shore. And
none shall disturb you, for ye are the chosen people."

The moon, which had veiled her light for a few minutes, reappeared, and
hearing no more sounds of voices, I looked round, and her clear cold rays
fell in the great empty hall. Not a figure, not a shade, was left. The
moonlight poured its silver flood upon the floor, and in the distance the
forms of a few trees stood out against the dark purple sky.

But now suddenly the high walls appeared lined with books, the old spinet
gave way to the _secretaire_ of some man of learning, whose full-bottomed
wig was peering above the back of a red-leather arm-chair. I could hear
the quill coursing over the paper. The learned man, buried in thought,
never moved; the silence was oppressive.

But fancy my astonishment when, slowly turning, the great scholar faced
me, and I recognised the portrait of the famous lawyer Gregorius, marked
No. 253 in the portrait-gallery at Darmstadt.

How on earth had this personage walked out of his grave?

I was asking myself this question when, in a hollow sepulchral voice, he
pronounced these words:--

"_Dominorum, ex jure Quintio, est jus utendi et abutendi quatenus
naturalis ratio patitur_."

As this sapient precept dropped oracularly from his lips, a word at a
time, his figure faded and turned pale. With the last word he had passed
out of existence.

What more shall I tell you, my dear friends? For hours, twenty
generations came defiling past me in Hans Burckhardt's ancient
mansion--Christians and Jews, nobles and commoners, fools and wise men
of high art, and men of mere prose. Every one proclaimed his indefeasible
right to the property; every one firmly believed himself sole lord and
master of all he surveyed. Alas! Death breathed upon one after another,
and they were all carried out, each as his turn came!

I was beginning to be familiar with this strange phantasmagoria. Each
time that any of these honest folks turned round and declared to me,
"This is mine!" I laughed and said, "Wait a bit, my fine fellow!--you
will melt away just like the rest!"

At last I began to feel tired of it, when far away--very far--the cock
crowed, announcing the dawn of day. His piercing call began to rouse the
sleeper. The leaves rustled with the morning air; a slight shiver shook
my frame; I felt my limbs gradually regaining their freedom, and, resting
upon my elbow, I gazed with rapture upon the silent wide-spread land. But
what I saw pre