"My master pleases to make hard demand, In couple with condition hard, to-day," The sorcerer, with dissembled pleasure, said. Simon full ready felt to meet his test; For, in an antechamber to the hall Of judgment, he, with Shimei too, had lurked, And, overhearing Paul's denouncement, marked The trepidation of the judge's mien. "Lord Felix suffers from an evil spell Cast on him by a wicked conjurer;" So, with deep calculation of effect, The sorcerer to the sovereign firmly said. "A hit--perhaps," said Felix, some relief Of tension to his conscience-crowded mind Welcoming already in the hint conveyed; "Repeat to me," he added, keen to hear, "Repeat to me the phrasing of the spell; That I may know it not a groping guess, But certain knowledge, what thou thus hast said." That challenge flung to Simon's hand the clue He needed for his guidance in the maze. He sees the Roman's superstitious mind In grapple with imaginative awe Infused by recollection of those words Barbaric--of comminatory sound, Though understood not, therefore dreaded more-- Which Paul, two several times, in his discourse, Had solemnly recited in his ear. "The spell," he said, "O Felix, that enthralls Thee was of three Chaldæan words composed; But one word was repeated, making four. I dare not utter those dire syllables In the fixed order which creates the spell. My wish is to undo, and not to bind." Felix was frightened, like a little child Told ghostly stories in the dead of night; He watched and waited, with set eye intense. The conjurer, standing in struck attitude, Made with his voice an inarticulate sign Intoned in tone to thrill the listening blood. Thereon, in silence, through the opening door, With gliding motion, a familiar stole Into the chamber, which now more and more, To Felix's impressionable fears, As if a vestibule to Hades was. That noiseless minister to Simon gave Into his master's hand a rod prepared. "Hearken, lord Felix," low the conjurer said, "Hearken and heed. Well needs it thou, with me, Fail now in nothing through a mind remiss. Hear thou aright, while I aright reverse The order of the phrasing of that spell. Beware thou think it even no otherwise Than as I give it, weighing word and word. I turn the sentence end for end about, UPHARSIN, TEKEL, MENE, MENE, say; All is not done, still keep thy mind intent, And, with thine eyes now, as erst with thine ears, Watch what I do, and let thy will consent."