"Engelhardt! He is standing at the 'Rajah's' door. He is taking away his soul." "What's that you say?" Michael Petroff laughed softly. "I saw him standing there. Don't let him come near me. Oh good God!" "Hush!" interrupted Michael Petroff. "I will attend to it." The lawyer clung to his knees. "He will come in here! Oh my God, my God!" "My dear friend," Michael Petroff reassured him, "control yourself. He shall not come in here. I promise you. But I must go and see!" The little lawyer cowered on the floor and covered his face with his hands. But Michael Petroff left the room. After a while he came back, looking somewhat pale, but laughing to keep his courage up. "Yes," he said in a low tone, "he is standing at the 'Rajah's' door listening. What makes you tremble so, my friend?" "Don't leave me!" whispered the lawyer, still covering his face with his hands. The "Rajah" lay motionless in his bed, gazing far, far away with his great, brilliant eyes. His swarthy face was transfigured by a solemn peace and resignation. He declined to get up and refused all nourishment. Dr. Maerz took his temperature and found it somewhat low, and his pulse rather slow, but he could not discover any symptoms of bodily disorder or of an approaching illness. With cheerful earnestness he advised the "Rajah" to get up and to eat, but as the "Rajah" did not answer, he left him in peace. He was accustomed to his patients' whims and knew that they went as suddenly as they came. But Engelhardt, on the contrary, caused him great anxiety. In spite of long continued baths and all sorts of quieting treatments, he had passed another sleepless and excited night. He now lay in a sort of half sleep, and shrank and trembled with the effort that his horrible delusion required of him. He heard voices, the cries of millions of men, who wrung their hands and begged him not to give them up to destruction, he heard the ringing of bells, the chanting of processions, the prayers of emperors and kings, bishops and popes. His skin was dry and parched, his pulse was rapid and unsteady. Dr. Maerz sat for a long time by his bedside watching him attentively, and sometimes, closing his eyes for a moment, he would recall with lightning rapidity all his knowledge and experience of such cases. At last, with a thoughtful and baffled air, he left Engelhardt. But an hour later he was beside him again.