Would
you write your Twelfth Vigil, therefore, then descend your cursed five
pair of stairs, leave your garret, and come over to me. In the blue
palm-tree room, which you already know, you will find fit writing
materials; and you can then, in a few words, specify to your readers
what you have seen--a better plan for you than any long-winded
description of a life which you know only by hearsay.
With esteem, your obedient servant,
THE SALAMANDER LINDHORST,
P.T. Royal Privy Archivarius."
This truly somewhat rough, yet on the whole friendly note from
Archivarius Lindhorst, gave me high pleasure. Clear enough it
seemed, indeed, that the singular manner in which the fortunes of his
son-in-law had been revealed to me, and which I, bound to silence,
must conceal even from thee, kind reader, was well known to this
peculiar old gentleman; yet he had not taken it so ill as I might
readily have apprehended. Nay, here was he offering me his helpful
hand in the completion of my work; and from this I might justly
conclude that at bottom he was not averse to have his marvelous
existence in the world of spirits thus divulged through the press.
"It may be," thought I, "that he himself expects from this measure,
perhaps, to get his two other daughters the sooner married; for who
knows but a spark may fall in this or that young man's breast, and
kindle a longing for the green Snake; whom, on Ascension-day, under
the elder-bush, he will forthwith seek and find? From the woe which
befell Anselmus, when inclosed in the glass bottle, he will take
warning to be doubly and trebly on his guard against all doubt and
unbelief.
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