while a sort
of small wicket, latticed with wire-work, enabled all visitors to be
duly scrutinised ere they were admitted.

The dwelling of the Italian charlatan, who was said to pursue such
fearful avocations, had, likewise, its whimsical mode of designating the
pursuits of its occupant, whose name, traced in large letters formed of
horses' teeth upon a square black board, was nailed to the
entrance-door; while, instead of adopting the classical agency of a
deer's foot or a hare's pad for the handle of his bell, there hung
dangling from the cord the hand and arm of a dried ape,--the withered
limb, the shrivelled hand, with its five fingers, each so distinctly
preserved, and the articulation of every joint so clearly defined, the
tiny tips bearing the nails long and taper as those of a human creature,
presented a close and hideous resemblance to the hand and arm of a
child.

As Rodolph passed before a door so singularly indicative of all his
worst suspicions, he fancied he could detect the sound of smothered sobs
from within. Then rose up a cry so full of agony, of convulsive,
irrepressible misery,--a cry as if wrung from a breaking heart or the
last wail of expiring nature, that the whole house seemed to re-echo it.
Rodolph started; then, by a movement more rapid than thought itself, he
rushed to the door and violently pulled the bell.

"What is the matter, sir?" inquired the astonished porter.

"That cry!" said Rodolph; "did you not hear it?"

"Yes, yes, I heard it; I dare say it is some person whose teeth M.
Bradamanti is taking out; perhaps he may be taking out several,--and it
is painful!"

This explanation, though a probable one, did not satisfy Rodolph as to
the horrid scream which still resounded in his ears. Though he had rung
the bell with considerable violence, no person had as yet replied to his
summons; he could distinctly hear the shutting of several doors, and
then, behind a small oval glass let in beside the door, and on which
Rodolph had mechanically kept his eyes fixed, he saw the haggard,
cadaverous countenance of a human being; a mass of reddish hair strongly
mixed with gray, and a long beard of the same hue, completed the hideous
ensemble; the face was seen but for an instant, and vanished as quickly
as though it had been a mere creation of fancy, leaving Rodolph in a
state of perturbation impossible to describe.

Short as had been the period of this apparition's visit, he had yet in
those