“I have,” said the student.
“Art thou at this present time betrothed to a Vampire?”
“I am,” said the student.
“Hast thou sacrificed thy mother and sister to the infernal powers?”
“Of course,” said the student,
“Hast thou attestations of all these circumstances under the hands and seals of a thousand and one demons?”
The student displayed his parchments.
“Thou hast undergone every trial,” pronounced the seventh goblin; “thou hast won the right to enter the treasury of the treasurer of all things, and to choose from it any one talisman at thy liking.”
The imps cheered, the goblins congratulated, the serpents shrank hissing away, the lions fawned upon the student, a centaur bore him upon his back to the treasurer’s presence,
The treasurer, an old bent man, with a single lock of silvery hair, received the adventurer with civility.