t is enough to make you feel that you must aid
me."

I consented, but in my own mind I felt a dread of this man, who, in his
bitter candor, seemed much more terrible than when taciturn.

"I request, nay I demand--" he continued--"do not interrupt me; let me
speak for myself.

"Do you know who I am? For years, I have been called by a strange name.
You cannot imagine how pleasant it is to be so constantly a masker, in
the mummery known as life. I shall not, at present, mention my true
name, but you may rest assured it is an old and a noble one, and
related to that of Johannisberg.

"My father--he was indeed my father--had become reduced, and he led a
merry life, although I did not know where the means came from. At a
later day, I discovered all. He purchased a captaincy for me.
'Purchased,' he said, but it had really, so to say, been presented to
him. He had carried others' hides to market; perhaps a couple of human
skins to be tanned. His master had many of these tanners in the state
_vade mecums_ known as prisons.

"I was, as I have told you, a captain at Mayence, and my father lived
near there, at Wiesbaden. He was known as Hofrath.

"I do not know whether what people call conscience ever pricked him,
but he was always merry and fond of good living, and enjoyed it as much
as the stupidest monk might do. He would always say to me, 'Conrad,
life is a comedy; he who does not take it in that light, but looks upon
it in a serious manner, spoils his own game.'

"I thought I had much to tell you, but I have not. My story is simply
this:

"My father had a habit of asking me about my comrades,--what they were
doing, what they were thinking of, and to whom they wrote; and I
faithfully told him all I knew. You may believe me! I, too, was once
open-hearted. But, one day, two of my comrades were suddenly cashiered.
Letters of theirs had been found--not found, but sought--which, it was
said, contained treasonable expressions. All of us at the garrison were
beside ourselves with surprise, and I suspected nothing.

"Until the year 1848, our regiments had recruiting stations where
soldiers were enlisted and received a good bounty. In a Gallician
regiment which formed part of the garrison of the fortress--there were
also Italian regiments in it--a very clever young Pole had been
enlisted. He learned the drill, was a good horseman, and his captain
wished that he would study German, in order that he might become an
officer; bu