n.

"'About this time I bought this house. I had just struck a bargain with
the owner; we were sitting in this room drinking a glass of wine
together and enjoying ourselves over the settlement of our business.
Night had come; I rose to go; then the vendor of the house said, "See
here, Master Rene; before you go, I must make you acquainted with the
secret of the place." Therewith he unlocked that press let into the
wall there, pushed away the panels at the back, and stepped into a
little room, where, stooping down, he lifted up a trap-door. We
descended a flight of steep, narrow stairs, and came to a narrow
postern, which he unlocked, and let us out into the court-yard. Then
the old gentleman, the previous owner of the house, stepped up to the
wall and pressed an iron knob, which projected only very triflingly
from it; immediately a portion of the wall swung round, so that a man
could easily slip through the opening, and in that way gain the street.
I will show you the neat contrivance some day, Olivier; very likely it
was constructed by the cunning monks of the monastery which formerly
stood on this site, in order that they might steal in and out secretly.
It is a piece of wood, plastered with mortar and white-washed on the
outside only, and within it, on the side next the street, is fixed a
statue, also of wood, but coloured to look exactly like stone, and the
whole piece, together with the statue, moves upon concealed hinges.
Dark thoughts swept into my mind when I saw this contrivance; it
appeared to have been built with a predestined view to such deeds as
yet remained unknown to myself.

"'I had just completed a valuable ornament for a courtier, and knew
that he intended it for an opera-dancer. The ominous torture assailed
me again; the spectre dogged my footsteps; the whispering fiend was at
my ear. I took possession of my new house. I tossed sleeplessly on my
couch, bathed in perspiration, caused by the hideous torments I was
enduring. In imagination I saw the man gliding along to the dancer's
abode with my ornament. I leapt up full of fury; threw on my mantle,
went down by the secret stairs, through the wall, and into the Rue
Nicaise. He is coming along; I throw myself upon him; he screams out;
but I have seized him fast from behind, and driven my dagger right into
his heart; the ornament is mine. This done I experienced a calmness, a
satisfaction in my soul, which I had never yet experienced. The spectre
had v