er her education with care, and had instructed her in
all lawful knowledge, save only the knowledge of poisons. As no other human
being had entered the house, Mithridata was unaware that her bringing up
had differed in so material a respect from that of other young people.

"Father," said she one day, bringing him a book she had been perusing,
"what strange follies learned men will pen with gravity! or is it rather
that none can set bounds to the licence of romancers? These dear serpents,
my friends and playfellows, this henbane and antimony, the nourishment of
my health and vigour--that any one should write of these as pernicious,
deadly, and fatal to existence! Is it error or malignity? or but the wanton
freak of an idle imagination?"

"My child," answered the magician, "it is fit that thou shouldst now learn
what hath hitherto been concealed from thee, and with this object I left
this treatise in thy way. It speaks truth. Thou hast been nurtured from thy
infancy on substances endowed with lethal properties, commonly called
poisons. Thy entire frame is impregnated thereby, and, although thou
thyself art in the fullest enjoyment of health, thy kiss would be fatal to
any one not, like thy father, fortified by a course of antidotes. Now hear
the reason. I bear a deadly grudge to the king of this land. He indeed hath
not injured me; but his father slew my father, wherefore it is meet that I
should slay that ancestor's son's son. I have therefore nurtured thee from
thy infancy on the deadliest poisons, until thou art a walking vial of
pestilence. The young prince shall unseal thee, to his destruction and thy
unspeakable advantage. Go to the great city; thou art beautiful as the day;
he is young, handsome, and amorous; he will infallibly fall in love with
thee. Do thou submit to his caresses, he will perish miserably; thou (such
is the charm) ransomed by the kiss of love, wilt become wholesome and
innocuous as thy fellows, preserving only thy knowledge of poisons, always
useful, in the present state of society invaluable. Thou wilt therefore
next repair to the city of Constantinople, bearing recommendatory letters
from me to the Empress Theophano, now happily reigning."

"Father," said Mithridata, "either I shall love this young prince, or I
shall not. If I do not love him, I am nowise minded to suffer him to caress
me. If I do love him, I am as little minded to be the cause of his death."

"Not even in consideration of t