murder and to all the subsequent proceedings by the luminous shadow of the
beautiful youth,--the Scin-Laeca to which I had pledged myself. If Sir
Philip Derval could be believed, Margrave was possessed of powers, derived
from fragmentary recollections of a knowledge acquired in a former state
of being, which would render his remorseless intelligence infinitely dire
and frustrate the endeavours of a reason, unassisted by similar powers, to
thwart his designs or bring the law against his crimes. Had he then the
arts that could thus influence the minds of others to serve his fell
purposes, and achieve securely his own evil ends through agencies that
could not be traced home to himself?

But for what conceivable purpose had I been subjected as a victim to
influences as much beyond my control as the Fate or Demoniac Necessity of
a Greek Myth? In the legends of the classic world some august sufferer
is oppressed by powers more than mortal, but with an ethical if gloomy
vindication of his chastisement,--he pays the penalty of crime committed
by his ancestors or himself, or he has braved, by arrogating equality with
the gods, the mysterious calamity which the gods alone can inflict. But
I, no descendant of Pelops, no OEdipus boastful of a wisdom which could
interpret the enigmas of the Sphynx, while ignorant even of his own
birth--what had I done to be singled out from the herd of men for trials
and visitations from the Shadowland of ghosts and sorcerers? It would be
ludicrously absurd to suppose that Dr. Lloyd's dying imprecation could
have had a prophetic effect upon my destiny; to believe that the pretences
of mesmerizers were specially favoured by Providence, and that to question
their assumptions was an offence of profanation to be punished by exposure
to preternatural agencies. There was not even that congruity between
cause and effect which fable seeks in excuse for its inventions. Of all
men living, I, unimaginative disciple of austere science, should be the
last to become the sport of that witchcraft which even imagination