The United States commissioner, while fully recognizing the
ingenuity of the circular, differed somewhat from its author in
interpreting its legal construction, and accordingly placed him
under a bond of fifteen hundred dollars to appear for trial.



Andrew Lang


Saint-Germain the Deathless


Among the best brief masterpieces of fiction are Lytton's The
Haunters and the Haunted, and Thackeray's Notch on the Axe in
Roundabout Papers.* Both deal with a mysterious being who passes
through the ages, rich, powerful, always behind the scenes, coming
no man knows whence, and dying, or pretending to die, obscurely--
you never find authentic evidence of his disease. In other later
times, at other courts, such an one reappears and runs the same
course of luxury, marvel, and hidden potency.


* Both given in the accompanying volume containing "Old Time
English" Stories. See also the first story in the "North Europe"
volume.--Editor.


Lytton returned to and elaborated his idea in the Margrave of A
Strange Story, who has no "soul," and prolongs his physical and