ived two
passions which never rejoiced. Beyond them stretched the silent country.
Beneath the shadow of the steeples of Saint-Martin, these two mute
dwellings, separated from the others in the same street and standing
at the crooked end of it, seemed afflicted with leprosy. The building
opposite to them, the home of the criminals of the State, was also under
a ban. A young man would be readily impressed by this sudden contrast.
About to fling himself into an enterprise that was horribly hazardous,
it is no wonder that the daring young seigneur stopped short before the
house of the silversmith, and called to mind the many tales furnished by
the life of Maitre Cornelius,--tales which caused such singular horror
to the countess. At this period a man of war, and even a lover, trembled
at the mere word "magic." Few indeed were the minds and the imaginations
which disbelieved in occult facts and tales of the marvellous. The lover
of the Comtesse de Saint-Vallier, one of the daughters whom Louis XI.
had in Dauphine by Madame de Sassenage, however bold he might be in
other respects, was likely to think twice before he finally entered the
house of a so-called sorcerer.

The history of Maitre Cornelius Hoogworst will fully explain the
security which the silversmith inspired in the Comte de Saint-Vallier,
the terror of the countess, and the hesitation that now took possession
of the lover. But, in order to make the readers of this nineteenth
century understand how such commonplace events could be turned into
anything supernatural, and to make them share the alarms of that olden
time, it is necessary to interrupt the course of this narrative and cast
a rapid glance on the preceding life and adventures of Maitre Cornelius.

CHAPTER II. THE TORCONNIER

Cornelius Hoogworst, one of the richest merchants in Ghent, having drawn
upon himself the enmity of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, found refuge
and protection at the court of Louis XI. The king was conscious of the
advantages he could gain from a man connected with all the principal
commercial houses of Flanders, Venice, and the Levant; he naturalized,
ennobled, and flattered Maitre Cornelius; all of which was rarely done
by Louis XI. The monarch pleased the Fleming as much as the Fleming
pleased the monarch. Wily, distrustful, and miserly; equally politic,
equally learned; superior, both of them, to their epoch; understanding
each other marvellously; they discarded and resumed w