Free The Man Who Sees Ghosts by Friedrich von Schiller

remaining throughout unobserved, and to whom besides I had disclosed in confidence whose picture it was that appeared on the box. Add to this the fact—and this the Sicilian remarked on, too—that what distinguishes the Marquis is an abundance of those kinds of features that can easily be copied in rough, then what is there at all in this apparition that cannot be explained?”
    “But then there is what it said—the revelation concerning your friend?”
    “And? Did not the Sicilian tell us that he put together a similar story from the little he gleaned from me? Does that not prove how very natural it was to hit upon this fiction? Moreover, the spirit’s answers, like an oracle, sounded so obscure that there was no danger of his being embarrassed by a contradiction. Supposing the charlatan’s minion, the one who played the spirit, had been shrewd and self-possessed and had been instructed only slightly as regards the circumstances—to what lengths could this trickery have been taken?”
    “But, my lord, think how complicated it would have to have been for the Armenian to arrange so complex a deception! How much time it would have involved! How much time simply to paint as true a copy of another human face as was here required! How much time needed to instruct this bogus spirit so well that one could be sure that no glaring mistake would be made! How much attention the countless little secondary matters would have required, things that could either assist or those which had to be dealt with somehow because they could spoil the effect! And consider, too, that the Russian was away for no longer than half an hour. Could everything—that is, just the most basic essentials in this case—really have been arranged in no more than half an hour?—Truly, my lord, not even a playwright scratching his head over the three rigid unities of his Aristotle would have burdened one scene with so much action, or demanded to boot so much suspension of disbelief from his groundlings.” “What? So you think it absolutely impossible that all those arrangements could have been made in that short half hour?”
    “As good as impossible, in fact,” I exclaimed.
    “I do not understand what you are saying. Is it against all the laws of time, space and physics for a skilful fellow, such as this Armenian undeniably is, with the help of minions as equally skilful perhaps, under the cover of night, unobserved and equipped with all the means that a man of his trade would anyway always have to hand, for such a man, under such favourable circumstances, to be able to bring off so much in such a short time? Is it frankly unthinkable and absurd to believe, that with the help of a few words, orders or signs, he could give his accomplices detailed tasks? And that he could designate detailed and complicated operations with the minimum amount of explanation?—And is there something else apart from a clearly conceived impossibility that may be deployed against the eternal laws of nature? Would you rather believe in a miracle than admit to an improbability? Rather overturn the forces of nature than acknowledge an artificial and unusual combination of these same forces?”
    “Even if the business does not justify coming to such a daring conclusion, you must nevertheless admit that it goes far beyond our comprehension.”
    “I am tempted to challenge you on that, too,” said the Prince mischievously and in high spirits. “What would you say, my dear Count, if, for example, it transpired that the Armenian had people working for him not just during and after that half-hour, and not hurriedly and carelessly, but throughout the whole evening and night? Remember, the Sicilian spent nearly three hours making his preparations.”
    “The Sicilian, my lord?”
    “And what proof can you offer me that the Sicilian did not have just as much to do with the second spectre as with the first?”
    “What, my lord?”
    “That he was not the Armenian’s chief