The Devil's Elixir

to the Abbess of the Cister

e and happy-that at length the horrid spectre is banished, whose terrific influence, blighting every f

appointment, you received and supported me during my otherwise hopeless affliction, I ought then, not only to have confessed my sins,

changed, and I can freely write to you of that secret, which has so long been deeply concealed in my own breast. It seems to me, indeed, as if that mysterious power by whom I have been haunted, had mocked, like a demon, at my every prospect of happiness!

rliest recollections, for even at that time, the foundation was laid in my heart of thos

t play in the castle gardens. Hermogen had run about supplying me with a thousand varieties of flowers, which he also assisted me to weave into garlands, with w

other is in her blue closet, and speaks with the devil!' I could not tell what my brother meant by this, but, quite overcome with terror, I began to weep bitterly-'Foolish Aurelia,' said Hermogen

her in a state of deathlike weakness. This happened once in presence of Hermogen, and myself. We were order

look upon, would, to any one else, be death. (As to religious instructions, they were, of course, yet wholly beyond my comprehension.) On

holy tone, she pronounced the name, 'Francesco-Francesco!' There was then a strange rustling and rattling behind the oak pannels of the wall. The boards began to move, and drew themse

an exclamation of joy, which, for the first time, made my mother aware of my presence. Her temper, which was generally mild and equable, was now more ruffled than on any former occasion.-'What wou

dearest mother, why is it gone?'-The Baroness lifted me up in her arms, and caressed me.-'Thou art my dear good child,' said s

pposed, that our mother speaks, but with a young handsome man. However, he is only a picture, and starts out of the wall when she calls for him.'-'The devil,' answered Hermogen, with a fixed serious look, 'may

ther's death, when we came back to the country. The wing of the castle in which was that blue cabinet, remained uninhabited. Here had

ened to come into the blue cabinet, just at the time when the workmen were about to tear up the floor. When one of them was in the act of lifting a heavy table, whi

Once more that extraordinary event of my childhood was brought vividly to my remembrance; and, at the recollection of my beloved mother, tears started into my eyes. Yet I could not turn away my looks from the expressive and in

ng on the unknown, he hastily entered the room. He had scarcely cast a fleeting glance on the picture, when he app

p, and give it in charge to Reinhold. I was greatly distressed by this order. It seemed to me as if I should never more behold that form, so heroic, noble, and interesting; who, in his foreign

volatility and light-heartedness of youth. A thousand sports, of my own devising, every day engaged my attention; and my father often said,

his own professional pursuits as a young soldier. He thought only of hardening his frame to endure every possible fatigue-of parades and reviews-of milit

stic impression. If any new feeling arose within me, being wholly undiverted by any external influence, or by the usual dissipations of society to which others can have recourse, it naturally grew into excess. I became thought

slightest good effect. At this time-I know not myself how it could have happened-but one night the half-forgotten image of the unknown appeared before me, in colour

ia,' said the vision, 'and this is the cause of thy present illness and distraction. But canst thou dissolve the vo

mysteries of a first love were revealed,-that, with a passionate fervour, of which only the youthful heart is capable, I was attached to the nameless and visionary unknown! My indisposition seemed, however, to have attained its crisis, and I became perceptibly better. My nervous irritability decreased, and I was able again to

devil;' and began to think, that the unknown was, in truth, an agent of the Arch-fiend, employed to entice me to destruction. Yet I could not cease to love him; and when Reinhold came back, on one occasion, from a journey, and talked much of a certain Brother Medardus, whom he had heard preach in the town of K?nigswald, there arose within me an obscure dim apprehension, that the original of the beloved and yet dreaded vision might be that very Medardus; and this belief Reinhold's description of the preacher's features and person seemed amply to sanction. Thereafter, the wild dreams and internal conflicts by which I was pe

to finish alone. We lived at the garden-house of the Graf van M--, which is close by the celebrated chapel of the Capuchin Convent; and remember

he first volume of these Memoirs. After this, it appears that Aurelia was seized by a long and dangerous illness, by which her passion for Medardus was, for a time, completely subdued and alienated. To this change his vehement exhortation to her in

of her affections, yet, with an unshaken perseverance, she persisted in her determination, on no occasion whatever to betray this recognition. Many times, however, she now underwent s

duct was but the fulfilment of imperious duty, and feeling the utmost abhorrence for him as a criminal, yet with these feelings was blended a share of compassion, so that she almost regretted what she had done. At this period, the discovery of the insane monk, in whom Cyrillus recognized the true Medardus-the proofs received from Posen, th

een put to death. Only the adventure at the Princess's country-house had, for a time, broken in upon this confidence, and given rise to many harassing doubts and fears, with an oppressi