member to have experienced myself, in a milder
form, certainly. He lies in bed, eats and drinks nothing, and incessantly
calls upon thee."

"This is most incomprehensible," said Mithridata. "There was no drug in my
father's laboratory that could have produced such an effect."

"The sum of the matter is," continued the King, "that either thou wilt
repair forthwith to my son's chamber, and subsequently to church; or else
unto the scaffold."

"If it must be so, I choose the scaffold," said Mithridata resolutely.
"Believe me, O King, my appearance in thy son's chamber would but destroy
whatever feeble hope of recovery may remain. I love him beyond everything
on earth, and not for worlds would I have his blood on my soul."

"Chamberlain," cried the monarch, "bring me a strait waistcoat."

Driven into a corner, Mithridata flung herself at the King's feet, taking
care, however, not to touch him, and confided to him all her wretched
history.

The venerable monarch burst into a peal of laughter. "A bon chat bon rat!"
he exclaimed, as soon as he had recovered himself. "So thou art the
daughter of my old friend the magician Locusto! I fathomed his craft, and,
as he fed his child upon poisons, I fed mine upon antidotes. Never did any
child in the world take an equal quantity of physic: but there is now no
poison on earth can harm him. Ye are clearly made for each other; haste to
his bedside, and, as the spell requires, rid thyself of thy venefic
properties in his arms as expeditiously as possible. Thy father shall be
bidden to the wedding, and an honoured guest he shall be, for having taught
us that the kiss of Love is the remedy for every poison."

NOTES

The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained
sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many
originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the
annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it
desirable to append, and which further provide an opportunity of tendering
thanks to many friends for their assent to republication.

P. 5. _The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,_--Hereby we may detect
the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with
Armenia. "Hellenic letters," says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the
fourth century, "were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the
slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens" ("University L