Que donne le monde aux siens plus souvent,

        Echo Vent.

Que dois-je vaincre ici, sans jamais relacher,

        Echo la chair.

Qui fit le cause des maux, qui me sont survenus,

        Echo Venus.

Que faut dire après d’une telle infidelle,

        Echo Fi d’elle.

MAGDALèNIADE, by Father Pierre de St Louis.

‘Three years had elapsed since the parting of Immalee and the stranger, when one evening the attention of some Spanish gentlemen, who were walking in a public place in Madrid, was arrested by a figure that passed them, habited in the dress of the country, (only without a sword), and walking very slowly. They stopt by a kind of simultaneous movement, and seemed to ask each other, with silent looks, what had been the cause of the impression this person’s appearance had made on them. There was nothing remarkable in his figure, — his demeanour was quiet; it was the singular expression of his countenance which had struck them with a sensation they could neither define or account for.

‘As they paused, the person returned alone, and walking slowly — and they again encountered that singular expression of the features, (the eyes particularly), which no human glance could meet unappalled. Accustomed to look on and converse with all things revolting to nature and to man, — for ever exploring the mad-house, the jail, or the Inquisition, — the den of famine, the dungeon of crime, or the death-bed of despair, — his eyes had acquired a light and a language of their own — a light that none could gaze on, and a language that few dare understand.

‘As he passed slowly by them, they observed two others whose attention was apparently fixed on the same singular object, for they stood pointing after him, and speaking to each other with gestures of strong and obvious emotion. The curiosity of the groupe for once overcame the restraint of Spanish reserve, and approaching the two cavaliers, they inquired if the singular personage who had passed was not the subject of their conversation, and the cause of the emotion which appeared to accompany it. The others replied in the affirmative, and hinted at their knowledge of circumstances in the character and history of that extraordinary being that might justify even stronger marks of emotion at his presence. This hint operated still more strongly on their curiosity — the circle of listeners began to deepen. Some of them, it appeared, had, or pretended to have, some information relative to this extraordinary subject. And that kind of desultory conversation commenced, whose principal ingredients are a plentiful proportion of ignorance, curiosity, and fear, mingled with some small allowance of information and truth; — that conversation, vague, unsatisfactory, but not uninteresting, to which every speaker is welcome to contribute his share of baseless report, — wild conjecture, — anecdote the more incredible the better credited, — and conclusion the more falsely drawn the more likely to carry home conviction.

‘The conversation passed very much in language incoherent as this:— ‘But why, if he be what he is described, what he is known to be, — why is he not seized by order of government? — why is he not immured in the Inquisition?’ — ‘He has been often in the prison of the holy office — oftener, perhaps, than the holy fathers wished,’ said another. ‘But it is a well-known fact, that whatever transpired on his examination, he was liberated almost immediately.’ Another added, ‘That the stranger had been in almost every prison in Europe, but had always contrived either to defeat or defy the power in whose grasp he appeared to be inclosed, — and to be active in his purposes of mischief in the remotest parts of Europe at the moment he was supposed to be expiating them in others.’ Another demanded, ‘If it was known to what country he belonged?’ and was answered, ‘He is said to be a native of Ireland — (a country that no one knows, and which the natives are particularly reluctant to dwell in from various causes) — and his name is Melmoth.’ The Spaniard had great difficulty in expressing the theta, unpronounceable by continental lips. Another, who had an appearance of more intelligence than the rest, added the extraordinary fact of the stranger’s being seen in various and distant parts of the earth within a time in which no power merely human could be supposed to traverse them — that his marked and fearful habit was every where to seek out the most wretched, or the most profligate, of the community among which he flung himself — what was his object in seeking them was unknown.’ — ‘It is well known,’ said a deep-toned voice, falling on the ears of the startled listeners like the toll of a strong but muffled bell, — ‘it is well known both to him and them.’

‘It was now twilight, but the eyes of all could distinguish the figure of the stranger as he passed; and some even averred they could see the ominous lustre of those eyes which never rose on human destiny but as planets of woe. The groupe paused for some time to watch the retreat of the figure that had produced on them the effect of the torpedo. It departed slowly, — no one offered it molestation.

‘I have heard,’ said one of the company, ‘that a delicious music precedes the approach of this person when his destined victim, — the being whom he is permitted to tempt or to torture, — is about to appear or to approach him. I have heard a strange tale of such music being heard; and — Holy Mary be our guide! did you ever hear such sounds?’ — ‘Where — what? — ’ and the astonished listeners took off their hats, unclasped their mantles, opened their lips, and drew in their breath, in delicious ecstasy at the sounds that floated round them. ‘No wonder,’ said a young gallant of the party, ‘no wonder that such sounds harbinger the approach of a being so heavenly. She deals with the good spirits; and the blessed saints alone could send such music from above t............