It was opened almost immediately by a tall meagre man, holding in his hand a small silver lamp, which he applied close to the face of Sir Cesar before he would permit any one to pass. "Il maestro," cried he, as soon as he saw the dark small features of the astrologer, making him at the same time a profound inclination, "entra, dottissimo! Benvenuto, benvenuto sia!"
Sir Cesar replied in an under tone, and taking the lamp from the Italian, motioned Sir Osborne and the earl to follow. The staircase up which he conducted them was excessively small, narrow, and winding, bespeaking one of the meanest houses in the city; and what still more excited their surprise, they mounted near forty steps without perceiving any door or outlet whatever, except where a blast of cold air through a sort of loophole in the wall announced their proximity to the street.
At length the astrologer stopped opposite a door only large enough to admit the passage of one person at a time, through which he led the way, when to the astonishment of both Sir Osborne and the earl, they found themselves in a magnificent oblong apartment, nearly forty feet in length, and rather more than twenty in breadth. On each side were ranged tables and stands, covered with various specimens of ancient art, which, rare in any age, were then a thousand times more scarce than they are now.
Although the taking of Constantinople, about seventy years before, by driving many of the Greeks amongst whom elegance and science long lingered, into other countries, had revived already, in some degree, the taste for the arts of painting and sculpture, still few, very few, even of the princes of Europe, could boast such beautiful specimens as those which that chamber contained.
Here stood a statue, there an urn; on one table was an alabaster capital of exquisite workmanship, on another a bas-relief whose figures seemed struggling from the stone; medals, and gems, and specimens of curious ores, were mingled with the rest; and many a book, written in strange and unknown characters, lay open before their eyes. There, too, were various instruments of curious shape and device, whose purpose they could not even guess; while here frowned a man in armour, there grinned a skeleton; and there, swathed in its historic bands, stood an Egyptian mummy, resting its mouldering and shapeless head against the feet of a figure, in which some long-dead artist had laboured skilfully to display all the exquisite lines of female loveliness.
To observe all this the two young men had full opportunity, while Sir Cesar proceeded forward, stopping between each table, and bringing the flame of the lamp he carried in contact with six others, which stood upon a row of ancient bronze tripods ranged along the side of the hall. At the end of the room hung a large black curtain, on each side of which was a clock of very curious manufacture; the one showing, apparently, the year, the day, the hour, and the minute; and the other exposing a figure of the zodiac, round which moved a multitude of strange hieroglyphic signs, some so rapidly that the eye could scarcely distinguish their course, some so slow that their motion was hardly to be discerned.
As Sir Osborne and Lord Darby approached, Sir Cesar drew back the curtain, and exposed to their sight an immense mirror, in which they could clearly distinguish their own figures, and that of the astrologer, reflected at full length.[[9]] "Mark!" said Sir Cesar, "and from what you shall see, draw your own inference. But question me not: for I vowed when I received that precious gift, which is now before you, never to make one comment upon what it displayed. Mark! and when you have seen, leave me."
"But I see nothing," said Sir Osborne, "except my own reflection in the glass."
"Patience, patience. Impetuous spirit," cried the old man. "Will a hundred lives never teach thee calmness? Look to the mirror!"
Sir Osborne turned his eyes to the glass, but still nothing new met his view; and after gazing for a minute or two, he suffered his glance to wander to the clock by his side, which now struck eight with a clear, sweet, musical sound.