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, nor 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.