[* See Xenophon"s Cyropedia, or Life of Cyrus, in M. Rollin"s Ancient History.]
HAPPINESS.
There are happy days, but no happy lives; this would be an enchanting dream, without once wakening to sorrow.
THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION; _OR, INTERESTING MEMOIRS OF MIGUEL, DUKE DE CA*I*A._ Unfolding Many Curious Unknown Historical Facts.
_Translated from the German of Tsc.h.i.n.k._
(Continued from page 195.)
Alumbrado had spoken the truth; the Duke found the Count in his apartment. The latter was at first incapable of uttering a word, but having recovered from his astonishment, he declined in a faltering accent to accept the invitation of my friend. But when he heard the Duke talk of the guard, and saw that he was a prisoner, he submitted to his fate. The Duke ordered his trunk to be carried to his coach, and then drove with him to his palace.
Apprehending that the Count would be reserved in the presence of a third person, he had previously requested me to retire with Alumbrado to a closet, where we could hear and see them without being observed. The introduction to their discourse had already been finished in the carriage, consequently we heard only the continuation. As soon as they had entered the room, the Duke desired the Count to give him the key of his trunk, which was delivered to him without hesitation. While he was opening the trunk and searching for papers which he could not find, the Count took his letter-case out of his pocket and threw it in the chimney fire.
Although the Duke hastened to save it, yet a great part of it had already been consumed by the flames. The rest he locked up in his writing desk.
"Why have you done this?" he said to the Count with rising anger.
"Because I do not like to have my secrets wrested from me by force."
The Duke took several turns in his apartment in order to recover his equanimity, and then rung the bell. "Wine," he called to the servant, who brought it immediately and retired.
"Count," said the Duke in a mild accent, "the wine possesses the virtue of rendering people communicative and sincere. Let us drink."
"You shall draw my secrets from me neither by force nor artifice.
I shall at least have the merit of confessing voluntarily, what I can, and dare confess."
"Very well. However, wine possesses also the virtue of dispelling animosity and perplexity. Come, let us drink."
The Count consented to it.
"First of all," said the Duke, after they had been seated, "tell me where is Hiermanfor? He promised to pay me a visit as soon as Por***al should be delivered from the Spa**sh yoke, but has not been as good as his word."
"He could not. Affairs of the greatest importance have called him to Brasil, where he very probably is at present."
"Do you think that he will fulfil his promise after his return?"
"Undoubtedly! but why do you wish for his visit?"
"He has promised to initiate me in the mysteries of an occult philosophy. You are perhaps capable of supplying his place."
"No, my Lord."
"But you will be able to afford me some information with respect to those illusions by which I have been put to the test?"
"Yes!" the Count replied, after a pause.
"I only desire you to explain to me the more intricate and most important deceptions, for the rest I hope to unfold without your a.s.sistance."
"Most of them you have already discovered by the papers which you have ta--- found in my trunk."
"How do you know that?" The Duke asked with astonishment.
"I know it from Hiermanfor."
"And by whom has _he_ been informed of it?"
"By your Grace."
"By me? I do not recollect to have discovered to him any thing."
"Not directly; however, you have betrayed yourself."
"On what occasion?"
"When he paid you a visit at **ubia. Do you not recollect to have asked him whether he had discovered to Amelia that your real father had not been the murderer of her Lord? This you could not have known if you had not seen my papers."
"It is true," the Duke replied after a short silence, "however, those papers did not extend farther than to the time when Hiermanfor was taken up in your and my tutor"s presence. I was then going to descend into the subterraneous vaults of a ruinous building, in order to take a brilliant pin out of the hair of a sleeping virgin."
"I know it; but you would have found neither the sleeping virgin nor any of those things which Hiermanfor told you you would meet with."
"Is it possible; should he have risked a fraud in which I so easily could have found him out?"
"He knew before-hand that you would not get to the bottom of the staircase, for it was settled previously that I should appear in time with the officers of the police, and recall your Grace by firing a pistol."
"Indeed!" said the Duke with astonishment, "now I recollect another very strange incident. I should perhaps not have descended without your interference, for I was seized with an uncommon anxiety, which increased every step I proceeded. I cannot conceive what was the reason of it; however it seemed as if an invisible power pushed me back."
"This I will explain to you. Don"t you recollect that a thick smoke ascended from the abyss? A stupifying incense which possessed the power of straitening the breast, and creating anxiety, was burning at the bottom of the stair-case."
"I cannot but confess," the Duke said, after a short pause, "that the execution was not less cautious than the plan has been artful. I had indeed been impelled, at that time, to believe Hiermanfor was not only possessed of the knowledge of subterraneous treasures, but also of the power and the inclination of affording me a share of them, and that it had been merely my fault to have returned empty handed. His cursory account of the wonderful things I should meet with in the abyss had contributed to set my imagination at work, and I was more desirous to see those miraculous things, than to get possession of the jewels."
"Your Grace resented it very much that I had interrupted that adventure by the seizure of Hiermanfor."
"Indeed I did, but what view had you in doing it?"
"It was of great consequence to me, to prove myself to you and your tutor, in an incontestible manner, an implacable enemy of Hiermanfor.
How could I have effected it better than by seizing him? the magistrate was an intimate friend of mine, and the whole farce pre-concerted with him."
"Then the Irishman has not been taken up seriously?"