tful. If at times, living as he did in that
daily world which so sharpens our common sense, he smiled at the
persevering fervour of the astrologer, he more often shared it; and
he became his pupil in "the poetry of heaven," with a secret but deep
belief in the mysteries cultivated by his master. Carrying the delusion
to its height, I fear that the enthusiast entered upon ground still more
shadowy and benighted;--the old secrets of the alchymist, and perhaps
even of those arcana yet more gloomy and less rational, were subjected
to their serious contemplation; and night after night, they delivered
themselves wholly up to that fearful and charmed fascination which the
desire and effort to overleap our mortal boundaries produce even in the
hardest and best regulated minds. The train of thought so long nursed
by the abstruse and solitary Dane was, perhaps, a better apology for
the weakness of credulity, than the youth and wandering fancy of the
Englishman. But the scene around--not alluring to the one--fed to
overflowing the romantic aspirations of the other.

On his way home, as the stars (which night had been spent in reading)
began to wink and fade, the Englishman crossed the haunted Almo,
renowned of yore for its healing virtues, and in whose stream the
far-famed simulacrum, (the image of Cybele), which fell from heaven, was
wont to be laved with every coming spring: and around his steps, till
he gained his home, were the relics and monuments of that superstition
which sheds so much beauty over all that, in harsh reasoning, it may be
said to degrade; so that his mind, always peculiarly alive to external
impressions, was girt, as it were, with an atmosphere favourable both to
the lofty speculation and the graceful credulities of romance.

The Englishman remained at Rome, with slight intervals of absence, for
nearly three years. On the night before the day in which he received
intelligence of an event that recalled him to his native country, he
repaired at an hour accidentally later than usual to the astrologer's
abode.

CHAPTER XXVII.

A CONVERSATION LITTLE APPERTAINING TO THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.--RESEARCHES INTO HUMAN FATE.--THE PREDICTION.

On entering the apartment he found Lucilla seated on a low stool beside
the astrologer. She looked up when she heard his footsteps; but her
countenance seemed so dejected, that he turned involuntarily to that
of Volktman for explanation. Volktman met his gaze with a steadf