here, I hope," said the prince at last, "the husbands of Venice are
dangerous." "I do not know a single lady in the place," was my answer.
"Let us sit down here, and speak German," said he; "I fancy we are
mistaken for some other persons." We sat down upon a stone bench, and
expected the mask would have passed by. He came directly up to us, and
took his seat by the side of the prince. The latter took out his watch,
and, rising at the same time, addressed me thus in a loud voice in
French, "It is past nine. Come, we forget that we are waited for at the
Louvre." This speech he only invented in order to deceive the mask as
to our route. "Nine!" repeated the latter in the same language, in a
slow and expressive voice, "Congratulate yourself, my prince" (calling
him by his real name); "he died at nine." In saying this, he rose and
went away.

We looked at each other in amazement. "Who is dead?" said the prince
at length, after a long silence. "Let us follow him," replied I, "and
demand an explanation." We searched every corner of the place; the mask
was nowhere to be found. We returned to our hotel disappointed. The
prince spoke not a word to me the whole way; he walked apart by himself,
and appeared to be greatly agitated, which he afterwards confessed to me
was the case. Having reached home, he began at length to speak: "Is it
not laughable," said he, "that a madman should have the power thus to
disturb a man's tranquillity by two or three words?" We wished each
other a goodnight; and, as soon as I was in my own apartment, I noted
down in my pocket-book the day and the hour when this adventure
happened. It was on a Thursday.

The next evening the prince said to me, "Suppose we go to the square of
St. Mark, and seek for our mysterious Armenian. I long to see this
comedy unravelled." I consented. We walked in the square till eleven.
The Armenian was nowhere to be seen. We repeated our walk the four
following evenings, and each time with the same bad success.

On the sixth evening, as we went out of the hotel, it occurred to me,
whether designedly or otherwise I cannot recollect, to tell the servants
where we might be found in case we should be inquired for. The prince
remarked my precaution, and approved of it with a smile. We found the
square of St. Mark very much crowded. Scarcely had we advanced thirty
steps when I perceived the Armenian, who was pressing rapidly through
the crowd, and seemed to be in search of some o