ss.

The cool air of the breaking dawn came freshly to the cheek of our
countryman; yet, still, an unpleasant and heavy sensation sat at his
heart. His nerves, previously weakened by his long commune with the
visionary, and the effect it had produced, yet tingled and thrilled
with the abrupt laugh and meaning countenance of that strange girl, who
differed so widely from all others of her years. The stars were growing
pale and ghostly, and there was a mournful and dim haze around the moon.

"Ye look ominously upon me," said he, half aloud, as his eyes fixed
their gaze above; and the excitement of his spirit spread to his
language: "ye on whom, if our lore be faithful, the Most High hath
written the letters of our mortal doom. And if ye rule the tides of the
great deep, and the changes of the rolling year, what is there out of
reason or nature in our belief that ye hold the same sympathetic and
unseen influence over the blood and heart, which are the character (and
the character makes the conduct) of man?" Pursuing his soliloquy of
thought, and finding reasons for a credulity that afforded to him but
little cause for pleasure or hope, the Englishman took his way to St.
Sebastian's gate.

There was, in truth, much in the traveller's character that corresponded
with that which was attributed and destined to one to whom the heavens
had given a horoscope answering to his own; and it was this conviction
rather than any accidental coincidence in events, which had first led
him to pore with a deep attention over the vain but imposing prophecies
of judicial astrology. Possessed of all the powers that enable men to
rise; ardent, yet ordinarily shrewd; eloquent, witty, brave, and,
though not what may be termed versatile, possessing that rare art of
concentrating the faculties which enables the possessor rapidly and
thoroughly to master whatsoever once arrests the attention, he yet
despised all that would have brought these endowments into full and
legitimate display. He lived only for enjoyment. A passionate lover
of women, music, letters, and the arts, it was society, not the world,
which made the sphere and end of his existence. Yet was he no vulgar and
commonplace epicurean: he lived for enjoyment; but that enjoyment was
mainly formed from elements wearisome to more ordinary natures. Reverie,
contemplation, loneliness, were at times dearer to him than the softer
and more Aristippean delights. His energies were called forth in