Death had set his sword upon the rabbi's breast. In this
way the wonderful faculty has come to me, and I, like the rabbi, Isaac
Ben Harravad, can read in the faces of men, whether the soul has before
occupied another body or not. Your brow, Mr. Tyss, when I saw it the
first time, excited the strangest thoughts and doubts. I was certain of
the previous existence of your soul long ago, and yet the form, prior
to your present life, remained a perfect mystery. I was forced to have
recourse to the stars, and draw your horoscope, to solve the
difficulty."

"Well!" exclaimed Peregrine;--"and have you discovered anything, Mr.
Leuwenhock?"

"Certainly!" replied Leuwenhock, assuming a still more solemn
tone--"certainly! I have discovered that the physical principle, which
now animates the agreeable body of my very worthy friend, Mr. Peregrine
Tyss, existed long ago, although only as a thought or consciousness of
a shape. Look here; consider attentively the red point in the centre of
the table. That is not only yourself, but the point is the form, of
which your physical principle once could not be conscious. As a
sparkling carbuncle, you then lay in a deep mine of the earth; but
stretched over you, on the green surface of the ground, slept the
beautiful Gamaheh; and her form also passed away in unconsciousness.
Strange lines and foreign constellations cross your life from the point
of time when the thought first put on a form, and became Mr. Peregrine
Tyss. You are in possession of a talisman without knowing it, and this
talisman is that very red carbuncle; it may be that King Sekakis wore
it as a precious jewel in his crown, or, perhaps, in some measure, was
the carbuncle itself; enough,--you possess it now; but a certain event
must take place if its slumbering power is to be awakened; and with
this waking of the power of your talisman will be decided the fate of
an unhappy creature, who hitherto has led a shadowy life between fear
and changing hope.--Alas! it was only a shadowy life that the sweet
Gamaheh could gain by the profoundest magic, as the operative talisman
was stolen from us. You alone have killed her, you alone can breathe
fresh life into her, when the carbuncle glows again in your breast."

"And can you," interrupted Peregrine, "can you explain what that event
is which is to awake the power of the talisman?"

The microscopist stared with open eyes at Peregrine, like a person who
is suddenly surprised into confu