"Hitherto I had participated in the terror of my guide. I had been so amazed at Albert's being alive, that I had not enquired if this was possible. I had even forgotten that death had bereft me of this dear and precious friend. The emotion of the magician recalled to me, that all this was very strange, and that I had seen only a spectre. My reason, however, repudiated what was impossible, and the bitterness of the reproaches of Cagliostro caused a kind of ill-humor, which protected me from weakness. 'You feign to have faith in your own falsehood,' said I, with vivacity; 'ah! your game is very cruel. Yes; you sport with all that is most holy, even with death itself.'
"'Soul without faith, and without power,' said he angrily, but in a most imposing manner. 'You believe in death, as the vulgar do, and yet you had a great master—one who said: "We do not die. Nothing dies;—there is nothing dies." You accuse me of falsehood, and seem to forget that the only thing which is untrue here, is the name of death in your impious mouth.' I confess that this strange reply overturned all my thoughts, and for a moment overcame the resistance of my troubled mind. How came this man to be aware of my relations with Albert, and even the secrets of his doctrine? Did he believe as Albert did, or did he make use of this as a means to acquire an ascendancy over me?
"I was confused and alarmed. Soon, however, I said that this gross manner of interpreting Albert's faith, could not be mine, and that God, not the impostor Cagliostro, can evoke death, or recall life. Finally, convinced that I was the dupe of an inexplicable illusion, the explanation of which, however, I might some day find, I arose, praising coldly the savoir-faire of the sorcerer, and asked him for an explanation of the whimsical conversation his phantoms had together. In relation to that he replied, that it was impossible to satisfy me, and that I should be satisfied with seeing the person calm, and carefully occupied. 'You will ask me in vain,' added he, 'what are his thoughts and actions in life. I am ignorant even of his name. When you desired, and asked to see it, there was formed between you two a mysterious communication, which my power was capable of making able to bring you together. All science goes no farther.'
"'Your science,' said I, 'does not reach that far even; I thought of Porpora, and you did not present him to me.'
"'Of that I know nothing,' said he, in a tone serious and terrible. 'I do not wish to know. I have seen nothing, either in your mind, or in the magic mirror. My mind would not support such a spectacle, and I must maintain all my senses to exercise my power. The laws of science are infallible, and consequently, though not aware of it yourself, you must have thought of some one else than Porpora, since you did not see the latter.'"
"Such is the talk of madmen of that kind," said the princess, shrugging her shoulders. "Each one has his peculiar mode; though all, by means of a captious reasoning, which may be called the method of madness, so contrive by disturbing the ideas of others, that they are never cut short, or disturbed themselves."
"He certainly disturbed mine," said Consnelo, "and I was no longer able to analyse them. The apparition of Albert, true or false, made me more distinctly aware that I had lost him forever, and I shed tears.
"'Consuelo;' said the magician in a solemn tone, and offering me his hand, (you may imagine that my real name, hitherto unknown to all, was an additional surprise, when I heard him speak it,) 'you have great errors to repair, and I trust you will neglect nothing to regain your peace of mind.' I had not power to reply. I sought in vain to hide my tears from my companions, who waited impatiently for me in the next room. I was more impatient yet to withdraw, and as soon as I was alone, after having given a free course to my grief, I passed the night in reflections and commentaries on the scenes of this fatal evening. The more I sought to understand it, the more I became lost in a labyrinth of uncertainty; and I must own that my ideas were often worse than an implicit obedience to the oracles of magic would have been. Worn out by fruitless suffering, I resolved to suspend my judgment until there should be light. Since then, however, I have been impressionable, subject to the vapors, sick at heart, and deeply sad. I was not more sensibly aware of the death of my friend than I had been; the remorse which his generous pardon had lulled to rest, again began to torment me. By constantly exercising my profession, I grew weary of the frivolous intoxication of success; besides, in this country, where the mind of man seems sombre as the climate——"
"And the government?" said the abbess.
"In this government, where I felt overcome and chilled, I saw that I would not make the progress I dreamed of."