If Faustus had been acquainted with some of our modern bawlers for freedom, he would not have been so mistaken in the Doctor; but such a being was a novelty at that period. The next morning, when the execution was to take place, Faustus went into the grand square, attended by the Devil, and told him in going along what he was to do. At the very moment the executioner was about to decapitate the Doctor, who had kneeled down, looking very ghastly, the latter disappeared. The Devil carried him through the air beyond the frontiers; and there, delivering him a large sum of money, he abandoned him joyfully to his fate, for he saw pretty clearly how he would employ his gold and liberty. The people raised a wild shout of joy at the disappearance of the Doctor, and believed that Providence had rescued their favourite. Faustus also shouted, and rejoiced at the glorious action. Faustus and the Devil now rode to the court of the Prince of ---. {134} They soon reached the court of this prince, who was cried up through all Germany as a wise and virtuous ruler, whose only happiness consisted in the welfare of his subjects. It is true that the subjects themselves did not always join in this cry; but the prince is not yet born who can give satisfaction to all men. Faustus and the Devil, by means of their dress and equipage, soon found admittance at court. Faustus regarded the Prince with the eyes of a man whose heart was already prepossessed in his favour; and to carry this prepossession even to conviction, nothing more was necessary than the noble exterior of the Prince himself. He was, or appeared to be, frank and open; endeavoured to please and to win all hearts without appearing to do so; was familiar without laying aside his dignity, and possessed that prudent coldness which inspires respect, though we scarcely know why. All this was blended with so much elegance, urbanity, and decorum, that it would have been difficult for the most acute eye to have distinguished the acquired, the artificial, and the assumed, from the plain and natural. Faustus, who had as yet seen few of those men of the world whose natural characters are swallowed up by political prudence, formed an ideal one out of the above-mentioned materials; and after he had for some time visited the court, and believed that he had obtained a thorough knowledge of the head personage, the following conversation took place one evening between him and the Devil: _Faustus_. I have hitherto purposely said nothing to you of this Prince; but now, having, as I flatter myself, caught his character, I venture to affirm that report is no liar, and I hope to wring from thee an avowal that he is the man we have been seeking.