case. On the side face of the second opens the door of
the secret staircase. This door is invisible, being concealed by a large
carved cupboard fastened to it by iron cramps, and moving with it when
pushed open. Catharine alone, besides Rene, knows the secret of this
door, and by it she comes and departs; and with eye or ear placed
against the cupboard, in which are several small holes, she sees and
hears all that occurs in the chamber.

Two other doors, visible to all eyes, present themselves at the sides of
the second compartment. One opens into a small chamber lighted from the
roof, and having nothing in it but a large stove, some alembecs,
retorts, and crucibles: it is the alchemist's laboratory; the other
opens into a cell more singular than the rest of the apartment, for it
is not lighted at all--has neither carpet nor furniture, but only a kind
of stone altar.

The floor slopes from the centre to the ends, and from the ends to the
base of the wall is a kind of gutter ending in a funnel, through whose
orifice may be seen the dark waters of the Seine. On nails driven into
the walls are hung singular-shaped instruments, all keen or pointed with
points as fine as a needle and edges as sharp as a razor; some shine
like mirrors; others, on the contrary, are of a dull gray or murky blue.

In a corner are two black fowls struggling with each other and tied
together by the claws. This is the soothsayer's sanctuary.

Let us return to the middle chamber, that with two compartments.

Here the common herd of clients are introduced; here ibises from Egypt;
mummies, with gilded bands; the crocodile, yawning from the ceiling;
death's-heads, with eyeless sockets and loose teeth; and old musty
volumes, torn and rat-eaten, are presented to the visitor's eye in
pellmell confusion. Behind the curtain are phials, singularly shaped
boxes, and weird-looking vases; all this is lighted up by two small
silver lamps exactly alike, perhaps stolen from some altar of Santa
Maria Novella or the Church Dei Lervi of Florence; these, supplied with
perfumed oil, cast their yellow flames around the sombre vault from
which each hangs by three blackened chains.

Rene, alone, his arms crossed, is pacing up and down the second
compartment with long strides, and shaking his head. After a lengthened
and painful musing he pauses before an hour-glass:

"Ah! ah!" says he, "I forget to turn it; and perhaps the sand has all
run through a long time ago