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hunter, and of displaying before the admiring eyes of numerous belles his noble and fearless horsemanship. "And might I not have the good fortune," he exclaimed, as he gazed on the ivory Sphinx in his hand, "to meet my lovely Countess amidst that crowd of fashionables?" Reclining with his head and arms upon the railing of his verandah, he fell into his wonted reverie; and at length the sultry atmosphere, combined with the fatigue of a long walk, soothed him into a profound slumber, from which he was unpleasantly roused by that ominous question, “Arnold! who are you?" Looking up, he saw, in the garden, the elegant little jockey, whose mysterious recommendation of a stick on the Jungfern-stieg walk had so much perplexed him. The laughing boy stood below the verandah, and, pointing towards Arnold with his right fore-finger, repeated the annoying question, "Who are you?" Prompted both by anger and curiosity, the student started from his seat, rushed down stairs, and out of the house door, but the boy was gone.

at length he yielded to a conviction of bounding along on a fine English that he was entangled in a romantic web of incidents, and that the sudden discovery of his illustrious parents would be the solution of the problem. The startling questions of "Who are you? and, Who am I?” haunted him like spectres, and amongst many singular speculations upon his own origin and identity, he began to indulge a suspicion that he had a double existence, and that he could inhabit two places at once. He now recollected with alarm the many tales he had heard, and once discredited, of men who had two distinct and intelligent existences, who had even beheld their own doubles, and had been warned by those mysterious appearances of their approaching deaths. Fearful of yielding himself too entirely to the dominion of this excitement, he would often rush into the busy streets of Hamburg, and endeavor to regain, by rough collision with the world and its realities, some portion of common sense and self-possession. But, whenever he approached his lodgings, his visionary fears returned, and he often hesitated to open his door, from an apprehension that he should behold himself seated at the table, and writing the continuation of his romance.

On St. John's day, Arnold returned home from a long ramble, and sat down after dinner in his verandah, which commanded a view of the road and passengers. It was a genuine midsummer-day; the sun was hot and brilliant, the sky was the deep blue of Italy, and the dusty road was crowded with vehicles, horses, and pedestrians innumerable; all eager to exchange the narrow streets and oppressive atmosphere of Hamburg, for the pure air and pleasant shade of the adjacent groves and gardens. Arnold gazed with envy upon the gay and elegant groups which passed in review before him; and coveted one of the many beautiful horses which pranced under their riders, or, in splendid harness, along the spacious avenue. Passionately fond of riding, he pictured to himself, in glowing colors, the delight

Darting across the garden into the high-road, the puzzled youth looked right and left, but in vain; the jockey had disappeared, and Arnold, after some fruitless inquiries amongst the passengers, determined to join the gay throng, and amuse himself as well as he could without a horse. But all his endeavors to reconcile himself to the use of his own legs were ineffectual; and he recollected, with keen regret, those happy days of childhood, when a stick between his legs was as good as an Arabian courser. "How pure the delights, how poetical the delusions of childhood!" soliloquized our student, as he paced along. "Would I were but four years old! I should mount this knotted stick, and trot along this pleasant road, with fresh and exquisite enjoyment. I should believe myself mounted on horse; and what we thoroughly believe becomes a real and palpable truth, whatever this dull prosaic world

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may say to the contrary." Pursuing this train of thought, the visionary Arnold plunged so deeply into the vivid recollections and associations of his childhood, that he at length forgot there was a world without, as well as a world within him, and actually putting the stick between his legs, began to canter away with great speed and spirit along the highway, to the indescribable amusement of the numerous passengers. Shouts of laughter resounded on all sides, but they were blended with the sounding hoofs and rolling wheels of numerous equipages, and fell unheeded or unheard upon the ears of Arnold, who pursued his ride with infinite satisfaction, until he beheld, in the distance, an equipage of surpassing splendor leave the avenue, and strike into a cross-road. It was an open English carriage, of rich and elegant design, drawn by four magnificent Danish horses, and preceded by two outriders in English jockey-costume. The only occupant of this dazzling vehicle was a young and elegantly attired woman. Soon as Arnold beheld the jockeys, he recognised the garb of the mysterious youth who had spoken to him on the Jungfern-stieg, and again but an hour since in his garden. "That must be my lovely Countess," he exclaimed, as he bounded forward with lightning-speed to overtake the brilliant equipage. Finding his horse an encumbrance rather than a help, he transferred it from his legs to his fingers, succeeded at length in overtaking the carriage, and, to his inexpressible delight, discovered in the fair traveller his radiant and enchanting Cordula.

She immediately observed and recognised him. Stopping the carriage, she greeted the breathless and agitated student with a melodious laugh. "Hah! do we meet again?" said she. "Strange and incomprehensible youth! Are you not ashamed of yourself, to have mistaken me for an enchanted Melusina? What do you think of me now? Am I a marble Sphinx, or an ivory knob Ha! ha! ha! You are truly an original personage, and far

more amusing than a Spanish comedy. Do step into the carriage, and give an account of yourself."

The abashed and bewildered Arnold did not wait a second invitation. Springing with an elastic bound of delight into the vehicle, he took the proffered seat by its lovely mistress, and the four prancing Danes resumed their speed.

"Ah! my adorable Countess," exclaimed the happy student, as soon as he could find breath and language, "why did you address me so mysteriously in that Egyptian chamber? And why did you recline upon your couch in the very attitude of the Egyptian Sphinx? Dangerous and incomprehensible fair-one! My adventures in your enchanted castle, and my vivid recollection of its lovely mistress, have brought me to the verge of insanity. My nights and days are successive dreams, haunted by your angelic form; and, so strong is the delusion, that I have almost lost the faculty of distinguishing between my waking and sleeping visions. Even the common incidents of every-day life assume a supernatural and mysterious character; and, can you believe it, lovely Countess! when I first beheld your equipage, I was mounted on this foolish stick, and cantering along the high-road like a brainless child, firmly believing all the while that I had a noble courser under me? Nay, more! I have even doubted the reality of those days of paradise, which I lived under your hospitable roof; and even now, that your vicinity brings the sweet conviction home to my ravished senses, I am disturbed by a vague and unconquerable apprehension that my present happiness is but a delusion, which a word or look may dissolve for ever."

"Ha! ha ha! ha!" laughed the Countess, until the tears rolled down her cheeks. "Singular being! Can you still doubt the evidence of your senses? When will these wanderings of fancy cease? Beware, friend Arnold, of indulging such pernicious excitements, or you will end in doubt

ing your own existence. You must struggle manfully against these dangerous hallucinations, and open your eyes and senses to a conviction that you are again my prisoner, and returning to the castle as fast as my impetuous Danes can whirl you."

"Would I were your prisoner for life, most lovely Countess! or that I had never entered the sphere of your enchantments!" exclaimed the enamored youth, with a gaze so fraught with tender meaning, that the blushing, smiling Cordula found it expedient to introduce a less hazardous topic of conversation.

The hours flitted on rosy wings over the enraptured student as he listened to the music of her thrilling voice, and became each moment more enthralled by her radiant features, and the nameless fascinations of her language and deportment. The evening had advanced unperceived, and the sun was sinking majestically behind the dark woods which belted the horizon, when the carriage stopped at a park-entrance, and the Countess, with a smile of mystery, invited him to walk through her enchanted grove to the castle.

As he assisted her descent, he observed, for the first time, the features of the two outriders, and discovered in one of them the mysterious youth who had roused him by that fatal question from beneath his window. While he hesitated to indulge his curiosity, the Countess, with flattering familiarity, took his arm and led him through the forest scenery which surrounded and concealed her castle. The daylight was rapidly disappearing, but he could easily discern in the numerous cliffs and caverns which adorned this romantic wood, and in the singular echoes which proceeded from them, the natural causes of those unpleasant adventures which attended his first approach to the Castle. The increasing gloom of this sylvan region was partially dispelled by the rising moon, and the intervals between the dense foliage were gemmed with stars which shone like pendant lamps in the dark

blue heavens. Suddenly a stream of brilliant light shot across the horizon. "Hah!" exclaimed Arnold, "what a splendid meteor!"

"It was no meteor," replied the Countess, "but a rocket from the castle gardens. You will meet a numerous assemblage of my friends and neighbors, invited to celebrate my birth-day by a fête champétre, and a masked ball of dramatic costumes. That rocket was a signal to commence the illuminations, which are designed by my clever little page Florestan. I love that little fellow as if he were my brother, and you, Arnold! must love him for my sake. He is full of ingenious attentions to me, and he excels in everything he undertakes. He paints admirably in oil; and tomorrow," she added, with a sigh, “he shall paint your portrait, that I may at least possess a copy, in case the strange original should again doubtagain abandon me. But I trust, Arnold!" continued the bewitching Cordula, "that your second visit will be more enduring than the first."

These words were uttered in a voice trembling with emotion, and the supremely blest and enraptured student, no longer doubting her sympathy, knelt to his fair enslaver, and, with a beating heart and faltering tongue, stammered his tale of love. In blushing haste the lovely Countess extended her ivory hands to the kneeling Arnold, and bade him rise. Still holding his hands in hers with a gentle pressure, which electrified the happy student, she fixed upon his glowing features a long and searching gaze. "Ah, Arnold! Arnold!" at length she said, in tones of tender and impassioned modulation, "if you really loved me, you would not feel so inquisitive about me. You would love me for my own sake, regardless of the world and its opinions. But men were ever selfish and distrustful. They cannot love with the entire devotedness, the pure and lofty confidence of woman.' "Celestial creature!" exclaimed the delirious Arnold, forgive my doubts and wanderings. They are at

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rest for ever; and, henceforward, you are my world, my universe. Pardon my daring hopes, my mad presumption, and make me the first and happiest of human beings, the husband of the beautiful, the accomplished, and highly-gifted Cordula."

"Dear Arnold!" whispered the blushing and gratified Countess, "I am yours. Henceforward you are the chosen partner of my affections and my life; but beware of future doubts, and forget my singular questions in the Egyptian chamber. They were intended as a trial of your regard for me, but it was then unequal to the test.

You doubted me because you could not comprehend me, and you would not believe, because you were not permitted to investigate. If you would not lose me for ever, follow blindly the impulses of your affectionate nature, and destroy not our happiness by inordinate anxiety to know of what materials it is composed."

The fortunate student, still dizzy with this unexpected height of bliss, promised boundless confidence, and love everlasting, and sealed his promise with a fervent kiss upon the rosy lips of the blushing fair one. When this rapturous overflow of feeling had somewhat subsided, he observed a fiery glow spreading over the horizon; and as they emerged soon after from the forest-shades, he was startled, and for a moment blinded by a spectacle almost too dazzling for human vision. The noble mansion of the Countess was illuminated from end to end, and reared its proud and castellated form like a huge pyramid of light. The ingenious Florestan had traced with lines of radiant lamps, each buttress, battlement, tower, and pinnacle of the lofty edifice, which stood in bright relief before a dark background of woody hills, and realized the chivalrous magnificence of the middle ages. The stillness of the lovely night was now bro

ken by a gentle breeze, which gradually swelled into a gust, and suddenly the sound of sad and thrilling harmony floated above the loving pair. A louder strain succeeded, and the whole atmosphere was suffused with the lofty intonations of harp-music, which soared insensibly into the sustained and solemn grandeur of an organ, and then, melting down in progressive cadences, died away on the breeze like the faint and lingering whispers of an Eolian harp.

"Surely, my sweet Cordula !" exclaimed the wondering Arnold, "we listen to the music of the spheres. Whence come those awful sounds?"

"It is the giant's harp,” replied the Countess. "Seven powerful wires, tuned to the gamut, are stretched between the flanking towers which overtop the castle, and when it blows a storm, the pealing of this great weather-harp is carried on the gale for several miles."*

Another rocket soared aloft, and suddenly an unseen band of Turkish music began a lively, bounding measure. The castle-gates flew open, and a numerous train of youths and maidens, carrying torches, issued from the portal to meet the approaching pair, strewed flowers along their path, and danced before them in gay procession to the entrance of the great baronial hall of the castle, in which the tasteful illuminations of Florestan had created the blaze of noon. Their arrival was announced by a triumphant flourish from the trumpets stationed in the gallery, and immediately a crowd of dramatic maskers and mummers rushed forward to greet them. Arnold gazed in speechless amazement at the grotesque extravagance of garb and feature exhibited in the masks and costumes of the numerous guests. All the witches, and demons, the ghosts, and grave-diggers, of Shakspeare and Goethe; the harlequins,

The giant's harp is a colossal imitation of the Æolian harp, and was invented in 1786, by the Abbate Gattoni, at Milan. He stretched seven iron wires, tuned to the gamut, from the summit of a tower fifty feet high, to the house of Signor Moscati, who took a lively interest in the success of the experiment. In blowing weather, this mighty instrument would play harme niously for many hours, and its powerful tones were carried to à distance hardly credible.

buffoons, and merry beggars, of Gozzi and Goldoni; and, yet stranger, the wild and grotesque conceptions of Callot, Hoffmann, and the eccentric artist in the castle-gallery, were embodied and let loose on this occasion. Arnold and the Countess retired for a short time to array themselves in the picturesque and splendid costumes of Romeo and Juliet, and, on their return to the hall, the music played an inspiring measure, and the merry maskers separated into groups for dancing. Too much excited and astonished to join in this amusement, the student stood in silence by his Countess, and gazed with painful forebodings upon the wild and fantastic scene around him. Meanwhile, the princely Hamlet and his crazed Ophelia, the aspiring Faust, the tender Margaret, and all the spectres and witches of Macbeth and May-day night, began to thread the mazes of a new quadrille; the buffoons and scaramouches of Venice performed with wild and startling vehemence the dramatic dances of Italy; and, while these groups filled the centre of the hall, the spectacled, distorted, and fantastic creations of Callot and Hoffmann encircled them, and waltzed around the hall in revolutions so fearfully rapid that their figures resembled flitting shadows rather than human beings.

"And where is Mephistopheles ?" said Arnold, at length, somewhat ashamed of his long silence.

"He is the master of the revels," replied the Countess, "and the best dressed character in the hall. His mask especially is an admirable piece of mechanism, the contrivance of my ingenious Florestan. Behold him standing on a table, directing the music and the dancers."

Arnold approached the table, and started with dismay when he beheld this awful conception of the highly gifted Goëthe personified with superhuman accuracy. He stood erect upon a table, and marked the time with a roll of parchment, on which music was traced in red and glowing charac

33 ATHENEUM, VOL. I. 3d series.

ters, as if written with a pen of fire. His tall figure was muffled in a Spanish mantle, his narrow forehead and upward slanting eyebrows were shaded by his hat and feather, and a halfmask concealed only the higher portion of his unearthly visage, leaving exposed a mouth, cheeks, and chin of brown, livid, and horny texture, like the skin of a mummy. The nostrils of his beaked nose were dilated with intense scorn, and a derisive and satanic smile lurked round his skinny lips and spreading jaws, while his small and deepset eyes gleamed faintly through their pasteboard sockets like nebulous stars. A sudden shivering ran through the frame of Arnold as he gazed upon this awful masker, and he recoiled in abhorrence; but an unaccountable and serpent-fascination deprived him of all volition, and involuntarily he again approached the table; when, behold! the eyes of Mephistopheles, before so undistinguishable, were now protruding, from the sockets of the mask, and glared upon him like the riveted and glittering orbs of a rattle-snake. Rooted to the

spot, and unable to avert his gaze from this tremendous visage, the loathing student beheld those terrible eyes slowly recede into the head, and wane into utter darkness, like the revolving lights of a Pharos. He watched, with growing horror, until the luminous points re-appeared; the eyes again approached the pasteboard, and flashed out upon him with a glow so intensely fierce and vivid that no color was distinguishable. Sick and giddy with abhorrence, Arnold covered his aching eye-balls with his hands, and by a desperate and convulsive effort released himself from the thraldom of this basilisk. Turning away, he would have rushed from the hall, but found himself hemmed in by the grotesque and waltzing phantasms of Callot and Hoffmann, whose endless numbers darted in rolling succession round the immense hall, like the vast and buoyant articulations of a seaserpent. While gazing on these extravagant caricatures, Arnold observ

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