who saw deeper into things than Faustus, laughed within himself
at the consequences.

They now went to the hotel, Faustus, recollecting the conduct of his
wife, once again fell into an exceedingly ill humour. He could not
pardon her for having ceased to lament his departure the moment she had
seen the gold and jewels. Till now he had imagined that she loved him
more than all the treasures of the earth; but what he had just observed
forced him to believe the contrary, and his affection for her was turned
to bitterness. The Devil, who perceived where the shoe pinched,
willingly allowed Faustus to torment himself with these gloomy thoughts,
so that he might tear himself from that sweet tie by which nature still
gently fettered him. He foresaw, with secret rapture, the dreadful
anguish which would one day arise in the bosom of the headstrong Faustus,
when the future should disclose to him all the horrors which he was now
about to perpetrate.

They dined in the public room, in company with some professors of law and
divinity, who, to the great delight of the Devil, soon fell into a
violent dispute concerning the nun Clara. The flame of that controversy
was still at its full height; party-spirit raged in all houses, and the
present disputants talked so loudly, and said so many ridiculous things,
that Faustus soon forgot his ill humour. But when a doctor of theology
asserted that it was possible for Satan to have carried his wickedness so
far as to have brought the nun into certain circumstances by means of the
dream, the Devil burst into a bellowing laugh; and Faustus immediately
thought of a scheme by which he might revenge himself, in a signal
manner, upon the Archbishop, who had paid so little attention to his
discovery. He hoped then to involve the thread of the theological and
political war at Mayence in such confusion that no human power would be
able to unravel it. After dinner he asked the demon whether it would be
possible for him, under the figure of the Dominican, to pass that night
with the lovely Clara. The Devil assured him that nothing was more easy;
and, if he chose, the abbess herself should usher him into the nun's
cell. Faustus, who had always considered the abbess to be a strict,
pious, and conscientious woman, laughed in scorn at these last words of
the Devil.

_Devil_. Thy wife, O Faustus, set up a shriek of despair when thou didst
tell her of thy intended departure; but when the glitter of