death-bed; and after the learned doctor's decease, when I came into the
whole of his practice, and no small portion of his fame, I was easy, for
the memory of that sacrilege had passed away.

Ignatius Druso, like myself, resided in Padua, but soon quitted the
medical profession, disgusted, I fancy, at finding that I had become a
second Sanazio, whilst he commanded little or no attention: still we were
friends, nor did I suspect that the germs of envy and malice were sown in
his bosom, and that I had trusted him with one secret, or more, too much.
"Serventius, my son," had said the venerable Sanazio to me upon his
death-bed, "your ardent desire of knowledge and discreet use of it,
encourage me ere I quit this world, to entrust you with the grand arcanum
of our art; as yet, you know not the secret of my success, but take then
this hint and improve upon it. Can he repair a piece of mechanism, who is
ignorant of its make, its parts, and how they act upon, and affect one
another? Behold this key; it is that of my laboratory, and may it indeed
open the door of knowledge to you."

After Sanazio's decease, curiosity quickly led me to his study: I was
alone, and the shades of evening were stealing over the earth: conceive
then my utter dismay and superstitious horror upon suddenly entering, what
I could but suppose to be a charnel-house! Its effluvium was intolerable,
and well accounted for by (loathsome spectacle!) a disorderly collection
of human fragments in various stages of preservation and decay! A dozen
grisly skeletons grinned upon me from pedestals round the room, and in the
centre of it, the half dissected body of a man, stretched upon a large
lava slab, supported by tressels, was more horrible and odious than all. I
now comprehended the full meaning of Sanazio's dying words and secret; but
received at the same time, a shock which to this day I have not recovered;
I found myself compelled to make Druso my confidant in this matter, and my