This is surely something more than mortal!'
'That is what they say, my Lord,' said the valet; 'they say it is
nothing mortal, that utters it; and if I might say my thoughts'-
'Peace!' said the Count, and he listened till the strain died away.
'This is strange!' said he, as he turned from the window, 'Close the
casements, Pierre.'
Pierre obeyed, and the Count soon after dismissed him, but did not so
soon lose the remembrance of the music, which long vibrated in his fancy
in tones of melting sweetness, while surprise and perplexity engaged his
thoughts. Ludovico, meanwhile, in his remote chamber, heard, now and then, the
faint echo of a closing door, as the family retired to rest, and then
the hall clock, at a great distance, strike twelve. 'It is midnight,'
said he, and he looked suspiciously round the spacious chamber. The fire
on the hearth was now nearly expiring, for his attention having been
engaged by the book before him, he had forgotten every thing besides;
but he soon added fresh wood, not because he was cold, though the night
was stormy, but because he was cheerless; and, having again trimmed
his lamp, he poured out a glass of wine, drew his chair nearer to the
crackling blaze, tried to be deaf to the wind, that howled mournfully
at the casements, endeavoured to abstract his mind from the melancholy,
that was stealing upon him, and again took up his book. It had been lent
to him by Dorothee, who had formerly picked it up in an obscure corner
of the Marquis's library, and who, having opened it and perceived
some of the marvels it related, had carefully preserved it for her own
entertainment, its condition giving her some excuse for detaining it
from its proper station.
The damp corner into which it had fallen, had
caused the cover to be disfigured and mouldy, and the leaves to be so
discoloured with spots, that it was not without difficulty the letters
could be traced. The fictions of the Provencal writers, whether drawn
from the Arabian legends, brought by the Saracens into Spain, or
recounting the chivalric exploits performed by the crusaders, whom the
Troubadors accompanied to the east, were generally splendid and always
marvellous, both in scenery and incident; and it is not wonderful, that
Dorothee and Ludovico should be fascinated by inventions, which had
captivated the careless imagination in every rank of society, in a
former age.
Some of the tales, however, in the book now before Ludovico,
were of simple structure, and exhibited nothing of the magnificent
machinery and heroic manners, which usually characterized the fables of
the twelfth century, and of this description was the one he now happened
to open, which, in its original style, was of great length, but which
may be thus shortly related. The reader will perceive, that it is
strongly tinctured with the superstition of the times.