“I will name my wish,” said Wagner.
“Speak!” cried the fiend.
“Show me the Lady Nisida as she now is,” exclaimed Fernand, his heart beating with the hope of beholding her whom he loved so devotedly; for, with all the jealousy of a lover, was he anxious to convince himself that she was thinking of him.
“Ah! ’tis the same as with Faust and his Theresa,” murmured the demon to himself; then aloud he said, “Rather ask me to show you the Lady Nisida as she will appear four days hence.”
“Be it so!” cried Wagner, moved by the mysterious warning those words appeared to convey.
The demon extended his arm, and chanted in deep, sonorous tones, the following incantation:
“Ye powers of darkness who obey
Eternally my potent sway,
List to thy sovereign master’s call!
Transparent make this dungeon wall;