ed him an empiric, there were many
persons, and among them some of the clergy, who, while they admitted the
truth of the cures and the force of his remedies, alleged that Doctor
Baptista Damiotti made use of charms and unlawful arts in order to
obtain success in his practice. The resorting to him was even solemnly
preached against, as a seeking of health from idols, and a trusting
to the help which was to come from Egypt. But the protection which the
Paduan Doctor received from some friends of interest and consequence
enabled him to set these imputations at defiance, and to assume, even
in the city of Edinburgh, famed as it was for abhorrence of witches and
necromancers, the dangerous character of an expounder of futurity.
It was at length rumoured that, for a certain gratification, which of
course was not an inconsiderable one, Doctor Baptista Damiotti could
tell the fate of the absent, and even show his visitors the personal
form of their absent friends, and the action in which they were engaged
at the moment. This rumour came to the ears of Lady Forester, who
had reached that pitch of mental agony in which the sufferer will
do anything, or endure anything, that suspense may be converted into
certainty.

Gentle and timid in most cases, her state of mind made her equally
obstinate and reckless, and it was with no small surprise and alarm that
her sister, Lady Bothwell, heard her express a resolution to visit this
man of art, and learn from him the fate of her husband. Lady Bothwell
remonstrated on the improbability that such pretensions as those of this
foreigner could be founded in anything but imposture.

"I care not," said the deserted wife, "what degree of ridicule I may
incur; if there be any one chance out of a hundred that I may obtain
some certainty of my husband's fate, I would not miss that chance for
whatever else the world can offer me."

Lady Bothwell next urged the unlawfulness of resorting to such sources
of forbidden knowledge.

"Sister," replied the sufferer, "he who is dying of thirst cannot
refrain from drinking even poisoned water. She who suffers under
suspense must seek information, even were the powers which offer it
unhallowed and infernal. I go to learn my fate alone, and this very
evening will I know it; the sun that rises to-morrow shall find me, if
not more happy, at least more resigned."

"Sister," said Lady Bothwell, "if you are determined upon this wild
step, you shall not go alone.