THE AMULET ***
Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Valerine Blas and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE AMULET.
BY HENDRIK CONSCIENCE,
AUTHOR OF "THE CURSE OF THE VILLAGE," "THE HAPPINESS OF BEING RICH," "VEVA," "THE LION OF FLANDERS," "COUNT HUGO OF CRAENHOVE," "WOODEN CLARA," "THE POOR GENTLEMAN," "RICKETICKETACK," "THE DEMON OF GOLD," "THE VILLAGE INN-KEEPER," "THE CONSCRIPT," "BLIND ROSA," "THE MISER," "THE FISHERMAN'S DAUGHTER," ETC.
Translated Expressly for this Edition.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
In the "Amulet," Hendrick Conscience has worked up an incident which occurred at Antwerp, in the 16th century, into a story of great power and deep interest. It was a dark and bloody deed committed, but swift and terrible was the retribution, strikingly illustrating how God laughs the sinner to scorn, and how the most cunningly devised schemes are frustrated, when He permits the light of His avenging justice to expose them in their enormity. On the contrary, it forcibly proves that virtuous actions, sooner or later, bear abundant fruit even in this world. If a man's sins bring upon his head a weight of woe, so do his good deeds draw down the benedictions of heaven and serve as a shield to protect him from his enemies.
S.J.F.
_Baltimore_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE ANTWERP 9
CHAPTER II. SIGNOR DEODATI 30
CHAPTER III. THE PALACE OF SIMON TURCHI, AND WHAT OCCURRED THERE 43
CHAPTER IV. THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION--THE ASSASSINATOR SLAIN 64
CHAPTER V. VAN DE WERVE'S RECEPTION--SIMON TURCHI'S JEALOUSY AND HATRED 79
CHAPTER VI. SIMON TURCHI WREAKS HIS VENGEANCE ON GERONIMO 96
CHAPTER VII. GRIEF AT GERONIMO'S ABSENCE--TURCHI'S HYPOCRISY 112
CHAPTER VIII. SIMON TURCHI TRIES TO CONCEAL HIS CRIME 128
CHAPTER IX. GERONIMO RESURRECTED 143
CHAPTER X. SIMON TURCHI'S ALARM--CRIME BEGETS CRIME 157
CHAPTER XI. FOOD AT LAST--DEATH OF JULIO 171
CHAPTER XII. IS IT HIS GHOST?--THE GUILTY EXPOSED 180
CHAPTER XIII. MARY VAN DE WERVE'S (NOW MADAME GERONIMO DEODATI) DEPARTURE FOR ITALY--THE PUNISHMENT OF SIMON TURCHI 193
THE AMULET.
CHAPTER I.
Previous to the close of the fifteenth century, the direction taken by European commerce remained unchanged. America had not been discovered, and the only known route to India was by land.
Venice, enthroned by her central position as queen of commerce, compelled the nations of Europe and Asia to convey to her port all the riches of the world.
One single city, Bruges in Flanders, serving as an international mart for the people of the North and South, shared, in some measure, the commercial prosperity of Venice; but popular insurrections and continual civil wars had induced a large number of foreign merchants to prefer Brabant to Flanders, and Antwerp was becoming a powerful rival to Bruges.
At this period two great events occurred, by which a new channel was opened to trade: Christopher Columbus discovered America, and Vasco de Gama, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, pointed out a new route to India. This latter discovery, by presenting another grand highway to the world, deprived Venice of the peculiar advantages of her situation, and obliged commerce to seek a new emporium. Portugal and Spain were the most powerful nations on sea; countless ships left their ports for the two Indies, and brought back spices, pearls, and the precious metals for distribution throughout the Old World. This commercial activity required an emporium in the centre of Europe, halfway between the North and the South, whither Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians, as well as French, English, Germans, Swedes, and Russians, could resort with equal facility as to a perpetual mart for all the commodities exchanged between the Old and the New World.[1]
