spy, then,
had hunted the victim within the jaws of the hounds. The man slowly
advanced, and, pausing before the open window of the cafe, put his head
through the aperture, as to address and summon forth its armed inmates.

At that very instant, and while the spy's head was thus turned from him,
standing in the half-open gateway of the house immediately before
him, he perceived the stranger who had warned; the figure, scarcely
distinguishable through the mantle that wrapped it, motioned to him
to enter. He sprang noiselessly through the friendly opening: the door
closed; breathlessly he followed the stranger up a flight of broad
stairs and through a suite of empty rooms, until, having gained a small
cabinet, his conductor doffed the large hat and the long mantle that had
hitherto concealed his shape and features, and Glyndon beheld Zanoni!

CHAPTER 7.IX.

Think not my magic wonders wrought by aid
Of Stygian angels summoned up from hell;
Scorned and accursed be those who have essayed
Her gloomy Dives and Afrites to compel.
But by perception of the secret powers
Of mineral springs in Nature's inmost cell,
Of herbs in curtain of her greenest bowers,
And of the moving stars o'er mountain tops and towers.
Wiffen's "Translation of Tasso," cant. xiv. xliii.

"You are safe here, young Englishman!" said Zanoni, motioning Glyndon to
a seat. "Fortunate for you that I come on your track at last!"

"Far happier had it been if we had never met! Yet even in these last
hours of my fate, I rejoice to look once more on the face of that
ominous and mysterious being to whom I can ascribe all the sufferings
I have known. Here, then, thou shalt not palter with or elude me. Here,
before we part, thou shalt unravel to me the dark enigma, if not of thy
life, of my own!"

"Hast thou suffered? Poor neophyte!" said Zanoni, pityingly. "Yes; I see
it on thy brow. But wherefore wouldst thou blame me? Did I not warn thee
against the whispers of thy spirit; did I not warn thee to forbear? Did
I not tell thee that the ordeal was one of awful hazard and tremendous
fears,--nay, did I not offer to resign to thee the heart that was mighty
enough, while mine, Glyndon, to content me? Was it not thine own daring
and resolute choice to brave the initiation! Of thine own free will
didst thou make Mejnour thy master, and his lore thy study!"

"But whence came the irresistible desires of that wild and unhol