recess, the mighty book of his science. " Is it time?" cried Berecynth. "Peace!" said the old man solemnly, " and disturb not the holy charm with any useless mischievous babbling." He read, at first softly, and then in a louder and more vehement voice, as he moved up and down, with measured steps, within the circle. After a time, he stopped and cried out, " Go, and see what sort of appearance the heavens present."

"Thick darkness," answered his servant, returning, " is over the face of the sky; the clouds are gathering, and rain is beginning to fall." "The heavens are propitious!" cried the old man" we must succeed." He now

knelt down, and, muttering imprecations, frequently touched the floor with his forehead. His countenance was flushed, and his eyes sparkled. He muttered the holy names which man is forbid to speak; and after a while he again sent his servant out to examine the firmament. Mean-while, the gathering storm began to rage with all its force; lightning and thunder were slipt from their leashes, and the house trembled to its foundations. "Hearken to the storm!" cried Bere.. cynth, coming back in haste, -" Hell has broken loose from below, and is abroad with all his fires; and what with the crashing thunderbolts that are bursting upon us from above, the globe herself is almost shaken from her sphere. Cease your incantations, lest the very bands break which hold the solid universe together!"

"Fool! madman!" cried the magician" Peace with that drivelling chatter! Haste and throw wide open all the doors the door of the house also." The dwarf departed to execute his master's commands. The magician, in the mean time, lighted the consecrated tapers. With shuddering steps he approached the great torch which stood upon a lofty stand, and when it, too, had taken fire, then he prostrated himself to the ground, and offered up louder and louder adjurations. His eyes streamed with fire; his limbs trembled as if convulsively; and the cold sweat of anxiety burst forth from every pore. With frantic gestures, and in dreadful terror, the dwarf came bounding back from his errand, and took refuge within the circle. "The world is bursting into pieces!" cried he, with pale features and chattering "All the elements of horror

and fury are abroad; but every living

creature has retreated into the inner-most recess of its dwelling, in order to escape the anguish of this terrible time."

The old man raised his countenance from the ground, death-pale, and with an expression of unfathomable horror, cried aloud in a strange accent"Silence! miserable slave! and disturb not the work. Take heed that you lose not your senses. The most appalling is yet to come."

His breath

With a loud voice, as if he would burst his chest, he again commenced reading and praying. often failed; and the violent exertions he made, appeared as if they would kill him. Then suddenly was heard a confused noise of voices wrangling with one another. They whisperedthey raved they laughed - they blended together in song; and with the whole was mixed up an intricate chiming of strange instruments. All the utensils now became living, and danced up and down the apartment. From every wall in the house, strange creatures of all kinds came pouring forth - beasts and monsters, abor tions and living caricatures of the most abominable description - and writhedand twisted themselves about in figures of the most complicated variety. "Master!" cried Berecynth, "the house will soon be too small to hold them. What is to be done with this interminable host of spectres? Surely they must eat up one another. Alas! woe's me! each one of them is ever developing itself into ghastlier and more frantic numbers. I shall lose my senses amid their swarms, their yellings, and fifings-their bursts of laughter, and shrieks of passionate dreariment. Look! master, look! the walls are dilating-the chambers are stretching themselves away into vistas of infinity. We stand amid immeasurable halls. The ceilings are lifting themselves up into vaults of unfathomable height. And still the phantoms are shooting forth on all sides, and ever keep multiplying themselves with the growing space. What is to be done? Have you no succour for us amid the trials of this dreadful hour?"

Here Pietro raised himself up, dreadfully exhausted. "Look out once more," said he in a low voice; direct thine eyes to the Cathedral, and tell me what thou see'st."

"If I stir a step," said Berecynth in perplexity, "I shall trample on the heads of these good people here. They are writhing on all sides of me like snakes, and laughing scornfully in my face. Are they spirits-real substan. tial goblins, or mere empty phantoms? I say, you devils, unless you get out of my way, I shall certainly tread on the green or blue snouts of some of you. Let every one look out for himself!" So saying, he dashed into the

midst of them.

All was now still, and Pietro stood up. He made a sign, and the whole spectre host vanished from the place. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and drew his breath more freely. Here his servant returned, and said, "Master, every thing is now quiet and gracious. At first, light phantoms went flying past me, and vanished in the dark sky; and then, when I had fixed my eyes on the Cathedral, a mighty peal arose, as if all the chords of a giant's harp had at once been made shiver, while, at the stroke, every street and house trembled. Then the great door of the cathedral flew open; sweet flutings arose upon the air, and a soft serene light flooded the interior of the church. A female form came forth into the beams, pale, but radiant as an angel, and crowned with a coronet of flowers. She stepped out of the church door, and an escort of gentle lights guided her steps along the streets through which she had to pass. With erect head and folded hands she glided on towards our dwelling. Is this she whom you expect?"

"Take this golden key," answered Pietro, " and open with it the innermost and most sumptuous apartment in my house. The purple purpl couch is

spread, and the perfumes are burning. Then betake yourself to rest. Make no further enquiries about what you have witnessed to-night. Be silent and obedient, as you value your life."

" I know my own place, I believe,"

said the dwarf, taking himself off with the key, and darting a malicious glance behind him as he went.

Mean-while gentle strains were heard coming nearer and nearer. Pietro went down into his entrance-hall, and at the same moment there glided into it the pale corpse of Crescentia, dressed in her winding-sheet, and still holding the crucifix in her folded hands. The magician placed himself before her, she opened her eyes wide, and, trembling from head to foot, started back from him in horror, so that the crown of flowers was shaken from her head. In silence he parted her folded hands; but in the left she still held fast the cross. Taking her by the right, he led her through the range of his apartments; and she went with him-arigid and unconscious form that regarded him not.

At length they reached a remote chamber, in which they halted. It was most sumptuously adorned with purple and gold, silk and satin, and the light even of broad day fell with faint and deadened rays through the heavy curtains. The sorcerer motioned his victim towards the couch, and the unconscious being, filled so strangely with life, lifted and let fall her fair head, like a lily stirred by the wind, as she sank down on the purple coverlet, breathing as if in agony. The old man poured a precious essence from a golden flask into a small crystal saucer, and held it to her lips. The maiden swallowed the miraculous draught, opened her eyes once more, and gazed upon him whom in life she had regarded as her friend; she then turned from him with an expression of abhorrence, and sank into a deep slumber.

The magician now retired, locking the apartment. The whole house was buried in profound repose. He betook himself to his own chamber, there, amid his books and magical instruments, to await the sunrise and the business of the day.

When the unhappy youth Antonio was sufficiently rested, Podesta and a large troop of armed followers rode out with him on the following day, to search for the hut, and to capture the hateful hag and her banditti. The account given by Antonio, had made

the disconsolate father very anxious to behold the maiden who so closely resembled his dead daughter.

"Is it possible," said the old man, as he rode along, "that a dream I have often had should turn out to be really true?"

The father was too eager to reach the spot to carry on much conversation with Antonio. They at length entered the wood, and the youth expected to be able to recover the traces of his late journey. But so terribly had the events of that dreadful night perplexed and shaken his soul, that he was unable, with all his pains, to fix upon the path along which, during the storm, he had been carried with the madness of despair. They crossed the country in all directions; and wherever a thicket or trees were to be seen, Antonio spurred up to them, in hopes of detecting the robbers' den, or (ifits. inhabitants had taken themselves off, as he thought extremely probable) of at least discovering some traces that they had been there. At length, after they had spent the greater part of the day in a fruitless quest, Podesta came to the conclusion that the whole had been a mere vision, fabricated by the youth's brain, fevered by the bewilderment of grief. "The discovery," exclaimed he, "would be too great good-luck for me, for I was born to be the most unfortunate of men!"

It was now necessary that they should bait their horses at a village hard by. Its inhabitants had never heard of their suspected neighbours, and the corpse of the slain robber had not been found any where in the country round about. After a time they again took the road, although Podesta now followed Antonio with very little hopes of success. They questioned every peasant they met, but could get

no satisfactory answer to their queries. Towards evening they came upon a spot which had the appearance of having been much disturbed; ashes and rubbish lay scattered around here and there charred beams were visible among the ruins, and the neighbouring trees also bore the traces of fire. The youth thought he recognised the place. Here, thought he, surely stood the dwelling of the murderers; here it was that that strange apparition of Crescentia appeared to me. The company halted. Far and wide there was not a house in sight-not a human being to be seen. They dispatched a servant to the nearest farm, and, after a time, he brought back with him an old man on horseback. The old man said that, about a year ago, a cottage on this spot had been set on fire by some soldiers; that the proprietor of the ground had been living for the last ten years at Rome, in expectation of some priestly office; and that his steward had gone to Ravenna to collect some outstanding debts.

Dispirited and weary, the travellers returned to the city. Podesta determined to give up all his offices, to retire from business, and even to leave Padua, where every thing reminded him of his misfortune. Antonio resolved to become a pupil of the renowned Abano, and to try to forget his miseries in the studies of that famous school. He obtained lodgings in the house of that great man, who now for some time past had been his friend.

A short time after these events, the old priest met the melancholy Antonio, and thus accosted him" You also, then, have joined that unhappy school and its pernicious teacher, who will lead your soul to perdition?"

"What makes you so bitter against him, my pious friend?" replied Antonio. "Why should not religion and science go hand in hand, as they certainly do in the case of my worthy teacher? He is a man whom the whole world honours, whom princes love and cherish, and whom our holy father himself is about to elevate to high ecclesiastical dignity. Why should you chafe against him whom every one else loves? You do so be

Get

cause you know not the man. acquainted with him, cultivate his society, and you will soon venerate him, and recant all your prejudices."

"Never!" cried the priest, with vehemence. "Young man," continued he, "let me warn you to be on your guard against him, and that hellish retainer of his; for, whatever doubts there may be about his master, there is no mistaking who he is."

"The little Berecynth," answered Antonio, "is certainly an absurd and unprepossessing figure, and I often wonder that the noble Pietro can endure to have him so much about him as he has. But why should a humpback, and other grievous deformities, prejudice us against a poor fellow. creature, to whom nature has been so illiberal?"

"Mighty fine words! - a very delicate mode of expressing it!" cried the priest scornfully. "Let me tell you, young man, that such sentiments are marrow to the bones of these sor.. cerers and liars. But look, here comes the scarecrow-I cannot bear even to look upon him, much less could I endure to converse with him. Well and wisely has it been said, Cave quos Deus ipse notavit."

Berecynth, who had caught up these last words, came skipping forwards. "Is your beauty, then, my good sir," said he, " so transcendant as to entitle you to pronounce such severe judgments upon others? My master, who is a handsome, majestic man, entertains no such harsh, illiberal notions. What! you little, stunted, rickety, red-nosed, snivelling abortion -you wry-mouthed, wrinkled old wretch, it is truly a good one to hear you preaching about my ugliness! Why, you miserable dwarf, your head is hardly on a level with the pulpit cushion when you are holding forth there; and you dare not cross the street when the wind blows, such spindles are your shanks. The congregation cannot even see you when you are gesticulating before the altar, and require all their Christian faith to believe that you are really present; and yet this mannikin, this nonentity, is talking big here, as if he were a perfect Goliath. Believe me, I could cut as good a priest as you are, any day, out of my own nose, to say nothing of the hump I carry both in front and rear."

The enraged priest had withdrawn before the conclusion of this attack, and Antonio was about to chide Berecynth for his petulant behaviour, when the latter cried out, "A truce with your moralizing-I can stand that at the hands of no man except my own master, and he beats the world at morality, philosophy, and all that sort of thing. But this weathercock monk here, who goes creaking round on the pivot of envy and malignity, because he perceives that his authority and prosperity are declining before the influence of my glorious

master-he, let me tell you, shall never be permitted to open his toothless gums in my presence, without my bringing all my jaw to bear upon him; and let me add, that from a young student like yourself I can abide no contradiction; for I had begun to shave long before your father was out of his baby-clothes, and I was a boy at school before your illustrious grandsire was breeched, therefore show respect where respect is due, and remember whose presence you are in." "Do not be angry, my little man,' said Antonio_" I mean you well."

"Mean what you please!" said Berecynth. "My master is now prelate-do you know that?-and rector of the university; and a new gold chain of office has just been sent to him from Paris. You must come and see him, for he is about to set out upon a journey, and wishes to converse with you before he starts. A word in your ear-you must be shyer of priests' company if you would be a philosopher."

So saying, the dwarf hirpled off, and Antonio turning to his friend, the young Spaniard Alphonso, who had that moment joined him, said, “ I never know, when conversing with that abortion, whether he is in jest or earnest, he appears to make such scornful sport of himself and all other creatures."

ness.

"That," answered Alphonso, "is by way of comforting and compensating himself for his own ungainliIn his scornful imagination he conceives all other people to be like himself. But have you heard of the new honours which have been bestowed upon our great teacher?"

"The world," returned Antonio, "recognises his lofty worth; and since our holy father the Pope has now made him a prelate, that surely ought to tie the tongues of all those envious priests and monks who have never ceased traducing this excellent and pious man.

The friends parted, and Antonio hastened to take farewell of his teacher for some days. The dwarf received him at the door with a grinning attempt to appear cordial.

Twilight had now set in, and Antonio, after Berecynth had left him,

went in quest of his teacher. Finding him neither in the hall nor the library, he traversed many rooms, and at length came to an apartment in the very interior of the house, which he had never before been in. Here, beside a glimmering lamp, sat Pietro, who was not a little surprised to behold the young Florentine enter; while the latter, in his turn, paused in astonishment over the skeletons and strange implements by which the old man was surrounded. Pietro came forward in some confusion: "It was not here that I expected you," said he, "I intended to have met you out of doors, or to have visited you in your own apartment. I am about to set out to meet the Pope's ambassador, in order to receive at his hands, in all humility and thankfulness, the new honours our holy father has been pleased to lavish upon me." Then perceiving that Antonio still continued to gaze with astonishment upon the strange apparatus before him-he continued, "You are suprised to behold all these strange instruments: they are necessary for the prosecution of my studies; and, after you have regularly attended my lectures on natural philosophy, their use shall probably be explained to you."

At this moment an occurrence took place which completely drew off Antonio's attention from all these objects. A door, which appeared closed, but which was in reality ajar, opened itself wide, and the youth saw into a chamber filled with purple light. In the rosy glow stood a pale spectral form, which nodded and smiled. Swift as lightning the old man wheeled round, banged to the door, and locked it with a golden key. Trembling, and pale as death, he then threw himself into a chair, while great drops of sweat ran down his forehead. When he had somewhat recovered himself, he made a sign to Antonio to approach, and said with a quivering voice, "This mystery, too, my young friend, shall one day be cleared up to you. Do not think ill of me, my beloved son. Thee, before all others, have I chosen to initiate into my profound knowledge. Thou shalt be my true scholar and my heir. But leave me now: retire to thine own chamber, and pray to heaven and the holy powers to be

friend thee."

Antonio could make no reply, so greatly was he surprised and shocked by the apparition he had seen, and so much was he bewildered by the manNO. CCLXXXVI, VOL. XLVI,

ner of his revered teacher; for it appeared to him as if Pietro were struggling to keep down a storm of wrath, and as if suppressed fury were burning in his ferocious eyes.

On retreating into the antechamber, he there found Berecynth engaged in catching flies, and throwing them to an ape. The two appeared to vie with each other which could make the most hideous faces. At this moment the master summoned his familiar with a voice of thunder, and the abortion hobbled into his chamber. Antonio heard high words ensue, and Pietro rating him in a towering passion. The dwarf then rushed forth, weeping and howling, with a stream of blood running down his nose. "Cannot he close his own doors, and be damned to him!" bellowed he out, "all-powerful miscreant that he is. The master is stupid, and the servant must bear the blame." Turning to Antonio, "And you, sir-his most devotedtake yourself off to your garret, and leave me alone with my good friend, my dear Pavian, here. He, at least, has a human heart, and is the very brother of my soul. Come, tramp! -my Pylades must finish his feast of flies, and his Orestes must set about catching them."

Antonio withdrew in great bewilderment. He retired to his own apartment an attic in a remote quarter of the house which he had selected, because there he could pursue his studies in greater privacy. He looked out over flood and field, and his thoughts turned upon her whom he had lately lost. Her picture was in his hand, and some playthings, which had been hers in childhood, were lying on the floor: but especially dear to him was a nightingale, which was pouring forth its notes of sorrow, as if its own heart had been overburdened with woe. This bird had been Crescentia's favourite, and now the enthusiastic youth cherished it as a holy possession the last memorial of his earthly happiness.

He had given up the society of all his friends except the Spaniard Alphonso, who was attached to him by the admiration they shared in common for the great Pietro. Podesta had left Padua and gone to Rome, with the full intention of disinheriting his relations- the Marconi family in Venice. The old man despaired of recovering the twin-daughter of Cres

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