LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 118, 16 October 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE INVISIBLE EYE. [ Concluded, ] ‘ Thank heaven ! T said my prayers before going to rest, or where should I bo now ? —where should I be now ?’ And he hurried away, raising his hands to heaven. ‘Well,’ said Master Schmidt, stupified, ‘ the chamber is empty, but don’t go into it to do me an ill-turn.’ ‘ I should be doing myself a much worse one,’ I replied. Giving my parcel to the servant-girl, I went and seated myself provisionally among the guests who were drinking and smoking. For a long time I had not felt more calm, more happy to be in the world. After so many inquietudes, I was approaching my end—the horizon seemed to grow lighter. I know not by what formidable power I was being led on. I lit my pipe, and with my elbow on the table and a jug of wine before me, listened to the hunting-chorus from ‘Her Freischutz,’ played by a band of Zigeuners from Schwartz-Wald. The trumpet, the hunting-horn, the hautbois, turn by turn plunged me into vague reverie ; and sometimes rousing myself to look at the old woman’s house, I seriously asked myself whether all that had happened to me was more than a dream. But when the •watchman came, to request us to vacate the room, graver thoughts took possession of my mind, and I followed, in meditative mood, the little servant-girl who preceded me with a candle in her hand. Chapter 111. We mounted the winding flight of stairs to the third story ; arrived there, she placed the candle in my hand, and pointed to a door. ‘That’s it,’ she said, and hurried back down the stairs as fast as she could go. I opened the door. The green chamber was like all other inn bedchambers ; the ceiling was low, the bed was high. After casting a glance round the room, I stepped across to the window. Nothing was yet noticeable in Fledermausse’s house, with the exception of a light, which shone at the back of a deep obscure bedchamber, —a nightligbt, doubtless. ‘ So much the better,’ I said to myself, as I reclosed the window curtains; ‘ I shall have plenty of time.’ I opened my parcel, and from its contents put on a woman’s cap with a broad frilled border; then, with a piece of pointed charcoal, in front of the glass, I marked my forehead with a number of wrinkles. This took me a full hour to do; but after I had put on a gown and a large shawl, I was afraid of myself: Fledermausse herself was looking at me from the depths of the glass!

At that moment the watchman announced the hour of eleven. I rapidly dressed the lay figure I had brought with me like the one prepared by the old witch. I then drew apart the window curtains. Certainly, after all I had seen of the old woman—her infernal cunning, her prudence, and her address —nothing ought to have surprised even me; yet I was positively terrified. The light, which I had observed at the back of her room, now cast its yellow rays on her lay-figure, dressed like the peasant of Nassau, which sat huddled up on the side of the bed, its head dropped upon its chest, the large three-cornered hat drawn down over its features, its arms pendent down by its sides, and its whole attitude that of a person plunged in despair. Managed with diabolical art, the shadow permitted only a general view of the figure, the red waistcoat and its six rounded buttons alone caught the light ; but the silence of night, the complete immobility of the figure, and its air of terrible dejection, all served to impress the beholder with irresistible force ; even I myself, though not in the least taken by surprise, felt chilled to the centre of my bones. How would it have been, then, with a poor countryman taken completely off his guard ? He would have been utterly overthrown ; he would have lost all control of will, and the spirit of imitation would have done the rest.

Scarcely had I drawn aside the curtains than I discoA r ered Fledermausse on the Avatch behind her AvindoAV-panes. She could not see me. I opened the Avindow softly, the windoAV over the AA'ay softly opened too ; then the lay-figure appeared to rise sloAvly and advance towards me ; I did the same, and seizing my candle Avith one hand, Avith the other threAV the casement Avide open. The old woman and I Avere face to face ; for, overAvhelmed Avith astonishment, she had let the lay-figure fall from her hands. Our tAVO looks crossed Avith an equal terror. She stretched forth a finger, I did the saine; her lips moA r ed, I moved mine; she heaved a deep sigh and leant upon her elbow, I rested in the same way.

How frightful the enacting of this scene Avas I cannot describe; it Avas made up of delirium, beAvilderment, madness. It Avas a struggle betAveen tAvo Avills, two intelligences, tAVO souls, one of Avhich sou ht ‘o the other; and in this struggle I had the adA rantage. The dead struggled Avith me. _ After having for some seconds imitated all the movementa of Fledermausse, I drew a cord from the folds of my petticoat and tied it to the iron stanchion of the signboard.

The old woman Avatched me Avith open mouth. I passed the cord round my neck. Her tawny eyeballs glittered; her features became commlsed :

‘ No, no! ’ she cried, in a hissing tone ; ‘No! ’

I proceeded with the impassibility of a hangman. The Fledermausse Avas seized Avith rage. 1 You’re mad ! you’re mad !’ she cried, springing up and clutching Avildly at the sill of the AvindoAV ; ‘You’re mad !’

I gave her no time to continue. Suddenly blowing out my light, I stooped like a man preparing to make a vigorous spring, then seizing my lay-figure, slipped the cord about" 3 its neck and hurried it into the

A terrible shriek resounded through the street, and then all was silent again. Perspiration bathed my forehead. I listened a long time. At the end of a quarter of an hour I heard far off—very far off—the cry of the watchman, announcing to the inhabitants of Neremberg that midnight had struck. ‘Justice is at last done,’ I murmured to myself ; ‘ the three victims are avenged. Heaven forgive me !’

This was five minutes after I had heard the last cry of the watchman, and when I had seen the old witch, drawn by the likeness of herself, a cord about her neck, hanging from the iron stanchion projecting from her house, I saw the thrill of death run through her limbs, and the moon, calm aud silent, rose above the edge of the roof, and threw upon her dishevelled head its cold pale rays.

As I had seen the poor young student of Heidelberg, I now saw Fledermausse. The next day all Nuremberg knew that ‘ the Bat’ had hung herself. It was the last event of the kind in the rue des Minnesangers. LIEUTENANT MUDGE’S AUNT. A Tale of St Patrick’s Ball. From All the Year Round, Mr Mulligan Mudge is a lieutenant in that distingushed militia regiment, known in peaceful Hibernian circles as the Ringsend Fusileers. He is an officer of superior ability, and can screw a glass into his right eye, lounge upon an outside car, and walk up or down Grafton street, in a manner at once calculated to attract attention, and to impress the vulgar mind with a due sense of his attainments, of his military achievements, and of his dignity. During the period in which his gallant regiment is under training, Lieutenant Mudge is a glory to behold, for he appears in the startling radiance of regimentals, with 'a huge sword dangling after him, causing a general clatter all over the street, to the awe and bewilderment of all honest rate-paying burgesses with whom he may come into contact.

Now Lieutenant Mudge, at the period of the opening of this narrative, was extremely desirous of improving his financial position, his resources being of that genteel nature known as “limited and as he had no profession but that of a second-hand warrior, and was unable to increase his income through the medium of the labour market, he, able strategist as he was, perceived at a glance that there were but two courses open to him by which he might attain, if not prosperity, at least an honourable independence. One of these roads to fortune lay through the lottery of marriage ; the other through the life of an aunt, who possessed three thousand pounds in the simple elegance of the three per cents, in addition to a snug ‘ ‘ bit o’ land” in the neighbourhood of the town of Loughrea, upon which she resided, and whither the gallant Ringsend Fusileer was wont to repair after the dangers and glories of the annual training of the distinguished corps to which he was attached, in order to recruit his constitution and his pocket. Mrs Clancy was extremely proud of her warlike kinsman, and indulged the gallant lieutenant in anything, everything, but money. She sent him hampers of fowls, hams, and vegetables ; she made him gifts of cheap pocket-handkerchiefs, bought in job lots in Loughrea, of scarfs and brummagem pins. She even presented him with a suit of garments of the deceased Clancy, the small-clothes of which were constructed of corduroy, but she never gave him a coin. ‘ Ye’ll have it all after I’m gone, Tim,’ she would say, upon his earnest application for pecuniary aid, ‘ but not a farden till then—not a mag, Tim.’ Even when she visited Dublin, the lieutenant’s head-quarters, she would not entrust him with the payment of as much as a car fare; and so far did she carry out her views upon the subject of coinage control, that even the payment of the halfpenny, to cross the metal bridge over the River Liil'ey, was doled out by herself, and she detained the gallant Fusilier, upon a cutting day in January, for at least five minutes while she hunted down a coy sixpence, with numbed and nervous fingers. Seeing that it was hopeless to endeavour to develope Mrs Clancy’s mineral resources, Lieutenant Mudge turned his thoughts in the direction of matrimony, and, before he had well decided on his line of action, destiny Hung a charming girl across his path like a rose-bud.

Mrs Bolgibbie, the mother of the maiden in question, was the relict of a counsel learned in the law, who had died of brain fever brought on by consuming the midnight oil over an impossible case, leaving Mrs Bolgibbie disconsolate, with three hundred a year, and a daughter, the image of her defunct sire ; especially about the nasal organ, which was very red and very bulbous. To this young creature (age uncertain), Lieutenant Huge was formally presented at a little evening party, given by a mutual friend residing at Eathmines, and having danced with her as often as circumstances would permit, experienced the inexpressible satisfaction of escorting her and her engaging mother to their residence within the city boundary, and the unutterable chagrin of paying the cabman double fare ; for it was past that hour at which the ordinary tariff fails to satisfy and far into that in which fancy reign supreme. But, had he not made an investment ? Was not that half-crown, composed of two mouldy shillings, a fourpence, and four half-pence, destined to bear golden fruit ? It had been confidentially imparted to him that Miss Bolgibbie was in possession of five hundred per annum, and this, too, at her own disposal. Here was a light towards which to propel his ricketty bark ; here was a harbour of refuge, worthy the straining of every nerve to gain, and, once in whose smooth Avater, he could ride pleasantly at anchor, and calmly survey the bankrupt billoAvs dashing harmlessly OA’er the break - Avater standing betAveen him and financial shipwreck ! Mrs Bolgibbie was possessed of genteel proclivities, Miss Bolgibbie Avent a step further and spoke of the aristocracy Avith that easy and familiar air with Avhich people speak of matters of which they know very little, but of Avhich they Avould fain knoAV a great deal. Mrs Bolgibbie had a relatiA'e in the army, to Avhom she constantly referred ; but Avhether the gentleman adorned the British, French, Austrian, Eussian, or Chinese service, no person could by any possibility determine, as Avhen pressed upon the point the lady evaded a direct answer in a manner that reflected the highest creditupon her ingenuity, Avhilst, at the same time, it effectually closed the inquiry. Mrs Bolgibbie lived Avithin her means, and .as a consequence did not throAV much mone3 r lAvay upon the modistes of Dublin. She indulged in the Avinter season in imitation, seal-skin, and limp black silk AA r ith a bluish shine upon it, as though it had been polished with black-lead. In summer she affected a mysterious fabric consisting of a compromise betAveen muslin and barege, A T ery cheap, but singularly showy, and, indeed, glittering. To he continued,