some mighty spell
which has forced us out of ourselves."

"I remember very distinctly," Angelica said, "some four years ago, the
night before my fourteenth birthday, awaking in a condition of that
kind. I could not shake off the terror of it for several days
afterwards. But I strove in vain to remember anything about my dream
(if dream it was, that had so terrified me). I knew, and I know quite
well, that in the very dream itself I had told several people--my own
dear mother amongst them--what the dream was, several times. But all I
could remember when I woke was that I had told the dream. I could not
recall the slightest trace of what the dream had been."

"This strange psychical phenomenon," Dagobert said, "is closely
connected with the magnetic principle."

"Our conversation is getting more and more dreadful," said Madame von
G. "We are getting deep, and losing ourselves in matters I can't bear
even to think about. Moritz, I must beg you to tell us something
entertaining--outrageous even--that we may get away from this terrible
region of the supernatural."

"I should be very happy to try," said Moritz, "if you will just allow
me to tell one gruesome tale, which has been hovering on my lips for a
long time. At this moment all my being is so filled with it that I feel
that I could not talk about anything else."

"Discharge yourself, then," said Madame von G., "from the load of
awesomeness which so weighs upon you. My husband will be home
immediately, and then I should be so delighted to work through some
battle or other with you and him, or to hear you talk in your absorbed
manner about horses, or anything, to get me out of this overstrained
condition into which all this supernatural stuff, I must admit, puts
me."

"In my last campaign," said Moritz, "I made the acquaintance of a
Russian Lieutenant-Colonel, a Livonian by birth, scarcely thirty, who,
as chance willed it that we should be serving together before the
enemy for a considerable time, soon became my very intimate friend.
Bogislav--that was his Christian name--possessed every quality fitted
to gain for him, everywhere, the highest consideration and the most
sincere regard. He was tall and fine-looking, with an intellectual
face. He possessed masculine beauty, much mental cultivation, and was
kindliness itself, while brave as a lion. He could be particularly
cheerful and entertaining, especially over a glass of wine; but there
would often come over him