I tore off the cap which rendered me invisible; and my companion having disappeared, I plunged in silence into the thickest gloom of the grove, rapidly passed Count Peter’s bower towards the entrance-gate; but my tormentor still haunted me, and loaded me with reproaches.  “And is this all the gratitude I am to expect from you, Mr. Schlemihl—­you, whom I have been watching all the weary day, until you should recover from your nervous attack?  What a fool’s part I have been enacting!  It is of no use flying from me, Mr. Perverse—­we are inseparable—­you have my gold, I have your shadow; this exchange deprives us both of peace.  Did you ever hear of a man’s shadow leaving him?—­yours follows me until you receive it again into favour, and thus free me from it.  Disgust and weariness sooner or later will compel you to do what you should have done gladly at first.  In vain you strive with fate!”

He continued unceasingly in the same tone, uttering constant sarcasms about the gold and the shadow, till I was completely bewildered.  To fly from him was impossible.  I had pursued my way through the empty streets towards my own house, which I could scarcely recognise—­the windows were broken to pieces, no light was visible, the doors were shut, and the bustle of domestics had ceased.  My companion burst into a loud laugh.  “Yes, yes,” said he, “you see the state of things:  however, you will find your friend Bendel at home; he was sent back the other day so fatigued, that I assure you he has never left the house since.  He will have a fine story to tell!  So I wish you a very good night—­may we shortly meet again!”

I had repeatedly rung the bell:  at last a light appeared; and Bendel inquired from within who was there.  The poor fellow could scarcely contain himself at the sound of my voice.  The door flew open, and we were locked in each other’s arms.  I found him sadly changed; he was looking ill and feeble.  I, too, was altered; my hair had become quite grey.  He conducted me through the desolate apartments to an inner room, which had escaped the general wreck.  After partaking of some refreshment, we seated ourselves; and, with fresh lamentations, he began to tell me that the grey withered old man whom he had met with my shadow had insensibly led him such a zig-zag race, that he had lost all traces of me, and at last sank down exhausted with fatigue; that, unable to find me, he had returned home, when, shortly after the mob, at Rascal’s instigation, assembled violently before the house, broke the windows, and by all sorts of excesses completely satiated their fury.  Thus had they treated their benefactor.  My servants had fled in all directions.  The police had banished me from the town as a suspicious character, and granted me an interval of twenty-four hours to leave the territory.  Bendel added many particulars as to the information I had already obtained respecting Rascal’s wealth and marriage.  This villain, it seems—­who was the author