A Conjurers Confessions | Page 5

rose hastily, muttered a few incoherent
words, appeared suffering from terrible emotion, and then drawing near
me with flaming eyes and passionate gestures, repeated:
"Ah, you will not! Very good; I now know what I have to do."

Stupefied by such an outbreak, I looked at her fixedly, and began to
suspect the cause of her extraordinary conduct.
"There are two modes of acting," she said, with terrible volubility,
"toward people who devote themselves to magic arts-- entreaty and
menaces. You would not yield to the first of these means, hence, I must
employ the second. Stay," she added, "perhaps this will induce you to
speak."
And, lifting up her cloak, she laid her hand on the hilt of a dagger
passed through her girdle. At the same time she suddenly threw back
her veil, and displayed features in which all the signs of rage and
madness could be traced. No longer having a doubt as to the person I
had to deal with, my first movement was to rise and stand on my guard;
but this first feeling overcome, I repented the thought of a struggle with
the unhappy woman, and determined on employing a method almost
always successful with those deprived of reason. I pretended to accede
to her wishes.
"If it be so, madam, I yield to your request. Tell me what you require."
"I have told you, sir; I wish for vengeance, and there is only one
method to--"
Here there was a fresh interruption, and the young lady, calmed by my
apparent submission, as well as embarrassed by the request she had to
make of me, became again timid and confused.
"Well, madam?"
"Well, sir, I know not how to tell you--how to explain to you--but I
fancy there are certain means--certain spells--which render it
impossible--impossible for a man to be--unfaithful."
"I now understand what you wish, madam. It is a certain magic practice
employed in the middle ages. Nothing is easier, and I will satisfy you."
Decided on playing the farce to the end, I took down the largest book I

could find in my library, turned over the leaves, stopped at a page
which I pretended to scan with profound attention, and then addressing
the lady, who followed all my movements anxiously,
"Madam," I said confidentially, "the spell I am going to perform
renders it necessary for me to know the name of the person; have the
kindness, then, to tell it me."
"Julian!" she said, in a faint voice.
With all the gravity of a real sorcerer, I solemnly thrust a pin through a
lighted candle, and pronounced some cabalistic words. After which,
blowing out the candle, and turning to the poor creature, I said:
"Madam, it is done; your wish is accomplished."
"Oh, thank you, sir," she replied, with the expression of the profoundest
gratitude; and at the same moment she laid a purse on the table and
rushed away. I ordered my servant to follow her to her house, and
obtain all the information he could about her, and I learned she had
been a widow for a short time, and that the loss of an adored husband
had disturbed her reason. The next day I visited her relatives, and,
returning them the purse, I told them the scene the details of which the
reader has just perused.
This scene, with some others that preceded and followed it, compelled
me to take measures to guard myself against bores of every description.
I could not dream, as formerly, of exiling myself in the country, but I
employed a similar resource: this was to shut myself up in my
workroom, and organize around me a system of defense against those
whom I called, in my ill-temper, thieves of time.
I daily received visits from persons who were utter strangers to me;
some were worth knowing, but the majority, gaining an introduction
under the most futile pretexts, only came to kill a portion of their
leisure time with me. It was necessary to distinguish the tares from the
wheat, and this is the arrangement I made:

When one of these gentlemen rang at my door, an electric
communication struck a bell in my workroom; I was thus warned and
put on my guard. My servant opened the door, and, as is customary,
inquired the visitor's name, while I, for my part, laid my ear to a tube,
arranged for the purpose, which conveyed to me every word. If,
according to his reply, I thought it as well not to receive him, I pressed
a button, and a white mark that appeared in a certain part of the hall
announced I was not at home to him. My servant then stated I was out,
and begged the visitor to apply to the manager.
Sometimes it happened that