n; and she lay in just such a
transport, when Faustus approached her, and embodied the apparition, upon
which Clara awoke, and still believed herself merely in a dream. The
abbess in the mean time did penance in her cell, and made a vow to fast
every week for the good of her soul. But the consequences of this night
were horrible to poor Clara.

* * * * *

The next morning Faustus took leave of his family. Few tears were shed;
but his old father, in a mournful tone, gave him wholesome advice.

As Faustus, with the Devil, rode over the bridge which leads across the
Rhine, thinking of last night's adventure, and making comments upon the
abbess, he saw afar off a man in the water, who seemed upon the point of
drowning, and only feebly struggled against approaching death. He
commanded Leviathan to save the man. The Devil answered, with a
significant look:

"Think well of what thou requirest; he is a youth, and perhaps it will be
better for him and for thee that he ends his life here."

_Faustus_. Thou fiend, only ready for mischief, wouldst thou have me
withstand the sacred feeling of nature? Hasten and save him, I repeat.

_Devil_. Canst thou not swim thyself? No. Well, the consequences be
thy reward; thou wilt repent of this.

He rushed into the stream, and rescued the youth. Faustus consoled
himself with the idea of having, by this good act, atoned for the
preceding night of sin; and Leviathan laughed at the consolation.

CHAPTER III.

The Devil now led Faustus through a series of adventures which were to
serve as a prelude to the most afflicting vicissitudes. What Faustus had
hitherto seen had embittered his heart; but the scenes which now opened
upon him by degrees so wounded his spirit, that his mind was unable
either to support or remedy them; and only one of the worldly great, or,
what is nearly synonymous, a worker and designer of human misery, could
have witnessed them unmoved.

The Devil and Faustus were riding in close conversation along the banks
of the Fulda, when they saw beneath an oak-tree a countrywoman sitting
with her children, appearing to be the lifeless image of agony and dumb
despair. Faustus, whom sorrow attracted as much as joy, went hurriedly
up to her, and inquired the cause of her grief. The woman gazed at him
for some time, and it was not until his sympathising look had in some
degree melted her frozen heart that she was able, amid