Ben Hafi appeared not to remark his ❘ emotion, and continued." I threw myself on his bosom, and exclaimed Be my master; but still love me in the secrecy of your heart, my brother." "You are my brother," he replied, pressing me to his bosom; "how then can I ever be your master ?" "The next morning he entered my chamber. He rubbed upon my wrist a little ointment, and then stamped it with a signet, on which his name was engraved. Such was the virtue of that particular ointment, that the characters from that moment were impossible to be effaced. He then obliged me to stamp my name upon his wrist in a similar manner. "And now," said he, " if ever the slightest suspicion should arise between us, if ever the most trifling movement of displeasure shall evince itself in my conduct towards you, come to me without fear, and shew me this mark. I shall remember the occasion on which it was engraved; I shall banish all distrust and displeasure from my bosom; and be the cause of our disunion slight or important, I swear by Allah that I will instantly forget it, and I shall remember nothing except that you are my brother and my friend." tion of my affection and fidelity, I suf fered the feelings of indignant pride and wounded friendship to make me disdain all explanation. These tears do not flow because I now wander through the world a houseless beggar, but because my absence has left him alone and defenceless in the power of his seducers. Why did I not appeal to his fraternal friendship? Why did I not trust to his generous heart? Even had he still believed me to be a traitor, even had he punished my supposed crime with death, the attempt at vindication would but have cost me my life; but silence and suspicious flight must surely have cost my brother his innocence. Believing me to be false, he will believe no one to be faithful; believing my virtue to have been a mask, he will believe others to be equally dissemblers. I left him surrounded by men but too well disposed to take advantage of his generous yielding nature, and mould it to their own ambitious and interested views. His power will be abused; his people will be miserable; and he will himself be wretched on his golden throne, for I know that, deprived of me, he never can be happy." At this moment the deaf Mejnoun started from the ground, and exclaimed with strong emotion-" Ben Hafi, you surely spoke of the good prince Abdallah -nothing else could affect my lord so strongly!" "We were shortly after separated, and our education was conducted on different plans. My brother's instructors were quite of another species from mine, and their lessons were solely calculated to form the sovereign : what regarded the man, was, they thought, no business of theirs; or if it formed any part of their instructions, it was only to impress upon their pupil's mind their great leading maxim, that the feelings of the second ought always to be sub-ments, a gentle voice, whose well well-known mark, these characters | groaned, and that my brother was ordinate to the rights and duties of the first." "My father died-my brother ascended the throne, and now -!" " No! I do not censure my deluded, my misguided brother; but I censure myself that when I possessed in letters of my enemies the certain vindica "Yes! oh! yes!" the Caliph pronounced with difficulty; "the poor forlorn stranger-was Abdallah! was my brother!" He reclined his head upon the shoulder of Mejnoun, and sobbed aloud."Amurath!" said, after a few mo known melody pierced to the Caliph's very heart. He uttered a cry of astonishment; he started from the sofa and unclosed his arms. Ben Hafi had thrown off his upper garment; the grey beard and wrinkles had disappeared, and the roses of youth glowed upon his smiling cheeks. He now wore the same dress, in which the Caliph had seen his brother on the night previous to his flight from Bagdad, and he point ed to certain characters impressed upon the naked wrist of his right hand. "Abdallah!" cried the Caliph, and threw himself upon his bosom; "my friend, my brother! I have thee again then, my happiness-my strength my reason-my virtue! Ah! Abdallah! can'st thou forgive me ?" "Say rather," replied the prince, " can'st thou forgive me for having rejected all explanation? I ought to have insisted upon admission to your presence; I ought to have shown you this hours on pain of death. And now Amurath turned again to his brother with tender reproaches for having kept him so long in ignorance of his being so near him. "Report," said Abdallah, "repre sented you to me in such odious colours, and the miseries which I witnessed while travelling through your dominions, confirmed so strongly the belief of your altered disposition, that I thought it imprudent to present myself before you without having ascertained your real character. But I was soon convinced that the Vizir, not the Caliph was the tyrant, under whose oppression Arabia impressed by the hand of fraternal friendship" 66 "No, no, my brother!" interrupted the Caliph, while he kissed the mark on his brother's wrist, and bathed it with repentant tears; you did wisely and well to avoid me. Had you, at that time, ventured into my presence-I was so blinded-so deluded but I have since discovered the treachery, though not its authors." " Their names are well known to me," replied Abdallah; Muzaffer will see that their guilt is placed beyond the power of doubting by this letter." As he said this, he presented a paper to the thunder-struck Vizir. He read but a few lines, then fell at the prince's feet, and murmured" Be merciful." The Caliph's eyes flamed with indignant vengeance: but Abdallah became a suppliant for his vanquished enemy. Muzaffer was allowed to preserve his life, and a moderate proportion of his treasures, but was ordered to quit the Caliph's dominions within eight and forty as a man the same benevolent generous being, whom as a boy I had loved so dearly." "But your voice-so soft-so touching-how could I have ever mistaken its sweet harmonious accents ?" " You were misled by a thin plate of silver placed upon my tongue, and which altered its tone completely." " And your friend Amorassan? Alas! I fear that he was a deception too! But one thing, Abdallah, I cannot consent to believe ideal. Oh! still preserve in my mind the belief, that there really exists that bright pavilion: and let me die in the happy persuasion, that hand in hand we shall one day be received there. Then brother, then shall we take our places among the Spirits and the genii! and you shall sit by my side; and my poor deaf Mejnoun shall sit at my feet; and Allah shall send down a friendly gracious look, as a benediction on his chil dren." " Peace be with you and with me!" The solitudes of the Harz forest in | that many persons profess to have seen Germany, but especially the mountains such a inan traversing, with huge strides, the opposite ridge of a mountain, when divided from it by a narrow glen; and indeed the fact of the apparition is so generally admitted, that modern scepticism has only found refuge by ascribing it to optical deception. In elder times, the intercourse of the demon with the inhabitants was more familiar, and, according to the traditions of the Harz, he was wont, with the caprice usually ascribed to these earth-born powers, to interfere with the affairs of mortals, sometimes for their welfare. But it was observed, that even his gifts often turned out in the long run, fatal to those on whom they were bestowed, and it was no uncommon thing for the pastors, in their care for their flock, to compose long sermons, the burthen whereof was a warning against having any intercourse, direct or indirect, with the Harz demon. The fortunes of Martin Waldeck have been often quoted by the aged to their giddy children, when they were heard to scoff at a danger which appeared visionary. A travelling capuchin had possessed himself of the pulpit of the thatched church at a little hamlet called Morgenbrodt, lying in the Harz district, from which he declaimed against the wickedness of the inhabitants, their communication with fiends, witches, and fairies, and particularly, with the woodland goblin of the Harz. The doctrines of Luther had already begun to spread among the peasantry, for the incident is placed under the reign of Charles V., and they laughed to scorn the zeal with which the venerable man insisted upon his topic. At length, as his vehemence increased with oppositiort, so their opposition rose in proportion to his vehemence. The inhabitants did not like to hear an accustomed demon, who had inhabited the Brockenberg for so many ages, summarily confounded with Baal-peor, Ashtaroth, and Beelzebub himself, and condemned without reprieve to the bottomless Tophet. The apprehensions that the spirit might avenge himself on them for listening to such an illiberal sentence, added to the national interest in his behalf. A travelling friar, they said, that is here to-day and away to-morrow, may say what he pleases, but it is we, the ancient and constant inhabitants of the country, that are left at the mercy of the insulted demon, and must, of course, pay for all. Under the irritation accasioned by these reflections, the peasants from injurious language betook themselves to stones, and having pebbled the priest most handsomely, they drove him out of the parish to preach against demons elsewhere. Three young men, who had been present and assisting in the attack upon the priest, carried on the laborious and mean occupation of preparing charcoal for the smelting furnaces. On their return to their hut, their conversation naturally turned upon the demon of the Harz and the doctrine of the capuchin. Maximilian and George Waldeck, the two elder brothers, although they allowed the language of the capuchin to have been indiscreet and worthy of censure, as presuming to determine upon the precise character and abode of the spirit, yet contended it was dangerous, in the highest degree, to accept of his gifts, or hold any communication with him. He was powerful they allowed, but wayward and capricious, and those who had intercourse with him seldom came to a good end. Did he not give the brave knight, Ecbert of Rabenwald, that famous black steed, by means of which he vanquished all the champions at the great tournament at Bremen? and did not the same steed afterwards precipitate itself with its rider into an abyss so deep and fearful, that neither horse nor man was ever seen more? Had he not given to Dame Gertrude Trodden a curious spell for making butter come? and was she not burnt for a witch by the grand criminal judge of the Electorate, because she availed herself of his gift? But these, and many other instances which they quoted, of mischance and ill-luck ultimately attending upon the apparent benefits conferred by the Harz spirit, failed to make any impression on Martin Waldeck, the youngest of the brothers. Martin was youthful, rash, and impetuous; excelling in all the exercises which distinguish a mountaineer, and brave and undaunted from the familiar intercourse with the dangers that attend them. He laughed at the timidity of his brothers. Tell me not of such folly," he said; the demon is a good demon-he lives among us as if he were a peasant like ourselves-haunts the lonely crags or recesses of the mountains like a huntsman or goatherdand he who loves the Harz-forest and its wild scenes cannot be indifferent to the fate of the hardy children of the soil. But if the demon were as mali cious as you make him, how should he derive power over mortals who barely avail themselves of his gifts, without binding themselves to submit to his pleasure? When you carry your charcoal to the furnace, is not the money as good that is paid you by blaspheming Blaize, the old reprobate overseer, as if you got it from the pastor himself? It is not the goblin's gifts which can endanger you then, but it is the use you shall make of them that you must account for. And were the demon to appear at this moment, and indicate to me a gold or silver mine, I would begin to dig away before his back were turned, and I would consider myself as under protection of a much Greater than he, while I made a good use of the wealth he pointed out to me." To this the elder brother replied, that wealth ill won was seldom well spent, while Martin presumptuously declared, that the possession of all the Harz would not make the slightest alteration on his habits, morals, or character. His brother entreated Martin to talk less wildly upon this subject, and with some difficulty contrived to withdraw his attention, by calling it to the consideration of an approaching boar-chase. This talk brought them to their hut, a wretched wigwam, situated upon one side of a wild, narrow, and romantic dell, in the recesses of the Brokenberg. They released their sister from attending upon the operation of charring the wood, which requires constant attention, and divided among themselves the duty of watching it by night, according to their custom, one always waking while his brothers slept. Max Waldeck, the eldest, watched during the two first hours of night, and was considerably alarmed, by observing, upon the opposite bank of the glen, or valley, a huge fire, surrounded by some figures that appeared to wheel around it with antic gestures. Max at first bethought him of calling up his brothers; but recollecting the daring character of the youngest, and finding it 229 betake himself to himself t the safe-guard of such prayers as he could murmur over, and to watch in great terror and apparition. After blazing for some time, annoyance this strange and alarming ❘ness, and the rest of Max's watch was the fire faded gradually away into darkonly disturbed by the remembrance of its terrors. The George now occupied the place of phenomenon of a huge blazing fire, Max, who had retired to rest. upon the opposite bank of the glen, watchman. It was surrounded as before again presented itself to the eye of the by figures, which, distinguished by their opaque forms, being between the specand fluctuated around it as if engaged tator and the red glaring light, moved though equally cautious, was of a bolder in some mystical ceremonies. George, character than his elder brother. He resolved to examine more nearly the object of his wonder; and accordingly, after crossing the rivulet which divided the glen, he climbed up the opposite flight from the fire, which blazed appabank, and approached within an arrow's rently with the same fury as when he first witnessed it. surrounded it, resembled those phanThe appearance of the assistants who toms which are seen in a troubled dream, and at once confirmed the idea he had entertained from the first, that they did the strange unearthly forms, George not belong to the human world. Amongst Waldeck distinguished that of a giant overgrown with hair, holding an uprooted fir in his hand, with which, from ing fire, and having no other clothing time to time, he seemed to stir the blazthan a wreath of oak leaves round his forehead and loins. George's heart sunk within him at recognizing the wellknown apparition of the Harz demon, |