ort, I
lifted him suddenly high in the air, and hurled him to the farthest end
of the cramped arena to which our contest was confined. He fell, and
with a force by which most men would have been stunned; but he recovered
himself with a quick rebound, and, as he stood facing me, there was
something grand as well as terrible in his aspect. His eyes literally
flamed, as those of a tiger; his rich hair, flung back from his knitted
forehead, seemed to erect itself as an angry mane; his lips, slightly
parted, showed the glitter of his set teeth; his whole frame seemed
larger in the tension of the muscles, and as, gradually relaxing his
first defying and haughty attitude, he crouched as the panther crouches
for its deadly spring, I felt as if it were a wild beast, whose rush
was coming upon me,--wild beast, but still Man, the king of the animals,
fashioned forth from no mixture of humbler races by the slow revolutions
of time, but his royalty stamped on his form when the earth became fit
for his coming.(1)

At that moment I snatched up the wand, directed it towards him, and
advancing with a fearless stride, cried,--

"Down to my feet, miserable sorcerer!"

To my own amaze, the effect was instantaneous. My terrible antagonist
dropped to the floor as a dog drops at the word of his master. The
muscles of his frowning countenance relaxed, the glare of his wrathful
eyes grew dull and rayless; his limbs lay prostrate and unnerved, his
head rested against the wall, his arms limp and drooping by his side.
I approached him slowly and cautiously; he seemed cast into a profound
slumber.

"You are at my mercy now!" said I.

He moved his head as in sign of deprecating submission.

"You hear and understand me? Speak!"

His lips faintly muttered, "Yes."

"I command you to answer truly the questions I shall address to you."

"I must, while yet sensible of the power that has passed to your hand."

"Is it by some occult magnetic property in this wand that you have
exercised so demoniac an influence over a creature so pure as Lilian
Ashleigh?"

"By that wand and by other arts which you could not comprehend."

"And for what infamous object,--her seduction, her dishonour?"

"No! I sought in her the aid of a gift which would cease did she cease
to be pure. At first I but cast my influence upon her that through her
I might influence yourself. I needed your help to discover a secret.
Circumstances steeled your mind against me. I could