He must beware how he presume yet to quaff the volatile and fiery spirit.
To taste till repeated inhalations have accustomed the frame gradually to the ecstatic liquid, is to know not life, but death." He could penetrate no farther into the instructions; the cipher again changed.

He now looked steadily and earnestly round the chamber.

The moonlight came quietly through the lattice as his hand opened it, and seemed, as it rested on the floor, and filled the walls, like the presence of some ghostly and mournful Power.

He ranged the mystic lamps (nine in number) round the centre of the room, and lighted them one by one.

A flame of silvery and azure tints sprung up from each, and lighted the apartment with a calm and yet most dazzling splendour; but presently this light grew more soft and dim, as a thin, grey cloud, like a mist, gradually spread over the room; and an icy thrill shot through the heart of the Englishman, and quickly gathered over him like the coldness of death.