The mind reader

This novel is a true story about the tentative of some officers to extirpate one of their fellows from the mental imbroglio woven around him by the famous Cagliostro (disguised in this novel under the name of the Armenian) during a stay in Venice.

Friedrich Schiller: The mind reader

Book One. From the papers of Count of O.

 

I am telling about an event in which many things seem unbelievable, and to which I, in most part, was an eyewitness. The little which is being told about a certain political incident, this story will give, if otherwise these sheets of papers will find them still living, a welcome information to; and without this key it will still be, maybe, important to the other people as a contribution to the history of deceit and the errors of the human spirit. People will be surprised by the boldness of the plan which is in meant to design and to execute malevolence; people will be astonished about the oddity of the means which are put in place in order to secure this goal.

 

Pure, rigorous truth will lead my feather, for if these sheets of paper would appear in the world, I will not be any more and will have, through the report which I give of it, neither to win nor to lose anything. It happened during my return trip to Kurland, in the year 17** around the carnival time, as I visited the Prince of ** in Venice. We have known each other while performing our military duties in the war of … and renewed there a relationship which the cessation of the war has interrupted.

 

Because I wished anyway to see the most interesting places in this city, and the Prince was expecting still a change of the military squad in order to travel back home, hence, he told me naturally to keep society with him and to delay my trip by that period of time. We agreed not to separate from one another so long as our stay in Venice would last, and the Prince was agreeable such as to offer me his own residence in Mohren. He lived there under the most rigorous anonymity because he himself wanted to live so and his few appendages have not allowed him to affirm the highness of his rank.

 

Two gentlemen on which discretion he could rely upon perfectly, constituted besides some faithful servants his whole entourage. He avoided making expenses, more from temperament than from frugality. He already escaped pleasures at the age of thirty five, he has resisted all the attractions of this voluptuous city. The beautiful gender has remained, until now, indifferent to him. Profound seriousness and an enthusiastic melancholy prevailed in his state of mind. His inclinations were usually calm but could be stubborn to the excess, his decision making was slow and hesitant, his affection warm and eternal. Amidst a noisy human crowd, he was lonely; closed in his world of fantasy; he was often a foreigner in the real world.

 

No one was more born to be ruled without being weak than he was. In that exercise, he was resolute and reliable, as soon as he was only convinced of something; and possessed at the same time a great courage to fight against a proven prejudice and to die for someone else. As the third Prince of his house, he did not have any likely expectation to govern. His ambitions have never been stimulated. His passions have taken another direction. Happy not to depend on any external command; he did not feel any attempt to command the others, the calm freedom of a private life and the enjoyment of a witty retinue limited all his wishes.

 

He read a lot, yet without any choice. A neglected education and an early entry into the military services did not allow his spirit to mature. All the knowledge which he afterwards acquired, increased only the confusion in his mind because they were not relying upon solid grounds. He was a Protestant like the rest of his family, by birth, not by free choice, which he has never affirmed whether he has been immediately in an era of his life a religious enthusiast. He has never been, as much as I know, a free mason.

 

 

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Author's Note

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