Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/96

 give you is an elixir, of an exquisite taste, a true family liquor, with which I think you will be contented."

Erasmus already had the phial in his hands, and looked at it mechanically. He returned to his house, and found his wife and child uneasy to know what had become of him. The good woman would no longer recognize him, and maintained that the devil had taken his form to come and abuse her. Erasmus, driven to extremity, had for an instant the thought of using the phial. A tame dove came flying towards him, and picked at the cork, and fell dead! This incident recalled the poor bewitched man to himself, and he threw Dapertutto's elixir out of the window. A balsamic odor escaped from the broken phial. Erasmus ran to his chamber, shut himself up, and wept.

Towards midnight, the image of Giulietta appeared to him. His love and despair had no longer any bounds. "Oh, Giulietta!" cried he, "to see thee for the last time and then die!"

The door of the chamber opened without noise, and Giulietta, more beautiful than ever, found herself in the arms of Erasmus. After the first transports of their meeting, "Oh, my adored one!" exclaimed he, "if thou dost not wish me to become mad, take my life—but give me back my reflection?"

"But," said Giulietta, "I cannot do it until all the ties that attach thee to the world are broken without return."

"In that case," replied Erasmus, weeping, "if I cannot belong to thee as thou wishest, but by a crime, I prefer to die."

"My good Erasmus," said Giulietta, passing her arms around her lovers's neck, and fixing on him a look full of fascination, "no one wishes thee to commit the crime that frightens thee; but if thou wishest, my beloved, to be the eternal spouse of my beauty, take this parchment, and write these words: 'I give to Dapertutto full power to break the ties which bind me to earth. I wish to belong wholly to Giulietta, whom I have freely chosen for the companion of my body and soul, for all eternity.'"

Erasmus felt the coldness of death running through his