"Uncommon!" said the German. "It's as common as cherries in the Black Forest. It's as common as maccaroni at Naples. And Naples reminds me! When the old Marchesa Senzanima shrieks at a card party on the Chiaja--as I heard and saw her, for it happened in a Bavarian family of mine, and I was overlooking the service that evening--I say, when the old Marchesa starts up at the card-table, white through her rouge, and cries, 'My sister in Spain is dead! I felt her cold touch on my back!'--and when that sister _is_ dead at the moment--what do you call that?" "Or when the blood of San Gennaro liquefies at the request of the clergy--as all the world knows that it does regularly once a year, in my native city," said the Neapolitan courier, after a pause, with a comical look, "what do you call that?" "_That!_" cried the German. "Well! I think I know a name for that." "Miracle?" said the Neapolitan, with the same sly face. The German merely smoked and laughed; and they all smoked and laughed. "Bah!" said the German, presently. "I speak of things that really do happen. When I want to see the conjurer, I pay to see a professed one, and have my money's worth. Very strange things do happen without ghosts. Ghosts! Giovanni Baptista, tell your story of the English bride. There's no ghost in that, but something full as strange. Will any man tell me what?" As there was a silence among them, I glanced around. He whom I took to be Baptista was lighting a fresh cigar. He presently went on to speak. He was a Genoese, as I judged. "The story of the English bride?" said he. "Basta! one ought not to call so slight a thing a story. Well, it's all one. But it's true. Observe me well, gentlemen, it's true. That which glitters is not always gold; but what I am going to tell is true." He repeated this more than once. Ten years ago, I took my credentials to an English gentleman at Long's Hotel, in Bond-street, London, who was about to travel--it might be for one year, it might be for two. He approved of them; likewise of me. He was pleased to make inquiry. The testimony that he received was favorable. He engaged me by the six months, and my entertainment was generous.