THE VIZIER OF THE TWO-HORNED ALEXANDER

BY

FRANK R. STOCKTON

1899

PREFATORY NOTE

The story told in this book is based upon legendary history, and thestatements on which it is founded appear in the chronicles of Abou-djafarMohammed Tabari. This historian was the first Mussulman to write a generalhistory of the world. He was born in the year 244 of the Hejira(838-839 A. D. ), and passed a great part of his life in Bagdad, where hestudied and taught theology and jurisprudence. His chronicles embrace thehistory of the world, according to his lights, from the creation to theyear 302 of the Hejira. 

In these chronicles Tabari relates some of the startling experiences ofEl Khoudr, or El Kroudhr, then Vizier of that great monarch, theTwo-Horned Alexander, and these experiences furnish the motive forthose subsequent adventures which are now related in this book. 

Some writers have confounded the Two-Horned Alexander with Alexander theGreat, but this is an inexcusable error. References in ancient historiesto the Two-Horned Alexander describe him as a great and powerfulpotentate, and place him in the time of Abraham. Mr. S. Baring-Gould, inhis "Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets, " states that, after a carefulexamination, he has come to the conclusion that some of the most generallyknown legends which have come down to us through the ages are based onincidents which occurred in the reign of this monarch. 

The hero of this story now deems it safe to speak out plainly withoutfear of evil consequences to himself, and his confidence in our highcivilization is a compliment to the age. 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I lent large sums to the noble knights

"Don't you do it"

His wife was a slender lady

"Time of Abraham!" I exclaimed

Moses asked embarrassing questions

An encounter with Charles Lamb

I cut that picture from its frame

When we left Cordova

I had been a broker in Pompeii

Solomon and the Jinns

"Go tell the queen"

She gave me her hand, and I shook it heartily

Asking all sorts of questions

And roughly told me

She turned her head

"How like!"

I proceeded to dig a hole

"Why are you not in the army?"

Nebuchadnezzar and the gardener

Petrarch and Laura

The crouching African fixed her eyesupon him

THE VIZIER OF THETWO-HORNED ALEXANDER

I

I was on a French steamer bound from Havre to New York, when I had apeculiar experience in the way of a shipwreck. On a dark and foggynight, when we were about three days out, our vessel collided witha derelict--a great, heavy, helpless mass, as dull and colorlessas the darkness in which she was enveloped. We struck her almosthead on, and her stump of a bowsprit was driven into our port bowwith such tremendous violence that a great hole--nobody knew of whatdimensions--was made in our vessel. 

The collision occurred about two hours before daylight, and the frightenedpassengers who crowded the upper deck were soon informed by the officersthat it would be necessary to take to the boats, for the vessel wasrapidly settling by the head. 

Now, of course, all was hurry and confusion. The captain endeavoredto assure his passengers that there were boats enough to carry everysoul on board, and that there was time enough for them to embarkquietly and in order. But as the French people did not understand himwhen he spoke in English, and as the Americans did not readily comprehendwhat he said in French, his exhortations were of little avail. With suchof their possessions as they could carry, the people crowded into theboats as soon as they were ready, and sometimes before they were ready;and while there was not exactly a panic on board, each man seemed to beinspired with the idea that his safety, and that of his family, if he hadone, depended upon precipitate individual action. 

I was a young man, traveling alone, and while I was as anxious as anyone to be saved from the sinking vessel, I was not a coward, and Icould not thrust myself into a boat when there were women and childrenbehind me who had not yet been provided with places. There were menwho did this, and several times I felt inclined to knock one of thepoltroons overboard. The deck was well lighted, the steamer was settlingslowly, and there was no excuse for the dastardly proceedings which weregoing on about me. 

It was not long, however, before almost all of the passengers weresafely embarked, and I was preparing to get into a boat which wasnearly filled with the officers and crew, when I was touched on theshoulder, and turning, I saw a gentleman whose acquaintance I hadmade soon after the steamer had left Havre. His name was Crowder. He was a middle-aged man, a New-Yorker, intelligent and of a socialdisposition, and I had found him a very pleasant companion. To myamazement, I perceived that he was smoking a cigar. 

"If I were you, " said he, "I would not go in that boat. It is horriblycrowded, and the captain and second officer have yet to find placesin it. "

"That's all the more reason, " said I, "why we should hurry. I amnot going to push myself ahead of women and children, but I've justas much right to be saved as the captain has, and if there are anyvacant places, let us get them as soon as possible. "

Crowder now put his hand on my shoulder as if to restrain me. "Safety!"said he. "You needn't trouble yourself about safety. You are just as safewhere you are as you could possibly be in one of those boats. If they arenot picked up soon, --and they may float about for days, --their sufferingsand discomforts will be very great. There is a shameful want ofaccommodation in the way of boats. "

"But, my dear sir, " said I, "I can't stop here to talk about that. They are calling for the captain now. "

"Oh, he's in no hurry, " said my companion. "He's collecting his papers, I suppose, and he knows his vessel will not sink under him while he isdoing it. I'm not going in that boat; I haven't the least idea of sucha thing. It will be odiously crowded, and I assure you, sir, that if thesea should be rough that boat will be dangerous. Even now she isoverloaded. "

I looked at the man in amazement. He had spoken earnestly, but he was ascalm as if we were standing on a sidewalk, and he endeavoring to dissuademe from boarding an overcrowded street-car. Before I could say anythinghe spoke again:

"I am going to remain on this ship. She is a hundred times safer than anyof those boats. I have had a great deal of experience in regard to vesselsand ocean navigation, and it will be a long time before this vessel sinks, if she ever sinks of her own accord. She's just as likely to float as thatderelict we ran into. The steam is nearly out of her boilers by this time, and nothing is likely to happen to her. I wish you would stay with me. Here we will be safe, with plenty of room, and plenty to eat and drink. When it is daylight we will hoist a flag of distress, which will be muchmore likely to be seen than anything that can flutter from those littleboats. If you have noticed, sir, the inclination of this deck is notgreater now than it was half an hour ago. That proves that our bow hassettled down about as far as it is going. I think it likely that the waterhas entered only a few of the forward compartments. "

The man spoke so confidently that his words made an impression upon me. I knew that it very often happens that a wreck floats for a long time, and the boat from which the men were now frantically shouting for thecaptain would certainly be dangerously crowded. 

"Stay with me, " said Mr. Crowder, "and I assure you, with as much reasonas any man can assure any other man of anything in this world, that youwill be perfectly safe. This steamer is not going to sink. "

There were rapid footsteps, and I saw the captain and his second officerapproaching. 

"Step back here, " said Mr. Crowder, pulling me by the coat. "Don't letthem see us. They may drag us on board that confounded boat. Keep quiet, sir, and let them get off. They think they are the last on board. "

Involuntarily I obeyed him, and we stood in the shadow of the greatfunnel. The captain had reached the rail. 

"Is every one in the boats?" he shouted, in French and in English. "Isevery one in the boats? I am going to leave the vessel. "

I made a start as if to rush toward him, but Crowder held me by the arm. 

"Don't you do it, " he whispered very earnestly. "I have the greatestpossible desire to save you. Stay where you are, and you will be allright. That overloaded boat may capsize in half an hour. "

[Illustration: "'DON'T YOU DO IT. '"]

I could not help it; I believed him. My own judgment seemed suddenly torise up and ask me why I should leave the solid deck of the steamer forthat perilous little boat. 

I need say but little more in regard to this shipwreck. When the foglifted, about ten o'clock in the morning, we could see no signs of anyof the boats. A mile or so away lay the dull black line of the derelict, as if she were some savage beast who had bitten and torn us, and wasnow sullenly waiting to see us die of the wound. We hoisted a flag, union down, and then we went below to get some breakfast. Mr. Crowderknew all about the ship, and where to find everything. He told me hehad made so many voyages that he felt almost as much at home on seaas on land. We made ourselves comfortable all day, and at night we wentto our rooms, and I slept fairly well, although there was a verydisagreeable slant to my berth. The next day, early in the afternoon, our signal of distress was seen by a tramp steamer on her way toNew York, and we were taken off. 

We cruised about for many hours in the direction the boats had probablytaken, and the next day we picked up two of them in a sorry condition, the occupants having suffered many hardships and privations. We neverhad news of the captain's boat, but the others were rescued by asailing-vessel going eastward. 

Before we reached New York, Mr. Crowder had made me promise that Iwould spend a few days with him at his home in that city. His familywas small, he told me, --a wife, and a daughter about six, --and he wantedme to know them. Naturally we had become great friends. Very likely theman had saved my life, and he had done it without any act of heroism ordaring, but simply by impressing me with the fact that his judgment wasbetter than mine. I am apt to object to people of superior judgment, butMr. Crowder was an exception to the ordinary superior person. From theway he talked it was plain that he 'had much experience of various sorts, and that he had greatly advantaged thereby; but he gave himself no airs onthis account, and there was nothing patronizing about him. If I were ableto tell him anything he did not know, --and I frequently was, --he was veryglad to hear it. 

Moreover, Mr. Crowder was a very good man to look at. He was certainlyover fifty, and his closely trimmed hair was white, but he had a freshand florid complexion. He was tall and well made, fashionably dressed, and had an erect and somewhat military carriage. He was fond of talking, and seemed fond of me, and these points in his disposition attractedme very much. 

My relatives were few, they lived in the West, and I never had had afriend whose company was so agreeable to me as that of Mr. Crowder. 

Mr. Crowder's residence was a handsome house in the upper part of thecity. His wife was a slender lady, scarcely half his age, with a sweetand interesting face, and was attired plainly but tastefully. In generalappearance she seemed to be the opposite of her husband in every way. Shehad suffered a week of anxiety, and was so rejoiced at having her husbandagain that when I met her, some hours after Crowder had reached the house, her glorified face seemed like that of an angel. But there was nothingdemonstrative about her. Even in her great joy she was as quiet as a dove, and I was not surprised when her husband afterward told me that she was aQuaker. 

[Illustration: "HIS WIFE WAS A SLENDER LADY. "]

I was entertained very handsomely by the Crowders. I spent several dayswith them, and although they were so happy to see each other, they madeit very plain that they were also happy to have me with them, he becausehe liked me, she because he liked me. 

On the day before my intended departure, Mr. Crowder and I were smoking, after dinner, in his study. He had been speaking of people and things thathe had seen in various parts of the world, but after a time he became alittle abstracted, and allowed me to do most of the talking. 

"You must excuse me, " he said suddenly, when I had repeated a question;"you must not think me willingly inattentive, but I was consideringsomething important--very important. Ever since you have been here, --almost ever since I have known you, I might say, --the desire has beengrowing upon me to tell you something known to no living being butmyself. "

This offer did not altogether please me; I had grown very fond of Crowder, but the confidences of friends are often very embarrassing. At this momentthe study door was gently opened, and Mrs. Crowder came in. 

"No, " said she, addressing her husband with a smile; "thee need not letthy conscience trouble thee. I have not come to say anything aboutgentlemen being too long over their smoking. I only want to say thatMrs. Norris and two other ladies have just called, and I am going downto see them. They are a committee, and will not care for the society ofgentlemen. I am sorry to lose any of your company, Mr. Randolph, especially as you insist that this is to be your last evening with us;but I do not think you would care anything about our ward organizations. "

"Now, isn't that a wife to have!" exclaimed my host, as we resumed ourcigars. "She thinks of everybody's happiness, and even wishes us to feelfree to take another cigar if we desire it, although in her heart shedisapproves of smoking. "

We settled ourselves again to talk, and as there really could be noobjection to my listening to Crowder's confidences, I made none. 

"What I have to tell you, " he said presently, "concerns my life, present, past, and future. Pretty comprehensive, isn't it? I have longbeen looking for some one to whom I should be so drawn by bonds ofsympathy that I should wish to tell him my story. Now, I feel thatI am so drawn to you. The reason for this, in some degree at least, isbecause you believe in me. You are not weak, and it is my opinion thaton important occasions you are very apt to judge for yourself, and notto care very much for the opinions of other people; and yet, on a mostimportant occasion, you allowed me to judge for you. You are not onlyable to rely on yourself, but you know when it is right to rely onothers. I believe you to be possessed of a fine and healthy sense ofappreciation. "

I laughed, and begged him not to bestow too many compliments upon me, for I was not used to them. 

"I am not thinking of complimenting you, " he said. "I am simply tellingyou what I think of you in order that you may understand why I tell youmy story. I must first assure you, however, that I do not wish to placeany embarrassing responsibility upon you by taking you into my confidence. All that I say to you, you may say to others when the time comes; butfirst I must tell the tale to you. "

He sat up straight in his chair, and put down his cigar. "I will begin, "he said, "by stating that I am the Vizier of the Two-horned Alexander. "

I sat up even straighter than my companion, and gazed steadfastly at him. 

"No, " said he, "I am not crazy. I expected you to think that, and amentirely prepared for your look of amazement and incipient horror. I willask you, however, to set aside for a time the dictates of your own sense, and hear what I have to say. Then you can take the whole matter intoconsideration, and draw your own conclusions. " He now leaned back in hischair, and went on with his story: "It would be more correct, perhaps, for me to say that I was the Vizier of the Two-horned Alexander, forthat great personage died long ago. Now, I don't believe you ever heardanything about the Two-horned Alexander. "

I had recovered sufficiently from my surprise to assure him that hewas right. 

My host nodded. "I thought so, " said he; "very few people do know anythingabout that powerful potentate. He lived in the time of Abraham. He was aman of considerable culture, even of travel, and of an adventurousdisposition. I entered into the service of his court when I was a veryyoung man, and gradually I rose in position until I became his chiefofficer, or vizier. "

[Illustration: "'TIME OF ABRAHAM!' I EXCLAIMED. "]

I sprang from my chair. "Time of Abraham!" I exclaimed. "This is simply--"

"No; it is not, " he interrupted, and speaking in perfect good humor. "I beg you will sit down and listen to me. What I have to say to you isnot nearly so wonderful as the nature and power of electricity. "

I obeyed; he had touched me on a tender spot, for I am an electrician, and can appreciate the wonderful. 

"There has been a great deal of discussion, " he continued, "in regard tothe peculiar title given to Alexander, but the appellation 'two-horned'has frequently been used in ancient times. You know Michelangelo gavetwo horns to Moses; but he misunderstood the tradition he had heard, andfurnished the prophet with real horns. Alexander wore his hair arrangedover his forehead in the shape of two protruding horns. This was simplya symbol of high authority; as the bull is monarch of the herd, so washe monarch among men. He was the first to use this symbol, although itwas imitated afterward by various Eastern potentates. 

"As I have said, Alexander was a man of enterprise, and it had come to hisknowledge that there existed somewhere a certain spring the waters ofwhich would confer immortality upon any descendant of Shem who shoulddrink of them, and he started out to find this spring. I traveled withhim for more than a year. It was on this journey that he visited Abrahamwhen the latter was building the great edifice which the Mohammedans claimas their holy temple, the Kaaba. 

"It was more than a month after we had parted from Abraham that I, beingin advance of the rest of the company, noticed a little pool in the shadeof a rock, and being very warm and thirsty, I got down on my hands andknees, and putting my face to the water, drank of it. I drank heartily, and when I raised my head, I saw, to my amazement, that there was not adrop of water left in the spring. Now it so happened that when Alexandercame to this spot, he stopped, and having regarded the little hollow underthe rock, together with its surroundings, he dismounted and stood by it. He called me, and said: 'According to all the descriptions I have read, this might have been the spring of immortality for which I have beensearching; but it cannot be such now, for there is no water in it. ' Thenhe stooped down and looked carefully at the hollow. 'There has been waterhere, ' said he, 'and that not long ago, for the ground is wet. '

"A horrible suspicion now seized upon me. Could I have drained thecontents of the spring of inestimable value? Could I, without knowing it, have deprived my king of the great prize for which he had searched solong, with such labor and pains? Of course I was certain of nothing, butI bowed before Alexander, and told him that I had found an insignificantlittle puddle at the place, that I had tasted it and found it was nothingbut common water, and in quantity so small that it scarcely sufficed toquench my thirst. If he would consent to camp in the shade, and wait a fewhours, water would trickle again into the little basin, and fill it, andhe could see for himself that this could not be the spring of which he wasin search. 

"We waited at that place for the rest of the day and the whole of thenight, and the next morning the little basin was empty and entirely dry. Alexander did not reproach me; he was accustomed to rule all men, evenhimself, and he forbade himself to think that I had interfered with thegreat object of his search. But he sent me home to his capital city, andcontinued his journey without me. 'Such a thirsty man must not travelwith me, ' he said. 'If we should really come to the immortal spring, he would be sure to drink it all. '

"Nine years afterward Alexander returned to his palace, and whenI presented myself before him he regarded me steadfastly. I knew why hewas looking at me, and I trembled. At length he spoke: 'Thou art not oneday older than when I dismissed thee from my company. It was indeed thefountain of immortality which thou didst discover, and of which thou didstdrink every drop. I have searched over the whole habitable world, andthere is no other. Thou, too, art an aristocrat; thou, too, art of thefamily of Shem. It was for this reason that I placed thee near me, thatI gave thee great power; and now thou hast destroyed all my hopes, myaspirations. Thou hast put an end to my ambitions. I had believed thatI should rule the world, and rule it forever. ' His face grew black; hisvoice was terrible. 'Retire!' he said. 'I will attend to thy future. '

"I retired, but my furious sovereign never saw me again. I was fifty-threeyears old when I drank the water in the little pool under the rock, andI was well aware that at the time of my sovereign's return I felt no olderand looked no older. But still I hoped that this was merely the result ofmy general good health, and that when Alexander came back he would informme that he had discovered the veritable spring of immortality; soI retained my high office, and waited. But I had made my plans for escapein case my hope should not be realized. In two minutes from the timeI left his presence I had begun my flight, and there were no horses inall his dominions which could equal the speed of mine. 

"Now began a long, long period of danger and terror, of concealment anddeprivation. I fled into other lands, and these were conquered in orderthat I might be found. But at last Alexander died, and his son died, andthe sons of his son died, and the whole story was forgotten ordisbelieved, and I was no longer in danger of living forever as an exampleof the ingenious cruelty of an exasperated monarch. 

"I do not intend to recount my life and adventures since that time; infact, I shall scarcely touch upon them. You can see for yourself that thatwould be impossible. One might as well attempt to read a history of theworld in a single evening. I merely want to say enough to make youunderstand the situation. 

"A hundred years after I had fled from Alexander I was still fifty-threeyears old, and knew that that would be my age forever. I stayed so longin the place where I first established myself that people began to lookupon me with suspicion. Seeing me grow no older, they thought I was awizard, and I was obliged to seek a new habitation. Ever since, my fatehas been the necessity of moving from place to place. I would gosomewhere as a man beginning to show signs of age, and I would remain aslong as a man could reasonably be supposed to live without becoming trulyold and decrepit. Sometimes I remained in a place far longer than myprudence should have permitted, and many were the perils I escaped onaccount of this rashness; but I have gradually learned wisdom. "

The man spoke so quietly and calmly, and made his statements in sucha matter-of-fact way, that I listened to him with the same fascinatedattention I had given to the theory of telegraphy without wires, when itwas first propounded to me. In fact, I had been so influenced by his ownconviction of the truth of what he said that I had been on the point ofasking him if Abraham had really had anything to do with the buildingof the Islam temple, but had been checked by the thought of the utterabsurdity of supposing that this man sitting in front of me could possiblyknow anything about it. But now I spoke. I did not want him to supposethat I believed anything he said, nor did I really intend to humor him inhis insane retrospections; but what he had said suggested to me the veryapropos remark that one might suppose he had been giving a new version ofthe story of the Wandering Jew. 

At this he sat up very straight, on the extreme edge of his chair; hiseyes sparkled. 

"You must excuse me, " he said, "but for twenty seconds I am going to beangry. I can't help it. It isn't your fault, but that remark alwaysenrages me. I expect it, of course, but it makes my blood boil, all thesame. "

"Then you have told your story before?" I said. 

"Yes, " he answered. "I have told it to certain persons to whom I thoughtit should be known. Some of these have believed it, some have not; but, believers or disbelievers, all have died and disappeared. Their opinionsare nothing to me. You are now the only living being who knows my story. "

I was going to ask a question here, but he did not give me a chance. He was very much moved. 

"I hate that Wandering Jew, " said he, "or, I should say, I despise thethin film of a tradition from which he was constructed. There never wasa Wandering Jew. There could not have been; it is impossible to conceiveof a human being sent forth to wander in wretchedness forever. Moreover, suppose there had been such a man, what a poor, modern creature he wouldbe compared with me! Even now he would be less than two thousand yearsold. You must excuse my perturbation, but I am sure that during the wholeof the Christian era I have never told my story to any one who did not, insome way or other, make an absurd or irritating reference to the WanderingJew. I have often thought, and I have no doubt I am right, that theancient story of my adventures as Kroudhr, the Vizier of the Two-hornedAlexander, combined with what I have related, in one century or another, of my subsequent experiences, has given rise to the tradition of thatvery unpleasant Jew of whom Eugène Sue and many others have made gooduse. It is very natural that there should be legends about people who insome way or other are enabled to live forever. If Ponce De Leon and hiscompanions had mysteriously disappeared when in search of the Fountainof Youth, there would be stories now about rejuvenated Spaniards wanderingabout the earth, and who would always continue to wander. But the Fountainof Youth is not a desirable water-supply, and a young person who shouldfind such a pool would do well to wait until he had arrived at maturitybefore entering upon an existence of indefinite continuance. 

"But I must go on with my story. At one time I made for myself a home, andremained in it for many, many years without making any change. I became asort of hermit, and lived in a rocky cave. I allowed my hair and beard togrow, so that people really thought I was getting older and older; at lastI acquired the reputation of a prophet, and was held in veneration by agreat many religious people. Of course I could not prophesy, but as I hadsuch a vast deal of experience I was able to predicate intelligentlysomething about the future from my knowledge of the past. I became famedas a wonderful seer, and there were a great many curious stories toldabout me. 

"Among my visitors at that time was Moses. He had heard of me, and came tosee what manner of man I was. We became very well acquainted. He was a mananxious to obtain information, and he asked me questions which embarrassedme very much; but I do not know that he suspected I had lived beyond theordinary span of life. There are a good many traditions about this visitof Moses, some of which are extant at the present day; but these, ofcourse, are the result of what might be called cumulative imagination. Many of them are of Moslem origin, and the great Arabian historian Tabarihas related some of them. 

[Illustration: "MOSES ASKED EMBARRASSING QUESTIONS. "]

"I learned a great deal while I lived in this cave, both from scholars andfrom nature; but at last new generations arose who did not honor or evenrespect me, and by some I was looked upon as a fraudulent successor to theold prophet of whom their ancestors had told them, and so I thought itprudent to leave. "

My interest in this man's extraordinary tissue of retrospection wasincreasing, and I felt that I must not doubt nor deny; to do so wouldbe to break the spell, to close the book. 

"Did it not sometimes fill you with horror to think that you must liveforever?" I asked. 

"Yes, " he answered, "that has happened to me; but such feelings have long, long passed away. If you could have lived as I have, and had seen theworld change from what it was when I was young to what it is now, youwould understand how a man of my disposition, a man of my overpoweringlove of knowledge, love of discovery, love of improvement, love ofprogress of all kinds, would love to live. In fact, if I were now to betold that at the end of five thousand years I must expire and cease, itwould fill me with gloom. Having seen so much, I expect more than most menare capable of comprehending. And I shall see it all--see the centuriesunfold, behold the wonderful things of the future arise! The very thoughtof it fills me with inexpressible joy. "

For a few moments he remained silent. I could understand the state of hismind, no matter how those mental conditions had been brought about. 

"But you must not suppose, " he continued, "that this earthly immortalityis without its pains, its fears, I may say its horrors. It is preciselyon account of all these that I am now talking to you. The knowledge thatmy life is always safe, no matter in what peril I may be, does not relieveme from anxiety and apprehension of evil. It would be a curse to live ifI were not in sound physical condition; it would be a curse to live as aslave; it would be a curse to live in a dungeon. I have known vicissitudesand hardships of every kind, but I have been fortunate enough to preservemyself whole and unscathed, in spite of the dangers I have incurred. 

"I often think from what a terrible fate I saved my master, Alexanderof the two horns. If he had found the fountain he might have enjoyed hispower and dominion for a few generations. Then he would have been throwndown, cast out, and even if he had escaped miseries which I cannot bearto mention, he never could have regained his high throne. He would havebeen condemned to live forever in a station for which he was not fitted. 

"It is very different with me. My nature allows me to adapt myself tovarious conditions, and my habits of prudence prevent me from seekingto occupy any position which may be dangerous to me by making meconspicuous, and from which I could not easily retire when I believethe time has come to do so. I have been almost everything; I have evenbeen a soldier. But I have never taken up arms except when obliged to doso, and I have known as little of war as possible. No weapon or missilecould kill me, but I have a great regard for my arms and legs. I havebeen a ruler of men, but I have trembled in my high estate, for I fearedthe populace. They could do everything except take my life. ThereforeI made it a point to abdicate when the skies were clear. In such casesI set out on journeys from which I never returned. 

"I have also lived the life of the lowly; I have drawn water, and I havehewn wood. By the way, that reminds me of a little incident which mayinterest you. I was employed in the East India House at the time CharlesLamb was a clerk there. It was not long after he had begun to contributehis Elia essays to the 'London Magazine. ' I had read some of them, andwas interested in the man. I met him several times in the corridors oron the stairways, and one day I was going up-stairs, carrying a hod ofcoals, as he was coming down. Looking up at him, I made a misstep, andcame near dropping a portion of my burden. 'My good man, ' said he, witha queer smile, 'if you would learn to carry your coals as well as youcarry your age you would do well. ' I don't remember what I said inreply; but I know I thought if Charles Lamb could be made aware of myreal age he would abandon his Elia work and devote himself to me. "

"It is a pity you did not tell him, " I suggested. 

"No, " replied my host. "He might have been interested, but he could nothave appreciated the situation, even if I had told him everything. Hewould not really have known my age, for he would not have believed me. I might have found myself in a lunatic asylum. I never saw Lamb again, and very soon after that meeting I came to America. "

[Illustration: AN ENCOUNTER WITH CHARLES LAMB. ]

II

"There are two points about your story that I do not comprehend, " saidI (and as I spoke I could not help the thought that in reality I did notcomprehend any of it). "In the first place, I don't see how you couldlive for a generation or two in one place and then go off to an entirelynew locality. I should think there were not enough inhabited spots inthe world to accommodate you in such extensive changes. "

Mr. Crowder smiled. "I don't wonder you ask that question, " he said; "butin fact it was not always necessary for me to seek new places. There aretowns in which I have taken up my residence many times. But as I arrivedeach time as a stranger from afar, and as these sojourns were separatedby many years, there was no one to suppose me to be a person who hadlived in that place a century or two before. "

"Then you never had your portrait painted, " I remarked. 

"Oh, yes, I have, " he replied. "Toward the close of the thirteenth centuryI was living in Florence, being at that time married to a lady of wealthyfamily, and she insisted upon my having my portrait painted by Cimabue, who, as you know, was the master of Giotto. After my wife's deathI departed from Florence, leaving behind me the impression that I intendedsoon to return; and I would have been glad to take the portrait with me, but I had no opportunity. It was in 1503 that I went back to Florence, andas soon as I could I visited the stately mansion where I had once lived, and there in the gallery still hung the portrait. This was anunsatisfactory discovery, for I might wish at some future time to settleagain in Florence, and I had hoped that the portrait had faded, or that ithad been destroyed; but Cimabue painted too well, and his work was thenheld in high value, without regard to his subject. Finding myselfentirely alone in the gallery, I cut that picture from its frame. I concealed it under my cloak, and when I reached my lodging I utterlydestroyed it. I did not feel that I was committing any crime in doingthis; I had ordered and paid for the painting, and I felt that I had aright to do what I pleased with it. "

"I don't see how you can help having your picture taken in these days, "I said; "even if you refuse to go to a photographer's, you can't escapethe kodak people. You have a striking presence. "

"Oh, I can't get away from photographers, " he answered. "I have had anumber of pictures taken, at the request of my wife and other people. It is impossible to avoid it, and that is one of the reasons why I amnow telling you my story. What is the other point about which youwished to ask me?"

"I cannot comprehend, " I answered, "how you should ever have foundyourself poor and obliged to work. I should say that a man who had livedso long would have accumulated, in one way or another, immense wealth, inexhaustible treasures. "

[Illustration: "'I CUT THAT PICTURE FROM ITS FRAME. '"]

"Oh, yes, " said he, with a smile; "Monte Cristo, and all that sort ofthing. Your notion is a perfectly natural one, but I assure you, Mr. Randolph, that it is founded upon a mistake. Over and over and over againI have amassed wealth; but I have not been able to retain it permanently, and often I have suffered for the very necessaries of life. I have beenhungry, knowing that I could never starve. The explanation of this stateof things is simple enough: I would trade; I would speculate; I wouldmarry an heiress; I would become rich; for many years I would enjoy mypossessions. Then the time would come when people said: 'Who owns thesehouses?' 'To whom belongs this money in the banks?' 'These properties werepurchased in our great-grandfathers' times; the accounts in the banks wereopened long before our oldest citizens were born. Who is it who is makingout leases and drawing checks?' I have employed all sorts of subterfugesin order to retain my property, but I have always found that to prove mycontinued identity I should have to acknowledge my immortality; and inthat case, of course, I should have been adjudged a lunatic, andeverything would have been taken from me. So I generally managed, beforethe time arrived when it was actually necessary for me to do so, to turnmy property, as far as possible, into money, and establish myself in someother place as a stranger. But there were times when I was obliged tohurry from my home and take nothing with me. Then I knew misery. 

"It was during the period of one of my greatest depressions that I metwith a monk who was afterward St. Bruno, and I joined the Carthusianmonastery which he founded in Calabria. In the midst of their asceticism, their seclusion, and their silence I hoped that I might be asked noquestions, and need tell no lies; I hoped that I might be allowed to liveas long as I pleased without disturbance; but I found no such immunity. When Bruno died, and his successor had followed him into the grave, it wasproposed that I should be the next prior; but this would not have suitedme at all. I had employed all my time in engrossing books, but the dutiesof a prior were not for me, so I escaped, and went out into the worldagain. "

As I sat and listened to Mr. Crowder, his story seemed equally wonderfulto me, whether it were a plain statement of facts or the relation of aninsane dream. It was not a wild tale, uttered in the enthusiasticexcitement of a disordered mind; but it was a series of reminiscences, told quietly and calmly, here a little, there a little, withoutchronological order, each one touched upon as it happened to suggestitself. From wondering I found myself every now and then believing: butwhenever I realized the folly in which I was indulging myself, I shookoff my credulity and endeavored to listen with interest, but withoutjudgment, for in this way only could I most thoroughly enjoy thestrange narrative; but my lapses into unconscious belief were frequent. 

"You have spoken of marriage, " said I. "Have you had many wives?"

My host leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. "That is asubject, " he said, "of which I think as little as I can, and yet I mustspeak to you of it. It is right that I should do so. I have been marriedso often that I can scarcely count the wives I have had. Beautiful women, good women, some of them women to whom I would have given immortality hadI been able; but they died, and died, and died. And here is one of thegreat drawbacks of living forever. 

"Yet it was not always the death of my wives which saddened me the most;it was their power of growing old. I would marry a young woman, beautiful, charming. You need not be surprised that I was able to do this, for in allages woman has been in the habit of disregarding the years of man, andI have always had a youthful spirit; I think it is Daudet who says thatthe most dangerous lover is the man of fifty-three. I would live happilywith a wife; she would gradually grow to be the same age as myself; andthen she would become older and older, and I did not. As I have said, there were women to whom I would have given immortality if I could; butI will add that there have been times when I would have given up my ownimmortality to be able to pass gently into old age with a beloved wife. 

"You will want to know if I have had descendants. They exist by thethousand; but if you ask me where they are, I must tell you that I donot know. I now have but one child, a little girl who is asleepup-stairs. I have gathered around me families of sons and daughters;they have grown up, married, and my grandchildren have sat upon my knees. Sometimes, at long intervals, I have known great-grandchildren. But whenmy sons and daughters have grown gray and gone to their graves, I havewithdrawn myself from the younger people, --some of whom were notacquainted with me, others even had never heard of me, --and then by thenext generation the old ancestor, if remembered at all, was connectedonly with the distant past. And so family after family have melted intothe great mass of human beings, and are as completely lost as though theywere water thrown into the sea. 

"I have always been fond of beautiful women, and as you have met Mrs. Crowder, you know that my disposition has not changed. Sarah, the wifeof Abraham, was considered a woman of great beauty in her day, and thefame of her charms continues; but I assure you that if she lived now herattractions would not have given her husband so much trouble. I saw agood deal of Sarah when I visited Abraham with my master Alexander, andI have seen many more beautiful women since that time. Hagar was a finewoman, but she was too dark, and her face had an anxious expression whichinterfered with her beauty. "

"Was Hagar really the wife of Abraham, " I asked, "as the Mussulmans say, and was Ishmael considered his heir?"

"When I saw them, " my host continued, "the two women seemed as friendlyas sisters, and Isaac was not yet born. At that time it was considered, of course, that Ishmael was Abraham's heir. Certainly he was a much finerman than Isaac, with whom I became acquainted a long time afterward. Therewere some very beautiful women at the court of Solomon. One of these wasBalkis, the famous Queen of Sheba. "

"Did you ever meet Cleopatra?" I interrupted. 

"I never saw her, " was the answer, "but, from what I have heard, I donot think I should have cared for her if I had seen her asleep. What mighthave happened had I seen her awake is quite another matter. I have noticedthat women grow more beautiful as the world grows older, and men growtaller and better developed. You would consider me, I think, a man ofaverage size; but I tell you that in my early life I was exceptionallytall, and I have no doubt it was my stature and presence to whichI largely owed my preferment at the court of Alexander. I was living inSpain toward the close of the tenth century, when I married the daughterof an Arabian physician, who was a wonderfully beautiful woman. She wasnot dark, like the ordinary Moorish women. In feature and form shesurpassed any creation of the Greek sculptors, and I have been in many oftheir workshops, and have seen their models. This lady lived longer thanany other wife I had. She lived so long, in fact, that when we leftCordova we both thought it well that she should pass as my mother. She wasone of the few wives to whom I told my story. It did not shock her, forshe believed her father to be a miracle-worker, and she had faith in manystrange things. Her great desire was to live as long as I should, andI think she believed that this might happen. She died at the age of onehundred and fifteen, and was lively and animated to the very last. My first American wife was a fine woman, too. She was a French creole, anddied fifteen years ago. We had no children. "

[Illustration: "'WHEN WE LEFT CORDOVA. '"]

"It strikes me, " I said suddenly, "that you must understand a great manylanguages--you speak so much of living with people of different nations. "

"It would be impossible, " he answered, "unless I were void of ordinaryintelligence, to live as long as I have, and not become a generallinguist. Of course I had to learn the languages of the countriesI visited, and as I was always a student, it delighted me to do so. Infact, I not only studied, but I wrote. When the Alexandrian library wasdestroyed, fourteen of my books were burned. When I was in Italy with myfirst American wife, I visited the museum at Naples, and in the roomwhere the experts were unrolling the papyri found in Pompeii, I lookedover the shoulder of one of them, and, to my amazement, found that one ofthe rolls was an account-book of my own. I had been a broker in Pompeii, and these were the records of moneys I had loaned, on interest, to variousmerchants and tradespeople. I was always fond of dealing in money, and atpresent I am a broker in Wall street. During the first crusades I was abanker in Genoa, and lent large sums to the noble knights who were settingforth for Jerusalem. "

[Illustration: "'I HAD BEEN A BROKER IN POMPEII. '"]

[Illustration: "'I LENT LARGE SUMS TO THE NOBLE KNIGHTS. '"]

"Was much of it repaid?" I asked. 

"Most of it. The loans were almost always secured by good property. AsI look back upon the vast panorama of my life, " my host continued, aftera pause, "I most pleasantly recall my various intimacies with learnedmen, and my own studies and researches; but in the great company of menof knowledge whom I have known, there was not one in whom I was so muchinterested as in King Solomon. I visited his court because I greatlywished to know a man who knew so much. It was not difficult to obtainaccess to him, for I came as a stranger from Ethiopia, to the east ofEthiopia, to the east of the Red Sea, and the king was always anxiousto see intelligent people from foreign parts. I was able to tell him agood deal which he did not know, and he became fond of my society. 

"I found Solomon a very well-informed man. He had not read and studiedbooks as much as I had, and he had not had my advantages of directintercourse with learned men; but he was a most earnest and indefatigablestudent of nature. I believe he knew more about natural history than anyhuman being then living, or who had preceded him. Whenever it waspossible for him to do so, he studied animal nature from the livingmodel, and all the beasts, birds, and fishes which it was possible forhim to obtain alive were quartered in the grounds of his palace. In acertain way he was an animal-tamer. You may well imagine that this greatking's wonderful possessions, as well as the man himself, were the sourceof continual delight to me. 

"The time-honored story of Solomon's carpet on which he mounted and waswafted away to any place, with his retinue, had a good deal of foundationin fact; for Solomon was an exceedingly ingenious man, and not onlyconstructed parachutes by which people could safely descend from greatheights, but he made some attempts in the direction of ballooning. I have seen small bags of thin silk, covered with a fine varnish made ofgum to render them air-tight, which, being inflated with hot air andproperly ballasted, rose high above the earth, and were wafted out ofsight by the wind. Many people supposed that in the course of timeSolomon would be able to travel through the air, and from this idea wasderived the tradition that he really did so. 

"Another of the interesting legends regarding King Solomon concerned hisdominion over the Jinns. These people, of whom so much has been writtenand handed down by word of mouth, and who were supposed by subsequentgenerations to be a race of servile demons, were, in reality, savagenatives of surrounding countries, who were forced by the king to work onhis great buildings and other enterprises, and who occupied very much theposition of the coolies of the present day. But that story of the deadSolomon and the Jinns who were at work on the temple gives a good idea ofone of the most important characteristics of this great ruler. He was aman who gave personal attention to all his affairs, and was in the habitof overseeing the laborers on his public works. Do you remember the storyto which I refer?"

I was obliged to say that I did not think I had ever heard it. 

"The story runs thus, " said my host: "The Jinns were at work buildingthe temple, and Solomon, according to his custom, overlooked them daily. At the time when the temple was nearly completed Solomon felt that hisstrength was passing from him, and that he would not have much longer tolive. This greatly troubled him, for he knew that when the Jinns shouldfind that his watchful eye would be no more upon them, they would rebeland refuse to work, and the temple would not be finished during hisreign. Therefore, as the story runs, he came, one day, into the temple, and hoped that he might be enabled to remain there until the greatedifice should be finished. He stood leaning on his staff, and the Jinns, when they beheld their master, continued to work, and work, and work. Whennight came Solomon still remained standing in his accustomed place, andthe Jinns worked on, afraid to cease their toil for a moment. 

[Illustration: SOLOMON AND THE JINNS. ]

"Standing thus, Solomon died; but the Jinns did not know it, and theirtoil and labor continued, by night and by day. Now, according to thetradition, a little white ant, one of the kind which devours wood, cameup out of the earth on the very day on which Solomon died, and began tognaw the inside of his staff. She gnawed a little every day, until atlast the staff became hollow from one end to the other; and on the daywhen she finished her work, the work of the Jinns was also finished. Then the staff crumbled, and the dead Solomon fell, face foremost, tothe earth. The Jinns, perceiving that they had been slaving day and nightfor a master who was dead, fled away with yells of rage and vexation. But the glorious temple was finished, and King Solomon's work was done. Tabari tells this story, and it is also found in the Koran; but the originof it was nothing more than the well-known custom of Solomon to exercisepersonal supervision over those who were working for him. 

"I was the person from whom Solomon first heard of the Queen of Sheba. I had lived in her capital city for several years, and she had summonedme before her, and had inquired about the places I had visited and thethings I had seen. What I said about this wonderful woman and theadmirable administration of her empire interested Solomon very much, and he was never tired of hearing me talk about her. At one timeI believe he thought of sending me as an ambassador to her, but afterwardgave up this notion, as I did not possess the rank or position whichwould have qualified me to represent him and his court; so he sent asuitable delegation, and, after a great deal of negotiation anddiplomatic by-play, the queen actually determined to come to see Solomon. Soon after her arrival with her great retinue, she saw me, and immediatelyrecognized me, and the first thing she said to me was that she perceivedI had grown a good deal older than when I had been living in her domains. This delighted me, for before coming to Jerusalem I had allowed my hairand beard to grow, and had dispensed with as much as possible of myordinary erect mien and lightness of step; for I was very much afraid, ifI were not careful, that the wise king would find out that there wassomething irregular in my longevity, and an old man may continue to lookold much longer than a middle-aged man can continue to appear middle-aged. 

"It was a great advantage to me to find myself admitted to a certainintimacy with both the king and his visitor the queen. As I was a subjectof neither of them, they seemed to think this circumstance allowed alittle more familiarity than otherwise they would have shown. Besides, myage had a great deal to do with the freedom with which they spoke to me. Each of them seemed anxious to know everything I could tell about theother, and I would sometimes be subjected to embarrassing questions. 

"There is a great deal of extravagance and perversion in the historicaland traditional accounts of the tricks which these two royal personagesplayed upon each other. Most of these old stories are too silly to repeat, but some of them had foundation in fact. They tell a tale of how the queenset five hundred boys and five hundred girls before the king, all thegirls dressed as boys and all the boys dressed as girls, and then sheasked him, as he was such a wise man, immediately to distinguish those ofone sex from those of the other. Solomon did not hesitate a moment, butordering basins of water to be brought, he commanded the young people towash their hands. Thereupon he watched them closely, and as the boyswashed only their hands, while the girls rolled up their sleeves andwashed their arms as well as their hands, Solomon was able, without anytrouble, to pick out the one from the other. Now, something of this kindreally happened, but there were only ten boys and ten girls. But in thecourse of ages the story grew, and the whole thing was made absurd; forthere never was a king in the world, nor would there be likely to be one, who could have a thousand basins ready immediately to put before a companywho wished to wash their hands. But the result of this scheme convincedthe queen that Solomon was a man of the deepest insight into the mannersand customs of human beings, as well as those of animals, birds, andfishes. 

"But there is an incident with which I was personally connected which wasknown at the time to very few people, and was never publicly related. Thebeautiful queen desired, above all other things, to know whether Solomonheld her in such high esteem because she was a mighty queen, or onaccount of her personal attractions; and in order to discover the truthin regard to this question, she devised a little scheme to which she mademe a party. There was a young woman in her train, of surpassing beauty, whose name was Liridi, and the queen was sure that Solomon had never seenher, for it was her custom to keep her most beautiful attendants in thebackground. This maiden the queen caused to be dressed in the richest andmost becoming robes, and adorned her, besides, with jewels and goldenornaments, which set off her beauty in an amazing manner. Then, havingmade many inquiries of me in regard to the habits of Solomon, she orderedLiridi to walk alone in one of the broad paths of the royal gardens at thetime when the king was wont to stroll there by himself. The queen wishedto find out whether this charming apparition would cause the king toforget her for a time, and she ordered me to be in the garden, and soarrange my rambles that I could, without being observed, notice whathappened when the king should meet Liridi. I was on hand before theappointed time, and when I saw the girl walking slowly up the shadedavenue, I felt obliged to go to her and tell her that she was too soon, and that she must not meet Solomon near the palace. As I spoke to herI was amazed at her wonderful beauty, and I did not believe it possiblethat the king could gaze upon her without such emotion as would make himforget for the moment every other woman in the world. 

"The queen had purposely made an appointment with him for the same hour, so that if he did not come she would know what was detaining him. Atlength Solomon appeared at the far end of the avenue, and Liridi beganagain her pensive stroll. When the king reached her, she retired to oneside, her head bowed, as if she had not expected to meet royalty in thissecluded spot. King Solomon was deep in thought as he walked, but whenhe came near the maiden, he raised his eyes and suddenly stopped. I wasnear by, behind some shrubbery, and it was plain enough to me that he wasdazzled by this lovely apparition. He asked her who she was, and whenshe had told him he gazed at her with still greater attention. Thensuddenly he laughed aloud. 'Go tell the queen, ' said he, 'that she hathmissed her mark. The arrow which is adorned with golden trappings andprecious stones cannot fly aright. ' Then he went on, still laughing tohimself. In the evening he told me about this incident, and said that ifthe maiden had been arrayed in the simple robes which became her stationhe would have suspected nothing, and would probably have stopped toconverse with her so long that he would have failed to keep hisappointment with his royal guest. 

[Illustration: "'GO TELL THE QUEEN'"]

"The queen was very much annoyed at the ill success of her littleartifice, but it was not long after this that she and the king discoveredtheir true feeling for each other, and they were soon married. Thewedding was a grand one--grander than tradition relates, grander than themodern mind can easily comprehend. When they went to the palace to sitfor the first time in state before the vast assembly of dignitaries andcourtiers, the queen found, beside the throne of Solomon, her own throne, which he had caused to be brought from Sheba in time for this occasion. This incident, I think, affected her more agreeably than anything elsethat happened. Great were the festivities. Honors and dignities werebestowed on every hand, and I might have come in for some substantialbenefit had it not been that I committed a great blunder. I had fallenin love with the beautiful Liridi, and as the queen seemed so graciousand kind to everybody, I made bold to go to her and ask that she wouldallow me to marry her charming handmaiden. But, to my surprise, thisrequest angered the queen. She told me that such an old man as myselfought to be ashamed to take a young girl to wife; that she was opposedto such marriages; and that, in fact, I ought to be punished for evenmentioning the subject. 

"I retired in disgrace, and very soon afterward I left Jerusalem, forI have found, by varied experiences, that the displeasure of rulers isan unhealthful atmosphere in which to live. However, the Queen of Shebadid not get altogether the better of me. As you know, King Solomon andhis royal wife did not reign together very long. They ruled over twogreat kingdoms, each of which required the presence of its sovereign;so Queen Balkis soon went back to Sheba with more wealth, more soldiers, more camels, horses, and grand surroundings of every kind, than she hadbrought with her. She carried in her baggage-train her royal throne, but she did not take with her the beautiful Liridi. That lady had beengiven in marriage to an officer in Solomon's army, and thirty yearsafterward, in the land of Asshur, where her father was stationed, I married the youngest daughter of Liridi. The latter was then dead, butmy wife, with whom I lived happily for many years in Phoenicia, was quiteas beautiful. I was greatly inclined, at the time, to send a courier witha letter to the Queen of Sheba, informing her of what had happened; butI was afraid. She was then an elderly woman, and I was informed that agehad actually sharpened her wits, so that if I had incensed her and givenher reason to suspect the truth about my unnatural age, I believe therewas no known country in which I could have concealed myself from heremissaries. 

"There are many, many incidents which crowd upon my memory, " continued myhost, "but--" and as he spoke he pulled out his watch. "My conscience!"he exclaimed, "it is twenty minutes past three! I should be ashamed ofmyself, Mr. Randolph, for having kept you up so long. "

We both rose to our feet, and I was about to say something polite, suitedto the occasion, but he gave me no chance. 

"I felt I must talk to you, " he said, speaking very rapidly. "I havediscovered you to be a man of appreciation--a man who should hear mystory. I have felt for some years that it would soon become impossible forme to conceal my experiences from my fellow-men. I believe mankind has nowreached a stage of enlightenment--at least, in this country--when theperson who makes strange discoveries which cannot be explained, and theperson who announces facts which cannot be comprehended by the human mind, need not fear to be punished as a sorcerer, or thrust into a cell as alunatic. I may be mistaken in regard to this latter point, but I thinkI am right. In any case, I do not wish to live much longer as I have beenliving. As I must live on, with generation after generation rising upabout me, I want those generations to know before they depart from thisearth that I am a person who does not die. I am tired of deceptions; I amtired of leaving the places where I have lived long and am known, andarriving in other places where I am a stranger, and where I must beginmy life again. 

"I do not wish to be in a hurry to make my revelations to the world atlarge. I do not wish to startle people without being able to show themproof of what I say. I wish to speak only to persons who are worthy tohear my story, and I have begun with you. I do not want you to believeme until you are quite ready to do so. Think over what I have said, consider it carefully, and make up your mind slowly. 

"You are a young man in good health, and you will, in all probability, live long enough to assure yourself of the truth or falsity of whatI have told you about my indefinite longevity. I should be glad to relatemy story to scientific men, to physicians, to students; but, as I havesaid, we shall wait for that. In the meantime, you may, if you choose, write down what I have told you, or as much of it as you remember. I haveno written records of my past life. Long, long ago I made such, butI destroyed them, for I knew not what evil they might bring upon me werethey discovered. But you may write the little I have told you, and whenyou feel that the time has come, you may give it to the world. And nowwe must retire. It is wicked to keep you out of your bed any longer. "

"One word, " said I. "Do you intend now to tell your wife?"

"Yes, " he answered, "I shall tell her tomorrow. Having reposed confidencein you, it would be treating her shamefully if I should withhold thatconfidence from her. She has often said to me that I do not look a dayolder than when I married her. I want her now to know that I need neverlook a day older; I shall counterfeit old age no more. "

I did not sleep well during what was left of the night, for my mind wenttraveling backward and forward through the ages. The next morning, atbreakfast, Mr. Crowder appeared in his ordinary good spirits, but hiswife was very quiet. She was pale, and occasionally I thought I saw signsof trouble on her usually placid brow. I felt sure that he had told herhis story. As I looked at her, I could not prevent myself from seriouslywondering that a man who had seen Abraham and Sarah, and had beenpersonally acquainted with the Queen of Sheba, should now be married to aQuaker lady from North Sixteenth street, Philadelphia. After breakfastshe found an opportunity of speaking to me privately. 

"Do you believe, " she asked very hurriedly, "what my husband told you lastnight--the story of his earthly immortality?"

"I really do not know, " I answered, "whether I believe it or not. Myreason assures me that it is impossible; and yet there is in Mr. Crowder'smanner so much sincerity, so much--"

Contrary to her usual habits, I am sure, she interrupted me. 

"Excuse me, " she said, "but I must speak while I have the chance. Youmust believe what my husband has said to you. He has told me everything, and I know that it is impossible for him to tell a lie. I have not yetarranged my ideas in regard to this wonderful revelation, but I believe. If the time should ever come when I shall know I should not believe, thatwill be another matter. But he is my husband. I know him, I trust him. Will you not do the same?"

"I will do it, " I exclaimed, "until the time comes when I shall know thatI cannot possibly do so. "

She gave me her hand, and I shook it heartily. 

[Illustration: "SHE GAVE ME HER HAND, AND I SHOOK IT HEARTILY. "]

III

About four months after my first acquaintance with Mr. And Mrs. Crowder, I found myself again in New York; and when I called at the house of myfriends, I received from them a most earnest invitation to take up myabode with them during my stay in the city. 

Of course this invitation was eagerly accepted; for not only was theCrowder house a home of the most charming hospitality, but my interest inthe extraordinary man who was evidently so glad to be my host was suchthat not one day had passed since I last saw him in which I did not thinkof him, and consider his marvelous statements from every point of viewwhich my judgment was capable of commanding. I found Mr. Crowderunchanged in appearance and manner, and his wife was the same charmingyoung woman I had known. But there was nothing surprising in this. People generally do not change very much in four months; and yet, intalking to Mr. Crowder, I could not prevent myself from earnestlyscanning his features to see if he had grown any older. 

He noticed this, and laughed heartily. "It is natural enough, " he said, "that you should wish to assure yourself that there is a good foundationto your belief in what I have told you; but you are in too great a hurry:you must wait some years for that sort of proof, one way or the other. But I believe that you do believe in me, and I am not in the leastdisturbed by the way you look at me. "

After dinner, on the first day of my visit, when we were smokingtogether, I asked Mr. Crowder if he would not continue the recital of hisexperiences, which were of such absorbing interest to me that sometimes Ifound them occupying my mind to an extent which excluded the considerationof everything relating to myself and the present time. 

"From one point of view, " he said, "that would be a bad thing for you:but I don't look at it in that way; in fact, I hope you may become mybiographer. I will furnish you with material enough, and you can arrangeit and put it in shape; that is, if, in the course of a few years, youconsider that, in doing what I ask of you, you will be writing the truelife of a man, and not a collection of fanciful stories. So I hope youmay find that you have not lost your time when thinking so much of a manof the past. "

Now, there is no doubt that I did most thoroughly believe in Crowder. Ihad argued with myself against this belief to the utmost extent of myability, and I had now given up the effort. If I should disbelieve himI would deprive myself of one of the most precious privileges of myexistence, and I did not intend to do so until I found myself absolutelyforced to admit that I was mistaken. Time would settle all this, and allthat I had to do now was to listen, enjoy, and be thankful for theopportunity. 

"I am not going to tell any stories now, " he said, "for my wife has notovercome her dislike to tobacco smoke, and she has insisted that sheshall be one of my hearers when I tell stories of my past life to you;but I can tell you this, my friend: she will believe every word I say;there can be no possible doubt of that. I have told her a good many thingssince I saw you last, and her faith in me is a joy unspeakable. "

Of course I was delighted to hear that this charming lady was to be myfellow-auditor, and said so. 

"I often think of you two, " said Mr. Crowder, contemplatively leaningback in his arm-chair. "I think of you together, but I am bound to saythat the thought is not altogether pleasant. " I showed my amazement atthis remark. "It can't be helped, " he said; "it can't be helped. It'sone of the things I have to suffer. I have suffered it over and overagain thousands of times, but I never get used to it. Here you are, twoyoung people, young enough to be my children: one is my wife; the other, I am proud to say, my best friend. You are the only persons in the worldwho know my story. You have faith in me, and the thought of that faith isthe greatest pleasure of my life. Year by year you two will grow older;year by year you will more nearly approach my own age, and become, according to the ordinary opinion of the world, more suitable companionsfor me. Then you will reach my age. We shall be three gray-haired friends. Then will come the saddening time, the mournful days. You two will growolder and older, and I shall remain where I am--always fifty-three. Thenyou will grow to be elderly--elderly people; at last, aged people. If youlive long enough I shall look up to you as I would to my parents. "

This was a state of things I had never contemplated. I could scarcelyappreciate it. 

"Of course, " he continued, "I wish you both to live long; but don't yousee how it affects me? But enough of that. Here comes Mrs. Crowder, andwith her all subjects must be pleasant ones. "

"I think thee must buy some short cigars, " she said, just putting herhead inside the door, "to smoke after dinner. If large ones are necessary, they can be smoked after I go to bed. I am getting very impatient; for nowthat Mr. Randolph is here, I believe that thee is going to be unusuallyinteresting. "

We arose immediately, and joined Mrs. Crowder in the library. 

This lady's use of the plain speech customary with Quakers was verypleasant to me. I had had but little acquaintance with it, and at first itsindependence of grammatical rules struck upon me unpleasantly; but I soonbegan to enjoy Mrs. Crowder's speech, when she was addressing her husband, much more than I did the remarks she made to me, the latter being alwayscouched in the most correct English. There was a sweetness about her"thee" which had the quality of gentle music; and when she used the word"thy" it was pronounced so much like "thee" that I could scarcely perceivethe difference. To her husband and child she always used the Quaker speechof the present day; and as I did not like being set aside in this way, Isaid to her that I hoped there was no rule of the Society of Friends whichwould compel her to make a change in her form of speech when she addressedme. "If thee likes, " she said, with a smile, "thee is welcome to all theplain speech thee wants. " And after that, when she spoke to me, she didnot turn me out among the world's people. 

"Now, you know, " said Mr. Crowder, "that I'm not going to play the partof an historian. That sort of discourse would bore me, and it would boreyou. If there is any kind of thing that you would like to hear about, all you have to do is to ask me; and if you don't care to do this, I willtell you whatever comes up in my memory, without any regard to chronologyor geography, just as I talked to you before. If I were to begin at thebeginning and go straight along, even if I skipped ever so much, thestory would--it would be a great deal too long. "

I am sure that Mrs. Crowder and I both felt what he did not wish tosay--that we were not likely to live to hear it all. 

"There are a great many things I should like to ask thee, " said Mrs. Crowder, speaking quickly, as if to change the subject of her thoughts;"but I believe I have forgotten most of them. But here is something Ishould like to know--that is, " she said, turning to me, "if thee hasn'tanything in thy mind which thee wishes to ask about?"

I noticed that she pronounced "thy" very distinctly, a little bit ofgrammatical conscience probably obtruding itself. Of course, I hadnothing to ask, and she put her question: "What _did_ thee do inthe dark ages?"

Crowder laughed. "That is a big question, " said he, "and the only answerI can give you in a general way is that there were so many things thatI was not able to do, or did not dare to do, that I look upon thosecenturies as the most disagreeable part of my whole life. But you mustnot suppose that everybody felt as I did. A great many of the people bywhom I was surrounded at that doleful period appeared to be happier andbetter satisfied with their circumstances than any I have known beforeor after. There was little ambition, less responsibility; and if the poorand weak suffered from the rapacity and violence of the rich and strong, they accepted their misfortunes as if they were something they were boundto expect, such as bad weather. I am not going to talk history, and thereis one thing that your question reminds me of. During that portion of themiddle ages which is designated as dark, I employed myself in a great manydifferent ways: I was laborer, sailor, teacher, and I cannot tell you whatbesides; but more frequently than anything else I was a teacher. "

"Thee must have been an angel of light, " Mrs. Crowder remarked. 

"No, " said he; "an angel of light would have been very conspicuous inthose days. I didn't pose for such a part. In fact, if I had notsucceeded in appearing like a partial ignoramus I should have beenobliged to go into a monastery, for in those days the monks were the onlypeople who knew anything. They expected to do all the teaching that wasdone; but, for all that, a few scholars cropped up now and then, and hereand there, who did not care to have monks for masters; and by instructingthese in a very modest, quiet way I frequently managed to make a living. "

"I should think, " I said, "that at any time and in any period you wouldhave been a person of importance, with your experience and knowledge ofmen. "

Mr. Crowder shook his head. "No, " said he; "not so. To make myself ofimportance in that time I must have been a soldier, and the profession ofarms, you know, is one I have always avoided. A man who cannot be killedshould take care that he be not wounded. "

"I am so glad that thee did take care, " ejaculated Mrs. Crowder; "buteven I cannot see how thee kept out of fighting in those disorderlytimes. "

"I did not keep out of it altogether, but in every possible way I triedto do so, and for the most part succeeded. Whenever I was likely to beinvolved in military operations, I let my hair and beard grow, and thewhite-haired old man was usually exempted. I have had far more experiencein keeping out of battles than any other human being has had in the artof winning them. But what you two want is a story, and I will give youone. 

"During some of the earlier years of the seventh century, I was livingin Ravenna, and there I had three or four scholars whom I taughtoccasionally. I did not dare to keep a regular school, with fixed hoursand all that; but while I was not working at my trade, which was thenthat of a mason, I gave lessons to some young people in the neighborhood. Sometimes I taught in the evening, sometimes in bad weather when we didnot work out of doors. No one of my scholars showed any intelligence, except a girl about eighteen years old. Her father, I think, was aprofessional robber, for his family lived very well, and he was generallyabsent from home at the head of a little band of desperate fellows, ofwhom there were a great many in that region. 

"This girl, whose name was Rina, had an earnest desire for knowledge, andshowed a great capacity for imbibing it and retaining it. In fact, Ibelieve she was the most intelligent person in that region. "

"Was she pretty?" asked Mrs. Crowder. 

"Yes, " replied her husband; "she was very good-looking. I was sointerested in her desire for knowledge that I taught her a great dealmore than I would have dared to teach anybody else; and the more I taught, the more she wanted to learn. 

"I soon became very much concerned about Rina. Some man of theneighborhood, old or young, would be sure to marry her before very long, and then there would be an end of the development of what I consideredthe brightest intellect of the day. "

"So to keep that from happening to her, thee married her thyself?" askedMrs. Crowder. 

Her husband smiled. "Yes; that is what I did. You know, " he said, addressing me, "that I believe that Mrs. Crowder takes more interest inmy marriages than in anything else I have done in the course of mycareer. "

"Certainly I do, " she said, with a little flush. "Of course thee had to bemarried, and it is natural enough that I should want to know whom theemarried, and all about it. "

"Well, " said Mr. Crowder, "we must get on with this. A priest with whomI was acquainted married us, and we immediately fled from Ravenna. After ayear or two of wandering through benighted countries where even kingsand rulers could not write their names, and where reading seemed to be alost art, except in the monasteries, we made up our minds, if possible, we would go from darkness into light, and so we set out on a journey toChina. "

At this statement Mrs. Crowder and I looked surprised. 

"I don't wonder you open your eyes, " said he. "It must seem odd to you, unless you are very familiar with the history of the period, that weshould go from Europe to China in search of enlightenment andcivilization; but that is what we did, and we found what we looked for. As the Pope had sent an envoy to China, and as some Nestorianmissionaries had gone there, I believed that we could go. 

"This journey to the Chinese province of Nan-hae occupied the greaterpart of five years; but to me personally that was of no account, for Ihad time enough. Although we passed through all sorts of hardships anddangers, my wife was greatly interested in the strange things and peopleshe met. Sometimes we traveled by water, sometimes on horses and asses, and very often we walked. During the last part of the journey we joineda caravan which went through central Asia. 

"At that time China was ruled by a woman, the Empress Woo. For a longtime back there had been a period of great intellectual activity in China. Literature and the arts flourished, and while the great personages ofEurope did not know how to write, these people were printing from woodenblocks. 

"The empress was a remarkable woman. She had been one of the widows of amonarch, and when his son succeeded to the throne she married him. She hadgreat ambition and great ability. She put down her enemies, and she putherself forward. She took her husband's place in all the imperialconsultations and decisions, and very soon set him aside, and for fortyyears was actual ruler of the empire. 

"She was a great woman, this Empress Woo. Very little happened in herdominions that she did not know, and when two wanderers arrived from thefar and unknown West, she sent for me and my wife to appear before her atthe palace. We were received with much favor, for we could do her nopossible harm, and she was very eager for knowledge. My wife was an objectof great curiosity to her, as she was so different from the Chinese women. But as poor Rina could never acquire a word of the language of the country, the empress soon ceased to take interest in her. As I was always very goodat picking up languages, she had me at the palace a great deal, asking allsorts of questions about the Western countries and people. I was also ableto tell her much about bygone ages, which information she thought, of course, I had acquired by reading. 

[Illustration: "'ASKING ALL SORTS OF QUESTIONS. '"]

"One day the empress asked me about the marriage customs in the West, and wanted to know how many wives a man could have in our country. Sheseemed to be so much in earnest, as she spoke, that I was frightened. I did not know what to answer. But fortunately one of her generals wasannounced, and she did not press the question. As I was leaving thepalace, one of the officers of the court took me aside, and told me thatthe empress was thinking of marrying me, and that I had better put on somefine clothes when I came again. This was terrible news, but I was bound totell my wife, and we sat up all night talking about it. To escape fromthat region would have been impossible. We were obliged to stay and facethe inevitable, whatever it might be. 

"The question which Rina and I had to decide was a very simple one, butterribly difficult for all that. If I should tell the empress that menof my country believed that it was right to have but one wife, Rina wouldquickly be disposed of; so she had to decide whether she would prefer todie so that I might marry the empress, or to preserve her life and loseher undivided possession of a husband. "

"I know what I would have done, " said Mrs. Crowder, her eyes very bright;"I would have let her kill me. I would never have consented for thee tomarry the wretch. "

"That would have pleased her, " said Mr. Crowder; "for she would have hadme all the same, and you would have been out of the way. "

"Then I would not have died, " said the little Quakeress, almost fiercely;"I would not have done anything to please her. But I don't know. What didthee and thy wife do?"

"We talked and talked and talked, " said Mr. Crowder, "and at last Ipersuaded her to live; that is to say, not to make herself an obstacleto the wishes of the empress. It was a terrible trial, but she consented. The more insignificant she became, I told her, the greater her chancesof safety. 

"The next day the empress sent for me, as I was sure she would do. 

"'You did not tell me, ' she said, 'how many wives your men have. ' 'Thatall depends upon the will of our sovereign, ' I replied; 'in matrimonialaffairs we do as we are commanded. When we have no commands from thethrone, our circumstances regulate the matter. '"

"Thee did tell a dreadful lie while thee was about it, " said Mrs. Crowder, "but I suppose thee had to. "

"You are right there, " said her husband; "and my answer pleased theempress. 'That is what I like, ' she said. 'The monarch should settle allthese matters. I hope some day to settle them in this country. ' Then, without any hesitation or preface, she announced her intention of marryingme. 'I greatly need, ' she said, 'a learned man for an imperial consort. My present husband knows nothing. I never trust him with any affairs ofstate. But I have never asked you anything to which you did not give mea satisfactory answer. ' Now, my dear, " said Mr. Crowder, "you see thereward of vanity. If I had pretended to be a fool instead of aspiring tobe a philosopher and an historian, I should never have attracted theinterest of the queen. "

"And did thee marry her?" asked his wife. "I do so pity poor Rina!"

"I'll tell you how it turned out, " he continued. "After pressing me agood deal, the empress said: 'I had intended to marry you in a few days, or as soon as the preparations could be made; but I have now postponedthat ceremony. I find that military affairs must occupy me for some time, and it would be better for me at present to marry one of my generals. Amilitary man is what the country needs. But I shall want a counselor ofyour sort very soon, so you must hold yourself ready to marry me wheneverI shall notify you. '

"My instincts prompted me to ask her what the imperial general might beapt to think about the increase in her matrimonial forces, but I was wiseenough to hold my tongue. When the general should cease to be of use toher, I knew very well that he would not be likely to offer opposition toanything on earth. "

"How glad I am, " ejaculated Mrs. Crowder, "that thee didn't ask anyquestions, and that thee consented to everything the wicked creaturesaid!"

"So am I, " he replied; "and I was glad to get out of that palace, which Inever entered again. From that day I began to grow old as fast as Icould. My hair and beard became very long; I ate but little; I stoopedmore and more each day, and walked with a staff. I began to be veryforgetful when people asked me questions. About a year afterward thequeen saw me. I was in the crowd near the palace, where I had purposelygone that I might be seen. She looked at me, but gave no sign that sherecognized me. The next day an officer came to me, and roughly told methat the empress had no use for dotards in her dominions, and that thesooner I went away the better for me. I afterward heard that the executionof two strangers had been ordered, but that a certain superstition in themind of the empress had prevented this. She had heard, through personswho had met the Nestorians, that people of our country were protected insome strange manner which she did not understand. 

[Illustration: "'AND ROUGHLY TOLD ME. '"]

"Rina and I could not leave China, for I had now no money; but we wentto a distant province, where I lived for more than ten years, passing asa Chinaman. "

"And Rina--poor Rina?" asked Mrs. Crowder. 

"She soon died, " said her husband. "She was in a state of fear nearly allthe time. She could not speak the language, and it may be said that shegave up her life in her pursuit of knowledge. In this respect she was aswonderful a woman as was the Empress Woo. "

"And a thousand times better, " said Mrs. Crowder, earnestly. "And then?"

"Then, " said her husband, "I married a Chinese woman. "

"What!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder, her eyes almost round. 

"Yes, my dear; it was a great deal safer for me to be married, and tobecome as nearly as possible like the people by whom I was surrounded. "

"But thee didn't have several wives, did thee?" asked Mrs. Crowder. 

"Oh, no, " he answered; "I was too poor for anything of that kind to beexpected of me. When an opportunity came to join a caravan and get away, I took my Chinese wife with me, and eventually reached Arabia. There westayed for a long time, for I found it impossible to prosecute myjourneying. Eventually, however, we reached the island of Malta, wheremy wife lived to be over seventy. Travel, hardships, and danger seemedto agree with her. She never spoke any language but her own, and as shewas of a quiet disposition, and took no interest in the things she saw, she generally passed as an imbecile. But she was the first Chinese womanwho ever visited Europe. "

"I guess thee was very sorry thee brought her before thee got throughwith her. I don't approve of that matrimonial alliance at all, " saidMrs. Crowder. 

During this and succeeding evenings of narration, it must not be supposedI sat silent, making no remarks upon what I heard; but, in fact, what Isaid was of hardly any importance, and certainly not worth introducinginto this account of Mr. Crowder's experiences. But the effect of hiswords upon Mrs. Crowder, as shown both by the play of her features and herfrequent questions and exclamations, interested me almost as much as thestatements of my host. I had previously known her as the gentlest, thesweetest, and the most attractive of my female acquaintances; but now Ifound her to be a woman of keen intellect and quick appreciation. Herremarks, which were very frequent, and which I shall not always record, were like seasoning and spice to the narrative of Mr. Crowder. Neverbefore had a wife heard such stories from a husband, and there never couldhave been a woman who would have heard them with such religious faith. Naturally, she showed me a most friendly confidence. The fact that we wereboth the loyal disciples of one master was a bond between us. He was somuch older than either of us, and he regarded us sometimes with whatlooked so much like parental affection, that it would not have beensurprising if persons, not believers as we were, should have entertainedthe idea that, in course of time, he would pass away, and that we twoshould be left to comfort each other as well as we might. But I, who hadheard my friend speak of the coming years, could not forget the picture hehad drawn of two aged and feeble people, looked up to in love andveneration by a fresh and hearty man of fifty-three. 

"Thee never seemed to have any trouble in getting married, " said Mrs. Crowder. "Did thee ever stay an old bachelor any length of time?"

Crowder laughed. Such questions from his wife amused him very much. 

"I was thinking of changing the subject, " said he, "and was about to tellyou something which had not anything to do with wives and marriages. I thought you might be tired of that sort of thing. "

"Not at all, " said she, quickly; "that's just what I want to hear. "

"Very well, " answered he; "I will give you a little instance of one ofmy failures in love-making. 

"It was long before my visit to Empress Woo; in fact, it was about elevenhundred years before Christ, and I was living in Syria, where I wasteaching school in the little town of Timnath. I became very muchinterested in one of the girls of my class. She was a good deal olderthan any of the others; in fact, she was a young woman. She had a brightmind, and was eager to learn, and I naturally became interested in her;and in the course of time she pleased me so much that I determined tomarry her. "

"It seems thee was in the habit of marrying thy scholars, " said Mrs. Crowder. 

"There is nothing very strange in that, " he replied; "a schoolmasterusually becomes very well acquainted with some of his scholars, and if agirl pleases him very much it is not surprising that he should prefer tomarry her, or, at least, to try to, than to go out among comparativestrangers to look for a wife. "

"If I had been in thy place, " said Mrs. Crowder, reflectively, "sometimesI would have enjoyed a long rest of bachelordom; it would have been avariety. "

"Oh, I have had variety of that kind, " said he. "For many succeedingdecades I have been widower, or bachelor, whichever you choose to callit. 

"As I was saying, this girl pleased me very much. She was good-looking, bright, and witty, and her dark, flashing eyes won her a great deal ofattention from the young men of the place; but she would not haveanything to do with them. They could not boast much in regard tointelligence or education, nor were any of them in very goodcircumstances; and so, in spite of my years, she seemed to take verykindly to me, and I made up my mind I would marry her the approachingautumn. I had some money, and there was a house with a piece of landfor sale near the town. This I planned to buy, and to settle down asan agriculturist. I was tired of school-teaching. "

"No wonder, " said Mrs. Crowder, "as thee intended to take out of itits principal attraction. "

"We were walking, one evening, over the fields, talking of astronomy, in which she took a great interest, when we saw a man approaching who wasevidently a stranger. He was a fellow of medium height, but he gave theimpression of great size and vigor. As he came nearer, striding over therough places, and paying no attention to paths, I saw that he was verybroad-shouldered, with a heavy body and thick neck. His legs were probablyof average size, but they looked somewhat small in comparison with hisbody and his long arms, which swung by his sides as he walked. He was ayoung man, bushy-bearded, with bright and observant eyes. As he passed us, he looked very hard at my companion, and, I am sorry to say, she turnedher head and gazed steadfastly at him. 

[Illustration: "'SHE TURNED HER HEAD. '"]

"'That's a fine figure of a man, ' she said. 'He looks strong enough foranything. '

"I didn't encourage her admiration. 'He might be made useful on a farm, 'I said; 'if his legs were as big as the rest of him, he could draw a plowas well as an ox. '

"She made no answer to this; but her interest in astronomy seemed todecrease, and she soon proposed that we should turn back to the town. Onthe way we met the stranger again, and this time he stopped and asked ussome questions about the country and the neighborhood. All the time wewere talking he and my scholar were looking at each other, and each ofthem seemed entirely satisfied with the survey. The next day the girl wasvery inattentive at school, and in the afternoon, when I hoped to takea walk with her, I could not find her, and went out by myself. Beforelong I saw her sitting under a tree, talking to the stranger ofyesterday. "

"She was a regular flirt, " said Mrs. Crowder. 

"Apparently she was, " replied her husband; "but although I might haveexcused her, considering how much better suited this stranger was to her, in point of years at least, I was not willing to withdraw and leave herto another, especially as he might be a person entirely unworthy of her. 

"I did not disturb them, but I went back to the town and made someinquiries about the stranger. I found that he was a Danite, and livedwith his parents in Zorah, and that his name was Samson. I also learnedthat his family was possessed of considerable means. 

"It soon became plain that it would not be easy for me to carry out mymarriage plans and settle down among my vines and fig-trees. Samson wenthome, told his parents of his desire to marry this girl, and in thecourse of time they all came down to Timnath and made regular matrimonialpropositions to her parents. "

"Was this the great Samson who tore lions apart and threw down temples?"asked Mrs. Crowder, in amazement. 

"The very man, " was the reply; "and he was the most formidable rival Iever had in that sort of affair. The proper thing for me to do, accordingto the custom of the times, would have been to take him aside, as soonas I found that he was paying attentions to my sweetheart, and fight him;but the more I looked at him and his peculiar proportions, the more I wasconvinced that he was not a man with whom I wanted to fight. "

"I should think not, " said Mrs. Crowder. "How glad I am thee nevertouched him!"

"The result might not have been disastrous to me, " he said; "for althoughI have always avoided military matters as much as possible, I was probablybetter versed in the use of a sword than he was. But I did not care tokill him, and from what I heard of him afterward, I am sure that if he hadever got those long arms around me I should have been a mass of brokenbones. 

"So, taking everything into consideration, I gave up my plan to marrythis girl of Timnath; and I was afterward very glad I did so, for sheproved a tricky creature, and entered into a conspiracy to deceive herhusband, actually weeping before him seven days in order to worm out ofhim the secret of his strength. "

"I suppose thee never met Delilah?" asked Mrs. Crowder. 

"Oh, no, " he answered; "before Samson was married I left that part of theworld, and I did not make the acquaintance of the attractive young personwho was so successful in the grand competition of discovering the sourceof Samson's strength. In fact, it was nearly a hundred years after thatbefore I heard of those great exploits of Samson which have given himsuch widespread fame. "

"I am glad thee never met Delilah, " said Mrs. Crowder, reflectively;"for thee, too, was possessed of a great secret, and she might have gainedit from thee. "

IV

"I think thee was in great danger, " continued Mrs. Crowder, "in thatSamson business. It makes me shudder to think, even now, of what mighthave happened to thee. "

"There was not much danger, " said he; "for all I had to do was towithdraw, and there was an end to the matter. I have often and often beenin greater danger than that. For instance, I was in the army of Xerxes, compelled to enter it simply because I happened to be in Persia. My sympathies were entirely with the Greeks. My age did not protect me atall. Everybody who in any way could be made useful was dragged into thatarmy. It was known that I had a knowledge of engineering and surveying, and I was taken into the army to help build bridges and lay out camps. 

"Here it was that I saw the curious method of counting the soldiers whichwas adopted by the officers of Xerxes's army. As you may have read, tenthousand men were collected on a plain and made to stand close togetherin a mass nearly circular in shape. Then a strong fence, with a wide gateto the west and another to the east, was built around them, and I wasengaged in the constructing and strengthening of this fence. When thefence was finished, the men were ordered to march out of the inclosure, and other soldiers marched in until it was again entirely filled. Thisprocess was repeated until the whole army had been in the inclosure. Thusthey got rid of the labor of counting--measuring the army instead ofenumerating it. But the results were not accurate. I was greatlyinterested in the matter, and on three occasions I stood at the exit gateas the soldiers were coming out, and counted them, and the number neveramounted to ten thousand. One counting showed less than seven thousand, --the men did not pack themselves together as closely as they were packedthe first time, --so I am confident that Xerxes's army was not so large asit was reported to be. 

"I became so much interested in the operations and constitution of thisgreat horde of soldiers, attendants, animals, vehicles, and ships, thatI went about looking at everything and getting all the informationpossible. In these days I would have been a war correspondent, and I didact somewhat in that capacity; for I told Herodotus a great many of thefacts which he put into his history of this great campaign. "

"Thee knew Herodotus?" his wife asked. 

"Oh, yes; I worked with him a long time, and gave him information whichhelped him very much in writing his histories; but it would have been ofgreater advantage to the world if he had adhered more closely to mystatements. I told him what I discovered in regard to the enumeration ofthe army of Xerxes, but he wanted to make that army as big as he could, and he paid little attention to my remonstrances. 

"Herodotus was only four years old when Xerxes invaded Greece, and ofcourse all his knowledge concerning that expedition was second-hand, andby the time he began to write his history of the campaign there were veryfew people living who knew anything personally about it. If he had notbeen a man so entirely wrapped up in his own work he would have wonderedhow any one of my apparent age could give him so much in the way ofpersonal experience; but he seemed to have no suspicions, and, at anyrate, asked no questions, and as I had a great desire that this remarkablehistorical event should be fully recorded, I helped him as much asI could. 

"I had been assisting in the construction of the canal behind Mount Athos, which Xerxes made in order to afford a short cut for his vessels, and asI had frequently climbed into the various portions of the mountain inorder to make surveys of the country below, I had obtained a pretty goodknowledge of the neighborhood; and when disaster after disaster began tohurl themselves upon this unfortunate multitude of invaders, I tookmeasures for my safety. I did not want to go back to Persia, even ifI could go there, which looked very doubtful after the battle of Salamis, and as I had come into the country with the Persians, it might have beenunsafe to show myself with the Greeks; so, remembering what I had seen ofthe wild regions of Mount Athos, I made my way there, with the intentionof dwelling in its rocky fastnesses until the country should become safefor the ordinary wayfarer. As there was no opportunity of teaching schoolon that desolate mountain--"

"And marrying one of thy scholars, " interpolated Mrs. Crowder. 

"--I became a sort of hermit, " he continued; "but I did not spend my timeafter the usual fashion of the conventional hermit, who lives onwater-cresses and reads great books with a skull to keep the pages open. I built myself a rude cabin under a great rock, and lived somewhat afterthe fashion of the other inhabitants of that wild region, mostly robbersand outlaws. As I had nothing which any one would want to steal, I wasnot afraid of them, and I could occasionally be of a little service tothem, especially in the way of rude medical attendance, for which theywere willing to pay me by giving me now and then some food. 

"I had laid in a stock of writing-materials before I went up on themountain, and I now went to work with great enthusiasm to set down whatI knew of the expedition of Xerxes, and here it was that I made the noteswhich were afterward so useful to Herodotus. 

"When the country became quieter I went down into the plains, looked overthe battle-fields, and obtained a great deal of information from thevillagers and country people. I stayed here nearly two years, and had apretty hard time of it; but when I went away I took with me a veryvaluable collection of notes. 

"For many years I made no use of these notes; but being in Halicarnassus, I heard of Herodotus, who was described as a great scholar and traveler, and engaged in writing history. To him I applied without loss of time, andI made a regular engagement, working several hours with him every day. Forthis he paid me weekly a sum equal to about two dollars and seventy-fivecents of our present money; but it was enough to support me, and I wasvery glad to have the opportunity of sending some of my experiences andobservations down into history. It was at this time that the love ofliterary work began to arise within me, and in the next three or fourcenturies after the death of Herodotus I wrote a number of books onvarious subjects and under various names, and some of these, asI mentioned before, were destroyed with the Alexandrian Library. 

"It was in this period that I made the acquaintance of an editor--thefirst editor, in fact, of whom I know anything at all. I was in Rhodes, and there was a learned man there named Andronicus, who was engaged inediting the works of Aristotle. All the manuscripts and books which thatgreat philosopher left behind him had been given to a friend, or trustee, and had passed from this person into the possession of others, so that forabout a hundred years the world knew nothing of them. Then they came intothe hands of Andronicus, who undertook to edit them and get them intoproper shape for publication. I went to Andronicus, and as soon as hefound I was a person qualified for such work, he engaged me as hisassistant editor. I held this position for several years, and two or threeof the books of Aristotle I transcribed entirely with my own hand, properly shaping sentences and paragraphs, and very often making thenecessary divisions. From my experience with Andronicus, I am sure thatnone of the works of Aristotle were given to the world exactly as he wrotethem, for we often found his manuscript copies very rough and disjointedso far as literary construction is concerned, but I will also say that wenever interfered with his philosophical theories or his scientificstatements and deductions. "

"In all that time thee never married?" asked Mrs. Crowder. 

Crowder and I could not help laughing. 

"I did not say so, " said he, "but I will say that, with one exception, I do not remember any interesting matrimonial alliances which occurredduring the period of my literary labors. I married a young woman ofRhodes, and gave her a very considerable establishment, which I was ableto do, for Andronicus paid me much better than Herodotus had done; but shedid not prove a very suitable helpmeet, and I believe she married mesimply because I was in fairly good circumstances. She soon showed thatshe preferred a young man to an elderly student, the greater part of whosetime was occupied with books and manuscripts, and we had not been marrieda year when she ran away with a young goldsmith, and disappeared fromRhodes, as I discovered, on a vessel bound for Rome. I resigned myselfto my loss, and did not even try to obtain news of her. I was too muchengrossed in my work to be interested in a runaway wife. 

"It was a little more than half a century after this that I was in Romeand sitting on the steps of one of the public buildings in the Forum. I was waiting to meet some one with whom I had business, and while I satthere an old woman stopped in front of me. She was evidently poor, andwretchedly dressed; her scanty hair was gray, and her face was wrinkledand shrunken. I thought, of course, she was a beggar, and was about togive her something, when she clasped her hands in front of her andexclaimed, 'How like! How like! How like!' 'Like whom?' said I. 'What areyou talking about?' 'Like your father, ' she said, 'like your father! Youare so like him, you resemble him so much in form and feature, in the wayyou sit, in everything, that you must be his son!' 'I have no doubt I ammy father's son, ' said I, 'and what do you know about him?' 'I marriedhim, ' she said. 'For nearly a year I was his wife, and then I foolishlyran away and left him. What became of him I know not, nor how long helived, but he was a great deal older than I was, and must have passed awaymany years ago. But thou art his image. He had the same ruddy face, thesame short white hair, the same broad shoulders, the same way of crossinghis legs as he sat. He must have married soon after I left him. Tell me, whom did he marry? What was thy mother's name?' I gave her the name of myreal mother, and she shook her head. 'I never heard of her, ' she said. 'Did thy father ever speak of me, a wife who ran away from him?' 'Yes; hehas spoken of you--that is, if you are Zalia, the daughter of anoil-merchant of Rhodes?'

[Illustration: "'HOW LIKE!'"]

"'I am that woman, ' she exclaimed, 'I am that woman! And did he mourn myloss?'

"'Not much, I think, not much. ' Then I became a little nervous, for ifthis old woman talked to me much longer I was afraid, in spite of thefact that I was an elderly man when she was a girl, that she would becomeconvinced that I could not be the son of the man who had once been herhusband, but must be that man himself. So I hastily excused myself on theplea of business, and after having given her some money I left her. "

"And did thee never see her again?" his wife asked, almost with tears inher eyes. 

"No, I never saw her again, " said Mr. Crowder; "I was careful not to dothat: but I did not neglect her; I caused good care to be taken of heruntil she died. "

There was a slight pause here, and then Mrs. Crowder said:

"Thee has known a great deal of poverty; in nearly all thy stories thee isa poor man. "

"There is good reason for that, " said Mr. Crowder; "poor people frequentlyhave more adventures, at least more interesting ones, than those who arein easy circumstances. Possession of money is apt to make life smootherand more commonplace; so, in selecting the most interesting events of mycareer to tell you, I naturally describe periods of comparativepoverty--and there were some periods in which I was in actual want of thenecessaries of life. 

"But you must not suppose that I have always been poor. I have had myperiods of wealth, but, as I explained to you before, it was verydifficult, on account of the frequent necessity of changing my place ofresidence, as well as my identity, to carry over my property from one setof conditions to another. However, I have often been able to do this, andat one time I was in comfortable circumstances for nearly two hundredyears. But generally, when I found myself obliged to leave a place whereI had been living, for fear of suspicion concerning my age, I had toleave everything behind me. 

"I will tell you a little story about one of my attempts, to provide forthe future. It was toward the end of the fifteenth century, about the timethat Columbus set out on his first voyage of discovery, --and you would besurprised, considering the important results of his voyage, to know howlittle sensation it caused in Europe, --that I devised a scheme by whichI thought I might establish for myself a permanent fortune. I was thenliving in Genoa, and was carrying on the same business in which I am nowengaged. I was a broker, a dealer in money and commercial paper. I wasprosperous and well able to carry out the plan I had formed. This planwas a simple one. I would purchase jewels, things easily carried about orconcealed, and which would be valuable in any country or any age; and withthis idea in my mind I spent many years in collecting valuable stones andjewels, confining myself generally to rings, for I wished to make the bulkof my treasures very small when compared with their value. 

"About the middle of the sixteenth century I went to Rome, and took myjewels with me. They were then a wonderfully fine collection of gems, someof them of great antiquity and value; for, in gradually gathering themtogether, the enthusiasm of the collector had possessed me, and I oftentraveled far to possess myself of a valuable jewel of which I had heard. I remained in Rome as long as I dared do so, and then prepared to set outfor Egypt, which I had not visited for a long time, and where I expectedto find interesting though depressing changes. I concluded, naturallyenough, that it would be dangerous for me to take my treasures with me, and I could conceive of no place where it would be better to leave themthan in the Eternal City. Rome was central and comparatively easy ofaccess from any part of the world, and, moreover, was less liable tochanges than any other place; so I determined to leave my treasures inRome, and to put them somewhere where they were not likely to bedisturbed by the march of improvement, by the desolations of war andconquest, or to become lost to me by the action of nature. I decided tobury them in the catacombs. With these ancient excavations I was familiar, and I believed that in their dark and mysterious recesses I could concealmy jewels, and that I could find them again when I wanted them. 

"I procured a small box made of thick bronze, and in this I put all myrings and gems, and with them I inclosed several sheets of parchment, on which I had written, with the fine ink the monks used in engrossingtheir manuscripts, a detailed description, and frequently a history, ofevery one of these valuable objects. Having securely fastened up the box, I concealed it in my clothing and then made my way to the catacombs. 

"It was a dark and rainy evening, and as the entrances to the catacombswere not guarded in those days, it was not difficult for me to make myway unseen into their interior. I had brought with me a tinder-box andseveral rushlights, and as soon as I felt secure from observation fromthe outside I struck a light and began my operations. Then, according toa plan I had previously made, I slowly walked along the solemn passagewaywhich I had entered. 

"My plan of procedure was a very simple one, and I had purposely made itso in order that it might be more easily remembered. I was well acquaintedwith the position of the opening by which I had entered. For several daysI had studied carefully its relation to other points in the surroundingcountry. Starting from this opening, my plan was to proceed inward throughthe long corridor until I came to a transverse passage; to pass this untilI reached another; to pass this also, and to go on until I came to athird; then I would turn to my left and proceed until I had passed twoother transverse passages and reached a third; then I would again turnto my left and count the open tombs on my left hand. When I reached thethird tomb I would stop. Thus there would be a series of three threes, and it was scarcely possible that I could forget that. 

"At this period a great many of the tombs were open, having been despoiledeven of the few bones they contained. The opening at which I stopped wasquite a large one, and when I put my light inside I found it was entirelyempty. 

"Lighting another rush-candle, I stuck it in the bottom of the tomb, whichwas about four feet above the floor of the passage, and drawing my largedagger, I proceeded to dig a hole in the left-hand corner nearest thefront. The earth was dry and free from stones, and I soon made a hole twofeet deep, at the bottom of which I placed my box. Then I covered it up, pressing the earth firmly down into the hole. When this was entirelyfilled, I smoothed away the rest of the earth I had taken out, and afterI finished my work, the floor of the tomb did not look as if it had beendisturbed. Then I went away, reached the passage three tombs from me, turned to the right, went on until I reached the third transverse passage, then went on until I came to the entrance. It was raining heavily, butI was glad to get out into the storm. "

[Illustration: "'I PROCEEDED TO DIG A HOLE. '"]

"Now, please hurry on, " said Mrs. Crowder. "When did thee get them again?"

"A great many things happened in Egypt, " said Mr. Crowder, "some pleasantand some unpleasant, and they kept me there a long time. After that I wentto Constantinople, and subsequently resided in Greece and in Venice. I lived very comfortably during the greater part of this period, andtherefore there was no particular reason why I should go after my jewels. So it happened that, for one cause or another, I did not go back to Romeuntil early in the nineteenth century, and I need not assure you thatalmost the first place I visited was the catacombs. 

"After three hundred years of absence I found the entrance, but if I hadnot so well noted its position in relation to certain ruins and naturalobjects I should not have recognized it. It was not now a wide openingthrough which a man might walk; it was a little hole scarcely big enoughfor a fox to crawl through; in fact, I do not believe there would havebeen any opening there at all if it had not been for the small animalsliving in the catacombs, which had maintained this opening for the purposeof going in and out. It was broad daylight when I found this entrance. Ofcourse I did not attempt to do anything then, but in the night, when therewas no moon, I came with a spade. I enlarged the hole, crawled through, and after a time found myself in a passageway, which was unobstructed. "

"Now, hurry on, " said Mrs. Crowder. 

"I brought no rushlights with me this time, " said Mr. Crowder. "I had agood lantern, and I walked steadily on until I came to the thirdtransverse passage; I turned to the left, counted three more passages;I turned to the left, I walked on slowly, I examined the left-hand wall, and apparently there were no open tombs. This startled me, but I soonfound that I had been mistaken. I saw some tombs which were not open, butwhich had been opened and were now nearly filled with the dust of ages. I stopped before the first of these; then I went on and clearly made outthe position of another; then I came to the third: that was really open, although the aperture was much smaller than it had been. It did not lookas I remembered it, but without hesitation I took a trowel which I hadbrought with me, and began to dig in the nearest left-hand corner. 

"I dug and I dug until I had gone down more than two feet; then I dug onand on until, standing in the passage as I was, I could not reach down anydeeper into the hole I had made. So I crawled into the tomb, crouched downon my breast, and dug down and down as far as I could reach. 

"Then, " said Mr. Crowder, looking at us as he spoke, "I found the box. "

A great sigh of relief came from Mrs. Crowder. 

"I was so afraid, " said she--"I was so afraid it had sunk out of reach. "

"No, " said he; "its weight had probably made it settle down, and then thedust of ages, as I remarked before, had accumulated over it. That sortof thing is going on in Rome all the time. But I found my box, and, afterhours and hours of wandering, I got out of the catacombs. "

"How was that?" we both asked. 

"I was so excited at the recovery of my treasures after the lapse of threecenturies that when I turned into the first passage I forgot to countthose which crossed it, and my mind became so thoroughly mixed up inregard to this labyrinth that I don't know when I would have found my wayout if I had not heard a little animal--I don't know what it was--scurrying away in front of me. I followed it, and eventually saw alittle speck of light. That proved to be the hole through which I had comein. "

"What did thee do with the jewels?" asked Mrs. Crowder. 

Her husband looked at his watch, and then held it with the face towardher. 

She gave a cry of surprise, and we all went up-stairs to bed. 

V

"Now, my dear, " said Mrs. Crowder, the moment we had finished dinner on thenext evening, "I want thee to tell us immediately what thee did with thejewels. I have been thinking about that all day; and I believe, if I hadbeen with thee, I could have given thee some good advice, so that themoney thee received for these treasures would have lasted thee a longtime. "

"I have thought on that subject many times, " said Mr. Crowder, "not onlyin regard to this case, but others, and have formed hundreds of plans forcarrying my possessions into another set of social conditions; but thefact of being obliged to change my identity always made it impossiblefor me to avail myself of the advantages of commercial paper, legal deeds, and all titles to property. "

"Thee might have put thy wealth into solid gold--great bars and lumps. Those would be available in any country and in any age, and theywouldn't have had anything to do with thy identity, " said his wife. 

"It was always difficult for me to carry about or even conceal such goldentreasures, but I have sometimes done it. However, as you are in such ahurry to hear about the jewels, I will let all other subjects drop. WhenI reached my lodgings in Rome, I opened the box, and found everythingperfect; the writing on the sheets of parchment was still black andperfectly legible, and the jewels looked just as they did when I put theminto the box. "

"I cannot imagine, " interrupted Mrs. Crowder, "how thee remembered whatthey looked like after the lapse of three hundred years. "

Mr. Crowder smiled. "You forget, " he said, "that since I first reachedthe age of fifty-three there has been no radical change in me, physical or mental. My memory is just as good now as it was when I reachedmy fifty-third birthday, in the days of Abraham. It is impossible for meto forget anything of importance, and I remembered perfectly theappearance of those gems. But my knowledge of such things had been greatlyimproved by time and experience, and after I had spent an hour or twolooking over my treasures, I felt sure that they were far more valuablethan they were when they came into my possession. In fact, it was aremarkable collection of precious stones, considering it in regard to itshistoric as well as its intrinsic value. 

"I shall not attempt to describe my various plans for disposing of mytreasures; but I soon found that it would not be wise for me to try tosell them in Rome. I had picked out one of the least valuable engravedstones, and had taken it to a lapidary, who readily bought it at hisown valuation, and paid me with great promptness; but after he had securedit he asked me so many questions about it, particularly how I had comeinto possession of it, that I was very sure that he had made a wonderfulbargain, and was also convinced that it would not do for me to take anymore of my gems to him. Those Roman experts knew too much about antiquejewels. 

"I went to Naples, where I had a similar experience. Then I found it wouldbe well for me, if I did not wish to be arrested as a thief who had robbeda museum, to endeavor to sell my collection as a whole in some othercountry. As a professional dealer in gems from a foreign land I would beless liable to suspicion than if I endeavored to peddle my jewels one at atime. So I determined to go to Madrid and try to sell my collection there. 

"When I reached Spain I found the country in a great turmoil. This was in1808, when Napoleon was on the point of invading Spain; but aspoliticians, statesmen, and military men were not in the habit of buyingancient gems, I still hoped that I might be able to transact the businesswhich had brought me to the country. My collection would be as valuable toa museum then as at any time; for it was not supposed that the French werecoming into the country to ravage and destroy the great institutions oflearning and art. I made acquaintances in Madrid, and before long I had anopportunity of exhibiting my collection to a well-known dealer andconnoisseur, who was well acquainted with the officers of the RoyalMuseum. I thought it would be well to sell them through his agency, eventhough I paid him a high commission. 

"If I should say that this man was astounded as well as delighted when hesaw my collection, I should be using very feeble expressions; for, carriedaway by his enthusiasm, he did not hesitate to say to me that it was themost valuable collection he had ever seen. Even if the stones had beenworthless in themselves, their historic value was very great. Of course hewanted to know where I had obtained these treasures, and I informed himtruthfully that I had traveled far and wide in order to gather themtogether. I told him the history of many of them, but entirely omittedmentioning anything which would give a clue to the times and periods whenI had come into possession of them. 

"This dealer undertook the sale of my jewels. We arranged them in ahandsome box lined with velvet and divided into compartments, and I madea catalogue of them, copied from my ancient parchments--which would haveruined me had I inadvertently allowed them to be seen. He put himself intocommunication with the officers of the museum, and I left the matterentirely in his hands. 

"In less than a week I became aware that I was an object of suspicion. I called on the dealer, but he was not to be seen. I found that I wasshadowed by officers of the law. I wrote to the dealer, but received noanswer. One evening, when I returned to my lodgings, I found that they hadbeen thoroughly searched. I became alarmed, and the conviction forceditself upon me that the sooner I should escape from Madrid, the better forme. "

"What!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder, "and leave thy jewels behind? Theecertainly did not do that!"

"Ah, my dear, " replied her husband, "you do not comprehend the situation. It was very plain that the authorities of the museum did not believe thata private individual, a stranger, was likely to be the legitimate owner ofthese treasures. Had my case been an ordinary one I should have courtedinvestigation; but how could I prove that I had been an honest man threehundred years before? A legal examination, not so much on account of thejewels, but because of the necessary assertion of my age, would have beena terrible ordeal. 

"I hurried to the dealer's shop, but found it closed. Inquiring of a womanin a neighboring door-step, I was informed that the dealer had beenarrested. I asked no more. I did not return to my lodgings, and that nightI left Madrid. "

I could not repress an exclamation of distress, and Mrs. Crowder cried:"Did thee really go away and leave thy jewels? Such a thing is toodreadful to think of. But perhaps thee got them again?"

"No, " said Mr. Crowder; "I never saw them again, nor ever heard of them. But now that it is impossible for any one to be living who might recognizeme, I hope to go to Madrid and see those gems. I have no doubt that theyare in the museum. "

"And I, " exclaimed Mrs. Crowder--"I shall go with thee; I shall see them. "

"Indeed you shall, " said her husband, taking her affectionately by thehand. And then he turned to me. "You may think, " said he, "that I was tootimid, that I was too ready to run away from danger; but it is hard forany one but myself readily to appreciate my horror of a sentence toimprisonment or convict labor for life. "

"Oh, horrible!" said his wife, with tears in her eyes. "Then thee wouldhave despaired indeed. "

"No, " said he; "I should not even have had that consolation. Despair is awelcome to death. A man who cannot die cannot truly despair. But do notlet us talk upon such a melancholy subject. "

"No, no, " cried Mrs. Crowder; "I am glad thee left those wretched jewelsbehind thee. And thee got away safely?"

"Oh, yes; I had some money left. I traveled by night and concealed myselfby day, and so got out of Spain. Soon after I crossed the Pyrenees I foundmyself penniless, and was obliged to work my way. "

"Poverty again!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder. "It is dreadful to hear so muchof it. If thee could only have carried away with thee one of thy diamonds, thee might have cracked it up into little pieces, and thee might have soldthese, one at a time, without suspicion. "

"I never thought of being a vender of broken diamonds, and there isnothing suspicious about honest labor. The object of my present endeavorswas to reach England, and I journeyed northward. It was nearly a monthafter I had entered France that I was at a little village on the Garonne, repairing a stone wall which divided a field from the road, and I assureyou I was very glad to get this job. 

"It was here that I heard of the near approach of Napoleon's army on itsmarch into Spain; that the news was true was quickly proved, for very soonafter I had begun my work on the wall the country to the north seemed tobe filled with cavalry, infantry, artillery, baggage-wagons, andeverything that pertained to an army. About noon there was a general halt, and in the field the wall of which I was repairing a body of officers madea temporary encampment. 

"I paid as little apparent attention as possible to what was going onaround me, but proceeded steadily with my work, although I assure youI had my eyes wide open all the time. I was thinking of stopping work inorder to eat my dinner, which I had with me, when a party of officersapproached me on their way to a little hill in the field. One of themstopped and spoke to me, and as he did so the others halted and stoodtogether a little way off. The moment I looked at the person whoaddressed me I knew him. It was Napoleon Bonaparte. "

"Then thee has seen the great Napoleon, " almost whispered Mrs. Crowder. 

"And very much disappointed I was when I beheld him, " remarked herhusband. "I had seen portraits of him, I had read and heard of his greatachievements, and I had pictured to myself a hero. Perhaps my experienceshould have taught me that heroes seldom look like heroes, but for allthat I had had my ideal, and in appearance this man fell below it. Hisface was of an olive color which was unequally distributed over hisfeatures; he was inclined to be pudgy, and his clothes did not appear tofit him; but for all that he had the air of a man who with piercing eyessaw his way before him and did not flinch from taking it, rough as itmight be. 'You seem an old man for such work, ' said he, 'but if you arestrong enough to lift those stones why are you not in the army?' As hespoke I noticed that he had not the intonation of a true Frenchman. Hehad the accent of the foreigner that he was. 

[Illustration: "'WHY ARE YOU NOT IN THE ARMY?'"]

"'Sire, ' said I, 'I am too old for the army, but in spite of my age I mustearn my bread. ' I may state here that my hair and beard had been growingsince I left Madrid. For a moment the emperor regarded me in silence. 'Areyou a Frenchman?' said he. 'You speak too well for a stone-mason, and, moreover, your speech is that of a foreigner who has studied French. ' Itwas odd that each of us should have remarked the accent of the other, butI was not amused at this; I was becoming very nervous. 'Sire, ' saidI, 'I come from Italy. ' 'Were you born there?' asked he. My nervousnessincreased. This man was too keen a questioner. 'Sire, ' I replied, 'I wasborn in the country southeast of Rome. ' This was true enough, but it was along way southeast. 'Do you speak Spanish?' he abruptly asked. 

"At this question my blood ran cold. I had had enough of speaking Spanish. I was trying to get away from Spain and everything that belonged to thatcountry; but I thought it safest to speak the truth, and I answered thatI understood the language. The emperor now beckoned to one of hisofficers, and ordered him to talk with me in Spanish. I had been in Spainin the early part of the preceding century, and I had there learned tospeak the pure Castilian tongue, so that when the officer talked with meI could see that he was surprised, and presently he told the emperor thathe had never heard any one who spoke such excellent Spanish. The emperorfixed his eyes upon me. 'You must have traveled a great deal, ' he said. 'You should not be wasting your time with stones and mortar. ' Then, turning to the officer who had spoken to me, he said, 'He understandsSpanish so well that we may make him useful. ' He was about to address meagain, but was interrupted by the arrival of an orderly with a despatch. This he read hastily, and walked toward the officers who were waiting forhim; but before he left me he ordered me to report myself at his tent, which was not far off in the field. He then walked away, evidentlydiscussing the despatch, which he still held open in his hand. 

"Now I was again plunged into the deepest apprehension and fear. I did notwant to go back to Spain, not knowing what might happen to me there. Everyevil thing was possible. I might be recognized, and the emperor might notcare to shield any one claimed by the law as an escaped thief. In aninstant I saw all sorts of dreadful possibilities. I determined to takeno chances. The moment the emperor's back was turned upon me I got overthe broken part of the wall and, interfered with by no one, passed quietlyalong the road to the house of the man who had employed me to do hismason-work, and seeing no one there, --for every window and door wastightly closed, --I walked into the yard and went to the well, which wasconcealed from the road by some shrubbery. I looked quickly about, andperceiving that I was not in sight of any one, I got into the well andwent down to the bottom, assisting my descent by the well-rope. The waterwas about five feet deep, and when I first entered it, it chilled me; butnothing could chill me so much as the thought that I might be taken backinto Spain, no matter by whom or for what. I must admit that I was doingthen, and often had done, that which seemed very much like cowardice; butpeople who can die cannot understand the fear which may come upon a personwho has not that refuge from misfortune. 

"For the rest of the day I remained in the well, and when people came todraw water--and this happened many times in the course of the afternoon--I crouched down as much as I could; but at such times I would have beenconcealed by the descending bucket, even if any one had chosen to lookdown the well. This bucket was a heavy one with iron hoops, and I had agreat deal of trouble sometimes to shield my head from it. "

"I should think thee would have taken thy death of cold, " said Mrs. Crowder, "staying in that cold well the whole afternoon. "

"No, " said her husband, with a smile; "I was not afraid of that. IfI should have taken cold I knew it would not be fatal, and although thewater chilled me at first, I became used to it. An hour or two afternightfall I clambered up the well-rope, --and it was not an easy thing, foralthough not stout, I am a heavy man, --and I got away over the fields withall the rapidity possible. I did not look back to see if the army werestill on the road, nor did I ever know whether I had been searched for orhad been forgotten. 

"I shall not describe the rest of my journey. There is nothing remarkableabout it except that it was beset with many hardships. I made my way intoSwitzerland and so on down the Rhine, and it was nearly seven months afterI left Madrid before I reached England. 

"I remained many years in Great Britain, living here and there, and wasgreatly interested in the changes and improvements I saw around me. Youcan easily understand this when I tell you it was in 1512, twenty yearsafter the discovery of America, that I had last been in England. I do notbelieve that in any other part of the world the changes in three hundredyears could have been more marked and impressive. 

"I had never visited Ireland, and as I had a great desire to see thatcountry, I made my way there as soon as possible, and after visiting themost noted spots of the island I settled down to work as a gardener. "

"Always poor, " ejaculated Mrs. Crowder, with a sigh. 

"No, not always, " answered her husband. "But wandering sight-seers cannotbe expected to make much money. At this time I was very glad indeed tocease from roving and enjoy the comforts of a home, even though it were ahumble one. The family with whom I took service was that of MariaEdgeworth, who lived with her father in Edgeworthstown. "

"What!" cried Mrs. Crowder, "'Lazy Lawrence, ' 'Simple Susan, ' and all therest of them? Was it that Miss Edgeworth?"

"Certainly, " said he; "there never was but one Maria Edgeworth, and Idon't think there ever will be another. I soon became very well acquaintedwith Miss Edgeworth. Her father was a studious man and a magistrate. Hepaid very little attention to the house and garden, the latter of whichwas almost entirely under the charge of his daughter Maria. She used tocome out among the flower-beds and talk to me, and as my varied experienceenabled me to tell her a great deal about fruits, flowers, and vegetables, she became more and more interested in what I had to tell her. She was aplain, sensible woman, anxious for information, and she lived in a veryquiet neighborhood where she did not often have opportunities of meetingpersons of intelligence and information. But when she found out thatI could tell her so many things, not only about plants but about thecountries where I had known them, she would sometimes spend an hour or twowith me, taking notes of what I said. 

"During the time that I was her gardener she wrote the story of 'TheLittle Merchants, ' and as she did not know very much about Italy andNaples, I gave her most of the points for that highly moral story. Shetold me, in fact, that she did not believe she could have written it hadit not been for my assistance. She thought well to begin the story bygiving some explanatory 'Extracts from a Traveler's Journal' relativeto Italian customs, but afterward she depended entirely on me for allpoints concerning distinctive national characteristics and the generalItalian atmosphere. As she became aware that I was an educated man andhad traveled in many countries, she was curious about my antecedents, butof course my remarks in that direction were very guarded. 

"One day, as she was standing looking at me as I was pruning a rose-bush, she made a remark which startled me. I perfectly remember her words. 'Itseems to me, ' she said, 'that one who is so constantly engaged inobserving and encouraging the growth and development of plants shouldhimself grow and develop. Roses of one year are generally better thanthose of the year before. Then why is not the gardener better?' To thesewords she immediately added, being a woman of kind impulses, 'But in thecase of a good gardener, such as you are, I've no doubt he does growbetter, year by year. '"

"What was there startling in that little speech?" asked Mrs. Crowder. "I don't think she could have said anything less. "

"I will tell you why I was startled, " said her husband. "Almost those verywords--mark me, almost those very words--had been said to me when I wasworking in the wonderful gardens of Nebuchadnezzar, and he was standing byme watching me prune a rose-bush. That Maria Edgeworth and the greatNebuchadnezzar should have said the same thing to me was enough to startleme. "

To this astounding statement Mrs. Crowder and I listened with wide-openeyes. 

"Yes, " said Mr. Crowder; "you may think it amazing that a very ordinaryremark should connect 'The Parents' Assistant' with the city of Babylon, but so it was. In the course of my life I have noticed coincidences quiteas strange. 

"I spent many years in the city of Babylon, but the wonderful HangingGardens interested me more than anything else the great city contained. Atthe time of which I have just spoken I was one of Nebuchadnezzar'sgardeners, but not in the humble position which I afterward filled inIreland. I had under my orders fifteen slaves, and my principal duty wasto direct the labors of these poor men. These charming gardens, restingupon arches high above the surface of the ground, watered by means ofpipes from the river Euphrates, and filled with the choicest flowers, shrubs, and plants known to the civilization of the time, were aceaseless source of delight to me. Often, when I had finished the dailywork assigned to me and my men, I would wander over other parts of thegarden and enjoy its rare beauties. 

"I frequently met Nebuchadnezzar, who for the time enjoyed his gardensalmost as much as I did. When relieved from the cares of state and hisambitious plans, and while walking in the winding paths among sparklingfountains and the fragrant flowerbeds, he seemed like a very ordinary man, quiet and reflective, with very good ideas concerning nature andarchitecture. The latter I learned from his frequent remarks to me. I suppose it was because I appeared to be so much older and moreexperienced than most of those who composed his little army of gardenersthat he often addressed me, asking questions and making suggestions; andit was one afternoon, standing by me as I was at work in a rose-bed, thathe said the words which were spoken to me about twenty-four centuriesafterward by Maria Edgeworth. Now, wasn't that enough to startle a man?"

[Illustration: NEBUCHADNEZZAR AND THE GARDENER. ]

"Startle!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder, "I should have screamed. I should havethought that some one had come from the dead to speak to me. But I supposethere was nothing about Maria Edgeworth which reminded thee ofNebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. "

"Yes, there was, " replied her husband: "there was the same meditativeexpression of the eyes; the same reflective mood as each one began tospeak, as if he and she were merely thinking aloud; the same quick, kindreference to me, as if the speaker feared that my feelings might have beenhurt by a presumption that I myself had not developed and improved. 

"I had good reason to remember those words of Nebuchadnezzar, for theywere the last I ever heard him speak. A few days afterward I was informedby the chief gardener that the king was about to make a journey across themountains into Media, and that he intended to establish there what wouldnow be called an experimental garden of horticulture, which was to bedevoted to growing and improving certain ornamental trees which did notflourish in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. His expedition was not to beundertaken entirely for this purpose, but he was a man who did a greatmany things at once, and the establishment of these experimental groundswas only one of the objects of his journey. 

"The chief gardener then went on to say that the king had spoken to himabout me and had said that he would take me with him and perhaps put me incharge of the new gardens. 

"This mark of royal favor did not please me at all. I had hoped that Imight ultimately become the chief of the Babylonian gardens, and thiswould have suited me admirably. It was a position of profit and somehonor, and when I thought that I had lived long enough in that part of theworld it would have been easy for me to make a journey into thesurrounding country on some errand connected with the business of thegardens, and then quietly to disappear? But if I were to be taken intoMedia it might not be easy for me to get away. Therefore I did not waitto see Nebuchadnezzar again and receive embarrassing royal commands, butI went to my home that night, and returned no more to the wonderfulHanging Gardens of Babylon. "

"I think thee was a great deal better off in the gardens of MariaEdgeworth, " said Mrs. Crowder, "for there thee could come and go as theepleased, and it almost makes my flesh creep when I think of thee livingin company with the bloody tyrants of the past. And always in poverty andsuffering, as if thee had been one of the common people, and not thesuperior of every man around thee! I don't want to hear anything moreabout the wicked Nebuchadnezzar. How long did thee stay with MariaEdgeworth?"

"About four years, " he replied; "and I might have remained much longer, for in that quiet life the advance of one's years was not likely to benoticed. I am sure Miss Edgeworth looked no older to me when I left herthan when I first saw her. But she was obliged to go into England tonurse her sick stepmother, and after her departure the place had noattractions for me, and I left Ireland. "

"I wonder, " said Mrs. Crowder, a little maliciously, "that thee did notmarry her. "

Her husband laughed. 

"Englishwomen of her rank in society do not marry their gardeners, and, besides, in any case, she would not have suited me for a wife. For onereason, she was too homely. "

"Oh, " exclaimed Mrs. Crowder, and she might have said more, but herhusband did not give her a chance. 

"I know I have talked a great deal about my days of poverty and misery, and now I will tell you something different. For a time I was the ruler ofall the Russias. "

"Ruler!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder and I, almost in the same breath. 

"Yes, " said he, "absolute ruler. And this was the way of it:

"I was in Russia in the latter part of the seventeenth century, at a timewhen there was great excitement in royal and political circles. The youngczar Feodor had recently died, and he had named as his successor hishalf-brother Peter, a boy ten years of age, who afterward became Peter theGreat. The late czar's young brother Ivan should have succeeded him, buthe was almost an idiot. In this complicated state of things, thehalf-sister of Peter, the Princess Sophia, a young woman of wonderfulambition and really great abilities, rose to the occasion. She fomented arevolution; there was fighting, with all sorts of cruelties and horrors, and when affairs had quieted down she was princess regent, while the twoboys, Ivan and Peter, were waiting to see what would happen next. 

"She was really a woman admirably adapted to her position. She was welleducated, wrote poetry, and knew how to play her part in public affairs. She presided in the councils, and her authority was without control; butshe was just as bloody-minded and cruel as anybody else in Russia. 

"Now, it so happened when the Princess Sophia was at the height of herpower, that I was her secretary. For five or six years I had been a teacherof languages in Moscow, and at one time I had given lessons to theprincess. In this way she had become well acquainted with me, and havingfrequently called upon me for information of one sort or another, sheconcluded to make me her secretary. Thus I was established at the court ofRussia. I had charge of all Sophia's public papers, and I often had a gooddeal to do with her private correspondence, but she signed and sealed allpapers of importance. 

"The Prince Galitzin, who had been her father's minister and was nowSophia's main supporter in all her autocratic designs and actions, foundhimself obliged to leave Moscow to attend to his private affairs on hisgreat estates, and to be absent for more than a month; and after hisdeparture the princess depended on me more than ever. Like many women inhigh positions, it was absolutely necessary for her to have a man on whomshe could lean with one hand while she directed her affairs with theother. "

"I do not think that is always necessary, " said Mrs. Crowder, "at least, inthese days. "

"Perhaps not, " said her husband, with a smile, "but it was then. But I mustget on with my story. One morning soon after Galitzin's departure, thehorses attached to the royal sledge ran away just outside of Moscow. Theprincess was thrown out upon the hard ground, and badly dislocated herright wrist. By the time she had been taken back to the palace her arm andhand were dreadfully swollen, and it was difficult for her surgeons to doanything for her. 

"I was called into the princess's room just after the three surgeons hadbeen sent to prison. I found her in great trouble, mental as well asphysical, and her principal anxiety was that she was afraid it would be along time before she would be able to use her hand and sign and seal theroyal acts and decrees. She had a certain superstition about this whichgreatly agitated her. If she could not sign and seal, she did not believeshe would be able to rule. Any one who understood the nature of thepolitical factions in Russia well knew that an uprising among the noblesmight occur upon any pretext, and no pretext could be so powerful as thesuspicion of incompetency in the sovereign. The seat of a ruler who didnot rule was extremely uncertain. 

"At that moment a paper of no great importance, which had been sent in toher before she went out in her sledge that morning, was lying on the tablenear her couch, and she was greatly worried because she could not sign it. I assured her she need not trouble herself about it, for I could attend toit. I had often affixed her initials and seal to unimportant papers. 

"The princess did not object to my proposition, but this was not enoughfor her. She had a deep mind, and she quickly concocted a scheme by whichher public business should be attended to, while at the same time itshould not be known that she did not attend to it. She caused it to begiven out that it was her ankle which had been injured, and not her wrist. She sent for another surgeon, and had him locked up in the palace when hewas not attending to her, so that he should tell no tales. Her ladies wereinformed that it would be very well for them to keep silent, and theyunderstood her. Then she arranged with me that all public business shouldbe brought to her; that I should sign and seal in her place, and should beher agent of communication with the court. 

"When this plan had been settled upon, the princess regained something ofher usual good spirits. 'As I never sign my name with my toes, ' she saidto me, 'there is no reason why a sprained ankle should interfere with myroyal functions, and, for the present, you can be my right hand. '

"This was a very fine plan, but it did not work as she expected it would. Her wrist became more and more painful, and fever set in, and on thesecond day, when I called upon her, I found she was in no condition toattend to business. She was irritable and drowsy. 'Don't annoy me withthat paper, ' she said. 'If the wool-dealers ought to have their taxesincreased, increase them. You should not bring these trifles to me; but'--and now she regained for a moment her old acuteness--'remember this:don't let my administration stop. '

"I understood her very well, and when I left her I saw my course plainbefore me. It was absolutely necessary that the exercise of royalfunctions by the Princess Sophia should appear to go on in its usual way;any stoppage would be a signal for a revolution. In order that this planshould be carried out, I must act for the princess regent; I must do whatI thought right, and it must be done in her name, exactly as if she hadordered it. I assumed the responsibilities without hesitation. While itwas supposed I was merely the private secretary of the princess, acting asher agent and mouthpiece, I was in fact the ruler of all the Russias. "

Mrs. Crowder opened her mouth as if she would gasp for breath, but she didnot say anything. 

"You can scarcely imagine, my dear, " said he, "the delight with whichI assumed the powers so suddenly thrust upon me. I set myself to workwithout delay, and, as I knew all about the wool-dealers' business, I issued a royal decree decreasing their taxes. Poor creatures! theywere suffering enough already. "

"Good for thee!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder. 

"I cannot tell you of all the reforms I devised, or even those whichI carried out. I knew that the fever of the princess, aggravated by theinflammation of her dislocated wrist, would continue for some time, andI bent all my energies to the work of doing as much good as I could in thevast empire under my control while I had the opportunity. And it was agreat opportunity, indeed! I did not want to do anything so radical as toarouse the opposition of the court, and therefore I directed my principalefforts to the amelioration of the condition of the people in theprovinces. It would be a long time before word could get back to thecapital of what I had done in those distant regions. By night and by daymy couriers were galloping in every direction, carrying good news to thepeasants of Russia. It was remarked by some of the councilors, when theyspoke of the municipal reforms I instituted, that the princess seemed tobe in a very humane state of mind; but none of them cared to interferewith what they supposed to be the sick-bed workings of her conscience. SoI ruled with a high hand, astonishing the provincial officials, andcausing thousands of downtrodden subjects to begin to believe that perhapsthey were really human beings, with some claim on royal justice andkindness. 

"I fairly reveled in my imperial power, but I never forgot to be prudent. I lessened the duties and slightly increased the pay of the militaryregiments stationed in and about Moscow, and thus the Princess Sophiabecame very popular with the army, and I felt safe. I went in to see theprincess every day, and several times when she was in her right mind sheasked me if everything was going on well, and once when I assured her thatall was progressing quietly and satisfactorily, she actually thanked me. This was a good deal for a Russian princess. If she had known how thepeople were thanking _her_, I do not know what would have happened. 

"For twenty-one days I reigned over Russia. If I had been able to do it, I should have made each day a year; I felt that I was in my proper place. "

"And thee was right, " said Mrs. Crowder, her eyes sparkling. "I believethat at that time thee was the only monarch in the world who was worthy toreign. " And with a loyal pride, as if he had just stepped from a throne, she put her hand upon his arm. 

"Yes, " said Mr. Crowder, "I honestly believe that I was a good monarch, and I will admit that in those days such personages were extremely scarce. So my imperial sway proceeded with no obstruction until I was informedthat Prince Galitzin was hastening to Moscow, on his return from hisestates, and was then within three days' journey of the capital. Now Iprepared to lay down the tremendous power which I had wielded with suchimmense satisfaction to myself, and with such benefit, I do not hesitateto say, to the people of Russia. The effects of my rule are still to beperceived in some of the provinces of Russia, and decrees I made more thantwo hundred years ago are in force in many villages along the eastern sideof the Volga. 

"The day before Prince Galitzin was expected, I visited Sophia for thelast time. She was a great deal better, and much pleased by the expectedarrival of her minister. She even gave me some commands, but when I lefther I did not execute them. I would not have my reign sullied by any ofher mandates. That afternoon, in a royal sledge, with the royalpermission, given by myself, to travel where and how I pleased, I leftMoscow. Frequent relays of horses carried me rapidly beyond danger ofpursuit, and so, in course of time, I passed the boundaries of the empireof Russia, over which for three weeks I had ruled, an absolute autocrat. "

"Does thee know, " said Mrs. Crowder, "that two or three times I expectedthee to say that thee married Sophia?"

Mr. Crowder laughed. "That is truly a wild notion, " said he. 

"I don't think it is wild at all, " she replied. "In the course of thy lifethee has married a great many plain persons. In some ways that princesswould have suited thee as a wife, and if thee had really married her andhad become her royal consort, like Prince Albert, thee might have made agreat change in her. But, after all, it would have been a pity tointerfere with the reign of Peter the Great. "

VI

"And what did thee do after thee got out of Russia?" asked Mrs. Crowder, the next evening. 

Her husband shook his head. "No, no, my dear; we can't go on with myautobiography in that fashion. If I should take up my life step by step, there would not be time enough--" There he stopped, but I am sure we bothunderstood his meaning. There would be plenty of time for him!

"Often and often, " said Mr. Crowder, after a few minutes' silence, "haveI determined to adopt some particular profession, and continue itspractice wherever I might find myself; but in this I did not succeed verywell. Frequently I was a teacher, but not for many consecutive years. Something or other was sure to happen to turn my energies into otherchannels. "

"Such as falling in love with thy scholars, " said his wife. 

"You have a good memory, " he replied. "That sometimes happened; but therewere other reasons which turned me away from the paths of the pedagogue. With my widely extended opportunities, I naturally came to know a gooddeal of medicine and surgery. Frequently I had been a doctor in spite ofmyself, and as far back as the days of the patriarchs I was called uponto render aid to sick and ailing people. 

"In the days when I lived in a cave and gained a reputation as a wise andholy hermit, more people came to me to get relief from bodily ailmentsthan to ask for spiritual counsel. You will remember that I told you thatI was visited at that time by Moses and Joshua. Moses came, I trulybelieve, on account of his desire to become acquainted with the prophet ElKhoudr, of whom he had heard so much; but Joshua wanted to see me for anentirely different reason. The two remained with me for about an hour, andalthough Moses had no belief in me as a prophet, he asked me a great manyquestions, and I am sure that I proved to him that I was a man of a greatdeal of information. He had a keen mind, with a quick perception of themotives of others, and in every way was well adapted to be a leader ofmen. 

"When Moses had gone away to a tent about a mile distant, where heintended to spend the night, Joshua remained, and as soon as his uncle wasout of sight, he told me why he wished to see me. "

"His uncle!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder. 

"Certainly, " said her husband; "Joshua was the son of Nun and of Miriam, and Miriam was the sister of Moses and Aaron. What he now wanted from mewas medical advice. For some time he had been afflicted with rheumatism inhis left leg, which came upon him after exposure to the damp and cold. 

"Now, this was a very important thing to Joshua. He was a great favoritewith Moses, who intended him, as we all know, to be his successor asleader of the people and of the army. Joshua was essentially a soldier;he was quiet, brave, and a good disciplinarian; in fact, he had all thequalities needed for the position he expected to fill: but he was notyoung, and if he should become subject to frequent attacks of rheumatism, it is not likely that Moses, who had very rigid ideas of his duties to hispeople, would be willing to place at their head a man who might at anytime be incapacitated from taking his proper place on the field of battle. So Joshua had never mentioned his ailment to his uncle, hoping that hemight be relieved of it, and having heard that I was skilled in suchmatters, now wished my advice. 

"I soon found that his ailment was a very ordinary one, which might easilybe kept under control, if not cured, and I proceeded at once to applyremedies. I will just mention that in those days remedies were generallyheroic, and I think you will agree with me when I tell you how I treatedJoshua. I first rubbed his aching muscles with fine sand, keeping up afriction until his skin was in a beautiful glow. Then I brought out fromthe back part of my cave, where I kept my medicines, a jar containing aliniment which I had made for such purposes. It was composed of oil, inwhich had been steeped the bruised fruit or pods of a plant very muchresembling the Tabasco pepper-plant. "

"Whoop!" I exclaimed involuntarily. 

"Yes, " said Mr. Crowder, "and Joshua 'whooped' too. But it was a grandliniment, especially when applied upon skin already excited by rubbingwith sand. He jumped at first, but he was a soldier, and he bore theapplication bravely. 

"I saw him again the next day, and he assured me with genuine pleasurethat every trace of the rheumatism had disappeared. I gave him some of myliniment, and also showed him some of the little pepper pods, so that hemight procure them at any time in the future when he should need them. 

"It was more than twenty years after this that I again met Joshua. He wasthen an elderly man, but still a vigorous soldier. He assured me that hehad used my remedy whenever he had felt the least twinges of rheumatism, and that the disease had never interfered with the performance of hismilitary duties. 

"He was much surprised to see that I looked no older than when he had metme before. He was greatly impressed by this, and talked a good deal aboutit. He told me he considered himself under the greatest obligations to mefor what I had done for him, and as he spoke I could see that a hope wasgrowing within him that perhaps I might do something more. He presentlyspoke out boldly, and said to me that as my knowledge of medicine hadenabled me to keep myself from growing old, perhaps I could do the samething for him. Few men had greater need of protecting themselves againstthe advance of old age. His work was not done, and years of bodilystrength were necessary to enable him to finish it. 

"But I could do nothing for Joshua in this respect. I assured him that myapparent exemption from the effects of passing years was perfectlynatural, and was not due to drugs or medicaments. 

"Joshua lived many years after that day, and did a good deal of excellentmilitary work; but his life was not long enough to satisfy him. He fellsick, was obliged to give up his command to his relative Caleb, andfinally died, in his one hundred and twenty-eighth year. "

"Which ought to satisfy him, I should say, " said Mrs. Crowder. 

"I have never yet met a thoroughbred worker, " said Mr. Crowder, "who wassatisfied to stop his work before he had finished it, no matter how old hemight happen to be. But my last meeting with Joshua taught me a lessonwhich in those days had not been sufficiently impressed upon my mind. I became convinced that I must not allow people to think that I could livealong for twenty years or more without growing older, and after thatI gave this matter a great deal more attention than I had yet bestowedupon it. "

"It is a pity, " said Mrs. Crowder, "that thy life should have been marredby such constant anxiety. "

"Yes, " said he; "but this is a suspicious world, and it is dangerous for aman to set himself apart from his fellow-beings, especially if he does itin some unusual fashion which people cannot understand. "

"But I hope now, " said his wife, "that those days of suspicion are entirelypast. "

Now the conversation was getting awkward; it could not be pleasant for anyone of us to talk about what the world of the future might think of Mr. Crowder when it came to know all about him, and, appreciating this, myhost quickly changed the subject. 

"There is a little story I have been wanting to tell you, " said he, addressing his wife, "which I think would interest you. It is a love-storyin which I was concerned. "

"Oh!" said Mrs. Crowder, looking up quickly, "a scholar?"

"No, " he answered; "not this time. Early in the fourteenth century I wasliving at Avignon, in the south of France. At that time I was making myliving by copying law papers. You see, I was down in the world again. "

Mrs. Crowder sighed, but said nothing. 

"One Sunday morning I was in the Church of St. Claire, and, kneeling alittle in front of me, I noticed a lady who did not seem to be paying theproper attention to her devotions. She fidgeted uneasily, and every nowand then she would turn her head a little to the right, and then bring itback quickly and turn it so much in my direction that I could see theprofile of her face. She was a good-looking woman, not very young, andevidently nervous and disturbed. 

"Following the direction of her quick gaze when she again turned to theright, I saw a young man, apparently not twenty-five years of age, anddressed in sober black. He was also kneeling, but his eyes weresteadfastly fixed upon the lady in front of me, and I knew, of course, that it was this continuous gaze which was disturbing her. I felt verymuch disposed to call the attention of a priest to this young man who wasmaking one of the congregation unpleasantly conspicuous by staring at her;but the situation was brought to an end by the lady herself, who suddenlyrose and went out of the church. She had no sooner passed the heavyleathern curtain of the door than the young man got up and went out afterher. Interested in this affair, I also left the church, and in the streetI saw the lady walking rapidly away, with the young man at a respectfuldistance behind her. 

[Illustration: PETRARCH AND LAURA. ]

"I followed on the other side of the street, determined to interfere ifthe youth, so evidently a stranger to the lady, should accost her or annoyher. She walked steadily on, not looking behind her, and doubtless hopingthat she was not followed. As soon as she reached another church sheturned and entered it. Without hesitation the young man went in after her, and then I followed. 

"As before, the lady knelt on the pavement of the church, and the youngman, placing himself not very far from her, immediately began to stare ather. I looked around, but there was no priest near, and then I advancedand knelt not very far from the lady, and between her and her persistentadmirer. It was plain enough that he did not like this, and he movedforward so that he might still get a view of her. Then I also moved so asto obstruct his view. He now fixed his eyes upon me, and I returned hisgaze in such a way as to make him understand that while I was present hewould not be allowed to annoy a lady who evidently wished to have nothingto do with him. Presently he rose and went out. It was evident that he sawthat it was no use for him to continue his reprehensible conduct whileI was present. 

"I do not know how the lady discovered that her unauthorized admirer hadgone away, but she did discover it, and she turned toward me for aninstant and gave me what I supposed was a look of gratitude. 

"I soon left the church, and I had scarcely reached the street whenI found that the lady had followed me. She looked at me as if she wouldlike to speak, and I politely saluted her. 'I thank you, kind sir, ' shesaid, 'for relieving me of the importunities of that young man. For morethan a week he has followed me whenever I go to church, and although hehas never spoken to me, his steady gaze throws me into such an agitationthat I cannot think of my prayers. Do you know who he is, sir?'

"I assured her that I had never seen the youth before that morning, butthat doubtless I could find out all about him. I told her that I wasacquainted with several officers of the law, and that there would be nodifficulty in preventing him from giving her any further annoyance. 'Oh, don't do that!' she said quickly. 'I would not wish to attract attentionto myself in that way. You seem to be a kind and fatherly gentleman. Canyou not speak to the young man himself and tell him who I am, and impressupon his mind how much he is troubling me by his inconsiderate action?'

"As I did not wish to keep her standing in the street, we now walked ontogether, and she briefly gave me the facts of the case. 

"Her name was Mme. De Sade: she had been happily married for two years, and never before had she been annoyed by impertinent attentions from anyone; but in some manner unaccountable to her this young student had beenattracted by her, and had made her the object of his attention whenever hehad had the opportunity. Not only had he annoyed her at church, but twicehe had followed her when she had left her house on business, thus showingthat he had been loitering about in the vicinity. She had not yet spokento her husband in the matter, because she was afraid that some quarrelmight arise. But now that the good angels had caused her to meet with sucha kind-hearted old gentleman as myself, she hoped that I might be able torid her of the young man without making any trouble. Surely this student, who seemed to be a respectable person, would not think of such a thing asfighting me. "

"Thee must have had a very long white beard at that time, " interpolatedMrs. Crowder. 

"Yes, " said her husband; "I was in one of my periods of venerable age. 

"I left Mme. De Sade, promising to do what I could for her, and as shethanked me I could not help wondering why the handsome young student hadmade her the object of his attention. She was a well-shaped, fairlygood-looking woman, with fair skin and large eyes; but she was of a graveand sober cast of countenance, and there was nothing about her whichindicated the least of that piquancy which would be likely to attract theeyes of a youth. She seemed to me to be exactly what she said she was--thequiet and respectable lady of a quiet and respectable household. 

"In the course of the afternoon I discovered the name and residence of theyoung man, with whom I had determined to have an interview. His name wasFrancesco Petrarca, an Italian by birth, and now engaged in pursuing hisstudies in this place. I called upon him at his lodgings, and, fortunately, found him at home. As I had expected, he recognized me atonce as the elderly person who had interfered with him at the church; but, as I did not expect, he greeted me politely, without the least show ofresentment. 

"I took the seat he offered me, and proceeded to deliver a lecture. I laidbefore him the facts of the case, which I supposed he might not know, andurged him, for his own sake, as well as for that of the lady, to cease hisannoying and, I did not hesitate to state, ungentlemanly pursuit of her. 

"He listened to me with respectful attention, and when I had finished heassured me that he knew even more about Mme. De Sade than I did. He wasperfectly aware that she was a religious and highly estimable lady, and hedid not desire to do anything which would give her a moment's sorrow. 'Then stop following her, ' said I, 'and give up that habit of staring ather in such a way as to make her the object of attention to everybodyaround her. ' 'That is asking too much, ' answered Master Petrarca. 'Thatlady has made an impression upon my soul which cannot be removed. My willwould have no power to efface her image from my constant thought. If shedoes not wish me to do so, I shall never speak a word to her; but I mustlook upon her. Even when I sleep her face is present in my dreams. She hasaroused within me the spirit of poetry; my soul will sing in praise of herloveliness, and I cannot prevent it. Let me read to you some lines, ' hesaid, picking up a piece of manuscript which was lying on the table. 'Itis in Italian, but I will translate it for you. ' 'No, ' said I; 'read it asit is written; I understand Italian. ' Then he read the opening lines of asonnet which was written to Laura in the shadow. He read about six linesand then stopped. 

"'It is not finished, ' he said, 'and what I have written does notaltogether satisfy me; but you can judge from what you have heard how itis that I think of that lady, and how impossible it is that I can in anyway banish her from my mind, or willingly from my vision. '

"'How did you come to know that her name is Laura?' I asked. 'I found itout from the records of her marriage, ' he answered. 

"I talked for some time to this young man, but failed to impress him withthe conviction that his conduct was improper and unworthy of him. I foundmeans to inform Mme. De Sade of the result of my conversation withPetrarch, --as we call his name in English, --and she appeared to besatisfied that the young student would soon cease his attentions, althoughI myself saw no reason for such belief. 

"I visited the love-lorn young man several times, for I had becomeinterested in him, and endeavored to make him see how foolish it was--evenif he looked upon it in no other light--to direct his ardent affectionsupon a lady who would never care anything about him, and who, even ifunmarried, was not the sort of woman who was adapted to satisfy the lofty affection which his words and his verses showed him to possess. 

"'There are so many beautiful women, ' said I, 'any one of whom you mightlove, of whom you might sing, and to whom you could indite your verses. She would return your love; she would appreciate your poetry; you wouldmarry her and be happy all your life. '

"He shook his head. 'No, no, no, ' he said. 'You don't understand mynature. 

"'Marriage would mean the cares of a house--food, fuel, the mending ofclothes, a family--all the hard material conditions of life. No, sir! Mylove soars far above all that. If it were possible that Laura should everbe mine I could not love her as I do. She is apart from me; she is aboveme. I worship her, and for her I pour out my soul in song. Listen tothis, ' and he read me some lines of an unfinished sonnet to Laura in thesunlight. 'She was just coming from a shaded street into an open placeI saw her, and this poem came into my heart. '

"About a week after this I was very much surprised to see Petrarch walkingwith his Laura, who was accompanied by her husband. The three were veryamicably conversing. I joined the party, and was made acquainted withM. De Sade, and after that, from time to time, I met them together, sometimes taking a meal with them in the evening. 

"I discovered that Laura's husband looked upon Petrarch very much as anyordinary husband would look upon an artist who wished to paint portraitsof his wife. 

"I lived for more than a year in Avignon with these good people, and I amnot ashamed to say that I never ceased my endeavors to persuade Petrarchto give up his strange and abnormal attentions to a woman who would neverbe anything to him but a vision in the distance, and who would prevent himfrom living a true and natural life with one who would be all his own. Butit was of no use; he went on in his own way, and everybody knows theresults. 

"Now, just think of it, " continued Mr. Crowder. "Suppose I had succeededin my honest efforts to do good; think of what the world would have lost. Suppose I had induced Petrarch not to come back to Avignon after histravels; suppose he had not settled down at Vaucluse, and had not spentthree long years writing sonnets to Laura while she was occupied with thecare of her large family of children; suppose, in a word, that I had beensuccessful in my good work, and that Petrarch had shut his eyes and hisheart to Laura; suppose--"

"I don't choose to suppose anything of the kind, " said Mrs. Crowder. "Theetried to do right, but I am glad thee did not deprive the world of any ofPetrarch's poetry. But now I want thee to tell us something about ancientEgypt, and those wonderfully cultivated people who built pyramids andcarved hieroglyphics. Perhaps thee saw them building the Temple of the Sunat Heliopolis. "

Mr. Crowder shook his head. "That was before my time, " said he. 

This was like an electric shock to both of us. If we had been moreconversant with ancient chronology we might have understood, but we werenot so conversant. 

"Abraham! Isaac! Moses!" ejaculated Mrs. Crowder. "Thee knew them all, andyet Egypt was civilized before thy time! Does thee mean that?"

"Oh, yes, " said Mr. Crowder. "I am of the time of Abraham, and when he wasborn the glories of Egypt were at their height. "

"It is difficult to get these things straight in one's mind, " said Mrs. Crowder. "As thee has lived so long, it seems a pity that thee was notborn sooner. "

"I have often thought that, " said her husband; "but we should all try tobe content with what we have. And now let us skip out of those regions ofthe dusky past. I feel in the humor of telling a love-story, and one hasjust come into my mind. "

"Thee is so fond of that sort of thing, " said his wife, with a smile, "that we will not interfere with thee. "

"In the summer of the year 950, " said Mr. Crowder, "I was traveling, andhad just come over from France into the province of Piedmont, in northernItaly. I was then in fairly easy circumstances, and was engaged in makingsome botanical researches for a little book which I had planned to writeon a medical subject. I will explain to you later how I came to do a greatdeal of that sort of thing. 

"Late upon a warm afternoon I was entering the town of Ivrea, and passinga large stone building, I stopped to examine some leaves on a bush whichgrew by the roadside. While I was doing this, and comparing the shape andsize of the leaves with some drawings I had in a book which I took from mypocket, I heard a voice behind me and apparently above me. Some one wasspeaking to me, and speaking in Latin. I looked around and up, but couldsee no one; but above me, about ten or twelve feet from the ground, therewas a long, narrow slit of a window such as is seen in prisons. AgainI heard the voice, and it said to me distinctly in Latin, 'Are you free togo where you choose?' It was the voice of a woman. 

"As I wished to understand the situation better before I answered, I wentover to the other side of the road, where I could get a better view of thewindow. There I saw behind this narrow opening a part of the face of awoman. This stone edifice was evidently a prison. I approached the window, and standing under it, first looking from side to side to see that no onewas coming along the road, I said in Latin, 'I am free to go whereI choose. '

"Then the voice above said, 'Wait!' but it spoke in Italian this time. Youmay be sure I waited, and in a few minutes a little package dropped fromthe window and fell almost at my feet. I stooped and picked it up. It wasa piece of paper, in which was wrapped a bit of mortar to give it weight. 

"I opened the paper and read, written in a clear and scholarly hand, thesewords: 'I am a most unfortunate prisoner. I believe you are an honest andtrue man, because I saw you studying plants and reading from a book whichyou carry. If you wish to do more good than you ever did before, come tothis prison again after dark. '

"I looked up and said quickly, in Italian, 'I shall be here. ' I was aboutto speak again and ask for some more definite directions, but I heard thesound of voices around a turn in the road, and I thought it better tocontinue my walk into the town. 

"That night, as soon as it was really dark, I was again at the prison. I easily found the window, for I had noted that it was so many paces froma corner of the building; but there was no light in the narrow slit, andalthough I waited some time, I heard no voice. I did not dare to call, forthe prisoner might not be alone, and I might do great mischief. 

"My eyes were accustomed to the darkness, and it was starlight. I walkedalong the side of the building, examining it carefully, and I soon found alittle door in the wall. As I stood for a few moments before this door, itsuddenly opened, and in front of me stood a big soldier. He wore a wide hatand a little sword, and evidently was not surprised to see me. I thought itwell, however, to speak, and I said: 'Could you give a mouthful of supperto a--'

"He did not allow me to finish my sentence, but putting his hand upon myshoulder, said gruffly: 'Come in. Don't you waste your breath talkingabout supper. ' I entered, and the door was closed behind me. I followedthis man through a stone passageway, and he took me to a little stone room. ''Wait here!' he said, and he shut me in. I was in pitch-darkness, and hadno idea what was going to happen next. After a little time I saw a streakof light coming through a keyhole; then an inner door opened, and a youngwoman with a lamp came into the room. "

"Now does the love-story begin?" asked his wife. 

"Not yet, " said Mr. Crowder. "The young woman looked at me, and I lookedat her. She was a pretty girl with black eyes. I did not express myopinion of her, but she was not so reticent. 'You look like a good oldman, ' she said. 'I think you may be trusted. Come!' Her speech wasprovincial, and she was plainly a servant. I followed her. 'Now for themistress, ' said I to myself. "

"Thee may have looked like an old man, " remarked Mrs. Crowder, "but theedid not think like one. "

Her husband laughed. "I mounted some stone steps, and was soon shown intoa room where stood a lady waiting for me. As the light of the lamp carriedby the maid fell upon her face, I thought I had never seen a morebeautiful woman. Her dress, her carriage, and her speech showed her to bea lady of rank. She was very young, scarcely twenty, I thought. 

"This lady immediately began to ask me questions. She had perceived thatI was a stranger, and she wanted to know where I came from, what was mybusiness, and as much as I could tell her of myself. 'I knew you were ascholar, ' she said, 'because of your book, and I believe in scholars. 'Then briefly she told me her story and what she wanted of me. 

"She was the young Queen Adelheid, the widow of King Lothar, who hadrecently died, and she was then suffering a series of harsh persecutionsfrom the present king, Berengar II, who in this way was endeavoring toforce her to marry his son Adalbert. She hated this young man, andpositively refused to have anything to do with him. 

"This charming and royal young widow was bright, intelligent, and had amind of her own; it was easy to see that. She had formed a scheme for herdeliverance, and she had been waiting to find some one to help her carryit out. Now, she thought I was the man she had been looking for. I waselderly, apparently respectable, and she had to trust somebody. 

"This was her scheme. She was well aware that unless some powerful friendinterfered in her behalf she would be obliged to marry Adalbert, or remainin prison for the rest of her life, which would probably be undulyshortened. Therefore she had made up her mind to appeal to the court ofthe Emperor Otto I of Germany, and she wanted me to carry a letter to him. 

"I stood silent, earnestly considering this proposition, and as I did soshe gazed at me as if her whole happiness in this world depended upon mydecision. I was not long in making up my mind on the subject. I told herthat I was willing to help her, and would undertake to carry a letter tothe emperor, and I did not doubt, from what I had heard of this nobleprince, that he would come to her deliverance. But I furthermore assuredher that the moment it became known that the emperor was about tointerfere in her behalf, she would be in a position of great danger, andwould probably disappear from human sight before relief could reach her. In that prison she was utterly helpless, and to appeal for help would beto bring down vengeance upon herself. The first thing to do, therefore, was to escape from this prison, and get to some place where, for a time atleast, she could defend herself against Berengar, while waiting for Ottoto take her under his protection. 

"She saw the force of my remarks, and we discussed the matter for half anhour, and when I left--being warned by the soldier on guard, who was inlove with the queen's black-eyed maid, that it was time for me todepart--it was arranged that I should return the next night and conferwith the fair Adelheid. 

"There were several conferences, and the unfaithful sentinel grumbled agood deal. I cannot speak of all the plans and projects which wediscussed, but at last one of them was carried out. One dark, rainy nightAdelheid changed clothes with her maid, actually deceived the guard--notthe fellow who had admitted me--with a story that she had been sent ingreat haste to get some medicine for her royal mistress, and joined meoutside the prison. 

"There we mounted horses I had in readiness, and rode away from Ivrea. Wewere bound for the castle of Canossa, a strong-hold of considerableimportance, where my royal companion believed she could find refuge, atleast for a time. I cannot tell you of all the adventures we had upon thatdifficult journey. We were pursued; we were almost captured; we met withobstacles of various kinds, which sometimes seemed insurmountable; but atlast we saw the walls of Canossa rising before us, and we were safe. 

"Adelheid was very grateful for what I had done, and as she had nowlearned to place full reliance upon me, she insisted that I should bethe bearer of a letter from her to the Emperor Otto. I should not travelalone, but be accompanied by a sufficient retinue of soldiers andattendants, and should go as her ambassador. 

"The journey was a long and a slow one, but I was rather glad of it, forit gave me an opportunity to ponder over the most ambitious scheme I haveever formed in the whole course of my life. "

"Greater than to be autocrat of all the Russias?" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder. 

"Yes, " he replied. "That opportunity came to me suddenly, and I acceptedit; I did not plan it out and work for it. Besides, it could be only atransitory thing. But what now occupied me was a grand idea, the goodeffects of which, if it should be carried out, might endure for centuries. It was simply this:

"I had become greatly attached to the young queen widow whose cause I hadespoused. I had spent more than a month with her in the castle at Canossa, and there I learned to know her well and to love her. She was, indeed, amost admirable woman and charming in every way. She appeared to place themost implicit trust in me; told me of all her affairs, and asked myopinion about almost everything she proposed to do. In a word, I was inlove with her and wanted to marry her. "

"Thee certainly had lofty notions; but don't think I object, " said Mrs. Crowder. "It is Chinese and Tartars I don't like. "

"It might seem at first sight, " he continued, "that I was aiming above me, but the more I reflected the more firmly I believed that it would be verygood for the lady, as well as for me. In the first place, she had noreason to expect a matrimonial union worthy of her. Adalbert she had everyreason to despise, and there was no one else belonging to the riotousaristocratic factions of Italy who could make her happy or give her asuitable position. In all her native land there was not a prince to whomshe would not have to stoop in order to marry him. 

"But to me she need not stoop. No man on earth possessed a more noblelineage. I was of the house of Shem, a royal priest after the order ofMelchizedek, and King of Salem! No line of imperial ancestry could claimprecedence of that. "

Mrs. Crowder looked with almost reverent awe into the face of her husband. "And that is the blood, " she said, "which flows in the veins of ourchild?"

"Yes, " said he; "that is the blood. "

After a slight pause Mr. Crowder continued: "I will now go on with my taleof ambition. A grand career would open before me. I would lay all my plansand hopes before the Emperor Otto, who would naturally be inclined toassist the unfortunate widow; but he would be still more willingto do so when I told him of the future which might await her if my plansshould be carried out. As he was then engaged in working with a nobleambition for the benefit of his own dominions, he would doubtless bewilling to do something for the good of lands beyond his boundaries. Itought not to be difficult to convince him that there could be no wiser, nonobler way of championing the cause of Adelheid than by enabling me toperform the work I had planned. 

"All that would be necessary for him to do would be to furnish me with amoderate military force. With this I would march to Canossa; there I wouldespouse Adelheid; then I would proceed to Ivrea, would dethrone the wickedBerengar, would proclaim Adelheid queen in his place, with myself as kingconsort; then, with the assistance and backing of the imperial German, I would no doubt soon be able to maintain my royal pretensions. Onceself-supporting, and relying upon our Italian subjects for our army andfinances, I would boldly re-establish the great kingdom of Lombardy, towhich Charlemagne had put an end nearly two hundred years before. Thenwould begin a grand system of reforms and national progress. 

"Pavia should be my capital, but the beneficent influence of my ruleshould move southward. I would make an alliance with the Pope; I wouldcrush and destroy the factions which were shaking the foundations ofchurch and state; I would still further extend my power--I would becomethe imperial ruler of Italy, with Adelheid as my queen!

"Over and over again I worked out and arranged this grand scheme, and whenI reached the court of the Emperor Otto it was all as plain in my mind asif it had been copied on parchment. 

"I was very well received by the emperor, and he read with great interestand concern the letter I had brought him. He gave me several privateaudiences, and asked me many questions about the fair young widow who hadmet with so many persecutions and misfortunes. This interest greatlypleased me, but I did not immediately submit to him my plan for the reliefof Adelheid and the great good of the Italian nation. I would wait alittle; I must make him better acquainted with myself. But the imperialOtto did not wait. On the third day after my arrival I was called into hiscabinet and informed that he intended to set out himself at the head of anarmy; that he should relieve the unfortunate lady from her persecutionsand establish her in her rights, whatever they might prove to be. Hisenthusiastic manner in speaking of his intentions assured me that I neednot trouble myself to say one word about my plans. 

"Now, --would you believe it?--that intermeddling monarch took out of myhands the whole grand, ambitious scheme I had so carefully devised. Hewent to Canossa; he married Adelheid; he marched upon Berengar; hesubjugated him and made him his vassal; he formed an alliance with PopeJohn XII; he was proclaimed King of the Lombards; he was crowned with hisqueen in St. Peter's; he eventually acquired the southern portion ofItaly. All this was exactly what I had intended to do. "

Mrs. Crowder laughed. "In one way thee was served quite right, for theemade all thy plans without ever asking the beautiful young ex-queenwhether she would have thee or not. "

In the tones of this fair lady's voice there were evident indications ofmental relief. "And what did thee do then?" she asked. "I hope thee gotsome reward for all thy faithful exertions. "

"I received nothing at the time, " Mr. Crowder replied; "and as I did notcare to accompany the emperor into Italy, for probably I would berecognized as the man who had assisted Adelheid to escape from the prisonat Ivrea, and as I was not at all sure that the emperor would rememberthat I needed protection, I thought it well to protect myself, and soI journeyed back into France as well as I could. 

"This was not very well; for in purchasing the necessary fine clotheswhich I deemed it proper to wear in the presence of the royal lady whoseinterests I had in charge, in buying horses, and in many incidentalexpenses, I had spent my money. I was too proud to ask Otto to reimburseme, for that would have been nothing but charity on his part; and ofcourse I could not expect the fair Adelheid to think of my possiblefinancial needs. So, away I went, a poor wanderer on foot, and theimperial Otto rode forward to love, honor, and success. "

"A dreadful shame!" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder. "It seems as if thee alwayscarried a horn about with thee so that thee might creep out of the littleend of it. "

"But my adventures with Adelheid did not end here, " he said. "About fiftyyears after this she was queen regent in Italy, during the infancy of hergrandchild Otto III. Being in Rome, and very poor, I determined to go toher, not to seek for charity, but to recall myself to her notice, and toboldly ask to be reimbursed for my expenses when assisting her to escapefrom Ivrea, and in afterward going as her ambassador to Otto I. In otherwords, I wanted to present my bill for enabling her to take her seat uponthe throne of the 'Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. '

"As a proof that I was the man I assumed to be, I took with me a ring ofno great value, but set with her royal seal, which she had given me whenshe sent me to Otto. 

"Well, I will not spend much time on this part of the story. By means ofthe ring I was accorded an interview with the regent. She was then an oldwoman over seventy years of age. When I introduced myself to her and toldher my errand, she became very angry. 'I remember very well, ' she said, 'the person you speak of, and he is long since dead. He was an old manwhen I took him into my service. You may be his son or some one else whohas heard how he was employed by me. At any rate, you are an impostor. How did you come into possession of this ring? The man to whom I gave ithad no right to keep it. He should have returned it to me when he hadperformed his duties. '

"I tried to convince her that there was no reason to suppose that the manwho had assisted her could not be living at this day. He need only beabout one hundred years old, and that age was not uncommon. I affirmedmost earnestly that the ring had never been out of my possession, and thatI should not have come to her if I had not believed that she wouldremember my services, and be at least willing to make good theconsiderable sums I had expended in her behalf. 

"Now she arose in royal wrath. 'How dare you speak to me in that way!' shesaid. 'You are a younger man at this moment than that old stranger yourepresent yourself to be. ' Then she called her guards and had me sent toprison as a cheat and an impostor. I remained in prison for some time, butas no definite charge was made against me, I was not brought to trial, andafter a time was released to make room for somebody else. I got away assoon as I could, and thus ended my most ambitious dream. "

VII

"Now, my dear, " said Mr. Crowder, regarding his wife with a tender kindnesswhich I had frequently noticed in him, "just for a change, I know youwould like to hear of a career of prosperity, wouldn't you?"

"Indeed, I would!" said Mrs. Crowder. "You will have noticed, " said herhusband, "that there has been a great deal of variety in my vocations; infact, I have not mentioned a quarter of the different trades and callingsin which I have been engaged. It was sometimes desirable and oftenabsolutely necessary for me to change my method of making a living, butduring one epoch of my life I steadily devoted myself to a singleprofession. For nearly four hundred years I was engaged almostcontinuously in the practice of medicine. I found it easier for me, as adoctor, to change my place of residence and to appear in a new countrywith as much property as I could carry about with me, than if I had doneso in any other way. A prosperous and elderly man coming as a strangerfrom a far country would, under ordinary circumstances, be regarded withsuspicion unless he were able to give some account of his previous career. But a doctor from a far country was always welcome; if he could curepeople of their ailments they did not ask anything about the formercircumstances of his life. It was perfectly natural for a learned man totravel. "

"Did thee regularly study and go to college?" asked Mrs. Crowder, "or wasthee a quack?"

"Oh, I studied, " said her husband, smiling, "and under the best masters. I had always a fancy for that sort of thing, and in the days of thepatriarchs, when there were no regular doctors, I was often called upon, as I told you. "

"Oh, yes, " said his wife; "thee rubbed Joshua with gravel and pepper. "

"And cured him, " said he, "You ought not to have omitted that. But it wasnot until about the fifth century before Christ that I thought of reallystudying medicine. I was in the island of Cos, where I had gone for a veryqueer reason. The great painter Apelles lived there, and I went for thepurpose of studying art under him. I was tired of most of the things I hadbeen doing, and I thought it would be a good idea to become a painter. Apelles gave me no encouragement when I applied to him; he told me I wasentirely too old to become a pupil. 'By the time you would really know howto paint, ' said he, 'supposing you have any talent for it, you ought to bebeginning to arrange your affairs to get ready to die. ' Of course thisadmonition had no effect upon me, and I kept on with my drawing lessons. If I could not become a painter of eminence, I thought that at leastI might be able, if I understood drawing, to become a betterschoolmaster--if I should take up that profession again. 

"One day Apelles said to me, after glancing at the drawing on which I wasengaged: 'If you were ten years younger you might do something in thefield of art, for you would make an excellent model for the picture I amabout to begin. But at your present age you would not be able to sustainthe fatigue of remaining in a constrained position for any length oftime. ' 'What is the subject?' I asked. 'A centurion in battle, ' said he. 

"The next day I appeared before Apelles with my hair cropped short and myface without a vestige of a beard. 'Do I look young enough now to be yourmodel?' said I. The painter looked at me in surprise. 'Yes, ' said he, 'youlook young enough; but of course you are the same age as you wereyesterday. However, if you would like to try the model business, I willmake some sketches of you. '

"For more than a month, nearly every day, I stood as a model to Apellesfor his great picture of a centurion whose sword had been stricken fromhis hand, and who, in desperation, was preparing to defend himself againsthis enemy with the arms which nature had given him. "

"Is that picture extant?" I asked. 

Mr. Crowder smiled. "None of Apelles's paintings are in existence now, " heanswered. "While I was acting as model to Apelles--and I may remark thatI never grew tired of standing in the position he desired--I listened withgreat satisfaction to the conversations between him and the friends whocalled upon him while he was at work. The chief of these was Hippocrates, the celebrated physician, between whom and Apelles a strong friendshipexisted. 

"Hippocrates was a man of great common sense. He did not believe thatdiseases were caused by spirits and demons and all that sort of thing, andin many ways he made himself very interesting to me. So, in course oftime, after having visited him a good deal, I made up my mind to quit thestudy of art and go into that of medicine. 

"I got on very well, and after a time I practiced with him in many cases, and he must have had a good deal of confidence in me, for when the King ofPersia sent for him to come to his court, offering him all sorts ofmunificent rewards, Hippocrates declined, but he suggested to me thatI should go. 

"'You look like a doctor, ' said he. 'The king would have confidence in yousimply on account of your presence; and, besides, you do know a great dealabout medicine. ' But I did not go to Persia, and shortly after that I leftthe island of Cos and gave up the practice of medicine. Later, in thesecond century before Christ, I made the acquaintance of a methodistdoctor--"

"A what?" Mrs. Crowder and I exclaimed at the same moment. 

He laughed. "I thought that would surprise you, but it is true. "

"Of course it is true, " said his wife, coloring a little. "Does thee thinkI would doubt anything thee told me? If thee had said that Abraham had aQuaker cook, I would have believed it. "

"And if I had told you that, " said Mr. Crowder, "it would have been so. But to explain about this methodist doctor. In those days the physicianswere divided into three schools: empirics, dogmatists, and methodists. This man I speak of--Asclepiades--was the leading methodist physician, depending, as the name suggests, upon regular methods of treatment insteadof experiments and theories adapted to the particular case in hand. 

"He also was a man of great good sense, and was very witty besides. He madea good deal of fun of other physicians, and used to call the system ofHippocrates 'meditation on death. ' I studied with him for some time, but itwas not until the first century of the present era that I really began thepractice of my profession. Then I made the acquaintance of the greatGalen. He was a man who was not only a physician, but an accomplishedsurgeon, and this could be said of very few people in that age of theworld. I studied anatomy and surgery under him, and afterward practicedwith him as I had done with Hippocrates. 

"The study of anatomy was rather difficult in those days, because theRoman laws forbade the dissection of citizens, and the anatomists had todepend for their knowledge of the human frame upon their examinations ofthe bodies of enemies killed in battle, or those of slaves, in whom noone took an interest; but most of all upon the bodies of apes. Greatnumbers of these beasts were brought from Africa solely for the use ofthe Roman surgeons, and in that connection I remember an incident whichwas rather curious. 

"I had not finished my studies under Galen when that great master one dayinformed me that a trader had brought him an ape, which had been confinedin a small building near his house. He asked me to go out and kill it andhave it brought into his dissecting-room, where he was to deliver alecture to some students. 

"I started for the building referred to. On the way I was met by thetrader. He was a vile-looking man, with black, matted hair and littleeyes, who did not look much higher in intelligence than the brutes hedealt in. He grinned diabolically as he led me to the little house andopened the door. I looked in. There was no ape there, but in one cornersat a dark-brown African girl. I looked at the man in surprise. 'The apeI was to bring got away from me, ' he said, 'but that thing will do a greatdeal better, and I will not charge any more for it than for the ape. Killit, and we will put it into a bag and carry it to the doctor. He will beglad to see what we have brought him instead of an ape. '

"I angrily ordered the man to leave the place, and taking the girl by thearm, --although I had a good deal of trouble in catching her, --I led her toGalen and told him the story. "

"And what became of the poor thing?" asked Mrs. Crowder. 

"Galen bought her from the man at the price of an ape, and tried to haveher educated as a servant, but she was a wild creature and could not betaught much. In some way or other the people in charge of the amphitheatergot possession of her, and I heard that she was to figure in the games atan approaching great occasion. I was shocked and grieved to hear this, forI had taken an interest in the girl, and I knew what it meant for her totake part in the games in the arena. I tried to buy her, but it was of nouse: she was wanted for a particular purpose. On the day she was to appearin the arena I was there. "

"I don't see how thee could do it, " said Mrs. Crowder, her face quitepale. 

"People's sensibilities were different in those days, " said her husband. "I don't suppose I could do such a thing now. After a time she was broughtout and left entirely alone in the middle of the great space. She wasnearly frightened to death by the people and the fear of some unknownterror. Trembling from head to foot, she looked from side to side, and atlast sank crouching on the ground. Everybody was quiet, for it was notknown what was to happen next. Then a grating sound was heard, with theclank of an iron door, and a large brown bear appeared in the arena. Thecrouching African fixed her eyes upon him, but did not move. 

[Illustration: "'THE CROUCHING AFRICAN FIXED HER EYES UPON HIM. '"]

"The idea of a combat between this tender girl and a savage bear could notbe entertained. What was about to occur seemed simply a piece of brutalcarnage, with nothing to make it interesting. A great many peopleexpressed their dissatisfaction. The hard-hearted populace, even if theydid not care about fair play in their games, did desire some element ofchance which would give flavor to the cruelty. But here was nothing ofthe sort. It would have been as well to feed the beast with a sheep. 

"The bear, however, seemed to look upon the performance as one which wouldprove very satisfactory. He was hungry, not having had anything to eat forseveral days, and here was an appetizing young person waiting for him todevour her. 

"He had fixed his eyes upon her the moment he appeared, and had paid noattention whatever to the crowds by which he was surrounded. He gave aslight growl, the hair on his neck stood up, and he made a quick movementtoward the girl. But she did not wait for him. Springing to her feet, shefled, the bear after her. 

"Now followed one of the most exciting chases ever known in the history ofthe Roman amphitheater. That frightened girl, as swift as a deer, ranaround and around the vast space, followed closely by her savage pursuer. But although he was active and powerful and unusually swift for a bear, hecould not catch her. 

"Around and around she went, and around went the red-eyed beast behindher; but he could not gain upon her, and she gave no sign that herstrength was giving out. 

"Now the audience began to perceive that a contest was really going on: itwas a contest of speed and endurance, and the longer the girl ran the moreinclined the people were to take her part. At last there was a great shoutthat she should be allowed to escape. A little door was opened in the sideof the amphitheater; she shot through it, and it was closed almost in theface of the panting and furious bear. "

"What became of the poor girl?" exclaimed Mrs. Crowder. 

"A sculptor bought her, " said Mr. Crowder. "He wanted to use her as amodel for a statue of the swift Diana; but this never came to anything. The girl could not be made to stand still for a moment. She was in achronic condition of being frightened to death. After that I heard of herno more; it was easy for people to disappear in Rome. But this incidentin the arena was remembered and talked about for many years afterward. The fact that a girl was possessed of such extraordinary swiftness thatshe would have been able to escape from a wild beast, by means of herspeed alone, had she been in an open plain, was considered one of the mostinteresting natural wonders which had been brought to the notice of theRoman people by the sports in the arena. "

"Fortunately, " said Mrs. Crowder, "thee did not--"

"No, " said her husband, "I did not. I required more than speed in a caselike that. And now I think, " said he, rising, "we must call this sessionconcluded. "

The next day I was obliged to bid farewell to the Crowders, and mybusiness arrangements made it improbable that I should see them again fora long time--I could not say how long. As I bade Mr. Crowder farewell andstood holding his hand in mine, he smiled, and said: "That's right. Lookhard at me; study every line in my face, and then when you see me againyou will be better able--"

"Not a bit, " said Mrs. Crowder. "He is just as able to judge now as hewill be if he stays away for twenty years. "

I believed her, as I warmly shook her hand, and I believe that I shallalways continue to believe her.