I seemed to have seen them years ago and in countries
which I failed to remember, and which inspired in me that curious
sympathy and that equally curious sense of fear that I usually
discover in unknown aspects. If I wanted to define in some fashion or
other the singular expression of their eyes, I would say that never
had I seen such magic radiance more energetically expressing the
horror of _ennui_ and of desire--of the immortal desire of feeling
themselves alive.

As for mine host and myself, we were already, as we sat down, as
perfect friends as if we had always known each other. We drank
immeasurably of all sorts of extraordinary wines, and--a thing not
less bizarre--it seemed to me, after several hours, that I was no more
intoxicated than he was.

However, gambling, this superhuman pleasure, had cut, at various
intervals, our copious libations, and I ought to say that I had gained
and lost my soul, as we were playing, with an heroical carelessness
and light-heartedness. The soul is so invisible a thing, often useless
and sometimes so troublesome, that I did not experience, as to this
loss, more than that kind of emotion I might have, had I lost my
visiting card in the street.

We spent hours in smoking cigars, whose incomparable savour and
perfume give to the soul the nostalgia of unknown delights and sights,
and, intoxicated by all these spiced sauces, I dared, in an access of
familiarity which did not seem to displease him, to cry, as I lifted
a glass filled to the brim with wine: "To your immortal health, Old
He-Goat!"

We talked of the universe, of its creation and of its future
destruction; of the leading ideas of the century--that is to say, of
Progress and Perfectibility--and, in general, of all kinds of human
infatuations. On this subject his Highness was inexhaustible in his
irrefutable jests, and he expressed himself with a splendour of
diction and with a magnificence in drollery such as I have never found
in any of the most famous conversationalists of our age. He explained
to me the absurdity of different philosophies that had so far taken
possession of men's brains, and deigned even to take me in confidence
in regard to certain fundamental principles, which I am not inclined
to share with any one.

He complained in no way of the evil reputation under which he lived,
indeed, all over the world, and he assured me that he himself was of
all living beings the most interested in the destruction of