As for the Thirteen, the author feels that, on the strength of the
details of this almost fantastic story, he can afford to give away yet
another prerogative, though it is one of the greatest on record, and
would possibly fetch a high price if brought into a literary auction
mart; for the owner might inflict as many volumes on the public as La
Contemporaine.[*]

[*] A long series of so-called Memoirs, which appeared about 1830.

The Thirteen were all of them men tempered like Byron's friend
Trelawney, the original (so it is said) of _The Corsair_. All of them
were fatalists, men of spirit and poetic temperament; all of them were
tired of the commonplace life which they led; all felt attracted
towards Asiatic pleasures by all the vehement strength of newly
awakened and long dormant forces. One of these, chancing to take up
_Venice Preserved_ for the second time, admired the sublime friendship
between Pierre and Jaffir, and fell to musing on the virtues of
outlaws, the loyalty of the hulks, the honor of thieves, and the
immense power that a few men can wield if they bring their whole minds
to bear upon the carrying out of a single will. It struck him that the
individual man rose higher than men. Then he began to think that if a
few picked men should band themselves together; and if, to natural
wit, and education, and money, they could join a fanaticism hot enough
to fuse, as it were, all those separate forces into a single one, then
the whole world would be at their feet. From that time forth, with a
tremendous power of concentration, they could wield an occult power
against which the organization of society would be helpless; a power
which would push obstacles aside and defeat the will of others; and
the diabolical power of all would be at the service of each. A hostile
world apart within the world, admitting none of the ideas, recognizing