Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 046.djvu/238

228 great philosopher and physician, astronomer and astrologer, to receive whose instructions the unbridled youth even of distant Poland come flocking hither in shoals?"

On hearing this name, the young Spaniard receded a step in delighted astonishment; for it was the fame of this great man which had attracted him also to Padua, across the sea from Barcelona.

"It was indeed himself, then!" cried he, in a tone of enthusiasm. "Hence it was that my heart was so deeply moved; —my soul instinctively recognised his. And you, my reverend friend, how much I love you because you also appear to revere this great man as much as any saint or martyr in the calendar."

"Is it your intention to study under this man?" asked the priest, in a harsh angry tone.

"Certainly it is," replied Alphonso, "if he will deign to receive me as his pupil."

The old man stood still, and, laying his hand on the youth's shoulder, addressed him in gentler accents.

"My dear young friend, the season of safety is not yet past; pray, give ear to my fatherly warning before it be too late. Do not deceive yourself, as multitudes have already done, but be on your guard, and preserve your precious soul from the snares of the tempter."

"I understand you not, father," replied Alphonso. "Did not you yourself see and hear how piously, how Christian-like, and with what overpowering majesty that glorious being spake, when by his heavenly consolations he turned back into the right path those who had been led astray by the affliction their too fond love was groaning under?"

"Ay! what is there he dare not, he cannot do, juggler and sorcerer that he is?" cried the old priest, much excited.

"Sorcerer!" exclaimed Alphonso. "It appears, then, that you also share in the foolish fancy of the rabble, who, being incapable of appreciating the science of lofty minds, will believe every thing that is absurd, rather than strengthen their own understandings by gazing on the sublime career of a mortal like themselves."

"If you have already gone so far in your admiration of him," returned the priest," you have but little occasion to enter yourself as a pupil in his famous school; it is manifest that he has already caught you in his magic snares. Thus it is that he entraps every heart that beats in his neighbourhood. Yes, heathen as he is, he has this day spoken like a Christian minister, and coloured his lying schemes with the hues of holiness. Thus it was that he gained an ascendency in the house of Podesta. The poor Crescentia, on her deathbed, could scarcely find her way back into the bosom of the Holy Church, so much had she been led astray by the false doctrines which this wicked hypocrite wove, in poisonous meshes. around her young soul. Thank Heaven, however, she has escaped him! The Lord has called her to himself, and, visiting her with a mortal sickness, has saved her soul at the expense of her body."

The speakers had now reached the open square. The youth was in a state of excitement, and gave vent to his feelings thus: —

"Pray, Mr. Priest, whence comes this spirit of furious envy on your part? Is not the secret of it this, that the more you see the world day after day falling away from its obedience to you, the more are you determined to beat down beneath your exterminating curse the new spirit—the spirit of eternal truth—which is now beginning to quicken every region of the globe. In vain, however, would you endeavour to smother this spirit, and restore your musty legends to the place they once held in the estimation of the people."

"Be it so, then," cried the old man, in high indignation. "Let us have Averroes instead of Christ. Aristotle instead of Almighty God, and your Pietro here—that Iscariot— stead of the Holy Ghost! But wait a while: watch the end of this man, and see whether the seven spirits over whom he exercises a sorcerer's power, together with that Famulus of his—that imp of hell—will be able, when his hour comes, to rescue him from a most miserable doom."

"Was his Famulus present to-day?" asked Alphonso.

"Did you not observe the spectre that was dizened out in fool's attire—the humpbacked abortion, with distorted hands and arms, bowed shins, leering eyes, and monstrous nose, projecting from a hideous visage! That was his Famulus, or familiar attendant."