strengthened till it takes the form of a positive fact, by various
coincidences which are accepted as corroborative testimony, yet which are,
nevertheless, nothing more than coincidences found in every day matters
of business, but only emphatically noticed when we can exclaim, 'How
astonishing!' In your case such coincidences have been, indeed, very
signal, and might well aggravate the perplexities into which your reason
was thrown. Sir Philip Derval's murder, the missing casket, the exciting
nature of the manuscript, in which a superstitious interest is already
enlisted by your expectation to find in it the key to the narrator's
boasted powers, and his reasons for the astounding denunciation of the man
whom you suspect to be his murderer,--in all this there is much to
confirm, nay, to cause, an illusion; and for that very reason, when
examined by strict laws of evidence, in all this there is but additional
proof that the illusion was--only illusion. Your affections contribute
to strengthen your fancy in its war on your reason. The girl you so
passionately love develops, to your disquietude and terror, the visionary
temperament which, at her age, is ever liable to fantastic caprices. She
hears Margrave's song, which you say has a wildness of charm that affects
and thrills even you. Who does not know the power of music? and of all
music, there is none so potential as that of the human voice. Thus, in
some languages, charm and song are identical expressions; and even when a
critic, in our own sober newspapers, extols a Malibran or a Grisi, you
may be sure that he will call her 'enchantress.' Well, this lady, your
betrothed, in whom the nervous system is extremely impressionable, hears a
voice which, even to your ear, is strangely melodious, and sees a form and
face which, even to your eye, are endowed with a singular character of
beauty. Her fancy is impressed by what she thus hears and sees; and
impressed the more because, by a coincidence not very uncommon, a face
like that which she beholds has before been presented to her in a dream
or a revery. In the nobleness of genuine, confiding, reverential love,