This spot, so very African, bedazzles you in the daytime with flashings as of steel. But of a winter morning, especially in December, it seemed full of a divine mystery. I was wont to rise exactly at six o’clock, when the signal for work was boomed from the Arsenal gun. From six to seven I enjoyed a delicious time of it. The quick--may I call it piercing?--twinkle of the stars made the moon ashamed, and fought against the daybreak. Before its coming, and during the struggle between two lights, the wonderful clearness of the air would let things be seen and heard at incredible distances. Two leagues away I could make everything out. The smallest detail about the distant mountains, a tree, a cliff, a house, a bend in the ground, was thrown out with the most delicate sharpness. New senses seemed to be given me. I found myself another being, released from bondage, free to soar away on my new wings. It was an hour of utter purity, all hard and clear. I said to myself, “How is this? Am I still a man?” An unspeakable bluish hue, respected, left untouched by the rosy dawn, hung round me like a sacred ether, a spirit that made all things spiritual. One felt, however, a forward movement, through changes soft and slow. The great marvel was drawing nearer, to shine forth and eclipse all other things. It came on in its own calm way: you felt no wish to hurry it. The coming transfiguration, the expected witcheries of the light, took not a whit away from the deep enjoyment of being still under the divinity of night, still, as it were, half-hidden, and slow to emerge from so wonderful a spell.... Come forth, O Sun! We worship thee while yet unseen, but will reap all of good we yet may from these last moments of our dream! He is about to break forth. In hope let us await his welcome. THE END. LIST OF LEADING AUTHORITIES. Graesse, _Bibliotheca Magiæ_, Leipsic, 1843. _Magie Antique_--as edited by Soldan, A. Maury, &c. Calcagnini, _Miscell., Magia Amatoria Antiqua_, 1544. J. Grimm, _German Mythology_. _Acta Sanctorum._--Acta SS. Ordinis S. Benedicti. Michael Psellus, _Energie des Démons_, 1050. Cæsar of Heisterbach, _Illustria Miracula_, 1220. _Registers of the Inquisition_, 1307-1326, in Limburch; and the extracts given by Magi, Llorente, Lamothe-Langon, &c. _Directorium._ Eymerici, 1358. Llorente, _The Spanish Inquisition_. Lamothe-Langon, _Inquisition de France_. _Handbooks of the Monk-Inquisitors of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries_: Nider’s _Formicarius_; Sprenger’s _Malleus_. C. Bernardus’s _Lucerna_; Spina, Grillandus, &c. H. Corn. Agrippæ _Opera_, Lyons. Paracelsi _Opera_. Wyer, _De Prestigiis Dæmonum_, 1569. Bodin, _Démonomanie_, 1580. Remigius, _Demonolatria_, 1596. Del Rio, _Disquisitiones Magicæ_, 1599. Boguet, _Discours des Sorciers_, Lyons, 1605. Leloyer, _Histoire des Spectres_, Paris, 1605. Lancre, _Inconstance_, 1612: _Incredulité_, 1622. Michaëlis, _Histoire d’une Pénitente, &c._, 1613.