312 THE NEGROMANCifR. 



by the feeble light of the lamp. All this produced a fearful effect 

 upon the susceptible mind of Mande, already predisposed to the 

 supernatural, and a positive belief in the old man's power. He was 

 unable to withdraw his gaze from those two large round eyes which 

 were glittering in the shade, and stood wrapt in the deepest thought, 

 when he was at length aroused by the loud and boisterous laugh of 

 his companions, who were taunting the old man for his want of 

 skill. 



When Mande's turn came, he hesitated ; till, jeered by his com- 

 rades, he at length held out his hand ; but it was observed that his 

 manner was grave, and his air thoughtful. 



" Mande," exclaimed the old man, and he had not told him his 

 name. et Mande/' he murmured between his teeth ; and he whispered 

 some words in his ear inaudible to the others of his party. 



" What has he said to you ?" eagerly enquired his companions ; 

 but Mande was silent, and quitted the place, pale as death. 



The next morning Mande's first thought was of the negromancer ; 

 all night long he had beheld him in his dreams. The low voice of 

 the magician still murmured in his ear ; and when he awoke from 

 his troubled sleep, the last word still vibrated at his heart. " Am I 



then reserved for that? and must I then ," he inwardly 



exclaimed ; and his noble heart revolted at his own conjurings. 

 " And who told me this ? A wretch who luxuriates upon the cre- 

 dulity of mankind who attacks my purse through the medium of 

 my fears. I am a fool to think of it." 



He arose, and went out, but nothing could divert him ; even in 

 the streets he seemed to see but the sorcerer, and to hear but his fatal 

 words. Timid by nature, and weakened by the excesses of his life, 

 the effects of the sorcerer's prediction, acting upon an enfeebled mind, 

 acquired an all-powerful intensity. After wandering through the 

 city till past the hour of noon, striving to escape from the horrible 

 idea that pursued him, he sought some of his companions of the 

 previous evening, but society he found was a burden to him; he 

 therefore quitted them to wander alone in the fields. The sun was 

 bright, but to him the heavens appeared clouded ; a balmy and 

 refreshing breeze played around him, but he felt not its soothing 

 power his heart was chilled. One dark, freezing, dreadful idea 

 haunted his imagination. As he was retracing his steps to his lodg- 

 ings, in that despairing mood that takes possession of the mind when 

 nature has no longer any charms for us, and was on the point of 

 crossing La Greve he suddenly stopped short ; for he beheld a 

 newly-erected scaffold. With a convulsive shudder he turned 

 aside ; it reminded him of the words of the sorcerer ! 



He could no longer sleep in La Rue Chevet Saint Lauday, which 

 was opposite La Greve ; he, therefore, quitted the capital, and took 

 up his residence in a habitation situated between Paris and Mont- 

 martre. There he saw but little, and heard but little ; it seemed to 

 him like the silence of the desert at the very gates of a populous 

 city ; and there he hoped that his troubled imagination might have 

 recovered its- tone and tranquillity, and the dreadful words of the 

 negromancer might be gradually weakened from their mysterious 



