selves, not heard by tradition: what will now become of your incredulity?”
“I am totally vanquished,” said the professor, wringing his hands comically: “Your lady, counsellor, has quite converted me; henceforth I will believe in forebodings, ghosts, spectres, warnings, and whatever you would have me believe in.”
“At least,” said the lady smiling, “you will have some respect for the secret powers of my mind, and if you do not wish to forget them, you will fulfil my prophecy, which is that you will remain our guest during the present evening.”
The professor bowed acquiescence, and requested that he might exhibit the casket containing the antiquities which he had been about to show to the company, when the fears of the counsellor’s lady had deprived him of their society. A messenger was despatched to his house, and in a short time returned with it. “Behold,” said the antiquary, after he had shown many rare and curious things, “behold my greatest treasure! this beautiful old vase, which, as I shall prove to you, has most probably been an ancient relic of a cloister, and is unquestionably of inestimable worth. The form is almost Grecian; and I think nothing more beautiful, and at the same time more simple, can be imagined: unfortunately one of the handles is injured; but this injury has enabled me to come to a most important conclusion concerning it. I believe it unique in its kind. Under the broken handle an inscription is yet visible, that coincides remarkably with the place where this vase was found. It had been walled up in an ancient convent most carefully. This convent formerly possessed many relics, and these were discovered some years ago on the destruction of the pile; among them was this vase; and its existence was probably unknown, latterly, even to the monks themselves, for it was hid in a niche of the wall. Now you must know that this is neither more nor less than an ancient model of the holy and celebrated Graal[1] of our Lord. You can see the inscription still quite legible: Ad : Sm : Graal : DJD : JT : Ad Sanctissimum Graalem Domini Jesus deliniatus Jussu Thesaurarii; that is, ladies, in the vernacular tongue, ‘modelled after the most holy graal of our Lord, by the command of the treasurer.’ On this account it was so carefully preserved; and you may remark that this palpable vase-like form overturns the opinion of some writers, who have maintained that the graal was in the form of a patera, and it was, as you see, clearly of this cup-like shape.”
The counsellor’s wife had repeatedly, during this harangue, held her handkerchief to her mouth, but when it was over she burst into laughter. At last she exclaimed, “Pray do not henceforth accuse any one of credulity who believes in political or spiritual forebodings, since you are so gratuitous with your conviction, and take an earthen pipkin for a monastic relic.”
“May I request you,” said the professor rather indignantly, “to look at this vessel again? and when you take all the circumstances into consideration, you will no longer doubt the genuineness of it for a
- ↑ The vessel out of which the last Passover was eaten.—See the romance of Sir Lancelot du Lac for his adventures in search of it.
