his time, that no one
had ever yet seen him when he crept to the worship of his idol. After
having for a long time struggled with himself, without coming to any
resolution, the terrible images which assailed his imagination, joined to
the thickness of the air, totally disordered his brain. He sunk to the
earth, and rolling himself to the spot where his box stood, he hugged it
in his arms, and became raving mad. He struggled with despair and death
at the moment of the ruin of his daughter, whose innocence he had
bartered for gold. Some days after, when all the corners of the house
had been closely searched, chance led a servant to the cavern; it was
opened, and the unfortunate wretch was found lying, a blue and ghastly
corpse, upon his dear-bought treasure. The Devil informed Faustus upon
their return to Paris of the issue of this affair, and Faustus believed
that, on this occasion, Providence had justified itself.

The fiend having learnt that the Parliament were about to decide upon a
case unexampled and disgraceful to humanity, he thought it advisable that
Faustus should hear it. The fact was this: a surgeon, returning late one
night to Paris with his faithful servant, heard, not far from the
highway, the groans and lamentations of a man. His heart led him to the
spot, where he found a murderer broken alive upon the wheel, who conjured
him, in the name of God, to put an end to his existence. The surgeon
shuddered with horror and fright; but recovering himself, he thought
whether it would not be possible for him to reset the bones of this
wretch, and preserve his life. He spoke a few words to his servant, took
the murderer from the wheel, and laid him gently in the chaise. He then
carried him to his house, where he undertook his cure, which he at last
accomplished. He had been informed that the Parliament had offered a
reward of one hundred louis-d'ors to any one who would discover the
person who had taken the assassin from the wheel. He told the murderer
of this when he sent him away, and, giving him money, he advised him not
to stay in Paris. The very first thing which this monster did was to go
to the Parliament and betray his benefactor, for the sake of the hundred
louis-d'ors. The cheeks of the judges, which so seldom change colour,
became pallid at this denunciation; for he informed them with the
greatest effrontery that he was the very assassin, who, having been
broken alive upon the place where he