Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf

How it begins

Our tale commences in the middle of the month of November, 1520, and at the hour of midnight. In a magnificently furnished chamber, belonging to one of the largest mansions of Florence, a nobleman lay at the point of death. The light of the lamp suspended to the ceiling played upon the ghastly countenance of the dying man, the stern expression of whose features was not even mitigated by the fears and uncertainties attendant on the hour of dissolution.