“I own,” cried Lord Seymour, “you acted with due precaution--but why were we obliged to appear undressed?” “Merely to give a greater solemnity to the scene, and to excite your imaginations by the strangeness of the proceeding.” “The second apparition prevented your ghost from speaking,” said the prince. “What should we have learnt from him?” “Nearly the same as what you heard afterwards. It was not without design that I asked your highness whether you had told me everything that the deceased communicated to you, and whether you had made any further inquiries on this subject in his country. I thought this was necessary, in order to prevent the deposition of the ghost from being contradicted by facts with which you were previously acquainted. Knowing likewise that every man in his youth is liable to error, I inquired whether the life of your friend had been irreproachable, and on your answer I founded that of the ghost.” “Your explanation of this matter is satisfactory,” resumed the prince, after a short silence; “but there remains a principal circumstance which I must ask you to clear up.” “If it be in my power, and--” “No conditions! Justice, in whose hands you now are, might perhaps not interrogate you with so much delicacy. Who was this unknown at whose feet we saw you fall? What do you know of him? How did you get acquainted with him? And in what way was he connected with the appearance of the second apparition? “Your highness”-- “On looking at him more attentively, you gave a loud scream, and fell at his feet. What are we to understand by that?” “This man, your highness”--He stopped, grew visibly perplexed, and with an embarrassed countenance looked around him. “Yes, prince, by all that is sacred, this unknown is a terrible being.” “What do you know of him? What connection have you with him? Do not hope to conceal the truth from us.” “I shall take care not to do so,--for who will warrant that he is not among us at this very moment?” “Where? Who?” exclaimed we altogether, half-amused, half-startled, looking about the room. “That is impossible.” “Oh! to this man, or whatever he may be, things still more incomprehensible are possible.” “But who is he? Whence comes he? Is he an Armenian or a Russian? Of the characters be assumes, which is his real one?” “He is nothing of what he appears to be. There are few conditions or countries of which he has not worn the mask. No person knows who he is, whence he comes, or whither he goes. That he has been for a long time in Egypt, as many pretend, and that he has brought from thence, out of a catacomb, his, occult sciences, I will neither affirm nor deny. Here we only know him by the name of the Incomprehensible. How old, for instance, do you suppose he is?” “To judge from his appearance he can scarcely have passed forty.” “And of what age do you suppose I am?” “Not far from fifty.”