“Why we are sometimes exceedingly pushed for provisions. You must know that, in a climate so sultry as mine, it is frequently impossible to keep a spirit alive for more than two or three hours; and after death, unless pickled immediately (and a pickled spirit is _not_ good), they will--smell--you understand, eh? Putrefaction is always to be apprehended when the souls are consigned to us in the usual way.” “Hiccup!--hiccup!--good God! how _do_ you manage?” Here the iron lamp commenced swinging with redoubled violence, and the Devil half started from his seat;--however, with a slight sigh, he recovered his composure, merely saying to our hero in a low tone: “I tell you what, Pierre Bon-Bon, we _must_ have no more swearing.” The host swallowed another bumper, by way of denoting thorough comprehension and acquiescence, and the visitor continued: “Why, there are _several_ ways of managing. The most of us starve: some put up with the pickle: for my part I purchase my spirits _vivente corpore_, in which case I find they keep very well.” “But the body!--hiccup!--the body!!” “The body, the body--well, what of the body?--oh! ah! I perceive. Why, sir, the body is not _at all_ affected by the transaction. I have made innumerable purchases of the kind in my day, and the parties never experienced any inconvenience. There were Cain and Nimrod, and Nero, and Caligula, and Dionysius, and Pisistratus, and--and a thousand others, who never knew what it was to have a soul during the latter part of their lives; yet, sir, these men adorned society. Why isn’t there A--, now, whom you know as well as I? Is _he_ not in possession of all his faculties, mental and corporeal? Who writes a keener epigram? Who reasons more wittily? Who--but, stay! I have his agreement in my pocket-book.” Thus saying, he produced a red leather wallet, and took from it a number of papers. Upon some of these Bon-Bon caught a glimpse of the letters _Machi_--_Maza_--_Robesp_--with the words _Caligula_, _George_, _Elizabeth_. His Majesty selected a narrow slip of parchment, and from it read aloud the following words: “In consideration of certain mental endowments which it is unnecessary to specify, and in further consideration of one thousand louis d’or, I, being aged one year and one month, do hereby make over to the bearer of this agreement all my right, title, and appurtenance in the shadow called my soul. (Signed) A....”[15] (Here His Majesty repeated a name which I do not feel myself justified in indicating more unequivocally.) [15] Query.--_Arouet?_ “A clever fellow that,” resumed he; “but, like you, Monsieur Bon-Bon, he was mistaken about the soul. The soul a shadow, truly! The soul a shadow! Ha! ha! ha!--he! he! he!--hu! hu! hu! Only think of a _fricasséed_ shadow!”