rt of Cologne was accused by the vulgar of
holding illicit commerce with the devil. They believed as a matter of
course that he was aided by Beelzebub. And legends grew about him in
wild luxuriance. In particular he is credited with the creation of an
android, homunculus, or, as some say, a fair maiden--an idea which
Goethe may have copied in his celebrated play--able, according to some,
to say only 'Salve,' but, according to others, to predict with the
unerring accuracy of a Zadkiel a change of government, or the advent of
a pestilence, a royal marriage or a royal death. But all agree that
this automaton was smashed by his pupil Thomas Aquinas, who ought to
have known better than to believe it a device of the Evil One. This
story of the speaking statue may go with those other marvels of his
vision of the Holy Virgin to encourage him in theological study, and his
stupendous garden of flowers and birds and fountains in mid-winter for
William of Holland, and that gracious scent which arose after a longer
time than four days out of his sacred sepulchre, and his vision of St.
Dominic, who himself revealed to him the secret of the stone, whereby he
discharged all the debts of his bishopric.

"These bald facts about our friend Magnus must suffice. Old Ombos had a
splendid edition of his works, lately published in Paris under the
direction of a certain August Borguet; twenty large folios on all
imaginable subjects. They included chapters on hawks and adhering to
God, on meteors and the mystery of the Mass, on the healing of the leper
and the _eau de vie_.

"I was a gross Philistine in those days--still am, as a matter of
fact--and I could not appreciate the statue. A strenuous life with my
Regiment had stifled what little appreciation for such things a more
leisured existence might have fostered. I could not appreciate nor
understand the things that Ombos was saying about the bronze statue and
the strange Master of the Masters it portrayed.

"Old Ombos--you could not help but think that he had grown very much
like the statue himself; or had the statue grown like him?--held up a
candelabra which threw the details of the bronze figure into relief and
cast flickering reflections on the dark oak panelling of the recess.

"'It's an exquisite thing,' said Ombos. 'See how he rears himself on his
black granite plinth. A noble pile of mellow bronze, irregular yet
graceful.' Ombos regarded it smilingly, yet with one of his queer,
si