window of the hall thrown open, and could distinguish his master's voice
addressing the person who had thus summoned the castle. But the night was
so dark that he might not see the speakers, and the language which they
used was either entirely foreign, or so largely interspersed with strange
words, that he could not understand a syllable which they said. Scarce
five minutes had elapsed, when he who was without, again elevated his
voice as before, and said in German, 'For a year and a day, then, I
forbear my forfeiture;--but coming for it when that time shall elapse,
I come for my right, and will no longer be withstood.'

"From that period Dannischemend, the Persian, was a constant guest at
the castle of Arnheim, and, indeed, never for any purpose crossed the
drawbridge. His amusements, or studies, seemed centred in the library of
the castle, and in the laboratory, where the baron sometimes toiled in
conjunction with him for many hours together. The inhabitants of the
castle could find no fault in the Magus, or Persian, excepting his
apparently dispensing with the ordinances of religion, since he neither
went to mass nor confession, nor attended upon other religious ceremonies.
It was observed that Dannischemend was rigid in paying his devotions,
by prostrating himself in the first rays of the rising sun, and that he
constructed a silver lamp of the most beautiful proportions, which he
placed on a pedestal representing a truncated column of marble, having
its base sculptured with hieroglyphical imagery. With what essences he
fed this flame was unknown to all, unless perhaps to the baron; but the
flame was more steady, pure, and lustrous, than any which was ever seen,
excepting the sun of heaven itself, and it was generally believed that
Dannischemend made it an object of worship in the absence of that blessed
luminary. Nothing else was observed of him, unless that his morals seemed
severe, his gravity extreme, his general mode of life very temperate, and
his fasts and vigils of frequent recurrence. Except on particular