e, where festivity prevailed, grand illuminations
sprung up with magical quickness, the reflection from each separate
galaxy rendering it bright as day far, far around.

Vocal and instrumental melody floated through the still air; and the
perfume of exotics, decorating the halls of the Florentine nobles,
poured from the widely-opened portals, and rendered the air delicious.

For Florence was gay that evening--the last day of each month being the
one which the wealthy lords and high-born ladies set apart for the
reception of their friends.

The sun sank behind the western hills; and even the hothouse flowers
closed up their buds--as if they were eyelids weighed down by slumber,
and not to wake until the morning should arouse them again to welcome
the return of their lover--that glorious sun!

Darkness seemed to dilate upon the sky like an image in the midst of a
mirage, expanding into superhuman dimensions--then rapidly losing its
shapeliness, and covering the vault above densely and confusedly.

But, by degrees, countless stars began to stud the colorless canopy of
heaven, like gems of orient splendor; for the last--last flickering ray
of the twilight in the west had expired in the increasing obscurity.

But, hark! what is that wild and fearful cry?

In the midst of a wood of evergreens on the banks of the Arno, a
man--young, handsome, and splendidly attired--has thrown himself upon
the ground, where he writhes like a stricken serpent, in horrible
convulsions.

He is the prey of a demoniac excitement: an appalling consternation is
on him--madness is in his brain--his mind is on fire.

Lightnings appear to gleam from his eyes, as if his soul were dismayed,
and withering within his breast.

"Oh! no--no!" he cries with a piercing shriek, as if wrestling madly,
furiously, but vainly against some unseen fiend that holds him in his
grasp.

And the wood echoes to that terrible wail; and the startled bird flies
fluttering from its bough.

But, lo! what awful change is taking place in the form of that doomed
being? His handsome countenance elongates into one of savage and
brute-like shape; the rich garments which he wears become a rough,
shaggy, and wiry skin; his body loses its human contours, his arms and
limbs take another form; and, with a frantic howl of misery, to which
the woods give horribly faithful reverberations, and, with a rush like a
hurling wind, the wretch starts wildly away, no longer a man, but a