe,” continued he with the air of a good man contending with
+adversity, “how weak and miserable is man’s estate even in the day of good
+fortune, how hard it is for purblind mortals to discern the right path,
+especially when two alluring routes are simultaneously presented for their
+decision! The most obvious and natural course, the one I should have adopted
+without hesitation half-an-hour ago, would be simply to let Helladia alone.
+Should she succeed&mdash;and Heaven forbid else!&mdash;the knot is loosed in
+the simplest manner. Basil dies&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Father!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am a favourite with his sister-in-law,” continued Photinius, entirely
+unconscious of his daughter’s horror and agitation, “who will govern in the
+name of her weak husband, and is moreover thy mistress. She recalls me to
+Court, and all is peace and joy. But then, Helladia may fail. In that case,
+when she has been executed&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Father, father!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We are exactly where we were, save for the hold thou hast established over the
+Emperor, which is of course invaluable. I cannot but feel that Heaven is good
+when I reflect how easily thou mightest have thrown thyself away upon a
+courtier. Now there is a much bolder game to play, which, relying on the
+protection of Providence, I feel half disposed to attempt. Thou mightest betray
+Helladia.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Deliver my friend to the tormentors!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then,” pursued Photinius, without hearing her, “thy claim on the Emperor’s
+gratitude is boundless, and if he has any sense of what is seemly&mdash;and he
+is what they call chivalrous&mdash;he will make thee his lawful consort. I
+father-in-law of an Emperor! My brain reels to think of it. I must be cool. I
+must not suffer myself to be dazzled or hurried away. Let me consider. Thus
+acting, thou puttest all to the hazard of the die. For if Helladia should deny
+everything, as of course she would, and the Emperor should foolishly scruple to
+put her to the rack, she might probably persuade him of her innocence, and
+where wouldst thou be then? It might almost be better to be beforehand, and
+poison Helladia herself, but I fear there is no time now. Thou hast no evidence
+but her threats, I suppose? Thou hast not caught her tampering with poisons?
+There can of course be nothing in writing. I daresay I could find something, if
+I had but time. Canst thou counterfeit her signature?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But long ere this Euprepia, dissolved in tears, her bosom torn by convulsive
+sobs, had become as inattentive to her parent’s discourse as he had been to her
+interjections. Photinius at last remarked her distress: he was by no means a
+bad father.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Poor child,” he said, “thy nerves are unstrung, and no wonder. It is a
+terrible risk to run. Even if thou saidest nothing, and Helladia under the
+torture accused thee of having been privy to her design, it might have a bad
+effect on the Emperor’s mind. If he put thee to the torture too&mdash;but no!
+that’s impossible. I feel faint and giddy, dear child, and unable to decide a
+point of such importance. Come to me at daybreak to-morrow.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Euprepia did not reappear, and Photinius spent the day in an agony of
+expectation, fearing that she had compromised herself by some imprudence. He
+gazed on the setting sun with uncontrollable impatience, knowing that it would
+shine on the Imperial banquet, where so much was to happen. Basil was in fact
+at that very moment seating himself among a brilliant assemblage. By his side
+stood a choir of musicians, among them Euprepia. Soon the cup was called for,
+and Helladia, in her masculine dress, stepped forward, darting a glance of
+sinister triumph at her friend. Silently, almost imperceptibly to the bulk of
+the company, Euprepia glided forward, and hissed rather than whispered in
+Helladia’s ear, ere she could retire from the Emperor’s side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Didst thou not say that if thou couldst discover her who had wronged thee,
+thou wouldst wreak thy vengeance on her, and molest Basil no further?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I did, and I meant it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“See that thou keepest thy word. I am she!” And snatching the cup from the
+table, she quaffed it to the last drop, and instantly expired in convulsions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We pass over the dismay of the banqueters, the arrest and confession of
+Helladia, the general amazement at the revelation of her sex, the frantic grief
+of the Emperor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Basil’s sorrow was sincere and durable. On an early occasion he thus addressed
+his courtiers:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I cannot determine which of these two women loved me best: she who gave her
+life for me, or she who would have taken mine. The first made the greater
+sacrifice; the second did most violence to her feelings. What say ye?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The courtiers hesitated, feeling themselves incompetent judges in problems of
+this nature. At length the youngest exclaimed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Emperor, how can we tell thee, unless we know what thou thinkest thyself?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” exclaimed Basil, “an honest man in the Court of Byzantium! Let his
+mouth be filled with gold immediately!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This operation having been performed, and the precious metal distributed in
+fees among the proper officers, Basil thus addressed the object of his favour:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Manuel, thy name shall henceforth be Chrysostomus, in memory of what has just
+taken place. In further token of my approbation of thy honesty, I will confer
+upon thee the hand of the only other respectable person about the Court,
+namely, of Helladia. Take her, my son, and raise up a race of heroes! She shall
+be amply dowered out of what remains of the property of Photinius.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Gennadius,” whispered a cynical courtier to his neighbour, “I hope thou
+admirest the magnanimity of our sovereign, who deems he is performing a most
+generous action in presenting Manuel with his cast-off mistress, who has tried
+to poison him, and with whom he has been at his wits’ end what to do, and in
+dowering her at the expense of another.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The snarl was just; but it is just also to acknowledge that Basil, as a prince
+born in the purple, had not the least idea that he was laying himself open to
+any such criticism. He actually did feel the manly glow of self-approbation
+which accompanies the performance of a good action: an emotion which no one
+else present, except Chrysostomus, was so much as able to conceive. It is
+further to be remarked that the old courtier who sneered at Chrysostomus was
+devoured by envy of his good fortune, and would have given his right eye to
+have been in his place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Chrysostomus,” pursued Basil, “we must now think of the hapless Photinius.
+That unfortunate father is doubtless in an agony of grief which renders the
+forfeiture of the remains of his possessions indifferent to him. Thou, his
+successor therein, mayest be regarded as in some sort his son-in-law. Go,
+therefore, and comfort him, and report to me upon his condition.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Chrysostomus accordingly proceeded to the monastery, where he was informed that
+Photinius had retired with his spiritual adviser, and could on no account be
+disturbed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is on my head to see the Emperor’s orders obeyed,” returned Chrysostomus,
+and forced the door. The bereaved parent was busily engaged in sticking pins
+into a wax effigy of Basil, under the direction of Panurgiades, already
+honourably mentioned in this history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wretched old man!” exclaimed Chrysostomus, “is this thy grief for thy
+daughter?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My grief is great,” answered Photinius, “but my time is small. If I turn not
+every moment to account, I shall never be prime minister again. But all is over
+now. Thou wilt denounce me, of course. I will give thee a counsel. Say that
+thou didst arrive just as we were about to place the effigy of Basil before a
+slow fire, and melt it into a caldron of bubbling poison.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I shall report what I have seen,” replied Chrysostomus, “neither more nor
+less. But I think I can assure thee that none will suffer for this mummery
+except Panurgiades, and that he will at most be whipped.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Chrysostomus,” said Basil, on receiving the report, “lust of power, a fever in
+youth, is a leprosy in age. The hoary statesman out of place would sell his
+daughter, his country, his soul, to regain it: yea, he would part with his skin
+and his senses, were it possible to hold office without them. I commiserate
+Photinius, whose faculties are clearly on the decline; the day has been when he
+would not have wasted his time sticking pins into a waxen figure. I will give
+him some shadow of authority to amuse his old days and keep him out of
+mischief. The Abbot of Catangion is just dead. Photinius shall succeed him.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Photinius received the tonsure and the dignity, and made a very tolerable
+Abbot. It is even recorded to his honour that he bestowed a handsome funeral on
+his old enemy Eustathius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Helladia made Chrysostomus an excellent wife, a little over-prudish, some
+thought. When, nearly two centuries afterwards, the Courts of Love came to be
+established in Provence, the question at issue between her and Euprepia was
+referred to those tribunals, which, finding the decision difficult, adjourned
+it for seven hundred years. That period having now expired, it is submitted to
+the British public.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>THE WISDOM OF THE INDIANS</h2>
+
+<p>
+Everybody knows that in the reign of the Emperor Elagabalus Rome was visited by
+an embassy from India; whose members, on their way from the East, had held that
+memorable interview with the illustrious (though heretical) Christian
+philosopher Bardesanes which enabled him to formulate his doctrine of Fate,
+borrowed from the Indian theory of Karma, and therefore, until lately,
+grievously misunderstood by his commentators.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may not, however, be equally notorious that the ambassadors returned by sea
+as far as Berytus, and upon landing there were hospitably entertained by the
+sage Euphronius, the head of the philosophical faculty of that University.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Euphronius naturally inquired what circumstance in Rome had appeared to his
+visitors most worthy of remark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The extreme evil of the Emperor’s Karma,” said they.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Euphronius requested further explanation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Karma,” explained their interpreter, “is that congeries of circumstances which
+has necessitated the birth of each individual, and of whose good or evil he is
+the incarnation. Every act must needs be attended by consequences, and as these
+are usually of too far-reaching a character to be exhausted in the life of the
+doer of the action, they cannot but engender another person by whom they are to
+be borne. This truth is popularly expressed by the doctrine of transmigration,
+according to which individuals, as the character of their deeds may determine,
+are re-born as pigs or peacocks, beggars or princes. But this is a loose and
+unscientific way of speaking, for in fact it is not the individual that is
+re-born, but the character; which, even as the silkworm clothes itself with
+silk and the caddis-worm with mud and small shingle, creates for itself a new
+personality, congruous with its own nature. We are therefore led to reflect
+what a prodigious multitude of sins some one must have committed ere the Roman
+world could be afflicted with such an Emperor as Elagabalus.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What have ye found so exceedingly reprehensible in the Emperor’s conduct?”
+demanded Euphronius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To speak only,” said the Indians, “of such of his doings as may fitly be
+recited to modest ears, we find him declaring war against Nature, and
+delighting in nothing that is not the contrary of what Heaven meant it to be.
+We see him bathing in perfumes, sailing ships in wine, feeding horses on grapes
+and lions on parrots, peppering fish with pearls, wearing gems on the soles of
+his feet, strewing his floor with gold-dust, paving the public streets with
+precious marbles, driving teams of stags, scorning to eat fish by the seaside,
+deploring his lot that he has never yet been able to dine on a phoenix.
+Enormous must have been the folly and wickedness which has incarnated itself in
+such a sovereign, and should his reign be prolonged, discouraging is the
+prospect for the morals of the next generation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“According to you, then,” said Euphronius, “the fates of men are not spun for
+them by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, but by their predecessors?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“So it is,” said they, “always remembering that man can rid himself of his
+Karma by philosophic meditation, combined with religious austerities, and that
+if all walked in this path, existence with all its evils would come to an end.
+Insomuch that the most bloodthirsty conqueror that ever devastated the earth
+hath not destroyed one thousandth part as many existences as the Lord Buddha.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“These are abstruse matters,” said Euphronius, “and I lament that your stay in
+Berytus will not be long enough to instruct me adequately therein.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Accompany us to India,” said they, “and thou shalt receive instruction at the
+fountain head.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am old and feeble,” apologised Euphronius, “and adjusted by long habit to my
+present environment. Nevertheless I will propound the enterprise to my pupils,
+only somewhat repressing their ardour, lest the volunteers should be
+inconveniently numerous.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When, however, the proposition was made not a soul responded; though Euphronius
+reproached his disciples severely, and desired them to compare their want of
+spirit with his own thirst for knowledge, which, when he was a young man, had
+taken him as far as Alexandria to hear a celebrated rhetorician. In the
+evening, however, two disciples came to him together, and professed their
+readiness to undertake the expedition, if promised a reward commensurate with
+its danger and difficulty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ye would learn the secret of my celebrated dilemma,” said he, “which no
+sophist can elude? ’Tis much; ’tis immoderate; ’tis enormous; nevertheless,
+bring the wisdom of India to Berytus, and the knowledge of the stratagem shall
+be yours.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No, Master,” they said, “it is not thy dilemma of which we are enamoured. It
+is thy daughter.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A vehement altercation ensued, but at length the old philosopher, who at the
+bottom of his heart was much readier to part with his daughter than his
+dilemma, was induced to promise her to whichever of the pupils should bring
+home the most satisfactory exposition of Indian metaphysics: provided always
+that during their absence he should not have been compelled to bestow her hand
+as the price of a quibble even more subtle than his own: but this he believed
+to be impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mnesitheus and Rufus accordingly travelled with the embassy to India, and
+arrived in safety at the metropolis of Palimbothra. They had wisely devoted
+themselves meanwhile to learning the language, and were now able to converse
+with some fluency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On reaching their destination they were placed under the superintendence of
+competent instructors, who were commissioned to initiate them into the canon of
+Buddhist scriptures, comprising, to mention only a few of the principal, the
+Lalitavistara, the Dhammapada, the Kuddhapatha, the Palinokkha, the Uragavagga,
+the Kulavagga, the Mahavagga, the Atthakavagga, and the Upasampadakammavaca.
+These works, composed in dead languages, and written in strange and unknown
+characters, were further provided with commentaries more voluminous and
+inexplicable than the text.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Heavens,” exclaimed Mnesitheus and Rufus, “can the life of a man suffice to
+study all this?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Assuredly not,” replied the Indians. “The diligent student will resume his
+investigations in a subsequent stage of existence, and, if endowed with eminent
+faculties, may hope to attain the end he proposes to himself at the fifteenth
+transmigration.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The end we propose to ourselves,” said the Greeks, “is to marry our master’s
+daughter. Will the fair Euphronia also have undergone fifteen transmigrations,
+and will her charms have continued unimpaired?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is difficult to pronounce,” said they, “for should the maiden, through the
+exercise of virtue, have merited to be born as a white elephant, her
+transmigrations must in the order of nature be but few; whereas should she have
+unfortunately become and remained a rat, a frog, or other shortlived animal,
+they cannot but be exceedingly numerous.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The prospect of wedding a frog at the end of fifteen transmigrations,” said
+the youths, “doth not in any respect commend itself to us. Are there no means
+by which the course of study may be accelerated?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Undoubtedly,” said the Indians, “by the practice of religious austerities.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Of what nature are these?” inquired the young men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The intrepid disciple,” said the sages, “may chain himself to a tree, and gaze
+upon the sun until he is deprived of the faculty of vision. He may drive an
+iron bar through his cheeks and tongue, thus preventing all misuse of the gift
+of speech. It is open to him to bury himself in the earth up to his waist,
+relying for his maintenance on the alms of pious donors. He may recline upon a
+couch studded with spikes, until from the induration of his skin he shall have
+merited the title of a rhinoceros among sages. As, however, these latter
+practices interfere with locomotion, and thus prevent his close attendance on
+his spiritual guide, it is rather recommended to him to elevate his arms above
+his head, and retain them in that position until, by the withering of the
+sinews, it is impossible for him to bring them down again.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In that case,” cried Rufus, “farewell philosophy! farewell Euphronia!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is reason to believe that Mnesitheus would have made exactly the same
+observation if Rufus had not been beforehand with him. The spirit of
+contradiction and the affectation of superiority, however, led him to reproach
+his rival with pusillanimity, and he went so far that at length he found
+himself committed to undergo the ordeal: merely stipulating that, in
+consideration of his being a foreigner, he should be permitted to elevate the
+right arm only.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The king of the country most graciously came to his assistance by causing him
+to be fastened to a tree, with his uplifted arm secured by iron bands above his
+head, a fan being put in his other hand to protect him against the molestations
+of gnats and mosquitoes. By this means, and with the assistance of the monks
+who continually recited and expounded the Buddhist scriptures in his ears, some
+time even before his arm had stiffened for ever, the doctrine of the misery of
+existence had become perfectly clear to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Released from his captivity, he hastened back to Europe to claim the guerdon of
+his sufferings. History is silent respecting his adventures until his arrival
+at Berytus, where the strange wild-looking man with the uplifted arm found
+himself the centre of a turbulent and mischievous rabble. As he seemed about to
+suffer severe ill-usage, a personage of dignified and portly appearance
+hastened up, and with his staff showered blows to right and left upon the
+rioters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Scoundrels,” he exclaimed, “finely have ye profited by my precepts, thus to
+misuse an innocent stranger! But I will no longer dwell among such barbarians.
+I will remove my school to Tarsus!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mob dispersed. The victim and his deliverer stood face to face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Mnesitheus!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Rufus!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Call me Rufinianus,” corrected the latter; “for such is the appellation which
+I have felt it due to myself to assume, since the enhancement of my dignity by
+becoming Euphronius’s successor and son-in-law.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Son-in-law! Am I to lose the reward of my incredible sufferings?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou forgettest,” said Rufinianus, “that Euphronia’s hand was not promised as
+the reward of any austerities, but as the meed of the most intelligent, that
+is, the most acceptable, account of the Indian philosophy, which in the opinion
+of the late eminent Euphronius, has been delivered by me. But come to my
+chamber, and let me minister to thy necessities.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These having been duly attended to, Rufinianus demanded Mnesitheus’s history,
+and then proceeded to narrate his own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“On my journey homeward,” said he, “I reflected seriously on the probable
+purpose of our master in sending us forth, and saw reason to suspect that I had
+hitherto misapprehended it. For I could not remember that he had ever admitted
+that he could have anything to learn from other philosophers, or that he had
+ever exhibited the least interest in philosophic dogmas, excepting his own. The
+system of the Indians, I thought, must be either inferior to that of
+Euphronius, or superior. If the former, he will not want it: if the latter, he
+will want it much less. I therefore concluded that our mission was partly a
+concession to public opinion, partly to enable him to say that his name was
+known, and his teaching proclaimed on the very banks of the Ganges. I formed my
+plan accordingly, and disregarding certain indications that I was neither
+expected nor wanted, presented myself before Euphronius with a gladsome
+countenance, slightly overcast by sorrow on account of thee, whom I affirmed to
+have been devoured by a tiger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Well,’ said Euphronius in a disdainful tone, ‘and what about this vaunted
+wisdom of the Indians?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘The wisdom of the Indians,’ I replied, ‘is entirely borrowed from
+Pythagoras.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Did I not tell you so? ‘Euphronius appealed to his disciples.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Invariably,’ they replied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘As if a barbarian could teach a Greek!’ said he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘It is much if he is able to learn from one,’ said they.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Pythagoras, then,’ said Euphronius addressing me,’ did not resort to India to
+be instructed by the Gymnosophists?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘On the contrary,’ I answered, ‘he went there to teach them, and the little
+knowledge of divine matters they possess is entirely derived from him. His
+mission is recorded in a barbarous poem called the Ramayana, wherein he is
+figuratively represented as allying himself with monkeys. He is worshipped all
+over the country under the appellations of Siva, Kamadeva, Kali, Gautama
+Buddha, and others too numerous to mention.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When I further proceeded to explain that a temple had been erected to
+Euphronius himself on the banks of the Ganges, and that a festival, called
+Durga Popja, or the Feast of Reason, had been instituted in his honour, his
+good humour knew no bounds, and he granted me his daughter’s hand without
+difficulty. He died a few years ago, bequeathing me his celebrated dilemma, and
+I am now head of his school and founder of the Rufinianian philosophy. I am
+also the author of some admired works, especially a life of Pythagoras, and a
+manual of Indian philosophy and religion. I hope for thy own sake thou wilt
+forbear to contradict me: for no one will believe thee. I trust also that thou
+wilt speedily overcome thy disappointment with respect to Euphronia. I do most
+honestly and truthfully assure thee that for a one-armed man like thee to marry
+her would be most inexpedient, inasmuch as the defence of one’s beard from her,
+when she is in a state of excitement, requires the full use of both hands, and
+of the feet also. But come with me to her chamber, and I will present thee to
+her. She is always taunting me with my inferiority to thee in personal
+attractions, and I promise myself much innocent amusement from her discomfiture
+when she finds thee as gaunt as a wolf and as black as a cinder. Only, as I
+have represented thee to have been devoured by a tiger, thou wilt kindly say
+that I saved thy life, but concealed the circumstance out of modesty.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have learned in the Indian schools,” said Mnesitheus, “not to lie for the
+benefit of others. I will not see Euphronia; I would not disturb her ideal of
+me, nor mine of her. Farewell. May the Rufinianian sect flourish! and may thy
+works on Pythagoras and India instruct posterity to the tenth generation! I
+return to Palimbothra, where I am held in honour on the self-same account that
+here renders me ridiculous. It shall be my study to enlighten the natives
+respecting their obligations to Pythagoras, whose name I did not happen to hear
+while I abode among them.”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>THE DUMB ORACLE</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Many the Bacchi that brandish the rod:<br/>
+Few that be filled with the fire of the God.
+</p>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+In the days of King Attalus, before oracles had lost their credit, one of
+peculiar reputation, inspired, as was believed, by Apollo, existed in the city
+of Dorylseum, in Phrygia. Contrary to usage, its revelations were imparted
+through the medium of a male priest. It was rarely left unthronged by devout
+questioners, whose inquiries were resolved in writing, agreeably to the method
+delivered by the pious Lucian, in his work “Concerning False Prophecy.” [*]
+Sometimes, on extraordinary occasions, a voice, evidently that of the deity,
+was heard declaring the response from the innermost recesses of the shrine. The
+treasure house of the sanctuary was stored with tripods and goblets, in general
+wrought from the precious metals; its coffers were loaded with coins and
+ingots; the sacrifices of wealthy suppliants and the copious offerings in kind
+of the country people provided superabundantly for the daily maintenance of the
+temple servitors; while a rich endowment in land maintained the dignity of its
+guardians, and of the officiating priest. The latter reverend personage was no
+less eminent for prudence than for piety; on which account the Gods had
+rewarded him with extreme obesity. At length he died, whether of excess in meat
+or in drink is not agreed among historians.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+*) <i>Pseudomantis</i>, cap. 19-21.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The guardians of the temple met to choose a successor, and, naturally desirous
+that the sanctity of the oracle should suffer no abatement, elected a young
+priest of goodly presence and ascetic life; the humblest, purest, most fervent,
+and most ingenuous of the sons of men. So rare a choice might well be expected
+to be accompanied by some extraordinary manifestation, and, in fact, a prodigy
+took place which filled the sacred authorities with dismay. The responses of
+the oracle ceased suddenly and altogether. No revelation was vouchsafed to the
+pontiff in his slumbers; no access of prophetic fury constrained him to
+disclose the secrets of the future; no voice rang from the shrine; and the
+unanswered epistles of the suppliants lay a hopeless encumbrance on the great
+altar. As a natural consequence they speedily ceased to arrive; the influx of
+offerings into the treasury terminated along with them; the temple-courts were
+bare of worshippers; and the only victims whose blood smoked within them were
+those slain by the priest himself, in the hope of appeasing the displeasure of
+Apollo. The modest hierophant took all the blame upon his own shoulders; he did
+not doubt that he had excited the Deity’s wrath by some mysterious but heinous
+pollution; and was confirmed in this opinion by the unanimous verdict of all
+whom he approached.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One day as he sat sadly in the temple, absorbed in painful meditation, and
+pondering how he might best relieve himself of his sacred functions, he was
+startled by the now unwonted sound of a footstep, and, looking up, espied an
+ancient woman. Her appearance was rather venerable than prepossessing. He
+recognised her as one of the inferior ministers of the temple.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Reverend mother,” he addressed her, “doubtless thou comest to mingle with mine
+thy supplications to the Deity, that it may please him to indicate the cause,
+and the remedy of his wrath.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No, son,” returned the venerable personage, “I propose to occasion no such
+needless trouble to Apollo, or any other Divinity. I hold within mine own hand
+the power of reviving the splendour of this forsaken sanctuary, and for such
+consideration as thou wilt thyself pronounce equitable, I am minded to impart
+the same unto thee.” And as the astonished priest made no answer, she
+continued:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My price is one hundred pieces of gold.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wretch!” exclaimed the priest indignantly, “thy mercenary demand alone proves
+the vanity of thy pretence of being initiated into the secrets of the Gods.
+Depart my presence this moment!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old woman retired without a syllable of remonstrance, and the incident soon
+passed from the mind of the afflicted priest. But on the following day, at the
+same hour, the aged woman again stood before him, and said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My price is <i>two</i> hundred pieces of gold.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again she was commanded to depart, and again obeyed without a murmur. But the
+adventure now occasioned the priest much serious reflection. To his excited
+fancy, the patient persistency of the crone began to assume something of a
+supernatural character. He considered that the ways of the Gods are not as our
+ways, and that it is rather the rule than the exception with them to accomplish
+their designs in the most circuitous manner, and by the most unlikely
+instruments. He also reflected upon the history of the Sibyl and her books, and
+shuddered to think that unseasonable obstinacy might in the end cost the temple
+the whole of its revenues. The result of his cogitations was a resolution, if
+the old woman should present herself on the following day, to receive her in a
+different manner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Punctual to the hour she made her appearance, and croaked out, “My price is
+<i>three</i> hundred pieces of gold.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Venerable ambassadress of Heaven,” said the priest, “thy boon is granted thee.
+Relieve the anguish of my bosom as speedily as thou mayest.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old woman’s reply was brief and expressive. It consisted in extending her
+open and hollow palm, into which the priest counted the three hundred pieces of
+gold with as much expedition as was compatible with the frequent interruptions
+necessitated by the crone’s depositing each successive handful in a leather
+pouch; and the scrutiny, divided between jealousy and affection, which she
+bestowed on each individual coin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And now,” said the priest, when the operation was at length completed, “fulfil
+thy share of the compact.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The cause of the oracle’s silence,” returned the old woman, “is the
+unworthiness of the minister.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Alas! ’tis even as I feared,” sighed the priest. “Declare now, wherein
+consists my sin?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It consists in this,” replied the old woman, “that the beard of thy
+understanding is not yet grown; and that the egg-shell of thy inexperience is
+still sticking to the head of thy simplicity; and that thy brains bear no
+adequate proportion to the skull enveloping them; and in fine, lest I seem to
+speak overmuch in parables, or to employ a superfluity of epithets, that thou
+art an egregious nincompoop.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And as the amazed priest preserved silence, she pursued:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Can aught be more shameful in a religious man than ignorance of the very
+nature of religion? Not to know that the term, being rendered into the language
+of truth, doth therein signify deception practised by the few wise upon the
+many foolish, for the benefit of both, but more particularly the former? O
+silly as the crowds who hitherto have brought their folly here, but now carry
+it elsewhere to the profit of wiser men than thou! O fool! to deem that oracles
+were rendered by Apollo! How should this be, seeing that there is no such
+person? Needs there, peradventure, any greater miracle for the decipherment of
+these epistles than a hot needle? [*] As for the supernatural voice, it doth in
+truth proceed from a respectable, and in some sense a sacred personage, being
+mine own when I am concealed within a certain recess prepared for me by thy
+lamented predecessor, whose mistress I was in youth, and whose coadjutor I have
+been in age. I am now ready to minister to thee in the latter capacity. Be
+ruled by me; exchange thy abject superstition for common sense; thy childish
+simplicity for discreet policy; thy unbecoming spareness for a majestic
+portliness; thy present ridiculous and uncomfortable situation for the repute
+of sanctity, and the veneration of men. Thou wilt own that this is cheap at
+three hundred pieces.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+*) Lucian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young priest had hearkened to the crone’s discourse with an expression of
+the most exquisite distress. When she had finished, he arose, and disregarding
+his repulsive companion’s efforts to detain him, departed hastily from the
+temple.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+It was the young priest’s purpose, as soon as he became capable of forming one,
+to place the greatest possible distance between himself and the city of
+Dorylæum. The love of roaming insensibly grew upon him, and ere long his active
+limbs had borne him over a considerable portion of Asia. His simple wants were
+easily supplied by the wild productions of the country, supplemented when
+needful by the proceeds of light manual labour. By degrees the self-contempt
+which had originally stung him to desperation took the form of an ironical
+compassion for the folly of mankind, and the restlessness which had at first
+impelled him to seek relief in a change of scene gave place to a spirit of
+curiosity and observation. He learned to mix freely with all orders of men,
+save one, and rejoiced to find the narrow mysticism which he had imbibed from
+his previous education gradually yielding to contact with the great world. From
+one class of men, indeed, he learned nothing&mdash;the priests, whose society
+he eschewed with scrupulous vigilance, nor did he ever enter the temples of the
+Gods. Diviners, augurs, all that made any pretension whatever to a supernatural
+character, he held in utter abhorrence, and his ultimate return in the
+direction of his native country is attributed to his inability to persevere
+further in the path he was following without danger of encountering Chaldean
+soothsayers, or Persian magi, or Indian gymnosophists.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He cherished, however, no intention of returning to Phrygia, and was still at a
+considerable distance from that region, when one night, as he was sitting in
+the inn of a small country town, his ear caught a phrase which arrested his
+attention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As true as the oracle of Dorylæum.” The speaker was a countryman, who appeared
+to have been asseverating something regarded by the rest of the company as
+greatly in need of confirmation. The sudden start and stifled cry of the
+ex-priest drew all eyes to him, and he felt constrained to ask, with the most
+indifferent air he could assume:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Is the oracle of Dorylæum, then, so exceedingly renowned for veracity?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Whence comest thou to be ignorant of that?” demanded the countryman, with some
+disdain. “Hast thou never heard of the priest Eubulides?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Eubulides!” exclaimed the young traveller, “that is my own name!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou mayest well rejoice, then,” observed another of the guests, “to bear the
+name of one so holy and pure, and so eminently favoured by the happy Gods. So
+handsome and dignified, moreover, as I may well assert who have often beheld
+him discharging his sacred functions. And truly, now that I scan thee more
+closely, the resemblance is marvellous. Only that thy namesake bears with him a
+certain air of divinity, not equally conspicuous in thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Divinity!” exclaimed another. “Aye, if Phœbus himself ministered at his own
+shrine, he could wear no more majestic semblance than Eubulides.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Or predict the future more accurately,” added a priest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Or deliver his oracles in more exquisite verse,” subjoined a poet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yet is it not marvellous,” remarked another speaker, “that for some
+considerable time after his installation the good Eubulides was unable to
+deliver a single oracle?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aye, and that the first he rendered should have foretold the death of an aged
+woman, one of the ministers of the temple.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ha!” exclaimed Eubulides, “how was that?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He prognosticated her decease on the following day, which accordingly came to
+pass, from her being choked with a piece of gold, not lawfully appertaining to
+herself, which she was endeavouring to conceal under the root of her tongue.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Gods be praised for that!” ejaculated Eubulides, under his breath. “Pshaw!
+as if there were Gods! If they existed, would they tolerate this vile mockery?
+To keep up the juggle&mdash;well, I know it must be so; but to purloin my name!
+to counterfeit my person! By all the Gods that are not, I will expose the
+cheat, or perish in the endeavour.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He arose early on the following morning and took his way towards the city of
+Dorylæum. The further he progressed in this direction, the louder became the
+bruit of the oracle of Apollo, and the more emphatic the testimonies to the
+piety, prophetic endowments, and personal attractions of the priest Eubulides;
+his own resemblance to whom was the theme of continual remark. On approaching
+the city, he found the roads swarming with throngs hastening to the temple,
+about to take part in a great religious ceremony to be held therein. The
+seriousness of worship blended delightfully with the glee of the festival, and
+Eubulides, who at first regarded the gathering with bitter scorn, found his
+moroseness insensibly yielding to the poetic charm of the scene. He could not
+but acknowledge that the imposture he panted to expose was at least the source
+of much innocent happiness, and almost wished that the importance of religion,
+considered as an engine of policy, had been offered to his contemplation from
+this point of view, instead of the sordid and revolting aspect in which it had
+been exhibited by the old woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this ambiguous frame of mind he entered the temple. Before the high altar
+stood the officiating priest, a young man, the image, yet not the image, of
+himself. Lineament for lineament, the resemblance was exact, but over the
+stranger’s whole figure was diffused an air of majesty, of absolute serenity
+and infinite superiority, which excluded every idea of deceit, and so awed the
+young priest that his purpose of rushing forward to denounce the impostor and
+drag him from the shrine was immediately and involuntarily relinquished. As he
+stood confounded and irresolute, the melodious voice of the hierophant rang
+through the temple:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let the priest Eubulides stand forth.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This summons naturally caused the greatest astonishment in every one but
+Eubulides, who emerged as swiftly as he could from the swaying and murmuring
+crowd, and confronted his namesake at the altar. A cry of amazement broke from
+the multitude as they beheld the pair, whose main distinction in the eyes of
+most was their garb. But, as they gazed, the form of the officiating priest
+assumed colossal proportions; a circle of beams, dimming sunlight, broke forth
+around his head; hyacinthine locks clustered on his shoulders, his eyes
+sparkled with supernatural radiance; a quiver depended at his back; an unstrung
+bow occupied his hand; the majesty and benignity of his presence alike seemed
+augmented tenfold. Eubulides and the crowd sank simultaneously on their knees,
+for all recognised Apollo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All was silence for a space. It was at length broken by Phœbus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well, Eubulides,” inquired he, with the bland raillery of an Immortal, “has it
+at length occurred to thee that I may have been long enough away from
+Parnassus, filling thy place here while thou hast been disporting thyself amid
+heretics and barbarians?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The abashed Eubulides made no response. The Deity continued:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Deem not that thou hast in aught excited the displeasure of the Gods. In
+deserting their altars for Truth’s sake, thou didst render them the most
+acceptable of sacrifices, the only one, it may be, by which they set much
+store. But, Eubulides, take heed how thou again sufferest the unworthiness of
+men to overcome the instincts of thine own nature. Thy holiest sentiments
+should not have been at the mercy of a knave. If the oracle of Dorylæum was an
+imposture, hadst thou no oracle in thine own bosom? If the voice of Religion
+was no longer breathed from the tripod, were the winds and waters silent, or
+had aught quenched the everlasting stars? If there was no power to impose its
+mandates from without, couldst thou be unconscious of a power within? If thou
+hadst nothing to reveal unto men, mightest thou not have found somewhat to
+propound unto them? Know this, that thou hast never experienced a more truly
+religious emotion than that which led thee to form the design of overthrowing
+this my temple, the abode, as thou didst deem it, of fraud and superstition.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But now, Phœbus,” Eubulides ventured to reply, “shall I not return to the
+shrine purified by thy presence, and again officiate as thy unworthy minister?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No, Eubulides,” returned Phœbus, with a smile; “silver is good, but not for
+ploughshares. Thy strange experience, thy long wanderings, thy lonely
+meditations, and varied intercourse with men, have spoiled thee for a priest,
+while, as I would fain hope, qualifying thee for a sage. Some worthy person may
+easily be found to preside over this temple; and by the aid of such inspiration
+as I may from time to time see meet to vouchsafe him, administer its affairs
+indifferently well. Do thou, Eubulides, consecrate thy powers to a more august
+service than Apollo’s, to one that shall endure when Delphi and Delos know
+<i>his</i> no more.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To whose service, Phœbus?” inquired Eubulides.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To the service of Humanity, my son,” responded Apollo.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>DUKE VIRGIL</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+The citizens of Mantua were weary of revolutions. They had acknowledged the
+suzerainty of the Emperor Frederick and shaken it off. They had had a Podestà
+of their own and had shaken him off. They had expelled a Papal Legate,
+incurring excommunication thereby. They had tried dictators, consuls, prætors,
+councils of ten, and other numbers odd and even, and ere the middle of the
+thirteenth century were luxuriating in the enjoyment of perfect anarchy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An assembly met daily in quest of a remedy, but its members were forbidden to
+propose anything old, and were unable to invent anything new.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why not consult Manto, the alchemist’s daughter, our prophetess, our Sibyl?”
+the young Benedetto asked at last.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why not?” repeated Eustachio, an elderly man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why not, indeed?” interrogated Leonardo, a man of mature years.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the speakers were noble. Benedetto was Manto’s lover; Eustachio her
+father’s friend; Leonardo his creditor. Their advice prevailed, and the three
+were chosen as a deputation to wait on the prophetess. Before proceeding
+formally on their embassy the three envoys managed to obtain private
+interviews, the two elder with Manto’s father, the youth with Manto herself.
+The creditor promised that if he became Duke by the alchemist’s influence with
+his daughter he would forgive the debt; the friend went further, and vowed that
+he would pay it. The old man promised his good word to both, but when he went
+to confer with his daughter he found her closeted with Benedetto, and returned
+without disburdening himself of his errand. The youth had just risen from his
+knees, pleading with her, and drawing glowing pictures of their felicity when
+he should be Duke and she Duchess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She answered, “Benedetto, in all Mantua there is not one man fit to rule
+another. To name any living person would be to set a tyrant over my native
+city. I will repair to the shades and seek a ruler among the dead.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And why should not Mantua have a tyrant?” demanded Benedetto. “The freedom of
+the mechanic is the bondage of the noble, who values no liberty save that of
+making the base-born do his bidding. ’Tis hell to a man of spirit to be
+contradicted by his tailor. If I could see my heart’s desire on the knaves,
+little would I reck submitting to the sway of the Emperor.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I know that well, Benedetto,” said Manto, “and hence will take good heed not
+to counsel Mantua to choose thee. No, the Duke I will give her shall be one
+without passions to gratify or injuries to avenge, and shall already be crowned
+with a crown to make the ducal cap as nothing in his eyes, if eyes he had.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Benedetto departed in hot displeasure, and the alchemist came forward to
+announce that the commissioners waited.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My projection,” he whispered, “only wants one more piece of gold to insure
+success, and Eustachio proffers thirty. Oh, give him Mantua in exchange for
+boundless riches!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And they call thee a philosopher and me a visionary!” said Manto, patting his
+cheek.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The envoys’ commission having been unfolded, she took not a moment to reply,
+“Be your Duke Virgil.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The deputation respectfully represented that although Virgil was no doubt
+Mantua’s greatest citizen, he laboured under the disqualification of having
+been dead more than twelve hundred years. Nothing further, however, could be
+extorted from the prophetess, and the ambassadors were obliged to withdraw.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The interpretation of Manto’s oracle naturally provoked much diversity of
+opinion in the council.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Obviously,” said a poet, “the prophetess would have us confer the ducal
+dignity upon the contemporary bard who doth most nearly accede to the vestiges
+of the divine Maro; and he, as I judge, is even now in the midst of you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Virgil the poet,” said a priest, who had long laboured under the suspicion of
+occult practices, “was a fool to Virgil the enchanter. The wise woman evidently
+demands one competent to put the devil into a hole&mdash;an operation which I
+have striven to perform all my life.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?” inquired Eustachio.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Better upon an egg than upon a quack!” retorted the priest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But such was not the opinion of Eustachio himself, who privately conferred with
+Leonardo. Eustachio had a character, but no parts; Leonardo had parts, but no
+character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I see not why these fools should deride the oracle of the prophetess,” he
+said. “She would doubtless impress upon us that a dead master is in divers
+respects preferable to a living one.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Surely,” said Eustachio, “provided always that the servant is a man of
+exemplary character, and that he presumes not upon his lord’s withdrawal to
+another sphere, trusting thereby to commit malpractices with impunity, but
+doth, on the contrary, deport himself as ever in his great taskmaster’s eye.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Eustachio,” said Leonardo, with admiration, “it is the misery of Mantua that
+she hath no citizen who can act half as well as thou canst talk. I would fain
+have further discourse with thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two statesmen laid their heads together, and ere long the mob were crying,
+“A Virgil! a Virgil!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The councillors reassembled and passed resolutions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But who shall be Regent?” inquired some one when Virgil had been elected
+unanimously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who but we?” asked Eustachio and Leonardo. “Are we not the heads of the
+Virgilian party?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus had the enthusiastic Manto, purest of idealists, installed in authority
+the two most unprincipled politicians in the republic; and she had lost her
+lover besides, for Benedetto fled the city, vowing vengeance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Anyhow, the dead poet was enthroned Duke of Mantua; Eustachio and Leonardo
+became Regents, with the style of Consuls, and it was provided that in doubtful
+cases reference should be made to the Sortes Virgilianae. And truly, if we may
+believe the chronicles, the arrangement worked for a time surprisingly well.
+The Mantuans, in an irrational way, had done what it behoves all communities to
+do rationally if they can. They had sought for a good and worthy citizen to
+rule them; it was their misfortune that such an one could only be found among
+the dead. They felt prouder of themselves for being governed by a great
+man&mdash;one in comparison with whom kings and pontiffs were the creatures of
+a day. They would not, if they could help it, disgrace themselves by disgracing
+their hero; they would not have it said that Mantua, which had not been too
+weak to bear him, had been too weak to endure his government. The very
+hucksters and usurers among them felt dimly that there was such a thing as an
+Ideal. A glimmering perception dawned upon mailed, steel-fisted barons that
+there was such a thing as an Idea, and they felt uneasily apprehensive, like
+beasts of prey who have for the first time sniffed gunpowder. The railleries
+and mockeries of Mantua’s neighbours, moreover, stimulated Mantua’s citizens to
+persevere in their course, and deterred them from doing aught to approve
+themselves fools. Were not Verona, Cremona, Lodi, Pavia, Crema, cities that
+could never enthrone the Virgil they had never produced, watching with
+undissembled expectation to see them trip? The hollow-hearted Eustachio and the
+rapacious Leonardo, their virtual rulers, might indeed be little sensible to
+this enthusiasm, but they could not disregard the general drift of public
+opinion, which said clearly: “Mantua is trying a great experiment. Woe to you
+if you bring it to nought by your selfish quarrels!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The best proof that there was something in Manto’s idea was that after a while
+the Emperor Frederick took alarm, and signified to the Mantuans that they must
+cease their mumming and fooling and acknowledge him as their sovereign, failing
+which he would besiege their city.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Mantua was girt by a zone of fire and steel. Her villas and homesteads flamed
+or smoked; her orchards flared heavenward in a torrent of sparks or stood black
+sapless trunks charred to their inmost pith; the promise of her harvests lay as
+grey ashes over the land. But her ramparts, though breached in places, were yet
+manned by her sons, and their assailants recoiled pierced by the shafts or
+stunned by the catapults of the defence. Kaiser Frederick sat in his tent,
+giving secret audience to one who had stolen in disguise over from the city in
+the grey of the morning. By the Emperor’s side stood a tall martial figure,
+wearing a visor which he never removed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Your Majesty,” Leonardo was saying, for it was he, “this madness will soon
+pass away. The people will weary of sacrificing themselves for a dead heathen.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And Liberty?” asked the Emperor, “is not that a name dear to those misguided
+creatures?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“So dear, please your Majesty, that if they have but the name they will
+perfectly dispense with the thing. I do not advise that your imperial yoke
+should be too palpably adjusted to their stiff necks. Leave them in appearance
+the choice of their magistrate, but insure its falling upon one of approved
+fidelity, certain to execute obsequiously all your Majesty’s mandates; such an
+one, in short, as your faithful vassal Leonardo. It would only be necessary to
+decapitate that dangerous revolutionist, Eustachio.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And the citizens are really ready for this?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All the respectable citizens. All of whom your Majesty need take account. All
+men of standing and substance.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I rejoice to hear it,” said the Emperor, “and do the more readily credit thee
+inasmuch as a most virtuous and honourable citizen hath already been beforehand
+with thee, assuring me of the same thing, and affirming that but one traitor,
+whose name, methinks, sounded like thine, stands between me and the subjugation
+of Mantua.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, withdrawing a curtain, he disclosed the figure of Eustachio.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I thought he was asleep,” muttered Eustachio.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That noodle to have been beforehand with me!” murmured Leonardo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What perplexes me,” continued Frederick, after enjoying the confusion of the
+pair for a few moments, “is that our masked friend here will have it that he is
+the man for the Dukedom, and offers to open the gates to me by a method of his
+own.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By fair fighting, an’ please my liege,” observed the visored personage, “not
+by these dastardly treacheries.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How inhuman!” sighed Eustachio.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How old-fashioned!” sneered Leonardo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The truth is,” continued Frederick, “he gravely doubts whether either of you
+possesses the influence which you allege, and has devised a method of putting
+this to the proof, which I trust will commend itself to you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leonardo and Eustachio expressed their readiness to submit their credit with
+their fellow-citizens to any reasonable trial.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He proposes, then,” pursued the Emperor, “that ye, disarmed and bound, should
+be placed at the head of the storming column, and in that situation should, as
+questionless ye would, exert your entire moral influence with your
+fellow-citizens to dissuade them from shooting you. If the column, thus
+shielded, enters the city without resistance, ye will both have earned the
+Dukedom, and the question who shall have it may be decided by single combat
+between yourselves. But should the people, rather than submit to our clemency,
+impiously slay their elected magistrates, it will be apparent that the methods
+of our martial friend are the only ones corresponding to the exigency of the
+case. Is the storming column ready?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All but the first file, please your Majesty,” responded the man in the visor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let it be equipped,” returned Frederick, and in half-an-hour Eustachio and
+Leonardo, their hands tied behind them, were stumbling up the breach, impelled
+by pikes in the rear, and confronting the catapults, <i>chevaux de frise</i>,
+hidden pitfalls, Greek fire, and boiling water provided by their own direction,
+and certified to them the preceding evening as all that could be desired. They
+had, however, the full use of their voices, and this they turned to the best
+account. Never had Leonardo been so cogent, or Eustachio so pathetic. The
+Mantuans, already disorganised by the unaccountable disappearance of the
+Executive, were entirely irresolute what to do. As they hesitated the visored
+chief incited his followers. All seemed lost, when a tall female figure
+appeared among the defenders. It was Manto.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Fools and cowards!” she exclaimed, “must ye learn your duty from a woman?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, seizing a catapult, she discharged a stone which laid the masked warrior
+stunned and senseless on the ground. The next instant Eustachio and Leonardo
+fell dead, pierced by showers of arrows. The Mantuans sallied forth. The
+dismayed Imperialists fled to their camp. The bodies of the fallen magistrates
+and of the unconscious chieftain in the mask were brought into the city. Manto
+herself undid the fallen man’s visor, and uttered a fearful shriek as she
+recognised Benedetto.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What shall be done with him, mistress?” they asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Manto long stood silent, torn by conflicting emotions. At length she said, in a
+strange, unnatural voice:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Put him into the Square Tower.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And now, mistress, what further? How to choose the new consuls?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ask me no more,” she said. “I shall never prophesy again. Virtue has gone away
+from me.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The leaders departed, to intrigue for the vacant posts, and devise tortures for
+Benedetto. Manto sat on the rampart, still and silent as its stones. Anon she
+rose, and roved about as if distraught, reciting verses from Virgil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Night had fallen. Benedetto lay wakeful in his cell. A female figure stood
+before him bearing a lamp. It was Manto.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Benedetto,” she said, “I am a wretch, faithless to my country and to my
+master. I did but even now open his sacred volume at hazard, and on what did my
+eye first fall? <br/>
+  Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres. But I can no other. I am a
+woman. May Mantua never entrust her fortunes to the like of me again! Come with
+me, I will release thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She unlocked his chains; she guided him through the secret passage under the
+moat; they stood at the exit, in the open air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Fly,” she said, “and never again draw sword against thy mother. I will return
+to my house, and do that to myself which it behoved me to have done ere I
+released thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Manto,” exclaimed Benedetto “a truce to this folly! Forsake thy dead Duke, and
+that cheat of Liberty more crazy and fantastic still. Wed a living Duke in me!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Never!” exclaimed Manto. “I love thee more than any man living on earth, and I
+would not espouse thee if the earth held no other.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou canst not help thyself,” he rejoined; “thou hast revealed to me the
+secret of this passage. I hasten to the camp. I return in an hour with an army,
+and wilt thou, wilt thou not, to-morrow’s sun shall behold thee the partner of
+my throne!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Manto wore a poniard. She struck Benedetto to the heart, and he fell dead. She
+drew the corpse back into the passage, and hurried to her home. Opening her
+master’s volume again, she read:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Tædet coeli convexa tueri.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+A few minutes afterwards her father entered the chamber to tell her he had at
+last found the philosopher’s stone, but, perceiving his daughter hanging by her
+girdle, he forbore to intrude upon her, and returned to his laboratory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was time. A sentinel of the besiegers had marked Benedetto’s fall, and the
+disappearance of the body into the earth. A pool of blood revealed the entrance
+to the passage. Ere sunrise Mantua was full of Frederick’s soldiers, full also
+of burning houses, rifled sanctuaries, violated damsels, children playing with
+their dead mothers’ breasts, especially full of citizens protesting that they
+had ever longed for the restoration of the Emperor, and that this was the
+happiest day of their lives. Frederick waited till everybody was killed, then
+entered the city and proclaimed an amnesty. Virgil’s bust was broken, and his
+writings burned with Manto’s body. The flames glowed on the dead face, which
+gleamed as it were with pleasure. The old alchemist had been slain among his
+crucibles; his scrolls were preserved with jealous care.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Manto found another father. She sat at Virgil’s feet in Elysium; and as he
+stroked the fair head, now golden with perpetual youth, listened to his mild
+reproofs and his cheerful oracles. By her side stood a bowl filled with the
+untasted waters of Lethe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Woe,” said Virgil&mdash;but his manner contradicted his speech&mdash;“woe to
+the idealist and enthusiast! Woe to them who live in the world to come! Woe to
+them who live only for a hope whose fulfilment they will not behold on earth!
+Drink not, therefore, of that cup, dear child, lest Duke Virgil’s day should
+come, and thou shouldst not know it. For come it will, and all the sooner for
+thy tragedy and thy comedy.”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>THE CLAW</h2>
+
+<p>
+The balm and stillness of a summer’s night enveloped a spacious piazza in the
+city of Shylock and Desdemona. The sky teemed with light drifting clouds
+through which the beaming of the full moon broke at intervals upon some
+lamp-lit palace, thronged and musical, for it was a night of festivity, or
+silvered the dull creeping waters. Ever and anon some richly attired young
+patrician descended the steps of one or other of these mansions, and hurried
+across the wide area to the canal stairs, where his gondola awaited him.
+Whoever did this could not but observe a tall female figure, which, cloaked and
+masked, walked backwards and forwards across the piazza, regarding no one, yet
+with an air that seemed to invite a companion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+More than one of the young nobles approached the presumably fair peripatetic,
+and, with courtesy commonly in inverse ratio to the amount of wine he was
+carrying home, proffered his escort to his gondola. Whenever this happened the
+figure removed her mask and unclasped her robe, and revealed a sight which for
+one moment rooted the young man to the earth and in the next sent him
+scampering to his bark. For the countenance was a death’s head, and the breast
+was that of a mouldering skeleton.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last, however, a youth presented himself who, more courageous or more tipsy
+than his fellows, or more helplessly paralysed with horror than they, did not
+decline the proffered caress, and suffered himself to be drawn within the
+goblin’s accursed embrace. Valiant or pot-valiant, great was his relief at
+finding himself clasped, instead of by a loathsome spectre, by a silver-haired
+man of noble presence, yet with a countenance indescribably haggard and
+anxious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Come, my son,” he cried, “hasten whither the rewards of thy intrepidity await
+thee. Impouch the purse of Fortunatus! Indue the signet of Solomon!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man hesitated. “Is there nought else?” he cautiously demanded. “Needs
+it not that I should renounce my baptism? Must I not subscribe an infernal
+compact?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In thy own blood, my son,” cheerfully responded the old gentleman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Peradventure,” hesitatingly interrogated the youth, “peradventure you are
+<i>he</i>?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not so, my son, upon honour,” returned the mysterious personage. “I am but a
+distressed magician, at this present in fearful straits, from which I look to
+be delivered by thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The youth gazed some moments at his companion’s head, and then still more
+earnestly at his feet. He then yielded his own hand to him, and the pair
+crossed the piazza, almost at a run, the magician ever ejaculating, “Speed!
+speed!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They paused at the foot of a lofty tower, doorless and windowless, with no
+visible access of any kind. But the magician signed with his hand, pronounced
+some cabalistical words, and instantly stone and lime fell asunder and revealed
+an entrance through which they passed, and which immediately closed behind
+them. The youth quaked at finding himself alone in utter darkness with he knew
+not what, but the wizard whistled, and a severed hand appeared in air bearing a
+lamp which illuminated a long winding staircase. The old man motioned to the
+youth to precede him, nor dared he refuse, though feeling as though he would
+have given the world for the very smallest relic of the very smallest saint.
+The distorted shadows of the twain, dancing on stair and wall with the wavering
+lamp-shine, seemed phantoms capering in an infernal revel, and he glanced back
+ever and anon weening to see himself dogged by some frightful monster, but he
+saw only the silver hair and sable velvet of the dignified old man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the ascent of many steps a door opened before them, and they found
+themselves in a spacious chamber, brightly, yet from its size imperfectly
+illumined by a single large lamp. It was wainscoted with ebony, and the
+furniture was of the same. A long table was covered with scrolls, skulls,
+crucibles, crystals, star-charts, geomantic figures, and other appurtenances of
+a magician’s calling. Tomes of necromantic lore lined the walls, which were yet
+principally occupied with crystal vessels, in which foul beings seemed dimly
+and confusedly to agitate themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The magician signed to his visitor to be seated, sat down himself and began:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Brave youth, ere entering upon the boundless power and riches that await thee,
+learn who I am and why I have brought thee here. Behold in me no vulgar wizard,
+no mere astrologer or alchemist, but a compeer of Merlin and Michael Scott,
+with whose name it may be the nurse of thy infancy hath oft-times quelled thy
+froward humours. I am Peter of Abano, falsely believed to have lain two
+centuries buried in the semblance of a dog under a heap of stones hurled by the
+furious populace, but in truth walking earth to this day, in virtue of the
+compact now to be revealed to thee. Hearken, my son! Vain must be the
+machinations of my enemies, vain the onslaughts of the rabble, so long as I
+fulfil a certain contract registered in hell’s chancery, as I have now done
+these three hundred years. And the condition is this, that every year I present
+unto the Demon one who hath at my persuasion assigned his soul to him in
+exchange for power, riches, knowledge, magical gifts, or whatever else his
+heart chiefly desireth; nor until this present year have I perilled the
+fulfilment of my obligation. Seest thou these scrolls? They are the assignments
+of which I have spoken. It would amaze thee to scan the subscriptions, and
+perceive in these the signatures of men exemplary in the eyes of their fellows,
+clothed with high dignities in Church and State&mdash;nay sometimes redolent of
+the very odour of sanctity. Never hath my sagacity deceived me until this year,
+when, smitten with the fair promise of a youth of singular impishness, I
+omitted to take due note of his consumptive habit, and have but this afternoon
+encountered his funeral. This is the last day of my year, and should my
+engagement be unredeemed when the sun attains the cusp of that nethermost house
+of heaven which he is even now traversing, I must become an inmate of the
+infernal kingdom. No time has remained for nice investigation. I have therefore
+proved the courage of the Venetian youth in the manner thou knowest, and thou
+alone hast sustained the ordeal. Fail not at my bidding, or thou quittest not
+this chamber alive. For when the Demon comes to bear me away, he will assuredly
+rend thee in pieces for being found in my company. Thou hast, therefore,
+everything to gain and nothing to lose by joining the goodly fellowship of my
+mates and partners. Delay not, time urges, night deepens, they that would drink
+thy blood are abroad. Hearest thou not the moaning and pelting of the rising
+storm, and the muttering and scraping of my imprisoned goblins? Save us, I
+entreat, I command, save us both!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Screaming with agitation the aged sorcerer laid a scroll engrossed with fairly
+written characters before the youth, stabbed the latter’s arm with a stylus
+that at once evoked and collected the crimson stream, thrust this into his hand
+and strove to guide it to the parchment, chanting at the same time litanies to
+the infernal powers. The crystal flagons rang like one great harmonica with
+shrill but spirit-stirring music; volumes of vaporous perfumes diffused
+themselves through the apartment, and an endless procession of treasure-laden
+figures defiled before the bewildered youth. He seemed buried in the opulence
+of the world, as he sat up to his waist in gold and jewels; all the earth’s
+beauty gazed at him through eyes brilliant and countless as the stars of
+heaven; courtiers beckoned him to thrones; battle-steeds neighed and pawed for
+his mounting; laden tables allured every appetite; vassals bent in homage;
+slaves fell prostrate at his feet. Now he seemed to collect or disperse legions
+of spirits with the waving of a wand; anon, as he pronounced a spell, golden
+dragons glided away from boughs laden with golden fruits. Well for him,
+doubtless, that in him Nature had kneaded from ordinary clay as unimaginative a
+youth as could be found in Venice: yet even so, dazzled with glamour,
+intoxicated with illusion, less and less able to resist the cunningly mingled
+caresses, entreaties, and menaces of Abano, he could not refrain from tracing a
+few characters with the stylus, when, catching reflected in a mirror the old
+magician’s expression of wolfish glee, he dropped the instrument from his
+grasp, and cast his eye upwards as if appealing to Heaven. But every drop of
+blood seemed frozen in his frame as he beheld an enormous claw thrust through
+the roof, member as it seemed of some being too gigantic to be contained in the
+chamber or the tower itself. Cold, poignant, glittering as steel, it rested
+upon a socket of the repulsive hue of jaundiced ivory, with no vestige of a
+foot or anything to relieve its naked horror as, rigid and lifeless, yet
+plainly with a mighty force behind it, it pointed at the magician’s heart. As
+Abano, following the youth’s eye, caught sight of the portent, his visage
+assumed an expression of frantic horror, his spells died upon his lips, and the
+gorgeous figures became grinning apes or blotchy toads: madly he seized the
+young man’s hand, and strove to force him to complete his signature. The robust
+youth felt as an infant in his grasp, but ere the stylus could be again thrust
+upon him the first stroke of the midnight hour rang through the chamber, and
+instantly the gigantic talon pierced Abano from breast to back, projecting far
+beyond his shoulders, and swept him upwards to the roof, through which both
+disappeared without leaving a trace of their passage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Horror and thankfulness rushed together into the young man’s mind, and there
+contended for some brief instants: but as the last stroke sounded all the
+crystal vials shivered with a stunning crash, and their hellish inmates,
+rejoicing in their deliverance, swarmed into the chamber. All made for the
+youth, who, tugged, clawed, fondled, bitten, beslimed, blinded, deafened, beset
+in every way by creatures of indescribable loathsomeness, grasped frantically
+as his sole weapon, the stylus; but it had become a writhing serpent. This was
+too much, sense forsook him on the spot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On recovering consciousness he found himself stretched on a pallet in the
+dungeons of the Inquisition. The Inquisitors sat on their tribunals;
+black-robed familiars flitted about, or waited attentive upon their orders; one
+expert in ecclesiastical jurisprudence proved the edge of an axe, and another
+heated pincers in a chafing-dish; dismal groans pierced the massy walls; two
+sturdy fellows, stripped to the waist, adjusted the rollers of a rack. A
+surgeon approached the bedside, bearing a phial and a lancet. The youth
+screamed and again became insensible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But his affright was groundless. The Inquisitors had already taken cognisance
+of Abano’s scrolls, and found that, touching these at least, he had spoken
+sooth. Besides kings, princes, ministers, magistrates, and other secular
+persons who had owed their success in life to dealings with the devil under his
+mediation, the infernal bondsmen included so many pillars of the Church and
+champions of the Faith; prelates plenty, abbots in abundance, cardinals not a
+few, a (some whispered <i>the</i>) Pope; above all, so many of the Inquisitors
+themselves, that further inquiry could evidently nowise conduce to edification.
+The surgeon, therefore, infused an opiate into the veins of the unconscious
+youth, and he came to himself upon a galley speeding him to the holy war in
+Cyprus, where he fell fighting the Turk.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>ALEXANDER THE RATCATCHER</h2>
+
+<p>
+“Alexander Octavus mures, qui Urbem supra modum vexabant, anathemate
+perculit.”&mdash;<i>Palatius. Fasti Cardinalium</i>, tom. v.p. 46.
+</p>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+“Rome and her rats are at the point of battle!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This metaphor of Menenius Agrippa’s became, history records, matter of fact in
+1689, when rats pervaded the Eternal City from garret to cellar, and Pope
+Alexander the Eighth seriously apprehended the fate of Bishop Hatto. The
+situation worried him sorely; he had but lately attained the tiara at an
+advanced age&mdash;the twenty-fourth hour, as he himself remarked in
+extenuation of his haste to enrich his nephews. The time vouchsafed for
+worthier deeds was brief, and he dreaded descending to posterity as the Rat
+Pope. Witty and genial, his sense of humour teased him with a full perception
+of the absurdity of his position. Peter and Pasquin concurred in forbidding him
+to desert his post; and he derived but small comfort from the ingenuity of his
+flatterers, who compared him to St. Paul contending with beasts at Ephesus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It wanted three half-hours to midnight, as Alexander sat amid traps and
+ratsbane in his chamber in the Vatican, under the protection of two enormous
+cats and a British terrier. A silver bell stood ready to his hand, should the
+aid of the attendant chamberlains be requisite. The walls had been divested of
+their tapestries, and the floor gleamed with pounded glass. A tome of legendary
+lore lay open at the history of the Piper of Hamelin. All was silence, save for
+the sniffing and scratching of the dog and a sound of subterranean scraping and
+gnawing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why tarries Cardinal Barbadico thus?” the Pope at last asked himself aloud.
+The inquiry was answered by a wild burst of squeaking and clattering and
+scurrying to and fro, as who should say, “We’ve eaten him! We’ve eaten him!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But this exultation was at least premature, for just as the terrified Pope
+clutched his bell, the door opened to the narrowest extent compatible with the
+admission of an ecclesiastical personage of dignified presence, and Cardinal
+Barbadico hastily squeezed himself through.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I shall hardly trust myself upon these stairs again,” he remarked, “unless
+under the escort of your Holiness’s terrier.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Take him, my son, and a cruse of holy water to boot,” the Pope responded.
+“Now, how go things in the city?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As ill as may be, your Holiness. Not a saint stirs a finger to help us. The
+country-folk shun the city, the citizens seek the country. The multitude of
+enemies increases hour by hour. They set at defiance the anathemas fulminated
+by your Holiness, the spiritual censures placarded in the churches, and the
+citation to appear before the ecclesiastical courts, although assured that
+their cause shall be pleaded by the ablest advocates in Rome. The cats,
+amphibious with alarm, are taking to the Tiber. Vainly the city reeks with
+toasted cheese, and the Commissary-General reports himself short of arsenic.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And how are the people taking it?” demanded Alexander. “To what cause do they
+attribute the public calamity?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Generally speaking, to the sins of your Holiness,” replied the Cardinal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Cardinal!” exclaimed Alexander indignantly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I crave pardon for my temerity,” returned Barbadico. “It is with difficulty
+that I force myself to speak, but I am bound to lay the ungrateful truth before
+your Holiness. The late Pope, as all men know, was a personage of singular
+sanctity.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Far too upright for this fallen world,” observed Alexander with unction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I will not dispute,” responded the Cardinal, “that the head of Innocent the
+Eleventh might have been more fitly graced by a halo than by a tiara. But the
+vulgar are incapable of placing themselves at this point of view. They know
+that the rats hardly squeaked under Innocent, and that they swarm under
+Alexander. What wonder if they suspect your Holiness of familiarity with
+Beelzebub, the patron of vermin, and earnestly desire that he would take you to
+himself? Vainly have I represented to them the unreasonableness of imposing
+upon him a trouble he may well deem superfluous, considering your Holiness’s
+infirm health and advanced age. Vainly, too, have I pointed out that your
+anathema has actually produced all the effect that could have been reasonably
+anticipated from any similar manifesto on your predecessor’s part. They won’t
+see it. And, in fact, might I humbly advise, it does appear impolitic to hurl
+anathemas unless your Holiness knows that some one will be hit. It might be
+opportune, for example, to excommunicate Father Molinos, now fast in the
+dungeons of St. Angelo, unless, indeed, the rats have devoured him there. But I
+question the expediency of going much further.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Cardinal,” said the Pope, “you think yourself prodigiously clever, but you
+ought to know that the state of public opinion allowed us no alternative.
+Moreover, I will give you a wrinkle, in case you should ever come to be Pope
+yourself. It is unwise to allow ancient prerogatives to fall entirely into
+desuetude. Far-seeing men prognosticate a great revival of sacerdotalism in the
+nineteenth century, and what is impotent in an age of sense may be formidable
+in an age of nonsense. Further, we know not from one day to another whether we
+may not be absolutely necessitated to excommunicate that fautor of Gallicanism,
+Louis the Fourteenth, and before launching our bolt at a king, we may think
+well to test its efficacy upon a rat. <i>Fiat experimentum.</i> And now to
+return to our rats, from which we have ratted. Is there indeed no hope?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“<i>Lateat scintillula forsan</i>,” said the Cardinal mysteriously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ha! How so?” eagerly demanded Alexander.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Our hopes,” answered the Cardinal, “are associated with the recent advent to
+this city of an extraordinary personage.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Explain,” urged the Pope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I speak,” resumed the Cardinal, “of an aged man of no plebeian mien or
+bearing, albeit most shabbily attired in the skins, now fabulously cheap, of
+the vermin that torment us; who, professing to practise as an herbalist, some
+little time ago established himself in an obscure street of no good repute. A
+tortoise hangs in his needy shop, nor are stuffed alligators lacking.
+Understanding that he was resorted to by such as have need of philters and
+love-potions, or are incommoded by the longevity of parents and uncles, I was
+about to have him arrested, when I received a report which gave me pause. This
+concerned the singular intimacy which appeared to subsist between him and our
+enemies. When he left home, it was averred, he was attended by troops of them
+obedient to his beck and call, and spies had observed him banqueting them at
+his counter, the rats sitting erect and comporting themselves with perfect
+decorum. I resolved to investigate the matter for myself. Looking into his
+house through an unshuttered window, I perceived him in truth surrounded by
+feasting and gambolling rats; but when the door was opened in obedience to my
+attendants’ summons, he appeared to be entirely alone. Laying down a pestle and
+mortar, he greeted me by name with an easy familiarity which for the moment
+quite disconcerted me, and inquired what had procured him the honour of my
+visit. Recovering myself, and wishing to intimidate him:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘I desire in the first place,’ I said, ‘to point out to you your grave
+transgression of municipal regulations in omitting to paint your name over your
+shop.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Call me Rattila,’ he rejoined with unconcern, ‘and state your further
+business.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I felt myself on the wrong tack, and hastened to interrogate him respecting
+his relations with our adversaries. He frankly admitted his acquaintance with
+rattery in all its branches, and his ability to deliver the city from this
+scourge, but his attitude towards your Holiness was so deficient in respect
+that I question whether I ought to report it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Proceed, son,” said the Pope; “we will not be deterred from providing for the
+public weal by the ribaldry of a ratcatcher.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He scoffed at what he termed your Holiness’s absurd position, and affirmed
+that the world had seldom beheld, or would soon behold again, so ridiculous a
+spectacle as a Pope besieged by rats. ‘I can help your master,’ he continued,
+‘and am willing; but my honour, like his, is aspersed in the eyes of the
+multitude, and he must come to my aid, if I am to come to his.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I prayed him to be more explicit, and offered to be the bearer of any
+communication to your Holiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘I will unfold myself to no one but the Pope himself,’ he replied, ‘and the
+interview must take place when and where I please to appoint. Let him meet me
+this very midnight, and alone, in the fifth chamber of the Appartamento
+Borgia.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘The Appartamento Borgia!’ I exclaimed in consternation. ‘The saloons which
+the wicked Pope Alexander the Sixth nocturnally perambulates, mingling poisons
+that have long lost their potency for Cardinals who have long lost their
+lives!’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Have a care!’ he exclaimed sharply. ‘You speak to his late Holiness’s most
+intimate friend.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Then,’ I answered, ‘you must obviously be the Devil, and I am not at present
+empowered to negotiate with your Infernal Majesty. Consider, however, the peril
+and inconvenience of visiting at dead of night rooms closed for generations.
+Think of the chills and cobwebs. Weigh the probability of his Holiness being
+devoured by rats.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘I guarantee his Holiness absolute immunity from cold,’ he replied, ‘and that
+none of my subjects shall molest him either going or returning.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘But,’ I objected, ‘granting that you are not the Devil, how the devil, let me
+ask, do you expect to gain admittance at midnight to the Appartamento Borgia?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Think you I cannot pass through a stone wall?’ answered he, and vanished in
+an instant. A tremendous scampering of rats immediately ensued, then all was
+silence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“On recovering in some measure from my astounded condition, I caused strict
+search to be made throughout the shop. Nothing came to light but herbalists’
+stuff and ordinary medicines. And now, Holy Father, your Holiness’s resolution?
+Reflect well. This Rattila may be the King of the Rats, or he may be Beelzebub
+in person.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alexander the Eighth was principally considered by his contemporaries in the
+light of a venerable fox, but the lion had by no means been omitted from his
+composition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All powers of good forbid,” he exclaimed, “that a Pope and a Prince should
+shrink from peril which the safety of the State summons him to encounter! I
+will confront this wizard, this goblin, in the place of his own appointing,
+under his late intimate friend’s very nose. I am a man of many transgressions,
+but something assures me that Heaven will not deem this a fit occasion for
+calling them to remembrance. Time presses; I lead on; follow, Cardinal
+Barbadico, follow! Yet stay, let us not forget temporal and spiritual
+armouries.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And hastily providing himself with a lamp, a petronel, a bunch of keys, a
+crucifix, a vial of holy water, and a manual of exorcisms, the Pope passed
+through a secret door in a corner of his chamber, followed by the Cardinal
+bearing another lamp and a naked sword, and preceded by the dog and the two
+cats, all ardent and undaunted as champions bound to the Holy Land for the
+recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+The wizard had kept his word. Not a rat was seen or heard upon the pilgrimage,
+which was exceedingly toilsome to the aged Pope, from the number of passages to
+be threaded and doors to be unlocked. At length the companions stood before the
+portal of the Appartamento Borgia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Your Holiness must enter alone,” Cardinal Barbadico admonished, with manifest
+reluctance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Await my return,” enjoined the Pontiff, in a tone of more confidence than he
+could actually feel, as, after much grinding and grating, the massive door
+swung heavily back, and he passed on into the dim, unexplored space beyond. The
+outer air, streaming in as though eager to indemnify itself for years of exile,
+smote and swayed the flame of the Pope’s lamp, whose feeble ray flitted from
+floor to ceiling as the decrepit man, weary with the way he had traversed and
+the load he was bearing, tottered and stumbled painfully along, ever and anon
+arrested by a closed door, which he unlocked with prodigious difficulty. The
+cats cowered close to the Cardinal; the dog at first accompanied the Pope, but
+whined so grievously, as though he beheld a spirit, that Alexander bade him
+back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Supreme is the spell of the <i>genius loci</i>. The chambers traversed by the
+Pope were in fact adorned with fair examples of the painter’s art, mostly
+scriptural in subject, but some inspired with the devout Pantheism in which all
+creeds are reconciled. All were alike invisible to the Pontiff, who, with the
+dim flicker of his lamp, could no more discern Judaea wed with Egypt on the
+frescoed ceiling than, with the human limitation of his faculties, he could
+foresee that the ill-reputed rooms would one day harbour a portion of the
+Vatican Library, so greatly enriched by himself. Nothing but sinister memories
+and vague alarms presented themselves to his imagination. The atmosphere, heavy
+and brooding from the long exclusion of the outer air, seemed to weigh upon him
+with the density of matter, and to afford the stuff out of which phantasmal
+bodies perpetually took shape and, as he half persuaded himself, substance.
+Creeping and tottering between bowl and cord, shielding himself with lamp and
+crucifix from Michelotto’s spectral poniard and more fearful contact with
+fleshless Vanozzas and mouldering Giulias, the Pope urged, or seemed to urge,
+his course amid phantom princes and cardinals, priests and courtesans, soldiers
+and serving-men, dancers, drinkers, dicers, Bacchic and Cotyttian workers of
+whatsoever least beseemed the inmates of a Pontifical household, until, arrived
+in the fifth chamber, close by the, to him, invisible picture of the
+Resurrection, he sank exhausted into a spacious chair that seemed placed for
+his reception, and for a moment closed his eyes. Opening them immediately
+afterwards, he saw with relief that the phantoms had vanished, and that he
+confronted what at least seemed a fellow-mortal, in the ancient ratcatcher,
+habited precisely as Cardinal Barbadico had described, yet, for all his mean
+apparel, wearing the air of one wont to confer with the potentates of the earth
+on other subjects than the extermination of rats.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This is noble of your Holiness&mdash;really,” he said, bowing with mock
+reverence. “A second Leo the Great!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I tell you what, my man,” responded Alexander, feeling it very necessary to
+assert his dignity while any of it remained, “you are not to imagine that,
+because I have humoured you so far as to grant you an audience at an unusual
+place and time, I am going to stand any amount of your nonsense and
+impertinence. You can catch our rats, can you? Catch them then, and you need
+not fear that we shall treat you like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. You have
+committed sundry rascalities, no doubt? A pardon shall be made out for you. You
+want a patent or a privilege for your ratsbane? You shall have it. So to work,
+in the name of St. Muscipulus! and you may keep the tails and skins.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Alexander,” said the ratcatcher composedly, “I would not commend or dispraise
+you unduly, but this I may say, that of all the Popes I have known you are the
+most exuberant in hypocrisy and the most deficient in penetration. The most
+hypocritical, because you well know, and know that I know that you know, that
+you are not conversing with an ordinary ratcatcher: had you deemed me such, you
+would never have condescended to meet me at this hour and place. The least
+penetrating, because you apparently have not yet discovered to whom you are
+speaking. Do you really mean to say that you do not know me?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I believe I have seen your face before,” said Alexander, “and all the more
+likely as I was inspector of prisons when I was Cardinal.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then look yonder,” enjoined the ratcatcher, as he pointed to the frescoed
+wall, at the same time vehemently snapping his fingers. Phosphoric sparks
+hissed and crackled forth, and coalesced into a blue lambent flame, which
+concentrated itself upon a depicted figure, whose precise attitude the
+ratcatcher assumed as he dropped upon his knees. The Pope shrieked with
+amazement, for, although the splendid Pontifical vestments had become ragged
+fur, in every other respect the kneeling figure was the counterpart of the
+painted one, and the painted one was Pinturicchio’s portrait of Pope Alexander
+the Sixth kneeling as a witness of the Resurrection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alexander the Eighth would fain have imitated his predecessor’s attitude, but
+terror bound him to his chair, and the adjuration of his patron St. Mark which
+struggled towards his lips never arrived there. The book of exorcisms fell from
+his paralysed hand, and the vial of holy water lay in shivers upon the floor.
+Ere he could collect himself, the dead Pope had seated himself beside the Pope
+with one foot in the grave, and, fondling a ferret-skin, proceeded to enter
+into conversation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What fear you?” he asked. “Why should I harm you? None can say that I ever
+injured any one for any cause but my own advantage, and to injure your Holiness
+now would be to obstruct a design which I have particularly at heart.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I crave your Holiness’s forgiveness,” rejoined the Eighth Alexander, “but you
+must be aware that you left the world with a reputation which disqualifies you
+for the society of any Pope in the least careful of his character. It
+positively compromises me to have so much as the ghost of a person so
+universally decried as your Holiness under my roof, and you would infinitely
+oblige me by forthwith repairing to your own place, which I take to be about
+four thousand miles below where you are sitting. I could materially facilitate
+and accelerate your Holiness’s transit thither if you would be so kind as to
+hand me that little book of exorcisms.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How is the fine gold become dim!” exclaimed Alexander the Sixth. “Popes in
+bondage to moralists! Popes nervous about public opinion! Is there another
+judge of morals than the Pope speaking <i>ex cathedra</i>, as I always did? Is
+the Church to frame herself after the prescriptions of heathen philosophers and
+profane jurists? How, then, shall she be terrible as an army with banners? Did
+I concern myself with such pedantry when the Kings of Spain and Portugal came
+to me like cats suing for morsels, and I gave them the West and the East?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is true,” Alexander the Eighth allowed, “that the lustre of the Church hath
+of late been obfuscated by the prevalence of heresy.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It isn’t the heretics,” Borgia insisted. “It is the degeneracy of the Popes. A
+shabby lot! You, Alexander, are about the best of them; but the least Cardinal
+about my Court would have thought himself bigger than you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alexander’s spirit rose. “I would suggest,” he said, “that this haughty style
+is little in keeping with the sordid garb wherein your Holiness, consistent
+after death as in your life, masquerades to the scandal and distress of the
+faithful.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How can I other? Has your Holiness forgotten your Rabelais?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The works of that eminent Doctor and Divine,” answered Alexander the Eighth,
+“are seldom long absent from my hands, yet I fail to remember in what manner
+they elucidate the present topic.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let me refresh your memory,” rejoined Borgia, and, producing a volume of the
+Sage of Meudon, he turned to the chapter descriptive of the employments of
+various eminent inhabitants of the nether world, and pointed to the sentence:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“LE PAPE ALEXANDRE ESTOYT PRENEUR DE RATZ.” [*]
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+*) <i>Pantagruel</i>, Book XI. ch. 30.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Is this indeed sooth?” demanded his successor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How else should Fran&ccedil;ois Rabelais have affirmed it?” responded Borgia.
+“When I arrived in the subterranean kingdom, I found it in the same condition
+as your Holiness’s dominions at the present moment, eaten up by rats. The
+attention which, during my earthly pilgrimage, I had devoted to the science of
+toxicology indicated me as a person qualified to abate the nuisance, which
+commission I executed with such success, that I received the appointment of
+Ratcatcher to his Infernal Majesty, and so discharged its duties as to merit a
+continuance of the good opinion which had always been entertained of me in that
+exalted quarter. After a while, however, interest began to be made for me in
+even more elevated spheres. I had not been able to cram Heaven with Spaniards,
+as I had crammed the Sacred College&mdash;on the contrary. Truth to speak, my
+nation has not largely contributed to the population of the regions above. But
+some of us are people of consequence. My great-grandson, the General of the
+Jesuits, who, as such, had the ear of St. Ignatius Loyola, represented that had
+I adhered strictly to my vows, he could never have come into existence, and
+that the Society would thus have wanted one of its brightest ornaments. This
+argument naturally had great weight with St. Ignatius, the rather as he, too,
+was my countryman. Much also was said of the charity I had shown to the exiled
+Jews, which St. Dominic was pleased to say made him feel ashamed of himself
+when he came to think of it; for my having fed my people in time of dearth,
+instead of contriving famines to enrich myself, as so many Popes’ nephews have
+done since; and of the splendid order in which I kept the College of Cardinals.
+Columbus said a good word for me, and Savonarola did not oppose. Finally I was
+allowed to come upstairs, and exercise my profession on earth. But mark what
+pitfalls line the good man’s path! I never could resist tampering with drugs of
+a deleterious nature, and was constantly betrayed by the thirst for scientific
+experiment into practices incompatible with the public health. The good nature
+which my detractors have not denied me was a veritable snare. I felt for youth
+debarred from its enjoyments by the unnatural vitality of age, and sympathised
+with the blooming damsel whose parent alone stood between her and her lover. I
+thus lived in constant apprehension of being ordered back to the Netherlands,
+and yearned for the wings of a dove, that I might flee away and be out of
+mischief. At last I discovered that my promotion to a higher sphere depended
+upon my obtaining a testimonial from the reigning Pope. Let a solemn procession
+be held in my honour, and intercession be publicly made for me, and I should
+ascend forthwith. I have consequently represented my case to many of your
+predecessors: but, O Alexander, you seventeenth-century Popes are a miserable
+breed! No fellow-feeling, no <i>esprit de corps. Heu pietas! heu prisca
+fides</i>! No one was so rude as your ascetic antecessor. The more of a saint,
+the less of a gentleman. Personally offensive, I assure you! But the others
+were nearly as bad. The haughty Paul, the fanatic Gregory, the worldly Urban,
+the austere Innocent the Tenth, the affable Alexander the Seventh, all
+concurred in assuring me that it was deeply to be regretted that I should ever
+have been emancipated from the restraints of the Stygian realm, to which I
+should do well to return with all possible celerity; that it would much conduce
+to the interests of the Church if my name could be forgotten; and that as for
+doing anything to revive its memory, they would just as soon think of
+canonising Judas Iscariot.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And therefore your Holiness has brought these rats upon us, enlisted, I
+nothing doubt, in the infernal regions?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Precisely so: Plutonic, necyomantic, Lemurian rats, kindly lent by the Prince
+of Darkness for the occasion, and come dripping from Styx to squeak and gibber
+in the Capitol. But I note your Holiness’s admission that they belong to a
+region exempt from your jurisdiction, and that, therefore, your measures
+against them, except as regards their status as belligerents, are for the most
+part illegitimate and <i>ultra vires</i>.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I would argue that point,” replied Alexander the Eighth, “if my lungs were as
+tough as when I pleaded before the Rota in Pope Urban’s time. For the present I
+confine myself to formally protesting against your Holiness’s unprecedented and
+parricidal conduct in invading your country at the head of an army of loathsome
+vermin.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Unprecedented!” exclaimed Borgia. “Am I not the modern Coriolanus? Did Narses
+experience blacker ingratitude than I? Where would the temporal power be but
+for me? Who smote the Colonna? Who squashed the Orsini? Who gave the Popes to
+dwell quietly in their own house? Monsters of unthankfulness!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am sure,” said Alexander the Eighth soothingly, “that my predecessors’
+inability to comply with your Holiness’s request must have cost them many
+inward tears, not the less genuine because entirely invisible and completely
+inaudible. A wise Pope will, before all things, consider the spirit of his age.
+The force of public opinion, which your Holiness lately appeared to disparage,
+was, in fact, as operative upon yourself as upon any of your successors. If you
+achieved great things in your lifetime, it was because the world was with you.
+Did you pursue the same methods now, you would soon discover that you had
+become an offensive anachronism. It will not have escaped your Holiness’s
+penetration that what moralists will persist in terming the elevation of the
+standard of the Church, is the result of the so-called improvement of the
+world.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is a measure of truth in this,” admitted Alexander the Sixth, “and the
+spirit of this age is a very poor spirit. It was my felicity to be a Pope of
+the Renaissance. Blest dispensation! when men’s view of life was large and
+liberal; when the fair humanities flourished; when the earth yielded up her
+hoards of chiselled marble and breathing bronze, and new-found agate urns as
+fresh as day; when painters and sculptors vied with antiquity, and poets and
+historians followed in their path; when every benign deity was worshipped save
+Diana and Vesta; when the arts of courtship and cosmetics were expounded by
+archbishops; when the beauteous Imperia was of more account than the eleven
+thousand virgins; when obnoxious persons glided imperceptibly from the world;
+and no one marvelled if he met the Pope arm in arm with the Devil. How
+miserable, in comparison, is the present sapless age, with its prudery and its
+pedantry, and its periwigs and its painted coaches, and its urban Arcadias and
+the florid impotence and ostentatious inanity of what it calls its art! Pope
+Alexander! I see in the spirit the sepulchre destined for <i>you</i>, and I
+swear to you that my soul shivers in my ratskins! Come, now! I do not expect
+you to emulate the Popes of my time, but show that your virtues are your own,
+and your faults those of your epoch. Pluck up a spirit! Take bulls by the
+horns! Look facts in the face! Think upon the images of Brutus and Cassius!
+Recognise that you cannot get rid of me, and that the only safe course is to
+rehabilitate me. I am not a candidate for canonisation just now; but repair
+past neglect and appease my injured shade in the way you wot of. If this is
+done, I pledge my word that every rat shall forthwith evacuate Rome. Is it a
+bargain? I see it is; you are one of the good old sort, though fallen on evil
+days.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Renaissance or Rats, Alexander the Eighth yielded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I promise,” he declared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Your hand upon it!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Subduing his repugnance and apprehension by a strong effort, Alexander laid his
+hand within the spectre’s clammy paw. An icy thrill ran through his veins, and
+he sank back senseless into his chair.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+When the Pope recovered consciousness he found himself in bed, with slight
+symptoms of fever. His first care was to summon Cardinal Barbadico, and confer
+with him respecting the surprising adventures which had recently befallen them.
+To his amazement, the Cardinal’s mind seemed an entire blank on the subject. He
+admitted having made his customary report to his Holiness the preceding night,
+but knew nothing of any supernatural ratcatcher, and nothing of any midnight
+rendezvous at the Appartamento Borgia. Investigation seemed to justify his
+nescience; no vestige of the man of rats or of his shop could be discovered;
+and the Borgian apartments, opened and carefully searched through, revealed no
+trace of having been visited for many years. The Pope’s book of exorcisms was
+in its proper place, his vial of holy water stood unbroken upon his table; and
+his chamberlains deposed that they had consigned him to Morpheus at the usual
+hour. His illusion was at first explained as the effect of a peculiarly vivid
+dream; but when he declared his intention of actually holding a service and
+conducting a procession for the weal of his namesake and predecessor, the
+conviction became universal that the rats had effected a lodgement in his
+Holiness’s upper storeys.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alexander, notwithstanding, was resolute, and so it came to pass that on the
+same day two mighty processions encountered within the walls of Rome. As the
+assembled clergy, drawn from all the churches and monasteries in the city, the
+Pope in his litter in their midst, marched, carrying candles, intoning chants,
+and, with many a secret shrug and sneer, imploring Heaven for the repose of
+Alexander the Sixth, they were suddenly brought to bay by another procession
+precipitated athwart their track, disorderly, repulsive, but more grateful to
+the sight of the citizens than all the pomps and pageants of the palmiest days
+of the Papacy. Black, brown, white, grey; fat and lean; old and young; strident
+or silent; the whiskered legions tore and galloped along; thronging from every
+part of the city, they united in single column into an endless host that
+appeared to stretch from the rising to the setting of the sun. They seemed
+making for the Tiber, which they would have speedily choked; but ere they could
+arrive there a huge rift opened in the earth, down which they madly
+precipitated themselves. Their descent, it is affirmed, lasted as many hours as
+Vulcan occupied in falling from Heaven to Lemnos; but when the last tail was
+over the brink, the gulf closed as effectually as the gulf in the Forum closed
+over Marcus Curtius, not leaving the slightest inequality by which any could
+detect it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Long ere this consummation had been attained, the Pope, looking forth from his
+litter, observed a venerable personage clad in ratskins, who appeared desirous
+of attracting his notice. Glances of recognition were exchanged, and instantly
+in place of the ratcatcher stood a tall, swarthy, corpulent, elderly man, with
+the majestic yet sensual features of Alexander the Sixth, accoutred with the
+official habiliments and insignia of a Pope, who rose slowly into the air as
+though he had been inflated with hydrogen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To your prayers!” cried Alexander the Eighth, and gave the example. The
+priesthood resumed its chants, the multitude dropped upon their knees. Their
+orisons seemed to speed the ascending figure, which was rising rapidly, when
+suddenly appeared in air Luxury, Simony, and Cruelty, contending which should
+receive the Holy Father into her bosom. [*] Borgia struck at them with his
+crozier, and seemed to be keeping them at bay, when a cloud wrapped the group
+from the sight of men. Thunder roared, lightning glared, the rush of waters
+blended with the ejaculations of the people and the yet more tempestuous
+rushing of the rats. Accompanied as he was, it is not probable that Alexander
+passed, like Dante’s sigh, “beyond the sphere that doth all spheres enfold”;
+but, as he was never again seen on earth, it is not doubted that he attained at
+least as far as the moon.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+*)         Per aver riposo<br/>
+Portato fu fra l’anime beate<br/>
+Lo spirito di Alessandro glorioso;<br/>
+Del qual seguiro le sante pedate<br/>
+Tre sue familiari e care ancelle,<br/>
+Lussuria, Simonia, e Crudeltate.<br/>
+&mdash;M<small>ACHIAVELLI</small>, <i>Decennale Primo</i>.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>THE REWARDS OF INDUSTRY</h2>
+
+<p>
+In China, under the Tang dynasty, early in the seventh century of the Christian
+era, lived a learned and virtuous, but poor mandarin who had three sons, Fu-su,
+Tu-sin, and Wang-li. Fu-su and Tu-sin were young men of active minds, always
+labouring to find out something new and useful. Wang-li was clever too, but
+only in games of skill, in which he attained great proficiency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fu-su and Tu-sin continually talked to each other of the wonderful inventions
+they would make when they arrived at man’s estate, and of the wealth and renown
+they promised themselves thereby. Their conversation seldom reached the ears of
+Wang-li, for he rarely lifted his eyes from the chess-board on which he solved
+his problems. But their father was more attentive, and one day he said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I fear, my sons, that among your multifarious pursuits and studies you must
+have omitted to include that of the laws of your country, or you would have
+learned that fortune is not to be acquired by the means which you have proposed
+to yourselves.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How so, father?” asked they.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It hath been justly deemed by our ancestors,” said the old man, “that the
+reverence due to the great men who are worshipped in our temples, by reason of
+our indebtedness to them for the arts of life, could not but become impaired if
+their posterity were suffered to eclipse their fame by new discoveries, or
+presumptuously amend what might appear imperfect in their productions. It is
+therefore, by an edict of the Emperor Suen, forbidden to invent anything; and
+by a statute of the Emperor Wu-chi it is further provided that nothing hitherto
+invented shall be improved. My predecessor in the small office I hold was
+deprived of it for saying that in his judgment money ought to be made round
+instead of square, and I have myself run risk of my life for seeking to combine
+a small file with a pair of tweezers.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If this is the case,” said the young men, “our fatherland is not the place for
+us.” And they embraced their father, and departed. Of their brother Wang-li
+they took no farewell, inasmuch as he was absorbed in a chess problem. Before
+separating, they agreed to meet on the same spot after thirty years, with the
+treasure which they doubted not to have acquired by the exercise of their
+inventive faculties in foreign lands. They further covenanted that if either
+had missed his reward the other should share his possessions with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fu-su repaired to the artists who cut out characters in blocks of hard wood, to
+the end that books may be printed from the same. When he had fathomed their
+mystery he betook himself to a brass-founder, and learned how to cast in metal.
+He then sought a learned man who had travelled much, and made himself
+acquainted with the Greek, Persian, and Arabic languages. Then he cast a number
+of Greek characters in type, and putting them into a bag and providing himself
+with some wooden letter-tablets of his own carving, he departed to seek his
+fortune. After innumerable hardships and perils he arrived in the land of
+Persia, and inquired for the great king.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The great king is dead,” they told him, “and his head is entirely separated
+from his body. There is now no king in Persia, great or small,”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Where shall I find another great king?” demanded he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In the city of Alexandria,” replied they, “where the Commander of the Faithful
+is busy introducing the religion of the Prophet.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fu-su passed to Alexandria, carrying his types and tablets.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he entered the gates he remarked an enormous cloud of smoke, which seemed to
+darken the whole city. Before he could inquire the reason, the guard arrested
+him as a stranger, and conducted him to the presence of the Caliph Omar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Know, O Caliph,” said Fu-su, “that my countrymen are at once the wisest of
+mankind and the stupidest. They have invented an art for the preservation of
+letters and the diffusion of knowledge, which the sages of Greece and India
+never knew, but they have not learned to take, and they refuse to be taught how
+to take, the one little step further necessary to render it generally
+profitable to mankind.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And producing his tablets and types, he explained to the Caliph the entire
+mystery of the art of printing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou seemest to be ignorant,” said Omar, “that we have but yesterday condemned
+and excommunicated all books, and banished the same from the face of the earth,
+seeing that they contain either that which is contrary to the Koran, in which
+case they are impious, or that which is agreeable to the Koran, in which case
+they are superfluous. Thou art further unaware, as it would seem, that the
+smoke which shrouds the city proceeds from the library of the unbelievers,
+consumed by our orders. It will be meet to burn thee along with it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Commander of the Faithful,” said an officer, “of a surety the last scroll of
+the accursed ceased to flame even as this infidel entered the city.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If it be so,” said Omar, “we will not burn him, seeing that we have taken away
+from him the occasion to sin. Yet shall he swallow these little brass amulets
+of his, at the rate of one a day, and then be banished from the country.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sentence was executed, and Fu-su was happy that the Court physician
+condescended to accept his little property in exchange for emetics.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He begged his way slowly and painfully back to China, and arrived at the
+covenanted spot at the expiration of the thirtieth year. His father’s modest
+dwelling had disappeared, and in its place stood a magnificent mansion, around
+which stretched a park with pavilions, canals, willow-trees, golden pheasants,
+and little bridges.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Tu-sin has surely made his fortune,” thought he, “and he will not refuse to
+share it with me agreeably to our covenant.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As he thus reflected he heard a voice at his elbow, and turning round perceived
+that one in a more wretched plight than himself was asking alms of him. It was
+Tu-sin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The brothers embraced with many tears, and after Tu-sin had learned Fu-su’s
+history, he proceeded to recount his own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I repaired,” said he, “to those who know the secret of the grains termed
+fire-dust, which Suen has not been able to prevent us from inventing, but of
+which Wu-chi has taken care that we shall make no use, save only for fireworks.
+Having learned their mystery I deposited a certain portion of this fire-dust in
+hollow tubes which I had constructed of iron and brass, and upon it I further
+laid leaden balls of a size corresponding to the hollow of the tubes. I then
+found that by applying a light to the fire-dust at one end of the tube I could
+send the ball out at the other with such force that it penetrated the cuirasses
+of three warriors at once. I filled a barrel with the dust, and concealing it
+and the tubes under carpets which I laid upon the backs of oxen, I set out to
+the city of Constantinople. I will not at present relate my adventures on the
+journey. Suffice it that I arrived at last half dead from fatigue and hardship,
+and destitute of everything except my merchandise. By bribing an officer with
+my carpets I was admitted to have speech with the Emperor. I found him busily
+studying a problem in chess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I told him that I had discovered a secret which would make him the master of
+the world, and in particular would help him to drive away the Saracens, who
+threatened his empire with destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Thou must perceive,’ he said, ‘that I cannot possibly attend to thee until I
+have solved this problem. Yet, lest any should say that the Emperor neglects
+his duties, absorbed in idle amusement, I will refer thy invention to the chief
+armourers of my capital. And he gave me a letter to the armourers, and returned
+to his problem. And as I quitted the palace bearing the missive, I came upon a
+great procession. Horsemen and running footmen, musicians, heralds, and
+banner-bearers surrounded a Chinaman who sat in the attitude of Fo under a
+golden umbrella upon a richly caparisoned elephant, his pigtail plaited with
+yellow roses. And the musicians blew and clashed, and the standard-bearers
+waved their ensigns, and the heralds proclaimed, ‘Thus shall it be done to the
+man whom the Emperor delights to honour.’ And unless I was very greatly
+mistaken, the face of the Chinaman was the face of our brother Wang-li.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“At another time I would have striven to find what this might mean, but my
+impatience was great, as also my need and hunger. I sought the chief armourers,
+and with great trouble brought them all together to give me audience, I
+produced my tube and fire-dust, and sent my balls with ease through the best
+armour they could set before me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Who will want breast-plates now?’ cried the chief breast-plate maker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘Or helmets?’ exclaimed one who made armour for the head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘I would not have taken fifty bezants for that shield, and what good is it
+now?’ said the head of the shield trade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘My swords will be of less account,’ said a swordsmith.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘My arrows of none,’ lamented an arrow-maker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘’Tis villainy,’ cried one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘’Tis magic,’ shouted another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘’Tis illusion, as I’m an honest tradesman,’ roared a third, and put his
+integrity to the proof by thrusting a hot iron bar into my barrel. All present
+rose up in company with the roof of the building, and all perished, except
+myself, who escaped with the loss of my hair and skin. A fire broke out on the
+spot, and consumed one-third of the city of Constantinople.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I was lying on a prison-bed some time afterwards, partly recovered of my
+hurts, dolefully listening to a dispute between two of my guards as to whether
+I ought to be burned or buried alive, when the Imperial order for my disposal
+came down. The gaolers received it with humility, and read ‘Kick him out of the
+city.’ Marvelling at the mildness of the punishment, they nevertheless executed
+it with so much zeal that I flew into the middle of the Bosphorus, where I was
+picked up by a fishing vessel, and landed on the Asiatic coast, whence I have
+begged my way home. I now propose that we appeal to the pity of the owner of
+this splendid mansion, who may compassionate us on hearing that we were reared
+in the Cottage which has been pulled down to make room for his palace.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They entered the gates, walked timidly up to the house, and prepared to fall at
+the feet of the master, but did not, for ere they could do so they recognised
+their brother Wang-li.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It took Wang-li some time to recognise them, but when at length he knew them he
+hastened to provide for their every want. When they had well eaten and drunk,
+and had been clad in robes of honour, they imparted their histories, and asked
+for his.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My brothers,” said Wang-li, “the noble game of chess, which was happily
+invented long before the time of the Emperor Suen, was followed by me solely
+for its pleasure, and I dreamed not of acquiring wealth by its pursuit until I
+casually heard one day that it was entirely unknown to the people of the West.
+Even then I thought not of gaining money, but conceived so deep a compassion
+for those forlorn barbarians that I felt I could know no rest until I should
+have enlightened them. I accordingly proceeded to the city of Constantinople,
+and was received as a messenger from Heaven. To such effect did I labour that
+ere long the Emperor and his officers of state thought of nothing else but
+playing chess all day and night, and the empire fell into entire confusion, and
+the Saracens mightily prevailed. In consideration of these services the Emperor
+was pleased to bestow those distinguished honours upon me which thou didst
+witness at his palace gate, dear brother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“After, however, the fire which was occasioned through thy instrumentality,
+though in no respect by thy fault, the people murmured, and taxed the Emperor
+with seeking to destroy his capital in league with a foreign sorcerer, meaning
+thee. Ere long the chief officers conspired and entered the Emperor’s
+apartment, purposing to dethrone him, but he declared that he would in nowise
+abdicate until he had finished the game of chess he was then playing with me.
+They looked on, grew interested, began to dispute with one another respecting
+the moves, and while they wrangled loyal officers entered and made them all
+captive. This greatly augmented my credit with the Emperor, which was even
+increased when shortly afterwards I played with the Saracen admiral blockading
+the Hellespont, and won of him forty corn-ships, which turned the dearth of the
+city into plenty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Emperor bade me choose any favour I would, but I said his liberality had
+left me nothing to ask for except the life of a poor countryman of mine who I
+had heard was in prison for burning the city. The Emperor bade me write his
+sentence with my own hand. Had I known that it was thou, Tu-sin, believe me I
+had shown more consideration for thy person. At length I departed for my native
+land, loaded with wealth, and travelling most comfortably by relays of swift
+dromedaries. I returned hither, bought our father’s cottage, and on its site
+erected this palace, where I dwell meditating on the problems of chessplayers
+and the precepts of the sages, and persuaded that a little thing which the
+world is willing to receive is better than a great thing which it hath not yet
+learned to value aright. For the world is a big child, and chooses amusement
+before instruction.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Call you chess an amusement?” asked his brothers.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>MADAM LUCIFER</h2>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer sat playing chess with Man for his soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The game was evidently going ill for Man. He had but pawns left, few and
+straggling. Lucifer had rooks, knights, and, of course, bishops.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was but natural under such circumstances that Man should be in no great
+hurry to move. Lucifer grew impatient.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is a pity,” said he at last, “that we did not fix some period within which
+the player must move, or resign.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, Lucifer,” returned the young man, in heart-rending accents, “it is not the
+impending loss of my soul that thus unmans me, but the loss of my betrothed.
+When I think of the grief of the Lady Adeliza, that paragon of terrestrial
+loveliness!” Tears choked his utterance; Lucifer was touched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Is the Lady Adeliza’s loveliness in sooth so transcendent?” he inquired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“She is a rose, a lily, a diamond, a morning star!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If that is the case,” rejoined Lucifer, “thou mayest reassure thyself. The
+Lady Adeliza shall not want for consolation. I will assume thy shape and woo
+her in thy stead.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young man hardly seemed to receive all the comfort from this promise which
+Lucifer no doubt designed. He made a desperate move. In an instant the Devil
+checkmated him, and he disappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Upon my word, if I had known what a business this was going to be, I don’t
+think I should have gone in for it,” soliloquised the Devil, as, wearing his
+captive’s semblance and installed in his apartments, he surveyed the effects to
+which he now had to administer. They included coats, shirts, collars, neckties,
+foils, cigars, and the like <i>ad libitum</i>; and very little else except
+three challenges, ten writs, and seventy-four unpaid bills, elegantly disposed
+around the looking-glass. To the poor youth’s praise be it said, there were no
+billets-doux, except from the Lady Adeliza herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Noting the address of these carefully, the Devil sallied forth, and nothing but
+his ignorance of the topography of the hotel, which made him take the back
+stairs, saved him from the clutches of two bailiffs lurking on the principal
+staircase. Leaping into a cab, he thus escaped a perfumer and a bootmaker, and
+shortly found himself at the Lady Adeliza’s feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The truth had not been half told him. Such beauty, such wit, such correctness
+of principle! Lucifer went forth from her presence a love-sick fiend. Not
+Merlin’s mother had produced half the impression upon him; and Adeliza on her
+part had never found her lover one-hundredth part so interesting as he seemed
+that morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer proceeded at once to the City, where, assuming his proper shape for the
+occasion, he negotiated a loan without the smallest difficulty. All debts were
+promptly discharged, and Adeliza was astonished at the splendour and variety of
+the presents she was constantly receiving.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer had all but brought her to name the day, when he was informed that a
+gentleman of clerical appearance desired to wait upon him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wants money for a new church or mission, I suppose,” said he. “Show him up.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But when the visitor was ushered in, Lucifer found with discomposure that he
+was no earthly clergyman, but a celestial saint; a saint, too, with whom
+Lucifer had never been able to get on. He had served in the army while on
+earth, and his address was curt, precise, and peremptory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have called,” he said, “to notify to you my appointment as Inspector of
+Devils.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” exclaimed Lucifer, in consternation. “To the post of my old friend
+Michael!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Too old,” said the Saint laconically. “Millions of years older than the world.
+About your age, I think?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer winced, remembering the particular business he was then about. The
+Saint continued:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am a new broom, and am expected to sweep clean. I warn you that I mean to be
+strict, and there is one little matter which I must set right immediately. You
+are going to marry that poor young fellow’s betrothed, are you? Now you know
+you cannot take his wife, unless you give him yours.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, my dear friend,” exclaimed Lucifer, “what an inexpressibly blissful
+prospect you do open unto me!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I don’t know that,” said the Saint. “I must remind you that the dominion of
+the infernal regions is unalterably attached to the person of the present Queen
+thereof. If you part with her you immediately lose all your authority and
+possessions. I don’t care a brass button which you do, but you must understand
+that you cannot eat your cake and have it too. Good morning!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Who shall describe the conflict in Lucifer’s bosom? If any stronger passion
+existed therein at that moment than attachment to Adeliza, it was aversion to
+his consort, and the two combined were well-nigh irresistible. But to
+disenthrone himself, to descend to the condition of a poor devil!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Feeling himself incapable of coming to a decision, he sent for Belial, unfolded
+the matter, and requested his advice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What a shame that our new inspector will not let you marry Adeliza!” lamented
+his counsellor. “If you did, my private opinion is that forty-eight hours
+afterwards you would care just as much for her as you do now for Madam Lucifer,
+neither more nor less. Are your intentions really honourable?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes,” replied Lucifer, “it is to be a Lucifer match.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The more fool you,” rejoined Belial. “If you tempted her to commit a sin, she
+would be yours without any conditions at all.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, Belial,” said Lucifer, “I cannot bring myself to be a tempter of so much
+innocence and loveliness.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he meant what he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well then, let me try,” proposed Belial.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You?” replied Lucifer contemptuously; “do you imagine that Adeliza would look
+at <i>you</i>?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why not?” asked Belial, surveying himself complacently in the glass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was humpbacked, squinting, and lame, and his horns stood up under his wig.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The discussion ended in a wager after which there was no retreat for Lucifer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The infernal Iachimo was introduced to Adeliza as a distinguished foreigner,
+and was soon prosecuting his suit with all the success which Lucifer had
+predicted. One thing protected while it baffled him&mdash;the entire inability
+of Adeliza to understand what he meant. At length he was constrained to make
+the matter clear by producing an enormous treasure, which he offered Adeliza in
+exchange for the abandonment of her lover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tempest of indignation which ensued would have swept away any ordinary
+demon, but Belial listened unmoved. When Adeliza had exhausted herself he
+smilingly rallied her upon her affection for an unworthy lover, of whose
+infidelity he undertook to give her proof. Frantic with jealousy, Adeliza
+consented, and in a trice found herself in the infernal regions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Adeliza’s arrival in Pandemonium, as Belial had planned, occurred immediately
+after the receipt of a message from Lucifer, in whose bosom love had finally
+gained the victory, and who had telegraphed his abdication and resignation of
+Madam Lucifer to Adeliza’s betrothed. The poor young man had just been hauled
+up from the lower depths, and was beset by legions of demons obsequiously
+pressing all manner of treasures upon his acceptance. He stared, helpless and
+bewildered, unable to realise his position in the smallest degree. In the
+background grave and serious demons, the princes of the infernal realm,
+discussed the new departure, and consulted especially how to break it to Madam
+Lucifer&mdash;a commission of which no one seemed ambitious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Stay where you are,” whispered Belial to Adeliza; “stir not; you shall put his
+constancy to the proof within five minutes.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not all the hustling, mowing, and gibbering of the fiends would under ordinary
+circumstances have kept Adeliza from her lover’s side: but what is all hell to
+jealousy?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In even less time than he had promised Belial returned, accompanied by Madam
+Lucifer. This lady’s black robe, dripping with blood, contrasted agreeably with
+her complexion of sulphurous yellow; the absence of hair was compensated by the
+exceptional length of her nails; she was a thousand million years old, and, but
+for her remarkable muscular vigour, looked every one of them. The rage into
+which Belial’s communication had thrown her was something indescribable; but,
+as her eye fell on the handsome youth, a different order of thoughts seemed to
+take possession of her mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let the monster go!” she exclaimed; “who cares? Come, my love, ascend the
+throne with me, and share the empire and the treasures of thy fond
+Luciferetta.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If you don’t, back you go,” interjected Belial.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What might have been the young man’s decision if Madam Lucifer had borne more
+resemblance to Madam Vulcan, it would be wholly impertinent to inquire, for the
+question never arose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Take me away!” he screamed, “take me away, anywhere I anywhere out of her
+reach! Oh, Adeliza!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a bound Adeliza stood by his side. She was darting a triumphant glance at
+the discomfited Queen of Hell, when suddenly her expression changed, and she
+screamed loudly. Two adorers stood before her, alike in every lineament and
+every detail of costume, utterly indistinguishable, even by the eye of Love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza’s feet and pray her to
+defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the tidings of her
+elopement with Belial. Fearing to lose his wife and his dominions along with
+his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions with such expedition that he
+had had no time to change his costume. Hence the equivocation which confounded
+Adeliza, but at the same time preserved her from being torn to pieces by the no
+less mystified Madam Lucifer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Perceiving the state of the case, Lucifer with true gentlemanly feeling resumed
+his proper semblance, and Madam Lucifer’s talons were immediately inserted into
+his whiskers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My dear! my love!” he gasped, as audibly as she would let him, “is this the
+way it welcomes its own Lucy-pucy?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who is that person?” demanded Madam Lucifer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I don’t know her,” screamed the wretched Lucifer. “I never saw her before.
+Take her away; shut her up in the deepest dungeon!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not if I know it,” sharply replied Madam Lucifer, “You can’t bear to part with
+her, can’t you? You would intrigue with her under my nose, would you? Take
+that! and that! Turn them both out, I say! turn them both out!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Certainly, my dearest love, most certainly,” responded Lucifer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, Sire,” cried Moloch and Beelzebub together, “for Heaven’s sake let your
+Majesty consider what he is doing. The Inspector&mdash;&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Bother the Inspector!” screeched Lucifer. “D’ye think I’m not a thousand times
+more afraid of your mistress than of all the saints in the calendar? There,”
+addressing Adeliza and her betrothed, “be off! You’ll find all debts paid, and
+a nice balance at the bank. Cut! Run!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They did not wait to be told twice. Earth yawned. The gates of Tartarus stood
+wide. They found themselves on the side of a steep mountain, down which they
+scoured madly, hand linked in hand. But fast as they ran, it was long ere they
+ceased to hear the tongue of Madam Lucifer.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>THE TALISMANS</h2>
+
+<p>
+What a wondrous creature is man! What feats the humblest among us perform,
+which, if related of another order of beings, we should deem incredible!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By what magic could the young student escape the weary old professor, who was
+prosily proving Time merely a form of thought; a proposition of which, to judge
+by the little value he appeared to set on the subject of his discourse, he must
+himself have been fully persuaded? Without exciting his suspicions in the
+smallest degree, the student stole away to a region inconceivably remote, and
+presented himself at the portal of a magnificent palace, guarded by goblins,
+imps, lions, serpents, and monsters whose uncouthness forbids description.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A singular transformation seemed to have befallen the student. In the
+professor’s class he had been noted as timid, awkward, and painfully
+respectful. He now strode up with an air of alacrity and defiance, brandishing
+a roll of parchments, and confronted the seven principal goblins, by whom he
+was successively interrogated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hast thou undergone the seven probations?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes,” said the student.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hast thou swallowed the ninety-nine poisons?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ninety-nine times each,” said the student.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hast thou wedded a Salamander, and divorced her?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have,” said the student.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Art thou at this present time betrothed to a Vampire?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am,” said the student.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hast thou sacrificed thy mother and sister to the infernal powers?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Of course,” said the student,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hast thou attestations of all these circumstances under the hands and seals of
+a thousand and one demons?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The student displayed his parchments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou hast undergone every trial,” pronounced the seventh goblin; “thou hast
+won the right to enter the treasury of the treasurer of all things, and to
+choose from it any one talisman at thy liking.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The imps cheered, the goblins congratulated, the serpents shrank hissing away,
+the lions fawned upon the student, a centaur bore him upon his back to the
+treasurer’s presence,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The treasurer, an old bent man, with a single lock of silvery hair, received
+the adventurer with civility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have come,” said the student, “for the talismans in thy keeping, to the
+choice among which I have entitled myself.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou hast fairly earned them,” replied the old man, “and I may not say thee
+nay. Thou canst, however, only possess any of them in the shape which it has
+received at my hands during the long period for which these have remained in my
+custody.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I must submit to the condition,” said the student.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Behold, then, Aladdin’s lamp,” said the ancient personage, tendering a tiny
+vase hardly bigger than a pill-box, containing some grains of a coarse, rusty
+powder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aladdin’s lamp!” cried the student.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All of it, at least, that I have seen fit to preserve,” replied the old man.
+“Thou art but just in time for this even. It is proper to apprise thee that the
+virtues of the talisman having necessarily dwindled with its bulk, it is at
+present incompetent to evoke any Genie, and can at most summon an imp, of whose
+company thou wilt never be able to rid thyself, inasmuch as the least friction
+will inevitably destroy what little of the talisman remains.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Confusion!” cried the young man, “Show me, then, Aladdin’s ring.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Here,” replied the old man, producing a plain gold hoop,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This, at least,” asked the student, “is not devoid of virtue?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Assuredly not, if placed on the finger of some fair lady. For, its magic
+properties depending wholly upon certain engraved characters, which I have
+gradually obliterated, it is at present unadapted to any other use than that of
+a wedding-ring, which it would subserve to admiration.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Produce another talisman,” commanded the youth,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“These,” said the ancient treasurer, holding up two shapeless pieces of
+leather, “are the shoes of swiftness, incomparable until I wore them out.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This, at least, is bright and weighty,” exclaimed the student, as the old man
+displayed the sword of sharpness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In truth a doughty weapon,” returned the treasurer, “if wielded by a stronger
+arm than thine, for it will no longer fly in the air and smite off heads of its
+own accord, since the new blade hath been fitted to the new hilt.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a hasty inspection of the empty frame of a magic mirror, and a fragment
+of the original setting of Solomon’s seal, the youth’s eye lighted upon a
+volume full of mysterious characters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Whose book is this?” he inquired. “Heavens, it is Michael Scott’s!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Even so,” returned the venerable man, “and its spells have lost nothing of
+their efficacy. But the last leaf, containing the formula for dismissing
+spirits after they have been summoned from the nether world, hath been removed
+by me. Inattention to this circumstance hath caused several most respectable
+magicians to be torn in pieces, and hath notably increased the number of demons
+at large.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou old villain!” shouted the exasperated youth, “is this the way in which
+the treasures in thy custody are protected by thee? Deemest thou that I will
+brook being thus cheated of my dear-bought talisman? Nay, but I will deprive
+thee of thine. Give me that lock of hair.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O good youth,” supplicated the now terrified and humbled old man, “bereave me
+not of the source of all my power. Think, only think of the consequences!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I will not think,” roared the youth. “Deliver it to me, or I’ll rend it from
+thy head with my own hands.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a heavy sigh, Time clipped the lock from his brow and handed it to the
+youth, who quitted the place unmolested by any of the monsters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Entering the great city, the student made his way by narrow and winding streets
+until, after a considerable delay, he emerged into a large public square. It
+was crowded with people, gazing intently at the afternoon sky, and the air was
+rife with a confused murmur of altercations and exclamations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is.” “No, I tell you, it is impossible.” “It cannot be.” “I see it move.”
+“No, it’s only my eyes are dazzled.” “Who could have believed it?” “Whatever
+will happen next?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following the gaze of the people, the youth discovered that the object of their
+attention was the sun, in whose aspect, however, he could discover nothing
+unusual.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No,” a man by him was saying, “it positively has not moved for an hour. I have
+my instruments by me. I cannot possibly be mistaken.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It ought to have been behind the houses long ago,” said another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What’s o’clock?” asked a third. The inquiry made many turn their eyes towards
+the great clock in the square. It had stopped an hour ago. The hands were
+perfectly motionless. All who had watches simultaneously drew them from their
+pockets. The motion of each was suspended; so intense, in turn, was the hush of
+the breathless crowd, that you could have heard a single tick, but there was
+none to hear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Time is no more,” proclaimed a leader among the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am a ruined man,” lamented a watchmaker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And I,” ejaculated a maker of almanacks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What of quarter-day?” inquired a landlord and a tenant simultaneously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We shall never see the moon again,” sobbed a pair of lovers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is well this did not happen at night,” observed an optimist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Indeed?” questioned the director of a gas company.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I told you the Last Day would come in our time,” said a preacher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was still long before the people realised that the trance of Time had
+paralysed his daughter Mutability as well. Every operation depending on her
+silent processes was arrested. The unborn could not come to life. The sick
+could not die. The human frame could not waste. Every one in the enjoyment of
+health and strength felt assured of the perpetual possession of these
+blessings, unless he should meet with accident or violent death. But all growth
+ceased, and all dissolution was stayed. Mothers looked with despair on infants
+who could never be weaned or learn to walk. Expectant heirs gazed with dismay
+on immortal fathers and uncles. The reigning beauties, the fashionable boxers
+and opera dancers were in the highest feather. Nor did the intellectual less
+rejoice, counting on endless life and unimpaired faculties, and vowing to
+extend human knowledge beyond the conceivable. The poor and the outcast, the
+sick and the maimed, the broken-hearted and the dying made, indeed, a dismal
+outcry, the sincerity of which was doubted by some persons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for our student, forgetting his faithful Vampire, he made his way to a young
+lady of great personal attractions, to whom he had been attached in former
+days. The sight of her beauty, and the thought that it would be everlasting,
+revived his passion. To convince her of the perpetuity of her charms, and
+establish a claim upon her gratitude, he cautiously revealed to her that he was
+the author of this blissful state of things, and that Time’s hair was actually
+in his possession.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, you dear good man!” she exclaimed, “how vastly I am obliged to you!
+Ferdinand will never forsake me now.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ferdinand! Leonora, I thought you cared for <i>me</i>.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh!” she said, “you young men of science are so conceited!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The discomfited lover fled from the house, and sought the treasurer’s palace.
+It had vanished with all its monsters. Long did he roam the city ere he mixed
+again with the crowd, which an old meteorologist was addressing energetically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I ask you one thing,” he was saying. “Will it ever rain again?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Certainly not,” replied a geologist and a metaphysician together. “Rain being
+an agent of Time in the production of change, there can be no place for it
+under the present dispensation.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then will not the crops be burned up? Will the fruits mature? Are they not
+withering already? What of wells and rivers, and the mighty sea itself? Who
+will feed your cattle? And who will feed <i>you</i>?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This concerns us,” said the butchers and bakers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Us also,” added the fishmongers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I always thought,” said a philosopher, “that this phenomenon must be the work
+of some malignant wizard.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Show us the wizard that we may slay him,” roared the mob.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leonora had been communicative, and the student was immediately identified by
+twenty persons. The lock of hair was found upon him, and was held up in sight
+of the multitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Kill him!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Burn him!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Crucify him!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It moves! it moves!” cried another division of the crowd. All eyes were bent
+on the hitherto stationary luminary. It was moving&mdash;no, it wasn’t; yes, it
+certainly was. Dared men believe that their shadows were actually lengthening?
+Was the sun’s rim really drawing nigh yonder great edifice? That muffled sound
+from the vast, silent multitude was, doubtless, the quick beating of
+innumerable hearts; but that sharper note? Could it be the ticking of watches?
+Suddenly all the public clocks clanged the first stroke of an hour&mdash;an
+absurdly wrong hour, but it was an hour. No mortal heard the second stroke,
+drowned in universal shouts of joy and gratitude. The student mingled with the
+mass, no man regarding him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the people had somewhat recovered from their emotion, they fell to
+disputing as to the cause of the last marvel. No scientific man could get
+beyond a working hypothesis. The mystery was at length solved by a very humble
+citizen, a barber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why,” he said, “the old gentleman’s hair has grown again!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so it had! And so it was that the unborn came to life, the dying gave up
+the ghost, Leonora pulled out a grey hair, and the student told the professor
+his dream.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>THE ELIXIR OF LIFE</h2>
+
+<p>
+The aged philosopher Aboniel inhabited a lofty tower in the city of Balkh,
+where he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and the occult sciences. No
+one was ever admitted to his laboratory. Yet Aboniel did not wholly shun
+intercourse with mankind, but, on the contrary, had seven pupils, towardly
+youths belonging to the noblest families of the city, whom he instructed at
+stated times in philosophy and all lawful knowledge, reserving the forbidden
+lore of magic and alchemy for himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But on a certain day he summoned his seven scholars to the mysterious
+apartment. They entered with awe and curiosity, but perceived nothing save the
+sage standing behind a table, on which were placed seven crystal phials, filled
+with a clear liquid resembling water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ye know, my sons,” he began, “with what ardour I am reputed to have striven to
+penetrate the hidden secrets of Nature, and to solve the problems which have
+allured and baffled the sages of all time. In this rumour doth not err: such
+hath ever been my object; but, until yesterday, my fortune hath been like unto
+theirs who have preceded me. The little I could accomplish seemed as nothing in
+comparison with what I was compelled to leave unachieved. Even now my success
+is but partial. I have not learned to make gold; the talisman of Solomon is not
+mine; nor can I recall the principle of life to the dead, or infuse it into
+inanimate matter. But if I cannot create, I can preserve. I have found the
+Elixir of Life.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sage paused to examine the countenances of his scholars. Upon them he read
+extreme surprise, undoubting belief in the veracity of their teacher, and the
+dawning gleam of a timid hope that they themselves might become participators
+in the transcendent discovery he proclaimed. Addressing himself to the latter
+sentiment&mdash;“I am willing,” he continued, “to communicate this secret to
+you, if such be your desire.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An unanimous exclamation assured him that there need be no uncertainty on this
+point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But remember,” he resumed, “that this knowledge, like all knowledge, has its
+disadvantages and its drawbacks. A price must be paid, and when ye come to
+learn it, it may well be that it will seem too heavy. Understand that the
+stipulations I am about to propound are not of my imposing; the secret was
+imparted to me by spirits not of a benevolent order, and under conditions with
+which I am constrained strictly to comply. Understand also that I am not minded
+to employ this knowledge on my own behalf. My fourscore years’ acquaintance
+with life has rendered me more solicitous for methods of abbreviating
+existence, than of prolonging it. It may be well for you if your twenty years’
+experience has led you to the same conclusion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was not one of the young men who would not readily have admitted, and
+indeed energetically maintained, the emptiness, vanity, and general
+unsatisfactoriness of life; for such had ever been the doctrine of their
+venerated preceptor. Their present behaviour, however, would have convinced
+him, had he needed conviction, of the magnitude of the gulf between theory and
+practice, and the feebleness of intellectual persuasion in presence of innate
+instinct. With one voice they protested their readiness to brave any
+conceivable peril, and undergo any test which might be imposed as a condition
+of participation in their master’s marvellous secret.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“So be it,” returned the sage, “and now hearken to the conditions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Each of you must select at hazard, and immediately quaff one of these seven
+phials, in one of which only is contained the Elixir of Life. Far different are
+the contents of the others; they are the six most deadly poisons which the
+utmost subtlety of my skill has enabled me to prepare, and science knows no
+antidote to any of them. The first scorches up the entrails as with fire; the
+second slays by freezing every vein, and benumbing every nerve; the third by
+frantic convulsions. Happy in comparison he who drains the fourth, for he sinks
+dead upon the ground immediately, smitten as it were with lightning. Nor do I
+overmuch commiserate him to whose lot the fifth may fall, for slumber descends
+upon him forthwith, and he passes away in painless oblivion. But wretched he
+who chooses the sixth, whose hair falls from his head, whose skin peels from
+his body, and who lingers long in excruciating agonies, a living death. The
+seventh phial contains the object of your desire. Stretch forth your hands,
+therefore, simultaneously to this table; let each unhesitatingly grasp and
+intrepidly drain the potion which fate may allot him, and be the quality of his
+fortune attested by the result.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The seven disciples contemplated each other with visages of sevenfold
+blankness. They next unanimously directed their gaze towards their preceptor,
+hoping to detect some symptom of jocularity upon his venerable features.
+Nothing could be descried thereon but the most imperturbable solemnity, or, if
+perchance anything like an expression of irony lurked beneath this, it was not
+such irony as they wished to see. Lastly, they scanned the phials, trusting
+that some infinitesimal distinction might serve to discriminate the elixir from
+the poisons. But no, the vessels were indistinguishable in external appearance,
+and the contents of each were equally colourless and transparent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” demanded Aboniel at length, with real or assumed surprise, “wherefore
+tarry ye thus? I deemed to have ere this beheld six of you in the agonies of
+death!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This utterance did not tend to encourage the seven waverers. Two of the
+boldest, indeed, advanced their hands half-way to the table, but perceiving
+that their example was not followed, withdrew them in some confusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Think not, great teacher, that I personally set store by this worthless
+existence,” said one of their number at last, breaking the embarrassing
+silence, “but I have an aged mother, whose life is bound up with mine.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I,” said the second, “have an unmarried sister, for whom it is meet that I
+should provide.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I,” said the third, “have an intimate and much-injured friend, whose cause I
+may in nowise forsake.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And I an enemy upon whom I would fain be avenged,” said the fourth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My life,” said the fifth, “is wholly devoted to science. Can I consent to lay
+it down ere I have sounded the seas of the seven climates?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Or I, until I have had speech of the man in the moon?” inquired the sixth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I,” said the seventh, “have neither mother nor sister, friends nor enemies,
+neither doth my zeal for science equal that of my fellows. But I have all the
+greater respect for my own skin; yea, the same is exceedingly precious in my
+sight.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The conclusion of the whole matter, then,” summed up the sage, “is that not
+one of you will make a venture for the cup of immortality?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young men remained silent and abashed, unwilling to acknowledge the justice
+of their master’s taunt, and unable to deny it. They sought for some middle
+path, which did not readily present itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“May we not,” said one at last, “may we not cast lots, and each take a phial in
+succession, as destiny may appoint?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have nothing against this,” replied Aboniel, “only remember that the least
+endeavour to contravene the conditions by amending the chance of any one of
+you, will ensure the discomfiture of all.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The disciples speedily procured seven quills of unequal lengths, and proceeded
+to draw them in the usual manner. The shortest remained in the hand of the
+holder, he who had pleaded his filial duty to his mother.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He approached the table with much resolution, and his hand advanced half the
+distance without impediment. Then, turning to the holder of the second quill;
+the man with the sister, he said abruptly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The relation between mother and son is notoriously more sacred and intimate
+than that which obtains between brethren. Were it not therefore fitting that
+thou shouldst encounter the first risk in my stead?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The relationship between an aged mother and an adult son,” responded the youth
+addressed, in a sententious tone, “albeit most holy, cannot in the nature of
+things be durable, seeing that it must shortly be dissolved by death. Whereas
+the relationship between brother and sister may endure for many years, if such
+be the will of Allah. It is therefore proper that thou shouldst first venture
+the experiment.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Have I lived to hear such sophistry from a pupil of the wise Aboniel!”
+exclaimed the first speaker, in generous indignation. “The maternal
+relationship&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A truce to this trifling,” cried the other six; “fulfil the conditions, or
+abandon the task.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus urged, the scholar approached his hand to the table, and seized one of the
+phials. Scarcely, however, had he done so, when he fancied that he detected
+something of a sinister colour in the liquid, which distinguished it, in his
+imagination, from the innocent transparency of the rest. He hastily replaced
+it, and laid hold of the next. At that moment a blaze of light burst forth upon
+them, and, thunderstruck, the seven scholars were stretched senseless on the
+ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On regaining their faculties they found themselves at the outside of Aboniel’s
+dwelling, stunned by the shock, and humiliated by the part they had played.
+They jointly pledged inviolable secrecy, and returned to their homes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The secret of the seven was kept as well as the secret of seven can be expected
+to be; that is to say, it was not, ere the expiration of seven days, known to
+more than six-sevenths of the inhabitants of Balkh. The last of these to become
+acquainted with it was the Sultan, who immediately despatched his guards to
+apprehend the sage, and confiscate the Elixir. Failing to obtain admission at
+Aboniel’s portal, they broke it open, and, on entering his chamber, found him
+in a condition which more eloquently than any profession bespoke his disdain
+for the life-bestowing draught. He was dead in his chair. Before him, on the
+table, stood the seven phials, six full as previously, the seventh empty. In
+his hand was a scroll inscribed as follows;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Six times twice six years have I striven after knowledge, and I now bequeath
+to the world the fruit of my toil, being six poisons. One more deadly I might
+have added, but I have refrained,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Write upon my tomb, that here he lies who forbore to perpetuate human
+affliction, and bestowed a fatal boon where alone it could be innoxious.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The intruders looked at each other, striving to penetrate the sense of
+Aboniel’s last words. While yet they gazed, they were startled by a loud crash
+from an adjacent closet, and were even more discomposed as a large monkey
+bounded forth, whose sleek coat, exuberant playfulness, and preternatural
+agility convinced all that the deceased philosopher, under an inspiration of
+supreme irony, had administered to the creature every drop of the Elixir of
+Life.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>THE POET OF PANOPOLIS</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Although in a manner retired from the world during the fifth and sixth
+Christian centuries, the banished Gods did not neglect to keep an eye on human
+affairs, interesting themselves in any movement which might seem to afford them
+a chance of regaining their lost supremacy, or in any person whose conduct
+evinced regret at their dethronement. They deeply sympathised with the efforts
+of their votary Pamprepius to turn the revolt of Illus to their advantage, and
+excused the low magical arts to which he stooped as a necessary concession to
+the spirit of a barbarous age. They ministered invisibly to Damascius and his
+companions on their flight into Persia, alleviating the hardships under which
+the frames of the veteran philosophers might otherwise have sunk. It was not,
+indeed, until the burning of the Alexandrian library that they lost all heart
+and lapsed into the chrysalis-like condition in which they remained until
+tempted forth by the young sunshine of the Renaissance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such a phenomenon for the fifth century as the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of
+Panopolis could not fail to excite their most lively interest. Forty-eight
+books of verse on the exploits of Bacchus in the age of pugnacious prelates and
+filthy coenobites, of imbecile rulers and rampant robbers, of the threatened
+dissolution of every tie, legal, social, or political; an age of earthquake,
+war, and famine! Bacchus, who is known from Aristophanes not to have excelled
+in criticism, protested that his laureate was greater than Homer; and, though
+Homer could not go quite so far as this, he graciously conceded that if he had
+himself been an Egyptian of the fifth century, with a faint glimmering of the
+poetical art, and encumbered with more learning than he knew how to use, he
+might have written almost as badly as his modern representative. More impartial
+critics judged Nonnus’s achievement more favourably, and all agreed that his
+steadfastness in the faith deserved some special mark of distinction. The Muses
+under Pallas’s direction (being themselves a little awkward in female
+accomplishments) embroidered him a robe; Hermes made a lyre, and Hephaestus
+forged a plectrum. Apollo added a chaplet of laurel, and Bacchus one of ivy.
+Whether from distrust of Hermes’ integrity, or wishing to make the personal
+acquaintance of his follower, Phœbus volunteered to convey the testimonial in
+person, and accordingly took his departure for the Egyptian Thebaid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As Apollo fared through the sandy and rugged wilderness under the blazing sun
+of an African summer afternoon, he observed with surprise a vast crowd of
+strange figures swarming about the mouth of a cavern like bees clustering at
+the entrance to a hive. On a nearer approach he identified them as a posse of
+demons besetting a hermit. Words cannot describe the enormous variety of
+whatever the universe holds of most heterogeneous. Naked women of surpassing
+loveliness displayed their charms to the anchorite’s gaze, sturdy porters bent
+beneath loads of gold which they heaped at his feet, other shapes not alien
+from humanity allured his appetite with costly dishes or cooling drinks, or
+smote at him with swords, or made feints at his eyes with spears, or burned
+sulphur under his nose, or displayed before him scrolls of poetry or learning,
+or shrieked blasphemies in his ears, or surveyed him from a little distance
+with glances of leering affection; while a motley crowd of goblins, wearing the
+heads of boars or lions, or whisking the tails of dragons, winged, or hoofed,
+or scaled, or feathered, or all at once, incessantly jostled and wrangled with
+each other and their betters, mopping and mowing, grunting and grinning,
+snapping, snarling, constantly running away and returning like gnats dancing
+over a marsh. The holy man sat doggedly at the entrance of his cavern, with an
+expression of fathomless stupidity, which seemed to defy all the fiends of the
+Thebaid to get an idea into his head, or make him vary his attitude by a single
+inch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“These people did not exist in our time,” said Apollo aloud, “or at least they
+knew their place, and behaved themselves.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Sir,” said a comparatively grave and respectable demon, addressing the
+stranger, “I should wish your peregrinity to understand that these imps are
+mere schoolboys&mdash;my pupils, in fact. When their education has made further
+progress they will be more mannerly, and will comprehend the folly of pestering
+an unintellectual old gentleman like this worthy Pachymius with beauty for
+which he has no eyes, and gold for which he has no use, and dainties for which
+he has no palate, and learning for which he has no head. But <i>I’ll</i> wake
+him up!” And waving his pupils away, the paedagogic fiend placed himself at the
+anchorite’s ear, and shouted into it&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nonnus is to be Bishop of Panopolis!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The hermit’s features were instantly animated by an expression of envy and
+hatred.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nonnus!” he exclaimed, “the heathen poet, to have the see of Panopolis, of
+which <i>I</i> was promised the reversion!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My dear sir,” suggested Apollo, “it is all very well to enliven the reverend
+eremite; but don’t you think it is rather a liberty to make such jokes at the
+expense of my good friend Nonnus?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is no liberty,” said the demon, “for there is no joke. Recanted on
+Monday. Baptized yesterday. Ordained to-day. To be consecrated to-morrow.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The anchorite poured forth a torrent of the choicest ecclesiastical curses,
+until he became speechless from exhaustion, and Apollo, profiting by the
+opportunity, addressed the demon:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Would it be an unpardonable breach of politeness, respected sir, if I ventured
+to hint that the illusions your pupils have been trying to impose upon this
+venerable man have in some small measure impaired the confidence with which I
+was originally inspired by your advantageous personal appearance?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not in the least,” replied the demon, “especially as I can easily make my
+words good. If you and Pachymius will mount my back I will transport you to
+Panopolis, where you can verify my assertion for yourselves.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Deity and the anchorite promptly consented, and seated themselves on the
+demon’s shoulders. The shadow of the fiend’s expanded wings fell black and vast
+on the fiery sand, but diminished and became invisible as he soared to a
+prodigious height, to escape observation from below. By-and-by the sun’s
+glowing ball touched earth at the extremity of the horizon; it disappeared, the
+fires of sunset burned low in the west, and the figures of the demon and his
+freight showed like a black dot against a lake of green sky, growing larger as
+he cautiously stooped to earth. Grazing temples, skimming pyramids, the party
+came to ground in the precincts of Panopolis, just in time to avoid the rising
+moon that would have betrayed them. The demon immediately disappeared. Apollo
+hastened off to demand an explanation from Nonnus, while Pachymius repaired to
+a neighbouring convent, peopled, as he knew, by a legion of sturdy monks, ever
+ready to smite and be smitten in the cause of orthodoxy.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Nonnus sat in his study, wrinkling his brow as he polished his verses by the
+light of a small lamp. A large scroll lay open on his knees, the contents of
+which seemed to afford him little satisfaction. Forty-eight more scrolls,
+resplendent with silver knobs and coquettishly tied with purple cord, reposed
+in an adjoining book-case; the forty-eight books, manifestly, of the
+Panopolitan bard’s Dionysiaca. Homer, Euripides, and other poets lay on the
+floor, having apparently been hurriedly dislodged to make room for divers
+liturgies and lives of the saints. A set of episcopal robes depended from a
+hook, and on a side table stood half-a-dozen mitres, which, to all appearance,
+the designated prelate had been trying on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nonnus,” said Phœbus, passing noiselessly through the unresisting wall, “the
+tale of thy apostasy is then true?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It would be difficult to determine whether surprise, delight, or dismay
+preponderated in Nonnus’s expression as he lifted up his eyes and recognised
+the God of Poetry. He had just presence of mind to shuffle his scroll under an
+enormous dictionary ere he fell at Apollo’s feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Phœbus,” he exclaimed, “hadst thou come a week ago!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is true, then?” said Apollo. “Thou forsakest me and the Muses. Thou sidest
+with them who have broken our statues, unroofed our temples, desecrated our
+altars, and banished us from among mankind. Thou rejectest the glory of
+standing alone in a barbarous age as the last witness to culture and
+civilisation. Thou despisest the gifts of the Gods and the Muses, of which I am
+even now the bearer. Thou preferrest the mitre to the laurel chaplet, and the
+hymns of Gregory to the epics of Homer?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Phœbus,” replied Nonnus, “were it any God but thou, I should bend before him
+in silence, having nought to reply. But thou art a poet, and thou understandest
+the temper of a poet. Thou knowest how beyond other men he is devoured by the
+craving for sympathy. This and not vulgar vanity is his motive of action; his
+shaft is launched in vain unless he can deem it embedded in the heart of a
+friend. Thou mayest well judge what scoffings and revilings my Dionysiac epic
+has brought upon me in this evil age; yet, had this been all, peradventure I
+might have borne it. But it was not all. The gentle, the good, the
+affectionate, they who in happier times would have been my audience, came about
+me, saying, Nonnus, why sing the strains against which we must shut our ears?
+Sing what we may listen to, and we will love and honour thee. I could not bear
+the thought of going to my grave without having awakened an echo of sympathy,
+and weakly but not basely I have yielded, given them what they craved, and
+suffered them, since the Muses’ garland is not theirs to bestow, to reward me
+with a mitre.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And what demanded they?” asked Apollo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, a mere romance! Something entirely fabulous.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I must see it,” persisted Apollo; and Nonnus reluctantly disinterred his
+scroll from under the big dictionary, and handed it up, trembling like a
+schoolboy who anticipates a castigation for a bad exercise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What trash have we here?” cried Phœbus&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+“&Alpha;&chi;&rho;&omicron;&nu;&omicron;&sigmaf; &eta;&nu;,
+&alpha;&kappa;&iota;&chi;&eta;&tau;&omicron;&sigmaf;, &epsilon;&nu;
+&alpha;&rho;&rho;&eta;&tau;&omega; &Lambda;&omicron;&gamma;&omicron;&sigmaf;
+&alpha;&rho;&chi;&eta;,<br/>
+’&Iota;&sigma;&omicron;&phi;&upsilon;&eta;&sigmaf;
+&Gamma;&epsilon;&nu;&epsilon;&tau;&eta;&rho;&omicron;&sigmaf;
+&#972;&mu;&eta;&lambda;&iota;&kappa;&omicron;&sigmaf;
+&Tau;&iota;&omicron;&sigmaf; &alpha;&mu;&eta;&tau;&omega;&rho;,<br/>
+&Kappa;&alpha;&iota; &Lambda;&omicron;&gamma;&omicron;&sigmaf;
+&alpha;&upsilon;&tau;&omicron;&phi;&upsilon;&tau;&omicron;&iota;&omicron;
+&Theta;&epsilon;&omicron;&upsilon;, &phi;&omega;&sigmaf;, &epsilon;&kappa;
+&phi;&alpha;&epsilon;&omicron;&sigmaf; &phi;&omega;&sigmaf;.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+“If it isn’t the beginning of the Gospel of John! Thy impiety is worse than thy
+poetry!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Apollo cast the scroll indignantly to the ground. His countenance wore an
+expression so similar to that with which he is represented in act to smite the
+Python, that Nonnus judged it prudent to catch up his manuscript and hold it
+shield-wise before his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou doest well,” said Apollo, laughing bitterly; “that rampart is indeed
+impenetrable to my arrows.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nonnus seemed about to fall prostrate, when a sharp rap came to the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That is the Governor’s knock,” he exclaimed. “Do not forsake me utterly, O
+Phœbus!” But as he turned to open the door, Apollo vanished. The Governor
+entered, a sagacious, good-humoured-looking man in middle life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who was with thee just now?” he asked. “Methought I heard voices.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Merely the Muse,” explained Nonnus, “with whom I am wont to hold nocturnal
+communings.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Indeed!” replied the Governor. “Then the Muse has done well to take herself
+off, and will do even better not to return. Bishops must have no flirtations
+with Muses, heavenly or earthly&mdash;not that I am now altogether certain that
+thou <i>wilt</i> be a bishop.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How so?” asked Nonnus, not without a feeling of relief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Imagine, my dear friend,” returned the Governor, “who should turn up this
+evening but that sordid anchorite Pachymius, to whom the see was promised
+indeed, but who was reported to have been devoured by vermin in the desert. The
+rumour seemed so highly plausible that it must be feared that sufficient pains
+were not taken to verify it&mdash;cannot have been, in fact; for, as I said,
+here he comes, having been brought, as he affirms, through the air by an angel.
+Little would it have signified if he had come by himself, but he is accompanied
+by three hundred monks carrying cudgels, who threaten an insurrection if he is
+not consecrated on the spot. My friend the Archbishop and I are at our wits’
+end: we have set our hearts on having a gentleman over the diocese, but we
+cannot afford to have tumults reported at Constantinople. At last, mainly
+through the mediation of a sable personage whom no one seems to know, but who
+approves himself most intelligent and obliging, the matter is put off till
+to-morrow, when them and Pachymius are to compete for the bishopric in public
+on conditions not yet settled, but which our swarthy friend undertakes to
+arrange to every one’s satisfaction. So keep up a good heart, and don’t run
+away in any case. I know thou art timid, but remember that there is no safety
+for thee but in victory. If thou yieldest thou wilt be beheaded by me, and if
+thou art defeated thou wilt certainly be burned by Pachymius.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this incentive to intrepidity the Governor withdrew, leaving the poor poet
+in a pitiable state between remorse and terror. One thing alone somewhat
+comforted him! the mitres had vanished, and the gifts of the Gods lay on the
+table in their place, whence he concluded that a friendly power might yet be
+watching over him.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Next morning all Panopolis was in an uproar. It was generally known that the
+pretensions of the candidates for the episcopate would be decided by public
+competition, and it was rumoured that this would partake of the nature of an
+ordeal by fire and water. Nothing further had transpired except that the
+arrangements had been settled by the Governor and Archbishop in concert with
+two strangers, a dingy Libyan and a handsome young Greek, neither of whom was
+known in the city, but in both of whom the authorities seemed to repose entire
+confidence. At the appointed time the people flocked into the theatre, and
+found the stage already occupied by the parties chiefly concerned. The Governor
+and the Archbishop sat in the centre on their tribunals: the competitors stood
+on each side, Pachymius backed by the demon, Nonnus by Apollo; both these
+supporters, of course, appearing to the assembly in the light of ordinary
+mortals. Nonnus recognised Apollo perfectly, but Pachymius’s limited powers of
+intelligence seemed entirely engrossed by the discomfort visibly occasioned him
+by the proximity of an enormous brass vessel of water, close to which burned a
+bright fire. Nonnus was also ill at ease, and continually directed his
+attention to a large package, of the contents of which he seemed instinctively
+cognisant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All being ready, the Governor rose from his seat, and announced that, with the
+sanction of his Grace the Archbishop, the invidious task of determining between
+the claims of two such highly qualified competitors had been delegated to two
+gentlemen in the enjoyment of his full confidence, who would proceed to apply
+fitting tests to the respective candidates. Should one fail and the other
+succeed, the victor would of course be instituted; should both undergo the
+probation successfully, new criterions of merit would be devised; should both
+fall short, both would be set aside, and the disputed mitre would be conferred
+elsewhere. He would first summon Nonnus, long their fellow-citizen, and now
+their fellow-Christian, to submit himself to the test proposed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Apollo now rose, and proclaimed in an audible voice, “By virtue of the
+authority committed to me I call upon Nonnus of Panopolis, candidate for the
+bishopric of his native city, to demonstrate his fitness for the same by
+consigning to the flames with his own hands the forty-eight execrable books of
+heathen poetry composed by him in the days of his darkness and blindness, but
+now without doubt as detestable to him as to the universal body of the
+faithful.” So saying, he made a sign to an attendant, the wrapping of the
+package fell away, and the forty-eight scrolls of the Dionysiaca, silver knobs,
+purple cords, and all, came to view.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Burn my poem!” exclaimed Nonnus. “Destroy the labours of twenty-four years!
+Bereave Egypt of its Homer! Erase the name of Nonnus from the tablet of Time!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How so, while thou hast the Paraphrase of St. John?” demanded Apollo
+maliciously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Indeed, good youth,” said the Governor, who wished to favour Nonnus, “methinks
+the condition is somewhat exorbitant. A single book might suffice, surely!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am quite content,” replied Apollo. “If he consents to burn any of his books
+he is no poet, and I wash my hands of him.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Come, Nonnus,” cried the Governor, “make haste; one book will do as well as
+another. Hand them up here.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It must be with his own hands, please your Excellency,” said Apollo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then,” cried the Governor, pitching to the poet the first scroll brought to
+him, “the thirteenth book. Who cares about the thirteenth book? Pop it in!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The thirteenth book!” exclaimed Nonnus, “containing the contest between wine
+and honey, without which my epic becomes totally and entirely unintelligible!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This, then,” said the Governor, picking out another, which chanced to be the
+seventeenth,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In my seventeenth book,” objected Nonnus, “Bacchus plants vines in India, and
+the superiority of wine to milk is convincingly demonstrated.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” rejoined the Governor, “what say you to the twenty-second?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“With my Hamadryad! I can never give up my Hamadryad!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then,” said the Governor, contemptuously hurling the whole set in the
+direction of Nonnus, “burn which you will, only burn!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wretched poet sat among his scrolls looking for a victim. All his
+forty-eight children were equally dear to his parental heart. The cries of
+applause and derision from the spectators, and the formidable bellowings of the
+exasperated monks who surrounded Pachymius, did not tend to steady his nerves,
+or render the task of critical discrimination the easier,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I won’t! I won’t!” he exclaimed at last, starting up defiantly. “Let the
+bishopric go to the devil! Any one of my similes is worth all the bishoprics in
+Egypt!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Out on the vanity of these poets!” exclaimed the disappointed Governor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is not vanity,” said Apollo, “it is paternal affection; and being myself a
+sufferer from the same infirmity, I rejoice to find him my true son after all.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” said the Governor, turning to the demon: “it is thy man’s turn now.
+Trot him out!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Brethren,” said the demon to the assembly, “it is meet that he who aspires to
+the office of bishop should be prepared to give evidence of extraordinary
+self-denial. Ye have seen even our weak brother Nonnus adoring what he hath
+burned, albeit as yet unwilling to burn what he hath adored. How much more may
+be reasonably expected of our brother Pachymius, so eminent for sanctity! I
+therefore call upon him to demonstrate his humility and self-renunciation, and
+effectually mortify the natural man, by washing himself in this ample vessel
+provided for the purpose”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wash myself!” exclaimed Pacyhmius, with a vivacity of which he had previously
+shown no token. “Destroy at one splash the sanctity of fifty-seven years!
+Avaunt! thou subtle enemy of my salvation! I know thee who thou art, the demon
+who brought me hither on his back yesterday.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I thought it had been an angel,” said the Governor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A demon in the disguise of an angel of light,” said Pachymius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A tumultuous discussion arose among Pachymius’s supporters, some extolling his
+fortitude, others blaming his wrongheadedness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” said he to the latter, “would ye rob me of my reputation? Shall it be
+written of me, The holy Pachymius abode in the precepts of the eremites so long
+as he dwelt in the desert where no water was, but as soon as he came within
+sight of a bath, he stumbled and fell?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, father,” urged they, “savoureth not this of vaingloriousness? The demon in
+the guise of an angel of light, as thou so well saidest even now. Be strong.
+Quit thyself valiantly. Think of the sufferings of the primitive confessors.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“St. John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil,” said one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“St. Apocryphus was actually drowned,” said another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have reason to believe,” said a third, “that the loathsomeness of ablution
+hath been greatly exaggerated by the heretics.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I know it has,” said another. “I <i>have</i> washed myself once, though ye
+might not think it, and can assert that it is by no means as disagreeable as
+one supposes.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That is just what I dread,” said Pachymius. “Little by little, one might
+positively come to like it! We should resist the beginnings of evil.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this time the crowd of his supporters had been pressing upon the anchorite,
+and had imperceptibly forced him nearer the edge of the vessel, purposing at a
+convenient season to throw him in. He was now near enough to catch a glimpse of
+the limpid element. Recoiling in horror, he collected all his energies, and
+with head depressed towards his chest, and hands thrust forth as if to ward off
+pollution&mdash;butting, kicking, biting the air&mdash;he rushed forwards, and
+with a preternatural force deserving to be enumerated among his miracles,
+fairly overthrew the enormous vase, the contents streaming on the crowd in
+front of the stage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Take me to my hermitage!” he screamed. “I renounce the bishopric. Take me to
+my hermitage!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Amen,” responded the demon, and, assuming his proper shape, he took Pachymius
+upon his back and flew away with him amid the cheers of the multitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pachymius was speedily deposited at the mouth of his cavern, where he received
+the visits of the neighbouring anchorites, who came to congratulate him on the
+constancy with which he had sustained his fiery, or rather watery trial. He
+spent most of his remaining days in the society of the devil, on which account
+he was canonised at his death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O Phœbus,” said Nonnus, when they were alone, “impose upon me any penance thou
+wilt, so I may but regain thy favour and that of the Muses. But before all
+things let me destroy my paraphrase.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou shalt not destroy it,” said Phœbus, “Thou shalt publish it. That shall be
+thy penance.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so it is that the epic on the exploits of Bacchus and the paraphrase of St.
+John’s Gospel have alike come down to us as the work of Nonnus, whose
+authorship of both learned men have never been able to deny, having regard to
+the similarity of style, but never could explain until the facts above narrated
+came to light in one of the Fayoum papyri recently acquired by the Archduke
+Rainer.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap18"></a>THE PURPLE HEAD</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Half ignorant, they turned an easy wheel<br/>
+That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel.
+</p>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+In the heyday of the Emperor Aurelian’s greatness, when his strong right arm
+propped Rome up, and hewed Palmyra down, when he surrounded his capital with
+walls fifty miles in circuit, and led Tetricus and Zenobia in triumph through
+its streets, and distributed elephants among the senators, and laid Etruria out
+in vineyards, and contemplated in leisure moments the suppression of
+Christianity as a subordinate detail of administration, a mere ripple on the
+broad ocean of his policy&mdash;at this period Bahram the First, King of
+Persia, naturally became disquieted in his mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This upstart soldier of fortune,” reflected he, “has an unseemly habit of
+overcoming and leading captive legitimate princes; thus prejudicing Divine
+right in the eyes of the vulgar. The skin of his predecessor Valerian, curried
+and stuffed with straw, hangs to this hour in the temple at Ctesiphon, a
+pleasing spectacle to the immortal gods. How would my own skin appear in the
+temple of Jupiter Capitolinus? This must not be. I will send an embassy to him,
+and impress him with my greatness. But how?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He accordingly convoked his counsellors; the viziers, the warriors, the magi,
+the philosophers; and addressed them thus:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The king deigns to consult ye touching a difficult matter. I would flatter the
+pride of Rome, without lowering the pride of Persia. I would propitiate
+Aurelian, and at the same time humble him. How shall this be accomplished?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The viziers, the warriors, and the magi answered not a word. Unbroken silence
+reigned in the assembly, until the turn came to the sage Marcobad, who,
+prostrating himself, said, “O king, live for ever! In ancient times, as hath
+been delivered by our ancestors, Persians were instructed in three
+accomplishments&mdash;to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth. Persia
+still rides and shoots; truth-speaking (praised be Ormuzd!) she hath
+discontinued as unbefitting an enlightened nation. Thou needest not, therefore,
+scruple to circumvent Aurelian. Offer him that which thou knowest will not be
+found in his treasury, seeing that it is unique in thine own; giving him, at
+the same time, to understand that it is the ordinary produce of thy dominions.
+So, while rejoicing at the gift, shall he be abashed at his inferiority. I
+refer to the purple robe of her majesty the queen, the like of which is not to
+be found in the whole earth, neither do any know where the dye that tinges it
+is produced, save that it proceeds from the uttermost parts of India.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I approve thy advice,” replied Bahram, “and in return will save thy life by
+banishing thee from my dominions. When my august consort shall learn that thou
+hast been the means of depriving her of her robe, she will undoubtedly request
+that thou mayest be flayed, and thou knowest that I can deny her nothing. I
+therefore counsel thee to depart with all possible swiftness. Repair to the
+regions where the purple is produced, and if thou returnest with an adequate
+supply, I undertake that my royal sceptre shall be graciously extended to
+thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The philosopher forsook the royal presence with celerity, and his office of
+chief examiner of court spikenard was bestowed upon another; as also his house
+and his garden, his gold and his silver, his wives and his concubines, his
+camels and his asses, which were numerous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the solitary adventurer wended his way eastward, a gorgeous embassy
+travelled westward in the direction of Rome.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Arrived in the presence of Aurelian, and at the conclusion of his complimentary
+harangue, the chief envoy produced a cedar casket, from which he drew a purple
+robe of such surpassing refulgence, that, in the words of the historian who has
+recorded the transaction, the purple of the emperor and of the matrons appeared
+ashy grey in comparison. It was accompanied by a letter thus conceived:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Bahram to Aurelian: health! Receive such purple as we have in Persia.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Persia, forsooth!” exclaimed Sorianus, a young philosopher versed in natural
+science, “this purple never was in Persia, except as a rarity. Oh, the
+mendacity and vanity of these Orientals!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ambassador was beginning an angry reply, when Aurelian quelled the dispute
+with a look, and with some awkwardness delivered himself of a brief oration in
+acknowledgment of the gift. He took no more notice of the matter until
+nightfall, when he sent for Sorianus, and inquired where the purple actually
+was produced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In the uttermost parts of India,” returned the philosopher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” rejoined Aurelian, summing up the matter with his accustomed rapidity
+and clearness of head, “either thou or the Persian king has lied to me, it is
+plain, and, by the favour of the Gods, it is immaterial which, seeing that my
+ground for going to war with him is equally good in either case. If he has
+sought to deceive me, I am right in punishing him; if he possesses what I lack,
+I am justified in taking it away. It would, however, be convenient to know
+which of these grounds to inscribe in my manifesto; moreover, I am not ready
+for hostilities at present; having first to extirpate the Blemmyes, Carpi, and
+other barbarian vermin. I will therefore despatch thee to India to ascertain by
+personal examination the truth about the purple. Do not return without it, or I
+shall cut off thy head. My treasury will charge itself with the administration
+of thy property during thy absence. The robe shall meanwhile be deposited in
+the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. May he have it and thee in his holy
+keeping!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus, in that age of darkness, were two most eminent philosophers reduced to
+beggary, and constrained to wander in remote and insalubrious regions; the one
+for advising a king, the other for instructing an emperor. But the matter did
+not rest here. For Aurelian, having continued the visible deity of half the
+world for one hundred and fifty days after the departure of Sorianus, was slain
+by his own generals. To him succeeded Tacitus, who sank oppressed by the weight
+of rule; to him Probus, who perished in a military tumult; to him Carus, who
+was killed by lightning; to him Carinus, who was assassinated by one whom he
+had wronged; to him Diocletian, who, having maintained himself for twenty
+years, wisely forbore to tempt Nemesis further, and retired to plant cabbages
+at Salona. All these sovereigns, differing from each other in every other
+respect, agreed in a common desire to possess the purple dye, and when the
+philosopher returned not, successively despatched new emissaries in quest of
+it. Strange was the diversity of fate which befell these envoys. Some fell into
+the jaws of lions, some were crushed by monstrous serpents, some trampled by
+elephants at the command of native princes, some perished of hunger, and some
+of thirst; some, encountering smooth-browed and dark-tressed girls wreathing
+their hair with the champak blossom or bathing by moonlight in lotus-mantled
+tanks, forsook their quest, and led thenceforth idyllic lives in groves of
+banian and of palm. Some became enamoured of the principles of the
+Gymnosophists, some couched themselves for uneasy slumber upon beds of spikes,
+weening to wake in the twenty-second heaven. All which romantic variety of
+fortune was the work of a diminutive insect that crawled or clung heedless of
+the purple it was weaving into the many-coloured web of human life.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Some thirty years after the departure of the Persian embassy to Aurelian, two
+travellers met at the bottom of a dell in trans-Gangetic India, having
+descended the hill-brow by opposite paths. It was early morning; the sun had
+not yet surmounted the timbered and tangled sides of the little valley, so that
+the bottom still lay steeped in shadow, and glittering with large pearls of
+limpid dew, while the oval space of sky circumscribed by the summit glowed with
+the delicate splendour of the purest sapphire. Songs of birds resounded through
+the brake, and the water lilies which veiled the rivulet trickling through the
+depths of the retreat were unexpanded still. One of the wayfarers was aged, the
+other a man of the latest period of middle life. Their raiment was scanty and
+soiled; their frames and countenances alike bespoke fatigue and hardship; but
+while the elder one moved with moderate alacrity, the other shuffled painfully
+along by the help of a staff, shrinking every time that he placed either of his
+feet on the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They exchanged looks and greetings as they encountered, and the more active of
+the two, whose face was set in an easterly direction, ventured a compassionate
+allusion to the other’s apparent distress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+‘I but suffer from the usual effects of crucifixion,’ returned the other; and
+removing his sandals, displayed two wounds, completely penetrating each foot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Cross had not yet announced victory to Constantine, and was as yet no
+passport to respectable society. The first traveller drew back hastily, and
+regarded his companion with surprise and suspicion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I see what is passing in thy mind,” resumed the latter, with a smile; “but be
+under no apprehension. I have not undergone the censure of any judicial
+tribunal. My crucifixion was merely a painful but necessary incident in my
+laudable enterprise of obtaining the marvellous purple dye, to which end I was
+despatched unto these regions by the Emperor Aurelian.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The purple dye!” exclaimed the Persian, for it was he. “Thou hast obtained
+it?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have. It is the product of insects found only in a certain valley eastward
+from hence, to obtain access to which it is before all things needful to elude
+the vigilance of seven dragons.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou didst elude them? and afterwards?” inquired Marcobad, with eagerness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Afterwards,” repeated Sorianus, “I made my way into the valley, where I
+descried the remains of my immediate predecessor prefixed to a cross.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thy predecessor?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He who had last made the attempt before me. Upon any one’s penetrating the
+Valley of Purple, as it is termed, with the design I have indicated, the
+inhabitants, observant of the precepts of their ancestors, append him to a
+cross by the feet only, confining his arms by ropes at the shoulders, and
+setting vessels of cooling drink within his grasp. If, overcome with thirst, he
+partakes of the beverage, they leave him to expire at leisure; if he endures
+for three days, he is permitted to depart with the object of his quest. My
+predecessor, belonging, as I conjecture, to the Epicurean persuasion, and
+consequently unable to resist the allurements of sense, had perished in the
+manner aforesaid. I, a Stoic, refrained and attained.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou didst bear away the tincture? thou hast it now?” impetuously interrogated
+the Persian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Behold it!” replied the Greek, exhibiting a small flask filled with the most
+gorgeous purple liquid. “What seest thou here?” demanded he triumphantly,
+holding it up to the light. “To me this vial displays the University of Athens,
+and throngs of fair youths hearkening to the discourse of one who resembles
+myself.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To my vision,” responded the Persian, peering at the vial, “it rather reveals
+a palace, and a dress of honour. But suffer me to contemplate it more closely,
+for my eyes have waxed dim by over application to study.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So saying, he snatched the flask from Sorianus, and immediately turned to fly.
+The Greek sprang after his treasure, and failing to grasp Marcobad’s wrist,
+seized his beard, plucking the hair out by handfuls. The infuriated Persian
+smote him on the head with the crystal flagon. It burst into shivers, and the
+priceless contents gushed forth in a torrent over the uncovered head and
+uplifted visage of Sorianus, bathing every hair and feature with the most vivid
+purple.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The aghast and thunderstricken philosophers remained gazing at each other for a
+moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is indelible!” cried Sorianus in distraction, rushing down, however, to the
+brink of the little stream, and plunging his head beneath the waters. They
+carried away a cloud of purple, but left the purple head stained as before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The philosopher, as he upraised his glowing and dripping countenance from the
+brook, resembled Silenus emerging from one of the rivers which Bacchus
+metamorphosed into wine during his campaign in India. He resorted to attrition
+and contrition, to maceration and laceration; he tried friction with leaves,
+with grass, with sedge, with his garments; he regarded himself in one crystal
+pool after another, a grotesque anti-Narcissus. At last he flung himself on the
+earth, and gave free course to his anguish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The grace of repentance is rarely denied us when our misdeeds have proved
+unprofitable. Marcobad awkwardly approached.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Brother,” he whispered, “I will restore the tincture of which I have deprived
+thee, and add thereto an antidote, if such may be found. Await my return under
+this camphor tree.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So saying, he hastened up the path by which Sorianus had descended, and was
+speedily out of sight.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Sorianus tarried long under the camphor tree, but at last, becoming weary,
+resumed his travels, until emerging from the wilderness he entered the
+dominions of the King of Ayodhya. His extraordinary appearance speedily
+attracted the attention of the royal officers, by whom he was apprehended and
+brought before his majesty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is evident,” pronounced the monarch, after bestowing his attention on the
+case, “that thou art in possession of an object too rare and precious for a
+private individual, of which thou must accordingly be deprived. I lament the
+inconvenience thou wilt sustain. I would it had been thy hand or thy foot.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sorianus acknowledged the royal considerateness, but pleaded the indefeasible
+right of property which he conceived himself to have acquired in his own head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In respect,” responded the royal logician, “that thy head is conjoined to thy
+shoulders, it is thine; but in respect that it is purple, it is mine, purple
+being a royal monopoly. Thy claim is founded on anatomy, mine on jurisprudence.
+Shall matter prevail over mind? Shall medicine, the most uncertain of sciences,
+override law, the perfection of human reason? It is but to the vulgar
+observation that thou appearest to have a head at all; in the eye of the law
+thou art acephalous.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I would submit,” urged the philosopher, “that the corporal connection of my
+head with my body is an essential property, the colour of it a fortuitous
+accident.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou mightest as well contend,” returned the king, “that the law is bound to
+regard thee in thy abstract condition as a human being, and is disabled from
+taking cognisance of thy acquired capacity of smuggler&mdash;rebel, I might
+say, seeing that thou hast assumed the purple.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But the imputation of cruelty which might attach to your majesty’s
+proceedings?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There can be no cruelty where there is no injustice. If any there be, it must
+be on thy part, since, as I have demonstrated, so far from my despoiling thee
+of thy head, it is thou who iniquitously withholdest mine. I will labour to
+render this even clearer to thy apprehension. Thou art found, as thou must
+needs admit, in possession of a contraband article forfeit to the crown by
+operation of law. What then? Shall the intention of the legislature be
+frustrated because thou hast insidiously rendered the possession of <i>my</i>
+property inseparable from the possession of <i>thine</i>? Shall I, an innocent
+proprietor, be mulcted of my right by thy fraud and covin? Justice howls,
+righteousness weeps, integrity stands aghast at the bare notion. No, friend,
+thy head has not a leg to stand on. Wouldst thou retain it, it behoves thee to
+show that it will be more serviceable to the owner, namely, myself, upon thy
+shoulders than elsewhere. This may well be. Hast thou peradventure any
+subtleties in perfumery? any secrets in confectionery? any skill in the
+preparation of soup?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have condescended to none of these frivolities, O king. My study hath ever
+consisted in divine philosophy, whereby men are rendered equal to the gods.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And yet long most of all for purple!” retorted the monarch, “as I conclude
+from perceiving thou hast after all preferred the latter. Thy head must indeed
+be worth the taking.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thy taunt is merited, O king! I will importune thee no longer. Thou wilt
+indeed render me a service in depriving me of this wretched head, hideous
+without, and I must fear, empty within, seeing that it hath not prevented me
+from wasting my life in the service of vanity and luxury. Woe to the sage who
+trusts his infirm wisdom and frail integrity within the precincts of a court!
+Yet can I foretell a time when philosophers shall no longer run on the futile
+and selfish errands of kings, and when kings shall be suffered to rule only so
+far as they obey the bidding of philosophers. Peace, Knowledge, Liberty&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The King of Ayodhya possessed, beyond all princes of his age, the art of
+gracefully interrupting an unseasonable discourse. He slightly signed to a
+courtier in attendance, a scimitar flashed for a moment from its scabbard, and
+the head of Sorianus rolled on the pavement; the lips murmuring as though still
+striving to dwell with inarticulate fondness upon the last word of hope for
+mankind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It soon appeared that the principle of life was essential to the resplendence
+of the Purple Head. Within a few minutes it had assumed so ghastly a hue that
+the Rajah himself was intimidated, and directed that it should be consumed with
+the body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The same full-moon that watched the white-robed throng busied with the rites of
+incremation in a grove of palms, beheld also the seven dragons contending for
+the body of Marcobad. But, for many a year, the maids and matrons of Rome were
+not weary of regarding, extolling, and coveting the priceless purple tissue
+that glowed in the fane of Jupiter Capitolinus.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap19"></a>THE FIREFLY</h2>
+
+<p>
+A certain Magician had retired for the sake of study to a cottage in a forest.
+It was summer in a hot country. In the trees near the cottage dwelt a most
+beautiful Firefly. The light she bore with her was dazzling, yet soft and
+palpitating, as the evening star, and she seemed a single flash of fire as she
+shot in and out suddenly from under the screen of foliage, or like a lamp as
+she perched panting upon some leaf, or hung glowing from some bough; or like a
+wandering meteor as she eddied gleaming over the summits of the loftiest trees;
+as she often did, for she was an ambitious Firefly. She learned to know the
+Magician, and would sometimes alight and sit shining in his hair, or trail her
+lustre across his book as she crept over the pages. The Magician admired her
+above all things:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What eyes she would have if she were a woman!” thought he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once he said aloud;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How happy you must be, you rare, beautiful, brilliant creature!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am not happy,” rejoined the Firefly; “what am I, after all, but a flying
+beetle with a candle in my tail? I wish I were a star.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Very well,” said the Magician, and touched her with his wand, when she became
+a beautiful star in the twelfth degree of the sign Pisces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After some nights the Magician asked her if she was content.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am not,” replied she. “When I was a Firefly I could fly whither I would, and
+come and go as I pleased. Now I must rise and set at certain times, and shine
+just so long and no longer. I cannot fly at all, and only creep slowly across
+the sky. In the day I cannot shine, or if I do no one sees me. I am often
+darkened by rain, and mist, and cloud. Even when I shine my brightest I am less
+admired than when I was a Firefly, there are so many others like me. I see,
+indeed, people looking up from the earth by night towards me, but how do I know
+that they are looking at me?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The laws of nature will have it so,” returned the Magician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Don’t talk to me of the laws of Nature,” rejoined the Firefly. “I did not make
+them, and I don’t see why I should be compelled to obey them. Make me something
+else.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What would you be?” demanded the accommodating Magician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As I creep along here,” replied the Star, “I see such a soft pure track of
+light. It proceeds from the lamp in your study. It flows out of your window
+like a river of molten silver, both cool and warm. Let me be such a lamp.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Be it so,” answered the Magician: and the star became a lovely alabaster lamp,
+set in an alcove in his study. Her chaste radiance was shed over his page as
+long as he continued to read. At a certain hour he extinguished her and retired
+to rest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next morning the Lamp was in a terrible humour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I don’t choose to be blown out,” she said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You would have gone out of your own accord else,” returned the Magician.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” exclaimed the Lamp, “am I not shining by my own light?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Certainly not: you are not now a Firefly or a Star. You must now depend upon
+others. You would be dark for ever if I did not rekindle you by the help of
+this oil.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” cried the Lamp, “not shine of my own accord! Never! Make me an
+everlasting lamp, or I will not be one at all.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Alas, poor friend,” returned the Magician sadly, “there is but one place where
+aught is everlasting. I can make thee a lamp of the sepulchre.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Content,” responded the Lamp. And the Magician made her one of those strange
+occult lamps which men find ever and anon when they unseal the tombs of ancient
+kings and wizards, sustaining without nutriment a perpetual flame. And he bore
+her to a sepulchre where a great king was lying embalmed and perfect in his
+golden raiment, and set her at the head of the corpse. And whether the poor
+fitful Firefly found at last rest in the grave, we may know when we come
+thither ourselves. But the Magician closed the gates of the sepulchre behind
+him, and walked thoughtfully home. And as he approached his cottage, behold
+another Firefly darting and flashing in and out among the trees, as brilliantly
+as ever the first had done. She was a wise Firefly, well satisfied with the
+world and everything in it, more particularly her own tail. And if the Magician
+would have made a pet of her no doubt she would have abode with him. But he
+never looked at her.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap20"></a>PAN’S WAND</h2>
+
+<p>
+Iridion had broken her lily. A misfortune for any rustic nymph, but especially
+for her, since her life depended upon it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From her birth the fate of Iridion had been associated with that of a flower of
+unusual loveliness&mdash;a stately, candid lily, endowed with a charmed life,
+like its possessor. The seasons came and went without leaving a trace upon it;
+innocence and beauty seemed as enduring with it, as evanescent with the
+children of men. In equal though dissimilar loveliness its frolicsome young
+mistress nourished by its side. One thing alone, the oracle had declared, could
+prejudice either, and this was an accident to the flower. From such disaster it
+had long been shielded by the most delicate care; yet in the inscrutable
+counsels of the Gods, the dreaded calamity had at length come to pass. Broken
+through the upper part of the stem, the listless flower drooped its petals
+towards the earth, and seemed to mourn their chastity, already sullied by the
+wan flaccidity of decay. Not one had fallen as yet, and Iridion felt no pain or
+any symptom of approaching dissolution, except, it may be, the unwonted
+seriousness with which, having exhausted all her simple skill on behalf of the
+languishing plant, she sat down to consider its fate in the light of its
+bearing upon her own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meditation upon an utterly vague subject, whether of apprehension or of hope,
+speedily lapses into reverie. To Iridion, Death was as indefinable an object of
+thought as the twin omnipotent controller of human destiny, Love. Love, like
+the immature fruit on the bough, hung unsoliciting and unsolicited as yet, but
+slowly ripening to the maiden’s hand. Death, a vague film in an illimitable
+sky, tempered without obscuring the sunshine of her life. Confronted with it
+suddenly, she found it, in truth, an impalpable cloud, and herself as little
+competent as the gravest philosopher to answer the self-suggested inquiry,
+“What shall I be when I am no longer Iridion?” Superstition might have helped
+her to some definite conceptions, but superstition did not exist in her time.
+Judge, reader, of its remoteness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The maiden’s reverie might have terminated only with her existence, but for the
+salutary law which prohibits a young girl, not in love or at school, from
+sitting still more than ten minutes. As she shifted her seat at the expiration
+of something like this period, she perceived that she had been sitting on a
+goatskin, and with a natural association of ideas&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I will ask Pan,” she exclaimed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pan at that time inhabited a cavern hard by the maiden’s dwelling, which the
+judicious reader will have divined could only have been situated in Arcadia.
+The honest god was on excellent terms with the simple people; his goats browsed
+freely along with theirs, and the most melodious of the rustic minstrels
+attributed their proficiency to his instructions. The maidens were on a more
+reserved footing of intimacy&mdash;at least so they wished it to be understood,
+and so it was understood, of course. Iridion, however, decided that the
+occasion would warrant her incurring the risk even of a kiss, and lost no time
+in setting forth upon her errand, carrying her poor broken flower in its
+earthen vase. It was the time of day when the god might be supposed to be
+arousing himself from his afternoon’s siesta. She did not fear that his door
+would be closed against her, for he had no door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sylvan deity stood, in fact, at the entrance of his cavern, about to
+proceed in quest of his goats. The appearance of Iridion operated a change in
+his intention, and he courteously escorted her to a seat of turf erected for
+the special accommodation of his fair visitors, while he placed for himself one
+of stone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Pan,” she began, “I have broken my lily.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That is a sad pity, child. If it had been a reed, now, you could have made a
+flute of it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I should not have time, Pan,” and she recounted her story. A godlike nature
+cannot confound truth with falsehood, though it may mistake falsehood for
+truth. Pan therefore never doubted Iridion’s strange narrative, and, having
+heard it to the end, observed, “You will find plenty more lilies in Elysium.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Common lilies, Pan; not like mine.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You are wrong. The lilies of Elysium&mdash;asphodels as they call them
+there&mdash;are as immortal as the Elysians themselves. I have seen them in
+Proserpine’s hair at Jupiter’s entertainment; they were as fresh as she was.
+There is no doubt you might gather them by handfuls&mdash;at least if you had
+any hands&mdash;and wear them to your heart’s content, if you had but a heart.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That’s just what perplexes me, Pan. It is not the dying I mind, it’s the
+living. How am I to live without anything alive about me? If you take away my
+hands, and my heart, and my brains, and my eyes, and my ears, and above all my
+tongue, what is left me to live in Elysium?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the maiden spake a petal detached itself from the emaciated lily, and she
+pressed her hand to her brow with a responsive cry of pain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Poor child!” said Pan compassionately, “you will feel no more pain by-and-by.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I suppose not, Pan, since you say so. But if I can feel no pain, how can I
+feel any pleasure?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In an incomprehensible manner,” said Pan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How can I feel, if I have no feeling? and what am I to do without it?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You can think!” replied Pan. “Thinking (not that I am greatly given to it
+myself) is a much finer thing than feeling; no right-minded person doubts that.
+Feeling, as I have heard Minerva say, is a property of matter, and matter,
+except, of course, that appertaining to myself and the other happy gods, is
+vile and perishable&mdash;quite immaterial, in fact. Thought alone is
+transcendent, incorruptible, and undying!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But, Pan, how can any one think thoughts without something to think them with?
+I never thought of anything that I have not seen, or touched, or smelt, or
+tasted, or heard about from some one else. If I think with nothing, and about
+nothing, is that thinking, do you think?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I think,” answered Pan evasively, “that you are a sensationalist, a
+materialist, a sceptic, a revolutionist; and if you had not sought the
+assistance of a god, I should have said not much better than an atheist. I also
+think it is time I thought about some physic for you instead of metaphysics,
+which are bad for my head, and for your soul.” Saying this, Pan, with rough
+tenderness, deposited the almost fainting maiden upon a couch of fern, and,
+having supported her head with a bundle of herbs, leaned his own upon his hand,
+and reflected with all his might. The declining sun was now nearly opposite the
+cavern’s mouth, and his rays, straggling through the creepers that wove their
+intricacies over the entrance, chequered with lustrous patches the forms of the
+dying girl and the meditating god. Ever and anon, a petal would drop from the
+flower; this was always succeeded by a shuddering tremor throughout Iridion’s
+frame and a more forlorn expression on her pallid countenance: while Pan’s
+jovial features assumed an expression of deeper concern as he pressed his
+knotty hand more resolutely against his shaggy forehead, and wrung his dexter
+horn with a more determined grasp, as though he had caught a burrowing idea by
+the tail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aha!” he suddenly exclaimed, “I have it!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What have you, Pan?” faintly lisped the expiring Iridion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instead of replying, Pan grasped a wand that leaned against the wall of his
+grot, and with it touched the maiden and the flower. O strange metamorphosis!
+Where the latter had been pining in its vase, a lovely girl, the image of
+Iridion, lay along the ground with dishevelled hair, clammy brow, and features
+slightly distorted by the last struggles of death. On the ferny couch stood an
+earthen vase, from which rose a magnificent lily, stately, with unfractured
+stem, and with no stain or wrinkle on its numerous petals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aha!” repeated Pan; “I think we are ready for him now.” Then, having lifted
+the inanimate body to the couch, and placed the vase, with its contents, on the
+floor of his cavern, he stepped to the entrance, and shading his eyes with his
+hand, seemed to gaze abroad in quest of some anticipated visitor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The boughs at the foot of the steep path to the cave divided, and a figure
+appeared at the foot of the rock. The stranger’s mien was majestic, but the
+fitness of his proportions diminished his really colossal stature to something
+more nearly the measure of mortality. His form was enveloped in a sweeping
+sad-coloured robe; a light, thin veil resting on his countenance, mitigated,
+without concealing, the not ungentle austerity of his marble features. His gait
+was remarkable; nothing could be more remote from every indication of haste,
+yet such was the actual celerity of his progression, that Pan had scarcely
+beheld him ere he started to find him already at his side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stranger, without disturbing his veil, seemed to comprehend the whole
+interior of the grotto with a glance; then, with the slightest gesture of
+recognition to Pan, he glided to the couch on which lay the metamorphosed lily,
+upraised the fictitious Iridion in his arms with indescribable gentleness, and
+disappeared with her as swiftly and silently as he had come. The discreet Pan
+struggled with suppressed merriment until the stranger was fairly out of
+hearing, then threw himself back upon his seat and laughed till the cave rang.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And now,” he said, “to finish the business.” He lifted the transformed maiden
+into the vase, and caressed her beauty with an exulting but careful hand. There
+was a glory and a splendour in the flower such as had never until then been
+beheld in any earthly lily. The stem vibrated, the leaves shook in unison, the
+petals panted and suspired, and seemed blanched with a whiteness intense as the
+core of sunlight, as they throbbed in anticipation of the richer existence
+awaiting them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Impatient to complete his task, Pan was about to grasp his wand when the motion
+was arrested as the sinking beam of the sun was intercepted by a gigantic
+shadow, and the stranger again stood by his side. The unbidden guest uttered no
+word, but his manner was sufficiently expressive of wrath as he disdainfully
+cast on the ground a broken, withered lily, the relic of what had bloomed with
+such loveliness in the morning, and had since for a brief space been arrayed in
+the vesture of humanity. He pointed imperiously to the gorgeous tenant of the
+vase, and seemed to expect Pan to deliver it forthwith.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Look here,” said Pan, with more decision than dignity, “I am a poor country
+god, but I know the law. If you can find on this plant one speck, one stain,
+one token that you have anything to do with her, take her, and welcome. If you
+cannot, take yourself off instead.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Be it so,” returned the stranger, haughtily declining the proffered
+inspection. “You will find it is ill joking with Death.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So saying, he quitted the cavern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pan sat down chuckling, yet not wholly at ease, for if the charity of Death is
+beautiful even to a mortal, his anger is terrible, even to a god. Anxious to
+terminate the adventure, he reached towards the charmed wand by whose wonderful
+instrumentality the dying maiden had already become a living flower, and was
+now to undergo a yet more delightful metamorphosis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wondrous wand! But where was it? For Death, the great transfigurer of all below
+this lunar sphere, had given Pan a characteristic proof of his superior
+cunning. Where the wand had reposed writhed a ghastly worm, which, as Pan’s
+glance fell upon it, glided towards him, uplifting its head with an aspect of
+defiance. Pan’s immortal nature sickened at the emblem of corruption; he could
+not for all Olympus have touched his metamorphosed treasure. As he shrank back
+the creature pursued its way towards the vase; but a marvellous change befell
+it as it came under the shadow of the flower. The writhing body divided, end
+from end, the sordid scales sank indiscernibly into the dust, and an exquisite
+butterfly, arising from the ground, alighted on the lily, and remained for a
+moment fanning its wings in the last sunbeam, ere it unclosed them to the
+evening breeze. Pan, looking eagerly after the Psyche in its flight, did not
+perceive what was taking place in the cavern; but the magic wand, now for ever
+lost to its possessor, must have cancelled its own spell, for when his gaze
+reverted from the ineffectual pursuit, the living lily had disappeared, and
+Iridion lay a corpse upon the ground, the faded flower of her destiny reposing
+upon her breast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Death now stood for a third time upon Pan’s threshold, but Pan heeded him not.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap21"></a>A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF FOLLY</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+“That owned the virtuous ring and glass.”<br/>
+&mdash;<i>Il Penseroso</i>.
+</p>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+“Aurelia!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Otto!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Must we then part?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were folded in each other’s arms. There never was such kissing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How shall we henceforth exchange the sweet tokens of our undying affection, my
+Otto?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Alas, my Aurelia, I know not! Thy Otto blushes to acquaint thee that he cannot
+write.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Blush not, my Otto, thou needest not reproach thyself. Even couldest thou
+write, thy Aurelia could not read. Oh these dark ages!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They remained some minutes gazing on each other with an expression of fond
+perplexity. Suddenly the damsel’s features assumed the aspect of one who
+experiences the visitation of a happy thought. Gently yet decidedly she
+pronounced:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We will exchange rings.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They drew off their rings simultaneously. “This, Aurelia, was my
+grandfather’s.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This, Otto, was my grandmother’s, which she charged me with her dying breath
+never to part with save to him whom alone I loved.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Mine is a brilliant, more radiant than aught save the eyes of my Aurelia.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, in fact, Aurelia’s eyes hardly sustained the comparison. A finer stone
+could not easily be found.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Mine is a sapphire, azure as the everlasting heavens, and type of a constancy
+enduring as they.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In truth, it was of a tint seldom to be met with in sapphires.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exchange made, the lady seemed less anxious to detain her lover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Beware, Otto!” she cried, as he slid down the cord, which yielded him an
+oscillatory transit from her casement to the moat, where he alighted knee-deep
+in mud. “Beware!&mdash;if my brother should be gazing from his chamber on the
+resplendent moon!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But that ferocious young baron was accustomed to spend his time in a less
+romantic manner; and so it came to pass that Otto encountered him not.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Days, weeks, months had passed by, and Otto, a wanderer in a foreign land, had
+heard no tidings of his Aurelia. Ye who have loved may well conceive how her
+ring was all in all to him. He divided his time pretty equally between gazing
+into its cerulean depths, as though her lovely image were mirrored therein, and
+pressing its chilly surface to his lips, little as it recalled the warmth and
+balminess of hers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The burnished glow of gold, the chaste sheen of silver, the dance and sparkle
+of light in multitudinous gems, arrested his attention as he one evening
+perambulated the streets of a great city. He beheld a jeweller’s shop. The
+grey-headed, spectacled lapidary sat at a bench within, sedulously polishing a
+streaked pebble by the light of a small lamp. A sudden thought struck Otto; he
+entered the shop, and, presenting the ring to the jeweller, inquired in a tone
+of suppressed exultation:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What hold you for the worth of this inestimable ring?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The jeweller, with no expression of surprise or curiosity, received the ring
+from Otto, held it to the light, glanced slightly at the stone, somewhat more
+carefully at the setting, laid the ring for a moment in a pair of light scales,
+and, handing it back to Otto, remarked with a tone and manner of the most
+entire indifference:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The worth of this inestimable ring is one shilling and sixpence.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Caitiff of a huckster!” exclaimed Otto, bringing down his fist on the bench
+with such vigour that the pebbles leaped up and fell rattling down: “Sayest
+thou this of a gem framed by genii in the bowels of the earth?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nay, friend,” returned the jeweller with the same imperturbable air, “that thy
+gem was framed of earth I in nowise question, seeing that it doth principally
+consist of sand. But when thou speakest of genii and the bowels of the earth,
+thou wilt not, I hope, take it amiss if I crave better proof than thy word that
+the devil has taken to glass-making. For glass, and nothing else, credit me,
+thy jewel is.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And the gold?” gasped Otto.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is just as much gold in thy ring as sufficeth to gild handsomely a like
+superficies of brass, which is not saying much.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, applying a sponge dipped in some liquid to a small part of the hoop, the
+jeweller disclosed the dull hue of the baser metal so evidently that Otto could
+hardly doubt longer. He doubted no more when the lapidary laid his ring in the
+scales against another of the same size and make, and pointed to the inequality
+of the balance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou seest,” he continued, “that in our craft a very little gold goes a very
+great way. It is far otherwise in the world, as thou, albeit in no sort eminent
+for sapience, hast doubtless ere this ascertained for thyself. Thou art
+evidently a prodigious fool!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This latter disparaging observation could be safely ventured upon, as Otto had
+rushed from the shop, speechless with rage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Was Aurelia deceiver or deceived? Should he execrate her, or her venerable
+grandmother, or some unknown person? The point was too knotty to be solved in
+the agitated state of his feelings. He decided it provisionally by execrating
+the entire human race, not forgetting himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a mood like Otto’s a trifling circumstance is sufficient to determine the
+quality of action. The ancient city of which he was at the time an inhabitant
+was traversed by a large river spanned by a quaint and many-arched bridge, to
+which his frantic and aimless wanderings had conducted him. Spires and gables
+and lengthy fa&ccedil;ades were reflected in the water, blended with the
+shadows of boats, and interspersed with the mirrored flames of innumerable
+windows on land, or of lanterns suspended from the masts or sterns of the
+vessels. The dancing ripples bickered and flickered, and seemed to say, “Come
+hither to us,” while the dark reaches of still water in the shadow of the piers
+promised that whatever might be entrusted to them should be faithfully
+retained. Swayed by a sudden impulse, Otto drew his ring from his finger. It
+gleamed an instant aloft in air; in another the relaxation of his grasp would
+have consigned it to the stream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Forbear!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Otto turned, and perceived a singular figure by his side. The stranger was tall
+and thin, and attired in a dusky cloak which only partially concealed a
+flame-coloured jerkin. A cock’s feather peaked up in his cap; his eyes were
+piercingly brilliant; his nose was aquiline; the expression of his features
+sinister and sardonic. Had Otto been more observant, or less preoccupied, he
+might have noticed that the stranger’s left shoe was of a peculiar form, and
+that he limped some little with the corresponding foot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Forbear, I say; thou knowest not what thou doest.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And what skills what I do with a piece of common glass?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou errest, friend; thy ring is not common glass. Had thy mistress surmised
+its mystic virtues, she would have thought oftener than twice ere exchanging it
+for thy diamond.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What may these virtues be?” eagerly demanded Otto.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In the first place, it will show thee when thy mistress may chance to think of
+thee, as it will then prick thy finger.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Now I know thee for a lying knave,” exclaimed the youth indignantly. “Learn,
+to thy confusion, that it hath not pricked me once since I parted from
+Aurelia.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Which proves that she has never once thought of thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Villain!” shouted Otto, “say that again, and I will transfix thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou mayest if thou canst,” rejoined the stranger, with an expression of such
+cutting scorn that Otto’s spirit quailed, and he felt a secret but overpowering
+conviction of his interlocutor’s veracity. Rallying, however, in some measure,
+he exclaimed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aurelia is true! I will wager my soul upon it!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Done!” screamed the stranger in a strident voice of triumph, while a burst of
+diabolical laughter seemed to proceed from every cranny of the eaves and piers
+of the old bridge, and to be taken up by goblin echoes from the summits of the
+adjacent towers and steeples.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Otto’s blood ran chill, but he mustered sufficient courage to inquire hoarsely:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What of its further virtues?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When it shall have pricked thee,” returned the mysterious personage, “on
+turning it once completely round thy finger thou wilt see thy mistress wherever
+she may be. If thou turnest it the second time, thou wilt know what her thought
+of thee is; and, if the third time, thou wilt find thyself in her presence. But
+I give thee fair warning that by doing this thou wilt place thyself in a more
+disastrous plight than any thou hast experienced hitherto. And now farewell.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The speaker disappeared. Otto stood alone upon the bridge. He saw nothing
+around him but the stream, with its shadows and lights, as he slowly and
+thoughtfully turned round to walk to his lodgings.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>
+Ye who have loved, et cetera, as aforesaid, will comprehend the anxiety with
+which Otto henceforth consulted his ring. He was continually adjusting it to
+his finger in a manner, as he fancied, to render the anticipated puncture more
+perceptible when it should come at last. He would have worn it on all his
+fingers in succession had the conformation of his robust hand admitted of its
+being placed on any but the slenderest. Thousands of times he could have sworn
+that he felt the admonitory sting; thousands of times he turned the trinket
+round and round with desperate impatience; but Aurelia’s form remained as
+invisible, her thoughts as inscrutable, as before. His great dread was that he
+might be pricked in his sleep, on which account he would sit up watching far
+into the morn. For, as he reasoned, not without plausibility, when could he
+more rationally hope for a place in Aurelia’s thoughts than at that witching
+and suggestive period? She might surely think of him when she had nothing else
+to do! Had she really nothing else to do? And Otto grew sick and livid with
+jealousy. It of course frequently occurred to him to doubt and deride the
+virtues of the ring, and he was several times upon the point of flinging it
+away. But the more he pondered upon the appearance and manner of the stranger,
+the less able he felt to resist the conviction of his truthfulness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last a most unmistakable puncture! the distinct, though slight, pang of a
+miniature wound. A crimson bead of blood rose on Otto’s finger, swelled to its
+due proportion, and became a trickling blot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“She is thinking of me!” cried he rapturously, as if this were an instance of
+the most signal and unforeseen condescension. All the weary expectancy of the
+last six months was forgotten. He would have railed at himself had the bliss of
+the moment allowed him to remember that he had ever railed at her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Otto turned his ring once, and Aurelia became visible in an instant. She was
+standing before the mercer’s booth in the chief street of the little town which
+adjoined her father’s castle. Her gaze was riveted on a silk mantle, trimmed
+with costly furs, which depended from a hook inside the doorway. Her lovely
+features wore an expression of extreme dissatisfaction. She was replacing a
+purse, apparently by no means weighty, in her embroidered girdle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Otto turned the ring the second time, and Aurelia’s silvery accents immediately
+became audible to the following effect:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If that fool Otto were here, he would buy it for me.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She turned away, and walked down the street. Otto uttered a cry like the shriek
+of an uprooted mandrake. His hand was upon the ring to turn it for the third
+time; but the stranger’s warning occurred to him, and for a moment he forbore.
+In that moment the entire vision vanished from before his eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What boots it to describe Otto’s feelings upon this revelation of Aurelia’s
+sentiments? For lovers, description would be needless; to wiser people,
+incomprehensible. Suffice it to say, that as his lady deemed him a fool he
+appeared bent on proving that she did not deem amiss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A long space of time elapsed without any further admonition from the ring.
+Perhaps Aurelia had no further occasion for his purse; perhaps she had found
+another pursebearer. The latter view of the case appeared the more plausible to
+Otto, and it hugely aggravated his torments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last the moment came. It was the hour of midnight. Again Otto felt the sharp
+puncture, again the ruby drop started from his finger, again he turned the
+ring, and again beheld Aurelia. She was in her chamber, but not alone. Her
+companion was a youth of Otto’s age. She was in the act of placing Otto’s
+brilliant upon his finger. Otto turned his own ring, and heard her utter, with
+singular distinctness:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This ring was given me by the greatest fool I ever knew. Little did he imagine
+that it would one day be the means of procuring me liberty, and bliss in the
+arms of my Arnold. My venerable grandmother&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The voice expired upon her lips, for Otto stood before her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Arnold precipitated himself from the window, carrying the ring with him. Otto,
+glaring at his faithless mistress, stood in the middle of the apartment with
+his sword unsheathed. Was he about to use it? None can say; for at this moment
+the young Baron burst into the room, and, without the slightest apology for the
+liberty he was taking, passed his sword through Otto’s body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Otto groaned, and fell upon his face. He was dead. The young Baron ungently
+reversed the position of the corpse, and scanned its features with evident
+surprise and dissatisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is not Arnold, after all!” he muttered. “Who would have thought it?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou seest, brother, how unjust were thy suspicions,” observed Aurelia, with
+an air of injured but not implacable virtue. “As for this abominable
+ravisher&mdash;&mdash;” Her feelings forbade her to proceed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The brother looked mystified. There was something beyond his comprehension in
+the affair; yet he could not but acknowledge that Otto was the person who had
+rushed by him as he lay in wait upon the stairs. He finally determined that it
+was best to say nothing about the matter: a resolution the easier of
+performance as he was not wont to be lavish of his words at any time. He wiped
+his sword on his sister’s curtains, and was about to withdraw, when Aurelia
+again spoke:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ere thou departest, brother, have the goodness to ring the bell, and desire
+the menials to remove this carrion from my apartment.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young Baron sulkily complied, and retreated growling to his chamber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The attendants carried Otto’s body forth. To the honour of her sex be it
+recorded, that before this was done Aurelia vouchsafed one glance to the corpse
+of her old lover. Her eye fell on the brazen ring. “And he has actually worn it
+all this time!” thought she.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Would have outraged my daughter, would he?” said the old Baron, when the
+transaction was reported to him. “Let him be buried in a concatenation
+accordingly.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What the guy dickens be a concatrenation, Geoffrey?” interrogated Giles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Methinks it is Latin for a ditch,” responded Geoffrey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This interpretation commending itself to the general judgment of the retainers,
+Otto was interred in the shelving bank of the old moat, just under Aurelia’s
+window. A rough stone was laid upon the grave. The magic ring, which no one
+thought worth appropriating, remained upon the corpse’s finger. Thou mayest
+probably find it there, reader, if thou searchest long enough.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first visitor to Otto’s humble sepulchre was, after all, Aurelia herself,
+who alighted thereon on the following night after letting herself down from her
+casement to fly with Arnold. Their escape was successfully achieved upon a pair
+of excellent horses, the proceeds of Otto’s diamond, which had become the
+property of a Jew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the third night an aged monk stood by Otto’s grave, and wept plentifully. He
+carried a lantern, a mallet, and a chisel. “He was my pupil,” sobbed the good
+old man. “It were meet to contribute what in me lies to the befitting
+perpetuation of his memory.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Setting down the lantern, he commenced work, and with pious toil engraved on
+the stone in the Latin of the period:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+“HAC MAGNUS STULTUS JACET IN FOSSA SEPULTUS.<br/>
+MULIER CUI CREDIDIT MORTUUM ILLUM REDDIDIT.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here he paused, at the end of his strength and of his Latin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Beshrew my old arms and brains!” he sighed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hem!” coughed a deep voice in his vicinity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The monk looked up. The personage in the dusky cloak and flame-coloured jerkin
+was standing over him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Good monk,” said the fiend, “what dost thou here?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Good fiend,” said the monk, “I am inscribing an epitaph to the memory of a
+departed friend. Thou mightest kindly aid me to complete it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Truly,” rejoined the demon, “it would become me to do so, seeing that I have
+his soul here in my pocket. Thou wilt not expect me to employ the language of
+the Church. Nathless, I see not wherefore the vernacular may not serve as
+well.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And, taking the mallet and chisel, he completed the monk’s inscription with the
+supplementary legend:
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+“SERVED HIM RIGHT.”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap22"></a>THE BELL OF SAINT EUSCHEMON</h2>
+
+<p>
+The town of Epinal, in Lorraine, possessed in the Middle Ages a peal of three
+bells, respectively dedicated to St. Eulogius, St. Eucherius, and St.
+Euschemon, whose tintinnabulation was found to be an effectual safeguard
+against all thunderstorms. Let the heavens be ever so murky, it was merely
+requisite to set the bells ringing, and no lightning flashed and no thunder
+peal broke over the town, nor was the neighbouring country within hearing of
+them ravaged by hail or flood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One day the three saints, Eulogius, Eucherius, and Euschemon, were sitting
+together, exceedingly well content with themselves and everything around them,
+as indeed they had every right to be, supposing that they were in Paradise. We
+say supposing, not being for our own part entirely able to reconcile this
+locality with the presence of certain cans and flagons, which had been fuller
+than they were.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What a happy reflection for a Saint,” said Eulogius, who was rapidly passing
+from the mellow stage of good fellowship to the maudlin, “that even after his
+celestial assumption he is permitted to continue a source of blessing and
+benefit to his fellow-creatures as yet dwelling in the shade of mortality! The
+thought of the services of my bell, in averting lightning and inundation from
+the good people of Epinal, fills me with indescribable beatitude.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“<i>Your</i> bell!” interposed Eucherius, whose path had lain through the
+mellow to the quarrelsome. “<i>Your</i> bell, quotha! You had as good clink
+this cannakin” (suiting the action to the word) “as your bell. It’s my bell
+that does the business.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I think you might put in a word for <i>my</i> bell,” interposed Euschemon, a
+little squinting saint, very merry and friendly when not put out, as on the
+present occasion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Your bell!” retorted the big saints, with incredible disdain; and, forgetting
+their own altercation, they fell so fiercely on their little brother that he
+ran away, stopping his ears with his hands, and vowing vengeance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A short time after this fracas, a personage of venerable appearance presented
+himself at Epinal, and applied for the post of sacristan and bell-ringer, at
+that time vacant. Though he squinted, his appearance was far from disagreeable,
+and he obtained the appointment without difficulty. His deportment in it was in
+all respects edifying; or if he evinced some little remissness in the service
+of Saints Eulogius and Eucherius, this was more than compensated by his
+devotion to the hitherto somewhat slighted Saint Euschemon. It was indeed
+observed that candles, garlands, and other offerings made at the shrines of the
+two senior saints were found to be transferred in an unaccountable and mystical
+manner to the junior, which induced experienced persons to remark that a
+miracle was certainly brewing. Nothing, however, occurred until, one hot summer
+afternoon, the indications of a storm became so threatening that the sacristan
+was directed to ring the bells. Scarcely had he begun than the sky became
+clear, but instead of the usual rich volume of sound the townsmen heard with
+astonishment a solitary tinkle, sounding quite ridiculous and unsatisfactory in
+comparison. St. Euschemon’s bell was ringing by itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a trice priests and laymen swarmed to the belfry, and indignantly demanded
+of the sacristan what he meant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To enlighten you,” he responded. “To teach you to give honour where honour is
+due. To unmask those canonised impostors.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he called their attention to the fact that the clappers of the bells of
+Eulogius and Eucherius were so fastened up that they could not emit a sound,
+while that of Euschemon vibrated freely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ye see,” he continued, “that these sound not at all, yet is the tempest
+stayed. Is it not thence manifest that the virtue resides solely in the bell of
+the blessed Euschemon?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The argument seemed conclusive to the majority, but those of the clergy who
+ministered at the altars of Eulogius and Eucherius stoutly resisted,
+maintaining that no just decision could be arrived at until Euschemon’s bell
+was subjected to the same treatment as the others. Their view eventually
+prevailed, to the great dismay of Euschemon, who, although firmly convinced of
+the virtue of his own bell, did not in his heart disbelieve in the bells of his
+brethren. Imagine his relief and amazed joy when, upon his bell being silenced,
+the storm, for the first time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, broke
+with full fury over Epinal, and, for all the frantic pealing of the other two
+bells, raged with unspeakable fierceness until his own was brought into
+requisition, when, as if by enchantment, the rain ceased, the thunder-clouds
+dispersed, and the sun broke out gloriously from the blue sky.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Carry him in procession!” shouted the crowd.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Amen, brethren; here I am,” rejoined Euschemon, stepping briskly into the
+midst of the troop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And why in the name of Zernebock should we carry <i>you?</i>” demanded some,
+while others ran off to lug forth the image, the object of their devotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why, verily,” Euschemon began, and stopped short. How indeed was he to prove
+to them that he <i>was</i> Euschemon? His personal resemblance to his effigy,
+the work of a sculptor of the idealistic school, was in no respect remarkable;
+and he felt, alas! that he could no more work a miracle than you or I. In the
+sight of the multitude he was only an elderly sexton with a cast in his eye,
+with nothing but his office to keep him out of the workhouse. A further and
+more awkward question arose, how on earth was he to get back to Paradise? The
+ordinary method was not available, for he had already been dead for several
+centuries; and no other presented itself to his imagination.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Muttering apologies, and glad to be overlooked, Euschemon shrank into a corner,
+but slightly comforted by the honours his image was receiving at the hands of
+the good people of Epinal. As time wore on he became pensive and restless, and
+nothing pleased him so well as to ascend to the belfry on moonlight nights,
+scribbling disparagement on the bells of Eulogius and Eucherius, which had
+ceased to be rung, and patting and caressing his own, which now did duty for
+all three. With alarm he noticed one night an incipient crack, which threatened
+to become a serious flaw.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If this goes on,” said a voice behind him, “I shall get a holiday.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Euschemon turned round, and with indescribable dismay perceived a gigantic
+demon, negligently resting his hand on the top of the bell, and looking as if
+it would cost him nothing to pitch it and Euschemon together to the other side
+of the town.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Avaunt, fiend,” he stammered, with as much dignity as he could muster, “or at
+least remove thy unhallowed paw from my bell.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Come, Eusky,” replied the fiend, with profane familiarity, “don’t be a fool.
+You are not really such an ass as to imagine that your virtue has anything to
+do with the virtue of this bell?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Whose virtue then?” demanded Euschemon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Why truly,” said the demon, “mine! When this bell was cast I was imprisoned in
+it by a potent enchanter, and so long as I am in it no storm can come within
+sound of its ringing. I am not allowed to quit it except by night, and then no
+further than an arm’s length: this, however, I take the liberty of measuring by
+my own arm, which happens to be a long one. This must continue, as I learn,
+until I receive a kiss from some bishop of distinguished sanctity. Thou hast
+done some bishoping in thy time, peradventure?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Euschemon energetically protested that he had been on earth but a simple laic,
+which was indeed the fact, and was also the reason why Eulogius and Eucherius
+despised him, but which, though he did not think it needful to tell the demon,
+he found a singular relief under present circumstances.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” continued the fiend, “I wish he may turn up shortly, for I am half deaf
+already with the banging and booming of this infernal clapper, which seems to
+have grown much worse of late; and the blessings and the crossings and the
+aspersions which I have to go through are most repugnant to my tastes, and
+unsuitable to my position in society. Bye-bye, Eusky; come up to-morrow night.”
+And the fiend slipped back into the bell, and instantly became invisible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The humiliation of poor Euschemon on learning that he was indebted for his
+credit to the devil is easier to imagine than to describe. He did not, however,
+fail at the rendezvous next night, and found the demon sitting outside the bell
+in a most affable frame of mind. It did not take long for the devil and the
+saint to become very good friends, both wanting company, and the former being
+apparently as much amused by the latter’s simplicity as the latter was charmed
+by the former’s knowingness. Euschemon learned numbers of things of which he
+had not had the faintest notion. The demon taught him how to play cards (just
+invented by the Saracens), and initiated him into divers “arts, though
+unimagined, yet to be,” such as smoking tobacco, making a book on the Derby,
+and inditing queer stories for Society journals. He drew the most profane but
+irresistibly funny caricatures of Eulogius and Eucherius, and the rest of the
+host of heaven. He had been one of the demons who tempted St. Anthony, and
+retailed anecdotes of that eremite which Euschemon had never heard mentioned in
+Paradise. He was versed in all scandal respecting saints in general, and
+Euschemon found with astonishment how much about his own order was known
+downstairs. On the whole he had never enjoyed himself so much in his life; he
+became proficient in all manner of minor devilries, and was ceasing to trouble
+himself about his bell or his ecclesiastical duties, when an untoward incident
+interrupted his felicity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It chanced that the Bishop of Metz, in whose diocese Epinal was situated,
+finding himself during a visitation journey within a short distance of the
+town, determined to put, up there for the night. He did not arrive until
+nightfall, but word of his intention having been sent forward by a messenger
+the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, were ready to receive him. When,
+escorted in state, he had arrived at the house prepared for his reception, the
+Mayor ventured to express a hope that everything had been satisfactory to his
+Lordship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Everything,” said the bishop emphatically. “I did indeed seem to remark one
+little omission, which no doubt may be easily accounted for.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What was that, my Lord?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It hath,” said the bishop, “usually been the practice to receive a bishop with
+the ringing of bells. It is a laudable custom, conducive to the purification of
+the air and the discomfiture of the prince of the powers thereof. I caught no
+sound of chimes on the present occasion, yet I am sensible that my hearing is
+not what it was.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The civil and ecclesiastical authorities looked at each other. “That graceless
+knave of a sacristan!” said the Mayor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He hath indeed of late strangely neglected his charge,” said a priest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Poor man, I doubt his wits are touched,” charitably added another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What!” exclaimed the bishop, who was very active, very fussy, and a great
+stickler for discipline. “This important church, so renowned for its three
+miraculous bells, confided to the tender mercies of an imbecile rogue who may
+burn it down any night! I will look to it myself without losing a minute.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And in spite of all remonstrances, off he started. The keys were brought, the
+doors flung open, the body of the church thoroughly examined, but neither in
+nave, choir, or chancel could the slightest trace of the sacristan be found.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Perhaps he is in the belfry,” suggested a chorister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We’ll see,” responded the bishop, and bustling nimbly up the ladder, he
+emerged into the open belfry in full moonlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Heavens! what a sight met his eye! The sacristan and the devil sitting
+<i>vis-a-vis</i> close by the miraculous bell, with a smoking can of hot spiced
+wine between them, finishing a close game of cribbage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Seven,” declared Euschemon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And eight are fifteen,” retorted the demon, marking two.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Twenty-three and pair,” cried Euschemon, marking in his turn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And seven is thirty.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Ace, thirty-one, and I’m up.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It <i>is</i> up with you, my friend,” shouted the bishop, bringing his crook
+down smartly on Euschemon’s shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Deuce!” said the devil, and vanished into his bell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When poor Euschemon had been bound and gagged, which did not take very long,
+the bishop briefly addressed the assembly. He said that the accounts of the
+bell which had reached his ears had already excited his apprehensions. He had
+greatly feared that all could not be right, and now his anxieties were but too
+well justified. He trusted there was not a man before him who would not suffer
+his flocks and his crops to be destroyed by tempest fifty times over rather
+than purchase their safety by unhallowed means. What had been done had
+doubtless been done in ignorance, and could be made good by a mulct to the
+episcopal treasury. The amount of this he would carefully consider, and the
+people of Epinal might rest assured that it should not be too light to entitle
+them to the benefit of a full absolution. The bell must go to his cathedral
+city, there to be examined and reported on by the exorcists and inquisitors.
+Meanwhile he would himself institute a slight preliminary scrutiny.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bell was accordingly unhung, tilted up, and inspected by the combined beams
+of the moonlight and torchlight. Very slight examination served to place the
+soundness of the bishop’s opinion beyond dispute. On the lip of the bell were
+engraven characters unknown to every one else, but which seemed to affect the
+prelate with singular consternation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I hope,” he exclaimed, “that none of you know anything about these characters!
+I earnestly trust that none can read a single one of them. If I thought anybody
+could I would burn him as soon as look at him!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bystanders hastened to assure him that not one of them had the slightest
+conception of the meaning of the letters, which had never been observed before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I rejoice to hear it,” said the bishop. “It will be an evil day for the church
+when these letters are understood.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And next morning he departed, carrying off the bell, with the invisible fiend
+inside it; the cards, which were regarded as a book of magic; and the luckless
+Euschemon, who shortly found himself in total darkness, the inmate of a dismal
+dungeon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was some time before Euschemon became sensible of the presence of any
+partner in his captivity, by reason of the trotting of the rats. At length,
+however, a deep sigh struck upon his ear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who art thou?” he exclaimed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An unfortunate prisoner,” was the answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What is the occasion of thy imprisonment?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Oh, a mere trifle. A ridiculous suspicion of sacrificing a child to Beelzebub.
+One of the little disagreeables that must occasionally occur in our
+profession.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“<i>Our</i> profession!” exclaimed Euschemon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Art thou not a sorcerer?” demanded the voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No,” replied Euschemon, “I am a saint.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The warlock received Euschemon’s statement with much incredulity, but becoming
+eventually convinced of its truth&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I congratulate thee,” he said. “The devil has manifestly taken a fancy to
+thee, and he never forgets his own. It is true that the bishop is a great
+favourite with him also. But we will hope for the best. Thou hast never
+practised riding a broomstick? No? ’Tis pity; thou mayest have to mount one at
+a moment’s notice.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This consolation had scarcely been administered ere the bolts flew back, the
+hinges grated, the door opened, and gaolers bearing torches informed the
+sorcerer that the bishop desired his presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He found the bishop in his study, which was nearly choked up by Euschemon’s
+bell. The prelate received him with the greatest affability, and expressed a
+sincere hope that the very particular arrangements he had enjoined for the
+comfort of his distinguished prisoner had been faithfully carried out by his
+subordinates. The sorcerer, as much a man of the world as the bishop, thanked
+his Lordship, and protested that he had been perfectly comfortable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have need of thy art,” said the bishop, coming to business. “I am
+exceedingly bothered&mdash;flabbergasted were not too strong an
+expression&mdash;by this confounded bell. All my best exorcists have been
+trying all they know with it, to no purpose. They might as well have tried to
+exorcise my mitre from my head by any other charm than the offer of a better
+one. Magic is plainly the only remedy, and if thou canst disenchant it, I will
+give thee thy freedom.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It will be a tough business,” observed the sorcerer, surveying the bell with
+the eye of a connoisseur. “It will require fumigations.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes,” said the bishop, “and suffumigations.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aloes and mastic,” advised the sorcerer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aye,” assented the bishop, “and red sanders.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We must call in Primeumaton,” said the warlock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Clearly,” said the bishop, “and Amioram.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Triangles,” said the sorcerer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Pentacles,” said the bishop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In the hour of Methon,” said the sorcerer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I should have thought Tafrac,” suggested the bishop, “but I defer to your
+better judgment.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I can have the blood of a goat?” queried the wizard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes,” said the bishop, “and of a monkey also.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Does your Lordship think that one might venture to go so far as a little
+unweaned child?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If absolutely necessary,” said the bishop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am delighted to find such liberality of sentiment on your Lordship’s part,”
+said the sorcerer. “Your Lordship is evidently of the profession.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“These are things which stuck by me when I was an inquisitor,” explained the
+bishop, with some little embarrassment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ere long all arrangements were made. It would be impossible to enumerate half
+the crosses, circles, pentagrams, naked swords, cross-bones, chafing-dishes,
+and vials of incense which the sorcerer found to be necessary. The child was
+fortunately deemed superfluous. Euschemon was brought up from his dungeon, and,
+his teeth chattering with fright and cold, set beside his bell to hold a candle
+to the devil. The incantations commenced, and speedily gave evidence of their
+efficacy. The bell trembled, swayed, split open, and a female figure of
+transcendent loveliness attired in the costume of Eve stepped forth and
+extended her lips towards the bishop. What could the bishop do but salute them?
+With a roar of triumph the demon resumed his proper shape. The bishop swooned.
+The apartment was filled with the fumes of sulphur. The devil soared
+majestically out of the window, carrying the sorcerer under one arm and
+Euschemon under the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is commonly believed that the devil good-naturedly dropped Euschemon back
+again into Paradise, or wheresoever he might have come from. It is even added
+that he fell between Eulogius and Eucherius, who had been arguing all the time
+respecting the merits of their bells, and resumed his share in the discussion
+as if nothing had happened. Some maintain, indeed, that the devil, chancing to
+be in want of a chaplain, offered the situation to Euschemon, by whom it was
+accepted. But how to reconcile this assertion with the undoubted fact that the
+duties of the post in question are at present ably discharged by the Bishop of
+Metz, in truth we see not. One thing is certain: thou wilt not find Euschemon’s
+name in the calendar, courteous reader.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The mulct to be imposed upon the parish of Epinal was never exacted. The bell,
+ruptured beyond repair by the demon’s violent exit, was taken back and
+deposited in the museum of the town. The bells of Eulogius and Eucherius were
+rung freely on occasion; but Epinal has not since enjoyed any greater immunity
+from storms than the contiguous districts. One day an aged traveller, who had
+spent many years in Heathenesse and in whom some discerned a remarkable
+resemblance to the sorcerer, noticed the bell, and asked permission to examine
+it. He soon discovered the inscription, recognised the mysterious characters as
+Greek, read them without the least difficulty&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“&Mu;&eta; &kappa;&iota;&nu;&epsilon;&iota;
+&Kappa;&alpha;&mu;&alpha;&rho;&iota;&nu;&alpha;&nu;
+&alpha;&kappa;&iota;&nu;&eta;&tau;&omicron;&sigmaf; &gamma;&alpha;&rho;
+&alpha;&mu;&epsilon;&iota;&nu;&omega;&nu;&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+and favoured the townsmen with this free but substantially accurate
+translation:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“CANp’T YOU LET WELL ALONE?”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap23"></a>BISHOP ADDO AND BISHOP GADDO</h2>
+
+<p>
+Midday, midsummer, middle of the dark ages. Fine healthy weather at the city of
+Biserta in Barbary. Wind blowing strong from the sea, roughening the dark blue
+waters, and fretting their indigo with foam, as though the ocean’s coursers
+champed an invisible curb. On land tawny sand whirling, green palm-fans swaying
+and whistling, men abroad in the noonday blaze rejoicing in the unwonted
+freshness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“She is standing in,” they cried, “and, by the Prophet, she seemeth not a ship
+of the true believers.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was not, but she bore a flag of truce. Pitching and rearing, the little
+bark bounded in, and soon was fast in harbour. Ere long messengers of peace had
+landed, bearing presents and a letter from the Bishop of Amalfi to the Emir of
+Biserta. The presents consisted of fifty casks of Lacrima Christi, and of a
+captive, a tall, noble-looking man, in soiled ecclesiastical costume, and
+disfigured by the loss of his left eye, which seemed to have been violently
+plucked out.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+“Health to the Emir!” ran the letter. “I send thee my captive, Gaddo, sometime
+Bishop of Amalfi, now an ejected intruder. For what saith the Scripture? ‘When
+a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but if one
+stronger than he cometh, he divideth the spoils.’ Moreover it is written: ‘His
+bishopric let another take.’ Having solemnly sworn that I would not kill or
+blind or maim my enemy, or imprison him in a monastery, and the price of
+absolution from an oath in this corrupt age exceeding all reason and Christian
+moderation, I knew not how to take vengeance on him, until a sagacious
+counsellor represented that a man cannot be said to be blinded so long as he is
+deprived of only one eye. This I accordingly eradicated, and now, being
+restrained from imprisoning him, and fearing to release him, I send him to
+thee, to retain in captivity on my behalf; in return for which service, receive
+fifty casks of the choicest Lacrima Christi, which shall not fail to be sent
+thee yearly, so long as Gaddo continues in thy custody.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“+ Addo, by Divine permission Bishop of Amalfi.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+“First,” said the Emir, “I would be certified whether this vintage is indeed of
+such excellence as to prevail upon a faithful Mussulman to jeopard Paradise,
+the same being forbidden by his law.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Experiments were instituted forthwith, and the problem was resolved in the
+affirmative.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This being so,” declared the Emir, “honour and good faith towards Bishop Addo
+require that Bishop Gaddo be kept captive with all possible strictness. Yet
+bolts may be burst, fetters may be filed, walls may be scaled, doors may be
+broken through. Better to enchain the captive’s soul, binding him with
+invisible bonds, and searing out of him the very wish to escape. Embrace the
+faith of the Prophet,” continued he, addressing Gaddo; “become a Mollah.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No,” said the deposed Bishop, “my inclination hath ever been towards a
+military life. At present, mutilated and banished as I am, I rather affect the
+crown of martyrdom.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou shalt receive it by instalments,” said the Emir. “Thou shalt work at the
+new pavilion in my garden.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unceasing toil under the blazing sun, combined with the discipline of the
+overseers, speedily wore down Gaddo’s strength, already impaired by captivity
+and ill-treatment. Unable to drag himself away after his fellow-workmen had
+ceased from their labours, he lay one evening, faint and almost senseless,
+among the stones and rubbish of the unfinished edifice. The Emir’s daughter
+passed by. Gaddo was handsome and wretched, the Princess was beautiful and
+compassionate. Conveyed by her fair hands, a cup of Bishop Addo’s wine saved
+Bishop Gaddo’s life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next evening Gaddo again lingered behind, and the Princess spoke to him out
+of her balcony. The third evening they encountered in an arbour. The next
+meeting took place in her chamber, where her father discovered them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I will tear thee to pieces with pincers,” shouted he to Gaddo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Your Highness will not be guilty of that black action,” responded Gaddo
+resolutely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No?” roared the Emir. “No? and what shall hinder me?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Lacrima Christi will hinder your Highness,” returned the far-seeing Gaddo.
+“Deems your Highness that Bishop Addo will send another cupful, once he is
+assured of my death?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou sayest well,” rejoined the Emir. “I may not slay thee. But my daughter is
+manifestly most inflammable, wherefore I will burn her.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Were it not better to circumcise me?” suggested Gaddo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many difficulties were raised, but Ayesha’s mother siding with Gaddo, and
+promising a more amicable deportment for the future towards the other lights of
+the harem, the matter was arranged, and Gaddo recited the Mahometan profession
+of faith, and became the Emir’s son-in-law. The execrable social system under
+which he had hitherto lived thus vanished like a nightmare from an awakened
+sleeper. Wedded to one who had saved his life by her compassion, and whose life
+he had in turn saved by his change of creed, adoring her and adored by her,
+with the hope of children, and active contact with multitudes of other
+interests from which he had hitherto been estranged, he forgot the ecclesiastic
+in the man; his intellect expanded, his ideas multiplied, he cleared his mind
+of cant, and became an eminent philosopher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Dear son,” said the Emir to him one day, “the Lacrima is spent, we thirst, and
+the tribute of that Christian dog, the Bishop of Amalfi, tarries to arrive. We
+will presently fit out certain vessels, and thou shalt hold a visitation of
+thine ancient diocese.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Methinks I see a ship even now,” said Gaddo; and he was right. She anchored,
+the ambassadors landed and addressed the Emir:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Prince, we bring thee the stipulated tribute, yet not without a trifling
+deduction.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Deduction!” exclaimed the Emir, bending his brows ominously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Highness,” they represented, “by reason of the deficiency of last year’s
+vintage it hath not been possible to provide more than forty-nine casks, which
+we crave to offer thee accordingly.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then,” pronounced the Emir sententiously, “the compact is broken, the ship is
+confiscated, and war is declared.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not so, Highness,” said they, “for the fiftieth cask is worth all the rest.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let it be opened,” commanded the Emir.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was accordingly hoisted out, deposited on the quay, and prized open; and
+from its capacious interior, in a deplorable plight from hunger, cramp, and
+sea-sickness, was extracted&mdash;Bishop Addo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We have,” explained the deputation, “wearied of our shepherd, who, shearing
+his flock somewhat too closely, hath brought the wolf to light. We therefore
+desire thee to receive him at our hands in exchange for our good Bishop Gaddo,
+promising one hundred casks of Lacrima Christi as yearly tribute for the
+future.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He stands before you,” answered the Emir; “take him, an ye can prevail upon
+him to return with you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eyes of the envoys wandered hopelessly from one whiskered, turbaned,
+caftaned, and yataghaned figure to another. They could not discover that any of
+the Paynim present looked more or less like a bishop than his fellows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Brethren,” said Gaddo, taking compassion on their bewilderment, “behold me! I
+thank you for your kindly thought of me, but how to profit by it I see not. I
+have become a Saracen. I have pronounced the Mahometan confession. I am
+circumcised. I am known by the name of Mustapha.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We acknowledge the weight of your Lordship’s objections,” they said, “and do
+but venture to hint remotely that the times are hard, and that the Holy Father
+is grievously in want of money.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have also taken a wife,” said Gaddo.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A wife!” exclaimed they with one consent. “If it had been a concubine! Let us
+return instantly.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They gathered up their garments and spat upon the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A bishop, then,” inquired Gaddo, “may be guilty of any enormity sooner than
+wedlock, which money itself cannot expiate?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Such,” they answered, “is the law and the prophets.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Unless,” added one of benignant aspect, “he sew the abomination up in a sack
+and cast her into the sea, then peradventure he may yet find place for
+repentance.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Miserable blasphemers!” exclaimed Gaddo. “But why,” continued he, checking
+himself, “do I talk of what none will understand for five hundred years, which
+to understand myself I was obliged to become a Saracen? Addo,” he pursued,
+addressing his dejected competitor, “bad as thou art, thou art good enough for
+the world as it is. I spare thy life, restore thy dignity, and, to prove that
+the precepts of Christ may be practised under the garb of Mahomet, will not
+even exact eye for eye. Yet, as a wholesome admonition to thee that treachery
+and cruelty escape not punishment even in this life, I will that thou do
+presently surrender to me thy left ear. Restore my eye and I will return it
+immediately. And ye,” addressing the envoys, “will for the future pay one
+hundred casks tribute, unless ye would see my father-in-law’s galleys on your
+coasts.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Addo returned to his bishopric, leaving his ear in Gaddo’s keeping. The
+Lacrima was punctually remitted, and as punctually absorbed by the Emir and his
+son-in-law, with some little help from Ayesha. Gaddo’s eye never came back, and
+Addo never regained his ear until, after the ex-prelate’s death in years and
+honour, he ransomed it from his representatives. It became a relic, and is
+shown in Addo’s cathedral to this day in proof of his inveterate enmity to the
+misbelievers, and of the sufferings he underwent at their hands. But Gaddo
+trumped him, the entry after his name in the episcopal register, “Fled to the
+Saracens,” having been altered into “Flayed by the Saracens” by a later bishop,
+jealous of the honour of the diocese.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap24"></a>THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE BUTTERFLIES</h2>
+
+<p>
+The scene was in a garden on a fine summer morning, brilliant with slants of
+sunshine, yet chequered with clouds significant of more than a remote
+possibility of rain. All the animal world was astir. Birds flitted or hopped
+from spray to spray; butterflies eddied around flowers within or upon which
+bees were bustling; ants and earwigs ran nimbly about on the mould; a member of
+the Universal Knowledge Society perambulated the gravel path.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Universal Knowledge Society, be it understood, exists for the dissemination
+and not for the acquisition of knowledge. Our philosopher, therefore, did not
+occupy himself with considering whether in that miniature world, with its
+countless varieties of animal and vegetable being, something might not be found
+with which he was himself unacquainted; but, like the honey-freighted bee,
+rather sought an opportunity of disburdening himself of his stores of
+information than of adding to them. But who was to profit by his
+communicativeness? The noisy birds could not hear themselves speak, much less
+him; he shrewdly distrusted his ability to command the attention of the busy
+bees; and even a member of the Universal Knowledge Society may well be at a
+loss for a suitable address to an earwig. At length he determined to accost a
+Butterfly who, after sipping the juice of a flower, remained perched indolently
+upon it, apparently undecided whither to direct his flight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It seems likely to rain,” he said, “have you an umbrella?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Butterfly looked curiously at him, but returned no answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I do not ask,” resumed the Philosopher, “as one who should imply that the
+probability of even a complete saturation ought to appal a ratiocinative being,
+endowed with wisdom and virtue. I rather designed to direct your attention to
+the inquiry whether these attributes are, in fact, rightly predicable of
+Butterflies.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still no answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An impression obtains among our own species,” continued the Philosopher, “that
+you Butterflies are deficient in foresight and providence to a remarkable, I
+might almost say a culpable degree. Pardon me if I add that this suspicion is
+to some extent confirmed by my finding you destitute of protection against
+imbriferous inclemency under atmospheric conditions whose contingent humidity
+should be obvious to a being endowed with the most ordinary allotment of
+meteorological prevision.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Butterfly still left all the talk to the Philosopher. This was just what
+the latter desired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I greatly fear,” he continued, “that the omission to which I have reluctantly
+adverted is to a certain extent typically characteristic of the entire
+political and social economy of the lepidopterous order. It has even been
+stated, though the circumstance appears scarcely credible, that your system of
+life does not include the accumulation of adequate resources against the
+inevitable exigencies of winter.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What is winter?” asked the Butterfly, and flew off without awaiting an answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Philosopher remained for a moment speechless, whether from amazement at the
+Butterfly’s nescience or disgust at his ill-breeding. Recovering himself
+immediately, he shouted after the fugitive:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Frivolous animal!” “It is this levity,” continued he, addressing a group of
+butterflies who had gradually assembled in the air, attracted by the
+conversation, “it is this fatal levity that constrains me to despair wholly of
+the future of you insects. That you should persistently remain at your present
+depressed level! That you should not immediately enter upon a process of
+self-development! Look at the Bee! How did she acquire her sting, think you?
+Why cannot you store up honey, as she does?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We cannot build cells,” suggested a Butterfly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And how did the Bee learn, do you suppose, unless by imbuing her mind with the
+elementary principles of mathematics? Know that time has been when the Bee was
+as incapable of architectural construction as yourselves, when you and she
+alike were indiscriminable particles of primary protoplasm. (I suppose you know
+what that is.) One has in process of time exalted itself to the cognition of
+mathematical truth, while the other&mdash;Pshaw! Now, really, my friends, I
+must beg you to take my observations in good part. I do not imply, of course,
+that any endeavours of yours in the direction I have indicated could benefit
+any of you personally, or any of your posterity for numberless generations. But
+I really do consider that after a while its effects would be very
+observable&mdash;that in twenty millions of years or so, provided no geological
+cataclysm supervened, you Butterflies, with your innate genius for mimicry,
+might be conformed in all respects to the hymenopterous model, or perhaps carry
+out the principle of development into novel and unheard-of directions. You
+should derive much encouragement from the beginning you have made already.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How a beginning?” inquired a Butterfly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am alluding to your larval constitution as Caterpillars,” returned the
+Philosopher. “Your advance upon that humiliating condition is, I admit,
+remarkable. I only wonder that it should not have proceeded much further. With
+such capacity for development, it is incomprehensible that you should so long
+have remained stationary. You ought to be all toads by this time, at the very
+least.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I beg your pardon,” civilly interposed the Butterfly. “To what condition were
+you pleased to allude?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To that of a Caterpillar,” rejoined the Philosopher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Caterpillar!” echoed the Butterfly, and “Caterpillar!” tittered all his
+volatile companions, till the air seemed broken into little silvery waves of
+fairy laughter. “Caterpillar! he positively thinks we were once Caterpillars!
+He! he! he!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Do you actually mean to say you don’t know that?” responded the Philosopher,
+scandalised at the irreverence of the insects, but inwardly rejoicing at the
+prospect of a controversy in which he could not be worsted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We know nothing of the sort,” rejoined a Butterfly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Can you possibly be plunged into such utter oblivion of your embryonic
+antecedents?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We do not understand you. All we know is that we have always been
+Butterflies.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Sir,” said a large, dull-looking Butterfly with one wing in tatters, crawling
+from under a cabbage, and limping by reason of the deficiency of several legs,
+“let me entreat you not to deduce our scientific status from the inconsiderate
+assertions of the unthinking vulgar. I am proud to assure you that our race
+comprises many philosophical reasoners&mdash;mostly indeed such as have been
+disabled by accidental injuries from joining in the amusements of the rest. The
+Origin of our Species has always occupied a distinguished place in their
+investigations. It has on several occasions engaged the attention of our
+profoundest thinkers for not less than two consecutive minutes. There is hardly
+a quadruped on the land, a bird in the air, or a fish in the water to which it
+has not been ascribed by some one at some time; but never, I am rejoiced to
+say, has any Butterfly ever dreamed of attributing it to the obnoxious thing to
+which you have unaccountably made reference.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We should rather think not,” chorussed all the Butterflies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Look here,” said the Philosopher, picking up and exhibiting a large hairy
+Caterpillar of very unprepossessing appearance. “Look here, what do you call
+this?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An abnormal organisation,” said the scientific Butterfly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A nasty beast,” said the others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Heavens,” exclaimed the Philosopher, “the obtuseness and arrogance of these
+creatures! No, my poor friend,” continued he, addressing the Caterpillar,
+“disdain you as they may, and unpromising as your aspect certainly is at
+present, the time is at hand when you will prank it with the gayest of them
+all.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I cry your mercy,” rejoined the Caterpillar somewhat crossly, “but I was
+digesting a gooseberry leaf when you lifted me in that abrupt manner, and I did
+not quite follow your remarks. Did I understand you to mention my name in
+connection with those flutterers?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I said the time would arrive when you would be even as they.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I,” exclaimed the Caterpillar, “I retrograde to the level of a Butterfly! Is
+not the ideal of creation impersonated in me already?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I was not aware of that,” replied the Philosopher, “although,” he added in a
+conciliatory tone, “far be it from me to deny you the possession of many
+interesting qualities.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You probably refer to my agility,” suggested the Caterpillar; “or perhaps to
+my abstemiousness?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I was not referring to either,” returned the Philosopher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To my utility to mankind?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not by any manner of means.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To what then?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well, if you must know, the best thing about you appears to me to be the
+prospect you enjoy of ultimately becoming a Butterfly.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Caterpillar erected himself upon his tail, and looked sternly at the
+Philosopher. The Philosopher’s countenance fell. A thrush, darting from an
+adjacent tree, seized the opportunity and the insect, and bore the latter away
+in his bill. At the same moment the shower prognosticated by the Sage burst
+forth, scattering the Butterflies in all directions, drenching the Philosopher,
+whose foresight had not assumed the shape of an umbrella, and spoiling his new
+hat. But he had ample consolation in the superiority of his head. And the
+Caterpillar was right too, for after all he never did become a Butterfly.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap25"></a>TRUTH AND HER COMPANIONS</h2>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> Daughter Truth, is this a befitting manner of presenting
+yourself before your divine father? You are positively dripping; the floor of
+my celestial mansion would be a swamp but for your praiseworthy economy in
+wearing apparel. Whence, in the name of the Naiads, do you come?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth.</i> From the bottom of a well, father.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> I thought, my daughter, that you had descended upon earth in
+the capacity of a benefactress of men rather than of frogs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth.</i> Such, indeed, was my purpose, father, and I accordingly repaired
+to the great city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> The city of the Emperor Apollyon?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth.</i> The same; and I there obtained an audience of the monarch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> What passed?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth.</i> I took the liberty of observing to him, father, that, having
+obtained his throne by perjury, and cemented it by blood, and maintained it by
+hypocrisy, he could entertain no hope of preserving it unless the collective
+baseness of his subjects should be found to exceed his own, which was not
+probable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> What reply did he vouchsafe to these admonitions?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. He threatened to cut out my tongue. Perceiving that this would
+interfere with my utility to mankind, I retired somewhat precipitately from the
+Imperial presence, marvelling that I should ever have been admitted, and
+resolved never to be found there for the future. I then proceeded to the
+Nobles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. What said you to them?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. I represented to them that they were, as a class, both arrogant
+and luxurious, and would, indeed, have long ago become insupportable, only that
+the fabric which their rapacity was for ever striving to erect, their
+extravagance as perpetually undermined. I further commented upon the insecurity
+of any institution dependent solely upon prescription. Finding these
+suggestions unpalatable, I next addressed myself to the priesthood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. Those holy men, my daughter, must have rejoiced at the
+opportunity of learning from you which portion of their traditions was impure
+or fabricated, and which authentic and sublime.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. The value they placed upon my instructions was such that they
+wished to reserve them exclusively for themselves, and proposed that they
+should be delivered within the precincts of a certain subterranean apartment
+termed a dungeon, the key of which should be kept by one of their order.
+Whereupon I betook myself to the philosophers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. Your reception from these professed lovers of wisdom, my
+daughter, was, no doubt, all that could be expected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. It was all that could be expected, my father, from learned and
+virtuous men, who had already framed their own systems of the universe without
+consulting me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> You probably next addressed yourself to the middling orders of
+society?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth.</i> I can scarcely say that I did, father; for although I had much to
+remark concerning their want of culture, and their servility, and their greed,
+and the absurdity of many of their customs, and the rottenness of most of their
+beliefs, and the thousand ways in which they spoiled lives that might have been
+beautiful and harmonious, I soon discovered that they were so absolutely swayed
+by the example of the higher orders that it was useless to expostulate with
+them until I should have persuaded the latter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> You returned, then, to the latter with this design?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth.</i> On the contrary, I hastened to the poor and needy, whom I fully
+acquainted with the various wrongs and oppressions which they underwent at the
+hands of the powerful and the rich. And here, for the first time, I found
+myself welcome. All listened with gratitude and assent, and none made any
+endeavour to stone me or imprison me, as those other unprincipled persons had
+done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter.</i> That was indeed satisfactory, daughter. But when you proceeded
+to point out to these plebeians how much of their misery arose from their own
+idleness, and ignorance, and dissoluteness, and abasement before those higher
+in station, and jealousy of the best among themselves&mdash;what said they to
+that?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth.</i> They expressed themselves desirous of killing me, and indeed
+would have done so if my capital enemies, the priests, had not been beforehand
+with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. What did they?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. Burned me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. Burned you?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. Burned me in the market-place. And, but for my peculiar property
+of reviving from my ashes, I should not be here now. Upon reconsolidating
+myself, I felt in such a heat that I was fain to repair to the bottom of the
+nearest well. Finding myself more comfortable there than I had ever yet been on
+earth, I have come to ask permission to remain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. It does not appear to me, daughter, that the mission you have
+undertaken on behalf of mankind can be efficiently discharged at the bottom of
+a well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. No, father, nor in the middle of a fire either.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. I fear that you are too plain and downright in your dealings
+with men, and deter where you ought to allure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. I were not Truth, else, but Flattery. My nature is a
+mirror’s&mdash;to exhibit reality with plainness and faithfulness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. It is no less the nature of man to shatter every mirror that
+does not exhibit to him what he wishes to behold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. Let me, therefore, return to my well, and let him who wishes to
+behold me, if such there be, repair to the brink and look down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. No, daughter, you shall not return to your well. I have already
+perceived that you are not of yourself sufficient for the office I have
+assigned to you, and I am about to provide you with two auxiliaries. You are
+Truth. Tell me how this one appears to you.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. Oh, father, the beautiful nymph! how mature, and yet how comely!
+how good-humoured, yet how gentle and grave! Her robe is closely zoned; her
+upraised finger approaches her lip; her foot falls soft as snow. What is her
+name?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. Discretion. And this other?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Truth</i>. Oh, father! the cordial look, the blooming cheek, the bright
+smile that is almost a laugh, the buoyant step, and the expansive bosom! What
+name bears she?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Jupiter</i>. Good Nature. Return, my daughter, to earth; continue to
+enlighten man’s ignorance and to reprove his folly; but let Discretion suggest
+the occasion, and Good Nature inspire the wording of your admonitions. I cannot
+engage that you may not, even with these precautions, sometimes pay a visit to
+the stake; and if, when an adventure of this sort appears imminent, Discretion
+should counsel a temporary retirement to your well, I am sure Good Nature will
+urge nothing to the contrary.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap26"></a>THE THREE PALACES</h2>
+
+<p>
+Three pairs of young people, each a youth with his bride, came together along a
+road to the point where it divided to the right and left. On one side was
+inscribed, “To the Palace of Truth,” and on the other, “To the Palace of
+Illusion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This way, my beauty!” cried one of the youths, drawing his companion in the
+direction of the Palace of Truth. “To the place where and where alone thy
+perfections may be beheld as they are!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And my imperfections!” whispered the young spouse, but her tone was airy and
+confident.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well,” said the second youth, “does the choice beseem you upon whom the moon
+of your nuptials is beaming still. My beloved and I are riper in Hymen’s lore
+by not less, I ween, than one fortnight. Prudence impels us towards the Palace
+of Illusion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thy will is mine, Alonso,” said his lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I,” said the third youth, “will seek neither; for I would not be wise
+over-much, while of what I deem myself to know I would be well assured. Happy
+am I, and bless my lot, yet have I beheld a red mouse in closer contiguity to
+my beloved than I could bring myself to approve, albeit it leapt not from her
+mouth as they do sometimes. Yet do I know it for a red mouse and nothing worse;
+had I inhabited the Palace of Illusion haply I had deemed it a rat. And, it
+being a red mouse as it indubitably was, to what end fancy it a tawny-throated
+nightingale?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While, therefore, the other pairs proceeded on the paths they had respectively
+chosen, this sage youth and his bride settled themselves at the parting of the
+ways, built their cot, tended their garden, tilled their field and raised
+fruits around them, including children.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The preparation of a cheerful repast was one day well advanced, when, lifting
+up their eyes, the pair beheld a haggard and emaciated couple tottering along
+the road that led from the Palace of Illusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Heavens!” exclaimed they simultaneously, “no! yes! ’tis surely they!” O
+friends! whence this forlorn semblance? whence this osseous condition?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Of them anon,” replied the attenuated youth, “but, before all things, dinner!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The restorative was speedily administered, and the pilgrim commenced his
+narration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Guarded,” he said, “though the Palace of Illusion was by every species of
+hippogriffic chimaera, my bride and I experienced no difficulty in penetrating
+inside its precincts. The giants lifted us in their arms, the dragons carried
+us on their backs, fairy bridges spanned the moats, golden ladders inclined
+against the ramparts, we scaled the towers and trod the courts securely, though
+constructed to all seeming of dissolving cloud. Delicate fare loaded every
+dish; smiling companions invited to every festivity; perfumes caressed our
+nostrils; music enwrapped our ears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But while all else charmed and allured, one fact intruded of which we could
+not pretend unconsciousness, the intensity of our aversion for each other.
+Never could I behold my Imogene without marvelling whatever could have induced
+me to wed her, and she has acknowledged that she laboured under the like
+perplexity. On the other hand, our good opinion of ourselves had grown
+prodigiously. The other’s dislike appeared to each an insane delusion, and we
+seriously questioned whether it could be right to mate longer with a being so
+destitute of true aesthetic feeling. We confided these scruples to each other,
+with the result of a most tempestuous altercation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As this was attaining its climax, one of the inmates of the Palace, a pert
+forward boy, resembling a page out of livery, passed by, and ironically, as I
+thought, congratulated us on the strength of our mutual attachment. ‘Never,’
+exclaimed he, ‘have I beheld the like here before, and I am the oldest
+inhabitant.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As this felicitation was proffered at the precise moment when I was engaged in
+staunching a rent in my cheek with a handful of my wife’s hair, I was
+constrained to regard it as unseasonable, and expressed myself to that effect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“‘What!’ exclaimed he, with equal surprise, ‘know ye not that this is the
+Palace of Illusion, where everything is inverted and appears the reverse of
+itself? Intense indeed must be the affection which can thus drive you to
+fisticuffs! Had I beheld you billing and cooing, truly I had counselled a
+judicial separation!’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My wife and I looked at each other, and by a common impulse made at our utmost
+speed for the gate of the Palace of Illusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Alas! it is one thing to enter and another to quit that domain of enchantment.
+The golden clouds enwrapt us still, cates and dainties tempted us as of old,
+the most bewitching strains detained us spellbound. The giant and dragon
+warders, indeed, offered no violent resistance, they simply turned into open
+portals which appeared to yield us egress, but proved entrances to interminable
+labyrinthine mazes. At last we escaped by resolutely, following the exact
+opposite track to that which we observed to be taken by a poet, who was chasing
+a phantom of Fame with a scroll of unintelligible and inharmonious verse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The moment that we emerged from the enchanted castle we knew ourselves and
+each other for what we were, and fell weeping into each other’s arms. So feeble
+were we that we could hardly move, nevertheless we have made a shift to crawl
+hither, trusting to your hospitality to recruit us from the sawdust and
+ditch-water which we vehemently suspect to have been our diet during the whole
+of our residence.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Eat and drink without stint and without ceremony,” rejoined their host,
+“provided only that somewhat remain for the guests whom I see approaching.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And in a few moments the fugitives from the Palace of Illusion were reinforced
+by travellers from the Palace of Truth, whose backs were most determinately
+turned to that august edifice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My friends,” said the youth last arrived, when the first greetings were over,
+“Truth’s Palace might be a not ineligible residence were not the inmates
+necessitated not merely to know the truth but to speak it, and did not all
+innocent embellishments of her majestic person become entirely inefficient and
+absolutely nugatory. For example, the number of my wife’s grey hairs speedily
+confounded me; and how should it be otherwise, when the excellent dye she had
+brought with her had completely lost its virtues? She on her part found herself
+continually obliged to acquaint me with the manifold defects she was daily
+discovering in my mind and person, which I was unable to deny, frequently as I
+opened my mouth for that purpose. It is true that I had the satisfaction of
+pointing out equal defects in herself; but this could not be considered a great
+satisfaction, seeing that every such discovery impugned my taste and judgment,
+and impaired the worth of my most cherished possession. At length we resolved
+that Truth and we were not made for each other, and, having verified the
+accuracy of this conclusion by uttering it unrebuked in Truth’s own palace,
+quitted the unblest spot with all possible expedition. No sooner were we
+outside than our tenderness revived, and, the rites of reconciliation duly
+performed, my wife found nothing more urgent than to try whether her dye had
+recovered its natural properties, which, as ye may perceive, proved to be the
+case. We are now bound for the Palace of Illusion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nay,” said he who had escaped thence, “if my experience suffices not to deter
+you, learn that they who have known Truth can never taste of Illusion. Illusion
+is for life’s golden prime, its fanes and pavilions may be reared but by the
+magic wand of Youth. The maturity that would recreate them builds not for
+Illusion but for Deceit. Yet, lest mortality should despair, there exists, as I
+have learned, yet another palace, founded midway between that of Illusion and
+that of Truth, open to those who are too soft for the one and too hard for the
+other. Thither, indeed, the majority of mankind in this age resort, and there
+appear to find themselves comfortable.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And this palace is?” inquired Truth’s runaways simultaneously.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Palace of Convention,” replied the youth.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap27"></a>NEW READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY</h2>
+
+<h3>I.&mdash;T<small>IMON OF</small> A<small>THENS</small></h3>
+
+<p>
+No, it was not true that Timon was dead, and buried on the sea-shore. So the
+first party discovered that hastened to his cave at the tidings, thinking to
+seize his treasure, and had their heads broken for their pains. But the second
+party fared better; for these were robbers, captained by Alcibiades, who had
+taken to the road, as many a man of spirit, has done before and since. They
+took Timon’s gold, and left him bound in his chair. But on the way home the
+lesser thieves mysteriously disappeared, and the gold became the sole property
+of Alcibiades. As it is written, “The tools to him that can handle them.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Timon sat many hours in an uncomfortable position, and though, in a general
+way, he abhorred the face of man, he was not displeased when a gentleman of
+bland appearance entered the cavern, and made him a low obeisance. And
+perceiving that Timon was bound, the bland man exclaimed with horror, and
+severed his bonds, ere one could say Themistocles. And in an instant the cavern
+was filled with Athenian senators.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hail,” they cried, “to Timon the munificent! Hail to Timon the compassionate!
+Hail to Timon the lover of his kind!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am none of these things,” said Timon. “I am Timon the misanthrope.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This must be my Lord’s wit and playfulness,” said the bland man, “for how else
+should the Senate and the people have passed a decree, indited by myself,
+ordering an altar to be raised to Timon the Benefactor, and appointing him
+chief archon? But come, hand over thy treasure, that thy installation may take
+effect with due observance.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I have been deprived of my treasure,” said Timon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the ambassadors gave him no credit until they had searched every chink and
+crevice in the cavern, and dug up all the earth round the entrance. They then
+regarded each other with blank consternation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let us leave him as we found him,” said one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let us hang him up,” said another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let us sell him into captivity,” said a third.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nay, friends,” said the bland gentleman, “such confession of error would
+impeach our credit as statesmen. Moreover, should the people learn that Timon
+has lost his money, they will naturally conclude that we have taken it. Let us,
+therefore, keep this misfortune from their knowledge, and trust for relief to
+the chapter of accidents, as usual in State affairs.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They therefore robed Timon in a dress of honour, and conducted him to Athens,
+where half the inhabitants were awaiting him. Two triumphal arches spanned the
+principal street, and on one was inscribed “Timon the Benefactor,” and on the
+other “Timon the Friend of Humanity.” And all along, far as the eye could
+reach, stood those whom his bounty, as was stated, had rescued from perdition,
+the poor he had relieved, the sick he had medicined, the orphans he had
+fathered, the poets and painters he had patronised, all lauding and thanking
+him, and soliciting a continuance of his liberality. And the rabble cried
+“Largesse, largesse!” and horsemen galloped forth, casting among them nuts
+enveloped in silver-leaf and apples and comfits and trinkets and brass
+farthings in incredible quantities. At which the people murmured somewhat, and
+spoke amiss respecting Timon and the senators who escorted him, and the bland
+gentleman strove to keep Timon between himself and the populace. While Timon
+was pondering what the end of these things should be, his mob encountered
+another cheering for Alcibiades, and playing pitch and toss with drachmas and
+didrachmas and tetradrachmas, yea, even with staters and darics.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Long live Alcibiades,” cried Timon’s followers, as they attacked Alcibiades’s
+supporters to get their share.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Long live Timon,” cried Alcibiades’s party, as they defended themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Timon and Alcibiades extricated themselves from the scuffle, and walked away
+arm in arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My dear friend,” said Timon, “how inexpressibly beholden I am to you for
+taking the burden of my wealth upon yourself! There is nothing I would not do
+to evince my gratitude.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nothing?” queried Alcibiades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nothing,” persisted Timon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then,” said Alcibiades, “I will thank thee to relieve me of Timandra, who is
+as tired of me as I am of her.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Timon winced horribly, but his word was his bond, and Timandra accompanied him
+to his cavern, where at first she suffered much inconvenience from the
+roughness of the accommodation. But Timon, though a misanthrope, was not a
+brute; and when in process of time Timandra’s health required special care,
+rugs and pillows were provided for her, and also for Timon; for he saw that he
+could no longer pass for a churl if he made his wife more comfortable than
+himself. And, though he counted gold as dross, yet was he not dissatisfied that
+Timandra had saved the gold he had given her formerly against a rainy day. And
+when a child was born, Timon was at his wits’ end, and blessed the old woman
+who came to nurse it. And she admonished him of his duty to the Gods, which
+meant sacrifice, which meant merry-making. And the child grew, and craved food
+and drink, and Timon possessed himself of three acres and a cow. And not being
+able to doubt his child’s affection for him, he came to believe in Timandra’s
+also. And when the tax-gatherer oppressed his neighbours, he pleaded their
+cause, which was also his own, in the courts of Athens, and gained it by the
+interest of Alcibiades. And his neighbours made him demarch, and he feasted
+them. And Apemantus came to deride him, and Timon bore with him; but he was
+impertinent to Timandra, and Timon beat him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And in fine, Timon became very like any other Attic country gentleman, save
+that he always maintained that a young man did well to be a misanthrope until
+he got a loving and sensible wife, which, as he observed, could but seldom
+happen. And the Gods looked down upon him with complacency, and deferred the
+ruin of Athens until he should be no more.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II.&mdash;N<small>APOLEON&rsquo;S</small> S<small>ANGAREE</small></h3>
+
+<p>
+Napoleon Buonaparte sat in his garden at St. Helena, in the shadow of a
+fig-tree. Before him stood a little table, and upon the table stood a glass of
+sangaree. The day was hot and drowsy; the sea boomed monotonously on the rocks;
+the broad fig-leaves stirred not; great flies buzzed heavily in the sultry air.
+Napoleon wore a loose linen coat and a broad brimmed planter’s hat, and looked
+as red as the sangaree, but nowise as comfortable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To think,” he said aloud, “that I should end my life here, with nothing to
+sweeten my destiny but this lump of sugar!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he dropped it into the sangaree, and little ripples and beads broke out on
+the surface of the liquid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou should’st have followed me,” said a voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Me,” said another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And a steam from the sangaree rose high over Napoleon’s head, and from it
+shaped themselves two beautiful female figures. One was fair and very youthful,
+with a Phrygian cap on her head, and eager eyes beneath it, and a slender spear
+in her hand. The other was somewhat older, and graver, and darker, with serious
+eyes; and she carried a sword, and wore a helmet, from underneath which her
+rich brown tresses escaped over her vesture of light steel armour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am Liberty,” said the first.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am Loyalty,” said the second.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Napoleon laid his hand in that of the first spirit, and instantly saw
+himself as he had been in the days of his youthful victories, only beset with a
+multitude of people who were offering him a crown, and cheering loudly. But he
+thrust it aside, and they cheered ten times more, and fell into each other’s
+arms, and wept and kissed each other. And troops of young maidens robed in
+white danced before him, strewing his way with flowers. And the debts of the
+debtor were paid, and the prisoners were released from captivity. And the forty
+Academicians came bringing Napoleon the prize of virtue. And the Abbé Sieyès
+stood up, and offered Napoleon his choice of seventeen constitutions; and
+Napoleon chose the worst. And he came to sit with five hundred other men,
+mostly advocates. And when he said “Yea,” they said “Nay”; and when he said
+“white,” they said “black.” And they suffered him to do neither good nor evil,
+and when he went to war they commanded his army for him, until he was smitten
+with a great slaughter. And the enemy entered the country, and bread was scarce
+and wine dear; and the people cursed Napoleon, and Liberty vanished from before
+him. But he roamed on, ever looking for her, and at length he found her lying
+dead in the public way, all gashed and bleeding, and trampled with the feet of
+men and horses, and the wheel of a tumbril was over her neck. And Napoleon,
+under compulsion of the mob, ascended the tumbril; and Abbé Sieyès and Bishop
+Talleyrand rode at his side, administering spiritual consolation. Thus they
+came within sight of the guillotine, whereon stood M. de Robespierre in his
+sky-blue coat, and his jaw bound up in a bloody cloth, bowing and smiling,
+nevertheless, and beckoning Napoleon to ascend to him. Napoleon had never
+feared the face of man; but when he saw M. de Robespierre great dread fell upon
+him, and he leapt out of the tumbril, and fled amain, passing amid the people
+as it were mid withered leaves, until he came where Loyalty stood awaiting him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She took his hand in hers, and, lo! another great host of people proffering him
+a crown, save one little old man, who alone of them all wore his hair in a
+queue with powder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“See,” said the little old man, “that thou takest not what doth not belong to
+thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To whom belongeth it then?” asked Napoleon, “for I am a plain soldier, and
+have no skill in politics.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To Louis the Disesteemed,” said the little old man, “for he is a
+great-great-nephew of the Princess of Schwoffingen, whose ancestors reigned
+here at the flood.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Where dwells Louis the Disesteemed?” asked Napoleon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In England,” said the little old man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Napoleon therefore repaired to England, and sought for Louis the Disesteemed.
+But none could direct him, save that it behoved him to seek in the obscurest
+places. And one day, as he was passing through a mean street, he heard a voice
+of lamentation, and perceived a man whose coat and shirt were rent and dirty;
+but not so his pantaloons, for he had none.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who art thou, thou pantaloonless one?” asked he, “and wherefore makest thou
+this lamentation?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am Louis the Esteemed, King of France and Navarre,” replied the distrousered
+personage, “and I lament for my pantaloons, which I have been enforced to pawn,
+inasmuch as the broker would advance nothing upon my coat or my shirt.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Napoleon went upon his knees and divested himself of his own nether
+garments, and arrayed the king therein, to the great diversion of those who
+stood about.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou hast done wickedly,” said the king when he heard who Napoleon was, “in
+that thou hast presumed to fight battles and win victories without any
+commission from me. Go, nevertheless, and lose an arm, a leg, and an eye in my
+service, then shall thy offence be forgiven thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Napoleon raised a great army, and gained a great battle for the king, and
+lost an arm. And he gained another greater battle, and lost a leg. And he
+gained the greatest battle of all; and the king sat on the throne of his
+ancestors, and was called Louis the Victorious: but Napoleon had lost an eye.
+And he came into the king’s presence, bearing his eye, his arm, and his leg.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou art pardoned,” said the king, “and I will even confer a singular honour
+upon thee. Thou shalt defray the expense of my coronation, which shall be the
+most splendid ever seen in France.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Napoleon lost all his substance, and no man pitied him. But after certain
+days the keeper of the royal wardrobe rushed into the king’s presence, crying
+“Treason! treason! O Majesty, whence these republican and revolutionary
+pantaloons?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They are those I deigned to receive from the rebel Buonaparte,” said the king.
+“It were meet to return them. Where abides he now?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Saving your Majesty’s presence,” they said, “he lieth upon a certain
+dunghill.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If this be so,” said the king, “life can be no gratification to him, and it
+were humane to relieve him of it. Moreover, he is a dangerous man. Go,
+therefore, and strangle him with his own pantaloons. Yet, let a monument be
+raised to him, and engrave upon it, ‘Here lies Napoleon Buonaparte, whom Louis
+the Victorious raised from the dunghill.’”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They went accordingly; but behold! Napoleon already lay dead upon the dunghill.
+And this was told unto the king.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He hath ever been envious of my glory,” said the king, “let him therefore be
+buried underneath.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And it was so. And after no long space the king also died, and slept with his
+fathers. But when there was again a revolution in France, the people cast his
+bones out of the royal sepulchre, and laid Napoleon’s there instead. And the
+dunghill complained grievously that it should be disturbed for so slight a
+cause.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Napoleon withdrew his hand from the hand of Loyalty, saying, “Pish!” And
+his eyes opened, and he heard the booming of the sea, and the buzzing of the
+flies, and felt the heat of the sun, and saw that the sugar he had dropped into
+his sangaree had not yet reached the bottom of the tumbler.
+</p>
+
+<h3>III.&mdash;C<small>ONCERNING</small> D<small>ANIEL</small>
+D<small>EFOE</small></h3>
+
+<p>
+Daniel Defoe, at the invitation of the judge, came forth from the garret
+wherein he abode, and rode in a cart unto the Royal Exchange, wherein he
+ascended the pillory, to the end that his ears might be nailed thereunto. And
+much people stood before him, some few pelting, some mocking, but the most part
+cheering or weeping, for they knew him for a friend to the poor, and especially
+those men who were called Dissenters. And a certain person in black stood by
+him, invisible to the people, but well seen of Daniel, who knew him for one
+whose life he had himself written. And the man in black reasoned with Daniel,
+and said, “Thou seest this multitude of people, but which of them shall deliver
+thee out of my hand? Nay, but let thy white be black, and thy black white, and
+I myself will deliver thee, and make thee rich, and heal thy hurts, save the
+holes in thy ears, that I may know thee for mine own.” But Daniel gave no heed
+to him. So the Devil departed, having great wrath, and entered into a certain
+smug-faced man standing by.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now the crowd before Daniel was greatly diminished, and consisted mainly of
+his enemies, for his friends had gone away to drown their sorrow. And the
+smug-faced man into whom Satan had entered came forth from among them, and said
+unto him, “O Daniel, inasmuch as I am a Dissenter I am greatly beholden to
+thee; but inasmuch as I am an honest tradesman I have somewhat against thee,
+for thou hast written concerning short weights and measures. And a man’s shop
+is more to him than his country or his religion. Wherefore I must needs be
+avenged of thee. Yet shalt thou own that the tender mercies of the good man are
+piteous, and that even in his wrath he thinketh upon compassion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he picked up a great stone from the ground, and wrapped it in a piece of
+paper, saying, “Lest peradventure it hurt him overmuch.” And the stone was very
+rough and sharp, and the paper was very thin. And he hurled it with all his
+might at the middle of Daniel’s forehead, and the blood spouted forth. And
+Daniel cried aloud, and called upon the name of the Devil. And in an instant
+the pillory and the people were gone, and he found himself in the Prime
+Minister’s cabinet, healed of all his hurts, except the holes in his ears. And
+the Minister was so like the Devil that you could not tell the difference. And
+he said, “Against what wilt thou write first, Daniel?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Dissenters,” said Daniel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he wrote a pamphlet, and such as read it took firebrands, and visited the
+Dissenters in their habitations. And many Dissenters were put into prison, and
+others fined and spoiled of their goods. And he wrote other pamphlets, and each
+was cleverer and wickeder than the last. And whatsoever Daniel had of old
+declared to be white, lo! it was black; and what he had said was black, behold!
+it was white. And he throve and prospered exceedingly, and became a
+commissioner for public-houses and hackney-coaches and the imposing of oaths
+and the levying of custom, and all other such things as one does by deputy. And
+he mended the holes in his ears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the time came when Daniel must be judged, and he went before the Lord. And
+all the court was full of Dissenters, and the Devil was there also. And the
+Dissenters testified many and grievous things against Daniel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Daniel,” said the Lord, “what answerest thou?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nothing, Lord,” said Daniel. “Only I would that the Dissenter who threw that
+stone at me should receive due and condign punishment, adequate to his
+misdeed.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That,” said the Devil, “is impossible.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thou sayest well, Satan,” said the Lord, “and therefore shall Daniel go free.
+For if anything can excuse the apostasy of the noble, it is the ingratitude of
+the base.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the Devil went to his own place, looking very small. And Daniel found
+himself in the same garret whence he had gone forth to the pillory; and before
+him were bread and cheese, and a pen and ink and paper. And he dipped the pen
+into the ink, and wrote <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>.
+</p>
+
+<h3>IV.&mdash;C<small>ORNELIUS THE</small> F<small>ERRYMAN</small></h3>
+
+<p>
+Fourscore years ago there was a good ferryman named Cornelius, who rowed people
+between New York and Brooklyn. He had neither wife nor child, nor any one to
+think of except himself. It was, therefore, his custom, when he had earned
+enough in a day for his own wants, to put the rest aside, and bestow it upon
+sick or blind or maimed persons, lest they should come to the workhouse. And
+the sick and the blind and the maimed gathered around him, and waited by the
+water’s edge, until Cornelius’s day’s work should be over.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This went on until one of the little sooty imps who are always in mischief came
+to hear of it, and told the principal devil in charge of the United States,
+whose name is Politicianus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Dear me,” said the Devil, “this will never do. I will see to it immediately.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he went off to Cornelius, and caught him in the act of giving two dimes to
+a blind beggar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How foolish you are!” he said; “what waste of money is this! If you saved it
+up, you would by-and-by be able to build an hospital for all the beggars in New
+York.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It would be a long time before there was enough,” objected Cornelius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not at all,” said the Devil, “if you let me invest your money for you.” And he
+showed Cornelius the plan of a most splendid hospital, and across the front of
+it was inscribed in letters of gold, <i>Cornelius Diabolodorus</i>. And
+Cornelius was persuaded, and that evening he gave nothing to the poor. And the
+poor had come to think that Cornelius’s money was their own, and abused him as
+though he had robbed them. And Cornelius drove them away: and his heart was
+hardened against them from that day forth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the Devil kept his promise to Cornelius, and put him up to all the good
+things in Wall Street, and he soon had enough to build ten hospitals. But the
+more he had to build with, the less he wanted to build. And by-and-by the Devil
+called upon him, and found him contemplating two pictures. One of them showed
+the finest hospital you can imagine, full of neat, clean rooms, in one of which
+sat Cornelius himself, wearing a dress with a number and badge, and sipping
+arrowroot. The other showed fine houses, and opera-boxes, and fast-trotting
+horses, and dry champagne, and ladies who dance in ballets, and paintings by
+the great masters. Cornelius thrust the pictures away, and the Devil did not
+ask to see them, nor was it needful that he should, for he had painted them
+himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O dear Mr. Devil,” said Cornelius, “I am so glad that you have called, for I
+wanted to speak to you. It strikes me that there is a great defect in the plan
+which you have been so good as to draw for me.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What is that?” asked the Devil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is no place for black men,” said Cornelius. “And you know white men will
+never let them come into the same hospital.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And the Devil, to do him justice, talked very reasonably to Cornelius, and
+represented to him that there were very few black men in New York, and that
+these had very vigorous constitutions. But Cornelius was inflamed with
+enthusiasm, and frantic with philanthropy, and he vowed that he would not give
+a cent to an hospital that had not a wing for black men as big as all the rest
+of the building. And the Devil had to take his plan back, and come again in a
+year and a day. And when he did come back, Cornelius asked him if he did not
+think it would be a most excellent thing if all the Irishmen in New York could
+be shut up in an hospital or elsewhere; and he could not deny it. So he had to
+take his plan back again. And next year it was the turn of the Chinese, and
+then of the Red Indians, and then of the dogs and cats. And then Cornelius
+thought that he ought to provide room for all the people who had been ruined by
+his speculations, and the Devil thought so too, but doubted whether Cornelius
+would be able to afford it. And at last Cornelius said:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Methinks I have been very foolish in wishing to build an hospital at all while
+I am living. Surely it would be better that I should enjoy my money myself
+during my life, and leave the residue for the lawyers to divide after my
+death.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You are quite right,” said the Devil; “that is exactly what I should do if I
+were you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Cornelius put the plans behind a shelf in his counting-house, and the mice
+ate them. And he went on prospering and growing rich, until the Devil became
+envious of him, and insisted on changing places with him. So Cornelius went
+below, and the Devil came and dwelt in New York, where he still is.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap28"></a>THE POISON MAID</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+        O not for him<br/>
+Blooms my dark nightshade, nor doth hemlock brew<br/>
+Murder for cups within her cavernous root.
+</p>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>
+Grievous is the lot of the child, more especially of the female child, who is
+doomed from the tenderest infancy to lack the blessing of a mother’s care.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Was it from this absence of maternal vigilance that the education of the lovely
+Mithridata was conducted from her babyhood in such an extraordinary manner?
+That enormous serpents infested her cradle, licking her face and twining around
+her limbs? That her tiny fingers patted scorpions? and tied knots in the tails
+of vipers? That her father, the magician Locuste, ever sedulous and
+affectionate, fed her with spoonsful of the honeyed froth that gathers under
+the tongues of asps? That as she grew older and craved a more nutritious diet,
+she partook, at first in infinitesimal doses, but in ever increasing
+quantities, of arsenic, strychnine, opium, and prussic acid? That at last
+having attained the flower of youth, she drank habitually from vessels of gold,
+for her favourite beverages were so corrosive that no other substance could
+resist their solvent properties?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Gradually accustomed to this strange regimen, she had thriven on it
+marvellously, and was without a peer for beauty, sense, and goodness. Her
+father had watched over her education with care, and had instructed her in all
+lawful knowledge, save only the knowledge of poisons. As no other human being
+had entered the house, Mithridata was unaware that her bringing up had differed
+in so material a respect from that of other young people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Father,” said she one day, bringing him a book she had been perusing, “what
+strange follies learned men will pen with gravity! or is it rather that none
+can set bounds to the licence of romancers? These dear serpents, my friends and
+playfellows, this henbane and antimony, the nourishment of my health and
+vigour&mdash;that any one should write of these as pernicious, deadly, and
+fatal to existence! Is it error or malignity? or but the wanton freak of an
+idle imagination?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“My child,” answered the magician, “it is fit that thou shouldst now learn what
+hath hitherto been concealed from thee, and with this object I left this
+treatise in thy way. It speaks truth. Thou hast been nurtured from thy infancy
+on substances endowed with lethal properties, commonly called poisons. Thy
+entire frame is impregnated thereby, and, although thou thyself art in the
+fullest enjoyment of health, thy kiss would be fatal to any one not, like thy
+father, fortified by a course of antidotes. Now hear the reason. I bear a
+deadly grudge to the king of this land. He indeed hath not injured me; but his
+father slew my father, wherefore it is meet that I should slay that ancestor’s
+son’s son. I have therefore nurtured thee from thy infancy on the deadliest
+poisons, until thou art a walking vial of pestilence. The young prince shall
+unseal thee, to his destruction and thy unspeakable advantage. Go to the great
+city; thou art beautiful as the day; he is young, handsome, and amorous; he
+will infallibly fall in love with thee. Do thou submit to his caresses, he will
+perish miserably; thou (such is the charm) ransomed by the kiss of love, wilt
+become wholesome and innocuous as thy fellows, preserving only thy knowledge of
+poisons, always useful, in the present state of society invaluable. Thou wilt
+therefore next repair to the city of Constantinople, bearing recommendatory
+letters from me to the Empress Theophano, now happily reigning.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Father,” said Mithridata, “either I shall love this young prince, or I shall
+not. If I do not love him, I am nowise minded to suffer him to caress me. If I
+do love him, I am as little minded to be the cause of his death.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not even in consideration of the benefit which will accrue to thee by this
+event?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not even for that consideration.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O these daughters!” exclaimed the old man. “We bring them up tenderly, we
+exhaust all our science for the improvement of their minds and bodies, we set
+our choicest hopes upon them, and entrust them with the fulfilment of our most
+cherished aspirations; and when all is done, they will not so much as commit a
+murder to please us! Miserable ingrate, receive the just requital of thy
+selfish disobedience!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O father, do not turn me into a tadpole!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I will not, but I will turn thee out of doors.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And he did.
+</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>
+Though disinherited, Mithridata was not destitute. She had secured a particle
+of the philosopher’s stone&mdash;a slender outfit for a magician’s daughter!
+yet ensuring her a certain portion of wealth. What should she do now? The great
+object of her life must henceforth be to avoid committing murder, especially
+murdering any handsome young man. It would have seemed most natural to retire
+into a convent, but, not to speak of her lack of vocation, she felt that her
+father would justly consider that she had disgraced her family, and she still
+looked forward to reconciliation with him. She might have taken a hermitage,
+but her instinct told her that a fair solitary can only keep young men off by
+strong measures; and she disliked the character of a hermitess with a bull-dog.
+She therefore went straight to the great city, took a house, and surrounded
+herself with attendants. In the choice of these she was particularly careful to
+select those only whose personal appearance was such as to discourage any
+approach to familiarity or endearment. Never before or since was youthful
+beauty surrounded by such moustached duennas, squinting chambermaids,
+hunchbacked pages, and stumpy maids-of-all-work. This was a real sorrow to her,
+for she loved beauty; it was a still sadder trial that she could no longer feel
+it right to indulge herself in the least morsel of arsenic; she sighed for
+strychnia, and pined for prussic acid. The change of diet was of course at
+first most trying to her health, and in fact occasioned a serious illness, but
+youth and a sound constitution pulled her through.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Reader, hast thou known what it is to live with a heart inflamed by love for
+thy fellow-creatures which thou couldst manifest neither by word nor deed? To
+pine with fruitless longings for good? and to consume with vain yearnings for
+usefulness? To be misjudged and haply reviled by thy fellows for failing to do
+what it is not given thee to do? If so, thou wilt pity poor Mithridata, whose
+nature was most ardent, expansive, and affectionate, but who, from the
+necessity under which she laboured of avoiding as much as possible all contact
+with human beings, saw herself condemned to a life of solitude, and knew that
+she was regarded as a monster of pride and exclusiveness. She dared bestow no
+kind look, no encouraging gesture on any one, lest this small beginning should
+lead to the manifestation of her fatal power. Her own servants, whose minds
+were generally as deformed as their bodies, hated her, and bitterly resented
+what they deemed her haughty disdain of them. Her munificence none could deny,
+but bounty without tenderness receives no more gratitude than it deserves. The
+young of her own sex secretly rejoiced at her unamiability, regarding it as a
+providential set-off against her beauty, while they detested and denounced her
+as a&mdash;well, they would say viper in the manger, who spoiled everybody
+else’s lovers and would have none of her own. For with all Mithridata’s
+severity, there was no getting rid of the young men, the giddy moths that flew
+around her brilliant but baleful candle. Not all the cold water thrown upon
+them, literally as well as figuratively, could keep them from her door. They
+filled her house with bouquets and billets doux; they stood before the windows,
+they sat on the steps, they ran beside her litter when she was carried abroad,
+they assembled at night to serenade her, fighting desperately among themselves.
+They sought to gain admission as tradesmen, as errand boys, even as scullions
+male and female. To such lengths did they proceed, that a particularly
+audacious youth actually attempted to carry her off one evening, and would have
+succeeded but for the interposition of another, who flew at him with a drawn
+sword, and after a fierce contest smote him bleeding to the ground. Mithridata
+had fainted, of course. What was her horror on reviving to find herself in the
+arms of a young man of exquisite beauty and princely mien, sucking death from
+her lips with extraordinary relish! She shrieked, she struggled; if she made
+any unfeminine use of her hands, let the urgency of the case plead her apology.
+The youth reproached her bitterly for her ingratitude. She listened in silent
+misery, unable to defend herself. The shaft of love had penetrated her bosom
+also, and it cost her almost as much for her own sake to dismiss the young man
+as it did to see him move away, slowly and languidly staggering to his doom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the next few days messages came continually, urging her to haste to a youth
+dying for her sake, whom her presence would revive effectually. She steadily
+refused, but how much her refusal cost her! She wept, she wrung her hands, she
+called for death and execrated her nurture. With that strange appetite for
+self-torment which almost seems to diminish the pangs of the wretched, she
+collected books on poisons, studied all the symptoms described, and fancied her
+hapless lover undergoing them all in turn. At length a message came which
+admitted of no evasion. The King commanded her presence. Admonished by past
+experience, she provided herself with a veil and mask, and repaired to the
+palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old King seemed labouring under deep affliction; under happier
+circumstances he must have been joyous and debonair. He addressed her with
+austerity, yet with kindness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Maiden,” he began, “thy unaccountable cruelty to my son&mdash;&mdash;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thy son!” she exclaimed, “The Prince! O father, thou art avenged for my
+disobedience!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Surpasses what history hath hitherto recorded of the most obdurate monsters.
+Thou art indebted to him for thy honour, to preserve which he has risked his
+life. Thou bringest him to the verge of the grave by thy cruelty, and when a
+smile, a look from thee would restore him, thou wilt not bestow it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Alas! great King,” she replied, “I know too well what your Majesty’s opinion
+of me must be. I must bear it as I may. Believe me, the sight of me could
+effect nothing towards the restoration of thy son.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Of that I shall judge,” said the King, “when thou hast divested thyself of
+that veil and mask.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mithridata reluctantly complied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“By Heaven!” exclaimed the King, “such a sight might recall the departing soul
+from Paradise. Haste to my son, and instantly; it is not yet too late.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O King,” urged Mithridata, “how could this countenance do thy son any good? Is
+he not suffering from the effects of seventy-two poisons?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am not aware of that,” said the King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Are not his entrails burned up with fire? Is not his flesh in a state of
+deliquescence? Has not his skin already peeled off his body? Is he not
+tormented by incessant gripes and vomitings?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not to my knowledge,” said the King. “The symptoms, as I understand, are not
+unlike those which I remember to have experienced myself, in a milder form,
+certainly. He lies in bed, eats and drinks nothing, and incessantly calls upon
+thee.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This is most incomprehensible,” said Mithridata. “There was no drug in my
+father’s laboratory that could have produced such an effect.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The sum of the matter is,” continued the King, “that either thou wilt repair
+forthwith to my son’s chamber, and subsequently to church; or else unto the
+scaffold.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If it must be so, I choose the scaffold,” said Mithridata resolutely. “Believe
+me, O King, my appearance in thy son’s chamber would but destroy whatever
+feeble hope of recovery may remain. I love him beyond everything on earth, and
+not for worlds would I have his blood on my soul.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Chamberlain,” cried the monarch, “bring me a strait waistcoat.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Driven into a corner, Mithridata flung herself at the King’s feet, taking care,
+however, not to touch him, and confided to him all her wretched history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The venerable monarch burst into a peal of laughter. “À bon chat bon rat!” he
+exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered himself. “So thou art the daughter of my
+old friend the magician Locusto! I fathomed his craft, and, as he fed his child
+upon poisons, I fed mine upon antidotes. Never did any child in the world take
+an equal quantity of physic: but there is now no poison on earth can harm him.
+Ye are clearly made for each other; haste to his bedside, and, as the spell
+requires, rid thyself of thy venefic properties in his arms as expeditiously as
+possible. Thy father shall be bidden to the wedding, and an honoured guest he
+shall be, for having taught us that the kiss of Love is the remedy for every
+poison.”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap29"></a>NOTES</h2>
+
+<p>
+The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained sixteen
+stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many originally
+appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the annotations which
+the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it desirable to append,
+and which further provide an opportunity of tendering thanks to many friends
+for their assent to republication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 5. <i>The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,</i>&mdash;Hereby we may
+detect the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with
+Armenia. “Hellenic letters,” says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the fourth
+century, “were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the slenderest means
+crowded to the schools of Athens” (“University Life in Ancient Athens,” p. 73).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 28. <i>Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality.</i>&mdash;The belief
+in this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and many
+emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the groundwork of
+Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Der Unsterblichkeitstrank,” which has furnished the
+conception, though not the incidents, of “The Potion of Lao-Tsze.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 38. <i>So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously.</i>&mdash;In A.D.
+683, the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband’s death, caused her son to
+be set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In our day we
+have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 50. <i>Ananda the Miracle Worker.</i>&mdash;This story was originally
+published in Fraser’s Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared
+in the <i>Revue Britannique</i> for November, 1872. Buddha’s prohibition to
+work miracles rests, so far as the present writer’s knowledge extends, on the
+authority of Professor Max Müller (“Lectures on the Science of Religion”). It
+should be needless to observe that Ananda, “the St. John of the Buddhist
+group,” is not recorded to have contravened this or any other of his master’s
+precepts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 66. <i>The City of Philosophers.</i>&mdash;This story has been translated
+into French by M. Sarrazin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 68. <i>There to establish a philosophic commonwealth.</i>&mdash;The petition
+was actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the disordered
+condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to save a sinking state,
+possessed the accomplishments which would have adorned an age of peace and
+culture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 82. <i>The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor
+edge.</i>&mdash;Gallienus was fond of such practical jocularity. “Quum quidam
+gemmas vitreas pro veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita,
+vindicari vellet, surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea
+caponem emittit, mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici
+jussit, ‘Imposturam fecit et passus est’: deinde negotiatorem dimisit”
+(Trebellius in Gallieno, cap. xii.).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 100. <i>Hypati, anthypati, &amp;c.</i>&mdash;<i>Hypati</i> and
+<i>anthypati</i> denote consuls and proconsuls, dignities of course merely
+titular at the court of Constantinople. <i>Silentiarii</i> were properly
+officers charged with maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was
+perhaps performed by deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons
+of distinction. The <i>protospatharius</i> was the chief of the Imperial
+body-guard, of which the <i>spatharocandidati</i> constituted the <i>élite</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 114. <i>The Wisdom of the Indians.</i>&mdash;Appeared in 1890 in <i>The
+Universal Review</i>. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian’s
+travels in Burma.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 124. <i>The Dumb Oracle.</i>&mdash;Appeared in the <i>University
+Magazine</i> for June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval
+myth here transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning’s
+ballad, “The Boy and the Angel.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 136. <i>Duke Virgil.</i>&mdash;The subject of this story is derived from
+Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Die Sibylle von Mantua,” though there is but little
+resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt as his
+authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as their duke in the
+thirteenth century: but the notion seems merely founded upon the interpretation
+of the insignia accompanying a mediæval statue of the poet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 138. <i>To put the devil into a hole</i>.&mdash;“Then sayd Virgilius,
+‘Shulde ye well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?’ ‘Yea, I shall well,’
+sayd the devyl. ‘I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it.’
+‘Well,’ sayd the devyll, ‘thereto I consent.’ And then the devyll wrange
+himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein. Virgilius kyvered the
+hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the devyll begyled, and myght nat
+there come out agen, but abideth shutte still therein” (“Romance of
+Virgilius”).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?</i>&mdash;“Than he thought in
+his mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great landes
+belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it Napells. And the
+foundacyon of it was of eggs” (“Romance of Virgilius”).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 148. <i>The Claw</i>.&mdash;Originally published in <i>The English
+Illustrated Magazine</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 151. <i>Peter of Abano</i>.&mdash;Pietro di Abano, who took his name from
+his birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with Dante,
+whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused of magic. It is
+nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the Inquisition or stoned by the
+populace; but after his death he was burned in effigy, his remains having been
+secretly removed by his friends. Honours were afterwards paid to his memory;
+and there seems no doubt that he was a man of great attainments, including a
+knowledge of Greek, and of unblemished character, if he had not sometimes sold
+his skill at too high a rate. For his authentic history, see the article in the
+<i>Biographie Universelle</i> by Ginguené; for the legendary, Tieck’s romantic
+tale, “Pietro von Abano” (1825), which has been translated into English.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 156. <i>Alexander the Rat-catcher</i>.&mdash;This story, to whose
+ground-work History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published
+in vol. xii. of <i>The Yellow Book</i>, January, 1897.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 157. <i>Cardinal Barbadico</i>.&mdash;This cardinal was actually entrusted
+by Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an occasion
+upon which the “sardonic grin” imputed to the Pope by a detractor may be
+conjectured to have been particularly apparent. Barbadico was a remarkable
+instance of a man “kicked upstairs.” As Archbishop of Corfu he had had a
+violent dispute with the Venetian governor, and Innocent XI., equally unwilling
+to disown the representative of Papal authority or offend the Republic,
+recalled him to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 177. <i>The Rewards of Industry.</i>&mdash;Appeared originally in
+<i>Atalanta for August</i>, 1888.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 194. <i>The Talismans.</i>&mdash;First published in <i>Atalanta</i> for
+September, 1890.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 202. <i>The Elixir of Life.</i>&mdash;Published July, 1881, in the third
+number of a magazine entitled <i>Our Times</i>, which blasted the elixir’s
+character by expiring immediately afterwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 226. <i>The Purple Head.</i>&mdash;Appeared originally in <i>Fraser’s
+Magazine</i> for August, 1877.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 228. <i>The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey in
+comparison.</i> “Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini
+comparatione fulgoris” (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 230. <i>All these sovereigns.</i>&mdash;“Diligentissime et Aurelianus et
+Probus et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus
+requisiverunt tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt” (Vopiscus,
+<i>loc. cit.</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 241. <i>Pan’s Wand.</i>&mdash;Published originally in a Christmas number of
+The <i>Illustrated London News</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 249. <i>A Page from the Book of Folly.</i>&mdash;Appeared in <i>Temple
+Bar</i> for 1871.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 282. <i>The Philosopher and the Butterflies.</i>&mdash;One of the
+contributions by various writers to “The New Amphion,” a little book prepared
+for sale at the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the University of
+Edinburgh in 1886.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 294. <i>The Three Palaces.</i>&mdash;Published originally on a similar
+occasion to the last story, in “A Volunteer Haversack,” an extensive repertory
+of miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse, printed and sold at
+Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 300. <i>New Readings in Biography.</i>&mdash;Originally published in <i>The
+Scots Observer</i> in 1889.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+P. 315. <i>The Poison Maid.</i>&mdash;The author wrote this tale in entire
+forgetfulness of Hawthorne’s “Rapaccinip’s Daughter,” which nevertheless he had
+certainly read.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS ***</div>
+<div style='text-align:left'>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Updated editions will replace the previous one&#8212;the old editions will
+be renamed.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
+law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
+so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
+States without permission and without paying copyright
+royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
+of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG&#8482;
+concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
+and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
+the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
+of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
+copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
+easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
+of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
+Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may
+do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
+by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
+license, especially commercial redistribution.
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br />
+<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br />
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+To protect the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; License available with this file or online at
+www.gutenberg.org/license.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
+destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in your
+possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
+by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
+or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.B. &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works if you follow the terms of this
+agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&#8220;the
+Foundation&#8221; or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
+of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works. Nearly all the individual
+works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
+States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
+United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
+claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
+displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
+all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
+that you will support the Project Gutenberg&#8482; mission of promoting
+free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; name associated with the work. You can easily
+comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
+same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License when
+you share it without charge with others.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
+in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
+check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
+agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
+distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
+other Project Gutenberg&#8482; work. The Foundation makes no
+representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
+country other than the United States.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
+immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License must appear
+prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work (any work
+on which the phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; appears, or with which the
+phrase &#8220;Project Gutenberg&#8221; is associated) is accessed, displayed,
+performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
+</div>
+
+<blockquote>
+  <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+    other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+    whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+    of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+    at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+    are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
+    of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
+  </div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is
+derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
+contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
+copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
+the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
+redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase &#8220;Project
+Gutenberg&#8221; associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
+either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
+obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
+additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
+will be linked to the Project Gutenberg&#8482; License for all works
+posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
+beginning of this work.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg&#8482;.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; License.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
+any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
+to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg&#8482; work in a format
+other than &#8220;Plain Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other format used in the official
+version posted on the official Project Gutenberg&#8482; website
+(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
+to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
+of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original &#8220;Plain
+Vanilla ASCII&#8221; or other form. Any alternate format must include the
+full Project Gutenberg&#8482; License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg&#8482; works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+provided that:
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'>
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+        the use of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works calculated using the method
+        you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
+        to the owner of the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, but he has
+        agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
+        within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
+        legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
+        payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
+        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
+        Section 4, &#8220;Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
+        Literary Archive Foundation.&#8221;
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+        you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+        does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
+        copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
+        all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+        works.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
+        any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+        electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
+        receipt of the work.
+    </div>
+
+    <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'>
+        &#8226; You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+        distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482; works.
+    </div>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work or group of works on different terms than
+are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
+from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
+the Project Gutenberg&#8482; trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
+forth in Section 3 below.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
+contain &#8220;Defects,&#8221; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
+or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
+other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
+cannot be read by your equipment.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &#8220;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&#8221; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
+with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
+with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
+lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
+or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
+opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
+the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
+without further opportunities to fix the problem.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you &#8216;AS-IS&#8217;, WITH NO
+OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
+damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
+violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
+agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
+limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
+unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
+remaining provisions.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works in
+accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
+production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
+including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
+the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
+or any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, (b) alteration, modification, or
+additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg&#8482; work, and (c) any
+Defect you cause.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg&#8482;
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
+computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
+exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
+from people in all walks of life.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg&#8482;&#8217;s
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg&#8482; collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg&#8482; and future
+generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
+Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation&#8217;s EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
+U.S. federal laws and your state&#8217;s laws.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation&#8217;s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
+Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
+to date contact information can be found at the Foundation&#8217;s website
+and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
+public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
+DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
+visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
+donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'>
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg&#8482; electronic works
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
+Gutenberg&#8482; concept of a library of electronic works that could be
+freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
+distributed Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks with only a loose network of
+volunteer support.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Project Gutenberg&#8482; eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
+the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
+necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
+edition.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
+facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This website includes information about Project Gutenberg&#8482;,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+</body>
+
+</html>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/old/10095-h/images/frontis.jpg b/old/10095-h/images/frontis.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c740dd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10095-h/images/frontis.jpg
diff --git a/old/old/10095-8.txt b/old/old/10095-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b60c830
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/10095-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9762 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
+by Richard Garnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
+
+Author: Richard Garnett
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2003 [EBook #10095]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWILIGHT OF GODS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: An eagle pecking at the heart of a bearded man, chained to
+a rock, with the inscription: "Cor ex est numquam ex cordis regina
+volantum".]
+
+THE TWILIGHT
+OF THE GODS:
+AND OTHER TALES
+
+BY
+
+RICHARD GARNETT
+
+MDCCCCIII
+
+
+TO
+
+HORACE HOWARD FURNESS
+AND
+GEORG BRANDES.
+DABO DUOBUS TESTIBUS MEIS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+The Twilight of the Gods
+The Potion of Lao-Tsze
+Abdallah the Adite
+Ananda the Miracle Worker
+The City of Philosophers
+The Demon Pope
+The Cupbearer
+The Wisdom of the Indians
+The Dumb Oracle
+Duke Virgil
+The Claw
+Alexander the Ratcatcher
+The Rewards of Industry
+Madam Lucifer
+The Talismans
+The Elixir of Life
+The Poet of Panopolis
+The Purple Head
+The Firefly
+Pan's Wand
+A Page from the Book of Folly
+The Bell of Saint Euschemon
+Bishop Addo and Bishop Gaddo
+The Philosopher and the Butterflies
+Truth and Her Companions
+The Three Palaces
+New Readings in Biography
+The Poison Maid
+NOTES
+
+
+
+
+THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
+
+
+  Truth fails not, but her outward forms that bear
+  The longest date do melt like frosty rime.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The fourth Christian century was far past its meridian, when, high above
+the summit of the supreme peak of Caucasus, a magnificent eagle came
+sailing on broad fans into the blue, and his shadow skimmed the glittering
+snow as it had done day by day for thousands of years. A human figure--or
+it might be superhuman, for his mien seemed more than mortal--lifted from
+the crag, to which he hung suspended by massy gyves and rivets, eyes
+mournful with the presentiment of pain. The eagle's screech clanged on the
+wind, as with outstretched neck he stooped earthward in ever narrowing
+circles; his huge quills already creaked in his victim's ears, whose flesh
+crept and shrank, and involuntary convulsions agitated his hands and feet.
+Then happened what all these millenniums had never witnessed. No
+thunderbolt had blazed forth from that dome of cloudless blue; no marksman
+had approached the inaccessible spot; yet, without vestige of hurt, the
+eagle dropped lifeless, falling sheer down into the unfathomable abyss
+below. At the same moment the bonds of the  captive snapped asunder, and,
+projected by an impetus which kept him clear of the perpendicular
+precipice, he alighted at an infinite depth on a sun-flecked greensward
+amid young ash and oak, where he long lay deprived of sense and motion.
+
+The sun fell, dew gathered on the grass, moonshine glimpsed through the
+leaves, stars peeped timidly at the prostrate figure, which remained
+prostrate and unconscious still. But as sunlight was born anew in the East
+a thrill passed over the slumberer, and he became conscious, first of an
+indescribably delicious feeling of restful ease, then of a gnawing pang,
+acute as the beak of the eagle for which he at first mistook it. But his
+wrists, though still encumbered with bonds and trailing fetters, were
+otherwise at liberty, and eagle there was none. Marvelling at his inward
+and invisible foe, he struggled to his feet, and found himself contending
+with a faintness and dizziness heretofore utterly unknown to him. He dimly
+felt himself in the midst of things grown wonderful by estrangement and
+distance. No grass, no flower, no leaf had met his eye for thousands of
+years, nothing but the impenetrable azure, the transient cloud, sun, moon,
+and star, the lightning flash, the glittering peaks of ice, and the
+solitary eagle. There seemed more wonder in a blade of grass than in all
+these things, but all was blotted in a dizzy swoon, and it needed his
+utmost effort to understand that a light sound hard by, rapidly growing
+more distinct, was indeed a footfall. With a violent effort he steadied
+himself by grasping a tree, and had hardly accomplished so much when a tall
+dark maiden, straight as an arrow, slim as an antelope,  wildly beautiful
+as a Dryad, but liker a Maenad with her aspect of mingled disdain and
+dismay, and step hasty as of one pursuing or pursued, suddenly checked her
+speed on perceiving him.
+
+"Who art thou?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Gods! Thou speakest Greek!"
+
+"What else should I speak?"
+
+"What else? From whom save thee, since I closed my father's eyes, have I
+heard the tongue of Homer and Plato?"
+
+"Who is Homer? Who is Plato?"
+
+The maiden regarded him with a look of the deepest astonishment.
+
+"Surely," she said, "thy gift has been bestowed upon thee to little
+purpose. Say not, at least, that thou usest the speech of the Gods to
+blaspheme them. Thou art surely yet a votary of Zeus?"
+
+"I a votary of Zeus!" exclaimed the stranger. "By these fetters, no!" And,
+weak as he was, the forest rang with his disdainful laughter.
+
+"Farewell," said the maiden, as with dilating form and kindling eye she
+gathered up her robes. "I parley with thee no more. Thou art tenfold more
+detestable than the howling mob down yonder, intent on rapine and
+destruction. They know no better, and can no other. But thou, apt in
+speaking the sacred tongue yet brutally ignorant of its treasures, knowing
+the father of the Gods only to revile him! Let me pass."
+
+The stranger, if willing to hinder her, seemed little able. His eyes
+closed, his limbs relaxed, and without a cry he sank senseless on the
+sward.
+
+In an instant the maiden was kneeling by his side. Hastily undoing a basket
+she carried on her arm, she drew forth a leather flask, and, supporting
+the sunken head with one hand, poured a stream of wine through the lips
+with the other. As the gurgling purple coursed down his throat the sufferer
+opened his eyes, and thanked her silently with a smile of exquisite
+sweetness. Removing the large leaves which shaded the contents of the
+basket, she disclosed ripe figs and pomegranates, honeycomb and snow-white
+curd, lying close to each other in tempting array. The stranger took of
+each alternately, and the basket was well-nigh emptied ere his appetite
+seemed assuaged.
+
+The observant maiden, meanwhile, felt her mood strangely altered.
+
+"So have I imaged Ulysses to myself," she thought as she gazed on the
+stranger's goodly form, full of vigour, though not without traces of age,
+the massive brow, the kindly mouth, the expression of far-seeing wisdom.
+"Such a man ignorant of letters, and a contemner of Zeus!"
+
+The stranger's eloquent thanks roused her from a reverie. The Greek tongue
+fell upon her ear like the sweetest music, and she grieved when its flow
+was interrupted by a question addressed directly to herself.
+
+"Can a God feel hunger and thirst?"
+
+"Surely no," she rejoined.
+
+"I should have said the same yesterday," returned the stranger.
+
+"Wherefore not to-day?"
+
+"Dear maiden," responded he, with winning voice and manner, "we must know
+each other better ere my tale can gain credence with thee. Do thou rather
+unfold what thine own speech has left dark to me. Why the language of the
+Gods,  as should seem, is here understood by thee and me alone; what foes
+Zeus has here other than myself; what is the profane crowd of which thou
+didst speak; and why, alone and defenceless, thou ascendest this mountain.
+Think of me, if thou wilt, as one fallen from the clouds."
+
+"Strange man," returned the maiden, "who knowest Homer's speech and not
+Homer's self, who renouncest Zeus and resemblest him, hear my tale ere I
+require thine. Yesterday I should have called myself the last priestess of
+Apollo in this fallen land, to-day I have neither shrine nor altar. Moved
+by I know not what madness, my countrymen have long ago forsaken the
+worship of the Gods. The temples crumbled into ruin, prayer was no longer
+offered or sacrifice made as of old, the priestly revenues were plundered;
+the sacred vessels carried away; the voice of oracles became dumb; the
+divine tongue of Greece was forgotten, its scrolls of wisdom mouldered
+unread, and the deluded people turned to human mechanics and fishermen. One
+faithful servant of Apollo remained, my father; but 'tis seven days since
+he closed his eyes for ever. It was time, for yesternoon the heralds
+proclaimed by order of the King that Zeus and the Olympians should be named
+no more in Caucasia."
+
+"Ha!" interrupted the stranger, "I see it all. Said I not so?" he shouted,
+gazing into the sky as if his eye could pierce and his voice reach beyond
+the drifting clouds. "But to thy own tale," he added, turning with a
+gesture of command to the astonished Elenko.
+
+"It is soon told," she said. "I knew that it was death to serve the Gods
+any more, yet none  the less in my little temple did fire burn upon
+Apollo's altar this morning. Scarcely was it kindled ere I became aware of
+a ruffianly mob thronging to sack and spoil. I was ready for death, but not
+at their hands. I caught up this basket, and escaped up the mountain. On
+its inaccessible summit, it is reported, hangs Prometheus, whom Zeus (let
+me bow in awe before his inscrutable counsels) doomed for his benevolence
+to mankind. To him, as Aeschylus sings, Io of old found her way, and from
+him received monition and knowledge of what should come to pass. I will try
+if courage and some favouring God will guide me to him; if not, I will die
+as near Heaven as I may attain. Tell me on thy part what thou wilt, and let
+me depart. If thou art indeed Zeus's enemy, thou wilt find enough on thy
+side down yonder."
+
+"I have been Zeus's enemy," returned the stranger, mildly and gravely, "I
+am so no longer. Immortal hate befits not the mortal I feel myself to have
+become. Nor needest thou ascend the peak further. Maiden, I am Prometheus!"
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+It is a prerogative of the Gods that, when they do speak sooth, mortals
+must needs believe them. Elenko hence felt no incredulity at the revelation
+of Prometheus, or sought other confirmation than the bonds and broken links
+of chain at his wrists and ankles.
+
+"Now," he cried, or rather shouted, "is the  prophecy fulfilled with which
+of old I admonished the Gods in the halls of Olympus. I told them that Zeus
+should beget a child mightier than himself, who should send him and them
+the way he had sent his father. I knew not that this child was already
+begotten, and that his name was Man. It has taken Man ages to assert
+himself, nor has he yet, as it would seem, done more than enthrone a new
+idol in the place of the old. But for the old, behold the last traces of
+its authority in these fetters, of which the first smith will rid me.
+Expect no thunderbolt, dear maiden; none will come: nor shall I regain the
+immortality of which I feel myself bereaved since yesterday."
+
+"Is this no sorrow to thee?" asked Elenko.
+
+"Has not my immortality been one of pain?" answered Prometheus. "Now I feel
+no pain, and dread one only."
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"The pain of missing a certain fellow-mortal," answered Prometheus, with a
+look so expressive that the hitherto unawed maiden cast her eyes to the
+ground. Hastening away from the conversation to which, nevertheless, she
+inly purposed to return.
+
+"Is Man, then, the maker of Deity?" she asked.
+
+"Can the source of his being originate in himself?" asked Prometheus. "To
+assert this were self-contradiction, and pride inflated to madness. But of
+the more exalted beings who have like him emanated from the common
+principle of all existence, Man, since his advent on the earth, though not
+the creator, is the preserver or the destroyer. He looks up to them, and
+they are; he out-grows  them, and they are not. For the barbarian and
+Triballian gods there is no return; but the Olympians, if dead as deities,
+survive as impersonations of Man's highest conceptions of the beautiful.
+Languid and spectral indeed must be their existence in this barbarian age;
+but better days are in store for them."
+
+"And for thee, Prometheus?"
+
+"There is now no place," replied he, "for an impeacher of the Gods. My
+cause is won, my part is played. I am rewarded for my love of man by myself
+becoming human. When I shall have proved myself also mortal I may haply
+traverse realms which Zeus never knew, with, I would hope, Elenko by my
+side."
+
+Elenko's countenance expressed her full readiness to accompany Prometheus
+as far beyond the limits of the phenomenal world as he might please to
+conduct her. A thought soon troubled her delicious reverie, and she
+inquired:
+
+"Peradventure, then, the creed which I have execrated may be truer and
+better than that which I have professed?"
+
+"If born in wiser brains and truer hearts, aye," answered Prometheus, "but
+of this I can have no knowledge. It seems from thy tale to have begun but
+ill. Yet Saturn mutilated his father, and his reign was the Golden Age."
+
+While conversing, hand locked in hand, they had been strolling aimlessly
+down the mountain. Turning an abrupt bend in the path, they suddenly found
+themselves in presence of an assembly of early Christians.
+
+These confessors were making the most of Elenko's dilapidated temple, whose
+smoking shell  threw up a sable column in the background. The effigies of
+Apollo and the Muses had been dragged forth, and were being diligently
+broken up with mallets and hammers. Others of the sacrilegious throng were
+rending scrolls, or dividing vestments, or firing the grove of laurel that
+environed the shrine, or pelting the affrighted birds as they flew forth.
+The sacred vessels, however, at least those of gold and silver, appeared
+safe in the guardianship of an episcopal personage of shrewd and jovial
+aspect, under whose inspection they were being piled up by a troop of
+sturdy young ecclesiastics, the only weapon-bearers among the rabble.
+Elenko stood riveted to the ground. Prometheus, to her amazement, rushed
+forward to one of the groups with a loud "By all the Gods and Goddesses!"
+Following his movements, she saw that the object of his interest was an
+enormous dead eagle carried by one of the mob. The multitude, startled by
+his cry and his emotion, gazed eagerly at the strangers, and instantly a
+shout went up:
+
+"The heathen woman!"
+
+"With a heathen man!"
+
+And clubs began to be brandished, and stones to be picked up from the
+ground.
+
+Prometheus, to whom the shouts were unintelligible, looked wistfully at
+Elenko. As their eyes met, Elenko's countenance, which had hitherto been
+all disdain and defiance, assumed an expression of irresolution. A stone
+struck Prometheus on the temple, drawing blood; a hundred hands went up,
+each weighted with a missile.
+
+"Do as I," cried Elenko to him, and crossed herself.
+
+Prometheus imitated her, not unsuccessfully for a novice.
+
+The uplifted arms were stayed, some even sank down.
+
+By this time the Bishop had bustled to the front, and addressed a torrent
+of questions to Prometheus, who merely shook his head, and turned to
+inspect the eagle.
+
+"Brethren," said the Bishop, "I smell a miracle!" And, turning to Elenko,
+he rapidly proceeded to cross-examine her.
+
+"Thou wert the priestess of this temple?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"Thou didst leave it this morning a heathen?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Thou returnest a Christian?"
+
+Elenko blushed fire, her throat swelled, her heart beat violently. All her
+soul seemed concentrated in the gaze she fastened on the pale and bleeding
+Prometheus. She remained silent--but she crossed herself.
+
+"Who then has persuaded thee to renounce Apollo?"
+
+Elenko pointed to Prometheus.
+
+"An enemy of Zeus, then?"
+
+"Zeus has not such another enemy in the world."
+
+"I knew it, I was sure of it," exclaimed the Bishop. "I can always tell a
+Christian when I see him. Wherefore speaks he not?"
+
+"He is ancient, for all his vigorous mien. His martyrdom began ere our
+present speech was, nor could he learn this in his captivity."
+
+"Martyrdom! Captivity!" exclaimed the prelate gleefully, "I thought we were
+coming thither. An early martyr, doubtless?"
+
+"A very early martyr."
+
+"Fettered and manacled?"
+
+"Behold his wrists and ankles."
+
+"Tortured, of course?"
+
+"Incredibly."
+
+"Miraculously kept alive to this day?"
+
+"In an entirely supernatural manner."
+
+"Now," said the Bishop, "I would wager my mitre and ring that his life was
+prolonged by the daily ministrations of yonder fowl that he caresses with
+such singular affection?"
+
+"Never," replied Elenko, "for one day did that most punctual bird omit to
+visit him."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the Bishop. "And now, its mission accomplished, the
+blessed creature, as I am informed, is found dead at the foot of the
+mountain. Saints and angels! this is glorious! On your knees, ye infidels!"
+
+And down they all went, the Bishop setting the example. As their heads were
+bowed to the earth, Elenko made a sign to Prometheus, and when the
+multitude looked up, it beheld him in the act of imparting the episcopal
+blessing.
+
+"Tell him that we are all his brethren," said the Bishop, which
+announcement became in Elenko's mouth, "Do as I do, and cleave to thy
+eagle."
+
+A procession was formed. The new saint, his convert, and the eagle, rode in
+a car at the head of it. The Bishop, surrounded by his bodyguard, followed
+with the sacred vessels of Apollo, to which he had never ceased to direct a
+vigilant eye throughout the whole proceedings. The multitude swarmed along
+singing hymns, or contending for the stray feathers of the eagle. The
+representatives of seven monasteries put in their  claims for the links of
+Prometheus's fetters, but the Bishop scouted them all. He found time to
+whisper to Elenko:
+
+"You seem a sensible young person. Just hint to our friend that we don't
+want to hear anything about his theology, and the less he talks about the
+primitive Church the better. No doubt he is a most intelligent man, but he
+cannot possibly be up to all the recent improvements."
+
+Elenko promised most fervently that Prometheus' theological sentiments
+should remain a mystery to the public. She then began to reflect very
+seriously on the subject of her own morals. "This day," she said to
+herself, "I have renounced all the Gods, and told lies enough to last me my
+life, and for no other reason than that I am in love. If this is a
+sufficient reason, lovers must have a different code of morality from the
+rest of the world, and indeed it would appear that they have. Will you die
+for me? Yes. Admirable. Will you lie for me? No. Then you don't love me.
+[Greek: Ball' eis korakas, eis Tainaron, eis 'Ogg Kogg]."
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Elenko soon found that there was no pausing upon the path to which she had
+committed herself. As the sole medium of communication between Prometheus
+and the religious public, her time was half spent in instructing Prometheus
+in the creed in which he was supposed to have instructed her, and half in
+framing the edifying  sentences which passed for the interpretation of
+discourses for the most part far more interesting to herself than if they
+had been what they professed to be. The rapt and impassioned attention
+which she was observed to bestow on his utterances on such occasions all
+but gained her the reputation of a saint, and was accepted as a sufficient
+set-off against the unhallowed affection which she could not help
+manifesting for the memory of her father. The judicious reluctance of the
+Caucasian ecclesiastics to inquire over-anxiously into the creeds and
+customs of the primitive Church was a great help to her; and another
+difficulty was removed by the Bishop, who, having no idea of encouraging a
+rival thaumaturgist, took an early opportunity of signifying that it was
+rather in the line of Desmotes (for by this name the new saint passed) to
+be the subject than the instrument of miracles, and that, at all events, no
+more were to be looked for from him at his time of life. The warmth with
+which Elenko espoused this view raised her greatly in his good opinion, and
+he was always ready to come to her aid when she became entangled in
+chronological or historical difficulties, or seasoned her versions of
+Desmotes' speeches with reminiscences of Plato or Marcus Aurelius, or when
+her invention failed altogether. On such occasions, if objectors grew
+troublesome, the Bishop would thunder, "Brethren, I smell a heresy!" and no
+more was said. One minor trouble both to Prometheus and Elenko was the
+affection they were naturally expected to manifest towards the carcase of
+the wretched eagle, which many identified with the eagle of the Evangelist
+John. Prometheus  was of a forgiving disposition, but Elenko wished nothing
+more ardently than that the whole aquiline race might have but one neck,
+and that she might wring it. It somewhat comforted her to observe that the
+eagle's plumage was growing thin, while the eagle's custodian was growing
+fat.
+
+But she had worse troubles to endure than any that eagles could occasion.
+The youth of those who resorted to her and Prometheus attracted remark from
+the graver members of the community. Young ladies found the precepts of the
+handsome and dignified saint indispensable to their spiritual health; young
+men were charmed with their purity as they came filtered through the lips
+of Elenko. Is man more conceited than woman, or more confiding? Elenko
+should certainly have been at ease; no temptress, however enterprising,
+could well be spreading her nets for an Antony three hundred years old.
+Prometheus, on the contrary, might have found cause for jealousy in many a
+noble youth's unconcealed admiration of Elenko. Yet he seemed magnificently
+unconscious of any cause for apprehension, while Elenko's heart swelled
+till it was like to burst. She had the further satisfaction of knowing
+herself the best hated woman in Caucasia, between the enmity of those of
+whose admirers she had made an involuntary conquest, and of those who found
+her standing between them and Prometheus. Her monopoly of Greek, she felt
+sure, was her only security. Two constant attendants at Prometheus's
+receptions particularly alarmed her, the Princess Miriam, niece of the
+Bishop, a handsome widow accustomed to have  things as she wished them; and
+a tall veiled woman who seemed unknown to all, but whose unseen eyes, she
+instinctively knew, were never averted from the unconscious Prometheus.
+
+It was therefore with some trepidation that she received a summons to the
+private apartment of the Princess Miriam.
+
+"Dear friend," the Princess began, "thou knowest the singular affection
+which I have invariably entertained for thee."
+
+"Right well do I know it," responded Elenko. ("The thirty-first lie
+to-day," she added wearily to herself.)
+
+"It is this affection, dear friend," continued the Princess, "which induces
+me on the present occasion to transgress the limits of conventional
+propriety, and make a communication distressing to thee, but infinitely
+more so to myself."
+
+Elenko implored the Princess to make no such sacrifice in the cause of
+friendship, but the great lady was resolute.
+
+"People say," she continued--
+
+"What say they?"
+
+"That thy relation to Desmotes is indiscreet. That it is equivocal. That it
+is offensive. That it is sacrilegious. That, in a word, it is improper."
+
+Elenko defended herself with as much energy as her candour would allow.
+
+"Dear friend," said the Princess, "thou dost not imagine that I have part
+or lot in these odious imputations? Even could I deem them true, should I
+not think charitably of thee, but yesterday a heathen, and educated in
+impiety by a foul sorcerer? My poor lamb! But tongues must be  stopped, and
+I have now to advise thee how this may be accomplished."
+
+"Say on."
+
+"People will always talk so long as thou art the sole medium of
+communication with the holy man. Some deem him less ignorant of our speech
+than he seems, but concerning this I inquire not: for, in society, what
+seems, is. Enough that thy colloquies expose thee to scandal. There is but
+one remedy. Thou must yield thy place to another. It is meet that thou
+forthwith instruct in that barbarous dialect some matron of unblemished
+repute and devout aspirations; no mere ignorant devotee, however, but a
+woman of the world, whose prudence and experience may preserve the holy man
+from the pitfalls set for him by the unprincipled. Manifestly she must be a
+married person, else nought were gained, yet must she not be chargeable
+with forsaking her duties towards her husband and children. It follows that
+she must be a widow. It were also well that she should be of kin to some
+influential personage, to whose counsel she might have recourse in times of
+difficulty, and whose authority might protect her against the slanderous
+and evil disposed. I have not been able to meet any one endowed with all
+these qualifications, excepting myself. I therefore propose to thee that
+thou shouldst instruct me in the speech of Desmotes, and when I am
+qualified to take thy place my uncle shall elevate thee to the dignity of
+Abbess, or bestow thee upon some young clergyman of extraordinary desert."
+
+Elenko intimated, perhaps with more warmth than necessary, her aversion to
+both propositions,  and the extreme improbability of the Princess ever
+acquiring any knowledge of Greek by her instrumentality.
+
+"If this is the case," said the Princess, with perfect calmness, "I must
+have recourse to my other method, which is infallible."
+
+Elenko inquired what it might be.
+
+"I shall represent to my uncle, what indeed he very well knows, that a
+saint is, properly speaking, of no value till he is dead. Not until his
+decease are his relics available, or pilgrimages to his shrine feasible. It
+is solely in anticipation of this event that my uncle is keeping Desmotes
+at all; and the sooner it comes to pass, the sooner will my revered
+relative come by his own. Only think of the capital locked up in the new
+church, now so nearly completed, on the spot where they picked up the
+eagle! How shall it be dedicated to Desmotes in Desmotes' lifetime? Were it
+not a most blissful and appropriate coincidence if the day of the
+consecration were that of the saint's migration to a better world? I shall
+submit this view of the case to my uncle: he is accustomed to hear reason
+from me, of whom, between ourselves, he is not a little afraid. Thou mayest
+rely upon it that about the time of the consecration Desmotes will ascend
+to heaven; while thou, it is gravely to be feared, wilt proceed in the
+opposite direction. Would'st thou avert this unpleasantness, think well of
+my first proposal. I give thee credit for loving Desmotes, and suppose,
+therefore, that thou wilt make some sacrifice for his sake. I am a Kettle,
+thou art a Pot. Take heed how thou knockest against me!"
+
+Elenko sped back to bear tidings of the  threatened collision to
+Prometheus. As she approached his chamber she heard with astonishment two
+voices in eager conversation, and discovered with still greater amazement
+that their dialogue was carried on in Greek. The second speaker, moreover,
+was evidently a female. A jealous pang shot through Elenko's breast; she
+looked cautiously in, and discerned the same mysterious veiled woman whose
+demeanour had already been an enigma to her. But the veil was thrown back,
+and the countenance went far to allay Elenko's disquiet. It bore indeed
+traces of past beauty, but was altogether that of one who had known better
+days; worn and faded, weary and repining. Elenko's jealousy vanished,
+though her surprise redoubled, when she heard Prometheus address the
+stranger as "Sister."
+
+"A pretty brother I have got," rejoined the lady, in high sharp tones: "to
+leave me in want! Never once to inquire after me!"
+
+"Nay, sister, or sister-in-law," responded Prometheus, "if it comes to
+that, where were you while I was on Caucasus? The Oceanides ministered to
+me, Hermes came now and then, even Hercules left a card; but I never saw
+Pandora."
+
+"How could I compromise Epimetheus, Prometheus?" demanded Pandora.
+"Besides, my attendant Hope was always telling me that all would come
+right, without any meddling of mine."
+
+"Let her tell you so now," retorted Prometheus.
+
+"Tell me now! Do you pretend not to know that the hussey forsook Olympus
+ten years ago, and has turned Christian?"
+
+"I am sure I am very sorry to hear it. Somehow,  she never forsook _me_. I
+can't imagine how you Gods get on without her."
+
+"Get on! We are getting off. Except Eros and Plutus, who seem as usual, and
+the old Fates, who go on spinning as if nothing had happened, none of us
+expects to last for another ten years. The sacrifices have dwindled down to
+nothing. Zeus has put down his eagle. Hera has eaten her peacocks. Apollo's
+lyre is never heard--pawned, no doubt. Bacchus drinks water, and
+Venus--well, you can imagine how she gets on without him and Ceres. And
+here you are, sleek and comfortable, and never troubling yourself about
+your family. But you had better, or I swear I will tell Zeus; and we shall
+see whether these Christians will keep you with your ante-chamber full of
+starving gods. Take a day to think of what I have been saying!"
+
+And away she flounced, not noticing Elenko. Long and earnestly did the pair
+discuss the perils that menaced them, and at the end of their deliberations
+Elenko sought the Bishop, and briefly imparted the Princess Miriam's
+ultimatum.
+
+"It is painful to a spiritual man," replied the prelate, "to be accessory
+to a murder. It is also repugnant to his feelings to deny a beloved niece
+anything on which she has set her heart. To avoid such grievous dilemma, I
+judge it well that ye both ascend to heaven without further ceremony."
+
+That night the ascent of Prometheus and Elenko was witnessed by divers
+credible persons. The new church was consecrated shortly afterwards. It was
+amply stored with relics from the wardrobe of Prometheus and what remained
+of the eagle. The damsels of the capital regained their  admirers, and
+those who had become enamoured of Prometheus mostly transferred their
+affections to the Bishop. Everybody was satisfied except the Princess
+Miriam, who never ceased to deplore her indulgence in giving Elenko the
+chance of first speech with her uncle.
+
+"If I had been five minutes beforehand with the minx!" she said.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+The heaven to which Prometheus and Elenko had ascended was situated in a
+sequestered valley of Laconia. A single winding path led into the glen,
+which was inhabited only by a few hunters and shepherds, who still observed
+the rites of the ancient faith; and sometimes, deeming but to show kindness
+to a mortal, refreshed or sheltered a forlorn and hungry Deity. Saving at
+the entrance the vale was walled round by steep cliffs, for the most part
+waving with trees, but here and there revealing the naked crag. It was
+traversed by a silvery stream, in its windings enclosing Prometheus's and
+Elenko's cottage, almost as in an island. The cot, buried in laurel and
+myrtle, had a garden where fig and mulberry, grape and almond, ripened in
+their season. A few goats browsed on the long grass, and yielded their milk
+to the household. Bread and wine, and flesh when needed, were easily
+procured from the neighbours. Beyond necessary furniture, the cottage
+contained little but precious scrolls, obtained by Elenko from Athens and
+the newly founded city of Constantine. In these, under  her guidance,
+Prometheus read of matters that never, while he dwelt on Olympus, entered
+the imagination of any God.
+
+It is a chief happiness of lovers that each possesses treasures wholly
+their own, which they may yet make fully the possession of the other. These
+treasures are of divers kinds, beauty, affection, memory, hope. But never
+were such treasures of knowledge shared between lovers as between
+Prometheus and Elenko. Each possessed immeasurable stores, hitherto
+inaccessible to the other. How trifling seemed the mythical lore which
+Elenko had gleaned as the minister of Phoebus to that now imparted by
+Prometheus! The Titan had seen all, and been a part of all that he had
+seen. He had bowed beneath the sceptre of Uranus, he had witnessed his
+fall, and marked the ocean crimson with his blood. He remembered hoary
+Saturn a brisk active Deity, pushing his way to the throne of Heaven, and
+devouring in a trice the stone that now resists his fangs for millenniums.
+He had heard the shields of the Corybantes clash around the infant Zeus; he
+described to Elenko how one day the sea had frothed and boiled, and
+undraped Aphrodite had ascended from it in the presence of the gazing and
+applauding amphitheatre of cloud-cushioned gods. He could depict the
+personal appearance of Cybele, and sketch the character of Enceladus. He
+had instructed Zeus, as Chiron had instructed Achilles; he remembered
+Poseidon afraid of the water, and Pluto of the dark. He called to mind and
+expounded ancient oracles heretofore unintelligible: he had himself been
+told, and had disbelieved, that the happiest day  of his own life would be
+that on which he should feel himself divested of immortality. Of the
+younger gods and their doings he knew but little; he inquired with interest
+whether Bacchus had returned in safety from his Indian expedition, and
+whether Proserpine had a family of divine imps.
+
+Much more, nevertheless, had Elenko to teach Prometheus than she could
+learn from him. How trivial seemed the history of the gods to what he now
+heard of the history of men! Were these indeed the beings he had known
+"like ants in the sunless recesses of caves, dwelling deep-burrowing in the
+earth, ignorant of the signs of the seasons," to whom he had given fire and
+whom he had taught memory and number, for whom he had "brought the horse
+under the chariot, and invented the sea-beaten, flaxen-winged chariot of
+the sailor?" And now, how poorly showed the gods beside this once wretched
+brood! What Deity could die for Olympus, as Leonidas had for Greece? Which
+of them could, like Iphigenia, dwell for years beside the melancholy sea,
+keeping a true heart for an absent brother? Which of them could raise his
+fellows nearer to the source of all Deity, as Socrates and Plato had raised
+men? Who could portray himself as Phidias had portrayed Athene? Could the
+Muses speak with their own voices as they had spoken by Sappho's? He was
+especially pleased to see his own moral superiority to Zeus so eloquently
+enforced by �schylus, and delighted in criticising the sentiments which
+the other poets had put into the mouths of the gods. Homer, he thought,
+must have been in Olympus often, and Aristophanes not seldom. When he read
+in the Cyclops  of Euripides, "Stranger, I laugh to scorn Zeus's
+thunderbolts," he grew for a moment thoughtful. "Am I," he questioned,
+"ending where Polyphemus began?" But when he read a little further on:
+
+  The wise man's only Jupiter is this,
+  To eat and drink during his little day,
+  And give himself no care--
+
+"No," he said, "the Zeus that nailed me to the rock is better than this
+Zeus. But well for man to be rid of both, if he does not put another in
+their place; or, in dropping his idolatry, has not flung away his religion.
+Heaven has not departed with Zeus." And, taking his lyre, he sang:
+
+  What floods of lavish splendour
+    The lofty sun doth pour!
+  What else can Heaven render?
+    What room hath she for more?
+
+  Yet shall his course be shortly done,
+    And after his declining
+  The skies that held a single Sun
+    With thousands shall be shining.
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+It was not long ere the gods began to find their way to Prometheus's
+earthly paradise, and who came once came again. The first was Epimetheus,
+who had probably suffered least of all from the general upset, having in
+truth little to lose since his ill-starred union with Pandora. He had
+indeed reason for thankfulness in his practical divorce from his spouse,
+who had settled in  Caucasia, and gave Greek lessons to the Princess
+Miriam. Would Prometheus lend him half a talent? a quarter? a tenth? a
+hundredth? Thanks, thanks. Prometheus might rely upon it that his residence
+should not be divulged on any account. Notwithstanding which assurance, the
+cottage was visited next day by eleven gods and demigods, mostly Titans.
+Elenko found it trying, and was really alarmed when by and by the Furies,
+having made over their functions to the Devil, strolled up to take the air,
+and dropped in for a chat, bringing Cerberus. But they behaved exceedingly
+well, and took back a message from Elenko to Eurydice. Ere long she was on
+most intimate terms with all the dethroned divinities, celestial, infernal,
+and marine.
+
+Beautiful and blessed beyond most things is youthful enthusiasm, looking up
+to something it feels or deems above itself. Beautiful, too, as autumn
+sunshine is maturity looking down with gentleness on the ideal it has
+surpassed, and reverencing it still for old ideas and associations. The
+thought of beholding a Deity would once have thrilled Elenko with rapture,
+if this had not been checked by awe at her own presumption. The idea that a
+Deity, other than some disgraced offender like Prometheus, could be the
+object of her compassion, would never have entered her mind. And now she
+pitied the whole Olympian cohort most sincerely, not so much for having
+fallen as for having deserved to fall. She could not conceal from herself
+how grievously they were one and all behind the age. It was impossible to
+make Zeus comprehend how an idea could be a match for a thunderbolt. Apollo
+spoke handsomely  of Homer, yet evidently esteemed the Iliad and Odyssey
+but lightly in comparison with the blind bard's hymn to himself. Ceres
+candidly admitted that her mind was a complete blank on the subject of the
+Eleusinian mysteries. Aphrodite's dress was admirable for summer, but in
+winter seemed obstinate conservatism; and why should Pallas make herself a
+fright with her Gorgon helmet, now that it no longer frightened anybody?
+Where Elenko would fain have adored she found herself tolerating, excusing,
+condescending. How many Elenkos are even now tenderly nursing ancient
+creeds, whose main virtue is the virtue of their professors!
+
+One autumn night all the principal gods were assembled under Prometheus's
+roof, doing justice to the figs and mulberries, and wine cooled with
+Taygetan snow. The guests were more than usually despondent. Prometheus was
+moody and abstracted, his breast seemed labouring with thought. "So looked
+my Pythoness," whispered Apollo to his neighbour, "when about to deliver an
+oracle."
+
+And the oracle came--in lyric verse, not to infringe any patent of
+Apollo's--
+
+  When o'er the towers of Constantine
+  An Orient Moon begins to shine,
+  Waning nor waxing aught, and bright
+  In daytide as in deep of night:
+  Then, though the fane be brought
+  To wreck, the God shall find,
+  Enthroned in human thought,
+  A temple in the mind.
+
+"And what becomes of us while this prodigious moonshine is concocting?"
+demanded Zeus, who had become the most sceptical of any of the gods.
+
+"Go to Elysium," suggested Prometheus.
+
+"There's an idea!" cried Zeus and Pallas together.
+
+"To Elysium! to Elysium!" exclaimed the other gods, and all rose
+tumultuously, saving two.
+
+"I go not," said Eros, "for where Love is, there is Elysium. And yonder
+rising moon tells me that my hour is come." And he flitted forth.
+
+"Neither go I," said an old blind god, "for where Plutus is, Elysium is
+not. Moreover, mankind would follow after me. But I too must away. Strange
+that I should have abode so long under the roof of a pair of perfect
+virtue." And he tottered out.
+
+But the other gods swept forth into the moonlight, and were seen no more.
+And Prometheus picked up the forsaken sandals of Hermes, and bound them on
+his own feet, and grasped Elenko, and they rose up by a dizzy flight to
+empty heaven. All was silent in those immense courts, vacant of everything
+save here and there some rusty thunderbolt or mouldering crumb of ambrosia.
+Above, around, below, beyond sight, beyond thought, stretched the still
+deeps of �ther, blazing with innumerable worlds. Eye could rove nowhither
+without beholding a star, nor could star be beheld from which the Gods'
+hall, with all its vastness, would not have been utterly invisible. Elenko
+leaned over the battlements, and watched the racing meteors. Prometheus
+stood by her, and pointed out in the immeasurable distance the little speck
+of shining dust from which they had flown.
+
+"There? or here?" he asked.
+
+"There!" said Elenko.
+
+
+
+
+THE POTION OF LAO-TSZE
+
+
+  And there the body lay, age after age,
+    Mute, breathing, beating, warm, and undecaying,
+  Like one asleep in a green hermitage,
+    With gentle sleep about its eyelids playing,
+  And living in its dreams beyond the rage
+    Of death or life; while they were still arraying
+  In liveries ever new the rapid, blind,
+  And fleeting generations of mankind.
+
+In the days of the Tang dynasty China was long happy under the sceptre of a
+good Emperor, named Sin-Woo. He had overcome the enemies of the land,
+confirmed the friendship of its allies, augmented the wealth of the rich,
+and mitigated the wretchedness of the poor. But most especially was he
+admired and beloved for his persecution of the impious sect of Lao-tsze,
+which he had well-nigh exterminated.
+
+It was but natural that such an Emperor should congratulate himself upon
+his goodness and worth; yet, as no human bliss is perfect, sorrow could not
+fail to enter his mind.
+
+"It is grievous to reflect," said he to his courtiers, "that if, as ye all
+affirm, there hath not been any Emperor of equal merit with myself before
+my time, neither will any such arise after me, my subjects must inevitably
+be sufferers by my death."
+
+To which the courtiers unanimously responded, "O Emperor, live for ever!"
+
+"Happy thought!" exclaimed the Emperor; "but wherewithal shall it be
+executed?"
+
+The Prime Minister looked at the Chancellor, the Chancellor looked at the
+Treasurer, the Treasurer looked at the Chamberlain, the Chamberlain looked
+at the Principal Bonze, the Principal Bonze looked at the Second Bonze,
+who, to his great surprise, looked at him in return.
+
+"When the turn comes to me," murmured the inferior functionary, "I would
+say somewhat."
+
+"Speak!" commanded the Emperor.
+
+"O Uncle of the stars," said the Bonze, "there are those in your Majesty's
+dominions who possess the power of lengthening life, who have, in fact,
+discovered the Elixir of Immortality."
+
+"Let them be immediately brought hither," commanded the Emperor.
+
+"Unhappily," returned the Bonze, "these persons, without exception, belong
+to the abominable sect of Lao-tsze, whose members your Majesty long ago
+commanded to cease from existence, with which august order they have for
+the most part complied. In my own diocese, where for some years after your
+Majesty's happy accession we were accustomed to impale twenty thousand
+annually, it is now difficult to find twenty, with the utmost diligence on
+the part of the executioners."
+
+"It has of late sometimes appeared to me," said the Emperor, "that there
+may be more good in that sect than I have been led to believe by my
+counsellors."
+
+"I have always thought," said the Prime Minister, "that they were rather
+misguided than wilfully wicked."
+
+"They are a kind of harmless lunatics," said the Chancellor; "they should,
+I think, be made wards in Chancery."
+
+"Their money does not appear different from other men's," said the
+Treasurer.
+
+"I," said the Chamberlain, "have known an old woman who had known another
+old woman who belonged to this sect, and who assured her that she had been
+very good when she was a little girl."
+
+"If," said the Emperor, "it appears that his Grace the Principal Bonze hath
+in any respect misled us, his property will necessarily be confiscated to
+the Imperial Treasury, and the Second Bonze will succeed to his office. It
+is needful, however, to ascertain before all things whether this sect does
+really possess the Elixir of Immortality, for on that the entire question
+of its deserts obviously depends. Our Counsellor the Second Bonze having,
+next to myself, the greatest interest in the matter, I desire him to make
+due inquiries and report to us at the next council, when I shall be
+prepared to state what fine will be imposed upon him, should he not have
+succeeded."
+
+That night all the members of the Lao-tsze sect inhabiting prisons under
+the jurisdiction of the Principal Bonze were decapitated, and the P.B. laid
+his own head upon his pillow with some approach to peace of mind, trusting
+that the knowledge of the Elixir of Immortality had perished with them.
+
+The Second Bonze, having a different object to attain, proceeded in a
+different manner. He sent for his captives, and discoursed to them touching
+the evil arts of unprincipled courtiers, and  the facility with which they
+mislead even the best intentioned princes. For years had he, the Second
+Bonze, pleaded the cause of toleration at court; and had at length
+succeeded in enlightening his Majesty to such an extent that there was
+every prospect of an edict of indulgence being shortly promulgated,
+provided always that the Elixir of Life was previously forthcoming.
+
+The unfortunate heretics would have been only too thankful to prolong the
+Emperor's life indefinitely in consideration of securing peace for their
+own, but they could only inform the Bonze of the general tradition of their
+sect. This was that the knowledge of Lao-tsze's secret was confined to
+certain adepts, most of whom were plunged into so deep a trance that any
+communication with them was impossible. For the administration of the
+miraculous draught, it appeared, was attended with this inconvenience, that
+it threw the partaker into a deep sleep, lasting any time between ten years
+and eternity, according to the depth of his potation. During its
+continuance the ordinary operations of nature were suspended, and the
+patient awoke with precisely the same bodily constitution, old or young, as
+he had possessed on falling into his lethargy; and though still liable to
+wounds and accidents, he or she continued to enjoy undiminished health and
+vigour for a period equal to the duration of the trance, after which he
+sank back into the ranks of mortality, unless he could repeat the potion.
+All the adepts who had come to life under his present Majesty's most
+clement reign had immediately emigrated: the only persons, therefore,
+capable of giving information were now buried in slumber, and of course
+would only speak when they should awake. They were mostly concealed in the
+recesses of caverns, those inhabited by wild beasts being usually preferred
+for the sake of better security, as no tiger or bear would harm a follower
+of Lao-tsze. The witnesses, therefore, advised the Bonze to ascertain the
+residences of the most ferocious tigers in his diocese, and to wait upon
+them personally, in the hope of thus discovering what he sought.
+
+This suggestion was exceedingly unpalatable to the Bonze, who felt almost
+equally unwilling to venture himself into a wild beast's den or to give any
+other person the chance of making the discovery. While he hesitated in
+unspeakable perplexity he was informed that an old man, about to expire at
+the age of an hundred and twenty years, desired to have speech with him.
+Thinking so venerable a personage likely to have at least a glimmering of
+the great secret, the Bonze hurried to his bedside.
+
+"Our master, Lao-tsze," began the old man, "forbids us to leave this world
+with anything undisclosed which may contribute to the advantage of our
+fellow-creatures. Whether he deemed the knowledge of the cup of immortality
+conducive to this end I cannot say, but the question doth not arise, for I
+do not possess it. Hear my tale, nevertheless. Ninety years ago, being a
+hunter, it was my hap to fall into the jaws of an enormous tiger, who bore
+me off to his cavern. I there found myself in the presence of two ladies,
+one youthful and of surpassing loveliness, the other haggard and wrinkled.
+The younger lady expostulated with the tiger, and he forthwith released me.
+My gratitude won the women's  confidence, and I learned that they were
+disciples of Lao-tsze who had repaired to the cavern to partake of the
+miraculous draught, which they were just about to do. They were, it
+appeared, mother and daughter, and I distinctly remember that the
+composition of the beverage was known to the daughter only. This impressed
+me, for I should naturally have expected the contrary. The tiger escorted
+me home. I forswore hunting, and became, and have secretly continued, a
+disciple of Lao-tsze. I will now indicate the position of the cavern to
+thee: whether the ladies will still be found in it is beyond my power to
+say."
+
+And having pointed out the direction of the cavern, he expired.
+
+The thing had to be done. The Bonze dressed himself up as much like a
+votary of Lao-tsze as possible, provided himself with a body-guard of _bona
+fide_ disciples, and, accompanied by a small army of huntsmen and warriors
+as well, marched in quest of the den of the tiger. It was discovered about
+nightfall, and having tethered a small boy near the entrance, that his
+screams when being devoured might give notice of the tiger's issue from or
+return to his habitation, the Bonze and his myrmidons took up a flank
+position and awaited the dawn. The distant howls of roaming beasts of prey
+entirely deprived the holy man of his rest, but nothing worse befell him,
+and when in the morning the small boy, instead of providing the tiger with
+a breakfast, was heard crying for his own, the besiegers mustered up
+courage to enter the cavern. The glare of their torches revealed no tiger:
+but, to the Bonze's inexpressible delight, two females lay on the floor of
+the cave,  corresponding in all respects to the description of the old man.
+Their costume was that of the preceding century. One was wrinkled and
+hoary; the inexpressible loveliness of the other, who might have seen
+seventeen or eighteen summers, extorted a universal cry of admiration,
+followed by a hush of enraptured silence. Warm, flexible, fresh in colour,
+breathing naturally as in slumber, the figures lay, the younger woman's arm
+underneath the elder woman's neck, and her chin nestling on the other's
+shoulder. The countenance of each seemed to indicate happy dreams.
+
+"Can this indeed be but a trance?" simultaneously questioned several of the
+Bonze's followers.
+
+"_Fiat experimentum in corpore vili!_" exclaimed the Bonze; and he thrust
+his long hunting spear into the elder woman's bosom. Blood poured forth
+freely, but there was no change in the expression of the countenance. No
+struggle announced dissolution; not until the body grew chill and the limbs
+stiff could they be sure the old woman was indeed dead.
+
+"Carry the young woman like porcelain," ordered the priest, and like the
+most fragile porcelain the exquisite young beauty was borne from the cavern
+smiling in her trance and utterly unconscious, while the corpse of her aged
+companion was abandoned to the hy�nas. So often did the bearers pause to
+look on her beauty that it was found necessary to drape the countenance
+entirely, until reaching the closed sedan in which, vigilantly watched by
+the Bonze, she was transported to the Imperial palace.
+
+And so she was brought to the Emperor, and he worshipped her. She was laid
+on a couch of cloth of gold in the Imperial apartments. Wonderful was the
+contrast between her youthful beauty, so still in its repose, and the old
+haggard Emperor, fevered with the lust of beauty and love of life.
+
+"O Majesty," said his wisest counsellor, "is there any sect in thy
+dominions that possesses the secret of perpetual youth?"
+
+And the Emperor made proclamation, but no such sect could be found. And he
+mourned exceedingly, and caused strong perfumes to be burned around the
+sleeper, and conches to be blown and gongs beaten in her ears, hoping that
+she would awake ere he was dead or wholly decrepit. But she stirred not.
+And he shut himself up with her and passed his time praying to Fo for her
+awakening.
+
+But one day the door of the chamber was beaten down, and his old wife came
+in passionately upbraiding him.
+
+"Sin-Woo," she cried, "thou hast not the heart of a man! Thou wouldest be
+deathless, leaving me to die! I shall be laid in the grave, and thou wilt
+reign with another! Wherefore have I been true to thee, if not that our
+ashes might mingle at the last? Thou hoary sensualist!"
+
+"Su-Ti," said the Emperor, with feeling, "thou dost grievously misjudge me.
+I am no heartless sensualist, no butterfly sipper at the lips of beauty. Is
+not my soul entirely possessed by this divine creature, whom I love with an
+affection infinitely exceeding that which I have entertained for thee at
+any period? And how knowest thou," added  he, striving to soothe her, "that
+I will not give thee to drink of the miraculous potion?"
+
+"And keep my grey hairs and wrinkles through all time! Nay, Sin-Woo, I am
+no fool like thee, and were I so, I am not in love with any youth. And know
+I not that even if I would accept the boon, thou would'st never give it?"
+
+And she rushed away in fury and hanged herself by her Imperial girdle.
+Whereupon all the other wives and concubines of the Emperor did likewise,
+as custom and reason prescribe. All the palace was filled with lamentation
+and funerals. But the Emperor lamented not, nor turned his gaze from the
+sleeper, nor did the sleeper awaken.
+
+And his son came to him angry with exceeding wrath.
+
+"Thou hast murdered my mother. Thou would'st rob me of the crown that is
+rightfully mine. I, born to be an Emperor, shall die a subject! Nay, but I
+will save thee from thyself. I will pierce thy leman with the sword, or
+burn her with fire."
+
+And the Emperor, fearing he would do as he threatened, commanded him to be
+slain, as also his brothers and sisters. And he paid no heed to the affairs
+of State, but gave all into the hand of the Second, now the Principal
+Bonze. And the laws ceased to be observed, and rebellions broke out in the
+provinces, and enemies invaded the country, and there was famine in the
+land.
+
+And now the Emperor was well-nigh ten years nearer to the gates of death
+than when the Sleeping Beauty had been brought to his court. The love of
+beauty was nearly quenched in him, but the longing for life grew more
+intense. He became  angry with the sleeper, that she awakened not, and with
+his little remaining strength smote her fiercely on the cheeks, but she
+gave no sign of reviving. Remembering that if he gained the potion of
+immortality he would himself be plunged into a trance, he made all
+preparations for the interregnum. He decreed that he was to be seated erect
+on his throne, with all his imperial insignia, and it was to be death to
+any one who should presume to remove any of them. His slumbering figure was
+to preside at all councils, and to be consulted in every act of state, and
+all ministers and officers were to do homage daily. The revived Sleeping
+Beauty was to partake of the draught anew, at the same time and in the same
+manner as himself, that she might awake with him, and that he might find
+her charms unimpaired. All the ministers swore solemnly to observe these
+regulations; firmly purposing to burn the sleeper, if sleep he ever did, at
+the very first opportunity, and scatter his ashes to the winds. Then they
+would fight for the Empire among themselves; each, meanwhile, was mainly
+occupied in striving to gain the rebels over to his interest, insomuch that
+the people grew more miserable day by day.
+
+And as the aged Emperor waxed more and more feeble, he began to see
+visions. Legions of little black imps surrounded him crying, "We are thy
+sins, and would be punished--would'st thou by living for ever deprive us
+of our due?" And fair female forms came veiled with drooping heads, and
+murmured, "We are thy virtues, and would be rewarded--would'st thou cheat
+us?" And other figures came, dark but lovely, and whispered,  "We are thy
+dead friends who have long waited for thee--would'st thou take to thyself
+new friends, and forget us?" And others said, "We are thy memories--wilt
+thou live on till we are all withered in thy heart?" And others said, "We
+are thy strength and thy beauty, thy memory and thy wit--canst thou live,
+knowing thou wilt never see us more?" And at last came two warders,
+officers of the King of Death, and one of them was laughing. And the other
+asked why he laughed, and he replied:
+
+"I laugh at the Emperor, who thinks to escape our master, not knowing that
+the moment of his decease was engraved with a pen of iron upon a rock of
+adamant a million million years or ever this world was."
+
+"And when comes it?" asked the other.
+
+"In ten minutes," said the first.
+
+When the Emperor heard this he was wild with terror, and tottered to the
+couch on which the Sleeping Beauty lay. "Oh, awake!" he cried, "awake and
+save me ere it is too late!" And, oh wonder! the sleeper stirred, and
+opened her eyes.
+
+If she had been so beautiful while sleeping, what was she when awake! But
+the love of life had overcome the love of beauty in the Emperor's bosom,
+and he saw not the eyes like stars, and the bloom as of peaches and lilies,
+or the aspect grand and smiling as daybreak. He could only cry, "Give me
+the potion, lest I die, give me the potion!"
+
+"That cannot I," she said. "The secret was known only to my daughter."
+
+"Who is thy daughter?"
+
+"The hoary woman, she who slept with me in the cavern."
+
+"That aged crone thy daughter, daughter to thee so youthful and so fresh?
+
+"Even so," she said, "I bore her at sixteen, and slumbered for seventy
+years. When I awoke she was withered and decrepit: I youthful as when I
+closed my eyes. But she had learned the secret, which I never knew."
+
+"The Bonze shall be crucified!" yelled the Emperor.
+
+"It is too late," said she; "he is torn in pieces already."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By the multitude that are now coming to do the like unto thee."
+
+And as she spoke the doors were burst open, and in rushed the people,
+headed by the most pious Bonze in the Empire (after the late Principal
+Bonze), who plunged a sword into the Emperor's breast, exclaiming:
+
+"He who despises this life in comparison with another deserves to lose the
+life which he has." Words, saith the historian Li, which have been thought
+worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold in the Hall of Confucius.
+
+And the people were crying, "Kill the sorceress!" But she looked upon them,
+and they cried, "Be our Empress!"
+
+"Remember," said she, "that ye will have to bear with me for a hundred
+years!"
+
+"Would," said they, "that it might be a hundred thousand!"
+
+So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously. Among her good acts is
+enumerated her toleration  of the followers of Lao-tsze. Since, however,
+they have ceased to be persecuted by man, it is observed that wild beasts
+have lost their ancient respect for them, and devour them with no less
+appetite than the members of other sects and denominations.
+
+
+
+
+ABDALLAH THE ADITE
+
+
+An aged hermit named Sergius dwelt in the wilds of Arabia, addicting
+himself to the pursuit of religion and alchemy. Of his creed it could only
+be said that it was so much better than that of his neighbours as to cause
+him to be commonly esteemed a Yezidi, or devil worshipper. But the better
+informed deemed him a Nestorian monk, who had retired into the wilderness
+on account of differences with his brethren, who sought to poison him.
+
+The imputation of Yezidism against Sergius was the cause that a certain
+inquisitive young man resorted to him, trusting to obtain light concerning
+the nature of demons. But he found that Sergius could give him no
+information on that subject, but, on the contrary, discoursed so wisely and
+beautifully on holy things, that his pupil's intellect was enlightened, and
+his enthusiasm was inflamed, and he longed to go forth and instruct the
+ignorant people around him; the Saracens, and the Sabaeans, and the
+Zoroastrians, and the Carmathians, and the Baphometites, and the
+Paulicians, who are a remnant of the ancient Manichees.
+
+"Nay, good youth," said Sergius, "I have renounced the sending forth of
+missionaries, having made ample trial with my spiritual son, the Prophet
+Abdallah."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the youth, "was Abdallah the Adite thy disciple?"
+
+"Even so," said Sergius. "Hearken to his history.
+
+"Never have I instructed so promising a pupil as Abdallah, nor when he was
+first my disciple do I deem that he was other than the most simple-minded
+and well-intentioned of youths. I always called him son, a title I have
+never bestowed on another. Like thee, he had compassion on the darkness
+around him, and craved my leave to go forth and dispel it.
+
+"'My son,' said I, 'I will not restrain thee: thou art no longer a child.
+Thou hast heard me discourse on the subject of persecution, and knowest
+that poison was administered to me personally on account of my inability to
+perceive the supernatural light emanating from the navel of Brother
+Gregory. Thou art aware that thou wilt be beaten with rods and pricked with
+goads, chained and starved in a dungeon, very probably blinded, very
+possibly burned with fire?'
+
+"'All these things I am prepared to undergo,' said Abdallah; and he
+embraced me and bid me farewell.
+
+"After certain moons he returned covered with weals and scars, and his
+bones protruded through his skin.
+
+"'Whence are these weals and scars?' asked I, 'and what signifies this
+protrusion of thy bones?'
+
+"'The weals and the scars,' answered he, 'proceed from the floggings
+inflicted upon me by command of the Caliph; and my bones protrude by reason
+of the omission of his officers to furnish  me with either food or drink in
+the dungeon wherein I was imprisoned by his orders.'
+
+"'O my son,' exclaimed I, 'in the eyes of faith and right reason these
+scars are lovelier than the moles of beauty, and the sight of thy bones is
+like the beholding of hidden treasure!'
+
+"And Abdallah strove to look as though he believed me; nor did he entirely
+fail therein. And I took him, and fed him, and healed him, and sent him
+forth a second time into the world.
+
+"And after a space he returned, covered as before with wounds and bruises,
+but comely and somewhat fat.
+
+"'Whence this sleekness of body, my son?' I asked.
+
+"'Through the charity of the Caliph's wives,' he answered, 'who have fed me
+secretly, I having assured them that in remembrance of this good work each
+of them in the world to come would have seven husbands.'
+
+"'How knewest thou this, my son?' I inquired.
+
+"'In truth, father,' he said, 'I did not know it; but I thought it
+probable.'
+
+"'O my son! my son!' exclaimed I, 'thou art on a dangerous road. To win
+over weak ignorant people by promises of what they shall receive in a
+future life, whereof thou knowest no more than they do! Knowest thou not
+that the inestimable blessings of religion are of an inward and spiritual
+nature? Did I ever promise any disciple any recompense for his
+enlightenment and good deeds, save flogging, starvation, and burning?'
+
+"'Never, father," said he, 'and therefore thou  hast had no follower of thy
+law save one, and he hath broken it.'
+
+"He left me after a shorter stay than before, and again went forth to
+preach. After a long time he returned in good condition of body, yet
+manifestly having something upon his mind.
+
+"'Father,' he said, 'thy son hath preached with faithfulness and
+acceptance, and turned thousands unto righteousness. But a sorcerer hath
+arisen, saying, "Why follow ye Abdallah, seeing that he breathes not fire
+out of his mouth and nostrils?" And the people give ear unto the words that
+come from this man's lips, when they behold the flame that cometh from his
+nose. And unless thou teachest me to do as he doth I shall assuredly
+perish.'
+
+"And I told Abdallah that it was better to perish for the truth's sake than
+to prolong life by lies and deceit. But he wept and lamented exceeding
+sore, and in the end he prevailed with me; and I taught him to breathe
+flame and smoke out of a hollow nut filled with combustible powder. And I
+took a certain substance called soap, but little known in this country, and
+anointed his feet therewith. And when he and the sorcerer met, both
+breathing flame, the people knew not which to follow; but when Abdallah
+walked over nine hot ploughshares, and the sorcerer could not touch one of
+them, they beat his brains out, and became Abdallah's disciples.
+
+"A long time afterward Abdallah came to me again, this time with a joyful,
+and yet with somewhat of a troubled look, carrying a camel-hair blanket,
+which he undid, and lo! it was full of bones.
+
+"'O father,' he said, 'I bring thee happy tidings. We have found the bones
+of the camel of the prophet Ad, upon which his revelation was engraved by
+him.'
+
+"'If this be so,' said I, 'thou art acquainted with the precepts of the
+prophet, and hast no need of mine.'
+
+"'Nay, but father,' said he, 'although the revelation was without question
+originally engraved by the prophet on these very bones, it hath come to
+pass by the injury of time that not one letter of his writing can be
+distinguished. I have therefore come to ask thee to write it over again.'
+
+"'What!' I exclaimed, 'I forge a revelation in the name of the prophet Ad!
+Get thee behind me!'
+
+"'Thou knowest, father,' he rejoined, 'that if we had the original words of
+the prophet Ad here they would profit us nought, as by reason of their
+antiquity none would understand them. Seeing therefore that I myself cannot
+write, it is meet that thou shouldst set down in his name those things
+which he would have desired to deliver had he been now among us; but if
+thou wilt not, I shall ask Brother Gregory.'
+
+"And when I heard him speak of having recourse to that cheat and impostor
+my spirit was grieved within me, and I wrote the Book of Ad myself. And I
+was heedful to put in none but wholesome and profitable precepts, and more
+especially did I forbid polygamy, having perceived a certain inclination
+thereunto in my disciple.
+
+"After many days he came again, and this time he was in violent terror and
+agitation, and hair was wanting to the lower part of his countenance.
+
+"'O Abdallah,' I inquired, 'where is thy beard?'
+
+"'In the hands of my ninth wife,' said he.
+
+"'Apostate!' I exclaimed, 'hast thou dared to espouse more wives than one?
+Rememberest thou not what is written in the Book of the prophet Ad?'
+
+"'O father,' he said, 'the revelation of Ad being, as thou knowest, so
+exceedingly ancient, doth of necessity require a commentary. This hath been
+supplied by one of my disciples, a young Syrian and natural son of Gregory,
+as I opine. This young man can not only write, but write to my dictation,
+an accomplishment in which thou hast been found lacking, O Sergius. In this
+gloss it is set forth how, since woman hath the ninth part of the soul of
+man, the prophet, in enjoining us Adites (as we now call ourselves) to take
+but one wife, doth instruct us to take nine; to espouse a tenth would, I
+grant, be damnable. It ensues, therefore, that having become enamoured of a
+most charming young virgin, I am constrained to repudiate one of the wives
+whom I have taken already. To this, each thinking that it may be her turn
+speedily, if not now, they will in no wise consent, and have maltreated me
+as thou seest, and the dens of wild beasts are at this moment abodes of
+peace, compared to my seraglio. What is even worse, they threaten to
+disclose to the people the fact, of which they have unhappily become aware,
+that the revelation of the blessed Ad is not written upon the bones of a
+camel at all, but of a cow, and will therefore be accounted spurious,
+inasmuch as the prophet is not recorded to have ridden upon this quadruped.
+And seeing  that thou didst inscribe the characters, O father, I cannot but
+fear that the fury of the people will extend unto thee, and that thou wilt
+be even in danger of thy life from them.'
+
+"This argument of Abdallah's had much weight with me, and I the more
+readily consented to his request as he did not on this occasion require any
+imposture at my hands, but merely the restitution of his domestic peace.
+And I went with him to his wives, and discoursed with them, and they agreed
+to abide by my sentence. And, willing to please him, I directed that he
+should marry the beautiful virgin, and put away one of his wives who was
+old and ugly, and endowed with the dispositions of Sheitan.
+
+"'O father,' said Abdallah, 'thou hast brought me from death unto life! And
+thou, Zarah,' he continued, 'wilt lose nought, but gain exceedingly, in
+becoming the spouse of the wise and virtuous Sergius.'
+
+"'I marry Zarah!' I exclaimed, 'I! a monk!'
+
+"'Surely,' said he, 'thou would'st not take away her husband without giving
+her another in his stead?'
+
+"'If he does I will throttle him,' cried Zarah.
+
+"And I wept sore, and made great intercession. And it was agreed that there
+should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else would marry
+Zarah, I should be free of her. And I promised all my substance to any one
+who would do this, and no one was found. And she was offered to thirteen
+criminals doomed to suffer death, and they all chose death. And at the last
+I was constrained to marry her. And truly I have now the comfort of
+thinking that if I have offended by  encouraging Abdallah's deceits, or
+otherwise, the debt is paid, and Eternal Justice hath now nothing against
+me; for verily I was an inmate of Gehenna until it came to pass that she
+was herself translated thither. And respecting the manner of her
+translation, inquire not thou too curiously. It was doubtless a token of
+the displeasure of Heaven at her enormities that the water of the well of
+Kefayat, which had been known as the Diamond of the Desert, became about
+this time undrinkable, and pernicious to man and beast.
+
+"As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased wife,
+which consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah again
+appeared before me.
+
+"'Hast thou come,' said I, 'to solicit me to abet thee in any new
+imposture? Know, once for all, that I will not.'
+
+"'On the contrary,' said he, 'I am come to set thee at ease by proving to
+thee that I shall not again require thy assistance. Follow me.'
+
+"And I followed him to a great plain, where was a host of armed horsemen
+and footmen, more than I could number. And they bore banners on which the
+name of Abdallah was embroidered in letters of gold. And in the midst was
+an ark of gold, with the bones of Ad's camel, or cow. And by this was a
+great pile of the heads of men, and warriors were continually casting more
+and more upon the heap.
+
+"'How many?' asked Abdallah.
+
+"'Twelve thousand, O Apostle of God,' answered they, 'but there are more to
+come.'
+
+"'Thou monster!' said I to Abdallah.
+
+"'Nay, father,' said he, 'there will not be more than sixteen thousand in
+all, and these men were unbelievers. Moreover we have spared such of their
+women as were young and handsome, and have taken them for our concubines,
+as is ordained in the eleventh supplement to the Book of Ad, just
+promulgated by my authority. But come, I have other things to manifest unto
+thee.'
+
+"And he led me where a stake was driven into the earth, and a man was
+chained unto it, and fuel was heaped all around him, and many stood by with
+lighted torches in their hands.
+
+"'O Abdallah,' I exclaimed, 'wherefore this atrocity?'
+
+"'This man,' he replied, 'is a blasphemer, who hath said that the Book of
+Ad is written on the bones of a cow.'
+
+"'But it is written on the bones of a cow! 'I cried.
+
+"'Even so,' said he, 'and therefore is his heresy the more damnable, and
+his punishment the more exemplary. Had it been indeed written on the bones
+of a camel, he might have affirmed what pleased him.'
+
+"And I shook off the dust from my feet, and hastened to my dwelling. The
+rest of Abdallah's acts thou knowest, and how he fell warring with the
+Carmathians. And now I ask thee, art thou yet minded to go forth as a
+missionary of the truth?"
+
+"O Sergius," said the young man, "I perceive that the temptations are
+greater, and the difficulties far surpassing what I had thought. Yet will I
+go, and I trust by Heaven's grace not to fail utterly."
+
+"Then go," said Sergius, "and Heaven's blessing go with thee! Come back in
+ten years, should I be living, and if thou canst declare that thou hast
+forged no scriptures, and worked no miracles, and persecuted no
+unbelievers, and flattered no potentate, and bribed no one with the promise
+of aught in heaven or earth, I will give thee the philosopher's stone."
+
+
+
+
+ANANDA THE MIRACLE WORKER
+
+
+The holy Buddha, Sakhya Muni, on dispatching his apostles to proclaim his
+religion throughout the peninsula of India, failed not to provide them with
+salutary precepts for their guidance. He exhorted them to meekness, to
+compassion, to abstemiousness, to zeal in the promulgation of his doctrine,
+and added an injunction never before or since prescribed by the founder of
+any religion--namely, on no account to perform any miracle.
+
+It is further related, that whereas the apostles experienced considerable
+difficulty in complying with the other instructions of their master, and
+sometimes actually failed therein, the prohibition to work miracles was
+never once transgressed by any of them, save only the pious Ananda, the
+history of whose first year's apostolate is recorded as follows.
+
+Ananda repaired to the kingdom of Magadha, and instructed the inhabitants
+diligently in the law of Buddha. His doctrine being acceptable, and his
+speech persuasive, the people hearkened to him willingly, and began to
+forsake the Brahmins whom they had previously revered as spiritual guides.
+Perceiving this, Ananda became elated in spirit, and one day he exclaimed:
+
+"How blessed is the apostle who propagates truth by the efficacy of reason
+and virtuous example, combined with eloquence, rather than error by
+imposture and devil-mongering, like those miserable Brahmins!"
+
+As he uttered this vainglorious speech, the mountain of his merits was
+diminished by sixteen yojanas, and virtue and efficacy departed from him,
+insomuch that when he next addressed the multitude they first mocked, then
+hooted, and finally pelted him.
+
+When matters had reached this pass, Ananda lifted his eyes and discerned a
+number of Brahmins of the lower sort, busy about a boy who lay in a fit
+upon the ground. They had long been applying exorcisms and other approved
+methods with scant success, when the most sagacious among them suggested:
+
+"Let us render the body of this patient an uncomfortable residence for the
+demon; peradventure he will then cease to abide therein."
+
+They were accordingly engaged in branding the sufferer with hot irons,
+filling his nostrils with smoke, and otherwise to the best of their ability
+disquieting the intrusive devil. Ananda's first thought was, "The lad is in
+a fit;" the second, "It were a pious deed to deliver him from his
+tormentors;" the third, "By good management this may extricate me from my
+present uncomfortable predicament, and redound to the glory of the most
+holy Buddha."
+
+Yielding to this temptation, he strode forward, chased away the Brahmins
+with an air of authority, and, uplifting his countenance to heaven, recited
+the appellations of seven devils. No effect ensuing,  he repeated seven
+more, and so continued until, the fit having passed off in the course of
+nature, the patient's paroxysms ceased, he opened his eyes, and Ananda
+restored him to his relatives. But the people cried loudly, "A miracle! a
+miracle!" and when Ananda resumed his instructions, they gave heed to him,
+and numbers embraced the religion of Buddha. Whereupon Ananda exulted, and
+applauded himself for his dexterity and presence of mind, and said to
+himself:
+
+"Surely the end sanctifies the means."
+
+As he propounded this heresy, the eminence of his merits was reduced to the
+dimensions of a mole-hill, and he ceased to be of account in the eyes of
+any of the saints, save only of Buddha, whose compassion is inexhaustible.
+
+The fame of his achievement, nevertheless, was bruited about the whole
+country, and soon reached the ears of the king, who sent for him, and
+inquired if he had actually expelled the demon.
+
+Ananda replied in the affirmative.
+
+"I am indeed rejoiced," returned the king, "as thou now wilt without doubt
+proceed to heal _my_ son, who has lain in a trance for twenty-nine days."
+
+"Alas! dread sovereign," modestly returned Ananda, "how should the merits
+which barely suffice to effect the cure of a miserable Pariah avail to
+restore the offspring of an Elephant among Kings?"
+
+"By what process are these merits acquired?" demanded the monarch.
+
+"By the exercise of penance," responded Ananda, "in virtue of which the
+austere devotee  quells the winds, allays the waters, expostulates
+convincingly with tigers, carries the moon in his sleeve, and otherwise
+performs all acts and deeds appropriate to the character of a peripatetic
+thaumaturgist."
+
+"This being so," answered the king, "thy inability to heal my son
+manifestly arises from defect of merit, and defect of merit from defect of
+penance. I will therefore consign thee to the charge of my Brahmins, that
+they may aid thee to fill up the measure of that which is lacking."
+
+Ananda vainly strove to explain that the austerities to which he had
+referred were entirely of a spiritual and contemplative character. The
+Brahmins, enchanted to get a heretic into their clutches, immediately
+seized upon him, and conveyed him to one of their temples. They stripped
+him, and perceived with astonishment that not one single weal or scar was
+visible anywhere on his person. "Horror!" they exclaimed; "here is a man
+who expects to go to heaven in a whole skin!" To obviate this breach of
+etiquette, they laid him upon his face, and flagellated him until the
+obnoxious soundness of cuticle was entirely removed. They then departed,
+promising to return next day and operate in a corresponding manner upon the
+anterior part of his person, after which, they jeeringly assured him, his
+merits would be in no respect less than those of the saintly Bhagiratha, or
+of the regal Viswamitra himself.
+
+Ananda lay half dead upon the floor of the temple, when the sanctuary was
+illuminated by the apparition of a resplendent Glendoveer, who thus
+addressed him:
+
+"Well, backsliding disciple, art thou yet convinced of thy folly?"
+
+Ananda relished neither the imputation on his orthodoxy nor that on his
+wisdom. He replied, notwithstanding, with all meekness:
+
+"Heaven forbid that I should repine at any variety of martyrdom that tends
+to the propagation of my master's faith."
+
+"Wilt thou then first be healed, and moreover become the instrument of
+converting the entire realm of Magadha?"
+
+"How shall this be accomplished?" demanded Ananda.
+
+"By perseverance in the path of deceit and disobedience," returned the
+Glendoveer.
+
+Ananda winced, but maintained silence in the expectation of more explicit
+directions.
+
+"Know," pursued the spirit, "that the king's son will revive from his
+trance at the expiration of the thirtieth day, which takes place at noon
+to-morrow. Thou hast but to proceed at the fitting period to the couch
+whereon he is deposited, and, placing thy hand upon his heart, to command
+him to rise forthwith. His recovery will be ascribed to thy supernatural
+powers, and the establishment of Buddha's religion will result. Before this
+it will be needful that I should perform an actual cure upon thy back,
+which is within the compass of my capacity. I only request thee to take
+notice, that thou wilt on this occasion be transgressing the precepts of
+thy master with thine eyes open. It is also meet to apprise thee that thy
+temporary extrication from thy present difficulties will only involve thee
+in others still more formidable."
+
+"An incorporeal Glendoveer is no judge of the feelings of a flayed
+apostle," thought Ananda. "Heal me," he replied, "if thou canst, and
+reserve thy admonitions for a more convenient opportunity."
+
+"So be it," returned the Glendoveer; and as he extended his hand over
+Ananda, the latter's back was clothed anew with skin, and his previous
+smart simultaneously allayed. The Glendoveer vanished at the same moment,
+saying, "When thou hast need of me, pronounce but the incantation, _Gnooh
+Imdap Inam Mua_, [*] and I will immediately be by thy side."
+
+[Footnote: The mystic formula of the Buddhists, read backwards.]
+
+The anger and amazement of the Brahmins may be conceived when, on returning
+equipped with fresh implements of flagellation, they discovered the
+salubrious condition of their victim. Their scourges would probably have
+undergone conversion into halters, had they not been accompanied by a royal
+officer, who took the really triumphant martyr under his protection, and
+carried him off to the palace. He was speedily conducted to the young
+prince's couch, whither a vast crowd attended him. The hour of noon not
+having yet arrived, Ananda discreetly protracted the time by a seasonable
+discourse on the impossibility of miracles, those only excepted which
+should be wrought by the professors of the faith of Buddha. He then
+descended from his pulpit, and precisely as the sun attained the zenith
+laid his hand upon the bosom of the young prince, who instantly revived,
+and completed a sentence touching the game of dice which had been
+interrupted by his catalepsy.
+
+The people shouted, the courtiers went into ecstasies, the countenances of
+the Brahmins assumed an exceedingly sheepish expression. Even the king
+seemed impressed, and craved to be more particularly instructed in the law
+of Buddha. In complying with this request, Ananda, who had made marvellous
+progress in worldly wisdom during the last twenty-four hours, deemed it
+needless to dilate on the cardinal doctrines of his master, the misery of
+existence, the need of redemption, the path to felicity, the prohibition to
+shed blood. He simply stated that the priests of Buddha were bound to
+perpetual poverty, and that under the new dispensation all ecclesiastical
+property would accrue to the temporal authorities.
+
+"By the holy cow!" exclaimed the monarch, "this is something like a
+religion!"
+
+The words were scarcely out of the royal lips ere the courtiers professed
+themselves converts. The multitude followed their example. The Brahminical
+church was promptly disestablished and disendowed, and more injustice was
+committed in the name of the new and purified religion in one day than the
+old corrupt one had occasioned in a hundred years.
+
+Ananda had the satisfaction of feeling able to forgive his adversaries, and
+of valuing himself accordingly; and to complete his felicity, he was
+received in the palace, and entrusted with the education of the king's son,
+which he strove to conduct agreeably to the precepts of Buddha. This was a
+task of some delicacy, as it involved interference with the princely
+youth's favourite amusement, which had previously consisted in torturing
+small reptiles.
+
+After a short interval Ananda was again summoned to the monarch's presence.
+He found his majesty in the company of two most ferocious ruffians, one of
+whom bore a huge axe, and the other an enormous pair of pincers.
+
+"My chief executioner and my chief tormentor," said the king.
+
+Ananda expressed his gratification at becoming acquainted with such exalted
+functionaries.
+
+"Thou must know, most holy man," resumed the king, "that need has again
+arisen for the exercise of fortitude and self-denial on thy part. A
+powerful enemy has invaded my dominions, and has impiously presumed to
+discomfit my troops. Well might I feel dismayed, were it not for the
+consolations of religion; but my trust is in thee, O spiritual father! It
+is urgent that thou shouldst accumulate the largest amount of merit with
+the least delay possible. I am unable to invoke the ministrations of thy
+old friends the Brahmins to this end, they being, as thou knowest, in
+disgrace, but I have summoned these trusty and experienced counsellors in
+their room. I find them not wholly in accord. My chief tormentor, being a
+man of mild temper and humane disposition, considers that it might at first
+suffice to employ gentle measures, such, for example, as suspending thee
+head downwards in the smoke of a wood fire, and filling thy nostrils with
+red pepper. My chief executioner, taking, peradventure, a too professional
+view of the subject, deems it best to resort at once to crucifixion or
+impalement. I would gladly know thy thoughts on the matter."
+
+Ananda expressed, as well as his terror would  suffer him, his entire
+disapproval of both the courses recommended by the royal advisers.
+
+"Well," said the king, with an air of resignation, "if we cannot agree upon
+either, it follows that we must try both. We will meet for that purpose
+to-morrow morning at the second hour. Go in peace!"
+
+Ananda went, but not in peace. His alarm would have well-nigh deprived him
+of his faculties if he had not remembered the promise made him by his
+former deliverer. On reaching a secluded spot he pronounced the mystic
+formula, and immediately became aware of the presence, not of a radiant
+Glendoveer, but of a holy man, whose head was strewn with ashes, and his
+body anointed with cow-dung.
+
+"Thy occasion," said the Fakir, "brooks no delay. Thou must immediately
+accompany me, and assume the garb of a Jogi."
+
+Ananda rebelled excessively in his heart, for he had imbibed from the mild
+and sage Buddha a befitting contempt for these grotesque and cadaverous
+fanatics. The emergency, however, left him no resource, and he followed his
+guide to a charnel house, which the latter had selected as his domicile.
+There, with many lamentations over the smoothness of his hair and the
+brevity of his nails, the Jogi besprinkled and besmeared Ananda agreeably
+to his own pattern, and scored him with chalk and ochre until the peaceful
+apostle of the gentlest of creeds resembled a Bengal tiger. He then hung a
+chaplet of infants' skulls about his neck, placed the skull of a malefactor
+in one of his hands and the thigh-bone of a necromancer in the other, and
+at nightfall conducted him into the  adjacent cemetery, where, seating him
+on the ashes of a recent funeral pile, he bade him drum upon the skull with
+the thigh-bone, and repeat after himself the incantations which he began to
+scream out towards the western part of the firmament. These charms were
+apparently possessed of singular efficacy, for scarcely were they commenced
+ere a hideous tempest arose, rain descended in torrents, phosphoric flashes
+darted across the sky, wolves and hy�nas thronged howling from their dens,
+and gigantic goblins, arising from the earth, extended their fleshless arms
+towards Ananda, and strove to drag him from his seat. Urged by frantic
+terror, and the example and exhortations of his companion, he battered,
+banged, and vociferated, until on the very verge of exhaustion; when, as if
+by enchantment, the tempest ceased, the spectres disappeared, and joyous
+shouts and a burst of music announced the occurrence of something
+auspicious in the adjoining city.
+
+"The hostile king is dead," said the Jogi; "and his army has dispersed.
+This will be attributed to thy incantations. They are coming in quest of
+thee even now. Farewell until thou again hast need of me."
+
+The Jogi disappeared, the tramp of a procession became audible, and soon
+torches glared feebly through the damp, cheerless dawn. The monarch
+descended from his state elephant, and, prostrating himself before Ananda,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Inestimable man! why didst thou not disclose that thou wert a Jogi? Never
+more shall I feel the least apprehension of any of my enemies, so long as
+thou continuest an inmate of this cemetery."
+
+A family of jackals were unceremoniously dislodged from a disused
+sepulchre, which was allotted to Ananda for his future residence. The king
+permitted no alteration in his costume, and took care that the food doled
+out to him should have no tendency to impair his sanctity, which speedily
+gave promise of attaining a very high pitch. His hair had already become as
+matted and his nails as long as the Jogi could have desired, when he
+received a visit from another royal messenger. The Rajah, so ran the regal
+missive, had been suddenly and mysteriously attacked by a dangerous malady,
+but confidently anticipated relief from Ananda's merits and incantations.
+
+Ananda resumed his thigh-bone and his skull, and ruefully began to thump
+the latter with the former, in dismal expectation of the things that were
+to come. But the spell seemed to have lost its potency. Nothing more
+unearthly than a bat presented itself, and Ananda was beginning to think
+that he might as well desist when his reflections were diverted by the
+apparition of a tall and grave personage, wearing a sad-coloured robe, and
+carrying a long wand, who stood by his side as suddenly as though just
+risen from the earth.
+
+"The caldron is ready," said the stranger.
+
+"What caldron?" demanded Ananda.
+
+"That wherein thou art about to be immersed."
+
+"I immersed in a caldron! wherefore?"
+
+"Thy spells," returned his interlocutor, "having hitherto failed to afford
+his majesty the slightest relief, and his experience of their efficacy on a
+former occasion forbidding him to suppose that they can be inoperative, he
+is naturally led to ascribe to their pernicious influence that aggravation
+of pain of which he has for some time past unfortunately been sensible. I
+have confirmed him in this conjecture, esteeming it for the interest of
+science that his anger should fall upon an impudent impostor like thee
+rather than on a discreet and learned physician like myself. He has
+consequently directed the principal caldron to be kept boiling all night,
+intending to immerse thee therein at daybreak, unless he should in the
+meantime derive some benefit from thy conjurations."
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed Ananda, "whither shall I fly?"
+
+"Nowhere beyond this cemetery," returned the physician, "inasmuch as it is
+entirely surrounded by the royal forces."
+
+"Wherein, then," demanded the agonized apostle, "doth the path of safety
+lie?"
+
+"In this phial," answered the physician. "It contains a subtle poison.
+Demand to be led before the king. Affirm that thou hast received a
+sovereign medicine from the hands of benignant spirits. He will drink it
+and perish, and thou wilt be richly rewarded by his successor."
+
+"Ayaunt, tempter!" cried Ananda, hurling the phial indignantly away. "I
+defy thee! and will have recourse to my old deliverer--_Gnooh Imdap Inam
+Mua!"_
+
+But the charm appeared to fail of its effect. No figure was visible to his
+gaze, save that of the physician, who seemed to regard him with an
+expression of pity as he gathered up his robes and melted rather than
+glided into the encompassing darkness.
+
+Ananda remained, contending with himself. Countless times was he on the
+point of calling  after the physician and imploring him to return with a
+potion of like properties to the one rejected, but something seemed always
+to rise in his throat and impede his utterance, until, worn out by
+agitation, he fell asleep and dreamed this dream.
+
+He thought he stood at the vast and gloomy entrance of Patala. [*] The
+lugubrious spot wore a holiday appearance; everything seemed to denote a
+diabolical gala. Swarms of demons of all shapes and sizes beset the portal,
+contemplating what appeared to be preparations for an illumination. Strings
+of coloured lamps were in course of disposition in wreaths and festoons by
+legions of frolicsome imps, chattering, laughing, and swinging by their
+tails like so many monkeys. The operation was directed from below by
+superior fiends of great apparent gravity and respectability. These bore
+wands of office, tipped with yellow flames, wherewith they singed the tails
+of the imps when such discipline appeared to them to be requisite. Ananda
+could not refrain from asking the reason of these festive preparations.
+
+[Footnote: The Hindoo Pandemonium.]
+
+"They are in honour," responded the demon interrogated, "of the pious
+Ananda, one of the apostles of the Lord Buddha, whose advent is hourly
+expected among us with much eagerness and satisfaction."
+
+The horrified Ananda with much difficulty mustered resolution to inquire on
+what account the apostle in question was necessitated to take up his abode
+in the infernal regions.
+
+"On account of poisoning," returned the fiend laconically.
+
+Ananda was about to seek further explanations, when his attention was
+arrested by a violent altercation between two of the supervising demons.
+
+"Kammuragha, evidently," croaked one.
+
+"Damburanana, of course," snarled the other.
+
+"May I," inquired Ananda of the fiend he had before addressed, "presume to
+ask the signification of Kammuragha and Damburanana?"
+
+"They are two hells," replied the demon. "In Kammuragha the occupant is
+plunged into melted pitch and fed with melted lead. In Damburanana he is
+plunged into melted lead and fed with melted pitch. My colleagues are
+debating which is the more appropriate to the demerits of our guest
+Ananda."
+
+Ere Ananda had had time to digest this announcement a youthful imp
+descended from above with agility, and, making a profound reverence,
+presented himself before the disputants.
+
+"Venerable demons," interposed he, "might my insignificance venture to
+suggest that we cannot well testify too much honour for our visitor Ananda,
+seeing that he is the only apostle of Buddha with whose company we are
+likely ever to be indulged? Wherefore I would propose that neither
+Kammuragha nor Damburanana be assigned for his residence, but that the
+amenities of all the two hundred and forty-four thousand hells be combined
+in a new one, constructed especially for his reception."
+
+The imp having thus spoken, the senior demons were amazed at his precocity,
+and performed a _pradakshina_, exclaiming, "Truly thou art a highly
+superior young devil!" They then departed to  prepare the new infernal
+chamber, agreeably to his recipe.
+
+Ananda awoke, shuddering with terror.
+
+"Why," he exclaimed, "why was I ever an apostle? O Buddha! Buddha! how hard
+are the paths of saintliness! How prone to error are the well-meaning! How
+huge is the absurdity of spiritual pride!"
+
+"Thou hast discovered that, my son?" said a gentle voice in his vicinity.
+
+He turned and beheld the divine Buddha, radiant with a mild and benignant
+light. A cloud seemed rolled away from his vision, and he recognised in his
+master the Glendoveer, the Jogi, and the Physician.
+
+"O holy teacher!" exclaimed he in extreme perturbation, "whither shall I
+turn? My sin forbids me to approach thee."
+
+"Not on account of thy sin art thou forbidden, my son," returned Buddha,
+"but on account of the ridiculous and unsavoury plight to which thy knavery
+and disobedience have reduced thee. I have now appeared to remind thee that
+this day all my apostles meet on Mount Vindhya to render an account of
+their mission, and to inquire whether I am to deliver thine in thy stead,
+or whether thou art minded to proclaim it thyself."
+
+"I will render it with my own lips," resolutely exclaimed Ananda. "It is
+meet that I should bear the humiliation of acknowledging my folly."
+
+"Thou hast said well, my son," replied Buddha, "and in return I will permit
+thee to discard the attire, if such it may be termed, of a Jogi, and to
+appear in our assembly wearing the yellow robe as beseems my disciple. Nay,
+I will even infringe  my own rule on thy behalf, and perform a not
+inconsiderable miracle by immediately transporting thee to the summit of
+Vindhya, where the faithful are already beginning to assemble. Thou wouldst
+otherwise incur much risk of being torn to pieces by the multitude, who, as
+the shouts now approaching may instruct thee, are beginning to extirpate my
+religion at the instigation of the new king, thy hopeful pupil. The old
+king is dead, poisoned by the Brahmins."
+
+"O master! master!" exclaimed Ananda, weeping bitterly, "and is all the
+work undone, and all by my fault and folly?"
+
+"That which is built on fraud and imposture can by no means endure,"
+returned Buddha, "be it the very truth of Heaven. Be comforted; thou shalt
+proclaim my doctrine to better purpose in other lands. Thou hast this time
+but a sorry account to render of thy stewardship; yet thou mayest truly
+declare that thou hast obeyed my precept in the letter, if not in the
+spirit, since none can assert that thou hast ever wrought any miracle."
+
+
+
+
+THE CITY OF PHILOSOPHERS
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Nature is manifold, not infinite, though the extent of the resources of
+which she can dispose almost enables her to pass for such. Her cards are so
+multitudinous that the pairs are easily shuffled into ages so far asunder
+that their resemblance escapes remark. But sometimes her mischievous
+daughter Fortune manages to thrust these duplicates into such conspicuous
+places that their similarity cannot pass unobserved, and Nature is caught
+plagiarising from herself. She is thus detected dealing a king--or
+knave--a second time in the person of a king who has already fallen from
+her pack as an emperor. Brilliant, careless, selfish, yet good-natured
+_vauriens_, the Roman Emperor Gallienus and our Charles the Second excelled
+in every art save the art of reigning, and might have excelled in that also
+if they would have taken the trouble. The circumstances of their reigns
+were in many respects as similar as their characters. Both were the sons of
+grave and strict fathers, each of whom had met with terrible misfortunes:
+one deprived of his liberty by his enemies, the other of his head by his
+own subjects. Each of the sons had been grievously vexed by rebels, but
+Charles's troubles from this quarter had mostly ended where those  of
+Gallienus began. Each saw his dominions ravaged by pestilence in a manner
+beyond all former experience. The Goths destroyed the temple of the
+Ephesian Diana, and the Dutch burned the English fleet at Chatham. Charles
+shut up the Exchequer, and Gallienus debased the coinage. Charles accepted
+a pension from Louis XIV., and Gallienus devolved the burden of his Eastern
+provinces on a Syrian Emir. Their tastes and pursuits were as similar as
+their histories. Charles excelled as a wit and a critic; Gallienus as a
+poet and a gastronomer. Charles was curious about chemistry, and founded
+the Royal Society. In the third century the conception of the systematic
+investigation of nature did not exist. Gallienus, therefore, could not
+patronise exact science; and the great literary light of the age, Longinus,
+irradiated the court of Palmyra. But the Emperor bestowed his favour in
+ample measure on the chief contemporary philosopher, Plotinus, who strove
+to unite the characters of Plato and Pythagoras, of sage and seer. Like
+Schelling in time to come, he maintained the necessity of a special organ
+for the apprehension of philosophy, without perceiving that he thereby
+proclaimed philosophy bankrupt, and placed himself on the level of the
+Oriental hierophants, with whose sublime quackeries the modest sage could
+not hope to contend. So extreme was his humility, that he would not claim
+to have been consciously united to the Divinity more than four times in his
+life; without condemning magic and thaumaturgy, he left their practice to
+more adventurous spirits, and contented himself with the occasional visits
+of a  familiar demon in the shape of a serpent. He experienced, however,
+frequent visitations of trance or ecstasy, sometimes lasting for a long
+period; and it may have been in one of these that he was inspired by the
+idea of asking the Emperor for a decayed city in Campania, there to
+establish a philosophic commonwealth as nearly upon the model of Plato's
+Republic as the degeneracy of the times would allow.
+
+"I cannot," said Gallienus, when the project had been explained to him,
+"object in principle to aught so festive and jocose. The age is turned
+upside down; its comedians are lamentable, and its sages ludicrous. It must
+moreover, I apprehend, be sated with the earthquakes, famines, pestilences,
+and barbarian invasions with which it hath been exclusively regaled for so
+long, and must crave something enlivening, of the nature of thy
+proposition. But whether, when we arrive at the consideration of ways and
+means, I shall find my interview with my treasurer enlivening, is gravely
+to be questioned. I have heard homilies enough on my prodigality, which
+merely means that I prefer spending my treasures on myself to saving them
+for my successor, whose title will probably have been acquired by cutting
+my throat."
+
+"I know," said Plotinus, "that the expenses of administering an empire must
+necessarily be prodigious. I am aware that the principal generals are only
+kept to their allegiance by enormous bribes. I well understand that the
+Empress must have pearls, and that the Roman populace must have panthers;
+and that, since Egypt has revolted, the hippopotamus is worth his weight in
+gold. I am further aware that the proposed  colossal statue of your Majesty
+in the same metal, including a staircase, with room in the head for a
+child, like another Pallas in the brain of Zeus, must alone involve very
+considerable outlay. But I am encouraged by your Majesty's wise and
+statesmanlike measure of debasing the currency; since, money having become
+devoid of value, there can be no difficulty in devoting any amount of it to
+any purpose required."
+
+"Plotinus," said Gallienus, "in this age the devil is taking the hindmost,
+and we are the hindmost. There are tidings to-day of a new earthquake in
+Bithynia, and three days' darkness, also of outbreaks of pestilence, and
+incursions of the barbarians, too numerous as well as too disagreeable to
+mention. At this moment some revolted legion is probably forcing the purple
+upon some reluctant general; and the Persian king, a great equestrian, is
+doubtless mounting his horse by the aid of my father's back. If I had been
+an old Roman, I should by this time have avenged my father, but I am a man
+of my age. Take the money for thy city, and see that it yields me some
+amusement at any rate. I assume, of course, that thou wilt exercise severe
+economy, and that cresses and spring water will be the diet of thy
+philosophers. Farewell, I go to Gaul to encounter Postumus. Willingly would
+I leave him in peace in Gaul if he would leave me in peace in Italy; but I
+foresee that if I do not attack him there he will attack me here. As if the
+Empire were not large enough for us all! What an ass the fellow must be!"
+
+And so Gallienus changed his silk for steel, and departed for his Gallic
+campaign, where he bore  himself more stoutly than his light talk would
+have led those who judged him by it to expect. Plotinus, provided with an
+Imperial rescript, undertook the regulation of his philosophical
+commonwealth in Campania, where a brief experience of architects and
+sophists threw him into an ecstasy, not of joy, which endured an unusually
+long time.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+On awakening from his long trance, Plotinus's first sensation was one of
+bodily hunger, the second of an even keener appetite for news of his
+philosophical Republic. In both respects it promised well to perceive that
+his chamber was occupied by his most eminent scholar, Porphyry, though he
+was less gratified to observe his disciple busied, instead of with the
+scrolls of the sages, with an enormous roll of accounts, which appeared to
+be occasioning him much perplexity.
+
+"Porphyry!" cried the master, and the faithful disciple was by his couch in
+a moment.
+
+We pass over the mutual joy, the greetings, the administration of
+restoratives and creature comforts, the eager interrogations of Porphyry
+respecting the things his master had heard and seen in his trance, which
+proved to be unspeakable.
+
+"And now," said Plotinus, who with all his mysticism was so good a man of
+business that, as his biographers acquaint us, he was in special request as
+a trustee, "and now, concerning this roll of thine. Is it possible that the
+accounts connected with the installation of a few abstemious  lovers of
+wisdom can have swollen to such a prodigous bulk? But indeed, why few?
+Peradventure all the philosophers of the earth have flocked to my city."
+
+"It has, indeed," said Porphyry evasively, "been found necessary to incur
+certain expenses not originally foreseen."
+
+"For a library, perhaps?" inquired Plotinus. "I remember thinking, just
+before my ecstasy, that the scrolls of the divine Plato, many of them
+autographic, might require some special housing."
+
+"I rejoice to state," rejoined Porphyry, "that it is not these volumes that
+have involved us in our present difficulties with the superintendent of the
+Imperial treasury, nor can they indeed, seeing that they are now
+impignorated with him."
+
+"Plato's manuscripts pawned!" exclaimed Plotinus, aghast. "Wherefore?"
+
+"As part collateral security for expenses incurred on behalf of objects
+deemed of more importance by the majority of the philosophers."
+
+"For example?"
+
+"Repairing bath and completing amphitheatre."
+
+"Bath! Amphitheatre!" gasped Plotinus.
+
+"O dear master," remonstrated Porphyry, "thou didst not deem that
+philosophers could be induced to settle in a spot devoid of these
+necessaries? Not a single one would have stayed if I had not yielded to
+their demands, which, as regarded the bath, involved the addition of
+exedrae and of a sphaeristerium."
+
+"And what can they want with an amphitheatre?" groaned Plotinus.
+
+"They _say_ it is for lectures," replied Porphyry; "I trust there is no
+truth in the rumour that the head of the Stoics is three parts owner of a
+lion of singular ferocity."
+
+"I must see to this as soon as I can get about," said Plotinus, turning to
+the accounts. "What's this? To couch and litter for head of Peripatetic
+school!"
+
+"Who is so enormously fat," explained Porphyry, "that these conveniences
+are really indispensable to him. The Peripatetic school is positively at a
+standstill."
+
+"And no great matter," said Plotinus; "its master Aristotle was at best a
+rationalist, without perception of the supersensual. What's this? To
+Maximus, for the invocation of demons."
+
+"That," said Porphyry, "is our own Platonic dirty linen, and I heartily
+wish we were washing it elsewhere. Thou must know, dear master, that during
+thy trance the theurgic movement has attained a singular development, and
+that thou art regarded with disdain by thy younger disciples as one wholly
+behind the age, unacquainted with the higher magic, and who can produce no
+other outward and visible token of the Divine favour than the occasional
+companionship of a serpent."
+
+"I would not assert that theurgy may not be lawfully undertaken," replied
+Plotinus, "provided that the adept shall have purified himself by a fast of
+forty months."
+
+"It may be from neglect of this precaution," said Porphyry, "that our
+Maximus finds it so much easier to evoke the shades of Commodus and
+Caracalla than those of Socrates and Marcus Aurelius; and that these good
+spirits, when they do come, have no more recondite information to  convey
+than that virtue differs from vice, and that one's grandmother is a fitting
+object of reverence."
+
+"I fear this must expose Platonic truth to the derision of Epicurean
+scoffers," remarked Plotinus.
+
+"O master, speak not of Epicureans, still less of Stoics! Wait till thou
+hast regained thy full strength, and then take counsel of some oracle."
+
+"What meanest thou?" exclaimed Plotinus, "I insist upon knowing."
+
+Porphyry was saved from replying by the hasty entrance of a bustling portly
+personage of loud voice and imperious manner, in whom Plotinus recognised
+Theocles, the chief of the Stoics.
+
+"I rejoice, Plotinus," he began, "that thou hast at length emerged from
+that condition of torpor, so unworthy of a philosopher, which I might well
+designate as charlatanism were I not so firmly determined to speak no word
+which can offend any man. Thou wilt now be able to reprehend the malice or
+obtuseness of thy deputy, and to do me right in my contention with these
+impure dogs."
+
+"Which be they?" asked Plotinus.
+
+"Do I not sufficiently indicate the followers of Epicurus?" demanded the
+Stoic.
+
+"O master," explained Porphyry, "in allotting and fitting up apartments
+designed for the respective sects of philosophers I naturally gave heed to
+what I understood to be the principles of each. To the Epicureans, as
+lovers of pleasure and luxury, I assigned the most commodious quarters,
+furnished the same with soft cushions and costly hangings, and provided a
+liberal table. I should have deemed it insulting to have offered any of
+these things to the frugal followers of Zeno, and nothing can surpass my
+astonishment at the manner in which the austere Theocles has incessantly
+persecuted me for choice food and wine, stately rooms and soft couches."
+
+"O Plotinus," replied Theocles, "let me make the grounds of my conduct
+clear to thee. In the first place, the honour of my school is in my
+keeping. What will the vulgar think when they see the sty of Epicurus
+sumptuously adorned, and the porch of Zeno shabby and bare? Will they not
+deem that the Epicureans are highly respected and the Stoics made of little
+account? Furthermore, how can I and my disciples manifest our contempt for
+gold, dainties, wine, fine linen, and all the other instruments of luxury,
+unless we have them to despise? Shall we not appear like foxes, vilipending
+the grapes that we cannot reach? Not so; offer me delicacies that I may
+reject them, wine that I may pour it into the kennel, Tyrian purple that I
+may trample upon it, gold that I may fling it away; if it break an
+Epicurean's head, so much the better."
+
+"Plotinus," said Hermon, the chief of the Epicureans, who had meanwhile
+entered the apartment, "let this hypocrite have what he wants, and send him
+away. I and my followers are perfectly willing to remove at once into the
+inferior apartments, and leave ours for his occupation with all their
+furniture, and the reversion of our bill of fare. Thou should'st know that
+the imputations of the vulgar against our sect are the grossest calumnies.
+The Epicurean places happiness in tranquil enjoyment, not in luxury or
+sensual pleasures. There is not a thing I possess  which I am not perfectly
+willing to resign, except the society of my female disciple."
+
+"Thy female disciple!" exclaimed the horrified Plotinus. "Thou art worse
+than the Stoic!"
+
+"Plotinus," said the Epicurean, "consider well ere, as is the manner of
+Platonists, thou committest thyself to a proposition of a transparently
+foolish nature. Thou desirest to gather all sorts of philosophers around
+thee, but to what end, if they are restrained from manifesting their
+characteristic tenets? Thou mightest as well seek to illustrate the habits
+of animals by establishing a menagerie in which panthers should eat grass,
+and antelopes be dieted on rabbits. An Epicurean without his female
+companion, unless by his own choice, is no more an Epicurean than a Cynic
+is a Cynic without his rags and his impudence. Wilt thou take from me my
+Pannychis, an object pleasing to the eye, and leave yonder fellow his
+tatters and his vermin?"
+
+The apartment had gradually filled with philosophers, and Hermon was
+pointing to a follower of Diogenes whose robe so fully bespoke his
+obedience to his master's precepts that his skin seemed almost clean in
+comparison.
+
+"Consider also," continued the Epicurean, "that thou art thyself by no
+means exempt from scandal."
+
+"What does the man mean?" demanded Plotinus, turning to Porphyry.
+
+"Get them away," whispered the disciple, "and I will tell thee."
+
+Plotinus hastily conceded the point raised with reference to the
+interesting Pannychis, and the  philosophers went off to effect their
+exchange of quarters. As soon as the room was clear, he repeated:
+
+"What _does_ the man mean?"
+
+"I suppose he is thinking of Leaena," said Porphyry.
+
+"The most notorious character in Rome, who, finding her charms on the wane,
+has lately betaken herself to philosophy?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"What of her?"
+
+"She has followed thee here. She affects the greatest devotion to thee. She
+vows that nothing shall make her budge until thou hast recovered from thy
+ecstasy, and admitted her as thy disciple. She has rejected numerous
+overtures from the philosopher Theocles; entirely for thy sake, she
+affirms. She comes three times a day to inquire respecting thy condition,
+and I fear it must be acknowledged that she has once or twice managed to
+get into thy chamber."
+
+"O ye immortal Gods!" groaned Plotinus.
+
+"Here she is!" exclaimed Porphyry, as a woman of masculine stature and
+bearing, with the remains of beauty not unskilfully patched, forced an
+entrance into the room.
+
+"Plotinus," she exclaimed, "behold the most impassioned of thy disciples.
+Let us celebrate the mystic nuptials of Wisdom and Beauty. Let the claims
+of my sex to philosophic distinction be vindicated in my person."
+
+"The question of the admission of women to share the studies and society of
+men," rejoined Plotinus, "is one by no means exempt from difficulty."
+
+"How so? I deemed it had been determined long ago in favour of Aspasia?"
+
+"Aspasia," said Plotinus, "was a very exceptional woman."
+
+"And am not I?"
+
+"I hope, that is, I conceive so," said Plotinus. "But one may be an
+exceptional woman without being an Aspasia."
+
+"How so? Am I inferior to Aspasia in beauty?"
+
+"I should hope not," said Plotinus ambiguously.
+
+"Or in the irregularity of my deportment?"
+
+"I should think not," said Plotinus, with more confidence.
+
+"Then why does the Plato of our age hesitate to welcome his Diotima?"
+
+"Because," said Plotinus, "you are not Diotima, and I am not Plato."
+
+"I am sure I am as much like Diotima as you are like Plato," retorted the
+lady. "But let us come to our own time. Do I not hear that that creature
+Pannychis has obtained the freedom of the philosophers' city, and the right
+to study therein?"
+
+"She takes private lessons from Hermon, who is responsible for her."
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Leaena triumphantly. "I take private lessons
+from thee, and thou art responsible for me. Venus! what's that?"
+
+The exclamation was prompted by the sudden appearance of an enormous
+serpent, which, emerging from a chink in the wall, glided swiftly towards
+the couch of Plotinus. He reached forward to greet it, uttering a cry of
+pleasure.
+
+"My guardian, my tutelary d�mon," he exclaimed, "visible manifestation of
+�sculapius! Then I am not forsaken by the immortal gods."
+
+"Take away the monster," cried Leaena, in violent agitation, "the nasty
+thing! Plotinus, how can you? Oh, I shall faint! I shall die! Take it away,
+I say. You must choose between it and me."
+
+"Then, Madam," said Plotinus, civilly but firmly, "I choose _it_."
+
+"Thank �sculapius we are rid of her," he added, as Leaena vanished from
+the apartment.
+
+"I wish I knew that," said Porphyry.
+
+And indeed after no long time a note came up from Theocles, who was sure
+that Plotinus would not refuse him that privilege of instructing a female
+disciple which had been already, with such manifest advantage to
+philosophical research, accorded to his colleague Hermon. No objection
+could well be made, especially as Plotinus did not foresee how many
+chambermaids, and pages, and cooks, and perfumers, and tiring women and
+bath attendants would be required, ere Leaena could feel herself moderately
+comfortable. How unlike the modest Pannychis! who wanted but half a bed,
+which need not be stuffed with the down of hares or the feathers of
+partridges, without which sleep refused to visit Leaena's eyelids.
+
+It was natural that Plotinus should appeal to Gallienus, now returned from
+the Gallic expedition, but he could extract nothing save mysterious
+intimations that the Emperor had his eye upon the philosophers, and that
+they might find him among  them when they least expected it. Plotinus's
+spirits drooped, and Porphyry was almost glad when he again relapsed into
+an ecstasy.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When Plotinus's eyes were at length opened, they fell not this time upon
+the faithful Porphyry, but upon two youthful followers of Plato who were
+beguiling the tedium of their vigil at his bedside by a game of dice, which
+prevented their observing his resuscitation. After a moment's hesitation
+Plotinus resolved to lie quiet in the hopes of hearing something that might
+indicate what influences were in the ascendant in the philosophical
+republic. He had not long to wait.
+
+"Dice is dull work for long," said one of the young men, indolently
+throwing himself back, and letting his caster fall upon the floor. "To
+think how much better one might be employed, but for having to watch this
+old fool here! I've a great mind to call up a slave."
+
+"All the slaves are sure to have gone to the show, unless any of them
+should be Christians. Besides, Porphyry would hear you, he's only in a
+cat's sleep," returned his companion.
+
+"Well, I mean to say it's a shame. All the town will be in the theatre by
+this time."
+
+"How many gladiators, said you?"
+
+"Forty pairs, the best show Campania has seen time out of mind."
+
+"How has it all come about?"
+
+"Oh, news comes of the death of Postumus, killed by his own soldiers, and
+this passes as a  great victory for want of a better, 'We must have a day
+of thanksgiving,' says Theocles. 'Right,' says Leaena, 'I am dying to see
+an exhibition of gladiators.' Theocles demurs at first, expecting to have
+to find the money--but Leaena tugs at his beard, and he gives in. Just at
+the nick of time the right sort of fellow pops up nobody knows whence, a
+lanista with hair like curling helichryse, as Theocritus has it, and a
+small army of gladiators, whom, out of devotion to the Emperor, he offers
+to exhibit for nothing. Who so pleased as Theocles now? He takes the chair
+as archon with Leaena by his side, and off goes every soul in the place,
+except Pannychis, who cannot bear the sight of blood, and Porphyry, who is
+an outrageous humanitarian, and us poor devils left in charge of this old
+dreamer."
+
+"Couldn't we leave him to mind himself? He isn't likely to awake yet."
+
+"Try him with your cloak-pin." The student detached the implement in
+question, which was about the size of a small stiletto. Feeling uncertain
+what part of his person was to be the subject of experiment, Plotinus
+judged it advisable to manifest his recovery in an unmistakable fashion.
+
+"O dear Master, what joy!" cried both the students in a breath. "Porphyry!
+Porphyry!"
+
+The trusty scholar appeared immediately, and under pretence of fetching
+food, the two neophytes eloped to the amphitheatre.
+
+"What means all this, Porphyry?" demanded Plotinus sternly. "The City of
+Philosophers polluted by human blood! The lovers of wisdom mingling with
+the dregs of the rabble!"
+
+Porphyry's account, which Plotinus could only extract by consenting to eat
+while his disciple talked, corresponded in all essential particulars with
+that of the two young men.
+
+"And I see not," added he, "what we can do in the matter. This abomination
+is supposed to be in honour of the Emperor's victories. If we interfere
+with it we shall be executed as rebels, supposing that we are not first
+torn to pieces as rioters."
+
+"Porphyry," replied Plotinus, "I should esteem this disgrace to philosophy
+a disgrace to myself if I did not my utmost to avert it. Remain thou here,
+and perform my funeral rites if it be necessary."
+
+But to this Porphyry would by no means consent, and the two philosophers
+proceeded to the amphitheatre together. It was so crowded that there was no
+room on the seats for another person. Theocles was enthroned in the chair
+of honour, his beard manifesting evident traces of the depilatories
+administered by Leaena, who nevertheless sat by his side, her voluptuous
+face gloating over the anticipated banquet of agony. The philosophic part
+of the spectators were ranged all around, the remaining seats were occupied
+by a miscellaneous public. The master of the gladiators, a man of
+distinguished appearance, whose yellow locks gave him the aspect of a
+barbarian prince, stood in the arena surrounded by his myrmidons. The entry
+of Plotinus and Porphyry attracted his attention: he motioned to his
+followers, and in an instant the philosophers were seized, bound, and
+gagged without the excited assembly being in the least conscious of their
+presence.
+
+Two men stepped out into the arena, both fine and attractive figures. The
+athletic limbs, the fair complexion, the curling yellow hair of one
+proclaimed the Goth; he lightly swung his huge sword in his right hand, and
+looked as if his sole arm would easily put to flight the crowd of
+effeminate spectators. The other's beauty was of another sort; young,
+slender, pensive, spiritual, he looked like anything rather than a
+gladiator, and held his downward pointed sword with a negligent grasp.
+
+"Guard thyself!" cried the Goth, placing himself in an attitude of offence.
+
+"I spill not the blood of a fellow-creature," answered the other, casting
+his sword away from him.
+
+"Coward!" yelled well-nigh every voice in the amphitheatre.
+
+"No," answered the youth with a grave smile, "Christian."
+
+His shield and helmet followed his sword, he stood entirely defenceless
+before his adversary.
+
+"Throw him to my lion," cried Theocles.
+
+"Or thy lioness," suggested Hermon.
+
+This allusion to Leaena provoked a burst of laughter. Suddenly the Goth
+aimed a mighty blow at the head of the unresisting man. A shorn curl fell
+to the ground, the consummate skill of the swordsman averted all further
+contact between his blade and the Christian, who remained erect and
+smiling, without having moved a muscle or an eyelash.
+
+"Master," said the Goth, addressing the lanista, "I had rather fight ten
+armed men than this unarmed one."
+
+"Good," returned his lord, with a gesture of approval. "Retire both of
+you."
+
+A roar of disapprobation broke out from the spectators, which seemed not to
+produce the slightest effect on the lanista.
+
+"Turn out the next pair," they cried.
+
+"I shall not," said he.
+
+"Wherefore?"
+
+"Because I do not choose."
+
+"Rogue! Cheat! Swindler! Cast him into prison! Throw him to the lion!" Such
+epithets and recommendations rained from the spectators' seats, accompanied
+by a pelting of more substantial missiles. In an instant the yellow hair
+and common dress lay on the ground, and those who knew him not by the
+features could by the Imperial ornaments recognise the Emperor Gallienus.
+With no less celerity his followers, the Goth and the Christian excepted,
+disencumbered themselves of their exterior vesture, and stood forward in
+the character of Roman soldiers.
+
+"Friends," cried Gallienus, turning to the plebeian multitude, "I am not
+about to balk you of your sport."
+
+At a sign from him the legionaries ascended to the seats allotted to the
+philosophic portion of the audience, and a torrent of wisdom in their
+persons, including that of Leaena, flung forth with the energy of a
+catapult, descended abruptly and violently to the earth. They were
+instantly seized and dragged into an erect attitude by the remainder of the
+soldiery, who, amid the most tempestuous peals of laughter and applause
+from the delighted public, thrust swords into their hands, ranged them in
+opposite ranks, and summoned  them to begin the fight and quit themselves
+like men. It was equally ludicrous and pitiable to see the bald, mostly
+grey-bearded men, their garments torn in their expulsion and their persons
+bruised by the fall, confronting each other with quaking limbs, helplessly
+brandishing their weapons or feebly calling their adversaries to come on,
+while the soldiers prodded them from behind with spears, and urged them
+into the close quarters they so anxiously desired to avoid. Plotinus,
+helpless with his bonds and gag, looked on in impotent horror. Gallienus
+was often cruel, but could he intend such a revolting massacre? There must
+be something behind.
+
+The honour of developing the Emperor's purpose was reserved for Theocles,
+who, with admirable presence of mind, had ever since he found he must fight
+been engaged in trying to select the weakest antagonist. After hesitating
+between the unwieldy chief of the Peripatetics and the feminine Leaena he
+fixed on the latter, partly moved, perhaps, by the hope of avenging his
+beard. With a martial cry he sprang towards her, and upraised his weapon
+for a swashing blow. But he had sadly miscalculated. Leaena was hardly less
+versed in the combats of Mars than in those of Venus, having, in fact,
+commenced her distinguished career as a camp-follower of the Emperor
+Gordian. A tremendous stroke caught him on the hand; his blade dropped to
+the earth; why did not the fingers follow? Leaena elucidated the problem by
+a still more violent blow on his face; torrents of blood gushed forth
+indeed, but only from the nose. The sword doubled up; it had neither point
+nor edge. Encouraged by this  opportune discovery the philosophers attacked
+each other with infinite spirit and valour. Infuriated by the blows given
+and received, by the pokings and proddings of the military, and the
+hilarious derision of the public, they cast away the shivered blades and
+resorted to the weapons of Nature. They kicked, they cuffed, they
+scratched, they tore the garments from each other's shoulders, they foamed
+and rolled gasping in the yellow sand of the arena. At a signal from the
+Emperor the portal of the amphitheatre was thrown open, and the whole mass
+of clawing and cuffing philosophy was bundled ignominiously into the
+street.
+
+By this time Gallienus was seated on his tribunal, and Plotinus, released
+from his bonds, was standing by his side.
+
+"O Emperor," he murmured, deeply abashed, "what can I urge? Thou wilt
+surely demolish my city!"
+
+"No, Plotinus," replied Gallienus, pointing to the Goth and the Christian,
+"there are the men who will destroy the City of Philosophers. Would that
+were all they will destroy!"
+
+
+
+
+THE DEMON POPE
+
+
+"So you won't sell me your soul?" said the devil.
+
+"Thank you," replied the student, "I had rather keep it myself, if it's all
+the same to you."
+
+"But it's not all the same to me. I want it very particularly. Come, I'll
+be liberal. I said twenty years. You can have thirty."
+
+The student shook his head.
+
+"Forty!"
+
+Another shake.
+
+"Fifty!"
+
+As before.
+
+"Now," said the devil, "I know I'm going to do a foolish thing, but I
+cannot bear to see a clever, spirited young man throw himself away. I'll
+make you another kind of offer. We won't have any bargain at present, but I
+will push you on in the world for the next forty years. This day forty
+years I come back and ask you for a boon; not your soul, mind, or anything
+not perfectly in your power to grant. If you give it, we are quits; if not,
+I fly away with you. What say you to this?"
+
+The student reflected for some minutes. "Agreed," he said at last.
+
+Scarcely had the devil disappeared, which he did instantaneously, ere a
+messenger reined in his  smoking steed at the gate of the University of
+Cordova (the judicious reader will already have remarked that Lucifer could
+never have been allowed inside a Christian seat of learning), and,
+inquiring for the student Gerbert, presented him with the Emperor Otho's
+nomination to the Abbacy of Bobbio, in consideration, said the document, of
+his virtue and learning, well-nigh miraculous in one so young. Such
+messengers were frequent visitors during Gerbert's prosperous career.
+Abbot, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, he was ultimately enthroned Pope on
+April 2, 999, and assumed the appellation of Silvester the Second. It was
+then a general belief that the world would come to an end in the following
+year, a catastrophe which to many seemed the more imminent from the
+election of a chief pastor whose celebrity as a theologian, though not
+inconsiderable, by no means equalled his reputation as a necromancer.
+
+The world, notwithstanding, revolved scatheless through the dreaded
+twelvemonth, and early in the first year of the eleventh century Gerbert
+was sitting peacefully in his study, perusing a book of magic. Volumes of
+algebra, astrology, alchemy, Aristotelian philosophy, and other such light
+reading filled his bookcase; and on a table stood an improved clock of his
+invention, next to his introduction of the Arabic numerals his chief legacy
+to posterity. Suddenly a sound of wings was heard, and Lucifer stood by his
+side.
+
+"It is a long time," said the fiend, "since I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you. I have now called to remind you of our little contract,
+concluded this day forty years."
+
+"You remember," said Silvester, "that you are not to ask anything exceeding
+my power to perform."
+
+"I have no such intention," said Lucifer. "On the contrary, I am about to
+solicit a favour which can be bestowed by you alone. You are Pope, I desire
+that you would make me a Cardinal.
+
+"In the expectation, I presume," returned Gerbert, "of becoming Pope on the
+next vacancy."
+
+"An expectation," replied Lucifer, "which I may most reasonably entertain,
+considering my enormous wealth, my proficiency in intrigue, and the present
+condition of the Sacred College."
+
+"You would doubtless," said Gerbert, "endeavour to subvert the foundations
+of the Faith, and, by a course of profligacy and licentiousness, render the
+Holy See odious and contemptible."
+
+"On the contrary," said the fiend, "I would extirpate heresy, and all
+learning and knowledge as inevitably tending thereunto. I would suffer no
+man to read but the priest, and confine his reading to his breviary. I
+would burn your books together with your bones on the first convenient
+opportunity. I would observe an austere propriety of conduct, and be
+especially careful not to loosen one rivet in the tremendous yoke I was
+forging for the minds and consciences of mankind."
+
+"If it be so," said Gerbert, "let's be off!"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lucifer, "you are willing to accompany me to the infernal
+regions!"
+
+"Assuredly, rather than be accessory to the burning of Plato and Aristotle,
+and give place to the darkness against which I have been contending all my
+life."
+
+"Gerbert," replied the demon, "this is arrant trifling. Know you not that
+no good man can enter my dominions? that, were such a thing possible, my
+empire would become intolerable to me, and I should be compelled to
+abdicate?"
+
+"I do know it," said Gerbert, "and hence I have been able to receive your
+visit with composure."
+
+"Gerbert," said the devil, with tears in his eyes, "I put it to you--is
+this fair, is this honest? I undertake to promote your interests in the
+world; I fulfil my promise abundantly. You obtain through my
+instrumentality a position to which you could never otherwise have aspired.
+Often have I had a hand in the election of a Pope, but never before have I
+contributed to confer the tiara on one eminent for virtue and learning. You
+profit by my assistance to the full, and now take advantage of an
+adventitious circumstance to deprive me of my reasonable guerdon. It is my
+constant experience that the good people are much more slippery than the
+sinners, and drive much harder bargains."
+
+"Lucifer," answered Gerbert, "I have always sought to treat you as a
+gentleman, hoping that you would approve yourself such in return. I will
+not inquire whether it was entirely in harmony with this character to seek
+to intimidate me into compliance with your demand by threatening me with a
+penalty which you well knew could not be enforced. I will overlook this
+little irregularity, and concede even more than you have requested. You
+have asked to be a Cardinal. I will make you Pope--"
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Lucifer, and an internal glow  suffused his sooty hide, as
+the light of a fading ember is revived by breathing upon it.
+
+"For twelve hours," continued Gerbert. "At the expiration of that time we
+will consider the matter further; and if, as I anticipate, you are more
+anxious to divest yourself of the Papal dignity than you were to assume it,
+I promise to bestow upon you any boon you may ask within my power to grant,
+and not plainly inconsistent with religion or morals."
+
+"Done!" cried the demon. Gerbert uttered some cabalistic words, and in a
+moment the apartment held two Pope Silvesters, entirely indistinguishable
+save by their attire, and the fact that one limped slightly with the left
+foot.
+
+"You will find the Pontifical apparel in this cupboard," said Gerbert, and,
+taking his book of magic with him, he retreated through a masked door to a
+secret chamber. As the door closed behind him he chuckled, and muttered to
+himself, "Poor old Lucifer! Sold again!"
+
+If Lucifer was sold he did not seem to know it. He approached a large slab
+of silver which did duty as a mirror, and contemplated his personal
+appearance with some dissatisfaction.
+
+"I certainly don't look half so well without my horns," he soliloquised,
+"and I am sure I shall miss my tail most grievously."
+
+A tiara and a train, however, made fair amends for the deficient
+appendages, and Lucifer now looked every inch a Pope. He was about to call
+the master of the ceremonies, and summon a consistory, when the door was
+burst open, and seven cardinals, brandishing poniards, rushed into the
+room.
+
+"Down with the sorcerer!" they cried, as they seized and gagged him.
+
+"Death to the Saracen!"
+
+"Practises algebra, and other devilish arts!"
+
+"Knows Greek!"
+
+"Talks Arabic!"
+
+"Reads Hebrew!"
+
+"Burn him!"
+
+"Smother him!"
+
+"Let him be deposed by a general council," said a young and inexperienced
+Cardinal.
+
+"Heaven forbid!" said an old and wary one, _sotto voce_.
+
+Lucifer struggled frantically, but the feeble frame he was doomed to
+inhabit for the next eleven hours was speedily exhausted. Bound and
+helpless, he swooned away.
+
+"Brethren," said one of the senior cardinals, "it hath been delivered by
+the exorcists that a sorcerer or other individual in league with the demon
+doth usually bear upon his person some visible token of his infernal
+compact. I propose that we forthwith institute a search for this stigma,
+the discovery of which may contribute to justify our proceedings in the
+eyes of the world."
+
+"I heartily approve of our brother Anno's proposition," said another, "the
+rather as we cannot possibly fail to discover such a mark, if, indeed, we
+desire to find it."
+
+The search was accordingly instituted, and had not proceeded far ere a
+simultaneous yell from all the seven cardinals indicated that their
+investigation had brought more to light than they had ventured to expect.
+
+The Holy Father had a cloven foot!
+
+For the next five minutes the Cardinals remained utterly stunned, silent,
+and stupefied with amazement. As they gradually recovered their faculties
+it would have become manifest to a nice observer that the Pope had risen
+very considerably in their good opinion.
+
+"This is an affair requiring very mature deliberation," said one.
+
+"I always feared that we might be proceeding too precipitately," said
+another.
+
+"It is written, 'the devils believe,'" said a third: "the Holy Father,
+therefore, is not a heretic at any rate."
+
+"Brethren," said Anno, "this affair, as our brother Benno well remarks,
+doth indeed call for mature deliberation. I therefore propose that, instead
+of smothering his Holiness with cushions, as originally contemplated, we
+immure him for the present in the dungeon adjoining hereunto, and, after
+spending the night in meditation and prayer, resume the consideration of
+the business tomorrow morning."
+
+"Informing the officials of the palace," said Benno, "that his Holiness has
+retired for his devotions, and desires on no account to be disturbed."
+
+"A pious fraud," said Anno, "which not one of the Fathers would for a
+moment have scrupled to commit."
+
+The Cardinals accordingly lifted the still insensible Lucifer, and bore him
+carefully, almost tenderly, to the apartment appointed for his detention.
+Each would fain have lingered in hopes of his recovery, but each felt that
+the eyes of his six brethren were upon him: and all, therefore,  retired
+simultaneously, each taking a key of the cell.
+
+Lucifer regained consciousness almost immediately afterwards. He had the
+most confused idea of the circumstances which had involved him in his
+present scrape, and could only say to himself that if they were the usual
+concomitants of the Papal dignity, these were by no means to his taste, and
+he wished he had been made acquainted with them sooner. The dungeon was not
+only perfectly dark, but horribly cold, and the poor devil in his present
+form had no latent store of infernal heat to draw upon. His teeth
+chattered, he shivered in every limb, and felt devoured with hunger and
+thirst. There is much probability in the assertion of some of his
+biographers that it was on this occasion that he invented ardent spirits;
+but, even if he did, the mere conception of a glass of brandy could only
+increase his sufferings. So the long January night wore wearily on, and
+Lucifer seemed likely to expire from inanition, when a key turned in the
+lock, and Cardinal Anno cautiously glided in, bearing a lamp, a loaf, half
+a cold roast kid, and a bottle of wine.
+
+"I trust," he said, bowing courteously, "that I may be excused any slight
+breach of etiquette of which I may render myself culpable from the
+difficulty under which I labour of determining whether, under present
+circumstances, 'Your Holiness,' or 'Your Infernal Majesty' be the form of
+address most befitting me to employ."
+
+"Bub-ub-bub-boo," went Lucifer, who still had the gag in his mouth.
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed the Cardinal, "I crave  your Infernal Holiness's
+forgiveness. What a lamentable oversight!"
+
+And, relieving Lucifer from his gag and bonds, he set out the refection,
+upon which the demon fell voraciously.
+
+"Why the devil, if I may so express myself," pursued Anno, "did not your
+Holiness inform us that you _were_ the devil? Not a hand would then have
+been raised against you. I have myself been seeking all my life for the
+audience now happily vouchsafed me. Whence this mistrust of your faithful
+Anno, who has served you so loyally and zealously these many years?"
+
+Lucifer pointed significantly to the gag and fetters.
+
+"I shall never forgive myself," protested the Cardinal, "for the part I
+have borne in this unfortunate transaction. Next to ministering to your
+Majesty's bodily necessities, there is nothing I have so much at heart as
+to express my penitence. But I entreat your Majesty to remember that I
+believed myself to be acting in your Majesty's interest by overthrowing a
+magician who was accustomed to send your Majesty upon errands, and who
+might at any time enclose you in a box, and cast you into the sea. It is
+deplorable that your Majesty's most devoted servants should have been thus
+misled."
+
+"Reasons of State," suggested Lucifer.
+
+"I trust that they no longer operate," said the Cardinal. "However, the
+Sacred College is now fully possessed of the whole matter: it is therefore
+unnecessary to pursue this department of the subject further. I would now
+humbly crave leave to confer with your Majesty, or rather, perhaps, your
+Holiness, since I am about to speak of spiritual things, on the important
+and delicate point of your Holiness's successor. I am ignorant how long
+your Holiness proposes to occupy the Apostolic chair; but of course you are
+aware that public opinion will not suffer you to hold it for a term
+exceeding that of the pontificate of Peter. A vacancy, therefore, must one
+day occur; and I am humbly to represent that the office could not be filled
+by one more congenial than myself to the present incumbent, or on whom he
+could more fully rely to carry out in every respect his views and
+intentions."
+
+And the Cardinal proceeded to detail various circumstances of his past
+life, which certainly seemed to corroborate his assertion. He had not,
+however, proceeded far ere he was disturbed by the grating of another key
+in the lock, and had just time to whisper impressively, "Beware of Benno,"
+ere he dived under a table.
+
+Benno was also provided with a lamp, wine, and cold viands. Warned by the
+other lamp and the remains of Lucifer's repast that some colleague had been
+beforehand with him, and not knowing how many more might be in the field,
+he came briefly to the point as regarded the Papacy, and preferred his
+claim in much the same manner as Anno. While he was earnestly cautioning
+Lucifer against this Cardinal as one who could and would cheat the very
+Devil himself, another key turned in the lock, and Benno escaped under the
+table, where Anno immediately inserted his finger into his right eye. The
+little squeal consequent upon this occurrence Lucifer successfully
+smothered by a fit of coughing.
+
+Cardinal No. 3, a Frenchman, bore a Bayonne ham, and exhibited the same
+disgust as Benno on seeing himself forestalled. So far as his requests
+transpired they were moderate, but no one knows where he would have stopped
+if he had not been scared by the advent of Cardinal No. 4. Up to this time
+he had only asked for an inexhaustible purse, power to call up the Devil
+_ad libitum_, and a ring of invisibility to allow him free access to his
+mistress, who was unfortunately a married woman.
+
+Cardinal No. 4 chiefly wanted to be put into the way of poisoning Cardinal
+No. 5; and Cardinal No. 5 preferred the same petition as respected Cardinal
+No. 4.
+
+Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the Archbishoprics
+of Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding them together, and of
+unlimited non-residence. In the course of his harangue he made use of the
+phrase _non obstantibus_, of which Lucifer immediately took a note.
+
+What the seventh Cardinal would have solicited is not known, for he had
+hardly opened his mouth when the twelfth hour expired, and Lucifer,
+regaining his vigour with his shape, sent the Prince of the Church spinning
+to the other end of the room, and split the marble table with a single
+stroke of his tail. The six crouched and huddling Cardinals cowered
+revealed to one another, and at the same time enjoyed the spectacle of his
+Holiness darting through the stone ceiling, which yielded like a film to
+his passage, and closed up afterwards as if nothing had happened. After the
+first shock of dismay they unanimously rushed to the door,  but found it
+bolted on the outside. There was no other exit, and no means of giving an
+alarm. In this emergency the demeanour of the Italian Cardinals set a
+bright example to their ultramontane colleagues. "_Bisogna pazienzia_,"
+they said, as they shrugged their shoulders. Nothing could exceed the
+mutual politeness of Cardinals Anno and Benno, unless that of the two who
+had sought to poison each other. The Frenchman was held to have gravely
+derogated from good manners by alluding to this circumstance, which had
+reached his ears while he was under the table: and the Englishman swore so
+outrageously at the plight in which he found himself that the Italians then
+and there silently registered a vow that none of his nation should ever be
+Pope, a maxim which, with one exception, has been observed to this day.
+
+Lucifer, meanwhile, had repaired to Silvester, whom he found arrayed in all
+the insignia of his dignity; of which, as he remarked, he thought his
+visitor had probably had enough.
+
+"I should think so indeed," replied Lucifer. "But at the same time I feel
+myself fully repaid for all I have undergone by the assurance of the
+loyalty of my friends and admirers, and the conviction that it is needless
+for me to devote any considerable amount of personal attention to
+ecclesiastical affairs. I now claim the promised boon, which it will be in
+no way inconsistent with thy functions to grant, seeing that it is a work
+of mercy. I demand that the Cardinals be released, and that their
+conspiracy against thee, by which I alone suffered, be buried in oblivion."
+
+"I hoped you would carry them all off," said Gerbert, with an expression of
+disappointment.
+
+"Thank you," said the Devil. "It is more to my interest to leave them where
+they are."
+
+So the dungeon-door was unbolted, and the Cardinals came forth, sheepish
+and crestfallen. If, after all, they did less mischief than Lucifer had
+expected from them, the cause was their entire bewilderment by what had
+passed, and their utter inability to penetrate the policy of Gerbert, who
+henceforth devoted himself even with ostentation to good works. They could
+never quite satisfy themselves whether they were speaking to the Pope or to
+the Devil, and when under the latter impression habitually emitted
+propositions which Gerbert justly stigmatised as rash, temerarious, and
+scandalous. They plagued him with allusions to certain matters mentioned in
+their interviews with Lucifer, with which they naturally but erroneously
+supposed him to be conversant, and worried him by continual nods and
+titterings as they glanced at his nether extremities. To abolish this
+nuisance, and at the same time silence sundry unpleasant rumours which had
+somehow got abroad, Gerbert devised the ceremony of kissing the Pope's
+feet, which, in a grievously mutilated form, endures to this day. The
+stupefaction of the Cardinals on discovering that the Holy Father had lost
+his hoof surpasses all description, and they went to their graves without
+having obtained the least insight into the mystery.
+
+
+
+
+THE CUPBEARER
+
+
+The minister Photinius had fallen, to the joy of Constantinople. He had
+taken sanctuary in the immense monastery adjoining the Golden Gate in the
+twelfth region of the city, founded for a thousand monks by the patrician
+Studius, in the year 463. There he occupied himself with the concoction of
+poisons, the resource of fallen statesmen. When a defeated minister of our
+own day is indisposed to accept his discomfiture, he applies himself to
+poison the public mind, inciting the lower orders against the higher, and
+blowing up every smouldering ember of sedition he can discover, trusting
+that the conflagration thus kindled, though it consume the edifice of the
+State, will not fail to roast his own egg. Photinius's conceptions of
+mischief were less refined; he perfected his toxicological knowledge in the
+medical laboratory of the monastery, and sought eagerly for an opportunity
+of employing it; whether in an experiment upon the Emperor, or on his own
+successor, or on some other personage, circumstances must determine.
+
+The sanctity of Studius's convent, and the strength of its monastic
+garrison, rendered it a safe refuge for disgraced courtiers, and in this
+thirtieth year of the Emperor Basil the Second (reckoning from his nominal
+accession) it harboured  a legion of ex-prime ministers, patriarchs,
+archbishops, chief secretaries, hypati, anthypati, silentiarii,
+protospatharii, and even spatharo-candidati. And this small army was
+nothing to the host that, maimed or blinded or tonsured or all three,
+dragged out their lives in monasteries or in dungeons or on rocky islets;
+and these again were few in comparison with the spirits of the traitors or
+the betrayed who wailed nightly amid the planes and cypresses of the
+Aretae, or stalked through the palatial apartments of verdantique and
+porphyry. But of those comparatively at liberty, but whose liberty was
+circumscribed by the hallowed precincts of Studius, every soul was
+plotting. And never, perhaps, in the corrupt Byzantine Court, where true
+friendship had been unknown since Theodora quarrelled with Antonia, had so
+near an approach to it existed as in this asylum of villains. A sort of
+freemasonry came to prevail in the sanctuary: every one longed to know how
+his neighbour's plot throve, and grudged not to buy the knowledge by
+disclosing a little corner of his own. Thus rendered communicative, their
+colloquies would travel back into the past, and as the veterans of intrigue
+fought their battles over again, the most experienced would learn things
+that made them open their eyes with amazement. "Ah!" they would hear, "that
+is just where you were mistaken. You had bought Eromenus, but so had I, and
+old Nicephorus had outbid us both." "You deemed the dancer Anthusa a sure
+card, and knew not of her secret infirmity, of which I had been apprised by
+her waiting woman." "Did you really know nothing of that sliding panel? And
+were you ignorant  that whatever one says in the blue chamber is heard in
+the green?" "Yes, I thought so too, and I spent a mint of money before
+finding out that the dog whose slaver that brazen impostor Panurgiades
+pretended to sell me was no more mad than he was." After such rehearsals of
+future dialogues by the banks of Styx, the fallen statesmen were observed
+to appear exceedingly dejected, but the stimulus had become necessary to
+their existence. None gossiped so freely or disclosed so much as Photinius
+and his predecessor Eustathius, whom he had himself displaced--probably
+because Eustathius, believing in nothing in heaven or earth but gold, and
+labouring under an absolute privation of that metal, was regarded even by
+himself as an extinct volcano.
+
+"Well," observed he one day, when discoursing with Photinius is an
+unusually confidential mood, "I am free to say that for my own part I don't
+think over much of poison. It has its advantages, to be sure, but to my
+mind the disadvantages are even more conspicuous."
+
+"For example?" inquired Photinius, who had the best reason for confiding in
+the efficacy of a drag administered with dexterity and discretion.
+
+"Two people must be in the secret at least, if not three," replied
+Eustathius, "and cooks, as a rule, are a class of persons entirely unfit to
+be employed in affairs of State."
+
+"The Court physician," suggested Photinius.
+
+"Is only available," answered Eustathius, "in case his Majesty should send
+for him, which is most improbable. If he ever did, poison, praised be the
+Lord! would be totally unnecessary and entirely superfluous."
+
+"My dear friend," said Photinius, venturing at this favourable moment on a
+question he had been dying to ask ever since he had been an inmate of the
+convent, "would you mind telling me in confidence, did you ever administer
+any potion of a deleterious nature to his Sacred Majesty?"
+
+"Never!" protested Eustathius, with fervour. "I tried once, to be sure, but
+it was no use."
+
+"What was the impediment?"
+
+"The perverse opposition of the cupbearer. It is idle attempting anything
+of the kind as long as she is about the Emperor."
+
+"_She_!" exclaimed Photinius.
+
+"Don't you know _that_?" responded Eustathius, with an air and manner that
+plainly said, "You don't know much."
+
+Humbled and ashamed, Photinius nevertheless wisely stooped to avow his
+nescience, and flattering his rival on his superior penetration, led him to
+divulge the State secret that the handsome cupbearer Helladius was but the
+disguise of the lovely Helladia, the object of Basil's tenderest affection,
+and whose romantic attachment to his person had already frustrated more
+conspiracies than the aged plotter could reckon up.
+
+This intelligence made Photinius for a season exceedingly thoughtful. He
+had not deemed Basil of an amorous complexion. At length he sent for his
+daughter, the beautiful and virtuous Euprepia, who from time to time
+visited him in the monastery.
+
+"Daughter," he said, "it appears to me that the time has now arrived when
+thou mayest with propriety present a petition to the Emperor on behalf of
+thy unfortunate father. Here is the  document. It is, I flatter myself,
+composed with no ordinary address; nevertheless I will not conceal from
+thee that I place my hopes rather on thy beauty of person than on my beauty
+of style. Shake down thy hair and dishevel it, so!--that is excellent.
+Remember to tear thy robe some little in the poignancy of thy woe, and to
+lose a sandal. Tears and sobs of course thou hast always at command, but
+let not the frenzy of thy grief render thee wholly inarticulate. Here is a
+slight memorandum of what is most fitting for thee to say: thy old nurse's
+instructions will do the rest. Light a candle for St. Sergius, and watch
+for a favourable opportunity."
+
+Euprepia was upright, candid, and loyal; but the best of women has
+something of the actress in her nature; and her histrionic talent was
+stimulated by her filial affection. Basil was for a moment fairly carried
+away by the consummate fact of her performance and the genuine feeling to
+her appeal; but he was himself again by the time he had finished perusing
+his late minister's long-winded and mendacious memorial.
+
+"What manner of woman was thy mother?" he inquired kindly
+
+Euprepia was eloquent in praise of her deceased parent's perfections of
+mind and person.
+
+"Then I can believe thee Photinius's daughter, which I might otherwise have
+doubted," returned Basil. "As concerns him, I can only say, if he feels
+himself innocent, let him come out of sanctuary, and stand his trial. But I
+will give thee a place at Court."
+
+This was about all that Photinius hoped to obtain, and he joyfully
+consented to his daughter's  entering the Imperial court, exulting at
+having got in the thin end of the wedge. She was attached to the person of
+the Emperor's sister-in-law, the "Slayer of the Bulgarians" himself being a
+most determined bachelor.
+
+Time wore on. Euprepia's opportunities of visiting her father were less
+frequent than formerly. At last she came, looking thoroughly miserable,
+distracted, and forlorn.
+
+"What ails thee, child?" he inquired anxiously.
+
+"Oh, father, in what a frightful position do I find myself!"
+
+"Speak," he said, "and rely on my counsel."
+
+"When I entered the Court," she proceeded, "I found at first but one human
+creature I could love or trust, and he--let me so call him--seemed to
+make up for the deficiencies of all the rest. It was the cupbearer
+Helladius."
+
+"I hope he is still thy friend," interrupted Photinius. "The good graces of
+an Imperial cupbearer are always important, and I would have bought those
+of Helladius with a myriad of bezants."
+
+"They were not to be thus obtained, father," said she. "The purest
+disinterestedness, the noblest integrity, the most unselfish devotion, were
+the distinction of my friend. And such beauty! I cannot, I must not conceal
+that my heart was soon entirely his. But--most strange it seemed to me
+then--it was long impossible for me to tell whether Helladius loved me or
+loved me not. The most perfect sympathy existed between us: we seemed one
+heart and one soul: and yet, and yet, Helladius never gave the slightest
+indication of the sentiments which a young man might  be supposed to
+entertain for a young girl. Vainly did I try every innocent wile that a
+modest maiden may permit herself: he was ever the friend, never the lover.
+At length, after long pining between despairing fondness and wounded pride,
+I myself turned away, and listened to one who left me in no doubt of the
+sincerity of his passion."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"The Emperor! And, to shorten the story of my shame, I became his
+mistress."
+
+"The saints be praised!" shouted Photinius. "O my incomparable daughter!"
+
+"Father!" cried Euprepia, blushing and indignant. "But let me hurry on with
+my wretched tale. In proportion as the Emperor's affection became more
+marked, Helladius, hitherto so buoyant and serene, became a visible prey to
+despondency. Some scornful beauty, I deemed, was inflicting on him the
+tortures he had previously inflicted upon me, and, cured of my unhappy
+attachment, and entirely devoted to my Imperial lover, I did all in my
+power to encourage him. He received my comfort with gratitude, nor did it,
+as I had feared might happen, seem to excite the least lover-like feeling
+towards me on his own part."
+
+"Euprepia," he said only two days ago, "never in this Court have I met one
+like thee. Thou art the soul of honour and generosity. I can safely trust
+thee with a secret which my bursting heart can no longer retain, but which
+I dread to breathe even to myself. Know first I am not what I seem, I am a
+woman!" And opening his vest--"
+
+"We know all about that already," interrupted Photinius. "Get on!"
+
+"If thou knowest this already, father," said the astonished Euprepia, "thou
+wilt spare me the pain of entering further into Helladia's affection for
+Basil. Suffice that it was impassioned beyond description, and vied with
+whatever history or romance records. In her male costume she had
+accompanied the conqueror of the Bulgarians in his campaigns, she had
+fought in his battles; a gigantic foe, in act to strike him from behind,
+had fallen by her arrow; she had warded the poison-cup from his lips, and
+the assassin's dagger from his heart; she had rejected enormous wealth
+offered as a bribe for treachery, and lived only for the Emperor. 'And
+now,' she cried, 'his love for me is cold, and he deserts me for another.
+Who she is I cannot find, else on her it were, not on him, that my
+vengeance should alight. Oh, Euprepia, I would tear her eyes from her head,
+were they beautiful as thine! But vengeance I must have. Basil must die. On
+the third day he expires by my hand, poisoned by the cup which I alone am
+trusted to offer him at the Imperial banquet where thou wilt be present.
+Thou shalt see his agonies and my triumph, and rejoice that thy friend has
+known how to avenge herself.'
+
+"Thou seest now, father, in how frightful a difficulty I am placed. All my
+entreaties and remonstrances have been in vain: at my threats Helladia
+merely laughs. I love Basil with my whole heart. Shall I look on and see
+him murdered? Shall I, having first unwittingly done my friend the most
+grievous injury, proceed further to betray her, and doom her to a cruel
+death? I might anticipate her fell purpose by slaying her, but for that I
+have neither strength  nor courage. Many a time have I felt on the point of
+revealing everything to her, and offering myself as her victim, but for
+this also I lack fortitude. I might convey a warning to Basil, but
+Helladia's vengeance is unsleeping, and nothing but her death or mine will
+screen him. Oh, father, father! what am I to do?"
+
+"Nothing romantic or sentimental, I trust, dear child," replied Photinius.
+
+"Torture me not, father. I came to thee for counsel."
+
+"And counsel shalt thou have, but it must be the issue of mature
+deliberation. Thou mayest observe," continued he with the air of a good man
+contending with adversity, "how weak and miserable is man's estate even in
+the day of good fortune, how hard it is for purblind mortals to discern the
+right path, especially when two alluring routes are simultaneously
+presented for their decision! The most obvious and natural course, the one
+I should have adopted without hesitation half-an-hour ago, would be simply
+to let Helladia alone. Should she succeed--and Heaven forbid else!--the
+knot is loosed in the simplest manner. Basil dies--"
+
+"Father!"
+
+"I am a favourite with his sister-in-law," continued Photinius, entirely
+unconscious of his daughter's horror and agitation, "who will govern in the
+name of her weak husband, and is moreover thy mistress. She recalls me to
+Court, and all is peace and joy. But then, Helladia may fail. In that case,
+when she has been executed--"
+
+"Father, father!"
+
+"We are exactly where we were, save for the hold thou hast established over
+the Emperor, which is of course invaluable. I cannot but feel that Heaven
+is good when I reflect how easily thou mightest have thrown thyself away
+upon a courtier. Now there is a much bolder game to play, which, relying on
+the protection of Providence, I feel half disposed to attempt. Thou
+mightest betray Helladia."
+
+"Deliver my friend to the tormentors!"
+
+"Then," pursued Photinius, without hearing her, "thy claim on the Emperor's
+gratitude is boundless, and if he has any sense of what is seemly--and he
+is what they call chivalrous--he will make thee his lawful consort. I
+father-in-law of an Emperor! My brain reels to think of it. I must be cool.
+I must not suffer myself to be dazzled or hurried away. Let me consider.
+Thus acting, thou puttest all to the hazard of the die. For if Helladia
+should deny everything, as of course she would, and the Emperor should
+foolishly scruple to put her to the rack, she might probably persuade him
+of her innocence, and where wouldst thou be then? It might almost be better
+to be beforehand, and poison Helladia herself, but I fear there is no time
+now. Thou hast no evidence but her threats, I suppose? Thou hast not caught
+her tampering with poisons? There can of course be nothing in writing. I
+daresay I could find something, if I had but time. Canst thou counterfeit
+her signature?"
+
+But long ere this Euprepia, dissolved in tears, her bosom torn by
+convulsive sobs, had become as inattentive to her parent's discourse as he
+had been to her interjections. Photinius at last  remarked her distress: he
+was by no means a bad father.
+
+"Poor child," he said, "thy nerves are unstrung, and no wonder. It is a
+terrible risk to run. Even if thou saidest nothing, and Helladia under the
+torture accused thee of having been privy to her design, it might have a
+bad effect on the Emperor's mind. If he put thee to the torture too--but
+no! that's impossible. I feel faint and giddy, dear child, and unable to
+decide a point of such importance. Come to me at daybreak to-morrow."
+
+But Euprepia did not reappear, and Photinius spent the day in an agony of
+expectation, fearing that she had compromised herself by some imprudence.
+He gazed on the setting sun with uncontrollable impatience, knowing that it
+would shine on the Imperial banquet, where so much was to happen. Basil was
+in fact at that very moment seating himself among a brilliant assemblage.
+By his side stood a choir of musicians, among them Euprepia. Soon the cup
+was called for, and Helladia, in her masculine dress, stepped forward,
+darting a glance of sinister triumph at her friend. Silently, almost
+imperceptibly to the bulk of the company, Euprepia glided forward, and
+hissed rather than whispered in Helladia's ear, ere she could retire from
+the Emperor's side.
+
+"Didst thou not say that if thou couldst discover her who had wronged thee,
+thou wouldst wreak thy vengeance on her, and molest Basil no further?"
+
+"I did, and I meant it."
+
+"See that thou keepest thy word. I am she!" And snatching the cup from the
+table, she quaffed  it to the last drop, and instantly expired in
+convulsions.
+
+We pass over the dismay of the banqueters, the arrest and confession of
+Helladia, the general amazement at the revelation of her sex, the frantic
+grief of the Emperor.
+
+Basil's sorrow was sincere and durable. On an early occasion he thus
+addressed his courtiers:
+
+"I cannot determine which of these two women loved me best: she who gave
+her life for me, or she who would have taken mine. The first made the
+greater sacrifice; the second did most violence to her feelings. What say
+ye?"
+
+The courtiers hesitated, feeling themselves incompetent judges in problems
+of this nature. At length the youngest exclaimed:
+
+"O Emperor, how can we tell thee, unless we know what thou thinkest
+thyself?"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Basil, "an honest man in the Court of Byzantium! Let his
+mouth be filled with gold immediately!"
+
+This operation having been performed, and the precious metal distributed in
+fees among the proper officers, Basil thus addressed the object of his
+favour:
+
+"Manuel, thy name shall henceforth be Chrysostomus, in memory of what has
+just taken place. In further token of my approbation of thy honesty, I will
+confer upon thee the hand of the only other respectable person about the
+Court, namely, of Helladia. Take her, my son, and raise up a race of
+heroes! She shall be amply dowered out of what remains of the property of
+Photinius."
+
+"Gennadius," whispered a cynical courtier to  his neighbour, "I hope thou
+admirest the magnanimity of our sovereign, who deems he is performing a
+most generous action in presenting Manuel with his cast-off mistress, who
+has tried to poison him, and with whom he has been at his wits' end what to
+do, and in dowering her at the expense of another."
+
+The snarl was just; but it is just also to acknowledge that Basil, as a
+prince born in the purple, had not the least idea that he was laying
+himself open to any such criticism. He actually did feel the manly glow of
+self-approbation which accompanies the performance of a good action: an
+emotion which no one else present, except Chrysostomus, was so much as able
+to conceive. It is further to be remarked that the old courtier who sneered
+at Chrysostomus was devoured by envy of his good fortune, and would have
+given his right eye to have been in his place.
+
+"Chrysostomus," pursued Basil, "we must now think of the hapless Photinius.
+That unfortunate father is doubtless in an agony of grief which renders the
+forfeiture of the remains of his possessions indifferent to him. Thou, his
+successor therein, mayest be regarded as in some sort his son-in-law. Go,
+therefore, and comfort him, and report to me upon his condition."
+
+Chrysostomus accordingly proceeded to the monastery, where he was informed
+that Photinius had retired with his spiritual adviser, and could on no
+account be disturbed.
+
+"It is on my head to see the Emperor's orders obeyed," returned
+Chrysostomus, and forced the door. The bereaved parent was busily engaged
+in sticking pins into a wax effigy of Basil, under  the direction of
+Panurgiades, already honourably mentioned in this history.
+
+"Wretched old man!" exclaimed Chrysostomus, "is this thy grief for thy
+daughter?"
+
+"My grief is great," answered Photinius, "but my time is small. If I turn
+not every moment to account, I shall never be prime minister again. But all
+is over now. Thou wilt denounce me, of course. I will give thee a counsel.
+Say that thou didst arrive just as we were about to place the effigy of
+Basil before a slow fire, and melt it into a caldron of bubbling poison."
+
+"I shall report what I have seen," replied Chrysostomus, "neither more nor
+less. But I think I can assure thee that none will suffer for this mummery
+except Panurgiades, and that he will at most be whipped."
+
+"Chrysostomus," said Basil, on receiving the report, "lust of power, a
+fever in youth, is a leprosy in age. The hoary statesman out of place would
+sell his daughter, his country, his soul, to regain it: yea, he would part
+with his skin and his senses, were it possible to hold office without them.
+I commiserate Photinius, whose faculties are clearly on the decline; the
+day has been when he would not have wasted his time sticking pins into a
+waxen figure. I will give him some shadow of authority to amuse his old
+days and keep him out of mischief. The Abbot of Catangion is just dead.
+Photinius shall succeed him."
+
+So Photinius received the tonsure and the dignity, and made a very
+tolerable Abbot. It is even recorded to his honour that he bestowed a
+handsome funeral on his old enemy Eustathius.
+
+Helladia made Chrysostomus an excellent wife, a little over-prudish, some
+thought. When, nearly two centuries afterwards, the Courts of Love came to
+be established in Provence, the question at issue between her and Euprepia
+was referred to those tribunals, which, finding the decision difficult,
+adjourned it for seven hundred years. That period having now expired, it is
+submitted to the British public.
+
+
+
+
+THE WISDOM OF THE INDIANS
+
+
+Everybody knows that in the reign of the Emperor Elagabalus Rome was
+visited by an embassy from India; whose members, on their way from the
+East, had held that memorable interview with the illustrious (though
+heretical) Christian philosopher Bardesanes which enabled him to formulate
+his doctrine of Fate, borrowed from the Indian theory of Karma, and
+therefore, until lately, grievously misunderstood by his commentators.
+
+It may not, however, be equally notorious that the ambassadors returned by
+sea as far as Berytus, and upon landing there were hospitably entertained
+by the sage Euphronius, the head of the philosophical faculty of that
+University.
+
+Euphronius naturally inquired what circumstance in Rome had appeared to his
+visitors most worthy of remark.
+
+"The extreme evil of the Emperor's Karma," said they.
+
+Euphronius requested further explanation.
+
+"Karma," explained their interpreter, "is that congeries of circumstances
+which has necessitated the birth of each individual, and of whose good or
+evil he is the incarnation. Every act must needs be attended by
+consequences, and as these are usually of too far-reaching a character to
+be  exhausted in the life of the doer of the action, they cannot but
+engender another person by whom they are to be borne. This truth is
+popularly expressed by the doctrine of transmigration, according to which
+individuals, as the character of their deeds may determine, are re-born as
+pigs or peacocks, beggars or princes. But this is a loose and unscientific
+way of speaking, for in fact it is not the individual that is re-born, but
+the character; which, even as the silkworm clothes itself with silk and the
+caddis-worm with mud and small shingle, creates for itself a new
+personality, congruous with its own nature. We are therefore led to reflect
+what a prodigious multitude of sins some one must have committed ere the
+Roman world could be afflicted with such an Emperor as Elagabalus."
+
+"What have ye found so exceedingly reprehensible in the Emperor's conduct?"
+demanded Euphronius.
+
+"To speak only," said the Indians, "of such of his doings as may fitly be
+recited to modest ears, we find him declaring war against Nature, and
+delighting in nothing that is not the contrary of what Heaven meant it to
+be. We see him bathing in perfumes, sailing ships in wine, feeding horses
+on grapes and lions on parrots, peppering fish with pearls, wearing gems on
+the soles of his feet, strewing his floor with gold-dust, paving the public
+streets with precious marbles, driving teams of stags, scorning to eat fish
+by the seaside, deploring his lot that he has never yet been able to dine
+on a phoenix. Enormous must have been the folly and wickedness which has
+incarnated itself in such a sovereign, and should his reign be  prolonged,
+discouraging is the prospect for the morals of the next generation.
+
+"According to you, then," said Euphronius, "the fates of men are not spun
+for them by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, but by their predecessors?"
+
+"So it is," said they, "always remembering that man can rid himself of his
+Karma by philosophic meditation, combined with religious austerities, and
+that if all walked in this path, existence with all its evils would come to
+an end. Insomuch that the most bloodthirsty conqueror that ever devastated
+the earth hath not destroyed one thousandth part as many existences as the
+Lord Buddha."
+
+"These are abstruse matters," said Euphronius, "and I lament that your stay
+in Berytus will not be long enough to instruct me adequately therein."
+
+"Accompany us to India," said they, "and thou shalt receive instruction at
+the fountain head."
+
+"I am old and feeble," apologised Euphronius, "and adjusted by long habit
+to my present environment. Nevertheless I will propound the enterprise to
+my pupils, only somewhat repressing their ardour, lest the volunteers
+should be inconveniently numerous."
+
+When, however, the proposition was made not a soul responded; though
+Euphronius reproached his disciples severely, and desired them to compare
+their want of spirit with his own thirst for knowledge, which, when he was
+a young man, had taken him as far as Alexandria to hear a celebrated
+rhetorician. In the evening, however, two disciples came to him together,
+and professed their readiness to undertake the expedition, if promised  a
+reward commensurate with its danger and difficulty.
+
+"Ye would learn the secret of my celebrated dilemma," said he, "which no
+sophist can elude? 'Tis much; 'tis immoderate; 'tis enormous; nevertheless,
+bring the wisdom of India to Berytus, and the knowledge of the stratagem
+shall be yours."
+
+"No, Master," they said, "it is not thy dilemma of which we are enamoured.
+It is thy daughter."
+
+A vehement altercation ensued, but at length the old philosopher, who at
+the bottom of his heart was much readier to part with his daughter than his
+dilemma, was induced to promise her to whichever of the pupils should bring
+home the most satisfactory exposition of Indian metaphysics: provided
+always that during their absence he should not have been compelled to
+bestow her hand as the price of a quibble even more subtle than his own:
+but this he believed to be impossible.
+
+Mnesitheus and Rufus accordingly travelled with the embassy to India, and
+arrived in safety at the metropolis of Palimbothra. They had wisely devoted
+themselves meanwhile to learning the language, and were now able to
+converse with some fluency.
+
+On reaching their destination they were placed under the superintendence of
+competent instructors, who were commissioned to initiate them into the
+canon of Buddhist scriptures, comprising, to mention only a few of the
+principal, the Lalitavistara, the Dhammapada, the Kuddhapatha, the
+Palinokkha, the Uragavagga, the Kulavagga, the Mahavagga, the Atthakavagga,
+and the Upasampadakammavaca. These works, composed in dead languages, and
+written in strange and unknown characters, were further provided with
+commentaries more voluminous and inexplicable than the text.
+
+"Heavens," exclaimed Mnesitheus and Rufus, "can the life of a man suffice
+to study all this?"
+
+"Assuredly not," replied the Indians. "The diligent student will resume his
+investigations in a subsequent stage of existence, and, if endowed with
+eminent faculties, may hope to attain the end he proposes to himself at the
+fifteenth transmigration."
+
+"The end we propose to ourselves," said the Greeks, "is to marry our
+master's daughter. Will the fair Euphronia also have undergone fifteen
+transmigrations, and will her charms have continued unimpaired?"
+
+"It is difficult to pronounce," said they, "for should the maiden, through
+the exercise of virtue, have merited to be born as a white elephant, her
+transmigrations must in the order of nature be but few; whereas should she
+have unfortunately become and remained a rat, a frog, or other shortlived
+animal, they cannot but be exceedingly numerous."
+
+"The prospect of wedding a frog at the end of fifteen transmigrations,"
+said the youths, "doth not in any respect commend itself to us. Are there
+no means by which the course of study may be accelerated?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," said the Indians, "by the practice of religious
+austerities."
+
+"Of what nature are these?" inquired the young men.
+
+"The intrepid disciple," said the sages, "may chain himself to a tree, and
+gaze upon the sun until he is deprived of the faculty of vision. He may
+drive an iron bar through his cheeks and tongue, thus preventing all misuse
+of the gift of speech. It is open to him to bury himself in the earth up to
+his waist, relying for his maintenance on the alms of pious donors. He may
+recline upon a couch studded with spikes, until from the induration of his
+skin he shall have merited the title of a rhinoceros among sages. As,
+however, these latter practices interfere with locomotion, and thus prevent
+his close attendance on his spiritual guide, it is rather recommended to
+him to elevate his arms above his head, and retain them in that position
+until, by the withering of the sinews, it is impossible for him to bring
+them down again."
+
+"In that case," cried Rufus, "farewell philosophy! farewell Euphronia!"
+
+There is reason to believe that Mnesitheus would have made exactly the same
+observation if Rufus had not been beforehand with him. The spirit of
+contradiction and the affectation of superiority, however, led him to
+reproach his rival with pusillanimity, and he went so far that at length he
+found himself committed to undergo the ordeal: merely stipulating that, in
+consideration of his being a foreigner, he should be permitted to elevate
+the right arm only.
+
+The king of the country most graciously came to his assistance by causing
+him to be fastened to a tree, with his uplifted arm secured by iron bands
+above his head, a fan being put in his other hand to protect him against
+the molestations of gnats  and mosquitoes. By this means, and with the
+assistance of the monks who continually recited and expounded the Buddhist
+scriptures in his ears, some time even before his arm had stiffened for
+ever, the doctrine of the misery of existence had become perfectly clear to
+him.
+
+Released from his captivity, he hastened back to Europe to claim the
+guerdon of his sufferings. History is silent respecting his adventures
+until his arrival at Berytus, where the strange wild-looking man with the
+uplifted arm found himself the centre of a turbulent and mischievous
+rabble. As he seemed about to suffer severe ill-usage, a personage of
+dignified and portly appearance hastened up, and with his staff showered
+blows to right and left upon the rioters.
+
+"Scoundrels," he exclaimed, "finely have ye profited by my precepts, thus
+to misuse an innocent stranger! But I will no longer dwell among such
+barbarians. I will remove my school to Tarsus!"
+
+The mob dispersed. The victim and his deliverer stood face to face.
+
+"Mnesitheus!"
+
+"Rufus!"
+
+"Call me Rufinianus," corrected the latter; "for such is the appellation
+which I have felt it due to myself to assume, since the enhancement of my
+dignity by becoming Euphronius's successor and son-in-law."
+
+"Son-in-law! Am I to lose the reward of my incredible sufferings?"
+
+"Thou forgettest," said Rufinianus, "that Euphronia's hand was not promised
+as the reward of any austerities, but as the meed of the most  intelligent,
+that is, the most acceptable, account of the Indian philosophy, which in
+the opinion of the late eminent Euphronius, has been delivered by me. But
+come to my chamber, and let me minister to thy necessities."
+
+These having been duly attended to, Rufinianus demanded Mnesitheus's
+history, and then proceeded to narrate his own.
+
+"On my journey homeward," said he, "I reflected seriously on the probable
+purpose of our master in sending us forth, and saw reason to suspect that I
+had hitherto misapprehended it. For I could not remember that he had ever
+admitted that he could have anything to learn from other philosophers, or
+that he had ever exhibited the least interest in philosophic dogmas,
+excepting his own. The system of the Indians, I thought, must be either
+inferior to that of Euphronius, or superior. If the former, he will not
+want it: if the latter, he will want it much less. I therefore concluded
+that our mission was partly a concession to public opinion, partly to
+enable him to say that his name was known, and his teaching proclaimed on
+the very banks of the Ganges. I formed my plan accordingly, and
+disregarding certain indications that I was neither expected nor wanted,
+presented myself before Euphronius with a gladsome countenance, slightly
+overcast by sorrow on account of thee, whom I affirmed to have been
+devoured by a tiger.
+
+"'Well,' said Euphronius in a disdainful tone, 'and what about this vaunted
+wisdom of the Indians?'
+
+"'The wisdom of the Indians,' I replied, 'is entirely borrowed from
+Pythagoras.'
+
+"'Did I not tell you so? 'Euphronius appealed to his disciples.
+
+"'Invariably,' they replied.
+
+"'As if a barbarian could teach a Greek!' said he.
+
+"'It is much if he is able to learn from one,' said they.
+
+"'Pythagoras, then,' said Euphronius addressing me,' did not resort to
+India to be instructed by the Gymnosophists?'
+
+"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'he went there to teach them, and the
+little knowledge of divine matters they possess is entirely derived from
+him. His mission is recorded in a barbarous poem called the Ramayana,
+wherein he is figuratively represented as allying himself with monkeys. He
+is worshipped all over the country under the appellations of Siva,
+Kamadeva, Kali, Gautama Buddha, and others too numerous to mention.'
+
+"When I further proceeded to explain that a temple had been erected to
+Euphronius himself on the banks of the Ganges, and that a festival, called
+Durga Popja, or the Feast of Reason, had been instituted in his honour, his
+good humour knew no bounds, and he granted me his daughter's hand without
+difficulty. He died a few years ago, bequeathing me his celebrated dilemma,
+and I am now head of his school and founder of the Rufinianian philosophy.
+I am also the author of some admired works, especially a life of
+Pythagoras, and a manual of Indian philosophy and religion. I hope for thy
+own sake thou wilt forbear to contradict me: for no one will believe thee.
+I trust also that thou wilt speedily overcome thy disappointment with
+respect to Euphronia. I do most  honestly and truthfully assure thee that
+for a one-armed man like thee to marry her would be most inexpedient,
+inasmuch as the defence of one's beard from her, when she is in a state of
+excitement, requires the full use of both hands, and of the feet also. But
+come with me to her chamber, and I will present thee to her. She is always
+taunting me with my inferiority to thee in personal attractions, and I
+promise myself much innocent amusement from her discomfiture when she finds
+thee as gaunt as a wolf and as black as a cinder. Only, as I have
+represented thee to have been devoured by a tiger, thou wilt kindly say
+that I saved thy life, but concealed the circumstance out of modesty."
+
+"I have learned in the Indian schools," said Mnesitheus, "not to lie for
+the benefit of others. I will not see Euphronia; I would not disturb her
+ideal of me, nor mine of her. Farewell. May the Rufinianian sect flourish!
+and may thy works on Pythagoras and India instruct posterity to the tenth
+generation! I return to Palimbothra, where I am held in honour on the
+self-same account that here renders me ridiculous. It shall be my study to
+enlighten the natives respecting their obligations to Pythagoras, whose
+name I did not happen to hear while I abode among them."
+
+
+
+
+THE DUMB ORACLE
+
+
+  Many the Bacchi that brandish the rod:
+  Few that be filled with the fire of the God.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+In the days of King Attalus, before oracles had lost their credit, one of
+peculiar reputation, inspired, as was believed, by Apollo, existed in the
+city of Dorylseum, in Phrygia. Contrary to usage, its revelations were
+imparted through the medium of a male priest. It was rarely left unthronged
+by devout questioners, whose inquiries were resolved in writing, agreeably
+to the method delivered by the pious Lucian, in his work "Concerning False
+Prophecy." [*] Sometimes, on extraordinary occasions, a voice, evidently
+that of the deity, was heard declaring the response from the innermost
+recesses of the shrine. The treasure house of the sanctuary was stored with
+tripods and goblets, in general wrought from the precious metals; its
+coffers were loaded with coins and ingots; the sacrifices of wealthy
+suppliants and the copious offerings in kind of the country people provided
+superabundantly for the daily maintenance of the temple servitors; while a
+rich endowment in land maintained the dignity of its guardians, and of the
+officiating priest. The  latter reverend personage was no less eminent for
+prudence than for piety; on which account the Gods had rewarded him with
+extreme obesity. At length he died, whether of excess in meat or in drink
+is not agreed among historians.
+
+[Footnote: _Pseudomantis_, cap. 19-21.]
+
+The guardians of the temple met to choose a successor, and, naturally
+desirous that the sanctity of the oracle should suffer no abatement,
+elected a young priest of goodly presence and ascetic life; the humblest,
+purest, most fervent, and most ingenuous of the sons of men. So rare a
+choice might well be expected to be accompanied by some extraordinary
+manifestation, and, in fact, a prodigy took place which filled the sacred
+authorities with dismay. The responses of the oracle ceased suddenly and
+altogether. No revelation was vouchsafed to the pontiff in his slumbers; no
+access of prophetic fury constrained him to disclose the secrets of the
+future; no voice rang from the shrine; and the unanswered epistles of the
+suppliants lay a hopeless encumbrance on the great altar. As a natural
+consequence they speedily ceased to arrive; the influx of offerings into
+the treasury terminated along with them; the temple-courts were bare of
+worshippers; and the only victims whose blood smoked within them were those
+slain by the priest himself, in the hope of appeasing the displeasure of
+Apollo. The modest hierophant took all the blame upon his own shoulders; he
+did not doubt that he had excited the Deity's wrath by some mysterious but
+heinous pollution; and was confirmed in this opinion by the unanimous
+verdict of all whom he approached.
+
+One day as he sat sadly in the temple, absorbed  in painful meditation, and
+pondering how he might best relieve himself of his sacred functions, he was
+startled by the now unwonted sound of a footstep, and, looking up, espied
+an ancient woman. Her appearance was rather venerable than prepossessing.
+He recognised her as one of the inferior ministers of the temple.
+
+"Reverend mother," he addressed her, "doubtless thou comest to mingle with
+mine thy supplications to the Deity, that it may please him to indicate the
+cause, and the remedy of his wrath."
+
+"No, son," returned the venerable personage, "I propose to occasion no such
+needless trouble to Apollo, or any other Divinity. I hold within mine own
+hand the power of reviving the splendour of this forsaken sanctuary, and
+for such consideration as thou wilt thyself pronounce equitable, I am
+minded to impart the same unto thee." And as the astonished priest made no
+answer, she continued:
+
+"My price is one hundred pieces of gold."
+
+"Wretch!" exclaimed the priest indignantly, "thy mercenary demand alone
+proves the vanity of thy pretence of being initiated into the secrets of
+the Gods. Depart my presence this moment!"
+
+The old woman retired without a syllable of remonstrance, and the incident
+soon passed from the mind of the afflicted priest. But on the following
+day, at the same hour, the aged woman again stood before him, and said:
+
+"My price is _two_ hundred pieces of gold."
+
+Again she was commanded to depart, and again obeyed without a murmur. But
+the adventure now occasioned the priest much serious reflection. To his
+excited fancy, the patient persistency of the crone began to assume
+something  of a supernatural character. He considered that the ways of the
+Gods are not as our ways, and that it is rather the rule than the exception
+with them to accomplish their designs in the most circuitous manner, and by
+the most unlikely instruments. He also reflected upon the history of the
+Sibyl and her books, and shuddered to think that unseasonable obstinacy
+might in the end cost the temple the whole of its revenues. The result of
+his cogitations was a resolution, if the old woman should present herself
+on the following day, to receive her in a different manner.
+
+Punctual to the hour she made her appearance, and croaked out, "My price is
+_three_ hundred pieces of gold."
+
+"Venerable ambassadress of Heaven," said the priest, "thy boon is granted
+thee. Relieve the anguish of my bosom as speedily as thou mayest."
+
+The old woman's reply was brief and expressive. It consisted in extending
+her open and hollow palm, into which the priest counted the three hundred
+pieces of gold with as much expedition as was compatible with the frequent
+interruptions necessitated by the crone's depositing each successive
+handful in a leather pouch; and the scrutiny, divided between jealousy and
+affection, which she bestowed on each individual coin.
+
+"And now," said the priest, when the operation was at length completed,
+"fulfil thy share of the compact."
+
+"The cause of the oracle's silence," returned the old woman, "is the
+unworthiness of the minister."
+
+"Alas! 'tis even as I feared," sighed the priest. "Declare now, wherein
+consists my sin?"
+
+"It consists in this," replied the old woman, "that the beard of thy
+understanding is not yet grown; and that the egg-shell of thy inexperience
+is still sticking to the head of thy simplicity; and that thy brains bear
+no adequate proportion to the skull enveloping them; and in fine, lest I
+seem to speak overmuch in parables, or to employ a superfluity of epithets,
+that thou art an egregious nincompoop."
+
+And as the amazed priest preserved silence, she pursued:
+
+"Can aught be more shameful in a religious man than ignorance of the very
+nature of religion? Not to know that the term, being rendered into the
+language of truth, doth therein signify deception practised by the few wise
+upon the many foolish, for the benefit of both, but more particularly the
+former? O silly as the crowds who hitherto have brought their folly here,
+but now carry it elsewhere to the profit of wiser men than thou! O fool! to
+deem that oracles were rendered by Apollo! How should this be, seeing that
+there is no such person? Needs there, peradventure, any greater miracle for
+the decipherment of these epistles than a hot needle? [*] As for the
+supernatural voice, it doth in truth proceed from a respectable, and in
+some sense a sacred personage, being mine own when I am concealed within a
+certain recess prepared for me by thy lamented predecessor, whose mistress
+I was in youth, and whose coadjutor I have been in age. I am now ready to
+minister to thee in the latter capacity. Be ruled by me; exchange thy
+abject superstition for common sense; thy childish simplicity for  discreet
+policy; thy unbecoming spareness for a majestic portliness; thy present
+ridiculous and uncomfortable situation for the repute of sanctity, and the
+veneration of men. Thou wilt own that this is cheap at three hundred
+pieces."
+
+[Footnote: Lucian.]
+
+The young priest had hearkened to the crone's discourse with an expression
+of the most exquisite distress. When she had finished, he arose, and
+disregarding his repulsive companion's efforts to detain him, departed
+hastily from the temple.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+It was the young priest's purpose, as soon as he became capable of forming
+one, to place the greatest possible distance between himself and the city
+of Doryl�um. The love of roaming insensibly grew upon him, and ere long
+his active limbs had borne him over a considerable portion of Asia. His
+simple wants were easily supplied by the wild productions of the country,
+supplemented when needful by the proceeds of light manual labour. By
+degrees the self-contempt which had originally stung him to desperation
+took the form of an ironical compassion for the folly of mankind, and the
+restlessness which had at first impelled him to seek relief in a change of
+scene gave place to a spirit of curiosity and observation. He learned to
+mix freely with all orders of men, save one, and rejoiced to find the
+narrow mysticism which he had imbibed from his previous education gradually
+yielding to contact with the great world. From one class of men, indeed, he
+learned nothing--the  priests, whose society he eschewed with scrupulous
+vigilance, nor did he ever enter the temples of the Gods. Diviners, augurs,
+all that made any pretension whatever to a supernatural character, he held
+in utter abhorrence, and his ultimate return in the direction of his native
+country is attributed to his inability to persevere further in the path he
+was following without danger of encountering Chaldean soothsayers, or
+Persian magi, or Indian gymnosophists.
+
+He cherished, however, no intention of returning to Phrygia, and was still
+at a considerable distance from that region, when one night, as he was
+sitting in the inn of a small country town, his ear caught a phrase which
+arrested his attention.
+
+"As true as the oracle of Doryl�um." The speaker was a countryman, who
+appeared to have been asseverating something regarded by the rest of the
+company as greatly in need of confirmation. The sudden start and stifled
+cry of the ex-priest drew all eyes to him, and he felt constrained to ask,
+with the most indifferent air he could assume:
+
+"Is the oracle of Doryl�um, then, so exceedingly renowned for veracity?"
+
+"Whence comest thou to be ignorant of that?" demanded the countryman, with
+some disdain. "Hast thou never heard of the priest Eubulides?"
+
+"Eubulides!" exclaimed the young traveller, "that is my own name!"
+
+"Thou mayest well rejoice, then," observed another of the guests, "to bear
+the name of one so holy and pure, and so eminently favoured by the happy
+Gods. So handsome and dignified, moreover, as I may well assert who have
+often  beheld him discharging his sacred functions. And truly, now that I
+scan thee more closely, the resemblance is marvellous. Only that thy
+namesake bears with him a certain air of divinity, not equally conspicuous
+in thee."
+
+"Divinity!" exclaimed another. "Aye, if Phoebus himself ministered at his
+own shrine, he could wear no more majestic semblance than Eubulides."
+
+"Or predict the future more accurately," added a priest.
+
+"Or deliver his oracles in more exquisite verse," subjoined a poet.
+
+"Yet is it not marvellous," remarked another speaker, "that for some
+considerable time after his installation the good Eubulides was unable to
+deliver a single oracle?"
+
+"Aye, and that the first he rendered should have foretold the death of an
+aged woman, one of the ministers of the temple."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Eubulides, "how was that?"
+
+"He prognosticated her decease on the following day, which accordingly came
+to pass, from her being choked with a piece of gold, not lawfully
+appertaining to herself, which she was endeavouring to conceal under the
+root of her tongue."
+
+"The Gods be praised for that!" ejaculated Eubulides, under his breath.
+"Pshaw! as if there were Gods! If they existed, would they tolerate this
+vile mockery? To keep up the juggle--well, I know it must be so; but to
+purloin my name! to counterfeit my person! By all the Gods that are not, I
+will expose the cheat, or perish in the endeavour."
+
+He arose early on the following morning and took his way towards the city
+of Doryl�um. The further he progressed in this direction, the louder
+became the bruit of the oracle of Apollo, and the more emphatic the
+testimonies to the piety, prophetic endowments, and personal attractions of
+the priest Eubulides; his own resemblance to whom was the theme of
+continual remark. On approaching the city, he found the roads swarming with
+throngs hastening to the temple, about to take part in a great religious
+ceremony to be held therein. The seriousness of worship blended
+delightfully with the glee of the festival, and Eubulides, who at first
+regarded the gathering with bitter scorn, found his moroseness insensibly
+yielding to the poetic charm of the scene. He could not but acknowledge
+that the imposture he panted to expose was at least the source of much
+innocent happiness, and almost wished that the importance of religion,
+considered as an engine of policy, had been offered to his contemplation
+from this point of view, instead of the sordid and revolting aspect in
+which it had been exhibited by the old woman.
+
+In this ambiguous frame of mind he entered the temple. Before the high
+altar stood the officiating priest, a young man, the image, yet not the
+image, of himself. Lineament for lineament, the resemblance was exact, but
+over the stranger's whole figure was diffused an air of majesty, of
+absolute serenity and infinite superiority, which excluded every idea of
+deceit, and so awed the young priest that his purpose of rushing forward to
+denounce the impostor and drag him from the shrine was immediately and
+involuntarily relinquished. As he stood confounded and irresolute, the
+melodious voice of the hierophant rang through the temple:
+
+"Let the priest Eubulides stand forth."
+
+This summons naturally caused the greatest astonishment in every one but
+Eubulides, who emerged as swiftly as he could from the swaying and
+murmuring crowd, and confronted his namesake at the altar. A cry of
+amazement broke from the multitude as they beheld the pair, whose main
+distinction in the eyes of most was their garb. But, as they gazed, the
+form of the officiating priest assumed colossal proportions; a circle of
+beams, dimming sunlight, broke forth around his head; hyacinthine locks
+clustered on his shoulders, his eyes sparkled with supernatural radiance; a
+quiver depended at his back; an unstrung bow occupied his hand; the majesty
+and benignity of his presence alike seemed augmented tenfold. Eubulides and
+the crowd sank simultaneously on their knees, for all recognised Apollo.
+
+All was silence for a space. It was at length broken by Phoebus.
+
+"Well, Eubulides," inquired he, with the bland raillery of an Immortal,
+"has it at length occurred to thee that I may have been long enough away
+from Parnassus, filling thy place here while thou hast been disporting
+thyself amid heretics and barbarians?"
+
+The abashed Eubulides made no response. The Deity continued:
+
+"Deem not that thou hast in aught excited the displeasure of the Gods. In
+deserting their altars for Truth's sake, thou didst render them the most
+acceptable of sacrifices, the only one, it  may be, by which they set much
+store. But, Eubulides, take heed how thou again sufferest the unworthiness
+of men to overcome the instincts of thine own nature. Thy holiest
+sentiments should not have been at the mercy of a knave. If the oracle of
+Doryl�um was an imposture, hadst thou no oracle in thine own bosom? If the
+voice of Religion was no longer breathed from the tripod, were the winds
+and waters silent, or had aught quenched the everlasting stars? If there
+was no power to impose its mandates from without, couldst thou be
+unconscious of a power within? If thou hadst nothing to reveal unto men,
+mightest thou not have found somewhat to propound unto them? Know this,
+that thou hast never experienced a more truly religious emotion than that
+which led thee to form the design of overthrowing this my temple, the
+abode, as thou didst deem it, of fraud and superstition."
+
+"But now, Phoebus," Eubulides ventured to reply, "shall I not return to the
+shrine purified by thy presence, and again officiate as thy unworthy
+minister?"
+
+"No, Eubulides," returned Phoebus, with a smile; "silver is good, but not
+for ploughshares. Thy strange experience, thy long wanderings, thy lonely
+meditations, and varied intercourse with men, have spoiled thee for a
+priest, while, as I would fain hope, qualifying thee for a sage. Some
+worthy person may easily be found to preside over this temple; and by the
+aid of such inspiration as I may from time to time see meet to vouchsafe
+him, administer its affairs indifferently well. Do thou, Eubulides,
+consecrate thy powers to a more august service than Apollo's, to one  that
+shall endure when Delphi and Delos know _his_ no more."
+
+"To whose service, Phoebus?" inquired Eubulides.
+
+"To the service of Humanity, my son," responded Apollo.
+
+
+
+
+DUKE VIRGIL
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The citizens of Mantua were weary of revolutions. They had acknowledged the
+suzerainty of the Emperor Frederick and shaken it off. They had had a
+Podest� of their own and had shaken him off. They had expelled a Papal
+Legate, incurring excommunication thereby. They had tried dictators,
+consuls, pr�tors, councils of ten, and other numbers odd and even, and ere
+the middle of the thirteenth century were luxuriating in the enjoyment of
+perfect anarchy.
+
+An assembly met daily in quest of a remedy, but its members were forbidden
+to propose anything old, and were unable to invent anything new.
+
+"Why not consult Manto, the alchemist's daughter, our prophetess, our
+Sibyl?" the young Benedetto asked at last.
+
+"Why not?" repeated Eustachio, an elderly man.
+
+"Why not, indeed?" interrogated Leonardo, a man of mature years.
+
+All the speakers were noble. Benedetto was Manto's lover; Eustachio her
+father's friend; Leonardo his creditor. Their advice prevailed, and the
+three were chosen as a deputation to wait on the prophetess. Before
+proceeding formally  on their embassy the three envoys managed to obtain
+private interviews, the two elder with Manto's father, the youth with Manto
+herself. The creditor promised that if he became Duke by the alchemist's
+influence with his daughter he would forgive the debt; the friend went
+further, and vowed that he would pay it. The old man promised his good word
+to both, but when he went to confer with his daughter he found her closeted
+with Benedetto, and returned without disburdening himself of his errand.
+The youth had just risen from his knees, pleading with her, and drawing
+glowing pictures of their felicity when he should be Duke and she Duchess.
+
+She answered, "Benedetto, in all Mantua there is not one man fit to rule
+another. To name any living person would be to set a tyrant over my native
+city. I will repair to the shades and seek a ruler among the dead."
+
+"And why should not Mantua have a tyrant?" demanded Benedetto. "The freedom
+of the mechanic is the bondage of the noble, who values no liberty save
+that of making the base-born do his bidding. 'Tis hell to a man of spirit
+to be contradicted by his tailor. If I could see my heart's desire on the
+knaves, little would I reck submitting to the sway of the Emperor."
+
+"I know that well, Benedetto," said Manto, "and hence will take good heed
+not to counsel Mantua to choose thee. No, the Duke I will give her shall be
+one without passions to gratify or injuries to avenge, and shall already be
+crowned with a crown to make the ducal cap as nothing in his eyes, if eyes
+he had."
+
+Benedetto departed in hot displeasure, and the  alchemist came forward to
+announce that the commissioners waited.
+
+"My projection," he whispered, "only wants one more piece of gold to insure
+success, and Eustachio proffers thirty. Oh, give him Mantua in exchange for
+boundless riches!"
+
+"And they call thee a philosopher and me a visionary!" said Manto, patting
+his cheek.
+
+The envoys' commission having been unfolded, she took not a moment to
+reply, "Be your Duke Virgil."
+
+The deputation respectfully represented that although Virgil was no doubt
+Mantua's greatest citizen, he laboured under the disqualification of having
+been dead more than twelve hundred years. Nothing further, however, could
+be extorted from the prophetess, and the ambassadors were obliged to
+withdraw.
+
+The interpretation of Manto's oracle naturally provoked much diversity of
+opinion in the council.
+
+"Obviously," said a poet, "the prophetess would have us confer the ducal
+dignity upon the contemporary bard who doth most nearly accede to the
+vestiges of the divine Maro; and he, as I judge, is even now in the midst
+of you."
+
+"Virgil the poet," said a priest, who had long laboured under the suspicion
+of occult practices, "was a fool to Virgil the enchanter. The wise woman
+evidently demands one competent to put the devil into a hole--an operation
+which I have striven to perform all my life."
+
+"Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?" inquired Eustachio.
+
+"Better upon an egg than upon a quack!" retorted the priest.
+
+But such was not the opinion of Eustachio himself, who privately conferred
+with Leonardo. Eustachio had a character, but no parts; Leonardo had parts,
+but no character.
+
+"I see not why these fools should deride the oracle of the prophetess," he
+said. "She would doubtless impress upon us that a dead master is in divers
+respects preferable to a living one."
+
+"Surely," said Eustachio, "provided always that the servant is a man of
+exemplary character, and that he presumes not upon his lord's withdrawal to
+another sphere, trusting thereby to commit malpractices with impunity, but
+doth, on the contrary, deport himself as ever in his great taskmaster's
+eye."
+
+"Eustachio," said Leonardo, with admiration, "it is the misery of Mantua
+that she hath no citizen who can act half as well as thou canst talk. I
+would fain have further discourse with thee."
+
+The two statesmen laid their heads together, and ere long the mob were
+crying, "A Virgil! a Virgil!"
+
+The councillors reassembled and passed resolutions.
+
+"But who shall be Regent?" inquired some one when Virgil had been elected
+unanimously.
+
+"Who but we?" asked Eustachio and Leonardo. "Are we not the heads of the
+Virgilian party?"
+
+Thus had the enthusiastic Manto, purest of idealists, installed in
+authority the two most unprincipled politicians in the republic; and she
+had lost her lover besides, for Benedetto fled the city, vowing vengeance.
+
+Anyhow, the dead poet was enthroned Duke  of Mantua; Eustachio and Leonardo
+became Regents, with the style of Consuls, and it was provided that in
+doubtful cases reference should be made to the Sortes Virgilianae. And
+truly, if we may believe the chronicles, the arrangement worked for a time
+surprisingly well. The Mantuans, in an irrational way, had done what it
+behoves all communities to do rationally if they can. They had sought for a
+good and worthy citizen to rule them; it was their misfortune that such an
+one could only be found among the dead. They felt prouder of themselves for
+being governed by a great man--one in comparison with whom kings and
+pontiffs were the creatures of a day. They would not, if they could help
+it, disgrace themselves by disgracing their hero; they would not have it
+said that Mantua, which had not been too weak to bear him, had been too
+weak to endure his government. The very hucksters and usurers among them
+felt dimly that there was such a thing as an Ideal. A glimmering perception
+dawned upon mailed, steel-fisted barons that there was such a thing as an
+Idea, and they felt uneasily apprehensive, like beasts of prey who have for
+the first time sniffed gunpowder. The railleries and mockeries of Mantua's
+neighbours, moreover, stimulated Mantua's citizens to persevere in their
+course, and deterred them from doing aught to approve themselves fools.
+Were not Verona, Cremona, Lodi, Pavia, Crema, cities that could never
+enthrone the Virgil they had never produced, watching with undissembled
+expectation to see them trip? The hollow-hearted Eustachio and the
+rapacious Leonardo, their virtual rulers, might indeed be little sensible
+to  this enthusiasm, but they could not disregard the general drift of
+public opinion, which said clearly: "Mantua is trying a great experiment.
+Woe to you if you bring it to nought by your selfish quarrels!"
+
+The best proof that there was something in Manto's idea was that after a
+while the Emperor Frederick took alarm, and signified to the Mantuans that
+they must cease their mumming and fooling and acknowledge him as their
+sovereign, failing which he would besiege their city.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Mantua was girt by a zone of fire and steel. Her villas and homesteads
+flamed or smoked; her orchards flared heavenward in a torrent of sparks or
+stood black sapless trunks charred to their inmost pith; the promise of her
+harvests lay as grey ashes over the land. But her ramparts, though breached
+in places, were yet manned by her sons, and their assailants recoiled
+pierced by the shafts or stunned by the catapults of the defence. Kaiser
+Frederick sat in his tent, giving secret audience to one who had stolen in
+disguise over from the city in the grey of the morning. By the Emperor's
+side stood a tall martial figure, wearing a visor which he never removed.
+
+"Your Majesty," Leonardo was saying, for it was he, "this madness will soon
+pass away. The people will weary of sacrificing themselves for a dead
+heathen."
+
+"And Liberty?" asked the Emperor, "is not that a name dear to those
+misguided creatures?"
+
+"So dear, please your Majesty, that if they have but the name they will
+perfectly dispense with the thing. I do not advise that your imperial yoke
+should be too palpably adjusted to their stiff necks. Leave them in
+appearance the choice of their magistrate, but insure its falling upon one
+of approved fidelity, certain to execute obsequiously all your Majesty's
+mandates; such an one, in short, as your faithful vassal Leonardo. It would
+only be necessary to decapitate that dangerous revolutionist, Eustachio."
+
+"And the citizens are really ready for this?"
+
+"All the respectable citizens. All of whom your Majesty need take account.
+All men of standing and substance."
+
+"I rejoice to hear it," said the Emperor, "and do the more readily credit
+thee inasmuch as a most virtuous and honourable citizen hath already been
+beforehand with thee, assuring me of the same thing, and affirming that but
+one traitor, whose name, methinks, sounded like thine, stands between me
+and the subjugation of Mantua."
+
+And, withdrawing a curtain, he disclosed the figure of Eustachio.
+
+"I thought he was asleep," muttered Eustachio.
+
+"That noodle to have been beforehand with me!" murmured Leonardo.
+
+"What perplexes me," continued Frederick, after enjoying the confusion of
+the pair for a few moments, "is that our masked friend here will have it
+that he is the man for the Dukedom, and offers to open the gates to me by a
+method of his own."
+
+"By fair fighting, an' please my liege," observed  the visored personage,
+"not by these dastardly treacheries."
+
+"How inhuman!" sighed Eustachio.
+
+"How old-fashioned!" sneered Leonardo.
+
+"The truth is," continued Frederick, "he gravely doubts whether either of
+you possesses the influence which you allege, and has devised a method of
+putting this to the proof, which I trust will commend itself to you."
+
+Leonardo and Eustachio expressed their readiness to submit their credit
+with their fellow-citizens to any reasonable trial.
+
+"He proposes, then," pursued the Emperor, "that ye, disarmed and bound,
+should be placed at the head of the storming column, and in that situation
+should, as questionless ye would, exert your entire moral influence with
+your fellow-citizens to dissuade them from shooting you. If the column,
+thus shielded, enters the city without resistance, ye will both have earned
+the Dukedom, and the question who shall have it may be decided by single
+combat between yourselves. But should the people, rather than submit to our
+clemency, impiously slay their elected magistrates, it will be apparent
+that the methods of our martial friend are the only ones corresponding to
+the exigency of the case. Is the storming column ready?"
+
+"All but the first file, please your Majesty," responded the man in the
+visor.
+
+"Let it be equipped," returned Frederick, and in half-an-hour Eustachio and
+Leonardo, their hands tied behind them, were stumbling up the breach,
+impelled by pikes in the rear, and confronting the catapults, _chevaux de
+frise_, hidden pitfalls, Greek fire, and boiling water provided by  their
+own direction, and certified to them the preceding evening as all that
+could be desired. They had, however, the full use of their voices, and this
+they turned to the best account. Never had Leonardo been so cogent, or
+Eustachio so pathetic. The Mantuans, already disorganised by the
+unaccountable disappearance of the Executive, were entirely irresolute what
+to do. As they hesitated the visored chief incited his followers. All
+seemed lost, when a tall female figure appeared among the defenders. It was
+Manto.
+
+"Fools and cowards!" she exclaimed, "must ye learn your duty from a woman?"
+
+And, seizing a catapult, she discharged a stone which laid the masked
+warrior stunned and senseless on the ground. The next instant Eustachio and
+Leonardo fell dead, pierced by showers of arrows. The Mantuans sallied
+forth. The dismayed Imperialists fled to their camp. The bodies of the
+fallen magistrates and of the unconscious chieftain in the mask were
+brought into the city. Manto herself undid the fallen man's visor, and
+uttered a fearful shriek as she recognised Benedetto.
+
+"What shall be done with him, mistress?" they asked.
+
+Manto long stood silent, torn by conflicting emotions. At length she said,
+in a strange, unnatural voice:
+
+"Put him into the Square Tower."
+
+"And now, mistress, what further? How to choose the new consuls?"
+
+"Ask me no more," she said. "I shall never prophesy again. Virtue has gone
+away from me."
+
+The leaders departed, to intrigue for the vacant  posts, and devise
+tortures for Benedetto. Manto sat on the rampart, still and silent as its
+stones. Anon she rose, and roved about as if distraught, reciting verses
+from Virgil.
+
+Night had fallen. Benedetto lay wakeful in his cell. A female figure stood
+before him bearing a lamp. It was Manto.
+
+"Benedetto," she said, "I am a wretch, faithless to my country and to my
+master. I did but even now open his sacred volume at hazard, and on what
+did my eye first fall?
+
+  Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres.
+
+But I can no other. I am a woman. May Mantua never entrust her fortunes to
+the like of me again! Come with me, I will release thee."
+
+She unlocked his chains; she guided him through the secret passage under
+the moat; they stood at the exit, in the open air.
+
+"Fly," she said, "and never again draw sword against thy mother. I will
+return to my house, and do that to myself which it behoved me to have done
+ere I released thee."
+
+"Manto," exclaimed Benedetto "a truce to this folly! Forsake thy dead Duke,
+and that cheat of Liberty more crazy and fantastic still. Wed a living Duke
+in me!"
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Manto. "I love thee more than any man living on earth,
+and I would not espouse thee if the earth held no other."
+
+"Thou canst not help thyself," he rejoined; "thou hast revealed to me the
+secret of this passage. I hasten to the camp. I return in an hour with an
+army, and wilt thou, wilt thou not,  to-morrow's sun shall behold thee the
+partner of my throne!"
+
+Manto wore a poniard. She struck Benedetto to the heart, and he fell dead.
+She drew the corpse back into the passage, and hurried to her home. Opening
+her master's volume again, she read:
+
+  T�det coeli convexa tueri.
+
+A few minutes afterwards her father entered the chamber to tell her he had
+at last found the philosopher's stone, but, perceiving his daughter hanging
+by her girdle, he forbore to intrude upon her, and returned to his
+laboratory.
+
+It was time. A sentinel of the besiegers had marked Benedetto's fall, and
+the disappearance of the body into the earth. A pool of blood revealed the
+entrance to the passage. Ere sunrise Mantua was full of Frederick's
+soldiers, full also of burning houses, rifled sanctuaries, violated
+damsels, children playing with their dead mothers' breasts, especially full
+of citizens protesting that they had ever longed for the restoration of the
+Emperor, and that this was the happiest day of their lives. Frederick
+waited till everybody was killed, then entered the city and proclaimed an
+amnesty. Virgil's bust was broken, and his writings burned with Manto's
+body. The flames glowed on the dead face, which gleamed as it were with
+pleasure. The old alchemist had been slain among his crucibles; his scrolls
+were preserved with jealous care.
+
+But Manto found another father. She sat at Virgil's feet in Elysium; and as
+he stroked the fair head, now golden with perpetual youth,  listened to his
+mild reproofs and his cheerful oracles. By her side stood a bowl filled
+with the untasted waters of Lethe.
+
+"Woe," said Virgil--but his manner contradicted his speech--"woe to the
+idealist and enthusiast! Woe to them who live in the world to come! Woe to
+them who live only for a hope whose fulfilment they will not behold on
+earth! Drink not, therefore, of that cup, dear child, lest Duke Virgil's
+day should come, and thou shouldst not know it. For come it will, and all
+the sooner for thy tragedy and thy comedy."
+
+
+
+
+THE CLAW
+
+
+The balm and stillness of a summer's night enveloped a spacious piazza in
+the city of Shylock and Desdemona. The sky teemed with light drifting
+clouds through which the beaming of the full moon broke at intervals upon
+some lamp-lit palace, thronged and musical, for it was a night of
+festivity, or silvered the dull creeping waters. Ever and anon some richly
+attired young patrician descended the steps of one or other of these
+mansions, and hurried across the wide area to the canal stairs, where his
+gondola awaited him. Whoever did this could not but observe a tall female
+figure, which, cloaked and masked, walked backwards and forwards across the
+piazza, regarding no one, yet with an air that seemed to invite a
+companion.
+
+More than one of the young nobles approached the presumably fair
+peripatetic, and, with courtesy commonly in inverse ratio to the amount of
+wine he was carrying home, proffered his escort to his gondola. Whenever
+this happened the figure removed her mask and unclasped her robe, and
+revealed a sight which for one moment rooted the young man to the earth and
+in the next sent him scampering to his bark. For the countenance was a
+death's head, and the breast was that of a mouldering skeleton.
+
+At last, however, a youth presented himself who, more courageous or more
+tipsy than his fellows, or more helplessly paralysed with horror than they,
+did not decline the proffered caress, and suffered himself to be drawn
+within the goblin's accursed embrace. Valiant or pot-valiant, great was his
+relief at finding himself clasped, instead of by a loathsome spectre, by a
+silver-haired man of noble presence, yet with a countenance indescribably
+haggard and anxious.
+
+"Come, my son," he cried, "hasten whither the rewards of thy intrepidity
+await thee. Impouch the purse of Fortunatus! Indue the signet of Solomon!"
+
+The young man hesitated. "Is there nought else?" he cautiously demanded.
+"Needs it not that I should renounce my baptism? Must I not subscribe an
+infernal compact?"
+
+"In thy own blood, my son," cheerfully responded the old gentleman.
+
+"Peradventure," hesitatingly interrogated the youth, "peradventure you are
+_he_?"
+
+"Not so, my son, upon honour," returned the mysterious personage. "I am but
+a distressed magician, at this present in fearful straits, from which I
+look to be delivered by thee."
+
+The youth gazed some moments at his companion's head, and then still more
+earnestly at his feet. He then yielded his own hand to him, and the pair
+crossed the piazza, almost at a run, the magician ever ejaculating, "Speed!
+speed!"
+
+They paused at the foot of a lofty tower, doorless and windowless, with no
+visible access of any kind. But the magician signed with his hand,
+pronounced some cabalistical words, and instantly  stone and lime fell
+asunder and revealed an entrance through which they passed, and which
+immediately closed behind them. The youth quaked at finding himself alone
+in utter darkness with he knew not what, but the wizard whistled, and a
+severed hand appeared in air bearing a lamp which illuminated a long
+winding staircase. The old man motioned to the youth to precede him, nor
+dared he refuse, though feeling as though he would have given the world for
+the very smallest relic of the very smallest saint. The distorted shadows
+of the twain, dancing on stair and wall with the wavering lamp-shine,
+seemed phantoms capering in an infernal revel, and he glanced back ever and
+anon weening to see himself dogged by some frightful monster, but he saw
+only the silver hair and sable velvet of the dignified old man.
+
+After the ascent of many steps a door opened before them, and they found
+themselves in a spacious chamber, brightly, yet from its size imperfectly
+illumined by a single large lamp. It was wainscoted with ebony, and the
+furniture was of the same. A long table was covered with scrolls, skulls,
+crucibles, crystals, star-charts, geomantic figures, and other
+appurtenances of a magician's calling. Tomes of necromantic lore lined the
+walls, which were yet principally occupied with crystal vessels, in which
+foul beings seemed dimly and confusedly to agitate themselves.
+
+The magician signed to his visitor to be seated, sat down himself and
+began:
+
+"Brave youth, ere entering upon the boundless power and riches that await
+thee, learn who I am and why I have brought thee here. Behold in me  no
+vulgar wizard, no mere astrologer or alchemist, but a compeer of Merlin and
+Michael Scott, with whose name it may be the nurse of thy infancy hath
+oft-times quelled thy froward humours. I am Peter of Abano, falsely
+believed to have lain two centuries buried in the semblance of a dog under
+a heap of stones hurled by the furious populace, but in truth walking earth
+to this day, in virtue of the compact now to be revealed to thee. Hearken,
+my son! Vain must be the machinations of my enemies, vain the onslaughts of
+the rabble, so long as I fulfil a certain contract registered in hell's
+chancery, as I have now done these three hundred years. And the condition
+is this, that every year I present unto the Demon one who hath at my
+persuasion assigned his soul to him in exchange for power, riches,
+knowledge, magical gifts, or whatever else his heart chiefly desireth; nor
+until this present year have I perilled the fulfilment of my obligation.
+Seest thou these scrolls? They are the assignments of which I have spoken.
+It would amaze thee to scan the subscriptions, and perceive in these the
+signatures of men exemplary in the eyes of their fellows, clothed with high
+dignities in Church and State--nay sometimes redolent of the very odour of
+sanctity. Never hath my sagacity deceived me until this year, when, smitten
+with the fair promise of a youth of singular impishness, I omitted to take
+due note of his consumptive habit, and have but this afternoon encountered
+his funeral. This is the last day of my year, and should my engagement be
+unredeemed when the sun attains the cusp of that nethermost house of heaven
+which he is even now traversing, I must  become an inmate of the infernal
+kingdom. No time has remained for nice investigation. I have therefore
+proved the courage of the Venetian youth in the manner thou knowest, and
+thou alone hast sustained the ordeal. Fail not at my bidding, or thou
+quittest not this chamber alive. For when the Demon comes to bear me away,
+he will assuredly rend thee in pieces for being found in my company. Thou
+hast, therefore, everything to gain and nothing to lose by joining the
+goodly fellowship of my mates and partners. Delay not, time urges, night
+deepens, they that would drink thy blood are abroad. Hearest thou not the
+moaning and pelting of the rising storm, and the muttering and scraping of
+my imprisoned goblins? Save us, I entreat, I command, save us both!"
+
+Screaming with agitation the aged sorcerer laid a scroll engrossed with
+fairly written characters before the youth, stabbed the latter's arm with a
+stylus that at once evoked and collected the crimson stream, thrust this
+into his hand and strove to guide it to the parchment, chanting at the same
+time litanies to the infernal powers. The crystal flagons rang like one
+great harmonica with shrill but spirit-stirring music; volumes of vaporous
+perfumes diffused themselves through the apartment, and an endless
+procession of treasure-laden figures defiled before the bewildered youth.
+He seemed buried in the opulence of the world, as he sat up to his waist in
+gold and jewels; all the earth's beauty gazed at him through eyes brilliant
+and countless as the stars of heaven; courtiers beckoned him to thrones;
+battle-steeds neighed and pawed for his mounting; laden tables allured
+every appetite; vassals bent in  homage; slaves fell prostrate at his feet.
+Now he seemed to collect or disperse legions of spirits with the waving of
+a wand; anon, as he pronounced a spell, golden dragons glided away from
+boughs laden with golden fruits. Well for him, doubtless, that in him
+Nature had kneaded from ordinary clay as unimaginative a youth as could be
+found in Venice: yet even so, dazzled with glamour, intoxicated with
+illusion, less and less able to resist the cunningly mingled caresses,
+entreaties, and menaces of Abano, he could not refrain from tracing a few
+characters with the stylus, when, catching reflected in a mirror the old
+magician's expression of wolfish glee, he dropped the instrument from his
+grasp, and cast his eye upwards as if appealing to Heaven. But every drop
+of blood seemed frozen in his frame as he beheld an enormous claw thrust
+through the roof, member as it seemed of some being too gigantic to be
+contained in the chamber or the tower itself. Cold, poignant, glittering as
+steel, it rested upon a socket of the repulsive hue of jaundiced ivory,
+with no vestige of a foot or anything to relieve its naked horror as, rigid
+and lifeless, yet plainly with a mighty force behind it, it pointed at the
+magician's heart. As Abano, following the youth's eye, caught sight of the
+portent, his visage assumed an expression of frantic horror, his spells
+died upon his lips, and the gorgeous figures became grinning apes or
+blotchy toads: madly he seized the young man's hand, and strove to force
+him to complete his signature. The robust youth felt as an infant in his
+grasp, but ere the stylus could be again thrust upon him the first stroke
+of the midnight hour  rang through the chamber, and instantly the gigantic
+talon pierced Abano from breast to back, projecting far beyond his
+shoulders, and swept him upwards to the roof, through which both
+disappeared without leaving a trace of their passage.
+
+Horror and thankfulness rushed together into the young man's mind, and
+there contended for some brief instants: but as the last stroke sounded all
+the crystal vials shivered with a stunning crash, and their hellish
+inmates, rejoicing in their deliverance, swarmed into the chamber. All made
+for the youth, who, tugged, clawed, fondled, bitten, beslimed, blinded,
+deafened, beset in every way by creatures of indescribable loathsomeness,
+grasped frantically as his sole weapon, the stylus; but it had become a
+writhing serpent. This was too much, sense forsook him on the spot.
+
+On recovering consciousness he found himself stretched on a pallet in the
+dungeons of the Inquisition. The Inquisitors sat on their tribunals;
+black-robed familiars flitted about, or waited attentive upon their orders;
+one expert in ecclesiastical jurisprudence proved the edge of an axe, and
+another heated pincers in a chafing-dish; dismal groans pierced the massy
+walls; two sturdy fellows, stripped to the waist, adjusted the rollers of a
+rack. A surgeon approached the bedside, bearing a phial and a lancet. The
+youth screamed and again became insensible.
+
+But his affright was groundless. The Inquisitors had already taken
+cognisance of Abano's scrolls, and found that, touching these at least, he
+had spoken sooth. Besides kings, princes, ministers, magistrates, and other
+secular persons who had owed their success in life to dealings with the
+devil under his mediation, the infernal bondsmen included so many pillars
+of the Church and champions of the Faith; prelates plenty, abbots in
+abundance, cardinals not a few, a (some whispered _the_) Pope; above all,
+so many of the Inquisitors themselves, that further inquiry could evidently
+nowise conduce to edification. The surgeon, therefore, infused an opiate
+into the veins of the unconscious youth, and he came to himself upon a
+galley speeding him to the holy war in Cyprus, where he fell fighting the
+Turk.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER THE RATCATCHER
+
+
+"Alexander Octavus mures, qui Urbem supra modum vexabant, anathemate
+perculit."[--_Palatius. Fasti Cardinalium_, tom. v.p. 46.]
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+"Rome and her rats are at the point of battle!"
+
+This metaphor of Menenius Agrippa's became, history records, matter of fact
+in 1689, when rats pervaded the Eternal City from garret to cellar, and
+Pope Alexander the Eighth seriously apprehended the fate of Bishop Hatto.
+The situation worried him sorely; he had but lately attained the tiara at
+an advanced age--the twenty-fourth hour, as he himself remarked in
+extenuation of his haste to enrich his nephews. The time vouchsafed for
+worthier deeds was brief, and he dreaded descending to posterity as the Rat
+Pope. Witty and genial, his sense of humour teased him with a full
+perception of the absurdity of his position. Peter and Pasquin concurred in
+forbidding him to desert his post; and he derived but small comfort from
+the ingenuity of his flatterers, who compared him to St. Paul contending
+with beasts at Ephesus.
+
+It wanted three half-hours to midnight, as Alexander sat amid traps and
+ratsbane in his  chamber in the Vatican, under the protection of two
+enormous cats and a British terrier. A silver bell stood ready to his hand,
+should the aid of the attendant chamberlains be requisite. The walls had
+been divested of their tapestries, and the floor gleamed with pounded
+glass. A tome of legendary lore lay open at the history of the Piper of
+Hamelin. All was silence, save for the sniffing and scratching of the dog
+and a sound of subterranean scraping and gnawing.
+
+"Why tarries Cardinal Barbadico thus?" the Pope at last asked himself
+aloud. The inquiry was answered by a wild burst of squeaking and clattering
+and scurrying to and fro, as who should say, "We've eaten him! We've eaten
+him!"
+
+But this exultation was at least premature, for just as the terrified Pope
+clutched his bell, the door opened to the narrowest extent compatible with
+the admission of an ecclesiastical personage of dignified presence, and
+Cardinal Barbadico hastily squeezed himself through.
+
+"I shall hardly trust myself upon these stairs again," he remarked, "unless
+under the escort of your Holiness's terrier."
+
+"Take him, my son, and a cruse of holy water to boot," the Pope responded.
+"Now, how go things in the city?"
+
+"As ill as may be, your Holiness. Not a saint stirs a finger to help us.
+The country-folk shun the city, the citizens seek the country. The
+multitude of enemies increases hour by hour. They set at defiance the
+anathemas fulminated by your Holiness, the spiritual censures placarded in
+the churches, and the citation to appear before the ecclesiastical courts,
+although assured that  their cause shall be pleaded by the ablest advocates
+in Rome. The cats, amphibious with alarm, are taking to the Tiber. Vainly
+the city reeks with toasted cheese, and the Commissary-General reports
+himself short of arsenic."
+
+"And how are the people taking it?" demanded Alexander. "To what cause do
+they attribute the public calamity?"
+
+"Generally speaking, to the sins of your Holiness," replied the Cardinal.
+
+"Cardinal!" exclaimed Alexander indignantly.
+
+"I crave pardon for my temerity," returned Barbadico. "It is with
+difficulty that I force myself to speak, but I am bound to lay the
+ungrateful truth before your Holiness. The late Pope, as all men know, was
+a personage of singular sanctity."
+
+"Far too upright for this fallen world," observed Alexander with unction.
+
+"I will not dispute," responded the Cardinal, "that the head of Innocent
+the Eleventh might have been more fitly graced by a halo than by a tiara.
+But the vulgar are incapable of placing themselves at this point of view.
+They know that the rats hardly squeaked under Innocent, and that they swarm
+under Alexander. What wonder if they suspect your Holiness of familiarity
+with Beelzebub, the patron of vermin, and earnestly desire that he would
+take you to himself? Vainly have I represented to them the unreasonableness
+of imposing upon him a trouble he may well deem superfluous, considering
+your Holiness's infirm health and advanced age. Vainly, too, have I pointed
+out that your anathema has actually produced all the effect that  could
+have been reasonably anticipated from any similar manifesto on your
+predecessor's part. They won't see it. And, in fact, might I humbly advise,
+it does appear impolitic to hurl anathemas unless your Holiness knows that
+some one will be hit. It might be opportune, for example, to excommunicate
+Father Molinos, now fast in the dungeons of St. Angelo, unless, indeed, the
+rats have devoured him there. But I question the expediency of going much
+further."
+
+"Cardinal," said the Pope, "you think yourself prodigiously clever, but you
+ought to know that the state of public opinion allowed us no alternative.
+Moreover, I will give you a wrinkle, in case you should ever come to be
+Pope yourself. It is unwise to allow ancient prerogatives to fall entirely
+into desuetude. Far-seeing men prognosticate a great revival of
+sacerdotalism in the nineteenth century, and what is impotent in an age of
+sense may be formidable in an age of nonsense. Further, we know not from
+one day to another whether we may not be absolutely necessitated to
+excommunicate that fautor of Gallicanism, Louis the Fourteenth, and before
+launching our bolt at a king, we may think well to test its efficacy upon a
+rat. _Fiat experimentum._ And now to return to our rats, from which we have
+ratted. Is there indeed no hope?"
+
+"_Lateat scintillula forsan_," said the Cardinal mysteriously.
+
+"Ha! How so?" eagerly demanded Alexander.
+
+"Our hopes," answered the Cardinal, "are associated with the recent advent
+to this city of an extraordinary personage."
+
+"Explain," urged the Pope.
+
+"I speak," resumed the Cardinal, "of an aged man of no plebeian mien or
+bearing, albeit most shabbily attired in the skins, now fabulously cheap,
+of the vermin that torment us; who, professing to practise as an herbalist,
+some little time ago established himself in an obscure street of no good
+repute. A tortoise hangs in his needy shop, nor are stuffed alligators
+lacking. Understanding that he was resorted to by such as have need of
+philters and love-potions, or are incommoded by the longevity of parents
+and uncles, I was about to have him arrested, when I received a report
+which gave me pause. This concerned the singular intimacy which appeared to
+subsist between him and our enemies. When he left home, it was averred, he
+was attended by troops of them obedient to his beck and call, and spies had
+observed him banqueting them at his counter, the rats sitting erect and
+comporting themselves with perfect decorum. I resolved to investigate the
+matter for myself. Looking into his house through an unshuttered window, I
+perceived him in truth surrounded by feasting and gambolling rats; but when
+the door was opened in obedience to my attendants' summons, he appeared to
+be entirely alone. Laying down a pestle and mortar, he greeted me by name
+with an easy familiarity which for the moment quite disconcerted me, and
+inquired what had procured him the honour of my visit. Recovering myself,
+and wishing to intimidate him:
+
+"'I desire in the first place,' I said, 'to point out to you your grave
+transgression of municipal regulations in omitting to paint your name over
+your shop.'
+
+"'Call me Rattila,' he rejoined with unconcern, 'and state your further
+business.'
+
+"I felt myself on the wrong tack, and hastened to interrogate him
+respecting his relations with our adversaries. He frankly admitted his
+acquaintance with rattery in all its branches, and his ability to deliver
+the city from this scourge, but his attitude towards your Holiness was so
+deficient in respect that I question whether I ought to report it."
+
+"Proceed, son," said the Pope; "we will not be deterred from providing for
+the public weal by the ribaldry of a ratcatcher."
+
+"He scoffed at what he termed your Holiness's absurd position, and affirmed
+that the world had seldom beheld, or would soon behold again, so ridiculous
+a spectacle as a Pope besieged by rats. 'I can help your master,' he
+continued, 'and am willing; but my honour, like his, is aspersed in the
+eyes of the multitude, and he must come to my aid, if I am to come to his.'
+
+"I prayed him to be more explicit, and offered to be the bearer of any
+communication to your Holiness.
+
+"'I will unfold myself to no one but the Pope himself,' he replied, 'and
+the interview must take place when and where I please to appoint. Let him
+meet me this very midnight, and alone, in the fifth chamber of the
+Appartamento Borgia.'
+
+"'The Appartamento Borgia!' I exclaimed in consternation. 'The saloons
+which the wicked Pope Alexander the Sixth nocturnally perambulates,
+mingling poisons that have long lost their potency for Cardinals who have
+long lost their lives!'
+
+"'Have a care!' he exclaimed sharply. 'You speak to his late Holiness's
+most intimate friend.'
+
+"'Then,' I answered, 'you must obviously be the Devil, and I am not at
+present empowered to negotiate with your Infernal Majesty. Consider,
+however, the peril and inconvenience of visiting at dead of night rooms
+closed for generations. Think of the chills and cobwebs. Weigh the
+probability of his Holiness being devoured by rats.'
+
+"'I guarantee his Holiness absolute immunity from cold,' he replied, 'and
+that none of my subjects shall molest him either going or returning.'
+
+"'But,' I objected, 'granting that you are not the Devil, how the devil,
+let me ask, do you expect to gain admittance at midnight to the
+Appartamento Borgia?'
+
+"'Think you I cannot pass through a stone wall?' answered he, and vanished
+in an instant. A tremendous scampering of rats immediately ensued, then all
+was silence.
+
+"On recovering in some measure from my astounded condition, I caused strict
+search to be made throughout the shop. Nothing came to light but
+herbalists' stuff and ordinary medicines. And now, Holy Father, your
+Holiness's resolution? Reflect well. This Rattila may be the King of the
+Rats, or he may be Beelzebub in person."
+
+Alexander the Eighth was principally considered by his contemporaries in
+the light of a venerable fox, but the lion had by no means been omitted
+from his composition.
+
+"All powers of good forbid," he exclaimed, "that a Pope and a Prince should
+shrink from  peril which the safety of the State summons him to encounter!
+I will confront this wizard, this goblin, in the place of his own
+appointing, under his late intimate friend's very nose. I am a man of many
+transgressions, but something assures me that Heaven will not deem this a
+fit occasion for calling them to remembrance. Time presses; I lead on;
+follow, Cardinal Barbadico, follow! Yet stay, let us not forget temporal
+and spiritual armouries."
+
+And hastily providing himself with a lamp, a petronel, a bunch of keys, a
+crucifix, a vial of holy water, and a manual of exorcisms, the Pope passed
+through a secret door in a corner of his chamber, followed by the Cardinal
+bearing another lamp and a naked sword, and preceded by the dog and the two
+cats, all ardent and undaunted as champions bound to the Holy Land for the
+recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The wizard had kept his word. Not a rat was seen or heard upon the
+pilgrimage, which was exceedingly toilsome to the aged Pope, from the
+number of passages to be threaded and doors to be unlocked. At length the
+companions stood before the portal of the Appartamento Borgia.
+
+"Your Holiness must enter alone," Cardinal Barbadico admonished, with
+manifest reluctance.
+
+"Await my return," enjoined the Pontiff, in a tone of more confidence than
+he could actually feel, as, after much grinding and grating, the  massive
+door swung heavily back, and he passed on into the dim, unexplored space
+beyond. The outer air, streaming in as though eager to indemnify itself for
+years of exile, smote and swayed the flame of the Pope's lamp, whose feeble
+ray flitted from floor to ceiling as the decrepit man, weary with the way
+he had traversed and the load he was bearing, tottered and stumbled
+painfully along, ever and anon arrested by a closed door, which he unlocked
+with prodigious difficulty. The cats cowered close to the Cardinal; the dog
+at first accompanied the Pope, but whined so grievously, as though he
+beheld a spirit, that Alexander bade him back.
+
+Supreme is the spell of the _genius loci_. The chambers traversed by the
+Pope were in fact adorned with fair examples of the painter's art, mostly
+scriptural in subject, but some inspired with the devout Pantheism in which
+all creeds are reconciled. All were alike invisible to the Pontiff, who,
+with the dim flicker of his lamp, could no more discern Judaea wed with
+Egypt on the frescoed ceiling than, with the human limitation of his
+faculties, he could foresee that the ill-reputed rooms would one day
+harbour a portion of the Vatican Library, so greatly enriched by himself.
+Nothing but sinister memories and vague alarms presented themselves to his
+imagination. The atmosphere, heavy and brooding from the long exclusion of
+the outer air, seemed to weigh upon him with the density of matter, and to
+afford the stuff out of which phantasmal bodies perpetually took shape and,
+as he half persuaded himself, substance. Creeping and tottering between
+bowl and cord, shielding himself with  lamp and crucifix from Michelotto's
+spectral poniard and more fearful contact with fleshless Vanozzas and
+mouldering Giulias, the Pope urged, or seemed to urge, his course amid
+phantom princes and cardinals, priests and courtesans, soldiers and
+serving-men, dancers, drinkers, dicers, Bacchic and Cotyttian workers of
+whatsoever least beseemed the inmates of a Pontifical household, until,
+arrived in the fifth chamber, close by the, to him, invisible picture of
+the Resurrection, he sank exhausted into a spacious chair that seemed
+placed for his reception, and for a moment closed his eyes. Opening them
+immediately afterwards, he saw with relief that the phantoms had vanished,
+and that he confronted what at least seemed a fellow-mortal, in the ancient
+ratcatcher, habited precisely as Cardinal Barbadico had described, yet, for
+all his mean apparel, wearing the air of one wont to confer with the
+potentates of the earth on other subjects than the extermination of rats.
+
+"This is noble of your Holiness--really," he said, bowing with mock
+reverence. "A second Leo the Great!"
+
+"I tell you what, my man," responded Alexander, feeling it very necessary
+to assert his dignity while any of it remained, "you are not to imagine
+that, because I have humoured you so far as to grant you an audience at an
+unusual place and time, I am going to stand any amount of your nonsense and
+impertinence. You can catch our rats, can you? Catch them then, and you
+need not fear that we shall treat you like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. You
+have committed sundry rascalities, no doubt? A pardon shall  be made out
+for you. You want a patent or a privilege for your ratsbane? You shall have
+it. So to work, in the name of St. Muscipulus! and you may keep the tails
+and skins."
+
+"Alexander," said the ratcatcher composedly, "I would not commend or
+dispraise you unduly, but this I may say, that of all the Popes I have
+known you are the most exuberant in hypocrisy and the most deficient in
+penetration. The most hypocritical, because you well know, and know that I
+know that you know, that you are not conversing with an ordinary
+ratcatcher: had you deemed me such, you would never have condescended to
+meet me at this hour and place. The least penetrating, because you
+apparently have not yet discovered to whom you are speaking. Do you really
+mean to say that you do not know me?"
+
+"I believe I have seen your face before," said Alexander, "and all the more
+likely as I was inspector of prisons when I was Cardinal."
+
+"Then look yonder," enjoined the ratcatcher, as he pointed to the frescoed
+wall, at the same time vehemently snapping his fingers. Phosphoric sparks
+hissed and crackled forth, and coalesced into a blue lambent flame, which
+concentrated itself upon a depicted figure, whose precise attitude the
+ratcatcher assumed as he dropped upon his knees. The Pope shrieked with
+amazement, for, although the splendid Pontifical vestments had become
+ragged fur, in every other respect the kneeling figure was the counterpart
+of the painted one, and the painted one was Pinturicchio's portrait of Pope
+Alexander the Sixth kneeling as a witness of the Resurrection.
+
+Alexander the Eighth would fain have imitated  his predecessor's attitude,
+but terror bound him to his chair, and the adjuration of his patron St.
+Mark which struggled towards his lips never arrived there. The book of
+exorcisms fell from his paralysed hand, and the vial of holy water lay in
+shivers upon the floor. Ere he could collect himself, the dead Pope had
+seated himself beside the Pope with one foot in the grave, and, fondling a
+ferret-skin, proceeded to enter into conversation.
+
+"What fear you?" he asked. "Why should I harm you? None can say that I ever
+injured any one for any cause but my own advantage, and to injure your
+Holiness now would be to obstruct a design which I have particularly at
+heart."
+
+"I crave your Holiness's forgiveness," rejoined the Eighth Alexander, "but
+you must be aware that you left the world with a reputation which
+disqualifies you for the society of any Pope in the least careful of his
+character. It positively compromises me to have so much as the ghost of a
+person so universally decried as your Holiness under my roof, and you would
+infinitely oblige me by forthwith repairing to your own place, which I take
+to be about four thousand miles below where you are sitting. I could
+materially facilitate and accelerate your Holiness's transit thither if you
+would be so kind as to hand me that little book of exorcisms."
+
+"How is the fine gold become dim!" exclaimed Alexander the Sixth. "Popes in
+bondage to moralists! Popes nervous about public opinion! Is there another
+judge of morals than the Pope speaking _ex cathedra_, as I always did? Is
+the Church to frame herself after the prescriptions  of heathen
+philosophers and profane jurists? How, then, shall she be terrible as an
+army with banners? Did I concern myself with such pedantry when the Kings
+of Spain and Portugal came to me like cats suing for morsels, and I gave
+them the West and the East?"
+
+"It is true," Alexander the Eighth allowed, "that the lustre of the Church
+hath of late been obfuscated by the prevalence of heresy."
+
+"It isn't the heretics," Borgia insisted. "It is the degeneracy of the
+Popes. A shabby lot! You, Alexander, are about the best of them; but the
+least Cardinal about my Court would have thought himself bigger than you."
+
+Alexander's spirit rose. "I would suggest," he said, "that this haughty
+style is little in keeping with the sordid garb wherein your Holiness,
+consistent after death as in your life, masquerades to the scandal and
+distress of the faithful."
+
+"How can I other? Has your Holiness forgotten your Rabelais?"
+
+"The works of that eminent Doctor and Divine," answered Alexander the
+Eighth, "are seldom long absent from my hands, yet I fail to remember in
+what manner they elucidate the present topic."
+
+"Let me refresh your memory," rejoined Borgia, and, producing a volume of
+the Sage of Meudon, he turned to the chapter descriptive of the employments
+of various eminent inhabitants of the nether world, and pointed to the
+sentence:
+
+"LE PAPE ALEXANDRE ESTOYT PRENEUR DE RATZ." [*]
+
+[Footnote: _Pantagruel_, Book XI. ch. 30.]
+
+"Is this indeed sooth?" demanded his successor.
+
+"How else should Fran�ois Rabelais have affirmed it?" responded Borgia.
+"When I arrived in the subterranean kingdom, I found it in the same
+condition as your Holiness's dominions at the present moment, eaten up by
+rats. The attention which, during my earthly pilgrimage, I had devoted to
+the science of toxicology indicated me as a person qualified to abate the
+nuisance, which commission I executed with such success, that I received
+the appointment of Ratcatcher to his Infernal Majesty, and so discharged
+its duties as to merit a continuance of the good opinion which had always
+been entertained of me in that exalted quarter. After a while, however,
+interest began to be made for me in even more elevated spheres. I had not
+been able to cram Heaven with Spaniards, as I had crammed the Sacred
+College--on the contrary. Truth to speak, my nation has not largely
+contributed to the population of the regions above. But some of us are
+people of consequence. My great-grandson, the General of the Jesuits, who,
+as such, had the ear of St. Ignatius Loyola, represented that had I adhered
+strictly to my vows, he could never have come into existence, and that the
+Society would thus have wanted one of its brightest ornaments. This
+argument naturally had great weight with St. Ignatius, the rather as he,
+too, was my countryman. Much also was said of the charity I had shown to
+the exiled Jews, which St. Dominic was pleased to say made him feel ashamed
+of himself when he came to think of it; for my having fed my people in time
+of dearth, instead of contriving famines to enrich myself, as so many
+Popes' nephews have done since; and  of the splendid order in which I kept
+the College of Cardinals. Columbus said a good word for me, and Savonarola
+did not oppose. Finally I was allowed to come upstairs, and exercise my
+profession on earth. But mark what pitfalls line the good man's path! I
+never could resist tampering with drugs of a deleterious nature, and was
+constantly betrayed by the thirst for scientific experiment into practices
+incompatible with the public health. The good nature which my detractors
+have not denied me was a veritable snare. I felt for youth debarred from
+its enjoyments by the unnatural vitality of age, and sympathised with the
+blooming damsel whose parent alone stood between her and her lover. I thus
+lived in constant apprehension of being ordered back to the Netherlands,
+and yearned for the wings of a dove, that I might flee away and be out of
+mischief. At last I discovered that my promotion to a higher sphere
+depended upon my obtaining a testimonial from the reigning Pope. Let a
+solemn procession be held in my honour, and intercession be publicly made
+for me, and I should ascend forthwith. I have consequently represented my
+case to many of your predecessors: but, O Alexander, you
+seventeenth-century Popes are a miserable breed! No fellow-feeling, no
+_esprit de corps. Heu pietas! heu prisca fides_! No one was so rude as your
+ascetic antecessor. The more of a saint, the less of a gentleman.
+Personally offensive, I assure you! But the others were nearly as bad. The
+haughty Paul, the fanatic Gregory, the worldly Urban, the austere Innocent
+the Tenth, the affable Alexander the Seventh, all concurred in assuring  me
+that it was deeply to be regretted that I should ever have been emancipated
+from the restraints of the Stygian realm, to which I should do well to
+return with all possible celerity; that it would much conduce to the
+interests of the Church if my name could be forgotten; and that as for
+doing anything to revive its memory, they would just as soon think of
+canonising Judas Iscariot."
+
+"And therefore your Holiness has brought these rats upon us, enlisted, I
+nothing doubt, in the infernal regions?"
+
+"Precisely so: Plutonic, necyomantic, Lemurian rats, kindly lent by the
+Prince of Darkness for the occasion, and come dripping from Styx to squeak
+and gibber in the Capitol. But I note your Holiness's admission that they
+belong to a region exempt from your jurisdiction, and that, therefore, your
+measures against them, except as regards their status as belligerents, are
+for the most part illegitimate and _ultra vires_."
+
+"I would argue that point," replied Alexander the Eighth, "if my lungs were
+as tough as when I pleaded before the Rota in Pope Urban's time. For the
+present I confine myself to formally protesting against your Holiness's
+unprecedented and parricidal conduct in invading your country at the head
+of an army of loathsome vermin."
+
+"Unprecedented!" exclaimed Borgia. "Am I not the modern Coriolanus? Did
+Narses experience blacker ingratitude than I? Where would the temporal
+power be but for me? Who smote the Colonna? Who squashed the Orsini? Who
+gave the Popes to dwell quietly in their own house? Monsters of
+unthankfulness!"
+
+"I am sure," said Alexander the Eighth soothingly, "that my predecessors'
+inability to comply with your Holiness's request must have cost them many
+inward tears, not the less genuine because entirely invisible and
+completely inaudible. A wise Pope will, before all things, consider the
+spirit of his age. The force of public opinion, which your Holiness lately
+appeared to disparage, was, in fact, as operative upon yourself as upon any
+of your successors. If you achieved great things in your lifetime, it was
+because the world was with you. Did you pursue the same methods now, you
+would soon discover that you had become an offensive anachronism. It will
+not have escaped your Holiness's penetration that what moralists will
+persist in terming the elevation of the standard of the Church, is the
+result of the so-called improvement of the world."
+
+"There is a measure of truth in this," admitted Alexander the Sixth, "and
+the spirit of this age is a very poor spirit. It was my felicity to be a
+Pope of the Renaissance. Blest dispensation! when men's view of life was
+large and liberal; when the fair humanities flourished; when the earth
+yielded up her hoards of chiselled marble and breathing bronze, and
+new-found agate urns as fresh as day; when painters and sculptors vied with
+antiquity, and poets and historians followed in their path; when every
+benign deity was worshipped save Diana and Vesta; when the arts of
+courtship and cosmetics were expounded by archbishops; when the beauteous
+Imperia was of more account than the eleven thousand virgins; when
+obnoxious persons  glided imperceptibly from the world; and no one
+marvelled if he met the Pope arm in arm with the Devil. How miserable, in
+comparison, is the present sapless age, with its prudery and its pedantry,
+and its periwigs and its painted coaches, and its urban Arcadias and the
+florid impotence and ostentatious inanity of what it calls its art! Pope
+Alexander! I see in the spirit the sepulchre destined for _you_, and I
+swear to you that my soul shivers in my ratskins! Come, now! I do not
+expect you to emulate the Popes of my time, but show that your virtues are
+your own, and your faults those of your epoch. Pluck up a spirit! Take
+bulls by the horns! Look facts in the face! Think upon the images of Brutus
+and Cassius! Recognise that you cannot get rid of me, and that the only
+safe course is to rehabilitate me. I am not a candidate for canonisation
+just now; but repair past neglect and appease my injured shade in the way
+you wot of. If this is done, I pledge my word that every rat shall
+forthwith evacuate Rome. Is it a bargain? I see it is; you are one of the
+good old sort, though fallen on evil days."
+
+Renaissance or Rats, Alexander the Eighth yielded.
+
+"I promise," he declared.
+
+"Your hand upon it!"
+
+Subduing his repugnance and apprehension by a strong effort, Alexander laid
+his hand within the spectre's clammy paw. An icy thrill ran through his
+veins, and he sank back senseless into his chair.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When the Pope recovered consciousness he found himself in bed, with slight
+symptoms of fever. His first care was to summon Cardinal Barbadico, and
+confer with him respecting the surprising adventures which had recently
+befallen them. To his amazement, the Cardinal's mind seemed an entire blank
+on the subject. He admitted having made his customary report to his
+Holiness the preceding night, but knew nothing of any supernatural
+ratcatcher, and nothing of any midnight rendezvous at the Appartamento
+Borgia. Investigation seemed to justify his nescience; no vestige of the
+man of rats or of his shop could be discovered; and the Borgian apartments,
+opened and carefully searched through, revealed no trace of having been
+visited for many years. The Pope's book of exorcisms was in its proper
+place, his vial of holy water stood unbroken upon his table; and his
+chamberlains deposed that they had consigned him to Morpheus at the usual
+hour. His illusion was at first explained as the effect of a peculiarly
+vivid dream; but when he declared his intention of actually holding a
+service and conducting a procession for the weal of his namesake and
+predecessor, the conviction became universal that the rats had effected a
+lodgement in his Holiness's upper storeys.
+
+Alexander, notwithstanding, was resolute, and so it came to pass that on
+the same day two mighty processions encountered within the walls of Rome.
+As the assembled clergy, drawn from  all the churches and monasteries in
+the city, the Pope in his litter in their midst, marched, carrying candles,
+intoning chants, and, with many a secret shrug and sneer, imploring Heaven
+for the repose of Alexander the Sixth, they were suddenly brought to bay by
+another procession precipitated athwart their track, disorderly, repulsive,
+but more grateful to the sight of the citizens than all the pomps and
+pageants of the palmiest days of the Papacy. Black, brown, white, grey; fat
+and lean; old and young; strident or silent; the whiskered legions tore and
+galloped along; thronging from every part of the city, they united in
+single column into an endless host that appeared to stretch from the rising
+to the setting of the sun. They seemed making for the Tiber, which they
+would have speedily choked; but ere they could arrive there a huge rift
+opened in the earth, down which they madly precipitated themselves. Their
+descent, it is affirmed, lasted as many hours as Vulcan occupied in falling
+from Heaven to Lemnos; but when the last tail was over the brink, the gulf
+closed as effectually as the gulf in the Forum closed over Marcus Curtius,
+not leaving the slightest inequality by which any could detect it.
+
+Long ere this consummation had been attained, the Pope, looking forth from
+his litter, observed a venerable personage clad in ratskins, who appeared
+desirous of attracting his notice. Glances of recognition were exchanged,
+and instantly in place of the ratcatcher stood a tall, swarthy, corpulent,
+elderly man, with the majestic yet sensual features of Alexander the Sixth,
+accoutred with the official habiliments and insignia  of a Pope, who rose
+slowly into the air as though he had been inflated with hydrogen.
+
+"To your prayers!" cried Alexander the Eighth, and gave the example. The
+priesthood resumed its chants, the multitude dropped upon their knees.
+Their orisons seemed to speed the ascending figure, which was rising
+rapidly, when suddenly appeared in air Luxury, Simony, and Cruelty,
+contending which should receive the Holy Father into her bosom. [*] Borgia
+struck at them with his crozier, and seemed to be keeping them at bay, when
+a cloud wrapped the group from the sight of men. Thunder roared, lightning
+glared, the rush of waters blended with the ejaculations of the people and
+the yet more tempestuous rushing of the rats. Accompanied as he was, it is
+not probable that Alexander passed, like Dante's sigh, "beyond the sphere
+that doth all spheres enfold"; but, as he was never again seen on earth, it
+is not doubted that he attained at least as far as the moon.
+
+[Footnote:
+
+        Per aver riposo
+  Portato fu fra l'anime beate
+  Lo spirito di Alessandro glorioso;
+  Del qual seguiro le sante pedate
+  Tre sue familiari e care ancelle,
+  Lussuria, Simonia, e Crudeltate.
+[--Machiavelli, _Decennale Primo_.]]
+
+
+
+
+THE REWARDS OF INDUSTRY
+
+
+In China, under the Tang dynasty, early in the seventh century of the
+Christian era, lived a learned and virtuous, but poor mandarin who had
+three sons, Fu-su, Tu-sin, and Wang-li. Fu-su and Tu-sin were young men of
+active minds, always labouring to find out something new and useful.
+Wang-li was clever too, but only in games of skill, in which he attained
+great proficiency.
+
+Fu-su and Tu-sin continually talked to each other of the wonderful
+inventions they would make when they arrived at man's estate, and of the
+wealth and renown they promised themselves thereby. Their conversation
+seldom reached the ears of Wang-li, for he rarely lifted his eyes from the
+chess-board on which he solved his problems. But their father was more
+attentive, and one day he said:
+
+"I fear, my sons, that among your multifarious pursuits and studies you
+must have omitted to include that of the laws of your country, or you would
+have learned that fortune is not to be acquired by the means which you have
+proposed to yourselves."
+
+"How so, father?" asked they.
+
+"It hath been justly deemed by our ancestors," said the old man, "that the
+reverence due to the  great men who are worshipped in our temples, by
+reason of our indebtedness to them for the arts of life, could not but
+become impaired if their posterity were suffered to eclipse their fame by
+new discoveries, or presumptuously amend what might appear imperfect in
+their productions. It is therefore, by an edict of the Emperor Suen,
+forbidden to invent anything; and by a statute of the Emperor Wu-chi it is
+further provided that nothing hitherto invented shall be improved. My
+predecessor in the small office I hold was deprived of it for saying that
+in his judgment money ought to be made round instead of square, and I have
+myself run risk of my life for seeking to combine a small file with a pair
+of tweezers."
+
+"If this is the case," said the young men, "our fatherland is not the place
+for us." And they embraced their father, and departed. Of their brother
+Wang-li they took no farewell, inasmuch as he was absorbed in a chess
+problem. Before separating, they agreed to meet on the same spot after
+thirty years, with the treasure which they doubted not to have acquired by
+the exercise of their inventive faculties in foreign lands. They further
+covenanted that if either had missed his reward the other should share his
+possessions with him.
+
+Fu-su repaired to the artists who cut out characters in blocks of hard
+wood, to the end that books may be printed from the same. When he had
+fathomed their mystery he betook himself to a brass-founder, and learned
+how to cast in metal. He then sought a learned man who had travelled much,
+and made himself acquainted with the Greek, Persian, and Arabic languages.
+Then he  cast a number of Greek characters in type, and putting them into a
+bag and providing himself with some wooden letter-tablets of his own
+carving, he departed to seek his fortune. After innumerable hardships and
+perils he arrived in the land of Persia, and inquired for the great king.
+
+"The great king is dead," they told him, "and his head is entirely
+separated from his body. There is now no king in Persia, great or small."
+
+"Where shall I find another great king?" demanded he.
+
+"In the city of Alexandria," replied they, "where the Commander of the
+Faithful is busy introducing the religion of the Prophet."
+
+Fu-su passed to Alexandria, carrying his types and tablets.
+
+As he entered the gates he remarked an enormous cloud of smoke, which
+seemed to darken the whole city. Before he could inquire the reason, the
+guard arrested him as a stranger, and conducted him to the presence of the
+Caliph Omar.
+
+"Know, O Caliph," said Fu-su, "that my countrymen are at once the wisest of
+mankind and the stupidest. They have invented an art for the preservation
+of letters and the diffusion of knowledge, which the sages of Greece and
+India never knew, but they have not learned to take, and they refuse to be
+taught how to take, the one little step further necessary to render it
+generally profitable to mankind."
+
+And producing his tablets and types, he explained to the Caliph the entire
+mystery of the art of printing.
+
+"Thou seemest to be ignorant," said Omar, "that we have but yesterday
+condemned and  excommunicated all books, and banished the same from the
+face of the earth, seeing that they contain either that which is contrary
+to the Koran, in which case they are impious, or that which is agreeable to
+the Koran, in which case they are superfluous. Thou art further unaware, as
+it would seem, that the smoke which shrouds the city proceeds from the
+library of the unbelievers, consumed by our orders. It will be meet to burn
+thee along with it."
+
+"O Commander of the Faithful," said an officer, "of a surety the last
+scroll of the accursed ceased to flame even as this infidel entered the
+city."
+
+"If it be so," said Omar, "we will not burn him, seeing that we have taken
+away from him the occasion to sin. Yet shall he swallow these little brass
+amulets of his, at the rate of one a day, and then be banished from the
+country."
+
+The sentence was executed, and Fu-su was happy that the Court physician
+condescended to accept his little property in exchange for emetics.
+
+He begged his way slowly and painfully back to China, and arrived at the
+covenanted spot at the expiration of the thirtieth year. His father's
+modest dwelling had disappeared, and in its place stood a magnificent
+mansion, around which stretched a park with pavilions, canals,
+willow-trees, golden pheasants, and little bridges.
+
+"Tu-sin has surely made his fortune," thought he, "and he will not refuse
+to share it with me agreeably to our covenant."
+
+As he thus reflected he heard a voice at his elbow, and turning round
+perceived that one in a more wretched plight than himself was asking alms
+of him. It was Tu-sin.
+
+The brothers embraced with many tears, and after Tu-sin had learned Fu-su's
+history, he proceeded to recount his own.
+
+"I repaired," said he, "to those who know the secret of the grains termed
+fire-dust, which Suen has not been able to prevent us from inventing, but
+of which Wu-chi has taken care that we shall make no use, save only for
+fireworks. Having learned their mystery I deposited a certain portion of
+this fire-dust in hollow tubes which I had constructed of iron and brass,
+and upon it I further laid leaden balls of a size corresponding to the
+hollow of the tubes. I then found that by applying a light to the fire-dust
+at one end of the tube I could send the ball out at the other with such
+force that it penetrated the cuirasses of three warriors at once. I filled
+a barrel with the dust, and concealing it and the tubes under carpets which
+I laid upon the backs of oxen, I set out to the city of Constantinople. I
+will not at present relate my adventures on the journey. Suffice it that I
+arrived at last half dead from fatigue and hardship, and destitute of
+everything except my merchandise. By bribing an officer with my carpets I
+was admitted to have speech with the Emperor. I found him busily studying a
+problem in chess.
+
+"I told him that I had discovered a secret which would make him the master
+of the world, and in particular would help him to drive away the Saracens,
+who threatened his empire with destruction.
+
+"'Thou must perceive,' he said, 'that I cannot possibly attend to thee
+until I have solved this problem. Yet, lest any should say that the
+Emperor neglects his duties, absorbed in idle amusement, I will refer thy
+invention to the chief armourers of my capital. And he gave me a letter to
+the armourers, and returned to his problem. And as I quitted the palace
+bearing the missive, I came upon a great procession. Horsemen and running
+footmen, musicians, heralds, and banner-bearers surrounded a Chinaman who
+sat in the attitude of Fo under a golden umbrella upon a richly caparisoned
+elephant, his pigtail plaited with yellow roses. And the musicians blew and
+clashed, and the standard-bearers waved their ensigns, and the heralds
+proclaimed, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the Emperor delights to
+honour.' And unless I was very greatly mistaken, the face of the Chinaman
+was the face of our brother Wang-li.
+
+"At another time I would have striven to find what this might mean, but my
+impatience was great, as also my need and hunger. I sought the chief
+armourers, and with great trouble brought them all together to give me
+audience, I produced my tube and fire-dust, and sent my balls with ease
+through the best armour they could set before me.
+
+"' Who will want breast-plates now?' cried the chief breast-plate maker.
+
+"'Or helmets?' exclaimed one who made armour for the head.
+
+"'I would not have taken fifty bezants for that shield, and what good is it
+now?' said the head of the shield trade.
+
+"'My swords will be of less account,' said a swordsmith.
+
+"'My arrows of none,' lamented an arrow-maker.
+
+"''Tis villainy,' cried one.
+
+"''Tis magic,' shouted another.
+
+"''Tis illusion, as I'm an honest tradesman,' roared a third, and put his
+integrity to the proof by thrusting a hot iron bar into my barrel. All
+present rose up in company with the roof of the building, and all perished,
+except myself, who escaped with the loss of my hair and skin. A fire broke
+out on the spot, and consumed one-third of the city of Constantinople.
+
+"I was lying on a prison-bed some time afterwards, partly recovered of my
+hurts, dolefully listening to a dispute between two of my guards as to
+whether I ought to be burned or buried alive, when the Imperial order for
+my disposal came down. The gaolers received it with humility, and read
+'Kick him out of the city.' Marvelling at the mildness of the punishment,
+they nevertheless executed it with so much zeal that I flew into the middle
+of the Bosphorus, where I was picked up by a fishing vessel, and landed on
+the Asiatic coast, whence I have begged my way home. I now propose that we
+appeal to the pity of the owner of this splendid mansion, who may
+compassionate us on hearing that we were reared in the Cottage which has
+been pulled down to make room for his palace."
+
+They entered the gates, walked timidly up to the house, and prepared to
+fall at the feet of the master, but did not, for ere they could do so they
+recognised their brother Wang-li.
+
+It took Wang-li some time to recognise them, but when at length he knew
+them he hastened to  provide for their every want. When they had well eaten
+and drunk, and had been clad in robes of honour, they imparted their
+histories, and asked for his.
+
+"My brothers," said Wang-li, "the noble game of chess, which was happily
+invented long before the time of the Emperor Suen, was followed by me
+solely for its pleasure, and I dreamed not of acquiring wealth by its
+pursuit until I casually heard one day that it was entirely unknown to the
+people of the West. Even then I thought not of gaining money, but conceived
+so deep a compassion for those forlorn barbarians that I felt I could know
+no rest until I should have enlightened them. I accordingly proceeded to
+the city of Constantinople, and was received as a messenger from Heaven. To
+such effect did I labour that ere long the Emperor and his officers of
+state thought of nothing else but playing chess all day and night, and the
+empire fell into entire confusion, and the Saracens mightily prevailed. In
+consideration of these services the Emperor was pleased to bestow those
+distinguished honours upon me which thou didst witness at his palace gate,
+dear brother.
+
+"After, however, the fire which was occasioned through thy instrumentality,
+though in no respect by thy fault, the people murmured, and taxed the
+Emperor with seeking to destroy his capital in league with a foreign
+sorcerer, meaning thee. Ere long the chief officers conspired and entered
+the Emperor's apartment, purposing to dethrone him, but he declared that he
+would in nowise abdicate until he had finished the game of chess he was
+then playing with me. They looked on, grew  interested, began to dispute
+with one another respecting the moves, and while they wrangled loyal
+officers entered and made them all captive. This greatly augmented my
+credit with the Emperor, which was even increased when shortly afterwards I
+played with the Saracen admiral blockading the Hellespont, and won of him
+forty corn-ships, which turned the dearth of the city into plenty.
+
+"The Emperor bade me choose any favour I would, but I said his liberality
+had left me nothing to ask for except the life of a poor countryman of mine
+who I had heard was in prison for burning the city. The Emperor bade me
+write his sentence with my own hand. Had I known that it was thou, Tu-sin,
+believe me I had shown more consideration for thy person. At length I
+departed for my native land, loaded with wealth, and travelling most
+comfortably by relays of swift dromedaries. I returned hither, bought our
+father's cottage, and on its site erected this palace, where I dwell
+meditating on the problems of chessplayers and the precepts of the sages,
+and persuaded that a little thing which the world is willing to receive is
+better than a great thing which it hath not yet learned to value aright.
+For the world is a big child, and chooses amusement before instruction."
+
+"Call you chess an amusement?" asked his brothers.
+
+
+
+
+MADAM LUCIFER
+
+
+Lucifer sat playing chess with Man for his soul.
+
+The game was evidently going ill for Man. He had but pawns left, few and
+straggling. Lucifer had rooks, knights, and, of course, bishops.
+
+It was but natural under such circumstances that Man should be in no great
+hurry to move. Lucifer grew impatient.
+
+"It is a pity," said he at last, "that we did not fix some period within
+which the player must move, or resign."
+
+"Oh, Lucifer," returned the young man, in heart-rending accents, "it is not
+the impending loss of my soul that thus unmans me, but the loss of my
+betrothed. When I think of the grief of the Lady Adeliza, that paragon of
+terrestrial loveliness!" Tears choked his utterance; Lucifer was touched.
+
+"Is the Lady Adeliza's loveliness in sooth so transcendent?" he inquired.
+
+"She is a rose, a lily, a diamond, a morning star!"
+
+"If that is the case," rejoined Lucifer, "thou mayest reassure thyself. The
+Lady Adeliza shall not want for consolation. I will assume thy shape and
+woo her in thy stead."
+
+The young man hardly seemed to receive all the comfort from this promise
+which Lucifer no doubt designed. He made a desperate move. In an instant
+the Devil checkmated him, and he disappeared.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Upon my word, if I had known what a business this was going to be, I don't
+think I should have gone in for it," soliloquised the Devil, as, wearing
+his captive's semblance and installed in his apartments, he surveyed the
+effects to which he now had to administer. They included coats, shirts,
+collars, neckties, foils, cigars, and the like _ad libitum_; and very
+little else except three challenges, ten writs, and seventy-four unpaid
+bills, elegantly disposed around the looking-glass. To the poor youth's
+praise be it said, there were no billets-doux, except from the Lady Adeliza
+herself.
+
+Noting the address of these carefully, the Devil sallied forth, and nothing
+but his ignorance of the topography of the hotel, which made him take the
+back stairs, saved him from the clutches of two bailiffs lurking on the
+principal staircase. Leaping into a cab, he thus escaped a perfumer and a
+bootmaker, and shortly found himself at the Lady Adeliza's feet.
+
+The truth had not been half told him. Such beauty, such wit, such
+correctness of principle! Lucifer went forth from her presence a love-sick
+fiend. Not Merlin's mother had produced half the impression upon him; and
+Adeliza on her part had never found her lover one-hundredth part so
+interesting as he seemed that morning.
+
+Lucifer proceeded at once to the City, where,  assuming his proper shape
+for the occasion, he negotiated a loan without the smallest difficulty. All
+debts were promptly discharged, and Adeliza was astonished at the splendour
+and variety of the presents she was constantly receiving.
+
+Lucifer had all but brought her to name the day, when he was informed that
+a gentleman of clerical appearance desired to wait upon him.
+
+"Wants money for a new church or mission, I suppose," said he. "Show him
+up."
+
+But when the visitor was ushered in, Lucifer found with discomposure that
+he was no earthly clergyman, but a celestial saint; a saint, too, with whom
+Lucifer had never been able to get on. He had served in the army while on
+earth, and his address was curt, precise, and peremptory.
+
+"I have called," he said, "to notify to you my appointment as Inspector of
+Devils."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lucifer, in consternation. "To the post of my old friend
+Michael!"
+
+"Too old," said the Saint laconically. "Millions of years older than the
+world. About your age, I think?"
+
+Lucifer winced, remembering the particular business he was then about. The
+Saint continued:
+
+"I am a new broom, and am expected to sweep clean. I warn you that I mean
+to be strict, and there is one little matter which I must set right
+immediately. You are going to marry that poor young fellow's betrothed, are
+you? Now you know you cannot take his wife, unless you give him yours."
+
+"Oh, my dear friend," exclaimed Lucifer, "what an inexpressibly blissful
+prospect you do open unto me!"
+
+"I don't know that," said the Saint. "I must remind you that the dominion
+of the infernal regions is unalterably attached to the person of the
+present Queen thereof. If you part with her you immediately lose all your
+authority and possessions. I don't care a brass button which you do, but
+you must understand that you cannot eat your cake and have it too. Good
+morning!"
+
+Who shall describe the conflict in Lucifer's bosom? If any stronger passion
+existed therein at that moment than attachment to Adeliza, it was aversion
+to his consort, and the two combined were well-nigh irresistible. But to
+disenthrone himself, to descend to the condition of a poor devil!
+
+Feeling himself incapable of coming to a decision, he sent for Belial,
+unfolded the matter, and requested his advice.
+
+"What a shame that our new inspector will not let you marry Adeliza!"
+lamented his counsellor. "If you did, my private opinion is that
+forty-eight hours afterwards you would care just as much for her as you do
+now for Madam Lucifer, neither more nor less. Are your intentions really
+honourable?"
+
+"Yes," replied Lucifer, "it is to be a Lucifer match."
+
+"The more fool you," rejoined Belial. "If you tempted her to commit a sin,
+she would be yours without any conditions at all."
+
+"Oh, Belial," said Lucifer, "I cannot bring myself to be a tempter of so
+much innocence and loveliness."
+
+And he meant what he said.
+
+"Well then, let me try," proposed Belial.
+
+"You?" replied Lucifer contemptuously; "do you imagine that Adeliza would
+look at _you_?"
+
+"Why not?" asked Belial, surveying himself complacently in the glass.
+
+He was humpbacked, squinting, and lame, and his horns stood up under his
+wig.
+
+The discussion ended in a wager after which there was no retreat for
+Lucifer.
+
+The infernal Iachimo was introduced to Adeliza as a distinguished
+foreigner, and was soon prosecuting his suit with all the success which
+Lucifer had predicted. One thing protected while it baffled him--the
+entire inability of Adeliza to understand what he meant. At length he was
+constrained to make the matter clear by producing an enormous treasure,
+which he offered Adeliza in exchange for the abandonment of her lover.
+
+The tempest of indignation which ensued would have swept away any ordinary
+demon, but Belial listened unmoved. When Adeliza had exhausted herself he
+smilingly rallied her upon her affection for an unworthy lover, of whose
+infidelity he undertook to give her proof. Frantic with jealousy, Adeliza
+consented, and in a trice found herself in the infernal regions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Adeliza's arrival in Pandemonium, as Belial had planned, occurred
+immediately after the receipt of a message from Lucifer, in whose bosom
+love had finally gained the victory, and who had telegraphed his abdication
+and resignation of Madam Lucifer to Adeliza's betrothed. The poor young man
+had just been hauled up from the lower depths, and was beset by legions of
+demons obsequiously pressing all manner of treasures upon his acceptance.
+He stared, helpless and  bewildered, unable to realise his position in the
+smallest degree. In the background grave and serious demons, the princes of
+the infernal realm, discussed the new departure, and consulted especially
+how to break it to Madam Lucifer--a commission of which no one seemed
+ambitious.
+
+"Stay where you are," whispered Belial to Adeliza; "stir not; you shall put
+his constancy to the proof within five minutes."
+
+Not all the hustling, mowing, and gibbering of the fiends would under
+ordinary circumstances have kept Adeliza from her lover's side: but what is
+all hell to jealousy?
+
+In even less time than he had promised Belial returned, accompanied by
+Madam Lucifer. This lady's black robe, dripping with blood, contrasted
+agreeably with her complexion of sulphurous yellow; the absence of hair was
+compensated by the exceptional length of her nails; she was a thousand
+million years old, and, but for her remarkable muscular vigour, looked
+every one of them. The rage into which Belial's communication had thrown
+her was something indescribable; but, as her eye fell on the handsome
+youth, a different order of thoughts seemed to take possession of her mind.
+
+"Let the monster go!" she exclaimed; "who cares? Come, my love, ascend the
+throne with me, and share the empire and the treasures of thy fond
+Luciferetta."
+
+"If you don't, back you go," interjected Belial.
+
+What might have been the young man's decision if Madam Lucifer had borne
+more resemblance to Madam Vulcan, it would be wholly impertinent to
+inquire, for the question never arose.
+
+"Take me away!" he screamed, "take me away, anywhere I anywhere out of her
+reach! Oh, Adeliza!"
+
+With a bound Adeliza stood by his side. She was darting a triumphant glance
+at the discomfited Queen of Hell, when suddenly her expression changed, and
+she screamed loudly. Two adorers stood before her, alike in every lineament
+and every detail of costume, utterly indistinguishable, even by the eye of
+Love.
+
+Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza's feet and pray her
+to defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the tidings of her
+elopement with Belial. Fearing to lose his wife and his dominions along
+with his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions with such expedition
+that he had had no time to change his costume. Hence the equivocation which
+confounded Adeliza, but at the same time preserved her from being torn to
+pieces by the no less mystified Madam Lucifer.
+
+Perceiving the state of the case, Lucifer with true gentlemanly feeling
+resumed his proper semblance, and Madam Lucifer's talons were immediately
+inserted into his whiskers.
+
+"My dear! my love!" he gasped, as audibly as she would let him, "is this
+the way it welcomes its own Lucy-pucy?"
+
+"Who is that person?" demanded Madam Lucifer.
+
+"I don't know her," screamed the wretched Lucifer. "I never saw her before.
+Take her away; shut her up in the deepest dungeon!"
+
+"Not if I know it," sharply replied Madam Lucifer, "You can't bear to part
+with her, can't  you? You would intrigue with her under my nose, would you?
+Take that! and that! Turn them both out, I say! turn them both out!"
+
+"Certainly, my dearest love, most certainly," responded Lucifer.
+
+"Oh, Sire," cried Moloch and Beelzebub together, "for Heaven's sake let
+your Majesty consider what he is doing. The Inspector----"
+
+"Bother the Inspector!" screeched Lucifer. "D'ye think I'm not a thousand
+times more afraid of your mistress than of all the saints in the calendar?
+There," addressing Adeliza and her betrothed, "be off! You'll find all
+debts paid, and a nice balance at the bank. Cut! Run!"
+
+They did not wait to be told twice. Earth yawned. The gates of Tartarus
+stood wide. They found themselves on the side of a steep mountain, down
+which they scoured madly, hand linked in hand. But fast as they ran, it was
+long ere they ceased to hear the tongue of Madam Lucifer.
+
+
+
+
+THE TALISMANS
+
+
+What a wondrous creature is man! What feats the humblest among us perform,
+which, if related of another order of beings, we should deem incredible!
+
+By what magic could the young student escape the weary old professor, who
+was prosily proving Time merely a form of thought; a proposition of which,
+to judge by the little value he appeared to set on the subject of his
+discourse, he must himself have been fully persuaded? Without exciting his
+suspicions in the smallest degree, the student stole away to a region
+inconceivably remote, and presented himself at the portal of a magnificent
+palace, guarded by goblins, imps, lions, serpents, and monsters whose
+uncouthness forbids description.
+
+A singular transformation seemed to have befallen the student. In the
+professor's class he had been noted as timid, awkward, and painfully
+respectful. He now strode up with an air of alacrity and defiance,
+brandishing a roll of parchments, and confronted the seven principal
+goblins, by whom he was successively interrogated.
+
+"Hast thou undergone the seven probations?"
+
+"Yes," said the student.
+
+"Hast thou swallowed the ninety-nine poisons?"
+
+"Ninety-nine times each," said the student.
+
+"Hast thou wedded a Salamander, and divorced her?"
+
+"I have," said the student.
+
+"Art thou at this present time betrothed to a Vampire?"
+
+"I am," said the student.
+
+"Hast thou sacrificed thy mother and sister to the infernal powers?"
+
+"Of course," said the student, "Hast thou attestations of all these
+circumstances under the hands and seals of a thousand and one demons?"
+
+The student displayed his parchments.
+
+"Thou hast undergone every trial," pronounced the seventh goblin; "thou
+hast won the right to enter the treasury of the treasurer of all things,
+and to choose from it any one talisman at thy liking."
+
+The imps cheered, the goblins congratulated, the serpents shrank hissing
+away, the lions fawned upon the student, a centaur bore him upon his back
+to the treasurer's presence.
+
+The treasurer, an old bent man, with a single lock of silvery hair,
+received the adventurer with civility.
+
+"I have come," said the student, "for the talismans in thy keeping, to the
+choice among which I have entitled myself."
+
+"Thou hast fairly earned them," replied the old man, "and I may not say
+thee nay. Thou canst, however, only possess any of them in the shape which
+it has received at my hands during the long period for which these have
+remained in my custody."
+
+"I must submit to the condition," said the student.
+
+"Behold, then, Aladdin's lamp," said the ancient personage, tendering a
+tiny vase hardly  bigger than a pill-box, containing some grains of a
+coarse, rusty powder.
+
+"Aladdin's lamp!" cried the student.
+
+"All of it, at least, that I have seen fit to preserve," replied the old
+man. "Thou art but just in time for this even. It is proper to apprise thee
+that the virtues of the talisman having necessarily dwindled with its bulk,
+it is at present incompetent to evoke any Genie, and can at most summon an
+imp, of whose company thou wilt never be able to rid thyself, inasmuch as
+the least friction will inevitably destroy what little of the talisman
+remains."
+
+"Confusion!" cried the young man, "Show me, then, Aladdin's ring."
+
+"Here," replied the old man, producing a plain gold hoop.
+
+"This, at least," asked the student, "is not devoid of virtue?"
+
+"Assuredly not, if placed on the finger of some fair lady. For, its magic
+properties depending wholly upon certain engraved characters, which I have
+gradually obliterated, it is at present unadapted to any other use than
+that of a wedding-ring, which it would subserve to admiration."
+
+"Produce another talisman," commanded the youth.
+
+"These," said the ancient treasurer, holding up two shapeless pieces of
+leather, "are the shoes of swiftness, incomparable until I wore them out."
+
+"This, at least, is bright and weighty," exclaimed the student, as the old
+man displayed the sword of sharpness.
+
+"In truth a doughty weapon," returned the treasurer, "if wielded by a
+stronger arm than thine, for it will no longer fly in the air and smite
+off heads of its own accord, since the new blade hath been fitted to the
+new hilt."
+
+After a hasty inspection of the empty frame of a magic mirror, and a
+fragment of the original setting of Solomon's seal, the youth's eye lighted
+upon a volume full of mysterious characters.
+
+"Whose book is this?" he inquired. "Heavens, it is Michael Scott's!"
+
+"Even so," returned the venerable man, "and its spells have lost nothing of
+their efficacy. But the last leaf, containing the formula for dismissing
+spirits after they have been summoned from the nether world, hath been
+removed by me. Inattention to this circumstance hath caused several most
+respectable magicians to be torn in pieces, and hath notably increased the
+number of demons at large."
+
+"Thou old villain!" shouted the exasperated youth, "is this the way in
+which the treasures in thy custody are protected by thee? Deemest thou that
+I will brook being thus cheated of my dear-bought talisman? Nay, but I will
+deprive thee of thine. Give me that lock of hair."
+
+"O good youth," supplicated the now terrified and humbled old man, "bereave
+me not of the source of all my power. Think, only think of the
+consequences!"
+
+"I will not think," roared the youth. "Deliver it to me, or I'll rend it
+from thy head with my own hands."
+
+With a heavy sigh, Time clipped the lock from his brow and handed it to the
+youth, who quitted the place unmolested by any of the monsters.
+
+Entering the great city, the student made his way by narrow and winding
+streets until, after a  considerable delay, he emerged into a large public
+square. It was crowded with people, gazing intently at the afternoon sky,
+and the air was rife with a confused murmur of altercations and
+exclamations.
+
+"It is." "No, I tell you, it is impossible." "It cannot be." "I see it
+move." "No, it's only my eyes are dazzled." "Who could have believed it?"
+"Whatever will happen next?"
+
+Following the gaze of the people, the youth discovered that the object of
+their attention was the sun, in whose aspect, however, he could discover
+nothing unusual.
+
+"No," a man by him was saying, "it positively has not moved for an hour. I
+have my instruments by me. I cannot possibly be mistaken."
+
+"It ought to have been behind the houses long ago," said another.
+
+"What's o'clock?" asked a third. The inquiry made many turn their eyes
+towards the great clock in the square. It had stopped an hour ago. The
+hands were perfectly motionless. All who had watches simultaneously drew
+them from their pockets. The motion of each was suspended; so intense, in
+turn, was the hush of the breathless crowd, that you could have heard a
+single tick, but there was none to hear.
+
+"Time is no more," proclaimed a leader among the people.
+
+"I am a ruined man," lamented a watchmaker.
+
+"And I," ejaculated a maker of almanacks.
+
+"What of quarter-day?" inquired a landlord and a tenant simultaneously.
+
+"We shall never see the moon again," sobbed a pair of lovers.
+
+"It is well this did not happen at night," observed an optimist.
+
+"Indeed?" questioned the director of a gas company.
+
+"I told you the Last Day would come in our time," said a preacher.
+
+It was still long before the people realised that the trance of Time had
+paralysed his daughter Mutability as well. Every operation depending on her
+silent processes was arrested. The unborn could not come to life. The sick
+could not die. The human frame could not waste. Every one in the enjoyment
+of health and strength felt assured of the perpetual possession of these
+blessings, unless he should meet with accident or violent death. But all
+growth ceased, and all dissolution was stayed. Mothers looked with despair
+on infants who could never be weaned or learn to walk. Expectant heirs
+gazed with dismay on immortal fathers and uncles. The reigning beauties,
+the fashionable boxers and opera dancers were in the highest feather. Nor
+did the intellectual less rejoice, counting on endless life and unimpaired
+faculties, and vowing to extend human knowledge beyond the conceivable. The
+poor and the outcast, the sick and the maimed, the broken-hearted and the
+dying made, indeed, a dismal outcry, the sincerity of which was doubted by
+some persons.
+
+As for our student, forgetting his faithful Vampire, he made his way to a
+young lady of great personal attractions, to whom he had been attached in
+former days. The sight of her beauty, and the thought that it would be
+everlasting, revived his passion. To convince her of the perpetuity  of her
+charms, and establish a claim upon her gratitude, he cautiously revealed to
+her that he was the author of this blissful state of things, and that
+Time's hair was actually in his possession.
+
+"Oh, you dear good man!" she exclaimed, "how vastly I am obliged to you!
+Ferdinand will never forsake me now."
+
+"Ferdinand! Leonora, I thought you cared for _me_."
+
+"Oh!" she said, "you young men of science are so conceited!"
+
+The discomfited lover fled from the house, and sought the treasurer's
+palace. It had vanished with all its monsters. Long did he roam the city
+ere he mixed again with the crowd, which an old meteorologist was
+addressing energetically.
+
+"I ask you one thing," he was saying. "Will it ever rain again?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied a geologist and a metaphysician together. "Rain
+being an agent of Time in the production of change, there can be no place
+for it under the present dispensation."
+
+"Then will not the crops be burned up? Will the fruits mature? Are they not
+withering already? What of wells and rivers, and the mighty sea itself? Who
+will feed your cattle? And who will feed _you_?"
+
+"This concerns us," said the butchers and bakers.
+
+"Us also," added the fishmongers.
+
+"I always thought," said a philosopher, "that this phenomenon must be the
+work of some malignant wizard."
+
+"Show us the wizard that we may slay him," roared the mob.
+
+Leonora had been communicative, and the student was immediately identified
+by twenty persons. The lock of hair was found upon him, and was held up in
+sight of the multitude.
+
+"Kill him!"
+
+"Burn him!"
+
+"Crucify him!"
+
+"It moves! it moves!" cried another division of the crowd. All eyes were
+bent on the hitherto stationary luminary. It was moving--no, it wasn't;
+yes, it certainly was. Dared men believe that their shadows were actually
+lengthening? Was the sun's rim really drawing nigh yonder great edifice?
+That muffled sound from the vast, silent multitude was, doubtless, the
+quick beating of innumerable hearts; but that sharper note? Could it be the
+ticking of watches? Suddenly all the public clocks clanged the first stroke
+of an hour--an absurdly wrong hour, but it was an hour. No mortal heard
+the second stroke, drowned in universal shouts of joy and gratitude. The
+student mingled with the mass, no man regarding him.
+
+When the people had somewhat recovered from their emotion, they fell to
+disputing as to the cause of the last marvel. No scientific man could get
+beyond a working hypothesis. The mystery was at length solved by a very
+humble citizen, a barber.
+
+"Why," he said, "the old gentleman's hair has grown again!"
+
+And so it had! And so it was that the unborn came to life, the dying gave
+up the ghost, Leonora pulled out a grey hair, and the student told the
+professor his dream.
+
+
+
+
+THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
+
+
+The aged philosopher Aboniel inhabited a lofty tower in the city of Balkh,
+where he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and the occult sciences.
+No one was ever admitted to his laboratory. Yet Aboniel did not wholly shun
+intercourse with mankind, but, on the contrary, had seven pupils, towardly
+youths belonging to the noblest families of the city, whom he instructed at
+stated times in philosophy and all lawful knowledge, reserving the
+forbidden lore of magic and alchemy for himself.
+
+But on a certain day he summoned his seven scholars to the mysterious
+apartment. They entered with awe and curiosity, but perceived nothing save
+the sage standing behind a table, on which were placed seven crystal
+phials, filled with a clear liquid resembling water.
+
+"Ye know, my sons," he began, "with what ardour I am reputed to have
+striven to penetrate the hidden secrets of Nature, and to solve the
+problems which have allured and baffled the sages of all time. In this
+rumour doth not err: such hath ever been my object; but, until yesterday,
+my fortune hath been like unto theirs who have preceded me. The little I
+could accomplish seemed as nothing in comparison with what I was compelled
+to leave unachieved. Even now  my success is but partial. I have not
+learned to make gold; the talisman of Solomon is not mine; nor can I recall
+the principle of life to the dead, or infuse it into inanimate matter. But
+if I cannot create, I can preserve. I have found the Elixir of Life."
+
+The sage paused to examine the countenances of his scholars. Upon them he
+read extreme surprise, undoubting belief in the veracity of their teacher,
+and the dawning gleam of a timid hope that they themselves might become
+participators in the transcendent discovery he proclaimed. Addressing
+himself to the latter sentiment--"I am willing," he continued, "to
+communicate this secret to you, if such be your desire."
+
+An unanimous exclamation assured him that there need be no uncertainty on
+this point.
+
+"But remember," he resumed, "that this knowledge, like all knowledge, has
+its disadvantages and its drawbacks. A price must be paid, and when ye come
+to learn it, it may well be that it will seem too heavy. Understand that
+the stipulations I am about to propound are not of my imposing; the secret
+was imparted to me by spirits not of a benevolent order, and under
+conditions with which I am constrained strictly to comply. Understand also
+that I am not minded to employ this knowledge on my own behalf. My
+fourscore years' acquaintance with life has rendered me more solicitous for
+methods of abbreviating existence, than of prolonging it. It may be well
+for you if your twenty years' experience has led you to the same
+conclusion."
+
+There was not one of the young men who would not readily have admitted, and
+indeed  energetically maintained, the emptiness, vanity, and general
+unsatisfactoriness of life; for such had ever been the doctrine of their
+venerated preceptor. Their present behaviour, however, would have convinced
+him, had he needed conviction, of the magnitude of the gulf between theory
+and practice, and the feebleness of intellectual persuasion in presence of
+innate instinct. With one voice they protested their readiness to brave any
+conceivable peril, and undergo any test which might be imposed as a
+condition of participation in their master's marvellous secret.
+
+"So be it," returned the sage, "and now hearken to the conditions.
+
+"Each of you must select at hazard, and immediately quaff one of these
+seven phials, in one of which only is contained the Elixir of Life. Far
+different are the contents of the others; they are the six most deadly
+poisons which the utmost subtlety of my skill has enabled me to prepare,
+and science knows no antidote to any of them. The first scorches up the
+entrails as with fire; the second slays by freezing every vein, and
+benumbing every nerve; the third by frantic convulsions. Happy in
+comparison he who drains the fourth, for he sinks dead upon the ground
+immediately, smitten as it were with lightning. Nor do I overmuch
+commiserate him to whose lot the fifth may fall, for slumber descends upon
+him forthwith, and he passes away in painless oblivion. But wretched he who
+chooses the sixth, whose hair falls from his head, whose skin peels from
+his body, and who lingers long in excruciating agonies, a living death. The
+seventh phial contains the object of your desire. Stretch forth  your
+hands, therefore, simultaneously to this table; let each unhesitatingly
+grasp and intrepidly drain the potion which fate may allot him, and be the
+quality of his fortune attested by the result."
+
+The seven disciples contemplated each other with visages of sevenfold
+blankness. They next unanimously directed their gaze towards their
+preceptor, hoping to detect some symptom of jocularity upon his venerable
+features. Nothing could be descried thereon but the most imperturbable
+solemnity, or, if perchance anything like an expression of irony lurked
+beneath this, it was not such irony as they wished to see. Lastly, they
+scanned the phials, trusting that some infinitesimal distinction might
+serve to discriminate the elixir from the poisons. But no, the vessels were
+indistinguishable in external appearance, and the contents of each were
+equally colourless and transparent.
+
+"Well," demanded Aboniel at length, with real or assumed surprise,
+"wherefore tarry ye thus? I deemed to have ere this beheld six of you in
+the agonies of death!"
+
+This utterance did not tend to encourage the seven waverers. Two of the
+boldest, indeed, advanced their hands half-way to the table, but perceiving
+that their example was not followed, withdrew them in some confusion.
+
+"Think not, great teacher, that I personally set store by this worthless
+existence," said one of their number at last, breaking the embarrassing
+silence, "but I have an aged mother, whose life is bound up with mine."
+
+"I," said the second, "have an unmarried  sister, for whom it is meet that
+I should provide."
+
+"I," said the third, "have an intimate and much-injured friend, whose cause
+I may in nowise forsake."
+
+"And I an enemy upon whom I would fain be avenged," said the fourth.
+
+"My life," said the fifth, "is wholly devoted to science. Can I consent to
+lay it down ere I have sounded the seas of the seven climates?"
+
+"Or I, until I have had speech of the man in the moon?" inquired the sixth.
+
+"I," said the seventh, "have neither mother nor sister, friends nor
+enemies, neither doth my zeal for science equal that of my fellows. But I
+have all the greater respect for my own skin; yea, the same is exceedingly
+precious in my sight."
+
+"The conclusion of the whole matter, then," summed up the sage, "is that
+not one of you will make a venture for the cup of immortality?"
+
+The young men remained silent and abashed, unwilling to acknowledge the
+justice of their master's taunt, and unable to deny it. They sought for
+some middle path, which did not readily present itself.
+
+"May we not," said one at last, "may we not cast lots, and each take a
+phial in succession, as destiny may appoint?"
+
+"I have nothing against this," replied Aboniel, "only remember that the
+least endeavour to contravene the conditions by amending the chance of any
+one of you, will ensure the discomfiture of all."
+
+The disciples speedily procured seven quills of unequal lengths, and
+proceeded to draw them in  the usual manner. The shortest remained in the
+hand of the holder, he who had pleaded his filial duty to his mother.
+
+He approached the table with much resolution, and his hand advanced half
+the distance without impediment. Then, turning to the holder of the second
+quill; the man with the sister, he said abruptly:
+
+"The relation between mother and son is notoriously more sacred and
+intimate than that which obtains between brethren. Were it not therefore
+fitting that thou shouldst encounter the first risk in my stead?"
+
+"The relationship between an aged mother and an adult son," responded the
+youth addressed, in a sententious tone, "albeit most holy, cannot in the
+nature of things be durable, seeing that it must shortly be dissolved by
+death. Whereas the relationship between brother and sister may endure for
+many years, if such be the will of Allah. It is therefore proper that thou
+shouldst first venture the experiment."
+
+"Have I lived to hear such sophistry from a pupil of the wise Aboniel!"
+exclaimed the first speaker, in generous indignation. "The maternal
+relationship--"
+
+"A truce to this trifling," cried the other six; "fulfil the conditions, or
+abandon the task."
+
+Thus urged, the scholar approached his hand to the table, and seized one of
+the phials. Scarcely, however, had he done so, when he fancied that he
+detected something of a sinister colour in the liquid, which distinguished
+it, in his imagination, from the innocent transparency of the rest. He
+hastily replaced it, and laid hold of the next. At  that moment a blaze of
+light burst forth upon them, and, thunderstruck, the seven scholars were
+stretched senseless on the ground.
+
+On regaining their faculties they found themselves at the outside of
+Aboniel's dwelling, stunned by the shock, and humiliated by the part they
+had played. They jointly pledged inviolable secrecy, and returned to their
+homes.
+
+The secret of the seven was kept as well as the secret of seven can be
+expected to be; that is to say, it was not, ere the expiration of seven
+days, known to more than six-sevenths of the inhabitants of Balkh. The last
+of these to become acquainted  with it was the Sultan, who immediately
+despatched his guards to apprehend the sage, and confiscate the Elixir.
+Failing to obtain admission at Aboniel's portal, they broke it open, and,
+on entering his chamber, found him in a condition which more eloquently
+than any profession bespoke his disdain for the life-bestowing draught. He
+was dead in his chair. Before him, on the table, stood the seven phials,
+six full as previously, the seventh empty. In his hand was a scroll
+inscribed as follows:
+
+"Six times twice six years have I striven after knowledge, and I now
+bequeath to the world the fruit of my toil, being six poisons. One more
+deadly I might have added, but I have refrained, "Write upon my tomb, that
+here he lies who forbore to perpetuate human affliction, and bestowed a
+fatal boon where alone it could be innoxious."
+
+The intruders looked at each other, striving to penetrate the sense of
+Aboniel's last words. While yet they gazed, they were startled by a  loud
+crash from an adjacent closet, and were even more discomposed as a large
+monkey bounded forth, whose sleek coat, exuberant playfulness, and
+preternatural agility convinced all that the deceased philosopher, under an
+inspiration of supreme irony, had administered to the creature every drop
+of the Elixir of Life.
+
+
+
+
+THE POET OF PANOPOLIS
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Although in a manner retired from the world during the fifth and sixth
+Christian centuries, the banished Gods did not neglect to keep an eye on
+human affairs, interesting themselves in any movement which might seem to
+afford them a chance of regaining their lost supremacy, or in any person
+whose conduct evinced regret at their dethronement. They deeply sympathised
+with the efforts of their votary Pamprepius to turn the revolt of Illus to
+their advantage, and excused the low magical arts to which he stooped as a
+necessary concession to the spirit of a barbarous age. They ministered
+invisibly to Damascius and his companions on their flight into Persia,
+alleviating the hardships under which the frames of the veteran
+philosophers might otherwise have sunk. It was not, indeed, until the
+burning of the Alexandrian library that they lost all heart and lapsed into
+the chrysalis-like condition in which they remained until tempted forth by
+the young sunshine of the Renaissance.
+
+Such a phenomenon for the fifth century as the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of
+Panopolis could not fail to excite their most lively interest. Forty-eight
+books of verse on the exploits of Bacchus in the age of pugnacious prelates
+and filthy coenobites, of imbecile rulers and rampant robbers, of the
+threatened dissolution of every tie, legal, social, or political; an age of
+earthquake, war, and famine! Bacchus, who is known from Aristophanes not to
+have excelled in criticism, protested that his laureate was greater than
+Homer; and, though Homer could not go quite so far as this, he graciously
+conceded that if he had himself been an Egyptian of the fifth century, with
+a faint glimmering of the poetical art, and encumbered with more learning
+than he knew how to use, he might have written almost as badly as his
+modern representative. More impartial critics judged Nonnus's achievement
+more favourably, and all agreed that his steadfastness in the faith
+deserved some special mark of distinction. The Muses under Pallas's
+direction (being themselves a little awkward in female accomplishments)
+embroidered him a robe; Hermes made a lyre, and Hephaestus forged a
+plectrum. Apollo added a chaplet of laurel, and Bacchus one of ivy. Whether
+from distrust of Hermes' integrity, or wishing to make the personal
+acquaintance of his follower, Phoebus volunteered to convey the testimonial
+in person, and accordingly took his departure for the Egyptian Thebaid.
+
+As Apollo fared through the sandy and rugged wilderness under the blazing
+sun of an African summer afternoon, he observed with surprise a vast crowd
+of strange figures swarming about the mouth of a cavern like bees
+clustering at the entrance to a hive. On a nearer approach he identified
+them as a posse of demons besetting a  hermit. Words cannot describe the
+enormous variety of whatever the universe holds of most heterogeneous.
+Naked women of surpassing loveliness displayed their charms to the
+anchorite's gaze, sturdy porters bent beneath loads of gold which they
+heaped at his feet, other shapes not alien from humanity allured his
+appetite with costly dishes or cooling drinks, or smote at him with swords,
+or made feints at his eyes with spears, or burned sulphur under his nose,
+or displayed before him scrolls of poetry or learning, or shrieked
+blasphemies in his ears, or surveyed him from a little distance with
+glances of leering affection; while a motley crowd of goblins, wearing the
+heads of boars or lions, or whisking the tails of dragons, winged, or
+hoofed, or scaled, or feathered, or all at once, incessantly jostled and
+wrangled with each other and their betters, mopping and mowing, grunting
+and grinning, snapping, snarling, constantly running away and returning
+like gnats dancing over a marsh. The holy man sat doggedly at the entrance
+of his cavern, with an expression of fathomless stupidity, which seemed to
+defy all the fiends of the Thebaid to get an idea into his head, or make
+him vary his attitude by a single inch.
+
+"These people did not exist in our time," said Apollo aloud, "or at least
+they knew their place, and behaved themselves."
+
+"Sir," said a comparatively grave and respectable demon, addressing the
+stranger, "I should wish your peregrinity to understand that these imps are
+mere schoolboys--my pupils, in fact. When their education has made further
+progress they will be more mannerly, and will comprehend  the folly of
+pestering an unintellectual old gentleman like this worthy Pachymius with
+beauty for which he has no eyes, and gold for which he has no use, and
+dainties for which he has no palate, and learning for which he has no head.
+But _I'll_ wake him up!" And waving his pupils away, the paedagogic fiend
+placed himself at the anchorite's ear, and shouted into it--
+
+"Nonnus is to be Bishop of Panopolis!"
+
+The hermit's features were instantly animated by an expression of envy and
+hatred.
+
+"Nonnus!" he exclaimed, "the heathen poet, to have the see of Panopolis, of
+which _I_ was promised the reversion!"
+
+"My dear sir," suggested Apollo, "it is all very well to enliven the
+reverend eremite; but don't you think it is rather a liberty to make such
+jokes at the expense of my good friend Nonnus?"
+
+"There is no liberty," said the demon, "for there is no joke. Recanted on
+Monday. Baptized yesterday. Ordained to-day. To be consecrated to-morrow."
+
+The anchorite poured forth a torrent of the choicest ecclesiastical curses,
+until he became speechless from exhaustion, and Apollo, profiting by the
+opportunity, addressed the demon:
+
+"Would it be an unpardonable breach of politeness, respected sir, if I
+ventured to hint that the illusions your pupils have been trying to impose
+upon this venerable man have in some small measure impaired the confidence
+with which I was originally inspired by your advantageous personal
+appearance?"
+
+"Not in the least," replied the demon, "especially as I can easily make my
+words good. If  you and Pachymius will mount my back I will transport you
+to Panopolis, where you can verify my assertion for yourselves."
+
+The Deity and the anchorite promptly consented, and seated themselves on
+the demon's shoulders. The shadow of the fiend's expanded wings fell black
+and vast on the fiery sand, but diminished and became invisible as he
+soared to a prodigious height, to escape observation from below. By-and-by
+the sun's glowing ball touched earth at the extremity of the horizon; it
+disappeared, the fires of sunset burned low in the west, and the figures of
+the demon and his freight showed like a black dot against a lake of green
+sky, growing larger as he cautiously stooped to earth. Grazing temples,
+skimming pyramids, the party came to ground in the precincts of Panopolis,
+just in time to avoid the rising moon that would have betrayed them. The
+demon immediately disappeared. Apollo hastened off to demand an explanation
+from Nonnus, while Pachymius repaired to a neighbouring convent, peopled,
+as he knew, by a legion of sturdy monks, ever ready to smite and be smitten
+in the cause of orthodoxy.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Nonnus sat in his study, wrinkling his brow as he polished his verses by
+the light of a small lamp. A large scroll lay open on his knees, the
+contents of which seemed to afford him little satisfaction. Forty-eight
+more scrolls, resplendent with silver knobs and coquettishly tied with
+purple cord,  reposed in an adjoining book-case; the forty-eight books,
+manifestly, of the Panopolitan bard's Dionysiaca. Homer, Euripides, and
+other poets lay on the floor, having apparently been hurriedly dislodged to
+make room for divers liturgies and lives of the saints. A set of episcopal
+robes depended from a hook, and on a side table stood half-a-dozen mitres,
+which, to all appearance, the designated prelate had been trying on.
+
+"Nonnus," said Phoebus, passing noiselessly through the unresisting wall,
+"the tale of thy apostasy is then true?"
+
+It would be difficult to determine whether surprise, delight, or dismay
+preponderated in Nonnus's expression as he lifted up his eyes and
+recognised the God of Poetry. He had just presence of mind to shuffle his
+scroll under an enormous dictionary ere he fell at Apollo's feet.
+
+"O Phoebus," he exclaimed, "hadst thou come a week ago!"
+
+"It is true, then?" said Apollo. "Thou forsakest me and the Muses. Thou
+sidest with them who have broken our statues, unroofed our temples,
+desecrated our altars, and banished us from among mankind. Thou rejectest
+the glory of standing alone in a barbarous age as the last witness to
+culture and civilisation. Thou despisest the gifts of the Gods and the
+Muses, of which I am even now the bearer. Thou preferrest the mitre to the
+laurel chaplet, and the hymns of Gregory to the epics of Homer?"
+
+"O Phoebus," replied Nonnus, "were it any God but thou, I should bend
+before him in silence, having nought to reply. But thou art a poet, and
+thou understandest the temper of a poet.  Thou knowest how beyond other men
+he is devoured by the craving for sympathy. This and not vulgar vanity is
+his motive of action; his shaft is launched in vain unless he can deem it
+embedded in the heart of a friend. Thou mayest well judge what scoffings
+and revilings my Dionysiac epic has brought upon me in this evil age; yet,
+had this been all, peradventure I might have borne it. But it was not all.
+The gentle, the good, the affectionate, they who in happier times would
+have been my audience, came about me, saying, Nonnus, why sing the strains
+against which we must shut our ears? Sing what we may listen to, and we
+will love and honour thee. I could not bear the thought of going to my
+grave without having awakened an echo of sympathy, and weakly but not
+basely I have yielded, given them what they craved, and suffered them,
+since the Muses' garland is not theirs to bestow, to reward me with a
+mitre."
+
+"And what demanded they?" asked Apollo.
+
+"Oh, a mere romance! Something entirely fabulous."
+
+"I must see it," persisted Apollo; and Nonnus reluctantly disinterred his
+scroll from under the big dictionary, and handed it up, trembling like a
+schoolboy who anticipates a castigation for a bad exercise.
+
+"What trash have we here?" cried Phoebus--
+
+  [Greek: "Achronos �n, akich�tos, en arr�toos Logos arch�,]
+  [Greek: 'Isophu�s Genet�ros om�likos Tios am�toor,]
+  [Greek: Kai Logos antophygoio Theou, phoos, ek phaeos phoos.]
+
+"If it isn't the beginning of the Gospel of John! Thy impiety is worse than
+thy poetry!"
+
+Apollo cast the scroll indignantly to the ground. His countenance wore an
+expression so similar to that with which he is represented in act to smite
+the Python, that Nonnus judged it prudent to catch up his manuscript and
+hold it shield-wise before his face.
+
+"Thou doest well," said Apollo, laughing bitterly; "that rampart is indeed
+impenetrable to my arrows."
+
+Nonnus seemed about to fall prostrate, when a sharp rap came to the door.
+
+"That is the Governor's knock," he exclaimed. "Do not forsake me utterly, O
+Phoebus!" But as he turned to open the door, Apollo vanished. The Governor
+entered, a sagacious, good-humoured-looking man in middle life.
+
+"Who was with thee just now?" he asked. "Methought I heard voices."
+
+"Merely the Muse," explained Nonnus, "with whom I am wont to hold nocturnal
+communings."
+
+"Indeed!" replied the Governor. "Then the Muse has done well to take
+herself off, and will do even better not to return. Bishops must have no
+flirtations with Muses, heavenly or earthly--not that I am now altogether
+certain that thou _wilt_ be a bishop."
+
+"How so?" asked Nonnus, not without a feeling of relief.
+
+"Imagine, my dear friend," returned the Governor, "who should turn up this
+evening but that sordid anchorite Pachymius, to whom the see was promised
+indeed, but who was reported to have been devoured by vermin in the desert.
+The rumour seemed so highly plausible that it must be feared that
+sufficient pains were not taken to  verify it--cannot have been, in fact;
+for, as I said, here he comes, having been brought, as he affirms, through
+the air by an angel. Little would it have signified if he had come by
+himself, but he is accompanied by three hundred monks carrying cudgels, who
+threaten an insurrection if he is not consecrated on the spot. My friend
+the Archbishop and I are at our wits' end: we have set our hearts on having
+a gentleman over the diocese, but we cannot afford to have tumults reported
+at Constantinople. At last, mainly through the mediation of a sable
+personage whom no one seems to know, but who approves himself most
+intelligent and obliging, the matter is put off till to-morrow, when them
+and Pachymius are to compete for the bishopric in public on conditions not
+yet settled, but which our swarthy friend undertakes to arrange to every
+one's satisfaction. So keep up a good heart, and don't run away in any
+case. I know thou art timid, but remember that there is no safety for thee
+but in victory. If thou yieldest thou wilt be beheaded by me, and if thou
+art defeated thou wilt certainly be burned by Pachymius."
+
+With this incentive to intrepidity the Governor withdrew, leaving the poor
+poet in a pitiable state between remorse and terror. One thing alone
+somewhat comforted him! the mitres had vanished, and the gifts of the Gods
+lay on the table in their place, whence he concluded that a friendly power
+might yet be watching over him.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Next morning all Panopolis was in an uproar. It was generally known that
+the pretensions of the candidates for the episcopate would be decided by
+public competition, and it was rumoured that this would partake of the
+nature of an ordeal by fire and water. Nothing further had transpired
+except that the arrangements had been settled by the Governor and
+Archbishop in concert with two strangers, a dingy Libyan and a handsome
+young Greek, neither of whom was known in the city, but in both of whom the
+authorities seemed to repose entire confidence. At the appointed time the
+people flocked into the theatre, and found the stage already occupied by
+the parties chiefly concerned. The Governor and the Archbishop sat in the
+centre on their tribunals: the competitors stood on each side, Pachymius
+backed by the demon, Nonnus by Apollo; both these supporters, of course,
+appearing to the assembly in the light of ordinary mortals. Nonnus
+recognised Apollo perfectly, but Pachymius's limited powers of intelligence
+seemed entirely engrossed by the discomfort visibly occasioned him by the
+proximity of an enormous brass vessel of water, close to which burned a
+bright fire. Nonnus was also ill at ease, and continually directed his
+attention to a large package, of the contents of which he seemed
+instinctively cognisant.
+
+All being ready, the Governor rose from his seat, and announced that, with
+the sanction of his  Grace the Archbishop, the invidious task of
+determining between the claims of two such highly qualified competitors had
+been delegated to two gentlemen in the enjoyment of his full confidence,
+who would proceed to apply fitting tests to the respective candidates.
+Should one fail and the other succeed, the victor would of course be
+instituted; should both undergo the probation successfully, new criterions
+of merit would be devised; should both fall short, both would be set aside,
+and the disputed mitre would be conferred elsewhere. He would first summon
+Nonnus, long their fellow-citizen, and now their fellow-Christian, to
+submit himself to the test proposed.
+
+Apollo now rose, and proclaimed in an audible voice, "By virtue of the
+authority committed to me I call upon Nonnus of Panopolis, candidate for
+the bishopric of his native city, to demonstrate his fitness for the same
+by consigning to the flames with his own hands the forty-eight execrable
+books of heathen poetry composed by him in the days of his darkness and
+blindness, but now without doubt as detestable to him as to the universal
+body of the faithful." So saying, he made a sign to an attendant, the
+wrapping of the package fell away, and the forty-eight scrolls of the
+Dionysiaca, silver knobs, purple cords, and all, came to view.
+
+"Burn my poem!" exclaimed Nonnus. "Destroy the labours of twenty-four
+years! Bereave Egypt of its Homer! Erase the name of Nonnus from the tablet
+of Time!"
+
+"How so, while thou hast the Paraphrase of St. John?" demanded Apollo
+maliciously.
+
+"Indeed, good youth," said the Governor, who wished to favour Nonnus,
+"methinks the condition  is somewhat exorbitant. A single book might
+suffice, surely!"
+
+"I am quite content," replied Apollo. "If he consents to burn any of his
+books he is no poet, and I wash my hands of him."
+
+"Come, Nonnus," cried the Governor, "make haste; one book will do as well
+as another. Hand them up here."
+
+"It must be with his own hands, please your Excellency," said Apollo.
+
+"Then," cried the Governor, pitching to the poet the first scroll brought
+to him, "the thirteenth book. Who cares about the thirteenth book? Pop it
+in!"
+
+"The thirteenth book!" exclaimed Nonnus, "containing the contest between
+wine and honey, without which my epic becomes totally and entirely
+unintelligible!"
+
+"This, then," said the Governor, picking out another, which chanced to be
+the seventeenth.
+
+"In my seventeenth book," objected Nonnus, "Bacchus plants vines in India,
+and the superiority of wine to milk is convincingly demonstrated."
+
+"Well," rejoined the Governor, "what say you to the twenty-second?"
+
+"With my Hamadryad! I can never give up my Hamadryad!"
+
+"Then," said the Governor, contemptuously hurling the whole set in the
+direction of Nonnus, "burn which you will, only burn!"
+
+The wretched poet sat among his scrolls looking for a victim. All his
+forty-eight children were equally dear to his parental heart. The cries of
+applause and derision from the spectators, and  the formidable bellowings
+of the exasperated monks who surrounded Pachymius, did not tend to steady
+his nerves, or render the task of critical discrimination the easier.
+
+"I won't! I won't!" he exclaimed at last, starting up defiantly. "Let the
+bishopric go to the devil! Any one of my similes is worth all the
+bishoprics in Egypt!"
+
+"Out on the vanity of these poets!" exclaimed the disappointed Governor.
+
+"It is not vanity," said Apollo, "it is paternal affection; and being
+myself a sufferer from the same infirmity, I rejoice to find him my true
+son after all."
+
+"Well," said the Governor, turning to the demon: "it is thy man's turn now.
+Trot him out!"
+
+"Brethren," said the demon to the assembly, "it is meet that he who aspires
+to the office of bishop should be prepared to give evidence of
+extraordinary self-denial. Ye have seen even our weak brother Nonnus
+adoring what he hath burned, albeit as yet unwilling to burn what he hath
+adored. How much more may be reasonably expected of our brother Pachymius,
+so eminent for sanctity! I therefore call upon him to demonstrate his
+humility and self-renunciation, and effectually mortify the natural man, by
+washing himself in this ample vessel provided for the purpose"
+
+"Wash myself!" exclaimed Pacyhmius, with a vivacity of which he had
+previously shown no token. "Destroy at one splash the sanctity of
+fifty-seven years! Avaunt! thou subtle enemy of my salvation! I know thee
+who thou art,  the demon who brought me hither on his back yesterday."
+
+"I thought it had been an angel," said the Governor.
+
+"A demon in the disguise of an angel of light," said Pachymius.
+
+A tumultuous discussion arose among Pachymius's supporters, some extolling
+his fortitude, others blaming his wrongheadedness.
+
+"What!" said he to the latter, "would ye rob me of my reputation? Shall it
+be written of me, The holy Pachymius abode in the precepts of the eremites
+so long as he dwelt in the desert where no water was, but as soon as he
+came within sight of a bath, he stumbled and fell?"
+
+"Oh, father," urged they, "savoureth not this of vaingloriousness? The
+demon in the guise of an angel of light, as thou so well saidest even now.
+Be strong. Quit thyself valiantly. Think of the sufferings of the primitive
+confessors."
+
+"St. John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil," said one.
+
+"St. Apocryphus was actually drowned," said another.
+
+"I have reason to believe," said a third, "that the loathsomeness of
+ablution hath been greatly exaggerated by the heretics."
+
+"I know it has," said another. "I _have_ washed myself once, though ye
+might not think it, and can assert that it is by no means as disagreeable
+as one supposes."
+
+"That is just what I dread," said Pachymius. "Little by little, one might
+positively come to like it! We should resist the beginnings of evil."
+
+All this time the crowd of his supporters had been pressing upon the
+anchorite, and had imperceptibly forced him nearer the edge of the vessel,
+purposing at a convenient season to throw him in. He was now near enough to
+catch a glimpse of the limpid element. Recoiling in horror, he collected
+all his energies, and with head depressed towards his chest, and hands
+thrust forth as if to ward off pollution--butting, kicking, biting the
+air--he rushed forwards, and with a preternatural force deserving to be
+enumerated among his miracles, fairly overthrew the enormous vase, the
+contents streaming on the crowd in front of the stage.
+
+"Take me to my hermitage!" he screamed. "I renounce the bishopric. Take me
+to my hermitage!"
+
+"Amen," responded the demon, and, assuming his proper shape, he took
+Pachymius upon his back and flew away with him amid the cheers of the
+multitude.
+
+Pachymius was speedily deposited at the mouth of his cavern, where he
+received the visits of the neighbouring anchorites, who came to
+congratulate him on the constancy with which he had sustained his fiery, or
+rather watery trial. He spent most of his remaining days in the society of
+the devil, on which account he was canonised at his death.
+
+"O Phoebus," said Nonnus, when they were alone, "impose upon me any penance
+thou wilt, so I may but regain thy favour and that of the Muses. But before
+all things let me destroy my paraphrase."
+
+"Thou shalt not destroy it," said Phoebus,  "Thou shalt publish it. That
+shall be thy penance."
+
+And so it is that the epic on the exploits of Bacchus and the paraphrase of
+St. John's Gospel have alike come down to us as the work of Nonnus, whose
+authorship of both learned men have never been able to deny, having regard
+to the similarity of style, but never could explain until the facts above
+narrated came to light in one of the Fayoum papyri recently acquired by the
+Archduke Rainer.
+
+
+
+
+THE PURPLE HEAD
+
+  Half ignorant, they turned an easy wheel
+  That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+In the heyday of the Emperor Aurelian's greatness, when his strong right
+arm propped Rome up, and hewed Palmyra down, when he surrounded his capital
+with walls fifty miles in circuit, and led Tetricus and Zenobia in triumph
+through its streets, and distributed elephants among the senators, and laid
+Etruria out in vineyards, and contemplated in leisure moments the
+suppression of Christianity as a subordinate detail of administration, a
+mere ripple on the broad ocean of his policy--at this period Bahram the
+First, King of Persia, naturally became disquieted in his mind.
+
+"This upstart soldier of fortune," reflected he, "has an unseemly habit of
+overcoming and leading captive legitimate princes; thus prejudicing Divine
+right in the eyes of the vulgar. The skin of his predecessor Valerian,
+curried and stuffed with straw, hangs to this hour in the temple at
+Ctesiphon, a pleasing spectacle to the immortal gods. How would my own skin
+appear in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus? This must not be. I will send
+an embassy to him, and impress him with my greatness. But how?"
+
+He accordingly convoked his counsellors; the viziers, the warriors, the
+magi, the philosophers; and addressed them thus:
+
+"The king deigns to consult ye touching a difficult matter. I would flatter
+the pride of Rome, without lowering the pride of Persia. I would propitiate
+Aurelian, and at the same time humble him. How shall this be accomplished?"
+
+The viziers, the warriors, and the magi answered not a word. Unbroken
+silence reigned in the assembly, until the turn came to the sage Marcobad,
+who, prostrating himself, said, "O king, live for ever! In ancient times,
+as hath been delivered by our ancestors, Persians were instructed in three
+accomplishments--to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth. Persia
+still rides and shoots; truth-speaking (praised be Ormuzd!) she hath
+discontinued as unbefitting an enlightened nation. Thou needest not,
+therefore, scruple to circumvent Aurelian. Offer him that which thou
+knowest will not be found in his treasury, seeing that it is unique in
+thine own; giving him, at the same time, to understand that it is the
+ordinary produce of thy dominions. So, while rejoicing at the gift, shall
+he be abashed at his inferiority. I refer to the purple robe of her majesty
+the queen, the like of which is not to be found in the whole earth, neither
+do any know where the dye that tinges it is produced, save that it proceeds
+from the uttermost parts of India."
+
+"I approve thy advice," replied Bahram, "and in return will save thy life
+by banishing thee from my dominions. When my august consort shall learn
+that thou hast been the means of depriving her of her robe, she will
+undoubtedly request that  thou mayest be flayed, and thou knowest that I
+can deny her nothing. I therefore counsel thee to depart with all possible
+swiftness. Repair to the regions where the purple is produced, and if thou
+returnest with an adequate supply, I undertake that my royal sceptre shall
+be graciously extended to thee."
+
+The philosopher forsook the royal presence with celerity, and his office of
+chief examiner of court spikenard was bestowed upon another; as also his
+house and his garden, his gold and his silver, his wives and his
+concubines, his camels and his asses, which were numerous.
+
+While the solitary adventurer wended his way eastward, a gorgeous embassy
+travelled westward in the direction of Rome.
+
+Arrived in the presence of Aurelian, and at the conclusion of his
+complimentary harangue, the chief envoy produced a cedar casket, from which
+he drew a purple robe of such surpassing refulgence, that, in the words of
+the historian who has recorded the transaction, the purple of the emperor
+and of the matrons appeared ashy grey in comparison. It was accompanied by
+a letter thus conceived:
+
+"Bahram to Aurelian: health! Receive such purple as we have in Persia."
+
+"Persia, forsooth!" exclaimed Sorianus, a young philosopher versed in
+natural science, "this purple never was in Persia, except as a rarity. Oh,
+the mendacity and vanity of these Orientals!"
+
+The ambassador was beginning an angry reply, when Aurelian quelled the
+dispute with a look, and with some awkwardness delivered himself of a brief
+oration in acknowledgment of the gift. He  took no more notice of the
+matter until nightfall, when he sent for Sorianus, and inquired where the
+purple actually was produced.
+
+"In the uttermost parts of India," returned the philosopher.
+
+"Well," rejoined Aurelian, summing up the matter with his accustomed
+rapidity and clearness of head, "either thou or the Persian king has lied
+to me, it is plain, and, by the favour of the Gods, it is immaterial which,
+seeing that my ground for going to war with him is equally good in either
+case. If he has sought to deceive me, I am right in punishing him; if he
+possesses what I lack, I am justified in taking it away. It would, however,
+be convenient to know which of these grounds to inscribe in my manifesto;
+moreover, I am not ready for hostilities at present; having first to
+extirpate the Blemmyes, Carpi, and other barbarian vermin. I will therefore
+despatch thee to India to ascertain by personal examination the truth about
+the purple. Do not return without it, or I shall cut off thy head. My
+treasury will charge itself with the administration of thy property during
+thy absence. The robe shall meanwhile be deposited in the temple of Jupiter
+Capitolinus. May he have it and thee in his holy keeping!"
+
+Thus, in that age of darkness, were two most eminent philosophers reduced
+to beggary, and constrained to wander in remote and insalubrious regions;
+the one for advising a king, the other for instructing an emperor. But the
+matter did not rest here. For Aurelian, having continued the visible deity
+of half the world for one hundred and fifty days after the departure of
+Sorianus, was  slain by his own generals. To him succeeded Tacitus, who
+sank oppressed by the weight of rule; to him Probus, who perished in a
+military tumult; to him Carus, who was killed by lightning; to him Carinus,
+who was assassinated by one whom he had wronged; to him Diocletian, who,
+having maintained himself for twenty years, wisely forbore to tempt Nemesis
+further, and retired to plant cabbages at Salona. All these sovereigns,
+differing from each other in every other respect, agreed in a common desire
+to possess the purple dye, and when the philosopher returned not,
+successively despatched new emissaries in quest of it. Strange was the
+diversity of fate which befell these envoys. Some fell into the jaws of
+lions, some were crushed by monstrous serpents, some trampled by elephants
+at the command of native princes, some perished of hunger, and some of
+thirst; some, encountering smooth-browed and dark-tressed girls wreathing
+their hair with the champak blossom or bathing by moonlight in
+lotus-mantled tanks, forsook their quest, and led thenceforth idyllic lives
+in groves of banian and of palm. Some became enamoured of the principles of
+the Gymnosophists, some couched themselves for uneasy slumber upon beds of
+spikes, weening to wake in the twenty-second heaven. All which romantic
+variety of fortune was the work of a diminutive insect that crawled or
+clung heedless of the purple it was weaving into the many-coloured web of
+human life.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Some thirty years after the departure of the Persian embassy to Aurelian,
+two travellers met at the bottom of a dell in trans-Gangetic India, having
+descended the hill-brow by opposite paths. It was early morning; the sun
+had not yet surmounted the timbered and tangled sides of the little valley,
+so that the bottom still lay steeped in shadow, and glittering with large
+pearls of limpid dew, while the oval space of sky circumscribed by the
+summit glowed with the delicate splendour of the purest sapphire. Songs of
+birds resounded through the brake, and the water lilies which veiled the
+rivulet trickling through the depths of the retreat were unexpanded still.
+One of the wayfarers was aged, the other a man of the latest period of
+middle life. Their raiment was scanty and soiled; their frames and
+countenances alike bespoke fatigue and hardship; but while the elder one
+moved with moderate alacrity, the other shuffled painfully along by the
+help of a staff, shrinking every time that he placed either of his feet on
+the ground.
+
+They exchanged looks and greetings as they encountered, and the more active
+of the two, whose face was set in an easterly direction, ventured a
+compassionate allusion to the other's apparent distress.
+
+'I but suffer from the usual effects of crucifixion,' returned the other;
+and removing his sandals, displayed two wounds, completely penetrating each
+foot.
+
+The Cross had not yet announced victory to Constantine, and was as yet no
+passport to respectable society. The first traveller drew back hastily, and
+regarded his companion with surprise and suspicion.
+
+"I see what is passing in thy mind," resumed the latter, with a smile; "but
+be under no apprehension. I have not undergone the censure of any judicial
+tribunal. My crucifixion was merely a painful but necessary incident in my
+laudable enterprise of obtaining the marvellous purple dye, to which end I
+was despatched unto these regions by the Emperor Aurelian."
+
+"The purple dye!" exclaimed the Persian, for it was he. "Thou hast obtained
+it?"
+
+"I have. It is the product of insects found only in a certain valley
+eastward from hence, to obtain access to which it is before all things
+needful to elude the vigilance of seven dragons."
+
+"Thou didst elude them? and afterwards?" inquired Marcobad, with eagerness.
+
+"Afterwards," repeated Sorianus, "I made my way into the valley, where I
+descried the remains of my immediate predecessor prefixed to a cross."
+
+"Thy predecessor?"
+
+"He who had last made the attempt before me. Upon any one's penetrating the
+Valley of Purple, as it is termed, with the design I have indicated, the
+inhabitants, observant of the precepts of their ancestors, append him to a
+cross by the feet only, confining his arms by ropes at the shoulders, and
+setting vessels of cooling drink within his grasp. If, overcome with
+thirst, he partakes of the beverage, they leave him to expire at leisure;
+if he endures for three days, he is permitted to depart  with the object of
+his quest. My predecessor, belonging, as I conjecture, to the Epicurean
+persuasion, and consequently unable to resist the allurements of sense, had
+perished in the manner aforesaid. I, a Stoic, refrained and attained."
+
+"Thou didst bear away the tincture? thou hast it now?" impetuously
+interrogated the Persian.
+
+"Behold it!" replied the Greek, exhibiting a small flask filled with the
+most gorgeous purple liquid. "What seest thou here?" demanded he
+triumphantly, holding it up to the light. "To me this vial displays the
+University of Athens, and throngs of fair youths hearkening to the
+discourse of one who resembles myself."
+
+"To my vision," responded the Persian, peering at the vial, "it rather
+reveals a palace, and a dress of honour. But suffer me to contemplate it
+more closely, for my eyes have waxed dim by over application to study."
+
+So saying, he snatched the flask from Sorianus, and immediately turned to
+fly. The Greek sprang after his treasure, and failing to grasp Marcobad's
+wrist, seized his beard, plucking the hair out by handfuls. The infuriated
+Persian smote him on the head with the crystal flagon. It burst into
+shivers, and the priceless contents gushed forth in a torrent over the
+uncovered head and uplifted visage of Sorianus, bathing every hair and
+feature with the most vivid purple.
+
+The aghast and thunderstricken philosophers remained gazing at each other
+for a moment.
+
+"It is indelible!" cried Sorianus in distraction, rushing down, however, to
+the brink of the little stream, and plunging his head beneath the waters.
+They carried away a cloud of purple, but left the purple head stained as
+before.
+
+The philosopher, as he upraised his glowing and dripping countenance from
+the brook, resembled Silenus emerging from one of the rivers which Bacchus
+metamorphosed into wine during his campaign in India. He resorted to
+attrition and contrition, to maceration and laceration; he tried friction
+with leaves, with grass, with sedge, with his garments; he regarded himself
+in one crystal pool after another, a grotesque anti-Narcissus. At last he
+flung himself on the earth, and gave free course to his anguish.
+
+The grace of repentance is rarely denied us when our misdeeds have proved
+unprofitable. Marcobad awkwardly approached.
+
+"Brother," he whispered, "I will restore the tincture of which I have
+deprived thee, and add thereto an antidote, if such may be found. Await my
+return under this camphor tree."
+
+So saying, he hastened up the path by which Sorianus had descended, and was
+speedily out of sight.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Sorianus tarried long under the camphor tree, but at last, becoming weary,
+resumed his travels, until emerging from the wilderness he entered the
+dominions of the King of Ayodhya. His extraordinary appearance speedily
+attracted the attention of the royal officers, by whom he was apprehended
+and brought before his majesty.
+
+"It is evident," pronounced the monarch, after  bestowing his attention on
+the case, "that thou art in possession of an object too rare and precious
+for a private individual, of which thou must accordingly be deprived. I
+lament the inconvenience thou wilt sustain. I would it had been thy hand or
+thy foot."
+
+Sorianus acknowledged the royal considerateness, but pleaded the
+indefeasible right of property which he conceived himself to have acquired
+in his own head.
+
+"In respect," responded the royal logician, "that thy head is conjoined to
+thy shoulders, it is thine; but in respect that it is purple, it is mine,
+purple being a royal monopoly. Thy claim is founded on anatomy, mine on
+jurisprudence. Shall matter prevail over mind? Shall medicine, the most
+uncertain of sciences, override law, the perfection of human reason? It is
+but to the vulgar observation that thou appearest to have a head at all; in
+the eye of the law thou art acephalous."
+
+"I would submit," urged the philosopher, "that the corporal connection of
+my head with my body is an essential property, the colour of it a
+fortuitous accident."
+
+"Thou mightest as well contend," returned the king, "that the law is bound
+to regard thee in thy abstract condition as a human being, and is disabled
+from taking cognisance of thy acquired capacity of smuggler--rebel, I
+might say, seeing that thou hast assumed the purple."
+
+"But the imputation of cruelty which might attach to your majesty's
+proceedings?"
+
+"There can be no cruelty where there is no injustice. If any there be, it
+must be on thy  part, since, as I have demonstrated, so far from my
+despoiling thee of thy head, it is thou who iniquitously withholdest mine.
+I will labour to render this even clearer to thy apprehension. Thou art
+found, as thou must needs admit, in possession of a contraband article
+forfeit to the crown by operation of law. What then? Shall the intention of
+the legislature be frustrated because thou hast insidiously rendered the
+possession of _my_ property inseparable from the possession of _thine_?
+Shall I, an innocent proprietor, be mulcted of my right by thy fraud and
+covin? Justice howls, righteousness weeps, integrity stands aghast at the
+bare notion. No, friend, thy head has not a leg to stand on. Wouldst thou
+retain it, it behoves thee to show that it will be more serviceable to the
+owner, namely, myself, upon thy shoulders than elsewhere. This may well be.
+Hast thou peradventure any subtleties in perfumery? any secrets in
+confectionery? any skill in the preparation of soup?"
+
+"I have condescended to none of these frivolities, O king. My study hath
+ever consisted in divine philosophy, whereby men are rendered equal to the
+gods."
+
+"And yet long most of all for purple!" retorted the monarch, "as I conclude
+from perceiving thou hast after all preferred the latter. Thy head must
+indeed be worth the taking."
+
+"Thy taunt is merited, O king! I will importune thee no longer. Thou wilt
+indeed render me a service in depriving me of this wretched head, hideous
+without, and I must fear, empty within, seeing that it hath not prevented
+me from wasting my life in the service of vanity and luxury. Woe  to the
+sage who trusts his infirm wisdom and frail integrity within the precincts
+of a court! Yet can I foretell a time when philosophers shall no longer run
+on the futile and selfish errands of kings, and when kings shall be
+suffered to rule only so far as they obey the bidding of philosophers.
+Peace, Knowledge, Liberty--"
+
+The King of Ayodhya possessed, beyond all princes of his age, the art of
+gracefully interrupting an unseasonable discourse. He slightly signed to a
+courtier in attendance, a scimitar flashed for a moment from its scabbard,
+and the head of Sorianus rolled on the pavement; the lips murmuring as
+though still striving to dwell with inarticulate fondness upon the last
+word of hope for mankind.
+
+It soon appeared that the principle of life was essential to the
+resplendence of the Purple Head. Within a few minutes it had assumed so
+ghastly a hue that the Rajah himself was intimidated, and directed that it
+should be consumed with the body.
+
+The same full-moon that watched the white-robed throng busied with the
+rites of incremation in a grove of palms, beheld also the seven dragons
+contending for the body of Marcobad. But, for many a year, the maids and
+matrons of Rome were not weary of regarding, extolling, and coveting the
+priceless purple tissue that glowed in the fane of Jupiter Capitolinus.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIREFLY
+
+
+A certain Magician had retired for the sake of study to a cottage in a
+forest. It was summer in a hot country. In the trees near the cottage dwelt
+a most beautiful Firefly. The light she bore with her was dazzling, yet
+soft and palpitating, as the evening star, and she seemed a single flash of
+fire as she shot in and out suddenly from under the screen of foliage, or
+like a lamp as she perched panting upon some leaf, or hung glowing from
+some bough; or like a wandering meteor as she eddied gleaming over the
+summits of the loftiest trees; as she often did, for she was an ambitious
+Firefly. She learned to know the Magician, and would sometimes alight and
+sit shining in his hair, or trail her lustre across his book as she crept
+over the pages. The Magician admired her above all things:
+
+"What eyes she would have if she were a woman!" thought he.
+
+Once he said aloud, "How happy you must be, you rare, beautiful, brilliant
+creature!"
+
+"I am not happy," rejoined the Firefly; "what am I, after all, but a flying
+beetle with a candle in my tail? I wish I were a star."
+
+"Very well," said the Magician, and touched her with his wand, when she
+became a beautiful star in the twelfth degree of the sign Pisces.
+
+After some nights the Magician asked her if she was content.
+
+"I am not," replied she. "When I was a Firefly I could fly whither I would,
+and come and go as I pleased. Now I must rise and set at certain times, and
+shine just so long and no longer. I cannot fly at all, and only creep
+slowly across the sky. In the day I cannot shine, or if I do no one sees
+me. I am often darkened by rain, and mist, and cloud. Even when I shine my
+brightest I am less admired than when I was a Firefly, there are so many
+others like me. I see, indeed, people looking up from the earth by night
+towards me, but how do I know that they are looking at me?"
+
+"The laws of nature will have it so," returned the Magician.
+
+"Don't talk to me of the laws of Nature," rejoined the Firefly. "I did not
+make them, and I don't see why I should be compelled to obey them. Make me
+something else."
+
+"What would you be?" demanded the accommodating Magician.
+
+"As I creep along here," replied the Star, "I see such a soft pure track of
+light. It proceeds from the lamp in your study. It flows out of your window
+like a river of molten silver, both cool and warm. Let me be such a lamp."
+
+"Be it so," answered the Magician: and the star became a lovely alabaster
+lamp, set in an alcove in his study. Her chaste radiance was shed over his
+page as long as he continued to read. At a certain hour he extinguished her
+and retired to rest.
+
+Next morning the Lamp was in a terrible humour.
+
+"I don't choose to be blown out," she said.
+
+"You would have gone out of your own accord else," returned the Magician.
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Lamp, "am I not shining by my own light?"
+
+"Certainly not: you are not now a Firefly or a Star. You must now depend
+upon others. You would be dark for ever if I did not rekindle you by the
+help of this oil."
+
+"What!" cried the Lamp, "not shine of my own accord! Never! Make me an
+everlasting lamp, or I will not be one at all."
+
+"Alas, poor friend," returned the Magician sadly, "there is but one place
+where aught is everlasting. I can make thee a lamp of the sepulchre."
+
+"Content," responded the Lamp. And the Magician made her one of those
+strange occult lamps which men find ever and anon when they unseal the
+tombs of ancient kings and wizards, sustaining without nutriment a
+perpetual flame. And he bore her to a sepulchre where a great king was
+lying embalmed and perfect in his golden raiment, and set her at the head
+of the corpse. And whether the poor fitful Firefly found at last rest in
+the grave, we may know when we come thither ourselves. But the Magician
+closed the gates of the sepulchre behind him, and walked thoughtfully home.
+And as he approached his cottage, behold another Firefly darting and
+flashing in and out among the trees, as brilliantly as ever the first had
+done. She was a wise Firefly, well satisfied with the world and everything
+in it, more particularly her own tail. And if the Magician would have made
+a pet of her no doubt she would have abode with him. But he never looked at
+her.
+
+
+
+
+PAN'S WAND
+
+
+Iridion had broken her lily. A misfortune for any rustic nymph, but
+especially for her, since her life depended upon it.
+
+From her birth the fate of Iridion had been associated with that of a
+flower of unusual loveliness--a stately, candid lily, endowed with a
+charmed life, like its possessor. The seasons came and went without leaving
+a trace upon it; innocence and beauty seemed as enduring with it, as
+evanescent with the children of men. In equal though dissimilar loveliness
+its frolicsome young mistress nourished by its side. One thing alone, the
+oracle had declared, could prejudice either, and this was an accident to
+the flower. From such disaster it had long been shielded by the most
+delicate care; yet in the inscrutable counsels of the Gods, the dreaded
+calamity had at length come to pass. Broken through the upper part of the
+stem, the listless flower drooped its petals towards the earth, and seemed
+to mourn their chastity, already sullied by the wan flaccidity of decay.
+Not one had fallen as yet, and Iridion felt no pain or any symptom of
+approaching dissolution, except, it may be, the unwonted seriousness with
+which, having exhausted all her simple skill on behalf of the languishing
+plant, she sat down to consider its fate in the light of its bearing upon
+her own.
+
+Meditation upon an utterly vague subject, whether of apprehension or of
+hope, speedily lapses into reverie. To Iridion, Death was as indefinable an
+object of thought as the twin omnipotent controller of human destiny, Love.
+Love, like the immature fruit on the bough, hung unsoliciting and
+unsolicited as yet, but slowly ripening to the maiden's hand. Death, a
+vague film in an illimitable sky, tempered without obscuring the sunshine
+of her life. Confronted with it suddenly, she found it, in truth, an
+impalpable cloud, and herself as little competent as the gravest
+philosopher to answer the self-suggested inquiry, "What shall I be when I
+am no longer Iridion?" Superstition might have helped her to some definite
+conceptions, but superstition did not exist in her time. Judge, reader, of
+its remoteness.
+
+The maiden's reverie might have terminated only with her existence, but for
+the salutary law which prohibits a young girl, not in love or at school,
+from sitting still more than ten minutes. As she shifted her seat at the
+expiration of something like this period, she perceived that she had been
+sitting on a goatskin, and with a natural association of ideas--
+
+"I will ask Pan," she exclaimed.
+
+Pan at that time inhabited a cavern hard by the maiden's dwelling, which
+the judicious reader will have divined could only have been situated in
+Arcadia. The honest god was on excellent terms with the simple people; his
+goats browsed freely along with theirs, and the most melodious of the
+rustic minstrels attributed their proficiency to his instructions. The
+maidens were on a more reserved footing of intimacy--at least so they
+wished  it to be understood, and so it was understood, of course. Iridion,
+however, decided that the occasion would warrant her incurring the risk
+even of a kiss, and lost no time in setting forth upon her errand, carrying
+her poor broken flower in its earthen vase. It was the time of day when the
+god might be supposed to be arousing himself from his afternoon's siesta.
+She did not fear that his door would be closed against her, for he had no
+door.
+
+The sylvan deity stood, in fact, at the entrance of his cavern, about to
+proceed in quest of his goats. The appearance of Iridion operated a change
+in his intention, and he courteously escorted her to a seat of turf erected
+for the special accommodation of his fair visitors, while he placed for
+himself one of stone.
+
+"Pan," she began, "I have broken my lily."
+
+"That is a sad pity, child. If it had been a reed, now, you could have made
+a flute of it."
+
+"I should not have time, Pan," and she recounted her story. A godlike
+nature cannot confound truth with falsehood, though it may mistake
+falsehood for truth. Pan therefore never doubted Iridion's strange
+narrative, and, having heard it to the end, observed, "You will find plenty
+more lilies in Elysium."
+
+"Common lilies, Pan; not like mine."
+
+"You are wrong. The lilies of Elysium--asphodels as they call them
+there--are as immortal as the Elysians themselves. I have seen them in
+Proserpine's hair at Jupiter's entertainment; they were as fresh as she
+was. There is no doubt you might gather them by handfuls--at least if you
+had any hands--and wear them to your heart's content, if you had but a
+heart."
+
+"That's just what perplexes me, Pan. It is not the dying I mind, it's the
+living. How am I to live without anything alive about me? If you take away
+my hands, and my heart, and my brains, and my eyes, and my ears, and above
+all my tongue, what is left me to live in Elysium?"
+
+As the maiden spake a petal detached itself from the emaciated lily, and
+she pressed her hand to her brow with a responsive cry of pain.
+
+"Poor child!" said Pan compassionately, "you will feel no more pain
+by-and-by."
+
+"I suppose not, Pan, since you say so. But if I can feel no pain, how can I
+feel any pleasure?
+
+"In an incomprehensible manner," said Pan.
+
+"How can I feel, if I have no feeling? and what am I to do without it?"
+
+"You can think!" replied Pan. "Thinking (not that I am greatly given to it
+myself) is a much finer thing than feeling; no right-minded person doubts
+that. Feeling, as I have heard Minerva say, is a property of matter, and
+matter, except, of course, that appertaining to myself and the other happy
+gods, is vile and perishable--quite immaterial, in fact. Thought alone is
+transcendent, incorruptible, and undying!"
+
+"But, Pan, how can any one think thoughts without something to think them
+with? I never thought of anything that I have not seen, or touched, or
+smelt, or tasted, or heard about from some one else. If I think with
+nothing, and about nothing, is that thinking, do you think?"
+
+"I think," answered Pan evasively, "that you are a sensationalist, a
+materialist, a sceptic, a revolutionist; and if you had not sought the
+assistance of a god, I should have said not much  better than an atheist. I
+also think it is time I thought about some physic for you instead of
+metaphysics, which are bad for my head, and for your soul." Saying this,
+Pan, with rough tenderness, deposited the almost fainting maiden upon a
+couch of fern, and, having supported her head with a bundle of herbs,
+leaned his own upon his hand, and reflected with all his might. The
+declining sun was now nearly opposite the cavern's mouth, and his rays,
+straggling through the creepers that wove their intricacies over the
+entrance, chequered with lustrous patches the forms of the dying girl and
+the meditating god. Ever and anon, a petal would drop from the flower; this
+was always succeeded by a shuddering tremor throughout Iridion's frame and
+a more forlorn expression on her pallid countenance: while Pan's jovial
+features assumed an expression of deeper concern as he pressed his knotty
+hand more resolutely against his shaggy forehead, and wrung his dexter horn
+with a more determined grasp, as though he had caught a burrowing idea by
+the tail.
+
+"Aha!" he suddenly exclaimed, "I have it!"
+
+"What have you, Pan?" faintly lisped the expiring Iridion.
+
+Instead of replying, Pan grasped a wand that leaned against the wall of his
+grot, and with it touched the maiden and the flower. O strange
+metamorphosis! Where the latter had been pining in its vase, a lovely girl,
+the image of Iridion, lay along the ground with dishevelled hair, clammy
+brow, and features slightly distorted by the last struggles of death. On
+the ferny couch stood an earthen vase, from which rose a magnificent  lily,
+stately, with unfractured stem, and with no stain or wrinkle on its
+numerous petals.
+
+"Aha!" repeated Pan; "I think we are ready for him now." Then, having
+lifted the inanimate body to the couch, and placed the vase, with its
+contents, on the floor of his cavern, he stepped to the entrance, and
+shading his eyes with his hand, seemed to gaze abroad in quest of some
+anticipated visitor.
+
+The boughs at the foot of the steep path to the cave divided, and a figure
+appeared at the foot of the rock. The stranger's mien was majestic, but the
+fitness of his proportions diminished his really colossal stature to
+something more nearly the measure of mortality. His form was enveloped in a
+sweeping sad-coloured robe; a light, thin veil resting on his countenance,
+mitigated, without concealing, the not ungentle austerity of his marble
+features. His gait was remarkable; nothing could be more remote from every
+indication of haste, yet such was the actual celerity of his progression,
+that Pan had scarcely beheld him ere he started to find him already at his
+side.
+
+The stranger, without disturbing his veil, seemed to comprehend the whole
+interior of the grotto with a glance; then, with the slightest gesture of
+recognition to Pan, he glided to the couch on which lay the metamorphosed
+lily, upraised the fictitious Iridion in his arms with indescribable
+gentleness, and disappeared with her as swiftly and silently as he had
+come. The discreet Pan struggled with suppressed merriment until the
+stranger was fairly out of hearing, then threw himself back upon his seat
+and laughed till the cave rang.
+
+"And now," he said, "to finish the business." He lifted the transformed
+maiden into the vase, and caressed her beauty with an exulting but careful
+hand. There was a glory and a splendour in the flower such as had never
+until then been beheld in any earthly lily. The stem vibrated, the leaves
+shook in unison, the petals panted and suspired, and seemed blanched with a
+whiteness intense as the core of sunlight, as they throbbed in anticipation
+of the richer existence awaiting them.
+
+Impatient to complete his task, Pan was about to grasp his wand when the
+motion was arrested as the sinking beam of the sun was intercepted by a
+gigantic shadow, and the stranger again stood by his side. The unbidden
+guest uttered no word, but his manner was sufficiently expressive of wrath
+as he disdainfully cast on the ground a broken, withered lily, the relic of
+what had bloomed with such loveliness in the morning, and had since for a
+brief space been arrayed in the vesture of humanity. He pointed imperiously
+to the gorgeous tenant of the vase, and seemed to expect Pan to deliver it
+forthwith.
+
+"Look here," said Pan, with more decision than dignity, "I am a poor
+country god, but I know the law. If you can find on this plant one speck,
+one stain, one token that you have anything to do with her, take her, and
+welcome. If you cannot, take yourself off instead."
+
+"Be it so," returned the stranger, haughtily declining the proffered
+inspection. "You will find it is ill joking with Death."
+
+So saying, he quitted the cavern.
+
+Pan sat down chuckling, yet not wholly at ease, for if the charity of Death
+is beautiful even to a  mortal, his anger is terrible, even to a god.
+Anxious to terminate the adventure, he reached towards the charmed wand by
+whose wonderful instrumentality the dying maiden had already become a
+living flower, and was now to undergo a yet more delightful metamorphosis.
+
+Wondrous wand! But where was it? For Death, the great transfigurer of all
+below this lunar sphere, had given Pan a characteristic proof of his
+superior cunning. Where the wand had reposed writhed a ghastly worm, which,
+as Pan's glance fell upon it, glided towards him, uplifting its head with
+an aspect of defiance. Pan's immortal nature sickened at the emblem of
+corruption; he could not for all Olympus have touched his metamorphosed
+treasure. As he shrank back the creature pursued its way towards the vase;
+but a marvellous change befell it as it came under the shadow of the
+flower. The writhing body divided, end from end, the sordid scales sank
+indiscernibly into the dust, and an exquisite butterfly, arising from the
+ground, alighted on the lily, and remained for a moment fanning its wings
+in the last sunbeam, ere it unclosed them to the evening breeze. Pan,
+looking eagerly after the Psyche in its flight, did not perceive what was
+taking place in the cavern; but the magic wand, now for ever lost to its
+possessor, must have cancelled its own spell, for when his gaze reverted
+from the ineffectual pursuit, the living lily had disappeared, and Iridion
+lay a corpse upon the ground, the faded flower of her destiny reposing upon
+her breast.
+
+Death now stood for a third time upon Pan's threshold, but Pan heeded him
+not.
+
+
+
+
+A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF FOLLY
+
+
+  "That owned the virtuous ring and glass."
+[--_Il Penseroso_.]
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+"Aurelia!"
+
+"Otto!"
+
+"Must we then part?"
+
+They were folded in each other's arms. There never was such kissing.
+
+"How shall we henceforth exchange the sweet tokens of our undying
+affection, my Otto?"
+
+"Alas, my Aurelia, I know not! Thy Otto blushes to acquaint thee that he
+cannot write."
+
+"Blush not, my Otto, thou needest not reproach thyself. Even couldest thou
+write, thy Aurelia could not read. Oh these dark ages!"
+
+They remained some minutes gazing on each other with an expression of fond
+perplexity. Suddenly the damsel's features assumed the aspect of one who
+experiences the visitation of a happy thought. Gently yet decidedly she
+pronounced:
+
+"We will exchange rings."
+
+They drew off their rings simultaneously. "This, Aurelia, was my
+grandfather's."
+
+"This, Otto, was my grandmother's, which she charged me with her dying
+breath never to part with save to him whom alone I loved."
+
+"Mine is a brilliant, more radiant than aught save the eyes of my Aurelia."
+
+And, in fact, Aurelia's eyes hardly sustained the comparison. A finer stone
+could not easily be found.
+
+"Mine is a sapphire, azure as the everlasting heavens, and type of a
+constancy enduring as they."
+
+In truth, it was of a tint seldom to be met with in sapphires.
+
+The exchange made, the lady seemed less anxious to detain her lover.
+
+"Beware, Otto!" she cried, as he slid down the cord, which yielded him an
+oscillatory transit from her casement to the moat, where he alighted
+knee-deep in mud. "Beware!--if my brother should be gazing from his
+chamber on the resplendent moon!"
+
+But that ferocious young baron was accustomed to spend his time in a less
+romantic manner; and so it came to pass that Otto encountered him not.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Days, weeks, months had passed by, and Otto, a wanderer in a foreign land,
+had heard no tidings of his Aurelia. Ye who have loved may well conceive
+how her ring was all in all to him. He divided his time pretty equally
+between gazing into its cerulean depths, as though her lovely  image were
+mirrored therein, and pressing its chilly surface to his lips, little as it
+recalled the warmth and balminess of hers.
+
+The burnished glow of gold, the chaste sheen of silver, the dance and
+sparkle of light in multitudinous gems, arrested his attention as he one
+evening perambulated the streets of a great city. He beheld a jeweller's
+shop. The grey-headed, spectacled lapidary sat at a bench within,
+sedulously polishing a streaked pebble by the light of a small lamp. A
+sudden thought struck Otto; he entered the shop, and, presenting the ring
+to the jeweller, inquired in a tone of suppressed exultation:
+
+"What hold you for the worth of this inestimable ring?"
+
+The jeweller, with no expression of surprise or curiosity, received the
+ring from Otto, held it to the light, glanced slightly at the stone,
+somewhat more carefully at the setting, laid the ring for a moment in a
+pair of light scales, and, handing it back to Otto, remarked with a tone
+and manner of the most entire indifference:
+
+"The worth of this inestimable ring is one shilling and sixpence."
+
+"Caitiff of a huckster!" exclaimed Otto, bringing down his fist on the
+bench with such vigour that the pebbles leaped up and fell rattling down:
+"Sayest thou this of a gem framed by genii in the bowels of the earth?"
+
+"Nay, friend," returned the jeweller with the same imperturbable air, "that
+thy gem was framed of earth I in nowise question, seeing that it doth
+principally consist of sand. But when thou speakest of genii and the bowels
+of the earth,  thou wilt not, I hope, take it amiss if I crave better proof
+than thy word that the devil has taken to glass-making. For glass, and
+nothing else, credit me, thy jewel is."
+
+"And the gold?" gasped Otto.
+
+"There is just as much gold in thy ring as sufficeth to gild handsomely a
+like superficies of brass, which is not saying much."
+
+And, applying a sponge dipped in some liquid to a small part of the hoop,
+the jeweller disclosed the dull hue of the baser metal so evidently that
+Otto could hardly doubt longer. He doubted no more when the lapidary laid
+his ring in the scales against another of the same size and make, and
+pointed to the inequality of the balance.
+
+"Thou seest," he continued, "that in our craft a very little gold goes a
+very great way. It is far otherwise in the world, as thou, albeit in no
+sort eminent for sapience, hast doubtless ere this ascertained for thyself.
+Thou art evidently a prodigious fool!"
+
+This latter disparaging observation could be safely ventured upon, as Otto
+had rushed from the shop, speechless with rage.
+
+Was Aurelia deceiver or deceived? Should he execrate her, or her venerable
+grandmother, or some unknown person? The point was too knotty to be solved
+in the agitated state of his feelings. He decided it provisionally by
+execrating the entire human race, not forgetting himself.
+
+In a mood like Otto's a trifling circumstance is sufficient to determine
+the quality of action. The ancient city of which he was at the time an
+inhabitant was traversed by a large river spanned by a quaint and
+many-arched bridge, to which  his frantic and aimless wanderings had
+conducted him. Spires and gables and lengthy fa�ades were reflected in the
+water, blended with the shadows of boats, and interspersed with the
+mirrored flames of innumerable windows on land, or of lanterns suspended
+from the masts or sterns of the vessels. The dancing ripples bickered and
+flickered, and seemed to say, "Come hither to us," while the dark reaches
+of still water in the shadow of the piers promised that whatever might be
+entrusted to them should be faithfully retained. Swayed by a sudden
+impulse, Otto drew his ring from his finger. It gleamed an instant aloft in
+air; in another the relaxation of his grasp would have consigned it to the
+stream.
+
+"Forbear!"
+
+Otto turned, and perceived a singular figure by his side. The stranger was
+tall and thin, and attired in a dusky cloak which only partially concealed
+a flame-coloured jerkin. A cock's feather peaked up in his cap; his eyes
+were piercingly brilliant; his nose was aquiline; the expression of his
+features sinister and sardonic. Had Otto been more observant, or less
+preoccupied, he might have noticed that the stranger's left shoe was of a
+peculiar form, and that he limped some little with the corresponding foot.
+
+"Forbear, I say; thou knowest not what thou doest."
+
+"And what skills what I do with a piece of common glass?"
+
+"Thou errest, friend; thy ring is not common glass. Had thy mistress
+surmised its mystic virtues, she would have thought oftener than twice ere
+exchanging it for thy diamond."
+
+"What may these virtues be?" eagerly demanded Otto.
+
+"In the first place, it will show thee when thy mistress may chance to
+think of thee, as it will then prick thy finger."
+
+"Now I know thee for a lying knave," exclaimed the youth indignantly.
+"Learn, to thy confusion, that it hath not pricked me once since I parted
+from Aurelia."
+
+"Which proves that she has never once thought of thee."
+
+"Villain!" shouted Otto, "say that again, and I will transfix thee."
+
+"Thou mayest if thou canst," rejoined the stranger, with an expression of
+such cutting scorn that Otto's spirit quailed, and he felt a secret but
+overpowering conviction of his interlocutor's veracity. Rallying, however,
+in some measure, he exclaimed:
+
+"Aurelia is true! I will wager my soul upon it!"
+
+"Done!" screamed the stranger in a strident voice of triumph, while a burst
+of diabolical laughter seemed to proceed from every cranny of the eaves and
+piers of the old bridge, and to be taken up by goblin echoes from the
+summits of the adjacent towers and steeples.
+
+Otto's blood ran chill, but he mustered sufficient courage to inquire
+hoarsely:
+
+"What of its further virtues?"
+
+"When it shall have pricked thee," returned the mysterious personage, "on
+turning it once completely round thy finger thou wilt see thy mistress
+wherever she may be. If thou turnest it the second time, thou wilt know
+what her  thought of thee is; and, if the third time, thou wilt find
+thyself in her presence. But I give thee fair warning that by doing this
+thou wilt place thyself in a more disastrous plight than any thou hast
+experienced hitherto. And now farewell."
+
+The speaker disappeared. Otto stood alone upon the bridge. He saw nothing
+around him but the stream, with its shadows and lights, as he slowly and
+thoughtfully turned round to walk to his lodgings.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Ye who have loved, et cetera, as aforesaid, will comprehend the anxiety
+with which Otto henceforth consulted his ring. He was continually adjusting
+it to his finger in a manner, as he fancied, to render the anticipated
+puncture more perceptible when it should come at last. He would have worn
+it on all his fingers in succession had the conformation of his robust hand
+admitted of its being placed on any but the slenderest. Thousands of times
+he could have sworn that he felt the admonitory sting; thousands of times
+he turned the trinket round and round with desperate impatience; but
+Aurelia's form remained as invisible, her thoughts as inscrutable, as
+before. His great dread was that he might be pricked in his sleep, on which
+account he would sit up watching far into the morn. For, as he reasoned,
+not without plausibility, when could he more rationally hope for a place in
+Aurelia's thoughts than at that witching and  suggestive period? She might
+surely think of him when she had nothing else to do! Had she really nothing
+else to do? And Otto grew sick and livid with jealousy. It of course
+frequently occurred to him to doubt and deride the virtues of the ring, and
+he was several times upon the point of flinging it away. But the more he
+pondered upon the appearance and manner of the stranger, the less able he
+felt to resist the conviction of his truthfulness.
+
+At last a most unmistakable puncture! the distinct, though slight, pang of
+a miniature wound. A crimson bead of blood rose on Otto's finger, swelled
+to its due proportion, and became a trickling blot.
+
+"She is thinking of me!" cried he rapturously, as if this were an instance
+of the most signal and unforeseen condescension. All the weary expectancy
+of the last six months was forgotten. He would have railed at himself had
+the bliss of the moment allowed him to remember that he had ever railed at
+her.
+
+Otto turned his ring once, and Aurelia became visible in an instant. She
+was standing before the mercer's booth in the chief street of the little
+town which adjoined her father's castle. Her gaze was riveted on a silk
+mantle, trimmed with costly furs, which depended from a hook inside the
+doorway. Her lovely features wore an expression of extreme dissatisfaction.
+She was replacing a purse, apparently by no means weighty, in her
+embroidered girdle.
+
+Otto turned the ring the second time, and Aurelia's silvery accents
+immediately became audible to the following effect:
+
+"If that fool Otto were here, he would buy it for me."
+
+She turned away, and walked down the street. Otto uttered a cry like the
+shriek of an uprooted mandrake. His hand was upon the ring to turn it for
+the third time; but the stranger's warning occurred to him, and for a
+moment he forbore. In that moment the entire vision vanished from before
+his eyes.
+
+What boots it to describe Otto's feelings upon this revelation of Aurelia's
+sentiments? For lovers, description would be needless; to wiser people,
+incomprehensible. Suffice it to say, that as his lady deemed him a fool he
+appeared bent on proving that she did not deem amiss.
+
+A long space of time elapsed without any further admonition from the ring.
+Perhaps Aurelia had no further occasion for his purse; perhaps she had
+found another pursebearer. The latter view of the case appeared the more
+plausible to Otto, and it hugely aggravated his torments.
+
+At last the moment came. It was the hour of midnight. Again Otto felt the
+sharp puncture, again the ruby drop started from his finger, again he
+turned the ring, and again beheld Aurelia. She was in her chamber, but not
+alone. Her companion was a youth of Otto's age. She was in the act of
+placing Otto's brilliant upon his finger. Otto turned his own ring, and
+heard her utter, with singular distinctness:
+
+"This ring was given me by the greatest fool I ever knew. Little did he
+imagine that it would one day be the means of procuring me liberty, and
+bliss in the arms of my Arnold. My venerable grandmother--"
+
+The voice expired upon her lips, for Otto stood before her.
+
+Arnold precipitated himself from the window, carrying the ring with him.
+Otto, glaring at his faithless mistress, stood in the middle of the
+apartment with his sword unsheathed. Was he about to use it? None can say;
+for at this moment the young Baron burst into the room, and, without the
+slightest apology for the liberty he was taking, passed his sword through
+Otto's body.
+
+Otto groaned, and fell upon his face. He was dead. The young Baron ungently
+reversed the position of the corpse, and scanned its features with evident
+surprise and dissatisfaction.
+
+"It is not Arnold, after all!" he muttered. "Who would have thought it?"
+
+"Thou seest, brother, how unjust were thy suspicions," observed Aurelia,
+with an air of injured but not implacable virtue. "As for this abominable
+ravisher----" Her feelings forbade her to proceed.
+
+The brother looked mystified. There was something beyond his comprehension
+in the affair; yet he could not but acknowledge that Otto was the person
+who had rushed by him as he lay in wait upon the stairs. He finally
+determined that it was best to say nothing about the matter: a resolution
+the easier of performance as he was not wont to be lavish of his words at
+any time. He wiped his sword on his sister's curtains, and was about to
+withdraw, when Aurelia again spoke:
+
+"Ere thou departest, brother, have the goodness to ring the bell, and
+desire the menials to remove this carrion from my apartment."
+
+The young Baron sulkily complied, and retreated growling to his chamber.
+
+The attendants carried Otto's body forth. To the honour of her sex be it
+recorded, that before this was done Aurelia vouchsafed one glance to the
+corpse of her old lover. Her eye fell on the brazen ring. "And he has
+actually worn it all this time!" thought she.
+
+"Would have outraged my daughter, would he?" said the old Baron, when the
+transaction was reported to him. "Let him be buried in a concatenation
+accordingly."
+
+"What the guy dickens be a concatrenation,  Geoffrey?" interrogated Giles.
+
+"Methinks it is Latin for a ditch," responded Geoffrey.
+
+This interpretation commending itself to the general judgment of the
+retainers, Otto was interred in the shelving bank of the old moat, just
+under Aurelia's window. A rough stone was laid upon the grave. The magic
+ring, which no one thought worth appropriating, remained upon the corpse's
+finger. Thou mayest probably find it there, reader, if thou searchest long
+enough.
+
+The first visitor to Otto's humble sepulchre was, after all, Aurelia
+herself, who alighted thereon on the following night after letting herself
+down from her casement to fly with Arnold. Their escape was successfully
+achieved upon a pair of excellent horses, the proceeds of Otto's diamond,
+which had become the property of a Jew.
+
+On the third night an aged monk stood by Otto's grave, and wept
+plentifully. He carried a lantern, a mallet, and a chisel. "He was my
+pupil," sobbed the good old man. "It were  meet to contribute what in me
+lies to the befitting perpetuation of his memory."
+
+Setting down the lantern, he commenced work, and with pious toil engraved
+on the stone in the Latin of the period:
+
+    "HAC MAGNUS STULTUS JACET IN FOSSA SEPULTUS.
+    MULIER CUI CREDIDIT MORTUUM ILLUM REDDIDIT."
+
+Here he paused, at the end of his strength and of his Latin.
+
+"Beshrew my old arms and brains!" he sighed.
+
+"Hem!" coughed a deep voice in his vicinity.
+
+The monk looked up. The personage in the dusky cloak and flame-coloured
+jerkin was standing over him.
+
+"Good monk," said the fiend, "what dost thou here?"
+
+"Good fiend," said the monk, "I am inscribing an epitaph to the memory of a
+departed friend. Thou mightest kindly aid me to complete it."
+
+"Truly," rejoined the demon, "it would become me to do so, seeing that I
+have his soul here in my pocket. Thou wilt not expect me to employ the
+language of the Church. Nathless, I see not wherefore the vernacular may
+not serve as well."
+
+And, taking the mallet and chisel, he completed the monk's inscription with
+the supplementary legend:
+
+    "SERVED HIM RIGHT."
+
+
+
+
+THE BELL OF SAINT EUSCHEMON
+
+
+The town of Epinal, in Lorraine, possessed in the Middle Ages a peal of
+three bells, respectively dedicated to St. Eulogius, St. Eucherius, and St.
+Euschemon, whose tintinnabulation was found to be an effectual safeguard
+against all thunderstorms. Let the heavens be ever so murky, it was merely
+requisite to set the bells ringing, and no lightning flashed and no thunder
+peal broke over the town, nor was the neighbouring country within hearing
+of them ravaged by hail or flood.
+
+One day the three saints, Eulogius, Eucherius, and Euschemon, were sitting
+together, exceedingly well content with themselves and everything around
+them, as indeed they had every right to be, supposing that they were in
+Paradise. We say supposing, not being for our own part entirely able to
+reconcile this locality with the presence of certain cans and flagons,
+which had been fuller than they were.
+
+"What a happy reflection for a Saint," said Eulogius, who was rapidly
+passing from the mellow stage of good fellowship to the maudlin, "that even
+after his celestial assumption he is permitted to continue a source of
+blessing and benefit to his fellow-creatures as yet dwelling in  the shade
+of mortality! The thought of the services of my bell, in averting lightning
+and inundation from the good people of Epinal, fills me with indescribable
+beatitude."
+
+"_Your_ bell!" interposed Eucherius, whose path had lain through the mellow
+to the quarrelsome. "_Your_ bell, quotha! You had as good clink this
+cannakin" (suiting the action to the word) "as your bell. It's my bell that
+does the business."
+
+"I think you might put in a word for _my_ bell," interposed Euschemon, a
+little squinting saint, very merry and friendly when not put out, as on the
+present occasion.
+
+"Your bell!" retorted the big saints, with incredible disdain; and,
+forgetting their own altercation, they fell so fiercely on their little
+brother that he ran away, stopping his ears with his hands, and vowing
+vengeance.
+
+A short time after this fracas, a personage of venerable appearance
+presented himself at Epinal, and applied for the post of sacristan and
+bell-ringer, at that time vacant. Though he squinted, his appearance was
+far from disagreeable, and he obtained the appointment without difficulty.
+His deportment in it was in all respects edifying; or if he evinced some
+little remissness in the service of Saints Eulogius and Eucherius, this was
+more than compensated by his devotion to the hitherto somewhat slighted
+Saint Euschemon. It was indeed observed that candles, garlands, and other
+offerings made at the shrines of the two senior saints were found to be
+transferred in an unaccountable and mystical manner to the junior, which
+induced experienced persons to remark  that a miracle was certainly
+brewing. Nothing, however, occurred until, one hot summer afternoon, the
+indications of a storm became so threatening that the sacristan was
+directed to ring the bells. Scarcely had he begun than the sky became
+clear, but instead of the usual rich volume of sound the townsmen heard
+with astonishment a solitary tinkle, sounding quite ridiculous and
+unsatisfactory in comparison. St. Euschemon's bell was ringing by itself.
+
+In a trice priests and laymen swarmed to the belfry, and indignantly
+demanded of the sacristan what he meant.
+
+"To enlighten you," he responded. "To teach you to give honour where honour
+is due. To unmask those canonised impostors."
+
+And he called their attention to the fact that the clappers of the bells of
+Eulogius and Eucherius were so fastened up that they could not emit a
+sound, while that of Euschemon vibrated freely.
+
+"Ye see," he continued, "that these sound not at all, yet is the tempest
+stayed. Is it not thence manifest that the virtue resides solely in the
+bell of the blessed Euschemon?"
+
+The argument seemed conclusive to the majority, but those of the clergy who
+ministered at the altars of Eulogius and Eucherius stoutly resisted,
+maintaining that no just decision could be arrived at until Euschemon's
+bell was subjected to the same treatment as the others. Their view
+eventually prevailed, to the great dismay of Euschemon, who, although
+firmly convinced of the virtue of his own bell, did not in his heart
+disbelieve in the bells of his brethren. Imagine his relief and amazed joy
+when, upon his bell  being silenced, the storm, for the first time in the
+memory of the oldest inhabitant, broke with full fury over Epinal, and, for
+all the frantic pealing of the other two bells, raged with unspeakable
+fierceness until his own was brought into requisition, when, as if by
+enchantment, the rain ceased, the thunder-clouds dispersed, and the sun
+broke out gloriously from the blue sky.
+
+"Carry him in procession!" shouted the crowd.
+
+"Amen, brethren; here I am," rejoined Euschemon, stepping briskly into the
+midst of the troop.
+
+"And why in the name of Zernebock should we carry _you?_" demanded some,
+while others ran off to lug forth the image, the object of their devotion.
+
+"Why, verily," Euschemon began, and stopped short. How indeed was he to
+prove to them that he _was_ Euschemon? His personal resemblance to his
+effigy, the work of a sculptor of the idealistic school, was in no respect
+remarkable; and he felt, alas! that he could no more work a miracle than
+you or I. In the sight of the multitude he was only an elderly sexton with
+a cast in his eye, with nothing but his office to keep him out of the
+workhouse. A further and more awkward question arose, how on earth was he
+to get back to Paradise? The ordinary method was not available, for he had
+already been dead for several centuries; and no other presented itself to
+his imagination.
+
+Muttering apologies, and glad to be overlooked, Euschemon shrank into a
+corner, but slightly comforted by the honours his image was receiving  at
+the hands of the good people of Epinal. As time wore on he became pensive
+and restless, and nothing pleased him so well as to ascend to the belfry on
+moonlight nights, scribbling disparagement on the bells of Eulogius and
+Eucherius, which had ceased to be rung, and patting and caressing his own,
+which now did duty for all three. With alarm he noticed one night an
+incipient crack, which threatened to become a serious flaw.
+
+"If this goes on," said a voice behind him, "I shall get a holiday."
+
+Euschemon turned round, and with indescribable dismay perceived a gigantic
+demon, negligently resting his hand on the top of the bell, and looking as
+if it would cost him nothing to pitch it and Euschemon together to the
+other side of the town.
+
+"Avaunt, fiend," he stammered, with as much dignity as he could muster, "or
+at least remove thy unhallowed paw from my bell."
+
+"Come, Eusky," replied the fiend, with profane familiarity, "don't be a
+fool. You are not really such an ass as to imagine that your virtue has
+anything to do with the virtue of this bell?"
+
+"Whose virtue then?" demanded Euschemon.
+
+"Why truly," said the demon, "mine! When this bell was cast I was
+imprisoned in it by a potent enchanter, and so long as I am in it no storm
+can come within sound of its ringing. I am not allowed to quit it except by
+night, and then no further than an arm's length: this, however, I take the
+liberty of measuring by my own arm, which happens to be a long one. This
+must continue, as I learn, until I receive a kiss  from some bishop of
+distinguished sanctity. Thou hast done some bishoping in thy time,
+peradventure?"
+
+Euschemon energetically protested that he had been on earth but a simple
+laic, which was indeed the fact, and was also the reason why Eulogius and
+Eucherius despised him, but which, though he did not think it needful to
+tell the demon, he found a singular relief under present circumstances.
+
+"Well," continued the fiend, "I wish he may turn up shortly, for I am half
+deaf already with the banging and booming of this infernal clapper, which
+seems to have grown much worse of late; and the blessings and the crossings
+and the aspersions which I have to go through are most repugnant to my
+tastes, and unsuitable to my position in society. Bye-bye, Eusky; come up
+to-morrow night." And the fiend slipped back into the bell, and instantly
+became invisible.
+
+The humiliation of poor Euschemon on learning that he was indebted for his
+credit to the devil is easier to imagine than to describe. He did not,
+however, fail at the rendezvous next night, and found the demon sitting
+outside the bell in a most affable frame of mind. It did not take long for
+the devil and the saint to become very good friends, both wanting company,
+and the former being apparently as much amused by the latter's simplicity
+as the latter was charmed by the former's knowingness. Euschemon learned
+numbers of things of which he had not had the faintest notion. The demon
+taught him how to play cards (just invented by the Saracens), and initiated
+him into divers "arts, though unimagined,  yet to be," such as smoking
+tobacco, making a book on the Derby, and inditing queer stories for Society
+journals. He drew the most profane but irresistibly funny caricatures of
+Eulogius and Eucherius, and the rest of the host of heaven. He had been one
+of the demons who tempted St. Anthony, and retailed anecdotes of that
+eremite which Euschemon had never heard mentioned in Paradise. He was
+versed in all scandal respecting saints in general, and Euschemon found
+with astonishment how much about his own order was known downstairs. On the
+whole he had never enjoyed himself so much in his life; he became
+proficient in all manner of minor devilries, and was ceasing to trouble
+himself about his bell or his ecclesiastical duties, when an untoward
+incident interrupted his felicity.
+
+It chanced that the Bishop of Metz, in whose diocese Epinal was situated,
+finding himself during a visitation journey within a short distance of the
+town, determined to put, up there for the night. He did not arrive until
+nightfall, but word of his intention having been sent forward by a
+messenger the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, were ready to receive
+him. When, escorted in state, he had arrived at the house prepared for his
+reception, the Mayor ventured to express a hope that everything had been
+satisfactory to his Lordship.
+
+"Everything," said the bishop emphatically. "I did indeed seem to remark
+one little omission, which no doubt may be easily accounted for."
+
+"What was that, my Lord?"
+
+"It hath," said the bishop, "usually been the practice to receive a bishop
+with the ringing of  bells. It is a laudable custom, conducive to the
+purification of the air and the discomfiture of the prince of the powers
+thereof. I caught no sound of chimes on the present occasion, yet I am
+sensible that my hearing is not what it was."
+
+The civil and ecclesiastical authorities looked at each other. "That
+graceless knave of a sacristan!" said the Mayor.
+
+"He hath indeed of late strangely neglected his charge," said a priest.
+
+"Poor man, I doubt his wits are touched," charitably added another.
+
+"What!" exclaimed the bishop, who was very active, very fussy, and a great
+stickler for discipline. "This important church, so renowned for its three
+miraculous bells, confided to the tender mercies of an imbecile rogue who
+may burn it down any night! I will look to it myself without losing a
+minute."
+
+And in spite of all remonstrances, off he started. The keys were brought,
+the doors flung open, the body of the church thoroughly examined, but
+neither in nave, choir, or chancel could the slightest trace of the
+sacristan be found.
+
+"Perhaps he is in the belfry," suggested a chorister.
+
+"We'll see," responded the bishop, and bustling nimbly up the ladder, he
+emerged into the open belfry in full moonlight.
+
+Heavens! what a sight met his eye! The sacristan and the devil sitting
+_vis-a-vis_ close by the miraculous bell, with a smoking can of hot spiced
+wine between them, finishing a close game of cribbage.
+
+"Seven," declared Euschemon.
+
+"And eight are fifteen," retorted the demon, marking two.
+
+"Twenty-three and pair," cried Euschemon, marking in his turn.
+
+"And seven is thirty."
+
+"Ace, thirty-one, and I'm up."
+
+"It _is_ up with you, my friend," shouted the bishop, bringing his crook
+down smartly on Euschemon's shoulders.
+
+"Deuce!" said the devil, and vanished into his bell.
+
+When poor Euschemon had been bound and gagged, which did not take very
+long, the bishop briefly addressed the assembly. He said that the accounts
+of the bell which had reached his ears had already excited his
+apprehensions. He had greatly feared that all could not be right, and now
+his anxieties were but too well justified. He trusted there was not a man
+before him who would not suffer his flocks and his crops to be destroyed by
+tempest fifty times over rather than purchase their safety by unhallowed
+means. What had been done had doubtless been done in ignorance, and could
+be made good by a mulct to the episcopal treasury. The amount of this he
+would carefully consider, and the people of Epinal might rest assured that
+it should not be too light to entitle them to the benefit of a full
+absolution. The bell must go to his cathedral city, there to be examined
+and reported on by the exorcists and inquisitors. Meanwhile he would
+himself institute a slight preliminary scrutiny.
+
+The bell was accordingly unhung, tilted up, and inspected by the combined
+beams of the moonlight and torchlight. Very slight examination served  to
+place the soundness of the bishop's opinion beyond dispute. On the lip of
+the bell were engraven characters unknown to every one else, but which
+seemed to affect the prelate with singular consternation.
+
+"I hope," he exclaimed, "that none of you know anything about these
+characters! I earnestly trust that none can read a single one of them. If I
+thought anybody could I would burn him as soon as look at him!"
+
+The bystanders hastened to assure him that not one of them had the
+slightest conception of the meaning of the letters, which had never been
+observed before.
+
+"I rejoice to hear it," said the bishop. "It will be an evil day for the
+church when these letters are understood."
+
+And next morning he departed, carrying off the bell, with the invisible
+fiend inside it; the cards, which were regarded as a book of magic; and the
+luckless Euschemon, who shortly found himself in total darkness, the inmate
+of a dismal dungeon.
+
+It was some time before Euschemon became sensible of the presence of any
+partner in his captivity, by reason of the trotting of the rats. At length,
+however, a deep sigh struck upon his ear.
+
+"Who art thou?" he exclaimed.
+
+"An unfortunate prisoner," was the answer.
+
+"What is the occasion of thy imprisonment?"
+
+"Oh, a mere trifle. A ridiculous suspicion of sacrificing a child to
+Beelzebub. One of the little disagreeables that must occasionally occur in
+our profession."
+
+"_Our_ profession!" exclaimed Euschemon.
+
+"Art thou not a sorcerer?" demanded the voice.
+
+"No," replied Euschemon, "I am a saint."
+
+The warlock received Euschemon's statement with much incredulity, but
+becoming eventually convinced of its truth--
+
+"I congratulate thee," he said. "The devil has manifestly taken a fancy to
+thee, and he never forgets his own. It is true that the bishop is a great
+favourite with him also. But we will hope for the best. Thou hast never
+practised riding a broomstick? No? 'Tis pity; thou mayest have to mount one
+at a moment's notice."
+
+This consolation had scarcely been administered ere the bolts flew back,
+the hinges grated, the door opened, and gaolers bearing torches informed
+the sorcerer that the bishop desired his presence.
+
+He found the bishop in his study, which was nearly choked up by Euschemon's
+bell. The prelate received him with the greatest affability, and expressed
+a sincere hope that the very particular arrangements he had enjoined for
+the comfort of his distinguished prisoner had been faithfully carried out
+by his subordinates. The sorcerer, as much a man of the world as the
+bishop, thanked his Lordship, and protested that he had been perfectly
+comfortable.
+
+"I have need of thy art," said the bishop, coming to business. "I am
+exceedingly bothered--flabbergasted were not too strong an expression--by
+this confounded bell. All my best exorcists have been trying all they know
+with it, to no purpose. They might as well have tried to exorcise my mitre
+from my head by any other charm than the offer of a better one. Magic is
+plainly the only remedy, and if thou canst disenchant it, I will give thee
+thy freedom."
+
+"It will be a tough business," observed the sorcerer, surveying the bell
+with the eye of a connoisseur. "It will require fumigations."
+
+"Yes," said the bishop, "and suffumigations."
+
+"Aloes and mastic," advised the sorcerer.
+
+"Aye," assented the bishop, "and red sanders."
+
+"We must call in Primeumaton," said the warlock.
+
+"Clearly," said the bishop, "and Amioram."
+
+"Triangles," said the sorcerer.
+
+"Pentacles," said the bishop.
+
+"In the hour of Methon," said the sorcerer.
+
+"I should have thought Tafrac," suggested the bishop, "but I defer to your
+better judgment."
+
+"I can have the blood of a goat?" queried the wizard.
+
+"Yes," said the bishop, "and of a monkey also."
+
+"Does your Lordship think that one might venture to go so far as a little
+unweaned child?"
+
+"If absolutely necessary," said the bishop.
+
+"I am delighted to find such liberality of sentiment on your Lordship's
+part," said the sorcerer. "Your Lordship is evidently of the profession."
+
+"These are things which stuck by me when I was an inquisitor," explained
+the bishop, with some little embarrassment.
+
+Ere long all arrangements were made. It would be impossible to enumerate
+half the crosses, circles, pentagrams, naked swords, cross-bones,
+chafing-dishes, and vials of incense which the sorcerer found to be
+necessary. The child was fortunately deemed superfluous. Euschemon was
+brought up from his dungeon, and, his teeth  chattering with fright and
+cold, set beside his bell to hold a candle to the devil. The incantations
+commenced, and speedily gave evidence of their efficacy. The bell trembled,
+swayed, split open, and a female figure of transcendent loveliness attired
+in the costume of Eve stepped forth and extended her lips towards the
+bishop. What could the bishop do but salute them? With a roar of triumph
+the demon resumed his proper shape. The bishop swooned. The apartment was
+filled with the fumes of sulphur. The devil soared majestically out of the
+window, carrying the sorcerer under one arm and Euschemon under the other.
+
+It is commonly believed that the devil good-naturedly dropped Euschemon
+back again into Paradise, or wheresoever he might have come from. It is
+even added that he fell between Eulogius and Eucherius, who had been
+arguing all the time respecting the merits of their bells, and resumed his
+share in the discussion as if nothing had happened. Some maintain, indeed,
+that the devil, chancing to be in want of a chaplain, offered the situation
+to Euschemon, by whom it was accepted. But how to reconcile this assertion
+with the undoubted fact that the duties of the post in question are at
+present ably discharged by the Bishop of Metz, in truth we see not. One
+thing is certain: thou wilt not find Euschemon's name in the calendar,
+courteous reader.
+
+The mulct to be imposed upon the parish of Epinal was never exacted. The
+bell, ruptured beyond repair by the demon's violent exit, was taken back
+and deposited in the museum of the town. The bells of Eulogius and
+Eucherius were  rung freely on occasion; but Epinal has not since enjoyed
+any greater immunity from storms than the contiguous districts. One day an
+aged traveller, who had spent many years in Heathenesse and in whom some
+discerned a remarkable resemblance to the sorcerer, noticed the bell, and
+asked permission to examine it. He soon discovered the inscription,
+recognised the mysterious characters as Greek, read them without the least
+difficulty--
+
+"[Greek: M� kinei Kamarinan akin�tos gar ameinoon]--"
+
+and favoured the townsmen with this free but substantially accurate
+translation:--
+
+"CAN'T YOU LET WELL ALONE?"
+
+
+
+
+BISHOP ADDO AND BISHOP GADDO
+
+
+Midday, midsummer, middle of the dark ages. Fine healthy weather at the
+city of Biserta in Barbary. Wind blowing strong from the sea, roughening
+the dark blue waters, and fretting their indigo with foam, as though the
+ocean's coursers champed an invisible curb. On land tawny sand whirling,
+green palm-fans swaying and whistling, men abroad in the noonday blaze
+rejoicing in the unwonted freshness.
+
+"She is standing in," they cried, "and, by the Prophet, she seemeth not a
+ship of the true believers."
+
+She was not, but she bore a flag of truce. Pitching and rearing, the little
+bark bounded in, and soon was fast in harbour. Ere long messengers of peace
+had landed, bearing presents and a letter from the Bishop of Amalfi to the
+Emir of Biserta. The presents consisted of fifty casks of Lacrima Christi,
+and of a captive, a tall, noble-looking man, in soiled ecclesiastical
+costume, and disfigured by the loss of his left eye, which seemed to have
+been violently plucked out.
+
+"Health to the Emir!" ran the letter. "I send thee my captive, Gaddo,
+sometime Bishop of  Amalfi, now an ejected intruder. For what saith the
+Scripture? 'When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in
+peace; but if one stronger than he cometh, he divideth the spoils.'
+Moreover it is written: 'His bishopric let another take.' Having solemnly
+sworn that I would not kill or blind or maim my enemy, or imprison him in a
+monastery, and the price of absolution from an oath in this corrupt age
+exceeding all reason and Christian moderation, I knew not how to take
+vengeance on him, until a sagacious counsellor represented that a man
+cannot be said to be blinded so long as he is deprived of only one eye.
+This I accordingly eradicated, and now, being restrained from imprisoning
+him, and fearing to release him, I send him to thee, to retain in captivity
+on my behalf; in return for which service, receive fifty casks of the
+choicest Lacrima Christi, which shall not fail to be sent thee yearly, so
+long as Gaddo continues in thy custody.
+
+"+ Addo, by Divine permission Bishop of Amalfi."
+
+"First," said the Emir, "I would be certified whether this vintage is
+indeed of such excellence as to prevail upon a faithful Mussulman to
+jeopard Paradise, the same being forbidden by his law."
+
+Experiments were instituted forthwith, and the problem was resolved in the
+affirmative.
+
+"This being so," declared the Emir, "honour and good faith towards Bishop
+Addo require that Bishop Gaddo be kept captive with all possible
+strictness. Yet bolts may be burst, fetters may be filed, walls may be
+scaled, doors may be broken  through. Better to enchain the captive's soul,
+binding him with invisible bonds, and searing out of him the very wish to
+escape. Embrace the faith of the Prophet," continued he, addressing Gaddo;
+"become a Mollah."
+
+"No," said the deposed Bishop, "my inclination hath ever been towards a
+military life. At present, mutilated and banished as I am, I rather affect
+the crown of martyrdom."
+
+"Thou shalt receive it by instalments," said the Emir. "Thou shalt work at
+the new pavilion in my garden."
+
+Unceasing toil under the blazing sun, combined with the discipline of the
+overseers, speedily wore down Gaddo's strength, already impaired by
+captivity and ill-treatment. Unable to drag himself away after his
+fellow-workmen had ceased from their labours, he lay one evening, faint and
+almost senseless, among the stones and rubbish of the unfinished edifice.
+The Emir's daughter passed by. Gaddo was handsome and wretched, the
+Princess was beautiful and compassionate. Conveyed by her fair hands, a cup
+of Bishop Addo's wine saved Bishop Gaddo's life.
+
+The next evening Gaddo again lingered behind, and the Princess spoke to him
+out of her balcony. The third evening they encountered in an arbour. The
+next meeting took place in her chamber, where her father discovered them.
+
+"I will tear thee to pieces with pincers," shouted he to Gaddo.
+
+"Your Highness will not be guilty of that black action," responded Gaddo
+resolutely.
+
+"No?" roared the Emir. "No? and what shall hinder me?"
+
+"The Lacrima Christi will hinder your Highness," returned the far-seeing
+Gaddo. "Deems your Highness that Bishop Addo will send another cupful, once
+he is assured of my death?"
+
+"Thou sayest well," rejoined the Emir. "I may not slay thee. But my
+daughter is manifestly most inflammable, wherefore I will burn her."
+
+"Were it not better to circumcise me?" suggested Gaddo.
+
+Many difficulties were raised, but Ayesha's mother siding with Gaddo, and
+promising a more amicable deportment for the future towards the other
+lights of the harem, the matter was arranged, and Gaddo recited the
+Mahometan profession of faith, and became the Emir's son-in-law. The
+execrable social system under which he had hitherto lived thus vanished
+like a nightmare from an awakened sleeper. Wedded to one who had saved his
+life by her compassion, and whose life he had in turn saved by his change
+of creed, adoring her and adored by her, with the hope of children, and
+active contact with multitudes of other interests from which he had
+hitherto been estranged, he forgot the ecclesiastic in the man; his
+intellect expanded, his ideas multiplied, he cleared his mind of cant, and
+became an eminent philosopher.
+
+"Dear son," said the Emir to him one day, "the Lacrima is spent, we thirst,
+and the tribute of that Christian dog, the Bishop of Amalfi, tarries to
+arrive. We will presently fit out certain vessels, and thou shalt hold a
+visitation of thine ancient diocese."
+
+"Methinks I see a ship even now," said Gaddo;  and he was right. She
+anchored, the ambassadors landed and addressed the Emir:
+
+"Prince, we bring thee the stipulated tribute, yet not without a trifling
+deduction."
+
+"Deduction!" exclaimed the Emir, bending his brows ominously.
+
+"Highness," they represented, "by reason of the deficiency of last year's
+vintage it hath not been possible to provide more than forty-nine casks,
+which we crave to offer thee accordingly."
+
+"Then," pronounced the Emir sententiously, "the compact is broken, the ship
+is confiscated, and war is declared."
+
+"Not so, Highness," said they, "for the fiftieth cask is worth all the
+rest."
+
+"Let it be opened," commanded the Emir.
+
+It was accordingly hoisted out, deposited on the quay, and prized open; and
+from its capacious interior, in a deplorable plight from hunger, cramp, and
+sea-sickness, was extracted--Bishop Addo.
+
+"We have," explained the deputation, "wearied of our shepherd, who,
+shearing his flock somewhat too closely, hath brought the wolf to light. We
+therefore desire thee to receive him at our hands in exchange for our good
+Bishop Gaddo, promising one hundred casks of Lacrima Christi as yearly
+tribute for the future."
+
+"He stands before you," answered the Emir; "take him, an ye can prevail
+upon him to return with you."
+
+The eyes of the envoys wandered hopelessly from one whiskered, turbaned,
+caftaned, and yataghaned figure to another. They could not discover that
+any of the Paynim present looked more or less like a bishop than his
+fellows.
+
+"Brethren," said Gaddo, taking compassion on their bewilderment, "behold
+me! I thank you for your kindly thought of me, but how to profit by it I
+see not. I have become a Saracen. I have pronounced the Mahometan
+confession. I am circumcised. I am known by the name of Mustapha."
+
+"We acknowledge the weight of your Lordship's objections," they said, "and
+do but venture to hint remotely that the times are hard, and that the Holy
+Father is grievously in want of money."
+
+"I have also taken a wife," said Gaddo.
+
+"A wife!" exclaimed they with one consent. "If it had been a concubine! Let
+us return instantly."
+
+They gathered up their garments and spat upon the ground.
+
+"A bishop, then," inquired Gaddo, "may be guilty of any enormity sooner
+than wedlock, which money itself cannot expiate?"
+
+"Such," they answered, "is the law and the prophets."
+
+"Unless," added one of benignant aspect, "he sew the abomination up in a
+sack and cast her into the sea, then peradventure he may yet find place for
+repentance."
+
+"Miserable blasphemers!" exclaimed Gaddo. "But why," continued he, checking
+himself, "do I talk of what none will understand for five hundred years,
+which to understand myself I was obliged to become a Saracen? Addo," he
+pursued, addressing his dejected competitor, "bad as thou art, thou art
+good enough for the world as it is. I spare thy life, restore thy dignity,
+and, to prove that the precepts of Christ may be practised under the garb
+of Mahomet, will not even exact eye for eye. Yet, as a wholesome admonition
+to thee that treachery and cruelty escape not punishment even in this life,
+I will that thou do presently surrender to me thy left ear. Restore my eye
+and I will return it immediately. And ye," addressing the envoys, "will for
+the future pay one hundred casks tribute, unless ye would see my
+father-in-law's galleys on your coasts."
+
+So Addo returned to his bishopric, leaving his ear in Gaddo's keeping. The
+Lacrima was punctually remitted, and as punctually absorbed by the Emir and
+his son-in-law, with some little help from Ayesha. Gaddo's eye never came
+back, and Addo never regained his ear until, after the ex-prelate's death
+in years and honour, he ransomed it from his representatives. It became a
+relic, and is shown in Addo's cathedral to this day in proof of his
+inveterate enmity to the misbelievers, and of the sufferings he underwent
+at their hands. But Gaddo trumped him, the entry after his name in the
+episcopal register, "Fled to the Saracens," having been altered into
+"Flayed by the Saracens" by a later bishop, jealous of the honour of the
+diocese.
+
+
+
+
+THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE BUTTERFLIES
+
+
+The scene was in a garden on a fine summer morning, brilliant with slants
+of sunshine, yet chequered with clouds significant of more than a remote
+possibility of rain. All the animal world was astir. Birds flitted or
+hopped from spray to spray; butterflies eddied around flowers within or
+upon which bees were bustling; ants and earwigs ran nimbly about on the
+mould; a member of the Universal Knowledge Society perambulated the gravel
+path.
+
+The Universal Knowledge Society, be it understood, exists for the
+dissemination and not for the acquisition of knowledge. Our philosopher,
+therefore, did not occupy himself with considering whether in that
+miniature world, with its countless varieties of animal and vegetable
+being, something might not be found with which he was himself unacquainted;
+but, like the honey-freighted bee, rather sought an opportunity of
+disburdening himself of his stores of information than of adding to them.
+But who was to profit by his communicativeness? The noisy birds could not
+hear themselves speak, much less him; he shrewdly distrusted his ability to
+command the attention of the busy bees; and even a  member of the Universal
+Knowledge Society may well be at a loss for a suitable address to an
+earwig. At length he determined to accost a Butterfly who, after sipping
+the juice of a flower, remained perched indolently upon it, apparently
+undecided whither to direct his flight.
+
+"It seems likely to rain," he said, "have you an umbrella?"
+
+The Butterfly looked curiously at him, but returned no answer.
+
+"I do not ask," resumed the Philosopher, "as one who should imply that the
+probability of even a complete saturation ought to appal a ratiocinative
+being, endowed with wisdom and virtue. I rather designed to direct your
+attention to the inquiry whether these attributes are, in fact, rightly
+predicable of Butterflies."
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"An impression obtains among our own species," continued the Philosopher,
+"that you Butterflies are deficient in foresight and providence to a
+remarkable, I might almost say a culpable degree. Pardon me if I add that
+this suspicion is to some extent confirmed by my finding you destitute of
+protection against imbriferous inclemency under atmospheric conditions
+whose contingent humidity should be obvious to a being endowed with the
+most ordinary allotment of meteorological prevision."
+
+The Butterfly still left all the talk to the Philosopher. This was just
+what the latter desired.
+
+"I greatly fear," he continued, "that the omission to which I have
+reluctantly adverted is to a certain extent typically characteristic of the
+entire political and social economy of the  lepidopterous order. It has
+even been stated, though the circumstance appears scarcely credible, that
+your system of life does not include the accumulation of adequate resources
+against the inevitable exigencies of winter."
+
+"What is winter?" asked the Butterfly, and flew off without awaiting an
+answer.
+
+The Philosopher remained for a moment speechless, whether from amazement at
+the Butterfly's nescience or disgust at his ill-breeding. Recovering
+himself immediately, he shouted after the fugitive:
+
+"Frivolous animal!" "It is this levity," continued he, addressing a group
+of butterflies who had gradually assembled in the air, attracted by the
+conversation, "it is this fatal levity that constrains me to despair wholly
+of the future of you insects. That you should persistently remain at your
+present depressed level! That you should not immediately enter upon a
+process of self-development! Look at the Bee! How did she acquire her
+sting, think you? Why cannot you store up honey, as she does?"
+
+"We cannot build cells," suggested a Butterfly.
+
+"And how did the Bee learn, do you suppose, unless by imbuing her mind with
+the elementary principles of mathematics? Know that time has been when the
+Bee was as incapable of architectural construction as yourselves, when you
+and she alike were indiscriminable particles of primary protoplasm. (I
+suppose you know what that is.) One has in process of time exalted itself
+to the cognition of mathematical truth, while the other--Pshaw! Now,
+really, my friends, I must beg you to take my observations  in good part. I
+do not imply, of course, that any endeavours of yours in the direction I
+have indicated could benefit any of you personally, or any of your
+posterity for numberless generations. But I really do consider that after a
+while its effects would be very observable--that in twenty millions of
+years or so, provided no geological cataclysm supervened, you Butterflies,
+with your innate genius for mimicry, might be conformed in all respects to
+the hymenopterous model, or perhaps carry out the principle of development
+into novel and unheard-of directions. You should derive much encouragement
+from the beginning you have made already."
+
+"How a beginning?" inquired a Butterfly.
+
+"I am alluding to your larval constitution as Caterpillars," returned the
+Philosopher. "Your advance upon that humiliating condition is, I admit,
+remarkable. I only wonder that it should not have proceeded much further.
+With such capacity for development, it is incomprehensible that you should
+so long have remained stationary. You ought to be all toads by this time,
+at the very least."
+
+"I beg your pardon," civilly interposed the Butterfly. "To what condition
+were you pleased to allude?"
+
+"To that of a Caterpillar," rejoined the Philosopher.
+
+"Caterpillar!" echoed the Butterfly, and "Caterpillar!" tittered all his
+volatile companions, till the air seemed broken into little silvery waves
+of fairy laughter. "Caterpillar! he positively thinks we were once
+Caterpillars! He! he! he!"
+
+"Do you actually mean to say you don't know  that?" responded the
+Philosopher, scandalised at the irreverence of the insects, but inwardly
+rejoicing at the prospect of a controversy in which he could not be
+worsted.
+
+"We know nothing of the sort," rejoined a Butterfly.
+
+"Can you possibly be plunged into such utter oblivion of your embryonic
+antecedents?"
+
+"We do not understand you. All we know is that we have always been
+Butterflies."
+
+"Sir," said a large, dull-looking Butterfly with one wing in tatters,
+crawling from under a cabbage, and limping by reason of the deficiency of
+several legs, "let me entreat you not to deduce our scientific status from
+the inconsiderate assertions of the unthinking vulgar. I am proud to assure
+you that our race comprises many philosophical reasoners--mostly indeed
+such as have been disabled by accidental injuries from joining in the
+amusements of the rest. The Origin of our Species has always occupied a
+distinguished place in their investigations. It has on several occasions
+engaged the attention of our profoundest thinkers for not less than two
+consecutive minutes. There is hardly a quadruped on the land, a bird in the
+air, or a fish in the water to which it has not been ascribed by some one
+at some time; but never, I am rejoiced to say, has any Butterfly ever
+dreamed of attributing it to the obnoxious thing to which you have
+unaccountably made reference."
+
+"We should rather think not," chorussed all the Butterflies.
+
+"Look here," said the Philosopher, picking up and exhibiting a large hairy
+Caterpillar of very  unprepossessing appearance. "Look here, what do you
+call this?"
+
+"An abnormal organisation," said the scientific Butterfly.
+
+"A nasty beast," said the others.
+
+"Heavens," exclaimed the Philosopher, "the obtuseness and arrogance of
+these creatures! No, my poor friend," continued he, addressing the
+Caterpillar, "disdain you as they may, and unpromising as your aspect
+certainly is at present, the time is at" hand when you will prank it with
+the gayest of them all."
+
+"I cry your mercy," rejoined the Caterpillar somewhat crossly, "but I was
+digesting a gooseberry leaf when you lifted me in that abrupt manner, and I
+did not quite follow your remarks. Did I understand you to mention my name
+in connection with those flutterers?"
+
+"I said the time would arrive when you would be even as they."
+
+"I," exclaimed the Caterpillar, "I retrograde to the level of a Butterfly!
+Is not the ideal of creation impersonated in me already?"
+
+"I was not aware of that," replied the Philosopher, "although," he added in
+a conciliatory tone, "far be it from me to deny you the possession of many
+interesting qualities."
+
+"You probably refer to my agility," suggested the Caterpillar; "or perhaps
+to my abstemiousness?"
+
+"I was not referring to either," returned the Philosopher.
+
+"To my utility to mankind?"
+
+"Not by any manner of means."
+
+"To what then?"
+
+"Well, if you must know, the best thing about you appears to me to be the
+prospect you enjoy of ultimately becoming a Butterfly."
+
+The Caterpillar erected himself upon his tail, and looked sternly at the
+Philosopher. The Philosopher's countenance fell. A thrush, darting from an
+adjacent tree, seized the opportunity and the insect, and bore the latter
+away in his bill. At the same moment the shower prognosticated by the Sage
+burst forth, scattering the Butterflies in all directions, drenching the
+Philosopher, whose foresight had not assumed the shape of an umbrella, and
+spoiling his new hat. But he had ample consolation in the superiority of
+his head. And the Caterpillar was right too, for after all he never did
+become a Butterfly.
+
+
+
+
+TRUTH AND HER COMPANIONS
+
+
+_Jupiter_. Daughter Truth, is this a befitting manner of presenting
+yourself before your divine father? You are positively dripping; the floor
+of my celestial mansion would be a swamp but for your praiseworthy economy
+in wearing apparel. Whence, in the name of the Naiads, do you come?
+
+_Truth_. From the bottom of a well, father.
+
+_Jupiter_. I thought, my daughter, that you had descended upon earth in the
+capacity of a benefactress of men rather than of frogs.
+
+_Truth_. Such, indeed, was my purpose, father, and I accordingly repaired
+to the great city.
+
+_Jupiter_. The city of the Emperor Apollyon?
+
+_Truth_. The same; and I there obtained an audience of the monarch.
+
+_Jupiter_. What passed?
+
+_Truth_. I took the liberty of observing to him, father, that, having
+obtained his throne by perjury, and cemented it by blood, and maintained it
+by hypocrisy, he could entertain no hope of preserving it unless the
+collective baseness of his subjects should be found to exceed his own,
+which was not probable.
+
+_Jupiter_. What reply did he vouchsafe to these admonitions?
+
+_Truth_. He threatened to cut out my tongue. Perceiving that this would
+interfere with my utility to mankind, I retired somewhat precipitately from
+the Imperial presence, marvelling that I should ever have been admitted,
+and resolved never to be found there for the future. I then proceeded to
+the Nobles.
+
+_Jupiter_. What said you to them?
+
+_Truth_. I represented to them that they were, as a class, both arrogant
+and luxurious, and would, indeed, have long ago become insupportable, only
+that the fabric which their rapacity was for ever striving to erect, their
+extravagance as perpetually undermined. I further commented upon the
+insecurity of any institution dependent solely upon prescription. Finding
+these suggestions unpalatable, I next addressed myself to the priesthood.
+
+_Jupiter_. Those holy men, my daughter, must have rejoiced at the
+opportunity of learning from you which portion of their traditions was
+impure or fabricated, and which authentic and sublime.
+
+_Truth_. The value they placed upon my instructions was such that they
+wished to reserve them exclusively for themselves, and proposed that they
+should be delivered within the precincts of a certain subterranean
+apartment termed a dungeon, the key of which should be kept by one of their
+order. Whereupon I betook myself to the philosophers.
+
+_Jupiter_. Your reception from these professed lovers of wisdom, my
+daughter, was, no doubt, all that could be expected.
+
+_Truth_. It was all that could be expected, my father, from learned and
+virtuous men, who had  already framed their own systems of the universe
+without consulting me.
+
+_Jupiter_. You probably next addressed yourself to the middling orders of
+society?
+
+_Truth_. I can scarcely say that I did, father; for although I had much to
+remark concerning their want of culture, and their servility, and their
+greed, and the absurdity of many of their customs, and the rottenness of
+most of their beliefs, and the thousand ways in which they spoiled lives
+that might have been beautiful and harmonious, I soon discovered that they
+were so absolutely swayed by the example of the higher orders that it was
+useless to expostulate with them until I should have persuaded the latter.
+
+_Jupiter_. You returned, then, to the latter with this design?
+
+_Truth_. On the contrary, I hastened to the poor and needy, whom I fully
+acquainted with the various wrongs and oppressions which they underwent at
+the hands of the powerful and the rich. And here, for the first time, I
+found myself welcome. All listened with gratitude and assent, and none made
+any endeavour to stone me or imprison me, as those other unprincipled
+persons had done.
+
+_Jupiter_. That was indeed satisfactory, daughter. But when you proceeded
+to point out to these plebeians how much of their misery arose from their
+own idleness, and ignorance, and dissoluteness, and abasement before those
+higher in station, and jealousy of the best among themselves--what said
+they to that?
+
+_Truth_. They expressed themselves desirous of  killing me, and indeed
+would have done so if my capital enemies, the priests, had not been
+beforehand with them.
+
+_Jupiter_. What did they?
+
+_Truth_. Burned me.
+
+_Jupiter_. Burned you?
+
+_Truth_. Burned me in the
+market-place. And, but for my peculiar property of reviving from my ashes,
+I should not be here now. Upon reconsolidating myself, I felt in such a
+heat that I was fain to repair to the bottom of the nearest well. Finding
+myself more comfortable there than I had ever yet been on earth, I have
+come to ask permission to remain.
+
+_Jupiter_. It does not appear to me, daughter, that the mission you have
+undertaken on behalf of mankind can be efficiently discharged at the bottom
+of a well.
+
+_Truth_. No, father, nor in the middle of a fire either.
+
+_Jupiter_. I fear that you are too plain and downright in your dealings
+with men, and deter where you ought to allure.
+
+_Truth_. I were not Truth, else, but Flattery. My nature is a mirror's--to
+exhibit reality with plainness and faithfulness.
+
+_Jupiter_. It is no less the nature of man to shatter every mirror that
+does not exhibit to him what he wishes to behold.
+
+_Truth_. Let me, therefore, return to my well, and let him who wishes to
+behold me, if such there be, repair to the brink and look down.
+
+_Jupiter_. No, daughter, you shall not return to your well. I have already
+perceived that you are not of yourself sufficient for the office I have
+assigned to you, and I am about to provide you with two auxiliaries. You
+are Truth. Tell me how this one appears to you.
+
+_Truth_. Oh, father, the beautiful nymph! how mature, and yet how comely!
+how good-humoured, yet how gentle and grave! Her robe is closely zoned; her
+upraised finger approaches her lip; her foot falls soft as snow. What is
+her name?
+
+_Jupiter_. Discretion. And this other?
+
+_Truth_. Oh, father! the cordial look, the blooming cheek, the bright smile
+that is almost a laugh, the buoyant step, and the expansive bosom! What
+name bears she?
+
+_Jupiter_. Good Nature. Return, my daughter, to earth; continue to
+enlighten man's ignorance and to reprove his folly; but let Discretion
+suggest the occasion, and Good Nature inspire the wording of your
+admonitions. I cannot engage that you may not, even with these precautions,
+sometimes pay a visit to the stake; and if, when an adventure of this sort
+appears imminent, Discretion should counsel a temporary retirement to your
+well, I am sure Good Nature will urge nothing to the contrary.
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE PALACES
+
+
+Three pairs of young people, each a youth with his bride, came together
+along a road to the point where it divided to the right and left. On one
+side was inscribed, "To the Palace of Truth," and on the other, "To the
+Palace of Illusion."
+
+"This way, my beauty!" cried one of the youths, drawing his companion in
+the direction of the Palace of Truth. "To the place where and where alone
+thy perfections may be beheld as they are!"
+
+"And my imperfections!" whispered the young spouse, but her tone was airy
+and confident.
+
+"Well," said the second youth, "does the choice beseem you upon whom the
+moon of your nuptials is beaming still. My beloved and I are riper in
+Hymen's lore by not less, I ween, than one fortnight. Prudence impels us
+towards the Palace of Illusion."
+
+"Thy will is mine, Alonso," said his lady.
+
+"I," said the third youth, "will seek neither; for I would not be wise
+over-much, while of what I deem myself to know I would be well assured.
+Happy am I, and bless my lot, yet have I beheld a red mouse in closer
+contiguity to my beloved than I could bring myself to approve, albeit it
+leapt not from her mouth as they do sometimes. Yet do I know it for a red
+mouse and nothing worse; had I inhabited the Palace of Illusion  haply I
+had deemed it a rat. And, it being a red mouse as it indubitably was, to
+what end fancy it a tawny-throated nightingale?"
+
+While, therefore, the other pairs proceeded on the paths they had
+respectively chosen, this sage youth and his bride settled themselves at
+the parting of the ways, built their cot, tended their garden, tilled their
+field and raised fruits around them, including children.
+
+The preparation of a cheerful repast was one day well advanced, when,
+lifting up their eyes, the pair beheld a haggard and emaciated couple
+tottering along the road that led from the Palace of Illusion.
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed they simultaneously, "no! yes! 'tis surely they!" O
+friends! whence this forlorn semblance? whence this osseous condition?"
+
+"Of them anon," replied the attenuated youth, "but, before all things,
+dinner!"
+
+The restorative was speedily administered, and the pilgrim commenced his
+narration.
+
+"Guarded," he said, "though the Palace of Illusion was by every species of
+hippogriffic chimaera, my bride and I experienced no difficulty in
+penetrating inside its precincts. The giants lifted us in their arms, the
+dragons carried us on their backs, fairy bridges spanned the moats, golden
+ladders inclined against the ramparts, we scaled the towers and trod the
+courts securely, though constructed to all seeming of dissolving cloud.
+Delicate fare loaded every dish; smiling companions invited to every
+festivity; perfumes caressed our nostrils; music enwrapped our ears.
+
+"But while all else charmed and allured, one  fact intruded of which we
+could not pretend unconsciousness, the intensity of our aversion for each
+other. Never could I behold my Imogene without marvelling whatever could
+have induced me to wed her, and she has acknowledged that she laboured
+under the like perplexity. On the other hand, our good opinion of ourselves
+had grown prodigiously. The other's dislike appeared to each an insane
+delusion, and we seriously questioned whether it could be right to mate
+longer with a being so destitute of true aesthetic feeling. We confided
+these scruples to each other, with the result of a most tempestuous
+altercation.
+
+"As this was attaining its climax, one of the inmates of the Palace, a pert
+forward boy, resembling a page out of livery, passed by, and ironically, as
+I thought, congratulated us on the strength of our mutual attachment.
+'Never,' exclaimed he, 'have I beheld the like here before, and I am the
+oldest inhabitant.'
+
+"As this felicitation was proffered at the precise moment when I was
+engaged in staunching a rent in my cheek with a handful of my wife's hair,
+I was constrained to regard it as unseasonable, and expressed myself to
+that effect.
+
+"'What!' exclaimed he, with equal surprise, 'know ye not that this is the
+Palace of Illusion, where everything is inverted and appears the reverse of
+itself? Intense indeed must be the affection which can thus drive you to
+fisticuffs! Had I beheld you billing and cooing, truly I had counselled a
+judicial separation!'
+
+"My wife and I looked at each other, and by a common impulse made at our
+utmost speed for the gate of the Palace of Illusion.
+
+"Alas! it is one thing to enter and another to quit that domain of
+enchantment. The golden clouds enwrapt us still, cates and dainties tempted
+us as of old, the most bewitching strains detained us spellbound. The giant
+and dragon warders, indeed, offered no violent resistance, they simply
+turned into open portals which appeared to yield us egress, but proved
+entrances to interminable labyrinthine mazes. At last we escaped by
+resolutely, following the exact opposite track to that which we observed to
+be taken by a poet, who was chasing a phantom of Fame with a scroll of
+unintelligible and inharmonious verse.
+
+"The moment that we emerged from the enchanted castle we knew ourselves and
+each other for what we were, and fell weeping into each other's arms. So
+feeble were we that we could hardly move, nevertheless we have made a shift
+to crawl hither, trusting to your hospitality to recruit us from the
+sawdust and ditch-water which we vehemently suspect to have been our diet
+during the whole of our residence."
+
+"Eat and drink without stint and without ceremony," rejoined their host,
+"provided only that somewhat remain for the guests whom I see approaching."
+
+And in a few moments the fugitives from the Palace of Illusion were
+reinforced by travellers from the Palace of Truth, whose backs were most
+determinately turned to that august edifice.
+
+"My friends," said the youth last arrived, when the first greetings were
+over, "Truth's Palace might be a not ineligible residence were not the
+inmates necessitated not merely to know the truth but to speak it, and did
+not all innocent  embellishments of her majestic person become entirely
+inefficient and absolutely nugatory. For example, the number of my wife's
+grey hairs speedily confounded me; and how should it be otherwise, when the
+excellent dye she had brought with her had completely lost its virtues? She
+on her part found herself continually obliged to acquaint me with the
+manifold defects she was daily discovering in my mind and person, which I
+was unable to deny, frequently as I opened my mouth for that purpose. It is
+true that I had the satisfaction of pointing out equal defects in herself;
+but this could not be considered a great satisfaction, seeing that every
+such discovery impugned my taste and judgment, and impaired the worth of my
+most cherished possession. At length we resolved that Truth and we were not
+made for each other, and, having verified the accuracy of this conclusion
+by uttering it unrebuked in Truth's own palace, quitted the unblest spot
+with all possible expedition. No sooner were we outside than our tenderness
+revived, and, the rites of reconciliation duly performed, my wife found
+nothing more urgent than to try whether her dye had recovered its natural
+properties, which, as ye may perceive, proved to be the case. We are now
+bound for the Palace of Illusion."
+
+"Nay," said he who had escaped thence, "if my experience suffices not to
+deter you, learn that they who have known Truth can never taste of
+Illusion. Illusion is for life's golden prime, its fanes and pavilions may
+be reared but by the magic wand of Youth. The maturity that would recreate
+them builds not for Illusion  but for Deceit. Yet, lest mortality should
+despair, there exists, as I have learned, yet another palace, founded
+midway between that of Illusion and that of Truth, open to those who are
+too soft for the one and too hard for the other. Thither, indeed, the
+majority of mankind in this age resort, and there appear to find themselves
+comfortable."
+
+"And this palace is?" inquired Truth's runaways simultaneously.
+
+"The Palace of Convention," replied the youth.
+
+
+
+
+NEW READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY
+
+
+
+I.--Timon of Athens
+
+
+No, it was not true that Timon was dead, and buried on the sea-shore. So
+the first party discovered that hastened to his cave at the tidings,
+thinking to seize his treasure, and had their heads broken for their pains.
+But the second party fared better; for these were robbers, captained by
+Alcibiades, who had taken to the road, as many a man of spirit, has done
+before and since. They took Timon's gold, and left him bound in his chair.
+But on the way home the lesser thieves mysteriously disappeared, and the
+gold became the sole property of Alcibiades. As it is written, "The tools
+to him that can handle them."
+
+Timon sat many hours in an uncomfortable position, and though, in a general
+way, he abhorred the face of man, he was not displeased when a gentleman of
+bland appearance entered the cavern, and made him a low obeisance. And
+perceiving that Timon was bound, the bland man exclaimed with horror, and
+severed his bonds, ere one could say Themistocles. And in an instant the
+cavern was filled with Athenian senators.
+
+"Hail," they cried, "to Timon the munificent!  Hail to Timon the
+compassionate! Hail to Timon the lover of his kind!"
+
+"I am none of these things," said Timon. "I am Timon the misanthrope."
+
+"This must be my Lord's wit and playfulness," said the bland man, "for how
+else should the Senate and the people have passed a decree, indited by
+myself, ordering an altar to be raised to Timon the Benefactor, and
+appointing him chief archon? But come, hand over thy treasure, that thy
+installation may take effect with due observance."
+
+"I have been deprived of my treasure," said Timon.
+
+But the ambassadors gave him no credit until they had searched every chink
+and crevice in the cavern, and dug up all the earth round the entrance.
+They then regarded each other with blank consternation.
+
+"Let us leave him as we found him," said one.
+
+"Let us hang him up," said another.
+
+"Let us sell him into captivity," said a third.
+
+"Nay, friends," said the bland gentleman, "such confession of error would
+impeach our credit as statesmen. Moreover, should the people learn that
+Timon has lost his money, they will naturally conclude that we have taken
+it. Let us, therefore, keep this misfortune from their knowledge, and trust
+for relief to the chapter of accidents, as usual in State affairs."
+
+They therefore robed Timon in a dress of honour, and conducted him to
+Athens, where half the inhabitants were awaiting him. Two triumphal arches
+spanned the principal street, and on one was inscribed "Timon the
+Benefactor," and  on the other "Timon the Friend of Humanity." And all
+along, far as the eye could reach, stood those whom his bounty, as was
+stated, had rescued from perdition, the poor he had relieved, the sick he
+had medicined, the orphans he had fathered, the poets and painters he had
+patronised, all lauding and thanking him, and soliciting a continuance of
+his liberality. And the rabble cried "Largesse, largesse!" and horsemen
+galloped forth, casting among them nuts enveloped in silver-leaf and apples
+and comfits and trinkets and brass farthings in incredible quantities. At
+which the people murmured somewhat, and spoke amiss respecting Timon and
+the senators who escorted him, and the bland gentleman strove to keep Timon
+between himself and the populace. While Timon was pondering what the end of
+these things should be, his mob encountered another cheering for
+Alcibiades, and playing pitch and toss with drachmas and didrachmas and
+tetradrachmas, yea, even with staters and darics.
+
+"Long live Alcibiades," cried Timon's followers, as they attacked
+Alcibiades's supporters to get their share.
+
+"Long live Timon," cried Alcibiades's party, as they defended themselves.
+
+Timon and Alcibiades extricated themselves from the scuffle, and walked
+away arm in arm.
+
+"My dear friend," said Timon, "how inexpressibly beholden I am to you for
+taking the burden of my wealth upon yourself! There is nothing I would not
+do to evince my gratitude."
+
+"Nothing?" queried Alcibiades.
+
+"Nothing," persisted Timon.
+
+"Then," said Alcibiades, "I will thank thee  to relieve me of Timandra, who
+is as tired of me as I am of her."
+
+Timon winced horribly, but his word was his bond, and Timandra accompanied
+him to his cavern, where at first she suffered much inconvenience from the
+roughness of the accommodation. But Timon, though a misanthrope, was not a
+brute; and when in process of time Timandra's health required special care,
+rugs and pillows were provided for her, and also for Timon; for he saw that
+he could no longer pass for a churl if he made his wife more comfortable
+than himself. And, though he counted gold as dross, yet was he not
+dissatisfied that Timandra had saved the gold he had given her formerly
+against a rainy day. And when a child was born, Timon was at his wits' end,
+and blessed the old woman who came to nurse it. And she admonished him of
+his duty to the Gods, which meant sacrifice, which meant merry-making. And
+the child grew, and craved food and drink, and Timon possessed himself of
+three acres and a cow. And not being able to doubt his child's affection
+for him, he came to believe in Timandra's also. And when the tax-gatherer
+oppressed his neighbours, he pleaded their cause, which was also his own,
+in the courts of Athens, and gained it by the interest of Alcibiades. And
+his neighbours made him demarch, and he feasted them. And Apemantus came to
+deride him, and Timon bore with him; but he was impertinent to Timandra,
+and Timon beat him.
+
+And in fine, Timon became very like any other Attic country gentleman, save
+that he always maintained that a young man did well to be a  misanthrope
+until he got a loving and sensible wife, which, as he observed, could but
+seldom happen. And the Gods looked down upon him with complacency, and
+deferred the ruin of Athens until he should be no more.
+
+
+
+II.--Napoleon's Sangaree
+
+
+Napoleon Buonaparte sat in his garden at St. Helena, in the shadow of a
+fig-tree. Before him stood a little table, and upon the table stood a glass
+of sangaree. The day was hot and drowsy; the sea boomed monotonously on the
+rocks; the broad fig-leaves stirred not; great flies buzzed heavily in the
+sultry air. Napoleon wore a loose linen coat and a broad brimmed planter's
+hat, and looked as red as the sangaree, but nowise as comfortable.
+
+"To think," he said aloud, "that I should end my life here, with nothing to
+sweeten my destiny but this lump of sugar!"
+
+And he dropped it into the sangaree, and little ripples and beads broke out
+on the surface of the liquid.
+
+"Thou should'st have followed me," said a voice.
+
+"Me," said another.
+
+And a steam from the sangaree rose high over Napoleon's head, and from it
+shaped themselves two beautiful female figures. One was fair and very
+youthful, with a Phrygian cap on her head, and eager eyes beneath it, and a
+slender spear in her hand. The other was somewhat older,  and graver, and
+darker, with serious eyes; and she carried a sword, and wore a helmet, from
+underneath which her rich brown tresses escaped over her vesture of light
+steel armour.
+
+"I am Liberty," said the first.
+
+"I am Loyalty," said the second.
+
+And Napoleon laid his hand in that of the first spirit, and instantly saw
+himself as he had been in the days of his youthful victories, only beset
+with a multitude of people who were offering him a crown, and cheering
+loudly. But he thrust it aside, and they cheered ten times more, and fell
+into each other's arms, and wept and kissed each other. And troops of young
+maidens robed in white danced before him, strewing his way with flowers.
+And the debts of the debtor were paid, and the prisoners were released from
+captivity. And the forty Academicians came bringing Napoleon the prize of
+virtue. And the Abb� Siey�s stood up, and offered Napoleon his choice of
+seventeen constitutions; and Napoleon chose the worst. And he came to sit
+with five hundred other men, mostly advocates. And when he said "Yea," they
+said "Nay"; and when he said "white," they said "black." And they suffered
+him to do neither good nor evil, and when he went to war they commanded his
+army for him, until he was smitten with a great slaughter. And the enemy
+entered the country, and bread was scarce and wine dear; and the people
+cursed Napoleon, and Liberty vanished from before him. But he roamed on,
+ever looking for her, and at length he found her lying dead in the public
+way, all gashed and bleeding, and trampled with the feet of men and horses,
+and the wheel of a tumbril  was over her neck. And Napoleon, under
+compulsion of the mob, ascended the tumbril; and Abb� Siey�s and Bishop
+Talleyrand rode at his side, administering spiritual consolation. Thus they
+came within sight of the guillotine, whereon stood M. de Robespierre in his
+sky-blue coat, and his jaw bound up in a bloody cloth, bowing and smiling,
+nevertheless, and beckoning Napoleon to ascend to him. Napoleon had never
+feared the face of man; but when he saw M. de Robespierre great dread fell
+upon him, and he leapt out of the tumbril, and fled amain, passing amid the
+people as it were mid withered leaves, until he came where Loyalty stood
+awaiting him.
+
+She took his hand in hers, and, lo! another great host of people proffering
+him a crown, save one little old man, who alone of them all wore his hair
+in a queue with powder.
+
+"See," said the little old man, "that thou takest not what doth not belong
+to thee."
+
+"To whom belongeth it then?" asked Napoleon, "for I am a plain soldier, and
+have no skill in politics."
+
+"To Louis the Disesteemed," said the little old man, "for he is a
+great-great-nephew of the Princess of Schwoffingen, whose ancestors reigned
+here at the flood."
+
+"Where dwells Louis the Disesteemed?" asked Napoleon.
+
+"In England," said the little old man.
+
+Napoleon therefore repaired to England, and sought for Louis the
+Disesteemed. But none could direct him, save that it behoved him to seek in
+the obscurest places. And one day, as he was passing through a mean street,
+he heard  a voice of lamentation, and perceived a man whose coat and shirt
+were rent and dirty; but not so his pantaloons, for he had none.
+
+"Who art thou, thou pantaloonless one?" asked he, "and wherefore makest
+thou this lamentation?"
+
+"I am Louis the Esteemed, King of France and Navarre," replied the
+distrousered personage, "and I lament for my pantaloons, which I have been
+enforced to pawn, inasmuch as the broker would advance nothing upon my coat
+or my shirt."
+
+And Napoleon went upon his knees and divested himself of his own nether
+garments, and arrayed the king therein, to the great diversion of those who
+stood about.
+
+"Thou hast done wickedly," said the king when he heard who Napoleon was,
+"in that thou hast presumed to fight battles and win victories without any
+commission from me. Go, nevertheless, and lose an arm, a leg, and an eye in
+my service, then shall thy offence be forgiven thee."
+
+And Napoleon raised a great army, and gained a great battle for the king,
+and lost an arm. And he gained another greater battle, and lost a leg. And
+he gained the greatest battle of all; and the king sat on the throne of his
+ancestors, and was called Louis the Victorious: but Napoleon had lost an
+eye. And he came into the king's presence, bearing his eye, his arm, and
+his leg.
+
+"Thou art pardoned," said the king, "and I will even confer a singular
+honour upon thee. Thou shalt defray the expense of my coronation,  which
+shall be the most splendid ever seen in France."
+
+So Napoleon lost all his substance, and no man pitied him. But after
+certain days the keeper of the royal wardrobe rushed into the king's
+presence, crying "Treason! treason! O Majesty, whence these republican and
+revolutionary pantaloons?"
+
+"They are those I deigned to receive from the rebel Buonaparte," said the
+king. "It were meet to return them. Where abides he now?"
+
+"Saving your Majesty's presence," they said, "he lieth upon a certain
+dunghill."
+
+"If this be so," said the king, "life can be no gratification to him, and
+it were humane to relieve him of it. Moreover, he is a dangerous man. Go,
+therefore, and strangle him with his own pantaloons. Yet, let a monument be
+raised to him, and engrave upon it, 'Here lies Napoleon Buonaparte, whom
+Louis the Victorious raised from the dunghill.'"
+
+They went accordingly; but behold! Napoleon already lay dead upon the
+dunghill. And this was told unto the king.
+
+"He hath ever been envious of my glory," said the king, "let him therefore
+be buried underneath."
+
+And it was so. And after no long space the king also died, and slept with
+his fathers. But when there was again a revolution in France, the people
+cast his bones out of the royal sepulchre, and laid Napoleon's there
+instead. And the dunghill complained grievously that it should be disturbed
+for so slight a cause.
+
+And Napoleon withdrew his hand from the  hand of Loyalty, saying, "Pish!"
+And his eyes opened, and he heard the booming of the sea, and the buzzing
+of the flies, and felt the heat of the sun, and saw that the sugar he had
+dropped into his sangaree had not yet reached the bottom of the tumbler.
+
+
+
+III.--Concerning Daniel Defoe
+
+
+Daniel Defoe, at the invitation of the judge, came forth from the garret
+wherein he abode, and rode in a cart unto the Royal Exchange, wherein he
+ascended the pillory, to the end that his ears might be nailed thereunto.
+And much people stood before him, some few pelting, some mocking, but the
+most part cheering or weeping, for they knew him for a friend to the poor,
+and especially those men who were called Dissenters. And a certain person
+in black stood by him, invisible to the people, but well seen of Daniel,
+who knew him for one whose life he had himself written. And the man in
+black reasoned with Daniel, and said, "Thou seest this multitude of people,
+but which of them shall deliver thee out of my hand? Nay, but let thy white
+be black, and thy black white, and I myself will deliver thee, and make
+thee rich, and heal thy hurts, save the holes in thy ears, that I may know
+thee for mine own." But Daniel gave no heed to him. So the Devil departed,
+having great wrath, and entered into a certain smug-faced man standing by.
+
+And now the crowd before Daniel was greatly  diminished, and consisted
+mainly of his enemies, for his friends had gone away to drown their sorrow.
+And the smug-faced man into whom Satan had entered came forth from among
+them, and said unto him, "O Daniel, inasmuch as I am a Dissenter I am
+greatly beholden to thee; but inasmuch as I am an honest tradesman I have
+somewhat against thee, for thou hast written concerning short weights and
+measures. And a man's shop is more to him than his country or his religion.
+Wherefore I must needs be avenged of thee. Yet shalt thou own that the
+tender mercies of the good man are piteous, and that even in his wrath he
+thinketh upon compassion."
+
+And he picked up a great stone from the ground, and wrapped it in a piece
+of paper, saying, "Lest peradventure it hurt him overmuch." And the stone
+was very rough and sharp, and the paper was very thin. And he hurled it
+with all his might at the middle of Daniel's forehead, and the blood
+spouted forth. And Daniel cried aloud, and called upon the name of the
+Devil. And in an instant the pillory and the people were gone, and he found
+himself in the Prime Minister's cabinet, healed of all his hurts, except
+the holes in his ears. And the Minister was so like the Devil that you
+could not tell the difference. And he said, "Against what wilt thou write
+first, Daniel?"
+
+"Dissenters," said Daniel.
+
+And he wrote a pamphlet, and such as read it took firebrands, and visited
+the Dissenters in their habitations. And many Dissenters were put into
+prison, and others fined and spoiled of  their goods. And he wrote other
+pamphlets, and each was cleverer and wickeder than the last. And whatsoever
+Daniel had of old declared to be white, lo! it was black; and what he had
+said was black, behold! it was white. And he throve and prospered
+exceedingly, and became a commissioner for public-houses and
+hackney-coaches and the imposing of oaths and the levying of custom, and
+all other such things as one does by deputy. And he mended the holes in his
+ears.
+
+But the time came when Daniel must be judged, and he went before the Lord.
+And all the court was full of Dissenters, and the Devil was there also. And
+the Dissenters testified many and grievous things against Daniel.
+
+"Daniel," said the Lord, "what answerest thou?"
+
+"Nothing, Lord," said Daniel. "Only I would that the Dissenter who threw
+that stone at me should receive due and condign punishment, adequate to his
+misdeed."
+
+"That," said the Devil, "is impossible."
+
+"Thou sayest well, Satan," said the Lord, "and therefore shall Daniel go
+free. For if anything can excuse the apostasy of the noble, it is the
+ingratitude of the base."
+
+So the Devil went to his own place, looking very small. And Daniel found
+himself in the same garret whence he had gone forth to the pillory; and
+before him were bread and cheese, and a pen and ink and paper. And he
+dipped the pen into the ink, and wrote _Robinson Crusoe_.
+
+
+
+IV.--Cornelius the Ferryman
+
+
+Fourscore years ago there was a good ferryman named Cornelius, who rowed
+people between New York and Brooklyn. He had neither wife nor child, nor
+any one to think of except himself. It was, therefore, his custom, when he
+had earned enough in a day for his own wants, to put the rest aside, and
+bestow it upon sick or blind or maimed persons, lest they should come to
+the workhouse. And the sick and the blind and the maimed gathered around
+him, and waited by the water's edge, until Cornelius's day's work should be
+over.
+
+This went on until one of the little sooty imps who are always in mischief
+came to hear of it, and told the principal devil in charge of the United
+States, whose name is Politicianus.
+
+"Dear me," said the Devil, "this will never do. I will see to it
+immediately."
+
+And he went off to Cornelius, and caught him in the act of giving two dimes
+to a blind beggar.
+
+"How foolish you are!" he said; "what waste of money is this! If you saved
+it up, you would by-and-by be able to build an hospital for all the beggars
+in New York."
+
+"It would be a long time before there was enough," objected Cornelius.
+
+"Not at all," said the Devil, "if you let me invest your money for you."
+And he showed Cornelius the plan of a most splendid hospital, and across
+the front of it was inscribed in letters of gold, _Cornelius Diabolodorus_.
+And Cornelius  was persuaded, and that evening he gave nothing to the poor.
+And the poor had come to think that Cornelius's money was their own, and
+abused him as though he had robbed them. And Cornelius drove them away: and
+his heart was hardened against them from that day forth.
+
+But the Devil kept his promise to Cornelius, and put him up to all the good
+things in Wall Street, and he soon had enough to build ten hospitals. But
+the more he had to build with, the less he wanted to build. And by-and-by
+the Devil called upon him, and found him contemplating two pictures. One of
+them showed the finest hospital you can imagine, full of neat, clean rooms,
+in one of which sat Cornelius himself, wearing a dress with a number and
+badge, and sipping arrowroot. The other showed fine houses, and
+opera-boxes, and fast-trotting horses, and dry champagne, and ladies who
+dance in ballets, and paintings by the great masters. Cornelius thrust the
+pictures away, and the Devil did not ask to see them, nor was it needful
+that he should, for he had painted them himself.
+
+"O dear Mr. Devil," said Cornelius, "I am so glad that you have called, for
+I wanted to speak to you. It strikes me that there is a great defect in the
+plan which you have been so good as to draw for me."
+
+"What is that?" asked the Devil.
+
+"There is no place for black men," said Cornelius. "And you know white men
+will never let them come into the same hospital."
+
+And the Devil, to do him justice, talked very reasonably to Cornelius, and
+represented to him that there were very few black men in New  York, and
+that these had very vigorous constitutions. But Cornelius was inflamed with
+enthusiasm, and frantic with philanthropy, and he vowed that he would not
+give a cent to an hospital that had not a wing for black men as big as all
+the rest of the building. And the Devil had to take his plan back, and come
+again in a year and a day. And when he did come back, Cornelius asked him
+if he did not think it would be a most excellent thing if all the Irishmen
+in New York could be shut up in an hospital or elsewhere; and he could not
+deny it. So he had to take his plan back again. And next year it was the
+turn of the Chinese, and then of the Red Indians, and then of the dogs and
+cats. And then Cornelius thought that he ought to provide room for all the
+people who had been ruined by his speculations, and the Devil thought so
+too, but doubted whether Cornelius would be able to afford it. And at last
+Cornelius said:
+
+"Methinks I have been very foolish in wishing to build an hospital at all
+while I am living. Surely it would be better that I should enjoy my money
+myself during my life, and leave the residue for the lawyers to divide
+after my death."
+
+"You are quite right," said the Devil; "that is exactly what I should do if
+I were you."
+
+So Cornelius put the plans behind a shelf in his counting-house, and the
+mice ate them. And he went on prospering and growing rich, until the Devil
+became envious of him, and insisted on changing places with him. So
+Cornelius went below, and the Devil came and dwelt in New York, where he
+still is.
+
+
+
+
+THE POISON MAID
+
+        O not for him
+  Blooms my dark nightshade, nor doth hemlock brew
+  Murder for cups within her cavernous root.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Grievous is the lot of the child, more especially of the female child, who
+is doomed from the tenderest infancy to lack the blessing of a mother's
+care.
+
+Was it from this absence of maternal vigilance that the education of the
+lovely Mithridata was conducted from her babyhood in such an extraordinary
+manner? That enormous serpents infested her cradle, licking her face and
+twining around her limbs? That her tiny fingers patted scorpions? and tied
+knots in the tails of vipers? That her father, the magician Locuste, ever
+sedulous and affectionate, fed her with spoonsful of the honeyed froth that
+gathers under the tongues of asps? That as she grew older and craved a more
+nutritious diet, she partook, at first in infinitesimal doses, but in ever
+increasing quantities, of arsenic, strychnine, opium, and prussic acid?
+That at last having attained the flower of youth, she drank habitually from
+vessels of gold, for her favourite beverages were so corrosive that no
+other substance could resist their solvent properties?
+
+Gradually accustomed to this strange regimen, she had thriven on it
+marvellously, and was without a peer for beauty, sense, and goodness. Her
+father had watched over her education with care, and had instructed her in
+all lawful knowledge, save only the knowledge of poisons. As no other human
+being had entered the house, Mithridata was unaware that her bringing up
+had differed in so material a respect from that of other young people.
+
+"Father," said she one day, bringing him a book she had been perusing,
+"what strange follies learned men will pen with gravity! or is it rather
+that none can set bounds to the licence of romancers? These dear serpents,
+my friends and playfellows, this henbane and antimony, the nourishment of
+my health and vigour--that any one should write of these as pernicious,
+deadly, and fatal to existence! Is it error or malignity? or but the wanton
+freak of an idle imagination?"
+
+"My child," answered the magician, "it is fit that thou shouldst now learn
+what hath hitherto been concealed from thee, and with this object I left
+this treatise in thy way. It speaks truth. Thou hast been nurtured from thy
+infancy on substances endowed with lethal properties, commonly called
+poisons. Thy entire frame is impregnated thereby, and, although thou
+thyself art in the fullest enjoyment of health, thy kiss would be fatal to
+any one not, like thy father, fortified by a course of antidotes. Now hear
+the reason. I bear a deadly grudge to the king of this land. He indeed hath
+not injured me; but his father slew my father, wherefore it is meet that I
+should slay that ancestor's son's son. I have therefore nurtured thee from
+thy infancy on  the deadliest poisons, until thou art a walking vial of
+pestilence. The young prince shall unseal thee, to his destruction and thy
+unspeakable advantage. Go to the great city; thou art beautiful as the day;
+he is young, handsome, and amorous; he will infallibly fall in love with
+thee. Do thou submit to his caresses, he will perish miserably; thou (such
+is the charm) ransomed by the kiss of love, wilt become wholesome and
+innocuous as thy fellows, preserving only thy knowledge of poisons, always
+useful, in the present state of society invaluable. Thou wilt therefore
+next repair to the city of Constantinople, bearing recommendatory letters
+from me to the Empress Theophano, now happily reigning."
+
+"Father," said Mithridata, "either I shall love this young prince, or I
+shall not. If I do not love him, I am nowise minded to suffer him to caress
+me. If I do love him, I am as little minded to be the cause of his death."
+
+"Not even in consideration of the benefit which will accrue to thee by this
+event?"
+
+"Not even for that consideration."
+
+"O these daughters!" exclaimed the old man. "We bring them up tenderly, we
+exhaust all our science for the improvement of their minds and bodies, we
+set our choicest hopes upon them, and entrust them with the fulfilment of
+our most cherished aspirations; and when all is done, they will not so much
+as commit a murder to please us! Miserable ingrate, receive the just
+requital of thy selfish disobedience!"
+
+"O father, do not turn me into a tadpole!"
+
+"I will not, but I will turn thee out of doors."
+
+And he did.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Though disinherited, Mithridata was not destitute. She had secured a
+particle of the philosopher's stone--a slender outfit for a magician's
+daughter! yet ensuring her a certain portion of wealth. What should she do
+now? The great object of her life must henceforth be to avoid committing
+murder, especially murdering any handsome young man. It would have seemed
+most natural to retire into a convent, but, not to speak of her lack of
+vocation, she felt that her father would justly consider that she had
+disgraced her family, and she still looked forward to reconciliation with
+him. She might have taken a hermitage, but her instinct told her that a
+fair solitary can only keep young men off by strong measures; and she
+disliked the character of a hermitess with a bull-dog. She therefore went
+straight to the great city, took a house, and surrounded herself with
+attendants. In the choice of these she was particularly careful to select
+those only whose personal appearance was such as to discourage any approach
+to familiarity or endearment. Never before or since was youthful beauty
+surrounded by such moustached duennas, squinting chambermaids, hunchbacked
+pages, and stumpy maids-of-all-work. This was a real sorrow to her, for she
+loved beauty; it was a still sadder trial that she could no longer feel it
+right to indulge herself in the least morsel of arsenic; she sighed for
+strychnia, and pined for prussic acid. The change of diet was of course at
+first  most trying to her health, and in fact occasioned a serious illness,
+but youth and a sound constitution pulled her through.
+
+Reader, hast thou known what it is to live with a heart inflamed by love
+for thy fellow-creatures which thou couldst manifest neither by word nor
+deed? To pine with fruitless longings for good? and to consume with vain
+yearnings for usefulness? To be misjudged and haply reviled by thy fellows
+for failing to do what it is not given thee to do? If so, thou wilt pity
+poor Mithridata, whose nature was most ardent, expansive, and affectionate,
+but who, from the necessity under which she laboured of avoiding as much as
+possible all contact with human beings, saw herself condemned to a life of
+solitude, and knew that she was regarded as a monster of pride and
+exclusiveness. She dared bestow no kind look, no encouraging gesture on any
+one, lest this small beginning should lead to the manifestation of her
+fatal power. Her own servants, whose minds were generally as deformed as
+their bodies, hated her, and bitterly resented what they deemed her haughty
+disdain of them. Her munificence none could deny, but bounty without
+tenderness receives no more gratitude than it deserves. The young of her
+own sex secretly rejoiced at her unamiability, regarding it as a
+providential set-off against her beauty, while they detested and denounced
+her as a--well, they would say viper in the manger, who spoiled everybody
+else's lovers and would have none of her own. For with all Mithridata's
+severity, there was no getting rid of the young men, the giddy moths that
+flew around her brilliant but baleful candle. Not all  the cold water
+thrown upon them, literally as well as figuratively, could keep them from
+her door. They filled her house with bouquets and billets doux; they stood
+before the windows, they sat on the steps, they ran beside her litter when
+she was carried abroad, they assembled at night to serenade her, fighting
+desperately among themselves. They sought to gain admission as tradesmen,
+as errand boys, even as scullions male and female. To such lengths did they
+proceed, that a particularly audacious youth actually attempted to carry
+her off one evening, and would have succeeded but for the interposition of
+another, who flew at him with a drawn sword, and after a fierce contest
+smote him bleeding to the ground. Mithridata had fainted, of course. What
+was her horror on reviving to find herself in the arms of a young man of
+exquisite beauty and princely mien, sucking death from her lips with
+extraordinary relish! She shrieked, she struggled; if she made any
+unfeminine use of her hands, let the urgency of the case plead her apology.
+The youth reproached her bitterly for her ingratitude. She listened in
+silent misery, unable to defend herself. The shaft of love had penetrated
+her bosom also, and it cost her almost as much for her own sake to dismiss
+the young man as it did to see him move away, slowly and languidly
+staggering to his doom.
+
+For the next few days messages came continually, urging her to haste to a
+youth dying for her sake, whom her presence would revive effectually. She
+steadily refused, but how much her refusal cost her! She wept, she wrung
+her hands, she called for death and execrated her nurture.  With that
+strange appetite for self-torment which almost seems to diminish the pangs
+of the wretched, she collected books on poisons, studied all the symptoms
+described, and fancied her hapless lover undergoing them all in turn. At
+length a message came which admitted of no evasion. The King commanded her
+presence. Admonished by past experience, she provided herself with a veil
+and mask, and repaired to the palace.
+
+The old King seemed labouring under deep affliction; under happier
+circumstances he must have been joyous and debonair. He addressed her with
+austerity, yet with kindness.
+
+"Maiden," he began, "thy unaccountable cruelty to my son----"
+
+"Thy son!" she exclaimed, "The Prince! O father, thou art avenged for my
+disobedience!"
+
+"Surpasses what history hath hitherto recorded of the most obdurate
+monsters. Thou art indebted to him for thy honour, to preserve which he has
+risked his life. Thou bringest him to the verge of the grave by thy
+cruelty, and when a smile, a look from thee would restore him, thou wilt
+not bestow it."
+
+"Alas! great King," she replied, "I know too well what your Majesty's
+opinion of me must be. I must bear it as I may. Believe me, the sight of me
+could effect nothing towards the restoration of thy son."
+
+"Of that I shall judge," said the King, "when thou hast divested thyself of
+that veil and mask."
+
+Mithridata reluctantly complied.
+
+"By Heaven!" exclaimed the King, "such a  sight might recall the departing
+soul from Paradise. Haste to my son, and instantly; it is not yet too
+late."
+
+"O King," urged Mithridata, "how could this countenance do thy son any
+good? Is he not suffering from the effects of seventy-two poisons?"
+
+"I am not aware of that," said the King.
+
+"Are not his entrails burned up with fire? Is not his flesh in a state of
+deliquescence? Has not his skin already peeled off his body? Is he not
+tormented by incessant gripes and vomitings?"
+
+"Not to my knowledge," said the King. "The symptoms, as I understand, are
+not unlike those which I remember to have experienced myself, in a milder
+form, certainly. He lies in bed, eats and drinks nothing, and incessantly
+calls upon thee."
+
+"This is most incomprehensible," said Mithridata. "There was no drug in my
+father's laboratory that could have produced such an effect."
+
+"The sum of the matter is," continued the King, "that either thou wilt
+repair forthwith to my son's chamber, and subsequently to church; or else
+unto the scaffold."
+
+"If it must be so, I choose the scaffold," said Mithridata resolutely.
+"Believe me, O King, my appearance in thy son's chamber would but destroy
+whatever feeble hope of recovery may remain. I love him beyond everything
+on earth, and not for worlds would I have his blood on my soul."
+
+"Chamberlain," cried the monarch, "bring me a strait waistcoat."
+
+Driven into a corner, Mithridata flung herself at the King's feet, taking
+care, however, not to touch him, and confided to him all her wretched
+history.
+
+The venerable monarch burst into a peal of laughter. "� bon chat bon rat!"
+he exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered himself. "So thou art the
+daughter of my old friend the magician Locusto! I fathomed his craft, and,
+as he fed his child upon poisons, I fed mine upon antidotes. Never did any
+child in the world take an equal quantity of physic: but there is now no
+poison on earth can harm him. Ye are clearly made for each other; haste to
+his bedside, and, as the spell requires, rid thyself of thy venefic
+properties in his arms as expeditiously as possible. Thy father shall be
+bidden to the wedding, and an honoured guest he shall be, for having taught
+us that the kiss of Love is the remedy for every poison."
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained
+sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many
+originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the
+annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it
+desirable to append, and which further provide an opportunity of tendering
+thanks to many friends for their assent to republication.
+
+P. 5. _The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,_--Hereby we may detect
+the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with
+Armenia. "Hellenic letters," says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the
+fourth century, "were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the
+slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens" ("University Life in
+Ancient Athens," p. 73).
+
+P. 28. _Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality._--The belief in
+this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and many
+emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the
+groundwork of Leopold Schefer's novel, "Der Unsterblichkeitstrank," which
+has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of "The Potion of
+Lao-Tsze."
+
+P. 38. _So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously._--In A.D. 683,
+the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband's death, caused her son to be
+set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In our day we
+have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.
+
+P. 50. _Ananda the Miracle Worker._--This story was originally published
+in Fraser's Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared in the
+_Revue Britannique_ for November, 1872. Buddha's prohibition to work
+miracles rests, so far as the present writer's knowledge extends, on the
+authority of Professor Max M�ller ("Lectures on the  Science of
+Religion"). It should be needless to observe that Ananda, "the St. John of
+the Buddhist group," is not recorded to have contravened this or any other
+of his master's precepts.
+
+P. 66. _The City of Philosophers._--This story has been translated into
+French by M. Sarrazin.
+
+P. 68. _There to establish a philosophic commonwealth._--The petition was
+actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the disordered
+condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to save a sinking
+state, possessed the accomplishments which would have adorned an age of
+peace and culture.
+
+P. 82. _The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge._--Gallienus
+was fond of such practical jocularity. "Quum quidam gemmas vitreas pro
+veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita, vindicari vellet,
+surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea caponem emittit,
+mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici jussit,
+'Imposturam fecit et passus est': deinde negotiatorem dimisit" (Trebellius
+in Gallieno, cap. xii.).
+
+P. 100. _Hypati, anthypati, &c._--_Hypati_ and _anthypati_ denote consuls
+and proconsuls, dignities of course merely titular at the court of
+Constantinople. _Silentiarii_ were properly officers charged with
+maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was perhaps performed by
+deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons of distinction.
+The _protospatharius_ was the chief of the Imperial body-guard, of which
+the _spatharocandidati_ constituted the _�lite_.
+
+P. 114. _The Wisdom of the Indians._--Appeared in 1890 in _The Universal
+Review_. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian's travels in
+Burma.
+
+P. 124. _The Dumb Oracle._--Appeared in the _University Magazine_ for
+June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here
+transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning's
+ballad, "The Boy and the Angel."
+
+P. 136. _Duke Virgil._--The subject of this story is derived from Leopold
+Schefer's novel, "Die Sibylle von Mantua," though there is but little
+resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt as his
+authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as their duke in
+the thirteenth century: but the notion  seems merely founded upon the
+interpretation of the insignia accompanying a medi�val statue of the poet.
+
+P. 138. _To put the devil into a hole_.--"Then sayd Virgilius, 'Shulde ye
+well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?' 'Yea, I shall well,' sayd
+the devyl. 'I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it.'
+'Well,' sayd the devyll, 'thereto I consent.' And then the devyll wrange
+himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein. Virgilius kyvered
+the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the devyll begyled, and
+myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte still therein" ("Romance
+of Virgilius").
+
+_Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?_--"Than he thought in his
+mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great landes
+belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it Napells. And
+the foundacyon of it was of eggs" ("Romance of Virgilius").
+
+P. 148. _The Claw_.--Originally published in _The English Illustrated
+Magazine_.
+
+P. 151. _Peter of Abano_.--Pietro di Abano, who took his name from his
+birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with Dante,
+whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused of magic. It
+is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the Inquisition or stoned by
+the populace; but after his death he was burned in effigy, his remains
+having been secretly removed by his friends. Honours were afterwards paid
+to his memory; and there seems no doubt that he was a man of great
+attainments, including a knowledge of Greek, and of unblemished character,
+if he had not sometimes sold his skill at too high a rate. For his
+authentic history, see the article in the _Biographie Universelle_ by
+Ginguen�; for the legendary, Tieck's romantic tale, "Pietro von Abano"
+(1825), which has been translated into English.
+
+P. 156. _Alexander the Rat-catcher_.--This story, to whose ground-work
+History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published in vol.
+xii. of _The Yellow Book_, January, 1897.
+
+P. 157. _Cardinal Barbadico_.--This cardinal was actually entrusted by
+Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an occasion
+upon which the "sardonic grin" imputed to the Pope by a detractor may be
+conjectured to have been particularly apparent. Barbadico was a remarkable
+instance of a man "kicked upstairs." As  Archbishop of Corfu he had had a
+violent dispute with the Venetian governor, and Innocent XI., equally
+unwilling to disown the representative of Papal authority or offend the
+Republic, recalled him to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.
+
+P. 177. _The Rewards of Industry._--Appeared originally in _Atalanta for
+August_, 1888.
+
+P. 194. _The Talismans._--First published in _Atalanta_ for September,
+1890.
+
+P. 202. _The Elixir of Life._--Published July, 1881, in the third number
+of a magazine entitled _Our Times_, which blasted the elixir's character by
+expiring immediately afterwards.
+
+P. 226. _The Purple Head._--Appeared originally in _Fraser's Magazine_ for
+August, 1877.
+
+P. 228. _The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey in
+comparison._ "Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini
+comparatione fulgoris" (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).
+
+P. 230. _All these sovereigns._--"Diligentissime et Aurelianus et Probus
+et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus requisiverunt
+tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt" (Vopiscus, _loc. cit._).
+
+P. 241. _Pan's Wand._--Published originally in a Christmas number of The
+_Illustrated London News_.
+
+P. 249. _A Page from the Book of Folly._--Appeared in _Temple Bar_ for
+1871.
+
+P. 282. _The Philosopher and the Butterflies._--One of the contributions
+by various writers to "The New Amphion," a little book prepared for sale at
+the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the University of Edinburgh in
+1886.
+
+P. 294. _The Three Palaces._--Published originally on a similar occasion
+to the last story, in "A Volunteer Haversack," an extensive repertory of
+miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse, printed and sold at
+Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.
+
+P. 300. _New Readings in Biography._--Originally published in _The Scots
+Observer_ in 1889.
+
+P. 315. _The Poison Maid._--The author wrote this tale in entire
+forgetfulness of Hawthorne's "Rapaccini's Daughter," which nevertheless he
+had certainly read.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: a misprint in the book was corrected in
+this edition, from "He martyrdom" to "His martyrdom".]
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other
+Tales, by Richard Garnett
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWILIGHT OF GODS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10095-8.txt or 10095-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/9/10095/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/old/10095-8.zip b/old/old/10095-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f79d95e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/10095-8.zip
diff --git a/old/old/10095-h.htm.2020-12-19 b/old/old/10095-h.htm.2020-12-19
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f78ad3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/10095-h.htm.2020-12-19
@@ -0,0 +1,9773 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
+
+<html>
+<head>
+<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>Garnett, Richard: The twilight of the gods</title>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
+by Richard Garnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
+
+Author: Richard Garnett
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2003 [EBook #10095]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWILIGHT OF GODS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<a href="frontis.png"><img src="frontis-small.png" alt="An eagle pecking at
+the heart of a bearded man, chained to  a rock, with the inscription:
+&quot;Cor ex est numquam ex cordis regina  volantum&quot;."></a>
+
+<h1>THE TWILIGHT
+<br>OF THE GODS:
+<br>AND OTHER TALES</h1>
+
+BY
+<br>
+<br>RICHARD GARNETT
+<br>MDCCCCIII<br><br>
+
+
+
+
+
+TO
+<br>HORACE HOWARD FURNESS
+<br>AND
+<br>GEORG BRANDES.
+<br>DABO DUOBUS TESTIBUS MEIS
+
+<div id="contents">
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#p1"><span class="hi">The Twilight of the Gods</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p27"><span class="hi">The Potion of Lao-Tsze</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p40"><span class="hi">Abdallah the Adite</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p50"><span class="hi">Ananda the Miracle
+Worker</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p66"><span class="hi">The City of
+Philosophers</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p86"><span class="hi">The Demon Pope</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p99"><span class="hi">The Cupbearer</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p114"><span class="hi">The Wisdom of the
+Indians</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p124"><span class="hi">The Dumb Oracle</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p136"><span class="hi">Duke Virgil</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p148"><span class="hi">The Claw</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p156"><span class="hi">Alexander the
+Ratcatcher</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p177"><span class="hi">The Rewards of
+Industry</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p186"><span class="hi">Madam Lucifer</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p194"><span class="hi">The Talismans</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p202"><span class="hi">The Elixir of Life</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p210"><span class="hi">The Poet of Panopolis</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p226"><span class="hi">The Purple Head</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p238"><span class="hi">The Firefly</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p241"><span class="hi">Pan's Wand</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p249"><span class="hi">A Page from the Book of
+Folly</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p261"><span class="hi">The Bell of Saint
+Euschemon</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p275"><span class="hi">Bishop Addo and Bishop
+Gaddo</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p282"><span class="hi">The Philosopher and the
+Butterflies</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p289"><span class="hi">Truth and Her
+Companions</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p294"><span class="hi">The Three Palaces</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p300"><span class="hi">New Readings in
+Biography</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#p315"><span class="hi">The Poison Maid</span></a></li> </ul>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#p325"><span class="hi">NOTES</span></a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<a id="p1"></a>
+
+<a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS</h2>
+
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Truth fails not, but her outward forms that bear
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;The longest date do melt like frosty rime.
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>The fourth Christian century was far past its meridian, when, high above
+the summit of the supreme peak of Caucasus, a magnificent eagle came
+sailing on broad fans into the blue, and his shadow skimmed the glittering
+snow as it had done day by day for thousands of years. A human
+figure&mdash;or it might be superhuman, for his mien seemed more than
+mortal&mdash;lifted from the crag, to which he hung suspended by massy
+gyves and rivets, eyes mournful with the presentiment of pain. The eagle's
+screech clanged on the wind, as with outstretched neck he stooped earthward
+in ever narrowing circles; his huge quills already creaked in his victim's
+ears, whose flesh crept and shrank, and involuntary convulsions agitated
+his hands and feet. Then happened what all these millenniums had never
+witnessed. No thunderbolt had blazed forth from that dome of cloudless
+blue; no marksman had approached the inaccessible spot; yet, without
+vestige of hurt, the eagle dropped lifeless, falling sheer down into the
+unfathomable abyss below. At the same moment the bonds of the  captive
+snapped asunder, and, projected by an impetus which kept him clear of the
+perpendicular precipice, he alighted at an infinite depth on a sun-flecked
+greensward amid young ash and oak, where he long lay deprived of sense and
+motion.</p>
+
+<p>The sun fell, dew gathered on the grass, moonshine glimpsed through the
+leaves, stars peeped timidly at the prostrate figure, which remained
+prostrate and unconscious still. But as sunlight was born anew in the East
+a thrill passed over the slumberer, and he became conscious, first of an
+indescribably delicious feeling of restful ease, then of a gnawing pang,
+acute as the beak of the eagle for which he at first mistook it. But his
+wrists, though still encumbered with bonds and trailing fetters, were
+otherwise at liberty, and eagle there was none. Marvelling at his inward
+and invisible foe, he struggled to his feet, and found himself contending
+with a faintness and dizziness heretofore utterly unknown to him. He dimly
+felt himself in the midst of things grown wonderful by estrangement and
+distance. No grass, no flower, no leaf had met his eye for thousands of
+years, nothing but the impenetrable azure, the transient cloud, sun, moon,
+and star, the lightning flash, the glittering peaks of ice, and the
+solitary eagle. There seemed more wonder in a blade of grass than in all
+these things, but all was blotted in a dizzy swoon, and it needed his
+utmost effort to understand that a light sound hard by, rapidly growing
+more distinct, was indeed a footfall. With a violent effort he steadied
+himself by grasping a tree, and had hardly accomplished so much when a tall
+dark maiden, straight as an arrow, slim as an antelope,  wildly beautiful
+as a Dryad, but liker a Maenad with her aspect of mingled disdain and
+dismay, and step hasty as of one pursuing or pursued, suddenly checked her
+speed on perceiving him.</p>
+
+<p>"Who art thou?" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Gods! Thou speakest Greek!"</p>
+
+<p>"What else should I speak?"</p>
+
+<p>"What else? From whom save thee, since I closed my father's eyes, have I
+heard the tongue of Homer and Plato?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Homer? Who is Plato?"</p>
+
+<p>The maiden regarded him with a look of the deepest astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," she said, "thy gift has been bestowed upon thee to little
+purpose. Say not, at least, that thou usest the speech of the Gods to
+blaspheme them. Thou art surely yet a votary of Zeus?"</p>
+
+<p>"I a votary of Zeus!" exclaimed the stranger. "By these fetters, no!"
+And, weak as he was, the forest rang with his disdainful laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Farewell," said the maiden, as with dilating form and kindling eye she
+gathered up her robes. "I parley with thee no more. Thou art tenfold more
+detestable than the howling mob down yonder, intent on rapine and
+destruction. They know no better, and can no other. But thou, apt in
+speaking the sacred tongue yet brutally ignorant of its treasures, knowing
+the father of the Gods only to revile him! Let me pass."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger, if willing to hinder her, seemed little able. His eyes
+closed, his limbs relaxed, and without a cry he sank senseless on the
+sward.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant the maiden was kneeling by his side. Hastily undoing a
+basket she carried on her arm, she drew forth a leather flask, and,
+supporting  the sunken head with one hand, poured a stream of wine through
+the lips with the other. As the gurgling purple coursed down his throat the
+sufferer opened his eyes, and thanked her silently with a smile of
+exquisite sweetness. Removing the large leaves which shaded the contents of
+the basket, she disclosed ripe figs and pomegranates, honeycomb and
+snow-white curd, lying close to each other in tempting array. The stranger
+took of each alternately, and the basket was well-nigh emptied ere his
+appetite seemed assuaged.</p>
+
+<p>The observant maiden, meanwhile, felt her mood strangely altered.</p>
+
+<p>"So have I imaged Ulysses to myself," she thought as she gazed on the
+stranger's goodly form, full of vigour, though not without traces of age,
+the massive brow, the kindly mouth, the expression of far-seeing wisdom.
+"Such a man ignorant of letters, and a contemner of Zeus!"</p>
+
+<p>The stranger's eloquent thanks roused her from a reverie. The Greek
+tongue fell upon her ear like the sweetest music, and she grieved when its
+flow was interrupted by a question addressed directly to herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Can a God feel hunger and thirst?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely no," she rejoined.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have said the same yesterday," returned the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"Wherefore not to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear maiden," responded he, with winning voice and manner, "we must
+know each other better ere my tale can gain credence with thee. Do thou
+rather unfold what thine own speech has left dark to me. Why the language
+of the Gods,  as should seem, is here understood by thee and me alone; what
+foes Zeus has here other than myself; what is the profane crowd of which
+thou didst speak; and why, alone and defenceless, thou ascendest this
+mountain. Think of me, if thou wilt, as one fallen from the clouds."</p>
+
+<p>"Strange man," returned the maiden, "who knowest Homer's speech and not
+Homer's self, who renouncest Zeus and resemblest him, hear my tale ere I
+require thine. Yesterday I should have called myself the last priestess of
+Apollo in this fallen land, to-day I have neither shrine nor altar. Moved
+by I know not what madness, my countrymen have long ago forsaken the
+worship of the Gods. The temples crumbled into ruin, prayer was no longer
+offered or sacrifice made as of old, the priestly revenues were plundered;
+the sacred vessels carried away; the voice of oracles became dumb; the
+divine tongue of Greece was forgotten, its scrolls of wisdom mouldered
+unread, and the deluded people turned to human mechanics and fishermen. One
+faithful servant of Apollo remained, my father; but 'tis seven days since
+he closed his eyes for ever. It was time, for yesternoon the heralds
+proclaimed by order of the King that Zeus and the Olympians should be named
+no more in Caucasia."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" interrupted the stranger, "I see it all. Said I not so?" he
+shouted, gazing into the sky as if his eye could pierce and his voice reach
+beyond the drifting clouds. "But to thy own tale," he added, turning with a
+gesture of command to the astonished Elenko.</p>
+
+<p>"It is soon told," she said. "I knew that it was death to serve the Gods
+any more, yet none  the less in my little temple did fire burn upon
+Apollo's altar this morning. Scarcely was it kindled ere I became aware of
+a ruffianly mob thronging to sack and spoil. I was ready for death, but not
+at their hands. I caught up this basket, and escaped up the mountain. On
+its inaccessible summit, it is reported, hangs Prometheus, whom Zeus (let
+me bow in awe before his inscrutable counsels) doomed for his benevolence
+to mankind. To him, as Aeschylus sings, Io of old found her way, and from
+him received monition and knowledge of what should come to pass. I will try
+if courage and some favouring God will guide me to him; if not, I will die
+as near Heaven as I may attain. Tell me on thy part what thou wilt, and let
+me depart. If thou art indeed Zeus's enemy, thou wilt find enough on thy
+side down yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been Zeus's enemy," returned the stranger, mildly and gravely,
+"I am so no longer. Immortal hate befits not the mortal I feel myself to
+have become. Nor needest thou ascend the peak further. Maiden, I am
+Prometheus!"</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>It is a prerogative of the Gods that, when they do speak sooth, mortals
+must needs believe them. Elenko hence felt no incredulity at the revelation
+of Prometheus, or sought other confirmation than the bonds and broken links
+of chain at his wrists and ankles.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he cried, or rather shouted, "is the  prophecy fulfilled with
+which of old I admonished the Gods in the halls of Olympus. I told them
+that Zeus should beget a child mightier than himself, who should send him
+and them the way he had sent his father. I knew not that this child was
+already begotten, and that his name was Man. It has taken Man ages to
+assert himself, nor has he yet, as it would seem, done more than enthrone a
+new idol in the place of the old. But for the old, behold the last traces
+of its authority in these fetters, of which the first smith will rid me.
+Expect no thunderbolt, dear maiden; none will come: nor shall I regain the
+immortality of which I feel myself bereaved since yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this no sorrow to thee?" asked Elenko.</p>
+
+<p>"Has not my immortality been one of pain?" answered Prometheus. "Now I
+feel no pain, and dread one only."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is?"</p>
+
+<p>"The pain of missing a certain fellow-mortal," answered Prometheus, with
+a look so expressive that the hitherto unawed maiden cast her eyes to the
+ground. Hastening away from the conversation to which, nevertheless, she
+inly purposed to return.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Man, then, the maker of Deity?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Can the source of his being originate in himself?" asked Prometheus.
+"To assert this were self-contradiction, and pride inflated to madness. But
+of the more exalted beings who have like him emanated from the common
+principle of all existence, Man, since his advent on the earth, though not
+the creator, is the preserver or the destroyer. He looks up to them, and
+they are; he out-grows  them, and they are not. For the barbarian and
+Triballian gods there is no return; but the Olympians, if dead as deities,
+survive as impersonations of Man's highest conceptions of the beautiful.
+Languid and spectral indeed must be their existence in this barbarian age;
+but better days are in store for them."</p>
+
+<p>"And for thee, Prometheus?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is now no place," replied he, "for an impeacher of the Gods. My
+cause is won, my part is played. I am rewarded for my love of man by myself
+becoming human. When I shall have proved myself also mortal I may haply
+traverse realms which Zeus never knew, with, I would hope, Elenko by my
+side."</p>
+
+<p>Elenko's countenance expressed her full readiness to accompany
+Prometheus as far beyond the limits of the phenomenal world as he might
+please to conduct her. A thought soon troubled her delicious reverie, and
+she inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Peradventure, then, the creed which I have execrated may be truer and
+better than that which I have professed?"</p>
+
+<p>"If born in wiser brains and truer hearts, aye," answered Prometheus,
+"but of this I can have no knowledge. It seems from thy tale to have begun
+but ill. Yet Saturn mutilated his father, and his reign was the Golden
+Age."</p>
+
+<p>While conversing, hand locked in hand, they had been strolling aimlessly
+down the mountain. Turning an abrupt bend in the path, they suddenly found
+themselves in presence of an assembly of early Christians.</p>
+
+<p>These confessors were making the most of Elenko's dilapidated temple,
+whose smoking shell  threw up a sable column in the background. The
+effigies of Apollo and the Muses had been dragged forth, and were being
+diligently broken up with mallets and hammers. Others of the sacrilegious
+throng were rending scrolls, or dividing vestments, or firing the grove of
+laurel that environed the shrine, or pelting the affrighted birds as they
+flew forth. The sacred vessels, however, at least those of gold and silver,
+appeared safe in the guardianship of an episcopal personage of shrewd and
+jovial aspect, under whose inspection they were being piled up by a troop
+of sturdy young ecclesiastics, the only weapon-bearers among the rabble.
+Elenko stood riveted to the ground. Prometheus, to her amazement, rushed
+forward to one of the groups with a loud "By all the Gods and Goddesses!"
+Following his movements, she saw that the object of his interest was an
+enormous dead eagle carried by one of the mob. The multitude, startled by
+his cry and his emotion, gazed eagerly at the strangers, and instantly a
+shout went up:</p>
+
+<p>"The heathen woman!"</p>
+
+<p>"With a heathen man!"</p>
+
+<p>And clubs began to be brandished, and stones to be picked up from the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>Prometheus, to whom the shouts were unintelligible, looked wistfully at
+Elenko. As their eyes met, Elenko's countenance, which had hitherto been
+all disdain and defiance, assumed an expression of irresolution. A stone
+struck Prometheus on the temple, drawing blood; a hundred hands went up,
+each weighted with a missile.</p>
+
+<p>"Do as I," cried Elenko to him, and crossed herself.</p>
+
+<p>Prometheus imitated her, not unsuccessfully for a novice.</p>
+
+<p>The uplifted arms were stayed, some even sank down.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the Bishop had bustled to the front, and addressed a
+torrent of questions to Prometheus, who merely shook his head, and turned
+to inspect the eagle.</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren," said the Bishop, "I smell a miracle!" And, turning to
+Elenko, he rapidly proceeded to cross-examine her.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou wert the priestess of this temple?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou didst leave it this morning a heathen?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou returnest a Christian?"</p>
+
+<p>Elenko blushed fire, her throat swelled, her heart beat violently. All
+her soul seemed concentrated in the gaze she fastened on the pale and
+bleeding Prometheus. She remained silent&mdash;but she crossed herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Who then has persuaded thee to renounce Apollo?"</p>
+
+<p>Elenko pointed to Prometheus.</p>
+
+<p>"An enemy of Zeus, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Zeus has not such another enemy in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it, I was sure of it," exclaimed the Bishop. "I can always tell
+a Christian when I see him. Wherefore speaks he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is ancient, for all his vigorous mien. His martyrdom began ere our
+present speech was, nor could he learn this in his captivity."</p>
+
+<p>"Martyrdom! Captivity!" exclaimed the prelate gleefully, "I thought we
+were coming thither. An early martyr, doubtless?"</p>
+
+<p>"A very early martyr."</p>
+
+<p>"Fettered and manacled?"</p>
+
+<p>"Behold his wrists and ankles."</p>
+
+<p>"Tortured, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"Incredibly."</p>
+
+<p>"Miraculously kept alive to this day?"</p>
+
+<p>"In an entirely supernatural manner."</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said the Bishop, "I would wager my mitre and ring that his life
+was prolonged by the daily ministrations of yonder fowl that he caresses
+with such singular affection?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never," replied Elenko, "for one day did that most punctual bird omit
+to visit him."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" shouted the Bishop. "And now, its mission accomplished, the
+blessed creature, as I am informed, is found dead at the foot of the
+mountain. Saints and angels! this is glorious! On your knees, ye
+infidels!"</p>
+
+<p>And down they all went, the Bishop setting the example. As their heads
+were bowed to the earth, Elenko made a sign to Prometheus, and when the
+multitude looked up, it beheld him in the act of imparting the episcopal
+blessing.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him that we are all his brethren," said the Bishop, which
+announcement became in Elenko's mouth, "Do as I do, and cleave to thy
+eagle."</p>
+
+<p>A procession was formed. The new saint, his convert, and the eagle, rode
+in a car at the head of it. The Bishop, surrounded by his bodyguard,
+followed with the sacred vessels of Apollo, to which he had never ceased to
+direct a vigilant eye throughout the whole proceedings. The multitude
+swarmed along singing hymns, or contending for the stray feathers of the
+eagle. The representatives of seven monasteries put in their  claims for
+the links of Prometheus's fetters, but the Bishop scouted them all. He
+found time to whisper to Elenko:</p>
+
+<p>"You seem a sensible young person. Just hint to our friend that we don't
+want to hear anything about his theology, and the less he talks about the
+primitive Church the better. No doubt he is a most intelligent man, but he
+cannot possibly be up to all the recent improvements."</p>
+
+<p>Elenko promised most fervently that Prometheus' theological sentiments
+should remain a mystery to the public. She then began to reflect very
+seriously on the subject of her own morals. "This day," she said to
+herself, "I have renounced all the Gods, and told lies enough to last me my
+life, and for no other reason than that I am in love. If this is a
+sufficient reason, lovers must have a different code of morality from the
+rest of the world, and indeed it would appear that they have. Will you die
+for me? Yes. Admirable. Will you lie for me? No. Then you don't love me.
+&Beta;&alpha;&lambda;&lambda; &epsilon;&iota;&sigma;
+&kappa;&omicron;&rho;&alpha;&kappa;&alpha;&sigma; &epsilon;&iota;&sigma;
+&Tau;&alpha;&iota;&nu;&alpha;&rho;&omicron;&nu; &epsilon;&iota;&sigma;
+&#908;&gamma;&gamma; &Kappa;&omicron;&gamma;&gamma;."</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>Elenko soon found that there was no pausing upon the path to which she
+had committed herself. As the sole medium of communication between
+Prometheus and the religious public, her time was half spent in instructing
+Prometheus in the creed in which he was supposed to have instructed her,
+and half in framing the edifying  sentences which passed for the
+interpretation of discourses for the most part far more interesting to
+herself than if they had been what they professed to be. The rapt and
+impassioned attention which she was observed to bestow on his utterances on
+such occasions all but gained her the reputation of a saint, and was
+accepted as a sufficient set-off against the unhallowed affection which she
+could not help manifesting for the memory of her father. The judicious
+reluctance of the Caucasian ecclesiastics to inquire over-anxiously into
+the creeds and customs of the primitive Church was a great help to her; and
+another difficulty was removed by the Bishop, who, having no idea of
+encouraging a rival thaumaturgist, took an early opportunity of signifying
+that it was rather in the line of Desmotes (for by this name the new saint
+passed) to be the subject than the instrument of miracles, and that, at all
+events, no more were to be looked for from him at his time of life. The
+warmth with which Elenko espoused this view raised her greatly in his good
+opinion, and he was always ready to come to her aid when she became
+entangled in chronological or historical difficulties, or seasoned her
+versions of Desmotes' speeches with reminiscences of Plato or Marcus
+Aurelius, or when her invention failed altogether. On such occasions, if
+objectors grew troublesome, the Bishop would thunder, "Brethren, I smell a
+heresy!" and no more was said. One minor trouble both to Prometheus and
+Elenko was the affection they were naturally expected to manifest towards
+the carcase of the wretched eagle, which many identified with the eagle of
+the Evangelist John. Prometheus  was of a forgiving disposition, but Elenko
+wished nothing more ardently than that the whole aquiline race might have
+but one neck, and that she might wring it. It somewhat comforted her to
+observe that the eagle's plumage was growing thin, while the eagle's
+custodian was growing fat.</p>
+
+<p>But she had worse troubles to endure than any that eagles could
+occasion. The youth of those who resorted to her and Prometheus attracted
+remark from the graver members of the community. Young ladies found the
+precepts of the handsome and dignified saint indispensable to their
+spiritual health; young men were charmed with their purity as they came
+filtered through the lips of Elenko. Is man more conceited than woman, or
+more confiding? Elenko should certainly have been at ease; no temptress,
+however enterprising, could well be spreading her nets for an Antony three
+hundred years old. Prometheus, on the contrary, might have found cause for
+jealousy in many a noble youth's unconcealed admiration of Elenko. Yet he
+seemed magnificently unconscious of any cause for apprehension, while
+Elenko's heart swelled till it was like to burst. She had the further
+satisfaction of knowing herself the best hated woman in Caucasia, between
+the enmity of those of whose admirers she had made an involuntary conquest,
+and of those who found her standing between them and Prometheus. Her
+monopoly of Greek, she felt sure, was her only security. Two constant
+attendants at Prometheus's receptions particularly alarmed her, the
+Princess Miriam, niece of the Bishop, a handsome widow accustomed to have
+things as she wished them; and a tall veiled woman who seemed unknown to
+all, but whose unseen eyes, she instinctively knew, were never averted from
+the unconscious Prometheus.</p>
+
+<p>It was therefore with some trepidation that she received a summons to
+the private apartment of the Princess Miriam.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear friend," the Princess began, "thou knowest the singular affection
+which I have invariably entertained for thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Right well do I know it," responded Elenko. ("The thirty-first lie
+to-day," she added wearily to herself.)</p>
+
+<p>"It is this affection, dear friend," continued the Princess, "which
+induces me on the present occasion to transgress the limits of conventional
+propriety, and make a communication distressing to thee, but infinitely
+more so to myself."</p>
+
+<p>Elenko implored the Princess to make no such sacrifice in the cause of
+friendship, but the great lady was resolute.</p>
+
+<p>"People say," she continued&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What say they?"</p>
+
+<p>"That thy relation to Desmotes is indiscreet. That it is equivocal. That
+it is offensive. That it is sacrilegious. That, in a word, it is
+improper."</p>
+
+<p>Elenko defended herself with as much energy as her candour would
+allow.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear friend," said the Princess, "thou dost not imagine that I have
+part or lot in these odious imputations? Even could I deem them true,
+should I not think charitably of thee, but yesterday a heathen, and
+educated in impiety by a foul sorcerer? My poor lamb! But tongues must be
+stopped, and I have now to advise thee how this may be accomplished."</p>
+
+<p>"Say on."</p>
+
+<p>"People will always talk so long as thou art the sole medium of
+communication with the holy man. Some deem him less ignorant of our speech
+than he seems, but concerning this I inquire not: for, in society, what
+seems, is. Enough that thy colloquies expose thee to scandal. There is but
+one remedy. Thou must yield thy place to another. It is meet that thou
+forthwith instruct in that barbarous dialect some matron of unblemished
+repute and devout aspirations; no mere ignorant devotee, however, but a
+woman of the world, whose prudence and experience may preserve the holy man
+from the pitfalls set for him by the unprincipled. Manifestly she must be a
+married person, else nought were gained, yet must she not be chargeable
+with forsaking her duties towards her husband and children. It follows that
+she must be a widow. It were also well that she should be of kin to some
+influential personage, to whose counsel she might have recourse in times of
+difficulty, and whose authority might protect her against the slanderous
+and evil disposed. I have not been able to meet any one endowed with all
+these qualifications, excepting myself. I therefore propose to thee that
+thou shouldst instruct me in the speech of Desmotes, and when I am
+qualified to take thy place my uncle shall elevate thee to the dignity of
+Abbess, or bestow thee upon some young clergyman of extraordinary
+desert."</p>
+
+<p>Elenko intimated, perhaps with more warmth than necessary, her aversion
+to both propositions,  and the extreme improbability of the Princess ever
+acquiring any knowledge of Greek by her instrumentality.</p>
+
+<p>"If this is the case," said the Princess, with perfect calmness, "I must
+have recourse to my other method, which is infallible."</p>
+
+<p>Elenko inquired what it might be.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall represent to my uncle, what indeed he very well knows, that a
+saint is, properly speaking, of no value till he is dead. Not until his
+decease are his relics available, or pilgrimages to his shrine feasible. It
+is solely in anticipation of this event that my uncle is keeping Desmotes
+at all; and the sooner it comes to pass, the sooner will my revered
+relative come by his own. Only think of the capital locked up in the new
+church, now so nearly completed, on the spot where they picked up the
+eagle! How shall it be dedicated to Desmotes in Desmotes' lifetime? Were it
+not a most blissful and appropriate coincidence if the day of the
+consecration were that of the saint's migration to a better world? I shall
+submit this view of the case to my uncle: he is accustomed to hear reason
+from me, of whom, between ourselves, he is not a little afraid. Thou mayest
+rely upon it that about the time of the consecration Desmotes will ascend
+to heaven; while thou, it is gravely to be feared, wilt proceed in the
+opposite direction. Would'st thou avert this unpleasantness, think well of
+my first proposal. I give thee credit for loving Desmotes, and suppose,
+therefore, that thou wilt make some sacrifice for his sake. I am a Kettle,
+thou art a Pot. Take heed how thou knockest against me!"</p>
+
+<p>Elenko sped back to bear tidings of the  threatened collision to
+Prometheus. As she approached his chamber she heard with astonishment two
+voices in eager conversation, and discovered with still greater amazement
+that their dialogue was carried on in Greek. The second speaker, moreover,
+was evidently a female. A jealous pang shot through Elenko's breast; she
+looked cautiously in, and discerned the same mysterious veiled woman whose
+demeanour had already been an enigma to her. But the veil was thrown back,
+and the countenance went far to allay Elenko's disquiet. It bore indeed
+traces of past beauty, but was altogether that of one who had known better
+days; worn and faded, weary and repining. Elenko's jealousy vanished,
+though her surprise redoubled, when she heard Prometheus address the
+stranger as "Sister."</p>
+
+<p>"A pretty brother I have got," rejoined the lady, in high sharp tones:
+"to leave me in want! Never once to inquire after me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, sister, or sister-in-law," responded Prometheus, "if it comes to
+that, where were you while I was on Caucasus? The Oceanides ministered to
+me, Hermes came now and then, even Hercules left a card; but I never saw
+Pandora."</p>
+
+<p>"How could I compromise Epimetheus, Prometheus?" demanded Pandora.
+"Besides, my attendant Hope was always telling me that all would come
+right, without any meddling of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Let her tell you so now," retorted Prometheus.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me now! Do you pretend not to know that the hussey forsook Olympus
+ten years ago, and has turned Christian?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I am very sorry to hear it. Somehow,  she never forsook
+<i>me</i>. I can't imagine how you Gods get on without her."</p>
+
+<p>"Get on! We are getting off. Except Eros and Plutus, who seem as usual,
+and the old Fates, who go on spinning as if nothing had happened, none of
+us expects to last for another ten years. The sacrifices have dwindled down
+to nothing. Zeus has put down his eagle. Hera has eaten her peacocks.
+Apollo's lyre is never heard&mdash;pawned, no doubt. Bacchus drinks water,
+and Venus&mdash;well, you can imagine how she gets on without him and
+Ceres. And here you are, sleek and comfortable, and never troubling
+yourself about your family. But you had better, or I swear I will tell
+Zeus; and we shall see whether these Christians will keep you with your
+ante-chamber full of starving gods. Take a day to think of what I have been
+saying!"</p>
+
+<p>And away she flounced, not noticing Elenko. Long and earnestly did the
+pair discuss the perils that menaced them, and at the end of their
+deliberations Elenko sought the Bishop, and briefly imparted the Princess
+Miriam's ultimatum.</p>
+
+<p>"It is painful to a spiritual man," replied the prelate, "to be
+accessory to a murder. It is also repugnant to his feelings to deny a
+beloved niece anything on which she has set her heart. To avoid such
+grievous dilemma, I judge it well that ye both ascend to heaven without
+further ceremony."</p>
+
+<p>That night the ascent of Prometheus and Elenko was witnessed by divers
+credible persons. The new church was consecrated shortly afterwards. It was
+amply stored with relics from the wardrobe of Prometheus and what remained
+of the eagle. The damsels of the capital regained their  admirers, and
+those who had become enamoured of Prometheus mostly transferred their
+affections to the Bishop. Everybody was satisfied except the Princess
+Miriam, who never ceased to deplore her indulgence in giving Elenko the
+chance of first speech with her uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had been five minutes beforehand with the minx!" she said.</p>
+
+<h3>IV</h3>
+
+<p>The heaven to which Prometheus and Elenko had ascended was situated in a
+sequestered valley of Laconia. A single winding path led into the glen,
+which was inhabited only by a few hunters and shepherds, who still observed
+the rites of the ancient faith; and sometimes, deeming but to show kindness
+to a mortal, refreshed or sheltered a forlorn and hungry Deity. Saving at
+the entrance the vale was walled round by steep cliffs, for the most part
+waving with trees, but here and there revealing the naked crag. It was
+traversed by a silvery stream, in its windings enclosing Prometheus's and
+Elenko's cottage, almost as in an island. The cot, buried in laurel and
+myrtle, had a garden where fig and mulberry, grape and almond, ripened in
+their season. A few goats browsed on the long grass, and yielded their milk
+to the household. Bread and wine, and flesh when needed, were easily
+procured from the neighbours. Beyond necessary furniture, the cottage
+contained little but precious scrolls, obtained by Elenko from Athens and
+the newly founded city of Constantine. In these, under  her guidance,
+Prometheus read of matters that never, while he dwelt on Olympus, entered
+the imagination of any God.</p>
+
+<p>It is a chief happiness of lovers that each possesses treasures wholly
+their own, which they may yet make fully the possession of the other. These
+treasures are of divers kinds, beauty, affection, memory, hope. But never
+were such treasures of knowledge shared between lovers as between
+Prometheus and Elenko. Each possessed immeasurable stores, hitherto
+inaccessible to the other. How trifling seemed the mythical lore which
+Elenko had gleaned as the minister of Phoebus to that now imparted by
+Prometheus! The Titan had seen all, and been a part of all that he had
+seen. He had bowed beneath the sceptre of Uranus, he had witnessed his
+fall, and marked the ocean crimson with his blood. He remembered hoary
+Saturn a brisk active Deity, pushing his way to the throne of Heaven, and
+devouring in a trice the stone that now resists his fangs for millenniums.
+He had heard the shields of the Corybantes clash around the infant Zeus; he
+described to Elenko how one day the sea had frothed and boiled, and
+undraped Aphrodite had ascended from it in the presence of the gazing and
+applauding amphitheatre of cloud-cushioned gods. He could depict the
+personal appearance of Cybele, and sketch the character of Enceladus. He
+had instructed Zeus, as Chiron had instructed Achilles; he remembered
+Poseidon afraid of the water, and Pluto of the dark. He called to mind and
+expounded ancient oracles heretofore unintelligible: he had himself been
+told, and had disbelieved, that the happiest day  of his own life would be
+that on which he should feel himself divested of immortality. Of the
+younger gods and their doings he knew but little; he inquired with interest
+whether Bacchus had returned in safety from his Indian expedition, and
+whether Proserpine had a family of divine imps.</p>
+
+<p>Much more, nevertheless, had Elenko to teach Prometheus than she could
+learn from him. How trivial seemed the history of the gods to what he now
+heard of the history of men! Were these indeed the beings he had known
+"like ants in the sunless recesses of caves, dwelling deep-burrowing in the
+earth, ignorant of the signs of the seasons," to whom he had given fire and
+whom he had taught memory and number, for whom he had "brought the horse
+under the chariot, and invented the sea-beaten, flaxen-winged chariot of
+the sailor?" And now, how poorly showed the gods beside this once wretched
+brood! What Deity could die for Olympus, as Leonidas had for Greece? Which
+of them could, like Iphigenia, dwell for years beside the melancholy sea,
+keeping a true heart for an absent brother? Which of them could raise his
+fellows nearer to the source of all Deity, as Socrates and Plato had raised
+men? Who could portray himself as Phidias had portrayed Athene? Could the
+Muses speak with their own voices as they had spoken by Sappho's? He was
+especially pleased to see his own moral superiority to Zeus so eloquently
+enforced by &AElig;schylus, and delighted in criticising the sentiments
+which the other poets had put into the mouths of the gods. Homer, he
+thought, must have been in Olympus often, and Aristophanes not seldom. When
+he read in the Cyclops  of Euripides, "Stranger, I laugh to scorn Zeus's
+thunderbolts," he grew for a moment thoughtful. "Am I," he questioned,
+"ending where Polyphemus began?" But when he read a little further on:</p>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;The wise man's only Jupiter is this,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;To eat and drink during his little day,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;And give himself no care&mdash;
+
+<p>"No," he said, "the Zeus that nailed me to the rock is better than this
+Zeus. But well for man to be rid of both, if he does not put another in
+their place; or, in dropping his idolatry, has not flung away his religion.
+Heaven has not departed with Zeus." And, taking his lyre, he sang:</p>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;What floods of lavish splendour
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The lofty sun doth pour!
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;What else can Heaven render?
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;What room hath she for more?
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Yet shall his course be shortly done,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And after his declining
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;The skies that held a single Sun
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;With thousands shall be shining.
+
+<h3>V</h3>
+
+<p>It was not long ere the gods began to find their way to Prometheus's
+earthly paradise, and who came once came again. The first was Epimetheus,
+who had probably suffered least of all from the general upset, having in
+truth little to lose since his ill-starred union with Pandora. He had
+indeed reason for thankfulness in his practical divorce from his spouse,
+who had settled in  Caucasia, and gave Greek lessons to the Princess
+Miriam. Would Prometheus lend him half a talent? a quarter? a tenth? a
+hundredth? Thanks, thanks. Prometheus might rely upon it that his residence
+should not be divulged on any account. Notwithstanding which assurance, the
+cottage was visited next day by eleven gods and demigods, mostly Titans.
+Elenko found it trying, and was really alarmed when by and by the Furies,
+having made over their functions to the Devil, strolled up to take the air,
+and dropped in for a chat, bringing Cerberus. But they behaved exceedingly
+well, and took back a message from Elenko to Eurydice. Ere long she was on
+most intimate terms with all the dethroned divinities, celestial, infernal,
+and marine.</p>
+
+<p>Beautiful and blessed beyond most things is youthful enthusiasm, looking
+up to something it feels or deems above itself. Beautiful, too, as autumn
+sunshine is maturity looking down with gentleness on the ideal it has
+surpassed, and reverencing it still for old ideas and associations. The
+thought of beholding a Deity would once have thrilled Elenko with rapture,
+if this had not been checked by awe at her own presumption. The idea that a
+Deity, other than some disgraced offender like Prometheus, could be the
+object of her compassion, would never have entered her mind. And now she
+pitied the whole Olympian cohort most sincerely, not so much for having
+fallen as for having deserved to fall. She could not conceal from herself
+how grievously they were one and all behind the age. It was impossible to
+make Zeus comprehend how an idea could be a match for a thunderbolt. Apollo
+spoke handsomely  of Homer, yet evidently esteemed the Iliad and Odyssey
+but lightly in comparison with the blind bard's hymn to himself. Ceres
+candidly admitted that her mind was a complete blank on the subject of the
+Eleusinian mysteries. Aphrodite's dress was admirable for summer, but in
+winter seemed obstinate conservatism; and why should Pallas make herself a
+fright with her Gorgon helmet, now that it no longer frightened anybody?
+Where Elenko would fain have adored she found herself tolerating, excusing,
+condescending. How many Elenkos are even now tenderly nursing ancient
+creeds, whose main virtue is the virtue of their professors!</p>
+
+<p>One autumn night all the principal gods were assembled under
+Prometheus's roof, doing justice to the figs and mulberries, and wine
+cooled with Taygetan snow. The guests were more than usually despondent.
+Prometheus was moody and abstracted, his breast seemed labouring with
+thought. "So looked my Pythoness," whispered Apollo to his neighbour, "when
+about to deliver an oracle."</p>
+
+<p>And the oracle came&mdash;in lyric verse, not to infringe any patent of
+Apollo's&mdash;</p>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;When o'er the towers of Constantine
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;An Orient Moon begins to shine,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Waning nor waxing aught, and bright
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;In daytide as in deep of night:
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Then, though the fane be brought
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;To wreck, the God shall find,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Enthroned in human thought,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;A temple in the mind.
+
+<p>"And what becomes of us while this prodigious moonshine is concocting?"
+demanded Zeus, who had become the most sceptical of any of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to Elysium," suggested Prometheus.</p>
+
+<p>"There's an idea!" cried Zeus and Pallas together.</p>
+
+<p>"To Elysium! to Elysium!" exclaimed the other gods, and all rose
+tumultuously, saving two.</p>
+
+<p>"I go not," said Eros, "for where Love is, there is Elysium. And yonder
+rising moon tells me that my hour is come." And he flitted forth.</p>
+
+<p>"Neither go I," said an old blind god, "for where Plutus is, Elysium is
+not. Moreover, mankind would follow after me. But I too must away. Strange
+that I should have abode so long under the roof of a pair of perfect
+virtue." And he tottered out.</p>
+
+<p>But the other gods swept forth into the moonlight, and were seen no
+more. And Prometheus picked up the forsaken sandals of Hermes, and bound
+them on his own feet, and grasped Elenko, and they rose up by a dizzy
+flight to empty heaven. All was silent in those immense courts, vacant of
+everything save here and there some rusty thunderbolt or mouldering crumb
+of ambrosia. Above, around, below, beyond sight, beyond thought, stretched
+the still deeps of &aelig;ther, blazing with innumerable worlds. Eye could
+rove nowhither without beholding a star, nor could star be beheld from
+which the Gods' hall, with all its vastness, would not have been utterly
+invisible. Elenko leaned over the battlements, and watched the racing
+meteors. Prometheus stood by her, and pointed out in the immeasurable
+distance the little speck of shining dust from which they had flown.</p>
+
+<p>"There? or here?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" said Elenko.</p> <a id="p27"></a> <a
+href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE POTION OF LAO-TSZE</h2>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;And there the body lay, age after age,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mute, breathing, beating, warm, and undecaying,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Like one asleep in a green hermitage,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;With gentle sleep about its eyelids playing,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;And living in its dreams beyond the rage
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Of death or life; while they were still
+arraying
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;In liveries ever new the rapid, blind,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;And fleeting generations of mankind.
+
+<p>In the days of the Tang dynasty China was long happy under the sceptre
+of a good Emperor, named Sin-Woo. He had overcome the enemies of the land,
+confirmed the friendship of its allies, augmented the wealth of the rich,
+and mitigated the wretchedness of the poor. But most especially was he
+admired and beloved for his persecution of the impious sect of Lao-tsze,
+which he had well-nigh exterminated.</p>
+
+<p>It was but natural that such an Emperor should congratulate himself upon
+his goodness and worth; yet, as no human bliss is perfect, sorrow could not
+fail to enter his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"It is grievous to reflect," said he to his courtiers, "that if, as ye
+all affirm, there hath not been any Emperor of equal merit with myself
+before my time, neither will any such arise after me, my subjects must
+inevitably be sufferers by my death."</p>
+
+<p>To which the courtiers unanimously responded, "O Emperor, live for
+ever!"</p>
+
+<p>"Happy thought!" exclaimed the Emperor; "but wherewithal shall it be
+executed?"</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister looked at the Chancellor, the Chancellor looked at
+the Treasurer, the Treasurer looked at the Chamberlain, the Chamberlain
+looked at the Principal Bonze, the Principal Bonze looked at the Second
+Bonze, who, to his great surprise, looked at him in return.</p>
+
+<p>"When the turn comes to me," murmured the inferior functionary, "I would
+say somewhat."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!" commanded the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>"O Uncle of the stars," said the Bonze, "there are those in your
+Majesty's dominions who possess the power of lengthening life, who have, in
+fact, discovered the Elixir of Immortality."</p>
+
+<p>"Let them be immediately brought hither," commanded the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>"Unhappily," returned the Bonze, "these persons, without exception,
+belong to the abominable sect of Lao-tsze, whose members your Majesty long
+ago commanded to cease from existence, with which august order they have
+for the most part complied. In my own diocese, where for some years after
+your Majesty's happy accession we were accustomed to impale twenty thousand
+annually, it is now difficult to find twenty, with the utmost diligence on
+the part of the executioners."</p>
+
+<p>"It has of late sometimes appeared to me," said the Emperor, "that there
+may be more good in that sect than I have been led to believe by my
+counsellors."</p>
+
+<p>"I have always thought," said the Prime Minister, "that they were rather
+misguided than wilfully wicked."</p>
+
+<p>"They are a kind of harmless lunatics," said the Chancellor; "they
+should, I think, be made wards in Chancery."</p>
+
+<p>"Their money does not appear different from other men's," said the
+Treasurer.</p>
+
+<p>"I," said the Chamberlain, "have known an old woman who had known
+another old woman who belonged to this sect, and who assured her that she
+had been very good when she was a little girl."</p>
+
+<p>"If," said the Emperor, "it appears that his Grace the Principal Bonze
+hath in any respect misled us, his property will necessarily be confiscated
+to the Imperial Treasury, and the Second Bonze will succeed to his office.
+It is needful, however, to ascertain before all things whether this sect
+does really possess the Elixir of Immortality, for on that the entire
+question of its deserts obviously depends. Our Counsellor the Second Bonze
+having, next to myself, the greatest interest in the matter, I desire him
+to make due inquiries and report to us at the next council, when I shall be
+prepared to state what fine will be imposed upon him, should he not have
+succeeded."</p>
+
+<p>That night all the members of the Lao-tsze sect inhabiting prisons under
+the jurisdiction of the Principal Bonze were decapitated, and the P.B. laid
+his own head upon his pillow with some approach to peace of mind, trusting
+that the knowledge of the Elixir of Immortality had perished with them.</p>
+
+<p>The Second Bonze, having a different object to attain, proceeded in a
+different manner. He sent for his captives, and discoursed to them touching
+the evil arts of unprincipled courtiers, and  the facility with which they
+mislead even the best intentioned princes. For years had he, the Second
+Bonze, pleaded the cause of toleration at court; and had at length
+succeeded in enlightening his Majesty to such an extent that there was
+every prospect of an edict of indulgence being shortly promulgated,
+provided always that the Elixir of Life was previously forthcoming.</p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate heretics would have been only too thankful to prolong
+the Emperor's life indefinitely in consideration of securing peace for
+their own, but they could only inform the Bonze of the general tradition of
+their sect. This was that the knowledge of Lao-tsze's secret was confined
+to certain adepts, most of whom were plunged into so deep a trance that any
+communication with them was impossible. For the administration of the
+miraculous draught, it appeared, was attended with this inconvenience, that
+it threw the partaker into a deep sleep, lasting any time between ten years
+and eternity, according to the depth of his potation. During its
+continuance the ordinary operations of nature were suspended, and the
+patient awoke with precisely the same bodily constitution, old or young, as
+he had possessed on falling into his lethargy; and though still liable to
+wounds and accidents, he or she continued to enjoy undiminished health and
+vigour for a period equal to the duration of the trance, after which he
+sank back into the ranks of mortality, unless he could repeat the potion.
+All the adepts who had come to life under his present Majesty's most
+clement reign had immediately emigrated: the only persons, therefore,
+capable of giving information were now buried in slumber, and of course
+would only speak when they should awake. They were mostly concealed in the
+recesses of caverns, those inhabited by wild beasts being usually preferred
+for the sake of better security, as no tiger or bear would harm a follower
+of Lao-tsze. The witnesses, therefore, advised the Bonze to ascertain the
+residences of the most ferocious tigers in his diocese, and to wait upon
+them personally, in the hope of thus discovering what he sought.</p>
+
+<p>This suggestion was exceedingly unpalatable to the Bonze, who felt
+almost equally unwilling to venture himself into a wild beast's den or to
+give any other person the chance of making the discovery. While he
+hesitated in unspeakable perplexity he was informed that an old man, about
+to expire at the age of an hundred and twenty years, desired to have speech
+with him. Thinking so venerable a personage likely to have at least a
+glimmering of the great secret, the Bonze hurried to his bedside.</p>
+
+<p>"Our master, Lao-tsze," began the old man, "forbids us to leave this
+world with anything undisclosed which may contribute to the advantage of
+our fellow-creatures. Whether he deemed the knowledge of the cup of
+immortality conducive to this end I cannot say, but the question doth not
+arise, for I do not possess it. Hear my tale, nevertheless. Ninety years
+ago, being a hunter, it was my hap to fall into the jaws of an enormous
+tiger, who bore me off to his cavern. I there found myself in the presence
+of two ladies, one youthful and of surpassing loveliness, the other haggard
+and wrinkled. The younger lady expostulated with the tiger, and he
+forthwith released me. My gratitude won the women's  confidence, and I
+learned that they were disciples of Lao-tsze who had repaired to the cavern
+to partake of the miraculous draught, which they were just about to do.
+They were, it appeared, mother and daughter, and I distinctly remember that
+the composition of the beverage was known to the daughter only. This
+impressed me, for I should naturally have expected the contrary. The tiger
+escorted me home. I forswore hunting, and became, and have secretly
+continued, a disciple of Lao-tsze. I will now indicate the position of the
+cavern to thee: whether the ladies will still be found in it is beyond my
+power to say."</p>
+
+<p>And having pointed out the direction of the cavern, he expired.</p>
+
+<p>The thing had to be done. The Bonze dressed himself up as much like a
+votary of Lao-tsze as possible, provided himself with a body-guard of
+<i>bona fide</i> disciples, and, accompanied by a small army of huntsmen
+and warriors as well, marched in quest of the den of the tiger. It was
+discovered about nightfall, and having tethered a small boy near the
+entrance, that his screams when being devoured might give notice of the
+tiger's issue from or return to his habitation, the Bonze and his myrmidons
+took up a flank position and awaited the dawn. The distant howls of roaming
+beasts of prey entirely deprived the holy man of his rest, but nothing
+worse befell him, and when in the morning the small boy, instead of
+providing the tiger with a breakfast, was heard crying for his own, the
+besiegers mustered up courage to enter the cavern. The glare of their
+torches revealed no tiger: but, to the Bonze's inexpressible delight, two
+females lay on the floor of the cave,  corresponding in all respects to the
+description of the old man. Their costume was that of the preceding
+century. One was wrinkled and hoary; the inexpressible loveliness of the
+other, who might have seen seventeen or eighteen summers, extorted a
+universal cry of admiration, followed by a hush of enraptured silence.
+Warm, flexible, fresh in colour, breathing naturally as in slumber, the
+figures lay, the younger woman's arm underneath the elder woman's neck, and
+her chin nestling on the other's shoulder. The countenance of each seemed
+to indicate happy dreams.</p>
+
+<p>"Can this indeed be but a trance?" simultaneously questioned several of
+the Bonze's followers.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Fiat experimentum in corpore vili!</i>" exclaimed the Bonze; and he
+thrust his long hunting spear into the elder woman's bosom. Blood poured
+forth freely, but there was no change in the expression of the countenance.
+No struggle announced dissolution; not until the body grew chill and the
+limbs stiff could they be sure the old woman was indeed dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Carry the young woman like porcelain," ordered the priest, and like the
+most fragile porcelain the exquisite young beauty was borne from the cavern
+smiling in her trance and utterly unconscious, while the corpse of her aged
+companion was abandoned to the hy&aelig;nas. So often did the bearers pause
+to look on her beauty that it was found necessary to drape the countenance
+entirely, until reaching the closed sedan in which, vigilantly watched by
+the Bonze, she was transported to the Imperial palace.</p>
+
+<p>And so she was brought to the Emperor, and he worshipped her. She was
+laid on a couch of cloth of gold in the Imperial apartments. Wonderful was
+the contrast between her youthful beauty, so still in its repose, and the
+old haggard Emperor, fevered with the lust of beauty and love of life.</p>
+
+<p>"O Majesty," said his wisest counsellor, "is there any sect in thy
+dominions that possesses the secret of perpetual youth?"</p>
+
+<p>And the Emperor made proclamation, but no such sect could be found. And
+he mourned exceedingly, and caused strong perfumes to be burned around the
+sleeper, and conches to be blown and gongs beaten in her ears, hoping that
+she would awake ere he was dead or wholly decrepit. But she stirred not.
+And he shut himself up with her and passed his time praying to Fo for her
+awakening.</p>
+
+<p>But one day the door of the chamber was beaten down, and his old wife
+came in passionately upbraiding him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sin-Woo," she cried, "thou hast not the heart of a man! Thou wouldest
+be deathless, leaving me to die! I shall be laid in the grave, and thou
+wilt reign with another! Wherefore have I been true to thee, if not that
+our ashes might mingle at the last? Thou hoary sensualist!"</p>
+
+<p>"Su-Ti," said the Emperor, with feeling, "thou dost grievously misjudge
+me. I am no heartless sensualist, no butterfly sipper at the lips of
+beauty. Is not my soul entirely possessed by this divine creature, whom I
+love with an affection infinitely exceeding that which I have entertained
+for thee at any period? And how knowest thou," added  he, striving to
+soothe her, "that I will not give thee to drink of the miraculous
+potion?"</p>
+
+<p>"And keep my grey hairs and wrinkles through all time! Nay, Sin-Woo, I
+am no fool like thee, and were I so, I am not in love with any youth. And
+know I not that even if I would accept the boon, thou would'st never give
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>And she rushed away in fury and hanged herself by her Imperial girdle.
+Whereupon all the other wives and concubines of the Emperor did likewise,
+as custom and reason prescribe. All the palace was filled with lamentation
+and funerals. But the Emperor lamented not, nor turned his gaze from the
+sleeper, nor did the sleeper awaken.</p>
+
+<p>And his son came to him angry with exceeding wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast murdered my mother. Thou would'st rob me of the crown that is
+rightfully mine. I, born to be an Emperor, shall die a subject! Nay, but I
+will save thee from thyself. I will pierce thy leman with the sword, or
+burn her with fire."</p>
+
+<p>And the Emperor, fearing he would do as he threatened, commanded him to
+be slain, as also his brothers and sisters. And he paid no heed to the
+affairs of State, but gave all into the hand of the Second, now the
+Principal Bonze. And the laws ceased to be observed, and rebellions broke
+out in the provinces, and enemies invaded the country, and there was famine
+in the land.</p>
+
+<p>And now the Emperor was well-nigh ten years nearer to the gates of death
+than when the Sleeping Beauty had been brought to his court. The love of
+beauty was nearly quenched in him, but the longing for life grew more
+intense. He became  angry with the sleeper, that she awakened not, and with
+his little remaining strength smote her fiercely on the cheeks, but she
+gave no sign of reviving. Remembering that if he gained the potion of
+immortality he would himself be plunged into a trance, he made all
+preparations for the interregnum. He decreed that he was to be seated erect
+on his throne, with all his imperial insignia, and it was to be death to
+any one who should presume to remove any of them. His slumbering figure was
+to preside at all councils, and to be consulted in every act of state, and
+all ministers and officers were to do homage daily. The revived Sleeping
+Beauty was to partake of the draught anew, at the same time and in the same
+manner as himself, that she might awake with him, and that he might find
+her charms unimpaired. All the ministers swore solemnly to observe these
+regulations; firmly purposing to burn the sleeper, if sleep he ever did, at
+the very first opportunity, and scatter his ashes to the winds. Then they
+would fight for the Empire among themselves; each, meanwhile, was mainly
+occupied in striving to gain the rebels over to his interest, insomuch that
+the people grew more miserable day by day.</p>
+
+<p>And as the aged Emperor waxed more and more feeble, he began to see
+visions. Legions of little black imps surrounded him crying, "We are thy
+sins, and would be punished&mdash;would'st thou by living for ever deprive
+us of our due?" And fair female forms came veiled with drooping heads, and
+murmured, "We are thy virtues, and would be rewarded&mdash;would'st thou
+cheat us?" And other figures came, dark but lovely, and whispered,  "We are
+thy dead friends who have long waited for thee&mdash;would'st thou take to
+thyself new friends, and forget us?" And others said, "We are thy
+memories&mdash;wilt thou live on till we are all withered in thy heart?"
+And others said, "We are thy strength and thy beauty, thy memory and thy
+wit&mdash;canst thou live, knowing thou wilt never see us more?" And at
+last came two warders, officers of the King of Death, and one of them was
+laughing. And the other asked why he laughed, and he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I laugh at the Emperor, who thinks to escape our master, not knowing
+that the moment of his decease was engraved with a pen of iron upon a rock
+of adamant a million million years or ever this world was."</p>
+
+<p>"And when comes it?" asked the other.</p>
+
+<p>"In ten minutes," said the first.</p>
+
+<p>When the Emperor heard this he was wild with terror, and tottered to the
+couch on which the Sleeping Beauty lay. "Oh, awake!" he cried, "awake and
+save me ere it is too late!" And, oh wonder! the sleeper stirred, and
+opened her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>If she had been so beautiful while sleeping, what was she when awake!
+But the love of life had overcome the love of beauty in the Emperor's
+bosom, and he saw not the eyes like stars, and the bloom as of peaches and
+lilies, or the aspect grand and smiling as daybreak. He could only cry,
+"Give me the potion, lest I die, give me the potion!"</p>
+
+<p>"That cannot I," she said. "The secret was known only to my
+daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is thy daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"The hoary woman, she who slept with me in the cavern."</p>
+
+<p>"That aged crone thy daughter, daughter to thee so youthful and so
+fresh?</p>
+
+<p>"Even so," she said, "I bore her at sixteen, and slumbered for seventy
+years. When I awoke she was withered and decrepit: I youthful as when I
+closed my eyes. But she had learned the secret, which I never knew."</p>
+
+<p>"The Bonze shall be crucified!" yelled the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>"It is too late," said she; "he is torn in pieces already."</p>
+
+<p>"By whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the multitude that are now coming to do the like unto thee."</p>
+
+<p>And as she spoke the doors were burst open, and in rushed the people,
+headed by the most pious Bonze in the Empire (after the late Principal
+Bonze), who plunged a sword into the Emperor's breast, exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"He who despises this life in comparison with another deserves to lose
+the life which he has." Words, saith the historian Li, which have been
+thought worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold in the Hall of
+Confucius.</p>
+
+<p>And the people were crying, "Kill the sorceress!" But she looked upon
+them, and they cried, "Be our Empress!"</p>
+
+<p>"Remember," said she, "that ye will have to bear with me for a hundred
+years!"</p>
+
+<p>"Would," said they, "that it might be a hundred thousand!"</p>
+
+<p>So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously. Among her good acts is
+enumerated her toleration  of the followers of Lao-tsze. Since, however,
+they have ceased to be persecuted by man, it is observed that wild beasts
+have lost their ancient respect for them, and devour them with no less
+appetite than the members of other sects and denominations.</p> <a
+id="p40"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>ABDALLAH THE ADITE</h2>
+
+<p>An aged hermit named Sergius dwelt in the wilds of Arabia, addicting
+himself to the pursuit of religion and alchemy. Of his creed it could only
+be said that it was so much better than that of his neighbours as to cause
+him to be commonly esteemed a Yezidi, or devil worshipper. But the better
+informed deemed him a Nestorian monk, who had retired into the wilderness
+on account of differences with his brethren, who sought to poison him.</p>
+
+<p>The imputation of Yezidism against Sergius was the cause that a certain
+inquisitive young man resorted to him, trusting to obtain light concerning
+the nature of demons. But he found that Sergius could give him no
+information on that subject, but, on the contrary, discoursed so wisely and
+beautifully on holy things, that his pupil's intellect was enlightened, and
+his enthusiasm was inflamed, and he longed to go forth and instruct the
+ignorant people around him; the Saracens, and the Sabaeans, and the
+Zoroastrians, and the Carmathians, and the Baphometites, and the
+Paulicians, who are a remnant of the ancient Manichees.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, good youth," said Sergius, "I have renounced the sending forth of
+missionaries, having made ample trial with my spiritual son, the Prophet
+Abdallah."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed the youth, "was Abdallah the Adite thy disciple?"</p>
+
+<p>"Even so," said Sergius. "Hearken to his history.</p>
+
+<p>"Never have I instructed so promising a pupil as Abdallah, nor when he
+was first my disciple do I deem that he was other than the most
+simple-minded and well-intentioned of youths. I always called him son, a
+title I have never bestowed on another. Like thee, he had compassion on the
+darkness around him, and craved my leave to go forth and dispel it.</p>
+
+<p>"'My son,' said I, 'I will not restrain thee: thou art no longer a
+child. Thou hast heard me discourse on the subject of persecution, and
+knowest that poison was administered to me personally on account of my
+inability to perceive the supernatural light emanating from the navel of
+Brother Gregory. Thou art aware that thou wilt be beaten with rods and
+pricked with goads, chained and starved in a dungeon, very probably
+blinded, very possibly burned with fire?'</p>
+
+<p>"'All these things I am prepared to undergo,' said Abdallah; and he
+embraced me and bid me farewell.</p>
+
+<p>"After certain moons he returned covered with weals and scars, and his
+bones protruded through his skin.</p>
+
+<p>"'Whence are these weals and scars?' asked I, 'and what signifies this
+protrusion of thy bones?'</p>
+
+<p>"'The weals and the scars,' answered he, 'proceed from the floggings
+inflicted upon me by command of the Caliph; and my bones protrude by reason
+of the omission of his officers to furnish  me with either food or drink in
+the dungeon wherein I was imprisoned by his orders.'</p>
+
+<p>"'O my son,' exclaimed I, 'in the eyes of faith and right reason these
+scars are lovelier than the moles of beauty, and the sight of thy bones is
+like the beholding of hidden treasure!'</p>
+
+<p>"And Abdallah strove to look as though he believed me; nor did he
+entirely fail therein. And I took him, and fed him, and healed him, and
+sent him forth a second time into the world.</p>
+
+<p>"And after a space he returned, covered as before with wounds and
+bruises, but comely and somewhat fat.</p>
+
+<p>"'Whence this sleekness of body, my son?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Through the charity of the Caliph's wives,' he answered, 'who have fed
+me secretly, I having assured them that in remembrance of this good work
+each of them in the world to come would have seven husbands.'</p>
+
+<p>"'How knewest thou this, my son?' I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"'In truth, father,' he said, 'I did not know it; but I thought it
+probable.'</p>
+
+<p>"'O my son! my son!' exclaimed I, 'thou art on a dangerous road. To win
+over weak ignorant people by promises of what they shall receive in a
+future life, whereof thou knowest no more than they do! Knowest thou not
+that the inestimable blessings of religion are of an inward and spiritual
+nature? Did I ever promise any disciple any recompense for his
+enlightenment and good deeds, save flogging, starvation, and burning?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Never, father," said he, 'and therefore thou  hast had no follower of
+thy law save one, and he hath broken it.'</p>
+
+<p>"He left me after a shorter stay than before, and again went forth to
+preach. After a long time he returned in good condition of body, yet
+manifestly having something upon his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"'Father,' he said, 'thy son hath preached with faithfulness and
+acceptance, and turned thousands unto righteousness. But a sorcerer hath
+arisen, saying, "Why follow ye Abdallah, seeing that he breathes not fire
+out of his mouth and nostrils?" And the people give ear unto the words that
+come from this man's lips, when they behold the flame that cometh from his
+nose. And unless thou teachest me to do as he doth I shall assuredly
+perish.'</p>
+
+<p>"And I told Abdallah that it was better to perish for the truth's sake
+than to prolong life by lies and deceit. But he wept and lamented exceeding
+sore, and in the end he prevailed with me; and I taught him to breathe
+flame and smoke out of a hollow nut filled with combustible powder. And I
+took a certain substance called soap, but little known in this country, and
+anointed his feet therewith. And when he and the sorcerer met, both
+breathing flame, the people knew not which to follow; but when Abdallah
+walked over nine hot ploughshares, and the sorcerer could not touch one of
+them, they beat his brains out, and became Abdallah's disciples.</p>
+
+<p>"A long time afterward Abdallah came to me again, this time with a
+joyful, and yet with somewhat of a troubled look, carrying a camel-hair
+blanket, which he undid, and lo! it was full of bones.</p>
+
+<p>"'O father,' he said, 'I bring thee happy tidings. We have found the
+bones of the camel of the prophet Ad, upon which his revelation was
+engraved by him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'If this be so,' said I, 'thou art acquainted with the precepts of the
+prophet, and hast no need of mine.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Nay, but father,' said he, 'although the revelation was without
+question originally engraved by the prophet on these very bones, it hath
+come to pass by the injury of time that not one letter of his writing can
+be distinguished. I have therefore come to ask thee to write it over
+again.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What!' I exclaimed, 'I forge a revelation in the name of the prophet
+Ad! Get thee behind me!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Thou knowest, father,' he rejoined, 'that if we had the original words
+of the prophet Ad here they would profit us nought, as by reason of their
+antiquity none would understand them. Seeing therefore that I myself cannot
+write, it is meet that thou shouldst set down in his name those things
+which he would have desired to deliver had he been now among us; but if
+thou wilt not, I shall ask Brother Gregory.'</p>
+
+<p>"And when I heard him speak of having recourse to that cheat and
+impostor my spirit was grieved within me, and I wrote the Book of Ad
+myself. And I was heedful to put in none but wholesome and profitable
+precepts, and more especially did I forbid polygamy, having perceived a
+certain inclination thereunto in my disciple.</p>
+
+<p>"After many days he came again, and this time he was in violent terror
+and agitation, and hair was wanting to the lower part of his
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"'O Abdallah,' I inquired, 'where is thy beard?'</p>
+
+<p>"'In the hands of my ninth wife,' said he.</p>
+
+<p>"'Apostate!' I exclaimed, 'hast thou dared to espouse more wives than
+one? Rememberest thou not what is written in the Book of the prophet
+Ad?'</p>
+
+<p>"'O father,' he said, 'the revelation of Ad being, as thou knowest, so
+exceedingly ancient, doth of necessity require a commentary. This hath been
+supplied by one of my disciples, a young Syrian and natural son of Gregory,
+as I opine. This young man can not only write, but write to my dictation,
+an accomplishment in which thou hast been found lacking, O Sergius. In this
+gloss it is set forth how, since woman hath the ninth part of the soul of
+man, the prophet, in enjoining us Adites (as we now call ourselves) to take
+but one wife, doth instruct us to take nine; to espouse a tenth would, I
+grant, be damnable. It ensues, therefore, that having become enamoured of a
+most charming young virgin, I am constrained to repudiate one of the wives
+whom I have taken already. To this, each thinking that it may be her turn
+speedily, if not now, they will in no wise consent, and have maltreated me
+as thou seest, and the dens of wild beasts are at this moment abodes of
+peace, compared to my seraglio. What is even worse, they threaten to
+disclose to the people the fact, of which they have unhappily become aware,
+that the revelation of the blessed Ad is not written upon the bones of a
+camel at all, but of a cow, and will therefore be accounted spurious,
+inasmuch as the prophet is not recorded to have ridden upon this quadruped.
+And seeing  that thou didst inscribe the characters, O father, I cannot but
+fear that the fury of the people will extend unto thee, and that thou wilt
+be even in danger of thy life from them.'</p>
+
+<p>"This argument of Abdallah's had much weight with me, and I the more
+readily consented to his request as he did not on this occasion require any
+imposture at my hands, but merely the restitution of his domestic peace.
+And I went with him to his wives, and discoursed with them, and they agreed
+to abide by my sentence. And, willing to please him, I directed that he
+should marry the beautiful virgin, and put away one of his wives who was
+old and ugly, and endowed with the dispositions of Sheitan.</p>
+
+<p>"'O father,' said Abdallah, 'thou hast brought me from death unto life!
+And thou, Zarah,' he continued, 'wilt lose nought, but gain exceedingly, in
+becoming the spouse of the wise and virtuous Sergius.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I marry Zarah!' I exclaimed, 'I! a monk!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Surely,' said he, 'thou would'st not take away her husband without
+giving her another in his stead?'</p>
+
+<p>"'If he does I will throttle him,' cried Zarah.</p>
+
+<p>"And I wept sore, and made great intercession. And it was agreed that
+there should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else would
+marry Zarah, I should be free of her. And I promised all my substance to
+any one who would do this, and no one was found. And she was offered to
+thirteen criminals doomed to suffer death, and they all chose death. And at
+the last I was constrained to marry her. And truly I have now the comfort
+of thinking that if I have offended by  encouraging Abdallah's deceits, or
+otherwise, the debt is paid, and Eternal Justice hath now nothing against
+me; for verily I was an inmate of Gehenna until it came to pass that she
+was herself translated thither. And respecting the manner of her
+translation, inquire not thou too curiously. It was doubtless a token of
+the displeasure of Heaven at her enormities that the water of the well of
+Kefayat, which had been known as the Diamond of the Desert, became about
+this time undrinkable, and pernicious to man and beast.</p>
+
+<p>"As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased
+wife, which consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah
+again appeared before me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Hast thou come,' said I, 'to solicit me to abet thee in any new
+imposture? Know, once for all, that I will not.'</p>
+
+<p>"'On the contrary,' said he, 'I am come to set thee at ease by proving
+to thee that I shall not again require thy assistance. Follow me.'</p>
+
+<p>"And I followed him to a great plain, where was a host of armed horsemen
+and footmen, more than I could number. And they bore banners on which the
+name of Abdallah was embroidered in letters of gold. And in the midst was
+an ark of gold, with the bones of Ad's camel, or cow. And by this was a
+great pile of the heads of men, and warriors were continually casting more
+and more upon the heap.</p>
+
+<p>"'How many?' asked Abdallah.</p>
+
+<p>"'Twelve thousand, O Apostle of God,' answered they, 'but there are more
+to come.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Thou monster!' said I to Abdallah.</p>
+
+<p>"'Nay, father,' said he, 'there will not be more than sixteen thousand
+in all, and these men were unbelievers. Moreover we have spared such of
+their women as were young and handsome, and have taken them for our
+concubines, as is ordained in the eleventh supplement to the Book of Ad,
+just promulgated by my authority. But come, I have other things to manifest
+unto thee.'</p>
+
+<p>"And he led me where a stake was driven into the earth, and a man was
+chained unto it, and fuel was heaped all around him, and many stood by with
+lighted torches in their hands.</p>
+
+<p>"'O Abdallah,' I exclaimed, 'wherefore this atrocity?'</p>
+
+<p>"'This man,' he replied, 'is a blasphemer, who hath said that the Book
+of Ad is written on the bones of a cow.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But it is written on the bones of a cow! 'I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"'Even so,' said he, 'and therefore is his heresy the more damnable, and
+his punishment the more exemplary. Had it been indeed written on the bones
+of a camel, he might have affirmed what pleased him.'</p>
+
+<p>"And I shook off the dust from my feet, and hastened to my dwelling. The
+rest of Abdallah's acts thou knowest, and how he fell warring with the
+Carmathians. And now I ask thee, art thou yet minded to go forth as a
+missionary of the truth?"</p>
+
+<p>"O Sergius," said the young man, "I perceive that the temptations are
+greater, and the difficulties far surpassing what I had thought. Yet will I
+go, and I trust by Heaven's grace not to fail utterly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then go," said Sergius, "and Heaven's blessing go with thee! Come back
+in ten years, should I be living, and if thou canst declare that thou hast
+forged no scriptures, and worked no miracles, and persecuted no
+unbelievers, and flattered no potentate, and bribed no one with the promise
+of aught in heaven or earth, I will give thee the philosopher's stone."</p>
+<a id="p50"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>ANANDA THE MIRACLE WORKER</h2>
+
+<p>The holy Buddha, Sakhya Muni, on dispatching his apostles to proclaim
+his religion throughout the peninsula of India, failed not to provide them
+with salutary precepts for their guidance. He exhorted them to meekness, to
+compassion, to abstemiousness, to zeal in the promulgation of his doctrine,
+and added an injunction never before or since prescribed by the founder of
+any religion&mdash;namely, on no account to perform any miracle.</p>
+
+<p>It is further related, that whereas the apostles experienced
+considerable difficulty in complying with the other instructions of their
+master, and sometimes actually failed therein, the prohibition to work
+miracles was never once transgressed by any of them, save only the pious
+Ananda, the history of whose first year's apostolate is recorded as
+follows.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda repaired to the kingdom of Magadha, and instructed the
+inhabitants diligently in the law of Buddha. His doctrine being acceptable,
+and his speech persuasive, the people hearkened to him willingly, and began
+to forsake the Brahmins whom they had previously revered as spiritual
+guides. Perceiving this, Ananda became elated in spirit, and one day he
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"How blessed is the apostle who propagates truth by the efficacy of
+reason and virtuous example, combined with eloquence, rather than error by
+imposture and devil-mongering, like those miserable Brahmins!"</p>
+
+<p>As he uttered this vainglorious speech, the mountain of his merits was
+diminished by sixteen yojanas, and virtue and efficacy departed from him,
+insomuch that when he next addressed the multitude they first mocked, then
+hooted, and finally pelted him.</p>
+
+<p>When matters had reached this pass, Ananda lifted his eyes and discerned
+a number of Brahmins of the lower sort, busy about a boy who lay in a fit
+upon the ground. They had long been applying exorcisms and other approved
+methods with scant success, when the most sagacious among them
+suggested:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us render the body of this patient an uncomfortable residence for
+the demon; peradventure he will then cease to abide therein."</p>
+
+<p>They were accordingly engaged in branding the sufferer with hot irons,
+filling his nostrils with smoke, and otherwise to the best of their ability
+disquieting the intrusive devil. Ananda's first thought was, "The lad is in
+a fit;" the second, "It were a pious deed to deliver him from his
+tormentors;" the third, "By good management this may extricate me from my
+present uncomfortable predicament, and redound to the glory of the most
+holy Buddha."</p>
+
+<p>Yielding to this temptation, he strode forward, chased away the Brahmins
+with an air of authority, and, uplifting his countenance to heaven, recited
+the appellations of seven devils. No effect ensuing,  he repeated seven
+more, and so continued until, the fit having passed off in the course of
+nature, the patient's paroxysms ceased, he opened his eyes, and Ananda
+restored him to his relatives. But the people cried loudly, "A miracle! a
+miracle!" and when Ananda resumed his instructions, they gave heed to him,
+and numbers embraced the religion of Buddha. Whereupon Ananda exulted, and
+applauded himself for his dexterity and presence of mind, and said to
+himself:</p>
+
+<p>"Surely the end sanctifies the means,"</p>
+
+<p>As he propounded this heresy, the eminence of his merits was reduced to
+the dimensions of a mole-hill, and he ceased to be of account in the eyes
+of any of the saints, save only of Buddha, whose compassion is
+inexhaustible.</p>
+
+<p>The fame of his achievement, nevertheless, was bruited about the whole
+country, and soon reached the ears of the king, who sent for him, and
+inquired if he had actually expelled the demon.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda replied in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>"I am indeed rejoiced," returned the king, "as thou now wilt without
+doubt proceed to heal <i>my</i> son, who has lain in a trance for
+twenty-nine days."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! dread sovereign," modestly returned Ananda, "how should the
+merits which barely suffice to effect the cure of a miserable Pariah avail
+to restore the offspring of an Elephant among Kings?"</p>
+
+<p>"By what process are these merits acquired?" demanded the monarch.</p>
+
+<p>"By the exercise of penance," responded Ananda, "in virtue of which the
+austere devotee  quells the winds, allays the waters, expostulates
+convincingly with tigers, carries the moon in his sleeve, and otherwise
+performs all acts and deeds appropriate to the character of a peripatetic
+thaumaturgist."</p>
+
+<p>"This being so," answered the king, "thy inability to heal my son
+manifestly arises from defect of merit, and defect of merit from defect of
+penance. I will therefore consign thee to the charge of my Brahmins, that
+they may aid thee to fill up the measure of that which is lacking."</p>
+
+<p>Ananda vainly strove to explain that the austerities to which he had
+referred were entirely of a spiritual and contemplative character. The
+Brahmins, enchanted to get a heretic into their clutches, immediately
+seized upon him, and conveyed him to one of their temples. They stripped
+him, and perceived with astonishment that not one single weal or scar was
+visible anywhere on his person. "Horror!" they exclaimed; "here is a man
+who expects to go to heaven in a whole skin!" To obviate this breach of
+etiquette, they laid him upon his face, and flagellated him until the
+obnoxious soundness of cuticle was entirely removed. They then departed,
+promising to return next day and operate in a corresponding manner upon the
+anterior part of his person, after which, they jeeringly assured him, his
+merits would be in no respect less than those of the saintly Bhagiratha, or
+of the regal Viswamitra himself.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda lay half dead upon the floor of the temple, when the sanctuary
+was illuminated by the apparition of a resplendent Glendoveer, who thus
+addressed him:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, backsliding disciple, art thou yet convinced of thy folly?"</p>
+
+<p>Ananda relished neither the imputation on his orthodoxy nor that on his
+wisdom. He replied, notwithstanding, with all meekness:</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven forbid that I should repine at any variety of martyrdom that
+tends to the propagation of my master's faith."</p>
+
+<p>"Wilt thou then first be healed, and moreover become the instrument of
+converting the entire realm of Magadha?"</p>
+
+<p>"How shall this be accomplished?" demanded Ananda.</p>
+
+<p>"By perseverance in the path of deceit and disobedience," returned the
+Glendoveer.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda winced, but maintained silence in the expectation of more
+explicit directions.</p>
+
+<p>"Know," pursued the spirit, "that the king's son will revive from his
+trance at the expiration of the thirtieth day, which takes place at noon
+to-morrow. Thou hast but to proceed at the fitting period to the couch
+whereon he is deposited, and, placing thy hand upon his heart, to command
+him to rise forthwith. His recovery will be ascribed to thy supernatural
+powers, and the establishment of Buddha's religion will result. Before this
+it will be needful that I should perform an actual cure upon thy back,
+which is within the compass of my capacity. I only request thee to take
+notice, that thou wilt on this occasion be transgressing the precepts of
+thy master with thine eyes open. It is also meet to apprise thee that thy
+temporary extrication from thy present difficulties will only involve thee
+in others still more formidable."</p>
+
+<p>"An incorporeal Glendoveer is no judge of the feelings of a flayed
+apostle," thought Ananda. "Heal me," he replied, "if thou canst, and
+reserve thy admonitions for a more convenient opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>"So be it," returned the Glendoveer; and as he extended his hand over
+Ananda, the latter's back was clothed anew with skin, and his previous
+smart simultaneously allayed. The Glendoveer vanished at the same moment,
+saying, "When thou hast need of me, pronounce but the incantation, <i>Gnooh
+Imdap Inam Mua</i>, [*] and I will immediately be by thy side."</p> <p
+class="footnote">*) The mystic formula of the Buddhists, read
+backwards. </p>
+
+<p>The anger and amazement of the Brahmins may be conceived when, on
+returning equipped with fresh implements of flagellation, they discovered
+the salubrious condition of their victim. Their scourges would probably
+have undergone conversion into halters, had they not been accompanied by a
+royal officer, who took the really triumphant martyr under his protection,
+and carried him off to the palace. He was speedily conducted to the young
+prince's couch, whither a vast crowd attended him. The hour of noon not
+having yet arrived, Ananda discreetly protracted the time by a seasonable
+discourse on the impossibility of miracles, those only excepted which
+should be wrought by the professors of the faith of Buddha. He then
+descended from his pulpit, and precisely as the sun attained the zenith
+laid his hand upon the bosom of the young prince, who instantly revived,
+and completed a sentence touching the game of dice which had been
+interrupted by his catalepsy.</p>
+
+<p>The people shouted, the courtiers went into ecstasies, the countenances
+of the Brahmins assumed an exceedingly sheepish expression. Even the king
+seemed impressed, and craved to be more particularly instructed in the law
+of Buddha. In complying with this request, Ananda, who had made marvellous
+progress in worldly wisdom during the last twenty-four hours, deemed it
+needless to dilate on the cardinal doctrines of his master, the misery of
+existence, the need of redemption, the path to felicity, the prohibition to
+shed blood. He simply stated that the priests of Buddha were bound to
+perpetual poverty, and that under the new dispensation all ecclesiastical
+property would accrue to the temporal authorities.</p>
+
+<p>"By the holy cow!" exclaimed the monarch, "this is something like a
+religion!"</p>
+
+<p>The words were scarcely out of the royal lips ere the courtiers
+professed themselves converts. The multitude followed their example. The
+Brahminical church was promptly disestablished and disendowed, and more
+injustice was committed in the name of the new and purified religion in one
+day than the old corrupt one had occasioned in a hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda had the satisfaction of feeling able to forgive his adversaries,
+and of valuing himself accordingly; and to complete his felicity, he was
+received in the palace, and entrusted with the education of the king's son,
+which he strove to conduct agreeably to the precepts of Buddha. This was a
+task of some delicacy, as it involved interference with the princely
+youth's favourite amusement, which had previously consisted in torturing
+small reptiles.</p>
+
+<p>After a short interval Ananda was again summoned to the monarch's
+presence. He found his majesty in the company of two most ferocious
+ruffians, one of whom bore a huge axe, and the other an enormous pair of
+pincers.</p>
+
+<p>"My chief executioner and my chief tormentor," said the king.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda expressed his gratification at becoming acquainted with such
+exalted functionaries.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou must know, most holy man," resumed the king, "that need has again
+arisen for the exercise of fortitude and self-denial on thy part. A
+powerful enemy has invaded my dominions, and has impiously presumed to
+discomfit my troops. Well might I feel dismayed, were it not for the
+consolations of religion; but my trust is in thee, O spiritual father! It
+is urgent that thou shouldst accumulate the largest amount of merit with
+the least delay possible. I am unable to invoke the ministrations of thy
+old friends the Brahmins to this end, they being, as thou knowest, in
+disgrace, but I have summoned these trusty and experienced counsellors in
+their room. I find them not wholly in accord. My chief tormentor, being a
+man of mild temper and humane disposition, considers that it might at first
+suffice to employ gentle measures, such, for example, as suspending thee
+head downwards in the smoke of a wood fire, and filling thy nostrils with
+red pepper. My chief executioner, taking, peradventure, a too professional
+view of the subject, deems it best to resort at once to crucifixion or
+impalement. I would gladly know thy thoughts on the matter."</p>
+
+<p>Ananda expressed, as well as his terror would  suffer him, his entire
+disapproval of both the courses recommended by the royal advisers.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the king, with an air of resignation, "if we cannot agree
+upon either, it follows that we must try both. We will meet for that
+purpose to-morrow morning at the second hour. Go in peace!"</p>
+
+<p>Ananda went, but not in peace. His alarm would have well-nigh deprived
+him of his faculties if he had not remembered the promise made him by his
+former deliverer. On reaching a secluded spot he pronounced the mystic
+formula, and immediately became aware of the presence, not of a radiant
+Glendoveer, but of a holy man, whose head was strewn with ashes, and his
+body anointed with cow-dung.</p>
+
+<p>"Thy occasion," said the Fakir, "brooks no delay. Thou must immediately
+accompany me, and assume the garb of a Jogi."</p>
+
+<p>Ananda rebelled excessively in his heart, for he had imbibed from the
+mild and sage Buddha a befitting contempt for these grotesque and
+cadaverous fanatics. The emergency, however, left him no resource, and he
+followed his guide to a charnel house, which the latter had selected as his
+domicile. There, with many lamentations over the smoothness of his hair and
+the brevity of his nails, the Jogi besprinkled and besmeared Ananda
+agreeably to his own pattern, and scored him with chalk and ochre until the
+peaceful apostle of the gentlest of creeds resembled a Bengal tiger. He
+then hung a chaplet of infants' skulls about his neck, placed the skull of
+a malefactor in one of his hands and the thigh-bone of a necromancer in the
+other, and at nightfall conducted him into the  adjacent cemetery, where,
+seating him on the ashes of a recent funeral pile, he bade him drum upon
+the skull with the thigh-bone, and repeat after himself the incantations
+which he began to scream out towards the western part of the firmament.
+These charms were apparently possessed of singular efficacy, for scarcely
+were they commenced ere a hideous tempest arose, rain descended in
+torrents, phosphoric flashes darted across the sky, wolves and hy&aelig;nas
+thronged howling from their dens, and gigantic goblins, arising from the
+earth, extended their fleshless arms towards Ananda, and strove to drag him
+from his seat. Urged by frantic terror, and the example and exhortations of
+his companion, he battered, banged, and vociferated, until on the very
+verge of exhaustion; when, as if by enchantment, the tempest ceased, the
+spectres disappeared, and joyous shouts and a burst of music announced the
+occurrence of something auspicious in the adjoining city.</p>
+
+<p>"The hostile king is dead," said the Jogi; "and his army has dispersed.
+This will be attributed to thy incantations. They are coming in quest of
+thee even now. Farewell until thou again hast need of me."</p>
+
+<p>The Jogi disappeared, the tramp of a procession became audible, and soon
+torches glared feebly through the damp, cheerless dawn. The monarch
+descended from his state elephant, and, prostrating himself before Ananda,
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Inestimable man! why didst thou not disclose that thou wert a Jogi?
+Never more shall I feel the least apprehension of any of my enemies, so
+long as thou continuest an inmate of this cemetery."</p>
+
+<p>A family of jackals were unceremoniously dislodged from a disused
+sepulchre, which was allotted to Ananda for his future residence. The king
+permitted no alteration in his costume, and took care that the food doled
+out to him should have no tendency to impair his sanctity, which speedily
+gave promise of attaining a very high pitch. His hair had already become as
+matted and his nails as long as the Jogi could have desired, when he
+received a visit from another royal messenger. The Rajah, so ran the regal
+missive, had been suddenly and mysteriously attacked by a dangerous malady,
+but confidently anticipated relief from Ananda's merits and
+incantations.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda resumed his thigh-bone and his skull, and ruefully began to thump
+the latter with the former, in dismal expectation of the things that were
+to come. But the spell seemed to have lost its potency. Nothing more
+unearthly than a bat presented itself, and Ananda was beginning to think
+that he might as well desist when his reflections were diverted by the
+apparition of a tall and grave personage, wearing a sad-coloured robe, and
+carrying a long wand, who stood by his side as suddenly as though just
+risen from the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"The caldron is ready," said the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"What caldron?" demanded Ananda.</p>
+
+<p>"That wherein thou art about to be immersed."</p>
+
+<p>"I immersed in a caldron! wherefore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thy spells," returned his interlocutor, "having hitherto failed to
+afford his majesty the slightest relief, and his experience of their
+efficacy on a former occasion forbidding him to suppose that they can be
+inoperative, he is naturally led to ascribe to their pernicious influence
+that aggravation  of pain of which he has for some time past unfortunately
+been sensible. I have confirmed him in this conjecture, esteeming it for
+the interest of science that his anger should fall upon an impudent
+impostor like thee rather than on a discreet and learned physician like
+myself. He has consequently directed the principal caldron to be kept
+boiling all night, intending to immerse thee therein at daybreak, unless he
+should in the meantime derive some benefit from thy conjurations."</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens!" exclaimed Ananda, "whither shall I fly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nowhere beyond this cemetery," returned the physician, "inasmuch as it
+is entirely surrounded by the royal forces."</p>
+
+<p>"Wherein, then," demanded the agonized apostle, "doth the path of safety
+lie?"</p>
+
+<p>"In this phial," answered the physician. "It contains a subtle poison.
+Demand to be led before the king. Affirm that thou hast received a
+sovereign medicine from the hands of benignant spirits. He will drink it
+and perish, and thou wilt be richly rewarded by his successor."</p>
+
+<p>"Ayaunt, tempter!" cried Ananda, hurling the phial indignantly away. "I
+defy thee! and will have recourse to my old deliverer&mdash;<i>Gnooh Imdap
+Inam Mua!"</i> </p>
+
+<p>But the charm appeared to fail of its effect. No figure was visible to
+his gaze, save that of the physician, who seemed to regard him with an
+expression of pity as he gathered up his robes and melted rather than
+glided into the encompassing darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda remained, contending with himself. Countless times was he on the
+point of calling  after the physician and imploring him to return with a
+potion of like properties to the one rejected, but something seemed always
+to rise in his throat and impede his utterance, until, worn out by
+agitation, he fell asleep and dreamed this dream.</p>
+
+<p>He thought he stood at the vast and gloomy entrance of Patala. [*] The
+lugubrious spot wore a holiday appearance; everything seemed to denote a
+diabolical gala. Swarms of demons of all shapes and sizes beset the portal,
+contemplating what appeared to be preparations for an illumination. Strings
+of coloured lamps were in course of disposition in wreaths and festoons by
+legions of frolicsome imps, chattering, laughing, and swinging by their
+tails like so many monkeys. The operation was directed from below by
+superior fiends of great apparent gravity and respectability. These bore
+wands of office, tipped with yellow flames, wherewith they singed the tails
+of the imps when such discipline appeared to them to be requisite. Ananda
+could not refrain from asking the reason of these festive preparations.</p>
+<p class="footnote">*) The Hindoo Pandemonium. </p>
+
+<p>"They are in honour," responded the demon interrogated, "of the pious
+Ananda, one of the apostles of the Lord Buddha, whose advent is hourly
+expected among us with much eagerness and satisfaction."</p>
+
+<p>The horrified Ananda with much difficulty mustered resolution to inquire
+on what account the apostle in question was necessitated to take up his
+abode in the infernal regions.</p>
+
+<p>"On account of poisoning," returned the fiend laconically.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda was about to seek further explanations, when his attention was
+arrested by a violent altercation between two of the supervising
+demons.</p>
+
+<p>"Kammuragha, evidently," croaked one.</p>
+
+<p>"Damburanana, of course," snarled the other.</p>
+
+<p>"May I," inquired Ananda of the fiend he had before addressed, "presume
+to ask the signification of Kammuragha and Damburanana?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are two hells," replied the demon. "In Kammuragha the occupant is
+plunged into melted pitch and fed with melted lead. In Damburanana he is
+plunged into melted lead and fed with melted pitch. My colleagues are
+debating which is the more appropriate to the demerits of our guest
+Ananda."</p>
+
+<p>Ere Ananda had had time to digest this announcement a youthful imp
+descended from above with agility, and, making a profound reverence,
+presented himself before the disputants.</p>
+
+<p>"Venerable demons," interposed he, "might my insignificance venture to
+suggest that we cannot well testify too much honour for our visitor Ananda,
+seeing that he is the only apostle of Buddha with whose company we are
+likely ever to be indulged? Wherefore I would propose that neither
+Kammuragha nor Damburanana be assigned for his residence, but that the
+amenities of all the two hundred and forty-four thousand hells be combined
+in a new one, constructed especially for his reception."</p>
+
+<p>The imp having thus spoken, the senior demons were amazed at his
+precocity, and performed a <i>pradakshina</i>, exclaiming, "Truly thou art
+a highly superior young devil!" They then departed to  prepare the new
+infernal chamber, agreeably to his recipe.</p>
+
+<p>Ananda awoke, shuddering with terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," he exclaimed, "why was I ever an apostle? O Buddha! Buddha! how
+hard are the paths of saintliness! How prone to error are the well-meaning!
+How huge is the absurdity of spiritual pride!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast discovered that, my son?" said a gentle voice in his
+vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>He turned and beheld the divine Buddha, radiant with a mild and
+benignant light. A cloud seemed rolled away from his vision, and he
+recognised in his master the Glendoveer, the Jogi, and the Physician.</p>
+
+<p>"O holy teacher!" exclaimed he in extreme perturbation, "whither shall I
+turn? My sin forbids me to approach thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Not on account of thy sin art thou forbidden, my son," returned Buddha,
+"but on account of the ridiculous and unsavoury plight to which thy knavery
+and disobedience have reduced thee. I have now appeared to remind thee that
+this day all my apostles meet on Mount Vindhya to render an account of
+their mission, and to inquire whether I am to deliver thine in thy stead,
+or whether thou art minded to proclaim it thyself."</p>
+
+<p>"I will render it with my own lips," resolutely exclaimed Ananda. "It is
+meet that I should bear the humiliation of acknowledging my folly."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast said well, my son," replied Buddha, "and in return I will
+permit thee to discard the attire, if such it may be termed, of a Jogi, and
+to appear in our assembly wearing the yellow robe as beseems my disciple.
+Nay, I will even infringe  my own rule on thy behalf, and perform a not
+inconsiderable miracle by immediately transporting thee to the summit of
+Vindhya, where the faithful are already beginning to assemble. Thou wouldst
+otherwise incur much risk of being torn to pieces by the multitude, who, as
+the shouts now approaching may instruct thee, are beginning to extirpate my
+religion at the instigation of the new king, thy hopeful pupil. The old
+king is dead, poisoned by the Brahmins."</p>
+
+<p>"O master! master!" exclaimed Ananda, weeping bitterly, "and is all the
+work undone, and all by my fault and folly?"</p>
+
+<p>"That which is built on fraud and imposture can by no means endure,"
+returned Buddha, "be it the very truth of Heaven. Be comforted; thou shalt
+proclaim my doctrine to better purpose in other lands. Thou hast this time
+but a sorry account to render of thy stewardship; yet thou mayest truly
+declare that thou hast obeyed my precept in the letter, if not in the
+spirit, since none can assert that thou hast ever wrought any miracle."</p>
+<a id="p66"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE CITY OF PHILOSOPHERS</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>Nature is manifold, not infinite, though the extent of the resources of
+which she can dispose almost enables her to pass for such. Her cards are so
+multitudinous that the pairs are easily shuffled into ages so far asunder
+that their resemblance escapes remark. But sometimes her mischievous
+daughter Fortune manages to thrust these duplicates into such conspicuous
+places that their similarity cannot pass unobserved, and Nature is caught
+plagiarising from herself. She is thus detected dealing a king&mdash;or
+knave&mdash;a second time in the person of a king who has already fallen
+from her pack as an emperor. Brilliant, careless, selfish, yet good-natured
+<i>vauriens</i>, the Roman Emperor Gallienus and our Charles the Second
+excelled in every art save the art of reigning, and might have excelled in
+that also if they would have taken the trouble. The circumstances of their
+reigns were in many respects as similar as their characters. Both were the
+sons of grave and strict fathers, each of whom had met with terrible
+misfortunes: one deprived of his liberty by his enemies, the other of his
+head by his own subjects. Each of the sons had been grievously vexed by
+rebels, but Charles's troubles from this quarter had mostly ended where
+those  of Gallienus began. Each saw his dominions ravaged by pestilence in
+a manner beyond all former experience. The Goths destroyed the temple of
+the Ephesian Diana, and the Dutch burned the English fleet at Chatham.
+Charles shut up the Exchequer, and Gallienus debased the coinage. Charles
+accepted a pension from Louis XIV., and Gallienus devolved the burden of
+his Eastern provinces on a Syrian Emir. Their tastes and pursuits were as
+similar as their histories. Charles excelled as a wit and a critic;
+Gallienus as a poet and a gastronomer. Charles was curious about chemistry,
+and founded the Royal Society. In the third century the conception of the
+systematic investigation of nature did not exist. Gallienus, therefore,
+could not patronise exact science; and the great literary light of the age,
+Longinus, irradiated the court of Palmyra. But the Emperor bestowed his
+favour in ample measure on the chief contemporary philosopher, Plotinus,
+who strove to unite the characters of Plato and Pythagoras, of sage and
+seer. Like Schelling in time to come, he maintained the necessity of a
+special organ for the apprehension of philosophy, without perceiving that
+he thereby proclaimed philosophy bankrupt, and placed himself on the level
+of the Oriental hierophants, with whose sublime quackeries the modest sage
+could not hope to contend. So extreme was his humility, that he would not
+claim to have been consciously united to the Divinity more than four times
+in his life; without condemning magic and thaumaturgy, he left their
+practice to more adventurous spirits, and contented himself with the
+occasional visits of a  familiar demon in the shape of a serpent. He
+experienced, however, frequent visitations of trance or ecstasy, sometimes
+lasting for a long period; and it may have been in one of these that he was
+inspired by the idea of asking the Emperor for a decayed city in Campania,
+there to establish a philosophic commonwealth as nearly upon the model of
+Plato's Republic as the degeneracy of the times would allow.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot," said Gallienus, when the project had been explained to him,
+"object in principle to aught so festive and jocose. The age is turned
+upside down; its comedians are lamentable, and its sages ludicrous. It must
+moreover, I apprehend, be sated with the earthquakes, famines, pestilences,
+and barbarian invasions with which it hath been exclusively regaled for so
+long, and must crave something enlivening, of the nature of thy
+proposition. But whether, when we arrive at the consideration of ways and
+means, I shall find my interview with my treasurer enlivening, is gravely
+to be questioned. I have heard homilies enough on my prodigality, which
+merely means that I prefer spending my treasures on myself to saving them
+for my successor, whose title will probably have been acquired by cutting
+my throat."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Plotinus, "that the expenses of administering an empire
+must necessarily be prodigious. I am aware that the principal generals are
+only kept to their allegiance by enormous bribes. I well understand that
+the Empress must have pearls, and that the Roman populace must have
+panthers; and that, since Egypt has revolted, the hippopotamus is worth his
+weight in gold. I am further aware that the proposed  colossal statue of
+your Majesty in the same metal, including a staircase, with room in the
+head for a child, like another Pallas in the brain of Zeus, must alone
+involve very considerable outlay. But I am encouraged by your Majesty's
+wise and statesmanlike measure of debasing the currency; since, money
+having become devoid of value, there can be no difficulty in devoting any
+amount of it to any purpose required."</p>
+
+<p>"Plotinus," said Gallienus, "in this age the devil is taking the
+hindmost, and we are the hindmost. There are tidings to-day of a new
+earthquake in Bithynia, and three days' darkness, also of outbreaks of
+pestilence, and incursions of the barbarians, too numerous as well as too
+disagreeable to mention. At this moment some revolted legion is probably
+forcing the purple upon some reluctant general; and the Persian king, a
+great equestrian, is doubtless mounting his horse by the aid of my father's
+back. If I had been an old Roman, I should by this time have avenged my
+father, but I am a man of my age. Take the money for thy city, and see that
+it yields me some amusement at any rate. I assume, of course, that thou
+wilt exercise severe economy, and that cresses and spring water will be the
+diet of thy philosophers. Farewell, I go to Gaul to encounter Postumus.
+Willingly would I leave him in peace in Gaul if he would leave me in peace
+in Italy; but I foresee that if I do not attack him there he will attack me
+here. As if the Empire were not large enough for us all! What an ass the
+fellow must be!"</p>
+
+<p>And so Gallienus changed his silk for steel, and departed for his Gallic
+campaign, where he bore  himself more stoutly than his light talk would
+have led those who judged him by it to expect. Plotinus, provided with an
+Imperial rescript, undertook the regulation of his philosophical
+commonwealth in Campania, where a brief experience of architects and
+sophists threw him into an ecstasy, not of joy, which endured an unusually
+long time.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>On awakening from his long trance, Plotinus's first sensation was one of
+bodily hunger, the second of an even keener appetite for news of his
+philosophical Republic. In both respects it promised well to perceive that
+his chamber was occupied by his most eminent scholar, Porphyry, though he
+was less gratified to observe his disciple busied, instead of with the
+scrolls of the sages, with an enormous roll of accounts, which appeared to
+be occasioning him much perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>"Porphyry!" cried the master, and the faithful disciple was by his couch
+in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>We pass over the mutual joy, the greetings, the administration of
+restoratives and creature comforts, the eager interrogations of Porphyry
+respecting the things his master had heard and seen in his trance, which
+proved to be unspeakable.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said Plotinus, who with all his mysticism was so good a man
+of business that, as his biographers acquaint us, he was in special request
+as a trustee, "and now, concerning this roll of thine. Is it possible that
+the accounts connected with the installation of a few abstemious  lovers of
+wisdom can have swollen to such a prodigous bulk? But indeed, why few?
+Peradventure all the philosophers of the earth have flocked to my
+city."</p>
+
+<p>"It has, indeed," said Porphyry evasively, "been found necessary to
+incur certain expenses not originally foreseen."</p>
+
+<p>"For a library, perhaps?" inquired Plotinus. "I remember thinking, just
+before my ecstasy, that the scrolls of the divine Plato, many of them
+autographic, might require some special housing."</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice to state," rejoined Porphyry, "that it is not these volumes
+that have involved us in our present difficulties with the superintendent
+of the Imperial treasury, nor can they indeed, seeing that they are now
+impignorated with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Plato's manuscripts pawned!" exclaimed Plotinus, aghast.
+"Wherefore?"</p>
+
+<p>"As part collateral security for expenses incurred on behalf of objects
+deemed of more importance by the majority of the philosophers."</p>
+
+<p>"For example?"</p>
+
+<p>"Repairing bath and completing amphitheatre."</p>
+
+<p>"Bath! Amphitheatre!" gasped Plotinus.</p>
+
+<p>"O dear master," remonstrated Porphyry, "thou didst not deem that
+philosophers could be induced to settle in a spot devoid of these
+necessaries? Not a single one would have stayed if I had not yielded to
+their demands, which, as regarded the bath, involved the addition of
+exedrae and of a sphaeristerium."</p>
+
+<p>"And what can they want with an amphitheatre?" groaned Plotinus.</p>
+
+<p>"They <i>say</i> it is for lectures," replied Porphyry;</p>
+
+<p>"I trust there is no truth in the rumour that the head of the Stoics is
+three parts owner of a lion of singular ferocity."</p>
+
+<p>"I must see to this as soon as I can get about," said Plotinus, turning
+to the accounts. "What's this? To couch and litter for head of Peripatetic
+school!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is so enormously fat," explained Porphyry, "that these conveniences
+are really indispensable to him. The Peripatetic school is positively at a
+standstill."</p>
+
+<p>"And no great matter," said Plotinus; "its master Aristotle was at best
+a rationalist, without perception of the supersensual. What's this? To
+Maximus, for the invocation of demons."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Porphyry, "is our own Platonic dirty linen, and I heartily
+wish we were washing it elsewhere. Thou must know, dear master, that during
+thy trance the theurgic movement has attained a singular development, and
+that thou art regarded with disdain by thy younger disciples as one wholly
+behind the age, unacquainted with the higher magic, and who can produce no
+other outward and visible token of the Divine favour than the occasional
+companionship of a serpent."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not assert that theurgy may not be lawfully undertaken,"
+replied Plotinus, "provided that the adept shall have purified himself by a
+fast of forty months."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be from neglect of this precaution," said Porphyry, "that our
+Maximus finds it so much easier to evoke the shades of Commodus and
+Caracalla than those of Socrates and Marcus Aurelius; and that these good
+spirits, when they do come, have no more recondite information to  convey
+than that virtue differs from vice, and that one's grandmother is a fitting
+object of reverence."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear this must expose Platonic truth to the derision of Epicurean
+scoffers," remarked Plotinus.</p>
+
+<p>"O master, speak not of Epicureans, still less of Stoics! Wait till thou
+hast regained thy full strength, and then take counsel of some oracle."</p>
+
+<p>"What meanest thou?" exclaimed Plotinus, "I insist upon knowing."</p>
+
+<p>Porphyry was saved from replying by the hasty entrance of a bustling
+portly personage of loud voice and imperious manner, in whom Plotinus
+recognised Theocles, the chief of the Stoics.</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice, Plotinus," he began, "that thou hast at length emerged from
+that condition of torpor, so unworthy of a philosopher, which I might well
+designate as charlatanism were I not so firmly determined to speak no word
+which can offend any man. Thou wilt now be able to reprehend the malice or
+obtuseness of thy deputy, and to do me right in my contention with these
+impure dogs."</p>
+
+<p>"Which be they?" asked Plotinus.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I not sufficiently indicate the followers of Epicurus?" demanded the
+Stoic.</p>
+
+<p>"O master," explained Porphyry, "in allotting and fitting up apartments
+designed for the respective sects of philosophers I naturally gave heed to
+what I understood to be the principles of each. To the Epicureans, as
+lovers of pleasure and luxury, I assigned the most commodious quarters,
+furnished the same with soft cushions and costly hangings, and provided a
+liberal table. I should have deemed it insulting to have offered any of
+these things to the frugal followers of Zeno, and nothing can surpass my
+astonishment at the manner in which the austere Theocles has incessantly
+persecuted me for choice food and wine, stately rooms and soft
+couches."</p>
+
+<p>"O Plotinus," replied Theocles, "let me make the grounds of my conduct
+clear to thee. In the first place, the honour of my school is in my
+keeping. What will the vulgar think when they see the sty of Epicurus
+sumptuously adorned, and the porch of Zeno shabby and bare? Will they not
+deem that the Epicureans are highly respected and the Stoics made of little
+account? Furthermore, how can I and my disciples manifest our contempt for
+gold, dainties, wine, fine linen, and all the other instruments of luxury,
+unless we have them to despise? Shall we not appear like foxes, vilipending
+the grapes that we cannot reach? Not so; offer me delicacies that I may
+reject them, wine that I may pour it into the kennel, Tyrian purple that I
+may trample upon it, gold that I may fling it away; if it break an
+Epicurean's head, so much the better."</p>
+
+<p>"Plotinus," said Hermon, the chief of the Epicureans, who had meanwhile
+entered the apartment, "let this hypocrite have what he wants, and send him
+away. I and my followers are perfectly willing to remove at once into the
+inferior apartments, and leave ours for his occupation with all their
+furniture, and the reversion of our bill of fare. Thou should'st know that
+the imputations of the vulgar against our sect are the grossest calumnies.
+The Epicurean places happiness in tranquil enjoyment, not in luxury or
+sensual pleasures. There is not a thing I possess  which I am not perfectly
+willing to resign, except the society of my female disciple."</p>
+
+<p>"Thy female disciple!" exclaimed the horrified Plotinus. "Thou art worse
+than the Stoic!"</p>
+
+<p>"Plotinus," said the Epicurean, "consider well ere, as is the manner of
+Platonists, thou committest thyself to a proposition of a transparently
+foolish nature. Thou desirest to gather all sorts of philosophers around
+thee, but to what end, if they are restrained from manifesting their
+characteristic tenets? Thou mightest as well seek to illustrate the habits
+of animals by establishing a menagerie in which panthers should eat grass,
+and antelopes be dieted on rabbits. An Epicurean without his female
+companion, unless by his own choice, is no more an Epicurean than a Cynic
+is a Cynic without his rags and his impudence. Wilt thou take from me my
+Pannychis, an object pleasing to the eye, and leave yonder fellow his
+tatters and his vermin?"</p>
+
+<p>The apartment had gradually filled with philosophers, and Hermon was
+pointing to a follower of Diogenes whose robe so fully bespoke his
+obedience to his master's precepts that his skin seemed almost clean in
+comparison.</p>
+
+<p>"Consider also," continued the Epicurean, "that thou art thyself by no
+means exempt from scandal."</p>
+
+<p>"What does the man mean?" demanded Plotinus, turning to Porphyry.</p>
+
+<p>"Get them away," whispered the disciple, "and I will tell thee."</p>
+
+<p>Plotinus hastily conceded the point raised with reference to the
+interesting Pannychis, and the  philosophers went off to effect their
+exchange of quarters. As soon as the room was clear, he repeated:</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>does</i> the man mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he is thinking of Leaena," said Porphyry.</p>
+
+<p>"The most notorious character in Rome, who, finding her charms on the
+wane, has lately betaken herself to philosophy?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same."</p>
+
+<p>"What of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has followed thee here. She affects the greatest devotion to thee.
+She vows that nothing shall make her budge until thou hast recovered from
+thy ecstasy, and admitted her as thy disciple. She has rejected numerous
+overtures from the philosopher Theocles; entirely for thy sake, she
+affirms. She comes three times a day to inquire respecting thy condition,
+and I fear it must be acknowledged that she has once or twice managed to
+get into thy chamber."</p>
+
+<p>"O ye immortal Gods!" groaned Plotinus.</p>
+
+<p>"Here she is!" exclaimed Porphyry, as a woman of masculine stature and
+bearing, with the remains of beauty not unskilfully patched, forced an
+entrance into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Plotinus," she exclaimed, "behold the most impassioned of thy
+disciples. Let us celebrate the mystic nuptials of Wisdom and Beauty. Let
+the claims of my sex to philosophic distinction be vindicated in my
+person."</p>
+
+<p>"The question of the admission of women to share the studies and society
+of men," rejoined Plotinus, "is one by no means exempt from
+difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"How so? I deemed it had been determined long ago in favour of
+Aspasia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aspasia," said Plotinus, "was a very exceptional woman."</p>
+
+<p>"And am not I?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, that is, I conceive so," said Plotinus. "But one may be an
+exceptional woman without being an Aspasia."</p>
+
+<p>"How so? Am I inferior to Aspasia in beauty?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not," said Plotinus ambiguously.</p>
+
+<p>"Or in the irregularity of my deportment?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think not," said Plotinus, with more confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Then why does the Plato of our age hesitate to welcome his
+Diotima?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," said Plotinus, "you are not Diotima, and I am not Plato."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I am as much like Diotima as you are like Plato," retorted
+the lady. "But let us come to our own time. Do I not hear that that
+creature Pannychis has obtained the freedom of the philosophers' city, and
+the right to study therein?"</p>
+
+<p>"She takes private lessons from Hermon, who is responsible for her."</p>
+
+<p>"The very thing!" exclaimed Leaena triumphantly. "I take private lessons
+from thee, and thou art responsible for me. Venus! what's that?"</p>
+
+<p>The exclamation was prompted by the sudden appearance of an enormous
+serpent, which, emerging from a chink in the wall, glided swiftly towards
+the couch of Plotinus. He reached forward to greet it, uttering a cry of
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"My guardian, my tutelary d&aelig;mon," he exclaimed, "visible
+manifestation of &AElig;sculapius! Then I am not forsaken by the immortal
+gods."</p>
+
+<p>"Take away the monster," cried Leaena, in violent agitation, "the nasty
+thing! Plotinus, how can you? Oh, I shall faint! I shall die! Take it away,
+I say. You must choose between it and me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, Madam," said Plotinus, civilly but firmly, "I choose
+<i>it</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank &AElig;sculapius we are rid of her," he added, as Leaena vanished
+from the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I knew that," said Porphyry.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed after no long time a note came up from Theocles, who was sure
+that Plotinus would not refuse him that privilege of instructing a female
+disciple which had been already, with such manifest advantage to
+philosophical research, accorded to his colleague Hermon. No objection
+could well be made, especially as Plotinus did not foresee how many
+chambermaids, and pages, and cooks, and perfumers, and tiring women and
+bath attendants would be required, ere Leaena could feel herself moderately
+comfortable. How unlike the modest Pannychis! who wanted but half a bed,
+which need not be stuffed with the down of hares or the feathers of
+partridges, without which sleep refused to visit Leaena's eyelids.</p>
+
+<p>It was natural that Plotinus should appeal to Gallienus, now returned
+from the Gallic expedition, but he could extract nothing save mysterious
+intimations that the Emperor had his eye upon the philosophers, and that
+they might find him among  them when they least expected it. Plotinus's
+spirits drooped, and Porphyry was almost glad when he again relapsed into
+an ecstasy.</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>When Plotinus's eyes were at length opened, they fell not this time upon
+the faithful Porphyry, but upon two youthful followers of Plato who were
+beguiling the tedium of their vigil at his bedside by a game of dice, which
+prevented their observing his resuscitation. After a moment's hesitation
+Plotinus resolved to lie quiet in the hopes of hearing something that might
+indicate what influences were in the ascendant in the philosophical
+republic. He had not long to wait.</p>
+
+<p>"Dice is dull work for long," said one of the young men, indolently
+throwing himself back, and letting his caster fall upon the floor. "To
+think how much better one might be employed, but for having to watch this
+old fool here! I've a great mind to call up a slave."</p>
+
+<p>"All the slaves are sure to have gone to the show, unless any of them
+should be Christians. Besides, Porphyry would hear you, he's only in a
+cat's sleep," returned his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I mean to say it's a shame. All the town will be in the theatre
+by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"How many gladiators, said you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Forty pairs, the best show Campania has seen time out of mind."</p>
+
+<p>"How has it all come about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, news comes of the death of Postumus, killed by his own soldiers,
+and this passes as a  great victory for want of a better, 'We must have a
+day of thanksgiving,' says Theocles. 'Right,' says Leaena, 'I am dying to
+see an exhibition of gladiators.' Theocles demurs at first, expecting to
+have to find the money&mdash;but Leaena tugs at his beard, and he gives in.
+Just at the nick of time the right sort of fellow pops up nobody knows
+whence, a lanista with hair like curling helichryse, as Theocritus has it,
+and a small army of gladiators, whom, out of devotion to the Emperor, he
+offers to exhibit for nothing. Who so pleased as Theocles now? He takes the
+chair as archon with Leaena by his side, and off goes every soul in the
+place, except Pannychis, who cannot bear the sight of blood, and Porphyry,
+who is an outrageous humanitarian, and us poor devils left in charge of
+this old dreamer."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't we leave him to mind himself? He isn't likely to awake
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Try him with your cloak-pin." The student detached the implement in
+question, which was about the size of a small stiletto. Feeling uncertain
+what part of his person was to be the subject of experiment, Plotinus
+judged it advisable to manifest his recovery in an unmistakable
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"O dear Master, what joy!" cried both the students in a breath.
+"Porphyry! Porphyry!"</p>
+
+<p>The trusty scholar appeared immediately, and under pretence of fetching
+food, the two neophytes eloped to the amphitheatre.</p>
+
+<p>"What means all this, Porphyry?" demanded Plotinus sternly. "The City of
+Philosophers polluted by human blood! The lovers of wisdom mingling with
+the dregs of the rabble!"</p>
+
+<p>Porphyry's account, which Plotinus could only extract by consenting to
+eat while his disciple talked, corresponded in all essential particulars
+with that of the two young men.</p>
+
+<p>"And I see not," added he, "what we can do in the matter. Thisabomination is supposed to be in honour of the Emperor's victories. If we
+interfere with it we shall be executed as rebels, supposing that we are not
+first torn to pieces as rioters."</p>
+
+<p>"Porphyry," replied Plotinus, "I should esteem this disgrace to
+philosophy a disgrace to myself if I did not my utmost to avert it. Remain
+thou here, and perform my funeral rites if it be necessary."</p>
+
+<p>But to this Porphyry would by no means consent, and the two philosophers
+proceeded to the amphitheatre together. It was so crowded that there was no
+room on the seats for another person. Theocles was enthroned in the chair
+of honour, his beard manifesting evident traces of the depilatories
+administered by Leaena, who nevertheless sat by his side, her voluptuous
+face gloating over the anticipated banquet of agony. The philosophic part
+of the spectators were ranged all around, the remaining seats were occupied
+by a miscellaneous public. The master of the gladiators, a man of
+distinguished appearance, whose yellow locks gave him the aspect of a
+barbarian prince, stood in the arena surrounded by his myrmidons. The entry
+of Plotinus and Porphyry attracted his attention: he motioned to his
+followers, and in an instant the philosophers were seized, bound, and
+gagged without the excited assembly being in the least conscious of their
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>Two men stepped out into the arena, both fine and attractive figures.
+The athletic limbs, the fair complexion, the curling yellow hair of one
+proclaimed the Goth; he lightly swung his huge sword in his right hand, and
+looked as if his sole arm would easily put to flight the crowd of
+effeminate spectators. The other's beauty was of another sort; young,
+slender, pensive, spiritual, he looked like anything rather than a
+gladiator, and held his downward pointed sword with a negligent grasp.</p>
+
+<p>"Guard thyself!" cried the Goth, placing himself in an attitude of
+offence.</p>
+
+<p>"I spill not the blood of a fellow-creature," answered the other,
+casting his sword away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Coward!" yelled well-nigh every voice in the amphitheatre.</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the youth with a grave smile, "Christian."</p>
+
+<p>His shield and helmet followed his sword, he stood entirely defenceless
+before his adversary.</p>
+
+<p>"Throw him to my lion," cried Theocles.</p>
+
+<p>"Or thy lioness," suggested Hermon.</p>
+
+<p>This allusion to Leaena provoked a burst of laughter. Suddenly the Goth
+aimed a mighty blow at the head of the unresisting man. A shorn curl fell
+to the ground, the consummate skill of the swordsman averted all further
+contact between his blade and the Christian, who remained erect and
+smiling, without having moved a muscle or an eyelash.</p>
+
+<p>"Master," said the Goth, addressing the lanista, "I had rather fight ten
+armed men than this unarmed one."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," returned his lord, with a gesture of approval. "Retire both of
+you."</p>
+
+<p>A roar of disapprobation broke out from the spectators, which seemed not
+to produce the slightest effect on the lanista.</p>
+
+<p>"Turn out the next pair," they cried.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Wherefore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I do not choose."</p>
+
+<p>"Rogue! Cheat! Swindler! Cast him into prison! Throw him to the lion!"
+Such epithets and recommendations rained from the spectators' seats,
+accompanied by a pelting of more substantial missiles. In an instant the
+yellow hair and common dress lay on the ground, and those who knew him not
+by the features could by the Imperial ornaments recognise the Emperor
+Gallienus. With no less celerity his followers, the Goth and the Christian
+excepted, disencumbered themselves of their exterior vesture, and stood
+forward in the character of Roman soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends," cried Gallienus, turning to the plebeian multitude, "I am not
+about to balk you of your sport."</p>
+
+<p>At a sign from him the legionaries ascended to the seats allotted to the
+philosophic portion of the audience, and a torrent of wisdom in their
+persons, including that of Leaena, flung forth with the energy of a
+catapult, descended abruptly and violently to the earth. They were
+instantly seized and dragged into an erect attitude by the remainder of the
+soldiery, who, amid the most tempestuous peals of laughter and applause
+from the delighted public, thrust swords into their hands, ranged them in
+opposite ranks, and summoned  them to begin the fight and quit themselves
+like men. It was equally ludicrous and pitiable to see the bald, mostly
+grey-bearded men, their garments torn in their expulsion and their persons
+bruised by the fall, confronting each other with quaking limbs, helplessly
+brandishing their weapons or feebly calling their adversaries to come on,
+while the soldiers prodded them from behind with spears, and urged them
+into the close quarters they so anxiously desired to avoid. Plotinus,
+helpless with his bonds and gag, looked on in impotent horror. Gallienus
+was often cruel, but could he intend such a revolting massacre? There must
+be something behind.</p>
+
+<p>The honour of developing the Emperor's purpose was reserved for
+Theocles, who, with admirable presence of mind, had ever since he found he
+must fight been engaged in trying to select the weakest antagonist. After
+hesitating between the unwieldy chief of the Peripatetics and the feminine
+Leaena he fixed on the latter, partly moved, perhaps, by the hope of
+avenging his beard. With a martial cry he sprang towards her, and upraised
+his weapon for a swashing blow. But he had sadly miscalculated. Leaena was
+hardly less versed in the combats of Mars than in those of Venus, having,
+in fact, commenced her distinguished career as a camp-follower of the
+Emperor Gordian. A tremendous stroke caught him on the hand; his blade
+dropped to the earth; why did not the fingers follow? Leaena elucidated the
+problem by a still more violent blow on his face; torrents of blood gushed
+forth indeed, but only from the nose. The sword doubled up; it had neither
+point nor edge. Encouraged by this  opportune discovery the philosophers
+attacked each other with infinite spirit and valour. Infuriated by the
+blows given and received, by the pokings and proddings of the military, and
+the hilarious derision of the public, they cast away the shivered blades
+and resorted to the weapons of Nature. They kicked, they cuffed, they
+scratched, they tore the garments from each other's shoulders, they foamed
+and rolled gasping in the yellow sand of the arena. At a signal from the
+Emperor the portal of the amphitheatre was thrown open, and the whole mass
+of clawing and cuffing philosophy was bundled ignominiously into the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>By this time Gallienus was seated on his tribunal, and Plotinus,
+released from his bonds, was standing by his side.</p>
+
+<p>"O Emperor," he murmured, deeply abashed, "what can I urge? Thou wilt
+surely demolish my city!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Plotinus," replied Gallienus, pointing to the Goth and the
+Christian, "there are the men who will destroy the City of Philosophers.
+Would that were all they will destroy!"</p> <a id="p86"></a> <a
+href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE DEMON POPE</h2>
+
+<p>"So you won't sell me your soul?" said the devil.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," replied the student, "I had rather keep it myself, if it's
+all the same to you."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's not all the same to me. I want it very particularly. Come,
+I'll be liberal. I said twenty years. You can have thirty."</p>
+
+<p>The student shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Forty!"</p>
+
+<p>Another shake.</p>
+
+<p>"Fifty!"</p>
+
+<p>As before.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said the devil, "I know I'm going to do a foolish thing, but I
+cannot bear to see a clever, spirited young man throw himself away. I'll
+make you another kind of offer. We won't have any bargain at present, but I
+will push you on in the world for the next forty years. This day forty
+years I come back and ask you for a boon; not your soul, mind, or anything
+not perfectly in your power to grant. If you give it, we are quits; if not,
+I fly away with you. What say you to this?"</p>
+
+<p>The student reflected for some minutes. "Agreed," he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the devil disappeared, which he did instantaneously, ere a
+messenger reined in his  smoking steed at the gate of the University of
+Cordova (the judicious reader will already have remarked that Lucifer could
+never have been allowed inside a Christian seat of learning), and,
+inquiring for the student Gerbert, presented him with the Emperor Otho's
+nomination to the Abbacy of Bobbio, in consideration, said the document, of
+his virtue and learning, well-nigh miraculous in one so young. Such
+messengers were frequent visitors during Gerbert's prosperous career.
+Abbot, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, he was ultimately enthroned Pope on
+April 2, 999, and assumed the appellation of Silvester the Second. It was
+then a general belief that the world would come to an end in the following
+year, a catastrophe which to many seemed the more imminent from the
+election of a chief pastor whose celebrity as a theologian, though not
+inconsiderable, by no means equalled his reputation as a necromancer.</p>
+
+<p>The world, notwithstanding, revolved scatheless through the dreaded
+twelvemonth, and early in the first year of the eleventh century Gerbert
+was sitting peacefully in his study, perusing a book of magic. Volumes of
+algebra, astrology, alchemy, Aristotelian philosophy, and other such light
+reading filled his bookcase; and on a table stood an improved clock of his
+invention, next to his introduction of the Arabic numerals his chief legacy
+to posterity. Suddenly a sound of wings was heard, and Lucifer stood by his
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a long time," said the fiend, "since I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you. I have now called to remind you of our little contract,
+concluded this day forty years."</p>
+
+<p>"You remember," said Silvester, "that you are not to ask anything
+exceeding my power to perform."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no such intention," said Lucifer. "On the contrary, I am about
+to solicit a favour which can be bestowed by you alone. You are Pope, I
+desire that you would make me a Cardinal.</p>
+
+<p>"In the expectation, I presume," returned Gerbert, "of becoming Pope on
+the next vacancy."</p>
+
+<p>"An expectation," replied Lucifer, "which I may most reasonably
+entertain, considering my enormous wealth, my proficiency in intrigue, and
+the present condition of the Sacred College."</p>
+
+<p>"You would doubtless," said Gerbert, "endeavour to subvert the
+foundations of the Faith, and, by a course of profligacy and
+licentiousness, render the Holy See odious and contemptible."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," said the fiend, "I would extirpate heresy, and all
+learning and knowledge as inevitably tending thereunto. I would suffer no
+man to read but the priest, and confine his reading to his breviary. I
+would burn your books together with your bones on the first convenient
+opportunity. I would observe an austere propriety of conduct, and be
+especially careful not to loosen one rivet in the tremendous yoke I was
+forging for the minds and consciences of mankind."</p>
+
+<p>"If it be so," said Gerbert, "let's be off!"</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Lucifer, "you are willing to accompany me to the
+infernal regions!"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly, rather than be accessory to the burning of Plato and
+Aristotle, and give place to the darkness against which I have been
+contending all my life."</p>
+
+<p>"Gerbert," replied the demon, "this is arrant trifling. Know you not
+that no good man can enter my dominions? that, were such a thing possible,
+my empire would become intolerable to me, and I should be compelled to
+abdicate?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do know it," said Gerbert, "and hence I have been able to receive
+your visit with composure."</p>
+
+<p>"Gerbert," said the devil, with tears in his eyes, "I put it to
+you&mdash;is this fair, is this honest? I undertake to promote your
+interests in the world; I fulfil my promise abundantly. You obtain through
+my instrumentality a position to which you could never otherwise have
+aspired. Often have I had a hand in the election of a Pope, but never
+before have I contributed to confer the tiara on one eminent for virtue and
+learning. You profit by my assistance to the full, and now take advantage
+of an adventitious circumstance to deprive me of my reasonable guerdon. It
+is my constant experience that the good people are much more slippery than
+the sinners, and drive much harder bargains."</p>
+
+<p>"Lucifer," answered Gerbert, "I have always sought to treat you as a
+gentleman, hoping that you would approve yourself such in return. I will
+not inquire whether it was entirely in harmony with this character to seek
+to intimidate me into compliance with your demand by threatening me with a
+penalty which you well knew could not be enforced. I will overlook this
+little irregularity, and concede even more than you have requested. You
+have asked to be a Cardinal. I will make you Pope&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" exclaimed Lucifer, and an internal glow  suffused his sooty hide,
+as the light of a fading ember is revived by breathing upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"For twelve hours," continued Gerbert. "At the expiration of that time
+we will consider the matter further; and if, as I anticipate, you are more
+anxious to divest yourself of the Papal dignity than you were to assume it,
+I promise to bestow upon you any boon you may ask within my power to grant,
+and not plainly inconsistent with religion or morals."</p>
+
+<p>"Done!" cried the demon. Gerbert uttered some cabalistic words, and in a
+moment the apartment held two Pope Silvesters, entirely indistinguishable
+save by their attire, and the fact that one limped slightly with the left
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>"You will find the Pontifical apparel in this cupboard," said Gerbert,
+and, taking his book of magic with him, he retreated through a masked door
+to a secret chamber. As the door closed behind him he chuckled, and
+muttered to himself, "Poor old Lucifer! Sold again!"</p>
+
+<p>If Lucifer was sold he did not seem to know it. He approached a large
+slab of silver which did duty as a mirror, and contemplated his personal
+appearance with some dissatisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly don't look half so well without my horns," he soliloquised,
+"and I am sure I shall miss my tail most grievously."</p>
+
+<p>A tiara and a train, however, made fair amends for the deficient
+appendages, and Lucifer now looked every inch a Pope. He was about to call
+the master of the ceremonies, and summon a consistory, when the door was
+burst open, and seven cardinals, brandishing poniards, rushed into the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"Down with the sorcerer!" they cried, as they seized and gagged him.</p>
+
+<p>"Death to the Saracen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Practises algebra, and other devilish arts!"</p>
+
+<p>"Knows Greek!"</p>
+
+<p>"Talks Arabic!"</p>
+
+<p>"Reads Hebrew!"</p>
+
+<p>"Burn him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Smother him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let him be deposed by a general council," said a young and
+inexperienced Cardinal.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven forbid!" said an old and wary one, <i>sotto voce</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer struggled frantically, but the feeble frame he was doomed to
+inhabit for the next eleven hours was speedily exhausted. Bound and
+helpless, he swooned away.</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren," said one of the senior cardinals, "it hath been delivered by
+the exorcists that a sorcerer or other individual in league with the demon
+doth usually bear upon his person some visible token of his infernal
+compact. I propose that we forthwith institute a search for this stigma,
+the discovery of which may contribute to justify our proceedings in the
+eyes of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I heartily approve of our brother Anno's proposition," said another,
+"the rather as we cannot possibly fail to discover such a mark, if, indeed,
+we desire to find it."</p>
+
+<p>The search was accordingly instituted, and had not proceeded far ere a
+simultaneous yell from all the seven cardinals indicated that their
+investigation had brought more to light than they had ventured to
+expect.</p>
+
+<p>The Holy Father had a cloven foot!</p>
+
+<p>For the next five minutes the Cardinals remained utterly stunned,
+silent, and stupefied with amazement. As they gradually recovered their
+faculties it would have become manifest to a nice observer that the Pope
+had risen very considerably in their good opinion.</p>
+
+<p>"This is an affair requiring very mature deliberation," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"I always feared that we might be proceeding too precipitately," said
+another.</p>
+
+<p>"It is written, 'the devils believe,'" said a third: "the Holy Father,
+therefore, is not a heretic at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren," said Anno, "this affair, as our brother Benno well remarks,
+doth indeed call for mature deliberation. I therefore propose that, instead
+of smothering his Holiness with cushions, as originally contemplated, we
+immure him for the present in the dungeon adjoining hereunto, and, after
+spending the night in meditation and prayer, resume the consideration of
+the business tomorrow morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Informing the officials of the palace," said Benno, "that his Holiness
+has retired for his devotions, and desires on no account to be
+disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"A pious fraud," said Anno, "which not one of the Fathers would for a
+moment have scrupled to commit."</p>
+
+<p>The Cardinals accordingly lifted the still insensible Lucifer, and bore
+him carefully, almost tenderly, to the apartment appointed for his
+detention. Each would fain have lingered in hopes of his recovery, but each
+felt that the eyes of his six brethren were upon him: and all, therefore,
+retired simultaneously, each taking a key of the cell.</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer regained consciousness almost immediately afterwards. He had the
+most confused idea of the circumstances which had involved him in his
+present scrape, and could only say to himself that if they were the usual
+concomitants of the Papal dignity, these were by no means to his taste, and
+he wished he had been made acquainted with them sooner. The dungeon was not
+only perfectly dark, but horribly cold, and the poor devil in his present
+form had no latent store of infernal heat to draw upon. His teeth
+chattered, he shivered in every limb, and felt devoured with hunger and
+thirst. There is much probability in the assertion of some of his
+biographers that it was on this occasion that he invented ardent spirits;
+but, even if he did, the mere conception of a glass of brandy could only
+increase his sufferings. So the long January night wore wearily on, and
+Lucifer seemed likely to expire from inanition, when a key turned in the
+lock, and Cardinal Anno cautiously glided in, bearing a lamp, a loaf, half
+a cold roast kid, and a bottle of wine.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust," he said, bowing courteously, "that I may be excused any
+slight breach of etiquette of which I may render myself culpable from the
+difficulty under which I labour of determining whether, under present
+circumstances, 'Your Holiness,' or 'Your Infernal Majesty' be the form of
+address most befitting me to employ."</p>
+
+<p>"Bub-ub-bub-boo," went Lucifer, who still had the gag in his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens!" exclaimed the Cardinal, "I crave  your Infernal Holiness's
+forgiveness. What a lamentable oversight!"</p>
+
+<p>And, relieving Lucifer from his gag and bonds, he set out the refection,
+upon which the demon fell voraciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why the devil, if I may so express myself," pursued Anno, "did not your
+Holiness inform us that you <i>were</i> the devil? Not a hand would then
+have been raised against you. I have myself been seeking all my life for
+the audience now happily vouchsafed me. Whence this mistrust of your
+faithful Anno, who has served you so loyally and zealously these many
+years?"</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer pointed significantly to the gag and fetters.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never forgive myself," protested the Cardinal, "for the part I
+have borne in this unfortunate transaction. Next to ministering to your
+Majesty's bodily necessities, there is nothing I have so much at heart as
+to express my penitence. But I entreat your Majesty to remember that I
+believed myself to be acting in your Majesty's interest by overthrowing a
+magician who was accustomed to send your Majesty upon errands, and who
+might at any time enclose you in a box, and cast you into the sea. It is
+deplorable that your Majesty's most devoted servants should have been thus
+misled."</p>
+
+<p>"Reasons of State," suggested Lucifer.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust that they no longer operate," said the Cardinal. "However, the
+Sacred College is now fully possessed of the whole matter: it is therefore
+unnecessary to pursue this department of the subject further. I would now
+humbly crave leave to confer with your Majesty, or rather, perhaps, your
+Holiness, since I am about to speak of spiritual things, on the important
+and delicate point of your Holiness's successor. I am ignorant how long
+your Holiness proposes to occupy the Apostolic chair; but of course you are
+aware that public opinion will not suffer you to hold it for a term
+exceeding that of the pontificate of Peter. A vacancy, therefore, must one
+day occur; and I am humbly to represent that the office could not be filled
+by one more congenial than myself to the present incumbent, or on whom he
+could more fully rely to carry out in every respect his views and
+intentions."</p>
+
+<p>And the Cardinal proceeded to detail various circumstances of his past
+life, which certainly seemed to corroborate his assertion. He had not,
+however, proceeded far ere he was disturbed by the grating of another key
+in the lock, and had just time to whisper impressively, "Beware of Benno,"
+ere he dived under a table.</p>
+
+<p>Benno was also provided with a lamp, wine, and cold viands. Warned by
+the other lamp and the remains of Lucifer's repast that some colleague had
+been beforehand with him, and not knowing how many more might be in the
+field, he came briefly to the point as regarded the Papacy, and preferred
+his claim in much the same manner as Anno. While he was earnestly
+cautioning Lucifer against this Cardinal as one who could and would cheat
+the very Devil himself, another key turned in the lock, and Benno escaped
+under the table, where Anno immediately inserted his finger into his right
+eye. The little squeal consequent upon this occurrence Lucifer successfully
+smothered by a fit of coughing.</p>
+
+<p>Cardinal No. 3, a Frenchman, bore a Bayonne ham, and exhibited the same
+disgust as Benno on seeing himself forestalled. So far as his requests
+transpired they were moderate, but no one knows where he would have stopped
+if he had not been scared by the advent of Cardinal No. 4. Up to this time
+he had only asked for an inexhaustible purse, power to call up the Devil
+<i>ad libitum</i>, and a ring of invisibility to allow him free access to
+his mistress, who was unfortunately a married woman.</p>
+
+<p>Cardinal No. 4 chiefly wanted to be put into the way of poisoning
+Cardinal No. 5; and Cardinal No. 5 preferred the same petition as respected
+Cardinal No. 4.</p>
+
+<p>Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the
+Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding them
+together, and of unlimited non-residence. In the course of his harangue he
+made use of the phrase <i>non obstantibus</i>, of which Lucifer immediately
+took a note.</p>
+
+<p>What the seventh Cardinal would have solicited is not known, for he had
+hardly opened his mouth when the twelfth hour expired, and Lucifer,
+regaining his vigour with his shape, sent the Prince of the Church spinning
+to the other end of the room, and split the marble table with a single
+stroke of his tail. The six crouched and huddling Cardinals cowered
+revealed to one another, and at the same time enjoyed the spectacle of his
+Holiness darting through the stone ceiling, which yielded like a film to
+his passage, and closed up afterwards as if nothing had happened. After the
+first shock of dismay they unanimously rushed to the door,  but found it
+bolted on the outside. There was no other exit, and no means of giving an
+alarm. In this emergency the demeanour of the Italian Cardinals set a
+bright example to their ultramontane colleagues. "<i>Bisogna
+pazienzia</i>," they said, as they shrugged their shoulders. Nothing could
+exceed the mutual politeness of Cardinals Anno and Benno, unless that of
+the two who had sought to poison each other. The Frenchman was held to have
+gravely derogated from good manners by alluding to this circumstance, which
+had reached his ears while he was under the table: and the Englishman swore
+so outrageously at the plight in which he found himself that the Italians
+then and there silently registered a vow that none of his nation should
+ever be Pope, a maxim which, with one exception, has been observed to this
+day.</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer, meanwhile, had repaired to Silvester, whom he found arrayed in
+all the insignia of his dignity; of which, as he remarked, he thought his
+visitor had probably had enough.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so indeed," replied Lucifer. "But at the same time I
+feel myself fully repaid for all I have undergone by the assurance of the
+loyalty of my friends and admirers, and the conviction that it is needless
+for me to devote any considerable amount of personal attention to
+ecclesiastical affairs. I now claim the promised boon, which it will be in
+no way inconsistent with thy functions to grant, seeing that it is a work
+of mercy. I demand that the Cardinals be released, and that their
+conspiracy against thee, by which I alone suffered, be buried in
+oblivion."</p>
+
+<p>"I hoped you would carry them all off," said Gerbert, with an expression
+of disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said the Devil. "It is more to my interest to leave them
+where they are."</p>
+
+<p>So the dungeon-door was unbolted, and the Cardinals came forth, sheepish
+and crestfallen. If, after all, they did less mischief than Lucifer had
+expected from them, the cause was their entire bewilderment by what had
+passed, and their utter inability to penetrate the policy of Gerbert, who
+henceforth devoted himself even with ostentation to good works. They could
+never quite satisfy themselves whether they were speaking to the Pope or to
+the Devil, and when under the latter impression habitually emitted
+propositions which Gerbert justly stigmatised as rash, temerarious, and
+scandalous. They plagued him with allusions to certain matters mentioned in
+their interviews with Lucifer, with which they naturally but erroneously
+supposed him to be conversant, and worried him by continual nods and
+titterings as they glanced at his nether extremities. To abolish this
+nuisance, and at the same time silence sundry unpleasant rumours which had
+somehow got abroad, Gerbert devised the ceremony of kissing the Pope's
+feet, which, in a grievously mutilated form, endures to this day. The
+stupefaction of the Cardinals on discovering that the Holy Father had lost
+his hoof surpasses all description, and they went to their graves without
+having obtained the least insight into the mystery.</p> <a id="p99"></a> <a
+href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE CUPBEARER</h2>
+
+<p>The minister Photinius had fallen, to the joy of Constantinople. He had
+taken sanctuary in the immense monastery adjoining the Golden Gate in the
+twelfth region of the city, founded for a thousand monks by the patrician
+Studius, in the year 463. There he occupied himself with the concoction of
+poisons, the resource of fallen statesmen. When a defeated minister of our
+own day is indisposed to accept his discomfiture, he applies himself to
+poison the public mind, inciting the lower orders against the higher, and
+blowing up every smouldering ember of sedition he can discover, trusting
+that the conflagration thus kindled, though it consume the edifice of the
+State, will not fail to roast his own egg. Photinius's conceptions of
+mischief were less refined; he perfected his toxicological knowledge in the
+medical laboratory of the monastery, and sought eagerly for an opportunity
+of employing it; whether in an experiment upon the Emperor, or on his own
+successor, or on some other personage, circumstances must determine.</p>
+
+<p>The sanctity of Studius's convent, and the strength of its monastic
+garrison, rendered it a safe refuge for disgraced courtiers, and in this
+thirtieth year of the Emperor Basil the Second (reckoning from his nominal
+accession) it harboured  a legion of ex-prime ministers, patriarchs,
+archbishops, chief secretaries, hypati, anthypati, silentiarii,
+protospatharii, and even spatharo-candidati. And this small army was
+nothing to the host that, maimed or blinded or tonsured or all three,
+dragged out their lives in monasteries or in dungeons or on rocky islets;
+and these again were few in comparison with the spirits of the traitors or
+the betrayed who wailed nightly amid the planes and cypresses of the
+Aretae, or stalked through the palatial apartments of verdantique and
+porphyry. But of those comparatively at liberty, but whose liberty was
+circumscribed by the hallowed precincts of Studius, every soul was
+plotting. And never, perhaps, in the corrupt Byzantine Court, where true
+friendship had been unknown since Theodora quarrelled with Antonia, had so
+near an approach to it existed as in this asylum of villains. A sort of
+freemasonry came to prevail in the sanctuary: every one longed to know how
+his neighbour's plot throve, and grudged not to buy the knowledge by
+disclosing a little corner of his own. Thus rendered communicative, their
+colloquies would travel back into the past, and as the veterans of intrigue
+fought their battles over again, the most experienced would learn things
+that made them open their eyes with amazement. "Ah!" they would hear, "that
+is just where you were mistaken. You had bought Eromenus, but so had I, and
+old Nicephorus had outbid us both." "You deemed the dancer Anthusa a sure
+card, and knew not of her secret infirmity, of which I had been apprised by
+her waiting woman." "Did you really know nothing of that sliding panel? And
+were you ignorant  that whatever one says in the blue chamber is heard in
+the green?" "Yes, I thought so too, and I spent a mint of money before
+finding out that the dog whose slaver that brazen impostor Panurgiades
+pretended to sell me was no more mad than he was." After such rehearsals of
+future dialogues by the banks of Styx, the fallen statesmen were observed
+to appear exceedingly dejected, but the stimulus had become necessary to
+their existence. None gossiped so freely or disclosed so much as Photinius
+and his predecessor Eustathius, whom he had himself
+displaced&mdash;probably because Eustathius, believing in nothing in heaven
+or earth but gold, and labouring under an absolute privation of that metal,
+was regarded even by himself as an extinct volcano.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," observed he one day, when discoursing with Photinius is an
+unusually confidential mood, "I am free to say that for my own part I don't
+think over much of poison. It has its advantages, to be sure, but to my
+mind the disadvantages are even more conspicuous."</p>
+
+<p>"For example?" inquired Photinius, who had the best reason for confiding
+in the efficacy of a drag administered with dexterity and discretion.</p>
+
+<p>"Two people must be in the secret at least, if not three," replied
+Eustathius, "and cooks, as a rule, are a class of persons entirely unfit to
+be employed in affairs of State."</p>
+
+<p>"The Court physician," suggested Photinius.</p>
+
+<p>"Is only available," answered Eustathius, "in case his Majesty should
+send for him, which is most improbable. If he ever did, poison, praised be
+the Lord! would be totally unnecessary and entirely superfluous."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend," said Photinius, venturing at this favourable moment on
+a question he had been dying to ask ever since he had been an inmate of the
+convent, "would you mind telling me in confidence, did you ever administer
+any potion of a deleterious nature to his Sacred Majesty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" protested Eustathius, with fervour. "I tried once, to be sure,
+but it was no use."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the impediment?"</p>
+
+<p>"The perverse opposition of the cupbearer. It is idle attempting
+anything of the kind as long as she is about the Emperor."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>She</i>!" exclaimed Photinius.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know <i>that</i>?" responded Eustathius, with an air and
+manner that plainly said, "You don't know much."</p>
+
+<p>Humbled and ashamed, Photinius nevertheless wisely stooped to avow his
+nescience, and flattering his rival on his superior penetration, led him to
+divulge the State secret that the handsome cupbearer Helladius was but the
+disguise of the lovely Helladia, the object of Basil's tenderest affection,
+and whose romantic attachment to his person had already frustrated more
+conspiracies than the aged plotter could reckon up.</p>
+
+<p>This intelligence made Photinius for a season exceedingly thoughtful. He
+had not deemed Basil of an amorous complexion. At length he sent for his
+daughter, the beautiful and virtuous Euprepia, who from time to time
+visited him in the monastery.</p>
+
+<p>"Daughter," he said, "it appears to me that the time has now arrived
+when thou mayest with propriety present a petition to the Emperor on behalf
+of thy unfortunate father. Here is the  document. It is, I flatter myself,
+composed with no ordinary address; nevertheless I will not conceal from
+thee that I place my hopes rather on thy beauty of person than on my beauty
+of style. Shake down thy hair and dishevel it, so!&mdash;that is excellent.
+Remember to tear thy robe some little in the poignancy of thy woe, and to
+lose a sandal. Tears and sobs of course thou hast always at command, but
+let not the frenzy of thy grief render thee wholly inarticulate. Here is a
+slight memorandum of what is most fitting for thee to say: thy old nurse's
+instructions will do the rest. Light a candle for St. Sergius, and watch
+for a favourable opportunity."</p>
+
+<p>Euprepia was upright, candid, and loyal; but the best of women has
+something of the actress in her nature; and her histrionic talent was
+stimulated by her filial affection. Basil was for a moment fairly carried
+away by the consummate fact of her performance and the genuine feeling to
+her appeal; but he was himself again by the time he had finished perusing
+his late minister's long-winded and mendacious memorial.</p>
+
+<p>"What manner of woman was thy mother?" he inquired kindly</p>
+
+<p>Euprepia was eloquent in praise of her deceased parent's perfections of
+mind and person.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can believe thee Photinius's daughter, which I might otherwise
+have doubted," returned Basil. "As concerns him, I can only say, if he
+feels himself innocent, let him come out of sanctuary, and stand his trial.
+But I will give thee a place at Court."</p>
+
+<p>This was about all that Photinius hoped to obtain, and he joyfully
+consented to his daughter's  entering the Imperial court, exulting at
+having got in the thin end of the wedge. She was attached to the person of
+the Emperor's sister-in-law, the "Slayer of the Bulgarians" himself being a
+most determined bachelor.</p>
+
+<p>Time wore on. Euprepia's opportunities of visiting her father were less
+frequent than formerly. At last she came, looking thoroughly miserable,
+distracted, and forlorn.</p>
+
+<p>"What ails thee, child?" he inquired anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father, in what a frightful position do I find myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Speak," he said, "and rely on my counsel."</p>
+
+<p>"When I entered the Court," she proceeded, "I found at first but one
+human creature I could love or trust, and he&mdash;let me so call
+him&mdash;seemed to make up for the deficiencies of all the rest. It was
+the cupbearer Helladius."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he is still thy friend," interrupted Photinius. "The good graces
+of an Imperial cupbearer are always important, and I would have bought
+those of Helladius with a myriad of bezants."</p>
+
+<p>"They were not to be thus obtained, father," said she. "The purest
+disinterestedness, the noblest integrity, the most unselfish devotion, were
+the distinction of my friend. And such beauty! I cannot, I must not conceal
+that my heart was soon entirely his. But&mdash;most strange it seemed to me
+then&mdash;it was long impossible for me to tell whether Helladius loved me
+or loved me not. The most perfect sympathy existed between us: we seemed
+one heart and one soul: and yet, and yet, Helladius never gave the
+slightest indication of the sentiments which a young man might  be supposed
+to entertain for a young girl. Vainly did I try every innocent wile that a
+modest maiden may permit herself: he was ever the friend, never the lover.
+At length, after long pining between despairing fondness and wounded pride,
+I myself turned away, and listened to one who left me in no doubt of the
+sincerity of his passion."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Emperor! And, to shorten the story of my shame, I became his
+mistress."</p>
+
+<p>"The saints be praised!" shouted Photinius. "O my incomparable
+daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Father!" cried Euprepia, blushing and indignant. "But let me hurry on
+with my wretched tale. In proportion as the Emperor's affection became more
+marked, Helladius, hitherto so buoyant and serene, became a visible prey to
+despondency. Some scornful beauty, I deemed, was inflicting on him the
+tortures he had previously inflicted upon me, and, cured of my unhappy
+attachment, and entirely devoted to my Imperial lover, I did all in my
+power to encourage him. He received my comfort with gratitude, nor did it,
+as I had feared might happen, seem to excite the least lover-like feeling
+towards me on his own part."</p>
+
+<p>"Euprepia," he said only two days ago, "never in this Court have I met
+one like thee. Thou art the soul of honour and generosity. I can safely
+trust thee with a secret which my bursting heart can no longer retain, but
+which I dread to breathe even to myself. Know first I am not what I seem, I
+am a woman!" And opening his vest&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We know all about that already," interrupted Photinius. "Get on!"</p>
+
+<p>"If thou knowest this already, father," said the astonished Euprepia,
+"thou wilt spare me the pain of entering further into Helladia's affection
+for Basil. Suffice that it was impassioned beyond description, and vied
+with whatever history or romance records. In her male costume she had
+accompanied the conqueror of the Bulgarians in his campaigns, she had
+fought in his battles; a gigantic foe, in act to strike him from behind,
+had fallen by her arrow; she had warded the poison-cup from his lips, and
+the assassin's dagger from his heart; she had rejected enormous wealth
+offered as a bribe for treachery, and lived only for the Emperor. 'And
+now,' she cried, 'his love for me is cold, and he deserts me for another.
+Who she is I cannot find, else on her it were, not on him, that my
+vengeance should alight. Oh, Euprepia, I would tear her eyes from her head,
+were they beautiful as thine! But vengeance I must have. Basil must die. On
+the third day he expires by my hand, poisoned by the cup which I alone am
+trusted to offer him at the Imperial banquet where thou wilt be present.
+Thou shalt see his agonies and my triumph, and rejoice that thy friend has
+known how to avenge herself.'</p>
+
+<p>"Thou seest now, father, in how frightful a difficulty I am placed. All
+my entreaties and remonstrances have been in vain: at my threats Helladia
+merely laughs. I love Basil with my whole heart. Shall I look on and see
+him murdered? Shall I, having first unwittingly done my friend the most
+grievous injury, proceed further to betray her, and doom her to a cruel
+death? I might anticipate her fell purpose by slaying her, but for that I
+have neither strength  nor courage. Many a time have I felt on the point of
+revealing everything to her, and offering myself as her victim, but for
+this also I lack fortitude. I might convey a warning to Basil, but
+Helladia's vengeance is unsleeping, and nothing but her death or mine will
+screen him. Oh, father, father! what am I to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing romantic or sentimental, I trust, dear child," replied
+Photinius.</p>
+
+<p>"Torture me not, father. I came to thee for counsel."</p>
+
+<p>"And counsel shalt thou have, but it must be the issue of mature
+deliberation. Thou mayest observe," continued he with the air of a good man
+contending with adversity, "how weak and miserable is man's estate even in
+the day of good fortune, how hard it is for purblind mortals to discern the
+right path, especially when two alluring routes are simultaneously
+presented for their decision! The most obvious and natural course, the one
+I should have adopted without hesitation half-an-hour ago, would be simply
+to let Helladia alone. Should she succeed&mdash;and Heaven forbid
+else!&mdash;the knot is loosed in the simplest manner. Basil
+dies&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Father!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a favourite with his sister-in-law," continued Photinius, entirely
+unconscious of his daughter's horror and agitation, "who will govern in the
+name of her weak husband, and is moreover thy mistress. She recalls me to
+Court, and all is peace and joy. But then, Helladia may fail. In that case,
+when she has been executed&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Father, father!"</p>
+
+<p>"We are exactly where we were, save for the hold thou hast established
+over the Emperor, which is of course invaluable. I cannot but feel that
+Heaven is good when I reflect how easily thou mightest have thrown thyself
+away upon a courtier. Now there is a much bolder game to play, which,
+relying on the protection of Providence, I feel half disposed to attempt.
+Thou mightest betray Helladia."</p>
+
+<p>"Deliver my friend to the tormentors!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then," pursued Photinius, without hearing her, "thy claim on the
+Emperor's gratitude is boundless, and if he has any sense of what is
+seemly&mdash;and he is what they call chivalrous&mdash;he will make thee
+his lawful consort. I father-in-law of an Emperor! My brain reels to think
+of it. I must be cool. I must not suffer myself to be dazzled or hurried
+away. Let me consider. Thus acting, thou puttest all to the hazard of the
+die. For if Helladia should deny everything, as of course she would, and
+the Emperor should foolishly scruple to put her to the rack, she might
+probably persuade him of her innocence, and where wouldst thou be then? It
+might almost be better to be beforehand, and poison Helladia herself, but I
+fear there is no time now. Thou hast no evidence but her threats, I
+suppose? Thou hast not caught her tampering with poisons? There can of
+course be nothing in writing. I daresay I could find something, if I had
+but time. Canst thou counterfeit her signature?"</p>
+
+<p>But long ere this Euprepia, dissolved in tears, her bosom torn by
+convulsive sobs, had become as inattentive to her parent's discourse as he
+had been to her interjections. Photinius at last  remarked her distress: he
+was by no means a bad father.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor child," he said, "thy nerves are unstrung, and no wonder. It is a
+terrible risk to run. Even if thou saidest nothing, and Helladia under the
+torture accused thee of having been privy to her design, it might have a
+bad effect on the Emperor's mind. If he put thee to the torture
+too&mdash;but no! that's impossible. I feel faint and giddy, dear child,
+and unable to decide a point of such importance. Come to me at daybreak
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>But Euprepia did not reappear, and Photinius spent the day in an agony
+of expectation, fearing that she had compromised herself by some
+imprudence. He gazed on the setting sun with uncontrollable impatience,
+knowing that it would shine on the Imperial banquet, where so much was to
+happen. Basil was in fact at that very moment seating himself among a
+brilliant assemblage. By his side stood a choir of musicians, among them
+Euprepia. Soon the cup was called for, and Helladia, in her masculine
+dress, stepped forward, darting a glance of sinister triumph at her friend.
+Silently, almost imperceptibly to the bulk of the company, Euprepia glided
+forward, and hissed rather than whispered in Helladia's ear, ere she could
+retire from the Emperor's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Didst thou not say that if thou couldst discover her who had wronged
+thee, thou wouldst wreak thy vengeance on her, and molest Basil no
+further?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, and I meant it."</p>
+
+<p>"See that thou keepest thy word. I am she!" And snatching the cup from
+the table, she quaffed  it to the last drop, and instantly expired in
+convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>We pass over the dismay of the banqueters, the arrest and confession of
+Helladia, the general amazement at the revelation of her sex, the frantic
+grief of the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>Basil's sorrow was sincere and durable. On an early occasion he thus
+addressed his courtiers:</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot determine which of these two women loved me best: she who gave
+her life for me, or she who would have taken mine. The first made the
+greater sacrifice; the second did most violence to her feelings. What say
+ye?"</p>
+
+<p>The courtiers hesitated, feeling themselves incompetent judges in
+problems of this nature. At length the youngest exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"O Emperor, how can we tell thee, unless we know what thou thinkest
+thyself?"</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Basil, "an honest man in the Court of Byzantium! Let
+his mouth be filled with gold immediately!"</p>
+
+<p>This operation having been performed, and the precious metal distributed
+in fees among the proper officers, Basil thus addressed the object of his
+favour:</p>
+
+<p>"Manuel, thy name shall henceforth be Chrysostomus, in memory of what
+has just taken place. In further token of my approbation of thy honesty, I
+will confer upon thee the hand of the only other respectable person about
+the Court, namely, of Helladia. Take her, my son, and raise up a race of
+heroes! She shall be amply dowered out of what remains of the property of
+Photinius."</p>
+
+<p>"Gennadius," whispered a cynical courtier to  his neighbour, "I hope
+thou admirest the magnanimity of our sovereign, who deems he is performing
+a most generous action in presenting Manuel with his cast-off mistress, who
+has tried to poison him, and with whom he has been at his wits' end what to
+do, and in dowering her at the expense of another."</p>
+
+<p>The snarl was just; but it is just also to acknowledge that Basil, as a
+prince born in the purple, had not the least idea that he was laying
+himself open to any such criticism. He actually did feel the manly glow of
+self-approbation which accompanies the performance of a good action: an
+emotion which no one else present, except Chrysostomus, was so much as able
+to conceive. It is further to be remarked that the old courtier who sneered
+at Chrysostomus was devoured by envy of his good fortune, and would have
+given his right eye to have been in his place.</p>
+
+<p>"Chrysostomus," pursued Basil, "we must now think of the hapless
+Photinius. That unfortunate father is doubtless in an agony of grief which
+renders the forfeiture of the remains of his possessions indifferent to
+him. Thou, his successor therein, mayest be regarded as in some sort his
+son-in-law. Go, therefore, and comfort him, and report to me upon his
+condition."</p>
+
+<p>Chrysostomus accordingly proceeded to the monastery, where he was
+informed that Photinius had retired with his spiritual adviser, and could
+on no account be disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is on my head to see the Emperor's orders obeyed," returned
+Chrysostomus, and forced the door. The bereaved parent was busily engaged
+in sticking pins into a wax effigy of Basil, under  the direction of
+Panurgiades, already honourably mentioned in this history.</p>
+
+<p>"Wretched old man!" exclaimed Chrysostomus, "is this thy grief for thy
+daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"My grief is great," answered Photinius, "but my time is small. If I
+turn not every moment to account, I shall never be prime minister again.
+But all is over now. Thou wilt denounce me, of course. I will give thee a
+counsel. Say that thou didst arrive just as we were about to place the
+effigy of Basil before a slow fire, and melt it into a caldron of bubbling
+poison."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall report what I have seen," replied Chrysostomus, "neither more
+nor less. But I think I can assure thee that none will suffer for this
+mummery except Panurgiades, and that he will at most be whipped."</p>
+
+<p>"Chrysostomus," said Basil, on receiving the report, "lust of power, a
+fever in youth, is a leprosy in age. The hoary statesman out of place would
+sell his daughter, his country, his soul, to regain it: yea, he would part
+with his skin and his senses, were it possible to hold office without them.
+I commiserate Photinius, whose faculties are clearly on the decline; the
+day has been when he would not have wasted his time sticking pins into a
+waxen figure. I will give him some shadow of authority to amuse his old
+days and keep him out of mischief. The Abbot of Catangion is just dead.
+Photinius shall succeed him."</p>
+
+<p>So Photinius received the tonsure and the dignity, and made a very
+tolerable Abbot. It is even recorded to his honour that he bestowed a
+handsome funeral on his old enemy Eustathius.</p>
+
+<p>Helladia made Chrysostomus an excellent wife, a little over-prudish,
+some thought. When, nearly two centuries afterwards, the Courts of Love
+came to be established in Provence, the question at issue between her and
+Euprepia was referred to those tribunals, which, finding the decision
+difficult, adjourned it for seven hundred years. That period having now
+expired, it is submitted to the British public.</p> <a id="p114"></a> <a
+href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE WISDOM OF THE INDIANS</h2>
+
+<p>Everybody knows that in the reign of the Emperor Elagabalus Rome was
+visited by an embassy from India; whose members, on their way from the
+East, had held that memorable interview with the illustrious (though
+heretical) Christian philosopher Bardesanes which enabled him to formulate
+his doctrine of Fate, borrowed from the Indian theory of Karma, and
+therefore, until lately, grievously misunderstood by his commentators.</p>
+
+<p>It may not, however, be equally notorious that the ambassadors returned
+by sea as far as Berytus, and upon landing there were hospitably
+entertained by the sage Euphronius, the head of the philosophical faculty
+of that University.</p>
+
+<p>Euphronius naturally inquired what circumstance in Rome had appeared to
+his visitors most worthy of remark.</p>
+
+<p>"The extreme evil of the Emperor's Karma," said they.</p>
+
+<p>Euphronius requested further explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Karma," explained their interpreter, "is that congeries of
+circumstances which has necessitated the birth of each individual, and of
+whose good or evil he is the incarnation. Every act must needs be attended
+by consequences, and as these are usually of too far-reaching a character
+to be  exhausted in the life of the doer of the action, they cannot but
+engender another person by whom they are to be borne. This truth is
+popularly expressed by the doctrine of transmigration, according to which
+individuals, as the character of their deeds may determine, are re-born as
+pigs or peacocks, beggars or princes. But this is a loose and unscientific
+way of speaking, for in fact it is not the individual that is re-born, but
+the character; which, even as the silkworm clothes itself with silk and the
+caddis-worm with mud and small shingle, creates for itself a new
+personality, congruous with its own nature. We are therefore led to reflect
+what a prodigious multitude of sins some one must have committed ere the
+Roman world could be afflicted with such an Emperor as Elagabalus."</p>
+
+<p>"What have ye found so exceedingly reprehensible in the Emperor's
+conduct?" demanded Euphronius.</p>
+
+<p>"To speak only," said the Indians, "of such of his doings as may fitly
+be recited to modest ears, we find him declaring war against Nature, and
+delighting in nothing that is not the contrary of what Heaven meant it to
+be. We see him bathing in perfumes, sailing ships in wine, feeding horses
+on grapes and lions on parrots, peppering fish with pearls, wearing gems on
+the soles of his feet, strewing his floor with gold-dust, paving the public
+streets with precious marbles, driving teams of stags, scorning to eat fish
+by the seaside, deploring his lot that he has never yet been able to dine
+on a phoenix. Enormous must have been the folly and wickedness which has
+incarnated itself in such a sovereign, and should his reign be  prolonged,
+discouraging is the prospect for the morals of the next generation.</p>
+
+<p>"According to you, then," said Euphronius, "the fates of men are not
+spun for them by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, but by their
+predecessors?"</p>
+
+<p>"So it is," said they, "always remembering that man can rid himself of
+his Karma by philosophic meditation, combined with religious austerities,
+and that if all walked in this path, existence with all its evils would
+come to an end. Insomuch that the most bloodthirsty conqueror that ever
+devastated the earth hath not destroyed one thousandth part as many
+existences as the Lord Buddha."</p>
+
+<p>"These are abstruse matters," said Euphronius, "and I lament that your
+stay in Berytus will not be long enough to instruct me adequately
+therein."</p>
+
+<p>"Accompany us to India," said they, "and thou shalt receive instruction
+at the fountain head."</p>
+
+<p>"I am old and feeble," apologised Euphronius, "and adjusted by long
+habit to my present environment. Nevertheless I will propound the
+enterprise to my pupils, only somewhat repressing their ardour, lest the
+volunteers should be inconveniently numerous."</p>
+
+<p>When, however, the proposition was made not a soul responded; though
+Euphronius reproached his disciples severely, and desired them to compare
+their want of spirit with his own thirst for knowledge, which, when he was
+a young man, had taken him as far as Alexandria to hear a celebrated
+rhetorician. In the evening, however, two disciples came to him together,
+and professed their readiness to undertake the expedition, if promised  a
+reward commensurate with its danger and difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye would learn the secret of my celebrated dilemma," said he, "which no
+sophist can elude? 'Tis much; 'tis immoderate; 'tis enormous; nevertheless,
+bring the wisdom of India to Berytus, and the knowledge of the stratagem
+shall be yours."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Master," they said, "it is not thy dilemma of which we are
+enamoured. It is thy daughter."</p>
+
+<p>A vehement altercation ensued, but at length the old philosopher, who at
+the bottom of his heart was much readier to part with his daughter than his
+dilemma, was induced to promise her to whichever of the pupils should bring
+home the most satisfactory exposition of Indian metaphysics: provided
+always that during their absence he should not have been compelled to
+bestow her hand as the price of a quibble even more subtle than his own:
+but this he believed to be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Mnesitheus and Rufus accordingly travelled with the embassy to India,
+and arrived in safety at the metropolis of Palimbothra. They had wisely
+devoted themselves meanwhile to learning the language, and were now able to
+converse with some fluency.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching their destination they were placed under the superintendence
+of competent instructors, who were commissioned to initiate them into the
+canon of Buddhist scriptures, comprising, to mention only a few of the
+principal, the Lalitavistara, the Dhammapada, the Kuddhapatha, the
+Palinokkha, the Uragavagga, the Kulavagga, the Mahavagga, the Atthakavagga,
+and the Upasampadakammavaca. These works, composed in dead languages, and
+written in strange and unknown characters, were further provided with
+commentaries more voluminous and inexplicable than the text.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens," exclaimed Mnesitheus and Rufus, "can the life of a man
+suffice to study all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly not," replied the Indians. "The diligent student will resume
+his investigations in a subsequent stage of existence, and, if endowed with
+eminent faculties, may hope to attain the end he proposes to himself at the
+fifteenth transmigration."</p>
+
+<p>"The end we propose to ourselves," said the Greeks, "is to marry our
+master's daughter. Will the fair Euphronia also have undergone fifteen
+transmigrations, and will her charms have continued unimpaired?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is difficult to pronounce," said they, "for should the maiden,
+through the exercise of virtue, have merited to be born as a white
+elephant, her transmigrations must in the order of nature be but few;
+whereas should she have unfortunately become and remained a rat, a frog, or
+other shortlived animal, they cannot but be exceedingly numerous."</p>
+
+<p>"The prospect of wedding a frog at the end of fifteen transmigrations,"
+said the youths, "doth not in any respect commend itself to us. Are there
+no means by which the course of study may be accelerated?"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly," said the Indians, "by the practice of religious
+austerities."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what nature are these?" inquired the young men.</p>
+
+<p>"The intrepid disciple," said the sages, "may chain himself to a tree,
+and gaze upon the sun until he is deprived of the faculty of vision. He may
+drive an iron bar through his cheeks and tongue, thus preventing all misuse
+of the gift of speech. It is open to him to bury himself in the earth up to
+his waist, relying for his maintenance on the alms of pious donors. He may
+recline upon a couch studded with spikes, until from the induration of his
+skin he shall have merited the title of a rhinoceros among sages. As,
+however, these latter practices interfere with locomotion, and thus prevent
+his close attendance on his spiritual guide, it is rather recommended to
+him to elevate his arms above his head, and retain them in that position
+until, by the withering of the sinews, it is impossible for him to bring
+them down again."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," cried Rufus, "farewell philosophy! farewell
+Euphronia!"</p>
+
+<p>There is reason to believe that Mnesitheus would have made exactly the
+same observation if Rufus had not been beforehand with him. The spirit of
+contradiction and the affectation of superiority, however, led him to
+reproach his rival with pusillanimity, and he went so far that at length he
+found himself committed to undergo the ordeal: merely stipulating that, in
+consideration of his being a foreigner, he should be permitted to elevate
+the right arm only.</p>
+
+<p>The king of the country most graciously came to his assistance by
+causing him to be fastened to a tree, with his uplifted arm secured by iron
+bands above his head, a fan being put in his other hand to protect him
+against the molestations of gnats  and mosquitoes. By this means, and with
+the assistance of the monks who continually recited and expounded the
+Buddhist scriptures in his ears, some time even before his arm had
+stiffened for ever, the doctrine of the misery of existence had become
+perfectly clear to him.</p>
+
+<p>Released from his captivity, he hastened back to Europe to claim the
+guerdon of his sufferings. History is silent respecting his adventures
+until his arrival at Berytus, where the strange wild-looking man with the
+uplifted arm found himself the centre of a turbulent and mischievous
+rabble. As he seemed about to suffer severe ill-usage, a personage of
+dignified and portly appearance hastened up, and with his staff showered
+blows to right and left upon the rioters.</p>
+
+<p>"Scoundrels," he exclaimed, "finely have ye profited by my precepts,
+thus to misuse an innocent stranger! But I will no longer dwell among such
+barbarians. I will remove my school to Tarsus!"</p>
+
+<p>The mob dispersed. The victim and his deliverer stood face to face.</p>
+
+<p>"Mnesitheus!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rufus!"</p>
+
+<p>"Call me Rufinianus," corrected the latter; "for such is the appellation
+which I have felt it due to myself to assume, since the enhancement of my
+dignity by becoming Euphronius's successor and son-in-law."</p>
+
+<p>"Son-in-law! Am I to lose the reward of my incredible sufferings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou forgettest," said Rufinianus, "that Euphronia's hand was not
+promised as the reward of any austerities, but as the meed of the most
+intelligent, that is, the most acceptable, account of the Indian
+philosophy, which in the opinion of the late eminent Euphronius, has been
+delivered by me. But come to my chamber, and let me minister to thy
+necessities."</p>
+
+<p>These having been duly attended to, Rufinianus demanded Mnesitheus's
+history, and then proceeded to narrate his own.</p>
+
+<p>"On my journey homeward," said he, "I reflected seriously on the
+probable purpose of our master in sending us forth, and saw reason to
+suspect that I had hitherto misapprehended it. For I could not remember
+that he had ever admitted that he could have anything to learn from other
+philosophers, or that he had ever exhibited the least interest in
+philosophic dogmas, excepting his own. The system of the Indians, I
+thought, must be either inferior to that of Euphronius, or superior. If the
+former, he will not want it: if the latter, he will want it much less. I
+therefore concluded that our mission was partly a concession to public
+opinion, partly to enable him to say that his name was known, and his
+teaching proclaimed on the very banks of the Ganges. I formed my plan
+accordingly, and disregarding certain indications that I was neither
+expected nor wanted, presented myself before Euphronius with a gladsome
+countenance, slightly overcast by sorrow on account of thee, whom I
+affirmed to have been devoured by a tiger.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well,' said Euphronius in a disdainful tone, 'and what about this
+vaunted wisdom of the Indians?'</p>
+
+<p>"'The wisdom of the Indians,' I replied, 'is entirely borrowed from
+Pythagoras.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Did I not tell you so? 'Euphronius appealed to his disciples.</p>
+
+<p>"'Invariably,' they replied.</p>
+
+<p>"'As if a barbarian could teach a Greek!' said he.</p>
+
+<p>"'It is much if he is able to learn from one,' said they.</p>
+
+<p>"'Pythagoras, then,' said Euphronius addressing me,' did not resort to
+India to be instructed by the Gymnosophists?'</p>
+
+<p>"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'he went there to teach them, and the
+little knowledge of divine matters they possess is entirely derived from
+him. His mission is recorded in a barbarous poem called the Ramayana,
+wherein he is figuratively represented as allying himself with monkeys. He
+is worshipped all over the country under the appellations of Siva,
+Kamadeva, Kali, Gautama Buddha, and others too numerous to mention.'</p>
+
+<p>"When I further proceeded to explain that a temple had been erected to
+Euphronius himself on the banks of the Ganges, and that a festival, called
+Durga Popja, or the Feast of Reason, had been instituted in his honour, his
+good humour knew no bounds, and he granted me his daughter's hand without
+difficulty. He died a few years ago, bequeathing me his celebrated dilemma,
+and I am now head of his school and founder of the Rufinianian philosophy.
+I am also the author of some admired works, especially a life of
+Pythagoras, and a manual of Indian philosophy and religion. I hope for thy
+own sake thou wilt forbear to contradict me: for no one will believe thee.
+I trust also that thou wilt speedily overcome thy disappointment with
+respect to Euphronia. I do most  honestly and truthfully assure thee that
+for a one-armed man like thee to marry her would be most inexpedient,
+inasmuch as the defence of one's beard from her, when she is in a state of
+excitement, requires the full use of both hands, and of the feet also. But
+come with me to her chamber, and I will present thee to her. She is always
+taunting me with my inferiority to thee in personal attractions, and I
+promise myself much innocent amusement from her discomfiture when she finds
+thee as gaunt as a wolf and as black as a cinder. Only, as I have
+represented thee to have been devoured by a tiger, thou wilt kindly say
+that I saved thy life, but concealed the circumstance out of modesty."</p>
+
+<p>"I have learned in the Indian schools," said Mnesitheus, "not to lie for
+the benefit of others. I will not see Euphronia; I would not disturb her
+ideal of me, nor mine of her. Farewell. May the Rufinianian sect flourish!
+and may thy works on Pythagoras and India instruct posterity to the tenth
+generation! I return to Palimbothra, where I am held in honour on the
+self-same account that here renders me ridiculous. It shall be my study to
+enlighten the natives respecting their obligations to Pythagoras, whose
+name I did not happen to hear while I abode among them."</p> <a
+id="p124"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE DUMB ORACLE</h2>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Many the Bacchi that brandish the rod:
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Few that be filled with the fire of the God.
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>In the days of King Attalus, before oracles had lost their credit, one
+of peculiar reputation, inspired, as was believed, by Apollo, existed in
+the city of Dorylseum, in Phrygia. Contrary to usage, its revelations were
+imparted through the medium of a male priest. It was rarely left unthronged
+by devout questioners, whose inquiries were resolved in writing, agreeably
+to the method delivered by the pious Lucian, in his work "Concerning False
+Prophecy." [*] Sometimes, on extraordinary occasions, a voice, evidently
+that of the deity, was heard declaring the response from the innermost
+recesses of the shrine. The treasure house of the sanctuary was stored with
+tripods and goblets, in general wrought from the precious metals; its
+coffers were loaded with coins and ingots; the sacrifices of wealthy
+suppliants and the copious offerings in kind of the country people provided
+superabundantly for the daily maintenance of the temple servitors; while a
+rich endowment in land maintained the dignity of its guardians, and of the
+officiating priest. The  latter reverend personage was no less eminent for
+prudence than for piety; on which account the Gods had rewarded him with
+extreme obesity. At length he died, whether of excess in meat or in drink
+is not agreed among historians.</p> <p class="footnote">*)
+<i>Pseudomantis</i>, cap. 19-21. </p>
+
+<p>The guardians of the temple met to choose a successor, and, naturally
+desirous that the sanctity of the oracle should suffer no abatement,
+elected a young priest of goodly presence and ascetic life; the humblest,
+purest, most fervent, and most ingenuous of the sons of men. So rare a
+choice might well be expected to be accompanied by some extraordinary
+manifestation, and, in fact, a prodigy took place which filled the sacred
+authorities with dismay. The responses of the oracle ceased suddenly and
+altogether. No revelation was vouchsafed to the pontiff in his slumbers; no
+access of prophetic fury constrained him to disclose the secrets of the
+future; no voice rang from the shrine; and the unanswered epistles of the
+suppliants lay a hopeless encumbrance on the great altar. As a natural
+consequence they speedily ceased to arrive; the influx of offerings into
+the treasury terminated along with them; the temple-courts were bare of
+worshippers; and the only victims whose blood smoked within them were those
+slain by the priest himself, in the hope of appeasing the displeasure of
+Apollo. The modest hierophant took all the blame upon his own shoulders; he
+did not doubt that he had excited the Deity's wrath by some mysterious but
+heinous pollution; and was confirmed in this opinion by the unanimous
+verdict of all whom he approached.</p>
+
+<p>One day as he sat sadly in the temple, absorbed  in painful meditation,
+and pondering how he might best relieve himself of his sacred functions, he
+was startled by the now unwonted sound of a footstep, and, looking up,
+espied an ancient woman. Her appearance was rather venerable than
+prepossessing. He recognised her as one of the inferior ministers of the
+temple.</p>
+
+<p>"Reverend mother," he addressed her, "doubtless thou comest to mingle
+with mine thy supplications to the Deity, that it may please him to
+indicate the cause, and the remedy of his wrath."</p>
+
+<p>"No, son," returned the venerable personage, "I propose to occasion no
+such needless trouble to Apollo, or any other Divinity. I hold within mine
+own hand the power of reviving the splendour of this forsaken sanctuary,
+and for such consideration as thou wilt thyself pronounce equitable, I am
+minded to impart the same unto thee." And as the astonished priest made no
+answer, she continued:</p>
+
+<p>"My price is one hundred pieces of gold."</p>
+
+<p>"Wretch!" exclaimed the priest indignantly, "thy mercenary demand alone
+proves the vanity of thy pretence of being initiated into the secrets of
+the Gods. Depart my presence this moment!"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman retired without a syllable of remonstrance, and the
+incident soon passed from the mind of the afflicted priest. But on the
+following day, at the same hour, the aged woman again stood before him, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"My price is <i>two</i> hundred pieces of gold."</p>
+
+<p>Again she was commanded to depart, and again obeyed without a murmur.
+But the adventure now occasioned the priest much serious reflection. To his
+excited fancy, the patient persistency of the crone began to assume
+something  of a supernatural character. He considered that the ways of the
+Gods are not as our ways, and that it is rather the rule than the exception
+with them to accomplish their designs in the most circuitous manner, and by
+the most unlikely instruments. He also reflected upon the history of the
+Sibyl and her books, and shuddered to think that unseasonable obstinacy
+might in the end cost the temple the whole of its revenues. The result of
+his cogitations was a resolution, if the old woman should present herself
+on the following day, to receive her in a different manner.</p>
+
+<p>Punctual to the hour she made her appearance, and croaked out, "My price
+is <i>three</i> hundred pieces of gold."</p>
+
+<p>"Venerable ambassadress of Heaven," said the priest, "thy boon is
+granted thee. Relieve the anguish of my bosom as speedily as thou
+mayest."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman's reply was brief and expressive. It consisted in
+extending her open and hollow palm, into which the priest counted the three
+hundred pieces of gold with as much expedition as was compatible with the
+frequent interruptions necessitated by the crone's depositing each
+successive handful in a leather pouch; and the scrutiny, divided between
+jealousy and affection, which she bestowed on each individual coin.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said the priest, when the operation was at length completed,
+"fulfil thy share of the compact."</p>
+
+<p>"The cause of the oracle's silence," returned the old woman, "is the
+unworthiness of the minister."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! 'tis even as I feared," sighed the priest. "Declare now, wherein
+consists my sin?"</p>
+
+<p>"It consists in this," replied the old woman, "that the beard of thy
+understanding is not yet grown; and that the egg-shell of thy inexperience
+is still sticking to the head of thy simplicity; and that thy brains bear
+no adequate proportion to the skull enveloping them; and in fine, lest I
+seem to speak overmuch in parables, or to employ a superfluity of epithets,
+that thou art an egregious nincompoop."</p>
+
+<p>And as the amazed priest preserved silence, she pursued:</p>
+
+<p>"Can aught be more shameful in a religious man than ignorance of the
+very nature of religion? Not to know that the term, being rendered into the
+language of truth, doth therein signify deception practised by the few wise
+upon the many foolish, for the benefit of both, but more particularly the
+former? O silly as the crowds who hitherto have brought their folly here,
+but now carry it elsewhere to the profit of wiser men than thou! O fool! to
+deem that oracles were rendered by Apollo! How should this be, seeing that
+there is no such person? Needs there, peradventure, any greater miracle for
+the decipherment of these epistles than a hot needle? [*] As for the
+supernatural voice, it doth in truth proceed from a respectable, and in
+some sense a sacred personage, being mine own when I am concealed within a
+certain recess prepared for me by thy lamented predecessor, whose mistress
+I was in youth, and whose coadjutor I have been in age. I am now ready to
+minister to thee in the latter capacity. Be ruled by me; exchange thy
+abject superstition for common sense; thy childish simplicity for  discreet
+policy; thy unbecoming spareness for a majestic portliness; thy present
+ridiculous and uncomfortable situation for the repute of sanctity, and the
+veneration of men. Thou wilt own that this is cheap at three hundred
+pieces."</p> <p class="footnote">*) Lucian. </p>
+
+<p>The young priest had hearkened to the crone's discourse with an
+expression of the most exquisite distress. When she had finished, he arose,
+and disregarding his repulsive companion's efforts to detain him, departed
+hastily from the temple.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>It was the young priest's purpose, as soon as he became capable of
+forming one, to place the greatest possible distance between himself and
+the city of Doryl&aelig;um. The love of roaming insensibly grew upon him,
+and ere long his active limbs had borne him over a considerable portion of
+Asia. His simple wants were easily supplied by the wild productions of the
+country, supplemented when needful by the proceeds of light manual labour.
+By degrees the self-contempt which had originally stung him to desperation
+took the form of an ironical compassion for the folly of mankind, and the
+restlessness which had at first impelled him to seek relief in a change of
+scene gave place to a spirit of curiosity and observation. He learned to
+mix freely with all orders of men, save one, and rejoiced to find the
+narrow mysticism which he had imbibed from his previous education gradually
+yielding to contact with the great world. From one class of men, indeed, he
+learned nothing&mdash;the  priests, whose society he eschewed with
+scrupulous vigilance, nor did he ever enter the temples of the Gods.
+Diviners, augurs, all that made any pretension whatever to a supernatural
+character, he held in utter abhorrence, and his ultimate return in the
+direction of his native country is attributed to his inability to persevere
+further in the path he was following without danger of encountering
+Chaldean soothsayers, or Persian magi, or Indian gymnosophists.</p>
+
+<p>He cherished, however, no intention of returning to Phrygia, and was
+still at a considerable distance from that region, when one night, as he
+was sitting in the inn of a small country town, his ear caught a phrase
+which arrested his attention.</p>
+
+<p>"As true as the oracle of Doryl&aelig;um." The speaker was a countryman,
+who appeared to have been asseverating something regarded by the rest of
+the company as greatly in need of confirmation. The sudden start and
+stifled cry of the ex-priest drew all eyes to him, and he felt constrained
+to ask, with the most indifferent air he could assume:</p>
+
+<p>"Is the oracle of Doryl&aelig;um, then, so exceedingly renowned for
+veracity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whence comest thou to be ignorant of that?" demanded the countryman,
+with some disdain. "Hast thou never heard of the priest Eubulides?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eubulides!" exclaimed the young traveller, "that is my own name!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou mayest well rejoice, then," observed another of the guests, "to
+bear the name of one so holy and pure, and so eminently favoured by the
+happy Gods. So handsome and dignified, moreover, as I may well assert who
+have often  beheld him discharging his sacred functions. And truly, now
+that I scan thee more closely, the resemblance is marvellous. Only that thy
+namesake bears with him a certain air of divinity, not equally conspicuous
+in thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Divinity!" exclaimed another. "Aye, if Phoebus himself ministered at
+his own shrine, he could wear no more majestic semblance than
+Eubulides."</p>
+
+<p>"Or predict the future more accurately," added a priest.</p>
+
+<p>"Or deliver his oracles in more exquisite verse," subjoined a poet.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet is it not marvellous," remarked another speaker, "that for some
+considerable time after his installation the good Eubulides was unable to
+deliver a single oracle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, and that the first he rendered should have foretold the death of
+an aged woman, one of the ministers of the temple."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" exclaimed Eubulides, "how was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"He prognosticated her decease on the following day, which accordingly
+came to pass, from her being choked with a piece of gold, not lawfully
+appertaining to herself, which she was endeavouring to conceal under the
+root of her tongue."</p>
+
+<p>"The Gods be praised for that!" ejaculated Eubulides, under his breath.
+"Pshaw! as if there were Gods! If they existed, would they tolerate this
+vile mockery? To keep up the juggle&mdash;well, I know it must be so; but
+to purloin my name! to counterfeit my person! By all the Gods that are not,
+I will expose the cheat, or perish in the endeavour."</p>
+
+<p>He arose early on the following morning and took his way towards the
+city of Doryl&aelig;um. The further he progressed in this direction, the
+louder became the bruit of the oracle of Apollo, and the more emphatic the
+testimonies to the piety, prophetic endowments, and personal attractions of
+the priest Eubulides; his own resemblance to whom was the theme of
+continual remark. On approaching the city, he found the roads swarming with
+throngs hastening to the temple, about to take part in a great religious
+ceremony to be held therein. The seriousness of worship blended
+delightfully with the glee of the festival, and Eubulides, who at first
+regarded the gathering with bitter scorn, found his moroseness insensibly
+yielding to the poetic charm of the scene. He could not but acknowledge
+that the imposture he panted to expose was at least the source of much
+innocent happiness, and almost wished that the importance of religion,
+considered as an engine of policy, had been offered to his contemplation
+from this point of view, instead of the sordid and revolting aspect in
+which it had been exhibited by the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>In this ambiguous frame of mind he entered the temple. Before the high
+altar stood the officiating priest, a young man, the image, yet not the
+image, of himself. Lineament for lineament, the resemblance was exact, but
+over the stranger's whole figure was diffused an air of majesty, of
+absolute serenity and infinite superiority, which excluded every idea of
+deceit, and so awed the young priest that his purpose of rushing forward to
+denounce the impostor and drag him from the shrine was immediately and
+involuntarily relinquished. As he stood confounded and irresolute, the
+melodious voice of the hierophant rang through the temple:</p>
+
+<p>"Let the priest Eubulides stand forth."</p>
+
+<p>This summons naturally caused the greatest astonishment in every one but
+Eubulides, who emerged as swiftly as he could from the swaying and
+murmuring crowd, and confronted his namesake at the altar. A cry of
+amazement broke from the multitude as they beheld the pair, whose main
+distinction in the eyes of most was their garb. But, as they gazed, the
+form of the officiating priest assumed colossal proportions; a circle of
+beams, dimming sunlight, broke forth around his head; hyacinthine locks
+clustered on his shoulders, his eyes sparkled with supernatural radiance; a
+quiver depended at his back; an unstrung bow occupied his hand; the majesty
+and benignity of his presence alike seemed augmented tenfold. Eubulides and
+the crowd sank simultaneously on their knees, for all recognised
+Apollo.</p>
+
+<p>All was silence for a space. It was at length broken by Phoebus.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Eubulides," inquired he, with the bland raillery of an Immortal,
+"has it at length occurred to thee that I may have been long enough away
+from Parnassus, filling thy place here while thou hast been disporting
+thyself amid heretics and barbarians?"</p>
+
+<p>The abashed Eubulides made no response. The Deity continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Deem not that thou hast in aught excited the displeasure of the Gods.
+In deserting their altars for Truth's sake, thou didst render them the most
+acceptable of sacrifices, the only one, it  may be, by which they set much
+store. But, Eubulides, take heed how thou again sufferest the unworthiness
+of men to overcome the instincts of thine own nature. Thy holiest
+sentiments should not have been at the mercy of a knave. If the oracle of
+Doryl&aelig;um was an imposture, hadst thou no oracle in thine own bosom?
+If the voice of Religion was no longer breathed from the tripod, were the
+winds and waters silent, or had aught quenched the everlasting stars? If
+there was no power to impose its mandates from without, couldst thou be
+unconscious of a power within? If thou hadst nothing to reveal unto men,
+mightest thou not have found somewhat to propound unto them? Know this,
+that thou hast never experienced a more truly religious emotion than that
+which led thee to form the design of overthrowing this my temple, the
+abode, as thou didst deem it, of fraud and superstition."</p>
+
+<p>"But now, Phoebus," Eubulides ventured to reply, "shall I not return to
+the shrine purified by thy presence, and again officiate as thy unworthy
+minister?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Eubulides," returned Phoebus, with a smile; "silver is good, but
+not for ploughshares. Thy strange experience, thy long wanderings, thy
+lonely meditations, and varied intercourse with men, have spoiled thee for
+a priest, while, as I would fain hope, qualifying thee for a sage. Some
+worthy person may easily be found to preside over this temple; and by the
+aid of such inspiration as I may from time to time see meet to vouchsafe
+him, administer its affairs indifferently well. Do thou, Eubulides,
+consecrate thy powers to a more august service than Apollo's, to one  that
+shall endure when Delphi and Delos know <i>his</i> no more."</p>
+
+<p>"To whose service, Phoebus?" inquired Eubulides.</p>
+
+<p>"To the service of Humanity, my son," responded Apollo.</p> <a
+id="p136"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>DUKE VIRGIL</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>The citizens of Mantua were weary of revolutions. They had acknowledged
+the suzerainty of the Emperor Frederick and shaken it off. They had had a
+Podest&agrave; of their own and had shaken him off. They had expelled a
+Papal Legate, incurring excommunication thereby. They had tried dictators,
+consuls, pr&aelig;tors, councils of ten, and other numbers odd and even,
+and ere the middle of the thirteenth century were luxuriating in the
+enjoyment of perfect anarchy.</p>
+
+<p>An assembly met daily in quest of a remedy, but its members were
+forbidden to propose anything old, and were unable to invent anything
+new.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not consult Manto, the alchemist's daughter, our prophetess, our
+Sibyl?" the young Benedetto asked at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" repeated Eustachio, an elderly man.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, indeed?" interrogated Leonardo, a man of mature years.</p>
+
+<p>All the speakers were noble. Benedetto was Manto's lover; Eustachio her
+father's friend; Leonardo his creditor. Their advice prevailed, and the
+three were chosen as a deputation to wait on the prophetess. Before
+proceeding formally  on their embassy the three envoys managed to obtain
+private interviews, the two elder with Manto's father, the youth with Manto
+herself. The creditor promised that if he became Duke by the alchemist's
+influence with his daughter he would forgive the debt; the friend went
+further, and vowed that he would pay it. The old man promised his good word
+to both, but when he went to confer with his daughter he found her closeted
+with Benedetto, and returned without disburdening himself of his errand.
+The youth had just risen from his knees, pleading with her, and drawing
+glowing pictures of their felicity when he should be Duke and she
+Duchess.</p>
+
+<p>She answered, "Benedetto, in all Mantua there is not one man fit to rule
+another. To name any living person would be to set a tyrant over my native
+city. I will repair to the shades and seek a ruler among the dead."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should not Mantua have a tyrant?" demanded Benedetto. "The
+freedom of the mechanic is the bondage of the noble, who values no liberty
+save that of making the base-born do his bidding. 'Tis hell to a man of
+spirit to be contradicted by his tailor. If I could see my heart's desire
+on the knaves, little would I reck submitting to the sway of the
+Emperor."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that well, Benedetto," said Manto, "and hence will take good
+heed not to counsel Mantua to choose thee. No, the Duke I will give her
+shall be one without passions to gratify or injuries to avenge, and shall
+already be crowned with a crown to make the ducal cap as nothing in his
+eyes, if eyes he had."</p>
+
+<p>Benedetto departed in hot displeasure, and the  alchemist came forward
+to announce that the commissioners waited.</p>
+
+<p>"My projection," he whispered, "only wants one more piece of gold to
+insure success, and Eustachio proffers thirty. Oh, give him Mantua in
+exchange for boundless riches!"</p>
+
+<p>"And they call thee a philosopher and me a visionary!" said Manto,
+patting his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>The envoys' commission having been unfolded, she took not a moment to
+reply, "Be your Duke Virgil."</p>
+
+<p>The deputation respectfully represented that although Virgil was no
+doubt Mantua's greatest citizen, he laboured under the disqualification of
+having been dead more than twelve hundred years. Nothing further, however,
+could be extorted from the prophetess, and the ambassadors were obliged to
+withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>The interpretation of Manto's oracle naturally provoked much diversity
+of opinion in the council.</p>
+
+<p>"Obviously," said a poet, "the prophetess would have us confer the ducal
+dignity upon the contemporary bard who doth most nearly accede to the
+vestiges of the divine Maro; and he, as I judge, is even now in the midst
+of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Virgil the poet," said a priest, who had long laboured under the
+suspicion of occult practices, "was a fool to Virgil the enchanter. The
+wise woman evidently demands one competent to put the devil into a
+hole&mdash;an operation which I have striven to perform all my life."</p>
+
+<p>"Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?" inquired Eustachio.</p>
+
+<p>"Better upon an egg than upon a quack!" retorted the priest.</p>
+
+<p>But such was not the opinion of Eustachio himself, who privately
+conferred with Leonardo. Eustachio had a character, but no parts; Leonardo
+had parts, but no character.</p>
+
+<p>"I see not why these fools should deride the oracle of the prophetess,"
+he said. "She would doubtless impress upon us that a dead master is in
+divers respects preferable to a living one."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," said Eustachio, "provided always that the servant is a man of
+exemplary character, and that he presumes not upon his lord's withdrawal to
+another sphere, trusting thereby to commit malpractices with impunity, but
+doth, on the contrary, deport himself as ever in his great taskmaster's
+eye."</p>
+
+<p>"Eustachio," said Leonardo, with admiration, "it is the misery of Mantua
+that she hath no citizen who can act half as well as thou canst talk. I
+would fain have further discourse with thee."</p>
+
+<p>The two statesmen laid their heads together, and ere long the mob were
+crying, "A Virgil! a Virgil!"</p>
+
+<p>The councillors reassembled and passed resolutions.</p>
+
+<p>"But who shall be Regent?" inquired some one when Virgil had been
+elected unanimously.</p>
+
+<p>"Who but we?" asked Eustachio and Leonardo. "Are we not the heads of the
+Virgilian party?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus had the enthusiastic Manto, purest of idealists, installed in
+authority the two most unprincipled politicians in the republic; and she
+had lost her lover besides, for Benedetto fled the city, vowing
+vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>Anyhow, the dead poet was enthroned Duke  of Mantua; Eustachio and
+Leonardo became Regents, with the style of Consuls, and it was provided
+that in doubtful cases reference should be made to the Sortes Virgilianae.
+And truly, if we may believe the chronicles, the arrangement worked for a
+time surprisingly well. The Mantuans, in an irrational way, had done what
+it behoves all communities to do rationally if they can. They had sought
+for a good and worthy citizen to rule them; it was their misfortune that
+such an one could only be found among the dead. They felt prouder of
+themselves for being governed by a great man&mdash;one in comparison with
+whom kings and pontiffs were the creatures of a day. They would not, if
+they could help it, disgrace themselves by disgracing their hero; they
+would not have it said that Mantua, which had not been too weak to bear
+him, had been too weak to endure his government. The very hucksters and
+usurers among them felt dimly that there was such a thing as an Ideal. A
+glimmering perception dawned upon mailed, steel-fisted barons that there
+was such a thing as an Idea, and they felt uneasily apprehensive, like
+beasts of prey who have for the first time sniffed gunpowder. The
+railleries and mockeries of Mantua's neighbours, moreover, stimulated
+Mantua's citizens to persevere in their course, and deterred them from
+doing aught to approve themselves fools. Were not Verona, Cremona, Lodi,
+Pavia, Crema, cities that could never enthrone the Virgil they had never
+produced, watching with undissembled expectation to see them trip? The
+hollow-hearted Eustachio and the rapacious Leonardo, their virtual rulers,
+might indeed be little sensible to  this enthusiasm, but they could not
+disregard the general drift of public opinion, which said clearly: "Mantua
+is trying a great experiment. Woe to you if you bring it to nought by your
+selfish quarrels!"</p>
+
+<p>The best proof that there was something in Manto's idea was that after a
+while the Emperor Frederick took alarm, and signified to the Mantuans that
+they must cease their mumming and fooling and acknowledge him as their
+sovereign, failing which he would besiege their city.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>Mantua was girt by a zone of fire and steel. Her villas and homesteads
+flamed or smoked; her orchards flared heavenward in a torrent of sparks or
+stood black sapless trunks charred to their inmost pith; the promise of her
+harvests lay as grey ashes over the land. But her ramparts, though breached
+in places, were yet manned by her sons, and their assailants recoiled
+pierced by the shafts or stunned by the catapults of the defence. Kaiser
+Frederick sat in his tent, giving secret audience to one who had stolen in
+disguise over from the city in the grey of the morning. By the Emperor's
+side stood a tall martial figure, wearing a visor which he never
+removed.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Majesty," Leonardo was saying, for it was he, "this madness will
+soon pass away. The people will weary of sacrificing themselves for a dead
+heathen."</p>
+
+<p>"And Liberty?" asked the Emperor, "is not that a name dear to those
+misguided creatures?"</p>
+
+<p>"So dear, please your Majesty, that if they have but the name they will
+perfectly dispense with the thing. I do not advise that your imperial yoke
+should be too palpably adjusted to their stiff necks. Leave them in
+appearance the choice of their magistrate, but insure its falling upon one
+of approved fidelity, certain to execute obsequiously all your Majesty's
+mandates; such an one, in short, as your faithful vassal Leonardo. It would
+only be necessary to decapitate that dangerous revolutionist,
+Eustachio."</p>
+
+<p>"And the citizens are really ready for this?"</p>
+
+<p>"All the respectable citizens. All of whom your Majesty need take
+account. All men of standing and substance."</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice to hear it," said the Emperor, "and do the more readily
+credit thee inasmuch as a most virtuous and honourable citizen hath already
+been beforehand with thee, assuring me of the same thing, and affirming
+that but one traitor, whose name, methinks, sounded like thine, stands
+between me and the subjugation of Mantua."</p>
+
+<p>And, withdrawing a curtain, he disclosed the figure of Eustachio.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought he was asleep," muttered Eustachio.</p>
+
+<p>"That noodle to have been beforehand with me!" murmured Leonardo.</p>
+
+<p>"What perplexes me," continued Frederick, after enjoying the confusion
+of the pair for a few moments, "is that our masked friend here will have it
+that he is the man for the Dukedom, and offers to open the gates to me by a
+method of his own."</p>
+
+<p>"By fair fighting, an' please my liege," observed  the visored
+personage, "not by these dastardly treacheries."</p>
+
+<p>"How inhuman!" sighed Eustachio.</p>
+
+<p>"How old-fashioned!" sneered Leonardo.</p>
+
+<p>"The truth is," continued Frederick, "he gravely doubts whether either
+of you possesses the influence which you allege, and has devised a method
+of putting this to the proof, which I trust will commend itself to
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Leonardo and Eustachio expressed their readiness to submit their credit
+with their fellow-citizens to any reasonable trial.</p>
+
+<p>"He proposes, then," pursued the Emperor, "that ye, disarmed and bound,
+should be placed at the head of the storming column, and in that situation
+should, as questionless ye would, exert your entire moral influence with
+your fellow-citizens to dissuade them from shooting you. If the column,
+thus shielded, enters the city without resistance, ye will both have earned
+the Dukedom, and the question who shall have it may be decided by single
+combat between yourselves. But should the people, rather than submit to our
+clemency, impiously slay their elected magistrates, it will be apparent
+that the methods of our martial friend are the only ones corresponding to
+the exigency of the case. Is the storming column ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"All but the first file, please your Majesty," responded the man in the
+visor.</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be equipped," returned Frederick, and in half-an-hour Eustachio
+and Leonardo, their hands tied behind them, were stumbling up the breach,
+impelled by pikes in the rear, and confronting the catapults, <i>chevaux de
+frise</i>, hidden pitfalls, Greek fire, and boiling water provided by
+their own direction, and certified to them the preceding evening as all
+that could be desired. They had, however, the full use of their voices, and
+this they turned to the best account. Never had Leonardo been so cogent, or
+Eustachio so pathetic. The Mantuans, already disorganised by the
+unaccountable disappearance of the Executive, were entirely irresolute what
+to do. As they hesitated the visored chief incited his followers. All
+seemed lost, when a tall female figure appeared among the defenders. It was
+Manto.</p>
+
+<p>"Fools and cowards!" she exclaimed, "must ye learn your duty from a
+woman?"</p>
+
+<p>And, seizing a catapult, she discharged a stone which laid the masked
+warrior stunned and senseless on the ground. The next instant Eustachio and
+Leonardo fell dead, pierced by showers of arrows. The Mantuans sallied
+forth. The dismayed Imperialists fled to their camp. The bodies of the
+fallen magistrates and of the unconscious chieftain in the mask were
+brought into the city. Manto herself undid the fallen man's visor, and
+uttered a fearful shriek as she recognised Benedetto.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall be done with him, mistress?" they asked.</p>
+
+<p>Manto long stood silent, torn by conflicting emotions. At length she
+said, in a strange, unnatural voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Put him into the Square Tower."</p>
+
+<p>"And now, mistress, what further? How to choose the new consuls?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask me no more," she said. "I shall never prophesy again. Virtue has
+gone away from me."</p>
+
+<p>The leaders departed, to intrigue for the vacant  posts, and devise
+tortures for Benedetto. Manto sat on the rampart, still and silent as its
+stones. Anon she rose, and roved about as if distraught, reciting verses
+from Virgil.</p>
+
+<p>Night had fallen. Benedetto lay wakeful in his cell. A female figure
+stood before him bearing a lamp. It was Manto.</p>
+
+<p>"Benedetto," she said, "I am a wretch, faithless to my country and to my
+master. I did but even now open his sacred volume at hazard, and on what
+did my eye first fall?
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres. But I can
+no other. I am a woman. May Mantua never entrust her fortunes to the like
+of me again! Come with me, I will release thee."</p>
+
+<p>She unlocked his chains; she guided him through the secret passage under
+the moat; they stood at the exit, in the open air.</p>
+
+<p>"Fly," she said, "and never again draw sword against thy mother. I will
+return to my house, and do that to myself which it behoved me to have done
+ere I released thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Manto," exclaimed Benedetto "a truce to this folly! Forsake thy dead
+Duke, and that cheat of Liberty more crazy and fantastic still. Wed a
+living Duke in me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!" exclaimed Manto. "I love thee more than any man living on
+earth, and I would not espouse thee if the earth held no other."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou canst not help thyself," he rejoined; "thou hast revealed to me
+the secret of this passage. I hasten to the camp. I return in an hour with
+an army, and wilt thou, wilt thou not,  to-morrow's sun shall behold thee
+the partner of my throne!"</p>
+
+<p>Manto wore a poniard. She struck Benedetto to the heart, and he fell
+dead. She drew the corpse back into the passage, and hurried to her home.
+Opening her master's volume again, she read:</p>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;T&aelig;det coeli convexa tueri.
+
+<p>A few minutes afterwards her father entered the chamber to tell her he
+had at last found the philosopher's stone, but, perceiving his daughter
+hanging by her girdle, he forbore to intrude upon her, and returned to his
+laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>It was time. A sentinel of the besiegers had marked Benedetto's fall,
+and the disappearance of the body into the earth. A pool of blood revealed
+the entrance to the passage. Ere sunrise Mantua was full of Frederick's
+soldiers, full also of burning houses, rifled sanctuaries, violated
+damsels, children playing with their dead mothers' breasts, especially full
+of citizens protesting that they had ever longed for the restoration of the
+Emperor, and that this was the happiest day of their lives. Frederick
+waited till everybody was killed, then entered the city and proclaimed an
+amnesty. Virgil's bust was broken, and his writings burned with Manto's
+body. The flames glowed on the dead face, which gleamed as it were with
+pleasure. The old alchemist had been slain among his crucibles; his scrolls
+were preserved with jealous care.</p>
+
+<p>But Manto found another father. She sat at Virgil's feet in Elysium; and
+as he stroked the fair head, now golden with perpetual youth,  listened to
+his mild reproofs and his cheerful oracles. By her side stood a bowl filled
+with the untasted waters of Lethe.</p>
+
+<p>"Woe," said Virgil&mdash;but his manner contradicted his
+speech&mdash;"woe to the idealist and enthusiast! Woe to them who live in
+the world to come! Woe to them who live only for a hope whose fulfilment
+they will not behold on earth! Drink not, therefore, of that cup, dear
+child, lest Duke Virgil's day should come, and thou shouldst not know it.
+For come it will, and all the sooner for thy tragedy and thy comedy."</p>
+<a id="p148"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE CLAW</h2>
+
+<p>The balm and stillness of a summer's night enveloped a spacious piazza
+in the city of Shylock and Desdemona. The sky teemed with light drifting
+clouds through which the beaming of the full moon broke at intervals upon
+some lamp-lit palace, thronged and musical, for it was a night of
+festivity, or silvered the dull creeping waters. Ever and anon some richly
+attired young patrician descended the steps of one or other of these
+mansions, and hurried across the wide area to the canal stairs, where his
+gondola awaited him. Whoever did this could not but observe a tall female
+figure, which, cloaked and masked, walked backwards and forwards across the
+piazza, regarding no one, yet with an air that seemed to invite a
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>More than one of the young nobles approached the presumably fair
+peripatetic, and, with courtesy commonly in inverse ratio to the amount of
+wine he was carrying home, proffered his escort to his gondola. Whenever
+this happened the figure removed her mask and unclasped her robe, and
+revealed a sight which for one moment rooted the young man to the earth and
+in the next sent him scampering to his bark. For the countenance was a
+death's head, and the breast was that of a mouldering skeleton.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, a youth presented himself who, more courageous or more
+tipsy than his fellows, or more helplessly paralysed with horror than they,
+did not decline the proffered caress, and suffered himself to be drawn
+within the goblin's accursed embrace. Valiant or pot-valiant, great was his
+relief at finding himself clasped, instead of by a loathsome spectre, by a
+silver-haired man of noble presence, yet with a countenance indescribably
+haggard and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, my son," he cried, "hasten whither the rewards of thy intrepidity
+await thee. Impouch the purse of Fortunatus! Indue the signet of
+Solomon!"</p>
+
+<p>The young man hesitated. "Is there nought else?" he cautiously demanded.
+"Needs it not that I should renounce my baptism? Must I not subscribe an
+infernal compact?"</p>
+
+<p>"In thy own blood, my son," cheerfully responded the old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"Peradventure," hesitatingly interrogated the youth, "peradventure you
+are <i>he</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so, my son, upon honour," returned the mysterious personage. "I am
+but a distressed magician, at this present in fearful straits, from which I
+look to be delivered by thee."</p>
+
+<p>The youth gazed some moments at his companion's head, and then still
+more earnestly at his feet. He then yielded his own hand to him, and the
+pair crossed the piazza, almost at a run, the magician ever ejaculating,
+"Speed! speed!"</p>
+
+<p>They paused at the foot of a lofty tower, doorless and windowless, with
+no visible access of any kind. But the magician signed with his hand,
+pronounced some cabalistical words, and instantly  stone and lime fell
+asunder and revealed an entrance through which they passed, and which
+immediately closed behind them. The youth quaked at finding himself alone
+in utter darkness with he knew not what, but the wizard whistled, and a
+severed hand appeared in air bearing a lamp which illuminated a long
+winding staircase. The old man motioned to the youth to precede him, nor
+dared he refuse, though feeling as though he would have given the world for
+the very smallest relic of the very smallest saint. The distorted shadows
+of the twain, dancing on stair and wall with the wavering lamp-shine,
+seemed phantoms capering in an infernal revel, and he glanced back ever and
+anon weening to see himself dogged by some frightful monster, but he saw
+only the silver hair and sable velvet of the dignified old man.</p>
+
+<p>After the ascent of many steps a door opened before them, and they found
+themselves in a spacious chamber, brightly, yet from its size imperfectly
+illumined by a single large lamp. It was wainscoted with ebony, and the
+furniture was of the same. A long table was covered with scrolls, skulls,
+crucibles, crystals, star-charts, geomantic figures, and other
+appurtenances of a magician's calling. Tomes of necromantic lore lined the
+walls, which were yet principally occupied with crystal vessels, in which
+foul beings seemed dimly and confusedly to agitate themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The magician signed to his visitor to be seated, sat down himself and
+began:</p>
+
+<p>"Brave youth, ere entering upon the boundless power and riches that
+await thee, learn who I am and why I have brought thee here. Behold in me
+no vulgar wizard, no mere astrologer or alchemist, but a compeer of Merlin
+and Michael Scott, with whose name it may be the nurse of thy infancy hath
+oft-times quelled thy froward humours. I am Peter of Abano, falsely
+believed to have lain two centuries buried in the semblance of a dog under
+a heap of stones hurled by the furious populace, but in truth walking earth
+to this day, in virtue of the compact now to be revealed to thee. Hearken,
+my son! Vain must be the machinations of my enemies, vain the onslaughts of
+the rabble, so long as I fulfil a certain contract registered in hell's
+chancery, as I have now done these three hundred years. And the condition
+is this, that every year I present unto the Demon one who hath at my
+persuasion assigned his soul to him in exchange for power, riches,
+knowledge, magical gifts, or whatever else his heart chiefly desireth; nor
+until this present year have I perilled the fulfilment of my obligation.
+Seest thou these scrolls? They are the assignments of which I have spoken.
+It would amaze thee to scan the subscriptions, and perceive in these the
+signatures of men exemplary in the eyes of their fellows, clothed with high
+dignities in Church and State&mdash;nay sometimes redolent of the very
+odour of sanctity. Never hath my sagacity deceived me until this year,
+when, smitten with the fair promise of a youth of singular impishness, I
+omitted to take due note of his consumptive habit, and have but this
+afternoon encountered his funeral. This is the last day of my year, and
+should my engagement be unredeemed when the sun attains the cusp of that
+nethermost house of heaven which he is even now traversing, I must  become
+an inmate of the infernal kingdom. No time has remained for nice
+investigation. I have therefore proved the courage of the Venetian youth in
+the manner thou knowest, and thou alone hast sustained the ordeal. Fail not
+at my bidding, or thou quittest not this chamber alive. For when the Demon
+comes to bear me away, he will assuredly rend thee in pieces for being
+found in my company. Thou hast, therefore, everything to gain and nothing
+to lose by joining the goodly fellowship of my mates and partners. Delay
+not, time urges, night deepens, they that would drink thy blood are abroad.
+Hearest thou not the moaning and pelting of the rising storm, and the
+muttering and scraping of my imprisoned goblins? Save us, I entreat, I
+command, save us both!"</p>
+
+<p>Screaming with agitation the aged sorcerer laid a scroll engrossed with
+fairly written characters before the youth, stabbed the latter's arm with a
+stylus that at once evoked and collected the crimson stream, thrust this
+into his hand and strove to guide it to the parchment, chanting at the same
+time litanies to the infernal powers. The crystal flagons rang like one
+great harmonica with shrill but spirit-stirring music; volumes of vaporous
+perfumes diffused themselves through the apartment, and an endless
+procession of treasure-laden figures defiled before the bewildered youth.
+He seemed buried in the opulence of the world, as he sat up to his waist in
+gold and jewels; all the earth's beauty gazed at him through eyes brilliant
+and countless as the stars of heaven; courtiers beckoned him to thrones;
+battle-steeds neighed and pawed for his mounting; laden tables allured
+every appetite; vassals bent in  homage; slaves fell prostrate at his feet.
+Now he seemed to collect or disperse legions of spirits with the waving of
+a wand; anon, as he pronounced a spell, golden dragons glided away from
+boughs laden with golden fruits. Well for him, doubtless, that in him
+Nature had kneaded from ordinary clay as unimaginative a youth as could be
+found in Venice: yet even so, dazzled with glamour, intoxicated with
+illusion, less and less able to resist the cunningly mingled caresses,
+entreaties, and menaces of Abano, he could not refrain from tracing a few
+characters with the stylus, when, catching reflected in a mirror the old
+magician's expression of wolfish glee, he dropped the instrument from his
+grasp, and cast his eye upwards as if appealing to Heaven. But every drop
+of blood seemed frozen in his frame as he beheld an enormous claw thrust
+through the roof, member as it seemed of some being too gigantic to be
+contained in the chamber or the tower itself. Cold, poignant, glittering as
+steel, it rested upon a socket of the repulsive hue of jaundiced ivory,
+with no vestige of a foot or anything to relieve its naked horror as, rigid
+and lifeless, yet plainly with a mighty force behind it, it pointed at the
+magician's heart. As Abano, following the youth's eye, caught sight of the
+portent, his visage assumed an expression of frantic horror, his spells
+died upon his lips, and the gorgeous figures became grinning apes or
+blotchy toads: madly he seized the young man's hand, and strove to force
+him to complete his signature. The robust youth felt as an infant in his
+grasp, but ere the stylus could be again thrust upon him the first stroke
+of the midnight hour  rang through the chamber, and instantly the gigantic
+talon pierced Abano from breast to back, projecting far beyond his
+shoulders, and swept him upwards to the roof, through which both
+disappeared without leaving a trace of their passage.</p>
+
+<p>Horror and thankfulness rushed together into the young man's mind, and
+there contended for some brief instants: but as the last stroke sounded all
+the crystal vials shivered with a stunning crash, and their hellish
+inmates, rejoicing in their deliverance, swarmed into the chamber. All made
+for the youth, who, tugged, clawed, fondled, bitten, beslimed, blinded,
+deafened, beset in every way by creatures of indescribable loathsomeness,
+grasped frantically as his sole weapon, the stylus; but it had become a
+writhing serpent. This was too much, sense forsook him on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>On recovering consciousness he found himself stretched on a pallet in
+the dungeons of the Inquisition. The Inquisitors sat on their tribunals;
+black-robed familiars flitted about, or waited attentive upon their orders;
+one expert in ecclesiastical jurisprudence proved the edge of an axe, and
+another heated pincers in a chafing-dish; dismal groans pierced the massy
+walls; two sturdy fellows, stripped to the waist, adjusted the rollers of a
+rack. A surgeon approached the bedside, bearing a phial and a lancet. The
+youth screamed and again became insensible.</p>
+
+<p>But his affright was groundless. The Inquisitors had already taken
+cognisance of Abano's scrolls, and found that, touching these at least, he
+had spoken sooth. Besides kings, princes, ministers, magistrates, and other
+secular persons who had owed their success in life to dealings with the
+devil under his mediation, the infernal bondsmen included so many pillars
+of the Church and champions of the Faith; prelates plenty, abbots in
+abundance, cardinals not a few, a (some whispered <i>the</i>) Pope; above
+all, so many of the Inquisitors themselves, that further inquiry could
+evidently nowise conduce to edification. The surgeon, therefore, infused an
+opiate into the veins of the unconscious youth, and he came to himself upon
+a galley speeding him to the holy war in Cyprus, where he fell fighting the
+Turk.</p> <a id="p156"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>ALEXANDER THE RATCATCHER</h2> "Alexander Octavus mures, qui Urbem supra
+modum vexabant, anathemate perculit."&mdash;<i>Palatius. Fasti
+Cardinalium</i>, tom. v.p. 46.
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>"Rome and her rats are at the point of battle!"</p>
+
+<p>This metaphor of Menenius Agrippa's became, history records, matter of
+fact in 1689, when rats pervaded the Eternal City from garret to cellar,
+and Pope Alexander the Eighth seriously apprehended the fate of Bishop
+Hatto. The situation worried him sorely; he had but lately attained the
+tiara at an advanced age&mdash;the twenty-fourth hour, as he himself
+remarked in extenuation of his haste to enrich his nephews. The time
+vouchsafed for worthier deeds was brief, and he dreaded descending to
+posterity as the Rat Pope. Witty and genial, his sense of humour teased him
+with a full perception of the absurdity of his position. Peter and Pasquin
+concurred in forbidding him to desert his post; and he derived but small
+comfort from the ingenuity of his flatterers, who compared him to St. Paul
+contending with beasts at Ephesus.</p>
+
+<p>It wanted three half-hours to midnight, as Alexander sat amid traps and
+ratsbane in his  chamber in the Vatican, under the protection of two
+enormous cats and a British terrier. A silver bell stood ready to his hand,
+should the aid of the attendant chamberlains be requisite. The walls had
+been divested of their tapestries, and the floor gleamed with pounded
+glass. A tome of legendary lore lay open at the history of the Piper of
+Hamelin. All was silence, save for the sniffing and scratching of the dog
+and a sound of subterranean scraping and gnawing.</p>
+
+<p>"Why tarries Cardinal Barbadico thus?" the Pope at last asked himself
+aloud. The inquiry was answered by a wild burst of squeaking and clattering
+and scurrying to and fro, as who should say, "We've eaten him! We've eaten
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>But this exultation was at least premature, for just as the terrified
+Pope clutched his bell, the door opened to the narrowest extent compatible
+with the admission of an ecclesiastical personage of dignified presence,
+and Cardinal Barbadico hastily squeezed himself through.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall hardly trust myself upon these stairs again," he remarked,
+"unless under the escort of your Holiness's terrier."</p>
+
+<p>"Take him, my son, and a cruse of holy water to boot," the Pope
+responded. "Now, how go things in the city?"</p>
+
+<p>"As ill as may be, your Holiness. Not a saint stirs a finger to help us.
+The country-folk shun the city, the citizens seek the country. The
+multitude of enemies increases hour by hour. They set at defiance the
+anathemas fulminated by your Holiness, the spiritual censures placarded in
+the churches, and the citation to appear before the ecclesiastical courts,
+although assured that  their cause shall be pleaded by the ablest advocates
+in Rome. The cats, amphibious with alarm, are taking to the Tiber. Vainly
+the city reeks with toasted cheese, and the Commissary-General reports
+himself short of arsenic."</p>
+
+<p>"And how are the people taking it?" demanded Alexander. "To what cause
+do they attribute the public calamity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Generally speaking, to the sins of your Holiness," replied the
+Cardinal.</p>
+
+<p>"Cardinal!" exclaimed Alexander indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I crave pardon for my temerity," returned Barbadico. "It is with
+difficulty that I force myself to speak, but I am bound to lay the
+ungrateful truth before your Holiness. The late Pope, as all men know, was
+a personage of singular sanctity."</p>
+
+<p>"Far too upright for this fallen world," observed Alexander with
+unction.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not dispute," responded the Cardinal, "that the head of Innocent
+the Eleventh might have been more fitly graced by a halo than by a tiara.
+But the vulgar are incapable of placing themselves at this point of view.
+They know that the rats hardly squeaked under Innocent, and that they swarm
+under Alexander. What wonder if they suspect your Holiness of familiarity
+with Beelzebub, the patron of vermin, and earnestly desire that he would
+take you to himself? Vainly have I represented to them the unreasonableness
+of imposing upon him a trouble he may well deem superfluous, considering
+your Holiness's infirm health and advanced age. Vainly, too, have I pointed
+out that your anathema has actually produced all the effect that  could
+have been reasonably anticipated from any similar manifesto on your
+predecessor's part. They won't see it. And, in fact, might I humbly advise,
+it does appear impolitic to hurl anathemas unless your Holiness knows that
+some one will be hit. It might be opportune, for example, to excommunicate
+Father Molinos, now fast in the dungeons of St. Angelo, unless, indeed, the
+rats have devoured him there. But I question the expediency of going much
+further."</p>
+
+<p>"Cardinal," said the Pope, "you think yourself prodigiously clever, but
+you ought to know that the state of public opinion allowed us no
+alternative. Moreover, I will give you a wrinkle, in case you should ever
+come to be Pope yourself. It is unwise to allow ancient prerogatives to
+fall entirely into desuetude. Far-seeing men prognosticate a great revival
+of sacerdotalism in the nineteenth century, and what is impotent in an age
+of sense may be formidable in an age of nonsense. Further, we know not from
+one day to another whether we may not be absolutely necessitated to
+excommunicate that fautor of Gallicanism, Louis the Fourteenth, and before
+launching our bolt at a king, we may think well to test its efficacy upon a
+rat. <i>Fiat experimentum.</i> And now to return to our rats, from which we
+have ratted. Is there indeed no hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Lateat scintillula forsan</i>," said the Cardinal mysteriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! How so?" eagerly demanded Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>"Our hopes," answered the Cardinal, "are associated with the recent
+advent to this city of an extraordinary personage."</p>
+
+<p>"Explain," urged the Pope.</p>
+
+<p>"I speak," resumed the Cardinal, "of an aged man of no plebeian mien or
+bearing, albeit most shabbily attired in the skins, now fabulously cheap,
+of the vermin that torment us; who, professing to practise as an herbalist,
+some little time ago established himself in an obscure street of no good
+repute. A tortoise hangs in his needy shop, nor are stuffed alligators
+lacking. Understanding that he was resorted to by such as have need of
+philters and love-potions, or are incommoded by the longevity of parents
+and uncles, I was about to have him arrested, when I received a report
+which gave me pause. This concerned the singular intimacy which appeared to
+subsist between him and our enemies. When he left home, it was averred, he
+was attended by troops of them obedient to his beck and call, and spies had
+observed him banqueting them at his counter, the rats sitting erect and
+comporting themselves with perfect decorum. I resolved to investigate the
+matter for myself. Looking into his house through an unshuttered window, I
+perceived him in truth surrounded by feasting and gambolling rats; but when
+the door was opened in obedience to my attendants' summons, he appeared to
+be entirely alone. Laying down a pestle and mortar, he greeted me by name
+with an easy familiarity which for the moment quite disconcerted me, and
+inquired what had procured him the honour of my visit. Recovering myself,
+and wishing to intimidate him:</p>
+
+<p>"'I desire in the first place,' I said, 'to point out to you your grave
+transgression of municipal regulations in omitting to paint your name over
+your shop.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Call me Rattila,' he rejoined with unconcern, 'and state your further
+business.'</p>
+
+<p>"I felt myself on the wrong tack, and hastened to interrogate him
+respecting his relations with our adversaries. He frankly admitted his
+acquaintance with rattery in all its branches, and his ability to deliver
+the city from this scourge, but his attitude towards your Holiness was so
+deficient in respect that I question whether I ought to report it."</p>
+
+<p>"Proceed, son," said the Pope; "we will not be deterred from providing
+for the public weal by the ribaldry of a ratcatcher."</p>
+
+<p>"He scoffed at what he termed your Holiness's absurd position, and
+affirmed that the world had seldom beheld, or would soon behold again, so
+ridiculous a spectacle as a Pope besieged by rats. 'I can help your
+master,' he continued, 'and am willing; but my honour, like his, is
+aspersed in the eyes of the multitude, and he must come to my aid, if I am
+to come to his.'</p>
+
+<p>"I prayed him to be more explicit, and offered to be the bearer of any
+communication to your Holiness.</p>
+
+<p>"'I will unfold myself to no one but the Pope himself,' he replied, 'and
+the interview must take place when and where I please to appoint. Let him
+meet me this very midnight, and alone, in the fifth chamber of the
+Appartamento Borgia.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The Appartamento Borgia!' I exclaimed in consternation. 'The saloons
+which the wicked Pope Alexander the Sixth nocturnally perambulates,
+mingling poisons that have long lost their potency for Cardinals who have
+long lost their lives!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Have a care!' he exclaimed sharply. 'You speak to his late Holiness's
+most intimate friend.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then,' I answered, 'you must obviously be the Devil, and I am not at
+present empowered to negotiate with your Infernal Majesty. Consider,
+however, the peril and inconvenience of visiting at dead of night rooms
+closed for generations. Think of the chills and cobwebs. Weigh the
+probability of his Holiness being devoured by rats.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I guarantee his Holiness absolute immunity from cold,' he replied,
+'and that none of my subjects shall molest him either going or
+returning.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But,' I objected, 'granting that you are not the Devil, how the devil,
+let me ask, do you expect to gain admittance at midnight to the
+Appartamento Borgia?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Think you I cannot pass through a stone wall?' answered he, and
+vanished in an instant. A tremendous scampering of rats immediately ensued,
+then all was silence.</p>
+
+<p>"On recovering in some measure from my astounded condition, I caused
+strict search to be made throughout the shop. Nothing came to light but
+herbalists' stuff and ordinary medicines. And now, Holy Father, your
+Holiness's resolution? Reflect well. This Rattila may be the King of the
+Rats, or he may be Beelzebub in person."</p>
+
+<p>Alexander the Eighth was principally considered by his contemporaries in
+the light of a venerable fox, but the lion had by no means been omitted
+from his composition.</p>
+
+<p>"All powers of good forbid," he exclaimed, "that a Pope and a Prince
+should shrink from  peril which the safety of the State summons him to
+encounter! I will confront this wizard, this goblin, in the place of his
+own appointing, under his late intimate friend's very nose. I am a man of
+many transgressions, but something assures me that Heaven will not deem
+this a fit occasion for calling them to remembrance. Time presses; I lead
+on; follow, Cardinal Barbadico, follow! Yet stay, let us not forget
+temporal and spiritual armouries."</p>
+
+<p>And hastily providing himself with a lamp, a petronel, a bunch of keys,
+a crucifix, a vial of holy water, and a manual of exorcisms, the Pope
+passed through a secret door in a corner of his chamber, followed by the
+Cardinal bearing another lamp and a naked sword, and preceded by the dog
+and the two cats, all ardent and undaunted as champions bound to the Holy
+Land for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>The wizard had kept his word. Not a rat was seen or heard upon the
+pilgrimage, which was exceedingly toilsome to the aged Pope, from the
+number of passages to be threaded and doors to be unlocked. At length the
+companions stood before the portal of the Appartamento Borgia.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Holiness must enter alone," Cardinal Barbadico admonished, with
+manifest reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>"Await my return," enjoined the Pontiff, in a tone of more confidence
+than he could actually feel, as, after much grinding and grating, the
+massive door swung heavily back, and he passed on into the dim, unexplored
+space beyond. The outer air, streaming in as though eager to indemnify
+itself for years of exile, smote and swayed the flame of the Pope's lamp,
+whose feeble ray flitted from floor to ceiling as the decrepit man, weary
+with the way he had traversed and the load he was bearing, tottered and
+stumbled painfully along, ever and anon arrested by a closed door, which he
+unlocked with prodigious difficulty. The cats cowered close to the
+Cardinal; the dog at first accompanied the Pope, but whined so grievously,
+as though he beheld a spirit, that Alexander bade him back.</p>
+
+<p>Supreme is the spell of the <i>genius loci</i>. The chambers traversed
+by the Pope were in fact adorned with fair examples of the painter's art,
+mostly scriptural in subject, but some inspired with the devout Pantheism
+in which all creeds are reconciled. All were alike invisible to the
+Pontiff, who, with the dim flicker of his lamp, could no more discern
+Judaea wed with Egypt on the frescoed ceiling than, with the human
+limitation of his faculties, he could foresee that the ill-reputed rooms
+would one day harbour a portion of the Vatican Library, so greatly enriched
+by himself. Nothing but sinister memories and vague alarms presented
+themselves to his imagination. The atmosphere, heavy and brooding from the
+long exclusion of the outer air, seemed to weigh upon him with the density
+of matter, and to afford the stuff out of which phantasmal bodies
+perpetually took shape and, as he half persuaded himself, substance.
+Creeping and tottering between bowl and cord, shielding himself with  lamp
+and crucifix from Michelotto's spectral poniard and more fearful contact
+with fleshless Vanozzas and mouldering Giulias, the Pope urged, or seemed
+to urge, his course amid phantom princes and cardinals, priests and
+courtesans, soldiers and serving-men, dancers, drinkers, dicers, Bacchic
+and Cotyttian workers of whatsoever least beseemed the inmates of a
+Pontifical household, until, arrived in the fifth chamber, close by the, to
+him, invisible picture of the Resurrection, he sank exhausted into a
+spacious chair that seemed placed for his reception, and for a moment
+closed his eyes. Opening them immediately afterwards, he saw with relief
+that the phantoms had vanished, and that he confronted what at least seemed
+a fellow-mortal, in the ancient ratcatcher, habited precisely as Cardinal
+Barbadico had described, yet, for all his mean apparel, wearing the air of
+one wont to confer with the potentates of the earth on other subjects than
+the extermination of rats.</p>
+
+<p>"This is noble of your Holiness&mdash;really," he said, bowing with mock
+reverence. "A second Leo the Great!"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what, my man," responded Alexander, feeling it very
+necessary to assert his dignity while any of it remained, "you are not to
+imagine that, because I have humoured you so far as to grant you an
+audience at an unusual place and time, I am going to stand any amount of
+your nonsense and impertinence. You can catch our rats, can you? Catch them
+then, and you need not fear that we shall treat you like the Pied Piper of
+Hamelin. You have committed sundry rascalities, no doubt? A pardon shall
+be made out for you. You want a patent or a privilege for your ratsbane?
+You shall have it. So to work, in the name of St. Muscipulus! and you may
+keep the tails and skins."</p>
+
+<p>"Alexander," said the ratcatcher composedly, "I would not commend or
+dispraise you unduly, but this I may say, that of all the Popes I have
+known you are the most exuberant in hypocrisy and the most deficient in
+penetration. The most hypocritical, because you well know, and know that I
+know that you know, that you are not conversing with an ordinary
+ratcatcher: had you deemed me such, you would never have condescended to
+meet me at this hour and place. The least penetrating, because you
+apparently have not yet discovered to whom you are speaking. Do you really
+mean to say that you do not know me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I have seen your face before," said Alexander, "and all the
+more likely as I was inspector of prisons when I was Cardinal."</p>
+
+<p>"Then look yonder," enjoined the ratcatcher, as he pointed to the
+frescoed wall, at the same time vehemently snapping his fingers. Phosphoric
+sparks hissed and crackled forth, and coalesced into a blue lambent flame,
+which concentrated itself upon a depicted figure, whose precise attitude
+the ratcatcher assumed as he dropped upon his knees. The Pope shrieked with
+amazement, for, although the splendid Pontifical vestments had become
+ragged fur, in every other respect the kneeling figure was the counterpart
+of the painted one, and the painted one was Pinturicchio's portrait of Pope
+Alexander the Sixth kneeling as a witness of the Resurrection.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander the Eighth would fain have imitated  his predecessor's
+attitude, but terror bound him to his chair, and the adjuration of his
+patron St. Mark which struggled towards his lips never arrived there. The
+book of exorcisms fell from his paralysed hand, and the vial of holy water
+lay in shivers upon the floor. Ere he could collect himself, the dead Pope
+had seated himself beside the Pope with one foot in the grave, and,
+fondling a ferret-skin, proceeded to enter into conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"What fear you?" he asked. "Why should I harm you? None can say that I
+ever injured any one for any cause but my own advantage, and to injure your
+Holiness now would be to obstruct a design which I have particularly at
+heart."</p>
+
+<p>"I crave your Holiness's forgiveness," rejoined the Eighth Alexander,
+"but you must be aware that you left the world with a reputation which
+disqualifies you for the society of any Pope in the least careful of his
+character. It positively compromises me to have so much as the ghost of a
+person so universally decried as your Holiness under my roof, and you would
+infinitely oblige me by forthwith repairing to your own place, which I take
+to be about four thousand miles below where you are sitting. I could
+materially facilitate and accelerate your Holiness's transit thither if you
+would be so kind as to hand me that little book of exorcisms."</p>
+
+<p>"How is the fine gold become dim!" exclaimed Alexander the Sixth. "Popes
+in bondage to moralists! Popes nervous about public opinion! Is there
+another judge of morals than the Pope speaking <i>ex cathedra</i>, as I
+always did? Is the Church to frame herself after the prescriptions  of
+heathen philosophers and profane jurists? How, then, shall she be terrible
+as an army with banners? Did I concern myself with such pedantry when the
+Kings of Spain and Portugal came to me like cats suing for morsels, and I
+gave them the West and the East?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," Alexander the Eighth allowed, "that the lustre of the
+Church hath of late been obfuscated by the prevalence of heresy."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't the heretics," Borgia insisted. "It is the degeneracy of the
+Popes. A shabby lot! You, Alexander, are about the best of them; but the
+least Cardinal about my Court would have thought himself bigger than
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Alexander's spirit rose. "I would suggest," he said, "that this haughty
+style is little in keeping with the sordid garb wherein your Holiness,
+consistent after death as in your life, masquerades to the scandal and
+distress of the faithful."</p>
+
+<p>"How can I other? Has your Holiness forgotten your Rabelais?"</p>
+
+<p>"The works of that eminent Doctor and Divine," answered Alexander the
+Eighth, "are seldom long absent from my hands, yet I fail to remember in
+what manner they elucidate the present topic."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me refresh your memory," rejoined Borgia, and, producing a volume
+of the Sage of Meudon, he turned to the chapter descriptive of the
+employments of various eminent inhabitants of the nether world, and pointed
+to the sentence:</p>
+
+<p>"LE PAPE ALEXANDRE ESTOYT PRENEUR DE RATZ."  [*]</p> <p
+class="footnote">*) <i>Pantagruel</i>,  Book XI. ch. 30. </p>
+
+<p>"Is this indeed sooth?" demanded his successor.</p>
+
+<p>"How else should Fran&ccedil;ois Rabelais have affirmed it?" responded
+Borgia. "When I arrived in the subterranean kingdom, I found it in the same
+condition as your Holiness's dominions at the present moment, eaten up by
+rats. The attention which, during my earthly pilgrimage, I had devoted to
+the science of toxicology indicated me as a person qualified to abate the
+nuisance, which commission I executed with such success, that I received
+the appointment of Ratcatcher to his Infernal Majesty, and so discharged
+its duties as to merit a continuance of the good opinion which had always
+been entertained of me in that exalted quarter. After a while, however,
+interest began to be made for me in even more elevated spheres. I had not
+been able to cram Heaven with Spaniards, as I had crammed the Sacred
+College&mdash;on the contrary. Truth to speak, my nation has not largely
+contributed to the population of the regions above. But some of us are
+people of consequence. My great-grandson, the General of the Jesuits, who,
+as such, had the ear of St. Ignatius Loyola, represented that had I adhered
+strictly to my vows, he could never have come into existence, and that the
+Society would thus have wanted one of its brightest ornaments. This
+argument naturally had great weight with St. Ignatius, the rather as he,
+too, was my countryman. Much also was said of the charity I had shown to
+the exiled Jews, which St. Dominic was pleased to say made him feel ashamed
+of himself when he came to think of it; for my having fed my people in time
+of dearth, instead of contriving famines to enrich myself, as so many
+Popes' nephews have done since; and  of the splendid order in which I kept
+the College of Cardinals. Columbus said a good word for me, and Savonarola
+did not oppose. Finally I was allowed to come upstairs, and exercise my
+profession on earth. But mark what pitfalls line the good man's path! I
+never could resist tampering with drugs of a deleterious nature, and was
+constantly betrayed by the thirst for scientific experiment into practices
+incompatible with the public health. The good nature which my detractors
+have not denied me was a veritable snare. I felt for youth debarred from
+its enjoyments by the unnatural vitality of age, and sympathised with the
+blooming damsel whose parent alone stood between her and her lover. I thus
+lived in constant apprehension of being ordered back to the Netherlands,
+and yearned for the wings of a dove, that I might flee away and be out of
+mischief. At last I discovered that my promotion to a higher sphere
+depended upon my obtaining a testimonial from the reigning Pope. Let a
+solemn procession be held in my honour, and intercession be publicly made
+for me, and I should ascend forthwith. I have consequently represented my
+case to many of your predecessors: but, O Alexander, you
+seventeenth-century Popes are a miserable breed! No fellow-feeling, no
+<i>esprit de corps. Heu pietas! heu prisca fides</i>! No one was so rude as
+your ascetic antecessor. The more of a saint, the less of a gentleman.
+Personally offensive, I assure you! But the others were nearly as bad. The
+haughty Paul, the fanatic Gregory, the worldly Urban, the austere Innocent
+the Tenth, the affable Alexander the Seventh, all concurred in assuring  me
+that it was deeply to be regretted that I should ever have been emancipated
+from the restraints of the Stygian realm, to which I should do well to
+return with all possible celerity; that it would much conduce to the
+interests of the Church if my name could be forgotten; and that as for
+doing anything to revive its memory, they would just as soon think of
+canonising Judas Iscariot."</p>
+
+<p>"And therefore your Holiness has brought these rats upon us, enlisted, I
+nothing doubt, in the infernal regions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely so: Plutonic, necyomantic, Lemurian rats, kindly lent by the
+Prince of Darkness for the occasion, and come dripping from Styx to squeak
+and gibber in the Capitol. But I note your Holiness's admission that they
+belong to a region exempt from your jurisdiction, and that, therefore, your
+measures against them, except as regards their status as belligerents, are
+for the most part illegitimate and <i>ultra vires</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I would argue that point," replied Alexander the Eighth, "if my lungs
+were as tough as when I pleaded before the Rota in Pope Urban's time. For
+the present I confine myself to formally protesting against your Holiness's
+unprecedented and parricidal conduct in invading your country at the head
+of an army of loathsome vermin."</p>
+
+<p>"Unprecedented!" exclaimed Borgia. "Am I not the modern Coriolanus? Did
+Narses experience blacker ingratitude than I? Where would the temporal
+power be but for me? Who smote the Colonna? Who squashed the Orsini? Who
+gave the Popes to dwell quietly in their own house? Monsters of
+unthankfulness!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure," said Alexander the Eighth soothingly, "that my
+predecessors' inability to comply with your Holiness's request must have
+cost them many inward tears, not the less genuine because entirely
+invisible and completely inaudible. A wise Pope will, before all things,
+consider the spirit of his age. The force of public opinion, which your
+Holiness lately appeared to disparage, was, in fact, as operative upon
+yourself as upon any of your successors. If you achieved great things in
+your lifetime, it was because the world was with you. Did you pursue the
+same methods now, you would soon discover that you had become an offensive
+anachronism. It will not have escaped your Holiness's penetration that what
+moralists will persist in terming the elevation of the standard of the
+Church, is the result of the so-called improvement of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a measure of truth in this," admitted Alexander the Sixth,
+"and the spirit of this age is a very poor spirit. It was my felicity to be
+a Pope of the Renaissance. Blest dispensation! when men's view of life was
+large and liberal; when the fair humanities flourished; when the earth
+yielded up her hoards of chiselled marble and breathing bronze, and
+new-found agate urns as fresh as day; when painters and sculptors vied with
+antiquity, and poets and historians followed in their path; when every
+benign deity was worshipped save Diana and Vesta; when the arts of
+courtship and cosmetics were expounded by archbishops; when the beauteous
+Imperia was of more account than the eleven thousand virgins; when
+obnoxious persons  glided imperceptibly from the world; and no one
+marvelled if he met the Pope arm in arm with the Devil. How miserable, in
+comparison, is the present sapless age, with its prudery and its pedantry,
+and its periwigs and its painted coaches, and its urban Arcadias and the
+florid impotence and ostentatious inanity of what it calls its art! Pope
+Alexander! I see in the spirit the sepulchre destined for <i>you</i>, and I
+swear to you that my soul shivers in my ratskins! Come, now! I do not
+expect you to emulate the Popes of my time, but show that your virtues are
+your own, and your faults those of your epoch. Pluck up a spirit! Take
+bulls by the horns! Look facts in the face! Think upon the images of Brutus
+and Cassius! Recognise that you cannot get rid of me, and that the only
+safe course is to rehabilitate me. I am not a candidate for canonisation
+just now; but repair past neglect and appease my injured shade in the way
+you wot of. If this is done, I pledge my word that every rat shall
+forthwith evacuate Rome. Is it a bargain? I see it is; you are one of the
+good old sort, though fallen on evil days."</p>
+
+<p>Renaissance or Rats, Alexander the Eighth yielded.</p>
+
+<p>"I promise," he declared.</p>
+
+<p>"Your hand upon it!"</p>
+
+<p>Subduing his repugnance and apprehension by a strong effort, Alexander
+laid his hand within the spectre's clammy paw. An icy thrill ran through
+his veins, and he sank back senseless into his chair.</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>When the Pope recovered consciousness he found himself in bed, with
+slight symptoms of fever. His first care was to summon Cardinal Barbadico,
+and confer with him respecting the surprising adventures which had recently
+befallen them. To his amazement, the Cardinal's mind seemed an entire blank
+on the subject. He admitted having made his customary report to his
+Holiness the preceding night, but knew nothing of any supernatural
+ratcatcher, and nothing of any midnight rendezvous at the Appartamento
+Borgia. Investigation seemed to justify his nescience; no vestige of the
+man of rats or of his shop could be discovered; and the Borgian apartments,
+opened and carefully searched through, revealed no trace of having been
+visited for many years. The Pope's book of exorcisms was in its proper
+place, his vial of holy water stood unbroken upon his table; and his
+chamberlains deposed that they had consigned him to Morpheus at the usual
+hour. His illusion was at first explained as the effect of a peculiarly
+vivid dream; but when he declared his intention of actually holding a
+service and conducting a procession for the weal of his namesake and
+predecessor, the conviction became universal that the rats had effected a
+lodgement in his Holiness's upper storeys.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander, notwithstanding, was resolute, and so it came to pass that on
+the same day two mighty processions encountered within the walls of Rome.
+As the assembled clergy, drawn from  all the churches and monasteries in
+the city, the Pope in his litter in their midst, marched, carrying candles,
+intoning chants, and, with many a secret shrug and sneer, imploring Heaven
+for the repose of Alexander the Sixth, they were suddenly brought to bay by
+another procession precipitated athwart their track, disorderly, repulsive,
+but more grateful to the sight of the citizens than all the pomps and
+pageants of the palmiest days of the Papacy. Black, brown, white, grey; fat
+and lean; old and young; strident or silent; the whiskered legions tore and
+galloped along; thronging from every part of the city, they united in
+single column into an endless host that appeared to stretch from the rising
+to the setting of the sun. They seemed making for the Tiber, which they
+would have speedily choked; but ere they could arrive there a huge rift
+opened in the earth, down which they madly precipitated themselves. Their
+descent, it is affirmed, lasted as many hours as Vulcan occupied in falling
+from Heaven to Lemnos; but when the last tail was over the brink, the gulf
+closed as effectually as the gulf in the Forum closed over Marcus Curtius,
+not leaving the slightest inequality by which any could detect it.</p>
+
+<p>Long ere this consummation had been attained, the Pope, looking forth
+from his litter, observed a venerable personage clad in ratskins, who
+appeared desirous of attracting his notice. Glances of recognition were
+exchanged, and instantly in place of the ratcatcher stood a tall, swarthy,
+corpulent, elderly man, with the majestic yet sensual features of Alexander
+the Sixth, accoutred with the official habiliments and insignia  of a Pope,
+who rose slowly into the air as though he had been inflated with
+hydrogen.</p>
+
+<p>"To your prayers!" cried Alexander the Eighth, and gave the example. The
+priesthood resumed its chants, the multitude dropped upon their knees.
+Their orisons seemed to speed the ascending figure, which was rising
+rapidly, when suddenly appeared in air Luxury, Simony, and Cruelty,
+contending which should receive the Holy Father into her bosom. [*] Borgia
+struck at them with his crozier, and seemed to be keeping them at bay, when
+a cloud wrapped the group from the sight of men. Thunder roared, lightning
+glared, the rush of waters blended with the ejaculations of the people and
+the yet more tempestuous rushing of the rats. Accompanied as he was, it is
+not probable that Alexander passed, like Dante's sigh, "beyond the sphere
+that doth all spheres enfold"; but, as he was never again seen on earth, it
+is not doubted that he attained at least as far as the moon.</p> <p
+class="footnote">*)
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Per aver riposo
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Portato fu fra l'anime beate
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Lo spirito di Alessandro glorioso;
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Del qual seguiro le sante pedate
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Tre sue familiari e care ancelle,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Lussuria, Simonia, e Crudeltate. &mdash;<span
+class="hi">Machiavelli</span>, <i>Decennale Primo</i>. </p> <a
+id="p177"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE REWARDS OF INDUSTRY</h2>
+
+<p>In China, under the Tang dynasty, early in the seventh century of the
+Christian era, lived a learned and virtuous, but poor mandarin who had
+three sons, Fu-su, Tu-sin, and Wang-li. Fu-su and Tu-sin were young men of
+active minds, always labouring to find out something new and useful.
+Wang-li was clever too, but only in games of skill, in which he attained
+great proficiency.</p>
+
+<p>Fu-su and Tu-sin continually talked to each other of the wonderful
+inventions they would make when they arrived at man's estate, and of the
+wealth and renown they promised themselves thereby. Their conversation
+seldom reached the ears of Wang-li, for he rarely lifted his eyes from the
+chess-board on which he solved his problems. But their father was more
+attentive, and one day he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I fear, my sons, that among your multifarious pursuits and studies you
+must have omitted to include that of the laws of your country, or you would
+have learned that fortune is not to be acquired by the means which you have
+proposed to yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"How so, father?" asked they.</p>
+
+<p>"It hath been justly deemed by our ancestors," said the old man, "that
+the reverence due to the  great men who are worshipped in our temples, by
+reason of our indebtedness to them for the arts of life, could not but
+become impaired if their posterity were suffered to eclipse their fame by
+new discoveries, or presumptuously amend what might appear imperfect in
+their productions. It is therefore, by an edict of the Emperor Suen,
+forbidden to invent anything; and by a statute of the Emperor Wu-chi it is
+further provided that nothing hitherto invented shall be improved. My
+predecessor in the small office I hold was deprived of it for saying that
+in his judgment money ought to be made round instead of square, and I have
+myself run risk of my life for seeking to combine a small file with a pair
+of tweezers."</p>
+
+<p>"If this is the case," said the young men, "our fatherland is not the
+place for us." And they embraced their father, and departed. Of their
+brother Wang-li they took no farewell, inasmuch as he was absorbed in a
+chess problem. Before separating, they agreed to meet on the same spot
+after thirty years, with the treasure which they doubted not to have
+acquired by the exercise of their inventive faculties in foreign lands.
+They further covenanted that if either had missed his reward the other
+should share his possessions with him.</p>
+
+<p>Fu-su repaired to the artists who cut out characters in blocks of hard
+wood, to the end that books may be printed from the same. When he had
+fathomed their mystery he betook himself to a brass-founder, and learned
+how to cast in metal. He then sought a learned man who had travelled much,
+and made himself acquainted with the Greek, Persian, and Arabic languages.
+Then he  cast a number of Greek characters in type, and putting them into a
+bag and providing himself with some wooden letter-tablets of his own
+carving, he departed to seek his fortune. After innumerable hardships and
+perils he arrived in the land of Persia, and inquired for the great
+king.</p>
+
+<p>"The great king is dead," they told him, "and his head is entirely
+separated from his body. There is now no king in Persia, great or
+small,"</p>
+
+<p>"Where shall I find another great king?" demanded he.</p>
+
+<p>"In the city of Alexandria," replied they, "where the Commander of the
+Faithful is busy introducing the religion of the Prophet."</p>
+
+<p>Fu-su passed to Alexandria, carrying his types and tablets.</p>
+
+<p>As he entered the gates he remarked an enormous cloud of smoke, which
+seemed to darken the whole city. Before he could inquire the reason, the
+guard arrested him as a stranger, and conducted him to the presence of the
+Caliph Omar.</p>
+
+<p>"Know, O Caliph," said Fu-su, "that my countrymen are at once the wisest
+of mankind and the stupidest. They have invented an art for the
+preservation of letters and the diffusion of knowledge, which the sages of
+Greece and India never knew, but they have not learned to take, and they
+refuse to be taught how to take, the one little step further necessary to
+render it generally profitable to mankind."</p>
+
+<p>And producing his tablets and types, he explained to the Caliph the
+entire mystery of the art of printing.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou seemest to be ignorant," said Omar, "that we have but yesterday
+condemned and  excommunicated all books, and banished the same from the
+face of the earth, seeing that they contain either that which is contrary
+to the Koran, in which case they are impious, or that which is agreeable to
+the Koran, in which case they are superfluous. Thou art further unaware, as
+it would seem, that the smoke which shrouds the city proceeds from the
+library of the unbelievers, consumed by our orders. It will be meet to burn
+thee along with it."</p>
+
+<p>"O Commander of the Faithful," said an officer, "of a surety the last
+scroll of the accursed ceased to flame even as this infidel entered the
+city."</p>
+
+<p>"If it be so," said Omar, "we will not burn him, seeing that we have
+taken away from him the occasion to sin. Yet shall he swallow these little
+brass amulets of his, at the rate of one a day, and then be banished from
+the country."</p>
+
+<p>The sentence was executed, and Fu-su was happy that the Court physician
+condescended to accept his little property in exchange for emetics.</p>
+
+<p>He begged his way slowly and painfully back to China, and arrived at the
+covenanted spot at the expiration of the thirtieth year. His father's
+modest dwelling had disappeared, and in its place stood a magnificent
+mansion, around which stretched a park with pavilions, canals,
+willow-trees, golden pheasants, and little bridges.</p>
+
+<p>"Tu-sin has surely made his fortune," thought he, "and he will not
+refuse to share it with me agreeably to our covenant."</p>
+
+<p>As he thus reflected he heard a voice at his elbow, and turning round
+perceived that one in a more wretched plight than himself was asking alms
+of him. It was Tu-sin.</p>
+
+<p>The brothers embraced with many tears, and after Tu-sin had learned
+Fu-su's history, he proceeded to recount his own.</p>
+
+<p>"I repaired," said he, "to those who know the secret of the grains
+termed fire-dust, which Suen has not been able to prevent us from
+inventing, but of which Wu-chi has taken care that we shall make no use,
+save only for fireworks. Having learned their mystery I deposited a certain
+portion of this fire-dust in hollow tubes which I had constructed of iron
+and brass, and upon it I further laid leaden balls of a size corresponding
+to the hollow of the tubes. I then found that by applying a light to the
+fire-dust at one end of the tube I could send the ball out at the other
+with such force that it penetrated the cuirasses of three warriors at once.
+I filled a barrel with the dust, and concealing it and the tubes under
+carpets which I laid upon the backs of oxen, I set out to the city of
+Constantinople. I will not at present relate my adventures on the journey.
+Suffice it that I arrived at last half dead from fatigue and hardship, and
+destitute of everything except my merchandise. By bribing an officer with
+my carpets I was admitted to have speech with the Emperor. I found him
+busily studying a problem in chess.</p>
+
+<p>"I told him that I had discovered a secret which would make him the
+master of the world, and in particular would help him to drive away the
+Saracens, who threatened his empire with destruction.</p>
+
+<p>"'Thou must perceive,' he said, 'that I cannot possibly attend to thee
+until I have solved this problem. Yet, lest any should say that the
+Emperor neglects his duties, absorbed in idle amusement, I will refer thy
+invention to the chief armourers of my capital. And he gave me a letter to
+the armourers, and returned to his problem. And as I quitted the palace
+bearing the missive, I came upon a great procession. Horsemen and running
+footmen, musicians, heralds, and banner-bearers surrounded a Chinaman who
+sat in the attitude of Fo under a golden umbrella upon a richly caparisoned
+elephant, his pigtail plaited with yellow roses. And the musicians blew and
+clashed, and the standard-bearers waved their ensigns, and the heralds
+proclaimed, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the Emperor delights to
+honour.' And unless I was very greatly mistaken, the face of the Chinaman
+was the face of our brother Wang-li.</p>
+
+<p>"At another time I would have striven to find what this might mean, but
+my impatience was great, as also my need and hunger. I sought the chief
+armourers, and with great trouble brought them all together to give me
+audience, I produced my tube and fire-dust, and sent my balls with ease
+through the best armour they could set before me.</p>
+
+<p>"' Who will want breast-plates now?' cried the chief breast-plate
+maker.</p>
+
+<p>"'Or helmets?' exclaimed one who made armour for the head.</p>
+
+<p>"'I would not have taken fifty bezants for that shield, and what good is
+it now?' said the head of the shield trade.</p>
+
+<p>"'My swords will be of less account,' said a swordsmith.</p>
+
+<p>"'My arrows of none,' lamented an arrow-maker.</p>
+
+<p>"''Tis villainy,' cried one.</p>
+
+<p>"''Tis magic,' shouted another.</p>
+
+<p>"''Tis illusion, as I'm an honest tradesman,' roared a third, and put
+his integrity to the proof by thrusting a hot iron bar into my barrel. All
+present rose up in company with the roof of the building, and all perished,
+except myself, who escaped with the loss of my hair and skin. A fire broke
+out on the spot, and consumed one-third of the city of Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>"I was lying on a prison-bed some time afterwards, partly recovered of
+my hurts, dolefully listening to a dispute between two of my guards as to
+whether I ought to be burned or buried alive, when the Imperial order for
+my disposal came down. The gaolers received it with humility, and read
+'Kick him out of the city.' Marvelling at the mildness of the punishment,
+they nevertheless executed it with so much zeal that I flew into the middle
+of the Bosphorus, where I was picked up by a fishing vessel, and landed on
+the Asiatic coast, whence I have begged my way home. I now propose that we
+appeal to the pity of the owner of this splendid mansion, who may
+compassionate us on hearing that we were reared in the Cottage which has
+been pulled down to make room for his palace."</p>
+
+<p>They entered the gates, walked timidly up to the house, and prepared to
+fall at the feet of the master, but did not, for ere they could do so they
+recognised their brother Wang-li.</p>
+
+<p>It took Wang-li some time to recognise them, but when at length he knew
+them he hastened to  provide for their every want. When they had well eaten
+and drunk, and had been clad in robes of honour, they imparted their
+histories, and asked for his.</p>
+
+<p>"My brothers," said Wang-li, "the noble game of chess, which was happily
+invented long before the time of the Emperor Suen, was followed by me
+solely for its pleasure, and I dreamed not of acquiring wealth by its
+pursuit until I casually heard one day that it was entirely unknown to the
+people of the West. Even then I thought not of gaining money, but conceived
+so deep a compassion for those forlorn barbarians that I felt I could know
+no rest until I should have enlightened them. I accordingly proceeded to
+the city of Constantinople, and was received as a messenger from Heaven. To
+such effect did I labour that ere long the Emperor and his officers of
+state thought of nothing else but playing chess all day and night, and the
+empire fell into entire confusion, and the Saracens mightily prevailed. In
+consideration of these services the Emperor was pleased to bestow those
+distinguished honours upon me which thou didst witness at his palace gate,
+dear brother.</p>
+
+<p>"After, however, the fire which was occasioned through thy
+instrumentality, though in no respect by thy fault, the people murmured,
+and taxed the Emperor with seeking to destroy his capital in league with a
+foreign sorcerer, meaning thee. Ere long the chief officers conspired and
+entered the Emperor's apartment, purposing to dethrone him, but he declared
+that he would in nowise abdicate until he had finished the game of chess he
+was then playing with me. They looked on, grew  interested, began to
+dispute with one another respecting the moves, and while they wrangled
+loyal officers entered and made them all captive. This greatly augmented my
+credit with the Emperor, which was even increased when shortly afterwards I
+played with the Saracen admiral blockading the Hellespont, and won of him
+forty corn-ships, which turned the dearth of the city into plenty.</p>
+
+<p>"The Emperor bade me choose any favour I would, but I said his
+liberality had left me nothing to ask for except the life of a poor
+countryman of mine who I had heard was in prison for burning the city. The
+Emperor bade me write his sentence with my own hand. Had I known that it
+was thou, Tu-sin, believe me I had shown more consideration for thy person.
+At length I departed for my native land, loaded with wealth, and travelling
+most comfortably by relays of swift dromedaries. I returned hither, bought
+our father's cottage, and on its site erected this palace, where I dwell
+meditating on the problems of chessplayers and the precepts of the sages,
+and persuaded that a little thing which the world is willing to receive is
+better than a great thing which it hath not yet learned to value aright.
+For the world is a big child, and chooses amusement before
+instruction."</p>
+
+<p>"Call you chess an amusement?" asked his brothers.</p> <a id="p186"></a>
+<a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>MADAM LUCIFER</h2>
+
+<p>Lucifer sat playing chess with Man for his soul.</p>
+
+<p>The game was evidently going ill for Man. He had but pawns left, few and
+straggling. Lucifer had rooks, knights, and, of course, bishops.</p>
+
+<p>It was but natural under such circumstances that Man should be in no
+great hurry to move. Lucifer grew impatient.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pity," said he at last, "that we did not fix some period within
+which the player must move, or resign."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lucifer," returned the young man, in heart-rending accents, "it is
+not the impending loss of my soul that thus unmans me, but the loss of my
+betrothed. When I think of the grief of the Lady Adeliza, that paragon of
+terrestrial loveliness!" Tears choked his utterance; Lucifer was
+touched.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the Lady Adeliza's loveliness in sooth so transcendent?" he
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a rose, a lily, a diamond, a morning star!"</p>
+
+<p>"If that is the case," rejoined Lucifer, "thou mayest reassure thyself.
+The Lady Adeliza shall not want for consolation. I will assume thy shape
+and woo her in thy stead."</p>
+
+<p>The young man hardly seemed to receive all the comfort from this promise
+which Lucifer no doubt designed. He made a desperate move. In an instant
+the Devil checkmated him, and he disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, if I had known what a business this was going to be, I
+don't think I should have gone in for it," soliloquised the Devil, as,
+wearing his captive's semblance and installed in his apartments, he
+surveyed the effects to which he now had to administer. They included
+coats, shirts, collars, neckties, foils, cigars, and the like <i>ad
+libitum</i>; and very little else except three challenges, ten writs, and
+seventy-four unpaid bills, elegantly disposed around the looking-glass. To
+the poor youth's praise be it said, there were no billets-doux, except from
+the Lady Adeliza herself.</p>
+
+<p>Noting the address of these carefully, the Devil sallied forth, and
+nothing but his ignorance of the topography of the hotel, which made him
+take the back stairs, saved him from the clutches of two bailiffs lurking
+on the principal staircase. Leaping into a cab, he thus escaped a perfumer
+and a bootmaker, and shortly found himself at the Lady Adeliza's feet.</p>
+
+<p>The truth had not been half told him. Such beauty, such wit, such
+correctness of principle! Lucifer went forth from her presence a love-sick
+fiend. Not Merlin's mother had produced half the impression upon him; and
+Adeliza on her part had never found her lover one-hundredth part so
+interesting as he seemed that morning.</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer proceeded at once to the City, where,  assuming his proper shape
+for the occasion, he negotiated a loan without the smallest difficulty. All
+debts were promptly discharged, and Adeliza was astonished at the splendour
+and variety of the presents she was constantly receiving.</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer had all but brought her to name the day, when he was informed
+that a gentleman of clerical appearance desired to wait upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Wants money for a new church or mission, I suppose," said he. "Show him
+up."</p>
+
+<p>But when the visitor was ushered in, Lucifer found with discomposure
+that he was no earthly clergyman, but a celestial saint; a saint, too, with
+whom Lucifer had never been able to get on. He had served in the army while
+on earth, and his address was curt, precise, and peremptory.</p>
+
+<p>"I have called," he said, "to notify to you my appointment as Inspector
+of Devils."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed Lucifer, in consternation. "To the post of my old
+friend Michael!"</p>
+
+<p>"Too old," said the Saint laconically. "Millions of years older than the
+world. About your age, I think?"</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer winced, remembering the particular business he was then about.
+The Saint continued:</p>
+
+<p>"I am a new broom, and am expected to sweep clean. I warn you that I
+mean to be strict, and there is one little matter which I must set right
+immediately. You are going to marry that poor young fellow's betrothed, are
+you? Now you know you cannot take his wife, unless you give him yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear friend," exclaimed Lucifer, "what an inexpressibly blissful
+prospect you do open unto me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that," said the Saint. "I must remind you that the
+dominion of the infernal regions is unalterably attached to the person of
+the present Queen thereof. If you part with her you immediately lose all
+your authority and possessions. I don't care a brass button which you do,
+but you must understand that you cannot eat your cake and have it too. Good
+morning!"</p>
+
+<p>Who shall describe the conflict in Lucifer's bosom? If any stronger
+passion existed therein at that moment than attachment to Adeliza, it was
+aversion to his consort, and the two combined were well-nigh irresistible.
+But to disenthrone himself, to descend to the condition of a poor
+devil!</p>
+
+<p>Feeling himself incapable of coming to a decision, he sent for Belial,
+unfolded the matter, and requested his advice.</p>
+
+<p>"What a shame that our new inspector will not let you marry Adeliza!"
+lamented his counsellor. "If you did, my private opinion is that
+forty-eight hours afterwards you would care just as much for her as you do
+now for Madam Lucifer, neither more nor less. Are your intentions really
+honourable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Lucifer, "it is to be a Lucifer match."</p>
+
+<p>"The more fool you," rejoined Belial. "If you tempted her to commit a
+sin, she would be yours without any conditions at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Belial," said Lucifer, "I cannot bring myself to be a tempter of so
+much innocence and loveliness."</p>
+
+<p>And he meant what he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well then, let me try," proposed Belial.</p>
+
+<p>"You?" replied Lucifer contemptuously; "do you imagine that Adeliza
+would look at <i>you</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Belial, surveying himself complacently in the
+glass.</p>
+
+<p>He was humpbacked, squinting, and lame, and his horns stood up under his
+wig.</p>
+
+<p>The discussion ended in a wager after which there was no retreat for
+Lucifer.</p>
+
+<p>The infernal Iachimo was introduced to Adeliza as a distinguished
+foreigner, and was soon prosecuting his suit with all the success which
+Lucifer had predicted. One thing protected while it baffled him&mdash;the
+entire inability of Adeliza to understand what he meant. At length he was
+constrained to make the matter clear by producing an enormous treasure,
+which he offered Adeliza in exchange for the abandonment of her lover.</p>
+
+<p>The tempest of indignation which ensued would have swept away any
+ordinary demon, but Belial listened unmoved. When Adeliza had exhausted
+herself he smilingly rallied her upon her affection for an unworthy lover,
+of whose infidelity he undertook to give her proof. Frantic with jealousy,
+Adeliza consented, and in a trice found herself in the infernal
+regions.</p>
+
+<p>Adeliza's arrival in Pandemonium, as Belial had planned, occurred
+immediately after the receipt of a message from Lucifer, in whose bosom
+love had finally gained the victory, and who had telegraphed his abdication
+and resignation of Madam Lucifer to Adeliza's betrothed. The poor young man
+had just been hauled up from the lower depths, and was beset by legions of
+demons obsequiously pressing all manner of treasures upon his acceptance.
+He stared, helpless and  bewildered, unable to realise his position in the
+smallest degree. In the background grave and serious demons, the princes of
+the infernal realm, discussed the new departure, and consulted especially
+how to break it to Madam Lucifer&mdash;a commission of which no one seemed
+ambitious.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay where you are," whispered Belial to Adeliza; "stir not; you shall
+put his constancy to the proof within five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Not all the hustling, mowing, and gibbering of the fiends would under
+ordinary circumstances have kept Adeliza from her lover's side: but what is
+all hell to jealousy?</p>
+
+<p>In even less time than he had promised Belial returned, accompanied by
+Madam Lucifer. This lady's black robe, dripping with blood, contrasted
+agreeably with her complexion of sulphurous yellow; the absence of hair was
+compensated by the exceptional length of her nails; she was a thousand
+million years old, and, but for her remarkable muscular vigour, looked
+every one of them. The rage into which Belial's communication had thrown
+her was something indescribable; but, as her eye fell on the handsome
+youth, a different order of thoughts seemed to take possession of her
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Let the monster go!" she exclaimed; "who cares? Come, my love, ascend
+the throne with me, and share the empire and the treasures of thy fond
+Luciferetta."</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't, back you go," interjected Belial.</p>
+
+<p>What might have been the young man's decision if Madam Lucifer had borne
+more resemblance to Madam Vulcan, it would be wholly impertinent to
+inquire, for the question never arose.</p>
+
+<p>"Take me away!" he screamed, "take me away, anywhere I anywhere out of
+her reach! Oh, Adeliza!"</p>
+
+<p>With a bound Adeliza stood by his side. She was darting a triumphant
+glance at the discomfited Queen of Hell, when suddenly her expression
+changed, and she screamed loudly. Two adorers stood before her, alike in
+every lineament and every detail of costume, utterly indistinguishable,
+even by the eye of Love.</p>
+
+<p>Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza's feet and pray
+her to defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the tidings of
+her elopement with Belial. Fearing to lose his wife and his dominions along
+with his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions with such expedition
+that he had had no time to change his costume. Hence the equivocation which
+confounded Adeliza, but at the same time preserved her from being torn to
+pieces by the no less mystified Madam Lucifer.</p>
+
+<p>Perceiving the state of the case, Lucifer with true gentlemanly feeling
+resumed his proper semblance, and Madam Lucifer's talons were immediately
+inserted into his whiskers.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear! my love!" he gasped, as audibly as she would let him, "is this
+the way it welcomes its own Lucy-pucy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that person?" demanded Madam Lucifer.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know her," screamed the wretched Lucifer. "I never saw her
+before. Take her away; shut her up in the deepest dungeon!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I know it," sharply replied Madam Lucifer, "You can't bear to
+part with her, can't  you? You would intrigue with her under my nose, would
+you? Take that! and that! Turn them both out, I say! turn them both
+out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, my dearest love, most certainly," responded Lucifer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Sire," cried Moloch and Beelzebub together, "for Heaven's sake let
+your Majesty consider what he is doing. The Inspector&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bother the Inspector!" screeched Lucifer. "D'ye think I'm not a
+thousand times more afraid of your mistress than of all the saints in the
+calendar? There," addressing Adeliza and her betrothed, "be off! You'll
+find all debts paid, and a nice balance at the bank. Cut! Run!"</p>
+
+<p>They did not wait to be told twice. Earth yawned. The gates of Tartarus
+stood wide. They found themselves on the side of a steep mountain, down
+which they scoured madly, hand linked in hand. But fast as they ran, it was
+long ere they ceased to hear the tongue of Madam Lucifer.</p> <a
+id="p194"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE TALISMANS</h2>
+
+<p>What a wondrous creature is man! What feats the humblest among us
+perform, which, if related of another order of beings, we should deem
+incredible!</p>
+
+<p>By what magic could the young student escape the weary old professor,
+who was prosily proving Time merely a form of thought; a proposition of
+which, to judge by the little value he appeared to set on the subject of
+his discourse, he must himself have been fully persuaded? Without exciting
+his suspicions in the smallest degree, the student stole away to a region
+inconceivably remote, and presented himself at the portal of a magnificent
+palace, guarded by goblins, imps, lions, serpents, and monsters whose
+uncouthness forbids description.</p>
+
+<p>A singular transformation seemed to have befallen the student. In the
+professor's class he had been noted as timid, awkward, and painfully
+respectful. He now strode up with an air of alacrity and defiance,
+brandishing a roll of parchments, and confronted the seven principal
+goblins, by whom he was successively interrogated.</p>
+
+<p>"Hast thou undergone the seven probations?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the student.</p>
+
+<p>"Hast thou swallowed the ninety-nine poisons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ninety-nine times each," said the student.</p>
+
+<p>"Hast thou wedded a Salamander, and divorced her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have," said the student.</p>
+
+<p>"Art thou at this present time betrothed to a Vampire?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," said the student.</p>
+
+<p>"Hast thou sacrificed thy mother and sister to the infernal powers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said the student,</p>
+
+<p>"Hast thou attestations of all these circumstances under the hands and
+seals of a thousand and one demons?"</p>
+
+<p>The student displayed his parchments.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast undergone every trial," pronounced the seventh goblin; "thou
+hast won the right to enter the treasury of the treasurer of all things,
+and to choose from it any one talisman at thy liking."</p>
+
+<p>The imps cheered, the goblins congratulated, the serpents shrank hissing
+away, the lions fawned upon the student, a centaur bore him upon his back
+to the treasurer's presence,</p>
+
+<p>The treasurer, an old bent man, with a single lock of silvery hair,
+received the adventurer with civility.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come," said the student, "for the talismans in thy keeping, to
+the choice among which I have entitled myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast fairly earned them," replied the old man, "and I may not say
+thee nay. Thou canst, however, only possess any of them in the shape which
+it has received at my hands during the long period for which these have
+remained in my custody."</p>
+
+<p>"I must submit to the condition," said the student.</p>
+
+<p>"Behold, then, Aladdin's lamp," said the ancient personage, tendering a
+tiny vase hardly  bigger than a pill-box, containing some grains of a
+coarse, rusty powder.</p>
+
+<p>"Aladdin's lamp!" cried the student.</p>
+
+<p>"All of it, at least, that I have seen fit to preserve," replied the old
+man. "Thou art but just in time for this even. It is proper to apprise thee
+that the virtues of the talisman having necessarily dwindled with its bulk,
+it is at present incompetent to evoke any Genie, and can at most summon an
+imp, of whose company thou wilt never be able to rid thyself, inasmuch as
+the least friction will inevitably destroy what little of the talisman
+remains."</p>
+
+<p>"Confusion!" cried the young man, "Show me, then, Aladdin's ring."</p>
+
+<p>"Here," replied the old man, producing a plain gold hoop,</p>
+
+<p>"This, at least," asked the student, "is not devoid of virtue?"</p>
+
+<p>"Assuredly not, if placed on the finger of some fair lady. For, its
+magic properties depending wholly upon certain engraved characters, which I
+have gradually obliterated, it is at present unadapted to any other use
+than that of a wedding-ring, which it would subserve to admiration."</p>
+
+<p>"Produce another talisman," commanded the youth,</p>
+
+<p>"These," said the ancient treasurer, holding up two shapeless pieces of
+leather, "are the shoes of swiftness, incomparable until I wore them
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"This, at least, is bright and weighty," exclaimed the student, as the
+old man displayed the sword of sharpness.</p>
+
+<p>"In truth a doughty weapon," returned the treasurer, "if wielded by a
+stronger arm than thine, for it will no longer fly in the air and smite
+off heads of its own accord, since the new blade hath been fitted to the
+new hilt."</p>
+
+<p>After a hasty inspection of the empty frame of a magic mirror, and a
+fragment of the original setting of Solomon's seal, the youth's eye lighted
+upon a volume full of mysterious characters.</p>
+
+<p>"Whose book is this?" he inquired. "Heavens, it is Michael Scott's!"</p>
+
+<p>"Even so," returned the venerable man, "and its spells have lost nothing
+of their efficacy. But the last leaf, containing the formula for dismissing
+spirits after they have been summoned from the nether world, hath been
+removed by me. Inattention to this circumstance hath caused several most
+respectable magicians to be torn in pieces, and hath notably increased the
+number of demons at large."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou old villain!" shouted the exasperated youth, "is this the way in
+which the treasures in thy custody are protected by thee? Deemest thou that
+I will brook being thus cheated of my dear-bought talisman? Nay, but I will
+deprive thee of thine. Give me that lock of hair."</p>
+
+<p>"O good youth," supplicated the now terrified and humbled old man,
+"bereave me not of the source of all my power. Think, only think of the
+consequences!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not think," roared the youth. "Deliver it to me, or I'll rend it
+from thy head with my own hands."</p>
+
+<p>With a heavy sigh, Time clipped the lock from his brow and handed it to
+the youth, who quitted the place unmolested by any of the monsters.</p>
+
+<p>Entering the great city, the student made his way by narrow and winding
+streets until, after a  considerable delay, he emerged into a large public
+square. It was crowded with people, gazing intently at the afternoon sky,
+and the air was rife with a confused murmur of altercations and
+exclamations.</p>
+
+<p>"It is." "No, I tell you, it is impossible." "It cannot be." "I see it
+move." "No, it's only my eyes are dazzled." "Who could have believed it?"
+"Whatever will happen next?"</p>
+
+<p>Following the gaze of the people, the youth discovered that the object
+of their attention was the sun, in whose aspect, however, he could discover
+nothing unusual.</p>
+
+<p>"No," a man by him was saying, "it positively has not moved for an hour.
+I have my instruments by me. I cannot possibly be mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"It ought to have been behind the houses long ago," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"What's o'clock?" asked a third. The inquiry made many turn their eyes
+towards the great clock in the square. It had stopped an hour ago. The
+hands were perfectly motionless. All who had watches simultaneously drew
+them from their pockets. The motion of each was suspended; so intense, in
+turn, was the hush of the breathless crowd, that you could have heard a
+single tick, but there was none to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Time is no more," proclaimed a leader among the people.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a ruined man," lamented a watchmaker.</p>
+
+<p>"And I," ejaculated a maker of almanacks.</p>
+
+<p>"What of quarter-day?" inquired a landlord and a tenant
+simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall never see the moon again," sobbed a pair of lovers.</p>
+
+<p>"It is well this did not happen at night," observed an optimist.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" questioned the director of a gas company.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you the Last Day would come in our time," said a preacher.</p>
+
+<p>It was still long before the people realised that the trance of Time had
+paralysed his daughter Mutability as well. Every operation depending on her
+silent processes was arrested. The unborn could not come to life. The sick
+could not die. The human frame could not waste. Every one in the enjoyment
+of health and strength felt assured of the perpetual possession of these
+blessings, unless he should meet with accident or violent death. But all
+growth ceased, and all dissolution was stayed. Mothers looked with despair
+on infants who could never be weaned or learn to walk. Expectant heirs
+gazed with dismay on immortal fathers and uncles. The reigning beauties,
+the fashionable boxers and opera dancers were in the highest feather. Nor
+did the intellectual less rejoice, counting on endless life and unimpaired
+faculties, and vowing to extend human knowledge beyond the conceivable. The
+poor and the outcast, the sick and the maimed, the broken-hearted and the
+dying made, indeed, a dismal outcry, the sincerity of which was doubted by
+some persons.</p>
+
+<p>As for our student, forgetting his faithful Vampire, he made his way to
+a young lady of great personal attractions, to whom he had been attached in
+former days. The sight of her beauty, and the thought that it would be
+everlasting, revived his passion. To convince her of the perpetuity  of her
+charms, and establish a claim upon her gratitude, he cautiously revealed to
+her that he was the author of this blissful state of things, and that
+Time's hair was actually in his possession.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you dear good man!" she exclaimed, "how vastly I am obliged to you!
+Ferdinand will never forsake me now."</p>
+
+<p>"Ferdinand! Leonora, I thought you cared for <i>me</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she said, "you young men of science are so conceited!"</p>
+
+<p>The discomfited lover fled from the house, and sought the treasurer's
+palace. It had vanished with all its monsters. Long did he roam the city
+ere he mixed again with the crowd, which an old meteorologist was
+addressing energetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I ask you one thing," he was saying. "Will it ever rain again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," replied a geologist and a metaphysician together. "Rain
+being an agent of Time in the production of change, there can be no place
+for it under the present dispensation."</p>
+
+<p>"Then will not the crops be burned up? Will the fruits mature? Are they
+not withering already? What of wells and rivers, and the mighty sea itself?
+Who will feed your cattle? And who will feed <i>you</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"This concerns us," said the butchers and bakers.</p>
+
+<p>"Us also," added the fishmongers.</p>
+
+<p>"I always thought," said a philosopher, "that this phenomenon must be
+the work of some malignant wizard."</p>
+
+<p>"Show us the wizard that we may slay him," roared the mob.</p>
+
+<p>Leonora had been communicative, and the student was immediately
+identified by twenty persons. The lock of hair was found upon him, and was
+held up in sight of the multitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Kill him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Burn him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Crucify him!"</p>
+
+<p>"It moves! it moves!" cried another division of the crowd. All eyes were
+bent on the hitherto stationary luminary. It was moving&mdash;no, it
+wasn't; yes, it certainly was. Dared men believe that their shadows were
+actually lengthening? Was the sun's rim really drawing nigh yonder great
+edifice? That muffled sound from the vast, silent multitude was, doubtless,
+the quick beating of innumerable hearts; but that sharper note? Could it be
+the ticking of watches? Suddenly all the public clocks clanged the first
+stroke of an hour&mdash;an absurdly wrong hour, but it was an hour. No
+mortal heard the second stroke, drowned in universal shouts of joy and
+gratitude. The student mingled with the mass, no man regarding him.</p>
+
+<p>When the people had somewhat recovered from their emotion, they fell to
+disputing as to the cause of the last marvel. No scientific man could get
+beyond a working hypothesis. The mystery was at length solved by a very
+humble citizen, a barber.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," he said, "the old gentleman's hair has grown again!"</p>
+
+<p>And so it had! And so it was that the unborn came to life, the dying
+gave up the ghost, Leonora pulled out a grey hair, and the student told the
+professor his dream.</p> <a id="p202"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE ELIXIR OF LIFE</h2>
+
+<p>The aged philosopher Aboniel inhabited a lofty tower in the city of
+Balkh, where he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and the occult
+sciences. No one was ever admitted to his laboratory. Yet Aboniel did not
+wholly shun intercourse with mankind, but, on the contrary, had seven
+pupils, towardly youths belonging to the noblest families of the city, whom
+he instructed at stated times in philosophy and all lawful knowledge,
+reserving the forbidden lore of magic and alchemy for himself.</p>
+
+<p>But on a certain day he summoned his seven scholars to the mysterious
+apartment. They entered with awe and curiosity, but perceived nothing save
+the sage standing behind a table, on which were placed seven crystal
+phials, filled with a clear liquid resembling water.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye know, my sons," he began, "with what ardour I am reputed to have
+striven to penetrate the hidden secrets of Nature, and to solve the
+problems which have allured and baffled the sages of all time. In this
+rumour doth not err: such hath ever been my object; but, until yesterday,
+my fortune hath been like unto theirs who have preceded me. The little I
+could accomplish seemed as nothing in comparison with what I was compelled
+to leave unachieved. Even now  my success is but partial. I have not
+learned to make gold; the talisman of Solomon is not mine; nor can I recall
+the principle of life to the dead, or infuse it into inanimate matter. But
+if I cannot create, I can preserve. I have found the Elixir of Life."</p>
+
+<p>The sage paused to examine the countenances of his scholars. Upon them
+he read extreme surprise, undoubting belief in the veracity of their
+teacher, and the dawning gleam of a timid hope that they themselves might
+become participators in the transcendent discovery he proclaimed.
+Addressing himself to the latter sentiment&mdash;"I am willing," he
+continued, "to communicate this secret to you, if such be your desire."</p>
+
+<p>An unanimous exclamation assured him that there need be no uncertainty
+on this point.</p>
+
+<p>"But remember," he resumed, "that this knowledge, like all knowledge,
+has its disadvantages and its drawbacks. A price must be paid, and when ye
+come to learn it, it may well be that it will seem too heavy. Understand
+that the stipulations I am about to propound are not of my imposing; the
+secret was imparted to me by spirits not of a benevolent order, and under
+conditions with which I am constrained strictly to comply. Understand also
+that I am not minded to employ this knowledge on my own behalf. My
+fourscore years' acquaintance with life has rendered me more solicitous for
+methods of abbreviating existence, than of prolonging it. It may be well
+for you if your twenty years' experience has led you to the same
+conclusion."</p>
+
+<p>There was not one of the young men who would not readily have admitted,
+and indeed  energetically maintained, the emptiness, vanity, and general
+unsatisfactoriness of life; for such had ever been the doctrine of their
+venerated preceptor. Their present behaviour, however, would have convinced
+him, had he needed conviction, of the magnitude of the gulf between theory
+and practice, and the feebleness of intellectual persuasion in presence of
+innate instinct. With one voice they protested their readiness to brave any
+conceivable peril, and undergo any test which might be imposed as a
+condition of participation in their master's marvellous secret.</p>
+
+<p>"So be it," returned the sage, "and now hearken to the conditions.</p>
+
+<p>"Each of you must select at hazard, and immediately quaff one of these
+seven phials, in one of which only is contained the Elixir of Life. Far
+different are the contents of the others; they are the six most deadly
+poisons which the utmost subtlety of my skill has enabled me to prepare,
+and science knows no antidote to any of them. The first scorches up the
+entrails as with fire; the second slays by freezing every vein, and
+benumbing every nerve; the third by frantic convulsions. Happy in
+comparison he who drains the fourth, for he sinks dead upon the ground
+immediately, smitten as it were with lightning. Nor do I overmuch
+commiserate him to whose lot the fifth may fall, for slumber descends upon
+him forthwith, and he passes away in painless oblivion. But wretched he who
+chooses the sixth, whose hair falls from his head, whose skin peels from
+his body, and who lingers long in excruciating agonies, a living death. The
+seventh phial contains the object of your desire. Stretch forth  your
+hands, therefore, simultaneously to this table; let each unhesitatingly
+grasp and intrepidly drain the potion which fate may allot him, and be the
+quality of his fortune attested by the result."</p>
+
+<p>The seven disciples contemplated each other with visages of sevenfold
+blankness. They next unanimously directed their gaze towards their
+preceptor, hoping to detect some symptom of jocularity upon his venerable
+features. Nothing could be descried thereon but the most imperturbable
+solemnity, or, if perchance anything like an expression of irony lurked
+beneath this, it was not such irony as they wished to see. Lastly, they
+scanned the phials, trusting that some infinitesimal distinction might
+serve to discriminate the elixir from the poisons. But no, the vessels were
+indistinguishable in external appearance, and the contents of each were
+equally colourless and transparent.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," demanded Aboniel at length, with real or assumed surprise,
+"wherefore tarry ye thus? I deemed to have ere this beheld six of you in
+the agonies of death!"</p>
+
+<p>This utterance did not tend to encourage the seven waverers. Two of the
+boldest, indeed, advanced their hands half-way to the table, but perceiving
+that their example was not followed, withdrew them in some confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Think not, great teacher, that I personally set store by this worthless
+existence," said one of their number at last, breaking the embarrassing
+silence, "but I have an aged mother, whose life is bound up with mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I," said the second, "have an unmarried  sister, for whom it is meet
+that I should provide."</p>
+
+<p>"I," said the third, "have an intimate and much-injured friend, whose
+cause I may in nowise forsake."</p>
+
+<p>"And I an enemy upon whom I would fain be avenged," said the fourth.</p>
+
+<p>"My life," said the fifth, "is wholly devoted to science. Can I consent
+to lay it down ere I have sounded the seas of the seven climates?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or I, until I have had speech of the man in the moon?" inquired the
+sixth.</p>
+
+<p>"I," said the seventh, "have neither mother nor sister, friends nor
+enemies, neither doth my zeal for science equal that of my fellows. But I
+have all the greater respect for my own skin; yea, the same is exceedingly
+precious in my sight."</p>
+
+<p>"The conclusion of the whole matter, then," summed up the sage, "is that
+not one of you will make a venture for the cup of immortality?"</p>
+
+<p>The young men remained silent and abashed, unwilling to acknowledge the
+justice of their master's taunt, and unable to deny it. They sought for
+some middle path, which did not readily present itself.</p>
+
+<p>"May we not," said one at last, "may we not cast lots, and each take a
+phial in succession, as destiny may appoint?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing against this," replied Aboniel, "only remember that the
+least endeavour to contravene the conditions by amending the chance of any
+one of you, will ensure the discomfiture of all."</p>
+
+<p>The disciples speedily procured seven quills of unequal lengths, and
+proceeded to draw them in  the usual manner. The shortest remained in the
+hand of the holder, he who had pleaded his filial duty to his mother.</p>
+
+<p>He approached the table with much resolution, and his hand advanced half
+the distance without impediment. Then, turning to the holder of the second
+quill; the man with the sister, he said abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"The relation between mother and son is notoriously more sacred and
+intimate than that which obtains between brethren. Were it not therefore
+fitting that thou shouldst encounter the first risk in my stead?"</p>
+
+<p>"The relationship between an aged mother and an adult son," responded
+the youth addressed, in a sententious tone, "albeit most holy, cannot in
+the nature of things be durable, seeing that it must shortly be dissolved
+by death. Whereas the relationship between brother and sister may endure
+for many years, if such be the will of Allah. It is therefore proper that
+thou shouldst first venture the experiment."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I lived to hear such sophistry from a pupil of the wise Aboniel!"
+exclaimed the first speaker, in generous indignation. "The maternal
+relationship&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A truce to this trifling," cried the other six; "fulfil the conditions,
+or abandon the task."</p>
+
+<p>Thus urged, the scholar approached his hand to the table, and seized one
+of the phials. Scarcely, however, had he done so, when he fancied that he
+detected something of a sinister colour in the liquid, which distinguished
+it, in his imagination, from the innocent transparency of the rest. He
+hastily replaced it, and laid hold of the next. At  that moment a blaze of
+light burst forth upon them, and, thunderstruck, the seven scholars were
+stretched senseless on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>On regaining their faculties they found themselves at the outside of
+Aboniel's dwelling, stunned by the shock, and humiliated by the part they
+had played. They jointly pledged inviolable secrecy, and returned to their
+homes.</p>
+
+<p>The secret of the seven was kept as well as the secret of seven can be
+expected to be; that is to say, it was not, ere the expiration of seven
+days, known to more than six-sevenths of the inhabitants of Balkh. The last
+of these to become acquainted  with it was the Sultan, who immediately
+despatched his guards to apprehend the sage, and confiscate the Elixir.
+Failing to obtain admission at Aboniel's portal, they broke it open, and,
+on entering his chamber, found him in a condition which more eloquently
+than any profession bespoke his disdain for the life-bestowing draught. He
+was dead in his chair. Before him, on the table, stood the seven phials,
+six full as previously, the seventh empty. In his hand was a scroll
+inscribed as follows;</p>
+
+<p>"Six times twice six years have I striven after knowledge, and I now
+bequeath to the world the fruit of my toil, being six poisons. One more
+deadly I might have added, but I have refrained,</p>
+
+<p>"Write upon my tomb, that here he lies who forbore to perpetuate human
+affliction, and bestowed a fatal boon where alone it could be
+innoxious."</p>
+
+<p>The intruders looked at each other, striving to penetrate the sense of
+Aboniel's last words. While yet they gazed, they were startled by a  loud
+crash from an adjacent closet, and were even more discomposed as a large
+monkey bounded forth, whose sleek coat, exuberant playfulness, and
+preternatural agility convinced all that the deceased philosopher, under an
+inspiration of supreme irony, had administered to the creature every drop
+of the Elixir of Life.</p> <a id="p210"></a> <a
+href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE POET OF PANOPOLIS</h2>
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>Although in a manner retired from the world during the fifth and sixth
+Christian centuries, the banished Gods did not neglect to keep an eye on
+human affairs, interesting themselves in any movement which might seem to
+afford them a chance of regaining their lost supremacy, or in any person
+whose conduct evinced regret at their dethronement. They deeply sympathised
+with the efforts of their votary Pamprepius to turn the revolt of Illus to
+their advantage, and excused the low magical arts to which he stooped as a
+necessary concession to the spirit of a barbarous age. They ministered
+invisibly to Damascius and his companions on their flight into Persia,
+alleviating the hardships under which the frames of the veteran
+philosophers might otherwise have sunk. It was not, indeed, until the
+burning of the Alexandrian library that they lost all heart and lapsed into
+the chrysalis-like condition in which they remained until tempted forth by
+the young sunshine of the Renaissance.</p>
+
+<p>Such a phenomenon for the fifth century as the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of
+Panopolis could not fail to excite their most lively interest. Forty-eight
+books of verse on the exploits of Bacchus in the age of pugnacious prelates
+and filthy coenobites, of imbecile rulers and rampant robbers, of the
+threatened dissolution of every tie, legal, social, or political; an age of
+earthquake, war, and famine! Bacchus, who is known from Aristophanes not to
+have excelled in criticism, protested that his laureate was greater than
+Homer; and, though Homer could not go quite so far as this, he graciously
+conceded that if he had himself been an Egyptian of the fifth century, with
+a faint glimmering of the poetical art, and encumbered with more learning
+than he knew how to use, he might have written almost as badly as his
+modern representative. More impartial critics judged Nonnus's achievement
+more favourably, and all agreed that his steadfastness in the faith
+deserved some special mark of distinction. The Muses under Pallas's
+direction (being themselves a little awkward in female accomplishments)
+embroidered him a robe; Hermes made a lyre, and Hephaestus forged a
+plectrum. Apollo added a chaplet of laurel, and Bacchus one of ivy. Whether
+from distrust of Hermes' integrity, or wishing to make the personal
+acquaintance of his follower, Phoebus volunteered to convey the testimonial
+in person, and accordingly took his departure for the Egyptian Thebaid.</p>
+
+<p>As Apollo fared through the sandy and rugged wilderness under the
+blazing sun of an African summer afternoon, he observed with surprise a
+vast crowd of strange figures swarming about the mouth of a cavern like
+bees clustering at the entrance to a hive. On a nearer approach he
+identified them as a posse of demons besetting a  hermit. Words cannot
+describe the enormous variety of whatever the universe holds of most
+heterogeneous. Naked women of surpassing loveliness displayed their charms
+to the anchorite's gaze, sturdy porters bent beneath loads of gold which
+they heaped at his feet, other shapes not alien from humanity allured his
+appetite with costly dishes or cooling drinks, or smote at him with swords,
+or made feints at his eyes with spears, or burned sulphur under his nose,
+or displayed before him scrolls of poetry or learning, or shrieked
+blasphemies in his ears, or surveyed him from a little distance with
+glances of leering affection; while a motley crowd of goblins, wearing the
+heads of boars or lions, or whisking the tails of dragons, winged, or
+hoofed, or scaled, or feathered, or all at once, incessantly jostled and
+wrangled with each other and their betters, mopping and mowing, grunting
+and grinning, snapping, snarling, constantly running away and returning
+like gnats dancing over a marsh. The holy man sat doggedly at the entrance
+of his cavern, with an expression of fathomless stupidity, which seemed to
+defy all the fiends of the Thebaid to get an idea into his head, or make
+him vary his attitude by a single inch.</p>
+
+<p>"These people did not exist in our time," said Apollo aloud, "or at
+least they knew their place, and behaved themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said a comparatively grave and respectable demon, addressing the
+stranger, "I should wish your peregrinity to understand that these imps are
+mere schoolboys&mdash;my pupils, in fact. When their education has made
+further progress they will be more mannerly, and will comprehend  the folly
+of pestering an unintellectual old gentleman like this worthy Pachymius
+with beauty for which he has no eyes, and gold for which he has no use, and
+dainties for which he has no palate, and learning for which he has no head.
+But <i>I'll</i> wake him up!" And waving his pupils away, the paedagogic
+fiend placed himself at the anchorite's ear, and shouted into it&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Nonnus is to be Bishop of Panopolis!"</p>
+
+<p>The hermit's features were instantly animated by an expression of envy
+and hatred.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonnus!" he exclaimed, "the heathen poet, to have the see of Panopolis,
+of which <i>I</i> was promised the reversion!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," suggested Apollo, "it is all very well to enliven the
+reverend eremite; but don't you think it is rather a liberty to make such
+jokes at the expense of my good friend Nonnus?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no liberty," said the demon, "for there is no joke. Recanted
+on Monday. Baptized yesterday. Ordained to-day. To be consecrated
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>The anchorite poured forth a torrent of the choicest ecclesiastical
+curses, until he became speechless from exhaustion, and Apollo, profiting
+by the opportunity, addressed the demon:</p>
+
+<p>"Would it be an unpardonable breach of politeness, respected sir, if I
+ventured to hint that the illusions your pupils have been trying to impose
+upon this venerable man have in some small measure impaired the confidence
+with which I was originally inspired by your advantageous personal
+appearance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," replied the demon, "especially as I can easily make
+my words good. If  you and Pachymius will mount my back I will transport
+you to Panopolis, where you can verify my assertion for yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>The Deity and the anchorite promptly consented, and seated themselves on
+the demon's shoulders. The shadow of the fiend's expanded wings fell black
+and vast on the fiery sand, but diminished and became invisible as he
+soared to a prodigious height, to escape observation from below. By-and-by
+the sun's glowing ball touched earth at the extremity of the horizon; it
+disappeared, the fires of sunset burned low in the west, and the figures of
+the demon and his freight showed like a black dot against a lake of green
+sky, growing larger as he cautiously stooped to earth. Grazing temples,
+skimming pyramids, the party came to ground in the precincts of Panopolis,
+just in time to avoid the rising moon that would have betrayed them. The
+demon immediately disappeared. Apollo hastened off to demand an explanation
+from Nonnus, while Pachymius repaired to a neighbouring convent, peopled,
+as he knew, by a legion of sturdy monks, ever ready to smite and be smitten
+in the cause of orthodoxy.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>Nonnus sat in his study, wrinkling his brow as he polished his verses by
+the light of a small lamp. A large scroll lay open on his knees, the
+contents of which seemed to afford him little satisfaction. Forty-eight
+more scrolls, resplendent with silver knobs and coquettishly tied with
+purple cord,  reposed in an adjoining book-case; the forty-eight books,
+manifestly, of the Panopolitan bard's Dionysiaca. Homer, Euripides, and
+other poets lay on the floor, having apparently been hurriedly dislodged to
+make room for divers liturgies and lives of the saints. A set of episcopal
+robes depended from a hook, and on a side table stood half-a-dozen mitres,
+which, to all appearance, the designated prelate had been trying on.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonnus," said Phoebus, passing noiselessly through the unresisting
+wall, "the tale of thy apostasy is then true?"</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to determine whether surprise, delight, or dismay
+preponderated in Nonnus's expression as he lifted up his eyes and
+recognised the God of Poetry. He had just presence of mind to shuffle his
+scroll under an enormous dictionary ere he fell at Apollo's feet.</p>
+
+<p>"O Phoebus," he exclaimed, "hadst thou come a week ago!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true, then?" said Apollo. "Thou forsakest me and the Muses. Thou
+sidest with them who have broken our statues, unroofed our temples,
+desecrated our altars, and banished us from among mankind. Thou rejectest
+the glory of standing alone in a barbarous age as the last witness to
+culture and civilisation. Thou despisest the gifts of the Gods and the
+Muses, of which I am even now the bearer. Thou preferrest the mitre to the
+laurel chaplet, and the hymns of Gregory to the epics of Homer?"</p>
+
+<p>"O Phoebus," replied Nonnus, "were it any God but thou, I should bend
+before him in silence, having nought to reply. But thou art a poet, and
+thou understandest the temper of a poet.  Thou knowest how beyond other men
+he is devoured by the craving for sympathy. This and not vulgar vanity is
+his motive of action; his shaft is launched in vain unless he can deem it
+embedded in the heart of a friend. Thou mayest well judge what scoffings
+and revilings my Dionysiac epic has brought upon me in this evil age; yet,
+had this been all, peradventure I might have borne it. But it was not all.
+The gentle, the good, the affectionate, they who in happier times would
+have been my audience, came about me, saying, Nonnus, why sing the strains
+against which we must shut our ears? Sing what we may listen to, and we
+will love and honour thee. I could not bear the thought of going to my
+grave without having awakened an echo of sympathy, and weakly but not
+basely I have yielded, given them what they craved, and suffered them,
+since the Muses' garland is not theirs to bestow, to reward me with a
+mitre."</p>
+
+<p>"And what demanded they?" asked Apollo.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a mere romance! Something entirely fabulous."</p>
+
+<p>"I must see it," persisted Apollo; and Nonnus reluctantly disinterred
+his scroll from under the big dictionary, and handed it up, trembling like
+a schoolboy who anticipates a castigation for a bad exercise.</p>
+
+<p>"What trash have we here?" cried Phoebus&mdash;</p>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;"&Alpha;&chi;&rho;&omicron;&nu;&omicron;&sigmaf; &eta;&nu;,
+&alpha;&kappa;&iota;&chi;&eta;&tau;&omicron;&sigmaf;, &epsilon;&nu;
+&alpha;&rho;&rho;&eta;&tau;&omega;
+&Lambda;&omicron;&gamma;&omicron;&sigmaf; &alpha;&rho;&chi;&eta;,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;'&Iota;&sigma;&omicron;&phi;&upsilon;&eta;&sigmaf;
+&Gamma;&epsilon;&nu;&epsilon;&tau;&eta;&rho;&omicron;&sigmaf;
+&#972;&mu;&eta;&lambda;&iota;&kappa;&omicron;&sigmaf;
+&Tau;&iota;&omicron;&sigmaf; &alpha;&mu;&eta;&tau;&omega;&rho;,
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&Kappa;&alpha;&iota;
+&Lambda;&omicron;&gamma;&omicron;&sigmaf;
+&alpha;&upsilon;&tau;&omicron;&phi;&upsilon;&tau;&omicron;&iota;&omicron;
+&Theta;&epsilon;&omicron;&upsilon;, &phi;&omega;&sigmaf;, &epsilon;&kappa;
+&phi;&alpha;&epsilon;&omicron;&sigmaf; &phi;&omega;&sigmaf;.
+
+<p>"If it isn't the beginning of the Gospel of John! Thy impiety is worse
+than thy poetry!"</p>
+
+<p>Apollo cast the scroll indignantly to the ground. His countenance wore
+an expression so similar to that with which he is represented in act to
+smite the Python, that Nonnus judged it prudent to catch up his manuscript
+and hold it shield-wise before his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou doest well," said Apollo, laughing bitterly; "that rampart is
+indeed impenetrable to my arrows."</p>
+
+<p>Nonnus seemed about to fall prostrate, when a sharp rap came to the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the Governor's knock," he exclaimed. "Do not forsake me
+utterly, O Phoebus!" But as he turned to open the door, Apollo vanished.
+The Governor entered, a sagacious, good-humoured-looking man in middle
+life.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was with thee just now?" he asked. "Methought I heard voices."</p>
+
+<p>"Merely the Muse," explained Nonnus, "with whom I am wont to hold
+nocturnal communings."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" replied the Governor. "Then the Muse has done well to take
+herself off, and will do even better not to return. Bishops must have no
+flirtations with Muses, heavenly or earthly&mdash;not that I am now
+altogether certain that thou <i>wilt</i> be a bishop."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?" asked Nonnus, not without a feeling of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Imagine, my dear friend," returned the Governor, "who should turn up
+this evening but that sordid anchorite Pachymius, to whom the see was
+promised indeed, but who was reported to have been devoured by vermin in
+the desert. The rumour seemed so highly plausible that it must be feared
+that sufficient pains were not taken to  verify it&mdash;cannot have been,
+in fact; for, as I said, here he comes, having been brought, as he affirms,
+through the air by an angel. Little would it have signified if he had come
+by himself, but he is accompanied by three hundred monks carrying cudgels,
+who threaten an insurrection if he is not consecrated on the spot. My
+friend the Archbishop and I are at our wits' end: we have set our hearts on
+having a gentleman over the diocese, but we cannot afford to have tumults
+reported at Constantinople. At last, mainly through the mediation of a
+sable personage whom no one seems to know, but who approves himself most
+intelligent and obliging, the matter is put off till to-morrow, when them
+and Pachymius are to compete for the bishopric in public on conditions not
+yet settled, but which our swarthy friend undertakes to arrange to every
+one's satisfaction. So keep up a good heart, and don't run away in any
+case. I know thou art timid, but remember that there is no safety for thee
+but in victory. If thou yieldest thou wilt be beheaded by me, and if thou
+art defeated thou wilt certainly be burned by Pachymius."</p>
+
+<p>With this incentive to intrepidity the Governor withdrew, leaving the
+poor poet in a pitiable state between remorse and terror. One thing alone
+somewhat comforted him! the mitres had vanished, and the gifts of the Gods
+lay on the table in their place, whence he concluded that a friendly power
+might yet be watching over him.</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>Next morning all Panopolis was in an uproar. It was generally known that
+the pretensions of the candidates for the episcopate would be decided by
+public competition, and it was rumoured that this would partake of the
+nature of an ordeal by fire and water. Nothing further had transpired
+except that the arrangements had been settled by the Governor and
+Archbishop in concert with two strangers, a dingy Libyan and a handsome
+young Greek, neither of whom was known in the city, but in both of whom the
+authorities seemed to repose entire confidence. At the appointed time the
+people flocked into the theatre, and found the stage already occupied by
+the parties chiefly concerned. The Governor and the Archbishop sat in the
+centre on their tribunals: the competitors stood on each side, Pachymius
+backed by the demon, Nonnus by Apollo; both these supporters, of course,
+appearing to the assembly in the light of ordinary mortals. Nonnus
+recognised Apollo perfectly, but Pachymius's limited powers of intelligence
+seemed entirely engrossed by the discomfort visibly occasioned him by the
+proximity of an enormous brass vessel of water, close to which burned a
+bright fire. Nonnus was also ill at ease, and continually directed his
+attention to a large package, of the contents of which he seemed
+instinctively cognisant.</p>
+
+<p>All being ready, the Governor rose from his seat, and announced that,
+with the sanction of his  Grace the Archbishop, the invidious task of
+determining between the claims of two such highly qualified competitors had
+been delegated to two gentlemen in the enjoyment of his full confidence,
+who would proceed to apply fitting tests to the respective candidates.
+Should one fail and the other succeed, the victor would of course be
+instituted; should both undergo the probation successfully, new criterions
+of merit would be devised; should both fall short, both would be set aside,
+and the disputed mitre would be conferred elsewhere. He would first summon
+Nonnus, long their fellow-citizen, and now their fellow-Christian, to
+submit himself to the test proposed.</p>
+
+<p>Apollo now rose, and proclaimed in an audible voice, "By virtue of the
+authority committed to me I call upon Nonnus of Panopolis, candidate for
+the bishopric of his native city, to demonstrate his fitness for the same
+by consigning to the flames with his own hands the forty-eight execrable
+books of heathen poetry composed by him in the days of his darkness and
+blindness, but now without doubt as detestable to him as to the universal
+body of the faithful." So saying, he made a sign to an attendant, the
+wrapping of the package fell away, and the forty-eight scrolls of the
+Dionysiaca, silver knobs, purple cords, and all, came to view.</p>
+
+<p>"Burn my poem!" exclaimed Nonnus. "Destroy the labours of twenty-four
+years! Bereave Egypt of its Homer! Erase the name of Nonnus from the tablet
+of Time!"</p>
+
+<p>"How so, while thou hast the Paraphrase of St. John?" demanded Apollo
+maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, good youth," said the Governor, who wished to favour Nonnus,
+"methinks the condition  is somewhat exorbitant. A single book might
+suffice, surely!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite content," replied Apollo. "If he consents to burn any of his
+books he is no poet, and I wash my hands of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Nonnus," cried the Governor, "make haste; one book will do as
+well as another. Hand them up here."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be with his own hands, please your Excellency," said
+Apollo.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," cried the Governor, pitching to the poet the first scroll
+brought to him, "the thirteenth book. Who cares about the thirteenth book?
+Pop it in!"</p>
+
+<p>"The thirteenth book!" exclaimed Nonnus, "containing the contest between
+wine and honey, without which my epic becomes totally and entirely
+unintelligible!"</p>
+
+<p>"This, then," said the Governor, picking out another, which chanced to
+be the seventeenth,</p>
+
+<p>"In my seventeenth book," objected Nonnus, "Bacchus plants vines in
+India, and the superiority of wine to milk is convincingly
+demonstrated."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," rejoined the Governor, "what say you to the twenty-second?"</p>
+
+<p>"With my Hamadryad! I can never give up my Hamadryad!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said the Governor, contemptuously hurling the whole set in the
+direction of Nonnus, "burn which you will, only burn!"</p>
+
+<p>The wretched poet sat among his scrolls looking for a victim. All his
+forty-eight children were equally dear to his parental heart. The cries of
+applause and derision from the spectators, and  the formidable bellowings
+of the exasperated monks who surrounded Pachymius, did not tend to steady
+his nerves, or render the task of critical discrimination the easier,</p>
+
+<p>"I won't! I won't!" he exclaimed at last, starting up defiantly. "Let
+the bishopric go to the devil! Any one of my similes is worth all the
+bishoprics in Egypt!"</p>
+
+<p>"Out on the vanity of these poets!" exclaimed the disappointed
+Governor.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not vanity," said Apollo, "it is paternal affection; and being
+myself a sufferer from the same infirmity, I rejoice to find him my true
+son after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the Governor, turning to the demon: "it is thy man's turn
+now. Trot him out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren," said the demon to the assembly, "it is meet that he who
+aspires to the office of bishop should be prepared to give evidence of
+extraordinary self-denial. Ye have seen even our weak brother Nonnus
+adoring what he hath burned, albeit as yet unwilling to burn what he hath
+adored. How much more may be reasonably expected of our brother Pachymius,
+so eminent for sanctity! I therefore call upon him to demonstrate his
+humility and self-renunciation, and effectually mortify the natural man, by
+washing himself in this ample vessel provided for the purpose"</p>
+
+<p>"Wash myself!" exclaimed Pacyhmius, with a vivacity of which he had
+previously shown no token. "Destroy at one splash the sanctity of
+fifty-seven years! Avaunt! thou subtle enemy of my salvation! I know thee
+who thou art,  the demon who brought me hither on his back yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it had been an angel," said the Governor.</p>
+
+<p>"A demon in the disguise of an angel of light," said Pachymius.</p>
+
+<p>A tumultuous discussion arose among Pachymius's supporters, some
+extolling his fortitude, others blaming his wrongheadedness.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said he to the latter, "would ye rob me of my reputation? Shall
+it be written of me, The holy Pachymius abode in the precepts of the
+eremites so long as he dwelt in the desert where no water was, but as soon
+as he came within sight of a bath, he stumbled and fell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father," urged they, "savoureth not this of vaingloriousness? The
+demon in the guise of an angel of light, as thou so well saidest even now.
+Be strong. Quit thyself valiantly. Think of the sufferings of the primitive
+confessors."</p>
+
+<p>"St. John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"St. Apocryphus was actually drowned," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"I have reason to believe," said a third, "that the loathsomeness of
+ablution hath been greatly exaggerated by the heretics."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it has," said another. "I <i>have</i> washed myself once, though
+ye might not think it, and can assert that it is by no means as
+disagreeable as one supposes."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just what I dread," said Pachymius. "Little by little, one
+might positively come to like it! We should resist the beginnings of
+evil."</p>
+
+<p>All this time the crowd of his supporters had been pressing upon the
+anchorite, and had imperceptibly forced him nearer the edge of the vessel,
+purposing at a convenient season to throw him in. He was now near enough to
+catch a glimpse of the limpid element. Recoiling in horror, he collected
+all his energies, and with head depressed towards his chest, and hands
+thrust forth as if to ward off pollution&mdash;butting, kicking, biting the
+air&mdash;he rushed forwards, and with a preternatural force deserving to
+be enumerated among his miracles, fairly overthrew the enormous vase, the
+contents streaming on the crowd in front of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Take me to my hermitage!" he screamed. "I renounce the bishopric. Take
+me to my hermitage!"</p>
+
+<p>"Amen," responded the demon, and, assuming his proper shape, he took
+Pachymius upon his back and flew away with him amid the cheers of the
+multitude.</p>
+
+<p>Pachymius was speedily deposited at the mouth of his cavern, where he
+received the visits of the neighbouring anchorites, who came to
+congratulate him on the constancy with which he had sustained his fiery, or
+rather watery trial. He spent most of his remaining days in the society of
+the devil, on which account he was canonised at his death.</p>
+
+<p>"O Phoebus," said Nonnus, when they were alone, "impose upon me any
+penance thou wilt, so I may but regain thy favour and that of the Muses.
+But before all things let me destroy my paraphrase."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou shalt not destroy it," said Phoebus,  "Thou shalt publish it. That
+shall be thy penance."</p>
+
+<p>And so it is that the epic on the exploits of Bacchus and the paraphrase
+of St. John's Gospel have alike come down to us as the work of Nonnus,
+whose authorship of both learned men have never been able to deny, having
+regard to the similarity of style, but never could explain until the facts
+above narrated came to light in one of the Fayoum papyri recently acquired
+by the Archduke Rainer.</p> <a id="p226"></a> <a
+href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE PURPLE HEAD</h2>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Half ignorant, they turned an easy wheel
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel.
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>In the heyday of the Emperor Aurelian's greatness, when his strong right
+arm propped Rome up, and hewed Palmyra down, when he surrounded his capital
+with walls fifty miles in circuit, and led Tetricus and Zenobia in triumph
+through its streets, and distributed elephants among the senators, and laid
+Etruria out in vineyards, and contemplated in leisure moments the
+suppression of Christianity as a subordinate detail of administration, a
+mere ripple on the broad ocean of his policy&mdash;at this period Bahram
+the First, King of Persia, naturally became disquieted in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"This upstart soldier of fortune," reflected he, "has an unseemly habit
+of overcoming and leading captive legitimate princes; thus prejudicing
+Divine right in the eyes of the vulgar. The skin of his predecessor
+Valerian, curried and stuffed with straw, hangs to this hour in the temple
+at Ctesiphon, a pleasing spectacle to the immortal gods. How would my own
+skin appear in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus? This must not be. I will
+send an embassy to him, and impress him with my greatness. But how?"</p>
+
+<p>He accordingly convoked his counsellors; the viziers, the warriors, the
+magi, the philosophers; and addressed them thus:</p>
+
+<p>"The king deigns to consult ye touching a difficult matter. I would
+flatter the pride of Rome, without lowering the pride of Persia. I would
+propitiate Aurelian, and at the same time humble him. How shall this be
+accomplished?"</p>
+
+<p>The viziers, the warriors, and the magi answered not a word. Unbroken
+silence reigned in the assembly, until the turn came to the sage Marcobad,
+who, prostrating himself, said, "O king, live for ever! In ancient times,
+as hath been delivered by our ancestors, Persians were instructed in three
+accomplishments&mdash;to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth.
+Persia still rides and shoots; truth-speaking (praised be Ormuzd!) she hath
+discontinued as unbefitting an enlightened nation. Thou needest not,
+therefore, scruple to circumvent Aurelian. Offer him that which thou
+knowest will not be found in his treasury, seeing that it is unique in
+thine own; giving him, at the same time, to understand that it is the
+ordinary produce of thy dominions. So, while rejoicing at the gift, shall
+he be abashed at his inferiority. I refer to the purple robe of her majesty
+the queen, the like of which is not to be found in the whole earth, neither
+do any know where the dye that tinges it is produced, save that it proceeds
+from the uttermost parts of India."</p>
+
+<p>"I approve thy advice," replied Bahram, "and in return will save thy
+life by banishing thee from my dominions. When my august consort shall
+learn that thou hast been the means of depriving her of her robe, she will
+undoubtedly request that  thou mayest be flayed, and thou knowest that I
+can deny her nothing. I therefore counsel thee to depart with all possible
+swiftness. Repair to the regions where the purple is produced, and if thou
+returnest with an adequate supply, I undertake that my royal sceptre shall
+be graciously extended to thee."</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher forsook the royal presence with celerity, and his office
+of chief examiner of court spikenard was bestowed upon another; as also his
+house and his garden, his gold and his silver, his wives and his
+concubines, his camels and his asses, which were numerous.</p>
+
+<p>While the solitary adventurer wended his way eastward, a gorgeous
+embassy travelled westward in the direction of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived in the presence of Aurelian, and at the conclusion of his
+complimentary harangue, the chief envoy produced a cedar casket, from which
+he drew a purple robe of such surpassing refulgence, that, in the words of
+the historian who has recorded the transaction, the purple of the emperor
+and of the matrons appeared ashy grey in comparison. It was accompanied by
+a letter thus conceived:</p>
+
+<p>"Bahram to Aurelian: health! Receive such purple as we have in
+Persia."</p>
+
+<p>"Persia, forsooth!" exclaimed Sorianus, a young philosopher versed in
+natural science, "this purple never was in Persia, except as a rarity. Oh,
+the mendacity and vanity of these Orientals!"</p>
+
+<p>The ambassador was beginning an angry reply, when Aurelian quelled the
+dispute with a look, and with some awkwardness delivered himself of a brief
+oration in acknowledgment of the gift. He  took no more notice of the
+matter until nightfall, when he sent for Sorianus, and inquired where the
+purple actually was produced.</p>
+
+<p>"In the uttermost parts of India," returned the philosopher.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," rejoined Aurelian, summing up the matter with his accustomed
+rapidity and clearness of head, "either thou or the Persian king has lied
+to me, it is plain, and, by the favour of the Gods, it is immaterial which,
+seeing that my ground for going to war with him is equally good in either
+case. If he has sought to deceive me, I am right in punishing him; if he
+possesses what I lack, I am justified in taking it away. It would, however,
+be convenient to know which of these grounds to inscribe in my manifesto;
+moreover, I am not ready for hostilities at present; having first to
+extirpate the Blemmyes, Carpi, and other barbarian vermin. I will therefore
+despatch thee to India to ascertain by personal examination the truth about
+the purple. Do not return without it, or I shall cut off thy head. My
+treasury will charge itself with the administration of thy property during
+thy absence. The robe shall meanwhile be deposited in the temple of Jupiter
+Capitolinus. May he have it and thee in his holy keeping!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus, in that age of darkness, were two most eminent philosophers
+reduced to beggary, and constrained to wander in remote and insalubrious
+regions; the one for advising a king, the other for instructing an emperor.
+But the matter did not rest here. For Aurelian, having continued the
+visible deity of half the world for one hundred and fifty days after the
+departure of Sorianus, was  slain by his own generals. To him succeeded
+Tacitus, who sank oppressed by the weight of rule; to him Probus, who
+perished in a military tumult; to him Carus, who was killed by lightning;
+to him Carinus, who was assassinated by one whom he had wronged; to him
+Diocletian, who, having maintained himself for twenty years, wisely forbore
+to tempt Nemesis further, and retired to plant cabbages at Salona. All
+these sovereigns, differing from each other in every other respect, agreed
+in a common desire to possess the purple dye, and when the philosopher
+returned not, successively despatched new emissaries in quest of it.
+Strange was the diversity of fate which befell these envoys. Some fell into
+the jaws of lions, some were crushed by monstrous serpents, some trampled
+by elephants at the command of native princes, some perished of hunger, and
+some of thirst; some, encountering smooth-browed and dark-tressed girls
+wreathing their hair with the champak blossom or bathing by moonlight in
+lotus-mantled tanks, forsook their quest, and led thenceforth idyllic lives
+in groves of banian and of palm. Some became enamoured of the principles of
+the Gymnosophists, some couched themselves for uneasy slumber upon beds of
+spikes, weening to wake in the twenty-second heaven. All which romantic
+variety of fortune was the work of a diminutive insect that crawled or
+clung heedless of the purple it was weaving into the many-coloured web of
+human life.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>Some thirty years after the departure of the Persian embassy to
+Aurelian, two travellers met at the bottom of a dell in trans-Gangetic
+India, having descended the hill-brow by opposite paths. It was early
+morning; the sun had not yet surmounted the timbered and tangled sides of
+the little valley, so that the bottom still lay steeped in shadow, and
+glittering with large pearls of limpid dew, while the oval space of sky
+circumscribed by the summit glowed with the delicate splendour of the
+purest sapphire. Songs of birds resounded through the brake, and the water
+lilies which veiled the rivulet trickling through the depths of the retreat
+were unexpanded still. One of the wayfarers was aged, the other a man of
+the latest period of middle life. Their raiment was scanty and soiled;
+their frames and countenances alike bespoke fatigue and hardship; but while
+the elder one moved with moderate alacrity, the other shuffled painfully
+along by the help of a staff, shrinking every time that he placed either of
+his feet on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>They exchanged looks and greetings as they encountered, and the more
+active of the two, whose face was set in an easterly direction, ventured a
+compassionate allusion to the other's apparent distress.</p>
+
+<p>'I but suffer from the usual effects of crucifixion,' returned the
+other; and removing his sandals, displayed two wounds, completely
+penetrating each foot.</p>
+
+<p>The Cross had not yet announced victory to Constantine, and was as yet
+no passport to respectable society. The first traveller drew back hastily,
+and regarded his companion with surprise and suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>"I see what is passing in thy mind," resumed the latter, with a smile;
+"but be under no apprehension. I have not undergone the censure of any
+judicial tribunal. My crucifixion was merely a painful but necessary
+incident in my laudable enterprise of obtaining the marvellous purple dye,
+to which end I was despatched unto these regions by the Emperor
+Aurelian."</p>
+
+<p>"The purple dye!" exclaimed the Persian, for it was he. "Thou hast
+obtained it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have. It is the product of insects found only in a certain valley
+eastward from hence, to obtain access to which it is before all things
+needful to elude the vigilance of seven dragons."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou didst elude them? and afterwards?" inquired Marcobad, with
+eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"Afterwards," repeated Sorianus, "I made my way into the valley, where I
+descried the remains of my immediate predecessor prefixed to a cross."</p>
+
+<p>"Thy predecessor?"</p>
+
+<p>"He who had last made the attempt before me. Upon any one's penetrating
+the Valley of Purple, as it is termed, with the design I have indicated,
+the inhabitants, observant of the precepts of their ancestors, append him
+to a cross by the feet only, confining his arms by ropes at the shoulders,
+and setting vessels of cooling drink within his grasp. If, overcome with
+thirst, he partakes of the beverage, they leave him to expire at leisure;
+if he endures for three days, he is permitted to depart  with the object of
+his quest. My predecessor, belonging, as I conjecture, to the Epicurean
+persuasion, and consequently unable to resist the allurements of sense, had
+perished in the manner aforesaid. I, a Stoic, refrained and attained."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou didst bear away the tincture? thou hast it now?" impetuously
+interrogated the Persian.</p>
+
+<p>"Behold it!" replied the Greek, exhibiting a small flask filled with the
+most gorgeous purple liquid. "What seest thou here?" demanded he
+triumphantly, holding it up to the light. "To me this vial displays the
+University of Athens, and throngs of fair youths hearkening to the
+discourse of one who resembles myself."</p>
+
+<p>"To my vision," responded the Persian, peering at the vial, "it rather
+reveals a palace, and a dress of honour. But suffer me to contemplate it
+more closely, for my eyes have waxed dim by over application to study."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he snatched the flask from Sorianus, and immediately turned
+to fly. The Greek sprang after his treasure, and failing to grasp
+Marcobad's wrist, seized his beard, plucking the hair out by handfuls. The
+infuriated Persian smote him on the head with the crystal flagon. It burst
+into shivers, and the priceless contents gushed forth in a torrent over the
+uncovered head and uplifted visage of Sorianus, bathing every hair and
+feature with the most vivid purple.</p>
+
+<p>The aghast and thunderstricken philosophers remained gazing at each
+other for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"It is indelible!" cried Sorianus in distraction, rushing down, however,
+to the brink of the little stream, and plunging his head beneath the
+waters.  They carried away a cloud of purple, but left the purple head
+stained as before.</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher, as he upraised his glowing and dripping countenance
+from the brook, resembled Silenus emerging from one of the rivers which
+Bacchus metamorphosed into wine during his campaign in India. He resorted
+to attrition and contrition, to maceration and laceration; he tried
+friction with leaves, with grass, with sedge, with his garments; he
+regarded himself in one crystal pool after another, a grotesque
+anti-Narcissus. At last he flung himself on the earth, and gave free course
+to his anguish.</p>
+
+<p>The grace of repentance is rarely denied us when our misdeeds have
+proved unprofitable. Marcobad awkwardly approached.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother," he whispered, "I will restore the tincture of which I have
+deprived thee, and add thereto an antidote, if such may be found. Await my
+return under this camphor tree."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he hastened up the path by which Sorianus had descended, and
+was speedily out of sight.</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>Sorianus tarried long under the camphor tree, but at last, becoming
+weary, resumed his travels, until emerging from the wilderness he entered
+the dominions of the King of Ayodhya. His extraordinary appearance speedily
+attracted the attention of the royal officers, by whom he was apprehended
+and brought before his majesty.</p>
+
+<p>"It is evident," pronounced the monarch, after  bestowing his attention
+on the case, "that thou art in possession of an object too rare and
+precious for a private individual, of which thou must accordingly be
+deprived. I lament the inconvenience thou wilt sustain. I would it had been
+thy hand or thy foot."</p>
+
+<p>Sorianus acknowledged the royal considerateness, but pleaded the
+indefeasible right of property which he conceived himself to have acquired
+in his own head.</p>
+
+<p>"In respect," responded the royal logician, "that thy head is conjoined
+to thy shoulders, it is thine; but in respect that it is purple, it is
+mine, purple being a royal monopoly. Thy claim is founded on anatomy, mine
+on jurisprudence. Shall matter prevail over mind? Shall medicine, the most
+uncertain of sciences, override law, the perfection of human reason? It is
+but to the vulgar observation that thou appearest to have a head at all; in
+the eye of the law thou art acephalous."</p>
+
+<p>"I would submit," urged the philosopher, "that the corporal connection
+of my head with my body is an essential property, the colour of it a
+fortuitous accident."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou mightest as well contend," returned the king, "that the law is
+bound to regard thee in thy abstract condition as a human being, and is
+disabled from taking cognisance of thy acquired capacity of
+smuggler&mdash;rebel, I might say, seeing that thou hast assumed the
+purple."</p>
+
+<p>"But the imputation of cruelty which might attach to your majesty's
+proceedings?"</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no cruelty where there is no injustice. If any there be,
+it must be on thy  part, since, as I have demonstrated, so far from my
+despoiling thee of thy head, it is thou who iniquitously withholdest mine.
+I will labour to render this even clearer to thy apprehension. Thou art
+found, as thou must needs admit, in possession of a contraband article
+forfeit to the crown by operation of law. What then? Shall the intention of
+the legislature be frustrated because thou hast insidiously rendered the
+possession of <i>my</i> property inseparable from the possession of
+<i>thine</i>? Shall I, an innocent proprietor, be mulcted of my right by
+thy fraud and covin? Justice howls, righteousness weeps, integrity stands
+aghast at the bare notion. No, friend, thy head has not a leg to stand on.
+Wouldst thou retain it, it behoves thee to show that it will be more
+serviceable to the owner, namely, myself, upon thy shoulders than
+elsewhere. This may well be. Hast thou peradventure any subtleties in
+perfumery? any secrets in confectionery? any skill in the preparation of
+soup?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have condescended to none of these frivolities, O king. My study hath
+ever consisted in divine philosophy, whereby men are rendered equal to the
+gods."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet long most of all for purple!" retorted the monarch, "as I
+conclude from perceiving thou hast after all preferred the latter. Thy head
+must indeed be worth the taking."</p>
+
+<p>"Thy taunt is merited, O king! I will importune thee no longer. Thou
+wilt indeed render me a service in depriving me of this wretched head,
+hideous without, and I must fear, empty within, seeing that it hath not
+prevented me from wasting my life in the service of vanity and luxury. Woe
+to the sage who trusts his infirm wisdom and frail integrity within the
+precincts of a court! Yet can I foretell a time when philosophers shall no
+longer run on the futile and selfish errands of kings, and when kings shall
+be suffered to rule only so far as they obey the bidding of philosophers.
+Peace, Knowledge, Liberty&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The King of Ayodhya possessed, beyond all princes of his age, the art of
+gracefully interrupting an unseasonable discourse. He slightly signed to a
+courtier in attendance, a scimitar flashed for a moment from its scabbard,
+and the head of Sorianus rolled on the pavement; the lips murmuring as
+though still striving to dwell with inarticulate fondness upon the last
+word of hope for mankind.</p>
+
+<p>It soon appeared that the principle of life was essential to the
+resplendence of the Purple Head. Within a few minutes it had assumed so
+ghastly a hue that the Rajah himself was intimidated, and directed that it
+should be consumed with the body.</p>
+
+<p>The same full-moon that watched the white-robed throng busied with the
+rites of incremation in a grove of palms, beheld also the seven dragons
+contending for the body of Marcobad. But, for many a year, the maids and
+matrons of Rome were not weary of regarding, extolling, and coveting the
+priceless purple tissue that glowed in the fane of Jupiter Capitolinus.</p>
+<a id="p238"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE FIREFLY</h2>
+
+<p>A certain Magician had retired for the sake of study to a cottage in a
+forest. It was summer in a hot country. In the trees near the cottage dwelt
+a most beautiful Firefly. The light she bore with her was dazzling, yet
+soft and palpitating, as the evening star, and she seemed a single flash of
+fire as she shot in and out suddenly from under the screen of foliage, or
+like a lamp as she perched panting upon some leaf, or hung glowing from
+some bough; or like a wandering meteor as she eddied gleaming over the
+summits of the loftiest trees; as she often did, for she was an ambitious
+Firefly. She learned to know the Magician, and would sometimes alight and
+sit shining in his hair, or trail her lustre across his book as she crept
+over the pages. The Magician admired her above all things:</p>
+
+<p>"What eyes she would have if she were a woman!" thought he.</p>
+
+<p>Once he said aloud;</p>
+
+<p>"How happy you must be, you rare, beautiful, brilliant creature!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not happy," rejoined the Firefly; "what am I, after all, but a
+flying beetle with a candle in my tail? I wish I were a star."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said the Magician, and touched her with his wand, when she
+became a beautiful star in the twelfth degree of the sign Pisces.</p>
+
+<p>After some nights the Magician asked her if she was content.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not," replied she. "When I was a Firefly I could fly whither I
+would, and come and go as I pleased. Now I must rise and set at certain
+times, and shine just so long and no longer. I cannot fly at all, and only
+creep slowly across the sky. In the day I cannot shine, or if I do no one
+sees me. I am often darkened by rain, and mist, and cloud. Even when I
+shine my brightest I am less admired than when I was a Firefly, there are
+so many others like me. I see, indeed, people looking up from the earth by
+night towards me, but how do I know that they are looking at me?"</p>
+
+<p>"The laws of nature will have it so," returned the Magician.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk to me of the laws of Nature," rejoined the Firefly. "I did
+not make them, and I don't see why I should be compelled to obey them. Make
+me something else."</p>
+
+<p>"What would you be?" demanded the accommodating Magician.</p>
+
+<p>"As I creep along here," replied the Star, "I see such a soft pure track
+of light. It proceeds from the lamp in your study. It flows out of your
+window like a river of molten silver, both cool and warm. Let me be such a
+lamp."</p>
+
+<p>"Be it so," answered the Magician: and the star became a lovely
+alabaster lamp, set in an alcove in his study. Her chaste radiance was shed
+over his page as long as he continued to read. At a certain hour he
+extinguished her and retired to rest.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning the Lamp was in a terrible humour.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't choose to be blown out," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"You would have gone out of your own accord else," returned the
+Magician.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed the Lamp, "am I not shining by my own light?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not: you are not now a Firefly or a Star. You must now depend
+upon others. You would be dark for ever if I did not rekindle you by the
+help of this oil."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried the Lamp, "not shine of my own accord! Never! Make me an
+everlasting lamp, or I will not be one at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, poor friend," returned the Magician sadly, "there is but one
+place where aught is everlasting. I can make thee a lamp of the
+sepulchre."</p>
+
+<p>"Content," responded the Lamp. And the Magician made her one of those
+strange occult lamps which men find ever and anon when they unseal the
+tombs of ancient kings and wizards, sustaining without nutriment a
+perpetual flame. And he bore her to a sepulchre where a great king was
+lying embalmed and perfect in his golden raiment, and set her at the head
+of the corpse. And whether the poor fitful Firefly found at last rest in
+the grave, we may know when we come thither ourselves. But the Magician
+closed the gates of the sepulchre behind him, and walked thoughtfully home.
+And as he approached his cottage, behold another Firefly darting and
+flashing in and out among the trees, as brilliantly as ever the first had
+done. She was a wise Firefly, well satisfied with the world and everything
+in it, more particularly her own tail. And if the Magician would have made
+a pet of her no doubt she would have abode with him. But he never looked at
+her.</p> <a id="p241"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>PAN'S WAND</h2>
+
+<p>Iridion had broken her lily. A misfortune for any rustic nymph, but
+especially for her, since her life depended upon it.</p>
+
+<p>From her birth the fate of Iridion had been associated with that of a
+flower of unusual loveliness&mdash;a stately, candid lily, endowed with a
+charmed life, like its possessor. The seasons came and went without leaving
+a trace upon it; innocence and beauty seemed as enduring with it, as
+evanescent with the children of men. In equal though dissimilar loveliness
+its frolicsome young mistress nourished by its side. One thing alone, the
+oracle had declared, could prejudice either, and this was an accident to
+the flower. From such disaster it had long been shielded by the most
+delicate care; yet in the inscrutable counsels of the Gods, the dreaded
+calamity had at length come to pass. Broken through the upper part of the
+stem, the listless flower drooped its petals towards the earth, and seemed
+to mourn their chastity, already sullied by the wan flaccidity of decay.
+Not one had fallen as yet, and Iridion felt no pain or any symptom of
+approaching dissolution, except, it may be, the unwonted seriousness with
+which, having exhausted all her simple skill on behalf of the languishing
+plant, she sat down to consider its fate in the light of its bearing upon
+her own.</p>
+
+<p>Meditation upon an utterly vague subject, whether of apprehension or of
+hope, speedily lapses into reverie. To Iridion, Death was as indefinable an
+object of thought as the twin omnipotent controller of human destiny, Love.
+Love, like the immature fruit on the bough, hung unsoliciting and
+unsolicited as yet, but slowly ripening to the maiden's hand. Death, a
+vague film in an illimitable sky, tempered without obscuring the sunshine
+of her life. Confronted with it suddenly, she found it, in truth, an
+impalpable cloud, and herself as little competent as the gravest
+philosopher to answer the self-suggested inquiry, "What shall I be when I
+am no longer Iridion?" Superstition might have helped her to some definite
+conceptions, but superstition did not exist in her time. Judge, reader, of
+its remoteness.</p>
+
+<p>The maiden's reverie might have terminated only with her existence, but
+for the salutary law which prohibits a young girl, not in love or at
+school, from sitting still more than ten minutes. As she shifted her seat
+at the expiration of something like this period, she perceived that she had
+been sitting on a goatskin, and with a natural association of
+ideas&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will ask Pan," she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Pan at that time inhabited a cavern hard by the maiden's dwelling, which
+the judicious reader will have divined could only have been situated in
+Arcadia. The honest god was on excellent terms with the simple people; his
+goats browsed freely along with theirs, and the most melodious of the
+rustic minstrels attributed their proficiency to his instructions. The
+maidens were on a more reserved footing of intimacy&mdash;at least so they
+wished  it to be understood, and so it was understood, of course. Iridion,
+however, decided that the occasion would warrant her incurring the risk
+even of a kiss, and lost no time in setting forth upon her errand, carrying
+her poor broken flower in its earthen vase. It was the time of day when the
+god might be supposed to be arousing himself from his afternoon's siesta.
+She did not fear that his door would be closed against her, for he had no
+door.</p>
+
+<p>The sylvan deity stood, in fact, at the entrance of his cavern, about to
+proceed in quest of his goats. The appearance of Iridion operated a change
+in his intention, and he courteously escorted her to a seat of turf erected
+for the special accommodation of his fair visitors, while he placed for
+himself one of stone.</p>
+
+<p>"Pan," she began, "I have broken my lily."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a sad pity, child. If it had been a reed, now, you could have
+made a flute of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have time, Pan," and she recounted her story. A godlike
+nature cannot confound truth with falsehood, though it may mistake
+falsehood for truth. Pan therefore never doubted Iridion's strange
+narrative, and, having heard it to the end, observed, "You will find plenty
+more lilies in Elysium."</p>
+
+<p>"Common lilies, Pan; not like mine."</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong. The lilies of Elysium&mdash;asphodels as they call them
+there&mdash;are as immortal as the Elysians themselves. I have seen them in
+Proserpine's hair at Jupiter's entertainment; they were as fresh as she
+was. There is no doubt you might gather them by handfuls&mdash;at least if
+you had any hands&mdash;and wear them to your heart's content, if you had
+but a heart."</p>
+
+<p>"That's just what perplexes me, Pan. It is not the dying I mind, it's
+the living. How am I to live without anything alive about me? If you take
+away my hands, and my heart, and my brains, and my eyes, and my ears, and
+above all my tongue, what is left me to live in Elysium?"</p>
+
+<p>As the maiden spake a petal detached itself from the emaciated lily, and
+she pressed her hand to her brow with a responsive cry of pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor child!" said Pan compassionately, "you will feel no more pain
+by-and-by."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not, Pan, since you say so. But if I can feel no pain, how
+can I feel any pleasure?</p>
+
+<p>"In an incomprehensible manner," said Pan.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I feel, if I have no feeling? and what am I to do without
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can think!" replied Pan. "Thinking (not that I am greatly given to
+it myself) is a much finer thing than feeling; no right-minded person
+doubts that. Feeling, as I have heard Minerva say, is a property of matter,
+and matter, except, of course, that appertaining to myself and the other
+happy gods, is vile and perishable&mdash;quite immaterial, in fact. Thought
+alone is transcendent, incorruptible, and undying!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Pan, how can any one think thoughts without something to think
+them with? I never thought of anything that I have not seen, or touched, or
+smelt, or tasted, or heard about from some one else. If I think with
+nothing, and about nothing, is that thinking, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think," answered Pan evasively, "that you are a sensationalist, a
+materialist, a sceptic, a revolutionist; and if you had not sought the
+assistance of a god, I should have said not much  better than an atheist. I
+also think it is time I thought about some physic for you instead of
+metaphysics, which are bad for my head, and for your soul." Saying this,
+Pan, with rough tenderness, deposited the almost fainting maiden upon a
+couch of fern, and, having supported her head with a bundle of herbs,
+leaned his own upon his hand, and reflected with all his might. The
+declining sun was now nearly opposite the cavern's mouth, and his rays,
+straggling through the creepers that wove their intricacies over the
+entrance, chequered with lustrous patches the forms of the dying girl and
+the meditating god. Ever and anon, a petal would drop from the flower; this
+was always succeeded by a shuddering tremor throughout Iridion's frame and
+a more forlorn expression on her pallid countenance: while Pan's jovial
+features assumed an expression of deeper concern as he pressed his knotty
+hand more resolutely against his shaggy forehead, and wrung his dexter horn
+with a more determined grasp, as though he had caught a burrowing idea by
+the tail.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" he suddenly exclaimed, "I have it!"</p>
+
+<p>"What have you, Pan?" faintly lisped the expiring Iridion.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of replying, Pan grasped a wand that leaned against the wall of
+his grot, and with it touched the maiden and the flower. O strange
+metamorphosis! Where the latter had been pining in its vase, a lovely girl,
+the image of Iridion, lay along the ground with dishevelled hair, clammy
+brow, and features slightly distorted by the last struggles of death. On
+the ferny couch stood an earthen vase, from which rose a magnificent  lily,
+stately, with unfractured stem, and with no stain or wrinkle on its
+numerous petals.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" repeated Pan; "I think we are ready for him now." Then, having
+lifted the inanimate body to the couch, and placed the vase, with its
+contents, on the floor of his cavern, he stepped to the entrance, and
+shading his eyes with his hand, seemed to gaze abroad in quest of some
+anticipated visitor.</p>
+
+<p>The boughs at the foot of the steep path to the cave divided, and a
+figure appeared at the foot of the rock. The stranger's mien was majestic,
+but the fitness of his proportions diminished his really colossal stature
+to something more nearly the measure of mortality. His form was enveloped
+in a sweeping sad-coloured robe; a light, thin veil resting on his
+countenance, mitigated, without concealing, the not ungentle austerity of
+his marble features. His gait was remarkable; nothing could be more remote
+from every indication of haste, yet such was the actual celerity of his
+progression, that Pan had scarcely beheld him ere he started to find him
+already at his side.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger, without disturbing his veil, seemed to comprehend the
+whole interior of the grotto with a glance; then, with the slightest
+gesture of recognition to Pan, he glided to the couch on which lay the
+metamorphosed lily, upraised the fictitious Iridion in his arms with
+indescribable gentleness, and disappeared with her as swiftly and silently
+as he had come. The discreet Pan struggled with suppressed merriment until
+the stranger was fairly out of hearing, then threw himself back upon his
+seat and laughed till the cave rang.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," he said, "to finish the business." He lifted the transformed
+maiden into the vase, and caressed her beauty with an exulting but careful
+hand. There was a glory and a splendour in the flower such as had never
+until then been beheld in any earthly lily. The stem vibrated, the leaves
+shook in unison, the petals panted and suspired, and seemed blanched with a
+whiteness intense as the core of sunlight, as they throbbed in anticipation
+of the richer existence awaiting them.</p>
+
+<p>Impatient to complete his task, Pan was about to grasp his wand when the
+motion was arrested as the sinking beam of the sun was intercepted by a
+gigantic shadow, and the stranger again stood by his side. The unbidden
+guest uttered no word, but his manner was sufficiently expressive of wrath
+as he disdainfully cast on the ground a broken, withered lily, the relic of
+what had bloomed with such loveliness in the morning, and had since for a
+brief space been arrayed in the vesture of humanity. He pointed imperiously
+to the gorgeous tenant of the vase, and seemed to expect Pan to deliver it
+forthwith.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," said Pan, with more decision than dignity, "I am a poor
+country god, but I know the law. If you can find on this plant one speck,
+one stain, one token that you have anything to do with her, take her, and
+welcome. If you cannot, take yourself off instead."</p>
+
+<p>"Be it so," returned the stranger, haughtily declining the proffered
+inspection. "You will find it is ill joking with Death."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he quitted the cavern.</p>
+
+<p>Pan sat down chuckling, yet not wholly at ease, for if the charity of
+Death is beautiful even to a  mortal, his anger is terrible, even to a god.
+Anxious to terminate the adventure, he reached towards the charmed wand by
+whose wonderful instrumentality the dying maiden had already become a
+living flower, and was now to undergo a yet more delightful
+metamorphosis.</p>
+
+<p>Wondrous wand! But where was it? For Death, the great transfigurer of
+all below this lunar sphere, had given Pan a characteristic proof of his
+superior cunning. Where the wand had reposed writhed a ghastly worm, which,
+as Pan's glance fell upon it, glided towards him, uplifting its head with
+an aspect of defiance. Pan's immortal nature sickened at the emblem of
+corruption; he could not for all Olympus have touched his metamorphosed
+treasure. As he shrank back the creature pursued its way towards the vase;
+but a marvellous change befell it as it came under the shadow of the
+flower. The writhing body divided, end from end, the sordid scales sank
+indiscernibly into the dust, and an exquisite butterfly, arising from the
+ground, alighted on the lily, and remained for a moment fanning its wings
+in the last sunbeam, ere it unclosed them to the evening breeze. Pan,
+looking eagerly after the Psyche in its flight, did not perceive what was
+taking place in the cavern; but the magic wand, now for ever lost to its
+possessor, must have cancelled its own spell, for when his gaze reverted
+from the ineffectual pursuit, the living lily had disappeared, and Iridion
+lay a corpse upon the ground, the faded flower of her destiny reposing upon
+her breast.</p>
+
+<p>Death now stood for a third time upon Pan's threshold, but Pan heeded
+him not.</p> <a id="p249"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF FOLLY</h2>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;"That owned the virtuous ring and glass." &mdash;<i>Il
+Penseroso</i>.
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>"Aurelia!"</p>
+
+<p>"Otto!"</p>
+
+<p>"Must we then part?"</p>
+
+<p>They were folded in each other's arms. There never was such kissing.</p>
+
+<p>"How shall we henceforth exchange the sweet tokens of our undying
+affection, my Otto?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, my Aurelia, I know not! Thy Otto blushes to acquaint thee that he
+cannot write."</p>
+
+<p>"Blush not, my Otto, thou needest not reproach thyself. Even couldest
+thou write, thy Aurelia could not read. Oh these dark ages!"</p>
+
+<p>They remained some minutes gazing on each other with an expression of
+fond perplexity. Suddenly the damsel's features assumed the aspect of one
+who experiences the visitation of a happy thought. Gently yet decidedly she
+pronounced:</p>
+
+<p>"We will exchange rings."</p>
+
+<p>They drew off their rings simultaneously. "This, Aurelia, was my grandfather's."</p>
+
+<p>"This, Otto, was my grandmother's, which she charged me with her dying
+breath never to part with save to him whom alone I loved."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine is a brilliant, more radiant than aught save the eyes of my
+Aurelia."</p>
+
+<p>And, in fact, Aurelia's eyes hardly sustained the comparison. A finer
+stone could not easily be found.</p>
+
+<p>"Mine is a sapphire, azure as the everlasting heavens, and type of a
+constancy enduring as they."</p>
+
+<p>In truth, it was of a tint seldom to be met with in sapphires.</p>
+
+<p>The exchange made, the lady seemed less anxious to detain her lover.</p>
+
+<p>"Beware, Otto!" she cried, as he slid down the cord, which yielded him
+an oscillatory transit from her casement to the moat, where he alighted
+knee-deep in mud. "Beware!&mdash;if my brother should be gazing from his
+chamber on the resplendent moon!"</p>
+
+<p>But that ferocious young baron was accustomed to spend his time in a
+less romantic manner; and so it came to pass that Otto encountered him
+not.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>Days, weeks, months had passed by, and Otto, a wanderer in a foreign
+land, had heard no tidings of his Aurelia. Ye who have loved may well
+conceive how her ring was all in all to him. He divided his time pretty
+equally between gazing into its cerulean depths, as though her lovely
+image were mirrored therein, and pressing its chilly surface to his lips,
+little as it recalled the warmth and balminess of hers.</p>
+
+<p>The burnished glow of gold, the chaste sheen of silver, the dance and
+sparkle of light in multitudinous gems, arrested his attention as he one
+evening perambulated the streets of a great city. He beheld a jeweller's
+shop. The grey-headed, spectacled lapidary sat at a bench within,
+sedulously polishing a streaked pebble by the light of a small lamp. A
+sudden thought struck Otto; he entered the shop, and, presenting the ring
+to the jeweller, inquired in a tone of suppressed exultation:</p>
+
+<p>"What hold you for the worth of this inestimable ring?"</p>
+
+<p>The jeweller, with no expression of surprise or curiosity, received the
+ring from Otto, held it to the light, glanced slightly at the stone,
+somewhat more carefully at the setting, laid the ring for a moment in a
+pair of light scales, and, handing it back to Otto, remarked with a tone
+and manner of the most entire indifference:</p>
+
+<p>"The worth of this inestimable ring is one shilling and sixpence."</p>
+
+<p>"Caitiff of a huckster!" exclaimed Otto, bringing down his fist on the
+bench with such vigour that the pebbles leaped up and fell rattling down:
+"Sayest thou this of a gem framed by genii in the bowels of the earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, friend," returned the jeweller with the same imperturbable air,
+"that thy gem was framed of earth I in nowise question, seeing that it doth
+principally consist of sand. But when thou speakest of genii and the bowels
+of the earth,  thou wilt not, I hope, take it amiss if I crave better proof
+than thy word that the devil has taken to glass-making. For glass, and
+nothing else, credit me, thy jewel is."</p>
+
+<p>"And the gold?" gasped Otto.</p>
+
+<p>"There is just as much gold in thy ring as sufficeth to gild handsomely
+a like superficies of brass, which is not saying much."</p>
+
+<p>And, applying a sponge dipped in some liquid to a small part of the
+hoop, the jeweller disclosed the dull hue of the baser metal so evidently
+that Otto could hardly doubt longer. He doubted no more when the lapidary
+laid his ring in the scales against another of the same size and make, and
+pointed to the inequality of the balance.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou seest," he continued, "that in our craft a very little gold goes a
+very great way. It is far otherwise in the world, as thou, albeit in no
+sort eminent for sapience, hast doubtless ere this ascertained for thyself.
+Thou art evidently a prodigious fool!"</p>
+
+<p>This latter disparaging observation could be safely ventured upon, as
+Otto had rushed from the shop, speechless with rage.</p>
+
+<p>Was Aurelia deceiver or deceived? Should he execrate her, or her
+venerable grandmother, or some unknown person? The point was too knotty to
+be solved in the agitated state of his feelings. He decided it
+provisionally by execrating the entire human race, not forgetting
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>In a mood like Otto's a trifling circumstance is sufficient to determine
+the quality of action. The ancient city of which he was at the time an
+inhabitant was traversed by a large river spanned by a quaint and
+many-arched bridge, to which  his frantic and aimless wanderings had
+conducted him. Spires and gables and lengthy fa&ccedil;ades were reflected
+in the water, blended with the shadows of boats, and interspersed with the
+mirrored flames of innumerable windows on land, or of lanterns suspended
+from the masts or sterns of the vessels. The dancing ripples bickered and
+flickered, and seemed to say, "Come hither to us," while the dark reaches
+of still water in the shadow of the piers promised that whatever might be
+entrusted to them should be faithfully retained. Swayed by a sudden
+impulse, Otto drew his ring from his finger. It gleamed an instant aloft in
+air; in another the relaxation of his grasp would have consigned it to the
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>"Forbear!"</p>
+
+<p>Otto turned, and perceived a singular figure by his side. The stranger
+was tall and thin, and attired in a dusky cloak which only partially
+concealed a flame-coloured jerkin. A cock's feather peaked up in his cap;
+his eyes were piercingly brilliant; his nose was aquiline; the expression
+of his features sinister and sardonic. Had Otto been more observant, or
+less preoccupied, he might have noticed that the stranger's left shoe was
+of a peculiar form, and that he limped some little with the corresponding
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Forbear, I say; thou knowest not what thou doest."</p>
+
+<p>"And what skills what I do with a piece of common glass?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou errest, friend; thy ring is not common glass. Had thy mistress
+surmised its mystic virtues, she would have thought oftener than twice ere
+exchanging it for thy diamond."</p>
+
+<p>"What may these virtues be?" eagerly demanded Otto.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, it will show thee when thy mistress may chance to
+think of thee, as it will then prick thy finger."</p>
+
+<p>"Now I know thee for a lying knave," exclaimed the youth indignantly.
+"Learn, to thy confusion, that it hath not pricked me once since I parted
+from Aurelia."</p>
+
+<p>"Which proves that she has never once thought of thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Villain!" shouted Otto, "say that again, and I will transfix thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou mayest if thou canst," rejoined the stranger, with an expression
+of such cutting scorn that Otto's spirit quailed, and he felt a secret but
+overpowering conviction of his interlocutor's veracity. Rallying, however,
+in some measure, he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Aurelia is true! I will wager my soul upon it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Done!" screamed the stranger in a strident voice of triumph, while a
+burst of diabolical laughter seemed to proceed from every cranny of the
+eaves and piers of the old bridge, and to be taken up by goblin echoes from
+the summits of the adjacent towers and steeples.</p>
+
+<p>Otto's blood ran chill, but he mustered sufficient courage to inquire
+hoarsely:</p>
+
+<p>"What of its further virtues?"</p>
+
+<p>"When it shall have pricked thee," returned the mysterious personage,
+"on turning it once completely round thy finger thou wilt see thy mistress
+wherever she may be. If thou turnest it the second time, thou wilt know
+what her  thought of thee is; and, if the third time, thou wilt find
+thyself in her presence. But I give thee fair warning that by doing this
+thou wilt place thyself in a more disastrous plight than any thou hast
+experienced hitherto. And now farewell."</p>
+
+<p>The speaker disappeared. Otto stood alone upon the bridge. He saw
+nothing around him but the stream, with its shadows and lights, as he
+slowly and thoughtfully turned round to walk to his lodgings.</p>
+
+<h3>III</h3>
+
+<p>Ye who have loved, et cetera, as aforesaid, will comprehend the anxiety
+with which Otto henceforth consulted his ring. He was continually adjusting
+it to his finger in a manner, as he fancied, to render the anticipated
+puncture more perceptible when it should come at last. He would have worn
+it on all his fingers in succession had the conformation of his robust hand
+admitted of its being placed on any but the slenderest. Thousands of times
+he could have sworn that he felt the admonitory sting; thousands of times
+he turned the trinket round and round with desperate impatience; but
+Aurelia's form remained as invisible, her thoughts as inscrutable, as
+before. His great dread was that he might be pricked in his sleep, on which
+account he would sit up watching far into the morn. For, as he reasoned,
+not without plausibility, when could he more rationally hope for a place in
+Aurelia's thoughts than at that witching and  suggestive period? She might
+surely think of him when she had nothing else to do! Had she really nothing
+else to do? And Otto grew sick and livid with jealousy. It of course
+frequently occurred to him to doubt and deride the virtues of the ring, and
+he was several times upon the point of flinging it away. But the more he
+pondered upon the appearance and manner of the stranger, the less able he
+felt to resist the conviction of his truthfulness.</p>
+
+<p>At last a most unmistakable puncture! the distinct, though slight, pang
+of a miniature wound. A crimson bead of blood rose on Otto's finger,
+swelled to its due proportion, and became a trickling blot.</p>
+
+<p>"She is thinking of me!" cried he rapturously, as if this were an
+instance of the most signal and unforeseen condescension. All the weary
+expectancy of the last six months was forgotten. He would have railed at
+himself had the bliss of the moment allowed him to remember that he had
+ever railed at her.</p>
+
+<p>Otto turned his ring once, and Aurelia became visible in an instant. She
+was standing before the mercer's booth in the chief street of the little
+town which adjoined her father's castle. Her gaze was riveted on a silk
+mantle, trimmed with costly furs, which depended from a hook inside the
+doorway. Her lovely features wore an expression of extreme dissatisfaction.
+She was replacing a purse, apparently by no means weighty, in her
+embroidered girdle.</p>
+
+<p>Otto turned the ring the second time, and Aurelia's silvery accents
+immediately became audible to the following effect:</p>
+
+<p>"If that fool Otto were here, he would buy it for me."</p>
+
+<p>She turned away, and walked down the street. Otto uttered a cry like the
+shriek of an uprooted mandrake. His hand was upon the ring to turn it for
+the third time; but the stranger's warning occurred to him, and for a
+moment he forbore. In that moment the entire vision vanished from before
+his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>What boots it to describe Otto's feelings upon this revelation of
+Aurelia's sentiments? For lovers, description would be needless; to wiser
+people, incomprehensible. Suffice it to say, that as his lady deemed him a
+fool he appeared bent on proving that she did not deem amiss.</p>
+
+<p>A long space of time elapsed without any further admonition from the
+ring. Perhaps Aurelia had no further occasion for his purse; perhaps she
+had found another pursebearer. The latter view of the case appeared the
+more plausible to Otto, and it hugely aggravated his torments.</p>
+
+<p>At last the moment came. It was the hour of midnight. Again Otto felt
+the sharp puncture, again the ruby drop started from his finger, again he
+turned the ring, and again beheld Aurelia. She was in her chamber, but not
+alone. Her companion was a youth of Otto's age. She was in the act of
+placing Otto's brilliant upon his finger. Otto turned his own ring, and
+heard her utter, with singular distinctness:</p>
+
+<p>"This ring was given me by the greatest fool I ever knew. Little did he
+imagine that it would one day be the means of procuring me liberty, and
+bliss in the arms of my Arnold. My venerable grandmother&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The voice expired upon her lips, for Otto stood before her.</p>
+
+<p>Arnold precipitated himself from the window, carrying the ring with him.
+Otto, glaring at his faithless mistress, stood in the middle of the
+apartment with his sword unsheathed. Was he about to use it? None can say;
+for at this moment the young Baron burst into the room, and, without the
+slightest apology for the liberty he was taking, passed his sword through
+Otto's body.</p>
+
+<p>Otto groaned, and fell upon his face. He was dead. The young Baron
+ungently reversed the position of the corpse, and scanned its features with
+evident surprise and dissatisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not Arnold, after all!" he muttered. "Who would have thought
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou seest, brother, how unjust were thy suspicions," observed Aurelia,
+with an air of injured but not implacable virtue. "As for this abominable
+ravisher&mdash;&mdash;" Her feelings forbade her to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>The brother looked mystified. There was something beyond his
+comprehension in the affair; yet he could not but acknowledge that Otto was
+the person who had rushed by him as he lay in wait upon the stairs. He
+finally determined that it was best to say nothing about the matter: a
+resolution the easier of performance as he was not wont to be lavish of his
+words at any time. He wiped his sword on his sister's curtains, and was
+about to withdraw, when Aurelia again spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Ere thou departest, brother, have the goodness to ring the bell, and
+desire the menials to remove this carrion from my apartment."</p>
+
+<p>The young Baron sulkily complied, and retreated growling to his
+chamber.</p>
+
+<p>The attendants carried Otto's body forth. To the honour of her sex be it
+recorded, that before this was done Aurelia vouchsafed one glance to the
+corpse of her old lover. Her eye fell on the brazen ring. "And he has
+actually worn it all this time!" thought she.</p>
+
+<p>"Would have outraged my daughter, would he?" said the old Baron, when
+the transaction was reported to him. "Let him be buried in a concatenation
+accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>"What the guy dickens be a concatrenation,  Geoffrey?" interrogated
+Giles.</p>
+
+<p>"Methinks it is Latin for a ditch," responded Geoffrey.</p>
+
+<p>This interpretation commending itself to the general judgment of the
+retainers, Otto was interred in the shelving bank of the old moat, just
+under Aurelia's window. A rough stone was laid upon the grave. The magic
+ring, which no one thought worth appropriating, remained upon the corpse's
+finger. Thou mayest probably find it there, reader, if thou searchest long
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>The first visitor to Otto's humble sepulchre was, after all, Aurelia
+herself, who alighted thereon on the following night after letting herself
+down from her casement to fly with Arnold. Their escape was successfully
+achieved upon a pair of excellent horses, the proceeds of Otto's diamond,
+which had become the property of a Jew.</p>
+
+<p>On the third night an aged monk stood by Otto's grave, and wept
+plentifully. He carried a lantern, a mallet, and a chisel. "He was my
+pupil," sobbed the good old man. "It were  meet to contribute what in me
+lies to the befitting perpetuation of his memory."</p>
+
+<p>Setting down the lantern, he commenced work, and with pious toil
+engraved on the stone in the Latin of the period:</p> <blockquote>
+<br>"HAC MAGNUS STULTUS JACET IN FOSSA SEPULTUS.
+<br>MULIER CUI CREDIDIT MORTUUM ILLUM REDDIDIT." </blockquote>
+
+<p>Here he paused, at the end of his strength and of his Latin.</p>
+
+<p>"Beshrew my old arms and brains!" he sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"Hem!" coughed a deep voice in his vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>The monk looked up. The personage in the dusky cloak and flame-coloured
+jerkin was standing over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Good monk," said the fiend, "what dost thou here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good fiend," said the monk, "I am inscribing an epitaph to the memory
+of a departed friend. Thou mightest kindly aid me to complete it."</p>
+
+<p>"Truly," rejoined the demon, "it would become me to do so, seeing that I
+have his soul here in my pocket. Thou wilt not expect me to employ the
+language of the Church. Nathless, I see not wherefore the vernacular may
+not serve as well."</p>
+
+<p>And, taking the mallet and chisel, he completed the monk's inscription
+with the supplementary legend:</p> <blockquote>"SERVED HIM
+RIGHT."</blockquote> <a id="p261"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE BELL OF SAINT EUSCHEMON</h2>
+
+<p>The town of Epinal, in Lorraine, possessed in the Middle Ages a peal of
+three bells, respectively dedicated to St. Eulogius, St. Eucherius, and St.
+Euschemon, whose tintinnabulation was found to be an effectual safeguard
+against all thunderstorms. Let the heavens be ever so murky, it was merely
+requisite to set the bells ringing, and no lightning flashed and no thunder
+peal broke over the town, nor was the neighbouring country within hearing
+of them ravaged by hail or flood.</p>
+
+<p>One day the three saints, Eulogius, Eucherius, and Euschemon, were
+sitting together, exceedingly well content with themselves and everything
+around them, as indeed they had every right to be, supposing that they were
+in Paradise. We say supposing, not being for our own part entirely able to
+reconcile this locality with the presence of certain cans and flagons,
+which had been fuller than they were.</p>
+
+<p>"What a happy reflection for a Saint," said Eulogius, who was rapidly
+passing from the mellow stage of good fellowship to the maudlin, "that even
+after his celestial assumption he is permitted to continue a source of
+blessing and benefit to his fellow-creatures as yet dwelling in  the shade
+of mortality! The thought of the services of my bell, in averting lightning
+and inundation from the good people of Epinal, fills me with indescribable
+beatitude."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Your</i> bell!" interposed Eucherius, whose path had lain through
+the mellow to the quarrelsome. "<i>Your</i> bell, quotha! You had as good
+clink this cannakin" (suiting the action to the word) "as your bell. It's
+my bell that does the business."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you might put in a word for <i>my</i> bell," interposed
+Euschemon, a little squinting saint, very merry and friendly when not put
+out, as on the present occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"Your bell!" retorted the big saints, with incredible disdain; and,
+forgetting their own altercation, they fell so fiercely on their little
+brother that he ran away, stopping his ears with his hands, and vowing
+vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>A short time after this fracas, a personage of venerable appearance
+presented himself at Epinal, and applied for the post of sacristan and
+bell-ringer, at that time vacant. Though he squinted, his appearance was
+far from disagreeable, and he obtained the appointment without difficulty.
+His deportment in it was in all respects edifying; or if he evinced some
+little remissness in the service of Saints Eulogius and Eucherius, this was
+more than compensated by his devotion to the hitherto somewhat slighted
+Saint Euschemon. It was indeed observed that candles, garlands, and other
+offerings made at the shrines of the two senior saints were found to be
+transferred in an unaccountable and mystical manner to the junior, which
+induced experienced persons to remark  that a miracle was certainly
+brewing. Nothing, however, occurred until, one hot summer afternoon, the
+indications of a storm became so threatening that the sacristan was
+directed to ring the bells. Scarcely had he begun than the sky became
+clear, but instead of the usual rich volume of sound the townsmen heard
+with astonishment a solitary tinkle, sounding quite ridiculous and
+unsatisfactory in comparison. St. Euschemon's bell was ringing by
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>In a trice priests and laymen swarmed to the belfry, and indignantly
+demanded of the sacristan what he meant.</p>
+
+<p>"To enlighten you," he responded. "To teach you to give honour where
+honour is due. To unmask those canonised impostors."</p>
+
+<p>And he called their attention to the fact that the clappers of the bells
+of Eulogius and Eucherius were so fastened up that they could not emit a
+sound, while that of Euschemon vibrated freely.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye see," he continued, "that these sound not at all, yet is the tempest
+stayed. Is it not thence manifest that the virtue resides solely in the
+bell of the blessed Euschemon?"</p>
+
+<p>The argument seemed conclusive to the majority, but those of the clergy
+who ministered at the altars of Eulogius and Eucherius stoutly resisted,
+maintaining that no just decision could be arrived at until Euschemon's
+bell was subjected to the same treatment as the others. Their view
+eventually prevailed, to the great dismay of Euschemon, who, although
+firmly convinced of the virtue of his own bell, did not in his heart
+disbelieve in the bells of his brethren. Imagine his relief and amazed joy
+when, upon his bell  being silenced, the storm, for the first time in the
+memory of the oldest inhabitant, broke with full fury over Epinal, and, for
+all the frantic pealing of the other two bells, raged with unspeakable
+fierceness until his own was brought into requisition, when, as if by
+enchantment, the rain ceased, the thunder-clouds dispersed, and the sun
+broke out gloriously from the blue sky.</p>
+
+<p>"Carry him in procession!" shouted the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"Amen, brethren; here I am," rejoined Euschemon, stepping briskly into
+the midst of the troop.</p>
+
+<p>"And why in the name of Zernebock should we carry <i>you?</i>" demanded
+some, while others ran off to lug forth the image, the object of their
+devotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, verily," Euschemon began, and stopped short. How indeed was he to
+prove to them that he <i>was</i> Euschemon? His personal resemblance to his
+effigy, the work of a sculptor of the idealistic school, was in no respect
+remarkable; and he felt, alas! that he could no more work a miracle than
+you or I. In the sight of the multitude he was only an elderly sexton with
+a cast in his eye, with nothing but his office to keep him out of the
+workhouse. A further and more awkward question arose, how on earth was he
+to get back to Paradise? The ordinary method was not available, for he had
+already been dead for several centuries; and no other presented itself to
+his imagination.</p>
+
+<p>Muttering apologies, and glad to be overlooked, Euschemon shrank into a
+corner, but slightly comforted by the honours his image was receiving  at
+the hands of the good people of Epinal. As time wore on he became pensive
+and restless, and nothing pleased him so well as to ascend to the belfry on
+moonlight nights, scribbling disparagement on the bells of Eulogius and
+Eucherius, which had ceased to be rung, and patting and caressing his own,
+which now did duty for all three. With alarm he noticed one night an
+incipient crack, which threatened to become a serious flaw.</p>
+
+<p>"If this goes on," said a voice behind him, "I shall get a holiday."</p>
+
+<p>Euschemon turned round, and with indescribable dismay perceived a
+gigantic demon, negligently resting his hand on the top of the bell, and
+looking as if it would cost him nothing to pitch it and Euschemon together
+to the other side of the town.</p>
+
+<p>"Avaunt, fiend," he stammered, with as much dignity as he could muster,
+"or at least remove thy unhallowed paw from my bell."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Eusky," replied the fiend, with profane familiarity, "don't be a
+fool. You are not really such an ass as to imagine that your virtue has
+anything to do with the virtue of this bell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whose virtue then?" demanded Euschemon.</p>
+
+<p>"Why truly," said the demon, "mine! When this bell was cast I was
+imprisoned in it by a potent enchanter, and so long as I am in it no storm
+can come within sound of its ringing. I am not allowed to quit it except by
+night, and then no further than an arm's length: this, however, I take the
+liberty of measuring by my own arm, which happens to be a long one. This
+must continue, as I learn, until I receive a kiss  from some bishop of
+distinguished sanctity. Thou hast done some bishoping in thy time,
+peradventure?"</p>
+
+<p>Euschemon energetically protested that he had been on earth but a simple
+laic, which was indeed the fact, and was also the reason why Eulogius and
+Eucherius despised him, but which, though he did not think it needful to
+tell the demon, he found a singular relief under present circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," continued the fiend, "I wish he may turn up shortly, for I am
+half deaf already with the banging and booming of this infernal clapper,
+which seems to have grown much worse of late; and the blessings and the
+crossings and the aspersions which I have to go through are most repugnant
+to my tastes, and unsuitable to my position in society. Bye-bye, Eusky;
+come up to-morrow night." And the fiend slipped back into the bell, and
+instantly became invisible.</p>
+
+<p>The humiliation of poor Euschemon on learning that he was indebted for
+his credit to the devil is easier to imagine than to describe. He did not,
+however, fail at the rendezvous next night, and found the demon sitting
+outside the bell in a most affable frame of mind. It did not take long for
+the devil and the saint to become very good friends, both wanting company,
+and the former being apparently as much amused by the latter's simplicity
+as the latter was charmed by the former's knowingness. Euschemon learned
+numbers of things of which he had not had the faintest notion. The demon
+taught him how to play cards (just invented by the Saracens), and initiated
+him into divers "arts, though unimagined,  yet to be," such as smoking
+tobacco, making a book on the Derby, and inditing queer stories for Society
+journals. He drew the most profane but irresistibly funny caricatures of
+Eulogius and Eucherius, and the rest of the host of heaven. He had been one
+of the demons who tempted St. Anthony, and retailed anecdotes of that
+eremite which Euschemon had never heard mentioned in Paradise. He was
+versed in all scandal respecting saints in general, and Euschemon found
+with astonishment how much about his own order was known downstairs. On the
+whole he had never enjoyed himself so much in his life; he became
+proficient in all manner of minor devilries, and was ceasing to trouble
+himself about his bell or his ecclesiastical duties, when an untoward
+incident interrupted his felicity.</p>
+
+<p>It chanced that the Bishop of Metz, in whose diocese Epinal was
+situated, finding himself during a visitation journey within a short
+distance of the town, determined to put, up there for the night. He did not
+arrive until nightfall, but word of his intention having been sent forward
+by a messenger the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, were ready to
+receive him. When, escorted in state, he had arrived at the house prepared
+for his reception, the Mayor ventured to express a hope that everything had
+been satisfactory to his Lordship.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything," said the bishop emphatically. "I did indeed seem to remark
+one little omission, which no doubt may be easily accounted for."</p>
+
+<p>"What was that, my Lord?"</p>
+
+<p>"It hath," said the bishop, "usually been the practice to receive a
+bishop with the ringing of  bells. It is a laudable custom, conducive to
+the purification of the air and the discomfiture of the prince of the
+powers thereof. I caught no sound of chimes on the present occasion, yet I
+am sensible that my hearing is not what it was."</p>
+
+<p>The civil and ecclesiastical authorities looked at each other. "That
+graceless knave of a sacristan!" said the Mayor.</p>
+
+<p>"He hath indeed of late strangely neglected his charge," said a
+priest.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor man, I doubt his wits are touched," charitably added another.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" exclaimed the bishop, who was very active, very fussy, and a
+great stickler for discipline. "This important church, so renowned for its
+three miraculous bells, confided to the tender mercies of an imbecile rogue
+who may burn it down any night! I will look to it myself without losing a
+minute."</p>
+
+<p>And in spite of all remonstrances, off he started. The keys were
+brought, the doors flung open, the body of the church thoroughly examined,
+but neither in nave, choir, or chancel could the slightest trace of the
+sacristan be found.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he is in the belfry," suggested a chorister.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see," responded the bishop, and bustling nimbly up the ladder, he
+emerged into the open belfry in full moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>Heavens! what a sight met his eye! The sacristan and the devil sitting
+<i>vis-a-vis</i> close by the miraculous bell, with a smoking can of hot
+spiced wine between them, finishing a close game of cribbage.</p>
+
+<p>"Seven," declared Euschemon.</p>
+
+<p>"And eight are fifteen," retorted the demon, marking two.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-three and pair," cried Euschemon, marking in his turn.</p>
+
+<p>"And seven is thirty."</p>
+
+<p>"Ace, thirty-one, and I'm up."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> up with you, my friend," shouted the bishop, bringing his
+crook down smartly on Euschemon's shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Deuce!" said the devil, and vanished into his bell.</p>
+
+<p>When poor Euschemon had been bound and gagged, which did not take very
+long, the bishop briefly addressed the assembly. He said that the accounts
+of the bell which had reached his ears had already excited his
+apprehensions. He had greatly feared that all could not be right, and now
+his anxieties were but too well justified. He trusted there was not a man
+before him who would not suffer his flocks and his crops to be destroyed by
+tempest fifty times over rather than purchase their safety by unhallowed
+means. What had been done had doubtless been done in ignorance, and could
+be made good by a mulct to the episcopal treasury. The amount of this he
+would carefully consider, and the people of Epinal might rest assured that
+it should not be too light to entitle them to the benefit of a full
+absolution. The bell must go to his cathedral city, there to be examined
+and reported on by the exorcists and inquisitors. Meanwhile he would
+himself institute a slight preliminary scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>The bell was accordingly unhung, tilted up, and inspected by the
+combined beams of the moonlight and torchlight. Very slight examination
+served  to place the soundness of the bishop's opinion beyond dispute. On
+the lip of the bell were engraven characters unknown to every one else, but
+which seemed to affect the prelate with singular consternation.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," he exclaimed, "that none of you know anything about these
+characters! I earnestly trust that none can read a single one of them. If I
+thought anybody could I would burn him as soon as look at him!"</p>
+
+<p>The bystanders hastened to assure him that not one of them had the
+slightest conception of the meaning of the letters, which had never been
+observed before.</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice to hear it," said the bishop. "It will be an evil day for the
+church when these letters are understood."</p>
+
+<p>And next morning he departed, carrying off the bell, with the invisible
+fiend inside it; the cards, which were regarded as a book of magic; and the
+luckless Euschemon, who shortly found himself in total darkness, the inmate
+of a dismal dungeon.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before Euschemon became sensible of the presence of any
+partner in his captivity, by reason of the trotting of the rats. At length,
+however, a deep sigh struck upon his ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Who art thou?" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"An unfortunate prisoner," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the occasion of thy imprisonment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a mere trifle. A ridiculous suspicion of sacrificing a child to
+Beelzebub. One of the little disagreeables that must occasionally occur in
+our profession."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Our</i> profession!" exclaimed Euschemon.</p>
+
+<p>"Art thou not a sorcerer?" demanded the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Euschemon, "I am a saint."</p>
+
+<p>The warlock received Euschemon's statement with much incredulity, but
+becoming eventually convinced of its truth&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate thee," he said. "The devil has manifestly taken a fancy
+to thee, and he never forgets his own. It is true that the bishop is a
+great favourite with him also. But we will hope for the best. Thou hast
+never practised riding a broomstick? No? 'Tis pity; thou mayest have to
+mount one at a moment's notice."</p>
+
+<p>This consolation had scarcely been administered ere the bolts flew back,
+the hinges grated, the door opened, and gaolers bearing torches informed
+the sorcerer that the bishop desired his presence.</p>
+
+<p>He found the bishop in his study, which was nearly choked up by
+Euschemon's bell. The prelate received him with the greatest affability,
+and expressed a sincere hope that the very particular arrangements he had
+enjoined for the comfort of his distinguished prisoner had been faithfully
+carried out by his subordinates. The sorcerer, as much a man of the world
+as the bishop, thanked his Lordship, and protested that he had been
+perfectly comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"I have need of thy art," said the bishop, coming to business. "I am
+exceedingly bothered&mdash;flabbergasted were not too strong an
+expression&mdash;by this confounded bell. All my best exorcists have been
+trying all they know with it, to no purpose. They might as well have tried
+to exorcise my mitre from my head by any other charm than the offer of a
+better one. Magic is plainly the only remedy, and if thou canst disenchant
+it, I will give thee thy freedom."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a tough business," observed the sorcerer, surveying the bell
+with the eye of a connoisseur. "It will require fumigations."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the bishop, "and suffumigations."</p>
+
+<p>"Aloes and mastic," advised the sorcerer.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," assented the bishop, "and red sanders."</p>
+
+<p>"We must call in Primeumaton," said the warlock.</p>
+
+<p>"Clearly," said the bishop, "and Amioram."</p>
+
+<p>"Triangles," said the sorcerer.</p>
+
+<p>"Pentacles," said the bishop.</p>
+
+<p>"In the hour of Methon," said the sorcerer.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have thought Tafrac," suggested the bishop, "but I defer to
+your better judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"I can have the blood of a goat?" queried the wizard.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the bishop, "and of a monkey also."</p>
+
+<p>"Does your Lordship think that one might venture to go so far as a
+little unweaned child?"</p>
+
+<p>"If absolutely necessary," said the bishop.</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to find such liberality of sentiment on your Lordship's
+part," said the sorcerer. "Your Lordship is evidently of the
+profession."</p>
+
+<p>"These are things which stuck by me when I was an inquisitor," explained
+the bishop, with some little embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>Ere long all arrangements were made. It would be impossible to enumerate
+half the crosses, circles, pentagrams, naked swords, cross-bones,
+chafing-dishes, and vials of incense which the sorcerer found to be
+necessary. The child was fortunately deemed superfluous. Euschemon was
+brought up from his dungeon, and, his teeth  chattering with fright and
+cold, set beside his bell to hold a candle to the devil. The incantations
+commenced, and speedily gave evidence of their efficacy. The bell trembled,
+swayed, split open, and a female figure of transcendent loveliness attired
+in the costume of Eve stepped forth and extended her lips towards the
+bishop. What could the bishop do but salute them? With a roar of triumph
+the demon resumed his proper shape. The bishop swooned. The apartment was
+filled with the fumes of sulphur. The devil soared majestically out of the
+window, carrying the sorcerer under one arm and Euschemon under the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>It is commonly believed that the devil good-naturedly dropped Euschemon
+back again into Paradise, or wheresoever he might have come from. It is
+even added that he fell between Eulogius and Eucherius, who had been
+arguing all the time respecting the merits of their bells, and resumed his
+share in the discussion as if nothing had happened. Some maintain, indeed,
+that the devil, chancing to be in want of a chaplain, offered the situation
+to Euschemon, by whom it was accepted. But how to reconcile this assertion
+with the undoubted fact that the duties of the post in question are at
+present ably discharged by the Bishop of Metz, in truth we see not. One
+thing is certain: thou wilt not find Euschemon's name in the calendar,
+courteous reader.</p>
+
+<p>The mulct to be imposed upon the parish of Epinal was never exacted. The
+bell, ruptured beyond repair by the demon's violent exit, was taken back
+and deposited in the museum of the town. The bells of Eulogius and
+Eucherius were  rung freely on occasion; but Epinal has not since enjoyed
+any greater immunity from storms than the contiguous districts. One day an
+aged traveller, who had spent many years in Heathenesse and in whom some
+discerned a remarkable resemblance to the sorcerer, noticed the bell, and
+asked permission to examine it. He soon discovered the inscription,
+recognised the mysterious characters as Greek, read them without the least
+difficulty&mdash;</p> <q>&Mu;&eta; &kappa;&iota;&nu;&epsilon;&iota;
+&Kappa;&alpha;&mu;&alpha;&rho;&iota;&nu;&alpha;&nu;
+&alpha;&kappa;&iota;&nu;&eta;&tau;&omicron;&sigmaf; &gamma;&alpha;&rho;
+&alpha;&mu;&epsilon;&iota;&nu;&omega;&nu;&mdash;</q>
+
+<p>and favoured the townsmen with this free but substantially accurate
+translation:&mdash;</p> <q>CAN'T YOU LET WELL ALONE?</q> <a id="p275"></a>
+<a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>BISHOP ADDO AND BISHOP GADDO</h2>
+
+<p>Midday, midsummer, middle of the dark ages. Fine healthy weather at the
+city of Biserta in Barbary. Wind blowing strong from the sea, roughening
+the dark blue waters, and fretting their indigo with foam, as though the
+ocean's coursers champed an invisible curb. On land tawny sand whirling,
+green palm-fans swaying and whistling, men abroad in the noonday blaze
+rejoicing in the unwonted freshness.</p>
+
+<p>"She is standing in," they cried, "and, by the Prophet, she seemeth not
+a ship of the true believers."</p>
+
+<p>She was not, but she bore a flag of truce. Pitching and rearing, the
+little bark bounded in, and soon was fast in harbour. Ere long messengers
+of peace had landed, bearing presents and a letter from the Bishop of
+Amalfi to the Emir of Biserta. The presents consisted of fifty casks of
+Lacrima Christi, and of a captive, a tall, noble-looking man, in soiled
+ecclesiastical costume, and disfigured by the loss of his left eye, which
+seemed to have been violently plucked out.</p> <blockquote>
+
+<p>"Health to the Emir!" ran the letter. "I send thee my captive, Gaddo,
+sometime Bishop of  Amalfi, now an ejected intruder. For what saith the
+Scripture? 'When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in
+peace; but if one stronger than he cometh, he divideth the spoils.'
+Moreover it is written: 'His bishopric let another take.' Having solemnly
+sworn that I would not kill or blind or maim my enemy, or imprison him in a
+monastery, and the price of absolution from an oath in this corrupt age
+exceeding all reason and Christian moderation, I knew not how to take
+vengeance on him, until a sagacious counsellor represented that a man
+cannot be said to be blinded so long as he is deprived of only one eye.
+This I accordingly eradicated, and now, being restrained from imprisoning
+him, and fearing to release him, I send him to thee, to retain in captivity
+on my behalf; in return for which service, receive fifty casks of the
+choicest Lacrima Christi, which shall not fail to be sent thee yearly, so
+long as Gaddo continues in thy custody.</p>
+
+<p>"+ Addo, by Divine permission Bishop of Amalfi."</p> </blockquote>
+
+<p>"First," said the Emir, "I would be certified whether this vintage is
+indeed of such excellence as to prevail upon a faithful Mussulman to
+jeopard Paradise, the same being forbidden by his law."</p>
+
+<p>Experiments were instituted forthwith, and the problem was resolved in
+the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>"This being so," declared the Emir, "honour and good faith towards
+Bishop Addo require that Bishop Gaddo be kept captive with all possible
+strictness. Yet bolts may be burst, fetters may be filed, walls may be
+scaled, doors may be broken  through. Better to enchain the captive's soul,
+binding him with invisible bonds, and searing out of him the very wish to
+escape. Embrace the faith of the Prophet," continued he, addressing Gaddo;
+"become a Mollah."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the deposed Bishop, "my inclination hath ever been towards a
+military life. At present, mutilated and banished as I am, I rather affect
+the crown of martyrdom."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou shalt receive it by instalments," said the Emir. "Thou shalt work
+at the new pavilion in my garden."</p>
+
+<p>Unceasing toil under the blazing sun, combined with the discipline of
+the overseers, speedily wore down Gaddo's strength, already impaired by
+captivity and ill-treatment. Unable to drag himself away after his
+fellow-workmen had ceased from their labours, he lay one evening, faint and
+almost senseless, among the stones and rubbish of the unfinished edifice.
+The Emir's daughter passed by. Gaddo was handsome and wretched, the
+Princess was beautiful and compassionate. Conveyed by her fair hands, a cup
+of Bishop Addo's wine saved Bishop Gaddo's life.</p>
+
+<p>The next evening Gaddo again lingered behind, and the Princess spoke to
+him out of her balcony. The third evening they encountered in an arbour.
+The next meeting took place in her chamber, where her father discovered
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tear thee to pieces with pincers," shouted he to Gaddo.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Highness will not be guilty of that black action," responded Gaddo
+resolutely.</p>
+
+<p>"No?" roared the Emir. "No? and what shall hinder me?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Lacrima Christi will hinder your Highness," returned the far-seeing
+Gaddo. "Deems your Highness that Bishop Addo will send another cupful, once
+he is assured of my death?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou sayest well," rejoined the Emir. "I may not slay thee. But my
+daughter is manifestly most inflammable, wherefore I will burn her."</p>
+
+<p>"Were it not better to circumcise me?" suggested Gaddo.</p>
+
+<p>Many difficulties were raised, but Ayesha's mother siding with Gaddo,
+and promising a more amicable deportment for the future towards the other
+lights of the harem, the matter was arranged, and Gaddo recited the
+Mahometan profession of faith, and became the Emir's son-in-law. The
+execrable social system under which he had hitherto lived thus vanished
+like a nightmare from an awakened sleeper. Wedded to one who had saved his
+life by her compassion, and whose life he had in turn saved by his change
+of creed, adoring her and adored by her, with the hope of children, and
+active contact with multitudes of other interests from which he had
+hitherto been estranged, he forgot the ecclesiastic in the man; his
+intellect expanded, his ideas multiplied, he cleared his mind of cant, and
+became an eminent philosopher.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear son," said the Emir to him one day, "the Lacrima is spent, we
+thirst, and the tribute of that Christian dog, the Bishop of Amalfi,
+tarries to arrive. We will presently fit out certain vessels, and thou
+shalt hold a visitation of thine ancient diocese."</p>
+
+<p>"Methinks I see a ship even now," said Gaddo;  and he was right. She
+anchored, the ambassadors landed and addressed the Emir:</p>
+
+<p>"Prince, we bring thee the stipulated tribute, yet not without a
+trifling deduction."</p>
+
+<p>"Deduction!" exclaimed the Emir, bending his brows ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"Highness," they represented, "by reason of the deficiency of last
+year's vintage it hath not been possible to provide more than forty-nine
+casks, which we crave to offer thee accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," pronounced the Emir sententiously, "the compact is broken, the
+ship is confiscated, and war is declared."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so, Highness," said they, "for the fiftieth cask is worth all the
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Let it be opened," commanded the Emir.</p>
+
+<p>It was accordingly hoisted out, deposited on the quay, and prized open;
+and from its capacious interior, in a deplorable plight from hunger, cramp,
+and sea-sickness, was extracted&mdash;Bishop Addo.</p>
+
+<p>"We have," explained the deputation, "wearied of our shepherd, who,
+shearing his flock somewhat too closely, hath brought the wolf to light. We
+therefore desire thee to receive him at our hands in exchange for our good
+Bishop Gaddo, promising one hundred casks of Lacrima Christi as yearly
+tribute for the future."</p>
+
+<p>"He stands before you," answered the Emir; "take him, an ye can prevail
+upon him to return with you."</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the envoys wandered hopelessly from one whiskered, turbaned,
+caftaned, and yataghaned figure to another. They could not discover that
+any of the Paynim present looked more or less like a bishop than his
+fellows.</p>
+
+<p>"Brethren," said Gaddo, taking compassion on their bewilderment, "behold
+me! I thank you for your kindly thought of me, but how to profit by it I
+see not. I have become a Saracen. I have pronounced the Mahometan
+confession. I am circumcised. I am known by the name of Mustapha."</p>
+
+<p>"We acknowledge the weight of your Lordship's objections," they said,
+"and do but venture to hint remotely that the times are hard, and that the
+Holy Father is grievously in want of money."</p>
+
+<p>"I have also taken a wife," said Gaddo.</p>
+
+<p>"A wife!" exclaimed they with one consent. "If it had been a concubine!
+Let us return instantly."</p>
+
+<p>They gathered up their garments and spat upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"A bishop, then," inquired Gaddo, "may be guilty of any enormity sooner
+than wedlock, which money itself cannot expiate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such," they answered, "is the law and the prophets."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless," added one of benignant aspect, "he sew the abomination up in a
+sack and cast her into the sea, then peradventure he may yet find place for
+repentance."</p>
+
+<p>"Miserable blasphemers!" exclaimed Gaddo. "But why," continued he,
+checking himself, "do I talk of what none will understand for five hundred
+years, which to understand myself I was obliged to become a Saracen? Addo,"
+he pursued, addressing his dejected competitor, "bad as thou art, thou art
+good enough for the world as it is. I spare thy life, restore thy dignity,
+and, to prove that the precepts of Christ may be practised under the garb
+of Mahomet, will not even exact eye for eye. Yet, as a wholesome admonition
+to thee that treachery and cruelty escape not punishment even in this life,
+I will that thou do presently surrender to me thy left ear. Restore my eye
+and I will return it immediately. And ye," addressing the envoys, "will for
+the future pay one hundred casks tribute, unless ye would see my
+father-in-law's galleys on your coasts."</p>
+
+<p>So Addo returned to his bishopric, leaving his ear in Gaddo's keeping.
+The Lacrima was punctually remitted, and as punctually absorbed by the Emir
+and his son-in-law, with some little help from Ayesha. Gaddo's eye never
+came back, and Addo never regained his ear until, after the ex-prelate's
+death in years and honour, he ransomed it from his representatives. It
+became a relic, and is shown in Addo's cathedral to this day in proof of
+his inveterate enmity to the misbelievers, and of the sufferings he
+underwent at their hands. But Gaddo trumped him, the entry after his name
+in the episcopal register, "Fled to the Saracens," having been altered into
+"Flayed by the Saracens" by a later bishop, jealous of the honour of the
+diocese.</p> <a id="p282"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE BUTTERFLIES</h2>
+
+<p>The scene was in a garden on a fine summer morning, brilliant with
+slants of sunshine, yet chequered with clouds significant of more than a
+remote possibility of rain. All the animal world was astir. Birds flitted
+or hopped from spray to spray; butterflies eddied around flowers within or
+upon which bees were bustling; ants and earwigs ran nimbly about on the
+mould; a member of the Universal Knowledge Society perambulated the gravel
+path.</p>
+
+<p>The Universal Knowledge Society, be it understood, exists for the
+dissemination and not for the acquisition of knowledge. Our philosopher,
+therefore, did not occupy himself with considering whether in that
+miniature world, with its countless varieties of animal and vegetable
+being, something might not be found with which he was himself unacquainted;
+but, like the honey-freighted bee, rather sought an opportunity of
+disburdening himself of his stores of information than of adding to them.
+But who was to profit by his communicativeness? The noisy birds could not
+hear themselves speak, much less him; he shrewdly distrusted his ability to
+command the attention of the busy bees; and even a  member of the Universal
+Knowledge Society may well be at a loss for a suitable address to an
+earwig. At length he determined to accost a Butterfly who, after sipping
+the juice of a flower, remained perched indolently upon it, apparently
+undecided whither to direct his flight.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems likely to rain," he said, "have you an umbrella?"</p>
+
+<p>The Butterfly looked curiously at him, but returned no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not ask," resumed the Philosopher, "as one who should imply that
+the probability of even a complete saturation ought to appal a
+ratiocinative being, endowed with wisdom and virtue. I rather designed to
+direct your attention to the inquiry whether these attributes are, in fact,
+rightly predicable of Butterflies."</p>
+
+<p>Still no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"An impression obtains among our own species," continued the
+Philosopher, "that you Butterflies are deficient in foresight and
+providence to a remarkable, I might almost say a culpable degree. Pardon me
+if I add that this suspicion is to some extent confirmed by my finding you
+destitute of protection against imbriferous inclemency under atmospheric
+conditions whose contingent humidity should be obvious to a being endowed
+with the most ordinary allotment of meteorological prevision."</p>
+
+<p>The Butterfly still left all the talk to the Philosopher. This was just
+what the latter desired.</p>
+
+<p>"I greatly fear," he continued, "that the omission to which I have
+reluctantly adverted is to a certain extent typically characteristic of the
+entire political and social economy of the  lepidopterous order. It has
+even been stated, though the circumstance appears scarcely credible, that
+your system of life does not include the accumulation of adequate resources
+against the inevitable exigencies of winter."</p>
+
+<p>"What is winter?" asked the Butterfly, and flew off without awaiting an
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>The Philosopher remained for a moment speechless, whether from amazement
+at the Butterfly's nescience or disgust at his ill-breeding. Recovering
+himself immediately, he shouted after the fugitive:</p>
+
+<p>"Frivolous animal!" "It is this levity," continued he, addressing a
+group of butterflies who had gradually assembled in the air, attracted by
+the conversation, "it is this fatal levity that constrains me to despair
+wholly of the future of you insects. That you should persistently remain at
+your present depressed level! That you should not immediately enter upon a
+process of self-development! Look at the Bee! How did she acquire her
+sting, think you? Why cannot you store up honey, as she does?"</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot build cells," suggested a Butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>"And how did the Bee learn, do you suppose, unless by imbuing her mind
+with the elementary principles of mathematics? Know that time has been when
+the Bee was as incapable of architectural construction as yourselves, when
+you and she alike were indiscriminable particles of primary protoplasm. (I
+suppose you know what that is.) One has in process of time exalted itself
+to the cognition of mathematical truth, while the other&mdash;Pshaw! Now,
+really, my friends, I must beg you to take my observations  in good part. I
+do not imply, of course, that any endeavours of yours in the direction I
+have indicated could benefit any of you personally, or any of your
+posterity for numberless generations. But I really do consider that after a
+while its effects would be very observable&mdash;that in twenty millions of
+years or so, provided no geological cataclysm supervened, you Butterflies,
+with your innate genius for mimicry, might be conformed in all respects to
+the hymenopterous model, or perhaps carry out the principle of development
+into novel and unheard-of directions. You should derive much encouragement
+from the beginning you have made already."</p>
+
+<p>"How a beginning?" inquired a Butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am alluding to your larval constitution as Caterpillars," returned
+the Philosopher. "Your advance upon that humiliating condition is, I admit,
+remarkable. I only wonder that it should not have proceeded much further.
+With such capacity for development, it is incomprehensible that you should
+so long have remained stationary. You ought to be all toads by this time,
+at the very least."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," civilly interposed the Butterfly. "To what
+condition were you pleased to allude?"</p>
+
+<p>"To that of a Caterpillar," rejoined the Philosopher.</p>
+
+<p>"Caterpillar!" echoed the Butterfly, and "Caterpillar!" tittered all his
+volatile companions, till the air seemed broken into little silvery waves
+of fairy laughter. "Caterpillar! he positively thinks we were once
+Caterpillars! He! he! he!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you actually mean to say you don't know  that?" responded the
+Philosopher, scandalised at the irreverence of the insects, but inwardly
+rejoicing at the prospect of a controversy in which he could not be
+worsted.</p>
+
+<p>"We know nothing of the sort," rejoined a Butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you possibly be plunged into such utter oblivion of your embryonic
+antecedents?"</p>
+
+<p>"We do not understand you. All we know is that we have always been
+Butterflies."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said a large, dull-looking Butterfly with one wing in tatters,
+crawling from under a cabbage, and limping by reason of the deficiency of
+several legs, "let me entreat you not to deduce our scientific status from
+the inconsiderate assertions of the unthinking vulgar. I am proud to assure
+you that our race comprises many philosophical reasoners&mdash;mostly
+indeed such as have been disabled by accidental injuries from joining in
+the amusements of the rest. The Origin of our Species has always occupied a
+distinguished place in their investigations. It has on several occasions
+engaged the attention of our profoundest thinkers for not less than two
+consecutive minutes. There is hardly a quadruped on the land, a bird in the
+air, or a fish in the water to which it has not been ascribed by some one
+at some time; but never, I am rejoiced to say, has any Butterfly ever
+dreamed of attributing it to the obnoxious thing to which you have
+unaccountably made reference."</p>
+
+<p>"We should rather think not," chorussed all the Butterflies.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," said the Philosopher, picking up and exhibiting a large
+hairy Caterpillar of very  unprepossessing appearance. "Look here, what do
+you call this?"</p>
+
+<p>"An abnormal organisation," said the scientific Butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>"A nasty beast," said the others.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens," exclaimed the Philosopher, "the obtuseness and arrogance of
+these creatures! No, my poor friend," continued he, addressing the
+Caterpillar, "disdain you as they may, and unpromising as your aspect
+certainly is at present, the time is at" hand when you will prank it with
+the gayest of them all."</p>
+
+<p>"I cry your mercy," rejoined the Caterpillar somewhat crossly, "but I
+was digesting a gooseberry leaf when you lifted me in that abrupt manner,
+and I did not quite follow your remarks. Did I understand you to mention my
+name in connection with those flutterers?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said the time would arrive when you would be even as they."</p>
+
+<p>"I," exclaimed the Caterpillar, "I retrograde to the level of a
+Butterfly! Is not the ideal of creation impersonated in me already?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was not aware of that," replied the Philosopher, "although," he added
+in a conciliatory tone, "far be it from me to deny you the possession of
+many interesting qualities."</p>
+
+<p>"You probably refer to my agility," suggested the Caterpillar; "or
+perhaps to my abstemiousness?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was not referring to either," returned the Philosopher.</p>
+
+<p>"To my utility to mankind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not by any manner of means."</p>
+
+<p>"To what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you must know, the best thing about you appears to me to be
+the prospect you enjoy of ultimately becoming a Butterfly."</p>
+
+<p>The Caterpillar erected himself upon his tail, and looked sternly at the
+Philosopher. The Philosopher's countenance fell. A thrush, darting from an
+adjacent tree, seized the opportunity and the insect, and bore the latter
+away in his bill. At the same moment the shower prognosticated by the Sage
+burst forth, scattering the Butterflies in all directions, drenching the
+Philosopher, whose foresight had not assumed the shape of an umbrella, and
+spoiling his new hat. But he had ample consolation in the superiority of
+his head. And the Caterpillar was right too, for after all he never did
+become a Butterfly.</p> <a id="p289"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>TRUTH AND HER COMPANIONS</h2>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> Daughter Truth, is this a befitting manner of
+presenting yourself before your divine father? You are positively dripping;
+the floor of my celestial mansion would be a swamp but for your
+praiseworthy economy in wearing apparel. Whence, in the name of the Naiads,
+do you come?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth.</i> From the bottom of a well, father.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> I thought, my daughter, that you had descended upon
+earth in the capacity of a benefactress of men rather than of frogs.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth.</i> Such, indeed, was my purpose, father, and I accordingly
+repaired to the great city.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> The city of the Emperor Apollyon?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth.</i> The same; and I there obtained an audience of the
+monarch.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> What passed?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth.</i> I took the liberty of observing to him, father, that,
+having obtained his throne by perjury, and cemented it by blood, and
+maintained it by hypocrisy, he could entertain no hope of preserving it
+unless the collective baseness of his subjects should be found to exceed
+his own, which was not probable.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> What reply did he vouchsafe to these admonitions?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. He threatened to cut out my tongue. Perceiving that this
+would interfere with my utility to mankind, I retired somewhat
+precipitately from the Imperial presence, marvelling that I should ever
+have been admitted, and resolved never to be found there for the future. I
+then proceeded to the Nobles.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. What said you to them?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. I represented to them that they were, as a class, both
+arrogant and luxurious, and would, indeed, have long ago become
+insupportable, only that the fabric which their rapacity was for ever
+striving to erect, their extravagance as perpetually undermined. I further
+commented upon the insecurity of any institution dependent solely upon
+prescription. Finding these suggestions unpalatable, I next addressed
+myself to the priesthood.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. Those holy men, my daughter, must have rejoiced at the
+opportunity of learning from you which portion of their traditions was
+impure or fabricated, and which authentic and sublime.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. The value they placed upon my instructions was such that
+they wished to reserve them exclusively for themselves, and proposed that
+they should be delivered within the precincts of a certain subterranean
+apartment termed a dungeon, the key of which should be kept by one of their
+order. Whereupon I betook myself to the philosophers.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. Your reception from these professed lovers of wisdom,
+my daughter, was, no doubt, all that could be expected.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. It was all that could be expected, my father, from
+learned and virtuous men, who had  already framed their own systems of the
+universe without consulting me.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> You probably next addressed yourself to the middling
+orders of society?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth.</i> I can scarcely say that I did, father; for although I had
+much to remark concerning their want of culture, and their servility, and
+their greed, and the absurdity of many of their customs, and the rottenness
+of most of their beliefs, and the thousand ways in which they spoiled lives
+that might have been beautiful and harmonious, I soon discovered that they
+were so absolutely swayed by the example of the higher orders that it was
+useless to expostulate with them until I should have persuaded the
+latter.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> You returned, then, to the latter with this design?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth.</i> On the contrary, I hastened to the poor and needy, whom I
+fully acquainted with the various wrongs and oppressions which they
+underwent at the hands of the powerful and the rich. And here, for the
+first time, I found myself welcome. All listened with gratitude and assent,
+and none made any endeavour to stone me or imprison me, as those other
+unprincipled persons had done.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter.</i> That was indeed satisfactory, daughter. But when you
+proceeded to point out to these plebeians how much of their misery arose
+from their own idleness, and ignorance, and dissoluteness, and abasement
+before those higher in station, and jealousy of the best among
+themselves&mdash;what said they to that?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth.</i> They expressed themselves desirous of  killing me, and
+indeed would have done so if my capital enemies, the priests, had not been
+beforehand with them.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. What did they?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. Burned me.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. Burned you?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. Burned me in the market-place. And, but for my peculiar
+property of reviving from my ashes, I should not be here now. Upon
+reconsolidating myself, I felt in such a heat that I was fain to repair to
+the bottom of the nearest well. Finding myself more comfortable there than
+I had ever yet been on earth, I have come to ask permission to remain.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. It does not appear to me, daughter, that the mission
+you have undertaken on behalf of mankind can be efficiently discharged at
+the bottom of a well.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. No, father, nor in the middle of a fire either.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. I fear that you are too plain and downright in your
+dealings with men, and deter where you ought to allure.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. I were not Truth, else, but Flattery. My nature is a
+mirror's&mdash;to exhibit reality with plainness and faithfulness.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. It is no less the nature of man to shatter every mirror
+that does not exhibit to him what he wishes to behold.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. Let me, therefore, return to my well, and let him who
+wishes to behold me, if such there be, repair to the brink and look
+down.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. No, daughter, you shall not returnto your well. I have already perceived that you are not of yourself
+sufficient for the office I have  assigned to you, and I am about to
+provide you with two auxiliaries. You are Truth. Tell me how this one
+appears to you.</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. Oh, father, the beautiful nymph! how mature, and yet how
+comely! how good-humoured, yet how gentle and grave! Her robe is closely
+zoned; her upraised finger approaches her lip; her foot falls soft as snow.
+What is her name?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. Discretion. And this other?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Truth</i>. Oh, father! the cordial look, the blooming cheek, the
+bright smile that is almost a laugh, the buoyant step, and the expansive
+bosom! What name bears she?</p>
+
+<p> <i>Jupiter</i>. Good Nature. Return, my daughter, to earth; continue to
+enlighten man's ignorance and to reprove his folly; but let Discretion
+suggest the occasion, and Good Nature inspire the wording of your
+admonitions. I cannot engage that you may not, even with these precautions,
+sometimes pay a visit to the stake; and if, when an adventure of this sort
+appears imminent, Discretion should counsel a temporary retirement to your
+well, I am sure Good Nature will urge nothing to the contrary.</p> <a
+id="p294"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE THREE PALACES</h2>
+
+<p>Three pairs of young people, each a youth with his bride, came together
+along a road to the point where it divided to the right and left. On one
+side was inscribed, "To the Palace of Truth," and on the other, "To the
+Palace of Illusion."</p>
+
+<p>"This way, my beauty!" cried one of the youths, drawing his companion in
+the direction of the Palace of Truth. "To the place where and where alone
+thy perfections may be beheld as they are!"</p>
+
+<p>"And my imperfections!" whispered the young spouse, but her tone was
+airy and confident.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the second youth, "does the choice beseem you upon whom the
+moon of your nuptials is beaming still. My beloved and I are riper in
+Hymen's lore by not less, I ween, than one fortnight. Prudence impels us
+towards the Palace of Illusion."</p>
+
+<p>"Thy will is mine, Alonso," said his lady.</p>
+
+<p>"I," said the third youth, "will seek neither; for I would not be wise
+over-much, while of what I deem myself to know I would be well assured.
+Happy am I, and bless my lot, yet have I beheld a red mouse in closer
+contiguity to my beloved than I could bring myself to approve, albeit it
+leapt not from her mouth as they do sometimes. Yet do I know it for a red
+mouse and nothing worse; had I inhabited the Palace of Illusion  haply I
+had deemed it a rat. And, it being a red mouse as it indubitably was, to
+what end fancy it a tawny-throated nightingale?"</p>
+
+<p>While, therefore, the other pairs proceeded on the paths they had
+respectively chosen, this sage youth and his bride settled themselves at
+the parting of the ways, built their cot, tended their garden, tilled their
+field and raised fruits around them, including children.</p>
+
+<p>The preparation of a cheerful repast was one day well advanced, when,
+lifting up their eyes, the pair beheld a haggard and emaciated couple
+tottering along the road that led from the Palace of Illusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens!" exclaimed they simultaneously, "no! yes! 'tis surely they!" O
+friends! whence this forlorn semblance? whence this osseous condition?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of them anon," replied the attenuated youth, "but, before all things,
+dinner!"</p>
+
+<p>The restorative was speedily administered, and the pilgrim commenced his
+narration.</p>
+
+<p>"Guarded," he said, "though the Palace of Illusion was by every species
+of hippogriffic chimaera, my bride and I experienced no difficulty in
+penetrating inside its precincts. The giants lifted us in their arms, the
+dragons carried us on their backs, fairy bridges spanned the moats, golden
+ladders inclined against the ramparts, we scaled the towers and trod the
+courts securely, though constructed to all seeming of dissolving cloud.
+Delicate fare loaded every dish; smiling companions invited to every
+festivity; perfumes caressed our nostrils; music enwrapped our ears.</p>
+
+<p>"But while all else charmed and allured, one  fact intruded of which we
+could not pretend unconsciousness, the intensity of our aversion for each
+other. Never could I behold my Imogene without marvelling whatever could
+have induced me to wed her, and she has acknowledged that she laboured
+under the like perplexity. On the other hand, our good opinion of ourselves
+had grown prodigiously. The other's dislike appeared to each an insane
+delusion, and we seriously questioned whether it could be right to mate
+longer with a being so destitute of true aesthetic feeling. We confided
+these scruples to each other, with the result of a most tempestuous
+altercation.</p>
+
+<p>"As this was attaining its climax, one of the inmates of the Palace, a
+pert forward boy, resembling a page out of livery, passed by, and
+ironically, as I thought, congratulated us on the strength of our mutual
+attachment. 'Never,' exclaimed he, 'have I beheld the like here before, and
+I am the oldest inhabitant.'</p>
+
+<p>"As this felicitation was proffered at the precise moment when I was
+engaged in staunching a rent in my cheek with a handful of my wife's hair,
+I was constrained to regard it as unseasonable, and expressed myself to
+that effect.</p>
+
+<p>"'What!' exclaimed he, with equal surprise, 'know ye not that this is
+the Palace of Illusion, where everything is inverted and appears the
+reverse of itself? Intense indeed must be the affection which can thus
+drive you to fisticuffs! Had I beheld you billing and cooing, truly I had
+counselled a judicial separation!'</p>
+
+<p>"My wife and I looked at each other, and by a common impulse made at our
+utmost speed for the gate of the Palace of Illusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! it is one thing to enter and another to quit that domain of
+enchantment. The golden clouds enwrapt us still, cates and dainties tempted
+us as of old, the most bewitching strains detained us spellbound. The giant
+and dragon warders, indeed, offered no violent resistance, they simply
+turned into open portals which appeared to yield us egress, but proved
+entrances to interminable labyrinthine mazes. At last we escaped by
+resolutely, following the exact opposite track to that which we observed to
+be taken by a poet, who was chasing a phantom of Fame with a scroll of
+unintelligible and inharmonious verse.</p>
+
+<p>"The moment that we emerged from the enchanted castle we knew ourselves
+and each other for what we were, and fell weeping into each other's arms.
+So feeble were we that we could hardly move, nevertheless we have made a
+shift to crawl hither, trusting to your hospitality to recruit us from the
+sawdust and ditch-water which we vehemently suspect to have been our diet
+during the whole of our residence."</p>
+
+<p>"Eat and drink without stint and without ceremony," rejoined their host,
+"provided only that somewhat remain for the guests whom I see
+approaching."</p>
+
+<p>And in a few moments the fugitives from the Palace of Illusion were
+reinforced by travellers from the Palace of Truth, whose backs were most
+determinately turned to that august edifice.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," said the youth last arrived, when the first greetings were
+over, "Truth's Palace might be a not ineligible residence were not the
+inmates necessitated not merely to know the truth but to speak it, and did
+not all innocent  embellishments of her majestic person become entirely
+inefficient and absolutely nugatory. For example, the number of my wife's
+grey hairs speedily confounded me; and how should it be otherwise, when the
+excellent dye she had brought with her had completely lost its virtues? She
+on her part found herself continually obliged to acquaint me with the
+manifold defects she was daily discovering in my mind and person, which I
+was unable to deny, frequently as I opened my mouth for that purpose. It is
+true that I had the satisfaction of pointing out equal defects in herself;
+but this could not be considered a great satisfaction, seeing that every
+such discovery impugned my taste and judgment, and impaired the worth of my
+most cherished possession. At length we resolved that Truth and we were not
+made for each other, and, having verified the accuracy of this conclusion
+by uttering it unrebuked in Truth's own palace, quitted the unblest spot
+with all possible expedition. No sooner were we outside than our tenderness
+revived, and, the rites of reconciliation duly performed, my wife found
+nothing more urgent than to try whether her dye had recovered its natural
+properties, which, as ye may perceive, proved to be the case. We are now
+bound for the Palace of Illusion."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay," said he who had escaped thence, "if my experience suffices not to
+deter you, learn that they who have known Truth can never taste of
+Illusion. Illusion is for life's golden prime, its fanes and pavilions may
+be reared but by the magic wand of Youth. The maturity that would recreate
+them builds not for Illusion  but for Deceit. Yet, lest mortality should
+despair, there exists, as I have learned, yet another palace, founded
+midway between that of Illusion and that of Truth, open to those who are
+too soft for the one and too hard for the other. Thither, indeed, the
+majority of mankind in this age resort, and there appear to find themselves
+comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"And this palace is?" inquired Truth's runaways simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>"The Palace of Convention," replied the youth.</p> <a id="p300"></a> <a
+href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>NEW READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY</h2>
+
+<h3>I.&mdash;<span class="hi">Timon of Athens</span> </h3>
+
+<p>No, it was not true that Timon was dead, and buried on the sea-shore. So
+the first party discovered that hastened to his cave at the tidings,
+thinking to seize his treasure, and had their heads broken for their pains.
+But the second party fared better; for these were robbers, captained by
+Alcibiades, who had taken to the road, as many a man of spirit, has done
+before and since. They took Timon's gold, and left him bound in his chair.
+But on the way home the lesser thieves mysteriously disappeared, and the
+gold became the sole property of Alcibiades. As it is written, "The tools
+to him that can handle them."</p>
+
+<p>Timon sat many hours in an uncomfortable position, and though, in a
+general way, he abhorred the face of man, he was not displeased when a
+gentleman of bland appearance entered the cavern, and made him a low
+obeisance. And perceiving that Timon was bound, the bland man exclaimed
+with horror, and severed his bonds, ere one could say Themistocles. And in
+an instant the cavern was filled with Athenian senators.</p>
+
+<p>"Hail," they cried, "to Timon the munificent!  Hail to Timon the
+compassionate! Hail to Timon the lover of his kind!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am none of these things," said Timon. "I am Timon the
+misanthrope."</p>
+
+<p>"This must be my Lord's wit and playfulness," said the bland man, "for
+how else should the Senate and the people have passed a decree, indited by
+myself, ordering an altar to be raised to Timon the Benefactor, and
+appointing him chief archon? But come, hand over thy treasure, that thy
+installation may take effect with due observance."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been deprived of my treasure," said Timon.</p>
+
+<p>But the ambassadors gave him no credit until they had searched every
+chink and crevice in the cavern, and dug up all the earth round the
+entrance. They then regarded each other with blank consternation.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us leave him as we found him," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hang him up," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us sell him into captivity," said a third.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, friends," said the bland gentleman, "such confession of error
+would impeach our credit as statesmen. Moreover, should the people learn
+that Timon has lost his money, they will naturally conclude that we have
+taken it. Let us, therefore, keep this misfortune from their knowledge, and
+trust for relief to the chapter of accidents, as usual in State
+affairs."</p>
+
+<p>They therefore robed Timon in a dress of honour, and conducted him to
+Athens, where half the inhabitants were awaiting him. Two triumphal arches
+spanned the principal street, and on one was inscribed "Timon the
+Benefactor," and  on the other "Timon the Friend of Humanity." And all
+along, far as the eye could reach, stood those whom his bounty, as was
+stated, had rescued from perdition, the poor he had relieved, the sick he
+had medicined, the orphans he had fathered, the poets and painters he had
+patronised, all lauding and thanking him, and soliciting a continuance of
+his liberality. And the rabble cried "Largesse, largesse!" and horsemen
+galloped forth, casting among them nuts enveloped in silver-leaf and apples
+and comfits and trinkets and brass farthings in incredible quantities. At
+which the people murmured somewhat, and spoke amiss respecting Timon and
+the senators who escorted him, and the bland gentleman strove to keep Timon
+between himself and the populace. While Timon was pondering what the end of
+these things should be, his mob encountered another cheering for
+Alcibiades, and playing pitch and toss with drachmas and didrachmas and
+tetradrachmas, yea, even with staters and darics.</p>
+
+<p>"Long live Alcibiades," cried Timon's followers, as they attacked
+Alcibiades's supporters to get their share.</p>
+
+<p>"Long live Timon," cried Alcibiades's party, as they defended
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Timon and Alcibiades extricated themselves from the scuffle, and walked
+away arm in arm.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friend," said Timon, "how inexpressibly beholden I am to you
+for taking the burden of my wealth upon yourself! There is nothing I would
+not do to evince my gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing?" queried Alcibiades.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," persisted Timon.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Alcibiades, "I will thank thee  to relieve me of Timandra,
+who is as tired of me as I am of her."</p>
+
+<p>Timon winced horribly, but his word was his bond, and Timandra
+accompanied him to his cavern, where at first she suffered much
+inconvenience from the roughness of the accommodation. But Timon, though a
+misanthrope, was not a brute; and when in process of time Timandra's health
+required special care, rugs and pillows were provided for her, and also for
+Timon; for he saw that he could no longer pass for a churl if he made his
+wife more comfortable than himself. And, though he counted gold as dross,
+yet was he not dissatisfied that Timandra had saved the gold he had given
+her formerly against a rainy day. And when a child was born, Timon was at
+his wits' end, and blessed the old woman who came to nurse it. And she
+admonished him of his duty to the Gods, which meant sacrifice, which meant
+merry-making. And the child grew, and craved food and drink, and Timon
+possessed himself of three acres and a cow. And not being able to doubt his
+child's affection for him, he came to believe in Timandra's also. And when
+the tax-gatherer oppressed his neighbours, he pleaded their cause, which
+was also his own, in the courts of Athens, and gained it by the interest of
+Alcibiades. And his neighbours made him demarch, and he feasted them. And
+Apemantus came to deride him, and Timon bore with him; but he was
+impertinent to Timandra, and Timon beat him.</p>
+
+<p>And in fine, Timon became very like any other Attic country gentleman,
+save that he always maintained that a young man did well to be a <a
+id="p304"></a> misanthrope until he got a loving and sensible wife, which,
+as he observed, could but seldom happen. And the Gods looked down upon him
+with complacency, and deferred the ruin of Athens until he should be no
+more.</p>
+
+<h3>II.&mdash;<span class="hi">Napoleon's Sangaree</span> </h3>
+
+<p>Napoleon Buonaparte sat in his garden at St. Helena, in the shadow of a
+fig-tree. Before him stood a little table, and upon the table stood a glass
+of sangaree. The day was hot and drowsy; the sea boomed monotonously on the
+rocks; the broad fig-leaves stirred not; great flies buzzed heavily in the
+sultry air. Napoleon wore a loose linen coat and a broad brimmed planter's
+hat, and looked as red as the sangaree, but nowise as comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"To think," he said aloud, "that I should end my life here, with nothing
+to sweeten my destiny but this lump of sugar!"</p>
+
+<p>And he dropped it into the sangaree, and little ripples and beads broke
+out on the surface of the liquid.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou should'st have followed me," said a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Me," said another.</p>
+
+<p>And a steam from the sangaree rose high over Napoleon's head, and from
+it shaped themselves two beautiful female figures. One was fair and very
+youthful, with a Phrygian cap on her head, and eager eyes beneath it, and a
+slender spear in her hand. The other was somewhat older,  and graver, and
+darker, with serious eyes; and she carried a sword, and wore a helmet, from
+underneath which her rich brown tresses escaped over her vesture of light
+steel armour.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Liberty," said the first.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Loyalty," said the second.</p>
+
+<p>And Napoleon laid his hand in that of the first spirit, and instantly
+saw himself as he had been in the days of his youthful victories, only
+beset with a multitude of people who were offering him a crown, and
+cheering loudly. But he thrust it aside, and they cheered ten times more,
+and fell into each other's arms, and wept and kissed each other. And troops
+of young maidens robed in white danced before him, strewing his way with
+flowers. And the debts of the debtor were paid, and the prisoners were
+released from captivity. And the forty Academicians came bringing Napoleon
+the prize of virtue. And the Abb&eacute; Siey&egrave;s stood up, and
+offered Napoleon his choice of seventeen constitutions; and Napoleon chose
+the worst. And he came to sit with five hundred other men, mostly
+advocates. And when he said "Yea," they said "Nay"; and when he said
+"white," they said "black." And they suffered him to do neither good nor
+evil, and when he went to war they commanded his army for him, until he was
+smitten with a great slaughter. And the enemy entered the country, and
+bread was scarce and wine dear; and the people cursed Napoleon, and Liberty
+vanished from before him. But he roamed on, ever looking for her, and at
+length he found her lying dead in the public way, all gashed and bleeding,
+and trampled with the feet of men and horses, and the wheel of a tumbril
+was over her neck. And Napoleon, under compulsion of the mob, ascended the
+tumbril; and Abb&eacute; Siey&egrave;s and Bishop Talleyrand rode at his
+side, administering spiritual consolation. Thus they came within sight of
+the guillotine, whereon stood M. de Robespierre in his sky-blue coat, and
+his jaw bound up in a bloody cloth, bowing and smiling, nevertheless, and
+beckoning Napoleon to ascend to him. Napoleon had never feared the face of
+man; but when he saw M. de Robespierre great dread fell upon him, and he
+leapt out of the tumbril, and fled amain, passing amid the people as it
+were mid withered leaves, until he came where Loyalty stood awaiting
+him.</p>
+
+<p>She took his hand in hers, and, lo! another great host of people
+proffering him a crown, save one little old man, who alone of them all wore
+his hair in a queue with powder.</p>
+
+<p>"See," said the little old man, "that thou takest not what doth not
+belong to thee."</p>
+
+<p>"To whom belongeth it then?" asked Napoleon, "for I am a plain soldier,
+and have no skill in politics."</p>
+
+<p>"To Louis the Disesteemed," said the little old man, "for he is a
+great-great-nephew of the Princess of Schwoffingen, whose ancestors reigned
+here at the flood."</p>
+
+<p>"Where dwells Louis the Disesteemed?" asked Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>"In England," said the little old man.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon therefore repaired to England, and sought for Louis the
+Disesteemed. But none could direct him, save that it behoved him to seek in
+the obscurest places. And one day, as he was passing through a mean street,
+he heard  a voice of lamentation, and perceived a man whose coat and shirt
+were rent and dirty; but not so his pantaloons, for he had none.</p>
+
+<p>"Who art thou, thou pantaloonless one?" asked he, "and wherefore makest
+thou this lamentation?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am Louis the Esteemed, King of France and Navarre," replied the
+distrousered personage, "and I lament for my pantaloons, which I have been
+enforced to pawn, inasmuch as the broker would advance nothing upon my coat
+or my shirt."</p>
+
+<p>And Napoleon went upon his knees and divested himself of his own nether
+garments, and arrayed the king therein, to the great diversion of those who
+stood about.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast done wickedly," said the king when he heard who Napoleon was,
+"in that thou hast presumed to fight battles and win victories without any
+commission from me. Go, nevertheless, and lose an arm, a leg, and an eye in
+my service, then shall thy offence be forgiven thee."</p>
+
+<p>And Napoleon raised a great army, and gained a great battle for the
+king, and lost an arm. And he gained another greater battle, and lost a
+leg. And he gained the greatest battle of all; and the king sat on the
+throne of his ancestors, and was called Louis the Victorious: but Napoleon
+had lost an eye. And he came into the king's presence, bearing his eye, his
+arm, and his leg.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou art pardoned," said the king, "and I will even confer a singular
+honour upon thee. Thou shalt defray the expense of my coronation,  which
+shall be the most splendid ever seen in France."</p>
+
+<p>So Napoleon lost all his substance, and no man pitied him. But after
+certain days the keeper of the royal wardrobe rushed into the king's
+presence, crying "Treason! treason! O Majesty, whence these republican and
+revolutionary pantaloons?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are those I deigned to receive from the rebel Buonaparte," said
+the king. "It were meet to return them. Where abides he now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Saving your Majesty's presence," they said, "he lieth upon a certain
+dunghill."</p>
+
+<p>"If this be so," said the king, "life can be no gratification to him,
+and it were humane to relieve him of it. Moreover, he is a dangerous man.
+Go, therefore, and strangle him with his own pantaloons. Yet, let a
+monument be raised to him, and engrave upon it, 'Here lies Napoleon
+Buonaparte, whom Louis the Victorious raised from the dunghill.'"</p>
+
+<p>They went accordingly; but behold! Napoleon already lay dead upon the
+dunghill. And this was told unto the king.</p>
+
+<p>"He hath ever been envious of my glory," said the king, "let him
+therefore be buried underneath."</p>
+
+<p>And it was so. And after no long space the king also died, and slept
+with his fathers. But when there was again a revolution in France, the
+people cast his bones out of the royal sepulchre, and laid Napoleon's there
+instead. And the dunghill complained grievously that it should be disturbed
+for so slight a cause.</p>
+
+<p>And Napoleon withdrew his hand from the <a id="p309"></a> hand of
+Loyalty, saying, "Pish!" And his eyes opened, and he heard the booming of
+the sea, and the buzzing of the flies, and felt the heat of the sun, and
+saw that the sugar he had dropped into his sangaree had not yet reached the
+bottom of the tumbler.</p>
+
+<h3>III.&mdash;<span class="hi">Concerning Daniel Defoe</span> </h3>
+
+<p>Daniel Defoe, at the invitation of the judge, came forth from the garret
+wherein he abode, and rode in a cart unto the Royal Exchange, wherein he
+ascended the pillory, to the end that his ears might be nailed thereunto.
+And much people stood before him, some few pelting, some mocking, but the
+most part cheering or weeping, for they knew him for a friend to the poor,
+and especially those men who were called Dissenters. And a certain person
+in black stood by him, invisible to the people, but well seen of Daniel,
+who knew him for one whose life he had himself written. And the man in
+black reasoned with Daniel, and said, "Thou seest this multitude of people,
+but which of them shall deliver thee out of my hand? Nay, but let thy white
+be black, and thy black white, and I myself will deliver thee, and make
+thee rich, and heal thy hurts, save the holes in thy ears, that I may know
+thee for mine own." But Daniel gave no heed to him. So the Devil departed,
+having great wrath, and entered into a certain smug-faced man standing
+by.</p>
+
+<p>And now the crowd before Daniel was greatly  diminished, and consisted
+mainly of his enemies, for his friends had gone away to drown their sorrow.
+And the smug-faced man into whom Satan had entered came forth from among
+them, and said unto him, "O Daniel, inasmuch as I am a Dissenter I am
+greatly beholden to thee; but inasmuch as I am an honest tradesman I have
+somewhat against thee, for thou hast written concerning short weights and
+measures. And a man's shop is more to him than his country or his religion.
+Wherefore I must needs be avenged of thee. Yet shalt thou own that the
+tender mercies of the good man are piteous, and that even in his wrath he
+thinketh upon compassion."</p>
+
+<p>And he picked up a great stone from the ground, and wrapped it in a
+piece of paper, saying, "Lest peradventure it hurt him overmuch." And the
+stone was very rough and sharp, and the paper was very thin. And he hurled
+it with all his might at the middle of Daniel's forehead, and the blood
+spouted forth. And Daniel cried aloud, and called upon the name of the
+Devil. And in an instant the pillory and the people were gone, and he found
+himself in the Prime Minister's cabinet, healed of all his hurts, except
+the holes in his ears. And the Minister was so like the Devil that you
+could not tell the difference. And he said, "Against what wilt thou write
+first, Daniel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dissenters," said Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>And he wrote a pamphlet, and such as read it took firebrands, and
+visited the Dissenters in their habitations. And many Dissenters were put
+into prison, and others fined and spoiled of  their goods. And he wrote
+other pamphlets, and each was cleverer and wickeder than the last. And
+whatsoever Daniel had of old declared to be white, lo! it was black; and
+what he had said was black, behold! it was white. And he throve and
+prospered exceedingly, and became a commissioner for public-houses and
+hackney-coaches and the imposing of oaths and the levying of custom, and
+all other such things as one does by deputy. And he mended the holes in his
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>But the time came when Daniel must be judged, and he went before the
+Lord. And all the court was full of Dissenters, and the Devil was there
+also. And the Dissenters testified many and grievous things against
+Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>"Daniel," said the Lord, "what answerest thou?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, Lord," said Daniel. "Only I would that the Dissenter who threw
+that stone at me should receive due and condign punishment, adequate to his
+misdeed."</p>
+
+<p>"That," said the Devil, "is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou sayest well, Satan," said the Lord, "and therefore shall Daniel go
+free. For if anything can excuse the apostasy of the noble, it is the
+ingratitude of the base."</p>
+
+<p>So the Devil went to his own place, looking very small. And Daniel found
+himself in the same garret whence he had gone forth to the pillory; and
+before him were bread and cheese, and a pen and ink and paper. And he
+dipped the pen into the ink, and wrote <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>.</p> <a
+id="p312"></a>
+
+<h3>IV.&mdash;<span class="hi">Cornelius the Ferryman</span> </h3>
+
+<p>Fourscore years ago there was a good ferryman named Cornelius, who rowed
+people between New York and Brooklyn. He had neither wife nor child, nor
+any one to think of except himself. It was, therefore, his custom, when he
+had earned enough in a day for his own wants, to put the rest aside, and
+bestow it upon sick or blind or maimed persons, lest they should come to
+the workhouse. And the sick and the blind and the maimed gathered around
+him, and waited by the water's edge, until Cornelius's day's work should be
+over.</p>
+
+<p>This went on until one of the little sooty imps who are always in
+mischief came to hear of it, and told the principal devil in charge of the
+United States, whose name is Politicianus.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me," said the Devil, "this will never do. I will see to it
+immediately."</p>
+
+<p>And he went off to Cornelius, and caught him in the act of giving two
+dimes to a blind beggar.</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish you are!" he said; "what waste of money is this! If you
+saved it up, you would by-and-by be able to build an hospital for all the
+beggars in New York."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a long time before there was enough," objected
+Cornelius.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said the Devil, "if you let me invest your money for you."
+And he showed Cornelius the plan of a most splendid hospital, and across
+the front of it was inscribed in letters of gold, <i>Cornelius
+Diabolodorus</i>. And Cornelius  was persuaded, and that evening he gave
+nothing to the poor. And the poor had come to think that Cornelius's money
+was their own, and abused him as though he had robbed them. And Cornelius
+drove them away: and his heart was hardened against them from that day
+forth.</p>
+
+<p>But the Devil kept his promise to Cornelius, and put him up to all the
+good things in Wall Street, and he soon had enough to build ten hospitals.
+But the more he had to build with, the less he wanted to build. And
+by-and-by the Devil called upon him, and found him contemplating two
+pictures. One of them showed the finest hospital you can imagine, full of
+neat, clean rooms, in one of which sat Cornelius himself, wearing a dress
+with a number and badge, and sipping arrowroot. The other showed fine
+houses, and opera-boxes, and fast-trotting horses, and dry champagne, and
+ladies who dance in ballets, and paintings by the great masters. Cornelius
+thrust the pictures away, and the Devil did not ask to see them, nor was it
+needful that he should, for he had painted them himself.</p>
+
+<p>"O dear Mr. Devil," said Cornelius, "I am so glad that you have called,
+for I wanted to speak to you. It strikes me that there is a great defect in
+the plan which you have been so good as to draw for me."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" asked the Devil.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no place for black men," said Cornelius. "And you know white
+men will never let them come into the same hospital."</p>
+
+<p>And the Devil, to do him justice, talked very reasonably to Cornelius,
+and represented to him that there were very few black men in New  York, and
+that these had very vigorous constitutions. But Cornelius was inflamed with
+enthusiasm, and frantic with philanthropy, and he vowed that he would not
+give a cent to an hospital that had not a wing for black men as big as all
+the rest of the building. And the Devil had to take his plan back, and come
+again in a year and a day. And when he did come back, Cornelius asked him
+if he did not think it would be a most excellent thing if all the Irishmen
+in New York could be shut up in an hospital or elsewhere; and he could not
+deny it. So he had to take his plan back again. And next year it was the
+turn of the Chinese, and then of the Red Indians, and then of the dogs and
+cats. And then Cornelius thought that he ought to provide room for all the
+people who had been ruined by his speculations, and the Devil thought so
+too, but doubted whether Cornelius would be able to afford it. And at last
+Cornelius said:</p>
+
+<p>"Methinks I have been very foolish in wishing to build an hospital at
+all while I am living. Surely it would be better that I should enjoy my
+money myself during my life, and leave the residue for the lawyers to
+divide after my death."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right," said the Devil; "that is exactly what I should do
+if I were you."</p>
+
+<p>So Cornelius put the plans behind a shelf in his counting-house, and the
+mice ate them. And he went on prospering and growing rich, until the Devil
+became envious of him, and insisted on changing places with him. So
+Cornelius went below, and the Devil came and dwelt in New York, where he
+still is.</p> <a id="p315"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>THE POISON MAID</h2>
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;O not for him
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Blooms my dark nightshade, nor doth hemlock brew
+<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;Murder for cups within her cavernous root.
+
+<h3>I</h3>
+
+<p>Grievous is the lot of the child, more especially of the female child,
+who is doomed from the tenderest infancy to lack the blessing of a mother's
+care.</p>
+
+<p>Was it from this absence of maternal vigilance that the education of the
+lovely Mithridata was conducted from her babyhood in such an extraordinary
+manner? That enormous serpents infested her cradle, licking her face and
+twining around her limbs? That her tiny fingers patted scorpions? and tied
+knots in the tails of vipers? That her father, the magician Locuste, ever
+sedulous and affectionate, fed her with spoonsful of the honeyed froth that
+gathers under the tongues of asps? That as she grew older and craved a more
+nutritious diet, she partook, at first in infinitesimal doses, but in ever
+increasing quantities, of arsenic, strychnine, opium, and prussic acid?
+That at last having attained the flower of youth, she drank habitually from
+vessels of gold, for her favourite beverages were so corrosive that no
+other substance could resist their solvent properties?</p>
+
+<p>Gradually accustomed to this strange regimen, she had thriven on it
+marvellously, and was without a peer for beauty, sense, and goodness. Her
+father had watched over her education with care, and had instructed her in
+all lawful knowledge, save only the knowledge of poisons. As no other human
+being had entered the house, Mithridata was unaware that her bringing up
+had differed in so material a respect from that of other young people.</p>
+
+<p>"Father," said she one day, bringing him a book she had been perusing,
+"what strange follies learned men will pen with gravity! or is it rather
+that none can set bounds to the licence of romancers? These dear serpents,
+my friends and playfellows, this henbane and antimony, the nourishment of
+my health and vigour&mdash;that any one should write of these as
+pernicious, deadly, and fatal to existence! Is it error or malignity? or
+but the wanton freak of an idle imagination?"</p>
+
+<p>"My child," answered the magician, "it is fit that thou shouldst now
+learn what hath hitherto been concealed from thee, and with this object I
+left this treatise in thy way. It speaks truth. Thou hast been nurtured
+from thy infancy on substances endowed with lethal properties, commonly
+called poisons. Thy entire frame is impregnated thereby, and, although thou
+thyself art in the fullest enjoyment of health, thy kiss would be fatal to
+any one not, like thy father, fortified by a course of antidotes. Now hear
+the reason. I bear a deadly grudge to the king of this land. He indeed hath
+not injured me; but his father slew my father, wherefore it is meet that I
+should slay that ancestor's son's son. I have therefore nurtured thee from
+thy infancy on  the deadliest poisons, until thou art a walking vial of
+pestilence. The young prince shall unseal thee, to his destruction and thy
+unspeakable advantage. Go to the great city; thou art beautiful as the day;
+he is young, handsome, and amorous; he will infallibly fall in love with
+thee. Do thou submit to his caresses, he will perish miserably; thou (such
+is the charm) ransomed by the kiss of love, wilt become wholesome and
+innocuous as thy fellows, preserving only thy knowledge of poisons, always
+useful, in the present state of society invaluable. Thou wilt therefore
+next repair to the city of Constantinople, bearing recommendatory letters
+from me to the Empress Theophano, now happily reigning."</p>
+
+<p>"Father," said Mithridata, "either I shall love this young prince, or I
+shall not. If I do not love him, I am nowise minded to suffer him to caress
+me. If I do love him, I am as little minded to be the cause of his
+death."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even in consideration of the benefit which will accrue to thee by
+this event?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even for that consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"O these daughters!" exclaimed the old man. "We bring them up tenderly,
+we exhaust all our science for the improvement of their minds and bodies,
+we set our choicest hopes upon them, and entrust them with the fulfilment
+of our most cherished aspirations; and when all is done, they will not so
+much as commit a murder to please us! Miserable ingrate, receive the just
+requital of thy selfish disobedience!"</p>
+
+<p>"O father, do not turn me into a tadpole!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not, but I will turn thee out of doors."</p>
+
+<p>And he did.</p>
+
+<h3>II</h3>
+
+<p>Though disinherited, Mithridata was not destitute. She had secured a
+particle of the philosopher's stone&mdash;a slender outfit for a magician's
+daughter! yet ensuring her a certain portion of wealth. What should she do
+now? The great object of her life must henceforth be to avoid committing
+murder, especially murdering any handsome young man. It would have seemed
+most natural to retire into a convent, but, not to speak of her lack of
+vocation, she felt that her father would justly consider that she had
+disgraced her family, and she still looked forward to reconciliation with
+him. She might have taken a hermitage, but her instinct told her that a
+fair solitary can only keep young men off by strong measures; and she
+disliked the character of a hermitess with a bull-dog. She therefore went
+straight to the great city, took a house, and surrounded herself with
+attendants. In the choice of these she was particularly careful to select
+those only whose personal appearance was such as to discourage any approach
+to familiarity or endearment. Never before or since was youthful beauty
+surrounded by such moustached duennas, squinting chambermaids, hunchbacked
+pages, and stumpy maids-of-all-work. This was a real sorrow to her, for she
+loved beauty; it was a still sadder trial that she could no longer feel it
+right to indulge herself in the least morsel of arsenic; she sighed for
+strychnia, and pined for prussic acid. The change of diet was of course at
+first  most trying to her health, and in fact occasioned a serious illness,
+but youth and a sound constitution pulled her through.</p>
+
+<p>Reader, hast thou known what it is to live with a heart inflamed by love
+for thy fellow-creatures which thou couldst manifest neither by word nor
+deed? To pine with fruitless longings for good? and to consume with vain
+yearnings for usefulness? To be misjudged and haply reviled by thy fellows
+for failing to do what it is not given thee to do? If so, thou wilt pity
+poor Mithridata, whose nature was most ardent, expansive, and affectionate,
+but who, from the necessity under which she laboured of avoiding as much as
+possible all contact with human beings, saw herself condemned to a life of
+solitude, and knew that she was regarded as a monster of pride and
+exclusiveness. She dared bestow no kind look, no encouraging gesture on any
+one, lest this small beginning should lead to the manifestation of her
+fatal power. Her own servants, whose minds were generally as deformed as
+their bodies, hated her, and bitterly resented what they deemed her haughty
+disdain of them. Her munificence none could deny, but bounty without
+tenderness receives no more gratitude than it deserves. The young of her
+own sex secretly rejoiced at her unamiability, regarding it as a
+providential set-off against her beauty, while they detested and denounced
+her as a&mdash;well, they would say viper in the manger, who spoiled
+everybody else's lovers and would have none of her own. For with all
+Mithridata's severity, there was no getting rid of the young men, the giddy
+moths that flew around her brilliant but baleful candle. Not all  the cold
+water thrown upon them, literally as well as figuratively, could keep them
+from her door. They filled her house with bouquets and billets doux; they
+stood before the windows, they sat on the steps, they ran beside her litter
+when she was carried abroad, they assembled at night to serenade her,
+fighting desperately among themselves. They sought to gain admission as
+tradesmen, as errand boys, even as scullions male and female. To such
+lengths did they proceed, that a particularly audacious youth actually
+attempted to carry her off one evening, and would have succeeded but for
+the interposition of another, who flew at him with a drawn sword, and after
+a fierce contest smote him bleeding to the ground. Mithridata had fainted,
+of course. What was her horror on reviving to find herself in the arms of a
+young man of exquisite beauty and princely mien, sucking death from her
+lips with extraordinary relish! She shrieked, she struggled; if she made
+any unfeminine use of her hands, let the urgency of the case plead her
+apology. The youth reproached her bitterly for her ingratitude. She
+listened in silent misery, unable to defend herself. The shaft of love had
+penetrated her bosom also, and it cost her almost as much for her own sake
+to dismiss the young man as it did to see him move away, slowly and
+languidly staggering to his doom.</p>
+
+<p>For the next few days messages came continually, urging her to haste to
+a youth dying for her sake, whom her presence would revive effectually. She
+steadily refused, but how much her refusal cost her! She wept, she wrung
+her hands, she called for death and execrated her nurture.  With that
+strange appetite for self-torment which almost seems to diminish the pangs
+of the wretched, she collected books on poisons, studied all the symptoms
+described, and fancied her hapless lover undergoing them all in turn. At
+length a message came which admitted of no evasion. The King commanded her
+presence. Admonished by past experience, she provided herself with a veil
+and mask, and repaired to the palace.</p>
+
+<p>The old King seemed labouring under deep affliction; under happier
+circumstances he must have been joyous and debonair. He addressed her with
+austerity, yet with kindness.</p>
+
+<p>"Maiden," he began, "thy unaccountable cruelty to my
+son&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thy son!" she exclaimed, "The Prince! O father, thou art avenged for my
+disobedience!"</p>
+
+<p>"Surpasses what history hath hitherto recorded of the most obdurate
+monsters. Thou art indebted to him for thy honour, to preserve which he has
+risked his life. Thou bringest him to the verge of the grave by thy
+cruelty, and when a smile, a look from thee would restore him, thou wilt
+not bestow it."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! great King," she replied, "I know too well what your Majesty's
+opinion of me must be. I must bear it as I may. Believe me, the sight of me
+could effect nothing towards the restoration of thy son."</p>
+
+<p>"Of that I shall judge," said the King, "when thou hast divested thyself
+of that veil and mask."</p>
+
+<p>Mithridata reluctantly complied.</p>
+
+<p>"By Heaven!" exclaimed the King, "such a  sight might recall the
+departing soul from Paradise. Haste to my son, and instantly; it is not yet
+too late."</p>
+
+<p>"O King," urged Mithridata, "how could this countenance do thy son any
+good? Is he not suffering from the effects of seventy-two poisons?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not aware of that," said the King.</p>
+
+<p>"Are not his entrails burned up with fire? Is not his flesh in a state
+of deliquescence? Has not his skin already peeled off his body? Is he not
+tormented by incessant gripes and vomitings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to my knowledge," said the King. "The symptoms, as I understand,
+are not unlike those which I remember to have experienced myself, in a
+milder form, certainly. He lies in bed, eats and drinks nothing, and
+incessantly calls upon thee."</p>
+
+<p>"This is most incomprehensible," said Mithridata. "There was no drug in
+my father's laboratory that could have produced such an effect."</p>
+
+<p>"The sum of the matter is," continued the King, "that either thou wilt
+repair forthwith to my son's chamber, and subsequently to church; or else
+unto the scaffold."</p>
+
+<p>"If it must be so, I choose the scaffold," said Mithridata resolutely.
+"Believe me, O King, my appearance in thy son's chamber would but destroy
+whatever feeble hope of recovery may remain. I love him beyond everything
+on earth, and not for worlds would I have his blood on my soul."</p>
+
+<p>"Chamberlain," cried the monarch, "bring me a strait waistcoat."</p>
+
+<p>Driven into a corner, Mithridata flung herself at the King's feet,
+taking care, however, not to touch him, and confided to him all her
+wretched history.</p>
+
+<p>The venerable monarch burst into a peal of laughter. "&Agrave; bon chat
+bon rat!" he exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered himself. "So thou art
+the daughter of my old friend the magician Locusto! I fathomed his craft,
+and, as he fed his child upon poisons, I fed mine upon antidotes. Never did
+any child in the world take an equal quantity of physic: but there is now
+no poison on earth can harm him. Ye are clearly made for each other; haste
+to his bedside, and, as the spell requires, rid thyself of thy venefic
+properties in his arms as expeditiously as possible. Thy father shall be
+bidden to the wedding, and an honoured guest he shall be, for having taught
+us that the kiss of Love is the remedy for every poison."</p> <a
+id="p325"></a> <a href="#contents">Contents</a>
+
+<h2>NOTES</h2>
+
+<p>The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained
+sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many
+originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the
+annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it
+desirable to append, and which further provide an opportunity of tendering
+thanks to many friends for their assent to republication.</p>
+
+<p>P. 5. <i>The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,</i>&mdash;Hereby we
+may detect the error of those among the learned who have identified
+Caucasia with Armenia. "Hellenic letters," says Mr. Capes, writing of
+Armenia in the fourth century, "were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young
+men of the slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens" ("University
+Life in Ancient Athens," p. 73).</p>
+
+<p>P. 28. <i>Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality.</i>&mdash;The
+belief in this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D.,
+and many emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the
+groundwork of Leopold Schefer's novel, "Der Unsterblichkeitstrank," which
+has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of "The Potion of
+Lao-Tsze."</p>
+
+<p>P. 38. <i>So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously.</i>&mdash;In
+A.D. 683, the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband's death, caused her
+son to be set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In
+our day we have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.</p>
+
+<p>P. 50. <i>Ananda the Miracle Worker.</i>&mdash;This story was originally
+published in Fraser's Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation
+appeared in the <i>Revue Britannique</i> for November, 1872. Buddha's
+prohibition to work miracles rests, so far as the present writer's
+knowledge extends, on the authority of Professor Max M&uuml;ller ("Lectures
+on the  Science of Religion"). It should be needless to observe that
+Ananda, "the St. John of the Buddhist group," is not recorded to have
+contravened this or any other of his master's precepts.</p>
+
+<p>P. 66. <i>The City of Philosophers.</i>&mdash;This story has been
+translated into French by M. Sarrazin.</p>
+
+<p>P. 68. <i>There to establish a philosophic commonwealth.</i>&mdash;The
+petition was actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the
+disordered condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to save a
+sinking state, possessed the accomplishments which would have adorned an
+age of peace and culture.</p>
+
+<p>P. 82. <i>The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor
+edge.</i>&mdash;Gallienus was fond of such practical jocularity. "Quum
+quidam gemmas vitreas pro veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re
+prodita, vindicari vellet, surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit.
+Deinde e cavea caponem emittit, mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam,
+per curionem dici jussit, 'Imposturam fecit et passus est': deinde
+negotiatorem dimisit" (Trebellius in Gallieno, cap. xii.).</p>
+
+<p>P. 100. <i>Hypati, anthypati, &amp;c.</i>&mdash;<i>Hypati</i> and
+<i>anthypati</i> denote consuls and proconsuls, dignities of course merely
+titular at the court of Constantinople. <i>Silentiarii</i> were properly
+officers charged with maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was
+perhaps performed by deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to
+persons of distinction. The <i>protospatharius</i> was the chief of the
+Imperial body-guard, of which the <i>spatharocandidati</i> constituted the
+<i>&eacute;lite</i>.</p>
+
+<p>P. 114. <i>The Wisdom of the Indians.</i>&mdash;Appeared in 1890 in
+<i>The Universal Review</i>. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr.
+Bastian's travels in Burma.</p>
+
+<p>P. 124. <i>The Dumb Oracle.</i>&mdash;Appeared in the <i>University
+Magazine</i> for June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval
+myth here transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of
+Browning's ballad, "The Boy and the Angel."</p>
+
+<p>P. 136. <i>Duke Virgil.</i>&mdash;The subject of this story is derived
+from Leopold Schefer's novel, "Die Sibylle von Mantua," though there is but
+little resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt as
+his authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as their duke
+in the thirteenth century: but the notion  seems merely founded upon the
+interpretation of the insignia accompanying a medi&aelig;val statue of the
+poet.</p>
+
+<p>P. 138. <i>To put the devil into a hole</i>.&mdash;"Then sayd Virgilius,
+'Shulde ye well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?' 'Yea, I shall
+well,' sayd the devyl. 'I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall
+not do it.' 'Well,' sayd the devyll, 'thereto I consent.' And then the
+devyll wrange himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein.
+Virgilius kyvered the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the
+devyll begyled, and myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte still
+therein" ("Romance of Virgilius").</p>
+
+<p> <i>Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?</i>&mdash;"Than he
+thought in his mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with
+great landes belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it
+Napells. And the foundacyon of it was of eggs" ("Romance of
+Virgilius").</p>
+
+<p>P. 148. <i>The Claw</i>.&mdash;Originally published in <i>The English
+Illustrated Magazine</i>.</p>
+
+<p>P. 151. <i>Peter of Abano</i>.&mdash;Pietro di Abano, who took his name
+from his birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary
+with Dante, whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused
+of magic. It is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the Inquisition
+or stoned by the populace; but after his death he was burned in effigy, his
+remains having been secretly removed by his friends. Honours were
+afterwards paid to his memory; and there seems no doubt that he was a man
+of great attainments, including a knowledge of Greek, and of unblemished
+character, if he had not sometimes sold his skill at too high a rate. For
+his authentic history, see the article in the <i>Biographie Universelle</i>
+by Ginguen&eacute;; for the legendary, Tieck's romantic tale, "Pietro von
+Abano" (1825), which has been translated into English.</p>
+
+<p>P. 156. <i>Alexander the Rat-catcher</i>.&mdash;This story, to whose
+ground-work History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first
+published in vol. xii. of <i>The Yellow Book</i>, January, 1897.</p>
+
+<p>P. 157. <i>Cardinal Barbadico</i>.&mdash;This cardinal was actually
+entrusted by Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats;
+an occasion upon which the "sardonic grin" imputed to the Pope by a
+detractor may be conjectured to have been particularly apparent. Barbadico
+was a remarkable instance of a man "kicked upstairs." As  Archbishop of
+Corfu he had had a violent dispute with the Venetian governor, and Innocent
+XI., equally unwilling to disown the representative of Papal authority or
+offend the Republic, recalled him to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep
+him there.</p>
+
+<p>P. 177. <i>The Rewards of Industry.</i>&mdash;Appeared originally in
+<i>Atalanta for August</i>, 1888.</p>
+
+<p>P. 194. <i>The Talismans.</i>&mdash;First published in <i>Atalanta</i>
+for September, 1890.</p>
+
+<p>P. 202. <i>The Elixir of Life.</i>&mdash;Published July, 1881, in the
+third number of a magazine entitled <i>Our Times</i>, which blasted the
+elixir's character by expiring immediately afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>P. 226. <i>The Purple Head.</i>&mdash;Appeared originally in <i>Fraser's
+Magazine</i> for August, 1877.</p>
+
+<p>P. 228. <i>The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey
+in comparison.</i> "Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini
+comparatione fulgoris" (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).</p>
+
+<p>P. 230. <i>All these sovereigns.</i>&mdash;"Diligentissime et Aurelianus
+et Probus et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus
+requisiverunt tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt" (Vopiscus,
+<i>loc. cit.</i>).</p>
+
+<p>P. 241. <i>Pan's Wand.</i>&mdash;Published originally in a Christmas
+number of The <i>Illustrated London News</i>.</p>
+
+<p>P. 249. <i>A Page from the Book of Folly.</i>&mdash;Appeared in
+<i>Temple Bar</i> for 1871.</p>
+
+<p>P. 282. <i>The Philosopher and the Butterflies.</i>&mdash;One of the
+contributions by various writers to "The New Amphion," a little book
+prepared for sale at the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the
+University of Edinburgh in 1886.</p>
+
+<p>P. 294. <i>The Three Palaces.</i>&mdash;Published originally on a
+similar occasion to the last story, in "A Volunteer Haversack," an
+extensive repertory of miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse,
+printed and sold at Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.</p>
+
+<p>P. 300. <i>New Readings in Biography.</i>&mdash;Originally published in
+<i>The Scots Observer</i> in 1889.</p>
+
+<p>P. 315. <i>The Poison Maid.</i>&mdash;The author wrote this tale in
+entire forgetfulness of Hawthorne's "Rapaccini's Daughter," which
+nevertheless he had certainly read.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>[Transcriber's note: a misprint in the book was corrected in
+this edition, from "He martyrdom" to "His martyrdom".]</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other
+Tales, by Richard Garnett
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWILIGHT OF GODS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10095-h.htm or 10095-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/9/10095/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
diff --git a/old/old/10095.txt b/old/old/10095.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e863395
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/10095.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9764 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
+by Richard Garnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales
+
+Author: Richard Garnett
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2003 [EBook #10095]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWILIGHT OF GODS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: An eagle pecking at the heart of a bearded man, chained to
+a rock, with the inscription: "Cor ex est numquam ex cordis regina
+volantum".]
+
+THE TWILIGHT
+OF THE GODS:
+AND OTHER TALES
+
+BY
+
+RICHARD GARNETT
+
+MDCCCCIII
+
+
+TO
+
+HORACE HOWARD FURNESS
+AND
+GEORG BRANDES.
+DABO DUOBUS TESTIBUS MEIS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+The Twilight of the Gods
+The Potion of Lao-Tsze
+Abdallah the Adite
+Ananda the Miracle Worker
+The City of Philosophers
+The Demon Pope
+The Cupbearer
+The Wisdom of the Indians
+The Dumb Oracle
+Duke Virgil
+The Claw
+Alexander the Ratcatcher
+The Rewards of Industry
+Madam Lucifer
+The Talismans
+The Elixir of Life
+The Poet of Panopolis
+The Purple Head
+The Firefly
+Pan's Wand
+A Page from the Book of Folly
+The Bell of Saint Euschemon
+Bishop Addo and Bishop Gaddo
+The Philosopher and the Butterflies
+Truth and Her Companions
+The Three Palaces
+New Readings in Biography
+The Poison Maid
+NOTES
+
+
+
+
+THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
+
+
+  Truth fails not, but her outward forms that bear
+  The longest date do melt like frosty rime.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The fourth Christian century was far past its meridian, when, high above
+the summit of the supreme peak of Caucasus, a magnificent eagle came
+sailing on broad fans into the blue, and his shadow skimmed the glittering
+snow as it had done day by day for thousands of years. A human figure--or
+it might be superhuman, for his mien seemed more than mortal--lifted from
+the crag, to which he hung suspended by massy gyves and rivets, eyes
+mournful with the presentiment of pain. The eagle's screech clanged on the
+wind, as with outstretched neck he stooped earthward in ever narrowing
+circles; his huge quills already creaked in his victim's ears, whose flesh
+crept and shrank, and involuntary convulsions agitated his hands and feet.
+Then happened what all these millenniums had never witnessed. No
+thunderbolt had blazed forth from that dome of cloudless blue; no marksman
+had approached the inaccessible spot; yet, without vestige of hurt, the
+eagle dropped lifeless, falling sheer down into the unfathomable abyss
+below. At the same moment the bonds of the  captive snapped asunder, and,
+projected by an impetus which kept him clear of the perpendicular
+precipice, he alighted at an infinite depth on a sun-flecked greensward
+amid young ash and oak, where he long lay deprived of sense and motion.
+
+The sun fell, dew gathered on the grass, moonshine glimpsed through the
+leaves, stars peeped timidly at the prostrate figure, which remained
+prostrate and unconscious still. But as sunlight was born anew in the East
+a thrill passed over the slumberer, and he became conscious, first of an
+indescribably delicious feeling of restful ease, then of a gnawing pang,
+acute as the beak of the eagle for which he at first mistook it. But his
+wrists, though still encumbered with bonds and trailing fetters, were
+otherwise at liberty, and eagle there was none. Marvelling at his inward
+and invisible foe, he struggled to his feet, and found himself contending
+with a faintness and dizziness heretofore utterly unknown to him. He dimly
+felt himself in the midst of things grown wonderful by estrangement and
+distance. No grass, no flower, no leaf had met his eye for thousands of
+years, nothing but the impenetrable azure, the transient cloud, sun, moon,
+and star, the lightning flash, the glittering peaks of ice, and the
+solitary eagle. There seemed more wonder in a blade of grass than in all
+these things, but all was blotted in a dizzy swoon, and it needed his
+utmost effort to understand that a light sound hard by, rapidly growing
+more distinct, was indeed a footfall. With a violent effort he steadied
+himself by grasping a tree, and had hardly accomplished so much when a tall
+dark maiden, straight as an arrow, slim as an antelope,  wildly beautiful
+as a Dryad, but liker a Maenad with her aspect of mingled disdain and
+dismay, and step hasty as of one pursuing or pursued, suddenly checked her
+speed on perceiving him.
+
+"Who art thou?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Gods! Thou speakest Greek!"
+
+"What else should I speak?"
+
+"What else? From whom save thee, since I closed my father's eyes, have I
+heard the tongue of Homer and Plato?"
+
+"Who is Homer? Who is Plato?"
+
+The maiden regarded him with a look of the deepest astonishment.
+
+"Surely," she said, "thy gift has been bestowed upon thee to little
+purpose. Say not, at least, that thou usest the speech of the Gods to
+blaspheme them. Thou art surely yet a votary of Zeus?"
+
+"I a votary of Zeus!" exclaimed the stranger. "By these fetters, no!" And,
+weak as he was, the forest rang with his disdainful laughter.
+
+"Farewell," said the maiden, as with dilating form and kindling eye she
+gathered up her robes. "I parley with thee no more. Thou art tenfold more
+detestable than the howling mob down yonder, intent on rapine and
+destruction. They know no better, and can no other. But thou, apt in
+speaking the sacred tongue yet brutally ignorant of its treasures, knowing
+the father of the Gods only to revile him! Let me pass."
+
+The stranger, if willing to hinder her, seemed little able. His eyes
+closed, his limbs relaxed, and without a cry he sank senseless on the
+sward.
+
+In an instant the maiden was kneeling by his side. Hastily undoing a basket
+she carried on her arm, she drew forth a leather flask, and, supporting
+the sunken head with one hand, poured a stream of wine through the lips
+with the other. As the gurgling purple coursed down his throat the sufferer
+opened his eyes, and thanked her silently with a smile of exquisite
+sweetness. Removing the large leaves which shaded the contents of the
+basket, she disclosed ripe figs and pomegranates, honeycomb and snow-white
+curd, lying close to each other in tempting array. The stranger took of
+each alternately, and the basket was well-nigh emptied ere his appetite
+seemed assuaged.
+
+The observant maiden, meanwhile, felt her mood strangely altered.
+
+"So have I imaged Ulysses to myself," she thought as she gazed on the
+stranger's goodly form, full of vigour, though not without traces of age,
+the massive brow, the kindly mouth, the expression of far-seeing wisdom.
+"Such a man ignorant of letters, and a contemner of Zeus!"
+
+The stranger's eloquent thanks roused her from a reverie. The Greek tongue
+fell upon her ear like the sweetest music, and she grieved when its flow
+was interrupted by a question addressed directly to herself.
+
+"Can a God feel hunger and thirst?"
+
+"Surely no," she rejoined.
+
+"I should have said the same yesterday," returned the stranger.
+
+"Wherefore not to-day?"
+
+"Dear maiden," responded he, with winning voice and manner, "we must know
+each other better ere my tale can gain credence with thee. Do thou rather
+unfold what thine own speech has left dark to me. Why the language of the
+Gods,  as should seem, is here understood by thee and me alone; what foes
+Zeus has here other than myself; what is the profane crowd of which thou
+didst speak; and why, alone and defenceless, thou ascendest this mountain.
+Think of me, if thou wilt, as one fallen from the clouds."
+
+"Strange man," returned the maiden, "who knowest Homer's speech and not
+Homer's self, who renouncest Zeus and resemblest him, hear my tale ere I
+require thine. Yesterday I should have called myself the last priestess of
+Apollo in this fallen land, to-day I have neither shrine nor altar. Moved
+by I know not what madness, my countrymen have long ago forsaken the
+worship of the Gods. The temples crumbled into ruin, prayer was no longer
+offered or sacrifice made as of old, the priestly revenues were plundered;
+the sacred vessels carried away; the voice of oracles became dumb; the
+divine tongue of Greece was forgotten, its scrolls of wisdom mouldered
+unread, and the deluded people turned to human mechanics and fishermen. One
+faithful servant of Apollo remained, my father; but 'tis seven days since
+he closed his eyes for ever. It was time, for yesternoon the heralds
+proclaimed by order of the King that Zeus and the Olympians should be named
+no more in Caucasia."
+
+"Ha!" interrupted the stranger, "I see it all. Said I not so?" he shouted,
+gazing into the sky as if his eye could pierce and his voice reach beyond
+the drifting clouds. "But to thy own tale," he added, turning with a
+gesture of command to the astonished Elenko.
+
+"It is soon told," she said. "I knew that it was death to serve the Gods
+any more, yet none  the less in my little temple did fire burn upon
+Apollo's altar this morning. Scarcely was it kindled ere I became aware of
+a ruffianly mob thronging to sack and spoil. I was ready for death, but not
+at their hands. I caught up this basket, and escaped up the mountain. On
+its inaccessible summit, it is reported, hangs Prometheus, whom Zeus (let
+me bow in awe before his inscrutable counsels) doomed for his benevolence
+to mankind. To him, as Aeschylus sings, Io of old found her way, and from
+him received monition and knowledge of what should come to pass. I will try
+if courage and some favouring God will guide me to him; if not, I will die
+as near Heaven as I may attain. Tell me on thy part what thou wilt, and let
+me depart. If thou art indeed Zeus's enemy, thou wilt find enough on thy
+side down yonder."
+
+"I have been Zeus's enemy," returned the stranger, mildly and gravely, "I
+am so no longer. Immortal hate befits not the mortal I feel myself to have
+become. Nor needest thou ascend the peak further. Maiden, I am Prometheus!"
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+It is a prerogative of the Gods that, when they do speak sooth, mortals
+must needs believe them. Elenko hence felt no incredulity at the revelation
+of Prometheus, or sought other confirmation than the bonds and broken links
+of chain at his wrists and ankles.
+
+"Now," he cried, or rather shouted, "is the  prophecy fulfilled with which
+of old I admonished the Gods in the halls of Olympus. I told them that Zeus
+should beget a child mightier than himself, who should send him and them
+the way he had sent his father. I knew not that this child was already
+begotten, and that his name was Man. It has taken Man ages to assert
+himself, nor has he yet, as it would seem, done more than enthrone a new
+idol in the place of the old. But for the old, behold the last traces of
+its authority in these fetters, of which the first smith will rid me.
+Expect no thunderbolt, dear maiden; none will come: nor shall I regain the
+immortality of which I feel myself bereaved since yesterday."
+
+"Is this no sorrow to thee?" asked Elenko.
+
+"Has not my immortality been one of pain?" answered Prometheus. "Now I feel
+no pain, and dread one only."
+
+"And that is?"
+
+"The pain of missing a certain fellow-mortal," answered Prometheus, with a
+look so expressive that the hitherto unawed maiden cast her eyes to the
+ground. Hastening away from the conversation to which, nevertheless, she
+inly purposed to return.
+
+"Is Man, then, the maker of Deity?" she asked.
+
+"Can the source of his being originate in himself?" asked Prometheus. "To
+assert this were self-contradiction, and pride inflated to madness. But of
+the more exalted beings who have like him emanated from the common
+principle of all existence, Man, since his advent on the earth, though not
+the creator, is the preserver or the destroyer. He looks up to them, and
+they are; he out-grows  them, and they are not. For the barbarian and
+Triballian gods there is no return; but the Olympians, if dead as deities,
+survive as impersonations of Man's highest conceptions of the beautiful.
+Languid and spectral indeed must be their existence in this barbarian age;
+but better days are in store for them."
+
+"And for thee, Prometheus?"
+
+"There is now no place," replied he, "for an impeacher of the Gods. My
+cause is won, my part is played. I am rewarded for my love of man by myself
+becoming human. When I shall have proved myself also mortal I may haply
+traverse realms which Zeus never knew, with, I would hope, Elenko by my
+side."
+
+Elenko's countenance expressed her full readiness to accompany Prometheus
+as far beyond the limits of the phenomenal world as he might please to
+conduct her. A thought soon troubled her delicious reverie, and she
+inquired:
+
+"Peradventure, then, the creed which I have execrated may be truer and
+better than that which I have professed?"
+
+"If born in wiser brains and truer hearts, aye," answered Prometheus, "but
+of this I can have no knowledge. It seems from thy tale to have begun but
+ill. Yet Saturn mutilated his father, and his reign was the Golden Age."
+
+While conversing, hand locked in hand, they had been strolling aimlessly
+down the mountain. Turning an abrupt bend in the path, they suddenly found
+themselves in presence of an assembly of early Christians.
+
+These confessors were making the most of Elenko's dilapidated temple, whose
+smoking shell  threw up a sable column in the background. The effigies of
+Apollo and the Muses had been dragged forth, and were being diligently
+broken up with mallets and hammers. Others of the sacrilegious throng were
+rending scrolls, or dividing vestments, or firing the grove of laurel that
+environed the shrine, or pelting the affrighted birds as they flew forth.
+The sacred vessels, however, at least those of gold and silver, appeared
+safe in the guardianship of an episcopal personage of shrewd and jovial
+aspect, under whose inspection they were being piled up by a troop of
+sturdy young ecclesiastics, the only weapon-bearers among the rabble.
+Elenko stood riveted to the ground. Prometheus, to her amazement, rushed
+forward to one of the groups with a loud "By all the Gods and Goddesses!"
+Following his movements, she saw that the object of his interest was an
+enormous dead eagle carried by one of the mob. The multitude, startled by
+his cry and his emotion, gazed eagerly at the strangers, and instantly a
+shout went up:
+
+"The heathen woman!"
+
+"With a heathen man!"
+
+And clubs began to be brandished, and stones to be picked up from the
+ground.
+
+Prometheus, to whom the shouts were unintelligible, looked wistfully at
+Elenko. As their eyes met, Elenko's countenance, which had hitherto been
+all disdain and defiance, assumed an expression of irresolution. A stone
+struck Prometheus on the temple, drawing blood; a hundred hands went up,
+each weighted with a missile.
+
+"Do as I," cried Elenko to him, and crossed herself.
+
+Prometheus imitated her, not unsuccessfully for a novice.
+
+The uplifted arms were stayed, some even sank down.
+
+By this time the Bishop had bustled to the front, and addressed a torrent
+of questions to Prometheus, who merely shook his head, and turned to
+inspect the eagle.
+
+"Brethren," said the Bishop, "I smell a miracle!" And, turning to Elenko,
+he rapidly proceeded to cross-examine her.
+
+"Thou wert the priestess of this temple?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"Thou didst leave it this morning a heathen?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Thou returnest a Christian?"
+
+Elenko blushed fire, her throat swelled, her heart beat violently. All her
+soul seemed concentrated in the gaze she fastened on the pale and bleeding
+Prometheus. She remained silent--but she crossed herself.
+
+"Who then has persuaded thee to renounce Apollo?"
+
+Elenko pointed to Prometheus.
+
+"An enemy of Zeus, then?"
+
+"Zeus has not such another enemy in the world."
+
+"I knew it, I was sure of it," exclaimed the Bishop. "I can always tell a
+Christian when I see him. Wherefore speaks he not?"
+
+"He is ancient, for all his vigorous mien. His martyrdom began ere our
+present speech was, nor could he learn this in his captivity."
+
+"Martyrdom! Captivity!" exclaimed the prelate gleefully, "I thought we were
+coming thither. An early martyr, doubtless?"
+
+"A very early martyr."
+
+"Fettered and manacled?"
+
+"Behold his wrists and ankles."
+
+"Tortured, of course?"
+
+"Incredibly."
+
+"Miraculously kept alive to this day?"
+
+"In an entirely supernatural manner."
+
+"Now," said the Bishop, "I would wager my mitre and ring that his life was
+prolonged by the daily ministrations of yonder fowl that he caresses with
+such singular affection?"
+
+"Never," replied Elenko, "for one day did that most punctual bird omit to
+visit him."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the Bishop. "And now, its mission accomplished, the
+blessed creature, as I am informed, is found dead at the foot of the
+mountain. Saints and angels! this is glorious! On your knees, ye infidels!"
+
+And down they all went, the Bishop setting the example. As their heads were
+bowed to the earth, Elenko made a sign to Prometheus, and when the
+multitude looked up, it beheld him in the act of imparting the episcopal
+blessing.
+
+"Tell him that we are all his brethren," said the Bishop, which
+announcement became in Elenko's mouth, "Do as I do, and cleave to thy
+eagle."
+
+A procession was formed. The new saint, his convert, and the eagle, rode in
+a car at the head of it. The Bishop, surrounded by his bodyguard, followed
+with the sacred vessels of Apollo, to which he had never ceased to direct a
+vigilant eye throughout the whole proceedings. The multitude swarmed along
+singing hymns, or contending for the stray feathers of the eagle. The
+representatives of seven monasteries put in their  claims for the links of
+Prometheus's fetters, but the Bishop scouted them all. He found time to
+whisper to Elenko:
+
+"You seem a sensible young person. Just hint to our friend that we don't
+want to hear anything about his theology, and the less he talks about the
+primitive Church the better. No doubt he is a most intelligent man, but he
+cannot possibly be up to all the recent improvements."
+
+Elenko promised most fervently that Prometheus' theological sentiments
+should remain a mystery to the public. She then began to reflect very
+seriously on the subject of her own morals. "This day," she said to
+herself, "I have renounced all the Gods, and told lies enough to last me my
+life, and for no other reason than that I am in love. If this is a
+sufficient reason, lovers must have a different code of morality from the
+rest of the world, and indeed it would appear that they have. Will you die
+for me? Yes. Admirable. Will you lie for me? No. Then you don't love me.
+[Greek: Ball' eis korakas, eis Tainaron, eis 'Ogg Kogg]."
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Elenko soon found that there was no pausing upon the path to which she had
+committed herself. As the sole medium of communication between Prometheus
+and the religious public, her time was half spent in instructing Prometheus
+in the creed in which he was supposed to have instructed her, and half in
+framing the edifying  sentences which passed for the interpretation of
+discourses for the most part far more interesting to herself than if they
+had been what they professed to be. The rapt and impassioned attention
+which she was observed to bestow on his utterances on such occasions all
+but gained her the reputation of a saint, and was accepted as a sufficient
+set-off against the unhallowed affection which she could not help
+manifesting for the memory of her father. The judicious reluctance of the
+Caucasian ecclesiastics to inquire over-anxiously into the creeds and
+customs of the primitive Church was a great help to her; and another
+difficulty was removed by the Bishop, who, having no idea of encouraging a
+rival thaumaturgist, took an early opportunity of signifying that it was
+rather in the line of Desmotes (for by this name the new saint passed) to
+be the subject than the instrument of miracles, and that, at all events, no
+more were to be looked for from him at his time of life. The warmth with
+which Elenko espoused this view raised her greatly in his good opinion, and
+he was always ready to come to her aid when she became entangled in
+chronological or historical difficulties, or seasoned her versions of
+Desmotes' speeches with reminiscences of Plato or Marcus Aurelius, or when
+her invention failed altogether. On such occasions, if objectors grew
+troublesome, the Bishop would thunder, "Brethren, I smell a heresy!" and no
+more was said. One minor trouble both to Prometheus and Elenko was the
+affection they were naturally expected to manifest towards the carcase of
+the wretched eagle, which many identified with the eagle of the Evangelist
+John. Prometheus  was of a forgiving disposition, but Elenko wished nothing
+more ardently than that the whole aquiline race might have but one neck,
+and that she might wring it. It somewhat comforted her to observe that the
+eagle's plumage was growing thin, while the eagle's custodian was growing
+fat.
+
+But she had worse troubles to endure than any that eagles could occasion.
+The youth of those who resorted to her and Prometheus attracted remark from
+the graver members of the community. Young ladies found the precepts of the
+handsome and dignified saint indispensable to their spiritual health; young
+men were charmed with their purity as they came filtered through the lips
+of Elenko. Is man more conceited than woman, or more confiding? Elenko
+should certainly have been at ease; no temptress, however enterprising,
+could well be spreading her nets for an Antony three hundred years old.
+Prometheus, on the contrary, might have found cause for jealousy in many a
+noble youth's unconcealed admiration of Elenko. Yet he seemed magnificently
+unconscious of any cause for apprehension, while Elenko's heart swelled
+till it was like to burst. She had the further satisfaction of knowing
+herself the best hated woman in Caucasia, between the enmity of those of
+whose admirers she had made an involuntary conquest, and of those who found
+her standing between them and Prometheus. Her monopoly of Greek, she felt
+sure, was her only security. Two constant attendants at Prometheus's
+receptions particularly alarmed her, the Princess Miriam, niece of the
+Bishop, a handsome widow accustomed to have  things as she wished them; and
+a tall veiled woman who seemed unknown to all, but whose unseen eyes, she
+instinctively knew, were never averted from the unconscious Prometheus.
+
+It was therefore with some trepidation that she received a summons to the
+private apartment of the Princess Miriam.
+
+"Dear friend," the Princess began, "thou knowest the singular affection
+which I have invariably entertained for thee."
+
+"Right well do I know it," responded Elenko. ("The thirty-first lie
+to-day," she added wearily to herself.)
+
+"It is this affection, dear friend," continued the Princess, "which induces
+me on the present occasion to transgress the limits of conventional
+propriety, and make a communication distressing to thee, but infinitely
+more so to myself."
+
+Elenko implored the Princess to make no such sacrifice in the cause of
+friendship, but the great lady was resolute.
+
+"People say," she continued--
+
+"What say they?"
+
+"That thy relation to Desmotes is indiscreet. That it is equivocal. That it
+is offensive. That it is sacrilegious. That, in a word, it is improper."
+
+Elenko defended herself with as much energy as her candour would allow.
+
+"Dear friend," said the Princess, "thou dost not imagine that I have part
+or lot in these odious imputations? Even could I deem them true, should I
+not think charitably of thee, but yesterday a heathen, and educated in
+impiety by a foul sorcerer? My poor lamb! But tongues must be  stopped, and
+I have now to advise thee how this may be accomplished."
+
+"Say on."
+
+"People will always talk so long as thou art the sole medium of
+communication with the holy man. Some deem him less ignorant of our speech
+than he seems, but concerning this I inquire not: for, in society, what
+seems, is. Enough that thy colloquies expose thee to scandal. There is but
+one remedy. Thou must yield thy place to another. It is meet that thou
+forthwith instruct in that barbarous dialect some matron of unblemished
+repute and devout aspirations; no mere ignorant devotee, however, but a
+woman of the world, whose prudence and experience may preserve the holy man
+from the pitfalls set for him by the unprincipled. Manifestly she must be a
+married person, else nought were gained, yet must she not be chargeable
+with forsaking her duties towards her husband and children. It follows that
+she must be a widow. It were also well that she should be of kin to some
+influential personage, to whose counsel she might have recourse in times of
+difficulty, and whose authority might protect her against the slanderous
+and evil disposed. I have not been able to meet any one endowed with all
+these qualifications, excepting myself. I therefore propose to thee that
+thou shouldst instruct me in the speech of Desmotes, and when I am
+qualified to take thy place my uncle shall elevate thee to the dignity of
+Abbess, or bestow thee upon some young clergyman of extraordinary desert."
+
+Elenko intimated, perhaps with more warmth than necessary, her aversion to
+both propositions,  and the extreme improbability of the Princess ever
+acquiring any knowledge of Greek by her instrumentality.
+
+"If this is the case," said the Princess, with perfect calmness, "I must
+have recourse to my other method, which is infallible."
+
+Elenko inquired what it might be.
+
+"I shall represent to my uncle, what indeed he very well knows, that a
+saint is, properly speaking, of no value till he is dead. Not until his
+decease are his relics available, or pilgrimages to his shrine feasible. It
+is solely in anticipation of this event that my uncle is keeping Desmotes
+at all; and the sooner it comes to pass, the sooner will my revered
+relative come by his own. Only think of the capital locked up in the new
+church, now so nearly completed, on the spot where they picked up the
+eagle! How shall it be dedicated to Desmotes in Desmotes' lifetime? Were it
+not a most blissful and appropriate coincidence if the day of the
+consecration were that of the saint's migration to a better world? I shall
+submit this view of the case to my uncle: he is accustomed to hear reason
+from me, of whom, between ourselves, he is not a little afraid. Thou mayest
+rely upon it that about the time of the consecration Desmotes will ascend
+to heaven; while thou, it is gravely to be feared, wilt proceed in the
+opposite direction. Would'st thou avert this unpleasantness, think well of
+my first proposal. I give thee credit for loving Desmotes, and suppose,
+therefore, that thou wilt make some sacrifice for his sake. I am a Kettle,
+thou art a Pot. Take heed how thou knockest against me!"
+
+Elenko sped back to bear tidings of the  threatened collision to
+Prometheus. As she approached his chamber she heard with astonishment two
+voices in eager conversation, and discovered with still greater amazement
+that their dialogue was carried on in Greek. The second speaker, moreover,
+was evidently a female. A jealous pang shot through Elenko's breast; she
+looked cautiously in, and discerned the same mysterious veiled woman whose
+demeanour had already been an enigma to her. But the veil was thrown back,
+and the countenance went far to allay Elenko's disquiet. It bore indeed
+traces of past beauty, but was altogether that of one who had known better
+days; worn and faded, weary and repining. Elenko's jealousy vanished,
+though her surprise redoubled, when she heard Prometheus address the
+stranger as "Sister."
+
+"A pretty brother I have got," rejoined the lady, in high sharp tones: "to
+leave me in want! Never once to inquire after me!"
+
+"Nay, sister, or sister-in-law," responded Prometheus, "if it comes to
+that, where were you while I was on Caucasus? The Oceanides ministered to
+me, Hermes came now and then, even Hercules left a card; but I never saw
+Pandora."
+
+"How could I compromise Epimetheus, Prometheus?" demanded Pandora.
+"Besides, my attendant Hope was always telling me that all would come
+right, without any meddling of mine."
+
+"Let her tell you so now," retorted Prometheus.
+
+"Tell me now! Do you pretend not to know that the hussey forsook Olympus
+ten years ago, and has turned Christian?"
+
+"I am sure I am very sorry to hear it. Somehow,  she never forsook _me_. I
+can't imagine how you Gods get on without her."
+
+"Get on! We are getting off. Except Eros and Plutus, who seem as usual, and
+the old Fates, who go on spinning as if nothing had happened, none of us
+expects to last for another ten years. The sacrifices have dwindled down to
+nothing. Zeus has put down his eagle. Hera has eaten her peacocks. Apollo's
+lyre is never heard--pawned, no doubt. Bacchus drinks water, and
+Venus--well, you can imagine how she gets on without him and Ceres. And
+here you are, sleek and comfortable, and never troubling yourself about
+your family. But you had better, or I swear I will tell Zeus; and we shall
+see whether these Christians will keep you with your ante-chamber full of
+starving gods. Take a day to think of what I have been saying!"
+
+And away she flounced, not noticing Elenko. Long and earnestly did the pair
+discuss the perils that menaced them, and at the end of their deliberations
+Elenko sought the Bishop, and briefly imparted the Princess Miriam's
+ultimatum.
+
+"It is painful to a spiritual man," replied the prelate, "to be accessory
+to a murder. It is also repugnant to his feelings to deny a beloved niece
+anything on which she has set her heart. To avoid such grievous dilemma, I
+judge it well that ye both ascend to heaven without further ceremony."
+
+That night the ascent of Prometheus and Elenko was witnessed by divers
+credible persons. The new church was consecrated shortly afterwards. It was
+amply stored with relics from the wardrobe of Prometheus and what remained
+of the eagle. The damsels of the capital regained their  admirers, and
+those who had become enamoured of Prometheus mostly transferred their
+affections to the Bishop. Everybody was satisfied except the Princess
+Miriam, who never ceased to deplore her indulgence in giving Elenko the
+chance of first speech with her uncle.
+
+"If I had been five minutes beforehand with the minx!" she said.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+The heaven to which Prometheus and Elenko had ascended was situated in a
+sequestered valley of Laconia. A single winding path led into the glen,
+which was inhabited only by a few hunters and shepherds, who still observed
+the rites of the ancient faith; and sometimes, deeming but to show kindness
+to a mortal, refreshed or sheltered a forlorn and hungry Deity. Saving at
+the entrance the vale was walled round by steep cliffs, for the most part
+waving with trees, but here and there revealing the naked crag. It was
+traversed by a silvery stream, in its windings enclosing Prometheus's and
+Elenko's cottage, almost as in an island. The cot, buried in laurel and
+myrtle, had a garden where fig and mulberry, grape and almond, ripened in
+their season. A few goats browsed on the long grass, and yielded their milk
+to the household. Bread and wine, and flesh when needed, were easily
+procured from the neighbours. Beyond necessary furniture, the cottage
+contained little but precious scrolls, obtained by Elenko from Athens and
+the newly founded city of Constantine. In these, under  her guidance,
+Prometheus read of matters that never, while he dwelt on Olympus, entered
+the imagination of any God.
+
+It is a chief happiness of lovers that each possesses treasures wholly
+their own, which they may yet make fully the possession of the other. These
+treasures are of divers kinds, beauty, affection, memory, hope. But never
+were such treasures of knowledge shared between lovers as between
+Prometheus and Elenko. Each possessed immeasurable stores, hitherto
+inaccessible to the other. How trifling seemed the mythical lore which
+Elenko had gleaned as the minister of Phoebus to that now imparted by
+Prometheus! The Titan had seen all, and been a part of all that he had
+seen. He had bowed beneath the sceptre of Uranus, he had witnessed his
+fall, and marked the ocean crimson with his blood. He remembered hoary
+Saturn a brisk active Deity, pushing his way to the throne of Heaven, and
+devouring in a trice the stone that now resists his fangs for millenniums.
+He had heard the shields of the Corybantes clash around the infant Zeus; he
+described to Elenko how one day the sea had frothed and boiled, and
+undraped Aphrodite had ascended from it in the presence of the gazing and
+applauding amphitheatre of cloud-cushioned gods. He could depict the
+personal appearance of Cybele, and sketch the character of Enceladus. He
+had instructed Zeus, as Chiron had instructed Achilles; he remembered
+Poseidon afraid of the water, and Pluto of the dark. He called to mind and
+expounded ancient oracles heretofore unintelligible: he had himself been
+told, and had disbelieved, that the happiest day  of his own life would be
+that on which he should feel himself divested of immortality. Of the
+younger gods and their doings he knew but little; he inquired with interest
+whether Bacchus had returned in safety from his Indian expedition, and
+whether Proserpine had a family of divine imps.
+
+Much more, nevertheless, had Elenko to teach Prometheus than she could
+learn from him. How trivial seemed the history of the gods to what he now
+heard of the history of men! Were these indeed the beings he had known
+"like ants in the sunless recesses of caves, dwelling deep-burrowing in the
+earth, ignorant of the signs of the seasons," to whom he had given fire and
+whom he had taught memory and number, for whom he had "brought the horse
+under the chariot, and invented the sea-beaten, flaxen-winged chariot of
+the sailor?" And now, how poorly showed the gods beside this once wretched
+brood! What Deity could die for Olympus, as Leonidas had for Greece? Which
+of them could, like Iphigenia, dwell for years beside the melancholy sea,
+keeping a true heart for an absent brother? Which of them could raise his
+fellows nearer to the source of all Deity, as Socrates and Plato had raised
+men? Who could portray himself as Phidias had portrayed Athene? Could the
+Muses speak with their own voices as they had spoken by Sappho's? He was
+especially pleased to see his own moral superiority to Zeus so eloquently
+enforced by AEschylus, and delighted in criticising the sentiments which
+the other poets had put into the mouths of the gods. Homer, he thought,
+must have been in Olympus often, and Aristophanes not seldom. When he read
+in the Cyclops  of Euripides, "Stranger, I laugh to scorn Zeus's
+thunderbolts," he grew for a moment thoughtful. "Am I," he questioned,
+"ending where Polyphemus began?" But when he read a little further on:
+
+  The wise man's only Jupiter is this,
+  To eat and drink during his little day,
+  And give himself no care--
+
+"No," he said, "the Zeus that nailed me to the rock is better than this
+Zeus. But well for man to be rid of both, if he does not put another in
+their place; or, in dropping his idolatry, has not flung away his religion.
+Heaven has not departed with Zeus." And, taking his lyre, he sang:
+
+  What floods of lavish splendour
+    The lofty sun doth pour!
+  What else can Heaven render?
+    What room hath she for more?
+
+  Yet shall his course be shortly done,
+    And after his declining
+  The skies that held a single Sun
+    With thousands shall be shining.
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+It was not long ere the gods began to find their way to Prometheus's
+earthly paradise, and who came once came again. The first was Epimetheus,
+who had probably suffered least of all from the general upset, having in
+truth little to lose since his ill-starred union with Pandora. He had
+indeed reason for thankfulness in his practical divorce from his spouse,
+who had settled in  Caucasia, and gave Greek lessons to the Princess
+Miriam. Would Prometheus lend him half a talent? a quarter? a tenth? a
+hundredth? Thanks, thanks. Prometheus might rely upon it that his residence
+should not be divulged on any account. Notwithstanding which assurance, the
+cottage was visited next day by eleven gods and demigods, mostly Titans.
+Elenko found it trying, and was really alarmed when by and by the Furies,
+having made over their functions to the Devil, strolled up to take the air,
+and dropped in for a chat, bringing Cerberus. But they behaved exceedingly
+well, and took back a message from Elenko to Eurydice. Ere long she was on
+most intimate terms with all the dethroned divinities, celestial, infernal,
+and marine.
+
+Beautiful and blessed beyond most things is youthful enthusiasm, looking up
+to something it feels or deems above itself. Beautiful, too, as autumn
+sunshine is maturity looking down with gentleness on the ideal it has
+surpassed, and reverencing it still for old ideas and associations. The
+thought of beholding a Deity would once have thrilled Elenko with rapture,
+if this had not been checked by awe at her own presumption. The idea that a
+Deity, other than some disgraced offender like Prometheus, could be the
+object of her compassion, would never have entered her mind. And now she
+pitied the whole Olympian cohort most sincerely, not so much for having
+fallen as for having deserved to fall. She could not conceal from herself
+how grievously they were one and all behind the age. It was impossible to
+make Zeus comprehend how an idea could be a match for a thunderbolt. Apollo
+spoke handsomely  of Homer, yet evidently esteemed the Iliad and Odyssey
+but lightly in comparison with the blind bard's hymn to himself. Ceres
+candidly admitted that her mind was a complete blank on the subject of the
+Eleusinian mysteries. Aphrodite's dress was admirable for summer, but in
+winter seemed obstinate conservatism; and why should Pallas make herself a
+fright with her Gorgon helmet, now that it no longer frightened anybody?
+Where Elenko would fain have adored she found herself tolerating, excusing,
+condescending. How many Elenkos are even now tenderly nursing ancient
+creeds, whose main virtue is the virtue of their professors!
+
+One autumn night all the principal gods were assembled under Prometheus's
+roof, doing justice to the figs and mulberries, and wine cooled with
+Taygetan snow. The guests were more than usually despondent. Prometheus was
+moody and abstracted, his breast seemed labouring with thought. "So looked
+my Pythoness," whispered Apollo to his neighbour, "when about to deliver an
+oracle."
+
+And the oracle came--in lyric verse, not to infringe any patent of
+Apollo's--
+
+  When o'er the towers of Constantine
+  An Orient Moon begins to shine,
+  Waning nor waxing aught, and bright
+  In daytide as in deep of night:
+  Then, though the fane be brought
+  To wreck, the God shall find,
+  Enthroned in human thought,
+  A temple in the mind.
+
+"And what becomes of us while this prodigious moonshine is concocting?"
+demanded Zeus, who had become the most sceptical of any of the gods.
+
+"Go to Elysium," suggested Prometheus.
+
+"There's an idea!" cried Zeus and Pallas together.
+
+"To Elysium! to Elysium!" exclaimed the other gods, and all rose
+tumultuously, saving two.
+
+"I go not," said Eros, "for where Love is, there is Elysium. And yonder
+rising moon tells me that my hour is come." And he flitted forth.
+
+"Neither go I," said an old blind god, "for where Plutus is, Elysium is
+not. Moreover, mankind would follow after me. But I too must away. Strange
+that I should have abode so long under the roof of a pair of perfect
+virtue." And he tottered out.
+
+But the other gods swept forth into the moonlight, and were seen no more.
+And Prometheus picked up the forsaken sandals of Hermes, and bound them on
+his own feet, and grasped Elenko, and they rose up by a dizzy flight to
+empty heaven. All was silent in those immense courts, vacant of everything
+save here and there some rusty thunderbolt or mouldering crumb of ambrosia.
+Above, around, below, beyond sight, beyond thought, stretched the still
+deeps of aether, blazing with innumerable worlds. Eye could rove nowhither
+without beholding a star, nor could star be beheld from which the Gods'
+hall, with all its vastness, would not have been utterly invisible. Elenko
+leaned over the battlements, and watched the racing meteors. Prometheus
+stood by her, and pointed out in the immeasurable distance the little speck
+of shining dust from which they had flown.
+
+"There? or here?" he asked.
+
+"There!" said Elenko.
+
+
+
+
+THE POTION OF LAO-TSZE
+
+
+  And there the body lay, age after age,
+    Mute, breathing, beating, warm, and undecaying,
+  Like one asleep in a green hermitage,
+    With gentle sleep about its eyelids playing,
+  And living in its dreams beyond the rage
+    Of death or life; while they were still arraying
+  In liveries ever new the rapid, blind,
+  And fleeting generations of mankind.
+
+In the days of the Tang dynasty China was long happy under the sceptre of a
+good Emperor, named Sin-Woo. He had overcome the enemies of the land,
+confirmed the friendship of its allies, augmented the wealth of the rich,
+and mitigated the wretchedness of the poor. But most especially was he
+admired and beloved for his persecution of the impious sect of Lao-tsze,
+which he had well-nigh exterminated.
+
+It was but natural that such an Emperor should congratulate himself upon
+his goodness and worth; yet, as no human bliss is perfect, sorrow could not
+fail to enter his mind.
+
+"It is grievous to reflect," said he to his courtiers, "that if, as ye all
+affirm, there hath not been any Emperor of equal merit with myself before
+my time, neither will any such arise after me, my subjects must inevitably
+be sufferers by my death."
+
+To which the courtiers unanimously responded, "O Emperor, live for ever!"
+
+"Happy thought!" exclaimed the Emperor; "but wherewithal shall it be
+executed?"
+
+The Prime Minister looked at the Chancellor, the Chancellor looked at the
+Treasurer, the Treasurer looked at the Chamberlain, the Chamberlain looked
+at the Principal Bonze, the Principal Bonze looked at the Second Bonze,
+who, to his great surprise, looked at him in return.
+
+"When the turn comes to me," murmured the inferior functionary, "I would
+say somewhat."
+
+"Speak!" commanded the Emperor.
+
+"O Uncle of the stars," said the Bonze, "there are those in your Majesty's
+dominions who possess the power of lengthening life, who have, in fact,
+discovered the Elixir of Immortality."
+
+"Let them be immediately brought hither," commanded the Emperor.
+
+"Unhappily," returned the Bonze, "these persons, without exception, belong
+to the abominable sect of Lao-tsze, whose members your Majesty long ago
+commanded to cease from existence, with which august order they have for
+the most part complied. In my own diocese, where for some years after your
+Majesty's happy accession we were accustomed to impale twenty thousand
+annually, it is now difficult to find twenty, with the utmost diligence on
+the part of the executioners."
+
+"It has of late sometimes appeared to me," said the Emperor, "that there
+may be more good in that sect than I have been led to believe by my
+counsellors."
+
+"I have always thought," said the Prime Minister, "that they were rather
+misguided than wilfully wicked."
+
+"They are a kind of harmless lunatics," said the Chancellor; "they should,
+I think, be made wards in Chancery."
+
+"Their money does not appear different from other men's," said the
+Treasurer.
+
+"I," said the Chamberlain, "have known an old woman who had known another
+old woman who belonged to this sect, and who assured her that she had been
+very good when she was a little girl."
+
+"If," said the Emperor, "it appears that his Grace the Principal Bonze hath
+in any respect misled us, his property will necessarily be confiscated to
+the Imperial Treasury, and the Second Bonze will succeed to his office. It
+is needful, however, to ascertain before all things whether this sect does
+really possess the Elixir of Immortality, for on that the entire question
+of its deserts obviously depends. Our Counsellor the Second Bonze having,
+next to myself, the greatest interest in the matter, I desire him to make
+due inquiries and report to us at the next council, when I shall be
+prepared to state what fine will be imposed upon him, should he not have
+succeeded."
+
+That night all the members of the Lao-tsze sect inhabiting prisons under
+the jurisdiction of the Principal Bonze were decapitated, and the P.B. laid
+his own head upon his pillow with some approach to peace of mind, trusting
+that the knowledge of the Elixir of Immortality had perished with them.
+
+The Second Bonze, having a different object to attain, proceeded in a
+different manner. He sent for his captives, and discoursed to them touching
+the evil arts of unprincipled courtiers, and  the facility with which they
+mislead even the best intentioned princes. For years had he, the Second
+Bonze, pleaded the cause of toleration at court; and had at length
+succeeded in enlightening his Majesty to such an extent that there was
+every prospect of an edict of indulgence being shortly promulgated,
+provided always that the Elixir of Life was previously forthcoming.
+
+The unfortunate heretics would have been only too thankful to prolong the
+Emperor's life indefinitely in consideration of securing peace for their
+own, but they could only inform the Bonze of the general tradition of their
+sect. This was that the knowledge of Lao-tsze's secret was confined to
+certain adepts, most of whom were plunged into so deep a trance that any
+communication with them was impossible. For the administration of the
+miraculous draught, it appeared, was attended with this inconvenience, that
+it threw the partaker into a deep sleep, lasting any time between ten years
+and eternity, according to the depth of his potation. During its
+continuance the ordinary operations of nature were suspended, and the
+patient awoke with precisely the same bodily constitution, old or young, as
+he had possessed on falling into his lethargy; and though still liable to
+wounds and accidents, he or she continued to enjoy undiminished health and
+vigour for a period equal to the duration of the trance, after which he
+sank back into the ranks of mortality, unless he could repeat the potion.
+All the adepts who had come to life under his present Majesty's most
+clement reign had immediately emigrated: the only persons, therefore,
+capable of giving information were now buried in slumber, and of course
+would only speak when they should awake. They were mostly concealed in the
+recesses of caverns, those inhabited by wild beasts being usually preferred
+for the sake of better security, as no tiger or bear would harm a follower
+of Lao-tsze. The witnesses, therefore, advised the Bonze to ascertain the
+residences of the most ferocious tigers in his diocese, and to wait upon
+them personally, in the hope of thus discovering what he sought.
+
+This suggestion was exceedingly unpalatable to the Bonze, who felt almost
+equally unwilling to venture himself into a wild beast's den or to give any
+other person the chance of making the discovery. While he hesitated in
+unspeakable perplexity he was informed that an old man, about to expire at
+the age of an hundred and twenty years, desired to have speech with him.
+Thinking so venerable a personage likely to have at least a glimmering of
+the great secret, the Bonze hurried to his bedside.
+
+"Our master, Lao-tsze," began the old man, "forbids us to leave this world
+with anything undisclosed which may contribute to the advantage of our
+fellow-creatures. Whether he deemed the knowledge of the cup of immortality
+conducive to this end I cannot say, but the question doth not arise, for I
+do not possess it. Hear my tale, nevertheless. Ninety years ago, being a
+hunter, it was my hap to fall into the jaws of an enormous tiger, who bore
+me off to his cavern. I there found myself in the presence of two ladies,
+one youthful and of surpassing loveliness, the other haggard and wrinkled.
+The younger lady expostulated with the tiger, and he forthwith released me.
+My gratitude won the women's  confidence, and I learned that they were
+disciples of Lao-tsze who had repaired to the cavern to partake of the
+miraculous draught, which they were just about to do. They were, it
+appeared, mother and daughter, and I distinctly remember that the
+composition of the beverage was known to the daughter only. This impressed
+me, for I should naturally have expected the contrary. The tiger escorted
+me home. I forswore hunting, and became, and have secretly continued, a
+disciple of Lao-tsze. I will now indicate the position of the cavern to
+thee: whether the ladies will still be found in it is beyond my power to
+say."
+
+And having pointed out the direction of the cavern, he expired.
+
+The thing had to be done. The Bonze dressed himself up as much like a
+votary of Lao-tsze as possible, provided himself with a body-guard of _bona
+fide_ disciples, and, accompanied by a small army of huntsmen and warriors
+as well, marched in quest of the den of the tiger. It was discovered about
+nightfall, and having tethered a small boy near the entrance, that his
+screams when being devoured might give notice of the tiger's issue from or
+return to his habitation, the Bonze and his myrmidons took up a flank
+position and awaited the dawn. The distant howls of roaming beasts of prey
+entirely deprived the holy man of his rest, but nothing worse befell him,
+and when in the morning the small boy, instead of providing the tiger with
+a breakfast, was heard crying for his own, the besiegers mustered up
+courage to enter the cavern. The glare of their torches revealed no tiger:
+but, to the Bonze's inexpressible delight, two females lay on the floor of
+the cave,  corresponding in all respects to the description of the old man.
+Their costume was that of the preceding century. One was wrinkled and
+hoary; the inexpressible loveliness of the other, who might have seen
+seventeen or eighteen summers, extorted a universal cry of admiration,
+followed by a hush of enraptured silence. Warm, flexible, fresh in colour,
+breathing naturally as in slumber, the figures lay, the younger woman's arm
+underneath the elder woman's neck, and her chin nestling on the other's
+shoulder. The countenance of each seemed to indicate happy dreams.
+
+"Can this indeed be but a trance?" simultaneously questioned several of the
+Bonze's followers.
+
+"_Fiat experimentum in corpore vili!_" exclaimed the Bonze; and he thrust
+his long hunting spear into the elder woman's bosom. Blood poured forth
+freely, but there was no change in the expression of the countenance. No
+struggle announced dissolution; not until the body grew chill and the limbs
+stiff could they be sure the old woman was indeed dead.
+
+"Carry the young woman like porcelain," ordered the priest, and like the
+most fragile porcelain the exquisite young beauty was borne from the cavern
+smiling in her trance and utterly unconscious, while the corpse of her aged
+companion was abandoned to the hyaenas. So often did the bearers pause to
+look on her beauty that it was found necessary to drape the countenance
+entirely, until reaching the closed sedan in which, vigilantly watched by
+the Bonze, she was transported to the Imperial palace.
+
+And so she was brought to the Emperor, and he worshipped her. She was laid
+on a couch of cloth of gold in the Imperial apartments. Wonderful was the
+contrast between her youthful beauty, so still in its repose, and the old
+haggard Emperor, fevered with the lust of beauty and love of life.
+
+"O Majesty," said his wisest counsellor, "is there any sect in thy
+dominions that possesses the secret of perpetual youth?"
+
+And the Emperor made proclamation, but no such sect could be found. And he
+mourned exceedingly, and caused strong perfumes to be burned around the
+sleeper, and conches to be blown and gongs beaten in her ears, hoping that
+she would awake ere he was dead or wholly decrepit. But she stirred not.
+And he shut himself up with her and passed his time praying to Fo for her
+awakening.
+
+But one day the door of the chamber was beaten down, and his old wife came
+in passionately upbraiding him.
+
+"Sin-Woo," she cried, "thou hast not the heart of a man! Thou wouldest be
+deathless, leaving me to die! I shall be laid in the grave, and thou wilt
+reign with another! Wherefore have I been true to thee, if not that our
+ashes might mingle at the last? Thou hoary sensualist!"
+
+"Su-Ti," said the Emperor, with feeling, "thou dost grievously misjudge me.
+I am no heartless sensualist, no butterfly sipper at the lips of beauty. Is
+not my soul entirely possessed by this divine creature, whom I love with an
+affection infinitely exceeding that which I have entertained for thee at
+any period? And how knowest thou," added  he, striving to soothe her, "that
+I will not give thee to drink of the miraculous potion?"
+
+"And keep my grey hairs and wrinkles through all time! Nay, Sin-Woo, I am
+no fool like thee, and were I so, I am not in love with any youth. And know
+I not that even if I would accept the boon, thou would'st never give it?"
+
+And she rushed away in fury and hanged herself by her Imperial girdle.
+Whereupon all the other wives and concubines of the Emperor did likewise,
+as custom and reason prescribe. All the palace was filled with lamentation
+and funerals. But the Emperor lamented not, nor turned his gaze from the
+sleeper, nor did the sleeper awaken.
+
+And his son came to him angry with exceeding wrath.
+
+"Thou hast murdered my mother. Thou would'st rob me of the crown that is
+rightfully mine. I, born to be an Emperor, shall die a subject! Nay, but I
+will save thee from thyself. I will pierce thy leman with the sword, or
+burn her with fire."
+
+And the Emperor, fearing he would do as he threatened, commanded him to be
+slain, as also his brothers and sisters. And he paid no heed to the affairs
+of State, but gave all into the hand of the Second, now the Principal
+Bonze. And the laws ceased to be observed, and rebellions broke out in the
+provinces, and enemies invaded the country, and there was famine in the
+land.
+
+And now the Emperor was well-nigh ten years nearer to the gates of death
+than when the Sleeping Beauty had been brought to his court. The love of
+beauty was nearly quenched in him, but the longing for life grew more
+intense. He became  angry with the sleeper, that she awakened not, and with
+his little remaining strength smote her fiercely on the cheeks, but she
+gave no sign of reviving. Remembering that if he gained the potion of
+immortality he would himself be plunged into a trance, he made all
+preparations for the interregnum. He decreed that he was to be seated erect
+on his throne, with all his imperial insignia, and it was to be death to
+any one who should presume to remove any of them. His slumbering figure was
+to preside at all councils, and to be consulted in every act of state, and
+all ministers and officers were to do homage daily. The revived Sleeping
+Beauty was to partake of the draught anew, at the same time and in the same
+manner as himself, that she might awake with him, and that he might find
+her charms unimpaired. All the ministers swore solemnly to observe these
+regulations; firmly purposing to burn the sleeper, if sleep he ever did, at
+the very first opportunity, and scatter his ashes to the winds. Then they
+would fight for the Empire among themselves; each, meanwhile, was mainly
+occupied in striving to gain the rebels over to his interest, insomuch that
+the people grew more miserable day by day.
+
+And as the aged Emperor waxed more and more feeble, he began to see
+visions. Legions of little black imps surrounded him crying, "We are thy
+sins, and would be punished--would'st thou by living for ever deprive us
+of our due?" And fair female forms came veiled with drooping heads, and
+murmured, "We are thy virtues, and would be rewarded--would'st thou cheat
+us?" And other figures came, dark but lovely, and whispered,  "We are thy
+dead friends who have long waited for thee--would'st thou take to thyself
+new friends, and forget us?" And others said, "We are thy memories--wilt
+thou live on till we are all withered in thy heart?" And others said, "We
+are thy strength and thy beauty, thy memory and thy wit--canst thou live,
+knowing thou wilt never see us more?" And at last came two warders,
+officers of the King of Death, and one of them was laughing. And the other
+asked why he laughed, and he replied:
+
+"I laugh at the Emperor, who thinks to escape our master, not knowing that
+the moment of his decease was engraved with a pen of iron upon a rock of
+adamant a million million years or ever this world was."
+
+"And when comes it?" asked the other.
+
+"In ten minutes," said the first.
+
+When the Emperor heard this he was wild with terror, and tottered to the
+couch on which the Sleeping Beauty lay. "Oh, awake!" he cried, "awake and
+save me ere it is too late!" And, oh wonder! the sleeper stirred, and
+opened her eyes.
+
+If she had been so beautiful while sleeping, what was she when awake! But
+the love of life had overcome the love of beauty in the Emperor's bosom,
+and he saw not the eyes like stars, and the bloom as of peaches and lilies,
+or the aspect grand and smiling as daybreak. He could only cry, "Give me
+the potion, lest I die, give me the potion!"
+
+"That cannot I," she said. "The secret was known only to my daughter."
+
+"Who is thy daughter?"
+
+"The hoary woman, she who slept with me in the cavern."
+
+"That aged crone thy daughter, daughter to thee so youthful and so fresh?
+
+"Even so," she said, "I bore her at sixteen, and slumbered for seventy
+years. When I awoke she was withered and decrepit: I youthful as when I
+closed my eyes. But she had learned the secret, which I never knew."
+
+"The Bonze shall be crucified!" yelled the Emperor.
+
+"It is too late," said she; "he is torn in pieces already."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By the multitude that are now coming to do the like unto thee."
+
+And as she spoke the doors were burst open, and in rushed the people,
+headed by the most pious Bonze in the Empire (after the late Principal
+Bonze), who plunged a sword into the Emperor's breast, exclaiming:
+
+"He who despises this life in comparison with another deserves to lose the
+life which he has." Words, saith the historian Li, which have been thought
+worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold in the Hall of Confucius.
+
+And the people were crying, "Kill the sorceress!" But she looked upon them,
+and they cried, "Be our Empress!"
+
+"Remember," said she, "that ye will have to bear with me for a hundred
+years!"
+
+"Would," said they, "that it might be a hundred thousand!"
+
+So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously. Among her good acts is
+enumerated her toleration  of the followers of Lao-tsze. Since, however,
+they have ceased to be persecuted by man, it is observed that wild beasts
+have lost their ancient respect for them, and devour them with no less
+appetite than the members of other sects and denominations.
+
+
+
+
+ABDALLAH THE ADITE
+
+
+An aged hermit named Sergius dwelt in the wilds of Arabia, addicting
+himself to the pursuit of religion and alchemy. Of his creed it could only
+be said that it was so much better than that of his neighbours as to cause
+him to be commonly esteemed a Yezidi, or devil worshipper. But the better
+informed deemed him a Nestorian monk, who had retired into the wilderness
+on account of differences with his brethren, who sought to poison him.
+
+The imputation of Yezidism against Sergius was the cause that a certain
+inquisitive young man resorted to him, trusting to obtain light concerning
+the nature of demons. But he found that Sergius could give him no
+information on that subject, but, on the contrary, discoursed so wisely and
+beautifully on holy things, that his pupil's intellect was enlightened, and
+his enthusiasm was inflamed, and he longed to go forth and instruct the
+ignorant people around him; the Saracens, and the Sabaeans, and the
+Zoroastrians, and the Carmathians, and the Baphometites, and the
+Paulicians, who are a remnant of the ancient Manichees.
+
+"Nay, good youth," said Sergius, "I have renounced the sending forth of
+missionaries, having made ample trial with my spiritual son, the Prophet
+Abdallah."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the youth, "was Abdallah the Adite thy disciple?"
+
+"Even so," said Sergius. "Hearken to his history.
+
+"Never have I instructed so promising a pupil as Abdallah, nor when he was
+first my disciple do I deem that he was other than the most simple-minded
+and well-intentioned of youths. I always called him son, a title I have
+never bestowed on another. Like thee, he had compassion on the darkness
+around him, and craved my leave to go forth and dispel it.
+
+"'My son,' said I, 'I will not restrain thee: thou art no longer a child.
+Thou hast heard me discourse on the subject of persecution, and knowest
+that poison was administered to me personally on account of my inability to
+perceive the supernatural light emanating from the navel of Brother
+Gregory. Thou art aware that thou wilt be beaten with rods and pricked with
+goads, chained and starved in a dungeon, very probably blinded, very
+possibly burned with fire?'
+
+"'All these things I am prepared to undergo,' said Abdallah; and he
+embraced me and bid me farewell.
+
+"After certain moons he returned covered with weals and scars, and his
+bones protruded through his skin.
+
+"'Whence are these weals and scars?' asked I, 'and what signifies this
+protrusion of thy bones?'
+
+"'The weals and the scars,' answered he, 'proceed from the floggings
+inflicted upon me by command of the Caliph; and my bones protrude by reason
+of the omission of his officers to furnish  me with either food or drink in
+the dungeon wherein I was imprisoned by his orders.'
+
+"'O my son,' exclaimed I, 'in the eyes of faith and right reason these
+scars are lovelier than the moles of beauty, and the sight of thy bones is
+like the beholding of hidden treasure!'
+
+"And Abdallah strove to look as though he believed me; nor did he entirely
+fail therein. And I took him, and fed him, and healed him, and sent him
+forth a second time into the world.
+
+"And after a space he returned, covered as before with wounds and bruises,
+but comely and somewhat fat.
+
+"'Whence this sleekness of body, my son?' I asked.
+
+"'Through the charity of the Caliph's wives,' he answered, 'who have fed me
+secretly, I having assured them that in remembrance of this good work each
+of them in the world to come would have seven husbands.'
+
+"'How knewest thou this, my son?' I inquired.
+
+"'In truth, father,' he said, 'I did not know it; but I thought it
+probable.'
+
+"'O my son! my son!' exclaimed I, 'thou art on a dangerous road. To win
+over weak ignorant people by promises of what they shall receive in a
+future life, whereof thou knowest no more than they do! Knowest thou not
+that the inestimable blessings of religion are of an inward and spiritual
+nature? Did I ever promise any disciple any recompense for his
+enlightenment and good deeds, save flogging, starvation, and burning?'
+
+"'Never, father," said he, 'and therefore thou  hast had no follower of thy
+law save one, and he hath broken it.'
+
+"He left me after a shorter stay than before, and again went forth to
+preach. After a long time he returned in good condition of body, yet
+manifestly having something upon his mind.
+
+"'Father,' he said, 'thy son hath preached with faithfulness and
+acceptance, and turned thousands unto righteousness. But a sorcerer hath
+arisen, saying, "Why follow ye Abdallah, seeing that he breathes not fire
+out of his mouth and nostrils?" And the people give ear unto the words that
+come from this man's lips, when they behold the flame that cometh from his
+nose. And unless thou teachest me to do as he doth I shall assuredly
+perish.'
+
+"And I told Abdallah that it was better to perish for the truth's sake than
+to prolong life by lies and deceit. But he wept and lamented exceeding
+sore, and in the end he prevailed with me; and I taught him to breathe
+flame and smoke out of a hollow nut filled with combustible powder. And I
+took a certain substance called soap, but little known in this country, and
+anointed his feet therewith. And when he and the sorcerer met, both
+breathing flame, the people knew not which to follow; but when Abdallah
+walked over nine hot ploughshares, and the sorcerer could not touch one of
+them, they beat his brains out, and became Abdallah's disciples.
+
+"A long time afterward Abdallah came to me again, this time with a joyful,
+and yet with somewhat of a troubled look, carrying a camel-hair blanket,
+which he undid, and lo! it was full of bones.
+
+"'O father,' he said, 'I bring thee happy tidings. We have found the bones
+of the camel of the prophet Ad, upon which his revelation was engraved by
+him.'
+
+"'If this be so,' said I, 'thou art acquainted with the precepts of the
+prophet, and hast no need of mine.'
+
+"'Nay, but father,' said he, 'although the revelation was without question
+originally engraved by the prophet on these very bones, it hath come to
+pass by the injury of time that not one letter of his writing can be
+distinguished. I have therefore come to ask thee to write it over again.'
+
+"'What!' I exclaimed, 'I forge a revelation in the name of the prophet Ad!
+Get thee behind me!'
+
+"'Thou knowest, father,' he rejoined, 'that if we had the original words of
+the prophet Ad here they would profit us nought, as by reason of their
+antiquity none would understand them. Seeing therefore that I myself cannot
+write, it is meet that thou shouldst set down in his name those things
+which he would have desired to deliver had he been now among us; but if
+thou wilt not, I shall ask Brother Gregory.'
+
+"And when I heard him speak of having recourse to that cheat and impostor
+my spirit was grieved within me, and I wrote the Book of Ad myself. And I
+was heedful to put in none but wholesome and profitable precepts, and more
+especially did I forbid polygamy, having perceived a certain inclination
+thereunto in my disciple.
+
+"After many days he came again, and this time he was in violent terror and
+agitation, and hair was wanting to the lower part of his countenance.
+
+"'O Abdallah,' I inquired, 'where is thy beard?'
+
+"'In the hands of my ninth wife,' said he.
+
+"'Apostate!' I exclaimed, 'hast thou dared to espouse more wives than one?
+Rememberest thou not what is written in the Book of the prophet Ad?'
+
+"'O father,' he said, 'the revelation of Ad being, as thou knowest, so
+exceedingly ancient, doth of necessity require a commentary. This hath been
+supplied by one of my disciples, a young Syrian and natural son of Gregory,
+as I opine. This young man can not only write, but write to my dictation,
+an accomplishment in which thou hast been found lacking, O Sergius. In this
+gloss it is set forth how, since woman hath the ninth part of the soul of
+man, the prophet, in enjoining us Adites (as we now call ourselves) to take
+but one wife, doth instruct us to take nine; to espouse a tenth would, I
+grant, be damnable. It ensues, therefore, that having become enamoured of a
+most charming young virgin, I am constrained to repudiate one of the wives
+whom I have taken already. To this, each thinking that it may be her turn
+speedily, if not now, they will in no wise consent, and have maltreated me
+as thou seest, and the dens of wild beasts are at this moment abodes of
+peace, compared to my seraglio. What is even worse, they threaten to
+disclose to the people the fact, of which they have unhappily become aware,
+that the revelation of the blessed Ad is not written upon the bones of a
+camel at all, but of a cow, and will therefore be accounted spurious,
+inasmuch as the prophet is not recorded to have ridden upon this quadruped.
+And seeing  that thou didst inscribe the characters, O father, I cannot but
+fear that the fury of the people will extend unto thee, and that thou wilt
+be even in danger of thy life from them.'
+
+"This argument of Abdallah's had much weight with me, and I the more
+readily consented to his request as he did not on this occasion require any
+imposture at my hands, but merely the restitution of his domestic peace.
+And I went with him to his wives, and discoursed with them, and they agreed
+to abide by my sentence. And, willing to please him, I directed that he
+should marry the beautiful virgin, and put away one of his wives who was
+old and ugly, and endowed with the dispositions of Sheitan.
+
+"'O father,' said Abdallah, 'thou hast brought me from death unto life! And
+thou, Zarah,' he continued, 'wilt lose nought, but gain exceedingly, in
+becoming the spouse of the wise and virtuous Sergius.'
+
+"'I marry Zarah!' I exclaimed, 'I! a monk!'
+
+"'Surely,' said he, 'thou would'st not take away her husband without giving
+her another in his stead?'
+
+"'If he does I will throttle him,' cried Zarah.
+
+"And I wept sore, and made great intercession. And it was agreed that there
+should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else would marry
+Zarah, I should be free of her. And I promised all my substance to any one
+who would do this, and no one was found. And she was offered to thirteen
+criminals doomed to suffer death, and they all chose death. And at the last
+I was constrained to marry her. And truly I have now the comfort of
+thinking that if I have offended by  encouraging Abdallah's deceits, or
+otherwise, the debt is paid, and Eternal Justice hath now nothing against
+me; for verily I was an inmate of Gehenna until it came to pass that she
+was herself translated thither. And respecting the manner of her
+translation, inquire not thou too curiously. It was doubtless a token of
+the displeasure of Heaven at her enormities that the water of the well of
+Kefayat, which had been known as the Diamond of the Desert, became about
+this time undrinkable, and pernicious to man and beast.
+
+"As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased wife,
+which consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah again
+appeared before me.
+
+"'Hast thou come,' said I, 'to solicit me to abet thee in any new
+imposture? Know, once for all, that I will not.'
+
+"'On the contrary,' said he, 'I am come to set thee at ease by proving to
+thee that I shall not again require thy assistance. Follow me.'
+
+"And I followed him to a great plain, where was a host of armed horsemen
+and footmen, more than I could number. And they bore banners on which the
+name of Abdallah was embroidered in letters of gold. And in the midst was
+an ark of gold, with the bones of Ad's camel, or cow. And by this was a
+great pile of the heads of men, and warriors were continually casting more
+and more upon the heap.
+
+"'How many?' asked Abdallah.
+
+"'Twelve thousand, O Apostle of God,' answered they, 'but there are more to
+come.'
+
+"'Thou monster!' said I to Abdallah.
+
+"'Nay, father,' said he, 'there will not be more than sixteen thousand in
+all, and these men were unbelievers. Moreover we have spared such of their
+women as were young and handsome, and have taken them for our concubines,
+as is ordained in the eleventh supplement to the Book of Ad, just
+promulgated by my authority. But come, I have other things to manifest unto
+thee.'
+
+"And he led me where a stake was driven into the earth, and a man was
+chained unto it, and fuel was heaped all around him, and many stood by with
+lighted torches in their hands.
+
+"'O Abdallah,' I exclaimed, 'wherefore this atrocity?'
+
+"'This man,' he replied, 'is a blasphemer, who hath said that the Book of
+Ad is written on the bones of a cow.'
+
+"'But it is written on the bones of a cow! 'I cried.
+
+"'Even so,' said he, 'and therefore is his heresy the more damnable, and
+his punishment the more exemplary. Had it been indeed written on the bones
+of a camel, he might have affirmed what pleased him.'
+
+"And I shook off the dust from my feet, and hastened to my dwelling. The
+rest of Abdallah's acts thou knowest, and how he fell warring with the
+Carmathians. And now I ask thee, art thou yet minded to go forth as a
+missionary of the truth?"
+
+"O Sergius," said the young man, "I perceive that the temptations are
+greater, and the difficulties far surpassing what I had thought. Yet will I
+go, and I trust by Heaven's grace not to fail utterly."
+
+"Then go," said Sergius, "and Heaven's blessing go with thee! Come back in
+ten years, should I be living, and if thou canst declare that thou hast
+forged no scriptures, and worked no miracles, and persecuted no
+unbelievers, and flattered no potentate, and bribed no one with the promise
+of aught in heaven or earth, I will give thee the philosopher's stone."
+
+
+
+
+ANANDA THE MIRACLE WORKER
+
+
+The holy Buddha, Sakhya Muni, on dispatching his apostles to proclaim his
+religion throughout the peninsula of India, failed not to provide them with
+salutary precepts for their guidance. He exhorted them to meekness, to
+compassion, to abstemiousness, to zeal in the promulgation of his doctrine,
+and added an injunction never before or since prescribed by the founder of
+any religion--namely, on no account to perform any miracle.
+
+It is further related, that whereas the apostles experienced considerable
+difficulty in complying with the other instructions of their master, and
+sometimes actually failed therein, the prohibition to work miracles was
+never once transgressed by any of them, save only the pious Ananda, the
+history of whose first year's apostolate is recorded as follows.
+
+Ananda repaired to the kingdom of Magadha, and instructed the inhabitants
+diligently in the law of Buddha. His doctrine being acceptable, and his
+speech persuasive, the people hearkened to him willingly, and began to
+forsake the Brahmins whom they had previously revered as spiritual guides.
+Perceiving this, Ananda became elated in spirit, and one day he exclaimed:
+
+"How blessed is the apostle who propagates truth by the efficacy of reason
+and virtuous example, combined with eloquence, rather than error by
+imposture and devil-mongering, like those miserable Brahmins!"
+
+As he uttered this vainglorious speech, the mountain of his merits was
+diminished by sixteen yojanas, and virtue and efficacy departed from him,
+insomuch that when he next addressed the multitude they first mocked, then
+hooted, and finally pelted him.
+
+When matters had reached this pass, Ananda lifted his eyes and discerned a
+number of Brahmins of the lower sort, busy about a boy who lay in a fit
+upon the ground. They had long been applying exorcisms and other approved
+methods with scant success, when the most sagacious among them suggested:
+
+"Let us render the body of this patient an uncomfortable residence for the
+demon; peradventure he will then cease to abide therein."
+
+They were accordingly engaged in branding the sufferer with hot irons,
+filling his nostrils with smoke, and otherwise to the best of their ability
+disquieting the intrusive devil. Ananda's first thought was, "The lad is in
+a fit;" the second, "It were a pious deed to deliver him from his
+tormentors;" the third, "By good management this may extricate me from my
+present uncomfortable predicament, and redound to the glory of the most
+holy Buddha."
+
+Yielding to this temptation, he strode forward, chased away the Brahmins
+with an air of authority, and, uplifting his countenance to heaven, recited
+the appellations of seven devils. No effect ensuing,  he repeated seven
+more, and so continued until, the fit having passed off in the course of
+nature, the patient's paroxysms ceased, he opened his eyes, and Ananda
+restored him to his relatives. But the people cried loudly, "A miracle! a
+miracle!" and when Ananda resumed his instructions, they gave heed to him,
+and numbers embraced the religion of Buddha. Whereupon Ananda exulted, and
+applauded himself for his dexterity and presence of mind, and said to
+himself:
+
+"Surely the end sanctifies the means."
+
+As he propounded this heresy, the eminence of his merits was reduced to the
+dimensions of a mole-hill, and he ceased to be of account in the eyes of
+any of the saints, save only of Buddha, whose compassion is inexhaustible.
+
+The fame of his achievement, nevertheless, was bruited about the whole
+country, and soon reached the ears of the king, who sent for him, and
+inquired if he had actually expelled the demon.
+
+Ananda replied in the affirmative.
+
+"I am indeed rejoiced," returned the king, "as thou now wilt without doubt
+proceed to heal _my_ son, who has lain in a trance for twenty-nine days."
+
+"Alas! dread sovereign," modestly returned Ananda, "how should the merits
+which barely suffice to effect the cure of a miserable Pariah avail to
+restore the offspring of an Elephant among Kings?"
+
+"By what process are these merits acquired?" demanded the monarch.
+
+"By the exercise of penance," responded Ananda, "in virtue of which the
+austere devotee  quells the winds, allays the waters, expostulates
+convincingly with tigers, carries the moon in his sleeve, and otherwise
+performs all acts and deeds appropriate to the character of a peripatetic
+thaumaturgist."
+
+"This being so," answered the king, "thy inability to heal my son
+manifestly arises from defect of merit, and defect of merit from defect of
+penance. I will therefore consign thee to the charge of my Brahmins, that
+they may aid thee to fill up the measure of that which is lacking."
+
+Ananda vainly strove to explain that the austerities to which he had
+referred were entirely of a spiritual and contemplative character. The
+Brahmins, enchanted to get a heretic into their clutches, immediately
+seized upon him, and conveyed him to one of their temples. They stripped
+him, and perceived with astonishment that not one single weal or scar was
+visible anywhere on his person. "Horror!" they exclaimed; "here is a man
+who expects to go to heaven in a whole skin!" To obviate this breach of
+etiquette, they laid him upon his face, and flagellated him until the
+obnoxious soundness of cuticle was entirely removed. They then departed,
+promising to return next day and operate in a corresponding manner upon the
+anterior part of his person, after which, they jeeringly assured him, his
+merits would be in no respect less than those of the saintly Bhagiratha, or
+of the regal Viswamitra himself.
+
+Ananda lay half dead upon the floor of the temple, when the sanctuary was
+illuminated by the apparition of a resplendent Glendoveer, who thus
+addressed him:
+
+"Well, backsliding disciple, art thou yet convinced of thy folly?"
+
+Ananda relished neither the imputation on his orthodoxy nor that on his
+wisdom. He replied, notwithstanding, with all meekness:
+
+"Heaven forbid that I should repine at any variety of martyrdom that tends
+to the propagation of my master's faith."
+
+"Wilt thou then first be healed, and moreover become the instrument of
+converting the entire realm of Magadha?"
+
+"How shall this be accomplished?" demanded Ananda.
+
+"By perseverance in the path of deceit and disobedience," returned the
+Glendoveer.
+
+Ananda winced, but maintained silence in the expectation of more explicit
+directions.
+
+"Know," pursued the spirit, "that the king's son will revive from his
+trance at the expiration of the thirtieth day, which takes place at noon
+to-morrow. Thou hast but to proceed at the fitting period to the couch
+whereon he is deposited, and, placing thy hand upon his heart, to command
+him to rise forthwith. His recovery will be ascribed to thy supernatural
+powers, and the establishment of Buddha's religion will result. Before this
+it will be needful that I should perform an actual cure upon thy back,
+which is within the compass of my capacity. I only request thee to take
+notice, that thou wilt on this occasion be transgressing the precepts of
+thy master with thine eyes open. It is also meet to apprise thee that thy
+temporary extrication from thy present difficulties will only involve thee
+in others still more formidable."
+
+"An incorporeal Glendoveer is no judge of the feelings of a flayed
+apostle," thought Ananda. "Heal me," he replied, "if thou canst, and
+reserve thy admonitions for a more convenient opportunity."
+
+"So be it," returned the Glendoveer; and as he extended his hand over
+Ananda, the latter's back was clothed anew with skin, and his previous
+smart simultaneously allayed. The Glendoveer vanished at the same moment,
+saying, "When thou hast need of me, pronounce but the incantation, _Gnooh
+Imdap Inam Mua_, [*] and I will immediately be by thy side."
+
+[Footnote: The mystic formula of the Buddhists, read backwards.]
+
+The anger and amazement of the Brahmins may be conceived when, on returning
+equipped with fresh implements of flagellation, they discovered the
+salubrious condition of their victim. Their scourges would probably have
+undergone conversion into halters, had they not been accompanied by a royal
+officer, who took the really triumphant martyr under his protection, and
+carried him off to the palace. He was speedily conducted to the young
+prince's couch, whither a vast crowd attended him. The hour of noon not
+having yet arrived, Ananda discreetly protracted the time by a seasonable
+discourse on the impossibility of miracles, those only excepted which
+should be wrought by the professors of the faith of Buddha. He then
+descended from his pulpit, and precisely as the sun attained the zenith
+laid his hand upon the bosom of the young prince, who instantly revived,
+and completed a sentence touching the game of dice which had been
+interrupted by his catalepsy.
+
+The people shouted, the courtiers went into ecstasies, the countenances of
+the Brahmins assumed an exceedingly sheepish expression. Even the king
+seemed impressed, and craved to be more particularly instructed in the law
+of Buddha. In complying with this request, Ananda, who had made marvellous
+progress in worldly wisdom during the last twenty-four hours, deemed it
+needless to dilate on the cardinal doctrines of his master, the misery of
+existence, the need of redemption, the path to felicity, the prohibition to
+shed blood. He simply stated that the priests of Buddha were bound to
+perpetual poverty, and that under the new dispensation all ecclesiastical
+property would accrue to the temporal authorities.
+
+"By the holy cow!" exclaimed the monarch, "this is something like a
+religion!"
+
+The words were scarcely out of the royal lips ere the courtiers professed
+themselves converts. The multitude followed their example. The Brahminical
+church was promptly disestablished and disendowed, and more injustice was
+committed in the name of the new and purified religion in one day than the
+old corrupt one had occasioned in a hundred years.
+
+Ananda had the satisfaction of feeling able to forgive his adversaries, and
+of valuing himself accordingly; and to complete his felicity, he was
+received in the palace, and entrusted with the education of the king's son,
+which he strove to conduct agreeably to the precepts of Buddha. This was a
+task of some delicacy, as it involved interference with the princely
+youth's favourite amusement, which had previously consisted in torturing
+small reptiles.
+
+After a short interval Ananda was again summoned to the monarch's presence.
+He found his majesty in the company of two most ferocious ruffians, one of
+whom bore a huge axe, and the other an enormous pair of pincers.
+
+"My chief executioner and my chief tormentor," said the king.
+
+Ananda expressed his gratification at becoming acquainted with such exalted
+functionaries.
+
+"Thou must know, most holy man," resumed the king, "that need has again
+arisen for the exercise of fortitude and self-denial on thy part. A
+powerful enemy has invaded my dominions, and has impiously presumed to
+discomfit my troops. Well might I feel dismayed, were it not for the
+consolations of religion; but my trust is in thee, O spiritual father! It
+is urgent that thou shouldst accumulate the largest amount of merit with
+the least delay possible. I am unable to invoke the ministrations of thy
+old friends the Brahmins to this end, they being, as thou knowest, in
+disgrace, but I have summoned these trusty and experienced counsellors in
+their room. I find them not wholly in accord. My chief tormentor, being a
+man of mild temper and humane disposition, considers that it might at first
+suffice to employ gentle measures, such, for example, as suspending thee
+head downwards in the smoke of a wood fire, and filling thy nostrils with
+red pepper. My chief executioner, taking, peradventure, a too professional
+view of the subject, deems it best to resort at once to crucifixion or
+impalement. I would gladly know thy thoughts on the matter."
+
+Ananda expressed, as well as his terror would  suffer him, his entire
+disapproval of both the courses recommended by the royal advisers.
+
+"Well," said the king, with an air of resignation, "if we cannot agree upon
+either, it follows that we must try both. We will meet for that purpose
+to-morrow morning at the second hour. Go in peace!"
+
+Ananda went, but not in peace. His alarm would have well-nigh deprived him
+of his faculties if he had not remembered the promise made him by his
+former deliverer. On reaching a secluded spot he pronounced the mystic
+formula, and immediately became aware of the presence, not of a radiant
+Glendoveer, but of a holy man, whose head was strewn with ashes, and his
+body anointed with cow-dung.
+
+"Thy occasion," said the Fakir, "brooks no delay. Thou must immediately
+accompany me, and assume the garb of a Jogi."
+
+Ananda rebelled excessively in his heart, for he had imbibed from the mild
+and sage Buddha a befitting contempt for these grotesque and cadaverous
+fanatics. The emergency, however, left him no resource, and he followed his
+guide to a charnel house, which the latter had selected as his domicile.
+There, with many lamentations over the smoothness of his hair and the
+brevity of his nails, the Jogi besprinkled and besmeared Ananda agreeably
+to his own pattern, and scored him with chalk and ochre until the peaceful
+apostle of the gentlest of creeds resembled a Bengal tiger. He then hung a
+chaplet of infants' skulls about his neck, placed the skull of a malefactor
+in one of his hands and the thigh-bone of a necromancer in the other, and
+at nightfall conducted him into the  adjacent cemetery, where, seating him
+on the ashes of a recent funeral pile, he bade him drum upon the skull with
+the thigh-bone, and repeat after himself the incantations which he began to
+scream out towards the western part of the firmament. These charms were
+apparently possessed of singular efficacy, for scarcely were they commenced
+ere a hideous tempest arose, rain descended in torrents, phosphoric flashes
+darted across the sky, wolves and hyaenas thronged howling from their dens,
+and gigantic goblins, arising from the earth, extended their fleshless arms
+towards Ananda, and strove to drag him from his seat. Urged by frantic
+terror, and the example and exhortations of his companion, he battered,
+banged, and vociferated, until on the very verge of exhaustion; when, as if
+by enchantment, the tempest ceased, the spectres disappeared, and joyous
+shouts and a burst of music announced the occurrence of something
+auspicious in the adjoining city.
+
+"The hostile king is dead," said the Jogi; "and his army has dispersed.
+This will be attributed to thy incantations. They are coming in quest of
+thee even now. Farewell until thou again hast need of me."
+
+The Jogi disappeared, the tramp of a procession became audible, and soon
+torches glared feebly through the damp, cheerless dawn. The monarch
+descended from his state elephant, and, prostrating himself before Ananda,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Inestimable man! why didst thou not disclose that thou wert a Jogi? Never
+more shall I feel the least apprehension of any of my enemies, so long as
+thou continuest an inmate of this cemetery."
+
+A family of jackals were unceremoniously dislodged from a disused
+sepulchre, which was allotted to Ananda for his future residence. The king
+permitted no alteration in his costume, and took care that the food doled
+out to him should have no tendency to impair his sanctity, which speedily
+gave promise of attaining a very high pitch. His hair had already become as
+matted and his nails as long as the Jogi could have desired, when he
+received a visit from another royal messenger. The Rajah, so ran the regal
+missive, had been suddenly and mysteriously attacked by a dangerous malady,
+but confidently anticipated relief from Ananda's merits and incantations.
+
+Ananda resumed his thigh-bone and his skull, and ruefully began to thump
+the latter with the former, in dismal expectation of the things that were
+to come. But the spell seemed to have lost its potency. Nothing more
+unearthly than a bat presented itself, and Ananda was beginning to think
+that he might as well desist when his reflections were diverted by the
+apparition of a tall and grave personage, wearing a sad-coloured robe, and
+carrying a long wand, who stood by his side as suddenly as though just
+risen from the earth.
+
+"The caldron is ready," said the stranger.
+
+"What caldron?" demanded Ananda.
+
+"That wherein thou art about to be immersed."
+
+"I immersed in a caldron! wherefore?"
+
+"Thy spells," returned his interlocutor, "having hitherto failed to afford
+his majesty the slightest relief, and his experience of their efficacy on a
+former occasion forbidding him to suppose that they can be inoperative, he
+is naturally led to ascribe to their pernicious influence that aggravation
+of pain of which he has for some time past unfortunately been sensible. I
+have confirmed him in this conjecture, esteeming it for the interest of
+science that his anger should fall upon an impudent impostor like thee
+rather than on a discreet and learned physician like myself. He has
+consequently directed the principal caldron to be kept boiling all night,
+intending to immerse thee therein at daybreak, unless he should in the
+meantime derive some benefit from thy conjurations."
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed Ananda, "whither shall I fly?"
+
+"Nowhere beyond this cemetery," returned the physician, "inasmuch as it is
+entirely surrounded by the royal forces."
+
+"Wherein, then," demanded the agonized apostle, "doth the path of safety
+lie?"
+
+"In this phial," answered the physician. "It contains a subtle poison.
+Demand to be led before the king. Affirm that thou hast received a
+sovereign medicine from the hands of benignant spirits. He will drink it
+and perish, and thou wilt be richly rewarded by his successor."
+
+"Ayaunt, tempter!" cried Ananda, hurling the phial indignantly away. "I
+defy thee! and will have recourse to my old deliverer--_Gnooh Imdap Inam
+Mua!"_
+
+But the charm appeared to fail of its effect. No figure was visible to his
+gaze, save that of the physician, who seemed to regard him with an
+expression of pity as he gathered up his robes and melted rather than
+glided into the encompassing darkness.
+
+Ananda remained, contending with himself. Countless times was he on the
+point of calling  after the physician and imploring him to return with a
+potion of like properties to the one rejected, but something seemed always
+to rise in his throat and impede his utterance, until, worn out by
+agitation, he fell asleep and dreamed this dream.
+
+He thought he stood at the vast and gloomy entrance of Patala. [*] The
+lugubrious spot wore a holiday appearance; everything seemed to denote a
+diabolical gala. Swarms of demons of all shapes and sizes beset the portal,
+contemplating what appeared to be preparations for an illumination. Strings
+of coloured lamps were in course of disposition in wreaths and festoons by
+legions of frolicsome imps, chattering, laughing, and swinging by their
+tails like so many monkeys. The operation was directed from below by
+superior fiends of great apparent gravity and respectability. These bore
+wands of office, tipped with yellow flames, wherewith they singed the tails
+of the imps when such discipline appeared to them to be requisite. Ananda
+could not refrain from asking the reason of these festive preparations.
+
+[Footnote: The Hindoo Pandemonium.]
+
+"They are in honour," responded the demon interrogated, "of the pious
+Ananda, one of the apostles of the Lord Buddha, whose advent is hourly
+expected among us with much eagerness and satisfaction."
+
+The horrified Ananda with much difficulty mustered resolution to inquire on
+what account the apostle in question was necessitated to take up his abode
+in the infernal regions.
+
+"On account of poisoning," returned the fiend laconically.
+
+Ananda was about to seek further explanations, when his attention was
+arrested by a violent altercation between two of the supervising demons.
+
+"Kammuragha, evidently," croaked one.
+
+"Damburanana, of course," snarled the other.
+
+"May I," inquired Ananda of the fiend he had before addressed, "presume to
+ask the signification of Kammuragha and Damburanana?"
+
+"They are two hells," replied the demon. "In Kammuragha the occupant is
+plunged into melted pitch and fed with melted lead. In Damburanana he is
+plunged into melted lead and fed with melted pitch. My colleagues are
+debating which is the more appropriate to the demerits of our guest
+Ananda."
+
+Ere Ananda had had time to digest this announcement a youthful imp
+descended from above with agility, and, making a profound reverence,
+presented himself before the disputants.
+
+"Venerable demons," interposed he, "might my insignificance venture to
+suggest that we cannot well testify too much honour for our visitor Ananda,
+seeing that he is the only apostle of Buddha with whose company we are
+likely ever to be indulged? Wherefore I would propose that neither
+Kammuragha nor Damburanana be assigned for his residence, but that the
+amenities of all the two hundred and forty-four thousand hells be combined
+in a new one, constructed especially for his reception."
+
+The imp having thus spoken, the senior demons were amazed at his precocity,
+and performed a _pradakshina_, exclaiming, "Truly thou art a highly
+superior young devil!" They then departed to  prepare the new infernal
+chamber, agreeably to his recipe.
+
+Ananda awoke, shuddering with terror.
+
+"Why," he exclaimed, "why was I ever an apostle? O Buddha! Buddha! how hard
+are the paths of saintliness! How prone to error are the well-meaning! How
+huge is the absurdity of spiritual pride!"
+
+"Thou hast discovered that, my son?" said a gentle voice in his vicinity.
+
+He turned and beheld the divine Buddha, radiant with a mild and benignant
+light. A cloud seemed rolled away from his vision, and he recognised in his
+master the Glendoveer, the Jogi, and the Physician.
+
+"O holy teacher!" exclaimed he in extreme perturbation, "whither shall I
+turn? My sin forbids me to approach thee."
+
+"Not on account of thy sin art thou forbidden, my son," returned Buddha,
+"but on account of the ridiculous and unsavoury plight to which thy knavery
+and disobedience have reduced thee. I have now appeared to remind thee that
+this day all my apostles meet on Mount Vindhya to render an account of
+their mission, and to inquire whether I am to deliver thine in thy stead,
+or whether thou art minded to proclaim it thyself."
+
+"I will render it with my own lips," resolutely exclaimed Ananda. "It is
+meet that I should bear the humiliation of acknowledging my folly."
+
+"Thou hast said well, my son," replied Buddha, "and in return I will permit
+thee to discard the attire, if such it may be termed, of a Jogi, and to
+appear in our assembly wearing the yellow robe as beseems my disciple. Nay,
+I will even infringe  my own rule on thy behalf, and perform a not
+inconsiderable miracle by immediately transporting thee to the summit of
+Vindhya, where the faithful are already beginning to assemble. Thou wouldst
+otherwise incur much risk of being torn to pieces by the multitude, who, as
+the shouts now approaching may instruct thee, are beginning to extirpate my
+religion at the instigation of the new king, thy hopeful pupil. The old
+king is dead, poisoned by the Brahmins."
+
+"O master! master!" exclaimed Ananda, weeping bitterly, "and is all the
+work undone, and all by my fault and folly?"
+
+"That which is built on fraud and imposture can by no means endure,"
+returned Buddha, "be it the very truth of Heaven. Be comforted; thou shalt
+proclaim my doctrine to better purpose in other lands. Thou hast this time
+but a sorry account to render of thy stewardship; yet thou mayest truly
+declare that thou hast obeyed my precept in the letter, if not in the
+spirit, since none can assert that thou hast ever wrought any miracle."
+
+
+
+
+THE CITY OF PHILOSOPHERS
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Nature is manifold, not infinite, though the extent of the resources of
+which she can dispose almost enables her to pass for such. Her cards are so
+multitudinous that the pairs are easily shuffled into ages so far asunder
+that their resemblance escapes remark. But sometimes her mischievous
+daughter Fortune manages to thrust these duplicates into such conspicuous
+places that their similarity cannot pass unobserved, and Nature is caught
+plagiarising from herself. She is thus detected dealing a king--or
+knave--a second time in the person of a king who has already fallen from
+her pack as an emperor. Brilliant, careless, selfish, yet good-natured
+_vauriens_, the Roman Emperor Gallienus and our Charles the Second excelled
+in every art save the art of reigning, and might have excelled in that also
+if they would have taken the trouble. The circumstances of their reigns
+were in many respects as similar as their characters. Both were the sons of
+grave and strict fathers, each of whom had met with terrible misfortunes:
+one deprived of his liberty by his enemies, the other of his head by his
+own subjects. Each of the sons had been grievously vexed by rebels, but
+Charles's troubles from this quarter had mostly ended where those  of
+Gallienus began. Each saw his dominions ravaged by pestilence in a manner
+beyond all former experience. The Goths destroyed the temple of the
+Ephesian Diana, and the Dutch burned the English fleet at Chatham. Charles
+shut up the Exchequer, and Gallienus debased the coinage. Charles accepted
+a pension from Louis XIV., and Gallienus devolved the burden of his Eastern
+provinces on a Syrian Emir. Their tastes and pursuits were as similar as
+their histories. Charles excelled as a wit and a critic; Gallienus as a
+poet and a gastronomer. Charles was curious about chemistry, and founded
+the Royal Society. In the third century the conception of the systematic
+investigation of nature did not exist. Gallienus, therefore, could not
+patronise exact science; and the great literary light of the age, Longinus,
+irradiated the court of Palmyra. But the Emperor bestowed his favour in
+ample measure on the chief contemporary philosopher, Plotinus, who strove
+to unite the characters of Plato and Pythagoras, of sage and seer. Like
+Schelling in time to come, he maintained the necessity of a special organ
+for the apprehension of philosophy, without perceiving that he thereby
+proclaimed philosophy bankrupt, and placed himself on the level of the
+Oriental hierophants, with whose sublime quackeries the modest sage could
+not hope to contend. So extreme was his humility, that he would not claim
+to have been consciously united to the Divinity more than four times in his
+life; without condemning magic and thaumaturgy, he left their practice to
+more adventurous spirits, and contented himself with the occasional visits
+of a  familiar demon in the shape of a serpent. He experienced, however,
+frequent visitations of trance or ecstasy, sometimes lasting for a long
+period; and it may have been in one of these that he was inspired by the
+idea of asking the Emperor for a decayed city in Campania, there to
+establish a philosophic commonwealth as nearly upon the model of Plato's
+Republic as the degeneracy of the times would allow.
+
+"I cannot," said Gallienus, when the project had been explained to him,
+"object in principle to aught so festive and jocose. The age is turned
+upside down; its comedians are lamentable, and its sages ludicrous. It must
+moreover, I apprehend, be sated with the earthquakes, famines, pestilences,
+and barbarian invasions with which it hath been exclusively regaled for so
+long, and must crave something enlivening, of the nature of thy
+proposition. But whether, when we arrive at the consideration of ways and
+means, I shall find my interview with my treasurer enlivening, is gravely
+to be questioned. I have heard homilies enough on my prodigality, which
+merely means that I prefer spending my treasures on myself to saving them
+for my successor, whose title will probably have been acquired by cutting
+my throat."
+
+"I know," said Plotinus, "that the expenses of administering an empire must
+necessarily be prodigious. I am aware that the principal generals are only
+kept to their allegiance by enormous bribes. I well understand that the
+Empress must have pearls, and that the Roman populace must have panthers;
+and that, since Egypt has revolted, the hippopotamus is worth his weight in
+gold. I am further aware that the proposed  colossal statue of your Majesty
+in the same metal, including a staircase, with room in the head for a
+child, like another Pallas in the brain of Zeus, must alone involve very
+considerable outlay. But I am encouraged by your Majesty's wise and
+statesmanlike measure of debasing the currency; since, money having become
+devoid of value, there can be no difficulty in devoting any amount of it to
+any purpose required."
+
+"Plotinus," said Gallienus, "in this age the devil is taking the hindmost,
+and we are the hindmost. There are tidings to-day of a new earthquake in
+Bithynia, and three days' darkness, also of outbreaks of pestilence, and
+incursions of the barbarians, too numerous as well as too disagreeable to
+mention. At this moment some revolted legion is probably forcing the purple
+upon some reluctant general; and the Persian king, a great equestrian, is
+doubtless mounting his horse by the aid of my father's back. If I had been
+an old Roman, I should by this time have avenged my father, but I am a man
+of my age. Take the money for thy city, and see that it yields me some
+amusement at any rate. I assume, of course, that thou wilt exercise severe
+economy, and that cresses and spring water will be the diet of thy
+philosophers. Farewell, I go to Gaul to encounter Postumus. Willingly would
+I leave him in peace in Gaul if he would leave me in peace in Italy; but I
+foresee that if I do not attack him there he will attack me here. As if the
+Empire were not large enough for us all! What an ass the fellow must be!"
+
+And so Gallienus changed his silk for steel, and departed for his Gallic
+campaign, where he bore  himself more stoutly than his light talk would
+have led those who judged him by it to expect. Plotinus, provided with an
+Imperial rescript, undertook the regulation of his philosophical
+commonwealth in Campania, where a brief experience of architects and
+sophists threw him into an ecstasy, not of joy, which endured an unusually
+long time.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+On awakening from his long trance, Plotinus's first sensation was one of
+bodily hunger, the second of an even keener appetite for news of his
+philosophical Republic. In both respects it promised well to perceive that
+his chamber was occupied by his most eminent scholar, Porphyry, though he
+was less gratified to observe his disciple busied, instead of with the
+scrolls of the sages, with an enormous roll of accounts, which appeared to
+be occasioning him much perplexity.
+
+"Porphyry!" cried the master, and the faithful disciple was by his couch in
+a moment.
+
+We pass over the mutual joy, the greetings, the administration of
+restoratives and creature comforts, the eager interrogations of Porphyry
+respecting the things his master had heard and seen in his trance, which
+proved to be unspeakable.
+
+"And now," said Plotinus, who with all his mysticism was so good a man of
+business that, as his biographers acquaint us, he was in special request as
+a trustee, "and now, concerning this roll of thine. Is it possible that the
+accounts connected with the installation of a few abstemious  lovers of
+wisdom can have swollen to such a prodigous bulk? But indeed, why few?
+Peradventure all the philosophers of the earth have flocked to my city."
+
+"It has, indeed," said Porphyry evasively, "been found necessary to incur
+certain expenses not originally foreseen."
+
+"For a library, perhaps?" inquired Plotinus. "I remember thinking, just
+before my ecstasy, that the scrolls of the divine Plato, many of them
+autographic, might require some special housing."
+
+"I rejoice to state," rejoined Porphyry, "that it is not these volumes that
+have involved us in our present difficulties with the superintendent of the
+Imperial treasury, nor can they indeed, seeing that they are now
+impignorated with him."
+
+"Plato's manuscripts pawned!" exclaimed Plotinus, aghast. "Wherefore?"
+
+"As part collateral security for expenses incurred on behalf of objects
+deemed of more importance by the majority of the philosophers."
+
+"For example?"
+
+"Repairing bath and completing amphitheatre."
+
+"Bath! Amphitheatre!" gasped Plotinus.
+
+"O dear master," remonstrated Porphyry, "thou didst not deem that
+philosophers could be induced to settle in a spot devoid of these
+necessaries? Not a single one would have stayed if I had not yielded to
+their demands, which, as regarded the bath, involved the addition of
+exedrae and of a sphaeristerium."
+
+"And what can they want with an amphitheatre?" groaned Plotinus.
+
+"They _say_ it is for lectures," replied Porphyry; "I trust there is no
+truth in the rumour that the head of the Stoics is three parts owner of a
+lion of singular ferocity."
+
+"I must see to this as soon as I can get about," said Plotinus, turning to
+the accounts. "What's this? To couch and litter for head of Peripatetic
+school!"
+
+"Who is so enormously fat," explained Porphyry, "that these conveniences
+are really indispensable to him. The Peripatetic school is positively at a
+standstill."
+
+"And no great matter," said Plotinus; "its master Aristotle was at best a
+rationalist, without perception of the supersensual. What's this? To
+Maximus, for the invocation of demons."
+
+"That," said Porphyry, "is our own Platonic dirty linen, and I heartily
+wish we were washing it elsewhere. Thou must know, dear master, that during
+thy trance the theurgic movement has attained a singular development, and
+that thou art regarded with disdain by thy younger disciples as one wholly
+behind the age, unacquainted with the higher magic, and who can produce no
+other outward and visible token of the Divine favour than the occasional
+companionship of a serpent."
+
+"I would not assert that theurgy may not be lawfully undertaken," replied
+Plotinus, "provided that the adept shall have purified himself by a fast of
+forty months."
+
+"It may be from neglect of this precaution," said Porphyry, "that our
+Maximus finds it so much easier to evoke the shades of Commodus and
+Caracalla than those of Socrates and Marcus Aurelius; and that these good
+spirits, when they do come, have no more recondite information to  convey
+than that virtue differs from vice, and that one's grandmother is a fitting
+object of reverence."
+
+"I fear this must expose Platonic truth to the derision of Epicurean
+scoffers," remarked Plotinus.
+
+"O master, speak not of Epicureans, still less of Stoics! Wait till thou
+hast regained thy full strength, and then take counsel of some oracle."
+
+"What meanest thou?" exclaimed Plotinus, "I insist upon knowing."
+
+Porphyry was saved from replying by the hasty entrance of a bustling portly
+personage of loud voice and imperious manner, in whom Plotinus recognised
+Theocles, the chief of the Stoics.
+
+"I rejoice, Plotinus," he began, "that thou hast at length emerged from
+that condition of torpor, so unworthy of a philosopher, which I might well
+designate as charlatanism were I not so firmly determined to speak no word
+which can offend any man. Thou wilt now be able to reprehend the malice or
+obtuseness of thy deputy, and to do me right in my contention with these
+impure dogs."
+
+"Which be they?" asked Plotinus.
+
+"Do I not sufficiently indicate the followers of Epicurus?" demanded the
+Stoic.
+
+"O master," explained Porphyry, "in allotting and fitting up apartments
+designed for the respective sects of philosophers I naturally gave heed to
+what I understood to be the principles of each. To the Epicureans, as
+lovers of pleasure and luxury, I assigned the most commodious quarters,
+furnished the same with soft cushions and costly hangings, and provided a
+liberal table. I should have deemed it insulting to have offered any of
+these things to the frugal followers of Zeno, and nothing can surpass my
+astonishment at the manner in which the austere Theocles has incessantly
+persecuted me for choice food and wine, stately rooms and soft couches."
+
+"O Plotinus," replied Theocles, "let me make the grounds of my conduct
+clear to thee. In the first place, the honour of my school is in my
+keeping. What will the vulgar think when they see the sty of Epicurus
+sumptuously adorned, and the porch of Zeno shabby and bare? Will they not
+deem that the Epicureans are highly respected and the Stoics made of little
+account? Furthermore, how can I and my disciples manifest our contempt for
+gold, dainties, wine, fine linen, and all the other instruments of luxury,
+unless we have them to despise? Shall we not appear like foxes, vilipending
+the grapes that we cannot reach? Not so; offer me delicacies that I may
+reject them, wine that I may pour it into the kennel, Tyrian purple that I
+may trample upon it, gold that I may fling it away; if it break an
+Epicurean's head, so much the better."
+
+"Plotinus," said Hermon, the chief of the Epicureans, who had meanwhile
+entered the apartment, "let this hypocrite have what he wants, and send him
+away. I and my followers are perfectly willing to remove at once into the
+inferior apartments, and leave ours for his occupation with all their
+furniture, and the reversion of our bill of fare. Thou should'st know that
+the imputations of the vulgar against our sect are the grossest calumnies.
+The Epicurean places happiness in tranquil enjoyment, not in luxury or
+sensual pleasures. There is not a thing I possess  which I am not perfectly
+willing to resign, except the society of my female disciple."
+
+"Thy female disciple!" exclaimed the horrified Plotinus. "Thou art worse
+than the Stoic!"
+
+"Plotinus," said the Epicurean, "consider well ere, as is the manner of
+Platonists, thou committest thyself to a proposition of a transparently
+foolish nature. Thou desirest to gather all sorts of philosophers around
+thee, but to what end, if they are restrained from manifesting their
+characteristic tenets? Thou mightest as well seek to illustrate the habits
+of animals by establishing a menagerie in which panthers should eat grass,
+and antelopes be dieted on rabbits. An Epicurean without his female
+companion, unless by his own choice, is no more an Epicurean than a Cynic
+is a Cynic without his rags and his impudence. Wilt thou take from me my
+Pannychis, an object pleasing to the eye, and leave yonder fellow his
+tatters and his vermin?"
+
+The apartment had gradually filled with philosophers, and Hermon was
+pointing to a follower of Diogenes whose robe so fully bespoke his
+obedience to his master's precepts that his skin seemed almost clean in
+comparison.
+
+"Consider also," continued the Epicurean, "that thou art thyself by no
+means exempt from scandal."
+
+"What does the man mean?" demanded Plotinus, turning to Porphyry.
+
+"Get them away," whispered the disciple, "and I will tell thee."
+
+Plotinus hastily conceded the point raised with reference to the
+interesting Pannychis, and the  philosophers went off to effect their
+exchange of quarters. As soon as the room was clear, he repeated:
+
+"What _does_ the man mean?"
+
+"I suppose he is thinking of Leaena," said Porphyry.
+
+"The most notorious character in Rome, who, finding her charms on the wane,
+has lately betaken herself to philosophy?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"What of her?"
+
+"She has followed thee here. She affects the greatest devotion to thee. She
+vows that nothing shall make her budge until thou hast recovered from thy
+ecstasy, and admitted her as thy disciple. She has rejected numerous
+overtures from the philosopher Theocles; entirely for thy sake, she
+affirms. She comes three times a day to inquire respecting thy condition,
+and I fear it must be acknowledged that she has once or twice managed to
+get into thy chamber."
+
+"O ye immortal Gods!" groaned Plotinus.
+
+"Here she is!" exclaimed Porphyry, as a woman of masculine stature and
+bearing, with the remains of beauty not unskilfully patched, forced an
+entrance into the room.
+
+"Plotinus," she exclaimed, "behold the most impassioned of thy disciples.
+Let us celebrate the mystic nuptials of Wisdom and Beauty. Let the claims
+of my sex to philosophic distinction be vindicated in my person."
+
+"The question of the admission of women to share the studies and society of
+men," rejoined Plotinus, "is one by no means exempt from difficulty."
+
+"How so? I deemed it had been determined long ago in favour of Aspasia?"
+
+"Aspasia," said Plotinus, "was a very exceptional woman."
+
+"And am not I?"
+
+"I hope, that is, I conceive so," said Plotinus. "But one may be an
+exceptional woman without being an Aspasia."
+
+"How so? Am I inferior to Aspasia in beauty?"
+
+"I should hope not," said Plotinus ambiguously.
+
+"Or in the irregularity of my deportment?"
+
+"I should think not," said Plotinus, with more confidence.
+
+"Then why does the Plato of our age hesitate to welcome his Diotima?"
+
+"Because," said Plotinus, "you are not Diotima, and I am not Plato."
+
+"I am sure I am as much like Diotima as you are like Plato," retorted the
+lady. "But let us come to our own time. Do I not hear that that creature
+Pannychis has obtained the freedom of the philosophers' city, and the right
+to study therein?"
+
+"She takes private lessons from Hermon, who is responsible for her."
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Leaena triumphantly. "I take private lessons
+from thee, and thou art responsible for me. Venus! what's that?"
+
+The exclamation was prompted by the sudden appearance of an enormous
+serpent, which, emerging from a chink in the wall, glided swiftly towards
+the couch of Plotinus. He reached forward to greet it, uttering a cry of
+pleasure.
+
+"My guardian, my tutelary daemon," he exclaimed, "visible manifestation of
+AEsculapius! Then I am not forsaken by the immortal gods."
+
+"Take away the monster," cried Leaena, in violent agitation, "the nasty
+thing! Plotinus, how can you? Oh, I shall faint! I shall die! Take it away,
+I say. You must choose between it and me."
+
+"Then, Madam," said Plotinus, civilly but firmly, "I choose _it_."
+
+"Thank AEsculapius we are rid of her," he added, as Leaena vanished from
+the apartment.
+
+"I wish I knew that," said Porphyry.
+
+And indeed after no long time a note came up from Theocles, who was sure
+that Plotinus would not refuse him that privilege of instructing a female
+disciple which had been already, with such manifest advantage to
+philosophical research, accorded to his colleague Hermon. No objection
+could well be made, especially as Plotinus did not foresee how many
+chambermaids, and pages, and cooks, and perfumers, and tiring women and
+bath attendants would be required, ere Leaena could feel herself moderately
+comfortable. How unlike the modest Pannychis! who wanted but half a bed,
+which need not be stuffed with the down of hares or the feathers of
+partridges, without which sleep refused to visit Leaena's eyelids.
+
+It was natural that Plotinus should appeal to Gallienus, now returned from
+the Gallic expedition, but he could extract nothing save mysterious
+intimations that the Emperor had his eye upon the philosophers, and that
+they might find him among  them when they least expected it. Plotinus's
+spirits drooped, and Porphyry was almost glad when he again relapsed into
+an ecstasy.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When Plotinus's eyes were at length opened, they fell not this time upon
+the faithful Porphyry, but upon two youthful followers of Plato who were
+beguiling the tedium of their vigil at his bedside by a game of dice, which
+prevented their observing his resuscitation. After a moment's hesitation
+Plotinus resolved to lie quiet in the hopes of hearing something that might
+indicate what influences were in the ascendant in the philosophical
+republic. He had not long to wait.
+
+"Dice is dull work for long," said one of the young men, indolently
+throwing himself back, and letting his caster fall upon the floor. "To
+think how much better one might be employed, but for having to watch this
+old fool here! I've a great mind to call up a slave."
+
+"All the slaves are sure to have gone to the show, unless any of them
+should be Christians. Besides, Porphyry would hear you, he's only in a
+cat's sleep," returned his companion.
+
+"Well, I mean to say it's a shame. All the town will be in the theatre by
+this time."
+
+"How many gladiators, said you?"
+
+"Forty pairs, the best show Campania has seen time out of mind."
+
+"How has it all come about?"
+
+"Oh, news comes of the death of Postumus, killed by his own soldiers, and
+this passes as a  great victory for want of a better, 'We must have a day
+of thanksgiving,' says Theocles. 'Right,' says Leaena, 'I am dying to see
+an exhibition of gladiators.' Theocles demurs at first, expecting to have
+to find the money--but Leaena tugs at his beard, and he gives in. Just at
+the nick of time the right sort of fellow pops up nobody knows whence, a
+lanista with hair like curling helichryse, as Theocritus has it, and a
+small army of gladiators, whom, out of devotion to the Emperor, he offers
+to exhibit for nothing. Who so pleased as Theocles now? He takes the chair
+as archon with Leaena by his side, and off goes every soul in the place,
+except Pannychis, who cannot bear the sight of blood, and Porphyry, who is
+an outrageous humanitarian, and us poor devils left in charge of this old
+dreamer."
+
+"Couldn't we leave him to mind himself? He isn't likely to awake yet."
+
+"Try him with your cloak-pin." The student detached the implement in
+question, which was about the size of a small stiletto. Feeling uncertain
+what part of his person was to be the subject of experiment, Plotinus
+judged it advisable to manifest his recovery in an unmistakable fashion.
+
+"O dear Master, what joy!" cried both the students in a breath. "Porphyry!
+Porphyry!"
+
+The trusty scholar appeared immediately, and under pretence of fetching
+food, the two neophytes eloped to the amphitheatre.
+
+"What means all this, Porphyry?" demanded Plotinus sternly. "The City of
+Philosophers polluted by human blood! The lovers of wisdom mingling with
+the dregs of the rabble!"
+
+Porphyry's account, which Plotinus could only extract by consenting to eat
+while his disciple talked, corresponded in all essential particulars with
+that of the two young men.
+
+"And I see not," added he, "what we can do in the matter. This abomination
+is supposed to be in honour of the Emperor's victories. If we interfere
+with it we shall be executed as rebels, supposing that we are not first
+torn to pieces as rioters."
+
+"Porphyry," replied Plotinus, "I should esteem this disgrace to philosophy
+a disgrace to myself if I did not my utmost to avert it. Remain thou here,
+and perform my funeral rites if it be necessary."
+
+But to this Porphyry would by no means consent, and the two philosophers
+proceeded to the amphitheatre together. It was so crowded that there was no
+room on the seats for another person. Theocles was enthroned in the chair
+of honour, his beard manifesting evident traces of the depilatories
+administered by Leaena, who nevertheless sat by his side, her voluptuous
+face gloating over the anticipated banquet of agony. The philosophic part
+of the spectators were ranged all around, the remaining seats were occupied
+by a miscellaneous public. The master of the gladiators, a man of
+distinguished appearance, whose yellow locks gave him the aspect of a
+barbarian prince, stood in the arena surrounded by his myrmidons. The entry
+of Plotinus and Porphyry attracted his attention: he motioned to his
+followers, and in an instant the philosophers were seized, bound, and
+gagged without the excited assembly being in the least conscious of their
+presence.
+
+Two men stepped out into the arena, both fine and attractive figures. The
+athletic limbs, the fair complexion, the curling yellow hair of one
+proclaimed the Goth; he lightly swung his huge sword in his right hand, and
+looked as if his sole arm would easily put to flight the crowd of
+effeminate spectators. The other's beauty was of another sort; young,
+slender, pensive, spiritual, he looked like anything rather than a
+gladiator, and held his downward pointed sword with a negligent grasp.
+
+"Guard thyself!" cried the Goth, placing himself in an attitude of offence.
+
+"I spill not the blood of a fellow-creature," answered the other, casting
+his sword away from him.
+
+"Coward!" yelled well-nigh every voice in the amphitheatre.
+
+"No," answered the youth with a grave smile, "Christian."
+
+His shield and helmet followed his sword, he stood entirely defenceless
+before his adversary.
+
+"Throw him to my lion," cried Theocles.
+
+"Or thy lioness," suggested Hermon.
+
+This allusion to Leaena provoked a burst of laughter. Suddenly the Goth
+aimed a mighty blow at the head of the unresisting man. A shorn curl fell
+to the ground, the consummate skill of the swordsman averted all further
+contact between his blade and the Christian, who remained erect and
+smiling, without having moved a muscle or an eyelash.
+
+"Master," said the Goth, addressing the lanista, "I had rather fight ten
+armed men than this unarmed one."
+
+"Good," returned his lord, with a gesture of approval. "Retire both of
+you."
+
+A roar of disapprobation broke out from the spectators, which seemed not to
+produce the slightest effect on the lanista.
+
+"Turn out the next pair," they cried.
+
+"I shall not," said he.
+
+"Wherefore?"
+
+"Because I do not choose."
+
+"Rogue! Cheat! Swindler! Cast him into prison! Throw him to the lion!" Such
+epithets and recommendations rained from the spectators' seats, accompanied
+by a pelting of more substantial missiles. In an instant the yellow hair
+and common dress lay on the ground, and those who knew him not by the
+features could by the Imperial ornaments recognise the Emperor Gallienus.
+With no less celerity his followers, the Goth and the Christian excepted,
+disencumbered themselves of their exterior vesture, and stood forward in
+the character of Roman soldiers.
+
+"Friends," cried Gallienus, turning to the plebeian multitude, "I am not
+about to balk you of your sport."
+
+At a sign from him the legionaries ascended to the seats allotted to the
+philosophic portion of the audience, and a torrent of wisdom in their
+persons, including that of Leaena, flung forth with the energy of a
+catapult, descended abruptly and violently to the earth. They were
+instantly seized and dragged into an erect attitude by the remainder of the
+soldiery, who, amid the most tempestuous peals of laughter and applause
+from the delighted public, thrust swords into their hands, ranged them in
+opposite ranks, and summoned  them to begin the fight and quit themselves
+like men. It was equally ludicrous and pitiable to see the bald, mostly
+grey-bearded men, their garments torn in their expulsion and their persons
+bruised by the fall, confronting each other with quaking limbs, helplessly
+brandishing their weapons or feebly calling their adversaries to come on,
+while the soldiers prodded them from behind with spears, and urged them
+into the close quarters they so anxiously desired to avoid. Plotinus,
+helpless with his bonds and gag, looked on in impotent horror. Gallienus
+was often cruel, but could he intend such a revolting massacre? There must
+be something behind.
+
+The honour of developing the Emperor's purpose was reserved for Theocles,
+who, with admirable presence of mind, had ever since he found he must fight
+been engaged in trying to select the weakest antagonist. After hesitating
+between the unwieldy chief of the Peripatetics and the feminine Leaena he
+fixed on the latter, partly moved, perhaps, by the hope of avenging his
+beard. With a martial cry he sprang towards her, and upraised his weapon
+for a swashing blow. But he had sadly miscalculated. Leaena was hardly less
+versed in the combats of Mars than in those of Venus, having, in fact,
+commenced her distinguished career as a camp-follower of the Emperor
+Gordian. A tremendous stroke caught him on the hand; his blade dropped to
+the earth; why did not the fingers follow? Leaena elucidated the problem by
+a still more violent blow on his face; torrents of blood gushed forth
+indeed, but only from the nose. The sword doubled up; it had neither point
+nor edge. Encouraged by this  opportune discovery the philosophers attacked
+each other with infinite spirit and valour. Infuriated by the blows given
+and received, by the pokings and proddings of the military, and the
+hilarious derision of the public, they cast away the shivered blades and
+resorted to the weapons of Nature. They kicked, they cuffed, they
+scratched, they tore the garments from each other's shoulders, they foamed
+and rolled gasping in the yellow sand of the arena. At a signal from the
+Emperor the portal of the amphitheatre was thrown open, and the whole mass
+of clawing and cuffing philosophy was bundled ignominiously into the
+street.
+
+By this time Gallienus was seated on his tribunal, and Plotinus, released
+from his bonds, was standing by his side.
+
+"O Emperor," he murmured, deeply abashed, "what can I urge? Thou wilt
+surely demolish my city!"
+
+"No, Plotinus," replied Gallienus, pointing to the Goth and the Christian,
+"there are the men who will destroy the City of Philosophers. Would that
+were all they will destroy!"
+
+
+
+
+THE DEMON POPE
+
+
+"So you won't sell me your soul?" said the devil.
+
+"Thank you," replied the student, "I had rather keep it myself, if it's all
+the same to you."
+
+"But it's not all the same to me. I want it very particularly. Come, I'll
+be liberal. I said twenty years. You can have thirty."
+
+The student shook his head.
+
+"Forty!"
+
+Another shake.
+
+"Fifty!"
+
+As before.
+
+"Now," said the devil, "I know I'm going to do a foolish thing, but I
+cannot bear to see a clever, spirited young man throw himself away. I'll
+make you another kind of offer. We won't have any bargain at present, but I
+will push you on in the world for the next forty years. This day forty
+years I come back and ask you for a boon; not your soul, mind, or anything
+not perfectly in your power to grant. If you give it, we are quits; if not,
+I fly away with you. What say you to this?"
+
+The student reflected for some minutes. "Agreed," he said at last.
+
+Scarcely had the devil disappeared, which he did instantaneously, ere a
+messenger reined in his  smoking steed at the gate of the University of
+Cordova (the judicious reader will already have remarked that Lucifer could
+never have been allowed inside a Christian seat of learning), and,
+inquiring for the student Gerbert, presented him with the Emperor Otho's
+nomination to the Abbacy of Bobbio, in consideration, said the document, of
+his virtue and learning, well-nigh miraculous in one so young. Such
+messengers were frequent visitors during Gerbert's prosperous career.
+Abbot, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, he was ultimately enthroned Pope on
+April 2, 999, and assumed the appellation of Silvester the Second. It was
+then a general belief that the world would come to an end in the following
+year, a catastrophe which to many seemed the more imminent from the
+election of a chief pastor whose celebrity as a theologian, though not
+inconsiderable, by no means equalled his reputation as a necromancer.
+
+The world, notwithstanding, revolved scatheless through the dreaded
+twelvemonth, and early in the first year of the eleventh century Gerbert
+was sitting peacefully in his study, perusing a book of magic. Volumes of
+algebra, astrology, alchemy, Aristotelian philosophy, and other such light
+reading filled his bookcase; and on a table stood an improved clock of his
+invention, next to his introduction of the Arabic numerals his chief legacy
+to posterity. Suddenly a sound of wings was heard, and Lucifer stood by his
+side.
+
+"It is a long time," said the fiend, "since I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you. I have now called to remind you of our little contract,
+concluded this day forty years."
+
+"You remember," said Silvester, "that you are not to ask anything exceeding
+my power to perform."
+
+"I have no such intention," said Lucifer. "On the contrary, I am about to
+solicit a favour which can be bestowed by you alone. You are Pope, I desire
+that you would make me a Cardinal.
+
+"In the expectation, I presume," returned Gerbert, "of becoming Pope on the
+next vacancy."
+
+"An expectation," replied Lucifer, "which I may most reasonably entertain,
+considering my enormous wealth, my proficiency in intrigue, and the present
+condition of the Sacred College."
+
+"You would doubtless," said Gerbert, "endeavour to subvert the foundations
+of the Faith, and, by a course of profligacy and licentiousness, render the
+Holy See odious and contemptible."
+
+"On the contrary," said the fiend, "I would extirpate heresy, and all
+learning and knowledge as inevitably tending thereunto. I would suffer no
+man to read but the priest, and confine his reading to his breviary. I
+would burn your books together with your bones on the first convenient
+opportunity. I would observe an austere propriety of conduct, and be
+especially careful not to loosen one rivet in the tremendous yoke I was
+forging for the minds and consciences of mankind."
+
+"If it be so," said Gerbert, "let's be off!"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lucifer, "you are willing to accompany me to the infernal
+regions!"
+
+"Assuredly, rather than be accessory to the burning of Plato and Aristotle,
+and give place to the darkness against which I have been contending all my
+life."
+
+"Gerbert," replied the demon, "this is arrant trifling. Know you not that
+no good man can enter my dominions? that, were such a thing possible, my
+empire would become intolerable to me, and I should be compelled to
+abdicate?"
+
+"I do know it," said Gerbert, "and hence I have been able to receive your
+visit with composure."
+
+"Gerbert," said the devil, with tears in his eyes, "I put it to you--is
+this fair, is this honest? I undertake to promote your interests in the
+world; I fulfil my promise abundantly. You obtain through my
+instrumentality a position to which you could never otherwise have aspired.
+Often have I had a hand in the election of a Pope, but never before have I
+contributed to confer the tiara on one eminent for virtue and learning. You
+profit by my assistance to the full, and now take advantage of an
+adventitious circumstance to deprive me of my reasonable guerdon. It is my
+constant experience that the good people are much more slippery than the
+sinners, and drive much harder bargains."
+
+"Lucifer," answered Gerbert, "I have always sought to treat you as a
+gentleman, hoping that you would approve yourself such in return. I will
+not inquire whether it was entirely in harmony with this character to seek
+to intimidate me into compliance with your demand by threatening me with a
+penalty which you well knew could not be enforced. I will overlook this
+little irregularity, and concede even more than you have requested. You
+have asked to be a Cardinal. I will make you Pope--"
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Lucifer, and an internal glow  suffused his sooty hide, as
+the light of a fading ember is revived by breathing upon it.
+
+"For twelve hours," continued Gerbert. "At the expiration of that time we
+will consider the matter further; and if, as I anticipate, you are more
+anxious to divest yourself of the Papal dignity than you were to assume it,
+I promise to bestow upon you any boon you may ask within my power to grant,
+and not plainly inconsistent with religion or morals."
+
+"Done!" cried the demon. Gerbert uttered some cabalistic words, and in a
+moment the apartment held two Pope Silvesters, entirely indistinguishable
+save by their attire, and the fact that one limped slightly with the left
+foot.
+
+"You will find the Pontifical apparel in this cupboard," said Gerbert, and,
+taking his book of magic with him, he retreated through a masked door to a
+secret chamber. As the door closed behind him he chuckled, and muttered to
+himself, "Poor old Lucifer! Sold again!"
+
+If Lucifer was sold he did not seem to know it. He approached a large slab
+of silver which did duty as a mirror, and contemplated his personal
+appearance with some dissatisfaction.
+
+"I certainly don't look half so well without my horns," he soliloquised,
+"and I am sure I shall miss my tail most grievously."
+
+A tiara and a train, however, made fair amends for the deficient
+appendages, and Lucifer now looked every inch a Pope. He was about to call
+the master of the ceremonies, and summon a consistory, when the door was
+burst open, and seven cardinals, brandishing poniards, rushed into the
+room.
+
+"Down with the sorcerer!" they cried, as they seized and gagged him.
+
+"Death to the Saracen!"
+
+"Practises algebra, and other devilish arts!"
+
+"Knows Greek!"
+
+"Talks Arabic!"
+
+"Reads Hebrew!"
+
+"Burn him!"
+
+"Smother him!"
+
+"Let him be deposed by a general council," said a young and inexperienced
+Cardinal.
+
+"Heaven forbid!" said an old and wary one, _sotto voce_.
+
+Lucifer struggled frantically, but the feeble frame he was doomed to
+inhabit for the next eleven hours was speedily exhausted. Bound and
+helpless, he swooned away.
+
+"Brethren," said one of the senior cardinals, "it hath been delivered by
+the exorcists that a sorcerer or other individual in league with the demon
+doth usually bear upon his person some visible token of his infernal
+compact. I propose that we forthwith institute a search for this stigma,
+the discovery of which may contribute to justify our proceedings in the
+eyes of the world."
+
+"I heartily approve of our brother Anno's proposition," said another, "the
+rather as we cannot possibly fail to discover such a mark, if, indeed, we
+desire to find it."
+
+The search was accordingly instituted, and had not proceeded far ere a
+simultaneous yell from all the seven cardinals indicated that their
+investigation had brought more to light than they had ventured to expect.
+
+The Holy Father had a cloven foot!
+
+For the next five minutes the Cardinals remained utterly stunned, silent,
+and stupefied with amazement. As they gradually recovered their faculties
+it would have become manifest to a nice observer that the Pope had risen
+very considerably in their good opinion.
+
+"This is an affair requiring very mature deliberation," said one.
+
+"I always feared that we might be proceeding too precipitately," said
+another.
+
+"It is written, 'the devils believe,'" said a third: "the Holy Father,
+therefore, is not a heretic at any rate."
+
+"Brethren," said Anno, "this affair, as our brother Benno well remarks,
+doth indeed call for mature deliberation. I therefore propose that, instead
+of smothering his Holiness with cushions, as originally contemplated, we
+immure him for the present in the dungeon adjoining hereunto, and, after
+spending the night in meditation and prayer, resume the consideration of
+the business tomorrow morning."
+
+"Informing the officials of the palace," said Benno, "that his Holiness has
+retired for his devotions, and desires on no account to be disturbed."
+
+"A pious fraud," said Anno, "which not one of the Fathers would for a
+moment have scrupled to commit."
+
+The Cardinals accordingly lifted the still insensible Lucifer, and bore him
+carefully, almost tenderly, to the apartment appointed for his detention.
+Each would fain have lingered in hopes of his recovery, but each felt that
+the eyes of his six brethren were upon him: and all, therefore,  retired
+simultaneously, each taking a key of the cell.
+
+Lucifer regained consciousness almost immediately afterwards. He had the
+most confused idea of the circumstances which had involved him in his
+present scrape, and could only say to himself that if they were the usual
+concomitants of the Papal dignity, these were by no means to his taste, and
+he wished he had been made acquainted with them sooner. The dungeon was not
+only perfectly dark, but horribly cold, and the poor devil in his present
+form had no latent store of infernal heat to draw upon. His teeth
+chattered, he shivered in every limb, and felt devoured with hunger and
+thirst. There is much probability in the assertion of some of his
+biographers that it was on this occasion that he invented ardent spirits;
+but, even if he did, the mere conception of a glass of brandy could only
+increase his sufferings. So the long January night wore wearily on, and
+Lucifer seemed likely to expire from inanition, when a key turned in the
+lock, and Cardinal Anno cautiously glided in, bearing a lamp, a loaf, half
+a cold roast kid, and a bottle of wine.
+
+"I trust," he said, bowing courteously, "that I may be excused any slight
+breach of etiquette of which I may render myself culpable from the
+difficulty under which I labour of determining whether, under present
+circumstances, 'Your Holiness,' or 'Your Infernal Majesty' be the form of
+address most befitting me to employ."
+
+"Bub-ub-bub-boo," went Lucifer, who still had the gag in his mouth.
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed the Cardinal, "I crave  your Infernal Holiness's
+forgiveness. What a lamentable oversight!"
+
+And, relieving Lucifer from his gag and bonds, he set out the refection,
+upon which the demon fell voraciously.
+
+"Why the devil, if I may so express myself," pursued Anno, "did not your
+Holiness inform us that you _were_ the devil? Not a hand would then have
+been raised against you. I have myself been seeking all my life for the
+audience now happily vouchsafed me. Whence this mistrust of your faithful
+Anno, who has served you so loyally and zealously these many years?"
+
+Lucifer pointed significantly to the gag and fetters.
+
+"I shall never forgive myself," protested the Cardinal, "for the part I
+have borne in this unfortunate transaction. Next to ministering to your
+Majesty's bodily necessities, there is nothing I have so much at heart as
+to express my penitence. But I entreat your Majesty to remember that I
+believed myself to be acting in your Majesty's interest by overthrowing a
+magician who was accustomed to send your Majesty upon errands, and who
+might at any time enclose you in a box, and cast you into the sea. It is
+deplorable that your Majesty's most devoted servants should have been thus
+misled."
+
+"Reasons of State," suggested Lucifer.
+
+"I trust that they no longer operate," said the Cardinal. "However, the
+Sacred College is now fully possessed of the whole matter: it is therefore
+unnecessary to pursue this department of the subject further. I would now
+humbly crave leave to confer with your Majesty, or rather, perhaps, your
+Holiness, since I am about to speak of spiritual things, on the important
+and delicate point of your Holiness's successor. I am ignorant how long
+your Holiness proposes to occupy the Apostolic chair; but of course you are
+aware that public opinion will not suffer you to hold it for a term
+exceeding that of the pontificate of Peter. A vacancy, therefore, must one
+day occur; and I am humbly to represent that the office could not be filled
+by one more congenial than myself to the present incumbent, or on whom he
+could more fully rely to carry out in every respect his views and
+intentions."
+
+And the Cardinal proceeded to detail various circumstances of his past
+life, which certainly seemed to corroborate his assertion. He had not,
+however, proceeded far ere he was disturbed by the grating of another key
+in the lock, and had just time to whisper impressively, "Beware of Benno,"
+ere he dived under a table.
+
+Benno was also provided with a lamp, wine, and cold viands. Warned by the
+other lamp and the remains of Lucifer's repast that some colleague had been
+beforehand with him, and not knowing how many more might be in the field,
+he came briefly to the point as regarded the Papacy, and preferred his
+claim in much the same manner as Anno. While he was earnestly cautioning
+Lucifer against this Cardinal as one who could and would cheat the very
+Devil himself, another key turned in the lock, and Benno escaped under the
+table, where Anno immediately inserted his finger into his right eye. The
+little squeal consequent upon this occurrence Lucifer successfully
+smothered by a fit of coughing.
+
+Cardinal No. 3, a Frenchman, bore a Bayonne ham, and exhibited the same
+disgust as Benno on seeing himself forestalled. So far as his requests
+transpired they were moderate, but no one knows where he would have stopped
+if he had not been scared by the advent of Cardinal No. 4. Up to this time
+he had only asked for an inexhaustible purse, power to call up the Devil
+_ad libitum_, and a ring of invisibility to allow him free access to his
+mistress, who was unfortunately a married woman.
+
+Cardinal No. 4 chiefly wanted to be put into the way of poisoning Cardinal
+No. 5; and Cardinal No. 5 preferred the same petition as respected Cardinal
+No. 4.
+
+Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the Archbishoprics
+of Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding them together, and of
+unlimited non-residence. In the course of his harangue he made use of the
+phrase _non obstantibus_, of which Lucifer immediately took a note.
+
+What the seventh Cardinal would have solicited is not known, for he had
+hardly opened his mouth when the twelfth hour expired, and Lucifer,
+regaining his vigour with his shape, sent the Prince of the Church spinning
+to the other end of the room, and split the marble table with a single
+stroke of his tail. The six crouched and huddling Cardinals cowered
+revealed to one another, and at the same time enjoyed the spectacle of his
+Holiness darting through the stone ceiling, which yielded like a film to
+his passage, and closed up afterwards as if nothing had happened. After the
+first shock of dismay they unanimously rushed to the door,  but found it
+bolted on the outside. There was no other exit, and no means of giving an
+alarm. In this emergency the demeanour of the Italian Cardinals set a
+bright example to their ultramontane colleagues. "_Bisogna pazienzia_,"
+they said, as they shrugged their shoulders. Nothing could exceed the
+mutual politeness of Cardinals Anno and Benno, unless that of the two who
+had sought to poison each other. The Frenchman was held to have gravely
+derogated from good manners by alluding to this circumstance, which had
+reached his ears while he was under the table: and the Englishman swore so
+outrageously at the plight in which he found himself that the Italians then
+and there silently registered a vow that none of his nation should ever be
+Pope, a maxim which, with one exception, has been observed to this day.
+
+Lucifer, meanwhile, had repaired to Silvester, whom he found arrayed in all
+the insignia of his dignity; of which, as he remarked, he thought his
+visitor had probably had enough.
+
+"I should think so indeed," replied Lucifer. "But at the same time I feel
+myself fully repaid for all I have undergone by the assurance of the
+loyalty of my friends and admirers, and the conviction that it is needless
+for me to devote any considerable amount of personal attention to
+ecclesiastical affairs. I now claim the promised boon, which it will be in
+no way inconsistent with thy functions to grant, seeing that it is a work
+of mercy. I demand that the Cardinals be released, and that their
+conspiracy against thee, by which I alone suffered, be buried in oblivion."
+
+"I hoped you would carry them all off," said Gerbert, with an expression of
+disappointment.
+
+"Thank you," said the Devil. "It is more to my interest to leave them where
+they are."
+
+So the dungeon-door was unbolted, and the Cardinals came forth, sheepish
+and crestfallen. If, after all, they did less mischief than Lucifer had
+expected from them, the cause was their entire bewilderment by what had
+passed, and their utter inability to penetrate the policy of Gerbert, who
+henceforth devoted himself even with ostentation to good works. They could
+never quite satisfy themselves whether they were speaking to the Pope or to
+the Devil, and when under the latter impression habitually emitted
+propositions which Gerbert justly stigmatised as rash, temerarious, and
+scandalous. They plagued him with allusions to certain matters mentioned in
+their interviews with Lucifer, with which they naturally but erroneously
+supposed him to be conversant, and worried him by continual nods and
+titterings as they glanced at his nether extremities. To abolish this
+nuisance, and at the same time silence sundry unpleasant rumours which had
+somehow got abroad, Gerbert devised the ceremony of kissing the Pope's
+feet, which, in a grievously mutilated form, endures to this day. The
+stupefaction of the Cardinals on discovering that the Holy Father had lost
+his hoof surpasses all description, and they went to their graves without
+having obtained the least insight into the mystery.
+
+
+
+
+THE CUPBEARER
+
+
+The minister Photinius had fallen, to the joy of Constantinople. He had
+taken sanctuary in the immense monastery adjoining the Golden Gate in the
+twelfth region of the city, founded for a thousand monks by the patrician
+Studius, in the year 463. There he occupied himself with the concoction of
+poisons, the resource of fallen statesmen. When a defeated minister of our
+own day is indisposed to accept his discomfiture, he applies himself to
+poison the public mind, inciting the lower orders against the higher, and
+blowing up every smouldering ember of sedition he can discover, trusting
+that the conflagration thus kindled, though it consume the edifice of the
+State, will not fail to roast his own egg. Photinius's conceptions of
+mischief were less refined; he perfected his toxicological knowledge in the
+medical laboratory of the monastery, and sought eagerly for an opportunity
+of employing it; whether in an experiment upon the Emperor, or on his own
+successor, or on some other personage, circumstances must determine.
+
+The sanctity of Studius's convent, and the strength of its monastic
+garrison, rendered it a safe refuge for disgraced courtiers, and in this
+thirtieth year of the Emperor Basil the Second (reckoning from his nominal
+accession) it harboured  a legion of ex-prime ministers, patriarchs,
+archbishops, chief secretaries, hypati, anthypati, silentiarii,
+protospatharii, and even spatharo-candidati. And this small army was
+nothing to the host that, maimed or blinded or tonsured or all three,
+dragged out their lives in monasteries or in dungeons or on rocky islets;
+and these again were few in comparison with the spirits of the traitors or
+the betrayed who wailed nightly amid the planes and cypresses of the
+Aretae, or stalked through the palatial apartments of verdantique and
+porphyry. But of those comparatively at liberty, but whose liberty was
+circumscribed by the hallowed precincts of Studius, every soul was
+plotting. And never, perhaps, in the corrupt Byzantine Court, where true
+friendship had been unknown since Theodora quarrelled with Antonia, had so
+near an approach to it existed as in this asylum of villains. A sort of
+freemasonry came to prevail in the sanctuary: every one longed to know how
+his neighbour's plot throve, and grudged not to buy the knowledge by
+disclosing a little corner of his own. Thus rendered communicative, their
+colloquies would travel back into the past, and as the veterans of intrigue
+fought their battles over again, the most experienced would learn things
+that made them open their eyes with amazement. "Ah!" they would hear, "that
+is just where you were mistaken. You had bought Eromenus, but so had I, and
+old Nicephorus had outbid us both." "You deemed the dancer Anthusa a sure
+card, and knew not of her secret infirmity, of which I had been apprised by
+her waiting woman." "Did you really know nothing of that sliding panel? And
+were you ignorant  that whatever one says in the blue chamber is heard in
+the green?" "Yes, I thought so too, and I spent a mint of money before
+finding out that the dog whose slaver that brazen impostor Panurgiades
+pretended to sell me was no more mad than he was." After such rehearsals of
+future dialogues by the banks of Styx, the fallen statesmen were observed
+to appear exceedingly dejected, but the stimulus had become necessary to
+their existence. None gossiped so freely or disclosed so much as Photinius
+and his predecessor Eustathius, whom he had himself displaced--probably
+because Eustathius, believing in nothing in heaven or earth but gold, and
+labouring under an absolute privation of that metal, was regarded even by
+himself as an extinct volcano.
+
+"Well," observed he one day, when discoursing with Photinius is an
+unusually confidential mood, "I am free to say that for my own part I don't
+think over much of poison. It has its advantages, to be sure, but to my
+mind the disadvantages are even more conspicuous."
+
+"For example?" inquired Photinius, who had the best reason for confiding in
+the efficacy of a drag administered with dexterity and discretion.
+
+"Two people must be in the secret at least, if not three," replied
+Eustathius, "and cooks, as a rule, are a class of persons entirely unfit to
+be employed in affairs of State."
+
+"The Court physician," suggested Photinius.
+
+"Is only available," answered Eustathius, "in case his Majesty should send
+for him, which is most improbable. If he ever did, poison, praised be the
+Lord! would be totally unnecessary and entirely superfluous."
+
+"My dear friend," said Photinius, venturing at this favourable moment on a
+question he had been dying to ask ever since he had been an inmate of the
+convent, "would you mind telling me in confidence, did you ever administer
+any potion of a deleterious nature to his Sacred Majesty?"
+
+"Never!" protested Eustathius, with fervour. "I tried once, to be sure, but
+it was no use."
+
+"What was the impediment?"
+
+"The perverse opposition of the cupbearer. It is idle attempting anything
+of the kind as long as she is about the Emperor."
+
+"_She_!" exclaimed Photinius.
+
+"Don't you know _that_?" responded Eustathius, with an air and manner that
+plainly said, "You don't know much."
+
+Humbled and ashamed, Photinius nevertheless wisely stooped to avow his
+nescience, and flattering his rival on his superior penetration, led him to
+divulge the State secret that the handsome cupbearer Helladius was but the
+disguise of the lovely Helladia, the object of Basil's tenderest affection,
+and whose romantic attachment to his person had already frustrated more
+conspiracies than the aged plotter could reckon up.
+
+This intelligence made Photinius for a season exceedingly thoughtful. He
+had not deemed Basil of an amorous complexion. At length he sent for his
+daughter, the beautiful and virtuous Euprepia, who from time to time
+visited him in the monastery.
+
+"Daughter," he said, "it appears to me that the time has now arrived when
+thou mayest with propriety present a petition to the Emperor on behalf of
+thy unfortunate father. Here is the  document. It is, I flatter myself,
+composed with no ordinary address; nevertheless I will not conceal from
+thee that I place my hopes rather on thy beauty of person than on my beauty
+of style. Shake down thy hair and dishevel it, so!--that is excellent.
+Remember to tear thy robe some little in the poignancy of thy woe, and to
+lose a sandal. Tears and sobs of course thou hast always at command, but
+let not the frenzy of thy grief render thee wholly inarticulate. Here is a
+slight memorandum of what is most fitting for thee to say: thy old nurse's
+instructions will do the rest. Light a candle for St. Sergius, and watch
+for a favourable opportunity."
+
+Euprepia was upright, candid, and loyal; but the best of women has
+something of the actress in her nature; and her histrionic talent was
+stimulated by her filial affection. Basil was for a moment fairly carried
+away by the consummate fact of her performance and the genuine feeling to
+her appeal; but he was himself again by the time he had finished perusing
+his late minister's long-winded and mendacious memorial.
+
+"What manner of woman was thy mother?" he inquired kindly
+
+Euprepia was eloquent in praise of her deceased parent's perfections of
+mind and person.
+
+"Then I can believe thee Photinius's daughter, which I might otherwise have
+doubted," returned Basil. "As concerns him, I can only say, if he feels
+himself innocent, let him come out of sanctuary, and stand his trial. But I
+will give thee a place at Court."
+
+This was about all that Photinius hoped to obtain, and he joyfully
+consented to his daughter's  entering the Imperial court, exulting at
+having got in the thin end of the wedge. She was attached to the person of
+the Emperor's sister-in-law, the "Slayer of the Bulgarians" himself being a
+most determined bachelor.
+
+Time wore on. Euprepia's opportunities of visiting her father were less
+frequent than formerly. At last she came, looking thoroughly miserable,
+distracted, and forlorn.
+
+"What ails thee, child?" he inquired anxiously.
+
+"Oh, father, in what a frightful position do I find myself!"
+
+"Speak," he said, "and rely on my counsel."
+
+"When I entered the Court," she proceeded, "I found at first but one human
+creature I could love or trust, and he--let me so call him--seemed to
+make up for the deficiencies of all the rest. It was the cupbearer
+Helladius."
+
+"I hope he is still thy friend," interrupted Photinius. "The good graces of
+an Imperial cupbearer are always important, and I would have bought those
+of Helladius with a myriad of bezants."
+
+"They were not to be thus obtained, father," said she. "The purest
+disinterestedness, the noblest integrity, the most unselfish devotion, were
+the distinction of my friend. And such beauty! I cannot, I must not conceal
+that my heart was soon entirely his. But--most strange it seemed to me
+then--it was long impossible for me to tell whether Helladius loved me or
+loved me not. The most perfect sympathy existed between us: we seemed one
+heart and one soul: and yet, and yet, Helladius never gave the slightest
+indication of the sentiments which a young man might  be supposed to
+entertain for a young girl. Vainly did I try every innocent wile that a
+modest maiden may permit herself: he was ever the friend, never the lover.
+At length, after long pining between despairing fondness and wounded pride,
+I myself turned away, and listened to one who left me in no doubt of the
+sincerity of his passion."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"The Emperor! And, to shorten the story of my shame, I became his
+mistress."
+
+"The saints be praised!" shouted Photinius. "O my incomparable daughter!"
+
+"Father!" cried Euprepia, blushing and indignant. "But let me hurry on with
+my wretched tale. In proportion as the Emperor's affection became more
+marked, Helladius, hitherto so buoyant and serene, became a visible prey to
+despondency. Some scornful beauty, I deemed, was inflicting on him the
+tortures he had previously inflicted upon me, and, cured of my unhappy
+attachment, and entirely devoted to my Imperial lover, I did all in my
+power to encourage him. He received my comfort with gratitude, nor did it,
+as I had feared might happen, seem to excite the least lover-like feeling
+towards me on his own part."
+
+"Euprepia," he said only two days ago, "never in this Court have I met one
+like thee. Thou art the soul of honour and generosity. I can safely trust
+thee with a secret which my bursting heart can no longer retain, but which
+I dread to breathe even to myself. Know first I am not what I seem, I am a
+woman!" And opening his vest--"
+
+"We know all about that already," interrupted Photinius. "Get on!"
+
+"If thou knowest this already, father," said the astonished Euprepia, "thou
+wilt spare me the pain of entering further into Helladia's affection for
+Basil. Suffice that it was impassioned beyond description, and vied with
+whatever history or romance records. In her male costume she had
+accompanied the conqueror of the Bulgarians in his campaigns, she had
+fought in his battles; a gigantic foe, in act to strike him from behind,
+had fallen by her arrow; she had warded the poison-cup from his lips, and
+the assassin's dagger from his heart; she had rejected enormous wealth
+offered as a bribe for treachery, and lived only for the Emperor. 'And
+now,' she cried, 'his love for me is cold, and he deserts me for another.
+Who she is I cannot find, else on her it were, not on him, that my
+vengeance should alight. Oh, Euprepia, I would tear her eyes from her head,
+were they beautiful as thine! But vengeance I must have. Basil must die. On
+the third day he expires by my hand, poisoned by the cup which I alone am
+trusted to offer him at the Imperial banquet where thou wilt be present.
+Thou shalt see his agonies and my triumph, and rejoice that thy friend has
+known how to avenge herself.'
+
+"Thou seest now, father, in how frightful a difficulty I am placed. All my
+entreaties and remonstrances have been in vain: at my threats Helladia
+merely laughs. I love Basil with my whole heart. Shall I look on and see
+him murdered? Shall I, having first unwittingly done my friend the most
+grievous injury, proceed further to betray her, and doom her to a cruel
+death? I might anticipate her fell purpose by slaying her, but for that I
+have neither strength  nor courage. Many a time have I felt on the point of
+revealing everything to her, and offering myself as her victim, but for
+this also I lack fortitude. I might convey a warning to Basil, but
+Helladia's vengeance is unsleeping, and nothing but her death or mine will
+screen him. Oh, father, father! what am I to do?"
+
+"Nothing romantic or sentimental, I trust, dear child," replied Photinius.
+
+"Torture me not, father. I came to thee for counsel."
+
+"And counsel shalt thou have, but it must be the issue of mature
+deliberation. Thou mayest observe," continued he with the air of a good man
+contending with adversity, "how weak and miserable is man's estate even in
+the day of good fortune, how hard it is for purblind mortals to discern the
+right path, especially when two alluring routes are simultaneously
+presented for their decision! The most obvious and natural course, the one
+I should have adopted without hesitation half-an-hour ago, would be simply
+to let Helladia alone. Should she succeed--and Heaven forbid else!--the
+knot is loosed in the simplest manner. Basil dies--"
+
+"Father!"
+
+"I am a favourite with his sister-in-law," continued Photinius, entirely
+unconscious of his daughter's horror and agitation, "who will govern in the
+name of her weak husband, and is moreover thy mistress. She recalls me to
+Court, and all is peace and joy. But then, Helladia may fail. In that case,
+when she has been executed--"
+
+"Father, father!"
+
+"We are exactly where we were, save for the hold thou hast established over
+the Emperor, which is of course invaluable. I cannot but feel that Heaven
+is good when I reflect how easily thou mightest have thrown thyself away
+upon a courtier. Now there is a much bolder game to play, which, relying on
+the protection of Providence, I feel half disposed to attempt. Thou
+mightest betray Helladia."
+
+"Deliver my friend to the tormentors!"
+
+"Then," pursued Photinius, without hearing her, "thy claim on the Emperor's
+gratitude is boundless, and if he has any sense of what is seemly--and he
+is what they call chivalrous--he will make thee his lawful consort. I
+father-in-law of an Emperor! My brain reels to think of it. I must be cool.
+I must not suffer myself to be dazzled or hurried away. Let me consider.
+Thus acting, thou puttest all to the hazard of the die. For if Helladia
+should deny everything, as of course she would, and the Emperor should
+foolishly scruple to put her to the rack, she might probably persuade him
+of her innocence, and where wouldst thou be then? It might almost be better
+to be beforehand, and poison Helladia herself, but I fear there is no time
+now. Thou hast no evidence but her threats, I suppose? Thou hast not caught
+her tampering with poisons? There can of course be nothing in writing. I
+daresay I could find something, if I had but time. Canst thou counterfeit
+her signature?"
+
+But long ere this Euprepia, dissolved in tears, her bosom torn by
+convulsive sobs, had become as inattentive to her parent's discourse as he
+had been to her interjections. Photinius at last  remarked her distress: he
+was by no means a bad father.
+
+"Poor child," he said, "thy nerves are unstrung, and no wonder. It is a
+terrible risk to run. Even if thou saidest nothing, and Helladia under the
+torture accused thee of having been privy to her design, it might have a
+bad effect on the Emperor's mind. If he put thee to the torture too--but
+no! that's impossible. I feel faint and giddy, dear child, and unable to
+decide a point of such importance. Come to me at daybreak to-morrow."
+
+But Euprepia did not reappear, and Photinius spent the day in an agony of
+expectation, fearing that she had compromised herself by some imprudence.
+He gazed on the setting sun with uncontrollable impatience, knowing that it
+would shine on the Imperial banquet, where so much was to happen. Basil was
+in fact at that very moment seating himself among a brilliant assemblage.
+By his side stood a choir of musicians, among them Euprepia. Soon the cup
+was called for, and Helladia, in her masculine dress, stepped forward,
+darting a glance of sinister triumph at her friend. Silently, almost
+imperceptibly to the bulk of the company, Euprepia glided forward, and
+hissed rather than whispered in Helladia's ear, ere she could retire from
+the Emperor's side.
+
+"Didst thou not say that if thou couldst discover her who had wronged thee,
+thou wouldst wreak thy vengeance on her, and molest Basil no further?"
+
+"I did, and I meant it."
+
+"See that thou keepest thy word. I am she!" And snatching the cup from the
+table, she quaffed  it to the last drop, and instantly expired in
+convulsions.
+
+We pass over the dismay of the banqueters, the arrest and confession of
+Helladia, the general amazement at the revelation of her sex, the frantic
+grief of the Emperor.
+
+Basil's sorrow was sincere and durable. On an early occasion he thus
+addressed his courtiers:
+
+"I cannot determine which of these two women loved me best: she who gave
+her life for me, or she who would have taken mine. The first made the
+greater sacrifice; the second did most violence to her feelings. What say
+ye?"
+
+The courtiers hesitated, feeling themselves incompetent judges in problems
+of this nature. At length the youngest exclaimed:
+
+"O Emperor, how can we tell thee, unless we know what thou thinkest
+thyself?"
+
+"What!" exclaimed Basil, "an honest man in the Court of Byzantium! Let his
+mouth be filled with gold immediately!"
+
+This operation having been performed, and the precious metal distributed in
+fees among the proper officers, Basil thus addressed the object of his
+favour:
+
+"Manuel, thy name shall henceforth be Chrysostomus, in memory of what has
+just taken place. In further token of my approbation of thy honesty, I will
+confer upon thee the hand of the only other respectable person about the
+Court, namely, of Helladia. Take her, my son, and raise up a race of
+heroes! She shall be amply dowered out of what remains of the property of
+Photinius."
+
+"Gennadius," whispered a cynical courtier to  his neighbour, "I hope thou
+admirest the magnanimity of our sovereign, who deems he is performing a
+most generous action in presenting Manuel with his cast-off mistress, who
+has tried to poison him, and with whom he has been at his wits' end what to
+do, and in dowering her at the expense of another."
+
+The snarl was just; but it is just also to acknowledge that Basil, as a
+prince born in the purple, had not the least idea that he was laying
+himself open to any such criticism. He actually did feel the manly glow of
+self-approbation which accompanies the performance of a good action: an
+emotion which no one else present, except Chrysostomus, was so much as able
+to conceive. It is further to be remarked that the old courtier who sneered
+at Chrysostomus was devoured by envy of his good fortune, and would have
+given his right eye to have been in his place.
+
+"Chrysostomus," pursued Basil, "we must now think of the hapless Photinius.
+That unfortunate father is doubtless in an agony of grief which renders the
+forfeiture of the remains of his possessions indifferent to him. Thou, his
+successor therein, mayest be regarded as in some sort his son-in-law. Go,
+therefore, and comfort him, and report to me upon his condition."
+
+Chrysostomus accordingly proceeded to the monastery, where he was informed
+that Photinius had retired with his spiritual adviser, and could on no
+account be disturbed.
+
+"It is on my head to see the Emperor's orders obeyed," returned
+Chrysostomus, and forced the door. The bereaved parent was busily engaged
+in sticking pins into a wax effigy of Basil, under  the direction of
+Panurgiades, already honourably mentioned in this history.
+
+"Wretched old man!" exclaimed Chrysostomus, "is this thy grief for thy
+daughter?"
+
+"My grief is great," answered Photinius, "but my time is small. If I turn
+not every moment to account, I shall never be prime minister again. But all
+is over now. Thou wilt denounce me, of course. I will give thee a counsel.
+Say that thou didst arrive just as we were about to place the effigy of
+Basil before a slow fire, and melt it into a caldron of bubbling poison."
+
+"I shall report what I have seen," replied Chrysostomus, "neither more nor
+less. But I think I can assure thee that none will suffer for this mummery
+except Panurgiades, and that he will at most be whipped."
+
+"Chrysostomus," said Basil, on receiving the report, "lust of power, a
+fever in youth, is a leprosy in age. The hoary statesman out of place would
+sell his daughter, his country, his soul, to regain it: yea, he would part
+with his skin and his senses, were it possible to hold office without them.
+I commiserate Photinius, whose faculties are clearly on the decline; the
+day has been when he would not have wasted his time sticking pins into a
+waxen figure. I will give him some shadow of authority to amuse his old
+days and keep him out of mischief. The Abbot of Catangion is just dead.
+Photinius shall succeed him."
+
+So Photinius received the tonsure and the dignity, and made a very
+tolerable Abbot. It is even recorded to his honour that he bestowed a
+handsome funeral on his old enemy Eustathius.
+
+Helladia made Chrysostomus an excellent wife, a little over-prudish, some
+thought. When, nearly two centuries afterwards, the Courts of Love came to
+be established in Provence, the question at issue between her and Euprepia
+was referred to those tribunals, which, finding the decision difficult,
+adjourned it for seven hundred years. That period having now expired, it is
+submitted to the British public.
+
+
+
+
+THE WISDOM OF THE INDIANS
+
+
+Everybody knows that in the reign of the Emperor Elagabalus Rome was
+visited by an embassy from India; whose members, on their way from the
+East, had held that memorable interview with the illustrious (though
+heretical) Christian philosopher Bardesanes which enabled him to formulate
+his doctrine of Fate, borrowed from the Indian theory of Karma, and
+therefore, until lately, grievously misunderstood by his commentators.
+
+It may not, however, be equally notorious that the ambassadors returned by
+sea as far as Berytus, and upon landing there were hospitably entertained
+by the sage Euphronius, the head of the philosophical faculty of that
+University.
+
+Euphronius naturally inquired what circumstance in Rome had appeared to his
+visitors most worthy of remark.
+
+"The extreme evil of the Emperor's Karma," said they.
+
+Euphronius requested further explanation.
+
+"Karma," explained their interpreter, "is that congeries of circumstances
+which has necessitated the birth of each individual, and of whose good or
+evil he is the incarnation. Every act must needs be attended by
+consequences, and as these are usually of too far-reaching a character to
+be  exhausted in the life of the doer of the action, they cannot but
+engender another person by whom they are to be borne. This truth is
+popularly expressed by the doctrine of transmigration, according to which
+individuals, as the character of their deeds may determine, are re-born as
+pigs or peacocks, beggars or princes. But this is a loose and unscientific
+way of speaking, for in fact it is not the individual that is re-born, but
+the character; which, even as the silkworm clothes itself with silk and the
+caddis-worm with mud and small shingle, creates for itself a new
+personality, congruous with its own nature. We are therefore led to reflect
+what a prodigious multitude of sins some one must have committed ere the
+Roman world could be afflicted with such an Emperor as Elagabalus."
+
+"What have ye found so exceedingly reprehensible in the Emperor's conduct?"
+demanded Euphronius.
+
+"To speak only," said the Indians, "of such of his doings as may fitly be
+recited to modest ears, we find him declaring war against Nature, and
+delighting in nothing that is not the contrary of what Heaven meant it to
+be. We see him bathing in perfumes, sailing ships in wine, feeding horses
+on grapes and lions on parrots, peppering fish with pearls, wearing gems on
+the soles of his feet, strewing his floor with gold-dust, paving the public
+streets with precious marbles, driving teams of stags, scorning to eat fish
+by the seaside, deploring his lot that he has never yet been able to dine
+on a phoenix. Enormous must have been the folly and wickedness which has
+incarnated itself in such a sovereign, and should his reign be  prolonged,
+discouraging is the prospect for the morals of the next generation.
+
+"According to you, then," said Euphronius, "the fates of men are not spun
+for them by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, but by their predecessors?"
+
+"So it is," said they, "always remembering that man can rid himself of his
+Karma by philosophic meditation, combined with religious austerities, and
+that if all walked in this path, existence with all its evils would come to
+an end. Insomuch that the most bloodthirsty conqueror that ever devastated
+the earth hath not destroyed one thousandth part as many existences as the
+Lord Buddha."
+
+"These are abstruse matters," said Euphronius, "and I lament that your stay
+in Berytus will not be long enough to instruct me adequately therein."
+
+"Accompany us to India," said they, "and thou shalt receive instruction at
+the fountain head."
+
+"I am old and feeble," apologised Euphronius, "and adjusted by long habit
+to my present environment. Nevertheless I will propound the enterprise to
+my pupils, only somewhat repressing their ardour, lest the volunteers
+should be inconveniently numerous."
+
+When, however, the proposition was made not a soul responded; though
+Euphronius reproached his disciples severely, and desired them to compare
+their want of spirit with his own thirst for knowledge, which, when he was
+a young man, had taken him as far as Alexandria to hear a celebrated
+rhetorician. In the evening, however, two disciples came to him together,
+and professed their readiness to undertake the expedition, if promised  a
+reward commensurate with its danger and difficulty.
+
+"Ye would learn the secret of my celebrated dilemma," said he, "which no
+sophist can elude? 'Tis much; 'tis immoderate; 'tis enormous; nevertheless,
+bring the wisdom of India to Berytus, and the knowledge of the stratagem
+shall be yours."
+
+"No, Master," they said, "it is not thy dilemma of which we are enamoured.
+It is thy daughter."
+
+A vehement altercation ensued, but at length the old philosopher, who at
+the bottom of his heart was much readier to part with his daughter than his
+dilemma, was induced to promise her to whichever of the pupils should bring
+home the most satisfactory exposition of Indian metaphysics: provided
+always that during their absence he should not have been compelled to
+bestow her hand as the price of a quibble even more subtle than his own:
+but this he believed to be impossible.
+
+Mnesitheus and Rufus accordingly travelled with the embassy to India, and
+arrived in safety at the metropolis of Palimbothra. They had wisely devoted
+themselves meanwhile to learning the language, and were now able to
+converse with some fluency.
+
+On reaching their destination they were placed under the superintendence of
+competent instructors, who were commissioned to initiate them into the
+canon of Buddhist scriptures, comprising, to mention only a few of the
+principal, the Lalitavistara, the Dhammapada, the Kuddhapatha, the
+Palinokkha, the Uragavagga, the Kulavagga, the Mahavagga, the Atthakavagga,
+and the Upasampadakammavaca. These works, composed in dead languages, and
+written in strange and unknown characters, were further provided with
+commentaries more voluminous and inexplicable than the text.
+
+"Heavens," exclaimed Mnesitheus and Rufus, "can the life of a man suffice
+to study all this?"
+
+"Assuredly not," replied the Indians. "The diligent student will resume his
+investigations in a subsequent stage of existence, and, if endowed with
+eminent faculties, may hope to attain the end he proposes to himself at the
+fifteenth transmigration."
+
+"The end we propose to ourselves," said the Greeks, "is to marry our
+master's daughter. Will the fair Euphronia also have undergone fifteen
+transmigrations, and will her charms have continued unimpaired?"
+
+"It is difficult to pronounce," said they, "for should the maiden, through
+the exercise of virtue, have merited to be born as a white elephant, her
+transmigrations must in the order of nature be but few; whereas should she
+have unfortunately become and remained a rat, a frog, or other shortlived
+animal, they cannot but be exceedingly numerous."
+
+"The prospect of wedding a frog at the end of fifteen transmigrations,"
+said the youths, "doth not in any respect commend itself to us. Are there
+no means by which the course of study may be accelerated?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," said the Indians, "by the practice of religious
+austerities."
+
+"Of what nature are these?" inquired the young men.
+
+"The intrepid disciple," said the sages, "may chain himself to a tree, and
+gaze upon the sun until he is deprived of the faculty of vision. He may
+drive an iron bar through his cheeks and tongue, thus preventing all misuse
+of the gift of speech. It is open to him to bury himself in the earth up to
+his waist, relying for his maintenance on the alms of pious donors. He may
+recline upon a couch studded with spikes, until from the induration of his
+skin he shall have merited the title of a rhinoceros among sages. As,
+however, these latter practices interfere with locomotion, and thus prevent
+his close attendance on his spiritual guide, it is rather recommended to
+him to elevate his arms above his head, and retain them in that position
+until, by the withering of the sinews, it is impossible for him to bring
+them down again."
+
+"In that case," cried Rufus, "farewell philosophy! farewell Euphronia!"
+
+There is reason to believe that Mnesitheus would have made exactly the same
+observation if Rufus had not been beforehand with him. The spirit of
+contradiction and the affectation of superiority, however, led him to
+reproach his rival with pusillanimity, and he went so far that at length he
+found himself committed to undergo the ordeal: merely stipulating that, in
+consideration of his being a foreigner, he should be permitted to elevate
+the right arm only.
+
+The king of the country most graciously came to his assistance by causing
+him to be fastened to a tree, with his uplifted arm secured by iron bands
+above his head, a fan being put in his other hand to protect him against
+the molestations of gnats  and mosquitoes. By this means, and with the
+assistance of the monks who continually recited and expounded the Buddhist
+scriptures in his ears, some time even before his arm had stiffened for
+ever, the doctrine of the misery of existence had become perfectly clear to
+him.
+
+Released from his captivity, he hastened back to Europe to claim the
+guerdon of his sufferings. History is silent respecting his adventures
+until his arrival at Berytus, where the strange wild-looking man with the
+uplifted arm found himself the centre of a turbulent and mischievous
+rabble. As he seemed about to suffer severe ill-usage, a personage of
+dignified and portly appearance hastened up, and with his staff showered
+blows to right and left upon the rioters.
+
+"Scoundrels," he exclaimed, "finely have ye profited by my precepts, thus
+to misuse an innocent stranger! But I will no longer dwell among such
+barbarians. I will remove my school to Tarsus!"
+
+The mob dispersed. The victim and his deliverer stood face to face.
+
+"Mnesitheus!"
+
+"Rufus!"
+
+"Call me Rufinianus," corrected the latter; "for such is the appellation
+which I have felt it due to myself to assume, since the enhancement of my
+dignity by becoming Euphronius's successor and son-in-law."
+
+"Son-in-law! Am I to lose the reward of my incredible sufferings?"
+
+"Thou forgettest," said Rufinianus, "that Euphronia's hand was not promised
+as the reward of any austerities, but as the meed of the most  intelligent,
+that is, the most acceptable, account of the Indian philosophy, which in
+the opinion of the late eminent Euphronius, has been delivered by me. But
+come to my chamber, and let me minister to thy necessities."
+
+These having been duly attended to, Rufinianus demanded Mnesitheus's
+history, and then proceeded to narrate his own.
+
+"On my journey homeward," said he, "I reflected seriously on the probable
+purpose of our master in sending us forth, and saw reason to suspect that I
+had hitherto misapprehended it. For I could not remember that he had ever
+admitted that he could have anything to learn from other philosophers, or
+that he had ever exhibited the least interest in philosophic dogmas,
+excepting his own. The system of the Indians, I thought, must be either
+inferior to that of Euphronius, or superior. If the former, he will not
+want it: if the latter, he will want it much less. I therefore concluded
+that our mission was partly a concession to public opinion, partly to
+enable him to say that his name was known, and his teaching proclaimed on
+the very banks of the Ganges. I formed my plan accordingly, and
+disregarding certain indications that I was neither expected nor wanted,
+presented myself before Euphronius with a gladsome countenance, slightly
+overcast by sorrow on account of thee, whom I affirmed to have been
+devoured by a tiger.
+
+"'Well,' said Euphronius in a disdainful tone, 'and what about this vaunted
+wisdom of the Indians?'
+
+"'The wisdom of the Indians,' I replied, 'is entirely borrowed from
+Pythagoras.'
+
+"'Did I not tell you so? 'Euphronius appealed to his disciples.
+
+"'Invariably,' they replied.
+
+"'As if a barbarian could teach a Greek!' said he.
+
+"'It is much if he is able to learn from one,' said they.
+
+"'Pythagoras, then,' said Euphronius addressing me,' did not resort to
+India to be instructed by the Gymnosophists?'
+
+"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'he went there to teach them, and the
+little knowledge of divine matters they possess is entirely derived from
+him. His mission is recorded in a barbarous poem called the Ramayana,
+wherein he is figuratively represented as allying himself with monkeys. He
+is worshipped all over the country under the appellations of Siva,
+Kamadeva, Kali, Gautama Buddha, and others too numerous to mention.'
+
+"When I further proceeded to explain that a temple had been erected to
+Euphronius himself on the banks of the Ganges, and that a festival, called
+Durga Popja, or the Feast of Reason, had been instituted in his honour, his
+good humour knew no bounds, and he granted me his daughter's hand without
+difficulty. He died a few years ago, bequeathing me his celebrated dilemma,
+and I am now head of his school and founder of the Rufinianian philosophy.
+I am also the author of some admired works, especially a life of
+Pythagoras, and a manual of Indian philosophy and religion. I hope for thy
+own sake thou wilt forbear to contradict me: for no one will believe thee.
+I trust also that thou wilt speedily overcome thy disappointment with
+respect to Euphronia. I do most  honestly and truthfully assure thee that
+for a one-armed man like thee to marry her would be most inexpedient,
+inasmuch as the defence of one's beard from her, when she is in a state of
+excitement, requires the full use of both hands, and of the feet also. But
+come with me to her chamber, and I will present thee to her. She is always
+taunting me with my inferiority to thee in personal attractions, and I
+promise myself much innocent amusement from her discomfiture when she finds
+thee as gaunt as a wolf and as black as a cinder. Only, as I have
+represented thee to have been devoured by a tiger, thou wilt kindly say
+that I saved thy life, but concealed the circumstance out of modesty."
+
+"I have learned in the Indian schools," said Mnesitheus, "not to lie for
+the benefit of others. I will not see Euphronia; I would not disturb her
+ideal of me, nor mine of her. Farewell. May the Rufinianian sect flourish!
+and may thy works on Pythagoras and India instruct posterity to the tenth
+generation! I return to Palimbothra, where I am held in honour on the
+self-same account that here renders me ridiculous. It shall be my study to
+enlighten the natives respecting their obligations to Pythagoras, whose
+name I did not happen to hear while I abode among them."
+
+
+
+
+THE DUMB ORACLE
+
+
+  Many the Bacchi that brandish the rod:
+  Few that be filled with the fire of the God.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+In the days of King Attalus, before oracles had lost their credit, one of
+peculiar reputation, inspired, as was believed, by Apollo, existed in the
+city of Dorylseum, in Phrygia. Contrary to usage, its revelations were
+imparted through the medium of a male priest. It was rarely left unthronged
+by devout questioners, whose inquiries were resolved in writing, agreeably
+to the method delivered by the pious Lucian, in his work "Concerning False
+Prophecy." [*] Sometimes, on extraordinary occasions, a voice, evidently
+that of the deity, was heard declaring the response from the innermost
+recesses of the shrine. The treasure house of the sanctuary was stored with
+tripods and goblets, in general wrought from the precious metals; its
+coffers were loaded with coins and ingots; the sacrifices of wealthy
+suppliants and the copious offerings in kind of the country people provided
+superabundantly for the daily maintenance of the temple servitors; while a
+rich endowment in land maintained the dignity of its guardians, and of the
+officiating priest. The  latter reverend personage was no less eminent for
+prudence than for piety; on which account the Gods had rewarded him with
+extreme obesity. At length he died, whether of excess in meat or in drink
+is not agreed among historians.
+
+[Footnote: _Pseudomantis_, cap. 19-21.]
+
+The guardians of the temple met to choose a successor, and, naturally
+desirous that the sanctity of the oracle should suffer no abatement,
+elected a young priest of goodly presence and ascetic life; the humblest,
+purest, most fervent, and most ingenuous of the sons of men. So rare a
+choice might well be expected to be accompanied by some extraordinary
+manifestation, and, in fact, a prodigy took place which filled the sacred
+authorities with dismay. The responses of the oracle ceased suddenly and
+altogether. No revelation was vouchsafed to the pontiff in his slumbers; no
+access of prophetic fury constrained him to disclose the secrets of the
+future; no voice rang from the shrine; and the unanswered epistles of the
+suppliants lay a hopeless encumbrance on the great altar. As a natural
+consequence they speedily ceased to arrive; the influx of offerings into
+the treasury terminated along with them; the temple-courts were bare of
+worshippers; and the only victims whose blood smoked within them were those
+slain by the priest himself, in the hope of appeasing the displeasure of
+Apollo. The modest hierophant took all the blame upon his own shoulders; he
+did not doubt that he had excited the Deity's wrath by some mysterious but
+heinous pollution; and was confirmed in this opinion by the unanimous
+verdict of all whom he approached.
+
+One day as he sat sadly in the temple, absorbed  in painful meditation, and
+pondering how he might best relieve himself of his sacred functions, he was
+startled by the now unwonted sound of a footstep, and, looking up, espied
+an ancient woman. Her appearance was rather venerable than prepossessing.
+He recognised her as one of the inferior ministers of the temple.
+
+"Reverend mother," he addressed her, "doubtless thou comest to mingle with
+mine thy supplications to the Deity, that it may please him to indicate the
+cause, and the remedy of his wrath."
+
+"No, son," returned the venerable personage, "I propose to occasion no such
+needless trouble to Apollo, or any other Divinity. I hold within mine own
+hand the power of reviving the splendour of this forsaken sanctuary, and
+for such consideration as thou wilt thyself pronounce equitable, I am
+minded to impart the same unto thee." And as the astonished priest made no
+answer, she continued:
+
+"My price is one hundred pieces of gold."
+
+"Wretch!" exclaimed the priest indignantly, "thy mercenary demand alone
+proves the vanity of thy pretence of being initiated into the secrets of
+the Gods. Depart my presence this moment!"
+
+The old woman retired without a syllable of remonstrance, and the incident
+soon passed from the mind of the afflicted priest. But on the following
+day, at the same hour, the aged woman again stood before him, and said:
+
+"My price is _two_ hundred pieces of gold."
+
+Again she was commanded to depart, and again obeyed without a murmur. But
+the adventure now occasioned the priest much serious reflection. To his
+excited fancy, the patient persistency of the crone began to assume
+something  of a supernatural character. He considered that the ways of the
+Gods are not as our ways, and that it is rather the rule than the exception
+with them to accomplish their designs in the most circuitous manner, and by
+the most unlikely instruments. He also reflected upon the history of the
+Sibyl and her books, and shuddered to think that unseasonable obstinacy
+might in the end cost the temple the whole of its revenues. The result of
+his cogitations was a resolution, if the old woman should present herself
+on the following day, to receive her in a different manner.
+
+Punctual to the hour she made her appearance, and croaked out, "My price is
+_three_ hundred pieces of gold."
+
+"Venerable ambassadress of Heaven," said the priest, "thy boon is granted
+thee. Relieve the anguish of my bosom as speedily as thou mayest."
+
+The old woman's reply was brief and expressive. It consisted in extending
+her open and hollow palm, into which the priest counted the three hundred
+pieces of gold with as much expedition as was compatible with the frequent
+interruptions necessitated by the crone's depositing each successive
+handful in a leather pouch; and the scrutiny, divided between jealousy and
+affection, which she bestowed on each individual coin.
+
+"And now," said the priest, when the operation was at length completed,
+"fulfil thy share of the compact."
+
+"The cause of the oracle's silence," returned the old woman, "is the
+unworthiness of the minister."
+
+"Alas! 'tis even as I feared," sighed the priest. "Declare now, wherein
+consists my sin?"
+
+"It consists in this," replied the old woman, "that the beard of thy
+understanding is not yet grown; and that the egg-shell of thy inexperience
+is still sticking to the head of thy simplicity; and that thy brains bear
+no adequate proportion to the skull enveloping them; and in fine, lest I
+seem to speak overmuch in parables, or to employ a superfluity of epithets,
+that thou art an egregious nincompoop."
+
+And as the amazed priest preserved silence, she pursued:
+
+"Can aught be more shameful in a religious man than ignorance of the very
+nature of religion? Not to know that the term, being rendered into the
+language of truth, doth therein signify deception practised by the few wise
+upon the many foolish, for the benefit of both, but more particularly the
+former? O silly as the crowds who hitherto have brought their folly here,
+but now carry it elsewhere to the profit of wiser men than thou! O fool! to
+deem that oracles were rendered by Apollo! How should this be, seeing that
+there is no such person? Needs there, peradventure, any greater miracle for
+the decipherment of these epistles than a hot needle? [*] As for the
+supernatural voice, it doth in truth proceed from a respectable, and in
+some sense a sacred personage, being mine own when I am concealed within a
+certain recess prepared for me by thy lamented predecessor, whose mistress
+I was in youth, and whose coadjutor I have been in age. I am now ready to
+minister to thee in the latter capacity. Be ruled by me; exchange thy
+abject superstition for common sense; thy childish simplicity for  discreet
+policy; thy unbecoming spareness for a majestic portliness; thy present
+ridiculous and uncomfortable situation for the repute of sanctity, and the
+veneration of men. Thou wilt own that this is cheap at three hundred
+pieces."
+
+[Footnote: Lucian.]
+
+The young priest had hearkened to the crone's discourse with an expression
+of the most exquisite distress. When she had finished, he arose, and
+disregarding his repulsive companion's efforts to detain him, departed
+hastily from the temple.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+It was the young priest's purpose, as soon as he became capable of forming
+one, to place the greatest possible distance between himself and the city
+of Dorylaeum. The love of roaming insensibly grew upon him, and ere long
+his active limbs had borne him over a considerable portion of Asia. His
+simple wants were easily supplied by the wild productions of the country,
+supplemented when needful by the proceeds of light manual labour. By
+degrees the self-contempt which had originally stung him to desperation
+took the form of an ironical compassion for the folly of mankind, and the
+restlessness which had at first impelled him to seek relief in a change of
+scene gave place to a spirit of curiosity and observation. He learned to
+mix freely with all orders of men, save one, and rejoiced to find the
+narrow mysticism which he had imbibed from his previous education gradually
+yielding to contact with the great world. From one class of men, indeed, he
+learned nothing--the  priests, whose society he eschewed with scrupulous
+vigilance, nor did he ever enter the temples of the Gods. Diviners, augurs,
+all that made any pretension whatever to a supernatural character, he held
+in utter abhorrence, and his ultimate return in the direction of his native
+country is attributed to his inability to persevere further in the path he
+was following without danger of encountering Chaldean soothsayers, or
+Persian magi, or Indian gymnosophists.
+
+He cherished, however, no intention of returning to Phrygia, and was still
+at a considerable distance from that region, when one night, as he was
+sitting in the inn of a small country town, his ear caught a phrase which
+arrested his attention.
+
+"As true as the oracle of Dorylaeum." The speaker was a countryman, who
+appeared to have been asseverating something regarded by the rest of the
+company as greatly in need of confirmation. The sudden start and stifled
+cry of the ex-priest drew all eyes to him, and he felt constrained to ask,
+with the most indifferent air he could assume:
+
+"Is the oracle of Dorylaeum, then, so exceedingly renowned for veracity?"
+
+"Whence comest thou to be ignorant of that?" demanded the countryman, with
+some disdain. "Hast thou never heard of the priest Eubulides?"
+
+"Eubulides!" exclaimed the young traveller, "that is my own name!"
+
+"Thou mayest well rejoice, then," observed another of the guests, "to bear
+the name of one so holy and pure, and so eminently favoured by the happy
+Gods. So handsome and dignified, moreover, as I may well assert who have
+often  beheld him discharging his sacred functions. And truly, now that I
+scan thee more closely, the resemblance is marvellous. Only that thy
+namesake bears with him a certain air of divinity, not equally conspicuous
+in thee."
+
+"Divinity!" exclaimed another. "Aye, if Phoebus himself ministered at his
+own shrine, he could wear no more majestic semblance than Eubulides."
+
+"Or predict the future more accurately," added a priest.
+
+"Or deliver his oracles in more exquisite verse," subjoined a poet.
+
+"Yet is it not marvellous," remarked another speaker, "that for some
+considerable time after his installation the good Eubulides was unable to
+deliver a single oracle?"
+
+"Aye, and that the first he rendered should have foretold the death of an
+aged woman, one of the ministers of the temple."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Eubulides, "how was that?"
+
+"He prognosticated her decease on the following day, which accordingly came
+to pass, from her being choked with a piece of gold, not lawfully
+appertaining to herself, which she was endeavouring to conceal under the
+root of her tongue."
+
+"The Gods be praised for that!" ejaculated Eubulides, under his breath.
+"Pshaw! as if there were Gods! If they existed, would they tolerate this
+vile mockery? To keep up the juggle--well, I know it must be so; but to
+purloin my name! to counterfeit my person! By all the Gods that are not, I
+will expose the cheat, or perish in the endeavour."
+
+He arose early on the following morning and took his way towards the city
+of Dorylaeum. The further he progressed in this direction, the louder
+became the bruit of the oracle of Apollo, and the more emphatic the
+testimonies to the piety, prophetic endowments, and personal attractions of
+the priest Eubulides; his own resemblance to whom was the theme of
+continual remark. On approaching the city, he found the roads swarming with
+throngs hastening to the temple, about to take part in a great religious
+ceremony to be held therein. The seriousness of worship blended
+delightfully with the glee of the festival, and Eubulides, who at first
+regarded the gathering with bitter scorn, found his moroseness insensibly
+yielding to the poetic charm of the scene. He could not but acknowledge
+that the imposture he panted to expose was at least the source of much
+innocent happiness, and almost wished that the importance of religion,
+considered as an engine of policy, had been offered to his contemplation
+from this point of view, instead of the sordid and revolting aspect in
+which it had been exhibited by the old woman.
+
+In this ambiguous frame of mind he entered the temple. Before the high
+altar stood the officiating priest, a young man, the image, yet not the
+image, of himself. Lineament for lineament, the resemblance was exact, but
+over the stranger's whole figure was diffused an air of majesty, of
+absolute serenity and infinite superiority, which excluded every idea of
+deceit, and so awed the young priest that his purpose of rushing forward to
+denounce the impostor and drag him from the shrine was immediately and
+involuntarily relinquished. As he stood confounded and irresolute, the
+melodious voice of the hierophant rang through the temple:
+
+"Let the priest Eubulides stand forth."
+
+This summons naturally caused the greatest astonishment in every one but
+Eubulides, who emerged as swiftly as he could from the swaying and
+murmuring crowd, and confronted his namesake at the altar. A cry of
+amazement broke from the multitude as they beheld the pair, whose main
+distinction in the eyes of most was their garb. But, as they gazed, the
+form of the officiating priest assumed colossal proportions; a circle of
+beams, dimming sunlight, broke forth around his head; hyacinthine locks
+clustered on his shoulders, his eyes sparkled with supernatural radiance; a
+quiver depended at his back; an unstrung bow occupied his hand; the majesty
+and benignity of his presence alike seemed augmented tenfold. Eubulides and
+the crowd sank simultaneously on their knees, for all recognised Apollo.
+
+All was silence for a space. It was at length broken by Phoebus.
+
+"Well, Eubulides," inquired he, with the bland raillery of an Immortal,
+"has it at length occurred to thee that I may have been long enough away
+from Parnassus, filling thy place here while thou hast been disporting
+thyself amid heretics and barbarians?"
+
+The abashed Eubulides made no response. The Deity continued:
+
+"Deem not that thou hast in aught excited the displeasure of the Gods. In
+deserting their altars for Truth's sake, thou didst render them the most
+acceptable of sacrifices, the only one, it  may be, by which they set much
+store. But, Eubulides, take heed how thou again sufferest the unworthiness
+of men to overcome the instincts of thine own nature. Thy holiest
+sentiments should not have been at the mercy of a knave. If the oracle of
+Dorylaeum was an imposture, hadst thou no oracle in thine own bosom? If the
+voice of Religion was no longer breathed from the tripod, were the winds
+and waters silent, or had aught quenched the everlasting stars? If there
+was no power to impose its mandates from without, couldst thou be
+unconscious of a power within? If thou hadst nothing to reveal unto men,
+mightest thou not have found somewhat to propound unto them? Know this,
+that thou hast never experienced a more truly religious emotion than that
+which led thee to form the design of overthrowing this my temple, the
+abode, as thou didst deem it, of fraud and superstition."
+
+"But now, Phoebus," Eubulides ventured to reply, "shall I not return to the
+shrine purified by thy presence, and again officiate as thy unworthy
+minister?"
+
+"No, Eubulides," returned Phoebus, with a smile; "silver is good, but not
+for ploughshares. Thy strange experience, thy long wanderings, thy lonely
+meditations, and varied intercourse with men, have spoiled thee for a
+priest, while, as I would fain hope, qualifying thee for a sage. Some
+worthy person may easily be found to preside over this temple; and by the
+aid of such inspiration as I may from time to time see meet to vouchsafe
+him, administer its affairs indifferently well. Do thou, Eubulides,
+consecrate thy powers to a more august service than Apollo's, to one  that
+shall endure when Delphi and Delos know _his_ no more."
+
+"To whose service, Phoebus?" inquired Eubulides.
+
+"To the service of Humanity, my son," responded Apollo.
+
+
+
+
+DUKE VIRGIL
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+The citizens of Mantua were weary of revolutions. They had acknowledged the
+suzerainty of the Emperor Frederick and shaken it off. They had had a
+Podesta of their own and had shaken him off. They had expelled a Papal
+Legate, incurring excommunication thereby. They had tried dictators,
+consuls, praetors, councils of ten, and other numbers odd and even, and ere
+the middle of the thirteenth century were luxuriating in the enjoyment of
+perfect anarchy.
+
+An assembly met daily in quest of a remedy, but its members were forbidden
+to propose anything old, and were unable to invent anything new.
+
+"Why not consult Manto, the alchemist's daughter, our prophetess, our
+Sibyl?" the young Benedetto asked at last.
+
+"Why not?" repeated Eustachio, an elderly man.
+
+"Why not, indeed?" interrogated Leonardo, a man of mature years.
+
+All the speakers were noble. Benedetto was Manto's lover; Eustachio her
+father's friend; Leonardo his creditor. Their advice prevailed, and the
+three were chosen as a deputation to wait on the prophetess. Before
+proceeding formally  on their embassy the three envoys managed to obtain
+private interviews, the two elder with Manto's father, the youth with Manto
+herself. The creditor promised that if he became Duke by the alchemist's
+influence with his daughter he would forgive the debt; the friend went
+further, and vowed that he would pay it. The old man promised his good word
+to both, but when he went to confer with his daughter he found her closeted
+with Benedetto, and returned without disburdening himself of his errand.
+The youth had just risen from his knees, pleading with her, and drawing
+glowing pictures of their felicity when he should be Duke and she Duchess.
+
+She answered, "Benedetto, in all Mantua there is not one man fit to rule
+another. To name any living person would be to set a tyrant over my native
+city. I will repair to the shades and seek a ruler among the dead."
+
+"And why should not Mantua have a tyrant?" demanded Benedetto. "The freedom
+of the mechanic is the bondage of the noble, who values no liberty save
+that of making the base-born do his bidding. 'Tis hell to a man of spirit
+to be contradicted by his tailor. If I could see my heart's desire on the
+knaves, little would I reck submitting to the sway of the Emperor."
+
+"I know that well, Benedetto," said Manto, "and hence will take good heed
+not to counsel Mantua to choose thee. No, the Duke I will give her shall be
+one without passions to gratify or injuries to avenge, and shall already be
+crowned with a crown to make the ducal cap as nothing in his eyes, if eyes
+he had."
+
+Benedetto departed in hot displeasure, and the  alchemist came forward to
+announce that the commissioners waited.
+
+"My projection," he whispered, "only wants one more piece of gold to insure
+success, and Eustachio proffers thirty. Oh, give him Mantua in exchange for
+boundless riches!"
+
+"And they call thee a philosopher and me a visionary!" said Manto, patting
+his cheek.
+
+The envoys' commission having been unfolded, she took not a moment to
+reply, "Be your Duke Virgil."
+
+The deputation respectfully represented that although Virgil was no doubt
+Mantua's greatest citizen, he laboured under the disqualification of having
+been dead more than twelve hundred years. Nothing further, however, could
+be extorted from the prophetess, and the ambassadors were obliged to
+withdraw.
+
+The interpretation of Manto's oracle naturally provoked much diversity of
+opinion in the council.
+
+"Obviously," said a poet, "the prophetess would have us confer the ducal
+dignity upon the contemporary bard who doth most nearly accede to the
+vestiges of the divine Maro; and he, as I judge, is even now in the midst
+of you."
+
+"Virgil the poet," said a priest, who had long laboured under the suspicion
+of occult practices, "was a fool to Virgil the enchanter. The wise woman
+evidently demands one competent to put the devil into a hole--an operation
+which I have striven to perform all my life."
+
+"Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?" inquired Eustachio.
+
+"Better upon an egg than upon a quack!" retorted the priest.
+
+But such was not the opinion of Eustachio himself, who privately conferred
+with Leonardo. Eustachio had a character, but no parts; Leonardo had parts,
+but no character.
+
+"I see not why these fools should deride the oracle of the prophetess," he
+said. "She would doubtless impress upon us that a dead master is in divers
+respects preferable to a living one."
+
+"Surely," said Eustachio, "provided always that the servant is a man of
+exemplary character, and that he presumes not upon his lord's withdrawal to
+another sphere, trusting thereby to commit malpractices with impunity, but
+doth, on the contrary, deport himself as ever in his great taskmaster's
+eye."
+
+"Eustachio," said Leonardo, with admiration, "it is the misery of Mantua
+that she hath no citizen who can act half as well as thou canst talk. I
+would fain have further discourse with thee."
+
+The two statesmen laid their heads together, and ere long the mob were
+crying, "A Virgil! a Virgil!"
+
+The councillors reassembled and passed resolutions.
+
+"But who shall be Regent?" inquired some one when Virgil had been elected
+unanimously.
+
+"Who but we?" asked Eustachio and Leonardo. "Are we not the heads of the
+Virgilian party?"
+
+Thus had the enthusiastic Manto, purest of idealists, installed in
+authority the two most unprincipled politicians in the republic; and she
+had lost her lover besides, for Benedetto fled the city, vowing vengeance.
+
+Anyhow, the dead poet was enthroned Duke  of Mantua; Eustachio and Leonardo
+became Regents, with the style of Consuls, and it was provided that in
+doubtful cases reference should be made to the Sortes Virgilianae. And
+truly, if we may believe the chronicles, the arrangement worked for a time
+surprisingly well. The Mantuans, in an irrational way, had done what it
+behoves all communities to do rationally if they can. They had sought for a
+good and worthy citizen to rule them; it was their misfortune that such an
+one could only be found among the dead. They felt prouder of themselves for
+being governed by a great man--one in comparison with whom kings and
+pontiffs were the creatures of a day. They would not, if they could help
+it, disgrace themselves by disgracing their hero; they would not have it
+said that Mantua, which had not been too weak to bear him, had been too
+weak to endure his government. The very hucksters and usurers among them
+felt dimly that there was such a thing as an Ideal. A glimmering perception
+dawned upon mailed, steel-fisted barons that there was such a thing as an
+Idea, and they felt uneasily apprehensive, like beasts of prey who have for
+the first time sniffed gunpowder. The railleries and mockeries of Mantua's
+neighbours, moreover, stimulated Mantua's citizens to persevere in their
+course, and deterred them from doing aught to approve themselves fools.
+Were not Verona, Cremona, Lodi, Pavia, Crema, cities that could never
+enthrone the Virgil they had never produced, watching with undissembled
+expectation to see them trip? The hollow-hearted Eustachio and the
+rapacious Leonardo, their virtual rulers, might indeed be little sensible
+to  this enthusiasm, but they could not disregard the general drift of
+public opinion, which said clearly: "Mantua is trying a great experiment.
+Woe to you if you bring it to nought by your selfish quarrels!"
+
+The best proof that there was something in Manto's idea was that after a
+while the Emperor Frederick took alarm, and signified to the Mantuans that
+they must cease their mumming and fooling and acknowledge him as their
+sovereign, failing which he would besiege their city.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Mantua was girt by a zone of fire and steel. Her villas and homesteads
+flamed or smoked; her orchards flared heavenward in a torrent of sparks or
+stood black sapless trunks charred to their inmost pith; the promise of her
+harvests lay as grey ashes over the land. But her ramparts, though breached
+in places, were yet manned by her sons, and their assailants recoiled
+pierced by the shafts or stunned by the catapults of the defence. Kaiser
+Frederick sat in his tent, giving secret audience to one who had stolen in
+disguise over from the city in the grey of the morning. By the Emperor's
+side stood a tall martial figure, wearing a visor which he never removed.
+
+"Your Majesty," Leonardo was saying, for it was he, "this madness will soon
+pass away. The people will weary of sacrificing themselves for a dead
+heathen."
+
+"And Liberty?" asked the Emperor, "is not that a name dear to those
+misguided creatures?"
+
+"So dear, please your Majesty, that if they have but the name they will
+perfectly dispense with the thing. I do not advise that your imperial yoke
+should be too palpably adjusted to their stiff necks. Leave them in
+appearance the choice of their magistrate, but insure its falling upon one
+of approved fidelity, certain to execute obsequiously all your Majesty's
+mandates; such an one, in short, as your faithful vassal Leonardo. It would
+only be necessary to decapitate that dangerous revolutionist, Eustachio."
+
+"And the citizens are really ready for this?"
+
+"All the respectable citizens. All of whom your Majesty need take account.
+All men of standing and substance."
+
+"I rejoice to hear it," said the Emperor, "and do the more readily credit
+thee inasmuch as a most virtuous and honourable citizen hath already been
+beforehand with thee, assuring me of the same thing, and affirming that but
+one traitor, whose name, methinks, sounded like thine, stands between me
+and the subjugation of Mantua."
+
+And, withdrawing a curtain, he disclosed the figure of Eustachio.
+
+"I thought he was asleep," muttered Eustachio.
+
+"That noodle to have been beforehand with me!" murmured Leonardo.
+
+"What perplexes me," continued Frederick, after enjoying the confusion of
+the pair for a few moments, "is that our masked friend here will have it
+that he is the man for the Dukedom, and offers to open the gates to me by a
+method of his own."
+
+"By fair fighting, an' please my liege," observed  the visored personage,
+"not by these dastardly treacheries."
+
+"How inhuman!" sighed Eustachio.
+
+"How old-fashioned!" sneered Leonardo.
+
+"The truth is," continued Frederick, "he gravely doubts whether either of
+you possesses the influence which you allege, and has devised a method of
+putting this to the proof, which I trust will commend itself to you."
+
+Leonardo and Eustachio expressed their readiness to submit their credit
+with their fellow-citizens to any reasonable trial.
+
+"He proposes, then," pursued the Emperor, "that ye, disarmed and bound,
+should be placed at the head of the storming column, and in that situation
+should, as questionless ye would, exert your entire moral influence with
+your fellow-citizens to dissuade them from shooting you. If the column,
+thus shielded, enters the city without resistance, ye will both have earned
+the Dukedom, and the question who shall have it may be decided by single
+combat between yourselves. But should the people, rather than submit to our
+clemency, impiously slay their elected magistrates, it will be apparent
+that the methods of our martial friend are the only ones corresponding to
+the exigency of the case. Is the storming column ready?"
+
+"All but the first file, please your Majesty," responded the man in the
+visor.
+
+"Let it be equipped," returned Frederick, and in half-an-hour Eustachio and
+Leonardo, their hands tied behind them, were stumbling up the breach,
+impelled by pikes in the rear, and confronting the catapults, _chevaux de
+frise_, hidden pitfalls, Greek fire, and boiling water provided by  their
+own direction, and certified to them the preceding evening as all that
+could be desired. They had, however, the full use of their voices, and this
+they turned to the best account. Never had Leonardo been so cogent, or
+Eustachio so pathetic. The Mantuans, already disorganised by the
+unaccountable disappearance of the Executive, were entirely irresolute what
+to do. As they hesitated the visored chief incited his followers. All
+seemed lost, when a tall female figure appeared among the defenders. It was
+Manto.
+
+"Fools and cowards!" she exclaimed, "must ye learn your duty from a woman?"
+
+And, seizing a catapult, she discharged a stone which laid the masked
+warrior stunned and senseless on the ground. The next instant Eustachio and
+Leonardo fell dead, pierced by showers of arrows. The Mantuans sallied
+forth. The dismayed Imperialists fled to their camp. The bodies of the
+fallen magistrates and of the unconscious chieftain in the mask were
+brought into the city. Manto herself undid the fallen man's visor, and
+uttered a fearful shriek as she recognised Benedetto.
+
+"What shall be done with him, mistress?" they asked.
+
+Manto long stood silent, torn by conflicting emotions. At length she said,
+in a strange, unnatural voice:
+
+"Put him into the Square Tower."
+
+"And now, mistress, what further? How to choose the new consuls?"
+
+"Ask me no more," she said. "I shall never prophesy again. Virtue has gone
+away from me."
+
+The leaders departed, to intrigue for the vacant  posts, and devise
+tortures for Benedetto. Manto sat on the rampart, still and silent as its
+stones. Anon she rose, and roved about as if distraught, reciting verses
+from Virgil.
+
+Night had fallen. Benedetto lay wakeful in his cell. A female figure stood
+before him bearing a lamp. It was Manto.
+
+"Benedetto," she said, "I am a wretch, faithless to my country and to my
+master. I did but even now open his sacred volume at hazard, and on what
+did my eye first fall?
+
+  Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres.
+
+But I can no other. I am a woman. May Mantua never entrust her fortunes to
+the like of me again! Come with me, I will release thee."
+
+She unlocked his chains; she guided him through the secret passage under
+the moat; they stood at the exit, in the open air.
+
+"Fly," she said, "and never again draw sword against thy mother. I will
+return to my house, and do that to myself which it behoved me to have done
+ere I released thee."
+
+"Manto," exclaimed Benedetto "a truce to this folly! Forsake thy dead Duke,
+and that cheat of Liberty more crazy and fantastic still. Wed a living Duke
+in me!"
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Manto. "I love thee more than any man living on earth,
+and I would not espouse thee if the earth held no other."
+
+"Thou canst not help thyself," he rejoined; "thou hast revealed to me the
+secret of this passage. I hasten to the camp. I return in an hour with an
+army, and wilt thou, wilt thou not,  to-morrow's sun shall behold thee the
+partner of my throne!"
+
+Manto wore a poniard. She struck Benedetto to the heart, and he fell dead.
+She drew the corpse back into the passage, and hurried to her home. Opening
+her master's volume again, she read:
+
+  Taedet coeli convexa tueri.
+
+A few minutes afterwards her father entered the chamber to tell her he had
+at last found the philosopher's stone, but, perceiving his daughter hanging
+by her girdle, he forbore to intrude upon her, and returned to his
+laboratory.
+
+It was time. A sentinel of the besiegers had marked Benedetto's fall, and
+the disappearance of the body into the earth. A pool of blood revealed the
+entrance to the passage. Ere sunrise Mantua was full of Frederick's
+soldiers, full also of burning houses, rifled sanctuaries, violated
+damsels, children playing with their dead mothers' breasts, especially full
+of citizens protesting that they had ever longed for the restoration of the
+Emperor, and that this was the happiest day of their lives. Frederick
+waited till everybody was killed, then entered the city and proclaimed an
+amnesty. Virgil's bust was broken, and his writings burned with Manto's
+body. The flames glowed on the dead face, which gleamed as it were with
+pleasure. The old alchemist had been slain among his crucibles; his scrolls
+were preserved with jealous care.
+
+But Manto found another father. She sat at Virgil's feet in Elysium; and as
+he stroked the fair head, now golden with perpetual youth,  listened to his
+mild reproofs and his cheerful oracles. By her side stood a bowl filled
+with the untasted waters of Lethe.
+
+"Woe," said Virgil--but his manner contradicted his speech--"woe to the
+idealist and enthusiast! Woe to them who live in the world to come! Woe to
+them who live only for a hope whose fulfilment they will not behold on
+earth! Drink not, therefore, of that cup, dear child, lest Duke Virgil's
+day should come, and thou shouldst not know it. For come it will, and all
+the sooner for thy tragedy and thy comedy."
+
+
+
+
+THE CLAW
+
+
+The balm and stillness of a summer's night enveloped a spacious piazza in
+the city of Shylock and Desdemona. The sky teemed with light drifting
+clouds through which the beaming of the full moon broke at intervals upon
+some lamp-lit palace, thronged and musical, for it was a night of
+festivity, or silvered the dull creeping waters. Ever and anon some richly
+attired young patrician descended the steps of one or other of these
+mansions, and hurried across the wide area to the canal stairs, where his
+gondola awaited him. Whoever did this could not but observe a tall female
+figure, which, cloaked and masked, walked backwards and forwards across the
+piazza, regarding no one, yet with an air that seemed to invite a
+companion.
+
+More than one of the young nobles approached the presumably fair
+peripatetic, and, with courtesy commonly in inverse ratio to the amount of
+wine he was carrying home, proffered his escort to his gondola. Whenever
+this happened the figure removed her mask and unclasped her robe, and
+revealed a sight which for one moment rooted the young man to the earth and
+in the next sent him scampering to his bark. For the countenance was a
+death's head, and the breast was that of a mouldering skeleton.
+
+At last, however, a youth presented himself who, more courageous or more
+tipsy than his fellows, or more helplessly paralysed with horror than they,
+did not decline the proffered caress, and suffered himself to be drawn
+within the goblin's accursed embrace. Valiant or pot-valiant, great was his
+relief at finding himself clasped, instead of by a loathsome spectre, by a
+silver-haired man of noble presence, yet with a countenance indescribably
+haggard and anxious.
+
+"Come, my son," he cried, "hasten whither the rewards of thy intrepidity
+await thee. Impouch the purse of Fortunatus! Indue the signet of Solomon!"
+
+The young man hesitated. "Is there nought else?" he cautiously demanded.
+"Needs it not that I should renounce my baptism? Must I not subscribe an
+infernal compact?"
+
+"In thy own blood, my son," cheerfully responded the old gentleman.
+
+"Peradventure," hesitatingly interrogated the youth, "peradventure you are
+_he_?"
+
+"Not so, my son, upon honour," returned the mysterious personage. "I am but
+a distressed magician, at this present in fearful straits, from which I
+look to be delivered by thee."
+
+The youth gazed some moments at his companion's head, and then still more
+earnestly at his feet. He then yielded his own hand to him, and the pair
+crossed the piazza, almost at a run, the magician ever ejaculating, "Speed!
+speed!"
+
+They paused at the foot of a lofty tower, doorless and windowless, with no
+visible access of any kind. But the magician signed with his hand,
+pronounced some cabalistical words, and instantly  stone and lime fell
+asunder and revealed an entrance through which they passed, and which
+immediately closed behind them. The youth quaked at finding himself alone
+in utter darkness with he knew not what, but the wizard whistled, and a
+severed hand appeared in air bearing a lamp which illuminated a long
+winding staircase. The old man motioned to the youth to precede him, nor
+dared he refuse, though feeling as though he would have given the world for
+the very smallest relic of the very smallest saint. The distorted shadows
+of the twain, dancing on stair and wall with the wavering lamp-shine,
+seemed phantoms capering in an infernal revel, and he glanced back ever and
+anon weening to see himself dogged by some frightful monster, but he saw
+only the silver hair and sable velvet of the dignified old man.
+
+After the ascent of many steps a door opened before them, and they found
+themselves in a spacious chamber, brightly, yet from its size imperfectly
+illumined by a single large lamp. It was wainscoted with ebony, and the
+furniture was of the same. A long table was covered with scrolls, skulls,
+crucibles, crystals, star-charts, geomantic figures, and other
+appurtenances of a magician's calling. Tomes of necromantic lore lined the
+walls, which were yet principally occupied with crystal vessels, in which
+foul beings seemed dimly and confusedly to agitate themselves.
+
+The magician signed to his visitor to be seated, sat down himself and
+began:
+
+"Brave youth, ere entering upon the boundless power and riches that await
+thee, learn who I am and why I have brought thee here. Behold in me  no
+vulgar wizard, no mere astrologer or alchemist, but a compeer of Merlin and
+Michael Scott, with whose name it may be the nurse of thy infancy hath
+oft-times quelled thy froward humours. I am Peter of Abano, falsely
+believed to have lain two centuries buried in the semblance of a dog under
+a heap of stones hurled by the furious populace, but in truth walking earth
+to this day, in virtue of the compact now to be revealed to thee. Hearken,
+my son! Vain must be the machinations of my enemies, vain the onslaughts of
+the rabble, so long as I fulfil a certain contract registered in hell's
+chancery, as I have now done these three hundred years. And the condition
+is this, that every year I present unto the Demon one who hath at my
+persuasion assigned his soul to him in exchange for power, riches,
+knowledge, magical gifts, or whatever else his heart chiefly desireth; nor
+until this present year have I perilled the fulfilment of my obligation.
+Seest thou these scrolls? They are the assignments of which I have spoken.
+It would amaze thee to scan the subscriptions, and perceive in these the
+signatures of men exemplary in the eyes of their fellows, clothed with high
+dignities in Church and State--nay sometimes redolent of the very odour of
+sanctity. Never hath my sagacity deceived me until this year, when, smitten
+with the fair promise of a youth of singular impishness, I omitted to take
+due note of his consumptive habit, and have but this afternoon encountered
+his funeral. This is the last day of my year, and should my engagement be
+unredeemed when the sun attains the cusp of that nethermost house of heaven
+which he is even now traversing, I must  become an inmate of the infernal
+kingdom. No time has remained for nice investigation. I have therefore
+proved the courage of the Venetian youth in the manner thou knowest, and
+thou alone hast sustained the ordeal. Fail not at my bidding, or thou
+quittest not this chamber alive. For when the Demon comes to bear me away,
+he will assuredly rend thee in pieces for being found in my company. Thou
+hast, therefore, everything to gain and nothing to lose by joining the
+goodly fellowship of my mates and partners. Delay not, time urges, night
+deepens, they that would drink thy blood are abroad. Hearest thou not the
+moaning and pelting of the rising storm, and the muttering and scraping of
+my imprisoned goblins? Save us, I entreat, I command, save us both!"
+
+Screaming with agitation the aged sorcerer laid a scroll engrossed with
+fairly written characters before the youth, stabbed the latter's arm with a
+stylus that at once evoked and collected the crimson stream, thrust this
+into his hand and strove to guide it to the parchment, chanting at the same
+time litanies to the infernal powers. The crystal flagons rang like one
+great harmonica with shrill but spirit-stirring music; volumes of vaporous
+perfumes diffused themselves through the apartment, and an endless
+procession of treasure-laden figures defiled before the bewildered youth.
+He seemed buried in the opulence of the world, as he sat up to his waist in
+gold and jewels; all the earth's beauty gazed at him through eyes brilliant
+and countless as the stars of heaven; courtiers beckoned him to thrones;
+battle-steeds neighed and pawed for his mounting; laden tables allured
+every appetite; vassals bent in  homage; slaves fell prostrate at his feet.
+Now he seemed to collect or disperse legions of spirits with the waving of
+a wand; anon, as he pronounced a spell, golden dragons glided away from
+boughs laden with golden fruits. Well for him, doubtless, that in him
+Nature had kneaded from ordinary clay as unimaginative a youth as could be
+found in Venice: yet even so, dazzled with glamour, intoxicated with
+illusion, less and less able to resist the cunningly mingled caresses,
+entreaties, and menaces of Abano, he could not refrain from tracing a few
+characters with the stylus, when, catching reflected in a mirror the old
+magician's expression of wolfish glee, he dropped the instrument from his
+grasp, and cast his eye upwards as if appealing to Heaven. But every drop
+of blood seemed frozen in his frame as he beheld an enormous claw thrust
+through the roof, member as it seemed of some being too gigantic to be
+contained in the chamber or the tower itself. Cold, poignant, glittering as
+steel, it rested upon a socket of the repulsive hue of jaundiced ivory,
+with no vestige of a foot or anything to relieve its naked horror as, rigid
+and lifeless, yet plainly with a mighty force behind it, it pointed at the
+magician's heart. As Abano, following the youth's eye, caught sight of the
+portent, his visage assumed an expression of frantic horror, his spells
+died upon his lips, and the gorgeous figures became grinning apes or
+blotchy toads: madly he seized the young man's hand, and strove to force
+him to complete his signature. The robust youth felt as an infant in his
+grasp, but ere the stylus could be again thrust upon him the first stroke
+of the midnight hour  rang through the chamber, and instantly the gigantic
+talon pierced Abano from breast to back, projecting far beyond his
+shoulders, and swept him upwards to the roof, through which both
+disappeared without leaving a trace of their passage.
+
+Horror and thankfulness rushed together into the young man's mind, and
+there contended for some brief instants: but as the last stroke sounded all
+the crystal vials shivered with a stunning crash, and their hellish
+inmates, rejoicing in their deliverance, swarmed into the chamber. All made
+for the youth, who, tugged, clawed, fondled, bitten, beslimed, blinded,
+deafened, beset in every way by creatures of indescribable loathsomeness,
+grasped frantically as his sole weapon, the stylus; but it had become a
+writhing serpent. This was too much, sense forsook him on the spot.
+
+On recovering consciousness he found himself stretched on a pallet in the
+dungeons of the Inquisition. The Inquisitors sat on their tribunals;
+black-robed familiars flitted about, or waited attentive upon their orders;
+one expert in ecclesiastical jurisprudence proved the edge of an axe, and
+another heated pincers in a chafing-dish; dismal groans pierced the massy
+walls; two sturdy fellows, stripped to the waist, adjusted the rollers of a
+rack. A surgeon approached the bedside, bearing a phial and a lancet. The
+youth screamed and again became insensible.
+
+But his affright was groundless. The Inquisitors had already taken
+cognisance of Abano's scrolls, and found that, touching these at least, he
+had spoken sooth. Besides kings, princes, ministers, magistrates, and other
+secular persons who had owed their success in life to dealings with the
+devil under his mediation, the infernal bondsmen included so many pillars
+of the Church and champions of the Faith; prelates plenty, abbots in
+abundance, cardinals not a few, a (some whispered _the_) Pope; above all,
+so many of the Inquisitors themselves, that further inquiry could evidently
+nowise conduce to edification. The surgeon, therefore, infused an opiate
+into the veins of the unconscious youth, and he came to himself upon a
+galley speeding him to the holy war in Cyprus, where he fell fighting the
+Turk.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER THE RATCATCHER
+
+
+"Alexander Octavus mures, qui Urbem supra modum vexabant, anathemate
+perculit."[--_Palatius. Fasti Cardinalium_, tom. v.p. 46.]
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+"Rome and her rats are at the point of battle!"
+
+This metaphor of Menenius Agrippa's became, history records, matter of fact
+in 1689, when rats pervaded the Eternal City from garret to cellar, and
+Pope Alexander the Eighth seriously apprehended the fate of Bishop Hatto.
+The situation worried him sorely; he had but lately attained the tiara at
+an advanced age--the twenty-fourth hour, as he himself remarked in
+extenuation of his haste to enrich his nephews. The time vouchsafed for
+worthier deeds was brief, and he dreaded descending to posterity as the Rat
+Pope. Witty and genial, his sense of humour teased him with a full
+perception of the absurdity of his position. Peter and Pasquin concurred in
+forbidding him to desert his post; and he derived but small comfort from
+the ingenuity of his flatterers, who compared him to St. Paul contending
+with beasts at Ephesus.
+
+It wanted three half-hours to midnight, as Alexander sat amid traps and
+ratsbane in his  chamber in the Vatican, under the protection of two
+enormous cats and a British terrier. A silver bell stood ready to his hand,
+should the aid of the attendant chamberlains be requisite. The walls had
+been divested of their tapestries, and the floor gleamed with pounded
+glass. A tome of legendary lore lay open at the history of the Piper of
+Hamelin. All was silence, save for the sniffing and scratching of the dog
+and a sound of subterranean scraping and gnawing.
+
+"Why tarries Cardinal Barbadico thus?" the Pope at last asked himself
+aloud. The inquiry was answered by a wild burst of squeaking and clattering
+and scurrying to and fro, as who should say, "We've eaten him! We've eaten
+him!"
+
+But this exultation was at least premature, for just as the terrified Pope
+clutched his bell, the door opened to the narrowest extent compatible with
+the admission of an ecclesiastical personage of dignified presence, and
+Cardinal Barbadico hastily squeezed himself through.
+
+"I shall hardly trust myself upon these stairs again," he remarked, "unless
+under the escort of your Holiness's terrier."
+
+"Take him, my son, and a cruse of holy water to boot," the Pope responded.
+"Now, how go things in the city?"
+
+"As ill as may be, your Holiness. Not a saint stirs a finger to help us.
+The country-folk shun the city, the citizens seek the country. The
+multitude of enemies increases hour by hour. They set at defiance the
+anathemas fulminated by your Holiness, the spiritual censures placarded in
+the churches, and the citation to appear before the ecclesiastical courts,
+although assured that  their cause shall be pleaded by the ablest advocates
+in Rome. The cats, amphibious with alarm, are taking to the Tiber. Vainly
+the city reeks with toasted cheese, and the Commissary-General reports
+himself short of arsenic."
+
+"And how are the people taking it?" demanded Alexander. "To what cause do
+they attribute the public calamity?"
+
+"Generally speaking, to the sins of your Holiness," replied the Cardinal.
+
+"Cardinal!" exclaimed Alexander indignantly.
+
+"I crave pardon for my temerity," returned Barbadico. "It is with
+difficulty that I force myself to speak, but I am bound to lay the
+ungrateful truth before your Holiness. The late Pope, as all men know, was
+a personage of singular sanctity."
+
+"Far too upright for this fallen world," observed Alexander with unction.
+
+"I will not dispute," responded the Cardinal, "that the head of Innocent
+the Eleventh might have been more fitly graced by a halo than by a tiara.
+But the vulgar are incapable of placing themselves at this point of view.
+They know that the rats hardly squeaked under Innocent, and that they swarm
+under Alexander. What wonder if they suspect your Holiness of familiarity
+with Beelzebub, the patron of vermin, and earnestly desire that he would
+take you to himself? Vainly have I represented to them the unreasonableness
+of imposing upon him a trouble he may well deem superfluous, considering
+your Holiness's infirm health and advanced age. Vainly, too, have I pointed
+out that your anathema has actually produced all the effect that  could
+have been reasonably anticipated from any similar manifesto on your
+predecessor's part. They won't see it. And, in fact, might I humbly advise,
+it does appear impolitic to hurl anathemas unless your Holiness knows that
+some one will be hit. It might be opportune, for example, to excommunicate
+Father Molinos, now fast in the dungeons of St. Angelo, unless, indeed, the
+rats have devoured him there. But I question the expediency of going much
+further."
+
+"Cardinal," said the Pope, "you think yourself prodigiously clever, but you
+ought to know that the state of public opinion allowed us no alternative.
+Moreover, I will give you a wrinkle, in case you should ever come to be
+Pope yourself. It is unwise to allow ancient prerogatives to fall entirely
+into desuetude. Far-seeing men prognosticate a great revival of
+sacerdotalism in the nineteenth century, and what is impotent in an age of
+sense may be formidable in an age of nonsense. Further, we know not from
+one day to another whether we may not be absolutely necessitated to
+excommunicate that fautor of Gallicanism, Louis the Fourteenth, and before
+launching our bolt at a king, we may think well to test its efficacy upon a
+rat. _Fiat experimentum._ And now to return to our rats, from which we have
+ratted. Is there indeed no hope?"
+
+"_Lateat scintillula forsan_," said the Cardinal mysteriously.
+
+"Ha! How so?" eagerly demanded Alexander.
+
+"Our hopes," answered the Cardinal, "are associated with the recent advent
+to this city of an extraordinary personage."
+
+"Explain," urged the Pope.
+
+"I speak," resumed the Cardinal, "of an aged man of no plebeian mien or
+bearing, albeit most shabbily attired in the skins, now fabulously cheap,
+of the vermin that torment us; who, professing to practise as an herbalist,
+some little time ago established himself in an obscure street of no good
+repute. A tortoise hangs in his needy shop, nor are stuffed alligators
+lacking. Understanding that he was resorted to by such as have need of
+philters and love-potions, or are incommoded by the longevity of parents
+and uncles, I was about to have him arrested, when I received a report
+which gave me pause. This concerned the singular intimacy which appeared to
+subsist between him and our enemies. When he left home, it was averred, he
+was attended by troops of them obedient to his beck and call, and spies had
+observed him banqueting them at his counter, the rats sitting erect and
+comporting themselves with perfect decorum. I resolved to investigate the
+matter for myself. Looking into his house through an unshuttered window, I
+perceived him in truth surrounded by feasting and gambolling rats; but when
+the door was opened in obedience to my attendants' summons, he appeared to
+be entirely alone. Laying down a pestle and mortar, he greeted me by name
+with an easy familiarity which for the moment quite disconcerted me, and
+inquired what had procured him the honour of my visit. Recovering myself,
+and wishing to intimidate him:
+
+"'I desire in the first place,' I said, 'to point out to you your grave
+transgression of municipal regulations in omitting to paint your name over
+your shop.'
+
+"'Call me Rattila,' he rejoined with unconcern, 'and state your further
+business.'
+
+"I felt myself on the wrong tack, and hastened to interrogate him
+respecting his relations with our adversaries. He frankly admitted his
+acquaintance with rattery in all its branches, and his ability to deliver
+the city from this scourge, but his attitude towards your Holiness was so
+deficient in respect that I question whether I ought to report it."
+
+"Proceed, son," said the Pope; "we will not be deterred from providing for
+the public weal by the ribaldry of a ratcatcher."
+
+"He scoffed at what he termed your Holiness's absurd position, and affirmed
+that the world had seldom beheld, or would soon behold again, so ridiculous
+a spectacle as a Pope besieged by rats. 'I can help your master,' he
+continued, 'and am willing; but my honour, like his, is aspersed in the
+eyes of the multitude, and he must come to my aid, if I am to come to his.'
+
+"I prayed him to be more explicit, and offered to be the bearer of any
+communication to your Holiness.
+
+"'I will unfold myself to no one but the Pope himself,' he replied, 'and
+the interview must take place when and where I please to appoint. Let him
+meet me this very midnight, and alone, in the fifth chamber of the
+Appartamento Borgia.'
+
+"'The Appartamento Borgia!' I exclaimed in consternation. 'The saloons
+which the wicked Pope Alexander the Sixth nocturnally perambulates,
+mingling poisons that have long lost their potency for Cardinals who have
+long lost their lives!'
+
+"'Have a care!' he exclaimed sharply. 'You speak to his late Holiness's
+most intimate friend.'
+
+"'Then,' I answered, 'you must obviously be the Devil, and I am not at
+present empowered to negotiate with your Infernal Majesty. Consider,
+however, the peril and inconvenience of visiting at dead of night rooms
+closed for generations. Think of the chills and cobwebs. Weigh the
+probability of his Holiness being devoured by rats.'
+
+"'I guarantee his Holiness absolute immunity from cold,' he replied, 'and
+that none of my subjects shall molest him either going or returning.'
+
+"'But,' I objected, 'granting that you are not the Devil, how the devil,
+let me ask, do you expect to gain admittance at midnight to the
+Appartamento Borgia?'
+
+"'Think you I cannot pass through a stone wall?' answered he, and vanished
+in an instant. A tremendous scampering of rats immediately ensued, then all
+was silence.
+
+"On recovering in some measure from my astounded condition, I caused strict
+search to be made throughout the shop. Nothing came to light but
+herbalists' stuff and ordinary medicines. And now, Holy Father, your
+Holiness's resolution? Reflect well. This Rattila may be the King of the
+Rats, or he may be Beelzebub in person."
+
+Alexander the Eighth was principally considered by his contemporaries in
+the light of a venerable fox, but the lion had by no means been omitted
+from his composition.
+
+"All powers of good forbid," he exclaimed, "that a Pope and a Prince should
+shrink from  peril which the safety of the State summons him to encounter!
+I will confront this wizard, this goblin, in the place of his own
+appointing, under his late intimate friend's very nose. I am a man of many
+transgressions, but something assures me that Heaven will not deem this a
+fit occasion for calling them to remembrance. Time presses; I lead on;
+follow, Cardinal Barbadico, follow! Yet stay, let us not forget temporal
+and spiritual armouries."
+
+And hastily providing himself with a lamp, a petronel, a bunch of keys, a
+crucifix, a vial of holy water, and a manual of exorcisms, the Pope passed
+through a secret door in a corner of his chamber, followed by the Cardinal
+bearing another lamp and a naked sword, and preceded by the dog and the two
+cats, all ardent and undaunted as champions bound to the Holy Land for the
+recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The wizard had kept his word. Not a rat was seen or heard upon the
+pilgrimage, which was exceedingly toilsome to the aged Pope, from the
+number of passages to be threaded and doors to be unlocked. At length the
+companions stood before the portal of the Appartamento Borgia.
+
+"Your Holiness must enter alone," Cardinal Barbadico admonished, with
+manifest reluctance.
+
+"Await my return," enjoined the Pontiff, in a tone of more confidence than
+he could actually feel, as, after much grinding and grating, the  massive
+door swung heavily back, and he passed on into the dim, unexplored space
+beyond. The outer air, streaming in as though eager to indemnify itself for
+years of exile, smote and swayed the flame of the Pope's lamp, whose feeble
+ray flitted from floor to ceiling as the decrepit man, weary with the way
+he had traversed and the load he was bearing, tottered and stumbled
+painfully along, ever and anon arrested by a closed door, which he unlocked
+with prodigious difficulty. The cats cowered close to the Cardinal; the dog
+at first accompanied the Pope, but whined so grievously, as though he
+beheld a spirit, that Alexander bade him back.
+
+Supreme is the spell of the _genius loci_. The chambers traversed by the
+Pope were in fact adorned with fair examples of the painter's art, mostly
+scriptural in subject, but some inspired with the devout Pantheism in which
+all creeds are reconciled. All were alike invisible to the Pontiff, who,
+with the dim flicker of his lamp, could no more discern Judaea wed with
+Egypt on the frescoed ceiling than, with the human limitation of his
+faculties, he could foresee that the ill-reputed rooms would one day
+harbour a portion of the Vatican Library, so greatly enriched by himself.
+Nothing but sinister memories and vague alarms presented themselves to his
+imagination. The atmosphere, heavy and brooding from the long exclusion of
+the outer air, seemed to weigh upon him with the density of matter, and to
+afford the stuff out of which phantasmal bodies perpetually took shape and,
+as he half persuaded himself, substance. Creeping and tottering between
+bowl and cord, shielding himself with  lamp and crucifix from Michelotto's
+spectral poniard and more fearful contact with fleshless Vanozzas and
+mouldering Giulias, the Pope urged, or seemed to urge, his course amid
+phantom princes and cardinals, priests and courtesans, soldiers and
+serving-men, dancers, drinkers, dicers, Bacchic and Cotyttian workers of
+whatsoever least beseemed the inmates of a Pontifical household, until,
+arrived in the fifth chamber, close by the, to him, invisible picture of
+the Resurrection, he sank exhausted into a spacious chair that seemed
+placed for his reception, and for a moment closed his eyes. Opening them
+immediately afterwards, he saw with relief that the phantoms had vanished,
+and that he confronted what at least seemed a fellow-mortal, in the ancient
+ratcatcher, habited precisely as Cardinal Barbadico had described, yet, for
+all his mean apparel, wearing the air of one wont to confer with the
+potentates of the earth on other subjects than the extermination of rats.
+
+"This is noble of your Holiness--really," he said, bowing with mock
+reverence. "A second Leo the Great!"
+
+"I tell you what, my man," responded Alexander, feeling it very necessary
+to assert his dignity while any of it remained, "you are not to imagine
+that, because I have humoured you so far as to grant you an audience at an
+unusual place and time, I am going to stand any amount of your nonsense and
+impertinence. You can catch our rats, can you? Catch them then, and you
+need not fear that we shall treat you like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. You
+have committed sundry rascalities, no doubt? A pardon shall  be made out
+for you. You want a patent or a privilege for your ratsbane? You shall have
+it. So to work, in the name of St. Muscipulus! and you may keep the tails
+and skins."
+
+"Alexander," said the ratcatcher composedly, "I would not commend or
+dispraise you unduly, but this I may say, that of all the Popes I have
+known you are the most exuberant in hypocrisy and the most deficient in
+penetration. The most hypocritical, because you well know, and know that I
+know that you know, that you are not conversing with an ordinary
+ratcatcher: had you deemed me such, you would never have condescended to
+meet me at this hour and place. The least penetrating, because you
+apparently have not yet discovered to whom you are speaking. Do you really
+mean to say that you do not know me?"
+
+"I believe I have seen your face before," said Alexander, "and all the more
+likely as I was inspector of prisons when I was Cardinal."
+
+"Then look yonder," enjoined the ratcatcher, as he pointed to the frescoed
+wall, at the same time vehemently snapping his fingers. Phosphoric sparks
+hissed and crackled forth, and coalesced into a blue lambent flame, which
+concentrated itself upon a depicted figure, whose precise attitude the
+ratcatcher assumed as he dropped upon his knees. The Pope shrieked with
+amazement, for, although the splendid Pontifical vestments had become
+ragged fur, in every other respect the kneeling figure was the counterpart
+of the painted one, and the painted one was Pinturicchio's portrait of Pope
+Alexander the Sixth kneeling as a witness of the Resurrection.
+
+Alexander the Eighth would fain have imitated  his predecessor's attitude,
+but terror bound him to his chair, and the adjuration of his patron St.
+Mark which struggled towards his lips never arrived there. The book of
+exorcisms fell from his paralysed hand, and the vial of holy water lay in
+shivers upon the floor. Ere he could collect himself, the dead Pope had
+seated himself beside the Pope with one foot in the grave, and, fondling a
+ferret-skin, proceeded to enter into conversation.
+
+"What fear you?" he asked. "Why should I harm you? None can say that I ever
+injured any one for any cause but my own advantage, and to injure your
+Holiness now would be to obstruct a design which I have particularly at
+heart."
+
+"I crave your Holiness's forgiveness," rejoined the Eighth Alexander, "but
+you must be aware that you left the world with a reputation which
+disqualifies you for the society of any Pope in the least careful of his
+character. It positively compromises me to have so much as the ghost of a
+person so universally decried as your Holiness under my roof, and you would
+infinitely oblige me by forthwith repairing to your own place, which I take
+to be about four thousand miles below where you are sitting. I could
+materially facilitate and accelerate your Holiness's transit thither if you
+would be so kind as to hand me that little book of exorcisms."
+
+"How is the fine gold become dim!" exclaimed Alexander the Sixth. "Popes in
+bondage to moralists! Popes nervous about public opinion! Is there another
+judge of morals than the Pope speaking _ex cathedra_, as I always did? Is
+the Church to frame herself after the prescriptions  of heathen
+philosophers and profane jurists? How, then, shall she be terrible as an
+army with banners? Did I concern myself with such pedantry when the Kings
+of Spain and Portugal came to me like cats suing for morsels, and I gave
+them the West and the East?"
+
+"It is true," Alexander the Eighth allowed, "that the lustre of the Church
+hath of late been obfuscated by the prevalence of heresy."
+
+"It isn't the heretics," Borgia insisted. "It is the degeneracy of the
+Popes. A shabby lot! You, Alexander, are about the best of them; but the
+least Cardinal about my Court would have thought himself bigger than you."
+
+Alexander's spirit rose. "I would suggest," he said, "that this haughty
+style is little in keeping with the sordid garb wherein your Holiness,
+consistent after death as in your life, masquerades to the scandal and
+distress of the faithful."
+
+"How can I other? Has your Holiness forgotten your Rabelais?"
+
+"The works of that eminent Doctor and Divine," answered Alexander the
+Eighth, "are seldom long absent from my hands, yet I fail to remember in
+what manner they elucidate the present topic."
+
+"Let me refresh your memory," rejoined Borgia, and, producing a volume of
+the Sage of Meudon, he turned to the chapter descriptive of the employments
+of various eminent inhabitants of the nether world, and pointed to the
+sentence:
+
+"LE PAPE ALEXANDRE ESTOYT PRENEUR DE RATZ." [*]
+
+[Footnote: _Pantagruel_, Book XI. ch. 30.]
+
+"Is this indeed sooth?" demanded his successor.
+
+"How else should Francois Rabelais have affirmed it?" responded Borgia.
+"When I arrived in the subterranean kingdom, I found it in the same
+condition as your Holiness's dominions at the present moment, eaten up by
+rats. The attention which, during my earthly pilgrimage, I had devoted to
+the science of toxicology indicated me as a person qualified to abate the
+nuisance, which commission I executed with such success, that I received
+the appointment of Ratcatcher to his Infernal Majesty, and so discharged
+its duties as to merit a continuance of the good opinion which had always
+been entertained of me in that exalted quarter. After a while, however,
+interest began to be made for me in even more elevated spheres. I had not
+been able to cram Heaven with Spaniards, as I had crammed the Sacred
+College--on the contrary. Truth to speak, my nation has not largely
+contributed to the population of the regions above. But some of us are
+people of consequence. My great-grandson, the General of the Jesuits, who,
+as such, had the ear of St. Ignatius Loyola, represented that had I adhered
+strictly to my vows, he could never have come into existence, and that the
+Society would thus have wanted one of its brightest ornaments. This
+argument naturally had great weight with St. Ignatius, the rather as he,
+too, was my countryman. Much also was said of the charity I had shown to
+the exiled Jews, which St. Dominic was pleased to say made him feel ashamed
+of himself when he came to think of it; for my having fed my people in time
+of dearth, instead of contriving famines to enrich myself, as so many
+Popes' nephews have done since; and  of the splendid order in which I kept
+the College of Cardinals. Columbus said a good word for me, and Savonarola
+did not oppose. Finally I was allowed to come upstairs, and exercise my
+profession on earth. But mark what pitfalls line the good man's path! I
+never could resist tampering with drugs of a deleterious nature, and was
+constantly betrayed by the thirst for scientific experiment into practices
+incompatible with the public health. The good nature which my detractors
+have not denied me was a veritable snare. I felt for youth debarred from
+its enjoyments by the unnatural vitality of age, and sympathised with the
+blooming damsel whose parent alone stood between her and her lover. I thus
+lived in constant apprehension of being ordered back to the Netherlands,
+and yearned for the wings of a dove, that I might flee away and be out of
+mischief. At last I discovered that my promotion to a higher sphere
+depended upon my obtaining a testimonial from the reigning Pope. Let a
+solemn procession be held in my honour, and intercession be publicly made
+for me, and I should ascend forthwith. I have consequently represented my
+case to many of your predecessors: but, O Alexander, you
+seventeenth-century Popes are a miserable breed! No fellow-feeling, no
+_esprit de corps. Heu pietas! heu prisca fides_! No one was so rude as your
+ascetic antecessor. The more of a saint, the less of a gentleman.
+Personally offensive, I assure you! But the others were nearly as bad. The
+haughty Paul, the fanatic Gregory, the worldly Urban, the austere Innocent
+the Tenth, the affable Alexander the Seventh, all concurred in assuring  me
+that it was deeply to be regretted that I should ever have been emancipated
+from the restraints of the Stygian realm, to which I should do well to
+return with all possible celerity; that it would much conduce to the
+interests of the Church if my name could be forgotten; and that as for
+doing anything to revive its memory, they would just as soon think of
+canonising Judas Iscariot."
+
+"And therefore your Holiness has brought these rats upon us, enlisted, I
+nothing doubt, in the infernal regions?"
+
+"Precisely so: Plutonic, necyomantic, Lemurian rats, kindly lent by the
+Prince of Darkness for the occasion, and come dripping from Styx to squeak
+and gibber in the Capitol. But I note your Holiness's admission that they
+belong to a region exempt from your jurisdiction, and that, therefore, your
+measures against them, except as regards their status as belligerents, are
+for the most part illegitimate and _ultra vires_."
+
+"I would argue that point," replied Alexander the Eighth, "if my lungs were
+as tough as when I pleaded before the Rota in Pope Urban's time. For the
+present I confine myself to formally protesting against your Holiness's
+unprecedented and parricidal conduct in invading your country at the head
+of an army of loathsome vermin."
+
+"Unprecedented!" exclaimed Borgia. "Am I not the modern Coriolanus? Did
+Narses experience blacker ingratitude than I? Where would the temporal
+power be but for me? Who smote the Colonna? Who squashed the Orsini? Who
+gave the Popes to dwell quietly in their own house? Monsters of
+unthankfulness!"
+
+"I am sure," said Alexander the Eighth soothingly, "that my predecessors'
+inability to comply with your Holiness's request must have cost them many
+inward tears, not the less genuine because entirely invisible and
+completely inaudible. A wise Pope will, before all things, consider the
+spirit of his age. The force of public opinion, which your Holiness lately
+appeared to disparage, was, in fact, as operative upon yourself as upon any
+of your successors. If you achieved great things in your lifetime, it was
+because the world was with you. Did you pursue the same methods now, you
+would soon discover that you had become an offensive anachronism. It will
+not have escaped your Holiness's penetration that what moralists will
+persist in terming the elevation of the standard of the Church, is the
+result of the so-called improvement of the world."
+
+"There is a measure of truth in this," admitted Alexander the Sixth, "and
+the spirit of this age is a very poor spirit. It was my felicity to be a
+Pope of the Renaissance. Blest dispensation! when men's view of life was
+large and liberal; when the fair humanities flourished; when the earth
+yielded up her hoards of chiselled marble and breathing bronze, and
+new-found agate urns as fresh as day; when painters and sculptors vied with
+antiquity, and poets and historians followed in their path; when every
+benign deity was worshipped save Diana and Vesta; when the arts of
+courtship and cosmetics were expounded by archbishops; when the beauteous
+Imperia was of more account than the eleven thousand virgins; when
+obnoxious persons  glided imperceptibly from the world; and no one
+marvelled if he met the Pope arm in arm with the Devil. How miserable, in
+comparison, is the present sapless age, with its prudery and its pedantry,
+and its periwigs and its painted coaches, and its urban Arcadias and the
+florid impotence and ostentatious inanity of what it calls its art! Pope
+Alexander! I see in the spirit the sepulchre destined for _you_, and I
+swear to you that my soul shivers in my ratskins! Come, now! I do not
+expect you to emulate the Popes of my time, but show that your virtues are
+your own, and your faults those of your epoch. Pluck up a spirit! Take
+bulls by the horns! Look facts in the face! Think upon the images of Brutus
+and Cassius! Recognise that you cannot get rid of me, and that the only
+safe course is to rehabilitate me. I am not a candidate for canonisation
+just now; but repair past neglect and appease my injured shade in the way
+you wot of. If this is done, I pledge my word that every rat shall
+forthwith evacuate Rome. Is it a bargain? I see it is; you are one of the
+good old sort, though fallen on evil days."
+
+Renaissance or Rats, Alexander the Eighth yielded.
+
+"I promise," he declared.
+
+"Your hand upon it!"
+
+Subduing his repugnance and apprehension by a strong effort, Alexander laid
+his hand within the spectre's clammy paw. An icy thrill ran through his
+veins, and he sank back senseless into his chair.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+When the Pope recovered consciousness he found himself in bed, with slight
+symptoms of fever. His first care was to summon Cardinal Barbadico, and
+confer with him respecting the surprising adventures which had recently
+befallen them. To his amazement, the Cardinal's mind seemed an entire blank
+on the subject. He admitted having made his customary report to his
+Holiness the preceding night, but knew nothing of any supernatural
+ratcatcher, and nothing of any midnight rendezvous at the Appartamento
+Borgia. Investigation seemed to justify his nescience; no vestige of the
+man of rats or of his shop could be discovered; and the Borgian apartments,
+opened and carefully searched through, revealed no trace of having been
+visited for many years. The Pope's book of exorcisms was in its proper
+place, his vial of holy water stood unbroken upon his table; and his
+chamberlains deposed that they had consigned him to Morpheus at the usual
+hour. His illusion was at first explained as the effect of a peculiarly
+vivid dream; but when he declared his intention of actually holding a
+service and conducting a procession for the weal of his namesake and
+predecessor, the conviction became universal that the rats had effected a
+lodgement in his Holiness's upper storeys.
+
+Alexander, notwithstanding, was resolute, and so it came to pass that on
+the same day two mighty processions encountered within the walls of Rome.
+As the assembled clergy, drawn from  all the churches and monasteries in
+the city, the Pope in his litter in their midst, marched, carrying candles,
+intoning chants, and, with many a secret shrug and sneer, imploring Heaven
+for the repose of Alexander the Sixth, they were suddenly brought to bay by
+another procession precipitated athwart their track, disorderly, repulsive,
+but more grateful to the sight of the citizens than all the pomps and
+pageants of the palmiest days of the Papacy. Black, brown, white, grey; fat
+and lean; old and young; strident or silent; the whiskered legions tore and
+galloped along; thronging from every part of the city, they united in
+single column into an endless host that appeared to stretch from the rising
+to the setting of the sun. They seemed making for the Tiber, which they
+would have speedily choked; but ere they could arrive there a huge rift
+opened in the earth, down which they madly precipitated themselves. Their
+descent, it is affirmed, lasted as many hours as Vulcan occupied in falling
+from Heaven to Lemnos; but when the last tail was over the brink, the gulf
+closed as effectually as the gulf in the Forum closed over Marcus Curtius,
+not leaving the slightest inequality by which any could detect it.
+
+Long ere this consummation had been attained, the Pope, looking forth from
+his litter, observed a venerable personage clad in ratskins, who appeared
+desirous of attracting his notice. Glances of recognition were exchanged,
+and instantly in place of the ratcatcher stood a tall, swarthy, corpulent,
+elderly man, with the majestic yet sensual features of Alexander the Sixth,
+accoutred with the official habiliments and insignia  of a Pope, who rose
+slowly into the air as though he had been inflated with hydrogen.
+
+"To your prayers!" cried Alexander the Eighth, and gave the example. The
+priesthood resumed its chants, the multitude dropped upon their knees.
+Their orisons seemed to speed the ascending figure, which was rising
+rapidly, when suddenly appeared in air Luxury, Simony, and Cruelty,
+contending which should receive the Holy Father into her bosom. [*] Borgia
+struck at them with his crozier, and seemed to be keeping them at bay, when
+a cloud wrapped the group from the sight of men. Thunder roared, lightning
+glared, the rush of waters blended with the ejaculations of the people and
+the yet more tempestuous rushing of the rats. Accompanied as he was, it is
+not probable that Alexander passed, like Dante's sigh, "beyond the sphere
+that doth all spheres enfold"; but, as he was never again seen on earth, it
+is not doubted that he attained at least as far as the moon.
+
+[Footnote:
+
+        Per aver riposo
+  Portato fu fra l'anime beate
+  Lo spirito di Alessandro glorioso;
+  Del qual seguiro le sante pedate
+  Tre sue familiari e care ancelle,
+  Lussuria, Simonia, e Crudeltate.
+[--Machiavelli, _Decennale Primo_.]]
+
+
+
+
+THE REWARDS OF INDUSTRY
+
+
+In China, under the Tang dynasty, early in the seventh century of the
+Christian era, lived a learned and virtuous, but poor mandarin who had
+three sons, Fu-su, Tu-sin, and Wang-li. Fu-su and Tu-sin were young men of
+active minds, always labouring to find out something new and useful.
+Wang-li was clever too, but only in games of skill, in which he attained
+great proficiency.
+
+Fu-su and Tu-sin continually talked to each other of the wonderful
+inventions they would make when they arrived at man's estate, and of the
+wealth and renown they promised themselves thereby. Their conversation
+seldom reached the ears of Wang-li, for he rarely lifted his eyes from the
+chess-board on which he solved his problems. But their father was more
+attentive, and one day he said:
+
+"I fear, my sons, that among your multifarious pursuits and studies you
+must have omitted to include that of the laws of your country, or you would
+have learned that fortune is not to be acquired by the means which you have
+proposed to yourselves."
+
+"How so, father?" asked they.
+
+"It hath been justly deemed by our ancestors," said the old man, "that the
+reverence due to the  great men who are worshipped in our temples, by
+reason of our indebtedness to them for the arts of life, could not but
+become impaired if their posterity were suffered to eclipse their fame by
+new discoveries, or presumptuously amend what might appear imperfect in
+their productions. It is therefore, by an edict of the Emperor Suen,
+forbidden to invent anything; and by a statute of the Emperor Wu-chi it is
+further provided that nothing hitherto invented shall be improved. My
+predecessor in the small office I hold was deprived of it for saying that
+in his judgment money ought to be made round instead of square, and I have
+myself run risk of my life for seeking to combine a small file with a pair
+of tweezers."
+
+"If this is the case," said the young men, "our fatherland is not the place
+for us." And they embraced their father, and departed. Of their brother
+Wang-li they took no farewell, inasmuch as he was absorbed in a chess
+problem. Before separating, they agreed to meet on the same spot after
+thirty years, with the treasure which they doubted not to have acquired by
+the exercise of their inventive faculties in foreign lands. They further
+covenanted that if either had missed his reward the other should share his
+possessions with him.
+
+Fu-su repaired to the artists who cut out characters in blocks of hard
+wood, to the end that books may be printed from the same. When he had
+fathomed their mystery he betook himself to a brass-founder, and learned
+how to cast in metal. He then sought a learned man who had travelled much,
+and made himself acquainted with the Greek, Persian, and Arabic languages.
+Then he  cast a number of Greek characters in type, and putting them into a
+bag and providing himself with some wooden letter-tablets of his own
+carving, he departed to seek his fortune. After innumerable hardships and
+perils he arrived in the land of Persia, and inquired for the great king.
+
+"The great king is dead," they told him, "and his head is entirely
+separated from his body. There is now no king in Persia, great or small."
+
+"Where shall I find another great king?" demanded he.
+
+"In the city of Alexandria," replied they, "where the Commander of the
+Faithful is busy introducing the religion of the Prophet."
+
+Fu-su passed to Alexandria, carrying his types and tablets.
+
+As he entered the gates he remarked an enormous cloud of smoke, which
+seemed to darken the whole city. Before he could inquire the reason, the
+guard arrested him as a stranger, and conducted him to the presence of the
+Caliph Omar.
+
+"Know, O Caliph," said Fu-su, "that my countrymen are at once the wisest of
+mankind and the stupidest. They have invented an art for the preservation
+of letters and the diffusion of knowledge, which the sages of Greece and
+India never knew, but they have not learned to take, and they refuse to be
+taught how to take, the one little step further necessary to render it
+generally profitable to mankind."
+
+And producing his tablets and types, he explained to the Caliph the entire
+mystery of the art of printing.
+
+"Thou seemest to be ignorant," said Omar, "that we have but yesterday
+condemned and  excommunicated all books, and banished the same from the
+face of the earth, seeing that they contain either that which is contrary
+to the Koran, in which case they are impious, or that which is agreeable to
+the Koran, in which case they are superfluous. Thou art further unaware, as
+it would seem, that the smoke which shrouds the city proceeds from the
+library of the unbelievers, consumed by our orders. It will be meet to burn
+thee along with it."
+
+"O Commander of the Faithful," said an officer, "of a surety the last
+scroll of the accursed ceased to flame even as this infidel entered the
+city."
+
+"If it be so," said Omar, "we will not burn him, seeing that we have taken
+away from him the occasion to sin. Yet shall he swallow these little brass
+amulets of his, at the rate of one a day, and then be banished from the
+country."
+
+The sentence was executed, and Fu-su was happy that the Court physician
+condescended to accept his little property in exchange for emetics.
+
+He begged his way slowly and painfully back to China, and arrived at the
+covenanted spot at the expiration of the thirtieth year. His father's
+modest dwelling had disappeared, and in its place stood a magnificent
+mansion, around which stretched a park with pavilions, canals,
+willow-trees, golden pheasants, and little bridges.
+
+"Tu-sin has surely made his fortune," thought he, "and he will not refuse
+to share it with me agreeably to our covenant."
+
+As he thus reflected he heard a voice at his elbow, and turning round
+perceived that one in a more wretched plight than himself was asking alms
+of him. It was Tu-sin.
+
+The brothers embraced with many tears, and after Tu-sin had learned Fu-su's
+history, he proceeded to recount his own.
+
+"I repaired," said he, "to those who know the secret of the grains termed
+fire-dust, which Suen has not been able to prevent us from inventing, but
+of which Wu-chi has taken care that we shall make no use, save only for
+fireworks. Having learned their mystery I deposited a certain portion of
+this fire-dust in hollow tubes which I had constructed of iron and brass,
+and upon it I further laid leaden balls of a size corresponding to the
+hollow of the tubes. I then found that by applying a light to the fire-dust
+at one end of the tube I could send the ball out at the other with such
+force that it penetrated the cuirasses of three warriors at once. I filled
+a barrel with the dust, and concealing it and the tubes under carpets which
+I laid upon the backs of oxen, I set out to the city of Constantinople. I
+will not at present relate my adventures on the journey. Suffice it that I
+arrived at last half dead from fatigue and hardship, and destitute of
+everything except my merchandise. By bribing an officer with my carpets I
+was admitted to have speech with the Emperor. I found him busily studying a
+problem in chess.
+
+"I told him that I had discovered a secret which would make him the master
+of the world, and in particular would help him to drive away the Saracens,
+who threatened his empire with destruction.
+
+"'Thou must perceive,' he said, 'that I cannot possibly attend to thee
+until I have solved this problem. Yet, lest any should say that the
+Emperor neglects his duties, absorbed in idle amusement, I will refer thy
+invention to the chief armourers of my capital. And he gave me a letter to
+the armourers, and returned to his problem. And as I quitted the palace
+bearing the missive, I came upon a great procession. Horsemen and running
+footmen, musicians, heralds, and banner-bearers surrounded a Chinaman who
+sat in the attitude of Fo under a golden umbrella upon a richly caparisoned
+elephant, his pigtail plaited with yellow roses. And the musicians blew and
+clashed, and the standard-bearers waved their ensigns, and the heralds
+proclaimed, 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the Emperor delights to
+honour.' And unless I was very greatly mistaken, the face of the Chinaman
+was the face of our brother Wang-li.
+
+"At another time I would have striven to find what this might mean, but my
+impatience was great, as also my need and hunger. I sought the chief
+armourers, and with great trouble brought them all together to give me
+audience, I produced my tube and fire-dust, and sent my balls with ease
+through the best armour they could set before me.
+
+"' Who will want breast-plates now?' cried the chief breast-plate maker.
+
+"'Or helmets?' exclaimed one who made armour for the head.
+
+"'I would not have taken fifty bezants for that shield, and what good is it
+now?' said the head of the shield trade.
+
+"'My swords will be of less account,' said a swordsmith.
+
+"'My arrows of none,' lamented an arrow-maker.
+
+"''Tis villainy,' cried one.
+
+"''Tis magic,' shouted another.
+
+"''Tis illusion, as I'm an honest tradesman,' roared a third, and put his
+integrity to the proof by thrusting a hot iron bar into my barrel. All
+present rose up in company with the roof of the building, and all perished,
+except myself, who escaped with the loss of my hair and skin. A fire broke
+out on the spot, and consumed one-third of the city of Constantinople.
+
+"I was lying on a prison-bed some time afterwards, partly recovered of my
+hurts, dolefully listening to a dispute between two of my guards as to
+whether I ought to be burned or buried alive, when the Imperial order for
+my disposal came down. The gaolers received it with humility, and read
+'Kick him out of the city.' Marvelling at the mildness of the punishment,
+they nevertheless executed it with so much zeal that I flew into the middle
+of the Bosphorus, where I was picked up by a fishing vessel, and landed on
+the Asiatic coast, whence I have begged my way home. I now propose that we
+appeal to the pity of the owner of this splendid mansion, who may
+compassionate us on hearing that we were reared in the Cottage which has
+been pulled down to make room for his palace."
+
+They entered the gates, walked timidly up to the house, and prepared to
+fall at the feet of the master, but did not, for ere they could do so they
+recognised their brother Wang-li.
+
+It took Wang-li some time to recognise them, but when at length he knew
+them he hastened to  provide for their every want. When they had well eaten
+and drunk, and had been clad in robes of honour, they imparted their
+histories, and asked for his.
+
+"My brothers," said Wang-li, "the noble game of chess, which was happily
+invented long before the time of the Emperor Suen, was followed by me
+solely for its pleasure, and I dreamed not of acquiring wealth by its
+pursuit until I casually heard one day that it was entirely unknown to the
+people of the West. Even then I thought not of gaining money, but conceived
+so deep a compassion for those forlorn barbarians that I felt I could know
+no rest until I should have enlightened them. I accordingly proceeded to
+the city of Constantinople, and was received as a messenger from Heaven. To
+such effect did I labour that ere long the Emperor and his officers of
+state thought of nothing else but playing chess all day and night, and the
+empire fell into entire confusion, and the Saracens mightily prevailed. In
+consideration of these services the Emperor was pleased to bestow those
+distinguished honours upon me which thou didst witness at his palace gate,
+dear brother.
+
+"After, however, the fire which was occasioned through thy instrumentality,
+though in no respect by thy fault, the people murmured, and taxed the
+Emperor with seeking to destroy his capital in league with a foreign
+sorcerer, meaning thee. Ere long the chief officers conspired and entered
+the Emperor's apartment, purposing to dethrone him, but he declared that he
+would in nowise abdicate until he had finished the game of chess he was
+then playing with me. They looked on, grew  interested, began to dispute
+with one another respecting the moves, and while they wrangled loyal
+officers entered and made them all captive. This greatly augmented my
+credit with the Emperor, which was even increased when shortly afterwards I
+played with the Saracen admiral blockading the Hellespont, and won of him
+forty corn-ships, which turned the dearth of the city into plenty.
+
+"The Emperor bade me choose any favour I would, but I said his liberality
+had left me nothing to ask for except the life of a poor countryman of mine
+who I had heard was in prison for burning the city. The Emperor bade me
+write his sentence with my own hand. Had I known that it was thou, Tu-sin,
+believe me I had shown more consideration for thy person. At length I
+departed for my native land, loaded with wealth, and travelling most
+comfortably by relays of swift dromedaries. I returned hither, bought our
+father's cottage, and on its site erected this palace, where I dwell
+meditating on the problems of chessplayers and the precepts of the sages,
+and persuaded that a little thing which the world is willing to receive is
+better than a great thing which it hath not yet learned to value aright.
+For the world is a big child, and chooses amusement before instruction."
+
+"Call you chess an amusement?" asked his brothers.
+
+
+
+
+MADAM LUCIFER
+
+
+Lucifer sat playing chess with Man for his soul.
+
+The game was evidently going ill for Man. He had but pawns left, few and
+straggling. Lucifer had rooks, knights, and, of course, bishops.
+
+It was but natural under such circumstances that Man should be in no great
+hurry to move. Lucifer grew impatient.
+
+"It is a pity," said he at last, "that we did not fix some period within
+which the player must move, or resign."
+
+"Oh, Lucifer," returned the young man, in heart-rending accents, "it is not
+the impending loss of my soul that thus unmans me, but the loss of my
+betrothed. When I think of the grief of the Lady Adeliza, that paragon of
+terrestrial loveliness!" Tears choked his utterance; Lucifer was touched.
+
+"Is the Lady Adeliza's loveliness in sooth so transcendent?" he inquired.
+
+"She is a rose, a lily, a diamond, a morning star!"
+
+"If that is the case," rejoined Lucifer, "thou mayest reassure thyself. The
+Lady Adeliza shall not want for consolation. I will assume thy shape and
+woo her in thy stead."
+
+The young man hardly seemed to receive all the comfort from this promise
+which Lucifer no doubt designed. He made a desperate move. In an instant
+the Devil checkmated him, and he disappeared.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Upon my word, if I had known what a business this was going to be, I don't
+think I should have gone in for it," soliloquised the Devil, as, wearing
+his captive's semblance and installed in his apartments, he surveyed the
+effects to which he now had to administer. They included coats, shirts,
+collars, neckties, foils, cigars, and the like _ad libitum_; and very
+little else except three challenges, ten writs, and seventy-four unpaid
+bills, elegantly disposed around the looking-glass. To the poor youth's
+praise be it said, there were no billets-doux, except from the Lady Adeliza
+herself.
+
+Noting the address of these carefully, the Devil sallied forth, and nothing
+but his ignorance of the topography of the hotel, which made him take the
+back stairs, saved him from the clutches of two bailiffs lurking on the
+principal staircase. Leaping into a cab, he thus escaped a perfumer and a
+bootmaker, and shortly found himself at the Lady Adeliza's feet.
+
+The truth had not been half told him. Such beauty, such wit, such
+correctness of principle! Lucifer went forth from her presence a love-sick
+fiend. Not Merlin's mother had produced half the impression upon him; and
+Adeliza on her part had never found her lover one-hundredth part so
+interesting as he seemed that morning.
+
+Lucifer proceeded at once to the City, where,  assuming his proper shape
+for the occasion, he negotiated a loan without the smallest difficulty. All
+debts were promptly discharged, and Adeliza was astonished at the splendour
+and variety of the presents she was constantly receiving.
+
+Lucifer had all but brought her to name the day, when he was informed that
+a gentleman of clerical appearance desired to wait upon him.
+
+"Wants money for a new church or mission, I suppose," said he. "Show him
+up."
+
+But when the visitor was ushered in, Lucifer found with discomposure that
+he was no earthly clergyman, but a celestial saint; a saint, too, with whom
+Lucifer had never been able to get on. He had served in the army while on
+earth, and his address was curt, precise, and peremptory.
+
+"I have called," he said, "to notify to you my appointment as Inspector of
+Devils."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lucifer, in consternation. "To the post of my old friend
+Michael!"
+
+"Too old," said the Saint laconically. "Millions of years older than the
+world. About your age, I think?"
+
+Lucifer winced, remembering the particular business he was then about. The
+Saint continued:
+
+"I am a new broom, and am expected to sweep clean. I warn you that I mean
+to be strict, and there is one little matter which I must set right
+immediately. You are going to marry that poor young fellow's betrothed, are
+you? Now you know you cannot take his wife, unless you give him yours."
+
+"Oh, my dear friend," exclaimed Lucifer, "what an inexpressibly blissful
+prospect you do open unto me!"
+
+"I don't know that," said the Saint. "I must remind you that the dominion
+of the infernal regions is unalterably attached to the person of the
+present Queen thereof. If you part with her you immediately lose all your
+authority and possessions. I don't care a brass button which you do, but
+you must understand that you cannot eat your cake and have it too. Good
+morning!"
+
+Who shall describe the conflict in Lucifer's bosom? If any stronger passion
+existed therein at that moment than attachment to Adeliza, it was aversion
+to his consort, and the two combined were well-nigh irresistible. But to
+disenthrone himself, to descend to the condition of a poor devil!
+
+Feeling himself incapable of coming to a decision, he sent for Belial,
+unfolded the matter, and requested his advice.
+
+"What a shame that our new inspector will not let you marry Adeliza!"
+lamented his counsellor. "If you did, my private opinion is that
+forty-eight hours afterwards you would care just as much for her as you do
+now for Madam Lucifer, neither more nor less. Are your intentions really
+honourable?"
+
+"Yes," replied Lucifer, "it is to be a Lucifer match."
+
+"The more fool you," rejoined Belial. "If you tempted her to commit a sin,
+she would be yours without any conditions at all."
+
+"Oh, Belial," said Lucifer, "I cannot bring myself to be a tempter of so
+much innocence and loveliness."
+
+And he meant what he said.
+
+"Well then, let me try," proposed Belial.
+
+"You?" replied Lucifer contemptuously; "do you imagine that Adeliza would
+look at _you_?"
+
+"Why not?" asked Belial, surveying himself complacently in the glass.
+
+He was humpbacked, squinting, and lame, and his horns stood up under his
+wig.
+
+The discussion ended in a wager after which there was no retreat for
+Lucifer.
+
+The infernal Iachimo was introduced to Adeliza as a distinguished
+foreigner, and was soon prosecuting his suit with all the success which
+Lucifer had predicted. One thing protected while it baffled him--the
+entire inability of Adeliza to understand what he meant. At length he was
+constrained to make the matter clear by producing an enormous treasure,
+which he offered Adeliza in exchange for the abandonment of her lover.
+
+The tempest of indignation which ensued would have swept away any ordinary
+demon, but Belial listened unmoved. When Adeliza had exhausted herself he
+smilingly rallied her upon her affection for an unworthy lover, of whose
+infidelity he undertook to give her proof. Frantic with jealousy, Adeliza
+consented, and in a trice found herself in the infernal regions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Adeliza's arrival in Pandemonium, as Belial had planned, occurred
+immediately after the receipt of a message from Lucifer, in whose bosom
+love had finally gained the victory, and who had telegraphed his abdication
+and resignation of Madam Lucifer to Adeliza's betrothed. The poor young man
+had just been hauled up from the lower depths, and was beset by legions of
+demons obsequiously pressing all manner of treasures upon his acceptance.
+He stared, helpless and  bewildered, unable to realise his position in the
+smallest degree. In the background grave and serious demons, the princes of
+the infernal realm, discussed the new departure, and consulted especially
+how to break it to Madam Lucifer--a commission of which no one seemed
+ambitious.
+
+"Stay where you are," whispered Belial to Adeliza; "stir not; you shall put
+his constancy to the proof within five minutes."
+
+Not all the hustling, mowing, and gibbering of the fiends would under
+ordinary circumstances have kept Adeliza from her lover's side: but what is
+all hell to jealousy?
+
+In even less time than he had promised Belial returned, accompanied by
+Madam Lucifer. This lady's black robe, dripping with blood, contrasted
+agreeably with her complexion of sulphurous yellow; the absence of hair was
+compensated by the exceptional length of her nails; she was a thousand
+million years old, and, but for her remarkable muscular vigour, looked
+every one of them. The rage into which Belial's communication had thrown
+her was something indescribable; but, as her eye fell on the handsome
+youth, a different order of thoughts seemed to take possession of her mind.
+
+"Let the monster go!" she exclaimed; "who cares? Come, my love, ascend the
+throne with me, and share the empire and the treasures of thy fond
+Luciferetta."
+
+"If you don't, back you go," interjected Belial.
+
+What might have been the young man's decision if Madam Lucifer had borne
+more resemblance to Madam Vulcan, it would be wholly impertinent to
+inquire, for the question never arose.
+
+"Take me away!" he screamed, "take me away, anywhere I anywhere out of her
+reach! Oh, Adeliza!"
+
+With a bound Adeliza stood by his side. She was darting a triumphant glance
+at the discomfited Queen of Hell, when suddenly her expression changed, and
+she screamed loudly. Two adorers stood before her, alike in every lineament
+and every detail of costume, utterly indistinguishable, even by the eye of
+Love.
+
+Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza's feet and pray her
+to defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the tidings of her
+elopement with Belial. Fearing to lose his wife and his dominions along
+with his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions with such expedition
+that he had had no time to change his costume. Hence the equivocation which
+confounded Adeliza, but at the same time preserved her from being torn to
+pieces by the no less mystified Madam Lucifer.
+
+Perceiving the state of the case, Lucifer with true gentlemanly feeling
+resumed his proper semblance, and Madam Lucifer's talons were immediately
+inserted into his whiskers.
+
+"My dear! my love!" he gasped, as audibly as she would let him, "is this
+the way it welcomes its own Lucy-pucy?"
+
+"Who is that person?" demanded Madam Lucifer.
+
+"I don't know her," screamed the wretched Lucifer. "I never saw her before.
+Take her away; shut her up in the deepest dungeon!"
+
+"Not if I know it," sharply replied Madam Lucifer, "You can't bear to part
+with her, can't  you? You would intrigue with her under my nose, would you?
+Take that! and that! Turn them both out, I say! turn them both out!"
+
+"Certainly, my dearest love, most certainly," responded Lucifer.
+
+"Oh, Sire," cried Moloch and Beelzebub together, "for Heaven's sake let
+your Majesty consider what he is doing. The Inspector----"
+
+"Bother the Inspector!" screeched Lucifer. "D'ye think I'm not a thousand
+times more afraid of your mistress than of all the saints in the calendar?
+There," addressing Adeliza and her betrothed, "be off! You'll find all
+debts paid, and a nice balance at the bank. Cut! Run!"
+
+They did not wait to be told twice. Earth yawned. The gates of Tartarus
+stood wide. They found themselves on the side of a steep mountain, down
+which they scoured madly, hand linked in hand. But fast as they ran, it was
+long ere they ceased to hear the tongue of Madam Lucifer.
+
+
+
+
+THE TALISMANS
+
+
+What a wondrous creature is man! What feats the humblest among us perform,
+which, if related of another order of beings, we should deem incredible!
+
+By what magic could the young student escape the weary old professor, who
+was prosily proving Time merely a form of thought; a proposition of which,
+to judge by the little value he appeared to set on the subject of his
+discourse, he must himself have been fully persuaded? Without exciting his
+suspicions in the smallest degree, the student stole away to a region
+inconceivably remote, and presented himself at the portal of a magnificent
+palace, guarded by goblins, imps, lions, serpents, and monsters whose
+uncouthness forbids description.
+
+A singular transformation seemed to have befallen the student. In the
+professor's class he had been noted as timid, awkward, and painfully
+respectful. He now strode up with an air of alacrity and defiance,
+brandishing a roll of parchments, and confronted the seven principal
+goblins, by whom he was successively interrogated.
+
+"Hast thou undergone the seven probations?"
+
+"Yes," said the student.
+
+"Hast thou swallowed the ninety-nine poisons?"
+
+"Ninety-nine times each," said the student.
+
+"Hast thou wedded a Salamander, and divorced her?"
+
+"I have," said the student.
+
+"Art thou at this present time betrothed to a Vampire?"
+
+"I am," said the student.
+
+"Hast thou sacrificed thy mother and sister to the infernal powers?"
+
+"Of course," said the student, "Hast thou attestations of all these
+circumstances under the hands and seals of a thousand and one demons?"
+
+The student displayed his parchments.
+
+"Thou hast undergone every trial," pronounced the seventh goblin; "thou
+hast won the right to enter the treasury of the treasurer of all things,
+and to choose from it any one talisman at thy liking."
+
+The imps cheered, the goblins congratulated, the serpents shrank hissing
+away, the lions fawned upon the student, a centaur bore him upon his back
+to the treasurer's presence.
+
+The treasurer, an old bent man, with a single lock of silvery hair,
+received the adventurer with civility.
+
+"I have come," said the student, "for the talismans in thy keeping, to the
+choice among which I have entitled myself."
+
+"Thou hast fairly earned them," replied the old man, "and I may not say
+thee nay. Thou canst, however, only possess any of them in the shape which
+it has received at my hands during the long period for which these have
+remained in my custody."
+
+"I must submit to the condition," said the student.
+
+"Behold, then, Aladdin's lamp," said the ancient personage, tendering a
+tiny vase hardly  bigger than a pill-box, containing some grains of a
+coarse, rusty powder.
+
+"Aladdin's lamp!" cried the student.
+
+"All of it, at least, that I have seen fit to preserve," replied the old
+man. "Thou art but just in time for this even. It is proper to apprise thee
+that the virtues of the talisman having necessarily dwindled with its bulk,
+it is at present incompetent to evoke any Genie, and can at most summon an
+imp, of whose company thou wilt never be able to rid thyself, inasmuch as
+the least friction will inevitably destroy what little of the talisman
+remains."
+
+"Confusion!" cried the young man, "Show me, then, Aladdin's ring."
+
+"Here," replied the old man, producing a plain gold hoop.
+
+"This, at least," asked the student, "is not devoid of virtue?"
+
+"Assuredly not, if placed on the finger of some fair lady. For, its magic
+properties depending wholly upon certain engraved characters, which I have
+gradually obliterated, it is at present unadapted to any other use than
+that of a wedding-ring, which it would subserve to admiration."
+
+"Produce another talisman," commanded the youth.
+
+"These," said the ancient treasurer, holding up two shapeless pieces of
+leather, "are the shoes of swiftness, incomparable until I wore them out."
+
+"This, at least, is bright and weighty," exclaimed the student, as the old
+man displayed the sword of sharpness.
+
+"In truth a doughty weapon," returned the treasurer, "if wielded by a
+stronger arm than thine, for it will no longer fly in the air and smite
+off heads of its own accord, since the new blade hath been fitted to the
+new hilt."
+
+After a hasty inspection of the empty frame of a magic mirror, and a
+fragment of the original setting of Solomon's seal, the youth's eye lighted
+upon a volume full of mysterious characters.
+
+"Whose book is this?" he inquired. "Heavens, it is Michael Scott's!"
+
+"Even so," returned the venerable man, "and its spells have lost nothing of
+their efficacy. But the last leaf, containing the formula for dismissing
+spirits after they have been summoned from the nether world, hath been
+removed by me. Inattention to this circumstance hath caused several most
+respectable magicians to be torn in pieces, and hath notably increased the
+number of demons at large."
+
+"Thou old villain!" shouted the exasperated youth, "is this the way in
+which the treasures in thy custody are protected by thee? Deemest thou that
+I will brook being thus cheated of my dear-bought talisman? Nay, but I will
+deprive thee of thine. Give me that lock of hair."
+
+"O good youth," supplicated the now terrified and humbled old man, "bereave
+me not of the source of all my power. Think, only think of the
+consequences!"
+
+"I will not think," roared the youth. "Deliver it to me, or I'll rend it
+from thy head with my own hands."
+
+With a heavy sigh, Time clipped the lock from his brow and handed it to the
+youth, who quitted the place unmolested by any of the monsters.
+
+Entering the great city, the student made his way by narrow and winding
+streets until, after a  considerable delay, he emerged into a large public
+square. It was crowded with people, gazing intently at the afternoon sky,
+and the air was rife with a confused murmur of altercations and
+exclamations.
+
+"It is." "No, I tell you, it is impossible." "It cannot be." "I see it
+move." "No, it's only my eyes are dazzled." "Who could have believed it?"
+"Whatever will happen next?"
+
+Following the gaze of the people, the youth discovered that the object of
+their attention was the sun, in whose aspect, however, he could discover
+nothing unusual.
+
+"No," a man by him was saying, "it positively has not moved for an hour. I
+have my instruments by me. I cannot possibly be mistaken."
+
+"It ought to have been behind the houses long ago," said another.
+
+"What's o'clock?" asked a third. The inquiry made many turn their eyes
+towards the great clock in the square. It had stopped an hour ago. The
+hands were perfectly motionless. All who had watches simultaneously drew
+them from their pockets. The motion of each was suspended; so intense, in
+turn, was the hush of the breathless crowd, that you could have heard a
+single tick, but there was none to hear.
+
+"Time is no more," proclaimed a leader among the people.
+
+"I am a ruined man," lamented a watchmaker.
+
+"And I," ejaculated a maker of almanacks.
+
+"What of quarter-day?" inquired a landlord and a tenant simultaneously.
+
+"We shall never see the moon again," sobbed a pair of lovers.
+
+"It is well this did not happen at night," observed an optimist.
+
+"Indeed?" questioned the director of a gas company.
+
+"I told you the Last Day would come in our time," said a preacher.
+
+It was still long before the people realised that the trance of Time had
+paralysed his daughter Mutability as well. Every operation depending on her
+silent processes was arrested. The unborn could not come to life. The sick
+could not die. The human frame could not waste. Every one in the enjoyment
+of health and strength felt assured of the perpetual possession of these
+blessings, unless he should meet with accident or violent death. But all
+growth ceased, and all dissolution was stayed. Mothers looked with despair
+on infants who could never be weaned or learn to walk. Expectant heirs
+gazed with dismay on immortal fathers and uncles. The reigning beauties,
+the fashionable boxers and opera dancers were in the highest feather. Nor
+did the intellectual less rejoice, counting on endless life and unimpaired
+faculties, and vowing to extend human knowledge beyond the conceivable. The
+poor and the outcast, the sick and the maimed, the broken-hearted and the
+dying made, indeed, a dismal outcry, the sincerity of which was doubted by
+some persons.
+
+As for our student, forgetting his faithful Vampire, he made his way to a
+young lady of great personal attractions, to whom he had been attached in
+former days. The sight of her beauty, and the thought that it would be
+everlasting, revived his passion. To convince her of the perpetuity  of her
+charms, and establish a claim upon her gratitude, he cautiously revealed to
+her that he was the author of this blissful state of things, and that
+Time's hair was actually in his possession.
+
+"Oh, you dear good man!" she exclaimed, "how vastly I am obliged to you!
+Ferdinand will never forsake me now."
+
+"Ferdinand! Leonora, I thought you cared for _me_."
+
+"Oh!" she said, "you young men of science are so conceited!"
+
+The discomfited lover fled from the house, and sought the treasurer's
+palace. It had vanished with all its monsters. Long did he roam the city
+ere he mixed again with the crowd, which an old meteorologist was
+addressing energetically.
+
+"I ask you one thing," he was saying. "Will it ever rain again?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied a geologist and a metaphysician together. "Rain
+being an agent of Time in the production of change, there can be no place
+for it under the present dispensation."
+
+"Then will not the crops be burned up? Will the fruits mature? Are they not
+withering already? What of wells and rivers, and the mighty sea itself? Who
+will feed your cattle? And who will feed _you_?"
+
+"This concerns us," said the butchers and bakers.
+
+"Us also," added the fishmongers.
+
+"I always thought," said a philosopher, "that this phenomenon must be the
+work of some malignant wizard."
+
+"Show us the wizard that we may slay him," roared the mob.
+
+Leonora had been communicative, and the student was immediately identified
+by twenty persons. The lock of hair was found upon him, and was held up in
+sight of the multitude.
+
+"Kill him!"
+
+"Burn him!"
+
+"Crucify him!"
+
+"It moves! it moves!" cried another division of the crowd. All eyes were
+bent on the hitherto stationary luminary. It was moving--no, it wasn't;
+yes, it certainly was. Dared men believe that their shadows were actually
+lengthening? Was the sun's rim really drawing nigh yonder great edifice?
+That muffled sound from the vast, silent multitude was, doubtless, the
+quick beating of innumerable hearts; but that sharper note? Could it be the
+ticking of watches? Suddenly all the public clocks clanged the first stroke
+of an hour--an absurdly wrong hour, but it was an hour. No mortal heard
+the second stroke, drowned in universal shouts of joy and gratitude. The
+student mingled with the mass, no man regarding him.
+
+When the people had somewhat recovered from their emotion, they fell to
+disputing as to the cause of the last marvel. No scientific man could get
+beyond a working hypothesis. The mystery was at length solved by a very
+humble citizen, a barber.
+
+"Why," he said, "the old gentleman's hair has grown again!"
+
+And so it had! And so it was that the unborn came to life, the dying gave
+up the ghost, Leonora pulled out a grey hair, and the student told the
+professor his dream.
+
+
+
+
+THE ELIXIR OF LIFE
+
+
+The aged philosopher Aboniel inhabited a lofty tower in the city of Balkh,
+where he devoted himself to the study of chemistry and the occult sciences.
+No one was ever admitted to his laboratory. Yet Aboniel did not wholly shun
+intercourse with mankind, but, on the contrary, had seven pupils, towardly
+youths belonging to the noblest families of the city, whom he instructed at
+stated times in philosophy and all lawful knowledge, reserving the
+forbidden lore of magic and alchemy for himself.
+
+But on a certain day he summoned his seven scholars to the mysterious
+apartment. They entered with awe and curiosity, but perceived nothing save
+the sage standing behind a table, on which were placed seven crystal
+phials, filled with a clear liquid resembling water.
+
+"Ye know, my sons," he began, "with what ardour I am reputed to have
+striven to penetrate the hidden secrets of Nature, and to solve the
+problems which have allured and baffled the sages of all time. In this
+rumour doth not err: such hath ever been my object; but, until yesterday,
+my fortune hath been like unto theirs who have preceded me. The little I
+could accomplish seemed as nothing in comparison with what I was compelled
+to leave unachieved. Even now  my success is but partial. I have not
+learned to make gold; the talisman of Solomon is not mine; nor can I recall
+the principle of life to the dead, or infuse it into inanimate matter. But
+if I cannot create, I can preserve. I have found the Elixir of Life."
+
+The sage paused to examine the countenances of his scholars. Upon them he
+read extreme surprise, undoubting belief in the veracity of their teacher,
+and the dawning gleam of a timid hope that they themselves might become
+participators in the transcendent discovery he proclaimed. Addressing
+himself to the latter sentiment--"I am willing," he continued, "to
+communicate this secret to you, if such be your desire."
+
+An unanimous exclamation assured him that there need be no uncertainty on
+this point.
+
+"But remember," he resumed, "that this knowledge, like all knowledge, has
+its disadvantages and its drawbacks. A price must be paid, and when ye come
+to learn it, it may well be that it will seem too heavy. Understand that
+the stipulations I am about to propound are not of my imposing; the secret
+was imparted to me by spirits not of a benevolent order, and under
+conditions with which I am constrained strictly to comply. Understand also
+that I am not minded to employ this knowledge on my own behalf. My
+fourscore years' acquaintance with life has rendered me more solicitous for
+methods of abbreviating existence, than of prolonging it. It may be well
+for you if your twenty years' experience has led you to the same
+conclusion."
+
+There was not one of the young men who would not readily have admitted, and
+indeed  energetically maintained, the emptiness, vanity, and general
+unsatisfactoriness of life; for such had ever been the doctrine of their
+venerated preceptor. Their present behaviour, however, would have convinced
+him, had he needed conviction, of the magnitude of the gulf between theory
+and practice, and the feebleness of intellectual persuasion in presence of
+innate instinct. With one voice they protested their readiness to brave any
+conceivable peril, and undergo any test which might be imposed as a
+condition of participation in their master's marvellous secret.
+
+"So be it," returned the sage, "and now hearken to the conditions.
+
+"Each of you must select at hazard, and immediately quaff one of these
+seven phials, in one of which only is contained the Elixir of Life. Far
+different are the contents of the others; they are the six most deadly
+poisons which the utmost subtlety of my skill has enabled me to prepare,
+and science knows no antidote to any of them. The first scorches up the
+entrails as with fire; the second slays by freezing every vein, and
+benumbing every nerve; the third by frantic convulsions. Happy in
+comparison he who drains the fourth, for he sinks dead upon the ground
+immediately, smitten as it were with lightning. Nor do I overmuch
+commiserate him to whose lot the fifth may fall, for slumber descends upon
+him forthwith, and he passes away in painless oblivion. But wretched he who
+chooses the sixth, whose hair falls from his head, whose skin peels from
+his body, and who lingers long in excruciating agonies, a living death. The
+seventh phial contains the object of your desire. Stretch forth  your
+hands, therefore, simultaneously to this table; let each unhesitatingly
+grasp and intrepidly drain the potion which fate may allot him, and be the
+quality of his fortune attested by the result."
+
+The seven disciples contemplated each other with visages of sevenfold
+blankness. They next unanimously directed their gaze towards their
+preceptor, hoping to detect some symptom of jocularity upon his venerable
+features. Nothing could be descried thereon but the most imperturbable
+solemnity, or, if perchance anything like an expression of irony lurked
+beneath this, it was not such irony as they wished to see. Lastly, they
+scanned the phials, trusting that some infinitesimal distinction might
+serve to discriminate the elixir from the poisons. But no, the vessels were
+indistinguishable in external appearance, and the contents of each were
+equally colourless and transparent.
+
+"Well," demanded Aboniel at length, with real or assumed surprise,
+"wherefore tarry ye thus? I deemed to have ere this beheld six of you in
+the agonies of death!"
+
+This utterance did not tend to encourage the seven waverers. Two of the
+boldest, indeed, advanced their hands half-way to the table, but perceiving
+that their example was not followed, withdrew them in some confusion.
+
+"Think not, great teacher, that I personally set store by this worthless
+existence," said one of their number at last, breaking the embarrassing
+silence, "but I have an aged mother, whose life is bound up with mine."
+
+"I," said the second, "have an unmarried  sister, for whom it is meet that
+I should provide."
+
+"I," said the third, "have an intimate and much-injured friend, whose cause
+I may in nowise forsake."
+
+"And I an enemy upon whom I would fain be avenged," said the fourth.
+
+"My life," said the fifth, "is wholly devoted to science. Can I consent to
+lay it down ere I have sounded the seas of the seven climates?"
+
+"Or I, until I have had speech of the man in the moon?" inquired the sixth.
+
+"I," said the seventh, "have neither mother nor sister, friends nor
+enemies, neither doth my zeal for science equal that of my fellows. But I
+have all the greater respect for my own skin; yea, the same is exceedingly
+precious in my sight."
+
+"The conclusion of the whole matter, then," summed up the sage, "is that
+not one of you will make a venture for the cup of immortality?"
+
+The young men remained silent and abashed, unwilling to acknowledge the
+justice of their master's taunt, and unable to deny it. They sought for
+some middle path, which did not readily present itself.
+
+"May we not," said one at last, "may we not cast lots, and each take a
+phial in succession, as destiny may appoint?"
+
+"I have nothing against this," replied Aboniel, "only remember that the
+least endeavour to contravene the conditions by amending the chance of any
+one of you, will ensure the discomfiture of all."
+
+The disciples speedily procured seven quills of unequal lengths, and
+proceeded to draw them in  the usual manner. The shortest remained in the
+hand of the holder, he who had pleaded his filial duty to his mother.
+
+He approached the table with much resolution, and his hand advanced half
+the distance without impediment. Then, turning to the holder of the second
+quill; the man with the sister, he said abruptly:
+
+"The relation between mother and son is notoriously more sacred and
+intimate than that which obtains between brethren. Were it not therefore
+fitting that thou shouldst encounter the first risk in my stead?"
+
+"The relationship between an aged mother and an adult son," responded the
+youth addressed, in a sententious tone, "albeit most holy, cannot in the
+nature of things be durable, seeing that it must shortly be dissolved by
+death. Whereas the relationship between brother and sister may endure for
+many years, if such be the will of Allah. It is therefore proper that thou
+shouldst first venture the experiment."
+
+"Have I lived to hear such sophistry from a pupil of the wise Aboniel!"
+exclaimed the first speaker, in generous indignation. "The maternal
+relationship--"
+
+"A truce to this trifling," cried the other six; "fulfil the conditions, or
+abandon the task."
+
+Thus urged, the scholar approached his hand to the table, and seized one of
+the phials. Scarcely, however, had he done so, when he fancied that he
+detected something of a sinister colour in the liquid, which distinguished
+it, in his imagination, from the innocent transparency of the rest. He
+hastily replaced it, and laid hold of the next. At  that moment a blaze of
+light burst forth upon them, and, thunderstruck, the seven scholars were
+stretched senseless on the ground.
+
+On regaining their faculties they found themselves at the outside of
+Aboniel's dwelling, stunned by the shock, and humiliated by the part they
+had played. They jointly pledged inviolable secrecy, and returned to their
+homes.
+
+The secret of the seven was kept as well as the secret of seven can be
+expected to be; that is to say, it was not, ere the expiration of seven
+days, known to more than six-sevenths of the inhabitants of Balkh. The last
+of these to become acquainted  with it was the Sultan, who immediately
+despatched his guards to apprehend the sage, and confiscate the Elixir.
+Failing to obtain admission at Aboniel's portal, they broke it open, and,
+on entering his chamber, found him in a condition which more eloquently
+than any profession bespoke his disdain for the life-bestowing draught. He
+was dead in his chair. Before him, on the table, stood the seven phials,
+six full as previously, the seventh empty. In his hand was a scroll
+inscribed as follows:
+
+"Six times twice six years have I striven after knowledge, and I now
+bequeath to the world the fruit of my toil, being six poisons. One more
+deadly I might have added, but I have refrained, "Write upon my tomb, that
+here he lies who forbore to perpetuate human affliction, and bestowed a
+fatal boon where alone it could be innoxious."
+
+The intruders looked at each other, striving to penetrate the sense of
+Aboniel's last words. While yet they gazed, they were startled by a  loud
+crash from an adjacent closet, and were even more discomposed as a large
+monkey bounded forth, whose sleek coat, exuberant playfulness, and
+preternatural agility convinced all that the deceased philosopher, under an
+inspiration of supreme irony, had administered to the creature every drop
+of the Elixir of Life.
+
+
+
+
+THE POET OF PANOPOLIS
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Although in a manner retired from the world during the fifth and sixth
+Christian centuries, the banished Gods did not neglect to keep an eye on
+human affairs, interesting themselves in any movement which might seem to
+afford them a chance of regaining their lost supremacy, or in any person
+whose conduct evinced regret at their dethronement. They deeply sympathised
+with the efforts of their votary Pamprepius to turn the revolt of Illus to
+their advantage, and excused the low magical arts to which he stooped as a
+necessary concession to the spirit of a barbarous age. They ministered
+invisibly to Damascius and his companions on their flight into Persia,
+alleviating the hardships under which the frames of the veteran
+philosophers might otherwise have sunk. It was not, indeed, until the
+burning of the Alexandrian library that they lost all heart and lapsed into
+the chrysalis-like condition in which they remained until tempted forth by
+the young sunshine of the Renaissance.
+
+Such a phenomenon for the fifth century as the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of
+Panopolis could not fail to excite their most lively interest. Forty-eight
+books of verse on the exploits of Bacchus in the age of pugnacious prelates
+and filthy coenobites, of imbecile rulers and rampant robbers, of the
+threatened dissolution of every tie, legal, social, or political; an age of
+earthquake, war, and famine! Bacchus, who is known from Aristophanes not to
+have excelled in criticism, protested that his laureate was greater than
+Homer; and, though Homer could not go quite so far as this, he graciously
+conceded that if he had himself been an Egyptian of the fifth century, with
+a faint glimmering of the poetical art, and encumbered with more learning
+than he knew how to use, he might have written almost as badly as his
+modern representative. More impartial critics judged Nonnus's achievement
+more favourably, and all agreed that his steadfastness in the faith
+deserved some special mark of distinction. The Muses under Pallas's
+direction (being themselves a little awkward in female accomplishments)
+embroidered him a robe; Hermes made a lyre, and Hephaestus forged a
+plectrum. Apollo added a chaplet of laurel, and Bacchus one of ivy. Whether
+from distrust of Hermes' integrity, or wishing to make the personal
+acquaintance of his follower, Phoebus volunteered to convey the testimonial
+in person, and accordingly took his departure for the Egyptian Thebaid.
+
+As Apollo fared through the sandy and rugged wilderness under the blazing
+sun of an African summer afternoon, he observed with surprise a vast crowd
+of strange figures swarming about the mouth of a cavern like bees
+clustering at the entrance to a hive. On a nearer approach he identified
+them as a posse of demons besetting a  hermit. Words cannot describe the
+enormous variety of whatever the universe holds of most heterogeneous.
+Naked women of surpassing loveliness displayed their charms to the
+anchorite's gaze, sturdy porters bent beneath loads of gold which they
+heaped at his feet, other shapes not alien from humanity allured his
+appetite with costly dishes or cooling drinks, or smote at him with swords,
+or made feints at his eyes with spears, or burned sulphur under his nose,
+or displayed before him scrolls of poetry or learning, or shrieked
+blasphemies in his ears, or surveyed him from a little distance with
+glances of leering affection; while a motley crowd of goblins, wearing the
+heads of boars or lions, or whisking the tails of dragons, winged, or
+hoofed, or scaled, or feathered, or all at once, incessantly jostled and
+wrangled with each other and their betters, mopping and mowing, grunting
+and grinning, snapping, snarling, constantly running away and returning
+like gnats dancing over a marsh. The holy man sat doggedly at the entrance
+of his cavern, with an expression of fathomless stupidity, which seemed to
+defy all the fiends of the Thebaid to get an idea into his head, or make
+him vary his attitude by a single inch.
+
+"These people did not exist in our time," said Apollo aloud, "or at least
+they knew their place, and behaved themselves."
+
+"Sir," said a comparatively grave and respectable demon, addressing the
+stranger, "I should wish your peregrinity to understand that these imps are
+mere schoolboys--my pupils, in fact. When their education has made further
+progress they will be more mannerly, and will comprehend  the folly of
+pestering an unintellectual old gentleman like this worthy Pachymius with
+beauty for which he has no eyes, and gold for which he has no use, and
+dainties for which he has no palate, and learning for which he has no head.
+But _I'll_ wake him up!" And waving his pupils away, the paedagogic fiend
+placed himself at the anchorite's ear, and shouted into it--
+
+"Nonnus is to be Bishop of Panopolis!"
+
+The hermit's features were instantly animated by an expression of envy and
+hatred.
+
+"Nonnus!" he exclaimed, "the heathen poet, to have the see of Panopolis, of
+which _I_ was promised the reversion!"
+
+"My dear sir," suggested Apollo, "it is all very well to enliven the
+reverend eremite; but don't you think it is rather a liberty to make such
+jokes at the expense of my good friend Nonnus?"
+
+"There is no liberty," said the demon, "for there is no joke. Recanted on
+Monday. Baptized yesterday. Ordained to-day. To be consecrated to-morrow."
+
+The anchorite poured forth a torrent of the choicest ecclesiastical curses,
+until he became speechless from exhaustion, and Apollo, profiting by the
+opportunity, addressed the demon:
+
+"Would it be an unpardonable breach of politeness, respected sir, if I
+ventured to hint that the illusions your pupils have been trying to impose
+upon this venerable man have in some small measure impaired the confidence
+with which I was originally inspired by your advantageous personal
+appearance?"
+
+"Not in the least," replied the demon, "especially as I can easily make my
+words good. If  you and Pachymius will mount my back I will transport you
+to Panopolis, where you can verify my assertion for yourselves."
+
+The Deity and the anchorite promptly consented, and seated themselves on
+the demon's shoulders. The shadow of the fiend's expanded wings fell black
+and vast on the fiery sand, but diminished and became invisible as he
+soared to a prodigious height, to escape observation from below. By-and-by
+the sun's glowing ball touched earth at the extremity of the horizon; it
+disappeared, the fires of sunset burned low in the west, and the figures of
+the demon and his freight showed like a black dot against a lake of green
+sky, growing larger as he cautiously stooped to earth. Grazing temples,
+skimming pyramids, the party came to ground in the precincts of Panopolis,
+just in time to avoid the rising moon that would have betrayed them. The
+demon immediately disappeared. Apollo hastened off to demand an explanation
+from Nonnus, while Pachymius repaired to a neighbouring convent, peopled,
+as he knew, by a legion of sturdy monks, ever ready to smite and be smitten
+in the cause of orthodoxy.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Nonnus sat in his study, wrinkling his brow as he polished his verses by
+the light of a small lamp. A large scroll lay open on his knees, the
+contents of which seemed to afford him little satisfaction. Forty-eight
+more scrolls, resplendent with silver knobs and coquettishly tied with
+purple cord,  reposed in an adjoining book-case; the forty-eight books,
+manifestly, of the Panopolitan bard's Dionysiaca. Homer, Euripides, and
+other poets lay on the floor, having apparently been hurriedly dislodged to
+make room for divers liturgies and lives of the saints. A set of episcopal
+robes depended from a hook, and on a side table stood half-a-dozen mitres,
+which, to all appearance, the designated prelate had been trying on.
+
+"Nonnus," said Phoebus, passing noiselessly through the unresisting wall,
+"the tale of thy apostasy is then true?"
+
+It would be difficult to determine whether surprise, delight, or dismay
+preponderated in Nonnus's expression as he lifted up his eyes and
+recognised the God of Poetry. He had just presence of mind to shuffle his
+scroll under an enormous dictionary ere he fell at Apollo's feet.
+
+"O Phoebus," he exclaimed, "hadst thou come a week ago!"
+
+"It is true, then?" said Apollo. "Thou forsakest me and the Muses. Thou
+sidest with them who have broken our statues, unroofed our temples,
+desecrated our altars, and banished us from among mankind. Thou rejectest
+the glory of standing alone in a barbarous age as the last witness to
+culture and civilisation. Thou despisest the gifts of the Gods and the
+Muses, of which I am even now the bearer. Thou preferrest the mitre to the
+laurel chaplet, and the hymns of Gregory to the epics of Homer?"
+
+"O Phoebus," replied Nonnus, "were it any God but thou, I should bend
+before him in silence, having nought to reply. But thou art a poet, and
+thou understandest the temper of a poet.  Thou knowest how beyond other men
+he is devoured by the craving for sympathy. This and not vulgar vanity is
+his motive of action; his shaft is launched in vain unless he can deem it
+embedded in the heart of a friend. Thou mayest well judge what scoffings
+and revilings my Dionysiac epic has brought upon me in this evil age; yet,
+had this been all, peradventure I might have borne it. But it was not all.
+The gentle, the good, the affectionate, they who in happier times would
+have been my audience, came about me, saying, Nonnus, why sing the strains
+against which we must shut our ears? Sing what we may listen to, and we
+will love and honour thee. I could not bear the thought of going to my
+grave without having awakened an echo of sympathy, and weakly but not
+basely I have yielded, given them what they craved, and suffered them,
+since the Muses' garland is not theirs to bestow, to reward me with a
+mitre."
+
+"And what demanded they?" asked Apollo.
+
+"Oh, a mere romance! Something entirely fabulous."
+
+"I must see it," persisted Apollo; and Nonnus reluctantly disinterred his
+scroll from under the big dictionary, and handed it up, trembling like a
+schoolboy who anticipates a castigation for a bad exercise.
+
+"What trash have we here?" cried Phoebus--
+
+  [Greek: "Achronos aen, akichaetos, en arraetoos Logos archae,]
+  [Greek: 'Isophuaes Genetaeros omaelikos Tios amaetoor,]
+  [Greek: Kai Logos antophygoio Theou, phoos, ek phaeos phoos.]
+
+"If it isn't the beginning of the Gospel of John! Thy impiety is worse than
+thy poetry!"
+
+Apollo cast the scroll indignantly to the ground. His countenance wore an
+expression so similar to that with which he is represented in act to smite
+the Python, that Nonnus judged it prudent to catch up his manuscript and
+hold it shield-wise before his face.
+
+"Thou doest well," said Apollo, laughing bitterly; "that rampart is indeed
+impenetrable to my arrows."
+
+Nonnus seemed about to fall prostrate, when a sharp rap came to the door.
+
+"That is the Governor's knock," he exclaimed. "Do not forsake me utterly, O
+Phoebus!" But as he turned to open the door, Apollo vanished. The Governor
+entered, a sagacious, good-humoured-looking man in middle life.
+
+"Who was with thee just now?" he asked. "Methought I heard voices."
+
+"Merely the Muse," explained Nonnus, "with whom I am wont to hold nocturnal
+communings."
+
+"Indeed!" replied the Governor. "Then the Muse has done well to take
+herself off, and will do even better not to return. Bishops must have no
+flirtations with Muses, heavenly or earthly--not that I am now altogether
+certain that thou _wilt_ be a bishop."
+
+"How so?" asked Nonnus, not without a feeling of relief.
+
+"Imagine, my dear friend," returned the Governor, "who should turn up this
+evening but that sordid anchorite Pachymius, to whom the see was promised
+indeed, but who was reported to have been devoured by vermin in the desert.
+The rumour seemed so highly plausible that it must be feared that
+sufficient pains were not taken to  verify it--cannot have been, in fact;
+for, as I said, here he comes, having been brought, as he affirms, through
+the air by an angel. Little would it have signified if he had come by
+himself, but he is accompanied by three hundred monks carrying cudgels, who
+threaten an insurrection if he is not consecrated on the spot. My friend
+the Archbishop and I are at our wits' end: we have set our hearts on having
+a gentleman over the diocese, but we cannot afford to have tumults reported
+at Constantinople. At last, mainly through the mediation of a sable
+personage whom no one seems to know, but who approves himself most
+intelligent and obliging, the matter is put off till to-morrow, when them
+and Pachymius are to compete for the bishopric in public on conditions not
+yet settled, but which our swarthy friend undertakes to arrange to every
+one's satisfaction. So keep up a good heart, and don't run away in any
+case. I know thou art timid, but remember that there is no safety for thee
+but in victory. If thou yieldest thou wilt be beheaded by me, and if thou
+art defeated thou wilt certainly be burned by Pachymius."
+
+With this incentive to intrepidity the Governor withdrew, leaving the poor
+poet in a pitiable state between remorse and terror. One thing alone
+somewhat comforted him! the mitres had vanished, and the gifts of the Gods
+lay on the table in their place, whence he concluded that a friendly power
+might yet be watching over him.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Next morning all Panopolis was in an uproar. It was generally known that
+the pretensions of the candidates for the episcopate would be decided by
+public competition, and it was rumoured that this would partake of the
+nature of an ordeal by fire and water. Nothing further had transpired
+except that the arrangements had been settled by the Governor and
+Archbishop in concert with two strangers, a dingy Libyan and a handsome
+young Greek, neither of whom was known in the city, but in both of whom the
+authorities seemed to repose entire confidence. At the appointed time the
+people flocked into the theatre, and found the stage already occupied by
+the parties chiefly concerned. The Governor and the Archbishop sat in the
+centre on their tribunals: the competitors stood on each side, Pachymius
+backed by the demon, Nonnus by Apollo; both these supporters, of course,
+appearing to the assembly in the light of ordinary mortals. Nonnus
+recognised Apollo perfectly, but Pachymius's limited powers of intelligence
+seemed entirely engrossed by the discomfort visibly occasioned him by the
+proximity of an enormous brass vessel of water, close to which burned a
+bright fire. Nonnus was also ill at ease, and continually directed his
+attention to a large package, of the contents of which he seemed
+instinctively cognisant.
+
+All being ready, the Governor rose from his seat, and announced that, with
+the sanction of his  Grace the Archbishop, the invidious task of
+determining between the claims of two such highly qualified competitors had
+been delegated to two gentlemen in the enjoyment of his full confidence,
+who would proceed to apply fitting tests to the respective candidates.
+Should one fail and the other succeed, the victor would of course be
+instituted; should both undergo the probation successfully, new criterions
+of merit would be devised; should both fall short, both would be set aside,
+and the disputed mitre would be conferred elsewhere. He would first summon
+Nonnus, long their fellow-citizen, and now their fellow-Christian, to
+submit himself to the test proposed.
+
+Apollo now rose, and proclaimed in an audible voice, "By virtue of the
+authority committed to me I call upon Nonnus of Panopolis, candidate for
+the bishopric of his native city, to demonstrate his fitness for the same
+by consigning to the flames with his own hands the forty-eight execrable
+books of heathen poetry composed by him in the days of his darkness and
+blindness, but now without doubt as detestable to him as to the universal
+body of the faithful." So saying, he made a sign to an attendant, the
+wrapping of the package fell away, and the forty-eight scrolls of the
+Dionysiaca, silver knobs, purple cords, and all, came to view.
+
+"Burn my poem!" exclaimed Nonnus. "Destroy the labours of twenty-four
+years! Bereave Egypt of its Homer! Erase the name of Nonnus from the tablet
+of Time!"
+
+"How so, while thou hast the Paraphrase of St. John?" demanded Apollo
+maliciously.
+
+"Indeed, good youth," said the Governor, who wished to favour Nonnus,
+"methinks the condition  is somewhat exorbitant. A single book might
+suffice, surely!"
+
+"I am quite content," replied Apollo. "If he consents to burn any of his
+books he is no poet, and I wash my hands of him."
+
+"Come, Nonnus," cried the Governor, "make haste; one book will do as well
+as another. Hand them up here."
+
+"It must be with his own hands, please your Excellency," said Apollo.
+
+"Then," cried the Governor, pitching to the poet the first scroll brought
+to him, "the thirteenth book. Who cares about the thirteenth book? Pop it
+in!"
+
+"The thirteenth book!" exclaimed Nonnus, "containing the contest between
+wine and honey, without which my epic becomes totally and entirely
+unintelligible!"
+
+"This, then," said the Governor, picking out another, which chanced to be
+the seventeenth.
+
+"In my seventeenth book," objected Nonnus, "Bacchus plants vines in India,
+and the superiority of wine to milk is convincingly demonstrated."
+
+"Well," rejoined the Governor, "what say you to the twenty-second?"
+
+"With my Hamadryad! I can never give up my Hamadryad!"
+
+"Then," said the Governor, contemptuously hurling the whole set in the
+direction of Nonnus, "burn which you will, only burn!"
+
+The wretched poet sat among his scrolls looking for a victim. All his
+forty-eight children were equally dear to his parental heart. The cries of
+applause and derision from the spectators, and  the formidable bellowings
+of the exasperated monks who surrounded Pachymius, did not tend to steady
+his nerves, or render the task of critical discrimination the easier.
+
+"I won't! I won't!" he exclaimed at last, starting up defiantly. "Let the
+bishopric go to the devil! Any one of my similes is worth all the
+bishoprics in Egypt!"
+
+"Out on the vanity of these poets!" exclaimed the disappointed Governor.
+
+"It is not vanity," said Apollo, "it is paternal affection; and being
+myself a sufferer from the same infirmity, I rejoice to find him my true
+son after all."
+
+"Well," said the Governor, turning to the demon: "it is thy man's turn now.
+Trot him out!"
+
+"Brethren," said the demon to the assembly, "it is meet that he who aspires
+to the office of bishop should be prepared to give evidence of
+extraordinary self-denial. Ye have seen even our weak brother Nonnus
+adoring what he hath burned, albeit as yet unwilling to burn what he hath
+adored. How much more may be reasonably expected of our brother Pachymius,
+so eminent for sanctity! I therefore call upon him to demonstrate his
+humility and self-renunciation, and effectually mortify the natural man, by
+washing himself in this ample vessel provided for the purpose"
+
+"Wash myself!" exclaimed Pacyhmius, with a vivacity of which he had
+previously shown no token. "Destroy at one splash the sanctity of
+fifty-seven years! Avaunt! thou subtle enemy of my salvation! I know thee
+who thou art,  the demon who brought me hither on his back yesterday."
+
+"I thought it had been an angel," said the Governor.
+
+"A demon in the disguise of an angel of light," said Pachymius.
+
+A tumultuous discussion arose among Pachymius's supporters, some extolling
+his fortitude, others blaming his wrongheadedness.
+
+"What!" said he to the latter, "would ye rob me of my reputation? Shall it
+be written of me, The holy Pachymius abode in the precepts of the eremites
+so long as he dwelt in the desert where no water was, but as soon as he
+came within sight of a bath, he stumbled and fell?"
+
+"Oh, father," urged they, "savoureth not this of vaingloriousness? The
+demon in the guise of an angel of light, as thou so well saidest even now.
+Be strong. Quit thyself valiantly. Think of the sufferings of the primitive
+confessors."
+
+"St. John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil," said one.
+
+"St. Apocryphus was actually drowned," said another.
+
+"I have reason to believe," said a third, "that the loathsomeness of
+ablution hath been greatly exaggerated by the heretics."
+
+"I know it has," said another. "I _have_ washed myself once, though ye
+might not think it, and can assert that it is by no means as disagreeable
+as one supposes."
+
+"That is just what I dread," said Pachymius. "Little by little, one might
+positively come to like it! We should resist the beginnings of evil."
+
+All this time the crowd of his supporters had been pressing upon the
+anchorite, and had imperceptibly forced him nearer the edge of the vessel,
+purposing at a convenient season to throw him in. He was now near enough to
+catch a glimpse of the limpid element. Recoiling in horror, he collected
+all his energies, and with head depressed towards his chest, and hands
+thrust forth as if to ward off pollution--butting, kicking, biting the
+air--he rushed forwards, and with a preternatural force deserving to be
+enumerated among his miracles, fairly overthrew the enormous vase, the
+contents streaming on the crowd in front of the stage.
+
+"Take me to my hermitage!" he screamed. "I renounce the bishopric. Take me
+to my hermitage!"
+
+"Amen," responded the demon, and, assuming his proper shape, he took
+Pachymius upon his back and flew away with him amid the cheers of the
+multitude.
+
+Pachymius was speedily deposited at the mouth of his cavern, where he
+received the visits of the neighbouring anchorites, who came to
+congratulate him on the constancy with which he had sustained his fiery, or
+rather watery trial. He spent most of his remaining days in the society of
+the devil, on which account he was canonised at his death.
+
+"O Phoebus," said Nonnus, when they were alone, "impose upon me any penance
+thou wilt, so I may but regain thy favour and that of the Muses. But before
+all things let me destroy my paraphrase."
+
+"Thou shalt not destroy it," said Phoebus,  "Thou shalt publish it. That
+shall be thy penance."
+
+And so it is that the epic on the exploits of Bacchus and the paraphrase of
+St. John's Gospel have alike come down to us as the work of Nonnus, whose
+authorship of both learned men have never been able to deny, having regard
+to the similarity of style, but never could explain until the facts above
+narrated came to light in one of the Fayoum papyri recently acquired by the
+Archduke Rainer.
+
+
+
+
+THE PURPLE HEAD
+
+  Half ignorant, they turned an easy wheel
+  That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+In the heyday of the Emperor Aurelian's greatness, when his strong right
+arm propped Rome up, and hewed Palmyra down, when he surrounded his capital
+with walls fifty miles in circuit, and led Tetricus and Zenobia in triumph
+through its streets, and distributed elephants among the senators, and laid
+Etruria out in vineyards, and contemplated in leisure moments the
+suppression of Christianity as a subordinate detail of administration, a
+mere ripple on the broad ocean of his policy--at this period Bahram the
+First, King of Persia, naturally became disquieted in his mind.
+
+"This upstart soldier of fortune," reflected he, "has an unseemly habit of
+overcoming and leading captive legitimate princes; thus prejudicing Divine
+right in the eyes of the vulgar. The skin of his predecessor Valerian,
+curried and stuffed with straw, hangs to this hour in the temple at
+Ctesiphon, a pleasing spectacle to the immortal gods. How would my own skin
+appear in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus? This must not be. I will send
+an embassy to him, and impress him with my greatness. But how?"
+
+He accordingly convoked his counsellors; the viziers, the warriors, the
+magi, the philosophers; and addressed them thus:
+
+"The king deigns to consult ye touching a difficult matter. I would flatter
+the pride of Rome, without lowering the pride of Persia. I would propitiate
+Aurelian, and at the same time humble him. How shall this be accomplished?"
+
+The viziers, the warriors, and the magi answered not a word. Unbroken
+silence reigned in the assembly, until the turn came to the sage Marcobad,
+who, prostrating himself, said, "O king, live for ever! In ancient times,
+as hath been delivered by our ancestors, Persians were instructed in three
+accomplishments--to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth. Persia
+still rides and shoots; truth-speaking (praised be Ormuzd!) she hath
+discontinued as unbefitting an enlightened nation. Thou needest not,
+therefore, scruple to circumvent Aurelian. Offer him that which thou
+knowest will not be found in his treasury, seeing that it is unique in
+thine own; giving him, at the same time, to understand that it is the
+ordinary produce of thy dominions. So, while rejoicing at the gift, shall
+he be abashed at his inferiority. I refer to the purple robe of her majesty
+the queen, the like of which is not to be found in the whole earth, neither
+do any know where the dye that tinges it is produced, save that it proceeds
+from the uttermost parts of India."
+
+"I approve thy advice," replied Bahram, "and in return will save thy life
+by banishing thee from my dominions. When my august consort shall learn
+that thou hast been the means of depriving her of her robe, she will
+undoubtedly request that  thou mayest be flayed, and thou knowest that I
+can deny her nothing. I therefore counsel thee to depart with all possible
+swiftness. Repair to the regions where the purple is produced, and if thou
+returnest with an adequate supply, I undertake that my royal sceptre shall
+be graciously extended to thee."
+
+The philosopher forsook the royal presence with celerity, and his office of
+chief examiner of court spikenard was bestowed upon another; as also his
+house and his garden, his gold and his silver, his wives and his
+concubines, his camels and his asses, which were numerous.
+
+While the solitary adventurer wended his way eastward, a gorgeous embassy
+travelled westward in the direction of Rome.
+
+Arrived in the presence of Aurelian, and at the conclusion of his
+complimentary harangue, the chief envoy produced a cedar casket, from which
+he drew a purple robe of such surpassing refulgence, that, in the words of
+the historian who has recorded the transaction, the purple of the emperor
+and of the matrons appeared ashy grey in comparison. It was accompanied by
+a letter thus conceived:
+
+"Bahram to Aurelian: health! Receive such purple as we have in Persia."
+
+"Persia, forsooth!" exclaimed Sorianus, a young philosopher versed in
+natural science, "this purple never was in Persia, except as a rarity. Oh,
+the mendacity and vanity of these Orientals!"
+
+The ambassador was beginning an angry reply, when Aurelian quelled the
+dispute with a look, and with some awkwardness delivered himself of a brief
+oration in acknowledgment of the gift. He  took no more notice of the
+matter until nightfall, when he sent for Sorianus, and inquired where the
+purple actually was produced.
+
+"In the uttermost parts of India," returned the philosopher.
+
+"Well," rejoined Aurelian, summing up the matter with his accustomed
+rapidity and clearness of head, "either thou or the Persian king has lied
+to me, it is plain, and, by the favour of the Gods, it is immaterial which,
+seeing that my ground for going to war with him is equally good in either
+case. If he has sought to deceive me, I am right in punishing him; if he
+possesses what I lack, I am justified in taking it away. It would, however,
+be convenient to know which of these grounds to inscribe in my manifesto;
+moreover, I am not ready for hostilities at present; having first to
+extirpate the Blemmyes, Carpi, and other barbarian vermin. I will therefore
+despatch thee to India to ascertain by personal examination the truth about
+the purple. Do not return without it, or I shall cut off thy head. My
+treasury will charge itself with the administration of thy property during
+thy absence. The robe shall meanwhile be deposited in the temple of Jupiter
+Capitolinus. May he have it and thee in his holy keeping!"
+
+Thus, in that age of darkness, were two most eminent philosophers reduced
+to beggary, and constrained to wander in remote and insalubrious regions;
+the one for advising a king, the other for instructing an emperor. But the
+matter did not rest here. For Aurelian, having continued the visible deity
+of half the world for one hundred and fifty days after the departure of
+Sorianus, was  slain by his own generals. To him succeeded Tacitus, who
+sank oppressed by the weight of rule; to him Probus, who perished in a
+military tumult; to him Carus, who was killed by lightning; to him Carinus,
+who was assassinated by one whom he had wronged; to him Diocletian, who,
+having maintained himself for twenty years, wisely forbore to tempt Nemesis
+further, and retired to plant cabbages at Salona. All these sovereigns,
+differing from each other in every other respect, agreed in a common desire
+to possess the purple dye, and when the philosopher returned not,
+successively despatched new emissaries in quest of it. Strange was the
+diversity of fate which befell these envoys. Some fell into the jaws of
+lions, some were crushed by monstrous serpents, some trampled by elephants
+at the command of native princes, some perished of hunger, and some of
+thirst; some, encountering smooth-browed and dark-tressed girls wreathing
+their hair with the champak blossom or bathing by moonlight in
+lotus-mantled tanks, forsook their quest, and led thenceforth idyllic lives
+in groves of banian and of palm. Some became enamoured of the principles of
+the Gymnosophists, some couched themselves for uneasy slumber upon beds of
+spikes, weening to wake in the twenty-second heaven. All which romantic
+variety of fortune was the work of a diminutive insect that crawled or
+clung heedless of the purple it was weaving into the many-coloured web of
+human life.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Some thirty years after the departure of the Persian embassy to Aurelian,
+two travellers met at the bottom of a dell in trans-Gangetic India, having
+descended the hill-brow by opposite paths. It was early morning; the sun
+had not yet surmounted the timbered and tangled sides of the little valley,
+so that the bottom still lay steeped in shadow, and glittering with large
+pearls of limpid dew, while the oval space of sky circumscribed by the
+summit glowed with the delicate splendour of the purest sapphire. Songs of
+birds resounded through the brake, and the water lilies which veiled the
+rivulet trickling through the depths of the retreat were unexpanded still.
+One of the wayfarers was aged, the other a man of the latest period of
+middle life. Their raiment was scanty and soiled; their frames and
+countenances alike bespoke fatigue and hardship; but while the elder one
+moved with moderate alacrity, the other shuffled painfully along by the
+help of a staff, shrinking every time that he placed either of his feet on
+the ground.
+
+They exchanged looks and greetings as they encountered, and the more active
+of the two, whose face was set in an easterly direction, ventured a
+compassionate allusion to the other's apparent distress.
+
+'I but suffer from the usual effects of crucifixion,' returned the other;
+and removing his sandals, displayed two wounds, completely penetrating each
+foot.
+
+The Cross had not yet announced victory to Constantine, and was as yet no
+passport to respectable society. The first traveller drew back hastily, and
+regarded his companion with surprise and suspicion.
+
+"I see what is passing in thy mind," resumed the latter, with a smile; "but
+be under no apprehension. I have not undergone the censure of any judicial
+tribunal. My crucifixion was merely a painful but necessary incident in my
+laudable enterprise of obtaining the marvellous purple dye, to which end I
+was despatched unto these regions by the Emperor Aurelian."
+
+"The purple dye!" exclaimed the Persian, for it was he. "Thou hast obtained
+it?"
+
+"I have. It is the product of insects found only in a certain valley
+eastward from hence, to obtain access to which it is before all things
+needful to elude the vigilance of seven dragons."
+
+"Thou didst elude them? and afterwards?" inquired Marcobad, with eagerness.
+
+"Afterwards," repeated Sorianus, "I made my way into the valley, where I
+descried the remains of my immediate predecessor prefixed to a cross."
+
+"Thy predecessor?"
+
+"He who had last made the attempt before me. Upon any one's penetrating the
+Valley of Purple, as it is termed, with the design I have indicated, the
+inhabitants, observant of the precepts of their ancestors, append him to a
+cross by the feet only, confining his arms by ropes at the shoulders, and
+setting vessels of cooling drink within his grasp. If, overcome with
+thirst, he partakes of the beverage, they leave him to expire at leisure;
+if he endures for three days, he is permitted to depart  with the object of
+his quest. My predecessor, belonging, as I conjecture, to the Epicurean
+persuasion, and consequently unable to resist the allurements of sense, had
+perished in the manner aforesaid. I, a Stoic, refrained and attained."
+
+"Thou didst bear away the tincture? thou hast it now?" impetuously
+interrogated the Persian.
+
+"Behold it!" replied the Greek, exhibiting a small flask filled with the
+most gorgeous purple liquid. "What seest thou here?" demanded he
+triumphantly, holding it up to the light. "To me this vial displays the
+University of Athens, and throngs of fair youths hearkening to the
+discourse of one who resembles myself."
+
+"To my vision," responded the Persian, peering at the vial, "it rather
+reveals a palace, and a dress of honour. But suffer me to contemplate it
+more closely, for my eyes have waxed dim by over application to study."
+
+So saying, he snatched the flask from Sorianus, and immediately turned to
+fly. The Greek sprang after his treasure, and failing to grasp Marcobad's
+wrist, seized his beard, plucking the hair out by handfuls. The infuriated
+Persian smote him on the head with the crystal flagon. It burst into
+shivers, and the priceless contents gushed forth in a torrent over the
+uncovered head and uplifted visage of Sorianus, bathing every hair and
+feature with the most vivid purple.
+
+The aghast and thunderstricken philosophers remained gazing at each other
+for a moment.
+
+"It is indelible!" cried Sorianus in distraction, rushing down, however, to
+the brink of the little stream, and plunging his head beneath the waters.
+They carried away a cloud of purple, but left the purple head stained as
+before.
+
+The philosopher, as he upraised his glowing and dripping countenance from
+the brook, resembled Silenus emerging from one of the rivers which Bacchus
+metamorphosed into wine during his campaign in India. He resorted to
+attrition and contrition, to maceration and laceration; he tried friction
+with leaves, with grass, with sedge, with his garments; he regarded himself
+in one crystal pool after another, a grotesque anti-Narcissus. At last he
+flung himself on the earth, and gave free course to his anguish.
+
+The grace of repentance is rarely denied us when our misdeeds have proved
+unprofitable. Marcobad awkwardly approached.
+
+"Brother," he whispered, "I will restore the tincture of which I have
+deprived thee, and add thereto an antidote, if such may be found. Await my
+return under this camphor tree."
+
+So saying, he hastened up the path by which Sorianus had descended, and was
+speedily out of sight.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Sorianus tarried long under the camphor tree, but at last, becoming weary,
+resumed his travels, until emerging from the wilderness he entered the
+dominions of the King of Ayodhya. His extraordinary appearance speedily
+attracted the attention of the royal officers, by whom he was apprehended
+and brought before his majesty.
+
+"It is evident," pronounced the monarch, after  bestowing his attention on
+the case, "that thou art in possession of an object too rare and precious
+for a private individual, of which thou must accordingly be deprived. I
+lament the inconvenience thou wilt sustain. I would it had been thy hand or
+thy foot."
+
+Sorianus acknowledged the royal considerateness, but pleaded the
+indefeasible right of property which he conceived himself to have acquired
+in his own head.
+
+"In respect," responded the royal logician, "that thy head is conjoined to
+thy shoulders, it is thine; but in respect that it is purple, it is mine,
+purple being a royal monopoly. Thy claim is founded on anatomy, mine on
+jurisprudence. Shall matter prevail over mind? Shall medicine, the most
+uncertain of sciences, override law, the perfection of human reason? It is
+but to the vulgar observation that thou appearest to have a head at all; in
+the eye of the law thou art acephalous."
+
+"I would submit," urged the philosopher, "that the corporal connection of
+my head with my body is an essential property, the colour of it a
+fortuitous accident."
+
+"Thou mightest as well contend," returned the king, "that the law is bound
+to regard thee in thy abstract condition as a human being, and is disabled
+from taking cognisance of thy acquired capacity of smuggler--rebel, I
+might say, seeing that thou hast assumed the purple."
+
+"But the imputation of cruelty which might attach to your majesty's
+proceedings?"
+
+"There can be no cruelty where there is no injustice. If any there be, it
+must be on thy  part, since, as I have demonstrated, so far from my
+despoiling thee of thy head, it is thou who iniquitously withholdest mine.
+I will labour to render this even clearer to thy apprehension. Thou art
+found, as thou must needs admit, in possession of a contraband article
+forfeit to the crown by operation of law. What then? Shall the intention of
+the legislature be frustrated because thou hast insidiously rendered the
+possession of _my_ property inseparable from the possession of _thine_?
+Shall I, an innocent proprietor, be mulcted of my right by thy fraud and
+covin? Justice howls, righteousness weeps, integrity stands aghast at the
+bare notion. No, friend, thy head has not a leg to stand on. Wouldst thou
+retain it, it behoves thee to show that it will be more serviceable to the
+owner, namely, myself, upon thy shoulders than elsewhere. This may well be.
+Hast thou peradventure any subtleties in perfumery? any secrets in
+confectionery? any skill in the preparation of soup?"
+
+"I have condescended to none of these frivolities, O king. My study hath
+ever consisted in divine philosophy, whereby men are rendered equal to the
+gods."
+
+"And yet long most of all for purple!" retorted the monarch, "as I conclude
+from perceiving thou hast after all preferred the latter. Thy head must
+indeed be worth the taking."
+
+"Thy taunt is merited, O king! I will importune thee no longer. Thou wilt
+indeed render me a service in depriving me of this wretched head, hideous
+without, and I must fear, empty within, seeing that it hath not prevented
+me from wasting my life in the service of vanity and luxury. Woe  to the
+sage who trusts his infirm wisdom and frail integrity within the precincts
+of a court! Yet can I foretell a time when philosophers shall no longer run
+on the futile and selfish errands of kings, and when kings shall be
+suffered to rule only so far as they obey the bidding of philosophers.
+Peace, Knowledge, Liberty--"
+
+The King of Ayodhya possessed, beyond all princes of his age, the art of
+gracefully interrupting an unseasonable discourse. He slightly signed to a
+courtier in attendance, a scimitar flashed for a moment from its scabbard,
+and the head of Sorianus rolled on the pavement; the lips murmuring as
+though still striving to dwell with inarticulate fondness upon the last
+word of hope for mankind.
+
+It soon appeared that the principle of life was essential to the
+resplendence of the Purple Head. Within a few minutes it had assumed so
+ghastly a hue that the Rajah himself was intimidated, and directed that it
+should be consumed with the body.
+
+The same full-moon that watched the white-robed throng busied with the
+rites of incremation in a grove of palms, beheld also the seven dragons
+contending for the body of Marcobad. But, for many a year, the maids and
+matrons of Rome were not weary of regarding, extolling, and coveting the
+priceless purple tissue that glowed in the fane of Jupiter Capitolinus.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIREFLY
+
+
+A certain Magician had retired for the sake of study to a cottage in a
+forest. It was summer in a hot country. In the trees near the cottage dwelt
+a most beautiful Firefly. The light she bore with her was dazzling, yet
+soft and palpitating, as the evening star, and she seemed a single flash of
+fire as she shot in and out suddenly from under the screen of foliage, or
+like a lamp as she perched panting upon some leaf, or hung glowing from
+some bough; or like a wandering meteor as she eddied gleaming over the
+summits of the loftiest trees; as she often did, for she was an ambitious
+Firefly. She learned to know the Magician, and would sometimes alight and
+sit shining in his hair, or trail her lustre across his book as she crept
+over the pages. The Magician admired her above all things:
+
+"What eyes she would have if she were a woman!" thought he.
+
+Once he said aloud, "How happy you must be, you rare, beautiful, brilliant
+creature!"
+
+"I am not happy," rejoined the Firefly; "what am I, after all, but a flying
+beetle with a candle in my tail? I wish I were a star."
+
+"Very well," said the Magician, and touched her with his wand, when she
+became a beautiful star in the twelfth degree of the sign Pisces.
+
+After some nights the Magician asked her if she was content.
+
+"I am not," replied she. "When I was a Firefly I could fly whither I would,
+and come and go as I pleased. Now I must rise and set at certain times, and
+shine just so long and no longer. I cannot fly at all, and only creep
+slowly across the sky. In the day I cannot shine, or if I do no one sees
+me. I am often darkened by rain, and mist, and cloud. Even when I shine my
+brightest I am less admired than when I was a Firefly, there are so many
+others like me. I see, indeed, people looking up from the earth by night
+towards me, but how do I know that they are looking at me?"
+
+"The laws of nature will have it so," returned the Magician.
+
+"Don't talk to me of the laws of Nature," rejoined the Firefly. "I did not
+make them, and I don't see why I should be compelled to obey them. Make me
+something else."
+
+"What would you be?" demanded the accommodating Magician.
+
+"As I creep along here," replied the Star, "I see such a soft pure track of
+light. It proceeds from the lamp in your study. It flows out of your window
+like a river of molten silver, both cool and warm. Let me be such a lamp."
+
+"Be it so," answered the Magician: and the star became a lovely alabaster
+lamp, set in an alcove in his study. Her chaste radiance was shed over his
+page as long as he continued to read. At a certain hour he extinguished her
+and retired to rest.
+
+Next morning the Lamp was in a terrible humour.
+
+"I don't choose to be blown out," she said.
+
+"You would have gone out of your own accord else," returned the Magician.
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Lamp, "am I not shining by my own light?"
+
+"Certainly not: you are not now a Firefly or a Star. You must now depend
+upon others. You would be dark for ever if I did not rekindle you by the
+help of this oil."
+
+"What!" cried the Lamp, "not shine of my own accord! Never! Make me an
+everlasting lamp, or I will not be one at all."
+
+"Alas, poor friend," returned the Magician sadly, "there is but one place
+where aught is everlasting. I can make thee a lamp of the sepulchre."
+
+"Content," responded the Lamp. And the Magician made her one of those
+strange occult lamps which men find ever and anon when they unseal the
+tombs of ancient kings and wizards, sustaining without nutriment a
+perpetual flame. And he bore her to a sepulchre where a great king was
+lying embalmed and perfect in his golden raiment, and set her at the head
+of the corpse. And whether the poor fitful Firefly found at last rest in
+the grave, we may know when we come thither ourselves. But the Magician
+closed the gates of the sepulchre behind him, and walked thoughtfully home.
+And as he approached his cottage, behold another Firefly darting and
+flashing in and out among the trees, as brilliantly as ever the first had
+done. She was a wise Firefly, well satisfied with the world and everything
+in it, more particularly her own tail. And if the Magician would have made
+a pet of her no doubt she would have abode with him. But he never looked at
+her.
+
+
+
+
+PAN'S WAND
+
+
+Iridion had broken her lily. A misfortune for any rustic nymph, but
+especially for her, since her life depended upon it.
+
+From her birth the fate of Iridion had been associated with that of a
+flower of unusual loveliness--a stately, candid lily, endowed with a
+charmed life, like its possessor. The seasons came and went without leaving
+a trace upon it; innocence and beauty seemed as enduring with it, as
+evanescent with the children of men. In equal though dissimilar loveliness
+its frolicsome young mistress nourished by its side. One thing alone, the
+oracle had declared, could prejudice either, and this was an accident to
+the flower. From such disaster it had long been shielded by the most
+delicate care; yet in the inscrutable counsels of the Gods, the dreaded
+calamity had at length come to pass. Broken through the upper part of the
+stem, the listless flower drooped its petals towards the earth, and seemed
+to mourn their chastity, already sullied by the wan flaccidity of decay.
+Not one had fallen as yet, and Iridion felt no pain or any symptom of
+approaching dissolution, except, it may be, the unwonted seriousness with
+which, having exhausted all her simple skill on behalf of the languishing
+plant, she sat down to consider its fate in the light of its bearing upon
+her own.
+
+Meditation upon an utterly vague subject, whether of apprehension or of
+hope, speedily lapses into reverie. To Iridion, Death was as indefinable an
+object of thought as the twin omnipotent controller of human destiny, Love.
+Love, like the immature fruit on the bough, hung unsoliciting and
+unsolicited as yet, but slowly ripening to the maiden's hand. Death, a
+vague film in an illimitable sky, tempered without obscuring the sunshine
+of her life. Confronted with it suddenly, she found it, in truth, an
+impalpable cloud, and herself as little competent as the gravest
+philosopher to answer the self-suggested inquiry, "What shall I be when I
+am no longer Iridion?" Superstition might have helped her to some definite
+conceptions, but superstition did not exist in her time. Judge, reader, of
+its remoteness.
+
+The maiden's reverie might have terminated only with her existence, but for
+the salutary law which prohibits a young girl, not in love or at school,
+from sitting still more than ten minutes. As she shifted her seat at the
+expiration of something like this period, she perceived that she had been
+sitting on a goatskin, and with a natural association of ideas--
+
+"I will ask Pan," she exclaimed.
+
+Pan at that time inhabited a cavern hard by the maiden's dwelling, which
+the judicious reader will have divined could only have been situated in
+Arcadia. The honest god was on excellent terms with the simple people; his
+goats browsed freely along with theirs, and the most melodious of the
+rustic minstrels attributed their proficiency to his instructions. The
+maidens were on a more reserved footing of intimacy--at least so they
+wished  it to be understood, and so it was understood, of course. Iridion,
+however, decided that the occasion would warrant her incurring the risk
+even of a kiss, and lost no time in setting forth upon her errand, carrying
+her poor broken flower in its earthen vase. It was the time of day when the
+god might be supposed to be arousing himself from his afternoon's siesta.
+She did not fear that his door would be closed against her, for he had no
+door.
+
+The sylvan deity stood, in fact, at the entrance of his cavern, about to
+proceed in quest of his goats. The appearance of Iridion operated a change
+in his intention, and he courteously escorted her to a seat of turf erected
+for the special accommodation of his fair visitors, while he placed for
+himself one of stone.
+
+"Pan," she began, "I have broken my lily."
+
+"That is a sad pity, child. If it had been a reed, now, you could have made
+a flute of it."
+
+"I should not have time, Pan," and she recounted her story. A godlike
+nature cannot confound truth with falsehood, though it may mistake
+falsehood for truth. Pan therefore never doubted Iridion's strange
+narrative, and, having heard it to the end, observed, "You will find plenty
+more lilies in Elysium."
+
+"Common lilies, Pan; not like mine."
+
+"You are wrong. The lilies of Elysium--asphodels as they call them
+there--are as immortal as the Elysians themselves. I have seen them in
+Proserpine's hair at Jupiter's entertainment; they were as fresh as she
+was. There is no doubt you might gather them by handfuls--at least if you
+had any hands--and wear them to your heart's content, if you had but a
+heart."
+
+"That's just what perplexes me, Pan. It is not the dying I mind, it's the
+living. How am I to live without anything alive about me? If you take away
+my hands, and my heart, and my brains, and my eyes, and my ears, and above
+all my tongue, what is left me to live in Elysium?"
+
+As the maiden spake a petal detached itself from the emaciated lily, and
+she pressed her hand to her brow with a responsive cry of pain.
+
+"Poor child!" said Pan compassionately, "you will feel no more pain
+by-and-by."
+
+"I suppose not, Pan, since you say so. But if I can feel no pain, how can I
+feel any pleasure?
+
+"In an incomprehensible manner," said Pan.
+
+"How can I feel, if I have no feeling? and what am I to do without it?"
+
+"You can think!" replied Pan. "Thinking (not that I am greatly given to it
+myself) is a much finer thing than feeling; no right-minded person doubts
+that. Feeling, as I have heard Minerva say, is a property of matter, and
+matter, except, of course, that appertaining to myself and the other happy
+gods, is vile and perishable--quite immaterial, in fact. Thought alone is
+transcendent, incorruptible, and undying!"
+
+"But, Pan, how can any one think thoughts without something to think them
+with? I never thought of anything that I have not seen, or touched, or
+smelt, or tasted, or heard about from some one else. If I think with
+nothing, and about nothing, is that thinking, do you think?"
+
+"I think," answered Pan evasively, "that you are a sensationalist, a
+materialist, a sceptic, a revolutionist; and if you had not sought the
+assistance of a god, I should have said not much  better than an atheist. I
+also think it is time I thought about some physic for you instead of
+metaphysics, which are bad for my head, and for your soul." Saying this,
+Pan, with rough tenderness, deposited the almost fainting maiden upon a
+couch of fern, and, having supported her head with a bundle of herbs,
+leaned his own upon his hand, and reflected with all his might. The
+declining sun was now nearly opposite the cavern's mouth, and his rays,
+straggling through the creepers that wove their intricacies over the
+entrance, chequered with lustrous patches the forms of the dying girl and
+the meditating god. Ever and anon, a petal would drop from the flower; this
+was always succeeded by a shuddering tremor throughout Iridion's frame and
+a more forlorn expression on her pallid countenance: while Pan's jovial
+features assumed an expression of deeper concern as he pressed his knotty
+hand more resolutely against his shaggy forehead, and wrung his dexter horn
+with a more determined grasp, as though he had caught a burrowing idea by
+the tail.
+
+"Aha!" he suddenly exclaimed, "I have it!"
+
+"What have you, Pan?" faintly lisped the expiring Iridion.
+
+Instead of replying, Pan grasped a wand that leaned against the wall of his
+grot, and with it touched the maiden and the flower. O strange
+metamorphosis! Where the latter had been pining in its vase, a lovely girl,
+the image of Iridion, lay along the ground with dishevelled hair, clammy
+brow, and features slightly distorted by the last struggles of death. On
+the ferny couch stood an earthen vase, from which rose a magnificent  lily,
+stately, with unfractured stem, and with no stain or wrinkle on its
+numerous petals.
+
+"Aha!" repeated Pan; "I think we are ready for him now." Then, having
+lifted the inanimate body to the couch, and placed the vase, with its
+contents, on the floor of his cavern, he stepped to the entrance, and
+shading his eyes with his hand, seemed to gaze abroad in quest of some
+anticipated visitor.
+
+The boughs at the foot of the steep path to the cave divided, and a figure
+appeared at the foot of the rock. The stranger's mien was majestic, but the
+fitness of his proportions diminished his really colossal stature to
+something more nearly the measure of mortality. His form was enveloped in a
+sweeping sad-coloured robe; a light, thin veil resting on his countenance,
+mitigated, without concealing, the not ungentle austerity of his marble
+features. His gait was remarkable; nothing could be more remote from every
+indication of haste, yet such was the actual celerity of his progression,
+that Pan had scarcely beheld him ere he started to find him already at his
+side.
+
+The stranger, without disturbing his veil, seemed to comprehend the whole
+interior of the grotto with a glance; then, with the slightest gesture of
+recognition to Pan, he glided to the couch on which lay the metamorphosed
+lily, upraised the fictitious Iridion in his arms with indescribable
+gentleness, and disappeared with her as swiftly and silently as he had
+come. The discreet Pan struggled with suppressed merriment until the
+stranger was fairly out of hearing, then threw himself back upon his seat
+and laughed till the cave rang.
+
+"And now," he said, "to finish the business." He lifted the transformed
+maiden into the vase, and caressed her beauty with an exulting but careful
+hand. There was a glory and a splendour in the flower such as had never
+until then been beheld in any earthly lily. The stem vibrated, the leaves
+shook in unison, the petals panted and suspired, and seemed blanched with a
+whiteness intense as the core of sunlight, as they throbbed in anticipation
+of the richer existence awaiting them.
+
+Impatient to complete his task, Pan was about to grasp his wand when the
+motion was arrested as the sinking beam of the sun was intercepted by a
+gigantic shadow, and the stranger again stood by his side. The unbidden
+guest uttered no word, but his manner was sufficiently expressive of wrath
+as he disdainfully cast on the ground a broken, withered lily, the relic of
+what had bloomed with such loveliness in the morning, and had since for a
+brief space been arrayed in the vesture of humanity. He pointed imperiously
+to the gorgeous tenant of the vase, and seemed to expect Pan to deliver it
+forthwith.
+
+"Look here," said Pan, with more decision than dignity, "I am a poor
+country god, but I know the law. If you can find on this plant one speck,
+one stain, one token that you have anything to do with her, take her, and
+welcome. If you cannot, take yourself off instead."
+
+"Be it so," returned the stranger, haughtily declining the proffered
+inspection. "You will find it is ill joking with Death."
+
+So saying, he quitted the cavern.
+
+Pan sat down chuckling, yet not wholly at ease, for if the charity of Death
+is beautiful even to a  mortal, his anger is terrible, even to a god.
+Anxious to terminate the adventure, he reached towards the charmed wand by
+whose wonderful instrumentality the dying maiden had already become a
+living flower, and was now to undergo a yet more delightful metamorphosis.
+
+Wondrous wand! But where was it? For Death, the great transfigurer of all
+below this lunar sphere, had given Pan a characteristic proof of his
+superior cunning. Where the wand had reposed writhed a ghastly worm, which,
+as Pan's glance fell upon it, glided towards him, uplifting its head with
+an aspect of defiance. Pan's immortal nature sickened at the emblem of
+corruption; he could not for all Olympus have touched his metamorphosed
+treasure. As he shrank back the creature pursued its way towards the vase;
+but a marvellous change befell it as it came under the shadow of the
+flower. The writhing body divided, end from end, the sordid scales sank
+indiscernibly into the dust, and an exquisite butterfly, arising from the
+ground, alighted on the lily, and remained for a moment fanning its wings
+in the last sunbeam, ere it unclosed them to the evening breeze. Pan,
+looking eagerly after the Psyche in its flight, did not perceive what was
+taking place in the cavern; but the magic wand, now for ever lost to its
+possessor, must have cancelled its own spell, for when his gaze reverted
+from the ineffectual pursuit, the living lily had disappeared, and Iridion
+lay a corpse upon the ground, the faded flower of her destiny reposing upon
+her breast.
+
+Death now stood for a third time upon Pan's threshold, but Pan heeded him
+not.
+
+
+
+
+A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF FOLLY
+
+
+  "That owned the virtuous ring and glass."
+[--_Il Penseroso_.]
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+"Aurelia!"
+
+"Otto!"
+
+"Must we then part?"
+
+They were folded in each other's arms. There never was such kissing.
+
+"How shall we henceforth exchange the sweet tokens of our undying
+affection, my Otto?"
+
+"Alas, my Aurelia, I know not! Thy Otto blushes to acquaint thee that he
+cannot write."
+
+"Blush not, my Otto, thou needest not reproach thyself. Even couldest thou
+write, thy Aurelia could not read. Oh these dark ages!"
+
+They remained some minutes gazing on each other with an expression of fond
+perplexity. Suddenly the damsel's features assumed the aspect of one who
+experiences the visitation of a happy thought. Gently yet decidedly she
+pronounced:
+
+"We will exchange rings."
+
+They drew off their rings simultaneously. "This, Aurelia, was my
+grandfather's."
+
+"This, Otto, was my grandmother's, which she charged me with her dying
+breath never to part with save to him whom alone I loved."
+
+"Mine is a brilliant, more radiant than aught save the eyes of my Aurelia."
+
+And, in fact, Aurelia's eyes hardly sustained the comparison. A finer stone
+could not easily be found.
+
+"Mine is a sapphire, azure as the everlasting heavens, and type of a
+constancy enduring as they."
+
+In truth, it was of a tint seldom to be met with in sapphires.
+
+The exchange made, the lady seemed less anxious to detain her lover.
+
+"Beware, Otto!" she cried, as he slid down the cord, which yielded him an
+oscillatory transit from her casement to the moat, where he alighted
+knee-deep in mud. "Beware!--if my brother should be gazing from his
+chamber on the resplendent moon!"
+
+But that ferocious young baron was accustomed to spend his time in a less
+romantic manner; and so it came to pass that Otto encountered him not.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Days, weeks, months had passed by, and Otto, a wanderer in a foreign land,
+had heard no tidings of his Aurelia. Ye who have loved may well conceive
+how her ring was all in all to him. He divided his time pretty equally
+between gazing into its cerulean depths, as though her lovely  image were
+mirrored therein, and pressing its chilly surface to his lips, little as it
+recalled the warmth and balminess of hers.
+
+The burnished glow of gold, the chaste sheen of silver, the dance and
+sparkle of light in multitudinous gems, arrested his attention as he one
+evening perambulated the streets of a great city. He beheld a jeweller's
+shop. The grey-headed, spectacled lapidary sat at a bench within,
+sedulously polishing a streaked pebble by the light of a small lamp. A
+sudden thought struck Otto; he entered the shop, and, presenting the ring
+to the jeweller, inquired in a tone of suppressed exultation:
+
+"What hold you for the worth of this inestimable ring?"
+
+The jeweller, with no expression of surprise or curiosity, received the
+ring from Otto, held it to the light, glanced slightly at the stone,
+somewhat more carefully at the setting, laid the ring for a moment in a
+pair of light scales, and, handing it back to Otto, remarked with a tone
+and manner of the most entire indifference:
+
+"The worth of this inestimable ring is one shilling and sixpence."
+
+"Caitiff of a huckster!" exclaimed Otto, bringing down his fist on the
+bench with such vigour that the pebbles leaped up and fell rattling down:
+"Sayest thou this of a gem framed by genii in the bowels of the earth?"
+
+"Nay, friend," returned the jeweller with the same imperturbable air, "that
+thy gem was framed of earth I in nowise question, seeing that it doth
+principally consist of sand. But when thou speakest of genii and the bowels
+of the earth,  thou wilt not, I hope, take it amiss if I crave better proof
+than thy word that the devil has taken to glass-making. For glass, and
+nothing else, credit me, thy jewel is."
+
+"And the gold?" gasped Otto.
+
+"There is just as much gold in thy ring as sufficeth to gild handsomely a
+like superficies of brass, which is not saying much."
+
+And, applying a sponge dipped in some liquid to a small part of the hoop,
+the jeweller disclosed the dull hue of the baser metal so evidently that
+Otto could hardly doubt longer. He doubted no more when the lapidary laid
+his ring in the scales against another of the same size and make, and
+pointed to the inequality of the balance.
+
+"Thou seest," he continued, "that in our craft a very little gold goes a
+very great way. It is far otherwise in the world, as thou, albeit in no
+sort eminent for sapience, hast doubtless ere this ascertained for thyself.
+Thou art evidently a prodigious fool!"
+
+This latter disparaging observation could be safely ventured upon, as Otto
+had rushed from the shop, speechless with rage.
+
+Was Aurelia deceiver or deceived? Should he execrate her, or her venerable
+grandmother, or some unknown person? The point was too knotty to be solved
+in the agitated state of his feelings. He decided it provisionally by
+execrating the entire human race, not forgetting himself.
+
+In a mood like Otto's a trifling circumstance is sufficient to determine
+the quality of action. The ancient city of which he was at the time an
+inhabitant was traversed by a large river spanned by a quaint and
+many-arched bridge, to which  his frantic and aimless wanderings had
+conducted him. Spires and gables and lengthy facades were reflected in the
+water, blended with the shadows of boats, and interspersed with the
+mirrored flames of innumerable windows on land, or of lanterns suspended
+from the masts or sterns of the vessels. The dancing ripples bickered and
+flickered, and seemed to say, "Come hither to us," while the dark reaches
+of still water in the shadow of the piers promised that whatever might be
+entrusted to them should be faithfully retained. Swayed by a sudden
+impulse, Otto drew his ring from his finger. It gleamed an instant aloft in
+air; in another the relaxation of his grasp would have consigned it to the
+stream.
+
+"Forbear!"
+
+Otto turned, and perceived a singular figure by his side. The stranger was
+tall and thin, and attired in a dusky cloak which only partially concealed
+a flame-coloured jerkin. A cock's feather peaked up in his cap; his eyes
+were piercingly brilliant; his nose was aquiline; the expression of his
+features sinister and sardonic. Had Otto been more observant, or less
+preoccupied, he might have noticed that the stranger's left shoe was of a
+peculiar form, and that he limped some little with the corresponding foot.
+
+"Forbear, I say; thou knowest not what thou doest."
+
+"And what skills what I do with a piece of common glass?"
+
+"Thou errest, friend; thy ring is not common glass. Had thy mistress
+surmised its mystic virtues, she would have thought oftener than twice ere
+exchanging it for thy diamond."
+
+"What may these virtues be?" eagerly demanded Otto.
+
+"In the first place, it will show thee when thy mistress may chance to
+think of thee, as it will then prick thy finger."
+
+"Now I know thee for a lying knave," exclaimed the youth indignantly.
+"Learn, to thy confusion, that it hath not pricked me once since I parted
+from Aurelia."
+
+"Which proves that she has never once thought of thee."
+
+"Villain!" shouted Otto, "say that again, and I will transfix thee."
+
+"Thou mayest if thou canst," rejoined the stranger, with an expression of
+such cutting scorn that Otto's spirit quailed, and he felt a secret but
+overpowering conviction of his interlocutor's veracity. Rallying, however,
+in some measure, he exclaimed:
+
+"Aurelia is true! I will wager my soul upon it!"
+
+"Done!" screamed the stranger in a strident voice of triumph, while a burst
+of diabolical laughter seemed to proceed from every cranny of the eaves and
+piers of the old bridge, and to be taken up by goblin echoes from the
+summits of the adjacent towers and steeples.
+
+Otto's blood ran chill, but he mustered sufficient courage to inquire
+hoarsely:
+
+"What of its further virtues?"
+
+"When it shall have pricked thee," returned the mysterious personage, "on
+turning it once completely round thy finger thou wilt see thy mistress
+wherever she may be. If thou turnest it the second time, thou wilt know
+what her  thought of thee is; and, if the third time, thou wilt find
+thyself in her presence. But I give thee fair warning that by doing this
+thou wilt place thyself in a more disastrous plight than any thou hast
+experienced hitherto. And now farewell."
+
+The speaker disappeared. Otto stood alone upon the bridge. He saw nothing
+around him but the stream, with its shadows and lights, as he slowly and
+thoughtfully turned round to walk to his lodgings.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Ye who have loved, et cetera, as aforesaid, will comprehend the anxiety
+with which Otto henceforth consulted his ring. He was continually adjusting
+it to his finger in a manner, as he fancied, to render the anticipated
+puncture more perceptible when it should come at last. He would have worn
+it on all his fingers in succession had the conformation of his robust hand
+admitted of its being placed on any but the slenderest. Thousands of times
+he could have sworn that he felt the admonitory sting; thousands of times
+he turned the trinket round and round with desperate impatience; but
+Aurelia's form remained as invisible, her thoughts as inscrutable, as
+before. His great dread was that he might be pricked in his sleep, on which
+account he would sit up watching far into the morn. For, as he reasoned,
+not without plausibility, when could he more rationally hope for a place in
+Aurelia's thoughts than at that witching and  suggestive period? She might
+surely think of him when she had nothing else to do! Had she really nothing
+else to do? And Otto grew sick and livid with jealousy. It of course
+frequently occurred to him to doubt and deride the virtues of the ring, and
+he was several times upon the point of flinging it away. But the more he
+pondered upon the appearance and manner of the stranger, the less able he
+felt to resist the conviction of his truthfulness.
+
+At last a most unmistakable puncture! the distinct, though slight, pang of
+a miniature wound. A crimson bead of blood rose on Otto's finger, swelled
+to its due proportion, and became a trickling blot.
+
+"She is thinking of me!" cried he rapturously, as if this were an instance
+of the most signal and unforeseen condescension. All the weary expectancy
+of the last six months was forgotten. He would have railed at himself had
+the bliss of the moment allowed him to remember that he had ever railed at
+her.
+
+Otto turned his ring once, and Aurelia became visible in an instant. She
+was standing before the mercer's booth in the chief street of the little
+town which adjoined her father's castle. Her gaze was riveted on a silk
+mantle, trimmed with costly furs, which depended from a hook inside the
+doorway. Her lovely features wore an expression of extreme dissatisfaction.
+She was replacing a purse, apparently by no means weighty, in her
+embroidered girdle.
+
+Otto turned the ring the second time, and Aurelia's silvery accents
+immediately became audible to the following effect:
+
+"If that fool Otto were here, he would buy it for me."
+
+She turned away, and walked down the street. Otto uttered a cry like the
+shriek of an uprooted mandrake. His hand was upon the ring to turn it for
+the third time; but the stranger's warning occurred to him, and for a
+moment he forbore. In that moment the entire vision vanished from before
+his eyes.
+
+What boots it to describe Otto's feelings upon this revelation of Aurelia's
+sentiments? For lovers, description would be needless; to wiser people,
+incomprehensible. Suffice it to say, that as his lady deemed him a fool he
+appeared bent on proving that she did not deem amiss.
+
+A long space of time elapsed without any further admonition from the ring.
+Perhaps Aurelia had no further occasion for his purse; perhaps she had
+found another pursebearer. The latter view of the case appeared the more
+plausible to Otto, and it hugely aggravated his torments.
+
+At last the moment came. It was the hour of midnight. Again Otto felt the
+sharp puncture, again the ruby drop started from his finger, again he
+turned the ring, and again beheld Aurelia. She was in her chamber, but not
+alone. Her companion was a youth of Otto's age. She was in the act of
+placing Otto's brilliant upon his finger. Otto turned his own ring, and
+heard her utter, with singular distinctness:
+
+"This ring was given me by the greatest fool I ever knew. Little did he
+imagine that it would one day be the means of procuring me liberty, and
+bliss in the arms of my Arnold. My venerable grandmother--"
+
+The voice expired upon her lips, for Otto stood before her.
+
+Arnold precipitated himself from the window, carrying the ring with him.
+Otto, glaring at his faithless mistress, stood in the middle of the
+apartment with his sword unsheathed. Was he about to use it? None can say;
+for at this moment the young Baron burst into the room, and, without the
+slightest apology for the liberty he was taking, passed his sword through
+Otto's body.
+
+Otto groaned, and fell upon his face. He was dead. The young Baron ungently
+reversed the position of the corpse, and scanned its features with evident
+surprise and dissatisfaction.
+
+"It is not Arnold, after all!" he muttered. "Who would have thought it?"
+
+"Thou seest, brother, how unjust were thy suspicions," observed Aurelia,
+with an air of injured but not implacable virtue. "As for this abominable
+ravisher----" Her feelings forbade her to proceed.
+
+The brother looked mystified. There was something beyond his comprehension
+in the affair; yet he could not but acknowledge that Otto was the person
+who had rushed by him as he lay in wait upon the stairs. He finally
+determined that it was best to say nothing about the matter: a resolution
+the easier of performance as he was not wont to be lavish of his words at
+any time. He wiped his sword on his sister's curtains, and was about to
+withdraw, when Aurelia again spoke:
+
+"Ere thou departest, brother, have the goodness to ring the bell, and
+desire the menials to remove this carrion from my apartment."
+
+The young Baron sulkily complied, and retreated growling to his chamber.
+
+The attendants carried Otto's body forth. To the honour of her sex be it
+recorded, that before this was done Aurelia vouchsafed one glance to the
+corpse of her old lover. Her eye fell on the brazen ring. "And he has
+actually worn it all this time!" thought she.
+
+"Would have outraged my daughter, would he?" said the old Baron, when the
+transaction was reported to him. "Let him be buried in a concatenation
+accordingly."
+
+"What the guy dickens be a concatrenation,  Geoffrey?" interrogated Giles.
+
+"Methinks it is Latin for a ditch," responded Geoffrey.
+
+This interpretation commending itself to the general judgment of the
+retainers, Otto was interred in the shelving bank of the old moat, just
+under Aurelia's window. A rough stone was laid upon the grave. The magic
+ring, which no one thought worth appropriating, remained upon the corpse's
+finger. Thou mayest probably find it there, reader, if thou searchest long
+enough.
+
+The first visitor to Otto's humble sepulchre was, after all, Aurelia
+herself, who alighted thereon on the following night after letting herself
+down from her casement to fly with Arnold. Their escape was successfully
+achieved upon a pair of excellent horses, the proceeds of Otto's diamond,
+which had become the property of a Jew.
+
+On the third night an aged monk stood by Otto's grave, and wept
+plentifully. He carried a lantern, a mallet, and a chisel. "He was my
+pupil," sobbed the good old man. "It were  meet to contribute what in me
+lies to the befitting perpetuation of his memory."
+
+Setting down the lantern, he commenced work, and with pious toil engraved
+on the stone in the Latin of the period:
+
+    "HAC MAGNUS STULTUS JACET IN FOSSA SEPULTUS.
+    MULIER CUI CREDIDIT MORTUUM ILLUM REDDIDIT."
+
+Here he paused, at the end of his strength and of his Latin.
+
+"Beshrew my old arms and brains!" he sighed.
+
+"Hem!" coughed a deep voice in his vicinity.
+
+The monk looked up. The personage in the dusky cloak and flame-coloured
+jerkin was standing over him.
+
+"Good monk," said the fiend, "what dost thou here?"
+
+"Good fiend," said the monk, "I am inscribing an epitaph to the memory of a
+departed friend. Thou mightest kindly aid me to complete it."
+
+"Truly," rejoined the demon, "it would become me to do so, seeing that I
+have his soul here in my pocket. Thou wilt not expect me to employ the
+language of the Church. Nathless, I see not wherefore the vernacular may
+not serve as well."
+
+And, taking the mallet and chisel, he completed the monk's inscription with
+the supplementary legend:
+
+    "SERVED HIM RIGHT."
+
+
+
+
+THE BELL OF SAINT EUSCHEMON
+
+
+The town of Epinal, in Lorraine, possessed in the Middle Ages a peal of
+three bells, respectively dedicated to St. Eulogius, St. Eucherius, and St.
+Euschemon, whose tintinnabulation was found to be an effectual safeguard
+against all thunderstorms. Let the heavens be ever so murky, it was merely
+requisite to set the bells ringing, and no lightning flashed and no thunder
+peal broke over the town, nor was the neighbouring country within hearing
+of them ravaged by hail or flood.
+
+One day the three saints, Eulogius, Eucherius, and Euschemon, were sitting
+together, exceedingly well content with themselves and everything around
+them, as indeed they had every right to be, supposing that they were in
+Paradise. We say supposing, not being for our own part entirely able to
+reconcile this locality with the presence of certain cans and flagons,
+which had been fuller than they were.
+
+"What a happy reflection for a Saint," said Eulogius, who was rapidly
+passing from the mellow stage of good fellowship to the maudlin, "that even
+after his celestial assumption he is permitted to continue a source of
+blessing and benefit to his fellow-creatures as yet dwelling in  the shade
+of mortality! The thought of the services of my bell, in averting lightning
+and inundation from the good people of Epinal, fills me with indescribable
+beatitude."
+
+"_Your_ bell!" interposed Eucherius, whose path had lain through the mellow
+to the quarrelsome. "_Your_ bell, quotha! You had as good clink this
+cannakin" (suiting the action to the word) "as your bell. It's my bell that
+does the business."
+
+"I think you might put in a word for _my_ bell," interposed Euschemon, a
+little squinting saint, very merry and friendly when not put out, as on the
+present occasion.
+
+"Your bell!" retorted the big saints, with incredible disdain; and,
+forgetting their own altercation, they fell so fiercely on their little
+brother that he ran away, stopping his ears with his hands, and vowing
+vengeance.
+
+A short time after this fracas, a personage of venerable appearance
+presented himself at Epinal, and applied for the post of sacristan and
+bell-ringer, at that time vacant. Though he squinted, his appearance was
+far from disagreeable, and he obtained the appointment without difficulty.
+His deportment in it was in all respects edifying; or if he evinced some
+little remissness in the service of Saints Eulogius and Eucherius, this was
+more than compensated by his devotion to the hitherto somewhat slighted
+Saint Euschemon. It was indeed observed that candles, garlands, and other
+offerings made at the shrines of the two senior saints were found to be
+transferred in an unaccountable and mystical manner to the junior, which
+induced experienced persons to remark  that a miracle was certainly
+brewing. Nothing, however, occurred until, one hot summer afternoon, the
+indications of a storm became so threatening that the sacristan was
+directed to ring the bells. Scarcely had he begun than the sky became
+clear, but instead of the usual rich volume of sound the townsmen heard
+with astonishment a solitary tinkle, sounding quite ridiculous and
+unsatisfactory in comparison. St. Euschemon's bell was ringing by itself.
+
+In a trice priests and laymen swarmed to the belfry, and indignantly
+demanded of the sacristan what he meant.
+
+"To enlighten you," he responded. "To teach you to give honour where honour
+is due. To unmask those canonised impostors."
+
+And he called their attention to the fact that the clappers of the bells of
+Eulogius and Eucherius were so fastened up that they could not emit a
+sound, while that of Euschemon vibrated freely.
+
+"Ye see," he continued, "that these sound not at all, yet is the tempest
+stayed. Is it not thence manifest that the virtue resides solely in the
+bell of the blessed Euschemon?"
+
+The argument seemed conclusive to the majority, but those of the clergy who
+ministered at the altars of Eulogius and Eucherius stoutly resisted,
+maintaining that no just decision could be arrived at until Euschemon's
+bell was subjected to the same treatment as the others. Their view
+eventually prevailed, to the great dismay of Euschemon, who, although
+firmly convinced of the virtue of his own bell, did not in his heart
+disbelieve in the bells of his brethren. Imagine his relief and amazed joy
+when, upon his bell  being silenced, the storm, for the first time in the
+memory of the oldest inhabitant, broke with full fury over Epinal, and, for
+all the frantic pealing of the other two bells, raged with unspeakable
+fierceness until his own was brought into requisition, when, as if by
+enchantment, the rain ceased, the thunder-clouds dispersed, and the sun
+broke out gloriously from the blue sky.
+
+"Carry him in procession!" shouted the crowd.
+
+"Amen, brethren; here I am," rejoined Euschemon, stepping briskly into the
+midst of the troop.
+
+"And why in the name of Zernebock should we carry _you?_" demanded some,
+while others ran off to lug forth the image, the object of their devotion.
+
+"Why, verily," Euschemon began, and stopped short. How indeed was he to
+prove to them that he _was_ Euschemon? His personal resemblance to his
+effigy, the work of a sculptor of the idealistic school, was in no respect
+remarkable; and he felt, alas! that he could no more work a miracle than
+you or I. In the sight of the multitude he was only an elderly sexton with
+a cast in his eye, with nothing but his office to keep him out of the
+workhouse. A further and more awkward question arose, how on earth was he
+to get back to Paradise? The ordinary method was not available, for he had
+already been dead for several centuries; and no other presented itself to
+his imagination.
+
+Muttering apologies, and glad to be overlooked, Euschemon shrank into a
+corner, but slightly comforted by the honours his image was receiving  at
+the hands of the good people of Epinal. As time wore on he became pensive
+and restless, and nothing pleased him so well as to ascend to the belfry on
+moonlight nights, scribbling disparagement on the bells of Eulogius and
+Eucherius, which had ceased to be rung, and patting and caressing his own,
+which now did duty for all three. With alarm he noticed one night an
+incipient crack, which threatened to become a serious flaw.
+
+"If this goes on," said a voice behind him, "I shall get a holiday."
+
+Euschemon turned round, and with indescribable dismay perceived a gigantic
+demon, negligently resting his hand on the top of the bell, and looking as
+if it would cost him nothing to pitch it and Euschemon together to the
+other side of the town.
+
+"Avaunt, fiend," he stammered, with as much dignity as he could muster, "or
+at least remove thy unhallowed paw from my bell."
+
+"Come, Eusky," replied the fiend, with profane familiarity, "don't be a
+fool. You are not really such an ass as to imagine that your virtue has
+anything to do with the virtue of this bell?"
+
+"Whose virtue then?" demanded Euschemon.
+
+"Why truly," said the demon, "mine! When this bell was cast I was
+imprisoned in it by a potent enchanter, and so long as I am in it no storm
+can come within sound of its ringing. I am not allowed to quit it except by
+night, and then no further than an arm's length: this, however, I take the
+liberty of measuring by my own arm, which happens to be a long one. This
+must continue, as I learn, until I receive a kiss  from some bishop of
+distinguished sanctity. Thou hast done some bishoping in thy time,
+peradventure?"
+
+Euschemon energetically protested that he had been on earth but a simple
+laic, which was indeed the fact, and was also the reason why Eulogius and
+Eucherius despised him, but which, though he did not think it needful to
+tell the demon, he found a singular relief under present circumstances.
+
+"Well," continued the fiend, "I wish he may turn up shortly, for I am half
+deaf already with the banging and booming of this infernal clapper, which
+seems to have grown much worse of late; and the blessings and the crossings
+and the aspersions which I have to go through are most repugnant to my
+tastes, and unsuitable to my position in society. Bye-bye, Eusky; come up
+to-morrow night." And the fiend slipped back into the bell, and instantly
+became invisible.
+
+The humiliation of poor Euschemon on learning that he was indebted for his
+credit to the devil is easier to imagine than to describe. He did not,
+however, fail at the rendezvous next night, and found the demon sitting
+outside the bell in a most affable frame of mind. It did not take long for
+the devil and the saint to become very good friends, both wanting company,
+and the former being apparently as much amused by the latter's simplicity
+as the latter was charmed by the former's knowingness. Euschemon learned
+numbers of things of which he had not had the faintest notion. The demon
+taught him how to play cards (just invented by the Saracens), and initiated
+him into divers "arts, though unimagined,  yet to be," such as smoking
+tobacco, making a book on the Derby, and inditing queer stories for Society
+journals. He drew the most profane but irresistibly funny caricatures of
+Eulogius and Eucherius, and the rest of the host of heaven. He had been one
+of the demons who tempted St. Anthony, and retailed anecdotes of that
+eremite which Euschemon had never heard mentioned in Paradise. He was
+versed in all scandal respecting saints in general, and Euschemon found
+with astonishment how much about his own order was known downstairs. On the
+whole he had never enjoyed himself so much in his life; he became
+proficient in all manner of minor devilries, and was ceasing to trouble
+himself about his bell or his ecclesiastical duties, when an untoward
+incident interrupted his felicity.
+
+It chanced that the Bishop of Metz, in whose diocese Epinal was situated,
+finding himself during a visitation journey within a short distance of the
+town, determined to put, up there for the night. He did not arrive until
+nightfall, but word of his intention having been sent forward by a
+messenger the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, were ready to receive
+him. When, escorted in state, he had arrived at the house prepared for his
+reception, the Mayor ventured to express a hope that everything had been
+satisfactory to his Lordship.
+
+"Everything," said the bishop emphatically. "I did indeed seem to remark
+one little omission, which no doubt may be easily accounted for."
+
+"What was that, my Lord?"
+
+"It hath," said the bishop, "usually been the practice to receive a bishop
+with the ringing of  bells. It is a laudable custom, conducive to the
+purification of the air and the discomfiture of the prince of the powers
+thereof. I caught no sound of chimes on the present occasion, yet I am
+sensible that my hearing is not what it was."
+
+The civil and ecclesiastical authorities looked at each other. "That
+graceless knave of a sacristan!" said the Mayor.
+
+"He hath indeed of late strangely neglected his charge," said a priest.
+
+"Poor man, I doubt his wits are touched," charitably added another.
+
+"What!" exclaimed the bishop, who was very active, very fussy, and a great
+stickler for discipline. "This important church, so renowned for its three
+miraculous bells, confided to the tender mercies of an imbecile rogue who
+may burn it down any night! I will look to it myself without losing a
+minute."
+
+And in spite of all remonstrances, off he started. The keys were brought,
+the doors flung open, the body of the church thoroughly examined, but
+neither in nave, choir, or chancel could the slightest trace of the
+sacristan be found.
+
+"Perhaps he is in the belfry," suggested a chorister.
+
+"We'll see," responded the bishop, and bustling nimbly up the ladder, he
+emerged into the open belfry in full moonlight.
+
+Heavens! what a sight met his eye! The sacristan and the devil sitting
+_vis-a-vis_ close by the miraculous bell, with a smoking can of hot spiced
+wine between them, finishing a close game of cribbage.
+
+"Seven," declared Euschemon.
+
+"And eight are fifteen," retorted the demon, marking two.
+
+"Twenty-three and pair," cried Euschemon, marking in his turn.
+
+"And seven is thirty."
+
+"Ace, thirty-one, and I'm up."
+
+"It _is_ up with you, my friend," shouted the bishop, bringing his crook
+down smartly on Euschemon's shoulders.
+
+"Deuce!" said the devil, and vanished into his bell.
+
+When poor Euschemon had been bound and gagged, which did not take very
+long, the bishop briefly addressed the assembly. He said that the accounts
+of the bell which had reached his ears had already excited his
+apprehensions. He had greatly feared that all could not be right, and now
+his anxieties were but too well justified. He trusted there was not a man
+before him who would not suffer his flocks and his crops to be destroyed by
+tempest fifty times over rather than purchase their safety by unhallowed
+means. What had been done had doubtless been done in ignorance, and could
+be made good by a mulct to the episcopal treasury. The amount of this he
+would carefully consider, and the people of Epinal might rest assured that
+it should not be too light to entitle them to the benefit of a full
+absolution. The bell must go to his cathedral city, there to be examined
+and reported on by the exorcists and inquisitors. Meanwhile he would
+himself institute a slight preliminary scrutiny.
+
+The bell was accordingly unhung, tilted up, and inspected by the combined
+beams of the moonlight and torchlight. Very slight examination served  to
+place the soundness of the bishop's opinion beyond dispute. On the lip of
+the bell were engraven characters unknown to every one else, but which
+seemed to affect the prelate with singular consternation.
+
+"I hope," he exclaimed, "that none of you know anything about these
+characters! I earnestly trust that none can read a single one of them. If I
+thought anybody could I would burn him as soon as look at him!"
+
+The bystanders hastened to assure him that not one of them had the
+slightest conception of the meaning of the letters, which had never been
+observed before.
+
+"I rejoice to hear it," said the bishop. "It will be an evil day for the
+church when these letters are understood."
+
+And next morning he departed, carrying off the bell, with the invisible
+fiend inside it; the cards, which were regarded as a book of magic; and the
+luckless Euschemon, who shortly found himself in total darkness, the inmate
+of a dismal dungeon.
+
+It was some time before Euschemon became sensible of the presence of any
+partner in his captivity, by reason of the trotting of the rats. At length,
+however, a deep sigh struck upon his ear.
+
+"Who art thou?" he exclaimed.
+
+"An unfortunate prisoner," was the answer.
+
+"What is the occasion of thy imprisonment?"
+
+"Oh, a mere trifle. A ridiculous suspicion of sacrificing a child to
+Beelzebub. One of the little disagreeables that must occasionally occur in
+our profession."
+
+"_Our_ profession!" exclaimed Euschemon.
+
+"Art thou not a sorcerer?" demanded the voice.
+
+"No," replied Euschemon, "I am a saint."
+
+The warlock received Euschemon's statement with much incredulity, but
+becoming eventually convinced of its truth--
+
+"I congratulate thee," he said. "The devil has manifestly taken a fancy to
+thee, and he never forgets his own. It is true that the bishop is a great
+favourite with him also. But we will hope for the best. Thou hast never
+practised riding a broomstick? No? 'Tis pity; thou mayest have to mount one
+at a moment's notice."
+
+This consolation had scarcely been administered ere the bolts flew back,
+the hinges grated, the door opened, and gaolers bearing torches informed
+the sorcerer that the bishop desired his presence.
+
+He found the bishop in his study, which was nearly choked up by Euschemon's
+bell. The prelate received him with the greatest affability, and expressed
+a sincere hope that the very particular arrangements he had enjoined for
+the comfort of his distinguished prisoner had been faithfully carried out
+by his subordinates. The sorcerer, as much a man of the world as the
+bishop, thanked his Lordship, and protested that he had been perfectly
+comfortable.
+
+"I have need of thy art," said the bishop, coming to business. "I am
+exceedingly bothered--flabbergasted were not too strong an expression--by
+this confounded bell. All my best exorcists have been trying all they know
+with it, to no purpose. They might as well have tried to exorcise my mitre
+from my head by any other charm than the offer of a better one. Magic is
+plainly the only remedy, and if thou canst disenchant it, I will give thee
+thy freedom."
+
+"It will be a tough business," observed the sorcerer, surveying the bell
+with the eye of a connoisseur. "It will require fumigations."
+
+"Yes," said the bishop, "and suffumigations."
+
+"Aloes and mastic," advised the sorcerer.
+
+"Aye," assented the bishop, "and red sanders."
+
+"We must call in Primeumaton," said the warlock.
+
+"Clearly," said the bishop, "and Amioram."
+
+"Triangles," said the sorcerer.
+
+"Pentacles," said the bishop.
+
+"In the hour of Methon," said the sorcerer.
+
+"I should have thought Tafrac," suggested the bishop, "but I defer to your
+better judgment."
+
+"I can have the blood of a goat?" queried the wizard.
+
+"Yes," said the bishop, "and of a monkey also."
+
+"Does your Lordship think that one might venture to go so far as a little
+unweaned child?"
+
+"If absolutely necessary," said the bishop.
+
+"I am delighted to find such liberality of sentiment on your Lordship's
+part," said the sorcerer. "Your Lordship is evidently of the profession."
+
+"These are things which stuck by me when I was an inquisitor," explained
+the bishop, with some little embarrassment.
+
+Ere long all arrangements were made. It would be impossible to enumerate
+half the crosses, circles, pentagrams, naked swords, cross-bones,
+chafing-dishes, and vials of incense which the sorcerer found to be
+necessary. The child was fortunately deemed superfluous. Euschemon was
+brought up from his dungeon, and, his teeth  chattering with fright and
+cold, set beside his bell to hold a candle to the devil. The incantations
+commenced, and speedily gave evidence of their efficacy. The bell trembled,
+swayed, split open, and a female figure of transcendent loveliness attired
+in the costume of Eve stepped forth and extended her lips towards the
+bishop. What could the bishop do but salute them? With a roar of triumph
+the demon resumed his proper shape. The bishop swooned. The apartment was
+filled with the fumes of sulphur. The devil soared majestically out of the
+window, carrying the sorcerer under one arm and Euschemon under the other.
+
+It is commonly believed that the devil good-naturedly dropped Euschemon
+back again into Paradise, or wheresoever he might have come from. It is
+even added that he fell between Eulogius and Eucherius, who had been
+arguing all the time respecting the merits of their bells, and resumed his
+share in the discussion as if nothing had happened. Some maintain, indeed,
+that the devil, chancing to be in want of a chaplain, offered the situation
+to Euschemon, by whom it was accepted. But how to reconcile this assertion
+with the undoubted fact that the duties of the post in question are at
+present ably discharged by the Bishop of Metz, in truth we see not. One
+thing is certain: thou wilt not find Euschemon's name in the calendar,
+courteous reader.
+
+The mulct to be imposed upon the parish of Epinal was never exacted. The
+bell, ruptured beyond repair by the demon's violent exit, was taken back
+and deposited in the museum of the town. The bells of Eulogius and
+Eucherius were  rung freely on occasion; but Epinal has not since enjoyed
+any greater immunity from storms than the contiguous districts. One day an
+aged traveller, who had spent many years in Heathenesse and in whom some
+discerned a remarkable resemblance to the sorcerer, noticed the bell, and
+asked permission to examine it. He soon discovered the inscription,
+recognised the mysterious characters as Greek, read them without the least
+difficulty--
+
+"[Greek: Mae kinei Kamarinan akinaetos gar ameinoon]--"
+
+and favoured the townsmen with this free but substantially accurate
+translation:--
+
+"CAN'T YOU LET WELL ALONE?"
+
+
+
+
+BISHOP ADDO AND BISHOP GADDO
+
+
+Midday, midsummer, middle of the dark ages. Fine healthy weather at the
+city of Biserta in Barbary. Wind blowing strong from the sea, roughening
+the dark blue waters, and fretting their indigo with foam, as though the
+ocean's coursers champed an invisible curb. On land tawny sand whirling,
+green palm-fans swaying and whistling, men abroad in the noonday blaze
+rejoicing in the unwonted freshness.
+
+"She is standing in," they cried, "and, by the Prophet, she seemeth not a
+ship of the true believers."
+
+She was not, but she bore a flag of truce. Pitching and rearing, the little
+bark bounded in, and soon was fast in harbour. Ere long messengers of peace
+had landed, bearing presents and a letter from the Bishop of Amalfi to the
+Emir of Biserta. The presents consisted of fifty casks of Lacrima Christi,
+and of a captive, a tall, noble-looking man, in soiled ecclesiastical
+costume, and disfigured by the loss of his left eye, which seemed to have
+been violently plucked out.
+
+"Health to the Emir!" ran the letter. "I send thee my captive, Gaddo,
+sometime Bishop of  Amalfi, now an ejected intruder. For what saith the
+Scripture? 'When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in
+peace; but if one stronger than he cometh, he divideth the spoils.'
+Moreover it is written: 'His bishopric let another take.' Having solemnly
+sworn that I would not kill or blind or maim my enemy, or imprison him in a
+monastery, and the price of absolution from an oath in this corrupt age
+exceeding all reason and Christian moderation, I knew not how to take
+vengeance on him, until a sagacious counsellor represented that a man
+cannot be said to be blinded so long as he is deprived of only one eye.
+This I accordingly eradicated, and now, being restrained from imprisoning
+him, and fearing to release him, I send him to thee, to retain in captivity
+on my behalf; in return for which service, receive fifty casks of the
+choicest Lacrima Christi, which shall not fail to be sent thee yearly, so
+long as Gaddo continues in thy custody.
+
+"+ Addo, by Divine permission Bishop of Amalfi."
+
+"First," said the Emir, "I would be certified whether this vintage is
+indeed of such excellence as to prevail upon a faithful Mussulman to
+jeopard Paradise, the same being forbidden by his law."
+
+Experiments were instituted forthwith, and the problem was resolved in the
+affirmative.
+
+"This being so," declared the Emir, "honour and good faith towards Bishop
+Addo require that Bishop Gaddo be kept captive with all possible
+strictness. Yet bolts may be burst, fetters may be filed, walls may be
+scaled, doors may be broken  through. Better to enchain the captive's soul,
+binding him with invisible bonds, and searing out of him the very wish to
+escape. Embrace the faith of the Prophet," continued he, addressing Gaddo;
+"become a Mollah."
+
+"No," said the deposed Bishop, "my inclination hath ever been towards a
+military life. At present, mutilated and banished as I am, I rather affect
+the crown of martyrdom."
+
+"Thou shalt receive it by instalments," said the Emir. "Thou shalt work at
+the new pavilion in my garden."
+
+Unceasing toil under the blazing sun, combined with the discipline of the
+overseers, speedily wore down Gaddo's strength, already impaired by
+captivity and ill-treatment. Unable to drag himself away after his
+fellow-workmen had ceased from their labours, he lay one evening, faint and
+almost senseless, among the stones and rubbish of the unfinished edifice.
+The Emir's daughter passed by. Gaddo was handsome and wretched, the
+Princess was beautiful and compassionate. Conveyed by her fair hands, a cup
+of Bishop Addo's wine saved Bishop Gaddo's life.
+
+The next evening Gaddo again lingered behind, and the Princess spoke to him
+out of her balcony. The third evening they encountered in an arbour. The
+next meeting took place in her chamber, where her father discovered them.
+
+"I will tear thee to pieces with pincers," shouted he to Gaddo.
+
+"Your Highness will not be guilty of that black action," responded Gaddo
+resolutely.
+
+"No?" roared the Emir. "No? and what shall hinder me?"
+
+"The Lacrima Christi will hinder your Highness," returned the far-seeing
+Gaddo. "Deems your Highness that Bishop Addo will send another cupful, once
+he is assured of my death?"
+
+"Thou sayest well," rejoined the Emir. "I may not slay thee. But my
+daughter is manifestly most inflammable, wherefore I will burn her."
+
+"Were it not better to circumcise me?" suggested Gaddo.
+
+Many difficulties were raised, but Ayesha's mother siding with Gaddo, and
+promising a more amicable deportment for the future towards the other
+lights of the harem, the matter was arranged, and Gaddo recited the
+Mahometan profession of faith, and became the Emir's son-in-law. The
+execrable social system under which he had hitherto lived thus vanished
+like a nightmare from an awakened sleeper. Wedded to one who had saved his
+life by her compassion, and whose life he had in turn saved by his change
+of creed, adoring her and adored by her, with the hope of children, and
+active contact with multitudes of other interests from which he had
+hitherto been estranged, he forgot the ecclesiastic in the man; his
+intellect expanded, his ideas multiplied, he cleared his mind of cant, and
+became an eminent philosopher.
+
+"Dear son," said the Emir to him one day, "the Lacrima is spent, we thirst,
+and the tribute of that Christian dog, the Bishop of Amalfi, tarries to
+arrive. We will presently fit out certain vessels, and thou shalt hold a
+visitation of thine ancient diocese."
+
+"Methinks I see a ship even now," said Gaddo;  and he was right. She
+anchored, the ambassadors landed and addressed the Emir:
+
+"Prince, we bring thee the stipulated tribute, yet not without a trifling
+deduction."
+
+"Deduction!" exclaimed the Emir, bending his brows ominously.
+
+"Highness," they represented, "by reason of the deficiency of last year's
+vintage it hath not been possible to provide more than forty-nine casks,
+which we crave to offer thee accordingly."
+
+"Then," pronounced the Emir sententiously, "the compact is broken, the ship
+is confiscated, and war is declared."
+
+"Not so, Highness," said they, "for the fiftieth cask is worth all the
+rest."
+
+"Let it be opened," commanded the Emir.
+
+It was accordingly hoisted out, deposited on the quay, and prized open; and
+from its capacious interior, in a deplorable plight from hunger, cramp, and
+sea-sickness, was extracted--Bishop Addo.
+
+"We have," explained the deputation, "wearied of our shepherd, who,
+shearing his flock somewhat too closely, hath brought the wolf to light. We
+therefore desire thee to receive him at our hands in exchange for our good
+Bishop Gaddo, promising one hundred casks of Lacrima Christi as yearly
+tribute for the future."
+
+"He stands before you," answered the Emir; "take him, an ye can prevail
+upon him to return with you."
+
+The eyes of the envoys wandered hopelessly from one whiskered, turbaned,
+caftaned, and yataghaned figure to another. They could not discover that
+any of the Paynim present looked more or less like a bishop than his
+fellows.
+
+"Brethren," said Gaddo, taking compassion on their bewilderment, "behold
+me! I thank you for your kindly thought of me, but how to profit by it I
+see not. I have become a Saracen. I have pronounced the Mahometan
+confession. I am circumcised. I am known by the name of Mustapha."
+
+"We acknowledge the weight of your Lordship's objections," they said, "and
+do but venture to hint remotely that the times are hard, and that the Holy
+Father is grievously in want of money."
+
+"I have also taken a wife," said Gaddo.
+
+"A wife!" exclaimed they with one consent. "If it had been a concubine! Let
+us return instantly."
+
+They gathered up their garments and spat upon the ground.
+
+"A bishop, then," inquired Gaddo, "may be guilty of any enormity sooner
+than wedlock, which money itself cannot expiate?"
+
+"Such," they answered, "is the law and the prophets."
+
+"Unless," added one of benignant aspect, "he sew the abomination up in a
+sack and cast her into the sea, then peradventure he may yet find place for
+repentance."
+
+"Miserable blasphemers!" exclaimed Gaddo. "But why," continued he, checking
+himself, "do I talk of what none will understand for five hundred years,
+which to understand myself I was obliged to become a Saracen? Addo," he
+pursued, addressing his dejected competitor, "bad as thou art, thou art
+good enough for the world as it is. I spare thy life, restore thy dignity,
+and, to prove that the precepts of Christ may be practised under the garb
+of Mahomet, will not even exact eye for eye. Yet, as a wholesome admonition
+to thee that treachery and cruelty escape not punishment even in this life,
+I will that thou do presently surrender to me thy left ear. Restore my eye
+and I will return it immediately. And ye," addressing the envoys, "will for
+the future pay one hundred casks tribute, unless ye would see my
+father-in-law's galleys on your coasts."
+
+So Addo returned to his bishopric, leaving his ear in Gaddo's keeping. The
+Lacrima was punctually remitted, and as punctually absorbed by the Emir and
+his son-in-law, with some little help from Ayesha. Gaddo's eye never came
+back, and Addo never regained his ear until, after the ex-prelate's death
+in years and honour, he ransomed it from his representatives. It became a
+relic, and is shown in Addo's cathedral to this day in proof of his
+inveterate enmity to the misbelievers, and of the sufferings he underwent
+at their hands. But Gaddo trumped him, the entry after his name in the
+episcopal register, "Fled to the Saracens," having been altered into
+"Flayed by the Saracens" by a later bishop, jealous of the honour of the
+diocese.
+
+
+
+
+THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE BUTTERFLIES
+
+
+The scene was in a garden on a fine summer morning, brilliant with slants
+of sunshine, yet chequered with clouds significant of more than a remote
+possibility of rain. All the animal world was astir. Birds flitted or
+hopped from spray to spray; butterflies eddied around flowers within or
+upon which bees were bustling; ants and earwigs ran nimbly about on the
+mould; a member of the Universal Knowledge Society perambulated the gravel
+path.
+
+The Universal Knowledge Society, be it understood, exists for the
+dissemination and not for the acquisition of knowledge. Our philosopher,
+therefore, did not occupy himself with considering whether in that
+miniature world, with its countless varieties of animal and vegetable
+being, something might not be found with which he was himself unacquainted;
+but, like the honey-freighted bee, rather sought an opportunity of
+disburdening himself of his stores of information than of adding to them.
+But who was to profit by his communicativeness? The noisy birds could not
+hear themselves speak, much less him; he shrewdly distrusted his ability to
+command the attention of the busy bees; and even a  member of the Universal
+Knowledge Society may well be at a loss for a suitable address to an
+earwig. At length he determined to accost a Butterfly who, after sipping
+the juice of a flower, remained perched indolently upon it, apparently
+undecided whither to direct his flight.
+
+"It seems likely to rain," he said, "have you an umbrella?"
+
+The Butterfly looked curiously at him, but returned no answer.
+
+"I do not ask," resumed the Philosopher, "as one who should imply that the
+probability of even a complete saturation ought to appal a ratiocinative
+being, endowed with wisdom and virtue. I rather designed to direct your
+attention to the inquiry whether these attributes are, in fact, rightly
+predicable of Butterflies."
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"An impression obtains among our own species," continued the Philosopher,
+"that you Butterflies are deficient in foresight and providence to a
+remarkable, I might almost say a culpable degree. Pardon me if I add that
+this suspicion is to some extent confirmed by my finding you destitute of
+protection against imbriferous inclemency under atmospheric conditions
+whose contingent humidity should be obvious to a being endowed with the
+most ordinary allotment of meteorological prevision."
+
+The Butterfly still left all the talk to the Philosopher. This was just
+what the latter desired.
+
+"I greatly fear," he continued, "that the omission to which I have
+reluctantly adverted is to a certain extent typically characteristic of the
+entire political and social economy of the  lepidopterous order. It has
+even been stated, though the circumstance appears scarcely credible, that
+your system of life does not include the accumulation of adequate resources
+against the inevitable exigencies of winter."
+
+"What is winter?" asked the Butterfly, and flew off without awaiting an
+answer.
+
+The Philosopher remained for a moment speechless, whether from amazement at
+the Butterfly's nescience or disgust at his ill-breeding. Recovering
+himself immediately, he shouted after the fugitive:
+
+"Frivolous animal!" "It is this levity," continued he, addressing a group
+of butterflies who had gradually assembled in the air, attracted by the
+conversation, "it is this fatal levity that constrains me to despair wholly
+of the future of you insects. That you should persistently remain at your
+present depressed level! That you should not immediately enter upon a
+process of self-development! Look at the Bee! How did she acquire her
+sting, think you? Why cannot you store up honey, as she does?"
+
+"We cannot build cells," suggested a Butterfly.
+
+"And how did the Bee learn, do you suppose, unless by imbuing her mind with
+the elementary principles of mathematics? Know that time has been when the
+Bee was as incapable of architectural construction as yourselves, when you
+and she alike were indiscriminable particles of primary protoplasm. (I
+suppose you know what that is.) One has in process of time exalted itself
+to the cognition of mathematical truth, while the other--Pshaw! Now,
+really, my friends, I must beg you to take my observations  in good part. I
+do not imply, of course, that any endeavours of yours in the direction I
+have indicated could benefit any of you personally, or any of your
+posterity for numberless generations. But I really do consider that after a
+while its effects would be very observable--that in twenty millions of
+years or so, provided no geological cataclysm supervened, you Butterflies,
+with your innate genius for mimicry, might be conformed in all respects to
+the hymenopterous model, or perhaps carry out the principle of development
+into novel and unheard-of directions. You should derive much encouragement
+from the beginning you have made already."
+
+"How a beginning?" inquired a Butterfly.
+
+"I am alluding to your larval constitution as Caterpillars," returned the
+Philosopher. "Your advance upon that humiliating condition is, I admit,
+remarkable. I only wonder that it should not have proceeded much further.
+With such capacity for development, it is incomprehensible that you should
+so long have remained stationary. You ought to be all toads by this time,
+at the very least."
+
+"I beg your pardon," civilly interposed the Butterfly. "To what condition
+were you pleased to allude?"
+
+"To that of a Caterpillar," rejoined the Philosopher.
+
+"Caterpillar!" echoed the Butterfly, and "Caterpillar!" tittered all his
+volatile companions, till the air seemed broken into little silvery waves
+of fairy laughter. "Caterpillar! he positively thinks we were once
+Caterpillars! He! he! he!"
+
+"Do you actually mean to say you don't know  that?" responded the
+Philosopher, scandalised at the irreverence of the insects, but inwardly
+rejoicing at the prospect of a controversy in which he could not be
+worsted.
+
+"We know nothing of the sort," rejoined a Butterfly.
+
+"Can you possibly be plunged into such utter oblivion of your embryonic
+antecedents?"
+
+"We do not understand you. All we know is that we have always been
+Butterflies."
+
+"Sir," said a large, dull-looking Butterfly with one wing in tatters,
+crawling from under a cabbage, and limping by reason of the deficiency of
+several legs, "let me entreat you not to deduce our scientific status from
+the inconsiderate assertions of the unthinking vulgar. I am proud to assure
+you that our race comprises many philosophical reasoners--mostly indeed
+such as have been disabled by accidental injuries from joining in the
+amusements of the rest. The Origin of our Species has always occupied a
+distinguished place in their investigations. It has on several occasions
+engaged the attention of our profoundest thinkers for not less than two
+consecutive minutes. There is hardly a quadruped on the land, a bird in the
+air, or a fish in the water to which it has not been ascribed by some one
+at some time; but never, I am rejoiced to say, has any Butterfly ever
+dreamed of attributing it to the obnoxious thing to which you have
+unaccountably made reference."
+
+"We should rather think not," chorussed all the Butterflies.
+
+"Look here," said the Philosopher, picking up and exhibiting a large hairy
+Caterpillar of very  unprepossessing appearance. "Look here, what do you
+call this?"
+
+"An abnormal organisation," said the scientific Butterfly.
+
+"A nasty beast," said the others.
+
+"Heavens," exclaimed the Philosopher, "the obtuseness and arrogance of
+these creatures! No, my poor friend," continued he, addressing the
+Caterpillar, "disdain you as they may, and unpromising as your aspect
+certainly is at present, the time is at" hand when you will prank it with
+the gayest of them all."
+
+"I cry your mercy," rejoined the Caterpillar somewhat crossly, "but I was
+digesting a gooseberry leaf when you lifted me in that abrupt manner, and I
+did not quite follow your remarks. Did I understand you to mention my name
+in connection with those flutterers?"
+
+"I said the time would arrive when you would be even as they."
+
+"I," exclaimed the Caterpillar, "I retrograde to the level of a Butterfly!
+Is not the ideal of creation impersonated in me already?"
+
+"I was not aware of that," replied the Philosopher, "although," he added in
+a conciliatory tone, "far be it from me to deny you the possession of many
+interesting qualities."
+
+"You probably refer to my agility," suggested the Caterpillar; "or perhaps
+to my abstemiousness?"
+
+"I was not referring to either," returned the Philosopher.
+
+"To my utility to mankind?"
+
+"Not by any manner of means."
+
+"To what then?"
+
+"Well, if you must know, the best thing about you appears to me to be the
+prospect you enjoy of ultimately becoming a Butterfly."
+
+The Caterpillar erected himself upon his tail, and looked sternly at the
+Philosopher. The Philosopher's countenance fell. A thrush, darting from an
+adjacent tree, seized the opportunity and the insect, and bore the latter
+away in his bill. At the same moment the shower prognosticated by the Sage
+burst forth, scattering the Butterflies in all directions, drenching the
+Philosopher, whose foresight had not assumed the shape of an umbrella, and
+spoiling his new hat. But he had ample consolation in the superiority of
+his head. And the Caterpillar was right too, for after all he never did
+become a Butterfly.
+
+
+
+
+TRUTH AND HER COMPANIONS
+
+
+_Jupiter_. Daughter Truth, is this a befitting manner of presenting
+yourself before your divine father? You are positively dripping; the floor
+of my celestial mansion would be a swamp but for your praiseworthy economy
+in wearing apparel. Whence, in the name of the Naiads, do you come?
+
+_Truth_. From the bottom of a well, father.
+
+_Jupiter_. I thought, my daughter, that you had descended upon earth in the
+capacity of a benefactress of men rather than of frogs.
+
+_Truth_. Such, indeed, was my purpose, father, and I accordingly repaired
+to the great city.
+
+_Jupiter_. The city of the Emperor Apollyon?
+
+_Truth_. The same; and I there obtained an audience of the monarch.
+
+_Jupiter_. What passed?
+
+_Truth_. I took the liberty of observing to him, father, that, having
+obtained his throne by perjury, and cemented it by blood, and maintained it
+by hypocrisy, he could entertain no hope of preserving it unless the
+collective baseness of his subjects should be found to exceed his own,
+which was not probable.
+
+_Jupiter_. What reply did he vouchsafe to these admonitions?
+
+_Truth_. He threatened to cut out my tongue. Perceiving that this would
+interfere with my utility to mankind, I retired somewhat precipitately from
+the Imperial presence, marvelling that I should ever have been admitted,
+and resolved never to be found there for the future. I then proceeded to
+the Nobles.
+
+_Jupiter_. What said you to them?
+
+_Truth_. I represented to them that they were, as a class, both arrogant
+and luxurious, and would, indeed, have long ago become insupportable, only
+that the fabric which their rapacity was for ever striving to erect, their
+extravagance as perpetually undermined. I further commented upon the
+insecurity of any institution dependent solely upon prescription. Finding
+these suggestions unpalatable, I next addressed myself to the priesthood.
+
+_Jupiter_. Those holy men, my daughter, must have rejoiced at the
+opportunity of learning from you which portion of their traditions was
+impure or fabricated, and which authentic and sublime.
+
+_Truth_. The value they placed upon my instructions was such that they
+wished to reserve them exclusively for themselves, and proposed that they
+should be delivered within the precincts of a certain subterranean
+apartment termed a dungeon, the key of which should be kept by one of their
+order. Whereupon I betook myself to the philosophers.
+
+_Jupiter_. Your reception from these professed lovers of wisdom, my
+daughter, was, no doubt, all that could be expected.
+
+_Truth_. It was all that could be expected, my father, from learned and
+virtuous men, who had  already framed their own systems of the universe
+without consulting me.
+
+_Jupiter_. You probably next addressed yourself to the middling orders of
+society?
+
+_Truth_. I can scarcely say that I did, father; for although I had much to
+remark concerning their want of culture, and their servility, and their
+greed, and the absurdity of many of their customs, and the rottenness of
+most of their beliefs, and the thousand ways in which they spoiled lives
+that might have been beautiful and harmonious, I soon discovered that they
+were so absolutely swayed by the example of the higher orders that it was
+useless to expostulate with them until I should have persuaded the latter.
+
+_Jupiter_. You returned, then, to the latter with this design?
+
+_Truth_. On the contrary, I hastened to the poor and needy, whom I fully
+acquainted with the various wrongs and oppressions which they underwent at
+the hands of the powerful and the rich. And here, for the first time, I
+found myself welcome. All listened with gratitude and assent, and none made
+any endeavour to stone me or imprison me, as those other unprincipled
+persons had done.
+
+_Jupiter_. That was indeed satisfactory, daughter. But when you proceeded
+to point out to these plebeians how much of their misery arose from their
+own idleness, and ignorance, and dissoluteness, and abasement before those
+higher in station, and jealousy of the best among themselves--what said
+they to that?
+
+_Truth_. They expressed themselves desirous of  killing me, and indeed
+would have done so if my capital enemies, the priests, had not been
+beforehand with them.
+
+_Jupiter_. What did they?
+
+_Truth_. Burned me.
+
+_Jupiter_. Burned you?
+
+_Truth_. Burned me in the
+market-place. And, but for my peculiar property of reviving from my ashes,
+I should not be here now. Upon reconsolidating myself, I felt in such a
+heat that I was fain to repair to the bottom of the nearest well. Finding
+myself more comfortable there than I had ever yet been on earth, I have
+come to ask permission to remain.
+
+_Jupiter_. It does not appear to me, daughter, that the mission you have
+undertaken on behalf of mankind can be efficiently discharged at the bottom
+of a well.
+
+_Truth_. No, father, nor in the middle of a fire either.
+
+_Jupiter_. I fear that you are too plain and downright in your dealings
+with men, and deter where you ought to allure.
+
+_Truth_. I were not Truth, else, but Flattery. My nature is a mirror's--to
+exhibit reality with plainness and faithfulness.
+
+_Jupiter_. It is no less the nature of man to shatter every mirror that
+does not exhibit to him what he wishes to behold.
+
+_Truth_. Let me, therefore, return to my well, and let him who wishes to
+behold me, if such there be, repair to the brink and look down.
+
+_Jupiter_. No, daughter, you shall not return to your well. I have already
+perceived that you are not of yourself sufficient for the office I have
+assigned to you, and I am about to provide you with two auxiliaries. You
+are Truth. Tell me how this one appears to you.
+
+_Truth_. Oh, father, the beautiful nymph! how mature, and yet how comely!
+how good-humoured, yet how gentle and grave! Her robe is closely zoned; her
+upraised finger approaches her lip; her foot falls soft as snow. What is
+her name?
+
+_Jupiter_. Discretion. And this other?
+
+_Truth_. Oh, father! the cordial look, the blooming cheek, the bright smile
+that is almost a laugh, the buoyant step, and the expansive bosom! What
+name bears she?
+
+_Jupiter_. Good Nature. Return, my daughter, to earth; continue to
+enlighten man's ignorance and to reprove his folly; but let Discretion
+suggest the occasion, and Good Nature inspire the wording of your
+admonitions. I cannot engage that you may not, even with these precautions,
+sometimes pay a visit to the stake; and if, when an adventure of this sort
+appears imminent, Discretion should counsel a temporary retirement to your
+well, I am sure Good Nature will urge nothing to the contrary.
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE PALACES
+
+
+Three pairs of young people, each a youth with his bride, came together
+along a road to the point where it divided to the right and left. On one
+side was inscribed, "To the Palace of Truth," and on the other, "To the
+Palace of Illusion."
+
+"This way, my beauty!" cried one of the youths, drawing his companion in
+the direction of the Palace of Truth. "To the place where and where alone
+thy perfections may be beheld as they are!"
+
+"And my imperfections!" whispered the young spouse, but her tone was airy
+and confident.
+
+"Well," said the second youth, "does the choice beseem you upon whom the
+moon of your nuptials is beaming still. My beloved and I are riper in
+Hymen's lore by not less, I ween, than one fortnight. Prudence impels us
+towards the Palace of Illusion."
+
+"Thy will is mine, Alonso," said his lady.
+
+"I," said the third youth, "will seek neither; for I would not be wise
+over-much, while of what I deem myself to know I would be well assured.
+Happy am I, and bless my lot, yet have I beheld a red mouse in closer
+contiguity to my beloved than I could bring myself to approve, albeit it
+leapt not from her mouth as they do sometimes. Yet do I know it for a red
+mouse and nothing worse; had I inhabited the Palace of Illusion  haply I
+had deemed it a rat. And, it being a red mouse as it indubitably was, to
+what end fancy it a tawny-throated nightingale?"
+
+While, therefore, the other pairs proceeded on the paths they had
+respectively chosen, this sage youth and his bride settled themselves at
+the parting of the ways, built their cot, tended their garden, tilled their
+field and raised fruits around them, including children.
+
+The preparation of a cheerful repast was one day well advanced, when,
+lifting up their eyes, the pair beheld a haggard and emaciated couple
+tottering along the road that led from the Palace of Illusion.
+
+"Heavens!" exclaimed they simultaneously, "no! yes! 'tis surely they!" O
+friends! whence this forlorn semblance? whence this osseous condition?"
+
+"Of them anon," replied the attenuated youth, "but, before all things,
+dinner!"
+
+The restorative was speedily administered, and the pilgrim commenced his
+narration.
+
+"Guarded," he said, "though the Palace of Illusion was by every species of
+hippogriffic chimaera, my bride and I experienced no difficulty in
+penetrating inside its precincts. The giants lifted us in their arms, the
+dragons carried us on their backs, fairy bridges spanned the moats, golden
+ladders inclined against the ramparts, we scaled the towers and trod the
+courts securely, though constructed to all seeming of dissolving cloud.
+Delicate fare loaded every dish; smiling companions invited to every
+festivity; perfumes caressed our nostrils; music enwrapped our ears.
+
+"But while all else charmed and allured, one  fact intruded of which we
+could not pretend unconsciousness, the intensity of our aversion for each
+other. Never could I behold my Imogene without marvelling whatever could
+have induced me to wed her, and she has acknowledged that she laboured
+under the like perplexity. On the other hand, our good opinion of ourselves
+had grown prodigiously. The other's dislike appeared to each an insane
+delusion, and we seriously questioned whether it could be right to mate
+longer with a being so destitute of true aesthetic feeling. We confided
+these scruples to each other, with the result of a most tempestuous
+altercation.
+
+"As this was attaining its climax, one of the inmates of the Palace, a pert
+forward boy, resembling a page out of livery, passed by, and ironically, as
+I thought, congratulated us on the strength of our mutual attachment.
+'Never,' exclaimed he, 'have I beheld the like here before, and I am the
+oldest inhabitant.'
+
+"As this felicitation was proffered at the precise moment when I was
+engaged in staunching a rent in my cheek with a handful of my wife's hair,
+I was constrained to regard it as unseasonable, and expressed myself to
+that effect.
+
+"'What!' exclaimed he, with equal surprise, 'know ye not that this is the
+Palace of Illusion, where everything is inverted and appears the reverse of
+itself? Intense indeed must be the affection which can thus drive you to
+fisticuffs! Had I beheld you billing and cooing, truly I had counselled a
+judicial separation!'
+
+"My wife and I looked at each other, and by a common impulse made at our
+utmost speed for the gate of the Palace of Illusion.
+
+"Alas! it is one thing to enter and another to quit that domain of
+enchantment. The golden clouds enwrapt us still, cates and dainties tempted
+us as of old, the most bewitching strains detained us spellbound. The giant
+and dragon warders, indeed, offered no violent resistance, they simply
+turned into open portals which appeared to yield us egress, but proved
+entrances to interminable labyrinthine mazes. At last we escaped by
+resolutely, following the exact opposite track to that which we observed to
+be taken by a poet, who was chasing a phantom of Fame with a scroll of
+unintelligible and inharmonious verse.
+
+"The moment that we emerged from the enchanted castle we knew ourselves and
+each other for what we were, and fell weeping into each other's arms. So
+feeble were we that we could hardly move, nevertheless we have made a shift
+to crawl hither, trusting to your hospitality to recruit us from the
+sawdust and ditch-water which we vehemently suspect to have been our diet
+during the whole of our residence."
+
+"Eat and drink without stint and without ceremony," rejoined their host,
+"provided only that somewhat remain for the guests whom I see approaching."
+
+And in a few moments the fugitives from the Palace of Illusion were
+reinforced by travellers from the Palace of Truth, whose backs were most
+determinately turned to that august edifice.
+
+"My friends," said the youth last arrived, when the first greetings were
+over, "Truth's Palace might be a not ineligible residence were not the
+inmates necessitated not merely to know the truth but to speak it, and did
+not all innocent  embellishments of her majestic person become entirely
+inefficient and absolutely nugatory. For example, the number of my wife's
+grey hairs speedily confounded me; and how should it be otherwise, when the
+excellent dye she had brought with her had completely lost its virtues? She
+on her part found herself continually obliged to acquaint me with the
+manifold defects she was daily discovering in my mind and person, which I
+was unable to deny, frequently as I opened my mouth for that purpose. It is
+true that I had the satisfaction of pointing out equal defects in herself;
+but this could not be considered a great satisfaction, seeing that every
+such discovery impugned my taste and judgment, and impaired the worth of my
+most cherished possession. At length we resolved that Truth and we were not
+made for each other, and, having verified the accuracy of this conclusion
+by uttering it unrebuked in Truth's own palace, quitted the unblest spot
+with all possible expedition. No sooner were we outside than our tenderness
+revived, and, the rites of reconciliation duly performed, my wife found
+nothing more urgent than to try whether her dye had recovered its natural
+properties, which, as ye may perceive, proved to be the case. We are now
+bound for the Palace of Illusion."
+
+"Nay," said he who had escaped thence, "if my experience suffices not to
+deter you, learn that they who have known Truth can never taste of
+Illusion. Illusion is for life's golden prime, its fanes and pavilions may
+be reared but by the magic wand of Youth. The maturity that would recreate
+them builds not for Illusion  but for Deceit. Yet, lest mortality should
+despair, there exists, as I have learned, yet another palace, founded
+midway between that of Illusion and that of Truth, open to those who are
+too soft for the one and too hard for the other. Thither, indeed, the
+majority of mankind in this age resort, and there appear to find themselves
+comfortable."
+
+"And this palace is?" inquired Truth's runaways simultaneously.
+
+"The Palace of Convention," replied the youth.
+
+
+
+
+NEW READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY
+
+
+
+I.--Timon of Athens
+
+
+No, it was not true that Timon was dead, and buried on the sea-shore. So
+the first party discovered that hastened to his cave at the tidings,
+thinking to seize his treasure, and had their heads broken for their pains.
+But the second party fared better; for these were robbers, captained by
+Alcibiades, who had taken to the road, as many a man of spirit, has done
+before and since. They took Timon's gold, and left him bound in his chair.
+But on the way home the lesser thieves mysteriously disappeared, and the
+gold became the sole property of Alcibiades. As it is written, "The tools
+to him that can handle them."
+
+Timon sat many hours in an uncomfortable position, and though, in a general
+way, he abhorred the face of man, he was not displeased when a gentleman of
+bland appearance entered the cavern, and made him a low obeisance. And
+perceiving that Timon was bound, the bland man exclaimed with horror, and
+severed his bonds, ere one could say Themistocles. And in an instant the
+cavern was filled with Athenian senators.
+
+"Hail," they cried, "to Timon the munificent!  Hail to Timon the
+compassionate! Hail to Timon the lover of his kind!"
+
+"I am none of these things," said Timon. "I am Timon the misanthrope."
+
+"This must be my Lord's wit and playfulness," said the bland man, "for how
+else should the Senate and the people have passed a decree, indited by
+myself, ordering an altar to be raised to Timon the Benefactor, and
+appointing him chief archon? But come, hand over thy treasure, that thy
+installation may take effect with due observance."
+
+"I have been deprived of my treasure," said Timon.
+
+But the ambassadors gave him no credit until they had searched every chink
+and crevice in the cavern, and dug up all the earth round the entrance.
+They then regarded each other with blank consternation.
+
+"Let us leave him as we found him," said one.
+
+"Let us hang him up," said another.
+
+"Let us sell him into captivity," said a third.
+
+"Nay, friends," said the bland gentleman, "such confession of error would
+impeach our credit as statesmen. Moreover, should the people learn that
+Timon has lost his money, they will naturally conclude that we have taken
+it. Let us, therefore, keep this misfortune from their knowledge, and trust
+for relief to the chapter of accidents, as usual in State affairs."
+
+They therefore robed Timon in a dress of honour, and conducted him to
+Athens, where half the inhabitants were awaiting him. Two triumphal arches
+spanned the principal street, and on one was inscribed "Timon the
+Benefactor," and  on the other "Timon the Friend of Humanity." And all
+along, far as the eye could reach, stood those whom his bounty, as was
+stated, had rescued from perdition, the poor he had relieved, the sick he
+had medicined, the orphans he had fathered, the poets and painters he had
+patronised, all lauding and thanking him, and soliciting a continuance of
+his liberality. And the rabble cried "Largesse, largesse!" and horsemen
+galloped forth, casting among them nuts enveloped in silver-leaf and apples
+and comfits and trinkets and brass farthings in incredible quantities. At
+which the people murmured somewhat, and spoke amiss respecting Timon and
+the senators who escorted him, and the bland gentleman strove to keep Timon
+between himself and the populace. While Timon was pondering what the end of
+these things should be, his mob encountered another cheering for
+Alcibiades, and playing pitch and toss with drachmas and didrachmas and
+tetradrachmas, yea, even with staters and darics.
+
+"Long live Alcibiades," cried Timon's followers, as they attacked
+Alcibiades's supporters to get their share.
+
+"Long live Timon," cried Alcibiades's party, as they defended themselves.
+
+Timon and Alcibiades extricated themselves from the scuffle, and walked
+away arm in arm.
+
+"My dear friend," said Timon, "how inexpressibly beholden I am to you for
+taking the burden of my wealth upon yourself! There is nothing I would not
+do to evince my gratitude."
+
+"Nothing?" queried Alcibiades.
+
+"Nothing," persisted Timon.
+
+"Then," said Alcibiades, "I will thank thee  to relieve me of Timandra, who
+is as tired of me as I am of her."
+
+Timon winced horribly, but his word was his bond, and Timandra accompanied
+him to his cavern, where at first she suffered much inconvenience from the
+roughness of the accommodation. But Timon, though a misanthrope, was not a
+brute; and when in process of time Timandra's health required special care,
+rugs and pillows were provided for her, and also for Timon; for he saw that
+he could no longer pass for a churl if he made his wife more comfortable
+than himself. And, though he counted gold as dross, yet was he not
+dissatisfied that Timandra had saved the gold he had given her formerly
+against a rainy day. And when a child was born, Timon was at his wits' end,
+and blessed the old woman who came to nurse it. And she admonished him of
+his duty to the Gods, which meant sacrifice, which meant merry-making. And
+the child grew, and craved food and drink, and Timon possessed himself of
+three acres and a cow. And not being able to doubt his child's affection
+for him, he came to believe in Timandra's also. And when the tax-gatherer
+oppressed his neighbours, he pleaded their cause, which was also his own,
+in the courts of Athens, and gained it by the interest of Alcibiades. And
+his neighbours made him demarch, and he feasted them. And Apemantus came to
+deride him, and Timon bore with him; but he was impertinent to Timandra,
+and Timon beat him.
+
+And in fine, Timon became very like any other Attic country gentleman, save
+that he always maintained that a young man did well to be a  misanthrope
+until he got a loving and sensible wife, which, as he observed, could but
+seldom happen. And the Gods looked down upon him with complacency, and
+deferred the ruin of Athens until he should be no more.
+
+
+
+II.--Napoleon's Sangaree
+
+
+Napoleon Buonaparte sat in his garden at St. Helena, in the shadow of a
+fig-tree. Before him stood a little table, and upon the table stood a glass
+of sangaree. The day was hot and drowsy; the sea boomed monotonously on the
+rocks; the broad fig-leaves stirred not; great flies buzzed heavily in the
+sultry air. Napoleon wore a loose linen coat and a broad brimmed planter's
+hat, and looked as red as the sangaree, but nowise as comfortable.
+
+"To think," he said aloud, "that I should end my life here, with nothing to
+sweeten my destiny but this lump of sugar!"
+
+And he dropped it into the sangaree, and little ripples and beads broke out
+on the surface of the liquid.
+
+"Thou should'st have followed me," said a voice.
+
+"Me," said another.
+
+And a steam from the sangaree rose high over Napoleon's head, and from it
+shaped themselves two beautiful female figures. One was fair and very
+youthful, with a Phrygian cap on her head, and eager eyes beneath it, and a
+slender spear in her hand. The other was somewhat older,  and graver, and
+darker, with serious eyes; and she carried a sword, and wore a helmet, from
+underneath which her rich brown tresses escaped over her vesture of light
+steel armour.
+
+"I am Liberty," said the first.
+
+"I am Loyalty," said the second.
+
+And Napoleon laid his hand in that of the first spirit, and instantly saw
+himself as he had been in the days of his youthful victories, only beset
+with a multitude of people who were offering him a crown, and cheering
+loudly. But he thrust it aside, and they cheered ten times more, and fell
+into each other's arms, and wept and kissed each other. And troops of young
+maidens robed in white danced before him, strewing his way with flowers.
+And the debts of the debtor were paid, and the prisoners were released from
+captivity. And the forty Academicians came bringing Napoleon the prize of
+virtue. And the Abbe Sieyes stood up, and offered Napoleon his choice of
+seventeen constitutions; and Napoleon chose the worst. And he came to sit
+with five hundred other men, mostly advocates. And when he said "Yea," they
+said "Nay"; and when he said "white," they said "black." And they suffered
+him to do neither good nor evil, and when he went to war they commanded his
+army for him, until he was smitten with a great slaughter. And the enemy
+entered the country, and bread was scarce and wine dear; and the people
+cursed Napoleon, and Liberty vanished from before him. But he roamed on,
+ever looking for her, and at length he found her lying dead in the public
+way, all gashed and bleeding, and trampled with the feet of men and horses,
+and the wheel of a tumbril  was over her neck. And Napoleon, under
+compulsion of the mob, ascended the tumbril; and Abbe Sieyes and Bishop
+Talleyrand rode at his side, administering spiritual consolation. Thus they
+came within sight of the guillotine, whereon stood M. de Robespierre in his
+sky-blue coat, and his jaw bound up in a bloody cloth, bowing and smiling,
+nevertheless, and beckoning Napoleon to ascend to him. Napoleon had never
+feared the face of man; but when he saw M. de Robespierre great dread fell
+upon him, and he leapt out of the tumbril, and fled amain, passing amid the
+people as it were mid withered leaves, until he came where Loyalty stood
+awaiting him.
+
+She took his hand in hers, and, lo! another great host of people proffering
+him a crown, save one little old man, who alone of them all wore his hair
+in a queue with powder.
+
+"See," said the little old man, "that thou takest not what doth not belong
+to thee."
+
+"To whom belongeth it then?" asked Napoleon, "for I am a plain soldier, and
+have no skill in politics."
+
+"To Louis the Disesteemed," said the little old man, "for he is a
+great-great-nephew of the Princess of Schwoffingen, whose ancestors reigned
+here at the flood."
+
+"Where dwells Louis the Disesteemed?" asked Napoleon.
+
+"In England," said the little old man.
+
+Napoleon therefore repaired to England, and sought for Louis the
+Disesteemed. But none could direct him, save that it behoved him to seek in
+the obscurest places. And one day, as he was passing through a mean street,
+he heard  a voice of lamentation, and perceived a man whose coat and shirt
+were rent and dirty; but not so his pantaloons, for he had none.
+
+"Who art thou, thou pantaloonless one?" asked he, "and wherefore makest
+thou this lamentation?"
+
+"I am Louis the Esteemed, King of France and Navarre," replied the
+distrousered personage, "and I lament for my pantaloons, which I have been
+enforced to pawn, inasmuch as the broker would advance nothing upon my coat
+or my shirt."
+
+And Napoleon went upon his knees and divested himself of his own nether
+garments, and arrayed the king therein, to the great diversion of those who
+stood about.
+
+"Thou hast done wickedly," said the king when he heard who Napoleon was,
+"in that thou hast presumed to fight battles and win victories without any
+commission from me. Go, nevertheless, and lose an arm, a leg, and an eye in
+my service, then shall thy offence be forgiven thee."
+
+And Napoleon raised a great army, and gained a great battle for the king,
+and lost an arm. And he gained another greater battle, and lost a leg. And
+he gained the greatest battle of all; and the king sat on the throne of his
+ancestors, and was called Louis the Victorious: but Napoleon had lost an
+eye. And he came into the king's presence, bearing his eye, his arm, and
+his leg.
+
+"Thou art pardoned," said the king, "and I will even confer a singular
+honour upon thee. Thou shalt defray the expense of my coronation,  which
+shall be the most splendid ever seen in France."
+
+So Napoleon lost all his substance, and no man pitied him. But after
+certain days the keeper of the royal wardrobe rushed into the king's
+presence, crying "Treason! treason! O Majesty, whence these republican and
+revolutionary pantaloons?"
+
+"They are those I deigned to receive from the rebel Buonaparte," said the
+king. "It were meet to return them. Where abides he now?"
+
+"Saving your Majesty's presence," they said, "he lieth upon a certain
+dunghill."
+
+"If this be so," said the king, "life can be no gratification to him, and
+it were humane to relieve him of it. Moreover, he is a dangerous man. Go,
+therefore, and strangle him with his own pantaloons. Yet, let a monument be
+raised to him, and engrave upon it, 'Here lies Napoleon Buonaparte, whom
+Louis the Victorious raised from the dunghill.'"
+
+They went accordingly; but behold! Napoleon already lay dead upon the
+dunghill. And this was told unto the king.
+
+"He hath ever been envious of my glory," said the king, "let him therefore
+be buried underneath."
+
+And it was so. And after no long space the king also died, and slept with
+his fathers. But when there was again a revolution in France, the people
+cast his bones out of the royal sepulchre, and laid Napoleon's there
+instead. And the dunghill complained grievously that it should be disturbed
+for so slight a cause.
+
+And Napoleon withdrew his hand from the  hand of Loyalty, saying, "Pish!"
+And his eyes opened, and he heard the booming of the sea, and the buzzing
+of the flies, and felt the heat of the sun, and saw that the sugar he had
+dropped into his sangaree had not yet reached the bottom of the tumbler.
+
+
+
+III.--Concerning Daniel Defoe
+
+
+Daniel Defoe, at the invitation of the judge, came forth from the garret
+wherein he abode, and rode in a cart unto the Royal Exchange, wherein he
+ascended the pillory, to the end that his ears might be nailed thereunto.
+And much people stood before him, some few pelting, some mocking, but the
+most part cheering or weeping, for they knew him for a friend to the poor,
+and especially those men who were called Dissenters. And a certain person
+in black stood by him, invisible to the people, but well seen of Daniel,
+who knew him for one whose life he had himself written. And the man in
+black reasoned with Daniel, and said, "Thou seest this multitude of people,
+but which of them shall deliver thee out of my hand? Nay, but let thy white
+be black, and thy black white, and I myself will deliver thee, and make
+thee rich, and heal thy hurts, save the holes in thy ears, that I may know
+thee for mine own." But Daniel gave no heed to him. So the Devil departed,
+having great wrath, and entered into a certain smug-faced man standing by.
+
+And now the crowd before Daniel was greatly  diminished, and consisted
+mainly of his enemies, for his friends had gone away to drown their sorrow.
+And the smug-faced man into whom Satan had entered came forth from among
+them, and said unto him, "O Daniel, inasmuch as I am a Dissenter I am
+greatly beholden to thee; but inasmuch as I am an honest tradesman I have
+somewhat against thee, for thou hast written concerning short weights and
+measures. And a man's shop is more to him than his country or his religion.
+Wherefore I must needs be avenged of thee. Yet shalt thou own that the
+tender mercies of the good man are piteous, and that even in his wrath he
+thinketh upon compassion."
+
+And he picked up a great stone from the ground, and wrapped it in a piece
+of paper, saying, "Lest peradventure it hurt him overmuch." And the stone
+was very rough and sharp, and the paper was very thin. And he hurled it
+with all his might at the middle of Daniel's forehead, and the blood
+spouted forth. And Daniel cried aloud, and called upon the name of the
+Devil. And in an instant the pillory and the people were gone, and he found
+himself in the Prime Minister's cabinet, healed of all his hurts, except
+the holes in his ears. And the Minister was so like the Devil that you
+could not tell the difference. And he said, "Against what wilt thou write
+first, Daniel?"
+
+"Dissenters," said Daniel.
+
+And he wrote a pamphlet, and such as read it took firebrands, and visited
+the Dissenters in their habitations. And many Dissenters were put into
+prison, and others fined and spoiled of  their goods. And he wrote other
+pamphlets, and each was cleverer and wickeder than the last. And whatsoever
+Daniel had of old declared to be white, lo! it was black; and what he had
+said was black, behold! it was white. And he throve and prospered
+exceedingly, and became a commissioner for public-houses and
+hackney-coaches and the imposing of oaths and the levying of custom, and
+all other such things as one does by deputy. And he mended the holes in his
+ears.
+
+But the time came when Daniel must be judged, and he went before the Lord.
+And all the court was full of Dissenters, and the Devil was there also. And
+the Dissenters testified many and grievous things against Daniel.
+
+"Daniel," said the Lord, "what answerest thou?"
+
+"Nothing, Lord," said Daniel. "Only I would that the Dissenter who threw
+that stone at me should receive due and condign punishment, adequate to his
+misdeed."
+
+"That," said the Devil, "is impossible."
+
+"Thou sayest well, Satan," said the Lord, "and therefore shall Daniel go
+free. For if anything can excuse the apostasy of the noble, it is the
+ingratitude of the base."
+
+So the Devil went to his own place, looking very small. And Daniel found
+himself in the same garret whence he had gone forth to the pillory; and
+before him were bread and cheese, and a pen and ink and paper. And he
+dipped the pen into the ink, and wrote _Robinson Crusoe_.
+
+
+
+IV.--Cornelius the Ferryman
+
+
+Fourscore years ago there was a good ferryman named Cornelius, who rowed
+people between New York and Brooklyn. He had neither wife nor child, nor
+any one to think of except himself. It was, therefore, his custom, when he
+had earned enough in a day for his own wants, to put the rest aside, and
+bestow it upon sick or blind or maimed persons, lest they should come to
+the workhouse. And the sick and the blind and the maimed gathered around
+him, and waited by the water's edge, until Cornelius's day's work should be
+over.
+
+This went on until one of the little sooty imps who are always in mischief
+came to hear of it, and told the principal devil in charge of the United
+States, whose name is Politicianus.
+
+"Dear me," said the Devil, "this will never do. I will see to it
+immediately."
+
+And he went off to Cornelius, and caught him in the act of giving two dimes
+to a blind beggar.
+
+"How foolish you are!" he said; "what waste of money is this! If you saved
+it up, you would by-and-by be able to build an hospital for all the beggars
+in New York."
+
+"It would be a long time before there was enough," objected Cornelius.
+
+"Not at all," said the Devil, "if you let me invest your money for you."
+And he showed Cornelius the plan of a most splendid hospital, and across
+the front of it was inscribed in letters of gold, _Cornelius Diabolodorus_.
+And Cornelius  was persuaded, and that evening he gave nothing to the poor.
+And the poor had come to think that Cornelius's money was their own, and
+abused him as though he had robbed them. And Cornelius drove them away: and
+his heart was hardened against them from that day forth.
+
+But the Devil kept his promise to Cornelius, and put him up to all the good
+things in Wall Street, and he soon had enough to build ten hospitals. But
+the more he had to build with, the less he wanted to build. And by-and-by
+the Devil called upon him, and found him contemplating two pictures. One of
+them showed the finest hospital you can imagine, full of neat, clean rooms,
+in one of which sat Cornelius himself, wearing a dress with a number and
+badge, and sipping arrowroot. The other showed fine houses, and
+opera-boxes, and fast-trotting horses, and dry champagne, and ladies who
+dance in ballets, and paintings by the great masters. Cornelius thrust the
+pictures away, and the Devil did not ask to see them, nor was it needful
+that he should, for he had painted them himself.
+
+"O dear Mr. Devil," said Cornelius, "I am so glad that you have called, for
+I wanted to speak to you. It strikes me that there is a great defect in the
+plan which you have been so good as to draw for me."
+
+"What is that?" asked the Devil.
+
+"There is no place for black men," said Cornelius. "And you know white men
+will never let them come into the same hospital."
+
+And the Devil, to do him justice, talked very reasonably to Cornelius, and
+represented to him that there were very few black men in New  York, and
+that these had very vigorous constitutions. But Cornelius was inflamed with
+enthusiasm, and frantic with philanthropy, and he vowed that he would not
+give a cent to an hospital that had not a wing for black men as big as all
+the rest of the building. And the Devil had to take his plan back, and come
+again in a year and a day. And when he did come back, Cornelius asked him
+if he did not think it would be a most excellent thing if all the Irishmen
+in New York could be shut up in an hospital or elsewhere; and he could not
+deny it. So he had to take his plan back again. And next year it was the
+turn of the Chinese, and then of the Red Indians, and then of the dogs and
+cats. And then Cornelius thought that he ought to provide room for all the
+people who had been ruined by his speculations, and the Devil thought so
+too, but doubted whether Cornelius would be able to afford it. And at last
+Cornelius said:
+
+"Methinks I have been very foolish in wishing to build an hospital at all
+while I am living. Surely it would be better that I should enjoy my money
+myself during my life, and leave the residue for the lawyers to divide
+after my death."
+
+"You are quite right," said the Devil; "that is exactly what I should do if
+I were you."
+
+So Cornelius put the plans behind a shelf in his counting-house, and the
+mice ate them. And he went on prospering and growing rich, until the Devil
+became envious of him, and insisted on changing places with him. So
+Cornelius went below, and the Devil came and dwelt in New York, where he
+still is.
+
+
+
+
+THE POISON MAID
+
+        O not for him
+  Blooms my dark nightshade, nor doth hemlock brew
+  Murder for cups within her cavernous root.
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Grievous is the lot of the child, more especially of the female child, who
+is doomed from the tenderest infancy to lack the blessing of a mother's
+care.
+
+Was it from this absence of maternal vigilance that the education of the
+lovely Mithridata was conducted from her babyhood in such an extraordinary
+manner? That enormous serpents infested her cradle, licking her face and
+twining around her limbs? That her tiny fingers patted scorpions? and tied
+knots in the tails of vipers? That her father, the magician Locuste, ever
+sedulous and affectionate, fed her with spoonsful of the honeyed froth that
+gathers under the tongues of asps? That as she grew older and craved a more
+nutritious diet, she partook, at first in infinitesimal doses, but in ever
+increasing quantities, of arsenic, strychnine, opium, and prussic acid?
+That at last having attained the flower of youth, she drank habitually from
+vessels of gold, for her favourite beverages were so corrosive that no
+other substance could resist their solvent properties?
+
+Gradually accustomed to this strange regimen, she had thriven on it
+marvellously, and was without a peer for beauty, sense, and goodness. Her
+father had watched over her education with care, and had instructed her in
+all lawful knowledge, save only the knowledge of poisons. As no other human
+being had entered the house, Mithridata was unaware that her bringing up
+had differed in so material a respect from that of other young people.
+
+"Father," said she one day, bringing him a book she had been perusing,
+"what strange follies learned men will pen with gravity! or is it rather
+that none can set bounds to the licence of romancers? These dear serpents,
+my friends and playfellows, this henbane and antimony, the nourishment of
+my health and vigour--that any one should write of these as pernicious,
+deadly, and fatal to existence! Is it error or malignity? or but the wanton
+freak of an idle imagination?"
+
+"My child," answered the magician, "it is fit that thou shouldst now learn
+what hath hitherto been concealed from thee, and with this object I left
+this treatise in thy way. It speaks truth. Thou hast been nurtured from thy
+infancy on substances endowed with lethal properties, commonly called
+poisons. Thy entire frame is impregnated thereby, and, although thou
+thyself art in the fullest enjoyment of health, thy kiss would be fatal to
+any one not, like thy father, fortified by a course of antidotes. Now hear
+the reason. I bear a deadly grudge to the king of this land. He indeed hath
+not injured me; but his father slew my father, wherefore it is meet that I
+should slay that ancestor's son's son. I have therefore nurtured thee from
+thy infancy on  the deadliest poisons, until thou art a walking vial of
+pestilence. The young prince shall unseal thee, to his destruction and thy
+unspeakable advantage. Go to the great city; thou art beautiful as the day;
+he is young, handsome, and amorous; he will infallibly fall in love with
+thee. Do thou submit to his caresses, he will perish miserably; thou (such
+is the charm) ransomed by the kiss of love, wilt become wholesome and
+innocuous as thy fellows, preserving only thy knowledge of poisons, always
+useful, in the present state of society invaluable. Thou wilt therefore
+next repair to the city of Constantinople, bearing recommendatory letters
+from me to the Empress Theophano, now happily reigning."
+
+"Father," said Mithridata, "either I shall love this young prince, or I
+shall not. If I do not love him, I am nowise minded to suffer him to caress
+me. If I do love him, I am as little minded to be the cause of his death."
+
+"Not even in consideration of the benefit which will accrue to thee by this
+event?"
+
+"Not even for that consideration."
+
+"O these daughters!" exclaimed the old man. "We bring them up tenderly, we
+exhaust all our science for the improvement of their minds and bodies, we
+set our choicest hopes upon them, and entrust them with the fulfilment of
+our most cherished aspirations; and when all is done, they will not so much
+as commit a murder to please us! Miserable ingrate, receive the just
+requital of thy selfish disobedience!"
+
+"O father, do not turn me into a tadpole!"
+
+"I will not, but I will turn thee out of doors."
+
+And he did.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Though disinherited, Mithridata was not destitute. She had secured a
+particle of the philosopher's stone--a slender outfit for a magician's
+daughter! yet ensuring her a certain portion of wealth. What should she do
+now? The great object of her life must henceforth be to avoid committing
+murder, especially murdering any handsome young man. It would have seemed
+most natural to retire into a convent, but, not to speak of her lack of
+vocation, she felt that her father would justly consider that she had
+disgraced her family, and she still looked forward to reconciliation with
+him. She might have taken a hermitage, but her instinct told her that a
+fair solitary can only keep young men off by strong measures; and she
+disliked the character of a hermitess with a bull-dog. She therefore went
+straight to the great city, took a house, and surrounded herself with
+attendants. In the choice of these she was particularly careful to select
+those only whose personal appearance was such as to discourage any approach
+to familiarity or endearment. Never before or since was youthful beauty
+surrounded by such moustached duennas, squinting chambermaids, hunchbacked
+pages, and stumpy maids-of-all-work. This was a real sorrow to her, for she
+loved beauty; it was a still sadder trial that she could no longer feel it
+right to indulge herself in the least morsel of arsenic; she sighed for
+strychnia, and pined for prussic acid. The change of diet was of course at
+first  most trying to her health, and in fact occasioned a serious illness,
+but youth and a sound constitution pulled her through.
+
+Reader, hast thou known what it is to live with a heart inflamed by love
+for thy fellow-creatures which thou couldst manifest neither by word nor
+deed? To pine with fruitless longings for good? and to consume with vain
+yearnings for usefulness? To be misjudged and haply reviled by thy fellows
+for failing to do what it is not given thee to do? If so, thou wilt pity
+poor Mithridata, whose nature was most ardent, expansive, and affectionate,
+but who, from the necessity under which she laboured of avoiding as much as
+possible all contact with human beings, saw herself condemned to a life of
+solitude, and knew that she was regarded as a monster of pride and
+exclusiveness. She dared bestow no kind look, no encouraging gesture on any
+one, lest this small beginning should lead to the manifestation of her
+fatal power. Her own servants, whose minds were generally as deformed as
+their bodies, hated her, and bitterly resented what they deemed her haughty
+disdain of them. Her munificence none could deny, but bounty without
+tenderness receives no more gratitude than it deserves. The young of her
+own sex secretly rejoiced at her unamiability, regarding it as a
+providential set-off against her beauty, while they detested and denounced
+her as a--well, they would say viper in the manger, who spoiled everybody
+else's lovers and would have none of her own. For with all Mithridata's
+severity, there was no getting rid of the young men, the giddy moths that
+flew around her brilliant but baleful candle. Not all  the cold water
+thrown upon them, literally as well as figuratively, could keep them from
+her door. They filled her house with bouquets and billets doux; they stood
+before the windows, they sat on the steps, they ran beside her litter when
+she was carried abroad, they assembled at night to serenade her, fighting
+desperately among themselves. They sought to gain admission as tradesmen,
+as errand boys, even as scullions male and female. To such lengths did they
+proceed, that a particularly audacious youth actually attempted to carry
+her off one evening, and would have succeeded but for the interposition of
+another, who flew at him with a drawn sword, and after a fierce contest
+smote him bleeding to the ground. Mithridata had fainted, of course. What
+was her horror on reviving to find herself in the arms of a young man of
+exquisite beauty and princely mien, sucking death from her lips with
+extraordinary relish! She shrieked, she struggled; if she made any
+unfeminine use of her hands, let the urgency of the case plead her apology.
+The youth reproached her bitterly for her ingratitude. She listened in
+silent misery, unable to defend herself. The shaft of love had penetrated
+her bosom also, and it cost her almost as much for her own sake to dismiss
+the young man as it did to see him move away, slowly and languidly
+staggering to his doom.
+
+For the next few days messages came continually, urging her to haste to a
+youth dying for her sake, whom her presence would revive effectually. She
+steadily refused, but how much her refusal cost her! She wept, she wrung
+her hands, she called for death and execrated her nurture.  With that
+strange appetite for self-torment which almost seems to diminish the pangs
+of the wretched, she collected books on poisons, studied all the symptoms
+described, and fancied her hapless lover undergoing them all in turn. At
+length a message came which admitted of no evasion. The King commanded her
+presence. Admonished by past experience, she provided herself with a veil
+and mask, and repaired to the palace.
+
+The old King seemed labouring under deep affliction; under happier
+circumstances he must have been joyous and debonair. He addressed her with
+austerity, yet with kindness.
+
+"Maiden," he began, "thy unaccountable cruelty to my son----"
+
+"Thy son!" she exclaimed, "The Prince! O father, thou art avenged for my
+disobedience!"
+
+"Surpasses what history hath hitherto recorded of the most obdurate
+monsters. Thou art indebted to him for thy honour, to preserve which he has
+risked his life. Thou bringest him to the verge of the grave by thy
+cruelty, and when a smile, a look from thee would restore him, thou wilt
+not bestow it."
+
+"Alas! great King," she replied, "I know too well what your Majesty's
+opinion of me must be. I must bear it as I may. Believe me, the sight of me
+could effect nothing towards the restoration of thy son."
+
+"Of that I shall judge," said the King, "when thou hast divested thyself of
+that veil and mask."
+
+Mithridata reluctantly complied.
+
+"By Heaven!" exclaimed the King, "such a  sight might recall the departing
+soul from Paradise. Haste to my son, and instantly; it is not yet too
+late."
+
+"O King," urged Mithridata, "how could this countenance do thy son any
+good? Is he not suffering from the effects of seventy-two poisons?"
+
+"I am not aware of that," said the King.
+
+"Are not his entrails burned up with fire? Is not his flesh in a state of
+deliquescence? Has not his skin already peeled off his body? Is he not
+tormented by incessant gripes and vomitings?"
+
+"Not to my knowledge," said the King. "The symptoms, as I understand, are
+not unlike those which I remember to have experienced myself, in a milder
+form, certainly. He lies in bed, eats and drinks nothing, and incessantly
+calls upon thee."
+
+"This is most incomprehensible," said Mithridata. "There was no drug in my
+father's laboratory that could have produced such an effect."
+
+"The sum of the matter is," continued the King, "that either thou wilt
+repair forthwith to my son's chamber, and subsequently to church; or else
+unto the scaffold."
+
+"If it must be so, I choose the scaffold," said Mithridata resolutely.
+"Believe me, O King, my appearance in thy son's chamber would but destroy
+whatever feeble hope of recovery may remain. I love him beyond everything
+on earth, and not for worlds would I have his blood on my soul."
+
+"Chamberlain," cried the monarch, "bring me a strait waistcoat."
+
+Driven into a corner, Mithridata flung herself at the King's feet, taking
+care, however, not to touch him, and confided to him all her wretched
+history.
+
+The venerable monarch burst into a peal of laughter. "A bon chat bon rat!"
+he exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered himself. "So thou art the
+daughter of my old friend the magician Locusto! I fathomed his craft, and,
+as he fed his child upon poisons, I fed mine upon antidotes. Never did any
+child in the world take an equal quantity of physic: but there is now no
+poison on earth can harm him. Ye are clearly made for each other; haste to
+his bedside, and, as the spell requires, rid thyself of thy venefic
+properties in his arms as expeditiously as possible. Thy father shall be
+bidden to the wedding, and an honoured guest he shall be, for having taught
+us that the kiss of Love is the remedy for every poison."
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained
+sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many
+originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the
+annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it
+desirable to append, and which further provide an opportunity of tendering
+thanks to many friends for their assent to republication.
+
+P. 5. _The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,_--Hereby we may detect
+the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with
+Armenia. "Hellenic letters," says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the
+fourth century, "were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the
+slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens" ("University Life in
+Ancient Athens," p. 73).
+
+P. 28. _Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality._--The belief in
+this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and many
+emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the
+groundwork of Leopold Schefer's novel, "Der Unsterblichkeitstrank," which
+has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of "The Potion of
+Lao-Tsze."
+
+P. 38. _So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously._--In A.D. 683,
+the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband's death, caused her son to be
+set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In our day we
+have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.
+
+P. 50. _Ananda the Miracle Worker._--This story was originally published
+in Fraser's Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared in the
+_Revue Britannique_ for November, 1872. Buddha's prohibition to work
+miracles rests, so far as the present writer's knowledge extends, on the
+authority of Professor Max Mueller ("Lectures on the  Science of
+Religion"). It should be needless to observe that Ananda, "the St. John of
+the Buddhist group," is not recorded to have contravened this or any other
+of his master's precepts.
+
+P. 66. _The City of Philosophers._--This story has been translated into
+French by M. Sarrazin.
+
+P. 68. _There to establish a philosophic commonwealth._--The petition was
+actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the disordered
+condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to save a sinking
+state, possessed the accomplishments which would have adorned an age of
+peace and culture.
+
+P. 82. _The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge._--Gallienus
+was fond of such practical jocularity. "Quum quidam gemmas vitreas pro
+veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita, vindicari vellet,
+surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea caponem emittit,
+mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici jussit,
+'Imposturam fecit et passus est': deinde negotiatorem dimisit" (Trebellius
+in Gallieno, cap. xii.).
+
+P. 100. _Hypati, anthypati, &c._--_Hypati_ and _anthypati_ denote consuls
+and proconsuls, dignities of course merely titular at the court of
+Constantinople. _Silentiarii_ were properly officers charged with
+maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was perhaps performed by
+deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons of distinction.
+The _protospatharius_ was the chief of the Imperial body-guard, of which
+the _spatharocandidati_ constituted the _elite_.
+
+P. 114. _The Wisdom of the Indians._--Appeared in 1890 in _The Universal
+Review_. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian's travels in
+Burma.
+
+P. 124. _The Dumb Oracle._--Appeared in the _University Magazine_ for
+June, 1878. The legend on which it is founded, a mediaeval myth here
+transferred to classical times, is also the groundwork of Browning's
+ballad, "The Boy and the Angel."
+
+P. 136. _Duke Virgil._--The subject of this story is derived from Leopold
+Schefer's novel, "Die Sibylle von Mantua," though there is but little
+resemblance in the incidents. Schefer cites Friedrich von Quandt as his
+authority for the Mantuans having actually elected Virgil as their duke in
+the thirteenth century: but the notion  seems merely founded upon the
+interpretation of the insignia accompanying a mediaeval statue of the poet.
+
+P. 138. _To put the devil into a hole_.--"Then sayd Virgilius, 'Shulde ye
+well passe in to the hole that ye cam out of?' 'Yea, I shall well,' sayd
+the devyl. 'I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it.'
+'Well,' sayd the devyll, 'thereto I consent.' And then the devyll wrange
+himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne, and he was therein. Virgilius kyvered
+the hole ageyne with the borde close, and so was the devyll begyled, and
+myght nat there come out agen, but abideth shutte still therein" ("Romance
+of Virgilius").
+
+_Ibid. Canst thou balance our city upon an egg?_--"Than he thought in his
+mynde to founde in the middle of the sea a fayre towne, with great landes
+belongynge to it, and so he did by his cunnynge, and called it Napells. And
+the foundacyon of it was of eggs" ("Romance of Virgilius").
+
+P. 148. _The Claw_.--Originally published in _The English Illustrated
+Magazine_.
+
+P. 151. _Peter of Abano_.--Pietro di Abano, who took his name from his
+birthplace, a village near Padua, was a physician contemporary with Dante,
+whose skill in medicine and astrology caused him to be accused of magic. It
+is nevertheless untrue that he was burned by the Inquisition or stoned by
+the populace; but after his death he was burned in effigy, his remains
+having been secretly removed by his friends. Honours were afterwards paid
+to his memory; and there seems no doubt that he was a man of great
+attainments, including a knowledge of Greek, and of unblemished character,
+if he had not sometimes sold his skill at too high a rate. For his
+authentic history, see the article in the _Biographie Universelle_ by
+Ginguene; for the legendary, Tieck's romantic tale, "Pietro von Abano"
+(1825), which has been translated into English.
+
+P. 156. _Alexander the Rat-catcher_.--This story, to whose ground-work
+History and Rabelais have equally contributed, was first published in vol.
+xii. of _The Yellow Book_, January, 1897.
+
+P. 157. _Cardinal Barbadico_.--This cardinal was actually entrusted by
+Alexander VIII. with the commission of suppressing the rats; an occasion
+upon which the "sardonic grin" imputed to the Pope by a detractor may be
+conjectured to have been particularly apparent. Barbadico was a remarkable
+instance of a man "kicked upstairs." As  Archbishop of Corfu he had had a
+violent dispute with the Venetian governor, and Innocent XI., equally
+unwilling to disown the representative of Papal authority or offend the
+Republic, recalled him to Rome and made him a Cardinal to keep him there.
+
+P. 177. _The Rewards of Industry._--Appeared originally in _Atalanta for
+August_, 1888.
+
+P. 194. _The Talismans._--First published in _Atalanta_ for September,
+1890.
+
+P. 202. _The Elixir of Life._--Published July, 1881, in the third number
+of a magazine entitled _Our Times_, which blasted the elixir's character by
+expiring immediately afterwards.
+
+P. 226. _The Purple Head._--Appeared originally in _Fraser's Magazine_ for
+August, 1877.
+
+P. 228. _The purple of the emperor and the matrons appeared ashy grey in
+comparison._ "Cineris specie decolorari videbantur caeterae divini
+comparatione fulgoris" (Vopiscus, in Vita Aureliani, cap. xxix.).
+
+P. 230. _All these sovereigns._--"Diligentissime et Aurelianus et Probus
+et proxime Diocletianus missis diligentissimis confectoribus requisiverunt
+tale genus purpurae, nec tamen invenire potuerunt" (Vopiscus, _loc. cit._).
+
+P. 241. _Pan's Wand._--Published originally in a Christmas number of The
+_Illustrated London News_.
+
+P. 249. _A Page from the Book of Folly._--Appeared in _Temple Bar_ for
+1871.
+
+P. 282. _The Philosopher and the Butterflies._--One of the contributions
+by various writers to "The New Amphion," a little book prepared for sale at
+the Fancy Fair got up by the students of the University of Edinburgh in
+1886.
+
+P. 294. _The Three Palaces._--Published originally on a similar occasion
+to the last story, in "A Volunteer Haversack," an extensive repertory of
+miscellaneous contributions in prose and verse, printed and sold at
+Edinburgh for a benevolent purpose in 1902.
+
+P. 300. _New Readings in Biography._--Originally published in _The Scots
+Observer_ in 1889.
+
+P. 315. _The Poison Maid._--The author wrote this tale in entire
+forgetfulness of Hawthorne's "Rapaccini's Daughter," which nevertheless he
+had certainly read.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: a misprint in the book was corrected in
+this edition, from "He martyrdom" to "His martyrdom".]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Twilight of the Gods, and Other
+Tales, by Richard Garnett
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWILIGHT OF GODS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 10095.txt or 10095.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/9/10095/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/old/10095.zip b/old/old/10095.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b980969
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/10095.zip