A Modern Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Adventures of Oliver Munier: An Extravaganza in Four ActsPyle, Howard
History
A Modern Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Adventures of Oliver Munier: An Extravaganza in Four Acts
Pyle, Howard
Alchemists -- Fiction; France -- History -- Louis XV, 1715-1774 -- Fiction; Saint-Germain, comte de, -1784 -- Fiction
"There was a movement as quick as lightning, a flash, a blow, a deep
sigh. Agnes sat for a moment with the smile still resting upon her
white lips, and something bright glistening upon her bosom. It was the
handle of a dagger, and she had stabbed herself. Then she lay slowly
down upon the pillow beside her.
"For one moment Raymond sat as motionless as stone; then he started up
with a shrill cry. He leaned over and looked into her face; that smile
was still upon her white lips.
"'Agnes!' he cried; then again, 'Agnes!' But the smiling lips never
answered; she was dead.
"Raymond slowly turned, and walked heavily and stupidly out of
the place, closing the door behind him. At the head of the shaft
he mechanically opened the slide of the lantern, and blew out the
half-burned candle, and then set the lantern upon the shelf within, as
he had been used to do. He closed the trap, and lowered the bar, and
snapped the padlock in the staple; then, again, with the same slow,
heavy tread, he left the vaulted room, ascended the stone steps, and
threaded the passage-way. He did not go back into the master's house,
but passed out at the arched gate-way where we, Oliver, entered. Before
he went out into the street beyond he laid his hand upon his breast to
make sure the silver box containing the talisman was there; it was all
that he had saved from his ruin."
IV.
"From that time Raymond Lulli led a wandering, irregular, eventful
life. Under the spur of his remorse he went first to Rome and then to
Tunis, where, until his life was threatened on account of his efforts
to convert the Mussulmans, he devoted himself partly to the fulfilment
of his original vow, partly to the further study of alchemy. After that
he lived for a while in Milan; after that he went to England, where,
as I have heard, he transmuted lead and quicksilver into gold to the
amount of six millions rose nobles; after that he returned again to
Rome; and after that for a second time to Africa, where he took up his
abode at Bona.
"Now there was at that time at Bona a famous and learned professor,
who had devoted himself more particularly to the study of demonology.
It is hardly likely that you have ever heard his name; it was Yusef
Ben Djani. I know of nobody since his time who approached him in his
knowledge of the science unless, perhaps, it was the great Cornelius
Agrippa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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