I was too much horror-stricken to attempt even to soothe him. The
anger of blood against blood has an electric power which paralyzes
bystanders.
"Listen to me, sir," he continued, "while I skin this painted
viper. I have your oath; you will not reveal. I am an alchemist,
sir. Since I was twenty-two years old, I have pursued the
wonderful and subtle secret. Yes, to unfold the mysterious Rose
guarded with such terrible thorns; to decipher the wondrous Table
of Emerald; to accomplish the mystic nuptials of the Red King and
the White Queen; to marry them soul to soul and body to body,
forever and ever, in the exact proportions of land and water--such
has been my sublime aim, such has been the splendid feat that I
have accomplished."
I recognized at a glance, in this incomprehensible farrago, the
argot of the true alchemist. Ripley, Flamel, and others have
supplied the world, in their works, with the melancholy spectacle
of a scientific bedlam.
"Two years since," continued the poor man, growing more and more
excited with every word that he uttered--"two years since, I
succeeded in solving the great problem--in transmuting the baser
metals into gold.
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