Poor Faust had stipulated to give his soul to the Devil for aiding him in the attainment of his desires; the Devil on his part agrees to allow him to commit four deadly sins before he shall call on him to fulfil his contract.  Faust, in the sequel, kills his wife and his father-in-law.  Satan then claims him.  Faust pleads in arrest of judgement, that he has only committed two crimes out of the four for which he had agreed; and that there consequently remained two others for him to commit before he could be claimed.  The Devil in rejoinder informs him that his wife was with child at the time he killed her, which constituted the third crime, and that the very act of making a contract with the Devil for his soul forms the fourth.  Faust, overwhelmed with confusion, has not a word to say; and Satan seizing him by the hair of his head, carries him off in triumph.  This piece is written in iambics of ten syllables and the versification appeared to me correct and harmonious, and the sentiments forcible and poetical; this fully compensated for the bizarrerie of the story itself, which, by the bye, with all the reproach thrown by the adherents of the classic taste on those of the romantic, is scarcely more outre than the introduction of Death ([Greek:  thanatos]) as a dramatic personage in the Alcestis of Euripides.

There is at Aix-la-Chapelle at one of the hotels a Faro Bank; it is open like the gates of Hell noctes atque dies and gaming goes forward without intermission; this seems, indeed, to be the only occupation of the strangers who visit these baths.  There is near this hotel a sort of Place or Quadrangle with arcades under which are shops and stalls.  At one of these shops I met with the most beautiful girl I ever beheld, a Tyrolese by birth and the daughter of a print-seller.  She was from the Italian Tyrol; Roveredo, I think she said, was her birthplace.  She united much grace and manner with her beauty, on account of which I could not avoid complimenting her in her native tongue, which she seemed pleased to hear.  Her eyes and eyebrows brought to my recollection the description of those of Alcina: 

  Sotto due negri e sottilissimi archi,
  Son due neri occhi, anzi, due chiari soli,
  Pietosi a riguardare, a mover parchi,
  Intorno a cui par che Amor scherzi e voli.[19]

  Two black and slender arches rise above
    Two clear black eyes, say suns of radiant light;
  Which ever softly beam and slowly move;
    Round these appears to sport in frolic flight,
  Hence scattering all his shafts, the little Love.

  —­Trans.  W.S.  ROSE.