“While there, I one night went to San Carlos to hear the opera of the ‘Barber of Seville,’ and to listen to the glorious strains of Mario, Grisi and Gassier. I had been charmed out of all my griefs by the celebrated ‘Music Lesson’ of the latter cantatrice, and as I walked homeward I hummed its notes as I passed along, and it rung in my ears long after I had lain down to sleep. With the peculiar caution of Americans generally, but of Californians especially--whose habits I had imbibed during my short residence within the Golden Gate--before retiring I had carefully examined the room, for Italians, especially Neapolitans, bear watching, to see that all was safe and right. It was so. Then securely fastening both doors and windows, I was soon drifting up and down the Dream Sea. Beneath my pillow was my money belt, in which was about two thousand dollars in gold, which, together with a revolver, loaded to the muzzle, was the property of my friend T----s. “In the morning the room was as when I slept; but the charges were drawn from the pistol, and the gold lay on the table arranged in the form of a triangle, surmounted by the letter ‘R,’ while, pinned to the bosom of my sleeping robe, was a note in English, in a bold, clear handwriting, but in red ink. That note was not there the night before; it could not have been placed there by human hands! ‘Do not fail,’ it read, ‘to remember the purpose for which you crossed the seas, for your enterprise concerns the future ages of the world! It is not yet accomplished. Achieve it. I will yet serve and save you.--E.’ “I was thunder-struck. Again some mysterious being was crossing my path; that being whose strange domain lay on either side of Time, and whose will seemed ever to hedge me about like a wall of fire, so that escape from the strange destiny that hung over me seemed almost impossible. I was in despair, for already had grey hairs shown themselves; I felt that I was growing prematurely old, and that the chances were greatly against me, a son of Adam, ever wedding with a daughter of Ish.” BOOK II. CHAPTER I. ABOUT THE ROSICRUCIANS.