Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/125

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no attention was spared, to prevent a second fraud, and I assisted myself at the melancholy duty of fitting by the corpse in my own family vault.

No sooner was I come back from those last and pious rites, no sooner had my heart-breaking sorrows been somewhat mildered by a briny flood of tears, than I hastened to the bureau to peruse the papers. They were badly and almost illegibly written, related to uninteresting family affairs, and after a short and hasty inspection I again sealed and put them by.

Night was, by this time, very near, and I expected a visit from my Genius. I ordered some lighted candles to the lodge in the garden, to induce him to come. Provided with two braces of pistols and a sword, I was ready to bid him welcome. I was quite furious, yet waited patiently and with cold blood all night long; but Amanuel kept away.

I laid three more nights in ambush for him in a secret press contrived in the wall of my bed-chamber, but all my vigils were frustrated and no genius would approach me. I