Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-25

ceeded in detaching mine from my body
whenever it pleases me to do so it tlutters
away from me, and returns like luminous
bee, perceptible only to the initiated.
have SO long tasted, meditated, and prayed
that the God VIshnu has revealed to me the
/ mysterious word necessary to direct it
! Through its transmigrations from one form
Ito another. If, after making certain con-
4 secrated gestures, | should pronounce this
word, your soul would take fight to the
man or beast l might designate. | be-
Iqueath to you alone this secret which
alone possess. | welcome you | long to
lose myself in the Infinite as drop of
water is merged in the ocean he
whispered to me in a low voice, hoarse
with the death rattle, but distinct, several
syllables which gave me DEATH like chill F"
''What do you mean what are you
thinking of, doctor 2 exclaimed Octave.
81 dare not dream of sounding the fright
ful depths of your Imagination"
I" L mean" calmly replied NJ. BalthaZar
Cherbonneau, that have not yet fer
gotten the magic formula, and that the
| Countess Plascovie needs to be very keen,
very acute, if she recognizes you."
V.
| The reputation of Doctor B2lthazar Cher
bonneau as physician and thaumaturglst
soon became widespread his eccentricitles,
whether real or affected, had made him the
mode but far from attempting, as it was
said, to build up large clientele, he, on
the contrary, refused to prescribe for many
who applied to him, closing the door in
their faces imposing impossible conditions
or insisting on unheard of remedies, reject
ing contemptuously anything SO common
place and bourgeois as Inflammation of the
lungs or typhoid fever he promptly sent
them to his brother practitioners, accepting
only the most desperate cases, and in every
instance his success was truly inconceiva-
| bic. He was called the resurrectionist.
| He would not always take even these re-
markable cases, and frequently refused
enormous sums The grief of mother
| for an only child, the despair of lover i'm
ploring the life of an adored fiancee, would
move him. Again, if it was life valua-
BILE TO poetry, science or human progress
generally, he was interested. In less i'm
portant cases he only said it was better not
to oppose nature that a certain number of
| deaths must take place, and in en-
deavoring to prevent them there was
always risk OF disturbing some one of the
great universal laws.
1t was, however, as a magnetizer, even
more than as physician, that he had &C.
quired such renown.
He had given before limited number
several seances, on which occasions he had
given such marvellous, inconceivable ex-
hibitions of power as to disturb all precon-
ceived ideas of the possible and imPossi-
Die, surprising all the prodigies of Cagli.
ostro.
The doctors apartment was the ground
floor of an old hotel in the Rue du Regard,
en- suite, according to the custom at the
time of it's erection, its high windows open
ing on an old garden filled with tall trees
Although it was midsummer, the large
rooms were warmed by artificial heat.
which passed through brass registers, main
tanning an equal temperature as high as
| ll0', for M. Balthazar Cherbonneau, accus-
toned to the burning suns of India, shiv.
cred in our colder climate.
The furniture consisted of low divans
covered with foreign material ornamented
with embroidery of chimerical elephants
and fabulous birds, carved etageres colored
aud gilded with barbarous originality by
the natives OF Ceylon Japan vases filled
WIFI eAUbiCS , tiAO hOOA N"S
one of those funereal carpets in black and
white, woven as punishment by the i'm
prisoned Thugs several Hindoo idols in
marble or bronze, with long, almond eyes,
beringed noses and thick, smiling lips, pos
sessing singular and mysterious attributes,
sat with crossed legs on pedestals in the
corners. In the room in the rear, kept at
still higher temperature, sat NJ. Balthazar
Cherbonneau, surrounded by works IN San
scrit, on thin sheets of wood, tied together
with cord, bearing a stronger resemblance
to Venetian blinds than to the volumes of
European library. An electric machine,
with its glass disks and cranks and other
complicated machinery, reared itself In the
center of the room, and by its side stood
magnetizing tub, bristiing with glittering
steel wires. There was nothing of the
charlatan about NJ. Cherbonneau, who made
no attempt to produce an impression by
theatrical mise eR-scene, and yet it was i'm
possible to enter this strange retreat with
out the sensation of being in the laboratory
of an alchemist.
Count Olaf Labinski had so often heard
of the extraordinary power possessed by
the doctor that his half. credulous curiosity
was excited. The Slavonic races have a
constitutional inclination for the marvellous
and supernatural not to be eradicated by
the most careful education. Added to this,
reliable persons who had been present at
several seances had repeated to him certain
| facts incredible unless seen-consequently
he himself visited the thaunaturgist.
| On entering the apartment of M. Cher
bonneau he felt as if in an atmosphere of
| flame the blood rushed to his head ; the
excessive heat of the room suffocated him
the odor of the aromatic oil burning in the
lamps, the heavy fragrance of the curious
eastern flowers swaying their enormous
calyxes like censers to and fro-gave him
sensation of dizziness, and he moved
unsteadily toward NJ. Cherbonneau, sitting
crouched on his divan, who, with the sharp
articulations quite perceptible under his
| loose clothing, bore a strong resemblance
to human spider in the middle of his web,
sitting motionless before his prey.
On seeing the Count, his blue eyes
cleaned suddenly with phosphorescent
light, which was as suddenly yelled by a
voluntary film. The doctor extended his
hand to Olaf, whose uneasiness and dis
comfort he immediately OWNED, and In
two or three passes surrounded him with
the atmosphere of spring in the midst OF
the frighttul heat.
"You are feeling better, hope Your
lungs, accustomed to the breezes of the
Baltic, fresh from the SHOWS of the north
pole, must pant like forge. bellows in the
burning air, in which l, on the contrary,
am shivering-cook and recooked as l
have been for years, calcined in the furnace
of the sun.
With a gesture, Count Olaf signifed
that he no longer suffered from the heat OF
the room.
| "WelI," said the doctor in cordial,
genial tone, you have probably heard OF
my slight. of hand, and you want proof OF
my power; assure you l am stronger
than Comus, Conte, or Bosco."
You mistake me. 1 have not mere
idle curiosity, and l have great respect for
one of the princes of science"
~ am not scientific man according to
the general acceptance of the term, quite
the contrary but, in the study of certain
subject disdained by science, l have mas
tered certain occult forces, hitherto unem-
/ r .olr Il