448 THE FHKXCTT CONVULSIVE*. 



tune, is to seek out the old and faithful servant of his father. He 

 instals him Major domo in his splendid palace, and makes him the 

 medium of his connexion with the living world. Submitting his 

 will, his understanding, to the gross common sense of an aged pea- 

 sant, scarcely civilized by a domesticity of fifty years, he abdicates 

 life, to live, divesting his soul of all the poetry of desire, and almost 

 exulting in becoming a species of automaton. His aim is to brave 

 death, and to struggle with the cruel power, whose defiance he had 

 accepted. Desirous of prolonging his existence at any price, he 

 resumes, in the midst of luxury, a life of study. Suppressing his 

 most trifling desire, he exists in such a way as not to cause the slight- 

 est contraction of the terrible talisman. 



But its fearful power is again brought into action, in spite of his 

 endeavours to prevent it. The preceptor of his youth, is dismissed 

 from a professor's chair by the Citizen King, on a charge of Carlism. 

 In his destitution, the old man seeks the assistance of Raphael, for 

 procuring the superintendency of some college, and is fortunate enough 

 to gain admittance to him. The professional garrulity of the simple 

 old man, fatigues the attention of his quondam pupil. 



" He was a prey to an invincible fit of drowsiness, when the monotonous 

 voice of the old man ceased to vibrate in his ears. Compelled by politeness 

 to gaze on the lack-lustre and almost motionless eyes of this old man with 

 his slow and heavy utterance, he had been stupified, magnetized by an inex- 

 plicable force of inertness. ' Well well, my good father/ replied he, with- 

 out knowing precisely to what interrogatory he was replying, ' I can do 

 nothing in the matter absolutely nothing ; however, / wish most strongly 

 that you may succeed. You may rely upon me.' Instantly, without at- 

 tending to the effect produced upon the yellow and wrinkled brow of the old 

 man, by these common-place words, so full of egotism and carelessness, 

 Raphael started to his feet like a young roebuck ; then observing a thin 

 white line between the border of the dark skin and the red contour, he gave 

 such a terrific scream, that the poor professor almost fainted. ' Begone, you 

 old wretch !' cried he ; ' you shall be appointed superintendant. Could you 

 not have asked me for an annuity of ten thousand crowns, rather than my 

 protection ? then had your visit cost me nothing. There are a hundred 

 thousand employments in France ; and I have but one life. A man's life is 

 worth all the employments in the world/ 



" ' The evil is done, my old friend/ resumed he, in a gentle tone. ' I 

 shall have largely recompensed you for your cares ; and my misfortune will 

 at least have procured the happiness cf a good and worthy man/ " 



Yielding to the kind entreaties of his faithful servant Jonathan, 

 Raphael is persuaded to seek distraction from his brooding fancies, 

 by going to the Italian Opera; but here the mysterious influence of 

 the fatal talisman presents itself to his notice under a new shape ; 

 while fresh opportunities are afforded for a further developement of 

 its powers. As he wanders through the gay groups assembled in 

 the saloon, his attention is arrested by the appearance of a little old 

 man, on whose person all the resources and artifices of the toilet, in 

 communicating to age the fictitious freshness and bloom of youth, 

 had been lavished with painful care and anxiety. His wrinkles were 

 covered with a thick enamel of rouge his hair and eyebrows were 



