fetter himself with all the restraints that self-exhortation could load
him with, to refrain from falling at the feet of Lilith and kissing the
hem of her garment. For that, as the lowliest part of all that surrounded
her, itself kissing the earth, seemed to come nearest within the reach of
his ambition, and therefore to draw him the most.

"No doubt the painter had experience and penetration enough to perceive
that he was suffering intensely; but he wanted to see the suffering
embodied in outward signs, bringing it within the region over which his
pencil held sway. He kept on, therefore, trying one thing after another,
and rousing the poor youth to agony; till to his other sufferings were
added, at length, those of failing health; a fact which notified itself
evidently enough even for Teufelsbuerst, though its signs were not of the
sort he chiefly desired. But Karl endured all bravely.

"Meantime, for various reasons, he scarcely ever left the house.

"I must now interrupt the course of my story to introduce another element.

"A few years before the period of my tale, a certain shoemaker of the city
had died under circumstances more than suggestive of suicide. He was
buried, however, with such precautions, that six weeks elapsed before the
rumour of the facts broke out; upon which rumour, not before, the most
fearful reports began to be circulated, supported by what seemed to the
people of Prague incontestable evidence.--A _spectrum_ of the deceased
appeared to multitudes of persons, playing horrible pranks, and
occasioning indescribable consternation throughout the whole town. This
went on till at last, about eight months after his burial, the magistrates
caused his body to be dug up; when it was found in just the condition of
the bodies of those who in the eastern countries of Europe are called