The Devil's Elixir

gaoler made his appearance with a train of attendants, who carefully and obsequiously took off the fetters from my wo

omed to the idea of immediate death, I stepped into the audience-chamber. I had inwardly arranged my confession in s

maciated and disfigured; for a cheerful smile, that had been at first on his countenance, changed itself obviously into a

all proceedings against you are this day brought to an end. It appears that people have hitherto confounded you with another person; and of their mistaken accusation

ples with eau de cologne; and I recovered so far, as to hear the judge read over a short Protokoll, stating that he had duly informed me of the process being given up, and of my final release from prison. But some indescribable feelings ar

that, from the first time of our meeting, you interested me very much. Notwithstanding that appearances (as you must yourself allow) were so greatly against you, yet I sincerely wished that you might not turn out to be

I shall explain all."-"Nay, nay, be silent," said the judge. "What I surmised at first is, according to my present belief, wholly confirmed. I see that there is here some dark and deep mystery; and that, by some inexplicable game of chances, your fate is involved with that

ar yourself away from this residenz, where there is so much that is hostile to your mental repose

that had gathered around me were suddenly dissolved. The spirit of life once more, with all its enjoymen

nard," said he, "that a very frightful apprehension, which has now risen up in my mind, sho

antiated by proof, and are perhaps the result of imaginary apprehensions. It has been in the most conclusive manner proved, that you are not the Monk Medardus; for that very man is in his own person here among us, and has been recognized by the old Father Cyrillus, though the l

to my old lodgings in the town, where I found my effects placed carefully in the same order in which I had left them. My papers had been put up in a sealed envelope. Only

sual familiar style. "There have been very severe measures taken against you, Mr Krczinski, but neither we ourselves, nor our court of justice, can rightly be blamed. You are inconceivably

itement which I had undergone, was followed by lassitude and relaxation. Thus I had sunk into a deep and dark melancholy, and looked on it as very fortunate when the phys

en every one felt himself convinced that you were that horrible monk, who had caused such misfortunes in the family

ces which led to my liberation; for as yet I have only heard generally that the

ame to the residenz. By the way, it just now occurs to me that, on a former occasion, when I was occupied in relating to you the wonderful events which had happened at our court, I was interrupted, just as I had got to

euzberg, once received very kindly, and took charge of a poor deserted woman, who, with her infant son

as Francesco's widow, a

the physician; "but how

gest and most incredible. I am aware of them even up to the period when he fled from the castle of

the physician;

I have had the liveliest perception

jest," said

in the hands of dark powers,-a weed cast on the waves of a stormy sea, had been hurled hither and thither, and driven onward from crime to crime. In the Ho

" said the physician, "the

nswered I; "b

physician. "Even at that time, no doubt, he

ieved that such an apparition of necessity announced his own death. Accordingly, he began to stammer out strange confessions, to which I listened for some time, till at last, being tired by a long journey, I fell asleep; but the monk, not aware of this, continued to speak on. I dr

cian. "But wherefore did you conceal th

a story? At best, it must have appeared to him a mere romance; and will any enlightened

posed that people were confounding you with this insane monk,

or wrong, to be his Capuchin brother? Besides, it did not occur to me either that the insane monk was Medardus, or that the crime which he had confessed to me wa

nity so frightful, that the forester was obliged to send him hither, where he was shut up in the mad-house. There he sat night and day, with staring eyes, and motionless as a statue. He never uttered a word, and mu

the hopeless state in which he found the unhappy man, he was leaving the prison, just as Father Cyrillus, from the Capuchin Convent in K?nigswald, happened to be going past. He sp

he monk, who before scarcely shewed signs of life, began to open his eyes, and attend to what went forward. He even rose from his seat; but had scarcely done s

them to the prison, where they found the monk in a state of great weakness; but (judging by his conversation) not at all under the influence of delirium. He confessed that

mportance was attached at your trial. Several questions also were now put to the monk, as to the horrid incidents at the castle of the Baron von F--, to which the only answers they could then obtain were in broken exclamations. 'I am, indeed,' said he, 'an accursed and

be brought to an end, and that you should be immediately released from prison. This is the history of

Euphemia, Baroness von F--, and of Hermogen? How st

ount Victorin, it appears that nothing farther must be said of him. Whatever connection those form

n's castle can be connected with these events a

an, "I allude more to the dramat

nderstand y

sician, "my relation of the circums

ly," ans

ho made his entrance secretly into the bridal chamber, and who poniarded the Duke? Victorin, as you know, was the off-spring of that crime. He and Medardus

the Devil's Abyss, amid the Thuringian mou

easured knocking which I had heard in my dungeon. Whether this were imagination or reality, the effect on my feelings was the same. I c

k then confess to you that Vi

his confused and broken confessions-connecting them also in my own mind wit

ounded through the air, and I heard the same stammering voice-"Me-dar-dus-Me-dar-dus!-He-he-he-Help, hel

ur court. It is highly probable that he also was related to our Prince's house. Th

aughter. I could not bear this any longer. "Ho-ho-ho! Brüd-er-lein!" cried I. "Here am I-Here am I!-Come on-come on quickly, if thou would'st fight with me-Now the owl holds hi

me by the arm. "What the devil is all that? You are ill

open, and that my horrible double would enter in propria persona. Nothing appeared,

ed all the mental derangement and wildness that I had betrayed, to the effects of my lo

all contributed to my recovery was, that the horrible knocking was not heard