peculiar than in his personal
appearance. He was singularly tall and thin. He stooped much. His limbs
were exceedingly long and emaciated. His forehead was broad and low. His
complexion was absolutely bloodless. His mouth was large and flexible,
and his teeth were more wildly uneven, although sound, than I had ever
before seen teeth in a human head. The expression of his smile,
however, was by no means unpleasing, as might be supposed; but it had
no variation whatever. It was one of profound melancholy--of a phaseless
and unceasing gloom. His eyes were abnormally large, and round like
those of a cat. The pupils, too, upon any accession or diminution of
light, underwent contraction or dilation, just such as is observed in
the feline tribe. In moments of excitement the orbs grew bright to a
degree almost inconceivable; seeming to emit luminous rays, not of a
reflected but of an intrinsic lustre, as does a candle or the sun; yet
their ordinary condition was so totally vapid, filmy, and dull as to
convey the idea of the eyes of a long-interred corpse.

These peculiarities of person appeared to cause him much annoyance, and
he was continually alluding to them in a sort of half explanatory,
half apologetic strain, which, when I first heard it, impressed me very
painfully. I soon, however, grew accustomed to it, and my uneasiness
wore off. It seemed to be his design rather to insinuate than directly
to assert that, physically, he had not always been what he was--that
a long series of neuralgic attacks had reduced him from a condition of
more than usual personal beauty, to that which I saw. For many years
past he had been attended by a physician, named Templeton--an old
gentleman, perhaps seventy years of age--whom he had first encountered
at Saratoga, and from whose attention, while there, he either received,
or fancied that he received, great benefit. The result was that Bedloe,
who was wealthy, had made an arrangement with Dr. Templeton, by
which the latter, in consideration of a liberal annual allowance, had
consented to devote his time and medical experience exclusively to the
care of the invalid.

Doctor Templeton had been a traveller in his younger days, and at Paris
had become a convert, in great measure, to the doctrines of Mesmer. It
was altogether by means of magnetic remedies that he had succeeded in
alleviating the acute pains of his patient; and this success had very
naturally inspired the latter with a certain d