Zicci, Complete

stening, in the intervals of conversation, to the music which enlivened that gay and favorite resort of an indolent population. One of this little p

why, what ails you? Are you ill? You have grown quite pale; you tremble: is it a sudden chill?

but a passing shudder; I ca

mien and countenance strikingly superior to those around

sation of coldness and awe creep over you; your blood curdles, and the heart stands still; the limbs shiver, the hair bristles; you are afraid to look up, to turn your eyes to the darker corners of the room; you have a horrible fancy that something unearthly is at hand. Presently the whole spell, if I m

ined exactly the nature of that shudder which came over me. But

urned the stranger, gravely; "they are no

ording to one of our national superstitions," said Merton, the Englishman who had first addressed Glyndon, "the moment

instant God is deciding the hour either of your death or that of some one dear to you. The African savage, whose imagination is darkened by the hideous rite

t,-a derangement of the stomach; a chill

presentiment or terror,-some connection between the material frame and t

k, sir?" asked Gl

is human about us to something indeed invisible, but antipathetic to our own nature,

rits, then?" asked Merton,

which I have compared them. The monster that lives and dies in a drop of water, carniverous, insatiable, subsisting on the creatures minuter than himself, is not less deadly in his wrath, less ferocious in

don, abruptly. "Are the traditions of sorcerer and wizar

its proper bounds, would be mad enough to break the partition that divides him from the boa and the lion, to repine

, paid for his sherbet, and, bowing slightly t

tleman?" asked G

h other, without reply

m before," said

or

or

you remember, as my companion that he joined you. He has been some months at Naples

was

est in what is going on. Will you play this sum for me? The risk is mine,-the half-profits yours.' I was startled, as you may suppose, at such an address; but the stranger had an air and tone with him it was impossible to resist. Besides, I was burning to recover my losses, and should not have risen had I had an

public tables, especially when fou

airly.' The spectator replied, with great composure, that he had done nothing against the rules; that he was very sorry that one man could not win without another man losing; and that he could not act unfairly even if disposed to do so. The Sicilian took the stranger's mildness for apprehension,-blustered more loudly, and at length f

prise, 'not by the side of your father?' As I spoke, his face altered terribly, he uttered a piercing shriek; the blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell dead. The most strange part of the story is to come. We buried him in the church of St. Januario. In doing so, we took up his father's coffin; the lid came off in moving it, and the skeleton was visible. In the hollow of the skull we found a very slender wire of sharp steel; this caused great surprise and inq

did he give evidence

o; that his guide had told him the count's son was in Naples,-a spendthrift and a gambler. While we were at play, he had heard the count mentioned by name

e story," s

rovidence; the stranger became an object of universal interest and curiosity. His wealth, his

s name?" as

Signor

n name? He speaks En

birth, though I cannot hear of any eminent Corsican family of that name. However, what matters his birth

"Come, Glyndon, shall we seek our hotel

ory?" said Glyndon as the

he hackneyed charlatanism of the marvellous. An unknown adventurer gets into society by being made an object of awe and curiosity; he is

gh repute for courage and honor. Besides, this stranger, with his grand features and lofty a

e world; the stranger makes the best of a fine person, and his grand air is bu

me to-night. The old woman

her; what would th

with vivacity; "we are young, rich, good

at the hotel. Sleep sound, an