Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/360

 Having achieved this, I experienced a quiet and contentment of mind, such as I had never before known. The ghost had vanished, and the voice of the whispering devil was also mute. My contentment, indeed, lasted but for a brief interval, till I was called on again to make up and deliver an ornament of equal value; but, by this very relief and composure of spirit, under circumstances which would have rendered any one else anxious and miserable, I recognized at once the fate that awaited me. My malignant stars were triumphant, and I must yield to them or die!—So, then,' concluded Cardillac, 'you are now possessed of the master-key to all the mysteries of my life and conduct. Do not suppose, because I am thus irresistibly led on from crime to crime, that I have absolutely renounced every feeling of humanity and compassion. You know already how unwilling I am to part with any jewels that I have made up; how I keep them on one pretext or another from week to week; besides, when I am applied to by persons, whose deaths it would be impossible for me to contemplate with indifference, it is an absolute rule of mine, that I will not accept of such employment. Nay, more, in many instances, I have avoided the crime of murder, for, with one blow of my clenched hand, I am able to stun my victims in such a manner, that they become altogether insensible; and I can, without risk, possess myself at once of the jewels, which, alone, are my object.'

"After having thus spoken, Cardillac led me into a vaulted apartment, (entering from the press in his room-wall,) and allowed me to see his private collection of jewelry, than which the king himself could not display anything more magnificent. Every article had attached to it a parchment-ticket, on which there was inscribed for whom the ornament had been made, and at what time it had been regained, either by theft within doors, or street-robbery. 'On your wedding-day,' said Cardillac, in a deep stern voice, 'you will swear to me on the cross, a solemn oath, that, after my death, you will utterly annihilate all these diamonds and other jewels! They must