: but as for thee, my innocent friend, I
can no longer permit thee to share my destiny. I will depart this very
night--saddle me a horse--I will set out alone. Remain here, Bendel--I
insist upon it: there must be some chests of gold still left in the
house--take them, they are thine. I shall be a restless and solitary
wanderer on the face of the earth; but should better days arise, and
fortune once more smile propitiously on me, then I will not forget thy
steady fidelity; for, in hours of deep distress, thy faithful bosom has
been the depository of my sorrows."

With a bursting heart, the worthy Bendel prepared to obey this last
command of his master; for I was deaf to all his arguments and blind to
his tears. My horse was brought--I pressed my weeping friend to my
bosom--threw myself into the saddle, and, under the friendly shades of
night, quitted this sepulchre of my existence, indifferent which road
my horse should take; for now on this side the grave I had neither
wishes, hopes, or fears.

* * * * *

After a short time I was joined by a traveller on foot, who, after
walking for a while by the side of my horse, observed, that as we both
seemed to be travelling the same road, he should beg my permission to
lay his cloak on the horse's back behind me, to which I silently
assented. He thanked me with easy politeness for this trifling favour,
praised my horse, and then took occasion to extol the happiness and the
power of the rich, and fell, I scarcely know how, into a sort of
conversation with himself, in which I merely acted the part of
listener. He unfolded his views of human life and of the world, and
touching on metaphysics, demanded an answer from that cloudy science to
the question of questions--the answer that should solve all mysteries.
He deduced one problem from another in a very lucid manner, and then
proceeded to their solution.

You may remember, my dear friend, that after having run through the
school-philosophy, I became sensible of my unfitness for metaphysical
speculations, and therefore totally abstained from engaging in them.
Since, then, I have acquiesced in some things, and abandoned all hope
of comprehending others; trusting, as you advised me, to my own plain
sense and the voice of conscience to direct and, if possible, maintain
me in the right path.

Now this skilful rhetorician seemed to me to expend great skill in
rearing a firmly-constructed edifice, t