though he said in triumph; “One of you, I well know, is burdened with heavy thoughts. Of that at least I am certain!”
“For me,” replied old master Philibert, very calmly,—“for me, I feel still more certain that I am not the person. Yea! and I know something yet more; that you will not yenture to stay in this house another quarter of an hour; for I hereby conjure you, in pure and lively faith, with the fear of God before my eyes, confiding in him only, to depart from hence out of this house, and never to cross its threshold more. What is more, you shall decamp forthwith, secretly and quietly, without offering to disturb a single Christian soul within these walls, without any knocking, rumbling, or roaring of any kind. Now!—avaunt!—are you going? or will you have me appeal to more strong and terrible adjurations, in the name of the Lord. Will you wait, and rue your folly, or be gone?” At these last words, with quick, horrible and threatening gestures, the lodger gathered up his strange furniture and hiding them under his red mantle, he hastened towards the door, fiercely murmuring as he went by, “Thou cunning old Professor—thou arch deceiver—not a word in my defence, against that savage greybeard; dumb villain as thou art! I will away from these walls—but then what woe—what woe—yet—yet.”
His voice continued to utter this, close in their
