Cadwallader made no reply to the interrogations they uttered, in
the levity of their insolence, at the first entrance, but ordered
Hadgi to conduct them through the next room, that they might
see there was no previous apparatus to affright their deputy with
objects foreign to his undertaking. They found nothing but a couple
of wax tapers burning on a table that stood with a chair by it in
the middle of the apartment, and returned to the audience-chamber,
leaving Peregrine by himself, to encounter the phantom of that
person whom they should, without his knowledge, desire the magician
to conjure up to his view,
All the doors being shut and the company seated, a profound silence
ensued, together with a face of dreadful expectation, encouraged
by the blue flame of the candles, which were tipped with sulphur
for that purpose, and heightened by the dismal sound of a large
bell, which Hadgi tolled in the ante-chamber. Cadwallader having
thus practised upon their ignorance and fear, desired them to name
the person to be produced. After some whispers among themselves, one
of them took the pen, and, writing the name of Commodore Trunnion
upon a slip of paper, put it into the hands of the magician, who
rose from his seat, and, opening the door of his closet, displayed
to their view a skull, with thigh bones crossed, upon a table
covered with black cloth.
Pages:
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116