Slid, if these be your "passados" and "montantes," I'll have none of them.
THE Baron Ritzner Von Jung was a noble Hungarian family, every member of which (at
least as far back into antiquity as any certain records extend) was more or less remarkable
for talent of some description --- the majority for that species of grotesquerie in
conception of which Tieck, a scion of the house, has given a vivid, although by no means
the most vivid exemplifications. My acquaintance with Ritzner commenced at the
magnificent Chateau Jung, into which a train of droll adventures, not to be made public,
threw me during the summer months of the year 18 ---. Here it was that I obtained a
place in his regard, and here, with somewhat more difficulty, a partial insight into his
mental conformation. In later days this insight grew more clear, as the intimacy which
had at first permitted it became more close; and when, after three years' separation, we
met at G----n, I knew all that it was necessary to know of the character of the Baron
Ritzner von Jung.
I remember the buzz of curiosity which his advent excited within the college precincts
on the night of the twenty-fifth of June. I remember still more distinctly, that while he
was pronounced by all parties at first sight "the most remarkable man in the world," no
person made any attempt at accounting for his opinion. That he was unique appeared so
undeniable, that it was deemed impertinent to inquire wherein the uniquity consisted.
But, letting this matter pass for the present, I will merely observe that, from the first
moment of his setting foot within the limits of the university, he began to exercise over
the habits, manners, persons, purses, and propensities of the whole community which
surrounded him, an influence the most extensive and despotic, yet at the same time the
most indefinite and altogether unaccountable. Thus the brief period of his residence at the
university forms an era in its annals, and is characterized by all classes of people
appertaining to it or its dependencies as "that very extraordinary epoch forming the
domination of the Baron Ritzner von Jung."
Upon his advent to G---n, he sought me out in my apartments. He was then of no
particular age, by which I mean that it was impossible to form a guess respecting his age
by any data personally afforded. He might have been fifteen or fifty, and was twenty-one
years and seven months. He was by no means a handsome man --- perhaps the reverse.
The contour of his face was somewhat angular and harsh. His forehead was lofty and
very fair; his nose a snub; his eyes large, heavy, glassy, and meaningless. About the
mouth there was more to be observed. The lips were gently protruded, and rested the one
upon the other, after such a fashion that it is impossible to conceive any, even the most
complex, combination of human features, conveying so entirely, and so singly, the idea
of unmitigated gravity, solemnity and repose.
It will be perceived, no doubt, from what I have already said, that the Baron was one of
those human anomalies now and then to be found, who make the science of mystification
