The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-06

to excitement. and with ridicule and ever new temptations and joys crushed down every faint word of repentance.
 Margaret, clinging to her love the more desperately for the wretchedness that it was bringing her, became the mark of gossip at last. The scandalous tales that were whispered about her came to the ears of her brother Valentine, a soldier in the imperial service. Wild with fury he hurried to the house to confront her. At the door he met Faust and Mephisto- pheles. He rushed on them with drawn sword. Mephistopheles parried every stroke till Valentine exclaimed, Am I fighting with the devil himself? My wrist is weary"
 Thrust Thrust!'' whispered Mephis- topheles to Faust, who obeyed helplessly. Valentine fell with a loud cry. and his murderers vanished.
 Margaret ran down to the street and sank to her knees beside him. His dying eyes famed when he saw her. May God pardon you!' gasped he. But be cursed on earthl Crush back those tears! That SOA AofO iooN yOdA iOIO1p LAbl gave ul6 my fatal blow. I die as a soldier and shall find my way to God.''
 In wild flight Mephistopheles carried Faust to the Brocken and made his senses drunken with the fantastic, dizzy, crazed revels of the witches and spirits that were celebrating Walpurgis Night there.
 The great mountain was sorcery mad Owls fitted everywhere with blazing eyes. lizards and snakes darted toward the peak. Bats beat the black air with leath- cry wings. The bride of the winds rode under the wild sky. The columns of the forest aisles crashed headlong. As the great trunks thundered in their fall, a thousand echoes answered from breaking branch and twig, from owl and beast, from tunbling rock and scourged stream.
 "Listenl' said Mephistopheles Higher than the gale, louder than storm and wreck, hear you not the voices of the witches? See wonder, how Mammon glows deep in the heart of the rocks!''
 Far overhead black throng, crowding, jostling. struggling, rode toward the sum- init of the Brocken. Man and woman mounted on broomsticks, pitchforks, pigs goats and rats, swarmed screaming, laughing. yelling, to the rendezvous.
 Will O the wisps ran obediently to guide their master. Mephistopheles, to the gath ering. Rocks and trees resounded as he passed. The very crags and gorges seemed to stir in slow and ghostly motion.
 A dim red glow glimmered in abyss and cave. Mist and exhalatiop were lit with phantom gleams. Fires crept from the mountains face, here in desicate. twining threads, there like gushing spring. In 100 veins it streamed into the valleys.
 The witch-horde, clamoring, enveloped them and drew them along like the blast of hell As the swarm neared the sum- init, 1t sank like a monstrous flock, swooped groundward and settled over all the great expanse.
 Faust, whirled away in tha deviish revels. resigned himself to the wild night. Entertainments in forms beautiful as the first sin and hideous as the last, en- meshed his senses. Lovely faces and forms ensnared his whirling brain. Sweet voices sang hideous sacrilege into his ears. Mocking phrases greeted him from bush and crag. White arms encircled him and dragged him into frenzied dances.
 Leering old age, reft of all faculty save for malignant wickedness, whirled side by side with blooming youth, bright and glorious save for the black brand of evil on its brow.
 And in all that madness there was a central madness, more furious than all the rest, where. on black block of stone the Evil itself sat enthroned and received the adulation of those embodied deadly sins, who approached the unholy altar with blasphemous reverence.
 Yet even the Walpurgis Night, the crowning night of sorcery and witchcraft did not give Faust to Mephistopheles. Demon and witch, enchantment and magic, hellcraft and hell splendor. served