Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/22

 eyes on it, for a moment. When the clamors of the people grew too loud, he would open his cloak, and measure the whole crowd with a gloomy stare. An involuntary horror then seemed to seize them all, and their courage and sauciness never revived till he was gone.

"I generally stood in the midst of the gaping populace and often found his regards so significantly fixed on me, that I could not help feeling an inward emotion of awful reverence.

"One evening in the dusk, I happened to be alone with him on the square before the chapel, when he surveyed me with great astonishment, and finding nobody near, thus civilly addressed me:

"Your appearance, Sennor, bespeaks a man of honor and courage; may I trust such appearance?"

—"To be sure, Sennor, you safely may."

—"Then may I request you," continued he, "to be here between midnight and one in the morning?"

—"If I knew, Sennor—"