, there were formula and oaths which none of its
practisers dared break. I hesitated to reply; and he went on, now
displaying his wealth, now speaking of the petty price he demanded, till
it seemed madness to refuse. Thus is it; place our bark in the current
of the stream, and down, over fall and cataract it is hurried; give up
our conduct to the wild torrent of passion, and we are away, we know not
whither.

He swore many an oath, and I adjured him by many a sacred name; till I
saw this wonder of power, this ruler of the elements, shiver like an
autumn leaf before my words; and as if the spirit spake unwillingly and
per force within him, at last, he, with broken voice, revealed the spell
whereby he might be obliged, did he wish to play me false, to render up
the unlawful spoil. Our warm life-blood must mingle to make and to mar
the charm.

Enough of this unholy theme. I was persuaded--the thing was done. The
morrow dawned upon me as I lay upon the shingles, and I knew not my own
shadow as it fell from me. I felt myself changed to a shape of horror,
and cursed my easy faith and blind credulity. The chest was there--there
the gold and precious stones for which I had sold the frame of flesh
which nature had given me. The sight a little stilled my emotions; three
days would soon be gone.

They did pass. The dwarf had supplied me with a plenteous store of food.
At first I could hardly walk, so strange and out of joint were all my
limbs; and my voice--it was that of the fiend. But I kept silent, and
turned my face to the sun, that I might not see my shadow, and counted
the hours, and ruminated on my future conduct. To bring Torella to my
feet--to possess my Juliet in spite of him--all this my wealth could
easily achieve. During dark night I slept, and dreamt of the
accomplishment of my desires. Two suns had set--the third dawned. I was
agitated, fearful. Oh, expectation, what a frightful thing art thou,
when kindled more by fear than hope! How dost thou twist thyself round
the heart, torturing its pulsations! How dost thou dart unknown pangs
all through our feeble mechanism, now seeming to shiver us like broken
glass, to nothingness--now giving us a fresh strength, which can _do_
nothing, and so torments us by a sensation, such as the strong man must
feel who cannot break his fetters, though they bend in his grasp. Slowly
paced the bright, bright orb up the eastern sky; long it lingered in the
zenith, and still more slowl