er place was a lamp-support, which represented the Triumph
of Death; Death was a woman with the wings of a bat; she was in a
flowing robe; she had curved talons on her feet, and a scythe in
her hand. This was a sculptured copy of Orcagna, from the Campo
Santo of Pisa. In the middle of the dining-room, which was seen
beyond an open door, stood a table, in the style of the
eighteenth century. Altogether simple was this table, and like
those under which, instead of carpets, men (of that century) used
to put a layer of hay. The side table (fourteenth century), with
painted carvings; a box (fourteenth century, a copy from the
Museum of Cluny), with fantastic beasts carved on its cover, and
with small figures on the front side, on very narrow niches,
figures representing the twelve peers of France; another box,
which was in the bedroom, was like this one, but the carving
which covered it represented the anointing of Louis XI at Rheims
(Museum of Orleans). It stood at the feet of Brother Alberich,
who, in his white habit, was entering the black jaws of hell; it
took the place of a sofa, there being no sofa in the room. Both
these boxes of wood and iron, immensely artistic, though merely
copies of authentic relics, served as places in which to keep
objects of art, and served as seats also. Besides these, there
were only a few stools, with arms carved in trefoil shape
(fourteenth and fifteenth century), and still fewer armchairs,
immensely deep and wide--so-called cathedras--covered with most
wonderful stuffs; but everything was there which was needed, if
the dwelling was to preserve a purely Middle Age character as to
style. In the air, slightly colored by the brightly
stained-glass, hovered something archaic and exotic--hoary
antiquity reigned--and a critical spirit with the odor of
mysticism might be felt floating around there. But all this
seemed quite comprehensible and natural to anyone who knew Baron
Emil, the owner of that dwelling--a trained and exacting
aesthete--moreover, the baron was of that school called
Mediaeval; and as a Mediaevalist he professed homage for Middle
Ages romances and legends; for subtle works of art and for
inspirations touching a world beyond the present which resulted
from them.

Three years before Maryan Darvid, in company with, or more
strictly under the protection of Kranitski, entered for the first
time this dwelling, which had been recently furnished. The baron
had brought home, from on