nce of a woman, and disarm all
danger!"

Sirrah! dost thou even already meditate the possibility of treason?
Oh, well said Zanoni, "to pour pure water into the muddy well does but
disturb the mud."

CHAPTER 4.VII.

Cernis, custodia qualis
Vestibulo sedeat? facies quae limina servet?
"Aeneid," lib. vi. 574.

(See you what porter sits within the vestibule?--what face
watches at the threshold?)

And it is profound night. All is at rest within the old castle,--all is
breathless under the melancholy stars. Now is the time. Mejnour with his
austere wisdom,--Mejnour the enemy to love; Mejnour, whose eye will read
thy heart, and refuse thee the promised secrets because the sunny face
of Fillide disturbs the lifeless shadow that he calls repose,--Mejnour
comes to-morrow! Seize the night! Beware of fear! Never, or this hour!
So, brave youth,--brave despite all thy errors,--so, with a steady
pulse, thy hand unlocks once more the forbidden door.

He placed his lamp on the table beside the book, which still lay there
opened; he turned over the leaves, but could not decipher their meaning
till he came to the following passage:--

"When, then, the pupil is thus initiated and prepared, let him open the
casement, light the lamps, and bathe his temples with the elixir. He
must beware how he presume yet to quaff the volatile and fiery spirit.
To taste till repeated inhalations have accustomed the frame gradually
to the ecstatic liquid, is to know not life, but death."

He could penetrate no farther into the instructions; the cipher again
changed. He now looked steadily and earnestly round the chamber. The
moonlight came quietly through the lattice as his hand opened it,
and seemed, as it rested on the floor, and filled the walls, like the
presence of some ghostly and mournful Power. He ranged the mystic lamps
(nine in number) round the centre of the room, and lighted them one by
one. A flame of silvery and azure tints sprung up from each, and lighted
the apartment with a calm and yet most dazzling splendour; but presently
this light grew more soft and dim, as a thin, grey cloud, like a mist,
gradually spread over the room; and an icy thrill shot through the heart
of the Englishman, and quickly gathered over him like the coldness
of death. Instinctively aware of his danger, he tottered, though with
difficulty, for his limbs seemed rigid and stone-like, to the shelf that
contained the crystal vials; h