from the Prologue:

The curious case which I am about to place before you, is referred to, very pointedly, and more than once, in the extraordinary Essay upon the Drug of the Dark and the Middle Ages, from the pen of Doctor Hesselius.

This Essay he entitles Mortis Imago, and he, therein, discusses the Vinum letiferum, the Beatifica, the Somnus Angelorum, the Hypnus Sagarum, the Aqua Thessalliae, and about twenty other infusions and distillations, well known to the sages of eight hundred years ago, and two of which are still, he alleges, known to the fraternity of thieves, and, among them, as police-office inquiries sometimes disclose to this day, in practical use.

The Essay, Mortis Imago, will occupy, as nearly as I can at present calculate, two volumes, the ninth and tenth, of the collected papers of Dr. Martin Hesselius. This Essay, I may remark in conclusion, is very curiously enriched by citations, in great abundance, from medieval verse and prose romance, some of the most valuable of which, strange to say, are Egyptian.

I have selected this particular statement from among many cases equally striking, but hardly, I think, so effective as mere narratives; in this irregular form of publication, it is simply as a story that I present it.



CONTENTS:
Chapter I. ON THE ROAD
Chapter II. THE INN-YARD OF THE BELLE ?TOILE
Chapter III. DEATH AND LOVE TOGETHER MATED
Chapter IV. MONSIEUR DROQVILLE
Chapter V. SUPPER AT THE BELLE ?TOILE
Chapter VI. THE NAKED SWORD
Chapter VII. THE WHITE ROSE
Chapter VIII. A THREE MINUTES' VISIT
Chapter IX. GOSSIP AND COUNSEL
Chapter X. THE BLACK VEIL
Chapter XI. THE DRAGON VOLANT
Chapter XII. THE MAGICIAN
Chapter XIII. THE ORACLE TELLS ME WONDERS
Chapter XIV. MADEMOISELLE DE LA VALLI?RE
Chapter XV. STRANGE STORY OF THE DRAGON VOLANT
Chapter XVI. THE PARC OF THE CH?TEAU DE LA CARQUE
Chapter XVII. THE TENANT OF THE PALANQUIN
Chapter XVIII. THE CHURCHYARD
Chapter XIX. THE KEY
Chapter XX. A HIGH-CAULD-CAP
Chapter XXI. I SEE THREE MEN IN A MIRROR
Chapter XXII. RAPTURE
Chapter XXIII. A CUP OF COFFEE Chapter XXIV. HOPE
Chapter XXV. DESPAIR
Chapter XXVI. CATASTROPHE