ppy youth!" exclaimed Sanazio, "beware of aiding the nun, lest thou
bring upon her and upon thyself the fate of Artemisia and Serventius."

These words so alarmed me that I nearly fainted; for how, in the name of
all things holy and gracious, came Sanazio to know in whose society I had
passed the last hour, and what was the subject of our conversation? His
terrible allusion too, to those lost loved ones, of whose untimely fate I
was still so ignorant, strangely troubled my conscious breast. Let me be
brief, the hours of my ill-fated existence are fast wearing away, and I
have yet more to relate. To Ignatius Druso I was obliged to confide my
secret, because his assistance, in the furtherance of plans which were
always requiring, from little immaterial circumstances, some slight
alterations, was found necessary; and it must here suffice those to know,
who shall, after my destruction do me the melancholy favour of perusing
this retrospective record, that some months after Antonia had taken the
veil, I succeeded in restoring her to the arms of her lover, witnessed
their private nuptials, visited them in their new residence, a villa in a
secluded spot far from Padua, and received my promised recompense. "Young
man! you've ruined yourself; and your fatal destiny is sealed!" were the
remarkable words of Sanazio, on the morning after the completion of my
enterprise, but long ere the elopement of the new devotee became publicly
known. However, he never reverted to the subject, not even upon his
death-bed; and after the learned doctor's decease, when I came into the
whole of his practice, and no small portion of his fame, I was easy, for
the memory of that sacrilege had passed away.

Ignatius Druso, like myself, resided in Padua, but soon quitted the
medical profession, disgusted, I fancy, at finding that I had become a
second Sanazio, whilst he commanded little or no attention: still we were
friends, nor did I suspect that the germs of envy and malice were sown in
his bosom, and that I had trusted him with one secret, or more, too much.
"Serventius, my son," had said the venerable Sanazio to me upon his
death-bed, "your ardent desire of knowledge and discreet use of it,
encourage me ere I quit this world, to entrust you with the grand arcanum
of our art; as yet, you know not the secret of my success, but take then
this hint and improve upon it. Can he repair a piece of mechanism, who is
ignorant of its make, its parts, and how th