Suddenly, the wind howled with redoubled violence; its sharp whistlings changed to a tempest.  The Wanderer trembled, and exclaimed in a voice of terror, “O Lord! the blast of death is howling in its rage.  It appears as though a whirlwind were lifting me up.  Lord, wilt Thou not, then, hear my prayer?  The spectre!  O! do I behold the spectre?  Yes, there it is; its cadaverous countenance is agitated by convulsive throes, its red eyes are rolling in their orbits.  Begone! begone!  Oh! its hand—­its icy hand has seized on mine!  Mercy, Lord, have mercy!  ‘Onward!’ Oh, Lord! this scourge, this terrible avenging scourge!  Must I, then, again carry it into this city, must my poor wretched brethren be the first to fall under it—­though already so miserable?  Mercy, mercy!  ‘Onward!’ And the descendants of my sister—­oh, pray, have mercy, mercy!  ‘Onward!’ O Lord, have pity on me!  I can no longer keep my footing on the ground, the spectre is dragging me over the brow of the hill; my course is as rapid as the death-bearing wind that whistles in my track; I already approach the walls of the city.  Oh, mercy, Lord, mercy on the descendants of my sister—­spare them! do not compel me to be their executioner, and let them triumph over their enemies.  Onward, onward!  The ground is fleeing from under me; I am already at the city gate; oh, yet, Lord, yet there is time; oh, have mercy on this slumbering city, that it may not even now awaken with the lamentations of terror, of despair and death!  O Lord, I touch the threshold of the gate; verily Thou willest it so then.  ’Tis done—­Paris! the scourge is in thy bosom! oh, cursed, cursed evermore am I. Onward! on! on!"[34]

[34] In 1346, the celebrated Black Death ravaged the earth, presenting the same symptoms as the cholera, and the same inexplicable phenomena as to its progress and the results in its route.  In 1660 a similar epidemic decimated the world.  It is well known that when the cholera first broke out in Paris, it had taken a wide and unaccountable leap; and, also memorable, a north-east wind prevailed during its utmost fierceness.

CHAPTER II.

The descendants of the wandering Jew.

That lonely wayfarer whom we have heard so plaintively urging to be relieved of his gigantic burden of misery, spoke of “his sister’s descendants” being of all ranks, from the working man to the king’s son.  They were seven in number, who had, in the year 1832, been led to Paris, directly or indirectly, by a bronze medal which distinguished them from others, bearing these words:-Victim of L. C. D. J. Pray for me! -----Paris, February the 13th, 1682.