et!" exclaimed the Baron, fiercely, darting at me a
glance from his evil eye that froze my very marrow. "That name is
offensive to me, another such title as that, and I'll--I'll"--here the
Baron's face went through the most hideously savage contortions that it
is possible to imagine. The Baron's portrait taken in the flesh was ugly
enough, but it was an ideal of manly beauty compared with the infernal
aspect of this demon flea before me.

"Mercy! mercy!" cried I, gasping.

"Oh, yes, 'Mercy, mercy,'" retorted the Baron, with a sneer. "Very well,
then, this time, but mind----" Here his countenance again assumed a
ferocious expression. "Ha! ha!" he cried. "You thought to outwit me by
taking opium to deaden my bite. Fool! know it was _I_ who made you buy
that opium; not to make you _sleep_, but to _awaken_ your dull senses to
such a pitch that the gross material clay that clogs your vision might
be, as it were, doffed for a moment, and that your keener eyesight might
be able to grasp my form a degree nearer resembling that which I bore in
the flesh, thereby in a measure removing the barrier between our beings;
and each, as it were, meeting on neutral ground, to the end that you
should know my pleasure and obey my commands. It was I who caused you to
catch that toothache, by inspiring you to go to the theatre. It was I
who so ordained the distribution of the tickets that that ticket near
the door should fall to your lot, where I knew you would take cold in
the tooth, being subject to the toothache. I then, by my subtle arts,
caused you to buy that bottle of opium and bring it here with you. I
then worried you by continual biting, till I forced you to seek comfort
in that opium bottle, and now that your usually obtuse senses are raised
to that abnormal state necessary to converse with beings of my order,
listen, and give ear to what I have to say."

"Awful being, say on," I muttered.

"You must know, then," he continued, "that my spirit inhabits by day
the body of the present Baron who bears my name, though at night I am
compelled to assume the ignoble shape of a flea. At this present moment
my descendant lies in his bed lifeless. My spirit will animate his clay
to-morrow. Call upon him early, and you will learn from him what I have
not time to discuss with you now, as it is now daybreak and my power is
on the wane. Farewell."

So saying, he gradually decreased in size, losing every moment more and
more of the _human_ el