companion in some of my first attempts at following the hideous occupation
recommended by my deceased friend. By degrees I grew accustomed to the
horrors of the room and of my employment. Druso, who found himself better
engaged in courting the living than in cutting up the dead, was no longer
necessary to me in the prosecution of my hateful studies, and kept aloof,
but I soon discovered the value of them, in my increase of knowledge,
employment, and reputation. At last an epidemic raged in Padua, proving
very fatal; Ignatius, alarmed for the safety of his Phaedera, who was
attacked, applied to me, and I cured her. Some time afterwards, the
ungrateful wretch rushed into my laboratory, claiming the body upon which
I was operating, as that of a young man, cousin to Phaedera, which had
miraculously disappeared just previous to the day intended for its
interment. The features of the poor wretch were too much disfigured to
render possible his recognition by them, but Druso swore to its being the
body of Marcus, from a scar on the left leg, which had been wounded
severely by a quoit. Of course I refused to resign, that, for which I had
paid a handsome price, and to reveal the names of those from whom I
purchased it. So Druso dragged me before the Supreme Council, impeached me
of sacrilege in the affair of the nun, of theft, and of violating the
sanctity of the tomb, of barbarously mutilating the dead, and of applying
their lacerated remains to the unholy purposes of sorcery! and on these
counts have I been indicted, found guilty, and sentenced to be burnt as a
sacrilegious heretic, an unnatural robber, and a formidable wizard!
Antonia, the mother of seven children, is to be--like the unchaste
vestal--immured! Oh Heaven! whilst Druso the Informer, receiving at the
same time the portion of a prince for his venal treachery, will celebrate
his union with Phaedera, amidst the shrieks and groans of his expiring
victims!

I cannot now proceed: ere I am bound to the fatal stake, methinks I shall