mity necessary, that you should now immediately cause my head to
be taken off; whereby I should become an entirely useless and
slaughtered man."

"Be serious sir," replied the Intendant in the greatest anger, but with
a calm exterior: "what took you to the mountains some time since?
wherefore that disguise of which you yourself have complained?"

"Irrepressible curiosity, my noble Lord," said Vila, "as an inquisitive
doctor, I also wished to thrust my nose for once into these spiritual
monstrosities. In my youth, I knew only of four great and twelve lesser
prophets of the bible, the thousand great, and twenty thousand lesser
of our times seemed to me so little plausible, that I wished to see
some examples of them in my proximity, and to examine myself their
ascribed characters."

"And you persuaded your son and the young Edmond to accompany you
there?"

The old man paused a while, and was obliged to wipe his eyes. "Pardon,"
said he then, "man is affected, though already old, by certain
sensations, a kind of cold, which operates on the tear vessels; perhaps
you may have already experienced this. Strong snuff produces the
sensation. Yes, it was I indeed that induced the young men to this folly.
I could never have thought that the young lads would have made a serious
affair of it. They should only have reflected on themselves, collect
psychological observations, to strengthen thereby their own mature wisdom
and corroborate all noble religion; and the simpletons act like that
peasant, who is to take only twelve drops daily from a phial, and would
rather swallow down the whole bottle with cork and label. But believe me
the cholic will not delay coming, and it will require skill to empty the
body of the devilry again."

"You appear to consider the affair on the jesting side," cried the
Marshal.

"Certainly," said the old man, who could not however restrain his
tears, and was obliged to repress his sob by a strong effort; "it is
still pleasant enough, that I have not slept since the last three days,
still less have I been able to enjoy anything: that my cursed
imagination represents my unhappy son upon the scaffold, suffering the
most ingenious martyrdom, and looking upon me with the same dark eyes
that sparkled in his childhood when he ardently desired a fruit, or a
toy. I believe too that I look rather pale and sorrowful, and whatever
you may ordain, I shall bear my head heavily on my weary shoulders for
the future."