out: "Ah, now we are in the
palace...I see your Highness's cabinet...no, it is the bedchamber...it
is night...and I see your Highness lying asleep...very still...very
still...your Highness wears the scapular received last Easter from his
Holiness...It is very dark...Oh, now a light begins to shine...where
does it come from? Through the door? No, there is no door on that side
of the room...It shines through the wall at the foot of the bed...ah! I
see"--his voice mounted to a cry--"The old picture at the foot of the
bed...the picture with the wicked people burning in it...has opened like
a door...the light is shining through it...and now a lady steps out from
the wall behind the picture...oh, so beautiful...she has yellow hair, as
yellow as my mother's...but longer...oh, much longer...she carries a
rose in her hand...and there are white doves flying about her
shoulders...she is naked, quite naked, poor lady! but she does not seem
to mind...she seems to be laughing about it...and your Highness..."

The Duke started up violently. "Enough--enough!" he stammered. "The
fever is on the child...this agitation is...most pernicious...Cover the
crystal, I say!"

He sank back, his forehead damp with perspiration. In an instant the
crystal had been removed, and Prince Ferrante carried back to his
mother's side. The boy seemed in nowise affected by his father's
commotion. His eyes burned with excitement, and he sat up eagerly, as
though not to miss a detail of what was going forward. Maria Clementina
leaned over and clasped his hand, but he hardly noticed her. "I want to
see some more beautiful things!" he insisted.

The Duke sat speechless, a fallen heap in his chair, and the courtiers
looked at each other, their faces shifting spectrally in the faint
light, like phantom travellers waiting to be ferried across some
mysterious river. At length Heiligenstern advanced and with every mark
of deference addressed himself to the Duke.

"Your Highness," said he quietly, "need be under no apprehension as to
the effect produced upon the prince. The magic crystal, as your Highness
is aware, is under the protection of the blessed spirits, and its
revelations cannot harm those who are pure-minded enough to receive
them. But the chief purpose of this assemblage was to witness the
communication of vital force to the prince, by means of the electrical
current. The crystal, by revealing its secrets to the prince, has
testified to his perfect puri