d magic he shall be dealt with
accordingly, but if not, why should he be punished on the accusation of
one who hates him and may be envious of his skill?'

"Speaking thus to the crowd I calmed them, then bringing the barber
along with us we hastened at once to the river and came on board my
barge.

"When we had safely arrived here, after giving the barber something to
eat and drink, I pressed him to tell me how he had contrived to render
the monkey suddenly so quiet and docile, a feat which had appeared as
surprising and as inexplicable to me as to the others.

"'Sir,' said the barber, 'I have during my life travelled through many
distant countries and taken part in many strange adventures, but I
confess that among all the singular and marvellous things I have seen
or have collected, nothing is more strange nor more valuable than that
by means of which I have been enabled to exhibit to you the spectacle
which you have witnessed this morning.'

"I pressed him once more to tell me what this rare and precious thing
might be and how he became possessed of it. Upon which the barber,
saluting me as his protector and deliverer, who had saved him from the
fury of the crowd, consented readily to impart his secret to me, and
spoke as follows:--

THE BARBER'S STORY.

"'It is now about three months since I was called early one morning to
bleed a man who was reported to be insensible. Now, notwithstanding
all that that fellow asserted in his rage this morning, I am a barber
and the son of a barber, and understand my craft very thoroughly.
Therefore, taking with me whatever I might be likely to require to let
the man blood and restore him to consciousness, I started at once.

"'On arriving at the house, which was a very poor one, to which I had
been summoned, I found the patient an old white-bearded man, and also a
physician whom I knew very well, and who practised in that part of the
town.

"'He had sent for me to bleed the man, but he was evidently puzzled
extremely by many features of the case the like of which he had never
before encountered. The patient was indeed unconscious, yet he
exhibited few or none of the symptoms generally characteristic of that
state. He was not lying down, but sitting up. His face wore the
expression not of one dead or dying, but of a man transfixed with rage
and horror. His eyes wide open were staring upon us with an expression
of impotent rage, as though he were witnessing some outr