“The conversation passed very much in language incoherent as this:--“But why, if he be what he is described, what he is known to be,--why is he not seized by order of government?--why is he not immured in the Inquisition?”--“He has been often in the prison of the holy office--oftener, perhaps, than the holy fathers wished,” said another. “But it is a well-known fact, that whatever transpired on his examination, he was liberated almost immediately.” Another added, “That the stranger had been in almost every prison in Europe, but had always contrived either to defeat or defy the power in whose grasp he appeared to be inclosed,--and to be active in his purposes of mischief in the remotest parts of Europe at the moment he was supposed to be expiating them in others.” Another demanded, “If it was known to what country he belonged?” and was answered, “He is said to be a native of Ireland--(a country that no one knows, and which the natives are particularly reluctant to dwell in from various causes)--and his name is Melmoth.” The Spaniard had great difficulty in expressing the _theta_, unpronounceable by continental lips. “Another, who had an appearance of more intelligence than the rest, added the extraordinary fact of the stranger’s being seen in various and distant parts of the earth within a time in which no power merely human could be supposed to traverse them--that his marked and fearful habit was every where to seek out the most wretched, or the most profligate, of the community among which he flung himself--what was his object in seeking them was unknown.”--“It is well known,” said a deep-toned voice, falling on the ears of the startled listeners like the toll of a strong but muffled bell,--“it is well known both to him and them.” “It was now twilight, but the eyes of all could distinguish the figure of the stranger as he passed; and some even averred they could see the ominous lustre of those eyes which never rose on human destiny but as planets of woe. The groupe paused for some time to watch the retreat of the figure that had produced on them the effect of the torpedo. It departed slowly,--no one offered it molestation.