My Library

to a request to exhibit his power. ‘With great pleasure, your majesty,’ and forthwith he turned and looked straight into a massive mirror that occupied the entire space between two windows of the saloon. As he spoke it struck me that, somewhere, at some time, I had met this Italian Rosicrucian, but where, for the life of me, I could not tell; yet I was certain that I had heard that voice, and still more certain that I had beheld that strange, sweet smile. “The Count’s position before the mirror was such that, supposing his eye had been a flame, the reflected rays would strike the forehead of one of the company fairly in the centre. The person upon whom it struck had not the least suspicion of what was being done. He did not make the discovery until it was too late, for no sooner did the operator get him fairly in focus, then he clenched his hands, looked with ten-fold earnestness at the mirror, muttered to himself a few unintelligible words, and the gentleman fell to the floor as if his heart had been perforated by a bullet, or as if he had been struck down with a club. In an instant all was confusion, everybody thinking it a fit of apoplexy, except the Emperor, the operator, myself and the Russian. “Several went to raise him, but before they could do so he sprung to his feet, began to sing and dance—the truth, at the same time, flashed upon the company, that the phenomenon was