His
Majesty selected a narrow slip of parchment, and from it read aloud the
following words:
"In consideration of certain mental endowments which it is unnecessary
to specify, and in further consideration of one
thousand
louis d'or, I
being aged one year and one month, do hereby make over to the bearer
of this agreement all my right, title, and appurtenance in the shadow
called my soul.
Poe - 5
--the body!"
"The body, the body--well, what of the body?--oh! ah! I perceive. Why,
sir, the body is not at all affected by the transaction. I have made
innumerable purchases of the kind in my day, and the parties never
experienced any inconvenience. There were Cain and Nimrod, and Nero, and
Caligula, and Dionysius, and Pisistratus, and--and a thousand others,
who never knew what it was to have a soul during the latter part of
their lives; yet, sir, these men adorned society. Why possession of
his faculties, mental and corporeal? Who writes a keener epigram?
Who reasons more wittily? Who--but stay! I have his agreement in my
pocket-book."
Thus saying, he produced a red leather wallet, and took from it a number
of papers. Upon some of these Bon-Bon caught a glimpse of the letters
Machi--Maza--Robesp--with the words Caligula, George, Elizabeth.
His
Majesty selected a narrow slip of parchment, and from it read aloud the
following words:
"In consideration of certain mental endowments which it is unnecessary
to specify, and in further consideration of one
thousand
louis d'or, I
being aged one year and one month, do hereby make over to the bearer
of this agreement all my right, title, and appurtenance in the shadow
called my soul.
(Signed) A...." {*4} (Here His Majesty repeated a name
which I did not feel justified in indicating more unequivocally.)
{*4} Quere-Arouet?
"A clever fellow that," resumed he; "but like you, Monsieur Bon-Bon,
he was mistaken about the soul. The soul a shadow, truly! The soul a
shadow; Ha! ha! ha!--he! he! he!--hu!
