We looked at each other in amazement. "Who is dead?" said the prince
at length, after a long silence. "Let us follow him," replied I, "and
demand an explanation." We searched every corner of the place; the mask
was nowhere to be found. We returned to our hotel disappointed. The
prince spoke not a word to me the whole way; he walked apart by himself,
and appeared to be greatly agitated, which he afterwards confessed to me
was the case. Having reached home, he began at length to speak: "Is it
not laughable," said he, "that a madman should have the power thus to
disturb a man's tranquillity by two or three words?" We wished each
other a goodnight; and, as soon as I was in my own apartment, I noted
down in my pocket-book the day and the hour when this adventure
happened. It was on a Thursday.

The next evening the prince said to me, "Suppose we go to the square of
St. Mark, and seek for our mysterious Armenian. I long to see this
comedy unravelled." I consented. We walked in the square till eleven.
The Armenian was nowhere to be seen. We repeated our walk the four
following evenings, and each time with the same bad success.

On the sixth evening, as we went out of the hotel, it occurred to me,
whether designedly or otherwise I cannot recollect, to tell the servants
where we might be found in case we should be inquired for. The prince
remarked my precaution, and approved of it with a smile. We found the
square of St. Mark very much crowded. Scarcely had we advanced thirty
steps when I perceived the Armenian, who was pressing rapidly through
the crowd, and seemed to be in search of some one. We were just
approaching him, when Baron F-----, one of the prince's retinue, came up
to us quite breathless, and delivered to the prince a letter. "It is
sealed with black," said he, "and we supposed from this that it might