Page:Thomas De Quincey The Defier of Ghosts Manuscript.pdf/1

 The Defier of Ghosts. M. Counsellor Gerstensaft was reclining in a window-seat, having just finished his sixth pipe, and was considering—what a great man the world had lost in himself: “Or perhaps  lost!” said he. Ruhethal, his birth-place, blind to his merits,—Ruhethal was a  poor—ignorant—benighted town. All towns were not like Ruhethal: there  towns  of a very different ; for instance KlatschausenKlatschhausen [sic]—a town in the highest degree enlightened; “a truly discriminating town!” exclaimed he; for there only had M. Counsellor Gerstensaft met with any success in his profession. So much indeed, that the corporation had given him hopes of electing him their Recorder: and the late  Recorder’s widow had given him hopes  still more flattering to his .The day of election, as the Almanack informed him, must by this time have passed: and he was just   beginning to “make his moan” on the tardiness of the Post-Office, when he heard  his  own name loudly pronounced in the street;—“which was the house of M. Counsellor Gerstensaft?” moment  the  heavy boots of a courier were heard clattering up the steps, and the door-bell rang out an alarum of joyous agitation to the Counsellor’s. express from the town-council of Klatschhausen, announcing  him  appointment to the Recordership—and conveying the  congratulations of the corporation,   the general expression of their wishes that he would soon arrive to take up his abode amongst them.

The last day of his residence in Ruhethal had at length arrived; and from the top-most window of his house M. Recorder threw down looks of  tender pity upon the  infatuated town that lay  beneath him. “Poor erring place!” said he; most certainly. But bitterly I shall be avenged. Soon, too soon (I fear), will Ruhethal. .