The Amulet

The Amulet

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Amulet, by Hendrik Conscience
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Title: The Amulet
Author: Hendrik Conscience
Release Date: October 22, 2004 [EBook #13835]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AMULET ***

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THE AMULET.
BY HENDRIK CONSCIENCE,
AUTHOR OF "THE CURSE OF THE VILLAGE," "THE
HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH," "VEVA," "THE LION OF
FLANDERS," "COUNT HUGO OF CRAENHOVE," "WOODEN
CLARA," "THE POOR GENTLEMAN," "RICKETICKETACK,"
"THE DEMON OF GOLD," "THE VILLAGE INN-KEEPER," "THE
CONSCRIPT," "BLIND ROSA," "THE MISER," "THE

FISHERMAN'S DAUGHTER," ETC.
Translated Expressly for this Edition.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
In the "Amulet," Hendrick Conscience has worked up an incident
which occurred at Antwerp, in the 16th century, into a story of great
power and deep interest. It was a dark and bloody deed committed, but
swift and terrible was the retribution, strikingly illustrating how God
laughs the sinner to scorn, and how the most cunningly devised
schemes are frustrated, when He permits the light of His avenging
justice to expose them in their enormity. On the contrary, it forcibly
proves that virtuous actions, sooner or later, bear abundant fruit even in
this world. If a man's sins bring upon his head a weight of woe, so do
his good deeds draw down the benedictions of heaven and serve as a
shield to protect him from his enemies.
S.J.F.
Baltimore.

CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.
PAGE ANTWERP 9


CHAPTER II.
SIGNOR DEODATI 30


CHAPTER III.
THE PALACE OF SIMON TURCHI, AND WHAT OCCURRED
THERE 43

CHAPTER IV.
THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION--THE ASSASSINATOR
SLAIN 64


CHAPTER V.
VAN DE WERVE'S RECEPTION--SIMON TURCHI'S JEALOUSY
AND HATRED 79


CHAPTER VI.
SIMON TURCHI WREAKS HIS VENGEANCE ON GERONIMO 96


CHAPTER VII.
GRIEF AT GERONIMO'S ABSENCE--TURCHI'S HYPOCRISY 112


CHAPTER VIII.
SIMON TURCHI TRIES TO CONCEAL HIS CRIME 128


CHAPTER IX.
GERONIMO RESURRECTED 143


CHAPTER X.

SIMON TURCHI'S ALARM--CRIME BEGETS CRIME 157


CHAPTER XI.
FOOD AT LAST--DEATH OF JULIO 171


CHAPTER XII.
IS IT HIS GHOST?--THE GUILTY EXPOSED 180


CHAPTER XIII.
MARY VAN DE WERVE'S (NOW MADAME GERONIMO
DEODATI) DEPARTURE FOR ITALY--THE PUNISHMENT OF
SIMON TURCHI 193

THE AMULET.


CHAPTER I.
Previous to the close of the fifteenth century, the direction taken by
European commerce remained unchanged. America had not been
discovered, and the only known route to India was by land.
Venice, enthroned by her central position as queen of commerce,
compelled the nations of Europe and Asia to convey to her port all the
riches of the world.
One single city, Bruges in Flanders, serving as an international mart for
the people of the North and South, shared, in some measure, the
commercial prosperity of Venice; but popular insurrections and
continual civil wars had induced a large number of foreign merchants
to prefer Brabant to Flanders, and Antwerp was becoming a powerful

rival to Bruges.
At this period two great events occurred, by which a new channel was
opened to trade: Christopher Columbus discovered America, and Vasco
de Gama, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, pointed out a new route
to India. This latter discovery, by presenting another grand highway to
the world, deprived Venice of the peculiar advantages of her situation,
and obliged commerce to seek a new emporium. Portugal and Spain
were the most powerful nations on sea; countless ships left their ports
for the two Indies, and brought back spices, pearls, and the precious
metals for distribution throughout the Old World. This commercial
activity required an emporium in the centre of Europe, halfway
between the North and the South, whither Spaniards, Portuguese, and
Italians, as well as French, English, Germans, Swedes, and Russians,
could resort with equal facility as to a perpetual mart for all the
commodities exchanged between the Old and the New World.[1]
A few years before the commencement of the religious wars which
proved so disastrous to the country, Antwerp was in a most flourishing
condition. Thousands of ships of every form and size covered its broad
river like a forest of masts, whose many-colored flags indicated the
presence of traders from all the commercial nations of the globe.
Portuguese gallions carried thither the gems and spices of the East;
Spanish gallions the gold and silver of America; Italian vessels were
laden with the delicate fruits and rich stuffs of the Southern countries;
German vessels with grains and metals;