Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/414

 edge of her. I applied to the exquisite delicacy of her organization the occult action of magnetism, the science which is laughed at by the vulgar. I established between her and myself sympathetic feelings of which neither absence nor separation can break the chain. She fell under my spiritual domination in attacks of hallucinations which her father and brother took for the effects of a nervous malady. Friend to the brother, who admired without understanding, certain experiments which I amused myself in exhibiting to him, I was called to the young girl in the capacity of a physician. She recognized me by a mysterious convulsion which was the assurance of my empire; for my look and secret will were sufficient to plunge her into a state of somnambulism, that is to say, to attract her soul towards my own. Since I have lived near her, the image of Hippolyt is being gradually effaced from her memory; the last obstacles will soon fall.

This Hippolyt is a colonel; he is at this moment following the fortunes of war far away from here. I do not wish him to be killed; I should even like to have him come back, for his presence would add another charm to victory of which I shall soon taste the delicious fruits. Farewell until I see thee again, my dear disciple.

The country, strewed with dead leaves, was in mourning, Leaden clouds moved in the sky, chased by the cold autumn wind. In haste to arrive at a lodging place, for night was approaching, I discovered at a turn in the road the village of, hidden in its solitary valley like a bird's nest in a farrow. The church bell was uttering its funeral note, and grave diggers were waiting in the cemetery the last prayer of the old pastor to lower the coffin into the earth. I joined several men on the road who were coming slowly back from the procession, and I walked behind and listened to their conversation.—"Our old friend Franz sleeps the sleep of the just," said one of them. "May God allow us to do so likewise," added another. I learned from these worthy people that the dead